Football and Music

After my sojourn over to Iowa and after a couple of extra days investigating some related material, finally the next entry in the Producer/mixers, etc series.

You are all familiar with the name of the band in the title above.

You are also very familiar with the gentleman below and know that this project was only a small part of his many many media outings.

The man is (in case you don’t recognise him) is Bill Drummond:

Along with Jimmy Cauty formed The JAMs while…

While out walking on New Years Day 1987, Drummond formulated a plan to make a hip-hop record. However, “I wasn’t brave enough to go and do it myself”, he said. “…although I can play the guitar, and I can knock out a few things on the piano, I knew nothing, personally, about the technology. And, I thought, I knew Jimmy [Cauty], I knew he was a like spirit, we share similar tastes and backgrounds in music and things. So I phoned him up that day and said “Let’s form a band called The Justified Ancients of Mu-Mu”. And he knew exactly, to coin a phrase, “where I was coming from”.
» Link

Now to be precise before I continue – this particular football and music offering might not have anything to do with Drummond or Cauty, but it might also… you never knew with these two.

The footieandmusical song in question is associated with them and I’m using it as a poor excuse to post this and more music linked/related to it.

Starting with Huddersfield Town FC…

Now I’ve confused you.

You’ve never heard about a connection between Huddersfield and Drummond.

Well it could be because there isn’t. Or as I said above. There is. You never know.

The information is scant and from what I’ve found on various KLF sites. Starting with this:

“A friend of mine has copies of this curio for sale:-

Anthem, Peace in The House CD

It is (bizarrely) a fund raising Cd for Huddersfield Football Club, when they moved football stadiums, and contains (amongst other KLF/K-Foundation stuff) an unreleased mix of IGUN [It’s Grim Up North], called “Anthem-K-Stadium House Mix…. and a rather hilarious cover version of IGUN, which involves a young kid calling out the names of current Huddersfield team players!

It dates from 1994, credits the KLF/JAMS/K-Foundation on the sleeve, and is NOT a bootleg!”

» Link

I then found further evidence from this KLF/JAMs discography: [scroll halfway down the page]

Huddersfield Town Football Club : Anthem (Peace In The House)
1994 - Album
CD : 1994 UK - HTFC1

3:32 Anthem (peace in the house)
31:19 The Blue and White Room
9:45 All the way to Wembley
10:24 The Final Whistle
2:41 The now sound of the future Kirklees Stadium
8:27 A new era
5:24 Anthem (k stadium house mix)

Note: The Blue and White Room is NOT a musical track

I do have two tracks from this and I’m putting out a public appeal here to contact me if you have this CD. I think everybody would be intrigued to hear “The now sound of the future Kirklees Stadium”.

But for now:

*I would appreciate it if anybody has a picture of the 1994 Huddersfield Town squad that I could attach to this.

Now to the original…

Released by the JAMs in 1991, it has been interpreted many ways.

The NME said: “…The Scotsman [Bill Drummond] picks over the place names with gruesome relish, the backing track pummels and tweaks, blasts and buffets him round the furthest God-forsaken reaches of this demi-paradise, this land of kings, this sceptered isle, this England… A thing of feverish, fiendish irreverence and conceptual genius…”

The Guardian said: “….It’s Grim Up North, by a pseudonymous KLF, wrongfoots the listener. A deadpan catalogue of northern towns, recited over rainy-motorway techno, suddenly blossoms into a rendition of Blake’s Jerusalem, as if arriving at some socialist rave utopia.”

Extra: An orchestrated version with Jerusalem overlayed onto the track:
» The JAMMs – Jerusalem On The Moors

Extra Time:

A year before the above release there was a limited edition “Club Mix” with that mouth of the Scouse, Pete Wylie on vocals:
» The JAMMs – It’s Grim Up North (Club Mix)

..and Pens:
There were some “other” versions done, focusing on different parts of the country.

This one is for the West Country:

The single “It’s Weird Out West” by Radsonic (1992) was an affectionate homage to the track, the list of northern towns being replaced by locations in Wiltshire and Somerset. Only five hundred copies are known to have been produced, although Annie Nightingale did play it on her BBC Radio 1 programme.

The other one I don’t have, so this is another public appeal: If you have a copy please let me know.
It was a spoof version from Newcastle which proclaimed; “It’s Brill Up North !” and can be found on the B side of the single:

G-Force - I Can't Stand It (No More)

Tracklisting:
A1 I Can't Stand It (No More)
A2 I Can't Stand It (No More) (Accapella)
B1 It's Brill Up North
B2 Overdrive
Notes:
B1 is a remake of The JAMS "It's Grim Up North" (1991)
B2 is a instrumental remix of the title track.
A Porky Prime Cut.
Distributed by Great Asset.
» More info here and here.

That’s it from Bill Drummond (related) for now. There is more footie and music from and linked to him out there, which I’ll post another time.