Well I'm breaking my blog embargo to sling out something swinging for New Year's Eve - 'Rockadoodledoo' a bespoke mix brimming and bubbling with hipshakers, footstompers and knee tremblers. But, grab it while you can it's only up for a limited period only ...
So then boys, girls bloggers and bloggettes it's over and out from me until next year. Now, what can I sign off with until '09 ...something brassy, something swingle bells, and something santamental, I think...
A couple o' rooting tooting tunes from the ever-popular (according to the stats) Sound Of Brass,Torero Band
And this delicous downtempo DJ BC Beatleg remix...which gently folds The Jacksons and John Lennon into one luvverly bundle DJ BC - Imagine Santa There's a vid' for it too...
So chill your boots, fill your boots and see you in the space-age sounding 2009 playmates - x -
As Bing Crosby sang "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas". But, does it sound a lot like 'Christmas'? How many times can you hear - year in, year out - the same ol' creaky Christmas crooners and overplayed tinsel-tunes before you start tuning them out?
Personally I really will pull this sort of a face, if get anywhere near another whiff of Phil Spector, 'Fairytale of New York' or East 17's 'Stay' and Frankie's 'Power Of Love' (and who in the name of Chris Chringle ever decided the last two had any sniff of Christmas spirit about them anways)..
So let me introduce to you ...a grab bag of goodies, a sackful of bootleg remixes and festive flavored funky nuggets that should get your jingle boots a'bopping and your cosy toes a'tapping. All have been masterfully mixed by the super heroes and heavy hitters of cut-and-paste-pop into fun size, mini-medleys of panto' season playfulness where ....
See Friday the 16th, It's where I spent the evening of my 18th birthday
So another birthday rolls round like a bad penny, or to be specific - the 25th one since my 18th (ouch!). And, considering it's the Silver Jubilee of possibly my booziest of all birthdays - I've still got a fairly full recall of the day..
*Cue plucked harps, wobble vision and screen melts*
Which included getting my first Walkman (Saisho, not Sony), some 'as requested' LPs from the parents - 'Let's Stick Together' Bryan Ferry, and a glamtastic comp' 'Ballroom Blitz' were a couple. Hoovering up the Tennents Extra on the commute to art college, rounded off with a few 10 O'Clock vodkas in 'The Refractory' with Paul TMarmite, Bleech, Lil and Mrs-PM-To-Be (although we were just classmates at the time ) then hoofing along to the lipsmacking, non-stop, snog-a-longa-Christmas that was, the end of term Tech' tear up..
Following a quickie drop-in at my dull-as-dumplings former sixth form disco, I don't know why I went, how I got there or even got in (it was an over subscribed sellout, and I was totally ticketless), but Hanoi Rocks were playing at Crocs, just a short train hop away. Before the gig I only had swift shrift for H.Rocks - but Snakes Alive! The Rocksy rockers put on one of the most explosive shows ever seen at the venue, and I came reeling out a complete convert.
Hanoi Rock - 'Blitzkrieg Bop'. Filmed at The Marquee 19/12/1983 - three days after Crocs.
Their albums are lightweight wishy-washy affairs, but live and in action they packed more wallop than a one inch punch, and for me, are still topped only by The Damned's Crocs show a few days later...
But as it's my birthday (and I'll sigh if I want to), and being on a micro glam-buzz at the mo', I'm treating myself to a couple of tunes from the crypt that fit the mood of the moment...
The Damned tag-teaming with Motorhead as Motordamn on The Sweet's '73 shuffler
Should you happen to be at Crocs reunited next week, and see someone wearing mostly this - give 'em a tap on the shoulder and let's raise a glass and shake a leg together..
This fantastico bespoke hand-made illustration was kindly created by Paul McDonald of Odd Sock Illustration
I don't know about you, but while I was sprouting up during the seventies, Christmas in our house was a typically traditional ritual that followed a similar tinsel-plated template from year to year.
The same medley of decorations were randomly scattered about the tree mixing classic seventies pieces - felt baubles in orange or pink, super-modern amber plastic hoops filled with some sort of shiny sci-fi tape loops that dangled alongside retro-deco's from the fifties - cough-candy style twisted aluminium strips (purple or red on one side, silver on the other), real glass baubles and Japanese lanterns. All finished of with Woolworths candyfloss-type-fibreglass to add some soft-focus embellishment to the lights.
The Martini (red) and the drinks cabinet would be cracked open on Nan's arrival, and when it came to lunch, stalagmite style red candles, the candlebra and 'special cutlery' from an embossed box had their annual day trip to the table. Which, was typically centred around a Christmas cake wrapped in fancy band of gold foil and frilled red paper, with, perhaps a snow scene on the icing.
If you're wondering what in the name of Jacob Marley is the point of this winterland ramble? Well, it's that, the cosy essence of Christmas was the familiar similarity of the occasion. And, in much the same that way we'd fire up this Frank album while Martini's were a'pouring - I feel it could become,perhaps a seasonal tradition, to repost my homemade winter mixture created for Christmas last year....
Marc Bolan - Christmas Message Clarence Carter - Back Door Santa Keith Mansfield - Snowman Stomp Jingle Bells - Booker T and the MG's Ramsey Lewis Trio - Here Comes Santa Claus Oscar Peterson - God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen Stu Hamm - Sleigh Ride Up With the People - Jingle Bell Beat Anita Kerr Singers - Jingle bell rock Soulfoul singers - Santa Claus is coming to town Soulful Strings - Sleigh Ride Edwin Starr - Snowflake Boogie The Rhodes Kids - Winter Wonderland
(Or 'Oi To The World' to borrow a Five Centresphrase)
Given punk's sloganeering and songbook of No Future, Boredom and Blank Generations there's possibly more punky seasonal sing-a-longs than you'd expect...
And of course the Sex Pistols played their final UK date, before hitting then splitting in the US, at a Huddersfield charity gig on December the 25th 1977
So good to see then that the tradition of Advent, Anarchy and God Save The Queen's Speech is being kept alive by the good people at Punk Christmas with an online advent calender that pops out one Christmas-chestnut-newly-reworked-as-punky-nugget per day (all for free too) - where you can grab crackers like these...
Bonus points are available if you can spot which punk/new wave classic has been adapted as the template for each tune
A special Santa salute to Agent Cooper for the tip off about this treat.
And if you know someone who's any sort of a Ramones (or punk) fan - here's just the thing to drop in their bovver boots for Christmas..Jenny Lens's photo-based eBook covering The Ramones first west coast tour of '76 - loaded with over 100 exclusive hi-res photo's sent straight to your inbox for just $15!!! (or 8 of your Queen's pounds)
Jenny Lens is the California 'punk scene' photographer, with a role call of spiky icons and heavy-hitters in her archives - Blondie, The Ramones, the Sex Pistols and The Clash were all caught on film by Jenny during the seventies punk explosion. Her last book 'Punk Pioneers' is a must have if you're a nutter for punk like me - and at literally pocket money prices for this gallery of goodies, you really can't pass up the Ramones digi-book.
Did you know? - A major influence on The Ramones non-stop power punk (and haircuts) are the glam-anthems of our very own Christmas stompers Slade!
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
See Friday the 16th, It's where I spent the evening of my 18th birthday
So another birthday rolls round like a bad penny, or to be specific - the 25th one since my 18th (ouch!). And, considering it's the Silver Jubilee of possibly my booziest of all birthdays - I've still got a fairly full recall of the day..
*Cue plucked harps, wobble vision and screen melts*
Which included getting my first Walkman (Saisho, not Sony), some 'as requested' LPs from the parents - 'Let's Stick Together' Bryan Ferry, and a glamtastic comp' 'Ballroom Blitz' were a couple. Hoovering up the Tennents Extra on the commute to art college, rounded off with a few 10 O'Clock vodkas in 'The Refractory' with Paul TMarmite, Bleech, Lil and Mrs-PM-To-Be (although we were just classmates at the time ) then hoofing along to the lipsmacking, non-stop, snog-a-longa-Christmas that was, the end of term Tech' tear up..
Following a quickie drop-in at my dull-as-dumplings former sixth form disco, I don't know why I went, how I got there or even got in (it was an over subscribed sellout, and I was totally ticketless), but Hanoi Rocks were playing at Crocs, just a short train hop away. Before the gig I only had swift shrift for H.Rocks - but Snakes Alive! The Rocksy rockers put on one of the most explosive shows ever seen at the venue, and I came reeling out a complete convert.
Hanoi Rock - 'Blitzkrieg Bop'. Filmed at The Marquee 19/12/1983 - three days after Crocs.
Their albums are lightweight wishy-washy affairs, but live and in action they packed more wallop than a one inch punch, and for me, are still topped only by The Damned's Crocs show a few days later...
The Damned come to Crocs - rammed to the max - where you stood was where you stayed
So how bizarre then that almost 25 years to the day, I'll be back at the same venue (now the Pink Toothbrush), on the 23rd next week, for a Crocs '80-85' reunion 'do', where a sure-fire floor-filler was always The Sweet's 'Ballroom Blitz', a track that featured in The Damned's set of the time (see above), and of course The Sweet who did the Rayleigh run sometime in '85 (see below), .
Brian Connolly at The Pink Toothbrush '85
But as it's my birthday (and I'll sigh if I want to), and being on a micro glam-buzz at the mo', I'm treating myself to a couple of tunes from the crypt that fit the mood of the moment...
The Damned tag-teaming with Motorhead as Motordamn on The Sweet's '73 shuffler
Should you happen to be at Crocs reunited next week, and see someone wearing mostly this - give 'em a tap on the shoulder and let's raise a glass and shake a leg together..
By gumbo it's getting close to Christmas, and in celebration of the international spirit of this festivo cajun* - O Tannenbaum (Oh Christmas Tree), Feliz Navidad (seen it for years, but not a clue what it means) - it's time to fire up the yule blog with a fistful of creole flavoured critters. So, Kick off your boots, put down that alligator, light your clay pipe, give your cousin a squeeze and your squeeze box a kiss (or is it the other way around?) and shake a festive leg to this fistful of swamp dweller stompers..
Hadley Castille the 'cajun swamp fiddler' (his phrase not mine), has a name uncannily close to one of my childhood haunts, and a sight still seen daily on my shuntings to London - Hadleigh Castle
It's just a touch too early to start dishing out the tinsel tunes (we'll save that for next week), but as a winter warm-up, how about a visit from three six string Kings that put some fatback on the fretboard and bring us Cold, Funking-sense and much, much more*
(note tasteful band logo on left arm - and missing tuner on guitar head)
In a past life I was once the guitarist for a glammy band called The Ladykillers (dreadful name, not my idea). I say glam, it was more of a post-goth, pre-grebo garagey rock 'n' racket affair really (a local paper once did a piece on us claiming ‘They’re Glam, They’re pop, They’re Punk’ – which sort of nails it I suppose). Based in Southend and on the scene at the same time as, and crossing paths with an early era My Life Story – we seemed to get the support slots for any visiting rocky horrors and lower league goth monsters that put a buckle booted foot into the Essex area - a few incidents from my rock date diaries include.....
Two encounters with Zodiac Mindwarp (which you can read about on page 43 of this month’s The Word)
Our second only live date, (with Mal from My Life Story helping out on bass), supporting Flesh For Lulu to a pre-health and safety elastic capacity Pink Toothbrush, where the icy tinkles and cinematic style keyboard intro was blitzed by the drum machine's improv' Drum and Bass meltdown.
The third gig at a local youth club on the night it was populated by German exchange students – the only ones that danced. In a moment of randomness we’d hired a dry ice machine for this gig, not a popular move with the Middle-Aged-Ladies that ran the club – the amount of puff pumped from this rent-a-gadget gave the effect of being smothered by a creeping indoor fog. Cue a stage invasion from the M-A-L’s with damp dishcloths to smother the smoke “it’s no good they can’t see a thing in the ping-pong room” or some such was the cry.
Having a gun pulled on us at Harlow. Someone fainting in Romford. And the gig where the above pic' was taken - supporting Ghostdance in Chelmsford (which must qualify as the least rock 'n' roll phrase in human history) an experience not dissimilar to playing to an audience of Autons, until the drums turned to shrapnel and went a’rolling around the stage mid-set. These were patched up gaffer tape and Meccano style, we carried on with the set and the crowd literally went wild - I've got a video of this gig and the audience go from musical statues to wild things in the space of two songs..
It just took a collapsing drum kit and couple of covers to defrost the good people of Chelmsford, two tunes that were regulars in our set and fairly reflective of our 'angle'... Iggy Pop - Funtime
So then boys, girls bloggers and bloggettes it's over and out from me until next year. Now, what can I sign off with until '09 ...something brassy, something swingle bells, and something santamental, I think...
As Bing Crosby sang "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas". But, does it sound a lot like 'Christmas'? How many times can you hear - year in, year out - the same ol' creaky Christmas crooners and overplayed tinsel-tunes before you start tuning them out? 
See Friday the 16th, It's where I spent the evening of my 18th birthday
This fantastico bespoke hand-made illustration was kindly created by Paul McDonald of Odd Sock Illustration
It Caimen 'pon a midnight clear
Me in my Mad Max Factor/Southend R.O.C.K period 
