Visage - Visage

The story goes like this . . . Ultraxox were dropped by Island records after three albums failed to take the worlds by storm (I remember being distinctly unimpressed by the at the Reading Festival in '78 and can never forgive them for being a huge influence on Gary Numan).

After a subsequent self-financed (ie hand-to-mouth) American tour in '79, John Foxx called it a day, and the remaining members (Billy Currie and Robert Simon) started hanging out at "Club For Heroes" ("Heroes" as in the Bowie track) where the resident DJ was was Rusty Egan.

Now, the club's doorman (ie the fascist on the door who doesn't let you in if you're not dressed right) and Egan's flatmate was Steve Strange. Egan had also been the drummer in the Rich Kids (Glen Matlock's post-Pistols group), whose guitarist was one Midge Ure. 

Still with me?

Add this lot to John McGeoch and Dave Formula from Magazine ("Shot By Both sides" is an excellent track but never really got them tbh) , shove them into a studio with some of these new-fangled synthesizer thingies and you end up with the defining moment in Blitz-kid style.

(I didn't have to tell you that Steve Strange was the clown character in Bowies "Ashes To Ashes" video did I?)

The Tubes - White Punks On Dope (Greatest Hits)

Popular in the US long before making a bit of a scene in the UK where they jumped on the punk bandwagon in 77/78 with a pretty outrageous stage act and promptly dissapeared without a trace.

White Punks On Dope (have a google for the Nina Hagen version) and Don't Touch Me There are the biggies imo.

http://rapidshare.com/files/240467992/New_York_Dolls.rar

You know the sabre-toothed squirrel character in the "Ice Age" cartoon films, and his look of panic on his faced when he realises he's lost his acorn?

That's how I felt when I realised I didn't have any New York Dolls on the hard-drive.

(This was also the look on my face when I realised that the on-going construction of the London Bridge Cross-Rail link resulted in the closure of my nearest two off-licences . . . but that's another story)

Anyway, an essential, must-have, hugely influential, proto-punk glam-rock etc etc etc

Note : If this stuff appeals then you should also check out their UK equivilents The Hollywood Brats

The Horrors - Primary Colours + Bonus CD

You know when you go see a toilet-circuit gig (4 groups for £5 down the local boozer) and you see a group that takes it's influences totally out of socio-political context (ELP keyboards/Madness horns/Joy Division vocals all mixed together)?  

Don't get me wrong, I'not saying that's a bad thing  . . . more like they do stuff that I (been going to gigs for over 30 years now) could never conceive of doing . . . but for them it's all lumped together as "musical history" 

Anyway, this lots 2nd album gets it right, and it really pisses me off that a band so young can produce a sound so good.

Made notes while playing Medieval Total War II (succeeded in taking out the French!) . . . 

1) Lush guitars

2) JMYC

3) Echoey vocals (Bauhaus?)

4) Phil Spector

5) Early industrial punk (Fall????)

6) Shoegazing

The bonus CD is very different and is an absolute must-have imo. Very difficult to catagorise, can find nowt about it on t'interweb, best guess is that it's a mix-tape by someone who visits the Castels In Space blog too regularly for there own good (that's a compliment btw).

Primary Colours

Bonus CD

In Search of Sid - BBC Radio Documentary

Musician Jah Wobble discovers the real Sid Vicious, 30 years after the Sex Pistols bassist's death. Jah formed his own opinion of his friend Sid as they grew up together, but has since met other people who knew him that held contrasting impressions of him. Talking to some of these people, Jah reflects on the boy he used to know and re-evaluates the man that he became ....

Caught this when first broadcast and thought at the time "oh . . . this would make a good post", luckily for me (and you) ,  that man of impeccable taste "Snuffbox" posted a recording as a torrent on that source of all BBC radio stuff radioarchive.cc.