This got to number one 20 years ago.
Download: Killer (12″ version) – Adamski (mp3)
Well all know that Seal went on to fame and fortune and supermodels after singing on this, but what happened to Adamski?
It was 7:15 in the evening on Friday the 3rd of December, 1982. I know because I still have the ticket.
I was at one the The Jam’s farewell shows at Wembley Arena and even though I was only 20 myself at the time I felt like one of the oldest people there as the hall seemed to be full of 14-year-old boys wearing cheap Parkas that looked like their Mum had bought them in Millets. It was like being in the audience for Crackerjack or an England Schoolboys football game, and for the first time in my life the words “bloody kids” came into my head and I had that awful feeling of smug superiority that I had been a Jam fan from way, way, way back, long before they were stadium-playing superstars – four years at least! Where were all these spotty little bandwagon-jumpers then, huh? Mucking about with their Tonka Toys probably. I had to fight the urge to grab one of them by the Parka and say “Of course, they were so much better at The Rainbow in ’78. I was there, you know” as if I was some grizzled old hippie droning on about Woodstock.
Several massive hit singles and a Mod revival had happened since that last gig and my mate and I both came to the the rather snotty conclusion that we understood why Weller was breaking up the group if this was their audience now — and selling out Wembley five nights in a row wasn’t very “punk” was it? — which is exactly the sort of condescending attitude you’d expect from a 20-year-old who thinks he knows it all (don’t they all?) But looking back now I feel bad for those kids, they were at the age when they were starting to get into music seriously and I can imagine how important The Jam were to them because I remember that feeling well myself. Paul Weller was your hero and you would hang on his every word for tips on what to wear, what to read, what old records to buy, even how to vote. And then — maybe in the same week you bought a George Orwell novel because Paul mentioned him in an NME interview — the bastard went and broke the band up. Who did that leave you with? Secret Affair??? That’s like losing a pound and finding a penny — well, 50p maybe.
I don’t remember much about the actual gig itself apart from Weller smashing up his guitar Pete Townsend-style after he tripped over his guitar lead and Bruce hanging around on the stage waving to the crowd at the end long after Paul had buggered off. But I do have a bootleg of the concert from the night before at Wembley which is about as close as I’ll ever get to recreating that magical night when I became an old git.
Download: Precious – The Jam (mp3)
Download: Move On Up – The Jam (mp3)
Download: Boy About Town – The Jam (mp3)
(Live at Wembley, December 2nd, 1982)
Another reason why I had no right to feel superior to those kids: When I was their age I was into ELO.
Having a kid sometimes reminds me how many little things from my own childhood I’ve forgotten. Recently I thought it would be fun to make my daughter a paper airplane to play with but suddenly realized I couldn’t remember how. For a boy who used to know a million ways to make a superfast jet plane out of a sheet of paper it was most distressing, I had to go and look it up on the internet. Then last weekend I drew a hopscotch grid in our driveway for her but I couldn’t remember how to play that either.
What the hell else have I forgotten that I don’t remember?
Download: Where’s The Playground, Susie? – Glen Campbell (mp3)
At my old blog I use to post dance music on a Friday in celebration of going out dancing at the weekend. Now I post nostalgic old videos which is the blogging equivalent of a quiet night in front of the telly with a mug of cocoa. What an old fart I’ve turned into.
But, damn it, I feel like another go around the dance floor. If the old joints can take it that is, this is over 7 minutes long so I might need a sit down and a drink before the end.
Download: Lets Start To Dance Again – Hamilton Bohannon (mp3)
The most memorable recent New Year’s Eve I had was in 1999 which I spent in New York City and asked my wife to marry me the moment the clock struck 12:00 to usher in the new millennium. Probably my favourite ever in London was in 1992 the last time myself and all my college friends were together in the same place and found ourselves in the tiny, members-only Troy Club (sadly now closed) standing on the tables drunkenly singing along to Frank Sinatra songs playing on the jukebox until the early hours of the next morning. But not all New Year’s Eve rose to the level of stories to tell the grandchildren, when I was a young nightclubber in London that night was both the most anticipated and most stressful of the year. The pressure to be having the greatest time of your life (champagne bottle in one hand, kissable girl in the other) when the clock struck 12:00 was enormous and usually disappointed. After several years I got fed up with the hassle of paying an arm and a leg to get into a packed, six-deep-at-the-bar club (and one time being kept waiting in the queue outside until 11:55) and the older you get the desire to chase that moment becomes less and less important anyway, by then you’ve had plenty of other “moments” to cherish in nightclubs on other nights.
So now I’m an old fart I’ll be spending it on the couch getting cozy with the missus, chances are we won’t manage to stay awake until midnight either. But I’m not dead yet and to prove it here are some actual new (new!) records I enjoyed in 2008. For some reason 3/4 of them seem to be by rather fetching young ladies.
Merry New Year everyone.
Download: Jack Killed Mom – Jenny Lewis (mp3)
Buy: “Acid Tongue” (album)
Download: Wreckless Love – Alicia Keys (mp3)
Buy: “As I Am” (album)
Download: Graveyard Girl – M83 (mp3)
Buy: “Saturdays=Youth” (album)
Download: I Thought I Saw Your Face Today – She & Him (mp3)
Buy: “Volume One” (album)
When you were a kid did you ever think about how old you’d be in the year 2000? It seemed so far away and unreal (science fiction was set in the year 2000) but all the times I thought about it I never wondered about what I’d actually be doing at that age. Even when I grew up, in job interviews I couldn’t answer the question “Where do you see yourself in 10 years time?” because I’ve never had A Plan or been one of those people who think “I want to be doing this by the time I’m 35″ or “I want to have that by the time I’m 40.” I’ve met a few go-getters who actually think about their lives like that (mostly in America) but they’re not the sort of people I’d want to have a beer with.
Last year I became a father for the first time and the year before that my own father died so it’s been a life-changing couple of years. The only piece of fatherly wisdom my Old Man ever passed on to me was that if you keep doing good work and don’t piss off too many people along the way then positive things will happen and life will work itself out. He said that when I was going through a rough patch and it meant a lot to me at the time, especially as he wasn’t the sort of father who usually passed on sage life lessons (are any fathers like that?) So that’s pretty much what I’ve done, and with no plan and no goals things have worked out very well indeed. The Old Man was right, I just wish he could have met his beautiful granddaughter.
The reason for this indulgent navel-gazing is that today is my 45th birthday. I gave up being bothered by birthdays after the trauma of turning 30 (that was painful) but 45 does feel like a big one, like I really, actually am middle-aged now. I’m not going to suddenly turn into a misanthropic old git complaining about the bloody kids today and their stupid music, how crap movies are now and how the the whole of Western culture is going down the toilet — because frankly I’ve always been like that, my nickname at college was Alf Garnett. But I don’t want to be 18 or 25 again, I’d have to care about things like iPods and video games and text-messaging and think Green Day were really good or something too. No thanks.
Just to prove I’m still alive and interested in new things, not always looking over my shoulder at the past, here’s a record from a current band I saw live recently. The Clientele don’t pop up very often on mp3 blogs for some reason but I think they’re wonderful.
Download: Isn’t Life Strange – The Clientele (mp3)
Buy: “God Save The Clientele” (album)
