the view from her room

so the fog's finally lifted to bring me back my beloved centrepoint and the brandy bottle's got put away again just in time for some organ powered jazz lounge beat awesomeness (man i'm with it) straight out of 304 holloway road and a stint with the tornadoes. most of the peddlers repertoire is bleedin awful but there are tucked away treats which keep bringing me back to that bizarrely fuzzy voice and tower ballroom sound

the peddlers - on a clear day (you can see forever)


the jazz boys go potty over suite london and i'm all for a bit of madness with a symphony orchestra and all but songs that wander all over each other and don't know whether they're coming or going get me all of a tizz. i bought it just for the sleeve scratched to pieces or not and then i have seen came on and the rest didn't really matter

the peddlers - i have seen

fog fog fog

what a treat - barely unpacked and glorious london wakes us to a right pea souper. cor blimey guv'nor. the post office tower is gone, the end of berwick street is the merest hint of blue posts and flower stall, and centrepoint is two storeys and a ghost of the 20th century. fantabulosa.
so i proclaim a fog day of mufflers and brandy and collars turned up and sherlock holmes. this is a smasher with a brilliant bit of deducing on a tube train...

sherlock holmes - his last bow - the bruce-partington plans
x

juicy bits

orange juice - you old eccentric (live at sterling university 10th april 1981)
orange juice - to put it in a nutshell (live at keele university 24th november 1982)

ps
i always thought the bit in you old eccentric was 'if we only had five pence...'. i should never read the words for stuff really i shouldn't. i hope i've not spoiled it for everybody.
x

folky friday

no sandals or beardy weirdies but the james dean of indiana to send you pot smoking and protesting and peace signing into the weekend.

phil ochs - love me i'm a liberal

phil ochs - changes

and curtis mayfield as pop show presenter - well i never did.

fun'n'frenzy

josef k - sorry for laughing

i give it a week

now i know he did a good bit of cashmere and big hair with little carmine on the telly and i've got three of his records but that doesn't quite seem to add up to a brilliant idea for a west end blockbuster. there's the slaughter and the dogs cover version to fit in obviously which might drag some old soaks out of the intrepid fox but i'm guessing it might all be a bit of a struggle. then again 'you're ready now' is ace and has the honour of being pretty much the crackliest 45 in the box. if anyone need tickets i'll be going past later.

frankie valli - you're ready now

just like gold

aztec camera - just like gold ( live with edwyn collins 30 sept 2001 london qeh)

stuff i thought i'd lost - the postcard brochure

too frazzled by moving and whatnot to think so here's an i wondered where that'd gone things you find when you start packing long lost treasure










the go betweens - people say

help me somebody

hello everybody. my name is ally and i have a problem. james bond was not my first. oh no. before him there were fifty more. fifty together all at once at the same time. me and fifty of the bastards. i just couldn't help myself. i mean how's anyone supposed to resist ? it's a giant fibreglass icecream for gawd's sake and things don't get any better than that not even secret agent paperbacks with gorgeous covers.

our northern exile has been saved by the seaside. the seaside is ace. not the coast mind cos that's just the countyside with some extra water but proper seaside. blackpool morecambe fleetwood . but salvation comes at a price and now all art and beauty is nothing to me since i have been dazzled by the majesty of the giant fibreglass icecream. i can't pass one without oooohing and aaaahing and taking a million pictures and i dream of nothing but a giant fibreglass icecream of my very own. i still can't quite believe that i haven't been sentenced to a lifetimes hard labour for robbing one but it's just in my imagination that i'm dragging one down the golden mile being chased by the sweeney.
so for now i make do with fifty first class and jonathan richman on constant repeat and scheme evil and dastardly schemes in readiness for margate and southend...

jonathan richman and the modern lovers - ice cream man

philately will get you nowhere

how fabulous are these ? very fabulous obviously. i keep meaning to send more stuff through the post and these are a massive enouragement. even if my letters are rubbish my envelopes will always thrill. not that i'll actually be able to bring myself to part with any. they're mine...all mine...

rex garvin and the mighty cravers - sock it to 'em jb

jackie mitoo - james bond

biological hazard warning

so we're still here in the dark and rainy north. the fair is packing up and pulling out now they've run out of customers for the incredible exploding women show and we're waiting for the council to turn up to start fencing us in and putting up the beware ye all would enter and site of plague pit jan 2008 signs or at the very least hoardes of mad scientists in space suits like when ET's poorly to start prodding us and doing dastardly experiments.
i'm using the occasional gaps in the coughing spluttering and sneezing to have a good old cockney walkabout practice what with the dear old east end being the centre of all fashion and culture these days. well my pal roy's stall's down brick lane anyway. i can't find any clips of vic and bob showing how it really should be done unfortunately so you'll have to make do with the small faces and the artful dodger and work it out of yourselves. cor blimey.

small faces - lazy sunday (bbc session version)

diccapilly

i wish i'd seen piccadilly in it's neon wonderland pomp before it'd been entirely surrendered to horridly disappointed tourists and shoddy shopping centres and always boarded up eros. it always looked so beautifully suited to rain and turned up collars and lost loves and new infatuations and jumping on the back of routemasters and all the mad magic possiblities of a london night. or maybe it was always rubbish the way things in guide books are always rubbish and i'd've hated the wrigleys advert as much as i do the macdonalds one. i'm too full of germs to think.

lord kitchener - london is the place for me

look homeward angel

overflowing with diabolical germs and raging with estate agent fueled fury but still excited as hell to be picking up the keys to a london's bustling west end flat tomorrow. manchester's alright if you like that sort of thing (he were funny... if you like laughing) but it just isn't home...

chairmen of the board - i'm on my way to a better place

happy new year and all.