It's What's Happening

When we were toddlers, a lot of us will have spent our time drawing pictures, or playing with Plasticine, or burying our faces in bowls of jelly or similar.  I think it's fair to say Lee would have had little time for such frivolity.  He would have been too busy with his Fuzzy Felt.

Although Lee's tastes clearly encompass a wide range of music, it's obvious that his first love was, and still is, big bold fuzz-drenched beauties.  And that was reflected on Sunday night as he brought us the latest instalment of his "It's What's Happening" sets.

This was not a set for gently listening to with a nice cup of tea - it was Jack Daniels all the way, and cried out to be turned up as loud as your ears could handle it.

Lee opened with The Rivieras "California Sun" - surely one of the greatest feel-good records ever - and kept that feel-good factor throughout, including - among others -  a smattering of soul, a chunk of rock n' roll, and the sublime vocals of Gene Clark and Lee Hazelwood, both of whom's voices could melt tungsten at a hundred yards.

He also included a great new track from The Black Doldrums, a band new to a lot of us who listened, but noted as ones to keep an eye on for the future.

But this was a set that was heading inexorably towards those aforementioned fuzz drenched beauties, none more so than his penultimate track, The Gremlins' raucous crashing version of "High Time Baby".

Lee brought the set to a close with Jackie & LaVern's naughty version of "Think Twice", a track guaranteed to put a smile on the hardest of faces.  But by then we'd been smiling for ages.

Another belter.

The full set-list is shown below, and there's a link afterwards that will take you to the @fusiononair  Mixlr showreel page where you can listen back.

Lee is on twitter @Ringo11Lee

Listen back here:  mixlr.com/fusion-on-air/showreel/

Dr. Gonzo's Medicine Bag

Sunday night saw the welcome return of The Doc (Nick Beckett) with his Medicine Bag.

If you needed one phrase to sum up The Doc's shows, that phrase might be "predictably unpredictable".

It was - as always with Nick - a meandering journey of top-notch music, that took us from Georgie Fame's classic September 1963 gig at The Flamingo to the title track from The Doors' seminal '71 album "LA Woman".

Along the way he served up a feast of wonderful sounds, encompassing Soul, R&B, Funk, Garage and more, with a couple of newer tracks thrown into the set for good measure.

The Doc never lets you down.  Ever.  His sets are always bang on the money.  He'd never admit to the amount of effort he clearly puts into preparing them, but it's obvious that he does.  Entertaining, informative, and delivered in his own uniquely engaging style.

If there had to be one criticism, it would be that he's never fully grasped the concept that there's only supposed to be 60 minutes in a one-hour show.  But we'll forgive him that.  Again!

You can get Nick on Twitter @DrGonzo2411

The full set-list is below, and there's a link at the end that will take you to the Fusion showreel page on Mixlr, where you can listen back to it.

Listen here:  http://mixlr.com/fusion-on-air/showreel/

Zyd's Head Scratchers

"It's Sunday night - you're listening to Fusion - and tonight we've got another Sunday Set for you".

Just 16 words, but 16 words I love saying on a Sunday evening.  It means that you're about to hear another set of tunes that someone has taken their time to think about and commit to broadcasting.

At one time or another we've probably all done some sort of list of our favourite songs.  But try doing a list of about 20-30 songs now.  Then try it again in a few weeks.  I bet the lists would be different.  Mine change daily dependent on what mood I'm in, what I've been listening to, what I've just "discovered" through someone tweeting something I'd never heard before etc. etc.  And long may that continue.  The thought of never being open to something different is something I can't contemplate.

But what a playlist can, and does do, is give us a snapshot as to what someone was listening to or enjoying at a certain time.  It can also often tell us about a person's musical memories as they grew up.  And I'm constantly privileged that people wish to share those memories.

Last night Neil - or Zyd as he's known - shared some of those memories in his "Head Scratchers" set.  He chose the name Head Scratchers as he spent days scratching his head thinking of songs to include, along with the reasons why he chose them.  It was a blinding set of music, and a joy to broadcast.

The set-list is below, and you can listen to it by clicking on this link:

Zyd's Head Scratchers

You can get Zyd on twitter at @zydhockey

Mick

The Hope & Anchor Front Row Festival 1978

Album review from the NME dated March 4th 1978: ..."an accurate documentation of the most interesting year the '70s have so far offered." Don't think I can argue with that! Just got to find a copy now... off to eBay!

Track listing:

A1 Wilko Johnson Band - Dr. Feelgood 2:43

A2   The Stranglers - Straighten Out 2:58

A3 Tyla Gang - Styrofoam 2:04

A4 The Pirates - Don't München It 3:26

A5 Steve Gibbons Band - Speed Kills 3:30

A6   XTC - I'm Bugged 4:22

A7   Suburban Studs - I Hate School 2:37

B1 The Pleasers - Billy 1:59

B2   XTC - Science Friction 2:45

B3 Dire Straits - Eastbound Train 3:25

B4 Burlesque - Bizz Fizz 5:00

B5   X-Ray-Spex - Let's Submerge 3:02

B6   999 - Crazy 3:18

C1   The Saints - Demolition Girl 3:45

C2   999 - Quite Disappointing 2:00

C3 The Only Ones - Creatures Of Doom 3:18

C4 The Pirates - Gibson Martin Fender 3:26

C5 Steel Pulse - Sound Check 3:41

C6 Roogalator - Zero Hero 3:43

D1 Philip Rambow - Underground Romance 5:45

D2 The Pleasers - Rock & Roll Radio 2:29

D3 Tyla Gang - On The Street 3:00

D4 Steve Gibbons Band - Johnny Cool 3:29

D5 Wilko Johnson Band - Twenty Yards Behind 2:03

D6   The Stranglers - Hanging Around 4:16

Fusion recommends...

Going Back Home - Wilko Johnson & Roger Daltrey

Recorded in November 2013 the album features 11 tracks - 10 Wilko originals plus a cover of Bob Dylan's Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window

The full track listing is:
1. Going Back Home
2. Ice On The Motorway
3. I Keep It To Myself
4. Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window
5. Turned 21
6. Keep On Loving You
7. Some Kind Of Hero
8. Sneaking Suspicion
9. Keep It Out Of Sight
10. Everybody's Carrying A Gun
11. All Through The City

Further details can be found on Wilko's website and the album is available on vinyl for those of us 'of a certain age'!

Without fail every Fusion contributor who has had a listen so far has given it a resounding thumbs up. The Doc summed it up perfectly for us: "Going Back Home is a fitting final chapter for Wilko; his guitar and Rog's vocals meld really well, top notch Rhythm & Blues!!" Highly recommended.

A trip down Memory Lane #1

One of our occasional Fusion contributors has splashed out on a pile of old music papers from 1978-81. Flicking through the top of the pile reminded us what a wonderful time that was for music. We're going to blog extracts from the papers as we get them scanned. 

Hope you enjoy the trip down Memory Lane - here's a gig review from Melody Maker 2nd June 1979. What we'd give for the chance to see this line up today!

Ramblings of an Old Fart.

My name is Mick and I am an old fart.

When I was a teenager it seemed half the country was on strike. I remember a bill-board at the time declaring “Britain Isn't Working”, and this appeared to be true. Industries were closing down at an alarming rate. The 3 day working week with it's associated power-cuts each night was still a recent memory. It was the 70's, and it was depressing.

If you were “different” there were things called bashings. These were happily dished out by gangs of knuckle-dragging morons. Gay-bashing and Pakki-bashing seemed to be especially popular - almost as popular as the comedians on the TV who were getting paid for telling us jokes about their “darkie” mates (usually named “Chalkie” or something equally hilarious). Oh how we didn't laugh.

Corruptness was everywhere. Millions were unemployed. If you got something new you paid for it “on the weekly”.

There was also the odd explosion as well. Beatings, bills and bombs. Bleak.

And we had a bloody outside toilet.

This is the bit where I tell you we all gave up and surrendered to a drab inevitable future.

But...

Some damned individuals had planted a new rose, and we smelled it while we witnessed the rotten sneer. A man called Joe and some of his friends asked if we were taking over or taking orders. We were soon in a different kitchen with another music, and Weller had a thousand things to say to us.

It was truly a new wave of music, and it was everywhere. Even animals got in on the act, from Norvegicus rats to Parisian ants.

We trampled in gardens new, made in Hong Kong, and we roared along with Ian who was from Essex (in case you couldn't tell).

We met other girls – one from another planet and one in the neighbourhood – and, like tin soldiers, we got stiff and skidded into the valley.

We forgot our lives, and in doing so we began to fully live our lives. There were no more heroes.

Except maybe Geno... Oh Geno.

Like Dickens nearly said: It was the worst and best of times. Darkness and light, the winter of despair followed by the spring of hope.

Music gave me hope. And still does.

My name is Mick and I am an old fart.