Billy Reeves was the songwriter and guitarist in 90s indie band theaudience, the group that gave Sophie Ellis-Bextor a leg up to stardom. This was their crowning glory...
Billy left the group in '98 and he's had a pretty chequered history since then, including a near-fatal car accident in 2001 and a place in the Guinness Book of Records for releasing the world's first playable jigsaw puzzle with the band Sugar Coat in 2006.
Since then, he's worked as a journalist, a radio producer and a football commentator.
But he still makes music too, and this is from his lates album, Postwar, which will be out in August. And he's got the Bluebells backing him on this track, but don't let that put you off if you're George...
And you thought that the whole point of becoming a rock star was to get up on stage and feel the adulation of the crowd below you...?
Not always, it seems.
These guys would rather be in the audience!
AUDIENCE #1
We start with an Audience lacking the definite article, originating in that London back in 1969. They started out as a soul band called Lloyd Alexander Real Estate (no idea who Lloyd Alexander was - he certainly wasn't in the band) before getting a record deal and a residency at Ronnie Scott's nightclub as Audience. They drifted away from soul towards the pretensions of Art Rock, released four albums, and toured with Rod and the Faces, before it all fell apart at the end of '72. Vocalist Howard Werth was momentarily considered as a replacement for Jim Morrison in The Doors, while other band members went on to join Stackridge, The Nashville Teens and previous Namesakes, Hot Chocolate.
Here they are at the height of their powers in 1971...
THE AUDIENCE #2
British post-punkers, verging on goths if you ask me, from 1982. The only tracks listed on discogs were on compilations, so I was surprised to find some audio...
THEAUDIENCE #3
The Audience for whom I have the most time arrived on the scene in 1996, differentiating themselves with a portmanteau name (or perhaps their space bar was broken). Lead singer Sophie Ellis Bextor was the daughter of former Blue Peter presenter Janet Green, and there were slight mumblings of nepotism from certain corners of the Britpop community. However, Theaudience were a far more interesting prospect than Menswear or The Ordinary Boys or any number of lesser Britpop lights, so stuff 'em all.
Sophie went on to solo fame in the pop world, reinventing herself during lockdown with her Kitchen Disco performances. Her career got a further boost recently when her track Murder On The Dancefloor was featured in the soundtrack of controversial movie Saltburn... and as a result, you'll have a hell of a job finding a decent priced copy of Theaudience's sole album from 1998 right now. They were going for 10p a copy 6 months ago... such is the fickle world of pop.
Here's a song I knew I was going to love as soon as I saw the title...
THE AUDIENCE #4
From Santa Cruz in 1997 came another The Audience - or Das Audience - though they'd soon change their name to Vue, like the cinema chain. The song titles on their sole album sound promising... Doctor Huh, Painless Dentistry and Love A Doorframe - but I think they may have set the bar too high.
AUDIENCE #5
A Spanish Audience who got together in 2002 and may still be kicking around. Could be worthy of further investigation...
THE AUDIENCE #6
German indie types led by guitarist Sebastian Wild and singer Bernd Pflaum, active between 2005 and 2012.
THEE AUDIENCE #7
New York power-poppers with an extra E from about a decade ago...
THA AUDIENCE #8
Finally, I want you to close your eyes and imagine you're in a particularly noisy video game arcade back in 2014...
Which Audience is deserving of your applause... and which would you boot out into the street?
Kris Kristofferson was a talented amateur boxer who took part in The National Golden Gloves boxing tournament. He never fought Ali professionally, but he did star alongside him in the TV mini series Freedom Road back in 1979. He had a way with an eye-catching song title too...
Anyway, as I've been down with the lurgy this week, I don't have much to say for myself beyond throwing a few more songs with interesting titles your way. Interesting images too, like this one...
This is Bobb Trimble, "psychedelic folk/outsider musician" from Massachusetts. Bobb self-released two albums in the early 80s (above is the cover of his debut record, Iron Curtain Innocence) before packing the psychedelic folk / outsider shit in and going off to do something more respectable with his life. Like not having a backing band made up of 12 year old kids that resulted in them getting barred from venues scared of losing their liquor licences. The albums were re-issued in the early noughties after second hand copies started going for silly money on eBay and taste-makers like Thurston Moore began dropping Bobb's name.
Next up, a couple I owe to Ernie. Firstly, African-American country singer Howdy Glenn. I'd never heard of him until Ernie pointed me in his direction a couple of weeks back, but he's a welcome discovery. In the copious notes I make while preparing this feature, I scribbled the following...
Ernie also responded to Khayem's recent 1000th post and they got into a bit of banter about reggae singer John Holt. Ernie wondered if any others wanted to take up the John Holt baton. I'll admit, I didn't have a lot from Mr. Holt in the hard-drive, but this one caught my eye.
I've no idea why John wants brushing. Please tell me it's not a euphemism.
And now, I bring you "the driving force behind 'The New Wave of Swedish Celtic Punk'", described by one critic as pioneers of "Celtic Social Realism". Swedish Celtic Social Realism, that is. They're also the only Swedish band ever to have performed for two consecutive years at the Woodstock Festival. The Woodstock Festival in Poland, that is.
Full disclosure, Finnegan's Hell didn't come up with the song title below... they just stole it from Oscar Wilde. Still, you know what Picasso said...
Finally, I'd just like to point out that the current Number One on the UK Singles Chart is a song I first wrote about back on the 18th of August 2022. Look at me, the taste-maker! Woo hoo! It's not got the greatest title in the world, but given that I am now clearly an Influencer, I can make up my own rules.
Meanwhile, at #8 in the aforementioned Completely Irrelevant Streaming Aggregate still known as the "Official Singles Chart" (surely it's time they dropped the word "Singles"?), it's a re-entry for the lovely Sophie Ellis-Bextor's 23 year old Number 2 hit, Murder On The Dancefloor. This is largely due to the Irish actor Barry Keoghan dancing naked (and I do mean: naked) to it at the end of the recent movie Saltburn.
Now I've always had a lot of time for the daughter of Blue Peter's Janet Ellis. I even saw her play live a couple of times in the late 90s with theaudience, a band who certainly knew their way around a song title. To whit...
Reg Dwight is, of course, Elton John. (Who could have featured in this countdown with B-b-b-Bennie & The Jets.) If Elton was on tour, he might stay at the Crossroads Motel.
Those of you who know about such things will recognise that as the original version of the song that would become Plastic Bertrand's Ça Plane Pour Moi. The Elton Motello version was a bit too rude for the time, so they changed the lyrics to nonsense French and a worldwide hit was born.
