August 22nd 1978 was the actual date from the five night run of gigs ULTRAVOX! had at the Marquee where I took photos. They liked to keep things fairly sparse with their lighting, and in a couple of numbers it would be strobes only, so I’m relieved I got some decent shots.
A year later I’m back there for PUNISHMENT OF LUXURY who were always fun, supported by THE PHOTOS, who were even better.
22nd August 1994 saw me squeeze into the Dublin Castle for S*M*A*S*H (separate gallery posted today for paid subscribers), supported by SPACEMAID.
22nd August 1995 and it’s HONEY RIDER at the Falcon.
Livejournal to the rescue!
22 August 2002
NIHIL COMMUNICATIONS - Ten Thousand Things 2002
Now this takes a little getting used to but, like most great things, can bring surprising benefits. It isn’t easy, but then why on Earth should it be? It is on the fringes of experimental music, but doesn’t have a twittery New Age faux senility, and it’s doesn’t go near the angst of the dank Cold Meat Industries hard ambient ear-killing fields. It’s different, and put together by André Custodio who obligingly describes himself as ‘Sound Designer - Composer - Dunce’. It’s not pretty, but you’d need to redefine things to call it ugly, because the only rules which apply here are your own. Can you take it, and having done so, use it?
If I say track 1 sounds like a troll threatening some Tibetan horn player, that hardly helps, but track 2 allows a slowly encroaching mood to gather in your room, making noises that sound as though they’re outside. It makes an impression, and causes unease initially, reminding me of when you wake troubled from what could hardly be called lucid dreams - you’re semi-conscious but drifting and thoughts circle. That’s what this is like – it vaguely fits, has form, and fills the room rather subversively. On a musical level it’s more of a whirring noise, and a machinery rhythm but divorced from Industrial experiments in this line. These are subtle creations. Not ghosts in the machine so much as ghosts of the machine. Sitting here at the pc with the speakers behind me it’s as though there’s a portal opening behind me that I’m deliberately ignoring.
Despite being rudimentary and supposedly empty, none of these are actually quiet. It’s close to ambient washes but in a diseased way, like standing beneath power cables when the air hums. He’s got a few things happening in very thin layers, making strange music, creepy rustling, often with an ominous build in the sound before the fog closes in again
Occasionally there’s audible noise at the periphery but far from atonal, like Gregorian chanting but from a distance - monastic mumbling? - feeling very desolate and disturbed. And sometimes it’s mad. I haven’t bothered giving titles to these pieces because track 1 is ‘I’, then track 2 is ‘V’, which then runs consecutively until the closing track 8 which is ‘XI’ but ‘VIII’ 5 has mischievously curly sounds, from curlews perhaps (here’s hoping), but reminding me of old science films (crossed with Clangers, which may not mean much outside of the UK!), where two sound waves are seen bending on a tiny screen and the helpful professor turns up the volume and you hear the pitch change. It’s almost, unintentionally, aboriginal, but then slips back to the tones, the curlews, the late night lakeside nightmares.
Once it offers garbled, mood music with vibrations gathering mournfully around pretty, listless keyboard notes but also – weirdly – lots of virtual nothingness going on for a while which leaves you in suspense wondering what the hell is happening and, more ominously, coming? You get used to melodramatic lowing, with crackles and an abrupt end or disembodied voices sweeping by, otherworldly an closest to a full blooded thing, but still a thing.
I wouldn’t have thought I’d be playing this more than any of the other CDs I have stacked around me, but it’s a fascinating record, being perfectly fitting background while working or reading horror, but also bringing in a peaceful mood, and André himself says his semi-improvised electroacoustic stuff creates ‘meditative spaces with occasional excursions into the realms of noise’ It doesn’t make you stop, slightly, even if it can’t make you think.
I bet he looks normal, but bites if approached.
http://home.attbi.com/~custodio2/
August 22nd, 2004
CLAN OF XYMOX Having reached their 20th anniversary a retrospective compilation seems entirely natural although, as Ronny’s jolly sleeve notes reveal, 4AD material has been re-recorded, and I can’t blame him for wanting to upgrade those chintzy recordings, as the clash between old and new would have very clear. It’s a quality release of more interest to new fans rather than old, because it serves as an inducement to investigate earlier works. Not being a knowledgeable fan myself I was relaxed and entertained by it. They’re not the deepest, darkest band, or the most savagely experimental or ultra-exciting, nor do they pretend to be. This is a cool, composed sound, well suited to accentuating mood.
THE BEST OF
Pandaimonium
As ‘There’s No Tomorrow’ shows they can have a strident bass, but there’ll be cleverly restrained vocals which have acquired reach character, so it needn’t be noisy. ‘Jasmin And Rose’ allows guitar to shine through and comes with a serious trad Goth delivery. ‘I Want You Now’ has brighter guitar and clever synth development, with a stark chorus making it seem leaner, where ‘A Day’ has a dancier rhythm but still a cute feel. All these are subtle shades of one basic approach, before ‘Louise’ gets lighter still and more thoughtful. ‘Consolation’ starts with weird humming and then serves as a reminder of ‘Floodlands’-era Sisters, and ‘This World’ opts for standard linear Goth, but upping the elegance, ‘Innocent’ starts slow but builds in very small steps, creating a subtle drama, while ‘Into Extremes’ does the Sisters trick again, only livelier. Big guitar kicks ‘Out Of The Rain’ into action, and it wriggles with more life than most, before the deep vocals and acoustic make ‘Muscoviet Musquito’ plain weird, and the 80’s Europop bluster of ‘Back Door’ seems quite out of place. ‘Farewell’ allows the synth to change the lower mood with its stronger rhythm, then ‘Stranger’ is a pretty nothing, but an interesting composition involving more space and jangling inserts. Show’s over. I’m not sure it actually is the Best Of, but it works amazingly well as an album in its own right.
http://www.pandaimonium.com
COMETH THE HOUR, COMETH THE FIREMAN……
Nicked the picture from glitterrose who carries news of the Boscastle Witches Museum appeal. You should go there and read her journal anyway, as it’s always involved and part grim/part jubilant, but the Museum links are worth following, and any Pagan will doubtless feel inspired to contribute as they have special artefacts there. The place is knee-deep in mud and will create quite a problem for them in terms of cleaning, restoring and possibly storage. When I saw the shocking flood footage I never realised I’d actually been there before, but reading about the museum I recalled going there the day I saw Tintagel as a kid. It thrilled me, far more than the castle. I recall there being weird glass jars full of deformed species, like double-headed lambs, and weird implements such as a whip made from a bull’s penis. My mum and dad were appalled and tried to usher me out, having considered it a grave mistake to enter, believing it wasn’t safe. About an hour later I almost fell off a cliff in the rain, which just goes to show how much parents know!
August 22nd, 2005
THE CARPETTES It Really Well, now there’s something else. The first comeback releases still contained the two main songwriters, George Maddison and Neil Thompson, both of whom always sang. Then Neil fell away, leaving George with the choice of carrying on or consigning everything to memory, and sensibly he chose the former option. Now with Jimmy Deville (yeah, right!) on guitar and Jim Cosgrove on drums, they’ve found themselves a new recording home on an American label, self-professed providers of ‘mind-blowing pieces of plastic for discerning music lovers’. It starts with a plain punk platform during which the heavier Deville guitar comes through in ‘Nothing At All’, all very neat and trim with the tight chord work essential to the Carpettes sound. Then they start to get moving. ‘Steal Your Thunder’ sticks to the choppier style, which is what makes sense, as it works as well. Clear, sharp melodic punk it may be, but it’s also like a far more direct form of indie music for students who don’t want the corporate variety the NME loves. Out comes an earlier song, ‘I Don’t Like You’ with their traditional vocal directness and shambolic emotional attitude. It’s ‘Heddy’ shows the more sensitive side, but it’s also got their thumping signature approach, being restrained, and that’s where their sound actually comes from. Nobody else was doing this in Punk until they did as everyone else was, quite naturally, going for hard fast styles, but while The Carpettes could do that they mainly managed to produce a fuller, streamlined sound. Nowadays loads of people do this, but they got there first and while there’s a weird drum sound here, the power is in place. ‘Taking It Bad’ has scrawny post-r’n’r guitar billowing beautifully over a snotty spat made musical and ‘Stop Me’ is a fantastic little oik of a song, which ends far too quickly! ‘Black/White/Wrong/Right?’ charges along with some wonderfully deft lifts and surges. ‘Next To You’ treads water, but with gigantic boots, kicking hard, involving the merest reggae twinge, then ‘Waiting For The Dark’ drops down into a morose feel closer to what Dark fans might recognise but a dovetailed energy in there, stamping, and even if ‘Always Wrong’ is fairly ordinary for them it still bustles along confidently, and ‘The Way It Is Today’ purrs perfectly, with a little downbeat feel to their chomping attack. Two bad things. The cover art is rubbish, and a bizarrely weedy ‘Perfect Girl’ has been included. A gormless rocky ballad which suggests senility could finally be creeping in, it should have been discarded and never thought of, or ever referred to again. Luckily they hold back the brilliant ‘Don’t Throw It All Away’ to end with, which is defiant brilliance personified. So – rejoice! Tons of young people obviously appreciate Punk nowadays, who weren’t there first time round, and they often pick up on some fairly weird bands as examples of what represented pure class. I see that happening all over the place, and their choices are all over the place! If you want to know what it’s
THE CARPETTES
DND
http://www.ndnrecords.com
I know nothing of this jazz singer Madeleine Peyroux whose album’s strange rise in the UK Albums chart necessitated strange action by her record company, but this story is just too cute! Hoping to encourage her to undertake some promotional work they discovered she’d vanished. She’d also done this after her last album, busking in France for several years, so this time they turned to a private detective. The commendably honest Bill Holland of Universal Classic & Jazz admitted, “Much to our embarrassment she was with her manager in New York. He said we should go away and leave her alone.”
August 22nd, 2006
A couple of interesting GOTHIC FASHION sites:
http://www.maldavskymoda.2ya.com/
http://www.mundoapartestore.com/
Not entirely sure what’s involved as it’s Argentinian but there’s some nice photos.
Oh Blimey!- http://www.myspace.com/apparitionuk
Oh Dear - http://www.bettycurse.co.uk
Oh Good! - http://www.theagilmore.com/
August 22nd, 2008
HOWLING SAINTS
NEXT DOG SESSION
Own Label
I like this. Spindly guitar flows through the impassioned Romanian Post-Punk on this EP and ‘Negru’ is packed with character as the flinty vocals reach out over the gloopy bass and rolling drums in an engaging nagging manner, the melodic approach well matched by an astringent energy. ‘The River And Martha’ has English lyrics, rumpety-dumpety drums, sharp singing, rusted punk guitar and fluid bass, creating a lively, lolloping experience as lyrics of family woe squeeze like a mental vice.
I didn’t quite make sense of the lyrics in their lightly turbulent ‘Streets Of No Return’ but the lighter caress of the guitar and the light vocal gas provides another view of their sound and its free range spirit is relaxed and ticking demurely but the increasing drama at end is subtle and demanding.
Cool band.
http://www.myspace.com/howlingsaints
RETURN OF THE MACK!
MACK cat has been at home with us now for eight days, having survived his flight from Crete, but it hasn’t been easy. Understandably cantankerous at times, with the way he’s endured upheaval, he is essentially sweet-natured and has so far taken to two of our brood, but he’s had a constant upset tum, and when we took him for his first vet check-up the vet looked at his vivid red gums, which were bleeding in places, and told us he had a 50-50 chance of either having Feline AIDS or Leukaemia, as opposed to the ‘Hello Mack, aren’t you lovely?’ that we were expecting! While we waited, somewhat shocked, for the blood test results we started devising ways the routine of the cats and house could be split so he has much time roaming the house as possible, because he and the others could no longer ever be integrated. It could be done, and he’d still have a happy, safe life, even if it outdoors would be restricted to being taken for a walk on a lead, but we were understandably overjoyed today to learn he’s tested negative for both and just has manky gums! Anyway sssssh, he’s asleep on a box behind me.
22 August 2009
THE EXPLODING BOY
THE EXPLODING BOY
Ad Inexplorata
It’s funny how music can pull you through. If you’ve wondered why things have gone a bit bitty and odd on this journal lately it’s because there’s been some truly awful things happening in my family, and things like that naturally affect your state of mind. I have retreated into working on my archive books (four more will be announced this week), but records like this, music like this, gradually pull you from the quicksand. Thank God!
We’ll come to their new album ‘Afterglow’ in a couple of days but for the time being this a record meriting a push into your face as it excites on any level you could care for. Specifically, in a post-punk infusion of emotive indie guitar it is everything that Light In Your Life weren’t. Indie of that sloppily dated kind is covered in mould before the sounds even reach your ears, while The Exploding Boy match anything you have heard before, but inside that area of noise they then reveal their own character and nuances. Here we find the six piece version of the band, although the sound isn’t choked with any clamour for attention. It is what serves the songs best that gets to breathe.
‘Dazed’ lopes into view with a confident bass stroll and some decorous, gliding guitar. The vocals coast through the luxuriant, subtle throb and modest but catchy melody. ‘Better Than Fine’ bursts straight out of the traps with a refined guitar motif inextricably caught in the hair often singer as they spin through the ashen landscape, kicking up a storm. The fabulous ‘Shot Down’ then oscillates on the spot with true class, the bass shining while bulging through the simmering, rolling guitar, the vocals almost creating an inverse euphoria, like a classic Cure song discovered in a ditch and kicked until it stands and runs around. A zigzagging guitar underscores the sprouting chorus, and as it plunges along the ringing guitar throttles us at the close.
‘It’s Over’ is slower yet equally sturdy, still ludicrously catchy and somehow setting up an enclosing atmosphere as you feel yourself at the still centre of a song with a turbulent, nagging chorus. The sorrowful surrounds of ‘Without Me’ conjure up reassessments of friendships from the past, but while it keeps within settled boundaries it’s still got its own quivering layers of sound whipping against your ears. ‘Cold Things Starts To Burn’ is cooler, starting with a jaunty strum over bracing drums, a devious guitar snaking off and around with another lengthy and bracing chorus, stepping up to and over the mark, the guitar re-doubling its efforts as the drums flash and it teems to a sweet finish.
‘Dust’ is a bit skewed, emptier and jangly like early non-toss Blur, but with a fulsome, dreamy chorus. ‘Show You Me’ remembers I’d mentioned The Cure earlier and goes for a decent sprint through a forest of lush sounds, and then it starts to change as the ghost tree of a singer cast his gaze far and wide, encouraging them to haul up their filthy petticoats and stagger through a curious chorus, in which bitter bass catches the spotlight and there’s an unexpected brittle end. Then they ravage the air with a seedy, undulating ‘What Else Is New’, chunky guitars splintering, committed vocals preening its tatty melodic intentions, and the whole thing is great fun, although fading out is a disappointment. ‘Go Away’ sees us out with some gloomy acoustic, but it remains highly listenable, with an elegant flow, some companionable misery.
A magnificent record, like a sleeker Mega City 4 for the modern age, and anyone who knows me realises that is a mighty accolade.
http://www.myspace.com/theexplodingboyse
August 22nd, 2010
NAUGHTY ZOMBIES
LOST SONGS
Download Zorch Factory
It was a crying shame this band split up in 2008 as they had the potential to become really big, like Lucrate Milk (with better vocals, meets The Cramps, which is something most bands can no longer imagine these days. A perfect fusion of bristling catchy music and sensational; visuals, they had it all, but suddenly pfft…gone. Now you can grab the final songs they’d recorded for free and it’s exciting stuff.
‘Vas a ser mi Esclavo’ ) is their effusive punk side, rising in the oven with some synth yeast, and dashing off with rhythmical verve, scalded vocals, escalating drum bursts and neatly etched guitar. ‘El Baile de la Muerte’ is even more delish in its terse intensity and like a modern transplant of the UK82 Punk sound, synth whooshing in the background like pogoing cybermen. (I kid you not.) ‘Hospital’ drops down a gear and gets into a glistening Link Wray crouch, the vocals still cling to the rafters, but the guitar is filthy and low,
A streamlined and brief ‘I Hate You’ is starker punk with a bracing synth push and jabbing chorus like a version of Blondie from Hell. ‘Psiquiatrico’ has more weight in musical thought, offering mood in place of mischief, sensitive synth touches, vocals held off the throttle and a slicker beat. ‘Absolution’ starts tiny and tinny, but soon foams over with delicate but insistent guitar and some calmer vocal style. This is a more ‘mature’ sound and chunky, but without being fusty. ‘Nuclear’ starts with dour and noble bass, a smattering of splattering drums, tingly guitar and fiendish vocal finesse, and they’re done!
Great songs but sad to hear as well.
http://www.zorchfactoryrecords.com/official-releases/item/96-naughty-zombies-lost-songs.html
http://www.myspace.com/naughtyzombies
Flyers?
1992
1994
Facebook time!
22 August 2012
Suchard and Mack have had a few physical spats but today Suchard tore down the garden, swivelled round a bush and shot back to launch himself at...the yellow plastic toy. Ten minutes of mental play followed. This is the FIRST time we have seen him doing anything of the kind. A great relief.
This was the only time I ever saw Suchard play like this. Maybe he only felt safe to do it when he knew no other cats were around?
22 August 2016
POLE VAULT: https://www.facebook.com/Catolympics2016/photos/...
STEEPLECHASE: https://www.facebook.com/Catolympics2016/photos/…
CLOSING CEREMONY: https://www.facebook.com/Catolympics2016/photos/...
This is nice, someone started a ZigZag page. https://www.facebook.com/zigzagmagazineuk/
22 August 2018
One of the few neighbours we have in the remote spot we call home rang to enquire whether our water was okay as they had a mere dribble from their taps. Lynda is away but can feel reassured that I am here. After just a few hours of staring gormlessly about I tried the taps again and everything was back to normal. I don’t know how I effected great change, I just did.
22 August 2019
Being vegetarian since I was a kid I know I have vitamin deficiencies. I don’t care. At a cardio checkup at the hospital today Lynda mentioned my GP put me on a course of B12 injections and said I’d need folic acid tablets. I had some at home and started taking them. No, she cried, when we told her, not until the injections had finished, or I could get brain damage!
Me: I don’t remember that!
Lynda: Probably the brain damage.
So, following on from the ADAM & THE ANTS post of yesterday, here we find them at the Lyceum in 1979. Now I saw them there twice that year, and have dates for those but don’t know which one this is from. There was the gig with The Ruts and Essential Logic (April 22nd?) and then with The Monochrome Set and Angelic Upstarts (August 5th?). I do have a solitary photo of Essential Logic at the first gig, but that may have just meant I was at the end of a roil of film, not that I zapped one of them and waited for the Ants, as I would have snapped one of The Ruts first. Confusion!
22 August 2019
Hurray for me! Last week I went to Darwin’s house with Lynda and my sister but while they went on an interesting tour of his plant species experiments in the garden I had to give up after 15 minutes because one of the heart meds I’m on, Amiodarone, makes it dangerous to be in sunlight as you burn quickly, and I felt foul. It’s to stop irregular heart rhythms but as mine is now fabulous I was told I no longer need these. Hopefully they will soon begin tweaking the dosage of other meds to stop me feeling so dizzy. Blood pressure was 90/70 and heartbeat 57, so that was a bit crap. But I’m happy with any changes. (*oddly thrilled)
22 August 2020
Even bitter rivals need to rest.
22 August 2020
Steady! Up to 13th in the Mixcloud ‘Dark’ chart, 16th in Punk, 17th Indie and a miserable 23rd in Post-Punk. Have a listen.
MICK MERCER RADIO Broadcast 188 - August 16th 2020
ON THIS DAY ... in 1978, John Foxx led Ultravox! to glory at the Marquee. My book Punk Odds... is the only book with my Ultravox! photos in (also the Lyceum from 1978). 1002 black and white photo of punk bands, big and small, a few of wretched quality but included for historical value, but most are lovely. Namely … Advertising, Albertos, Alternative TV, Angletrax, Another Pretty Face, Bernie Torme, Bette Bright, Boomtown Rats, Carpettes, Charge, Chelsea, The Clash, Delta 5, The Fall, Gang Of 4, Ignerents, Invisible Girls, Johnny Curious & The Strangers, Johnny Moped, Licensed To Kill, Mark Perry, The Milk, The Mob, Molesters, Neo, Patrik Fitzgerald, The Photos, Plummet Airlines, Pretenders, Punishment Of Luxury, Rezillos, Rich Kids, Rubella Ballet, Security Risk, Sham 69, Ski Patrol, The Skids, Snatch, Temporary Title, Truth Club, Undertones, Vibrators, Vice Squad, Wayne County, Weekend Swingers. https://www.lulu.com/.../paperback/product-1peezrwn.html
22 August 2021
Radio show tonight, 9pm (UK time). Event page here where you can chat with like-minded listeners:
https://www.facebook.com/events/911887186205902
Go to the stream at http://server3.luschaudio.com:10126/index.html a few minutes before kick-off and click on Listen or the black play triangle.
22 August 2022
Thinking back to the lobotomy ad a couple of days ago, there was a weird time when my dad was sectioned. At the hospital his doctors did mention a lobotomy, which surprised me, assuming medicine might be involved, and we said ... er, no! Then they suggested shock therapy might be the way to go, pointing to a woman they regarded as a blazing success.
Me: “But she looks like Gary Fucking Glitter!”
Hmmm, maybe not?
22 August 2023
Inspired by the Lionesses our very own Lionettes return for their own Cat World Cup, starting on Wednesday. Follow all the action at https://www.facebook.com/CatWorldCu…
22 August 2024
So here’s the weird thing. We do the radio show on Lynda’s Mac, after which I upload an mp3 of the show to Mixcloud. Worked like that for ten years. Because she kept getting messages (doubtless fake) about viruses and whatnot (including icloud being compromised) she got Norton. At which point the uploads wouldn’t take at Mixcloud. I’d get about 34% and they’d stop.
So we tried on my pc, using both Chrome (Mixcloud’s recommended browser of choice) and Edge. Same result, 34% or so and then a screen advising you of what you can upload.
So I ended up relying on Mixcloud support, who were excellent. Ther gave me all the advice off their website, which I’d already perused and none of it was relevant, then said I should send them the files and they’d see if they can upload them, which they now have.
Now, I had been wondering if there was something wrong with the mp3 files, somehow corrupted on Lynda’s Mac, and maybe that was the problem, which might explain why it couldn’t be uploaded from either our Mac and PC, but it didn’t cause Mixcloud themselves any problem. I’ve run them through spybot and it declared them clean.
I don’t run any anti-virus programs on my pc that would require me to list Mixcloud as a safe site, so … what the fark is going on? Any ideas?
22 August 2025
WEIRD PC ALERT!
Normally my “ is achieved through shift > 2, and the @ is shift > ‘
Now they’re reversed, and I currently haven’t worked out where the # is, I’m just getting \
Something on some page I’ve visited is presumably making my keyboard behave with the settings of a different make of keyboard?
UNCANNY!
And there we must leave me, battling technology.
More tomorrow.
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