Hey Dad!

My Dad reads this blog. Today we went out to Salisbury to see the mighty John Cooper Clarke, punk poet extraordinaire, and over the course of a few drinks, a meal and the interval, we ended up talking about a lot of films and music, as we always do (he's useful like that, my dad, I can't talk about synthpop and punk and world cinema with my mum...or my work colleagues... or my cactus).

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I ended up mentioning some things my dad was surprisingly unaware of (Plus I just wanted to post even more videos. No I do not have an addiction to youtube.)

First on the list: Klaus Nomi. Nomi (born Sperber) was a Bavarian countertenor who moved to New York and grabbed the New Wave scene's attention by being consistently odd yet brilliant until his untimely death in 1983, leaving behind him a handful of albums and an unfinished opera.


His albums are a lot of fun; a strange mixture of humour, synths, teutonic accents and straight classical pieces (do look for his rendition of The Cold Song from Henry Purcell's King Arthur to hear him being a bit more...conventional). He's one of those musicians that I don't listen to for ages and then rediscover and listen to non-stop for a week.

Next: (yay another excuse to post something by) Virgin Prunes. Irish post-punk performance artist group, driven by Gavin Friday and Guggi. Friends with U2. Split up criminally early and refuse (quite rightly) to reform.

Part of what made them so great was their range: they could (and would) do furious atonal punky stuff, delicate ethereal laments and silly-voiced folky tracks (like Down Memory Lane) in quick succession.

Next (although I didn't mention them today, I'm fairly sure I have done at some point) Shonen Knife. Mad Japanese all-girl punk/garage group who sing about barbie dolls, cats, rocket ships and bananna chips. I love them, they're just so bloody happy. Apparently Kurt Cobain was a massive fan of them too.


And finally, just because my dad says he hasn't heard it, Gary Numan's new (ish) version of Are "Friends"Electric? everyone's favourite song about broken down robot companions. He's been doing this version with very stripped down, haunting keyboards for a good few years now and it really suits his matured voice (because let's face it everyone's voice changes as they grow older, singers are no different).

Brilliant. Just brilliant.


And just because gig-memories are good


The last gig dad and I went to was the Stranglers at the Southampton Guildhall (or "Southampton's resident wind tunnel and echo chamber" as they put it, that place is a cavern and not in a good way). 

Anyway yeah. I think I'll stop it with the videos for a bit.