Welcome the the RPM Record Club Seven Day Soundtrack, week ending Friday 15th April 2022; your musical oasis of sanity in a world gone mad. What's been grabbing RPMer's ears this week? Over to...

Jayne -

"Easter greetings RPM colleagues. It’s the 52nd Earth Day on Friday next week (22 April) and I’ve been thinking and listening along ecological lines so have made choices with that in mind. (The Laura Misch field recordings are both very short and maybe will be worked up into more substantial pieces at a later date)."

John -

"Happy Easter Everyone, hope you're all keeping safe and well. Here are three tracks that I've listened to this week..."

Dave -

"Hi RPMers, can’t believe it’s Easter already!!! Nina; hope you are enjoying Cornwall. One of my fave TV programes right now is Rick Steins Cornwall. It looks amazing. Here’s my 3 this week."

Tony -

"Happy Easter. Here's my 3...with minimum frills this week. Best wishes to all RPMers as ever."

Philip -

"A curious mix this week: nostalgia in respect of an album I had on vinyl many years ago, an item found on a recent Mojo cover-mounted CD, and a guitarist from Lincolnshire of whom I had not even heard a week or so ago.

Best wishes to all RPMers."

Jackie -

"I've chosen some early Bob Dylan this week as it's 60 years since his debut album was released...March 1962, so just missed the anniversary by a few weeks."

Nina -

"Hi folks. Hope you're all well. Thanks as ever for your suggestions; Balaam & the Angel? Wow, that took me back!

Mixture of genres & styles, it's been a reflective kind of week, pretty calm after all the recent hustle and bustle. Happy Easter and take care."

Alan -

"They say lightning never strikes twice in the same place and here, in musical terms, are three singles which bear this out. Each one followed the artists only hit (of any size) and, because the singles do all have their own merits, they deserve at least a further hearing."

The Tracker by Sir Douglas Quintet (7" single released August 1965. London American records) Did not chart in UK. - "Perhaps musically too close to his classic debut single, 'She's about a mover', this track does bound along with the same infectious energy. Sir Douglas (AKA Doug Sahm) had displayed his musical talent when he appeared on a musical show on local radio aged five. Given a steel guitar at age six, he was proficient enough to appear on the Louisiana Hayride when he was eight years old and, by the time he was eleven he was appearing on Hank Williams final tour. He released a string of singles on local San Antonio Texas labels in the mid to late fifties and, after playing in a multitude of bar bands, he formed (initially) Sir Douglas with his regular sidekick, organist Augie Myers, and, in 1965 the group, with its more familiar name, signed to the Tribe label and had immediate success with the Hughie P Meaux helmed '.... mover' single. Meaux had already picked up on the 'UK invasion', r&b and Motown sounds and, deep in the bowels of Houston's Gold Star Studio (soon to be renamed the Sugarhill Studio), he concocted this mélange of the Fabs 'She's a woman', Ray Charles 'What'd I say' and Marvin Gaye's 'Can I get a witness' and was rewarded with a US Number Thirteen and a UK number 15. However, record buyers on both sides of the Atlantic quickly felt the band's sound was anachronistic and follow up singles showed diminishing returns. Perhaps calling their 1966 debut album 'The best of...' was tempting fate and this, along with their increasingly 'freewheeling' attitude saw them becoming a target for Texas's finest. The band relocated to San Francisco and quickly became a hit in the burgeoning psychedelic ballrooms and were rewarded when 'Mendocino' became a hit single in 1968. The album of the same name includes a fiery reworking of '.... mover' but, again, the fickle finger moved away and Sahm eventually became better known for his friendship with Bob Dylan, Dr John, Willie Nelson and many others. He continued to record with the Texas Tornadoes and, in 1983, they played alongside Nelson at Bill Clinton's inauguration ball. There were a couple of reunions with Myers as the Quintet in the 80's and 90's but in late 1999, whilst on vacation in New Mexico, Sahm passed away in a motel following a heart attack."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH2iUybaip8

Apple of My Eye by Roy Head and the Traits (7" single released December 1965. Vocalion label) Did not chart in UK - "Unlike Sir Douglas 'The Tracker', this follow up to Roy's much covered rock'n souler 'Treat her right' harks back to his time in late fifties San Antonio's when he and the Traits would share bills with Sir Douglas. Head and the boys had several releases on TNT and Renner Records and Sceptre before they were signed by the Duke label subsidiary Back Beat (hmmmm, sure I've heard that name somewhere before?) in 1965 and hit immediately with 'Treat her right'. Such was the bands popularity in Texas that Dick Clark contacted them to appear on American Bandstand in the late fifties but, as they were all still at High School their parents refused to allow them to perform. Their time at Renner saw them record an early 'white blues' cover of 'I've got my mojo working' in 1962 before releasing 'Get Back' (hmmm....... curiouser and curiouser!) on Sceptre/Lori in 1964. Signing to Back Beat bought the band into the Gold Star/Sugarhill Studio and it was there, with Huey P Meaux that the band laid down 'Treat her right ' and it's UK follow up (there was a different second single in the US), the Chuck Berry 'influenced' 'Apple of my eye'. The US success of those three singles saw TNT and Sceptre bundle together all of the groups recordings (including 'Money', 'Night Train' and 'My Babe' and the curious ballad 'Treat me right' on the Sceptre release) but Head and the Traits seemed to run out of steam and the inevitable split followed in the late sixties. There was, however, time for a fine release by Roy with the Great Believers entitled 'Easy Lovin' Girl' in early 1967, just before the Great Believers changed their name to that of their lead guitarist and vocalist Johnny Winter. He had often sat in with Head when the Traits passed through Beaumont and 'Easy Lovin' Girl' was followed by a fine version of Tramp' and 'Parchman Farm' featuring Winter on lead guitar. Head signed to Elektra and Dunhill in the early seventies and released a couple of psychedelic influenced and rockabilly albums before he concentrated almost exclusively on country music recordings. However, when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, Billboard magazine commented that " Head's versatility actually worked against him since he did not fit into any specific marketing niche (and that) his use of many small record labels also prevented his recordings from achieving national distribution.". Head passed away in September 2020."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfgk88pi3HE

Golden Lights by Twinkle (7" single released February 1965. Decca label) Highest UK chart position No 21 - "Imagine if Cilla, Dusty or Lulu had written their own debut single for a moment............ very few girl singers in the mid sixties took that route but Twinkle (AKA Lynne Ripley) did and was rewarded with a number four hit in December 1964 which stayed on the charts for fifteen weeks. Lynne (Twinkle was her family's nickname for her) had been born into a middle class family and was educated at Kensington's Queen's Gate School alongside Camilla Shand/Parker Bowles and was the aunt of author/actress Fay Ripley. Twinkle became an early girlfriend (aged just 16) of the Bachelors Dec Cluskey after he was introduced by her sister, the music columnist Dawn James. Cluskey also passed a demo of a Twinkle song to the Bachelors manager and he quickly arranged a session to record the song (the 'controversial death disc' 'Terry' of course), calling in top session men Jimmy Page, Big Jim Sullivan and Bobby Graham to boost the recording. The disc caused immediate uproar and, eventually, the BBC had little choice but to place a ban on its broadcast, as it had already done to the similarly themed 'Leader of the Pack' by the Shangri Las earlier in '64. By the dawn of 1965 Cluskey had been replaced by Herman (Peter Noone) and Twinkle's early disillusionment with the recording industry became apparent with the release of this fine single, again composed by Twinkle. The singles failure was followed by the 'A lonely singing doll' EP which further aired her dissatisfaction via the cover of France Gall's "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" which explored similar themes to 'Golden Lights', and 'Unhappy Boy' which charted the descent of a boy into criminality. Decca then seemed to get cold feet regarding Twinkles compositional output and began to impose their choices of material on her which saw her recording covers of Reparata and the Delrons 'Tommy' and Skeeter Davis's country hit 'The end of the world' and so, after just 6 singles, an EP and a handful of live appearances, Twinkle announced her retirement at the grand old age of eighteen!! There were just a further handful of singles over the next 15 years, plus a suite of songs about her boyfriend Michael Hannah, who was killed in an air crash in 1974, which went unreleased until 2003. Twinkle passed away in 2015 following a long battle with cancer. 'Golden Lights', of course, reached a new (not always receptive) audience when it was covered by The Smiths on their 1987 US compilation 'Louder than bombs'."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKif4y6J5nQ

"Swerving round the continuing atrocities in Ukraine for this week, in the full expectation that next week will be even worse, let's take a look at our Chancellor of the Exchequer and his spouse this week:

Last Wednesday (6th April) saw Rishi gurning away alongside Boris the Johnson whilst confirming the biggest tax rises since Clement Atlee in 1946's post war austerity era. Our direct and indirect taxes were, by and large, hiked (hope you enjoyed the 5p off petrol!!?? and I'm looking forward to £150 off my 'poll tax', oh, and the 'loan' of £200 to temporarily offset the enormous fuel increases) at a time when, as a pensioner, my real 'income' was cut by around 4.5%. I even received a reply from the Government a couple of months ago stating that I should be grateful that they had stuck to their manifesto promise during the past few years to increase my Pension under the Triple Lock agreement which was brought in by the Tories when they were 'shackled' to the (hawk, spit!!) Liberals in 2010. This week we learn a little more about the now tarnished 'chosen one' and his affairs:

Rishi himself is so committed to the wellbeing of the UK that it turns out that he held a US 'Green Card' for 8 years, including 18 months whilst Chancellor. As a 'green card' holder he paid his tax to the US Government, not to his own Revenue collectors. No wonder he can afford a £180 'coffee mug' and a pair of £355 trainers....... plus those essentials such as a £94,000 Range Rover, a top of the range Lexus and BMW plus his more urbane VW Golf (the only vehicle he recently owned up to possessing in a recent Parliamentary debate). Oh, and by the way, his estimated personal worth after his earlier career as a hedge fund manager is a not so paltry £200,000,000!!!

His wife, of course, has hit the headlines too recently. Who would have thought that a story about her fathers Tech company (Infosys) refusing to close their Russian operation would have opened such a large can of worms? Having bowed to the inevitable furore, the true nature of her own wealth, and her means of maximising its worth, started to spill out. Mrs Sunak's personal wealth is estimated at £713,000,000 (approximately three times that of the Queen's fortune!) and it is regularly topped up with her dividends from Infosys, with last year's an eye watering £11,600,000, on which she paid not one penny in tax in the UK thanks to her 'non dom' status. This status is applied for in order to separate 'foreign' earnings from UK earnings on condition that tax is paid in the country of residence. I understand India's tax rate is 10%!!! The only stipulation is that, in order to gain 'non dom' status, the applicant must declare that they have no intention of making the UK their full time place of abode.

So, we have a Chancellor who has applied to live at some future time in the US, and his wife backing that up by stating she has no intention of living in the UK either!! If that's the case, why do they own a five bedroomed mews house (worth £14,000,000) in South Kensington, plus a Georgian mansion in Richmond Yorkshire (a bargain at £1,500,000 for that one) plus a beachside penthouse apartment in Santa Monica (guess where Rishi was headed on Christmas Eve after his 'work event' nearby before before being dragged back to the UK?) which is valued at a mere £5,500,000. Oh, and then there's the little 'pad' on Kensington's Brompton Road currently worth around £1,500,000!! Not bad for a family which has no intention of living here long term!!!

And then there's the 'confusion' about Mrs Sunak's inability to 'give up' her Indian nationality and her own business interests outside of Infosys. All in all that makes this couple the richest Governmental partnership since Clive of India's £30,000 'jagir' annually (estimated at £4,000,000 at today's equivalent) and further treasures from the Nawab of Bengal in the late 1750's!

And, to top it all, Rishi now wants two enquiries to be initiated. Firstly, into who 'leaked' his wife's financial details and, secondly, an inquiry into himself to confirm everything he has done is 'within the rules'.

Here's what I think........... if all this is all 'within the rules' then it's the rules that are wrong. And who can change all these financial 'rules'? I'll let you work that one out!!!

This could be RPM's longest rant (Tim permitting!!) and apologies if a) you are a Conservative or b)........ you are a Conservative!!!

Stay safe..."

Piers -

Jean -

"Thought this week’s choices should be Spring and good weather related. Happy Easter everyone. Enjoy yourselves."

Tim -

"Here's my three plucked out of this week's listening..."

'Til Next Time...