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Sunday 31 March 2013

Made in Britain



Mrs CC came in the other day with Made in Britain - MOJO presents:The Sounds of a New England 1977 -1983.
I shall overlook the usual arrogance that Britain equals England as obviously no music was being produced in  the rest of Britain during this period.

A quick check of the PC revealed that I already had this CD from MOJO October 2005. The physical check took a while longer as my generic compilations are filed in no particular order.

I hadn't listened to this for years and there are some great tracks particularly these two which will lead my to digging out the original albums to give them a listen.

The Redskins - Kick Over The Statues!

Steel Pulse - Ku Klux Klan

Friday 29 March 2013

The Ally Arms

Never mind your record shops in Antwerp which sell beer; the Allison Arms, that fine drinking emporium on the South Side of Glasgow, now stocks CDs which are yours if you wish for a small donation to charity



I was there last night for Thursday quiz night run by the legendary Big Pete when I stumbled across this latest innovation and stored  in a dinky little house too!
In my advanced state of excitement I grabbed the first semi-decent CD I saw rather than have a good browse - after all there was beer to drink!

Needless to say, we came absolutely nowhere in the quiz!

Squeeze - Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)



Thursday 28 March 2013

Norwegian Good

For all of you out there who thought Norwegian music began and ended with A-Ha and nil points in the Eurovision Song Contest I have a pleasant surprise for you.

Let me introduce Ms Lene Marlin

Purchasing this was a total gamble as I had never heard of her. It paid off and in my humble opinion she is better than her near alphabetic neighbour Laura Marling.

This is from her second album Another Day from 2003.She has since produced a further two.
Hardly surprisingly she is big in her native country but also in Italy as well according to Wikipedia
Well worth a purchase.

Lene Marlin -From This Day

And a wee bonus:
Cornershop - Norwegian Wood

Wednesday 27 March 2013

Ash Wednesday

First off a heads up to Town Full of Losers who posted a far more interesting and informative post on the actual date!

Getting towards the end of my holiday purchases. Came across Nu-clear Sounds by Ash which I wasn't sure if I had


Turns out I didn't have it and the only Ash in my collection was a  vinyl copy of 1977.

I'm also about 80% per cent sure I've never seen them live although a small part of my brain thinks I may have seen them at the Carling Academy in Glasgow. If I did, they can't have been much good!

Old age, it doesn't come itself!

This is a stonkin'  Stoogiesque cover version

Ash - Fortune Teller

Monday 25 March 2013

Swan Song

My pal Donno has a swan's nest in his garden and he forwarded this picture under the caption Double Omelette (sorry George!)


Given the strange way my mind works I immediately though of Bjork, her infamous Oscar dress and my recent acquisition of Vespertine (50p, Faith, Hope and Charity, Whithorn).



Even at 50p I swithered before purchasing and was initially a bit unsure of it although I think that it could be a grower.
Anyway, I've now got it for keeps.
Two songs attached , the second being for those of you who don't particularly like Bjork

Bjork - Pagan Poetry

Bjork - Frosti

Sunday 24 March 2013

Anal Retention

Following comments on the recent Jackie Leven post and earlier posts about the legality or otherwise of disposing of records can I quote the following mantra from Giles Smith's excellent book Lost in Music




“I do not sell, exchange or give away records that I have bought. These are not transactions I’m prepared to contemplate. It seems to me that one’s ownership of records and the moral responsibilities and personal significances involved are way to grave to allow for the kind of flippant horse-trading that some people go in for.”

This is something I subscribe to but I realise the somewhat paradoxical and indeed hypocritical nature of this stance which is somewhat contrary to the ethos of this blog with its focus on second hand music from Charity Shops.

Like Mr Smith, however, I do not have a problem with others (including Mrs CC) disposing of records and CDs to charity and if they look ok I am more than happy to buy them.

The down side of this philosophy is that you can end up with such rubbish as David Bowie's Heathens



Saturday 23 March 2013

If You Tolerate This



Congratulations to Wales for doing the double over Scotland.
The team which wanted it the most won last night (and without Gareth Bale for 45 mins) on another embarassing night for Scottish football.

I was going to play The Only Way is Up but instead have opted for this given it's Welsh connections.Plus, it is more prophetic - as opposed to Scotland who were pathetic!
Knowing Scotland, we will probably gub Serbia on Tuesday - but then again, maybe not

Manic Street Preachers - If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next

Thursday 21 March 2013

Leven Ballantrae

From the ridiculous to the sublime.

On the way home from holiday we stopped off in Ballantrae on the A77 Stranraer to Glasgow road for a 5 minute potter in the local Thrift shop.

There were loads of CDs dumped in big piles as opposed to any neat order.99.9% was the usual tosh but I was determined not to leave without purchasing.
It wasn't easy but eventually I parted with 50p for what I thought was a Jackie Leven CD Single.
He was an interesting character and I recall listening to an excellent interview with him on Radio Scotland  before he passed on.

On closure inspection (once we had fought off the sleet and returned to the car ) it turns out it was The Right to Remain Silent a 7 track EP from 1994 on Cooking Vinyl

Back home I checked it on Amazon to find it is going for 88 quid new and 35 quid second hand!
It was a bit of an Antique Roadshow moment and "No of course not. I'm not going to sell it!"

Jackie Leven- Ballad of a Simple Heart

Wednesday 20 March 2013

Robert De Niro's Waiting



Whilst anally and alphabetically filing my recently acquired Bachman Turner Overdrive CD I noticed that its immediate neighbour in the Pop/Rock/Indie section was Bananarama.
This put me in mind of my recent flippant comment when Drew got to B in his excellent What's in Yer Box feature on his  Across the Kitchen Table blog complaining that Bananarama did not feature.
Time to right that wrong!!

I for one, am happy to believe the probable Urban myth that the original lyrics were

Robert De Niro's Waiting
Balls like a stallion


Bananarama - Robert De Niro's Waiting

Monday 18 March 2013

You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet



I met a devil woman.
She took my heart away.
She said I had it coming to me.
But I wanted it that way.

I think that any lovin's good lovin.
So I took what I could get.
She looked at me with her big brown eyes and said.

You ain't seen nothing yet


Bachman Turner Overdrive - You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet

I've got a vague memory of borrowing BTO's Not Fragile and Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies around 1974 from a school chum who ended up as a hippy known as Floyd! Fortunately my musical tastes moved in a different direction

Sunday 17 March 2013

Million Dollar Quartet

I suppose that Carl Perkins is pretty much the poor relation of the Million Dollar Quartet when compared to Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis.



He is of course the writer and the singer who originally recorded Blue Suede Shoes before being overtaken by Elvis
Carl Perkins - Blue Suede Shoes

By way of consolation, however, he is the only one of the Quartet whom the DBT's have ever written a song about.

Drive-by Truckers - Carl Perkins Cadillac

Thursday 7 March 2013

A CCM Editorial

A swaithe of bands appear to have passed me  by over the years.

Stereophinics, Kasabian, Muse, Elbow and Editors to name but five.

One minute you have a vague notion about them and the next they are heading Festivals

I can't say I have lost any sleep over it and take a degree of comfort in that there are a lot better bands out there who for whatever reason have not had the same commercial success

This is rather good though


Editors - Munich

CCM is taking a short, but well deserved holiday, but will hopefully come back armed with some splendid new material

Tuesday 5 March 2013

Cataloguing Conundrum

I got two Bar-Kays albums on one cd  at the weekend for £1.50 - 75p per album!



Gotta Groove from 1969 and Black Rock from 1971 which apparently sandwich their appearance on Isaac Hayes' Hot Buttered Soul.
To use my Venn Diagram analogy - in a 3 circle diagram they fit in the wee bit that includes Soul, Funk and Jazz!
From a cataloguing point of view (and let's face it we all do it) does this count as ONE album or TWO?
I swither between the two but it becomes more important as you near important milestones - in my case 1000 CDs.

I think this is the first, but certainly not the last, instrumental to feature on CCM

Bar-Kays - If This World Were Mine

Monday 4 March 2013

Venn Diagrams



With the exception of Maths teachers (and I know you are out there) can anyone remember doing Venn Diagrams at school?
I have a vague memory of doing them about 40 years ago and then nothing until they began to appear with rather alarming frequency on Powerpoint slideshows extolling the virtues of  Partnership working between Health and Social Work and such like stuff.
So perhaps there is a purpose after all.
Doesn't explain algebra or trigonometry though!

Lisa Hannigan - Venn Diagram

Sunday 3 March 2013

Hello Dolly



I got Halos and Horns(2002) from Fopp for a quid.
It is reasonably good with the exception of a cover of Stairway to Heaven and a really awful spoken song called These Old Bones.
It is not a patch on the previous album Little Sparrow  (2001) which I acquired in my local Charity Shop.
This is a bluegrassy album and has a number of good tracks including this retake of one of her old standards.

I've got Sally Timms doing this somewhere which I must look out as it is quite superb.

Dolly Parton - Down From Dover


Saturday 2 March 2013

The Gomez Dilemma

I had noticed that my local Charity Shop had a copy of Liquid Skin by Gomez kicking about during my last couple of visits.Now, I knew I had a Gomez album in the house but wasn't sure which one.
So prior to my most recent foray I took the controversial step of checking and found out that I had Bring it On
The album artwork by Reggie Pedro is broadly similar I'm sure you will agree (or maybe it's just me!)





Anyway, I'm now the proud owner of both.
Somewhat strangely the track Bring it On appears on Liquid Skin

Gomez - Bring It On

Friday 1 March 2013

Bally Marvellous

I bought the CD single of Tum Bin Jiya a number of years ago for 20p (about a quarter for our American friends).

Then last year on holiday I came across the 1996 album Rising from the East in a Charity Shop in Pitlochry


I bought it together with Natacha Atlas' Diaspora which has previously featured on this blog.
I should imagine that they were both donated by the same person.It was a pleasant find.
It is a good album but one I tend to dip in and out of rather than playing in a oner.

Here is the album version of the aforementioned track

Bally Sagoo - Tum Bin Jiya