334. Stand By Me by Ben E. King 1961

a song that Little Murders used to play a lot back in our Mod days. always led to a stage invasion where the crowd would sing the whoa oh parts that we dropped in to the song. Band got sick of it though and one night at the Tiger Lounge our bass player refused to play at the right speed . actually he kept changing the speed so we couldn't start it properly. That was the last time we played it and in fact the band fell apart soon after. The seeds were sown. The other week we played a 1981 set list to celebrate 30 years of The Tote and though we rehearsed it the band didn't enjoy the breakneck speed and the simple chord progression so it never made it on the night.
I first heard the song through John Lennon's version on Rock and Roll, his cover album. Loved it but later in the seventies I got to hear the original and it knocked John's version out the ball park. Of course it was a soul song with an easy chord progression so it found it's way into my repertoire pretty quickly. I think we did a pretty good version. Oh well.
The songs got plenty of atmosphere. My wifes favourite film used to be Stand By Me too. Damn good film. damn good song.

333. Howling For You by The Black Keys 2010

A couple of nights ago we were watching this new TV show called "Once Upon A Time" which is a family show where modern day meets fairy tales. There was a scene at the start where the heroine calmly follows her target, a guy who owes her. As she strides down the street this song starts. And my kids just start dancing and singing along. My kids might listen to all those horrible sounds from America's Got Talent and Glee but they also love the sound of the Black Keys. And this is the song that got them interested. 

I was trawling Youtube when I came across the film clip. As usual Ruby was lurking behind me in the background. Saw the film clip. Heard the song. Suddenly we were all watching the film clip using the Apple TV. What a fantastic film clip it is too. Not really appropiate for kids but I guess they've seen it all before. The modern medium is inescapable. Anyway it's the song they wanted to hear. And then we were watching other Black Keys film clips like Tighten Up where they fight in a kids playground. My kids were drawn to to the Black Keys raw blues meets pop sound. Now they've started listening to the White Stripes too. And Black Keys sound is so distinctive. When their songs come on TV shows my kids can spot them straight up. And their songs are on a lot of TV shows.

Actually my kids favourite Black Keys moment is the ad for Brothers, their album. This guy gets so excited his head explodes. They love that! Too much. I had to stop them watching it.

332. No Surprises by Radiohead 1997

In 1997 it seemed that all you heard everywhere you went was the sound of Radiohead. They seemed to be shaping the future of rock music. OK Computer went straight to the top of the critics albums of the century. Well at least the top 10. At the club we'd play Paranoid Android and Karma Police. At home we'd play everything and then certain tracks would become favourites. If I was to pick one track I really remember from the Radiohead days it would have to be No Surprises. It just always got to me. I guess I liked their quieter moments. Rather than the noisy bits. Or the clever bits.
I'd start going out with Liz who would become my wife and give me 3 kids. We listened to Radiohead a lot and bought tickets to see them at Festival Hall in summer 1998. It was as hot as hell. The sun was bursting through the doors. In the row in front of us about 5 young guys decided it was so hot that they would take their shirts off. The stench of human sweat was overpowering. It made it very hard to enjoy the band. There seemed to be a wall in front of us. Luckily the band was brilliant and amazing to watch. Even if we were at the side blocked by a pungent smell. Almost ran to the exits when the gig was over. Just to breathe some fresh air. Gigs at Festival Hall have always been a hard job but this was a doozy.
Still doesn't take anything away from this song. I can't remember if they even played it that night. But I played the hell out of it for the next ten years.

331. Saturday Night In The City Of The Dead by Ultravox 1977

Picked up the Ultravox album on the basis it was cheap being second hand at Readings. it was produced by Brian Eno and it was a punk record. Which it really wasn't. It was a band who went punk. But I guess most of them were anyway. Everyone has a past. Looking at the front cover didn't give me much faith in the record. All looked a bit of a pose really. And all that plastic. But I liked the Televisions and chopped up suit on the back. And some of the music was great. Especially My Sex. Which I listened to a lot. But The song that really brings it all back is this one. 

Saturday night after we'd played a bit of the Clash we'd get into Chris Volkswagen and head off to the city in search of kicks. We knew it was gonna be hard to find them in 1977 but we were determined to try. We had this song for a soundtrack. Crappy parties in Hawthorn. Cold rooms and warm beer in St. Kilda. A slim chance of seeing a good band. Sometimes we'd just search for some venue we'd read about in the Age. There was nothing out there. The first good band we got to see was The Boys Next Door and that was in Springvale. Almost home.

I guess that's why we started making our own fun. Putting bands together. Finding our own places to play. There was still a bit of a wait though. Maybe another year before it really started to heat up a bit.

330. Janie Jones by The Clash 1977

The opening track from the best debut album of all time. Every track is a classic. When I got this album home after buying it at Brashes in Box Hill I couldn't believe what burst out of the speakers. I hadn't even heard the Clash yet. Nobody had it and it wasn't on the radio. I hadn't started listening to alternative radio yet. I was buying albums based on reviews I read in the NME. The magazine I'd been buying from the same newsagent for like 5 years since I first saw T.Rex on the cover.
When I read about the Clash I have to admit some confusion. For a start here was a band on the cover of NME and they didn't have a drummer yet. So they weren't a band yet were they? To me this was a signpost to the exciting times ahead. When my band Subway got a gig at a party and the bass player couldn't make it I just said we'll do it anyway. Punk was really just about getting out there and doing it. Sod the skills part.
This was the Saturday night song. I'd put this on before I went out on a Saturday night. And because I made a cassette of the album it would also blast out of the car's tiny speakers. It even went well at the petrol station as we'd roar "Fill her up Jacko!" This was rock and roll.

329. In The Flesh by Blondie 1976

Watching Countdown religiously even when we were punks and it played nothing but rubbish it was always exciting when they played something cool. In 1977 they actually played all of this song instead of a snippet, which is all we got of the Pistols and The Stranglers. And it was amazing. This band was just so bloody cool. and we instantly fell in love with Debbie Harry. But not only that, the band looked like just as good with there black suits harking back to the sixties. and the sound was a glorious punk sixties mixture. Exactly the way I like it.
Not only that we watched the single climb the charts until it reached the top spot. Or number 2. The thing is it was the first punk band to have a hit single anywhere in the world. It felt like something was changing.
We bought the album. Yeah it sounded thin but there were some great songs on there like X Offender and Rip Her To Shreds. And we played it constantly and loved the fact that it was produced by the same guy who did the Shangri Las.
Then she came to the Palais. And she wore this big t shirt that covered her up until the song Rip Her To Sheds where she ripped it off. And I can't remember if they were any good because it was like the Year Zero and our bands were taking over. And all the Melbourne punk elite were there. Brilliant.

328. Watching The Detectives by by Elvis Costello

Being a bit of a punk rocker in 1977 when everyone else was listening to Saturday Night Fever was a good feeling but it did come with it's share of social problems. For a start not all my friends suddenly became addicted to the new wave and they were still throwing parties. So I'd go to parties and there would be some awful rubbish being played. I went to one party. A 21st at the Sacred heart Church in Grey Street in St. Kilda and we kept pleading with the DJ for one good tune. He was having any of it though. He was playing dancing music. Finally the girls I was with went up and begged for something punk or even punkish. He did have one song that was a bit of a hit. "Watching The Detectives" So that was what we got. Just the one song. But we danced.
I was crazy about Elvis Costello. I had to have everything by him. Then he came to the Palais in St. Kilda. A brilliant gig but no encores and it seemed to be so short. We were used to 90 minute gigs. This one hardly reached 45. We heard a rumour that no one with beards was allowed backstage. Since Gudinski who was a bearded man brought him to Australia we found this quite funny.
Years later he grew himself a beard. Betrayed!

327. She's Not There by The Zombies 1964

I left England in 1965 with my family to come to live in Australia. We were the 10 quid migrants. I never knew if it was 10 quid each or for the whole family. I hated leaving England. I remember crying on the train as we left Blackpool. I also remember stopping off at New York airport and drinking Coke with ice in a glass. Never had that before.
 Being quite young it's hard for me to remember any songs that were big at the time. A lot of my love for sixties music really came about in the seventies. Now and then though a song comes on and I can place it to my pre-Australia days. Of course this might just be my imagination at work. And my memory might be corrupted by watching films like "Loneliness of The Long Distance Runner" and "Billy Liar".
"She's Not There" was a huge hit in the UK before I left. And it seemed to be on the radio a lot. Maybe because it wasn't  a beat group or a Liverpool group the radio DJs liked it more. It even as jazzy inflections. A superb high voice from Colin Blunstone puts it on a whole other level from other singles on the charts. And of course they looked completely different. Half of them wore glasses. They didn't really look like a group.
However the song is mesmerizing. And so atmospheric.
There was also this film called "Bunny Lake is Missing" And the Zombie's appear on a TV in a pub singing "Just Out Of Reach" I searched for ages to get that song. Years even.

326. Cortina by The Lambrettas 1979

Another record I picked up in 1979 in some newsagency in Lytham St. Annes in the UK. 20 p each. Almost all the mod revival bands and a fair few Jam picture sleeves. This single by the Lambrettas was not too bad but it was the flip side Cortina that I really loved. Being a bit lo fi very fast and punky it was a song dear to my heart. Somewhere along the line I might have tried writing a song like this. It's got really good words too especially if you like cars. I guess a Cortina might be a collectors car nowadays.
They were one of the few Mod bands to go on and have hit records. We used to play D-D-D-D-ance at Kommotion. Not a bad song either.
A few years later. well probably about 10 years later I was invited to get on stage with a band called The Squad. They covered about 3 of my songs . They were a Mod band when I thought Mods had almost disappeared. I got up and sang Things Will Be Different at the Great Britain Hotel. A few songs later they played Cortina. And I thought I was the only fan of this song. Instant enjoyment as the Squad ripped through the song. The drummer was so good that 15 years later he joined Little Murders. That song became my highlight of the Squad's set.
In a couple of weeks we're played our old setlist from 1981 for the Tote's 30th anniversary. Should be quite Modtastic. And then the weekend after The Squad will be playing the same venue. So after a very long time I'm going to get to hear this song again live I hope. Cool!

325. Maybe Tomorrow by The Chords 1980

The best of the Mod revival singles in my mind was this glorious single from The Chords. Yes it sounds a bit like The Jam but that's no bad thing when the song is as good as anything the Jam did. Actually although I loved a lot of the stuff that came out under the new Mod banner this was just really kicked. Full of energy and really capturing the spirit of punk matched to the style of Modernism. It's exciting and I hoped this would lead to something bigger for this band. Unfortunately the Mod bands all disappeared and it was gone like some fad. 

Over in Australia there were articles about us where the threat of extinction hung over our heads because of our association with Mods. Often I see a note that Little Murders died with the end of the big Mod revival in 1981. Mod didn't die. My mate Poz's band was a big Mod band a few years later. Mods still ran clubs. The party continued. Except no longer in the public eye. Little Murders played to bigger crowds.  Went to different places. We kept on going. We recorded plenty of stuff. But we did remove the Union Jacks from the amps. And my Union Jack coat went in the cupboard. And the crowd was still rowdy but the Mods had moved on. 

But a real good time was had by all. A couple of years ago we supported From The Jam and all the old and new Mods were there and it was a brilliant night. A real good time singing the anthems of our youth. We should of covered this song though.

324. Frustration by The Purple Hearts 1979

In 1979 me and my girlfriend Leonie were in the UK. I kept waiting for one of the bands I'd heard of to play a gig but nothing turned up. Then I read in NME that Purple Hearts were playing in Edinburgh so we thought lets go to Scotland. As well as doing a bit of sight seeing on the saturday night we went down to a disco called Clouds and saw the number two Mod band in the UK. The place was packed with Mods. Must of been a bit cold because there was a lack of scooters out the front.
Before the band came on there just a Mod disco, an idea I would later use at our Market Hotel gigs. I bought myself a half pint from the bar and immediately was surrounded by a bunch of Scots asking "waht's wrong wiv yee?" "we only drink pints up here..where are you from?...type stuff" luckily I got us away from this gang of half pissed Scots and git ourselves swallowed up by the dance floor. Then the bnad came on. Starting with this song..and ending with this song too! Pushing the latest single of course. It was a brilliant gig. They had a great sound, a good crowd and all the Mod moves down pat. Frustration was the best song on the night. And we had finally got to see a UK Mod band. I wrote a review in one of the Melbourne Mod fanzines when I got back to Melbourne.
Last year I did the Stark Raving Mod book launch joining the Sets on stage at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney. One of the best songs the Sets did on the night was Frustration. And the crowd loved it.

323. Time For action by Secret Affair 1979

The 1979 Mod revival came about through loving the The Jam and seeing the film Quadrophenia. Suddenly we started hearing about bands in England waving the Mod flag and making records. the first release was a piece of rubbish called You Need Wheels by Merton Parkas which almost scuppered the whole movement from the onset and tainted a lot of peoples ears to the sounds of new Mod. But then we started getting some great records. Time For action was a brilliant single and really captured the feel that was going on.
The second Mod movement as been much maligned but for anyone who was part of it it was incredibly exciting and a hell of a lot of fun. Using the punk ethos of DIY Mods were opening clubs and putting fanzines and records and organizing scooter runs. You couldn't get the clothes new so you scoured op shops and old shoe shops which had stock from the sixties sitting in the back room. Brilliant.
That all my mates at the time were into it at the same time was great. I was a total sixties addict so while I formed a punk band in 1977 we were already including old sixties songs from the go. Hell almost all the bands were. Including Nick cave and the Boys next Door whose first release was "These Boots are made for Walking"
I got to the UK at the end of 79 and bought a bunch of these singles for 20p at a news agency. The Mod thing was still quite big. But on Top of The Pops one night they had Madness, Specials and Selector. The ska movement drank from the same well. You could see a change already. However I was determined to take back all these Mod/sixties ideas however and use them in Little Murders.

322. Wonderwall by Oasis 1995

Unlike other people I knew the first album by Oasis didn't blow me away. There were some great songs on it but I was busy digging Parklife by Blur. Britpop was really getting into its' stride and Oasis seemed like another good band. The album Morning Glory changed that. Wonderwall changed everything. The competition with Blur was fierce and Blurs Great escape seemed to get all the good reviews but Morning Glory just got better with every listen and the Blur album just didn't turn out to be very good at all.
Medium paced as it was this was the song that really went off at the Lizard lounge. just those opening guitar strums and the crowd was up and singing away. It really was an anthem in the literal sense of the word. Anywhere and everywhere it came on people staring singing away. I saw a funeral on TV and all these kids were singing. There was a cover by Mike Flowers Pops which was kinda bossa nova and hell that was a hit too. I even played and danced to that song at my first wedding. Well Big Nose Dave played it. Actually it was quite a groovy time again because music was referring back to the sixties and mod fashion and pop art and swinging London which was alright by me. We released our first album in 10 years "and stuff like that" and I put my Union Jack coat on the cover.
Oasis used to have the best b-sides too. I've got my own compilation these tracks and it's just brilliant.

321. This Charming Man by The Smiths 1983

The second single from the Smiths this is the one that seemed to put them on the map in the circle I moved in. Hand in Glove was the first single but I didn't take much notice of it at the time. But it was the Motown beat meets Byrds jangle of This Charming Man that got everyone dancing at the nightclubs I was frequenting. The Venetian Room was the main one but in 1983 we starting going to clubs open on every night of the week. The Underground. Inflation ..some place in the city on a Tuesday night. Mod nights, New romantic nights. Soul clubs.We were going out every night. Plus I was playing 3 or 4 times a week. Then getting up at 7am to go to work. Looking back I'm not sure how I did it. I do remember turning up to work dressed in black with the traces of black eyeliner now and again after not making it home. Always the same remark. "did you bring the Herald?" In those days the Herald was the afternoon paper.
Anyway as soon as I heard Charming Man I just knew I was listening to my new favourite band. The b-side Jeanne was just as good. Later I would play it in my solo sets. Then there seemed to be a flood of Smiths songs. I went back and really listened to Hand in Glove. I couldn't wait to pick up the first album. All of it made me want to hear more. And then we got Hatful of Hollow. So many great songs. Great playing. Great lyrics. The Smiths were the band of the Eighties. Well really they're up there in the top 10 of all bands.

320. Happy Hour by The Housemartins 1986

Everytime I hear someone say put on some Eighties music it's always that electronic stuff or new romantic they're referring to. It's like the seventies means novelty songs or disco. Rubbish. The eighties had some absolutely brillaint singles and albums. The Housemartins came on a bit like a junior Smiths but totally endearing anyway. In fact we'd be at peoples place having drinks and would often swap a Smiths record for a Housemartins record. I guess I was taking a break from garage rock and acting a little more sophisticated.
This was the big hit single that got them noticed, well over here in Australia it was the first we'd heard. This went straight onto the playlist of Barbarellas and became a bit of an indie anthem at most clubs I DJed at. The video has them dancing and if the punter was drunk enough they would try to emulate Housemartins. Fatboy Slim, who was the bass player, couldn't dance. Guess that's why he became a DJ.
I was a big fan of the Housemartins. Loved their albums too. When I went back to the UK they were number one with an aapella hit. Christmas 1986. Caravan of Love. There was a bit of a fuss because they had crosses shaved into their hair and friends of mine thought they had been tricked into liking a Christian band, never mind they came across as socialists too.
Not long after that I started managing a band called Captain Cocoa because they reminded me of bands like the Housemartins and Orange Juice. The bass player was Dave O'Neill, now a well known comedian around town.

319. She Sells Sanctuary by The Cult 1985

I was rifling through my singles box the other day when I came across this single. The picture sleeve is just there, tattered and torn. The box smells of pubs but that's neither here nor there. This was one of the biggies. I first started playing this song at a club called Barbarellas in Smith Street Fotzroy. Acrooss the road from the Jump Club. Actually between sets I would go for a drink at the Jump Club. Check out the bands for half a hour.. Or go upstairs for a drink.
Barbarellas was the next venture for Ronny and Michael after the runaway success of Rubber Soul. This time I was heavily involved in the setting up including naming the place (after a club in Birmingham UK)  designing the poster and outlining the set list. Basically it was play anything that works. A policy I used when it came to setting up my own venue.  Actually before we opened Barbarellas at Ashleys we tried a Wednesday club called Glam which lasted 4 weeks.
Barbarellas went through the roof. There were queues around the corner before we opened. It was just amazing. But it only lasted a year.
My fellow DJs were Jason and Adam. Jason played this song one night and it sounded like a jet plane taking off. It had just some pure drive booming out the speakers. The crowd went nuts. So I quickly adopted it into my set. after that it was the first to play it. But the timing had to be right or it would lose it's effect. You can't play a song just cos it's good . It's also about timing. The Cult had a few other big singles. Some people say their later stuff ripped off AC/DC. I've played a lot more Cult than Ac/Dc in my time.