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Archive 14
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326 - 350
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Here
you will gain exclusive access to my own personal record collection! I
try to bring you mp3s of rare tracks, deleted material, long forgotten
artists, total flops and down right obscure shit. Often, my choices were
only available on vinyl or were just plain unreleased, the aim being to
indulge an old fan or inspire a new one. I try not to post up
forthcoming releases or anything that's too readily available. Honest,
Gov!
There's a tenuous thread running through the tracks but
your requests are always welcome and I'll try and squeeze them in amongst my
own fancies... eventually.
Do read all the blurb, as there's often links to extra tracks lurking in
there... ; )
Tracks are only available for a 'limited
time' folks (sometimes months!), so get them while you can!
Now for the science bit! To access the music, please click on 'Download' and
you'll be whisked off to those nice people over at Sharebee.
Tracks are ripped at 192 kbps and wherever possible taken from the
highest quality source available. All of the music offered here has been
purchased by myself and is part of my own collection. Tracks are for
evaluation purposes only and wherever possible, purchasing is always
encouraged. If you own any of the material posted here or anywhere else
on this site and are very cross with me, please
email me with threats and such like...
The Smiths
did it with Sandie.
Pet
Shop Boys did it with Dusty
&
Liza. Swiss electronic music boffins
Yello? They
did it with Dame Shirley Bassey. They tried to reinvent an icon! In 1986, an
epic and passionate song co-written by Billy Mackenzie
from The Associates, was
demoed for Yello's fifth album, 'One Second'. Deciding it would better suit the
voice of a true diva, Wales finest export (no, not Tom Jones),
Shirley Bassey was approached to provide vocals for 'The Rhythm Divine'. Never one to turn down
a gig, Bassey belted it out with
MacKenzie on back-up and the track was lifted
from the album as a single in 1987. Hardly a smash hit, it stuck fast at 54 on
the UK Singles chart. Here's the
Bernard Butler
left Suede over
'personal differences' or some such nonsense whilst recording their second
album, 'Dog Man Star'. Likened to the split of
The Smiths songwriting
partnership of Morrissey and
Marr, Butler
was quick to move on, not least of all due
to the swift filling of the vacancy he left in
Suede (by young fan
Richard
Oaks). After an abortive collaboration with former
All About Eve singer
Julianne
Regan and a week spent as a member of
The Verve,
Butler formed the duo
McAlmont
& Butler with soul angel David McAlmont. Releasing two astounding singles in
1995 ('Yes' and 'You Do'), both parties were keen to get on with their own thing
and split acrimoniously. 'The Sound Of McAlmont & Butler', a compilation of the
singles and their B-sides, plus one unreleased track, was issued and this taut
gospel version of 'You'll
Loose A Good Thing' is taken from this set. The song has appeared on this site
before, by another group (riot girls Voodoo Queens), and the original, performed by
soul singer Barbara Lynn
in 1962, features in the
John Water's film 'Hairspray'.
Butler went on to make two
solo albums ('People Move On' and 'Friends and Lovers'), reunited with
Brett
Anderson in The Tears
and worked with everyone from
Sparks to
Sophie Ellis-Bextor.
2002 saw the return of McAlmont
& Butler as a duo for another critically acclaimed
album and in 2006, a one off single was released called 'Speed'.
Hopefully, the two will continue to work together sporadically in the
future. Trivia! McAlmont & Butler
contributed a fantastic cover of
Take That's
'Back For Good' to
Role call!
Elastica were primarily
Justine Frischmann
on vocals and guitar, Donna Matthews on
guitar and vocals, Annie Holland
on bass
guitar and the very lovely
Justin Welch (Mmmm, yummy) on drums. I was mad on
Elastica
from the start and have had great trouble choosing a track to post
here. With this in mind, we bring you an International House Of Pussy first - the double A-side post!
First up is 'Pussycat'. This track was the vinyl-only B-side
to their iconic 1993 debut 7" 'Stutter' and is therefore a
little bit rare/obscure. I didn't think much of it originally but it's
amazing how you change your mind when the prospect of new material shrivels
up and dies, isn't it? It was issued on CD in Australia but not many
people know/have that and so here it is. The second track is right at the
other end of Elastica's career, when
they were pretty much just
Justine on
her own, their final single release and parting gift from 2001, 'The
Bitch Don't Work'. This track was only released on 7" vinyl again
but this mp3 is taken from a CD promo I picked up a few years back. Now, the
group famously suffered from 'difficult second album' syndrome and it's true
that 'The Menace' is pretty poor in places but I was rather
sad when they split up. I'd invested a lot of time in the band, saw them
live many times and lived in their navy blue-with-white-piping skinny rib
T-shirt for the best part of a year. However, it had been on the cards for
months with Annie leaving then
returning, then professional ligger
Donna went (later forming Krautrock band
Klang),
we saw three keyboardists come and go (Abby,
Sheila and Mew)
and they even stole guitarist
Paul Jones from superb indie band
Linoleum.
They just sort've fell apart very slowly. Justine
grew more well known for her personal life (rich parents,
artist pals, relationships with Blur's
Damon Albarn
and Brett Anderson from
Suede)
than her musical output. Anyway, I wish you could recall the genius of
Elastica by watching the 'Stutter'
video but it's fell off of You Tube. Arse. Watch
Now
called Nixon,
David
and Duncan
off of Blue Mercedes
released 'Sweet Temptation' in 1990. It's a baggy
dance-rock track, borrowing heavily from The
Rolling Stones and in keeping with the indie scene at the time,
but it still stiffed big time. The video is available to watch over
Hailing
from London, David Titlow
and Duncan Millar
were pop duo
Blue Mercedes
between 1987-89. Signed with MCA Records, the pair were sort've a
poppy mix of Johnny Hates Jazz and
Jesus Jones I
suppose. Titlow
was usually seen wearing big purple shorts with the words 'Funk Ass'
printed on them (one consonant away from a mishap!), whilst
Millar played this big portable synth-thingy
with two keyboards on it. When asked to describe their sound, they would
call it 'Street Latin Wolff' (whatever that means). Their only real hit was
'I Want To Be Your Property', which climbed to 23 in October 1987
and was a small hit in the USA. Would you like to watch the
Here's
Blue! No, not 90's boy band
Blue, but the real original
Blue from the
80's, A.K.A. Dean
Collinson! Landing himself the lead in a new film called
'The Production', which was about the rise and fall of your average
northern lad having a crack at the music industry,
Dean was all set for stardom in
1987. As part of the deal, he had been asked to co-write all the songs for
the soundtrack with an Engineer/Producer called Red.
Forming a friendship the two wrote what would eventually become
Blue's debut album and when the film
project went tits up, Red
decided to tout the material round various record labels instead.
Dean had to
break in the studio and steel the master tapes, which involved chatting
up the receptionist and then lowering a bag of four 24 track master tapes
down out of the window on an old washing line to
Red who was waiting in a car below.
Within a fortnight, the handsome pair had signed a management deal with
Tony Gordon (Boy George's
manager) and were set to sign a huge record deal with Phonogram Records.
Packed off to the States to record in 1988, they worked with hit writer
Michael Jay, who had written hits for
Martika (whom he married),
Fivestar and
Eighth Wonder, and some of
Madonna's songwriting team. While they
were away, someone invented dance music back in the UK but they'd invested
too much ca$h not to carry on so 'Heaven Knows',
Blue's debut single, was released none
the less. A spectacular flop, the follow up, 'Missing These Kisses'
(here in glorious 12" version!) didn't fair much better and
Blue were
eventually dropped. A few years later, one of their old unreleased tracks,
'Better The Devil You Know', was chosen to represent Great
Britain in The Eurovision Song Contest in 1993 by none other than
Sonia! You can download
Blue's original version, along with the
other unreleased album tracks
Scooch
were formed at the tale end of Steps'
reign as the premier cheesy camp boy/girl pop troupe in October 1998. They
signed to Accolade, the pop imprint of EMI-Parlophone, and
competed in a contest to have their debut single released on BBC Saturday
morning kids show, 'Alive & Kicking'. I'm not sure who they
were competing against, but they won and saw their debut single, 'When
My Baby', reach 29 in the UK singles chart in 1999 (a year after
they formed). Natalie,
Caroline,
Russ and
David
then released their most successful single, 2000's 'More Than I Needed
To Know' (my favourite if you're asking). That made the top 5 and
things looked peachy, not least of all because Japan loved them to bits.
Landing support slots with B*witched and
Five, the group released a third single,
'The Best Is Yet To Come', backed by a couple of interesting cover
versions. Scooch did their own
interpretations of two famous TV themes from the golden age of 80s
television heaven. 'Thank You For Being A Friend', the theme
from USA Sitcom hit 'The Golden Girls', appeared on CD2 of the
package, whilst 'Maybe Tomorrow', the theme from kids classic
'The Littlest Hobo', was found on CD1 (and now here!). These gems
didn't help the single reach the top 5 like the previous release, but number
12 was quite respectable. By now, in Japan they had issued an album
due to huge demand, aptly titled 'Welcome To Planet Pop'. Back
in the UK, they released a fourth single, 'For Sure', reaching
number 15 and a re-titled version of their album, 'Four Sure'.
The album missed the top 40 and the band quietly split up. They re-grouped
for a 'Gone But Not Forgotten' night at London's G-A-Y club in
2004 and spent a lot of 2005 touring gay venues. 2007 brought
Scooch back to the pop charts with their
Eurovision Song Contest entry, 'Flying The Flag (For You)',
which didn't win the contest but charted at number 5 this month. Will there
be more from Scooch? Oh, I ruddy well
think so... Trivia! The word 'Scooch' means to move up or along a bench or
sofa. More Trivia! I went to college with David
for two years and we were in the same Theatre Studies class! Eeee,
well I never.
Emma's
British entry in The Eurovision Song Contest 1990 isn't really very
good. It's just bad, and not even good bad. She looks a bit like
Sonia, minus the ginger hair, and was
the youngest entrant at just 15 years of age. The track itself is as
Eco-friendly as they come - the World is dying, everybody recycle, that type
of thing. It's actually quite a lot like a Christian hymn disguised as a pop
song. She performed the track on 'Top Of The Pops' back in
1990, on the same show that had Madonna's
'new video' 'Vogue', Happy Mondays
singing 'Kinky Afro' and
They Might Be Giants doing 'Birdhouse
In Your Soul', just to put it into pop context. Oh, and
Anthea Turner was the presenter that
week which really is a sign of the times. 'Give A Little Love Back To
The World' came 6th place in the contest and reached number 33 in
the UK charts. Emma (full name
Emma Booth) was never seen nor heard of
again. Extending your enjoyment/torture, we bring you the '12'' Version'
from the CD single.
80's
Page Three Stunner turned popstar Samantha Fox
formed a girl band trio named SOX in
1995 for the 'A Song For Europe' contest, hoping to win and
enter The Eurovision Song Contest.
As
a teenager, self-confessed wild child Samantha
Janus left home for a life of squat-sharing, binge drinking and
taking drugs in excess. She eventually got her act together, though and
attended The Sylvia Young Theatre School in London (famously
educating the likes of Emma Bunton,
Denise Van Outen
and Dani Behr). Her first
entertainment achievement came in 1991, where she won the annual 'A
Song For Europe' competition to represent the United Kingdom in
The Eurovision Song Contest. I vaguely recall her performing the track
on Esther Rantzon's 'That's Life'
one Sunday evening. She finished equal tenth and the song, 'A
Message To Your Heart', peaked at number 30 on the UK Singles Chart.
This is the 'Extended Mix'. Watch a video of her performing the track
Never
work with kids or animals is a phrase bubbly blonde TV presenter
Michaela Strachan has obviously never
heard. She worked on kids shows 'Hey Hey It's Saturday',
'The Wide Awake Club' and 'Wac-A-Day' in the 1980's
along side telly greats like Tommy Boyd
and Timmy Mallet
and in the 1990's she became co-presenter of wildlife programme
'The Really Wild Show' with Terry Nutkins.
She also did a 4 year stint between 1988-1992 on late night music show
'The Hitman And Her'. Co-presenter and 'Hitman'
Pete must've suggested a pop career to
young Michaela as by 1989, she had a
quick crack at being a popstar and she released a lovely pair of non-hits on
Ffrr Records. First up was 'H.A.P.P.Y. Radio', originally
recorded by Edwin Starr which reached a
disappointing 62 in the UK charts. The second single, 'Take Good Care
Of My Heart', written and produced by
Ralf-Rene Maue (London Boys,
Sinitta,
Samantha Fox), came the following year but charted at a lowly 66.
This track is taken from the CD single, a mythical rarity so scarce you
could weep. The catalogue number of this single, WAC90, is obviously a
cheeky nod to her kids TV days, do we think? Anyway, aside from a cast
recording of a stage version of 'Grease' she was in and the
theme tune to pre-school tots show 'Dappledown Farm',
Michaela didn't do any more recording
and stuck to telly work - she even had a bit part in BBC sitcom
'Game On'. You can see a clip of the opening credits of 'Wac-A-Day'
Do
you remember 'The Hitman And Her'? It was that silly show on
the telly hosted by Pete 'Stock, Aitken &' Waterman
and Michaela Strachan. It was
basically a late night dance music show set in various nightclubs around the
UK and was shown in the early hours of Sunday mornings on ITV.
Thomas
Leer is best known for being 50% of 80s pop duo
Act alongside
the beautiful Claudia Brücken. He is
also a solo musician who released a number of albums and singles in his own
right. His debut single, the influential 1979 'Private Plane'
appeared on his own label, Oblique Records and is still considered a
groundbreaking release for it's collision of DIY electronics, tape loops and
hushed vocals. The hushed vocals apparently not by choice (his girlfriend
was asleep just across the room when they were recorded!). Teaming up with
Robert Rental, the industrial-ambient
hybrid album 'The Bridge', followed shortly afterwards on
Throbbing Gristle's own label. Leer
then signed to Cherry Red and released a pair of EPs ('Four
Movements' and 'Contradictions') in the early 80s. His
sound had developed into a mixture of soul, funk, electronics, industrial
and new wave by this point and he offered something more substantial in a
sea of cold synth pop and eyeliner. Impressed with his output, Arista/BMG
snapped Thomas
up and he started work on a new album, aided by a Fairlight sampler. The
resulting album was 1985s 'Scale Of Ten',
Leer's most accomplished work (I hear
glimpses of The Style Council,
Aztec Camera,
Nick Heyward and 80s
Roxy Music, to name a few) and home of
minor hits 'International', 'Heartbeat' and
'Number One'. Buy the 2004 re-issue with bonus tracks
Act
were a wonderful yet short-lived synth pop duo signed to ZTT
Records in the late 1980s. Making up the duo were studio boffin
Thomas Leer and ex-Propaganda
vocalist Claudia Brücken. Very much an
exercise in exquisite electropop, the pair also expanded their sound to
include forays into psychedelic rock (including a re-working of pill anthem
'White Rabbit' by Jefferson Starship)
and camp musical theatre. Lyrically, their songs were concerned with
decadence, glamour and the moral-free world as they saw it in the 1980's.
Their calling card was the luxurious soft pop epic 'Snobbery & Decay'
single (
We
now return to Claudia Brücken, who first
appeared in our mp3 selection about 3 years ago.
Claudia joined her first band
Haarstrauben ("hair-raising") aged just 14. Her second band, the
all-girl Topolinos lasted about 2 years
before she was invited to join a fledgling synth pop group called
Propaganda. The group moved from
Düsseldorf to London where their demo of a
Throbbing Gristle track ('Disziplin') caught the
ear of Zang Tumb Tuum Records. Propaganda
survived for 3 singles, an album and a remix collection in their original
line-up on ZTT (1984-85). Tensions within the group and with the
label (the remix album 'Wishful Thinking' was released without
their consent) led inevitably to a split. Claudia
married NME editor and ZZT co-founder
Paul Morley and eventually formed pop
outfit Act with
Thomas Leer in 1987. By 1991,
Brücken
had recorded an accomplished solo album with producer
Pascal Gabriel for Island Records
but this failed to establish her as a solo artist and she withdrew from the
music scene for most of the 90s to concentrate on raising her daughter.
Minus a few dance/trance vocal contributions and an abortive
Propaganda
reunion, it wasn't until 2004's 'Item' EP that
Claudia resurfaced musically, now as one
half of electro pop duo Onetwo
along side OMD's
Paul Humphreys. This release was swiftly
followed by 'Another Language', a quite different set of songs
in collaboration with Andrew Poppy. The
album is a collection of torch song renderings of a variety of
decade-spanning pop songs, including tracks originally by
The Associates,
Elvis Costello, Kate Bush
and Marianne Faithful. From this
beautiful album, we bring you 'Nice Dream', originally by
Radiohead. The CD is available, along
with Onetwo's recent album,
'Instead',
Previously
a member of both Bronski Beat
and The Communards,
Jimmy Somerville launched his solo
career in 1989. He chalked up several solo hits to add to his previous chart
achievements between 1989 and 1991, and he even ended up on the
Band Aid II
project at the end of 1989 with Kylie,
Sonia
and Bros. His first solo album,
1991's 'Read My Lips' included two hit cover versions of
Francoise Hardy's 'Comment Te Dire
Adieu' (with June-Miles Kingston)
and disco angel Sylvester's '(You
Make Me Feel) Mighty Real'. Even the title track pilfered the chorus
from Barbra Streisand
& Donna Summer's 'No
More Tears (Enough Is Enough)', but the album was a perfect blend of
disco, pop, dance and falsetto vocals. 'And You Never Thought That
This Could Happen To You' is taken from this album and you can pick
up a copy cheap
Banderas
was an early 90's female duo made up of Caroline
Buckley (vocals, shaved head) and Sally
Herbert (music, full compliment of hair). The latter was a member
of The Communards backing band and
Banderas were signed to the same label
as them, London Records. Mostly remembered for their top 20 hit,
'This Is Your Life', (which is their best and hence it's here)
the duo released two further singles ('She Sells', 'May
This Be Your Last Sorrow') and the accomplished Top 40 album,
'Ripe', in 1991. The group failed to build much momentum with
these later releases, despite cutting edge, radio-friendly production from
Stephen Hague (New
Order, Pet Shop Boys,
Robbie Williams) and their pop careers
were short lived. The album is actually a very good example of polished,
90's dance-pop and CD copies are quite
Jimmy
Somerville left
Bronski Beat in 1985 and hooked up with
Richard Cole to form
The Communards (adopting the name used
by the 19th century French political activists).
Cole had actually featured on Bronski
Beat's 'Aint Necessarily So', playing clarinet.
The band had their first UK hit in 1985 with the piano-based single
'You Are My World', which reached number 20. The track was also
re-released in 1987 when it charted 9 places higher at 21. In between, 1986
brought them their biggest hit with an energetic cover version of soul
classic 'Don't Leave Me This Way' (inspired by
Thelma Houston's cover of
Harold Melvin
And The Blue Notes' original), which spent
four weeks at number 1 and became the UK's biggest selling single of 1986.
Sarah Jane Morris
featured on the track as a co-vocalist and remained on hand for
backing vocals during touring commitments with a live band that featured
Dave Renwick and
Sally Herbert. The Communards
had another UK Top 10 hit with 'So Cold The Night' in
1987 and they released their second album, 'Red' the same
year. Another cover version, this time of the
Jackson 5 hit 'Never Can Say Goodbye' (Gloria
Gaynor's cover version providing the blueprint here), took
The Communards to Number 4. They split
in 1988 and Somerville set to work on a
solo career. Coles
followed his Christian leanings and, after time working as a
journalist for the 'Times Literary Supplement' and
'Catholic Herald', he became the Vicar at St Botolph's in Boston,
Lincolnshire. Triva! During his time in the 'Big Brother'
house in 2006, winner Pete
(Bennett) cited this track as
his favourite song.
After
shedding vocalists Jimmy Somerville and
John Foster,
Bronski Beat's next release would be a one-off collaboration with
the feline femme fatale of the cabaret world, Ms
Eartha Kitt. The track 'Cha Cha Heels' was actually
written for USA drag sensation Divine to
sing. It was inspired by a scene in John Waters'
1974 trashy cult comedy 'Female Trouble', in which
Divine starred
as Dawn Davenport. In the film, a flashback sequence reveals Dawn
as a spoilt child who runs away from home when her parents don't buy her a
pair of 'Cha Cha Heels' for Christmas. Unfortunately,
Divine's sudden death in 1988 meant the
group would not get to record the track with their icon. Instead, the track
was eventually recorded with Eartha and
released in 1989 when it charted at 32 in the UK singles chart. The song has
it's own Myspace page where you can listen to the original demo and
watch the video, as well as the film clip that inspired it