This record, especially in its 12″ remixed form, is exactly what some dance nights sounded like in 1992. Sunscreem were from Essex and were remixed by the great and the good of the scene, in this case by Pete Heller and Terry Farley for Boy’s Own. This is long, designed for dancing too and to be mixed into and out of. A long progressive house track which edges towards trance, up and positive with a pumping bass and drums, repeating synth parts and a couple of lines of vocal floating over the top. This samples Simple Minds, their early 80s electronic classic Theme For Great Cities, which I posted here recently. There’s a breakdown at 6.40, a moment to pause for breath and raise one’s hands in the air, someone would whistle, then some rave hoover bass comes in, and then the keyboard starts to build again. On and on in perfect motion.
There are two significant events today, June 14th 2018, one personal and one international. The first one, close to home, is the 15th birthday of number two child/number one daughter Eliza. Once, as the picture shows, she was young and cute and happily wore a Clash t-shirt. Now she is 15, growing up into a young woman and probably wouldn’t wear a Clash t-shirt.
Every summer in recent years we’ve driven to France with a stack of music. I get accused of hogging the car stereo. Not true obviously. Finding songs we can all agree on is a bit of an artform. Last summer we got there on this one- I’ve got to say, I think this is a tune. So you can have this one as your birthday song Eliza. Happy birthday.
One of Eliza’s presents is Dolly Parton’s 9 To 5 on 7″ (which she should have opened by the time this is posted). So here’s your birthday bonus song…
We survived our first ‘proper’ teenage house party at the weekend, a mixed group of 15 of them in our garden, with music, dancing, shrieking and ‘controlled’ drinking (you can control what they drink in your house- more difficult to control what some of them have drunk before they arrive). Apart from some minor damage to our already patchy lawn there was no harm done and much fun had. The party playlist was dominated by 80s pop, some disgraceful 80s soft-rock and some more contemporary stuff. Back in 1985, when I turned 15 this was the UK’s number one single…
19 is groundbreaking in its own way and genuinely memorable, and kept at the number one slot by regular releases of remixed versions. Vietnam was big in the mid-80s. A decade on from the end of the war people were getting to grips with it, what had happened and what it meant. I read somewhere recently that the average age of the combat soldier in Vietnam wasn’t actually 19 but 22. But that doesn’t really change the message of the song or the fact that if you were poor, uneducated or black you were far more likely to end up in Vietnam than if you were wealthier, educated and white. Does it Mr. Trump? Coincidentally I played it to my Year 11 class recently as part of their depth study on The Vietnam War. They weren’t very impressed if truth be told, the sounds were too dated and quaint, the stuttering vocal too cliched and the female backing vox too cheesy. But they took the message and the visuals in.
The other event today is the start of the World Cup, Russia 2018. This is my 11th World Cup. I have some vague memories of Argentina ’78 aged 8, memories of the final at least, which I was allowed to stay up and watch some of. Spain ’82 is the first one I really remember- in the picture above Bryan Robson celebrates after scoring against France in England’s opening game. Mexico ’86 was a blast, taking place during my O Levels, the magnificence of Diego Maradona in his prime, England out in controversial manner and an epic France v Brazil game. Italia 90 was ace, mixed up as it was with New Order’s World In Motion, No Alla Violenza, Toto Schillaci, Roger Milla and an England run to the semi-finals.
Twenty-eight years on, this is still the only world cup record that really matters.
‘Love’s got the world in motion and we can’t believe it’s true’.
The Summer of Love, 1988 version, is being celebrated in many places at the moment, not least at Mixmag. Two veterans of the scene and Boy’s Own alumni, Terry Farley and Pete Heller, have put together a mix of records that were big that summer. This could easily be accused of being a total nostalgia trip if the tune selection from the Boy’s Own duo wasn’t so great, including This Brutal House, Adonis, Ralph Rosario, Tyree, A Guy Called Gerald, The Night Writers, Turntable Orchestra, The Beloved, Marshall Jefferson and Ce Ce Rogers. Get Farley and Heller’s words on the records are here. It is a bank holiday weekend here and this is an ideal soundtrack to three days off.
There’s no getting away from it, we are well into autumn- it’s October today, the trees have suddenly sprouted shades of brown and orange. A couple of weeks ago when summer was still just about a recent memory I wrote about the Balearic Beats compilation album and its eclectic selection of tracks and artists. While digging around the internet I found a Balearic Beats 2 mixtape/download at the always excellent Test Pressing, put together by Terry Farley at some point in the 90s. The tracklist is below (with Terry’s handwritten explanation below that), the highlights including It’s Immaterial, Paul Rutherford’s still fantastic acid song Get Real and Turntable Orchestra’s You’re Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone. You can find the original post here and its still available to download and keep forever. It just might keep October at bay for an hour.
No April Fool’s stuff here. Since posting Big Decision the other week I’ve spent a bit of time re-listening to That Petrol Emotion. I’ve enjoyed two different parts- the mid 80s, clanging guitars TPE of Manic Pop Thrill and Babble and the remixed TPE of 1990-91. V2 was a single in 1985. The sleeve detailed the abuses of female prisoners in Northern Ireland’s prisons. The record is angry and clamorous, squally guitars and drums almost drowning out Steve Mack’s vocals. There are screams and fury building up to an abrupt ending.
Around the time the 80s became the 90s they underwent some line up changes and started working with producer Scott Litt, known for producing R.E.M. Probably not coincidentally they started getting the acoustic guitars out, slowed things down and sounded a little like R.E.M. Their records from this time are redeemed by the remixes, including Andrew Weatherall and Terry Farley’s work on Abandon (Boys Own Mix) retaining the anger and energy of the mid 80s and adding the 90s club.
I remember there was a Weatherall interview where he said a band (and I’m sure he was referring to TPE) had been suspicious of the whole remixing lark and left a guitarist sitting in the studio while Weatherall did the remix, to ensure he didn’t completely get rid of the guitars.
We drove into town on Saturday and I had a Boys Own compilation on the car stereo which opened with Bocca Juniors’ summer of 1990 song Raise. They made a video which features a bunch of kids, gorgeous singer Anna Haigh and the rest of the Boys Own crew (Terry Farley in a hat, Andrew Weatherall with long hair). Very summer 1990. Although what you don’t get with this three minute version is the massive Thrashing Doves piano sample…
For that, you need this (and you really do need it)…
In recent years Primal Scream have taken to playing the two versions of Come Together together live, Come Together coming together. Opening with the Weatherall remix and then going into the Farley one.
There was a lesser known third remix of Come Together by Hypnotone (a Creation dance act who made the ace Dream Beam single), released as a white label and on the 1991 Keeping the Faith compilation. The Hypnotone remix is far noisier and ravier, more chaotic with distorted synths and shouty vocal samples. Love it. What Bobby and the band need to do now is work this version into the live show and stretch Come Together out even further, three comings together for the price of one.
In a handy piece of internet synchronicity Daniel Avery has just remixed the song for BT Sport, who are showing matches live from the new football season (irritatingly called the EPL by some numpties, otherwise known as ‘the greatest league ever in the history of football’). There’s a 25 second clip below which obviously is of little use to man or dog but longer and different versions apparently do exist.
There’s been nothing from Lord Sabre here at Bagging Area for well over a week so here’s a couple of clips from Youtube to remedy the situation.
First up, Weatherall, Terry Farley and Pete Heller interviewed for the long lost and lamented Snub TV (from BBC2, late 80s). The clip is memorable partly for Weatherall’s long, curly hair and biker boots. The trio discuss London’s acid house scene and how they helped invent it. Also features a Bocca Juniors video.
Second up, Weatherall djing in a club in Belgium last year. Somewhat better than your average club clip due to being filmed and put together by someone who seems to know what they’re doing rather than a drunkard with a mobile phone, it features a heavily bearded Weatherall playing cds (gasp, shock, horror, not vinyl!) to a crowd significantly younger than him. Judging from the clip the Belgians haven’t banned smoking in clubs yet and there’s always a girl dancing on her own right in front of the record cd players. Records played in the clip- his own remix of Fuck Buttons Sweet Love For Planet Earth and Briosky’s Radio Anatomy (I think).
> While we’re in the Weatherall area I thought I’d post this for Friday morning. It popped up on the mp3 player the other day driving to work with the sun shining and sounded really good. Bocca Juniors were the inhouse studio band of the Boys Own collective/magazine/cultural trendsetters/ex-football hooligans. In the studio this amounted to Andrew Weatherall, Terry Farley, Pete Heller, Hugo Nicholson and vocalist Anna Haigh, along with for this record a massive piano sample from Thrashing Doves’ Jesus On The Payroll. So, it’s got those pianos, well-balearic all-roundness, Anna Haigh’s Alastair Crowley quoting lyrics, and a rap in the middle as many good songs had back then.
While things are all Screamadelic in various pockets of internetland I thought I’d post this- the Terry Farley mix of Loaded, which appeared on the Creation dance compilation Keeping The Faith (various Keeping The Faith tracks have been posted here at Bagging Area during the year). In this reworking of Weatherall’s Loaded Terry Farley pretty much keeps Loaded as it was and puts Bobby’s vocal from source track I’m Losing More Than I’ll Ever Have back over the top. When I previously posted a Terry Farley remix a regular reader left the comment ‘I’ll remain anonymous for this one- great track but Terry Farley is an elitist knob’. Bagging Area cannot comment on this claim. Mr Farley remains unavailable for comment.
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