409. That's Entertainment by The Jam 1981

Here's a song Little Murders have covered in our acoustic set and one that a lot of other big stars have covered too. Morrissey and the Wonder Stuff come to mind not that the Wonder Stuff were really major but they did put out some great singles. It's also a song I like to play at home since it consists of minimal chords played in a sequence that rarely varies. Of course the problem is trying to learn al the lyrics. Six verses in all. And a lot of words which you can pick up as you sing along to the record but when you're on your own it's pretty hard. So I often have a cheat sheet taped somewhere close.
First heard the song back in 1981 when it was a track on Sound Effects. I was frequenting and sometimes DJing at a club in Richmond called Kommotion. A big Mod club in a small venue. Scooters out the back. Jumping off the speaker stacks. Mod girls in sixties gear. Boys in Parkas. Our music was sixties pop, soul, ska and the odd new Mod band from the UK. And The Jam featured heavily. Surprisingly or maybe not so surprisingly considering how good it is this song went down a storm. Everyone would get up and dance to this basically wordy acoustic song. Years later at the Lizard Lounge it would have the same affect. People filled the floor when it came on. And they sang along. And put in the La la Las.
Paul Weller says he wrote this in 10 minutes after coming home pissed from the pub. Magic.

408. Reet Petite by Jackie Wilson 1957

It may have been released in 1957 but it wasn't until 1986 when it finally made number one in the UK. Again I was there for England's madness as dance clubs were full of people dancing to this old fifties classic. We already knew the name after listening a few years earlier to Dexy's cover of Van Morrison's song Jackie Wilson Said but here was the real thing. And it was utterly fantastic.
And what comes to mind. I was on my way to London for New years Eve in Trafalgar Square and a stay at the Regent Palace in Piccadilly Circus. I thought I might drop in on Mick Barclay's sister Kirsten who was staying in a little village somewhere down south. It turned into quite a journey where I had to take a train to Milton Keynes and the take this bus that seemed to wind it's way through all these tiny villages in the English countryside. Finally when I was the only one on the bus it dropped me at the the pub across from where Kirsten was staying. By that time I was so worn out I can't remember anything else. Just this incredibly long journey on a freezing cold night. Maybe one pint and then I was out like a light.
The next day I got up early and went back to London to find myself frozen into the city and unable to get out as they closed the ferries and railways. A plan to meet a friend in Italy just crashed as transport was delayed and then France was hit by a rail strike. Trafalgar Square was pretty magical though. And they did play Reet Petite.
Disastrous holiday but I came home with some great singles. Most of them soul and dance stuff I was starting to get into.

407. Never Can Say Goodbye by Gloria Gaynor 1975

1975 I went to Blackpool after finishing High School. Went there for an extended holiday and stayed with my Aunt Sheila and Uncle George who had two sons. Neil and Colin. I spent a lot of time hanging out with Neil and one of his mates whose name I can no longer recall. Phil Green rings a bell.

One of the places we would go to was the Blackpool mecca. At the time I had no knowledge of Northern soul nor it's importance in the musical world. I just remember this place full of amazing dancers.

The first night I went there it was raining. I put on my new coat but Neil told me just to wear a shirt. Explanation was it's usually warmer when it rains and where would you put your coat when you got to the pubs and clubs which were most of the time overheated. So I set of in the winter night as the rain drizzled with my sleeves rolled up.

At the Mecca I caught my first sight of dancers with baggy trousers and talcum powder scattered underneath their feet as they slipped, span and jumped. Amazing stuff. The music was a mix of songs I didn't know but had a familiar Motown beat which turned out to be the essence of Northern Soul. They also played top hits. Never Can Say Goodbye was a number 2 hit in the UK. I don't even think we were calling it disco then. It was just a magnificent soul single with a driving beat. And no one stopped dancing. In fact more people got on the floor.
By the time I got back to Australia in early 76 the album was huge. It was sequenced to play without gaps. So the FM radio would play the whole side. By memory I think it was just 3 songs. Honey bee, Never Can say Goodbye and Reach Out. 

406. Funny Little Frog by Belle and Sebastian 2006

I was on one of those open-top bus tours of Edinburgh a few years back when we went past this guitar shop so I forced the family to get off at this place called the grass market so I could look and see if they had any vintage guitars. I'm still regretting passing up a Rickenbacker in London a few weeks beforehand. As I made my way to the shop after leaving the family at a toy shop I was distracted by a record shop called Avalanche. It was in the middle of renovations so there was wood and posters and records everywhere. but there was a massive Belle and Sebastian poster on the wall which I enquired about. Of course, it wasn't for sale but I did manage to get a conversation going with the owner who told me that the band was the biggest seller in his shop.
It reminded me how much I loved this band. I see them as direct descendants of the Kinks. Just the wordplay and the mixing of styles in their records. Even the vocals sound a little like Ray Davies at times. With a Scottish brogue.
Funny Little Frog was the single that revitalized my interest after I had lost interest in them after their Sinister album. I was over at Bruce Minty's house (Little Murders guitarist) when he played it and my ears pricked up. From there I went back and found their later albums and realized how much I still liked their music. Especially Dear Catastrophe Waitress which this was from. 
Even got to see them live at the Forum in Melbourne. It wasn't packed so Liz and I could get pretty close to the front. Magic night. Since then I've caught them live a few times. Always great.

405. Fools Gold by Stone Roses 1989

Last week I was in Bayswater in London when I came across a huge poster on the Underground Station advertising an exhibition of Stone Roses photographs. It was wet and windy and my family were all tired from walking around London but it was just down the road at the local shopping centre and really I wasn't going to get another chance to see it if I didn't go now. So off we went. It was a big room full of expensive large photos. As we walked in I realised the only other people there were Ian Brown and his two sons. Ruby chose that moment to ask who the Stone Roses were. Ignoring that I said hello to Ian, had a little chat and got my photo taken with him. I was a bit tongue tied. I mean The Stone Roses created one of the best albums of all time. And then they brought out this single on 12 inch.
we played this to death at the Lizard Lounge. It would get everyone up dancing from the get go. It was incredibly hip. And just a beautiful groove and that kinda summed up where we all were in 1990.
The Stone Roses got me back into playing my guitar more and writing songs. I hadn't really done much since the break up of Little Murders 6 years earlier but the Stone Roses got me all excited about music again. Unfortunately thanks to bands like the Roses and the rise of alternative music in clubs the popularity of Lizard didn't give me much time to actually play live. But at home I had my portastudio and I was writing again.

404. Mr. Cab Diver by Lenny Kravitz 1990

One of DJ Jason's classics. All the DJs who worked at Lizard Lounge would have songs that were kind of 'their' songs. Out of bounds for other DJs. Jason Underhill, who I started the Lizard Lounge with in 1990 was big on Lenny Kavitz, The Cult and God. God, the band not the diety. Well one song "My Pal'
The Lizard. We started off playing to 25 people. Each week the crowd would grow by a couple of people and we had to try having a band on at one stage. Captain Cocoa who featured comedian Dave O'Neil. I booked them because I was their manager. Paid them 60 bucks. But that didn't work. We were surviving ..but just. All profits went to buying records. Then the other Jason, who ran Friday night's alternative club at the same venue convinced the landlord to put on a happy hour. Well, two hours. 9-11pm $1 pots. Then Lizard went through the roof and we never looked back.
Our Jason liked to play Lenny Kravitz. The first I'd heard of Lenny was through Ronny Williams who ran Beehive. He used to rave about the analog sound of Lenny's first album "Let Love Rule" A pure sixties sound. Made the same way records were made in the sixties. Presumably with sixties dust on the mixing desk. Mr. Cab Driver was a highlight of the album. I liked that rhythm guitar sound that runs across the record. Ace.

403. Security by Thane Russell 1966

As Little Murders got bigger back in the early 80s we got offered a lot more support gigs with bigger bands often out in the suburbs. City gigs were ours unless the band was bigger, from interstate, or overseas. Some bands were leftover relics from before punk came along and we thought all the rubbish would be swept away. However some of the bands predated punk but were still bloody good. One of those bands were Jo Jo Zep who were a great pub rock band that managed to have a bunch of hit singles. 

Their first single was Security in 1976. Back when I  had just started going to gigs by Sports Last Chance Cafe and Bleeding Hearts at rooms like the Tiger Lounge.
One night we supported them at the Oxford Hotel which was one of our usual haunts. Opposite RMIT on Swanston Street before they closed it to traffic. Big room with good vibes. That night Jo Jo Zep played the song "Security" They really knocked the socks off it. The Saints had recently covered it too but I set out to hunt down the original. This hunt took a long time and I found it on cassette first on this album called "Hard To Get Hits" compiled by Glenn A. Baker.  And what an original. It's all dirty, the drums crash, and the guy screams for Security.  And this was a hit in Australia! Number 4 in Melbourne from a time when states had their own charts.

Yeah in the end I got the record. It's brilliant.