This is quite a session for the discerning Undertones fan! Song Number One is, in fact, a version of Like That. Although “Bye Bye Baby Blue” went on to appear as a B side and album track, this version has some alternate lyrical content. Meanwhile, “Just Like Romeo & Juliet”, a cover of the Michael & The Messengers song, remained an unreleased ‘Tones gem until its inclusion on Listening In Radio Sessions CD.
This session was repeated on February 15th of the following year, which also featured a live interview with Feargal Sharkey. Feargal explained during the interview that the intention of the session was to present the songs in their infancy, with some of them just a few days old.
Original Session “August 26th, 1981
THE UNDERTONES are the guests on The Evening Show with Richard Skinner. They’re represented by a new set of recordings fresh out of the BBC studios of four brand new songs. Included in tonight’s broadcast were: “Song Number One,” “Bye-Bye Baby Blue,” “Beautiful Friend,” and “Just Like Romeo and Juliet”.
“Becoming Led Zeppelin”, the authorised first ever documentary on the British band about the legendary rock group, was premiered this week at the Venice Film Festival. Soon after, the first official clip from the upcoming film was uploaded online.
The minute-long teaser features pristine archival footage of the group performing “Good Times Bad Times” alongside black-and-white stock footage of a zeppelin hovering in the sky.
Play close attention to that title, though, because fair warning: The documentary stops at 1970, right when Led Zeppelin II comes out and the band has only begun to establish itself as a rock & roll juggernaut. It’s an authorized doc, with full songs and new interviews from the surviving members — and the crown jewel of MacMahon’s archival work, a rare uncovered audio interview from ’71 that Bonham gave to an Australian reporter and took him a year to track down — that go into great detail about their childhoods, their early musical heroes, their first few rock groups. But you can’t say it’s the definitive documentary on them.
Jimmy Page was on hand for the documentary’s premiere, with the guitarist also discussing the film, Page said the band had received many offers for an authorized documentary, but “they were pretty miserable. Miserable and also to the point where they would want to be concentrating on anything but the music.”
However, Page said of Becoming Led Zeppelin, “This one, it’s everything about the music, and what made the music tick. It’s not just a sample of it with a talking head. This is something in a totally different genre.”
The first authorized doc on the band, Becoming Led Zeppelin works best if you’re the sort of diehard Zep-head who’s really, really curious about Page’s first appearance on British TV with his skiffle quartet (on the talent show All Your Own, in 1957). Or the session work he and Jones would do on Shirley Bassey’s “Goldfinger.” Or how James Brown influenced Bonham’s straight-ahead, four-on-the-floor drumming for the Senators’ hit “She’s a Mod.” Want to take a deep-dive into the original “Dazed and Confused,” as sung by Keith Relf during Page’s psychedelic Yardbirds 2.0 phase, and hear what went through Page’s head when he discovered the Les Paul Gibson Black Beauty? (He may or may not compare the axe to Excalibur!) If the answer to “how many more times can you hear Plant and Page discuss that fateful day when all four of them ran through ‘Train Kept a Rollin” and discovered that explosive sound” is “infinity plus one,” then this movie is for you.
Producers Bernard MacMahon and Allison McGourty also talked about the lengths they went to obtain the rare footage seen in the film, including a year spent tracking down the original audio from an interview that John Bonham did with an Australian journalist.
Bernard MacMahon assumes we know a lot about Led Zeppelin. He’d guess that most fans have listened to the riffs and record sides thousands of times, tracked down the bootlegs, scoured YouTube for clips, read Hammer of the Gods and can recite the anecdotes of backstage debauchery (whether or not they involve deep-sea predators and/or the occult), concur that the stairways to heaven have now all been bought. The documentarian takes it for granted that even those who don’t know that words sometimes have two meanings are aware of how Zep’s doors had all closed. What the director of Becoming Led Zeppelin and producer/cowriter Allison McGourty wonder is: But does everyone know what Jimmy Page Robert Plant John Paul Jones and John Bonham did before they found each other? And what those first few years were like, when this newly formed band were playing shows just a month after they’d formed and playing underground clubs in the States?
In addition to the footage, much of it never-before-seen, the documentary also features new interviews with the band’s surviving members, Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones.
“When we first met we were probably a little nervous of each other. But the conduit was the storyboard,” Page said. “And I thought they’ve really got it, they really understand what it was about.”
Sister duo Charm of Finches from Melbourne, Australia, make haunted tunes about love, grief and whispering trees; indie folk with many stringed things, awash with seamless blood harmonies traversing melancholy and wonder in equal measure.
The duo of sisters Mabel and Ivy Windred-Wornes continue their fascinating exploration of evocative and ethereal folk music. The new single is propelled by a rhythmic pitter-patter, baroque sensibilities via strings, horns and piano with the sisters’ beautiful harmonies soaring in effortless flight above the music. Their fusion of traditional folk and more contemporary indie-folk aesthetics makes for an intriguing sound. One for fans of Tiny Ruins and First Aid Kit.
“We wrote this song last year during Melbourne’s long lockdown, where we were staying inside and isolating for a long time. We started to look for ways to find calm and strength in a time where feelings of isolation and frustration could easily consume. Meditation was one of those ways and we found just concentrating on breathing was a simple way to melt away stress. This song is a simple self-reminder to do that. And realising that your body is a play of light and colour.”
Mabel and Ivy Windred-Wornes grew up busking old time tunes and singing on festival stages around Australia.
Their music has featured on Australian television, and was nominated for the 2020 Music Victoria Best Folk Album Award and 2020 Australian Music Prize.
They are releasing their third full length album “Wonderful Oblivion” in October 2021 through New York-based label AntiFragile Music.
Mabel Windred-Wornes: vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, cello, ukulele Ivy Windred-Wornes: vocals, violin, banjo, glockenspiel Daniel Ledwell: drums, percussion, bass, electric guitar, piano, harp, flugelhorn, trombone Finn Milne: piano (track 4) Indyana Kippin: viola (track 8)
All songs written and arranged by Mabel and Ivy Windred-Wornes All horn arrangements by Daniel Ledwell
“The Apparition / Melt the Arms” is the third release from Los Angeles band Flat Worms (Tim Hellman, Justin Sullivan, Will Ivy) on New York’s Famous Class Records. The 7″ single follows their debut LP on Castle Face records. These songs were recorded with Ty Segall in his home studio during a global heatwave.
“The dream was an apparition.” – Teju Cole Open City
Shortly after their debut, Melbourne band Civic return with their sophomore EP “Those Who No’ – a fatalistic slab of power pop for the modern set. Recorded on a stint in Geelong, with Billy Gardner once again at the helm, “Those Who No’ acts as a counter point to the gutter rock classicism and urban decay romantics of ‘New Vietnam’, and shifts it’s focus towards genre experimentation, bleaker insular realities and modern personal warfare.
Over four tracks Jim McCullough, Lewis Hodgson, Darcy Grigg, Roland Hlavka and David Forcier dance on the knife’s edge of mythology versus the mundane – an against all odds desperation that flirts with the anthemic yet only stokes the flames.
Mid 70s glam and rock n roll tropes are pummelled beyond recognition referencing the past but predominantly pointing to the future. There are forces at work here and Civic aren’t a band merely content to play to their strengths – they are a true sum of their parts who get their kicks testing their limitations. – Ben Hepworth
Civic “Those Who No’ OUT THROUGH ANTI FADE AND FAMOUS CLASS released originally November 9th, 2018
All songs written by Civic except Needle In The Camel’s Eye written by Brian Eno.
Playing garage-accented pop, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Mikal Cronin was raised in Laguna Beach, CA, where as a teenager he developed a passion for both surfing and rock & roll. While attending Laguna Beach High School, he fell in with a handful of like-minded music fans, many of whom he still collaborates with to this day.
It’s easy to get caught up in an undertow, pulled down into the water, weightless and directionless. The current stirs and you lose your way. But eventually, if you’re lucky and patient, you can float back up to the surface and take a breath. This is my first new music in a while – my gulp of air. Many talented friends joined me, the basic tracks were recorded live together for the first time in my recording career. This felt good. Jason Quever recorded it in Los Angeles, December of 2018. Thanks for listening. – MK
Performed By: Mikal Cronin – Vocals, Guitar, Bouzouki, Saxophones William Tyler – Guitar Shannon Lay – Vocals Ryan Weinstein – Bass Heidi Alexander – Vocals Marc Riordan – Drums Jordan Katz – Trumpet David Ralicke – Trombone
BSCBR is a group of Black Sabbath lovers hailing from New York City. The group consists of Brad Truax (Interpol), Mick Barr (Ocrilim, Krallice), Greg Fox, Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs), and Angel Deradoorian (Dirty Projectors, Deradoorian). After a music residency in Berlin where Zinner, Deradoorian (I didn’t believe I would like Deradoorian doing Ozzy). , and Fox met up, the first formation of the band was created. Zinner had the idea of bringing the music to NYC (when Truax and Barr joined) where the band received immediate attention and sold out their first concert. It was surprising for everyone, but they just kept on playing, and the people kept on showing up. It’s been one of their favourite bands to play in ever. The love of Sabbath has brought so much joy to this group and there’s no greater feeling than spreading that joy to fellow fans.
Released September 4th, 2020
BSCBR are:
Vocals – Angel Deradoorian Guitar – Nick Zinner Guitar – Mick Barr Bass – Brad Truax Drums – Greg Fox
Recorded at Barefoot studios Los Angeles by Tim O’Sullivan Mixed by Nick Zinner
“This EP was a personal feat in light of the existential malaise we have been wading through. The songs are surreal and honest. My take on current reality inevitably takes a bit of a nose dive in to spiralling repetition. This isn’t new to me as I am by nature an over thinker. I would take the instrumentals on hikes to sort out the lyrics. A blend of physical and mental exhaustion ultimately let me lower the guard.
I found the concept of Soft Crime could be the slight of hand that takes place in front of our eyes … or the small things we let ourselves get away with; either way Soft Crime goes down every day. The Blood Machine turns, and we sacrifice ground to take steps. It’s important to remember that by the burning light of the dumpster fire, we can still find the true beauty of our neighbours. We’re in it together until the very end. Whether that is tomorrow or was yesterday.” – Charles Moothart
releases October 15, 2021
Charles Moothart – “Soft Crime” from Soft Crime EP Out October 15th, 2021 on Famous Class Records
Long before John Brannon of Negative Approach cemented himself as a USHC icon, you would hear rumblings about his pre-NA glam group, Static. Only a handful of people were lucky/brave enough to see them live. Scenesters spoke of a tape but never seemed to have one. Their most well-remembered song, “Toothpaste and Pills,” allegedly featured smashing beer bottles against John’s mom’s basement wall as a percussion instrument. Could this be real?
Fast forward to 2020 and a few months into the covid-19 lockdown, Brannon came across a bunch of tapes he dug out of a box in his Mom’s closet – STATIC DEMOS ‘78, STATIC LIVE AT GROSSE POINTE SOUTH H.S., STATIC LIVE AT PLEWA HALL. Holy shit! The legend is true! And best of all, Static rule!
John Brannon grew up in Grosse Pointe Park just a few blocks from the Detroit border. John was always into music, but as soon as he heard T-Rex, The Stooges and Alice Cooper, he was obsessed (and still is). He had to start a band to channel his obsessions. So, John and fellow neighbourhood kid, Billy Daniels, started writing songs and jamming in John’s mom’s basement. John sang and played piano. Billy played guitar and sang too. They enlisted the help of a local drummer known simply as “Red”, and Static was born.
During the first year that they recorded demos at Mrs. Brannon’s, they bought a bunch of beer and invited all the kids over to drink and go nuts as Static would run through their hits like “Toothpaste and Pills,” “Punk Nation” and “We’re So Cheap We’re Divine.” Mrs. Brannon finally had enough and kicked them outta the basement and forced them to get a space they could call their own. They added Mike Neal on bass and started doing proper gigs at Plewa Hall(STATIC HQ) and at legendary Detroit and Windsor (just across the river in Canada) punk rock clubs like Nunzio’s, Bookies and Coronation Tavern. Their talent show performance at Grosse Pointe South High School in 1979 ended with the plug being pulled, the cops being called and a riot of rowdy kids. Amazingly, this is documented on the album under ‘’H.S. Riot”.
After the talent show, Red left and in stepped a new drummer named Dana. Dana, Mike, Billy and Brannon, going by Static Electric, continued to play until the last Static show at Coronation Tavern in the summer of 1981. By this time, Brannon had seen Black Flag and Necros and knew he had to do something new. A few short months after the last Static show, Brannon was back on stage with his head freshly shaved, fronting his new group Negative Approach.
Before Negative Approach changed the face of punk and hardcore, before Laughing Hyenas scared the world silly and blew everyone else off the stage and before Easy Action started melting minds all over the world, there was STATIC. STATIC was real.
Third Man Records is beyond ecstatic to be providing this long-missing piece of the American Underground Music puzzle. We worked closely with John Brannon and Warren Defever, one of Third Man Mastering’s resident wizards, to put together this essential collection of demos and live recordings.
This is a memoir as wry, funny, moving and vivid as only John Cooper Clarke could deliver. Inimitable and iconic, his book will be a joy for both lifelong fans and for a whole new generation.
John Cooper Clarke is a phenomenon: Poet Laureate of Punk, rock star, fashion icon, TV and radio presenter, social and cultural commentator, reluctant national treasure. At 5 feet 11 inches (116lb, 32in chest, 27in waist), in trademark suit jacket, skin-tight drainpipes and dark glasses, with jet-black back-combed hair and mouth full of gold teeth, he is instantly recognisable. As a writer his voice is equally unmistakable and his inimitable dry Salford drawl shines through the prose.
I Wanna Be Yours covers an extraordinary life, filled with remarkable personalities: from Nico to Chuck Berry, from all the great punks to Bernard Manning, and on to more recent fans and collaborators Alex Turner and Plan B – who have championed his work. Interspersed with stories of his rock and roll and performing career, John also reveals his boggling encyclopaedic knowledge of twentieth-century popular culture, his private passions and guilty pleasures: from Baudelaire, Pam Ayres and Rimbaud to football to Coronation Street, comprising horse racing and gambling, politics and jokes – and much more.
