OFF TOPIC with Steve Mixup. A place for me to tell the odd story or two about the post war rock generation. If they couldn’t change the world at least they brought us some wonderful music.
Nottingham group Victory Lap captured my attention sometime around the end of 2023 and subsequently I have been writing an occasional memo to them. It started during one of their gigs, when they reminded me of an old album I had in my collection. From that started this.
Victory Lap
memo #4, January 2025
I wasn’t sure if I should or what I could write about in my fourth memo to Victory Lap, when I was saved by the bell as it were, and the line “the river Leen” from the song “Faults to be silver screen” from their Torch Songs EP entered my ears yet again at a gig at the Bodega last December 2024.
The first thought it brought to mind was a song of my own called “Last great wish” under the band name of Stevie Steve and the Spanners. Although it doesn’t mention it by name, the Leen was in my mind as I wrote a song about someone (fictitious) who ended their life entering the water. I’ve lived not to far from the Leen for a few decades now and walked the banks many times, not with any of those thought I hasten to add, and as songs do, it wrote itself.
Sad songs, disaster songs, melancholy moments, not probably what I want to hear when I’m down the pub or at a rave but in other moments they are there to remind us of the all to real situations we might ourselves in. So, a song that is in the forefront of my mind at the moment is High Flying Bird. Yes, Noel Gallagher did use this for his band name. I first knew the song through Jefferson Airplane and more particularly H. P. Lovecraft (the band not the novelist). I really like the two late sixties albums they made. Written by country folk artist Billy Edd Wheeler, High Flying Bird was first recorded by Judy Henske and it is that version I would suggest you listen too. About the perils of being a miner, the line “the only way to fly was to die” is a key line.
Now I’m reminded of a different story. One of those old songs about the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker. Those peculiar and nostalgic British songs about everyday street life. There were many in the sixties in a genre now called pop psych. Those whimsical, slightly groovy, three minute slices of pop with a clever orchestrated arrangement. A fine example would be “Excerpt from a teenage opera” in 1967, by Keith West, he of psychedelic group “Tomorrow” and My White Bicycle fame. Written by Mark Wirtz and often known as “Grocer Jack” the song told the story of a Grocer who was mocked by the children, who after he died, realised they wanted him back. There was a chorus sang by children and as a nine year old at school we would sing it in the playground, the same way we would have sung Yellow Submarine the year before. The sadder side of the song is something only noticed when grown up and for me compounded by the nostalgia it conjures up of my own childhood. Hey ho.
Another line I like is “The day that war broke out, that’s how I came about” from a song written by Mike D”abo called “The Day That War Broke Out”. It is simply as it suggests, about being born because of the war. Because I sometimes write about, and owe a debt to that first wave of wartime baby boomers who paved the way for the great soundtrack of our lives, it also has a strong sad nostalgic feel. Mike D”abo, singer with Manfred Mann, did a version but the one for me that captures that late sixties pop psych feel is by little known Keith Field. I have plenty of original vinyl but also the fabulous 20 CD box set “Piccadilly Sunshine” put together by a good friend of mine that covers this genre brilliantly.
Better stop now before I have to get the hankies out.
Steve Mixup
Tenerife, January 2025
Stevie Steve and the Spanners – Last Great Wish
Judy Henske – High Flying Bird
Keith West – Excerpt from a Teenage Opera
Keith Field – The Day War Broke Out
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Victory Lap #3, Dec 2024
The last time I saw Victory Lap was at the opening of The Grove in Sneinton market. A slightly stripped back line up with the addition of a violin player (signs of things to come, maybe) but yet another great gig it was. Grabbing a few words afterwards, and mentioning a few influences I had heard in their music, I realised there was no need in name dropping Jacque Brel, Tom Waits and Nino Ferrer and the like, they knew them well already. With that character style singing, which is a part of the appeal of Victory Lap, I could still mention many from the great pantheon of rock and roll that might be of interest or inspire them.
One that came to mind from my mid-seventies youth, quite different to the sound of Victory Lap however, was the great Alex Harvey who had that character style singing and a stage presence to go with it. He could talk or sing through a number, growl and posture, captivating the audience like few others. The Sensational Alex Harvey Band were one of the few groups who could rival The Who on stage during their pomp. With classic lines like “Can I lay my hands on you”, “Give my compliments to the chef” and the songs “Next” and “Framed” Alex left a strong memory with anyone who saw him. In conversations with one or two of my Scottish friends, I always offer up Alex Harvey as being the greatest Scotsman during my lifetime. A light hearted game we play but there is some truth to it. A sometimes-drunken madman but also a very hard-working guy with solid roots, starting out in the late fifties, he had to wait until the mid-seventies before he found his audience. Good old Alex, long gone but not forgotten.
Sat in the sunshine (on my hols) the Victory Lap song Jealousy makes a welcome return in my head and somehow, I’ve thought of another story I want to tell. When I first heard “Dress Rehearsal Rag” by Leanord Cohen back in the seventies it grabbed my attention. Although he wasn’t the huge name he became before he passed away, he was well known enough, with a voice and style that stood out, with melancholic songs some would describe as depressing. I knew many of his standards like “Suzanne” but “Dress Rehearsal Rag” was top draw. Given away somewhat by the title, each verse gets darker and darker as the subject of the song contemplates suicide only for the reveal at the end letting you off the hook. I used to listen to this, sometimes while tripping, amongst the other psychedelic meanderings and groovy songs that coloured up my night. It would make me smile when a mate would say “this is a bit depressing”. I thought it was brilliant.
Steve Mixup
A live video of Alex and the band performing Framed in 1974 sums the them up well. Alex doing his Marlon Brando…. and the stocking. I saw this tour when I was sixteen. It still gives me goosebumps now.
SAHB – Framed – live
Leonard Cohen – Dress Rehearsal Rag
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Victory Lap
memo #2, 2024
In another little secret message to the lads at Victory Lap, I thought about how, when I last spoke to them, they had cited the influence of, for want of better words, filmic music. What do they mean? Sergio Leone, Hanz Zimmer or something different. It is a wide realm to consider but it set my mind thinking on who I might suggest they listen to. I fell upon Barry Adamson, the one time bass player of Magazine. Magazine are sometimes considered to be the first post punk band and at the time we did feel they had moved on from punk. There was a sophistication and progressiveness that marked them out. Keyboards and Saxophone only added to their cool demeanour.
I could suggest many songs, from their first two albums in particular, but “Definitive Gaze”, I have argued to be one of the greatest opening tracks on a debut album ever. Astronomy Domine by Pink Floyd is a fair shout and I’m sure you could suggest plenty more but Definitive Gaze sets a tone that the rest of the album “Real Life” follows. From the second album “Second hand Daylight” I could point out “The Thin Air”, a wonderful Bowiesque instrumental, it could of been on Bowie’s Low album. To be honest both albums are masterful, keeping the power and ethos of punk but adding the creative sound of producer Martin Hannett.
Howard Devoto had led the early Buzzcocks and Dave Formula had a career that stretched back to that golden mid sixties period but Magazine were to be short lived, 5 albums and it was all over by 1981. Barry Adamson embarked on a solo career but also worked with many names along the way. Visage, Nick Cave and David Lynch spring to mind. Two of his best known albums are soundtracks to non existent films, Moss Side Story from 1989 and Oedipus Schmoedipus in 1996. The cool groove of “Something Wicked This Way Comes” and the Bond feel of “The Man With The Golden Arm” might give some clues.
I saw Magazine in 78 and 79, never to be forgotten, and I saw Barry last, about 16 years ago at the Rescue Rooms on his Back To The Cat tour.
The last time, I made mention of how Victory Lap had unconsciously reminded me of Jackie Leven’s Doll By Doll and this time I’m consciously suggesting to them Barry Adamson. Is there a link? Not yet I think, but lets see how it develops.
Magazine – Definitive Gaze
Pink Floyd – Astronomy Domine
Steve Mixup
mr.mixup@ntlworld.com
whiskrecords.co.uk
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Victory Lap
memo #1, 2024
During Dot to Dot I handed a rushed note to the guys at Victory Lap.
“When watching a band you can sometimes get reminded of a song or an album by an artist from long ago. Don’t know why. It’s a personal thing, I guess. So, when watching Victory Lap, a couple of songs by “Doll by Doll” came to mind. Hell Games and Forbidden Worlds from the 1979 album Gypsy Blood. A band that fell through the cracks as they say. Not saying you should follow them up, as I say, it’s just something that sits in my mind but a couple of great songs I think you might like”.