Space is neither truth nor lie

Thursday music corner: Hawkwind is an English rock group founded in Ladbroke Grove in London in late 1969, which became a prominent champion of psychedelic space-rock throughout the 1970s. The band have released nine studio albums in the 1970s, six in the 1980s, seven in the 1990s, and fifteen to date in the 21st century. 

Spurred on by the chart success of their 1972 single Silver Machine (a UK hit reaching number 3 in the singles charts), the band's third album, Doremi Fasol Latido was issued in November 1972. It was the first Hawkwind album to feature new members Lemmy and Simon King. (Lemmy would later be fired from the band in 1975 and go on to form metal band Motörhead). The Dave Brock-penned Space is Deep is the second track on the album, appearing immediately after the mammoth eleven-minute opening opus, Brainstorm. It also appears in extended form on the 1973 Hawkwind live album, Space Ritual. 

Hawkwind - Space is Deep (1972)  

See also:

Music: Hawkwind - Space is Deep (live version, 1972)

Music: Hawkwind - Silver Machine (1972)

Music: Hawkwind - Kings of Speed (written by Lemmy, 1975)

When I see you alone, I see what's in your mind

Thursday music corner: The Pizzicato Five were a prolific Japanese pop group formed in Tokyo in 1984, which attained international fame as a duo consisting of Yasuharu Konishi and Maki Nomiya. In Japan the group released thirteen studio albums, seventeen compilation albums, nine remix albums, six video albums, thirteen EPs, and twenty-two singles. Pizzicato Five were also released in America on Matador Records, including three studio albums and eight singles.

Baby Love Child is a 1994 English re-recording of a track from the band's 1991 album This Year's Girl, which appeared on the band's second Matador album Made in USA and in an episode of the American animated series Futurama.

Pizzicato Five - Baby Love Child (LA English Mix Version, 1994) 

See also:
Music: Pizzicato Five - Baby Love Child (Japanese lyrics, 1991)

Music: Pizzicato Five - Twiggy Twiggy (1995)

Music: Pizzicato Five - Happy Sad (1995)

How history minimises feminist achievements

This is another way feminists get screwed over by history. Women like Barbara Castle and Harriet Harman fought great battles to enact legislation which now seems like common sense. So they get little credit. The mainstream tradition of the party, which once regarded their views as madly fringe, instead rewrites them as pushing on an open door. Men get to be radicals. Women are battleaxes and harridans when they are pushing for change, then irrelevant old biddies, or soft-focus saints, once they've achieved it. In terms of achieving her political agenda, Harriet Harman has had incredible success. And yet the current fashion in Labour is to deride her as an irrelevant 'Blairite', while praising the backbench career of Jeremy Corbyn, which has no significant legislation to show for it.

[London labour organiser] Jayaben Desai nearly suffered a similar neglect. 'I'm sure there are tons of really active Asian women in the trade union movement, but we don't really hear about them,' says [Ayesha] Hazarika. 'I thought, if it would be unusual now for a strong woman of colour to be involved in these type of disputes, I couldn't even believe that a woman back all those years was involved, particularly at a time when Enoch Powell had quite recently mobilised the trade union movement to march.'

Hazarika believes that George Ward, the Grunwick owner, employed South Asian women because he believed they would be submissive, with a strong work ethic, and would 'give him no trouble at all'. Desai's protest, then, smashed expectations of both her ethnic background and her gender.

- Helen Lewis, Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights, London, 2020, p.151

Karori winter sun

 

For connecting it word verb subject to the predicate

Thursday music corner: Jurassic 5 are a West Coast hip hop group formed in Los Angeles in 1995, consisting of rappers Charles Stewart, Dante Givens, Courtenay Henderson and Marc Stuart, and DJs Mark Potsic and Lucas Macfadden. The group released four albums between 1998 and 2006, with the first three being certified gold in the UK, and the third and fourth albums reaching the top 20 in the US album charts. 

Quality Control is the title track of Jurassic 5's second album, released on Interscope in June 2000. Released as the album's second single, it reached number 12 in the US rap charts. It contains samples from the novelty / parody performer Blowfly, a.k.a. Clarence Reid.

Jurassic 5 - Quality Control (2000)

See also:

Music: Jurassic 5 - Jayou (1998)

Music: Jurassic 5 - What's Golden? (2002)

Music: Jurassic 5 - Customer Service (2016)

You never cried to them, just to your soul

Thursday music corner: Bronski Beat were a British synth-pop band formed in London by keyboardist Steve Bronski, vocalist Jimmy Somerville and keyboardist and percussionist Larry Steinbachek in 1983. The band released three studio albums during their most prominent phase until 1995. Their debut, 1984's The Age of Consent, was their most popular, reaching number 4 in the UK album charts, and charting in the top 10 in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland and New Zealand. Singer Jimmy Somerville left the band in 1985 to join the Communards and later pursued a successful solo career.

Smalltown Boy was Bronski Beat's first single, and concerned a young man leaving home for London after being gay-bashed and receiving an unsympathetic reaction from his parents. Written by the band, it became a major smash across Europe, reaching number 3 in the UK pop charts, topping the charts in Italy and the Netherlands, and hitting the top five in Germany, Ireland and Switzerland. It also charted at number 5 in New Zealand and number 8 in Australia.

Bronski Beat - Smalltown Boy (1984) 

See also:

Music: Bronski Beat - Hit That Perfect Beat (1985)

Music: Communards - Don't Leave Me This Way (Thelma Houston cover, top-selling UK single of the year, 1986)

Music: Jimmy Somerville - You Make Me Feel Mighty Real (Sylvester cover, 1989)

Two Wellington sunrises

 

Wellington, 9 July 2025

Wellington, 8 July 2025

Mama get up early, early in the morning, Papa's already gone

Thursday music corner: American R&B singer Lee Dorsey (b. New Orleans, 1924, d. New Orleans, 1986) was a childhood friend of Fats Domino and served in the US Navy in World War II. Having moved with his family to Oregon at age 10, he returned to the city of his birth in his early thirties and began singing in night clubs alongside his car repair day job. He released his first single Rock in 1959, but it was his third in 1961, Ya Ya, that achieved breakthrough success, topping the R&B charts and reaching number seven in the US pop charts. He went on to work extensively with producer Allen Toussaint and backing group The Meters.

The loping funk of Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further is an album track from Dorsey's 1970 LP Yes We Can. A single from the album, Sneakin' Sally Through The Alley, was penned by Toussaint and later became a track and debut album title for Robert Palmer in 1974; Toussaint produced the album and the Meters and Little Feat's Lowell George backed Palmer on it.  

Lee Dorsey - Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further (1970)    

See also:

Music: Lee Dorsey - Give It Up (1969)

Music: The Meters - Handclapping Song (1970)

Music: Robert Palmer - Sailin' Shoes (1974)