Today’s studio-blog is about Toe Rag Studio.
https://willyoumeetmeonclareisland.wordpress.com/2022/11/18/the-studios-of-london-toe-rag/
Vintage gear, a modern-day anthem, a London album and a soul boy from Essex.
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Beautiful writing as ever, Niall.
I had no idea about this studio, but to read a piece that can link the TV Personalities, Howlin ‘ Wilf ( as I first knew him) and Norton Folgate era Madness was a wonderful pleasure.
The TV Personalities have always been a touchstone for me & a handful of old pals & even today ‘Part Time Punks’ sounds utterly fantastic, not lease because it was so painfully accurate about young herberts like I was at the time ‘ they pay 5 pence on the buses, & they never use toothpaste, but they’ve got £2:50 to go & see The Clash. Tonight. Here they come….’
I didn’t have £2:50, but the rest of the lyrics skewered me for the weekend rebel school boy that I was.
Thanks. I loved doing the research. Learning about the Liberties was brilliant.
Wonderful (no pun intended) as ever.
‘Sugar and Spice’ is one of my two favourite Madness songs, the other being ‘Bed & Breakfast Man’.
Suggs had been writing with my tall chum before ‘Wonderful’ (there was a whole Suggs solo album recorded which remains unreleased*) and ‘Sugar and Spice’ bears many of his hallmarks. I was convinced it was a co-write and Suggs had forgotten to add ‘Hewerdine’ in the brackets, so to find that it was a solo Barson venture was a quite surprise. Serendipity at its best.
(*) This is the only track released, on the b-side of a single from a film soundtrack.