Mark E. Smith once lamented the fact that too many artists deliberately shed any sense of regional identity to the point that it becomes impossible to identify their origins.
This is not a criticism that could ever be levelled at Vinny Peculiar, aka Alan Wilkes. With references to The Magic Roundabout (Time For Bed), summer hols with donkey rides, tea and sticky buns (Playing At The Pier) and games of crazy golf (Judy Wood), his songs are as English as warm beer and Marmite.
The fact that I have lived away from the UK for almost two decades probably explains how the cultdom of this singular artist has passed me by. Then again, maybe I'm not alone as this is not the first retrospective album he has released. The repackaging of another greatest non-hits collection appears to be a further attempt to raise his public profile.
Being a perpetual outsider enables Wilkes to cast a droll yet sympathetic eye over ordinary, unglamorous lives (including his own). In a 2004 interview for W&H he said: "I am in touch with people who are marginalised in society".
The 14 tracks have been cherry picked by Cherry Red Records and showcase fresh recordings or remixes of songs drawn from the past decade and a half.
For the uninitiated, Flatter And Deceive offers a useful condensed musical biography. This tells us that he was born in 1957 in the County of Worcestershire, raised a Methodist, joined the Boy's Brigade, married (later divorced), became a father, moved to Birmingham, saw the Sex Pistols and The Adverts, and trained the become a nurse.
|
There's plenty of wry, autobiographical detail also in Confessions Of A Sperm Donor in which he recalls "I used to be a feminist, I used to be a freak".
In A Vision, he sings sullenly "It was just another routine summer's day in Selly Oak then describes an epiphany although he perversely omits to tell us what his vision consisted of!
The new mix of Jesus Stole My Girlfriend is a prime example of lyrics which are a nice balance of humour and pathos as his partner finds God and he is left "moping around the house feeling like the anti Christ".
Other notable tracks include a live studio acoustic recording of Sometimes I Feel Like King and a live band version of Everlasting Teenage Bedroom featuring Smiths rhythm section Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce.
Vinny Peculiar has obvious similarities with maverick artists like Morrissey, Julian Cope, Luke Haines and Jarvis Cocker. While there's much to admire in his work, he seems destined to remain a marginal figure; a likeable eccentric with a dry, caustic wit and a quirky perspective on the modern world.
|
