Mouldy old dough by Earl Brutus.

Aargh, shit: I can't make that. Might be able to get along to McSorley's later.

what a glorious result : today i found a live version of come taste my mind in the archives that i had no idea about.

There was a great live version of that on an NME free CD once. That's got to be one of my favorite singles of the 90's.

There's not many bands I love as much as Earl Brutus.

the video for come taste my mind might be my favourite video in the entire history of the music video

ha.
thats where i found it.
i had no idea it was on the cd as the rest is pretty arse.

ps. posted it on blog if interested.

It's one of the few NME CD's I still have, just for that song. The NME were behind them for a while, I remember the second album got album of the month.

The video is indeed a classic I remember seeing it on the ITV chart show. Those were the days!

to be honest, i probably got the nme just for that track as well, but it was '98 so cant recall, hence the '!!!!' when i came across it.
its that david bowie 'lodger' era guitar line that does it for me.

There's something really moving about the bit where he starts ranting "Who are you, you're nothing you are" the music is ridiculously good in that bit. They were dismissed as a bit of a novelty act but the tunes were always really tight. I miss them a little bit everyday.

Just played 'On Me, Not In Me' on a jukebox in a pub in Colne.

That bit where he sings 'Take me to your harvester' and then the whole thing goes Henry the 8th crazy with the lutes and stuff...then the huge Glam riff, possibly the biggest, most monstrous, dirtiest glam riff ever, kicks in...everyone in the pub just stopped talking and listened. Admittedly there were only about 8 people there but I have NEVER seen that happen ever before

I don't even need to hear them nowadays, just the fact that their music EXISTS, makes my life better.

Just might be the best band of all time

There should be a national holiday called Nick Sanderson Day where we can spend the whole day swigging lager and smoking fags in appreciation

hahaha you're damn right, both about the riff which I just stuck on again, and the need for Nick Sanderson Day

Yeah that was the song that really made me fall in love with them. It's one I always have ready for mix CD's.

I was so gutted when he died I never got to see them live and always thought they'd one day get together and make one more album. I remember reading they had an album planned called 20 Brutus Greats that never got finished. I always thought that just sounded like it was going to be the best album ever made.

I still play both the albums a lot. They would both easily fit into my top 100 of all time.

IMO Tonight...is a little better than Your Majesty...

I mean, they're both great (and, fuck, Tonight has Navyhead, Life's Too Long and Black Speedway on it as well as OMNIM) but Tonight is just greatness from start to finish, in my 90's top 10 and maybe all-time top 30. Staggering piece of work. At least they gave us the Larky single before sputtering out.

There should be a national holiday called Nick Sanderson Day where we can spend the whole day swigging lager and smoking fags in appreciation

oh yes. liking this idea.

er obviously I mean "Your Majesty has Navyhead..."

IMO Tonight...is a little better than Your Majesty...

I mean, they're both great (and, fuck, Tonight has Navyhead, Life's Too Long and Black Speedway on it as well as OMNIM) but Tonight is just greatness from start to finish, in my 90's top 10 and maybe all-time top 30. Staggering piece of work. At least they gave us the Larky single before sputtering out.

― Do the english boil pizza? (acoleuthic), Thursday, January 14, 2010 11:11 PM (2 minutes ago)

I agree with just about everything you said there. Tonight took me longer to get into but it sounds better as a whole album. I just started playing songs from it and found myself amazed all over again at the moment in Second Class War when that organ intro turns into that huge dirty riff. Universal Plan might be my favorite track of there's.

I'd add Don't Leave Me Behind Mate as another great track off your Majesty, the way he sings " Please Don't be impossible, Steve it's only alcohol" it's kind of beautiful.

They are one of those bands that when I listen to them I just think there's no-one better.

Plus, Tonight has more or less the greatest album-cover/inlay artwork evahhh

I really can't get over that album-cover, it's haunting and kinda beautiful

So many great tracks were given away on magazine freebies or hidden away on vinyl only singles or cds. Maybe a Box-set in the future?

There's a blog somewhere that collects together many of the more obscure tracks, though that Mouldy Old Dough cover still eludes me. I know it exists as someone I know has heard a white label.

I was going to ask are the singles worth hunting down for the B-sides? The only one I have is Larky. I could probably get most of them cheap on amazon. I don't suppose you can direct me to this blog? I'd appreciate it.

Actually I think I've found the blog. Left and to the back? Thanks for leading me to it.

http://left-and-to-the-back.blogspot.com/2009/11/earl-brutus-some-of-post-deceptive.html

http://left-and-to-the-back.blogspot.com/2008/12/earl-brutus-early-singles-well-most-of.html

Can't vouch for the links and one of the other blogs appears to have gone but there are some great tracks here.

All the singles have essential tracks but Come Taste My Mind has 3 of the best songs they ever recorded.

I found loads of EB singles in my student radio library and copied them all to my computer! The SAS non-album b-side ("The Scottish") and the Come Taste b-sides (notably "Superstar") are especially great

Superstar is great. Pure Glitter Band.

The other two tracks on that single are Nice Man in a Bubble and William, Taste my Mind.

The single, as a 4 track whole, might just be the best 4 track release ever.

Thanks for all these tips. I've downloaded the early singles from the blog and just put the 3 singles from Tonight in my Amazon basket for a grand total of 3.81!

I'm currently enjoying North Sea Bastard.

Everyone in the world should enjoy North Sea Bastard.

OK, here is something that can and should happen.

SOMEONE!!

1) Obtain "Mouldy old Dough" Earl Brutus/Union Jackson, the rights etcet. (unless you already own this, in which case skip this step).
2) Set up a facebook campaign to launch this as an idea for Christmas 2010
3) release the mp3 at the same time as the X-Factor winner
4) Hey presto, something entirely appropriate for christmas number one.

(unless you already own this, in which case skip this step).

you think/know there are lurkers in the world of ILM is such an esteemed position ?

i was going to contact folks to find out more re this track, but if there are people here closer to the source than i am, then i don't really want to go a hassling ..

Well, so far no luck (read thread above), so if you can, do.

I have just sent an E-mail to Zoe who runs the Pigeon/Makepeace information service as, at one point, Lieutenant Pigeon were in contact with Earl Brutus with the intention of including a track of their own on the release.

I also have a couple of other leads which, hopefully, will lead to my obtaining a copy of the white label.

Watch this space.

I made myself a little playlist of those early singles. It's so great hearing new Earl Brutus songs after all this time. Highlights are the Life's Too Long remix, North Sea Bastard and Queer David. I just need those B-sides from the Tonight singles which are on their way to me.

There's something really moving about the bit where he starts ranting "Who are you, you're nothing you are"

Yes. Absolutely. That's the whole thing about this band, and why they fundamentally remain my favourite band of all time: they fire up pretty much every single emotion, many of them at the same time. Basically, they sound like a band that fucking cared. Which they were.

The version of CTMM from the NME CD is the one where he starts going on about old people and heaters or something in that middle eight, isn't it? Mark: I'm off to your blog to get it right now. I've got a copy of the CD somewhere but fuck alone knows where.

Just played 'On Me, Not In Me' on a jukebox in a pub in Colne.

That bit where he sings 'Take me to your harvester' and then the whole thing goes Henry the 8th crazy with the lutes and stuff...then the huge Glam riff, possibly the biggest, most monstrous, dirtiest glam riff ever, kicks in...everyone in the pub just stopped talking and listened. Admittedly there were only about 8 people there but I have NEVER seen that happen ever before

HOLY FUCKING SHIT. You absolute hero. Although the very idea of being able to get On Me, Not In Me on any kind of jukebox kind of blows my mind in the first instance.

Every single person to whom I've ever played that song has the same jaw-drop reaction to it. I remember the first time Mrs F heard it: "What the fuck was that?!"

I drove past a Harvester today, on the edge of a dismal industrial estate in Hillington. Naturally, that line popped into my head. One of the few cheery moments in that part of the day :)

The version of CTMM from the NME CD

So, so fucking good to hear this again! Thank you, Mark.

Also, the Broken Brothers: if you can pull *any* of that off, I will forever be in your debt. Keep us posted :)

I'm just getting such a heart warming feeling from reading this thread. It looks like it's going to be another night of me listening to The Brutus grinning from ear to ear. As I mentioned earlier hearing those new/old B-sides is brilliant. So far I haven't heard a song by them I didn't love.

Fuck it top 5 Brutus songs.
1.Universal Plan-For the lyrics Mark quoted earlier in this thread.
2.On Me Not In Me-For THAT moment!
3.Don't Leave Me Behind Mate-Steve it's only alco-hol..the way he says that.
4.Come Taste My Mind-For his rant.
5.Life's Too Long-It seems like it takes ages for the chorus to come but when it does it's just one of those moments.

You're Majesty We Are Here, Second Class War, Black Speedway and The Sas & The Glam all deserve a mention too.

And those lyrics Mark quoted.

"I get up.
Go to work.
Eat my lunch.
Come home.
Cure cancer.
That's it.
It's a beautiful world"

Perfect!

what a glorious result : today i found a live version of come taste my mind in the archives that i had no idea about.

― mark e, Thursday, 14 January 2010 21:14 (2 days ago)

I have a live video of this from one of those NME tour concert programmes, recorded around 1997/8 which is staggering. Loads of glass smashing noises and those garage forcourt signs in evidence. Just need to find it, but I'll have a look tomorrow and get it uploaded onto Youtube.

No word from the E-mail i sent on Friday yet but I have the feelers well and truly out regarding the white label and I'm increasingly hopeful.

The Jukebox at The the pub is amazing, Grimly...pretty much the whole of The Fall's back catalogue available, in fact pretty much everything by everyone, it appears. The downside is that the first time you choose a track it has to be uploaded from The Internet which is £1 a song and in my experience, it might not still be in the hard drive the next time you check. Worth it though.

I remember doing exactly the same thing, I doubt I have the tape anymore though. I seem to remember they were on the same show as Travis, Spiritualized and maybe Super Furry Animals.

I used to make compilations of live performances and videos from around 95-98 taped from Top Of The Pops, TFI Fiday and especially The Chart Show. I used to love those indie charts they did where the bands were so obscure they would make they're own video clips usually using lava lamps and floating pictures of the band. Earl Brutus used to crop up quite a lot, footage of them live in darkened rooms with those signs spinning going round. When they came back with Come Taste My Mind it was like wow a proper video maybe they could make it?

haven't listened yet but pre-emotive thanks for the upload mr e!

lol, thanks to iPhone spellcheck for "emotive" too!

One of the greatest live bands ever.

Utter fucking chaos from blokes desperate to defy middle age whilst spewing contempt for the contemporary scene and everything in it.

Lucky enough to catch them a handful of times back then. A real Festival Fuck you too. Gushed about them upthread I think under another stupid moniker

A real shame about Nick Sanderson. Way too young.

The Broken Brothers- I would love to see the footage you have.

But they revelled in that middle age too!

Pretty much EVERYONE I know who's seen Earl Brutus has described them as the best live band ever.

No word from the E-mail i sent on Friday

uh oh - hope we are not hassling the same person !
i've had a response : 'phone me and we'll talk'
eeek.

ooh!

The only reply I've had up to now is from the bloke who did the Traindriver In Eyeliner fanzine.

There was a copy of the white label recently in one of the Record And Tape Exchange shops in London. The chances are, I won't be able to persuade him to part with it, but at least I know it exists and I have potential leads for other copies. If it comes down to simply getting a recording, then I can get it online in no time.

A friend of mine runs a Dubstep label and although he has recently moved to Berlin from London, the potential is there to address issues with pressing and distribution is never a problem nowadays.

Obtaining the rights to press it in the first place, might however, prove to be an issue.

Let me know how you get on mark e

I have a good feeling about this.

oh man that was just tooo damn weird.

jamie fry on the phone.

some details before i forget :

- re 'mouldy old dough' : not EB, but Union Jackson who comprised of Phil King (as in Lush) and Gordon King + Nick S, with Jamie on chorus and hand claps recorded at J&MC studio : 'it was a good night'.
apparently, there is a whispering campaign out there to get it out for the world cup campaign.
i have some numbers to track down a copy, and find out more.

- re sas and the glam : apparently there is a campaign (via alex p @ guardian) to get this to the xmas #1 spot. jamie still has the father christmas outfit good to go for TOTP Special.

- boxset : lots of odds and sods - most owned by Island. lot of love still within the Island/Universal world, but no drive for proper boxset, but jamie believes that the EB story really does need to be told.

in the 5 minutes he was sparking ideas out re cover art for the single - a revised update of the 2 cars/suicide cover : 'tinsel on the cars'

one of the most wonderful, enjoyable surreal moments of my life.

Holy fucking shit ... this could yet be a reality, then. With fucking big knobs on. Awesome, awesome work, Mark.

but jamie believes that the EB story really does need to be told

Yes: this is absolutely vital. And the best way for it to be told would be, er, by Jamie himself, no?

a revised update of the 2 cars/suicide cover : 'tinsel on the cars'

This is the most awesome thing I've heard so far this year :)

Thanks for the update: keep us posted on how you get on with tracking down MOD.

oooooh.
getting closer and closer.
note : re the cars and tinsel.
there was an extra element to the idea that was just too scandalous to put on the wire.
and yes, he did say that should someone want to sort out the story of the band he would be a very willing participant.
it was very obvious that he holds the time in the band with great affection.

i have to get kids do adult stuff, and be offline for a little while (hours not days).
but news just in.
i have it.
and it is what i heard all those years ago on the radio.
so, lets talk about pressing up records/xmas campaigns etc ?

That's brilliant news mark. This just sounds too amazing for words.

Seems as though you've been far more successful than I have, but I would definitely like to help in any way to get this pressed up and heard by as many people as possible.

I can't think of a single band more deserving of publicity and re-evaluation.

So how does it sound then? It couldn't possibly be as good as I've built it up in my head to be, could it?

^_^