Urban's Journal Of Half Assed Ideas

Trollheart · 12-15-2014, 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Urban Hat€monger ?

How Trollheart Should Have Reviewed The New Nickelback Album

Oh come all ye faithful and rejoice, for the backs of Nickel have released a new album for ye to worship. All praise the Chad! Album of the year 2014 AND 2015, without doubt surely? But seriously, what's it like? Is it really that bad? Can I find anything decent on it? Let's see.

No fixed address --- Nickelback --- 2014 (Republic)

Exactly the same shit as last time

Yeah, I thought about it. But then I said no, it's Christmas: the children, dear! The children! Well I'll raise a toast to Mister Kroeger's health, but only because it's Christmas! Long life to him! A merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! (sorry, been watching too much "A Christmas Carol" movies!) --- I wanted to give them a chance.

When will I ever learn?

Actually, it's not the same as last time though.
It's much, much worse.
I actually feel unclean after hearing this album, and sad for the millions of idiots who are rushing out to buy it.

Urban Hat€monger ? · 01-26-2015, 10:46 AM

The Best 200 Albums I've Never Heard According To The NME

While I was searching around for various things to do I came across two lists written by the NME in 2011 & 2012 featuring 100 of the best albums I've never heard. As I genuinely found a lot of stuff on these lists obscure I figured it might be a good idea to check a lot of these albums out. Because some of these albums are proving difficult to get hold of I won't be doing this in any order other than at random. From what I can tell the original lists were not done in any sort of order either. So onto the first album

Artist: Clor
Album: Clor
Label: Regal
Year: 2005
Genre: Synthpop

Clor were originally from Brixton and released this, their one and only album back in 2005 before splitting up. I don't ever recall hearing about them at the time. From what I can gather the album had some critical success in some areas but that didn't translate into sales. It also seems to have only been released in the UK too.
At first it begins to sound like your typical mid 2000s dance punk album dripping in 80s synthpop revival. The opening of tracks sound like they could be done by The Rapture, The Faint, Radio 4 or any of those bands from the time.But just when you think you know what to expect from this album they swap it all around on you.
Love + Pain which I gather was their first single is a fantastic little pop song. Hearts On Fire is another great song that emits memories of early 80s Vince Clarke era Depeche Mode.
Things switch again for the next two songs Gifted almost sounds like a Pavement ballad and Stuck In A Tight Spot is pure 90s alternative with it's quiet/loud/quiet/loud dynamic with vocalist Barry Dobbin sounding equal parts Steven Malkmus and Wayne Coyne.
Dangerzone is another highlight and this is pure 80s synthpop and the band doesn't even attempt to hide it. My favourite song on the entire album is Magic Touch which is just a blatant rip off of Prince's Dirty Mind era stuff. It sounds corny as hell but it works, hell they even copy his guitar histrionics in the middle of the song. Making You All Mine and Garden of Love bring you towards the end of the album and whatever they lack in originality they more than make up in bouncy enthusiasm and carry you to the final track Goodbye. At first this track begins to sound like some sappy Spandau Ballet ballad but thankfully it never gets that bad and is a nice mellow (Yet strange) way to finish the album off. And I guess given that this was their only album by Clor, rather a fitting end in the circumstances.

Verdict: I was a bit dubious of this album when I first came across it. Mainly because this genre was done to death in the mid 00's and the NME seemed to think most of that stuff was the greatest thing ever at the time. But this album had moments that made it stand out from all the others. Rather than being one generic mish-mash of influences they actually take each influence and do something with it meaning you don't get 11 songs that all sound the same. I liked this album a lot and at least 4 or 5 of the songs are keepers. If this is a good representation of what's on these lists then I can't wait to hear more.

Songs To Hear: Love + Pain, Hearts On Fire, Magic Touch

Urban Hat€monger ? · 01-30-2015, 09:16 AM

The Best 200 Albums I've Never Heard According To The NME

Artist: The Buff Medways
Album: Steady The Buffs
Label: Transcopic
Year: 2002
Genre: Garage Rock

I'm guessing that this is the only band on this list named after a breed of chicken. Anyway not only have I heard this album, I bought it on it's release, saw the band touring for it resplendent in all their World War I outfits and bought the chicken T shirt after the gig. so suck on that NME.

In 2000 Billy Childish played his final gig with his long time band Thee Headcoats. He put together a new band known as 'Wild Billy Childish & The Friends of the Buff Medway Fanciers Association' or 'The Buff Medways' for short and released one album before being signed to Graham Coxon of Blur's label Transcopic.
The timing of this signing couldn't have been better as it got Childish attention at a time when the popularity of garage rock was going through a resurgence and it also didn't hurt that Childish put out his most solid album in years.

If you've never heard The Buff Medways before their sound can basically be summed up as The Who circa 1965 mixed with punk rock. Songs like A Strange Kind Of Happiness, Sally Sensation, Strood Light all sound like they could have been plucked from that mid 60s time zone.
Then on the other hand we have the punk influence on tracks like Dawn Says, Archive From 1959 and You Piss Me Off.
The remaining tracks range from the albums opener Troubled Mind which has a kind of My Generation stutter to it, The bluesy Well Well and a storming cover of The Who's Ivor from 'A Quick One' to close the album.

Verdict: I loved this record ever since I first heard it and always find myself going back to it. It's just half an hour of great pop hooks played with chainsaw like guitars played by a man who is a true original who deserves to be far more well known that he is putting out one of his best albums. You can't really ask for more than that.

Songs To Hear: Archive From 1959, A Strange Kind Of Happiness, Dawn Says, Ivor

Pet_Sounds · 01-31-2015, 03:44 PM

Nice. My dad had a poster of that cover, but it got lost in a move. Fantastic album--reminds me of early Kinks at times.

Urban Hat€monger ? · 02-09-2015, 08:59 AM

Tribute To The Most Badass Musician Of All Time

Camille Saint-Saëns, still out hitting the road at the grand old age of 180.
Makes the Rolling Stones and Chuck Berry look like fucking amateurs.

Rock on, old French dude !!!

Urban Hat€monger ? · 02-23-2015, 10:17 AM

It's almost 30 years since Live Aid happened and to celebrate this I thought I would take a look at the commemorative DVD that was released a while back that my mother bought for me one Christmas a few years back that still remains unopened to this day.

My memories of the day itself are a little sketchy but surprisingly accurate when I looked at the playing times of the bands performing that day.
I remember watching the beginning with Status Quo and I remember staying around to watch Adam Ant just after 1pm (Being a huge Adam Ant fan at the time). After that I took off and spent the afternoon in the local video game arcade before returning home around 5.30 for my dinner just in time to see U2 finish their set and watch Queen & Bowie play before taking off again to go outside to play football.
I remember coming back in sometime around 9pm when it started getting dark & watching Paul McCartney and the finale at Wembley.
After that I remember being left alone to stay up late after my parents went to bed so that I could watch Duran Duran play in Philadelphia but I decided I was too tired to sit through a bunch of American bands I'd never heard of beforehand and decided to just go to bed after all. Just as well because they didn't come onstage until 1.45am, almost 4 hours later.

I also remember around this time my Dad was trying his hardest to stop me playing video games all day and had got me into stamp collecting to achieve this and I remember in the morning being driven into town to the philatelist shop and picking up a first day cover of the Live Aid commemorative stamps with the postmark of 13th July 1985 stamped over them.
I still have it, I wonder how much that's worth now?

So those are my recollections of the day, let's see what's on this DVD.

DISC 1 : PART 1

Intro

"It's 12 noon in London, 7am in Philadelphia and around the world it's time for Live Aid....."

Fanfares go off as Charles & Di take their seats. Nice to see Geldof made an effort, and oh look there's Brian May and his perm. Chilling to think that just 15 years later the two women in this picture would be dead.
A short blast of God Save The Queen (Not the Sex Pistols version sadly) and then we're off and rockin'......

*-*

Status Quo

Rockin' All Over The World
Caroline
Don't Waste My Time (n/a)

It's easy to knock the Quo and I have several thousand times but you really can't fault them when you put them in front of a live audience. Right from the opening bars of 'Rockin' All Over The World' the crowd are totally into it and singing along loudly. They then hurtle straight into another old favourite with 'Caroline' keeping the fast paced momentum going.
They played another song 'Don't Waste My Time' but it wasn't included on the DVD. Rather than go through every song not played on the DVD I'll just list them as red under the title. That song isn't really needed though. You pretty much get the message from the first two songs. Quo nailed it on the day and played brilliantly and you struggle to think who could have made such an instant reaction opening with that crowd at such a huge gig. Fair play to Quo for having the balls to do it. This was also original bassist Alan 'Bomber' Lancaster's last gig with the band. He would leave the band shortly after this and emigrate to Australia. They would still have hits and be hugely popular in Europe in the following years but they were never really the same after his departure.

*-*

The Style Council

You're the Best Thing (n/a)
Big Boss Groove (n/a)
Internationalists
Walls Come Tumbling Down

'Internationalists' seems like an odd choice to include here seeing as 'You're the Best Thing' was a massive hit for them around this time and is still one of their most remembered songs. It maybe be a timing issue with 'Internationalists' being half the length of 'You're the Best Thing' but as Paul Weller says in the intro to the song it is kind of appropriate given the nature of the gig, and it's still an enjoyable energetic jazz funk work out. Their set is rounded off with an frantic run through of 'Walls Come Tumbling Down' which is one of my favourite pop songs of the era. A good set overall but let's be honest we'd have all rather have seen The Jam instead. If only they could have kept it together another couple of years.

*-*

The Boomtown Rats

I Don't Like Mondays
Drag Me Down
Rat Trap (n/a)

Of course Geldof was going to play this gig but a lot of people felt he shouldn't seeing The Boomtown Rats hadn't had a hit in about 5 years at that point, which is kind of hypocritical given his treatment of Adam Ant (More in the next entry). The Boomtown Rats would break up completely the following year. Having said that 'I Don't Like Mondays' goes down a storm with the crowd singing along with every word. Next up is 'Drag Me Down' which seems an odd choice given that they also played 'Rat Trap' that was a huge hit and 'Drag Me Down' only got to No. 50 in the chart when it was released as a single the year before. In fact I don't think I'd even heard 'Drag Me Down' before I watched this. Global Jukebox eh Bob?
As the band leave the stage the crowd breaks out into a well deserved spontaneous rendition of 'For He's a Jolly Good Fellow' in honour of Geldof.

*-*

Adam Ant

Vive Le Rock

The story goes that Adam Ant had kept bothering Geldof for a spot on the bill despite Geldof telling him there wasn't any room. In reality Geldof felt that Adam wasn't a big enough name not having a hit single for 3 years (Kind of ironic Geldof hadn't had one in 5 years). Adam was desperate to play as he had released his first single while taking a 3 year hiatus to attempt to become an actor in Hollywood. Eventually Geldof offered him one song and Adam accepted. He then went on to piss a lot of people off on the day by ignoring the whole Global Jukebox concept and playing his new single 'Vive Le Rock' which virtually none of the crowd had even heard at that point. Watching it you can see half the crowd into it and the other half looking around lost and bewildered. I mean it was his best single in years but that was kind of besides the point. I remember being really disappointed with this as a kid not getting to hear stuff like 'Antmusic' and 'Stand & Deliver' on the big stage, but looking at this now knowing the back story behind it all he did a decent job of putting in an energetic performance for what he did.

*-*

Ultravox

Reap The Wild Wind (n/a)
Dancing With Tears In My Eyes
One Small Day (n/a)
Vienna

Now It's the turn of Geldof's right hand man Midge Ure to take the stage with Ultravox. Ultravox at this point were probably the biggest they had ever been with a string of successful album going back to 1979 when Ure had first joined them. However this was also pretty much the end of that run, just 3 months later Ure would release his first solo album and eventually leave the band completely 2 years later.
There's a really interesting dynamic here, this seems to be the Midge Ure show with him pushed right to the front of the stage with the rest of the band right at the back of the stage barely in shot a lot of the time.
The sound during this is really odd too, Ultravox during this time consisted of two synth players and a drummer with Ure on guitar and vocals and the lack of a bass makes the whole thing seem rather tinny and lightweight. Ure's guitar has the sound of some grimy garage band and is a total contrast to the clean synths which really makes an otherwise nice pop song like 'Dancing With Tears In Your Eyes' sound like it rocks pretty hard... I approve of this.
Of course 'Vienna' is next, it's not as lush as it's studio counterpart but it's performed well enough, but the lack of any bass really makes it suffer.
Other than a couple of complaints this is a good decent set.

*-*

Spandau Ballet

Only When You Leave
Virgin (n/a)
True

Another band who were at their peak when this was recorded and dear God look at those costumes, it can only be the mid 80s. There's Tony Hadley (Who I have a lot of time for as a vocalist) in a full length leather coat and pants in the middle of July,would hate to be his girlfriend at the end of the night. Then there's Martin Kemp (Who I have a lot of time for as a actor) in that ridiculous turquoise get up and Gary Kemp (Who I have a lot of time for as a ...... OK i'll get back to you on this) who looks like he turned up in his pyjama bottoms and a hi-vis jacket from someone directing the traffic.
As for Spandau Ballet themselves, they're probably one of the most unfashionable bands to like, both back then and now. I have some time for them, I loved their first couple of albums which were more kind of Synth pop/new romantic orientated but lost interest when they essentially became a white soul band singing sappy ballads. Sadly in 1985 were right at the heart of white sappy ballad territory. Having said that 'Only When You Leave' is one of their better later songs and they play this note perfect. The second track 'Virgin' which isn't included here I'd never heard of. I looked it up and it appears to be just an album track of the album they released the following year...naughty.
Their set is finished off as you would expect with 'True' I don't know if they were being told to hurry up but they sing this song at rather a speedy pace, which for a slow ballad sounds kind of strange, almost comical in fact. All the girls singalong to it, the band take their bows and everybody leaves happy.
Would have been nice to hear maybe one of their earlier singles but this set wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

*-*

It's 9am in Philadelphia and Joan Baez kicks off the festivities at the J.F.K. Stadium with a rendition of Amazing Grace (Later on the DVD)

*-*

Elvis Costello

All You Need Is Love

Back in London Elvis Costello takes the stage along with just a guitar and tells the crowd he wants them "To help him sing a old northern English folk song" before going into 'All You Need Is Love'
It's simple, yet effective. The crowd sing a long to every word, Costello sings it in his own unique way and it's just an all round enjoyable almost kind of spontaneous performance.
One of the highlights of the day this one.

*-*

Nik Kershaw

Wide Boy (n/a)
Don Quixote (n/a)
The Riddle (n/a)
Wouldn't It Be Good

If you ever want to study the fickleness of popular music you only have to look at Nik Kershaw at Live Aid. Just a year earlier he'd released 2 albums and was having hit single after hit single, putting him on this bill seemed a no brainer. Yet just a month later Kershaw would release 'Don Quixote' the final single from his album of the previous year which would be his last ever top 10 hit. After playing guitar on a couple of Elton John songs his slide back into obscurity would begin. And it seems the BBC felt he was only deserving of one song being broadcast too.
Kershaw said later on that he was nervous as hell onstage and it shows in the one song we do get 'Wouldn't It Be Good', probably his most well known song. He seems to be rooted behind the mic stand showing no personality whatsoever in fact I think at the end of the song when he punches the air and runs up to the drum riser is the most personality he shows throughout the whole song. The crowd seem to be kind of into it but to me now this seems to be the first misfire of the day.

*-*

Wow all that and we're barely up to the halfway point of Disc 1.
Part 2 coming very soon.

*-*

**Goofle** · 02-23-2015, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Urban Hat€monger ?

I'll have to check this out. Really liked Billy Childish's album with Holly Golightly.

Urban Hat€monger ? · 02-23-2015, 10:30 AM

That was the first Billy Childish album I ever bought and it's still my favourite.

~~James~~ · 02-23-2015, 05:09 PM

Band Aid. So much nostalgia. Videos and compilations were all over my house, and occasionally played. I might revisit some of these performances for the good and the bad (comical value).

Urban Hat€monger ? · 02-23-2015, 05:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by James

and the bad (comical value).

Speaking of which

01-26-2015, 10:46 AM	#352 (permalink)
Urban Hat€monger ? The Sexual Intellectual Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Somewhere cooler than you Posts: 18,605	The Best 200 Albums I've Never Heard According To The NME While I was searching around for various things to do I came across two lists written by the NME in 2011 & 2012 featuring 100 of the best albums I've never heard. As I genuinely found a lot of stuff on these lists obscure I figured it might be a good idea to check a lot of these albums out. Because some of these albums are proving difficult to get hold of I won't be doing this in any order other than at random. From what I can tell the original lists were not done in any sort of order either. So onto the first album Artist: Clor Album: Clor Label: Regal Year: 2005 Genre: Synthpop Clor were originally from Brixton and released this, their one and only album back in 2005 before splitting up. I don't ever recall hearing about them at the time. From what I can gather the album had some critical success in some areas but that didn't translate into sales. It also seems to have only been released in the UK too. At first it begins to sound like your typical mid 2000s dance punk album dripping in 80s synthpop revival. The opening of tracks sound like they could be done by The Rapture, The Faint, Radio 4 or any of those bands from the time.But just when you think you know what to expect from this album they swap it all around on you. Love + Pain which I gather was their first single is a fantastic little pop song. Hearts On Fire is another great song that emits memories of early 80s Vince Clarke era Depeche Mode. Things switch again for the next two songs Gifted almost sounds like a Pavement ballad and Stuck In A Tight Spot is pure 90s alternative with it's quiet/loud/quiet/loud dynamic with vocalist Barry Dobbin sounding equal parts Steven Malkmus and Wayne Coyne. Dangerzone is another highlight and this is pure 80s synthpop and the band doesn't even attempt to hide it. My favourite song on the entire album is Magic Touch which is just a blatant rip off of Prince's Dirty Mind era stuff. It sounds corny as hell but it works, hell they even copy his guitar histrionics in the middle of the song. Making You All Mine and Garden of Love bring you towards the end of the album and whatever they lack in originality they more than make up in bouncy enthusiasm and carry you to the final track Goodbye. At first this track begins to sound like some sappy Spandau Ballet ballad but thankfully it never gets that bad and is a nice mellow (Yet strange) way to finish the album off. And I guess given that this was their only album by Clor, rather a fitting end in the circumstances. Verdict: I was a bit dubious of this album when I first came across it. Mainly because this genre was done to death in the mid 00's and the NME seemed to think most of that stuff was the greatest thing ever at the time. But this album had moments that made it stand out from all the others. Rather than being one generic mish-mash of influences they actually take each influence and do something with it meaning you don't get 11 songs that all sound the same. I liked this album a lot and at least 4 or 5 of the songs are keepers. If this is a good representation of what's on these lists then I can't wait to hear more. Songs To Hear: Love + Pain, Hearts On Fire, Magic Touch __________________ Urb's RYM Stuff Most people sell their soul to the devil, but the devil sells his soul to Nick Cave. Last edited by Urban Hat€monger ?; 01-30-2015 at 04:16 PM.

01-30-2015, 09:16 AM	#353 (permalink)
Urban Hat€monger ? The Sexual Intellectual Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Somewhere cooler than you Posts: 18,605	The Best 200 Albums I've Never Heard According To The NME Artist: The Buff Medways Album: Steady The Buffs Label: Transcopic Year: 2002 Genre: Garage Rock I'm guessing that this is the only band on this list named after a breed of chicken. Anyway not only have I heard this album, I bought it on it's release, saw the band touring for it resplendent in all their World War I outfits and bought the chicken T shirt after the gig. so suck on that NME. In 2000 Billy Childish played his final gig with his long time band Thee Headcoats. He put together a new band known as 'Wild Billy Childish & The Friends of the Buff Medway Fanciers Association' or 'The Buff Medways' for short and released one album before being signed to Graham Coxon of Blur's label Transcopic. The timing of this signing couldn't have been better as it got Childish attention at a time when the popularity of garage rock was going through a resurgence and it also didn't hurt that Childish put out his most solid album in years. If you've never heard The Buff Medways before their sound can basically be summed up as The Who circa 1965 mixed with punk rock. Songs like A Strange Kind Of Happiness, Sally Sensation, Strood Light all sound like they could have been plucked from that mid 60s time zone. Then on the other hand we have the punk influence on tracks like Dawn Says, Archive From 1959 and You Piss Me Off. The remaining tracks range from the albums opener Troubled Mind which has a kind of My Generation stutter to it, The bluesy Well Well and a storming cover of The Who's Ivor from 'A Quick One' to close the album. Verdict: I loved this record ever since I first heard it and always find myself going back to it. It's just half an hour of great pop hooks played with chainsaw like guitars played by a man who is a true original who deserves to be far more well known that he is putting out one of his best albums. You can't really ask for more than that. Songs To Hear: Archive From 1959, A Strange Kind Of Happiness, Dawn Says, Ivor __________________ Urb's RYM Stuff Most people sell their soul to the devil, but the devil sells his soul to Nick Cave. Last edited by Urban Hat€monger ?; 01-30-2015 at 04:16 PM.

01-31-2015, 03:44 PM	#354 (permalink)
Pet_Sounds Remember the underscore Join Date: Feb 2014 Location: The other side Posts: 2,488	Nice. My dad had a poster of that cover, but it got lost in a move. Fantastic album--reminds me of early Kinks at times. __________________ Everybody's dying just to get the disease

02-09-2015, 08:59 AM	#355 (permalink)
Urban Hat€monger ? The Sexual Intellectual Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Somewhere cooler than you Posts: 18,605	Tribute To The Most Badass Musician Of All Time Camille Saint-Saëns, still out hitting the road at the grand old age of 180. Makes the Rolling Stones and Chuck Berry look like fucking amateurs. Rock on, old French dude !!! __________________ Urb's RYM Stuff Most people sell their soul to the devil, but the devil sells his soul to Nick Cave.

02-23-2015, 10:17 AM	#356 (permalink)
Urban Hat€monger ? The Sexual Intellectual Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Somewhere cooler than you Posts: 18,605	It's almost 30 years since Live Aid happened and to celebrate this I thought I would take a look at the commemorative DVD that was released a while back that my mother bought for me one Christmas a few years back that still remains unopened to this day. My memories of the day itself are a little sketchy but surprisingly accurate when I looked at the playing times of the bands performing that day. I remember watching the beginning with Status Quo and I remember staying around to watch Adam Ant just after 1pm (Being a huge Adam Ant fan at the time). After that I took off and spent the afternoon in the local video game arcade before returning home around 5.30 for my dinner just in time to see U2 finish their set and watch Queen & Bowie play before taking off again to go outside to play football. I remember coming back in sometime around 9pm when it started getting dark & watching Paul McCartney and the finale at Wembley. After that I remember being left alone to stay up late after my parents went to bed so that I could watch Duran Duran play in Philadelphia but I decided I was too tired to sit through a bunch of American bands I'd never heard of beforehand and decided to just go to bed after all. Just as well because they didn't come onstage until 1.45am, almost 4 hours later. I also remember around this time my Dad was trying his hardest to stop me playing video games all day and had got me into stamp collecting to achieve this and I remember in the morning being driven into town to the philatelist shop and picking up a first day cover of the Live Aid commemorative stamps with the postmark of 13th July 1985 stamped over them. I still have it, I wonder how much that's worth now? So those are my recollections of the day, let's see what's on this DVD. DISC 1 : PART 1 Intro "It's 12 noon in London, 7am in Philadelphia and around the world it's time for Live Aid....." Fanfares go off as Charles & Di take their seats. Nice to see Geldof made an effort, and oh look there's Brian May and his perm. Chilling to think that just 15 years later the two women in this picture would be dead. A short blast of God Save The Queen (Not the Sex Pistols version sadly) and then we're off and rockin'...... *-* Status Quo Rockin' All Over The World Caroline Don't Waste My Time (n/a) It's easy to knock the Quo and I have several thousand times but you really can't fault them when you put them in front of a live audience. Right from the opening bars of 'Rockin' All Over The World' the crowd are totally into it and singing along loudly. They then hurtle straight into another old favourite with 'Caroline' keeping the fast paced momentum going. They played another song 'Don't Waste My Time' but it wasn't included on the DVD. Rather than go through every song not played on the DVD I'll just list them as red under the title. That song isn't really needed though. You pretty much get the message from the first two songs. Quo nailed it on the day and played brilliantly and you struggle to think who could have made such an instant reaction opening with that crowd at such a huge gig. Fair play to Quo for having the balls to do it. This was also original bassist Alan 'Bomber' Lancaster's last gig with the band. He would leave the band shortly after this and emigrate to Australia. They would still have hits and be hugely popular in Europe in the following years but they were never really the same after his departure. *-* The Style Council You're the Best Thing (n/a) Big Boss Groove (n/a) Internationalists Walls Come Tumbling Down 'Internationalists' seems like an odd choice to include here seeing as 'You're the Best Thing' was a massive hit for them around this time and is still one of their most remembered songs. It maybe be a timing issue with 'Internationalists' being half the length of 'You're the Best Thing' but as Paul Weller says in the intro to the song it is kind of appropriate given the nature of the gig, and it's still an enjoyable energetic jazz funk work out. Their set is rounded off with an frantic run through of 'Walls Come Tumbling Down' which is one of my favourite pop songs of the era. A good set overall but let's be honest we'd have all rather have seen The Jam instead. If only they could have kept it together another couple of years. *-* The Boomtown Rats I Don't Like Mondays Drag Me Down Rat Trap (n/a) Of course Geldof was going to play this gig but a lot of people felt he shouldn't seeing The Boomtown Rats hadn't had a hit in about 5 years at that point, which is kind of hypocritical given his treatment of Adam Ant (More in the next entry). The Boomtown Rats would break up completely the following year. Having said that 'I Don't Like Mondays' goes down a storm with the crowd singing along with every word. Next up is 'Drag Me Down' which seems an odd choice given that they also played 'Rat Trap' that was a huge hit and 'Drag Me Down' only got to No. 50 in the chart when it was released as a single the year before. In fact I don't think I'd even heard 'Drag Me Down' before I watched this. Global Jukebox eh Bob? As the band leave the stage the crowd breaks out into a well deserved spontaneous rendition of 'For He's a Jolly Good Fellow' in honour of Geldof. *-* Adam Ant Vive Le Rock The story goes that Adam Ant had kept bothering Geldof for a spot on the bill despite Geldof telling him there wasn't any room. In reality Geldof felt that Adam wasn't a big enough name not having a hit single for 3 years (Kind of ironic Geldof hadn't had one in 5 years). Adam was desperate to play as he had released his first single while taking a 3 year hiatus to attempt to become an actor in Hollywood. Eventually Geldof offered him one song and Adam accepted. He then went on to piss a lot of people off on the day by ignoring the whole Global Jukebox concept and playing his new single 'Vive Le Rock' which virtually none of the crowd had even heard at that point. Watching it you can see half the crowd into it and the other half looking around lost and bewildered. I mean it was his best single in years but that was kind of besides the point. I remember being really disappointed with this as a kid not getting to hear stuff like 'Antmusic' and 'Stand & Deliver' on the big stage, but looking at this now knowing the back story behind it all he did a decent job of putting in an energetic performance for what he did. *-* Ultravox Reap The Wild Wind (n/a) Dancing With Tears In My Eyes One Small Day (n/a) Vienna Now It's the turn of Geldof's right hand man Midge Ure to take the stage with Ultravox. Ultravox at this point were probably the biggest they had ever been with a string of successful album going back to 1979 when Ure had first joined them. However this was also pretty much the end of that run, just 3 months later Ure would release his first solo album and eventually leave the band completely 2 years later. There's a really interesting dynamic here, this seems to be the Midge Ure show with him pushed right to the front of the stage with the rest of the band right at the back of the stage barely in shot a lot of the time. The sound during this is really odd too, Ultravox during this time consisted of two synth players and a drummer with Ure on guitar and vocals and the lack of a bass makes the whole thing seem rather tinny and lightweight. Ure's guitar has the sound of some grimy garage band and is a total contrast to the clean synths which really makes an otherwise nice pop song like 'Dancing With Tears In Your Eyes' sound like it rocks pretty hard... I approve of this. Of course 'Vienna' is next, it's not as lush as it's studio counterpart but it's performed well enough, but the lack of any bass really makes it suffer. Other than a couple of complaints this is a good decent set. *-* Spandau Ballet Only When You Leave Virgin (n/a) True Another band who were at their peak when this was recorded and dear God look at those costumes, it can only be the mid 80s. There's Tony Hadley (Who I have a lot of time for as a vocalist) in a full length leather coat and pants in the middle of July,would hate to be his girlfriend at the end of the night. Then there's Martin Kemp (Who I have a lot of time for as a actor) in that ridiculous turquoise get up and Gary Kemp (Who I have a lot of time for as a ...... OK i'll get back to you on this) who looks like he turned up in his pyjama bottoms and a hi-vis jacket from someone directing the traffic. As for Spandau Ballet themselves, they're probably one of the most unfashionable bands to like, both back then and now. I have some time for them, I loved their first couple of albums which were more kind of Synth pop/new romantic orientated but lost interest when they essentially became a white soul band singing sappy ballads. Sadly in 1985 were right at the heart of white sappy ballad territory. Having said that 'Only When You Leave' is one of their better later songs and they play this note perfect. The second track 'Virgin' which isn't included here I'd never heard of. I looked it up and it appears to be just an album track of the album they released the following year...naughty. Their set is finished off as you would expect with 'True' I don't know if they were being told to hurry up but they sing this song at rather a speedy pace, which for a slow ballad sounds kind of strange, almost comical in fact. All the girls singalong to it, the band take their bows and everybody leaves happy. Would have been nice to hear maybe one of their earlier singles but this set wasn't as bad as I was expecting. *-* It's 9am in Philadelphia and Joan Baez kicks off the festivities at the J.F.K. Stadium with a rendition of Amazing Grace (Later on the DVD) *-* Elvis Costello All You Need Is Love Back in London Elvis Costello takes the stage along with just a guitar and tells the crowd he wants them "To help him sing a old northern English folk song" before going into 'All You Need Is Love' It's simple, yet effective. The crowd sing a long to every word, Costello sings it in his own unique way and it's just an all round enjoyable almost kind of spontaneous performance. One of the highlights of the day this one. *-* Nik Kershaw Wide Boy (n/a) Don Quixote (n/a) The Riddle (n/a) Wouldn't It Be Good If you ever want to study the fickleness of popular music you only have to look at Nik Kershaw at Live Aid. Just a year earlier he'd released 2 albums and was having hit single after hit single, putting him on this bill seemed a no brainer. Yet just a month later Kershaw would release 'Don Quixote' the final single from his album of the previous year which would be his last ever top 10 hit. After playing guitar on a couple of Elton John songs his slide back into obscurity would begin. And it seems the BBC felt he was only deserving of one song being broadcast too. Kershaw said later on that he was nervous as hell onstage and it shows in the one song we do get 'Wouldn't It Be Good', probably his most well known song. He seems to be rooted behind the mic stand showing no personality whatsoever in fact I think at the end of the song when he punches the air and runs up to the drum riser is the most personality he shows throughout the whole song. The crowd seem to be kind of into it but to me now this seems to be the first misfire of the day. *-* Wow all that and we're barely up to the halfway point of Disc 1. Part 2 coming very soon. *-* __________________ Urb's RYM Stuff Most people sell their soul to the devil, but the devil sells his soul to Nick Cave. Last edited by Urban Hat€monger ?; 02-23-2015 at 10:40 AM.

02-23-2015, 10:30 AM	#358 (permalink)
Urban Hat€monger ? The Sexual Intellectual Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Somewhere cooler than you Posts: 18,605	That was the first Billy Childish album I ever bought and it's still my favourite. __________________ Urb's RYM Stuff Most people sell their soul to the devil, but the devil sells his soul to Nick Cave.

02-23-2015, 05:09 PM	#359 (permalink)
~~James~~ Account Disabled Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Scotland Posts: 4,483	Band Aid. So much nostalgia. Videos and compilations were all over my house, and occasionally played. I might revisit some of these performances for the good and the bad (comical value).