It's been another great year, and it got off to an amazing start with The Senior Service's cracking debut single, 'Depth Charge' (my favourite single of 2016), followed by their debut live performance at the Half Moon, Putney. It certainly exceeded my (already high) expectations. And, for those who don't know, the Senior Service have ex-members of The Prisoners, JTQ, The Solarflares, The Prime Movers to name but a few. The whole event was organised by Steve Worrall of Retroman Blog who definitely deserves a mention for all the hard work he puts in to organising these regular events, with such quality acts. Where would we be without you? I doff my cap to you sir. Their LP The Girl In The Glass Case is beyond sublime.

June saw the return of the Franklin Fest in Edinburgh (review here) which once again was a blast. Well done to the organisers again for supplying us with acts from further afield, such as the mighty Courettes, Thee Jezebels, The Embrooks, The Sine Waves and Oh! Gunquit. Also making their debut were garage lovelies The Nettles and The Gastronauts, featuring frenzied frontman Spencer Envoy of MFC Chicken. 'Scotch Egg' anyone? A fantastic weekend and I'm already looking forward to finding out who will feature in the 2017 line-up.

The best Halloween party in town was hosted and headlined by Geek Maggot Bingo, featuring The Fnords & The Reverse Cowgirls. Showing us that local talent is just as good as the more well-known names mentioned above, and of course they were all part of the Franklin Fest too.  

Lord Rochester played the early December Franklin R&R Club, and they really knocked me out. Maybe something to do with playing at the more attractive end of the venue? Their success lies in their simplicity. A minimal drum kit, sing-a-long swing-a-long tunes, with added bite. We also gratefully received an extra helping from The Gastronauts, with their second appearance at The Franklin this year. On form and as eggs-elent as before.  

This year also saw the release of The No-Things first LP, which is everything you would pretty much expect from seasoned musicians like frontman Laurent Mombel and drummer Calvin Burt. A review of that to follow soon…   

The only downside to this year is that I haven't really travelled far afield due to other commitments, so missed out of a few festivals like The Medway Legends Weekender and The Green Fuzz Weekender (both in Spain). Hopefully next year will be different, but I can't really complain, as my home town (Edinburgh) has such a great scene, and I for one, am very grateful for that.

An autobiographical song documenting occasions where his idiosyncratic musical path has intersected with aspects of the (comparative) mainstream in terms of influence, and prospective collaborations; with references to Kurt Cobain, “strange boy” Beck, and Kylie Minogue (“quite polite “, apparently ).

Childish is ambivalent about this attention, happy to be involved on his terms but unlikely to lose any sleep if nothing comes to fruition and he can maintain his distance (“they don’t know me”). This is told in the customary Childish rasp over a perfunctory approximation of the ‘Gloria’ riff, pepped up with organ and a fine layer of extra fuzz towards the end. However, while hardcore Childish obsessives will no doubt be enthused,beyond the slight novelty aspects of the subject matter there’s little to interest those less committed.

Giving this release a split single feel, B side ‘True’, sung by Julie, ironically has a faint echo of Nirvana’s ‘About A Girl’ in the chorus, and is a tale of boy trouble involving a chap who walks  the “thin line between a dick and a nice guy”. This has a freshness missing from the A side with a nice melodic swing and combines a less blustery approach with a contrasting finely gnarled guitar solo. 

A Song For Kylie Minogue is available from amazon and iTunes.