Or to be more accurate the ferry terminal in St Helier in the Channel Island of Jersey, musing on that perennial question: why is it that UK place names fail to have the poetic resonance of their US counterparts? There seem to be no British equivalents of being stuck inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again, being Alabamy Bound or even 24 Hours from Tulsa. Ferry Cross the Mersey or Longhaired Lover from Liverpool illustrate the perils of attempting something similar.

But there are some great songs about British places if you think hard enough. Lindisfarne’s Fog on the Tyne may be the most natural and evocative, and then those loyal patriots the Sex Pistols gave us Anarchy in the UK. It also seems possible to sing about London: the Kinks’ Waterloo Sunset being a great example. Are there any better still?

I know we are still, officially, in the height of summer, but it won’t be long before the nights start drawing in. And here is the problem. You’ve long finished the Sopranos. The Wire, the world’s best ever social science fiction, has run its course. Mad Men is stylish fun but over too soon. So what do you do now? Here is our answer: the box set of the fabulous Homicide Life on the Street.

At almost £60 it does sound expensive, but for this you get 5,724 minutes of undiluted genius, including a rather nifty sound track, with, among many many others, Tom Waits, Garbage, The Drifters, Anthony and the Imperials, and one of our favourites Buddy Guy’s Feels Like Rain. And not only that, it is said that several of the characters in the second series are named after Grunge musicians. What more could you want?

And was it just in London, or the whole of Britain?

As if by magic, to celebrate the special deal on our London R&B Explosion tree (just £150 until the end of the month) some good hearted soul has posted the TV programme Rock Family Trees: The British R&B Boom on youtube, broken into six bite sized chunks.

There are other programmes to be found there too. Our guide is here.

There’s that time of day when you a need a few minutes relief. Maybe that’s why you are here. We came across a site called Stumbleupon where you register your interests and it takes you to sites recommended by people who like similar things to you. Here are two of the best recommendations we’ve had so far. Well worth the time it takes to drink your latte (although if you are viewing at work, remember to put your headphones on first).

100%

guitar burn

 

Clive Langer, proud owner of Liverpool 1980: Eric’s Progeny, limited edition tree no 1/100, reminds us that Deaf School, top of the tree, and founders of it all, are playing at Dublin Castle in Camden on August 5th and 6th.

Here they are, cooler than Roxy.

Tickets here.

And if you have a copy of What A Way to End It All: The Anthology you should count yourself very lucky indeed.

 

but why did no-one tell me about 60’s East L.A. Mexican band The Village Callers? So obscure they don’t even have their own Wikipedia page, although a Wiki search reveals that their track Hector has been widely sampled; for example by Ice Cube on ‘Jackin’ for Beats’, Cypress Hill on ‘The Phunky Feel One’ and several others, but you’d need better ears than mine to be able to tell that for yourself. Just as good as Hector is their cover of Ray Charles’ I Don’t Need No Doctor, and there are a few other tracks on their album worth a listen. Get the whole story here.

If you are in the mood for something much more unusual, have you heard the fabulous zydeko Paper In My Shoes by Boozoo Chaivs? There are several recordings of this around, but the only one to listen to is the original from 1954 dug out by Bob Dylan for his Theme Time Radio Show (this is the one the link takes you to.) It meanders in and out of time, Boozoo and the band are in different keys, and, to put it politely, Boozoo sometimes struggles with his diction. But somehow it gets under your – or at least my -skin. And I’d really like to hear the takes they rejected in favour of this one.

We have just added two superb trees to the shop: Out in the Streets, which documents the early punk scene in New York, and the London R&B Explosion, which looks at a similar burst of energy, culminating in the Rolling Stones, in London about two decades earlier.

Just until the end of August these two trees will be available at a huge discount: £150 against the normal selling price of £250, while stocks last. Click on the trees to go to the shop.

Obviously enough from the Banshees and Buzzcocks tree, in the Rock Family Trees volume.

Congratulations to Spain, not so much for winning, but for fielding a player last seen in Uriah Heep, circa 1970. The Heep not only have their own tree in Rock Family Trees but feature in the Asia tree there as well, and both the Black Sabbath Tree and the Prog-Rock Years Tree in More Rock Family Trees.

Our thanks to family member Eugene Manzi for pointing out this bizarre episode in time travel.

We’ve added our second batch of five posters to the range. Madchester 1 and 2, Evolution of the Beatles, Kinks Stones and Pretties, and Clapton. Even more to follow soon(ish) but in the meantime see what takes your fancy here.

£20 per poster, with free delivery on orders of two or more. The same deal – and the same shipping price for one poster – for customers in the USA.

And on that subject it is time to reveal the winner of our summer quiz: congratulations to Jeremy Horwitz of San Francisco who recognised Pete’s unusual lines from the The Prog-Rock Years: Yes, ELP & Asia tree. Jeremy chose the Grunge poster for his prize, and it is probably somewhere over the Atlantic as I write.

Don’t forget if the fine art prints are more to your taste a selection can be viewed here although more than 100 are currently available if you have hankering for something else.

Finally, if you want to keep up with our special offers and announcements, sign up for our newsletter here. We will soon be offering special deals exclusively through the newsletter.