7 Inch SIngles Collection: Brenda & The Beach Balls - Yummy-Ya!

Some slighty askew pop:

BRENDA & THE BEACH BALLS

A-side: Yummy-Ya!

B-Side: Dancing Thru' The Night

(Naffi International 1987)

If you read this blog regularly then you've probably realised by now that this was bought entirely for three reasons: I liked the sleeve, it was on a label I'd never heard of, and most importantly it was very cheap. I think that of those three above reasons the sleeve art was the most important in this case. The abstract nature of the picture is appealing to me, the blue, yellow and pink shout out, but in harmony, not discord - but most importantly there are ice-creams in the picture, and ice-cream is a wonderful thing. All of which pre-amble should leave to to conclude that my knowledge of Brenda and the Beach Balls extends no further than the contents of the aforementioned sleeve.

Yummy-Ya! is exactly what you would imagine a song called Yummy-Ya! It's a bright day-glo pop sound. It's made for dancing to and not much else. It's basically the sound of a tamed B-52's. There's a good groove, which is punctuated by a bit of  nice saxophone, whilst a lass exhorts us to "do the yummy-ya!" over the top of it. It's no more or less than a piece of throwaway pop - and as such does the job it set out to do most admirably.

Dancing Thru' the Night is similar in vein. The drum machine is the most prominent sound on this track overlaid with some funky guitars, with the breathy female vocals building up through the song.It's okay I suppose - but really not my kind of thing. I suppose to connoisseurs of dance music it could well be a seminal gem, or equally it could be bag of old gravel. I can't tell it's not the kind of thing that I've ever really been into - if I'm honest I found it repetitive and boring, However I acknowledge it was probably never meant to be listened to by a middle-aged behind a computer keyboard. If I was 25 years younger and was hearing this in a club I might be moved to dance which is what it was designed to do.

Not my normal fare, for sure, and although the a-side has a certain charm it really doesn't live up to the slightly surreal and lairy cover. It's not really enough to tempt me to listen to similar stuff.

Next time one of the very finest songs ever recorded.

7 Inch Singles Collection: This Picture - Stronger Than Life Itself

Some Cheltenham rock:

THIS PICTURE

Urban side: Stronger Than Life itself

Rural Side: Blacker Than

(Dedicated 1991)

Here we go with another obscure band from Gloucestershire, and another song with no video up on YouTube. I saw This Picture live in Gloucester Park once. Seeing local bands at the park during the fortnight that the fairground came to town was something of an annual ritual. I think This Picture may well have been at the last one I went to. The image of them that still lingers is the long flowing hair of the singer, and the fact that on occasion he used one of those little microphones that are normally used for harmonicas rather than vocals. Obviously there was some sound difference that he wanted to make - I don't recall noticing any difference.

You'll see that the picture of this single labels itself as an EP - yet there are only two tracks on it - it's obviously just been scaled down from the 12" version. If they've taken the time to knock-off the other tracks from the track listing on the back cover, they could've knocked "EP" off the front too. That's just lackadaisical, and already puts me off. The other thing that set alarm bells ringing is that instead of calling them the a-side and b-side they've been labelled as Urban and Rural! Maybe some kind of concept single idea is going here, and that's set my pretentious senses tingling.

Stronger Than Life Itself is on the Urban side of the disc. It's a rock sound, with a menacing rumble from the bass which keeps things together and tight. It's big and epic with vocals so very, very earnest. They're almost clamouring to be renamed "U2 Two". Despite all of this, and against my better judgement, I actually rather liked this. This came as a surprise to me as I went in expecting it to be boring as well as pretentious. They do actually rise to the challenge of the big sound that they've laid down for themselves, and although there's no real hook or catchiness to the song, Stronger Than Life Itself out to be quite good.

Over on the Rural side of the record Blacker Than is a gentler affair. What did you expect from the Rural side - something raucous? No they've played to obvious theme and gone for the softer less rockier sound. It's wistful and yearning in sound, with an autumnal feel. The melody is piano led, and when the guitars do coming in they are obviously acoustic. It's still got that U thing going on.Talking of going on this song lasts much longer than it needs to the repeating piano/guitar motif  whilst not unpleasant to start with eventually starts to grate and get on my nerves. If it had finished a minute or a minute and a half sooner I'd come away with a more positive image, but as it is, any sympathy I felt towards it had been worn away and replaced with irritation.

Better than I expected, but still not quite breaking out into greatness.

Next time some odd dance nonsense...

7 Inch Singles Collection: Shakin' Stevens - Oh Julie

It's Shaky!:

SHAKIN' STEVENS

A-side: Oh Julie

B-Side: I'm Knockin'

(Epic 1981)

Poor old Shaky - he's pretty much considered risible and an object or ridicule these days by so many people. He was once a very credible and important figure in the Rock 'n' Roll revival movement of the late 70's, but then he started having hits - and the old rock 'n' rollers didn't really approve of this kind of sellin' out so he was kind cut off from that movement and became a popstar instead, and nobody really takes popstars seriously, and when the hits dried up people forgot that once he was a really good entertainer. You can tell he means serious Rock 'n' Roll business by the way he forgoes the letter G from the ends of words.

Oh Julie is from his early popstar days, and considerin' it's 1981 it's a pretty odd fish to have landed at the top of the charts. It's written by Shaky himself, and so is not the standard 50's classics we were used to hearin' from him at this time. Also the lead instrument that carries the melody is not some rockin' guitar or pumpin' piano it's an accordion. An instrument that only ever normally bothered the charts whenever The Wurzels rolled into town. The result of this is that the whole record has the feel of a good ole Cajun two-step. If you've never listened to any Cajun music I'd recommend you do so now, I'll wait. Have you done that yet? Good. Enjoyable isn't it? It can get a bit samey if you listen to too much in one go though. Anyhow, the point that I'm trying to make is that like all those good Cajun tunes Oh Julie brings a smile to face, it is played with great verve and gusto, and makes you want to get up and dance. No - it's more than that it makes you feel like you can dance, even if the Number 19 bus could actually do a more graceful waltz than you. Yes, it's ephemeral fluff, but it's solidly entertaining ephemeral fluff.

On the flip-side we find another Shaky penned tuned. I'm Knockin' is much more in the classic Rock 'n' Roll mode that we would expect. It's 2 1/2 minutes of high energy rock 'n' roll fun. It's more of a Dave Edmunds 70's vibe than an Elvis 50's one - but that doesn't hurt the record at all. It bops and bounces in all the right places, and has a proper old-fashioned walkin' bass sound. The only thing that I find wrong with this record is that my copy has a slight warp in it which makes it have an occasional wobble sound, even that doesn't dispel any enjoyment.

Now I've gone and admitted an admiration for Shakin' Stevens I could be made a social pariah for life.

Next time some U2 wannabes from Cheltenham...