Apologies to all those to whom this means nothing or less (and, yes, I know that's most of you) but I wanted all my fellow Prefab Sprout fans to share in my joy at discovering that there's a new Sprout album due out in February 2009 - their first since 2001. The working title is Let's Change The World With Music - The Blueprint. I have to confess, I'm all a-tremble.
To celebrate, here's a selection of five of my favourite Prefab Sprout tracks. Enjoy...
18 comments:
Aha, you have been hacked - got Blimpy's trick to work (although it cost me a QT upgrade & is a bit fiddly). Interesting choices - especially "Horsing Around" from the mighty "Steve McQueen" album.
@ shoey - sorry, don't dig your banter. How have I been hacked? What's Blimpy's trick? Confused...
Hey toffee, as you were up at 4.00 in the morning, why no 'Faron Young'?
You'd think with a name like Paddy Macaroon there'd be more songs about afternoon tea on Steve McQueen.
@ proudfoot - good call, I should have thought of that.
I still want to know what shoey's cryptic message means...
It sounds technical. Something to do with scrobbling? Sorry can't help.
Can download mp3's from Podbean.
I've phoned my family to tell them. This is such big news. And it means that Paddy MacAloon is alive, doesn't it? I had serious doubts.... Thank you so much for that. Two stonkers on the horizon - Grace Jones on 3rd of November and Prefab Sprout next year. Life is great...
@ shoey - oh... right... OK. I was worried that my system had been infiltrated...
Didn't mean to worry you, Toffee. Your secrets are safe.
@fp - it's great isn't it? Apparently brother Martin is involved but not, as far as I'm aware, Wendy Smith.
I just hope it lives up to expectations - it's a big ask, but Paddy's never let me down yet.
Ive always been spectacularly proud of the fact that I was able to attend almost the only London concert of the Steve McQueen/Two Wheels Good tour (the blur that was early 1986) before the band seemed to just disappear - as has been their want ever since. I remember that my adoration for Paddy's songs knew no limits at the time and which regularly left me in paroxysms of joy.
I also remember how equally proud I was to have been able to procure an ENORMOUS wall-sized poster from outside the Hammy Odeon of the famous (motorcycle shot) sleeve, which, along with the a poster for the sleeve of The Queen is Dead - one of my other most favorite memories of 1986; contrary to popular belief, a premium year for album releases - rates as the largest and sexiest I ever owned as a youngster.
Sitting beneath one or other of them, weeping beneath a long messy fringe into my blue label vodka as I sat alone in my south London bedsit now seems like a sweet memory in an otherwise miserable decade.
I didnt like the Eighties much. Ive said this before. Music rescued it though. Some of my best gigs ever. English bands like The Bunnymen (1983), Lloyd Cole
(1986), The Smiths (1985 and 86 - the latter becoming the 'Rank' album) and the Prefabs, as well as US groups (Rain Parade, Husker Du, The Blasters, Lone Justice, The Long Ryders, to name but a few) helped to keep my gig going experience as exciting as I could have hoped for during such disturbing times.
Hats off then to PS for making a new album. I will be paying close attention. Paddy has the skill for a major comeback in him - that was clear from day one. But will he pull it off? Lets hope so.
Ive always been spectacularly proud of the fact that I was able to attend almost the only London concert of the Steve McQueen/Two Wheels Good tour (the blur that was early 1986) before the band seemed to just disappear - as has been their want ever since. I remember that my adoration for Paddy's songs knew no limits at the time and which regularly left me in paroxysms of joy.
I also remember how equally proud I was to have been able to procure an ENORMOUS wall-sized poster from outside the Hammy Odeon of the famous (motorcycle shot) sleeve, which, along with the a poster for the sleeve of The Queen is Dead - one of my other most favorite memories of 1986; contrary to popular belief, a premium year for album releases - rates as the largest and sexiest I ever owned as a youngster.
Sitting beneath one or other of them, weeping beneath a long messy fringe into my blue label vodka as I sat alone in my south London bedsit now seems like a sweet memory in an otherwise miserable decade.
I didnt like the Eighties much. Ive said this before. Music rescued it though. Some of my best gigs ever. English bands like The Bunnymen (1983), Lloyd Cole
(1986), The Smiths (1985 and 86 - the latter becoming the 'Rank' album) and the Prefabs, as well as US groups (Rain Parade, Husker Du, The Blasters, Lone Justice, The Long Ryders, to name but a few) helped to keep my gig going experience as exciting as I could have hoped for during such disturbing times.
Hats off then to PS for making a new album. I will be paying close attention. Paddy has the skill for a major comeback in him - that was clear from day one. But will he pull it off? Lets hope so.
@sourpus. Rain Parade. How good were they? I'd clean forgot. I'm not sure if the 80's were bad because of or in spite of the music. I remember feeling 'oh, music's getting good again' in about 1988 but that might have been less because of the Madchester/ Rave scene (as opposed to Deacon Blue/ Martin Stephenson & the Dainties- was there ever a worse name for a band?)than the fact I was in comparatively gainful employment again(ooh, £25 a day).
Gigs that helped me through (aside from your choices, all of which I saw live, save PS)?
Pere Ubu, Jane's Addiction, Green On Red, Miracle Legion, the Pixies, Wonderstuff, Wedding Present and (improbably) They Might Be Giants.
Also had acquaintance who had PS giant poster. Trifled with the idea that you could be one-and-the-same but unlikely.
1. He was from Scotland and was nick-named 'partly Dave'.
2. If he'd had any blue vodka we'd have stolen it off him.
3. Nobody I knew like Prefab Sprout.(although I always loved the band name) I think 'Partly Dave' only nicked said poster for aesthetic reasons or because it covered the mould on his bedroom wall. He was a Roy Harper/Led Zep fan. We were all tragically wrong about PS and several RRers have been putting me right over the last year or so.
For me, the '80s were a very important decade. I was more actively involved in the music 'scene' - particularly in the mid-80s - than at any other time in my life. I played keyboards for a minor C86-era indie band and although they were never quite made it even to the brink of major success we mixed with some of the big names of the time (Bobby Gillespie and Robert Forster both saw me live - how cool is that!!)
I suppose as a result of this I've grown to love the music of the mid-80s. A large number of my favourite acts were at the height of their powers at the time: The Smiths, Orange Juice, Everything But The Girl, The Wedding Present, The Go-Betweens, Aztec Camera, McCarthy, The Cocteau Twins and, of course, Prefab Sprout.
It must partly be an age thing - I was born in 1961 so I was in my twenties during the 80s - I'd got Prog Rock out of my system (not entirely though!) and I somehow managed to side-step the whole punk thing so I always think of The Smiths and their jangly-indie rock descendants as 'my' music. I suppose the fact that I got married in 1982 adds to the happy feelings I have about that period. I have to say that - ToffeeGirl might be reading this!
And, on the subject of posters from gigs, one of my proudest possessions is a poster from the Miner's Benefit gig at Brixton in 1984, featuring Orange Juice, Aztec Camera, Everything But The Girl and The Woodentops - a particularly emotional evening as it turned out to be Orange Juices' farewell gig.
proudfoot, perhaps that's it!
Perhaps that's another of the reasons ive tended to have a bit of a downer on the 80's. I spent part of the decade hiding in Goldsmith's College London, pretending to do an Anthropology degree. Our social secretary was a HUGE fan of (yes, you've guessed it) Martin Stevenson and the Daintees (who were far from the worst offenders in my opinion) Deacon Blue, Wet Wet Wet, (I kid you not) and he booked them again and again. No wonder, I hear you saying, that I didnt think much of those times...
I do have a bit of a tendency to view the divisive nature of that decade (two sides, a north/south divide, etc) - the political landscape basically and the crossroads which we had reached, where England paid its money and took its choice (leading directly to these times, some would say).
Even the music scene was diametric, each with its own pop chart - indie or mainstream? - occasionally getting in each other's hair just like every other faction which existed.
But you know, actually, I really enjoyed the 1980's from that one point of view. A lot of the music (outside the mainstream) was both fantastically inspired and hugely inspiring.
I also saw Orange Juice (the Cant Hide Your Love Forever tour - with Jonathan Richman), EBTG, The Woodentops (a truly original band), The Cocteau Twins (who used to have to rewind their backing tape in order to play an encore, while the audience stood and waited in silence); I saw the Pixies several times on the Surfer Rosa tour and some of my longterm relationship with loud rock and roll was never quite the same again. I saw Throwing Muses at the Africa Centre in Covent Garden and came away thinking that they were probably the future of music and longed to be in band just like them for the best part of the next ten years.
It was all superb really.
Thanks for the memories guys!
p.s. I was also a fan of Til Tuesday, after my then girlfriend sent me their first album from the states. Aimee Mann's music stuck to me thereafter. I was thinking of her today while reading Maddy's live review and I felt like saying: "Maddy. Aimee always played that way! It was always a bit of let down live - but mainly because the albums lead you to expect such magic live based on the strength of the songs. Dont go see AM for the live experience - go for the songs!"
The Africa centre! The music I saw there was um..African. Zimbabwe I think. Used to pop in there with a homesick friend just to meet people.
You're right about the North/South (I was in Scotland the year they used the Scots as guinea pigs for the poll tax- that didn't go down too well). Also the very polarised music scene: even the 'huge' indie acts (Pixies, REM) rarely had hits. That was in the 90s.
Interesting that you got prog out of the way exactly 3 years before I did. I was born in 1964. I think that speaks volumes for 80s music. Most of us spent a great deal of the time listening to music from the 60s and 70s. I suspect something similar happens today, which is why there are numberless bands referencing Gang of Four, Joy Division, Talking Heads and wearing Clash/Ramones T-shirts.
The Throwing Muses(+ support the Sundays) I saw in Glasgow in 88/89. Great live but 'Hunkpapa' was a let-down.
Thank you, sir, for the memories.
The album will be out on September 7th, 2009.
It's up for pre-order at play.com and amazon
Cover art and tracklisting in the link below
http://www.play.com/Music/CD/4-/10108758/Let¿s-Change-The-World-With-Music/Product.html
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