Pass, Shoot, Goal: Football and Music

Football and music: small words that evoke memories of players singing out of tune, or Chas and Dave being dug up ahead of a Spurs appearance in the FA Cup final. Or ‘Back Home’ by the England World Cup squad, that dismal Baddiel and Skinner effort … the list of cultural criminality goes on and on.

Music has often used football for its ill-gotten gains and, on the other side of the coin, the sport has gotten a piggy back from the industry to promote a forthcoming tournament or boost the bank balance of a striker.

But perhaps it isn’t all bad, after all The Fall wrote a couple of songs about the sport.

So, here’s our resident Montrose FC sympathiser Craig Stephen, with the top football recordings of all time:

New Order - World in Motion (1990)

It included a rap and was England’s official World Cup anthem of that year but it’s by New Order, a band that could compile a range of fart sounds, add a drum’n bass beat and it would still be the best track of the year.

I was living in north-east Scotland at the time, and buying this at the local Woolworths would have resulted in pelters from the lads who would have accused me of being a traitor. So it was a furtive buy, carried out when the young shop assistant was someone who didn’t know me and probably knew nothing about football.

New Order had taken a new turn on 1989’s Technique, an album that revealed that they’d been listening and taking drugs to the emerging rave and electronica scene. For this single they teamed up with six members of the England squad for Italia ’90 and comedian Keith Allen. 

Footballers don’t tend to have very good musical tastes so it all made for an interesting session. It has a catchy chorus, a passable rap, a brilliant video and was devoid of much of the pommy arrogance that it could appeal to the masses. And it did. But perhaps not in Montrose.

The Undertones - My Perfect Cousin (1979)

Ostensibly about a family member who's good at everything including table football: "He always beat me at Subbuteo/ 'cause he flicked the kick/ And I didn't know," and the cover of this single features a Subbuteo player about to “flick the kick”. Believe me, that game was popular in the 70s and 80s.

I, Ludicrous - Quite Extraordinary (1988)

Graduates of The Fall school of witticism, I, Ludicrous spewed a handful of football-related songs, such as ‘We Stand Around’ (about hardcore fans braving all the elements and bad players), and ‘Moynihan Brings Out The Hooligan In Me’ (about the odious little shit of a Tory Sports Minister at the time).

‘Quite Extraordinary’ was a piss-take of the BBCs footballing and athletics commentator David Coleman. “Same routine year in year out/ It's predictable every summer/ Mispronouncing the Kenyan runners/ It gets worse in the winter/ with the goddamn videoprinter/ That's Stenhousemuir's 13th game without a scoring draw.” 

Getting the name of an obscure Scottish league side deserves a Brownies badge on its own.

The Proclaimers - The Joyful Kilmarnock Blues (1987)

“I'd never been to Ayrshire/ I hitched down one Saturday/ Sixty miles to Kilmarnock/ To see Hibernian play/ The day was bright and sunny/ But the game I won't relay.”

And the bespectacled Leith duo have also gifted the world ‘Sunshine on Leith’ which is now an anthem for Hibs fans.

Billy Bragg - The Few (1991)

Britain’s favourite lefty muso, Billy Bragg, also wrote ‘Sexuality’ which isn’t about football per se (you may have guessed as such from the title) but contains the remarkable line: “I had an uncle who once played, for Red Star Belgrade.”

‘The Few’, also from the Don’t Try This at Home album, was a grim tale of hooligan firms: “At night the Baby Brotherhood and the Inter City Crew/ Fill their pockets up with calling cards/ And paint their faces red white and blue/ Then they go out seeking different coloured faces/ And anyone else that they can scare/ And they salute the foes their fathers fought/ By raising their right hands in the air.”

Bragg’s ‘God’s Footballer’, by the way, was about former Wolves player Peter Knowles, who retired early to become a Jehovah’s Witness missionary.

Half Man Half Biscuit - I Was A Teenage Armchair Honved Fan (1985)

Written in recognition of Hungarian football, and with the almost obligatory “hungary for” joke, it’s actually not even the best song about eastern European football on the Back Again In the DHSS album.

‘All I Want For Christmas Is A Dukla Prague Away Kit’ is mainly about Subbuteo, well, actually, Scalectrix, but Subbuteo gets the gig among the young crowd when the racing game conks out due to a dodgy transformer.

Barmy Army - The English Disease (LP, 1989)

The English Disease (a reference of course to hooliganism) was very much of its time, with tracks such as ‘England 2, Yugoslavia 0’ and a protest song against a plan in the UK by the then ruling Conservatives to issue all football fans with ID cards.

Barmy Army cut and paste interviews and match commentary, using them ad nauseum; expressing their love of West Ham United with snippets of the ‘Ammers theme tune I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles, and songs dedicated to Alan Devonshire and Billy Bonds. 

On a hit-and-miss (the goalpost) album, the strongest moment is ‘Sharp as a Needle’, featuring the Anfield Kop in fine voice.

The Pogues - Down All the Days (1989)

My own favourite football-related song, even if the core subject is writer Christy Brown, is this track from the Peace and Love album, for the line, “And I’ve never been asked, and I’ve never replied, have I supported the Glasgow Rangers,” which can mean many things to many people.

Super Furry Animals - The Man Don’t Give A Fuck (1996)

The Welsh superstars’ expletive-ridden tale of a man who, well, you get the idea. It was dedicated to 1970s Cardiff City player Robin Friday and featured the Welshman flicking the Vs on the cover. Apparently, he really didn’t give a fig, and who can argue with that kind of footballer. It was a great song too, but let’s forget that it used a Steely Dan sample.

The Sultans of Ping - Give Him a Ball and a Yard of Grass (1993)

“If God meant the game to be played up there, He would’ve put goalposts in the air.”

The speculation is that this single was about Nigel Clough. Was he any good?

Primal Scream, Irvine Welsh and On-U Sound - The Big Man and the Scream Meet the Barmy Army Uptown (1996)

Three magnificent talents who utilised those skills in very different ways in this one-off single, Scotland’s unofficial theme tune for the nation’s team’s participation in the 1996 European Championships held south of the border, which ended in predictable glorious failure.

Welsh describes a boozed-up trip to Wembley to watch Scotland play England as opposition supporters chant “who are ya?” in the background, but the writer is essentially hitting out at certain Scotland fans.

“In every hick town/ Across this pseudo nation/ You can see the most fucked up scum/ That was shat into creation/ Where a blue McEwan's lager top equals/ no imagination/ You're hunbelievable.”

Oh, isn’t the mention of the top a reference to supporters of the now defunct club called Rangers? Tee hee, you cad Welsh. 

Gracie Fields - Pass, Shoot, Goal (1931)

And just to prove referencing football in song is not a new fad, Gracie Fields recorded this track before Hitler had even taken power. Fields was apparently a big Rochdale FC fan. The song was written and recorded for a film called Derby Day about a derby match between Rochdale and Oldham Athletic. 

The film was never made but the song survives, with a bedazzling chorus sung in magnificent Lancashire tones: "Football, football, it drives me up the pole. You hear their gentle voices call – pass, shoot... goal!"

Listen here

The Fall - Kicker Conspiracy (1983)

Let’s read what The Fall’s Mark E. Smith himself said about ‘Kicker Conspiracy’ in an interview with Uncut:

"It's about English soccer violence being triggered off by rubbish management and frustration that the game's been taken away from its support, that the English game is so boring there's nothing else to do.”

Like most Smith songs, the lyrics are obscure. It namechecks Jimmy Hill (as J. Hill), Bert Millichip and George Best, but also ‘Pat McCat’, “the very famous sports reporter” ...

The Fall also released a track called ‘Theme from Sparta F.C.’ which contained lyrics in Greek. Here’s some of the most transparent English words: “Cheap English man in the paper shop/ You mug old women in your bobble hat/ Better go spot a place to rest/ No more ground boutique at match in Chelsea/ We are Sparta F.C.”

Trout - Green and White (1995)

This is a single I can't recall buying by a band I had never heard from (nor since). And that's almost the same amount of knowledge as Dr Google has. 

It is gloriously non-produced with incomprehensible vocals - I can detect something about Partick Thistle and “doing the conga” in The Jungle at Parkhead but the chorus is quite transparent: "Green and white and Rangers shite/ Green and white and Rangers shite" repeated several times. And what more would you want in a song?

The single (entitled "A Tribute to Celtic") is shared with electro-friendly act Cha Cha 2000 who's ‘Tired Legs at the End of the Game’ is equally word-unfriendly but I can make out a "Celtic Celtic" chant and some sort of football connection. Somebody out there must know something?

Andy Cameron - Ally's Tartan Army (1978)

Glaswegian comedian and all round gallus Cameron released this wee cracker that even got the supporter of the old Rangers a Top of the Pops appearance when it reached No.6 in the British charts. Comparing manager Ally McLeod to Muhammad Ali was typical of the tongue-in-both-cheeks humour.

Listen to this verse with a straight face: "When we reach the Argentine we're really gonna show/The world a brand of football that they could never know/ We're representing Britain; we've got to do or die/ For England cannae dae it 'cause they didnae qualify."

Scotland lost to Peru, drew with Iran and found themselves out of the tournament instead of winning it.

Morrissey - Munich Air Disaster 1958 (2004)

He used to be an inspiration now he's a flag waver for all the shit political philosophies of the world. But back in 2004, when he was still much revered, Mozza recorded what I think is his only football related song, a tribute to the Busby Babes, the lightning Manchester United side of the 1950s, most of whom died in the infamous plane crash at Munich.

Luke Haines - Leeds United (2006)

The somewhat eccentric Haines, formerly of the Auteurs and various offshoots, wrote this about life in the 1970s of Vauxhall Vivas and Ford Corsairs; of Kendo Nagasaki and World of Sport. "From Wakefield to the Ridings/ To the ground at Elland Road/ At Leeds United they're chanting vengeance, it's a 13-nil defeat on the front page of the Post/ A last-minute substitution but we didn't have the talent/ I was beaten, we were gutted, I was sick as a parrot."

Mano Negra - Santa Maradona (Larchuma Football Club) (1994)

A typical brew of latino, reggae, dub and hip-hop from Mano Negra. There's big drums, tannoyed vocals, the sound of flares, football chants and a certain Argentinian player with a unique way of using his hands during a game. Sounds like Les Negresses Vertes.

Thee George Squares - 74 in 98 (Easy Easy) (1998)

"The official Fortuna Pop! World Cup EP". The A-side featured a “supergroup” of members of Prolapse, The Fabians and John Sims (a band) based around an actual world cup final held at Hampden Park in "92 or 93" in which Scotland beat the United Arab Emirates on penalties after leading 3-nil. 

The B-side, the "Sassenach side" by MJ Hibbert celebrates, as it were, England taking home the ‘Fair Play Trophy (Again)’. It was definitely the poorer cousin to Scotland's entry which when it comes to art and music is usually the case, and to prove how woeful the poms were, they had an image of Jimmy Hill on the back.

Colourbox - The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme (1996)

Despite featuring that same Mr Hill (on the cover, groan), this is actually supremely excellent, an instrumental built around a pumping bass and a horn section, it really does sound like it should be the theme tune for a World Cup highlights programme, or at least a segment featuring cracking goals and other choice moments. The story goes that Match of the Day producers were keen to have this as the soundtrack to its tournament highlights show. I don't care if it's true or not I'm going to tell all my friends that it is.

Pop Will Eat Itself - Touched by the Hand of Cicciolina (1990)

The Poppies were a bang average indie rock band from a humdrum town called Stourbridge; La Cicciolina was a blonde porn star who became an MP in Italy with a small left-wing group. A marriage made in ... ahem. Anyway, the Poppies eschewed their traditional greasy guitar sound for this very 1990 dance track peppered by samples from Bowie, the Human League and Funkadelic that could have been touched by Andy Weatherall. La Cicciolina doesn't have any input into the song itself but does appear in the video looking supremely lovely.

Real Sounds of Africa - Dynamos vs CAPS (0-0) (1984)

The (usually) 11-piece Zairean band who recorded out of Harare, Zimbabwe, also recorded ‘Tornados vs Dynamos’, ‘Soccer Fan’ and ‘Na Alla Violenza’ - likely to be a plea to footy fans. The band, also known just as Real Sounds, were one of the African bands, alongwith the Bhundu Boys, who came to Europe’s attention in the mid to late 1980s and collaborated with Norman Cook.

I haven’t covered everything … how can I? And there are club/band team-ups that are actually quite good, notably Shane MacGowan and Simple Minds appearing on a charity EP, in tribute to Celtic legend Jimmy Johnstone, plenty of songs by Serious Drinking, or more from I, Ludicrous and Half Man Half Biscuit, and an obscure indie trio from Norwich who issued one single in 1991 and who’s name I haven’t made up yet, blah blah blah, but you get the bloody point.

(But you have covered a full first-team squad’s worth, an OCD-defying and curiously symmetrical full score plus two, which in this case, might just about be right. - Ed)

New Order: 10 Albums Revisited

The music of New Order has always been very special in my little corner of music consumerism. I’ve collected, give or take the odd live album and a few superfluous compilation albums, almost everything the band has released. Every studio album and a whole lot more besides. So I thought I’d offer a quick guide to those studio albums and rank them in some kind of order of personal preference, rather than chronologically, which perhaps would have made more sense. I’ve left out EPs, a couple of very good Peel Session releases, live releases, and compilations, otherwise we could be here for hours … if I’m perhaps a little harsh on some of the later period albums, it’s a harshness born only from love. Tough love, even. Like an exasperated parent expressing disappointment in the wayward behaviour of a still very much loved child. Or something like that.

1. Movement (1981)

The debut and ground zero for New Order as Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, and Stephen Morris tried to come to terms with the death of Ian Curtis and the end of Joy Division. Everything about Movement reflects that enforced transition and the album’s themes deal with grief, loss, insecurity, and uncertainty. Much like the music of Joy Division, then. Stark and glacial, it’s a Martin Hannett production masterclass, and a wholly necessary purging of the past before the band could move on to embrace brighter and much bouncier things. As such, Movement represents not so much a template for the direction the band would head, but more an intimate snapshot of time, place, and circumstance. Many would suggest that the terrific guitar-led opener ‘Dreams Never End’ is the main takeaway from the album, but the whole thing is something close to perfect in my view. Although Movement is not universally popular with all fans, it really is the only logical starting point for your New Order journey, and nobody will ever convince me it’s not the band’s best work.

EGG’s choice cut: ‘The Him’

2. Power Corruption and Lies (1983)

Released eight weeks after the band’s seminal ‘Blue Monday’ single, which would go on to become the biggest selling 12-inch of all time, it’s probably fair to say that sales of Power Corruption and Lies benefitted heavily from New Order’s new-found crossover popularity. Despite all early editions of the band’s second album omitting the track altogether - as was the Factory (label) way (at that stage). Even without the game-changing single, Power Corruption and Lies has stood the test of time better than most, offering a strong and consistent set of tunes which, for the most part, strike just the right balance between the dark and the light. The band was clearly keen to forge a path away from the bleak soundscapes of the debut, and that’s never more obvious than on the upbeat, uptempo opener, ‘Age of Consent’. Whatever the intent, the album definitely represents a seismic shift away from the guitar-based aesthetic of Movement to a much more radio-friendly electro-pop dynamic. Without crossing over completely. At a guess, I’d say Power Corruption and Lies is the album owned by most “casual” New Order fans.

EGG’s choice cut: ‘5-8-6’

3. Technique (1989)

A highly acclaimed release - by media and fans alike - which was strongly influenced by the burgeoning acid house and techno scenes taking shape across the Atlantic at the time of its release ... the high bpm nature of its content acting as a precursor for the genre we know today as EDM. Although New Order had already established itself within the club scene as a reliable DJ “go to”, Technique was the first album to truly reflect that dancefloor popularity, and the first full-length release from the band to reach number one on the UK album charts. Includes the singles, ‘Fine Time’, ‘Round & Round’, and ‘Run’, plus a strong selection of album cuts like ‘All the Way’, ‘Mr Disco’, and the superb ‘Vanishing Point’. A great way for the band to see out the decade it had helped to define, and New Order was, by the turn of the 90s, almost completely unrecognisable as same band who made Movement. And light years away from Joy Division ... although the magnificence of Technique’s album sleeve would beg to differ.

EGG’s choice cut: ‘Vanishing Point’

4. Brotherhood (1986)

Brotherhood is perhaps the most underrated album of the bunch. A bit of a gem, even. It possibly resonates more strongly with me because it (more or less) coincided with my only New Order “live” experience a few months after its release. But it’s a super strong set that swaggers into life with impressive opener ‘Paradise’ and doesn’t let up through tracks like ‘Way of Life’, the glistening synths of ‘All Day Long’, ’Angel Dust’, and the lighthearted ‘Every Little Counts’. Also includes singles ‘State of the Nation’ and the now anthemic ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’. Given what went before, it seems a bit reckless to suggest that Brotherhood is the album where Gillian Gilbert’s synth work really comes into its own, but I think that actually happened. There may have been a case for the now super-dated ‘Shellshock’ to be included here, but that single was reserved for the Pretty In Pink soundtrack, and would appear on the band’s Substance compilation a year later.

EGG’s choice cut: ‘Paradise’

5. Music Complete (2015)

Music Complete was lovely surprise after a decade of remakes, repackages, and cast-offs. It was the band’s first album as a fully fledged five-piece (and the rest) and the first without Peter Hook. We were entitled to expect nothing from New Order in 2015, and we wound with quite a lot of something. Mojo magazine called it the “comeback of its year”, but even as a one-eyed fan I could never go that far. All hyperbole aside, tracks like ‘Restless’, ‘Plastic’, ‘Tutti Frutti’, and ‘People on the High Line’ all added to the band’s wider legacy, and the odd suspect moment excepted (lyrics, mostly), the album proved there was still post-Hook life in the old dog yet. As ever, Sumner’s vocals leave a fair bit to be desired in places, but he got some help on Music Complete, with Iggy Pop, Brandon Flowers, La Roux, Denise Johnson, and longtime collaborator Dawn Zee all adding vocal chops at different points. And yes, I do recognise the fact that Sumner’s dodgy singing has become “signature” New Order for a lot of people, and I retain some affection for it all the same. All told, a pretty decent return to form.

EGG’s choice cut: ‘Tutti Frutti’

6. Low-life (1985)

By 1985, Blue Monday had taken on a life of its own and the band was perhaps peaking in terms of mainstream popularity. And Power Corruption and Lies was just as likely the only real benchmark for many of those new fans (certainly not the case for yours truly - see Movement). So Low-life was always on a hiding to nothing at the time of its release. And while it wasn’t exactly a disappointment at the time, as an album, as a complete set, I don’t think it has aged particularly well. It was however, the first New Order full-length release to include singles - in this case ‘The Perfect Kiss’ and dancefloor banger ‘Sub-culture’. It opens with the popular ‘Love Vigilantes’ and builds nicely to the mid-album peaks of ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Elegia’ but the rest veer too close to “filler” for these precious ears. It’s not Sumner’s best vocal work either, and despite Low-life’s enduring popularity with fans - which always surprises me when I read such polls - it’s nowhere near the band’s strongest set.

EGG’s choice cut: ‘Sunrise’

7. Get Ready (2001)

Get Ready represented a barely anticipated return after an eight-year break and something of a return to the guitar aesthetic of old. In fact, Get Ready is probably the closest New Order has ever come to releasing a “rock” album. It opens with the double whammy of excellent singles ‘Crystal’ and ‘60 Miles An Hour’, while the third single, ‘Someone Like You’, appears much later and is rather more forgettable. It also contains ‘Turn My Way’, which features Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan on vocals, and ‘Rock The Shack’, featuring Primal Scream’s Bobby Gillespie. That’s some heavyweight help, right there. More generally, Get Ready is a little bit patchy in that it contains some of band’s best post-80s work - guitar lines, returning to the minimalism of the Movement-era, etc, but also some the band’s worst excesses - lyrics (again), and Barney’s singing (again). But overall, a pretty decent comeback. I think, by this point, I was just happy to have the band back in the fold.

EGG’s choice cut: ‘Turn My Way’

8. Republic (1993)

I realise it’s not necessarily the popular view with many New Order fans, but Republic always felt like New Order’s “jumping the shark” moment for me. Although in fairness that moment had probably already occurred a few years earlier with the ghastly ‘World In Motion’ (England World Cup) single. Republic opens with a run of the four singles eventually culled from the album: ‘Regret’, ‘World (The Price of Love)’, ‘Ruined in a Day’, and ‘Spooky’. Those singles only make the album slightly more palatable for me. It’s another one that hasn’t aged particularly well; it’s super cheesy in places and burdened with cringeworthy lyrics. There are many examples, the best (or worst!) being the awful ‘Liar’. And try-hard rapping ruins the gorgeous instrumentation on ‘Times Change’. The band’s mainstream crossover was now complete to the point of near irrelevance (to me) by this point. And that album cover!? ... ugh, so at odds with the rest of the band’s great sleeves. Incredibly enough, Republic was nominated for the Mercury Prize of its year and became the second New Order album to hit number one.

EGG’s choice cut: ‘Everyone Everywhere’

9. Lost Sirens (2013)

When I first learned that New Order had released a set of previously shelved or discarded tunes recorded during the Waiting of the Sirens’ Call sessions eight years earlier, I feared the worst. But Lost Sirens is actually not too bad. I mean, it’s not great, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse (see below). Lost Sirens did at least include the wonderful swagger of ‘Hellbent’, which first surfaced on the 2011 compilation, Total, and an alternative version of ‘I Told You So’, which was perhaps even better than the original take released on Sirens’ Call. Elsewhere, opener ‘I’ll Stay With You’, and ‘Recoil’, were also worthy additions to the band’s canon. On the other hand, ‘Shake It Up’ and ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’ are up there with the worst “songs” New Order ever released. And yes, it does seem odd that I’m ranking the Lost Sirens leftover set ahead of the “parent” album they were rejected from, but that’s just how I see it.

EGG’s choice cut: ‘Hellbent’

10. Waiting for the Sirens’ Call (2005)

Not quite the last New Order album to feature Peter Hook (see Lost Sirens), but sadly, the first not featuring Gillian Gilbert. It was also the first to include Phil Cunningham (synth, guitar), although Cunningham had been a touring/live member of the band since 2001. To be quite honest, even writing as a fan, Waiting for the Sirens’ Call is not an especially inspiring set. Aside from the funky electro of ‘I Told You So’, it’s all a bit generic and there’s really not much to get excited about here. It reeks of a band just going through the motions. Even the singles lifted from it, ‘Krafty’, ‘Jetstream’, and the title track itself, did little to allay fears the band had finally reached some sort of studio use-by date. They remained a hugely popular touring band and a regular festival headliner but we’d have to wait a whole decade before that studio “use-by” theory was fully laid to rest (on Music Complete - see above).

EGG’s choice cut: ‘I Told You So’

But wait, there’s more ... a free set of Hooky steak knives and a Gillian Gilbert calendar? ...

Not quite, but it would be remiss of me to devote so many words to New Order albums without acknowledging the sheer majesty and wider importance of Substance (1987), a compilation of the band’s early singles and their associated B-sides. Many of which don’t feature on the regular albums, which makes it an essential album in its own right. Sure, compilations like ‘Singles’, the ‘best of’ and the ‘rest of’, plus Total, which draws in Joy Division work, are good value, as are a number of live albums, but Substance really was quite special and served to fill in all of those gaps from the 80s, the band’s best and most prolific era for singles.

Album Review: Pet Shop Boys - Hotspot (2020)

Ah, here we go again. Pet Shop Boys. Back with a new album to kick off a new year. The duo’s first for four years and their fourteenth overall. And naturally, Hotspot is the fourteenth successive Pet Shop Boys album with a one word title. Some things never change.

But then, if it’s change you’re after, you’d be best advised to avoid these guys. Pet Shop Boys don’t really do change. Which is both a blessing and a curse.

It’s a blessing because they’re really very clever. Very witty. Very socially aware. Very politically aware. Very right on (man). And they make brilliant pop music. They love a party.

It’s a curse because they’re really very cheesy. Very camp. Very dated. Very much stuck in the same old groove. And they make awful pop music. I’d never play Pet Shop Boys at my party.

I have a love/hate relationship with Pet Shop Boys. Clearly. Always have, probably always will. Some things never change.

It’s always the same. Hotspot is the same. The same as all of the others. If you make it past the first listen and all the way through the second, the chances are they’ll keep you. It’s the hooks. They write great hooks. Designed to keep you.

I love them for that. I hate them for that.

Hotspot is the latest Pet Shop Boys album. It’s brilliant and it’s awful.

Highlights: ‘Happy People’, ‘I Don’t Wanna’, ‘Monkey Business’, ‘Burning the Heather’ ...

Lowlights: ‘Happy People’, ‘I Don’t Wanna’, ‘Monkey Business’, ‘Burning the Heather’, etc.

The Strummer Files: Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Streetcore (Hellcat Records, 2003)

The third and final instalment of Craig Stephen’s look back at Joe Strummer’s post-Clash legacy:

Posthumous albums are tricky items to evaluate: the quality all depends on how far the artist went in recording the material, and how the people tasked with completing it “interpreted” the work in progress.

Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros’ third and final studio album was released about a year after the former Clash man’s untimely death.

Whatever twiddling was done in the studio in that preceding 12 months, both opening tracks sound about as ripe and ready as could be. ‘Coma Girl’ is a rousing, go-get ‘em boy, out of control carousel of a song that screams “gig opener”. Coming across like a spontaneous world music festival meeting of Jimmy Cliff and the Wolfe Tones, it’s a rock’n’roller revved up to 11.

‘Arms Aloft’ is memorable for both being as energetic and as rousing as ‘Coma Girl’ and including my “home” city (as in being 45 minutes away). “May I remind you of that scene/ We were arms aloft in Aberdeen/ May I remind you of that scene/ Let a million mirror balls beam/ May I remind you of that scene.” That’s Aberdeen, north-east Scotland, and not one of the eight versions of it around the United States or those in places such as Canada and Hong Kong. 

‘All In A Day’ meanwhile travels through Montrose, but I may be stretching it a little bit to assume that’s the same Montrose that’s less than an hour away from Aberdeen. As often is the case with Strummer’s solo material, there’s some obscure references:

“The armor ten, and the I-95/ Tupuolo Joe honey and his rhumba jive/ The look came out, and life broke out/ 'It must be a hex'/ I swear the vinyl loaded right on the desk/ Hey, let's go do this.”

Most of the remainder of the album is set at a far more sedate pace: ‘Burnin' Streets’ could be a futuristic follow-up to a famous Clash song: “London is burnin'; don't tell the Queen/ Somebody tried to speak garage and they burnt down Bethnal Green/ Piccadilly's yearning, like a reggae beat/ Soon you're gonna be runnin' down”, with Strummer bemoaning that there are “Too many guns in the damn town”. 

And we’re taken back to 1979 once more on ‘Midnight Jam’ which begins with Strummer as DJ/ announcer: “All transmitters to full/ All receivers to boost/ This is London calling/ This is London calling”, before taking us on a worldwide journey that takes in the sounds of U-Roy and The Indestructible Beat of Soweto as well as a jail in Germany. 

There’s some bum notes: on ‘Long Shadow’, Strummer appears to be trying to sound like Johnny Cash. Marley’s ‘Redemption Song’ apparently was added on by a family member, and it really does not fit in with the modus operandi of Streetcore. There is also a version of ‘Redemption Song’ with Strummer and Johnny Cash and you’d be advised to check that one out. 

As posthumous albums go this, I’m certain Strummer would have given Streetcore the green light for go.

Tribute and Fundraiser for the late Odee Rose (1975 - 2020)

Wellington trio Disjecta Membra, lately described as the “granddaddy” of New Zealand goth (AudioCulture), today release a tribute to Odee Rose: the late frontman and founder of Hamilton glam/rock/punk/goth outfit, Rose Petals And Confetti (RPAC), who recently lost his short but valiant battle with cancer.

With Odee’s blessing, Disjecta Membra have just released a cover of RPAC’s eponymous theme-song, ‘Rose Petals And Confetti’; available now from Bandcamp as a fundraiser for his family.

Michel Rowland of Disjecta Membra writes:

“During 2004-05 I had the brief but noteworthy privilege of playing in Odee’s band, Rose Petals And Confetti. Odee was an exceptional individual. He was multi-talented, charismatic and handsome; wild and free-spirited; warm, funny, kind and giving, with his own uniquely insightful perspective on anything that matters.

In December of 2019, Odee discovered that he had advanced, aggressive cancer in his bowel, liver and lungs. His decline was rapid, and Odee died peacefully at home with loved ones on the morning of 4 February 2020.

Odee leaves behind him four children and a partner. Shortly before he died, Odee gave us permission to record and release this song – my absolute favourite of his – in support of his whānau’s fundraising efforts.

Odee’s vocation as a musician and performer was by no means lucrative; the whānau have been placed in extremely difficult circumstances by his sudden illness and passing.

If you can, please therefore honour our tribute to Odee by giving what you can in support of his family. The single can be downloaded for just $2, but you can donate as much as you like.

Odee’s untimely demise also reminds us that late detection of cancer in men is a killer. If you’re not feeling well, or things just don’t seem quite right, please see a doctor. Your family needs you.”