Okay, I've been a little lax recently, and I'm afraid all the promised later KLF uploads have failed to materialise (although, there are other places on-line to find most of 'em).

And this, I'm afraid, is goodbye. I can't really devote much time and energy into a semi-KLF blog. Sorry to dissappoint, particularly the guys at klf.de (if you haven't checked their blog yet, you really should!) but I'm moving on to other, less indoor-sy pursuits!

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As a parting shot, however, let me leave you with a real rarity - the first, limited edition 1987 CD incarnation of Stephen Duffy's folk act The Lilac Time's eponynous debut. A thousand copies were made of vinyl, and a thousand of shiny new CD plastic - after that, nothing, zip, nyada. And it's never been reissued (the very cheap and very rewarding 2006 CD you can still pick up is actually a reissue of a subsequent remixed version).

You may know of Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy from the early eighties. I must admit, I hadn't - he was on one of the "Now" albums I never bought, and so totally passed me buy until very late 1994. By then his first two, or three, or four, pop incarnations had been and gone, and he had re-re-re-re-reinvented himself as a rocking, Britpoppy grand old man, fronting a band called (Welsh chanteuse fans browsing in second hand shops beware!) Duffy. I was a fan of Sleeper at the time (well, maybe not all of Sleeper, per se ... ) and through their mailing list I got a 7" promo for their new album. B-side of this promo was a track by this mysterious "Duffy", and from there I started moving forward (and particularly back) through his catalogue over the next ten years ...

But anyway. Stephen "Tin Tin" Duffy. Had a hit with "Kiss Me", a moderately successful debut album, a slightly less so sophmore release, and finally an interesting if clunky excursion into Art of Noise-style dance pop under the pseudonym "Dr Calculus" (alongside one half of Pigpag and future Jimmy Cauty collaborator Guy Pratt). Suffice is to say, when he present Virgin/10 with a collection of folk demos as a proposed fourth album, they very quickly (in a pattern that would be echoed a fair bit through his slightly "why me?" artistic life) turned them down and he was dumped from the label.

These demos, recorded by Stephen, his brother Nick (check out Nick's own band Bait for some fantastic Penguin Cafe Orchestra meets Zappa instrumental work) and a few friends in a rural idyll, eventually appeared on a small independent Birmingham label called Swordfish, ran by the producer of that first Lilac Time album, Bob Lamb. It seemed that Duffy had at last found his true voice (he always claimed he was essentially a folkie with a keyboard) and relaxed quickly into his troubadour role (even The Lilac Time's name was taken from a song by Nick Drake, apparently inspired during an e-hazed reverie listening to "Five Leaves Left").

Six months later, in early 1988, after a moderate bidding war, the Lilac Time were signed to Fontana, and "The Lilac Time" CD/LP (by now sold out) was reworked and remixed slightly to give it more of a commercial sheen (all subsequent reissues have used this version, not the first). The Lilac Time were subject, for a while, to a large Fontana promotional push with Video CDs, promo items, (relatively) expensive videos and adverts. But by LP 2 ("Paradise Circus", again re-released in 2006, this time supplemented by a whole second album of Bait/Nick Duffy instrumentals) the money had dried up. The Lilac Time limped on with Fontana until 1990, with a third album of XTC-inflected pop, before finally flopping exhausted onto the shores Creation Records in 1991. A fourth album, the really rather wonderful "Astronauts", was a return to the form of the Lilac Time's earliest days (apart from a few failed attempts to shoe-horn in voguish dance beats and Apollo samples - thanks Mr Cauty!) It was a lush collection, with some fantastic songs ("In Iverna Garden" and its horrific Joni Mitchell crib notwithstanding), but sadly, by the time "Astronauts" actually appeared, the Lilac Time had split, and never toured with it or promoted it in any way.

In 1993, Stephen Duffy released an album with Nigel Kennedy (arguably, at the point where Kennedy was becoming either a figure of fun or just plain annoying to most of British public) before forming "Duffy" with REM-producer Mitch Easter and a member of Ride in late 1994. Since those Duffy Days (1994-1997, and an almost exact mirror of the highs and lows of Britpop in general), Stephen has reformed the Lilac Time for four subsequent albums, as well as (briefly) becoming the new Guy Chambers to Robbie Williams with the "Intensive Care" album.

However, as a solo artist (although still attached to the name The Lilac Time), Stephen is still very much active in the music industry, as Mark Lamaar used to say. His own website currently suggests a planned new scheme to release eight albums (demos, live, covers, solo) in the next two years, which would certainly suggest that Stephen Anthony James Duffy has lost none of his ambition.

It seems a real shame that Stephen is seen by some as the man who ruined Robbie Williams' career (although, personally, I think that act alone deserves a statue). The Williams/Duffy album of "Intensive Care" did not put the public off Williams as much as the newer album, "Rudebox", which Stephen had very little to do with, other than Williams covering "Kiss Me" on it. But the eighties inflections, the PSB collaborations and the songs about Madonna all seemed to point to Tin Tin's influence, and within some of the RW fanbase, and on some of the Robbie boards, Stephen was seen as to blame. Ironically, just as Williams' light was failing, his old-band mates (Gary, Mark, Other, Two) were experiencing an amazing renaissance on the back of an ITV documentary and reunion show (hosted by everyone's favourite, Peter Kay) followed by a well-received new album. "Beautiful World"'s final track was a folk-tinged number called "Wooden Boat", a rather Lilac Time-sy song not dissimilar to "Paper Boat", from The Lilac Time's third album, 1990's "And Love For All" (again re-released in 2006, etc). A crueler man than me might suggest Take That were mocking Williams with this. But let's just say it's by far the best song on that Take That album (apart from "Shine", of course).

So anyway - turn the years back 21 ... er, years ... and have a listen to "The Lilac Time" as originally released on Swordfish Records. Ripped at 320kps from the original CD.

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=bb1f446fbc67008ed2db6fb9a8902bda

(Click on this absurdly long link, and it should take you to a site listing the file, then download it from there. It seems mediafire, like rapidshare, has changed these last couple of months).

No p/w, other than possible: "goodbye".

Goodbye. x