Amongst my presents from Santa this year was a couple of CDs, one from the older of the famous Gallagher brothers and the other from a Liverpool band called The Sums. These were real CDs with artwork, not downloads but a proper disc you can get hold of and play in the car.There is a bit of a connection here between the two bands, it goes back a long time ago, when Oasis were starting out and trying to get a record deal they were helped and became mates with a few Liverpool bands and the lead singer of The Sums, Peter ‘Digsy’ Deary was in one of those bands at the time called 'Smaller', Oasis even wrote a song about him, ‘Digsy’s dinner’ on the first album. Well that was a few years ago and I don’t suppose Noel Gallagher does much boozing in the north end of Liverpool these days, where your likely to find The Sums playing.
Anyway through this blog I hereby recommend both of these albums, it’s hard enough trying to find a record shop these days and by the time you’ve found one then waded through all the x-factor garbage you probably just want to leave but both these albums are worth getting hold of. Noel’s high flying birds is full of big production classic tunes, every song is good and funny enough the artwork wouldn’t look out of place on a Weller album, which is no bad thing. The best thing Noel has done for years was getting out of that Oasis circus and he needs to stay out of it, it’s all been a bit embarrassing for a long time. The Sums album, ‘If only….’ Is just as good if not better. Digsy's delivery has always been a definitive factor, both live and in the studio and he's on form with his clever and subjective lyrics. It might sound a bit less polished, but that’s what makes it special, and the reason no doubt is because it was mixed by the band themselves, probably for less than one of those paisley scarves the other Gallagher brother sells in his fancy boutiques.
Here's an advert for The Sums album, Noel's doing alright for promotion without my blog.
A nice article mate.
ReplyDeletevinyl records, that is if you are of an age to remember them, some of the artwork was amazing. This is something that is missing from today’s downloading. When the CD was introduced to the world they were to revolutionise the music industry. When they first came out it was alleged that they would be the death knell for the old black vinyl albums or so many thought but thankfully this didn’t happen.
We can all remember our first ever single and album but I for one cannot say I remember my first ever CD or come to that my first download. My first ever single was Ian Dury and the blockheads - hit me with your rhythm stick and the album/s were the Jam’s “In the city” and Madness “One step beyond” two classic albums of their day and instrumental in awakening a mod revival of the late 70’s. The artwork on the in side sleeve or more particularlly the photo’s of mods, nutty boys etc inspired a generation of pubescent teens to think about style, culture and music in a different way than their older siblings had done with the punk scene a few years earlier or so we thought at the time.
In the 90’s bands like Inspiral Carpets would scratch messages into the vinyl of their 12’ records you cannot do that on a download single now can you? Down loads have actually done what CD’s had been blamed for the death of the record shops. The industries latest gimmick created to allow those that used to get someone to illegally download music for them to be able to simply do it themselves at a small cost. For me downloads are never going to replace my first ever experience of walking in to the old Probe Records a dimly lit shop with wall to wall boxes of records and flipping thru them looking for that elusive single or album for my record collection. I still have the original plastic bags from the record shops i bought my albums from Probe, Revolver etc what do you get with a download? A deduction from your bank account and a virus on your laptop or computer if you are not lucky.
Hello Greg, thanks for the comment, a big part of my youth was spent in record shops, listening to music and looking through the artwork on albums. For the kids today they're more interested in hanging round a sunbed shop.
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