The Troggs - Love is all Around

Album: Single (Fontana, 1966) Chart pos: UK#5 US#7

Ampshires finest.



Reg Presley the lead singer of The Troggs is an odd fellow. When Wet Wet Wet ruined covered Love is All Around he was in for a huge royalty cheque as the song spent most of 1994 in the charts. Most sane people would re-do the kitchen or buy a new house, but good old Reg had to be different by using his royalties to fund research into the results of drunken actions by Wiltshire drunkards aka Crop Circles (excuse my cynicism).

Unlike Wet Wet Wet's bombastic and overproduced version, the original version feels much more pared down with the basic guitars and comparatively slight strings. This brings credence to Reg's claim that he wrote this in 10 minutes, but yet again sometimes the simplest songs can be the most effective.

REM did an acoustic version of the song, interestingly enough the Troggs and REM collaborated on an album together in the early 90's.

Zapp - Be Allright

Zapp (Warner Bros, 1980) Chart pos:N/A



Fans of 2pac will probably recognise the song as the basis for Keep Ya Head Up. Zapp took over the P-Funk mantle after the Parliament-Funkadelic machine floundered in the early eighties. The song Be Allright from their first (and possibly best) album moves away from the heavy vocoder-funk of the rest of the album and operates at a slower ballad like tempo. Interestingly Roger Troutman the lead singer went on to collaborate with 2pac and Dr Dre for 1995's California Love. Unfortunately the band met a grisly end in 1999 when Roger and brother (and fellow band mate) Larry were involved in a tragic murder-suicide.

Jacques Brel - Jaures

Album: Les Marquises (Barclay,1977) Chart Pos: N/A



When Brel sang this ode to the murdered pre-WW1 pacifist Jean Jaurès he apparently only had one lung left as his body was being ravaged by lung cancer. Thus making this one of the most poignant records that he ever made.

Jim Sullivan - Highways

Album UFO (Monnie, 1970) Chart Pos: N/A



If legends were to believed Jim Sullivan is probably in outer pace playing a wonderful blend of country and folk music to extraterrestrials, but alas on earth his music has been forgotten, until now.

Last year this masterpiece after years of being bootlegged on shitty sounding vinyl was instead mastered from um... better quality vinyl, at least this album is back in print though about 35 years after its creator mysteriously disappeared in New Mexico.

Highways the opening track from the second side (The Monnie Mix) with its galloping bass and ominous strings is a standout song from an album stuck in a milleau of endless highways, ghost towns, gas stations and of course UFO's

There's an amazing short YouTube documentary on the story of his music and his strange disappearance.

Momus - Hairstyle of the Devil

Album: Don’t Stop The Night (Creation, 1989) Chart pos: N/A

He's got a devils haircut on his mind.



Momus (aka Nick Currie) was on Creation back in the days when they could barely sell an album, during his tuenure on the label he released 7 albums during his tenure on the label. Ironically being dropped because of the fact his affair with a teenage girl of bangladeshi caused some pissed off bangladeshi guys to threaten label boss Alan Mcgee.

Hairstyle of the Devil from the album sound an awful lot like a low rent Pet Shop Boys led by a lanky sex obsessed scottish guy. The songs sleasy razor-sharp wit no doubt owes a great debt to Serge Gainsborg as well.

Dexys Midnight Runners - My National Pride

Album: Don't Stand Me Down (Mercury,1985)



1985's Don't Stand Me Down was the Astral Weeks of the 1980's but thanks to shortsighted critics it became the bands death knell. As much as critics seem to say how wonderful the band is every time they re-release their music, Kevin Rowland was repeatedly lambasted by critics. My National Pride is the albums epic centerpiece a classic of yearning and nostalgia that sadly fell on deaf ears. Now the album is shamefully out of print and these days i generally get funny looks for allegedly 'liking a band who only had one hit', if only people knew they were a band capable of more.

Interestingly the Young Guns Go For It doc is on YouTube at last.

The Brains - Money Changes Everything

Album: Single (Grey Matter, 1979) album: The Brains (Mercury, 1980) Chart Pos: N/A



The Brains are a band that I discovered via scouring the internet looking for rare music. Legend goes that this obscure band was plucked from obscurity when Cyndi Lauper covered this track, pity it was half a decade after the band split up after being chewed up and spat out by a major label with nary a hit. These days the band are almost forgotten due to the fact that none of their work has been released digitally, Which is a pity. even though they weren't quite as good as The Cars or Devo the two albums they released on Mercury were impressive. If you could imagine a nerdier (and slightly more pissed off version) of The Cars and you have a pretty good idea of this bands music.



Here's a link to the album and the rest of their back catalog.



Tom Grey the lead singer still plays the song with his new band Delta Moon



Funnily enough Arcade Fire have played the song live before.