Space is the place

I've been meaning to post this song for a couple of months, and with the news that one of the original astro-heroes Neil Armstrong died this week, it's given me half an excuse...

I think I probably first heard it at the ace Da Doo Ron Ron club, and I had to email Chris the DJ the next day to find out what the hell that French femme version of Peter Thomas' Space Patrol was. When I eventually tracked it down it was every bit as good as I remembered, even away from the sweaty fug and blistering noise of a tiny backroom club.

So enjoy Commando Spatial, and when you next look up at the moon give Neil a wink, as his family has requested...

Virginie Rodin - Commando Spatial

[you can now buy this on the Femmes De Paris edition speciale box set]


And here's the original Peter Thomas Sound Orchester version - a retro-futurist wet dream...

Battle Of The Planets

There's a been a small battle of the planets going on in the night sky this past month.

[image source]

Mars has been spoiling for a fight since December. You might have seen him up there, an orange-y little blot amongst the stars: Mars, Bringer of War, with an army of little green men always at hand, ready to board their UFOs and launch a Martian invasion.

[image source]

But then, sometime in March, Venus came to our salvation. I caught sight of her the other night, a blinding white thing she was, and she outshone everything in the sky except the man-in-the-moon: Venus, Bringer of Peace, our "sister planet", named after the Roman god of love and beauty and cloaked in swirling, brilliant white clouds.


So, it's Mars, 'The Red Planet' VERSUS Venus, 'The Evening Star'. But which is better? There's only one way to find out... FIGHT!!!!!!!!

Up pops Mercury, the Winged Messenger, to lend the serene Venus a hand. Together they will endeavour to protect us and halt the impending War of the Worlds...

Where's Richard Burton when you need him?

Let's settle this thing with a nice old cliché: "Little men are from Mars, girls are from Venus".

Jean-Jacques Perrey & Gershon Kingsley - The Little Man From Mars
Jean-Jacques Perrey & Gershon Kingsley - Girl From Venus
[buy Perrey & Kingsley: iTunes | Amazon.uk]


But as for Mercury, I'm afraid Mercury is going to feel a bit left out. I don't have a song for Mercury. Sorry Mister Mercury.


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If you want to keep an eye out for those little men from Mars, or fancy gazing at the bright-white beauty of Venus, pay a visit to Jodrell Bank.

Jupiter, King of the Planets

Look to the south-east, somewhere in the twilight sky, and you will see Jupiter, the brightest star in the night sky. Jupiter: king of the planets, a vast and violent world of swirling hydrogen and helium gases. Jupiter: home of Fred, "the marvellous Kosmonaut".

Gazing through my telescope late last night, I thought I saw a small object breaking free from Jupiter's torrid, stormy atmosphere...

It was 1981 when Fred first visited our planet Earth. A gang of kinder-popettes saw him land and welcomed him. He couldn’t understand their Deutscher Kauderwelsch, but he sensed their enthusiasm and felt like an outer-space rockundroll star as they chanted his name "Fred vom Jupiter, Fred vom Jupiter" and confessed to how he made them go all weak-at-the-knees.

Sadly he couldn’t stay for long, but when he got home it was as if his life was lonely void, he longed for the attention and the worship he received on Earth as he gazed around at the gaseous emptiness of his home planet.


Die Marinas, those schulmädchen who welcomed him all those years ago have never forgotten him either. They are all in their forties now, but they keep him always in their hearts. Maybe they too have been stargazing, with their teenage daughters, looking up expectantly at the king of the planets. Did they see a tiny speck of light jettisoned from the brightest star in the night sky? They begin a playground chant, and their daughters soon catch the tune and join in...

Die Dorau & Die Marinas – Fred Vom Jupiter
[buy Die Dorau & Die Marinas: iTunes | Amazon.uk]

Creepy Crawlies pt.2

In part 1 we introduced you to a few of the hairy little beasties that make us come over all squeamish. Our French dictionary interprets creepy crawlies as bestioles, though I am rather taken with Terrifiante Rampante which is the answer a free translation website just fed back to me.

Last time, Polnareff declared himself King of the Ants, then had a change of heart and turned himself into a fly. Well we have some news for you Monsieur Polnareff, here comes Mister Tovey to usurp petit Michel. Frank Tovey aka Fad Gadget, beating his chest and beating his wings, preying on spiders, dive bombing colonies of ants, heading up his filthy cloud of evil, beady-eyed flies.

Fad Gadget – King of the Flies
[buy Fad Gadget: iTunes | Mute Bank]


But what’s that looming out of the blood red sky? Huge clanking metal wings, glassy eyes and hydraulic legs.

The Magic Fly has timewarped out of the Space disco seventies to do battle with the King of the Flies, rockets firing up, it blasts straight into the vast black humming cloud. A million insects pelt and buzz the lumbering iron thorax, swarming the mirrored eyes turning them to an iridescent shimmering black. Lasers fry hairy little legs and singe tiny translucent wings – it’s raining flies, run for cover!

Space - Magic Fly
[buy Space: iTunes | Amazon]

Are you itching and scratching yet? Did you know, if a flea were scaled up to human size it would be able to jump over the Eiffel tower? That’s a scientific fact, apparently, and it’s also a topical fact for this here blog too [bonus points for yr scribe]. Back to regular sized fleas now:“Here come the fleas, they’re at your knees…” Yep, the circus is in town.

Ladies and Gentlemen! Marvel as they perform their feats and tricks to a White Noise electronic sound storm created by David Vorhaus, Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson

White Noise – Here Come The Fleas
[buy White Noise: iTunes | Amazon]

Back in 1967, the Kingsley’s beloved family dog was quarantined with a nasty infestation of the Spanish flea variety. Gershon Kingsley called upon his erstwhile collaborator Jean-Jacques Perrrey, and together they zapped those lice with a few volts of the old pioneering Moog-tronica. Those fleas they danced an urgent samba and fled the retriever’s shaggy coat.

((( BOING BOIIIINNNNG BOIIIIIINGGGGGG )))

Perrey & Kingsley – One Note Samba–Spanish Flea
[buy Perrey & Kingsley: iTunes | Amazon]

You know, once you get les puces, they spread all over the house – in the carpet, in your bed, sucking your blood when you’re fast asleep.
Tomorrow you’ll wake up feeling like you slept in a Parisian flea-pit, and you’ll be itching like mad.

Les Puces – Demain
[if anyone can find a copy of 'Girl Group Power- Histoires De Filles: Quebec 60's Go-Go Music', please let me know!]

That’s all for now, night-night children, don’t let the bed bugs bite.

a short post about Charity Shops and Space Disco

Yesterday I had a little of my faith restored in charity shops.  I can't remember the last time I got anything good in one, but whilst trawling the ones in Eastbourne, I unearthed an odd little gem:

The 1977 space disco LP Magic Fly by French electronicists SPACE. 

And the best thing was: it was reduced from £1.00 to 50p. C'est fantastique!

I've not had a chance to listen to it yet, but here they are in all their 70's astronautical glory:
Space - Magic Fly

And while I'm in a French-y/space-y mood here's another one, in the form of:
The Droids - The Force

hmm, maybe next week I'll find a Droids record in a Bexhill-on-Sea charity shop...