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This Was Their Sgt Pepper

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Like it or not there can be no doubting that Sgt Pepper was a game-changer. Nothing would be the same after June 1, 1967 as every pop band in the land, fuelled by too much money and/or too many drugs, clambered over each other to record their own version of the Beatles’ psychedelic masterwork. Most of them failed miserably of course but for those of us who were around at the time it was great fun watching them try. Later, when the dust settled, the phrase “this was their Sgt Pepper” took on new meaning and entered the language as a way of describing an artist’s best or most ambitious album. Fairport Convention’s Liege & Lief for example is often called “the Sgt. Pepper of folk rock”.

Let’s take a look at some of these efforts in a thread we’re calling “This Is Our Sgt. Pepper”

Please feel free to add your own examples

http://i.imgur.com/U1psv1X.jpg

Keith Richards – Crosseyed Heart

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What does it sound like?:

I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of seeing Keith Richards’ ugly mug staring out at me from the newsstands. Keith is now a ruined parody of the beautiful man we once knew. He’s an old, wrinkled geezer going through the motions. He’s a shadow and an illusion of something that used to be glorious. He represents a part of ourselves that we just can’t bear to let go. In the absence of anything else to write about (and until the next 60s survivor releases some new product) the popular media has willingly rolled over and granted Keith the front cover of every magazine in the land, along with acres of news print and fawning interviews stretching to the distant horizon. I haven’t read any of them, but I already know what they will say. There will be endless references to his once prodigious drug use (couched in the most romantic terms, naturally), his arthritic hands will be remarked upon more than once and the word “cats” will be dropped into almost every sentence. There’ll be sly, cheeky digs at Mick and the writer won’t be able to resist mentioning Keith’s endless smoking » Continue Reading.

Melbourne Bar Owner Apologises For “No Poofter Drinks” Sign

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Here’s a strange story. You might expect it in North Queensland, Alice Springs, or the untamed outback of Western Australia, but not in sophisticated Melbourne, recently voted the world’s most livable city.

Can’t say I’m all that outraged by it, other than thinking such a crass sign does damage to Australia’s already rough and ready image overseas. Watch this go viral now. I’ll wager it’ll be on Have I Got News For You this time next week.

What’s a “poofters drink” anyway? Babycham? Port & Lemon? Half of Shandy?

“Australian musician and Fitzroy bar owner Steve Miller has issued an apology following outrage from punters who were offended by a menu featured at his venue, Handsome Steve’s House of Refreshment, that read “no poofter drinks”. Miller, former guitarist of post-punk ’80s band The Moodists alongside Dave Graney, Clare Moore and Mick Turner, yesterday apologised for the sign on the bar’s Facebook page. “

“I unconditionally apologise for any offence I have caused,” Miller wrote in a statement. “

http://themusic.com.au/news/all/2015/10/26/melbourne-bar-owner-apologises-for-offensive-sign/

Floor Singers Welcome! Memories of Les Cousins

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I’m currently reading the Elvis Costello autobiography and there’s a chapter dedicated to the young Declan’s first faltering steps as a live performer. He describes the folk clubs and pubs who allowed virtually anyone to get up and perform. These days I suppose we’d call them “Open Mic Nights” but back then they weren’t really a feature so much as a way to fill the gaps between the main (ie paid) performers. Sometimes the floor singers were pretty good, often they were terrible, but mostly they were simply dull.

Folk clubs were the natural habit of the floor singer of course and this reminded me of the times I spent at arguably the most famous folk club of them all, Les Cousins.

Come with me now as we travel back in time to a more innocent age….

http://i.imgur.com/6W535qv.jpg

Thunderclap Newman – Hollywood Dream – Confessions Of A Record Thief

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On the one-hit wonders thread Thunderclap Newman’s Something In The Air was mentioned and Mr. Saucecraft spoke of their only LP in disparaging tones.

I’d like to redress the balance here.

Now read on…

http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/mojoworking01/ThunderclapNewman-HollywoodDream1_zpskpjd0blv.jpg

John McLaughlin & the 4th Dimension

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Venue:

Astor Theatre, Perth, Western Australia

Date: 06/10/2015

Let me put my cards on the table. If I had to rush into a burning building to rescue some treasured possessions, the first thing I’d grab would be those early Mahavishnu Orchestra LPs. Well, after the Beatles and Zappa records, of course. And one of the twins, obviously. That’s how much John McLaughlin means to me.

The last time I saw McLaughlin live was in 1975 at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the second incarnation of Mahavishnu featuring Jean Luc Ponty on violin. That was 40 years ago but the maestro has lost nothing in the interim.

With time signatures so complex they might as well have been hieroglyphics transcribed from the wall of a pyramid and guitar solos so intricate they would have left Yngwie Malmsteen scratching his head in disbelief, this was definitely music for grown-ups.

Looking for all the world like George Martin’s slightly younger brother, the silver haired McLaughlin produced unbelievable sounds from his Paul Reed Smith guitar. With the incredible Étienne M’Bappé on bass (playing in gloves!), Gary Husband doubling on keyboards and drums and Ranjit Barot on drums, the band » Continue Reading.

Smokin!

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Today it became against the law in England to smoke in your car if you have kids on board. Lighting up will cost you 50 quid, if anyone can be bothered to enforce the law. This got me thinking just how far we’ve come in the war against tobacco.

I’m fascinated with people smoking on LP sleeves, you see. A few decades ago people thought nothing of posing with a cigarette on the cover of their magnum opus, little realising (or caring) that the image of them puffing away would still be around in 50 years.

Today I had a look through some of my LPs, reasoning that the black jazz musicians would look cooler and carry it off better than anyone else. They do.

Here are just a few to kick off the thread people are already calling SMOKIN’.

In case you don’t know Richard Davis, he played the stand-up bass on Van’s Astral Weeks and Eric Dolphy’s Out To Lunch! btw.

Let’s see your SMOKIN’ LP sleeves

http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/mojoworking01/smoking4_zpszswguufd.jpg

Johnny C’s Great Sleeve Note Challenge

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I love LP sleeve notes, me. They hark back to a simpler, more innocent time before fancy artwork took over and when the record companies felt they had to sell us the music via a litany of painfully earnest (and often painfully untrue) facts and figures about the artist(s) in question. Looking back now, many sleeve notes read like something out of Dickens. Which is why I love them so much.

Here’s some sleeve notes with the relevant identifying words blacked out. All you have to do is tell me who the band or artist is. If you want to be a proper smart arse, you can also identify the LP as well.

This could well fall flat on its bum, but if there’s any interest, I’ll do some more. Can’t say fairer than that.

http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/mojoworking01/sleevenotes2_zps2w6h9fhy.jpg

Ron Springett – Sheffield Wednesday and England – Farewell to a Hero

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Forgive me a little self-indulgence here, but I’d like to pay a small tribute to my first hero Ron Springett.

Most people outside Sheffield won’t have heard of Ron, he played in goal for Sheffield Wednesday 1959-67 and was the first string England goalkeeper for several years (he was only kept out of the 1966 World Cup spot by Gordon Banks).

Ron came to Wednesday from QPR and in a simpler footballing age he remained in London, trained at QPR and made his own way to the games, taking the early train to Sheffield on match days.

Before rock and roll took over my life, before the Beatles, before I discovered girls, football was everything in my life and Ron Springett was the focal point.

Now he’s gone aged 80 and I feel almost like I did when John Lennon died.

He’s a great picture of Ron and Nobby Stiles buying records during the 1966 world cup.

http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/mojoworking01/Ron-Springett-and-Nobby-Stiles1_zpsyy6ux5ao.jpg http://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/sep/14/ron-springett?CMP=share_btn_fb

Blow Up Your Video: obsolete technology in album artwork

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We live in an age where technology moves ahead in leaps and bounds almost daily. The sleeve of the 1981 Kraftwerk album Computer World for example, pictures a device that was probably cutting-edge at the time, but now belongs in a museum (or a skip).

This week I pulled out AC/DC’s Blow Up Your Video LP from 1988 and marveled at its built-in obsolescence. The sleeve shows Angus bursting out of an old-school cathode ray tube telly atop a VHS video player. Again, both were state of the art at the time, but you couldn’t give them away now (believe me, I’ve tried).

The AC/DC lads were clearly trying to embrace the prevailing zeitgeist, but time has not been kind to their concept. Any more examples of this kind of thing?

http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt351/mojoworking01/blowupyourvideo1_zps8zqen5cc.jpg