- Dancehall 1969 (Vol. 3)

Skinheads wore Doc Marten boots in black or burgundy, with short cuffed jeans or corduroys, flight jackets, sweater vests, Ben Sherman button downs and suspenders. Girls wore short skirts and fishnet stockings. They listened to early reggae, soul, and ska music in youth clubs. Here are some more magic tunes for you.

Volume 3 (of 4) 

01 The Soul Twins - Cherrie
02 Roland Alphonso - One Thousand Tons Of Megaton
03 The Hippy Boys - Reggae Pressure
04 The Reggae Boys - Ba Ba
05 Glen Adams - Power Cut
06 The Hippy Boys - Dreams To Remember
07 Max Romeo & The Hippy Boys - Clap Clap
08 Roland Alphonso - Musical Resurrection
09 Derrick Morgan - The Conqueror
10 Tommy McCook - The Saint (The Saints Go Marching In)

- Dancehall 1969 (Vol. 2)

'Peel's championing of reggae was criticised by hippies and then punks. But the more hostile the reaction, the more Peel would play it, and the juxtaposition of different genres of music on his show inspired groups such as the Clash to experiment with different styles.'

Jon Dennis

The original skinheads were working-class British youths in the 1960s, influenced by the mod and Jamaican rude boy styles in their clothing and music. The subculture wasn't based on politics or race in the early days, but more on the desire to rebel against the British class system, which greatly limited social and job-related opportunities for young people, and against the flower power and high fashion styles of the 60s. Here are ten more belters to help ease you into summer.

Part 2 (of 4)

01 The prophets - Revenge of eastwood
02 King horror - Zion i
03 Desmond Reily - Tear Them
04 The Des All Stars - Walk With Des
05 The Corporation - Walking Thru Jerusalem
06 Dandy - Shake Me Wake Me
07 Dice The Boss - Tea House From Emperor Rosko
08 Sir Collins - Black Panther
09 The Music Doctors - Going Strong
10 S. S. Binns - Bossa Moon

- Dancehall 1969 (Vol. 1)

If you're new to the world of ska, your life is about to be changed for the better. This is from the period just before Rasta took over, so there's little talk of Babylon and the like, just great pumping dance songs and instrumentals which will get you turning up the volume and opening the window so the whole neighbourhood can hear.

Part 1 (of 4)

01 The Bunny Lee All Stars - Warfare
02 Busty Brown - Fight For Your Right
03 The Medetators - Soul Fight
04 The Victors - Reggae Buddy
05 Karl Bryan - Red Ash0
06 Hortense Ellis - My Last Date
07 What's your excuse - Hippy Boys
08 The Bunny Lee All Stars - Annie Pama
09 Lloyd Charmers - In The Spirit
10 The Hippy Boys - Peace Maker

Volume 2 coming any day soon.

- Entrailicus vs Mark E Smith #1

Smith on the left, me on the right

While the family are away on holiday and I'm left home waiting for the academic year to draw to a close, I have been spending way too much time fiddling around on the computer. Fortunately, not all of that time has been a complete waste, at least I hope you'll agree with me, as I've cobbled together the following track.

Although more people get to work with Mark E Smith than would be the case of a member of any band other than The Fall, the time comes when you realise that your chances of ever being in the band are fairly limited. Luckily for the computer techno geeks among us, lord Smith has a couple of spoken word albums for us to sample from.

I've been intending to give it a go putting samples and loops to a Smith vocal for ages and have finally completed the first track of what I optimistically hope will become a full album worth of tracks. This first effort is entitled 'Chocolate tourizt findz art muzeum' and features the track 'The CD in your hand' from Mark E Smith's spoken word album 'The post nearly man', along with various royalty free samples from the SONY Loops and samples collection, namely 'Blip: Glitch Electronica', 'Bradley Fish: Unstrung' and 'Cinematix Vol. 1'. Consequently, the only person who could legally make any dosh from this is Mark E Smith. I hope this will become viable because I also invite all of you to remix the bugger and do a better job than I've done.


Entrailicus vs Mark E Smith- Chocolate tourizt findz art muzeum


Download the samples and have a go yourself (link now fixed). If you do a remix, please let me know.

- Movietone sessions:1994 - 1997

‘Movietone create beguiling musical statements that draw explicit influence from the coastlines of England,’ or at least that is what record label Domino would have you believe, and who am I to argue? Formed in Bristol in 1994, Movietone revolve around core members Kate Wright and Rachel Brook. Brook was also a member of Flying Saucer Attack during the first few years of the band, while Wright is currently the bass player for Crescent.

Ostensibly an ongoing concern, no new album has appeared since 2003's ‘The Sand and the Stars’, which was recorded, as all albums should be, almost entirely live on a beach.

The band’s three sessions come from the mid 90s…

18th June, 1994

Movietone’s first session, recorded on 12th May, 1994.

TRACKLIST

-Heatwave Pavement
-Darkness Blue Glow
-Stone
-Mono Valley

LINE UP

Kate Wright (Guitar, Vocals)
Rachel Brook (Bass)
Ros Walford (Clarinet, Perc)
Matt Elliot (Guitar, Percussion, Piano)
Matt Jones (Drums)


10th February, 1996
 
Movietone’s second session, recorded on 28th January, 1996.

TRACKLIST

-The Voice Came Out Of The Box And Dropped
-Blank Like Snow
-Summer
-Chocolate Grinder

LINE UP

Kate Wright (Guitar, Vocals)
Matt Elliott (Guitar, Noise)
Rachel Brook (Bass, Xylophone)
Matt Jones (Drums)


20th September, 1997
 
Movietone’s third session, recorded on 31st August, 1997

TRACKLIST

-The Blossom Filled Streets
-Hydra
-Facing West From California's Shores

LINE UP

Kate Wright (Guitar, Vocals)
Matt Elliott (Guitar, Noise)
Rachel Brook (Bass, Xylophone)
Matt Jones (Drums)


Movietone record label site
 

- Leonard Cohen: 14th July, 1968

Canadian Leonard Cohen, despite or probably because of his brooding, monotonous voice, is loved for the intensity of his songs. Along with artists like Joni Mitchell and Paul Simon, singer-songwriters moved to make songwriting an art form in the late 60s, their efforts were recognised when mainstream acts covered their songs.

Cohen's sessions at the BBC in 1968 offer a young artist, whose voice is fresh, delving into poetry with a richness of words and subject. Today, they show a young artist at the peak of his powers.

Cohen did a lot of work at the Beeb in 1968, but here are the four songs from the July Top Gear show hosted by John Peel. The final track of the four is a duet with British folk singer Julie Felix. I'm warning you now, this is a bit special.

Leonard Cohen's Top Gear session: 14th July, 1968

- That's no way to say goodbye
- You know who I am
- Like a bird on a wire
- So long Marianne

- The Eno / Fripp backwards blunder: 18th December, 1973

Jupiter, circa December, 1973

The time is December, 1973 and as a no-doubt grizzly three-month baby, I am shocked as Chile breaks diplomatic contacts with Sweden. Elsewhere, Papua New Guinea gains self government from Australia. The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its DSM-II, meaning that being gay is no longer a mental illness.

Good news for lazy buggers in the United Kingdom; due to coal shortages caused by industrial action, the three-day-week electricity consumption reduction measure comes into force. Pioneer 10 sends back the Earth’s first close-up images of Jupiter, finally giving us a decent look at the giant spot.

Here we see Patrick Troughton, by this time usurped by Jon Pertwee as TV’s Doctor Who, interviewed on Pebble Mill at One by Marian Foster, transmitted on 21st December, 1973. YouTube commenters on this clip allude to a certain degree of drunkenness, both on the part of the interview and the filming crew.

In case you were still wondering, British TV was a bit dodgy back in those days, to prove it, here is a festive except from the ‘classic’ Generation Game show, starring Frankie Howerd and Bruce Forsyth at their best, originally Broadcast on 25th December, 1973.

TOTP was at the peak of its powers, celebrating its tenth anniversary. Here are the opening two songs from the 1973 Christmas special presented by Peel colleagues Noel Edmonds and Tony Blackburn, with music from Slade and ‘little’ Donny Osmond.

Almost no shows exist from the period 1971 to 1974; in fact, this long-lost show is one of the very few examples of Peel on the radio during that time. It is also the show in which he unwittingly played a session by Robert Fripp and Brian Eno backwards, with Eno being regarded as a crank caller by the switchboard operator when he tried to phone Peel at the BBC to inform him of the error.

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Tracklisting


-Paul McCartney & Wings, 'Jet (LP-Band On The Run)' (Apple/Emi)
-Fripp & Eno, 'Heavenly Music Corporation' (Peel Session)
-Faces, 'Maybe I'm Amazed (7 inch)' (Warner Bros)
-Jack The Lad, 'Back On The Road Again' (Peel Session)

JP: 'It's around this time that we collect a whole handful of listeners that we wouldn't normally get if the television was working, and I'd like to tell you that, I'm very very sorry, but there's no television on. I'm very disappointed that you can't watch it, but, seeing as you can't, you can either listen to us, and we don't talk very much but we do play quite a lot of music. Or you can turn over to Radio Four, where they've got a talk on spinach or something like that.'

-Queen, 'Liar (LP-Queen)' (EMI)
-Bridget St. John, 'Curious & Woolly' (Peel Session)
-Travis Wammack, 'Scratchy (7 inch)' (Sonic)
-Pink Floyd, 'Bike (double LP reissue-A Nice Pair)' (Harvest)
-Bridget St. John, 'Choosing, You Lose One' (Peel Session)
-Jackie Brenston, 'Juiced (LP-Chess Golden Decade Vol. 1)' (Checker)

(11 p.m. news bulletin)

-Ian Carr's Nucleus, 'Caliban (LP-Roots)' (Vertigo)
-Bridget St. John, 'Jumble Queen' (Peel Session)
-Jack The Lad, 'Fast Lane Driver' (Peel Session)
-Ann Peebles, 'I Can't Stand The Rain (7 inch)' (Hi) (omitted from this recording)
-Bridget St. John, 'Sparrowpit' (Peel Session)
-Roy Buchanan, 'After Hours' (LP-Second Album) (Polydor)
-Jack The Lad, 'Where The Action Is' (Peel Session)
-Fripp & Eno, 'Swastika Girls' (Peel Session)

JP: 'I'd like to see what they make of that on Come Dancing...Opinion in here is divided...I think it's great, I really do, magnificent in fact, in the Tangerine (Dream) tradition, I suppose. Very very good, and well worth having the LP, incidentally.'

-Bridget St. John, 'In The Bleak Midwinter' (Peel Session)

- Roxy Musicus Vol.1

Don't care what you say, this is cool

Cool. The absolute epitomy of cool. Hopefully there are those among you who already share my opinion, but equally I hope there are those who will be getting their first listen of Roxy Music. No particular reason for this post other than I dug out a few of the old albums today and needed to share a few tracks as they're pretty close to perfection. Their early work from the early to mid 70s saw them instilled as Peel favourites; they did no less than four sessions in 1972. Today's offering comes from the later era, which, if certain fools are to be believed, their work would be described by Rolling Stone as:

"Roxy Music has not gone disco. Roxy Music has not particularly gone anywhere else either... as well as Flesh + Blood (is) such a shockingly bad Roxy Music record that it provokes a certain fascination."

Clearly wrong. If you don't believe me, all you have to do is listen to this fifteen minutes of wonder.

Roxy Musicus Vol.1

- Same old scene
- More than this
- Dance away
- Angel eyes

Listen now...

- Punishment of Luxury sessions, 1978-79

Formed in December, 1976 in the north-east of England, Punishment of Luxury, also known as Punilux, came from a background working in left-wing English fringe theatre groups. The band took their name from an 1891 painting by Giovanni Segantini in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool. A four-man post-punk band, they first released a single, Puppet Life, in June 1978. Shortly after, the band recorded the first of two Peel sessions, followed by a second in 1979.

By 1979 they had signed to the major label United Artists and released the single Jellyfish/Engine Of Excess and the album Laughing Academy. 1980 brought the release of the single Secrets/Brain Bomb, which received both critical acclaim and also sold fairly well. A European tour followed and United Artists sent the band into the studio to record another album, a concept album to be called Gigantic Days. However, while the recording was still going on, United Artists were taken over by EMI, who dumped the band. Punishment Of Luxury released two further albums, Seven in 1983 and Feels Like Dancing Wartime in 1984. The album Gigantic Days was finally released, on CD, in 1998.

In 2007, they reunited and played a few songs for the basist Jimi Giro's 50th birthday party. A little more than a year later they landed a gig at a small pub in Gateshead, which was considered a success and was reviewed in The Guardian newspaper. The band are apparently planning more gigs in the future and possibly introducing more new material. They are currently enjoying gigging, on June 12th they played in Kilburn, North London.

30/08/1978 : TRACKLIST

-Funk Me
-Babalon
-Let's Get Married/You're So Beautiful

30/05/1979 : TRACKLIST

-Radar Bug/Metropolis
-British Baboon
-Secrets

Punishment Of Luxury on MySpace

- Not November, 1976, but February, 1977

Model railways were very popular in 1976

The time is November, 1976 and the Uk has well and truly forgotten the manic heat of that summer. America, it seemed, had finally forgotten the years of slavery that had led to its civil war as, on November 2nd, Jimmy Carter defeated incumbent Gerald Ford, becoming the first candidate from the Deep South to win since the Civil War. On November 25th, which may or may not be the date of this broadcast, in San Francisco, The Band held its farewell concert, The Last Waltz.

More ominously, especially for those of you like me who think that, despite Terminator clearly being a work of fiction, the basic premise is almost certain to come true (yes, I am a freak, hopefully), on November 26th, which also may or may not be the date of this broadcast, Microsoft was officially registered with the Office of the Secretary of the State of New Mexico, thus commencing the end of the world as we know it...

Downloaden sie hier

This is how Britain looked in November, 1976:

UPDATE: Further investigation has revealed that this show dates to February, 1977 (9th to be exact) and the track list is as follows:

Wishbone Ash (live, recorded 16th January, 1977)

-Runaway
-King will come
-Lorelei
-Mother of Pearl
-Blowin' free

Johnny Guitar Watson - A real mother for ya.

- Peel and Star Trek

Here's a link to a documentary 'Beam Me Up Scotty', originally broadcast in February, 1996 on Radio 4 (28 mins). Peel is only the 'hired help' for this one but as a massive Trek fan who knew nothing about this, I'm drooling with anticipation at the prospect of listening to the account of the

musical careers of various Star Trek folks:

Download

- A brief history of sheet music

Going leftfield for a minute. I'm no musician but my brother remains an aspiring guitarist so I thought I'd post this one for him. For those of you who don’t know, sheet music is the hand-written or printed form of musical notation; the medium is typically paper, although access to musical notation has in recent years also included presentation on computer screens. Usage of the expression sheet is intended to distinguish music on paper from its audio presentation, which would arise from a sound recording or live performance. In everyday use, sheet music can refer to the print publication of commercial music in conjunction with the release of a new film, show, recorded album, or other special or popular event involving music.

Sheet music can be used as a record of or a means to perform a piece of music. Even though it doesn’t take the place of the sound of a performed work, sheet music can be used to create a recital and to expound aspects of the music that may not be palpable from mere listening. Authoritative musical information regarding a piece can be gained by studying the printed outlines of compositions that the composer might have retained, as well as the final signature score and individual markings on proofs and printed scores.

The Comprehension of, for example, piano sheet music requires an extraordinary form of literacy: the ability to read musical notation. I'm in awe of anyone who can do this. On the other hand, the capability to read or write music is not a prerequisite to compose music. In fact, many composers, take Captain Beefheart and Mark Edward Smith as two prime examples, have been capable of producing music without the capacity themselves to interpret or inscribe in musical notation, so long as an amanuensis of some sort is available. Examples include the sightless 18th century composer John Stanley and the 20th-century composers and lyricists Lionel Bart, Irving Berlin and even Sir Paul McCartney.

Ok, so now for the reason why I'm posting. The Pianosheetmusic website is offering a load of free sheet music downloads, including free sheet music and free guitar tabs, so take a look.

- Peel and Kershaw at Glastonbury, 1993

I've only ever been to Glastonbury once, in 1993, so am rightly delighted that this tape has surfaced, thanks to alanforduk:

'Here's a home-made compilation tape of broadcasts from Glastonbury in 1993 (25,26,27th Jun).
The programs were hosted by JP and AK, and both are on great form and many of the links are pretty hilarious. Johnnie Walker also appears, mainly introducing the bands. Apologies for the quality, which varies from poor to appalling (you might want to skip The Saw Doctors), and for some of the music choices. You may be able to spot where I've patched-in a couple of tracks from my own CD collection. These replace records played, not live performances.'

Side A (Mono)

00:00 John'n'Andy Intro
00:21 Saw Doctors
N17
Presentation Border
That's What She Said Last Night
I'd Love to kiss the Bangles
Hay Wrap
I Hope We Meet Again
32:35 John'n'Andy on the Velvet Underground
35:08 Rolf Harris - Tie me kangaroo/Stairway To Heaven
41:52 Hothouse Flowers - ?
45:45 John'n'Andy on Velvet Underground bootlegs
46:44 [end]


Side B (remastered)

00:00 New Bad Things - I Suck
04:57 Jonathan Richman - Velvet Underground
08:58 Christy Moore - Well below the Valley-O
15:22 JW interviews JP re Football/Frisbees/Sharon Shannon
18:34 The Four Of Us - Car Crash At 80 MPH
24:14 Tragically Hip - At the Hundredth Meridian
28:43 John'n'Andy on attracting quite a crowd
29:19 John'n'Andy on hearing voices
30:25 John'n'Andy on drainage etc
32:30 John'n'Andy on male organs of generation
33:02 John'n'Andy Sharon Shannon intro
35:02 Sharon Shannon
39:10 Van Morrison - St Dominic's Preview
45:26 John'n'Andy working well as a team
45:54 The Fall - Victoria
48:48 John'n'Andy outro
49:25 [end]

Here be the Verve at Glastonbury, 1993, although I think they were still called Verve then. Drug experimentation means I have no recollection of this performance:

- Genuinely funny

...Eminem's inability to take a joke. Click here to download and keep forever.