The Album: Peace In Our Time - Big Country

A good few years ago I was in a charity shop and came across Big Country’s fourth album Peace In Our Time on vinyl for a meagre four euro. I immediately purchased it, brought it home and because I was so taken with the wonderful cover art, I framed it and put it on the wall in the attic. Only recently while tidying the attic did I decide to remove it from the frame and put it with the rest of my collection. I was familiar with about half of the songs from this record through compilations and live albums but I’d never listened to it through. I finally did this during the week and I’m listening again now. That is why I’m now championing this much maligned album.

Big Country have long been seen as done after their first three albums, each with diminishing returns but all still quite brilliant. The Seer featured the nadir of their output in most people’s opinion in the single One Great Thing. It’s actually not that bad a song, fantastic live but the accompanying video was terrible and the drink ad derived from it is probably what most remember. This was the final straw for casual fans who abandoned them and felt justified in their opinion as the lead single from PIOT, King Of Emotion, seemed to continue the style of One Great Thing. The heavier guitars raised suspicions of catering to the American market and selling out. Lies. There are elements of PIOT that are more Scottish and Celtic sounding than anything in their previous catalogue. From Here To Eternity would be one example, Everything I Need would be another. The latter is a beautiful straightforward love song and Stuart’s vocal performance here is wonderful. There’s no arguing there are some rock guitar cliches but they work and they are balanced by incredible musicianship. The quartet are at their peak here. I love the coda of Broken Heart (13 Valleys). The title track has quite a lofty aspiration but why shouldn’t it? Also the intro to this song is one of their best, along with Tall Ships Go from Steeltown, my two favourite intros.

It’s not a perfect album, so few are, but it’s better than history has deigned it to be by dismissing it as a sell out. In This Place belies any notion of Americanisation and showcases Stuart’s slightly hoarse, yearning vocals. Of course it’s my fourth favourite Big Country album but most bands I like don’t even get to a second favourite. Did I mention the cover, it’s gorgeous. It should be in a gallery.

The Song: Earlies - The Trash Can Sinatras

I recently fell in love with this song. Odd story behind it. We were in pub years ago, I’m going to say 1993 based on the release date of the album. I’m not sure who was there but I imagine the usual assembly of football and music loving cohorts. An acquaintance came in, I don't think I could call him a friend but he's a good guy, he was at the time the editor of magazine, a kind of music and style thing of the time, very hip. Anyway he had an armful of copies of the new album from The Trash Can Sinatras and proceeded to hand them out to everyone there. The band were from Irvine in Scotland and at the time I hadn’t even heard of them but who turns down free vinyl? It lay untouched on my shelf for decades. In other words, it’s mint and was recently valued at over €100! 

The song I’m love with is the last on the album - Earlies. It is so simple in construction, it appears to be just two chords with the simplest embellishment from guitars over it. The chorus is mainly just la la la in terms of lyrics but the verses are just beauty. I adore even the way it begins, one snare hit then all swoons in together. Evoking times that were probably hard at the time but fondly remembered now and sung in the most wistful, unhurried fashion. Lines like: “Through t-shirt breezes walking home from work” and “Guinness elbows rest upon a tabletop” just paint instant pictures. There’s not really a bad line in the song so I’ll quote it below and leave a link in the title to listen to it too. 

The funny thing is when I listen to it I see myself and my friends trudging across the fields in the early morning mist on our way to work in a hot factory to sweat for the day while laughing most of the time. It seemed hard at the time...

Earlies - The Trash Can Sinatras 

Cakebrick road in summer 1981, 

We shared a house and garden 

At the height of all the bombing, 

on the run in busy, hazy London 

Through t-shirt breezes walking home from work, 

County Kilburn sun 

Weekends we’d just wash away the dirt of busy, hazy London 

The night grew cold, 

the Thames is old 

Found that manners count for nothing and it took, 

A welshman in his forties Guinness elbows rest upon a tabletop, 

The two of us on earlies 

Three feet of snow fell on the walnut road, 

Two feet trudged 

Round the corner came the sound of bad dreams 

The flame is old. 

the Thames is cold. 

Cakebrick road in summer 1981, 

we left a house and garden 

On the corner boys, best of friends? 

On the corner boys, 

Both of us on earlies 

Songwriters: John Douglas / Frank Reader / Paul Livingston / Davy Hughes

Earlies lyrics © Go Discs Music

The Book: Brett Anderson’s second autobiography

Brett Anderson, the lead singer of the now legendary band Suede wrote an autobiography called Coal Black Mornings, I read and enjoyed it. It’s very well written as you’d expect from someone whose entire career has been based on creative writing, albeit up to this point mainly in the form of lyrics, but it seems that it’s not a huge leap for him to go from songs to prose and retain a lyrical flavour. I did encounter one large flaw with the book however and that was how it ended. Anderson chose to tell his story right up to the point where it became really interesting. Just as the band was about to achieve success and fame, he chose to end the story and leave us, the readers, wanting more. A classic trope I suppose but still, ultimately, frustrating. I would assume most people, including myself, had decided to read the book because of Suede’s fame and success and to truncate the story just at the point when a large proportion of the audience became aware of Anderson and his cohorts seemed almost perverse. Typical Suede, I suppose. Trying to subvert and evade your expectations.

The release of his sequel autobiography, Afternoons With The Blinds Drawn, finally allows us to see what was happening backstage as Suede began to climb the ladder of success, to hear one side of the story as they stumbled on guitarist Bernard Butler’s acrimonious departure and to witness how incredible good fortune and serendipity conspired to bring them their greatest successes. It is not a long book at 260 pages and is an easy enough read despite some flowery language reminiscent of the first book. He does gloss over his drug addicted days that coloured the recording and release of their fourth album Head Music which was carried along in the wake of the huge success of Coming Up. He barely gives mention to the fifth and final (at the time) Suede album, A New Morning and instead treats it with the derision he believes it deserves.

Naturally this is Brett’s version of events, seen through his unavoidably, prejudiced prism and although age and time have given him wisdom and perspective how can the story not been guided by his memory or version of the story. Then again, it’s his story to tell in whatever fashion he feels comfortable with. A better, probably more balanced version of the Suede legend is presented in the fantastic documentary, The Insatiable Ones, released in 2018 to deserved acclaim. Named after an early B-side and Suede’s more fervent fans, this documentary includes input from the entire band and some close associates right up to and including their graceful comeback instigated by what they believed at the time to be a one off appearance in 2010 for the teenage cancer trust charity at the Royal Albert Hall some 7 years after their last live performance. 

Maybe Anderson plans to make his autobiography into a trilogy and the final book will include this period, his solo albums, the reconciliation with Butler and the Tears album that resulted, the little anticipated but much longed for reunion and the stories behind the three albums released since. I’ll definitely read it. 

The Gig - The Stone Roses - Feile Cork 1995

Six years after the release of arguably the greatest debut album of all time, five years since their last live show in the UK, five years shrouded in mystery and rumour culminating in the eventual release of the hugely anticipated and therefore ironically titled 'The Second Coming'. It's rather lukewarm critical reception and the departure of their rhythm lynchpin, drummer Reni, could not dull the almost ravenous appetite for a live Roses show. This was further whetted by the cancellation of their headline slot at Glastonbury, set to be the scene of their triumphant UK return but cancelled due a broken collarbone to guitarist John Squire in a bicycle accident. So it came to pass that their eventual return to the local live arena came on the 5th of August of 1995, not to Manchester or London, but to Parc Ui Chaoimh, County Cork in Southern Ireland, the headline act on the final night of the three day Feile festival. Such was the demand for this gig that fans travelled from the UK and all over Europe to witness this event.

After relatively lukewarm performances from Elastica and Paul Weller, darkness descended, the neighbouring dance tent emptied out and the venue filled to capacity for the first time that weekend. Pills were popped, joints lit, tabs ingested while static filled the giant screens either side of the stage. Then the intro of 'The Second Coming'. A twenty minute mood piece featuring jungle noises and bongos building and building as did the excitement of the crowd culminating in the appearance through the static of lead singer Ian Brown, messiah-like in a simple oversized white shirt, one fist raised aloft his appearance caused a minor earth tremor. Then instead of sequeing into 'Breaking Into Heaven' as expected the mighty bass of Gary 'Mani' Mountfield began to play the opening riff from the by now legendary debut album and the crowd as one bellowed along with joy to 'I Wanna Be Adored'. This was followed as it could only be by the next two tracks from the same record. As we wondered how the fourth song would be performed, a backwards version of 'Waterfall' possible only with studio trickery the band switched to the new album and arguably it's best song 'Ten Storey Love Song'. The evening took on a magical quality, a huge love-in where we all sang along and danced in unison. A major highlight was the extended coda of 'I Am The Resurrection', it must have lasted a quarter of an hour but you wanted it to go on forever. They finished with 'Made Of Stone' and then it was over, already forming into a story to tell your children, it felt that good to have been there. Orbital took to the stage to perform the chill out phase of the night but I left soon after the Roses as I knew nothing could top them. As a strange epilogue to the night when we returned to the house we were staying in for the weekend a highlights package of Feile was being broadcast on RTE as we arrived and we could watch again what we had just witnessed. What was strange was how bad it seemed, out of tune singing and lack luster playing, it made no sense until you realised how true the old adage was of - you had to be there - ask anyone who was....

Music On TV - Sopranos & John Cooper Clarke

More often than not these days I find myself exposed to new music through television. Many shows of course use soundtracks, some orchestral, most notably 'Lost' whose musical soundtrack was superb throughout but there are also those who rely on existing songs to accompany and enhance their imagery, Sopranos being the best of these and this the best example. Played over the closing scenes of the 79th episode 'Stage 5', noted mancunian poet John Cooper Clarke's 'Evidently Chickentown' literally made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. You don't have to have seen the show to watch this scene, feel the tension and realise that important decisions are being made and huge events are imminent.

The clanking and insistent staccato rhythm never lets the listener settle, it's almost uncomfortable and the ominious echoing organ constantly droning yet never building aids this effect, but it's the vocals, delivered in overlapping, spitfire style, cursing diatribe at authority and apathy in a working class town that makes this song what it is. The opening track on Cooper's fourth album 'Snap, Crackle and Bop', 'Evidently Chickentown' is quite simply brilliant and in this setting trancends brillance into that most elusive creative ambition - originality.

The scene preceding the music is possibly Frank Vincent as Phil Leotardo's finest moment in the entire series.

the bloody cops are bloody keen
to bloody keep it bloody clean
the bloody chief's a bloody swine
who bloody draws a bloody line
at bloody fun and bloody games
the bloody kids he bloody blames
are nowhere to be bloody found
anywhere in chicken town

The Video - Witness (1 Hope)

The first single from his second album, Roots Manuva's Witness (1 Hope) was released in July of 2001. It didn't do much commercially, only scraping to number 45 in the UK charts but the video is a work of art. Innovative, clever and above all hilarious. Directed by Mat Kirkby (better quality version at this link) it is the story of Roots' triumphant return to his former school to take part in the annual sports day. The script is brilliant and I have to say Roots acting is excellent, it would appear the kids were not in on the joke as their responses seem all too real... enjoy.

Witness the fitness
The cruffatin liveth
One hope one quest.

The Gig - Mercury Rev - Olympia Theatre

It was the encore that made this gig memorable for me. Quite possibly the best encore I have ever witnessed personally. I didn't recognise the first song initially, the droning Theremin hypnotic in it's looping melody, I was already enjoying it before I realised I was listening to my favourite Rolling Stones song - '2000 light years from home' from their much derided Their Satanic Majesties Request album. The Stones weak riposte to The Beatles St Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. Despite it's deserved poor reception it did yield this classic track upon which Brian Jones had cast a spell with his theremin and dulcimer contributions. Listening to it live affirmed my belief in it's brilliance. This would have been enough for me but they then launched into a song by one the architects of St Pepper, John Lennon.' I don't want to be a soldier', an angry anti-war diatribe from Lennon's pivotal 'Imagine' album. Delivered in a style not quite as abrasive or caustic as the original, it became more a plea in Jonathon's distinctive vocal style. None the less powerful though, it was a great song to choose to finish a great performance.