Author Archives: Phil

ATP Festival curated by Matt Groening – Day 3

Matt Groening introducing Daniel Johnston as his "favourite songwriter"

Sunday dawns and Jim becomes my hero twice in ten minutes by making me a fried egg sandwich and telling me he once saw Spike Milligan in a pub in Manchester. Simon rather coyly reveals his affection for Spear of Destiny and I resolve to play the excellent “Do You Believe in the Westworld” on the radio for him, only to forget later and feel like a dick for doing so.

We race to the Centre Stage to see Boredoms again, just to reassure ourselves that we weren’t victim to some kind of mass hallucination yesterday and they are once again, amazing. We then decamp to Reds, the smallest of the Butlins venues to see Viv Albertine’s Limerice who are excellent. Continue reading →

ATP Festival curated by Matt Groening â€“ Day 2

Saturday begins with two hours of 70’s kids cartoon Hong Kong Phooey on the excellent ATP TV channel provided for the weekend. Refreshed by the antics of the titular kung fu practicing canine, we venture forth into the unknown. [I ventured forth a little earlier than the others and caught Hello Saferide, in Reds. I was rather impressed by her Swedish knack of finding a good tune, and sentimental lyrics. Ed]

Hello Saferide - melodic romanticism

Between the four of us (me, Albert, Simon and Jim) we can conjure up little previous knowledge of Boredoms despite the fact that they appear to have been going since about 1942 and have released about half a million records. The notes about them printed in the frankly beautiful programmes (coming with 4 different covers featuring Matt Groening penned caricatures of Iggy, Joanna Newsome, Daniel Johnston and someone we didn’t recognise [either She & Him or Lightning Dust, the jury is still out â€“ ed]) weren’t much help either. In this we simply read a breathless treatise about Boredoms being Japanese, having a penchant for using lots of drummers, and being a bit ace.

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ATP Festival curated by Matt Groening – Day 1

The first thing that hits you when you walk in to the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival is the contrast between the ultra mainstream surroundings of Butlins and the heartening array of freaks who attend. This is demonstrated in microcosm within 5 minutes by a painfully thin young Japanese man wearing a surgical mask and lime green leggings draping himself with impressive languor against a wall featuring a poster for “The Peter Andre Weekend” – three nights at Butlins and a concert featuring the impressively pectoralled housewives’ favourite for a mere Â£98.

Broadcast - noise, or music?

We will return to bare chested doyens of entertainment in a moment, but our first foray was to see Broadcast, a male/female duo beloved of the hip and the trying-to-be, who amble shyly onto the stage and proceed to stand at two elevated box like contraptions and wrestle out half an hour’s worth of whirrs, drones and howls whist having experimental films “broadcast” (did you see what I did there? ) on top of them. The result is very much an ATP archetype: challenging, startling and beautiful at the same time. The effect is only diluted mid-way through the set when they resort to boring old actual songs. That’s not noise, that’s just music.

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When Big Joan Sets Up 13/5/10 – “So this is what culture sounds like then?”

And with that beautifully arch putdown overheard by our mate Jim from one of the security guards at Butlins Minehead over the weekend (during The Residents, if you’re intrested) I welcome you to our All Tomorrow’s Parties Special programme featuring mostly tracks from artists who performed at Matt Groening‘s ATP festival last weekend.

Wish you’d been there.

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When Big Joan Sets Up – Vote Sutch!

Well, if he wasn’t dead you could. Last night’s When Big Joan Sets Up rode a big fat coach and horses through the Ofcom guidlines by playing a record by the 20th Century’s longest serving leader of a politcal party (I haven’t checked this, so don’t pull me up on it – I’m printing the legend), Screaming Lord Sutch which was plucked from the corners of my dad’s records collection , plus, and equally bonkers, in it’s way an epic peice from the mighty Can recorded in 1973. Oh and seeing as though we’re supposed to be a new music prgramme some new tunes too. Oh, and Annie Nightingale is a national treasure.

The Tunes:
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When Big Joan Sets Up 29/4/10 – Loudon Proud

Into this pitch darkness, we’re hurled
Where there’s not a glimmer of light
It’s not the end of the world
It’s just the middle of the night

And the blackest of flags is unfurled
In all this absence of light
It’s not the end of the world, good people
Merely, the middle of the night

The middle of the night
That’s what this is
If death is the real test
This is just a quiz

When grey creeps through your window
It will be daylight
The end of this darkness
Is almost in sight

Loudon Wainwright III – “The Middle of the Night”

Follow that with the feather boas, Rufus

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When Big Joan Sets Up 22/4/10 – “That’s not music, that’s just noise”

This is, of course, one of the cries of the common, or garden Dad alongside the evergreen “You’re not going out like that, are you?”,”You can’t tell if it’s a man or a woman (normally uttered whilst watching the latest pop sensations) and the rather parochial, but deathless “He wouldn’t get through t’pit gates dressed like that”

But as those of us who are of a certain vintage are only too aware , as the gnarled hands of impending gifferdom close around our hitherto youthful and vibrant souls , we too will eventually cheat at arguing by saying “Well when you’ve lived as long as I have, son you find that that’s just not true” and piss ourselves laughing at our own jokes.

The point (yes, unusually for these missives ,there is one), is that our dads,despite their gravy stained cardigans with football buttons and inexplicable affection for the work of David Jason, were once cool, impressively coiffured young bucks who jived/twisted/pogoed to the latest tunes with the same kind of abandon as Albert Freeman in a greengrocers, and mine was no exception.

Which is why my dad came into the studio this week to introduce a new feature “Bri’s Revived 45” where I play things that I have nicked from his impressive record collection. ( and he did say “that’s just noise” during the Hair Police track but that’s because er…it is)

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When Big Joan Sets Up 15.04.10 – Callaghanarama

What up, love monkeys. This week, we smiled bravely through the tears as our beloved Laura Rawlings left the BCB Office (but not our airwaves you’ll be relived to hear) and luxuriated in the exquisite melancholy of the new live Bill Callaghan LP amongst other top tunage. We shall never see her like again etc etc…

Tarheel Slim – “Number 9 Train” (v/a LP – “I Smell A Rat – Early Black Rock and Roll, Number 2 1949-1959”)
Holy Fuck – “P.I.G.S” (LP – “Latin”) (XL)
Rt. Hon Derek Enwright MP -“Yellow Submarine” (v/a LP – “The Exotic Beatles”) (Exotica)
The Lodger – “Have A Little Faith in People” (7″) (This is Fake D.I.Y)
Diet Cokeheads – “High Country” (7″) (Drugged Conscience)
Jah Prawn – “Everybody Shuffle” (LP – “Everybody”) (from www.vostros.com)
Martha Tilston – “Rockpools” (LP- “Lucy and The Wolves”) (Squiggly)
Kry$tal – “Instru Logobi Decal Coupe” (hosted on www.skyrock.com)
Chukki Star – “Praise the Creator” (LP – “Most Wanted”) (Greensleeves)
Viva L’American Death Ray Music – “One Hour” (EP – “Behold! A Pale Horse”) (Mexican Summer)
Closure – “Whorehouse” (7″) (Thirty Days of Night)
Bill Callaghan – “Anniversary”
Bill Callaghan – “Diamond Dancer”
Bill Callaghan – “Bathysphere” (all from LP – “Rough Travel for a Rare Thing”) (Drag City)
The Babies – “Hey Caroline” (7″) (Wild World)
The Vivian Girls – “My Love Will Follow Me” (7″) (Wild World)
Dub Gabriel feat U Roy – “Luv and Live” (download EP) (Destroy All Concepts)

When Big Joan Sets Up 8.4.10 – Hans, You’re Playing Catch Up

A phrase that will be familar to all late 80’s layabouts such as myself as being from the epic “Going For Gold” which featured Classic FM (Slogan:Without us Beethoven wouldn’t have been nothing) DJ , Henry Kelly presiding over a titanic quiz show battle whiuch featured a plethora of Europeans, all of whom had English as second language, beating the arse of the English and Irish contestants every week. Althouigh some of the English ones were from Liverpool so that’s probably why.

Anybloodyway, I’m catching up as a combination of televised football , a social calender which would stretch a minor member of the Royal Family,and the evil efforts of the dread can’t be arsed monster, meant I didn’t post a tracklisting last week.

So,for anyone who gives a flying one , here it is

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When Big Joan Sets Up 1/4/10 – April Fall Day

They're not big and they're not clever

Yes, not only is it a crap pun ( incidentally, did you see The One Show tonight? They made Matt Smith off Doctor Who apologise for saying “crap” – he should have told them to fuck off and then apologised) – but it also took me the best part of a day to come up with it, but it does lead me nicely into the momentous event that is the new Fall LP “Our Future, Your Clutter” from which we played three tracks on Wednesday night alongside new stuff from Teenage Fanclub, Billy Childish‘s new project The Vermin Poets and rather too many records with “fucking” in the title.

Adrian and Christine wouldn’t stand for it, you know. The fuckers.

Teenage Fanclub – “Baby Lee” (download from teenagefanclub.com)
Wormrot – “Exterminate” (v/a CD “Fear Candy 79”) (Terrorizer)
Gunjack – “Bring the Change (download) (Shotcallers)
Jimi Hendrix – “Hear My Train A Comin’ (LP – “Valleys Of Neptune”) (Sony)
Kid 606 – “Deep Lid Morgue” (LP – “Songs About Fucking Steve Albini”) (Important)
Big Black – “Columbian Necktie” (LP – “Songs About Fucking”) (Touch and Go)
Jah Roots feat.Jahmeake – “Rocket” (v/a LP – “Hustling Hard Riddim”) (7th Trumpet Productions)
The Fall – “Y.F.O.C./Slippy Floor”
The Fall – “Chino”
The Fall – “Weather Report 2” (all from LP – “Our Future Your Clutter”) (Domino)
The Vermin Poets – “Arthur Was a Gun Runner” (LP – “Poets of England”) (Damaged Goods)
Scott El and Douglas – “Trauma” (download) (Nu Energy Digital)
Thiaz Itch – “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” ( v/a download complation “Movie Ruiners”) (Ego Twisters)