» Listings for 2023

1. 2023 Albums Thing 238 - My Life Story “World Citizen”

   Posted on 9:50am Thursday 21st Dec 2023

   And here we are at the last of the M’s in my collection so we are halfway through the alphabet and therefore halfway through this 2023AlbumsThing I committed to. The one certain thing is it will definitely become the 2023/24AlbumsThing before we’ve finished. And if there is anyone out there who has read all of them, kudos to you. Anyways, onward…

   My Life Story are basically Jake Shillingford. We’ve known Jake since he was the guy who looked after the door at the Camden Palace in London. We’d show up (when I say we I mean myself and various members of The Wonder Stuff) and Jake would see us, usher us to the front of the queue and up to the VIP bar, ah the joys of having famous mates. He formed My Life Story in the late 80’s and they released their John Barry/Scott Walker/Anthony Newley influenced debut “Mornington Crescent” (the tube station just across the road from the Camden Palace incidentally) in 1995.

   “World Citizen” was released in 2019, Jake’s first album in 19 years ! Jake writes big, sweeping orchestral sounding Indie-pop songs with lyrics not quite from the gutter but definitely looking to the stars. First song “No Filter”, a fabulous show tune style torch song, opens with the lyric “You look like a million dirty, filthy dollars” which sets a tone for where we’re going. “Sent From Heaven” is poptastic in the style of “The Size Of A Cow” or something you could hear Madness doing.

   “World Citizen” is a very, very good contemporary Indie-pop record. If you like things like The Lottery Winners this will do it for you too. It reminded me what a good songwriter Jake is and has nudged me to replace my long gone copy of “Mornington Crescent”, which I fear is gonna cost me !

   Sent From Heaven - https://youtu.be/K52Bh42H_CQ?si=OrJTIfhu1H4RWDmt

2. 2023 Albums Thing 237 - The Move “Fire Brigade”

   Posted on 9:30am Wednesday 20th Dec 2023

   A cheapo Music For Pleasure compilation that my Dad used to have a copy of but that arguably contains some of the greatest pop music created in the 1960’s. Roy Wood was a musical pioneer back then and I’ll take The Move’s ’60’s singles over those of many more feted British groups of the time.

   The Move had formed out of various Beat groups playing around Birmingham and the Midlands, Roy Wood From Mike Sheridan & The Nightriders, Carl Wayne and Bev Bevan from Carl Wayne & The Vikings, Trevor Burton from Danny King & The Mayfair Set and Chris “Ace” Kefford, well, I’m not sure but it’s said he was inspired to form The Move after seeing the future David Bowie in his band Davy Jones & The Lower Third at the Cedar Club in Birmingham. The idea was to gather together the best musicians in Brum into one band. They began playing covers of American bands and Motown until Roy Wood began to write. He eventually wrote all of their 9 Top 20 singles, 6 of which are on this album.

   It begins with “Flowers In The Rain”, the first record played on Radio One (two pieces of music were played before it, George Martin's specially commissioned "Theme One" and Johnny Dankworth's "Beefeaters" which was Tony Blackburn’s theme tune, but “Flowers In The Rain” the first record played) . It reached #2 in the UK charts but due to a publicity stunt by the bands manager, Tony Secunda, involving Prime Minister Harold Wilson, his secretary and an ensuing court case, all Roy Woods royalties from the song went to Wilson (who, in his defence, passed them on to charity)!

   Their first and only #1 was “Blackberry Way” in 1968/69. Singer Carl Wayne refused to sing it so vocals are handled by Roy Wood. The song didn’t sit well with Trevor Burton either who left the band shortly after its release. Fortunately Roy Wood did like it, saying it is his favourite Move song of all time, claiming that “it could have been performed in any era and still worked”. As it has been covered in the ensuing years by Italian band Equipe 84, Gary Holton (of the Heavy Metal Kids and “Auf Wiedersehn Pet”) and The Wonder Stuff it appears he was right.

   The Move continued into 1972 when they metamorphed into Electric Light Orchestra. They left behind some superb music, singles like “I Can Hear The Grass Grow”, “Fire Brigade” and “Curly” and others on this album like “(Here We Go Round) The Lemon Tree”, “Omnibus” and “Beautiful Daughter” are very intricate pop music and reasons why I’ll take The Move over many other of their contemporaries (oh, and them being Brummies helps).

   Fire Brigade - https://youtu.be/cHolSj-ocNI?si=dtQm1hdtbe0dJ3CW

3. 2023 Albums Thing 236 - Mott The Hoople “The Golden Age Of Rock ’n’ Roll”

   Posted on 9:10am Tuesday 19th Dec 2023

   Another of those weird Sainsbury’s exclusives. 2 LP’s on Orange vinyl featuring 21 of Mott’s singles and key album tracks.

   After 4 albums for Island with not a sniff of success David Bowie helped Mott The Hoople (their name was taken from an obscure 1966 novel by Willard Manus about Norman Mott who works in a freak show and his adventures with Hoople’s, or normal people) get their first hit with “All The Young Dudes”, and what a song that is. It’s rumoured that Bowie regretted giving it away almost as soon as he had and Mott made it their song so he couldn’t really claim it back. Lyrical sidenote is that Bowie once said that “the news” that the Dudes were carrying was the same news that the News guy wept about in “Five Years” on “…Ziggy Stardust…”.

   Mott then ran with it and released a superb bunch of singles through 1973 and 1974. “Honaloochie Boogie”, “All The Way From Memphis”,  “Roll Away The Stone”, “The Golden Age Of Rock ‘n’ Roll”, “Foxy Foxy”, “Saturday Gigs”, a great run and all on this compilation. Alongside those singles we have key album tracks and other stuff. Outside those we’ve already mentioned over the last 2 albums we have the anthemic “One Of The Boys” (also a single but shockingly not a hit), “Sea Diver” (orchestrated by Mick Ronson) and the sleaze rock of “Jerkin’ Crocus” all from the album “All The Young Dudes” plus “Rose”, the B-side of “Honaloochie Boogie”.

   Mott were great, this record is Orange and if you need a place to start finding out how great Mott were, this would be it.

   One Of The Boys - https://youtu.be/h5MvCYKjHvU?si=-y-jdSiZPDf4Ij5b