» Listings for 2024

1. 2023/4 Albums Thing 394 - Visage “Visage”

   Posted on 9:30am Wednesday 7th Aug 2024

   Visage were essentially a Post Punk supergroup put together for New Romantic kingpin Steve Strange to "sing" in front of. Look at the line up, Midge Ure and Rusty Egan (Rich Kids), Dave Formula, Barry Adamson and John McGeoch (Magazine), Billy Currie (Ultravox!). That band, fronted by John Foxx or Howard Devoto, could really have done some damage. Sadly they were fronted by Steve Strange a man who made a superb clothes horse and club promoter but was not much of anything as a singer.

   That’s not to say I don’t like this album, I absolutely do, but while it’s highs are great, its lows are very low. Let’s start with the highs, everyone knows “Fade To Grey” right ? One of the great singles of that early synth-pop era. “Visage” was another single from this album and is also great, Strange mostly talks through the verses and his limited voice is backed up by others on the chorus. My favourite track on here is “The Dancer”, an instrumental written by Ure and Egan, led by crunching guitars and a wailing saxophone courtesy of John McGeoch.

   The lows, well, whoever thought “Tar” was a good idea, never mind a good idea as the albums lead single needs a good pummelling. It is a bloody awful song about the dangers of smoking (sample lyric “Taking one out of the packet, It’s just a force of habit”) with a chorus that consists of the earth shattering lyric “Low tar, High tar”, errrrrr…OK !

   Visage begat the 2nd line-up of Ultravox as this is where Midge Ure met Billy Currie and received his invitation to replace John Foxx. Steve Strange was allowed to make 2 more albums (it was the 80’s, your ability to wear an outrageous outfit was as important as any musical ability you may, or in this case may not, have had !) before Visage faded to grey.

   The Dancer - https://youtu.be/hw9IH9YdP4k?si=xO8uzQyH3k7FWikT

2. 2023/4 Albums Thing 393 - Vent 414 “Vent 414”

   Posted on 9:20am Tuesday 6th Aug 2024

   The Wonder Stuff parted ways after finishing their headlining set at the Phoenix Festival on 15th July 1994.

   Miles Hunt’s next move (after a quick gig as an MTV VJ) was to convene an “Indie supergroup” power trio consisting of himself (obviously !), Bass player Morgan Nicholls (The Senseless Things) and drummer Pete Howard (The Clash, Eat). Originally just named Vent they added the 414 (their combined ideal fighting weight in pounds, allegedly) after being made aware of an American band using the name Vent. Initially Vent 414 was a four piece, their 2nd guitarist being The Cult’s Billy Duffy and as such I toured Europe with them in the summer of 1995. The band and he parted ways after that tour. 

   Vent 414 couldn’t sound any more different to The Wonder Stuff if they tried (and I’m sure they were, trying that is). Miles the singer is still Miles and Miles the lyricist is still…you geddit it ? But this is far removed from the (on the surface) sparkling Indie-pop of The Wonder Stuff. The closest the Stuffies ever got to a sound like this was with “On The Ropes”. The influences on Vent 414 were more American, think Jane’s Addiction, Shudder To Think and Shellac. Talking of Shellac the guy in the “producers” chair was one Steve Albini.

   It’s a record I struggle with primarily because of Steve Albini’s “production” (he would likely have bristled at even the suggestion that he “produced” anything, but we shall tag him that here). There are some great songs on this record but I think many of them suffer at the hands of Albini’s methods. It sounds like a band in a room, which in some ways is great, and I know how good this band were as I toured with them. But I want more from an album than it sounding like a band in a room, that’s the starting point not the desired end. The “production” lacks dynamics, highs and lows, for me, and these songs and performers most certainly do NOT lack dynamics, it feels like they weren’t captured.

   We begin with “Fixer” arguably the greatest song my brother has yet written. I vividly remember him playing me the demo of it for the first time. If you know the song you’ll know in the middle there is a section which features the lyric “Roll some thoughts and roll some more, Roll some, Roll some, Roll some…” and then the most incredible scream of anguish/pain/anger/frustration/relief on the word “YEAH!”, it’s a shock on the record (click the link below if you don’t know it) but let me tell you on the demo it almost physically knocks you over. One of those moments I’ll never forget.

   I could have imagined The Wonder Stuff’s 5th album holding “Fixer” but not much else on here. For many of these songs the catalyst was Morgan’s Bass or Pete’s drumming and both are markedly different from anything in Miles past. 

   There are great songs here, “At The Base Of the Fire”, “Life Before You”, “Fits & Starts”, “Correctional”, “Guess My God”, the curiously titled “A Night Out With A Foreign Fella” and “2113” are all swathed in shuddering bass lines, thunderous drumming and spiky, jagged guitars. After all that musical brutality we come to “At One”. Recorded, I believe, early one day after a particularly boozy night out. Miles asked the engineer to set up some mics as he wanted to do something by himself. You can hear every one of the previous evenings shots of JD and every cigarette smoked in Miles’ voice. It’s quite beautiful.

   My main difficulty is the overall sound. It’s muddy and indistinct, no peaks and troughs, the whole thing flatlines (Except I have to add “Fixer” which tears out of the speakers and attempts to mug you!). Great songs, it’s a shame the end product didn’t let them shine as brightly as the could have. Vent 414 are, as we speak, in the midst of recording a second album, 28 years later, this one being produced by a fan who was prompted to get into music by this very record. What I do know is that the musicians who are making that follow up and who made this record all love it and the way it sounds.

   Fixer - https://youtu.be/7DqXbT8sEvU?si=A5rKx9cyBDGo63oM

3. 2023/4 Albums Thing 392 - The Velvet Underground & Nico “The Velvet Underground & Nico”

   Posted on 9:25am Saturday 3rd Aug 2024

   Arguably the most influential album ever released. David Bowie was handed a test pressing of this album by his then manager Kenneth Pitt in December 1966 (Pitt had been to the US to see Andy Warhol in an attempt to book the VU for a UK tour and Warhol gave Pitt the record) and was performing a cover of “I'm Waiting For The Man” before this album was released in the UK. Almost every Punk band worth its salt in those early days covered that same song and expressed a love for the Velvet Underground. Brian Eno, after being told by Lou Reed that the album sold 30,000 copies in its first 5 years, said in an interview “I think everyone who bought one of those 30,000 copies started a band!”. Its influence can never be underestimated and can still be heard today. It also helps that it is a mind-meltingly wonderful record.

   It opens with the greatest Sunday morning song I can think of outside of Kris Kristofferson’s “Sunday Morning Coming Down”. The VU’s “Sunday Morning” is a gentle, beautiful start to any Sunday morning. Chiming bells lead you in to Lou Reed breathily intoning “Sunday morning, brings the dawning, It's just a restless feeling by my side”. It’s gorgeous and, just to set some kind of record how many times can you say the phrase Sunday morning in one paragraph, we just said Sunday morning again.

   Then…I’ve said many times in here that track 1, side 1 sets the tone for a whole album. On this record track 2, side 1, it could be argued, set the tone for the next 50 years, set David Bowie on an unstoppable path and invented Punk Rock, Indie Rock, Stoner Rock and any other kind of outsider Rock genre you can think of, because “I'm Waiting For The Man” may well be one of the most, if not THE most, important songs in the history of Rock & Roll music. It tells of a junkie going to meet his dealer at the corner of Lexington Avenue and 125th Street in Harlem, he scores and then has to wait to do the same thing tomorrow (“but that’s just another time”) to do that all over again. Bowie had it in his set before it was released here. It has been covered by Eater, Beck, Echo & The Bunnymen, The Tubes, Vanessa Paradis, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Bauhaus, The Wasps, Slaughter & The Dogs, Georgia Satellites, Tom Robinson Band, Cheap Trick, Belle & Sebastian, The Members, hell, I’ve done it in more than one band I was in…do you start to see what we’re saying ? This song travelled a long way…and here we are, only two songs into this record. 

   Of the remaining four songs on side 1 three are absolute classics too and most bands in 1967 would have been happy to write something like the 4th ! Those 3 classics would be “Femme Fatale”, “Venus In Furs” and “All Tomorrow’s Parties”. “Femme Fatale” was written at Andy Warhol’s request about Warhol superstar Edie Sedgewick (also the subject of The Cult’s “Edie (Ciao Baby)” BTW) and is sung by Nico in that beautifully deadpan German accent (she was described in one review as being"half goddess, half icicle”) with the rest of the band droning the backing vocals on the chorus like petulant schoolboys. “Venus In Furs” is a song about sadomasochism and bondage written by Lou Reed after reading Leopold von Sacher-Masoch’s book of the same name. John Cale’s Viola screech’s in the background as Reed delivers scenes like

   “Taste the whip, in love not given lightly

   Severin' taste the whip

   Severin' taste the whip, now pleeeaaad for me”

   from whence Steven Bailey found his alter-ego on becoming the Bass player in Siouxsie & The Banshees. “All Tomorrow’s Parties” comes in on a hammered 2 note piano motif with Nico once more droning Lou Reed’s lyric about the people who could be found at Andy Warhol’s Factory studio. The title has lent it’s name to a music festival, a novel by William Burroughs and a movie directed by Hong Kong director Yu Lik-wai. It has been covered by Japan, Jeff Buckley, Bauhaus, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Siouxsie & The Banshees and Bryan Ferry ! Oh and that other song on side 1…”Run, Run, Run” which ain’t half bad.

   Side 2 opens with Lou Reed’s epic description of drug use, “Heroin”. It’s a fairly graphic description of the use and effect of taking Heroin (“Heroin will be the death of me, It’s my wife and it’s my life” and “Because when the smack begins to flow, I really don't care anymore”). Audience members would tell the band they shot up while the song was being played which troubled Reed and made him very reluctant to play it. I do remember in the ’80’s a huge argument about the song breaking out on the letters page of one of the music inkies (Sounds or NME) that went on for weeks and I’m sure involved Boy George. The whole subject of Heroin use is troubling but Reed doesn’t condemn or endorse it in the song, it’s one that definitely raises controversial questions.

   “There She Goes Again” and “I’ll be Your Mirror” are in that vein of “Run, Run, Run” although the lyrics of “There She Goes Again” do contain some troubling imagery. The last two songs “The Black Angels Death Song” and “European Son” are in a more experimental vein. The former features more of Cale’s screeching Viola and as the latter is credited to all 4 members of the band I’m presuming it was a studio jam, cos that’s what it sounds like.

   The album that launched a thousand bands is the only way to think about “The Velvet Underground And Nico”. It’s influence on rock and popular music through the latter part of the 20th century (Punk, Goth, Indie and Alternative Rock in general) is immeasurable. Another record I own more than 1 copy of, a 2012 35th anniversary facsimilie of the 1st issue with a peelable banana on the front (a genuine first issue will cost you four figures these days) and a yellow vinyl copy of suspect legality. It’s influence shows no sign of abating just yet.

   I’m Waiting For The Man - https://youtu.be/99og_g7rXnA?si=uI60elZ1QHLcUQN-