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Just Backdated – Chris Charlesworth (MM) blog

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I am often late to the party, but just wasted a good 3 hours reading through choice morsels from Chris Charlesworth’;s memoirs of 70s rock journalist life. Oh what fun they had, and we aspired to have from these naughty older brothers. Truly another time.

Any other rock n’ roll blogs I should have seen?

https://justbackdated.blogspot.com/

Hawkwind – live at the Royal Albert Hall – DeLuxe boxset

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What does it sound like?:

If you know Hawkwind, you already know what this sounds like; riffs, spacey wooshes, proto-punk/ metal/ rave riffs with space and fantasy-themed lyrics, declamatory vocals. Over the years, Hawkwind have become ever-tighter, which, like “The Fall”, is a reflection of discipline, not repetition (along with less jollop before the show, [possibly]). Wikipedia indicates this is Hawkwind’s 28th live album. A lot of them will have been much the same as my description. Whether you think this is excessive, is up to you. I couldn’t possibly comment. I certainly don’t have all of them, but there will be some proud TRUE FANS out there who do. Sir, we salute you.

I love the band, their attitude, and their fans, and their conscious and their shameless indifference to fashion or style, though, like many fans, I have a favourite era, personally missing Robert Calvert as Biggles in space. This 2023 gig was promoted as the 50th anniversary of “Space Ritual” – itself a live album, and definitive of the band. But 2023 concert here was not a full “Space Ritual” anniversary show – which occurred in 2014, and was later, yes, a live album. (Do keep » Continue Reading.

What ISN’T cool

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Fascinating debate by us movers-and-shakers as to what is cool.

I reckon it’s easier to say what it isn’t:

1980s post-Hackett Genesis Barclay James Harvest The Anti-Nowhere League Kenny G Chris de Burgh Vanilla Ice Clothes from “Foster’s menswear” “Mind Your Language” DVD box sets

Reader’s contributions, or have I said it all?

Rock n’ roll, I gave you the best years of my life

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This authenticity thing in rock music really irritates me, given it’s modern folk music turned into show biz and display for the mass market. All entertainment is artefice and exaggeration, and that’s what makes it fun. Being noisy and cross in front of other people who clap and give you drinks, particularly so. Maybe Crass or The Clash should have paid the audience?

https://www.the-fence.com/death-of-a-sellout/

“Interesting” hair

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The irrational band hatreds thread has been jolly interesting and amusing. I note that “interesting” hair is SO OVER. I must say, it always looked suspect to me, and the more “interesting”, the more suspect it was. A regular spikey top, mullet, or quiff, ok. But once it gets like Fruitbat, George Clinton’s crackpipe stage, Robert Smith’s current pissed gran-do, or weird shavings and colours … I’m not saying I didn’t have any of these, but the way of wisdom after 22 is a sensible barnet. An awful lot of weak music seems to be created when the dodgy rug is kidding you that you are an unrecognised genius with 3 chords and the truth aiming to wow the girls who listen to John Peel.

Phones playing music on trains

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This thing of young people playing their music on trains through the phone speaker really annoys me. Whatever the music, I think it is inconsiderate to others. Given the unpredictability of modern social life, asking them to turn it down, it could end up a scene, or worse, making the situation worse for everyone. It’s like smoking in a non-smoking area. Where did it come from, and how does one manage it effectively? Can’t they use their headphones? Massive, is there anything you do that will lead folk to show consideration for others? Can this be made as socially unacceptable as picking your nose in public?

Hawkwind – Doremi Fasol Latido – DeLuxe boxset

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What does it sound like?:

Hawkwind’s epic 1972 “Doremi Fasol Latido” is choc-full of bikerdelic belters; “Brainstorm”, “Space Is Deep”, “Lord of Light”, “Time we left the World today”, The Watcher,” are just some of the spicy little numbers. A single of the time – proto-punk “Born to Go” is added, along with the naughty “Urban Gorilla”, and “Brainbox Pollution”. Yes, an awful lot of this ended up on the mighty and still formidable “Space Ritual”, not that this is a bad thing. I still wonder how, given the band’s alleged consumption of hallucinogens, they kept the show as tight as they did – maybe Lemmy mostly keeping to speed helped. If you know Hawkwind, you know this album or the tracks, many of which remain mainstays of their live set. Not uncoincidentally, a legendary live set at the Greasy Truckers Party on 13th February 1972 is also included – note my observation re keeping it together.

The album has been give a remix which makes it a bit cleaner, enabling a spot of definition in the synths and bass, but over my aged ears and mediocre computer speakers, it was wasted (which I wasn’t – another problem » Continue Reading.

“Style” mags in the 80s

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So, who was a fan of “The Face” or “iD”? They were echt-hip back in the day. At university we’d affect Nevil Brody typography on our student union posters, and suddenly fashion was a thing. I was at Goldsmiths, which may have been relevant. Rock was viewed with even greater disdain than it was in a 1982 NME. “The Face” had some good writing, but, my dear, the superior attitudes. And the fashion spread on terrorist style … Oh dear. With their Robert Elmsy superiority complex, sometimes I think they put the ” fascist” into fashion, even though they fancied themselves more “Red Wedge”. I think my high point was seeing an ex girlfriend in the street fashion section of iD.

Bands with no original members left

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I’m sure we’ve discussed this before, but some acts are now completely “Trigger’s Broom” (in fact an act should be called that). I read that “Foreigner” are currently playing a tour of the USA, and there is not a single original member now. Dr Feelgood and Lynyrd Skynyrd are other bands with the same situation. Inevitably, all acts will become this eventually. Might it be better if they admit they are tributes to the band, unless they are recognised as a brand? I thing the current “Gong” is in the spirit of the original, but for anonymous faces slickly banging out the big numbers is more common. Should there be a copyright mark?

Frank Zappa – Apostrophe (50th Anniversary edition)

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What does it sound like?:

Anyone who likes Frank Zappa should know “Apostrophe”; it’s one of his most accessible albums, where he fully demonstrated his mid-70s satirical funk to the amusement or irritation of the TRUE FANS. The track listing, including the unforgettable “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow”, “Nanook Rubs It”, “Cozmik Debris”, and “Stink-Foot” are a statement of intent. This is comedy music, and complementary to the reciting of Monty Python skits to admiring girls in the 4th form, and hoping your hair is starting to get good at the back. These times are now past, and though doubtless there is some adolescent comedy surrealism to take it’s place, I’m not sure there is a modern equivalent of Frank Zappa. Maybe, given Moon Unit’s recent autobiography, that’s not such a bad thing.

The playing on “Apostrophe” is tight, the weirdness is reasonably constrained, and songs become ruder later in the 70s. The band shines; George Duke gives it swing, funk, and soul on keyboards, as does Napoleon Murphy-Brock; a pre-Genesis Chester Thompson beats the crap out of the drums, and on the title track, there is that perrential thing of wonder, a bass solo, here performed by » Continue Reading.

Moon Unit Zappa – Earth to Moon

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Author:Moon Unit Zappa

Moon-Unit Zappa’s memoir of growing up in the Zappa family household is both fascinating and disturbing. It very much fits with Tolstoy’s observation, now almost a cliche, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” My 40+ years of being a psychologist prepared me for the abusive household, awful hippie parenting (by her mother, Gail, dad often being distant, away, or focussed on one of the many affairs and groupies who Gail tolerated, but used as a stick to control Frank and take out on the family), Laingian scenes, parental favouritism, and resultingly Moon-Unit’s disturbed attachment and the need for therapy. I’m used to it, other readers may find it shocking (not that troubled families and painful family dynamics are unusual.)

Moon-Unit mostly writes well – her recourse into therapy speak at points is hard work to a Brit (even one in mental health), but probably comes with the territory, and helps her to live with what she lived through. The book can be very funny, and for those of us immersed in all things Zapparian, it is interesting to see the “conceptual continuity” that influences Zappa’s subsequent work (Gail’s » Continue Reading.

More trouble every day

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Hot weather, injustices in each direction, and it’s kicking off. Politicians trying to sound like a stern headmaster never convince me, any more than the headmaster did. From months of apathy and boring keyboard belligerence, to numbskulls using a significant mass killing by a mentally disordered offender to shift the concern from poorly managed mental disorder in the community, to the beefs stirred-up and aggravated by bad actors on social media. When people are angry and upset, telling them “you’re wrong, now go home” is generally an excellent way to REALLY piss them off. Are the folk kicking off correct to object to the two-tier system they claim means immigrants get away with offending in a way the dispossessed white working class are not? Is this one of those situations where there is a conflict between fair and equal?

Jah Wobble’s Invaders of the heart

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Venue:

Northampton Roadmender

Date: 17/05/2024

This was a tremendous gig; some seriously good re-workings of PiL’s “Metal Box”, the theme from “Midnight Cowboy”, and a couple from the first album turned inside out, upside down, and played straight, all at the same time, and mixed by the sound engineer with serious appreciation of the importance of bowel-loosening reverberations (the previous curry didn’t help) and dubwise tricks, often shouted by Mr Wobble as he was going along. The band were excellent with an ex-Banshee from the latter years doing the scratchy bits, and the “gorgeous and handsome” keyboard player (as Jah W insisted on introducing him) being distinctly proggy at points. The youthful drummer was not the PiL drummer of yore, but he was bloody good. At one point JW was playing timbales for a jazzier workout of a post-punk great, another time it was ALMOST heavy metal (but not really). You really didn’t know what was coming next, though we all knew the original album inside out. This is the way to play a classic album, and fair dues to JW for indicating the way forward.

The audience:

A mix of post-punk types now late-middle aged and more sensible » Continue Reading.

Brian Wilson has dementia

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Sad news. Long troubled, when I saw him in 2002 was touched but disturbed by his state given the joy of the music, the affection of the fans, and his vulnerable state. His mental illness has been long known, but dementia is a new thing – though maybe to be expected given all that problematic brain activity.

I saw written that Yoko Ono has dementia, too.

Musical abilities sometimes hold relative to the decline of intellect in dementia patients. I will resist the obvious gag based on Brian and yoko.

https://theblast.com/578724/beach-boys-brian-wilson-conservatorship-filed-suffering-dementia/

My heart sinks and I feel a little nauseous

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Here’s hoping Steely Dan seize the moment to do a few gigs on their own whilst they are over here. They’d easily sell out the RAH. I’d be disappointed if the ‘Dan were SUPPORTED by The Eagles.

“People think I’m crazy, but I’m just growing old.”

https://planetradio.co.uk/planet-rock/news/rock-news/eagles-manchester-co-op-live/

Greatcoats here

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These days, I’m rather bored by the over-exposed big prog bands of yore, and any mysique they have fades with every additional exposure. By contrast, those style combinations, chords and instruments in different configuration can still thrill me. This is a lovely example of a new discovery, and, being from the USA in 1971, a veritable unicorn.

It won’t be for everyone, man. If your attitude is bald, and you smirked at those kids in school with centre partings, cheesecloth shirts, flared jeans, and chucka boots or tennis shoes, go back to your Showaddywaddy, OK? I’ll be in the art room at lunchtime, avoiding rough boys, and trying to impress Jaqui by telling her how complex the playing on ths album is. She has violin lessons, so she’ll understand.

Other recommendations of unfamiliar quality prog?

Frank Zappa – Overnite Sensation (50th Anniversary edition)

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What does it sound like?:

“Overnite Sensation” is one of my favourite Frank Zappa albums. Not too many snorks, turn-on-a-dime playing, a pile of knob jokes, and it’s kind of funky. (In fact, very funky; “I’m the Slime”, “Dirty Love”, “Zomby Woof”, “Dinah-Moe Humm” and “Montana” had Tina Turner and the Ikettes on backing vocals. “What is this shit?” Ike is alleged to have asked, as he insisted Zappa pay the singers, including Tina Turner, no more than $25 per song.) This album got me through many a 1970s “Good Friday”, providing a little victory to the stultifying miserabilist piety of my childhood home.

The 50th anniversary release – gosh, is it really that long? – has been made even more pristine, though was always a very well-produced album. Remixes have instruments leap out, but to me they always did. The earlier and alternative takes reiterate niallb’s observation re “The Yes Album”, that to a working musician, the album version of a song is often just one of a series of variants which passed a variety of decisions to become, to the listener with the album alone, the “definitive” version. There is lots to enjoy in these alternatives; » Continue Reading.

Any love for Henry Cow?

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I think i was exposed to this lot when I was about 13 and it sounded bloody awful. I was just moving on from Alice Cooper and getting into Supertramp. I didn’t have the sensibility for it, any more than, at the time, i appreciated olives or whiskey. At 62, i decided I was ready to re-evaluate them given I liked all the precursors and influences. At last I have found a band I can proudly wear on a t-shirt and have only the cognioscenti (all older and corpulent, or grizzled and worryingly slim) nod to me in admiration. I can feel my neurones and synapses swell as I try to get my head around the complex tunes. To see them play must have been quite something, though i do suspect that live, there might have been rather more skronk.

Premium cheese(y)

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Power ballads I cannot be doing with. Now a premium cheesy song with sweet harmonies and sentiments with a few hooks and a sublime middle eight, ideally by an artist who is seeking a hit outside of albums … quite different. Todd the Godd is a master of such things. Who else?

An artist’s “game over”.

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I find it interesting as to when a band loses it, or if they ever do; has anyone ever not been crap eventually? This is an inherently subjective position, of course. Some think Zappa lost it after he broke up the Mothers, or Status Quo after “Whatever You Want”. Definitely UB40 once they started doing covers. Personally, I felt Siouxie and the Banshees lost it after “Cities in Dust”, and The Clash when they had children on piano doing “The Guns of Brixton”. If “The Who” didn’t release another track after “Love, Reign over me”, I would not care. But they did, and have gone on for another 50 years. Genesis lost it before the end of “Wind and Wuthering” with the last track i now willingly listen to by them being “Unquiet Slumbers for the Sleepers…/…In That Quiet Earth”, the following “Afterglow” being a pile of limp overblown toss. Over to you. When do you book out of a band you once followed?

So, Russell Brand….

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Keep pushing boundaries, and eventually you breach a few and forget they are were for a reason. Mostly he was acting legally and had consent, and you often can be a cnut and remain inside the law. But some of his activities transcended consent, and I suspect others will be exposed by young women who got more than they wanted from him. The folk who are supporting him in his current hour of need are hardly ones I’d want defending my actions. Would he want someone treating his daughters the way he has treated women? I suspect not. He seems a very damaged person, and his guru schtick deeply sinister, given how good he clearly is in manipulating people. Views?