Monday 29 December 2008

Any friend of Jo-Jo is a friend of mine!

On the basis that any fan of Jonathan Richman had to be alright with me, I went and bought The Rockingbirds' first single, 'Jonathan, Jonathan', on no more than a good review in the NME, whose opinion I had already been wary of since 1978 when I bought an album by The Pop Group (or it might have been The Birthday Party) on the strength of a glowing write-up by someone who I assume was either profoundly deaf or doing it as a joke.

Returning the album to the shop within the time it would have taken to listen to it in its entirety, I was allowed to exchange it for The Fall's 'Totales Turns', which - while not without its challenging aspects - remains a favourite today.

The Rockingbirds single didn't disappoint, and the album which followed was an absolute belter. I went to see them play their last gig, and heard about the death of Kurt Cobain on the way there.

When Nirvana's 'Nevermind' came out, I borrowed it from the local library on CD, and remarked to the chaps I was lodging with at the time that if the band came over to the UK I wouldn't mind seeing them. They pointed out that we'd all seen them a few weeks before at the Reading Festival, but try as I might I could remember nothing about them, unlike most other bands there they had made no impression whatsoever. The next year they headlined, I lost interest after a couple of songs and went to see Tindersticks in the little tent instead, and have no regrets about doing so. Unlike, say, The Rockingbirds, or Tindersticks, they just didn't do it for me live.

The Rockingbirds gig was fantastic, it's a real shame that nobody bought their records, which seemed to be the main reason they split - they certainly appeared to have no problems with each others company during that last hoedown. I was wandering around the stone circle on the sunday of Glastonbury this year, and heard Rockingbirds songs blasting across the field between the circle and the Park Stage, and realised that it was Alan Tyler (the band's singer) playing in one of the guest spots. In good voice, too.

Doubting my stamina would allow me to get there and back and still remain upright for the rest of the day's anticipated fun, I sat and listened in the sunshine, grooving to the ideal summer soundtrack.

I still dust this first album off regularly, and - having checked its availability (zilch, apparently) - thought that I'd put it up here.

Hope you like it!

6 comments:

Eddie Energy said...

Ah The Rockingbirds, one of the most underated bands of the 90's. I never saw them live-one of lifes huge regrets-but I did buy both their albums- but their debiut is the one in my all time top ten.

If I knew how to put the other one up onto a host I would-any suggestions?

Ed

Wild Man Mikey said...

Hi Ed, lovely to hear from you - there don't seem to be many of us Rockingbirds fans about, although it's heartening to see that, after the Jonathan Richman, more folk have downloaded this than anything else I've put up so far.

I don't have the second album, and would love to hear it again! If you've got it converted to a RAR or Zip file you can use any of the file downloading sites and they'll pretty well walk you through the upload.

If you click on my link to download again, there's a tab up near the middle top of the page saying 'upload files', after it's thought about it for a minute you should get 'upload files to mediafire', clicking on that box will open a Windows navigation box thingy to your files. Navigate to the one you're looking for and then click on 'start upload', which is to the right. It'll then ask you where you want to save it, click on 'my files' and the upload should start. When it's done, click on the 'my files' tab, click on the link, and copy the link in the top bar thingy of your browser. You can then stick it on your own blog, (I'm off to look for some Misty's Big Adventure!) or I'd be happy to share it here if you'd prefer.

Nice to meet you, happy new year!

Eddie Energy said...

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=20070e1ef7176334d2db6fb9a8902bda

So whatever happened to the Rockingbirds?

Sir Brian Stubbs said...

Cracking stuff. Loved this band seemed like just me and my mate did. Glad to see they are remembered by others

Wild Man Mikey said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Wild Man Mikey said...

Thanks Eddie, that's fantastic - my PC is running like a dog tonight, but as soon as it starts behaving I'll be dl'ing and listening with a big smile on my face :-)