Test Transmission Archive Reel 44.

Welcome to Test Transmission Archive Reel 44. All the music here, was released between 1970 and 1976. The reason for this is a bit long winded but I will explain. There was always a lot of music in the house I grew up in. My older sister in her room, Mum and Dad playing records downstairs and then my room and my little mono record player which by 1975 had been retired and replaced by my 1st stereo. Then there was the radio, Radio One Two and Luxembourg were the stations that were always on. Late Sunday afternoon/eve we would all gather and listen to the Top 20 countdown and of course Thursday was Top of the Pops and then there was The Old Grey Whistle Test. In 1970/72 my very young record collection consisted of anything I had been given, A Peter and the Wolf LP, Scooby Doo and the Snowman Mystery various very scratched Beatles singles The Monster Mash, Dave and Ansell Collins Double Barrel and Top of the Pops, Hot Hits LPs. But I started to notice different and strange music coming from my sisters room. In the space of a year it had changed from David Cassidy to David Bowie. The very 1st single I ever bought with my own pocket money was Sparks, This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us. Purchased at Weston Heart. My sister’s records and tastes in music were moving and changing fast. John Peel’s Top Gear was on Saturday afternoon plus Sounds of the seventies which was mostly album tracks. I was lucky as my sister worked part time in an independent record shop (Just called record shops back then) and would come home with records, some with very odd looking covers and sometimes these were passed onto me. I had no idea who some of the bands were, but I excepted these odd and fine donations anyway. Another interesting thing passed onto me were the Record Label Catalogues /brochures. I had a pile of these and again I would flick through and wonder who a lot of these bands and musicians were. In school holidays and weekends myself and friend would loiter in the record shop randomly picking out albums and getting my sister to play them. As the 70s creaked on the Music Magazine Zig Zag appeared in the house to accompany the Melody Maker, Record Mirror, Sounds and New Musical Express (NME) There is no real order to the tracks in this mix, all just randomly thrown together as my brain half remembered sounds, extracts comments and moments that were corrected and/or confirmed by my Sister. That said the last 3 tracks had to be at the end. Signalling that something new was yet again being listened to in the house and drifting along the passage into my room.

Test Transmission Archive Reel 43

 

Its Feb so time for the 1st Test Transmission Archive Reel of 2021. This time round we have music from Mount Vernon Arts Lab, Sandra Kerr & John Faulkner, The Beutify Junkyards, Field Lines Cartographer, Wolfen, Brian Prothero, Wings, The Damned, Twelve Hour Foundation, Simon Heartfield, A Certain Ratio, The Precisions and Something from The Why Don't You. Loads of other Oddities and such lurking about in there as well. So sit back put your feet up (or maybe not...you just might want to have a dance) Until next time. Keep safe and please look after yourself.

Tim Smith and Cardiacs

On July 21st 2020 Tim Smith (Cardiacs) sadly passed away. I have been listening to a lot of
Cardiacs over the last week or so, and thinking quite a bit about how and when
I finally really got into them. The first time I heard Cardiacs I was round a friends house, to be blunt I hated them, I had never heard anything I had hated so much in my life...they were annoying me so much. This supprised a few people as they really thought I would like them given some of the other things that I listened to (Devo, Swell Maps, Wire, Psych, Prog) It was pointed out to me that someone I knew had worked on Cardiacs Seaside Treats Video (this did not cut much ice with me) Sometime later I heard Cardiacs again and was midly irritated...but strangely not as irritated. Time went on and I would occasionally hear them being played round at friends flats.  Then something strange happened, one day I found myself humming a tune, which I could not place and it would not go away. I suddenly realised it was in fact Cardiacs Is This the Life.

I really could not get the song out of my head. Not long after this I had the chance of going to see Cardiacs live. After much foot dragging I agreed to go. When we got there I could not believe how packed the venue was. The Band came on stage and did nothing...there was a bit of heckling and Tim Smith told them all to shut up, but then kept on saying it. At one point he seemed to punch/slap himself on the face, and still nothing happened. There was only minor lighting on stage and the band seemed to be dressed in tatty old prom suits or the sort of uniform worn by
a brass band which was covered in dust. The audience were getting more vocal and the tension was rising, but still nothing happened then...the band played, the whole crowd started to dance, jump up and down and at certain point almost every one would sing and raise their arms in the air. The song was Big Ship and it was at that moment that every bulb in my head went on and exploded at the same time. It was fantastic, how could I have not liked this band? even the song which annoyed me a year or so before was amazing (R.E.S) I left the show a changed man. I spent the next few months catching up with all I could Cardiacs related. I realise now that liking Cardiacs might not always be an instant thing for everyone, but when it does finally hit you its like opening a treasure chest of musical wonder. I had the pleasure of meeting Tim Smith on two occasions (Cardiacs and Levitation) I was at the time working at a music venue and helped Tim and the band with their equipment. I informed Tim that I was due to go home for a few hrs but had decided to stay on so I could meet the band and maybe have a chat. Tim was charming, polite, funny and lovely, he answered all my daft questions and more, we discussed music and bands and the music business. Because of Tim Smith and Cardiacs I started to listen to William D Drake, North Sea Radio Orchestra, Kavus Torabi.  Big Ship, Dirty Boy, Nurses whispering verses, watching Maresnest, Seaside Treats, Jim Plugs his bass in for 10 mins,  all this has given me so much Joy. Thank you Mr Smith for creating a truly wonderful and inspiring sound. Tim Smith RIP.

Cardiacs Bandcamp 

Cardiacs

Nothing Like a Good Old Compilation

Don't we all love a good compilation album????? I know I do. But the trouble with compilations is that there always seemed to be filler tracks. You know the ones I am on about………the tracks that are out of place on the album, the tracks by bands that you have never heard of, or that are conveniently signed to the record label that released the compilation in the first place. When a young teen in the late 70s early 80s I had a number of compilations, some good, some pretty poor.

I have decided to introduce to you (some of you will not need any introduction to these I am sure) five of the Punk/Post Punk/New Wave comps that graced my Fidelity UA10

1st up is the mighty 20 of Another Kind. As comps go this was not that bad. It had The Skids, The Cure, The Adverts, Stranglers. The Jam, Heartbreakers, Patrick Fitzgerald and Otway and Barrett. A lot of Polydor artists on here, but then it was a Polydor release.
Not bad for parties at all. Sadly my copy did disappear at a party and was never seen again. I did not lose any sleep over this loss.

Next up has to be New Wave. This again is not a bad collection, which does feature a lot of American Punk/New Wave. Released on Vertigo records and featuring the likes of The Damned, New York Dolls, Runaways, Richard Hell, Talking Heads, Dead Boys, Patti Smith and even The Boomtown Rats. You could be fooled into thinking this is a full to the brim compilation, sadly its not. There are a few odd fillers on this like The Skyhooks?????(Australian Theatrical Rock) and Little Bob Story???????? and for good measure The Flamin Groovies (not bad but def filler) I do still have a copy of this one. In Julian Cope's book Head-on Mr Cope points out that his one time manager Cally helped to put this one together.
"Cally infiltrated Vertigo as a temporary 'punk' consultant and set about suggesting a bunch of terrible groups who had nothing to do with punk. The lowest that he sunk was to include a bunch of Australian painted art-funk no-marks called The Skyhooks. Then he had grown a moustache especially for the LP sleeve and had a mate gob into the camera lens for the ultra Sun/Mirror clichéd Rentapunk"

(From Julian Cope Head-on)

 
Punk Collection (RCA Records) was another quite decent album which contained some interesting tracks (Heartbreakers - Born to Lose, Iggy Pop - Funtime even the 1st Police single Fall Out. Yet again we find Flamin Groovies Shake Some Action and Somebody called Richard Moore??? with a track Called Roll it Up????????? Patti Smith's Piss Factory gets licensed again and appears on this one.

Time for the Ronco 1980 Birthday/Xmas present from your parents or Grand parents…..its the as seen on TV…….20 New Wave Hits Album Street Level. To be honest by the time this cash in album came along I would have thought most people would have had all of these tracks on single or other compilation albums, or given up on it completly. Some odd and interesting tracks on here: Sex Pistols Pretty Vacant, Stranglers Peaches, Magazine Sweetheart Contract, Skids Circus Games, Ian Dury Reasons to be Cheerful, John Foxx Underpass, Gary Numan We are Glass, Plasmatics Butcher Baby and loads more which I can't be bothered to list. The throw away chucked in out of place track has to be  A Walk in the Park by The Nick Straker Band. Have no idea of the logic or thought process that managed to get this on there.
As Compilations go the best from these late 70s albums has to be
Cherry Red's mighty Business Unusual The Other Record Collection.
Side One of this album is pretty much straight forward Punk/New Wave, but Its Side Two of this album that makes it so damn good. The Tights - China's Eternal, Thomas Leer - Private Plane, Robert Rental ACC, Throbbing Gristle - United and Caberet Voltaire - Mussolini Headkick. I do still have this album and play it quite a lot. I remember turning up at a party with this and a copy of The Human Leagues Dignity of Labour.....It was decided by certain factions at the party that I really should not play side two of this album or The Human League. I did not agree, but was out voted.

The Quiet Man

Many many years ago the In The City Fanzine produced a book called Ultravox Past Present and Future. Naturally being a fan of Ultravox/John Foxx I ordered a copy. I still have that copy and had a good old read of it recently. Apart from the usual (Band forms as Tiger Lilly, 1st album 2nd album, Steve Shears goes, Robin Simon replaces etc etc) it had the John Foxx short story The Quiet Man. So for your reading pleasure here is John Foxx's The Quiet Man.

Test Transmission Archive Reel 4

At long last Archive Reel 4 is ready. This time round we have music from Andew Loog Oldham, Renaldo and the Loaf, Ken Woodman and his Piccadilly Brass, Moondog, Simon Heartfield, Pye Corner Audio and much much more.