I've been bit slow with these but better late than never. A couple of RIPs.
Firstly and most famously, Arthur Lee of Love. Laterally, since his release from prison in 2001, the rejuvenated Arthur was Love. I'm kinda wishing now I'd got to see him, as Forever Changes is a particular favourite of mine. Give me that any day over yer Sergeant Peppers and the likes. Classic stuff. There's really no need for me to say much more, as plenty has been said already (for one, read this obituary). Just enjoy perhaps his best-known song from Forever Changes, and a version of it by Calexico.
Download: Love - Alone Again Or
Download: Calexico - Alone Again Or
Buy Forever Changes
Secondly, and a lot less famously, I found out on Friday that Tony Ogden had died. Who? you may ask (indeed - I tried and failed to find a decent photo of him). I was reading a piece by John Harris in the Guardian on Friday when I found out. He was the singer and songwriter from Manchester band World of Twist, who made some well-received singles in the latter days of the Madchester craze.
They're definitely part of my musical history as well, as I remember back to the heady days of summer 1991 when I discovered record shopping and 7 inches, and I bought the single of Sons of the Stage. It was a cracking tune. Noel Gallagher agrees too (though I'm not sure if that's necessarily an endorsement) and apparently almost called his band Sons of the Stage instead of Oasis. Who knows how different the future could have been for Ogden if he had. He disappeared not long after the break-up of the band in 1992. They never really got over the lack of success of their first and only album Quality Street, which was beset by production problems. In recent times, Tony put together a project called Bubblegum Secret Pop Explosion, and you can buy a digital EP from their site. John Harris calls Ogden "the last of the lost geniuses". I'm not sure I'd go that far, but he's certainly worth a tribute.
You could buy Quality Street from Amazon, but do you really want to pay £26 and wait 6 weeks? Instead best check eBay or download the tracks below. You can get more of these from the lovingly curated World of Twist tribute website. They're all pretty good y'know.
Download: World of Twist - Sons of the Stage (12" version)
Download: World of Twist - The Storm (12" version)
Donwload: World of Twist - She's a Rainbow (12" version)
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2 comments:
RIP Tony Ogden. He destroyed the masters of the second WOT album in a row with the record company. Who knows how good this could have been. Ed Falling Leaves.
Bloody hell... I'd forgotten about World of Twist. I quite liked them (their cover of 'She's a Rainbow' was great, and I defy anyone to say otherwise!), but I seem to recall they got an exceptionally vicious slating from the music press.
And is Quality Street really £26 on Amazon? Bit of an optimistic seller, I suspect... I've not seen my copy of it in about a decade, it must have gone missing several house moves ago. :(
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