That's me.
Index My music collection.

Mister Mixup's Musical World
Mister Mixup's ocassional musical mutterings, reviews & promotions.
"Trawling my way through record shops, carboots & the online world & gigging whenever possible" Email Me

At the moment I'm making my own musical noises in:

The Blackmarket Sound - Digitaly produced, beats, samples & keyboards & other live instruments and off beat remixes.
Fez - Synth & keyboard, Drums, Bass & Guitar lineup making rhythmic Neu, Can style tunes and some dub experiments.
The Instigator - Dub
Tunnel Vision - Difficult synth, noise & effects.
and solo as MisterMixup - oddball ditties, soundscapes and more.
Also check out The Ratt King from The Blackmarket Sound - Beats & tunes

Various compilations, bootlegs, mixes, faves and oddities that I like can be found on my cdr label Whisk
Hit the index for an overview of my entire collection.

OK, there are lots of oldies on view but I download most new music and tend to gloat over classic records and other oddities found on my travels hence the things you'll see below. Mostly vinyl.

Mister Mixup's Musical Review 2011
2010
2009
2008
2007 and before

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mister Mixup's 2011 honours

Best Live 2011
Top ten in rough order:

1.TV on the Radio
2. DJ Shadow
3. The Wickets
4. Miles Cane
5. Cage the Elephant
6. Marcus Bonifanti
7. Metronomy
8. Sandy Thom
9. Seven Little Sisters
10. The Horrors

also in the running:

Aistaguca
Dengue Fever
Caribou
Beyonce
Magnetic Man
The Vaccines
Crystal Castles
Radiohead
The Did
Jon Harris
BB King
White Lies
Chemical Brothers
Jah Wobble & the Nippon Dub Ensemble
Modulator
Neil Deakin

BB King wins "Legend of the year"

Special mention as always:
Fez
The Blackmarket Sound
(I play in them both)

Albums of the year 2011
Can't give a definitive number one but these are some of the albums that I've given a listen to this year in no particlar order.

DJ Shadow - The Less You Know the Better
Miles Kane - Colour of the Trap
Metronomy - The English Riviera
Noel Gallagher - Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds
The Horrors - Skying
Beastie Boys - Hot Sauce Committee Pt. 2
Gruff Rhys - Hotel Shampoo
The Black Keys - El Camino
Tinariwen - Tassili
Faust - Something Dirty
Tom Vek - Leisure Seizure
The Vaccines - What Did You Expect From The Vaccines?
TV on the Radio - Nine Types of Light
The Dirtbombs - Party Store
Ladytron - Gravity the Seducer
Fujiya & Miyagi - Ventriloquizzing
Beady Eye - Different Gear, Still Speeding
Brian Eno - Drums Between the Bells
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake

Single
Do I need a reason to have a single of the year other than I like it. No. So it's:
1. Gruff Rhys - Sensations in the Dark
Followed closely by:
2. Miles Kane - Come Closer
and then:
Smerins Anti-Social Club - Doctor Who
Metronomy - The Look
TV on the Radio - Will Do
Miles Kane - Inhaler
Beady Eye - The Roller (John Lennon soundalike winner)
Metronomy - She Wants
The Black Keys - Lonely Boy
Metronomy - The Bay
The Horrors - Still Life
The Wickets - Weekend
Ravenscreed -

Best cover versions (Live)
The Wickets doing "Nevermind" by Nirvana
Jon Harris doing a David Bowie set
The Vaccines - Good guys don't wear white (The Standells) (when they played this song in Rock City I was the first and probably only one who knew instantly who they were covering. Oh my god I was the oldest one in there!)
Miles Cane - Hey Bulldog (The Beatles) (Best Beatles cover of the year)
TV on the Radio - Ghostbusters

Comedy (Live)
Bill Bailey

DJ's
Same old crew really
Coyote, Dark Mark, Eionlights,

Films
Not seen many this year and by all accounts a fairly dismal year for films.

Because it's the only new film I've seen recently:
The Thing
For comedy - The Inbetweeners Movie
For action - Immortals
For nostalgia - Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Record Shop (Vinyl)
Anarchy (Nottingham)
Good Vibrations (Nottingham)
Sheikyerbooty (Falmouth)
Sounds OK (Falmouth)

Business man of the year - Eionlights
Young exec of the year - Sam Ratty
Wedding of the year - Jon Harris & Siobhan Mackay
Buffet of the year - Eionlights

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dec 2011

Dec 31st - New Years Eve party at Tony's. Tony Claire, Neil, Gryf, Tracy, Alan, Jay Harry and all the clan etc

Dec sunday 18th - The Loft christmas party at Eion Lights gaf.

Dec 13th - mixes done of gracie & easy at DOS

Dec wed 7th - 78rpm night at The Chameleon. I took and had played the following records: Elvis Presley Hound Dog/ , The Vipers Skiffle Group , Tommy Steele Teenage Party/ , Louis Armstrong Skokkian Pt 1 & pt2, Count Basie , , . The ? was unusual as it was a vinyl 78 and I was told that is quite rare. Shev's birthday at the Poacher

Dec tue 6th - Jon puts down guitar and I put extra vox on new tracks (Gracie & Easy come easy go) at DOS

Dec 3rd - Gig: Lion, Nottingham: Seven Little Sisters - Mona, Dave, Shev, John Blackow's missus

Dec 1st - Laying down keys and vox on Gracie and Easy at DOS with Ian

Nov 2011

Nov 29th DJ Shadow, the Engineers Experiment, The Knocks. Josh came out to see the fans afterwards and signed stuff. Great show.

Nov 28th - Doggens studio, final mix of Fez lp

Nov 24th - Gig: Bill Bailey at the Arena, Nottingham

Nov 20th - Modulator at The Hand in Heart, Nottingham

Nov 14th - Hypnotique soundchecking at the Chameleon

Nov 12th - Mixfest 2011


Nov 10th - Fez rehearsal at SLS rehearsal room.

Oct 2011

Oct 29th - Fez rehearsal at Seven Little Sisters rehearsal room.
Gig - Scotch Chocolate at the Lion with Jon and Siobhan

Oct 21st - Kits party and gig at the Castle. playing was Ben Martin

Oct 18th - Synth jam - Ian, Mixup, Dug at DOS studio's

Oct 15th - Jons stag do, inc gig at the Bell - Martin, DJ Pete Johnson

Sept 2011

Sept 20th:Mojo vinyl
Mojo magazine have brought out a vinyl lp version of there latest cd give away "Return to the dark side of the moon". There second such endevour I think. Some nice reworkings by little known bands that comes out just before the much anticipated PF box set releases of DSOTM, Wish you here & The Wall.


August 2011

August 29th: Icons to unknowns
The last few weeks have seen me get about 100 or so records ranching from 20p unknowns to 70's classic albums and a few nice 12"s for good measure. Where will it end.

August 7th: Gig: Spiraleye, Modulator esp, Peter Challoner - Hand and Heart, Nottingham
A night of Tangerine Dream style electronics from these Nottingham guys. I was there with Bart, Scott and Bobby.

August 4th: Vinyl in Falmouth
There are 2 record shops in Falmouth, Cornwall. Sheikyerbooty and Sounds OK. A lot of nice items to be seen but I eventually settled on a German Who compilation, 2 Link Wray albums, Spiritualized "Amazing Grace" box set and 2 techno toons Rhythm device and The Spell from 90/91.

Link Wray -----------------Spiritualized

July 2011

July 15: Pub Rock, Rock & Mod
3 more vinyl albums today. Back in '76 through to '79 Eddie and the Hotrods were always a guarenteed sweaty night of high energy pub rock RnB with punk attitude. A missing link between pub and punk of which I have good memories. Cream need no introduction. Purple hearts were one of the stronger mod revival bands of the late 70's / early 80's. A few bottles of beer I think.......

Eddie and the Hotrods -------- Cream ------------- Purple hearts

July 15: In the studio
In the studio with Doggen, Ian and Jay doing final touches on the Fez mix.
I also got a double CD by "The Sons of T.C. Lethbridge" called "A Giant" featuring Doggen, Kevlar Bales, Welbourn Tekh & Julian Cope and Colin Wison in tribute to this obscure scholar.


July 15: Back to vinyl. Like I ever went away.......


Small Faces 2nd ---- Free Design remixed 12"

Also a Cappo white label 12", Dub War on Earache, Jethro Tull - Stand Up 2nd press on Island.

June 2011

June 18th / 27th: Glastonbury festival
Saturday 18th
Arrived at the Oxfam site on Big Lickle. Myself, Mog, Wilbur, Dan, Joe, Louise & Mike made up the "Strange but true crew" this year. Phil turned up Monday and Abby on Thursday.
Out on the site Jon & Siobhan and their gang arrived wednesday. Daryl and his gang also. Ian turned up Tuesday and was working on the "Other Stage". Leon was also on site and a few other people were spotted too.
I cooked the traditional curry. Mog supplied the Lamb. We played sounds and all got pissed and dodged the rain showers

Joe, Louise, Dan, Wilbur, Mog & Mixup

Sunday 19th
First shift at Orchard gate working with Anne, Alikina and Alex. Cookie was our security man.
After work we had more midnight curry and I set a pop quiz. The competition gathered importance as the two teams worked through the clues. Basically it ended Mog's mob 26, Joe's crew 24. Mog set a lyric quiz afterwards which was tough even if I missed 2 absolute sitters. Ah well, I blame my state of mind.

Monday 20th
Second shift at Orchard gate. More nightime curry, booze and sounds

Tuesday 21st
Third and last shift at Orchard gate. More nightime curry, booze and sounds and extra booze.

Wednesday 22nd
The festival opens. We all make for West Holts to drink Brothers cider and celebrate Joe's 25th birthday. A gathering of the clans brought together Joe, Louise, Mog, Wilbur, Dan & myself and Jon, Siobhan and Ian, Joes dad Daryl and mates, Mog's sister and daughter, some of Wilbur's mates and few others to boot. We all got wrecked.

Mog, Dan & Mix, The three wise old men or should that be the three old pissheads.

Thursday 23rd
We spent a day drinking, chilling and taking in the sights before I met up again with Mog and Dan to hear Sandy Thom at the Bourbon St Bar.

Friday 24th
We could hear The Master Musicians of Joujouka from our site open the Pyramid stage. I got down to the festival to see Metronomy. They went down well. Oscar Cash who plays keyboards and was originally from Nottingham. I spoke to his mum a few months ago. Small world. Then I went to meet Jon & Siobhan around the Green fields where I saw a reggae band and then a steel guitar player on the bandstand adding to the cocophony of sounds. We headed for West Holts where we watched Dengue Fever. Cambodian psych rock. Second time I've seen them now. Then off to the John Peel stage in time to catch the last 3 numbers of Miles Cane, Come Closer, Hey Bulldog & Inhaler. Best Beatles cover of the weekend by far. It was the only one I heard actually. After that was a spirited performance by Cage the Elephant with the lead singer crowd surfing and generally rocking out.
I arrived at the Pyramid stage just in time to see BB King shuffle onto stage, take his seat and start twanging his guitar and singing the blues. Many a year at Glastonbury it's customary to tip the hat to a legend and BB King definately fits that description.
I met up with Mog and Dan and at the Bandstand we watched the Bethia Beadman Band. Later at Spiirt of '71 poet Murray Lachian Young entertained us and then then it was decision time and I went for The Park stage to see the special guests who were Radiohead followed by a favourite of mine Caribou. Crystal Castles finished off the night as headliners.

Saturday 25th
Started off hearing Stornoway and Tame Impala on the Pyramid stage at our campsite. Finally heading in with Mog and Dan, the first point of call was the Spirit of '71 stage to see the Spirit of '71 House Band Jam featuring Steve Hillage. Unfortunately he was busy but the jam went on and a cover of Baker Street by Gerry Rafferty caught our ears. Then on to West Holts where I saw a bit of The Brandt Brauer Frick Ensemble. Then at the John Peel stage I caught the end of Warpaint. Then I watched The Horrors with Jon. On the way back to the other side of the site we caught some of Paolo Nutini.
The rest of the evening was spent at the Other Stage watching Friendly Fires, White Lies and the Chemical Brothers. Spiffing stuff.
After midnight I saw Marcus Bonifanti at the Bourbon St Bar. Brilliant blues.

Sunday 26th
The heat mean't more Brothers cider to quench our (Mog, Dan & Wilbur) thirst and take in the eclectic Jah Wobble & the Nippon Dub Ensemble. Ian, Jon, Siobhan were around too. We stayed to watch Belowhead and then I met up with Joe and Louise at the Other Stage to see TV on the Radio who I enjoyed greatly especially their cover of Ghostbusters.
Then I met up again with Mog and Dan to drink and see the last acts on the Pyramid stage: Plan B, Pendulum and Beyonce including special guest Tricky.

Monday 27th
We all went home happy

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

June 17th: Gig - Aistaguca, The Hubb, Nottingham
I took Danny to see Tracey playing sax in Nottingham's premier Balkan group.

June 16th: Gig - Open mic night, The Lion, Nottingham
Danny was visiting from San Fransico so, with Jon & Siobhan we spent the night supping ale and cider while guitars were strummed at the open mic night.

June 12th: Gig: Smokin' Gun, Stadium Leisure, Nottingham
Had a laugh with Jon & Siobhan as Smokin' Gun treated us to classic rock a la Thin Lizzy, Sabbath and even Otis Redding's Hard to Handle.

June 6/7th: I've got soul
Always vinyl goodies coming my way. Soul, dub and Chicano guitar twang from '65.

Downtown Soulville------Prince Far I ------------ The Sunglows----------Also Shamen & Liquid on XL and much more

June 5th: Gig: The Wickets, Just James, The Conifers - Golden Fleece, Nottingham
With Jon & Siobhan we met Joe and the boys strutting their stuff after a successful European tour. Picked up their latest 7" "Newspaper". Support were Just James who even dropped in a momentary dubstep vibe. The Conifers had to finish early because the drummer was so young he wasn't allowed in the pub after 9pm. Later we saw another band in the Poacher. Alcohol limits were reached.
The Wickets---------A couple of months back Jay gave me a white vinyl release by Ravens Creed.
These are the sort of records that even the folks at Record Collector don't know about.

June 2nd: Fez session at Jay's studio
I taught the lads my latest song "Easy come, easy go". After that a groovy jam.

May 2011

May 16th: I was just thinking?
As any good father would, I've instilled from birth to my dearest son and daughter that it all started in 1963 as The Beatles took over the world. They were the first pop act in England, afterall, to start writing their own songs. That paved the way for the rest. That made me draw up a " 4 Important pre Beatles English pop tunes" list.
First. A recap.
Before The Beatles: Plenty of English/British folk music from medieval times.
Post war:
The British Skiffle movement in the 1950's. Scottish born Lonnie Donegan etc. mainly performing American songs as this is where the original skiffle movement had surfaced in the early 20th century. Lonnie Donegan continued to appear regularly in the UK charts until 1962 with some self written tunes, famously "My old man's a dustman", before succumbing to the arrival of The Beatles and beat music. Up until then most British acts were singing American tunes until the Beatles paved the way for the Brits to start writing their own tunes.

1. "Move it" written by Ian Samwell. The first English written rock and roll song and widely accepted as the first rock and roll song written outside the USA. At least a well known one anyway. Recorded by Cliff Richard and the Drifters in 1958.

2. "Apache" written by Jerry Lordan. Made famous by the Shadows in 1960. Guitar twang that still resonates today.

3. "Shakin' all over" written by Johnny Kidd and performed by Johnny Kidd and the Pirates. A true British gem influencing many future rock acts like The Who, Zep etc

4. "Telstar" written by Joe Meek. Made famous by his house group The Tornado's in 1962. First English "group" to top the US charts. A theme tune to the start of the "Space race".

odditie footnote : "The House of the rising sun" made famous by The Animals in 1964, which was an Afro/American staple has origins that are somewhat curious. The original melody resembles an arrangement of 'Matty Groves', a traditional English ballad, but the lyrics appear to have ties to the hills of the American South.

I've stopped thinking now.
*************************************************************************************

May 15th: Last Fez mix session before mastering
With Ian and Doggen we put finishing touches to the 7 tracks before mastering.

May 14th: Gig: Seven Little Sisters, The Lion, Nottingham
Jon leads the ever popular SLS. The rest of us drinks beers. Siobahn, Ian, Fiona, Jay etc etc, John from work.

May 9th: A real classic

"It's cool to be cool, but it's so much cooler to be cool before anyone knows what cool is". " Inspiration Information is a watershed album! Not only does this album defy classification, it is arguably one of the most deviceful musical efforts in modern auditory history." " This one floors me. Each song sounds like Shuggie is reinventing soul and rock and blues and funk- all at once. And he is."  "  It's difficult to accept such a visionary artist might have gone largely unnoticed in his time, but one needn't look far to see how many artists of today Shuggie Otis helped create."
These are few descriptions about the Shuggie Otis album Inspiration Imformation. I've been biding my time for this one and today it turned up.
"World Psychedelic Classics 2: California Soul" is the title of the record labels series and should give you a clue as to the sound. This is, of course, the double album re-release on Luaka Bop from 2001 which has extra tracks from an earlier album. Originally out in 1974 it is a sure fire classic which passed unnoticed at the time. I know of Shuggie, the son of bluesman Johnny Otis, from his work with Al Kooper and on "Peaches en Regalia", the jazz fusion track by Frank Zappa where he plays bass when he was 15. I also have have the, now well known, single "Strawberry Letter 23" from his earlier 1971 "Freedom Flight" album, a track later made famous by the Brothers Johnson and namedroped along with Shuggie Otis by Adam Horovitz in the first verse of "Too Many Rappers", by the Beastie Boys from their current album Hot Sauce Committee Part Two. There's a 2010 Quincy Jones version. I've got that track on some DJ Shadow stuff somewhere too I think. I'm playing the album right now. Brilliant.stuff. Where's that weasle!
A few others 12's completed a good days vinyl shopping: Joy Division - Love will tear us apart, The Avalanches - Frontier Psychiatrist, Genaside II - Narra Mine Remixes

May 8th: Fez in the studio doing the mix. Ian, Mixup & Doggen
Sorting out the last few glitches and giving it the general mix. Doggen will finish it off.

May 7th: Rock Night #5 War of the Worlds & Acid Rock
Rock night moves to Hucknall as Steve and Alan enjoy for the first time on DVD Jeff Waynes War of the World. Followed by the DVD "Acid Rock" we get ever more mashed as great tracks by Nektar, Gong, Curved Air, Amon Duul II, Caravan and Soft Machine etc keep us entertained. An airing of the Fez demo "The Edge of Forever" amongst the rest of the nights music brings praise and another mention "It sounds a bit like the Stone Roses". Slight hangover next morning.

May 1st: Gig - The Good old boys, Salutation Inn, Nottingham
It was Maria's birthday celebrations and a rock covers band were playing. Along with Ian, Fiona, John, Maria and a host of others we heard numbers like Bullfrog Blues and Whiskey in the Jar.

April 2011

April 26th: Nottingham vinyl.
Everytime I see any vinyl release by Nottingham bands or bands using Nottingham studio's I like to get them. Got 2 today. Maybe I'll do a retrospective on a Nottingham rock 'n' roll history sometime.
Savoy Grand - The Moving Air from 1999 Ninety - Shit hits the fan from 2005 on Ohmygosh records

April 24th: Last few eBay items.
Only a few oustanding eBay items left to come. Then the self imposed ban will start. Except I have a get out clause which allows me to get anything related to photobooths, so a few other bits will arrive too.
I managed to get 3 great Beatles magazines from '63 & '64. Priceless.

April 23rd: Fez in the studio doing last overdubs.
The last few overdubs were done today. Now it's down to the mix. Martin will be left to spend a few weeks sorting through it all and we will tweak a few bits for the final version.
Rock and roll stories abound. Doggen's credentials are good, 13 years with spiritualized, top of the pops 6 times, with Olive 3 times, Julian Cope etc, a number one single with Olive, a number one album with spiritualized, three gold records, a number one album with Girls aloud and a guest appearence on a Fez track.

April 13th: Fez in the studio doing overdubs and vocals
A good night with guitar, harmonica, perc and vocals put down over the previous session. Some of my most "rock n roll" moments.

April 12th: I've still got "Who-itus" and "eBay-itus"
But when historical artefacts like these are arriving I'll carry on for a while.
NME 23rd May 1970 Record Mirror Nov 20th 1965 History of rock #64 The Who

April 10th: Fez Back in the studio
Another day spent with Fez recording 7 tracks for an album.

April 4th: When will it stop
An original 1969 James Brown album "Say it Loud" on French Polydor and "The Penthouse tapes" by SAHB are todays treats from "Anarchy records" who got a mention on BBC 6 Music recently by the band Deer Hunter. Oh yeh, another "Who" item arrived (Record Mirror cover picture 8th Aug 1970) and still more to come. Rock on brothers and sisters.

James Browm -------------SAHB-----------------Record Mirror - The Who----------

April 4th: BMS cdr is out.


The latest Blackmarket Sound single (or is it a mini album) is now out on a cdr on good old Whisk records. Tracey and Mixup are responsible for these audible treats with Joe guesting and Sam sorting it all out.

Later sunday night at DJ Coyote's "The Loft" (er I mean Bart's done up attic) I got hold of reissue of the first album by Soft Option Killing on cassette. Also a bag of records was given to Bart, Mark and myself from Eionlights who is still having his big vinyl clearout. Roughage mainly but a few decent ones here and there.

April 2nd: Classic albums / Rock night #4: The Who
A treat for Sam, Alice and myself. Where can you start with this band. We are no strangers to them. I saw them twice in the 70's at the height of their powers and Alice and myself saw them in 2007 at Glastonbury when, for the two surviving old men, they still had plenty to give. Quite remarkable really. They can easily lay claim to the "greatest rock band in the world" tag.
From mod pioneers, grandfathers of punk and power pop with real youth anthems (more so than the Beatles and the Stones), to creators of the Rock Opera and the rock anthems of "Won't get fooled again" and "Baba O,reilly", and having one of the greatest guitarists Britain has ever produced who is one of our best song writers ever too. Consistently playing in front of the biggest crowds any band ever has, because as anybody knows who saw them they were first and formost a live sensation. Accolades have been heaped on this band for many years. Deservedly so I say.
About a month ago we watched the film version of Quadrophenia which stands up brilliantly. A young cast capture the spirit of the album and the time period it was set in perfectly. A footnote to this is that when the film came out in 1979 we (The "Weekend Lunatic" gang that I was part of) visited Brighton on our weekly travels in September of that year to do one of our spontaneous photographic happenings on the very bit of beach where the fight scenes were shot. I have my own super 8mm film of that day.
Anyway back to the night in question.
We started with the Special edition EP which has 4 lypsynced numbers from German TV in the 60's. Nice.
Then we watched 2 numbers from the Charlton 74 bootleg to see the Who in their full glory with a few minutes of pre festival footage in the days when the long hairs ruled the world. I was there aged 16. We'll never see days like that again. A 50,000 limit but maybe 75,000 were in there. We'll come back to that DVD another day for the whole thing.
Then we watched an episode of The Simpsons "A tale of two Springfields" featuring The Who before watching the main feature, Ken Russels film adaptation of Tommy. To some an excess to far but this was the 70's and it's a visual feast with some fine performances particurly from Ann-Margret Olsson who received a Golden Globe Award for her performance, and was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.
The great thing with the Who is the wealth of great recorded perfomances which exist on film and now Blu Ray and DVD from Monteray 67, Rock n Roll Circus 68 . The Colloseum 69, Ilse of wight 1970, The Kids Are Alright, Maximum Rock n Roll and much more. There is no doubt on more "Who" nights happening.

April 1st: Loose fit
Today's finds are Happy Mondays Loose Fit White label test pressing, Tik and Tok - Cool Running, The Fever, Willow and a French talkie album. More "Who" stuff due in the post soon.

Willow--------------------Tik and Tok

March 2011

March 29th/31st: Interesting & Iconic


Regular Fries -----Life Force------FdM Roqueting through space


It doesn't get much more iconic than this. A bootleg DVD featuring, at the height of their glory, The Who from Charlton Athletic FC in '74. I was there.

March 28th: BMS Vinyl
A 12" by The Blackmarket Sound - Green Peppers/River Runs Deep out today. It's rather limited. In fact there is only one. Look out for the cdr coming soon.

March 27th: Fez in studio
Me, Ian, Jon & Doggen make a basic mix of "Sky Rat" as a template for the real session in a couple of weeks.

March 23rd: Odds and ends
Got hold of the Hell Preachers Inc: Supreme Psychedelic Underground LP from 1968 on Marble Arch which has no info except "composers unknown". The rumour circulated for years it was Deep Purple mk1 and its easy to see why (very similar guitar and keyboard) but in fact it's reckoned to be the guys that later became the German krautrockers Lucifers Friend.

March 21st: Fez in studio
Me, Ian, and Jay back in Doggens studio laying down vocals.

March 12th: Fez in studio
Me, Ian, Jon, Jay and Slate spent the day at Doggen's studio laying down 7 tracks.

March 5th: Gig: Smokin Gun, The Lion, Nottingham
Me and Siobahn took in the sounds of Guns and Roses, Steppenwolf, Motorhead and lots rock and metal classics.

March 4th: Vinyl
Another Who record will be coming my way via eBay and at Anarchy I picked up a few 7"'s and afew 12"'s including another copy of LFO by LFO, Nexus 21 and Eon with Inner Mind/Spice Remixes.


March 3rd: Last touches to Fez demo
Ian, Jon and myself added the last guitar and vocals to our latest demo. Next week we are of to the studio to get recorded.

Feb 2011

Feb 26th: Gig: The Score, The Lion, Nottingham
A big crowd of us turned up at the Lion to celebrate John's birthday. John, Maria, Jon, Siobahn, Ian, Fiona, Little Rich and many more enjoyed the new wave tunes of The Score.

Feb 24th: Final piece in the jigsaw
Finally acquired a copy of La-La-La-Lies by The Who on Brunswick. A bit battered but it'll do. I have all 6. Might make a nice display.

Feb 21st/22nd: Keep em coming
More great goodies are coming my way. The much sort after 1992 album by The Stairs and 2 of their twelves, a 1969 proto acid jazz album from "Groove" Holmes who had a track dedicated to him by the Beastie Boys on Check Your Head, a compilation of 60's mod on Way Back, Charlatons, some Who and Floyd additions, a few books and a bunch of sevens. Rock n Roll.


Richard "Groove" Holmes / The Stairs - - ------------------------------------------------------ - - Sixties Rebellion

Feb 14th: Last eBay buy for a while
Got to stop my eBay buys. I usually allow myself till the end of January with extra earned christmas cash but an extra 2 weeks in Feb has seen me get some "Who" rarities inc "Kids are alright" 7" on Brunswick, first press of "Substitute on "Reaction" with "Circles" as the Bside. It was withdrawn almost immeadiatley. Still getting the odd Kraftwerk item. Today I added a nice Spiritualized 12" to my collection along with another Who item and a 12" by Time Modem.


Computer World TT2010 Mix / FrenchBlokeAndSonSexyModel

Feb 9th: Old friends
Dropped into "Anarchy" again today and saw Ingi (we were on the same MA course) and Barbara which was a blast from the past. 10 or more years back in fact. Now living in Norwich, we chatted about photo's, music and this and that she told me about her son Oscar who was in a band. I asked which and it turned out to be Metronomy. I said I had seen them and they were good. I could be saying that of course so here's the blurb I wrote after seeing them at Glastonbury in 2008.
" Later in the dance village we saw Dub From Atlantis & Metronomy. Metronomy is Joseph Mount an electronic artist from Devon and remixer for Ladytron, Franz Ferdinand, Roots Manuva (you get the picture). In live shows Joseph is joined by Gabriel Stebbing on Bass and Keyboards and Oscar Cash on sax, keys and melodica. 80's synthi pop. Cool."
They are playing the Rescue Rooms in April. Look out for them.
Oh yeh, and I bought some records too.

Feb 8th: Gig: Rock City, Nottingham: NME Awards Tour - Crystal Castles, Magnetic Man, Everything Everything, The Vaccines
A great night out with Sam, Alice and Bart. Neil joined us and Fredo was lost in the crowd. Joe was there too.
The Vaccines ended up a bit Ramonesish and did a nice cover of "Some times good guys don't wear white" by The Standells. I may have been the only one to spot that (old codger). Everything Everything drifted from Hot chip to King Crimson to early naughties indie. Magnetic Man gave us Dub Step with a pop twist and the crowd went mental. Crystal Castles had a hard act to follow but did it brilliantly sounding like Moloko had got a young Yoko Ono in as lead singer. The place was packed and humming. Top night.

Jan 2011

January round up:

Records
To many. I've gone mad. Averaging 30 a week. Some 20p ers up to £50 ers of eBay. At least I'll have no trouble getting in to the great record shop in the sky. Passed with flying credentials.
A few crackers below


Eddie Gale ---------------The Who bootleg--------

New Fez Demo has been made over 3 or 4 sessions and we sound a little like the Manchester scene circa 1990 (Verve, Mondays, Charlatons). Just a bit but you get my drift.

Jan 2nd: Blackmarket Sound session with Tracey and Joe.

A little late "Loft Christmas party". Me, Bart, Ian and Mark exchanged vinyl. I got the usual obscure goodies. See below


Durham Ox Singers------The Normal-----------Broken Penis Orchestra-

Jan 1st: New day, new year, new sounds
Well, old sounds actually. After a night of new year drinking, whooping and eclectic sounds at Ian & Fiona's I got up at lunch and started the new year with the famed PF recording from Nov '74 of DSOTM (I was there). Next up was The Orb's 2008 album The Dream (I'm still a bit out my head).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2010 awards
A final list list will appear at the bottom but here are all the front runners

Album of the year
No idea really but I've managed to hear the following dozen albums and maybe if push comes to shove it might as well be Holy Fuck or Broken Bells.

Broken Bells - Broken Bells
Roky Erickson with Okkervil River - True Love Cast Out All Evil
The Fall - Your Future Our Clutter
Holy Fuck - Latin
Autechre - Oversteps
Steve Mason - Boys Outside
Paul Weller - Wake Up the Nation
The Drums - The Drums
Massive Attack - Heligoland
Goldfrapp - Head First
The Knife - Tomorrow, In a Year
LCD Soundsystem - This Is Happening

Single of the year
Broken Bells - The High Road. OK, I know it came out at the back end of 2009 but I bought it in January and I make up the rules.
Holy Fuck - Latin America
Hausfrauen Experiment

and something from the charts
The Black eyed Pea's - Rock That Body

Best live performance
Always hard to put your finger on one but the list below gives a fair indication.

Steve Mason
Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
Curved Air
Stevie Wonder
Radiohead. Secret gig. Actually it was just Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood but that's good enough for me.
Toots and the Maytalls
Lightning Seeds
Gorillaz
George Clinton and Funkadelic
The Wickets
The Drums
The Big Pink
Lissie
B&H
Big Bandit
Seven Little Sisters

Special mention
Fez
The Blackmarket Sound
I'm in both bands so another "I make the rules" situation here.

Best cover versions (Live)
Lissie - "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga
Local Natives - "Warning Sign" by Talking Heads
Lightning Seeds - "You showed me" writen by McQuin,Clark of The Byrds in 1964 but recorded by The Turtles in 1968
Stevie Wonder - "We can work it out" by The Beatles
My Luminaries - "Go your own way" by Fleetwood Mac

Comedy (Live)
Frank Olivier (Filthy Frank)
Early Edition which featured Marcus Brigstocke and Andrew Vincent

DJ's
Same old crew really
Coyote, Dark Mark, Eionlights, Joe Schmo

Beats
The Ratt King

Record Shop
Anarchy
Rough Trade
Good Vibrations

Games (Tips from Sam & Alice)
Minecraft
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Super Meat Boy
Bayonetta
VVVVVV
Bit.Trip: Fate


I still can't quite narrow it down but I'm getting close

Album: Holy Fuck - Latin / Broken Bells - Broken Bells
Single: Holy Fuck - Latin America
Live: Steve Mason / Stevie Wonder / Lightning Seeds / Hypnotic Brass Ensemble / The Drums / The Wickets
Film: Scot Pilgrim vs The World / Sex, Drugs and Rock N Roll
Live Comedy: Frank Olivier (Filthy Frank)
Record Shop: Anarchy
Game: Minecraft