Category Archives: When Big Joan Sets Up

Matters relating to Phil Cope’s show, When Big Joan Sets Up, at midnight as Wednesday morphs into Thursday (UK time)

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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Cope, Arrowsmith & McLaren: Selection Box Shows 128, 129 & 130

After a false start a little while ago, Brigadeer Phillip Agnostin D’Argtanian Tannoy Gargle Pissflap Cope III plonked his posterior into the guest chair for Selection Box 128.  I continually say that I am not going to keep noting the number of the show we’re on, as its something I only mark out for my own probably-autistic filing purposes.  And yet I continue to announce how many of these by-the-seat-of-the-pants produced pillock presented programmes we’re up to now.  Still, worth noting that in around four months we’ll (and that’s very much the royal “we”) be up to 147 shows.  Perhaps I’ll have a snooker-themed special to celebrate.  Chas & Dave have retired now, so that’s them out the window as potential session guests, but no doubt referee Len Ganley knows how to tap a triangle on cue, so that’s a part of the rhythm section sorted.  Actually, he’s probably dead now I think about it.  I do know that Steve Davis is a prog rock aficianado, so perhaps this isn’t as daft an idea as it first seemed.  The only problem I foresee is that personally I find the majority of prog a bit too, well, shit to play on air.

Yours truly (right) and Phil Cope clearly have nothing in common.

Yours truly (right) and Phil Cope clearly have nothing in common.

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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

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)

When Big Joan Sets Up 25/3/10 – A Reading from The Book of M.E.S.

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Mark E Smith

And for two years they did wander in the wilderness without any new Fall records until there came to pass a new single – and lo’ it was ace. And the children of Bradford came forth saying “Where hast thou been , O grumpy Mancunian bard of non sequiturs?” and he did say unto them “I’ve got milk on my elbow – ah!” – and they did understand that he was a genius and a bit bonkers as well.

And they saw that this was good and went off to beseech the almighty Domino Records to bestow upon them a copy of the new LP and they did so in a nice way because they did get loads of free records and they did not want to looketh a gift horse in the mouth. And as they went they sayeth unto themselves “That’s what happens when you get your biblical references off Wikipedia”

And there came forth a great howling and gnashing of teeth (from those who had teeth to gnash) and it sounded like this.

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When Big Joan Sets Up – Bloody Microsoft!

Hello chums, due to my PC being out of action AGAIN, this is a quick resume of what was played in last night’s calvacade of jolity.

Anglo Spencer et Les Hauts Sommets – “Shivers” (LP-“Anglo Spencer et Les Hautes Sommets”) (K)
Tymon and Waldhaus – “Void” (EP – “Menage A Trois”) (Industrial Strength)
Gorillaz feat Mark E Smith – “Glitter Freeze” (LP- “Plastic Beach”) (Parlophone)
Serena Maneesh -“I Just Want to See Your Face” (7″) (4AD)
To Roccoco Rot – “Forwardness (Traversable Wormhole Mix) (EP – “Forwardness Friday”) (Domino)
B Dolan – “Fifty Ways” (LP- “Fallen House , Sunken City”) (Strange Famous)
The Ballad of Mable Wong – “Bob’s Yer Uncle” (download EP – “See Dea Are”) (Winning Sperm)
Toumani Dibate and Ali Farka Toure – “Sabu Yerkoy” (LP- “Toumani Dibate and Ali Farka Toure”) (World Circuit)
The Teeners – “Nazi’s on Film” (v/a LP – “Casual Victim Pile – Austin 2010”)(Matador)
NC and Nusence – “Just Heroes” (12″) (Viper)
Ivor Cutler – “Ivor Cutler and the Paper Seller” (LP- “Prince Ivor”) (Rough Trade)
Taper Jinx – “Dopperling Light” (EP – “The Apnea EP”) (Self Released)
Capelton – “Lip,Lip,Lip” (7″) (Truck Back)
White Mystery – “Power Glove” (7″) (HoZac)
Japanther – “LA U R A Mystery”(LP- “Rock n’ Roll Ice Cream”) (Menlo Park Recordings)
The Fantastic Mr.Fox – “Sketches” (EP – “Keep Your Teeth Sharp”) (Black Acre)
So Cow -“International Waters” (LP-“Meaningless Friendly”) (Tic Tac Totally)

When Big Joan Sets Up 11/3/10

For Carol Tilsley 1968 -2010
“You can’t even hear the words”

Laura Davis – “I Am Thinking Of A Friend” (LP – “God’s Got It – The Legendary Booker and Jackson Singles”) (Case Quarter)
Jah 9 – “Warning” (download) (Don Corleone)
Ellen Allien – “Pump” (12″) (Bpitch)
Japp Gutter – “Joel and Jail” (Cassette -“Heaven Dollars”) (Self Relased)
Blind Boy Fuller – “Pistol Slapper Blues” (v/a LP – “Murder:Songs From The Dark Side of The Soul”) (Trikont)
B Dolan – “The Reptillian Agenda” (LP- “Fallen House, Sunken City”) (Strange Famous)
The Radio Dept. – “Heaven’s On Fire” (LP- “Clinging To A Scheme”) (Labrador)
King – “Sissy Spacek” (v/a LP “Dubsteppers For Haiti – Volume 2”) (Betamorph)
Loretta Lynn – “The Pill” (LP -“The Very Best Of Loretta Lynn”) (MCA)
Chumbawumba – “Dance Idiot, Dance” (LP – “ABCDEFG”) (No Masters)
The Bambi Molesters – “Thundering Guitars” (LP – “As The Dark Wave Swells”) (Glitterhouse)
Dan Sartain – “Ruby Carol” (download)
Gonjasufi – “Susie Q” (LP – “A Sufi and a Killer”) (Warp)
Little Fella and Mr B -“Here I Am” (Download) (Relentless Digital)
David Thomas Broughton – “Ain’t Got No Sole” (EP – “Boating Disasters”) (Static Caravan)
Dub Spencer and Trance Hill – “The Saints Go Marching Through All The Popular Songs” (LP- “Riding Strange Horses”) (Echo Beach)
Horace Tapscott and the Pan Afrikan People’s Arkestra – “Peyote Song No.3” (v.a LP – “Freedom, Rhythm, Sound – Revolutionary Jazz and The Civil Rights Movement 1963-1982”) (Soul Jazz)

When Big Joan Sets Up 25/2/10 – Seminal Lionel

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Lionel Richie

Ey, and indeed, up consumers.
This week’s When Big Joan Sets Up was “the usual mixture of agony and ecstacy” (c) my dad, 2010 , pushing the cultural envelope to feature tracks from noisy Americans, frenzied Spaniards, skanking Jamaicans, the sound of the greatest band who ever drew breath live,   secret coded messages from anonymous MI5 agents (really) and,  sitting lonley in the pantheon of popular music like a diamond floating in a sea of cat piss and stoat offal , the single solitary good record with the name “Lionel Ritchie” anywhere near it.

And if you don’t think that that all doesn’t add up to an hour of top class light entertainment , then according to my MI5 secret code book, ( supplied by Jez’s Discount Books, High Street Kippax £1.99) you are patently a massive 542562.

Must go now, there’s something going on in the sculpture class, I think I’d better check it out.

The Mylein Sheaths – “Do The Mental Twist” (7″) (HoZac)
David Moleon – “Goal” (EP – Blackhawk”) (Basics)
Babybird – “Send Me Back My Dreams” (LP – “Ex Maniac”) (Unison)
Dressla – “Bomb The Circles” (net 7″ available from www.jahtari.org/music/net7inch.htm)
Wynonie Harris – “Good Morning Judge” (LP- (“Rockin’ Greatest Hits”) (Burning Fire)
Prime Mover and Chuck B – “Better Days” (download) (Digital Pound)
Air Formation – “Low December Sun” (7″) (ac30)
Unknown MI5 Intelligence Officer – “Lincolnshire Poacher MI5” (4CD set – “The Conet Project – Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations”)(Irdial)
Busy Signal – “Food For Di Pot” (7″) (Penthouse)
The Strange Boys – “Laugh at Sex, Not Her” (LP – “Be Brave”) (Rough Trade)

The Fall recorded live in Berlin 12.02.10
“Slippy Floor”
“Cowboy George Parts 1 and 2”
“Psykick Dancehall”

The Commodores – “Brick House” (12″) (Motown)
The Black Belles – “What Can I Do?” (7″) (Third Man)