Mr Trick & Wrongtom: Show #44 (July’09)

With Mr Trick Disneyland-bound on the Eurostar it was uncertain whether Tom would be able to maintain the usual standard of technical hiccups, spurious factoids and shameless name-drops but fortunately a young raconteur by the name of Ed Zed stepped in to assist. Cue a slew of synth heavy material from the arp-punk of San Fran’s Units to the alien-reggae odyssey of Harry J’s U.F.O, the sound of various drum kits being chucked down the stairs whether that be in the name of free jazz or outsider-garage or even a country torch-song lamenting the sorry demise of a puppy, yes despite Mr Trick’s absence this show won’t disappoint in the schizophrenic selection department.

Ed’s also not one to shy away from the microphone as he joined in with Tom’s aimless patter, discussing the birth of techno despite neither of them really knowing anything about it, paying tribute to a listener’s dead cat and of course shedding some light on what differentiates crap-punk from simply shit punk.

As for the technical side it was all being handled with an alarming panoply of professionalism, at least until the last few moments when the studio was suddenly shy one engineer, and for a show hosted by 2 guys who once met a member of the Zombies at the Muswell Hill festival (and donkey derby), this one’s somewhat light on the sycophancy, well it was til then anyway.

Harry J. Allstars “U.F.O.”
Units “High Pressure Days”
A Number Of Names “Sharevari”
Teddy & The Frat Girls “Club Nite”
Earl 16 “Batman & Robin”
The Stick Men “Set Back”
Betty Everett “You’re No Good”
The Revolutionary Ensemble “Ponderous Planets”
The Table “Do The Standing Still
Leyton Buzzards “Saturday Night Beneath The Plastic Palm Trees”

and the soundbed contained a few Soft Machine tracks including “Down The Road” “The German Lesson” and “The French Lesson”.

Click here to download the show! (114Mb, 256k MP3)

Here is the featured video for this week, which Ed explains: “it’s The Units Training Film *1 -- a ‘promotional’ short the band assembled in the early days which was often screened before or during their gigs at places like the Mabuhay Gardens and the Deaf Club”: