The Fenland Gent

I never dreamt of being in a band. I never wanted to work in the music industry, never fancied being a roadie or a music journalist. I cannot and have never really wanted to learn to play an instrument. Can’t sing for toffee. As far as music goes – I am a happy, occasionally joyously giddy consumer of the stuff. From about as early as I can remember I’ve coverted music whether it is on vinyl, cassette, cd or download. I’ve delighted in every record player I’ve ever had, from my Mum’s teak stereogram to the turntable that’s currently attached to my Mac via a USB port. The same is true of the Panasonic tape deck I had as a kid through every Walkman, to my current beloved Ipod.

I loved taping the charts from the radio on Sunday night before moving on to taping Peel. I have boxes of audio tapes and I also have boxes of VHS tapes with music recorded from telly from Top of the Pops, the Chart Show, the Tube and Whistle Test. I love reading books about bands and god knows how much I’ve spent on music mags and papers.

Oh and gigs. Hundreds of them, from festivals to sticky rooms above pubs, from the never to be signed Paul Groovy & The Pop Art Experience to Bruce Springsteen at the O2.

Ok – so now I’m shifting up through the gears – from self obsessed to mawkish, so I’ll stop typing and leave my final illustration of idiot music joy. A purely random episode of Top Of The Pops from 1979, the kind of TV that set me on my joyous path of buying music.

Because I’m a soppy old duffer this will always turn my spine to jelly.

Fairly recently I met a bloke on a cheese appreciation course who kept going on about how good Half Man Half Biscuit are. Well – 20 years back -maybe.

When I was a teenager I was fond of their daft songs about Trumpton and Kendo Nagasaki but I had them pegged as a much better than usual novelty act. But I was wrong and that bloke was right. HMHB have just got better and better as a band entirely because in Nigel Blackwell, they have someone whose lyrics go way beyond just being grumpy and funny.

So in this song funny, angryish lyrics about the sheer drudgery of life (brilliantly done and what you expect from HMHB) then move on to be a series of stories about someone called Stringy Bob who beachcombs the Dee Estuary and finds a dead wading bird. It’s the kind of inventiveness that can never be second guessed and never gets boring.

I also like the fact that musically this song sounds rather like Pixies’ Bone Machine.

The bloke that I met on the cheese appreciation course (which is true – I’m not trying to be wacky) loves the band so much he a built a shrine to them here.

Seems that Danny Baker recently played, and praised, this on his BBC Radio London show. I’m with him – I reckon It’s about the funniest song I’ve ever heard.

Leslie Sarony. “Ain’t It Grand to Be Bloomin’ Well Dead”.

British Sea Power. Man Of Aran. The band wrote a score for the excellent 1934 documentary about the lives of fisherman on Aran. This is an extract. It may be my favourite LP of this year.

Everything about this is essentially idiotic – but I reckon sweat drenched, hard working idiocy can sometimes rise above itself and become something quite brilliant. Just thinking about this makes me smile like an imbecile.

AC/DC . Let There Be Rock. (1978 Essex Uni.)

Jacques Brel. Amsterdam.

Belgique Magnifique.

Iron Maiden. Phantom Of The Opera. I was about 11 when this was released. Felt like it had been recorded especially for me. The bit from about 3:20 onwards still makes me tingly. Not sure what those speech bubbles are for – maybe it’s the modern equivalent to writing the band member’s names in the back of a school exercise book.

Very early Fairport Convention before they perfected the folk rock music they are rightly best known for. I read yesterday that it was seeing the Gram Parsons led country styled Byrds in concert that set them moving towards mixing English folk and rock. But that was after this. This perhaps shows their early debt to the original more “jangly” Byrds (It’s “Time Will Show The Wiser” a cover version of a B side originally by Emitt Rhodes/The Merry-Go-Round – I think). It’s excellent.

I reckon this is Luke Kelly in the Dubliners (but without Ronnie Drew) but I’m not sure. I love the way Luke Kelly sang, sort of leaned into the song with his vocal, like he’s pushing it along and never more so than on “The Rocky Road To Dublin” (In this version he sings the 2nd verse twice). Maybe it’s just me but I reckon there’s a real menace in this song.