Book Review: Rock Stars Stole My Life! – Mark Ellen (2014)

Early on in this very breezy look back on his 40 years in writing and broadcasting in the music industry, Mark Ellen laments that he was born too late for The Beatles and too early for punk, Well, judged on what he was born in time for, he ain’t getting any sympathy from me.

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Cud – Louise / Mexico (2013) and Life as a Space Cudet

This particular record by Leeds band Cud has not quite reached the loft but my rules for writing this blog are getting looser with time and frankly, if I don’t write about Cud soon I might just burst. So acquiring their recent double a-side Louise/Mexico (signed!) at a recent gig is all the excuse I need.

Cud were a massive band to me in my early 20s. I was a student in West Yorkshire in the late ’80s /early ’90s, living in a grubby shared house, each room strewn with old copies of the NME and Melody Maker. While we were friends with the usual student-y common interests, at that tender age much of our identity was defined by the bands we listened to. Or perhaps pretended to. But with Cud no pretence was needed…

Teenage Fanclub – What You Do To Me (1992)

By most people’s reckoning, 1991 was a strong year for albums (apart from those a little older who cite 1972. Whatever). Screamadelica, Out of Time, Loveless, Blue Lines, Achtung Baby. Oh and err… Nevermind of course. So, it might surprise you to know that Teenage Fanclub’s Bandwagonesque (from where What You Do To Me came) finished above all but Nirvana’s grunge-juggernaut in NME’s end of year top albums poll, beating even that Spin magazine’s own list.
Not bad for a band who were once described (to me at least) as sounding like listening to your Dad mowing the lawn.

The Wedding Present – The Hit Parade (1992)

Alright, I cheated on this one. This isn’t random.

A few weeks ago I noticed that the associated Twitter account to this blog (@recordatrandom) had a new follower (a rare occurrence!) and I was delighted to see that it was David Gedge (@weddingpresent). Ever savvy, David must have picked up on the Twitter chat this blog was engaged in when planning the next record club event (I was pushing for some Weddoes to be played that night). Lo and behold, the next day David is following both the blog and the record club (he’s been invited along next time he is in the area).

So David, errr, this one’s for you….

The Breeders – Head to Toe (1994)

Head to Toe was released in June 1994 following the international success of The Breeders second album, Last Splash. As I recall it was a relatively rare release which only saw the light of day on 10″ in the UK and 7″ in the US (without the last track Safari).

No cd copy of this EP was issued although this will soon to be rectified when Last Splash gets the anniversary remaster treatment later this month in the form of LSXX. All the tracks from this and all the other Last Splash era releases are being bundled together on 3 CDs or (if you have more money than sense) a 7x vinyl boxset weighing in at an eye watering £75. You do get a booklet with that one too. Which is nice. Definitely worth it. Oh yes.