Craig McAllister

This gun’s for hire #1

November 15, 2007February 1, 2009 Craig McAllister

Johnny Marr pisses me off. The most gifted guitarist of his generation, The Smiths were over by the time he was the ripe old age of 24. 24! Most musicians would have called it a day after being in one of the most revered bands ever. But at the age of 24 Johnny was probably thinking his career was just beginning. And it was. Not in the same trailblazing way as with The Smiths, but he had the world at his feet and the world came calling.

You’re all intelligent people, so you’ll know a lot of this anyway. Some of those who came calling were Bryan Ferry, Chrissie Hynde, Simple Minds, The The, Billy Bragg, Kirsty MacColl, Karl Bartos, (deep breath in), Beck, Oasis, George Michael, Tom Jones, Jane Birkin, Lisa Germano, the list is practically endless. In the same way that Jimmy Page cornered the 1960s session market, for the past 20 years Johnny has been the guitar player that everyone calls. The Pet Shop Boys needed a guitarist. Neil Tennant was going to learn but couldn’t be arsed, so he called Johnny instead. The Pet Shop Boys were after all “the Smiths you can dance to” and Johnny duly added his distinctive guitar to 2 tracks on their ‘Behaviour’ album. Neil Tennant would later briefly join Electronic, but that’s a whole other blog post somewhere in the future.

Post-Smiths, Johnny really made a name for himself in dance music circles. One of the reasons The Smiths broke up was due to Morrissey’s reluctance to accept new technology (such as samplers and sequencers) into the mix. So Johnny went off and played with those who embraced exactly those things. Banderas (‘Rise’ 1991) and K Klass (‘La Cassa’ 1993) were two acts who benefited. As did Stex.

In 1991 they released ‘Still Feel The Rain’. Released on the Some Bizarre label and produced by former Altered Images member (and husband of Clare Grogan) Stephen Lironi and mixed by The Grid, this nimble Balearic anthem was dressed with a vintage Chic-esque Johnny Marr guitar riff. Not to mention the stacks of drum machines, keyboards, bass sequencers and synthesised horns. That sound you can hear in the background is the sound of a thousand quiffs collapsing in despair in bedrooms up and down the country. I liked it at the time. Nowadays, ‘Still Feel The Rain’ sounds like it was recorded about 16 years ago. Which it was.

More unusual (and a million times more interesting) is Johnny’s collaboration with Alex Paterson (The Orb) and Jimmy Cauty (art terrorist and ex-KLF). Originally called Custerd before settling on the name The Transit Kings, Paterson and Cauty called on Marr to play on their 2006 album ‘Living In A Giant Candle Winking At God’. I don’t think you’ll find it in Asda. In fact, you’ll be hard pushed to find it anywhere, but this track is a lovely piece of ambient house.

Taken from their ‘Token EP’ EP, the guitar playing on ‘America Is Unavailable’ is pure Johnny Marr. Every facet of his guitar style is here. A bit of feedback and distortion. A great riff. Some African sounding bits. Weird chords. Some slide playing. What sounds like some backwards stuff in the middle. Some frantic acoustic strumming. It’s all there.

Last year Johnny joined Modest Mouse after they put out the call that they were looking for a “Johnny Marr-esque” guitarist. “Why have Johnny Marr-esque when you can have Johnny Marr?” he asked, and he got the job. The Modest Mouse album ‘We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank’ is up there as one of my favourite albums of the year.

More recently, Johnny has become a lecturer in music at the University Of Salford. He’s only 6 years older than me, he plays guitar like no-one else, he’s done it all and his hair nearly always looks brilliant. Johnny Marr, you piss me off.

A post about Johnny Marr and not one picture of The Smiths.

More Johnny Marr stuff here!

Hard-to-find

Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me?

November 8, 2007April 14, 2009 Craig McAllister

S!TOP PRESS!!! April 14th 2009!!! STOP PRESS!!!

Updated Phil Spector stuff here!

Shit, it’s a gun. Phil Spector really is bonkers. And that’s an understatement. One read of Ronnie Spector’s autobiography (Be My Baby) will tell you that. Between locking her in her room, only letting her go out in the car if she took an inflatable version of himself for the passenger seat, to presenting her out of the blue with foster children, Phil had total control over Ronnie. That recent programme on Channel 4 showed him in an increasing number of crazy wigs, making an increasing number of crazy claims. No doubt about it, he killed the actress. We all know that. But……

Despite his obvious freakishness, he couldn’t half create a brilliant record. ‘Pop blues‘ he called them. Layer upon layer of guitar, drums, bass, strings, whatever percussion was lying about. And vocals. Heaps of vocals. Tons of vocals. Tapes upon tapes of takes upon takes of vocals. Ronnie thought they all sounded the same but Phil would always hear something not quite right about it and make her do another take of the same song. I own the best box set ever. I bought ‘Back To Mono’ in Vancouver 10 years ago and played it to death. Once a year I get it out and play it daft for a week. In the car, in the house, on the iPod. I thought music couldn’t sound any better. Then I stumbled acroos a 5CD bootleg of Phil’s studio outtakes. That’s music porn for a trainspotter like me. Listen! There’s extra tambourine on that one! D’you hear that? That’s Glen Campbell playing guitar! Which one? The one soaked in a gallon of reverb of course! Those 5CDs are way too much to sit through in one go. In fact, you’d have to be about as weird as Phil if you wanted too, but dipped into now and again they’re a brilliant snapshot of how he created his 3 minute ‘pocket symphonies for teenagers.’ They remind me a lot of the ‘Pet Sounds sessions’ box set, where Brian Wilson barks orders from the control room. Another mad genius. Another post no doubt. In the meantime, here’s 3 tracks that I think you’ll like.

“This is real music, baby!” Take 2 of ‘The Boy I’m Going To Marry’. Phil gave Ronnie the song. He was still married at the time. She didn’t know. But she did know that she was going to marry Phil so she put her heart and soul into singing this. Then her and Phil nipped out the back somewhere and had sex. Eugh! It’s all in the book. Think about that while you’re listening to it. Or maybe you shouldn’t.

Da Doo Ron Ronnie

Takes 1, 2, 3 and 4 of ‘Soldier Baby’. A wee bit hissy, but lots of studio chatter throughout this one. Phil cracks the whip. “One more time, let’s go.” Ronnie sings her heart out like she’s singing it for the first time, every time. “Ron. C’mon. Let’s go!” “Nah! I have to have a drum. C’mon. Let’s do it in tempo. C’mon c’mon!” “You’re going too slow. That intro’ll be ad-libed. I’ll just direct it. OK. Here we go…I, 2, 3 …” Jeez. No wonder he carried a gun. Shoot or be shot. The Ronettes and assembled musicians carried out like the true pros they were. Here’s Take 6, complete with handclaps and backing vocals to prove it.

Ronnie’s the one in the middle. John Lennon fancied her like mad. George Harrison went out with her sister Estelle (on the left)

I’ve saved the best for last. Two takes of ‘Baby I Love You’. The first is a straight rehearsal run through (Take 12) of Phil’s finest moment. The second version is just about the best thing I’ve ever uploaded. If you only download one thing this week, make it this one. An unknown take of ‘Baby I Love You’, sans music. It’s just a few handclaps, the Ronettes backing vocals and wee Ronnie singing her heart out. It’s bloody magic and could teach any of today’s ‘singers’ a thing or two. Woah oh, woah oh oh oh!

Poor Phil. I love Phil Spector. Rather, I love his music. You can’t deny he’s made many a fine finger-poppin’ track, even if the only hits he’s known for nowadays are not of the musical kind. To think that this blog was nearly named after him. I’m glad it’s not. I can’t imagine ojsimpson.blog.com gets that much traffic these days. But you never know.

Professor plumb, lead pipe, billiard room

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

Kiss My Shades*

November 4, 2007November 4, 2007 Craig McAllister

My previous Sandie Shaw post was surprisingly (for me) one of the most popular downloaded music posts on this entire blog. I mentioned that Sandie Shaw doing The Smiths’ ‘Hand In Glove’ would turn up at some point….and here it is.

Released in April 1984, this version of ‘Hand In Glove’ was promoted as a Sandie Shaw solo release, although it is essentially The Smiths with Sandie Shaw coming straight off the bench as some kind of super-sub. All those Smiths fans helped the single reach the dizzy heights of number 27. Even the cover art of the single is Smithsy in appearance. I’d imagine all Smiths aficionados would have the 3 Smiths tracks Sandie covered by now, but if not, here you go…

The 7” featured 2 tracks – the lead track and her version of ‘I Don’t Owe You Anything’. ‘Hand In Glove’ is a reverb-drenched bash-along that Siouxsie Sioux would be proud of. The lead guitar riff sounds like a glockenspiel, and I mean that in a good way. The outro is terrific too. Different to the original. Not better. Not worse. Just different.

Apart from the unusual introduction, Sandie’s version of ‘I Don’t Owe You Anything’ sounds an awful lot like the Troy Tate produced version that was intended for their first album before The Smiths binned it at the last minute. Maybe, way back in ’84 before Bongo, Sting and all those other worthless eco-warriers, The Smiths were into recycling their old junk, giving it to someone more deserving. It’s got a creepy, churchy-sounding keyboard part playing through the background and tons of jangling, clipped 12 string Rickenbacker. And the final chord is niiiiiiiiice. Sandie’s got a nice warble to her voice too. I like this version a lot.

The 12” featured ‘Jeane’ as an extra track. More acoustic than The Smiths, it’s just Johnny n’ Sandie, until some crooner in a big quiff and national health specs starts yodeling towards the end. No heavenly choirs, not for me and not for you, they sing. But I’m not so sure. Sandie Shaw’s 3 Smiths covers are amongst some of my favourite records.

Forgive me father, for I have sing-ed

Around the time of the record’s release, Morrissey said, “I met her a few months ago and it seemed perfectly natural for me to seize the opportunity and ask her to work with us and she was incredibly eager and incredibly enthusiastic. She really liked the songs and she was very eager to do it. So, it’s happened and I’m very pleased.” Four years later, post-Smiths and bored of Smiths-obsessed journalists, he cut short one inquisitive interviewer with, “It was so great for me personally that I don’t actually remember it happening“.

Is that real leather she’s wearing?

* ’Kiss My Shades’ was the wee message scratched into the run-off groove of the 7”, trainspotters.

Uncategorized

Jimmy Page’s broken finger

November 4, 2007November 4, 2007 Craig McAllister

No need to take it out on me wee man. Click here.

entire show, Hard-to-find

“We love distortion!”

November 4, 2007January 2, 2008 Craig McAllister

So sayeth John Lennon. I can’t believe I haven’t posted anything Beatles-related at all until now. This post more than makes up for it. The music contained herein is cracking. What makes it all the more amazing is that this recording is of a radio show and is over 40 years old. It’s amazing to think these recordings exist, let alone in good quality. God knows who originally recorded it, or how they recorded it, but somehow they did, and thanks to the wonders of the internet, it’s all here. First though, the history part.

In 1963, as a live phenomenon, The Beatles were at the top of their game. Their years of playing extended sets in Hamburg had taught them how to handle a crowd. Their own fantastic songwriting talent was emerging and many of these songs were yet to be committed to vinyl. In a couple of years time they would be a spent force on the live stage. Limitations in their equipment couldn’t match the increasingly bigger venues the band were playing. This show was recorded for Swedish Radio at Karplan Studios in Stockholm on October 24th 1963. It captures the Beatles playing their early 60s set, drawing on a mixture of originals and covers. From Paul’s “2, 3, 4″ count-in onwards, this set sounds like proto-punk. The playing is spot-on. The vocal harmonies are tight and Ringo’s backeat holds it all together. There’s a John one (From Me To You), a Paul one (I Saw Her Standing There), a George one (Roll Over Beethoven), a fast one (Money), a slow one (You Really Got A Hold On Me) and all the big hits (She Loves You, Twist & Shout). And it’s all in crystal clear high fidelity mp3 (!)

Hans Westman was the studio engineer for Swedish radio. “The worst recordings I’ve ever made,” he said. “Totally chaotic. No time for rehearsals.” The studio wasn’t best equipped for recording a ‘beat group’ and there were problems overcoming the UK plugs on the Vox amps. But once sorted, The Beatles simply plugged in and played. Westman couldn’t apologise enough for his poor sound, but Lennon loved this recording. “We love distortion!“ Not long before he died in1980 he said that these were the best live recordings The Beatles ever made. And who can argue?

1. Introduction
2. I Saw Her Standing There
3. From Me To You
4. Money
5. Roll Over Beethoven
6. You Really Got A Hold On Me
7. She Loves You
8. Twist And Shout

You need this. It’s brilliant. The entire show is available here as a zip file., from me to you (arf).

(Above) back cover art (right-click and save)

(Below)Hans Westman’s original tape reel, signed by the fab four.

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

Rangers, Celtic, Aberdeen…..

October 28, 2007October 28, 2007 Craig McAllister

…..Gie’s ma effin’ Halloween. So goes the battle cry of every West of Scotland child this Wednesday night. Apart from all the teeth-melting tablet, I hate Halloween. When I was younger I hated it cos every year my Dad dressed me up as a one man band. Every year. And every year, every house I went into I’d be asked the same question. “Who are you supposed to be?” Two years ago I painted myself yellow and put on a bald wig. Mrs Plain Or Pan painted herself yellow and put on a 3 feet high blue Amy Winehouse style wig. “Who are you supposed to be?” they asked again. D’oh! Like I said, I hate Halloween. These tracks are for all you Scary Monsters, Super Creeps and Vampires who dare to dress up this week.

First up is someone who’s no stranger himself to dressing up, David Bowie. Some say that the ‘Scary Monsters…‘ album was his last true great record. I don’t know. I actually really like ‘Heathen‘ from 2002.

Two versions of ‘Scary Monsters’ for you. The first I’ve got on a bootleg titled simply ‘Live and Acoustic 96 97’. Sorry I can’t give you much more information on the track in question but it’s a belter. Bowie talks about Johnny Cash at the start. It’s delivered in the style of Johnny Cash and if Rick Rubin’s listening he must surely be tracking Bowie down as the next megastar in line for the ‘American Recordings’ treatment. The second version is from a well known bootleg called ‘Vampires Of Human Flesh’ (that’s the cover above) that has alternate/demo versions of the ‘Scary Monsters’ album.

I once read that Mercury Rev had the brilliant idea of recording the whole of Neil Young’s ‘OnThe Beach’ LP and putting each track out individually as a b-side to all the singles they released from the ‘Deserters Songs’ album and beyond. Great idea, considering ‘On The Beach‘ was unavailable at the time. Of course, you can get it now but that’s not the point. Thing is, Johnathon Donahue sounds an awful lot like Neil Young. If you were being nasty you’d say he couldn’t really sing. I’d say his voice is a fragile thing of beauty etc etc. In any case, Mercury Rev got round to recording only 2 ‘On The Beach’ tracks. ‘Vampire Blues’ was Neil Young’s rant against the oil industry. “I’m a vampire baby. Sucking blood from the Earth.” He likes a rant does old whiny Neil. Anyone heard Chrome Dreams 2 yet? Still not sure if I like it or not. Anyway. Mercury Rev’s Vampire Blues is fantastic. Some open/drop tuning acoustic guitars, Donahue’s thin reedy voice and not much else. I think it was originally done for an XFM radio session, but it eventually appeared on the ‘Delta Sun Bottleneck Stomp’ CD single.

Bonus track. Mercury Rev also got round to recording ‘Motion Pictures’. This version has some nice bluesy acoustic guitar playing and prog keyboards. It’s a cracker, even better than ‘Vampire Blues’ I think. Now. When will Mercury Rev do ‘Ambulance Blues’?

Hard-to-find, Peel Sessions

Peel Session Special Delivery

October 27, 2007November 12, 2007 Craig McAllister

Another post that shows my age. If The Best of Blondie was one of the first albums I bought, amongst the first 7″ singles I bought were Gangsters, Rat Race and Stereotype by The Specials. I used to get £1 every Saturday and I’d be straight down to John Menzies for whatever had caught my eye on Top Of The Pops on the Thursday night. I even had enough change left over for a penny chew. I came to regret this in later life when I started getting fillings in my teeth, but not as much as the twang of regret I get everytime I think about the time I gave my singles collection to the BB jumble sale. Baggy Trousers gone. Stand & Deliver gone. Swords Of A Thousand Men gone. D’oh.

The Specials recorded 4 sessions for John Peel. The first (23.5.79) was available for a while. Try eBay if you really need it. Or ask me nicely…

The other sessions remain unreleased but you can find the three tracks recorded for the 3rd session below. Recorded almost exactly 27 years ago on the 29th October 1980, the jewel in the crown here is undoubtedly the version of ‘Stereotype’. The single version is sung in 3rd person – “He’s just a stereotype, he drinks his age in pints etc etc,” but in this run through, Terry Hall sings a different introduction and sings in first person – “I’m just a stereotype, etc etc”. Now. Bob Dylan fans get themselves all in a lather over this kind of thing. Specials fans probably don’t, but the Peel version is also faster than the one you’ll know and is less exotica/bossa nova/lounge sounding than the single version. So you need it. Of the other 2 tracks, ‘Racquel‘ dates back to the days when The Specials were still the Coventry Automatics. It’s just about the punkiest thing the Specials recorded and a bit of googling makes me think this version is the only one the band did. ‘Sea Cruise’ is a trombone-led instrumental romp through a version of Frankie Ford’s 1958 RnB hit. It wouldn’t sound out of place on Jools Holland’s Hootenany, which is interesting as the trombone player on Sea Cruise is Rico, who nowadays earns his corn playing with Jools’ Big Band.

For the record, The Specials line-up for this Peel session was:

Jerry Dammers (Keyboards, Backing Vocals)

Roddy Radiation (Lead Guitar)

Terry Hall (Lead Vocals)

Sir Horace Gentleman Panter (Bass)

Lynval Golding (Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals)

John Bradbury (Drums, Percussion)

Neville Staples (Vocals, Percussion)

Rico Rodriquez (Trombone)

Dick Cuthell (Cornet)

You can find out everything you need to know about any Peel Session ever at the BBC’s excellent website here.

Edit, Sunday 11th November

Oops! Thanks to the people at the 2Tone forums who have found this site and have pointed me in the direction of this, the complete Specials BBC sessions.

Cover Versions, Hard-to-find

Under the covers with Debbie Harry

October 19, 2007October 19, 2007 Craig McAllister

Aye. That Chris Stein’s a lucky so and so. Dreamin’. Dreamin’ is free. Aah Debbie Harry…..(tails off….)

The Best Of Blondie was one of the first albums I bought. The very first was ‘Kings of the Wild Frontier’ by Adam and the Ants. I bought Complete Madness and the Blondie album not long after. I recently dug out my old vinyl and played Blondie for the first time in ages. Reading the sleeve notes and credits and all that kinda stuff, I realised that Blondie didn’t actually do the originals of some of their tracks. I knew about ‘The Tide Is High’. I got big into reggae about 10 years ago and heard John Holt’s original. And I knew that ‘Hangin’ On The Telephone’ was an old new wave track, although I’d never heard the original version. But I didn’t know that ‘Denis’ was also a cover.

‘Denis‘ began life as ‘Denise‘ and was a reasonably big doo-wop hit for Randy & The Rainbows, making #10 in September 1961. Randy & his Rainbows aren’t that well known. You could probably call them one hit wonders. In the doo-wop world, if Dion & The Belmonts were The Beatles, Randy & The Rainbows were Freddie & The Dreamers. ‘Denise’ sounds like something you might hear in the background of ‘American Graffiti’ or one of those coming of age American films. I like it. So too did Blondie.

As well as pre-Beatles teen pop, Blondie had an ear for more exotic music. I don’t know who in the band heard John Holt/The Paragons version of ‘The Tide Is High’. The track was released to massive indifference in 1965 and sank without a trace. It got no radio play and made no chart anywhere. But someone somewhere in New York must’ve heard it, cos in 1980 Blondie took it all the way to #1 in the UK. We won’t mention Atomic Kitten at this point.

The Nerves were about to chuck it. They had no money and no success. Main Nerve Jack Lee had a wife and child, with another on the way. Without money, his electricity and phone were about to be cut off. Lucky for him he still had his phone when Debbie called out of the blue. “This is Deborah Harry, I’m in a band called Blondie, we really like your song Hanging On The Telephone and we want to record it on our album.” Ker-ching! Blondie’s version isn’t that far removed from the original. A glossier production and far better drumming. Otherwise, the guitars stay the same and it’s the same record. Apart from the way she sings “show you my affection“. Even as a 10 year old I knew that was sexy. I’ve always wanted to be able to play ‘Hanging On The Telephone’ on the guitar. I still can’t.

Even though they hated one another, Blondie’s success went globally bonkers mental when they got together with producer Mike Chapman. Being from LA, he had no concept of the New York CBGBs scene that was crucial to Blondie’s sound. The band distrusted him and thought he’d been sent to destroy their music. In today’s terms, it’s a bit like Pete Doherty and Babyshambles being forced to record with Mark Ronson or the Xenomania team. Maybe no bad thing, but that’s another discussion. Anyway, Chapman went on to produce all the big hits – ‘Sunday Girl’, ‘The Tide Is High’, ‘Hanging On The Telephone’, ‘Dreaming‘, ‘Atomic‘, I could go on but you get the idea. His biggest success was with ‘Heart of Glass’, a track Blondie had been playing in various styles for years. By the time Blondie came to record it with Chapman, disco was the new thing, and the band duly obliged with Chapman’s wishes that they embrace the new scene wholeheartedly. What had previously been an ordinary sounding plodding bluesy track suddenly became a bona fide disco-rock crossover smash hit, and Debbie’s face was everywhere. Here’s the demo version that Chapman got to work on. The moral of this tale? Never underestimate the importance of a good producer.

“Call me Mr Phil Spector…please call me…….”

Cover Versions, Football, Hard-to-find, Peel Sessions

It’s great being Scottish

October 13, 2007May 25, 2012 Craig McAllister

We’re top of our group, we’ve dumped the French twice and today we beat the Ukrainians 3-1. We are Scotland. We are magic. We are going to Euro 2008.

Get your flat caps and clumpy shoes on and celebrate by dancing along to The Ukrainians folk-punk-polka versions of 4 Smiths tunes. The Ukrainians (the group not the football team) were formed as a side project to the Wedding Present. Guitarist Pete Solowka was of Ukrainian descent and when John Peel asked the Wedding Present if they’d like to do a session, the band recorded some traditional Eastern European folk music at the expense of their usual 100 mile an hour D-G-A strumalong. Truth be told, were it not for the Wedding Present connection, few people would have been all that interested. But thanks to this interest, Peel played the session over and over and the Ukranians went on tour. I saw them in Edinburgh (April 16th 1991) where the real Wedding Present played support and did an hours worth of brand new material. Then the Ukrainians came on and did their shouty punk-polka stuff.

In 1993 the band released the Pizni ep, which featured 4 Smiths covers. They’re probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but if you like unusual cover versions or are one of those mental Smiths completists, these are for you. I like how the melodies still come through, even though I have no idea what they’re singing. Except I do really, cos I know every Smiths song back to front. And now I know how to say “when her Walkman started to melt” in Polish. Useful that.

Batyar (Bigmouth Strikes Again)

Koroleva Ne Polerma (The Queen Is Dead)

M’yaso-Ubivstvo (Meat Is Murder)

Spivaye Solovey (What Difference Does It Make)

Roll on Wednesday night and another 3 points. Surely every Scottish football fan has Georgia On My Mind. The Band‘s version is fucking sublime. A bit like oor fitba’ team.

Hard-to-find, Peel Sessions

Dry run-through

October 11, 2007October 27, 2007 Craig McAllister

For whatever reason, most of the casual hits on this site come from people Googling for PJ Harvey. So this post is for all of you. I could have posted the new album. But that’s not what this blog was intended for. I could post the complete Peel Sessions, not just the ones you can buy. But they’re fairly easy to find elsewhere. Instead I’m putting up a few tracks from the first PJ Harvey album, ‘Dry‘, in demo form.

‘Dry’ is by far my favourite PJ album. It sounds garagey, bluesy and down right dirty. Plus it’s got great cello all over it. And ‘Sheela-Na-Gig’ is kinda saucy and has a John Cale-esque violin (or is it viola?) scraping away over the top of it. I wore the 12″ out playing it to death. Polly was only 22. She sounded great and looked even better. I always had a feeling that one day she’d go out with me, till she met that bastard Nick Cave. Oh well, her loss.

Anyway. The music. When Dry was released way back in 1991, initial copies came with a free CD, ‘Dry Demonstration’, which had the album in demo form. Here are 3 demos from that disc.

‘O Stella’ sounds a wee bit less intense than the album version. More acousticy but no less frantic. She hits all the high notes, plays all the bent string blues notes and the whole thing sounds majestic. And the way she says, “Stella Marie you’re my star” in her West Country accent at the start is quite amusing. ‘Dress’ was one of the singles from the album. On ‘Dry’ it was a cello led rant against leering boys who stare at girls in tight dresses. This version’s got some cello on it too, but not that high in the mix. An electric guitar is double tracked with an acoustic. By the end, the cello’s all over it, the backing vocals have kicked in, the blues riffs have taken over and it sounds like something Kurt Cobain might have demoed for Nevermind. Seriously. The demo version of ‘Sheela-Na-Gig’ is a straight run through of the single version that I wore out. Acoustic guitar (again), the high notes (again), the mangled blues riff (again), the “you exhibitionist!” vocal, the whole shebang. In lo-fi.

Extra! Extra! Recorded 29th September 1991, ‘Sheela-Na-Gig’ Peel Session version here. By the way, if you don’t know what a Sheela-Na-Gig is, try here.