Tonight's selection box dominated by Ramones and Captain Beefheart records. One for a very good reason (the interview with Tommy Ramone) the other for a very sad oneÌý(the death of Don Van Vliet). I must admit, I enjoyed playing the Ramones records to illustrate Tommy's interview. Listening to the first LP , it brought me back to Christmas 1976, when I became aware that my older brother Martin was going to buy me an LP for Christmas, and my sister Josephine, closer in age to myself, was tasked with finding out which one. You know its foolhardy to buy a seventeen year old a record without knowing exactly what they'd want. So I told Josephine that either the Ramones first LP, or Eddie & The Hot Rods' Teenage Depression would be great. I got the Ramones. Possibly my favourite LP of all time. And Martin said to me 'I had great difficulty getting that. The man in Phillips record shop hadn't heard of them'.ÌýIt's an old cliche that music is a great trigger for memories. True, though.ÌýChristmas 1976,Ìýthe record player in Creggan Broadway. The Ramones 'Judy IsÌýA Punk' playing on it. Up there with 'Its A Wonderful Life' in my Christmas box.
Captain BeefheartÌý & The Magic Band - Yellow Brick Road
Blondie - Contact In Red Square
Mud Hutters - Water Torture
Yobs - Rub A Dum Dum
Girls At Our Best! - £600,000
Captain Beefheart & The Magic Band - Big Eye Beans From Venus
Ramones - Beat On The Brat
Ramones - I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You
Ramones - LIsten To My Heart
RamonesÌý- Blitzkrieg Bop
Ramones - Oh Oh I Love Her So
Ramones - We're A Happy Family
Real Kids - Better Be Good
No, I didn't really lose the recording of the Tommy Ramone interview from this summer but my colleagues who knew I talked to himÌýmay have had their suspicions. I finally edited it and will play it on tonight's show. He is a man of great patience and answered this fanboy's inane questions with charm , grace and a Queens accent. That's New York borough, not Northern Ireland university. I don' t normally do interviews, but (Gabba Gabba) hey, it's an opportunity to play Ramones records.
Ìý
I have to admit I was a latecomer to the world of Captain Beefheart although I knew the name. You couldn't forget a name like that, even if your musical tastes were confined to what you saw on Top Of The Pops in 1973. When it came to names and titles, you can see where Mark E Smith of the Fall learned his trade. The titles of the Captain's records are works of art on their own. 'Safe As Milk' , 'Trout Mask Replica' 'Ice Cream For Crow'. Regular listeners to After Midnight will suspect correctly that I'm only familiar with his debut 'Safe As Milk' – I do like a bit of accessibility – and that came from hearing That Petrol Emotion's version of Zig Zag Wanderer. Another great title, which deserves the great song that is attached. He was, of course, a hero of John Peel not just because of the music but (I suspect) because of the Captain's attitude to the music industry. He abandoned making records to concentrate on painting. If only more people would do the same. Our homes would be much better looking.
Ìý
I tryÌýto limit the amount of Christmas themed punk singles heard on the show because there are few good ones around ; people kept their best tunes for non-seasonal offerings. The Sonics solved that problem by borrowing other people's tunes and adding their own Christmas words. So Chuck Berry's 'Too Much Monkey Business' becomes 'I Don't Believe In Christmas' quite neatly. Tonight's show starts with The Mekon's finest hour, which they are still attempting to better. Give it up boys, it's a fruitless task. By the way, what's with this font ?
Mekons - Where Were YouÌý?
Jam - Man In The Corner Shop
Shop Assistants - Caledonian Road
The Eastern Dark - Walking
Distractions - Doesn't Bother Me
Private Dicks - She Said Go
Delta 5 - Final Scene
Suicide - Dream Baby Dream
Dictators - California Sun
Vibrators - She's Bringing You Down
John Cooper Clark - Readers Wives
Joy Division - Atmosphere
Swell Maps - Secret Island
Sonics - I Don't Believe In Christmas
Nick Lowe - I Don't Want The Night To End
A nod in the direction of the world's longest running soap opera in tonight's show. Is Coronation Street the only TV show with at least three connections with punk rock ? They can be spotted from the list below.ÌýOne is obvious, the other two aren't. Also tonight, the Cramps version of Surfin' Bird makes an appearance, which caused me to wonder what happened to the campaign to get the Trashmen's original to number one this Christmas ? Is itÌýstill happeningÌý? Where do I sign ?Ìý I'm asking a lot of questionsÌý, so I'll stop now.
Those results inÌýfull
Ìý
Cramps - Surfin' Bird
Stranglers - Grip
The Randoms - A-B-C-D
Splodgenessabounds – Anarchy Chaos Stanley Ogden
Madness - Close Escape
Cheepskates - Run Better Run
Jilted John - Baz's Party
Adverts - Quickstep
Electric Prunes - Are You Loving Me More (But Enjoying It Less)
XÌý - White Girl
Sham 69 - No Entry
Talking Heads - Animals
Generation X - Gimme Some Truth
Skids - TV Stars
Sorry to be a bit tardy with this, I have absolutely no excuse for my lateness. I can make a few up if you really need an explanation.
I remember buying the third Damned LP 'Machine Gun Etiquette' and being amazed and slightly jealous at how they came back from the dead (as befits their name) with a couple of great singles and a very good LP. They were the first major punk band to break up, in 1977, and reformed a year later without their songwriter and guitarist, Brian James. The prospects weren't good. Brian had written 'New Rose' and 'Neat Neat Neat'. Brilliant singles. Drummer Rat Scabies had written 'Stab Yor Back'. Brilliant, but in a different, not as good, way. Who would have guessed that Captain Sensible, the bass player who the average NME reader would have thought couldn't be trusted to run a message to the shop without a note, would turn out to be the saviour as songwriter. 'Love Song' and 'Smash It Up' were the first signs that the Captain could turn out smart tunes, Melody Lee among them.
The Loft - Winter
The Damned - Melody Lee
Animals and Men - Don't Misbehave In The New Age
Go Gos - You Can't Walk In Your Sleep
Vacants - Television Viewer
Richard Hell & The Voidoids - New Pleasure
Electric Eels - Agitated
Cowboy & Spingirl - The Things That Make Me Glad
Penetration - Don't Dictate
MC5 - Looking At You
The Boys - Terminal Love
First Crew to The Moon - The Sun Lights Up The Shadows Of Your Mind
PIL - Public Image
Land - Patti Smith
Wire - Brazil
