W is for Cymru

I was doing a round-the-world-in-music thingy wasn't I? A quick catch up, we have so far heard from Argentina, Ghana, France, England, Iceland, Japan, Yemen, Brazil and Thailand. Today it's Wales for W. The Cymry themselves prefer Cymru of course, and who am I to argue? Given that the noun Welsh is merely a Germanic word meaning foreigner it must be particularly galling to use.

It seems a bit silly really to use any name for a country other than the name that its inhabitants use. Though to do away with all these other names would be to lose some linguistic biodiversity I suppose. Just had a quick check of the countries so far, the only initial that would change would be J for Japan, becoming instead N for Nihon. Too late now though, and sorry Cymru, I need the W.

To my slight shame I am monoglot, I find the thought of other languages (and language in general) fascinating but lack the capacity for the sustained effort it must take to thoroughly learn another language. I'm determined to learn German and I suppose, given that I sometimes spout off about running away to live in Cymru, Cymraeg wouldn't be a bad one to learn either.  Oh, and Klingon of course.

The three years I spent in Lampeter left very few linguistic traces in my brain. Dim Parcio - No Parking, Disgo Heno! - Disco Tonite!  That second one is related to my favourite fragment, the road sign depicting a bent, elderly couple in Welsh (sorry) bears the word Henoed, that is, people in the evening or twilight of their existence.  Very poetic.

And so finally, the track. It's by the Super Furry Animals, it's from their album Mwng, which is sung entirely in Welsh.

Super Furry Animals ymaelodi a'i ymylon

Return to Wigan

The pre-Christmas ceasefire with my mother-in-law saw me up in Wigan earlier this week.  Normally I'm content to while away the duration out in the sticks, but on this occasion a re-tweet from Pete Paphides had me eager to brave central Wigan's baffling road traffic system. For you see, Static Records has reopened. I wrote a bit about the place once. Too often this blog has documented the closure of beloved eateries and ye olde record shops, so it's nice to see a slight reversal to the trend.

Situated just behind the bus station in what must be Wigan's bohemian quarter (we went to a vegetarian cafe across the road later on) I walked past it once, they haven't got a sign up yet.  I had hoped to be able to take a picture for the post, I just hope when they do get one it'll be as snazzy as the old one.

Anyway, I walked in and started to flip through the first box of records (Soundtracks). The owner emerged and after we'd exchanged hellos he gave me a little sideways look and said he thought he recognised me from the old shop.  Turns out that was ten years ago. Bloody hell. Very gratifying to be remembered. But maybe I need to update my haircut or something.  As I said in my previous post he's a really friendly bloke and we nattered away happily regardless of the ten year hiatus in our acquaintance.

But to business, what did I buy?  As always my wants list evaporated from memory the second I stepped over the shop's threshold so I resorted to looking at every single record in the shop.  I was tempted by a Shangri La's album (Charly reissue of Leader of the Pack) and by Chet Atkins picks on the Beatles whose fantastic sleeve warranted display on the shop's wall. By coincidence I'd given this album a quick listen on Spotify a few days earlier. It's not bad, but I'd have been buying it for the sleeve.

There were others but I'm writing this two days later recovering from the worst hangover I've had in months and my brain feels a bit damaged. I think there were some Jazz things, but they might have been a bit pricier (ie: a tenner each) and in fact they might even have been in a different shop. And an album entitled The Zither Goes Pop, that was definitely in there.

In the end I settled on the first Derek and Clive album and a recording of Old Possum's Book Of Practical Cats (taking in, as the bloke said, both ends of the comedy spectrum). I've never heard the latter, read by the man himself apparently so looking forward to getting that back to the turntable. I was drawn to it by the sleeve, which shows that picture of the Jellicle cats dancing. It freaks me out a bit, they look so weird.

So there you are, if you're a seeker-out of vinyl and you ever find yourself in Wigan now you know where to go.

Mod commandments

Thou shalt not wear anything with the word Mod emblazoned upon it. Or a roundel. Or a Union Jack.

Thou shalt not wear a track suit top (not even one of those nice Fila ones). Unless on your way to or from some kind of sporting activity.

Similarly, thou shalt not wear bowling shoes unless thou be bowling.

Thou shalt not wear a pork pie hat. Unless you are an elderly black man. Which you are not.

Thou shalt have no polo shirts but Fred Perry

Thou shalt not have a handkerchief poking out of the breast pocket of thy Crombie coat.

Thou shalt not wear braces

What's it all about?

I thought that news story a couple of weeks ago about the IRA stealing some hunting rifles was a bit weird. Whether through donations or proceeds of other activities you'd think they'd have enough money just to buy the rifles? I daresay anyone buying that kind of thing in Northern Ireland probably attracts some attention, but not as much as by robbing them. 

I'm sure this story, like any story about the IRA, could only appear in the British media with the blessing (if not the outright authorship) of the secret service. What does it all mean?

Quick death

Zooming up the M1 the other day I spotted one of these beauties (just before Chesterfield I think). In previous posts I've touched on some other aspects of my ideal funeral (tunes to be played, type of coffin) now we have the conveyance. Yes, it's all falling nicely into place.

Delving into the origins of House music

I like to think there's always been a dance element to this blog. This has been blowing my mind all week.  Incredibly, recorded in 1979 or something.  I find I can't get behind stuff like the Silver Apples and Delia Derbyshire, and perhaps this starts to betray its origins towards the end a bit, but really an early electronic track that doesn't embarrass itself at all.

Bruce Haack Stand Up Lazarus

Art space continuum

The latest release from Spacemen 3. Its arrival on our doormat yesterday prompted some eye rolling from my wife, "Just look at it as an investment", I protested. It probably would be too, if only I didn't keep playing it. I'm not posting the music, just the sleeve art. Beautiful isn't it? Reminds me of this.

Other thanTransparent Radiation and Playing With Fire, I don't find their sleeves that inspiring, in fact the sleeve for my favourite album, the Perfect Prescription, is laughably bad.  But, I'm on a mailing list and a bit back they (every member of Spacemen 3 bar Jason Pierce) played a gig in Hoxton to promote an exhibition of Natty Brooker's artwork which included some of their sleeves.

The alert went out on the day of the show and I read about it at about the time it was taking place. I was a bit pissed off about that. However, in a slightly bizarre twist I did get to see the artwork. The thing in London was the penultimate show in an itinerary that had taken in Berlin, Los Angeles, Copenhagen and Glasgow.  So far, so hip.  The last show was in Sheffield and, by fluke, on a day that I was due to be up there.  Much as I love the place it seemed a slightly incongruous finale.

Anyway, I drove out to the sleepy suburb of Totley and eventually found the gallery.  It was full of watercolours of poppies and other Jack Vettriano-type stuff.  I thought I must have got the wrong place, but I hadn't seen any other, more psychedelic looking galleries on the high street. A young, pleasant but totally not into it assistant guided me to a shed in the back where I found Natty's pictures haphazardly propped up against the walls.  I've probably spent too long going on about this, but I just found it so weird. Like, why Totley?

Thai beat

From the excellent Thai Funk Vol 1.  This is track one, side one and my favourite track on the album.  Those opening four strums of the guitar, I think I could probably listen to that noise over and over for....quite a while (with the rhythm second playing in the background of course).

The rest of the album is far more disco and quite a bit weirder, tracks that stand out being cover versions of Funky Town, Rasputin, Another Brick in the Wall and an original track the title of which translates as May You Die In A Hail Of Bullets, or something like that.

Researching the post I discovered that the track should be credited to Louise Kennedy rather than Louis Kennedy and that it's basically a retread of Green Onions.  So I wonder just how authentically Thai the whole thing is.

Louise Kennedy Pu Yai Lee (Chief Lee)

Cool cover

It was always going to be Brazil for B.  Os Mutantes were the hot favourites until I found this album in a charity shop a few days ago.  I bought it for the cover really and a feeling I had that you can't go wrong with Sergio Mendes.  So apologies for being a bit predictable (and I've gone for the Beatles cover as well).

Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 With A Little Help From My Friends

When I'm in charge pt. 934

It's depressing, looking out of a train window for the last five minutes of a journey, as it pulls into any English town, certainly Sheffield.  They've obviously spent a lot of money tarting up the station and the bit of town immediately beyond its doors.  But what's the point if along side the tracks running into the station there's a ton of discarded crap - giant plastic paint tubs, other mangled bits of plastic, split sacks of cement, and those over-sized cardboard bobbins.

If I were in charge the approach to the station (for a distance of a mile or so) would be something along the lines of the hanging gardens of Babylon - with waterfalls and stuff.  In fact the train could drive through a waterfall!  It'd look cool and clean the train at the same time.