nature punk

for those of you wise enough to not get the observer and spend your sundays shuddering and swearing at the smug bastard thing... there's the occasional good bit

johnnie allan - promised land

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ain't got no time

it's a bloomin' outrage. i've got to go off and do stuff. AGAIN.

the isleys - work to do

that cat in england who swings his ass off

goodbye humph

i'm sorry i haven't a clue - 12/12/2005 - humphrey lyttleton, barry cryer, graeme garden, tim brooke taylor, jeremy hardy

john coltrane - my favourite things

there's a whole lovely southbank show to watch here
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smokeless

can you imagine smokey having anything to do with this ? hell no. no no no no no. smokey's gorgeous and all but he's just not funny. or quite ridiculously camp. i mean could you really listen to the tracks of my tears in quite the same way ever again if you'd heard him singing this ? and if you have any doubts imagine that's smokey in a pink suit practically john inmaning about in the video. but the miracles - they're huggin' kissin' fiends

the miracles - love machine

beware

i'm officially past it. well obviously i was past it way long ago but you know what i mean. i've got very keen on neil diamond so i must be. very keen. it's like punk never happened.
neil diamond - sweet caroline

neil diamond - shilo

i wouldn't listen to these if i were you - you'll start thinking about a nice glass of sherry and turning the heating up and that those cardies in m&s were actually quite nice...

b'dum b'dum

it was pete shelleys birthday yesterday and to celebrate and keep you busy and amazed all weekend here is the tony wilson what's on buzzcocks /magazine special in all it's granadatastic glory. i never even knew this existed. you'll find the missing tracks over on youtube somewhere i'm sure

would you shower with these guys ?

so the quiz one's the sound affects lp version but it's always nice to dig out yellow flexis ...

the jam - boy about town (flexi)

ain't it just adorable how all those rough horrid boys obsess about weller. the big puffs. he's one of those gay icons for straight boys isn't he? they'd all let him you know. and they'd love it.

oh baby

now the temptations are flipping amazing and all but the moment miss ross does her hey baby breathy lovliness thing and then the notoriously hard to get right talkie bit this is blasted into geniusville

diana ross and the supremes and the tempations - i'm gonna make you love me

more more more

saturday morning telly

trixies big red motorbike - white horses (peel session)

oh no not again

i shouldn't be allowed near hip hop records from the late eighties/early nineties (very specific i know) - they make me come over all funny and twitchy and bugger the space time continuum zooming me straight to drunk sunday afternoons in dingwalls hearing amazing tunes for the first time and dancing badly but recognising odd bits from somewhere horn stabs or bass lines or funny little wah wah noises and being surrounded by obsessed boys and girls in fine italian knitwear who would argue all day about where every snippet was from and who'd done what with it and how much the soul jazz boys with their boxes of records in the doorway would be charging for it now everyone there wanted one and hoping gilles would play it on kiss later so you could tape it. so today my sweet dears let's have some bits of follow the leader. there's still twenty years later a big bit i don't know something jazzy and beyond me in there but first play of the long lost diabolically ignored baby huey and the babysitters lp and there's those horns

baby huey and the babysitters - listen to me


poor old huey he really couldn't take the weight and popped off when he was only 26 somehow managing to combine the to this day thought pretty impossible terrors of obesity and heroin. no bugger bought the lp in 1971 and even more astoundingly it's still kind of hard to find the reissue which really is bloomin' criminal. i mean it's got a mono version of hard times on it people. a mono version!

baby huey and the babysitters - hard times (mono mix)

and if that wasn't enough coke escovedo is tucked in there too i think. i only got this really recently too on nicely reissued 45 and put up with peterson ruining my taped copy going c'mon over the top at inappropriate moments for years and years but now you don't have to

coke escovedo - i wouldn't change a thing

i wouldn't change a thing neither.

rhythm and poetry

i know you got soul brothers and sisters

eric b and rakim - follow the leader

burley chassis

that's miss bassey to you ( it's what she said to my top local news photographer dad when he called her shirley so we'd best get it right from the start). now you know how much we love a sequined gown and big hair round here so how could we not adore shirl sorry miss bassey especially in all her doing it loads better than the beadles and the doors and blood sweat and tears with massive arrangements and feather boas and the hugest singing and grandest gestures boot sale staple something lp. if these don't put a wiggle in your walk as you're trolling down old compton street nothing will duckies

shirley bassey - light my fire

shirley bassey - something


and now with extra giggling

hell what can i say... there were people that didn't get the easiest in the whole world ever one two ah one two three four introduction to this. i'm baffled. flabbergasted even. i mean it still sits proudly if a bit tattered at least near the front of your singles pile even after thirty years right ? and it comes on everytime you've had a drop or two of what killed auntie ? and you're still not sure of some of the words you've been slurring along to ever since you were very very small ? there were going to extra points for getting the brackets in the right place and everything in a that thing jimmy saville used to do on sundays on the radio when i was little. i'm going for a lie down. i'll save all my clash tales for another day. they're pretty rubbish anyway.

the clash - (white man) in hammersmith palais


extra dubtasticness

i hope you die before i get old

lancaster university early 1981 the beat & the au pairs accidentally turned into a big growing up moment. the national front had bussed in skinheads and assorted rotters from all over to greet everyone after the show with a punch on the nose and a rock through the windscreen. i'd never seen anything like it. especially our pals dad who was giving us a lift home watching us get a pasting and not helping. till then i still thought mums and dads could stop anything bad happening now i saw a frightened bloke who knew he'd get a kicking too. i still think he should've helped though the big girls blouse.

the beat - stand down margaret

i proclaim a snow day

snow snow snow snow snow. charging around trafalgar square at gawd knows what time too excited to stay in bed then home to building a snowman on the roof. ain't life grand. and it'll be sunny soon

dusty springfield - sunny

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right on for the darkness

so when the hell was al pacino in the four seasons ? there's definitely something weird going on here. the night's even like al acting when he was still good and not unwatchably hammy all quiet and soft and gorgeous then exploding just before the pounding starts and all dark and doomy and tragic. has anyone heard al sing ? is he in that jersey boys musical being frankie valli 1966? if he is i might go...

frankie valli and the four seasons - the night


and an extra special stella street treat

just plain living sometimes is kinda tough

imagine the horror of being responsible for the dire horrid ooooh yeah sample that was on every single terrible chartbound cod acid house sound ever ever that spoiled the backend of the eighties for everyone. could you ever be happy again ? would the dirty pumping organ and ecstatic screams of joy of everyone who could pretend they hadn't heard that bit get you through ? knowing you were responsible for a massive empowering anthem maybe ? i don't think so. the poor poor woman how she must've suffered. just try not to listen to that bit.

lyn collins - think

and if you've not got the james brown's funky people lp go get one as soon as you possible can. it's ace.