Things go better with coke

In Metro this morning, an ill-advised choice of words from the curiously-monikered Mike GLC, who along with N-Dubz' Tulisa, is facing charges related to an alleged class-A drug sting..."We are innocent. Anyone can chop things together on video."

RIP Steve Martland 1959-2013

Bristol fashion

Prior to today, I'd have put Tricky in that small category of people filed under "could start an argument in an empty room"- others on the list include Lauryn Hill, American talk radio host Alex Jones and Sir Alex Ferguson.  People permanently aggrieved, with a supreme lack of awareness of how their own personality contributes to their perceived misfortunes.  So, it was somewhat salutary to see him positively radiating bonhomie, in a formal interview, no less, on Vice's Noisey channel (terrible name, good content).  Interviewed by the estimable John Doran of The Quietus, the interview is one of a series done with British iconoclasts, including Gary Numan, Luke Haines, Adam Ant and Bryan Ferry.  They're all worth looking at, especially the one with Adam Ant, but the one below has repositioned the Bristolian whinger in my estimation.

Record breakers

A nice piece from Record Collector about the record industry shooting itself in the foot.  Again.  I couldn't agree more, but I'd add that the parallel argument about mp3s ("you mean, Mr. Universal, that you want us to pay more for a digital artefact, with no warehousing or manufacturing costs, than for a CD? Ambassador, you are really spoiling us.") shows that time and again the sheer greed of these companies will ultimately be their demise.  For further elucidation, and for more examples of how the industry resists innovation, I highly recommend Louis Barfe's book Where Have All The Good Times Gone.

Elements of Style

They're back! And I couldn't be happier. I'd written them off as a one-off, but Neon Neon are back, back, back.  Hooray.  This time around, they're biographising (hey, did I just invent a word?) Giangiacomo Feltrinelli.  Okay, I'll admit I was unaware of him, but he was apparently an Italian publisher and activist. If that's not enough to tempt you to give the new album a spin, it features Sabrina among its guest stars.  Yes, that Sabrina.

Here's the new single, less than 2 minutes long:


And here's a link to where you can download it for free, thanks to the nice people at Rolling Stone.

Rhumble's Trip

Congratulations to the BBC for perpetrating a great April Fool joke today.  I awoke this morning to be told that a shonky 20-year old single by PJ and Duncan was a new entry at Number One in the charts. Hilarious, right up there with the Spaghetti Trees of Switzerland and the Isle of San Seriffe.  Bwah, hah, hah!  Hang on a second..... What did you just say? It's not a joke? 

Thornton's Fudge

There were few revelations in the BBC's  documentary about Nile Rodgers on Friday night, but it's always entertaining to hear the man talking, and even better to hear others talking about him (and Bernard Edwards and Tony Thompson).  And the sight of Johnny Marr on stage in Montreux jamming with what's left of Chic reminds one that for all Morrissey's considerable talents, you'd much prefer to spend time with Marr.  I mean, can you really picture Morrissey yucking it up with a disco group?

I say there were few revelations, but there was one, for me at least.  And that was that Fonzi Thornton, the backing singer (David Bowie, Luther Vandross, Diana Ross etc) that for 30 years of looking at credits on LP sleeves I had assumed was female (and Thornton often sang in the company of BJ Nelson and Tawatha Agee, who definitely are female), is actually a bloke.