The Cat on "Where The Action Is" Kirkcaldy VRN 1287AM - Sunday 28 March 2010

It's our last dip into the "Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970" box set and loads of other goodies:

The Monkees - All The King's Horses (Unreleased 1966)
Floyd Cramer - On The Rebound (RCA 1961) (show theme)
The Freshmen - Look at the Sunshine (Pye 1968)
The Youngbloods - Get Together (RCA 1967)
Jackie Leven - John Paul Getty's Silver Cadillac (Cooking Vinyl 2009)
Santana - Evil Ways (Columbia 1969)
Dino Valenti - Let's Get Together (Unreleased 1964)
The Charlatans - Alabama Bound (Unreleased 1967)
People - I Love You (Capitol 1968) (Connect 3)
Lulu - To Sir, With Love (Epic 1967) (Connect 3)
The Great! Society - Somebody To Love (LP version) (Unreleased 1966) (Connect 3)
Blue Cheer - Fool (single version) (Philips 1967)
Jefferson Airplane - It's No Secret (RCA 1966)
The Turtles - Grim Reaper of Love (White Whale 1966) (Birthday: 28/3/45 Chuck Portz)
Grateful Dead - The Golden Road (To Unlimited Devotion) (Warner Bros 1967)
The Bystanders - Royal Blue Summer Sunshine Day (Piccadilly 1967)
Liz Brady - Palladium (The Hip) (Pathe 1966) (Foreign Language)
Fifty Foot Horse - Red The Sign Post (Limelight 1968)
Dave Clark Five - I Walk The Line (Piccadilly 1962) (Half-Time Instrumental)
Notes from the Underground - Why Did You Put Me On? (Vanguard 1968)
The Ivy League - My World Fell Down (Piccadilly 1966)
The Beach Boys - Wendy (Capitol 1964) (A to Z of The Beach Boys - W)
The Beach Boys - When a Man Needs a Woman (Capitol 1968) (A to Z of The Beach Boys - W)
Country Weather - Fly To New York (Private 1969)
The Mojo Men - She's My Baby (Reprise 1966)
Care - Flaming Sword (Arista 1983) (Under The Influence)
The Otherside - Streetcar (Brent 1966)
Country Joe and the Fish - I Feel Like I'm Fixing To Die Rag (EP version) (Rag Baby 1965)
The Petites - Baby Blue Mustang (Troy 1965) (Connect 3)
Janis Joplin - Mercedes Benz (Columbia 1968) (Connect 3)
The Beach Boys - Little Honda (Capitol 1964) (Connect 3)
The Warlocks - Can't Come Down (Unreleased 1965)
Quicksilver Messenger Service - Light Your Windows (Capitol 1968)
The Marvelettes - Danger Heartbreak Dead Ahead (Tamla 1965) (Two of a Kind)
The Marvelettes - I'll Keep On Holding On (Tamla 1965) (Two of a Kind)
The Immediate Family - Rubiyat (Unreleased 1967)
Floyd Cramer - On The Rebound (RCA 1961) (show theme)

Next week it'll be my pre-recorded Joe Meek special, as I celebrate Easter Sunday with my family. Congratulations to my VRN colleague John Murray who was awarded The John Witney Award for his outstanding contribution to hospital radio at the National Hospital Radio Awards - well done, John! Although I didn't appreciate him charging a bottle of wine to my room!! Sadly, I left empty-handed in my category, as did all our other nominees. Just call us the Shawshank Redemption of the HBA! Until next week, it's good day and good health.

Jackie Leven - Gothic Road (Cooking Vinyl, 4th April)

THE SCENE: – A large meeting at Cooking Vinyl (CV) to discuss GOTHIC ROAD – JACKIE LEVEN’S first new studio album since 2008’s LOVERS AT THE GUN CLUB.

STUART (new CV label manager, his first meeting with JL) – “Er, can I start by asking Jackie what the album title, GOTHIC ROAD actually means, if anything?”

JACKIE – “Well, we all walk two roads – the Royal Road, and the Road of Poverty and Death, however we imagine these roads to be. When these two roads meet, then we are walking on the GOTHIC ROAD.”

STUART (doubtfully) – “Does it make any difference which direction you walk on the GOTHIC ROAD?”

JACKIE – “None at all”.

STUART (still doubtfully) – “Is this all true?”

MARTIN GOLDSCHMIDT (CV supremo, without looking up from doodling) – “It is now …”

GOTHIC ROAD opens with the choral sound of GHOST VOICES OF THE KURSK – three young Russian men from the northern seaboard city of Murmansk, all of whose brothers died in that Russian submarine tragedy. This is closely followed by the sound of a German sat nav lady guiding JACKIE’s tour bus out of the city of Hamburg last year. And so the stage is set for twelve strong tales from the GOTHIC ROAD – powerful stories from one who has walked the road for nearly sixty years.

Many of the songs are at once mystical but also locked in the daily grind of emotional survival. In keeping with his longstanding creative association with mavericks and outlaws, (David Thomas, Johnny Dowd etc) JACKIE collaborates here with fabled English renegade RALPH McTELL. RALPH supplies the yearning second lead vocal, plus Gibson acoustic guitars on CORNELIUS WHALEN, a song about the man who was the last of the Jarrow marchers left alive when JACKIE wrote the song – the Jarrow March** being a superb example of the reality of the GOTHIC ROAD.

Elsewhere on the album, JACKIE fantasises about the creative dynamo that is actress TILDA SWINTON, hides in his hotel mini bar from the tyranny of endless touring, sings a song written by the original punk poet PATRIK FITZGERALD, (SHADOW OF A MAN) and welcomes on board a guest recording by his co-producer, the great Welsh singer DAVID WRENCH (ISLAND).

The album abounds with GOTHIC ROAD-ness, as in the coda of the song GOTHIC ROAD itself, where the royal road pomp of HENRY PRIESTMAN’s massed plucked cellos is counter-pointed by JOHN ROBERT’S skeletal spoons playing, casting a cold eye on the poverty-stricken end of the street. Or in the lush celestial choir voices on LAST OF THE BADMEN as the anti hero at the end of his personal road pleads in a PARTON-esque refrain – ‘please don’t kill me just because you can’.

The music on GOTHIC ROAD provides cast iron proof that the creative phenomenon that is JACKIE LEVEN is not simply continuing to go from strength to strength, but is close to passing out of sight on a road that others fear to tread.

(Signed copies available from Cooking Vinyl.)

The Cat on "Where The Action Is" Kirkcaldy VRN 1287AM - Sunday 21 March 2010

We continue to tuck into the psychedelic feast that is the "Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970" box set and we commemorate the passings of Lesley Duncan and Alex Chilton, as well as the regular features:

Big Star - September Gurls (Stax 1973)
Floyd Cramer - On The Rebound (RCA 1961) (show theme)
Marc Bolan - Third Degree (Decca 1966)
Mad River - Amphetamine Gazelle (Capitol 1968)
The Mystery Trend - Carl Street (Unreleased 1967)
Ministry of Sound (Lesley Duncan/Val McKenna) - Something's Coming Along (Unreleased 1967)
Blackburn and Snow - Stranger In a Strange Land (Verve 1967)
Billie Davis - Billy Sunshine (Decca 1969)
Chocolate Watchband - No Way Out (Tower 1967) (Connect 3)
The Vejtables - Anything (Autumn 1965) (Connect 3)
Teddy and the Patches - Suzy Creamcheese (Chance 1967) (Connect 3)
Clyde McPhatter - You Got It (Deram 1969)
Sly & The Family Stone - Underdog (Epic 1967)
Solomon Burke - Home In Your Heart (Atlantic 1963) (Birthday: 21/3/40)
Steve Miller Band - Roll With It(Capitol 1968)
The Shangri-la's - Sophisticated Boom Boom (Red Bird 1966)
Louise Cordet - Que m'a-t-il fait? (What's He/It Done to Me?) (Decca 1963) (Foreign Language)
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks - How Can I Miss You When You Won't Go Away? (Epic 1969)
The Outlaws - Valley of the Sioux (HMV 1961) (Half-Time Instrumental)
Seatrain - Portrait of the Artist as a Young Lady (A&M 1969)
The Savage Resurrection - Things in "E" (Mercury 1968)
The Beach Boys - Vegetables (Unreleased 1967) (A to Z of The Beach Boys - V)
The Beach Boys - Heroes and Villains (45 version) (Capitol 1967) (A to Z of The Beach Boys - V)
Jon Gunn - I Just Made Up My Mind (Deram 1967)
Syndicate of Sound - Rumors (Bell 1966)
The La's - Son of a Gun (BBC session) (Go! Discs 1988) (Under The Influence)
The La's - There She Goes (Go! Discs 1988) (Under The Influence)
The Frantics - Human Monkey (Action 1966)
October Country - Good To Be Around (Epic 1968)
The Grass Roots - Mr Jones (A Ballad of a Thin Man) (Dunhill 1965) (Connect 3)
The Cryan' Shames - Greenburg, Glickstein, Charles, David Smith & Jones (Columbia 1968) (Connect 3)
Tom Jones - Stop Breaking My Heart (Decca 1966) (Connect 3)
The Harbinger Complex - Sometimes I Wonder (Amber 1966)
Fearns Brass Foundry - Don't Chance It (Decca 1968)
The Beau Brummels - Don't Talk To Strangers (Autumn 1965) (Two of a Kind)
The Beau Brummels - Two Days 'Til Tomorrow (Warner Bros 1967) (Two of a Kind)
Earl Cosby - Ooh Honey Baby (Mirwood 1966)
The Majority - One Third (Decca 1966)
Big Star - I'm In Love With a Girl (Stax 1973)
Floyd Cramer - On The Rebound (RCA 1961) (show theme)

Next week it'll be business as usual after I return from the National Hospital Radio Awards in Erskine. The Cat has his paws well and truly crossed for his nomination in the Best Specialist Music category. Until next week, and the last of our San Francisco sounds, it's good day and good health.

Avalanche Records Customer Survey - Can You Help?

You will all be aware of the trials and tribulations of the music industry and record shops in particular. Avalanche is not immune and it is clear things can not continue as they are. Since Christmas many titles have been available to the public not only online but on the high street at prices substantially less than as an independent we would pay ourselves. The avoidance of VAT by online sellers based in the Channel Islands is well documented and with many students now without a local record shop they arrive in Edinburgh already used to buying their music online. Many of course don’t buy their music at all and acquire it for free via the many channels that are now available.

The healthy local music scene means we do well selling local and Scottish bands’ music to visitors to the shop from all over the world and we have recently set up a website catering for the many customers who are so happy with what we have recommended that they want to buy more. However even these sales are continually eroded as bands and labels do all they can to sell directly to the public. We completely appreciate the bands’ viewpoint on this in trying to make money for themselves but myspaces etc regularly encourage people to visit Amazon, iTunes etc without any mention of the shops that are supporting and stocking their releases. An oversight I am sure but while shops are relegated to an afterthought they will struggle.

We don’t want to go down the line of saying we will close just to drum up support. I very much concur with the press conference recently given by ear x-Tacy available on You Tube in two parts. Based in Louisville, Kentucky this is a world wide problem. I want this to be a positive statement about how we move things forward. We have always wanted to sell more tickets and we have contacted all the promoters and venues that for a variety of reasons have declined to give us tickets before. We have already had some positive responses. We are open to any sensible ideas about what the way forward is. We could use the back of the shop for something else but please don’t suggest coffee and cakes. We could move to a smaller shop or become part of another store. Avalanche will continue as long as it wanted by the local community it serves but we can not continue to maintain a high street presence simply to promote Scottish bands and their music to the many visitors to Edinburgh much as this is a very enjoyable part of working in the shop.

You can leave any thoughts or comments on our facebook or myspace pages or there is a dedicated email address of avalancherecords@hotmail.co.uk. We do already sell on various platforms online but margins are very low and our heart is really in the shop so that is where we would like to concentrate our endeavours. Our album club has been very successful and that will of course continue. We have already had music related offers that might help boost revenue and we are interested in listening to any other offers we feel fit in with the Avalanche ethos.

Most of all we would like to thank all our customers for the continuing support that has kept us going here when so many have already fallen by the wayside.

Teenage Fanclub - Album and Tour Dates

To promote their imminent album "Shadows", Teenage Fanclub will be taking to the streets, in venues reasonably near you.

Sat 1 May Koko, London
Thu 27 May Academy 2, Manchester
Fri 28 May The Leadmill, Sheffield
Sun 30 May The Academy, Dublin
Tue 1 Jun The Warehouse, Aberdeen
Wed 2 Jun ABC, Glasgow
Thu 3 Jun The Picture House, Edinburgh (changed from The Liquid Rooms)
Fri 4 Jun The Cockpit, Leeds
Sun 6 Jun The Academy, Bristol
Mon 7 Jun The Academy 2, Birmingham

No date for tickets going on sale yet.

The Cat on "Where The Action Is" Kirkcaldy VRN 1287AM - Sunday 14 March 2010

More from the "Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970" box set and the usual grab-bag of goodies:

The Hollies - Look Through Any Window (Parlophone 1965)
Floyd Cramer - On The Rebound (RCA 1961) (show theme)
The Honeys - The One You Can't Have (Capitol 1963)
The Ivy League - In The Not Too Distant Future (Pye 1967)
The Wildflower - Coffee Cup (Mainstream 1967)
The Soul Agents - Let's Make It Pretty Baby (Pye 1964)
Fontella Bass/Bobby McClure - Don't Mess Up A Good Thing (Checker 1965)
Sharon Marie - Story of My Life (Capitol 1964)
The Majorettes - White Levis (Troy 1963) (Connect 3)
Jefferson Airplane - White Rabbit (RCA 1967) (Connect 3)
It's A Beautiful Day - White Bird (Columbia 1969) (Connect 3)
American Spring - Shyin' Away (Capitol 1973)
The Sons of Champlin - Fat City (Verve 1967)
The Turtles - You Don' Have To Walk In The Rain (White Whale 1969) (Birthday: 14/3/46 Jim Pons)
Steve Miller Band - Quicksilver Girl (Capitol 1968)
The Mystery Trend - Johnny Was A Good Boy (Verve 1968)
Brigitte Bardot - Je Me Donne a Qui Me Plait (I Give Myself To Whom I Please) (Philips 1962) (Foreign Language)
Blue Cheer - Summertime Blues (Philips 1968)
Earl Van Dyke - 6x6 (Motown 1967) (Half-Time Instrumental)
The Loading Zone - The Bells (RCA Victor 1968)
The Sheffields - Hey, Hey Lover Boy (Pye 1964)
The Beach Boys - 409 (Capitol 1962) (A to Z of The Beach Boys - U)
Gary Usher - That's The Way I Feel (Capitol 1964) (A to Z of The Beach Boys - U)
The Tikis - Bye Bye Bye (Warner Bros single version) (Warner Bros 1966)
The New Breed - Want Ad Reader (World United 1966)
The Magic Numbers - Love Me Like You (Heavenly 2005) (Under The Influence)
Mother Earth - Revolution (Unted Artists 1968)
Public Nuisance - America (Unreleased 1968)
The Oxford Circle - Foolish Woman (World United 1966) (Connect 3)
Moby Grape - Omaha (Columbia 1967) (Connect 3)
Country Weather - Fly To New York (Unreleased 1969) (Connect 3)
Quicksilver Messenger - Who Do You Love (demo) (Unreleased 1966) (Two of a Kind)
Quicksilver Messenger - Codine (United Artists 1968) (Two of a Kind)
The Stained Glass - My Buddy Sin (RCA 1966)
Earl Cosby - Ooh Honey Baby (Mirwood 1966)
Floyd Cramer - On The Rebound (RCA 1961) (show theme)

Until next week, and some more San Francisco sounds, it's good day and good health.

The Cat on "Where The Action Is" Kirkcaldy VRN 1287AM - Sunday 7 March 2010

January's shows were dominated by the LA Nuggets box set and this month it's the turn of its San Francisco counterpart, "Love Is The Song We Sing: San Francisco Nuggets 1965-1970":

Cliff Richard & The Shadows - Big News (Columbia 1963)
Floyd Cramer - On The Rebound (RCA 1961) (show theme)
Dee Dee Young - You Haven't Seen Nothing (Challenge 1964)
The Front Line Assembly - Got Love (York 1965)
The Knickerbockers - I Can Do It Better (Challenge 1966)
Ace of Cups - Glue (Unreleased 1968)
Count Five - Psychotic Reaction (Double Shot 1966)
Sister Rachel - Don't Mess Around With Me (Challenge 1967)
The Charlatans - Number One (Unreleased 1965) (Connect 3)
The Sons of Champlin - 1982-A (Capitol 1969) (Connect 3)
We Five - You Were On My Mind (A&M 1965) (Connect 3)
Helen Shapiro - Let's Talk About Love (Columbia 1962)
The Generation - I'm A Good Woman (Unreleased 1967)
Donna Loren - Muscle Bustle (Challenge 1964) (Birthday: 7/3/47)
Big Brother & The Holding Company - Down On Love (live) (Unreleased 1968)
The Mourning Reign - Satisfaction Guaranteed (Link 1966)
Jacques Brel - Le Chanson de Jacky (Barclay 1965) (Foreign Language)
The Serpent Power - Up and Down (Vanguard 1967)
The Tornados - Telstar (Decca 1962) (Half-Time Instrumental)
Butch Engle & The Styx - Hey I'm Lost (Onyx 1967)
The Beach Boys - Tears in the Morning (Brother/Reprise 1970) (A to Z of The Beach Boys - T)
The Beach Boys - Things We Did Last Summer (Unreleased 1963?) (A to Z of The Beach Boys - T)
Fanny - Charity Ball (second version) (Reprise 1971)
Grateful Dead - Dark Star (single version) (Warner Bros 1968)
Mari Wilson & The Wilsations - Beat the Beat (Compact 1982) (Under The Influence)
The Feminine Complex - I Don't Want Another Man (Athena 1968)
The Great! Society - Free Advice (Northbeach 1966)
Dusty Springfield - Little by Little (Mercury 1966)
Country Joe and the Fish - Superbird (Vanguard 1967) (Connect 3)
The Sopwith "Camel" - Hello Hello (Kama Sutra 1966) (Connect 3)
Jefferson Airplane - Mexico (RCA 1970) (Connect 3)
Santana - Soul Sacrifice (Columbia 1969)
The Family Tree - Live Your Own Life (Mira 1966)
The Flamin' Groovies - I'm Drowning (Snazz 1968) (Two of a Kind)
The Flamin' Groovies - Shake Some Action (Sire 1976) (Two of a Kind)
The Box Tops - Neon Rainbow (Mala 1967)
Floyd Cramer - On The Rebound (RCA 1961) (show theme)

Until next week, and some more San Francisco sounds, it's good day and good health.

Belle and Sebastian - News

Hi folks,

As you may know, we’ve been in the studio these last few weeks writing some new tracks and shortly we will say cheerio to Glasgow for a while when we set off to LA to record our next album.

There’s also been a flurry of online activity this week with the first shows of the year being announced. So far we can confirm that in July we’ll be playing on the 11th at Ruisrock Festival in Turku, Finland and a few days later on the 15th we’ll be appearing at Slottsfjell in Tønsberg, Norway.

Fuji Rock Festival is also confirmed for August 1st, and we’re itching to bring you news of our first UK show this year which you’ll hear about sometime next week.

We’ll be bringing you updates on Facebook, Twitter & Myspace as well as the Tours section of the website, so come and seek us out online and you’ll be the first to know what’s going on the calendar.



Bye for now,
B&S x

http://www.belleandsebastian.com
http://www.belleandsebastianshop.com
http://www.myspace.com/thebandbelleandsebastian
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Belle-and-Sebastian/298021908499
http://www.twitter.com/bellesglasgow

Trashcan Sinatras - Update

I'll let the band tell you what they've been up to:

"Hello everyone. Here is the first update in 2010 if you haven't checked out the trashcans websites/pages lately:

* Touring:

- Japanese tour dates:

March 1 - tokyo, club quattro (with sunny day service) SOLD OUT
March 2 - osaka, club quattro (with sunny day service)
March 3 - tokyo, club quattro (special acoustic show)
March 4 - tokyo, club quattro (with sunny day service) SOLD OUT

For the march 3 show, the band is taking requests in advance! the 5 most requested songs will be played during the show. see trashcansinatras.com for details on how to send in your requests.

- North American tour dates:
The band will be touring north america in june. dates should be announced in the next couple of weeks.

- Others:
The band will likely tour the uk sometime after the north american tour. other tour plans are still tba.

* Record Release:
- "In The Music" will finally be released in north america on april 27. The regular 10 track album will also include 8 live bonus tracks! The album should be widely available from retail and digital distributors -"In The Music" will also be released as a hi-fidelity "studio master" digital download
- The band has recorded a demo for a new song called "Town Foxes".
the song will be available on a very limited 2 track EP at the upcoming shows in japan. The availability of the song outside of japan is still to be determined.
- The remastered back catalogue (first 4 albums) is now scheduled for release in the late summer/fall

* Other Information:
- trashcansinatras.com will soon have an instant digital download store with concerts, possibly "Zebra of the Family" and other rarities. Right now, you can buy the 2009 concerts on new tcs USB sticks or as downloads
- A prior update mentioned a session filmed for spinner.com. You can also download the session as a free podcast on iTunes.
- The band has released a promo video for "Should I Pray?"
- Check John Douglas' youtube channel for video updates, especially as the Japanese tour happens
- The downloads page at trashcansinatras.com is being revamped, with
6 new free downloads coming this week

You can always find more details at trashcansinatras.com. Don't forget to check out or join the band's message board, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, ilike and Reverbnation. Thanks for listening."

I took the liberty of adding some capital letters!