With recent reissues of DSOTM and Tubular Bells hogging the headlines, today’s reissue of Clog Dance by Violinski might get lost in your news feed. But not here!
The song has of course been covered and reissued many times – not least in the form of 1991’s Mik Kaminksi-penned musical “CLOGS!” that featured a very young James Corden in his first starring role as Little Clog. Little Clog was the youngest child of the Clog family who, against all odds, take the footwear world by storm with their homemade clogs.
Mik said – “My vision for the show concerned the phenomenon of nominative determination. After all, I’m called Mik Kaminsky and I’m a violin player, so my band HAD to be called Violinski, right? So lo and behold…we’re a great success! Me and my pal from Wimbledon, Mike de Alberqueque, thought that there was something in this – and the rest is, as they say, history.”
The show enjoyed a solid pre-West End provincial run spanning nearly two weeks in the west country. With the country in turmoil following the toppling of Margaret Thatcher a year earlier, financial support for the project fell away. This was a setback but other clog-and-violin related projects soon came in its wake.
Dropping on Tidal and Napster this morning, Clog Dance is reimagined and repurposed in a delightfully audacious way. Mik has spent three years in his home studio painstakingly recreating the original video and the original song – making the end result undistinguishable from the 1978 original.
When asked if Mik had used AI or similar tech to create this thing, Mik narrowed his eyes and tapped his nose before succumbing to a huge coughing fit.
The links are all here. Enjoy!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clog_Dance_(song)#/media/File:Clog_Dance.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clog_Dance_(song)#/media/File:Clog_Dance.jpg
That’s great! Mik was always my fave member of ELO and you can really tell the almost genetic connection between Clog Dance and the ELO catalogue, can’t you? The re-issue of Clog Dance really makes today, of all days, a Red Letter Day!
Jeff Lynne did the same thing but I think Mik has gone one better with this.
TAKE MY MONEY NOW! *gif*
Lovely to see you. Download is, er, 50 quid.
Suspiciously cheap and none too cheerful.
How can you expect dedicated vinyl collectorists such as ourselves to pay £50 for a download. Even one in 192k surround-sound-with-knobs-on? Where’s the hand-carved beechwood box (with ethically-sourced ivory inlay) and the domino-whittling kit? The 200-page book of champion whippet photos?
Don’t shoot the messenger!
Download features an authorised NFT gallery of unique Mik images, which are fully tradeable on the open market. Might be the wisest investment you ever make.
Am I too late to buy one of those pieces of the True Cross you were selling for Easter?
You must be mistaking me for someone else. Very much the kind of business that @black-type would be into I think. We are often mistaken for each other – which is silly because I am much taller.
Is it because we am Black?
You know it.
This is a very good thread.
That may be but you can’t feckin’ clog dance to it. 🕺🏼💃 🚴♂️ (couldn’t find any clogs dancing)
There y’ go.
I am hoping @kaisfatdad might be able to share some of his archive of obscure north European clog dancing videos.
Gan to the Kai? (See what I did there?)
Great clog work there but you’ll need to explain the joke….I’m not as young as I used to be.
Clog dancing videos? It will be my pleasure, @Black Celebration.
Here are some Shiny Clogging People in the Netherlands having fun.
A Norwegian Stave Church and some Swedish Clog Dancing. (Looks a bit like tap-dancing to me)
And a magnificent clip from Wales – Port Madoc in 1959.
The narrator sounds like something out of Ivor the Engine. Could it be Oliver Postgate?
Finally some 1960s Bluegrass Clogging from South Turkey Creek, North Carolina.
These folk know to party and how to play. Violinski, eat your heart out!
I knew I could rely on you.
You’re right about the clog/tap divide. The
Unthanks one seemed to be tap dancing until they did some stomping towards the end – so that tips the scale towards clog.
Thanks! Glad to be of assistance.
I’ve seen the Unthanks live and their dancing is a highlight of the show. They are definitely clog dancers.
Not forgetting Ernie Wise who was also a clog dancer.
Also, Andre Rieu looks like Rik Mayall up there.
What a wonderfully joyous dancing clip, @Hubert Rawlinson.
This thread is really warming up.
Who let the clogs out?
When the world was black and white.
Clogs akimbo.
I’ve got the 7” single. Coloured vinyl. Somewhere.
I can hear the stress in that post. Now that the new one’s available, you can buy it and relax.
I can’t do a thing cos I can’t relax.
And I can’t relax cos I haven’t done a thing.
Can I go violently off-piste for a second or two and post this? Not many clogs here , but what a party these Southern Italians treat us to!
Can I be unkind here, and suggest that Violinski’s track sounds like Status Quo Meets the Wombles?