This is my favorite song and is very close to a Christmas carol,especially "Walking in the air"
It appeared on the Indie charts in early 1983 peaking at No.5,sharing the chart with no end of punks.
Virginia Astley had little to do with Rock,never mind Punk
03 Feb 06 ·shakeahand: Yes quite beautiful, and then so easy to forget how dark and uncomfortable the lyrics are - being in a loveless relationship with, it seems, no way out. See also Some Small Hope, a duet with David Sylvian, another etherial mix of beauty and sadness. 05 Feb 06 ·thefamilycat: Only a few of Virginia Astley's songs related to her own life.Her pet subjects were "having someone" or "almost having someone",tales of childhood or ideas from World War 1 poetry.
"Tree Top Club" is actually set in thre village where her family lived at the time":Stanmore North London.The "ruined church" referred to can be seen in the churchyard where it was left after burning down.
Her 90s songs continued the poetic and religious imagery she was so fond of and scenes from Alice in Wonderland are quite obvious
It took me a long, long while to �get� Gorillaz. Oh come on, who didn�t like �Clint Eastwood�? I dunno, having sunshine in a bag is a nice lyric to repeat when people are pissing you and your shit off� yet, �Clint Eastwood� didn�t make me a fan.
No, in fact, no Gorillaz track did more to bring me into the fold than �Dirty Harry�, with its amazing keyboards, bassline and children�s chorale�
It�s just been a while since I�ve come across pop music that was so far off the beaten track, that it redefines what is �mainstream�. This is always fun for music lovers, but once again goes to prove that noone with taste thinks the cookie cutter approach to popular music is the right way.
Well I�m a Gorillaz fan now, maybe three or four years late, but I�m a fan for sure. �Demon Days� has quickly jumped up to �Heavy Rotation� status in my last.fm and musicmobs profiles in a heart beat.
It�s weird, because someone brought a pre-release copy of �Demon Days� for me way back in April, but I listened to it a few times and then ignored it, forgot it for the most part (if you ignore the iconic billboards and posters everywhere across London). I�m famous for that though, I tend to err on the side of not believing the hype, a la Public Enemy.
It was only about three or four weeks ago, after my flatmate�s accidental stop on the �Dirty Harry� video one night, while I was in another room working.
Said keyboards, bass line and chorale, made me stop what I was doing, get up and go into the living room, calling incredulously as I went, �What are you listening to?�
That my friends, is all Big Mami wrote on the matter�
With the likes of Buzzsaw by The Turtles and Dance With The Devil by Cozy Powell, Groovin' With Mr. Bloe is one of my favourite late 60's-early 70's groovy "novelty" pop instrumentals.
Beginning with a tight drum beat that carries on throughout the song and followed by one of the fattest basslines ever, this is a real dancefloor gem for hip crowds. Best of all is the harmonica lead by Mr. Bloe himself, a session musician by the name of Harry Pitch. Groovin'...became a surprise top ten hit but the best credit to the song is that it allegedly still enjoys club play by Richard Searling, the legendary northern soul deejay.
12 Jan 06 ·n-jeff: I take the opportunity to play it out whenever I can, it's a belter of a record, and still relatively easy to find in UK charity shops.
Good choice!
This gorgeously ominous ditty seems to borrow [intentionally?] more than a little from The Creatures' ode to alcoholic decadence "2nd Floor", but even by Siouxsie and Budgie's standards this is a grim little number. Sort of the title track to the LP - "Witching hour...soft power", the chorus goes - this song evidences the group's successful movement away the explicit influences of The Human League/Fad Gadget/Soft Cell/etc. toward a sort of synth-heavy post-punk along the lines of The Scars, Tuxedomoon, Family Fodder and/or The Banshees' "Kaleidoscope" LP. The melody is beautiful, and the lyrics - full of images of monster glamour girls nightclubbing the rest of world to death - are creepy as fuck.
We got (still get) very little British music here in the States, even the top of the pops - I'm continually discovering great stuff that is decades old...
One of my all time faves is this Strangler's tune - beautiful imagery, some etherial background vocals, altogether a wonderful "mellow" tune from a band best known over here for punk.
07 Feb 06 ·n-jeff: Lovely, surprisingly, considering what boorish herberts the stranglers could be. Nice video too, 20's Cairo chic, grubby whie suits, rubber plants, faded sepia hotel splendour. I've always wanted that sort of white suit, maybe it was watching Casablanca at an early age. 23 Mar 06 ·audioadventures: I was into the band before they broke as they were based in our town. Golden Brown is from La Folie album (1982).
