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The Stranglers - Down in the Sewer

Arts and Culture
#21

No, not at all, I see no reason why this can’t be a semi-permanent thread as sharing music tips is often a great source of new (new to us) listening pleasure. And Down In The Sewer is a great subject line because I think most of the music I appreciate, at any rate, is more in tune with the things in life that many people prefer not to face, than happy happy la la. But a brainless pop tune can be the exact right thing some times.

As for classical: my absolute favourite piece of music is the prelude to Tristan Und Isolde. It’s only when the singing starts that I hasten for the off switch. If you have seen the film Melancholia it is used to great effect there.

I follow a SubStack called gate(less) which is mainly short aphorisms mixed with wonderful photography, GIFs and YouTube music clips. The author seems to be a Zen Buddhist and the ‘gate’ part of the title is possibly a reference to that, I’ll ask. (Gate means beyond.) Anyway were it not for this I would probably never have discovered Sounds From The Ground, for instance, who are/were dub-ambient and very reminiscent of The Orb.

According to Peter Hook, Buzzcocks were snooty and outright shunned Joy Division who were the support act on one of their tours. Howard Devoto (the singer with Magazine) may have already left the band by then.

I am a bit hot-and-cold regarding PSB. I have The Race For Space but the incessant radio extracts become tiring. Biosphere and L’Orange use radio and film extracts more sparingly (lots of rap acts do).

Anyhow, having darted over to my alphabeticized shelf to check the album title, I see that the next door neighbours are Protomartyr. See what you think of this (they remind me mainly of Hüsker Du but this video is rather like Pere Ubu).

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#22

But bagpipes @RhisiartGwilym … shudder. The stuff that gets radio rotation is very often the stuff that repels me too. The great exception was John Peel, who popularised so much diverse music. I still remember, during the days when was playing loads of techno and jungle/gabba (basically very fast electronic music which makes parents shudder) catching this remarkable aggressive noise called something or other Lockdown. He never played it again and muttered the artist name or forgot to mention it.

You won’t thank me for linking this video and it’s quite possible no one else will either…but I eventually tracked it down about twenty years later. It isn’t called Lockdown anything, so blame that on the spliff perhaps.

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#23

I love Buzzcocks and Magazine equally. Never saw Magazine perform, though I was fortunate to catch Buzzcocks on that '79 tour with Joy Division in support (yes, Howard had departed at that point) - - tbh, JD scared me - or at least the 13 y o me was unsettled by Ian’s performance. Spiral Scratch was one of the records my eldest brother brought into the house - all 4 tracks are brilliant, but it was Boredom that excited me the most - Boredom was one of the first songs I learned to play on guitar and was regularly played at the gigs we used to stage around the village.

If I could only keep 1 Magazine LP Secondhand Daylight would be it.

That performance of SFUTF is fantastic - as is the rest of that Rockpalast gig - - and what an amazing show Rockpalast was/is - some truly great performances have been preserved for us courtesy of that show - - there are so many to go at, but the one that particularly stands out for me is Wire’s performance - again, so great to have a complete show from them in the archive (Wire Live)

Here’s some footage of Magazine that gives me goosebumps - I particularly like how Howard mounts his mic stand at the beginning (do you reckon Copey was taking notes…) Magazine Burst

I’m currently about halfway through Paul Gorman’s hefty Malcolm Mclaren biography - a really exceptionally well researched book - I’m absolutely loving it - fascinating in every regard.

I think the next rock book I read will be the John McGeogh book pictured below. Now, I am sorry to keep posting pics of nice signed things, but this is extraordinary - I love the fact that before I’d got my mitts on this book it had passed through no fewer than 6 other pairs of hands - and what a fabulous bunch of signatories it is

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#24

: ) That made me reach for Underground Resistance…

#25

Rhis, let me share this: 20 or so years back Iz and I, and our friend Paul Slattery spent a hogmanay in Biggar (50 or so miles south of Edinburgh) - the event is notable in that they burnout the old year with a large bonfire right in the middle of the High street - a great spectacle - there’s much singing and snogging around the fire, then at midnight a piper plays-in the new year, and then folk head off to do the rounds of first footing - - I fell in step with the piper as he piped away down the street and put my arm around him - immediately it was like being attached to the mains - a near-electric experience - my whole body began resonating with the thrumming of the drones - truly extraordinary.

That said, I must confess to having a preference for uilleann pipes - there’s something much sweeter in their tones imo. I once had the great privilege of seeing Liam O’Flynn performing in a pub in Bradford - really this was the most unusual treat - it was the Fountain pub near Manningham/Heaton - just a non-descript boozer tucked away in an out of town side street - thing is, the Fountain wasn’t known for putting on gigs of any description - it just happened that a regular knew Liam and asked the fellow to come and play, and he did - - it was a magical night, I couldn’t believe that I was watching possibly the worlds greatest U piper in this little boozer in backwater Bradford : )

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#26

A lot of music/links to absorb here. I’ll have to come back to it all later.

In the meantime: jazz (I’m still working my way through NewSi’s New Jazz Orchestra). Like Rhis, I’ve never been a huge fan of jazz. I did like Art Pepper, though (probably because I used to play tenor saxophone, before the neighbours got up a petition).

Art Pepper was a saxophonist who was born in 1925 in California. In the 1940s he got addicted to heroin and it plagued the rest of his life. Pepper got mixed up with the criminal underworld and during the 1950s and 60s, he served four prison sentences for drug related offences, one of them a 3 year stretch. Despite all the time he served, and the heroin addiction, the quality of Pepper’s recordings were not affected. He maintained a high quality of musicianship until his death from a brain hemorrhage in 1982. Here’s Art Pepper playing Gershwin’s Foggy Day. I believe this recording was made in the 1950s, shortly after Pepper had finished his first prison sentence…

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#27

I had a similar experience in Princes Gardens, under the castle, in Edinburgh. I was up at the Traverse, playing The Herald in an adaptation of the ‘Medea’ of Euripides, directed by the noted ‘Market Theatre’ SAfrican director Barney Simon, with Yvonne Bryceland - also SAfrican - as Medea.

I had a few hours free, and wandered down into the gardens - and into a “mighty barbarous music” heaven! Literally scores of pipe bands, in full Victorian cod-Highland fig, tuning and practicing all together for a grand gathering that evening. (One of my most best-beloveds once told my in great earnest that the sound of the pipes actually made her physically retch! I guess K knows what I mean :slight_smile: )

Well, she would have been doubled over that day, “lookin’ fi Hughie in the drains” as Billy Connolly put it so indelibly! :slight_smile: But for me it was bliss. And just at that moment I bumped into David Calder, who was playing a lead in the ‘Medea’, together with his wife. They too were floating on air, plunged into the indescribable sound. We could scarcely hear each other speak, but David just said: “Isn’t this marvellous!” To which I could only answer “Yes!” with a blissed-out grin. Unforgettable!

I hope when I go for my next visit to the Bardo-state to be ushered in by, first, the sound of the band of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, goose-pimpling snare-drums and all; followed by Beethoven’s blazing horns, at the end of his ‘Egmont’ overture. Then I’ll know I’m back in heaven again, with all sins washed clean…! :laughing: :laughing:

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#28

PS: I too love the Uilleanns. In fact any pipes from anywhere in the world, so long as they have the continuous wind from the bag, and at least one drone. Hurdy-gurdies will do too. Never heard a set of pipes I didn’t like; even an Indian military band in - I think - Kolkata, playing on Pakistani-made copies of the Highland pipes. Distinctly raga-ish; but still the pipes! :laughing:

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#29

Yes… not quite as bad as that but the pitch is too high. Blended with other sounds is okay, just not solo. I’m sure Godspeed You! Black Emperor have used them, they go for an all-out wall of sound. (one of their sometime performers is Sarah Neuman who I think has been mentioned in a thread or two here, Rob possibly? She also performs solo and with Arcade Fire.)

One of my best school friends was the Pipe Major in the school’s band. I would watch them in windy weather only. These days he’s a GP with a big coronavirus blind spot, practising in Cape Town. Also a very accomplished keyboard player including church organist. Which segues ever so skilfully into my musical link below…

As for Magazine albums I have a good cheat which is the box set Maybe It’s Right To Be Nervous Now which includes that same live version of SFUTB

Apologies for dire Chromebook photo

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#30

I didn’t know the biography of Art. In my experience most opiate addicts are rather over-sensitive people who find the drug a pleasant outer protective shell. Carefully managed with pure heroin there is no reason why someone can’t lead a ‘normal’ life and work productively. One of my cousins, who I was very close to as a child, died due to overdose (with street crap). Thanks War On Some Drugs, RIP Sandra.

Prescribed heroin in the UK was mainly discontinued due to USA interference.

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#31

Karen, I’ve heard that a lot over the years: that very few addicts die from a heroin overdose; most die from the crap that gets mixed with it.

I don’t have much experience of this, although there has been some in my own family. When the wiring in the brain starts going wrong it’s often due to amphetamines or LSD or various cocktails of cocaine.

I’ll stick to the vin rouge, thank you very much.

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#32

Perhaps I should add that during the era I’m talking about, the late 1970s, there wasn’t a huge amount of drugs about. Of course at those gigs there were a lot of people who were ‘fueled-up’ (mostly the performers on stage). For the most part people got pissed-up on beer, wine and spirits.

That all changed in the 1980s going into the 90s, when raves became the thang, and loads of people were taking the likes of ecstasy. The drug dealers made a killing during this period.

(forgot to add. for Karen, what was the story with Sandra? Obviously you don’t have to answer this)

#33

Really liked that one. I’m still going through the music links on this thread.

#34

In answer to your question Rob, I probably ought not to have used her real name. In the family that Coz came from there was quite a lot of experimentation, shall we say.

Coz 1 was a heavy drinker and Mick Hucknall lookalike, bless him. He drank a fair bit but kept down a pretty responsible job as a maintenance mechanic for the Ministry Of Defence. In fact he was awarded an OBE (this was after the second Iraq war). It didn’t save him from being made redundant some years ago when the Army decided to pivot towards pronouns and outsourcing. I’ve no idea what he’s up to nowadays.

Coz 2 was next oldest and was the one I was closest to as a child. She was a beautiful girl with slightly squinty eyes (think Karen Black). We lost contact for about a dozen years. When we met again the looks had gone and she was a real rough character who was a Hells Angels gal. So that’s how she got into the snakebite and speed, and things went from there. I didn’t know she was using heroin and her sudden death was kind of hushed up but Coz 4 filled me in.

Coz 3 was next and seemed a very soft and sensitive kid but we didn’t relate that much. In later life we were quite friendly and hung about a bit. His mental health deteriorated and I vividly remember him telling me one day, in between anecdotes about all the things he’d got up to at the Hacienda the night before, that litter along the side of the road was actually a sophisticated system of signalling. Mars wrappers, empty cig boxes etc. And he’d never been to Manchester in his life. A lot of pot smoking and use of LSD probably triggered the onset of schizophrenia and Coz 4 found him trying to string himself up… which at least had the effect of his parents recognising something was wrong and seeking help. In and out of hospital a lot, last I heard.

Coz 4 was the youngest and last of the cousins and too young to have made much of an impression on me in childhood. He was very sporty, a handy cricket bowler. When he was about 18, and me early 20s, we got on very well.

I still have a copy of the rather rare Slates, a 10" EP by The Fall, that he sold me. I only found out later that he’d nicked it from Coz 1’s collection. “He never listens to it” I was reassured. Which was plausible because most of the rest of the albums were Saxon, Iron Maiden, and similar racket :wink:

Anyway he told me that Coz 2 had regularly used heroin but kept this quiet. She was only able to score in Bristol and spent a fair bit of time there. It wasn’t so much an overdose as bad gear plus lots of alcohol. Passed out and never woke up.

That’s too much info, I realise, but there’s a context there which relates to a very strict Catholic mother and growing up in a really boring West country town where there wasn’t much else to do.

Which reminds me: these histories, and many other people I knew in my 20s, all came rushing back when I read This Is Memorial Device which I heartily recommend. But beware the index and the Bad Sex interludes. These aside, an excellent book although the method of storytelling, fragmentary and with too many characters to keep track of, might put some readers off. Will definitely re-read.

Today’s music link, simply because I was just listening to them (albeit a later album than the one this is from).

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#35

Enjoyed the music link (I’m getting old).

There’s a lot to go through in your post, which I’ll get onto later. One thing that comes across is that you still have a lot of anger in you, if you don’t mind me saying so.

I also have a close family member who was a long-term heroin addict, and amazingly is still alive. It’s the main reason I have any knowledge of drugs, because I’ve never really done them myself.

In the meantime, and because I know most of you hate jazz, here’s Take Five, by the Dave Brubeck Quartet, so named because it uses a 5/4 metre, which was unusual for jazz records back in 1959. The piece was written by Paul Desmond. When Desmond died in 1977 he left the royalty rights for Take Five with the American Red Cross…

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#36

Thanks for sharing those stories chaps.

I can relate - my second eldest brother Jimmy was what might be termed ‘an old soul boy’ - he was a regular at Blackpool, Cleethorpes, and of course Wigan Casino - he started attending the nighters when he was 16 - as was the case with a lot of those northern soul enthusiasts he used amphetamines regularly, and also followed the trajectory of using downers for a soft landing - by the time he was 20 he’d started using heroin and continued to do so until he passed away several years ago after a losing battle with a brain tumour. Throughout that entire period he held down a job at BT - he started in a pretty crappy position with that firm but progressed to a real cushty number. Jimmy was perhaps the most dapper member of my family - he always looked very neat - honestly, nobody could ever have known from looking at the lad that he was bang at it.

When Jimmy died I inherited his collection of northern soul and blues records - all 7"s.

Here’s one of them - Ray Agee, There’s Something Wrong - a song for these troubled times if ever there was one: Ray Agee

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#37

Right, here’s a tidy little thing that will pull together The Stranglers, Brubeck, and substance abuse - I believe this might be approaching genius: Take Vibe - Golden Brown

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#38

Unfortunately my emotional palette is somewhat restricted, which is sometimes a thing that goes with autism, but can exist independently: alexythymia.

A therapist once said to me, when I asked if he thought I was angry, “It’s possible but it strikes me more as rage.”

And I don’t mind it being pointed out if it is recognised that anger is a legitimate emotion. Clinging to it… less so. But a day at a time, practice, practice :wink:

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#39

Nice… could have done without the drum solo IMHO

#40

Can’t really join this thread because I missed the entire punk period from mid 70’s to mid 80’s being overseas with no TV and only radio available was local or BBC World disservice. Apart from the names of a few of the better known groups, I don’t know any of the music mentioned and maybe one day will have the time to look it up.

However, I love my music and the whole thread reminded me (I must be a little older than most posters on this thread) of trawling the Shepard’s Bush market looking for dodgy imports of reggae, ska, bluebeat (if one can even tell the difference). Was a proud owner of the US album release of Diana Ross and the Supremes join the Temptations (I can hear you all groaning!), weeks before it was available in the UK.

But, met the son of a friend of mine recently. He’s into “grunge punk” and I’m going to jam with him in the not too distance future so might enhance my music education.

That said, really interesting reading. Thanks @RobG , @NewSi , @Kieran_Telo and others.

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