A Fish

Back from Madrid. El Rastro was a bit of a disappointment. It may be my memory playing tricks on me but when I was last there 15 years or so ago it had seemed bigger and more distinctive. Now 90% of the stalls were the ones you find at every weekend market in Europe these days - mind you the same goes for my local market, Brick Lane.

However my shopping spree on Saturday more than made up for it. I discovered a load of second hand record shops in the streets off Calle Arenal, which is very central (close to the Plaza Mayor, Sol etc). Pride of place goes to Discos La Metralleta in Plaza De Las Delcalzas. It is underground and has three parts - top of the range, mid-price and a genuine bargain basement which has a huge selection of LPs and 12"s going for one or two Euros - expect to hear from the Denver Mexicans, Bordon-4 and Conde Manga here at some point when I clear the backlog of vinyl to be digitalised (I have a large pile of Irish country LPs to get through courtesy of Mrs F, mother of Mr F).

There is a small but stylish record fair on Saturday mornings in Plaza 2 De Mayo (near Tribunal metro) - including one stall that had a job lot of LPs by 1980s German pop acts (I resisted) - and I was also able to pick up some good stuff in a sale at FNAC (their equivalent of HMV) including a two CD "best of" Joan Manuel Serrat, who I've featured here previously.

But it wasn't all fun, there was culture too. I went to the Reina Sofia, the modern art gallery. The best known exhibit is "Guernica", but there are plenty more familiar pieces including Dali's "The Great Masturbator", posters of which adorned many walls in my student days. As well as the big names such as Picasso, Dali and Joan Miro there are plenty of lesser known cubists, surrealists etc.

Which brings me to today's selection. From 1986 here are Surreal Estate with "Midas Touch".

http://www.box.net/shared/2ldkb5ia6e

I don't know anything about them but I assume they were from Liverpool as the 12" single this comes from was released on Probe Plus and produced by Will Seargent of Echo and the Bunnymen.

Here is some more music inspired by art:



P.S. If anyone can explain the significance of today's title there will be a prize of some sort (he said rashly)

More Gypsies

Following up yesterday's "Electrick Gypsies" post, here are three versions of the old British folk song telling the story of how Gypsy (or Black Jack) Davey lures a titled lady away from her husband, child and worldly possessions. There are many more versions of this knocking about, but three is probably enough to be getting on with. Here they are:

http://www.box.net/shared/3v9xpl74ez

The first two are perhaps not all that unexpected coming as they do from what might loosely be described as the UK folk-rock boom of the late 1960s and early 1970s: "Gypsy Davey" by Fotheringay, from their second album that was never completed at the time but had the final touches put to it and was finally released last year with the title "Two"; and "Black Jack Davy" by The Incredible String Band, from 1970's "I Looked Up" LP.

The third one came as more of a surprise to me when I found it on a Sun Records compilation, but I suppose it is just more proof, if proof were needed, that many of the American mountain ballads were originally brought over from the UK. It is Warren Smith - responsible for such gems as "Ubangi Stomp" and "Red Cadillac And A Black Moustache" - and his version is called "Black Jack David".

All good stuff, eh? And that is it from me for a few days - I'm off to Madrid tomorrow for a couple of days work followed by a bit of sightseeing over the weekend. I'm hoping to get down to El Rastro, the enormous flea market, on Sunday morning for a bit of what the young people call "crate-digging" before I fly home, so watch this space.

PS When I get home on Sunday I will be taking all the links for March down so this is your last chance to grab some of those goodies: http://www.box.net/shared/jy4te7pxka

Powerless

The power supplies at work were up the creek today. During the first power surge I got stuck in the lift, which was fun as you would imagine. When the second surge came we lost power completely, setting all the alarms off and requiring us to evacuate the building. When we got back in they had only restored power to half of the building, leaving those of us in the wrong half to search for free desks with working sockets to plug ourselves into. So there we were, roaming the floors like a raggle taggle band of "Electrick Gypsies".

Steve Hillage wrote a song about the same thing. Here it is.

http://www.box.net/shared/22xv2ph4rd

That was on his album "L" released in 1976. It is a load of old hippy nonsense of course but I have always had a soft spot for it. As well as "Electrick Gypsies" it includes cracking versions of George Harrison's "It's All Too Much" and Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man". Here is a great clip of him performing the latter live:



Electricity was obviously topical in 1976 - was that the year of the power cuts? From the same year, here are 5000 Volts with "Dr Kiss Kiss":

Sunshine Day

It is a Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK, and for the first time since records begun there has been no rain at all (at least not in London) - with just a few hours to go it has so far been pretty much non-stop sunshine.

It won't last so to try to capture the moment while we can here are some smooth summer sounds from South America.

First, from Brazil, Tim Maia with "Venha Dormir En Casa" (1977)

http://www.box.net/shared/74dd2azcyk

Second, from Venezuela, Los Amigos Invisibles with "Cachete A Cachete" (1998)

http://www.box.net/shared/acv1flru5i

And from a different planet entirely, here is a Latin American standard:

Kevin Coyne

How about a couple of songs from the late Kevin Coyne?

Some of his stuff was pretty peculiar, which may have led some people to give up on him as "too difficult", but there was a side to him that was musically much more conventional, while always engaging.

Very much is the first camp is "Mona, Where's My Trousers?", a B-side from 1976 which turns up on a couple of compilations as well.

In the latter, "The World Is Full Of Fools" from 1979's "Millionaires And Teddy Bears".

Here they are:

http://www.box.net/shared/ezrkk8th95

And here he is on a (probably not terribly funny) Dutch comedy show in 1974. Watch out for the surprise ending:

The Work Of The Devil

When doing yesterday's post I noticed that the visitor count stood at 666 - the Number of the Beast. When I checked in this morning it had moved up to 668 - the Neighbour of the Beast.

These numbers are not significant - the 666th visitor came from Greeen Bay, Wisconsin which I imagine is about as far removed from Hell as it is possible to be while still remaining on Earth - but it did prompt me to dig out this little gem from way back when (1982): "The Devil Lives In My Husband's Body" by Pulsallama.

http://www.box.net/shared/fzonrq3x41

Somewhat to my surprise, I was able to find the original Pulsallama video in YouTube:

I have actually visited Hell. It is a short train ride from Trondheim in Norway and the only reason to go there is so you can go to Trondheim Railway Station and ask for a ticket "to Hell and back". Unless things have improved in the 15 years or so since I went there that will be the highlight of the trip. At that time it consisted of a garden centre, a fly-over and a petrol station where you could pay 10 kroner to get "Hell" stamped on your passport.

Otis Was Cookin'

I had an excellent night on Wednesday at the "What's Cookin'" club at Leytonstone (for the benefit of our international readers that is in east London - perhaps best known as the birthplace of Alfred Hitchcock).

"What's Cookin'" has been going for about five years but I only got to hear of it recently, so this was my first visit. It certainly won't be my last. It runs most Wednesdays and Saturdays in the tarted up upstairs function room of "The Sheepwalk" pub, and features mostly country and rock 'n roll acts. There is no admission fee but they have a whip-round during the show and you contribute whatever you think it was worth - an approach which encourages you to try out acts you have never heard of as you don't have to fork out £10 or more on the off-chance you'll enjoy them. There are more details at their website (link below) and I would encourage anyone who lives in the area to give it a go.

http://www.whatscookin.co.uk/wchome.html

What made my first visit even better was the fact that the headline act was Otis Gibbs, the pocket-sized Steve Earle (in his current bearded incarnation). He played a solo set. Great songs and - some disparaging remarks about black pudding apart - great banter.

Here are a couple of Otis songs: "The Farmer Is The Man" (from 2004's "One Day Our Whispers") and, from his current album "Grandpa Walked A Picketline", "To Anyone".

http://www.box.net/shared/kozxqiq4gj

And here is a clip of Otis doing "Karluv Most" earlier this year. This was his final encore on Wednesday, which - having strolled round the room playing it - ended with him standing precariously on a rickety chair in front of me. The effect was a mixture of pleasure at the song and fear that he might fall on me.