Saturday Snapshots #380

Here we go, Snapshot Bandits... another twelve popular music stars to identify. 

But how are their songs connected?

12. Lennon's Candyman. 

11. Crocodile, crocodile... I'm a big fan!

10. Take a journey across Grandaddy's lake.

9. Pull to slow your descent.

8. Follows Ray Parker into the All Terrain Armoured Transport. Sirius, Polaris, Antares.

7. Groundhog: wood... seer. 

6. Sean & Julian.

5. Bald, bony, rather confused fella.

4. Spring flowers (purple).

3. Cock-up at the Ministry of Defence.

2. Dark Side of the Dean.

1. One from the Spin Doctors.

Deliverance of the answers will commence tomorrow morning...

Listening Post #20: Sorry I'm Late...

I never paid a lot of attention to Liverpudlian indie band The Wombats. I know their big hit from 2007...

The Wombats - Let's Dance To Joy Division

...but beyond that, I couldn't name another one of their songs.

However, I just stumbled across this, which they released late last year, and it would be rude not to pay it lots of attention, since they appear to have written it just for me...

Sequel Songs #2: Halfway To Paradise

Back in the early 60s, a young man named Ronald Wycherley changed his name to Billy Fury and began to make waves in the UK charts. When he needed a new backing band, one of the groups that auditioned were called The Silver Beetles. They were offered the job minus their bassist, Stuart Sutcliffe, but they refused to make that sacrifice. Guitarist John Lennon did ask for Fury's autograph though, before the Silver Beetles left the audition.

A year later, Fury had his biggest hit with a cover of the Goffin/King song Halfway To Paradise. Or that's how history remembers it. In truth, Halfway To Paradise only reached #3 in the charts, one of three Fury singles to achieve that position. He did better with his follow-up release, Jealousy (a version of the Danish song, Jalousie, written in 1925) which got to #2. 

Twenty-some years later, NME writer Cath Carroll formed the band Miaow in Manchester and began to make minor ripples in the UK indie charts. Miaow released a bunch of singles but split up before they finished their debut album (Carroll went on to join The Hit Parade and pursue a solo career in the 90s). One of the tracks that might have made the cut for that unreleased album is this radio session which takes a few more steps towards completing Billy Fury's journey...

Positive Songs For Negative Times #85: I Hate Hate

Elton John - Madman Across The Water

So the Bad Man came back. 

And like a real life pantomime baddy, he swept onto the stage spewing bile and division in a series of specially targeted hate bombs... or "executive actions", as he likes to call them. That whole speech just reminded me of Macbeth...

It is a tale

Told by an idiot, 

Full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

It all just makes me very tired and very sad... especially when I log onto the book of faces to see a former colleague praising that inauguration speech and somebody else commenting "Why can't we have a leader like [him*]?" 

*I can't even bring myself to type his name anymore.

Chuck Prophet - Get Off The Stage

The following morning, I was driving in to work and this track came up on the memory stick. It seemed apt.

I didn't know anything about Razzy Bailey before I heard this tune on a Country Soul compilation, so I was surprised to discover what a long and successful career he had, including three double sided number 1's in succession on the US Country Music chart, "a feat never accomplished by any other artist".

This is one of Razzy's earliest tunes, from his 1974 debut album of the same name... and it was a big hit on the Northern Soul scene too, for obvious reasons.

Namesakes #121: Travis

You talkin’ to me? 

You talkin’ to me? 

You talkin’ to me? 

Then who the hell else are you talkin’ to? 

You talkin’ to me? 

Well I’m the only one here.

Robert DeNiro played the legendary anti-hero Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, and I figured you'd rather see a picture of him at the top of this week's post than another disgraced Radio 1 DJ. 

Of course, there are hundreds of performing artists with Travis as their first or last name. Still, I was surprised by how many acts I found who released records just under that name...

TRAVIS #1

Discogs tells me these guys are an "Obscure US late 60s / early 70s garage psych band from Youngstown, OH." And for discogs to use the word "obscure", they've got to be pretty obscure.

Thankfully, they weren't so obscure as to be missing from the tube of you...

Travis - Livin' In The U.S.A.

TRAVIS #2

From scenic Surrey in the year of my birth (1972) came a Travis by the name of Paul, along with his mates, who took Paul's surname for a bandname... though they'd later change it to Strange Days.

Travis - Band of Heroes

TRAVIS #3

Next up, some laid back soft rock from Michigan in 1975...

Travis - To Be As Free As You

TRAVIS #4

Followed by some "angsty DIY power pop" from... somewhere... in 1975.

Travis - Look At You

TRAVIS #5

The Australian Travis, with a tribute to their hometown which sold 4000 copies in 1979. Luckily, they got back together in 2009 to record the video below...

Travis - Kalgoorlie Town

TRAVIS #6

Castleford's own (Graham) Travis, who had "a very varied career in the music business and has been involved on many recordings". The track below comes from 1984. 

I reckon it was the move to Goole that ended his career.

Travis - Get The Life

TRAVIS #7

Japanese post-punk from 1986.

Travis - Fuchin Kubo

TRAVIS #8

The Travis you should all be familiar with, originating in Glasgow in 1990. They didn't take their Robert DeNiro or The Lairy Cornflake, but instead from the character Harry Dean Stanton played in the Wim Wenders Paris, Texas.

I still think Travis were one of the better post-Britpop guitar bands, especially if you saw them live at a festival when it started raining mid-set. Cue their biggest hit and a great feel-good moment for the crowd.

Fran Healey is sporting a particularly fetching orange hairdo these days...

Travis - Why Does It Always Rain On Me?

THE TRAVIS #9

More Japanese punks from 1992. They also had a song called Crazy Crazy, but I can't find that online... because this comes up instead. (And with 3.4 million youtube views, I was very tempted to bend the rules and give those guys their own entry.)

The Travis - Counter Clock Wise

TRAVIS #10

A Travis from the Netherlands in 1997, and an album named after their cat Wicki. Not bad! 

Travis - Susie's

TRAVIS #11

Wisconsin band from 2004, featuring members of Seam and Dis-. I have no idea who Seam or Dis- are, but I really like this song. And it's only two minutes long as well.

Travis - L Dot Y

TRAVIS #12

Even more Japanese punks from 2005...

Travis - TR6-Escape

TRAVIS #13

Pictured: one Travis Straub from Joplin, Missouri, who released three albums under his first name only between 2008 and 2010. Not sure how he got the shiner. Maybe for going out the wrong door...

Travis - Exit The Entrance

TRAVIS #14

We finish today with a Chilean psychedelic trance DJ from the end of the last decade. I might not have included this nonsense but for the fact that I'm superstitious and I don't like to leave it at 13 acts.

Travis - Old Is Gold

Which is your Top Travis... and which ones are just a Travis-ty?