the Lou Reed story

Another post about 45s - reworked from a mini zine I did in this, my 45th year. The illustration is from there too.

The Velvet Underground are one of my favourite bands and I like some of Lou Reed’s solo stuff but this one is a different kind of thing. It’s by the Jades, one of Reed’s first bands and his first record, from 1958. I had a ticket to see him on a sunny day in Brighton, and went down early in the hope of getting it signed. I waited by the stage door with a few other geeks for a couple of hours, and eventually he turned up, with Antony Hegarty and an entourage of about 8 people.

He seemed in a good mood as he passed a perfunctory few seconds with his fans. I waved the 45 at him to get his attention, and it worked. He whipped it out of my hands - intrigued, excited even - “Oh my god – where did you get this?” – the inevitable answer Ebay did not go down well, and suddenly he was much more interested in telling Antony about it than talking to me. He told A that he was 16, his first record etc, and "… of course it's terrible".

At this point I tried to get back into the conversation by piping up/ butting in with '"I thinks it's alright!" which earned me a withering look and no further comment. Further awkwardness ensued when I had to explain how the special pen I got worked. Still, he signed the label + sleeve 4 times in all, and quite legibly for a change.

The Single I Was On

Third in a series of posts about 45s - I'm 45 this year, I had a party and played 45s all day, and wrote a zine about 45s for the people at the party, and these themed posts are reworked versions of the pieces in the zine.

It was always my dream to make a single, to contribute to the sum total of rock'n'roll happiness in the world, and I came close to this with my car-crash drag punk band Six Inch Killaz around 1998, but it was not to be - you can blame Wayne Morris. The only single I'm on is a hopelessly obscure record by The Legend aka Everrett True aka Jerry Thackray, recorded a decade before. In truth it's quite bad but I do kind of like it, just because I'm on it. I think this is the way of it with Legend records. I remember buying his 2nd Creation single Legend Destroys The Blues and being appalled. I complained about it to Alan McGee and he said 'well, I like it cuz I play drums on it', and Dave Evans who was in McGee's band Biff Bang Pow piped up with 'yeah - and I like it cuz I played bass on it'. At least I liked the cover.

So anyway - I was quite a close friend of Jerry in the '80s, after falling in with the early Creation records crowd, and shared a flat with him and a couple of other friends in north London at that time. I also played music with him as guitarist in the Legend band for a few years. We would occasionally play with bands he/we were friends with, and put out a couple of records. One was a 12" EP for John Robb's Vinyl Drip label, and one was a 45 for Philip Boa's new Constrictor label, in 1987. I co-wrote one side of the single with him I think, but it's the other side I like (or kind of like). I play bass.

It was recorded and mixed in a day at a tiny recording studio near Green Lanes in north London, where the TV Personalities recorded their Privilege album. The owner/engineer guy was only ever referred to as Wilson. Jowe Head from the TVPs produced and played melodica and toy piano. Amongst the other toy instruments and stuff on the floor was a snare drum with SWELL MAPS painted on the side, which was exciting! It was a treat watching him do his noise magic with admittedly quite weak source material. Alex Taylor, who had recently left the Shop Assistants, sang on it too. She had moved to London to launch her new band The Motorcycle Boy. It was a pleasant easy going day with plenty of time - most of my other studio experience is of rushing to record 7 or 8 songs in a few hours, including mixing.

Philip Boa was (and still is) an alt-rock cult figure in Germany, and his label is still going. He was a friend of Stephen Pastel somehow I think, and one of the many people + bands who slept on our floor when I shared with Jerry. Waiting for the bus at Golders Green one night he told me how his life was changed when he travelled to London to see The Damned after hearing their first single New Rose (which I don't have) in 1976…

Old Records / 1965

saville
Originally uploaded by simonm1965

In my youth I used to read NME from cover to cover every week, and the charts included top tens from 5, 10 and 15 years ago. As the cold death-grip of the '80s took hold I started to notice more and more that the records in the 15 yrs. ago chart were better than the current chart or the mostly even worse 5 and 10 yrs ago charts, and these were only the ones I knew from listening to to Jimmy Saville's Old Record Club on Radio One on Sunday morning.

Saville was almost a proper DJ at this time despite the haircut and cigar, and he played charts from random years, with Ramsey Lewis' version of The In Crowd as the theme tune. It was good, even though he did say 'guys n gels guys n gels' quite a lot.

So I started buying old records, from charity shops and also from Record & Tape Exchange, where thousands of old singles with no sleeves were only 10p each in the basement. There were some good shops in Canterbury where I went to college, including one which seemed to be where a local Northern Soul DJ sent his cast-offs. I wasn't concerned about condition as I had maintained a strict avoidance of hi-fi equipment, preferring basic record players and 'music centres'.

1965 - A Good Year

I would probably say 1966 was better on balance, but I was born in '65, so here are the 10 best singles I have from that year, in no particular order.

Let The Good Times Roll - Alvin Robinson
Jenny Take A Ride - Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels
Don't Talk to Strangers - The Beau Brummells
Midnight to Six Man - The Pretty Things
She Don't Care About Time - The Byrds
The Duck - Jackie Lee
The Barracuda - Alvin Cash and the Registers
Whittier Blvd - Thee Midniters
It’s Growing - The Temptations
Out In The Streets - The Shangri-Las

Honorable mention - (I Wish It Could Be) 1965 (Again) - The Barracudas

45 Revolutions Per Minute

singles box
Originally uploaded by simonm1965

I'm 45 this year and did a little zine on the subject for a party where I had all my 45s in one room and friends came round and we listened to approx 10% of them for about six hours straight.

Last year on my birthday I made a joke about playing singles all day on my 45th birthday, and when I started thinking about my birthday, just after xmas, I thought that seemed like a good idea
A day of vinyl indulgence. There isn't enough room to have all my singles upstairs, so most of them are under the stairs to the basement at any one time. I do occasionally have the urge to hear this or that record from downstairs, but rarely is the urge strong enough to go and find it.

I decided to do the zine because records and zines go together. I started doing zines in 1984, around the time I started to get into seeing bands, buying zines and buying records every week. I
carried on doing zines and comics with a few gaps here and there until about 10 yrs. ago. So - another one. A lot of the time what I've written here is an exaggeration of my real thoughts, because that's what my 80s zines were like - lots of exclamation marks!

So the next few posts will be based on pieces from the zine - starting with:

"Why I HEART Singles"

Yes - 45s ARE the ultimate music format. They are explosions of ephemeral pop art instant gratification, yet they are unbreakable under normal use and will be left behind with the cockroaches when our civilisation dies out in a few hundred years!

In the '80s I knew a foolish fanzine writer who proclaimed that he would only EVER buy 7" singles, that he had sold all his LPs, and would NEVER buy a CD in his life. I'm not like that, but I do like 45s best. DJ-ing with them is really easy too, as they are quick to look through and cue up.

On a good single you get two short blasts of music, cut loud, the best 2 songs available to to the artists at the time (with the exception of Phil Spector and Kasenatz-Katz productions), plus a decorative label, maybe a pic sleeve or insert to enthrall and entrance, maybe a cryptic message from the band in the run-out groove. It's all you need.

It's an undisputed fact that the 45 rpm vinyl single of a given song will nearly always sound better than an album or CD version, because they are mastered and sometimes mixed differently (at least from the '50s to the '80s) to sound best coming out of a radio - punchier, treblier, attention-grabbing.

Though I don't take notes I can usually remember where if not when I bought a particular single, and often how much I paid for it. For many years the most I would expect to pay for a used single was 50p or £1. Girls Are Out To Get You by the Fascinations on the original American label - an in-demand Northern Soul classic - was the first record I paid £5 (as much as an album) for, from Rocks Off in Hanway Street in 1983.

Even as a pre-teen in the '70s I gravitated towards singles - I bought various novelty releases in dumb way - coloured vinyls, picture discs, a single shaped like a bar of chocolate - the song from the Yorkie advert - but I don't have any of these any more. But I do still have a lot of singles. One of the few singles that I have from that time is 'Carry On Wayward Son' by Kansas.

Den-Time Summer/Autumn 2009

Strange things happen with time in the Den. Like in a science fiction comic strip where they go to space for 10 years but when they return only a week has passed. Yeah - it's just like that.

So a lot has happened, and I'm just going to sum it up in one post to get back on track. Fuzz and guitars have taken a back seat over the summer. I was briefly involved in a history of UK fuzz boxes project, but that stopped suddenly and unexpectedly. Should be interesting if it's ever finished, but without me. Meanwhile I've got more interested in the low-tech electronic music thing. I've built two new instruments (both based on the STEIM Cracklebox) and I've been playing live and recording with the A-Band, and also with my pals Deathline. The 123s had an outing to Birmingham to play our friend Tamsin's birthday - we dressed up as the (Fabulous) Stains and played their apathy-chic punk classic "Waste Of Time". I've also written music to go with some Werewolf incantations I found in an old book by Elliott O'Donnell, which I'm hoping to record soon.

But the A-Band has been my most consistent distraction/activity - recording in London and singing with Astral Social Club in May, then 8 gigs over the next 4 months including Salford, Newcastle in July and Edinburgh in August, plus a few in London. Here's some of what I wrote in my notebook on the July trip:

Writing about the A-band isn't so easy. I'm not attempting any history, but suffice to say it started in Nottingham in 1990, fizzled out some years later, reformed in 2004 and started up again with many new members in 2007, including me, although I didn't do much until May this year. There is no set line-up, no songs or riffs or rehearsals, anyone who turns up can play, musicians and non-musicians. Each time we/they play the band has a different name, always beginning with A, sometimes decided in advance, sometimes on the evening of the gig. There is something like a shared sensibility, but with so many people involved, even this is shaky. There are vague practical ideas discussed, like who plays first or how many people play at once, when loud/quiet etc, but these are not musical per se, and a frequently forgotten anyway. Beyond this it's spontaneous, veering in and out of noise - it's been called 'ambient hardcore', but there are quieter moments also - an acoustic gig this year even. At the Klinker, there were 15 people playing, it was very chaotic.

Though I have approx 20 guitars, I don't play guitar in the A-Band. I have played the video tape ribbon controller gtr thing, and the Duo Tone Party Time oscillator box, plus this year's additions the Cracklepuss and the Cracklele. I do the A-Band for fun. I'd been wanting to play live music again, and the A-Band is perfect for me right now. I mostly stand at the back.

Salford

There's an amazing old terracotta Picture Palace-type cinema near Islington Mills, the venue, but typically it's converted to a church now. The rest of Salford is pretty dead, and reminds me of Detroit - a big change from gentrified metrosexual Manchester across the bridge. I don't expect much to happening at the venue, but it would be good to get a soundcheck for once. Does it make any difference with the A-band?

Well - yes! the sound man was very conscientious and all the bands soundchecked, and the A-Band (Adorno's Allegory of blah blah) were really great tonight! This is the first time I've really 'got it', and it was quite magical. There was room in the sound for me to be heard without playing full blast, and even though a load of people joined in it seemed to hold together with some kind of intuitive structure, with a beginning, a middle and an amazing end! I won't list the players, but here's Stewart Keith's summary of the gig from the band forum:

Started with a duet of Greta on theremin and Andrea (glammed up) on table leg & banjo), with Simon in the background. They played and played and played while we all watched (our cue for going on one at a time was Andrea switching on the vacuum cleaner, which she seemed to think somebody else was going to do) So that went on for maybe twenty minutes and sounded incredibly wonderful.

Then we went on one at a time - Meg, John (John mostly played piano throughout), Gary (melodica), Joincey (new synth toy), Stuart Arnot (trumpet), me (percussion), and Lenty (guitar). Played for a while and then one at a time off again leaving just John doing a piano solo, and then everyone back on again, more music. Andrea at the piano, and a fit of screaming hysterical laughter - genius!

And so to the chaos finale, extra members joining us (Simon & Kate from the Ceramic Hobs, Gaz & Cara & Rhiann from Barbarians) and lots of metal bashing (we'd found four huge metal tubes out in the yard, and we had a hammer. Rhythmic whacking of metal, Greta singing with a contact mic on her throat and later on metal that she bashed (a terrifying sound), and eventually everyone in a rotating circle of piano players.

Next night in Newcastle was total noise chaos and a bit of a let-down by comparison. Stewart destroyed a vacuum cleaner, I got tinnitus. Someone videotaped it, but I haven't seen or heard it.

Edinburgh

Due to the persistence of Karl Waugh, the A-band were invited to play a residency in a small pub cellar venue for a week at the end of August, playing at midnight every night, as part of the Free festival. Audiences were small but often enthusiastic /participatory, and overall it was fun. More than 50 people played over the course of the week and each night we were called An Audience With ... followed by the name of an absent member. I played 3 nights in the middle of the week, and only later found out that the night after I left it was An Audience With Simon Murphy. Here some more note book bits:

Tuesday - 10 people (most of whom I had never met before) plus 5 who join in spontaneously. Lots of metal bashing and cymbal crashing. I played the Cracklepuss, DuoTone and a mic into a delay pedal, with a mixer - able to have all going at once or individually. Couldn't hear much, but everyone happy afterwards.

Wednesday - much smaller A-band, and audience even smaller! Martin has arrived from Totnes to join Karl, Stuart G and I. A more restrained set, but still good; a couple of people join in, including a guy who spontaneously sings, and afterwards says we remind him of Faust.

Thursday - Stewart, Chloe and Sharen arrive. We all have dinner together and the gig later is great. My amp is only battery powered and runs out of juice half way through, so I have time to watch the band for a while, take some photos, then play my gizmos straight into one of the venue mixers, and anything else within reach, which is the A-band way. I was sad to miss the last gigs of the week, but also glad to be going home after tiring of the Edinburgh crowds, drunks and tourists.

A photo of my Edinburgh stuff, including my two main A-band instruments over the eight 2009 gigs...

the DuoTone Party Time

Just a silly name I added to Ben's Simple 40106 Tone Generator, that I built from a schematic at Experimentalists Anonymous. It has two oscillators, so DuoTone seemed a good name. Party Time was the brand name of an old record player I had in the 80s. I put it together in 2006 and used it in it's stock state for a couple of years, and then added a small transformer to the output (for a 'warmer' sound) and a proper on-off switch + LED, and a big red 'circuit bend' switch which connects one pin of the 40106 chip directly to the output when you hold it down, raising the note a step or two at some settings. It's very loud has a super-wide frequency range, from ear-hurting highs to bowel-rumbling lows.

the Cracklepuss

Variation on a Dutch 70s noise classic - there are a few schematics floating around, make sure you use the corrected STEIM version if you make one. For some reason my one generally produces much lower bassy sounds than the chirps and squawks you hear on the YouTube clips etc. I think I must have made a mistake somewhere, but I like the mistake. The original units have a built-in speaker - my only intentional change was the addition of a small audio transformer and a volume control, so it can be plugged into an amp. The case was an old AM radio I bought 20 years ago. You hold the left eye, and flick your fingers over the other contacts, and get low bleeps and boops.

I brought the Toy Piano to Salford/Newcastle as well as Edinburgh, but didn't play it much. It feels a bit fragile now, and was slightly damaged during the Newcastle gig. I think it's staying home from now on.

1955 Supro with 1940s P-90

I got this 1955 Supro Dual Tone body with no pickups in February. I had hoped to get some Supro pickups separately and wire them with an "in series" option, but there were problems with the neck fit and it was looking bad; more trouble than it was worth. I tried and failed to re-sell the body + neck on ebay. Meh.

Around this time I discovered an ancient pickup in the den, that upon further examination turned out to be a late 1940s Gibson P-90! How did that happen? I bought it several years ago and had installed it on a low quality '60s archtop, but took it off again as it was feeding back too much. My enjoyment of the Kent Armstrong P90 in my Epi LP Jr led to a new plan to make the Supro into a kind of Supro /Junior hybrid, complete with a route for the P-90 and a dog-ear cover and wrap tail.

But I didn't have the heart to cut up the pristine Mother Of Toilet Seat pearloid finish on the Supro, so ended up with a trad short trapeze tail instead of the bridge/tail I planned, and with the right amount of adjustment of the strange neck joint, whch I slowly figured out, there was just enough room to surface mount the P-90 with no cover. The first time I plugged it in I knew it was a match made in heaven! I still have the option to make it a Dual Tone again in the future, but for now the single pup is King. There's not much chance of finding a '55 Junior for £200, so this will do, I love it ...
I still have some shaping to do on the scratchplate /pickguard, but I'm happy with it overall. The neck joint is unusual, to say the least, secured by a long bolt through the body parallel to the neck (as shown below). Very secure, but awkward to work with. Valco patented this joint design in 1953, but dropped it as a method of attaching necks around 1958/9.


I think it's a great idea, but ultimately I think it may have worked out too expensive. As time went on Valco neck/body joints became progressively more conventional - ending up in 1968 where Leo Fender started in 1950, with 4 screws and a metal plate.

Shatterbox to Bardobox

Ah - the lure of the super-rare cool-looking fuzz! In this case the John Hornby Skewes Shatterbox! Such a cool name, in a cool wedge shaped box, cousin of the even more rare Zonk Machine! When this circuit (or at least the stripboard version) came to light earlier this year thanks to ElectricWarrior at FSB /DAM, I had just made a Kruscher (TB 1 variant) for a rabid 60s fuzz fan in Birmingham. I was happy he liked it. He asked if I could make him a Shatterbox, and I said yes. That was my first mistake. I was soon to learn that the Shatterbox is basically a crap sounding bassy fuzz with a nice treble boost added. I should have built the circuit first and told him it was crap and not to bother, but I didn't. He wanted a Shatterbox, so that's what I made him. But: it did sound pretty crap. I knew he didn't have much money and felt bad sending him a lemon, so I offered to mod it to make it sound more like the benchmark ear-hurting fuzz sound of the guitar solo in the Third Bardo garage-psych classic 'Five Years Ahead Of My Time' that he wanted. It was hard! I came close to totally rebuilding it, but managed to make some mods to fit the bill better - a louder, more trebly fuzz, combining with the icepick treble boost to go to a place where most people don't want to go. It still sounds horrible, but horrible in a good way, for his most singular needs. If I was building from scratch, I would just hard-wire the 2 effects in series rather than keeping the pretence that the fuzz sounds any good by itelf, and cut out the fuzz control completely, leaving it on max the whole time. I'd call it the BardoBox! As it was I repainted the Shatterbox to reflect it's new and more horrible guts. Hopefully he will dig it. Ok - halfway through is the solo that inspired this - have a listen.