Underworld Games

Most folks in the UK - and possibly elsewhere - are probably sick of hearing about the London 2012 Olympic Games already, but here's a bit of interesting news at last. Electro-daddys Underworld have been appointed as official Musical Directors for the opening ceremony of said games, which will take place on 27th July. Hoorah!
Rick Smith and Karl Hyde of Underworld will be working on the event with old mucker Danny Boyle, who by chance is also the Artistic Director of the ceremony.
The trio go way back of course, starting from the soundtrack of Boyle's Trainspotting flick which gave Underworld their big break with Born Slippy. Since then they've also contributed tunes to Boyle films The Beach, A Life Less Ordinary and Sunshine. More recently Underworld's music was also used for Boyle's theatrical production Frankenstein.
Underworld are determined to leave their mark on the Olympic Ceremony this summer with their particular style of electronic music "It's not something we'll get to do again" says Karl Hyde. Go for gold guys!

The band have a new 20-year retrospective out soon, Anthology 1992-2012 - get your preview here. And here's my fave Underworld track of the moment:

Underworld official 
Underworld on twitter

Just how I should feel today

Well as most will have heard, today is moreorless officially classified as 'Blue Monday', ie. the most depressing day of the year when all the holiday festivities are over, the weather's crap and you've got not a lot to look forward to. All a load of rubbish of course, mostly as it takes the mickey out of people who suffer from real depression, plus Monday's are always a downner anyway.

But to many of us 'Blue Monday' only really means one thing and that's the seminal New Order track which effectively made it cool to get up and do your thang on the dancefloor from 1983 onwards. And just to take the depressive edge of those who are feeling it on this particular Monday, here's a somewhat ramshackle performance of said song from New Order themselves, which I remember watching on the telly one warm summer Saturday afternoon in 1984.
The whole day's programmes were broadcast live on BBC2 and Radio One on a special music-themed day, although apart from this New Order bit I can't remember much about it. Much like Barney I was probably off my head on one too many cans of lager.

we are the goon squad..

Everyone seems to be celebrating David Bowie's 65th birthday with fitting tributes, so here's something quite un-fitting complete with decidely un-fashionable presenter, and godawful chart rundown saved only by Bowie's Fashion crashing in at no. 20, duly celebrated by a fine bit of dancing and jigging about by TOTP resident dance-troupe Legs & Co.
I've a feeling Bowie may have found this mildly amusing at the time. Happy Birthday Mr Jones. Beep beep!

out with the old...

..and in with the old, but newer, New Order. Mojo magazine dedicate their most recent edition (that's February 2012 to them) to the band and a CD of cover versions of their classic 1983 album Power, Corruption & Lies.
As usual with these things there are some hits and misses, although here at LiM we're enjoying in particular S.C.U.M.'s version of 586 and Walls' rendition of Ecstasy.

The CD contains covers of other NO PCL-era classics such as Blue Monday and Cries and Whispers, the latter being done rather well by Manchester's very own Lonelady,


MOJO preview all tracks here on Soundcloud:
Power, Corruption & Lies Covered + Blue Monday 12" Revisited - MOJO CD Preview (January 2012)

Full tracklist:

01 The Golden Filter – “Age of Consent”

02 Tarwater – “We All Stand”

03 Errors – “The Village”

04 S.C.U.M. – “586″

05 Fujiya & Miyagi – “Your Silent Face”

06 Seekae – “Ultraviolence”

07 Walls – “Ecstasy”

08 Destroyer – “Leave Me Alone”

09 Biosphere – “Blue Monday”

10 Zombie Zombie – “The Beach”

11 Lonelady – “Cries & Whispers”

12 Anothers Blood – “Lonesome Tonight”

13 K-X-P – “Murder”

 - a big thanks to gaztronix for his cooperation in making this blog post possible. Happy new (order) year guv! Here's one I just came across..

David Bowie - The Jean Genie (TOTP)

the David Bowie Story pt...

Morning viewers. Sort of forgot I was doing a 'David Bowie Story' feature here, but I seemed to have abandoned it at the end of the 70s, partly because most already know about what happened Bowie-wise in the 80s, and that famously, not all of it was particulary good.
So anyway back tothe 70s then with this recently recovered rare TOTP pièce, the discovery of which got plenty of news coverage just before Chrissmus. Enjoy, and party like it's 1973..

(note: band performance aside, check out white kid trying to dance like much funkier 'coloured' counterpart at approx. 1:51 in .. hilarious)

Countdown To Christmas (2012) : Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday

When I was a kid the saddest day for me was probably 'Boxing Day' ie. the day after Christmas Day, when it was all over, all the excitement had died down, no more pressies etc. So that's why I've always loved this song since it first came out (1973 - I was still in single figures), preferring it to Slade's equally famous Christmas number.
Now the saddest day is probably 2nd/3rd January when you have to go back to work (thankfully I've never had to work during the week between Christmas and New Year, that would kill me), so here's to the New Year and looking forward to when the kids start singing and the bells begin to plaa-ay....ohhh-oooh-ooooh..