The Book Club - Important Update

There have been some major scheduling changes over at Radio Newcastle the upshot of which is that, from next week, The Book Club will no longer be broadcast on the first Monday of every month at 6:35(ish). End of an era. Instead, whilst it will still be proudly monthly and will still have its own webpage for Listen Again here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/tyne/content/articles/2007/01/08/radio_newcastle_book_club_feature.shtml

now, it's going to join the Top Telly Tips and become part of Julia Hankin's afternoon show ... on a day yet to be decided (I'll be recording the August show next Thursday along with the following week's batch of Top Telly Tips). So, more details of when it'll go out when I know myself!

Current Listening:
Testcard F- Bandwagon Tango (stunned, but throughly delighted, to have found a copy of this one after all these years).
Carole Pope - Johnny Marr.
Brian Jonestown Massacre - Johnny Marr is Dead (see, I don't just throw these lists together, you know, some of yer actual thought goes into them!)
Billy Lee Riley - Flying Saucer Rock n Roll.
Siouxsie and the Banchees - Arabian Knights.
Happy Flowers- Mom, I Gave the Cat Some Acid (an incredibly sick song, but *really* funny!)
The Go-Betweens - Lee Remick.
The Fall - Hey! Luciani!
Serious Drinking - 12-XU/Bobby Moore Was Innocent (yes, I did finally track down a copy!)
The Ramones - California Sun.
Rilo Kiley - Jenny, You're Barely Alive.

And, speaking of the virry Rils themselves ...

She's a fine lookin' lady, that Jenny Lewis, and no mistake!

Now, I have to be honest, I never really quite got Rilo Kiley for a long time - the divine Ms. Jen herself notwithstanding and despite a number of obviously lovely tunes. (I always had a particular soft spot for 'My Slumbering Heart' and for the exquisite 'Pictures of Success' which I first heard on a season six episode of Buffy.) There was something about them that didn't quite fit though I couldn't possibly have told you what it was. I think the Uncut journalist John Mulvey articulated an inherent flawed conundrum in the band perfectly when he said: "For all [Jenny Lewis'] likeable LA snarkiness, their music always sounded like a grey jangle; as if the American mainstream had embraced, what, the Sundays maybe, as 'the future of music.' Quite strange, but in somewhat a dull way." Yeah ... kind of knew what he meant.

But then, a couple of months ago I sat down with The Execution of All Things one weekend and, suddenly, it all made perfect sense. They're, essentially, the Fleetwood Mac for the 21st Century. Okay, now I get it! To such an extent that I'm really looking forward to the new CD (Under the Blacklight) which is due for release in about a fortnight.

And, what better excuse than that to put up another picture of Jen and boys. Sharp.
Oh, and if anybody out there knows where in the name of Flamin' Bejesus I can find a copy of Positive Noise's 1981 John Peel session - the one that includes the immortal '1917 (I'm in the Mood)' - then please let me know as it's currently doing my ruddy crust in! (Like many things, I used to have it "on tape" - I may still have in a box somewhere in the attic - but you know this is 2007, baby. Tapes are, like, so "last century" aren't they?)