Retro Man Blog & Retrosonic Podcast's Favourite Books of 2024

 

Here's a selection of twelve of our favourite books published this year, please click on the highlighted links throughout the feature below for more information.

1. "Street Level Superstar: A Year With Lawrence" by Will Hodgkinson

Jarvis Cocker interviews Author Will Hodgkinson and Lawrence (Felt, Denim, Go-Kart Mozart, Mozart Estate about the book at Foyles, London - Photo by Retro Man Blog

2. "Too Much Too Young: The 2 Tone Records Story" by Daniel Rachel

Author Daniel Rachel (centre) with Pauline Black of The Selecter and Bedders of Madness at the book launch event, South Bank Centre London - Photo by Retro Man Blog

3. "A Taste of Ink, The Prisoners Sentenced By Their Fans" Edited by Elinor Crockford, Jeremy Stride, Thomas Buch & Michael Langer

Editors Jeremy Stride, Elinor Crockford, Michael Langer and Thomas Buch with their book before The Prioners reunion show at The Roundhouse - Photo by Retro Man Blog. You can check out a review of the gig and see more information on the book at our Retro Man Blog feature here.

4. "Forever Changes: The Authorised Biography of Arthur Lee and Love" by John Einarson

You can see our review with photos and videos of the Love Revisited with Johnny Echols "Forever Changes" gig at Shepherds Bush Empire here. Photo by Retro Man Blog

5. "Diminished Responsibility: My Life As a U.K. Sub and Other Strange Stories, Vol. 3" by Alvin Gibbs

Check out our review of "Diminished Responsibility Vol. 3 at Retro Man Blog here.

6. "In The Jingle Jangle Jungle: Keeping Time with The Brian Jonestown Massacre" by Joel Gion

7. "Sixteen Again: How Pete Shelley and Buzzcocks Changed Manchester Music (and Me)" by Paul Hanley

8. "Under A Rock: A Memoir" by Chris Stein of Blondie

9. "Folklore Rising: An Artist's Journey Through The British Ritual Year" by Ben Edge

Ben Edge at the screening of his documentary "Frontline Folklore" at the Garden Cinema, London - Photo by Retro Man Blog

10. "1967 - How I Got There and Why I Never Left" by Robyn Hitchcock

Robyn performing during the Q&A to promote "1967" at Foyles in London - Photo by Retro Man Blog

11. "Road Eyes 20:20 Vision, Photo Tales with The Clash & The Mescaleros" by Barry 'Scratchy Sounds' Myers

You can hear our Retrosonic Podcast special with Scratchy discussing the book and his time with The Clash and Joe Strummer and The Mescaleros below...

Retrosonic Podcast · DJ Scratchy Sounds: Photo Tales with The Clash & Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros

12. "Days In Europa" by Richard Jobson of The Skids

Love with Johnny Echols "Forever Changes" at Shepherds Bush Empire London July 20th 2024

It's not often you get the chance to see one of your favourite albums performed live at your favourite venue but last night I was lucky enough to witness Love with Johnny Echols perform "Forever Changes" in it's entirety and it was every bit as wonderful as I could have wished for. This was the second time I'd seen this line-up, the first being at the Garage in Islington a couple of years ago where I was right down the front of the stage, the gig was standing only and it was a great hot and rollicking Rock 'n' Roll show. Tonight was more civilized, seats had been installed in the downstairs stalls of the beautifully ornate Shepherds Bush Empire and I was up on the second floor balcony. I asked the security guard at the door why there were seats downstairs and he replied "it's because it's an older audience and we thought standing for three hours might be a bit much" - bloody cheek! "I'm offended by that remark, I'm not that old" I told him with a smile - although I was secretly happy to take my gin and tonic to the comfort of my seat in preparation for the show. Love these days consist of Rusty Squeezebox on lead vocals and guitars, Mike Randle on guitars and backing vocals and drummer David Green. All three were in the excellent Power Pop band Baby Lemonade who had impressed original Love vocalist Arthur Lee so much, he invited them to be his backing band for a new version of Love in the mid-'90's. This culminated in an appearance at the legendary Glastonbury festival in 2003 and a full-on orchestral performance of "Forever Changes" at London's Royal Festival Hall in the same year. Sadly Arthur passed away in 2006, leaving original guitarist Johnny Echols to take on the mantle and a change in bassist a few years later saw James Nolte replacing David Chapple. Tonight, the band are augmented by Nick Frater on keyboards, Nathan Thomas on trumpet and French horn and the Parallax string quartet, who all brought those wonderful orchestral textures on "Forever Changes" to life. In the hands of these excellent musicians, the album sounds utterly timeless and as fresh and vital as ever. 

 

You can see just why Love and the "Forever Changes" album in particular were and in fact still are, such a huge influence to this day. The complexity of the song writing, those unexpected chord changes and twists and turns, the intriguing lyrics all topped off with memorable choruses and riffs. The powerful Garage Rock freak-outs, soulful ballads, touches of Bossa Nova and Latino exotica, beautifully arranged orchestration and strung out Psychedelia, Love really had something for everybody. The first set is the album played through in that familiar running order, opening with the classic "Alone Again Or" once covered (pretty poorly it must be said...) by one of my favourite acts The Damned. Talking of favourite bands, I can never hear second song "A House Is Not A Motel" without thinking of Mick Head and his brother John from Shack. The Liverpool legends also backed up Arthur Lee for a live recording of a show at the Academy Liverpool in 1992 which is available as an album and is well worth getting hold of. The musicians of Liverpool really took Love to heart and Mick Head must be one of their biggest fans, often sporting a Love T-Shirt and he even closed the set at a recent gig with his new outfit The Red Elastic Band at Earth in Hackney with a blistering "A House Is Not A Motel". Actually, if you check YouTube here you can see Mick joining Johnny and the band at Leaf in Liverpool a few years ago for a superb run through of the same song and Mick looks chuffed to bits to be there on stage next to one of his musical heroes. Then on "The Daily Planet" I'm immediately reminded of yet another of my favourite bands, Sweden's Soundtrack of Our Lives, whose orchestral Psychedelic Rock 'n' Roll owes a debt to Love's music, just listen to their "Lone Summer Dream" back to back with "The Daily Planet" and you'll see what I mean. As "The Red Telephone" draws to a close, Rusty approaches the mic "can you turn the album over to side two now?" So, side two, track one and it's one of the highlights of the whole night "Maybe The People Would Be The Times Or Between Clark and Hillsdale", with Nathan Thomas' trumpet particularly outstanding. The set closes just as the album does of course with two of my favourite Love songs "Bummer In The Summer" and "You Set The Scene".

 

The second set didn't just contain the obvious crowd-pleasers - as Rusty said trying to make sense of the numerous crowd calls for various favourite numbers - "sorry, we can't play all our songs!" In fact, the "Forever Changes" outtake "Wonder People (I Do Wonder)" was a personal highlight, it would have made a perfect 1960's Californian Summer single rather than an obscure hidden gem and "Feathered Fish", a track Arthur wrote for Sons of Adam was a storming Garage Punk rocker that wouldn't be out of place in the set lists of most of my favourite contemporary bands that I play in Retrosonic Podcast. "Always See Your Face" from the often over-looked album "Four Sail", was fantastic as was "Your Mind And We Belong Together". The heart-wrenchingly beautiful "Orange Skies" was wonderful with Nick Frater expertly replicating the flute on the keyboards. There's a wonderful chemistry beween the band members on stage, they look like they are all having as much fun as we are, and this means a lot to an audience. Love fans really seem to have taken to each band member, Mike and Rusty handle the complexities of Love's guitar lines perfectly, Rusty proving to be a mighty fine vocalist in his own right. He's a genial and engaging frontman that pays his respects to Arthur Lee and Bryan MacLean, nicely acknowledging the legacy and history of the band. Him and Mike make great guitar sparring partners and along with the excellent rhythm section of Dave Green and James Nolte, not forgetting the additional musicians on stage tonight, they all do that legacy proud. Of course, there's Johnny - super cool and laid back - the audience strike up the football chant refrain "Johnny, Johhny, Johnny f**kin' Echols!" It raises a smile from the legend himself. His guitar playing is something to behold and he's equally adept on maracas too. On an emotional "Signed D.C." Johnny takes over on impressive lead vocals, ending the last line of the song with "signed J.E." which was a nice touch. Then it's a raucous blast through the Sixties Garage Rock nugget "Seven & Seven Is" which explodes into come-down guitar motifs and the band can put down their instruments to lap up the applause and standing ovation from a thoroughly satisfied crowd. What a show. I've been going to gigs for 43 years now, and in that time I've been fortunate enough to witness some very special musical happenings and tonight was up there with the very best of them. On the excellent 'Love Revisited' Facebook fan's forum (please join here...), someone posted at the start of the tour "my friend says this is the farewell tour, say it isn't so..." and Mr Johnny Echols himself replied "your friend doesn't know what he's talking about, we shall keep playing as long as people want to see us!" That's what we want to hear and I'm sure all at the packed out Shepherds Bush Empire certainly want to see them play again. Johnny Echols for President!

Love with Johnny Echols are half way through their UK tour now so please check out their web-site for details on the remaining tour dates and how to book tickets. You can check out more videos from the show at our Retromanblog65 YouTube channel here.

Retro Man Blog & Retrosonic Podcast's Best Compilations, Re-Issues, Box-Sets and Live Albums of 2022

Here's Retro Man Blog and Retrosonic Podcast's top 22 Reissues, Compilations, Box Sets and Live Album releases of 2022, we hope you enjoy this selection and if you do, please follow, like, subscribe to the Blog and Podcast and please support all the featured bands and artists. Thanks for all the support throughout the year!

1. That Petrol Emotion "Every Beginning Has A Future: An Anthology"'

2. The Liminanas "Electrified"

3. Blondie "Against The Odds"

4. The Courettes "Back In Mono: B-Sides & Outtakes"

5. Love "Expressions Tell Everything"

6. The Undertones "Dig What You Need"

7. The Gun Club "Preaching The Blues"

8. Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros "1999-2002"

9. The Soundtrack of Our Lives "Homo Habilis Blues"

10. Fabienne Delsol "Between You And Me"

11. The Stranglers "The Men In Black In Tokyo" 

12. The Damned "AD 2022 Live at the Hammersmith Apollo"

13. Various Artists "Psychedelic Forest"

14. The Blue Aeroplanes "Swagger"

15. The Raveonettes "Whip It On/Chain Gang of Love"

16. BMX Bandits "Life Goes On"  

17. Giuda "Live at Punk Rock Raduno"

18. Various Artists "Jon Savage's 1977-1979: Symbols Clashing Everywhere"

19. March Violets "The Palace of Infinite Darkness"

20. Refused "The Shape of Punk To Come"

21. The Stranglers "Suite XVI"

22. Toyah "Toyah! Toyah! Toyah!"

Thanks to all contributors, bands, Podcast special guests and co-presenters, record labels and people who have shared and supported what we have done over the past year. Retro Man Blog and Retrosonic Podcast are an extension of the spirit of my old 1980's D.I.Y. cut 'n' paste fanzine Out of Step and are strictly non-profit without advertising or sponsorship, set up purely to promote music that we like. We hope you have discovered some exciting new music along the way, your support is very much appreciated. 

Retrosonic Podcast Lockdown Lowdown Episode 9 with Ian Greensmith (A.K.A. Vic Templar) from The Dentists & Armitage Shanks (and much more...!)

Photo: Jokin Misterklin

For Episode 9 of our special Lockdown Lowdown series we welcome Ian Greensmith into the virtual Retrosonic Podcast studio. Ian, a.k.a. Vic Templar, Herbie Greensmith, Vic Flange or just Ian Smith is not only a man of many names he's also a man of many talents as drummer with Medway Indie legends The Dentists, Armitage Shanks, Ye Ascoyne D'Ascoynes, The Dirty Contacts, Sine Waves, Rubberman 12 and The Nuevo Ramon 5. He's also a DJ, one of the promoters of The Fratcave club night and Beatwave Weekenders, author of the hilarious semi-autobiographical "Taking Candy From a Dog", keen gardener, badger watcher and retired cricketer. So yes, you can guess that this episode is packed full of many fascinating musical memories, inspirations, tales and adventures and, of course, some bloody great music! Ian takes us on a musical journey from his very first memory of hearing Aretha Franklin in the canteen at Butlins in Bognor Regis (he was wearing a red cardigan with white piping at the time fact fans) to the first record he bought with his own pocket money, his first gig and first time behind the drumkit. We learn about the early shows with The Milkshakes and The Prisoners, discovering the MIC Club and some legendary Medway Delta names such as Billy Childish, Graham Day, Russ Wilkins, Sexton Ming and more. There's the stories behind his own bands including The Dentists, Ye Ascoyne D'Ascoynes, Armitage Shanks and Nuevo Ramon 5 along with a pick of the best of their music. Then there's a stash of great tunes from his DJ bag, the gig he would travel back in time for, his perfect LP and 45rpm single and some of his favourite bands that he has put on at his own Club nights and Weekenders. There are brushes (excuse the pun) with Buddy Rich, Mark E Smith, The Monochrome Set and Johnny Echols and the story behind his superb semi-autobiographical book "Taking Candy From A Dog". Includes music from The Dentists, Armitage Shanks, Ye Ascoyne D'Ascoynes, The Milkshakes, The Prisoners, Aretha Franklin, Elvis Costello & The Attractions, Sammy Davis Jr & Buddy Rich, The Fall, The Byrds, Love, Buzzcocks, The Kingsmen, Gary McFarland, The Monochrome Set, The Wildebeests, The Fallen Leaves, Ye Nuns, Ramon 5, Little Richard and The Allisons. So sit back, turn up the volume and enjoy!

Retrosonic Podcast · Lockdown Lowdown Episode 9 with Ian Greensmith (A.K.A. Vic Templar) of The Dentist

Tracklisting (please click on highlighted links below to investigate further)

Aretha Franklin "I Say a Little Prayer"

Elvis Costello & The Attractions "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea"

The Milkshakes "Shimmy Shimmy" & "After Midnight"

The Prisoners "Better In Black"

The Kingsmen "Haunted Castle" 

The Dentists "I Had An Excellent Dream" & "She Dazzled Me With Basil"

Ye Ascoyne D'Ascoynes "Favourite Stuff"

Ramon 5 "Amor Perdido"

The Fallen Leaves "Did You See Her"

Ye Nuns "Cuckoo"

The Wildebeests "Lucinda"

The Allisons "Surfer Street"

Love "The Daily Planet"

Little Richard "The Girl Can't Help It"

Gary McFarland "Fried Bananas"

Armitage Shanks "Look Out Here Comes Uncle John"

Sammy Davis Jr & Buddy Rich "Come Back To Me"

The Monochrome Set "Apocalypso"

The Fall "I'm a Mummy"

The Byrds "Eight Miles High"

Buzzcocks "Time's Up"

Louis Jordan "Bullitt"

You can buy "Taking Candy From A Dog" by Vic Templar from Blackheath Books here. Please check out the Facebook page for The Fratcave to keep updated on this and Beatwave as soon as things return to normal. Please do visit the excellent Spinout Nuggets Records for releases by Ye Ascoyne D'Ascoyne, Armitage Shanks, Treasures of Mexico and lots more Medway related bands.

Ian at The Marquee with The Dentists

You can also check out our other Medway related special Podcasts with Billy Childish, Graham Day, Allan Crockford and Wolf Howard at the Retrosonic Podcast archive here. Retrosonic Podcast is also available to subscribe for free at Spotify, iTunes, Apple Podcast & Mixcloud. With thanks to Ian.