Tell Me Something New: Scarlett Wilde

As promised, and just under the wire in this extended February, is a second new artist you may want to investigate.

Scarlett Wilde is the neice of Kim Wilde. In fact Scarlett provided backing vocals for Aunty Kim on her recent UK appearances as part of QuoFest 2011.

A video to her track "Fight Temptation" can be seen below. A mixture of Kim's 80's pop sensibilities with a touch of Pendulum in the production I thought.

Scarlett Wilde - Fight Temptation (Video)   

She also has her own website here:

Scarlett Wilde Official Website

Dare

The classic Human League album "Dare" is set for a 2CD Deluxe Edition. Track listing is as follows:

Disc One

1. The Things That Dreams Are Made Of
2. Open Your Heart
3. The Sound Of The Crowd
4. Darkness
5. Do Or Die
6. Get Carter
7. I Am The Law
8. Seconds
9. Love Action
10. Don't You Want Me

Bonus Tracks

11. The Sound Of The Crowed (12" Version)
12. Don't You Want Me (Extended Dance Mix)
13. The Sound Of The Crowd (Instrumental)
14. Hard Times/Love Action (Instrumental)
15. Open Your Heart/Non Stop (Instrumental)
16. Don't You Want Me (Alternative Version)

Disc Two

1. Mirror Man
2. You Remind Me Of Gold
3. (Keep Feeling) Fascination (Extended Version)
4. I Love You Too Much
5. Mirror Man (Extended Version)
6. You Remind Me Of Gold (Instrumental)
7. Keep Feeling Fascination (Improvisation)
8. I Love You Too Much (Dub Version)
9. Total Panic

All of this is due for release on 2nd April. The Human League are also embarking on a tour in November/December. Further details can be found on their website   

http://www.thehumanleague.co.uk/

The Ghost Moon Orchestra

Mostly Autumn are preparing to release a new album entitled "The Ghost Moon Orchestra". The special edition of the album (limited to 2000 copies) contains a bonus CD "A Weather For Poets" which is an acoustic album  featuring some new and some reworked Mostly Autumn songs.

Also, if you're free around 12th May - and you get in quick - then you might want to attend a party in York where you can hear the entire album before it is pressed, see Mostly Autumn perform the acoustic CD live and receive a signed print of the album cover. Sounds like a fun night!

Details on all of this can be found on Mostly Autumn's website here:

Mostly Autumn Official Website  

End Of An Era

It was the end of an era for Wolverhampton Wanderers this week as Mick McCarthy was sacked as  manager.

It ended on a bad note with a dreadful 5-1 home defeat against local rivals West Bromwich Albion. In truth it probably wasn't the fact that we lost, or even the scoreline that proved to be the final straw, it was the manner of the defeat. We looked disjointed and ragged against an Albion side who completely outclassed us, kept the ball better than we did, who passed and moved the ball far better than us, looked quicker and sharper and thoroughly deserved their emphatic victory.

There has been a section of Wolves fans disenchanted with Mick McCarthy as far back as 2007 but as this season has progressed those voices have become louder and grown in number. From the moment Chairman Steve Morgan entered the Wolves dressing room to berate the players after a home defeat against Liverpool - undermining Mick's authority as manager in my opinion - it seemed to be only a question of how long Mick would be given.

To be honest I'm gutted that he's gone. Mick McCarthy is a great bloke and has been a fantastic manager for Wolves. He dragged the team up by the scruff of the neck after the whole Glen Hoddle debacle and built a young, hard working team to be proud of, often picking up bargain players from off the beaten track. Michael Kightly and Stephen Ward anyone...?

He got us promoted from the second division of English football as Champions, something that we hadn't achieved since 1977. He also kept us in the top division for what is now our third season which, again, is no small achievement. You're going back to the 1979/80 season to when this was last the case.

Mick's "putting in a shift" quote has almost become a joke, except that it isn't really because before Mick McCarthy arrived you couldn't really guarantee that all Wolves players would actually give 100% effort every week. Mick McCarthy instilled that. Also the way the club has conducted itself off the pitch in recent times has made me proud to be a Wolves supporter and once again this is due, at least in part, to Mick McCarthy.

I'm not convinced that changing managers is the right decision to take now. If the club really had no faith in Mick then the decision should have been taken prior to the transfer window closing. Whoever Wolves appoint will be working with an inherited squad. Then there are the names of potential candidates being mentioned... Steve Bruce...Neil Warnock.... Alan Curbishley....I think if you had approached any Wolves fan at the start of the season and asked if they fancied swapping Mick McCarthy for Warnock or Bruce they would have probably said "No" - but it seems that this is now a realistic possibility.

I was delighted when Wolves appointed Mick McCarthy as, to me, he was exactly the kind of manager we needed. Perhaps times have moved on and we now need a new type of manager to progress further. Maybe.

But I do worry for us now. I've seen this before when Wolves sacked Dave Jones. The board pressed the panic button and got rid of a decent manager on a bad run, only to replace him with someone who took the club no further forward and actually undid some of the good work that had gone before. I hope the board don't live to regret making the decision they have taken this week.

The next appointment the board makes is crucial and will say a lot about how they see Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club. I hope they choose wisely....

Whitney Houston 1963-2012

It's not often that the death of someone you've never even met makes you cry - but the news of Whitney Houston's passing did.

She was a beautiful woman with an amazing, inspirational voice. I saw her twice on consecutive nights at the NEC on her debut solo tour in the UK in 1988. I met someone very special through a Whitney Houston concert in London a couple of years later, so I have personal, emotional reasons for loving her music too.

She was one of the greatest singers of my generation. Her music uplifted me and helped me on my journey. I feel shocked and sad that at just 48 she's no longer with us. It just seems so young, so tragic and unreal.

R.I.P. Whitney. Thank you for blessing the World with your extraordinary voice...

Whitney Houston - How Will I Know (Video)

Whitney Houston - Step By Step (Video)

Whitney Houston - Exhale (Video)

Writing On The Wall

Something else to look forward to, this time on 2nd April, is the 25th Anniversary "Ultimate Edition" of Bucks Fizz "Writing On The Wall".

You may remember that the album was reissued on CD back in 2004, but the pressing was less than fabulous and left a lot of the bass and bottom out of the mix.

This release corrects all of that. It also gathers all of the 1986 material together in one place, it's sourced from the original master tapes, features a 20 page booklet AND as if all that weren't enough it features a bonus CD of "Lost Masters 3"!

Full track listing is as follows

Disc One

1. New Beginning (Full length version)
2. Love The One You're With (7" Version)
3. Don't Turn Back (Unedited Version)
4. Keep Each Other Warm (Long Version)
5. Love In A World Gone Mad (1986 7" Version)
6. The Company You Keep
7. Soul Motion
8. Give A Little Love (Unedited Version)
9. In Your Eyes
10. I Need Your Love
11. Too Hard
12. Love The One You're With (12" Version)
13. I Hear Talk (1986 Extended Version)
14. Love In A World Gone Mad (1986 Extended Version)
15. New Beginning (Extended Version)

Disc Two

1. Love The One You're With (Alternate Mix)
2. Keep Each Other Warm (The Original Idea)
3. Love In A World Gone Mad (Shelley Preston Version)
4. Big Deal (1986 7")
5. I Want To Stay (Unedited Version)
6. What's One Lonely Woman (Laid Back Mix 2011)
7. The Company You Keep (Demo)
8. Easy Trouble (Cheryl Baker)
9. One Heart (Bobby Gee)
10. I Should Have Been Strong (Bobby Gee)
11. Paper Hearts (Shelley Preston)
12. Innocent (Bobby Gee)
13. Big Deal (1986 Extended Version)
14. Live Motown Medley (Fairfield Hall)
15. Live Rolling Stones Medley (Fairfield Hall)
16. Soul Motion (2011 Extended Mix)

I've already got this album once on vinyl and twice on CD. Will I be getting it again? Absolutely!

Further details can be found here:

Bucks Fizz Early Years Site

This release is also the last one to feature the involvement of Dean Murphy due to his deteriorating health issues. I'd like to publically thank Dean for the time, talent, energy and effort he has invested in all the Bucks Fizz reissues and Lost Masters 1,2 & 3. Thanks for the many rare Bucks Fizz tracks that we would never have heard otherwise and for allowing fans like me to have a part, however small, in the process. I for one truly appreciate it. All the best mate...  

Human Racing

In 1983 I bought the debut single by Nik Kershaw called "I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On Me". It came to rest rather disappointingly at number 47 in the charts but fortunately his follow up, "Wouldn't It Be Good" went zooming all the way up to number 4! On the strength of these two excellent singles I bought his debut album "Human Racing" in the week it was released...

Fast forward 28 years and "Human Racing" finally gets a long overdue release as a 2 CD set on 27th February. Track listing is as follows:

Disc One

1. Dancing Girls

2. Wouldn't It Be Good

3. Drum Talk

4. Bogart

5. Gone To Pieces

6. Shame On You

7. Cloak & Dagger

8. Faces

9. I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On Me

10. Human Racing

Disc Two

1. Dancing Girls (12" Extended Mix)

2. Bogart (Remix)

3. Monkey Business

4. Shame On You (Remix)

5. Drum Talk (Extended 12" Remix)

6. Faces (Extended 12" Remix)

7. Dark Glasses

8. Wouldn't It Be Good (Extended 12" Remix)

9. Human Racing (Extended 12" Remix)

10 She Cries

11. I Won't Let The Sun Go Down On Me (Extended 12" Remix)

12. Cloak & Dagger (Live)

I've got most of these in on the original 12" Singles but it will be nice to have them on CD I can't deny. Any chance of "The Riddle" next he said hopefully...?!

Tell Me Something New: The Good Natured

With all the computer problems I was unable to highlight a new artist during January - so for February you're going to get two!

The Good Natured are an electropop trio consisting of siblings Sarah McIntosh (vocals/keyboards) and Hamish McIntosh (bass) with George Hinton on drums.

They released two EPs under their own steam;"Warriors" (2008) and "Your Body Is A Machine" (2009) before being picked up by Parlophone and releasing their EP "Skeletons" last year.

They're currently on tour as a support act to The Whip. If you want to investigate them further then check out their website here:

The Good Natured Official Site

As a starting point I recommend checking out their rather excellent track "Video Voyeur", which can be viewed here:

The Good Natured - Video Voyeur (Video)

Now We Are Six!

Hello everyone! Firstly let me apologise for the lack of updates up here recently. January was an absolutely horrendous month for me and one of the (many) things that went wrong was that my computer - and a back up drive that was attached to it at the time - was completely destroyed by an internet virus.

I got a new computer tower on Friday and I'm back online as of about 30 minutes ago! I've lost loads of my own files in the process and it's only because I've shared some of my concert pictures with others on Flickr or this blog that they exist at all! My computer is a total blank slate at the moment but after an awful month a fresh start, even an online one, may not be a bad thing....

Anyway, much to catch up on and first of them is the new one from Saint Etienne called "Tonight". It's taken from their forthcoming album which I believe is called "Words And Music". You can hear the track on Saint Etienne's "Soundcloud page here

http://soundcloud.com/saint-etienne  

Rather Kylie-esque in places I thought....

P.S. Whilst I was offline my blog celebrated its sixth birthday! Hence the title of this post!