Glamrock Aftershock

Dogs D'Amour UK tour Nov/Dec 2011

2011-11-11T13:17:00.002Z

2002. Hanoi Rocks reform with only two original members. To be fair, one had been fired (and his better-known replacement subsequently died) and so may not have wanted to return; another had largely turned his back on music; and the third original member, judging by comments in Andy McCoy’s book, would not have been made to feel welcome (although to this day he regularly works with Michael Monroe).

2004. The New York Dolls reform with only three original members. It should be noted that they were the only three still alive (I’m omitting Rick Rivets).

2011. The Dogs D’Amour reform with only one original member. As far as I know everyone that has ever been in the band is still alive. The case of the Dogs D’Amour is slightly different as the ‘classic’ line-up is arguably the one that counts, but even then only Tyla prevails. On bass, Dave Tregunna has some pedigree as he featured on some of the studio recordings that made up ‘The (Un)Authorised Bootleg Album’. As with the above re-unions, I'll still go ....

Jellyfish - Bellybutton & Spilt Milk vinyl reissues

2011-11-08T13:09:00.000Z

From omnivorerecordings.com:

There’s a fantastic line (among many) in Jellyfish’s “The Ghost At Number One” which says “How does it feel to be the only one who knows that you’re right.”

That Jellyfish quote works on a number of fronts. Mainly because that’s what this correspondence is about. (And, that it’s a great, flippin’ song.) We made some decisions that may not be popular, but will be better in the long run. In other words, we’ve done what we thought was “right.”

We’ve always said that we just don’t comment on new releases. Why? Because, things go wrong. Things go wrong all the time. Like the Jellyfish releases.

We could tell you the whole grizzly saga of what went wrong with these, why we’ve rejected test pressings and blah blah blah, but instead we just want to tell you that we’re presently working with the great folks at RTI and John Golden Mastering on a third round at making these right–third time’s a charm?

RTI, Golden Mastering and Omnivore Recordings have a firm commitment to stone cold quality. Period. So we’re getting them right–not just floating sub-standard records out there in the hope that you don’t notice.

Meaning? They’re not coming on October 10th, like we said after we had to bump them the first time. We’re taking quite the hit and pushing them back to January 10th and that will allow us the extra time needed to really make sure that these things blow your mind appropriately.

Here’s the really great news–we’re now pressing these on RTI’s wonderful 180-gram vinyl!

So a limited edition of 1,500 copies will be pressed on 180-gram vinyl (Bellybutton will still be on blue vinyl, Spilt Milk will now be on gold vinyl). And, that extra weight will not. Cost. You. Any. More. We’re keeping the price the same. Bellybutton will still have its original tri-fold cover for this first run. After the 1,500 copies are sold out, the Bellybutton cover will be a standard jacket and the vinyl for both will be standard weight black vinyl. Pre-orders should be saved in the distributors’ systems, but please check back with whoever you ordered them through.

Thanks for your patience and loyalty. We are not about to jeopardize our reputation by putting out inferior product. We care too much. And, as you’re on this mailing list, you do too.

Jonny Cola and the A-Grades

2011-09-21T20:36:00.004+01:00

Jonny Cola and the A-Grades
Cambridge Corner House, September 21st 2011

Despite various politicians, journalists and local residents stating that they’d seen the August riots coming, no-one has yet had the nerve to point the finger at Jonny Cola and the A-Grades, specifically their EP released in June and its tracks ‘Postcode Wars’ (with accompanying video inspired by gang warfare classic ‘The Warriors’) and ‘Summer Of Hate’. Perhaps this is for the best and has allowed the London-based five-piece to continue their quest for glam-pop perfection without having to deal with a Richard Littlejohn-inspired uprising of the ill-informed.

A series of ad hoc out-of-town shows (a ‘tourette’ if you will) brings them first to Cambridge. Unfortunately the short-notice booking and an absence of local promotion means that Cambridge hasn’t been brought to them, something which could easily lead to a lesser band haughtily decrying their provincial surroundings before putting in a lazy performance. Thankfully this is not the way of Jonny Cola and the A-Grades, who approach the gig as though they’re playing a sold-out o2 arena and make their intentions clear as they kick off proceedings with the afore-mentioned 'Summer Of Hate' and then immediately into forthcoming single ‘Halo’.

An attempt to derail the band's enthusiasm duly arrives, seemingly without irony, during 'The Party's Over', as the soundman forgets to open up the channel for the keyboard. Apparently a common occurrence, which maybe contributes to the ease with which Jonny, finding himself cut adrift without any musical back-up, adapts the lyrics to make his feelings very apparent. The song’s extremely dirty riff returns to fill the void as the band admirably take this incompetence in their stride.

If you were to use the Ronson ratio (the glam-pop industry standard) to judge Jonny Cola and the A-Grades it would be 70:30 Mick: Mark. The latter at times reunites with a hint of Bowie, and the pop side is also represented by occasional flashes of Blur’s more art-school moments. At times this mix reminds of David Devant & His Spirit Wife (but without the carrot grating).

The different sides of the band’s repertoire are no better showcased than the initially sparse and introspective ‘Alpha Male’, which gives way to the stadium-rock-classic-in-waiting ‘Marlborough Road’. A good sense of when to add dynamics and other little touches (whether it be just a simple handclap or two, as ably demonstrated in the set’s penultimate number ‘Postcode Wars’) further highlights the thought that has gone into developing the material.

One more number (‘Wronghead’) and they’re gone, hot-footing it in a cab to London. I’m not expecting them back anytime soon; Cambridge had its chance and blew it. Three other cities now have the opportunity to do the right thing.

The ‘Lock em Up’ Tourette continues at The 13th Note, Glasgow (28/09/11), The Full Moon, Newcastle-under-Lyme (29/09/11) and The Actress & Bishop, Birmingham (30/09/11).

http://www.jonnycolaandtheagrades.net/

Back To Vinyl

2011-05-21T23:36:00.000+01:00

New blog - http://backtovinyl.blogspot.com/ - detailing my attempts to rebuild my vinyl collection. I sold off large parts of my original collection after my old turntable gave up the ghost, on the assumption that I wouldn't replace it. I have now. Ho-hum.

Dogs D'Amour - In The Dynamite Jet Saloon

2011-05-16T11:36:00.000+01:00

How can it be that In the Dynamite Jet Saloon is out of print? This has meant that Tyla can do the seemingly fashionable thing and re-record it in the form of the MMX release, re-jigging the track listing so much that he's omitted the likes of 'Medicine Man' and 'Debauchery' in favour of other songs from the era such as 'Heroine' (at least the fourth time he's recorded that) and 'Swingin' The Bottle'. At least the guy will see some royalties but still. And there's even an instrumental version of MMX available ...

To say the new version is a travesty would be a huge understatement. But given the scarcity of the original supply and demand has spoken. Avoid it though and seek out the 1989 version ... which is what I've just done as I attempt to re-build my vinyl collection. A snip at 99p!

Dogs D'Amour - A Graveyard Of Empty Bottles

2011-05-13T11:32:00.000+01:00

Having recently obtained a turntable (my last one came to a sticky end around five years ago) I have been trying, as cheaply as possible, to rebuild my once-extensive vinyl collection. It could be argued that maybe I shouldn’t have sold on as much as I have over the years, but if nothing else at least I’m in a position to only buy those records I feel I’ve missed and so can be selective in what I replace.

Recent deliveries have included Singles Going Steady by the Buzzcocks, the Quadrophenia soundtrack (I actually lent that to someone’s now-ex but never got it back) and yesterday, A Graveyard Of Empty Bottles. 10" vinyl edition of course.

Criminally all the ‘classic’ era Dogs D’Amour albums remain out of print (be careful with 'Dynamite Jet Saloon' as that's been re-recorded - more on that another time), and their CD versions can command silly money. Vinyl editions though, with a little patience and a degree of luck, can still be picked up at decent prices. Although not quite the ‘acoustic’ album it claims to be, it includes the definitive version of ‘Errol Flynn’ (ignore its later appearance as a title track) and was arguably their last essential release.

Previous posts:
Dogs D’Amour – Bristol Bierkeller 13/03/89
Dogs D'Amour - The State I'm In
Punk Knits

Shooting Gallery

2011-04-27T15:42:00.000+01:00

It’s 1992. Andy McCoy has just plundered the Kill City Dragons and put together a new band featuring their vocalist Billy G Bang and bassist Dave Tregunna (also noteworthy of course for his stints in Sham 69 and the Lords Of The New Church, as well as the pre-Lords outfit The Wanderers, his previous work with McCoy in the Cherrybombz and his contributions on the Dogs D’Amour’s ‘Unauthorised Bootleg Album’), along with Psychedelic Furs’ drummer Paul Garisto. For their live line-up the band, christened Shooting Gallery, will add Jo ‘Dog’ Almeida.

Gotta be good, surely?

To be fair the resulting album started off okay with ‘Restless’ and ‘Teenage Breakdown’ before hitting a wall with ‘Don’t Never Leave Me’ and ‘House of Ecstasy’. Sound familiar? Yes it’s that ‘Don’t Never Leave Me’, of which at least six recordings by Hanoi Rocks exist, the definitive one surely being the version on ‘All Those Wasted Years, and that ‘House of Ecstasy’ by the Cherrybombz. A glance further down the track listing and you get ‘Devil Calling’, hardly a classic but nevertheless recorded twice by the Kill City Dragons and, having been co-written by Nasty Suicide, also formed part of Cheap and Nasty’s set and made an appearance as a live b-side).

Housed between these needless trips down memory lane are three of the album’s weakest tracks, plus a decent enough cover of Van Morrison’s ‘Brown Eyed Girl’ (nb: I was not familiar with the original when I first heard this album and would probably have been far less accepting of the Shooting Gallery version if I had). Surprisingly the album finishes on a bit of a high with ‘Leave Me Alone’ and ‘Dandelion’, but the general laziness that went into the album left me with a pretty foul taste in my mouth (and I never wore lipstick so it wasn’t that).

What I will see in its defence is that it’s a damn sight better than the Michael Monroe / Steve Stevens collaboration, Jerusalem Slim....

Dogs D'Amour - The State I'm In

2011-04-20T09:38:00.001+01:00

Apparently it's Dogs D'Amour week. Not sure why, but later on I will be meeting some friends up in Hoxton Square, who were planning a Dogs D'Amour 'tour' of London sites, i.e. Kensington, Powis Square and up in Highgate (you all know where).

Instead I anticipate rounding off the evening pondering the state I'm in, particularly as I'm hoping to find somewhere between work and Hoxton that sells that delightful beverage, Thunderbird. A regular tipple between 1989-1993 (along with Clan Dew and 20/20), I haven't touched a drop since approximately 1996 and am fairly certain that my older taste buds will be appalled ...

Previous posts:

Dogs D’Amour – Bristol Bierkeller 13/03/89

Gunfire Dance - new shows

2011-03-31T09:28:00.002+01:00

Short notice as they're tomorrow (12 Bar, London) and Saturday (Actress & Bishop, Birmingham)!

Both are tribute shows to their friend Rebbecca Robbins. For more info click here.

Buy Archway of Thorns on eBay (only £3.99!)

Previous posts:
Gunfire Dance
Interview with Ozzie from Gunfire Dance
Suicide Blonde and the Birmingham scene
Gunfire Dance - Continental Bar NYC 1994

New York Dolls - Dancing Backwards In High Heels

2011-03-23T12:38:00.001Z

The New York Dolls have recently released their fifth studio album, Dancing Backward In High Heels, and as it’s the third since their reformation in 2004 they have now been more prolific than during their 1970s guise. Normally I would have already acquired the album and posted up a few thoughts. Instead I have only got as far as listening to the samples available on the 429 Records website.

I was slightly alarmed to see that ‘Funky But Chic’ had been dusted down – hardly a lost classic deserving of a second chance – and I was immediately reminded of those questionable moments on ‘Coz I Sez So’ when the Dolls tried to do funky (along with the unnecessary reworking of 'Trash'). Turns out – assuming the samples are a fair representation – that Sylvain and Johnassen have embraced said funkiness to the point that they’ve produced a whole album’s worth of it. To an extent there are echoes of the early-60s girl bands that have always been part of the Dolls mix, and in my heart of heart's I know I have to give the album a proper chance but at the moment I just don't know if I can return to it ...

Nothing Can Hurt Me: The Big Star Story

2011-03-17T14:12:00.000Z

Trailer for the forthcoming Big Star documentary. Release date tbc.

Burning Tree

2011-02-25T10:08:00.000Z

A quick doff of the velvet cap to Dave at Green Man Music for mentioning this album on Facebook yesterday, leading to a chorus of approving remarks and for me, a quick search in my unpublished posts for something I started writing in March 2009 ...

Maybe it was a sign of desperation by Epic, but they took the weird decision to release nine (very different) 'rock' albums on the same day as part of a promotion whereby if you bought eight of them you could get the ninth free. Prong, Shark Island, Johnny Crash & Nuclear Valdez were amongst the fairly random selection of releases - most, if not all, sunk without trace.

Burning Tree would possibly be long-forgotten, but were able to rise above many of the other eight bands involved in this ill-feted marketing exercise by a) releasing an album that was actually rather good, and b) their singer/guitarist Marc Ford later joining the Black Crowes.

If this album had been given the push it deserved Ford may well have stayed put, which itself leads to thoughts as to what would have become of the Black Crowes, but with the LA glam scene still holding some sway while the sound of Seattle nibbled away at its territory, an album harking back to the likes of Cream and Hendrix was always going to struggle to find its place.

One bonus with returning to this post after almost two years is the discovery that the album was re-released at the tail-end of 2010. Indeed Rock Candy records have also reissued Circus Of Power's Vices as well as lost albums by the Throbs and the Sea Hags. Maybe the Four Horsemen might see the light of day again ...

Troubleshooters and Waterbratz - demo tapes

2011-02-18T14:14:00.000Z

More eBay demo tape madness - this time The Troubleshooters, a band that I was in prior to this tape being made. £10.50 and counting; foolishly I think I threw away my copy years ago!

Also from the same seller, amongst many other items, one, and two demo tapes by The Waterbratz. Memories ...

(NB: the listings include links through to samples, so if you've never heard these bands now's your chance!)

Gunfire Dance demo

2011-02-15T11:05:00.001Z

One for completists (having the Archway Of Thorns CD myself I'm going to pass on this), someone's put up an early Gunfire Dance demo for sale on eBay.

Quite a sweet listing:

'I think this is either late 80s or early 90s, not quite sure but remember i was around 19! Sound a bit like The Dogs D Amour but (i think) better!'

I haven't seen one of these come up for sale for a while so guess it may be of interest! And if nothing else it's an excuse to post about Gunfire Dance for the nth time ...

Previous posts:
Gunfire Dance
Interview with Ozzie from Gunfire Dance
Suicide Blonde and the Birmingham scene
Gunfire Dance - Continental Bar NYC 1994

Miles Hunt - Man On The Moon, Cambridge 05/02/11

2011-02-07T13:54:00.000Z

On November 3rd 1991, The Wonderstuff (in conjunction with Vic Reeves) sat at number one in the British singles chart with 'Dizzy'. Fast forward almost twenty years and I find myself watching Miles Hunt at a 150-capacity venue (albeit in the run-up to a national tour with the Levellers that will culminate with a show at the Brixton Academy).

If this was the mid-90s then I'm sure this would have been a very depressing, angst-ridden show, however it's fair to say that Miles Hunt seems comfortable with his lot these days. I have memories of the first time I saw Tyla solo, post-Dogs D'Amour, and it was dreadful. He insisted on only playing new material, responded with disdain to any requests for the 'hits' and was generally a moody bastard. I saw him again a few years later and he'd clearly moved on (or cleaned up), churning out whatever the audience wanted and cracking jokes between songs.

Hunt's on-stage banter tallied with that latter experience, with fond references made to touring in the early 90s as well as current project 'Shared'. Although the first half of the set comprised solely of recent material, the second half was a happy run through the older Wonderstuff back catalogue, with specific focus on songs which leant themselves to the simple guitar/vocal/violin set-up (he was joined by partner Erica Nockalls) such as 'Circle Square', 'Golden Green' and, with a nod to Kirtsy MacColl's contribution, 'Welcome To The Cheap Seats'. Although they garnered more dancers, the Wonderstuff hits didn't wholly overshadow the less-familiar material, which retained some of Hunt's characteristic barbs (I'm guessing he's not a fan of Bono).

A slightly sarcastic comment about Strawberry Fair, the local free festival this gig was a fundraiser for, appeared to bring about a small disagreement with the promoter, suggesting that Hunt is still capable of getting people's backs up. Some things never change.

Nashville Pussy - High As Hell

2011-01-25T14:42:00.000Z

Once in a while scavenging in charity shops pays dividends. Yesterday I picked up High As Hell by the not-very-PC-named Nashville Pussy. Reminiscent musically of The Four Horsemen (but with even more of an AC/DC leaning) this is southern rock with its tongue firmly in cheek. Or another body part in the case of 'Blowjob From A Rattlesnake' ...

Alex Kirst RIP

2011-01-21T11:59:00.004Z

Former Nymphs and Iggy Pop drummer Alex Kirst has died following a hit-and-run accident.

Will dust down the Nymphs album tonight.

Previous posts:
The Nymphs - self-titled

Would you miss HMV?

2011-01-20T12:45:00.000Z

Follow-up to yesterday's post, as latest news reports hint at further difficulties at HMV.

The Guardian asking shoppers at HMV's flagship store on Oxford Street whether they would miss the retailer should it fall by the wayside - responses were largely positive towards the beleaguered retailer. Fair to say that interviewing customers isn't the most impartial approach to take but the comments are noteworthy all the same.

Mad about music? See a specialist.

2011-01-19T13:26:00.006Z

There’s been much talk regarding HMV’s announcement of reduced profits and planned store closures. They’re not (yet) making losses but as the last of the big guns it seems conceivable that the UK could find itself without a major music retail chain.

HMV have survived through the demise of Tower (2003), Our Price (in decline from the late 90s, the final nail in the coffin was under the Sanity banner in 2004) MVC (2005), Music Zone, Fopp and Virgin Megastores (all 2007) and Zavvi (2009), as well as mail-order company Britannia Music Club (2007) and high street giant Woolworths (2009).

That said the above over-simplifies matters as at some point pretty much every chain listed has owned or been owned by one of the others. Our Price, bought by WHSmith in 1986, found itself with a sister chain in the early 1990s when a majority holding in Virgin was also bought up. In the meantime, disgruntled Our Price directors were putting together plans to launch a new independent chain but once this was discovered found themselves banned from doing so for one year in 1989 (I remember this well, as I started work at Our Price in August of that year and this was a very hot topic) before popping up with the Music and Video Club (MVC) in 1990. MVC was bought by Kingfisher in 1993, owners of Woolworths, later being sold to venture capitalists in 2005 and going into administration within 6 months. Some MVC stores were bought by Music Zone in 2006 before they themselves entered administration in 2007. Fopp bought up a number of the Music Zone stores and, true to form, ended up in administration the same year. HMV subsequently bought up some of the Fopp sites and continue to trade under that brand. 2007 also saw Virgin cease trading after a management buyout led to the formation of Zavvi. Virgin had previously emerged as the higher-profile name from its relationship with Our Price, particularly when the two were bought out from WHSmith by a division of Virgin in 1998 with many locations seeing their branch of Our Price closing in favour of a larger Virgin store (or being rebranded as ‘VShop’). Our Price was sold off to and rebranded as Sanity in 2001 but this proved a disastrous venture and by 2002 a switch back to the old name had been introduced at a few branches before Sanity entered administration in 2003, closing the final store in January 2004. Virgin had also taken over the few remaining Tower Records sites in 2003, initially retaining the Tower name. Zavvi went into administration in 2009, linked to the collapse of Woolworths as they used the latter’s distribution chain, Entertainment UK, whose administrators called in a debt of £106 million. Despite negotiating a lower payment the timing meant that Zavvi was left without stock during the critical Christmas period and was unable to source stock on favourable terms from anywhere else.

And so HMV ruled supreme, but despite having a clear run still finds itself in trouble. From personal experience I haven’t found music retail chains to be particularly dynamic and innovative and suspect that HMV’s position of dominance hasn’t been achieved by being especially savvy (although it’s diversification into live music could be what saves the name from disappearing altogether). True, they succeeded in running many of their rivals out of town in the 1990s but this was arguably by simply showing up with bigger stores. Pricing-wise they weren’t competitive. MVC on the other hand devised an interesting strategy by going down a ‘club’ route – sign up, get a membership card and CDs became typically £1 or so cheaper. Eventually Our Price responded to this in 1995 with its ‘Price Shock’ campaign in locations where an MVC resided but after a while this was dropped at short notice – given some slightly odd restrictions placed on us regarding ordering stock in the run-up to stock takes around that time I’m guessing this was having too much of an effect on the company’s cashflow.

So where to next? There's been some romanticising on the days where record shops were a destination in themselves; a place to hang out, meet friends, browse the racks and maybe discover something new, often at the recommendation of the knowledgeable staff. But the nature of buying (or rather acquiring) music has irreversibly changed and it's no longer necessary to leave the house to buy CDs. Downloading and streaming are here to stay, and if this is what the next and future generations chose to do then HMV cannot survive in its current form. Even its online presence seems confused as it offers items at a different price to those instore - they know they have to compete with the likes of Amazon but in doing so are sending out quite an insulting message to those customers that still buy in person. Sister company Waterstones has the same dual-pricing policy.

There are suggestions that the demise of HMV could lead to a return of the independents. According to writer Graham Jones, the number of independent retailers has dipped from over 2,000 to 269 during his professional career (incidentally, you can find out where your nearest one is here). Graham recently posted an article naming five of his favourites. Unfortunately even these stores face the same problems and in all likelihood the average age of their clientele is nudging onwards and upwards, but in terms of being able to offer something different this indeed appears to be a huge opportunity, even if only in the short-term. Their independent status should also enable them to be rather more entrepreneurial than their behemoth rival.

Either way music retail is entering a critical period, and one with far more at stake than when Our Price, HMV, Virgin et al were battling it out for market share in the 1990s.

Dylan Hears A Who

2011-01-14T12:36:00.001Z

Encouraged by my Ramones-loving offspring, a search on YouTube for Dr Seuss clips brought us to the below, and it seems there’s a tale to tell too.

Recorded by Kevin Ryan as part of a seven track download-only release entitled 'Dylan Hears A Who', (a nod to the 1954 book ‘Horton Hears A Who!’), Dr Seuss Enterprises took issue with the use of their copyrighted material. The website was taken down, the one remaining page clearly but politely stating the reason why. But with a little digging around you will find that the recordings can still be located …

Blog recommendation: Bring Back Glam

2010-12-23T13:02:00.000Z

Although some may argue it's never gone away ... Bring Back Glam is worth a look for some long-forgotten gems.

Gift idea #8: Merry Axemas - Guitar Christmas

2010-12-10T09:16:00.001Z

Never been one for the twiddly-widdly antics of Steve Vai myself, but if that's your bag then maybe you need Guitar Christmas ...

Some Time In New York City

2010-12-09T13:51:00.002Z

Despite not having heard of John Lennon at the time, I have some very clear memories from December 9th 1980 as the news of his death the night before came through from New York. I was 10 at the time and the only member of the Beatles I knew of was Paul McCartney – perhaps not surprising given that in the preceding years he had been the only Beatle in the public eye, not least with 1977’s ‘Mull Of Kintyre’, with Lennon having only just emerged from his self-imposed five year hiatus and the solo careers of George Harrison and Ringo Starr peaking back in the early 70s (the latter had yet to take the narrator’s role on Thomas The Tank Engine, otherwise I may have known who he was).

The impact on me cannot be understated, as a whole new world seemed to open up before me. Music was not that prevalent in our household; my mum had a small collection of singles from her youth, mainly Elvis, and although my dad did splash out on what turned out to be a very temperamental Bang and Olufsen system around 1978, replacing a little-used sideboard-style radiogram, I think this was more a status-driven purchase than anything else.

That evening the BBC broadcasted the 1965 film ‘Help!’ and something was almost immediately triggered throughout our home. My dad bought Double Fantasy and my older brother invested in the Red and Blue albums. It was shortly after this that I also started to buy records, pocket money permitting (my earliest purchases incidentally were ELO's Greatest Hits and Kim Wilde's debut album). Music for me became an obsession and rather than waste my teenage money on cigarettes I spent more and more on records. In 1985 I bought my first guitar and by 1988 I had a vague idea of how how to play it. I stumbled onto a stage for the first time the following year.

This can all be traced back to that day thirty years ago - my musical epiphany if you must. Hardly a replacement for the world when compared to the loss of someone of Lennon's status, but hugely important to me on a personal level.

RIP John.

Gift idea #7: Punk Rock Washing-up Brush

2010-12-08T09:24:00.000Z

Punk's not dead.

It's merely taken the temporary form of a washing up brush while taking stock of its situation.

Gift idea #6: Punk Knits by Share Ross

2010-12-07T10:24:00.000Z

As many of you will know, Share Ross was the bassist in Vixen. More recently she formed Bubble with a certain Bam on drums, which led now only to her taking the role of bassist in the Dogs D'Amour circa 2004 but also for the two of them to marry.

They've also collaborated on Punk Knits: 26 Hot New Designs for Anarchistic Souls and Independent Spirits (Bam took the photos; and for reference one of the models is Jo 'Dog' Almeida). Given the current cold weather this book is as much a practical gift as anything else!

Punk Knits website

Gift idea #5: Mosh Potatoes by Steve Seabury

2010-12-06T13:42:00.000Z

Suggestions on Facebook are that this is a shameful rip-off of Annick Giroux's Hellbent For Cooking ... certainly the basic notion appears similar, but if you want the recipe for Motley Crue's Pepper Jack Steak or Zakk Wylde's spaghetti and meatballs, this is the place to go.

Gift idea #4: Punk Rock Fun Time Activity Book

2010-12-04T08:47:00.001Z

What more fun could a punk rocker have on Christmas Day than helping Siouxise Sioux with her make-up, designing tattoos for Henry Rollins before rounding off the evening by daubing grafitti on the walls of the toilets at CBGBs? After all, under the watchful gaze of all those aunties and uncles it will be difficult to get any serious glue-sniffing in ...

Gift idea #3: Twisted Sister - A Twisted Christmas

2010-12-03T10:30:00.001Z

Despite his incarceration I'm sure we'll still be playing A Christmas Gift For You from Phil Spector a lot over the coming weeks.

I'll also attempt to sneak A Twisted Christmas onto the 'death deck' (phrase © Kerrang any time between 1987 and 1992, possibly beyond). Very much recorded with their tongues in their cheeks, Twisted Sister came up trumps with this album and highlights include Oh Come All Ye Faithful, not least due to its opening being so reminiscent of the classic 'We're Not Going To Take It'.

Gift idea #2: Brats On The Beat (Ramones For Kids)

2010-12-02T13:06:00.000Z

I first wrote about this album back in March, and cannot recommend it enough.

So if you're a parent trying to get away from the usual selection of children's music this is a great, and far, far more bearable, option. And as it's a fundraiser for the St Jude Children's Research Hospital you'll be making a seasonal donation to them too.

Gift idea #1: Hellbent For Cooking by Annick Giroux

2010-12-01T12:49:00.001Z

So it's that time of year where we all frantically search for that special gift that you hope no-one else will think of ... and for any self-respecting rock fan surely a tailored cookbook such as Hellbent for Cooking might just fit the bill?

Recipes have been suggested by well-travelled members of the likes of Thin Lizzy, Anthrax, Sepultura and Gwar and include Beer Crust Pizza and Mushroom Steak a la Jack Daniel's. Could make an alternative offering to roast turkey and brussel sprouts ...

Current reading list (following recent birthday!):
Life: Keith Richards
Dear Boy: The Life of Keith Moon
Simon Pegg: Nerd Do Well

Keef - Street Fightin' Man

2010-11-11T13:37:00.002Z

Reports are out that Keith Richards hit a journalist that gave the Stones a poor review three years ago!

Manic Street Preachers - Cambridge Corn Exchange 01/11/10

2010-11-08T13:52:00.004Z

My earliest awareness of the Manic Street Preachers came while behind the counter in Our Price, where I promptly dismissed them as indie fodder. A friend (indeed the one who first coined the phrase Glamrock Aftershock) returned from seeing the Throbs at the Marquee, and the support band was Blackwood’s finest. This was a surprise to me given my ill-informed dismissal and so I took the opportunity to put on their then current single, Motown Junk. My opinion changed immediately and was further enhanced by its follow-up, the original recording of You Love Us, complete with the Lust For Life-based closing refrain.

Last week I saw the band for the first time since they played at an anti-fascism rally in south London in 1994. I also saw them three times in 1992, at two now defunct venues, the Astoria and the Kilburn National, and at the Town & Country Club, now the Forum. I had collected every release through the first two albums (bar Suicide Alley) and around the time of The Holy Bible my interest waned slightly. Other than a few singles (A Design For Life, If You Tolerate This and Masses Against The Classes) they rarely troubled my collection for the rest of the decade. This was not directly linked to the disappearance of Richey Edwards, although I was less than enamoured with the much straighter rock on parts of Everything Must Go (which was released during a later stint at Our Price and was played to death in-store) and which was explored further on This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours.

Opening with the afore-mentioned You Love Us immediately brought home one very specific point - that here was a band with a big enough back catalogue to toss away such a big song so early on (something I last recall being undertaken by AC/DC kicking off proceedings with You Shook Me All Night Long). This was followed by the 2007 #2 hit Your Love Alone Is Not Enough before James Dean Bradfield returned to the band's early days with a reference to their first Cambridge show at the Junction and an airing of the anthemic Motorcycle Emptiness.

Such nods to the past were a common theme, with the band in good spirits and keen to speak about their long-standing friendships (such as Bradfield acknowledging how Nicky Wire had been responsible for his haircuts and stylings when growing up, and later returned by Wire when describing Bradfield as his personal guitar hero). Faster was prefixed with a dedication to Richey Edwards - the same album's PCP had been requested but Bradfield, overcoming a recent bout of laryngitis, made it clear that he hadn't taken sufficient steroids to manage the requisite vocals. During an interlude that saw him play one song on his own, Wire joked that Bradfield was taking so many steroids that their dressing room resembled that of the Russian Olympics squad in the 1970s.

The remainder of their set drew from across their near-20 year career, with Motown Junk typically making its appearance late on before closing with A Design For Life, with its huge chorus so famously mis-appropriated by the drinking masses. And as in 1992, no encores. Not that one was required. This was a phenomenal gig that has predictably driven me back to see and properly hear exactly what I missed from 1996 onwards.

Previous posts:
Manic Street Preachers - Journal For Plague Lovers
Manic Street Preachers - Generation Terrorists

Gunfire Dance - Suit And Tie

2010-10-21T13:02:00.000+01:00

Previous posts:

Gunfire Dance
Interview with Ozzie from Gunfire Dance
Suicide Blonde and the Birmingham scene

'When you fly through a storm, hold your head up high' (sic)

2010-10-20T13:50:00.000+01:00

As a supporter of Liverpool and with Iron Maiden being the first 'proper gig' I attended, I'm particularly amused by the news that Bruce Dickinson has flown the team to Italy ahead of their Europa Cup match in Napoli on Thursday!

Hopefully his band's affiliation with West Ham won't cause him to seek revenge for the 2006 FA Cup final ...

Manic Street Preachers - Motown Junk (Astoria 20/02/92)

2010-10-16T22:23:00.000+01:00

Countdown to the gig begins ... with happy memories of when I first saw them on this very night in February 1992.

The Jim Jones Revue

2010-10-07T13:08:00.000+01:00

Surely some mistake ... for the second week in a row Later With Jools Holland comes up trumps, this time with The Jim Jones Revue. To put it politely, the band is made up of older musicians and a little bit of research found that the Jim Jones in question fronted Thee Hypnotics, the almost-there-but-not-quite psychedelic/garage rockers from the 1990s.

Well summed up by a Guardian review from 2008 ("the Jim Jones Revue imagine that rock'n'roll didn't really need to evolve after 1956; it just needed to get much, much louder, and wildly more distorted") their brief performance on Tuesday night's shorter warm-up show, with appropriately long-slung guitars, was enough to ensure I'll be tuning in again on Friday to see what else they have on offer.

Who you gonna call?

2010-10-05T21:28:00.002+01:00

One for musicians everywhere ...

Vive le Rock - new magazine launch

2010-10-01T13:21:00.000+01:00

Spinning off from the long-standing website comes the launch of Vive Le Rock magazine, featuring The Ramones, the very en vogue Killing Joke, The Clash and David Bowie plus a free CD promising 'both the coolest cats on the block as well as the legends who paved the way for them'.

Future issues promise Devo, The Who, The Sex Pistols, Johnnies Cash and Thunders, Jerry Lee Lewis and Tom Waits.

With a mandate to 'to bring ... the Bad Boys of rock 'n' roll! From punk and new wave, glam and garage through to mod and primal rock 'n' roll', this looks to be a very welcome addition to newstands.

First issue will be published on October 15th.

Delta Spirit

2010-09-28T22:58:00.000+01:00

Inbetween the usual blandness that makes up a typical edition of Later With Jools Holland, San Diego's Delta Spirit shone on tonight's show performing '9/11' from new album History From Below. Reminded me momentarily of Flies On Fire but I think this was largely down to the vocal.

One for the shopping list!

Killing Joke - Absolute Dissent

2010-09-28T21:59:00.000+01:00

Following some very positive comments from respectable sources on the Swindon Music Forum I was drawn to Spotify to see what all the fuss is about regarding Killing Joke's new album, Absolute Dissent.

As their first album in almost 30 years performed by the original line-up, I strongly suggest you do the same. It's a monster.

Manic Street Preachers - Postcards From A Young Man (boxed set)

2010-09-20T16:57:00.003+01:00

I haven't got round to listening to the album yet - hope to find time shortly - but have just been reading some of the comments on Amazon relating to the 'supadupamegadeluxe' boxed set edition of Postcards From A Young Man. If nothing else it's nice to see the Manics are still polarising opinion, even if it is amongst their own following.

Previous posts:
Manic Street Preachers - Journal For Plague Lovers
Manic Street Preachers - Generation Terrorists

The power of Lou Reed

2010-09-10T09:24:00.001+01:00

Some sites are reporting this story as 'Lou Reed Makes Susan Boyle Cry'. You've probably read about it - the legendary Velvet Underground man stopped the (can I really type this ...) Britain's Got - ahem - Talent singer from performing Perfect Day on the US version of the show. What surprises me here is not that he did this, but that he that the power of veto. And I'm guessing that she would have performed it in the style of the awful BBC-promotional version (which did have Reed's backing, and indeed involvement) rather than the 1972 original.

And it was back in November 1972 that Reed stopped the New York Dolls from supporting him at a gig in Liverpool during the latter's ill-fated UK. I dare say there are numerous other examples of the great man flexing his muscles ...

Chrome Cranks

2010-09-06T20:55:00.001+01:00

Read about these guys following a namecheck in a recent issue of The New Yorker - despite the band forming back in 1988!

A low-down and dirty garage band (think the likes of Cramps and Boss Hog, with maybe a sprinkling of the Beasts of Bourbon on top), I've so far only heard what's available on their MySpace page. Seems there's a new album on its way, but from what I can gather the self-titled debut is the one of go for, although there is a pretty-substantial looking best-of available (Diabolical Boogie).

Tim Thornton - Death of an Unsigned Band

2010-09-01T14:04:00.000+01:00

Can't recommend this book as such as I haven't (yet) read it, but have just read a decent article on Sabotage Times by its author.

Axl Rose oversleeps .. and sacks his roadcrew!

2010-08-31T13:08:00.000+01:00

Following on from Guns n' Roses having to cut their sets short at Reading & Leeds (after taking the stage late on both nights), news now emerges that Axl Rose sacked his tour crew after he overslept before the Reading show and then had to re-hire them for Leeds!

Previous posts:
Guns 'N Roses - Appetite For Destruction
Stephen Davis - Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N' Roses
Izzy Stradlin and the Ju Ju Hounds - self-titled

Nirvana Ruined Everything

2010-08-26T15:14:00.000+01:00

Hats off (in my case this would have been a black velvet peaked cap) to Nirvana Ruined Everything, a blog that is eerily like this one but looks and reads better!

Check it out and, if you dare, submit your own pre-Kurt photos.

Monsters Of Rock - Donington Park 22/08/87

2010-08-22T09:00:00.016+01:00

After seeing Iron Maiden in 1986 it was almost a full year before I managed to attend another 'proper' gig. At this stage I was still veering towards thrash (Appetite For Destruction had just been released but had yet to change my life) and so the mid-bill pairing of Metallica and Anthrax was my main motivation for going.

Arriving just in time for Cinderella (and as a sign of the times, free cigarettes - Marlboro were one of the sponsors - and also condoms were being given out on the site), we found ourselves immediately experiencing the joys of the festival setting with the onset of rain. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be able to stomach it now - with the possible exception of 'Shake Me' - but we were all big fans of Night Songs and so the rain did nothing to prevent our enjoyment of their brief set. Their presence was almost certainly determined by their relationship with headliners Bon Jovi (although there is nothing to suggest that they were tied by the same terms as Skid Row famously were), and set the Philadelphia-based quartet up for a successful few years.

Second band of the day was WASP - complete with semi-naked-woman-on-rack routine, which was all well and good but did seem to jar a little with the setting, crappy weather and time of day. Not one of my favourite bands, though the likes of 'Wild Child' and 'I Wanna Be Somebody' still stand up.

And so to the real business of the day. Anthrax were riding high with Among The Living (b-side to 'I Am The Law' and later single in its own right, I'm The Man, was also doing the rounds) and I was happily down for the front for their set, newly purchased Anthrax baseball cap firmly on my head. Faster - and a bit sillier - than Hetfield and co, they were probably my pick of the day.

Metallica were a year on from Master Of Puppets and the death of Cliff Burton. His spectre has loomed over the band ever since, to the point that even after almost two decades in the band Jason Newstead struggled to feel accepted (the dysfunctional state of the band is best observed in Metallica - Some Kind Of Monster). As much as I enjoyed their set they didn't match up to Anthrax on the day.

Not wishing to speak ill of the dead but I have zero recollection of Dio as I paid them no attention! And as for Bon Jovi, well, my main memory - and a happy one at that - was the appearance of Bruce Dickinson and Paul Stanley during the encore (not least as the denim jacket I was stylishly wearing on the day has a KISS 'Destroyer' backpatch - a slightly odd choice given that I didn't own the album in question, or indeed any KISS albums).

The day almost ended disastrously after one of our group managed to lead us to completely the wrong car park. It had been made clear that the coach would wait for one hour after Bon Jovi finished and no more. It was only when one of the stewards asked a very simple question that we realised our mistake:

'Do you remember if there was grass or gravel when you got off the coach?'
'Grass.' (said while standing on gravel).
'Then you want the other car park.'
'Okay. Is is far?'
'Yes - about a mile that way.'

We were already late, but thankfully the coach had been unable to leave as it was boxed in. We didn't make the same mistake the following year ...

Crazyhead - Have Love Will Travel

2010-08-11T09:20:00.000+01:00

Vain - Beat The Bullet

2010-08-10T12:58:00.000+01:00

Dogs D'Amour - How Do You Fall In Love Again?

2010-08-05T13:08:00.000+01:00

Hollywood Brats - Little Ole Wine Drinker Me

2010-08-01T09:00:00.000+01:00

The second Hollywood Brats album has taken on almost mythical status. Back in my record shop days there was no reference to it in any catalogues (but at one point an album called 'Whatever Happened To The Hollywood Brats' did appear on a small label's release schedule but never materialised - at the time I put it down as a re-issued & re-titled edition of their debut).

So did it ever exist?

Even in the internet age there is seemingly no information out there, and that includes the band's own website and MySpace page. Amazon listed a Casino Steel best-of which supplied some hope, including as it did two Hollywood Brats songs ('Little Ole Wine Drinker Me' and 'Suckin' On Suzie') that weren't on the debut. But even that's long-deleted.

I sent a message to their MySpace account in September 2006 and got this reply:

"Only few fans know of the lost album, the second album to be exact. You just ought to look for it!"

Nice to have confirmation, but still no closer to hearing it!

And that's how things remained until I found this. Not surprisingly it doesn't compare favourably to the debut.

Also here's a clip of the band during a brief reformation in 1980.

The Throbs - Pin Up Girls

2010-07-30T09:02:00.000+01:00

Scrolled through my past posts and was surprised to see that I've omitted The Throbs thus far. Perhaps the disappointment of The Language Of Thieves And Vagabonds still rankles.

Here's an earlier clip of the band and an insight into what could have been ...

Redd Kross - Bubblegum Factory

2010-07-29T10:19:00.000+01:00

Only saw Redd Kross attempt this live once after much audience insistence (Subterranea, Ladbroke Grove circa 1992) and they abandoned after by the 1st chorus claiming they couldn't remember it! Seems they've taken the time since to re-learn it (though some of the backing vocals are a little questionable).

LA Guns - One More Reason

2010-07-28T09:00:00.000+01:00

The video that supposedly got the band signed. Slightly rougher round the edges than the ‘official’ recording.

Previous posts:
L.A. Guns - self-titled

Izzy Stradlin and The JuJu Hounds - Shuffle It All

2010-07-27T09:00:00.002+01:00

Previous posts:
Izzy Stradlin and the Ju Ju Hounds - self-titled

Redd Kross - Jimmy's Fantasy

2010-07-26T09:48:00.000+01:00

I'd almost forgotten just how heavy this riff is ...:

Previous posts:
Redd Kross - Third Eye
Sloppy seconds and filthy thirds

Redd Kross - Blow You A Kiss In The Wind

2010-07-23T10:58:00.001+01:00

From the first Redd Kross album I managed to track down (the seemingly unavailable on CD 'Teen Babes From Monsanto') and the one song on it ('Linda Blair' aside it's a covers album) that I didn't know the origin of. Until today ...

Faster Pussycat - You're So Vain

2010-07-22T14:02:00.000+01:00

Nice little oddity that originally surfaced on 'Rubaiyat', a compilation released by Elektra records to commemorate its 40th anniversary. The concept was for current acts to record versions of songs by past Elektra artists.

Motorcycle Boy

2010-07-21T13:45:00.001+01:00

The one, the only ... well, apart from the Scottish band of the same name.

GUNFIRE DANCE - Continental Bar NYC 1994

2010-07-01T14:00:00.004+01:00

My love for Gunfire Dance is hardly a secret (I bang on about them often enough), so here we go for anyone that missed (or misses) them ....

Gary Holton & Casino Steel - Ghostriders

2010-06-29T23:33:00.000+01:00

Previous posts:
Gary Holton & Casino Steel
Hollywood Brats - self-titled

Quireboys - Man On The Loose

2010-06-28T23:01:00.000+01:00

After a friend played me a recording today of the Quireboys at Reading Festival in 1987, we chatted about the band's early recordings before the slickly-produced debut album (as well as a horribly clean 'live' concert video they released that was clearly filmed in a studio).

A quick trawl over on YouTube threw up this clip from 1988, which I remember as I once had a bootleg live video of this show. Support came from the Brooklyn Dogs, with a set largely unmemorable except for a guest appearance by a man called Tyla for a version of 'The Last Bandit', and who completely upstaged the (probably not that) young pretenders. My next challenge is to find that clip ...

The Dogs D'Amour - I Don't Want You To Go

2010-06-25T14:26:00.000+01:00

Classic stuff ... all I wanted to do at the time was move to London and this video didn't help! Finally managed it a couple of years later though.

Suicide Twins - Sweet Pretending

2010-06-24T10:44:00.000+01:00

Sami Yaffa & Pelle Almgren's 'Lonely In Love' aside, this is arguably the finest post-Hanoi (but pre-reunion) recording.

Previous posts:
Suicide Twins - Silver Missiles and Nightingales
Hanoi Rocks - Bristol Bierkeller 17/11/02
Hanoi Rocks - The Nottingham Tapes
Andy McCoy - Sheriff McCoy: Outlaw Legend of Hanoi Rocks

Flies On Fire - Baptize Me Over Elvis Presley's Grave

2010-06-22T21:43:00.000+01:00

One of those bands loved by those 'in the know' ... here's a live version of their Lodi-esque 'Baptize Me Over Elvis Presley's Grave'.

Previous posts:
Flies On Fire - self-titled

Last Of The Teenage Idols - Looking For A Lady

2010-06-21T10:07:00.001+01:00

For some reason 'Looking For A Lady' by the Last Of The Teenage Idols, their single that never was, has been stuck in my head recently. Then someone puts a link to a video of it up on Facebook - so here it is!

Suicide Blonde and the Birmingham scene

2010-06-17T13:46:00.009+01:00

Suicide Blonde popped into my head today - not the INXS song, but a Birmingham band from the late 80s/early 90s. As is clear from the cartoon drawing on their MySpace page, Suicide Blonde emerged on the (velvet) coat tails of the Dogs D'Amour and despite some good press only managed to release one 12" single ('Nobody Tells Me Anything', a tune we used to busk occasionally).

I got to see them once at the Borderline on Charing Cross Road on my birthday (to say which one would give far too much away!). Openers were the then perennial support act White Trash; I must have seen them about half-a-dozen times, all unintentionally. Their one redeeming feature was that they covered 'Another Girl, Another Planet', and on this particular evening were joined for their rendition by one Steve von Saint. Bless him, he looked most crestfallen when he went to play the opening solo but was beaten to it by White Trash's own guitarist, then trying to pull some shapes only to lean back too far and fall over! I dare say he claimed to have been drunk ...

Suicide Blonde's performance led to a Kerrang review that stated that 'the best band in London is actually from Birmingham'. And it's fair to say that England's second city (Mancunians will debate that one!) was arguably producing the better bands - along with Suicide Blonde there was Gunfire Dance, who never got close to the success they deserved, Dave Kusworth and Nikki Sudden (in both their solo guises, Kusworth's Bounty Hunters and together as the Jacobites).

I also stumbled across some great You Tube links from this era, including the band that spawned Suicide Blonde (Hollywood Refugees) and also the Subterranaen Hawks (an early Kusworth outfit along with Stephen 'Tin Tin' Duffy and performing 'Big Store', later re-recorded by the Jacobites on Robespierre's Velvet Basement). Each clip also has some notes on the bands - well worth checking out.

Previous posts:
Jacobites - Robespierre's Velvet Basement
Suddenly Dead - Nikki Sudden movie
Gunfire Dance
Interview with Ozzie from Gunfire Dance

Lookalikes part two: when the crimping stopped

2010-06-11T17:53:00.001+01:00

As promised back in December 2008 ... not that anyone's requested it.

Bill Wyman - as before! I'd like to deny any similarity but there are far too many photographs out there that would undermine me. And when playing bass I do sometimes deliberately tilt my bass up so I've only got myself to blame!

John Lennon - in some ways a lazy comparison that was also thrown at me in my longer-haired days by 'straights' as a general statement of alleged hippiness. I guess I have unintentionally encouraged this since by having a vaguely Beatles-esque haircut and wearing glasses. I have also been known to point at photographs of him while with my 4-year old son and ask who it is. 'Daddy' will come the answer ... but if I was going to refer to a sixties lookalike (barring Bill flamin' Wyman) it would be ...

Roger McGuinn - much happier about this one, and I tend to only get it from musical aficionados!

Liam Gallagher - another Lennon-esque lazy comparison (thinking about it I also had Julian Lennon thrown at me a few times - not literally of course) that I used to get around Camden in the mid-late 90s, but ultimately usurped by the time I was actually mistaken for a semi-famous musician in ...

James Broad (Silver Sun) - Amusingly this happened at the Camden Falcon, and their bassist, Richard, was stood about two feet away. This may have been what caused the person to think I was James; but if they'd turned round they would have seen the man himself was also there! But perhaps not as ridiculous as the time I was mistaken for ...

Louis Theroux - just up the road at the Monarch. Now, there is a oft-repeated mantra that cameras, especially TV cameras can make people appear 10 pounds larger. Given that Theroux is 6ft 2in and I'm, well, not, I can only assume the person in question once mis-heard 10 pounds as 10 inches. I told them I was his brother; the fact that they then walked off without saying anything suggests they were very disappointed.

Gypsy Queen & Tigertailz - London Astoria 10/06/88

2010-06-10T14:07:00.000+01:00

Gypsy Queen ... hmmm. To be fair the real reason we trooped along to this 22 years ago was to see Tigertailz, who by this time had replaced Steevi Jaimz with Kim Hooker and released their third recording of 'Living Without You'. Our first attempt to see the Welsh glamsters was met with mild humiliation a year or so before when we were refused entry into Swindon's Brunel Rooms for being underage (if memory serves me well we went to a late-night showing of The Blues Brothers instead, so all was not lost).

Despite seeing them live three times in all (and even taking the time to get their autographs), Tigertailz were always too Americanised for my tastes, although I have to accept an appreciation for the afore-mentioned 'Living Without You'. And if truth be told, had they been in the US at the right time rather than holding court at Bogiez in Cardiff things could have worked out very differently for them.

The Only Ones - Shepherds Bush Empire 09/06/2007

2010-06-09T22:50:00.000+01:00

Comparatively recent anniversary here ... and along with the Hanoi Rocks 2002 tour and the New York Dolls appearances at Meltdown in 2004, this was one of those bands I thought I'd never see. And with the full classic line-up to boot! I saw 'The One' back in 1994 and figured that was going to be as good as it got - after all, they'd played a hefty number of Only Ones tunes, and you had to wonder whether Perrett was ever going to make it back onto a stage after that brief mid-90s re-emergence. And lo and behold it happened.

One of the most immediate thing to jump out seemed almost impossible; while the rest of the band were showing the scars of time (Perrett could almost hide behind his microphone stand, such was the slightness of his frame) Mike Kellie, a drummer who back in 60s played in Spooky Tooth and was one of the more unlikely new wave musicians, looked as though he had frozen in time circa 1979.

The Only Ones always stood apart from their contemporaries; as Perrett notes in the Faster Than Lightning collection (recently issued on DVD via the band’s website), they were the band that aspiring musicians looked to and directly influenced the subsequent forming of bands. The House Of Love are a prime, almost plagiaristic example. Their musical superiority over, say, Eddie & The Hot Rods led to 2-and-a-bit great albums (their swansong, Baby’s Got A Gun, contains without question the band’s lowpoint in Fools but also at least one of their finest in Big Sleep). Their performance of the latter was one of those stand out moments, where the hairs on your neck stand up; Perrett’s higher pitched and more fragile voice providing the epic song with even greater resonance.

And of course there was ‘Another Girl, Another Planet’ … a few days before this show I heard Andy McCluskey from OMD on the radio, dismissing the return of the Only Ones and suggesting it had only happened due to the use of their most famous song in a recent Vodafone ad. This is the same Andy McCluskey that gave the world Atomic Kitten – surely enough of a reason to keep your opinions to yourself.

Much to our amusement the first encore was ‘Me And My Shadow’, complete with an unnecessarily extended intro. We were so thrown by this that the only thing to do was to pile down the front, which at least put us in the right place for ‘Lovers Of Today’.

For a while afterwards there was talk of new material, and recordings did surface both online and during a performance on Later With Jools Holland. There was a national tour but some dates were cancelled. Their website hasn't been updated for a while and the best source of info, John Perry's MySpace page has been silent for some time too. On balance I'm quite happy for things to be left as they are.

RIP Stuart Cable - one-time King Catwalk drummer

2010-06-07T11:34:00.000+01:00

News has broken that Stuart Cable (ex-Stereophonics drummer) has died.

When the Stereophonics first emerged there was something about Cable's style that belied some glam leanings, specifically the way he would bounce on his drumstool. At some point I learnt that he had been the drummer in King Catwalk, one of a slew of glam bands that emerged in South Wales following the brief (minor) success of Tigertailz. It's taken a little bit of digging but this appears to be borne out here and here (on the latter, click on 'books' and then the cover of 'Demons and Cocktails' for a comedy extract referencing this period of Cable's career).

Manic Street Preachers UK tour

2010-06-02T14:06:00.002+01:00

Perhaps it’s the fact that I don’t get out much these days but I’m surprisingly excited by the announcement of the latest Manic Street Preachers tour dates, not least as they’ve had the decency to stop off in Cambridge. In fact it’s a very exhaustive UK tour and it will be the first time I’ve seen the band since 1994 (and the first time since Richey’s disappearance). Those 16 years have seen a mish-mash of feelings towards the Manics. The ‘comeback’ single, Design For Life, was a triumph and although the resulting album catapulted the band to new heights Everything Must Go’s meat and two veg anthemic style made it the first Manics album that I didn’t buy – and I haven’t bought one since, although I did make use of streaming sites for 2009's Journal For Plague Lovers. This is despite several notable releases: the one-off Masses Against the Classes (with its one acoustic and one cover version b-sides it truly felt like a throwback to a Richey-era single) and Found That Soul leap to mind.

Pre-sale available now.

The dates in full.

Previous posts:
Manic Street Preachers - Journal For Plague Lovers
Manic Street Preachers - Generation Terrorists

Steven Tyler: Does the Noise in My Head Bother You?:

2010-06-01T13:27:00.000+01:00

Claiming to be 'the long-awaited, never-before-told, no-holds-barred memoir from the legendary Aerosmith frontman', Steven Tyler publishes Does the Noise in My Head Bother You in October. Early blurbs promise 'the most outrageous rock n' roll autobiography of all time'. You can read the full product description here.

Aerosmith have always been a gap in my record collection - I had a copy of the 70s 'Greatest Hits' but I rarely played it, and even though Toys In The Attic is regarded as a bona fide classic I can honestly say I've never heard it. Online streaming sites seem to only feature their more recent output so my recent attempts to rectify this have been thwarted.

Alvin Gibbs - Neighbourhood Threat: On Tour With Iggy Pop

2010-05-30T19:30:00.001+01:00

In a game of book tag, I've been led to Neighbourhood Threat: On Tour With Iggy Pop via Andy McCoy's autobiography. Based on the world tour that featured the two in Iggy's band, McCoy refers to Gibbs's book as being 75% about him (i.e. McCoy). And he's not far out although he was helped by Iggy taking on this tour in a comparatively clean state, giving Hanoi's guitarist a free run in the excess department.
Alvin Gibbs does a good job of capturing the highs and lows on the road, and even when he needs to resort to detailing the more monotous stretches he doesn't manage to make the reader feel as bored as he clearly was. Recommended reading.

Previous posts:
Andy McCoy - Sheriff McCoy: Outlaw Legend of Hanoi Rocks
Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
Grit, Noise, and Revolution: The Birth of Detroit Rock 'n' Roll
Sloppy seconds and filthy thirds

If the Face doesn't fit ..

2010-05-25T16:23:00.002+01:00

I can hardly bring myself to type this but ... Mick Hucknall to front a reformed Faces???

When Hanoi Rocks reformed most of my friends didn't have any issue with the absence of Sami & Nasty. Although Andy & Mike were physically only 40% of the band it was taken as read that their importance within it was at least double that.

Their attitude was quite different when the New York Dolls returned for the Meltdown Festival, even though they did at least pitch up with all the surviving members. I think it was the absence of Johnny Thunders that bugged most; early rumours that Izzy Stradlin was taking his place weren't even sufficient to encourage many people I know to pick up tickets. The subsequent passing of Arthur Kane had definitely led to some retrospective regret.

But The Faces without Rod Stewart? And not only that, but with the singer from Simply Red taking his place? I dare say that in musician circles he's a highly rated vocalist but I can't see too many die-hards showing up for this.

Jellyfish - London Astoria 21/05/93

2010-05-21T09:23:00.000+01:00

Seventeen years ago today, and one of many, many nights spent at this great, lost venue. As well as numerous club nights I can remember seeing a triple bill of Soho Roses, The Last of the Teenage Idols and Tigertailz here, and a fairly early show by The Manic Street Preachers (Feb 1992). RIP The Astoria.

Rolling Stones - Stones In Exile

2010-05-19T13:09:00.001+01:00

For UK readers, Stones in Exile is on BBC this Sunday (May 22nd) at 22.25. I'm not sure whether this is the same film that was screened at the Cannes Film Festival to much fanfare earlier in the week; seems odd that the BBC would be showing it so soon after rather than it taking on a limited cinema release.

Commemorating the 30th anniversary of Exile on Main Street (along with a deluxe CD reissue with extra tracks), the film tells the story of the band's decision to flee the crippling UK tax system (then set at 93% for the super-rich) to set up camp in the Cote d'Azur. Inbetween some excessive partying the Stones managed to record what's regarded by many as their definitive album. Could make for interesting viewing assuming the director has managed to extract some very candid contributions ...

Edit 20/05/10: The Cannes-screened Stones In Exile is available on DVD; clocking in at double the length of the BBC broadcast it's either an entirely different film or a heavily edited one they're broadcasting.

Megadeth - Hammersmith Odeon 18/05/1988

2010-05-18T13:37:00.000+01:00

I've touched before on the fact that pre-Appetite For Destruction I was heading down more of a thrash metal road. Hell, I even bought Onslaught's dreadful version of Let There Be Rock (that may have been the last straw). I also had a letter printed in a Kerrang! thrash special in response to the question 'Have Metallica sold out?' - I took the 'no' option, instead detailing how as a band they had simply progressed in the years since Kill 'Em All. My move towards glam had already begun though, and the letter was signed off using a combination of a soon-to-be-discarded stage name and my not-yet fully formed band: Glyn 'The Rockit Doll' Alexander.

It was during this inbetween stage that 22 years ago today I was on the front row of the balcony at the "The Hammy O" (not the Labatts Apollo or any of the other appalling names bestowed upon this venue) taking in Megadeth. I was never a fan of support act Sanctuary, and even though the vast majority of their set remains unmemorable I do have strong recollections of their version of White Rabbit. The main ones being a) it was very, very loud and b) this volume combined with the singer's piercing voice in such a way I'm surprised my hearing's intact.

Megadeth were approaching their career high on this tour, having followed up the stunning in places Peace Sells... But Who's Buying with the more coherent So Far So Good So What. On coming to scribble this I've had the urge to listen to the latter for the first time in 20 years, and will nipping over to Spotify shortly. Having always remained in Metallica's shadow, the effect of which can be seen in Some Kind Of Monster, it perhaps seems fair to give Mustaine's 'rebound' band another chance, as unlike the one that discarded him, Megadeth have at least had the decency to produce more than a handful of albums over the years (though I've heard nothing since Rust in Peace).

Suddenly Dead - Nikki Sudden movie

2010-05-10T11:48:00.001+01:00

Plans are afoot for a Nikki Sudden movie, Suddenly Dead. Clip available on You Tube. Also over on Facebook, a nice quote from Mark Lemon on his early recollections from his Jacobites days.

Previous posts:
Jacobites - Robespierre's Velvet Basement

Bret Michaels suffers brain haemorrhage

2010-04-26T13:57:00.000+01:00

Fuck-a-doodle-do. Not a fan of the music (though I found Rock Of Love an oddly compelling watch, all three series!) but no-one deserves this. Get well soon Bret.

Enuff Z'nuff - Bristol Bierkeller 25/03/90

2010-03-25T13:49:00.000Z

On coming to write about this show it dawned on me that my attendance played a significant role in shaping my future that I'd always attributed to a later gig at the same venue (The Lovejetz on October 14th, 1990).

For it was at the Lovejetz gig that the initial connection was made between my group of friends and my now-wife's (we didn't actually meet that night, and it was another two years before we first got together).

However, if I hadn't gone along to see Enuff Z'Nuff six months previously I wouldn't have met the person who told me about the Lovejetz gig and it's unlikely that I would have gone along otherwise.

At it was I only went along to show off my freshly dyed purple hair (as per photo, taken at a service station that very evening). 'New Thing' used to drive me mad with its whining vocal melody and I'd never managed to get beyond that. In subsequent years I've been told several times that I might like Enuff Z'Nuff's later albums (I was surprised so many existed), with comparisons to the likes of Jellyfish being mooted. In light of the realisation that they played such a key part in my life I've recently spent a little time over on Spotify going through their back catalogue (hell, I even have a playlist on the go - hardly comprehensive I admit. And I'm still not keen on 'New Thing' btw).

Twenty years ago though I spent the evening playing pool. I did however come away with Chip Z'Nuff's autograph (to 'Mr Purple' no less). I probably should have paid a lot more attention to the band but hey, my hair did look great ....

Slash at number one

2010-03-22T09:37:00.000Z

News in this morning is that the ground-breaking magazine/CD release Classic Rock Presents Slash is at number one on the pre-order chart over on Play.com. Proof it seems that innovative ways to present a new album can bring success - after all, would this album have seen so much interest if its initial release had been in regular CD format only? Certainly I wouldn't have been aware of its imminent arrival.

Brats On The Beat - Ramones For Kids

2010-03-20T21:09:00.000Z

About 18 months ago I mentioned my son's liking for the Ramones. To be fair this was virtually pre-determined as can be seen from this photo, taken at the ripe old age of 1 month and 1 day. A meaner looking punk rocker you're unlikely to meet.

We actually stopped playing them for a while, but a couple of months ago the Ramones again became a staple choice and our son is regularly overheard singing snippets such 'Hey Ho Let's Go' (natch), 'I remember you, ooh-ooh-ooh-ooh', and our current favourite, '53rd and Bird' (for those of you without children, there's a kids TV programme called 3rd And Bird).

A little late in the day given that he's so immersed in the real thing, but we've just picked up Brats on the Beat: Ramones for Kids. With contributions from members of Pennywise, the Dwarves, Alkaline Trio amongst others, it's a step up from the Rockabye Baby CDs (as good as they are) and is a fundraiser for the St Jude Children's Research Hospital to boot.

Pink Floyd win EMI court battle over digital sales

2010-03-11T13:38:00.001Z

Interesting development today in which Pink Floyd have won a key court battle having sued EMI for selling individual tracks online.

Pink Floyd are famous for rarely releasing singles, particularly during their 1970s peak - a tactic that arguably paid dividends with Dark Side of the Moon seeing sales estimated as high as 45 million, placing it as the third highest selling album of all-time (The Wall, from which the single 'Another Brick In The Wall' was culled is estimated as selling 30 million copies, Wish You Were Here 20 million, Animals 12 million, and The Division Bell 11 million). It seems that their contract included a very important clause stating that their albums should not be split up without their consent.

By the mid-90s record companies were in the habit of deleting singles quickly so as to drive up sales of their counterpart album. I remember when the dreadful 'Search For A Hero' by M-People was picked up for a TV ad, seeing a huge demand for the single to be re-released. All we could do at Our Price was offer customers the 'Bizarre Fruit' album instead - only for the record label to pull that as well, and re-issue it as a more expensive double CD with extra tracks. Other artists that benefitted from this type of marketing tended to be one-hit wonders such as Tasmin Archer ('Sleeping Satellite') and Meredith Brooks ('Bitch').

In a world of MP3s this could never happen (indeed, should you wish to download M-People's monstrosity on its own you can do so here). In some ways it's odd that EMI fought this case, and would instead be content to force consumers to spend the extra cash. Maybe given their current travails they're simply desperate for quick income.

D'you know where you are?

2010-03-09T21:31:00.000Z

Just before bedtime tonight my almost 4 year old son was playing with his lego.

He picked up a piece with a palm tree on it and said:

'This is a sign that says Welcome To The Jungle.'

I asked where he'd learnt this. He told me he'd made it up. I'm sure I'd never said it to him and so figured his mother must have done, but she's as surprised as me.

So Axl, if you're reading this, your influence remains ...

Jane's Addiction - Bristol Studio 06/03/91

2010-03-05T16:21:00.003Z

I've gone back through my ticket archives for the first time in a while and on this day 19 years ago I paid the princely sum of £7 to see Perry and the boys at the now-defunct (or possibly re-named*) Bristol Studio.

In addition I believe Primus were the support band but I have no recollection of them whatsoever!

My one memory of this show was that Jane's Addiction were disappointingly slick. Given their legendary status I expected a night of glorious, disjointed chaos. This is made all the more surprising knowing now how close the band were to splitting up at this point. Perhaps they were simply too busy not speaking to one another to properly rock out.

Further info can be found regarding this show (in fact, there's a full list of every show Jane's Addiction are believed to have played), including posters, itinerary and more, at the stunningly detailed janesaddiction.org.

*edit 11/03/10: I think it's now the o2 Academy

Rock on with BBC4 tonight - NWOBHM

2010-03-05T09:28:00.000Z

From 9pm - very much a NWOBHM feast.

Iron Maiden's Flight 666 is also available on iPlayer until March 12th.

"What d'ya think of DJs?"

2010-03-03T10:43:00.000Z

"The one here's pretty good though isn't he?"

Online petition to save 6Music.

Ric Browde - While I'm Dead ... Feed The Dog

2010-03-01T22:26:00.001Z

For a producer, Ric Browde isn't a bad novellist. The uncredited statement on his book's cover that it's for 'everyone who wished JD Salinger had had a sense of humour' is over-egging him somewhat though (and is also misleading, the 'had had' seemingly suggesting Salinger was already dead when the edition I have was published in 2000).

Described as 'totally autobiographical except for all the bits where I lied', While I'm Dead...Feed the Dog centres around Ric Thibault, smalltown Missouri teenager who finds his mother has taken an overdose and left numerous suicide notes, including one that requests her family adhere to one request that provides the book's title. The note left for Ric reveals his mother's awareness that he's been sleeping with their neighbour (both his mother's best friend and his best friend's mother), prompting a swift recap on recent events that see Ric move from 'twentieth century Vestral Virgin' to local sexual hero, via a couple of David Bowie groupies (an in an oral flash Bowie himself goes from an artist Ric 'can't stand' to his 'favourite rock & roll star of all-time').

With new found confidence Ric finally approaches the much desired Nina Pennington for a date - somewhat exagerating his closeness to the Thin White Duke - and the spiral of lies that prop up the book begins. Gradually Browde introduces a mafia connection, who present Ric with a Corvette courtesy car following an accident involving some nuns (indeed, it's courtesy of the Church), an inept local Police force at war with the media, a struggling up-and-not-coming band that see Ric as their ticket to fame and fortune, various liaisons (often in the Corvette, as predicted by mafiosa Salvatore Veneruzzo) and after a while there is so much going on - oh, several dead Latin teachers as well - that Browde does struggle slightly to being everything back together again.

Definitely a rock & roll curio, and I'm almost prepared to forgive him for encouraging the Dogs D'Amour to re-record 'Heroine' on Straight, a version only rendered less pointless when the Wildhearts got hold of the song on Endless Nameless.

Currently reading: Alvin Gibbs - Neighbourhood Threat: On Tour With Iggy Pop

Previous posts:
Flies On Fire
Smashed Gladys - Social Intercourse
Faster Pussycat - self-titled

Thom Yorke - Cambridge Corn Exchange 25/02/10

2010-02-26T12:46:00.001Z

When this one-off show (a fund-raiser for Tony Juniper's run for parliament) was announced, a couple of work colleagues were bemoaning the fact that it was taking place in Cambridge, the city from which I endure a daily commute to London. They asked if I would be going, leading me to talk about how I'd given up on Radiohead following 'Kid A' (I was quite ambivalent about 'OK Computer' as well, but its follow-up really was the last straw).

So I felt rather hypocritical when I received an email that same day from a friend offering me a spare ticket that I duly accepted. Hey, I rarely get out these days .....

But even then I almost didn't make it along. I got within a few minutes of the venue and found that my ticket, which I double-checked was in my pocket after leaving my house, was no longer about my person. Cue panic (including a phone call to my friend, asking if he ordered via the box office thus opening the possibility of getting a replacement - he hadn't), followed by the re-tracing of my steps only to spot the damn thing, face down in a puddle half-way across Parkers Piece, a park/square that was thankfully very dark and not used that heavily at night. I have no idea how this happened. And if I'd dropped it anywhere else on route, or if it had landed face up, or not landed in a puddle and instead blown away, then I would have had to have consoled myself with the knowledge that I had at least contributed towards a worthy cause.

Onto the show itself. My lack of awareness of Yorke's output was rendered partly irrelevant by a smattering of new material that featured in his set. Whether these songs are intended for new band, Atoms for Peace, featuring the likes of Flea and Nigel Godrich remains to be seen. As dangerous a statement as this may be, but as much as I enjoyed the performance (Yorke was relaxed enough to joke between songs, and even laugh off frequent mistakes he made, something I didn't expect) I didn't much rate the songs. This clearly goes against the audience reaction, the majority of which were mesmerised. I'm still intrigued enough to intend to drop by at Spotify sometime to take another listen to both his solo work and the lost (to me) Radiohead back catalogue, but last night I truly did feel I was in a minority of one.

Andy McCoy - Sheriff McCoy: Outlaw Legend of Hanoi Rocks

2010-02-22T16:04:00.003Z

Andy McCoy's self-designated 'last great rock 'n' roll memoir', Sheriff McCoy: Outlaw Legend of Hanoi Rocks, is, well, rather short to say the least. Remove the photos and use a font more typically used for (auto)biographies and this would probably run to around 80 pages.

Unfortunately it's not just the limited amount of text that disappoints - inevitably what has been written is more of a scattergun approach to a memoir, and whole periods of McCoy's career are omitted. Bar a reference to where he was when he wrote the songs and a photo caption suggesting that their one album was a forerunner to the 'Unplugged' era (I think he got that from me), the Suicide Twins don't get a look in (sorry Michael!).

The small amount of time it takes to complete the book offsets some of this disappointment; I've invested a lot of reading time to books where I've come away probably less informed that when I started. And there are some fine moments, albeit ones that leave you wanting more as you know there must be more. Having just read Watch You Bleed it's interesting that one tale crops up that offers an alternative take on the same story in Stephen Davis's book, concerning Steven Adler, Axl's wife Erin, a heroin overdose and Andy McCoy saving her life (Davis doesn't even mention McCoy).

McCoy does acknowledge that this isn't his full life story, and hints that he may write a more complete autobiography in the future. Whether you choose to wait is up to you.

Currently reading: Ric Browde - While I'm Dead...Feed the Dog

Previous posts:
Suicide Twins - Silver Missiles and Nightingales
Hanoi Rocks - Bristol Bierkeller 17/11/02
Hanoi Rocks - The Nottingham Tapes
Hanoi Rocks to split
Hanoi Rocks - heard that riff before at all?
Sloppy seconds and filthy thirds

Stephen Davis - Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns N' Roses

2010-02-17T23:52:00.000Z

It's confession time again - this time, it's that I've never read Hammer of the Gods. Despite not being a huge fan of Led Zep though I've always been aware that it's one of those books that I should tick off the list. Its author, Stephen Davis, turned his attention to Guns N' Roses for his 2008 biography Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns n' Roses, published shortly before the much-delayed Chinese Democracy finally emerged that November.

Equally unauthorised as its predecessor, Davis was always going to be up against it as anyone who worked on the band's tours in the 1990s had to sign a confidentiality statement, preventing them from speaking to the media without prior authorisation (effectively Axl's authorisation). At the end of the book he remarks that thirteen people he interviewed requested anonymity and it's entirely possible that the thirteen includes former band members.

Such was the world of Guns N' Roses, the one-time LA street band that had lived and rehearsed in a storage room measuring roughly twelve feet by twelve feet before morphing into the biggest rock group on the planet, touring in a private jet - except Izzy, who insisted on travelling by road to remain grounded - but barely on speaking terms with a frontman who had virtually forced his colleagues to sign away any claim to the band's name.

In light of this it's remarkable that Davis managed to write much more than a few pages. This book has come under fire for perceived inaccuracies (and some blatant errors, eg Bon Jovi's debut album being 'Slippery When Wet') but credit where credit's due, he's made a pretty decent fist of it. I might need to read Slash's autobiography to copare and contrast - and notably there's one story in 'Watch You Bleed' that has also been told differently in Andy McCoy's Sheriff McCoy: Outlaw Legend of Hanoi Rocks, but more on that anon.

Despite catching on to Guns N' Roses relatively early much of the detail regarding their pre-record deal activities were an eye-opener. Reading about what happened at the 1988 Monsters Of Rock show, which I attended and have some pretty unpleasant memories from during Guns N' Roses' set, left me cold. Worse still though is what it states on the Download website: "Throughout the festival’s illustrious history, there were just so many highlights ... The enormous gathering for Iron Maiden in 1988, at the same festival that really kickstarted the momentum which was to make Guns n' Roses the biggest band in the world." Can't help but feel that this misses the point somewhat.

It might be that there will never be a truly definitive Guns N' Roses biography. Given that some readers slate 'Watch You Bleed' and instead recommend Mick Wall's W. Axl Rose: The Unauthorized Biography is bizarre given that Wall was personally name-checked in Get In The Ring.

Recommended in the absence of an alternative!

Now reading: Andy McCoy - Sheriff McCoy: Outlaw Legend of Hanoi Rocks

See also:
Guns N' Roses - Appetite For Destruction
Izzy Stradlin and the Ju Ju Hounds - self-titled

Slash - Slash And Friends

2010-02-04T14:54:00.001Z

As the music industry continues to look at different ways to distribute physical product, Slash has decided to make his new album available as a 'fan pack', along with a special edition of 'Classic Rock' magazine. The idea being that this will see the album available in over 3,000 extra retailers in the UK.

Furthermore this edition will be available one month ahead of the regular release.

Whether this will take off remains to be seen. Prince released Planet Earth via a giveaway in the Daily Mail in 2007, guaranteeing him significant coverage ahead of his o2 residency (and also his highest 'sales' figure for many, many years) but this isn't a move than anyone's since copied.

For those interested, the track listing for Slash And Friends (along with the collaborators) is as follows:

1. Ghost (Ian Astbury)
2. Beautiful Dangerous (Fergie)
3. Nothing To Say (M Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold)
4. Crucify The Dead (Ozzy Osbourne)
5. Promise (Chris Cornell)
6. By The Sword (Andrew Stockdale of Wolfmother)
7. Doctor Alibi (Lemmy Kilmister)
8. Saint Is A Sinner Too (Rocco De Luca)
9. Watch This (Dave Grohl/Duff McKagan)
10. I Hold On (Kid Rock)
11. Gotten (Adam Levine)
12. We're All Gonna Die (Iggy Pop)
13. Starlight (Myles Kennedy)

Lips and Robb Reiner - The Story Of Anvil

2010-02-03T13:45:00.001Z

Having seen the Anvil film I didn't expect to garner much new information from its sister book - "Anvil": The Story of "Anvil".

In truth the film doesn't much give the impression that Anvil were ever that close to 'making it'. Sure it opens up with footage from Super Rock '84 showing Anvil alongside their now far-more-successful peers (Bon Jovi, Whitesnake, Scorpions, Michael Schenker Group) but you only need to take a look at any old festival line-up (say, Monsters Of Rock) to find names of bands you've either forgotten about or never heard of in the first place. Indeed if you click the link above you'll see Anvil opened up the festival in 1982; their predecessors in that slot ('Touch' in 1980 and 'More' in 1981) mean precisely zilch to me.

What sets Anvil apart is the various talking heads that line up to talk about how much they were influenced by the Canadian rockers. Maybe if there was a 'Story Of Touch' movie, Messrs Ulrich, Ian and Kilmister would gladly wax lyrical about them too, but I very much doubt it.

Written by Anvil's two ever-presents, the book details a relationship that although clearly shown to be a close one in the movie is at times over-shadowed by the Spinal Tap-esque moments (the 10,000 capacity festival that attracted an audience of 172; the Croatian bar manager that allows them to play and then refuses to pay them as they were late). Lips and Robb could both at times have bailed out of Anvil (most notably when Lips was approached by Motorhead) but chose to stick together in the belief that the world would one day realise the 'majesty' of their music.

Along the way they make one mistake after another. They sign in perpetuity to a label than would never be able to offer them global success. When they eventually attract a high-profile manager, David Krebs, he succeeds in extracting them from that contract but fails to get them an alternative (and then drops them). Krebs did get them onto the afore-mentioned Super Rock bill, but the net effect of this is that two band members, Reiner being one of them, observe the success that the likes of Bon Jovi have achieved and take Anvil off in a very short-lived commercial direction, losing them both existing fans and a potential new manager in Jonny Z.

From this point on Anvil spent twenty years releasing albums at their own expense and gigging where possible, often to small audiences, sometimes of the 'two men and a dog' variety. A few band members come and go. The occasional light at the end of the tunnel turns out to be another false dawn - until one Sacha Gervasi comes back into their lives. The rest is now (celluloid) history.

Possibly more enjoyable than Gervasi's film, "Anvil": The Story of "Anvil" is an essential read for anyone thinking of forming a band, if for no other reason than to avoid making the same mistakes.

Now reading: Stephen Davis - Watch You Bleed: The Saga of Guns n' Roses

John Niven - Kill Your Friends

2010-01-27T13:50:00.001Z

"It’s not dog-eat-dog around here...it's dog-gang-rapes-dog-then-tortures-him-for-five-days-before-burying-him-alive-and-taking-out-every-motherfucker-the-dog-has-ever-known."

And so the cover blurb of John Niven's Kill Your Friends describes the music industry circa 1997. Now I hate to use this word for the second time this month, however - 1997 was when 'Britpop' was at its commercial peak and it's up against this backdrop we find Steven Stelfox, an A&R man at an unspecified record label who will go to any lengths to get ahead - the book's body count is perhaps more impressive than Stelfox's chart positions.

One of the least likable lead characters you will ever come across, Stelfox is a man not driven by a passion for music but class 'A's, 'Rockschools' (JD and coke), prostitutes and pornography. In fact it's fair to say that he has no real affinity to music at all (which anyone who has ever been in a band will probably think is the norm for an A&R man), viewing it as a means to obtain all the above. Put a sure-fire hit in front of him next to a guaranteed turkey and he's likely to pick the latter (but ensuring he can make it look like someone else's fault when the record fails).

Niven had worked in the music industry for 12 years, which does worryingly suggest that much of this book might be drawn from personal experience. On publication Kill Your Friends was continually compared to American Psycho. A fair comparison, but these reviewers were perhaps missing the clues that Niven comes across as a fan of Bret Easton Ellis as a whole; the frequent roll-call of celebrities (albeit mainly z-list, long-forgotten indie musicians) similarly recalls Glamorama.

A great book that can potentially be read in a couple of sittings, Kill Your Friends might put off anyone seriously considering a career in the music business (particularly any young women eyeing up that secretarial position as a way in before becoming a scout).

Currently reading: Jay McInerney - The Last Bachelor

Andy McCoy - Sheriff McCoy: Outlaw Legend of Hanoi Rocks

2010-01-26T14:05:00.004Z

Only just seen a copy of Sheriff McCoy: Outlaw Legend of Hanoi Rocks in my local Waterstones. I had no idea this was even being published! Officially it's not out until Feb 4th according to Amazon but copies are out there.

"The last great rock 'n' roll memoir, Andy McCoy's autobiography covers the legendary guitarist's life and exploits from childhood through to the rekindling of his massively influential band, Hanoi Rocks, in the 2000s. McCoy helped introduced punk to Finland from an early age - and from their base in a Stockholm subway station Hanoi Rocks embarked on a wild death-defying jet-setting thrill ride. Includes dozens of rare, candid photos and a new preface written by McCoy in 2009 after the final breakup of Hanoi Rocks."

Given some of the well-known tales surrounding McCoy (including those that surfaced during his various guest appearances in The Dirt this should be one seriously good read!

Currently reading: John Niven - Kill Your Friends.

Toby Litt - I Play the Drums in a Band Called Okay

2010-01-15T17:13:00.000Z

The notion of a book about a fictional band is a tricky one. They rarely manage to capture the essence of what it's really like, and so it's often left to films (Spinal Tap; The Rutles) to take the plaudits. However such films are based on joke fictional bands (even if the examples given are ones that have actually gone on to tour and release albums) and even celluloid has difficulty when it comes to telling a convincing tale without resorting to all-out humour (see Times Square - a cracking soundtrack but hardly a film to remember).

As the title suggests (I Play the Drums in a Band Called Okay), Toby Litt's narrator, Clap, observes the world tours from the comfort of his drum stool. He doesn't get the lion's share of the girls (that's the singer), develop a drug and/or drink problem (that's the guitarist, and the groupies he does attract are archetypal 'drummer girls'), and neither does he settle for a quiet life with his soulmate, fishing and camping out (that's the bass player).

To the best of my knowledge Litt has never been in a band. His biography doesn't give away a great deal. It's maybe for this reason that he shies away from detailing how the fictional band of his creation, okay, make the leap from Canadian teenage garage wanabees to worldwide stadium rock headliners. Dealing with this is often where writers can struggle (Kevin Sampson's Powder covers virtually nothing but the ascent of The Grams, and is at least 50 pages too long as a result).

Litt instead allows his narrator to talk about how the band first came together, recant tales once successful and nothing inbetween. Recording sessions are barely mentioned and gigs and tours merely guide the book (partly made up of short stories previously published elsewhere) towards particular locations and scenarios. To an extent Clap being in a band is not that relevant as he often is left to deal with personal issues that could strike anyone, but at the same time it's central to everything as if he wasn't in such a lofty position he wouldn't, for example, find himself at the funeral of a fan who had killed himself while listening to okay.

I Play the Drums in a Band Called Okay is a decent read, and thanks to Litt's dodging of the classic mistake in this genre you don't need to have done time in a band to 'get it'. Clap has enough moral substance to make him a likeable character - if Litt had taken another obvious decision and focused on the singer then I would most likely have opted out within 20 pages.

Now reading: Lips and Robb Reiner - Anvil: The Story Of Anvil

Jimi Hendrix - Valleys of Neptune

2010-01-12T17:04:00.000Z

Dare I admit this? Okay, here goes - Jimi Hendrix has never really interested me. Can't deny the guy's importance but I've never felt the urge to listen to his music.

The announcement that some unreleased material is being released in March (the 12-track Valleys Of Neptune) therefore left me largely un-moved. After all, unreleased material is usually unreleased for a good reason, and if I'm not a fan of Hendrix's existing back catalogue then I'm unlikely to won over by this.

However, this set me thinking - has there ever been a case where unreleased material has been issued posthumously and made the grade? Live albums excluded. I've yet to think of one, but will report back if I do. In the meantime let me know of any examples!

Luke Haines - Bad Vibes: Britpop and My Part in Its Downfall

2010-01-07T12:41:00.002Z

Off topic? Possibly, although from a autobiographical view I did indulge in a certain amount of 'britpopness' myself. Back in 1994 and with the Soho glam clubs ringing a death knell at closing time rather than the traditional shout for last orders, I like many others were easily distracted by the gradual rise in guitar bands that were plugging in a mile up the road in Camden.

I didn't take to Suede despite the press being unable to write about them without referencing David Bowie. I never heard that supposed influence on their music myself; it was only when the barely-finished 'Dog Man Star' came out, reminiscent in its darker places of the final - original - Big Star album, that I paid them any attention. Other bands though were of more interest as they took me back to a forgotten appreciation of the likes of the Kinks and the Small Faces; Blur being the obvious example (hardly a new band at the time having already released two albums, the first of which I could just recall from my first stint in record shops and dismissed as bandwagonesque* baggy), but also applicable to the innocent pop of Supergrass.

I think I was the last of my immediate peers to cut my hair short(er), ditch the backcombing and seek out vintage 70s clothing in favour of the unnecessarily skin-tight black jeans. Having 'eat some food' shouted at me by one of London's many homeless in reference to my absurdly skinny legs might have contributed too. Sure, these decisions did lead to a certain amount of daft accusations of 'selling out' from non-friends who clung on to the rock & roll dream (most of whom would then turn up in the Dublin Castle or the Good Mixer within two years). There's nothing like taking a narrow-minded view when it comes to good music.

But was it good music? According to Luke Haines it most certainly wasn't, except that which he produced as The Auteurs. Who incidentally were not Britpop. Which Haines rightly points out is a horrendous word. In Bad Vibes Haines takes the marvellous approach of looking back on the 1990s without bringing hindsight into play. He simply writes about the period exactly as he felt at the time - which for the most part means being convinced of his own genius and disparaging towards every other band he came into contact with.

I recall little of the Auteurs in their day. Even when back working at record shops between 1994 and 1996 I don't remember any of their releases fighting for shelf space next to the seemingly endless dross churned out by Marion, Northern Uproar, Ocean Colour Scene et al. Turns out that Haines went out of his way not to release any meaningful product during precisely the period where The Auteurs might have achieved new heights of success. Given his non-use of hindsight in the book one can only speculate on whether this is something he now regrets.

Having started out alongside Suede, including losing the 1993 Mercury Music Prize to them by a single vote, and seing them almost implode (Bernard Butler quitting the band midway through the recording of 'Dog Man Star') it's possible that he's perfectly happy with his lot, particularly as he would then have watched Suede drag themselves along with a lookalike replacement and producing trash such as, well 'Trash'.

Case in point: it's summer 1996 and I'm in a nightclub in Mainz, Germany. It's one of those clubs that plays a bit of everything, and they have a regular 'britpop' slot. As well as the obvious candidates, this slot also includes Billy Bragg's 'A New England', and everyone dances throughout (even for Dagenham's finest). Then the DJ slaps on Suede's latest and by the end of the first verse I realise that people are fleeing the dancefloor like litter on the breeze. I of course follow, and just as 'Trash' completes its first chorus it's subjected to a swift fade and is replaced by some non-descript Europop.

About 10 years ago I did pick up How I Learned to Love the Bootboys in a charity shop, a 70s influenced album which I've given only a few spins (opener 'The Rubettes' is a fine non-glam glam number) that I gather doesn't truly show what The Auteurs were about (and was released after the book ends, referred to only as what was intended to be 'The Commercial One'). More recently I also stumbled upon the Steve Albini-produced After Murder Park. One murky album, it's the subject of a great anecdote in Bad Vibes concerning three-quarters of Metallica jostling for space on a two-seater sofa. I believe I've played it once.

My relative unfamiliarity with The Auteurs, though, did not retract one iota from this book. Haines writing is so good, and his stories so amusing, that I found myself at the last page in no time at all and wondering whether a second volume is planned. Right now I've got their much-lauded (and big in France) debut, New Wave, streaming on Spotify. It might not be hindsight, but I'm pleased to have finally discovered The Auteurs, and with Baader Meinhoff and Black Box Recorder waiting in the wings I've got a lot of catching up to do.

* Not to be confused with 'Bandwagonesque' by Teenage Fanclub

Now reading: I Play the Drums in a Band Called Okay by Toby Litt

Kris Needs & Dick Porter - Trash: The Complete New York Dolls

2010-01-05T16:11:00.002Z

I feel I'm getting a little pre-occupied here with the New York Dolls (and I haven't yet talked about their show I attended last month, or the fact that I finally got round to watching All Dolled Up - although I had seen a lot of that footage at the Bob Gruen hosted screening as part of 2004's Meltdown festival). But still, my reading Trash: The Complete New York Dolls was long overdue and now seemed a good a time as any.

It seems odd that one of the Amazon reviews tries to write off the book as a 'an attempt to cash in on the reunion last year', while directing potential customers to Nina Antonia's Too Much Too Soon (which admittedly Needs & Porter used as one of their reference documents). Kris Needs had seen the band at Biba and later built up a relationship with Johnny Thunders through his career as a journalist (and at one point, a fellow heroin user), so this seems a touch unfair. That said, the detail on the band post-1975 does follow Thunders' career far more than anyone else; whereas the troubled guitarist provides perhaps the most rcok & roll story he certainly was not the most commercially successful (step forward Mr Johannsen, albeit in the guise of Buster Poindexter).

On balance Trash is a superior and more substantial read than Too Much Too Soon, and the circumstantial background to the band's formation (such as the state of New York in the early 70s) gives their story a welcome setting. Aside from the pre-occupation with Thunders' post-Dolls career there is no significant bias towards any one member, or any suggestion that any one Doll was more responsible for the band's formation than any other - indeed that process comes across as a very organic one.

Currently reading: Bad Vibes: Britpop and My Part in Its Downfall by Luke Haines

Older posts:
I, Doll: Life & Death With The New York Dolls
New York Dolls - Royal Festival Hall 18/06/04
Nina Antonia - The New York Dolls: Too Much Too Soon
Johnny Thunders - So Alone
The New York Dolls - Cause I Sez So
Motorcycle Boy - Popsicle