The Levellers - Zeitgeist

16 already!!

The Levellers - Zeitgeist
The Levellers fourth album, and follow up to the disappointing 'Levellers', was a spralling 13 track angst folk classic.
Opening with the lottery sneering single 'Hope Street' the song showed a departure from the usual thumping fiddle-led sound, and instead with a slide guitar and loose hi-hats.
'The Fear' saw the Brighton band tread on more familar ground with throbbing bass lines and wirling fiddles. Whenever the pace quickens throughout a Levellers' song, their punk influences are more easily seen (The Clash / Crass). This particularly comes across on The Fear, the way Mark Chadwick and Simon Friend trade chords -  it's as if they were Strummer And Jones.
Next up is 'Exodus' a tribute to the New Age rave scene, that brought collectives like Back To The Planet and Spiral Tribe Soundsystem to the fore. The song has a big sing-a-long chorus as well as some experimental touches. However they do not lose sight of their own sound which makes you want to dance in bare feet under the stars near ancient landmarks.
A tender acoustic guitar and what sounds like a Wurlitzer organ open 'Maid Of The River', a beautifully touching ballad that has an almost historical feel.
I think just as tradional folk fans were beginning to get to grips with the disc, they, The Levellers, knock them into submission with a couple of out and out rockers!!
Firstly '4 AM', a song whos lyrical content I believe most of us can relate to; The story of staying up with friends and strangers, drinking smoking and putting the world to rights.
The other rocker of this album is 'Leave This Town', on this track Jon Sevink's fiddle playing is surpassingly good. Class!
The second single 'Fantasy' is the perfect song to play to anyone who hasn't ever heard a Levellers track, nice structure understated playing with all the pieces there in the right place.
The third and final song released as a single was a re-recorded version of 'Just The One' which was extended from the minute and a half version on the album. An ok track but it does feature a hero of mine - the one and only Joe Strummer on piano.
As we near the end of the album, the Levellers tucked away the most experminental track 'PC Keen'. This is a dark and disturbing composition compared with the lightness of the majority of the record. A superfluous social commentary.
The last song on the disc takes us back to the 'Levelling The Land' days, Men-An-Tol is the lost cousin of 'Sell Out'. An atmospheric pagan tale of belonging. Quite a wonder!!
Live Version Of Men-An-Tol
In all With 'Zeitgeist' The Levellers proved once again that they were still angry and very expressive with their charged views, despite their previous success.
A really great album that I was excited to re-visit.

Why I ♥ This Album

Note! Some names may have been changed to protect my innocence!
I still remember the first time we laughed together, we were sat in the smoking area at the local department store where we both worked. Someone had loaned a few women's lifestyle magazines to the smokers and had unwittingly filled out one of those relationship quizzes that you find in those types of magazines. As we were sat there I had tears rolling down my cheeks, my sides ached as we disected all the answers that had been marked.....
I made a mental note to myself that not only was she beautiful she also made me roar with laughter. I wanted to know this girl a little bit more, but would she be willing to get to know this long haired lad from the Delivery Department - after all she was Management!
I made a few enquires about her relationship status and found out that she had recently made herself available after a long term relationship. I expect I punched the air at that moment.
I, myself, was between girlfiends at the time. My intended had gone away for a while and another, who I liked as well, was a little complicated (yay didn't use names afterall).
It took a lot of courage for me to approach this unseemingly out of reach beauty about maybe going for a drink (I am really quite shy, honest). However, in the end I suggested was maybe a picinic in the local park one lunchtime.
I was agast when this stunning woman agreed and a date was set. As all great arranged things, it didn't quite go to plan.. .... we ended up having a meal at our mutual friend Lynwyn's house one evening instead, due to bad weather.
So there we were the three of us!! After good food, laughter and Zeitgeist playing in the background it was time to make my move.
But does she really like me? Or should I go for Lynwyn instead who, afterall, was a known safe bet? I didn't fancy being rejected. My brain was all a buzz...what to do?
The end ................ or was it?????????????
Oh come on! A gentleman never tells. But here's a clue to what happened -  that beautiful woman is now my wife. The Levellers rock!



My Beautiful Wife



David Lee Roth - Skyscraper

Number 15 up next .....

David Lee Roth - Skyscraper
The second solo outing from the Van Halen vocalist was released in 1988, the album featured (like the first) a supergroup of Virtuoso musicians, as well as the ultimate showman Mr Roth.
The album has not really stood the test of time, the production in parts seem a little pedestrian and the songs sound as though they could have had a little more time spent on them.
Guitarist Steve Vai's imprint is, however, weaved everywhere through this collection. His playing is outstanding, as is bassist Billy Sheehan. David's decision to not use long time producer Ted Templeton, and produce it himself with Vai as co-pilot, gave the album a more commercial and varied sound than its predecessor 'Eat 'Em And Smile'. This can certainly be heard on lead track 'Just Like Paradise', a top 10 hit in the States at the time. It is a song that is a fist in the air anthem and a good sing-along albeit a tad sugary.
Just Like Paradise Video
To satisfy Roth's rock fans he brought you 'Hotdog And Shake','Bottom Line' and opener 'Knucklebones'. 'Knucklebones', in particular, is a great song. The vocal production is superb with the way the two different Roth vocals comes through the speakers, one urgent and rocking and the next laidback and relaxed (listen to it through headphones and see if you can hear it).
The album also suffered from having to much of Brett Tuggle's keyboards on it, especially on the last half. Tracks like 'Stand Up' and 'Hina' come off worse because of it.
It wasn't all bad though, the title track is easily the most experimental song here. I wasn't really a fan of it back in 1988 (see below) but listening back to it now, it is the most interesting song that Roth did on any of his solo releases. I think Vai took some of the ideas from here as a template for his own Passion And Warfare release in 1990.
As with any rock hard rock album of the era, you had to have an acoustic ballad on it and 'Skyscraper' was no different. 'Damn Good' was a cut above the other ballad realeases by young pretenders like Warrant and Cinderella. The guitar work is reminiscent of Jimmy Page in his acoustic mode. Nothing was over complicated on the song and that made it sparkle.
The album closed with David Lee Roth becoming more of the lounge lizard persona that he used to great affect on his 'Crazy From The Heat' EP in 1985. 'Two Fools A Minute' is funky and jazzy with horn sections
and doo wop backing vocals. A nice close.

Why I ♥ This Album

November 15th 1988 Wembley Arena. That was the date and the venue for possibly one of the greatest shows that I have EVER seen in my life, David Lee Roth!!!!
I was so looking forward to going to this show for so long, David Lee Roth was a big big musical hero of mine up there with Kiss & Maiden.
I had booked the tickets way back in April via Touchan Travel in the Chantry Centre (Andover) for my girlfriend and me.

Ticket & Programme

In the end her parents wouldn't allow her to go, even though we had arranged to go on a coach to the venue and back! So my constant concert companion Paul came along instead.
The tickets were not the best in the world at first glance, we were about two thirds of the way back from the stage. We were a little dissapointed with that but hey we were there to party!
The support band were a big let down (Zinatra???) I must have been spoiled by the support bands that I had seen previously at Wembley (Loverboy & Kings Of The Sun).
Neverless in a blaze of lights, sound and copious amounts of dry ice the band appeared playing the opening strains of 'Bottom Line' and out pranced the Master of Ceremonies himself, Mr Roth armed only with his microphone and with a 'licence to party' (his words not mine). David reeled off all his on stage banter, that many of his fans have heard time and time before, but it is never tiresome. He had the crowd in the palm of his hand throughout.
The band weren't shabby either. Big cheers were heard for the three necked heart shaped Ibanez that Steve Vai plays on 'Just Like Paradise', worthy of note was Matt Bissonette on bass who had some big shoes to fill with Billy Sheehan having left, before the tour started to form Mr Big.
Anyway back to the show, I missed one song as my um.. bladder couldn't hold on. I heard the opening strains to 'Skyscraper' a song I wasn't particularly fond of at the time and made a run for it. You can tell how good a show is by the lack of queue in the toilets..... no one there!!!
Got back in time to see the last 20 seconds of the song and asked Paul if I missed much. He stated it was the best song of the night so far! The energy was relentless, not a note dropped either.
Steel Drums were rolled on the whole part took part in a instrumental that invoved the usual cut the audence down in half and see which cheers loudest.
The best part of the concert was just around the corner as the band were doing their instrumental showing off, no one noticed David climbing on a rope across the ceiling of the arena. As the opening chords of the Van Halen classic 'Panama' rang out from the stage, Dave dropped on to a tiny stage just behind the sound/lighting desk that was also not far away from our seats... (this is used a lot by bands now in arena shows, but back then it was quite innovative). So noow the question was how would he get back to the stage? Run back? NO!
Why didn't I guess that he would be travelling back to the stage on a surfboard whilst singing the Beach Boys song 'California Girls'!!!! silly me.
After bringing down the house with his encore of 'Jump' I left Wembley in awe at such a showstopping performance.

Back Cover Of Japanese Bootleg

Depeche Mode - Black Celebration

Number 14

Depeche Mode - Black Celebration
If in 1986 your life was dark and claustophobic, yet powerful, this would have been your soundtrack! With this release, the synth kings from Basildon were moving further from their pop beginnings, that they had with Vince Clarke, and were becoming less predicable and a more sullen.
Dave Gahan (Vocalist) sounds a lot more mature and relaxed throughout this album especially on the opener / title track 'Black Celebration'.
On the next track 'Fly On The Windscreen' the group begin to sound like the Depeche we know of now; a magical mix of vocal sampling with a keyboard grandeur that comes across as almost sexual!
Talking of sexual, 'Question Of Lust' follows - this is the first of 5 tracks that are sung by keyboardist Martin Gore. Here he shows a sense of vunrability that I feel Gahan couldn't bring to this type of song. In my opinion no one does these sort of searing ballads better than Depeche Mode.
Martin Gore again takes up the lead vocals on 'Sometimes' a tender piano ballad with sweeping vocal overlays.
'It Doesn't Matter Two' is the most original with a mix of musical tubes and sampled chanting (this was 'borrowed' to good effect for the beginning of Queen's song 'I'm Going Slightly Mad').
'A Question Of Time' is a slightly disturbing song lyrically about a older man chasing a young girl for his own sexual needs. This was released as a single in a more hi-temp disco version. However the album version is far superior with it's slight mis-timing and slow burning atmosphere. This adds to the sinister nature of the subject. A live favourite!
Another song that the band still perform to great effect, is 'Stripped'. It's an emotional and intimate song that explores yet more sexual feelings. Far from being overly explicit, again Depeche Mode excel at a ballad, making it beautiful with no bland schmutz on the horizon.
Official Video Of 'Stripped'
'Dressed In Black' is the perfect accompaniment to late night brooding, a dark and simple song. The dressing theme continues with 'New Dress'.
'New Dress' seems to have a nod towards the electro stylings of Arthur Baker (pioneer hip hop producer) added with a dash of Depeche synth. However, what does make this song fairly interesting in passing are the lyrics. For once Depeche Mode go a little policitical by studying the newspaper headlines of the day.
How times have changed in the press as here the headlines read "Sex jibe husband murders wife", "In black townships fires blaze" and "Famine horror, millions die".These would no longer make the front page now due to this country's obsession with celebrity. There is a little reference though towards the only celeb who mattered back in 1986 -
"Princes Di is wearing a new dress".
On the version of the album that I have includes a few extra tracks that weren't on the original release. Nonetheless this really does not add anything particularly to the album.
This was a great album in 1986 but Depeche Mode easily surpassed this with future releases, but 'Black Celebration' was a snap shot of where they were at the time.
A worthy purchase for any collection.

Why I ♥ This Album

March 1986 (when Black Celebration was released) was a hard time for me. My mum and step-father had moved my brother and myself to Andover form Basingstoke a little
over a year earlier. I was finding it difficult to adapt to a new school whilst trying to make new friends.
In Basingstoke I had been through infants and junior schools with pretty much the same people and formed strong bonds there. We all knew each other so well, I know the estate was a little rough but
it was the sort area where we all looked out for each other,Kicked balls around late into the evening etc. I would even go as far to say that infact I was kind of popular!!.
So there I was in a new town living a different lifestyle, that was not through my choice. There seemed to be no community, which was foreign to me. It was a place where one would know theire next door neighbour and possibly the people opposite and that was about it. Of course, having no history with anyone didn't help either.
At school I wasn't tagged with the outcasts nor with the popular kids. I was just invisible, a ghost in the corridors. Don't get me wrong I did make some friends, at the time, but nothing on the level that I had in 'stoke. It was a real knock to my confidence which in turn made me lose interest in schooling. Geography was a big subject for me back at my old school (O-Level A/B grade predicted) and despite having a great teacher at my new one (Mr. George) I just couldn't find the enthusiasm for it.


John Hanson School Andover


When it came to taking my 'options' I just dropped the subject and I didn't really care. During my last year at John Hanson in Andover, I must have attended at least only two dozen maths lessons, opting instead to
spending time at The Gorge Cafe in the Chantry Centre.
Funnily it wasn't until I had left school that some of the friends I had made at school became even better friends. I'm looking forward to sharing stories about them through
this blog............ so watch out for tales and escapades about Des, Candy, Lorraine, Richard, Paul, Keely and Jamie Crouch.
It was also only after finishing school my confidence began to build again, but hey, you know what? I am still very shy really!!!
Even at my darkest moments, the music of Depeche Mode has always been there and helped.

Therapy? - Troublegum

Unlucky for some - Number 13. (I missed my vocation in a bingo hall!)

Therapy? - Troublegum

Drums,saw-buzz guitars and attitude - this album has it all in spades. This disc easily occupies a position in my personal all time top 10.
Northern Ireland's finest hit both their commercial and musicial with 'Troublegum'.Before this album, Therapy? had been building a sizable following with their brand of feedback induced songs and also by supporting any half decent band that toured Ireland. Amongst these were everyone from The Ramones through to Neds Atomic Dustbin.
It was particularly after supporting The Ramones that Therapy? began to introduce some punk melody into their songwriting. They also began to have some chart success with a couple of EP's that preceded 'Troublegum'. Notably with the 'Shortsharpshock' EP which peaked at No.9 on the UK national charts. The lead song from the EP 'Screamager' would appear on the album.
'Screamager' is a song of the highest qualIty, the immense riff and also the way the drumming, by Fye Ewing, carried the melody was particularly impressive. The lyrics were scornful and spoke to anyone who had worthy issues (yep, that was me!).
Promo Video Of Screamager
The first single released from the album was 'Nowhere', a huge sounding song that was everywhere at the beginning of 1994, especially on the rebranded Radio One.
The next single 'Die Laughing' was even better. The claustrophobic sound of the verses that leads into the arms in the air, fist pumping chorus.
However fans of their earlier noisy efforts (Innocent X) were not left out. 'Femtex' was a throwback to that time with it's noisy metalic sound and a hint of melody.
The album is full of highlights, from the opener 'Knives', 'Hellbelly', 'Trigger Inside' - the classics just kept on coming.
The band also pull off a great cover song as well. Andy Cairns vocals on the Joy Divison's 'Isolation' sound as tortured as Ian Curtis's original. The song is just immeasurable.
One thing, in hindsight, is the lyrics - on most of the album they seem to be about being a slightly leftfield teenager fighting with being a bit of a loser in love, unworthyness about oneself and a lot of self abuse. This I feel sat well with the generation of that time.
I cannot recommend this album highly enough. It is a great snapshot of a good time for the, then, new British metal bands like The Wildhearts, Terrorvision, Senseless Things and Skunk Anasie.

Why I ♥ This Album.

1993/4 I was living quite a bohemian lifestyle in Newbury. I had moved into a wonderful house full of colourful characters, who lived many different types of lifestyles. As a collective we were self named as 'The Number 7 Crew'. Amongst the frequent visitors to 'no 7' were a pair of brothers from Hungerford, Jon & Simon Ainge.
Despite being related they were very different from each other, Jon was a little party animal and was an outrageous flirt around the ladies, Simon was more studious but nevertheless still a party animal in his own way. Simon and I found a lot of common ground in music and his knowledge of it was only second to mine! (He will no doubt argue he knew more and was cooler.)

Couldn't find a photo of Simon, so next best thing MOBY!

As I was a fairly straight forward Metal-head his genre of choice was more noise led, eg. anything released on Earache records/Big Black etc. I remember Simon once gave me a compilation tape (not of the loving kind) with some of his favourite bands on. This opened my eyes and ears to some great bands, who I still love to this day.
The tape turned me onto Butthole Surfers, Jesus Lizard, Fishbone, Therapy? and the many works of uber-musician Steve Albini. If it wasn't for this tape I would possibly be as narrow minded about music as some of my friends still are!!!! (hee hee)
Simon said that I could have a copy of any of the albums from the artists on the tape. The one I was desperate for was Therapy?'s but alas it hadn't been released yet.
What a tease...so I had to wait. It was definatly worth it though.
It has been good catching up with Simon recently via FB and talking music again. I am glad that both of our eclectic tastes are still intact and thriving.
Also pleasing is to see that both Jon & Simon seem to have settled down and turned out NORMAL(ish) .
I was also fortunate to see Therapy? in 1994 at Reading Festival where they played a killer set, complete with a celloist and vocals from the great Lesley Rankine (Ruby).