A wet tuesday night against Aldershot,the unforgettable sight of the lush carpet of green sparkling under the floodlights...

Deep in the heart of the Fratton End in my bottle green oxford bags,with the pockets just above the knees and two inch turnups,and my two-tone brouges from Ravel,as we hold the Arsenal in the FA Cup...

Feeling the full force of a Nicky Jennings volley straight into my face as he missed the target-and seeing it on Match Of The Day that night...

The collecting buckets that stood on the counters of every local shop S.O.S Pompey...

Buying a shirt in Milkins Sports....

The constant end of season battles for survival,that became part of the years natural cycle-Summer,Autumn,Winter,Spring,1-0 in the last game and staying up....

Harry Redknap...
Paul Merson...
The Premier League...
The FA Cup...
Europe...
Pompey 2-2 AC Milan
Bottom of the Premier League..
No wins in eight games-nuil point...
No wages for the players...

Still-we might nick a point at Wolves tomorrow........

 Do You Believe In Art -Rough notes

The Times-Hello Europe (Artpop ART 17) 1984

Hello Europe is the Black Sheep of the The Times canon. Although it appeared on a Revola CD as a 2for1(with This Is London) back in the early 90's it is conspicuous by its absence in the recent Artpop reissues available via Cherry Red.

Ed was once reported as saying(find original article) that Hello Europe managed to alienate most of the Times fanbase on its release...

And yet...

And yet...

And yet...

Whilst Hello Europe is not a long lost classic it is an important album. Without it I wonder whether Ed could have made Enjoy,with its drum machine,samples and general funkiness. What Hello Europe is, is the album that allowed Ed Ball to step away from the Mod-Punk that had characterised the Times sound from the (Teenage Filmstars) Patrick McGoohan / Dangerman through Pop Goes Art to the bitter-sweet beat that was This Is London. The Swinging 60's is replaced by something that at times veers close to David Bowies' “plastic soul” phase circa Young Americans.

Leaving aside the 2 singles(Blue Fire & Boys Brigade) the record has a feel that was so out of sync with the shambling lo-fi of the bands that were dominating the scene such as The Pastels that it might as well have come from another planet.

“Public Reaction Killed This Cat” features samples from JFK,John Lydon, and many more(full list in EB's Myspace blog),a good couple of years before indie-journey men such as PWEI swapped guitars for samplers.

The one song that gets me every-time though is “Things We've Learnt”.With its laid-back ,slightly cocktail lounge jazz vibe, every-time I hear it for some reason I am transported back to summer 1976 and the sounds of, not punk, but Deaf School. I don't know whether its just the feel of the smooth backing voice of Joni Dee or what but this could have come straight off of “2nd Honeymoon”.Deaf Schools debut album.

The next album would be Enjoy- modfunkaction, and more fans driven away, but thats a small loss when you accept that Hello Europe & Enjoy allowed Ed to develop as a songwriter/arranger and would eventually lead to the wonderful Catholic Guilt.

(Rough notes just for my benefit really-but thought I'd post them as haven't blogged much recently)

Do You Believe In Art?

The life & grime of Ed Ball,Dan Treacy,Joe Foster,John Bennett and Gerald Bennett............

With special guests Swell Maps,The Pastels,Direct Hits...........

And featuring a cast of Dozens........

Put it on your Christmas List for 2010

Do You Believe In Art??

 

WELL ? DO YOU?

 

x

 

I am Happy today....my daughter Daisy-Mae became a teenager!! Up at 6.30, by 7.00 she had plugged in her pressie from Fi and me-7.01 and the neighbours were awake!

Well, as she got a drum kit for her 10th what would you expect her to want for her 13th- of course she was going to ask for a guitar wasn’t she? I see many joyous evenings ahead as I show her the 3 chords that I know and then she shows me up by knowing more!

Happy Birthday Baby.

 

Am Sad today as well-its the anniversary of the passing of Nikki Sudden. As I’ve written elsewhere Nikki and me became friends at the start of the 80’s ,a friendship that, in spite of a few gaps where we didn’t see each other lasted up until his death. The last message I had from him was a request for copies of the pictures I took of him at The Living Room for his autobiography.He turned me on to music that I hadn’t really listened to before and was always great fun to be around.

RIP Nikki and give my love to Epic too.

xx

Steve & my first gig as SEQUIN JUNKIES is available as a free download via the link below:

http://www.somefoolwitha.com/2008/01/08/the-autons-21-12-7/

 

It took place at the Fawcett Inn,Southsea on 21/12/07-it plays as one long track by the way!

Paul

for the last 2 weeks I've been listening to the new babyshambles l.p(shotters nation). (you can track it down on the the net if you look closely).

If you put aside all the junkie pete/model shagging pete/nicked again pete tabloid fodder crap and just listen to his songs then you will be pleasently rewarded. The album is great,much better than down in albion.The firstr single Delivery looks set to go top 10 at the weekend(its mid-week is no 7).

x

this is just another blog for Groovy Black Shades-got some neat videos nicked from You Tube on it so far,along with the player from the Pop Art Experience profile.

http://groovyblackshades.blogspot.com/

x

hello again my little darllings. So what delights did I listen to on my way to work today? Well.....last night I was about to start transfering all the cassettes of PopArt Experience gigs/rehearsal etc onto my computer before the tapes rot away and are unplayable. I got a little distracted however by the pile of DIRECT TAPES that were in the box. Direct was a cassette only label run by Dianne on behalf of the Direct Hits.They put out a lot of stuff by them as well as a Mood Six one called "Mary Quant Can't Help You Now",and a series of comps entitled the Great British Beat( Inc The Mixers,TVPs and others).A lot of the bands seemed to be various permutations of the Direct Hits and friends,

Anyway I copied the very first one "Direct Hits-Demo Tape" onto my player for the walk in. It was sent out to fanzines etc around the time that Whaam! released their Modesty Blaise single,and the songs all ended up on the Whaam! l.p "Blow Up".

I had forgotten how good the Direct Hits were I have to say-they were a pretty neat Beatles/mod influenced beat group with a great line in harmonies. For some reason Alan McGee didn't like them! I did a google on them just now and it seenms that there all their stuff is deleted,and I spent 1/2 hour looking for any free downloads to no avail. This is a travesty!!! Some one out there with a label should have the good sense and taste to make the Hits available again.

Probably not going to happen so I'll just have to carrying on copying the tapes!

peace out

x

2 in 2 days....shame theres nothing worth reading in 'em though.Still thats the nature of blogs ....wade through lots of crap and then you come across a diamond. No diamonds today though,unless you count the BRAVE CAPTAIN-distractions lp that I was listening to on my way in this morning.Now that is a diamond and you should seek it out straight away. You can download it for free at www.bravecaptain.com. and you should,oh yes you really should.

Pompey won last night-3-0 against Leeds...was worried we might do a sunderland and crash out in the early rounds,but arrys army live to lose another day.

Til next time my little droogies,

Later.........

I haven't written anything thing on here for ages have I? No wonder no-one visits me anymore.What a sad git I have been reduced to.

Today I am mostly listening (to/from work-its a 25 min walk each way-keps me fit,saves on bus fares) to the god-like genius that is Edward Ball and his classy E FOR EDWARD l.p.  from manchester to sold via Haight st......... just what I need at 7.30 walking through the underpass.

Last Friday it was the mighty No-Mens version of Jowe Heads Pincer Movement. You can get it for free at www.topplers.net

 

have a nice day kiddie-winks Be seeing You

This is from the pop art experience blog,but just in case any of you missed it.....and fancy doing a version for the album?

The tracks are still up in spite of what it says,and they'll be up for another couple of weeks at least if you want to download them.

paul

x

 

D.I.Y ANDY

Ok folks heres your chance to do a version of ANDY WATCH OUT!,and maybe get it included on the forthcoming criminalrecordz download-only album "Whole Lotta Andy" which is due next Feb.

On the player are a guitar-only track,a vocal-only track,and a previously unreleased studio version,as well as one of the THREE great YAMASAKI remixes that are already in the running-order.

All you have to do is to do your own version of Andy.You can do a cover of it in any style that you want or you can sample it and make it something new...in short you can do want you want with it!!!

The tracks will stay up until until Xmas Day so you've got 2 weeks to download them.In Jan I will let you know where to send your finished versions.

Good Luck and I can't wait to hear 'em

 

Groovy

x

www.myspace.com/paulgroovyandthepopartexperience

First up congrats to all the Chelsea fans amonst you-Premiership Champions AGAIN!Nice one.

However the real success story has to be the events that took place at the bottom.....In March Portsmouth FC were 8 points adrift of safety and looking doomed to returning to the Championship.Yet on Saturday Harry Rednapp(to be refered to for evermore as Harry Houdini) and the Pompey TEAM beat Wigan and ensured another season in the top flight.AND WITH A GAME TO GO.On that form(20 points from 27) we would be looking at Europe!!

Tough luck to Birmingham and West Brom but hey..... we are staying up,we are staying up!!!!!!

Next season its Chelsea,Liverpool Man U and the rest rather than our friends up the road....

MESSTHETICS GREATEST HITS #100(Hyped2death)

Got this in the post this morning.22 tracks by 21 uk bands recorded between 1977 & 1980.This is the sound of the real independents-NOT "indie".This is the punk rock you never heard on the radio(outside of the Peel show anyway),in fact this stuff was probably never heard outside the towns the bands were from!

You want "relevence" to today?Well there's O Level's "We Love Malcolm",and the ridiculously rare "Sus" by Reacta,-featuring the talents of Mr Edward Ball and the Bennett brothers,John & Gerard.These three recently re-united their old school friend Dan Treacy to record the new TV Personalities l.p "My Dark Places"(out now on Domino).

You want humble beginnings of the stars?Then check out Danny & The Dressmakers stupidly catchy "Don't make another bass guitar,Mr.Rickenbacker".Lead Dressmaker Graham Massey formed 808 State and produced Bjork!

This cd  is the sound of what happened when the cultural tidal wave of the Sex Pistols,Clash et al washed over the country-the rules that governed music were washed away.Mark P's call to arms of "Heres 3 chords-now form a band" came to life here.(Mind you a lot of these bands never bothered with 3 when 1 or 2 would do!).With the Desperate Bicycles cry of "It was easy,it was cheap,go do it" ringing in their ears these bands picked up whatever instruments they could get their hands on and DID IT!

Speaking of instruments,how many people do you know with a drum kit?Think back to 1977 and the number would've been even less...but that didn't,couldn't,wouldn't stop these groups-no kit?then improvise-waste bins,boxes,whatever came to hand was utilised,even buttered toast was credited on one record!

And although this stuff is now consigned to  the margins of the punk rock history books,its influences still reverberate today-go and check out Glasgow's The No-men if you don't believe me,and some of the tracks on the the TVP's My Dark Places l.p as well.

Frighteningly this cd is just the tip of the ice-berg,ccovering the bands who managed to put out their own records.Just wait til Hyped2death start releasing the bands who only recorded diy cassettes!Is it finally time for a The Night The Goldfish Died revival?

This cd is available from www.hyped2death.com

You can hear "SUS" by Reacta on my profile page.You'll also find links to myspace pages for O Level,Reacta and the TV Personalities.