Propaganda - A Secret Wish. I'll buy it again. And again. And again. And again.

25 years ago I bought Propaaganda's beautiful, magnificent album A Secret Wish for the very first time. And then I bought the Paul Morley reproduction (other versions and remixes) cd Wishful Thinking. And then I bought the 2002 Outside World cd with even more versions.

Four times I've bought A Secret Wish. The original album had 10 different songs on it. Across all 4 cds there's only another 4 songs (and two of these are, in all honesty, just renamed reworkings of songs from A Secret Wish) and 7 extra dvd videos.

This latest version of A Secret Wish is the deluxe edition. No new tracks. Just 2 cds worth of the original album and various alternate versions and different mixes. I started with a treat - the 20 minute version of Jewel/Duel called Do Well. I hadn't heard it before - it's a rare, rare thing, mixing together multiple versions of Propaganda's most famous song. It took seconds for the goosebumps to form on my arm and a huge, ecstatic smile to play across my face.

Right, I'm off to listen to Propaganda. Again. Have some pictures, taken from the ZTT Archives.

Ipod A-Z update and an abiding, but late, appreciation of Tom Waits.

I think Tom Wait's Nighthawks At The Diner may end up being one of my favourite records by the time I'm dead. It's grown and grown in my estimation over the last few years until it holds a place in my heart shared only by certain music by Kraftwerk, The Cure, Cabaret Voltaire, The The, Ultra Vivid Scene, Carter USM, That Petrol Emotion, Propaganda, Duran Duran and The Shamen.

It may well be the most perfect bringing together of music and comedy I'll ever hear. Definitely one to be heard late at night, preferably with a few drinks on board already. But what a glorious experience it is.

Anyway, as you may have guessed, we're onto the Tom Waits part of the Ipod A-Z. This may not have taken that long a few weeks ago, as all the Tom Waits I had was Nighthawks, The Asylum Years and Swordfishtrombones. But I'd always promised myself I'd get some more when I had the time to listen to it. And this seemed the ideal time. Ten extra albums later, many hours of listening later and I'm nearing the end. Nighthawks is on again and no matter how good the other stuff is, there's something about that cabaret style, the conversation with that invited audience, the laughs all around and the whole performance that I can't get enough of. It's a wonderful thing realising that I've discovered something else to join the short list of music I couldn't live without.

After Tom Waits it's a quick blast to the end of the A-Z and then I'm faced with the big question of What Next? I may go back and relisten to all the spoken word and comedy. And after that I may well do some sort of enforced randomiser - maybe do a single letter of the alphabet each week?

Because the one thing that doing this has proven is that there's an awful lot of music on the ipod that just didn't get a fair hearing. Not something I intend to have happen again.

The Stupid Ipod A-Z Idea - update

It's been a long time since I last mentioned anything about the Stupid Ipod A-Z idea. In fact it was in October and I'd gotten all the way to E. Well, amazingly, it's still going on. I'm currently mid way through S and having a bloody great time.

Along the way I've rediscovered a love of REM and had a particularly good time in P; Pixies, Polyphonic Spree, Propaganda. Around Christmas I hit L and downloaded a load of Leonard Cohen so Molly could hear what Hallelujah should really sound like. She preferred the Buckley version, but that was okay, as long as she didn't like the Xfactor abortion of a song.

Now we're onto the Shamen.
I know, I know.
Get the snickering out of the way now.



I heard Something About You, from their first album Drop on Peel or somewhere in 87, making me 16ish. Drop sounds nothing like anything they did subsequently; a mix of 60s psych pop and indie tunes from a 5 piece band. But what really made me sit up and start following them was Christopher Mayhew Says; industrial dance music with extensive samples of Christopher Mayhew on his LSD trip.

A quick trip into dance culture and sampling for In Gorbechev We Trust (1989). Will Sinnott (Will Sin) was on board and it became a bit of a two man operation for the best period of their work. Phorward (1989) got even more dance orientated and EnTact (1990) was where it all went a little more overground and mainstream. Still great, just really tapping into the dance culture at exactly the right time. Of course, it also saw the partial introduction of Mr C.



Disaster followed. Will Sin drowned in 91 just as ProGen was about to become a huge hit the second time round, MrC was all over everything and success just seemed to make it all just that little bit more bland. Boss Drum (1992) was okay at the time but It's almost unlistenable bar three or four tracks now. Ebeneezer Goode purely as stupid nostalgia, but Re-Evolution, the spoken word track from Terrence McKenna is still great. I had the best time watching them play Re-Evolution live at Glastonbury one year. I can't remember the year, in fact I can't remember much about the night apart from the great light and sound show. How much of that was on stage and how much in my own head - I have no idea.



I've not even heard anything after that. And I almost dread to do so. Maybe one day. But in their time, especially during the early years - they were great.

That was the weekend that was.... Carter and Birmingham

Well, what a weekend that was. We all got back into Pocklington early Sunday evening and it's taken me until about now to actually catch up with myself. Busy.

Friday night was a trip into Birmingham to see another one of my fave bands. The summer was all about seeing That Petrol Emotion in London, but this was time for Carter USM in Birmingham. They've always been a favourite, ever since catching Sheriff Fatman one night on Radio 1. Since then I've followed them on the up and I've followed them when they lost their fans and changed their style and I've followed them as they went solo. And over the years I've seen them many, many times. In fact, thinking back over the years of my youth, I've probably seen them more than any other band (with the possible exception of the Cure).

After a few years of solo work, they've come to the same conclusion as a lot of other bands; that if the fans are still there and if the band still get on why not do a few gigs here and there. Which led me to the Birmingham Academy for the first time this year. Still shit. Still hot, sweaty and sticky. But this time it was packed with lots of us middle aged people.

First up Vile Evils, featuring 2 band members from Pop Will Eat Itself. Now I liked Pop Will Eat Itself (I was from Dudley, liking PWEI, Neds Atomic Dustbin and The Wonder Stuff was almost a genetic thing) but to hear the same thing, presented by a new band, all these years later just seems redundant. But redundant at high volume and horrible distortion. I always forget just how crap the sound at the Academy can be. Shouting through mud.

EMF were no better. I was really up for seeing this reformed EMF, but the idea of seeing them was an awful lot better than the reality of seeing them and the novelty wore off after the first couple of songs. But thank god that mood didn't continue with Carter. A great, great show. The pair of them may be older but they still barrelled through the songs at pace, just Jim Bob, Fruitbat and the drum machine on the stage. It was a blinding show in both senses of the word, with more strobing than I've ever seen at a show before. I imagine that a few people there last night discovered that they did, after all, have epilepsy.

Two middle aged blokes on stage with a drum machine and backing tracks may not be everyone's thing but the Academy was packed to the roof, which was dripping with the heat. The only bad thing about it? They really stuck to the early stuff but what they played was absolutely wonderful. The biggest cheer of the night came when Jim Bob mentioned that they might make this a semi-regular thing. More Carter USM wouldn't be a bad thing at all. Maybe every couple of years gents?


Saturday was a nothing day. A carefully planned nothing day and a really great relaxing day. My problem is a failure to relax, an inability to stop myself doing things and just sit down to either read, write or just do nothing.

But Saturday had two things to be done. Go to Nostalgia & Comics and pick up comics and go out with friends in the evening. Between the two was a big gap of nothingness. This nothingness was spent sitting in a coffee bar, reading comics and writing reviews. Blissfully relaxing and the reviews just flowed like silk. I really have to teach myself to do this more often.

Then Sunday to pick up Molly and Louise who'd braved the Arctic conditions of York railway station on Saturday morning to journey down to Nottingham to see friends.

All in all a very good, but rather expensive weekend. One bonus about the sound at the Academy not being great was that it hasn't seemed to have made the Tinitus any worse; something I still think happened after the ear mashing volume of That Petrol Emotion.

Carter, Carter, Carter, Carter, Carter, CARTER, CARTER

Cue chorus of You Fat Bastard.......

This weekend just past I was not here. I was away and having an ace time watching Carter USM blow me back to a time when I was younger and had silly hair. I imagine I was be grinning like a loon all weekend.

And yes. I have T-shirt. Of course I have T-shirt.

That Petrol Emotion - Live in London 26th August 2008

Of all the bands I've loved there are possibly a group of 10 that I'd consider my all time favourites. And, like many of us of a certain age, a lot of these 10 are no longer together. There are a couple who I have no hope of ever seeing live for various reasons (Cabaret Voltaire, Ultra Vivid Scene, Propaganda) and there are some who I know will tour at some point (The Cure, Kraftwerk, Duran Duran, Steve Wynn). And then there are those that I had seen when they were together but figured they broke up so long ago that there was no hope for a reformation.

Well, first to confound expectations was Carter USM, who I'm off to see in November. Much excitement. But better was to come, as I find out from the That Petrol Emotion website that this wonderful band, this underachieving, never had the success they deserved band, were getting together and doing three secret gigs at London, Dundalk and The Electric Picnic festival. That Petrol Emotion were my first ever gig. It was amazing. As was every single time I've seen them since then. The news got even better when I realised they were playing in August - holiday time! Okay, so it was also the day after Molly's birthday, but that was no problem - and suddenly the whole family is having a London trip.


(From sweetfoolthemouth's photostream on Flickr)

They played the Boston Arms, Dirty Water Club in Tufnell Park. The place was sold out and full as it could get. Anticipation was high, very high, as most of us were fans from last time around and we'd all been waiting at least 14 years for this moment.

Band makes the stage at ten. And the years melt away, time goes backward, aching backs, weightgain, mortgages, children and stress are all at least temporarily forgot and we're all back in our youth once more, dancing like idiots and having such a great time. I don't think I've ever seen so many middle aged men smile quite so much as I did that night. And I should know, because I was one of them. Grinning ear to ear for a couple of hot, sweaty, frantic and wonderful hours.

And if the audience felt the years wash away, the band certainly did. That Petrol Emotion were always a great live band, always tight and powerful, but they were incredibly good this night. They nailed it from the first song and I think they had just as much fun up there as we did watching them.


(From rickenley's photostream on Flickr)

So it was a spectacular, ecstatic, wonderful night watching one of the greatest live bands I've ever seen. The whole gig was just perfect. Thank you boys. But don't leave it so long for the next gig eh?

The plan was to take a few pictures, but that didn't happen, I was far too absorbed by the music to take photos. Luckily there were many people there and the footage is already out on Flickr (set 1, set 2, set 3, set 4). I imagine something will be up on You Tube pretty soon as well.

The I-Pod, A-Z for the holidays. & A-Ha

According to the I-pod I have 17 + days of listening. This is good. Because I've been having one of those times that I hate, when nothing at all springs to mind when I ask myself the question "what do I want to listen to?".
To battle this horrible condition I have decided that for the foreseeable future I shall be soundtracking my life in a simple, non-descision making manner. I set it off at the first bit of music I had and am going to keep going through the alphabet.

Tonight it was A-Ha, Act, Adam & The Ants, Afrika Bambaata, Algebra Suicide & Anandar Shankar. I took the editorial decision to skip the spoken word stuff as I wanted stuff to work to and spoken word tends to make me listen harder and ruins writing. So no Alan Davies or Alan Moore.

It certainly means I'm going to listen to some stuff I haven't heard for a while. And also points out some of the more embaressing / interesting / insane bits of the collection. Indeed from the artsists above I think you can see the prevalence of 80s acts and electronic pioneers quite well. & don't take the piss out of A-Ha. I've loved them from first hearing Take On Me. Of course, like Duran Duran, I initially dismissed them as far too poppy and light for a serious Cure fan to really love.

But with A-Ha the turning point came, as so many things do when you're a young teen, after being given the tape of Scoundrel Days by a girlfriend. After that we promptly broke up and I spent nights wandering around playing this on the crappy Saisho personal stereo, weeping profusely. Things like that stay with you.

So after that I started paying more attention. There's a couple of duff albums in the band's output (Memorial Beach, Lifelines) , but overall they're a pleasure to come back to.

That Petrol Emotion, reforming and touring. 2008 gets better and better

A while ago I gushed (there's really no other word for it) about one of my all time favourite bands getting back together and the prospect of new material and gigs.

Like I've said before, That Petrol Emotion were not only my first ever gig but also, a few years later, one of my favourites. Playing the Hummingbird in Birmingham in support of Iggy Pop and they quite honestly (in my biased little opinion) blew him off the stage. Cannot remember the year though, curse my failed memory.

But That Petrol Emotion are definitely back. And they're doing gigs. Small, secret gigs. Two of them before an Irish festival. Small, secret gigs that I can get to. Happy me. Ecstatic Me. Giddy as a schoolgirl me.

Have a video of them rehearsing. Older. but still makes me feel like I'm 16 again.

So that's Carter (with extra EMF thrown in as well!) and That Petrol Emotion. All we need is Kurt Ralske to tour as Ultra Vivid Scene again and Richard Kirk and Stephen Mallinder to get together and tour with Cabaret Voltaire material from the early 80s Sensoria era. Then my year would be complete.

School work - introducing the Year 3 children to music..... Kraftwerk and Jean Michel Jarre

Today was a fun lesson for me. And who knows, it may have even been enjoyable for Year 3. It was the first lesson in the ICT Music module.
Lesson plan provided by HLTA who usually plans these things said:

"Recognise sound of an assortment of instruments"
"Use electronic keyboard to discuss function of electronic instruments to produce sounds of different instruments".

Which, although it doesn't specifically mention Kraftwerk or Jean Michel Jarre, is absolutely crying out for use of the German and French electronic music innovators as perfect examples. Or at least I thought it was. Louise thought it was a bloody stupid idea when I suggested it.
Pah, what does she know? It was fantastic. Both of them featured in video on the Smartboard.

Kraftwerk: Music Non Stop:


Jean Michel Jarre: Oxygene 2:


Thought the Kraftwerk got over the synthetic feel of the music well and the Jarre footage was instrumental in describing the instruments. Or, as one of the Year 3 boys perfectly put it: the computery boxes which play the music.
I thought that covered it nicely.

Of course, after that I used my extensive keyboard skills to show the class lots of different sounds that they could make. And as a special ending I turned all the keyboard features on and gave them two minutes of music. And amazingly, since I'd only switched it on for the first time on Friday and have all the musical ability of a goldfish, it worked really well. Managed to get loads of features in, changes in tempo, drum patterns, tone patterns and instrument styles.

A really great lesson. And definitely the first time we've used Kraftwerk and Jean Michel Jarre as teaching aids. But not the last.

New Cure single.

I love the Cure.
No, I really, really love them.
They informed my entire teenage years and certainly informed my dress sense. Thanks to Robert Smith I discovered eyeliner, hair spray and lipstick. Thanks to that I was nearly signed up for my form tutor's emotional problems class, such was the impact wearing eyeliner to my mock O levels. But I loved the Cure. Always did. Always will. I have practically everything they did. I will buy the deluxe cds. I will buy the dvds. I will buy anything they do. Or at least I thought I would.

They have a new single out now called The Only One. It's available in the shops and it's on I-tunes.
But I just torrented it.

I am feeling guilty.
Of course, I'd be feeling a lot more guilty if it didn't sound very much like the Cure I loved from back in 1992.
Essentially it's okay, but that's about it. My Cure days may be over. What a horrible thing to consider.
Although I must admit the last album The Cure (2004) was a huge disappointment after the high point of Bloodflowers (2000). But all is not lost, old Robert Smith is talking about the another album before Christmas - considerably darker than the one they're about to release. And that sounds like it might be a very good thing indeed. Although it does mean that the new album sounds like it may be a bit crap though. After all if he's already talking about how good the album after this one is going to be, surely that doesn't say much for the album that's due.

Charlotte Sometimes.

Before it was a quite wonderful Cure song (see the lyrics) Charlotte Sometimes was a book of the same name, featuring a young girl called Charlotte (what else?) who travels back in time from 1963 each night swapping places with another girl in 1918.
Robert Smith of the Cure is obviosly a huge fan, having based not just Charlotte Sometimes & it's b-side Splintered In Her Head (from 1981) on the novel but also a third song; The Empty World (1984) from The Top.

But what consitutes a fan borrowing themes and ideas from a thing they love and what constitutes whole sale plagarism? It seems the distinction is small and often depends on how nice the fan is about borrowing so much.

Chain Of Flowers, the excellent Cure blog and website, which is much better and informative than the official Cure website, has links to the blog of Penelope Farmer where she discusses the issue and her meeting with Robert Smith. It's heart warming, funny and perfectly told.
Part 1 - The Cure(d)
Part 2 - Robert Smith for ever.

Such is the case with Charlotte Sometimes.

That Petrol Emotion, That Petrol Emotion, That Petrol Emotion, That Petrol Emotion

The best news I've had since I got the Carter tickets.
That Petrol Emotion have reformed and are touring this year.
Joyous.

The best band I have ever seen live and touring again.
Joy, joy, joy.

There's a new website for updates.
This is one of those things that I will make. Doesn't matter where they tour, when it is. I shall find a way. After all, they were my first gig. And you never forget that.

Why in God's name would you devote yourself to Starsailor?

After the Steve Wynn gig the other night I was thinking about how deeply affecting some music can be over others and how certain bands will always be favourites and why that is.

I've never really had one all time favourite band, instead I have a roster of music that will always be around me, no matter how old I am or what my tastes are. At any given time the music I listen to changes and favourites come and go.

But there are 10 bands that I would class as my all time favourites.
Looking at them I think the key thing is that to be included in my all time favourites they have to have been a favourite for at least 5 years, which explains why none of them are recent (and also explains why Rufus Wainwright or the Polyphonic Spree aren't in there).
They tend to have a large body of work - Ultra Vivid Scene only have 3 cds available but most of them are nearer double figures.
They also have to be the cds I'd risk life and limb to rescue and would automatically buy again and again if some accident befell them.

My all time favourite 10 bands (2008 version) are:

Cabaret Voltaire
Carter USM (& Jim Bob's solo work)
The Cure
Duran Duran
Kraftwerk
Propaganda
Steve Wynn
That Petrol Emotion
The The
Ultra Vivid Scene

I return to them regularly, no matter what other things I may be listening to, and it's rare I'll go a month without having at least one of them blaring out the Ipod at Bruton mansions.
They're all quite different and I have no idea what makes them qualify as my favourite bands.

Now I'm sure everyone has their own list of favourites and I'm sure they're just as varied, just as unusual. But what I've always wondered is how some people can love the sorts of bands I see as just bland, dull, spiritless things.

The best way I have of explaining what I think is that I can understand why Kraftwerk is one of my favourite bands, why some people idolise Radiohead, or Neil Young, Mozart, New Order, REM, The Beatles or even bands like Take That.
But why would anyone ever say Starsailor was their favourite band?

Why?
WHY?
I just can't explain it. To me, music serves many purposes. It makes everything better, entertains, stimulates and makes you think. Good music can speak to you in so many different ways and your favourite music is always something special to you.
I can understand why someone may like a band like Starsailor, or why you might like the occasional Starsailor song but I can't even begin to understand why someone would claim Starsailor as their favourite band.

At this point, I should apologise for slagging off Starsailor, point out that I'm just picking on them because they're just not my cup of tea and I can understand why anyone would like their music etc etc
But, you know what, I'd be lying.

More gigs: Carter, Carter, CARTER!

When you're younger you can eat what you like, drink what you like and still climb into your 26 inch waist trousers and zip them closed. Then you reach that age .... 24/25 .... your muscles give up, they wave a little white flag and without any warning at all you're suddenly a fat bastard.

Cue chanting.

November 21st. Back to Birmingham for a 6pm show where I shall be shouting You Fat Bastard at two middle aged men and a drum machine. The Joy.

This is one of those reunion gigs. I've seen Carter many times, after all, they were around when I was young and just at the right age. But as I've grown older, so have they and I've followed the subsequent works of messrs Jim Bob and Fruit Bat with interest and much pleasure.

Hell, I'm so excited about it I might even end up buying a T-shirt.

Duran Duran - Red Carpet Massacre....

Now, as you may know, I love Duran Duran.
And as much as I love the early stuff, my real love for them comes into full bloom where most fans started to lose interest. So it's from Notorious that my interest really took off. Every album since then has been a joy.
(Obviously we're not really counting the Covers Album, we'll be skating over that particular little embarrassment).
As they got less successful and less cool, my love for them and enjoyment of the music grew larger.
I can't help but think that a lot of the musical inventiveness came from Nick Rhodes and his musical collaborator of the time Warren Cuccurello. Which probably accounts for the dire reunion album after Cuccurello was kicked out to allow the near-original 5 to reunite.

So, even though I didn't much care for the last cd: Astronaut (backward step musically with the reformed original line up) I got the new cd Red Carpet Massacre for Birthday.

They've decided to get new "hip" producers in and co-write the whole thing with Nate "Danja" Hills, the producer. Timbaland is involved in some of the tracks as is that Timberlake fellow.
I can see what they're doing. They've done it before. After the really successful early years they hired on Niles Rogers (Chic) and gave us Notorious, a very differenet sound, which to most people was a huge reason to stop listening. Now they're doing the same with producer de jour Timbaland and his protege Danja.

And after two listens I went downstairs and told Louise it was bloody awful. The best thing on it was the instrumental Tricked Out I said. Hate the production, hate the music.

But I've listened to it again. And again. And again. It's on heavy rotation now. It's grown all over me. It's still jarring to hear Timbaland rapping over a couple of the tracks . Some of the tracks are weak as anything, but dammit, even they're growing on me now. I guess I'm just a hopeless Duranny? Duranni? Duran-e?

Duran Duran comic?????

There's a nice piece in the New York Times - Superhero Stylings From Stars Of Pop about the recent high profile star turns writing comics - focusing inevitably on Gerard Way with Umbrella Academy (still haven't read it yet - will do over the next week or so).

But what immediately caught my eye a little down the page was the tantalising prospect of a Duran Duran comic coming from Virgin.
Now you know my love of Duran Duran is great so this is interesting news.
Although the last "oh isn't it great the 5 are all together again" album Astronaut was arse of the biggest scale and I'm having a hard time listening to the two songs from the new album Red Carpet Massacre - one is Nite Runner; a bizarre Timbaland and Timberlake collaboration & the other is Falling Down, a semi ballad thing.
Not sure of either yet. Ho Hum.

It was 20 years ago today. Oh hell.My first ever gig - That Petrol Emotion

Gone gone is the love of my youth.

A little googling, a little you tubing and suddenly I'm looking at what happens to one of my favourite bands of my youth.
More specifically what happens to the young, lithe, sexy frontman of That Petrol Emotion; Steve Mack.

Then:

& now: This is Steve Mack today:

Since the break up of the greatest band never to have made it big. Steve Mack has become heavily involved in streaming media, worked as a higher up at Real networks and is now head of his own company. And although older, you can still imagine him on a stage somewhere.
Lux Media

Steve Mack's Lux Media bio

And all this from the man who so enchanted me at my first ever gig at Birmingham's old Powerhouse (now some shitty superclub) on 29th September 1987.
I must admit, when I started writing this post it was a few weeks ago and I had no idea (terrible memory remember) when the gig was, no idea that it was 20 years ago. 20 years ago! 20 years seems so horribly far away, yet I can remember it as if it were yesterday. Which is strange really, because these days I'm hard pressed to remember what happened yesterday.


I went with a group of school friends. Four of us on the 126 bus from Dudley, excitedly practising out fake birthdays to get into the venue. Turning up at the Powerhouse and being so scared they'd not let us in the building.
Then the gig. It was truly amazing. I'd loved That Petrol Emotion for a couple of years at that point since hearing Manic Pop Thrill. But Babble had just come out and I was in love with it; Big Decision, Swamp and every other damn track had me up and moving whenever I heard them. I'm sure I'd seen them play Big Decision and Swamp on the Tube before the gig (edit - August 87) and was amazed at the performance.
The actual gig was everything a first gig should be. So loud, so packed, I danced my ass off that night and went home with my ears ringing, ecstatic and happy. Thinking about it now makes me so wonderfully nostalgic and so happy as I sit here with Big Decision playing in the background.

I was fortunate enough to see them another couple of times and followed every move avidly, continuously wondering when they were going to make it big. Sadly they didn't. Although if they'd have been around post grunge instead of pre grunge the story may have been completely different.

So thanks Reámann O`Gorman, Ciaran McLaughlin, Steve Mack, Damian O`Néill, Sean O`Néill. Thank you for that night and thank you for some spectacular music.

That Petrol Emotion websites: fansite, wiki, amazon for Babble,
And finally, that Tube performance that I'm sure I saw. Still makes me go slightly tingly now:

Now that's just not bloody fair .......... Polyphonic Spree tour UK without me it seems

Now, you all know that I love the Polyphonic Spree. No, really, really love them.

And it seemed like everything was going to go so well this summer, seeing as the new cd was out and they had the whole of August completely free to tour here.
Well, the UK tour starts on Sunday 2nd Sept and finishes on 5th Sept. (list here).
Fuck. Not fair. Really not fair.
And to make matters worse, they're playing the bloody Glee Club in Birmingham as well, so it's a lovely intimate venue to see them in.
Not fair.
So, all in all, not in the best of moods.

The Polyphonic Spree

The new Polyphonic Spree cd; The Fragile Army, popped onto my doormat last Tuesday.
Those of you who know me may be wondering why there hasn't been endlessly talked about - after all, I absolutely love the band.
Well, the truth is, the cd is a little bit of a disappointment. It has all the elements of a fantastic album, all the essential Polyphonic Spree-ness is there, but it's just not quite hanging together so perfectly as the first two cds did.

The initial promise of greater things to come after listening to the mashup sampler version of the cd hasn't happened and I'm left feeling that this isn't the Polyphonic Spree I love.

There are some wonderful, truly uplifting and ecstatic moments on here, but nowhere near as many as the previous cds. Mental Cabaret stands out, Get Up & Go is great, Running Away has it's moments. But overall, not as good as I was expecting / wanting / hoping. And maybe that's the problem; maybe I was just expecting / wanting / hoping for the impossible?

Of course, in a few weeks time or a few months, it may have grown on me the way all truly great albums do, and I could be proclaiming it a work of genius.

Polyphonic Spree tour....... hoping for August....

Sometimes things just work out right.
Case in point:
The Polyphonic Spree (site, myspace) release a new cd called the Fragile Army June 19th.

I'm looking at the tour dates now. Throughout June & July they're touring across the USA, finishing 4th August.
Next confirmed dates are in Japan on 11th & 12th August.
Then nothing until 1st September when they're in Ireland for a festival.

That's a biiiiig chunk of dates from 13th August to 31st August. A hugely excited bit of me can't help but make the assumption that they'll be touring across the UK during those dates.
If they do it's absolutely perfect timing, as it's right in the middle of summer holidays and Louise should be off as well. And that means the entire Bruton clan will decamp to see them instead of just me on my lonesome. It also means that Molly's first gig will be something spectacular!