For anyone who's interested, and in case you don't know, I walked into my local shop yesterday only to hear "Midget Submarines". Did my heart good. The label Secretly Canadian has just released "A Trip to Marineville" and "Jane from Occupied Europe" with some dandy bonus tracks (these may never have seen the light of day before. I am not sure.)

They sound great. Nice liner notes/hisotry/interview bits in the covers as well.

Miss hanging out here more...everything is conspiring to keep me away, but I will muddle through!

Hmmm, I have a few of these from (what I guess is) the last round of releases, but I'm not sure if they need upgrading. Some of the bonus material already sounded like the bottom of the barrel had been scraped pretty clean.

Unless they found a new barrel...?

Is the only difference the addition of bonus tracks, or have the albums been remastered, too?

Culled from the Yahoo Jowe Head message board:


"What a night huh? Wild! Wasn't Jowe asked to be in the Fall at one
point, or am I getting that confused?"

"You are right - Kay Carroll asked Jowe back in 78/79 - but he was too
busy with the Maps - so they brought Steve Hanley in!"


Any Fall historians out there who know about this?

fuck me that was a lucky thing then. much as i er respect the swell maps, head is not as good as god to me :unsure:

They were remastered earlier this year by Nikki Sudden and the LP's producer, in the original studio they used in Leamington Spa. [Info taken from N Sudden's website diary thing]

Thanks, Keg. Must get them, then.

Oh yeah, during Nikki's last visit back to the UK, they made a start on remastering the "Whatever Happens Next?" compilation for its debut appearance on CD. Unfortunately they ran out of time before the job was done, so it will have to wait until Mr Sudden is next back in Blighty.

The big news is that Phones Sportsman is back!! Yes - one of the legendary founding members of the Swell Maps is back with a new album and single. For 28 years Phones has pursued his career as a geologist - but the lure of DIY post-punk is strong my children.

The Phones Sportsman Band's new album is called 'May Contain Nutters'. If you like the Maps then you'll like the album - it's off-kilter, damaged avant-pop ... and an antidote to crap over-produced indie and nostalgia-ridden comeback punk.
Phones also has a limited edition clear vinyl, hand-lathed 7" available too - its a new Zealand import only - and there's only 20 copies pressed!!! If you're quick and go to http://www.topplers.net/ you might get one B)

Cool! I only discovered very recently that Richard Earl aka Biggles Books released a solo LP in 1981!

http://mutant-sounds.blogspot.com/search?q=richard+earl

Admittedly it's no Trip to Marineville but I feel a better person for "absorbing" it.

I've been listening to some of it here:

http://www.myspace.com/phonessportsmanband

A bit of a Cabaret Voltaire atmos, d'ye not think?

This post reads terribly poignantly four years on...

:unsure: Ummm ... not really. A bit I suppose, if I'm pushed.

I didn't know Biggles Books ever had a solo album out, no. Quite amazing/

Jowe Head had quite a few (solo albums)... I only have one - called 'Pincer Movement' - and it's really really good!

In 1988 I met Nikki Sudden and he signed my copies of Real Shocks and A Trip to Marineville.

Right - that's all my Swell Maps anecdotes in one handy take-home package. I thang yew.

I'll see that Nikki anecdote and raise you two!

In 1979, when he was filling in at Rough Trade mail order briefly (what a thought!) Nikki chucked in a gratis copy of the reissued Read About Seymour 7" with my order because (and I quote exclusively) "why not, sort of thing". Why not INDEED. What a great man.

And a year later I was upstairs at 202 Kensington Park Rd, having bought a cheapo copy of The Boys first LP earlier and Nikki inadvertently kneeled on it and dented the cover. I felt honoured. Well - kind of, sort of thing.

Similar sort of vocal style to the Cabs' "Kneel To The Boss".

Maybe that's where I'm coming from. But I was listening on tinny, pathetic, laptop speakers, so feel free to ignore my opinions.

B)

B)

Nice smiley. Cool dark glasses.

I wonder if by any chance you have a photograph of yourself -- from, say, 1984 -- in which you are wearing similar dark glasses?

the sound example on topplers is promising good fun.

:applaud:

no

aw

Which post-Swell Maps material is worth investigating? Are Epic's solo albums good?

They're very good, although they might not be what you're expecting. It's mostly pretty traditional piano balladry with a straightforward delivery.

One time I bought Epic Soundtracks a drink at a bar in San Francisco.

Years later I made that a lyric in a song.

i'd recommend getting stuck into that topplers site

i ordered the phones 7" as well as 2 knockouts 7" and got free steve treatment 7", a compilation Cd and a further knockouts 7"

i love getting free stuff like that :wub:

my only issue is that my phones 7" jumps unless i place a empty 10 fag pack on my needle arm but its one of 20 and you get a cd copy thrown in anyway

ya, wait for my copy...
look forward getting this skippy in my hand :o


:unsure:

The Phones Sportman Band CD should appeal to fans of Jowe Head's solo stuff...

Incidentally, Topplers will very soon (next week, I think) be releasing the Container Drivers debut single, "It Must be the Pipes". :D

More ol'maps:

http://www.wfmu.org/tt/
http://www.wfmu.org/audiostream.shtml

You know he ended up doing some of the album artwork for the Fall.
Its included in the Fall chat---Visual Fall thread.

Phones Sportman Band CD
not only contains nutters...
a marvellous "Pumpkinesque" on it. maybe a bit early for this year's summer, but 6 mins, what a tune!
And the others... definitively all worth, checking them out...

I have just received an email from Phones Sportsman himself - who sez he is in the process of recording a song especially for me! And he wants me to title it. What a privilege! I'm quite overwhelmed. After all the bad things that have happened to me... maybe things are finally looking up. This could be the turning point for old bradx.

Glad you liked the CD Mjungblu. It a real aural treat that album - def one of the albums of the year so far.

Go to http://www.topplers.net/ for more info and other great releases.
I'm not on the payroll of Topplers - I just like their stuff btw.

Shurely shome mishtake...

I'd be very intrigued to hear Phones Sportsman's record... none of the various ex-Swell Maps solo stuff really invoked their cacophonous glory so it would be kind of ironic if he came closest to carrying the flame, in the same way that Mo Tucker (the most patronised Velvets member) was the one whose solo stuff came closest to the spirit of the VU.

I really like the Phones album. Highly enjoyable. Doesn't take itself too seriously ... there's lots of silliness on it. Crazy voices, warped production.... nutty interludes etc. He is the keeper of the flame.
I believe there will be another new one out shortly. CUH! Typical - you wait 28 years for a Phones Sportsman album and then 2 come along together.

Your quite correct Capo,
It was this, and pascals using the 2heads jowe head motif that caused me to misremember.

def. one of the best records since...

bradx, that is quite an honour.
any steps with its title yet?

cheers for directing me to this ambitious and amazing stuff.
this is getting a lot of play here.

I've heard a rough mix and it's quite fine. I don't know what the title will be - "bradx, Supreme Lord of the 7th Omniverse" or sth like that maybe I don't know :blink:

Listening to the computerwireless this mornign, my ears pricked up at a song about Hot Pants and Wonderbras - fantastic, and guess who it's by.....?

Your search "The Phones Sportsman Band" did not match any products.

Bollocks.

edit: Yay, found him - chalk another one up to the Daily Show!

it would make a good track, probably :blink: :o

That's a good observation. I was praising her first release, Playin' Possum, on another board and someone else was saying he thought it was crap because she can barely play any instruments and it's a ramshackle mess.

Well, that's true but as you say, it's she who nevertheless captured or personified something essential about the Velvet Underground.