Ron Kane

Wednesday, 14 February 2007

Today I received mail from Ron Kane. We used to send each other many tapes in the nineties. And letters too! Ron is a fanatic record collector, with a taste very different from mine. On his flicker site he listed these musicians as his favourites: Bridget Riley, The Monochrome Set, Sue Thompson, Wayne Cochran, The Harmonicats, A Certain Ratio, Scritti Politti, Mam, Blam Blam Blam, Hajime Tachibana, Toshio Nakanishi, Haruomi Hosono, Tortoise, Palmskin Productions, Don Bowman, Billy Edd Wheeler, Al Kooper, Hermeto Pascoal, The Nits, Serge Gainsbourg, Alain Chamfort, L’Affaire Louis’ Trio, Gryphon, White Noise, Cressida, Arthur Brown, Faust, Can, Neu, Amon Duul II, Robert Calvert, Magazine, XTC, Department S, Machinations, Leisure Process, Mainframe, Hideki Kaji, Frank Zappa, Split Enz, Phil Judd, The Swingers, Stephen “Tin Tin” Duffy, Kevin Ayers, Robert Wyatt, Egg,
The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Procol Harum, Cream, Graham Bond Organization, British jazz, Amancio D’Silva, Don Rendell, Ian Carr, Manfred Mann, King Crimson, Godley & Creme, 10cc, Yello, Lucio Battisti, Lio, YMO, Y.M.O., Golden Earring, Pizzicato Five, Cornelius, Yann Tomita, Mute Beat, Iron Butterfly, Revillos, Rezillos, Howard Devoto, Momus, Divinyls, Les Rita Mitsouko.
I like the labelshots that he put on the site. I remember that i once read in Prime Time Magazine how odd it was that there were no books with labelshots (this is more than ten years ago: i guess there are many such books now?!) and i decided to make a zine called Labelshots.
I asked everybody i knew to send me photocopies of the labels of ten of their favourite singles. After two issues the zine died of lack of cooperation, but i think that Labelshots is worth a second try on a website somehere.
While typing this text i listened to a tape that Ron sent me in 1997, made after one of his trips to Japan. I remember the tape very well, because i played it a lot. Apart from the Pizzicato Five, all music on the tape was new to me. Tycoon Tosh, 5th Garden, Miharu Koshi, Fantastic Plastic Machine! In 1997 the tape seemed to be sent from the future, but even today many of these bands still sound futuristic. But the song i want to share with you does not sound futuristic at all: Monster Tragedy by a band called Jackie & The Cedrics.

(By the way: this is what Ron kane listened to last night:
1) CRAWLER – Stone Cold Sober
2) THE WORLD – Things I Could Have Said
3) RADIO STARS – Macaroni ‘n’ Mice
4) RICK WAKEMAN – I’m So Straight I’m A Weirdo
5) ALAN PRICE – Papers (’86 version)
6) THE STRANGLERS – Someone Like You
7) ROBIN TROWER / B.L.T. – Into Money
8) THIRD WORLD WAR – I’d Rather Cut Cane For Castro
9) MOUNTAIN – Crossroader
10) THE SPORTS – Boys (What Did The Detective Say?)
11) BONES – L.A. Isabella
12) JO JO GUNNE – I Make Love
13) ROY HARPER – Hell’s Angels
14) THE NICE – One Of Those People
15) JET – Fax ‘n’ Info
16) SLADE – Get On Up
17) THE ANIMALS – Boom Boom
18) THE YARDBIRDS – I’m Not Talking
19) THE ROLLING STONES – The Under Assistant West Coast Promotion Man
20) GRAHAM BOND ORGANIZATION – Spanish Blues
21) MANFRED MANN – The One In The Middle
22) THE CRAZY WORLD OF ARTHUR BROWN – Rest Cure
23) THE WHO – I Need You)