Mr. Mondo

I mentioned the band in the last paragraph of the ‘main text’ and so that comment relates back to that part of the conversation. I thought everyone here might know that they did ‘Weirdo’ and felt that I did not need to mention them again by name. Actually, I think that song is my favourite record by them, whilst ‘Popscene’ is my favourite single by ‘Blur’. ‘Rich and Strange’ and ‘Purple Love Balloon’ are great records as well.

Re: the ‘Betty Boo’ thread I was reading the free newspaper this morning when I noticed an article in the gossip pages that regarded a couple of members of the pop group ‘Girls Aloud’; and a “1980s pop star” turned songwriter who we all know and love as ‘Betty Boo’. Whilst the article seamed to me like an excuse to print a colour photo of the group’s Cheryl Cole and Sarah Hardman, the text was actually about an argument that had happened between Cole and Clarkson. Without going into all the tedious details it seemed that Clarkson had become one of ‘Girls Aloud’ songwriters and had accidentally revealed some secret project details to the anger of Cole. The paper featured a number of quotes that were ‘allegedly’ taken from Cole saying that no one knows who ‘Betty Boo’ is, that she is rubbish and that Clarkson is using these ‘false secrets’ for her own publicity. As you may know, there is a new ‘Betty Boo’ record that has been released this week and even though I have never heard the record or actually know what it is called, I would like to see ‘Betty Boo’ back in the UK singles chart. I think it would be nice to see her name in the Top 40 after all these years and actually I think it would be preferable to seeing ‘Girls Aloud’ all the time. I do not know what everybody’s opinions would be but I think I would be not the only one, so does anybody else agree?

Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts and Melissa George ‘Brides of Christ’ (TELEVISION MEMORIES 10) Yesterday I went to the cinema where I watched a new film called ‘The Invasion’ with the Australian actress Nicole Kidman as the main star. Now, prior to this viewing, there were a number of advertisements for all the new films which were going to be released in the following weeks. Amongst these ads, was a trailer for a new London based Russian gangster film starring Naomi Watts and a trailer for a vampire film that featuring the former ‘Mrs. Parrish’, Melissa George. Now, if I were to ask “What was the connection” between the last two named actresses, I would expect a few people to answer the question by saying that they were both in the film ‘Mulholland Drive’. On the other hand, If I was given that same question and asked for the connection, the first answer that would come to my mind would be that both of these actresses appeared in the soap opera called ‘Home and Away’. Back in the late 1980s and early 1990s, my friends and I were avid viewers of these Australian soap operas, we being the kind of teenagers who you would expect to be obsessed with these shows. I remember that we used to joke about the lack of actors in Australia and how each actor seemed to move from one show to another. I remember that a few years before she was ‘Jet Girl’, and many years before she became the Hollywood star of today, Naomi Watts appeared in a show called ‘the Brides of Christ’ with Kym Wilson. This was another show that I watched religiously, which was very apt as the show was set in a nunnery. At this point, I may have given you the impression that here was a show, where Naomi Watts was dressed up a nun for most of the time, as I doubt that anybody else will remember this show. Actually, as the show was made about 17 years ago, Naomi Watts played a schoolgirl at the convent and was dressed throughout in one of those ‘daggy’ Australian schoolgirl outfits you might remember from the early days of ‘Home and Away’. I cannot exactly remember why I ended up watching the ‘Brides of Christ’, but I think it may have been because I watched anything that was Australian on the television at the time. Even though saying that, I never watched ‘Prisoner’ but this might have been because it was on too late at night. I remember that I used to have a teenage crush on Naomi Watts when I was younger, as I was under the impression that she was a cute Australian girl. I never liked Melissa George, who as ‘Angel Parrish’ was always the number one female soap star in the teen magazines of the post-Kylie soap period. On the other hand, even though I remember seeing Melissa George and Naomi Watts in a lot of Australian soaps and teen shows at the time, I can never remember Nicole Kidman being in anything other than the ‘BMX Bandits’ before she became the famous film star. If the ‘BMX Bandits’ was made in the early 1980s and then ‘Dead Calm’ was made towards the end, there must have been loads of shows that featured Nicole in the cast. Maybe she appeared as a character in ‘Skyways’ or The Sullivans’ or in a children’s show similar to ‘Round The Twist’ or ‘Skippy’, does anyone remember her in being in anything on 1980s television?

As a ‘creative’ yes, but as an ‘actor’ and when considering the ‘all round package’, Peter is better.

I think that and ‘Weirdo’ can not be considered to be ‘Britpop’ at all. They are done by bands which became linked to ‘Britpop’ but the sound is something else, something still great, or perhaps greater. In fact, the first ‘Britpop’ band might be actually ‘Cud’ as they had their own take on a ‘British Pop’ genre within the indie scene in about 1991, though they had been on a local label a few years before that. You may also remember Carl Puttnam’s take on Martin Fry’s famous shirt from the ‘Asquarius’ promotional photographs, which is a link to another era of classic British pop.

I was not bothered about that series at all.

The only problem with ‘The Young Ones’ was that I was too young at the time to understand it all and so a lot of the bile about the political figures of the day just passed me by. Having been brought up on Tex Avery and ‘Roadrunner’ cartoons I could appreciate the show for the slapstick, in a way similar to watching ‘Spitting Image’ for the funny puppets.

I well guess that is a simpler way of putting across that ‘jangly-programming theme’.

‘The Invasion… (…Of The Body Snatchers)’ Last night I went to see the new film that stars Nicole Kidman called ‘The Invasion’ and even though the film has had some average reviews in the press, I though it was good. I liked it as it had just the right amount of ‘gore’ for me and was not too full of over-elaborate science fiction terms. I thought that the film kept up a good pace throughout and did not become boring, even though at points it seemed slightly ‘over-edited’. I think the film was directed by the person who did ‘Downfall’ and so I was wondering if a longer ‘art-house’ film was submitted by him to test screening and then re-cut by somebody else to make it go much faster. I think the film ‘American History X’ also had similar problems between the vision of the director and what the studio wanted, so maybe this is what happened here as well. I have not seen any of the other of the ‘Body Snatcher’ films, so I cannot to compare this film with them, though I am under the impression that some of these will be regarded as ‘Sci-Fi’ classics. Even though ‘The Invasion’ has some good points at the end, I am uncertain to whether the point of the film was to make other social observations as a masked ‘satire’ or to be just the thrill-ride that it is. I believe that the first version of ‘Invasion of Body Snatchers’ was an analogy for the effect of communist thinking on the American way, and if a similar point is trying to be made about religion or politics I think it misses the mark. I will give this film about 3.5 out of 5.

I might go and see this later, though I am not sure whether there would be an added bonus of seeing the film at a cinema with a digital screen. Has anyone seen it yet in a digital format?

Yes it is good to have an intelligent interesting serial killer movie for once, rather than all these teen ‘slasher’ movies that always seem to be on.

‘Bottom’ (TELEVISION MEMORIES 9) “I saw ‘Your Bottom’ on television last night” When I turned onto the new channel ‘Dave’ last night and noticed that ‘Bottom’ was going to be part of the new line up, I instantly thought that this is a show worth talking about again, even though I was uncertain to whether it should be listed under ‘Television Memories’ or just ‘Memories’. Even though I loved watching the television show, I think the best way to have experienced Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmondson’s creation was to see it live. Over the years, I went to see many of the stage performances that they did at the ‘Manchester Apollo’ theatre and even though each show was essentially two men hitting each over the head for a couple of hours, what brilliant shows they were. As with the ‘Comedy Store Players’ from Channel 4’s ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway’, these were shows that were best enjoyed if you were really going to make a night of it, shows that warranted a few drinks beforehand. Even though a few drinks loosened your inhibitions, you did not want to have too many because you knew that if you had to go to the toilet half way through, you would be singled out and shamed, not only by Rik and Ade, but by the audience as well. Actually, whereas people going to the toilet in the cinema is very annoying, at a ‘Bottom’ concert you always hoped that somebody would try because that was an excuse for them to deviate from the script. The best parts of the show were always when they deviated from the script, when a ‘stunt’ went wrong or when they forgot their lines and ad-libbed. It was fun watching the videos of the concerts back and noticing the differences in the performances. In fact, the live shows were such good fun that when ‘Guest House Paradiso’ was released, you wished that they had just recorded another one and shown that in the cinema instead. I do not know why ‘Guest House Paradiso’ failed in the way that it did as with the talent involved it should have been one of the funniest films of all time. Even though they were not playing exactly the same characters as in the ‘Bottom’ television shows, they were playing a development of them and, it could be said, a development of what was essentially their old ‘Dangerous Brothers’ act from ‘Saturday Live’, so how could it fail?

In some ways they were, but I don’t think the term ‘Britpop’ was invented that early on in 1992. I think that comes afterwards. There were still loads of ‘grunge’ bands that the press were focusing on and ‘Suede’ came in during that period of transition. I think this was the same period when ‘Blur’ stopped doing the ‘baggy’ stuff and had evolved into doing the brilliant ‘power-punk’ of ‘Popscene’.

Yes it is one of the greatest ever pop songs but my memories of the video are vague. Was it the one where he dresses up as a 1940s footballer?

‘Red Dwarf’ (TELEVISION MEMORIES 8) “Smoke me a kipper; I’ll be back for breakfast” "Howdy-doodly-do, how's it going?" “Smmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeegggggggg” There is a new television channel that has been launched this week called ‘Dave’ and even though the channel has nothing to do with either ‘Super Dave’ or ‘Van Halen’, it will be featuring the adventures of a quite super ‘Dave’, the ‘Dave’ who uses the surname ‘Lister’. As a male focused entertainment channel that has advertising proclaiming it is ‘home of witty banter’, what better series to show than ‘Red Dwarf’, a sitcom that just happens to be situated in space. In fact I think the show was supposed to be more like a ‘traditional’ alternative sitcom than a science fiction programme, as like ‘Blackadder’ in the World War trenches and like the hopeless flatmates of ‘Bottom’ it was all about the comedy of confined spaces. As a child who was not interested in science fiction shows such as ‘Star Trek’ or ‘Dr. Who’, I had missed the first couple of episodes as I had misunderstood the concept and so was being ignorant to the show’s existence. It was only when somebody at school told me that here was a very funny comedy series rather than the new ‘Space: 1999’ that I took notice. I joined the show at the point after all the other crew had been wiped out and so the set up was more like a SF version of ‘Waiting For Godot’, than the show we know and love. I did not get to see the first couple of episodes till a few years later and I was slightly disappointed that the show had not opened with the fake suburban setting of a living room shown through a garden patio window, which was then revealed to be on the side of a mining ship in space. I enjoyed these early shows very much, but looking back I think was obvious that there were limitations to just focusing on the two characters of ‘Dave Lister’ and the obscenely named ‘Arnold Rimmer’; and so it was good that some of the secondary characters were developed. However, when I first saw the third series of the show, I remember thinking “what have they done to it” as the format had changed to being more like ‘the Young Ones’ in space, than to what it had been before (with Chris Barrie playing the Rik Mayall role, perhaps?). Looking back now, I think that series three was the beginning of a golden age for ‘Red Dwarf’. This was because the first series was not as funny as I remembered it and it was obvious that the show really needed the permanent character of ‘Kryten’ to make it work. Of course, there was still ‘Holly’, though ‘he’ had turned female at the start of the new series because Norman Lovett had gone off to do his own surreal sitcom (‘I Lovett’, I think), whilst Danny John Jules was still there doing his feline ‘Morris Day’ role, though thankfully when his character’s time was increased they did not make him as annoying as Chris Tucker’s ‘Rudy Rhod’. It is hard to pick the best episode from the Hattie Hayridge years, as the writers ‘Grant-Naylor’ managed to get the right mix of comedy, surrealism and science fiction within these shows. Some of my favourite parts included ‘Talkie Toaster’ and his bread related products, the one where ‘Kryten’ becomes human, the polymorph, Smmmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeegggggggg” and not forgetting any episode with the iconic duo of ‘Duane Dibbley’ and ‘Ace Rimmer’. It was a pity that ‘Red Dwarf’ went on beyond series six as the later episodes were not as funny. I think ‘Grant-Naylor’ should have taken a lead from ‘Fawlty Towers’ and quit whilst they were ahead. The later series felt more like a glossy American SF show than a comedy series and were probably developed with the American market in mind. I do not think it helped that there were a lot of problems and creative differences behind the scenes; as one writer wanted to make it even more comic and the other, more like a proper ‘Sci-Fi’ show. I cannot remember if it was Rob Grant or Doug Naylor, who left the partnership to do ‘The Strangerers’ on ‘Sky One’, but after seeing both subsequent shows it was obvious that they needed the creative skills of each other.

Between Kirsty MacColl and Billy Bragg’s versions of ‘New England’, what would be your verdict?

24. ‘Suede’ “We shake, shake, shake to the trumpet and through the slippery city we ride”. “We are the pigs, we are the swine” “She sells heart, she sells meat, oh dad she's driving me mad, come see” “There's a song playing on the radio, sky high in the airwaves on the morning show” ‘Suede’ came along at an important time in my life, the time when I was finishing my A-levels and was looking for a University place to go to. It was also the time when I was moving away from pop music and getting more into all the ‘student’ music styles, reading ‘Select Magazine’, ‘Melody Maker’ and the ‘NME’ regularly; and wanting to be part of the ‘alternative’ lifestyle. Prior to this point in time I had been unsure about ‘indie’ music, and actually had avoided buying any ‘Smiths’ albums because I thought I would be getting just a wail of unlistenable guitar noise on the tracks that were not the pop singles (on the other hand Morrissey was good because he was ‘EMI’). I think ‘Suede’ were the first ‘new Smiths’ of the 1990s and Brett Anderson had come to be the new messiah of indie-pop. This was mostly because all the ‘Madchester’ bands had either imploded or had become stadium rockers, and because the original messiah, Morrissey, had gone off with Mark E. Nevin and had developed into a kind of Northern ‘Madness’. I cannot remember where I first heard ‘The Drowners’ but it was one of those amazing records that ‘stops you dead’ in your tracks. I was listening to a lot of night-time ‘Radio One’ by that point and watching ‘the Chart Show’ religiously, so it is either of these that I have to thank for introducing me to this band. The next single ‘Metal Mickey’ was even better, even though I was at the age where I would not want it being associated with Mr. Dolenz’s long lost robot friend, as that was the 1980s that was my past. Actually, even though I was moving away from all my 1980s pop records and getting into bands like ‘Suede’ ‘the Auteurs’ and ‘Tindersticks’, there was one 1980s pop act that Brett Anderson managed to change my opinion about, but this time the act was not Morrissey, this time the act was David Bowie. Having grown up in the 1980s, I had loved all those ‘Twin White Duke’ hits such as ‘China Girl’ and ‘Let’s Dance’ as well as ‘critical disasters’ like ‘Time Will Crawl’, though I did not really know that much about his earlier records. Thanks to the glam styling of ‘Suede’ and the journalists who always mentioned ‘Ziggy Stardust’ around this time in connection to the band, I became more interested in David Bowie’s brilliant earlier works. However, even though ‘Suede’ had ‘resurrected’ Bowie’s career after the critical shame of the ‘Tin Machine’ years, the band would not have the equal respect that Bowie would command for rest of the 1990s, due to the events of 1994 and the emergence of ‘Britpop’. As a pre-‘Britpop’ glam indie band ‘Suede’ were the most amazing band, an act with no equals, critically adored and even though I loved what Luke Haines was doing it was obvious that he was not in the same league. Morrissey’s career had his own problems too, including declining record sales and those allegations of NF flirtation, though Morrissey solo had always been second best to ‘Morrissey and Marr’ in the eyes of the press. Similarly, as ‘Suede’ had been hyped up as ‘the new Smiths’, it was the ‘relationship’ between their ‘Morrissey and Marr’, the ‘Brett and Bernard’ partnership, that the press had focused on; and this is what had made the band the success it was. With Butler leaving in the midst of massive band arguments, and not forgetting to some amazing records with the vocalist from ‘Thieves’, ‘Suede’ were never the same again as some of the ‘magic’ seemed to have been lost. It also did not help that one of the most successful bands ever were to launch around this time and living not too far away in the suburbs of Manchester, it was a band that could not be ignored. Even though ‘Oasis’ were not really part of the baggy ‘Madchester’ scene (notwithstanding the ‘Inspirals’ link), ‘Blur’ were, and whereas once they were just an other dodgy ‘baggy’ band to rank alongside ‘the Poppy Factory’, ‘Top’ and ‘Candy Flip’ in the affections of the music press, it now turned out that ‘Blur’ were very good indeed, so good in fact that maybe they could become ‘the new Madness’ or ‘the new Kinks’. With the ‘Britpop’ of ‘Blur’ and ‘Oasis’, it seemed that ‘Suede’ had dropped down a level to join ‘the Charlatans’ as one of those bands that you always liked well enough to buy, but ones who seemed to be just under that premier division of ‘Britpop’. They were now one of those bands which always seemed to be around in the charts for a few weeks with each release rather than having the long-runners or major tabloid attention.

If you like the singles, you should listen to it as it is a brilliant album. I have recently found the album again after a few years and it has hardly been off from my CD player over the last two weeks, it is that amazing.

It is hard to decide on a preference because you can compare both artists in many different ways. You could compare their hit records or compare them because they are Scottish vocalists who work in similar vocal style, you could compare their former bands or as another way you could consider all the production work, guest slots and ‘Luaka Bop’, which might change the outcome again. I do not have a preference, I like both of them.

In what kind of way?

It is new to me as well. More than Manchester?

23. Billy Bragg “I was twenty one years when I wrote this song, I'm twenty two now, but I won't be for long. People ask when will you grow up to be a man but all the girls I loved at school are already pushing prams” “I've had relations with girls from many nations, I've made passes at women of all classes and just because you're gay I won't turn you away, If you stick around I'm sure that we can find some common ground” “A nuclear submarine sinks off the coast of Sweden; headlines give me headaches when I read them. I had an uncle who once played for ‘Red Star Belgrade’, he said some things are really left best unspoken but I prefer them all to be out in the open” “I don't want to change the world, I'm not looking for a new England, I’m just looking for another girl” “Shirley, it's quite exciting to be sleeping here in this new room, Shirley, you're my reason to get out of bed before noon” “Thinking back now, I suppose you were just stating your views, what was it all for? For the weather or the Battle of Agincourt and the times that we all hoped would last like a train they have gone by so fast and though we stood together at the edge of the platform we were not moved by them” To people of a certain age, the description of a guitarist with a large amp on his back, could only conjure up one pop star’s name, that of the one time ‘Bard of Barking’, Billy Bragg. Billy Bragg is one of Britain’s greatest folk-pop songwriters and maybe one of the most under-valued. I say under-valued, because even though he is an alternative music great, I guess that there will be still a lot of people who think that his vocals are ‘ham-fisted’ and a lot of people who, when hearing just him and his guitar, would think ‘What the hell is this?’. Looking back to when I was younger, it was a few years from when I first heard one of his records, as a track on my ‘Now That’s What I Call Music 8’ cassette, to his album called ‘Don’t Try This At Home’ when I realised what a great artist he was (though these were with singles recorded with a full band). In addition to this, I think it was also due to the fact that on the lead single from this album, Kirsty MacColl had popped up on backing vocals and Johnny Marr had been recruited on guitar, which was very interesting to me at the time. Actually a couple of years before then (and about a year after his ‘Childline’ Number One with ‘Wet Wet Wet’), Billy Bragg had released a brilliant soulful house record called ‘Won’t Talk About It’ with Norman Cook from ‘the Housemartins’. This record was an oddity as Bragg put on a falsetto and sounded more like Bryon Stingily from ‘Ten City’ than the ‘Bard of Barking’. The record had come about because both acts (Billy Bragg and ‘the Housemartins’) were on the one-time indie record label called ‘Go! Discs’ and this record was actually the first in the ‘Beats International’ project. The single was double A-side release with another cut featuring the rapper ‘MC Wildski’, and was also later re-recorded under Norman’s ‘Beats International’ name with the vocalists Lindy Layton and Lester. Whilst I am talking about re-recordings, I must again point out the brilliant cover of the Billy Bragg song ‘St. Swithin's Day’ by the mid 1990s indie-dance band ‘Dubstar’. In addition to what I have already stated about this track, may I just add that even though the record utilises a ‘Soul II Soul’ type of ‘shuffle beat’ and jangly indie guitars, Sarah Blackwood has this lovely ‘folk’ quality to her dictation that makes it such a lovely record. Some people may have one view of Billy Bragg, that of the ‘Red Wedge’ folk-pop protester and may have a defined thought of what a Billy Bragg record is. However, I hope that if these people were to listen to any compilation records of his, they would soon realise that he has recorded in a number of genres and written some of the most perfect pop songs ever. Songs such as ‘Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards’ and ‘Upfield’ are as ‘poptastic’ as anything that acts such as ‘Madness’ or ‘the Lightning Seeds’ have ever produced, and, in my opinion, these are records that do not need the iconic vocals of Kirsty MacColl to make them sound wonderful.

Does anyone else remember a record from this time called ‘Soap Singer’s Beat’? I think it was on ‘Epic Records’ by a band called the ‘Forget Me Nots’ and went: “All those records you release, same to me to me, all your jokes and all your TV, same to me to me, Soap Singer’s Beat, same again”

Do you prefer Roddy Frame, David Byrne, Paul Haig or Billy Mackenzie instead?

Do you like the album as well?