Valentines? What Valentines? 🖤

Ein schöner junger Prinz Verirrte sich im Wald.

Historic Moments In Punk Rock #78. "Don't think that because Billy and Tony are in a punk group they only want to meet punk girls, 'cos they don't!"

Today's chazzer booty, £3.00. Until today it'd been 40+ years since I last heard the 2nd Selecter LP, but I remembered it as being a darker, bleaker record than their Two-Tone debut & I was right. The songs are slower, the production more New Wave influenced, but the skank is still there. I love it.

Beware The Friendly Stranger.

Now here's a treat... a suitably grubby photograph of the classic 1982 Hex-era line-up that I don't ever remember seeing before. Where's it taken from, any idea? #FallFriday

Black Bob on Dutch telly. Richard Madeley (Nederlands variant) needs to dial it down a smidge.

Bastard! Eat death! Clanging in my heart #FallFriday

Back here again. Same time next year then?

"I'm not the only one with things up my sleeve..." November 1981's "lost" (& terminal) Teardrop Explodes Peel session, recorded during the bad-tempered chaos of their aborted 3rd LP. The version of "Soft Enough For You" here is howling catharsis, definitely not the honeyed ballad we know & love...

One of the most perfect compilations ever? Purchased for £1.50 in the mid '80s from the old Good Vibrations record shop on Mansfield Road, Nottingham - run by hippies, Zappa posters over cracked plaster, cats fast asleep in the window. Ta for the Crosby-fied nudge, @dj-acid-reflux.bsky.social.

Vortex 1977 Derek Ridgers.

I'm not much of an Alice fan but this clip is terrific. And don't the kids just love it? One of the things I absolutely l.o.v.e. about these old '70s TOTP performances is that there's always a small portion of the audience who are really REALLY into it, grooving in their own private universes...

In apropos of nowt:

Historic Moments in Punk Rock #61. Tbf if you'd heard this before the original version you'd probably assume it *was* the original. Er, maybe? 7/10.

PUNK AS FUCK.

15th January 1971 - another one that got away. Written off by The Man as being a brazen Bolan copy, but that didn't stop Brett Anderson basing his entire early career on it. The Spiders' Ziggy-era remake is great but I still prefer this muddy original take, it's a minute longer for starters...

Yesterday and today.

I don't remember seeing this one before ...but perhaps I've led a sheltered life? #fallfriday

It's now widely known that Lodger's "Boys Keep Swinging" & "Fantastic Voyage" share the same chord sequence, but Bowie's little joke was to pair the two as a hit 7" to promote the LP & not tell anybody about the similarity. Lodger was originally intended to be titled Planned Accidents, of course...

Reet petite and how d'ya do.

R̷a̷i̷n̷s̷ Snows.

N. Gallagher would give his right arm (or his dimwit brother's, at least) to write a '60s-style smash as psychedelically enriched as this one - the guitar solo is so great they play it twice! Quality clip too:

This morning's chazzer booty, £1.50 Nipped out early to stock up the empty fridge & pay some bills, & I picked up this mint hardback 1st edition on my way back from the Co-Op. I've been reading lots of Sillitoe recently, particularly his short stories, & this is one of his later collections. HNY!

"One would have to be pretty desperate to sail into that port" - Jack Palance and Diana Dors in a a seedy, eye-rolling, scenery-chewing battle to the bottom of the barrel. Brit-Cult gold! "An unusually strong cast for such piffle" - Variety. www.youtube.com/watch?v=k75f...

A mere four months after Ian Curtis died, a nervous and clearly exhausted New Order turned up at New York's Hurrah club and somebody (thank you, Merril A) had the foresight to point a video camera at them. Painful viewing at times, but *what* a document:

Paris Match deemed her "immoral, from head to toe", while De Gaulle called her "a French export as important as Renault cars". Vadim's intentions may've been troublesome - as were Bardot's subsequent political affiliations - but the young B.B. still absolutely owns this explosive scene. Mon dieu!

A school pal played me this, off Dindisc cassette, way back in the last century when I was 13/14 and I was genuinely astonished - I'd only heard "Messages" and "Enola Gay" before that. Alleluia! The children of Kraftwerk...

Dalek Invasion Of Neu! 1980 A.D.

Today's chazzer booty, £1. A perennial John Peel fave - 1978 pressing with red labels. The sleeve needed a few wipes but the dusty vinyl came up bright and shiny after some minimal TLC. I found a couple of old Burning Spear LPs in the same quid box too. Bargains are still out there, folks!

I bought this weeks ago but only got 'round to listening to it tonight. My loss 'cause it's a beaut, though I can't see it making them many new fans. They sound. still, like Zappa's Hot Rats filtered through Eno's secret stash of SFX c.Before & After Science. So that's a recommendation, I suppose?

That's the last damn hitchhiker I ever pick up.

Unfortunately Apocalypso was actually released last year so it can't be my fave LP of 2025. Shamefully I only heard it for the first time a couple of months ago but I've listened to little else since. That's a *slight* exaggeration but you get the point. This vid'll slay ya (OR YOUR MONEY BACK).

I need a steam shovel, mama to keep away the dead...

Davy Graham, aged 18, appearing in Hound Dogs & Bach Addicts, a 1959 Monitor documentary charting the rise of British guitar music, filmed for the BBC by Ken Russell. I've never seen the entire doc unfortunately.

I can't remember the last time I listened to Godspeed, but the neighbours are out (hooray) and I'm sitting here with a busted ankle, a quiche in the oven, and a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale to hand so let's crank it way up. Steve Albini behind the desk (it says here).

(Nearly) midnight music.

I certainly wasn't expecting to end up here this morning but it turns out it's good for vacuuming to.

Today's chazzer booty, £3. Original Chapter 1 pressing in great shape - it regularly sells for £100+ on Discogs, etc (but I'll be hanging onto it). I've never heard a Pete Brown record I didn't like - his LPs with Battered Ornaments and Piblokto! are all bona fide Desert Island Discs 'round 'ere...

Nigh on 40 years since I last listened to this and to say I'm "surprised" by how much I'm enjoying it would be *something* of an understatement - it must be my age? George Martin's bland production did them no favours and turned me right off the band at the time. "Two boiled eggs."

From Smash Hits, 1979 - reviewer: Ian Cranna #FallFriday

Smash Hits takes no prisoners! (#2) I like S25, and this LP in particular, but the ACR / EW&F crack = actual LOL.

Today's chazzer booty, £1.50. On CD, Mr. Cutler's 1st album for Virgin, who quickly signed him up after hearing his cameo on Robert Wyatt's peerless Rock Bottom. Dandruff features some of the earliest instalments of the Life In A Scotch Sitting Room saga, amongst other Ivor-ian tidbits...

More people remember this single for the intro than the song itself I reckon but, man, I could use some sweltering 1965 sunshine right now...

Mondays, eh?

A rare pic of Mark Smith being given a big hand - from New Musical Express, November 1980. #FallFriday

45th anniversary. 35p! David Sylvian on the cover, and an early (for me) sighting of Fad Gadget. Long live Smash Hits!

John Barry meets Martin Rev? Soft Cell - who were always the best of the Brit synth bands (the ones that charted anyway) - had as much in common with Throbbing Gristle as the Human League. Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret was released the week after my 15th birthday - what an education! R.I.P. Dave Ball.