Monsoon - Ever So Lonely 7"

I'm doing a few posts for all the gays out there, in a post-ironic sort of way. Are we post irony now? It's hard to keep up. Anyway, these are definitely intended as celebratory and in no way reductive. Here we go - kicking off with this one.

"Ever So Lonely" was released 5th March 1982. Initially it was top of the gay (Hi-Energy) charts and then went to be a Top 10 hit in the UK and a hit around the world.

Sheila Chandra was in TV's 'Grange Hill' for several years (at the time, one of the most radical kids TV programmes). She played Sudhamani Patel - a stereotypically reserved and sulky Asian girl who was being set up for an arranged marriage and whose family ran a corner shop.

This is a great track, although the B side, "Sunset Over The Ganges" does little to dispel those accusations of stereotyping. It's still great, though. She's got a great voice. And indeed, she is "still going". And why not?

Vinyl rip at 320K bps.

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The Icicle Works - Love Is A Wonderful Colour 7"

Perhaps the best Autumn record ever.

Arguably, the defining, founding fathers of the whole "cosmic scally" movement (c.f. The Coral, The La's, The Lightning Seeds et al), this fantastic band are woefully underrated. Ian McNabb has a great voice and his phrasing on this beautiful, beautiful lyric is bordering on the transcendental. I never, ever get tired of hearing it, the imagery is so strong.

On the Barrow scene, we had a running joke that all of his vocal melodies were broadly similar, but what the hell, if it isn't broke etc. etc.

On my very first trip to London with Neil, Mike and the very beautiful Michelle, we saw them at the Astoria (now sadly deceased) on the Charing Cross Road. The venue was probably about a quarter full. They were great beyond belief. They suffered from patchy album syndrome, but as both a live prospect and a classic singles band, they were AMAZING.

McNabb still continues to do great work and remains horribly under appreciated.

Vinyl rip at 320 Kbps.

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The Hits Of House Are Here - Double 12" Album.

Obvious, (but none the worse for that) selection of early pop/house hits. "Including Full Length 12 Inch Versions" screams the cover. This is kind of a companion piece to this, as most of the samples are sourced from tracks featured on here.

Shamelessly nostalgic, I know, but it's that time of year isn't it.

I'd rather jack, than Fleetwood Mac.

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Brand New Brilliance. The 24 Hour Rule Applies.

Voices tumble over voices creating a cloud of half-heard words, and VHS-tainted synths bubble up beneath them, dragging us right back into a world of thick-knit sweaters and Marathon bars.

A late contender for album of the year. Trust me.

[Sorry, you've missed this one.]

Cola Boy - 7 Ways To Love 7"

People of the Earth, apologies for the lack of updates. I've got a huge backlog of shit to serve up for you, but life continues to be a whirlwind of family and work commitments.

In the meantime, please accept this wee nugget.

7 Ways To Love was written by Bob Stanley and Pete Wiggs of St Etienne, who hoped the track would be their first step in building a Stock, Aitken & Waterman / Brill Building / Hit Factory style songwriting empire.

Cola Boy was a duo, consisting of Janey Lee Grace and Andrew Midgley. Andrew had worked with Bob and Pete on studio material in their pre-St Etienne days in the late 1980s. Janey had been a backing singer for numerous pop acts, including Wham and Pasty Kensit’s Eighth Wonder, and was a radio broadcaster on LBC.

Sarah Cracknell sang the vocals on the original white label version of 7 Ways. After that initial batch sold out, it was re-recorded with vocals by Sarah’s friend Janey Lee Grace, as Sarah was under contract to another label and was not permitted to sing on non-St Etienne releases.

Janey’s version of 7 Ways is the one that was subsequently picked up and released by Arista Records, but in the meantime the original Sarah version was heavily bootlegged, costing Arista many thousands of sales. A further Cola Boy connection with Sarah was that the duo were managed by Sarah’s mother, who had previously worked with and managed a number of acts, including Wee Papa Girl Rappers.

There was a second Cola Boy single, He Is Cola, which was spectacularly unsuccessful. That fulfilled the two-single deal with Arista, and the contract was not renewed.

With other labels interested in picking them up, Janey was keen to continue working on new Cola Boy material, but Andrew had by then started work on a new project, Blinder, and was writing darker, non-pop dance material.

Cola Boy fell apart in late 1991/early 1992, and Andrew moved to north. Blinder enjoyed some limited cult success on the northern England and Scottish rave circuit, before dissolving towards the end of 1993. Andrew subsequently moved into journalism and composing music for television.

Janey continues to perform and record, and released her last album in 2006. She has also continued with her broadcasting career, and has long been a key member of Steve Wright’s Radio 2 team. She can be heard on air most days, taking part in the programme and reading out 'factoids'.

Vinyl rip at 320 Kbps

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Felt - Forever Breathes The Lonely Word

This is the sixth album, released on Creation in 1986.

Forever Breathes The Lonely Word was eight tracks running at a shade over half an hour. Contrasting the lack of vocals on [previous album] "Let The Snakes Crinkle Their Heads To Death", "Forever Breathes The Lonely Word" was Felt's first completely conventional song album. Concentrating more on the Hammond organ of Martin Duffy and the disparate range of Lawrence's lyrics, spanning black humour ("All The People I Like Are Those That Are Dead"), advice to young naïve music hopefuls ("Down But Not Yet Out") and soul-bearing honesty ("Hours of Darkness Have Changed My Mind"). Overlaid with an immaculate John Rivers production and the intricate guitar picking of Tony Wille, this album deserves the rare accolade of "Perfect."

This is certainly one of their best.

Duffy, who's out-of-focus face adorns the rather glorious cover, later went on to join Primal Scream, fact fans.

Vinyl rip at 320 Kbps.

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Mojo Various Artists - The Score

I don't usually bother with cover mounted CD compilations, but this one is worth revisiting, for sure. 'The Score' was given away in May 2002 with Mojo Magazine issue 103 and features a pretty faultless selection of movie themes, tracks and related pieces.

I was on board from the get-go due to the inclusion of the brilliant Peter Cook performance of Bedazzeled from his 1967 film of the same name. This was hard to come by back then.

Regardless, this is a great selection of stuff which has been soundtracking my own little internal film this week on the foggy commute into town.

The full tracklisting is:

1. Brother on the Run - Johnny Pate and Adam Wade
2. God's Children - The Kinks
3. Something's Cookin' - Quincy Jones
4. Dark Days - DJ Shadow
5. Get Carter - Roy Budd
6. Frankie Machine - Elmer Bernstein
7. You Cut Up the Clothes - Melvin Van Peebles
8. Time Is Tight - Booker T. & The MG's
9. Midnight Cowboy - John Barry
10. Bedazzled - Peter Cook & Dudley Moore
11. Arabesque - Henry Mancini
12. Watermelon Man - Mongo Santamaría
13. Linus and Lucy - Vince Guaraldi
14. Taking of Pelham 123 - David Shire
15. Truck Turner - Isaac Hayes
16. Death Line - Wil Malone
17. A Fistful of Dollars - Ennio Morricone
18. Johnny Too Bad - The Slickers
19. God Moving Over The Face Of The Water - Moby
20. Let It Be - Nick Cave

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