The Patrick Hamilton Appreciation Society discussion
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Dexys/Dexys Midnight Runners
The Cherry Red interview is solid gold. It’s got similarities to the text of an interview, credited to Ted Kessler, carried on the very informative inner sleeve of the LP. It includes: “One thing to say about this record is that Jim Paterson is a massive part of it. He co-produced it and we did all the demos together. We worked on every song. Jim came down to Brighton where I was living at the time and we worked on every arrangement - the key, the tempo - so that when we gave it to the musicians, it was already quite a strong picture. In many ways, even though it was Kevin Rowland on the cover, it feels like it is a Dexys album because Jim is so present”.
and
“Billy Adams, who used to be in Dexys but wasn’t on the record, he’d been on holiday in India. He said, “I’ve had this great experience” I said, “What happened, Bill? “I was on a train listening to your album and Reflections Of My Life came on and I was just in floods of tears. I couldn’t stop crying”. Fucking hell, you know. There were moments like that gave me a little light about it”.
Mod
Thanks for sharing those quotes
I didn’t realise until the full inner-sleeve credits listing that John McKenzie had played bass on most of the songs. John was in the 2012 tour band, and I had a great chinwag with him and the legend that is Dave Ruffy after the September Barbican gig.
He contracted cancer a couple of years ago, and died in May 2020.
This re-issue will serve as a fine tribute to a great Dexy.
https://amp.theguardian.com/music/202...
David wrote: "Everyone in the video was in the band, except Máire Fahey, the girl who plays Eileen. She was an ex-girlfriend of Pete Barrett, who designed our album cover...."There’s a very good chance that I’m the last one to know, but Máire Fahey was, and presumably remains, the sister of Siobhan Fahey, out of Bananarama and Shakespeares Sister.
Yes, they are sisters. You probably know that Siobhan replaced Madeleine Hyland in the band for the summer 2014 Dexys’ shows, including Glastonbury. Maddie had a previously-contracted acting commitment as I remember.
https://youtu.be/UUeSArAnVaQ
I bought Maddy’s band’s album on download, and I liked it a lot. I’ll look out details and post a link.
The Amazing Devil. I remember being impressed at the time. Must re-visit.
https://theamazingdevil.bandcamp.com/
No sir, that’d be news to me, but very cool to know. Brilliant clip -- she sounded great, and looked like the perfect femme fatale!
Nigeyb wrote: I've not heard the demos Were they not in the digital postman's bumper sack o woe sent your way a few weeks ago?
Mod
I can check later
Just let me know, and I’ll get my people to arrange a further copy with your people if my distribution arm has defaulted.
Mod
You should be receiving a Dropbox invitation to join a shared folder from which you can download the erm...merch.Someone (I assume a long-gone music PR on my contacts list) shares your initials , and the invitation went to him. Sorry Niall B whoever you are.
Good luck.
Mod
Muchas gracias
Mod
Most were re-purposed for One Day I’m Going To Soar in 2012. Manhood and My Life In England Pt1 ,both in finished form, featured on the pre 2003 tour Let’s Make This Precious compilation.
The last couple of live tracks are from the Jonathan Ross Saturday show around 92, I think - they’re on YouTube.
All grout in the phantasmagoric mosaic tiling of the Dixons’ complex history.
Mod
By the by, after checking out the demos I have gone back to The Wanderer which I haven't played in eons
It needs re-mastering, you’ll find. Good songs (Young Man, Tonight etc) but of its time (1988) in its rickety, clattery sequencer-sterile production.
The Foster-Heller mixes of Tonight are terrific though, especially through a bass-heavy club sound system.
I think it would sound wonderful re-recorded by the 2012 touring band.
Er....
Dear Kevin....
Incidentally, Kevin was the guest on Radcliffe and Maconie’s Sunday show on 27 September. Very entertaining and informative. About 90 minutes into the show, I think, but the rest of it’s worth listening to anyway. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m00...
Mod
I fully concur about the production. A great shame.
Mod
https://youtu.be/8IwcCTIvTy0
Mod
Fantastic, as expected. Thanks for posting!
Thanks Nigey, I’ll be sure to check that out. Since I ditched social media to protect myself from the looney tunes conspiracy theorists when the Big Lurgy hit Europe, I don’t get the Dexys updates anymore. I was going to post notice of this Cherry Red behemoth elsewhere, but since Zoot’s Big Time Operator was covered by our lads early on, it fits here. I was a little sceptical about Dexys at first, but in a very early interview, Kev mentioned that there were truly great British soul songs, numbering among them Big Time Operator, Handbags and Gladrags, and The First Cut Is The Deepest. That was when I knew they were contenders. Frustrating as billy-o when it comes to the reliability of releases, but precision tool-accurate when taking aim at the emotional sweet spot.
Dear Santa..... https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/h...
To quote Sean Connery in The Man Who Would Be King, GOD’SH HOLY TROUSHERSH!What was that about precision-tooled accuracy and the emotional bullseye? Astonishing. I’ll hum this tune forever.
That forthcoming Cherry Red box is firmly on my radar, and thinking it might be a hell of a nice present to myself. The only unfortunate omissions that I can see are...The Herd -- From The Underworld
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=323lY...
The Syndicats -- Crawdaddy Simone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWkVU...
Mod
Concerning The Herd, and our Frampo, Mark, there's a bit of discussion here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast...
Alas, I have to confess that I remember the Face of 68 stuff from my older sister's teen heart-throb pop mags of the time. He was a demon in Humble Pie before the Big 76 Live Album Success.
Supplementary...I've just opened the Underworld link. I didn't realise that Jeff Beckalike Andy Bown had been The Herd's piano man!
Still learning even after all these years.
Mod
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyRaS...
I'm still working my way through the Ace of Wands DVD boxset (see also Budgie)
David wrote: "Concerning The Herd, and our Frampo, Mark, there's a bit of discussion here: ..."Thanks for this, will absolutely knock an ear in its direction over the weekend.
Looks like you’ve successfully halted the Nazi, Mark. Now for the courts, it seems. Nice work, Philadelphia. https://youtu.be/7pspeIJS7XQ
Thankfully, yeah. It's absolute mayhem outside on the streets of NYC -- as loud and as joyous as you could imagine, and I don't imagine it's going to quiet down anytime soon.Still, the next 70-some days are going to be the most dangerous and demented of his entire term, so there's a real need to buckle up.
Yes, I do fear that some places are a potential powderkeg right now. Who’d have thought the US and the UK would be in such foment at the end of the second decade of the 21st century? As this is the Dexys’ thread, here’s their take on Gamble and Huff Philly:
https://youtu.be/-hWXuITQvck
Mark wrote: "Thanks for the heads-up... his voice still sounds fantastic, and his material peerless."I reviewed The Young Bucks album for September's RNR deadline, but it was delayed until the current January/February edition which got into the escape tunnel last week.
ARCHIE BROWN AND THE YOUNG BUCKS
****
Lonesomeville
(OWN LABEL) www.archiebrown.com
Archie Brown’s road warrior status was earned by tough graft and hard miles in fronting The Young Bucks, The Upset and The Bureau. In recent years, if he has vocally mellowed his call-to-arms passion, he has continued to write and release songs of excellent quality and poignant meaning with original Young Bucks Pat Rafferty and Tony Wadsworth, as well as composing successfully for TV.
It’s been some years since Brown’s rasp was shredding Shures onstage or threatening the red zone of studio VU meters, but the emotional honesty and sensitivity on show on his more recent releases demonstrate that the passion still smoulders, just more subtly. Lonesomeville, the Bucks’ lockdown album, continues in that vein.
Among the deceptively-mellow highlights of Lonesomeville is ‘Madam Cocaine’, with its message of dependence and habit expressed as a bittersweet metaphor of the heart, and the jaunty ‘Fifty Pence Song’, which might have graced The Bureau’s …And Another Thing album. ‘Underground River’ stands out too, Rafferty’s Louisiana accordion straining urgently over a Latinate rhythm with baritone guitar, understated horns, and Mariachi trumpet adding evocative Rio Grande cantina flourishes. Lonesomeville is yet another mature mini-masterpiece.
David Innes
www.rock-n-reel.co.uk
Nicely done, David. Give me an hour or so, to be absolutely certain that Trump is no longer in any position of power, and I'll make a beeline to the album on Bandcamp. On the strength of your review, I'll likely skip the “Preview Tracks” process and just buy the whole thing.
Mod
You've a fine way with the words Sir - descriptive, informative and persuasive.
Bandcamp here I come
I can’t begin to imagine how much the total of purchase cost and shipping to the US would be, Mark, but this Pete Williams rarity has turned up on eBay today:https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Signed-The...
David wrote: "I can’t begin to imagine how much the total of purchase cost and shipping to the US would be, Mark, but this Pete Williams rarity has turned up on eBay today:https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Signed-The..."
Once shipping costs get factored in, it’s cost prohibitive... unless I want to eat peanut butter for a week. Which I don’t. Still, very nice find. I’ve never even heard that album, but have always been curious. I’ll have to wait for an un-signed and battered copy to turn up...
I suspected that it would be prohibitive, and sustenance is probably more important. I think Elvis survived (at least for a while) on fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches though, but I expect that you’d prefer the longevity to hear the entire disc at least once.
Problem is, everything shipping from overseas is now cost prohibitive, and I’m not sure that the costs will ever go back down to the pre-pandemic prices. Without the ability to order things like books and records and cartons of Giant Parma Violets from overseas, I’m left with no real use for the internet.
Tour of the UK in September ‘22 just announced. Tickets go on sale on Friday. 40 years on from Too Rye-Ay, Kev’s been involved in making it sound like he always thought it should, and will be performing it in its entirety (anoraks will ask if they’ll include Show Me, as the album’s I’ll Show You was an answer song to their own question) based on Kev’s satisfaction with the re-purposed sound. The only pic I’ve seen shows Kev in a long kilt-type garment, with Helen, Big Jimmy, and (I think) Sean Read in the shot.
Kevin will be 69 next August. Jim will be 66 next January. This could be the very last opportunity. Just don’t mention ‘heyday’, Mr B.
Mod
Includes an appearance down the road - at the Dome where Abba won the Eurovision and Ziggy played guitar.
ast time they played there it was stunning. Countdown is progressing.
Don't mention the H word
I suspect that ticket prices will rule me out of more than the Glasgow show. The good news is that that gig is bound for the Royal Concert Hall, the city centre’s purpose-built music venue with the best acoustics I’ve heard anywhere.
The Patrick Hamilton Appreciation Society
Books mentioned in this topic
Bless Me Father: A life story (other topics)Bless Me Father: A life story (other topics)
Bless Me Father: A life story (other topics)
What's She Like (other topics)
Season of the Witch: The Book of Goth (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Kevin Rowland (other topics)Kevin Rowland (other topics)
Pauline Murray (other topics)
Helen O'Hara (other topics)
And well done Kevin for his unheralded acts of altruism