When I think back on the amount of dance music pap which was clogging up the charts around the time that Spooky released Schmoo, it makes me seethe to see that it got no higher than Number 72 in the UK Singles Chart.
The radio edit version is a perfect gateway to summer tune. Featuring chilled out synths, bongo beats and Heather Wildman channelling her best Marina Van Rooy, it would have been a deserving Top 40 hit at least. Still, there’s nowt so queer as record buyers and playlisters.
Steppin’ Razor was a remix alias used by Underworld in their work on tracks by electronica/dance luminaries such as Leftfield and er…. Simply Red. Their remix of Shchmoo strips out all of the lightness and replaces it with a more industrial/metallic feel with Wildman’s sensual vocal replaced by interjections from what sounds like the world’s most boring man about computer technology.
It was a doubtful inclusion here, despite my enjoyment of the syncopated beats, but at around 2:42, the mix kicks in with a shot of pure energy that suddenly makes this version the equal of the radio edit.
As for b), well Wikipedia lists 23 singles having been released in which the proceeds would go to Comic Relief. All but two of the singles made the Top 10 of the UK singles chart, with 14 of them getting to Number 1.
So, how do you miss with a charity record? From what I can see, if you release a charity record in which the proceeds go to an “everyday” issue such as diseases, homelessness, the unemployed, an organisation etc, these records don’t seem to get the same level of exposure or sales numbers. In 1993, Tom Jones twice went into the recording studio to contribute towards a charity single and on both occasions, the final chart placing could be filed under the label, “disappointing”.
Interestingly, when the focus was exclusively on himself as the face of the release, the record sold better than it did when Jones was part of an ensemble. Later in 1993, Jones recorded a version of All You Need is Love, proceeds of which would go to support the Childline service. No doubt hopes were high that Jones could repeat something close to what Wet Wet Wet had done 5 years earlier when their version of With a Little Help From my Friends had got to Number 1, while also raising money for Childline, which had been set up, ostensibly off the back of campaigning and a raising of public awareness on the issue of child abuse/neglect by the BBC’s popular consumer affairs show, That’s Life! But, All You Need is Love, despite a campaign which meant you could even buy the video of the song, peaked no higher than Number 19 in the chart. This could be attributed to bad timing, especially if we consider that in 1988, Wet Wet Wet were both new and at a commercial peak which they wouldn’t hit again until they were asked to cover an old Troggs song for the soundtrack of some British comedy film, while That’s Life! was still pulling in huge audiences on Sunday nights for the BBC. By 1993 though, That’s Life! was one year away from cancellation and Jones, while still a big name, was very much considered a yesterday man at best, or an excitable hen party joke at worst. And as for the cause itself, while no one could deny it did vital work, there was no compelling reason to go out and buy this record given that the issue it supported was a constant one rather than an emergency one. Human nature is such that we tend to respond more to the issue which is urgently demanding our attention rather than those that are perpetually there.
For John Peel though, Jones was the hero of [1992’s] Glastonbury Festival. Jones had been a surprise guest at the festival and played a soul-heavy set on the Sunday. It may have been this appearance that set the wheels in motion for Food to approach Jones about getting involved with their Putting Our House in Order project. The label intended to put out four EPs labelled Dance, Pop, Rock and Alternative, all of which would share the same serial number so that their combined sales could qualify it for for a chart placing. The EPs featured 12 different cover versions of the The Rolling Stones song, Gimme Shelter and the proceeds from the sales would go to various housing charities. Looking at the line-ups on the various EPs, it strikes me that Food were being optimistic in the level of reach they thought that the EPs may have. Too many of the names on it either lacked the clout to get a high chart placing (Kingmaker, 808 State, Thunder etc) or were past their commercial peak (Heaven 17, Jimmy Somerville, Voice of the Beehive etc). Also, they were releasing a charity record in support of an ongoing problem - homelessness, which wasn’t going to be eased or eradicated by people eager to hear what a collaboration between Hawkwind and Samantha Fox sounded like. Answer: better than you might expect.
Jones’s version of Gimme Shelter saw him partnered with the Yorkshire band, New Model Army, who were just about to release a new album called The Love of Hopeless Causes, which would come out three days after their appearance on this Peel show. The Jones version was on the Alternative EP, but it rocks hard and features superb harmonica work by Mark Feltham. Unlike some of the other versions, this one goes lightly on the “Rape. Murder./It’s just a shot away” sentiments. Instead it ends on a desperate pleading for shelter showing that Jones and New Model Army understood the brief on this cover better than some of the other artists. We can almost tangibly sense the desperation of those reduced to living on the streets, without a roof over their heads or a place to safely call home. It’s an excellent version full of soul and vulnerability. In my view, only the version which brings together Gary Clail, Ranking Roger, Pop Will Eat Itself, The Mighty Diamonds and On-U Sound System was superior to it. There were no real duff versions across the four EPs, but whether it was the mundanity of the cause or the lack of stardust in the artist line-up, the project stalled at Number 23 in the charts, four places lower than All You Need is Love would do so and confirming, at the very least, the Beatles remained more popular than the Stones. If Food had waited another year, they could have coaxed a version out of their own signings, Blur, who then in their Parklife pomp, may have pushed the project a few places further up the charts.
In retrospect, we can see that this period also marked something of the start of a renaissance in the fortunes of Tom Jones. Glastonbury headliner in 1992, charity single artist in 1993. In 1994, he would have a new album out called The Lead and How to Swing It, which gave him another Top 20 hit with If I Only Knew. This led on to regular appearances on the Channel 4 show, Viva Cabaret. By 1996, he was helping to save the world from Martian invasion in Tim Burton’s film, Mars Attacks. And by the turn of the millennium he was enjoying big chart hits in duets with contemporary artists such as Stereophonics, The Cardigans and Cerys Matthews, who had already immortalised Jones in a duet with one of my least favourite bands.
Peel played a couple of other versions of Gimme Shelter around this time, not least when he was sitting in for Jakki Brambles on her daytime Radio 1 show between 5-9 April, 1993. These included the version by Jimmy Somerville and Voice of the Beehive on 5/4/93 and a 1989 Peel Session version by Inspiral Carpets on 6/4/93.
Having spent part of the last post writing about this “unavailable” selection from Peel’s 20/3/93 Radio 1 show and positing a theory from my notes that both Greener Pastures and the Not in Kansas Anymore LP were connected to The Wizard of Oz, this blog’s very only wizard, Webbie of the Keeping It Peel podcast has produced another rabbit from the hat and uploaded the track for us all to enjoy, taken directly from the broadcast of the 20th of March.
Peel confirms that Greener Pastures was part of a broader narrative within the album. I had initially felt that if it did have links to The Wizard of Oz, it was as a hip hop spin on Over the Rainbow. The factors which are making Michael Ivey consider, reluctantly, moving away - drive-by shootings, assaults/murders over trainers/T-shirts - are far more serious than those that Dorothy Gale had to put up with.
Having made the move, Ivey finds himself in a police lineup and confronted by his own version of Almira Gulch, with the implication being that if a black man moves to a quieter area, especially if it is a predominantly white one, they will find themselves at the centre of suspicion should anything happen in that place.
As the track fades out, I find myself with Peel in wondering what happens next.
I also wasn’t persuaded by Nathalie Chou by Lutchiana Mobulu featuring one of Diblo Dibala’s more anaemic performances, which Peel played as a taster for a gig Mobulu was playing at Subterania, taking place the day after this show which would feature Peels and Kershaws stretching as far as the eye can see. It was a busy couple of weekends for Andy Kershawwho was going to spend the following weekend DJing at a benefit gig for Haiti supporting Abdul Tee-Jay’s Rokoto.
There was one track I had down for inclusion which I couldn’t find:
Basehead - Greener Pastures: Hip hop from Washington D.C. and a track taken from what I guessed may have been a concept album called Not in Kansas Anymore. I think I based that theory on the title of the track being an allusion to the themes of escape - and subsequent longing for a return home - in The Wizard of Oz. The album title is a direct quote from the film. But a look at the track listing seems to scotch the theory, though given the rumours about abusive and lewd on-set behaviour during the making of the film perhaps titles like Hoes on Tour or Do You Wanna Fuck (or What?) may not be wide of the mark.
One track fell from favour after making my list:
Pond - Wheel: Great start but didn’t sustain interest. Listening back to it again as I type this, I may have made a mistake in rejecting it. Never mind, I have other Pond tracks on my future lists.
This post represents a hat trick of angry guitar records taking a look at relationships going wrong. We’ve done mutual contempt and followed that with a sense that things need to change one way or another. But Eat Your Heart Out lands us on the day of armageddon, with the rawness of a split that feels like it’s no more than 24 hours old, and which has left singer, Simone Holsbeek, furious rather than devastated.
The liner notes on Cords’s debut album, Taurus No Bull include the lyrics to all of the tracks, and in the case of Eat Your Heart Out, we learn that this break-up came as something of a surprise but that it also confirmed certain suspicions that Holsbeek had of their lover. The more I listen to the song, the more I suspect that its title is self-referential rather than an instruction to someone else. The end of the affair has torn out Holsbeek’s heart as if the Hounds of Hell themselves had done it, hence the line, It must be a mad dog. If you, or someone you know, has recently suffered from a breakup, I urge you to play them this and get them to the angry phase as quickly as possible. You’ll be doing them an invaluable service.
At this point in their career, Cords were putting out records through TVT Records, but the band may also have had room to vent their anger if they saw the sleeve for the Eat Your Heart Out single put out on limited edition red vinyl by Fuel Records, not least because the label spelled their name wrong. The error was not repeated when the band put out a single on Fuel called American Woman the following year.
