My Peel Tapes: Part 13

Dear friends,

first, listen to the latest editions of the Contrast Podcast, they are highly recommendable indeed. Second, listen to this:

(83) Not their best song, I agree, but then again it's hard to tell which song is the best if you're talking about James. Personally I think it's 'Hymn From A Village'. 'What For' (mp3) though is taken from their 1988 LP 'Strip-Mine' on Sire records. Two years later James played one of the very best gigs I ever had the pleasure to attend, the 7th WDR Rocknacht that was. Unbelievably brilliant they were that night ....

[upon request:

McCarthy - 'This Nelson Rockefeller'
Bad Dream Fancy Dress - 'Curry-Crazy'

Sugarcubes - 'Deus'

Twiggy & The Aliens - 'There She Goes Again']

(84) From an LP with the most disgusting sleeve I've ever seen (apart from Carcass' 'Symphonies Of Sickness' perhaps), here come Motor Boys Motor with 'Drive Friendly' (mp3). A neat advice, by the way. The LP was called 'Motor Boys Motor' as well and was released on Albion Records back in 1982. And not very much later they became The Screaming Blue Messiahs ....

[upon request:

Telescopes - 'Flying'
Folk Devils - 'Hank Turns Blue'

Cure - 'Fire In Cairo' (Session V.)]

(85) The Rezillos - 'I Can't Stand My Baby' (mp3). Again, a total classic from an album I cannot recommend enough to you all: 'Can't Stand The Rezillos' (Sire Records 1978). Vocals by Fay Fife, most definetely one of the leading mouths of the genre back then ... do yourself a favour and get hold of the album here, folks!

[upon request:

Death By Milkfloat - 'The Man Whose Senses Failed'

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - 'The Mercy Seat']

(86) The Misfits - 'I Turned Into A Martian' (mp3). Well, although I don't know very much about The Misfits, I always thought that describing their stuff as 'Horror Punk' didn't fit them perfectly well. Then again I always disliked to put bands into a genre anyway ... either way: (again) from a classic LP: 'Walk Among Us' from 1982 on Ruby & Slash Records.

[upon request:

Weather Prophets - 'Well Done Sonny'

Foyer Des Arts - 'Frauen In Frieden Und Freiheit']

(87) Number 1 in John Peel's Festive Fifty back in 1977 - and quite rightly so, I would think, was this fantastic tune by The Motors: 'Dancing The Night Away' (mp3). One of my all time favourites, a 12", astonishingly enough issued on Virgin Records. This tune is just awesome, folks! More facts about The Motors here, where you also can learn that Bram Tchaikovsky was one of the founding members. Perhaps you know his fabulous 'Girl Of My Dreams'. Well, you should do ...

[upon request:

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - 'From Her To Eternity'

Pooh Sticks - 'I Know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Allan McGee Quite Well'

Dub Sex - 'Every Secret I Ever Made']

(88) No longer with The Heartbreakers, but with a lady called Patti Palladin, here's good ole' Johnny Thunders. Together they made a brilliant LP called 'Copy Cats', which also features this track: 'Love Is Strange' (mp3). I also have it on the backside of a 12" called 'She Wants To Mambo', released on Jungle Records in 1988. This is good throughout!

[upon request:

House Of Love - 'Destroy The Heart']

(89) Members - 'The Sound Of The Suburbs' (mp3). Wikipedia has the perfect description for the Members, I think. Although they refer to the album on which 'Sound Of The Suburbs' can be found, in my eyes this sentence pretty much sums up the fate of The Members altogether: "the band's first album, 'At The Chelsea Nightclub', was critically acclaimed but did not set the world on fire". In my eyes they were near to being the new Beatles or something along those lines, but - as usual - the public saw that differently. But then again: it's always that way, isn't it? Released in 1979 on Virgin Records.

[upon request:

James - 'So Many Ways'

Wedding Present - 'Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?']

(90) Half Man Half Biscuit - 'The Trumpton Riots' (mp3). The Peel Session version of the HMHB - classic, recorded in 1985 and released in 1988 on Strange Fruit Records. Half Man Half Biscuit do have a great website with loads of infos and also some downloadable stuff. Check it out here.

[upon request:

Iggy & The Stooges - 'Search And Destroy'

Cadeau De Marriage - 'Pourquoi Étai Tu Dévenu Si Resonable?']

(91) Dinosaur Jr. - 'Freak Scene' (mp3). Their debut release for Blast First Records back in 1988 and also their UK breakthrough. I like this record very much and I always keep coming back to it ... and I hope you will do the same. Or, even better, buy some of their other stuff as well. Especially the older things are definetely worth getting your hands upon.

[upon request:

Smiths - 'What Difference Does It Make?']

(92) Acid Angels - 'Speed Speed Ecstasy' (mp3). Released in 1988 on Product Inc. Records and rumour had it at the time that one of The Jesus & Mary Chain was involved in the making of that. Whether this is true or not remained a mystery to me up until now. Either way, this 12" was some kind of landmark for me, because it's the first - of a very very few - records I bought which had some kind of 'dance/'club' feel to it, if you know what I mean .... if I remember correctly, this was the time when 'Raving in the summer of love' was the big thing in Britain .... I couldn't tell properly, being stuck in a small village in Germany, you see: summer? Yes. Love? No. We only had cows, man!

(93) Happy Mondays - 'Wrote For Luck' (mp3). From the 'Bummed' - LP on Factory Records from 1988. A masterpiece from the Happy Mondays, this kind of tune which always made me listen carefully whenever they did something new. This attention lasted for quite some years and I can't say that about that many bands. Shaun Ryder, the singer, at the time showed the same (drunken/violent) behaviour in public as the bloke out of Oasis ... perhaps this (partly) is why they got so enormously famous ... in an independent sort of way at least ... who knows?

(94) My Bloody Valentine - '(When You Wake) You're Still In A Dream' (mp3). I must admit I've never been absolutely sure what to make out of My Bloody Valentine. Everybody says they have been highly influental on load of young bands back then, but I'm not in a band nor have I been, so bugger off. Only the records count for me and theirs I never could fully cope with. They're not bad, you know, but something is missing, although I can't define what it is. I took this track from a Rough Trade Compilation called 'Music For The 90's Vol. 1'. Originally it was on their 1988 'Isn't Anything' - LP, which hit the #1 in the UK charts ....

[upon request:

Happy Mondays - 'Fat Lady Wrestlers']

(95) Big Dipper - 'Ron Klaus Wrecked His House' (mp3). Well, there ain't much I could tell you about Big Dipper, my friends. I know four or five songs by them, but all of them are quite wonderful. This here is from a 7", released on Homestead Records in 1988. This is what Wikipedia has to tell us about them ....

[upon request:

Happy Mondays - 'Performance'

Happy Mondays - 'Bring A Friend'

Wedding Present - 'I Found That Essence Rare']

Well, as usual: please let me know if you're interested in anything out of the 'upon requests' - sections. I'd just love to play it for you, my beauties! Also I hope you enjoyed the above or at least parts of it. Also thanks to Jonathan, who provided me with the hometaping - logo above. Cheers, mate!

Peace,

Dirk