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..

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark - Architecture & Morality

I Love 1981 pt. 24

Ok, I give up. I can't do it. I just can't write find the words for any kind of comment or review of this album, other than: It's perfect. It's faultless. It changed my life.  It changed a lot of people's lives. It has saved lives. It changed how I listened to music. It's got two songs about Joan of Arc. They're both perfect. It's got an instrumental title track, halfway through side two. This album moves me. There's nothing better than this album. Not by OMD and not by anyone.
If you've never listened to this album you should. Now. Buy it, borrow it, steal it. Just get it. Just sit and listen to it. Listen to it good and listen well.


Surrender yourself to Architecture & Morality.

SIDE ONE
01 The New Stone Age 3:22
02 She’s Leaving 3:28
03 Souvenir 3:39
04 Sealand 7:47
SIDE TWO
05 Joan Of Arc 3:48
06 Joan Of Arc (Maid Of Orleans) 4:12
07 Architecture And Morality 3:43
08 Georgia 3:24
09 The Beginning And The End 3:48

(these videos are for sampling only. You MUST listen to the whole album in its entirety.)


The New Stone Age

Joan of Arc

Architecture & Morality

Countdown to Christmas: Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas

Best Christmas pop song ever.

Countdown to Christmas : Sinead O'Connor - Silent Night

Countdown To Christmas : Mike Oldfield - In Dulci Jubilo

Always thought this was more of a Pagan type song but turns out it is a bona fide traditional Christian tune, dating back to the Middle Ages, no less with 'Ii dulci jubilo' and the rest of the original words being a maceronic (good word) mix of Latin and German.
In 1975 ye good olde 'trad Dad' Mike Oldfield brought the tune into ye moderne age - forgetting all about the words - with this jolly interpretation of In Dulci Jubilo which gets duly pulled out at folkie Christmas gatherings, and quite rightly too. Our Mike does so like to do things all on his own, and here's a classic video performance using 'modern' film techniques to show him playing all the instruments at the same time. Must have been hell to synch back in the 70s.
So, good Christian men (and women).. Rejoice! .. and jig around a bit too to the multi-instrumental talents of Sir Mike of Oldfield....take it away Mike:

Countdown To Christmas : The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping

Back to the eighties, and here's a jolly festive 'rap' (get it?) about single Yank chick who isn't too keen on Christmas, gets "world's smallest turkey", forgets cranberries then meets man of dreams in store whilst purchasing said berries. End of.

The song was only  a minor hit in 1982 although seems to have become a kind of 'noo-wave' cult track in the meantime, covered by the Spice Girls among others. Sadly, there doesn't seem to be any official video or performance so here's one someone's very kindly done with all the lyrics: very handy for your Christmas karaoke party.

Countdown to Christmas: Saint Etienne - I Was Born On Christmas Day

Top Christmas tune from almost the only "nineties" band worthy of my aural attenton, albeit somewhat inconsistently. Not sure what I dig most about this song: the duet-vocals, the lyrics ("..getting moody after Halloween.."), the beat, the two-note guitar solo, or that lovely melancholic keyboard line which was probably played on one of those melodica things you blow into (see New Order - Your Silent Face). 

Anyway nothing about this song is not amazing, and here's a vintage TOTP performance from 1993 with guest vocalist Tim Burgess and our Sarah in a smashing party dress. Roll the tape....

Countdown to Christmas : John & Yoko/Plastic Ono Band with the Harlem Community Choir - Happy Xmas (War Is Over)

Amazingly hard to find a decent video to this one on youtube, although an healthy amount of shit videos and shit cover versions, and even this "official" one got the spelling and artist all wrong.
Anyway here it is . .needs no comment, save that sadly its message is as valid today as it was forty* (yes, 40) years ago. War is over, no it ain't. The only ever totally cool use of the "Xmas" abbreviation.

*released in 1971 in US and 1972 in UK, fact fans, even though the billboard campaign dates back to 1969 even.

Christmas Countdown: Greg Lake - I Believe In Father Christmas