Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Dear Diary - May

Chop, chop,chop. Phooey! There, there, there - ring any bells?

Bit of a mystery for May - references to several songs are scattered about the calendar:Roxanne, Say When, Friggin' in the Rigging, Albert Tatlock (B-side of Into the Valley). But what is Happiness (on the 5th)? I haven’t a clue and there's not a sniff or scrap to be seen in the charts.

In other news - A lost PE bag on the 4th, while Sycos (8th) was our scheme for a Warriors inspired gang (and weren't those Baseball Furies terrifying?). An idea that ran out of puff after buying a Warriors poster magazine.

Beach by bike (13th) - was an icy highlight. Being a glorious, glowing summery Sunday, a mate (birthday on Feb 18th) and I jumped from a seafront jetty into a chilling, winter-temperature Thames. A short, sharp shock topped off with slow-onset cramp as we swam back to shore.

And it's My First Buys for lifelong favourites Bowie and The Damned (although I always wanted the Vanian edition cover really). As well as a vinyl rip, I'm also pitching in two Love Song rarities. The bass-intro free, demo versh and an unreleased alt.mix by Southender Ed Hollis - brother of Mark (Talk Talk) Hollis.

The Damned - Love Song



The Damned - Love Song (demo)



The Damned - Love Song (Ed Hollis Version)



The Skids - TV Stars



Don't cha think the Boys Keep guitar solo sounds a bit like this..



PS - Did you know Annie Nightingale was the micro-catalyst that brought down The Beatle's Apple empire - read how here.

14 comments:

Piley said...

the purchase of Happiness must refer to you Ken Dodd period Mondo...

Hope the PE bag turns up.

Urcha!

davyh said...

Red vinyl and on Chiswick, eh? Sadly the only single I had on that label was 'Rama A Lang A Ding Dong' by Rocky Sharpe & The Replays...

That's a lot of beach-going for May, good effort.

Mondo said...

The only Doddy pieces in my collection are some Diddy Men badges P (I'll blog them one day). Did you spot the new ad' reference in the Annie pics?

Have you checked the Chiswick Records comp Davy - Good Clean Fun . I picked a copy up in Virgin for 99p a few years back. Comes with a Rocky Sharpe track and the - Chiswick Records theme

Jon Peake said...

Happiness on that day. It arrived and never left.

Kolley Kibber said...

I'd love to know what the 'new clothes' were - and if they came from Mr Byrite?

And good to see Annie Nightingale sporting one of those 'Breathe-Easy' nose strips that wouldn't be commercially available for another 25 years...

Mondo said...

Bless you FC.

My Byrite - possibly. They had some great Robert Crumb style carrier bags for a while. Although Rosehills in Southend (a tots 'n' teens clothes shop so rammed, trousers were taken from high railings using a pole with a hook on the end) was always a favourite. Annie's plaster: it's a reference to an Elastoplast (there, there, there)ad' which was a fave at the time - she also cops it with manure on her hair flower.

Simon said...

'warriors, come out to play-ay'

That was on the telly the other night. I love that film. Growing up when me and my best mate got video recorders (the summer of 1982) there were three films we watched over and over - Star Wars (taped off the tv on it's premiere, Sunday October 24th 1982 - back in the days when you had to wait 5 years for a film to go on the TV!), Conan The Barbarian and Warriors. Lots of random martial arts movies too but those three over and over and over!

John Medd said...

Annie Nightingale! That takes me back. Back to 1980 in fact when she introduced Girl on The Old Grey Whistle Test. They picked up the Sweet B sides baton and ran with it 'til Phil Collen got head hunted by Def Leppard. Gerry Laffy (the guitarist wearing the powder pink jacket!) is a friend of mine and a fabulous artist.

Mondo said...

That bloke, the bottle-clinker. So annoying. The Warriors, The Exorcist, Straw Dogs and variations on Animal House porky's etc..were our most viewed VHS's Simon.

Blimey forgot all about Girl John. Didn't the singer go on to front LA Guns?

Istvanski said...

I've got the Vanian edition of LS but it's on black vinyl (BigBeat NS75), which I'm guessing is a reissue.

John Medd said...

That's right Mondo, Phil Lewis. A great frontman and he snatched Brit Ekland on the rebound from Rod back in the day. And I know you like your Pistols connections, so check out Man Raze : Paul Cook joined forces with ex Girls Phil Collen and Simon Laffy (Gerry's brother). They supported Alice Cooper on his last jaunt 'round the UK.

Mondo said...

That must be the 82 re-release IV. Mine is Chiswick CHIS 112.

Got the LA Guns album somewhere John. Cookies band aren't too bad are they. Do you remember Chiefs of Relief? I think Piley's got a rare Boys Wonder vid (never officially released) that Paul Cook pops up in too.

lil said...

Your calendar & blog post are an amazing time capsule Mondo; it’s thrown me straight back!
Kenny Everett was hilarious, brilliant Bowie clip! - The Damned are one of my all time faves too...

I’m intrigued about which jetty you jumped from; was it in Westcliff?

Mondo said...

It’s easy to forget how popular (and ahead of it's time) Kenny Everett's show was isn't it Lil? There's a great Rod Stewart/Kenny clip on youtube if you dig about a bit.
The jetty: it's gone now, but was up the Westcliff end . I think it was the first jetty you came to heading east along the seafront, towards the pier and with Leigh behind you.