Never Ending Mixtape part 10

Welcome to the latest additions to the Never Ending Mixtape.

We flow through hip hop, euphoric disco, a synth masterpiece from Drive, punk pop and some stunning guitar pop from Scotland.

The Never Ending Mixtape now has 157 songs - over 11 hours of music for you to explore and enjoy!

So delve in from the start, or skip to the end to play the songs listed below.



Know How - Young MC
The bassline was 'borrowed' by the Stone Roses for Fools Gold.

Le Freak - Chic
Sublime.

Testify - HiFi Sean
A current fave in our house.

Thinking Of You - Sister Sledge
Possibly my favourite Nile Rodgers song.

A Real Hero - College featuring Electric Youth
I still remember hearing this in the old Captains Rest and demanding to know what the hell it was - it still (and always will) sounds incredible!

I Want To Kiss You - The Spook School
Punk pop perfection - full of energy

Alison's Starting To Happen - The Lemonheads
Contains one of my favourite lyrics ever She's the puzzle piece behind the couch, makes the sky complete

Stutter - Elastica
A reminder of why Elastica were so well loved when they burst on to the scene

Baby Gets High - Blake Babies
A gorgeous song by Juliana Hatfield and co

Panic On - Madder Rose
I have this on 7-inch and it remains a fave

Say Something New - The Concretes
You Can't Hurry Love - The Concretes
2 moments of pop perfection from The Concretes

Let's Get Out Of This Country - Camera Obscura
Lloyd I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken - Camera Obscura
2 moments of exceptional music from Scotland's Camera Obscura

Nothing To Be Done - The Pastels
Thank You For Being You - The Pastels
And 2 moments of brilliance from the legendary Pastels

Vapour Trail - Ride
I blogged about their new album last month, but check this guitar gem

April Skies - The Jesus and Mary Chain
Another stunning piece of Scottish guitar pop

Discolite - Teenage Fanclub
Radio - Teenage Fanclub
And 2 Gerry Love beauties

BMX Bandits at The Hug and Pint

BMX Bandits at The Hug and Pint, 30/10/15

BMX Bandits formed back in 1985 and released their first single, E102, in the summer of 1986. So it is fitting that the band are bridging 2015 and 2016 for their 30 anniversary.

A summer show at the Wickerman Festival was a delight and intimate shows in Dundee and Glasgow this week allowed the band to explore their back catalogue to the delight of some of their die hard fans who got tickets.

Duglas T Stewart always has his ear to the ground and he chose Edinburgh band The Spook School as the support for the Bandits last night. I had only seen the band once before - when they played TeenCanteen's The Girl Effect back in May, they caught my attention with a storming version of Icona Pop's I Love It.

I'd checked them out online and was looking forward to seeing them in action. The Spook School didn't disappoint. The front trio of Nye Todd, Anna Cory and Adam Todd look like they are in their teens, they jumped about, made their guitars sound glorious and their singy shouty vocals were catchy and infectious. Everybody Needs To Be In Love was an early highlight.

The band were punky, poppy and their ear for a chorus won them many new fans. I ended up buying their new album (the bands second) Try To Be Hopeful and a t-shirt. I'll write a separate blog on the band in the near future.

Duglas T Stewart and his BMX Bandits took to the stage and proceeded to delight the packed basement of The Hug and Pint with a set that took in their debut single, songs from their latest album and songs that Duglas is currently working on with Stuart Kidd from Dr Cosmos Tape Lab.

Little Hands was a brilliant opener, the Bandits at their best - romantic, melodic, catchy and fun. A cover of Daniel Johnston's Do You Really Love Me was introduced by Duglas telling the crowd that Daniel is probably his favourite songwriter. The vocals were shared with Chloe Phubo and the crowd really got going.

Serious Drugs was poignant and beautiful, while And It's You, one of my favourite songs from BMX Bandits last album (In Space), was just glorious. It is a gem of a song, stunning melody and has a great natural feel.

The Bandits always guarantee romance, yet they also guarantee a sense of fun and humour. The Road To Loved Is Paved With Banana Skins contained both in bags.

Way of the Wolf and It's In Her Eyes were the newies performed. The latter was my favourite out of those and I look forward to hearing them both on record.

If you haven't heard The Sailor's Song by BMX Bandits then please follow this LINK

It was a bit of a standout for me last night, beautifully sung by Duglas.

You could heal me, make me feel better

Make me feel better than I did today

The closing section was simply sublime;

I could watch you dancing all night

I could watch you dancing all night

Your Class was another highlight, introduced by Duglas as being written in response to hearing Stephen Stills Love The One You're With when he heard it back in the 80's whilst on tour.

It is one of my favourite songs by BMX Bandits, just hopelessly romantic and romantically hopeful.
The delivery was exceptional - Duglas was on top form all night - vocally and also between songs.

And what you do, what you do

Is breaking my heart in two

And I'll never get too tired of you

Don't say we're through, don't say we're through

Cause that could not be true

And I'll never get too tired of you

Disco Girl and E102 were great fun before an encore of old favourite Kylie's Got A Crush On Us and then Fireworks from In Space.

This was a pretty special encore for me and my sister as I used to play Kylie's Got A Crush On Us to her when I was 17/18 and Carla was a young 7/8! And Carla wrote Fireworks for Duglas and he has been exceptionally supportive of her songwriting and TeenCanteen.

This was a fantastic show and I look forward to Duglas and the BMX Bandits plans for the remainder of their 30th anniversary celebrations. Duglas is a singer-songwriter to be cherished and his band seem to relish playing his songs.

Next up for BMX Bandits is a support slot with one of my other favourite bands - The Charlatans - in Dundee in December.

The Girl Effect

On Saturday night I headed through to Edinburgh as my sister Carla, singer and songwriter in TeenCanteen,  celebrated her 30th birthday by putting on an incredible show in aid of Scottish Women's Aid.

Indie legends like Norman Blake (Teenage Fanclub), Duglas T Stewart (BMX Bandits), Eugene Kelly (The Vaselines) were included in the line-up that also featured TeenCanteen, Machines In Heaven, Broken Records, Flash Talk, No More Tiger and The Spook School.

The aim of the night was relatively simple;

• each act was asked to cover 2-songs by girl groups and had a maximum of 10-minutes
• the night was to raise funds for Scottish Women's Aid
• all acts, the venue, tech staff etc etc gave up their time for free

Could my sister really pull this off? An incredible 14-acts in the stunning Summerhall, all the changeovers, tech issues and timings...

The answer, as anyone who was there will testify, was a resounding yes. Everyone embraced the spirit of the night, creating a positive atmosphere from the off that only increased as the night went on.

There was a large queue snaking down the stairs waiting for the doors to open at 7pm sharp and at 7.20pm Carla, Megan from Scottish Women's Aid and the poet Jenny Lindsay told us about the acts playing and the aims of the night and we were off.

It would be impossible to do the night justice, but a full list of the acts and songs covered is noted below. The range of pop music from the 60's through to the present day was fantastic, I thoroughly enjoyed the choice of songs and the way bands stamped their own authority on them.

I would personally like to say thanks and well done to everyone involved in the night - it was brilliant to be part of - like a mini-festival and it raised some much needed money for Scottish Women's Aid.

Thanks to Kat Gollock Photography for the pictures.

The GT's - Chains by The Cookies, Tell Me Baby Why You've Been Gone So Song - Brenda Lee and Jessi Coulter

2 guys in black suits playing acoustic guitars (one of them formerly in OMD) opened proceedings. Their startling ability on the guitars was mesmerising. They extended the songs to use their full 10-minutes, jamming on in glorious fashion.

Bodyheat - I Never Dreamed by The Cookies, We Got The Beat by The Go-Go's

The beautiful flow of I Never Dreamed was an early highlight of the night and a song I'll be tracking down.

Machines In Heaven - Bills, Bills, Bills by Destiny's Child, Nowhere To Run by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas

A huge pulsating electro riff ushered in the second song by Machines In Heaven with singer Davie using a vocoder. The melody sounded familiar - this was the classic Nowhere To Run being modernised and sounding absolutely amazing. I hope they record it.

Photo by Kat Gollock

Henry and Fleetwood - Fortunately Gone by The Breeders, Manic Monday by The Bangles

Manic Monday was another highlight of the evening for me with many around me singing along. The combination of bass and synth and male and female vocals was very enjoyable.

Golder Arm - Walk Like An Egyptian by The Bangles, Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me - The Pipettes

Goldern Arm got the crowd going with a romp through another Bangles song before getting the crowd to clap along with the pure pop rush of The Pipettes.

Flash Talk - Freak Like Me/I Love Rock n Roll by Sugababes/Joan Jett, Push It/Cherry Bomb by Salt n Pepa/The Runaways

Flash Talk really got the crowd going; using their full 10-minute allocation and musical excellence to mash up some classic girl group songs - pop, rock, rap and punk. 

Duglas T Stewart with Norman Blake - That Lonely Feeling by The McKinleys, Nobody Knows What's Going On In My Mind by The Chiffons

A brilliant performance from Mr Stewart, tugging on the heartstrings with his opener before going full on garage with the closer.

Raffle - we then had a raffle with some superb prices generously donated by the acts on offer. Duglas and Norman stayed on to help draw the raffle.

 Photos by Kat Gollock

Stanley Odd - Really Saying Something/Doin' The Do by The Velvettes/Betty Boo, Honey by TeenCanteen

Dave Hook (Solareye) had been bounding around the crowd with a huge grin on his face all night and it transferred to the crowd when he took to the stage. Veronika on vocals sang beautifully over a sample of The Velvettes with Hook adding some smart comeback lines before coming in with a brilliant rap about girl groups, the band then threw in a bit of Betty Boo for good measure, much to the delight of the crowd.

Hook was then extremely generous in his praise of the next song; introducing it as an incredible pop song by a girl group we might have heard of.

I was delighted when he announced it was Honey by TeenCanteen and it was brilliant to hear Stanley Odd remain pretty true to the original but just add their own twist on it, turning it into a duet and ad libbing at the end.

A superb performance.

Photo by Kat Gollock

No More Tiger - I Can Hear Music by The Ronettes, I Love How You Love Me by The Paris Sisters

Two gorgeous covers, the first song in particular was a favourite of mine from the night.

Photo by Kat Gollock

Jenny Lindsay - A girl group poem made up of girl group lyrics suggested by the audience

Co-compere Jenny invited the audience to write their favourite girl group lyrics down and then she somehow assembled them into a poem full of humour. Very clever.

The Spook School - Gimme Brains by Bratmobile, I Love It by Icona Pop

The Spook School look like they are still at school. Their delicious punk pop romp through the modern pop classic I Love It was brilliant, causing a spot of pogo-ing. The band looked like they were having loads of fun on stage.

Broken Records - Stop In The Name of Love by The Supremes, Modern Girl by Sleater Kinney

Carla and Sita from TeenCanteen joined Broken Records for a soaring version of The Supremes classic before the band enjoyed toying and playing with the beautiful riffs of Sleater Kinney. Both songs were exceptional from a band oozing with confidence.

Photo by Kat Gollock

Eugene Kelly with TeenCanteen - My Boyfriend's Back by The Angels, Never Ever by All Saints

TeenCanteen played backing band to Eugene Kelly who was allowed to show that his love of pop ranged from The Angels through to All Saints. The extended version of Never Ever was quite brilliant.

Photo by Kat Gollock

TeenCanteen with Eugene Kelly and Dave Hook from Stanley Odd - Say My Name by Destiny's Child, Waterfalls by TLC, Be My Baby by The Ronettes

A huge cheer greeted TeenCanteen and Carla as she told us the night will have raised well over £3,000 for Scottish Women's Aid with the final total to be announced on Monday.

I imagine it will be more like £4,000+ based on ticket sales, the raffle (they sold out of tickets) and the glitter table manned by Sita and Chloe from TeenCanteen who loved painting people's faces all night.

The closing two songs in particular were exceptional. Solareye from Stanley Odd joined the band for the rap in Waterfalls - a gloriously beautiful pop song.

Carla's voice (which she was really worried about due to doing so much work for the event) sounded absolutely incredible on Be My Baby with the crowd singing along in style. It was a brilliant version of a truly amazing song.

A happy Carla watching Stanley Odd cover her song Honey

Photos by Kat Gollock