sound of the suburbs

I stumbled across this photo in a French music mag the other day, it was being used to advertise Eurostar, I must admit I had to look at it twice to realise that it was a fresh new take on the tired old image of the Beatles Abbey Road cover. So why not some Beatles covers for the week-end? Booker T & The MGs with 'I Want you (She's So Heavy)', I've always been a sucker for the organ heavy hands of Booker and the slashing chords from Steve Crooper's Telecaster, a match made in musical heaven. With their take on this song from their 1970 album 'McLeone Avenue' they do the song proud taking it to new majestic heights. Having been their in '77 I have always had a soft spot for Siouxsie, especially those first four albums, I can remember waiting outside the door of my local record shop to get my hand on 'Scream' on the day it was released, the sort of thing no one does now as Amazon gets it to the letter box. It is on the Banshees first album that we find their version of 'Helter Skelter' a song they took and made their own in much the same way that Hendrix did with 'All Along The Watchtower' many years earlier. Siouxsie will be celebrating her 50th birthday this year, now that hurts! Puerto Muerto are a husband and wife duo hailing from the lone star state that make music about as far removed from the state's image as it is possible to get. They could be loosely described as punk folk using German cabaret and Spanish folk as their main pillars of support. Their 'With A Little Help From My Friends' was for me one of the stand out tracks on the recent Mojo Sgt Pepper cover versions album.