#Parlophone UK

[fangomusic]

Nine albums: Blur.

Leisure (1991), Modern Life Is Rubbish (1993), Parklife (1994), The Great Escape (1995), Blur (1997), 13 (1999), Think Tank (2003), The Magic Whip (2015), The Ballad of Darren (2023).

[nineteenfiftysix]

pinkpantheress - just for me (To Hell With It, 2021)

[theunderestimator-2]

A picture worth way more than a thousand words: rockabilly legend & "Brand New Cadillac" songwriter Vince Taylor backstage with Joe Strummer in Paris in September 1981. The photo, taken by an unknown photographer, was in Mick Jones's possession and surfaced in 2019, when it was first published in Mojo UK magazine, (Dec. 2019 issue, p.23, Mojo UK).

According to Joe: "Vince Taylor was the beginning of British rock 'n' roll. Before him there was nothing".

(*from Keith Topping's book "The Complete Clash" Reynolds & Hearn Ltd London, the 2004 edition paperback, p.39-40): "…Born Brian Holden in London in 1939, (after the life in California and his obsession with Elvis Presley), A trip back to London in 1958 brought him a name-change… Taylor's second single for Parlophone, 'Pledging My Love', contained on the B-Side his own composition, 'Brand New Cadillac', an instant classic thanks to Taylor's histrionic vocal and guitarist Tony Sheridan's tense riff. Although it was never a hit in England, the song, and others like it, made Taylor a rock 'n' roll superstar in France during the early 1960s… His story inspired David Bowie, who met Taylor in the mid-60s and had a long conversation with him about aliens, to create the character of Ziggy Stardust. 'I met (Taylor) in The Pig's Foot restaurant in the early 80s', remembered Strummer. 'He talked to me for over five hours about the Duke Duchess of Windsor were planning to kill him with poisoned chocolate cake. .' Taylor's final years were spent as a virtual recluse in Switzerland, where he died in 1991…' .

(via)

[freddiemercurylegendabovelegends]

Today, on October 14th, 1991 - Queen Story!

- 'The Show Must Go On' /'Keep Yourself Alive' released in UK on Parlophone

🔸"'The Show Must Go On' came from Roger and John playing the sequence, and I started to put things down. At the beginning, it was just this chord sequence, but I had this strange feeling that it could be somehow important, and I got very impassioned and went and beavered away at it. I sat down with Freddie, and we decided what the theme should be and wrote the first verse. It's a long story, that song, but I always felt it would be important because we were dealing with things that were hard to talk about at the time, but in the world of music, you could do it."

- Brian May, Interview 1994

- B-Side: 'Keep Yourself Alive' by Brian May

[clangandclatter]

The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band [UK Parlophone Release] (26 May 1967)

[singlesablog]

The Imperial Phase

“Left to My Own Devices” (1988) Pet Shop Boys Parlophone / EMI Records (Written by Tennant / Lowe) Highest U.S. Billboard Chart Position – No. 84

I was faced with a choice at a difficult age Would I write a book?  Or should I take to the stage? But in the back of my head I heard distant feet Che Guevara and Debussy to a disco beat

- from “Left to My Own Devices”

“We had been so disciplined at making four-minute pop singles, with the exception of "It's a Sin", which is five minutes. The idea was to have an album where every track was a single

- Pet Shop Boys on the idea behind Introspective

I used to joke with a friend that the two albums in Pet Shop Boys catalog that sat next to one another could have swapped their titles: Introspective (1988) could have been titled Behaviour (1990), and vice versa.  Introspection is from the Latin (“to look within”), and I guess this kind of works; an album titled Self Referential would not be nearly as catchy, if more accurate. Oddly, I always thought of introspection as being related to looking backwards, like nostalgia; in the case of the Pet Shop Boys it is perhaps just a case of inverse-ness (gay people were once called inverts), or even a thoughtful kind of literal thinking.  But who knows, they could have just pulled the title out of a bag.  The duo was never averse to fashion.

The album (if you are unware) consists of six extended tracks, and unlike the quote above, only 4 of them were released as singles, “Domino Dancing”, “Devices”, “Always on My Mind” (which preceded the record and was presented in a much different version), and “It’s Alright”.  “It’s Alright” and “Always on My Mind” are covers, “I Want a Dog” and “I’m Not Scared” are recycled cuts, so the album only contained two original songs, “Domino Dancing” (a huge hit all over the world) and “Devices” (an even bigger hit in the UK, but not in the US).  Like the EP Disco, an earlier collection of 6 extended cuts, it treated the form with respect, but also expanded the idea of what a proper album could be.  To my mind it is easily one of their very best, most original, and certainly most popular (internationally it is their best seller ever).  I love every track (with a small mark off for “It’s Alright”, which does grow a little tedious), but none as much as “Left to My Own Devices”, which is formally audacious and endlessly, thrillingly queer from a gay male perspective.

I was faced with a choice at a difficult age Would I write a book?  Or should I take to the stage?

Back to the idea of introspection, most young gay men have an intense inner life, and we of a certain generation (coming of age in the 1970s and 1980s) were forced to find our culture on our own.  “Left to My Own Devices” is a catalogue of the thoughts and ideas that might roam around in a bachelor’s world.  One of the slyer things about the song is that most of it is spoken word.  Here we find Neil rapping (again!) but instead of trying to create the beat the effect is more like reportage than singing.  The lyrics, as usual, are a collage of ideas carefully cut and pasted to create an atmosphere of bourgeois dandyism (“I phone up a friend who’s a party animal”, “we’ll do some shopping”)—I mean, there is a lot of tea drinking in these lyrics, and I can never be sure that this is either very gay, very British, or both.  I think the Pet Shop Boys, song to song, are generally more in search of a tone where content is concerned, and I also think that tone is always meant to elude you a bit.  As long as you are dancing I don’t think they care what you think, and one sure thing about Introspective is that this certainly is a dance record, and not well understood as one of the most purchased and successful House records ever made, and if you are ever in any doubt of that, please focus on the opening of “Left to My Own Devices”, where they employed an actual opera singer (Sally Bradshaw) to sing the word “house” over and over again as if it were an aria.

All of this can be seen as sardonic (their infamous “irony”) but I always prefer to think of it as sophistication; at the very least, Pet Shop Boys take their ideas and music seriously.  If you read my blog post on Chic’s “Good Times” you can easily understand the courage of performing this style of music in earnest in a world of the backlash that “Disco Sucks” created, which effectively took the bubbles out the late 70s, forced an entire world of music underground, and ironically exploded the genre into many different forms, some of which this record preserves.  There is a level of irony abounding in “Left to My Own Devices”; aside from the gay thing, perhaps that subversiveness is built into the genre of disco music itself.  The track did not really chart in the US outside of the clubs, but that hardly mattered: one could really enjoy Introspective as a gestalt, one long thought, or even one long track.  Whenever I find that I have an itch to listen to the album it is inevitably for the opening of “Devices”, where amidst a full symphony Neil opens with “I get out of bed at half past ten” and then proceeds to take you on a long ride describing a mundane day conducted by the best producers and mixers in the world.  It is the transformation of the mundane into the extraordinary, and also the testament of an inner life revealed.  In contrast to the general success of the album, perhaps “Left to My Own Devices” is the real innovation of the 6 tracks; it may not be the most American, or the most well-known, but being an invert myself, I must say: I rather like it that way.  Is it an irony that a disco record can make one feel seen?  Maybe not.  To some of us, hiding in plain sight just comes naturally.

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Behaviour (1990).

Tennant later regretted the release of Introspective so soon after the previous album, Actually, feeling that it pigeon-holed them as a dance act.  The melancholy follow-up, Behaviour, generally considered to be their finest achievement, was a relative failure.

I was surprised to learn that “The imperial phase” was actually put into the vernacular by Neil Tennant. The imperial phase is the period in which a musical artist is regarded to be at their commercial and creative peak simultaneously, and was coined to describe the group's feelings on their career circa "Domino Dancing" (1988). Critic Tom Ewing described three criteria for defining an artist's imperial phase as "command, permission, and self-definition".

It was genius producer Trevor Horn who came up with the line “Debussy to a disco beat” tossing it off while laying down a track.  Tennant, ever the historian, collaged it into the song, and gave Horn a writing credit on the b-side “The Sound of the Atom Splitting” as compensation.

Apparently, Neil Tennant’s mother was upset at hearing him sing “I was a lonely boy, no strength, no joy, in a world of my own” but it seems that this is just a character he was play acting: he apparently had a happy childhood.

"In a secret life I was a Roundhead general" – [In British history] the "Roundheads" were the pro-Parliamentary forces during the English Civil War of the mid-1600s. The name "Roundheads" came from the fact that they generally wore their hair trimmed short, unlike their opponents, the long-haired "Cavaliers" who supported King Charles I. (And in case you're not up on your British history, Charles I was ultimately defeated, deposed, and beheaded.) Again, Neil has pointed out that, as a child, he himself would actually have been far more sympathetic to the Cavaliers (in contrast to his more anti-royalist sympathies as an adult). 

- (Directly quoted from geowayne.com)

Pet Shop Boys are still recording. Nonetheless, the Boys 15th studio album, was released April 26th, 2024 to near universal praise.

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This post was written using analog techniques to collate facts.  After deciding on a topic, one Wikipedia entry will naturally suggest another, and then I let those concepts create an environment of creative association rather than mere fact finding. I do cross reference sources to find what is most interesting.  While some small details may be disputable, none is used for any other reason than to open up the idea at hand, and to support the belief that most pop songs are indeed works of art, with the great ones renewing themselves endlessly.

[kruemel8]

Do you think they aimed a bit too high with five dates in the UK? VIPs are still available for three of them

I have no idea why they added so many gigs in the UK and I hope they (mostly Parlophone I think) have planned some promo. Tomorrow his show with MTV will be aired first time but I think that’s not enough. It’s still early days and we will see what happens in the coming weeks.

[lboogie1906]

Patrick Chukwuemeka Okogwu (November 7, 1988) known by his stage name Tinie Tempah, is a British rapper, singer, composer, and entrepreneur. He has been signed to Parlophone Records 2009, a subsidiary of Warner Music Group. He created his own entertainment company Disturbing London in 2006, along with his cousin Dumi Oburota.

After releasing several mixtapes, he released his long-awaited debut album, Disc-Overy, in October 2010. Preceded by two British #1 singles, “Pass Out” and “Written in the Stars”, the album charted at number one and was certified Platinum the next year. In February 2011, he won two Brit Awards for Best British Breakthrough Act and Best British Single.

In November 2013, he released his second album, entitled Demonstration. Preceded by the top ten singles “Trampoline” and “Children of the Sun”, the album charted at #3 and was certified gold by the BPI the next year. In June 2015, he released “Not Letting Go”, the first single from his third album Youth. This gave him his sixth UK #1, passing Dizzee Rascal as the most by any UK rap artist. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[1980sand1990smusicclassics]

"Disappointed" is the fourth single released by English alternative dance group Electronic.Like their first single "Getting Away with It", it features Neil Tennant of the Pet Shop Boys as well as founding members Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner.

It was released on 22 June 1992 on Parlophone soon after the demise of Factory Records.

The single was assigned the Factory catalogue number FAC 348, and the logo of the label remained on the artwork.Upon the song's release, it reached the top 20 in Germany, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.

It also peaked within the top 10 on three US Billboard charts - US Dance Club Play, US Maxi-Singles Sales & US Modern Rock Tracks.In July 1992, the song was featured in the soundtrack of the live-action/animation hybrid mystery movie Cool World and its inclusion both in the film and on its soundtrack album was advertised on the US single release.

The song was based on a piano riff by Marr's brother Ian; and worked up into a full backing-track by Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner.They decided to ask Neil Tennant to complete the song and he wrote the lyrics and vocal melody.Some of the words ("Disenchanted once more...") were partly inspired by Mylène Farmer's 1991 hit "Désenchantée".

Tennant travelled to Manchester to record the lead vocal and a few weeks later went to Paris to attend the final mix of the song by Stephen Hague."Disappointed" was conceived just before the recording of New Order's sixth studio album Republic, and was performed live in December 1991 on Electronic's European tour: in Glasgow (sung by Bernard Sumner) and in London (sung by Tennant when Pet Shop Boys guested on three songs).

"Disappointed" was the last Electronic single to be released on all four major formats (7-inch, 12-inch, CD, and cassette).The content of the single was more dynamic than its predecessors, however; it had only one remix of the A-side (by 808 State; titled "808 Mix" in the US and "12-inch remix" in the UK), an additional treatment of a 1991 album track ("Idiot Country", with Ultimatum), and an earlier mix of "Disappointed" (called "Electronic Mix" in the US).The A-side of the single is itself a remix since producer Stephen Hague reworked the "Original Mix" for single release.

Although Electronic would enjoy three more top-twenty singles in the United Kingdom, "Disappointed" was the last major commercial success for the band on an international level, becoming a dance chart hit in the United States and reaching the top 20 in Germany as well as number six in the UK, their highest-charting effort there.

Until the release of Get the Message – The Best of Electronic in 2006, the track was not available on an Electronic album release.

However, since "Disappointed" was featured in the 1992 film Cool World, the song was available on the soundtrack album Songs from the Cool World.Roger Morton of NME was negative in his review, calling the song "effortless in the worse sense" and one that "drifts off into a no man's land of half-hearted disco miserablism".

He commented that Sumner and Marr "have programmed in the garagey synth lines and soft pedal Italian piano, and left out any semblance of melody", while Tennant "murmurs a few lugubrious lines with the enthusiasm of a narcoleptic jellyfish".

Andrew Mueller of Melody Maker felt it "sounds as if minimum effort was exerted over its creation" and concluded, "This sounds like a Pet Shop Boys album track. This yaws where they have stretched.”

"Electronic - Disappointed (Official Music Video) [HD Upgrade]

[fangomusic]

Gorillaz, Plastic Beach (2010).

[rhapsodynew]

#updating playlists of new items

ERIC CLAPTON "MEANWHILE" (EPC Enterprises/Surfdog) 2024

electric blues/ adult pop

Against the background of news about Clapton's age-related health problems, many (including me, for example) we have already got used to the idea that the living god is preparing to retire. The more surprising is the appearance of a new product, which Eric even decided to release a few months earlier than planned. The content is as predictable as possible, but therefore does not lose its charm: This is old-fashioned companionable blues mixed with vintage covers like "Moon River" (featuring the late Jeff Beck). If it turns out to be a farewell, it will remain a pleasant memory.

COLDPLAY "MOON MUSIC" (Parlophone) 2024

pop rock, lyrical pop

Moon Music": the album demonstrates what this music would be like if it didn't jump out of your pants to get on the radio. Just like that: sincere, soft and even a little vulnerable.

Rufus Du Sol – «Inhale / Exhale»11.10.2024

Inhale/Exhale is the fifth album by the Grammy–winning Australian electronic band Rufus Du Sol. This time they touched on the eternal themes of "romance, heartbreak, euphoria and despair." This is also a new stage in the band's career: now they strive to "just enjoy the process" and "create in the moment." Three singles "Inhale / Exhale" entered the top 40 of the Billboard dance/electronic songs chart: "Music Is Better", "Lately" and "Break My Love".

Sam Abbo - Add To The Noise (2024)

alternative | freak-folk | avant-honky-tonk I singer songwriter | uk

Sam has created several projects on the Brighton experimental scene. some even got to the BBC ;)) Abbo owns a piano, guitars of all stripes, including a Clarophone (Clarophone Banjo), from here it grew-the idea to play his own honky tonk adventure broke through;)) it turned out to be very thoughtful even;))

VanWyck - Dust Chaser (2024)

americana | alt-folk | alternative | acoustic | singer-songwriter | amsterdam

Hello there. let's try to get into a rut... meanwhile, VanVik is already on the air;))

Joose Keskitalo & The Mystic Revelation of Teppo Repo - Tähdet palaavat paikoilleen (2024)

"When the stars return to their places,

The original shadows of delusion will disappear

And they will begin to gain wisdom."

gloomy Sami romantics return the stars to their places, and when they come into contact with the music of this miraculous creative symbiosis, sensitive and sensitive listeners have an irresistible desire to reach the heavenly bodies together;)) turn it on, enjoy, stretch;))

P.s..And the music is beautiful! ... and they take care of the silence)

DAWN RICHARD AND SPENCER ZAHN "QUIET IN A WORLD FULL OF NOISE" (Merge) 2024

ambient pop, pop soul

Soul vocalist Dawn Richard has never been content with pure style. Instead, she uses R&B as a starting point to find some new intonations, techniques, and sound. In 2022, this led her to work with pianist Spencer Zahn. Their first album together, "Pigs", seemed to connect two worlds: chamber jazz and art soul. The sequel goes even further: now it's practically ambient based on frozen R&B, the music of silver snowflakes. Insinuating and very beautiful.

Seventeen – "Spill the Feelings" on October 14th

The return of Seventeen is one of the main k-pop groups of our time. Their previous releases "FML" (2023) and "Seventh Heaven" (2023) set records for millions of pre-orders. There is no doubt that "Spill the Feelings" will be among the top bestsellers of 2024. Seventeen's new album promises to showcase the band's creative evolution and show their individual sides. And also to tell a fascinating story that is close to everyone.

The album "Tension" (2023) became, perhaps, the most successful in the late discography of Kylie Minogue. The hit "Padam Padam" not only returned the 55-year-old singer to the chart, but also took second place in her career"The Grammys." "Tension II" is the sequel to "Tension", its "high-energy, high-octane version". In general, the legend of pop music has prepared another release with dance hits of the highest standard. It featured Sia, Bibi Rexa, Tove Lu, Diplo and The Blessed Madonna.

Pixies – «The Night the Zombies Came»25.10.2024

In 2024, bassist Paz Lenshantin left Pixies and was replaced by Emma Richardson. How well she knows the instrument can be assessed on the band's new album "The Night the Zombies Came". Pixies frontman Black Francis described it as "fragments connected and juxtaposed with other fragments in other songs." According to Francis, the album is a collection of tracks reminiscent of a movie. The producer of the material was Tom Dalgety, who has been working closely with Pixies for several years now

The authors of the hit "Pompeii" Bastille present an unusual project: "&" are not just songs, but stories about interesting people. In "Eve & Paradise Lost" Bastille sings about the biblical Eve, and in "Leonard & Marianne" – about Leonard Cohen and his muse Marianne Ihlen. Maybe the band's new tracks don't sound as hit as their early work, but it's interesting to listen to them and read the lyrics. Frontman Dan Smith certainly has a talent for storytelling.

Underworld – «Strawberry Hotel»

the 25th of October

[freddiemercurylegendabovelegends]

Today - March 5th, 1976

Eddie Howell "The Man From Manhattan" 7" single released

Freddie Mercury: producer/piano/bvs

Brian May: guitar

Excerpts from an interview

Jacky Gunn-Smith - Official International Queen Fan Club

Eddie Howell’s ‘Man From Manhattan‘ is one of the best known and best loved of all Queen’s collaborations.

Recorded in mid January 1976 at Sarm East Studios in London, the song was produced by Freddie Mercury, who also played piano and sang backing vocals on the track and featured Brian May on guitar. The record is so reminiscent of “A Night At The Opera” in both instrumentation and mood, that many fans regard it as virtually an “Opera” out-take. When it was launched as a single on Warner Bros records in 1976, it became a turntable hit in the UK and looked set to chart until music industry bureaucracy halted it in it’s tracks.

Birmingham born Eddie Howell began his professional career in the late 60’s, when Chrysalis music picked up on his songwriting demos and introduced him to an independent record producer, who in turn licensed his first single “Easy Street”, as a one-off deal to Parlophone in 1969.

Working as a songwriter throughout the early 70’s, Eddie’s next venture into recording came in 1975 when he signed to Warner Bros records as an artist. thursdaysHe released two singles, “Long Story” and “Can’t get over you”, and his debut LP “The Eddie Howell Gramophone Record”, which featured members of “Brand X” and guitarist Gary Moore.

The album was launched at a promotional gig at Thursday’s club in Kensington. Eddie’s band included Phil Collins on congas, Jack Lancaster on saxophone and Robin Lumley on keyboards. Explains Eddie, ”In the audience that night was Freddie Mercury who had been brought along to the gig by my manager David Minns. It was there that he first heard “Man From Manhattan”, which was a newly written song included in the set. After the gig we met and he was very complimentary about the song and offered to produce it. I remember we all went down to ‘The Elephant on the River’ to celebrate”.

Enthused by the prospect of his first foray into production, Freddie wasted little time in getting started. ”I gave him a two track guitar/vocal demo of the song” recalls Eddie, ”and a couple of days later he called and said let’s get going. Studio time was booked at Sarm East Studios and true to form, Freddie quickly took control of the sessions; ”He did lots of pre-production work on the song’s structure and the harmony arrangements”, reveals Ed. ” He had a mini cassette recorder loaded with ideas for the track, backing vocals and answering phrases”.

”We took a week to record the song”, remembers Eddie, ”which was a long time in those days, but because of Freddie’s involvement, Warners gave us a blank cheque. The sessions were quite intense, there was never a lull. Brian came in to play hismikestone2 guitar parts and the musical rapport between him and Freddie was plain to see, they were on the same page. One day, a hand-held spinning bell-cymbal in the key of ‘D’ was required by Freddie for one ping at the end of the track and the studio didn’t have one, so a runner was dispatched to scour the streets of London in search of one. The session was adjourned for half a day while we waited down at the Shazam Indian restaurant in Brick Lane for the bell to arrive. It eventually arrived and took about a minute to record, it must have been the most expensive ping ever recorded”.

On the final day of recording, a trio of Warner Bros top brass flew in from California and made a beeline for Sarm East studios to meet Freddie. Recalls Eddie, ”They probably thought the red carpet would be rolled out as they were paying for the recording sessions, but instead they were kept waiting in reception for about four hours. When they were eventually granted an audience, the charm offensive was full onlongstory3 and it was all smiles and bonhomie. At the end of the session, after the final playback, Freddie turned to me and said, ‘If this isn’t a hit, sue Warner Bros ‘ ”.

The finished article obviously had a heavy Queen influence with the presence of Freddie and Brian on the track, but ”Man from Manhattan” was far from a tribute to Queen. ”I wrote the song after my first trip to Manhattan in late 74”, reveals Eddie, ”I was reading ‘The Godfather Papers’ by Mario Puzo and the song was about those mafia characters who lead a double life. Musically, I had ‘Dead End Street’, by the Kinks in mind, complete with trombones and a walking double-bass”.

Prior to the ban, ”Manhattan” made top 50 in the UK, top 20 in Australia, Belgium and South Africa and top 5 in Holland, but sadly, as a consequence of the ban, it was never released in America or many of the world’s other major territories.

When it was issued as a single in 1976, Warner’s publicity department played up the Queen connection as much as they could, and “Manhattan” rapidly became a turntable hit in the UK. The record received heavy rotation on the airwaves – particularly in Europe where it became a big hit. Then, just when it looked set to climb the charts in the UK, the Musicians Union mysteriously discovered that Jerome Rimson, the American bassist hired by Freddie for the sessions, had been working in Britain without a permit. This obliged them to place a ban on any and all further UK media exposure due to his ‘Illegally’ recorded playing. A decision which effectively killed off the record.

Having recently regained the rights to his back catalogue recorded during his time with the label, Eddie is now releasing the tracks digitally. ”Man from Manhattan” is first up, more to follow…

(source: https://manfrommanhattan.wordpress.com/)

📸 Pic: Freddie Mercury and Eddie Howell in control room

[bargainoriley]

3 & 5 for vinyl asks!

Sure! Thanks for the ask :) I think my most valuable record in my collection is probably (I don’t know for sure) either my 1965 UK Parlophone pressing of Rubber Soul or my 1969 first UK Atlantic records pressing of the first Led Zeppelin album! I usually buy a lot of used vinyl (because it’s often cheaper and I want to know how different it sounds in comparison to digital music/remasters), so the majority of records I own are pretty old but not particularly valuable because they aren’t first pressings I think

And my favorite LP in my collection is probably Abbey Road (German pressing 1969) or Who’s Next (Polydor German pressing 1971)!

[clangandclatter]

The Beatles - Revolver [UK Parlophone Release] (5 August 1966)

[classicrockblog1]

Back to the Light is the debut solo studio album by English musician Brian May, the guitarist of Queen. It was released on 28 September 1992 by Parlophone Records in the UK, and on 2 February 1993 by Hollywood Records in the US and Canada. May's second solo release following his 1983 EP Star Fleet Project, Back to the Light was co-produced with Justin Shirley-Smith and recorded between March 1988 and November 1992 at Allerton Hill—May's home studio—and mixed at Metropolis Studios.