Mr. Mondo

I have noticed that ‘Big Country’ have reformed for a gig in Manchester in October. Does anyone have any more information about them now, whether the band has all the surviving original members in the line up and whether there is a new album that is going to be released this year. Thank you.

Yes, both were great.

‘Smash Hits’, ‘Record Mirror’, ‘Melody Maker’ and ‘Number One’ features of the 1980s and early 1990s. What Colour is Thursday? Earlier today I was reading the paper when I glanced at the entertainment listings and noticed that the great Scottish rock band ‘Big Country’ had reformed for a gig in Manchester. A few years ago I may have been very surprised by this, but coming after tours by ‘INXS’, ‘Crowded House’ and ‘Deacon Blue’ I guess this must be the norm. Now, whereby I always found it easy to remember the members of these bands, especially members who had names such as Garry ‘Gary’ Beers or Bruce Watson, I do not ever think I took much notice of what the drummer out of Big Country was actually called, because my friends and I always use his ‘Smash Hits’ name whenever we would talk about the band. Whilst his real name is something like ‘Mark Brezecki’, to ‘Smash Hits’ readers growing up I the 1980s he will be always remembered under the alternative nom de plume of ‘Mark Unpronounceablename’, to which I should now add the words “he’s back, Back, BACK!”. It is because ‘Smash Hits’ magazine invented a whole different lexicon to refer to the stars of the day and it is these names that you remind yourself of, every time you reach for a CD of that era’s artists. A great proportion of these names lampooned the stars of a previous pop generation who still had continued success in the 1980s from the decade before and so you had references to Dame David Bowie and Paul ‘Wacky Thumbs Aloft’ McCartney. In addition to this, newer stars would have their own ‘Smash Hits’ name, with deputy editor Neil Tennant coming up with a good few names such as the one for an already re-named punk icon formally known as a Mr. Broad (‘Sir William of Idol’, also later referred to as Sir ‘Billiam’ of Idol), whilst also popularising the expression “Pur-lease”. In addition to this lampooning of these stars’ names, running jokes and trivia based on a shared pop knowledge would be inserted, as and when, into the magazine’s features and reviews. An article about the ‘soulful pop’ singer, ‘Stock Aiken Waterman’ protégé and tea-boy Rick Astley (‘Dick Spratsley’) would normally warrant a mention of his infamous song ‘Ruddy Big Pig’ or the fact that he once made a teapot based on a ‘Steve Hillage & Gong’ album cover. Craig Logan from ‘Bros’ was another artist who was singled out and was always referred to as ‘Ken’ throughout his chart career, due to the fact he was not one of the ‘Goss Twins’. In light of this, and considering his subsequent departure plus the fact that references to him were omitted on Matt and Luke’s ‘best of’, it was quite ironic to see that in the years that followed it was ‘Ken’ who became the most successful member of ‘Bros’ in the music industry. As this was all very light-hearted and not taken in a vicious way, I cannot remember any fans becoming overly upset by these portrayals of their favourite pop stars. In fact, I remember most of the readers would carry over these ‘terms’ into their own letters, because I guess to ignore them would mean that they would be seen as being outside this special pop ‘clique’. Also I remember that the letters pages in these magazines were never ‘edited’ by a named production member but always by a ‘special character’ whose job was to only focus on that page. If my memory is correct, I think it was ‘Snabber the Dog’ who edited the letters page in ‘Number One’ magazine whilst ‘Black Type’ was in ‘Smash Hits’, though I’m not sure if it is not the other way around. In addition to the letters page, there would be many competitions for the readers to enter each week (or each fortnight). In ‘Smash Hits’, and especially in the ‘Bitz’ section at the start, it would be the customary to end each competition with the request for the answers to be submitted on a randomly chosen inanimate object rather than the usual sealed down envelope. Over at the weekly ‘inkies’, the tone would be more serious than ‘Smash Hits’ to compensate for the slightly older student readership, though even here there would be time for some flippant remarks too. I think it was ‘Mr. Agreeable’ in ‘Melody Maker’ and ‘Thrills’ in the ‘NME’, which would be the pages to read if you wanted to escape the rock criticism for a more light-hearted view, though I would like to remember which paper had the weekly ‘true facts’ box that had made up comedy ‘truths’ that became more bizarre as the weeks progressed. I do not think the feature was printed in ‘Record Mirror’, not because that magazine was too busy printing the charts and analysing the latest 130bpm dance-floor ‘chugger’ from Italy, but because this magazine had ‘Phil’s World Of Wigs’. ‘Phil’s World Of Wigs’ would feature a ‘cut- out’ head shot photo of Phil Collins and each week a new ridiculous hairstyle would be placed upon his head, in order to cause much mirth in the ‘anti-Genesis’ indie-dance loving readership. Along similar lines, another humorous photo feature would show that week’s line up of ‘the Stone Roses’. Starting with a standard picture of the band, a new photo would be added to represent a new member until the ‘act’ had more than 30 random members including ‘Red the Fraggle’, ‘Capt. Mainwaring’ of ‘Dad’s Army’ and the alien from ‘Mac & Me’. The fact that these photos were all made up of ‘people’ gurning would be the point of the joke at the time, whilst thinking about the subsequent late period line up changes of the band now adds a further layer to the memory of this feature. Whilst ‘Record Mirror’ and the ‘inkies’ would sometimes get the cover spectacularly wrong by proclaiming a ‘Nasty Rox Inc.’ or a ‘Romo’ band as the next big thing, ‘Smash Hits’ normally played it safe by featuring chart stars like ‘Kylie’ or ‘NKOTB’ on the cover, whilst ‘Number One’ managed to have an article about ‘NKOTB’ every week until the magazine was closed by the BBC. I think the only time ‘Smash Hits’ ever got it wrong with a new act was when they put Matt Fretton on the cover, however at this point I am not sure whether the late 1980s band called ‘Perfect Day’ were also cover stars too. To reach the cover, pop bands would be already be a hit maker or would have built up a large following on the ‘Poll Winner’s Tour’ whilst Number One’s ‘Chart Breakers’ (or ‘88 for 1988’ lists) would be where to see the likes of ‘Seven’ and ‘Kiss Like This’ for the first time. Around 1993 ‘Smash Hits’ changed track and for a while started to put soap stars such as Dieter Brummer on the cover. Before then I think the only time the cover was given over to TV stars was with ‘the Young Ones’, but even this was to support their record release, whilst a few issues later ‘Sexy Ade Edmondson’ turned up to ‘murder’ Howard Jones on the cover. What other features were there, what other covers can be remembered and ‘What Colour was Thursday?’

I did not mind ‘East Side Beat’, but I found ‘Undercover’ annoying.

25 YEARS OF RECORD COLLECTING: MUSICAL MEMORIES 1982 - 2007 7. Twenty 4 Seven “Twenty 4 Seven kick it one time, so Jacks man what you dreaming of, cars money girls, well you gotta think about the world’ Being a multi-national dance front for ‘shadowy’ Dutch producers, Twenty 4 Seven originally hit the Euro charts with the combined talents of ‘Jacks’, ‘Hanks’, Tony ‘Captain Hollywood’ Harrison and Dutch blonde beauty Nance ‘Nancy’ Coolen appearing as the ‘band’. ‘Twenty 4 Seven’ were the type of dance act that would be more likely to be found starring in the pages of all the pan-European teen magazines or doing a PA at ‘Mr Smiths’, than being the headliner at any DJ festival in Ibiza, whilst they were also one of the first acts to be shown on Channel 4’s early morning ‘live in concert’ dance show ‘Dance Daze’. Even though the show was recorded at the Brixton Academy and was presented as ‘live’, the show was actually nearer in style to that of ‘CD:uk’ and featured acts miming to a number of hits that were then spread over a number of programmes. On the show ‘Twenty 4 Seven’ were also shown backstage in a number of pre-recorded interview segments that were then spliced between the main on-stage performances. ‘Twenty 4 Seven’ hit the UK charts with ‘I Can’t Stand It’ and ‘Are You Dreaming’, whilst an album containing these hits followed not so long afterwards on the BCM label. ‘Twenty 4 Seven’ were a typical early 1990s Europop/Eurodance group and evolved in a similar way to that of Logic’s ‘Snap!’ and Media’s ‘Cappella’, so that members were easily replaced and the line up frequently changed. The first major change to the line up was when Tony Harrison left to form his own equally successful ‘Captain Hollywood Project’. In fact it was the success of the ‘Captain Hollywood Project’ with songs such as ‘More and More’ as well as successes by ‘The Real McCoy’, ‘Culture Beat’, ‘C.B. Milton’ and the reinvigorated ‘Cappella’ meant that ‘Twenty 4 Seven’ now seemed like another production outfit with a male rapper/female vocalist trying to hit the UK charts with their pop-dance tunes. Whilst the United Kingdom stayed uninterested, the outfit continued to release a number of hit albums throughout the 1990s in mainland Europe. From that 1990 incarnation, Nance stayed around for a number of years on vocals before she too departed to solo stardom and a career presenting shows on Dutch TV, whilst her replacement appeared on the last album with rapper Stay-C.

‘Midnight Cowboy’ is great. I think it was ‘Fortran 5’ (or maybe ‘The Aloof’) that sampled that classic John Barry theme and made another great record to follow their Sid James one, whilst I think ‘Faith No More’ also did a cover of the tune as a B-side to one of their singles.

‘Cut’ was like a Scottish ‘Q Magazine’ in that it was all about ‘intelligent adult pop and rock music’, whilst ‘ReVVolution’ was that massive magazine that Jonathan King produced that always featured disturbing caricatures of pop stars on the cover and had the Top 100 in the centre pages.

I do not remember this band, but I remember ‘Pseudo Echo’. They were like a forerunner to ‘Indecent Obsession’.

Yes, it was wonderful and very funny.

Did you get the other magazines?

Do you remember the early ‘Now Dance’ music albums from the pre-‘Acid House’ music era (circa 1985 and 1986)? When ‘club’ tracks were either soul and funk ‘Weekender’ tracks or extended pop remixes which involved a lengthy repetitious drum beat being inserted into the middle of a three minute pop-rock song? I was looking at a tape from the mid 1980s a few days ago and that was of a similar concept, being mostly extended mixes of records by ‘Sly Fox’ and ‘The Power Station’. Actually that alternative ‘BBG’ name you have provided has just reminded me of Garry ‘Gary’ Beers. I know most people will say that the nearest ‘INXS’ has got to being a ‘club music’ group is if they are seen as a Funky-pub rock band, but it is not too much of a diversion from the topic as their works have been endlessly remixed. There was a great trance record at the start of the 00s by ‘Tall Paul’, which sampled the iconic ‘Never Tear Us Apart’ and another remix of the stunning ‘Just Keep Walking’. Do you remember these records? I think ‘Just Keep Walking’ was remixed by an Italian group who were called either ‘Party Funk’ or ‘Partizan’, though it may have been ‘Planet Funk’, even though I remember that group working more with ‘Simple Minds’ at the time. Talking of Italian groups, I think it was an Italian group that’ KWS’ ripped off for their number one ‘KC’ cover. I think the band who did it originally was ‘Double You?’ on a German label called ‘ZYX Records’. I think ‘KWS’ were on ‘Network Records’, who should have known better than to lower ‘themselves’ to this level. That cash-in rates as a ‘big black mark’ against that independent dance label, especially after their involvement with ‘Nexus 21’ (‘Altern8’), ‘Six6 Records’ and ‘Kevin Saunderson’. As there was a lot of that type of thing going on in dance music around that time I suppose you cannot completely blame them for wanting an easy hit. However, can anybody remember who released a version of ‘This Beat Is Technotronic’ and replaced ‘MC Eric Me One’ with a female rapper, so that the record sounded like it had ‘Ya Kid K / Felly’ on vocals.

I do not know that magazine. Is it a new publication with classic chart reprints or was it out around the same time as ‘Record Mirror’, ‘Cut’ and ‘ReVVolution’.

I would guess it is only as obscure as ‘Green Wing’ would be in Twenty years time. For all its anarchic spirit it could be regarded as the Australian ‘Young Ones’

I would not say ‘misguided’ as I thought it was a good pop record and one that should be respected as much as ‘Pet Shop Boys’ ‘Left To My Own Devices’ or ‘I Want A Dog’. I think that record is a great track and I still get out the ‘Indie hits’ album to play it regularly. I suppose some people may have a different view of that record if they are looking back throughout history and considering all the great chart hits they released in the early 1990s, instead of than arriving at that same point in time from the ‘SAW’ produced ‘Brilliant’ album. Maybe ‘Kylie Said To Jason’ would have made more sense in the context of their film, but unlike ‘It Couldn’t Happen Here’ I doubt that we will ever see it released commercially. Like ‘The Timelords’ and ‘The K Foundation’ I regard that record as another interesting diversion that ‘the JAMMS’ took in their career. I never got round to buying their ‘ambient house’ ‘chill out’ record, nor did I manage to get a copy of the ‘Space’ album, though I guess I would have liked it as I liked ‘the Orb’ very much. I suppose while we are on the subject of ‘WAU! Mr Modo’ / ‘Big Life Records’ / Youth, I wonder if everybody liked ‘Blue Pearl’. Wasn’t the singer called something like ‘Durga McBroom’? I remember we always thought that she sounded like she should have been a character in ‘Supergran’ with the ‘Scunner Campbell.’ I loved their ‘cover’ of ‘Playing With Knives’ (‘Can You Feel The Passion’) though I guess this would probably be seen as one of those ‘mash-up’ records now where you put a vocal over another tune. I think one of their records is on ‘Now Dance 902’. I had that album out of my collection as I wanted to listen to ‘Snappiness’ by ‘BBG’ over the weekend. Can anyone remember what ‘BBG’ stood for? Are they named after the Style Council’s ‘Big Boss Groove’ or was it something like GGM: ‘Groove Groove Melody’.

‘The Pale’ are a trio that released the singles ‘Shut Up Jesus’ and ‘Dogs with No Tales’ on ‘A&M Records’ in the early 1990s. I think it was in about 1992 or at least it was about the same time that ‘Cud’ was popular. They were slightly ‘Balkan’ sounding and used mandolins in their spiky indie-pop, and I think they, like ‘The Frank & Walters’, are still going today in Ireland.

‘The Shamen’ and ‘The KLF’ were also seen as quite ‘alternative’ at one point and so find their way onto my great ‘Beechwood Music’ Indie Top 20 hits compilation ('Volume 8'). They are on there alongside such great acts like ‘The Fatima Mansions’, ‘The Field Mice’, ‘The Kitchens Of Distinction’ and ‘Depeche Mode’. However the tracks on this album are ‘Omega Amigo’ and ‘Kylie Said To Jason’, both tracks of which missed the charts but I think you might know them as both tracks, I think, made it onto the old ‘Snub TV’ video compilations alongside 'Momus'.

TELEVISION MEMORIES 3: Cult Comedy – ‘Let The Blood Run Free’ ‘Let The Blood Run Free’ was an early 1990s comedy show on Channel 4 written and performed by an Australian comedy collective known as ‘the Blood Group’. This show was set in a run down hospital and spoofed the mannerisms of popular Australian soaps such as ‘The Sullivans’, ‘The Number 96’ and the infamous ‘Prisoner: Cell Block H’, as well as film melodramas from the 1940s onwards. It was surreal, it was demented, and it was the best thing on at half past one in the morning. In fact, the show was originally broadcast in Channel 4’s popular post-watershed Friday night evening comedy slot, before being moved half way through the transmission run in a ‘post-pub’ slot anytime from midnight onwards on any day of the week. As these were the days before the advent of the digital channels, with their schedules of almost wall-to-wall repeats, as well as easy ‘red-button record technology’, it was necessary to keep a close eye on your copy of the ‘TV Times’ to see when the next episode was to be broadcast just in case you missed it. I was an avid viewer and managed to record most of the episodes in a continuous thread on to my VHS tapes (I still have these tapes alongside compilations of ‘Spitting Image’, ‘Drop The Dead Donkey’ and ‘Bottom’). As the show was formatted to run as a serial like all the ‘soap operas’ it spoofed, it was necessary to try and get all the episodes recorded in order just in case you missed some of the random chaos that would appear in that week’s episode and because the show was largely improvised, this could be anything. The storylines were O.T.T. and you never knew what was going to happen to the characters of ‘Effie, ‘Matron Dorothy Conniving-b**ch’, ‘Nurse Pam Sandwich’, ‘Dr. Ray Good’ and the Janitor, ‘Warren Conkshonk’ from week to week. Characters got married and then next week got married again, whilst other characters got run over and came back from the dead in true ‘Harold Bishop – Bobby Ewing’ fashion and at least one character turned into a true ‘Hammer Horror Beastie’ though I cannot remember if it was ‘Warren’ into a werewolf or ‘Matron’ into a vampire. Whatever the storyline may have been and however ridiculous the storyline became, each episode would lead up to a ‘cliff-hanger’ of true ‘soap’ ideals. With this ‘cliff-hanger’, I think that if you lived in Australia you could also vote to influence the outcome that will provide the storyline of next weeks show, in a way similar to what C4 is going to do with their new interactive ‘Dubplate Drama’. I loved this show and was mystified to why they made only a couple of series, even though some of the cast are now involved with shows such as ‘Kath & Kim’, and other shows like ‘Green Wing’ and ‘Scrubs’ exist to fill the void. However, if you like these shows, are a fan of ‘Bottom’ and ‘The Young Ones’ or are a fan of Australian comedy from ‘The Castle’ and ‘The Boys from The Bush’ to Paul Hogan’s early shows, this is definitely a show to discover, if you haven’t already.

They were one of my favourite acts at the time, so much so that we recorded and released a reply to ‘It’s Grim Up North’. I actually went to their evening where they showed everybody the film that ‘Gimpo’ filmed of them burning a million pounds. They did not say why they burned it, that is to only be found written on a note inside a ‘Datsun’ that they pushed off a cliff and also would not sign any records (only money). However ‘Gimpo’ managed to sign my rare white label vinyl copy of ‘America: What Time Is Love’ and they were decent enough to go to the pub with everybody afterwards.

OK. So its acts with one ‘Gallup’ Top 30 hit in the 1980s we are looking for, rather than a Top 75? Well I suppose Greedy Smith, Reg Mombassa and the boys of ‘Mental As Anything’ count here. However I think that ‘He’s Just No Good For You’ is a much better single. Unfortunately it did not have the promotion here that ‘Live It Up’ had, of being featured in one of the biggest Australian films ever: ‘Crocodile Dundee’. You might remember the video for ‘He’s Just No Good For You’ on ‘the Chart Show’, of them walking down the street singing the song. You might also remember or actually own some of Reg Mombassa’s colourful ‘Mambo’ shirts. I know that I’ve actually got a few hidden away somewhere in my wardrobe. “Don't you get this feeling that you've done this kind of thing before, you've been kicked in the teeth and now you're coming' back for more, come on with me, get out of the mess you're in”

No, they may not be an alternative band, but they are a good band nevertheless. Some cracking singles on their ‘best of’ and a decent cover of ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ too. Do you like a lot of North American bands like this? Are you a fan of ‘the Spin Doctors’ as well? I always thought that people were always incredibly cruel about them. I think it was because Chris Barron’s beard grew so much that he looked like he was part ‘Worzel Gummidge’ part ‘Catweazle’. They too had some great singles like “What Time is it (4:30, it’s not late, it’s early)”, ‘Cleopatra’s Cat’ and ‘Jimmy Olsen’s Blues’ ( “…I Got a pocketful of kryptonite” ). However I do not think any band like these could be as successful as ‘Phish’. Their fans are legendary and very much obsessed by them.

Alison Moyet is a great artist.

‘Great Songs Missing from iTunes’ In ‘HMV’ recently I noticed that ‘Scottish Media Holdings’ had re-issued the first ‘Love and Money’ album onto CD, which was quite bizarre seeing as the racks did not seem to include any issues of the excellent ‘Strange Kind Of Love’ or ‘Dogs In The Traffic’ albums. However this got me wondering... I was wondering if whether these albums had been re-issued, if they would be available to download from ‘iTunes’ or would they have to be re-issued first on CD by ‘Universal’ before being available. Since ‘current wisdom’ seems to say that all the big record store groups are now in trouble because everybody can get all the albums and songs they want from downloading on the internet, I was wondering what great records from rock past (albums and singles) are still missing from the ‘iTunes’ database. What has everybody tried to look for and what is still missing?

Where is the data from?

There used to be an old dusty newsagent that was situated just a few stores down from ‘Liptons’ in the village where used to live. It was the kind that sold toys, random ‘brick-a-brack’ and almost every kind of sweet in those large jars stacked at the back where cigarettes would now be kept. The store would be also be where I would stock up on 7 inches, as all the ex-chart releases would end up in a twirling display rack at very cheap prices. I think all these records may have been for the purposes of jukeboxes or mobile DJ units, as all had to have that special black adaptor squeezed into the middle to make up for the fact that the record had an extra large hole. After that I remember that I used to go to ‘Woolworths’ in Altrincham quite regularly. These were the days when you could always find something interesting in their ‘bargain bin’ and a 7 inch single might end up being discounted to 10p (for example, my ‘Oakland Stroke’ single by ‘Tony! Toni! Toné’). In addition to being the place to find loads of great records cheap, the lady behind the counter would always save me the ‘Gallup’ charts run-down display from each week, which I would then take home to stick back together as one page of 1980s ‘Music Week’. Another great record store to go looking for discounted stuff was ‘Powercuts’ in Manchester. This store was in the basement of an old mill just set back from ‘Oxford Road’ not far up the road from the ‘Cornerhouse’ cinema. This store was great as you could buy loads of American imports for 29p on vinyl and 49p on CD. You knew they were American imports as all the CDs came in those large cardboard boxes, about twice the height of the regular CD cases that wasted a lot of packaging in the early 1990s. All the records had a ‘click’ missing from the covers, but that did not bother you when you were buying so cheaply.

I can not remember ‘Hey DJ’ being seen as that ‘cheesy’ back in the day as ‘MC Betty Boop’ was originally from quite a respected rap group along the lines of the ‘London Posse’ and the ‘Definition Of Sound’. However I guess that most of records that ‘the Beatmasters’ ‘re-moulded’ into chart successes for ‘the Shamen’ would also be seen as ‘cheese’ by the younger generation rather than the brilliant indie-dance creations that we thought back then.