Fringe on Top's Blog

Justin Thomas – The Jam’s Last Gigs / Uncut

Jo Bartlett — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:55:42 +0000

Another fabulous photo spread from my dear friend Justin Thomas; photographer extraordinaire. This time it’s of The Jam‘s last shows, printed in the March 2012 edition of Uncut magazine. I was at one of the Wembley farewell shows, so it’s great to see these pics.

Just Great – Are You Popular?

Jo Bartlett — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:37:49 +0000

Art and Design – Casey Raymond

Jo Bartlett — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 19:10:34 +0000

Casey Raymond is from Cardiff and designs super cool posters, fliers, album sleeves, fanzines and loads more. He works with Ewan Jones Morris making tripped out amazing videos for the likes of The Yellow Moon Band, Cate Le Bon, John Grant and Islet (in the post below)

Check out more of Casey’s work here.

Cool New Stuff – Islet ‘A Bear On His Own’

Jo Bartlett — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 09:15:49 +0000

From their album ‘Illuminated People‘ on Shape Records (Turnstile) which came out on Monday, this is from Cardiff’s finest Islet. Another classic video from Ewan Jones Morris to make your head swim!

7″ Singles – The Go Betweens ‘Cattle and Cane’

Jo Bartlett — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:12:27 +0000

Continuing on an Antipodean tip, the wonderful Go-Betweens from 1983 with the glorious, timeless ‘Cattle and Cane’

Just Great – The Church ‘Unguarded Moment’

Jo Bartlett — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:06:40 +0000

This is a fabulous song, lovely guitar and vocals. The Church were from Australia, part of a new psychedelic movement in the early ’80s.. This particular clip is made all the more enjoyable by watching the happless hand clapping from the crowd!

Folkies – Pentangle ‘Travelling Song’

Jo Bartlett — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:33:56 +0000

This is from 1968, the newly formed Pentangle. We were lucky enough to have the newly re formed Pentangle play Green Man 40 years later in 2008. Featuring the late great Bert Jansch, here they are performing ‘Travelling Song’.

Just Great – Michael Kiwanuka

Jo Bartlett — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 09:51:04 +0000

Congratulations to Michael Kiwanuka for being declared the BBC’s Sound of 2012! I’m so pleased for him. He was one of the last artists I booked for last summer’s Green Man. There were only a few spaces left and as soon as I heard his music, I knew he had to have one of them. He was magnificent. He played on the smallest stage, outside on the sunny Sunday afternoon. Just him and his seated bass player. You could see the area filling up as people were drawn in by his voice. The walled garden was full by the end of his set. Danny and I nipped back stage for a quick chat with him afterwards, he was very charming and seemed delighted with the reaction he’d got. His album is due in March, again produced by Paul Butler (of The Bees) who has made such a great job of the e.p.s released so far. Nice work, I’m really excited about this.

Bluetrain – Scotland 1987 and America 1988

Jo Bartlett — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 13:22:41 +0000

I’ve written about my band Bluetrain fairly frequently on this blog. We had several line ups, always featuring Danny and myself on bass and guitar and as the main songwriters. In 1987 we had an American living in London join our ranks. Mark (AKA Frank) Nemetz. Mark joined shortly after the 12″ ‘Land of Gold‘ was released on Dreamworld. With Mark, we played the cinema tent at Glastonbury, supported The Mighty Lemon Drops at Guildford University, played loads of gigs in London with various jangly bands and also played The Buzz Club a few times. We toured Scotland, supporting The Pastels in Edinburgh and made friends along the way. These photos are all from our gig in Dundee.

We recorded a few songs together in London in 1987. ‘Some Greater Love‘ appeared on the wonderful ‘Uncle Arthur’s Pop Parlour‘ and was also the title of the Bluetrain compilation album released on the Pastillina label in 2009.

Mark returned to California in early 1988. Danny and I decided to go and try Bluetrain U.S.A. so we booked tickets to L.A.X and left in July 1988.

Here from that London 1987 session with Mark on guitar and backing vocals and Kevin Moorey on drums is ‘Decline‘

Just Great – The Drums ‘Let’s Go Surfing’

Jo Bartlett — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:45:29 +0000

I’m putting this classic by The Drums up because I just got this message on the contact page (fingers crossed it happens!):

Hey Jo,
Good to see you are doing well, thanks for putting all the North of Cornwallis stuff up, because of you (probably) Jacob from The Drums became a fan and still wants (i think) to put out some kind of compliation on his Holiday Friends label, Lester and I are still trawling through the demos.

drop me a line if you get a chance.

Mark (North of Cornwallis)