MORE FROM ILLEGAL

Artist: THE POLICE; Title: FALL OUT; Label: ILLEGAL; Format: 7"; Cat. No.: IL 001; Year: 1979; Country: UK

Carrying on with the 1977 theme and stuff released on Miles Copeland's Illegal label, this is obviously where to go next after the last post on John Cale - as the drummer of the band featured today was the brother of the label boss.  Stewart Copeland, the band's The Police, and it's their only one to feature original guitarist Henry Padovani. 

 The A Side gives you "Fall Out" written by Stewart Copeland - and a decent slice of 1977 style New Wave stuff.  The single itself got reissued in 1979 when the group had broken big with 'Message In A Bottle' - which is when I bought it (WH Smith's in Whitehaven if memory serves).  Main way to tell this apart from the '77 original is the different label design (see the Cale post to see how the original looks).

The flip side gives you "Nothing Achieving" and again not written by Sting - in this case by Stewart Copeland and his brother Ian. And like the A Side it's interesting to hear what Sting and Co sounded like when they were just starting out (and before the ego started clashing), and before fame and the pitfalls the accompanied that came along.

In case you're wondering whatever happened to Henry Padovani - he lasted till the group briefly expanded to a fourpiece when Andy Summer's joined.  Then after being sacked in favour of the more proficient Andy Summers, joined Wayne/Jane Country and the Electric Chairs before becoming vice-president of Miles Copeland's IRS label (the one that R.E.M. started with before they switched to Warners).

And Sting learned to play the lute!

SOMETHING FROM SWINDON'S FINEST

Artist: XTC; Title: SENSES WORKING OVERTIME; Label: VIRGIN; Format: 12" EP; 

Cat. No.: VS 462-12; Year: 1982; Country: UK

Focusing today on this 12" EP from Swindon's finest - XTC, and their 1982 classic "Senses Working Overtime".  They're one those British groups that seem have been more popular in the US than they were over here, which is a bit of a shame as Andy Partridge and co had a lot more going for them than the hits you're maybe lucky enough to hear on the radio.  The lead track being a case in point - "Senses working Overtime" is a great tune with all the inherent quirkiness that you tend to associate with this band (check out what they did to 'All Along The Watchtower in their debut LP for further research).  Next up is "Egyptian Solution (Homo Safari Series No. 3)" which is a case in point - instrumental electronica that sounds like it's more at home on a David Byrne, Brian Eno or Jon Hassell album from this period - and rather good it too - so go and check it out!

Side Two's opener gives you "Blame The Weather" (an apt title for what we're currently experiencing here in the UK!), which is more in the traditional XTC style - ie it's got vocals on it and played traditional instruments, and the catchy choruses that Andy Partridge is at good at coming up with, and with a nice bit of guitar work on the fade.  The proceedings are rounded off with "Tissue-Tigers (The Augers)" - which to me at least has more in common with their stuff from the late 70's - with a nice choppy rhythm and structure, and one of those tracks were you can see the influence on the US indie bands that emerged in the mid 80's - early R.E.M. comes to mind.  Worth a listen to see what you think - and as with the other tracks available somewhere on there on the web.