the sound of music

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the nature of pop journalism and indeed the nature of pop music itself throws up some wild and ludicrous claims and suppositions. one has to just think back to the legend that is 'clapton is god' to realise how soft arsed som claims can be. clapton is/was nver god, he's just a fella that plays electric guitar. david bowie is god. he wrote drive-in saturday.

a recent nme article claimed that blur are the most influemtial british band of the modern age, based on nothing more substantial than they were playing in london that week and the journo responsible was probably on the guest list. an excercise in mutual back-scratching that had got clearly out of control. but surely it transcends guest lists and soft-soap of pluggers and pr types. these statements are crass and self-serving. great if you like blur, it might make you feel like part of an exclusive club that vindicates everything you've ever believed in.


blur really aren't the most influential band of the modern age, the statement relayed to myself suggested that they were supposed to be the most influential british band since the beatles, which if it hadn't been so hilarious could have been possibly libellous. a casual glance around the web could find no evidence of this outrageous boast, although in all fairness i didn't look very hard. the very notion that soneone could think that, let alone write it with a straight face is both brave and foolhardy in equal amounts. but then, the modern age? when does that start and finish? the last year? the last decade or the last half an hour?


the distance between blur and the beatles is about twenty years, which may not seem that far if you're in your late forties, but will seem unfathomable if you are 22. i know this might sound like another outlandish claim but there are still people who read every word of the nme and think it's the gospel truth. really. the school of thought that puts blur in such a lofty position completely airbrushes david bowie, punk and all its bastard offspring, roxy music and the acid house explosion, to name but a few, out of the equation. reallly.

it's not an age thing, no sir, it's about listening to music, the context of its time and how it's perceived in the here and now. if there are people out there who espouse these views then what they should realise is that british pop in all its myriad forms is multi-faceted, beautiful work of art that deserves better respect than pitching the ridiculous against the sublime. blur's work is derivitive of the previous thirty years of british pop, surely that makes the groups they attemted to imitate (small faces, wire, the solo works of eno) equally, if not more influential.


the only thing i can suggest is that it must have been a very slow day at nme towers or the overwhelming desire for a guest list for the gig caused an irrational outbust of superlatives. either that or the person responsible had never heard any british music made before 1990, that is the more distinct possibility. based on the same princilple didn't they vote the smiths as the most influntial band of all time? or something. both earth shattering and amusing.


positively hysterical.


this week: we realised what was going on but did nowt about it.


WE WILL NOT SHY AWAY FROM POP MUSIC.


in the basement.....etta james & sugar pie de santo.
kerosene.....big black.
wind it up.....mark pritchard & om mas keith.
bedroom mazurka.....augustus pablo & fay.
hot smoke and sassafras.....bubble puppy.
two weeks.....grizzly bear.
don't make me wait (larry levan mix).....peech boys.
see my baby jive.....wizzard.
spiders (kidsmoke)....wilco.
scene thru the eye of a lens.....family.
no fear.....photonz.
the true one.....gene clark.
millions like us.....purple hearts.
heavy cross.....the gossip.


washed, ironed and folded by bernie connor and sike. the bespoke audio people. x


to the memory of the colossus that was george mckay. x

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i think liverpool's a wonderful place to be. sometimes. there have been moments in the past milennia that have been some of the most wonderful and rewarding experiences imaginable, conversely yhere have been moments of soul crushing disappointment and murdrous bad vibes. inner city life. writ large.

i think liverpool's a wonderful pkace to be. sometimes, because it's where i have spent the most time and therefore think i know trhe place and the people like the back of me hand. in actuality i know very little of liverpool, if it's off the 82 bus route i'm pretty scuppered, the north end might as well be on mars. which it probably is.


this much i know though, sometimes the good people of this city can make that dreary old corpse of a town spring back into life, put on a display of love and good will that breaks the bank of love.


last saturday night, the mighty atom that is pete bentham put on a loud rock'n'roll experience in the clubhouse at the tennis club in sefton park. twice the size of my living room, packed to the rafters with the beautiful young people this nation tends to forget exists, it was a celebration of everything that is good and creative about this town. five live acts, me playing records and a trillion ton of love and good vibes all squashed into a room not big enough to house a full-sized snooker table. so far out and lovely i haven't really came down, it was like taking drugs for the first time. possibly.


i never go out anymore, it terrifies me the world that exists beyond the golden triangle of my front door, the local shop and work. i used to go out an awful lot of course, i have fond memories of just that thing. i don't wanna sound like me grandad but the event on saturday reminded me of just how well some very usual things work in unusual places.


liverpool has a tradition of gigs in unusual -and often miniscule- venues. the bunnymen were always game forthis, at the height of what can be best described as bunnymanua, they placed themselves in venues as tiny as the monroe on duke st and cafe berlin on bold st. both gigs were oversubscribed a a hundredfold, a health and safety nightmare waiting to happen. what i loved about these events is the way they bonded disparate souls in a very intimate environment and forged a sense of unity amongst the participants.

i'm sure these epoch making events happen in every city, town and hamlet across the nation. it would be really shit if it only happened in liverpool. we can't be that fortunate, other young 'uns elsewhere must have brilliant yet, unlikely ideas. it seems like the central ethos of punk. or something.


this week: we stood high and proud. the best was/is yet to come.

WE WILL NOT SHY AWAY FROM POP MUSIC.


natural high (global communications remix).....warp 69.
summer (the first time).....bobby goldsboro.
all the little things (that make life worth living).....andrew weatherall.
ruins.....the laughing windows.
my soul.....clifton chenier.
walls of jericho.....cabaret voltaire.
stranded in the jungle.....the cadets.
feel it!....coco steel & love bomb.
somebody to love.....the great society.
i dub.....king midas sound.
bubble wrap.....electric man.
overnight sensation.....the raspberries.


WARNING! this site may be shit. if you are having difficulty downloading this podcast, right click on where it says 'download this episode', scroll to 'save as' and save it where you see fit. ta. x

made to measure by connor & sike, the bespoke audio people. with love. x

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we really have come an awfully long way, y'know? i never ever thought for a single moment that i would still be doing this almost six months later. i thought at best i would give up admirably following a heavy spate of consumer apathy around episode ten. yet the response has been overwhelming and almost universally positive. the only real negative, if you can call it that followed episode two -i think- at 4.03 am anonymous said....shit. even then me and weezle took it as a compliment, you know you've arrived when the backlash begins.


every little tiny bit has been boss, even when sike and i took almost twelve hours spread over two nights to do his first show. the end result being so ace what's the point in wallowing in pain. i know i say this all the time but it really does blow me away weekly the kind words and generous response i get from you lot out there. it's a huge part of what we do, like i said, if i thought nobody was listening i c ertainly wouldn't be arsed putting meself through this rigorous deadline schedule. ask anyone i've ever written for, deadlines are not something i feel comfortable with. this somehow, works on a different level.

i really would like to thank you all individually, in a big way because your reactions have kept the sound of music going, it's the reason i do what i do, without you i'm nothing etc. i don't do the praise thing very well, it's the catholic in me, really i no more worthy than say, algae. or something.

i had a trillion things to say but they have fled my mind like lord lucan on shergar. what i would like to say is thanks for tuning in every week, let's keep it going, a special thanks is reserved for the good people at when skies are grey magazine and webpages who have tirelessly promoted what we do to anyone who'll listen, often to their own detriment. to the untold amount of souls i have made contact with again through the miracle of these pages. it's good to have you all in me life again.


to all of you, the sound of music is just an absract theory. it's people that give it its life force. thanks. bernie. x


if we're still here at christmas we will be close to episode forty. and that would be fun. here's to it.


this week; we lively upped ourselves. and we don't feel bad. no sir!

WE WILL NOT SHY AWAY FROM POP MUSIC.

that beating rhythm.....richard temple.
everything's gone green.....new order.
white spider.....a mountain of one.
roots train.....junior murvin & dillinger.
baby blue.....the chocolate watchband.
don't let it die.....hurricane smith.
to london.....faltydl.
the green green grass of home.....jerry lee lewis.
spanish stroll.....mink deville.
don't send nobody else.....ace spectrum.
theme from den haan.....den haan.
buzzin' fly.....tim buckley.
faust 72.....dynastie crisis.
different but the same.....superthriller.
mr big mouth.....tunde williams & africa 70.

i love you all, you make bernard a happy chap. and that can only be a good thing, huh?


produced and directed by bernie connor. additional production and remix by sike o' delic. possibly. x

Download this episode (81 min)   

and, there we were in one place. a generation lost in space.


a couple of days ago i had a concrete, witty and erudite 500 words to regale you with this week. but sometimes circumstances dictate your mood and the sad events of the last few days here in liverpool following the tragic death of andy parle have taken the acid out of me barbs and left pondering me own mortality yet again.


i had this definite riff on the miracle of the perfect imperfect being. bizarro is such a thing, being suoerman's negative alter-ego if such a thing really exists. whatever superman is and can do bizarro can do the direct opposite. and, kryptonite doesn't kill him, it merely makes him stronger.


the gist of it was something along the lines of the sound of music being the perfect imperfect music broadcast. whatever conventional music programming is and purports to be is the direct diametric opposite of the wonderful thing we have going here.


he's good-bad, but he's not evil.


i like this idea, and really i would love to expand on this incredible scientific theory, but like i said recent events round here have almost knocked the stuffing of me creative streak. i wll come back to this at a later date when my muse returns from its journey to the back of beyond. i hope this doesn't in any way deter your musical enjoyment this week, and i'm sorry for the downy nature of this text but in the last couple of weeks three people i had an awful lot of time for have gone from my life forever. i can put it down to the time of life but it doesn't make it easier.


sometimes chirpy-chirpy-cheep-cheep seems inappropriate. will be in a much better humour next week for our 20th edition.


velcro yourself to those that you love and tell them you love them every day. it's food and drink for the soul.


thanks everyone. back next week in an effervescent mood. x


this week: we give many thanks for very small mercies. again.


WE WILL NOT SHY AWAY FROM POP MUSIC.


yesterday has gone.....little anthony & the imperials.
i heard it through the grapevine.....creedence clearwater revival.
die welt.....waler wegmuller.
boy 1904.....jonsi & alex.
defecting grey.....the pretty things.
jumping with mr. lee.....val bennett.
veronica's veil (erol alkan's extended rework).....fan death.
where is my mind?....the pixies.
deliver me (diskjokke & vinny villbass diskomix).....lil' wolf.
the state i am in.....belle & sebastian.
1974.....steve kotey & max essa.
how does it feel?....slade.


made up as he went along by bernie. given hope and direction by sike. again.


to the memory of andy parle. rest now. x