A CHIC ORGANISATION PLAYLIST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UFhdYhE9ko

Perhaps more than any group of musicians, producers and writers the Chic organisation personified an era in black music. Their sound exemplifies a cool sophisticated dance scene, their irony and empowerment brought them respect from such rock orientated press as NME and Melody Maker. In their heyday they were a production line of quality, perhaps At their best when in tandem with the glorious voices of Sister Sledge.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LUie81E82k

Despite success with the songs on the danceflloor they produced albums of subtlety and depth, even When Motown heard their mix of Diana Ross’ 1980 solo album and thought it was too Chic (only recently was the original Chic mix available) the album produced a number of hits. On actual Chic albums there are excursions into more stripped back songs. Ultimately with Bernard Edwards, Nile Rogers and Tony Thompson at the core Chic always had the tightest of grooves.
Anyone who experienced the Chic organisation the first time around is taken back to a wonderful time when one of their instantly recognisable hits is heard.
Here's to the good times
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4GtyMeEcPPE

We are Family – Sister Sledge (key track One more time)
Cest Chic-Chic (key track I want your love)
Risque-Chic (key track My feet keep dancing)
Diana – Diana Ross (key track Tenderness) *the Deluxe edition features the original Chic mixes as opposed to the release version modified by Motown
Love somebody today-Sister Sledge (key Track Pretty Baby)
Spacer – Sheila & B.Devotion (12” B side)
Chic-Chic (Key track Everybody dance)
Why-Carly Simon (12” version)
Real People – Chic (key track Real people)
Norma Jean-Norma Jean Extended version (key Track Hold me lonely boy)
Chicism-Chic (key track My loves for real)
Take it off-Chic (Key track Stage Fright)
Core band:
• Bernard Edwards - vocals, bass
• Nile Rodgers - guitar
• Tony Thompson - drums
• Alfa Anderson, Luci Martin - lead vocals
The Chic Strings:
• Karen Milne
• Marianne Carroll
• Valerie Haywood
• Cheryl Hong
• Karen Karlsrud
• Gene Orloff
Additional personnel:
• Vocals - Fonzi Thornton, Michele Cobbs, Ullanda McCullough, Luther Vandross, Jocelyn Brown
• Keyboards - Robert Sabino, Andy Schwartz, Raymond Jones, Nathaniel S. Hardy, Jr.
• Percussion - Sammy Figueroa

Further Reading;
Everybody dance-Chic and the politics of Disco by Daryl Easlea
Publisher: Helter Skelter
ISBN-10: 1900924560

My Double Bills # 8 identity is the crisis can't you see

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0Z62EXptcU

Scott McGehee and David Siegel's exploration on memory and identity released in 1993 sits comfortably alongside Chris Nolan's later Memento. The term existential could have been coined for these movies. Nothing is what it seems and the notion of self is explored within the context of a murder and the piecing together of detail.
Suture is a little seen movie who's most famous cast member is Denis Haysbert (President Palmer from 24)its shot in crisp black and white while Memento is filmed in sombre hues.

"Isn't it remarkable how much we look alike?" says Haysbert's character Clay Arlington when he meets his half brother Vincent Towers. The irony being that they don't. This notion is almost an in joke but becomes an unanswerable conundrum. The fact that a doctor who has a key role in the story is called Dr. Renee Descartes is a nod to philosophy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6DxaxuUJXQ

Memento is a better known work and was Nolan's second movie. While being a cult film, probably due to it's non linear structure there is more to it than it's backwards presentation. On DVD it can be watched in linear form and still remains a powerful piece.

Both films have themes of memory, perception, grief, self-deception, and revenge and both films have a dream like quality.Both films have trance like sountracks and demand an attentive viewer.

A double bill that entertains and gives you a mental workout.

CONGRATULATIONS

This post is for Tracey & Steve.

Happy Life to you both

xxx

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sbqv3MwwVd8

A POST PUNK PLAYLIST

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOU6_JKL9r0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sL0tYowbIxE

• Public Image Limited- Metal box
• Wire-Pink Flag
• Siouxsie and The Banshees-Join Hands
• Joy Division-Closer
• Durutti Column-The Return of The Durutti Column
• Simple Minds –Empires and Dance
• Magazine-Second hand Daylight
• Gang of four-Entertainment
• Manicured Noise-Northern stories
• The Pop Group-Y
I’m going to use the term ‘post punk’ to loosely group together these records from Wire’s Pink Flag released in 1977 to later albums the development of the genre moves from gloom and abstraction through to pop and Funk inspired landscapes.
A period of great interest to music fans and obsessive’s. That there’s a large smattering of Northern musicians at play here is true but perhaps the monument to the new development was PILs Metal Box; has there ever been such a wilfully difficult mainstream record released? From the act of actually getting the record out of the tin, to the fact that on some stereos the needle would bounce around due to the heavy bass, to the actual music contained therein.
Join Hands and Closer could be played back to back on a gloomy Sunday to make things more gloomy while Magazine and simple Minds efforts sound like the beginning of a shift in music from abrasion to complexity.
The Gang of Four and The pop Group were clearly influenced by Funk as where Manicured Noise as their music changed from cold and dark to Funky and slightly warmer.
The Punk scene that John Lydon had been so pivotal in had changed to a post punk view and again, with PIL he was a catalyst.

Driven to despair

The London bus driver is no longer the devil may care king of the road with his conductor riding shotgun. He or she is the new automaton public servant. Unprofessional and uncouth. As likely to refer to a paying passenger as ‘Oi!’ rather than ‘Sir/Madam’. Peering out from behind their plexi glass encased kingdom, the come across as aloof and supercilious, they no longer feel the need to engage with their passengers, or customers as I’m sure they are told to refer to us as. “I’m not bank” the driver said to me when I presented him with a fiver. So I (politely) asked for a form to fill in to pay the fare at a later date. His response? Turning the engine off.

Now these small things can have the capacity to make a calm person turn into Patrick Bateman. It’s the rudeness, refusal to comply with LRT policy and the blatant disregard for common sense and common courtesy. The bullet proof barrier makes them feel that they can act with impunity secure in the knowledge that they can sit behind the wheel of the stationery bus indefinitely while the passenger needs to get somewhere.

In the end, rather than sit tight and wait for the police to arrive and then prove my point, I bought two tickets. He was able to give me change as he fished 3 £1 coins from his pocket. Absolutely infuriating!

This happened on a 24 and is the second time there has been an ‘incident’ on this route. In fact the attached pictures perfectly sum up the stupidity of the route 24 driver; unable to judge the height of a bridge resulting in an open top 24!
Crashes apart these drivers are the worst in a field of stiff competition. Maybe it’s the mentality at the garage or maybe the drivers are having an ongoing bet as to who can be the most officious, rude and malodours twerp on the road.

My double Bills # 7 Original Gangsters

The Untouchables has an extraordinary line up of Italian & Italian American talent; Brian DePalma uses the best of his gifts as a director, Robert DeNiro steals the film as Capone,Georgio Armani recreates the styles of the era with panache and Ennio Morricone delivers a sensational soundtrack.

Millers Crossing is as densely plotted as The Maltese Falcon and has a number of stand out sequences and performances.

Both of these movies have large amounts of style but capture the golden age of Gangster movies such as The Roaring Twenties and The public Enemy but without shying away from the inherent violence of the times, and there are echoes of Cagney and Raft.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zc9zF8G2Pvc

The stand out sequence in The Untouchables is DePalma's homage to Battleship Potemkin

and in Millers Crossing the symphony of machine gun and Oh Danny Boy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thXTjcMnEdY

Old fashioned yet contemporary gangster movies almost just like they used to make

Perfect Pop as easy as ABC

The Lexicon of Love- ABC (1982)
A phenomenal example of perfect pop, this album came out of a Sheffield music scene generally associated with cold dour electronic themes. With Heaven 17 and The Human League forming in the aftermath of the split of the original Human League pop was on the agenda.
ABC created an album that was rich and tinged with funk and sumptuous orchestration an amalgam somewhat akin to the sound of the Chic Organisation, alongside this lyrically the songs are as clever as Elvis Costello at his best.
The original Album has been re released in a number of forms but there is a deluxe version available that completes the picture.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcchCQuXrH8 look of love

Disc one
The Original Album
1. "Show Me" – 4:02
2. "Poison Arrow" – 3:24
3. "Many Happy Returns" – 3:56
4. "Tears Are Not Enough" – 3:31
5. "Valentine's Day" – 3:42
6. "The Look of Love" (Part One) – 3:26
7. "Date Stamp – 3:51
8. "All of My Heart" – 5:12
9. "4 Ever 2 Gether" – 5:30 [co-written by Anne Dudley]
10. "The Look of Love" (Part Four) – 1:02
The Original Singles
11. "Overture" – 3:59
12. "Tears Are Not Enough" [original single version] – 3:36
13. "Alphabet Soup" – 8:03
14. "Theme from Man Trap" – 4:19
15. "Poison Arrow" [North American Jazz Mix] – 7:06
An Oddity and An Out-Take
16. "Into the Valley of the Heathen Go" – 2:00
17. "Alphabet Soup" [BBC Swapshop version] – 3:13
Disc two
The Route to the Lexicon
1. "Tears Are Not Enough" [Phonogram Demo 20 July 1981] – 3:32
2. "Show Me" [Phonogram Demo 20 July 1981] – 4:03
3. "Surrender" [Phonogram Demo 20 July 1981] — (song deleted from album’s original release at "the 11th hour") – 3:29
The Lexicon of Love—Live at Hammersmith Odeon November 1982
4. "Overture" – 3:56 [co-written by Anne Dudley]
5. "Show Me" – 4:21
6. "Many Happy Returns" – 7:02
7. "Tears Are Not Enough" – 5:33
8. "Date Stamp" – 7:07
9. "The Look of Love" [Complete Suite] – 5:59
10. "All of My Heart" – 6:45
11. "Valentine's Day" – 4:44
12. "4 Ever 2 Gether" – 6:53
13. "Alphabet Soup" – 8:26
14. "Poison Arrow" – 5:22
Listening to The Lexicon of Love again it still retains a freshness a=whilst conjuring up memories of it’s initial release.
The well known singles from it; Poison Arrow, Tears are not enough and the Look of Love are all perfect in execution and the whole album ,when listened to in one sitting is a rewarding experience. Unfortunately albums nowadays are not put together as a complete work (mores the pity).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyWIRWR9PIU

A curious spin off was a film made by Julien Temple with ABC playing themselves in a musical, come thriller Mantrap. This little seen Movie is a good companion piece to the album and blends eighties pretensions with originality.

http://www.torrentdownloads.net/searches/abc%20mantrap To Download
For those who have not heard The Lexicon of Love I recommend getting hold of a copy and for those who have not listened to it in a while, dust it of and give it a go, you will be rewarded .

‘When I'm shaking a hand, I'm clenching a fist
If you gave me a pound for the moments I missed
And I got dancing lessons for all the lips I shoulda kissed
I'd be a millionaire
I'd be a Fred Astaire’
-Martin Fry

Magazine meaning in a crowded market

1.SugarApe

2.Jack

3.The Face

4.Filmstar

5.Hotdog

6.Arena

7.Sorted

8.Total Football

Some magazines set an agenda of being different yet the same as their competitors.
The Face was the eighties preeminent style bible and launched a look and a voice for hip young urnbanites. The Face Tv Advert
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl4nZV0NFPM

Arena was the men's magazine that had men on the cover and was designed and executed superbly.

Total football was the only real competitor to FourFourTwo and gave a more fan orientated view of the beautiful game.
Hotdog was more cult movie than mainstream and the short lived Filmstar threatened to break Empires stranglehold on the market, it was fresh and insightful and not prone to fawning over certain films and directors as Empire is prone to doing.
Sorted was a strange idea, it was a christian Lads Mag, an idea that clearly didn't have legs.
Possibly the best magazine to have come and gone leaving a gap in the market was Jack, a fine periodical that encompassed many topics for men in a fun yet comprehensive way.
But the key magazine of recent years was Sugar Ape it set the tone for a generation, graphically rewarding with insightful articles from the likes of the multi talented Dan Ashcroft.A style bible and a genuinely zeitgeist capturing urban dispatch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcAMSnyz-O4