Three artists this week who have all appeared before on this series suggesting that we will have to wait for at least another week for some of the recently added ones to feature.
We start with Glasgow band Savage Mansion with the song Night School taken for their most recent album The Shakes. They previously made an appearance on SS49.
It is no surprise that Bob Marley and the Wailers have graced this series before - SS25 since you ask. Today they give us the peerless Redemption Song from the equally peerless Uprising album.
We conclude with a collaboration between two legendary artists namely Dave Alvin and Jimmie Dale Gilmore from their debut duo album Downey to Lubbock (their respective home towns) The song selected from the album is Lawdy Miss Clawdy. They also graced SS57.
This programme holds a lot of memories, despite the game taking place almost 50 years ago (and despite being told by my partner on almost a daily basis that “you can’t remember what you did yesterday”). I am sure I wore the Manchester United scarf Mum had knitted for me to Old Trafford, and I can definitely remember the year, score, the crowd size (unlike my brother). And it’s the one and only time I heard a record played in a ground that I then went to purchase (the record, that is).
When I talked to Dave just over two weeks ago (assuming this goes out on Jan 31), I told him the crowd was 46 000 (actual 46 802), the score was 2-1, and the year 1975. ((Did I mention that Dave got every part of that wrong.) This I also remember - when Man United first scored, everyone in the stand stood up apart from my mum “I didn’t know you were meant to stand up”, but she certainly did when the second goal went in.
We had great seats, in the upper tier of a huge stand, and either I or my Dad took three photos on my Kodak Instamatic of the game. We had great seats thanks to the generosity of a friend of my grandfather who purchased match tickets for us- I can remember my father protesting that it was too kind a gift as Mr Morris would not accept any money: the two adult tickets for the upper stand were £1 each, mine and Dave’s tickets less, maybe not half price but perhaps 70p. Combined total £3.40, which is equivalent to £26 today (that’s for your eyes Mr “fan-since-childhood tax exile” Ratcliffe). Now, look at that team, it was Docherty’s great side of the mid-1970s (only Gordon Hill was still to sign), and who knows what could have been achieved if he hadn’t been sacked a couple of years later?
Apart from a programme (that cost the equivalent of 61p today) I also purchased a booklet about the history of the club for a very affordable 25p:
The AITT of that week has one of my all-time favourite songs, a single that I bought in 1975, subsequently lost and purchased again in a charity shop in Coventry ca. 1997 for I think 45p (Mr. CC was with me at the time, maybe he can remember?). (CC writes - I've never been to Coventry George!)
There’s a song by Fox of which I have no recollection, and four truly awful singles. I bought this group’s first single, but can’t remember if I bought this pop gem that was at no. 6.
And how toptastic are those breeks? I also purchased the single that was at no. 9, and still have.
Thanks for reading, and thanks to Mr CC for putting this piece up.
CC writes:
Many thanks for this George despite the historical geographical in accuracy I highlighted above.
Bernard Butler, Norman Blake and James Grant have played gigs together a few times over the years most notably at FRETS in Strathaven.
They now appear to have taken it one step further with a number of tour dates in the next few months and the release of an album to be released on 28th March .They have released a track, which is included below, as a taster and it is indeed very tasty.
It seems that they will take turns leading on the songs which is a bit like what Norman does with Raymond McGinley at Teenage Fanclub gigs.
I've seen Norman playing solo fairly recently as well as with the Fannies on a good few occasions and saw James play at a house concert many years ago, but I have never seen Bernard play. Finances will dictate whether I go and see them and whether I opt for the vinyl or CD version of the album.
Here they are with some songs from previous bands that they have graced:
Storm Eowyn hit Central Scotland on Friday with winds in excess of 100mph.
We got off relatively lightly save for a fence coming down in an area in our back garden which acts like a wind tunnel.Fortunately our nephew had cut down the Eucalyptus tree last summer as it would almost certainly come down and probably causing a bit of damage.
Our plastics bin did blow over and deposited plastic bottles and containers all over the front garden.I will be retrieving them for days. It was too light to stand up to the wind. The bottles bin had no such problem!
It got me thinking of the old Jazz standard Stormy Weather. There were three versions in the Music file on the PC although strangely none of them were by Billie Holiday. I thought three might suffice if only to save me the trouble of downloading another version.
Lest I be accused of hijacking the Single Song Sunday slot I have also included a different song with the same title by the Pixies.
I've put some more songs on the MP3 player recently so this series will go on an on I'm afraid for those of you who have nothing better to do on a Saturday.
This week we are kicking off with The Zombies and their third contribution to the Shuffle namely I Want Her She Wants Me.
The Motorcycle Boy make their second appearance with Big Rock Candy Mountain from their album Scarlet
Amazingly, and somewhat Criminally, today marks the first appearance of the great Lucinda Williams on the Shuffle. Let's Get the Band Back Together is taken from her most recent album 2023's Stories From a Rock'n'Roll Heart which is one of the recent additions.
More shuffling, recent or otherwise, next Saturday.
It would be highly dishonest of me to claim the credit for the idea of this series, that belongs to a man called Dave Roberts, who has written a highly entertaining and amusing book called 32 programmes. Those are the programmes he saved from a much much larger collection when he moved to a different country. I did a similar thing with my collection of programmes 12 years ago. In the book, Mr Roberts charts his life through his chosen programmes, chronologically. I, though, chose my programmes solely on what they meant to me regardless of the date; and unlike Mr Roberts I will ramble almost incoherently about anything that comes to mind whilst I contemplate the programme and of course shoehorn in some tunes.
Today, it’s Plough Lane, and Wimbledon FC. (That’s the club who were bought and relocated to Milton Keynes.) But On April 8, 1978, we went to see 4th Division Wimbledon play the once mighty and then fallen, or should that be plummeted, Huddersfield Town. The “we” is the four us, my Mum, Dad and wee brother. As for why, well given the time of year we must have been on our Easter holiday, staying with my grandparents (my Dad’s parents) who lived in the Borough of Merton and thus quite close to the ground - it was 4 miles from their house - and I suspect my brother and I had ants-in-our-pants, and Dad thought we should go to a game. But not to Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, or even Crystal Palace. But Wimbledon. Which sounds very churlish of me. I wonder if he was thinking there might be a hooligan problem at the larger grounds, but I also think the likely larger output of crude chants and foul language was not a consideration as a couple of years earlier me, Mum and Dad stood in the “Provie” Road end of Dens Park watching Dundee v.. Ayr United.
I have absolutely no memory of this game at all, unlike the games Mr Roberts talks about, he seems to have perfect recall. Looking at the team sheets I recognise no player despite Wimbledon having Dave Bassett on their books (and he played in 35 league games that season) and Dickie Guy (who I had heard of). The score, I have discovered, was 2-0 to Wimbledon. But I have kept the programme, because, well, if you buy one you just cannot throw it away…………..that is until you are told to by your partner, with the proviso that you can keep a few. Maybe it’s a simple reminder of a day out for the four of us. I have asked my brother about this game, but he was nae to use to man nor beast. Although he did tell me that we (the four of us) also went to the speedway in Wimbledon and also to the dogs there.
As for the day itself, the website “onthisday” has absolutely NOTHING for April 8 1978 (although why it has omitted “The Forsyths went to see Wimbledon v. Huddersfield Town” I haven’t a scooby).
As for the AITT, I instantly recognise all 10 songs, although I can quite gladly go through the rest of my days without hearing again five of them. Not this, though, it’s aged quite well - almost:
Someone who calls them self Missy Elliott has absolutely murdered that song, as has Alannah Myles. It’s criminal.
But here on 18 seconds you have one of the most sublime moments in music:
Here’s one of those 5 songs I referred to above, introduced by Kid Jensen, at no. 9 on April 8, and one place behind G****is:
We never did shake them up by winning the world cup, but it totally shook me up and I lost all interest in the national team after that.
The Top Ten Albums are barely worth a mention. Bar one,
Oh, and unlike Mr Roberts, I have fewer than 32 programmes. Hopefully I can be inspired by the next one.
Thanks for reading (and listening), and thanks to Mr CC for hosting.
CC writes:
Thanks George
Sadly the great Denis Law passed away shortly after being referenced in George's last post. I hope no-one referenced in this post suffers the same fate!
And on behalf of a Nation a very sarcastic thanks for bringing up Argentina 78!
All the people you would expect make an appearance and the music is pretty good. Dylan aficionados won't find too many surprises with the film staying pretty close to actual events.
I enjoyed it immensely. Mrs CC, who is not particularly a fan, enjoyed it as well. You should go and see it if you get the chance,
It is also a good excuse for me to feature some of his early stuff.
Is Palestine a country? It depends on who you ask I suppose. If you type that question into the Google search engine this is the top response:
Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in the southern Levant region of West Asia recognized by 146 out of 193 UN member states.
Together with the fact that it has appeared in my Blog stats of visiting Countries that is good enough for me.
I am reluctant to get too political as I'm sure most folk have there own views. I will only say that it is a bit disappointing that it has taken an American Presidential election to trigger strenuous negotiations for a ceasefire. While the discussions go on the body count keeps rising.
It should come as no surprise that the current situation has resulted in what we would describe as protest songs.
Humood Alkhuder is actually a Kuwaiti singer and songwriter who sings contemporary soul and Islamic music. However I feel that his song Falasteen Biladi - Palestine is my Land is an appropriate number to feature today.
Dana Sala is a Jordanian singer, songwriter and producer of Palestinian descent which reflects the voluntary and more often than not non voluntary dispersion of the Palestinian people. Here she sings a dance tune Ya Tal3een.
Kamilya Jubran is a Palestinian singer, songwriter and musician from a musical family who plays the oud and the qanum. From 1982-2002, she was the lead singer of Sabreen , an Arabic musical group based in occupied East Jerusalem. Since 2002, she has toured solo and collaborated with a range of European musicians. Her contribution is a song called Ghareebah
Finally we have Rim Banna who was (she died in 2018 from breast cancer aged 51) a Palestinian singer and composer who was most known for her modern interpretations of traditional Palestinian songs and poetry. Here she sings a song which translates as The Taste of Love
Next we are off to a relatively new Country , something hopefully that one day Palestine will become
Something for you today courtesy of an NME Band of the Week in May 2015 who described them as sounding like Lush on Diazepan.
Yet another band who were first brought to my attention by Drew.
I had it in my head that Kid Wave were a Danish band but it turns out that they are an Anglo Swedish Australian combo whose members were Mattias Bhatt, Harry Deacon, Lea Emery and Serra Patale.
It seems that they only had the one album Wonderlust (pictured above) in 2015 on the Heavenly label.There was an EP called Gloom in 2014 and a few singles and that's yer lot.
That's about all I've got on the band apart from it's terrific stuff. The album can by picked up for a song on Discogs. You could do much worse.
One of the good things about the Saturday Shuffle (alongside the fact that minimal effort is required) is that it throws up songs that you haven't listened to in an age and has you dusting down old records or CDs for a long overdue listen.
Such was the case when Rising Above Bedlam the title track of the 1991 album by Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart pooped up here
I duly dug the CD out for a listen and what a pleasure it was. Ten tracks and no duds among them. In addition to the title track which appeared on Saturday these are probably the most well known of the ten tracks.
I've seen him live twice with the first time at Glasgow's Garage among the best gigs I've ever seen. I wrote about it in the very early days of CCM. You will see that things here haven't improved much, if at all, since then.
Although we are now over half way through January I'm still thinking of it as New Year and some good news for the New Year has just filtered in.
Edwyn Collins has announced that he is to release a new album Nation Shall Speak Unto Nation on 14th March. Anyone who reads his social media posts will agree that he is a good man for the job.
It is his first album since 2019's Badbea and a video has been released of the song Knowledge (see below) where he looks back at being shy and awkward as a youngster. It is very good.
Needless to say this has had me scrabbling through the previous albums and songs that I have.
The MP3 player has this week thrown out three tracks in a not very random sort of a way - one from the 70's, one from the 80's and one from the 90's. None of that modern 21st Century stuff here.
The picture above is probably a clue to the first act.Yes it is Ron and Russell Mael of Sparks fame and quite possibly the strangest brothers in music. Amateur Hour is taken from possibly their most famous album 1974's Kimono My House.
For the 84th SS post we have a song from an album released in 1984 namely Seven Seas from Ocean Rain by Echo and the Bunnymen.
Finally we hit the dizzy heights of 1991 with the title track of Rising Above Bedlam by Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart.
Who knows - the Shuffle may feature something from this century next week or probably more realistically the 60's.
This (brief?) series has nothing to do with a certain 1960s TV programme but, as the picture suggests, football matches, ones that I have been to: that programme is a memento from the first time I saw Manchester United play, and the second match I ever saw. (This was the first.) August 18, 1971, it was a wednesday and I am assuming I was still on holiday from my primary school near Reading otherwise I don’t think my dad would have driven into central London on a weekday evening. He would have driven his 11 year old yellow Ford Consul into central London so I could see my team, me sitting beside him on the grey plastic-covered front bench seat. I can still remember that car’s number plate.
Here are the team sheets, with Dad’s corrections, and just how fabulous are those lists for nostalgia?
Apart from the programme you can see, I also bought what has long been one of my prized possessions, a Manchester United Supporters Club Handbook for season 1971/72. I also have a feeling I (or my Dad really) bought a rosette, but no metal badge from what I am sure was a dazzling array. Of the game itself I can actually remember two things, one was that Bobby Charlton scored a wonder goal and the other was George Best getting sent-off (although my memory of this is that it happened at the end of the game, and not after 40 minutes when it actually occurred). Oh, and that we won 3-2. Three things.
Dad and I were two of 54, 763 at Stamford Bridge that night, a massive crowd for a weekday game, and I think most were there not see Dennis Law (as I was) but to cheer on Chelsea in their first home league game since beating Real Madrid in the 1971 Cup Winners’ Cup. That team disintegrated in a couple more years, although not as badly as my team - they did go top in December of that year but then the slow descent to Division two started in January, taking 2 and a half seasons to do so
That was the first of the four times I saw Manchester United play (I started to very quickly lose interest after they sacked Tommy Docherty in 1977).
As a Dundonian, the date of the 18th August is quite significant - The Tay Road Bridge was opened on that day in 1966 (by which time we were living near Reading).
Anyway, back to August 18 1971, and I have looked at the All Important Top Ten. We have already featured the no. 2 tune in a highly thought of and much lamented series about that excellent pop band The New Seekers (Never ending song of love, since you ask). I instantly recognise 7 of the top ten. I actually have one the songs I did not instantly recognise, and of the other two I have absolutely no recollection of one of them at all (What Are You Doing Sunday, by Dawn). I do, somehow, know this execrable pile of bobbins:
There are some belting tunes in that AITT, one by Atomic Rooster, and this one by a prog. band from Leicester fronted by Roger Chapman, he of the quivering vocal style:
Earlier last year I picked up a cope of Trace the 1995 debut album by Son Volt from the British Heart Foundation shop in St Andrews... or so I thought.
Yup that old schoolboy error of nor checking for the disc before purchasing.
I'm pleased to say that this unfortunate state of affairs has now been resolved. During last week's visit to Glasgow city centre I very briefly popped into Missing Records and came away with a copy for two pounds.
Ok - that is a pound more expensive than St Andrews but it does have the disc included. It is now sitting alongside their 1997 second album Straightaways on the Americana shelves (which are blue as opposed to white).
Visitors to this Blog from the Caribbean have tended to be a bit thin on the ground so it was good to welcome some interest from the Dominican Republic.
This will be a doddle to source some music I thought given that the Caribbean is the home of Reggae, Soca and Calypso and even Voodoo music from their Hispaniola neighbour Haiti.
No the majority of the music that I initially sourced seemed to consist of young semi-clad Latino ladies singing awful R&B ballads, Not to be deterred I dug further.
First up is Yasser Tejada whose Bandcamp page describes as an award-winning Dominican composer, guitarist, vocalist, and producer. According to Billboard, Yasser is giving traditional folkloric music a new spin with jazz, rock, and Caribbean rhythms in "a frenzied celebration of ancestral union"
Next up is Alberto Beltrán who was a Dominican singer, known as "El Negrito del Batey", after his first signature tune. He mainly sang in the genres of bolero, son montuno, mambo, merengue, and guaracha. The track below features La Sonara Matancera
Finally we go all the way back to 1963 with Luis Quintero with Que Paqueton. Not to be confused with the Columbian footballer who plays in Spain with Villareal.
The next Blog Country may be a bit more controversial.
A Christmas present to myself was a vinyl copy of the 2024 remastered reissue of Will Anything Happen by Shop Assistants which was first released in 1996.
This blurb by Manchester's Piccadilly Records gives all the information you should require.
They were yet another band I missed at the time and one who I only discovered thanks to the Blogging community.
I note that in a post about the Big Gold Dream 3CD compilation that I wrote that hey require to be on the shelves..Better late than never I suppose.
One I suspect which will meet with the approval of JC and Brian and hopefully many others.
Sadly lead vocalist Alex Taylor, who subsequently left the band to join The Motorcycle Boy, died in 2005.
Hopefully all other vinyl acquisitions this year will be as good as this.
My recent upgrade to vinyl of Sweetheart of the Rodeohere convinced me that I needed more stuff by The Byrds even although it is an atypical album by the band
All I had were Younger Than Yesterday and The Definitive Collection. On a recent trip to the great record shop Love Music I picked up a CD copy of Fifth Dimension their third album originally released in 1966. The CD was a 1996 version as part of the Columbia/Byrds Legacy with an additional 6 tracks.
It's not a bad place to start. It is a mix of Dylanesque Folk with a shift to more psychedelic songs in the run up to the Summer of Love.
They only released 12 studio albums so that's a quarter or them now accounted for. Don't be surprised to see others popping up here during 2025. You have been warned!
Those of you who have been following the Blogs for a number of years will fondly remember Drew of Across the Kitchen Table fame. He was one of my inspirations when starting my Blog and I have had the pleasure of meeting him on a couple of occasions.
From April to June 2015 he published a few posts which he titled as My Northern Soul Top 50. I duly downloaded them all and burnt them onto a couple of CDs which is what folk did back then and titled it with a distinct lack of imagination as Drew's Northern Soul Top 50.
I shall feature the top three in reverse order.
At number three, and fulfilling my featured female artist criteria is Ruby Andrews with Just Loving You describedsuccinctlybyDrewas JustSublime.
At number two he has an Ashford & Simpson song Don't Send Nobody Else performed by the wonderfully named Ace Spectrum.
For number one Drew writes from the moment I heard this track it became the greatest northern track ever in my eyes and I haven't heard anything since that has made me think twice about its position.
The artist and song in question ? The brilliant Jackie Wilson with Because of You.
Fortunately Drew's posts are still available with this one describing the Top 10. Searches will reveal the rest of the Top 50 and many other brilliant songs to.
The MP3 player got its first outing of the year for its primary function yesterday as I hit the gym for the first time in about a month finally having just about recovered from my chest infection.
Today it's secondary function is put to use which, as you should all be aware, is providing three random tunes for the shuffle.
I'm pretty sure that R.E.M. have appeared on the shuffle before but not with (Don't Go Back to) Rockville the second and final single from 1984's Reckoning. Now over 40 years old!
The next choice is a bit more up to date given that it is from 2018. Wild! Wild! Wild! was a collaboration between Robbie Fulks and Linda Gail Lewis (Jerry Lee's younger sister). Here is the title track.
We conclude with yet another track from one of the Jon Savage compilations. This time around it is the turn of The Seeds with Can't Seem to Make You Mine from 1965 - The Year the World Ignited
2025 Charity Shop Purchases #2 - The R.E.M. Collection Disc 2 - Michael Stipe Presents ...
The second 50p charity purchase from the Kilbride Hospice shop in East Kilbride was another compilation.
It is an Uncut compilation from August 2008.It was still sealed. How can a sealed CD from 2008 end up in a charity shop in 2025? Maybe it has been there all that time and I am the only eejit that thought to buy it!
There were three such CDs at the time with selections by the band - 1- by Mike Mills, 2 by Michael Stipe and 3- by Peter Buck. Bill Berry had left the band by then saving the requirement of a fourth disc.
I already have the Mike Mills one which was right up my street and saved from going to charity. It was with a degree of trepidation that I listened to the Stipe one given that he is somewhat strange and I expected the music to be likewise.
Here is the tracklist. I wasn't that convinced after a first listen but the second time around it sounded slightly better. Not that good enough though to present it going back to charity though (once ripped of course!).
I've gone for Karen Elson who was married to Jack White from 2005 to 2013, Vic Chestnut who sadly died in 2009 and finally Leona Naess whose stepmother was Diana Ross.
I'll keep an eye out for the Peter Buck one as it looks to have some good songs on it.
