Manitoba makes its Euro-debut in October. They'll bring the roof in (not literally but you know what I mean?) at the fabulous El Sol in Madrid on October 4th of this calendar year. Here are all the dates...

Miércoles 3 - VALENCIA - El Loco


Jueves 4 - MADRID - El Rudie Sol

Viernes 5 - SANTANDER - Escenario Santander

Sábado 6 - VITORIA - Hell Dorado

Lunes 8 - Cadiz - Supersonic

...Martes 9 - ALCALÁ DE HENARES - Ego Live

Miércoles 11 - LOGROÑO - Biribay Jazz Club

Jueves 11 - SANTANDER - Centro Niemeyer

Viernes 12 - BURGOS - Estudio 27

Sábado 13 - Bilbao - Kafe Antzokia

Thanks to Stephen Doyle for the head's up.

Update - well, further signage if such a thing is necessary of my grey matter disfunction, DR is obviously one of The Boys and I guess that should have been evident. Anyway hands up to being a dolt, that doesn't take away from this being great and the album sounds like it's probably a belter too. Check out his site.

“A Working Museum” is now open to the public. The touring exhibit kicked off in New York last Friday and will wind its way across the highways and byways in due course. It’s a joyously odd affair, a kind of sonic museé mechanique that's made to be listened to as it’s been curated. Eric’s credential as being "an alien of extraordinary ability" is a relative understatement. Who else could possibly come up with a line like “retching to the strains of Kajagoogoo” as he does in “1983”.

Genuine exotica in action, you won’t have heard anything like it. Certain aspects will chime but until now it hasn’t been possible to realise what a Tina Charles session at 304 Holloway Road might have sounded like. Now, during “The Doubt”, you can.

And “Do You Remember That?” is finally captured. Probably the greatest love song of our times with that unbeatable "British Rock Beat" intact. The inclusion of a sweary will likely mean that you won’t be hearing it on the radio anytime soon but maybe they’d consider a limited circulation of a version that changes the “u” to an “e”? Or maybe not. Some of you pitched in on the Kickstarter deal so perhaps you’ve experienced your first toddle through the portals? If you didn’t, and you can’t wait until the charabang arrives somewhere near you then you can get a copy direct from the dynamic duo themselves by clicking here.

Hey, hey. Adios. Olé. Amen.

This is blog post 6000. Is that significant? Probably not but it seems like a reasonably round number. It was also my parent’s phone number for a long time until those 4 digits had 48 stuck in front of them. Anyway, rather than run off at the keyboard with regard to exactly why there’s a fair chance that I might go postal at any given moment, let’s hear how Mr Duff fared out in Oslo the other evening...

On Sunday night I saw the Reigning Sound play Café Mono in Oslo and it’s been a few days now but I’m still almost speechless when I think about it. This band is truly the hands down, flat out, no contest, greatest rock’n’roll band on the planet.

We flew out from Edinburgh on Sunday morning with our passports in our pockets and no tickets for a sold-out show. I had a promise from Greg that he could ‘probably’ get us in but you can understand the slight trepidation.

A few hours after checking in to the hotel however, we stroll out into the lobby and walk straight into Greg Cartwright hidden behind Raybans, fumbling with the lift controls. It was all a little unexpected and I think I actually tripped over my own feet while trying to look casual. In any case, he was sweet and gracious and seemed genuinely excited by the present of a Poets fan club CD/DVD set that I had brought him. We chatted briefly and he agreed to put us on the guest list. Whew!!

Openers - Kosmic Boogie Tribe are way better than their PR blurb makes them sound. I feared the worst but their Nashville Pussy by way of the Nomads rawk was good enough fun and they clearly had local support.

The Reigning Sound took the stage and with little or no fuss belted into “Your Love Is A Fine Thing”. It’s been a long time since I last saw them and I had wondered if they’d sweetened up the live sound as they’ve done on record. No, they have not. They powered through more songs than I could count with not a second wasted on each. A lesser band would be so proud of any one of these that they’d draw them out forever but not these guys. I don’t know if any of the songs broke the 2 minute mark. I know I went to the bar (for a couple of those 9 quid beers Norway is so famous for) and missed two songs in the brief time that task took. At some points in the show I found myself thinking, how can they play ANOTHER song so sweet and tender and savage and still sound fresh? Then they did.

The crowd was rapt from beginning to end, every single person in the room being fully aware that they were in the presence of greatness. Everyone being obviously very familiar with the full Cartwright catalogue. They played almost everything you could want, although frequent calls for The Compulsive Gamblers tune “I Want To Be Your Happiness” were ignored.

The band left the stage toward the end, leaving Greg to croon through two solo numbers before returning to blast through two more tunes. And that folks, was all. I’ve only ever saw James Brown receive a longer encore demand. I’m not sure if the band were tired, out of tunes or had just ran over the live music license time but no matter, it could not have been any better than the show we had seen.

I asked them to play Glasgow on this tour, but there wasn’t the space in the schedule. Next time, hopefully Scotland will receive the blessing of the Reigning Sound. Who’s all up for that?



(Cheers Colin...)

Andy Shernoff’s “Not Fade Away” EP has just become available in download format. All four songs for a measly $3.99 (£2.58 UK scratch) at his site and I urge you to pledge your allegiance via paypal right now. It finds one of America’s foremost songwriters teaming up with Springfield. Mo’s finest to come up with something that almost made me have to stop the car the first time I heard it. The gear was mixed by former Skele-sound man and all round top geezer, Vance Powell too.

I can only dream that one day I might see them all on the same stage together in some part of the world but for now Andy is saving rock’n’roll remotely from his Brooklyn base with the primo help of the band that resides around the buckle of the bible belt.

“Let’s Get The Band Back Together” rips out of the blocks and will have a video accompaniment in due course, watch this space for the link. “Laugh and Walk Away” is something I’d like to learn to do, particularly at this moment in time. The interplay between Joe and Donnie on this made me plotz. The reinterpretation of “Hey Boys” is served up like The Del Lords might have performed it had it made it to “Frontier Days” instead of “Manifest Destiny”. The short set closes with title song “Don’t Fade Away”, a jangling bittersweet hymnal that in another time could have be all over the radio if such a medium still existed.

Despite the fact that none of these guys have ever gotten what they truly deserve, they continue to make music of a calibre that I truly wish the world would catch up with. Hopefully there’ll be more coming around the pike in due course...

You can get the angle on this gear from the man himself... here.

I guess this might be a little rowdy and I'm aware that some of you folks don't get what the kids do. I can only chalk that up to the fact that you haven't seen them. Lightning will sweep the world. He typed optimistically.

RIP - Joe South

I know, this broke earlier today but I just got home...

Bar Stool Walker by Bruce Anderson & Rich Stim is a collection of primo instrumental themes for an as yet unmade selection of cool movies. Cinematic in stature and drenched in the reverb that I can’t get enough of, these two guys should be sought after.

Anybody who has been disappointed with David Lynch’s recent musical output will find solace here. “Major Pipe” finds Peter Gunn swigging in The Pink Room with some Dave Alvin-sized licks that really swing and then some. “Happy Hour” features the accordion of Mrs Stim – the one and only Angel Corpus Christi to round out its grandiosity.

10 self-penned guitar-strum-mental manoeuvres and a version of Wilson/Love’s “The Warmth of The Sun”. This blighter works at all volumes, from quiet to loud but never embraces the two into one like that rather pompous genre that has sprung up these past few years here and there.

These are signature tunes for celluloid that hasn’t been shot yet and these two guys know their scores. Love the veneer design of the CD too, that’s something you absolutely could not colour match on a picture disc vinyl pressing.

You can try before you buy by clicking right here...

Greetings my American (+ Canadian) friends, I know you're probably wishing November was over but now you have an actual reason to look forward to that month. The Rezillos are headed your way and will be landing at the following joints during this raid.

Wednesday 7th - HOBOKEN, Maxwell's

Thursday 8th - LONG ISLAND, NY Ollie's point, Amityville

Friday 9th - LONG BRANCH, NJ Brighton Bar

Saturday 10th - NEW YORK, NY Bowery Electric

Sunday 11th - BORDERTOWN, NJ Open Arts Stage

Monday 12th - PHILADELPHIA, PA Kung Fu Necktie

Tuesday 13th - WASHINGTON, DC U Street Music Hall

Thursday 15th - OAKLAND, CA Uptown

Friday 16th - SAN JOSE, CA Blank Club

Saturday 17th - SAN DIEGO, CA Brick By Brick

Sunday 18th - LOS ANGELES, CA Echo

Wednesday 21st - CHICAGO, IL Mayne Stage

Thursday 22nd - HAMILTON, Canada This Ain't Hollywood

Friday 23rd - TORONTO Canada Lee's Palace

Saturday 24th - CLEVELAND, OH. Beachland Ballroom

To put you in the mood, take a look at this video for the live single of Top of the Pops they just released. A mission accomplished last December in Glasgow.

So who remembers Clayson and the Argonauts?

Probably not many - although a deluge of messages to the contrary would be further proof toward the age of miracles not being a complete and utter lost cause. Anyway, Alan Clayson has a new album out entitled “One Dover Soul”. Not having sold his to the devil, he still has artistic licence on all aspects of his. Recorded over a period of time "in Norfolk and South West France" by the indefatigable Eric Goulden with the aid of various Wreckless alumni including Ms Amy Rigby, it’s a peculiar beastie.

On the info sheet, the reference to being “heroic and blundering” pretty much hits the nail on the head. “Cressida” crashes in like John Leyton channelling Syd Barrett. Another person it reminds me of is Julian Cope and the more eccentric end of his dabbling with the garage disease. “Refugees” and it’s “3, 2, 1... zero hour” refrain particularly but all the way out the end of a relatively long fade. ODS is a genuine anomaly. Eric assures me that his live outings are revelation but how do we translate that into a viable commodity. Clayson is almost as obscure as Rodriguez or this Bill Fay guy that has emerged again after forever although he has been hiding plain sight as an author all the while.

Perhaps a documentary film is the way to address it?

“Ug The Caveman” is a novelty that Joe Meek himself might have been proud of. Indeed it factors in an element of him in name-checking a number of death record titles across its duration.

The kitchen sink melodrama suggests an element of theatre. The feeling that this is a disjointed recording of a some distance from the beaten track “production” is never too far away. Somehow it all hangs together, I’m not entirely sure how or why. There’s no agenda other than to present what’s rattling around the canyons of this particular mind. Vivian Stanshall is another guy that springs to mind, particularly during “Teenage Runaway”.

Track 12 is entitled “I Hear Voices” and this comes as no real surprise. I can genuinely report that you won’t have heard anything like this. It’s not an instant “get” but it seems like a shame for the cast to have come this far and for you not to at least make an effort to hear where they ended up.

Flummoxed is a word that sprang to mind after the first time I heard this. After several more, I’d like to add confounded. “One Dover Soul” is a fish out of water and for that reason alone we should celebrate the fact that it can exist at all in these disposable times.

RIP - Max Bygraves

RIP - Hal David

“Cimetière Pour Les Vivants” (Törncrantz Rock’n’Roll) is being cited as the last recorded works of Robert Johnson and Punchdrunks. While I sincerely hope that’s not the case, it’s always a possibility in these taste-tested times. RJ has been concocting savvy cinematic show-stopping instrumentals for what seems like forever. It’s like Esquivel came forward in time and figured it would be a hoot to cross krautrock with Link Wray in order to score some crazy Dennis Spooner series. “Hauptstrasse 155” kicks the door open like a cyborg update of the Get Smart theme. I think “99” would dig it very much.

This isn’t some kind of surf schtick or modular revivalism in any way shape or form. These are four dimensional scores. This six (tune) pack is available as a limited vinyl pressing and I bet its cut to take your head clean off. The take of John Carpenter’s “Assault On Precinct 13” is almost orchestral with the trademark throb intact.

So yes, the consideration that there could be no more RJaP is vexing. If you score this and some of their other waxings then they might have a rethink. How about it?

Stewart Cruickshank remembers George Gallacher

For many, the dapper and enduring singer with The Poets. For many more, a man of principle, a family man, a natural-born teacher, friend and philosopher. For me, at 13, the man who, in 1964, sang the eerily beautiful "Now We're Thru'", the beginning of a life-long adventure in reverberation.

Beyond beat music and into another realm: George Gallacher.

I loved George, I worked in music with George. He and Fraser sang at my 50th birthday 'do'.

The application of eloquence and economy in language: George Gallacher.

Not for nothing did Andrew Loog Oldham sign The Poets.

Not for nothing did Partick Thistle win 3-0 on Saturday 25/08/2012.

x

It is with great sadness that I report the sudden and tragic death on Saturday August 25th of George Gallacher, lead vocalist of The Poets. The Glasgow mid-60s beat group are best remembered for their October 1964 Decca debut single 'Now We're Thru' and the February '65 proto-freakbeat mover 'That's The Way It's Got To Be' after being signed up by Andrew Loog Oldham, the Rolling Stones' manager.

George, who would have been 69 years old on 21st Sept, died from cardiac failure whilst driving home from Firhill Park after watching his beloved Partick Thistle FC beat Dumbarton 3 - 0. He would've been a very happy man that day. Gallacher, alongside guitarist (and brother-in-law) Fraser Watson - part of The Poets '65 - '67 era, and also a member of '69 Apple label artists (White) Trash - had recently begun using The Poets name for a series of concerts and a BBC Radio Scotland "Vic Galloway show" live session in late 2011.

The resurrected Poets were George and Fraser, backed by the long-time friends and fans of the group - Edinburgh's beat-garage merchants, The Thanes. As anyone who's heard George in action will testify, he had a totally unique vocal presence and despite having only one serviceable lung was thoroughly compelling and unique.

Since undergoing major heart surgery some years ago, George was on daily medication and often voiced his fears over his mortality. He is survived by his dear wife Anne, and sons Craig and Fraser.

Personally I feel very privileged to have been good friends with him these past 25 years and more recently to have played alongside him and Fraser, helping to keep the name of The Poets alive. I'm eternally thankful that we got to play truly memorable gigs in Glasgow, London and most recently at Festival Beat in Italy.

I Am So Blue

Lenny Helsing (The Thanes /The Poets)

Service is this Saturday, September 1st at 10am, Lynn Crematorium, Castlemilk for anyone wishing to pay their respects

Thanks for doing this Lenny...

I actually typed this last night and thought I’d posted it. Or dreamt I posted it.

Spent much of Sunday in a fog brought upon by the news of George Gallacher’s passing, the one saving grace that he seems to have left the theatre without suffering after what would have been a happy result for his team. George, in my experience was a fit-looking, dapper man who hadn’t visibly changed in years. A real gent that was always generous with his time. The fact that he and Fraser got to do some shows as The Poets in recent times is heartening too thanks to the relentless efforts of Lenny Helsing to make it happen. Introducing the music to new generations and making those that were already familiar with it relive a portion of their youth.

An abiding memory was a version of The Poets playing at my friend Simon’s birthday party at Sloans in Glasgow when Laura Cantrell and her crew were here. I guess it was during Celtic Connections? I remember the joy on Mr Tepper’s face witnessing one of the few things that wouldn’t happen in NY.

Never saw any of the recent shows. Thinking there would be plenty of time I suppose. Last time I saw him was a few months ago when he wrote up a jukebox tab for KP. Another wheeze I hoped to see through was for those two to meet the next time Matt & Kim were in town. Ain’t gonna happen.

Stopped in at the smallish but perfectly formed wee Scottish Cinema exhibit at NLS on George IV Bridge in Edinburgh. Well worth a schlep, even if it’s just to see the original poster for “The Battle of the Sexes” that’s part of it. I’d really like one of those and might even clear wall space for it. Finally saw “Searching for Sugar Man” too and it is pretty good but like Anvil, and in the wake of the giant spoof that life has become, some of the set up didn’t seem entirely plausible. The producer of the second Rodriguez album really got on my tits with a "total sincerity” schtick that really was hard to swallow to the point that I thought Chris Guest would appear any minute.

It’s only when Sixto Rodriguez and his family enter the scene that things begin to take on a more positive spin. His is a story that could never happen now. That type of mythical status is impossible and he’s sort of Jandek-like, not musically but in the way he was isolated from his audience.

Anyway, it is fairly uplifting in the end and he seems like a good soul. Nowadays as soon as someone coughs there’s camera footage so the romantic possibilities that there could be artists like this now are zero. This was a guy that slipped through the net. There are loads more both obscure and not so much that should be celebrated and perhaps introduced to a prospective new audience that might be able to provide that elusive tickle.

From there I attended a book festival event that was strangely not sold out. I’m not at liberty to say what it was because the reason for going was to score something that will be a gift for someone that may read this. If you really want to know what it was, and I’m sure most of you don’t care, then leave a comment on the post and I’ll get back to you.

RIP - George Gallacher

Pretty difficult to process this at the minute but here's what Lenny Helsing sent me when I messaged him after seeing Holly Calder's facebook post and hoping it would be unfounded...

"Fraser called me this morn. He died in the car on way back from seeing his beloved Partick thistle playing: they won so he would've been happy!"

Thoughts are very much with his friends and family at this time and I'm sure tributes will be rolling in. George was a real gent.