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Athletico
Spizz 80 – Do A Runner
(A&M LP 1980)
OK, I knew that this was 26 years old because there’s a clue in
the name. But I know nothing else about Spizz – I usually rely on
my dusty/trusty Virgin Encyclopaedia of Indie & New Wave
to bail me out at times like these but this lot don’t even get a
footnote - well done Branston, more delays – and yes I have checked
all the other Spizzes (Oil, Energy etc… and not a jot. This book,
published in 1998, is becoming increasingly foreign to me.) But let me
say that this is an enjoyable LP, tense and restless, and, quality-wise,
though it’s not as good as the first Franz album, it’s a damn
sight better than the second. There’s one long track that’s
particularly brilliant called ‘Airships’ while elsewhere there
are loads of great songs that would do Art Brut proud. The band themselves
looked pretty cool, not unlike the anonymous ones from The Rakes or Maximo
Park. They had song titles like 'European Heroes' and 'New Species' and
they had lyrics like ‘Clocks are big, Machines are heavy.’
I’ve always said that. They are/were well-read, sporty and tower-block
sharp.
So
what have I discovered? That art-rock did not begin with that there magazine
you get in record stores. It began much, much earlier, in the afterglow
of punk. But I’m sure you knew that already.
Do
A Runner is available from all good charity shops priced £2.50
There
is no CD. There is no link. |
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Melanie
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Sunset & Other Beginnings (CBS 1975)
Was there a worse year than 1975 in the history of British pop music?
It really has to be the nadir between the first Cliff EP and latest supercool
band with the trilbies, etc. Sure, The Sex Pistols played their first
gig that autumn but it wasn’t really until the following summer
that the cultural winds, mercifully, blew away all the dreadful remnants
of decaying movements. I have only ever garnered six albums from that
time frame: Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks, Desire and Basement Tapes
(all classics), Buffy’s Changing Woman (which is so average I’ve
only played it once), Harvest For The World (which I haven’t yet
played at all beyond the title track) and this one. This one I’ve
played many times – it is probably my favourite Melanie album. The
fact that everything got destroyed by punk – including thousands
of musical careers, possibly Melanie’s too – cannot be regretted.
Punk was so necessary. I’m not gonna spout any new found love of
Prog or sympathy for Glam. It was overblown and disconnected from the
people. Yet I do feel sorry for Melanie Safka, a sixties sweetie who never
did anyone any harm, who only wanted to sing her songs, made suddenly
irrelevant. This hippie-chic album is a mixture of melancholy and misdirection,
poignant leftover poetry, and that familiar frisson of feminism. Her covers
of You Can’t Hurry Love and Dream Seller I tend to skip. But her
own numbers, Perceive It, People Are Just Getting Ready, Sandman, Afraid
of the Dark and The Sun & The Moon are wonderful and imbue this record
with unexpected strength. If the album had six more songs like these and
had ditched the covers it would be a classic. Still, I recommend it despite
its unimportance in the grand scheme (you’d be far hipper to spend
your money on Tim Buckley, Nick Drake and Joni Mitchell CDs – but
try and find some room in your heart for Melanie). One can’t help
wondering how her music might have developed had punk never happened.
As a songwriter might she have eventually attained the stature of a Carole
King or Joni? Perhaps, romantically, I like to imagine so. (But if we
ever find ourselves back in 1975 we’re really in trouble. 1234...
All around my hat…)
Sunset
& Other Beginnings was found at a carboot sale for 50p. It's
fairly easy to come by quite cheaply online - eBay isn't all Arctic Monkeys
7"s at £74.99.
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