Starsailor - Let It Shine (2008)

Bassist James Stelfox and drummer Ben Byrne had been playing together in Warrington, Cheshire for a number of years, having met whilst studying on a music course at Wigan and Leigh College, and they formed a band together in 2000. When their regular singer fell ill, they recruited young Chorley singer and songwriter James Walsh from a school choir, being impressed by his Jeff Buckley-influenced singing style. The band, then named Waterface, had tried a number of guitarists before they asked long-time friend Barry Westhead to join on keyboards, with his arrival being heralded as the most significant event in the band's formation. Walsh also took up the guitar, following frustration over not finding a musician right for the group, and the band started to build up a reputation, changing their name to Starsailor, after the 1970 album by Tim Buckley. A journalist from NME saw a gig in 2000 and gave the band a glowing review, and their performance at the Glastonbury Festival added to the band's reputation, leading to a bidding war among UK record companies, and as a relative of one band member worked for EMI, the band signed to them in 2000. Their first single 'Fever' was released in early 2001, and the song plus its two b-sides 'Love Is Here' and 'Coming Down' were cut from a demo recording session in mid-2000, and all three tracks went on to feature on Starsailor's first album 'Love Is Here', albeit in re-recorded form. Their second single 'Good Souls' was released in April 2001 and featured a cover of Van Morrison's 'The Way Young Lovers Do' on the flip, and at the same time the band were recording their debut album in Rockfield Studios in Wales. The album came out in August 2001, and an extended version of 'Alcoholic' appeared as the third single to be taken from it, with its number ten chart position remaining the band's second highest placing to date. 'Love Is Here' reached number 2 in the UK album charts in October 2001, and the band ended the year by winning the "Brightest New Hope" award at the NME Awards. 

For their second album 'Silence Is Easy' the band teamed up with Phil Spector ,in what ended up being his final production work before his conviction of murder in 2009 and his death in 2021. However, the collaboration was short-lived, with sessions at London's Abbey Road proving that Spector was just as difficult to work with he was reputed to be, and only the tracks 'Silence Is Easy' and 'White Dove' made it to the album. The band co-produced seven of the other tracks with Danton Supple, while former Radiohead and The Stone Roses producer John Leckie was brought in to oversee the recording of 'Shark Food'. The first single was 'Silence Is Easy', which achieved the band's highest UK chart position at number 9, and three more singles from the record followed, the second of which 'Born Again' had evolved from a b-side to 2002's 'Poor Misguided Fool'. The album charted well, but sales were sluggish in comparison to the band's first album. EMI allowed the band plenty of time to record their follow-up, having targeted producer Rob Schnapf to produce it, and the group relocated to Los Angeles to record. Six possible titles were mooted ('Faith, Hope, Love'/'Here I Go'/'Ashes' or 'In the Crossfire'/'I Do Not Know'/'Counterfeit Life'), but the band eventually settled for 'On The Outside', a statement of their feeling of their position in the music industry. The sound was different from the previous two releases, being far heavier than its predecessors, and the recording was all done to tape, with no use being made of editing software such as Pro Tools to perfect the recordings. The album was released in October 2005, and the first single taken from it was 'In the Crossfire', released by Artists Addiction Records in the USA on 22 August. Critics raved about the release, with many citing it as a return to form, but despite this the album only charted at number 13. Two more singles were taken from the album, with 'This Time' and 'Keep Us Together' following 'In The Crossfire', but sales were disappointing, and 'Keep Us Together' became their first single not to reach the UK Top 40. 

The band played numerous festivals in the summer of 2006, including the V Festival, and they also supported the Rolling Stones on their 'Bigger Bang' Tour in 2006 and 2007. In the autumn of 2006 they toured North America, playing both headlining shows and supporting James Blunt, and in January 2007 they undertook their first trip to Russia, playing in the B2 Club of Moscow. Starsailor started to play various gigs during the months while they were recording their fourth album, appearing with The Killers in November 2007, and playing at the Isle of Wight Festival on the last day, with The Police headlining. On 16 October 2008 it was officially confirmed that the new album would be called 'All The Plans' and was to be released in March 2009, and in December the 'Boy In Waiting EP' was released as a free digital download for those who pre-ordered the deluxe edition of 'All the Plans', containing three tracks that didn't make the album. 'All The Plans' debuted at Number 26 in the UK Album Charts on 14 March 2009, while 'Tell Me It's Not Over' spent one week in the UK Singles Chart, reaching No. 73. Towards the end of 2009 Walsh began to work on a solo project, and in November 2009 it was officially announced by The Lancashire Evening Post that Starsailor was on hold, and that Walsh was concentrating on his solo career. Starsailor did reform in 2014, playing support slots at the Summer In The City festival on 10 and 11 July at Castlefield Bowl, headlined by Pixies and James, and touring throughout 2015 and 2016, while in 2017 they released 'Listen To Your Heart', their first new music in almost two years. Their fifth album 'All This Life' was released in September 2017 through the band's new record label, Cooking Vinyl, and in December 2021 they announced that they were to release an expanded 20th anniversary edition of their album 'Love Is Here', as well as going out on tour to support it, so this is the perfect time to collect together all their non-album b-sides, including a Live Lounge cover of a Sugababes classic, and the 'Boy In Waiting' EP, to remind us of one of the best bands to appear on the indie scene in the early 2000's.   

Track listing
  
01 The Way Young Lovers Do (b-side of 'Goodsouls' 2001)
02 From A Whisper To A Scream (b-side of 'Lullaby' 2001)
03 Let It Shine (b-side of 'Alcoholic' 2001)
04 Grandma's Hands (b-side of 'Alcoholic' 2001)
05 Hot Burrito #2 (b-side of 'Poor Misguided Fool' 2002)
06 At The End Of A Show (b-side of 'Born Again' 2003)
07 She Understands (b-side of 'Silence Is Easy' 2003)
08 Could You Be Mine (b-side of 'Silence Is Easy' 2003)
09 A Message (b-side of 'Four To The Floor' 2003)
10 Always (b-side of 'In The Crossfire' 2005)
11 Rise Up (b-side of 'Keep Us Together' 2006)
12 Believe Me (b-side of 'This Time' 2006)
13 Push The Button (Live Lounge version) (b-side of 'This Time' 2006)
14 In Their World (b-side of 'Tell Me It's Not Over' 2008)
15 Do You Believe In Love (from the 'Boy In Waiting' EP 2008)
16 Darling Be Home Soon (from the 'Boy In Waiting' EP 2008)

17 Black Limousine (from the 'Boy In Waiting' EP 2008)

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - All Lights Fucked On the Hairy Amp Drooling (1994)

A year or so ago I posted a compilation from Godspeed You! Black Emperor which got some fans quite excited, as the post was titled after part of the name of their legendary cassette release from 1994, where they dubbed 33 copies and then discarded it from their catalogue. Those excited fans thought that I'd managed to locate one of those tapes, and I had to disappoint them by admitting that the post was just a collection of rarities that I'd put together, and that it was unlikely that the tape would ever see the light of day. How wrong I was, as early this year a copy was leaked on 4Chan, and in response to that the band themselves have made the whole tape available on Bandcamp! They are only asking $6Canadian for a download, and you can also hear the whole thing on the site, but as it is supposed to be nothing like their later work you might want to sample it first, and so give it a listen here, where all the tracks have been split out rather than just being two side-long pieces as it is on Bandcamp, and if you like it then spare $6Canadian to support the band. For an in depth analysis of the tape, this site has everything you could possibly want to know about it.

Track listing

Side A

01 Drifting Intro Open 

02 Shot Thru Tubes

03 Three Three Three (Pt. I)

04 Three Three Three (Pt. II)

05 Three Three Three (Pt. III)

06 When All The Furnaces Exploded

07 When All The Furnaces Exploded (cont.)

08 Beep

09 Hush

10 Son Of A Diplomat, Daughter Of A Politician

11 Glencairn 14 / $13.13

12 Loose The Idiot Dogs

13 Diminishing Shine 

14 Diminishing Shine (cont.)

15 Random Luvly Moncton Blue(s)

16 Dadmomdaddy

17 Untitled (Dadmomdaddy cont.)

Side B

18 333 Frames Per Second Intro

19 333 Frames Per Second

20 Revisionist Alternatif Wounds To The Hairkut Hit Head 

21 Ditty For Moya

22 Buried Ton 

23 And The Hairy Guts Shine

24 And The Hairy Guts Shine (cont.) / Hoarding

25 Deterior 23

26 All Angels Gone

27 Deterior 17

28 Deterior Three

29 Devil's In The Church

30 No Job / Dress Like Shit

31 Perfumed Pink Corpses From The Lips Of Ms. Celine Dion

Lady Gaga - Team Love Child (2007)

Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta was born on 28 March 1986 in Manhattan, New York City, to an upper middle class Catholic family of Italian ancestry. From the age of eleven she attended the Convent of the Sacred Heart, a private all-girls Roman Catholic school, where she considered herself a misfit, and was mocked for "being either too provocative or too eccentric". She began playing the piano at age four, taking piano lessons and practicing through her childhood, and the lessons taught her to create music by ear, which she preferred over reading sheet music. As a teenager she played at open mic nights, and also enjoyed acting, playing the lead roles of Adelaide in the play Guys and Dolls, and Philia in the play A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum at Regis High School, and this led to her studying method acting at the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute for ten years. In 2003, at age 17, she gained early admission to Collaborative Arts Project 21, a music school at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where she studied music, and improved her songwriting skills by writing essays on art, religion, social issues and politics, including a thesis on pop artists Spencer Tunick and Damien Hirst. In 2005 she withdrew from school during the second semester of her second year to focus on her music career, and recorded two songs with hip-hop artist Melle Mel for an audio book accompanying Cricket Casey's children's novel 'The Portal In The Park', and she also formed a band called the SGBand with some friends from NYU, playing  gigs around New York and becoming a fixture of the downtown Lower East Side club scene. After the 2006 Songwriters Hall of Fame New Songwriters Showcase at The Cutting Room in June, talent scout Wendy Starland recommended her to music producer Rob Fusari, who collaborated with her and helped her to develop her songs and compose new material. Fusari and Gaga established a company called Team Love Child LLC to promote her career, with the name coming from Gaga's description of herself as being the hypothetical lovechild of David Bowie and Jerry Lee Lewis. The duo recorded and produced electropop tracks, and posted many of them to her MySpace or PureVolume pages for a couple of months at a time, as well as sending them to music industry executives. Joshua Sarubin, the head of A&R at Def Jam Recordings, responded positively, and after approval from his boss, Gaga was signed to Def Jam in September 2006, although she was dropped from the label three months later. Having initially focused on avant-garde electronic dance music, Gaga began to incorporate pop melodies and the glam rock style of David Bowie and Queen into her songs, and despite splitting up, Fusari continued to develop the songs he had created with her, sending them to the producer and record executive Vincent Herbert, and in November 2007 Herbert signed her to his Streamline Records label, which was an imprint of the newly established Interscope Records. Gaga later credited Herbert as the man who discovered her, but that was certainly helped in no small part by Fusari's efforts on her behalf, and so this album celebrates their collaboration as Team Love Child, with seventeen of the songs that they wrote and recorded together in 2006 and 2007. 

Track listing

01 Dirty Ice Cream 
02 Oh Well
03 Glitter And Grease
04 Fancy Pants
05 Reel Cool
06 Shake Ur Kitty
07 Musicland (interlude)
08 Sexy Ugly
09 Blueberry Kisses
10 RetroPhysical
11 Fooled Me Again
12 Kandy Life
13 Love Sick Girl
14 We Are Plastic
15 Let Love Down
16 Filthy Pop
17 Rockshow

Slash - ...and on guitar (2008)

Saul Hudson was born in Stoke-on-Trent on July 23, 1965, and was immersed in music from the outset. His father, Anthony Hudson, was an artist who created album covers for musicians such as Neil Young and Joni Mitchell, while his mother Ola J. Hudson was an African-American fashion designer and costumier from the United States, whose clients included David Bowie (whom she also dated), Ringo Starr, and Janis Joplin. During his early years, he was raised by his father and paternal grandparents in Stoke-on-Trent while his mother moved back to her native United States to work in Los Angeles, and when he was around five years old, they both joined his mother in Los Angeles. Following his parents' separation in 1974, Hudson became a self-described "problem child", living with his mother, but often being sent to live with his beloved maternal grandmother whenever she had to travel for her job. He sometimes accompanied his mother to work, where he met several film and music stars, and was given the nickname "Slash" by actor Seymour Cassel, because he was "always in a hurry, zipping around from one thing to another". In 1979, Slash decided to form a band with his friend Steven Adler, and although the band never materialized, it prompted him to take up an instrument, and since Adler had designated himself the role of guitarist, Slash decided to learn how to play bass. Equipped with a one-string flamenco guitar given to him by his grandmother, he began taking classes with guitar teacher Robert Wolin, but during his first lesson he decided to switch from bass to guitar after hearing Wolin play 'Brown Sugar' by the Rolling Stones. In 1981 he joined his first band Tidus Sloan, and a couple of years later he reunited with Alder and formed Road Crew, named after the Motörhead song '(We Are) The Road Crew'. He placed an advertisement in a newspaper looking for a bassist, and received a response from Duff McKagan. They auditioned a number of singers, including one-time Black Flag vocalist Ron Reyes, but they couldn't find one that suited them and so the band broke up the following year. Slash and Adler then joined  local group Hollywood Rose, which featured singer Axl Rose and guitarist Izzy Stradlin, and after that he played with Black Sheep, and also unsuccessfully auditioned for glam-metallers Poison. 

In June 1985, Slash was asked by Axl Rose and Izzy Stradlin to join their new band Guns N' Roses, along with Duff McKagan and Steven Adler, replacing founding members Tracii Guns, Ole Beich and Rob Gardner, respectively, and they began playing Los Angeles-area nightclubs‍ ‌such as the Whisky a Go Go, The Roxy, and The Troubadour‍. Before one of the shows in 1985, Slash shoplifted a black felt top hat and a Native American-style silver concho belt from two stores on Melrose Avenue in Los Angeles, combining them to create a piece of custom headwear which would become his trademark. After being scouted by several major record labels, the band signed with Geffen Records in March 1986, and they released their debut album 'Appetite For Destruction' in 1987, eventually selling over 28 million copies worldwide. However, as their success grew, so did interpersonal tensions within the band, and in 1989, during a show as opening act for the Rolling Stones, Axl Rose threatened to leave the band if certain members didn't stop "dancing with Mr. Brownstone," a reference to their song of the same name about heroin use. Slash was among those who promised to clean up, but the following year Adler was fired from the band because of his heroin addiction, being replaced by Matt Sorum of The Cult. In May 1991, the band embarked on the two-and-a-half-year-long Use Your Illusion Tour, and the following September they released the long-awaited albums 'Use Your Illusion I' and 'Use Your Illusion II', which debuted at No. 2 and No. 1 respectively on the U.S. chart. In the four years since the release of 'Appetite For Destruction', Slash had gained an enviable reputation as a guitarist, and so it was no surprise that he was asked to guest on albums from other artists, and one of the first that he accepted was an invitation from Iggy Pop, adding his guitar to Pop's 1990 'Brick By Brick' album, followed swiftly with a guest appearance on Bob Dylan's 'Under The Red Sky' album (even though Dylan later cut his solo), and collaborations with Alice Cooper, Motörhead, Michael Jackson, and Spinal Tap, and even though Spinal Tap don't take themselves too seriously, Slash pulled out all the stops for his contribution to their 'Break Like The Wind'. In November 1991 Izzy Stradlin abruptly left the band, and was replaced by Gilby Clarke of Candy and Kill for Thrills, and after the Use Your Illusion Tour had ended in 1993, the band released 'The Spaghetti Incident?', a cover album of mostly punk songs, which proved less successful than its predecessors. Slash then wrote several songs for what would have become the follow-up album to the 'Use Your Illusion' double set, but they were rejected by Rose and McKagan, and so with the band's failure to collaborate resulting in no album being recorded, Slash announced in October 1996 that he was no longer a part of Guns N' Roses. 

In 1994 he added his guitar to band-mates Gilby Clarke's solo album, and then formed Slash's Snakepit, a side project that featured his Guns N' Roses bandmates Matt Sorum and Gilby Clarke on drums and rhythm guitar respectively, as well as Alice in Chains' Mike Inez on bass and Jellyfish's Eric Dover on vocals. Their 1995 album 'It's Five O'Clock Somewhere' included Slash's rejected material that was intended for Guns N' Roses, and was critically praised for ignoring the then-popular conventions of alternative music. Faring well on the charts, the band toured in support of the album, before disbanding in 1996. Slash then toured for two years with the blues rock cover band Slash's Blues Ball, as well as adding his guitar to albums from Sammy Hagar and Insane Clown Posse, before deciding to regroup Slash's Snakepit in 1999, with Rod Jackson on vocals, Ryan Roxie on rhythm guitar, Johnny Griparic on bass, and Matt Laug on drums. Their second album 'Ain't Life Grand' was released in October 2000 through Koch Records, but it didn't sell as well as the band's previous release, and its critical reception was mixed. In 2002 Slash reunited with Duff McKagan and Matt Sorum for a Randy Castillo tribute concert, and realizing that they still had the chemistry of their days in Guns N' Roses, they decided to form a new band together. Izzy Stradlin was initially involved, but left after the others decided to find a lead singer; a task that took many months listening to demo tapes, before former Stone Temple Pilots vocalist Scott Weiland got the Velvet Revolver gig. In 2003 they released their first single 'Set Me Free' followed by their debut album 'Contraband' in June 2004, which crashed in at No. 1 on the U.S. chart, eventually selling two million copies. In July 2007 Velvet Revolver released their second album 'Libertad', and embarked on a second tour, but during a show in March 2008 Weiland announced to the audience that it would be the band's final tour, following which he was fired from the band, with Slash insisting "chemical issues" had led to his departure. Despite the loss of their singer, the band did not officially disband, and in early 2010 they began writing new songs and auditioning new singers. By January 2011 they'd recorded nine demos, and was reportedly due to make a decision on their singer, but Slash eventually admitted that they had been unable to find a suitable vocalist and that Velvet Revolver would go on hiatus for the next few years while its members focused on other projects. So that's the perfect place to end this collection of Slash's extra-curricular work between 1990 and 2008, so settle down and listen to some superb rock guitar on a wide variety of genres from a stellar group of artists. 

Track listing

Disc One
01 Home (from 'Brick By Brick' by Iggy Pop 1990)
02 Wiggle Wiggle (from 'Under The Red Sky by Bob Dylan 1990)
03 Always On The Run (from 'Mama Said' by' Lenny Kravitz 1991)
04 Hey Stoopid (from 'Hey Stoopid' by Alice Cooper 1991)

05 Give In To Me (from 'Dangerous' by Michael Jackson 1991)

06 Break Like The Wind (from 'Break Like The Wind' by Spinal Tap 1992)

07 You Better Run  (from 'March Ör Die' by Motörhead 1992)

08 I Don't Live Today (from 'Stone Free: A Tribute To Jimi Hendrix' by Various Artists 1993)

09 Tie Your Mother Down (from 'Resurrection' by Brian May & Cozy Powell 1993)

10 Hold Out For Love (from 'Colour Of Your Dreams' by Carole King 1993)

11 Believe In Me (from 'Believe In Me' by Duff McKagan 1993)

Disc Two

01 Cure Me...Or Kill Me... (from 'Pawnshop Guitars' by Gilby Clarke 1994)

02 Where You Belong (from 'Carmine Appice's Guitar Zeus' by Carmine Appice 1995)

03 Communication Breakdown (from 'Stairway To Heaven' by Various Artists 1997)

04 Moja Mi Corazón (from 'Azabache' by Marta Sánchez 1997) 

05 Little White Lie (from 'Marching To Mars' by Sammy Hagar 1997)

06 Hall Of Illusions (from 'The Great Milenko' by Insane Clown Posse 1997)

07 Human (from 'Human' by Rod Stewart 2001)

08 Over, Under, Sideways, Down (from 'Birdland' by The Yardbirds 2003) 

09 The Blame Game (from 'Hollywood Zen' by Matt Sorum 2003)

08 Street Child (from 'Street Child' by Elan 2003)
09 Mustang Nismo (from the soundtrack to the film 'The Fast And The Furious: Tokyo Drift' 2006)
10 Gioca Con Me (from 'Il Mondo Che Vorrei' by Vasco 2008)

Chris Rainbow - The Drum Drops (1982)

Christopher James Harley was born on 18 November 1946, and before he embarked on a career as a musician he worked in a variety of occupations, including doing promotional work for the band Dream Police, contributing cartoons to Glasgow underground paper The Word, and studying at the Society for Psychic Research. In 1972 and 1973, he was involved in a band called Hopestreet, recording two singles, 'Iron Sky' and 'Wait Until Tomorrow', and following this he recorded his first music as Christopher Rainbow with the singles 'Give Me What I Cry For' and 'Solid State Brain' in 1974, and 'Mr. Man' and 'Gimme Just A Little Beat Of Your Heart' in 1975. He adopted the stage name Christopher Rainbow to avoid confusion with Steve Harley, who was at the peak of his fame at the time, taking the name from a television reporter that he saw on TV. Under that name he released three solo albums, with the debut 'Home Of The Brave' coming out in 1975, followed by 'Looking Over My Shoulder' in 1977, and 'White Trails' in 1979. In his early days he received wide recognition for his music through the support of Kenny Everett, then on Capital Radio in London, and who featured his music extensively, and in return Rainbow made jingles for Capital, some of which have since surfaced on archive releases. In 1979 he began his long association with The Alan Parsons Project, recording on many of their albums from 'Eve' through to Parsons' 1999 solo album 'The Time Machine', and he also appeared on other associated works of Parsons, such as Panarama's 'Can This Be Paradise' in 1982, and Eric Woolfson and Alan Parsons' 'Freudiana' in 1990. He also aided Jon Anderson with vocal work on his 'Song Of Seven' album in 1980 and on 'Animation' in 1983. In the early 1980's, Rainbow joined Camel, appearing on the albums 'The Single Factor' and 'Stationary Traveller', and performing with them on their 1984 tour, recordings of which were released as the album 'Pressure Points'. 

Throughout his career he contributed vocal work on a large variety of albums, from artists like Blonde On Blonde, Max Middleton, Killdozer, Elaine Page, Culture Club, and Toyah Willcox. He also worked as a producer under his birth name of Chris Harley, in particular with the Scottish Gaelic rock group Runrig, starting with the single 'Loch Lomond' in 1982, and then on their albums, from 'Heartland' in 1985, through to 'In Search Of Angels' in 1999. He built and ran the Vital Spark Music Studio on the Isle of Skye, where several artists including Donnie Munro, Blair Douglas, and KT Tunstall recorded albums. Considering his long and hugely varied career in music, Rainbow is a criminally under-rated artist, and it wasn't until his death of Parkinson's Disease on 22 February 2015 that his career was belatedly lauded in the music press. Tributes appeared from Alan Parsons, Runrig, and Andy Latimer of Camel, but I think the respect with which he was held in the music industry was brought home by the fact that on hearing of Rainbow's death, Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys posted on his official website, "I felt really bad to hear about Chris Rainbow passing away, he was too young. I remember in the late 1970's, a friend played 'Dear Brian' for me and I was touched and honored by it. It was a beautiful track. I wish the best for Chris's family and friends. Love & Mercy, Brian." In the early 80's Rainbow recorded many demo's for what could have been a come-back album, but they remained unreleased until an archive release in 2000, which also included early demos for his first album, and one of those Capital Radio jingles. For this album I've just taken the songs that were recorded between 1980 and 1982, some of which were labelled as 'demo for 4th album', and others as being 'demo for 'The Drum Drops'', but as I can find no information at all what this refers to, I'm going to assume it was the title of that fourth album, which you can now hear in all its glory. 

Track listing

01 Run Away 
02 Where Are You
03 Summer! 
04 Television 
05 Give A Little More 
06 Looking In Your Window 
07 Giving It Up 
08 Kaleidoscope

09 Young Love
10 Fly Away 
11 Who Cares

Nicki Minaj - Go Get 'Em Girl (2010)

When Nicki Minaj started out in the music business she rapped in a quartet called The Hoodstars composed of Lou$tar (son of "Bowlegged Lou"), Safaree Samuels (Scaff Beezy) and 7even Up, and in 2004 the group recorded the entrance song for WWE Diva Victoria, 'Don't Mess With', which was featured on the compilation album 'ThemeAddict: WWE The Music, Vol.6'. After she left the group she uploaded songs on her Myspace profile, sending several of them to people in the music industry, and she was signed to a 180-day contract with Brooklyn label Dirty Money Entertainment. Her first mixtape 'Playtime Is Over' came out in  July 5, 2007, followed by 'Sucka Free' in April 2008, and lastly 'Beam Me Up Scotty' appeared in April 2009. One of its tracks 'I Get Crazy' reached number 20 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Rap Songs chart, and that helped her to be signed to Lil Wayne's Young Money Entertainment, with her debut album 'Pink Friday' being released on Cash Money Records in 2010. Over those early years of recording and releasing mixtapes, Minaj had taped a lot of extra songs which weren't used, with 2009 and 2010 being a particularly prolific time for her, and she could easily have released one last mixtape in 2010 before 'Pink Friday' came out, so as she didn't, I've taken the best of those songs from 2009/2010 and put it together for her. 

Track listing

01 Chocolate Legs (feat. Eric Benet) 

02 That's What's Up

03 Fuck U Silly (feat. Cassie)

04 New York Minute (feat. French Montana) 

05 Girlfriend 

06 Bring It Back

07 Go Get 'Em Girl        

08 Gettin' Paid 

09 Saxon

10 Everywhere We Go (feat. Lil Kim) 

11 Here And There (Girl You Bad)

12 Make A Baby  

13 I Love My Range Rover

14 Zonin' 

15 Love Me

16 We Miss You

17 Top Of The World  

The Mixers - Speed, Madness, Flying Saucers... (1985)

I've been going through my old cassette collection again, and found this tape that I used to play all the time back in the 80's. The Mixers were a Glasgow neo-psyche band who had a nice line in 60's influenced psychedelic indie pop, and actually had their 'Never Find Time' appear on Dan Treacy's Whaam! Records compilation 'All For Art... And Art For All' in 1984, before it was re-issued by Vinyl Japan as a single in 1998. They were formed in 1980 when 15-year-old singer-songwriter-guitarists Dannie Vallely and Ulric Kennedy replaced departing lead guitarist Jim Bell in a group comprising Grant Morrison on rhythm guitar and Ron Bookless on bass. They were eventually joined by Mikel Angus on drums, and adopting their name from Anthony Burgess' novel 'A Clockwork Orange', the band set about creating melodic pop cross-fertilised with the supercharged delivery of the punk era. This tape was issued by Acid Tapes in 1985, and I added a couple of extra songs to my copy, by The Cloud Merchants and The Ochre 5, who began life as a bedroom project by Dannie Vallely, and employed the vocal talents of his sister Joanne Vallely. The tape was sent to Alan McGee who, predictably, loved it, and weeks later The Jesus and Mary Chain turned up on Joanne's doorstep in East Kilbride demanding the band join them for a Creation Records launch night in Glasgow. A band was formed for the event featuring Dannie Vallely (guitar/keyboards), with ex-Mixers Grant Morrison (rhythm guitar) and Ulric Kennedy (bass), and with Pete Haggerty on drums, but they only stayed together long enough for that one gig. Ochre 5's 'Virtual Sham' is a stunning song which deserves to be included here, and to round off the album we have those two tracks from the Whaam! Records compilation. 

Track listing

01 No One Loves You At All 

02 Now

03 Pictures Of You

04 Dear Sister, Love

05 Big Store

06 The Greenroom

07 Whisper Soft

08 Strangest Play

09 Bitter Sun

10 Closer

11 Virtual Sham (Ochre 5)

12 Things We Used To Say (The Cloud Merchants)

13 Never Find Time

14 Love Hurts

The Bee Gees - Acoustic Hits Live (2001)

Mike is back from a well-deserved break in the good ole US of A, and his latest effort is a collection from a band that very rarely let you down, The Bee Gees. Over to Mike... 

I'm back. and this time around I have an acoustic concert that I created of the Bee Gees Greatest Hits - Live. Who'da thunk it but it turns out that there have been a ton of acoustic performances made available of the group playing acoustically since they formed back in 1960. And I listened to everyone! But before I could start I had to set up strict guidelines to pick which of the many versions out there that I would include. My criteria was very, very strict! I based it on one single note. If they hit that note strong then the whole show was a keeper. If not, and their voices cracked or wavered even the tiniest bit, I ditched the whole show! We all know the note… it's the one everybody uses when they are “attempting“ to demonstrate what makes the Bee Gees, well…the Bee Gees. I said “attempting to hit”, as no one ever hits that note, it's just too damn high! The note is in 'How Do You Mend A Broken Heart' and it happens just after the first verse and before the chorus. Trust me, it's high! With that said, this acoustic concert has a bunch of great soundboard sources including the VH1 Storytellers concert from 1990, two fantastic unplugged shows from 1981 and 1983, a couple of performances from Las Vegas in 1997 and a wonderful A&E Live By Request presentation from 2001. Their harmonies during each are stellar and their performances are almost flawless. I say almost because in one place... well, youʼll hear on track 24. Besides that one rare live flub (always fun to see people are human), I've also added as bonus cuts two incredible extras. One is a writing session where the guys are just sitting around a piano working out the details of one of their classics 'How Deep Is Your Love?', and the other is well, just indescribable...at least in the presence of ladies and all the good folk who are my fans. So here it is. I hope you enjoy my version of an Album I Wish Existed: The Bee Gees Acoustic Greatest Hits - Live!

Track listing

01 I've Got To Get A Message To You
02 To Love Somebody
03 I Started A Joke
04 Lonely Days
05 How Do You Mend A Broken Heart?
06 Jive Talkin'
07 Stayin' Alive
08 How Deep Is Your Love?
09 Islands In The Stream
10 Heartbreaker
11 Still Waters
12 I Could Not Love You More
13 Words
14 Holiday
15 Guilty
16 Nights On Broadway
17 Too Much Heaven
18 You Should Be Dancing
19 Massachusetts
20 New York Mining Disaster 
21 Paradise
22 Blue Island
23 Three Kisses Of Love 

Bonus tracks
24 How Can You Mend A Broken Heart (false start)
25 How Deep Is Your Love (writing session)
26 To Lose Your Penis - (For The National Addadicktome Foundation)

Sources:
Tracks 1-13 VH1 Storytellers 1990 
Tracks 19-21, 23-24 Capital Radio Studios 1981
Track 22 MTV's Most Wanted 1993
Tracks 16-17 One Night Only MGM Grand Las Vegas 1997
Track 14-15, 18 A&E Live By Request 2001
Tracks 25-26 Unknown

PS. Thanks go out to pj for all his help arranging, editing and general overall tinkering this collection! What started as a Mike Solof production ended up much more a co-project

and I thank him tons and tons for his help!

Madonna - Set The Right (2004)

In 2002 Madonna was offered the job of supplying the theme song to the 20th James Bond film 'Die Another Day', but when it was delivered the producers asked her to change the song to fit the movie's title into it, like all other Bond movies have done. She did as requested, and around the same time another title was rumoured to have been recorded with producers M and Mirwais Ahmadzai for the soundtrack, but it was later decided that it was just the early version of 'Die Another Day'. As it turns out it was in fact a completely new track, and 'Can't You See My Mind' was leaked online some time later. After the single of 'Die Another Day' was released, Madonna began work on the follow-up album to 'Music, which was to be called 'American Life', and as with the 'Music' sessions, more material was recorded than could fit onto the album. One of these leftovers was another collaboration with Mirwais and Monte Pittman, and 'Cool Song' was taped as both an acoustic track and also a dance remix by Paul Oakenfold, re-titled 'It's So Cool', with the latter appearing as an iTunes-only bonus track on Madonna's greatest hits compilation 'Celebration'. The original recording from 2002 features a stripped-down, acoustic performance, and includes a children's choir during the final chorus, while a Mirwais dance remix demo has also surfaced. 'The Game' and 'Miss You' are more Mirwais co-writes, and they both have a stripped-down acoustic folk feel, but neither made the cut for the album. 'Set The Right' is a more upbeat Mirwais co-write, and had an number of titles through it's recording, including 'To The Left, To The Right' or 'Set To Right', but when it leaked online it was titled 'Set The Right'. After 'American Life' was released in 2003, Madonna embarked on the Re-Invention World Tour, and with Mirwais and Pittman in tow, more songs were written and recorded, including 'I'm In Love With Love' and 'I Love New York', both of which were supposed to be indicative of the sound originally conceptualised for the next album, before the project evolved into what eventually became 'Confessions On A Dance Floor'. 'Miss You', 'If You Go Away', 'How High', 'Boum', 'Curtain', 'The Devil Wouldn't Recognize You' and 'Is This Love (Bon D'Accord)' were written for a planned musical called 'Hello Suckers', which would have been a 1920's-style stage show loosely based on the life of 'Texas Guinan'. Songs were written with a number of co-writers including Patrick Leonard and Mirwais Ahmadzaï, and lyrics from some of them were later reworked and included on tracks for 'Confessions On A Dance Floor' and 'Hard Candy'. With the addition of lovely acoustic take of 'Love Profusion', we therefore have enough new material to produce another album that could have come out during the Re-Invention tour of 2004, before 'Confessions...' appeared in 2005.    

Track listing

01 Set The Right
02 It's So Cool
03 The Game
04 If You Go Away
05 Can't You See My Mind
06 Is This Love? (Bon D'Accord)
07 I Love New York
08 Miss You
09 In Love With Love
10 Love Profusion (demo)
11 Boum
12 Cool Song

The Alan Parsons Project - The Sicilian Defence (1979)

'The Sicilian Defence' was to be the twelfth studio album by The Alan Parsons Project, named after the famous chess opening move. It was recorded in 1979, and was never actually intended for release, as it was to be used as a bargaining chip in contract re-negotiations with their record label Arista. Parsons did not feel they were given adequate time to make a new album while Eric Woolfson negotiated their contract, but were under obligation to deliver one anyway, and so Parsons and Woolfson quickly recorded a series of instrumental sketches, each named after a chess move, as their final album for the label. When it was done Parsons delivered both 'Eve' and 'The Sicilian Defence' simultaneously and told the label "There are your last two albums. Now, give us a new deal". Although Arista rejected 'The Sicilian Defence' they accepted 'Eve', and the ploy worked as the contract was re-negotiated for the follow-up 'The Turn Of A Friendly Card'. Parsons freely admits that it's not their best work, and in the early days he tried to disown it completely, even hoping that the tapes no longer existed, but they did survive and the album finally saw the light of day in 2014 on 'The Complete Albums Collection' anthology, although that is currently the only way that you can hear it. Parsons is now happy that its release is fulfilling a need to document, historically, the entire catalogue of The Alan Parsons Project, and so if you don't own the 2014 box-set then you can now give it a listen see if you agree with him. 

 
Track listing

01 P-K4
02 P-QB4
03 Kt-KB3
04 ...Kt-QB3
05 P-Q4
06 PxP
07 KtxP
08 Kt-B3
09 Kt-QB3
10 P-Q3

Unit 4 + 2 - For A Moment (1968)

Of all the one-hit wonder groups of the 60's, one of the most well-known is Unit 4 + 2, who, try as they might, could never match the success of their 1965 smash hit single 'Concrete And Clay'. The band formed in 1962, when Brian Parker, then the guitar player and songwriter with the Hunters, decided to form his own vocal harmony group. He asked his friend David 'Buster' Meikle to join him, and together they recruited school-friends Tommy Moeller and Peter Moules. They named the group Unit 4, but when they were later joined by Russ Ballard on guitar and Robert 'Bob' Henrit on drums, they renamed the band Unit 4 + 2, for a six-piece group featuring a four-part vocal harmony section. Moeller was lead singer and front man from the first show as the Unit 4 vocal group to the last show as Unit 4 + 2, but due to ill health and a dislike of performing live, Brian Parker left the band, although he remained involved as co-songwriter with Tommy Moeller for all of the band's original recordings, and his place at live performances was taken by Howard 'Lem' Lubin. Their first single as the full band was 'The Green Fields', on Decca Records in 1964, which did reach a respectable number 48 in the UK charts, but the follow-up 'Sorrow And Pain', was less successful. It was their third release which catapulted them to stardom, when 'Concrete And Clay' became a huge hit the following year, reportedly thanks to exposure on pirate radio stations like Wonderful Radio London, and DJ Kenny Everett in particular. As well as reaching the top of the UK chart, the single was a worldwide hit, competing in the US with a cover version by Eddie Rambeau, which did split sales for both artists. Decca released a hastily put together album, titled '1st Album', and the the next single '(You've) Never Been In Love Like This Before', did reach the UK top 20, but is generally forgotten today. The band released 10 singles on Decca between 1964 and 1966, including one four-track EP, but they were forever chasing that second smash hit single, even changing the track listing, cover art and title of the re-release of their debut album to '#1 featuring Concrete and Clay', in an attempt to remind people of the song. Soundalike singles 'Hark' and 'Baby Never Say Goodbye' (written at the same time as 'Concrete And Clay' but not released until 1966) utilised he same Latin influence that made 'Concrete And Clay' stand out, but failed to replicate its success, although some of them did grace the lower reaches of the UK chart. By 1967 the band had left Decca and signed with Fontana, and with Ballard and Henrit on board as full-time members, the Unit 4 + 2 sound had gelled, but their cover of Bob Dylan's 'You Ain't Goin' Nowhere' was outsold by a cover version by the Byrds, and even adding electric piano and other orchestration to their last single '3.30' didn't help. Around the time of their self-titled second album in 1967, Rodney Garwood replaced Peter Moules (who had taken up bass when the band changed from a vocal group to a pop band), and Hugh Halliday replaced Bob Henrit, but it was too late to capitalise on the single's success and the album failed to chart. Fontana stuck by them and allowed them to release six singles up to 1969, but the band eventually broke up in 1970. Despite their lack of chart success after 'Concrete And Clay', they have left behind a competent body of work, and this collection of all their non-album Decca and Fontana single tracks should go some way to showing what a great band they were in their heyday, and also showcase the work of Ballard and Henrit before they teamed up with Rod Argent in his eponymous band in 1970.  

Track listing

01 The Green Fields (single 1964)
02 The Lonely Valley (b-side of 'Sorrow And Pain' 1964)
03 When I Fall In Love (b-side of 'Concrete And Clay' EP 1965)
04 To Be Redeemed (from 'Unit 4 Plus 2' EP 1965)
05 (You've) Never Been In Love Like This Before (single 1965)
06 Tell Somebody You Know (b-side of '(You've) Never Been In Love Like This Before')
07 Hark (single 1965)
08 Stop Wasting Your Time (b-side of 'Hark')
09 You've Got To Be Cruel To Be Kind (single 1965)
10 I Won't Let You Down (b-side of 'You've Got To Be Cruel To Be Kind')
11 Baby Never Say Goodbye (single 1966)
12 Rainy Day (b-side of 'Baby Never Say Goodbye')
13 For A Moment (single 1966)
14 Fables (b-side of 'For A Moment')
15 I Was Only Playing Games (single 1966)
16 I've Seen The Light (b-side of 'I Was Only Playing Games')
17 A Place To Go (b-side of 'Butterfly' 1967)
18 You Ain't Goin' Nowhere (single 1968)
19 So You Want To Be A Blues-Player (b-side of 'You Ain't Goin' Nowhere') 

Rihanna - Give Me A Try (2011)

The 'Angel' album of the recent post wasn't the first time that unreleased tracks from Rihanna had been compiled into an album by fans, as the same thing had happened in 2011. Leaked studio recordings and demos appeared on the internet, with some of the songs going as far back as 2006, and a number of them also later appeared on 'Angel'. 'My Name Is Rihanna' was one of these, which was renamed as 'My Name Is Fantasia' for the 'Angel' album, but it sits better on this one under it's original title, as it segues nicely into her version of the Bob Marley classic 'Get Up Stand Up'. The rest of the songs are a fine collection of ballads and up-tempo pieces which didn't deserve to be locked away in the vaults, so enjoy them here.  

Track listing

01 My Name Is Rihanna
02 Get Up Stand Up 
03 Ur Luv
04 Slower To Heal
05 Give Me A Try (feat. Sizzla)
06 How I Like It
07 Never
08 Suicide
09 I'm Back
10 Tip Pon Toe
11 Hurricane
12 Survivor

Bob Marley & The Wailers - Exodus (Horns Mix) (1977)

While Bob Marley was recording sessions for the 'Exodus' and 'Kaya' albums in 1977, he began to experiment with including a horn section on the songs, as he thought it would add another dimension to his ever-evolving musical catalog, much like the rock guitar did on the 'Natty Dread' and 'Rastaman Vibration' albums. While he used horns for his remaining studio albums, with their greatest and most persistent use on the 'Survival' album, they only survived on these recordings on the title track of the 'Exodus' album. The Wailers horn section originated with Jamaican trombone and saxophone players Vin Gordon and David Madden, who played on the 'Natty Dread' and 'Rastaman Vibration' albums, and it later included included Glen Da Costa, David Madden, and the Zap Pow horns. Madden recalls "Bob called me, 'David, we have a recording session, do you want to come?' And of course, I said yes. I didn't know Bob was going to become any kind of star. He would say, 'We have a little tour, do you want to come along?' It was a  mixture of professionalism and friendship. We don’t have that superstar air in Jamaica. I might sing the biggest tune yesterday but today I'm still walking down the street. When me and Bob talked, it was because of a session. Or Family Man will say, David, go talk to Bob because he wants to do a session". Madden and the other horn players were paid for the sessions but were not credited with writing parts. "Well, you see, when we reach the studio, the song is already done. It is all there. When you hear a song, the thing is to be able to say, you know, there is a part there that would sound better with horns. I am hearing that there is something that would sound better than if it was left alone. So for them guys, Marley and those, just for thinking to put some order in that tune, to bring it up some more, well that is genius in them. But as for what to play there, they don’t know. That is where we come in. They weren't able to tell us what to play. But because of being in the studio and working and all the practice that we do, we are hearing things. So when we come and they say, alright, roll the song, and we start to play, they say ‘Damn! Here! Yes!’ and the tune go up and it is a hit!" Madden has happy memories of his work with Marley, playing on 17 of his hit songs, including 'Natty Dread', 'So Jah Say', 'Rat Race', 'War', 'Is This Love', and 'Smile Jamaica', and The Zap Pow horns subsequently became the Wailers' horn section for studio sessions and tours. Only a few of these recordings have horns added, as Madden said, sometimes you can just tell that they are not needed, but even those without the addition of the horns are monitor mixes, and so completely different to the released versions. 

Track listing

01 Natural Mystic
02 So Much Things To Say
03 Guiltiness
04 The Heathen
05 Exodus
06 Jammin'
07 Waiting In Vain
08 Turn Your Lights Down Low
09 Three Little Birds
10 One Love