In the club 031 dec 16

PERFECT POP CO-OP

Dear Tuesday Clubbers and Pop Pickers!

2016 has been a year of tremendous change and that’s not even mentioning polictics! It has been quite staggering how many high profile musicians, actors, comedians and performers have died, Two of these were among my biggest influences and heroes of my early songwriting days. David Bowie, was for me king of the 70s and Prince was a man who similarly ruled the 80s with great style and unbelievable variety and invention, they will be greatly missed.

2016 has also seen the true start and growth of The Perfect Pop Co Label, which is finally fulfilling our dream of being an ‘indie’ for now, for the most part at least we have been releasing past and present side projects and as is true of our latest ‘Complete Sessions’ by The Tuesday Club, allowing you all to hear the large volume of our unreleased output. It is hoped as the next couple of years progress to add other acts to the label that we admire or enjoy or at least start producing Sampler cds of these on the label. We are also intending to bring back our podcasts as the magazine morphs into a more manageable quarterly... And with a bit of luck and finances a ltd run print edition too!... On behalf of this, the left side of our brain we hope you enjoy hearing the varying personas of The Bleeed, The Dodo, SueySide Packed, Reverse Family, Diamond Meadows and all of the other new twists in our musical synapses! Please give us the benefit of a click (from page 24 on), as you maybe surprised at some of the tangents we have veered too and from!

2016 has also seen The Tuesday Club continually evolve too, now half the band it was in numbers, minus the military garb and with a black not green crest, we’ve begun to develop our musical style, when in this year of frail mortality we’ve finally (in a Ziggy like act of defiance, killed off Dolly D! Another reason for the shift in style has been our Rog’s blatant refusal to grow two pairs of arms! But despite of the frustrations of not finding the new bass player (any potential new recruits please don’t be shy!), we have begun to progress the sound and songs to the point where we have now recorded all the tracks now for our 3rd album, which we hope to unleash on the world in the spring of 2017, which says a lot for our continued dedication to this cause, epitomised by Blair who’s had more car trouble and stolen mobiles than we’ve had soundchecks!

As we come to the end of 2016 and before we look forward to some potentially exciting shows and the aforementioned album, we must pay tribute and thanks to all of you who have supported us through another transitional year. We have lost a few people along the way as the evolution has seen, personnel and style changes, but from our first gig with fabulous Will Crewdson at the equally fab Farmers Boy in St.Albans to our support of Bad Manners, we have always felt the love from you guys. 2016 saw our first gig in a Church (St.Mary’s) as one of our Hitchin trilogy that also saw us support The Mighty Metratrons at their album launch at the amazing Club 85, for The Metatrons album launch. Wow what a venue, we also had the honour of performing at another Hertfordshire venue - ‘The Green Room’ in Welwyn Garden City for it’s legendary departing promoter Mungo party, which was a real blast with a great eclectic line-up.

In the Summer, we also had the pleasure of playing at Aston Clinton’s Beerfest. As another ‘fringe’ event for the Rhythms of the World festival which featured a great stage, crowd and of course beer and also a return to O’Neills St.Albans as headline of a three day music fest organised by our mate Nick Alsop of the 88 (As we write we’ve just heard that O’Neills will soon become another St.Albans steak restuarant, just what we need one less live music venue, replaced by somewhere else to get fat).

This Autumn saw us at our two fave local venues - for the 2nd of our 2016 Farmers Boy dates, and a crazy and brilliant pumpkin infused Halloween at The Lower Red Lion. Not to mention wrapping up the year with a return to Sky TV (after 4 years!) in the shape of the new and fab Nub TV and our aforementioned 2nd date in Blair’s Milton Keynes, with Bad Manners. All in and despite all of the bumps along the way, we’ve progressed and are still going so we certianly can’t complain can we! BIG thanks again for all of the gig support, (Verulam) radio plays, reviews, write ups, pictures, promotions and contributions of you our families and friends. We hope you can all join us for our last date of 2016 tomorrow at The Hare and Hounds and all again in 2017 for album 3! We wish you a very happy and peaceful yule!

We dedicate this issue of ‘In the Club’ to the memory of our dear friend Terry ‘Super’ Cockell, who well never be forgotten. The Tuesday Club Forever. xxx

Thanks to: Design @8ecreative, Content: John Viney, Anna Wakeling. Vive Le Rock, Dave Newbold, Denise Parsons, Rogerio Maruader, Hug(h)e Davenport

“Twas great to be back live again. Our first gig in a church, saw us also make our Hitchin debut for the Rhythms of the World Fund raiser.”

talent which TCs Fay White Family of Fishwives

“A great night was had at The Green Room on 9th July, which saw local legend (Jimy) Mungo bow out as the venues promoter after many years of keeping the live scene in WGC vibrant and exciting. Proof of his talent was the bill which included The TCs ;-) great taste... Fay Brotherhood, Steve White and The Protest Family and a little gem of a band called The Fishwives Broadside”

2016 A review

METATRONS ALBUM LAUNCH

“A big thanks to Roger and all the gang for being so hospitable... We even got petrol money! It was a great and varied evening of music from The Flues, The Metatrons and the excellent Twirling Canes, rounded off by a rather fine ‘dirty’ kebab. We will most definatley be taking up any offer of a return to this particular venue (hint hint ;-)”

CLUB 85 - HITCHIN

thanks Anna Wakeling, Brad Wigglesworth, Tracy Morgan, Denise Parsons, David Newbold and Hug(h)e Davenport for their fab pics of our shows of 2016

PETE JONES on BASS

So its been 40 years since the birth of Punk, where the hell did those years go? It seems only yesterday that I was being spat at while playing in and around London. Cor, how we laughed. But having seen the plethora of events and posts regarding this 40th punk anniversary recently it got me thinking; was I ever a punk?

I ended up playing with perhaps the greatest of all Punk rock icons; Johnny Rotten (nee Lydon) in Public Image Limited during the early eighties so rubbing shoulders with the mighty one surely meant that I too was just as “punk” as he?

I first met John before I joined the band while PiL were recording their Flowers of Romance album at Virgin Record’s Manor studios in Oxford; their drummer Martin Atkins was a good mate of mine and had taken me along for a visit. I was introduced to John in the sumptuous studio lounge, which was all soft furnishings and expensive carpets, where the band were relaxing (in fact, they were lounging around because nobody had any songs to record but that’s another story!)

I said Hi to John and he looked at me, coughed up a huge lump of green phlegm from the back of his throat and spat it in the middle of a very nice persian rug at my feet. Wow, thanks mate, appreciated that. I wasn’t impressed.

Is that what being punk was all about? Not for me it wasn’t, that behaviour was just being a complete arse, disrespectful and all about bluff and bravado. Ah well, I let it go. It’s ironic that John could never stand being spat at playing live, but was prepared to exhibit such behaviour to a complete stranger.

I eventually got offered the job of PiL bass player and despite my reservations gave it my best shot, surely, playing for such a band made me more punk than a lot of people, didn’t it? That episode came to a sorry end, and here we are 40 years later celebrating the time when a seismic shift happened in popular culture that reverberated round the world and changed so much. Did it start with the Sex Pistols?

The New York Dolls? The Ramones? there has been many an argument on that front and The Hollywood Brats would contest it was none of those. But it matters not, there came a tumultuous wave of great music that swept us all along and swept away the dross that was filing our ears during the seventies.

The problem I had when punk first appeared circa 1975 was that I was playing in a prog rock band, and could play a bit. We were writing songs in odd time signatures and constructing long opus epics, Cripes! we even had a Mellotron. I couldn’t be a punk, I was part of the scene that needed sweeping away, surely it wouldn’t last, all these snotty kids who couldn’t play getting on the radio etc. I had

to adjust. I couldn’t unlearn my skills though, I couldn’t unlearn the musical knowledge I had built up over the previous years, I could never be as punk as the punks.

I had an inner turmoil going on, there were we playing quite complex songs that nobody wanted, and knowing that we had to change and play something new but not quite “getting it”. We didn’t have the angst, venom or political will to be a punk band so we ended up as a kind of punk pastiche that was neither one thing or another. I wasn’t a punk.

One thing that did happen around this time though with the changing scene and all that was going on, was a shift in my thinking and attitude. I started to question what was happening in all aspects of my life and realising that it was ok to be an individual, to express yourself however you saw fit, had a right to a voice and an opinion and that nobody should ever tell you what to wear, say or think. This I realised, was what “punk” was all about. It wasn’t about bondage trousers, mohican haircuts and safety pins, that was just good marketing from people selling shit you had been told you wanted.

I now play for a band (Department S)

tattoos have faded and are often unreadable. Trying to rekindle the times of their youth but having to have a sit down after leaping up and down to a couple of songs. But there is something missing; the anger has gone, the violence has gone, the spitting has stopped (least anyone loses their false teeth in the process). Back in the day, it was often a dangerous business going to see a punk band; the skinheads would be waiting either inside or outside the venue and running battles would often ensue. You had to be quick on your feet and aware of what was going on around you to anticipate where the violence was going to break out. And so with it, a lot of the heart has gone out of punk music. You are more likely to get a slobbering kiss than a punch off a fat old punk at a gig these days, the skinheads and punks drink arm in arm at Rebellion and need a rest every now and again. I feel no more part of this retrospective indulgence than I did of the original punk explosion. I can’t be a punk now can I?

So here we are celebrating the birth of punk and that celebration has been hijacked by all and sundry. Art exhibitions, tv programmes, shows, gigs and articles espousing the greatness of it all and making a few quid off the back of it. Everybody has crawled out of the woodwork to stick their oar in to get their picture in the papers or on TV and a lot of the bands are releasing their 40th anniversary boxed sets. Its become a circus. When was punk ever about looking backwards? Surely, it was about looking forward, changing the Status Quo (are they still going?), fighting the fight, out with the old order, in with the new.

that rubs shoulders and shares the bill with a lot of those bands from the punk era, UK Subs, The Damned, 999, Peter and the Test Tube Babies, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Ruts DC, The Members, The Vapors. I’ve played at Rebellion Festival in Blackpool which is the biggest punk festival in the world and attracts tens of thousands of fans from all over the world. The fans attending these events are there in their black band t shirts (mostly x-large), comic strip clothing and weekend mohicans (if they have any hair left). Now in their fifties, with the kids that have left home and a disposable income to be able to afford the often exorbitant ticket prices, the most popular drug of choice being blood pressure medication. The

You can stick it all where the sun doesn’t shine for all I care. I for one shan’t be going to any 40th Anniversary gigs, exhibitions, art installations or any other opening of 40 year old envelopes, I shall do what I want, when I want, under my own terms, in my own way and I won’t let anyone else tell me otherwise. I shall carry on wearing my own choice of clothes, saying what I like, and most importantly, write and play my own music that I’ve written regardless of current trends. I shall continue to look forward, not back.

You can’t get more punk than that can you?

Pete Jones. For more on Dept S. go here: www.dept-s.com

76 andall that!

I sometimes take a look at a number of punk Facebook groups and it amazes me that people still squabble over the idea of what is and isn’t punk. The simple truth is that punk meant different things to different people – just a journalistic name to describe this thing that was happening. Of course in the 40 years that have ensued those thousands of different identities have become millions, the moment gone by the dawn of the ‘80’s but the influence and attitude refusing to lie down.

My own epiphany was at the Roundwood Park School Christmas Disco in 1976. I was there helping out my brother and his mate Tony who’s Pegasus Mobile Disco had been booked to provide the sounds that night. Mid way through the evening Tony produced a 7” and pronounced something like “You’ve gotta here this – I picked it up yesterday”.

I heard that intro – Is she really going out with him? Buzzsaw guitar and the clatter of drums, the psychotic desperate vocals. The wildness, energy and abandon, 2 minutes 40 seconds of pure joyous white knuckle adrenalin – I was hooked. I think New Rose by The Damned still stands as a truly great single and it set the barrier high.

As we moved in to 1977 the word spread and I scoured the music press for the names of other bands who were part of this scene. I listened to John Peel beneath the bed sheets on my little transistor radio and sat in front of So It Goes recording the bands on my portable cassette player. The truth is I’d been waiting for this moment since about the age of 6. Having been bullied by teachers at two successive primary schools, watched kids get beaten, abused (one even had his ear torn half off when a teacher lifted him by it) I had a hatred of authority and of those who demanded my respect whilst implementing such a vicious regime. The scream stifled for years could finally find voice and boy did I let it out.

It’s important to point out that at the beginning there was no real look, it was about being creative, antifashion, DIY. The whole Malcolm and Vivienne bondage trousers style and the ubiquitously adorned leather jacket thing didn’t become a uniform for some years and to be honest when it did the essence of freedom that had first attracted many was gone. The music was pretty eclectic –certainly for me and many others – taking

in both the UK and American bands and of course still listening to Bowie and Roxy Music. I’d guess most folks under a certain age wouldn’t hear Steel Pulse, The Modern Lovers, Patrik Fitzgerald, Talking Heads and Blondie as punk but they were certainly part of the soundtrack and to me it’s some of those acts that took a spirit and an attitude and did something quite unique with it that really embody that initial explosion.

I left school in ’78 and went to FE college to re-fail my O’levels and form a band. We made fanzines and our own cassette compilation album – A Suicide in St Albans. The new wave was upon us – bands inspired by the freedom of punk but exploring other musical terrain – Joy Division, Echo and the Bunnymen, The Sound, Teardrop Explodes, The Cramps, Billy Bragg, Psychedelic Furs and Gang of Four. A new tribe emerged claiming the Mohican, the studded leather and the three chord thrash to be the true punk uniform.

Oi was attracting the far right tendency – it was time to move on.

In the early 80’s I followed Vic Goddard and The Subway Sect (who played the first punk festival at the 100 Club) as they took to playing swinging jazz and wearing lounge suits and trilby’s – and that felt far more anarchic by then than anything calling itself punk. I also started looking backwards for that energy and attitude discovering more about the proto-punk offerings of Johnny Cash, Leadbelly and The Sonics. At the time I’d have probably sat and happily argued about why Link Wray was far more punk rock than The Exploited – nowadays I don’t really mind

– you have your punk and I’ll have mine. Later it would be the likes of The Long Ryders, Lone Justice and Green on Red that offered a raw sense of rebellion and cowpunk beckoned me in. Back in those late ‘70’s I’d have never dared guess that one day I’d end up making an album with Knox (The Vibrators), playing with Ed Tudorpole, supporting UK Subs, TV Smith, Patrik Fitzgerald and meeting Dee Dee Ramone and Richard Hell. It would also have seemed a strange thing that I would end up curating a Punk and New Wave exhibition at the museum of St Albans (just yards from where The Sex Pistols made their St Albans debut). The fire lit at that school disco still burns, I still have that same mistrust of authority and I still refuse to wear the uniform! Vive le Punk!

Grae J. Wall 2016

Paul Eccentric

PUNK AND THE ART OF POST MODERNIST POETRY...

Two weeks ago (as I write this), The Antipoet; of whom I am the mouthy half, concluded a fifty date promo tour for our latest album: ‘BARDS OF BUGGER ALL’ with a gig in a manor house with llamas in the front garden, on the outskirts of Yeovil, Somerset. Just before we hit the boards that night; as the turn booked to accompany the main course at a feast, the promoter for said event sidled up to me and asked: ‘Alright if I introduce yous as “punk poets”, tonight, boys?’ It was the first time that we’d been billed as such all year.

We’d done comedy clubs; serious poetry nights; cabaret stages and even a kids’ stage at Camp Bestival in Dorset. We’d played two weddings; a care home for the terminally bewildered; a hostel for the homeless and even a proper punk festival without anyone feeling the need to pre-empt us with a genre specific disclaimer.

Now don’t get me wrong, here; I don’t have a problem with that tag, per sey and I told him so; It’s been said before and, as intro’s go, it’s as good a label as any for whatever it is that we do do, but personally, I’ve never really thought of us in such succinct and particular terms. I did, however, for the remainder of that weekend.

So what is a Punk Poet, exactly?

Attila The Stockbroker is my idea of one. He’s got all the proper credentials that I would associate with such an angry moniker: he’s ranty; he’s shouty; he’s political; he was even there at the start of it all, but who knows: he may even take umbrage at my describing him in that way.

It’s all a matter of opinion, isn’t it?

It’s been said that we look more ‘Goth’ than punk and we do tend to use a sod of a lot more words per piece than your average three chord

punk anthem employs and; on the wrong side of fifty, some may even consider us too old to be ‘punk’. Okay, we do tend to rant’n rail a bit and we do like to fuck with received poetic convention, but does that make us ‘punk’ or just middle class; middle aged whingers?

Back in the day; ‘back when I were a lad’, things were so much simpler.

Things either ‘were’ a thing or they ‘weren’t’. We took what we were given and we made the best of it. We listened to the ‘Breakfast Show’ on Radio 1, every morning before school, with the likes of Noel Edmonds; Dave Lee Travis and Mike Read feeding us the ‘hits’ of the moment: those records that the BBC (by ‘special’ arrangement with the larger, more influential record companies of the day) deemed suitable for primetime broadcast, whilst we chowed down on our Shreddies and warm milk. Well, we didn’t know any better, did we!

Remember:

these were the days before the advent of the internet; before YouTube; before multi channel TV; before commercial radio had been allowed to prosper and before Channel 4 arrived with ‘The Tube’. How would we have known that there was something else out there, bubbling just below the surface: something that didn’t fit comfortably with the prevalent middle class pop stylings of those privileged enough to have had private music tutelage; something a tad rougher around the gills than we’d previously been used to: rawer and less forgiving, undeserving of our attention; something crude, rude and as arrogant as that which it chose to usurp?

But as this prepubescent was about to discover: there’s often more to this

world than they’d have you believe... I was nine when it all kicked off: too young to understand, apparently; too young to ‘get it’ and certainly too young to join in. Not too young, though, to notice that something was afoot and not so naïve that I wasn’t able to recognise that something as something that I’d already both seen and identified with elsewhere.

I wasn’t very popular at school. It didn’t help that I wasn’t very good at anything. Nothing came easily to me. I know now that this was due to my dyslexia, but at the time I’d simply accepted the explanation offered me: that I was simply ‘thick’ and lazy. Dyslexia meant that I saw things differently to those around me. I questioned everything everybody told me because I couldn’t understand why there was only a right or a wrong way of doing everything. What if there was a different way, I’d wondered; a way that works just as well, but that nobody’s thought of yet? There wasn’t, I was reliably informed by the powers that be. I claimed not to like any of the things that I was expected to like: football, fighting and the music that we were being force fed, but I was just being awkward, apparently. However, things were about to change for me; I was about to discover something that would make sense of the way I felt: a mood; an ethos; a fundament that would inform everything that I was from that moment forward. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you... Punk rock!

My best friend at the time was The Doctor (Doctor Who, to the uninitiated amongst you). Of course, he didn’t know that. How could he have done? He was a fictional character. Tom Baker had been The Doctor when sentience had first struck me and total

absorption in the mythos of the programme was what got me through the horrors of day-today school life. Here was a bloke who didn’t give a shit about how things were supposed to be done: an anarchist by the term’s very definition! Fashion had no effect on him whatsoever, neither did class appreciation nor the petty rules that kept the little man down and the bully calling the shots. All he cared about was fairness and equality and he’d stand beside anyone who wanted to fight for those principle tenets. I wanted to be like him. Actually, I wanted to be him, but I could accept the former. I looked at the world and I couldn’t see a place in it for me, so I lost myself to the wandering Timelord’s adventures on telly and in print. Reality had very little hold on me back then.

That was until the first of December 1976. I can’t remember why I’d been watching a boring, current affairs programme; it hadn’t been my thing at all. It’d probably been my dad’s idea: his way of trying to get me to engage with the world; to bring me down from the clouds and get me interested in real life issues, but for the purposes of this narrative, I’m not going to blame the old man: I’m going to put it down to serendipity.

Anyway, there I was sat in front of the box with my jam sandwich and my orange squash when Bill Grundy: former footballer, now turned tv interviewer, had invited ‘The Sex Pistols’ onto his ‘Today’ programme.

I’d heard that name bandied around at school: ‘Sex Pistols’. It sounded rude. It sounded like something that I wasn’t supposed to know about. I liked them already! They were a ‘pop group’; though not like anything we’d ever heard before. Their records had been banned from the radio, so I’d been yet to hear what all the

fuss had been about.

It’s an infamous story, so I won’t patronise you by recalling the details of the event that ruined Grundy’s career, and introduced the wider world to punk rock, but suffice it to say; the way I recall it, anyway: Grundy encouraged guitarist Steve Jones and singer Johnny Rotten to use the ‘F’ word on national television. He goaded them. He’d bullied them, to my eyes and they’d delivered, and that’s how punk rock came into my (and many other people’s) lives.

‘THE FILTH & THE FURY!’ ran The Guardian the next morning; every other daily taking a similar, establishment defending stance. My dad was as outraged as the rest of the country and in that instant, punk rock became something evil and depraved: a byword for all that was wrong with the world. There are those who, forty years on, will still argue that ‘The Grundy Incident’ killed the fledgling underground movement by bringing it out in the open like that, but for most of us, that interview was our baptism into a world of infinite possibility! There WAS a third way after all!

I mentioned before that the BBC had ‘banned’ some of The Sex Pistols’ records. This presumptuous practice was something unique to its time. The banning of anything makes that thing even more desirable for those for whom that something has been denied. It creates controversy and fuels interest like nothing else. The banning of a record only served to publicise such a product far beyond its rights and its means. Besides,

‘banned’ in these instances is a total misnomer. They refused to play them on the BBC, but you could still buy them in the shops! It was brilliant marketing! People rushed out to buy them in their droves without even knowing whether what they so craved was actually any good or not.

Suddenly punk was everywhere. If you’d been reading the papers at that time you could have been excused for thinking that the world had been coming to a bloody and premature end, but from where I was standing it was the exact opposite! The BBC ban may well have boosted record sales by a mile and brought this new anti-style to the attention of the masses, but our own household ban of punk rock records; whilst having a much smaller impact on the world at large, would leave an unbelievable mark on the life of one individual; namely me.

I very much doubt that I would ever have put pen to paper if I hadn’t; over the years that followed, bought records by the likes of Ian Dury & The Blockheads (banned by my parents for use of the word ‘bastard’); The Boomtown Rats (also banned by my parents for supposedly glorifying murder); The Sex Pistols (again, banned by my parents, this time for most of the lyrics in ‘Friggin’ In The Rigging); The Damned; The Ruts; Sham 69; The Gyms lips; The Leighton Buzzards; Tenpole Tudor; Siouxie & The Banshees (hated by my

father); The Toy Dolls; Serious Drinking ; and never ever forgetting: Adam & The Antz!

Punk Rock had shown me that there was another way to be; that it was alright to be different: in fact, being different was to be celebrated! It’d shown me that I’d been right to recognise The Doctor as the ultimate anti establishment, antihero and that yes: I could be like him! It’d shown me that a dyslexic, untitled, secondary modern educated dreamer with a total lack of academic qualifications could achieve everything he set out to achieve without compromise.

It’d shown me that a punk attitude was something to crow about.

Like I say, I mulled that question over the weekend and came to the conclusion that yes, we are a punk poetry act

Rock-a-holic Will Crewdson is back with Shahena Dax for the the dynamic duos 2nd album. THE

FRANTIC LEGION

The new She Made Me Do It album is out on Jan 13th 2017.

CD/download on Catranstic thru Cargo Records UK

Download through iTunes, bandcamp and all major digital outlets:

https://itun.es/gb/EUPkdb

Frantic video by Jeff Conway @ www.pushingnormal.com

YouTube channel youtube.com/user/pushingnormal

www.SheMMDI.com

Z2: Rampage - ReviEW

It seems ages ago since The Zipheads released Prehistoric Beat, the first album from the band. It was a classic psychobilly album, it leant a bit to neo rockabilly but mixed it up with covers of Toots and The Maytals, 54-46 and Sublime’s What I Got, two of my all time favourite songs sandwiched together and given a good rockin over.

I have eagerly awaited the second coming, could Z2: Rampage pick up where the last disc left off. Boom, you stick this on the old record deck, pump up the volume and this screaming track called Surfquake explodes around the room.

The walls were shaking as the snarling guitar hits you like a cheese grater, ripping your sense’s apart. This band is tight, if you have seen them live you know they don’t put a foot wrong. They bounce off each other, thrive off each other. The military precision of the drummer, the metronome slapping of the bass and that energetic creative guitar to the snarling vocal, this band rips it up.

“This album erupts with Surfquake spewing wave after wave of noise

Rampage kicks in, The Zipheads have come of age I’m bouncing round the room on my imaginary surf board, slapping my imaginary bass. This is set to be a classic Psycho album, up there with the greats, 15 tracks that don’t let up.

‘Welcome to the real World’ a track reminiscent of early Long Tall Texans. Rockin tracks like ‘No 2 ways about it’ will keep the purists happy. ‘Patron Saint,’ with lyrics, ‘Meanest bastard you’ll ever know’ will keep the rest happy. ‘Revenge’ short but not sweet, someone has upset the song writer! The album finishes with a cover of ‘Get Ready’ a Motown classic getting a Ziphead work over. Some of the songs are a bit mellower like ‘Orca to Majorca’ but you do need a bit of respite at some point.

I was about in the early 80’s when The Cramps and The Meteors got this ball rolling. Many bands followed in quick succession The Guana Batz, Sting-Rays, Restless, Frenzy. It was a fabulous time to go to gigs, the energy was second to none, The Zipheads would have slotted in well, they seem to be giving the scene a raw edge back. Some of the American and European bands have over polished things of late lets get back to basics. Go to a gig, get smashed and enjoy yourself.

Can you feel The Zipheads? I certainly did, bang that volume up and dive in.

Kevee

“I’m not going to give you a long winded run down on each song, check it out yourself its worth it”

“This album should appeal to anyone who likes to move to music, be it punk, Ska, soul or rockabilly”

“The walls were shaking as the snarling guitar hits you like agratercheese ”

The Wonders Don't Care So…. This PuNK Яock thing? What was that all about then?

Well…

Amongst the many 40 year retrospectives going on at the moment, differing ideas, opinions and memories being bandied about, I’ll have a go here at describing my experience of it and why I think it was significant both personally and culturally and how it was crucial in re energising and shaking up the state of rock music at the time, giving a generation of listless, disillusioned individuals some direction and purpose in life! Also, I hope I can add a few more insights into why it was such an important event along the rock n roll time line, trying to avoid the usual, lazy, bite-size clichés spun out by the mainstream media when attempting to cover it. Hmmm…We’ll see how that pans out…

To give some idea of what it meant to spit in the face of rock music convention, put together a new noise / “punk” band, or to have taken the bold step to dress or look so very differently to the bland, denim clad seventies norm, is to have some idea of just how interminably dire the established British music scene had become by 1977.

We’ve heard it many times before, we’ve all read the reports and we’ve all seen the glut of documentaries marking the various decade anniversaries since it all kicked off, explaining why it happened, but for anyone who actually cared about rock n’ pop at the time, bewildered and wondering just how any excitement, adventure and fun was going to be injected back into life, you really had to experience that nullifying void to understand why it moved so many to react.

Those who remember the long hot summer of 1976 will do so fondly because it was incredible weather for the UK and the beer pumps really did run dry

– BUT! If you look back at just how stale the state of music had become by then; the watered down drivel populating the charts, where Kiki Dee and Elton John’s “Don’t go Breaking my Heart” was the highlight (one of my guilty pleasures), and the directionless sounds that dominated the album charts - Frampton Comes Alive, The Eagles Greatest hits, Glen Campbell’s Greatest hits, Bert Weedon’s 22 Golden Guitar Greats – you really would think any music that had any purpose or relevance or, god forbid, humour and fun had shrivelled up and died with every suburban lawn under the hosepipe ban. One couldn’t help wonder just what the hell had gone wrong and it became understandable why The Sex Pistols HAD to happen.

The lumbering, lard-ass buffoonery of prog rock groups like Genesis, ELP, YES etc. had arpeggiod so far up their own inflated sense of witless, selfindulgent, self-importance, they had become unlistenable. The worthy, RAF great coated, hairy, stoner, blues based bollocks, like Wishbone Ash and Barclay James Harvest was all so safe, tame and pathetic, it was as if they’d become scared of their own electric guitars or upsetting their mums.

The dazzle and fun of glam rock had certainly faded by then. Roxy Music, who shock started the 70’s with their surreal, Sci Fi glam, had turned in their 5th and very questionable, “Sirens” album. Bowie had buggered of to the States, to become a Young American and Bolan, prior to his tragic death, was last seen coming out of New York City, with a frog in his hand! Thin Lizzy, Kiss, Aerosmith and AC DC were having a go at bringing a bit of life to the dusty corpse of rock but they were more interested in perpetuating and living out the heavy rock dream rather than attempting anything new... Looks like they succeeded... Kraftwerk, Neu, Can, Faust and the other Krautrock bands, were still producing edgy, “new” stuff, but on my turntable, that summer, was the first New York Dolls album, Doctor

Feelgood’s, “Down By the Jetty” and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony.

The previous year, 1975, I’d been to my major local music venue, The Portsmouth Guildhall, to see ELO and Gentle Giant and even though I was young and impressionable, I couldn’t help feel how distant and out of reach those bands were to my reality and to anyone of our generation who passionately wanted to do music ourselves. We felt excluded, alienated and kept out by the overbearing smugness and academic, music college snobbery of those who had never had it so good. Album sales converted directly into Manor houses complete with trout farms in the country and luxury yachts in the Med. Mick Jagger hanging out with Princess Margaret, Rod Stewart filmed drinking champagne in the back of a Daimler with his then girlfriend, Britt Ekland, for a TV documentary! What on earth did that have to do with anything I could relate to?

The music industry and the music press had it all sewn up between them. As well as the NME, back then, there was the Melody Maker (ultra muso) Sounds (poor man’s NME) and Record Mirror (Jackie magazine pop coverage), all happy to co habit the same self-satisfied, elitist empire and keep it protected at all costs. The whole attitude was one of: keep the kids at arms-length, keep them in awe and unquestioning of the stars, keep the status quo, but most of all, keep them buying the triple disc concept albums. This is how it is, this is how it’s going to be and NOTHING is going to rock this cosy world...

Having grown up watching the Beatles on Sunday Night at the London Palladium, the Stones on Ready Steady Go, The Kinks on Top of the Pops, we were a generation who loved pop and many of us had every intention of giving it a go when we were big boys, inspired by their example. But, by the time I had become a “big boy”, a teenager, living in a small fishing village outside Portsmouth, I felt the opportunity had been taken away from me. I couldn’t see how any individual, or any group of young people could do anything about breaking into this remote, impenetrable citadel of elitism. Remember – This was a world before the do it yourself ethic had become a reality. A world before the proliferation of indie labels. A world where the bedroom produced discs that forged the rave scene was unthinkable. A universe where digital communication and social media was science fiction! There were no convenient, alternative means at our disposal to by-pass, cut out or bulldoze through the behemoth of the established order.

At the time I was fumbling around on my first Woolworths bass, with some mates, in a disused village hall, learning the usual songs of the day that made up a typical pub set, but something didn’t feel right. I wanted us to write our own songs but that was a completely alien idea met with stares of horror, as if to say - who the fuck do you think you are? Little people like us don’t write our own songs. You have to be famous and have passed through the hallowed gates of the “real” music biz, before you write your own materialDidn’t matter anyway because you couldn’t get a gig, ANYWHERE, if you played your own stuff.

Seething and stewing through that summer of 76 the frustration had well and truly set in. Like trying to scratch an irritating itch that you can’t quite satisfactorily reach. There was a sense that something had to happen to relieve the symptoms; that a promise was drifting on the hot summer air, but no one could quite put their finger on it…

Around the same time, The Ramones and Talking Heads had been over from the New York, CBGB’s scene, stirring it up and “The Old Grey Whistle Test” had done a special on British “Pub Rock”, featuring Doctor Feelgood, Bees Make Honey, Kilburn and the Highroads (Ian Dury) and The Kursal Flyers. At least that had a bit of colour and life to it and hinted towards a clue or direction. One couldn’t help feel a slight pang of sympathy for the few bands who were attempting something smarter. Racing Cars, City Boy, Deaf School and The Doctors of Madness were sort of pointing in the right direction but what they were offering just wasn’t enough. They were just as lost, lacking relevance and purpose.

It wasn’t until Rock Journalist, Caroline Coon, managed to get a few column inches published in the Melody Maker, about a bunch of irreverent, snotty brats from Shepherds Bush, who claimed to be more “into chaos than music”, that we saw a glimmer.

Myself and a handful of friends became ravenous for any mention or muttering about this small revolution happening at the ass end of the Kings Road. There was something disturbing about the very few photos of this group calling themselves The Sex Pistols. The name alone was shocking for the time, though tame by today’s standards. The

“…You know me--I’m acting dumb You know the scene -very humdrum boredom…”Boredom-boredom—

Buzzcocks - Boredom

way they looked… Strange, Dickensian street urchins, purposefully ugly, with SHORT HAIR. It was almost self-destructive! Were they an art school construct, a fringe theatre group or were they a real band? There was so little information about them one’s imagination started working overtime, filling in the gaps. The reports of their gigs falling apart, disintegrating into punch ups were fascinating as they seemed to positively thrive on such activity rather than avoid it, like any other “sensible”, “peace” loving band would do. This creature called Rotten taunting the crowd – “I bet you don’t hate us as much as we HATE YOU!” They exuded a gleeful, defiance, making outrageous statements against the rock establishment, made famous by their “I Hate Pink Floyd” T-shirt. I cannot express what sacrilege that was after the mega sales of “Wish You Were Here”.

The two day “punk” festival, at the 100 Club, September 76 was the event that consolidated and reinforced that this was a viable, happening scene. However small and London centric, (although the Buzzcocks form Manchester were on the bill), it was a gathering of all the bands involved and a concentration of everything that was happening. This time all the music press were there to report it and they got more than enough mileage out of the violent episode that launched one Sid Vicious to notoriety.

Soon, the few bands involved in the London scene, were getting signed and releasing their first discs. One of us got the Damned’s New Rose single as soon as it came out and another got Anarchy (on EMI) and we played both sides of both discs, back to back, on our college art department record player, until the grooves turned white. The Buzzcocks recorded and released their own EP, the Spiral Scratch, making it clear that you didn’t have to wait for the music industry to come to you. It should never be underestimated how powerful and motivational a statement that was back then.

Then, one morning, the news headlines said it all... “The Filth and the Fury”. The Pistols had excelled themselves on the Bill Grundy, tea time TV show which, although was only broadcast in London, caused a nationwide storm and that was the final cue we needed. We cut off our gorgeous, studenty, flowing locks, ran in our flared jeans, got out the acrylic paints and set about our t-shirts with Jackson Pollock splatters and Mondrian designs, (our mum’s loved us) declaring our commitment to this... What?

Sunday, 1st of May, 1977, a group of us pitched up at the Guildford Civic Hall for the first night of the Clash’s White Riot tour. To say it was a life changing experience would be an understatement... Even the opening band of the night, The Subway Sect, were a revelation, delivering their bleak manifesto of stark, deconstructed, ear splitting 3 chord thrashes with an unashamed, brazen disregard for any sense of musicality. This futurist noise installation, without rules or any recognisable convention, was beyond refreshing. Like having your mind flushed out and cleansed of all prior rock music conditioning.

The Clash hit the stage with a vehemence, a violence and a passion I didn’t know could be demonstrated through simple song structure, Stummer’s raw barking and the disrespectful shredding of strings on an electric guitar. I stood dumb struck, pondering… Let me see... The Clash or Gentle Giant? The Clash or gentle Giant? Doh!

For anyone interested – Gentle Giant were Portsmouth’s very own, home grown, prog rock monsters, fronted by the Shulman brothers, who, in turn were ex. Simon Dupree and the Big Sound, who had that pop psychedelic hit, in the 60’s, “Kites”. Actually a beautiful song… Shame about the prog rock follow up…

By then, a few bands of significance had come to

town and we were keen to grasp anything coming our way. The Heartbreakers (That’s Johnny and the, not Tom Petty and the…) and the Vibrators played the Portsmouth Poly student Union. The Damned supported Marc Bolan at the Locarno and it was becoming clear we had to make a move soon, to catch this immense surge of energy… We had to get a band together...

Us and thousands of others across the country, who were already waiting and ready to go. In the backs of class rooms, in the corridors of 6th form colleges, in drab offices, in the machine shops of factories and – Yes, that cliche – because it was true - on the dole, there were bands waiting to happen but just didn’t know it and this is all it needed to unleash the beasts and furious beats… We were taking up arms and joining the mighty force, sweeping through the land.

Mark Perry called it on the Cover of Sniffin’ Glue, with the drawings of three chord shapes, captioned, “here’s a chord, here’s another one, here’s another one. Now go and form a band...”

So four of us from our college, did just that... That summer of 77 we were out of college, had temp jobs in local factories (for me it was Goodman’s Loud Speakers which proved handy) and went into rehearsals, back at the derelict village hall. Only, this time, we were writing our OWN stuff!

The speed at which everything was moving appealed to my impetuous, impatient nature and suited my enthusiastic personality. It gave one an instant adrenalin fix. A sheer thrill of sensationalism so lacking in life. It was a time that did not favour caution or consideration. There was something attractive and exciting about the immediacy in approach and attitude and there was an exuberance and release through the furious, raw, primitive sounds being made as a result… We were aware that a year had already passed and he who hesitates - and all that…

This haste and enthusiasm also went some way towards creating and celebrating an almost unique statement that hadn’t been openly or widely considered in rock music before and that was, you no longer had to be a master of your instrument before forming a band and performing. In fact, some bands were gigging having hardly picked up guitars or drums but for a few weeks earlier! It was the most extreme defiance to anyone who revered the inviolable belief that musicianship was all! And, trust me, it pissed off so many smug, muso freaks at the time.

This audacity and disregard for the sanctity of musical ability created a form of “anti-music” which had an aesthetic of its own. Sometimes, some of the best live experiences came from groups of clueless kids fighting to get something out of their instruments with only the slightest idea of what they were doing. The sounds, noises, calamitous chaos produced through the urgency, ineptitude, immediacy, and spontaneity could be an absolute joy, producing some of the finest, accidental moments of freeform noise making. The Slits made no bones about this approach in their early gigs and it made for some incredible output.

I will always champion the band doing the best they can with the little they have, to create the best they can, rather than listen to the muso who has every skill at his disposal, turning in the most tiresome, slick, uneventful tosh!

Within 6 weeks we had written and crash tested about 9 numbers and got our first gig booked. The gig rushed through me and past me in a furious blur of white light, white heat. Part energy, part nerves, we nailed 9 numbers in 20 minutes. A sort of The Who meets Ramones with 3-part, Beach boy, surf harmonies. Most of the crowd stood dumb struck whilst we played but afterwards, they went mental, so buzzed that they’d seen their very first “punk” band, and they still lived to tell the tale.

At the time, we thought we were isolated and didn’t know anyone else in our area who was into it. We certainly didn’t know there were other bands around but soon, small pockets of likeminded people around Portsmouth gravitated to a centre, to find each other, to check out the bands and exchange ideas and work out our own way of getting on with this new adventure.

The whole punk phenomenon caused such a reaction. Not just with “stuffy” old folks but with friends and contemporaries who just couldn’t get their heads round it. There’s that Situationist T-shirt slogan, written by Bernie Rhodes and printed up by Malcom McClaren & Vivien Westwood that says: “You’re going to wake up one morning and know what side of the bed you’ve been lying on...”

“…I wonder how we’ll answer when you say. We don’t like you - go away, “Come back when you’ve learned to play…”

– The Adverts – One Chord Wonders…

It divided the nation. It divided friends. You either got it or you didn’t. A line had been drawn in the sand. If you chose to step over the line you understood you were making a life changing commitment. You were taking a stance, making a statement, whether it was through the way you looked or the noise you made and you had to be prepared to take the scorn of friends, family and society... At best get laughed at; at worst, get beaten up.

Some people really did think you were going to eat their babies or rape their pet hamster, but the more people took offence, the more you felt you were doing something right.

Also, what some people forget is, that in the history of pop and rock music, punk rock was the first time rock had turned around and rebelled against itself! As so eloquently put by Mark Perry in the ATV classic – You Bastard - It politely invited the tired, old, grown up muso bands to step aside…

With all the supposed liberation of the hippy 60’s, it’s hard to imagine that in a world of long hair, flared baggies, loon jeans, cheese cloth shirts, wide lapels and kipper ties, just having short hair and straight jeans could get you a severe kicking! My home town had a particularly nasty Teddy Boy element at the time... But then again, so did everywhere...

Another point worth mentioning is, in the earlier days of Punk, the audiences looked and dressed far more impressively than the bands themselves. I guess the bands felt they were making their statement through the music, but the “fans” (for want of a better word) took the opportunity to express themselves in as visual way as possible. The more removed from any sense of normality, the better! The collision of styles plundered from rock history and other youth cultures, (The sharp lines and skinny ties of Mod, Rocker leathers, and the Teds hated us wearing brothel creepers), the humour in bin liners (some actually did), ripped or painted clothes, T-shirt slogans, the girls wearing underwear as overwear, provocative statements (I won’t mention the fuckwits that thought swastikas were a good idea)…

More importantly, it brought people together who, under any other circumstances, would never meet or become life-long friends. I guess rock music has always done that but the diversity of people, from all backgrounds, drawn to the punk rock thrall was particularly noteworthy.

The Pistols, Clash, Damned, The Bromley Contingent etc. all say the party was over before it started and only existed for a couple of years… Well, good for them. I’m sure they’re very pleased with their insular, exclusive vision of events and a sincere, big thanks to them for instigating it all – (it certainly wasn’t going to start in a 6th form college, just outside Portsmouth) - but I was always more interested in what happened after that initial explosion when the fall-out begun to sweep across the nation and out to the provinces. I think that’s when things became even more exciting, creative and extraordinary. The sudden diversity of music

Get outa my way – You’re wasting time Y’ bastard – you’re a waste of time… You never believed in Rock n’ Roll – You know what I mean – So leave my Rock n’ Roll alone…

ATV (Mark Perry) - You Bastard

“…We like noise, it’s our choice, It’s what we wanna do, We don’t care about long hair,

that flourished and emerged into the light was far more interesting than the guitar driven, crash bang wallop of the early London centric bands.

The caustic, jagged sounds of The Gang of Four from Leeds, the haunting electro synth sounds of The Human league (original line up) from Sheffield, The psychotic punk funk of The Pop Group from Bristol, Joy Division, The Fall and all the Manchester Factory Records bands, so much more… Creatively immense! And, of course, by then, John Peel was playing everything and anything new on his iconic radio show and it paved the way for the colour and diversity of the early 80s pop scene with the emergence of the New Romantics, Electronica, Two Tone, Goth, Rock a Billy, and all the other sub cultures and tribes. Many frilly shirted, suited and booted “pop” bands, on Top of the Pops, had started out as “punk” bands just a few years earlier.

It wasn’t the answer to all the world’s ills but we all know what the cultural implications of punk are. Despite the detractors in the media who have since tried to denigrate it and demean its importance as a culture changer (god knows why? A generation born too late, envious that they missed it?), so much contemporary music owes its existence to punk and the attitude and aesthetic still prevails in film, design, fashion and art. We, were part of something bigger than we realised at the time and it’s still mashed and mixed in with everything you see and hear today...

And, as I mentioned earlier, it WAS an adventure. Our adventure… It wasn’t borrowed from the superstars, taken from the appalling radio stations or watched on TV but a real life experience, actually happening to us, growing bigger with us week by week. It was empowering and it gave us courage. Despite the clichéd nihilistic, anarchy, destroy sloganeering, it forced us to be constantly creative, inventive, innovative, through the music and the visual. It made us question everything that was set in place and designed to restrict what we wanted to do. We established our own authority in which it was up to us to create our own role as the plot unfolded. For the first time in my life I felt I had a voice and a purpose and there was a genuine sense it was all relevant. Personally punk rock served me on two levels. It gave space for me to vent my outward anger at the state of things, through the politics and protest, however naïve and basic. It meant we were proactively becoming aware and informed of current events. Also, despite coming from a comfortable, “middle class” background, having had an agreeable upbringing, it gave me a mechanism to express and externalise an inner frustration and

anger of a more personal nature, I’d unwittingly been storing up through my adolescence…

Late 78 and London was Calling ... A John Peel session beckoned and even a record label sought us out…

For better or for worse, it was the singularly most eventful and brightest thing that ever happened to me and set me on a one way collision course with the rest of my life and once you’ve passed through that portal, there’s no turning back…

And remember kids… Punk is for life, not just for Christmas…

Tuesday Club expanded See You Next Tuesday The Complete Sessions

In 2013 as a bristling 8 piece - 2 bass, keys, drums, 3 guitars, 2 vocals and a Minx!...

The Tuesday Club released ‘See you next Tuesday’ on an unsuspecting world... “Roxy Music played by The Rocky Horror Show”... here for the first time you can grab for your collection - The Complete sessions... featuring the lost tracks and unreleased material... 5 of which have been released on varying eps and singles, 3 of which have never been released... and now due to loss of the original masters - 1 of which was never and will never be finished! Released on Ltd editon of only 50 cds and a digital download. You’d be a definite SYNT not to want this?!

CD1: Original Album:

Dolly Dynamite

Ain’t Got No Class

Money Means Nothing

Nanananana

She Splayed My Teeth

New Regime (Slow Swing)

Replication and Montage

All You Do Is Wow

New Glamour

Wish My Slate Was Cleaner

Vinyl As a Manifesto

Oh Daddy Please

Little Miss Attitude

Human inhuman being

CD 2:

Previously released Material

True Sex Appeal (Free Xmas single)

These Dogs Bite (B-Side Dolly Dynamite EP)

Old Before Your Time (Original mix)

One Idea and a Lonely Voice (From Forbidden Kiss EP)

New Regime (Punkd) (B-Side Ain’t got no Class)

Previously Unreleased Material

Erotism And Machinery

It Ain’t Changed Me Gordon

Curfew (unfinished Mix)

Released December 2nd 2016

Other releases currently available from The Tuesday Club

My Consciousness EP

My Consciousness, Harsh tales of ancient news and Something Major. Available on Silver and MP3 download! EP001

Lady Gargar EP

Lady Gargar, Scars are Superstars and Resistance makes your heart groan fonder. Available on Silver and MP3 download! EP003

Forbidden Kiss EP

Forbidden Kiss, Cities Alive and One Idea and a lonely voice. Available on Silver and MP3 download! EP002

Boo Hoo EP

Boo Hoo, Beat Oven, Greyer Shades Of Grey Available on Silver and MP3 download! EP004

TC BACK CAT!

There’s vinyl, mp3’s and Cd’s!

New Glamour Single

A new version of the song from the debut album with a it’s B-side, live fave Old before your time. Available on Gold enhanced CD, with special video and MP3 download!

Zerox

Recorded in 2015 with the legendar y Steve Honest at the controls, this version of Zerox features; The Minx, J-Rod and The Beautiful Wolf and also features a guest appearance on the drums of our friend and ace session man Francesco Lucidi (Who also made a cameo appearance in our Forbidden Kiss video too). Released at the start of June 2016 by popular demand following our Farmers Boy, appearance where we performed it with Will Crewdson, Adam Ants guitarist.

theperfectpopco-op.bandcamp.com/track/zerox

THE BLEEEDFINAL EP - 09.12.16

Life is for winners and only winners... 'Dream boy doing well' is about dead winners, dead from life... dead ending... dead bored... dead frustrated... imagine... Johnny the horrifying man from Repetition by David Bowie in a scene from a 1970's Hammer Horror Film... infused with the dark hopeless sarcasm of the queen in snow white... that's what the Bleeed are serving up for you this time dear friends, go on take a bite!

The Dodo - The Album. Finally released in it’s full digital tragedy... Taking 3 weeks of evenings to produce in the autumn of the late late noughties... unplanned and adrenalised. It sounds more like a the soundtrack to Saint-Saens carnival of the animals transported to a lost autumn somewhere in a darker, richer, swinging 60’s... the 1860’s that is. Harpsichord, strings, bells, and tormented otherwordly backing vocals provide the backdrop to this feast of psychedelic melancholia laid bare to inspire and unhinge in equal measure. From the soaring yet forbidding, puritanical bleak, wailing, death mask procession of ‘Into the Black’, to the 60’s apple blossom infused cold war time bomb - ‘Waiting for the walls to come down. The DIY or DIE Organisation sound like a ghostly icecream van stalking the neighbourhoods of the as yet unwritten Tim Burton animation… ‘Gothic Pop Victoriana’. The DODO was born, it grew and ultimately demised, leaving this as it’s epitaph... Into the mists of time and tragedy it fades... the last Thylacine resplendent in a Tin Foil Crown.

The Silent Scream

Valerie Leon (Queen of Neon) Super Juice

theperfectpopco-op.bandcamp.com/ album/the-silent-scream-ep

Plus to commemorate 40 years since the Ramones debut LP. Here’s a FREE download of our version of their classic track Commando

theperfectpopco-op.bandcamp.com/album/ commando

Imagine Scrooge hadn’t had his dream and he’d carried on blissfully and corporatly crushing the spirit of his loyal workforce, this is Bob Cratchits revenge. Despite all the hardship Bob’s soul elevated his family to higher consciousness where they dispensed with traditon and used the foil for something alltogether more glam than a turkeys marathon runners blanket. Melancholic yet up lifting Tin Foil Crown is an anthem of Hope and fortitude against the odds!

theperfectpopco-op.bandcamp.com/track/tinfoil-crown

FREE XMAS GIVEAWAY

DIAMOND MEADOWS DEBUT EP

Serving up a heady cocktail of synthpop, electro, post punk, disco, funk and acid house, Diamond Meadows are inspired by a love of bands such as Travelogue era Human League, Soft Cell and Cabaret Voltaire

theperfectpopco-op.bandcamp.com/album/ morbid-fascination

SUEYSIDE PACKED

Released 5 January 2017

...muffled...intense...breathless...

Taking influence from Viviene Goldman, the dub side of the PIL brain and the other worldliness of Donald Pleasance... The SueySide Packed, lure you in, ply you with hallucinogens and lock you in a dark cupboard in next doors house... the one marked for demolition... and there's a JCB outside with it's engine running

theperfectpopco-op.bandcamp.com/album/minotaur-heart

In the club

vintage trouble Rick Barrio Dill

Joining us in the club this month is Rick Barrio Dill, bass player with Vintage Trouble. In Europe they’re called the heirs of rhythm and blues. In America, they are the new protocol of soul. Their albums “The Bomb Shelter Sessions” and “1 Hopeful Road” are essential listening, and their live shows are not to be missed. We’ve seen them in pubs, clubs, arenas and stadiums, but don’t take our word for it, go and see for yourself. They’re back in the UK at the end of December, playing on Edinburgh on 30th and Gateshead on 31st. Ladies... Gentlemen... Troublemakers, Mr Rick Barrio Dill

1) OK firstly, we are sitting in the cyber pub doing this interview, and it’s our round. What do you want to drink?

Nigori cold sake. We are in cyber Japan right?

2) What was the last thing you heard/ watched that was so good you had to tell someone about it?

Saw this movie “The Man Who Knew Infinity” the other night. So good.

3) What four items would you put in a RBD time capsule?

62 Precision Bass, my photo library, my ITunes library and my laptop to see ‘em all.

4) In terms of new bands starting out, is the internet a help or hindrance?

A help. Light is always a help, especially now days.

5) If football is the current ‘rock &’roll (in terms of Superstar status), what do you think could or should be next big thing?

Scientists who help us all.

6) If you could be any character in a film, what film and who would it be?

Prince in Purple Rain

7) You are now In The Club, but what club do you actually wish it was?

All photos by Adam Kennedy

Big thanks to you Rick! Keep on keeping on!

And in 2017...

SONGS ABOUT LIFE MID CRISIS - RF050

Featuring a raft of artists and misfits from Hertfordshire. Reverse family is a fluid collaboration lead by Dermot Illogical.

The songs on this album were originally written and recorded in a cupboard under the stairs in St.Albans - between 2006 and 2010, - chanelling such diverse influences as Jilted John,, Pete Shelley and Vivien Goldman through to areas of Captain Beefheart. It wasn't until 2013 that Dermot finally realised his dream of completing this, his original set of skew-whiff observations, bizarre characters, dreams and mutant 'bitter-sweet' diary entries,

Mixed and mastered by the Legendary Steve Honest at Hackney Road Studios in London, this vinyl only and limited to 200 copies 14 track set, will be released through the Perfect Pop Co-Op on April 15th 2017.

For now check out this promo video for - WAY IT GOES https://youtu.be/a0LyGgTnEMQ

This release will hail a busy year for the band, as plans for a highly limited box set of all 52 - 7 track EPS, is due to follow close behind. But you will have to follow @reverse_family to find out more...

www.reversefamily.co.uk

Introducing Reverse Family

Ever had that dream where an insect invades the ear and sets up home to mercilessly tease and torment thereon in? If so, a form of similar reality is about to be unleashed as the Reverse Family step forward to announce themselves with a sound which trespasses and festers in the psyche. The difference is that this is set to be the most welcome invasion of ears as it crawls with relish into the imagination.

Reverse Family is the solo project of Dermot Illogical, better known as Andreas Vanderbraindrain, the frontman of British band The Tuesday Club. Aided by a fluid band of collaborators from time to time, the new offering from Dermot is a lo-fi exploration into an experimental DIY web of sounds and flavours which is hard to pin down but certainly embraces everything from post punk and noise pop to indie and old school punk.

The RingMaster Review had the honour and pleasure to be the first to hear the tracks set to make up My Songs About Life Mid Crisis, the debut album from Reverse Family which is not due until next year through Perfect Pop Co-op but makes the ideal introduction to the new proposition so we thought we would share our findings within its dementedly addictive lures.

revelry bubbling under its pop punk surface, Dermot as vocally mischievous as the guitar led sounds around him.

There is great variety to the songs too; Bit Slits for example flirting with the senses through keys which manage to sound like the brass flames of Essential Logic while guitar and vocals veer towards the Nikki Sudden school of discord blessed minimalistic seduction while Electronic 6 entangles portentous keys and winy guitars with fuzzy vocals for a Dalek I Love You/Artery scented melancholy. It is fair to say that Dermot wears influences openly yet each song develops its own distinct character under often familiar hues.

Hand of God has a darker and meatier nature to its predacious swing, contagious hooks and a great grumbling bassline aligning with melodic enterprise for a proposal which swiftly grips ears and appetite; a success just as easily won by the lively pop bounce of One Eyed, a seemingly early Television Personalities seeded encounter and the hypnotic I Can Sense Their Watching Eyes. This too has a flavour of Dirk Wears White Sox to it but with funky beats and another irresistible post punk guitar jangle in its off kilter dub teased shuffle, the track blossoming into another unique proposition within My Songs About Life Mid Crisis.

Other tracks in the mix are Business or Pleasure, a delicious song which sounds like Weezer soaping The Piranhas while recording it all in the bath, The Legend of Pierre with its haunting keys wrapped sultry croon, and Odd Mix Newgates, a seductive magnetic monotone tone spawned track surely inspired by Mark E. Smith.

The collection of tracks are completed by Higher Power with plaintive melodies and dour yet emotionally suggestive vocals and the outstanding May Number 10 Dream which again hints at bands like The Fall, Marc Riley and The Creepers, and The Mekons, as well as the criminally catchy Sods Law. Hips and feet beware as even in its low key nature it will have you swinging in an instant.

Featuring a raft of artists and misfits from Hertfordshire. Reverse family is a fluid collaboration lead by Dermot Illogical.

The first song we came up against was Alchopoppers on Fast Food, a brief and gentle yet deviously engaging song which instantly entices thoughts of seventies bands like Swell Maps and The Shapes but with the melodic natures of The Freshies. It is captivating stuff even with a drop into calmer waters which does not quite connect with personal tastes. We are not sure of the album's track order but if this is to be the opener it provides a potent start though the brilliant Way It Goes is an even bigger pull. Carrying an early Adam and The Ants feel to its magnetic stroll, the song is pure addiction with a funk

There are so many highlights offered by the Reverse Family songs; each track connecting with an ever eager hunger for punk fuelled, post punk spiced imagination. Plastic Punks epitomises this perfectly, its Fire Engines toned melodic jangle and Spizzenergi devilry sheer temptation again emerging as something specific to Reverse Family.

The songs on this album were originally written and recorded in a cupboard under the stairs in St.Albans - between 2006 and 2010, - chanelling such diverse influences as Jilted John,, Pete Shelley and Vivien Goldman through to areas of Captain Beefheart. It wasn't until 2013 that Dermot finally realised his dream of completing this, his original set of skew-whiff observations, bizarre characters, dreams and mutant 'bitter-sweet' diary entries,

With a tongue in cheek lining to the lyrical reflection shaping songs which spreads into the music itself, Reverse Family is a beguiling adventure with a nod to the past and a grip on an imagination as fresh as it is, well quite simply a touch loco.

Mixed and mastered by the Legendary Steve Honest at Hackney Road Studios in London, this vinyl only and limited to 200 copies 14 track set, will be released through the Perfect Pop Co-Op on April 15th 2017.

As mentioned My Songs About Life Mid Crisis is due for release next April but it is never too soon to get into something this craftily tasty.

For now check out this promo video for - WAY IT GOES https://youtu.be/a0LyGgTnEMQ

SONGS ABOUT LIFE MID CRISIS - RF050

reverse family

This slyly infectious thang is heading out from the same sound collective that brought you the Scratch and the Tuesday Club. Now comes Reverse Family Dermot Illogical with promise of a debut album due Spring time from which the loose and snazzy slinky strut that is ‘Way it Goes’ has been leaked as a mooching club floor teaser as to whats to come. Time tunnelling it way from a new wave age to present day, this glam funked schizoid crooner is possessed of the kind of wayward outsider pop dialect that imagines odd popper Gary Wilson doing Adam Ant homages whilst shimmying up to a class of 1980 gathering of Jona Lewie and Robin Scott moonlighting as M types.

https://marklosingtoday.wordpress.com/2016/11/16/reverse-family-dermot-illogical/

Dermot Illogical - Interview

As The Reverse Family break cover, we chat to the groups lead singer Dermot Illogical

Blimey, has anybody told you you've got a doppelganger in Andreas Vanderbraindrain (AVDB)?

Yes, and I know him well. I think I'm a far more thoughtful, creative and artistic character than AVBD. Whereas AVBD is infused with the spirit of Rock' n ’Roll and is definitely exorcising ghosts whenever he goes on stage, I'm a deeper thinker and conceptualiser..maybe even a modern historian.

So, does that come out in the music of the Reverse Family (RF)?

The RF songs are about modern life, responsibility and retreating to think and reflect in a 24-7 world that doesn’t want you to think for yourself ...almost a viewer rather than a do-ers perspective. As you get older life begins to reverse on itself and you become your parents carers. The first album, My Songs About Life Mid-Crisis, is like a precis of what is to come...The Career in a Year of 365.

What is the Career in a Year of 365?

It is the follow up project to the album My Songs About Life Mid-Crisis. I'll be releasing it from October next year. It’s quite a mammoth undertaking so I don want to promise more than is achievable, but basically it’s going to be 52 EP's of 7 tracks each released one a week from October 2017 to October 2018. The inspiration was death of one of my best friends Terry ‘Super’ Cockell. I was gripped with tremendous grief and feelings of ‘life’s too short’ , ‘Do it now, don’t delay’. So I was driven to do something epic for myself, but also with definite thoughts of Terry to keep me on track. The songs I wrote aren’t all about those feelings, but some are. The EP's are like a gigantic version of the album, both in terms of eclectic content and also subject matter, at least two songs on the album are about another friend and inspiration of mine who died right at the start of writing the album back in 2005.

Who are the Reverse Family and what is the spirit that brings you together?

The common spirit running through us is for fun, determination and camaraderie. The album features past and former members of The Tuesday Club - Terry ‘Super’ Cockell on drums, Lozzman on Bass, Dave on guitar, JV on samples/strings. The live band will be a collective of friends. The first line up is Minki the Minx on Drums, Dave Wasabi on Guitar, John Beautiful

Wolf on Bass and me on vocal and guitar. We use samples and drum machines too. We have a raft of other collaborators waiting in the wings, as there will be a lot of PRing required for the Career in a Year of 365, which includes promoting each EP live, hopefully. I ideally want to involve as many people in it as possible.

What keeps the Reverse Family together?

Life and the constant shift of it, the tumble drier of day to day life keeps the RF going. It’s like a dysfunctional modern family bonded by spirit. Obviously there’s always humour lurking, cos if you don’t laugh you’re gonna cry. RF is a definite collective and will have a revolving door policy of collaborators.

The album is an eclectic mix of styles. Was this by design or perhaps a result of the different collaborations or experimental process used?

It was basically due to the fact that this first album was recorded over a 10 year period. It began in the cupboard under the stairs in my house where I had my computer set up, and it t really a planned album as such, it grew organically. The tracks sound experimental, but a lot of that is due to my DIY attempts at playing one string bass, one finger keys and lazy drum machine programming...and of course the DIY Spirit

Ah yes, the spirit of Punk, as opposed to the Plastic Punks, a track on your album: "They're not attitude, they're just hairstyles". With punk turning 40 years old, do you think it could be becoming even more relevant?...after all, with the Brexit & Trump votes in 2016, antiauthoritarianism would seem to

I think Punk is about getting on with things, doing it your way, expressing yourself. Punk got me into music and got me thinking s kept me going,

When can we expect the album - My Songs About Life

April 15th 2017

..and finally, given your name, do you have any skincare secrets you can share?

Drink lots of Water

pics and interview Brad Wigglesworth 2016

SEX, CURRIES & 30 SECONDS OF MADNESS

My name is Mark Christopher Lee and I have been on the fringes of indie eccentricity for a few decades now but it seems my time in media limelight has come.

I formed The Pocket Gods in 1997 after cobbling together a demo on St Albans’ maestro – Bill Johnson’s 4 track Tascam. It sounded like Jesus & Mary Chain doing Gram Parsons so big things were expected. We plodded along in day job obscurity I had brief flings with aforementioned Mary Chain as bass

Indeed it was the great man him self an indie Icon to millions of musical-layabouts like me. He called back next time I was in Woolworths in St Albans and had to go and rush to buy a pen to take down his home address that he gave me to send cds to. I sent them he went away on a working holiday to South America and died. It was a double tragedy not only had the musical world lost an irreplaceable legend, selfishly we had also lost our big chance to crawl up out of the musical swamp and on to the dry land of having “made it” – cue 40 odd more albums of various quality but an all with undeniable spirit and zest much like my hero Ed Wood – and a mad idea I had one night in Soho.

I’d just read an article in The Independent by music professor Mike Errico asking why bands and songwriters still write pop songs that are 3 minutes long – he said why don’t they adapt to the streaming media of today and give them all that they pay for and that is 30 seconds…

This got me very excited I though I will record 100 of them (as that sounded like an impressive feat) and put them all on one album, and to boot as it was a direct response to crap royalties from music streaming – I would make all the songs about the music industry! I was later interviewed by Mike Errico for the Independent where I talked about how the 3 minute pop song was dead:

independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/isthe-three-minute-pop-song-over-yes-says-the-musicianreleasing-30-second-tunes-a6764076.html

player (highlight was drinking herbal tea with the band after rehearsals it was that good) and Belgium power pop combo The High Ones.

Umpteen self released albums and a cast of ex member that Cecile B DE mille would be proud of we nearly got our big break.

I’d moved back to my hometown of Huddersfield with my now wife and bass player Claire. I showed her the delights of our local Asian restaurant and introduced her to the mother of all bread snacks – The Peshwari Naan. She was so impressed that she asked me to write a song about it which I did the next day and imagninitevly called it The Ballad Of The Peshwari Naan. It sounded great and odd like a cross between Corner Shop (remember them?) and Sonic Youth. I was thinking I bet bloody John Peel would love this so I burned a copy of onto cd and posted it off to him at BBC Radio 1.

(this is also detailed in my book: Weird The Life And Time Of A Pocket Gods – available here: lulu.com/shop/mark-christopher-lee/weird-the-life-andtimes-of-a-pocket-god/paperback/product-18925670.html

Time passes, seasons change…forward 18 months later Claire is driving me back from a pocket gods (Northern franchise) gig in Leeds and we’re on the M62 and I’m checking my mobile messages…”Fuck, Fuck, Fuck” I shouted….Claire thought someone had died….”It’s John Fucking Peel” I screamed he’s left me a message about how he likes the pocket gods.”

First of all it was a bloody hard album to record – I had the idea late Summer and in order to release it I had to finish it off by November. The easy bit was writing the song titles and this was Jarvis Cocker particular liked about the album when judging it for the Mercury Prize. I had a creaky laptop in my cold garage but night after night would crank another 6 or 7 songs out topping up the total and then started to get desperate for song titles and ideas (only so many time you can slag of about not being paid!) I was even mic’ing up my kids toy jukeboxes that they won on holiday…it was time to put the call out! First up 80’s pop star Owen Paul and I had chatted about this before and he loved the idea so I started chasing him up as he wanted to do a song called Spotify – I then put a shout out to friends and fans of the band and even got Mungo Jerry to do a track!

Once it was out on Nub the press attention it got was amazing – we did TV interviews, Radio interviews and even got featured in Billboard who hailed me as a genius out of the box thinker:

billboard.com/articles/business/6804596/100-songs-30seconds-long-spotify-streaming-money-industry

Then from out of nowhere The Guinness Book Of Records contacted me to say that we had broken the record for most songs on a digital album and was going to be featured in the 2016 Book out in September!

We were then featured alongside Bieber and Co and had our award presented on TV which was cool…we’d also a new 100x30 album out but this time all about Shakespeare but this one wasn’t as well received even though was a lot better album and had spent more time on the writing and recording of the songs….

However, there was trouble ahead we’d obviously rattled a few feathers with all the media storm about royalty rates and the latest 100xmas30 album which was released on 2nd December will not be available on Spotify as no distributor will release it to them for fear of upsetting their relationship with one of the biggest players in the industry today. It is, as my journo friend from the Guardian said, is all a bit Kafkaesque. The good news is we had regained our world record from a dodgy Swedish metal band who released, a day after the Guinness Book Of Records came out, an album of 101 songs – how imaginative! I decided with this Xmas album to go all the way to 11 erm 111! Here is the story and Guinness Interview: http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/412387-most-songs-on-a-digital-album

What next for the 30 sec song and the 100x30 brand? Ok am already writing songs for the next one 100 xfiles 30 – which is as you might guess 100 plus songs (won’t reveal how many yet!) all about the paranormal, ufos, huddersfield etc – so if anyone fancies contributing let me know and onwards we go with our campaign for fair pay from streaming thank you for reading!

Pocket God Mark and the legendary Nigel Planer on the set of the new and wonderful Nub TV!

Tweeting from the cheap seats

Girl of the 90s Henrietta gives the PPCO her 90 degree angle on the modern world...

Controversy My changing opinion of Prince

The cover of the 1979 album “Prince” epitomizes my perception of him and the era he represents; there’s a certain tacky sleaziness to the 1970s that those of us born in the 80s or 90s just can’t understand. I look at this album cover and I think “naff porn”. I listen to Prince’s moans and squeaks (like in “Do me, baby”) and cringe; that’s not singing, that’s talking dirty over a microphone. He squeals like someone’s pinching his balls then gasps as though he’s a pervy heavy breather on the other end of the phone.

Listening to Prince makes me feel the awkwardness I would feel if I had just walked in on him masturbating, or in the way that I felt uncomfortable as a young teenager when there was a sex scene on TV and my parents were in the room. There are certain noises I just don’t want to hear in public, and the sound of Prince orgasming is one of them.

I had dismissed Prince. I had sweepingly declared, on more than one occasion, “I don’t like Prince.” And that was final. I would sometimes concede that I quite like the Nicole Kidman/Hugh Jackman cover of “Kiss” that features in the animated film Happy Feet: nice and innocent, no orgasmic vocal spasm to be heard. But Prince? No way. Yuck. Definitely someone that naff older people like.

If a Prince track came on at a party I would choose that moment to go and replenish my drink. If a friend gave me an option to listen to Prince or someone else, I would choose Someone Else. I had managed to avoid listening to most Prince music for most of my life so far.

But this year, of course, listening to Prince has become unavoidable.

I resigned myself to the fact that it was the decent thing to do to

not turn the radio off, though I remained obstinately determined to not let the heartbreak of death at 57 emotionally taint my opinion of his music. I was very sorry he had died. But it didn’t change anything. I don’t like Prince. Sorry.

So I took a deep breath and tensed myself; poised, tightlipped, to withstand the climactic groans with dignity and forbearance.

If I have ever heard “Controversy” before, I don’t remember it. Immediately, I was shocked out of my rigidity by the relentless thumping intro. In spite of myself, my shoulder involuntarily started twitching to the beat, I felt the seductive riff pumping through my stomach. After 50 seconds, I started relaxing into enjoyment; it didn’t seem like I’d hear Prince wanking after all. I actually wanted to hear more.

When my flatmate entered the room it was as though the beat had worked a magic spell on his pelvis. His snake hips writhed rhythmically and I felt myself pulled up from the sofa, caught in the enchantment. I felt the music pulse through me; we were thrusting ourselves around the room as though we were posessed. I’d dismissed Prince all my life, and now I was hooked.

Controvsery is interpreted as a response to the racism and intolerance that Prince experienced on early support tours: a response to listeners who couldn’t understand or appreciate the ambiguous voice, style and music of Prince. (“Am I black or white?/Am I straight or gay?”)

Fitting that this would be the track that would make me reassess my opinion of Prince as a girly-voiced debauchee, and instead be willingly penetrated by his soulful funk.

RIP. Prince 1958 – 2016.

Henrietta Canary

OTHER GREAT MAGS OUT NOW!

ALICE’S WICKED TEA PARTYALTERNATIVE

MUSIC FESTIVAL 2017

Knolle Farm AWTP Festival Site Soldiers Road Wareham Purbeck Dorset BH20 5DU

Friday 2nd June & Saturday 3rd June 2017. Door time 1pm. All ages

Alice Wicked Tea Party Returns for it’s 3rd year promising more of the finest Alternative music artist on the scene, covering genres from Alt Rock and Art Rock - Post Punk and Goth - Indie and Electronica. Taking place over two days at our new venue Knolle Farm - near Corfe Castle

Tickets this year will be sold on a seven point tier base structure starting at £20 for a very limited amount for an Xmas special price, increasing each time till the final full ticket price of £70. So don’t delay for the best offers.

Radio Verulam broadcasts to St Albans, Harpenden, Redbourn, Radlett, Elstree, Borehamwood, Hemel Hempstead, Hatfield, Welwyn Garden City and surrounding areas on 92.6FM and online. We are a community radio station with great music, news, what’s on and travel information for West Hertfordshire.

THE PARSONS KNOWS LOCAL MUSIC

Parsons Knows The

This Month’s TOP BANDS, ARTISTS and EVENTS!

Its been a rather hectic few months over at PK HQ what with gigs, gigs and radio shows and the like. I have even got myself a Lemonrock page! Looking forward to a well earned rest over the festive period that’s for sure!

By Denise Parsons – Music Promoter

– ‘The Live Music Project’ Trestle Arts Base, St.Albans

By

I am very proud

that

is a whopping 2 years old and I did my 100th live show this week... Time certainly does fly when you are having fun! It made me think of my very 1st show and how nervous I was and now I don’t even give it a thought!! I have been so lucky to have such huge support from listeners and musicians alike. No idea how many artists have played live for me but quite a list that’s for sure. Here’s to the 1000th show then I guess... Onwards & upwards as they say.

Radio

Met so many brilliant bands over the last few months too so very hard to pick out just a few to tell you about but here goes!

way of celebration

to say

The Parsons Knows Local Music on

Verulam

Magicians Nephews Band

I recently had them on my show and they then played for me live at The Live Music Project and they may be young but don’t let that fool you... They really can rock!!A friend commented after I sent him the video with just one word ‘astonishing’ pretty much sums it up! Just this week I had the pleasure of introducing them for the Xmas Lights switch on in St Albans and as I had a quick wander in the crowds everyone had smiles on their faces!! Their new album ‘Young Enough’ is out now. All original material. I look forward to seeing how they mature and what opportunities come their way.

Check them out here

facebook.com/magiciansnephewband/?fref=ts

Louis Antoniou

A very talented young man with some style.. He turned up for a radio interview and I informed him that we would be streaming it live... At which point he decided to go and do his hair. I was impressed not only by the quiff but the fact that he had all his hair products with him!! Hair style aside I am eagerly awaiting his new release featuring his band as I have only ever seen him solo before. If you are in the StAlbans area on 18th December come to Acoustic Lounge at the Hare & Hounds 3pm and see for yourself!! Meantime here’s a video and a song I just love!

youtube.com/watch?v=Fr8bsWFkj5A

Ben Smith & Jimmy Brewer

Had the pleasure of meeting these guys in the summer #rain at Balstock on the Folkstock stage. Such amazing harmonies & heart rendering songs. Fab EP too which I have played & played!

facebook.com/bensmithandjimmybrewer/?fref=ts

The Zipheads

I do believe there is a review of their new album in the mag so I wont go into it too far but to just say’Its bloody brilliant’ & available on Magenta Vinyl.. Say no more! #Rampage - I will add that their album launch despite the 3 hour train journey home was huge fun!

facebook.com/zipheads/?fref=ts

Ed Tattershall

A new find for me from Hertford. Young singer songwriter with a wonderfully textured voice.. A very relaxed style of performing. Confident but not arrogant. Definitely draws you in. Look forward to hearing some more from Ed in the New Year. Rumour has it that he is doing some recording at the moment. Me thinks this boy will go far!

facebook.com/ed.tattersall?fref=ts

Trestle Arts Base

Russet Drive

St.Albans AL4 OJQ

01727 850950

e: production@trestle.org.uk

@trestletheatre

trestle.org.uk

soundcloud.com/denise-parsons-1

facebook.com/theparsonsknows?ref=hl twitter.com/RVparsonsknows

So with the New Year rapidly approaching I’m gonna give you a bucket list of artists that you really should check out! In no particular order...

My Girl The River

- A voice to melt your soul

The Ben Drake Collective

- great songs, great hat.

Stone Theives - toe tapping, long hair

Phoenix O’Neill - stardom awaits

Abbie Gathard - watch this space

Concrete Caverns - impressive

David Goo - amazing

Alton Wahlberg - very cool

Broken Chords - exciting

Katie + Juan

- more original material on its way

The Metatrons

- One of my favourite albums this year

Lasers 8 O’Clock Day One

- most interesting

Sarah Vista - rocking

Anechoic - beatastic

The Twirling Canes - stunning

The Turner Brothers - up on your feet

April Blue - the hippest

Nia Visser - little girl with a big voice

Scarletinas - lively

The SG’s - yeah man

Aloha Dead - experimental

Fishwifes Broadside - attitude

So that’s about all folks. My Christmas jumper awaits. See you on the other side. Thanks to everyone again for all their support. Best present ever!

For all the best gigs in town check out my new Lemonrock page.. lemonrock.com/pkpromotions?b or just tune in every Monday 7pm radioverulam.com

David Bowie 70th Birthday Brixton Walking Tour

January 8th 2017 marks 1 year since the release of David Bowie’s final album Blackstar and what would have been his 70th birthday. It is also just 3 days before the first anniversary of his death on January 10th. A huge inspiration to songwriters, performers, artists, fashion designers… (the list goes on), we thought the best way to honour him would be to take a musical journey through his early life. Welcome to London’s Original David Bowie Walking Tour! Come and join us on a 2-hour guided tour of Bowie’s hometown of Brixton, join us for an all-encompassing journey from birth to death of one of London’s biggest icons. The tour will feature classic Bowie songs performed en route and stories and anecdotes from his life. This tour will be the first of many regular David Bowie walking tours organised in conjunction with Lambeth Council.

by Nick Stephenson

AND Finally... Bill Drummond....

When asked is punk dead... in response to Malcolms son burning a load of old punk tat.... Famous art arsonist, music pioneer and raconteur Bill made this 30 second video...

https://vimeo.com/193402378