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)

The black cat keeps telling me that love is on it's way

Thursday music corner: Irish rock group Hothouse Flowers formed in 1985 and attained worldwide fame with the second release of their breakthrough single Don't Go in 1988. It had been released successfully in Ireland the previous year, reaching number 2 in the national charts, but the 1988 re-release with its globe-trotting video became a major hit. The single reached number 6 in both Sweden and New Zealand, number 11 in the UK, and number 7 in the US Alternative Airplay chart. 

The band has released seven studio albums, the first five of which on London Records. The first three, People (1988), Home (1990) and Songs from the Rain (1993), all topped the Irish charts and reached the top 10 in the UK. Home also was a number one album in Australia.

Before forming Hothouse Flowers lead singer Liam Ó Maonlaí was in a trio called The Complex; when he departed to form his new group the remaining members became half of My Bloody Valentine. Ó Maonlaí also collaborated with fellow Irishman Andy White and New Zealand's Tim Finn in the mid-1990s project, ALT.

This performance of Hothouse Flowers' best-known hit is from October 2021 on the RTE1 Late Late Show, accompanied by the Irish Chamber Orchestra.

Hothouse Flowers - Don't Go (live with the Irish Chamber Orchestra, 2021)

See also:

Music: Hothouse Flowers - Feet On The Ground (1988, IRE #1 single)

Music: ALT - We're All Men (1995)

Music: My Bloody Valentine - You Made Me Realise (1988)

It's time to wake up and face the consequences

Thursday music corner: Stalwart English indie rock band Pulp were originally formed in Sheffield in 1978 as Arabicus Pulp, and released three albums and twelve singles before finally achieving widespread fame in the mid-1990s Britpop boom with their albums His 'n' Hers (1994) and the dual UK-album-chart-toppers Different Class (1995) and This Is Hardcore (1998). Following the UK top ten album We Love Life in 2001 the band entered a long hiatus that included a solo career for the band leader and singer-songwriter, Jarvis Cocker. The band reunited in 2011 and released a single, and a full album release for their eighth studio album More will occur in June 2025.

Pulp have achieved twelve UK top 40 singles, including two consecutive singles that reached number two in the charts - Common People and Sorted For E's & Wizz / Mis-Shapes, both in 1995. Four of the band's studio albums reached the UK top 10, along with the 1996 double compilation album, Countdown 1992-1983.

Got To Have Love is Pulp's second single from its forthcoming album, after Spike Island. The video features archival footage of Northern Soul dancers knee-dropping in 1977 at the famous Wigan Casino dance club.

The clips below are from the 1998 Pulp In The Park gig in London that I attended. 

Pulp - Got To Have Love (2025)

See also:

Music: Pulp - Do You Remember The First Time? (Live in Finsbury Park, 1998) 

Music: Pulp - This Is Hardcore (Live in Finsbury Park, 1998) 

Music: Jarvis Cocker - Tonite (2006)

Comedy Festival 2025

Nish Kumar (Hannah Playhouse, 2 May) 

A compellingly bracing and impressively coherent ramble through progressive polemic rant with discursions into the power of lousy South Asian role models, how the world is beset with psychotic billionaires, his mum's feud with Camilla Parker-Bowles, how not to interview Boris Johnson, his comedic feud with Ricky Gervais, and how to manage one's mental health whilst actively discussing unprocessed rage on stage in front of complete strangers when one's friends have become millionaires by doing a podcast about how sandwiches are nice. Also the evening was triply impressive because Kumar responded to weather disruptions by performing not one, not two, but three shows in a single night.

Abby Howells (BATS, 9 May) 

An expertly-constructed and charmingly delivered set illustrating the thorough unsuitability of Tiny Tim as gig warmup music, the psychological traumas of Michael Jackson impersonators, Willy Wonka & the housing ladder, the perils of becoming Insta-famous, an update on the (presumably) lifelong feud with Wanaka Puzzleworld (sic.), the pitfalls of improv group vendettas and discount group therapy, not looking like a pervert on the bus, and breaking up with her ex- and finding the love of her life. (See also: Conan O'Brien, who met her for his NZ episode of his Conan O'Brien Must Go series, described Howells as 'without a doubt one of the funniest people I've met').

Ray O'Leary (Te Auaha, 22 May) 

Slow-talkin', tan-suited purveyor of droll observational comedy, touching on the potentially accurate effrontery of a woman who approached him on the street to thank him for being a good role model for autistic people despite him never having being diagnosed as having autism, being insufficiently unhealthy to qualify for Ozempic, the lack of security at New Zealand rest homes, how to use Borat impressions to lighten up bleak standup material, and coaxing audience members to work on their comedic timing in a ramshackle three-person, one-act sitcom reading.