John's Children - Strange Affair (1967)

Drummer Chris Townson and singer Andy Ellison formed The Clockwork Onions in the town of Great Bookham in 1965, which later became the Few, and then the Silence. The Silence consisted of Townson and Ellison, plus Geoff McClelland on guitar and John Hewlett on bass guitar, and while performing in France in mid-1966, Townson met the Yardbirds's manager Simon Napier-Bell and invited him to come and see the Silence. Napier-Bell described them as "positively the worst group I'd ever seen", but still agreed to manage them, changing their name to John's Children, dressing them up in white stage outfits and encouraging them to be outrageous to attract the attention of the press. Their outrageous stage shows included on-stage fights, fake blood and feathers, and trashing their instruments, as the band whipped their audience into a frenzy. Napier-Bell signed them to the Yardbirds's record label, Columbia Records, and they released their first single in late 1966, being the Napier-Bell co-write 'Smashed Blocked'/'Strange Affair' (with the A-side released as 'The Love I Thought I'd Found' in the UK), but because of his lack of confidence in the band's musical abilities, Napier-Bell used session musicians on the recording. To everyone's surprise 'Smashed Blocked' broke into the bottom of the US Billboard Hot 100 and reached local top ten charts in Florida and California. In early 1967 they released their second single, 'Just What You Want – Just What You'll Get'/'But You're Mine', which also featured session musicians, plus a guitar solo from Jeff Beck on the b-side, and this one made it to the British Top 40. 

The band's third single, 'Not the Sort Of Girl (You'd Like To Take To Bed)', was rejected outright by their UK label, which prompted the band to switch to Track Records, publishers of artists like the Jimi Hendrix Experience and the Who. In the meantime, their US label, White Whale Records, asked for an album, and Napier-Bell and the group obliged, producing 'Orgasm'. This was a fake live album they recorded in the studio, with overdubbed screams taken from the Beatles' 'A Hard Day's Night', and it was Napier-Bell's idea to give the album a "live" feel to make it seem like the band was very popular in England. However, White Whale rejected 'Orgasm' because of its title, and pressure from Daughters of the American Revolution, and it was four years before it eventually appeared in 1971. In March 1967 Napier-Bell replaced guitarist McClelland with Marc Bolan, another of his clients, who took over as lead guitarist, and also took on the role of the band's singer/songwriter. Bolan composed and sang on the band's next single, 'Desdemona', which was banned by the BBC because of the controversial lyric, "Lift up your skirt and fly". In April 1967 Napier-Bell arranged for John's Children to tour Germany as support act to The Who.  

The Who were notorious for their own wild stage performances, which included smashing their instruments, and so John's Children pulled out all the stops and upstaged the Who with performances that included Bolan whipping his guitar with a chain, Townson attacking his drums, Ellison and Hewlett pretending to fight each other, and Ellison ripping open pillows and diving into the audience. In Düsseldorf they caused a riot at the venue, and The Who were not happy at being upstaged and so sent the band home mid-tour. Notwithstanding John's Children's antics in Germany, Townson was later asked to replace Keith Moon on drums near the end of the Who's UK tour in June that year after Moon had injured himself demolishing his drum kit on stage. With no time for rehearsal, Townson performed with the Who for five days, and did it so well that most of the audience didn't realise it wasn't Moon. John's Children played at The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream concert at the Alexandra Palace in London on 29 April 1967, and Bolan left two months later following disagreements with the way Napier-Bell was producing the band's next single, 'A Midsummer Night's Scene'. 

The single was never released, but in its place the b-side of 'Desdemona', 'Remember Thomas à Becket', was re-recorded with new lyrics and released as 'Come And Play With Me In The Garden'. After Bolan left, Townson switched to guitar and former roadie Chris Colville took over on drums, and the band recorded another single, 'Go Go Girl', which was a Bolan composition that he later recorded with Tyrannosaurus Rex as 'Mustang Ford'. They recorded one more single, 'It's Been A Long Time', which was issued as an Andy Ellison solo single, and then embarked on a 'disastrous' tour of Germany, after which they split up in 1968. Ellison went on to make several solo singles before resurfacing in Jet in 1974, along with drummer Chris Townson, who then metamorphosed into Radio Stars in the mid-Seventies. John's Children were active for less than two years and were not very successful commercially, having released only six singles and one (in my opinion) extremely disappointing album, but they are seen by some as the precursors of glam rock, and as their reputation has grown over the years their singles have become amongst the most sought-after British 1960's rock collectables. As the 'Orgasm' album is almost unlistenable because of the fake screams all over it, we need a collection of the band's music that actually represents what they were doing in the studio, and there was more than enough music recorded by 1967 to release an album, which would have included a few single tracks, some alternate takes, and some of their demos, and had they decided to do that then this is what it could have sounded like.  

Track listing

01 The Love I Thought I'd Found
02 But She's Mine
03 Midsummer Night's Scene
04 Hippy Gumbo
05 Strange Affair
06 Go-Go Girl
07 Remember Thomas À Becket
08 Desdemona
09 The Perfumed Garden Of Gulliver Smith
10 Casbah Candy
11 Sara, Crazy Child
12 Just What You Want - Just What You'll Get
13 Not The Sort Of Girl You Take To Bed
14 Sally Was An Angel
15 Jagged Time Lapse

Livvi Franc - Underground Sunshine (2008)

Olivia Charlotte Waithe was born on 31 May 1988 in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, and her stage name of Franc was inspired by her late maternal grandfather, Frank Wilson. Her first manager discovered her after hearing one of her cassette tape demos, and arranged for her to record proper demos in studios in Barbados and Miami, which is where she met her next manager. Soon after, she was in New York meeting label heads and auditioning, and she finally signed with Jive Records after months of negotiations. She was writing songs throughout these early years, with Jordin Sparks recording one of her songs, 'Walking On Snow', and she has also written for Cheryl Cole, Kelly Clarkson, Marié Digby, Michael Jackson, Britney Spears, Rihanna and Cher Lloyd. Her debut single, 'Now I'm That Bitch', was released in the summer of 2009, and topped the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Songs chart and became a top 40 hit in New Zealand and the UK. Another song, 'This Is A Raid' appeared on the reboot of 'Melrose Place', and an album was planned for release shortly afterwards, but this was delayed, and the next we heard from Franc was the release of her second single, 'Automatik' in 2010. Produced by RedOne, the single peaked at #6 on the US Hot Dance Club Songs chart, but around the end of 2010 the album was shelved by Jive, and so Livvi left the label and quickly signed to Beluga Heights/Warner Bros., where she is currently working on her debut album, although she has stated that she is delaying work on it in order to focus on writing for other acts. As she no longer seems committed to releasing a record under her own name, here is the cancelled 'Underground Sunshine' album from 2008, with a couple of contemporary recordings added to replace songs that haven't yet leaked. 

Track listing

01 Free  
02 This Is A Raid 
03 Now I'm That Bitch
04 Hummingbird  
05 She Loves Love 
06 Summer Love  
07 Lovey Dovey  
08 Shiver 
09 Trick Or Treat  
10 Underground Sunshine  
11 Untouchable
12 Sweet Satisfaction  
13 Bliss

The Pretty Things - Emotions (1967)

The Pretty Things grew out of Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys, which consisted of Dick Taylor, fellow Sidcup Art College student Keith Richards, and Mick Jagger, among others. When Brian Jones was recruiting for his own band, all three joined Brian and Ian Stewart and were dubbed Rollin' Stones by Jones in June 1962, but because there were too many guitar players in the band, Taylor switched to bass. He quit the Stones five months later, when he was accepted at the Central School of Art and Design in London, but Phil May, another Sidcup student, convinced him to form a new band, and so Taylor was once again playing guitar, with May singing and playing harmonica. They recruited John Stax on bass and harmonica, Brian Pendleton on rhythm guitar, and Pete Kitley on drums, who was soon replaced by Viv Andrews, and then in turn by Viv Prince. After signing a deal with Fontana Records, their first three singles appeared in the UK Singles Chart in 1964 and 1965, with 'Don't Bring Me Down' breaking the Top Ten. They never had a hit in the United States, but had considerable success in their native UK, and in Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the Netherlands. The first of what would be many personnel changes over the years also began, with Prince, whose wild antics had become too much for the other members to endure, being the first to go in November 1965, being replaced by Skip Alan. 

They released two albums in 1965, with the self-titled debut appearing in March, and 'Get The Picture' following in December. 1966 saw the R&B scene fall into decline and the Pretty Things began moving away, flirting with soul music, and in December 1966 came the single 'Progress', where the band were joined by a brass section. Sessions for their next album 'Emotions' were spread across a few months during which there were major changes in the band's line up. Their record company Fontana had not been happy with how their three 1966 singles 'Midnight To Six Man', 'Come See Me' and the Kinks cover 'A House In The Country' had sold, and so assigned them producer Steve Rowland, who was producing hits for Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick & Tich. The band were not pleased by this intervention and were keen to leave Fontana, so they simply went along with Fontana's demands to fulfil the contract which included a third album. The first result of the sessions was the 'Progress' single, and though it was a fairly commercial record, it failed to sell. Pendleton was unhappy with the direction the band was heading in, and, with money being rather short, he quit the band that Christmas. A month later, bassist John Stax, similarly unhappy, also quit, so May called childhood friend Wally Waller to help record the rest of the album. In the event, Waller took over the bass duties, and brought in his ex-bandmate from Bern Elliott And The Fenmen, Jon Povey, as the drummer and keyboardist.

Waller and Povey were huge Beach Boys fans and between them had developed their own distinctive harmonies, which when paired with May's vocals gave the Pretty Things a new dimension. The style of 'Emotions' showed a fusion of hard blues and psychedelia, but Rowland decided the new songs sounded rather empty, so he enlisted arranger Reg Tilsley to write and conduct orchestral arrangements for most of the tracks. Again, the band were not pleased by this but to appease Fontana and be able to break free, they went along with the idea. Tilsley was given tapes of demos and work in progress of the songs, and wrote the arrangements, some of which were fairly simple, requiring a brass section, whilst others were more elaborate, bringing in strings. Whilst some of these arrangements were overdubbed on what had already been recorded, Taylor has recalled there were a couple of sessions where the band and Tilsley's ensemble were together in the studio. Because the songs had mostly already been written, new members Waller and Povey weren't able to contribute much to the writing, nor add their harmonies to most of the album, although they did appear on 'Out In The Night', 'Bright Lights Of The City', 'My Time', and 'Children', which was also issued as a single.

Outside the studio, the band's live sound had changed drastically as they became involved in the burgeoning psychedelic scene, and by the time 'Emotions' was released, the contrast between the band on record and on stage was enormous, and so they did nothing to promote it, and as soon as they could they left Fontana to seek out a new record contract. None of the songs from 'Emotions' were ever played live, and they simply carried on as if it didn't exist. The only exception was the single 'Children', which they did play live onstage in Paris, and which was broadcast live on French TV.

Paul over at albumsthatshouldexist had a pretty good go at fixing this album a few years ago, when a re-issue of the album included undubbed versions of a few of the songs, which could then just be replaced in the running order, but the only problem was that they were in mono, as opposed to the stereo versions on the original record. Also, a few tracks were not presented in this form, and so he found a version of the record with extreme stereo separation, and as the strings and horns were mostly in one channel then he could isolate and remove them. Since then, programmes to edit music have come on in leaps and bounds, and so I am now able to take the original stereo tracks and remove the strings and horns, and not only that, but by isolating the guitar and vocals and then putting the whole thing back together with some panning, I was even able to make a rudimentary stereo version of the stand-alone single 'House In The Country' to tag onto the end of the rather short album. To distinguish the cover from the original I've simply reversed the colours of the text.  

Track listing

01 Death Of A Socialite
02 Children
03 The Sun
04 There Will Never Be Another Day
05 House Of Ten
06 Out In The Night
07 One Long Glance
08 Growing In My Mind
09 Photographer
10 Bright Lights Of The City
11 Tripping
12 My Time
13 A House In The Country

The Love Affair - Satisfaction Guaranteed (1969)

The Love Affair originally formed in 1966, and this London-based quintet comprised Steve Ellis on vocals, Morgan Fisher on keyboards, Rex Brayley on guitar, Mick Jackson on bass, and Maurice Bacon on drums. Although Ellis was barely 16 years old, the band performed frequently in clubs on a semi-professional basis, and in 1967 they signed to Decca Records, but although their first single, 'She Smiled Sweetly', was written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, it flopped. After Fisher was briefly replaced by Lynton Guest so that he could complete his schooling, Ellis recorded a sparkling cover version of Robert Knight's 'Everlasting Love' for CBS Records using session musicians, and in January 1968 the single unexpectedly hit number 1 in the UK. Love Affair became instant pop stars, with Ellis' cherubic looks gracing teen magazines throughout the nation. An album was rushed out, with 'The Everlasting Love Affair' being recorded in one day in November 1968 and released in December, but controversy erupted when the group admitted they had not played on their recordings, but that all the work was done by session musicians, although such a practice had long since been common. Their first recording of 'Everlasting Love', produced by Muff Winwood, had featured them playing all the instruments, but the record label rejected this version in favour of one produced by Mike Smith, recorded using a recording studio rhythm section, strings, brass, flutes and backing vocalists, arranged by Keith Mansfield, and with Ellis as the only member of the group to be heard. The backing vocals were provided by four female singers who would later become well known in their own right: Kiki Dee, Madeline Bell, Lesley Duncan and Kay Garner, as one of The Ladybirds. 

Although four more Top 20 hits followed, in 1969 Ellis felt that the group had run its course, after their Christmas single, 'Baby I Know', failed completely, and so he left the group to start a solo career, with the remaining members recruiting a new vocalist in Gus Eadon. This new line-up began to move in a more progressive direction, and the second Love Affair album, 'New Day', was released in 1970 under the name of LA, in an attempt to attract a more mature audience. The record was a commercial failure and six months later the band was dropped by CBS. They signed to Parlophone Records as Love Affair but were unable to revive their fortunes, and so Bacon and Fisher left to form Morgan, recording 1973's 'Nova Solis' for RCA Records, and Fisher later reappeared in Mott The Hoople and The Third Ear Band. Although the band's reputation will forever be tainted with the controversy over their first single, they did produce some fine music, and they could easily have released a second album in 1969, which might have proved their musical abilities, and so as they didn't do it themselves, then here it what it could have sounded like.   

Track listing

01 Gone Are The Songs Of Yesterday 
02 I'm Happy
03 She Smiled Sweetly
04 Let Me Know
05 Sweetness And Tenderness
06 Another Day
07 Bringing Back The Good Times
08 Baby I Know
09 Do You Dream
10 Accept Me For What I Am
11 Someone Like Me
12 Satisfaction Guaranteed
13 One Road

JoJo - Demonstrate (2012)

After posting both incarnations of JoJo's third album, firstly the 'All I Want Is Everything' version, followed by the 'Jumping Trains' one, you'd think that she's dumped enough songs to make her think twice about scrapping any more recordings that she'd spent so much time on, but that's where you'd be wrong. Even after compiling those two earlier albums, there were still over a dozen more out-takes left over, so here is one final album made up of songs recorded between 2008 and 2012 from the 'All I Want Is Everything'/'Jumping Trains' sessions, titled 'Demonstrate' after one of her early aborted singles.   

Track listing

01 Shot 'Em Dead
02 Headlight
03 No More Tears
04 Replaced
05 Beautiful Girls Reply
06 Demonstrate
07 Sweat
08 Hold On
09 Limbo
10 Wait A Minute (For Your Love)
11 Marvin's Room (Can't Do Better)
12 Can't Believe It
13 Uncharted (feat. Ray J)
14 Houstatlantavegas
15 What You Do
16 Fearless

Happy New Year

 Best wishes to everyone for 2025

Kenny Everett - On BBC Radio Bristol (1971)

Kenny Everett was arguably the most creative, most innovative, most technically gifted radio presenter the UK has produced. He was a pioneer, first with the offshore pirates in 1964, then as part of the launch team for BBC Radio 1 in 1967 – and later a key figure when licensed commercial radio began with Capital Radio in 1973. He spent hours in the studio stitching together truly original shows, filled with his exquisitely produced personal jingles, crazy sounds effects, and zany comedy moments delivered in a frenetic, inventive style that no-one could match. He was close friends with the Beatles, regularly playing their latest tracks before anyone else. While employed on BBC Radio One the BBC banned him from talking to the press after repeatedly complaining about the station's output, and things came to a head in July 1970 after he responded to a news bulletin about the wife of Transport Minister John Peyton passing her advance driving test, joking that she "probably crammed a fiver into the examiner's hand". As a result, his weekend show was cancelled, a fate he'd previously suffered at Radio Luxembourg, Radio London, and later at Radio 2. He was just 25, and apart from a few stints on continental stations, there was nowhere else to go. The BBC still had a UK radio monopoly, and his top-flight radio career looked to be over. He went from being one of the most popular DJ's on the radio to scrimping and saving to pay for the refurbishment of the house that he'd just bought while he was still employed. 

A saviour arrived a year later at one of the BBC's fledgling local stations, when the year-old Radio Bristol's manager David Waine needed holiday cover. Feeling Kenny had been badly treated, Waine phoned to offer four programmes at a rate of just £12.50 a week! Desperate, Everett agreed – sparking an internal row for Waine, who was rebuked by BBC Radio's MD Ian Trethowan for not consulting him, warning that he'd be in trouble if things went wrong. To minimise any potential disaster, David wisely asked Kenny to pre-record his shows at home in Sussex, and he then posted the tapes for checking by a producer before broadcast. On 12 June 1971 the wireless wizard was back on-air, but it was an occasion largely overlooked, as few people heard it, and those who did were only from the Bristol area. At the time BBC Local Radio only broadcast on VHF (now FM) when most listeners only had medium-wave sets, and broadcast hours were limited, with few staff and tight music restrictions. You may wonder why Everett regularly mentions the record labels of songs played, and this was because at the time, BBC Local Radio could only play one hour of commercial music a day under strict "needle time" restrictions negotiated with the Musicians’ Union, and one way to get around this was to play new releases, giving the record label, and (in theory at least) its number. The Radio Bristol shows opened the door at other BBC Locals including Radios Merseyside, Solent, Nottingham, Brighton (now Radio Sussex) and Medway (now Radio Kent), and he also appeared on 'Start The Week' on Radio 4 over Christmas 1971, becoming a regular on a spin-off series 'If It's Wednesday … It Must Be' over the next 18 months. As 1971 is one of my favourite years for music, and along with John Peel, Everett was my favourite DJ, then these shows were a godsend when broadcast over the Christmas period, and hopefully you'll find something to enjoy in them as well.

Track listing

01 BBC Radio Bristol 12 June 1971

includes tracks from The Move, Nilsson, Peter Noone, Paul McCartney, Tom Jones, Stavely Makepeace, The Beatles, The Fantastics, Cat Stevens, White Plains, Twiggy, Mungo Jerry, Dusty Springfield, the Supremes and The Four Tops. 
02 BBC Radio Bristol 03 July 1971

includes the final episode of his comedy series 'Dick Dale – Special Doctor', first broadcast on Radio 1, along with music by Paul McCartney, Hurricane Smith, Smokey Robinson, The Idle Race, Fifth Dimension, Dawn, Cat Stevens, Simon and Garfunkel, Butterscotch, The Yamasukis, Freda Payne and Bread.
03 BBC Radio Bristol 26 December 1971

includes music by the Beach Boys, Mama Cass, Peter Noone, Colin Blunstone, John Barry, Martha Reeves and The Vandellas, The Jimmie Haskell Orchestra, Gilbert O’Sullivan, The Faces, Cat Stevens, Tony Christie, Mike Vickers, Matt Munro, Rich Fever and Rossini.

Honeybus - Delighted To See You (1969)

Pete Dello and Ray Cane had been working together in various London groups since the early 60's, with Dello being lead guitarist with Red Tallis & The Tallismen and Cane handling bass duties with The Outlaws. They joined up in Grant Tracy & The Sunsets and the pair wrote a number of the band's single sides for Ember and Decca, but they were not successful and so they took a break from gigging to concentrate on writing, producing and arranging. During this period they wrote a clutch of single sides for The Applejacks (including the beat classic 'Baby Jane') as well as arranging material for Lionel Bart and playing on sessions for The Roulettes and Unit 4+2 among others, but in 1965 they found themselves back on stage, backing soul singer Steve Darbishire as The Yum Yum band. The line-up was completed by drummer Terry Noon, who had spent time with Them, and after signing a deal with Decca Records, Darbishire cut five singles for them between 1965 and 1967, mostly written by Dello and Cane. In 1966 Dello succumbed to a collapsed lung on the eve of a major tour, and after several months' recuperation, decided to quit the band to put together a new project to showcase his and Cane's new material. Christened Honeybus by Cane, the pair installed Terry Noon as their manager and entered Regent Sound studio to cut their debut single in spring 1967. The recording was made using Russ Ballard and Bob Henrit of The Roulettes, and two Dello-penned tracks were laid down, with 'Delighted To See You' b/w 'The Breaking Up Scene' appearing on the label's Deram subsidiary in June. 

Despite it's commercial potential, the single flopped, and after finalising their line-up with the addition of Colin Hare on guitar and Pete Kircher on drums, they cut two more singles, one of which has become something of a standard since its release. Dello's '(Do I Figure) In Your Life' was released in October 1967, with Cane's 'Throw My Love Away' on the flip, and they followed this in March 1968 with another classic 60's recording, 'I Can't Let Maggie Go', ensuring their place in the history books for recording this classic piece of 60's pop. The single hit number 8 in the UK and became a huge hit in dozens of territories, but the resulting merry-go-round of gigs, press and TV conflicted with Dello's vision, as he saw Honeybus as essentially a studio project, and had had enough of life on the road during the early 60's. With a record in the top ten, the record company screaming for a follow-up and an album, and widespread adulation, Dello quit his own group. Such a blow would have signalled the end for most bands, but the remaining members of Honeybus were more resourceful than that, and so first they recruited Jim Kelly on vocals and guitar, then set about recording a follow-up single, although it would be six months before Cane's 'Girl Of Independent Means' appeared in September 1968. It was a great upbeat single featuring brass and an insistent hook, but it nevertheless failed to sustain the group's success. 

Cane followed it with 'She Sold Blackpool Rock' in May 1969, with Colin Hare's first recorded composition 'Would You Believe' on the flip, but once again the single flopped in the UK, although it sold well in Europe, prompting the recording of an Italian language version. The band had virtually called it a day by summer 1969, but at Terry Noon's insistence sessions for a proposed album continued, and soon they'd completed enough new material. Kircher had left the group during the sessions to join Englebert Humperdinck's touring band, and was replaced by Lloyd Courteney and old friend Bob Henrit, and the album was eventually released without promotion in February 1970, by which time Honeybus was no more. 'Story' is a fine album, and is now rightly regarded as a classic of the era, but it was too little too late, and Honeybus were consigned to the vaults alongside other one-hit wonders of the 60's. The 'Story' album didn't include any material recorded before 1970, and so the band never released the cash-in album that the record company so desperately wanted after the success of 'I Can't Let Maggie Go'. If they had succumbed to the pressure and put something together then it might have sounded something like this.    

Track listing

01 (Do I Figure) In Your Life
02 Tender Are The Ashes
03 The Right To Choose
04 Maxine's Parlour
05 Arise Sir Henry
06 I Can't Let Maggie Go
07 She Sold Blackpool Rock
08 She Comes To Me
09 The Breaking Up Scene
10 Would You Believe
11 Delighted To See You
12 Girl Of Independent Means
13 Francoise
14 Throw My Love Away

Paul McCartney - The Weird Stuff (1989)

It's generally agreed that The Beatles' personalities were established in the 60s', with George "The Quiet One", John "The Smart One", Paul "The Cute One", and Ringo... well, he was just Ringo. The Cute One would sing the love songs, and pen the melodic tunes, while Lennon would sing the rockers, and have a more acerbic turn of phrase in his lyrics. And yet if you look at the writing credits of some of their later work, it was McCartney who pretty much invented heavy metal with 'Helter Skelter', as well as providing 'The White Album' with such oddities as 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road', the ragtime throwback 'Wild Honey Pie', and the Dylan-ish 'Rocky Racoon'. He'd also worked with sound collages way before Lennon's 'Revolution 9', with his still unheard 'Carnival Of Light' from January 1967, and if he hadn't shown Lennon how to work the tape machines then his piece probably wouldn't exist. So McCartney was much more experimental than most people thought, even as far back as 1968, but once The Beatles split and he started his solo career then he was free to do whatever weird shit he wanted, and by the early 80's it had started to unashamedly appear on his records, often on the b-sides of more commercial singles, but particularly on his 1980 album 'McCartney II'. The 'Temporary Secretary' single was the biggest commercial success of this new direction, but the 10-minute 'Secret Friend' on the b-side was like nothing he'd done before, and the extended 9-minute take of the 'Waterfalls' b-side 'Check My Machine' was more of the same. 'Ou Est Le Soleil?' from 1989 was a funky attempt at Europop, with its minimal repeated French lyrics, while the 1986 'Press' single was treated to a number of remixes, including a dub version. 'Cactus Club' is a live jam from a 1986 video shoot in Amado, and 'Kreen-Akrore' shows that he was doing this sort of thing as far back as 1970, so here is a collection of McCartney's most out-there compositions, which along with his work with Youth as The Fireman, proves that he was always the most experimental Beatle.  

Track listing

01 Secret Friend
02 Press (Dub Mix)
03 Cactus Club
04 Kreen-Akrore
05 Ou Est Le Soliel?
06 Check My Machine

Dexy's Midnight Runners - The Wildhearted Outsiders (1986)

Dexys Midnight Runners were formed in 1978 by singer/guitarist/songwriter Kevin Rowland and singer/guitarist Kevin "Al" Archer (who changed his first name to avoid confusion). Both had been members of the Birmingham punk band the Killjoys, and Rowland, who was ethnically Irish, had split his childhood between London, Ireland, and Birmingham, and soaked up the influence of Irish folk and the so-called Northern soul music popular in the Midlands. Seeking a new direction, Rowland and Archer decided to put together a fully-fledged soul outfit and named it after the stimulant Dexedrine, a popular drug on the Northern soul scene. The line-up eventually settled on trombonist Big Jim Paterson, tenor saxophonist Geoff Blythe, alto saxophonist Steve "Babyface" Spooner, keyboardist Mick Talbot (who replaced Pete Saunders, and later joined the Style Council), bassist Pete Williams, and drummer Andy "Stoker" Growcott (who replaced Bobby Junior). Acutely image conscious, Rowland tried to reflect the band's working-class roots by dressing them as New York dockworkers, with a wardrobe lifted straight from the Martin Scorsese/Robert DeNiro film 'Mean Streets'. The band struggled financially at first, especially given its large membership, and according to legend, Rowland organized (or at least encouraged) shoplifting expeditions to make ends meet. Dexys didn't take long to release their first single, with 'Dance Stance' (aka 'Burn It Down'), being an attack on anti-Irish discrimination. 

It was released on EMI Records in 1979, but only scraped the lower reaches of the charts, although their next single, 'Geno', a tribute to American-born soul singer Geno Washington, went all the way to the top of the British charts in early 1980. Dissatisfied with their share of the profits, the band stole the completed master tapes of their debut album, 'Searching For The Young Soul Rebels', and successfully reworked their deal. When the album was released later in 1980, it caused a sensation, with their bright, tuneful, horn-heavy take on Memphis soul being hailed as British rock's return to an organic, soulful sound in the post-punk/new wave era. Their third single, 'There, There My Dear', became a Top Ten hit, but Rowland insisted on following it with the inadvisable single choice of 'Keep It, Pt. 2', which flopped. This was the last straw for most of the band, who had grown tired of Rowland's control-freak leadership and restlessness, and so Archer left to form the Blue Ox Babes, and most of the rest of the group wound up in The Bureau, leaving only trombonist Paterson with Rowland. These two regrouped Dexys, adding guitarist/banjoist Kevin "Billy" Adams (again renamed), drummer Seb Shelton, keyboardist Mickey Billingham, alto saxophonist Brian Maurice, tenor saxophonist Paul Speare, and bassist Giorgio Kilkenny (who replaced Steve Wynne), and Rowland gave them a new wardrobe of boxing boots and ponytails.   

After the 1981 single 'Plan B', the new line-up left EMI and signed to Mercury, and their first single for the label, 'Show Me', was a Top 20 hit, but the follow-up, 'Liars A to E', flopped, and Rowland considered modifying the group's approach. Allegedly, he heard a demo tape of Archer's folk-influenced Blue Ox Babes material, and decided to reinvent Dexys in a similar fashion, further infuriating the Babes by not only borrowing from their sound, but by recruiting their violinist Helen O'Hara. He also added Steve Brennan and Roger MacDuff on the same instrument, and their second album, 'Too-Rye-Ay', was released in 1982. For this album their soul sound was now sitting alongside a strong Irish folk influence, making for a striking hybrid. The makeover was accompanied by yet another wardrobe change, this time to a scruffy gypsy/hobo image that wound up changing the standard of acceptable dress at many a restrictive London club. They introduced their new sound on the single 'The Celtic Soulbrothers', which was a mild success, but it was the follow-up, 'Come On Eileen', that cemented their reputation, becoming their second British number one. A few months later, helped by the group's MTV-ready appeal, 'Come On Eileen' broke in America and went all the way to number one there as well. Despite this success, the entire horn section (even the loyal Paterson) departed in the summer of 1982, as did keyboardist Billingham. Unfortunately, at the peak of the group's success, rifts with Rowland resulted in most member's leaving the group, and eventually the core membership was whittled down to Rowland, guitarist Adams, and violinist O'Hara. Rowland took them to New York to work on the follow-up album, but this took a year and a half to record due to his constant perfectionism, and so EMI released the singles compilation 'Geno' in 1983 to fill the gap. 

Paterson re-joined the group when Rowland decided to blend his soul and folk phases more thoroughly, and the rest of the instrumentation was filled out by hired session musicians. When 'Don't Stand Me Down' was finally released in 1985, Rowland insisted that no singles were to be pulled from it, wanting it to stand as a cohesive piece of work in the manner of '70s LPs. As a result, it sold much more poorly than expected, and wasn't helped by lacklustre reviews that slammed Rowland's attempts at Van Morrison-esque poetry. After a few weeks, a panicked and out-of-pocket Mercury released 'This Is What She's Like' as a single, but the damage was already done. One last single, 'Because Of You' charted in 1986 after being used as the theme to the British TV show Brush Strokes', but with 'Don't Stand Me Down' having bombed, the group disbanded. Rowland mounted a solo career and returned in 1988 with 'The Wanderer', a mellow record flavoured with country and lounge-pop, which failed to sell. A disheartened Rowland spent the next few years in a deep depression, fighting off bankruptcy and cocaine addiction, before returning in 1996 and signing with Creation as a solo artist, but in typically idiosyncratic fashion, his 1999 comeback effort was an all-covers album, 'My Beauty', which sold abominably, probably not helped by Rowland's new wardrobe of dresses and suspenders. Despite their huge success in all their incarnations, and with 'Don't Stand Me Down' now being re-evaluated as a neglected masterpiece, it's surprising that Dexy's have never had an official b-sides collection, and so here it is, covering all the different phases of their career.

Track listing

01 Dance Stance (single 1979)
02 Breakin' Down The Walls Of Heartache (single 1980)
03 The Horse (b-side of 'There, There My Dear' 1980)
04 Keep It Part Two (Inferiority Part One) (single 1980)
05 One Way Love (b-side of 'Keep It Part Two (Inferiority Part One)')
06 Soul Finger (b-side of 'Plan B' 1981)
07 Show Me (single 1981)
08 Soon (b-side of 'Show Me')
09 ...And Yes We Must Remain The Wildhearted Outsiders (b-side of 'Liars A To E')
10 Love Part Two (b-side of 'The Celtic Soul Brothers' 1982)
11 Dubious (b-side of 'Come On Eileen' 1982)
12 Let's Get This Straight (From The Start) (single 1982)
13 Reminisce Part One (b-side of 'The Celtic Soul Brothers (More, Please, Thank You)' 1983)
14 Because Of You (single 1986)
15 Kathleen Mavourneen (b-side of 'Because Of You')
16 Marguerita Time (b-side of 'An Extract From This Is What She's Like' 1985)

The Poets - In Your Tower (1968)

The Poets formed in Glasgow in the early 60's, and comprised George Gallacher on vocals, Hume Paton on lead & 12-string guitar, Tony Myles on rhythm guitar, John Dawson on bass  and Alan Weir on drums. They were discovered by Andrew Loog Oldham on a trip to Scotland in 1964, after which he quickly signed them up and arranged a recording deal with Decca, and in October 1964 they who issued the band's first single, a characteristically moody original called 'Now We're Thru'. It made number 30 in the UK charts, but that was to be their only taste of commercial success, despite a flurry of fine singles over the next couple of years. The two-bass throb of the hard-rocking 'That's The Way It's Got To Be' appeared in February 1965, backed with the exquisite acoustic ballad 'I'll Cry With The Moon', but it failed to trouble the charts, and even a fiery cover of Marvin Gaye's 'Baby Don't You Do It' in January 1966, by which time they'd moved to the Immediate label, couldn't break their duck. This last record was something of a departure for them, as unlike most other Scottish combos of the time they concentrated almost exclusively on original material, which alternated between mournful, almost fey ballads and storming mod rockers. 

Critics have compared the melodic, minor feel of much of their work to the Zombies, a comparison that holds water to a certain point, although the Poets were far more guitar-based. While some may find their slow numbers a bit on the maudlin side, the group had a knack for fine melodies, harmonies, and dense guitar arrangements that lifted these above the ordinary. The move to Immediate may have been a mixed blessing, as although they might have had more money behind them, Oldham was always going to focus his energies on The Rolling Stones, and so The Poets got lost in the shuffle and began to feel discouraged, with members starting to come and go, so that by 1967 not one original member remained from the line-up that had first recorded. They did marshal the energy for a superb 1967 single, the blue-eyed soul/psychedelic 'Wooden Spoon', which indicated that the band was still progressing and maturing, but their heart didn't seem to be in it, and they struggled on until 1971, barely recording again. It was a sad end to what seemed like such a promising outfit at the start of their career, and you can hear that fresh energy on an album that Immediate could have put out in 1968 if Oldham could just have been bothered to release it.  

Track listing

01 Some Things I Can't Forget
02 I Love Her Still
03 In Your Tower
04 I Am So Blue
05 Call Again
06 Wooden Spoon
07 I'll Cry With The Moon
08 Baby Don't Do It
09 It's So Different Now
10 Fun Buggy
11 I'll Keep My Pride
12 Never Thought She Would
13 Dawn
14 Someone
15 That's The Way It's Got To Be
16 I'll Come Home

A Guy Called Gerald - Cryogenix - A Decade In Dance (1999)

Gerald Rydel Simpson was born on 16 February 1967, and is better known as the British record producer and musician A Guy Called Gerald. In his youth he absorbed jazz fusion and electro funk at clubs and youth clubs, where the dancefloor in the early 1980's inspired him to study contemporary dance. Influenced by electro and early hip hop, breakdancing and b-boy culture from Detroit and Chicago, he began experimenting with tape editing and drum machines, and the regular jams in the attic of his house led to the formation the Scratchbeat Masters. They released a 12" single 'Wax On The Melt', a collaboration between a number of crews, plus Graham Massey and Martin Price, and their first album, 'Newbuild', was released in 1988 under the name 808 State. Simpson soon left the group to concentrate on his solo work, and the result of heading back into his bedroom studio was 'Voodoo Ray', which was first played at the Hacienda in 1988, before entering the UK Singles Chart a year later. It was the first acid house track produced in the UK, and released on a small Merseyside independent label Rham! Records, based in Wallasey. 

At the same time, a track Simpson started before leaving 808 State, 'Pacific State', was released and hit the charts, but according to Simpson, the group had finished and released the track without his permission. Although Simpson was credited on its first release on the album 'Quadrastate', both as a writer and co-producer, the dispute escalated as Simpson claimed to have written the entire track. He subsequently signed with Sony Music and released the albums 'Hot Lemonade' in 1989 and 'Automanikk' in 1990, to moderate commercial success, after which he was allowed to leave his Sony contract after the label refused to release his intended follow-up album 'High Life, Low Profile'. In 1991, he started his own label, Juice Box Records, releasing a string of 12" singles which were later compiled on his third album '28 Gun Bad Boy' in 1992. Juice Box Records lasted until 1998, and provided an outlet for Simpson's work for seven years, with 33 titles released under various other pseudonyms such as The K.G.B. and Ricky Rouge, and collaborations between Simpson and artists including Lisa May, DJ Tamsin, Goldie (as 'The 2 G's'), and Finley Quaye. The label has been identified as being responsible for influential releases that provided the blueprint for what was to become jungle, and then drum and bass. 

In 1997 Simpson moved to New York, shortly before closing his label, and in 2000, released 'Essence' on the independent label !K7 Records. This was his first song-based rather than dance/club album, featuring guests such as Lou Rhodes, David Simpson, Lady Miss Kier and Wendy Page. This was therefore the perfect time for mp3.com to release a compilation CD-R of his early drum and bass work, with 'Cryogenix' appearing in 1999, subtitled 'A Decade In Dance'. It collected together hard to find and unreleased recordings from the previous ten years, and was released as a D.A.M. CD, with the audio portion being mastered from 128 kbps MP3s. The CD-ROM content consisted of a music folder with the MP3s, and a custom MP3 player application (Macromedia Director-based, for Windows) which played only those files. The player had an artwork & info panel that provided lyrics and/or song history for each track as it plays, as follows:
01: "The motivation for this track was to maintain a balance in harmony. The entrainments masked within the lower oscillations echo reflections of music from our past civilisation."
02: "you will have to check you're dance history books for this one they have a nice selection in the virgin mega stores look for 808 sate v a guy called Gerald"
03: "This track was part of a project called Emotions which i did in 93. @ this time, I was seriously scrutinising the music I was making and the behavioural patterns sounds had: using an oscilloscope for this purpose. "
04: "i just finished Voodoo Ray and I thought I hadn't used the 303 baseline machine enough on the EP. So I decided the write this track."
05: "blow your house down blow your house down blow your house down blow your house down blow your house down blow your house down so blow already blow your house down blow your house down blow your house down blow your house down blow your house down blow your house down so blow already" "i felt the need for something house but melodic & party"
06: "i wanna spread love iei wanna spread love [pause] all over the world. repeat as required..." "old, i don't know.... the way house music used to be... more soul than sample"
07: "this track was recorded i Manchester in 94 & is just 1 from the men tracks from the cryogenix files.some of these tracks came out on juice box witch was i label i started in 92 the distribution was poor so if you wasn't in the wright place at the right time you might be missing tracks like this because of the poor distribution i put a lot of this material on ice due to the overwhelming power of this mp3 thing &the need to do a pre millennium clear out i present you with cryogenix"
08: "see description"
09: "As it was being made someone was burning my kitchen down, so it rang true that anything could really happen. This track for the record books was recorded back in 1993. "
10: "Navigator came up to Manchester one day and decided to cut some music. This is just one of four tracks we did. Because everything is in alphabetical order, you will probably hear it later on down the line if you stay tuned to this page."
"Some of this music dates back to the time before 808 State were 808 State; before DrumnBass was Jungle; before JungleTechno was Rave ; before Rave was House . The sounds you will hear are my underground dance decade ....the volts are unlocked....be prepared".
So if you have fond memories of 'Voodoo Ray', are a fan of 808 State, or just want to hear how Jungle and drum and bass evolved, then try this hard to track down collection from the Guy who was influential in starting the whole genre. 

Track listing

01 The Feelings Can't Explain
02 Spesiphic Hate
03 Anxiety
04 Rhapsody In Acid
05 Blow Your House Down
06 All Over The World
07 24 7
08 Machine Room Jam
09 Anything Can Happen
10 Badness A Madness

Nico - Chelsea Girl (1967)

After collaborating as a singer with the Velvet Underground on their first album, Nico toured with the band in Andy Warhol's Exploding Plastic Inevitable (EPI) multimedia roadshow, after which she took up residence in a New York City coffeehouse as a solo folk chanteuse, accompanied by guitarists such as Tim Hardin, Jackson Browne, and also her Velvet Underground bandmates Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison and John Cale. Some of these accompanists wrote songs for her to sing, and these formed the backbone of 'Chelsea Girl', her first solo album, released in 1967. Browne contributed 'The Fairest Of The Seasons', 'These Days', and 'Somewhere There's A Feather', while Hardin wrote 'Eulogy To Lenny Bruce', and 'Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams' was a Reed song that was part of the earliest Velvet Underground repertoire, but which didn't surface as a VU recording until it was included in the 1995 box set 'Peel Slowly And See'. 'I'll Keep It With Mine' was gifted to her by Bob Dylan, while Reed, Cale and Morrison in various combinations contributed the rest of the material. After the basic tracks were recorded, producer Tom Wilson added string and flute arrangements against the wishes of Nico, before which the musical backing was relatively simple, consisting of one or two guitars or, alternatively, a keyboard instrument, played by either Browne or her Velvet Underground colleagues, but there are no drums or bass instruments, hence the absence of Velvet's drummer Maureen Tucker. 

The chamber folk feel of the music was the result of the string and flute overdubs added to the initial recordings by Wilson and arranger Larry Fallon, without involving or consulting Nico. She was dissatisfied with the finished product, particularly the addition of the flute, commenting in 1981, "I still cannot listen to it, because everything I wanted for that record, they took it away. I asked for drums, they said no. I asked for more guitars, they said no. And I asked for simplicity, and they covered it in flutes! ... They added strings and – I didn't like them, but I could live with them. But the flute! The first time I heard the album, I cried and it was all because of the flute". In retrospective 21st-century reviews, AllMusic described the album as "an unqualified masterpiece", while Trouser Press commented that the album "is sabotaged by tepid arrangements and weak production", and so in order to hear the album as Nico intended (apart from the lack of the drums that she wanted), I've removed all the strings and the flute, and boosted the organ on 'Little Sister' so that you can actually hear it without it being buried under the orchestration. In keeping with the stripped-back nature of the music, I've also stripped back the cover to just the main image. 

Track listing

01 The Fairest Of The Seasons
02 These Days
03 Little Sister
04 Winter Song
05 It Was A Pleasure Then
06 Chelsea Girls
07 I'll Keep It With Mine
08 Somewhere There's A Feather
09 Wrap Your Troubles In Dreams
10 Eulogy To Lenny Bruce

Thank to 'Unknown' for this suggestion, and if anyone else can recall the phrase 'strings and horns were added against the artist's wishes' then let me know and I'll attempt to put it right.