Stop! Woah, yeah, wait a minute Mister Postman...

Okay, okay, I admit it. I used to collect stamps. Albeit in a very half-hearted send away for a hundred non rare but fairly obscure impressions from the pages of comics like the Beano.

For a certain generation, the name Stanley Gibbons carries a particular resonance. Countless hours were frittered away trying tp make those dashed "stamp hinges" work without sticking them onto themselves or, worse still onto your fingers and clothes. Heaven forbid you'd crinkle a Djibouti Olympic Squad first day cover through the careless application of a gossamer layer of sticky hinge!

In a (surely doomed to failure) bid to make philately the new rock n roll, the Royal Mail have issued a set of stamps featuring classic album covers - actually, that was ill-informed. I was about to go off one one about who decided these were classics, etc, etc but I've just followed that there link above and the Royal Mail assure us that:

This stamp issue salutes this unique art form and celebrates

some of the greatest examples, used by UK artists.

So that's fine then.

I heard a piece on Radio Scotland just before Christmas where one of the artists, the brilliantly named Storm Thorgerson who was, as we say on the West coast, 'doing his duster' on the issue (aha, wee stamp gag there) of artistic integrity being compromised. I can completely understand his point - I stopped agreeing with him for a minute when he went on about consultation, my thinking being that surely if you've designed the artwork and signed it over to the record company then it becomes public work and you lose control over it, after all, where's the artisitc integrity in a badly done screen print on a cheap gig t-shirt?

However, I have to agree with old Stormin' Thormin's point on the suitability of artwork being used. He said that as a designer he had come up with a concept which would work on a lovely 12inch by 12inch record sleeve - clearly the man has plenty of soul - but would perhaps be compromised on a CD cover and, by extension, compromised further still on a 2inch square stamp. You cannot, after all, beat the thrill of vinyl.

Having looked at the artwork it's clear to me that, for example, Primal Scream's Screamadelica still manages to work on a small scale - the simplicity and the primary colours stand out like a piece of child's artwork, similarly the clean lines and lack of clutter of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells cover art and the iconography of the Clash's London Calling - itself Ray Lowry's homage to the King -but, as Storm says, the pieces of finer detail, whilst still incredibly well reproduced, just don't have the visual impact that they were designed for in the first place. The Stones' Let It Bleed, complete with its Delia Smith cake, just doesn't grab the eye in the same way as the original LP sleeve.

All of this got me thinking...can we not just have billboard sized stamps?

Clearly the man's an idiot...

Image via Wikipedia

Okay, okay, so - clearly - my "Top Ten" list from the other day should have included The Stones' brilliant Exile On Main Street but it seemed a trifle obvious (that'll be beacuse it's a brilliant album then, eh?). It must be included. So, too, must its direct descendant - The Black Crowes, "Shake Your Money Maker" - sure, it's pretty easy to spot the influences, Exile-era Stones, Sticky Fingers-era stones - I'm being unfair, there's plenty of Faces in the mix too! It really is a superb record.

I did make it clear the other day that, as with Tom Morton's list and those in High Fidelity, it (the list) will change depending on day, mood and company and it's certainly a topic which can make you - well, make me at any rate, wake up in the middle of the night and think, "How did I manage to leave out Billy Bragg's 'Victim Of Geography?" I'll tell you how, it's because it's a compilation of two of his albums and I didn't think that would count. Yes, I'm aware there's nobody arbitrating this and that if I really wanted I could just include a load of 'Now That's What I Call Music' albums but you have to draw the line otherwise anarchy ensues - the revolution is, after all, just a t-shirt away.

But Billy goes in there now. In in place of what you may ask? Nobody. I'm not bumping King Creosote or Son Volt out of my list - this is, to labour a point, today's top ten. Canada's Barenaked Ladies also need to climb aboard with their fabulous debut, "Gordon" - it should probably be on the list for the title alone so when you add their clever, innovative 'acoustic hip-hop(!)' to the mix the case becomes a strong one. "Enid", "Brian Wilson" and "New Kid On The Block" call to mind The Housemartins and The Smiths jamming with a flamenco band over a few too many beers. Which can only be a good thing.

The Lost Soul Band's magnificent "The Land Of Do As You Please" is one of those definite desert island "If I only had this I'd be quite happy" albums. Very few people have heard of the band, fewer still own the record but it's a tremendous example of lyrical craft, beautiful singing and a country-soul-blues-rock magimix holding it all together. Definitely a keeper as they say. They said that about Alan Rough too.

Keeping it nicely parochial, Phil Campbell's hard to track down debut "Fresh New Life" **I've just broken off from writing this nonsense to track down and read a blog by someone genuinely talented, Phil himself - if you don't know his work...actually I'll come back to that in a minute** - is one of the greatest records you'll ever (probably not) hear. My writing abilities don't stretch to doing it justice. The music speaks for itself as does Mr. Campbell. His life-story type blog at his Myspace is a genuinely affecting piece of writing, made all the more vivid because, for some of it, as they say, I was there man. Phil's never had the recognition his music and talent clearly deserve though I've yet to find anyone I've lent his stuff to who's not said "that guy's a genius." Go, find it, listen. Hey, turns out it's no longer hard to find.

Where are we at now? Six today. Hmm.

Okay. You want more obscure Scottish artists? Nae bother. The Radio Sweethearts - Lonesome Blue - proper honky tonk Hank Williams-esque country...from Lanarkshire. Like it says on the sticker on the album "It's hard to tell if you're listening to a country classic or a Sweethearts original" - praise indeed.

The Swiss Family Orbison - eponymous album from ex-Danny Wilson man Kit Clark with ex-Deacon Blue and current BBC Sportscene (!) man Dougie Vipond on drums. It's somehow very obviously Scottish pop-rock. I'm not even sure what I mean by that but no doubt you'll kind of understand.

Right, last two onto my Desert Island - Mojave 3's "Excuses For Travellers" A brilliant album which, if you were lazy you might describe as lo-fi acoustic chill out, but that would be a dreadful thing to do.

Last but not least and by jings this is tricky, I need to dance about a bit on my island so I'm taking a compilation album and there's nothing you can do about it. It's even a double CD so there! Put down the talcum powder and bring out the cheesecloth shirts. A bit of Northern Soul - The Best Northern Soul All-Nighter...Ever! Amazing sounds, Al Wilson's "The Snake", Frank Wilson's "Do I Love You?" and Sliced Tomatoes by The Just Brothers - songs to get a corpse dancing.

Right. I'm away to listen to Johnny Cash. He's not on the list? Ach, there's always tomorrow's list...

Nostalgic pavements...

Right. Music. Again.

I love music, me. Without going into huge, detailed and undoubtedly boring explanations of the whys and hows, I bought loads of the stuff last weekend at the excellent Europa Music in Stirling and some at the not quite so excellent (but they had what I was after) HMV, also in Stirling. I mean, it's not as if I'd travel somewhere different just to visit a chain store.

For the princely sum of £19, I left Europa with Through The Past Darkly and Jump Back by the Stones, The Singles by the criminally neglected Bluetones and lastly the magnificent Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not by The Arctic Monkeys. All excellent. All cheap. Bob is indeed my uncle.

HMV (for 98pence more) supplied me with the latest offerings from King Creosote and Dan Auerbach. KC's is a bit of a grower but good nonetheless whilst Dan does a kind of pared down version of his Black Keys incarnation. Really nice, almost acoustic blues.

I digress. In Inverness the other week I heard a song in a cafe. I immediately recognised the voice as belonging to a certain female artiste that I thought I didn't like. I don't know why I thought I disliked her. No sound reasoning, no rationale. This arbitrary opinion forming is, is it not, what makes talking about musical tastes so interesting.

Anyway, the song sounded great and was very - and here I'm going to sound very middle-aged - catchy. Sorry, but it was. And is.

With a free Amazon voucher burning a hole in my inbox, I bought the album. Almost "on spec" and do you know what? It's one of the best things I've ever heard. Lyrically it's something of a masterpiece - the idea of nostalgic pavements and the magnificent line "you said I must eat so many lemons, 'cos I am so bitter, I said I'd rather be with your friends mate 'cos they are much fitter" being just two from a whole CD-full.

The artiste in question? Here she is, enjoy this great song and brilliant video...

Music you never knew you loved...

Mark Lamarr's Radio2 shows are always, always fantastic and the Friday night "God's Jukebox" is no exception.

The show's tagline gives this post its title and it seems to bear up remarkably well. I may be being selective in my memories but I can't think of anything I've heard on the show I've not at least liked and most of it I've found to be nothing less than brilliant.

As a fan of the Rolling Stones, ther's no shortage of cover versions out there to enjoy - or sometimes not. I've previously heard Mark play Cissy Houston's wonderful cover of the first Stones song I realised I liked - Under My Thumb - and I've just been stopped in my tracks (okay, stopped from Googling for Eddie Izzard videos) by this from Merry Clayton: Gimme Shelter.

Sublime.