Hard-to-find

Coke still got soul

December 5, 2007December 5, 2007 Craig McAllister

Hello to all you new people who have found Plain Or Pan by googling for Coke advert music. I like to fill my reader’s requests, so here’s a couple of Coke tracks that have been asked for recently.

First up the Bee Gees. Rumour has it that in 1967 when they recorded this jingle, the struggling Bee Gees were happy to receive payment for doing the song not in cash but in gallons and gallons of Coca Cola. A couple of years later, they found themselves bloated (Barry especially) and in drastic need of dental repair work to their teeth – no Diet Coke in those days, more sugar. Two of them were that badly affected by the fizzy black stuff they were never seen again. That’s why the other three’s teeth looked so white, shiny and new round about Saturday Night Fever. They’d just got new ones because all that Coke had melted their real teeth. Years later, the Bee Gees were rumoured to enjoy a different variety of Coke, but the Plain Or Pan lawyers have asked me to stop there. (Some of this story may not be entirely true, by the way).

Watch out for that sugar, boys

Next up, The Easybeats. Australian garage rockers who featured George Young on guitar. George’s wee brothers Malcolm and Angus would find fame, fortune and no doubt Coke with AC/DC, but that’s another blog posting sometime. The Easybeats were most famous for ‘Friday On My Mind‘, which David Bowie did well and Gary Moore did not so well. Their Coke jingle sounds garagey and punky, like most of their stuff.

“Bowie likes us? Monday I got royalties on my mind.”

Jerry lee Lewis is no stranger to controversey. Guns, under age shenanigans/marriage with his cousin, a whole lot of something goin’ on. His Coke jingle is bloody fantastic. Sounding like it’s straight out of Sun Studios 1956, it rocks, rolls and stops just short of the one minute mark. “The Real Thing! Jerry Lee Lewis for Coca-Cola!” Get it while you can.

Once more, with feeling Jerry.

Lastly, “Hey there Wild Things! Here come The Troggs!” Coming on like the Monkees, The Troggs are quite refined. Not their usual garage driven bluster at all. Kitsch doesn’t half describe this track. Reg Pressley’s spoken ad-libs are magic. It’s the real thing!

For those of you who don’t go through the pages of this blog (why not?), there are more Coke jingles here.

You make me feel miiiiiiiighty Neil

December 2, 2007May 25, 2012 Craig McAllister

This is a track I’ve been after for a long long time, ever since I heard Eddie Piller (founder of Acid Jazz Records) play it on BBC 6 Music about a year ago. Sylvester, the hi nrg, hi camp, hi falsetto disco artist doing a pretty excellent version of Neil Young‘s ‘Southern Man’. I finally tracked it down on a dodgy file sharing site and although it’ll only play and burn in iTunes, it’s here in all its MP4 glory. But first, a history lesson…..

Is it a Pointer Sister? Chaka Khan? Nope. It’s Sylvester.

Sylvester & The Hot Band released their self-titled debut album (sometimes referred to as ‘Scratch My Flower’) in 1973. It was full of mostly discofied versions of rock and blues stuff (‘A Whiter Shade Of Pale’, ‘Steamroller’), with the odd ’30s standard thrown in. His version of ‘Southern Man’ was released as a single to no great fanfare or sales. Which is a pity. It starts off like the background music to Starsky & Hutch – a bit of vinyl crackle, the thudding funk bass and, yes, a wah-wah playing a cracking riff. In come the keyboards, the horns and a bit of distortion on the guitars. It could be Sly Stone, it could even be Hendrix. Until then the vocals come in. It’s Sylvester. Even this early on in his career, he’s got the falsetto down to a tee. I don’t know what Neil Young made of it (he certainly never made much money from it) but this version is magic. Sure, it’s of it’s time. It sounds 1970s, but then so does Neil’s. Crucially, more importantly, they sound nothing alike.

Sylvester really wanted to be known as a great ballad singer. He idolized both Aretha Franklin and Little Richard. He was a Grade A diva, enthusiastically and flamboyantly gay. He knew where his sexual preferences lay right from the start, even before he was abused by a local evangelist when he was “7, 8 and 9!” He was born into a well off LA family, but moved to San Francisco to find himself and his fortune. He died 19 years ago of AIDS-related illness and is best remembered for ‘You Make Me Feel Mighty Real’. But you knew that. I prefer to remember him for his stab at disco-rock fusion. My friend Big Graham no doubt remembers him from the time he saw him live in Glasgow once.

*Bonus track. The Stills-Young Band doing Southern Man at the Civic Center, Providence on July 7th, 1976. Standard gnarly guitar mangling with nice harmonies. Just the way you like it. Dude.

Gone but not forgotten, Hard-to-find

The twang’s the thang, baby!

November 26, 2007November 27, 2007 Craig McAllister

In between getting married in May and filming ‘Clambake’ and ‘Stay Away Joe’, Elvis found time in 1967 to record some of the best music of his career, not least ‘Guitar Man.’

Recorded on the 10th & 11th of September or the 9th October (depending on which sources you believe) in RCA’s Studio B, Nashville, Elvis’s producer Felton Jarvis told him if he wanted the guitar sound he was describing he should call Jerry Reed. Jerry Reed was eventually tracked down on a fishing trip (!) and duly arrived at the studio looking like a hillbilly dressed up as one of the Waltons for Halloween. Reed then went on to play one of the most distinctive riffs in rock ‘n’ roll, allegedly making the riff up in one go. I’ve struggled for years to get it sounding anything remotely like it, and Jerry Reed plucked it out the air just like that.

“We’re rolling, Guitar Man Take 1” Felton calls out as an obviously flustered Reed runs through guitar licks to get up to speed. “Phew! I haven’t played all weekend!” he says/apologises to no-one in particular. Gradually he gets up to speed and knocks out the killer riff that we all know and love. By Take 12, Elvis is ad-libbing Ray Charles ‘What’d I Say?’ and the whole thing is in the can. Here is a zipped file with takes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10 with all the studio chatter, bum notes, false starts etc that you could ever want.

By the way, if anyone knows the proper way to play the tune, let me know! I play with a dropped D and riff about on the 2nd and 3rd strings at the 10th and 11th frets. But I play like a numpty so what do I know?

Woolworths advert from the 1960s

Football, Hard-to-find

Over……..the party’s over.

November 18, 2007November 18, 2007 Craig McAllister

Oh well. Nearly but not quite. The nation goes back to work tomorrow and all the “I told you…“, “I knew all along…” stories will start. Screw them. We were great. Just not great enough.

The La’s were great too. I wish I could say that in the present tense, but it looks like Lee Mavers has become a bit of a 21st century Syd Barrett, living off his reported £5000 a month royalties from the one big hit single. These days you won’t see him on stage but you’ll see him at all the Everton games. The La’s were also famously fussy. Heid La Mavers abandoned so many recording sessions in his search for the mystical sounds that only he could hear. You all know stories and half-truths by now – the 60s dust, “the album’s terrible“, the threats in 2005 to re-record the album while a pile of classics remained unheard.

‘Over‘ is my favourite La’s song and its melancholy is perfect for the mood all Scottish football fans must be feeling. ‘Over‘ is also the track that Lee Mavers was most happy with, recording-wise. The version he liked best was the one recorded live in a stable on a battered old ghetto blaster. Of course. I’m kicking myself, because I had a 10 minute version somwhere that had loads of talking at the start and the end. John Power chants “Liverpool! Liverpool!” at one point and the rest of them talk about funny cigarettes and stuff. It was really great and when I came to find it for this post I realised it disappeared in the great hard-drive crash of summer 2006. Instead, this version was the one that was chopped from my 10 minute tape and ended up on the b-side of the ‘Timeless Melody‘ single in all its lo-fi glory. There’s also a fantastic version on The La’s BBC Sessions album. Taken from their Liz Kershaw session (31.5.88) it features a brilliant druggy sounding lead guitar part which was apparently overdubbed by Mavers as there were only 3 La’s in the studio that day. Overdubbed! That’s about as close as the La’s ever got to modern recording techniques. Here it is here. Listen out for the Russian chanting in the middle.

Lastly, another lo-fi ghetto blaster recording taped in Barry Sutton’s flat sometime in 1988. Sutton was one of The La’s numerous lead guitar players and he and Mavers would get together and jam Beefheart-esque instrumentals, with the occassional daft lyric like this one. “Get on yer camel and riiiiide!” It sounds like it was recorded in the delta Mississippi in 1923, and was supposed to appear on the b-side of the ill-fated GoLas3 release of ‘Timeless Melody’ which never really saw the light of day. Mavers didn’t like it (!) and Go! Discs withdrew it very quickly at the promo stage. If you ever find a white label copy of it let me know and I’ll give you a fiver for it. Mavers loves ‘Ride Yer Camel’. And so should you.

More La’s stuff here!

Hard-to-find

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.

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.

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