Not my favourite Ramones album by a long shot but it does have two real good things going for it. Firstly it features one of my favourite Ramones songs in “I Wanna Be Sedated”, a song which I even attempt to play myself at times. Secondly this copy is on yellow vinyl and you must know by now what a sucker I am for that.

This was the Ramones first album with Marky behind the drum kit. Tommy had left the band following disappointing sales of previous album “Rocket To Russia” and because he didn’t handle the stress of touring well. Marky Ramone (or Marc Bell as his mom knew him) had previously played for Wayne County & The Backstreet Boys and Richard Hell & the Voidoids (and almost the New York Dolls it is reported) before being asked to become a Ramone after meeting Dee Dee at a gig in New York City. Tommy did stay on to co-produce this album (as T. Erdelyi, his real name) alongside Ed Stasium. 

This is a subtly different sounding Ramones to previous albums. There’s acoustic guitars involved and solo’s and arpeggio’s all sitting alongside Johnny’s trademark rama-lama downstrokes. Both Ed Stasium and Tommy are credited with playing guitar on this record but it doesn’t specifically say on what. I’d suspect Johnny either couldn’t or more likely wouldn’t play some of the parts required (as I’m writing this both this album and “Ramones” are leaning against the wall across the room with Johnny glaring out at me from both so I don’t want to say anything out of turn) and so left them up to Ed and Tommy ?

After the opening double salvo of "I Just Want to Have Something to Do”, which straight away gives us some solo-ish guitar at the end that we’d not heard on Ramones records before, and "I Wanted Everything" the first surprise comes with “Don’t Come Close”. It’s an acoustic song with a hint of Country about it. It was released as the albums lead single and was a top 40 hit in the UK in 1978, even getting them a coveted spot on Top Of the Pops in September 1978 introduced by none other than the Hairy Cornflake, Dave Lee Travis (https://youtu.be/-fw84k3HqY0?si=v5esSjBxHp0uLtIv). It’s a very different version to that on the album, re-recorded for the BBC, who worked under strict Musicians Union rules back then, and then mimed to. The acoustics are replaced with Johnny’s chugging Mosrite and the song has been re-arranged to omit the guitar solo, thus supporting the suggestion that those parts were played by Ed Stasium or Tommy.

A couple of songs later they cover “Needles and Pins” most famously performed by The Searchers in 1964. Again I don’t know how much of a part Johnny played on that one. Over on Side 2 we get as close as the Ramones ever got to a ballad with Dee Dee’s “Questioningly”, another song with a hint of the Country about it. It really does come as a shock sitting as it does between the regular Ramones thrash of “Go Mental” and “She’s The One”.

In between all these acoustic-ed, 60’s pastiches we do get some usual Ramones fare, my previously mentioned favourite “I Wanna Be Sedated”, “I’m Against It” and “Bad Brain” are all what their audience had come to expect from Da Brudders. “Road To Ruin” sees the band trying stretch their wings and flex their muscles a little so as not to get stuck in a rut. Tommy said of “Road To Ruin” that it reflected not only “the Ramones' enduring love for sixties pop, but a nagging desire to expand beyond the confines of 120 seconds…albeit linked to the guitar-crunching sonics established on their first three albums”.

I Wanna Be Sedated - https://youtu.be/bm51ihfi1p4?si=61McNkOSjz0YUAS7

Anyone remember the Britannia Music Club ? It was a mail order company/membership thing for buying records. When you joined they gave you this great offer of buying 4 LP’s for £1 each but you were then tied in for 2 years and you had to buy X amount of records in year 1 and a lesser amount in year 2. The reason I mention this is that in the early 80’s I joined the Britannia Music Club mainly because of that 4 LP’s for £1 each offer, and in the two years and possibly a dozen albums I bought, this is the only one I remember getting from them. It is a belter tho’.

“Howlin’ Wind” was the debut album for Graham Parker & The Rumour. Parker had spent the late 60’s and early 70’s working odd jobs and playing music around France, Gibraltar and North Africa. After returning to London he advertised for musicians to play with and through a fortuitous series of connections was introduced to Dave Robinson (later to form Stiff Records) who had a small recording studio above the Hope & Anchor pub in Islington and they began recording demo’s. One of those recordings ("Nothin's Gonna Pull Us Apart”) was played on Charlie Gillett’s “Honky Tonk” show on Radio London and caught the ear of Nigel Grange at Phonogram Records. Robinson acted as Parker’s manager and he was signed to Phonogram.

Produced by Nick Lowe, the recordings that became “Howlin’ Wind” started. But Parker needed a band and via Robinson and Lowe’s connections in the London Pub Rock scene they helped put together the Rumour, Brinsley Schwarz (lead guitar) and Bob Andrews (keyboards) (both formerly members of the band Brinsley Schwarz along with Nick Lowe), Martin Belmont (rhythm guitar, previously in Ducks Deluxe), Andrew Bodnar (bass) and Steve Goulding (drums). Bodnar and Goulding went on to play for Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe and The Mekons among many others.

What Parker and the Rumour cooked up was a blend of Blue Eyed Soul with an occasional hint of reggae and some good old pub rock ’n’ roll. The finished article is not a million miles different to Bruce Springsteen’s “The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle” (in fact E Street organist Danny Federici did play on a later Parker album) and the sound of Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes. “White Honey” and “Soul Shoes”, the two songs that kick off each side, are both tuff blue eyed groovers. The version of "Between You and Me" is the demo originally recorded with Dave Robinson as when the Rumour attempted to record it it was decided they couldn’t capture what had been done in Robinson’s little studio in Islington. Side 2 closes out with that hint of reggae on the title track and one of Parker’s two hit singles "Don't Ask Me Questions" (aka "Hey Lord, Don't Ask Me Questions" when it was a hit, although that was a live recording, not this one). My absolute highlight however is the ballad “Gypsy Blood” on side 1 where our Graham pours out how he feels about his sweetie and her “red hot gypsy blood, keeping me warm tonight”. I’m a sucker for a good ballad and this is a beauty.

Graham Parker & The Rumour have always been highly regarded in British music circles. They had one other hit, a cover of The Trammps “Hold Back The Night”, and recorded together until 1980 when Bob Andrews left the band. They reformed in 2012 for a really good album, “Three Chords Good”. 

Gypsy Blood - https://youtu.be/UJnh6mEICrA?si=ffvu2x7sJ4WJH3Xq

I encountered the Milltown Brothers in September 1991 when they were booked as the support on The Wonder Stuff’s “Never Going To Memphis” US tour. We all got on immediately and they were great company on that month long tour. I got on particularly well with their roadie, Spike, a joke cracking ball of energy from Leicester. It was his first time in the US of A and by this time I felt like a bit of a veteran, this being my third swing through America. It was great to see them all being as blown away by the country as we were.

The Milltown’s were a five piece featuring brothers Matt and Simon Nelson up front and, unusually for the time, heavily featuring Barney Williams and his Hammond Organ. That’s one of the things that drew me to them cos I bloody love a swirling Hammond. They wrote great, hook laden songs that reminded me of the Teardrop Explodes, 60’s psychedelia and had a hint of the Manchester Baggy thing going on in places.

Side 1 is superb. The first 4 songs, “Apple Green”, “Here I Stand”, the gorgeous ballad “Sally Ann” and their Top 40 single “Which Way Should I Jump” leave you breathless. Side 2 lets up on the pedal , but not much. “Seems To Me” is a banging, Hammond driven, air punching singalong and it all comes to an end with the gentler “Sandman” and “Real”.

I did a couple of gigs working for the Milltown’s in 1992 as, in the early part of that year, we got the tragic news that Spike had been killed in an accident on the autobahn while out on tour with another band in Germany. On 19th March 1992 The Wonder Stuff appeared billed only as “very special guests” (and there’s a whole other story around that gig) on a bill with the Milltown Brothers and Crazyhead at Leicester University to raise money for his family.

I have nothing but great memories of my time around the Milltown Brothers. This is a great record and I’m really happy to have it on vinyl at last. I gotta admit whenever I hear “Sally Ann” I always tear up a bit remembering singing along to it at side of stage with Spike. Sleep well my friend x

Sally Ann - https://youtu.be/1qdNN9T61A0?si=AToQyLVwInnn_C7c