Fare Ye Well

Sorry but The friday7 is no more. Lack of time and other commitments have put an end to it, but you can still follow my blog exploits at metcalfed.blogspot.com

thefriday7 13 Feb 09

Friday the 13th, and having not been killed by a mask wearing psycho it's time for another seven to end the week with, and as Saturday is St Valentines it's 7 songs related to Cupid.

Then again I was watching the news yesterday and the Catholic church has announce that Valentine is the wrong saint and the date's wrong - it should be September or some such. But never mind here are

seven songs for that certain someone

The Temptations - Ain't Too Proud To Beg




Man I love The Temptations. There's a vast richness of their sound and the harmonies are to die for. If Get Ready was their song to woo a lady, this is the other end of the story, trying to stop her going and turning into a bit of a weeping willow just to stop his lady going

I know you wanna leave me,
but I refuse to let you go
If I have to beg and plead for your sympathy,
I don't mind coz' you mean that much to me

Ain't too proud to beg, sweet darlin
Please don't leave me girl, don't you go
Ain't to proud to plead, baby, baby
Please don't leave me, girl, don't you go

Now I heard a cryin' man, is half a man
with no sense of pride
But if I have to cry to keep you,
I don't mind weepin' if it'll keep you by my side

Ain't to proud to beg, sweet darlin
Please don't leave me girl, don't you go
Ain't to proud to plead, baby, baby
Please don't leave me girl, don't you go

If I have to sleep on your doorstep
all night and day just to keep you from walkin' away
let your friends laugh, even this I can stand
cause I want to keep you any way I can

Smokey Robinson and the Miracles - Tears of a Clown




Now if there's a smile on my face it's only there to fool the public is possible the greatest opening gambit in song. Like The Temptations, Smokey and the boys were a template of a Motown band but unlike todays put together bands they had real talent. While The Beat covered it with aplomb there's no beating Smokey and his happy song of sorrow. Even the circus music hook adds to the eternal hopelessness he's feeling.

Kelis - Caught Out There



last year Valentines Day,
You would swarm and say,
Babe I love you, love you, (yeah well he's lyin')
babe I ,swear,
Held you when you were sick,
Even, sucked your dick,
The whole time I think to myself
this isn't fair,

One for anyone who's been fucked over by a lover and needs to vent.

Richard Ashcroft - A Song For The Lovers




Not really a love song but all the better for it and one of the best songs he did without The Verve backing him up.

Liberty X featuring Reverend Run - Song 4 Lovers






One of the strangest team ups of music, and a really good piece of joyfully pure pop music



Edwin Starr - S.O.S



Edwin was one of my early musical favourites and here he is asking people around the world to stop the young lady he loves so he can get to her. He even asks the F.B.I., and that's an episode of Without a Trace I'd love to see

5th Feb 2009

The first one of the year, and a different 7 this week. I've been really slow with thefriday7 and have considered giving it up all together but instead had a reshuffle and rethink. I get bored easily and have really got annoyed that half the songs I wanted to include have their videos locked on YouTube because record companies think embedding a video people may not have seen and therefore bringing the music to a new audience who may buy the song if they like it enough is akin to repeatedly kicking their granny in the cunt. So here's the new format friday7 which hopefully may be weekly again.

7 things I discovered this week

1: Franz Ferdinand are good again



I was let down by the last Franz Ferdinand album, but the new track has really grown on me loads. The one thing that disappointed me though was that I was hoping that it was the a cover of this


2: The NME are still shit

The announcement of the NME award nominations and how predictable and shit they are. Best British Band - Oasis? Bloc Party? Radiohead? Muse? Oh and the random new band spot goes to Last Shadow Puppets. Sexiest Female? Worst Dressed - Katy Perry, oh why not throw in Mr Motivator now he's back on GMTV while you're at it? Predictable isn't the word for it. I really hope Connor McNicholls, Editor and journalistic charlatan, dies a long drawn out death and then we can get back to the NME of old where it concentrated on music and bringing new bands to our attention rather than building up some retro tribute act only for next week to say how shit they are. I never thought I'd say this but oh I pine for the days of Steven Wells and Stuart Maconie.

3: I can't bowl

For the missus's birthday we went for Mexican food and bowling with my housemate and his bird. The last few times I've bowled has been against my sister's kids so we've had the bumpers up and I was ace. This time they weren't and I came 4th in both games, after an opening strike which looked like I was on to a winner. We however reckon we were hustled by a ringer because after three ends of hitting the occasional pin, the bird then went on a strike and spare frenzy and won both games, with a few two strike combos.

4: Lady Gaga



She may be the new Aguillara or she may not, but she's mental and we love mental pop stars. If she's still about at the end of the year expect more inflatable dolphin humping to 80s inspired raunchy pop and Bowie inspired make up.

5: Network West Midlands are useless

Not being a driver I depend upon public transport. A bit of snow and suddenly three buses an hour turns into one turning up when it feels like it. Try asking which bus this is meant to be and if you're lucky you get "the 21" Seventeen quid a week I pay em and they can't even turn up on a clear, gritted road.

6: The Civil Service is great

Sat at work on Monday watching the snow out of the window we get a building wide message: We're locking up at half two, make sure you're out of the building except for essential operational staff. We may not even open up tomorrow." And we get paid til 5. Bargain. Your tax pounds paid for me to have a snowball fight.

7: Frank Black - The Cult of Ray



Old Charlie Kittridge released a belting debut solo album and this hasn't been off Media Player in three weeks - the only thing I've listened to more in the last month is Pulp's Countdown. Men In Black is a belter and alien abduction has never sounded better. But it's one of many cracking tracks - with the weakest songs being good at worst. Even has a song about being hoofed in the knackers. After The Pixies split I expected several bad solo projects, but Cult of Ray easily stands up to both The Breeders and Pixies

the friday 7 8 November 2008

It's been a funny week musically for me, two nights DJing, two gigs, one of which was on Saturday lunchtime and was a jazz band. Now I detest jazz, but the lady I was seeing them with loves it, and on a date the lady gets what the lady wants. So I headed down to the Birmingham Symphony Hall for the weekly Sax In The City event with a massive hangover and the inability to eat anything. Drinking fresh orange and having to stand on wobbly legs because the chairs had gone to the large crowd that I wasn't expecting, me and the lady watched the session, and I actually enjoyed it. None of the rambling sax solos, none of the bu-ba-bi-bah dah vocals, just good easy listening played live in a really relaxed environment with an appreciative audience, though how many were in there to avoid the horrific rainstorm and how many went specifically for it we'll never know. Compared to the act I saw on Wednesday, it was a gig of extremes. Here's this week's 7

The Wonderstuff - Unbearable

I went to see the Stuffies last Thursday with my old mate Andrew Pack,my boss and a bloke from work, doing the Eight Legged Groove Machine 20th Anniversary tour, and it reminded me of how great a band they were. With Miles Hunt swigging from a bottle of red wine, two really long encores and a special aftershow performance with an extra four songs it was one of the best reunion gigs I've been to, which gives me hope for the Carter gig later this month. Here's an old one that they played on the night, and like all the best songs it's about hating people




Jesus Jones - Info Freako
The support act I missed at the Wonderstuff, they were always a more commercial version of Pop Will Eat Itself, but still always worth a look and listen. The pioneers of Stupid Hat Indie, they had a few hits then vanished, and like Shed 7 became the joke band of their scene




Rage Against the Machine - Renegades of Funk

I play this every week, and it's great fun, with RATM covering Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force. Not what you'd expect and you'd probably think it wouldn't work, but it does and it breathes a different life into the old hip hop classic




Kunt and the Gang - Men With Beards (what are they hiding?)
The act I saw on Wednesday, and possibly the cleanest of his songs. K&TG are a comedy song writer with a penchant for Carol Vorderman, as seen on his song Carol Vorderman where he explains how he'd defile the dodgy loan selling maths genius, and Alleged Jill Dando Killer Who Was Innocent Barry George. Childish, puerile and very funny live when put in content.




Beastie Boys - Sabotage

The best thing that they ever made was Ill Communication, and that's scientific fact, proven by scientists and all that. Matched with the Spike Jonez 70s cop homage, the guitars and bass rip through you like a bullet through Kurt Cobain's bonce. Forget the early frat boys era Beasties and the free Tibet preachy version and listen to what is just a great song.







The Cure - Why Can't I Be You?

There's a common known fact about me, and that is I love nutters. Proper nutters, and here's the nutter I liked most as a teenager, Robert Smith, doing his best Bobcat Goldthwaite impression in one of the great pop songs of the last century.





Glam Chops - Are You Ready Eddie?

All hail the leaders of Nu Glam, the supergroup of cult indie bands including Art Brut and David Devant and his Spirit Wife. This has nothing to do with the Emerson Lake and Palmer song of the same name, but is a Sweet style stompathon about a man who sleeps in the park. All done in classic Eddie Argos style, including getting the words to your own song wrong..

the friday 7 1st november 2008

So we hit November and where's the year gone? It's about eight weeks to 2009, but forget that, last night was Halloween and that meant a big party at the pub I DJ at, including some dodgy make up, me being seen in a bow tie and of course some rather splendid music. I played a lot more rocky stuff than usual which I really enjoyed, so here are the seven songs from last night that I really enjoyed, and rarely play.

Guns and Roses Welcome to the Jungle

I'm wrong alright. I always thought of this as the shit that Bill and Ted types listen to and should be locked up for. Cock Rock always belonged to the other kids at college. It had no heart and soul to it, it was just about doing as many bitches and drugs. I was listening to James and Blur at the time, wearing my cardigan and Bretton fisherman's jumper, reading Salinger and drawing with a twig dipped in ink. I was a twat, this is ace. And I was proved to be a twat last night when I had a pub full of people dancing like spaz's. It's ace.




Def Leppard Let's Get Rocked

Sheffield has given us some great bands, and for some reason I always forget about the Lep. It's really tongue in cheek cock rock, but you know the lad's would rather have a brew and a bag of chips than groupies and coke. And like most of Sheffield, it has the subtlty of a kick in the knackers by Big Daddy, if he was still alive.





Hole Celebrity Skin


It's wrong, I know. It's very wrong, but loathed as I am to give Courtney Love any publicity, I play this every week for Sarah the barmaid who loves Angry Woman Rock (TM), and it is ace, but the only time I want to mention her is when she admits she killed her husband and faked his suicide. Alledgedly.




Atreyu You Give Love A Bad Name


Fans of the Jovi might want to look away now as this is is a bit of a change from the original. Screamo replaces poodle rock and purists may not like it, but I think it's great. It's what a cover should be like, noticably different yet instantly recognisable.




Spunge Kicking Pigeons

I like kicking pigeons, it should be a demonstration sport in the 2012 olympics. I'd win and finally make my mum proud. This however is a great skanking tune, and a regular crowd pleaser, even if it has my natural nemesis - the false ending. Why do they do that. Spunge are on of those strange bands who are good fun but go nowhere. Their cover of Centrefold is great, as is the skanking version of Ray Parker Jr's Ghostbusters, but they seem to be penned up in the novelty act section. Anyhoo, enjoy.



The Mighty Mighty Bosstones The Impression That I Get

Play it every week because of one reason, it's bloody great. Do you need anymore?






Tenacious D Tribute



Because if you're playing a rock set, there's nothing better to finish with than a wig out song about selling your soul to the devil.

thefriday7: 24th October 2008

I'm doing this early this week which is a suprise to both you and me, whoever you may be. And by early I mean on the actual day it's meant to be done on. After the lengthy trek through My Life In Music, we get back to normal business with the friday 7, well sort of as this week we plug in the headphones for a trip through the last week's playlist of Dave. One track a day from the mp3 player of life.

Friday
Mansun: Being A Girl

I used to really hate Mansun, but over the years I've warmed to them like broad beans. Being a Girl is them at their best, and any song that comes in two parts, an two so very different parts is alright by me. It's not great, and it won't change the world, but it's intersting and I'd rather have something interesting rather than something average. The video featured a young Danny Mockney Twat Dyer, but don't hold that against them, and instead of giving space to him, here's a live version instead



Saturday
The Saturdays: If This Is Love

Is that Yazoo being sampled there by the latest new Girls Aloud? I think it is, and if it's not it's pretty damn close. Here's both to listen to and compare. Even so, it's a blinking good piece of pop and the nubile young lady singers make it better than it probably is. Two of them were in S Club Juniors. God I feel old.






Sunday
Stereolab: French Disco
This always reminds me of better times, of summers spent by the res drinking cider and dancing like a loon in dodgy clubs in Bradford. Pan European Electroindie that made me think of being an astronaut and heading off into space, even though I was in my twenties lived in Lancashire, existed off of egg and chips and booze, and stood no bloody chance. Still we can dream.




Monday
Richard X vs Liberty X: Being Nobody
I love bastard pop, and I really thought Liberty X were underrated in the pop stakes. This was one of the first commercially successful bastard pop mash ups, with the X's cover of the Chaka Kahn classic mixed in with Human League's Being Boiled to great effect. Not too sure about the afro though...





Tuesday
The Kaiser Chiefs: Never Miss A Beat
The album is rank, the single is a bit Kaisers by numbers and the record label have disabled the video on Youtube so you'll have to watch it to decide for yourself. God I want to kill Mark Ronson.

Wednesday
Prince & Sheena Easton: U Got The Look
Was doing the Dj thing last night when this girl came up with requests.
"Got any Metalica?"
"No"
"Got any Slipknot?"
"Yeah, play you some. Anything else?"
"Got any Prince?"

It was this or either Purple Rain or Sign O' The Times. This is much better. I'd forgotten how good Prince was.



Thursday
Georgie Fame & the Blue Flames: Somebody Stole My Thunder
Georgie was one of those artist who you knew by music and not by name. I remember hearing bits and pieces of his growing up, and found this on a bizarre compilation disk. Big style 60s arrangement horns and bass, and Georgies trademark laid back, understated vocal. It's one of those get up and dance songs that I absolutely love

My Life In Music: The Contenders

Once I had finished the odyssey through my life in music I looked over the list and found some glaring omissions. Albums I had a fling with rather than a love affair. Long Players that made a short term impression on me that come back into my life every so often then go back into storage or stuff that meant so much to me at a point in time but have faded into the background for years. There were even a few that had missed out only on a couple of plays because I had a massive obsession with an attractive lady singer or two and played them to death.

Here are the seven that could have been contenders. Could have been top of the world, ma.

1978: Specials - Specials


Although growing up I was well into my 2Tone I only got into Specials a couple of years ago. This debut album, which is made up of a lot of covers as well as original tracks has been on my playlist pretty much weekly for the last year. Being in the Midlands I've manged to catch Neville Staples Specials many a time, but here's Gangsters for your skanking pleasure.



1979: The B52s - The B52s


Apparently John Lennon claimed this to be his favourite album of all time.Which would normally make me hate it, but it's aces The Athens New Wavers eponymous debut, it's a marmite album from a marmite band, but I still play the odd track here and there, most notably 52 Girls which Fatboy Slim nicked, sorry sampled



1987: Strangeways Here We Come - The Smiths


The final nail in the coffin and The Smiths' greatest album. This was the toughest choice to make, and excluding it was tough. This is the sound of friends and bands splitting up, the sound of cynicism and spite. And I love it, however under the rules they would always be beaten by Debbie Gibson.





1999: A Tune A Day - The Supernaturals

One of the bands that every one's heard of but nobody seems to know, The Supernaturals were one of the forgotten bands of Britpop. After their first album It Doesn't Matter Anymore was Mobyd and practically on every advert going I thought they'd be dropped and resigned to doing a mix and match second album, but ATAD may have carried the sound of the first album, but was very much different. Country Music, their tribute to the genre was an upbeat pop classic, and album closer Everest is a ballad of epic proportions that even makes cynical men shed a tear. One more album followed before the band split.

2005: Bang Bang Rock N Roll - Art Brut


The last album I became really obsessed with, and it's still playing even though I love the follow up album. There's something about Art Brut that I really love, it could be the tales of still being in love with your first teenage girlfriend or the hatred of buying albums in Tesco. It might even be the self referential thing about the way Eddie Argos sings or the obsession with Top Of The Pops, whatever it is it's stuck with me for the best part of three years and I love it. Even the eyebrows and the pencil tache that sport Eddies face. A contender for album of the decade, but we'll just have to see what comes along in the next couple of years.