Named after the debut single by Teenage Fanclub.
This blog is all about being a music lover in Glasgow; reviews, interviews, memories, old faves, new discoveries (past and present), playlists and more. Thanks for visiting - I hope you discover something amazing you have never heard before, or that you rediscover an old favourite.
Regular features/playlists; Never Ending Mixtape / Cover Version of the Month/ Trust Me.
Insta - @everythingflowsglasgow
Britpop exploded in the spring of 1994 and went technicolour with the release of Blur's Girls & Boys. This single well and truly put the POP in Britpop, reaching number 5 in the charts and catapulting Blur to new heights.
Never mind song titles like Metal Mickey or Animal Nitrate, this was pop in its purest form. Girls who want boys, who want girls ... that's been the case since the dawn of time and even The Beatles hadn't captured this in such a bold way.
Girls & Boys is almost ridiculously catchy. The synth riff, disco beat, funky (Duran Duran - according to Alex James) bass and Damon Albarn singing about love in the nineties, is paranoid (I always thought it was it's paradise).
Albarn wrote the song after holidaying in Magaluf with his girlfriend Justine Frishmann from Elastica. He couldn't believe the way girls and boys would just meet up in pubs & clubs to get off with each other.
On sunny beaches
Take your chances
Looking for ...
It's easy to look back at the nineties through rose-tinted glasses (and believe me ... I do!) but it's easy to forget that Labour didn't come to power until May 1997, in the dying embers of Britpop. Albarn beautifully captures some of the challenges faced by the youth of the day in a line that is almost thrown away at the start of the second verse;
Avoiding all work
Cause there's none available
The song is just two verses and that incredibly catchy chorus that is repeated joyfully again and again and again. But just to give you something else to sing to, Albarn throws in an extra little hook while Graham Coxon pushes a phaser effect on his guitar and cranks it up.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
Girls & Boys is energetic, contagious pop music, this was the Britpop klaxon sounding loud and clear. If Suede kicked down the door then Blur were the first to steam through.
30-years ago #2 Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use) by Sub Sub
Released 30-years ago today (29th March 1993), Sub Sub's Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use) was a super catchy, squelchy, fun soulful electronic pop tune that reached number 3 in the charts. I recall buying it on cassette single. I wish I'd got it on vinyl! But being at school, I probably only had enough money for the cassette at the time.
Sub Sub were brothers Andy and Jez Williams with their friend Jimi Goodwin. They brought in Melanie Williams on vocals. The band would go on to release their album Full Fathom Five on Robs Records (the label formed by Rob Gretton, New Orders manager).
Goodwin and the Williams brothers would go on to form Doves following a studio fire where all their equipment and recordings were destroyed.
But back to Sub Sub! The single was a smash, selling 700,000 copies, allowing the band to buy their own studio and spend years creating new music that would be released as Doves.
I'll be blogging (fairly regularly - hopefully monthly) on releases from 30-years ago for the foreseeable future. 1993 was such a pivotal year for me as I finished school without really knowing what I wanted to do. And I was a musical sponge! Pouring over the NME & Melody Maker on a weekly basis and using spare cash on visits to record shops.
I was big into the whole indie and grunge guitar scene, but to this day I love a good pure pop tune and this is a belter. Enjoy.
Cover version of the month #73 The Lemonheads cover Simon & Garfunkel
Sometime back in 1992 I heard Mrs Robinson by The Lemonheads and also caught the video that was on heavy rotation on MTV. I bought the 7-inch single and subsequently bought the album it was on - It's A Shame About Ray. I'll be blogging on the album soon as it is receiving a deluxe reissue for its 30th anniversary.
Mrs Robinson wasn't originally on the album. The Lemonheads had recorded it (under duress from Atlantic Records) for the 25th anniversary of the film The Graduate, where the song by Simon & Garfunkel had featured back in 1967. The video for the single splices between shots of The Lemonheads on a boat on the canals of Amsterdam (?) and scenes from the film.
The Lemonheads scuzzy bubblegum garage pop version became a hit all over and Dando became an indie pinup, crossing over into the mainstream through his incredible good looks and hedonistic lifestyle.
I absolutely loved (and still love) The Lemonheads version and the beautiful b-side Being Around, so clever, funny and melodic.
The do, do, do, do, do, do intro is pure pop and after a burst of guitar the drums kick in and the band tear through the first verse. I love the garage psychedelia outro that goes on for 40-seconds.
Evan never played the song when he toured It's A Shame About Ray for the 20th anniversary, so it will be interesting to see if he does this time.
Simon & Garfunkel released Mrs Robinson as a single and on their Bookends album back in 1968. A 30-second introduction introduces us to the key guitar riff and vocal melody of the song, before bursting into the chorus. Paul & Art are in perfect harmony
One thing that surprised me when I listened to the song for the first time in a while was its length. I would never have guessed that Mrs Robinson was over 4-minutes long!
Simon's lyrics are so clever, introducing politics in the verse beginning Sitting on a sofa on a Sunday afternoon that leads to the lines;
Going to the candidates debate
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you've got to choose
Every way you look at this, you lose
That last line hits politics absolutely spot on - every way you look at this, you lose!
I do think there is a touch of psychedelia in the way Simon & Garfunkel sing. Their voices are so beautiful and gentle, the playful intro, then the way they rise for the final verse. I love how the guitar riff is played upon for the outro, something The Lemonheads picked up on.
Check the stunning romp through the song by The Lemonheads on 90's cult classic show The Word and Simon & Garfunkel wowing Central Park.
Both versions have been added to my Cool Cover Versions playlist on Spotify, or search for Everything Flows Cool Cover Versions.
A list and links to all previous covers of the month blogs is below.
25-years ago today, 4-days after catching the band for the first time at the Tramway where they supported label mates The Boo Radleys as part of Radio 1's Sound City, I walked up to HMV in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow, during my lunch hour to buy Supersonic, the debut single by Oasis.
I was falling for the band big time and was eager to explore the 4-tracks on the CD single, I also bought the 7-inch the following week and continued to collect both through the bands career.
Pre internet, iTunes and streaming etc, you could only hear songs live, on the radio or if you bought them. It is a time I often reminisce about, there was a sense of anticipation and eagerness around a release and I spent much more time with releases and albums than I admit to doing these days. You had to, you had invested in them, you took a chance or believed in a band. You followed and supported them like a football team. Thankfully I've supported a lot of bands that I fell for in my teens through to the present day and they have largely rewarded me.
The music weeklies had described Oasis as a cross between Happy Mondays and Sex Pistols and Supersonic lived up to that comparison. Starting with a primitive beat, guitars then squall and feedback into a riff and we're off, with a young 21-year old Liam Gallagher giving advice to himself, to others and making a statement about how he is feeling.
I need to be myself
I can't be no-one else
I'm feeling supersonic
Give me gin and tonic
You can have it all but how much do you want it?
From the start Oasis were themselves, in interviews, on stage and in person. They could have it all and oh how they wanted it. They went for it big time, early on Noel stated that he wanted to release singles as regularly as The Jam, they were backed with excellent b-sides, and the band toured relentlessly, not only in the UK, but across Europe and the States.
Supersonic is full of urgency, in the guitars, vocals, delivery, production and in some of the lyrics. Some of them are gibberish, while others seem to be Noel Gallagher sizing up where he is in life, a theme that recurs through a lot of the early Oasis material.
You need to find a way for what you want to say
But before tomorrow
Alan MacGee had wanted the punky Bring It On Down to be the debut single, but Supersonic, apparently written by Noel while the rest of the band were having a Chinese takeaway, was perfect.
I caught Oasis for the second time at the old Cathouse (before it moved into the centre of town) in June and as a group of us hung outside in the sunshine waiting for the venue to open we could hear Oasis soundchecking and kids sung along to Noel's guitar riffs in Supersonic.
Oasis were about to go Supersonic. From the release of their debut single in April through to December they would release 5 singles and Definitely Maybe. With b-sides like Fade Away, Listen Up, Half the World Away and a non-album single in Whatever, in 9-months Oasis had released more quality material than many bands would release in a career. They didn't let up through 1995 but we'll save that for another blog.
Speaking of b-sides;
Take Me Away is beautiful, sung and performed by Noel Gallagher, the song shows a different side to Oasis than the ram it down your throat a-side of Supersonic. It's gentle, tender, melancholic and has a lovely double chorus second time around, something that Noel would use to great effect through his Oasis days.
There is a huge sense of frustration balanced with the need for escapism and dreams in a lot of early Oasis songs and I Will Believe (live) is one that captures that perfectly. Gallagher's lyrics talk of being locked up in chains, lost at sea, down on his knees, the man in the middle and not knowing his own mind. They are delivered superbly by his younger brother and there is a classic Noel guitar solo.
And then we come on to the Columbia (demo) which has a monster groove and feel to it. To this day I regret not buying the 12-inch white label promo when I saw it in Missing Records for £20 back when it came out. It would be worth a lot more now! The power of Columbia is enormous, highlighted when Oasis chose to open their huge Knebworth shows with it.
Oasis had arrived. See below for live footage of the band performing Supersonic on The Word (their TV debut) in April 1994, also live in 1995 from Earls Court where Liam is looking and sounding and incredible, lastly footage of the band performing Columbia at the Chicago Metro in November that year, a show that many in the Oasis camp still cite as one of there best ever performances.
I love YouTube. I come from an era where I recorded music videos and performances from The Word, Top of the Pops, the White Room, Later with Jools and BBC coverage of festivals like Glastonbury and T in the Park on to VHS cassettes!
And there was a market for this. Some enterprising individuals would mass produce their homemade bootlegs and sell them at record fairs. So I forked out £15/£20 for everything I could find on the Stone Roses, Oasis and The Charlatans!
Of course nowadays any TV show a band has ever done is online, as is their promo videos, interviews, official live footage and plenty of bootleg footage - some good, others shoddy.
I love when people I follow online post good stuff to watch, so I thought I would introduce what will hopefully become a regular feature - Everything Flows TV.
Episode 1 features brilliant stuff from The Beastie Boys, Nirvana, AC/DC and Jimi Hendrix.
The Beastie Boys fly through Sabotage live on the Letterman show. Check the ferocious energy and fun they are having. Superb!
The Word, broadcast late on a Friday night on Channel 4, was essential trash TV for a young teenager. There was some truly awful stuff broadcast, but some incredible live performances. Check Kurt's intro to Smells Like Teen Spirit, Captain America (to become Eugenius) t-shirt and the brilliant performance - Nirvana were such a tight live band but they could just go crazy - and they do....live on TV.
There used to be so much music on TV. This was extremely memorable! Nirvana were booked to play their current single Lithium on Jonathan Ross' show and were introduced to that effect. Broadcast live, they decided to tear through Territorial Pissings instead! They blitz through it with exceptional punk rock energy and intensity, leaving Jonathan Ross a little shocked but he makes the most of it with a little joke.
Speaking of energy - a few people recently posted this brilliant video of AC/DC performing It's A Long Way To The Top If You Wanna Rock n Roll. Rocking out in the street (complete with bagpipes!) the band look like they are having the time of their lives - something that they always transferred to their fans.
In 1967 it must have seemed like anything could happen - and it often did. 2-days after the release of The Beatles seminal Sgt Pepper's, Jimi Hendrix and the Experience opened with it .... in front of The Beatles (Paul and George).
It would be one of his first gigs in London. Jimi was a sweetie, a very nice guy. I remember him opening at the Saville on a Sunday night, 4 June 1967. Brian Epstein used to rent it when it was usually dark on the Sunday. Jimi opened, the curtains flew back and he came walking forward, playing 'Sgt. Pepper', and it had only been released on the Thursday so that was like the ultimate compliment. It's still obviously a shining memory for me, because I admired him so much anyway, he was so accomplished. To think that that album had meant so much to him as to actually do it by the Sunday night, three days after the release. He must have been so into it, because normally it might take a day for rehearsal and then you might wonder whether you'd put it in, but he just opened with it. It's a pretty major compliment in anyone's book. I put that down as one of the great honours of my career. I mean, I'm sure he wouldn't have thought of it as an honour, I'm sure he thought it was the other way round, but to me that was like a great boost. - Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now
