30 Obscure Classic Albums

Here's 10 albums that you wont find on any list but which should be on every list, even ones that aren't about music.

1. Radios Appear - Radio Birdman
2. Glitterhouse - Medium Medium
3. Live At West Runton Pavillion - Robert Rental and The Normal
4. New build - 808 State
5. Virulent Fuzz Punk A.C.I.D - Acid Eater
6. Eternally Yours - The Saints
7. Shaken And Disturbed - Laundrettes
8. I Wish I Could Have Loved You More - Candie Payne
9. Heartbeat - Chris and Cosey 
10. The Delmonas - The Delmonas
11. Alien Soundtracks - Chrome
12. Thirst  - ClockDVA
13. The First And The Last - New Race
14. Earth Measures - Holy Mountain
15. Further Temptations - Drones
16. Better Living Through Chemistry - Flats
17. Fourth Wall - Flying Lizards
18. Bad Head Park - Fortran 5
19. Leichenschrei - SPK
20. World Music - Goat
21. Heart Of Darkness - Hoodlum Priest
22. Emotionsoundemotion - I'm So Hollow
23. Heavens End - Loop 
24. Ko Sira - Oumou Sangar
25. Gloria - Shadows Of Knight
26. Roots And Wings - Shelia Chandra
27. Of Moets And Misdirection - Suitable Case For Treatment
28. This Heat - This Heat
29. Psyche Ward - The Urges
30. And Did Those Feet - The Dancing Did

The best 10 live albums of all time

There's some terrible lists of live albums out there. This isn't one of them.

• Hawkwind - Space Ritual
• Throbbing Gristle - Heathen Earth
• Throbbing Gristle - Live At Rafters
• Neil Young - Weld
• Various - Live At The Roxy
• Misty In Roots - Live At The Counter Eurovision
• Motorhead - No Sleep 'Till Hammersmith
• Robert Rental and The Normal - Live At West Runton Pavillion
• The Fall - Totale's Turns
• The Fall - Live At The 666 Club
• AC/DC - If You Want Blood You've Got It
• Captain Beefheart - Mirror Man
• The Pop Group - We Are Time
• T Rex - Born To Boogie Soundtrack
• New Race - The First and the Last

OK OK so there isn't 10 albums in the list but Totale's Turns and We Are Time are mixtures of live and studio tracks. Live At West Runton Pavillion is only one-sided. The Born To Boogie Soundtrack isn't an album at all and Heathen Earth and Mirror Man aren't billed as live albums. I'm not sure whether Live At 666 Club was ever released, maybe it's just me who has a tape!

New Race are a  'supergroup' and are half Radio Birdman and half (Ron Asheton's) The New Order

I ummed and ahhed about including Iggy and the Stooges - Metallic KO and Heavy Liquid (box set).

The 5 Best Buzzcocks Tracks

I am often asked what the best five Buzzcocks songs are. OK, so it's usually the voices in my head asking but those voices must be obeyed, I am at their command. They even tell me how to cover my tracks so no one will know .... but that's a story for another day.

Where were we? Oh yes, I went to see the Buzzcocks in London a couple of weeks ago with the original line ups doing many of the classic tracks from the late 70's.Apart from the sound quality, doing way too many Steve Diggle songs and Steve Diggle acting like a complete twat, it was great.

Then I saw them doing Sixteen Again on the Old Grey Whistle Test and I realised just how brilliant they used to be - they were my favourite band before The Fall toppled them off their perch.

1/ Sixteen Again



2/ Get On Our Own



3/ Nostalgia



4/ Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've)



5/ Moving Away From The Pulsebeat



So I guess I ought to also list numbers 6 to 10!

6/ Love You More



7/ Orgasm Addict



8/ What Do I Get?



9/ Promises


10/ Real World


This was up their sleeves!

What a great song: "Fist Heart Mighty Dawn Dart"

Isn't Marc Bolan brilliant:



and more currently, 

Total classic girl pop from the 60's

I hadn't heard of Sharon Tandy until a couple of years ago but 'Hold On' (which inexplicably) was a b-side is one of 'those tracks' that one can never get tired of hear (and alos that cannot be played too loud). Here's a clip from the Beat Club. You've got to feel sorry for her though having DLT as a close friend (if indeed he is.)



Whilst I'm on the subject, here's another: Chico's Girl by The Girls



I sometimes wonder whether if music stopped on December 31st 1969, we would be any worse off.

I'm on a roll now. You cant beat Bonnie and Clyde by Serge Gainsbourg and Brigitte Bardot for 60's pop. having watched the Gainsbourg biopic, I'm amazed they could keep their hands off each other long enough to make this video!





Whilst we are talking about our French cousins, hows about: Françoise Hardy - Comment Te Dire Adieu?





Once you get past the intro, this one is a total belter: Laura Nyro - Eli's Coming





I can't stop myself: SUSAN BARRETT - What's It Gonna Be




You cant fault this one: You just gotta know my mind - Dana Gillespie. Didn't Bowie produce this track?



You cant really talk about 60's girl pop without mentioning The Shangri-Las



or indeed The Ronnettes - Baby I Love You



Finally, another plug for my favourite duet:

Two things I learned today

Life never ceases to amaze! Today I learned

1. Marc Bolan played guitar on Ike & Tina Turner's Nutbush City Limits
2. Lloyd Grossman was the singer in Jet Bronx And The Forbidden

Consider me blown down.

Nutbush



Gross, man

6 Songs The Fall Ripped Off

I love the Fall. I remember when Acid House came out, MES claimed (in the NME?) he'd "been using that technique for years". (He also claimed he'd written a Sci Fi series that the X Files ripped off but I digress.)

By "been using that technique for years" I always assumed he meant "sampling" other people's music for his own songs.

Here are 6 songs that he appropriated:

1. Red Eyes - The Legendary Stardust Cowboy : Diceman
2. Transfusion - Nervous Norvus : Rowsce Rumble
3. Evil Hoodoo - Seeds : Ten Houses Of Eve
4. I Wanna Be your Dog - Stooges : Elves
5. Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight - Spinal Tap : Athlete Cured 
6. Valerie - The Charles Napiers : Barmy

OK so MES didn't use the tune but he did use some of the words


This one is a total (uncredited) cover version (with different words).


Everybody has their own version of this classic - even Slaughter And The Dogs (Hell In New York)- that's OK then.


This has a brilliant riff and deserves to be used in a serious context.Spinal Tap may be my favourite film



The Ledge again with the aforementioned Earthquake. God it's brilliant, he's not a joke at all!