Hello there,
Following on from the first "The many guises of..." List two weeks ago, this time around it is a pleasure to introduce a selection representing the long and magical career of the first lady of indiepop - singer, songwriter, guest vocalist par excellence and economist Amelia Fletcher.
Hopefully the whole gamut has been run here - something from each of the bands Amelia's fronted over the last 30 years (from cutie figureheads Talulah Gosh to current duo The Catenary Wires); special appearances on more singles than you can shake a stick at; and some affectionate covers from the likes of Los Campesinos! and Built To Spill.
My only regret is that I wasn't able to find anything from the first (1991) EP by Bugbear, on which she again featured as guest vocalist. That's partly because it's a terrifically boisterous affair, and partly due to it being the pet project of her very greatly missed kid brother Mathew - still very much in the thoughts of so many nearly two decades on from his tragically young passing.
J xx
WORLD OF FOX with AMELIA FLETCHER – Be Kind to My Love (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlWJcDuuPSI
AMELIA FLETCHER & EITHNE FARRY – Beatnik Boy (live at Indietracks) (2009)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YC5UtZkaXUU
HARVEY WILLIAMS ft AMELIA FLETCHER – Cindy’s Been and Gone (1999)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpKdJWxxRsY
MARINE RESEARCH – Queen B (1998)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcNHAS8R5HE
THE POOH STICKS ft AMELIA FLETCHER – Who Loves You (1991)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxT6StorjRs
HEFNER ft AMELIA FLETCHER – The Greedy Ugly People (Live at Maida Vale) (2000)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICCQxAtDgM8
BUILT TO SPILL – By The Way (1998)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MW3RhU5AsuI
HEAVENLY – Space Manatee (1996)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFEOSY39MuQ
THE WEDDING PRESENT with AMELIA FLETCHER – Getting Better (1986)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUMSNTmdcbo
SPORTIQUE – Don’t Believe A Word I Say (2000)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwiXvbDrAoM
TENDER TRAP – Girls with Guns (2010)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_GnEXrEXoY
LOS CAMPESINOS! – C is the Heavenly Option (2007)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfjlzapOr1c
THE CATENARY WIRES – Intravenous (2015)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzmbBB9JQUk
THE POPGUNS ft AMELIA FLETCHER – Bye Bye Baby (live) (1990)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9BBgGLD6V8
DJ DOWNFALL ft AMELIA FLETCHER – If I Should Fall Behind (2009)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBEp-aSDbPg
TALULAH GOSH – The Girl with the Strawberry Hair (1987)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n-xfkehJ80
THE CAROUSEL – Strawberry Fayre (1988)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWq768QYIgI
THE BRILLIANT CORNERS ft AMELIA FLETCHER – Why Do You Have to Go Out with Him (1988)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4FaAipULzg
THE 6THS ft AMELIA FLETCHER – Looking for Love (in the Hall of Mirrors) (1995)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jY9BvrcGsGw
THE GARLANDS & AMELIA FLETCHER – Nous de sommes pas des anges (live at Limoges Popfest) (2012)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sHMAACF3as
AMELIA FLETCHER – Can You Keep a Secret? (12" version) (1991)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA7DMp9dibQ
Friday, 29 May 2015
Friday, 22 May 2015
LIST 157 - 22/05/15 (Eurovision Song Contest special)
Hello again,
Non-lovers of Eurovision might want to give this week's List a miss...
Here we have 25 songs that represent a personal selection of favourites - not necessarily all the "best" songs, whatever that means, and certainly not all the most successful - from everyone's favourite annual brew of high camp, fallable phone links and questionable voting. Please enjoy.
Actually, it behoves me to point out that only 23 of the songs are from the Contest itself - two more got to their respective nation's equivalents of A Song For Europe, but no further. For a bit of fun, see if you can identify which.
There's very little from pre-1990 Contests in this particular List, but I'm sure I can put that right twelve months from now. Probably my favourite Eurovision song of the lot is one of the oldest here, however - this is indeed the same Belgian deadpan synth-prodders Telex that had had a UK chart hit with a deliberately funereal cover of Rock Around The Clock a year or two previously.
J xx
GUILDO HORN –
Guildo hat euch lieb (1998)
AFRO-DITE –
Never Let It Go (2002)
VANILLA NINJA
– Cool Vibes (2005)
BRAINSTORM –
My Star (2000)
PERTTI KURIKAN
NIMIPÄIVÄT- Aina mun pitää (2015)
PAS DE DEUX –
Rendez-vous (1983)
YULIA
SAVICHEVA – Believe Me (2004)
SANDIE SHAW –
Puppet on a String (1967)
LONDONBEAT –
I’m Just Your Puppet on a String! (1995)
LT UNITED –
We are the Winners (2006)
INES – Once
in a Lifetime (2000)
ELINA BORN
& STIG RÄSTA – Goodbye to Yesterday (2015)
TELEX –
Eurovision (1980)
ALF POIER –
Weil der Mensch zählt (2003)
ROSA – Europe’s
Living a Celebation (2002)
FINN KALVIK -
Aldri i livet (1981)
LINDA WAGENMAKERS
– No Goodbyes (2000)
TEXAS
LIGHTNING – No No Never (2006)
ANNA MARIA JOPEK
– Ale jestem (1997)
WINNY PUHH - Meiecundimees
üks Korsakov läks eile Lätti (2013)
AIVARAS –
Happy You (2002)
MÅNS ZELMERLÖW
– Heroes (2015)
CHARMED – My
Heart Goes Boom (2000)
STEFAN RAAB –
Wadde hadded dude da? (2000)
EMMA – Give a
Little Love Back to the World (1990)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRDdlNwoQkg
Friday, 15 May 2015
LIST 156 - 15/05/15 (The Many Guises Of... Tim Smith)
Hello there,
Seems like a long eight days since the That Music List Election Night Special (q.v.), doesn't it... The less said about the Election result the better, I think, other than to note that only the fact it's already been included on at least one previous List prevented the uploading of Jarvis Cocker's "Running the World" the following morning.
Still, where there's life, there's hope, so let's play some music for comfort and succour.
This week's List is the first of several I've put together which feature performances associated in some way with one artist or artiste, hence the "The many guises of..." strapline. This first choice is a poignant one, too, given that Tim Smith's near-fatal, and irrefutably life-changing, heart attack and stroke in 2008 have effectively terminated the playing and producing career of one of modern music's most fertile imaginations. A terrible, terrible shame.
Here's something celebratory by which to remember the big man at his best, then - 20 songs all either starring Tim (Cardiacs, Tim Smith, Sea Nymphs, Panixphere), originally by him (former Cardiac William D Drake's sublime cover), or else featuring him on production and/or instrumental duties (everything else). I couldn't not finish with the short film "Jim's Shame", featuring an archetypal Tim tantrum and eventual storming off - to return to the recording studio who knows when, if ever.
J xx
Seems like a long eight days since the That Music List Election Night Special (q.v.), doesn't it... The less said about the Election result the better, I think, other than to note that only the fact it's already been included on at least one previous List prevented the uploading of Jarvis Cocker's "Running the World" the following morning.
Still, where there's life, there's hope, so let's play some music for comfort and succour.
This week's List is the first of several I've put together which feature performances associated in some way with one artist or artiste, hence the "The many guises of..." strapline. This first choice is a poignant one, too, given that Tim Smith's near-fatal, and irrefutably life-changing, heart attack and stroke in 2008 have effectively terminated the playing and producing career of one of modern music's most fertile imaginations. A terrible, terrible shame.
Here's something celebratory by which to remember the big man at his best, then - 20 songs all either starring Tim (Cardiacs, Tim Smith, Sea Nymphs, Panixphere), originally by him (former Cardiac William D Drake's sublime cover), or else featuring him on production and/or instrumental duties (everything else). I couldn't not finish with the short film "Jim's Shame", featuring an archetypal Tim tantrum and eventual storming off - to return to the recording studio who knows when, if ever.
J xx
CARDIACS – Jibber and Twitch
(rehearsal) (2003)
TIM SMITH – Rat Mice Lice Time
(1990/1995)
SIDI BOU SAID – Wormee (1995)
THE SHRUBBIES – Carefree Clothes
(1997)
PANIXPHERE – To Go Off and Things
(1992)
ADRIAN BORLAND – I’m Your Freedom
(1997)
NORTH SEA RADIO ORCHESTRA – End of
Chimes (2006)
THE MONSOON BASSOON – The King of Evil
(1999)
PINHEAD NATION – Where’s Herne Bay?
(1993)
SPRATLEYS JAPS – Secret (1999)
GERTRUDE – Comes Around (1997)
WILLIAM D DRAKE – Savour (2010)
EAT – Double Bubble (1993)
THE TRUDY – Lost Summer of Love (2007)
LEVITATION – Cloud Shine (1992)
THE SCARAMANGA SIX – The Poison Pen
(2004)
FLINCH – Spoonz (1995)
STARS IN BATTLEDRESS – Secrets and
Signals (2003)
THE SEA NYMPHS – Shaping the River
(1992)
THE SOUND – Counting the Days (1986)
CARDIACS – Jim’s Shame (2003)
Thursday, 7 May 2015
LIST 155 - 07/05/15 (Election Night special)
Hello again,
Thanks for waiting a few weeks whilst other pursuits were, um, pursued. At long last, and having ducked out of doing one in 2010, here we have the first ever That Music List set to coincide with a British General Election!
I find the whole thing gruesomely compelling and expect I'll be up all night sitting amid an ever-increasing litter of emptied ale bottles, but the slightly more sane among you may instead like to commit 75 minutes or so to the following - every track either about (or at the very least namechecking) politics, politicians or elections...
Back again with something else nice a week on Friday. See thee 'til then.
Back again with something else nice a week on Friday. See thee 'til then.
J xx
ALICE COOPER – Elected (1972)
CASSETTEBOY – Emperor’s New Clothes
(2015)
KILLING JOKE – Democracy (1996)
HAL – Election Day (1994)
NOTSENSIBLES – I’m In Love with
Margaret Thatcher (1979)
THE WAKE – Major John (1991)
CHRIS MORRIS – Bushwhacked II (2003)
MILKY WIMPSHAKE – Here’s to the State
of Mr Poodle (2006)
RE-FLEX – The Politics of Dancing
(1983)
BILLY BRAGG – From Red to Blue (1996)
POPINJAYS – Vote Elvis (1990)
SIDWHO? – Vote Bowie for President
(2009)
DRUGSTORE – El President (1998)
CHUMBAWAMBA – Tony Blair (1999)
MONTY PYTHON – Election Night Special
(1970)
JAMES BROWN – Funky President (1974)
MUDDY SUMMERS AND THE DIRTY FIELD
WHORES – Cameron I Would Call You a... (2013)
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