Australian disco took the world by storm, it polished the dance floor boards of clubs as far as Ermington, Dundas, Rydalmere and Parramatta. You think I am joking? Bee Gees anyone? This bracket we have two tracks from the Queen of Pop, Marcia Hines from 1976 and 1977. Australian disco people. It is a thing. Then we have JPY, the king of pop and his German smash hit from 1976, Standing in the Rain. Written by Vanda and Young of the Easybeats and Flash and the Pan, this song is, like I said. Australian DISCO. andavagoodweekend.

Fausto is a lounge legend and often entirely unheralded outside of some obscure sampling and breaks. This brilliant cover comes from 17A Raccolta LP released in 1973. The sax replaces the McCartney lead vocal with an cool fuzz guitar and a whacked out lead break at the end. Genius. James Last up next starting what amounts to a VS.SAOE tribute set. One of the worlds greatest bandleaders, James Last died at age 86 in 2015. Here he is covering the Hawkweed classic ‘Silver Machine’ which was of course sung by the late Lemmy of Motorhead, OK, lets top that shall we? Not one, but two cover versions of ‘Ace of Spades’ the Moorhead classic that has had a hammering since the passing of Lemmy. First up is She Goes Bang, this dark and intense cover cracks a whip over the song revealing less speed and more metal. Next up we have the Bad Shepherds, a band fronted by Young One Ade Edmondson.

Bowie. Not much to add the reams of discourse. So I simply present these three tracks. Star by Techno Cowboy comes from the The Ziggy Stardust Omnichord Album released in 2009. Next, derpferdheissthorst which roughly translates as ‘A horse called Horst’. A german cowpony band, this is a weird cover of Ziggy Stardust. Then there was Streisand. Really, I actually went there.

And now. Satan. The Louvin Brothers. A ‘country-gospel’ duo who recorded din the fifties before they split because of the other demon, drink. This comes from their 1958 record ‘The Family that Prays’. Not as Satan heavy as their legendary ‘Satan is Real’ LP, but still HEAVY. Next up, Trio. A forgotten classic from Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt. This track was written by Linda Thompson as a damning indictment of her relationship with Richard Thompson. I simply love this version (the original is a on a hard to find 1985 solo LP ‘One Clear Moment’). It shows the sheer power that is Linda Rondstadt’s voice. The final chorus has such majesty and investment in the lyrics. Finally, we have the one of the darkest albums ever released, the final Richard and Linda Thompson LP ‘Shoot out the lights’ and the title track. This is one of Richard Thompson’s greatest works and in part shows a marriage in collapse (their marriage was over as this record was released in 1982).

Last up we head to Germany for some Krautrock to take us home. First up from the Neu! LP (1972) we have the motorik beat driven Hallogallo. Playing on the german slang for wild partying, this song is driven by a repetitive 4/4 beat that every one called motorik, but that band called a bunch of other terms meaning repetitive (see Wikipedia for the list). This is a great introduction to the Krautrock canon and features some of the legends of the scene in Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother and produced by Conny Plank. Last track of the day bar the secret bonus one (did I say secret?) is Guru Guru, another Krautrock band fronted by drummer Mani Neumeier.