Ripples

It was my birthday on Wednesday. I remember that I promised I would write a short story, which I hope you might like.

Maybe it is the start of another chapter in my life, too. We'll see!

Let me know if you like it.

Ripples

Nostalgia Trip: Oldies Unlimited

Today's post is a tribute of sorts to an 80's pop music institution - at least in Britain. Who else remembers Oldies Unlimited? Here's a reminder:


Not very visual, is it? Anyway, let me set the scene for you. First, I will get my pipe and slippers and mutter something like, "You kids today, you don't know how lucky you are...".

Let's say it's the mid-eighties and you want to hear an Ultravox B-Side. No downloads, no file sharing, you have to actually buy the real record the track was on. So you go down to the local record shop and say, would I be able to order "We Came To Dance" by Ultravox? Then the hippie looking bloke (some things have not changed that much) would pull out a book the size of Cardiff and look for the catalogue number. I think those books still exist - most libraries seem to have hidden racks of them in the reference sections. Then, you would wait. About a week later you would check back and they would look at their order book - all handwritten in biro - and shake their head, nah mate sorry, couldn't get it.

Oldies Unlimited was great precisely because they had all kinds of records, you just had to go through the whole mail-order experience. This starts with them sending you a booklet with a list of their records, which they would send every month or so. When you ordered records, you had to put some extras down so you never knew exactly what you were going to get (Hey, wasn't that also how you ordered Panini stickers for your albums? I'd forgotten about the whole "provide alternatives" approach). No scans, no digital photos, just writing to some place called Telford which could have been the moon for all I knew. No credit card - just send a check or a postal order. This was while I was still at school, so placing an order was a rare treat.

On one occasion I took a chance and bought a box of 100 singles for about ten pounds, it was one of those grab-bag deals. When they came, of course they were all rubbish and I'd never heard of any of them. The only one I remember at all was "I Never Go Out In The Rain" by High Society. For some reason I've always had a soft spot for tunes that hark back to Vaudeville and the roaring twenties.

High Society - I Never Go Out In The Rain (7" Single, 1980)

Graystoke - Up On The Roof (1988)

Graystoke - Up On The Roof (1988)

I actually preferred the B-Side to this one, so here it is:

Graystoke - Perfect Is The Girl

Local Hero - With A Woman Like You (1989)

Local Hero - With A Woman Like You (7" Single, 1989)

Search Party - All Around The World (1983)

Search Party - All Around The World (7" Single, 1983)

Another "makin' bacon" production, I'm afraid, but this one is rarer than rare. An interesting short-lived group, associated with New Musik and Tony Mansfield, more information is here.

Makin' Bacon

As a busy family man, I know there are others out there who will appreciate what I mean when I mention that although I love music to bits, there are very rarely times that I get to don a pair of headphones and just listen to something. Even when I'm ripping vinyl and working with those tracks, I'm always being interrupted and I'm usually listening to the sounds through some decent but obviously limited computer speakers.

I mention this in passing because on a whim I decided to compare a 12" Single track which I had just ripped at the highest rate possible (320kbps) to the same track I previously downloaded from somewhere which was at 192kbps. It's fair to say I've been obsessed lately with trying to replace smaller bit rate music files (128kbps is so 2001!) with the best I can either locate or produce myself. I naively expected my rip to sound obviously better, and it didn't. To be perfectly honest, it crackled and spat like sunday morning bacon.

So I listened to some other rips I have done through headphones, and there are pops and clicks all over the place. I still have a lot to learn, obviously. Not all of them were that bad, I hasten to add. Much also depends on the state of the vinyl before I get my hands on it, I guess. Anyways, if you find some pops and clicks on rips you find here, I apologize in advance. I've just got my hands on a few great new singles so I'll be posting those this week.

MFL Radio

For no particular reason, I thought I would share a few different tracks today.

The Silencers - The Art of Self Deception
(from Dance to the Holy Man, 1991)

The Rave-Ups - If It Was (A Matter of Mind)
(from Chance, 1990)

Eleanor McEvoy - A Glass Unkissed
(from What's Following Me, 1996)

Waves On Waves - Better Car
(from Waves On Waves, 2007)

Back In The Neighbourhood

Last year, when MFL turned one, I reported that my most popular album download was Johnny Logan's 1987 album Hold Me Now. A year later, I have to report that Johnny retains the top spot, with an average of nearly one new download every day. I think he may want to re-release this one. However, his is not the most popular post in terms of comments. Moving from Ireland to Scotland, that distinction belongs to Scottish songbirds His Latest Flame who have consistently received more comments than anyone else, the post being here and anyone looking for the album In The Neighbourhood may like to know I have now uploaded the album at 320kbps to my rapidshare account following many requests to make it available again.

Clearly the girls are remembered with a lot of fondness, and while I don't have a lot more material by them, here's an additional B-Side:

His Latest Flame - Come On, Come On

The Bats - The Guilty Office (2009)

For my second post on the subject of randomness in my music collection, let me present The Guilty Office, by New Zealand band The Bats.

Every other weekend or so I take my stepson's daughter Shyanna, who is now 19 months old, back to her home in Lebanon, Tennessee. Because my route takes me through Nashville, I've got into the habit of taking her with me to two music and book stores in Nashville I like to check out on a regular basis - McKays and The Great Escape's outlet store.

Recently, The Great Escape has been heavily advertising a large stock of CD's on sale for a dollar each. Apparently the recession and online downloads has exploded their inventory. I'm constantly picking up bargains - last time I found Swimmer by The Big Dish on CD and on this trip I also found Ish by 1927, another 80's rarity.

Like most 19 month babies, Shyanna likes to help herself to things she can see at her eye level as I wheel her stroller around (You may have gathered here folks that I'm something of a renaissance man). She will pull a book of the shelf, or make a grab at a record. Usually I keep her out of the way of things in case of damage, but when it comes to dollar CD's I figure she needs to have some fun too. I'll let her grab one or two, which usually end up falling on the floor after she has looked at them for a while. On this last trip I noticed she had been holding on to one in particular that caught my eye, a very recent release by New Zealand indie pop darlings The Bats. I liked the cover, and added it to my small pile. I bought five albums altogether, including this one.

The Guilty Office is a great little record, which I think will continue to grow on me. As it's so new, I'm not going to post rips here. You can download a free track from Amazon if you are in the US. Also, Parasol Records has two mp3's available so here are the links:

The Bats - Countersign
The Bats - Castle Lights

If you are a fan of The Go-Betweens (and who isn't?) then you just have to check out probably my favourite track "Later On That Night" which is run a close second by the appropriately subdued title track, "The Guilty Office". But honestly, it's all good.

We'll have to see what treasure Shyanna might uncover next time. Nice one, kid!

Official Homepage

Hitlist - Good Evening Yugoslavia (1986)

Hitlist was a short-lived band with the following members: John Hoare (Guitars, Vocals), Horace Hornblower (Saxes, Clarinet), Dave McIntosh (Drums, Percussion), Gordon Riddell (Vocals, Guitar, Percussion), Duv Walker (Keyboards) and Neil Waterman (Vocals, Guitar). Their most well-known track was the dancefloor orientated "Into The Fire" which was released in 1985 on Virgin Records. The full length album Good Evening Yugoslavia followed in 1986. There was one more single released from the album, "OK For You", but that was all.

Hitlist - Good Evening Yugoslavia (1986)

1. Showbiz
2. Party Lights
3. Sunday Is For Sleeping
4. Mr Mercenary
5. Into The Fire
6. Good Intentions
7. Anticipation
8. Nothing To Lose
9. OK For You
10. Further On

Download

More trivia: apparently the single "Into The Fire" was released on the same week as the Bradford fire disaster and Virgin pulled the single.

Gordon Riddell sadly died a few years ago at the age of 46.

Additional tracks on the singles were "Total Isolation" and "High Treason".

Underworld - Change The Weather (1989)

Underworld - Change The Weather (from the album Change The Weather, 1989)

I often pick up CD's from odd places that I think might be rare or unusual, even if I don't necessarily plan on keeping the album in my collection. An example this week was when I bought the Underworld album Change The Weather for three bucks. Although not particularly valuable, it is fairly hard to find here in the US. I was familiar with Underworld in the 90's, of course, but I was surprised to discover just how melodic and accessible this earlier album is, from beginning to end. The title track is also the lead track, and sets the tone nicely.

Link-O-Rama

The end of August is always a weird time for me. I split with my first wife over the August bank holiday weekend a few years back and then had my divorce finalized a year later almost to the day. This was also at the time when Princess Diana died and everyone was just in a state of shock anyway.

But time moves on, and I was very happy to realize that the end of August is also my blog anniversary and I can celebrate two years of holding court in cyberspace with nothing but a pair of Snoopy PJ's and a box of compact discs records.

Even though I moan and grumble a bit, I really do appreciate the long term bloggers I have made friends with over the last two years. Speaking of which, and PJ's as well, I was a bit stunned to notice that I have never bothered to link back to one of my longest serving contributors, the weirdly wonderful Barely Awake In Frog Pyjamas, so I am happy to correct that today. I also get to post a picture of a frog:

Without a doubt, that is the most self-satisfied amphibian I have ever seen. Perhaps a Princess was coming down the path at the time?

You would think with my vast store of musical knowledge I could come up with something better than this, but no, I am not going to post the-oh-so-obvious Peter Gabriel here.

Ed Kilbourne - Frog Kissing

The Divine Comedy - The Frog Princess

Also want to mention two other favorites - there's a lot of good stuff at Diggin' In The Vault right now and I'd also recommend RetroUniverse for a decent stroll down memory lane.

It's All Geek To Me

After a flurry of posts with little actual written content, I decided it was time for a round up of things going on in MFL country. Fasten your seat belt.

I'm not quite sure why I have such a soft spot for the RAH Band. I mean, most of their singles mine pretty much the same sonic territory, they all sound a bit dated, and of course there is really no image to speak of. Maybe that's the point. The "band" is no more than the images on their stylized record covers and inoffensive electrpop fluff. Having said that, I was curiously proud to notice that several of the earlier albums are now included on iTunes and Amazon MP3, including the classic Mystery. I'll have to put up one of those Amazon widget-e-bob thingies. Anyway, the other comment I wanted to make was that while looking for info on A Bigger Splash, a band I posted about recently, I discovered a French band also called A Bigger Splash, who have recorded a delightful downtempo version of "Clouds Across The Moon", a RAH Band classic. I'm not going to post it, because everyone can hear it at Myspace here and then buy it yourselves here if you so choose. How do I know they're French? Well, there's the album cover for one thing... (NSFW, kiddies!!!)

Yeah, no wonder I didn't see it at Wal-Mart.

So, what else is new. Well, one thing that annoys me about living stateside is that I don't have a clue about British telly. I'm still watching League of Gentlemen and Jonathan Creek reruns from ten years ago. I recently discovered That Mitchell And Webb Look, which I thought was pretty funny. The job interview sketch has me in stitches every time.

Remember that (fairly lame) movie Phenomenon with John Travolta? The one where he turns into a genius because he has cancer or some (yeah okay that's enough "written content" - Ed. Sniiiiiiiip)

Naive - Carry On (1985)

Naive - Carry On (12" Single, 1985)