This playlist is 81% vinyl friendly. Not bad.

From circa 1926 – the Western Electric 2A turntable. Just a 33-1/3 RPM speed, as there was no such thing as a 45rpm record at the time. Cast iron parts, ordinary copper wire, common ball bearings, and a 1 horsepower electric motor meant that the angular error of the tonearm was so small a straight-line tracking arm wasn’t considered necessary. Oh, and the flutter and wow were far less than any modern turntable, apparently. You’re welcome.

Any track marked * has been given either a tiny or a slightly larger 41 Rooms tweak/edit/chop and the occasional tune might sound a bit dodgy, quality-wise. On top of that, the switch between different decades and production values never helps in the mix here.

Lyric of Playlist 134

More toilet thoughts than toilet humour and here courtesy of one Matt Gurley, the award goes to The Sundays’ lyrics for ‘lavatory’ getting not one but two mentions.

00.00

(Intro) THE FLAMINGOS – Stars (Edit) – Unreleased demo – 1983. Episode #1 for info.

00.41

NEW ORDER – Temptation (Secret Machines Remix) – 7″ b-side – London – 2005

Drilling down (as they say), from the b-side of the first of three Waiting For The Siren’s Call singles (different mixes) released simultaneously… and with a sleeve that just oooooozes major label t(h)inkering… though the band must have OK’d it? If they did, it certainly wouldn’t have gotten Gillian’s vote, nor Rob’s if he’d still been alive. Back on the song, Temptation is still one of Bernard’s fave tracks, so it’s great to hear his vocals more upfront than within the classic version, though you won’t be hearing him outro’ing his ooooh oh oh oh oh’ing live for anything like the 2mins 35secs journey Secret Machines decided to send his ad-lib/refrain on.

And while we’re in New Order land. Below: Dave Simpson (The Guardian) MC’ing myself, Jon Wozencroft and The Beloved’s Jon Marsh on stage at London’s Rough Trade East in early November, chinwagging around the republishing of my From Heaven to Heaven, New Order Live, The Early Years (1981-1984) At Close Quarters. Available now from all good… etc etc.

Photo credit: Alison Wonderland

07.15

SKELETEN – Viagra – Mentalized, LP – PIAS – 2025

A bouncy, summery sound in December, ahead of the album release in Feb next year, all making total sense if you’re Russell ‘Skeleten’ Fitzgibbon’s home of Sydney, Australia.

11.22

INNER CITY – Till We Meet Again (Brothers In Rhythm Remix) – Promo 12″ – 10 Records – 1993

‘Still sombrely moaned wriggly rattling 117.4bpm Brothers In Rhythm Remixes, plus plaintively sung ‘Follow Your Heart’ in loping melodic 117.7bpm MK and twittering short 0-126bpm Reese Deep Space Mixes‘. – James Hamilton, Record Mirror (Music Week), 11.2.93

Fat, thumping, nearly bruising beats, very slightly pitched up. A big tune with me at the time.

16.23

ART SCHOOL GIRLFRIEND – Out There (Kloyd Remix) – ?? – Fiction Records – 2024

Kloyd is a bit elusive, and on the net the image below is attached to more than this mix or artist alone. The track was suggested to me by The Beloved’s Jon Marsh after our recent meet up (see above).

23.17

MARIANGELA DEMURTAS – Opium * – Stream only – 2021

COVER, TYPE 1 – And from the originators, Dead Can Dance’s own version in the last show, to a highly impressive ‘cover’ from a vocalist maybe better known to some from her lengthy stint as vocalist for Norwegian goth metal band, Tristania – nothing from whom will be troubling 41 Rooms playlists. I say ‘cover’, as it sounds as if it’s the DCD track in total with Brendan Perry’s vocal just replaced by Demurtas’… the way you can these days with a flick of the right switch.

28.58

JAZZTRONIK – All Inside – En:Code, CD only – Japan Record – 2005

Japanese producer, multi instrumentalist, DJ, etc Ryota Nozaki… and though I didn’t realise it at the time, with 41 Rooms’ regular (in one guise or another), Valerie Etienne on the mic.

32.46

MATT GURLEY – You’re Not The Only One I Know – Stream only – 2008

COVER, TYPE 2 – As opposed to songwriter, Harriet ‘The Sundays’ Wheeler’ and her lyrics, you’ll not find Gurley in the lavatory but instead he’s been Youtube’ing and Facebook’ing for years from what appears to be his bedroom and living room. Maybe for this song he should have been. Throw a silky and reverential vocal at a great song and melody and the chances are you’ll be fine, and the lo-fi effect of the recording’s surroundings actually works in his favour. The result wouldn’t have been topped by getting him and the song into a studio ‘proper’.

36.51

THE STEREOPHONICS – Maybe Tomorrow – 7″ – V2 – 2003

Possibly one of the greatest ‘rock’ songs Rod Stewart and the Faces never recorded back in the early ’70s, partly because the songwriter wasn’t even born when they were doing their thing.

41.13

JONI MITCHELL – Help Me – 7″ – Asylum – 1974

In the world she’s inhabited, has anyone ever held that there candle to her? ‘No’ might be the correct answer.

44.21

VANGELIS – Let It Happen (Beatfanatics Balearic Boogie Remix) – 12″ – G.A.M.M. – 2007

Vocalist, Richelle Dassin’s minimal lyrical idea, still mesmerising over this long and loping mix, with the original version having already passed 41 Rooms’ shores.

54.07

MARTINE GIRAULT – Nothing’s Gonna Change – 12″ b-side – Opaz – 1992

With Ray Hayden producing, from the British (London?) street soul scene of the early ’90s, a flip side groove that nearly matched its already playlisted A-side, The Revival. I can still hear Patrick Forge back in the day championing both sides on his Kiss M show.

57.27

CRAZY P – This Fire (James Welsh Remix) – Age Of The Ego, Remix EP1 – Walk Don’t Walk – 2022

Kicks off Trans Europe Express-like… but heads off on a different track gauge.

01.03.42

HONEYDRUM – Do U Party? – 7″ + CDr – AMDISCS – 2012

Yet another very cool Honeydrum song that seems to have been ‘buried’ in its coming together… or it’s a decent recording that’s then been played at a lowish volume through speakers and recorded from across the room via a cheap as chips mic! Aagghhh!

01.05.50

THE TEARDROP EXPLODES – Poppies In The Field – 7″ b-side – Mercury – 1981

Strangely, standing out as a ‘sound’ now maybe even more so than it did back then. Quite a feat, I reckon.

01.10.51

THE MOVE – Flowers In The Rain – 7″ – Regal Zonophone – 1967

OK yeah, Flowers In The Rain might have come into mind after Poppies In The Field but the song would have made it to 41 Rooms at some point anyway, as I collected a bunch of Move singles in my teens (the ’70s), and between Roy Wood and Jeff Lynne they were always more than capable of writing a class pop tune. If you’re old enough and know only one fact about ‘Flowers’, it’s likely that it was – with DJ Tony Blackburn on the wheels of steel – the first record ever played on UK BBC Radio 1, and if and when he sells his demo/promo copy (as he’ll definitely have been given one back in the day), that will be a piece of rock’n’roll history to own.

01.12.54

THE MAMA’S & THE PAPA’S – California Dreamin’ – 7″ – Dunhill – 1965

With its so on it combination of vocals and harmonies, by the time the single had finished its very slow rise up the US charts it was still a year before the Summer Of Love it was more ideally suited to. Not though, my favourite version of the song… as some won’t be surprised to hear. ‘The group’s name was sometimes written as The Mama’s and the Papa’s‘ says Wiki… Indeed. Come the second album and its corresponding singles, somebody rightly said, ‘We can’t keep looking at that!‘

01.15.21

ACT – Absolutely Immune – Laughter, Tears And Rage, LP – ZTT – 1988

Propaganda’s Claudia Brücken and electronic maverick, Thomas Leer hooked up for some lush pop to neatly soundtrack the lavish late ’80s.

01.19.40

BETH HIRSCH – Let It Live (Radical Mix) – Titles & Idols, 2LP – !K7 – 2001

Beth’s delicate vocals are pretty much done before the thunder breaks. Fab all round.

01.23.57

JAPAN – Methods Of Dance – Gentlemen Take Polaroids, LP – Virgin – 1980

Wednesdays… Winkles… Bedford… 1980… £5.99? The album… not the club night… that was £1.50.

01.30.04

MARIBOU STATE – Otherside (feat Holly Walker) – Hallucinating Love, LP – Ninja Tune – 2025

In a vinyl stylee – a ‘one time pressing on 140g unique blended recycled vinyl in a gatefold sleeve with printed inner‘… or… a ‘140g recycled black vinyl in a gatefold sleeve with printed inner‘.

Skippity, skippity beats. Cheery, smiley stuff all round. Interesting production on the vocals.

01.33.48

ROÍSÍN MURPHY – Sow Into You * – 12″ – Echo – 2005

I chopped a bit out of this. Might have been a slightly off putting (to me, anyway) bridge. Can’t remember.

01.36.53

MARTHA and THE MUFFINS – Drive – Delicate, CD only – Muffin Music – 2010

Martha was still sounding as youthfully vibrant as she had done three decades earlier in the band’s Echo Beach heyday but unless something like a massive film soundtrack inclusion happened on them, the ‘system’ is very unlikely to let them back in to the reckoning as the years moved on. As much as they’d obviously have liked further success this though sounds like a band just making the music they want… and the world can go f*** itself if it doesn’t want to pay attention. Thankfully, these days it costs a whole lot less to get great results in recording than it would have done back in the day.

01.40.50

THE RELUCTANT STEREOTYPES – Factory Wit – 7″ b-side – WEA – 1981

The earliest incarnation of the band included Martyn Bates on vocals, a regular of this parish through his later Eyeless In Gaza and solo work but having caught this version of the band on the Old Grey Whistle Test and seen them at London’s Marquee a couple of times as well as at the Half Moon in London’s Herne Hill, all in early ’81, I very tentatively then looked to promote them in Bedford, via Charlie Gillett’s Oval Music agency, but if I remember rightly I wasn’t convinced I’d draw enough of a crowd to make it work, financially.

In the department of photos I know I took but then lost I did have some of Paul King also chatting to a female fan (Scandinavian, I seem to remember), the two of them leaning on the front of the stage after one of the Marquee gigs, and something tells me I might well have sent her copies. If so… and she’s out there… King obviously liked to get out and meet the people, something he sort of continued with when he later became an MTV presenter

Diary for Feb 28, ’81 reads, ‘(With) Viv, Karl to London, Notting Hill. Joy Division Komakino bootleg, Reluctant Stereotypes at Half Moon, Herne Hill. Great but packed, so couldn’t dance. Long chat with (singer) Paul King before long drive home. U2 on OGWT.’

Viv and I weren’t always grabbing only New Order live in these years. I snapped her here returning to the car at Scratchwood service station after the first of the two Reluctant Stereotypes’ Marquee gigs we were at, Feb 6, ’81. The look? A long night… it’s late… and work tomorrow. We’ve all been there.

01.43.39

THE BEAT – Twist and Crawl – 7″ b-side – Go-Feet – 1980

As the Ska revival wasn’t really my thing, this and Mirror In The Bathroom were all I needed from these lads.

01.46.11

EYELESS IN GAZA – Pencil Sketch – Photographs As Memories, LP – Cherry Red – 1981

Very vivid memories of walking my dog, Flanagan, circa the album’s release, with this blasting out of a set of headphones. Good times…

01.48.30

NENEH CHERRY – Woman (Alex Reece No Vocal) – 12″ promo only – Hut – 1996

Reece’s mix with Neneh’s vocal has been playlisted here before and if you know Cherry’s own original song, both of Reece’s mixes are, in reality, very much his own work.

1.53.17

LONDON ELEKTRICITY – South Eastern Dream – Syncopated City, 4×12″ – Hospital – 2008

Proper show outro music! Credits roll… wave to the crowd… ‘See ya!’

Show 135 uploads Jan 5.

Dec x

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