onionbagblog

Holy Quack! Duck Tours Are Returning To London

And if they’re anything like the old yellow duck predecessors, they’re a right pain for any passing cyclists.

We Asked This MP If He Really Wanted to Be in Your Party. Then He Quit

💩 Show

An album that all the nerds at schools use to have wet dreams over. I was too busy with 2Tone and girls. Time to see if the nerds won the long game?

tl;dr nerds never win.

At the end of Oxygène 1 I was ready to bail. Wait. There’s five more servings of this shit sandwich to come?

It sounds more like the annoying soundtrack for an early 80’s video game console. It’s got a crap cover as well.

UP YOURS, nerds.

⭐

The Inside Story of How the Green Party Turned Red

A return to The Trail for the firs time in a fortnight. The leaves have dropped, the ferry has been put away to bed for another season. We’re on the cusp of the end of autumn, approaching stupidly early Christmas planning.

I had chores and admin that I really should have been seeing to indoors. But the forecast for the bloody Estuary Wilds for tomorrow is a shocker. You need to get out, whilst you can.

Further down the Trail and the cormorant was sitting proud on top of his pole vantage point, drying his wings out. We watched the latest shitty Jurassic Park film last night. He wouldn’t have looked out of place in that.

Make the most of these Golden Days, Mr Cormorant. You appreciate the sun all the more when it’s pissing it down 24/7 outside. Good luck with the wing drying thing in the morning.

Here’s some geezer music for you: I bring you Good Health Good Wealth.

This time next year we will be millionaires, etc.

Which also happens to be the title of their debut album, out on Friday.

I first caught the duo on BBC Introducing for London. It’s a cheeky chappy mix of Streets style stories, with some tight beats brought up to date.

They look the bollocks as well.

Some of the tracks get a little dark. GWGH are not afraid to explore their own feelings, all behind the uplifting beats.

They’re also giving Sleaford fucking Mods a run for their money in the profanity stakes.

Well this is a wonderful oddity from Little Stevie - a double CD as well, something that I’m always in favour of.

Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants is WAY OUT of the usual Stevie narrative around this time. Released in 1979, it’s the polar opposite of that glorious run of five albums, starting with Music of My Mind in 1972, and closing with Songs in the Key of Life four years later.

That’s not to say that Plants is crap. It’s just different. VERY different.

I had no understanding or even knowledge of this album until recently. Apologies, Stevie obsessives.

It got name checked by Gawd knows who in a podcast I heard, or an interview I read. I get through so much online content these days that I can’t keep track of where all the heads up come from.

But something must have pricked my interest to add it to the ebay Watch List.

Daily CD’s were served up - £10 to £15. Which sounds about right for a double album release.

And then last week this copy landed at £4.

Blimey. BUY NOW etc.

ChatGPT tells me:

“Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants was an experimental, mostly instrumental album intended to accompany the visuals of a nature documentary exploring the idea that plants are sentient and can respond to human emotion.”

Which is all very King Charles.

First play, first impressions: it’s a soulful companion piece for Brian Eno releases around this time. It’s still Stevie, with the harmonica dropping across different tracks.

I still love the idea of taking a punt on the unknown. Sure, I could have streamed this. But for a £4 gamble, I’ve now got a new double album that keeps me going for the next month or so.

We need more environmental music btw. What’s Going On, World Party’s Goodbye Jumbo, and now Journey Through the Life of Plants.

I hope over time, Stevie gets the same high esteem from me as the other two albums on this list.

An interesting album, but hardly a classic. It does what you would expect from Fatboy - it builds, it bleeps, it bounces. But it’s very much a fast food instant hit. I didn’t find myself humming any of the lops later in the day. My main interest was in trying to spot the samples.

⭐ ⭐

Another day, another KLF podcast.

Eternal, etc.

And so here we have Miranda Sawyer with an hour of KLF conversation as part of her Talk 90’s To Me series.

Miranda is great with her understanding of promotion of all things 90’s. She was there and pretty much lived the dream.

Her constant laughter on the KLF pod is a little grating - a minor irritant. I think it’s the subject matter of what is quite a dark story that doesn’t lend itself to the bubbly narration.

Joining Miranda on the pod is Joe Muggs, here to plug his latest cover feature on the KLF for Disco Pogo magazine. He knows his Transcentral backstory.

It remains a magical tale, and one that I’ve not quite exhausted. But there is a sense of allowing the well to run dry with these art terrorist anecdotes.

The KLF squeezed so much into a relatively short period. The stories are getting repeated across various pods, with a different type of truth emerging at the other end each time.

Which is VERY Discordian in outlook.

It’s similar to all the Clough stories over the years. I can now no longer listen to the endless podcasts and YT clips with stories from the Great Man. I’ve heard them all before.

I’m not even going to touch the latest Sex Pistols podcast on BBC Sounds. How many times can you tell the story of overflowing bins in Leicester Square and Bill Grundy?

The 90’s pod though is definitely worth a listen. The section on burning the million quid gets quite deep and shines a new light on the whole spectacle.

I did like the quote that the KLF “aren’t the Pet Shop Boys.”

There’s also some well researched segments that bring the story up to date. The KLF may be dead, but the story isn’t.

MuMumification day is coming up on Merseyside on the 23rd, natch.

They’re still BONKERS, they’re still kicking against the pricks.

Following on from my Sunday night folk session with the great Dick Gaughan, I’ve gone full on folkie with Martin Carthy’s latest album, Transform Me Then Into a Fish.

Album titles still matter, Comrades.

It’s not an easy listen, but it is a rewarding one. Carthy describes the album as having come full circle since his 1965 self-titled debut. Transform has many call backs to the original.

The vocals are delivered in a staccato style. It can take some getting use to. This leads you to focus on the words, and then being taken in deeper with the storytelling.

Which is what folkie shit is all about, right?

Carthy’s daughter Eliza contributed to the production. I still remember when she was a young trailblazer for the new folk scene in the mid 90’s with her punky folk looks. The Carthy family name remains a very proud one in English folk circles.

Elsewhere on the album and sitarist Sheena Mukherjee is another standout performer. Folk music is essentially people music. It needs to adapt or die. This is a very modern take on an old tradition.

My interest in the new album was first raised after seeing Carthy perform a track live at the Mercury Prize last month. It was spellbinding, seeing an 84 year-old fella silencing an arena venue with just his voice and guitar.

Plus his songs. Never forget the songs - something that is often overlooked in new music.

Carthy appeared genuinely humble after receiving the applause from a glitzy Newcastle Arena on Mercury night. Of course he was never going to win the music biz vanity prize. But it was a stunning performance, much like this album.

“It was really heavy going at times. We were angry; we were trying to say things in a way that was confrontational and shocking to get a reaction. And we definitely did.”

Eve Libertine looks back - and forward - on Crass

Speaking of which…

New album from The Steve Ignorant Band – Crass Songs live in Barcelona

“No 10 has gone into full bunker mode, turning on their most loyal cabinet members for absolutely no reason. A circular firing squad won’t help the government out of the hole we’re in.”

Jerk circle, more like.