Ultimate Battle: "High Land, Hard Rain" vs. "Cafe Bleu"

Both albums are wildly inconsistent, with notable high points.

I'd probably get more milage out of High Land, Hard Rain at this point. Roddy's chord progressions and melodies are always worth paying attention to.

But I really have a soft spot for "Paris Match" on Cafe Bleu. That song makes me want to drink and smoke at 3 in the morning.

I always liked the fact that on side 1, after the full on "Gift" album, you have to wait awhile for P.Weller's vocals

Mind you, I knew "A Gospel" was a dud track from day 1. It took Paul Weller 15 years to admit that.

2) How! True! That! Is! How! True! That! Is! How! True! That! Is! How! True! That! Is!

(Or maybe it's just because I was living in Berlin, where I had elevated sipping cappucinos in cafés to a major lifestyle choice. Yeah, it was probably that.)

Not just The Style Council's, I would humbly sugest that it was Paul Weller's best work.

It still doesn't even come close to High Land Hard Rain 'though.

Somewhere there an otherwise identical (but clearly better) parallel universe, where Roddy Frame regularly appears on the front cover of monthly music magazines and receives accolades for "lifetime achievement", whilst Paul Weller languishes in relative obscurity, only managing to eek out a meager living by periodically touring with a reformed Style Council (of course he has repeatedly begged Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler to join him in reforming The Jam, only to have them laugh sneeringly in his face).

"Heck, we were doing the same in Reading."

Only, being Reading; and therefore only having access to a slightly narrower range of "lifestyle choices"; we used to hang around that strange (and long gone) greasy-spoon place on the island in the middle of the road between The Butts market place and St Mary's church, next to the entrance to the underground toilets (which presumably are still down there somewhere under a great big block of concrete - a bit like The Target only slightly pleasanter smelling iirc) drinking tea with 8 spoonfuls of sugar out of big, thick, chipped mugs, instead of sipping cappucinos in cafés obv.

I'd have to add Shout to the Top to that list, though I was shocked the other day to discover that my best mate from schooldays thinks it cheesy.
The second album is even more up and down, but I still love the Boy Who Cried Wolf. Yes, yes its capuccino quaffing, pringle-clad white soulboy 80s pop, but it's a great example of it.

Thanx to the Reading massive, but I'm not going to regale you with my memories of slough

The capuchino place we used to hang round was The Ivy, down Friar's walk. It closed down but stayed 'there' until it got renovated into Sainsbury's just recently.

Please feel free: I used to work in Slough for 3-4 years - along the Farnham Road, just past Safeway, opposite a branch of Woolworths that had been opened (presumably in a fit of insane optimism) slap bang in the middle of a predominantly industrial area; so I may even join in.

The stench of burning creme egg that used to pour out of the Mars factories as you drove through that estate first thing in the morning was enough to put anyone off chocolate for life.

Have any bands / musicians other than Thousand Yard Stare ever come from Slough?

"That greasy spoon island is still there!"

The island is still there - they pulled the greasy spoon down; and put a bloody great slab of concrete right where the top of the stairs that led down to the toilets must be; at least 20 years ago!

Back in the '60's, '70's and at least up to the beginning of the '80's, all the buses used to stop there and all the drivers used to use the greasy spoon.

Re. the espousal of the cappucino "lifetstyle": I can still remember the outraged letters to the NME from "betrayed" Jam fans.

"We haven't got many coffee shops in Bolton."

Fair comment, really.

Aaaah yes, I remember the delightful Ms. Hancock extremely well indeed - going back to when she was in a band called B-Stream with some friends from school, and could only afford to have one "L" in "Poly"!

Primetime used to gig around Reading a lot before they moved up to London. I slept on Sarah & Mick's floor a couple of times when they were gigging around London with an old Reading-based band called Boys From Brazil.

They were all really Windsor rather than Slough 'though, weren't they?

IIRC there was another really good band 'from 'round that area (Slough ? Windsor?) around the same time (early '80's) with a monosyllabic interogative name (IF...? But...?) who were like a cross between The Jam and The Specials / Madness....

I used to play Cricket for a team that used the Aspro ground - my unbeaten 18 helped us clinch the Thames Valley Research league title in 1991 - my only sporting medal!

Mick Bund was in Felt at one point, IIRC.

I used to go to a greasy spoon on Queen's Road in Reading, not far from the biscuit factory.

**Not just The Style Council's, I would humbly sugest that it was Paul Weller's best work**

Gah! you softy, Osborne.

Fair comment, really."

Funny how they'd never seemed to complain quite so much about the shortage of Ben Shermans with button-down collars, 3-button mohair or tonic suits, authentic fishtail parkas, or 2-tone Shellys brogues or winkle-pickers, in their local shopping emporia 'though.....

Oh! All this excitement I've been missing!

Actually I have a strange recollection that the original got burned - in fact it may even have been part of Reading's somewhat halfhearted and lacklustre contribution to the '81 riots...

Last I heard she was something to do with the Mean Fiddler organisation - but that would be quite a bit further back than a year or so.

If you do happen to bump into her again, tell her Eddie from Grinding Halt sends his regards!

Or is it just me?

I was astonished to discover recently that there's an establishment in Dorchester called "The Gorge Cafe" - it even had it's name written in that same odd mock-Gothic script that the one on the corner of Caversham Road and Richfield Avenue in Reading has had for at least the last 30 years to my knowledge and I was staring to suspect that this couldn't be mere coincidence and must be evidence of some sort of bizarre chain or franchise arrangement....

On closer inspection however, the establishment in Dorchester was quite clearly lacking both the all-important aging bikers motif and the trademark confused hippy (the one who either still hasn't quite got himself organised to leave yet, 6 months after last year's festival finished, or has arrived 6 months early for next year's festival, and is just hanging around...) which are such an intrinsic part of the character of the Reading one.

http://www.citikey.com/static/images/business/10053159.jpg

Can't believe no-one's picked up on this yet.

Anyway: HLHR everytime. Checked shirts, desert boots & bootlace ties over white socks & loafers. All articles about Aztec Camera seemed to mention Love, which made me buy Forever Changes at the age of 13. Of course I hated it then, because it sounded nothing like Aztec Camera.