This old town (is a seaside town)

Hats off to the eagle-eared Davy H for pipping this mystery song-scrap as the Staple Singers. And Simon for Google-doodle doing it as This Old Town... I really don't know anywhere near as much Staple Singers back catalogue as I should (read:any) so your hints, tips, avoids, gots, needs etc.. would be welcome.

This Old Town (People in this town) - The Staples Singers



On the subject of 'this town' *cringes shoulders* Piley and I have a nip-about on the theme of Seaside for this evening's Radio Podrophenia theme, Little Barrie, The Seasiders and Wilco are just a few from playlist..although Jack Hammer, has been given the 11th hour bounce in favour of Peggy Lee. Tune in from 9 for the full fat rundown.



If you're after some new summer sounds Yacht's Shangri-La (a mix of Atomic-era Blondie, Tom Tom Club and Lene Lovich) should be top of your shopping list...

The Lopsided Pop Quiz: Name That Tune (in 4 seconds)

I say lopsided as I can't give you the answer - but hope you can burst my bubble of baffllement. Lee Perry's Cow Thief Skank tune I'm fine for - it's those four snatched seconds of soul stomping, nipping in at the intro, that's got my noggin boggled.

My guess is, given Lee Perry's relaxed attitude to studio techniques and technicalities - that this track was on the tape before pressing the record button.

I've Googled it, Shazzed it - not a sniff. Any hints, tips knowing nods would be massively appreciated..so it's over to you pop-boffins

Charlie Ace & Lee Perry - Cow Thief Skank

B is for....

Bardot, Beastie Boys, Barbara Streisand doing Bowie and a bagful of other B-based tunes and musicians..all getting bumped into the musical tombola that is Radio Podrophenia. Here to badger and bother your ears from 9 tonight on S6...


Natter and banter is likely touch on the idea of TV and film titles fused with musicians , along the lines of...

Six Million Dollar Manfred Man
Incredible Shoestring Band
The Family Catweazle
It Ain't Half Hot Mumford and Sons

And casting for a live action Peanuts. Charlie Brown and Snoopy  are sorted, any others let us know..

And to top and tail it with another BB

Funky Friday - Summer Shakedown Volume 4

How's your luck! After boozing and booming through 3 CDs worth of home mades mixes last Saturday - heading steadily towards the leg-shaker and trouser-rattler that is Volume 4, when it's call finally came - 'No CD' was the unyielding,  naysaying display scrolling across the LCD of doom.

Ho, hum - oh well, at least the raw rooted tunes: R 'n' B, rock 'n' rollers and swinging mod stompers.. won't go to waste. We'll recycle and replay them here instead.

Tracklisting in the comms - vols 1 and 2 coming soon(ish)..

Summer Shakedown Vol 4

It's all happening at the 100 Club..

Draw a big red ring around this Thursday: July 14th,  for a night of glam anthems and black leather beats as The Wolfmen launch and play live - tunes and tracks from their summery sounding new LP Married to the Eiffel Tower. Of course there'll also be some old faves from Modernity and also a few exclusive doings for this one night only.

Bringing some high speed angular clang to the bill are long-haul favourites around these parts - Silvery. Along with some special guests and DJ spots we can't mention - all brought to you by the good people at Vive le Rock magazine.

If you're local to old London Town - polish up rocking boots and I'll see you Oxford Street way this Thursday.

If you haven't experienced The Wolfmen's live wall of wallop - be prepared for this style of thunderous rumbles - Thieves and Liars which is on the set-list: all Bhangra beats and two-fisted riffing..



To taste another new tune - redirect your ears to Radio Podrophenia tonight from 9, where The Wolfmen's July 20 is on the playlist - a playlist fitted around this week's theme of 'Time'. Or for some back catalogue  - grab this limited edition cover of Eno's solo opener

Needle in the Camel's Eye

Funky Friday: A One off all-soul shakedown

Its been awhiles since we got on the good foot of a weekend. But as we're off to a summer shindig tomorrow night - a garden gathering of scoopy doings and fruity tunes which I've been asked to do the music for - it seems a fine time to fire up some Friday Funk for a one off.

In fact, it was one of these very same get-togethers that partially gave me the push to start sticking tunes into a cyberspace scrapbook, as a way of sharing several CDs worth of home-mixed music comps. Although as it turned out, only this 30 minute snippet has ever been blogged.

Anyhow - tomorrow's collections and compilations span almost 5 hours - give or take a track or two. CDs 1 and 2 tend towards the sunny sounds of Acid Jazz, Studio One, funky covers and world grooves. But set 3 is something strangely I've never pitched in with before - an all out soul-rollercoaster of vintage hits, new bits, covers, northern, Motown, garage, international and instrumental hip swishing funk.

The track-listing is in the comments to swerve a blog-whacking. So tomorrow think of us shaking a Saturday night leg, and perhaps I'll wing in the other 3 CDs during the summer season

Funky Friday - Saturday Night Soul Shakedown



You'll find a few of these scraps around and about on the blog if you're happy to dig a bit..

Meet Boggle the dog

Our official Podrophenia mascot - trained and maintained by the dog-handler Mr V Suicide.

In a super swithcheroo - tonight Piley and I back out of our usual playlisting, instead handing tonight's selection - themed around animals - over to the podrophenia panel for an All Suggestions Special. Rats, cats, lizards and rabbits are few of the beasties being pulled out of the hat, along with Chris Constantinou and Marco Pirroni formerly of The Ants and now Wolfmen - each picking a tune a piece for us.

Along with this nifty footed number pitched in by Miss Ally..



Re-tune your inter-web here from 9 for all the usual chat 'n' tunes..

The Charts - For The Birds

Plectrum Analyser

If you haven't picked up on Plectrum - The Cultural Pick yet, issue 9 is the perfect place to hop onboard. Threading together the best of vintage and modern modes: Molly Parkin relates a full and fruity tale of her night with Bo Diddley, Biba people Delisia Howard and Chris Price review Don't Look Now. Mike McInnerney designer of The Who's Tommy album art has a double spread covering the backstory to his assorted sixties 'scene' graphics and new illustrations, while Guy Sangster-Adams catches up with sparky singer-songstress Alice Gold.

All this and music reviews - from me! The Bongolian, Splinters, Real Fur and Horrors boy Faris Badwan's new project Cat's Eye's all go on the stereogram for listening with a critical ear. So who gets must buy and who gets must try harder? Find out in issue 9 of Plectrum - The Cultural Pick



Cat's Eyes - Face in the Crowd

Animal by Real Fur

Get your motor running

As Piley and I head out on the highway, having a run out on the theme of Types of Transport. Edwyn Collins, Jack Hammer, Bo Diddley and an exclusive preview of a new tune from Dennis Hopper Choppers are onboard for the ride. Along with possible topics for some radio pitch and put including:

How many driving tests!
Strange vehicles you've ridden in.
Who to cast in a live action Wacky Races.
Favourite TV only transport: The Banana Splits buggies, the Pink Panther car, Thunderbirds hover jet-skis.

And some new additions to the Morrisey conga. Park yourself here from 9 for a ninety minute radio ride.

It's a re-up, but from four years back - I think we can swing that..

Wilson Pickett - Born to be Wild



For me the greatest pop video of the year. No Q! Good work Soundhog..



Davy your Transport/animal husbandry shout is still under discussion...

Ant Music For Sox People

Picture from the always excellent Like Punk Never Happened

He was the UK's last proper pop star. I've got the albums, the singles, the box sets and even worn the t-shirt (Frontier Tour 1980). But in just over 30 years I've only hit two Adam Ant gigs: the first at Chelmsford Odeon - when Adam was simmering up to Ant Music's boiling point and the audience still a molten mix of snarling skins and spitting punks, that would break into random bouts of head-cracking and high flying fist-fights at the spill of a pint or any period of extended 'bogging'.

The second was last Wednesday. In a loaded, low-key Southend sweat-box venue where Adam reanimated a patchwork of his former personalities: King of the Wild Frontier, the Dandy Highwayman, Prince Charming - rendering them into a multi-sided composite of the characters that's almost Johnny Depp meets Axl Rose with Bolan tone. Read what you will into that..

Dig through the Ant Music back catalogue and all the hits are 'bankers' and perfect pop constructions. But for me, the magic always lay buried (pirate style) in the muscular punk of the early works, the B-sides and the bootlegs. If you'd asked me to rattle off a fantasy set-list..Fat Fun, Fall Out, Beat My Guest,  Lady,  Vive Le Rock would have been a few of the tunes. And as if by magic - Adam beat me to it, drafting up the dream set-list of hits, oddities and obscurities.

You can't help feeling slightly sorry for the those only there to hear the hits. This being a playlist pooled from the fanzine-era and Dirk days of darker matters: Cleopatra, Plastic Surgery, Physical, Deutscher Girls

Adam  now moves at a more stately pace and doesn't present with the same breathless energy, or the full frontal attack of the young  up 'n' comer he once was, but the presence is just as punchy, the voice is still intact - switching from crowd-rousing growler to crooner boom. The jawline and cheekbones are still sword sharp, while the band (with double drummers) blitz it like a Spitfire.

Unbelievably Adam Ant is nudgingly close to his sixtieth birthday.

Adam Ant at Chinnerys - Picture by Piley

An overlooked oddity is the still unreleased title track of Dirk Wears White Socks



Adam and The Ants - Dirk Wears White Socks

You can catch a snatch of the lyrics on this Dirk era tee - and while we're at it, the BBC only recording of Ligotage is worth bagging...

A is for...

Allsorts: The Adverts, Adam Ant and Amos Milburn - just a few of the A themed tracks and acts playlisted in the first installment of our Podrophonic Alphabet, getting a run out on S6 Radio tonight..(9 - 10:30)

As well a handful of songs to bring you,  there's guest appearances, as Gaye Advert and TV Smith stop by to say hello - and former Ant man, now Wolfman - Chris Constantinou gives us an exclusive interview on why Adam Ant is Live Aid's forgotten rocker..

You can spot Chris on Bass below



And cherry-popping here..

And - we want your DIY idents. But more on that tonight

London's Grooviest Boutique - Mrs Jones Emporium.

Rock Chic is the vibe at Fee Doran's newly re-housed glam-grotto. Originally occupying a fifth floor space Clerkenwell way - Mrs Jones new lodgings, currently parked up along Hackney Road, are Mr Benn goes Bowie at Kensington Market. Housed in a glittering club-house where handmade one-offs are racked and stacked alongside a set-dressing of black sprayed mirror balls, the coolest cult collectables and an assortment of sparkles, spangles and funkily feather-cut numbers. All of which make a visiting the emporium feel like a rummage around Eno's Warm Jets era wardrobe..

Stylistically Fee Doran's designs trace a line from the Wonder Workshop and Biba's widescreen scene via Mr Freedom and Alkasura to Roxy Music meets Worlds End. Dig about the Mrs J website and you'll find a client list that reads like a Burke's Peerage of the glossily trendy gentry - Kylie, Goldfrapp, Scissor Sisters, Madonna. Dig about the multi-coloured pop shop's stock, and bespoke bits or unique 'pop star droppings' are yours for the bagging.

Mrs Jones Emporium can be found 49 Hackney Road, E2....Mrs Jones can be found on the web and Twitter..

A tune that seems to match the mood of Mrs J's is this Roxy rarity.
Rarity rating being: a Peel session (4th Jan 1972) from before the band signed to Island and featuring Davy O’List on guitar and Graham Simpson doing bass duties

Roxy Music - Re-Make Re-Model




Yes true believers all you see below - are Mrs J's creations...