Daddy's Speeding

Brett Anderson looking on disapprovingly

There is nothing more frustrating than having an unannounced little brown envelope land on your mat, which then accuses you (usually very fairly) of speeding and giving you the options of a course or points and a fine. I've had this twice in the last 6 months, both times claiming I had ignored the first letter from them and that this was my final warning before they haul me off to court.

Now the cynic in me thinks that they just save on the stamp for the first one, never sending it out, and wind the offender up with the second. These chaser letters absolutely get me grumpy for the day. The last one was the worst, being done for travelling at 55 on the motorway when I apparently should have been doing 40. This was frustrating because having done the speed awareness course last October I had become very speed aware. I had realised that speeding places often only saves fractions of minutes of time, and the fuel efficiency is excellent otherwise. The course didn't even go on about speed killing particularly, it was very well pitched. So I had become quite evangelical about speed, I would tell people about the speed limit, 'did you know if there are street lights its 30 unless there are repeaters' explaining more, 'did you know that rural lanes are the most accident prone' etc etc.

My miles per gallon had increased 10% too - which given the price of fuel was quite a lot. Every time I was filling up I would think about the album I could buy with the saved £7.

Truth be told the speed awareness course was really useful, and everyone I have spoken too who has been has enjoyed it (they've not told me whether they changed their habits but they enjoyed it). What I found was that I could relax more at the wheel, pottering along the motorway would allow you to look round, check out what was going on. The 30 mph drive to work allowed a relax to think about the day ahead etc. Why didn't I realise this earlier....

I've only had one instance of being pulled over for speeding the rest have been flashing cameras. Stupidly it was after getting rid of my Beige Metro (rust bucket, 60 mph top speed) and getting a work car scheme car, a Peugeot 306, which was able to speed. On the way up to Mrs P's Mum's house I was not really focussed enjoying the freedom of an accelerator that did what it said on the tin and got pulled. The Copper wasn't impressed with my suggestion that it was the cars fault and that I hadn't noticed.

Again after a bad day at the office I came home grumpy grumpy grumpy and whistled past a speed camera I knew near home and flash it went. Bah. I took the mother in law to Shrewsbury too, good deed and boom got flashed. All suitably stressful experiences. Even when its not me its stressful, I got a letter informing me I had been done for speeding in Bognor Regis. Writing back I noted I had never even been there and had had to look the location up on the internet to find it, and I was in another part of the country at the time honest guv. But for a few weeks waiting for the letter back I was suitably stressed (turns out the reg inputted was a typo and it wasn't me).

So I am now slow and steady, fuel efficient and stress free.

Linking this to music though isn't hard, when your favourite band's Suede immediately you are drawn to Daddy's Speeding off the magnificent Dog Man Star album. A song about James Dean's demise. A haunting, theatrical song.

Here's what I found on the web about it.

On September 30, 1955 James Dean was driving his Porsche 550 Spyder on U.S. Route 466 (later State Route 46), when a black-and-white 1950 Ford Custom Tudor coupe, driven from the opposite direction, moved to take the fork onto State Route 41 and crossed into Dean's lane. The two cars hit almost head-on. The actor was rushed to Paso Robles War Memorial Hospital and pronounced dead on arrival. Contrary to reports of his speeding, the Highway Patrol officer who attended the crash said "the wreckage and the position of Dean's body indicated his speed was more like 55 mph (88 km/h)." Suede frontman Brett Anderson told Suede.co.uk about this story of a dream/fantasy about Dean' s death: "I was immersing myself in overtly clichéd Hollywood iconography at the time. I guess it was an extension of the isolation/ pornography themes where I saw people forming relationships with fantasy figures rather than real people; Our new communities were soap operas, our new friends were characters in American sit-coms."

Anderson told the Suede site about his singing on the track: "I wanted to give the vocal a Lennonesque quality, that magical dreamlike way he sang songs like 'Day In The Life' and 'Across The Universe,' which I thought would complement the phased, otherworldly tone of the music."

And here's a video for this non single, its from the lost in TV DVD collection - if there's one thing to say about Suede, they have always looked after their fans with the best extras, B Sides, fan club gigs etc ever.

Dodgy Gig Review in Cannock

When a band complements the audience on beating Hull to the crown of Dogging Capital of the world, it's going to be an interesting gig, and so a Friday night in Cannock watching Dodgy turned out to be. 

It was a journey back out to that neck of the woods following the brilliant gig at Woodys watching Tom Hingley from the Inspiral Carpets (Blogged here) a few weeks ago. The original poster publicising the gig was a little odd given it gave the wrong venue, and missed the fact that it was a run through of the current and first albums in their entirety but it gave us a clue.

It was reasonably challenging to find out about the gig, resorting to tweeting the band and we were off. With Bob driving we took the interesting approach of him looking at a map on line then driving hoping to remember the location or the venue name when we hit Cannock, and it worked with only one misplacing and asking of passers by for directions.

Walking through the streets of cannock we were first hit with the sounds of Agado do do by Black Lace wafting over us from a venue above Boots the chemist, I was mildly perturbed hat this may be the warm up tunes, but luckily this seemed to be a disco going on.

Walking in, an apologetic front deskier noted the ticket machine had broken, and had to be hand written, to which quick as a flash I thanked her for the 'Dodgy ticket' to which she sighed, obviously having had the same comment from everyone prior in the queue.

Dodgy ticket - Boom Boom

Passing a decent merchandise stall, including sew on Dogging badges in the shape of Northern Soul ones, we entered the venue, (which Bobs little daughter had performed Ballet at recently) and I can hand on heart say I have never been to a venue like it. Nice stage, standing area and then a bank of cinema seats at the back with a DJ booth, with Northern Soul songs filling the venue.

Looking round though the most bizarre thing was the randomness of the audience, usually at a gig you will get a tribe there, indie kids, rockers, etc and some theme but here it looked like the audience was just a sample of people plucked at random from Cannock shopping centre, lots of interesting people, a veritable giant, luckily seated at the back, line dancers, old bloke in shirt tie and red braces, rumours of a member of the Charlatans in attendance, massive bouncers, I was just waiting for Peter Kaye and the cast of Phoenix Nights to wander round when...

From the sound desk the Paul Weller barneted promoter announced the ability for us to purchase raffle tickets, one prize of a Dodgy signed guitar (cue second Dodgy joke) and to buy merchandise, Dodgy gear on sale in the foyer....boom and indeed boom.

Support act Sam Forrest playing acoustic shit (by his own admission) was prior Nine Black Alps front man, dressed in lumberjack shirt, cartoon mop hair, but good banter, nice tunes, probably a bit narked to have Driven for 3 hours to get there and everyone was chatting loudly over his acoustic songs. Good stuff and got warm applause.

Another break, Raffle drawn, and Dodgy came on to premier their latest album, Stand Upright In A Cool Place,  first in 14 years played start to finish. It's an anomaly amongst recent bands coming back from the Britpop era as it is definitely written from a grown up perspective, the Autumn of the career, and all the better for it. They were very tight at that point, Nigel Clark lead singer looking in rude health, chatting throughout, Drummer and bvs Matthew Priest now sporting an excellent white beard, he always was a larger than life character in the Britpop wars. Bassist wearing well..., guitarist looking like he had had a tough life and not over the moon to be in Cannock.

Highlight for me for the first album of the night was track 2 'What became of you', coupled with lead singer getting told off for swearing to the crowd (you came her to hear the hits, where's f****ng Staying out for the Summer, where's f*****ng in a room, and wheres f*****ng staying out for the summer ) as his cousins lad was in the crowd. I must admit I was thinking the same a little.

Band off, with the promise of taking us time travelling back to 1993 on their return, a specific request for April 11th was made, more tunes, back on, having partaken of a bit of the rider, and launching into a run through of the Dodgy album, their debut. This was typical Britpop, thoroughly enjoyable, and an album I never bought, but will seek out. You got a sense of melancholy from lead singer going through this, a few barbed comments and the tunes becoming a little less tight as the gig went on. Finishing off with We're Not Going to Take This Anymore they merged into back to life back to reality then went off waving to the crowd.

Promoter leapt back into life, encouraging the audience to be cheering on Indie Legends Dodgy, and to stamp our feet. And we were rewarded with a returning band, half full bottle of scotch in hand to do a Ragged if your thinking of me and good enough, both good tunes, receiving decent sing alongs, from the crowd and including in a long intro for Good Enough a jumping into the audience, pushing people forward to dance and launching of water bottle from one side of the gig to the other, danger danger.

That Bottle of Scotch - the Rider!

Great experience, Dodgy great value for money for the 2 albums and wrapping up at 11:45 was a long old gig, we could have stayed for the disco but were probably right to leave rather than cut a rug with the chap in tie and braces. Final announcements from the promoter promised loads more gigs in Cannock bringing more legends, I would hope he promotes them in the future more widely than flyers in Cannock chip shops as this has potential.

Crowd full of pent up excitement for gig (braces dead centre)

Ash - the end of an Era

Ash was tiny

Returning home on Friday, after roughly 8 hours driving I got the news that our cat had been to the vets for the last time. Now the Internet is full of pictures of cute cats, and I am not going to add to that number, but I will miss Ash (for that was her name) as we had got her when we got our first house together, and she was a day shy of 17 years old on Friday.

Ash was named primarily after the band Ash who burst onto the Britpop scene as precocious 16 year olds, touring in school holidays etc. it did help that Ash was a cute name for a cat too.

Ash have been a cracking band over the years, being able to throw off golden pop singles willy nilly. Starting with Kung Fu where my love of their tunes began, a blistering pop tune, guitars whirling at the beginning, "Chill, Chill" dang dagga dang....Kung fu do what you do to me....

I've had loads of fun following Ash over the years, they remain the only band I've ever heard of to play a gig in Redditch, at the social club, when they asked the fans on the website where they should play. That was a hot and sweaty gig, topped off by my mate wearing the same T shirt as Rick the drummer.

They were also the object of a vinyl obsession of mine, a red vinyl 7 inch limited edition single, with Drew Barrymore on the front. The single was a limited edition cover, doing get ready, given that's a cracking cover version done by one of my favourite bands it was an object of desire, it was gone quickly from the shops and so I remember thinking seriously about buying the single for £35! You can see this was the time before kids, but also a time where getting a song was hard, not like now where you can get it by jumping on iTunes or tapping on google. If I want the single now it's £7 on discogs, cheaper than most things on record store day.

The song 'Girl from Mars' was always special, having been singing under my breathe for a week or song, Mrs P was disappointed to find out I wasn't singing "I still love you the girl from Marske" the town she's from. It's a special song as a result.

I also got a great sampler album of there mini album Trailer, from Reddingtons Rare Records (long gone) but it looked cool, with the gold writing on the front "FOR PROMOTIONAL USE ONLY. SALE OR OTHER TRANSFER IS PROHIBITED. MUST BE RETURNED ON DEMAND OF RECORD COMPANY" all I can say is I hope they don't ask for it back.

They are still going strong too, no doubt because they are innovative (as seen by the above tour), such as coming up with the A-Z singles releases (a release of a single every fortnight for a year) and accompanying uk tour, visiting a town starting with every letter of the alphabet (Queens Park, London, Ventnor, Zennor, Exmouth were the tricky ones they got)

So to my Ash, she was the runt of the litter, we got her from a Squat in Walsall through a friend of a friend, her tail was broke at the end so it never grew properly and she would never get too friendly with anyone, even if purring you needed to watch out for the swipe of viscous claws. But I am sad now she's gone, she's been a huge part of my life always pottering around, never being any trouble, and the 2 other cats we have, big boy cats, we're clearly scared of little Ash, as they have now started getting on the sofa, they obviously didn't dare before.

My favourite Ash songs, top 5

5. Orpheus - love that Mexican kick off

4. Jack names the planets - played at every gig, on the Trailer album no one else had, good stuff

3. Shining light - interesting fact, covered by Annie Lennox

2. Girl from Mars - for Mrs P

1. Kung Fu - never bettered in my eyes, especially for having the picture of Cantona launched into the crowd as the single cover, classic.

Suede weekend Part 2: Ally Pally in London Gig Review

Animal Nitrate - blistering

Suede at Ally Pally: 30 March 2013

Another 48 hours and the anticipation was building, for Suede at Ally Pally, kids dropped off at Grandparents, shopping trip to Bicester (torture) completed and we arrived bright and early for what could become a legendary gig for Suede. This was a perfect venue, as arriving when we did there was a perfect view of a grey chilly London spreading out across the horizon, coupled with a crumbling palace, trying to recapture its former glories behind us.

Settling into the Ally Pally pub, for tea, there was an interesting mixture of clientele, part Suede devotees, part wedding party, all mingled happily as the soundtrack for the afternoon was 90's indie which helped the Tuborg/Amstel and Burger go down.

Waiting in anticipation, we got to see the inner workings of gig preparation, plus Nige &Emma appeared. This had numerous briefings for security staff and the lighting up of a Batman style symbol, drawing Suede to their performance and fan base.

Bat Sign Emergency

Not able to hold back my excitement, I went in ready to watch Temples & Spector, great support act calibre for the gig, and was blown away by the innards of Ally Pally, massive Victorian train station looking, with huge area for congregating and a massive show space, stage on end, massive bar and tiny toilets the other (a recipe for disaster which led to girls in tears pleading to go into the gents with jobsworths turning them away).

In the entrance hall, I got my obligatory bit of merchandise, signed album, to go with all the other versions, living up to the Physical Product moniker, but coming with free tour brochure it was worth it. Whilst queuing to pay (grumbling at he people indecisively choosing Tshirts or whipping out credit cards to pay, wondering whether anyone would be buying a Suede scented candle) I heard some pleasant lounge music in the back ground, which after a few seconds I recognised to be Suede covers, and a few more seconds to realise it was a live band. So a few more minutes were spent listening to Trash, the Beautiful ones and others playing in a completely unrecognisable genre, nice touch. The Nat Franklin Trio (although there are 4 of them!)

First band up, the Temples, pretty good, saw the whole set this time which lived up to the final song from Thursday. They seemed suitably impressed to be playing to a crowd the size that had assembled and the dreamy guitar pop of Shelter Song again was particularly good.

Spector again a great band who I didn't know much about, Nige & kids rate them though, and they would not have looked amiss in the Goid Mixer in Camden back in the 90's playing pool with Graham Coxon & Matthew Everitt from Menswear. Most impressive element was the banter from lead singer Frederick Macpherson who part Jarvis, part the bloke from Franz Ferdinand interspersed every song with a few quips, and will have won a few fans (Mrs P included) from the Britpop crowd particularly with the line -

'The headliners were a bit worried about having us support them, but they were easily Suede (sic)' - take a bow son, that was nicely done.

With Suede looming, beer refreshed and we headed to the front. Right hand side, only to spot Nige emerging from the middle grumbling about having to give up a good spot because Emma had gone to the loo. We got a great spot though, enhanced by Mrs P's whirling and twisting later for the Suede songs, clearing a circle round us.

Again, we waited through Black Sabbath, Sex Pistols, a bit of classical music and on strolled the boys, Brett decked out in video camera spotting white shirt much to Mrs P's disgust. 

The first 3 tracks from Bloodsports kicked off the set, again sounding like classic Suede from the 90's. Then into actual classics, the gig back set by massive backdrops of the striking artwork from the Suede albums and singles, looking back they did a good job of that too in hindsight, never really thought about it too much in the past.

Set list the same running order more or less as Rock City but interspersed with a number of additional tunes, the first of these being Sleeping Pills from debut album (20 years old debut album) Suede. This was one of the songs on the CD that was on heavy rotation in my room whilst revising for my degree, although I would often be found singing 'you're a pink tooth brush, I'm a blue tooth brush' rather than 'Water sign, air sign', but I was young and innocent back then.

Easily one of my favourite gigs, amazing location, blistering set, voice nearly gone this morning (always a good sign) and at the end a trip back to Brum in the dead of night (having parked in a good location for a change) trying desperately not to nod off and having the joys of a deserted service station at the dead of night.

Looking back at the gig it's easy to see why it stood out, a balance of Suede classics that the crowd know and love, coupled with a blistering new album that the band want to play and the fans want to hear, that deliver. Something we hadn't had for a long time, maybe since the days when Coming Up was released.

Makes me wonder what would the legacy of indie music have been like if Suede had released Bloodsports in 1997, on the back of the commercial Coming Up? With a body of work of Suede, Dog Man Star, Coming Up &Bloodsports, in the midst of Britpop, how would the world be comparing Blur, Oasis and Pulp to Suede? Quite differently I think.

Set List:

Suede Weekend Part 1: Nottingham Rock City Gig Review

Suede: Nottingham Rock City 28 March 2013

And so it continues, not since 2002 when following Suede to their Liverpool, Manchester and Birmingham gigs, and 2005 when doing the same for the Tears with Bernard and Brett (hadn't see them with Suede) have I been caught up in such a weekend of excitement. Part one of the Suede fest (after building up my excitement by reviewing Bloodsports and then reliving the fan club gig from years ago here) was to head off to a nearly home gig at Nottingham Rock City, accompanied in a full car load of Mrs P (very excited) and Neil & Jayne (pretty excited but would be more so if it was Embrace..... perhaps soon who knows).

Having legged it from work early (I had schoolboy fever again, not being able to sleep the night before, so was at work for 7:00. a perfect excuse for sloping off early for a bank holiday weekend) got home, filled the kids (and ourselves) with McDonalds' to over excite them for Nanny on Baby sitting duty and we were off, 5:45ish, not bad. This was important given the gig had a 10:00 curfew. Now say it quietly but I quite like these curfew gigs, happy to be back home at a reasonable hour, in fact I am not averse to seats at gigs these days either. But say this to me in public and I will definitely claim otherwise.

The journey to Nottingham was a little fraught, firstly heading off down a seemingly brilliant shortcut which turned into a snow bound dirt track that we only just escaped, and then entering Nottingham, down the car park that is the A453. With my copilot Neil who had been a Student their 20 years ago guiding us to Rock City with such directions as left here, oh actually its a one way street / pedestrian area / where have these trams come from......

We arrived, though after the somber moment of Neil noting that 'they've knocked down the student union, I saw Suede there in 92 supported by the Auteurs' He always had the cooler gig prowess, but the Eurythmics and Howard Jones did me proud back in the day!

Legging into the venue, we caught the last song from the Temples, which was a shame as I found much to my amazement that not only did I like it, I knew it well, must have been a random purchase off the back of hearing it on the radio. If only I had the chance to see a full set from them some time in the future, Saturday say............

We turned our attention to drinks then, Rock City = Cans of Red Stripe / Tuborg , more than happy with that and wandered off to find a good vantage point, which was required for the smaller members of the party. Again home turf knowledge from Neil came in handy, finding a step for the girls to stand on, whilst we guarded the space in front from giants. Worked well, although the gig was punctuated with the odd (look he's stood right in front of me comments) from Mrs P.

A few of the standard tunes to warm up the crowd, Black Sabbath and the obligatory Sex Pistols and then.... They were onstage walking on to a calming piece of classical music, all dressed in very fashionable black attire. A lot more designer I would imagine these days to the early days.

So had their mid 40's calmed down the whirlwind that is Suede?........no............the opening galloping chords of Barriers burst over the crowd and Brett was Brett again, looking the fittest (in my eyes sporty, Mrs P's sexy) he has looked for years. Taring into the song backed with the sound of the band that would never be recaptured on record (and Suede have had plenty of criticism from audiophiles about the sound quality of Bloodsports). As a song, Barriers for me is a Suede classic, its the song going round and round in my head still, along with the slight ringing in my ears, its one of the best songs I have heard in years, but a number of the Bloodsports songs fit into that category.

Being a warm up gig, the audience was pretty much full of 30/40 something Suede fans, dressed in Black and singing through every word of Barriers, which was followed by new songs Snowblind and It starts and ends with you, same as the album and yes fantastic reception. Then a bit of a chord, a clue to decades gone by and they plunged into Animal Nitrate and Metal Mickey. The roof lifted visibly off Rock City. Those songs sound so vibrant 20 years on (I hate saying that) and everyone in the crowd wasn't just singing along, they were belting out the anthems that launched Britpop and wrestled music back from Grunge and the yanks back in 92.

Brett was in the crowd again, a matter of feet away, slightly different experience to 2 years ago when we were sat on the back row of the Albert Hall, in dire need of Binoculars (thanks seatwave). He seemed definitely to be enjoying himself, first time in Rock City which surprised me but 'Nice here innit, we'd loved to come back' was Brett's thought and the general vibe.

The rest of the gig passed by at an incredible rate, with Suedeisms galore (although not the microphone bottom wiggling antics of old) such as the well honed twirling of the microphone on long wire with just enough pace to land back in the hand with the split second timing for the verse (always looks cool see example right). Or looping round the head ready to lassoo any passing cattle before letting the microphone wrap Brett up in his wire, the end of Filmstar I think it was last night, stomping song ending in a whirl of microphone.

We had a brief moment, after 'sometimes I feel' where Brett announced 'thats the first time we have done that song live, probably the last', a comment on audience reaction? dunno but its a quieter song and we all loved it in our car (checked this out on the way home)

The highlight for me of the set was the inclusion of Killing of a flashboy. A throw away B-Side on the lead single for Dog Man Star, We are the Pigs. This is an absolutely brilliant song, again a big sing along. 'Its the same old show, he's a killer he's a flash boy Oh!' always brings back memories of the stick thin Richard Oakes swaying around, long hair flying at Wolverhampton Civic Hall on his first tour with the band, the young 17 year old (who I was suitably star struck to meet last year when touring with Artmagic - great band)

Wrapping up with Brett's challenge to 'sing along, you know this one, well you should do or why are you here?', we got a rousing Beautiful ones and they were gone to soak up the applause and return, without the Rhythm section for an encore of What are you not telling me, for the strangers and finally New Generation.

Which poses the question will this new album get Suede a new generation of followers? I remember vividly the thrill of singing this song after the gig in Wolverhampton back in 1994, thoroughly smitten by Suede - but can a new generation feel that way about a band, dressed in black halfway through their 5th decade on this planet!

To be honest, I don't care - Suede are my band, and seeing them in a venue like this is exactly what seeing a live band is all about for me 80 minutes of bliss.

Suede Bloodsports Album Review

I love Suede, so this will no doubt be very biased.

I got into them whilst revising for my degree, probably the last time in my life that I got into loving things as Mrs P arrived around the same time in my life too (meaning that I love her too, not that she stopped me loving things, oh dear too much foot in mouth syndrome).

Its a funny relationship I have with Suede. Perhaps the closest I can put to it is the relationship I have with mates from school. Don't see them for years, then when I do I am transported back to being a kid and the fun that nostalgia brings.

So what happens with Suede for me, every release anticipated, purchased, filed away. Magazines read, concerts watched, even planning a weekend away to follow Suede to Manchester and Liverpool, the Internet scoured for live songs and rarities, fanzines bought and when offshoots arose, McAlmont & Butler, the Tears, Elastica, Artmagic, Bernard solo, Brett solo, I could be seen at the gigs lapping it up.

So when the new album came along, I was up for it definitely, tickets purchased for Ally Pally, and Rock City, preview radio interviews listened to, Barriers downloaded for free, sadly in the week Bowie decided to trump their approach, and lots of 4 star album reviews.

I got the Delux album eventually, bashed in the post, but have the physical product to hand. I have played it 7 times in quick succession. I can't remember the last time I did that to an album, and have no thoughts about slowing down. Bowie and John Grants albums haven't had this much air time, so I am going to run through the album in real time to catch my thoughts in listen number 8.

Barriers, very familiar, gallops along, that's what it feels like, Brett's voice unmistakable, lipstick mentioned with seconds, the way I loved you comes soon, jumping barriers - sounds like fans at an adoring gig.  The way, the way I loved you is such a cracking lyric. So this is already a Suede classic for me, then we get into singalong mode at the end, they can happily do this one as an opener next week.

Snow blind has the sorts of oooooo that I remember from coming up and head music, again classic Suede, guitar unmistakeable in the first 30 seconds. 'Find our keys on the kitchen table' just lyrics from the Suede almanac, glamourously ordinary. The first time I heard this one I did get excited, more brilliance from Suede. Brett's voice is cracking (ie great, not in a bad way) more sing along chorus time. Perfection.

It starts and ends with you. Those drums, fantastic, this had been on heavy rotation on 6 music and I love it, 'pinch myself but i don't wake up' & 'to much is not enough', great lyrics  It quickly replaced Barriers as my favourite new song by them. That is a blistering first 3 songs, bettered by and of the previous albums? Good question. Possibly not, I can listen to them time and time again.

Sabotage. Slowing down, drums Europe is my playground style. Again very Suede, again brilliant, am I just biased in this? I haven't heard songs as good as this IMHO for a long time. A mournful beautiful song this one, but still quicker than a ballad. First time I heard it, I thought it was 'and I will return' which is right.

For the Strangers. Lips like semaphore. Stings like aerosol in my eyes. Pretty good lyrics still run through. I have my lighter held aloft now for this one, I have put my arm round Claire and we are swaying side to side. We both love Suede. This is of course all in my head as I have the album on my iPod and am hiding from small children to do a review. So I still like this, but it's more a 4star rather than the 5 stars of the first four songs. I put my metaphorical lighter away for.

Hit me. And another powerfully drummed intro. Suede have always done powerful drums, ala she, elephant man. Then a beautiful, 'Come on and hit me with your majesty' and 'la la la la la'. Bretts voice is better than ever, no change in the last 20 years, maybe even fuller  Am i totally sure these aren't songs from the 90's just rerecorded as they really stand out. I am back onto 5 star ratings again.

Sometimes I feel I'll float away. So we are now coming down, slowing up after a blistering first half. This is definitely a Suede ballad. We are building to the chorus, and there it is, the name of the song, rich and strong. It's a softer more dreamy chorus than normal for Suede, a great song again, a bit different to their older ballads ala wild ones.

What are you not telling me? More ballad, quieter, piano and whistling effects, then where do the echoing backing harmonies come from. Never heard anything like this from Suede, I am waiting for that chorus to come again, a second run through of the triple backed song title, it sounds even better second time round. Straight in for a third cycle, and this is a very bare track and couple of minutes and gone.

Always, starts off very oriental. Quite fancy a Chinese, and again another slower ballady number. 'I set my clock for 7:30 everyday' Brett sings, chance would be a fine thing. Again I think that this is a lower song on the album, but hang on, the drums are dragging it back, pounding to a crescendo, topped by Brett's chorus, it's been saved, definitely worth waiting for the second half to arrive.

Faultlines ends the album, starts very Morricono. I like it. I am just listening, i cant say too much as a result. it's very Mexican for me, I would have this over the end of a spaghetti western any day, but then Suede have been very cinematic to end albums, rolling credits, no encore to Still life on the Dog Man Star tour is a case in point.

Do you want some more? Well of course you do, I tunes exclusives.

Dawn chorus. Not bad, mid paced, so far so good, not a Suede of old bside more a Suede a new morning tune - but as I love them, it's still a good tune, but a filler, a 3 star tune and I doubt it will get an airing live, but perhaps I am just harking back to a band that threw away corkers of the genius of scifi lullabies.

Howl. Again a 3 star, nice to have in the collection said the completist. Actually probably good to slow down to theses 2 songs, you can have too much of a good thing and it does point to just how good he album is to these severely biased eyes.

So finally I have an exclusive listen, due to the crapness of the company providing the physical product, I was sent the bonus tunes above (again) and also 'No Holding Back'. Its the Drums again, and a hurried sounding song. Good chorus but loads of noisy guitars over what sounds like Brett singing in a subway tunnel, yep second listen and he has definitely run back into the subway, I imagine its a Suede subway though, like the one from a video, cant remember which one, but where someone gets beaten up, maybe we are the pigs. I shall investigate later. Best of the 3 freebies (which actually I paid 99p each for and had to buy a very expensive boxset) so perhaps not freebies.

So what do I reckon to the album - a real cracker and one that will get a lot of listens to. Bring on the live experience.

The Charlatans @ Manchester Apollo

The Charlatans: Manchester Apollo
Gig 30: 1 June 2012 


Going to watch the Charlatans on their home turf in Manchester, playing their Telling Stories album in its entirety, what better way to start the Jubilee weekend. Better still, this was coming on top of a long, long week and I was incredibly ready to unwind, and best still I got the opportunity to leave early and shoot up the M6. Sadly this being Friday afternoon before the Jubilee all of the travel reporters seemed a little to gleeful in telling me about the great British Getaway weekend and the delays that started at junction 8 (mine) and lasted to junction 19, ironically the junction I would be leaving the M6 on.


Still I was on holiday and heading north, nothing would dampen my mood, changing into jeans at the service station and I was totally relaxed, a short detour to see the Salford Lads Club site (see this post) and I arrived at the Apollo in Manchester for a debut at the venue. It's a venue I had read about regularly over the years in the NME and Melody Maker and the Art Deco outside made it look a quality venue compared to some of the sheds on the circuit currently.

I had read on the website that it was advisable to park in the secure parking by the venue so when the was a big car park next to the venue with official blokes waving shouting park here I was a bit disappointed to find this was a dearer unofficial one, cheeky chaps, which on leaving the venue I was totally blocked in on all sides, note to self.

Wandering in early to the gig, the venue was impressive, I was downstairs in what is evidently built to be a Cinema and so the stalls are on a massive slope, which means that everyone gets a decent view. Even when Andre the Giant decided to dance in front of me the the view was fine, my only complaint being caught in the grollies by his flailing dancing arm. So settling in at the back waiting with a beer I reflected how much better the New Order gig (see here) would have been in this venue compared to the Ballroom.

Promptly at 8 the support band, Deadbeat Echoes, came on and kicked off with confident drums, and is pretty good, the second song with a catchy woo hoo refrain sounding like the tune from Kill Bill, and again pretty memorable, in fact this is the theme for the performance, real hooks and catches in each song, impressive for such a debut band, such as the 'Twang Twang err, Twang Twang oooh song', probably not the best description but you had to be there. I suppose the swagger of the band is best summed up by the drummer, particularly impressive I thought with his drum stick twirling throughout, nice touch. Sadly the slab of 7inch vinyl purchased outside didn't really live up to the swagger.

Another half hour and on walked the Charlatans, and they were definitively coming home, they really looked at home. Tim front and centre, twirling his supremely dodgy blond raggedy bowl cut left and right, Mark Collins just standing coolly on his left, keyboards by Tony Rogers driving things forward and Jon Brookes behind the Drums. This was impressive to see as the last time I had seen the Charlies in Brum Jon was absent due to his Brain Tumor, returning to the kit for the encore of Sproston Green for his first appearance after successfully battling back from the affliction.

It's shocking that it's 15 years since telling stories, bang at the end of britpop and a great album that re-established my love of the Charlatans following my brief dalliance with 'the only one I know'. It was an important album for me, and the opening strains of 'with no shoes' zoomed me back to the days of Mark and Lard on the Radio 1 breakfast show. North Country Boy, Telling Stories, a B side, One to Another (resplendent with crowd whistles) and everyone was enjoying the party, I was slightly distracted by Andre stood in front of me dancing, as he danced exactly the same way as my brother in law, now dubbed Uncle Small by my kids, perhaps that is the best way for tall people to dance, just less swinging arms in a confined space please.

A recurring bonus for the gig was leaning against the bar at the back of the gig, like an old fashioned leaning post at the footie in the days of terraces. I got people walk up in the dark and try to push past, only to find their way blocked, not particularly amusing, that only happened when they saw the bar, ducked down to go under and bumped into the black paneling that was below the bar and slunk off sheepishly, amusing far more because most of them were people out in their Manc trendy finery and trying so hard to look cool.

A few more album tracks and B sides later, and the air had subsided a bit, only to erupt again with How High, a blistering song, with the crowd in full voice, after this out came the mouth organ and they we gone, with the crowd baying for more.

The band returned for getting on for an hour of the greatest hits, spanning the whole of their career, all stood up very well, and this was where Tim Burgess came into his own, whether it be the arms outstretched in white Tshirt messianic poses for Forever, or the failed golf swing dancing on Wierdo, Tim is a perfect front man, very at home with the adoration.


Another reason that the Charlatans hold a special place for me is the Keyboards, I can't think of another band I have seen that so closely pulls on the legacy of the Stax sound, this really shone through in 'Oh Vanity'  which owes more than just a nod to the Memphis sounds.

What better way to finish than The Only One I Know, being played true to the original which for a long time was an omission from the set list and then back as a re-imagined version, and then finishing on the obligatory Sproston Green.

My only criticism from the night, Tim should definitely work on his signature in the signed book....... And nearly getting run over when crossing a round (which would have put a dampener on the evening). Back down the M6 and I was in a great frame of mind to celebrate the damp jubilee weekend.