Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story
Rod the Mod finds his solo footing, headed for stardom, with the Faces in his wake.
6:00 AM GMT 22/06/2011
Features Disc of the day
The La's
BBC In Session
(Universal/Polydor 2005)
Fleeting Mersey pop enigmas' songs for the national broadcaster, '87-'90.
There's a special pain and frustration in being an admirer of The La's - Lee Mavers' There She Goes hitmakers who spent years recording different interpretations of the same songs with eminent producers like John Leckie and Mike Hedges, only to scrap them all because planetary alignments were off or a lead was the wrong colour. This somewhat unhinged pursuit of unmeasurable perfection is what made Mavers, a tunesmith of rare ability, jack it all in for afterlife acclaim shortly after the final, band-disowned Steve Lillywhite-produced version of the album came out in 1990. There've been a few surprise tours in the interim but he hasn't released anything new since, leaving the field open to various collections of demos and alternate takes of mostly familiar songs. This BBC round up is probably the best of them. Marvel at how bursting with enthusiasm the band sounds on four tracks made for Liz Kershaw in 1988 - is this the definitive recording of foreboding album opener Son Of A Gun? And how fantastic is the studio cut of Over, previously only hearable as a b-side done in a shed on a tape recorder? Two slower re-arrangements of band mission statement Timeless Melody also sweeten the pot, as do a pair of starry-eyed takes of the not-on-the-album, doomsday Ibero-skiffler Callin' All. It's all splendid fodder for making your own fantasy La's album, though it will leave you resolutely stuck at square one, listening to the same songs in different forms, still wishing Mavers would finally get his finger out. But then again, the great man has just turned up on playing a few songs on Pete Doherty's solo tour - go on, Pete, see if you can get him to put another record out...
Clive Prior
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 16/04/2009
Further Listening
The La's - The La's (Go! Discs, 1990)
The Stone Roses - The Stone Roses (Silvertone, 1989)
The Beatles - Revolver (Parlophone, 1966)
Previous Disc of the day
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Earl Brutus - Larky
Last salvo of Ginsters Pasty-Warholism from Britpop ramraiders.
12:04 PM GMT 08/06/2011
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Loudon Wainwright - T-Shirt
An overlooked small wonder from an unpredictable career.
6:00 AM GMT 03/06/2011
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Landscape - From The Tea-rooms Of Mars… To The Hell-holes Of Uranus
Dry computer club Futurists, upon hitting implausible chart paydirt.
6:00 AM GMT 17/05/2011
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Causa Sui - Summer Sessions Vol 1-3
Epic Danish jams, for when the neighbours get you down.
6:00 AM GMT 12/05/2011
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