i hear a new world

trolling about flickr can sometimes leave me with nightmares of auntie doris in the park or a million cats looking dumb or our car parked on a road or eight zillion bits of crap graffiti and often all of that muddled together in some horrible mind bogglingly dull mess. and then there are days when everything is saved by geniuses like dan mcpharlin and his cardboard miniature synthesizers. i want them all.


they make me think of joe meek who would've surely dreamed of such fantastic creations every minute he wasn't dreaming of handsome young things in his favourite cottages.




it's not often mentioned that the adorable mr meek unleashed the very first explicitly gay 45 on an innocent and oblivious 1966. admittidly it's tucked away on the b side of a tornados single nobody bought but it's there all the same in all it's camp queeny fabness.
jon savage has written about all of this in much more detail and style than i'll ever get round to so read all about it properly there.
you can marvel at those innocent times along with the tornados and the rest of not too swinging really london here first. wilder, madder and camper than a beatles hairdo...

the tornados - do you come here often?

and just so we don't forget just what a proper pop pioneer meek could be here's his super smash space hit without which modern music would be just ...oh you know all that already don't you sweeties so i won't blather on


the tornados - telstar



with thanks to the lovely brogues for the tip

seaside special

apparently in some strange bits of the world summer has stuff called sunshine and you don't need a cardigan on and your hair doesn't get wrecked the second you step out the door. but not here. oh no.
i've been using a tape i made in the lovely warm bits of last year as a memory aid, hoping that the beautiful music will transport me back to strange lost days of paddling and ice cream and moaning that it was too bloody hot. if i stand right next to the fire and put my goolie ogle fakes on it nearly works.

maybe it'll work for you

barbara lewis - hello stranger
the shangri la's - train from kansas city
barbara mason - world in crisis
johnny osbourne & the sensations - come back darlin
the seekers - georgy girl
love affair - everlasting love
judy street - what
alton ellis - can i change my mind
lorez alexander - send in the clowns
phyllis dillon - don't stay away
the jackson five - looking through the window
pat kelly - since you are gone
timi yuro - what's the matter baby

dusty7s summer spectacular

or you can try a not sure how you do this individual songs version
dusty7s summer spectacular super size edition

the song is king

did anyone ever see edwyns show west heath yard ? i don't watch much telly but madness like this would have me square eyed in no time

summer school

some of you young scamps may think you're on holiday now but the bona school never closes. we're at it all day and every night with barely enough time off for a round of crazy golf down the arnold palmer and a celebratory gin and it with the coarse pro.


so here's... g!

g is for

goolie ogle fakes - why say sunglasses when this is so much easier

and

groinage meaning jewelery. you know it's what gerald ratner would've used

and

gildy meaning fancy


and back in the world of the slightly less limp wristed g is for

good gawd as on 'oh my good gawd' as said by captain of industry arthur daley about ten times every episode of minder and even more in our house what with arthur being one of our all time favourite dodgy londoners of all time.
and i want membership of the winchester. ' vodka slimline please dave, and put it on the slate'.
we've recently ploughed through all of the sweeney and all but the last two serieses of minder and i can't recommend them enough.



and what with me still feeling a bit punky and angular this morning g can be for the gang of four as well.


gang of four - damaged goods

old dumb and kind of pasty

it's young week in contrastpodcastville and yet again i was very lazy about it all and just picked something with young in the title. it's a very good something mind that should have you movin and shakin but i can't help but feel i should've been a bit more imaginative.

bob and marcia - young gifted and black

the more i think about it the more i realise that being young was horrible. mainly because of school which was a terrible ghastly burn the fucker down terror which left me only with a mastery of lying cheating and making ever more ridiculous excuses. penguin modern classics didn't help much either. how are you supposed to be a bright and shining child when you're trying to plow through satre and camus (pronounced came-us obviously - well no one told me...) and holden caulfield is your only saviour? at least there was records.(there WERE records stupid child). loud shouty turn that bloody racket down call that music? it's just a bloody noise records. stiff little fingers records. they were the first band i went to see without my mum and if there's anything great about being a kid it's being able to jump around like an idiot with a few hundred equally sweaty shouty nogoodniks and never want to stop. so i should've picked this...



stiff little fingers - alternative ulster

winners!

well done everyone who had a go at our siddeleys competition and guessed that the tortured soul scrawled in honour on the back of johhny johnson's hand had to be our favourite holloway road nutjob joe meek. i desperately want there to be an alf quiet but hey.

so telstar forever to...

fil, jessel, marianne, rhany, gareth, mattias, wayne, cherry, resty, richard

your hard won siddleys/reserve flexis will be on their way as soon as it stops raining long enough for me to get to the post office.
i do like the idea of there being a bit of this thing that actually gets put in an envelope and escapes from the screen and it's always lovely getting stuff through the post so i'm going to try and come up with more exciting prizes somehow. preston tuesday boot fair here we come.

from the radio clyde mobile to you

well we haven't had one of these for a while and if i could stick a big free thing on the front of this i promise i would.
by 1984 and one hit out of seven singles polydor seemed to've pretty much given up on getting orange juice in the charts despite having thrown flexis and tapes and stickers and extra singles in foldout poster sleeves and heaven knows what else at a generally not bothered public. by what presence?! there was a free tape but i'm sure it wasn't attached to the record and relied on bored and snooty shop assistants, especially in wood green shopping city, grunting 'wanna tape wiv tha?' and rooting round in a box for this dusty treat. i hope everyone got one cos it's ace.
do you get free stuff with downloads? where do i get the badge that comes with that?


orange juice - in a nutshell (live)
orange juice - simply thrilled honey (live)
orange juice - dying day (live)

and there was a postcard in there somewhere too.