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
Various Artists
Axe Attack Vol II
(K-Tel, 1981)
Metal Britannica inspires MOJO metal amnesty. Studded leather wristbands aloft!
It's not often that the missus refuses to cuddle up in front of a BBC 4 music documentary, but last Friday's Metal Britannica received a non-negotiable "not-on-your-nelly". In fact the look that accompanied my meek withdrawal to the sitting room for an orgy of riffage was not one I will delight to see repeated. Despite rewarding footage, notably of NWOBHM vanguarder Rob Loonhouse and his hardboard (assuredly not cardboard) guitar histrionics there was something not quite brilliant about it: too much time expended on needless self-justification and cultural cringe. The casualties were too many good stories, some unmissable characters (whither Thunderstick, whither Venom?) and the legacy: no Earache, no thrash (not British in the main, but inspired by NWOBHM). Still, the Budgie footage was revelatory, and the whole thing had me burrowing into the vinyl hoard for this dog-eared guilty pleasure, doubtless purchased for the double-draw of Rainbow's version of Since You Been Gone and Motörhead's Ace Of Spades, neither of which require any expansion here. Digging further down, there are items that not even a mutha could love - Samson's Earth Mother was sub-Tap at the time, now it's risible - but spare a moment, and contemplate the staggering bombast of Black Sabbath's Die Young, with turbo-dwarf Dio at peak power-yodel and the stoner genius of Blue Oyster Cult's sampled-to-buggery Godzilla (admire the hilarious papier-mâché simulacrum at this 1980 live show). Listening now, many years later, I realise the maples v oaks unrest of Rush's The Trees is in fact a baroque allegory of the Canadian independence movement, but more than anything I find myself mourning the early '80s heyday of the momentous Various Artists comp - like Axe Attack, Dance Craze or even Cherry Red's wimp-pop manifesto Pillows & Prayers - distillations of then-contemporary music movements that underlined that, whether you liked it or not, there was something happening here and urged the curious to investigate. I no longer own many unalloyed metal albums, but treasure the documentary value of Axe Attack Volume II... Just don't tell the wife.
Danny Eccleston
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 2:32 AM GMT 12/03/2010
Further Listening
Various Artists – Dance Craze (2Tone, 1981)
Various Artists – Metal For Muthas (EMI, 1980)
Iron Maiden – Killers (EMI, 1981)
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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