Electronic - Getting Away With It (Updated 31st October 2012)

Electronic were a duo comprising of Johnny Marr of The Smiths and Bernard Sumner of New Order/Joy Division. They're easily my favourite of the many New Order side bands too! Here though we've got an extra guess: Neil Tennant from Pet Shop Boys makes an appearance on backing vocals. He also had a hand in producing the track, but its uncredited. Anyhow, this is Electronic's debut and biggest selling single worldwide (Although Disappointed actually charted higher in the UK). It was released on Factory Records (with it's catalogue number being FAC257) Lyrically, its actually a satire of Johnny Marr's bandmate Morrissey, mocking his masochistic public persona by means of being written from his perspective (Pet Shop Boys would later write a further song influenced by Morrissey; Their B-side  to Was It Worth It, called Miserablism). Musically speaking, Bernard Sumner wrote the verse and Johnny Marr wrote the chorus with both Bernard and Neil co-writing the lyrics. I do really love this song, and in particular the guitar solo, it's got this summery, relaxing quality to it that I really like. Another thing I love about it is the outro. Having said though, the 7" doesn't do it justice. It has a beautiful string solo at the very end which the 7" completely misses because it fades out before it kicks you. You can hear the string solo on the Extended Mix and also on the album version though. The chorus is also ridiculously infectious and Bernard and Neil's voices go together so well I think.Despite being released 18 months before their self titled debut album I think it fits into that album brilliantly, as I think Getting Away With It sounded rather ahead of its time. On that note though, the album didn't contain Getting Away With It on it's original release, it was added on subsequent re-releases. Even though I do prefer Disappointed, its worth noting that this song is more of a proper collaboration as Neil sings all the vocals to Disappointed. Never the less, Getting Away With It is still a great song that is also rather overlooked!

New Order - Fine Time (Updated 22nd March 2012)

Fine Time is the lead single off New Order's 1989 album Technique and was originally released in 1988. It is number FAC223 in the Factory Records label catalogue. I'd have to say this is my favourite New Order song, but also one of my favourite songs ever in general! The song was recorded in Ibiza and was inspired by a night in Amnesia (Internationally reknowned club in Ibiza that New Order went to several times during the Technique recording sessions) The Ibiza recording sessions weren't fruitful however, Fine Time was one of only two songs they recorded when they were out there. The title of the song originated in a slightly strange way, band member Stephen Morris' car had been towed away and he needed something to remind himself to pay the fine. He wrote fine time on a piece of paper in order to do this, and thought to himself that it seemed a good idea for a title. I would say it rivals Blue Monday in terms of being the bands most dance oriented track.The song is acid-house influenced and signifies the influence that the legendary Hacienda nightclub was having on the musical direction of New Order, who actually had a massive part in financing the club. To this day, bassist Peter Hook owns the Hacienda name and trademark.Interestingly, on the US 12" vinyl, the way beats are structured within the song actually creates a swirl effect in the vinyl. This doesn't occur with the albums B-sides though, which is particularly interesting I think given that one of the B-sides, Fine Line, is actually the A-side except Bernard Sumners vocals have been removed. The second B-side, Don't Do It is a completely different song however. Although I love the beat I do feel that Bernards vocals just add to the song, they've got this brilliant scornful sound in the track that I love.  I seriously love this song and think its the perfect opening to Technique, which is a great album. It only reached 11 in the UK Charts which I feel is criminal, for me this is one of the best songs of the 80s!

Double Manchester?!

Fresh rumors are circulating today that the original lineup of seminal Manchester group Happy Mondays have reformed. This is something I hope and pray happens and the timing couldn't have been better with the Stone Roses making their comeback in a matter of months. I'm wondering that if the Happy Mondays do make their comeback (and honestly, I think they will) if they maybe will support Stone Roses on tour. The two biggest groups in Madchester touring together... please let this happen!

One book down, loads to go!

I finished reading Torn Apart: The Life of Ian Curtis last night. Absolutely fantastic book which is beyond informative and taught me many things I never knew about Ian. I will start drafting a proper review of the book very soon (Also drafting proper reviews of Madonna - Confessions on a Dancefloor and Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures. Not to mention posting a list of all of my CD's and I also want to draft a new post on my Pet Shop Boys blog very soon.) Meanwhile though I've got plenty of other books to be reading and from tonight I will be reading Shaun Ryder - Your Twisting My Melon: The Autobiography. Shaun is the lead singer of the famous Manchester band Happy Mondays, who were very much part of the late 80s/early 90s Manchester music scene. It's a good contrast to Torn Apart I think, as this book will deal more with the Hacienda nightclub and the Madchester era which Torn Apart obviously wouldn't cover. Really looking forward to this!

Update one: Bad news.

Bad news (and for me its pretty terrible) is that my beloved record store is closing down. Anyone who talks to me on an even semi regular basis knows how much I love physically going shopping for CD's, and my place of choice is a store called Head. Head will be no more from this Saturday due to the lease of the building being up.Clothing line Superdry have taken over the unit and thats that. I find that pathetic given that Head supported local artists, something which the more mainstream oriented HMV didn't even do.  Incredibly hypocritical from the local council who tell us to support our local music scene after hosting the EMA's. Anyone who lives in Belfast and who also buys CD's will probably agree with me that Head is very reasonable in terms of prices (I was a legendary sucker for their 3 for 10 deal). Whilst the stock isn't as great as the nearby HMV (The main UK outlet for music) they were always my first preference for CD's, and as I do listen to slightly more obscure and overlooked artists, they actually suited my taste a lot more as opposed to HMV which had a greater selection of more current/mainstream artists. HMV's prices are simply ridiculous, and out of my ever growing CD collection, only about 10, if even, came from HMV were around 50 or so came from Head. I particularly feel for people who collect vinyl, as allegedly Head had the best selection of vinyl in Belfast. I can't be sure, but I only know two other places that sell vinyl, one of which is was a clothing store by nature and as such doesn't have much selection at all and the other one was second hand. Head closing down means that there is no record store other than the very expensive HMV located in the city centre which is a crying shame. I'd be lying if I said I wouldn't miss it!

To like the Save Head fb page click here!

Some fascinations from the book I'm currently reading.

At the moment, I'm currently reading Torn Apart: The Life of Ian Curtis, which I got as a belated Christmas present. I'm about halfway through it or so, and so far I am finding it an absolutely fascinating read, and definitely recommend it to all those out there with even a passing interest in Joy Division. Reading it has taught me many new things about Ian that I never knew, which is particularly invaluable considering due to his tragic story and suicide, he's become a sort of cult like figure with a lot of myth surrounding his character. Anyhow, one of the things that really intrigued me (and that freaked me out slightly if I'm honest) was that Ian actually suffered from eczema, I find that bizarre given that I had terrible eczema myself when I was younger, that resulted in me having to wear bandages on my arms at night and it also damaged the skin around my eyes. On the subject of epilepsy, there is a part of the book that I just read last night that discusses his diagnosis and epilepsy treatment, which would interest me obviously given that I was born with a mild form of the condition and I still have it to this day. In the book it stated that Ian took a medication called "Valproate", which I find interesting is the one that I take is sodium valproate. Whether or not the two are the same I'm not sure of, but it sounds like its a similar sort of medication. I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the book, although it will also be pretty difficult reading also!

Happy birthday Bernard!

Its my first musical birthday of the year, and today Bernard Sumner turns 56. Bernard is obviously well known for being in the highly regarded 80s electronic/rock band New Order, being the primary lyricist/vocalist for them and also for playing guitars/keyboards in Joy Division. Also he is known for working with Johnny Marr in Electronic, again being the vocalist/lyricist and more recently forming the band Bad Lieutenant. I'm not familiar with Bad Lieutenant if I'm honest, but absolutely love his work with New Order and Electronic. Technique by New Order is easily one of my favourite albums along with Electronic's self titled debut album. A very underrated talent I think, happy birthday Bernard!