Matt Berry - Witchhazel - out now on acid jazz (review soon)

Back Soon! with Nick Ward mix tape & Christian Darby interview.......

also Capt Stax mix tape and interview, in search of Mark Joseph............

a little under-the-weather at the moment.

Coming Soon: exclusive emerging talent Christian Darby interview

OPINION: Good Riddance Phil Collins destroyer of classic motown!

Genesis 1967 - BC (before collins)

So Phil Collins has decided to retire from the music industry, don't expect this blogger to shed a tear for the destroyer of Genesis and ruiner of classic 60's and Motown songs, the dirge of many a wedding disco! I actually threatened violence to mine if his version of 'You Can't Hurry Love' hit the turntables!

Let's look at the evidence, during the late 60's and early 70's Genesis were at the coal face of prog rock until Gabriel decide to up root his sun flower. Then the rot set in and under Collins tenre they became everything bad about american AOR.

 

Then he turned his attention to Motown! It seemed the more Phil lost of his hair, the more he felt able to ruin legacies. It wasn't long before he turned his attention to other unsuspecting 60's classics and became the housewives favourite.

His final album 'Going Back' was a full scale destruction of 60's soul and motown classics! Classics that should never be touched, the crown jewels, call me a musical snob but if you're going to cover songs you should at least do it as well as Rod Stewart has ;)

The only things I can forgive Phil for is that he was the no-1 fan of the Action and appeared as an extra in 'A Hard Days Night', it seems even the bald one has his good points, enjoy and stay retired Phil.

"Groovy Uncle-Mantras With Melody" part two

have to thank Glenn Prangnell for his contributions to my blog, here is part two of the e-mail interview we've done. I don't think this will be the last post about the Groovy Uncle on here!

'back to mono' - have you always produced in mono, how is this possible in today's digital age

At State we mixed in both mono and stereo. The released album is in stereo but it's always good to have both to "contrast and compare". In the old days mono ruled. Stereo was seen as a novelty and often not a lot of care was taken during the mixing sessions. That's why so many old vinyl records sound incredible in mono played on a good deck through good speakers. But well produced stereo mixes sound amazing too. As you'll hear when you buy this album. 

Mono mixes are good for radio airplay too. Ironically, these days a lot of people listen to music through lousy computer speakers so the stereo mix with all it's subtleties can be wasted anyway and mono will sound better. Get a turntable and PLAY LOUD!

tell me a bit more about the Medway scene

There is and always has been an enormous amount of musical and artistic talent in the Medway Towns. Medway has actually become a genre in it's own right. Billy Childish's work and notoriety have now spanned 5 decades and Pete Molinari has recently been receiving high praise. People know about the Medway Legends-The Prisoners, Milkshakes, Dentists, JTQ, Buff Medways -but there are many, many more out there doing there thing.  The Len Price 3, The Flowing, Didi Bergman, Archie Wah Wahs, Lupen Crook, Ben Jones, The Deccas, The Bresslaws, Stuart Turner, Andy White, Armitage Shanks, The Galileo 7, The Singing Loins, UFK...... and that's just a few on the music scene! There's also the arts scene with people like Dave Wise, Zara Carpenter, Daisy Parris and Phil and Lisa Dillon. As you can tell I'm trying to plug as many people as possible but believe me there are many more. To summarize: the Medway Scene is alive and kicking thank you very much! 

George Harrison - All Things Must Pass

George has always been my favourite Beatles, the mystic one, the deep one, the quite one, the gardener! But for a long time he was the sum of parts, one of four. That's until I borrowed a stack of albums from my brother, scritti pollitti 'songs to remember' was one of them, mott the hoople another and this box set. I blame my brother, sisters, mum and dad for my musical obsession — my sisters liked their soul (dancing the night away at the Cali), my dad his jazz and my mum still sings.


This album far surpasses anything that lennon or macca did, it's such a complete piece of work. Nicely rounded and complete songs, a nice feel good vibe.


One day George will get the true acknowledgement that he truly deserves. Until then...........

Groovy Uncle - Can't Get Arrested

from the new album 'Play Something We Know' comes the track 'Can't Get Arrested', at the weekend Groovy Uncle and the gang filmed a video for one of the tracks, but hey you don't want me to tell you all about it, over to you Glenn.......

ps shameless endorsement, but you really need to get this album, tell 'em your uncle sent you ;) the groovy one!

"I wrote this song  3 or four years ago and always liked it. I'd had "one of those days" and things weren't going well music wise. I locked myself away for a day and wrote and recorded the demo and felt much better! The demo is slower and murkier than the finished album version, although the arrangement is the same. The only thing that is radically different is Ben's lead solo which in my opinion is the ingredient that totally transforms the song and takes it to a better place. Ben is really good at that sort of thing- coming up with ideas that I'd never think of and he's such a fine musician. He's got a new album out this month too, called "Kaleidoscope". Shameless plug there, I know.

After the tremendous response we received regarding the "Count On Me" video we filmed last November, I thought we needed a second wind of publicity for the album's release and "Can't Get Arrested" seemed like the perfect contender. It's a different style to "Count On Me" and so acts as proof that we're not too formulaic- I didn't want a "more of the same" video, that would be too easy. i wanted to highlight the variety of songs that appear on the album.

      I knew I wanted a "busking" theme and that we should all look a bit "down-at-heel" so I invited Ben and Ian along to a location in Rochester. It's surprising how hard it is to find a suitable expanse of old brick wall as a backdrop! There are always issues of disruption and traffic etc but the area where we filmed was perfect. We made an early start on Saturday 5th March and Phil Dillon (Medway Eyes photographer) along with a couple of small people (Josie and Syd) made cameo appearances. It was cold but good fun. All done in time for breakfast! "