Tag Archives: virginrecords

Book Review: Genesis (Song By Song) by Philipp Rottgers

Posted on by

Despite the twin threats of streaming and AI, it’s gratifying to see that there seems to be an increasing appetite for indepth writing about the good old long player.

This is especially true if you’re into the rich catalogues of the great artists from the ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s.

Fonthill Media have put together the latest (hardback) series of ‘song by song’ studies, covering similar territory to Sonicbond’s ‘on track’ series.

Author Philipp Rottgers (he’s also a historian and drummer with the band PARIAHLORD) now enters the fray with an enjoyable new study of pop/prog behemoths Genesis.

The book offers entries of every single song they ever recorded, plus sections on their tours, album artwork and contemporaneous critical reactions. There’s also an impressive selection of colour photos, including singles covers new to this writer. There’s no index but an extensive reference section and long bibliography.

Genesis provides an interesting challenge for the discerning author, with such a weighty catalogue and two distinct eras. Rottgers preference seems to be for the 1975-1992 period, when Phil Collins fronted the band.

But the book still offers lots of tasty morsels regarding the band’s earlier Peter Gabriel period. For example, it’s interesting to note that the live debut of ‘Supper’s Ready’ took place at Brunel University, Uxbridge, on 10 November 1972 (one wonder if It Bites knew about this when they played a fantastic 16-minute version of ‘Once Around The World’ at the venue in February 1988).

And Rottgers reveals that Noel Gallagher of all people was influenced by an early track called ‘The Conqueror’.

We skim through the band members’ early biographies pretty quickly (though weirdly Rottgers neglects to say where each founding member was born) and learn a lot about the patronage and early promotion of impresario/songwriter Jonathan King (whose subsequent ‘dodgy’ dealings are skirted over completely, probably for good reason…).

There’s some great stuff about Collins’ audition for the band, though it would have been nice to know what they played on that Surrey afternoon. There are fascinating muso details about the middle period, like the fact that Banks, Rutherford and Collins were each given a CR-78 drum machine during the Japanese tour of 1978 as gifts from manufacturers Roland, and it became a key sound of the Duke album (and Collins’ Face Value).

There are some superb tidbits about the band’s mid-1980s commercial peak – the analysis of ‘Land Of Confusion’ is particularly excellent – and Rottgers reminds us that the band did a remarkable FOUR nights at Wembley Stadium in 1987.

The final chapter impressively reviews the farewell 2022 concerts in full and also explains the legacy of the band and also each contribution that Banks, Collins and Rutherford made to their instruments and songwriting.

Whilst ‘Genesis: Song By Song’ is a huge achievement and obviously a labour of love for Rottgers, there are some strange omissions. He generally eschews musical analysis, surprising given Genesis are famed for their quality musicianship. And fans of the early work may occasionally scratch their heads at the lack of space given to important, complex earlier works like ‘Mad Man Moon’ and ‘Can Utility & The Coastliners – both only get three lines each! And some Lamb Lies Down tracks also get short shrift.

But all in all, this is a really enjoyable and worthwhile book, amply doing the job of taking one back to the music afresh. Looking forward to Rottgers’ upcoming book on Collins.

Scritti Politti: Cupid & Psyche 85 (The Deluxe Edition)

Posted on by

After decades of neglect, Scritti’s classic Cupid & Psyche 85 seems to finally be getting its due.

Rough Trade released a long-awaited remaster of the album in 2021, and singer/guitarist/co-songwriter Green Gartside has put it front and centre of his occasional live shows over the last 20 years or so.

But now a new 2022 remaster (by Chris Athens) has been released as a single CD/2-LP Deluxe Edition, with seven bonus tracks including two extremely rare mixes.

But is it any good? Not ‘arf. It’s the reissue this writer has been waiting for, finally putting his original Virgin CD out to pasture.

The package comprises the original classic album (thankfully with the John Potoker mix of ‘Perfect Way’ rather than the rather puny original), plus the usual mixes that have appeared on all subsequent reissues: ‘Flesh & Blood’ and extended versions of ‘Absolute’, ‘Hypnotize’ and ‘Wood Beez’.

Also included are two out-of-print mixes of ‘Perfect Way’, one only ever released on a US promo 12″. They give a new perspective on the song, with intriguing elements revealed.

And there’s a fun dance mix of ‘Lover to Fall’ that seems to have only briefly appeared previously as a single for the French market. It’s a bit tinnitus-inducing but also fascinating if you love the song.

One of the interesting things about the album is the volume difference between the Arif Mardin-produced tracks (‘Wood Beez’, ‘Absolute’, ‘Don’t Work That Hard’) and the other Green/David Gamson-produced stuff.

No remaster is ever going to square that circle, but this is the closest we’re ever going to get. This new mix also increases the instrument separation and ups the top-end a little bit. ‘A Little Knowledge’ in particular has never sound more sumptuous.

The packaging is excellent – the CD is a solid gatefold digipak with original artwork/photography/lyrics plus very interesting/unobtrusive liner notes from Gartside and Gamson. We find out how long Gary Langan took to mix ‘Hypnotize’, what it was really like to work with Mardin and how Robert Quine came to play on the album, amongst loads of other interesting stuff.

If you’re already a fan of Cupid, the new mixes, pristine sound, liner notes and neat packaging make this deluxe edition an essential purchase. The only downside is the lack of credits for the remixes.

But the album may be relevant for new listeners too. Scritti may have been influenced by Kashif, The System, Leon Sylvers III, Michael Jackson/Quincy Jones and various other early-‘80s acts, but their influence is detectable in much current music.

More knowledgeable bods than your correspondent cite The 1975, Carly Rae Jepsen, HAIM, Dirty Projectors and Hot Chip. So Cupid & Psyche 85 is probably as relevant today as it ever was, and this deluxe edition does it proud.

Wendy & Lisa: Fruit At The Bottom (1989) Revisited

Posted on by

Despite massive record industry buzz, Wendy & Lisa’s 1987 debut album, rush-released after they were asked to leave Prince’s Revolution, failed to set the world on fire.

It was time for a rethink, and time to sell some albums. They were sober, sane and serious, and it seemed as if ‘pop’ stardom might be just around the corner if they could just combine some catchy songs with their exemplary musicianship.

But which way to go on the sophomore release? The first album hinted at a Bangles/Fleetwood Mac/Joni Mitchell direction. In the end they went pretty much Full Prince – with varying degrees of success, though once again Fruit At The Bottom demonstrated what a superb multi-instrumentalist Wendy Melvoin was blossoming into.

Released in March 1989, the album was also a chance for Wendy and Lisa to demonstrate just how influential they had been on Prince’s music. They dusted off the Linn LM-1 drum machine (‘Are You My Baby’ even starts with almost the same snare fill as ‘The Ballad Of Dorothy Parker’, via Weather Report’s ‘Teen Town’?) and Wendy got busy with some slap bass and funky, sometimes varispeed rhythm guitar.

Aided by trusted engineer (and Prince veteran) Susan Rogers, who recorded and mixed all the basic tracks at Avatar Studios in New York, lots more time was taken over the drum sounds and Wendy and twin sister Susannah’s (also a Prince veteran and his ex-fiancée) vocals.

The lyrics were far more sexual/sensual than before too, but let’s be blunt – it was very difficult for two highly photogenic gay artists wanting to prove themselves as musicians and not kowtow to a mostly male music industry wanting ever more salaciousness (see the ladies’ slightly uncomfortable interview on GMTV, when they seemed to have arrived from a different universe).

It was also quite a big responsibility for Wendy to suddenly become frontwoman in a touring band (they were very good at London’s Town & Country Club in May 1989, one of the coolest gigs of that year).

Listening to the album again recently, it’s clear that they frontloaded it with three great singles, and took a lot of time over these (Prince even had a bash at remixing ‘Lolly Lolly’). ‘Satisfaction’ even briefly gatecrashed the UK charts, peaking at #26.

But the rest of the album – with the exception of ‘I Think It Was December’ – sounds worryingly like a succession of B-sides, despite Lisa’s always interesting chord changes and synth textures. There’s far too much minimalist/mid-tempo filler with rather hippy/drippy lyrics: ‘Everyday’, ‘Someday I’, ‘Tears Of Joy’, ‘Always In My Dreams’.

It’s quite a shock to hear Wendy’s dirty guitars on ‘From Now On’ but the track doesn’t quite cut through and lacks a good chorus, despite the fine efforts of drummer Carla Azar.

What a shame they couldn’t fashion seven or eight tracks of killer dancefloor material, with one or two ballads. Despite a great review in Q magazine which compared the album to Stephen Sondheim and Bill Evans, FATB stalled at #47 in the UK and failed to chart in the US.

Still, Melody Maker’s Caroline Sullivan interviewed them at length and they appeared on ‘Rapido’ and ‘Top Of The Pops’. They also became quite the live draw in Europe with a great band including Azar, guitarist Chris Bruce and Susannah.

But it was their third album Eroica, released in summer 1990, that probably best showcased their formidable skills and wide influences. But by then the game was up in terms of mainstream success.

Rumours abound that there’s a 1992 album in the vaults somewhere produced by Trevor Horn, after they had worked successfully together with Seal and on the ‘Toys’ soundtrack. C’mon Universal Music, let’s hear it…

China Crisis: Chasing The Demos

Posted on by

Musicians often talk about demos having a charm and freshness that are missing from the final versions.

It’s the ‘chase the demo’ syndrome – capturing an initial burst of inspiration often gets lost in translation when recording in a posh studio with almost unlimited potential for overdubbing.

It’s unlikely that Paddy McAloon’s demo of ‘Bearpark’, with its primitive drum machine, crap synth and lovely, understated vocal, could ever really be improved upon (and probably why Prefab Sprout never recorded it).

Meanwhile, David Bowie famously claimed to prefer his demo of ‘Loving The Alien’ to the finished version. Conversely, when you hear Love and Money’s Strange Kind Of Love demos, you can totally appreciate the hoops that producer Gary Katz put James Grant through to get the best possible vocal and guitar performances.

But it’s pretty rare for a band to release an official album of demos, part of what makes China Crisis’s Demos so interesting. It shows how the band were arguably not particularly well served by record company nor producers (Walter Becker notwithstanding). Virgin never seemed sure if they were Culture Club or OMD.

(Maybe the fact that they became a ‘proper’ band around 1983 was not a great commercial decision too, as excellent as their rhythm section was. Perhaps they’d have been more popular as a ‘synth duo’…)

Most of the tracks on Demos are ‘mood pieces’ without vocals. They all pretty much work as instrumentals, and also reveal Gary Daly and Eddie Lundon as top-notch melody writers and gifted synth sculptors.

The early Eno-influenced stuff is fun but the Flaunt The Imperfection era is fascinating. ‘Wall Of God’ was originally almost an ambient piece. ‘Black Man Ray’ is pure-pop comfort listening. No wonder everyone who heard the demo said ‘Hit!’. Arguably the finished version doesn’t add that much.

Meanwhile ‘Bigger The Punch I’m Feeling’ is Erik Satie meets ‘The Love Boat’, sans that lovely middle eight which was presumably put together by Becker.

The What Price Paradise stuff shows how that album was botched. They clearly got the wrong producers in (Langer and Winstanley). ‘Victims of a cruel medical experiment’, to quote the memorable Q review!

The demo of ‘Arizona Sky’ is altogether more agreeable than the final version, but shows that even then the chorus never quite worked. ‘Safe As Houses’ is charming, as is ‘Best Kept Secret’, originally without the shuffle groove.

The Diary Of A Hollow Horse stuff is all full-band demos, possibly completely live in the studio with a few keyboard overdubs. Again they demonstrate that Virgin arguably cocked up that fine album.

‘St Saviour Square’ works well without all of the ‘Aural Exciter’ rubbish used on the final version. ‘Sweet Charity’, ‘Singing The Praises’, ‘Red Letter Day’ and ‘In Northern Skies’ have complete arrangements and full lyrics – in fact it sounds like they kept Kevin Wilkinson’s drums from those demos and rerecorded everything else.

‘Stranger By Nature’ is a completely different – and inferior – song to the album version, and in straight 4/4, while the title track works superbly as an acoustic guitar ballad. Becker possibly missed a track there.

Demos is a great listen and merely confirms that China Crisis were one of the most underrated and commercially underperforming acts of the ‘80s.

Phil Collins: Face Value @ 45

Posted on by

Producer Steve Lillywhite recently named Phil Collins as the best drummer he’s ever worked with, pretty high praise considering Lillywhite has also shared studios with Simon Phillips, Carter Beauford, Mel Gaynor, Mark Brzezicki, Jerry Marotta and Stewart Copeland.

And Phil’s excellent drums were all over his seriously impressive (and very long for 1981, clocking in at over 47 minutes) debut solo album Face Value, released 45 years ago this month, and a record that has fascinated this writer since the age of eight.

But by 1981 Phil had nothing to prove from a drumming perspective. It was the quality of the material and arrangements that bowled people over. And yet Face Value is so much part of the furniture these days that it’s easy to forget just how expertly crafted it is.

Many of the album’s songs started life as primitive home demos, featuring rhythm box, piano and vocals, Collins having a lot of time on his hands after separating from his first wife (‘I Missed Again’ was originally a mid-tempo shuffle with the working title of ‘I Miss You Babe’).

A few other tracks were developed in the studio with various muso friends, including L Shankar on violin, Eric Clapton and ex-Weather Report bassist Alphonso Johnson, and then there were the two famous cover versions (three if you count Phil’s almost-silent rendering of ‘Over The Rainbow’ at the end – the very first ‘secret’ track?).

The resulting material was an embarrassment of riches. Phil threw everything but the kitchen sink at Face Value: singer-songwriter balladry, Motown, Earth, Wind & Fire, jazz/rock, Beatles beats. Even a touch of Barry White (but no prog…). And all of it pretty much works.

He took full advantage of Townhouse Studios’ famous stone-clad drum room and the superb technical skills and easygoing manner of co-producer Hugh Padgham.

‘In The Air Tonight’ arguably changed the music business forever (as, arguably, did the cover – was this the first album that had the artist’s handwriting on the front?). Had there ever been a quieter album opener? Or UK #2 single (#19 in the States)?

Just a spectral Roland CR-78 rhythm box playing a loose approximation of Phil’s beat from Peter Gabriel’s ‘Intruder’ (and at exactly the same tempo) and a few synth chords (starting in D-minor, the saddest of all keys…). And then the massively compressed, mid-song fill is always louder than you think it’ll be.

In fact, compared to modern ‘pop’ music, the whole album has an enormous amount of space. Even the silence between each track (apart from the mid-record medley) seems unusually elongated and very deliberate, possibly because of the huge variety of musical styles.

Atlantic (Phil’s label in the US) boss Ahmet Ertegun said something interesting about ‘In The Air’: for years afterwards, it was always his go-to track for demonstrating a sure-fire hit – rather an extraordinary statement, when you think about it.

Phil was also becoming a more-than-useful pianist – check out his lovely voicings on ‘Hand In Hand’ and impressive rhythm playing (just the black keys!) on ‘Droned’.

The success of Face Value was a huge gamechanger for his Genesis colleagues. The ‘funny guy’ behind the kit who had always felt a bit like an outsider was now calling the shots. Newfound respect from Messrs. Rutherford and Banks. There would be no more drummer jokes.

The album revolutionised Virgin Records too. Its massive success (UK #1, US #7) was almost as seismic as Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells had been five years before, ushering in the label’s mega-selling pop era of Culture Club, Human League et al.

‘Phil and Peter Gabriel are delightful people. Nothing’s too much trouble for them and it’s also true that because they’d both bother to go into the office to see everyone, the staff would work their balls off for them.’ Richard Branson, 1999

If Phil’s solo career had only ever consisted of Face Value, his legacy would have been assured. (In fact many, including this writer, believe he hasn’t produced much solo stuff of worth since…)

(Postscript: my 1980s WEA CD sounds great but is apparently a bootleg, with a few funny misspellings inside the inlay card – ‘Sharokav’ on violin – and a weird Eric Clapton pseudonym: ‘Joe Partridge’…)

Bryan Ferry: Boys And Girls @ 40

Posted on by

Bryan Ferry’s one and only UK #1 album to date (and biggest-selling record in the US) was released 40 years ago this month.

The Antony Price/Simon Puxley cover is seductive, the Bob Clearmountain mix is delicious, the grooves are pleasant, there’s an array of great players, and this writer can’t resist playing his vinyl copy every year or so.

So why is Boys And Girls always a strangely underwhelming listen?

Despite its big sales and Ferry’s watertight reputation, it has also failed to garner any posh anniversary write-ups in the monthly music mags and didn’t even make Classic Pop mag’s 2015 readers poll of the 100 best 1980s albums. Maybe it could/should have been Ferry’s Let’s Dance (and one wonders why he didn’t enlist Nile Rodgers to produce?).

Ferry completed the album just as he was mourning the death of his father (reflected in the lyrics to ‘The Chosen One’?) but started work back in summer 1983 with producer/engineer Rhett Davies, veteran of Roxy’s Avalon as well as the classic King Crimson double of Discipline and Beat (Davies left the music business for 20 years soon after working on Boys And Girls…). They devised drum-machine beats and laid down keyboard beds while Ferry outlined vague lyric/melody ideas.

Work mostly took place at The White House on London’s King’s Road (meanwhile, less than a mile away in Stanhope Gardens, David Sylvian was devising his own mid-1980s triptych, arguably a far more successful fusion of pop, white funk, ambient and jazz…), a demo studio owned by Ferry’s manager Mark Fenwick. Musicians were then brought in to overdub onto those eight-track demos – seven studios and 30 musicians/singers are credited!

The songs have various nods to the Avalon era. ‘Windswept’ (named by Ferry in a 2003 interview as one of his six favourite songs, the others being ‘Do The Strand’, ‘Avalon’, ‘In Every Dream Home A Heartache’ and ‘Mother Of Pearl’) seems inspired by B-side ‘Always Unknowing’, ‘Slave To Love’ obviously nods to ‘Avalon’ while ‘Sensation’ is built around a melodic motif embedded in ‘Take A Chance With Me’.

The piecemeal recording process affects the material though – Boys And Girls desperately misses the quirkier aspects of Avalon, with those vital contributions of messrs Manzanera and Mackay (not to mention bassist Alan Spenner).

David Gilmour, Mark Knopfler, David Sanborn, Nile, Marcus Miller and Andy Newmark are vaguely familiar now and then, but other big players are anonymous. Ferry’s patented piano work is almost entirely absent.

‘Slave’ is a case in point (though does feature some of that Ferry piano). Built around one of the hoariest old chord progressions in commercial music (incidentally very similar to the verses of ‘Dance Away’ but without that song’s interesting key change or atmosphere…), Ferry doesn’t bother with a bridge (or what Americans call the ‘pre-chorus’) or interesting chorus, just repeats the verse chords again and adds the chanted vocals.

He generally eschews bridges and modulations on Boys And Girls, sticking mainly to two-chord vamps (Avalon, in contrast, featured several ONE-chord songs, apparently influenced by Miles’s On The Corner and James Brown, but they really worked…).

The title track drearily cycles E-min/B-min, while ‘Stone Woman’ sticks rigidly to a very dull D-min/B-flat. Both songs are mercifully/abruptly cut short, Ferry unable to elevate the material with strong melodies.

Still, the music is beguiling and beautifully-appointed (though side A seems much too long, my stylus really struggling to get through ‘Windswept’) and yes, this time next year movingtheriver will probably be reaching for the vinyl, saying ‘Maybe this time’…

Phil Upchurch: Companions @ 40

Posted on by

There’s a good case that 1984 was Last Call for classic jazz/funk (soon to morph into the dreaded smooth jazz) just before the machines took over and albums like David Sanborn’s A Change Of Heart became de rigeur (but only for a few years – there was an ‘acoustic’ revival in the late 1980s…).

Phil Upchurch’s Companions got in just under the wire. The legendary Chess Records/George Benson sideman (he wrote classic ‘Six To Four’ from Breezin’) had recorded over ten solo albums before 1984, all showing off his significant guitar chops and arrangement smarts.

But Companions (currently not on any streaming platforms – c’mon Universal Music) appeared 40 years ago this month on Paladin, the short-lived British jazz/dance label founded by DJ Paul Murphy and distributed by Virgin. Labelmates included Working Week, Robert Wyatt and Annie Whitehead.

It’s a classic West Coast album and a classic guitar album too, in large part due to the appearance of Lenny Breau (who died in mysterious circumstances on 12 August 1984, just a few days after the recording), famous for his fluid lines and cascading false harmonics, who appears on three tracks and to whom the album is dedicated.

Percussion fans – this album’s for you. Every track features a cornucopia of shakers, cowbells, woodblocks and congas played by Michael Fisher and Steve Forman. Gerald Albright blows a storm on the brilliant ‘Mr T (BA’s Song)’, probably heard by yours truly on Robbie Vincent’s BBC London show back in the day, while Russell Ferrante and Rodney Franklin provide tasty Fender Rhodes and Nathan East some excellent bass.

But, as is normal for mid-1980s fusion albums, there are some dodgy tracks on Companions too – two poor ‘pop’ cover versions (‘Rosanna’ sounds out-of-tune throughout) and an undercooked Jimmy Witherspoon cameo on ‘CC Rider’. Elsewhere there are not-so-great vocals on two tracks by Mike Baker (future drummer/vocalist for Zawinul Syndicate/Whitney Houston?).

But in general Companions is pure comfort music and well worth seeking out, rich with interesting harmony, good grooves and superb guitar playing.

The Blue Nile: A Walk Across The Rooftops 40 Years Old Today

Posted on by

‘Every record should be compared to silence. Silence is perfect. What are you going to put on it?’
Paul Buchanan, Blue Nile co-founder/singer/songwriter, 1984

The Blue Nile’s debut album A Walk Across The Rooftops – released 40 years ago today – embraced silence.

The first minute of the title track was a case in point. Buyers all over the UK were wondering if their tapes and records were faulty.

In a superb year for debut albums, the Scottish trio stole a march on David Sylvian, beating his Brilliant Trees by two months (Scott Walker’s Climate Of Hunter came out a few months before A Walk).

Both Sylvian and Walker reportedly adored A Walk, as did Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno.

But how does my original Linn/Virgin CD (catalogue number LKHCD1) sound 40 years on? Fantastic. Seldom have acoustic drums and pianos been better recorded, the songwriting is solid and every electronic noise has its place.

‘Tinseltown In The Rain’ and ‘Heatwave’ would make for superb hi-fi testers. Buchanan’s voice is original and affecting.

Lyrically, his speciality seems to be life-changing realisations in ordinary settings. The title track, for instance, was reportedly inspired by the view outside his Edinburgh kitchen window.

A Walk only got to #80 in the UK on release but became a formidable sleeper hit and has apparently sold way beyond the band’s wildest expectations.

They waited five years to release followup Hats, an album many believe is superior to A Walk. Not this writer though. It was a great debut album in a decade full of them.