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  1. 2023/4 Albums Thing 388 - Ultravox! “Ultravox!”

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    For those of you settling in for a good read about the Midge Ure fronted, 80’s synth-pop chart botherers, yer in the wrong place (we will however go as far as the first Midge Ure Ultravox album, “Vienna”). The Ultravox! we will be concerning ourselves with for the next 3 records will be the real deal, the group originally fronted by John Foxx. 

    Ultravox! (the ! was a tip of the hat to Krautrockers Neu!) were formed as far back as 1974 under the name Tiger Lily. After releasing one single (a cover of Fats Waller’s “Ain’t Misbehavin’” which later turned up in a soft porn movie) for Gull Records they went through a number of name changes before being signed by Island Records on the strength of their live show. The band wasn’t the only thing that changed names, singer Dennis Leigh became John Foxx and bassist Chris Allen became Chris Cross. 

    Ultravox! were very much influenced by Roxy Music, Bowie, Kraftwerk and Krautrock, you can hear those influences plainly on this album, which was co-produced by Brian Eno, who would very shortly go off to work with Bowie on “Low”. I always think of Ultravox as part of the early Punk thing but also an electronic/synth band but this album is not really in that mould. Opening song “Satday Night In the City Of The Dead” owes as much to the 60’s British R&B/Freakbeat boom as it does to Mr Moog with its slashing guitars and wailing harmonica. The last song on side one “I Want To Be A Machine” promises electronica in its title but is in fact steered by guitars and violin. 

    One of my favourite songs on this album is the haunting slow burner “My Sex”, but not this version of it. In early 1978 Ultravox! released a live EP, “Retro Live”, made up of live takes of non-album single “Young Savage”, next album, “Ha!-Ha!-Ha!”, track “The Man Who Dies Every Day” and from this album “I Want To Be A Machine” and an absolutely stunning recording of “My Sex” from a gig at Huddersfield Polytechnic (oh the glamour !) which is well worth a listen (https://youtu.be/M8HwBCDMy6w?si=AArIm82-n0Fku9Ow). It’s not until we reach “My Sex”, the last track on the album, that the keyboards push themselves to the forefront, even then it’s mostly piano rather than synthesizer that takes the lead until the refrain between verses when the synth steps forward.

    Ultravox! came to be seen as primarily a synth band, mainly because of the Midge years, but this album is far more guitar driven than they would become, in fact Billy Currie’s violin plays as big a part on this album as any electronic keyboard. It’s Roxy/Bowie influences are worn proudly, with a nod to the New Wave that was happening at the time, look at the cover image, yes it’s a little bit Punk but it’s equally Glam in its makeup. We have here a collection of great songs delivered by a band that could see what was going on around them but were, in reality, far ahead of some of their contemporaries musically.

    The Wild, The Beautiful And The Damned - https://youtu.be/CFLDo5fT9WI?si=WGIxWOIsC7qdjTD8

  2. 2023/4 Albums Thing 387 - UB40 “Signing Off”

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    More reggae from Birmingham but this not quite in the same division (musically) as Steel Pulse. That’s not to say I don’t like UB40, it just depends which UB40 you’re asking me to like. The band that made “Signing Off” and “Present Arms” I’m all good with. The glorified tribute band that made “Labour Of Love” and it’s endless half-arsed sequels and then split into a million different lineups after, basically, an argument over money, well you can keep them.

    The Campbell brothers who fronted UB40 had serious socialist roots, they being the sons of Ian Campbell the Scottish Folk singer and political activist who had relocated from Aberdeen to Birmingham as a teenager. The band formed around a bunch of school friends with a shared love of reggae. So to see them eventually fall apart, splitting into numerous different UB40’s, in footballers cliche terms, it was disappointing Ron.

    But while they were in this first incarnation they burned brightly. I only ever saw them once, at the NEC Arena 27th December 1980, on a bill that also featured Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Rockpile, Madness, The Selecter, Squeeze and John Cooper Clarke. Elvis Costello was due to be the headliner but as UB40 had just that month had a top 10 single (“The Earth Dies Screaming”) and this was their hometown, Elvis wasn’t stupid, he conceded the headline spot to the returning heroes. It was special, there wasn’t a person in the room that night that wasn’t right behind them. 

    “Signing Off” had artwork that mimicked a government UB40 benefit card (from whence they got their name) and was packed full of politics and ire, oh for the days when the groups that populated the charts actually had something to say rather than just product to sell !

    Here are songs of how African Americans suffered at the hands of a racist justice system and how the legacy of Martin Luther King had been lost (“Tyler” and “King”). “Burden Of Shame” covered the stigma of British Imperialism, “Food For Thought” bought attention to the famines in Africa, a full 5 years before Band Aid/Live Aid. “King” and “Food for Thought” were released as UB40’s debut double A side single. Could you imagine a new band doing that now ? And it charted, it reached number bloody 4 in the charts, a song about an assassinated civil rights leader coupled with one about famine in Africa. I’m not sure who had more balls, the band or the record buying public back then !

    The album was originally accompanied by a bonus 12” single that contained a cover of Billie Holliday’s legendary song protesting the lynching of Black Americans in the deep South, “Strange Fruit” (“Southern trees bear a strange fruit. Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze, Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees”) and also “Madame Medusa” a scathing take down of Margaret Thatcher with lyrics every bit as potent as those in “Strange Fruit” (“Round her vacant features, Gilded serpents dance, Her tree of evil knowledge, Sprouts a special branch“).

    “Signing Off” is a great record but it’s one I’d never really thought I needed to own again after letting go of my original copy years ago. But this copy came through the shop, the records are in great shape but a previous owner (thank you Debbie Goldie) had actually filled in their details on the UB40 form the cover represents and I didn’t think it fair to sell it on with someone’s personal details on the cover. So never fear Debbie, your National Insurance number is safe with me !

    “Signing Off” was recorded in former Steve Gibbons Band drummer Bob Lamb’s ground floor flat on Cambridge Road in Moseley on an 8-track machine powered by a single 50p piece they kept feeding through the electricity meter after kicking off the lock ! And you try to tell the young people of today that ...

    Madame Medusa - https://youtu.be/P-hBBJZIxFY?si=phCZ4m0tPSTBabHE

  3. 2023/4 Albums Thing 386 - Frank Turner “Love, Ire & Song”

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    Beautiful Days Festival, Ottery St. Mary, Devon, Sunday, 23rd August 2009. My time in the music business affords me some perks. A great friend of Deb’s had never been to a festival and wanted to go to one for her birthday. So I managed to swing weekend passes and camping (in the backstage camping area I might add, far more civilised !) for The Levellers Beautiful Days Festival. In a working capacity I hate festivals, you get to do what normally takes you a whole day in 45 minutes and it’s generally raining. Beautiful Days is one of the better UK festivals so it was a good weekend, not working, seeing friends and wall to wall live music.

    We’d planned to leave early on the Sunday (The Levellers always close the main stage and I’m really not a fan) but on the afternoon it was sunny and warm and all very convivial. If you’ve ever been to Beautiful Days you’ll know that the Main Stage arena is a natural amphitheatre and we were sat at the back at the top of a hill, in the sunshine with a group of friends talking and drinking. I had my back to the stage but whoever the fella was on stage at the time kept singing something or playing something that caught my ear and eventually caused me to turn around and pay him the attention he deserved. I asked if anyone had a running order for the day and that’s when I first came across the name Frank Turner. As soon as he’d finished I paid a visit to the onsite CD shop and purchased copies of “Sleep Is For The Week” and “Love, Ire & Song” making a mental note to play them in the car on the way home that evening (this was back in the mists of time when cars had CD players). What I heard on the way home confirmed what I’d seen at the festival and on getting home I was happy to find Frank was due to release a new album (“Poetry Of The Deed”) just a week or so later.

    Now I know I have a lot of friends who are big, big Frank Turner fans so I’ll start with something less controversial to them than what will follow. “Love, Ire & Song” is a truly superb record, one of my very favourite albums of the 21st century, the songwriting and lyrics are seriously, seriously good and it’s a record I play regularly to this day. At the time I really thought I’d found me someone who could rival Damien Dempsey in my musical affections. The controversial bit ? In the 16 years since its release Frank hasn’t produced anything that even approaches the greatness of “Love, Ire & Song”.

    The album starts with a song that I will happily argue is one the greatest I’ve ever heard. “I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous” (I have no idea what that means) is stunning in every way that you can think of. It starts quietly with just Frank and his acoustic guitar “Let’s begin at the beginning, We’re lovers and we’re losers…” and from that point, nothing different really happens, the chord structure remains exactly the same all the way through, there is no middle eight or instrumental break but it builds, and it builds and it builds in the same way that The Waterboys “A Pagan Place” does until it reaches a shattering crescendo and Frank leaves you with the final lines and a single guitar chord

    “After all the loving and the losing, For the heroes and the pioneers

    The only thing that's left to do… Is get another round in at the bar…” <chord>

    The album then proceeds through another 11 songs and there’s not a dud on here, every single one is a stunner. If at first the songs title was enough to draw me in the second song “Reasons Not To Be An Idiot” sealed the deal. Frank sings songs about his ill friends (“Long Live The Queen”…”She said "I know I'm dying, but I'm not finished just yet, I’m dying for a drink and for a cigarette”), long lost girlfriends (“Better Half”…”I know what she looks like, her face and skin, her smell and the rest, I know the feel of her soul, but God help me I just cannot find her address”), getting old before your time (“Photosynthesis”…”And if all you ever do with your life is photosynthesise, Then you deserve every hour of these sleepless nights that you waste wondering when you're gonna die”) and the hateful environment that is the airport departure lounge (“Jet Lag”…”Airports make me sad, I’m sure they shouldn't all be the same, But they're just landing pads, Boring tourist shopping chains” OK the song is really about travelling the world as a musician but I’ve always hated airports so I’m gonna highlight that bit).

    I really have always wanted to like Frank Turner much more than I do but hey, most people don’t manage to make an album this good and I’m glad Frank walked into my life when he did and that I got to fall for this bloody wonderful record.

    I Knew Prufrock Before He Got Famous - https://youtu.be/NcQ2XmNvjk4?si=wIZrabt-D5pKBTaI