planet mondo

Soundhogging

2009-07-10T18:41:00.035+01:00

DJ, producer and the Bruce Lee of bootleg remixing Ben Soundhog has collected some of his most recent reworks and cross-pollinated pop-ups into a glowing collection Music From The Pig Fink.

Blossoming with summer thumpers Fink is a selection box of unlikely bed fellows buddying up and sharing the same personal song-space. A place where the Super Furry Animals, Dave Clarke and Cymande jam side by side

The Smokin' Message

And those rocking robots Daft Punk, and audiophile space-jazzers Steely Dan become conjoined, recoded and rewired to lively up your legs..

Daft Dan

Music From The Pig Fink is free and available for download here

Ben SH's sleevenotes on the tunes

Funky Friday - Funkee Monkees

2009-07-10T09:07:00.002+01:00

£8.49 this cost me back in the eighties!

I've been on something of a Monkees buzz after reading this recent trigger from BLTP. Although I really can't understand why it's taken me almost two years to log some Monkee magic in the blog.

Retrospectively the amount of sniffery and snears directed towards The Monkees as they took their place in sixties pop society, seems almost hard to believe now given the quality of the catalogue, the pedigree of their legacy and the roll call of heavy-hitters happy to sit in with them - Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Neil Diamond Goffin/King. Oh, and then there's Brixton's David Jones having to rebrand himself as David Bowie to avoid any confusement and Stepping Stone later being re-punked by the Sex Pistols..not bad for a band originally pegged as pop-puppets .

Listen To The Band
A funky little number with a fake ending..

For Pete's Sake
A tune occasionally used as a show-closer

Mary Mary - The Strangers
I only realised this was written by Mike Nesmith while looking at the label last week. As much as I love The Monk's version, this slightly thumpier rework just pips the original for me

You can grab the mp3 of Paperback Believer right here

Run For Cover It's A Piley And Mondo Podcast

2009-07-07T08:50:00.002+01:00

Who he? Find out in Podrophenia

Great Scott it's a podcast! Yes Podrophenia the first in an occasional series of oddcasts from Piley and myself wherein where cue up some themed tunes and generally jabber about a bit. The flavour of the day is 'cover versions'. So what can you expect to hear amid the random banter as we dig through our respective record collections? well, tracks like ...

The original hi-raunch version of One Night reworked by Marc Almond

Mission Impossible as you've never heard it before

Metallica remade for swinging and finger-clicking

Blur covering Rod Stewart

Rod Stewart covering Oasis

Bob Dylan goes garage..

Podrophenia is unscripted, unedited(ish) and available for stream or download right here..

Podrophenia 1

Oh and the opening theme, which I forgot to credit is The Mohawks - Mony Mony

Funky Friday - Britpopping

2009-07-03T08:59:00.003+01:00

If you were between 18 to 30, and based in the UK during the Britpop years (bookended by Suede and the Spice Girls) it was possibly the closest anyone too young to remember the sixties got to tasting the uncorked excitement of an England Swings experience. The mid-nineties saw Britain's music scene blossom and bloom into hot spots of home grown, hybrid-mixing, hit makers - stretching from newly minted Anglocentric anthems, Indie rockers and Big Beaters to rediscovered retro funk, swishy soundtrack highlights and cheesy listening lounge tunes.

Add in Blur vs Oasis, Weller's return to form, former shy-eyed shoegazer guitarists giving it Guitar Hero riffery and the upsurge and momentum of the moment was enough to revive the surviving Beatles into action releasing new recordings and archived outtakes via Anthology.

If you fancied a night in there was the reinvented Radio One (which had finally shaved off it's beardy ol' DJs) or Vic and Bob's Shooting Stars. For a night out how about catching Trainspotting or any number or Brit-flicks hitting the cinemas or even shaking a leg at clubs like Blow Up.

So instead of waving the flag with the typical Britpop colours, how about a couple of remixed remodels and two often overlooked vids..

And you must check out Piley's review of Blur's recent Southend gig - their warm up for Glastonbury and Hyde Park.

The Pulp/Blur tracks are taken from the Steve Lamacq mixed Weekenders, so download them and they'll join neatly togther when played in sequence

Pulp - Common People(Motiv-8 Mix)

Blur - Girls and Boys (Pet Shop Boys remix)

Almost the forgotten men of Britpop, Black Grape's It's Great When You're Straight.... Yeah! is still the perfect summer soundtrack almost 15 years on from it's release - yes it really has been that long.

Black Grape - Tramazi Party

Beatlebum

2009-06-30T09:09:00.002+01:00

Have you got a light Mac?

I've got a feeling, there could be something of Britpop micro-buzz on the blog this week. What with The Charlatans (possibly the most underrated of all B-pop bands) and Black Grape in the last post, and now Blur teaming up with The Beatles in this little gem of Beatleg remix from Mark 'Go Home Productions' Vidler.

Rich Girls And Boys - Go Home Productions

And as a booty bonus variations on the component parts of this mashup

Blur - Boys and Girls (demo)

The Beatles - Baby You're A Rich Man (German Stereo Mix)

"How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people"

Shake Your Booty Down To The Ground

2009-06-28T09:36:00.002+01:00

I knew I had a few somewhere...

Jacko & The Charlatans
The Baddest One I Know - McSleazy

Jacko & The Beatles
Daytrip To Never Never Land - Go Home Productions

Jacko & Black Grape
Reverend Black Jackson - Go Home Productions

Funky Friday - Folking About On The River

2009-06-26T08:59:00.006+01:00

So the Annual Leigh Folk Festiva l rolls round again this weekend, and really, who needs Glastonbury - when last year's LFF (my first visit) was such a joy and a gem. Please leave any ideas of fuzzy folkies a'wailing and a'wauling about shipwrecks, smugglers and sweethearts long gone, at the gatepost please - this free, two day event of live musical doings is coloured with all shades and styles from solo strummers to ska bands and young folkies to old rockers..

Saturday sees fun for all the family in the Library Gardens with live bands on rotation, perhaps circus skills for the kiddies and dusty ol' vinyl stalls for the dusty ol' dads. Why not bring some plonk and perhaps bagels (from the Leigh Bagel Bar). While Sunday is bands amongst the boats down Old Leigh way with it's wharfs, seafood stalls and those fishermen's pubs...

So, if you're at a loose end this weekend, why not take the C2C to Leigh On Sea, where you may hear funky folk along the lines of..

John & Beverley Martyn - Sorry to Be So Long

Kathy Smith - It's Taking So Long

Heather Jones - Penrhyn Gwyn
If any continental viewers are wondering what's the crazy talk on this track - It's Welsh! Claimed to be Britain's oldest language and still spoken by over half a million people in Wales..

I won't be posting anything on Michael Jackson or Farrah Fawcett, I'll leave it to others who'll do them more justice than I ever could - but will spin this up in memory ...

Song Of A Baker

2009-06-23T09:33:00.002+01:00

You may remember last week, how we noted the signature Alessi sound has a chime of the Chet about it, so for anyone who hasn't heard the muted toot of his trumpet or the lullaby-lilt of his politely stoned vocal tone here's your chance to check in with Chet Baker. The James Dean of the jazz-scene.

Chet Baker - The More I See You

There's an almost heavy-overload of Chet albums too choose from - but this, this or It Could Happen To You ..are all good hopping on points for Baker-beginners

Let Your Fingers Do The Walking

2009-06-19T09:07:00.005+01:00

Phil 'Wolfman' Harvey plays the ex-Island Records studio piano, now at Reazor in Putney - Photo by Bleech.

We've said before, how satisfying it must be for highly polished pianists to breeze away at the keyboard. Galloping or gliding through cascades and clusters of fluid-fingered key strokes and free flowing notes. Today's FF features several shades of glowing genius : heavy handed hammond, Jack-be-nimble piano and a continental combo of both..

Enri - The perfomer
Hammond anthems just don't come no funkier - and wait for those punchy trumpets at the one minute mark. Stomping.

The Keith Mansfield Orchestra - Soul Thing
More hooky horns (with a touch of The Kinks Lola about them) and the slick-fingered style of Keith Mansfield - King of the London Swingers..

Bernard Estardy - Vertigo Leitmotiv
Bernard grunts, groans and generally yelps his way through this high speed shuffle, that keeps tapping up the tempo, but, feels about two minutes too short to me

You Are The Season

2009-06-16T09:17:00.004+01:00

It may have only reached number eight in the UK charts, but, over thirty years on the polite-pop, soft-jazz-shuffle and Chet Baker vocal tone of Alessi's Oh Lori still sounds daisy fresh today. Mellow as a summer meadow, light as a seaside breeze and easy like Sunday morning, it's a swisheroony tune that bounces like a beachball on a bed of brushed acoustics, vibe solos and flutey toots

The cap sleeve revival starts here

Alessi - Oh Lori

The Alessi Brothers are still in service and big in The Netherlands apparently. Why not stop by their online shop where you can buy all-year accoutrements like T-shirts and scarves!?!

Here you go strummers and crooners, get your noggins round these mellow minor sevenths and suspended whatnots

Fire In The Disco

2009-06-12T09:05:00.002+01:00

Stardate:Somewhere in the late seventies

A rock apocalypse called punk has cracked Planet Pop like a peppercorn. While one half of the world's musical youth turns dayglo, the other burns in a disco inferno.

Leathery ol' rockers who've plodded through the seventies lolloping like walruses, or crashed like wasted scarecrows are running scared from bristly gangs of punky young things out for scraps, scalps and single sales. Where can these heavy-hitting has-beens find shelter in this teenage wasteland. Rejected by the new wave, how can the old wave reposition their pop appeal and cut it wiv ver kids?

How - by seeking asylum amongst the Saturday night fevered. Dolling up in disco drag and dipping into a dressing up box of highhats, handclaps and fidget-fingered bubbly basslines

R*lling St*nes - Miss You (12")

The definitive disco 'oompah oompah' octave bassline that first appears at 00:59 and reriffs throughout the track is allegedly a Billy Preston keyboard trick adapted for bass by Bill Wyman

R*d Stewart - Do Ya Think I'm Sexy

Written as a direct response to Miss You - I have absolutely no shame in loving Rod's guiltiest of pleasures as much now, as I did when asking for it as a 13th birthday prezzie.

IT'S A POP QUIZ - Paul Stanley plays his signature 'shattered mirror' guitar in this vid, a design inspired by someone fronting a group of Brit-stompers - BUT WHO???

Ki$$ - I Was Made For Loving You

David Bowie - John I'm Only Dancing (Again) 12"

In all fairness Bowie had beaten every other bugger to the dancefloor by a distance of four years, and was wrapping up his Eno-electro trilogy with Lodger while his peers were busy booking seats on the boogie nights bandwagon.

* The asterisks and $$ are a deliberate attempt to avoid being blog-whacked

Sparky Twinkles and Glitter Blitz

2009-06-09T09:10:00.005+01:00

It's not just dusty nuggets and vintage retromania round here you know. No, no sometimes hot, hip and happening new tunes make their way onto the Mondo Music Centre too.

Tunes like the Yeah Yeah Yeahs who've sidestepped their usual raw-amped rocking for some delish electro disco on their new album It's Blitz

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Hysteric

And Royksopp's Junior bubbling with the richest of synthesized riffs and twinkly Scanda-pop melodies from start to fin.

Royksopp - Vision One

If electro bleeps and beats are on your wavelength - turn on, tune in and squeak out.

Mirror Mirror On The Ball

2009-06-05T09:20:00.003+01:00

Who's the funkiest of them all?

Four on the floor - wherein we are invited, requested and reminded - that....

It's - " time to get down"
T.S.O.P - The Sound Of Philadelphia

To - "shake your booty, shake it all around"
Jimmy Bo Horne - Dance Across The Floor

Or -"take your record and get up"
Gary Toms Empire - 7654321 Blow Your Whistle

And -"get down and down" (again)
The Kay-Gees - Hustle Wit Every Muscle

The Smash Hits Disco Top 40 from this week 30 years ago (issue dated May 31- June 13 1979)
Click on the pic for the full run down

Get Out Of The City And Into The Sunshine

2009-06-02T09:00:00.002+01:00

Sing Belle and Sebastian. Sound advice on a day like today - wouldn'tja just love to down tools, bail out and bolt off for a leisurely stretch in some green and spacy acres, or perhaps pop to the coast for paddle and a scoop or two?

Belle and Sebastian - Legal Man

Photo's by Bleech and Chocolate Girl 64

Home Taping Is Killing Music

2009-05-29T08:59:00.003+01:00

Smash Hits November 1980 Crossword- how many can you get ?
(click on the pic for a big version)

I'm over at JC's place this coming Monday as part of his 'Merry Month Of May' season, where I'll be spinning up some eighties flavours. So as a warm up thought it may be appropriate to crack a few forgotten scraps from that decade in the blog.

If you can remember the eighties, then you weren't really there. Oh no that's the sixties isn't it. Strange to think though, that we're now further away from the pre-Live Aid eighties, than they were from the sixties.

So if the title of this post rings any bells for you, it's possible you'll also remember Ye Other Olde Names from the post-punk, pre-hip hop period that have since dropped out of circulation and right off of the retro-radar. Names like - Stevo, Steve Dagger, Gary Barnacle (and his sax/trumpet), Pino Palladino (and his fretless bass), Zeuss B Held, Rusty Egan.

Travelling back to that time perhaps you were a reader of New Sounds New Styles, The Face, Zig Zag, SFX. Or wore some long forgotten fashion fad, Tukka Boots, Kung Fu slippers (popular during the summer of 83), even an item with a Japanese flag (which became something of a style icon for several months) repeat printed across it.

If any of the above apply, you'll know that Gary Numan had the most hopelessly devoted (Tubeway) army of fans that would shamelessly ape the exact angle of his tilted Trilby, double red belts or copy and clone his electric blue rinse - as seen in this picture disc
(I never really rated Gazza at the time apart from Are Friends and Cars, but he doesn't sound too bad listening back)

Gary Numan - Music for Chameleons

Or how a fourties Latin look (zoot suits, key chains and kipper ties) and fifties fashions (creepers, bowling shirts and bum-freezer jackets) were hugely popular and onsale alongside contemporary clobber at trendy markets and vintage boutiqes...
(Yes I did buy a vintage suit and gambler arm bands, but was to embarrased to wear either out and about)

Blue Rondo A La Turk - Klacto Vee Sedstein

And that bongo a-go-go rimshot percussion was all over everything from Jazz Funk and Adam and The Ants, to Spandau and Haircut 100 12-inchers, and of course those sun, sea and piracy lovers - Bow Wow Wow
(Who could resist using school rulers for drum sticks, and tapping out the intro to Ant Music )

Bow Wow Wow - W.O.R.K. (N.O. Nah No No My Daddy Don't) (12")

Ad from The Face May 1983

Do You Remember Your First Time?

2009-05-26T09:25:00.001+01:00

Your first musical post that is - and what the trigger, tune or track was that got you fired up enough to start blogging and cataloging the collection ?

One number did it for me. An instrumental obscurity, that randomly dropped into play by a group, who, ironically, have rarely popped up on my player since, and have never been captured on the blog - apart from my first ever MP3 post that is..

So who was it? Soft Cell, that's who.

Given this, The Cell, seem well overdue for another punt on the PM blog. Tarred forever with the Tainted Love brush, it's too easy to forget what a rabid and devoted following they developed, that they were too shadowy and almost sleazy to sit comfortably alongside other eighties glossy Top of the Poppers. Or what quality pop they produced.

Kings of the 80s 12-inch format. Insecure Me (B-side to Bedsitter) is tick-list of all that the Softies do best

Galloping arpeggios
Grubby glamour
Seedy nightlife
Oh dear, I've overdone the gin (again)
I'm an outsider but a survivor
A proto-rap from Cindy Ecstasy

Soft Cell - Insecure Me (12")

Funky Friday - Funkenstein

2009-05-22T09:00:00.004+01:00

It's a bank holiday special today with a guest blogger onboard - blogger my neighbour, you could say - as choosing the tunes is Agent Cooper,who, lives just a few doors away from Cloudbase Mondo. When he's not DJing,making his own artwork or collecting somethingorother, Coop's busies himself with his latest creation the Patchwork Of Flesh blog - artwork submissions inspired by Frankenstein - why not pop on over and have peep

Let's start things off with a prime slice of western bop from one of rock 'n' roll's most influencial guitar swingers Link Wray.

"The Swag" was the flip side to Link's classic "Rumble" released in 1958 and in my humble opinion a much better tune than the a-side.
I first came across "The Swag" as the opening theme to John Waters trash masterpiece "Pink Flamingos" on a ropey old VHS from my local video shop in Romford.

Link Wray - The Swag

"Zig Zag News" is a storming mid-'60s workout from L.A's The Sound Sandwich originally released on Viva Records. It starts out pretty mellow before freaking out and speeding up at about the minute mark into something completely different. You can find it on Sundazed's brilliant "Ain't It Hard" comp.

The Sound Sandwich - Zig Zag News

A slab of 1980's garage rifferama next from The Fuzztones, "She's Wicked" has a brilliant intro and one of the greatest dumb-ass riffs ever put on wax with a hint of early B52s in the keyboard sound at times. I bought this on 12" in 1986 and it sounds as good today as it did the first time I played it. A stone cold classic, this is the John Peel session version and not the original release.

The Fuzztones - She's Wicked

Some artists stay fairly underground and never get the success they deserve, perhaps they are happier that way - it didn't do Kurt Cobain any favours.
Greg Cartwright has been in three absolutely fantastic bands: Compulsive Gamblers, Oblivians and Reigning Sound and has written songs that would have made him a household name in the sixties when songwriting and passion got you a long way. It's a pretty big statement to make but I reckon he is making the best music on the planet right now, a soulful blend of garage, R&B and country. It's not easy to chose one song so what you've got is one of Reigning Sound's very best in two versions.
"If You Can't Give Me Anything" was first released on the "Too Much Guitar" LP on In The Red in 2004 as a ragged, stomping garage number with pleading yelped vocals and a wailing mouth organ.

Reigning Sound - If You Can't Give Me Everything (Too Much Guitar version)

A much more Gram Parsons sounding country rock/ soul verion was released a year later on "Home For Orphans" on Sympathy For The Record Industry.
Two very different interpretations of the same song show just how good Greg's songs are.

Reigning Sound - If You Can't Give Me Everything (Home For Orphans version)

Thanks to the Mondo man for the letting me share a few tunes with you. If you are of an artistic bent or like monster movies, pop over to my Frankenstein art project blog A Patchwork of Flesh - check out the gallery and then follow the lead of Mr Mondo and create a piece of monstrous art yourself.

Keep On Holding On

2009-05-19T09:02:00.003+01:00

I'm sure you can do your own jokes for this pic'

Remember Sharon Tandy from Friday's post? Well she's back doing a Dusty-meets-Cher shakedown 'Hold On' (keep 'em peeled for a young DLT intro'ing the clip)

Sharon Tandy - Hold On

A heavier, wah-guitar, stomper versh of Hold On was later nailed by Ipsissimus, (a name I find almost impossible to pronounce) - and used as the opener on this mix o' mine..

Ipsissimus - Hold On

Funky Friday - Eurovisions

2009-05-15T09:14:00.002+01:00

For continental readers who may not be aware of the event - 'The Eurovision Song Contest' takes place in Moscow this weekend. It's an annual jamboree of performers and composers from most European nations (including Russia and Israel!?) competing to win this annual pageant of popular song - where highlights traditionally include..

Norway scoring 'Nil Points'

Britain's entry being harmless but hopeless

Someone with a moustache (male or female) pulling a pained face for the duration of some gabbled ballad

An act (usu:Scandanavian) of hi-randomness

It's an occasion with a history of hammy-camp and candyfloss, that's become diluted down to a parade of same-sounding, over-glossed production line pop. It wasn't always this way. Abba are probably Eurovision's most perfect-pop offspring.

So what's the point of my ramblings? Well simply - they don't write Eurovision winners like they used to (and if we're honest the didn't write many of them back then either), however here's a handful of songs that to these ears would have made pitch perfect 'A Song For Europe' entries (circa sometime in the seventies).

Sharon Tandy - Two Can Make It Together
Sounding like the sort of song accompanied by a Young Generation style duo vamping a hand-holding, wide-eyed, heavy-headed nodding routine - think: the blonde half of Guys and Dolls.

The Playthings - Stop What You're Doing
A Cheeky soul shuffler that would have to be sung by a girl with auburn Farah Fawcett flicks, wearing some sort of ripply-chiffon evening dress (perhaps red), and holding one of those mic's that looked like silver sponge finger - think:Tina Charles meets Baccara.

Barbara Jean English - I'm Living A Lie
Uptempo, pacy and anthemic - isn't that the template for a successful Eurovish sound. Should be sung by someone with a souly-but-sober look - think:Helen Shapiro meets Helen Reddy.

Give Us A Clouseau

2009-05-13T09:19:00.002+01:00

Matt from Worksopp wrote in last week - asking do I have 'Joe Loss's version of 'Shot In The Dark'? Yes Matt, I do. It's on the Mondo iBlock, and now on the blog..

Joe Loss Orchestra - A Shot In The Dark

'A Shot In The Dark' is Henry Mancini's theme from the second Pink Panther film, although it's perhaps better known as a musical motif used during the Inspector sequences of the Pink Panther cartoon show. Joe Loss's take is a big-band, twang-o-ramic swinger starring a guitar-a-go-go freak out from legendary sixties session man Big Jim Sullivan(Tom Jones's guitarist and aka Lord Sitar)

And as a bonus here's Hugo Montenegro's version of Our Man Flint, a versh that almost made the recent the 'Spy' post, but was pipped by Herbie Mann's flutey tootings..

Our Man Flint

PS there's more Joe Loss here if you fancy it..

The Girl With The Stars In Her Eyes & The Man Who Fell To Earth

2009-05-11T09:02:00.014+01:00

Stardate 1968 - Ken Pitt, David Bowie's manager of the time, had become aware of sizeable hit 'Comme d'Habitude' doing brisk business in France. Anticipating that an English language version could provide Bowie with a much needed breakthrough, got him to refit the lyrics and demo the song.However Pitt had been pipped to the rights by Paul Anka who had recently rescripted for the song for Sinatra as 'My Way'.

Bowie's recording titled 'Even A Fool Learns To Love' remains unreleased, although some years later Bowie responsed to the incident by writing his own 'My Way' inspired torch tune - 'Life On Mars'.

Given this then, it's not too much of a stretch to see how the song became a cover in the Streisand songbook - where she pretty much sticks to the script, but on the moments she does wander off on a warble (2:20 onwards) - it works.

Barbra Streisand - Life On Mars

If you were wondering where's Captain Kirk (geddit) during Friday's post - he's here, public speaking Pulp's anthem for the average into a pulse-pumping peasant's revolt.

William Shatner - Common People

PS this could be Call Me A Philistine Part 2 - as I prefer Bill's version to the Pulp original

Funky Friday - Warp Factor Funk Mr Sulu

2009-05-08T09:34:00.007+01:00

I am very tempted with new Star Trek film. But I'm not a Trekkie. Alright I had a mad buzz for the show when the BBC aired their five year mission of interplanetery hullabaloos during the seventies (or repeated them during school holidays) even going so far as tucking my school trousers into zip-up boots trying to replicate that 'Enterprise' look - but I loved all things space-shaped back then.

And some supplementary material may have been collected while sprouting from tot-to-teen - Annuals (73-78), fold-out poster mag's, Letraset Action Transfers,View Master reels, an Airfix-style model, and Mego action figures (Kirk and Scotty) - but I'm over it now. See!

*Remembers he has the communicator tone for txt messages on his phone - reacts with this style of a face then faints..*

The Geoff Love Orchestra - Star Trek
Scanners indicate an easy-listening orchestra giving the opening theme a disco dressage

Nichelle Nichols - Feeling Good
Proto-blue toother, Uhuru takes almost one full minute to get up to soul speed, but it's well worth the wait

Leonard Nimoy - The Ballad Of Bilbo Baggins
Bones to Bridge. Jim, that song of Spock's isn't actually as excruciating as we'd expected - although the video could cause some sort of a reaction I guess

*Cue offstage screams of 'Cap'n,I canna take any more '*

Kirk to Enterprise. Beam down The Beasties Boys...

Communicator Beeps

PS did you know Chekov's hairstyle was based on a Beatle cut

A Big Brassy Beehive Of A Ballad

2009-05-05T09:01:00.002+01:00

That's what I'm all of a buzz for today...

Think Of You Baby - Liz Christian

PS - that's not Liz Christian in the pic - couldn't find one of her. So Martin Parr 'Union Hotel Manchester 1976' it is then.

Funky Friday - Come Spy With Me

2009-05-01T09:03:00.008+01:00

Midnight. A private members club on the Rue Saint-Vincent, Montmartre. In an empty Louis XVI style drawing room, a selection of spirits in cut crystal decanters have been arranged with miltary precision and placed on polished silver tray to the left hand side of a Belote table. To the right stands a single glass and a Roberts transistor radio concealing a reel-to-reel recorder.

Welcome Agent Blogger - please, fix yourself a drink and take a seat. The paperwork and 'special items' required for your new assigment 'The Omega Affair' have been prepared and primed in advance of your acceptance. In a briefcase below your chair you will find ....

A selection of continental passports - check
Walther PPK (with silencer) - check
Large LED downcount device - check
Camera cuff-links - check
The latest Interpol reports and microfiches on 'Omega'- check
One Bulgari watch with piano-wire pullout - check
A fountian pen Laser/communicator - check
Swiss bank account details - check
Bugging and tracking systems - check
Poisoned stamps and cigarettes - check

Our man in Trieste 'Chester Moonlight ' will collect you at the airport and provide a pre-briefing. SCORPIO agents will no doubt attempt TO intercept any communications. So keep channel D open but scrambled.

This message will self destruct after the following tunes.....

Henry Mancini - A Shot In The Dark

Herbie Mann - Our Man Flint.

Randy's Allstars - Mission Impossible

Hugo Montenegro - The Man From Uncle

Agent Blogger will return in ...'And They Call Her 'Code Zodiac' '

A Gallery of Goodies

2009-04-28T09:12:00.003+01:00

Rewind your mind by a few months and you may remember some home-made, hand-drawn artwork that appeared on the PM blog - here and here.

Creator of these pieces of amazingness and Odd Sock blogger Paul McDonald has launched a website showcasing his wares. He's an all-round good guy and honorary Southender (being Basildon based) so why not pop on over and have a peep...

www.oddsockillustration.com

Another extract from Paul's portfolio is 'Birds in The Park' pictured above, which Mrs PM instantly fell in love with (a copy now hangs framed and signed in our kitchen). While it's early morning mood popped these two tunes a'playing in my mind's ear

Vashti Bunyan - Wayward Hum