PVC

Tuesday 29 November 2011

London events for the month of action against Atos and the benefit cuts


London events for the month of action against Atos and the benefit cuts

Take action against Atos and the poverty pimps!  Please organise in your home town, blog, tweet, share and help promote all events.

London
1st December – 5.30pm-6.30pm
LSE Campus, Aldwych
Protest at Iain Duncan Smith's LSE Talk.  Millionaire Iain Duncan Smith wants you to join his army of unpaid workers. Come and expose his doublespeak!
3rd December – 2pm
Olympic Park, Stratford
Protest Against Atos Outside the Paralympic Test Event!
16th December – 2pm
Triton Square, London NW1
A Real Victorian Christmas Party and Picnic at Triton Square

Full details of these and all other events can be found on the Benefit Claimants Fightback website at: http://benefitclaimantsfightback.wordpress.com/2011/11/13/a-month-of-festive-action-against-atos-and-the-benefit-cuts/

Send details of events elsewhere to notowelfarecuts@yahoo.co.uk - or reply to this email and I'll make sure they get listed.

We'll also be at Triton Square on the morning of the November 30th from 8.30am where we'll be joining the PCS picket line outside Euston Tower and will no doubt be paying Atos a visit.  Keep an eye on the website or facebook page for more details: http://www.facebook.com/events/122853381158514/


Sunday 27 November 2011

Sunday 20 November 2011

Saturday 12 November 2011

Quote of the week

"what is the robbing of a bank compared to the founding of a bank?"
Bertolt Brecht.

Sent from my iPhone

Sunday 6 November 2011

Disco! A mix from 2004



This set was put together for a mix CD back in 2004. It contains some of my favourite vinyl of the time, mixed, as usual with some utter madness. The intro is by the Christian Astronauts who I discovered through the show and tell website (check it out if you haven't before). Listen out for the crap pretend rocket engines and a terrible robot voice. 

Also included are snippets from ‘How To Speak Hip’ by Del Close & John Brent. This is a 1959 comedy album that gets into the Beat Generation thing. I love it.

The voice over the top of the 'Good Times' instrumental is George Melly reciting a homage to Kurt Schwitters' 'Ur Sonata', which is a Dada sound poem. Its on the "Miniatures" album (put together by Morgan Fischer in 1980), which had 51 one minute avant-garde tracks by a host of interesting artists. Superb stuff. Mad, I did warn you. 

 The Ultrafunk track, "Kung Fu Man" has been in my sets since I began pretending to DJ back in the mid 1980s. I used to play it at Maximus in Leicester Square (for Mark Carter's "All Tomorrows Parties" nights which ended up at Madame JoJos in Soho). I still love the track, I only discovered recently that 'Mr.Superbad' (Freddie Mack) had been a radio DJ in Manchester for many years. He died fairly recently in 2009 (R.I.P.), I wish I had heard his show, by all accounts it was top notch. 

There is a scratchy version of Dexter Wansel's "My Favourite Disco", this the man who did the magnificent "Life On Mars". Superb production and musicianship. I often use one of Dexter's tracks as a reference point when setting up a PA as the balance and quality of sound is immaculate.

Although I have labelled the set as "classic disco" most of the tracks aren't that obvious. Granted, you have "A Fifth Of Beethoven" which appears in Saturday Night Fever, and a version of "Good Times", but tracks like "Why Leave Us Alone" and "Here We Go Again" are a little more unusual. I had found "Devil's Gun" by rummaging in jumble sales and second hand shops, and for a while it became a staple in my sets.

DJing this stuff in 2004 was not that trendy, and, where I was, I had to work hard to convince people of the merits of disco. Nowadays its a lot easier to get away with as disco has become more mainstream in clubs again. I still love the elements of this kind of disco, and it is (and probably always will be) an important part of all my creative musical activities.

This set finishes with "Free" by Denise Williams. Finish with a slow one, just like discos did back in the 70s. I love this song. If you play guitar or keys you should perhaps try playing the chords for this song, they are gorgeous.

I hope you enjoy it.


Simon x

Quote of the week

"I'd rather be a lighting rod then a seismograph"
Ken Kesey

Sent from my iPhone

Thursday 3 November 2011

Quote of the week

"Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working"
Pablo Picasso

Sent from my iPhone

Tuesday 1 November 2011

Halloween Party DJ sets


My old friend Nicky in Salisbury has magnificent parties. I have DJ'd there for over 10 years now. Here are the DJ Sets at this year's Halloween Party from me and The Dazman. There were some great moments. I particularly enjoyed the Krautrock in Daz's second set. There is a notable lack of funk & disco this time, probably because of the Halloween theme and the fact I was enjoying some new funky/trppy house and nu-disco stuff I had found (like Caribou's remix of Virgo Four and the Actual Proof EP)(see the Juno player at the bottom of this article).

Virgo Four - Its A Crime (Caribou Mix) by Caribouband

We had sound effect samples to play with - Vincent Price's laugh, wolves, screaming and chainsaws, which was fun at first, but once the drunks spotted this they would leap in and randomly press buttons hoping for a noise, which caused some chaos and got annoying after a while, but it wore off eventually..

The recording came out a bit distorted this time (so no MixCloud upload), but I may well put a mix together soon of some of the newer tunes.. here are the set lists:


SIMON:

1: Cola Cola Cola Cola - Shankar Ganesh feat. Vani Jairam
2: Kick It - Peaches & Iggy Pop
3: Assassinator - Meat Beat Manifesto
4: Bela Lugosi's Dead - Nouvelle Vague
5: Human Fly - The Cramps
6: Gouge Away - Pixies
7: Jezebel Spirit - Brian Eno & David Byrne
8: Nuclear Bomb - Meat Beat Manifesto
9: Flashy Flashy (extended club version) - Ellen Allien
10: Stick By My Side (Four Tet version) - Pantha Du Prince
11: Whateverrr (Paul Lorraine Mix) - Josh T
12: Just Let It Lay (DJ Steef edit) - DJ Steef
13: Soul Moukassa - Manu Dibango
14: I Love New York (original 12" mix) - Metropolis
15: Freak On (original 12" mix) - Lemon
16: I've Got Enough - Al Kent
17: Don't Stop - Al Kent
18: Chant No. 1 (I Don't Need This Pressure On) - Spandau Ballet
19: Psycho Killer - Talking Heads
20: I Put A Spell On You - Screamin' Jay Hawkins
21: Goo Goo Muck - The Cramps
22: Monster Mash - Bobby 'Boris' Pickett
23: Wave Of Mutilation - Pixies
24: Train To Doomsville - Lee 'Scratch' Perry
25: Angel Of Mercy - Dean Sunshine Smith
26: The Grit (original disco mix) - Actual Proof
27: Do I Do (Sleazy McQueen re-edit) - Sleazy McQueen
28: Perfect Way - Scritti Politti
29: Angel No - Yello
30: Girls & Boys - Prince
31: Blue Monday - New Order
32: Peaches & Prunes (Ron Hardy's re-edit) - Nightlife Unlimited
33: Street Halo - Burial
34: It's A Crime (Caribou Mix) - Virgo Four

over to the DAZMAN:

35: Der Narr - Walter Wegmüller
36: King Creole - Elvis Presley
37: Too Much Too Young - The Specials
38: There's A Ghost In My House - The Fall
39: Roadrunner - The Modern Lovers
40: Once In A Lifetime - Talking Heads
41: Juxtaposed With U - Super Furry Animals
42: Us v Them - LCD Soundsystem
43: Witness (1 Hope) - Roots Manuva
44: Tollkuhn - Moebius & Plank
45: Over & Over - Hot Chip
46: Shove It (Switch Remix) - Santogold
47: Pric - Super Furry Animals
48: French Disko - Stereolab
49: Great British Summertime - Imperial Leisure
50: International Jet Set - The Specials
51: Girlfriend Is Better - Talking Heads

back to SIMON:

52: Yours (original mix) - Steffi feat. Virginia
53: Hubble (original mix) - Actual Proof
54: Like Some Dream - Daniel Wang
55: Gruff It (original mix) - Matthew Burton & Nick Lawson
56: No Brain - Etienne De Crecy
57: You Can't Hide Your Love (DJ Steef edit) - DJ Steef
58: Soul Moukassa - Manu Dibango
59: Can You Dig It? - Herbie Mann
60: Frenzy - Screamin' Jay Hawkins
61: Monster Mash - Bobby 'Boris' Pickett
62: Daphni - Ye Ye
63: Daylight (feat Michael Parker) - Kolombo
64: Buffalo Bill - Cole Medina
65: Huff & Puff - Actual Proof
66: Lets All Chant - Social Disco Club
67: Good Day Today - David Lynch
68: The Curse Of Millhaven - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

back to DAZMAN:

69: Enjoy Yourself (It's Later Than You Think) - The Specials
70: Daft Punk Is Playing At My House - LCD Soundsystem
71: Shove It (Switch Remix) - Santogold
72: Teenage Witch - Eels
73: I'm Not Your Stepping Stone - The Flies
74: Lucifer Sam - Pink Floyd
75: I'm So Green - Can
76: I Know Corridors - Tilted City
77: White Overalls - La Düsseldorf
78: Private Life - Grace Jones
79: Witness (1 Hope) - Roots Manuva
80: Oh Yeah - Can
81: Fela's Riff (unfinished outtake) - Talking Heads
82: J'ai Mal Aux Dents - Faust
83: Super - Neu!
84: Spaced Cowboy - Sly & The Family Stone
85: Für Immer (Forever) - Neu!
86: There's A Ghost In My House - The Fall
87: You Really Got Me - The Kinks
88: The Model - Kraftwerk
89: Oxygene (part IV) - Jean-Michel Jarre
90: Green Onions - Booker T & The MGs
91: Egyptian Tomb - Mighty Baby
92: Reward - The Teardrop Explodes
93: You'll Disappear (Jacques Renault Remix) - The Phenomenal Handclap Band
94: Kilometer (Moulinex Remix) - Sebastian Tellier
95: Fleece On Brain - Matthew Dear
96: Stranger In Blue Suede Shoes - Kevin Ayers

back to SIMON:

97: Abele Dance - Manu Dibango
98: Oh Yeah - Yello
99: The Message - Cymande
100: It's Alright Now - Eddie Harris
101: Four Play - Fred Wesley & The Horny Horns
102: Oh Marie - Louis Prima
103: Whateverrr (eRi2 remix) - Josh T
104: It's A Crime (Caribou Remix) - Virgo Four
105: Nude Photo - Derrick May
106: Ever - Ellen Allien
107: Base & Apex - Eno, Moebius, Roedelius
108: #Zero - Meat Beat Manifesto
109: Totally Together - Meat Beat Manifesto
113: Let Me Set - Meat Beat Manifesto
114: No Stoppin' That Rockin' (JM After-Session M&M Mix) - Instant Funk
115: Simply Beautiful (DJ Steef edit) - DJ Steef
116: Hubble (original mix) - Actual Proof
117: Daylight (feat. Michael Parker) - Kolombo
118: Like Some Dream - Daniel Wang
119: Angel Of Mercy - Dean Sunshine Smith
120: Hangin' - Chic
121: He's The Greatest Dancer - Sister Sledge
122: Poppy Seed (Boards Of Canada Remix) - Slag Boom Van Loon
123: Orange Romeda - Boards Of Canada
124: Funny Little Man - Aphex Twin





PS: If you have missed "Quote Of The Week", apologies, it will be back as soon as Andi is online again after his battle with BT.