Reunions and Other Related Issues

To me, the best time to go an watch a band/artist in concert is when they are on their first album. The music is new and exciting, you'll hear the vast majority of the album at the gig as they won't have much more material to play and everyone is there because they like the only album the artist has released. I remember for example going to see Nelly Furtado in 2002 where she played virtually every track from her debut album and left the concert thinking how good was that. I've not been to see Nelly Furtado since, partly because the music she has released since then is a bit of a mixed bag, but also there are some album tracks that sounded so good hearing out loud at the gig I went to that she is highly unlikely to play at gigs now her back catalogue has grown, so I know it won't be as good.

There always comes a point in a band/artists career where they need to decide whether they continue until no-ones interested anymore, quite while there ahead and if so, do they reunite in several years time. Whatever decision they make, it will divide their fans opinions.

In 2016 so far, there have been two reunions which have caught my attention.

First, there is the LCD Soundsystem one. They intend to write a new album as well as tour, but one could argue that the new album part is not really a reunion because James Murphy is the only one who plays on every track. The live element though is most definitely a reunion and has divided opinion. When they called it a day 5 years ago it was a big event. They played a 4hr gig at Madison Square Garden and released a film documenting their final days. On that basis a reunion does seem quite silly. However for me personally, I think its fantastic news because I never got to see them the first time round but hopefully I can finally get to see them play now.

Secondly, there is the Guns n Roses one. It's not really a reunion though as they never went away, they just had many changes in personnel leaving Axl Rose as the only original member, although this was actually the case when Izzy Stradlin left in 1991. It's actually a reunion of the classic line-up rather than the original one, except it isn't really. Basically Slash and Duff have re-joined the group, there is no Izzy, and neither of their classic era drummers, Matt or Steven, are in it. Because of this, some people are not interested unless its the full classic line-up and inevitably fans will be divided by the Matt era or the Stephen era. For others though, the important thing is Slash being back and I suspect many would still be interested even if Duff hadn't re-joined. For me personally though, knowing the extortionate prices they are charging for their gigs in USA it's unlikely I'll attend one if they come to the UK, it's not worth it.

The Guns n Roses example though raises an interesting point, all bands have a classic line-up but what changes in personnel matter and which don't?

Several years ago, the Temptations were doing a gig at a venue near to where I lived at the time. The classic line-up of the Temptations is Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin. By this point though, Otis Williams was the only one from the classic line-up still alive. Further to that, he was the member who never sings lead vocal, so initially I wasn't interested. I changed my mind later and went to see them play and it was a very good concert. An interesting point though is that "Papa Was a Rolling Stone", one of the most popular Temptations songs did not feature David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks or Paul Williams. So the only singers from the classic line-up on that track were the bass singer and the one who never sings. Another point is that current member, Ron Tyson, has been in the band for 33 years and is only a couple of years off being the second longest serving member of all time. Don't get me wrong, I would much prefer to see the classic line-up, but as this is not possible the current line-up is the best thing available.

On the other hand, another group I like is UB40. Several years ago, Ali Campbell left the group and went solo. My thoughts were that I didn't want to see UB40 in concert without Ali Campbell, but then I didn't really want to see Ali Campbell because I wanted to see UB40, not Ali as a solo artist. Then a couple of years ago, Astro, who to me was the second most important member, left the group. He joined forces with Ali and keyboardist Mickey who had also left the group several years ago, to form their own version of UB40. Whilst not the official UB40, this is the version I chose to go and see in concert. To me, it doesn't really matter that the other members are not there as Ali and Astro were the ones I've always noticed in the group.

Back to the subject of actual reunions though, the main question is do you make new music or just play the old stuff?

Deacon Blue reunited several years ago and do make new music. My personal favourite song of theirs though is "Real Gone Kid", the one they are most famous for. I went to see them at the Royal Albert Hall a couple of years ago and they played that song quite early on. They did one of these big endings to the song and lead singer Ricky Ross was hyping up the crowd say it was just going to get better. I made the comment that it wouldn't as they've just played their best song, but instead of ending the song they just extended it. So clearly they knew that would be most people favourite. If you didn't know any of Deacon Blues music though, you would be able to tell what was old and what was new. For the old song, everyone was stood up dancing and singing along and for the new ones most people were sat down in silence.

Something interesting I did read some time ago was on the official website of Dennis Locorriere, the former singer in Dr Hook. He mentions that he often gets asked if there will ever be a Dr Hook reunion. His answer is which Dr Hook do you want to reunite? They went through several line-up changes, the only other member who was in it for the whole duration was keyboardist Billy Francis who has since died. There are other members who have since died too, so it may only be possible to reunite people who never played with each other in the first place. However, whilst Dennis is making a good point, the real question about a Dr Hook reunion is whether Dennis and Ray Sawyer will play together again. I suspect most people won't mind who else is involved, they just want to see Dennis and Ray back on the stage together again. If it does happen though, it would need to be soon as Ray turns 80 next year so time is running out.

So what should a band/artist decide?

Well it depends on who they are and specifically which fan they are trying to please. Maybe one of the positives of me never making it in the music industry with my band is this is a decision I'll never have to make.

Record of the Year 1957: Patience and Prudence - Gonna Get Along Without Ya Now

Not only is this my record of 1957, this is my record of the 50s.

So you may be thinking, in a year where there are many Rock and Roll or Skiffle records which would have a huge influence of music of the future, why pick a pop record sung by kids?

Well the simple answer is because I like it. It's a simple pop record which is very enjoyable to listen to and one I have listened to many times of my own accord, I would say more times than any other 50s record.

Like many people under a certain age, the first version of this I heard was the Viola Wills version from the 70s. One thing I did a lot of when YouTube came about was listening to original versions of tracks I know with this being one of them and I've been regularly listening to it ever since.

This wasn't the first hit from Patience and Prudence but it was their last. They had previously had a hit with "Tonight You Belong to Me" in 1956. They were 11 and 14 when they recorded this song, their father was an orchestra leader and was his idea for them to record music.

They would appear on TV in 1978 where they stated they didn't want to be performers in the first place. The footage can be found on YouTube.

UK Singles Chart: 1957

By 1957 Rock and Roll had well and truly established itself in the charts. The group who had the first Rock and Roll hit, Bill Haley and his Comets, had their 13th single in February with "Don't Knock the Rock". However, aside from future re-releases of "Rock Around the Clock", this would be the last we would see of Bill Haley and his Comets in the chart.

If you had to pick a year for Skiffle music though, 1957 would have to be it. Lonnie Donegan scored two number ones this year with "Cumberland Gap" and the double a-side "Gamblin Man/Puttin on the Style". One thing to note though is whilst there were many Skiffle groups around that time, very few had any chart success aside from Lonnie Donegan. I have identified three other Skiffle groups to have hits this year, Vipors Skiffle Group, Chas McDevitt Skiffle Group and Johnny Duncan & the Bluegrass Boys. Whilst Lonnie Donegan would continue to have further hits in years to come, the other three groups would only have hits in 1957.

Notable chart debutants of the year included Chuck Berry with "School Day" in June. Then in September in the same week we had debut hits from the Coasters with "Searchin", Jerry Lee Lewis with "Whole lot of Shakin Goin On" and the Crickets with "That'll be the Day" which would reach number one in November. Also in November we had debut hits from Everly Brothers with "Wake Up Little Susie" and Jackie Wilson with "Reet Petite". Then in December Buddy Holly would have his first solo hit with "Peggy Sue" and given he would die just over a year later this shows just how short his music career was.

It is quite well known that Elvis Presley current holds the record for the most UK number ones and it all began in 1957 with his first number one, "All Shook Up". At the time, Frankie Laine still had the most number ones, but he was now joint first with Guy Mitchell who had scored two number ones this year with "Singing the Blues" and "Rock-A-Billy". Guy Mitchell was one of the artists to have a hit in the first year of the charts in 1952 but by this time he had made the transition from Traditional Pop to Rock and Roll. Frankie Laine did add two more to his tally of hits though bringing him to 25 and still holding the record for most hits. In addition to Frankie Laine, Nat King Cole, Winifred Atwell and Johnnie Ray all maintain their records of having a hit in every year of the charts existence.

This year also sees the debut of the earliest group to have a single where all members are still alive at the time of writing this. They are the King Brothers who had three singles this year including a cover of "Wake Up Little Susie".

So now the charts are looking more like what the 50s are remembered for and several well known acts and songs now charted, what will 1958 bring? Find out in a couple of weeks.

Underworld @ Roundhouse

Underworld are back with a new album called "Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future" and played 2 nights at the Roundhouse in Camden. I was at the second night they played.

There was no support act, just recorded music playing when we arrived. The venue announced beforehand that Underworld were due on stage at 21:00, but then signs in the venue said it was 20:50. Sure enough, they were on stage at the advertised time of 20:50 and would play right the way through to the 23:00 curfew.

The started off with a couple of tracks from the new album, "I Exhale" and "If Rah". Both tracks seemed a bit more punky than their previous work, sounding a bit more similar to LCD Soundsystem. Next up came the classic "Dark Train" followed by "Juanita" and was evident the crowd were more familiar with these tunes. Then it was back to the new material before being followed up by another classic, "Two Months Off" which really got the crowd going.

Over an hour into the concert, singer Karl Hyde explained that the night before during the next track they were about to play the venue had to be evacuated because the smoke machine set off the fire alarms. The track was "King of Snake" and fortunately they managed to get through the track no problem.

They finished off the gig with "Rez", "Cowgirl" and finally "Born Slippy". There was no encore, so they played non stop for the full 2 hours 10 minutes. Not bad for a couple of guys who are almost 60.

One complaint though, the venue itself was a bit too crowded for my liking. Some people prefer it that way, but there was very little room to dance and I don't think I've been to a gig where there have been so many people walking past me before, which makes it hard to concentrate on the performance. We heard a couple of guys complain about the same thing on the tube home.

Aside from this, it was a good gig. It wasn't the first time I've seen Underworld and hopefully won't be the last. They have been together for an incredible 36 years and show no signs of slowing down just yet.

Who is DJ Physics?

Around late 1994/early 1995 when all my rock tapes were surplus to requirements and I declared myself a raver, my music collection consisted of "The Prodigy - Music for the Jilted Generation" album and "N-Trance - Set You Free" single.

Obviously there was a lot of rave music which I needed to discover. One of my starting points was by looking at who the Prodigy thanked in their album sleeve. I knew that there would be lots of family and friends and other non musicians in there, but I thought it was a safe bet that all the "DJ" something's would be rave musicians of some description.

There was DJ SS and DJ Rap both of whom had tracks on one of the next CDs I bought, the "Best of Jungle". Then there was DJ Hype, I can't remember exactly when I heard him for the first time but I know it didn't take long given he was one of the most popular Drum & Bass DJs of the 90s. There was also DJ SY who I heard for the first time on the Hysteria 9 tape pack late in 1995.

Finally there was DJ Physics, but despite my rave collection growing to around 200 tapes/CDs over the next 2 to 3 years, and keeping up to date with the rave scene as much as I could in a time when nobody really knew what the internet was, I had no idea who DJ Physics was. None of the other ravers I knew at the time had heard of him either.

Remembering this recently, I decided to look him up on the internet. It turns out he used to tour with the Prodigy in the early 90s playing the warm up set for them at a gig. Given by this point the Prodigy were doing their own gigs rather than being part of the line up at a rave, it makes sense that he was nowhere to be seen on a rave line up.

Sometime in the early 00s it became the cool thing for a DJ to put their first name in front of their DJ name and he seems to have followed this trend by becoming Dom Physics.

To give you a true idea of who he is though, I have posted a mix of him warming up for the Prodigy in 1992. Enjoy!

Record of the Year 1956: Little Richard - Rip it up

This has probably been the most difficult year to date to pick my record of the year, but have decided it should be Little Richard - Rip it up.

As mentioned in my year review, this was Little Richards first UK hit. What stands out about this tune compared to others from the year is the amount of oomph it has. I'm sure everyone noticed this tune when it came out whether they liked it or not as it's so different to the more mellow traditional pop music which had been the norm for several years.

Little Richard would go on to be one of the key figures of the Rock and Roll movement for the rest of the 50s having 12 further hits by the end of the decade. By the 60s however he would only have 2 minor hits and aside from his older hits re entering the chart he would never have another UK hit.

He was a founding member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986 and has continued to perform over the years, according to his Wikipedia page he was still performing as recently as 2013 when he was 80 years old.

UK Singles Chart: 1956

So in 1955 we had Bill Haley and his Comets with four Rock n Roll singles in the charts including "Rock Around the Clock" which after a slow start made number one. We also had Pat Boone do a Rock n Roll cover and one hit wonder Boyd Bennett with a Rock n Roll single towards the end of the year. So would 1956 see the explosion of Rock n Roll we've been waiting for? I think we can assume yes it did.

The year began with "Rock Around the Clock" going back to number one for a couple of weeks, but January would also bring another style of music important to the history of popular music, skiffle. The so called king of skiffle, Lonnie Donegan had his first hit with "Rock Island Line". He would have further four singles that year, and he was said to have been a big influence on many bands of the 60s including the Beatles.

Bill Haley and his Comets were still flying the flag for Rock n Roll in the early part of the year, releasing "See You Later Alligator" in March. It was May of 1956 however when we started to see new Rock n Roll artists emerge, the first of whom was Elvis Presley who entered the charts with "Heartbreak Hotel". The following week saw Carl Perkins have his only UK hit, "Blue Suede Shoes", and then a week later Elvis hit the charts again with his cover of this track.

Then June saw Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers hit the charts with "Why do Fools Fall in Love" which would reach number one in July. Also in July, Gene Vincent has his first hot with "Be Bop a Lula" and Fats Domino have his first hit with "I'm in Love Again".

In August, Clyde McPhatter had his only UK hit with "Treasure of Love" and it's interesting to note that he had already left the Drifters by this point, but it would be several years until we would see the Drifters chart for the first time.

Vocal group and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees the Platters charted for the first time in September with a double A side of "The Great Pretender/Only You". Then in December Little Richard had his first UK hit with "Rip it Up" which was also covered by Bill Haley and his Comets but charted in November.

At the same, time there were several Rock and Roll covers by more traditional artists such as Alma Cogan covering "Why do Fools Fall in Love".

The Rock and Roll craze however didn't wipe out the traditional pop music which had dominated the charts in the earlier years. In fact 5 of the artists who charted in 1952 had number ones this year, they were Kay Starr, Winifred Atwell, Doris Day, Frankie Laine and Johnnie Ray. This meant that Frankie Laine again had the most number ones with four, but this would be his last one. He was also still the artist with the most hits reaching 23 by the end of the year. He was also one of five artists to have had a hit in every year of the charts existence so far, the others being Doris Day, Johnnie Ray, Winifred Atwell and Nat King Cole.

The year saw the biggest increase in number of bands to have a hit so far and also saw a significant increase in the number of songwriters to have hit too. The year also saw the first Australian, Jimmy Parkinson and the first artist from the Republic of Ireland, Eamonn Andrews have a UK hit. Both artists however would not have another hit after 1956, the latter being a one hit wonder.

So now Rock and Roll has truly established itself in the charts, will 1957 bring us the death of traditional pop music? will we see more skiffle? and which well known acts will be making their chart debuts? find out in a couple of weeks.

Alisha's Attic

This year is 20 years since Alisha's Attic was introduced to the world. Those who have read earlier posts will know I was once a big fan.

At the time they released their debut hit, "I am I Feel", I wouldn't listen to anything that wasn't rave so I wasn't a fan from day one. I did secretly like it at the time though. I recall one morning when waking up to my radio alarm clock it came on and I waited till the song finished before getting up. I thought it sounded quite similar to "Head Over Feet" by Alanis Morrissette which I also secretly liked.

Then their follow up, "Alisha Rules the World" came out and I quite liked that one too. It was a few months until their third single, "Indestructible", which I heard on the O-Zone and then "Air we Breathe" came out in the summer of 1997 which I saw them perform on the Pebble Mill lunchtime show, but neither single really had much impact on me at the time, I just tend to have a good memory of where I was when I first heard many songs. So I pretty much forgot about them for a while.

In September 1998 they came back with the single "The Incidentals". By this time I was more open to non rave music and liked this song. I remembered thinking their older stuff being quite good too and maybe this should be a band I start listening to. I said that about several other bands too though so didn't straight away. Then in April 1999 I was in MVC in Derby and they played "Barbarella" more than once and also had it on a listening post and I considered buying it, but didn't. I discovered the following week it only reached number 34 in the charts which I was quite surprised by.

Finally in June 1999 I was on a day trip in Lincoln and decided to buy an Alisha'a Attic album. I had two choices, either the first album "Alisha Rules the World" or the current album, "Illumina". Wanting to live for now and not what used to be, I went for "Illumina".

Admittedly though, on the whole I was quite disappointed with the album. It started with "The Incidentals" which was definitely the best track on the album. The second track "Going Down" was listed as one of their singles on the sticker on the cover but was never released, but I didn't think much to it. It never really picked up again until "Wish I Were You", the second single from the album, although there was a track in between called "Resistor" which would later grow on me. After an interlude called "Me and the Dolphins" came "Barbarella" and then the rest of the album was instantly forgettable.

Shortly afterwards someone told me their sister owned "Alisha Rules the World" and gave me a copy of it. This was much more like it and actually got better towards the end of the album. Also, the track "Air We Breathe" which never had much impact on me as a single would become one of my favourites on the album. I would often listen to the album and loved it so much that I declared Alisha's Attic to be my favourite band on a cold night in late 1999 whilst listening to them on my Walkman.

By this point though, they had pretty much disappeared off the face of the earth. I wanted to own the CD of "Alisha Rules the World" but this was a time when CDs were around £15, an amount I was reluctant to spend on something I already owned. Then a friend of mine managed to get one on the cheap at a car boot sale and let me have it for free.

By the summer of 2000, I had done a bit of internet research and found out they were planning a comeback in September of that year. Then one day I was browsing second hand CDs at Cash Convertors and found a couple of singles for 50p each so bought them. One of them was "The Incidentals" which had a B side called "Not my Muse" and the other "Alisha Rules the World" which had a B side called "God Lives There". Both were very good tunes and not doing things by halves I decided to buy all their singles. This wasn't that simple as they had all been deleted so could not order from HMV etc so went shopping for music on the internet for the first time and ended up buying them all, money no object. I also went on to discover other rarities such as a mini album called "Japanese Dream" which had been released in Japan only, all of which I paid a fair amount of money for. I also became a member of the fan club and towards the end of the year started building a website about them which is now defunct.

Meanwhile, the plans for a new single/album had been delayed until 2001. Their new single was "Push it all Aside" which whilst not as good as the older songs, it was still quite good. Around the same time I managed to buy a promo CD for their third album, "The House we Built" which had 6 of the 12 tracks on it. Sadly though, "Push it all Aside" was the only one I thought was any good but I still had faith as their was another 6 tracks to come.

In April 2001 they played a free acoustic gig at the Kashmir Club in London, a small basement venue which was run by the former singer of the Cutting Crew. That night I got to meet Alisha's Attic themselves. It's often said that you shouldn't meet your heroes and its true. Don't get me wrong, they were nice enough people but they were just normal people, not the super humans I imagined them to me. On the other hand maybe it was a good thing to give me a reality check! That said though, it was an enjoyable night and I got to meet several other fans many of whom had their own websites and I'd spoken to via e-mail beforehand. One of them got the same train home as me and had the full 12 track promo CD which I listened to on the train. Sadly, the other 6 tracks weren't really up to much either.

A couple of weeks later, they played another gig at the same venue and I went again. This definitely lived up to the fact its never as good the second time, but the gig itself was probably to the same standard.

The second single from the album, "Pretender Got My Heart" was released in July 2001 and failed to reach the top 40 and then the album itself was released the following week reaching number 55 before dropping out the charts the following week. Then a couple of weeks later they inevitably got dropped by their record label, something I found out via a fan club letter.

Like I said though, I didn't think much to "The House we Built". In the interviews they were doing, they were talking about going to various places to find inspiration and how they went for an organic sound by recording it all in one take. My theory though is that they knew they were getting dropped after the album so took advantage of the opportunity to travel courtesy of the label and then record the album with minimal effort. I may be wrong, but the quality of the album would certainly suggest that.

I remember calculating I had spent around £350 on Alisha's Attics music, something I felt a bit foolish about. I asked a friend if he thought I should hold onto it in case its worth plenty in years to come. He said it wont, people will just forget about them. I tried selling some of it and managed to get £50 for a couple of CDs, something I almost certainly wouldn't get nowadays.

After they were dropped, they released a CD called "The Vaults" through the fan club which was several tracks which never made the albums. However by this point I wasn't all that fussed and at £15 I didn't bother, it just seemed like a final pay check to me.

These day's I still listen to the "Alisha Rules the World" album but the rest of my collection is at my parents house somewhere gathering dust.

But what happened to Alisha's Attic?

Well Shelly became a solo artist and later formed a band called Red Sky July with her husband, Ally Mcerlaine, the guitarist from Texas.

Karen is now a songwriter for several pop artists, some of which you can find on her Wikipedia page. One song on there she didn't write though is "Oh No" by the So Solid Crew, this was a song Alisha's Attic sued the So Solid Crew for because of its resemblance to "The Incidentals".

The song I've posted is called "Adore U" which is my favourite Alisha's Attic song and is the last track on "Alisha Rules the World. Enjoy.