Mayo Thompson's back ..

If you've seen The Historical Romance, the effervescent eighth issue of Your Heart Out (which can be downloaded free here), you'll know that one of the stars of the show was Mayo Thompson.

Starting with first hearing the Red Krayola do Hurricane Fighter Plane when Radar reissued the early Texas psychedelic/punk records in 1978, tracing Mayo's re-emergence at the height of the punk explosion in London, his close involvement with Rough Trade related activities, via his recordings/productions with the reignited Red Krayola, plus Raincoats, Essential Logic, Blue Orchids and so on, his contribution has been immensely invaluable. Drag City did a great job recently of salvaging a lot of the Red Krayola records from that era, and certainly the singles collection and Kangaroo are essential to say the least.

It's easy to forget Mayo was also closely involved with Pere Ubu during that time too, playing on The Art of Walking and Songs of the Bailing Man. These are fantastic records. very odd records, but fantastic nevertheless. I still don't think the world's caught up with them yet. And this performance of Birdies shows how out on their own they were. Looking at the group I'm reminded of a line by The Fall: "You don't have to be strange to be strange ..." And you get a good view of Mayo Thompson's back ...

Cry for a man ...

On a day when we've lost the Seeds' Sky Saxon and Michael Jackson it seems appropriate to think of the Jasmine Minks. If you've read the elegiac eighth issue of Your Heart Out, The Historical Romance (check out our library on your left ... always on the left) you'll have seen reference to the immense influence that '60s US garage punks had on young kids in the mid-'80s. In many ways it was the unifying factor for so many groups, fanzines, clubs etc.

The Primals/Pastels crowd up in Glasgow ran for a while in '85ish a club called Splash One, where a psychedelic punk rock disco was billed. I remember going to see the Jasmine Minks there. I remember seeing the June Brides at the Pindar of Wakefield in Kings Cross then travelling up with the Jasmines the next day. It was in Glasgow that I first heard them play Cry For A Man, with Derek's memorable trumpet part, and it was incredibly moving. I'm not sure everyone realised that this punk/soul blast was the way the world should be going, but hey ho.

The Jasmines used to do a fantastic live version of In The Past, the old We The People/Chocolate Watch band number. A lot of groups had their '60s punk cover. The Wolfhounds did Mr Pharmacist I think until The Fall released their version, and The Mary Chain did the Standells' Barracuda.

Ah but there were detractors accusing us of rather being anywhere else but the here and now (guilty) and why not do something modern like all the electronic groups. Hmm. I remember Adam from the Jasmines trying to describe the Mary Chain before anyone had really seen them and then they were the ones starstruck at seeing the singer from the June Brides. Anyway Adam said the Mary Chain were like the Cabs doing Nag Nag Nag. Pure punk rock. Like these old garage punk fans cranking out an old Seeds cover. Yeah! We're all punk rockers at heart. Take it boys ...

Branching out ...

As a bit of fun there's now a companion site to Your Heart Out which is dedicated to songs about London. There's a lot of fun to be had on the 'net with sites jam-packed with London-related photos, so it seemed like a good idea to have a bit of musical accompaniment. Not sure if anyone else has done this, but they certainly won't have picked the same songs ...

The idea is to avoid the blindingly obvious choices. And of course only to highlight songs that are worth hearing (subjective I know but hey ...). And they can be London songs in a very explicit way, or in a more oblique sense. The first post is a good example of a song that is indirectly about London life, so head on over to the new site at http://www.thelondonnobodysings.blogspot.com/ and have some fun.

Hopefully there will be regular updates which will build into a wonderful compendium of songs about London. And if you have any suggestions then please do share them ...

Summer's got me feeling ...

I heard on my favourite radio show (Russell Davies' Songbook, Sunday evenings on BBC Radio 2) that the arranger/songwriter Billy Ver Planck had passed away. It's a name I first came across via his arangements on Lydia Lunch's Queen of Siam LP on Ze in the summer of 1980. That record seemed impossibly mysterious and glamorous, and arguably it started me out down the irredeemably romantic and un-rocky road to listening to lots of lots of jazz vocal, torch songs, and so on.

In the past couple of years I suspect I've listened more to the jazz vocal work of Jackie Cain and Roy Kral than pretty much anything else. That's sort of reflected in the ebullient eighth issue of Your Heart Out, which is called The Historical Romance and can be downloaded for free here.

You can also have a listen to a selection of Jackie & Roy here. And if you're partial to some jazz, vocalese, harmony pop, bossa nova, sunshine pop, soft pop, fusion then you'll find something to suit the sunny weather, or at least make it seem warm and pleasant. Jackie's voice is exquisite, and oh yes their early interpretation of Fran Landesman and Tommy Wolf's Spring Can Really Hang You Up The Most is included. And as a taster ...

Unique selling point ...

Long ago and faraway I remember people going on about 'unique selling points' or USPs. The trouble was what I thought would be a USP seemed to be greeted with utter despair. But then I'm the kinda guy who publishes something and uses jazz singer Jackie Paris as a peg to hang it on. That's Jackie to your left, with the great Kenny Dorham, by the way.

The chances are though that your record collections are not exactly overflowing with Jackie Paris records. It's entirely possible you've not even heard how singing so sweetly that it can break your heart. That's fair enough. The whole premise of the Jackie Paris film that inspired the egregious eighth issue of Your Heart Out (The Historical Romance, which can be downloaded for free here) was how on earth did someone so talented, so cool, just disappear ... but you can at least grab yourself a small selection of Jackie's wonderful work here.

I guess that putting together this edition after watching the film about Jackie Paris and reading Cosmo Landesman's book, Starstruck, about the spectacular 'failure' his parents Fran and Jay were, well, it was sort of inevitable that the theme of fame and fate would emerge. Oddly at the time I never thought to include the Rich Kids' words about how there's those who make it and there's those who never may ...

Fortune's always hiding ...

The extremely elegant eighth issue of Your Heart Out is a special edition called The Historical Romance. It was inspired by seeing a film about the jazz singer Jackie Paris, which prompted all sorts of thoughts about fate and fortune.

The Historical Romance is a bit of an odyssey that takes in Jackie Cain & Roy Kral, Billy Vera & Judy Clay, Red Krayola & Clinic, Johnny Thunders & Patti Palladin, Freda Payne & Pennies From Heaven, plus much, much more ...

The cover star is Jackie Paris himself, and just in case you've not caught up with the film that kick-started this then here's a rather cool trailer ...

Any old excuse ...

Before we bid au revoir to the seventh issue of Your Heart Out, the pertly titled The Archaeology of An Abandoned Soul Single, it seems only appropriate to make a tiny apology to Morrissey. I have to confess I rather like him as a pop figure, as a character, and still find some of his old interviews a joy. But that only makes the old conundrum all the more confusing. Why on earth when Morrissey was a discerning sort was the music of The Smiths so stutifyingly dull and dreary?

After all his old lists of favourite listens used to be a real treasure trove. He'd name drop Heart by Rita Pavone, or Shoes by Reparata, or Insult To Injury by Timi Yuro. With taste like that you want to hug him, and then you'd hear Still Ill or something. It didn't make much sense. He'd have the nous to steal a line from Paul Jones' I've Been A Bad Bad Boy, and then you'd hear What Difference Does It Make and despair.

The first time I saw The Smiths was at The Venue in London, September 1983. They were really taking off then. But they were totally blown off stage by the support acts, and in particular the Go-Betweens who had just become a four-piece and were on fire, just airing songs that would form part of Spring Hill Fair the following year. Our comrade Fruitier Than Thou allows a little glimpse of what took place that night here.

The best thing about The Smiths was that before their set the intro tape played the Marvelettes and Velvelettes, Paper Boy, Needle In A Haystack, that sort of thing. Some of Morrissey's favourites. I can't recall if it had another of his favourites, The Toys' Attack, but it does give me an excuse to leave you with this ...