#14: "Lights, camera..... "

There is a camera shop in Brighouse that I remember first visiting when I was ten years old in 1984. I went there specifically to buy some film for a cine camera that I had been given by a relative. However between me receiving the cine camera, and me going to buy some film for it, I spent several months on a creative high. After receiving the camera, there was only one thing on my decade-old mind to do: make a movie.

I started plotting out a story and developing characters and soon began writing a script. I had a toy blaster gun which was to be used as a prop, and my dad helped me paint a large piece of hardboard jet black before I used a brush to spray white painted dots everywhere, resulting in a makeshift ‘space’ backdrop. This was to be a sci-fi adventure film heavily appropriating elements from Star Wars, Battle Beyond The Stars and Battle Of The Planets. I scouted locations for various scenes on the industrial estate and fields near where I lived in Elland, and I started casting at my primary school, persuading friends to take on various roles. At no point during this process did I consider how, where and when to buy film, or how I would edit it or even how I would dub the sound, as this was a silent camera. Regardless of that I started compiling a soundtrack which would include a recording I had of Finlandia by Sibelius for the main score, and a Hammermen recording of Duane Eddy’s “Rebel Rouser” for the end party celebration sequence. Besides music I also picked through a couple of BBC sound effects albums I had. I drew various scenes and poster ideas for it and very soon I felt ready to start making it. I went to the camera shop to inquire about buying film for the camera, somehow expecting to be able to afford it at ten years old. I learned that three minutes of silent film, which couldn’t be erased and used again, would be £15. This was in 1984. I was planning the film to be a lot longer than three minutes, and I hadn’t allowed for retakes or anything. That was when the creative flow came to an abrupt end and the idea of making a movie remained just that.

However, the sadness in failing to realise the vision I had seemed to disappear quite quickly. The creative process had been so much fun that it never felt like it had been a waste of time. I’ve always looked back on those months fondly and wonder if the end result, had I somehow managed to cobble together some movie footage accompanied by an audio cassette, might have been so bad that it would have ruined the whole experience.

El Mariachi
by Robert Rodriguez

By the time I was introduced to video cameras where you recorded directly onto a video cassette, my destiny was leading me on a more musical journey than a filmmaking one. The times when I did borrow a video camera at school and at university were more based around making little music videos and filming live performances.

My passion for films and how they are made and who makes them has never diminished. In fact it has grown and grown over the years. While I’ve never had plans or aims to consider making films, I’ve devoured many books and films on the craft of film making. Robert Rodriguez’s book on how he put his film El Mariachi together is still one of my favourites and I’m forever lapping up DVD commentaries and documentaries on the filmmaking process. Kevin Smith’s podcasts are now a regular fixture for me,particularly his Film School Fridays series where he talks and advises new filmmakers, and his series of Q&A shows give a fascinating insight into his journey into making movies.

While my path led me into focusing on making music, I occasionally have flashes of an alternative universe where I somehow managed to make a three minute film, and then continued down that road. The fact that I didn’t has never diminished my appreciation and interest into those who did.

Black Out
by Derek Boyes

At university I met an incredibly talented guitarist called Fil Hill who I also discovered had made some movies with friends which I found fascinating, inspiring and highly entertaining. A friend I made in London, Jason Young, went from acting to writing and directing his own films including three shorts that I contributed music to. And more recently, via MySpace, I came across a filmmaker based in Kent called Derek Boyes, whose DelFilm website is not only an impressive piece of design, but packed with  content that makes for an outstanding CV. It not only features completed short films, but also earlier film experiments and tryouts that tells his journey into film, as well as his ongoing work, in a very engaging way.

In a recent Q&A by Kevin Smith, he is asked by an audience member why he does all the different things he does, and how he finds time. His response is an outburst of passion, in very colourful language, for being creative and why everyone should – be it a film, a piece of music, a YouTube clip, a podcast, a blog, a cupcake store etc. It is highly motivating and actually pushed me into starting this blog, for no other reason than to create and put something out there while I continue to work on making music.

I’ve found over the years that regardless of the outcome and where it takes you, the creative process is such an important thing. Success in something doesn’t always have to be tied to how much money it will make. Music artist Moby has referenced filmmaker David Lynch saying ‘creativity, in and of itself, is beautiful’.

Nearly three decades on from the creative process of making a movie coming to an end in that camera shop, you can essentially make a movie on your phone and upload it to the web for anyone, anywhere to see. Similarly with music, any audio or visual creation can now be more easily accessible and discoverable to any audience. What happens after that isn’t something you can really control, but you can control the creation and realisation of those initial ideas. And the result, or future course, shouldn’t deter one from embracing the creative process. 

As well as being inspired what other filmmakers, and in fact creative people in general, have done, what I have more recently found most inspiring closer to home, is that my 6 year old son has taken an interest in film making. He has been planning out stories with his Thomas the Tank Engine toys, and together we have filmed and edited shots on a computer into mini-movies. Even as I write this he is mapping out a camera shot list for his next creation and it feels great that he has us to here to help and guide him. And should he continue down that road (or track in his case) he is growing up in a world where tools such as a camera and editing software are more easily available and affordable than they were a generation ago. 

#13: The Single

So this year I’ve finally realised that I don’t actually know what a single is anymore.

I can still go out and buy a physical single 7”, 12” or CD single, or buy a digital track, but the concept of the ‘single’ release by an artist is, for me at least, a bit of a mysterious grey area.

It’s not so much the choice of format because, be it a digital or analogue release, you are still buying the song you want and it is now far easier and more convenient to do so. Furthermore, the digital format is a more convenient way for people to listen to the song and a cheaper way for an artist to distribute their music.

But I’m quite fascinated by how that convenience has compromised other aspects of the ‘single’ that I’ve been so accustomed to over the years. Be they out of date, no longer relevant or no longer cost effective, it now leaves me wondering if or why I’m bothered as to which song is released as a single.

The 7"

In the early days I only really knew about 7” vinyl singles and it was via TV, radio and magazines I would get to hear about these being released. On buying a 7” single you were presented with the main song and then a b-side song, or a remixed version of the a-side. The single would be promoted on the radio and on various TV shows, the ultimate accolade being the Top Of The Pops performance usually once the single had reached the charts. On BBC’s Saturday Superstore, Mike Reid would clutch a bunch of 7” singles telling you how you can win that week’s “Top Ten”.

The 12"

Thompson Twins "You Take Me Up" was released
in 1984 on 7",  2x12", 10" picture disc and 3x
interlocking 7" picture discs

Sometime later I spotted a 12” single at a friend’s house and thought it was an album. A Billy Joel single I think it was. Until that moment, I didn’t realise you could get ‘bigger’ singles. I would then look out for the 12” release of a record and would later opt for that instead of the 7” format. Sometimes I’d get both. The 12” would usually feature an extended version of the song with the main track in the middle of a lengthy introduction, and extra bits at the end. All bonus extras to the song you previously knew inside out. The b-side might feature the same b-side as on the 7”, or sometimes an alternative mix or even a new track altogether. The sleeve artwork would usually remain the same in just a bigger form.

Frankie Goes To Hollywood's
"The Power Of Love' in double
sleeved 7" and 12" plus a gatefold
12" release. 

A single would sometimes come in various limited edition formats. There maybe a gatefold sleeve, or a fold out poster sleeve, or one that came with a set of postcards, or even a picture disc version. I later discovered that more than one 12” single may be released with alternative versions and more experimental remixes.

By exploring discographies of various artists through magazines like Record Collector, I found a pattern emerging with certain record releases by certain artists: 

A couple of singles each with b-sides and 12" mixes, followed by an album featuring those singles, and then another couple of singles of songs remixed or re-edited from the album. Then the pattern starts over again. 

The singles would have accompanying promo videos and TV performances depending on the chart entry.

There may be some deviation from this pattern with some artists but it was one I observed more often than not.

The CD

The KLF released "3am Eternal" in 1989 and
1991 resulting in multiple 12" singles

The CD single later appeared with a smaller sleeve that to me was less exciting than the vinyl packaging. The writing was a lot smaller and it felt more of a pain to play. Well it was for me as I didn’t get a CD player until the early nineties. But the CD single format would usually follow the track-listing of the 12” single with the addition of the 7” a-side.

Later a band would choose to release 2 CD singles with some experiments in packaging by having both singles fit into one box or wallet.

Kraftwerk's "The Robots" on 7", 12"
and cd single

Due to restrictions on the number of chart eligible formats a band could release, some acts chose to release 2 CD singles instead of a 7” or 12" and soon artists would take advantage of the amount of music you could fit on a disc and start filling it up with lots of remixes of the main song onto a CD single.

Usually CD1 would feature the main song and a couple of b-sides (b-side now becomes a loose term) and maybe a remix, while CD2 would have a stream of remixes by various DJ’s sampling bits of the main song over a new backing track. I never always found these to be pleasurable listening experiences . Thirty minutes of remixes including dub versions of those remixes that hade very little trace of the original song became quite hard work to digest.

The ‘line-crossing’ moment for me was the release of The Lightning Seeds’ ” You Showed Me” in 1997. I had been a big fan of the group for a few years and would usually buy both CD single formats for each single release. But I stopped when they released “You Showed Me” for the reason I shall present in the form of the tracklisting for each CD single.

Lightning Seeds single
"You Showed Me"

CD1 “You Showed Me”

1 You Showed Me (Radio Edit)                

2 You Showed Me (Attica Blues Vocal Mix)

3 You Showed Me (Attica Blues Instrumental)

4 You Showed Me (Wiseguys Remix)

5 You Showed Me (Wiseguys Instrumental)

6 You Showed Me (Strike Twice Vocal Mix)

7 You Showed Me (Strike Twice Instrumental)      
            

CD2 “You Showed Me”

1  You Showed Me (Radio Edit)

2  You Showed Me (Tee's Alternative Mix) 

3  You Showed Me (Tee's Club Mix) 

4  You Showed Me (Tee's Freeze Mix) 

5  You Showed Me (TNT's Frozen Dub) 

6  You Showed Me (Bonus Beats)

7  You Showed Me (Tee's Radio) 

Well over an hour of listening to remixes of a Turtles cover, mostly bearing no relation to the original.

I stopped being, what my record buying friends would term, ‘a completist’ around that point.

The shrinking sleeve artwork and the stampede of club DJ mixes onto the commercial release with little quality control resulted in my affection for the single release diminishing a little.

The MP3

Fast forward a few years and the digital format has now taken precedence. It’s incredibly fast, easy to buy and very convenient to play on either computer or a mobile device. You don’t have to record your favourite tracks onto cassette to take out and about with you in the car or on a Walkman. You can either drag the file into the relevant folder on the relevant device, or even buy the track straight onto your phone. And while vinyl releases have since started growing again with more bands going back to 7” and 12” releases and more collectible Record Store Day releases, it seems the digital release is at the forefront with or without an accompanying physical release. The digital release of several tracks to accompany the main song has the horrible title of “digital bundle” which I’m sure could be improved upon.

A consequence of this is that a track can be made available and chart eligible outside any sort of promoted release date. A few years ago a technical error by one online store resulted in all the tracks on an Arctic Monkeys albums being individually chart eligible and appearing in the Top 40. Although later rectified, this did raise the question of what constitutes a single release if you can make any track eligible for the chart if you want to. Now you get YouTube videos being made to promote a song which you can then buy on iTunes without it being clear if it’s actually a ‘single’ release or not. While Pet Shop Boys are due to release the single "Vocal" from their new album, they had already made one track, "Axis", available to buy as a download prior to the album. However without the usual promotion surrounding a single release, the song is now engraved on their discography listing as their worst chart placing to date. 

Johnny Marr's album 
"The Messenger"

In November 2012, Johnny Marr's song "The Messenger" appeared as a YouTube video to promote his forthcoming album, though it wasn't actually a single. Yet the YouTube video was there to do the same promotional task. 
So whereas years ago the single was created to promote the album, then later a video was created to promote the single, nowadays the lines are so blurred that a track can be watched as a video on the web, or downloaded in a digital store regardless of whether it is promoted as a single release or not.

  

For certain artists some formats may not be cost effective to produce and sell, or a ‘single’ release may not be as relevant as it once was.

Then again, not only does it allow the artist to release and promote a track on their own terms and in their own time,  it also allows fans to promote a track themselves without any input or influence from a record label or even the artist.

Public Enemy's 2007 single
"Harder Than You Think"
was revived in 2012

An online campaign saw Rage Against The Machine achieve a Christmas number one in an attempt to prevent The X Factor winning single getting there. It also saw a Public Enemy single from 2007 achieve a high chart position thanks to its use in TV coverage of the 2012 Paralympic Games and a simple ‘buy this track’ link appearing in the right places. And instead of the one high chart entry and then a sudden drop seen by a lot of singles in the last couple of decades, this one moved upwards and upwards; like records used to do some twenty to thirty years ago. It wasn’t solely dependent on a certain number of physical copies being made available in certain places on a certain date, nor a promotional campaign by the band or label.

Perhaps this elimination of record label control over what records are made available and when, what deals are struck in record shops, or what influence pluggers have with radio stations might be a good thing for a lot of artists and their fans.

While on one hand I like the idea of fans and artists having the freedom to control their own promotional campaigns online and choice of songs to release and chart, on the other I still like record labels putting out a nicely packaged 12” picture disc edition in gatefold, double sleeve with a specially chosen b-side track and a couple of remixes. Perhaps we can have both.   

#12: Pet Shop Boys: Electric

So when the Pet Shop Boys released their 11^th studio album, Elysium, last October, I didn’t expect to hear news of another album for quite a long time. Their Electric tour was announced before the end of the year and I assumed that was just the name they’d given to the show. It then emerged that they had already been working on a dance orientated album with Stuart Price and Electric would be the title. In the weeks leading up to seeing them on the Electric tour in June 2013, the release date had been set for the album as well as teaser snippets appearing on their website.

Hearing that it would be more dance orientated made me think more along the lines of it being mainly instrumental maybe reminiscent of the Relentless album that accompanied the 1993 album Very. But knowing Stuart Price was producing it, and knowing one of his favourite albums is Pet Shop Boys’ 1986 remix album Disco, and also knowing his musical direction of the Pandemonium tour and the Brits medley of 2009, I knew this was to be more than just a generic dance music album.

Overall the album is epic, energetic and full of all the elements I’ve always loved in Pet Shop Boys records. Since their full on big synth productions of the mid-eighties with people such as Stephen Hague, Julian Mendelsohn, Shep Pettibone  and Bobby O, over the years they have expanded their sound palette to incorporate orchestras, guitars, choirs, latin percussion and even a brass band at one time, before occasionally going back to their pure synth pop song roots.

Elysium had a more smooth, down-tempo mood about it with heavy use of backing vocals, lush strings and rich sounding keyboard elements. Electric sees them moving back onto the dance-floor with plenty of musical references and nods to where they started from, and what first influenced them, from house music to electro. While Neil and Chris have mainly used software synth plugins via Logic, Stuart Price has contributed real synths to the blend culminating in an electro tour de force.

Axis
This was the first teaser on YouTube and formed the opening to their show. It’s a no holds barred pounding instrumental dance track with brief snatches of sampled vocal and vocoder. A torrent of synth lines pour in from every direction over electro drum machine hits that are recognisable from the days of the Please and Disco albums.
Bolshy
A incredibly catchy pop tune with elements of house in the bassline and synth riffs. The chiming bell lead line reminds me a lot of mid-eighties hip hop/electro pop records including Pet Shop Boys’ own such as You Know Where You Went Wrong and Why Don’t We Live Together. It starts as a pop song before steering away into a house dub track with a synth bass track that reminds me of something by A Guy Called Gerald.
Love Is A Bourgeois Construct
A full on Hi-Nrg track with a mock-sampled disco/baroque opening, quoting a piece by Michael Nyman, itself based on a piece by Henry Purcell. This filters into the main track which storms in over a hi-nrg bassline (bom-baba-bom-baba) which they’ve visited many times before.
Fluorescent
The mood darkens slightly for this one with a minimal drum track and a deep modulating synth bassline. Very atmospheric and still very exciting to hear conjuring up pictures of late night club land. Featuring the sort of sounds that you'd hear on their early b-sides.
Inside A Dream
Again, this has many elements that remind me of tracks from Please or their b-sides around 1986/7 with the chiming bell lead sound, drum machine hand claps and pulsating synth bass sound. It blends ingredients of New York hip hop and Chicago house records.
The Last To Die
Then we get the Pet Shop Boys take on a Bruce Springsteen song with its catchy chorus over a straight four-four backing with big crashing synth chords giving the track a fuller sound.
Shouting In The Evening
This is a mainly instrumental track with a processed vocal chorus in the breakdown sections. It is peppered with vocal samples, cut up squelchy synth bass lines and fast drum edits.
Thursday
We get familiar sounds all over this if you know your '86-'87 PSB tracks inside out. The warm string pad sounds over the top of electro drum machine beats and a synth bassline, with the chiming bell lead again. It has staple early Pet Shop Boys moments reminding me of bits from West End Girls, Domino Dancing and A Man Could Get Arrested. A very catchy chorus brings in Chris Lowe’s spoken vocal that has occasionally cropped up on their records. And then we launch into a guest appearance from Example bringing in a rap section before he continues to sing a fantastic bridge section.
Vocal
An incredibly uplifting track starting off quite mellow, before the backing kicks in, moving through the house music period of Introspective and then European dance music of the nineties and beyond. It is based around the type of synth riff that would raise the hands of crowds of club-goers to the sky.

Though I was expecting it to be a great album based on their track record and what bits I had heard on the web and in concert, it excels even further into a magnificent record. You can tell it has been produced by a big fan of theirs who likes to acknowledge, and honour, where they have come from.

The sleeve, designed by Mark Farrow who remains a fixed part of the Pet Shop Boys’ presentation, features a repeated zigzag pattern against a white background and nothing else. Inside we get photos of Neil and Chris donning big shades and wearing what looks like jackets made up of spiky black straws. They seem to incorporate themselves into the designs and artwork so they become works of art themselves and more than just a couple of middle age blokes making music.

Electric is another example of them standing out from everyone else and never resting on their laurels. It salutes many great moments from the Pet Shop Boys back catalogue as well as the influences that started them off, and it carries them onwards and upwards as they reinvent themselves and explore musical territories keeping them in the ‘now’.

Another masterpiece from the grand masters.

#11: "Live on stage at the Pav"

This is a little story of a ‘gig’ that should have been. By the mid nineties I had performed either in a number of different line-ups or solo under a number of different guises. By 1995 I was singing in a soul band around West Yorkshire, playing background lounge piano at a couple of dinner parties, performing ‘cover versions’ in lightly attended pubs sat behind a piano with a rack of backing keyboards and sequencers, standing up behind a keyboard with the same rack doing my own material as ‘Production’, and also using the same set-up without a microphone performing electronica music as ‘S-cape’. A keyboard set-up that has filled many a car boot of a friend or the back seats of a taxi when I’ve been ferried around to various venues. In fact at one pub, after I’d delivered two sets of keyboard based cover songs, an audience member praised my efforts while also delivering the never forgotten line ‘usually when I see lots of keyboards, my first thought is Heavy Metal’. To this day I’m still confused by the line as I’m sure he meant the music genre whereas literally, and ironically, ‘heavy metal’ was more accurate.

In hindsight I was probably spreading myself too thinly when I should have really focused and mastered one of the various forms of presentation. However it kept me busy programming, arranging and rehearsing a variety of tracks, be they my own dalliances with electro pop, ventures into ambient house music, reworkings of pop hits of yesteryear or a piano medley of James Bond themes. I guess I was really trying to find the right avenue by trying different ones.

Although it was fun to perform other people's songs, it was in writing and arranging my own material either under the ‘Production’ moniker, or its instrumental electronica brother ‘S-cape’, where my main passion lie.

At university I found opportunity to try out my music in a live setting in the form of the ‘Afternoon Gig’ which bands could sign up for. I started doing a few of these as a solo act for a little while, surrounded by a mess of wires and doing my best to sing and play a little ditty or two to a little gathering. I had also started performing outside the university at club nights hosted by the Manchester collective BoomBooom at venues such as the Night and Day Café and the Roadhouse.  However, trying to get gigs on my own continued to be a struggle no thanks to my naivity, so I was grateful for any invitation and opportunity that came my way.

In January 1995, I spotted a poster on a noticeboard at the university asking for support bands for a series of gigs at the Pavillion. The Pavillion, or ‘Pav’ as it was commonly known, was one of the student union bars situated at a campus some distance from where I was based and so wasn’t a venue I had visited or was familiar with. The poster said that support acts were needed to suit the following styles of bands that were due to play there including one that said ‘techno rock’.  Now I was a bit removed from ‘rock’ but was quite a bit closer to the ‘techno’ side so I immediately thought my ‘S-cape’ set -up may just be the thing. Or rather, being a support act to a ‘techno rock’ band might be just the thing for me. I found a phone in a room somewhere (in the days before mobile phones were in common use) and rang the number on the poster. I offered my ‘techno’ services to the manager at the ‘Pav’ who said the band were performing the next night and told me to turn up to soundcheck at a certain time. The idea of performing as a support act at a student union club gave me a vision of a ready assembled audience of punters keen to hear some loud, pumping,exciting music of a ‘techno’ flavour.

I spent the evening programming and rearranging some of the more uptempo dance and techno driven tracks in my repertoire into a segued set of about 30-40 minutes as required. I mentioned it to what friends I could find on the day (in the days before Facebook, Twitter, email and the world wide web were in common use) and then headed up to the ‘Pav’.

I walked through the large bar area and through to the live room which I remember being quite big. The band I would be supporting were a London based band called Fat. Fronted by an American rapper/singer and backed by a guitar based band featuring samples. I watched them soundcheck where they delivered a mix of hip hop and rock and sounded great. It was incredibly loud, energetic and very exciting. I was up to soundcheck next and I clambered onto this high stage and set up my gear in the middle. I had never before heard my music pump out of the speakers in the way it did. It sounded immense and gave me quite a buzz. I looked out to the audience area and thought of how great a gig this could be when it is full of punters bouncing, jumping and dancing about. After I had finished soundchecking, one of the sound engineers, who seemed very pleased and enthusiastic, said he could project some visuals behind me on the screen that would go well with my set if I wanted. I said that would be great and I retreated to the bar. There I was approached by AD who was the frontman of Fat who complimented my live musical endeavors and we chatted at length about music and gigging and so forth. I also chatted with other members of the band including the drummer known as Woody. (There’s a reason I’ve mentioned him which I’ll come to later).

Four of my friends from university showed up to give me some moral support which pleased me no end.

And then it was soon time for the gig to start.

But something wasn’t quite right. Or at least not what I expected.

With the exception of the four members of Fat, my four friends, the two sound engineers and maybe another two people…. The place was empty. I played for 30-40 minutes and then Fat took to the stage and performed an amazing set. But it was to just a very small group of people. In fact, Fat played to less people than I did because they were half of the audience I had played to, and then I swapped with them to be in the audience myself. I was so gutted and totally baffled.  I couldn’t work out if it was a case of zero promotion, or if the ‘Pav’ was always this poorly attended. For such great music in such a great looking and sounding venue, it seemed such a great waste.

My friends and I were invited by Fat to join them for a beer or two in their dressing room and we continued chatting. I think my main topic of conversation was how much I couldn’t believe how empty the place was. That shows how naïve and presumptious I was at that time to expect there to be an audience waiting. You live and learn.

We said goodbye and I jumped into a car with my gear packed up and crashed out at a friends flat nearby.

Fast forward eight months and I’m watching ‘The Chart Show’ on ITV on one Saturday morning and who should appear promoting their debut single but Fat. ‘The Chart Show’ used to feature bits of text on the screen giving you extra info on the band. I’ll never forget the one that appeared saying ‘Members of Fat include drummer Woody who is also a member of Madness. I couldn’t believe it. Madness were a group I loved and had grown up with and it never clicked that it was the same guy I had shared a beer and a stage with earlier in the year. I bought the single and I also had a demo tape of the group that I had been given at the gig. Both serve as a good reminder of a great band I had the pleasure of supporting at one time, albeit to not many people.

I later learned that Fat had continued to release a couple of albums and had successfully toured to a packed houses around the UK and the US. I nearly saw them again when I read they were to support Catherine Wheel at Manchester University a year or so later. I bought a ticket and went to the gig only to discover that Fat had broken down somewhere on a motorway and wouldn’t be turning up. So I couldn’t ‘support’ them that time.

Very recently I did get to see Woody again when I finally achieved a long awaited goal of seeing Madness live in concert. And I have learned that AD has forged a successful career in the US as a TV and radio host.

And while the ‘Pav’ gig wasn’t successful in terms of entertaining a large crowd, it holds enough good memories to warrant me blogging about it some 18 years later.

#10: Record Store Years

Visiting record shops is something I don’t do as much as I would like to or as much as I used to. These days shopping is quite a different experience from that of my teenage years, and rural Kent offers less in the way of vinyl emporiums than the Yorkshire towns I grew up in in the mid-eighties. Though a record shop in Tunbridge Wells was kind enough to  order in for me  a double vinyl edition of Kraftwerk’s “Tour De France Soundtracks” album a few years ago, it is now an infrequent activity, whereas in my younger years, “the record shop” played an active role in my vinyl adventures.

When I started buying records I was living in Elland, West Yorkshire, from where you could catch a bus to either Halifax in one direction, or Huddersfield in the other. Each town offered a variety of record stores which I would regularly visit at weekends and in school holidays.

It is one thing to vividly remember these shops, but another to remember the records I bought in them; I wouldn’t want to portray myself as some sort of music geek. (!)

Initially these would be family trips out and I was lucky enough at the age of seven to be allowed to buy the Adam and the Ants “Prince Charming” LP. A year later, my mum took me to a record shop in Halifax for the sole purpose of letting me buy Adam Ant's “Goody Two Shoes” single. There was also a large vinyl record section in Asda supermarket where we would do our ‘weekly shop’. One day, instead of being allowed to buy a Star Wars figure, I chose Adam Ant’s “Strip” LP.  All of these ‘record buying’ moments were memorable occasions. (Surely they don’t count towards being a music geek though, do they?).

A little while later I would start travelling into ‘town’ either on my own or with friends. In my later teens meeting my friend Chris on the bus for a day of record perusing became a regular venture complete with fast food meal intervals and then tea back home while we rifled through our purchases.
Occasionally our destinations would stretch a little further to Bradford, Leeds, Wakefield and Keighley after I had made careful studies of the Yellow Pages and phone directories listing all the record shops I could find. But Halifax and Huddersfield were the main ports of call for several years.

A short walk from the bus station in Huddersfield took you to the main high street where Our Price offered the latest chart releases and a good stock of back catalogue. Here I would pester the staff for news on pending releases from artists I liked. Next door was Woolworths that had a wall of shelving displaying each 7” single in the Top 40 starting with No.1 at the top left. I remember looking through a pile of newly released Frankie Goes To Hollywood “Welcome To The Pleasuredome” albums and wondering if I would be allowed to buy on. I also sifted through the basket of Streetsounds Hip Hop Electro albums and choosing which one to buy this week. And I also remember buying an LP of Ennio Morricone music featuring a picture of Clint Eastwood on the sleeve that looked out at me from the rack.  

Tucked away in the shopping arcades were shops such as Bostock Records; a smaller unit with a wealth of vinyl releases. There I bought Adam Ant’s “Friend Or Foe” album in 1982 (We’re verging on nerd territory now)

Further along on another main shopping street stood EGS records which arrived at the end of the eighties and would offer very low priced back catalogue material. 99p for Thompson Twins’ “Here’s To Future Days” album complete with a remix 12” single inside is still one of the best bargains I’ve ever found. Here I also purchased the import double pack of Pet Shop Boys “Actually” and the 12” of “Always On My Mind”. (Okay, I am what I am). EGS also used to sell sealed bags of 7” singles and 12” singles as a kind of lucky dip. You didn’t know what was inside until you’d paid and stood outside ripping the bag open to see if it was worth the purchase. The best I did was two KLF 7” singles; “Kylie Said To Jason” and “What Time Is Love?”.

Over the road was Fulcrum records; a tiny shop that stocked mainly dance music releases. Here I bought “Rofo’s Theme” by Rofo, Marc Almond’s “Jacky”, Digitalis’ “Accepting” and, most notably, the German language release of Kraftwerk’s “The Mix” album.

A few doors down was Big Tree that had a good stock of new and back catalogue records. Although it seems early on, I’m pretty sure it was from here I bought Madonna’s “Like A Virgin” album in 1984 and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” which was still selling well two years after it was released.

There were also music sections in other shops such as WH Smith where I bought new releases such as Streetsounds Hip Hop Electro volume 13 in 1986, and singles including Cliff Richard and the Young Ones’ “Living Doll” (Comic Relief version) and Band Aid “Do They Know It’s Christmas”.

There was also a record section in the basement of Woods music shop that stocked mainly instruments and sheet music. There I bought the soundtrack to the Granada TV series “Sherlock Holmes”, by Patrick Gowers, much to the bemusement and horror of a friend I later bumped into on that day who was focused solely on hip hop music. He couldn’t work out how I could be into the Sherlock Holmes incidental music as well as Run DMC.

Bradleys Records had branches in both Huddersfield and Halifax and it was in the former branch I bought chart singles such as Wham’s “I’m Your Man” when it hit No. 1 in 1985, and also album releases by Doug E Fresh and Whistle.

My cousin introduced me to another record shop in Huddersfield called Dead Wax that was in the Byram Arcade. As we climbed the stairs he told me to picture a room filled with as many records as I could possibly imagine… and then double it. That was Dead Wax. A medium sized room filled floor to ceiling with stacked boxes of vinyl. It was quite a job to navigate around the shop and find the sections you wanted to look through. Quite often you’d have to ask the guy behind the counter for a particular artist and he would reach somewhere and hand you a pile of Pet Shop Boys 7” singles or something. Sadly there was a fire at the shop and for a long time after there were boxes of damaged stock for sale at reduced prices with bits of ash at the end of the sleeves. Last time I went to visit, several years ago, the shop had been replaced by a hairdressers.

Over in Halifax there were the two Groove record shops ran by Jeff and Dianne; Groove and Groove 2. I remember buying the second single by DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince called “The Magnificent Jazzy Jeff” as well as several other single releases. On a Monday morning in 1990 I can remember standing outside Groove 2 records waiting for them to open and the arrival, and opening, of the cardboard boxes of new releases. I was about to go away on a course, via my school, and there was time to nip to town and buy the new Pet Shop Boys single, “So Hard”, on 7” and 12” formats.

For part of the year I had a Saturday job in the Halifax branch of Woods music shop which was round the corner from Square Records ran by Alan. My lunch break from Woods would usually involve me nipping round there for a good rummage through the boxes.

Square Records later moved to the Piece Hall which, at that time, was awash with independent shops of all kinds before rising rents squeezed the traders out. One of them was occupied by Wall Of Sound where on buying Kraftwerk’s “Radioactivity” LP, both myself and the owner Elliot were convinced it was scratched when he played it in the shop, until we discovered that the first track was called "Geiger Counter" and the clicks were actual part of the track. Here I also bought New Order’s “Blue Monday” 12” single, many years after it was released but it seemed to be a necessary purchase a few days before I would move to Manchester.

Over the years I have heard from friends of which shops have disappeared and which shops are still there. They remain great memories, and in the same way the character Rob in Nick Hornby’s “High Fidelity” novel and film has biographical recollections of each record in his collection, many of the singles and albums I have here in this room still conjure up pictures of the shops I bought them in, the people I bought them with, and the staff I bought them from. 

#9: Recording Update - Track progress

Only an update on recordings this week so nothing too drawn out.
I've continued work on the "Tonic Proud" project and thought it would be a good idea to keep a record of its progress here on the blog for those interested. I'll reveal the full titles when they are near completion.

#1 ["T.C"]
A track that has been mentally building for around eight years now. I didn't have all the sounds I wanted back then so I never progressed with it. But in the last five years my musical sound palette has expanded and I can now get it closer to how I envisaged it. So I recently did a rough guide demo to build on while I work on the sounds and other musical parts.

#2 ["L.T."]
An old track I've always wanted to redo in it's original arrangement. I've started putting it together bit by bit now based on the original programming that I had kept. Whether or not I can pull off the lead part when it comes to it remains to be seen.... or heard even.

#3 ["C"]
#4 ["A"]
Both of these tracks were written in the mid nougties where I tried out rough demos. In the last few months I've reconstructed them and managed to get them nearly finished except for the lead parts.

#5 ["L.I.D."]
I finished the backing of this several years ago but haven't yet managed to write the lead part successfully. Every now and then I rewrite it in the hope that one day I'll be happy enough to record it properly.

#6 ["I"]
A version of this track was finished about nine years ago but I always had plans to expand on it. I've now more or less finished the main track except for the lead.

#7 ["D.Y.M."]
For years this was just an eight bar looped demo that I didn't know what to do with. In recent years I've added a chorus section to it and more recently I tried to rework the track. Initially it wasn't working out and I considered scrapping it. The following week I gave it another try and it started coming together so it's now a near complete backing track I'm happy with,

#8 ["A.T."]
The idea for this track was born about three or four years ago and has gradually had bits mentally added to it. However I've not yet tried doing any recording or programming for it.

#9 ["T.M."]
Another track that I've not yet started recording but have worked out an arrangement for it.

#10 ["D"]
An old track I've wanted to rework for many years now. I reprogrammed and rerecorded this in the last few months and I'm quite pleased with it.

#11 ["G"]
This track has been fully composed and arranged in my head for nearly nine years and it has never once changed or had anything added to it. But to this day I have yet to put down a single note onto the sequencer for it. So I'm quite looking forward to finally realising the original concept and hopefully capturing the sound I've had ingrained in me for so long.

So there we have it. Not too exciting or interesting to read but for those like-minded few I will update the above text from time to time. Then hopefully before the end of the year I'll upload something to listen to. 

#8 Musical 'moments'

Among the many pop records I like there are a select few that contain a particular moment which I like to call… Well I don’t actually know what to call it really. It’s a peak point. A lift. Or maybe I should just call it ‘the moment’. It’s the point when there is some change or surge in the musical recording, arrangement and performance that raises the goose bumps and ‘shivers the spine’. It’s not something that occurs in all my favourite songs, and it’s not always something that I look for in a record. But when I find it, it’s hard not to keep going back to the beginning of the song and listening to it again. And regardless of how many times you’ve heard the song, the effect is always… always the same. It’s not specifically always connected with the composition, or a particular arrangement of the song, but for me it’s in the recorded and mixed version of a particular performance or studio production. The same band may perform the song live but I won’t always get that ‘moment’ in the same way because I can’t help comparing it to the version on the record.

The ‘moment’ can usually be a mixture of a familiar melody and chord change coming back in a bigger arrangement, or even just a key change, or sometimes something new happening. The ‘moment’ only works in context of the record for me. Jumping to that point in the song, regardless of how well you know it, never results in the full goose bump effect. It’s important to hear it at the moment it’s placed in the song knowing what it has followed. Context is key. 

A few of my current favourite ‘moments’ of ‘piloerection’, I believe is the technical term, are below.

The Divine Comedy “Generation Sex”  

This driving pop tune has a great arrangement throughout of brass, organ, timpani, harp and band that builds and sweeps along. If there are strings in the main part of the song, I can’t really hear them. But when the song drops back to the sampled speaking, there then occurs at 2.23 (on this linked version) a big surge of orchestra with strings high up in the air right at the foreground with the guitar solo. The whole coda then goes through a new chord sequence before bringing the track to a close.  Every time I hear the record, at a suitable volume,  2.23 is the ‘moment’ for me.

Pet Shop Boys “Left To My Own Devices”

In 1988, Neil and Chris teamed up with Trevor Horn for this lavish production of symphonic house pop with Richard Niles conducting a huge orchestra over multiple layers of sequencer lines. Anyone who knows this record must surely know ‘the moment’ I’m going to talk about.

After an orchestral introduction, the track kicks into a dance pop track with orchestral elements sitting in the background until the big orchestral break over a VI – VII – I chord progression (always a winner) swoops into action (2.37 on the linked file).

Pet Shop Boys sample this moment for their live concerts when they perform this as it’s such an important part of the song. Except in 2004, at the Trevor Horn 25th anniversary concert, they performed it with Trevor Horn’s band and full orchestra. So all aspects of the arrangement including a lot of the musicians and singers on the record were there in full glory.

Marc Almond “My Hand Over My Heart” 

Staying with Trevor Horn, he produced this track for Marc Almond in 1991 for the album Tenement Symphony. There are actually a couple of ‘moments’ in this. One is just simply a key change. The song is so full of orchestral colour as well as a choir that a surge in the arrangement doesn’t seem possible. Surely there’s no room! But a big keychange moment on a repeated chorus takes the track somewhere and my neck hairs are at attention. (3.20). The other ‘moment’ for me isn’t actually a surge in the music but almost the other way. Following what sounds like a big finale landing on the biggest orchestral and choral chord in pop history, the track kicks back in for a more laid back instrumental outro moving through various chords. (4.16)

The Divine Comedy “Our Mutual Friend” 

Returning to The Divine Comedy, Neil Hannon and Joby Talbot being masters of the orchestral pop arrangement, this song not only contains a goose bump ’moment’ but can often go hand in hand with an assault on the tear ducts. The whole arrangement from start to finish is so beautiful and pulls the heartstrings that you know you’re going to be in trouble should a ‘moment’ occurs. And it’s the orchestral high register strings and mid-range horns that do the job (3.44).

Adam And The Ants “Scorpios”

This is actually mainly for a one bar drum solo that leads into a short instrumental coda of the song. The whole song has an amazing brass and flute led arrangement and sounds like no other pop record I’ve ever heard. The record company wanted it to be a single but Adam couldn’t envisage a video or visual side to the song enough. The true visionary he is. So it remained only an album track, but what an opener to an album. The only live version of this I’ve heard doesn’t feature an orchestra so the ‘moment’ occurs only on this recording (2.28). It’s a fleeting moment but it does the job.

Benjamin Britten “Young Person’s Guide To The Orchestra”

Now I’ve been saying that ‘the moment’ for me is connected with the recording and arrangement as much as the composition. When it comes to ‘classical works’ (in the general sense), these can be performed, interpreted and arranged in many different, and often subtle, ways depending on the choice of orchestral players, conductor and, when it comes to sound balance, the venue. This is a piece I first heard as a teenager and I’ve loved it ever since. The version I first heard and continue to play is the recording of Benjamin Britten conducting the London Symphony Orchestra. That is the version embedded in me that I can’t help but compare other versions to. So for me the ‘moment’ occurs on that recording. All the performances of it I’ve heard over the years either on record or in concert are aiming for the big finale in much the same way, but there’s something about the balance and mix of instruments on that first recorded version I heard that remains definitive for me. By comparison, other versions may be too fast in some places, the brass may be dominating too much in one part, the sound of the horns isn’t the same… all sorts of things jump out to me as being markedly different from the Britten recording.  The piece is quite a bit longer than the other examples above and the only version I could find close to it is in two parts on YouTube. I can’t find a link to the actual Britten recording and therefore I can’t point you to what is ‘the moment’ for me, but this version conducted by Michael Tilson-Thomas does a pretty good job. It is a little distorted but the excitement shines through I feel.

The piece opens with an arrangement of Purcell’s majestic Rondo theme before Britten takes you through various orchestral sections for variations on the theme and general 'playing-about'. Then at 5.31 (of part 2) we get the Fugue by Britten starting with piccolo and building up bit by bit until the full orchestra is unleashed into one big party. Then at 7.24, the 'moment' occurs where underneath this energetic and fast paced orchestral fugue, the brass come in with a rousing reprise of the Purcell theme.  The time passed between the introduction and this point is quite important as the familiarity of the repeated main theme, after such a lengthy journey through variations, is essential for its effect on my being.

Part 1

Part 2

So there are just a few moments, peaks, high-points, that occur on a selection of records I enjoy listening to. It’s not an integral part of whether I like a record or not, as a lot of my favourite records don’t have anything like it. And I wouldn’t want every record to have a ‘moment’ either. I like it being just a special occurrence that pops up every now and then on a record. Appreciated in small doses with some element of surprise.