Blow Up A-Go-Go! by various artists 1999

I bought this album at the Mighty Music Machine in Chapel Street Prahran. I bought it because there was a song by the Kinks that I'd never heard of. Of course, it may have been rubbish (but it wasn't) but there was something about the look of the album that said it might have some good stuff on it. I took a quick listen on the headphones something I hardly ever do. Mainly because it usually puts me off buying the record. Anyway, a quick scan through this album and I was amazed at how great it all sounded. It was like a glimpse into someone else's club or their record box. These songs were touted as hits from the legendary Blow Up club in London. And when I got the album home and started playing it I was wishing I could go to a club that played these songs. It set me off on a trip looking for more obscure but groovy sounds from the sixties and seventies. Not really something I'd done before but now I was buying weird seventies soundtracks and hip lost treasures. 

The first hour of the Lizard Lounge as the people were just coming in I'd use to create my own little Blow-Up vibe. Spinning tracks like Bert's Apple Crumble, Bongolia and Shake by The Shadows of Knight. Also got me back into playing Northern Soul and early ska. In 1999 while everyone was getting a little bit more dance floor I was constantly listening to obscure groovy tracks.

Just listening to the album again now I want to get some friends together and party. 

Stoneage Romeos by Hoodoo Gurus 1984

Booked to support Little Murders on a Monday night at the Prospect Hill Hotel (Monday nights were incredibly huge gigs.. the place was packed and always ready to party!... it was a major score to get a months residency there) they pulled out at the last minute but we got to play with them a little later on a shared bill at the Jump Club.

Le Hoodoo Gurus took off really quickly it seemed. They had this brilliant single called Leilana that was all over RRR. When I saw them play I was amazed that they just had guitars and drums and no bass player. The crowd went nuts. They loved everything they did.

Soon they would drop the Le and a guitarist (the legendary Roddy Ray'Da), add a bass player and record a bunch of brilliant singles and this great album. All the singles ended up on this album. Tojo, My Girl, a new version of Leilana. I was mad about this record.

When I wasn't playing myself I'd go and see them at places like Macy's and the Armadale. I particularly remember their cover songs too like "That's Cool, That'sTrash" by the Kingsmen and Galveston by Glen Campbell. It took me ages to find the original version of the Kingsmen record. It was such a good song. Hoodoos should of recorded it though because it's their version that sticks in my head.

Later on we played this album to death at places like the Beehive and Barbarella's. A classic Australian album that helped to define the guitar era of the Eighties.

For a start it's the one with Waterloo Sunset on it so that's worth the price of admission alone.
After buying the Golden Hour of The Kinks I started looking for more Kinks albums. K-Mart had a few cheap ones in horrible sleeves on labels like MFP or Music For Pleasure. The first one I picked up was in a horrible purple sleeve with the worst photo of the band. I actually made my own cover for it when I find out it was actually Something Else (not Waterloo Sunset as was the name on the cover). I built the cover from bits of cardboard and photos from an old pop annual. Though I wish I'd kept the annual now.
The Kinks work as been endlessly compiled and resold which is a great shame because they are right up there with the Beatles, the Who and The Stones.
Anyway after Village Green this is arguably their best album. It is just so English and in the early seventies when I started getting into the Kinks I was also getting back into my Englishness. I couldn't listen to Crosby Stills and Nash or James Taylor or hear about endless highways and golden beaches. I had become focused on wet streets and old buildings and would watch old films like Billy Liar and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. My pin-up girls were Julie Christie and Chrissie Shrimpton. Not a Californian girl in sight. And this is what Ray Davies wrote about and their music reflected. There are no better songs about London than those by Ray Davies.
And what songs! Apart from what I beleive is the best song ever written in Waterloo Sunset there is the sibling rivalry of Two Sisters, the ode to smoking which is Harry Rag..Death of Clown (a song I once based a painting on during High School art).. brilliant album!

Idlewild by Everything But The Girl 1988

Well, there's got to be some quiet time around the house. It can't all be pounding drums and chiming guitars.  In 1988 when this album came out I was living in Elwood on the top floor of a block of flats in Meredith Street. You could actually go up from my flat and it was a big open roof. One year I threw a birthday party up there. It was pretty big. A friend of mine who was minding the place actually dragged a mattress up there one hot night and slept up there. On New Year's Eve, you could watch the fireworks.
I remember playing this song a lot at Meredith Street. Not only was the sound lush and one could say a little to the middle of the road. But calming on a Sunday afternoon. Sitting on an Ikea couch (the same one as two of my friends) Surrounded by Art Deco statues, art prints and Japanese robots. Waiting for friends to turn up with a bottle of Stolly. Especially after 3 nights of DJing playing lots of guitar music.
And I really liked the lyrics.  So it wasn't just background music. It was an album to listen to. Back in a time when I would actually sit on the sofa and listen to records. I'm not even sure I could do that anymore. I really enjoy hearing albums in the car because I can really hear what's going on but more often than not I will rely on music I really know. So I now I listen to music while I'm busy doing something else. Like right now, typing.