Monthly Archives: August 2011

The Grass Is Always Greener

English Premier League football finally returns later today and I’m certainly looking forward to seeing how it’ll all turn out this season. My own team, Arsenal, has been in the news before a ball has been even kicked and it looks like it’s going to be another challenging year for the North London club. The poor results at the end of last season surely convinced the manager that he needed to be busy in the transfer market during the summer. And, certainly, Arsene Wenger has overseen a number of changes at the Emirates over the last few months and he has added a few new faces to the squad. So far, however, rather than going for risk-free, established defensive players in the prime of their careers he has instead gambled on teenage forwards with no experience of English football. Still, there are a couple of weeks remaining in the transfer window and perhaps the manager will surprise everyone by signing experienced defensive players who were born before 1990. At least he shouldn’t be short of a few bob as it looks like the departures from the Emirates will be more significant than the arrivals

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Panic on the Streets of London

As I watched the recent TV footage of the looting and rioting in London, I started thinking of some of the many songs that use civil disobedience as their subject matter. The first ones that came to mind were by The Clash and I’ve included four below. The band’s 1977 debut included their impressive take on Junior Murvin’s reggae hit from the previous year, Police & Thieves. I’ve also included two covers from that LP that were both released in 1999. Californian band Cracker’s version of White Riot appears on Burning London: The Clash Tribute and Silverchair from Australia offer their take on London’s Burning, which is taken from their Anthem For the Year 2000. From France, Nouvelle Vague’s lounge interpretations of punk and new wave numbers includes Guns of Brixton on their 2004 self-titled debut. Also in 1977, The Clash’s fellow London punks, The Sex Pistols, delivered musical Anarchy in the UK on their Never Mind the Bollocks debut. A year later, Manchester’s Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias came along with their heads down, no nonsense, mindless boogie version on their album, Skite. The final cover version in this selection is taken from London band Chelsea’s Rocks Off album from 1986. It’s Street Fighting Man by The Rolling Stones and it originally appeared on Beggars Banquet in 1968. Echoing Martha Reeves & the Vandellas, Jagger sings that “summer’s here and the time is right for fighting in the street, boy” before highlighting the apathy that existed in London at the time. I wonder what he thinks now

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Deutsche Grammophon

Used record stores (or any kind of record store) are so rare nowadays that I always try to track them down whenever I’m on my travels. On my recent trip to Germany, I found myself with a few hours to kill in Nuremberg. After a quick search on the internet I saw that there were no fewer than three situated on a street called Jakobstrasse. I found the street quite easily (a rarity for me) and the first shop I made it to was the one you see above, Copacabana Records. The store was longer than it was wide and with a high ceiling, but it was nicely laid out and very tidy. The main area was given over to loads of vinyl records and these seemed to be quite reasonably priced. Unfortunately, I had to ignore these as I wouldn’t have been able to fit them into my luggage. I found the CDs in the corner and these were as neatly arranged as the records. There were lots of jazz, rock & roll, blues and soul and I found a few bargains amongst these. Live in Dublin by Bruce Springsteen with the Sessions Band is a nicely packaged double CD with a DVD and was the most expensive album I bought on this excursion, though it was still good value at two euro below a tenner. The other four I bought here cost that much between them and, having listened to them, some proved to be better value than others. Brook Benton was mostly known for A Rainy Night in Georgia and it’s the best song on Fools Rush In. Sam the Sham & the Pharaohs had a big hit with the hilarious Woolly Bully and, listening to their Greatest Hits, it’s easy to see why they didn’t have any more. I only knew J.B. Lenoir from Elvis Costello’s version of Eisenhower Blues from his King of America album and that’s not even the best song on this collection. I’ve already got far too many collections of northern soul, but that didn’t stop me picking up After Hours 2: More Northern Soul Masters. I found it hard to pick one track from the album but eventually plumped for Archie Bell & the Drells

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