The Adventures - Once More With Feeling

In 1984, after originally working together in the punk / new wave band Tango Brigade (previously The Starjets), lead vocalist Terry Sharpe and guitarist Pat Gribben formed The Adventures with Eileen Gribben (Pat’s wife), Gerard Murphy, Tony Ayre and Paul Crowder.   With a few membership changes along the way, the next nine years found the Belfast band releasing four albums before breaking up in 1993.  These releases contained numerous UK hits, including “Broken Land” which reached number twenty there and ninety-five in the States, where it was their only song to hit the charts.  In the ensuing years they reformed a few times for live performances and now, over thirty years after their last album, they’ve released album number five, Once More With Feeling.  The band had contemplated making another album for a while, but when covid and the lock-downs came along, Pat spent more time in his home studio, and with all the free time, he was able to focus on songwriting.  He ended up writing all the songs himself, with the exception of “L.U.C.Y.”, which he interestingly co-wrote with Cathy Dennis during a session where they were attempting to write a song for S Club 7.  With Mark Tolman now on drums, all of the remaining instruments here were handled by Pat, with Terry and Eileen contributing all of the vocals (Tony Ayre, who was the only other member in the band on their last album, passed away in 2009),  They’ve done a great job here of capturing a lot of what made the band so special all those years ago, but also taking their sound into the modern era.   A lot of the album is also more upbeat than the earlier ones, something that is evident right out the gate with the infectious and bouncy pop of opening track “My Imaginary Girlfriend”, which has some great sprightly keyboards that at times are a little reminiscent of A-Ha.  “With The Cats” is up next and has an Eighties era MTV sound crossed with Beach Boys summertime pop.  Driven by some gorgeous acoustic guitar, “When The Sun Goes Down” is an enchanting, bouncy jaunt followed by another upbeat pop gem “Love Talk”.  The aforementioned “L.U.C.Y.” marks the first time Eileen Gribben has handled lead vocals on an Adventures album (she was the lead vocalist on "Currogh Of Kildare", a bonus track on a single in 1988), and is a delicate and absolutely gorgeous ballad recorded in memory of Pat and Eileen’s niece, who was killed by a drunk driver in 2021.  While still full of hooks, “Down By The Water” is a little darker and edgier like a poppier Neil Young with a little bit of The Beatles.  With the help of Conor and Paul McGuinness (2 extremely talented local singer / musicians from Belfast per the liner notes) on backing vocals, “Song For You” is a great acoustic tune that has a strong Simon and Garfunkel feel.  The upbeat pop of “I Still Dream Of You” adds a bit of a rootsy element to the mix, while “The Hanging Tree” is a fun tune with a rockabilly beat that definitely stands out from the rest of the album.  “To Whom It Concerns” is a stunning, sweeping Lennon-esque song that closes the album perfectly.  Once More With Feeling is a most welcome addition to The Adventures discography and highly recommended to fans of their earlier work as well as anyone that has never heard of them before.  Let’s hope this is a career resurgence and not a one off.

(Cherry Red Records)

Dr. Strangely Strange - Anti-Inflammatory

Dr. Strangely Strange was initially formed in Dublin in 1967 by Tim Booth and Ivan Pawle.  In 1968, after playing some shows as a duo, they added three more members, including Tim Gouldin.  Over the ensuing years, various members came and went with Booth, Pawle and Goulding remaining the constant until they disbanded in 1971 having released two albums.  The three reunited a year later for an Irish tour and then Booth led the band with all new members in 1973.  Since the early 1980's they have gotten back together from time to time, along with fiddle / mandolin player Joe Thoma, and they also released another album in 1997.  Now, fifty-eight years after their formation and forty-six years since their last release, the four of them are back with album number four.  They kick things off with “Up With The Lark”, a quaint tune that starts simply with piano and vocal and then incorporates fiddle and whistle giving it a medieval folk feel.  With its driving Bo Diddley beat, the first single “Baby Bunting” is a strangely infectious psychedelic folk tune with massive pop hooks.  Enhanced with some nice electric piano, “Like Water Like Wind” is a really pretty ballad that brings us to “Sulán,” the first of three instrumentals.  Per the liner notes, “The Sulán is a rhythmical river that meanders through the Cork and Kerry mountains passing near the village of Cúil Aodha”, and meandering is the perfect description for this laid-back instrumental with its dreamy Celtic flair.  The loping, psychedelic country two-step of “Rosenalli’s Two-Step” has a super catchy beat and just the right amount of quirkiness, making it the perfect song for a “psychedelic hoedown”.  “Drive ‘em Down” is a bright, bouncy tune with a rootsy country element.  It has some great acoustic guitar work and is enhanced nicely with keyboards.  “Murmuration” is an acoustic folk cut with a bit of a darker side, followed by “Morning Song,” a pretty acoustic piano instrumental accompanied by viola and fiddle.  With bittersweet lyrics looking back at their younger days and time passing by, “Back In The Day” is a lively folk tune.  The final instrumental “Vienna” also closes the album, and was written by Goulding for the birth of his second grandchild.  It’s a solo piano performance with hints of jazz, and a very bouncy, celebratory feel, making it a really nice way to end the disc.  Anti-Inflammatory is a welcome return and an absolute joy to listen to.    

(Think Like A Key Music)

 

Dear Mr Fantasy – A Celebration for Jim Capaldi

On January, 21, 2007, two years after his death, an impressive collection of musicians got together at London’s Roundhouse to pay tribute to Jim Capaldi.  Originally released in 2007 as a double CD and a DVD, this newly remastered edition contains the full concert on two CD’s along with the video on Blu-ray, available in that format here for the first time.  A diverse array of vocalists, including Paul Weller, Joe Walsh, Bill Wyman, Yusuf Islam, Steve Winwood, Gary Moore and Pete Townsend (many also playing their respective instrument) are backed here by a house band consisting of Mark Rivera , Ray Cooper, Simon Kirke (also singing on one song), Andy Newmark, Pete Bonas, Paul “Wix” Wickens and Dave Bronze.   Capaldi was best known as a member of Traffic, as well as for his numerous solo albums, and the performances here are a nice mixture of both, along with a couple of songs he co-wrote that were recorded by other artists.  “Let Me Make Something in Your Life,” a co-write with Winwood that was on his first solo album is performed here by Stevie Lange with Deep Purple’s Jon Lord on Hammond Organ, while interestingly Winwood sings closing song “Love Will Keep Us Alive”, a song that Capaldi wrote with Paul Carrack and Peter Vale and was recorded by The Eagles.  Winwood also pays tribute to his former bandmate with Traffic’s “Light Up or Leave Me Alone” and “Dear Mr. Fantasy”.  For the most part the performances stick pretty close to the originals, although there are a few little twists here and there including Kirke delving into “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” in the middle of “Whale Meat Again” and Islam adding a snippet of his “Wild World” in “Man With No Country.”  Dear Mr Fantasy is quite a fitting tribute to Capaldi and definitely worth checking out.  It should also be noted that the show raised money for the underprivileged children of Brazil, a cause that Jim and his wife had supported for many years.  Another nice addition is the inclusion of the original tour program in the booklet.  (Unfortunately, I do not have the Blu-ray, so I can’t comment on that part of this reissue)

(Esoteric Recordings)

Cocktail Slippers - Live At Blaker Festival Norway  single

For over twenty-four years, Oslo, Norway’s Cocktail Slippers have been kicking out rock ‘n’ roll that’s mixing influences like no frills garage rock, punk and Sixties girl groups.  Currently in the studio finishing up album number six, they have released this two-track single recorded live at last year’s Blaker Festival.  Originally released on Saint Valentine’s Massacre, “You Do Run” has pop hooks and great vocal harmonies along with a punkier edge and a chorus that can’t help but bring to mind The Crystals’ “Da Doo Run Run”.  The flipside is a cover of Them’s “Gloria,” a crowd favorite that sticks pretty close to the original but is a bit looser and ragged in a live setting and also has a bit of a bluesier feel in their hands.  The quality of the recordings here is great and the performances are full of energy. The only real drawback is the fact that it’s only two songs when according to the press info for the single, the sound engineer actually recorded the whole show.  Hopefully we will be lucky enough to get the chance to hear more, but for now this is a nice stopgap to hold us over until the next album.  

(Wicked Cool Records)

TIME! GENTLEMEN! - Pub Rock Rhythm ‘N Grooves – Classic Cuts & Rarities 1974-1982

While pub rock's heyday was very short-lived, and punk rock is often considered the cause, many people also feel that if it wasn’t for the back to basic, no-frills attitude, punk would have never happened. Between its popularity being largely based in the London area and the fact that I was so young at that time, the pub rock scene pretty much escaped me when it was happening.  Having said that, many artists who came out of that scene, like Elvis Costello, Graham Parker, Nick Lowe, Dave Edmunds and even Eddie and the Hot Rods, were already very familiar to me.  Then, several years ago, I started going down the rabbit hole, listening to bands like Dr Feelgood, Brinsley Schwarz, Kursaal Flyers, Tyla Gang and Eggs Over Easy, the last of which was considered by many to be the band that kickstarted the genre.  Grapefruit Records' outstanding 2019 pub rock box set Surrender To The Rhythm helped further my knowledge of the genre and gave me plenty more bands to discover and now it has been followed up with TIME! GENTLEMEN! - Pub Rock Rhythm ‘N Grooves – Classic Cuts & Rarities 1974-1982.  In addition to tracks from many of the bands that were on the previous collection, this new box largely highlights the latter days of the genre’s biggest era and contains some of the bands that came along towards the end of the scene and expanded on the sound through things like punk and new wave.  Many of the seventy-two songs are available on CD for the first time and all of them were remastered by Tim Turan who has mastered and remastered releases from a who’s who of artists.  The enclosed booklet includes details on each band and their included song from Simon Matthews, who wrote Before It Went Rotten, The Music That Rocked London’s Pubs.  As with any compilation like this, there are a few cuts here that some people might consider questionable inclusions and of course there are other artists that aren’t here that really should be, but overall, this is a fantastic compilation that has led to me searching out more music from many bands that I previously knew very little or nothing about.

(Grapefruit)

JoBoxers - Just Got Lucky - The Complete Works 1983-1986

As an MTV obsessed teen, my first memories of JoBoxers was seeing the video for the insanely infectious song "Just Got Lucky."  It ended up as a hit in the US, making it to thirty-seven on the charts, while their debut album made it to seventy (they found more success in the UK with three top forty hits and the album hitting eighteen), but then just like that they seemed to vanish.   The band was comprised of vocalist Dig Wayne, guitarist Rob Marche, keyboardist Dave (DC) Collard, bassist Chris Bostock and drummer Sean McLusky.  Wayne grew up near Columbus and moved to New York to form Buzz And The Flyers.  When they played a show with The Clash, their manager Bernie Rhodes was impressed and promised to take him to London and make him a star.  Meanwhile, the other four members, who were from Bristol, had been making the rounds playing in various bands.  Rhodes was also managing artists in that area, including Johnny Britton and Vic Godard of Subway Sect.  When Britton needed a band for a session, McLusky got the four of them together and they backed him on the single “The One That Got Away”.  Rhodes then had them back Godard in the second incarnation of Subway Sect, which found them recording the album Songs For Sale and touring with bands like The Pretenders, The Clash, Pere Ubu, Bauhaus and The Birthday Party.  They also worked as the house band at Club Left at the Whiskey A Go Go in Wardour Street, Soho, and as a result of this, the four of them went out on the road with Vic Godard.  When he didn’t show for a show at the Manchester Apollo, they joined up with Wayne and became JoBoxers.  They then took their diverse array of influences that included soul, funk, swing, rockabilly, punk, northern soul and more, and meshed it into a sound that was uniquely their own.  After releasing a couple of hit singles in the UK, “Boxerbeat” and the aforementioned “Just Got Lucky," 1983 saw them release what would (before now) be their only album Like Gangbusters.  They did record a follow-up with producer Chris Kimsey in 1985 and released the single "Is This Really The First Time (You've Been In Love)", but the label pulled the album at the last minute (there is mention online of it actually being released, but I could find nothing confirming this).  They also started a third album, Missing Link, but then broke up before it was finished. Now, these tracks, along with b-sides, extended mixes and a full live set, (twenty-eight previously unreleased) can all be found on the outstanding new three disc Just Got Lucky - The Complete Works 1983-1986.

Disc one opens with that incredible debut album, a massively infectious collection of upbeat songs (“Just Got Lucky” and “Boxerbeat” are a couple of the biggest earworms I’ve ever heard), often rooted in jazzy northern soul with a fun sense of humor.  Throughout the ten tracks, they touch on of all the styles mentioned above at one point or another, and there are also some elements of new wave like the Bow Wow Wow / Adam Ant drumbeat in “Crosstown Walk Up” or the New Romantic vibe on their cover of Georgie Fame’s “Fully Booked.  It’s really pointless to try to pick out standout tracks, because there isn’t a bad one in the bunch.  Interestingly, coinciding with the release of “Boxerbeat” as a single, they did a tour opening for Madness, and while they aren’t ska, there are definite parallels between the two bands and honestly their sounds complement each other perfectly.  As for the bonus tracks on disc one, the first three were originally a cassette bonus track (remember those?) and the b-sides of the “Just Got Lucky” and “Boxerbeat” singles, all three just as strong as the album tracks.  “Forget Me Love” is a midtempo jazzy track with a slinky groove and “Let’s Talk About Love” is super funky.  Then there’s the epic soulful R&B cover of Wilson Pickett’s “Jealous Love” (written by Bobby Womack and King Curtis) with a powerful vocal performance from Dig.  The remaining six are single and 12” versions of album tracks.  

The first nineteen tracks on disc two are just labeled “The Skin & Bone and Missing Link Recordings” and besides the three tracks that were released as the single for what was to be the next album, there isn’t anything that really distinguishes which are which.  In addition to those tracks, five more were released on the 1996 compilation Essential Boxerbeat, while the remaining twelve were previously unreleased.  Listening to them it’s really baffling why they never got the chance to be released as proper albums.  That single, “Is This Really The First Time” is an insanely catchy song that deserved a spot on the charts just like their other hits, and as good as the debut is, these tracks might even be better.  You can really hear them experimenting and expanding their sound, and with Kimsey on board as producer on most of these songs, the production sounds even better with more depth and texture than the debut.  The soulful side of their sound also seems a little more prevalent and would have fit in perfectly with what Style Council and General Public were doing at about that same time (check out “For The Love Of Leo”, “Some Kind Of Heart” and the ballad “Dead End Streets”).  Some of the other highlights are “Missing Link,” a definite standout that’s a little on the darker side, “Lon Chaney, Jr” with its creative arrangement that really highlights their musicianship, the smooth, soulful pop bliss of “One In A Million,” the infectious funk of “Two Weeks Notice,” and even a bit of Madness-like ska on “My Best Friend.”  Closing out disc two are extended versions of three tracks.

Rounding out the box set on disc three is a previously unreleased sixteen song set from London’s Phoenix Theatre.  It was recorded on the Rolling Stones mobile studio in June 1983 and sounds fantastic.  The band is tight and energetic, and their top-notch musicianship is on full display as they tear through every song on the debut plus two b-side tracks, two that were recorded for the unreleased albums and covers of Kansas Joe McCoy’s “Why Don’t You Do Right (Give Me Some Money Too)” and Wilson Picketts “Jealous Love.”  It makes for a welcome addition to the box and definitely stands up to repeat listens.  Following the band's demise, all the members continued to find success in the entertainment industry.  Wayne released a solo single in 1987 and an album in 2007.  He also started acting, with the movie Judge Dredd and the TV shows ER and Dexter among his credits.  Marche and McLusky toured with Sandie Shaw, and Marche then went on to play with the likes of Renegade Soundwave and Gun Club, while McLusky started several high-profile clubs in London as well as 1-2-3-4 Records.  Bostock played on albums from The Style Council and Spear Of Destiny and then played with Dave Stewart & the Spiritual Cowboys.  Collard joined The The and still tours with the reformed band today.  JoBoxers also reunited for a sold out 2022 UK tour.  Quite an impressive feat from a band who only released one official album almost forty years earlier.  

(Cherry Red Records)

Ernie Graham - Ernie Graham (remastered)

Initially released in 1971, Ernie Graham's only solo album was a sadly underappreciated effort that is now getting a much-deserved reissue with a new CD release that has been newly remastered from the original Liberty master tapes. Born in Belfast, Ireland, Ernie Graham initially got some local fame as the rhythm guitarist in Tony and the Telstars.  Several members of that band, along with Graham, then moved on to form The People, and over the next couple of years started touring England and gaining a larger following.  In early 1967 they got the attention of former Animals’ bassist Chas Chandler, who with Mike Jeffery, was managing The Jimi Hendrix Experience.  At his suggestion, they changed their name to Eire Apparent, and started touring with the likes of Hendrix, Pink Floyd and The Move.  In the beginning of 1968, they released a single and did some touring in the States with Eric Burdon and The Animals at first, and then Soft Machine and Hendrix.  October 1968 found them recording their debut album, Sunrise, which was produced by Hendrix, and featured appearances from all the members of his band and Robert Wyatt from Soft Machine.  After recording the album, they hit the road in Europe, once more opening for Hendrix.  The album was released in May 1969, and they spent the rest of the year touring, but by May of the next year they had broken up.  Graham started performing as a solo artist and signed to Famepushers management, who also managed Brinsley Schwarz and Help Yourself.  Both of those bands were signed to Liberty Records and when they heard some of the songs he was working on they signed him as well.  When he went in to record his album, he was backed by Brinsley Schwarz, Bob Andrews, Nick Lowe, Ian Gomm and Billy Rankin of the band Brinsley Schwarz and Malcolm Morley, Richard Treece, Ken Whaley and Dave Charles of Help Yourself.  The resulting album opens strongly with the beautiful “Sebastian,” an acoustic folk tune that has a strong Dylan feel in both vocal delivery and guitar accompaniment.  It also has some great vocal harmonies and guitar.  “So Lonely” finds him going full electric and is a mid-tempo, rootsy rocker that is reminiscent of The Band, but rawer.  The interplay of organ and piano does a great job of setting the tone on “Sea Fever,” a melancholy cut that’s hauntingly dreamy with a hint of psychedelia.  The next two cuts are standouts that make for the perfect centerpiece to the album.  “The Girl That Turned The Lever” has a similar vibe to The Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” and is an easygoing, laid-back tune with more great harmonies and even some accordion.  With bittersweet lyrics and a gorgeous arrangement that kind of meanders and wistfully rolls along, the melancholy “For A Little While” is a nostalgic reflection on a past romantic relationship.  Shifting gears a bit, “Blues To Snowy” is a taut rocker with some really strong guitar work (at times bringing to mind Lynyrd Skynyrd) that shuffles along sounding like it’s going to explode at any minute.  The Band come to mind once again on “Don’t Want Me Round You,” a strangely somewhat upbeat, very catchy, tune with a playful organ and infectious “na na na’s" accompanying lyrics that, as the title implies, are not very happy.  Closing track “Belfast” is a gritty, fiddle-driven Irish folk rocker that finds him embracing his roots.  Everything about this album, from the vocals and lyrics to the insane talent of the musicians had the makings of a hit, but unfortunately for some reason it just wasn't to be.  Following the album's release, Graham did some live shows opening for both Brinsley Schwarz and Help Yourself, but when the album failed to sell, he joined Help Yourself in the next incarnation of the band. He was part of the recording sessions for their second album, Strange Affair, and wrote the song "Movie Star", but along with Jojo Glemser, left the band before it was finished.  The two of them formed the band Clancy and released two albums, and then in 1978 he released a single on Stiff Records, which would be his last release. He ended up taking a job with British Rail and then passed away in 2001.  

(Esoteric Recordings)