Ed Ball : Classic / Dud

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OK, there was a time he released albums twenty to the dozen. I bought one full price, the "Pirate Radio" Times album. And wonderful it is...

I also got Catholic Guilt from a cheapie shop, £3 I think...

So, steer me!

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 24 May 2004 11:26 (9 years ago) Permalink

is this the guy who used to play with the boo radleys?

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Monday, 24 May 2004 11:29 (9 years ago) Permalink

Aye. One time, the band came out on stage, Ed Ball first (Audience cheers thinking it's Sice), man goes to piano, all other band members to respective instruments and start playing, and a bloke with a beatle haircut sings "I hang suspended"! (Yep, Sice in a beatle wig)

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 24 May 2004 11:32 (9 years ago) Permalink

so... anyone?

― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 24 May 2004 14:21 (9 years ago) Permalink

don't get any teenage filmstars records cause they are all dreadful

― keith m (keithmcl), Monday, 24 May 2004 19:41 (9 years ago) Permalink

i think everything ed ball did that wasn't the times is not very good, especially that awful last solo thing he did

― the surface noise made by people (electricsound), Monday, 24 May 2004 21:39 (9 years ago) Permalink

> especially that awful last solo thing he did

you mean catholic guilt?? i really really liked that. rather boo radleys-y and teenage fanclub-ish. but lots of beautiful songs.

only other thing i've got by him is that 'welcome to the wonderful world of'-double-cd-compilation, which is a bit allover the place. some nice jangly 80ies stuff, but also some baggy/madchester/house-y experiments that didn't particularly age well.

― (jg) ((jg)), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 07:13 (9 years ago) Permalink

The Teenage Filmstars name was in use in the late 70s / early 80s wasn't it, around the same time as the same fellows were in O Level?

I understand that Rev-Ola (in their initial Creation incarnation) issued an CD of O Level and Teenage Filmstars recordings, called "A Day In The Life Of Gilbert And George". I've never seen it. I knew a fellow who claimed to have a CD-R of the thing, in America.

― Tim (Tim), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 07:16 (9 years ago) Permalink

I got the CD of "The John McGee Orchestra" which is supposedly Alan McGee's dad conducting versions of Ed Ball tracks. In reality, its just a bunch of Ed Ball's backing tracks. Although I believe a single from the album was made Radio 3's single of the week...

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 07:21 (9 years ago) Permalink

Ed Ball is, all rolled up into one man, everything that was wrong with Creation Records: a gushing and gormless positivity for all things retro, psychedelic or punk, coupled (somewhat incongruously) with unashamed bandwagon-jumping. Making records because you're mates with the boss / bands. Coasting forever on the cred generated by a Peel session you did in 1980. Wearing leather trousers and taking drugs and ligging indiscriminately. Making rockist songs about oral sex one minute and loungecore cover versions the next. Being terribly, terribly obsequious and buttering everybody up. A lovely, lovely fella, though. (By the way, I'm perfectly aware that Momus is also seen by some as 'all that was wrong with Creation Records' and that my career and Ed's on the label flew along side by side in many ways, so this should also be considered self-criticism.)

― Momus (Momus), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 14:50 (9 years ago) Permalink

I don't think being mates with the boss of a record label prevents you from making great records. Bad loungecore is a wretched thing, I'm sure. I would like a follow up to "Pirate Radio" as I think it an undiscovered gem. But that's fine.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 15:04 (9 years ago) Permalink

he is classic because he is a geniunely nice and lovely guy.

what is classic is calling every ed ball record classic regardless of content.

plus i enjoyed the lounge-core album.

― doomie x, Tuesday, 25 May 2004 15:07 (9 years ago) Permalink

sorry, I forgot: My point being I'm sure all record companies have their share of boss' mate makes record type artists on their label.

― mark grout (mark grout), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 15:08 (9 years ago) Permalink

he is classic because he is a geniunely nice and lovely guy.

what is classic is calling every ed ball record classic regardless of content.

Very cunning, Doomie. You're leaving it up to us to guess which use of the word 'classic' there means 'dud'.

― Momus (Momus), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 15:16 (9 years ago) Permalink

If you like Catholic Guilt, you should check out If A Man Ever Loved A Woman, which is similar... but better.

― Ian Edmond (ianedmond), Tuesday, 25 May 2004 19:47 (9 years ago) Permalink

5 years pass...

What Momus calls obsequious upthread, most people just call "being a nice bloke". The idea that ED BALL, of all things represents "all that was wrong with Creation Records" just beggars belief.

Ed wrote some of my all-time favourite songs and played on lots of great albums. More than most people. More than Momus. The first four Times albums and the first four Television Personalities for starters. They are all great albums. Another good late period album is "If A Man Ever Loved A Woman" which preceeded Catholic Guilt. I still have not heard the O-Level disc though.

I think his role in the TVPs gets underplayed. There's a really depressing TVPs doc on youtube which completely ignores him, focussing mostly on Dan and his drug and drink issues. My feeling is that Ed was as important as Dan in that band. I doubt Dan would be performing today if Ed wasn't around.

― everything, Thursday, 29 October 2009 01:02 (3 years ago) Permalink

I still have not heard the O-Level disc though.

I found this pretty randomly for a buck or two a couple of years back!

― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 29 October 2009 01:27 (3 years ago) Permalink

I think all my Times albums were cheap random discoveries. But that one has proved elusive. I'll get it one day.

― everything, Thursday, 29 October 2009 04:32 (3 years ago) Permalink

i agree about ball's importance to early TVPs, but the stuff he's done without dan (that i've heard) is k-boring.

― amateurist, Thursday, 29 October 2009 05:08 (3 years ago) Permalink

I thought "CG" was OK, so I guess that "man/woman" is one to find.

I admit I never heard the loungecore album.

I should take it to Spotify, I gues.s..

― Mark G, Thursday, 29 October 2009 08:15 (3 years ago) Permalink

2 years pass...

A Day in the Life of Gilbert & George has The Times, Teenage Filmstars, and O Level. Patchy but some fantastic tracks, like

― You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike. (hugo), Sunday, 9 September 2012 07:36 (9 months ago) Permalink

it starts exactly like Part Time Punks!

― Talcum Mucker, Sunday, 9 September 2012 08:59 (9 months ago) Permalink

Always loved that one...

― Mark G, Sunday, 9 September 2012 19:55 (9 months ago) Permalink

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