A CD on heavy rotation in my car stereo at the moment is a very cheap straight out of a bargain bin; compilation album. A collection of 15 Happy Mondays tracks, album tracks and b-sides of theirs, no singles.
Anyhow, an album track from their 1987 debut album "Squirrel and G-Man Twenty Four Hour Party People Plastic Face Carnt Smile (White Out)" is on this CD, refreshed my memory of just how good the band are/were, and I have to say this track is completely up amongst my best songs ever(!), it's the track "Tart Tart" - please if you have the album or this track, go put it on, and enjoy the 4 minutes and 25 seconds - if you havent got it, get it! In fact, i've changed my MySpace song to "Tart Tart" - go listen up very loud on some quality speakers! Get past Ryders out-of-tune voice, which fits "perfectly" anyway, listen and understand - tells a great story...
The track and album was produced by John Cale, "THE" John Cale. The John Cale i've seen take offence at Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals) for smoking in his company - John Cale of course an ex-heroin addict... Anyhow "Tart Tart" is one of the first glimpses of Shaun Ryders lyrical ability, documenting the producer Martin Hannetts abrupt split from the Factory Records label:
He made his shock announcement
And backed off, backed down, backed off
And then he got up off the floor
He said "Im wealthy enough, not to do this no more"
And he made it all known, with his hands held up, palm out
"In eight lines he captured the whole fucking thing" - Anthony H Wilson.
The rhythm section of Paul Ryder and Gary Whelan (with Shauns guidance), took the sounds coming from Detroit and Chicago in the mid 1980's and formed a new music. "To me this is just dance music", "Then why is nobody dancing?". This album was followed up with their album "Bummed", featuring the groundbreaking "Wrote For Luck", produced by Hannett himself, who had by then changed the way we hear music, and continued to do so...
I could write another post gushing about "Wrote For Luck" too... the remix of the track making a certain Paul Oakenfold a dance-hold name. Another time maybe. Put "Tart Tart" on, i've tried not to say the word all post, but i'm going to.. it's... genius!
07 March, 2007
06 March, 2007
Henn-mania
Welsh talent has featured quite prominently in collecting football awards over the last few days. Jason Koumas deservedly picked up the ‘Championship Player of the Year Award’ at the ‘Football League Awards’ in London on Sunday. Close to winning that gong for himself, Gareth Bale had to settle for the award for the ‘Football League Young Player of the Year’. Cardiff City’s Chris Gunter was deemed the ‘Championship Apprentice of the Year’, an award Lewin Nyatanga won last season. I’m sure it won’t do his growing confidence any harm. His team mate Joe Ledley received the ‘Goal of the Year’ award for one he scored back in August against Barnsley. Not a bad haul overall and with Ryan Giggs playing his 700th game for Manchester United last weekend it was generally a good week of achievements for Welsh football.
The story that captured both my attention and imagination this weekend was that of goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey. If you haven’t heard of him yet you might do soon if his record continues. Wolves stopper Hennessey is in the middle of a successful loan period at Stockport County. Since January he’s kept nine clean sheets totalling at 810 minutes of football helping Stockport to nine wins in a row. This record breaking run has lifted them from 15th place to 6th in League Two catapulting them into a promotion race and has earned him the ‘League Two Player of the Month Award’ for February. Obviously Hennessey can’t take all the credit for this run but you’d have to admit it looks favourably on him that the run coincided with his arrival at the club. What makes his achievement even more incredible is that these nine games are the only professional matches he’s ever played. After six clean sheets Hennessey revealed in an interview that the Stockport fans had affectionately started singing ‘Wales Number One’ during matches. After nine games without conceding you could suggest those fans were closer to the mark with a chant which originally may have been sung in jest. He’s already broken into the Under 19 and Under 21 squads, I read somewhere on the net this weekend that he apparently scored a 40 yard free kick against Turkey Under 19s. A writer in Western Mail this week said he’s already savouring the prospect of him and Lewis Price battling it out for the Welsh No 1 jersey. So at 6ft4 Wayne Hennessey could be destined to be the biggest thing to come out of Beaumaris since…well...ever.
As an Everton supporter I have come to learn not to get too carried away when a player shows signs of early promise. In the late nineties when Everton were annually involved in relegation dogfights they were forced to rush the development of their younger talent. Michael Ball, Francis Jeffers, Michael Branch, Danny Cadamarteri and Jon O’Connor, all thrown in at the deep end, had initial success when bursting onto the scene and naturally at times of trouble it was hoped these players would be Everton’s ticket back to the big time. Strikers Branch and Cadamarteri both seemed prolific at first but along with O’Connor they moved on then slowly slipping down the football leagues going from club to club. Believers of their own hype, Ball and Jeffers earned big moves away from Everton but the pair never really fulfilled their early potential. Therefore I try to approach any talk of the next big thing with caution. I do however appreciate it’s difficult not to rush things when resources are thin. Wales have been pushing their youngsters through the ranks for years. You can see it in the current Welsh squad, many of our players are eligible for the under 21s and some could even play for the under 19s. But in fairness if they’re good enough and are better than what else is on offer they should play no matter the age. If things continue to go well for Wayne Hennessey he may get his chance at full international level earlier than expected.
Good luck against Barnet on Saturday Wayne. I’m sure I’ll have jinxed everything for him now.
The story that captured both my attention and imagination this weekend was that of goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey. If you haven’t heard of him yet you might do soon if his record continues. Wolves stopper Hennessey is in the middle of a successful loan period at Stockport County. Since January he’s kept nine clean sheets totalling at 810 minutes of football helping Stockport to nine wins in a row. This record breaking run has lifted them from 15th place to 6th in League Two catapulting them into a promotion race and has earned him the ‘League Two Player of the Month Award’ for February. Obviously Hennessey can’t take all the credit for this run but you’d have to admit it looks favourably on him that the run coincided with his arrival at the club. What makes his achievement even more incredible is that these nine games are the only professional matches he’s ever played. After six clean sheets Hennessey revealed in an interview that the Stockport fans had affectionately started singing ‘Wales Number One’ during matches. After nine games without conceding you could suggest those fans were closer to the mark with a chant which originally may have been sung in jest. He’s already broken into the Under 19 and Under 21 squads, I read somewhere on the net this weekend that he apparently scored a 40 yard free kick against Turkey Under 19s. A writer in Western Mail this week said he’s already savouring the prospect of him and Lewis Price battling it out for the Welsh No 1 jersey. So at 6ft4 Wayne Hennessey could be destined to be the biggest thing to come out of Beaumaris since…well...ever.
As an Everton supporter I have come to learn not to get too carried away when a player shows signs of early promise. In the late nineties when Everton were annually involved in relegation dogfights they were forced to rush the development of their younger talent. Michael Ball, Francis Jeffers, Michael Branch, Danny Cadamarteri and Jon O’Connor, all thrown in at the deep end, had initial success when bursting onto the scene and naturally at times of trouble it was hoped these players would be Everton’s ticket back to the big time. Strikers Branch and Cadamarteri both seemed prolific at first but along with O’Connor they moved on then slowly slipping down the football leagues going from club to club. Believers of their own hype, Ball and Jeffers earned big moves away from Everton but the pair never really fulfilled their early potential. Therefore I try to approach any talk of the next big thing with caution. I do however appreciate it’s difficult not to rush things when resources are thin. Wales have been pushing their youngsters through the ranks for years. You can see it in the current Welsh squad, many of our players are eligible for the under 21s and some could even play for the under 19s. But in fairness if they’re good enough and are better than what else is on offer they should play no matter the age. If things continue to go well for Wayne Hennessey he may get his chance at full international level earlier than expected.
Good luck against Barnet on Saturday Wayne. I’m sure I’ll have jinxed everything for him now.
01 March, 2007
Reasons To Be Fearful
The internet can be quite therapeutic. Especially when you can use it to exorcise the demons of your childhood. I’ve used Youtube to watch allsorts of things and recently I’ve come across videos of scary images that graced my T.V. screen during my upbringing. Quite frankly it's laughable when I watch them and I feel like a right idiot but I suppose everything is a bit frightening when you're a child. Here are some of the clips I got from the site of things that terrified the life out of me when I was growing up. I’m sure some will strike a chord with anyone born end of the seventies/early eighties.
(1) The “Zuul” scene in ‘Ghostbusters’.
This scene is responsible for giving me an irrational fear of fridges and is the most likely explanation of why I was a skinny fussy eater as a child. Maybe if one of these terror dogs lived in every fridge in Britain it’d be the perfect way to combat child obesity. Every time little fatty goes to grab some Cheese Strings from the refrigerator one of these monsters shouts “Zuul” down his lughole. Problem solved, they even get some excise as they run in fear. Mind you the desensitised kids of today would probably just ‘happy-slap’ the dog while his mates film it on their camera phones…the bastards. I see all these teenagers around Cardiff on their mobiles and they’ve all got better ones than me. What the hell is that about? I work all the hours God sends and what have I got to show for it? A Nokia from three years ago.
(2) BBC Ghostwatch
Don’t know if anybody will remember this one but it left a big impression on me. On Halloween in1992 the BBC decided they would show a fake live documentary as part of the Screen One drama series, it was called ‘Ghostwatch’. It followed a household in London that was being terrorised by an evil spirit called Mr Pipes. The young girls of the family were regularly being scratched and possessed by the ghost and the mother had called in the paranormal investigators to sort it out. The action was shared between a camera crew in the house and the BBC studio. Problem was they did a far too convincing job in selling it. They brought in respected TV presenters such as Michael Parkinson adding weight to the show. They even set up a hoax phone number to call up if you witnessed any activity. This left the thousands of viewers who missed the short disclaimer at the beginning of the show believing they were watching a genuine phenomenon unfolding, Orson Welles ‘War of the Worlds’ style. I’ve got to admit it does look very dated now but as a thirteen year old I was totally suckered in by the hoax. I wasn’t the only one. Various claims were reported in the papers, kids being diagnosed with post traumatic stress and even a teenager even committing suicide. The BBC have never repeated it to this day.
(3) Terrahawks
Who on Gods green Earth thought this was a good idea for a children’s TV show? A bunch of frightening puppets standing round talking bollocks in the scariest voices imaginable. I was petrified of this show. ‘Terrahawks’ was intended to be the most laidback and fun of the Gerry Anderson shows. Looking back I appreciate there’s a lot of humour here that isn’t present in something like ‘Thunderbirds’ but to be fair to my four year old self there’s a lot of monsters here that aren’t present in ‘Thunderbirds’. Watch this and you’ll have trouble sleeping for at least a week.
(4) Thriller
How come he looks scarier now in real life than he does in this video? I know it’s been said a million times but it really is true. I remember being fascinated with Thriller. As a result in later years I got into ‘An American Werewolf in London’ in a big way. As a child the bit that frightened me comes at the end of the video. The bit where Michael Jackson reassures his girlfriend that it was all just a dream, he turns to the camera then he smiles as his eyes turn yellow. That use to freak me out.
(5) Charley Says Adverts
Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one side you’ve got a sex offender, the other you’ve got a cat speaking in devilish tongues. Fair play the young lad deals with it well although all he gets for his trouble is an apple. If I’d have fought off a child molester I’d have wanted something better than a bloody apple, possibly the latest Now Album. Maybe that bloke wasn’t really a sex offender, maybe he did genuinely want to show the boy his puppies. I reckon Charley was so insecure that he couldn’t stand the thought of his owner looking at another pet. So Charley plays the paedophile card, the devious sod.
(1) The “Zuul” scene in ‘Ghostbusters’.
This scene is responsible for giving me an irrational fear of fridges and is the most likely explanation of why I was a skinny fussy eater as a child. Maybe if one of these terror dogs lived in every fridge in Britain it’d be the perfect way to combat child obesity. Every time little fatty goes to grab some Cheese Strings from the refrigerator one of these monsters shouts “Zuul” down his lughole. Problem solved, they even get some excise as they run in fear. Mind you the desensitised kids of today would probably just ‘happy-slap’ the dog while his mates film it on their camera phones…the bastards. I see all these teenagers around Cardiff on their mobiles and they’ve all got better ones than me. What the hell is that about? I work all the hours God sends and what have I got to show for it? A Nokia from three years ago.
(2) BBC Ghostwatch
Don’t know if anybody will remember this one but it left a big impression on me. On Halloween in1992 the BBC decided they would show a fake live documentary as part of the Screen One drama series, it was called ‘Ghostwatch’. It followed a household in London that was being terrorised by an evil spirit called Mr Pipes. The young girls of the family were regularly being scratched and possessed by the ghost and the mother had called in the paranormal investigators to sort it out. The action was shared between a camera crew in the house and the BBC studio. Problem was they did a far too convincing job in selling it. They brought in respected TV presenters such as Michael Parkinson adding weight to the show. They even set up a hoax phone number to call up if you witnessed any activity. This left the thousands of viewers who missed the short disclaimer at the beginning of the show believing they were watching a genuine phenomenon unfolding, Orson Welles ‘War of the Worlds’ style. I’ve got to admit it does look very dated now but as a thirteen year old I was totally suckered in by the hoax. I wasn’t the only one. Various claims were reported in the papers, kids being diagnosed with post traumatic stress and even a teenager even committing suicide. The BBC have never repeated it to this day.
(3) Terrahawks
Who on Gods green Earth thought this was a good idea for a children’s TV show? A bunch of frightening puppets standing round talking bollocks in the scariest voices imaginable. I was petrified of this show. ‘Terrahawks’ was intended to be the most laidback and fun of the Gerry Anderson shows. Looking back I appreciate there’s a lot of humour here that isn’t present in something like ‘Thunderbirds’ but to be fair to my four year old self there’s a lot of monsters here that aren’t present in ‘Thunderbirds’. Watch this and you’ll have trouble sleeping for at least a week.
(4) Thriller
How come he looks scarier now in real life than he does in this video? I know it’s been said a million times but it really is true. I remember being fascinated with Thriller. As a result in later years I got into ‘An American Werewolf in London’ in a big way. As a child the bit that frightened me comes at the end of the video. The bit where Michael Jackson reassures his girlfriend that it was all just a dream, he turns to the camera then he smiles as his eyes turn yellow. That use to freak me out.
(5) Charley Says Adverts
Talk about being stuck between a rock and a hard place. On one side you’ve got a sex offender, the other you’ve got a cat speaking in devilish tongues. Fair play the young lad deals with it well although all he gets for his trouble is an apple. If I’d have fought off a child molester I’d have wanted something better than a bloody apple, possibly the latest Now Album. Maybe that bloke wasn’t really a sex offender, maybe he did genuinely want to show the boy his puppies. I reckon Charley was so insecure that he couldn’t stand the thought of his owner looking at another pet. So Charley plays the paedophile card, the devious sod.
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