My live review is coming VERY soon.... Complete with some exclusive professional photos by Tony Bartolo... the only photographer in the world who took professional photos of the whole 21x21 event.
But if you're all Sparked up with nowhere to go, why not check out some of my other Ron n Russ articles and reviews....
See my review of the 21x21 Propaganda show here complete with exclusive professional photos.
My review of the 21x21 Hello Young Lovers show with exclusive professional photos is here.
Download or listen to the full 22 minute interview that Sparks gave Simon Mayo to promote 21x21 here
See my Introducing Sparks article here, containing exclusive comments from Ron and Russell Mael!
My exclusive interview with ex-Sparks member Martin Gordon is here and here
My interview with indie popsters Silvery is here, and there's plenty of Sparks related chat!
You've put up with me banging on about the British kids anthology comic 'The DFC' a couple of times already... Once when it started, and again earlier this month when news came through that the publishers (Random House) were pulling the plug on the title.
Well this week saw the launch of a brand new blog here on blogspot, Save the DFC. So strong is the belief in this comic that a group of readers\parents plus the creators of many of the DFC strips have got together to try and raise enough money to stage a subscriber 'buy-out'.
The artists and writers seem as genuinely upset about the news, as the kids who read it. They have worked hard to produce quality stories, some that have been serialised over many weeks and months - many of which will now not be able to have their conclusions published. So they are asking people who would like to see the title saved to pledge money and help them to buy out the comic from the publisher. A bold idea indeed! and a genuine show of solidarity and respect from those who have bought or contributed towards it. The blog is keen to point out that they "are not looking for any money unless we manage to raise sufficient pledges". I wont go on again about why this comic is so unique, and why it is worth saving (see my 2 previous posts for those details), but I've already been over and offered em a few quid (there is a pledging link on the site), and if you...
a) have fond memories of 'proper' comics when you were young;
b) believe in giving kids a quality product, with intelligent stories, aimed at introducing them to the world of reading; or
c) just really admire this amazing show of support from the artists and writers...
why not pop over and offer them a little something too... Let's see if we can Save the DFC.
It's funny how you get the sudden buzz to listen to stuff.... stuff you haven't played for years... stuff that's been lying dormant in the record collection, untroubled by a needle for a decade or more... All of a sudden it becomes essential listening again. And that is just one of the reasons I never chuck out old records, coz you just never can tell what's gonna be floating your boat next time... this last couple of weeks it's been Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction!
There were two things that put Zodiac Mindwarp back on my radar...
1) Bloggin buddy Planet Mondo doing a recent post about his days in an 80's Glam band, who supported the Zods a few times back in the day (Mondo went on to get an article publish in The Word magazine, regaling his tales of sharing a stage with the self proclaimed "love dictator").
2) Someone at work asking me what was the worst autobiography I ever read (worst as in filthy/outrageous, rather than poorly written!).... I may not have read them for some years, but BOTH of Mark Manning's (for t'was he that was, and still is, Zodiac Mindwarp) disgusting tomes have permanently scared my brain, so it was an instant reply. After my 'recommendation', the person asked if they could borrow them, so I dug them out and had a quick flick... Shit! Although I have them both lodged in my brain as pure evil, I couldn't quite remember why any more... the quick flick provided a handy reminder!! And I'd just agreed to lend them to a girl in the office!
Anyway, all this Zodiac talk got me a-buzzin to hear some of their stuff again, and in particular their defining moment (for me anyway), the mini album they made for Food records early in their career - High Priest of Love. Unlike some old treasures that you dust down, I was delighted to find that this LP still hits the spot, 6 dirty, biker rock tracks full of the sleaziest guitar riffs and Zodiacs trademark single-entendre lyrics!
It's almost exactly twenty three years since I discovered Zodiac Mindwarp... 27th March 1986. They were the 'filling' in a 3 band sandwich at the Queens Hotel (a legendary Southend venue in the 70's and 80's.. now a block of flats). Zodiac were the only group in the line-up that I didn't know. First band on were Mondo's Ladykillers and the main act were Dr and the Medics. In between stumbled the dirtiest bunch of reprobates I think i'd ever seen! all decked out in Nazi regalia and German helmets.. It certainly got your attention, as did the blistering set they proceeded to perform. I went on to see them a few times in the next year or so, they had an aura of danger about them, they were edgy and not a little psychotic (the two autobiographies have since proved my initial instincts to be completely correct!).... But looking back on them now it all looks quite comical!! More 'Bad News' than anything else!! but time's a funny thing isn't it?! They still sound pretty convincing though, check out these videos...
My favourite Zodiac Mindwarp track 'High Priest of Love'... Fast forward to 1 minute 30 as the song doesn't actually kick in till then! Some great early footage weaved in to this compilation vid.
The big 'hit' Prime Mover:
Hows this for an odd-ball match up? The Love Reaction mime backing band for Belinda Carlisle!
One of my all time favourite bands is The Sweet... I've always felt that they never got the credit they deserved, and are often dismissed as some sort of novelty joke band. Yet the truth of the matter is they were always a bone-fide rock band, struggling to break free of the restraints that record companies, marketing departments, song writers and ultimately the fans put on them.
You have to go back to the mid 60's to find the origins of The Sweet... when in 1965 a certain Mr Brian Connolly joined a band called Wainwright's Gentlemen. Connolly was signed up as a replacement for their recently departed lead singer, Ian Gillan. The band continued until 1968, when Connolly and the drummer, Mick Tucker decided to call it quits and start a new band, Sweetshop, later to be shortened to The Sweet. A bass player, Steve Priest, was recruited, and the search was on for a guitarist.... Frank Torpey came and went (but not before playing guitar on the debut single Slow Motion), as did Mick Stewart (who was in the band for the next three singles), finally Andy Scott joined in 1970 and the line up was complete.
Their first hit single - Funny Funny - soon followed, starting a love\hate relationship with writers Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman (the 'Stock, Aitken, Waterman' of the 70's). The band had always seen themselves as a rock outfit, but RCA, Chinn and Chapman had other ideas, and the lightweight hit singles continued (Poppa Joe, Little Willy, Wig-Wam-Bam), with the band sounding more like The Archies than Aerosmith! The only saving grace on these early singles was the band insisting they put their own material on the b-sides, where they were finally able to find an outlet for their real sound (and no doubt causing a fair few raised eyebrows when played for the first time but the unsuspecting punter!). Despite the now regular hits, the bands first proper album (Funny How Sweet Co-Co Can Be) did nothing in the charts, and left them branded as a 'singles only' band.
The onset of glam pushed the band in that direction, and with it came a ballsier sound to their recordings, although at this point the hits were still all being written by Chinn and Chapman. Monster glam hits came thick and fast in 1973 and 74... Blockbuster, Hell Raiser, Ballroom Blitz, Teenage Rampage... Incredibly, nobody at RCA thought of giving the band another try at an album whilst they were having all this success. The band grew sick of glam as well as all the puppet masters controlling them, and decided enough was enough and turned down a string of potential new glam hits (including Dynamite and Tiger Feet, that eventually the band Mud went on to have big hits with). They dropped the glitter, replacing it with a tougher rock image, and set about writing an album on their own terms. Over the next four years, the band would release 4 cracking rock albums (plus a live album too), not only writing almost all of the material, but eventually even producing themselves.
They released two albums in 1974; Sweet Fanny Adams, and Desolation Boulevard. Sweet Fanny Adams is still a great album. Opening track 'Set Me Free' tee's you up a treat for what's in store... and check out the 6 minutes that is the title track - Andy Scott's guitar musta been on fire after that! Desolation Boulevard was yet more of the same... heavy riffs and those incredible trademark harmonies. Check out their frenzied cover of the theme to the Sinatra film The Man With The Golden Arm... it still blows me away!
In 1975 the double album Strung Up was released... two sides were the band live at the Rainbow, whilst the other two sides mostly hoovered up recent singles (A and B sides) and a new track too.
It was back in to the studio for 1976's Give Us A Wink. The first album completely written by the band, and also the first one to be self produced. This album is even heavier than the previous two, is full of attitude and swagger and contains plenty of instrumentals\solos, showing what great musicians these guys really were. The album contains their classic song Action, which has remained in my all time top ten for over 30 years.
1977 saw the release of their last heavy sounding album (and also their last release for RCA) Off The Record. Again fully written and produced by the band, this carries on where Give Us A Wink left off.
So these 4 faultless albums finally showed the British music fans what the band was all about then eh?? Well unfortunately... not really. Unless you moved on pretty sharpish (Bowie, Roxy, Sparks etc), being lumped in with 'glam' meant you were pigeonholed, and it was hard to be taken seriously later on. As Andy Scott said on the subject years later 'You are not allowed, or very rarely allowed, to change your spots: you're a leopard, mate.' When The Sweet moved from glam to their rock sound, the were throwing down the gauntlet, and demanding to be taken seriously. Sadly, it didn't work for them, well not in Britain anyway... Purist 'rock' fans seemed to spurn The Sweet because of their glam past, and glam fans spurned them because they didn't like the new 'heavier' sound. The Sweet found themselves alienated, sitting somewhere between the fans they once had and the fans they wanted. It wasn't all doom and gloom though, as much of the rest of the world were happy to embrace their new sound... USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, Holland, Sweden, Norway, Austria, they all loved these new albums, and bought them in big numbers. In fact, guess the ONLY country where Desolation Boulevard, Give Us A Wink, Strung Up and Off The Record all failed to enter the top 100 album chart?? Yup , you guessed it, Great Britain!
The weird thing is, The Sweet were Queen before Queen! yet nobody was really interested in The Sweet. Whilst they were churning out these great albums, Queen hit the big time. The sound and the harmonies used in tracks like Killer Queen and Bohemian Rhapsody have a real likeness to what The Sweet had been doing for some 18 months prior.
In 1977, The Sweet signed to Polydor and went into the studio... New label, new album, and new sound as it turned out. 1978's Level Headed was a much mellower affair, a sort of classical rock kind of feel. The one song everyone remembers from this album is Love is Like Oxygen... the only trouble is, most people always think it's ELO!
Brian's alcoholism had been causing a problem for some time - some say as far back as the glam years, but by 1979 he had become a real liability, and was kicked out of the band. Brian stumbled (no doubt quite literally) into a solo career, and The Sweet spluttered on as a three-some for another three albums... but the magic was gone from both camps. There was a very brief re-union in the late 80's but Connolly had still not dried out and it came to nothing.
I was too young to see The Sweet in the 70's, but I did get to see bits of them in the 80's and 90's, as various original members started up their own versions of The Sweet - (a Sweet selection you might call it!). In 1984, after the failure of his solo career, lead singer Brian Connolly took his version of The Sweet (AKA: New Sweet) out into the nostalgia circuit (often on bills with the likes of the Rubettes and Mud). He would carry on this band (which had an almost constantly changing line-up of young musicians) pretty much until his death, pumping out all the hits to the best of his ability. These gigs were pretty lively affairs at the start, but by the 90's, it was a sorry sight to see this once beautiful man, ravaged by alcohol, and allegedly in later years Parkinson's disease, so obviously on his last legs. I say 'allegedly' on the Parkinson's disease, as there now seems to be little mention of this. However, it was a stock answer from his management during the last few years, when people used to complain after gigs that Brian performed like a shaking shambling wreck. I will always remember the last time I saw him perform... he was shaking uncontrollably on stage, and was holding on to the mike stand grimly with both hands just to support himself. During a guitar solo, he slowly made his way to the back of the stage to get himself a much needed drop of liquid (strictly non-alcohol by this time). He picked up a pint glass of orange juice, but was shaking so much that not one drop made it to his lips. He returned the empty glass to the stool, and made the slow return to front stage to continue the song. I don't know now if it was Parkinson's or just a completely wrecked body from years of alcohol abuse, but it made me want to weep there and then, and was just about the saddest thing I've ever witnessed at a gig. Brian passed away in 1997 aged just 51. In 2002, Mick Tucker died aged 54.
Guitarist Andy Scott has been touring his own version of The Sweet since 1985, and they are still going strong. As you might expect, Andy's band have always had the best sound of the spin offs (his incredible guitar playing is still top notch). However the lack of Brian on vocals (they have had something like 6 or 7 vocalist since the formation) has always made me feel this is little more than a glorified tribute band. Bass player Steve Priest also has his very own Sweet, which tours predominantly in America.
A really under-rated band, who rocked much more than people think. Here's a few video clips of The Sweet at each stage of their career... but if you're in a rush, my tip is to go straight for number 3 (Action)... Enjoy!
Y'know, chocolate bars they come and they go.... and the ones that stick around, they go up and up in price, 60p now for most of your average choc bars. But there is one little fella who has been kicking round since I were a nipper, offering the lure of a tasty treat and acne to kids for generations.... the credit crunch bustin' Freddo bar! Yup, Freddo's are a regular staple in my diet, and of course, it all helps to get that all important 5-a-day...
Still only 15p, Freddo offers a surprisingly decent amount of chocolate for your money, yet apart from me, does anyone ever buy one??! Believe it or not, the 'ol Freddo bar has been going since 1930, but originally it was made by MacRobertsons (who??!). In 1967 Cadbury's bought out MacRobertsons and the bar started to turn into the bargain bite that we know today.
Freddo facts that will rock your world!!
1) Freddo is the number one chocolate in Australia! They get through 90 million of them every year (not sure if it's the most popular based on quality or thrift tho!)
2) Due to it's incredible popularity, in Australia there are no less that eight, yes EIGHT, variations of the Freddo bar: dairy milk, dairy milk with caramel filling, white chocolate, rice crisp, strawberry, peppermint, rainbow crunch (no, I don't know either!) and milky top (a Frankenstein's monster of a bar where one half is milk choc and the other half is white choc)... Finally emigrating starts to appeal...
3) The creator of the Freddo bar (Harry Melbourne) only died in 2007, aged 94. I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear he put his long life down to a daily diet of all eight varieties of his invention!
Can anyone beat the Freddo for quality AND price? Any other gems past or present??
Piley
UPDATE: Over on the Cadbury's website they have a whole page devoted to long gone Snacks from the 70s.
You may remember me championing the launch of a new 'anthology' kids comic last year, The DFC. A brand new (admittedly rather middle-class) title that has real morals, aimed at children aged 8 to 12 (although this 40-something has enjoyed the ride too!). The serialised stories within (a mix of humour and serious) are of great quality and, unlike the dumbed down pap we tend to expect these days, actually treat kids with a bit of intelligence. To date there has never been a single advert inside, no cheesy promotions for products or plastic toys stuck to the cover... just wall-to-wall original stories.
As a subscriber from the start, I've really got rather used to it arriving in the post each and every Friday (oh yeah, that was the other thing, rather than be held hostage to the like of WH Smith who demand something like 35% of the cover price, they went it alone and made it a mail order only affair).... but today I hear the comic is in deep trouble, and in a press statement has been labelled "not commercially viable". The title has been offered up as a 'going concern' if anyone wishes to take it on, but when labelled by its own publishing company as not commercially viable, I doubt they will be queueing up to take it on. That being the case, the comic will cease on the 27th March.
As a life long lover of the British comic this is sad news, and possibly the final nail in the long tradition we have with anthology comics for kids. Who knows why it didn't work... Maybe it was the cover price (£3)?, but the production quality was such that it was actually worth it, maybe it was starting a new luxury comic for kids during a recession? Maybe it was the lack of awareness of the title and the fact that nobody 'bumped' into it in Tescos or Smiths? It certainly wasn't down to the quality of the stories, artwork or the effort that went into getting it out there every week.
I've been filing my copies away safely, and was looking forward to introducing my son to the comic when he was old enough, sadly that's unlikely to happen now. His only glimpse will probably be as a defunct piece of history.
This post marks the start of a new semi-regular feature here at 'Start the Revolution Without Me'. 19 questions, to be posed to various musicians, bands and people I like... It'll always be the same 19 questions, so it will be interesting to see how the answers vary over the months.
2. Where are you at the moment? at my mum's in timperley..
3. Who inspired you as a child? scott, the tracy brothers..
4. What was the first record you ever bought? one of paul mccartneys first band (the beatles)....
5. What's your all time favourite song(s) or album(s)? i like all my songs and the mini album "introducing thunderbirds"
6. What was the first gig you ever attended? i supported r.e.m. at the gallery in manchester in the early 80's (there were 35 people in)
7. What was your 'biggest break' or 'luckiest moment' in establishing your career? supporting r.e.m. at the gallery in manchester in the early 80's .... their singer said i was "far out" !!!
8. How would you describe the music you make? ace,.. fantastic ,... and top!
9. What's your most 'Rock n Roll' moment? being chased by gary glitter's roadies at salford university... (you'll have to wait for the movie).
10. Worst moment of your career? being chased by gary glitter's roadies at salford university.... (the movie is currently being cast,... but i don't know who will play me yet !).
11. What are you most proud of? having a movie made about my life (by film 4)
12. One bit of advice you'd like to be able to give the 17 year old you? "only a year to go till your 18 frank!"
13. If you could perform with any artist (dead or alive), who would it be? paul mccartney (without wings)
14. Name one artist you really think I should check out? my manderin greenhouse
15. What's currently on your iPod\CD player? i've been listening to "tadpoles" - the bonzo's,.. "lil' beethoven" - sparks ,... and camera rolls a & b from the "get back" sessions this week.
16. What's the last album you bought? "coco rosie" i think ?
17. Which song do you enjoy performing the most? "mr. custard" at the mo,... and "this perfect day" - the saints.
18. What are you working on at the moment? "frank sidebottom saves coney island" u.s. vinyl only release,... and two tribute tracks for a john cooper clarke album,... plus my own "e,f,g & h" album,.. and my next "franksworld" animation.
19 cracking answers there ("...you know they were... they really were...")!! Many thanks to Frank for being such a good sport. As well as his official site, you can also find out more about Frank at the following sites:
Way back in 2007 I did a post about my first ever gig. It was in 1981, when a 'heavy metal' band called Cyrus played at my school. The postscript to this story was that 15 years later, a chance conversation with a work colleague (Martin) exposed the fact that he was IN Cyrus!! Well, I now have an even better postscript to my postscript!!!
I rarely look at my site stats these days, but as luck would have it I did have a glance a couple of weeks back. I was surprised to see that someone had hit my blog by typing in the following on a search engine "Pete Calvert Cyrus"... Blimey I thought, what's the chances of that?? But when I checked my e-mails later that evening, it all became clear. A certain Mr Pete Calvert was on-line, and couldn't help doing a bit of 'ego surfing', and stumbled onto my post.
The best bit about it though, is that Pete and Martin had lost touch with each other about ten years ago, and 'Start the Revolution Without Me' has been able to re-unite 'em!
I've been speaking to Martin in the last few days, he told me they became friends at Grays Comprehensive school in the early 70s, and Pete was responsible for teaching Martin to play guitar. They started their first band together at school, called 'Bad News' - which I'm reliably informed was years before the Comic Strip spoof heavy metal band! Pete later went on to start Cyrus, and in the early 80's recruited Martin into the band when their original lead guitarist threw in the towel.
According to Martin, the last he heard from Pete was a phone-call sometime in the 90's. Half way through, Pete said "can I phone you back in ten minutes..." Once the new millennium kicked in, I think Martin finally realised the return call may not be coming, and he later heard Pete had upped-sticks to Hong Kong! Pete is now back living in deepest, darkest Essex, and the lads have arranged a hook up. No doubt first on the agenda will be what the hell happened to that return phone call!
So there you have it, the internet works in mysterious ways! If you have a long lost buddy, or are looking for that perfect partner, why not drop me a line and I'll see what I can rustle up!
The below video is especially for Pete and Martin!
Oh and by the way, should this lead to a reform of Cyrus or Bad News, I'm putting in my stake now for 10%!
Every Christmas, the 'lads' get together for their seasonal drink, and every year a 'top 5' list is requested in advance. We've had top 5 films, albums, debut albums, tracks, disappointing albums etc etc, but Christmas 2008 was "all time worst records". Now in my book there's really only two types of bad record... things that can't be taken seriously (e.g. Barbie Girl, Mr Blobby, Timmy Mallett etc etc) and things that ARE supposed to be taken seriously (e.g. anything by Cliff Richard!). I can't get too worked up about the first lot, but I can about the second!
The thing is, everyone knew what my worst ever record was going to be before I even turned up, as it's been the same record for over 25 years, and I doubt it'll ever be beat... Uptown Girl by Billy Joel. I hate every possible thing there is hate about this record, I hate the cheesy sound, I hate those "wooo-ooooo-oooo-ooooh" bits, I hate that pathetic little drum roll towards the end, I hate the use of the word 'mine' like this.. my-yi-yine, and the word 'time' like this... tie-yi-yime', I hate that smug video, and I HATE when they play it at naff weddings or parties and people start linking arms and kicking their legs... why do they do that??!
But now here's the rub, and promise me you wont tell anyone... I like Billy Joel! And the REALLY surprising thing is that I got into him after Uptown Girl!
Between about 1984 and 1988 I ran a record shop (and it really was records in those days!). Around 1986 a guy opened up a shop opposite me selling sports shoes. He was a really nice guy, and turned out to be the brother of my hairdresser at that time. The only problem with him was his obsession with Billy Joel! From opening time to closing time he played Billy Joel, every single moment of every single day. Uptown Girl was still fairly fresh at that time (only 3 years old), and I made sure I let him know how much that record sucked! But over the months, the more I heard, the more I realised there was more to 'olBJ than I thought. Eventually, the guy compiled me a tape of bits and pieces and I have to say it won me over. I'm pleased to say Uptown Girl was not on the tape! In fact, nothing much past the 70's was on there, and for me, that is the period where the mans genius lies.
I guess like many artists who keep going through the decades, Joel's career has been 'watered down' over the years, and is now no doubt seen as some kind of sub-Elton John non-entity. Yet believe it or not, in the 70's and very early 80's (i.e. pre Uptown Girl!) he was a musical force to be reckoned with, and his first 9 albums are all pretty much essential listening. I've picked them all up over the years, but have never dared venture any further. Yeah, there are the lovey dovey romantic ballads in there (Just the Way You Are, She's Always a Woman etc), but there are also some raw, angry songs in there too.
Lyrically the songs he wrote for these albums are incredibly clever and intelligent, they are Dylan-esque at times, sometimes Springsteen, sometimes McCartney\Beatles... but always Billy Joel, and he can tell a story through a song like no other. Take Piano Man for example, which tells of a young Joel, when he used to play in bars and clubs, highlighting the unfulfilled dreams of both himself and the clientele...
Now John at the bar is a friend of mine He gets me my drinks for free And he's quick with a joke and he'll light up your smoke But there's some place that he'd rather be He says, "Bill, I believe this is killing me" As his smile ran away from his face "Well I'm sure that I could be a movie star If I could get out of this place"
Or how about Captain Jack, about the neighbourhood dealer he used to see selling heroin to the local kids when he was growing up in Long Island.
You sister's gone out, she's on a date And you just sit at home and masturbate Your phone is gonna ring soon, but you just can't wait For that call
But Captain Jack will get you high tonight And take you to your special island Captain Jack will get you by tonight Just a little push 'n' you'll be smilin'
Then there is Tomorrow Is Today from his debut album in 1971. The lyrics to this one come from the note Joel had written when he tried to commit suicide the previous year.
People tell me life is sweeter But I don't hear what they say Nothing comes to change my life So tomorrow is today
Though I'm living and I'm singing And although my hands still play Soon enough it will all be over 'Cause tomorrow is today
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant is a masterpiece. An incredibly complex track, which at times sounds like McCartney at his tip top 70's best. This almost 8 minute track is 3 songs fused together (much like Macca used to dabble with), and tells the story of a restaurant called FontanadiTrevi that Joel used to frequent. In the song he recalls some of the diners and the conversations he overheard.
For me, my favourite will always be The Entertainer. At first listen it sounds like a nice jolly affair, but listen to the lyrics and find a barbed song highlighting his frustrations during the early years of his career, when he was being generally ripped off by the music business. When Piano Man was released as a single, the record label decided it was much too long (almost 6 minutes), so drastically cut it to make it radio friendly (and cutting half the story it tells in the process). Joel was incensed by this, and there is a reference it in The Entertainer:
I am the entertainer, I come to do my show. You've heard my latest record, It's been on the radio. Ah, it took me years to write it, They were the best years of my life. It was a beautiful song But it ran too long If you're gonna have a hit You gotta make it fit So they cut it down to 3:05
The other thing I love about this track is how it builds up momentum as the song progresses. It starts with a simple acoustic guitar riff, then adds more and more instruments with each verse. Have a listen here:
BILLY JOEL - THE ENTERTAINER
ENTERTAINER - Live on the OGWT
PIANO MAN - Live on the OGWT
SCENES FROM AN ITALIAN RESTAURANT (audio only)
CAPTAIN JACK (audio only)
If you asked me for one essential Billy Joel album to pick up, it would have to be 1977's The Stranger. More than 30 years on, it is still a stunning piece of work.
Back in the late 70's/early 80's, a near legendary punk outfitters called 'NASTY' was the place go in Southend for all your alternative clobber. It eventually closed, but the shop has re-opened (and subsequently closed again) dozens of times over the years under many different names, but never recapturing the glory of its heyday.
The shop has been empty for some time, but in December 2008 it re-opened its doors to once again offer the 'yoof' of Southend some alternative clothing (all be it in a more 'emo-friendly' kinda way). The name above the door is now 'Threads Atomic Dustbin', and I bet the new owners musta worked on that one for days! Mind you, I'm reckoning that the only people who will get the 'joke' will be in their 40's (Neds never really were a household name were they??!), the same people who will have little interest in shopping there!! (I mean, do they even make those massive black flared jeans in 40+ waist size??!).
On discussing the name change with another former 80's goth-type in the office, we were sure we could come up with something even better. Since then, the text messages have been flying backwards and forwards, with the puns getting worse and worse as the days go by. Here are just some (the least worst!) of the rubbish we came up with....
We started off trying to think of more emo-friendly bands, like:
Bonnet for my Valentine
System of a Gown
Mink 182
Then, being old buggers, we had to widen the criteria a bit...
All About Eve-ningwear
Anti-Nightware League
Then, in desperation, it was just ANY type of shop!!
punk delicatessen - Ham 69
Mad-chester baby clothes - Nappy Mondays
goth dog kennels - Bow-Wow Haus
goth Mexican restaurant - Alien 'Tex-Mex' Fiend
shop specialising in toilet rolls and tissues for Metal lovers - Bums & Noses
Electronic shoe shop - Baltic Feet
a shop split down the middle selling fruit preserves on one side, and hob-nobs, digestives etc in the other, or to put it another way - Half Jam, Half Biscuit (look, I was pretty desperate by this time OK??!)
Oh you get the idea, and yes, these were some of the better ones!!! I therefore hand it over to you dear reader, to provide me with more (better??) band related shop names, come on, don't be shy!
About 5 or 6 months ago I finally got round to buying a new PC, because the old one was getting so old and unreliable. The new one came pre-loaded with Vista, and I (wrongly) assumed that was a good thing... A good thing until I tried to actually put anything vaguely old on it that is... At first it was a minor irritant that something wouldn't load, but as the weeks and months have gone by, pretty much everything I try and bring over to my new machine won't work. Here's just a few of the things now deemed 'useless' by Vista:
- My modem didn't work on it, so I had to go buy a Vista friendly one just to get back on the net. - My printer won't connect to it (yeah it's a few years old, but its a great printer). - My version of Dragon (version 8, that I paid the best part of £100 for only last year) won't load. - My version of Paint Shop Pro wont load on it. - My Creative MP3 player software wont load on it. - The fantastic external sound card that I use to MP3 up LP's and tapes wont work on it...
In fact, pretty much fuck all will work on it, unless you go buy a brand new Vista friendly product. I've been to the websites of all the above products and, predictably, no updated software\drivers for ANY of them have been released. As if that isn't bad enough, Vista isn't 'all that' anyway, I can't see I've gained anything with it at all.
So what happened to 'upwardly compatible'? and how come I haven't really heard anybody else moaning about this? Or is everyone so Microsoft compliant these days that they just do what Bill tells em, and go buy new stuff that will work?? I am currently as skint as a skinty thing, and have no chance of buying a new printer, MP3 player, sound card etc etc, and why the hell should I? I already have all these items and they work great!
Has anyone else hit this wall? Whats the solution, save all my files to disc, reformat and load Windows XP on it? If so how difficult is that to do?? And is Windows NT still supported? or will I just get tons of viruses as all the remaining virus loop-holes remain un-fixed?
I doubt I realised it at the time, but Carl Giles was almost certainly responsible for my love of comics. Long before I'd ever read a Buster, a Whoopee, a Whizzer or even a Chip, my dad used to show me the Giles cartoons in his newspaper. At first a bit non-plussed, my dad encouraged me to really study his drawings, as there was just so much going on in and around the panel. I loved it, and it wasn't long before I was demanding my Giles fix! And although the 'joke' (usually relating to the previous days news) almost certainly went over my head, the drawings were a real treat for me. In the mid 70's, a copy of the Giles Annual appeared in the 'ol Christmas stocking (is there NOTHING that Father Christmas doesn't pick up on??!), and it quickly became a yearly tradition, a tradition I pretty much kept up for the next 30 or so years. It was my interest in Giles which must have led me to become a childhood fan of Leo Baxendale. Arguably the greatest kids comic artist ever, Baxendale created some of the ultimate classics... from The Bash Street Kids to Little Plum, from Minnie the Minx to the Three Bears, from Clever Dick to Sweeney Toddler... and just like Giles, he crammed ever millimetre of his panels with drawings. So it was with some excitement that I recently visited the Cartoon Museum to see their Giles exhibition, the first showing of his work for twenty years or more...
Unlike so many other artist from days gone by, who's artwork was not at all cared for (often just thrown away in the rubbish by the publisher without a care), Carl Giles kept just about everything he ever did. When he died in 1995, his collection (6500+ cartoons and 1500+ drawings and sketches) passed to his family. To their credit, they passed the whole lot over to The British Cartoon Archive at the University of Kent, and it is a selection of 70 or 80 of those beautiful originals that are currently on display at the Cartoon Museum.
The first thing that took me was the shear size of some of these originals. Considering they were somewhere in the region of A5 when published, the vast majority of the originals are A3 size, with some at A2 and even a couple at A1... HUGE!!! I'm sure I spotted some intricate detail that couldn't possibly have survived after being shrunk for the newspaper.
Not really knowing much about the man, other than his 'funny' cartoons, I found the exhibition really informative, and I learnt a fair bit about Giles himself, not least the incredible revelation that he was actually blind in one eye from the age of 27, after a motorcycle accident....
He started off in 1930 as an office boy for a film company in London, and was soon promoted to an animator in their cartoon department. He continued to be involved in animation for various companies up until 1937, when he started work for a left wing newspaper 'The Reynolds News', where he created topical cartoons as well as his own strip 'Young Ernie'. His work soon came to the attention of the Express newspapers, who eventually hired him in 1943 - although Giles said he always felt guilty about it, as he never agreed with the politics of the Express.
Rejected for military service due to his sight, the Express sent Giles into various World War II locations as their very own 'War Correspondent Cartoonist', and some of his wartime sketches are also on display in the exhibition. He was assigned to the Coldsteam Guards and was with them when they liberated Belson concentration camp. Apparently the Express asked him to draw the full horror that he saw at Belson, but Giles always refused, choosing instead to just draw the various rooms and cells, rather than the thousands of dead bodies that he witnessed. Years later Giles remarked that not a day went by without him thinking of the atrocities he witnesses during that time. Again, some of the haunting personal sketches that he did whilst at Belson are on display at the museum.
Originally, Giles drew topical, war related cartoons for the Express, but the end of the war meant he also lost most of his regular 'characters' (Hitler, Goering, Goebbels, Himmler, Mussolini etc), so in 1945 he introduced the 'Giles Family' as their replacement. The family became his new medium for expressing life in post-war Britain, and appeared in more than 2000 of his Express cartoons. Head of the family (and by far the most famous character) was the old battleaxe herself, Grandma. Then there was 'Father' (Grandma's son) and 'Mother', their children 'George', 'Ann', 'Carol', 'Bridget' and 'Ernie', 'Vera' (George's wife), 'George Junior' (George and Vera's son) and the twins 'Lawrence' and 'Ralph' (Ann's illegitimate children). Oh, and not forgetting Natalie the cat and Randy the goldfish! Phewwww!
There is something about those Giles cartoons that is quintessentially British. Some years ago, a good friend of mine - Dave, and his wife were travelling through Manila in the Philippines, and had an experience that sums Giles up perfectly... here it is in his own words:
"The heat and humidity was indescribable, the roads grid-locked with honking cars belching noxious emissions which made the air even more unbreathable. Even walking down the streets was difficult, clothes clinging to you through visible perspiration. We entered a small shopping mall just to get out of the heat for a while and it was there that I found an open fronted second hand book shop, with books and magazines all laid out in messy rows on a dozen or so long tables. While browsing, I found one familiar book I wasn't expecting to see -- an 'old faithful' from England in the form of a battered Giles 'Annual'. Opening it up in that busy shop, I was immediately transported by beautifully drawn cartoons, back to far away Blighty. Snow covered roofs, double decker buses, shabby garden sheds in unkempt gardens, English style churches and terraced houses, policemen and traffic wardens, the welcoming interior of a pub. He seemed to be able to sum up all that was England. Perhaps it was simply because I was a long way from home that the images resonated so much, but these Giles cartoons were never more powerful and mesmerising than on that day."
A great anecdote, and no doubt it was his uncanny ability to conjure up such wonderful imagery that led to him (quite rightly) being voted ‘Britain’s Favourite Cartoonist of the 20th Century’ in 2000.
Giles left the Daily Express in 1989, as his cartoons were being given less and less space. However he continued working for the Sunday Express until he was 75 years old (1991). He died in 1995.
If you find yourself in or around London, the Giles exhibition is a real treat, and runs until the the 15th Feb (and is located just by the British Museum). Full details can be found at The Cartoon Museums website.
Find out all about the great work that The British Cartoon Archive is doing with the Giles colection over at their website.
Finally, thanks to Dave Whitwell for letting me use his words above, and also for providing me with the wonderful book scans below.
Giles Annual Number 34 (1980): Front Cover
Giles Annual Number 34 (1980): Back Cover (note: the original artwork to this annual is just one of the great pieces on display at the Cartoon Museum)
Bugger! Just like last year I can't quite do it! So this year my top 5 consists of no less than 7 albums! In 4th place it's...
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid (Released March 2008) Elbow have been around forever (well since 1990 anyway), and I've always found them just 'alright' to be honest. Then in February last year I happened to see them performing 'Grounds for Divorce' on the Jonathan Ross show, and I was genuinely stunned by it... and that guitar riff had the hairs on the back of my neck up every time! I picked up the album as soon as it came out, just on the strength of that track. It turned out to be a smart move, although to be honest, it wasn't the album I was expecting after seeing that track on Jonathan Ross. It's a beautifully layered album, with a very varied sound. From the Zeppelin-esque 'Grounds for Divorce' to the acoustic guitar sound of Mirrorball. From the 60's soundtracky feel of 'The Fix' to the Spanish influenced sound of 'The Bones of You', this is a very diverse album. Stand out track has to be the incredibly moving and uplifting 'One Day Like This' - this swirling, string laden track gets me every time. I managed to catch the TV coverage of Elbow performing this track at Glastonbury last year. It was one of those rare occasions where the atmosphere of the event actually came across to the TV viewer. Stunning.
My first tip off... 'Grounds for Divorce' on Jonathan Ross:
The glorious 'One Day Like This' at Glastonbury 2008:
In third place it's...
Silvery - Thunderer and Excelsior (Released Auguest 2008) I banged on at great length about this album when it came out, so my thoughts on it can all be found in my original review here. A real gem mixing some of my very favourite ingredients (Bowie, Sparks, XTC, Blur, Kaiser Chiefs) together with a big dollop of Silvery creativity. Nothing more to add other than to say it just got better and better the more I played it. Silvery finished the year with a cracking single (not on the album), a cover version of 'You Give A Little Love' from the Bugsy Malone soundtrack! Expect this band to be huge sometime soon!
In second place it's...
Sparks - Exotic Creatures of the Deep (Released May 2008) 2008 was the year of Sparks for me. The incredible feat of performing all 21 of their albums over 21 nights in London really caught the imagination, and although I play them a lot anyway, the 21x21 event ensured I reacquainted myself with some of those albums I perhaps don't dig out as often as I should. It's Incredible that almost every one of those 21 albums is a quality release, with perhaps just 2 (definitely no more than 3!) that are maybe a little below par... not bad in a nigh on 40 year career! The 21x21 gigs were a rather elaborate way of promoting their new (21st) album 'Exotic Creatures of the Deep'. If you are a regular reader, you'll already know that I've raved about the Mael brothers recent material (album number 20 not only being my favourite of all their work, but one of my favourite albums full stop). Well album 21 was, incredibly, right up there as well. I don't know where these guys continue to get their creativity from, but they are still producing incredible music. Number 21 is yet another flawless album, bursting at the seams with ideas. Just reading some of the track titles made me know this was going to be another slice of Mael genius... "I Can't Believe That You Would Fall For All The Crap In This Song", "The Director Never Yelled 'Cut'" and "(She Got Me) Pregnant" for example! "Lighten Up Morrissey" is a real gem, and is Sparks at their delightfully quirky best... Russell is having girl trouble, because his girl loves Morrissey and poor Russ doesn't live up to him (in her eyes at least!). So Russell pleads with Mozza to "lighten up" in the hope it may put him in a better light with the girl!
She won't dine out with me, no, she won't dine out Says my t-bone steak is at fault She won't dine out with me, no, she won't dine out With a murderer, pass the salt
Loved the fact that people were complaining to Radio 1 that the first single from the album "Good Morning" was a rip-off of the Scissor Sisters!!! Sit back in the chair and we'll get someone to plug it in....
Sparks - Good Morning (Audio only... sorry!)
My favourite album of the year goes to....
The Wolfmen - Modernity Killed Every Night (Released August 2008) I've been buzzing on the howls of the Wolfmen for over a year now. You may remember that a 5 track sampler CD got me really fired up a while back (it even made it into my best CD's of 2007!). Well the promise of that sampler was more than delivered when their first album was released in August. All the songs from the sampler have made it to the album (although most have been remixed, tweaked and sharpened), which for me gave it a great 'new and old' feel. Fantastic to hear the final nailed versions of the tracks I knew so well, and a real buzz to hear 6 new songs from Marco, Chris and the boys. The thing I love about this album is how it reminds me of every great musical journey of my youth... from the Stooges to the Ants, from Bolan to Roxy, from Bowie to The Velvets. It cherry picks everything that's great from the 60's, 70's and 80's and teleports them all into the 21st Century... providing you with the freshest sounding album of 2008.
Check out this blistering cover of 'Needle In the Camel's Eye':
The Wolfmen joined the merry band of bloggers here on Blogspot this week. Why not pop over and catch up on all the very latest news here.
Unbelievably, it's time once again for my traditional top 5 'best of last year' run down.... I say traditional... I've done it once! last year!!! (2007 Pt 1 here and 2007 Pt 2 here). Personally, I don't have 2008 down as one of the best years for new albums, but I certainly found a few interesting bits and bobs to keep me going...
Black Mountain - In The Future (Released January 2008) I love it when an album takes me by surprise... the rest of my top 5 I kinda expected great things from, but this little beauty was a bolt out of the blue. Considering it's steeped in a classic 70's psychedelic-ey, rock sound, this album sounds so incredibly fresh and exciting. You hear so many influences (Led Zeppelin, Floyd, Deep Purple, 70's Krautrock, Neil Young, Hunky Dory era Bowie... right up to Spiritulized, Duke Spirit and The Black Angels), yet never at any point is it a lazy copy of any of those artists. There is just so much going on, this stayed in my CD player for weeks at the beginning of 2008, and continued to be revisited throughout the year. It gets better and better the more time you give it. I think it would have made my top 5 just for the 17 minute track 'Bright Lights' alone! But fortunately, every track is a winner on here. Here is the video for Wucan:
Hot Chip - Made In The Dark (Released February 2008) I've always loved Hot Chip's geeky, synthy, quirky electro indie-pop, and it's just as well, coz Made in the Dark was yet more of their tried and tested sound! But somehow, this album is just that bit better than the others... more polished, more realised. Their previous two albums were both great in places, but always left me with a finger on the 'forward' button, wishing for a little more. This time though they have made a great album from start to finish (OK, OK, maybe 'Wrestlers' is a weak link!). For me a great album is STILL so simple... well structured great tunes, catchy hooks and intelligent lyrics. If that's your recipe too, then this could be an album for you! Stand out track for me is Hold On - a really great, intelligent dance track, a thumpin full on disco bass laced with scratchy guitar sounds and the funkiest of rhythms.
Here's a clip of the first single 'Shake a Fist' for you to have a peep at. Unfortunately no official video was made for this track, but this promo video for Urban Outfitters using the track is still worth a go!
The Damned - So Who's Paranoid? (Released November 2008) Seven years ago in 2001 I nervously bought the first 'official' Damned album for 15 years, Grave Disorder. I expected very little from it to be honest, but it turned out to be an absolute corker. Had you not known better you'd have sworn it was from their Black Album\Strawberries period. So this time I couldn't win... How could I doubt them again after the last success? But on the other hand, surely they couldn't do it again??!! Well they have!! 31 years after the release of their debut album, the Damned turn up trumps once again, sounding fresh as a daisy in the process! This album continues on where Grave Disorder finished... definite nods to previous periods of their career, but also not scared to experiment with something new too, it's just the right mix all wrapped up in a swirling psychedelic haze. And check out the creepy, psychedelic gothic genius of closing track Dark Asteroid... all fourteen minutes of it! A Curtain Call for the 21st Century! Like all the albums in my Top 5 this year, not a bad track on this CD.
I'll be back in a few days time to post my top 2 albums of 2008, but in the meantime, let me know what little gems you picked up last year....
Well I hope everyone had a good Christmas and stuff?? Mine was OK, but I came down with the dreaded flu bug thing... gawd I was rough. I blame Rockmother, she had a stinker, and I'd been on her site only 4 or 5 days before I got it...
Missed out on me works Christmas meal (which I'd already paid for) and me mates Christmas meal too... Still it's a few pounds less for me to try and shift in Jan. Talking of which, does anyone still bother with New Year resolutions?? Half arsed dreams that'll never make it past Jan 15th??? The top 10 resolutions are (apparently) as follows:
1. Spend more time with the family and friends
2. Get fit
3. Lose weight
4. Stop smoking
5. Enjoy life more
6. Stop drinking
7. Get out of debt (Ha! some chance!)
8. Learn something new
9. Help others
10. Get organised
So any of those ring any bells? I was delighted to see in the Telegraph yesterday that trying to stick to New Year resolutions can actually be bad for you, especially if they are aimed at personal problems or insecurities. Mind (the National Association for Mental Health) report that the pursuit of perfection and self improvement can create a negative self image and lead to feelings of hopelessness, low self-esteem and even depression.
Mind chief executive Paul Farmer said: "New Year's resolutions can sometimes focus on our problems or insecurities such as being overweight, feeling unhappy in our jobs or feeling guilty about not devoting enough time to friends and family throughout the year".
So there you go, don't make any resolutions and beat yourself up about it or, alternatively, make some.... and THEN beat yourself up about it... the choice is yours!
Whatever you decide, I wish you all a healthy an peaceful 2009.
My live review is coming VERY soon.... Complete with some exclusive professional photos by Tony Bartolo... the only photographer in the world who took professional photos of the whole 21x21 event.
There is something about those Giles cartoons that is quintessentially British. Some years ago, a good friend of mine - Dave, and his wife were travelling through Manila in the Philippines, and had an experience that sums Giles up perfectly... here it is in his own words:
Giles Annual Number 34 (1980): Back Cover (note: the original artwork to this annual is just one of the great pieces on display at the Cartoon Museum)
Giles Annual Number 32 (1978): Front Cover
Giles Annual Number 32 (1978): Back Cover
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