For one reason or another (work, weather, illness) I had not ridden my bicycle all month until this morning. As always after enforced layoffs therefore I approached today’s ride with a mixture of dread and delight. The pleasure of being on the road again mixed with the thoughts of just how painful it might be... Well, despite my body complaining just a wee bit, I felt fine. In fact I rode the exact same route on the exact same day last year and it took me ten minutes longer then (and ten minutes difference over sixty kilometres is quite a hefty chunk of time). Result! I’m sure the fact that this has been the first festive season for years that I have actually lost weight was a factor, as was the distinct lack of snow and cold... Whatever, here’s another picture of Dawlish to celebrate.
Then this afternoon we took a trip to Sidmouth. Of course I had already seen the sea once today but C wanted to hear the crash of waves on the beach, so off we went. As we wandered up to Jacob’s Ladder it occurred to me that the last time I was on the road through Sidmouth was during the Tour Ride of September 2010 when I laboured up Peak Hill with a host of other ill advised cyclists. I recalled too that it must be getting on for twenty five years since I first visited the place, on a trip to see The Visitors. Heady days. In celebration of that fact then, here’s my good friend The Pinefox doing a marvellous cover of The Visitors’ ‘Bliss’.
On Tuesday I rode the train from Troon to Glasgow. Via Kilmarnock. Anyone who knows the west of Scotland rail network will know that this is an unusual route and indeed this was the first time I had ever travelled it in that particular direction. Nevertheless it brought back memories since I used to travel the route in the opposite direction every Monday evening in 1984 when I studied Architecture at the Macintosh School. As I recall those evenings were filled with lectures on history, engineering and things like lighting and other building systems. All very vague. It’s a long time ago after all... What I do remember with much more clarity are those late evening train rides through the dark in ageing diesel trains full of fumes with smoke stained woodwork and grimy windows. I would always try to sit at the front of the first carriage where I could watch the driver at work. Not that I ever wanted to be a train driver, just that it eased the boredom a little bit.
Of course most train journeys were on the coastal line, through Kilwinning, Dalry and Paisley. And Johnstone of course, from where if you are unlucky you might have to catch a replacement bus service. If you’re really unlucky the girl of your dreams will ride off on it... Or they might if you were The Bachelor Pad, for I can never think of buses and Johnstone without thinking of that group.
Like lots of people I first heard The Bachelor Pad on that flexi they shared with Baby Lemonade. Was it the best of the Sha-La-La releases? Some days I think so, yes. It was certainly the noisiest; the one where the trademark snap, crackle and pop of flexis was perhaps most fitting.
If ‘Girl of Your Dreams’ sounded like the most perfect Punk Rock Psychedelia imaginable at the time then their debut on solid vinyl was every bit as good. I can still remember excitedly picking it up from A1 on Renfield Street. The label was called Warholasound and the cover was pure Pop Art. With Highland cattle. Of course.
Now Tommy Cherry from the group mentioned in a 2008 interview that he saw The Bachelor Pad as being kindred spirits of Bob Stanley’s CAFF fanzine and that’s good to read because I felt the same at the time. In my head they aligned perfectly, with their toughly camp Joe Orton flamboyant cut and paste punk style. I picked up a second hand copy of The Times’ ‘Up Against It’ the same day I bought ‘Albums Of Jack’. Later that day I recorded tracks to a tape for C with a photocopied picture of Andy and Edie on the cover. It all made such perfect sense.
The Bachelor Pad’s sound was a mad melange of melodic noise and nowhere was it better illustrated than on the insanely great ‘Do It For Fun’ 12”. At the time there was a lot of froth and nonsense about the evils of the record industry and many indiekids saw the 12” single as the devil incarnate. Me included. But the ‘Do It For Fun’ 12” was a different beast, particularly as it allowed The Bachelor Pad to extend their title jam into an eight minute plus epic full of guitars throttled to within an inch of their lives. Grant Morrison wove it into his story arc for the Hellblazer comic; a recording so noisy it could (and did!) block an atomic bomb. Spectacular.
The Pop purists would prefer the three minute twenty second 7” edit of course, but then my favourite Velvet Underground song was always ‘Sister Ray’, so go figure. Those Pop puritans would probably have been shaking their heads at the nod to the MC5 too, but me, man I was lapping it up. That’s the pleasure of learning.
The sleeve of ‘Do It For Fun’ was a delight equal to the record; a curious collage of ephemera including plastic roses, a spearmint robot sweetie wrapper, swiss army knife and a neat old Restricted Code badge. It was a perfect visual foil to the songs within; a strange punk DIY psychedelia. Cheap, plastic, disposable. And all the more cherish-able for that. Christine, who made the sleeve and later became a member of the group, was at the Art School at the same time I was, but naturally a fine artist and therefore immeasurably cooler than me. Not that such a thing was difficult.
Now I will admit that I lost track of The Bachelor Pad somewhat after this, although I do recall picking up the raucous and racy ‘Frying Tonight’ four track live 7” that Jim Kavanagh put out as the first release on his Egg label. Indeed, wasn’t it given away with the first issue of his ‘Do It For Fun’ fanzine; the successor to his ‘Simply Thrilled’ ‘zine that was such an invaluable part of the Sha-La-La network? Whatever, there is a case to make for it as the most delicious Bachelor Pad platter capturing as it does a group that sounds at once both exhilaratingly unhinged and magically together. The four cuts sound like The Monkees shagging The Fabulous Stains whilst The Ramones eat The Cake backstage. That mental. That great.
There is an argument that says the great underground protest records of the Thatcher era were made by groups like McCarthy and Wolfhounds; fiercely Political and personal assaults on the signs of the times. And whilst that argument would be right, there is another line that says the sound of protest was also to be found in groups like The Bachelor Pad; escapes from the harsh realities to the delights of the inner spheres, a new and desperate psychedelic revolution. Not that The Bachelor Pad could ever sink to the hippie depths of, say, Spacemen 3. They were too full of Punk Rock intensity.
Don’t believe me? Tune in to the ‘Tales Of Hoffman’ set that snuck out on the Imaginary label in 1990. Here the old and the new of The Bachelor Pad met across sixteen cuts of magnificent dreams; an insanely great rewiring of Dan Treacy’s innate genius living in a Dada daydream. Hannah Hoch go-go dancing to The Shaggs. What more do you need to know?
Perhaps the ‘Tales Of Hoffman’ would have been a good place to stop. Indeed, Cherry suggests as much in that 2008 interview. However The Bachelor Pad, without original member Martin Cotter, returned to Egg for two final releases. ‘Smoothie’ was a typically manic, rumbustious outing, not unlike Inspiral Carpets on acid and speed whilst ‘Meet The Lovely Jenny Brown’ maintained the psych influences but dropped the noisy mayhem and revealed The Bachelor Pad as a rather lush Power Pop outfit that could have challenged Teenage Fanclub. Some call it their finest moment. a charming moment on which to bow out.
I understand why they would say this, yet for me it’s the magnificent, mesmerising untamed chaos of ‘Do It For Fun’ and ‘Frying Tonight’ that remain their lasting legacy. A point where Punk and Psychedelia collided and made something unique.
In 2011 I made a habit of creating a couple of mixes for each month. Actually I started off in January intending to make just one a month, but it quickly became evident that there was too much to keep to that restriction. So those are the faces of the mixes right there, and you can follow the link below to see the post for each one. As a special Christmas treat, from today until the end of the year I'm gonna share with you all a sneaky download link for each mix. They'll be wiped from the 30th though, so don't shilly shally, y'hear?
Those Days, Those Nights post | download Kiss For Fun post | download It's My Heart And I Want You To Break It post | download Everyone Feels That Way Sometimes post | download 1983 -Convenience Erases Love post | download Flying Into The Sun post | download Absence Makes The Heart Grow Harder post | download Unceremonious Splendour post | download Closer To You Now post | download So You're Saying There's A Chance? post | download Sumer Feel post | download Summer Heatwave Heat post | download Summer Time post | download These Are The Days post | download Crashing The Sky post | download Your Love Is Calling My Name post | download Who Tripped On The C(h)ord? post | download It Was Dark And I Welcome The Calm post | download Say It's Now post | download Can We Go To A Bar? post | download More Than A Myth But Less Than A Fable post | download Who Took The Booze? post | download
I took a walk yesterday morning, down into town then along the beach and on up to Fullarton Woods. From there I picked up on a part of the Smugglers Trail; a new (to me at least) tourist walking trail that winds its way from South Beach all the way over to Dundonald Castle. I remember learning about the smugglers in history lessons when I was at Troon Primary school many, many years ago. Looking back it occurs to me that it was the way in which history learning was rooted in local context which made it so appealing. When I reached Secondary school my interest waned somewhat when we had to learn about, well, I don't really remember to be honest. Banal facts about Kings and Queens probably, or something equally distant and irrelevant to teenagers only interested in the Now and the(ir) Future.
Anyway, this line of trees struck me as I walked the Smugglers Trail from the woods up to Loans. A fine line of trees; and the line from the Go-Betweens song haunting my mind of course. Part company, in case you didn't know.
One hopes not, of course, although loss is always there in the background gently calling. Just like history.
Here's the second of the posts I scheduled for publication before I had to dash north to Scotland. The third one will appear on Christmas Day, so watch out for that...
What, another mix of tunes from the murky depths of December? Well, what else is gonna keep ya warm at night, right? Or during the day, come to that.
I really like this one. I mean, I know I would say that, but honestly, what’s not to love? Some old gems from the likes of Dion, David Essex, Bitter Springs, Honeycombs and Eggs, plus some new sparklers from Wave Pictures, Pink Films, Paperfangs and Sea Lions amongst others. And what about The Tyde covering Primal Scream? Man, I spoil you, I really do spoil you.
And just to spoil you some more, here’s the one day only, never to be repeated (except maybe one more time) offer of the whole shebang wrapped up in one of them zipper files. Huh? You missed it?! That’s a crying shame...
A couple of months ago I read this short entry by Davy H on his lovely 'Ghost Of Electricity' blog. I liked the post not because of the Richard Hawley song (can't say that he's ever done anything for me) or even because of the photo of a stormy Torquay seafront. What I liked was the simple description of being with aging family members and of the back and forths to the hospital. Being in a similar situation at the moment, I feel I can identify with some of the quiet essence of what Davy wrote, though minus the thundering to Devon under Constable skies...
This was been my go-to mix for the first few weeks of December. There are even a couple of bona-fide Christmas songs on there to get me in the mood. Links as always will allow you to listen, evaluate, explore and hopefully reward the artists you like with sparkling gifts of love (and perhaps even money).
Sick - The Twilight Sad (YouTube) Carve a Peach - His Clancyness (from a split 7" with Shimmering Stars. On Soundcloud) Not Growing Up - Shimmering Stars (from a split 7" with His Clancyness. On Soundcloud) I Like It When - Les Animaux (Bandcamp) There And Back Again Lane - Dot Dash (from the album 'Spark>Flame>Ember>Ash' On Soundcloud) Onward, Sailboat - Pants Yell! (live radio session) Christmas in the Boiler Room - Darren Hayman (on Bandcamp) The Christmas Waltz - She & Him (Soundcloud) Pop Kids - The Pinefox (Soundcloud) Summer Nights - GRMLN (Bandcamp) Freefall - Spotlight Kid (YouTube) Bastard Fear - Indoor Voices (Bandcamp) An Address To The Better Off - McCarthy (care of A Jumped Up Pantry Boy) Don't Get Mad... Get Even! - Age Of Chance (YouTube) Stick Together - U Roy (YouTube) The Truest Faith - Korallreven (Soundcloud) Teenagers In Heat - Caged Animals (Soundcloud) 14 - Carrousel (Bandcamp) Same Things (Different Again) - Collider (Bandcamp) Salmonella Fitzgerald - Cousin (Bandcamp)
I had planned to do another Unpopular advent this year but if I’m truthful I really don’t have the heart. Here’s the planned running order though, should you want to play it out yourself over the first 24 days of December. There are a few ‘two for one’ entries which I suppose is cheating, but what the heck... I guess this represents some kind of list of favourite records/songs/whatever and although I know that some people have an intense dislike for such things, I’m hoping everyone featured in the list will appreciate the fact that they brought me sparkling moments of pleasure this year.
Day 1 I Know I Fucked Up (with Elizabeth Morris) - Darren Hayman
Day 2 For My Mother - Let's Wrestle
Day 3 Benny and the Jetts - TV Girl
Day 4 Voyager Program 1977 - the new lines
Day 5 Waiting At The Window - Chris T-T
Day 6 Down The Discotheque - Sarandon Do The Dance - Sarandon
Day 7 Don't Look at Me (I Don't Like It) - The Lovely Eggs
Day 8 Blu-Tack Baby - PRIS
Day 9 Ready To Go Steady - The Go! Team Sweet Sixteen - Lispector
Day 10 Misery - Veronica Falls
Day 11 Throw Me From the Bridge of Flowers - Hands and Knees
Day 12 Privilege - CUFFS
Day 13 Unceremonious Splendour - Sleuth
Day 14 Dancing to Music I Hate - Shimmering Stars
Day 15 Terrible Day - A Classic Education
Day 16 Stockholm's Archipelago - Wake the President
Day 17 The Copper Top - Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat
Day 18 Jigsaw falling out of place - Zoo Kid Bleak Bake - King Krule
Day 19 Your Love Is Calling My Name - The War On Drugs
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