7 inches in 4 weeks

Southenders and out of towners - the irreversible countdown has begun. For in four weeks time Podophenia brings you a triple whammy wing-ding of Southend's most combustible bands.

Canvey's Double Headed Jester -  Eight Rounds Rapid making a long awaited return the their home ground and the ever-fizzing Ends heading up the event.

The freshly pressed vinyl of You Write the Hits (I Write the B Sides) will be available on the night along with some other collectibles and fancies.

Our last get together with The Ends ended up (scuse pun) with our first Podrophonic mosh-pit, so who knows what could happen with this triple fisted bill

Should you fancy placing a pre-order - give Norman Records a knock here

Eight Rounds Rapid 'Writeabout' - outselling singles by the Arctic Monkeys, The Strypes, Beady Eye and Biffy Clyro.

It's been just over a month since Eight Rounds Rapid Writeabout was launched, and the reviews and radio play for our first Podrophenia release keep on a'coming

Last week saw the single go Top Five on the 7" Bestsellers list at Norman Records, moving more copies than singles from  Beady Eye and Biffy Clyro that week.

And we're back on the list (Top Five again) this week, with 8RR outpacing The Strypes and the Arctic Monkeys (see above)

Repeat plays on local, national and international stations have had a radio cherry on the top with Steve Lamacq calling the single 'the angry, edgy sound of Essex...'

Should you fancy grabbing a copy before they're gone (remember it is a limited edition - and becoming more limited week by week).  Writeabout is available to order online, or via a visit at these notable emporiums...

Rough Trade - London

Norman Records - Leeds

Sister Ray - London

Borderline - Brighton

Adrian's - Wickford

Slipped Disc - Billericay

Fives Leigh Broadway

Pouch of Douglas - Westcliff (below)

Should you fancy a taste test of the Eight Rounds Sound try out new tune My Mate
 

A temporary (shoulder) break in service...

 

Apologies for the sudden silence blog-pals, but I took a recent tumble while biking. Slam! Straight down, left shoulder-side.. which turned out be a broken humerus - and in several places.

The couple of weeks since have seen amazing technicolour shoulder to elbow bruising, a swollen arm - and hand inflamed like a cricket glove

.  

Hopefully back to all the usual soon, but until then - lend an ear to the flip of Eight Rounds Rapid new single...

 

 And if you like what you hear - bag a copy from Norman Records

The Ghost of Christmas Future?

Released this coming Monday -  Jackie is it My Birthday is The Wolfmen's alternative/antidote to the usual Xmas offenders, X Factory winners and seasonally reheated hits: ASBOs in Skiwear, the drunken New York duet and that bloody Wham! song with it's dour sound of lolloping and lumpy intro notes.

Drew's already given it a cyber salute and Radio 2 have been peppering their schedules with Jackie

Keeping it in the family - literally, My brother Tronik Youth pieced together, compiled and edited a festively funky official new vid' for the single - which is now showing at both  The Wolfmen and Dandy Warhol HQ's.

Have a squint below and perhaps add Jackie is it My Birthday to your christmas playlist
The whispers are there's also a cheeky new Jackie remix due from Cornershop soon!

Dear Diary:1980 - October

Fight,fight,fight - when I had rumble with Rochard (pronounced roach-ard). Our school year's notoriously handy Judo bloke. It started when he whipped a few stinging flicks of his school tie at a mate o' mine in the changing rooms - and ended with me having quick a straightener with him. Although the PE teacher walked in put the handbrake any more fiesty hi-jinx.

In other news, it's a weekend in London at cousin Sylv's where we call in to see her best mate Nick Saloman (who stopped by the blog for a guest spot earlier this year) and his legendary record collection. Including the rare Hot Rods edition of the Damned's debut album and tales about his childhood chum Stuart Goddard. Dig about and you'll spot Nick's mum making an appearance in Adam Ant's biog!

The London weekend

Then later - an evening at the pub to see his Nick's band the Von Trap Family, who had managed to nip a couple of spins on the Peel show, where I wore my dad's old Mothers Pride coat for it and put purple crazy colour in my hair. Would you believe in moment of psychedelic synchronicity Nick Saloman as Bevis Frond has just released a new album - The Leaving of London

Crazy Horses

And those wild horses are back, busting loose and running riot through  the school grounds. Although I'm still no clearer who the strange girl is who follows me home. And sits on the bus!

Records added to collection include: ver Subs - Party in Paris (with Capt Sensible on keyboards), Adam Ant - Dog eat Dog and The Professionals with Steve Jones doing a B A Robertson barnet..and of course The Von Traps..

The Von Trap Family - Dreaming Again



UK Subs - Party in Paris



Top 75 Singles

Top 75 Albums

Dear Diary:1980 - September

September seems to be the month for horses and house parties - not at the same time obvs!

I say 'parties', they were actually more of a - buy some cider (Triple Vintage/ Merrydown) from the old dear at Unwins and get it down the hatch at a friends house - type tear-ups. For Hayes's socials, while the parents were out, the top-loader stereo -shaped and weighted like a mahogany block with wooden stalk-like legs - would be lumped down from upstairs for some music to booze to in the front room.

Horses: I'd chosen horse riding as a PE option but couldn't get on with it. The blooming things were typically either rearing up Lone Ranger style, or stopping for a steaming, streaming gusher of a comfort break. For extra curricular activity, we'd nip along to see J. Mowatt and mate Hayley Bill (not her real name, we added the surname for chuckles) daring a ride on Tempest. A flighty nag who was several hands too high for a 'rider' of my casual calibre, and why after being given a giddy-up slap on his back-end, Tempest shot off like a thundercrack, throwing me out of the saddle - but because of one foot still trapped in a stirrup, dragged  me behind like a sack of old spuds, bouncing across the tree roots and muddy bumps. I was black and blue for days after.

And photos too, (Michael) Hayes, (Jackie) Calvy and myself (with new bow tie) doing a photo booth squeeze at Southend Bus Depot (27th) - and Ye Olde School Photo taken on the 22nd

M.Hayes - top row, 3rd from left. Me  - next row, 5th from left. J.Calvy - bottom row - 4th from left

Top 75 singles

Top 75 albums

Records collected this month are: The Plasmatics, The Damned, more Spizz, more Splodgeness and Dead Kennedy's Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables - most which had been ear-wigged from late night listens to John Peel....

 The Plasmatics - Monkey Suit



Dead Kennedys - Chemical Warfare






A teaser trailer for next month's diary doings - where the entries are expanded in a Silvine notebook..
I haven't a clue who the 'weird girl' that follows me home is, or why I hide in the garage from her. And how about that! LOTR at our school!

Dear Diary:1980 - August

We posted a pic, some years back - of a buzzed-up teenage me wearing a just-bought muslin shirt (Anarchist Gang design). It was one of three tees bought from the ex-Seditionaries stock being sold off at Boy, while 430 King's Rd was being refitted as World's End. And behold, here's the very date in week two of our holiday (a week spent at home with trips and days out: Clacton, nan's...) 6th August!

After two weeks away, the record buying is back on track with everything from Spizz to Crass, being added to the collection (although I can't seem to find Discharge's (Fight Back). The Damned pitch in with three appearances - look away if you don't want to know the answers: White Rabbit (on import), the Rat Scabies produced Urban Gorilla and the entire band (minus Vanian) backing Magic Michael on Millionaire. We'll have more on this one-off curiosity later (with an exclusive from C Sensible)

But the key 45 here is Adam and the Ants. I'd heard 'Kings' deep into a Peel show one night - it may well have even been the playout track - the disjointed twanging and modal tones of Marco's riff, the clattering war drums and the tribal callback and chants crackling out of my radio at near-to-midnight, made it sound like nothing on earth - and of course I was hooked from the first hearing.

Well really! How's your blooming luck - all those stolen moments of flashes and snatches of free-eyefuls (if you'll pardon the phrase) from LOTR and she only goes and winks at my best mate Whitlow doesn't she (17th). Incredible! Although there's a snip of follow up news (22nd), but I'll leave that for another time...

Top 75 singles

Top 75 albums

A couple of oddities and obscurities rather than the obvious...The poppy-horror B-side to White Rabbit and an early doors version of 'Kings'...

The Satellites - Urbane Gorilla



The Damned - Rabid (Over You)



Adam and the Ants - Kings of the Wild Frontier (first version)




Speaking of Rabid - the 'rabbits film' noted on the 9th - is low budget, mutant bunny flick. Night of the Lepus

Dear Diary:1980 - July

It's holidays a go-go for July. A school camping trip to Danbury, where Dave Wright and I were wedged cat/fire brigade style up a tree while the school bus was rumbling its engines,  readying to head home.

Off to Surrey for and Auntie Sylv and Uncle Wally's, as I'd signed up for week long drama course in Leatherhead. I'd mentally doodled with the idea of becoming an actor at the time - but was plainly so shoulder-cringingly shy, it was never going to happen. Bless mum and dad for indulging me with a week to find out though. The week's group was an eccentric collective, mostly pooled from bored broker wives in velour tracksuits or soon-to-be-Sloane Ranger types. Except Eileen (22nd)- who looked like Oliver Cromwell in a tutu.

Keeping with the theme of theatrics, and amost as a  reprise of last month's Johnny Rotten run-out, was my improv school disco rendition of Sid Vicous doing My Way (16th). I'd slipped my copy of the single to the metalwork teacher turned DJ, and became so fired up when the slow-groaning opening notes came into play - I was off, miming Sid's gangly moves to the tune. It went down a treat. Spontaneous applause from the disco teens and pats on the back from pals. Even the RE tutor bought me a celebratory orange squash..

Next stop, Sale in Cheshire (never say 'in Manchester') for a week parked up with Uncle Les and Auntie Jean.  A run on the Corkscrew and terrifying dad by shaking our cable car during its slow-dragging, dangle-of-doom across the Alton Towers estate were trip highlights. All this and Blackpool too

A bit thin on records bagged this month though. Just Charlie Harper's (he of the UK Subs) solo single on snot-green vinyl..

Charlie Harper - Barmy London Army

Keep 'em peeled for a mad mix of metal and AOR in the charts

Top 75 singles


Top 75 albums

Seen in Swindle-vision at Southend's Odeon on the 19th - would you believe 31 years later, I'm nipping to our Rock 'n' Roll local to catch Tenpole Tudor in action this Saturday..



Sid does it his way...

Dear Diary:1980 - May

Phew! May is a month of high jumps and runarounds. Literally

Spooky doings on the 14th when a cracked and phantom voice started summoning me (by name) from the record player 'are you there' - 'come in'. Dark arts that had me bolting from the bedroom a'Scooby Doo style. Worra relief then. when, mystery solved! It turned out be a ham radio fan that had somehow beamed and broadcast himself from my speakers, trying to tap up a fellow enthusiast - one of the 'Spud' family across the street.

Sleeping in the park - not in anyway likely to be the soundest of nights snooze is it. Factor in being charged and chased by a local gang of older skinheads known as the Ant Hill Mob ( named after the Wacky Races mobsters - not for crime connections, more the bonehead-count they could cram into a single Cortina). Bolting off again to grab a few shattered hours in the back of garage forecourt 'Self Drive' transit van. No wonder Sunday was spent sleeping. And behold! Budgie spin-off series Charlie Endell Esq..

All that and,  a first shave, switching from DM's to Monkey boots (J J Burnell influence there) and local busybody 'Boing' poking his beak in.

Chart-wise it's just the Subs Teenage, but items bagged being: The Damned's debut album, and,  for the first time, dipping an indie toe outside Top 75 with two Crass albums and one single..

UK Subs - Teenage



Crass - Bloody Revolutions

Would you believe it -  the exact chart I flunked on my 'which year' Pop Master Q..

Top 75 singles

Top 75 albums

The full Persons Unknown foldout - incredible. And all hand drawn

Guest Blogger: Frying tonight with Fufu Stew

In 2008 Soul Chef, Vince from Fufu Stew rocked the PM blog to it's roots and boots with a thunderous mix of new wave nuggets (kindly re-upped here). Well, now just a shade over 3 years later, Vince is back and brought with him a sizzling griddle of wallopers and winners mixed from a recipe of garage, soul 'n' pysch.

You can taste test two of the included tunes at the bottom and tuck into the full fat menu below. A soul salute and tip of the chef's titfer is due to Vince for serving up this magnificently funky buffet.

Hello, kiddies.

My pal Mr. Mondo is good for giving me an outlet to play records too. It's been several years since we've shared mixes, but when he passed another invite for me to do a guest mix, I just couldn't pass it up... and because this wonderful blog is the epitome of freeform, I got the gumption to pull out these often underplayed gems from the corners of my crates and serve 'em up this way. I'm still a rookie when it comes to digging for the old rock and roll. I try to find garage 45's, psych and all the rest when digging in the field, but I usually come up with slim pickin's. I suppose that I don't put too much effort into it because the stuff I've heard on comps and from other blogs is about as easy to find as a hen's tooth. This mix represents some of the good stuff I was lucky to find, some of which were featured on Fufu Stew No. 9. All original grade 45's were used with the exception of the Portable Flower Factory track, which is a 7" played at 33.3 rpm... Minor restoration was performed on the records that were just a bit too hammered. Enjoy :)

Fufu Stew Goes Mondo... Again!

01 Come On Down To My Boat-Every Mother's Son (MGM)
02 Lose Your Money-The Moody Blues (London)
03 The Rub A Dub-The Fifth Estate (Jubilee)
04 Little Girl-Syndicate Of Sound (Bell)
05 Call Me Lightning-The Who (Decca)
06 From Home-The Troggs (Fontana)*
07 Shape Of Things To Come-Max Frost & The Troopers (Tower)
08 Fire-Five By Five (Paula)*
09 Gloria-Them (Parrot)
10 Let It All Hang Out-The Hombres (Verve Forecast)*
11 Soul Drippins-The Mauds (Mercury)
12 Runaway Child Running Wild-The 44th Street Portable Flower Factory
(Scholastic)*
13 Groovy Motions-The Fireballs (Atco)
14 Shoeshine Boy-The Lemon Pipers (Buddah)
15 Pictures Of Matchstick Men-The Status Quo (Cadet Concept)
16 The Real Thing Pt. 1-Russell Morris (Diamond)*
17 The Real Thing Pt. 2-Russell Morris (Diamond)*
18 Psychotic Reaction-The Count Five (Double Shot)
19 Smokes-? And The Mysterians (Cameo)*
20 Hide And Seek-The Sheep (Boom)
21 Apricot Brandy-Rhinoceros (Elektra)
22 From Way Out To Way Under-The Shadows Of Knight (Team)
23 Beggar Man-Southwest F.O.B (Hip)
24 I Put A Spell On You-The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown (Track)
25 Hot Smoke And Sassafrass-The Bubble Puppy (International Artists)

Thanks again and again Mr. Mondo, it's always a pleasure. Til next time kids, have fun(k) and as always, please be safe.

Peace and blessings.

Podrophenia 14 - April Fool's Day

Tomfoolery and Joker's Wild are a couple of vintage TV themes you'll find rattling around in the latest podcast from Piley and I, an April Fool's special - with a motif of comedy/novelty records. Contemporary comedians, retro radio stars and unlikely outings from cult rockers all get popped on the playlist..

Piley brings you an update on Malawi's cheek-clenching Windwatch situation, while I revisit Alternative 3, a Science Report spoof that backfired (unlike the good people of Malawi) causing East Anglia's own War of the Worlds style frightener.

Running to a budget-busting 12 tracks and 70+ minutes - you can grab our jamboree bag of tunes and chat right here..or iTunes if you prefer

Podrophenia 14 - April Fool's Day

One of my nearly, but not quite tracks...Billy Howard - King of the Cops

Dear Diary:1980 - March

Huzzah and hurrah! Finally, after two long months, the PVC trousers finally land on the doormat (7th) But what's this, just four days later - 'zip fell off' - Ho hum! They surely can't be the same pair that split on the 28th! That really would be too much...

Poor ol' Geoff 'narked' on the 9th by way of fire extinguisher hijinks was one of two parkies and the softy Mr Barrowclough to strict ol' Bill's Mr Mackay. Incidentally later 'narks' included: heaving the Witch's Hat clean off of it's pole, leaving it stranded on the asphalt. Balancing a bucket of water atop Geoff's office door, which, landed perfectly placed, upside down on his bonce and had us chased all around Hadleigh by police in panda cars.

Parkie Geoff looked exactly like Oscar Goldman, lived with his mum in Benfleet and took an unhealthy interest in my PVC troos ..rolling out regular references and questions about them. Bizarrely, last week, I had a call from an old mate (Jay, appears on the 19th Feb - when I crashed his bike) - who had just spotted Geoff in Benfleet, with dyed hair 'the colour of a dog's coat' and a briefcase and mac to complete the Oscar Goldman look .

Other scraps of note - pig's ear (10th) was some biology lesson offal/off cut found and flung about on the bus (number 24) - which I think, led to the next day's reports of a rash - charming!

A quiet month musically - just the UK Subs Warhead (did they ever release anything on black vinyl) so I'll give A and B sides - the Subs Another Kind of Blues album (17th) , The Damned's Music For Pleasure (14th) and the Sex Pistols File (22nd) round out the budding punk collection..

For those who haven't heard I met Charlie Harper at a gig and got talking to his wife about Ukulele's. Turns out they're both keen uke strummers - of course I had to ask: can they play the Warhead riff on their ukes? A giggled 'Yes' was was the reply.

UK Subs - Warhead



UK Subs - The Harper



Not quite hitting the hi-randomness range of last month's charts - both Top 75s are a polarised playlist of pick 'n' mix bits...

Top 75 singles

Top 75 Albums

Oh and trailers for

Nightwing - premium cheese, but a Mancini theme

Dear Diary:1980 - February

What still no PVC trousers! (ordered 4th of Jan, they were)

Get in the swim - seems to be the motif of month, with a micro-buzz for splashing about in our local venue - Runnymede. Originally built for swimming competitions, with an Olympic size pool and a deep end for competition diving - but no viewing gallery! Smart moves donuts!!

On a similar riff, one of the design faults/or bonuses (depending on your view - literally) of our school's PE changing rooms were the boys/girls interconnecting radiators, which, mirrored each other on either side of a breeze block wall - joined by a copper pipe running through a small 'I-spy' hole in the brickwork.

Those that were sly-eyed, prepared to kneel, squint and take a faceful of raging radiator heat -  could tune into the the other side's fruity doings like a fox staking out a hen house. Unless of course, some quick thinking gal had hung a towel over the 'hers' side of the rad's. Although no such barrier was in play when Chaselton settled himself in for a righteous eyeful on the 26th.

Chaselton (nickname:Mullen - don't know why) was the sort of boy you wouldn't get away with tagging as Educationally Sub-Normal now, but could in 1980. Mullen moved with the lumpy rhythm of stop-motion animation and was usually paired up with Turnidge - who, looked like Graham Garden and gave a gritted peeled-back, grin, but never spoke. Together these two odd-boys bobbed around the school grounds in their own outsider orbit.

Until Mullen, like the rest of us, heard his hormones calling and took a turn peeping into the wee gap of mystery and magnificence - only to have his beady-eyed freeview hand-braked by the untimely tapping of the PE teacher on his cringed shoulder. For a few over-heated moments, Mullen had finally come into alignment with the rest of us and was one of the gang. The gang being a rolling collective of sweaty faced fidgeters, knee-shifting like snipers for maximum accuracy.

Of course, the moment his lusty bubble burst, Mullen was once again the same old sack-like lad... who, later that year, we locked in the school greenhouse with pal Turnidge, bolting off to leave them silently shouting through the misty panes and tomato plants. Cruel, yes - but that was kids in the 80s. Who were probably just as cruel as kids of any other decade.

Appropriately given this month's radiator tales: singles bought were The Angelic Upstarts, Stiff Little Fingers, and The Vapours..

Angelic Upstarts - Out of Control



Stiff Little Fingers - At the Edge





Chartwise the rundown for this date in 1980 looked like this

Top 75 Singles
Top 75 Albums

Possibly the most bizarre album chart in human history - with Des O'Connor (17), snuggled betwixt John Foxx and The Clash. Dare to go below 40 and it's an all-out mind-fry. You have been warned pop pickers..

Polly's Got a Cracker

It's a creaky ol' cliche - but, *winces* - they really don't write 'em like they used to.
Take ex-Pickettywitchetty Polly Brown's Puff of Smoke. All the mechanics and constructions of perfect pop are contained within this firecracker of a track built entirely from glittering hooks, riffs and bridges with no fat, lumps or gristle guaranteed (surely one of the worst ad' slogans ever).

A genre-fusing tune, mind-melding 'Lectro bounce, Motown vocals, Eurovison swish and Northern Soul stomp. But why, since it's '75 release, has no one covered this spangly poppet. Surely Golfrapp's Crystal Tipps does Glitzy-Disco would be the perfect format for rebuffing this buried treasure.

Polly Brown ~ Up in a Puff of Smoke

Dear Diary - October

Hormonal boys and bangers: a teenage rampage of fidgety trigger fingers and blue touch papers. So what were the targets on our pocket-size pyromania hit list? Old boys dozing in cars waiting to collect their wives from the WRVS (bangers under, not in the cars) Mr Whippy dollops of doggy doings and poor ol' Heidi Roxborough (30th) discreetly reading in the park, had her library book lifted and a fast-fizzing banger placed bookmark style between the pages. Cue offstage pops, puffs and ever-diminishing smoking scorch holes receding from cover to cover.

Punky trimmings are taking hold with two T-shirts leopard skin and Sid Vicious bought from Nasty in Southend (now the brilliantly named Threads Atomic Dustbin)

Picture courtesy of Southend Punk

The Pistols may have been the Pied Pipers of punk who reeled me in - but The Damned were the band that maintained my momentum (note Love Song scrawled at the heading of last month's entry and Smash It Up on this.)

Oh, and the tick system for sick days - I uncovered these decoding notes scribbled on a back page. You'll notice most calendar sick day ticks are downward...

All this and a new scarf (black and white Grimsby colours - but inspired by The Stranglers). October's chart for this week of '79 looked like this - and singles added to the collection included...

I haven't ripped the vinyl of Smash It Up, but a version that appears to be demo, found on this compilation

The Damned - Smash It Up



Possibly the only song to ever feature the word 'gerrymander'

The Stranglers - Nuclear Device



John Du Cann - Don't Be a Dummy

Dear Diary - August

Summer's here and the time is right for caravanning in Weymouth. Through the medium of stealthy net detection, I've discovered the Pebble Bank Caravan Park was where my cousins and I pitched up for a week. Although mum and dad had the good sense to lodge at a local B & B, avoiding the sound of early morning boots, boots, boots marching up and down again from the army camp next door. But what a week: windy beaches, a Radio One Roadshow and a trip to the pic's for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (can you believe TV premiers were ever cinematic attractions?) Followed by a week in Codford St Mary.

I don't know if you remember, but the BBC ran a Spaghetti Western season over this summer, so slumbersome early morning paper runs (no, it didn't last) were made easier by pretending to be The Paperboy With No Name.

Planet Punk finally and firmly pulled me into it's dayglo grip with a studded wristband ordered (20th) possibly from the catalogue (2nd), a My Way TV special (27th) featuring Sid Vish and three Pistols album picked up in one month (16th and 25th) along with these singles ...

Dick I chavvy it's a Mudtown slusher

Sham 69 - Hersham Boys



The Specials - Gangsters



But it's not all noisy boy anthems - peeping through August's charts unearthed Bill Lovelady's forgotten guilty pleasure from the summer of '79

Dear Diary - July

Picking up where we left off then - what news does July bring?

Days off, larks with French Bangers and beach trips. But the terrifying highlight (fright-light?) takes place at the Rayleigh fair (21st - check the doodle) with a spin on a madly mysterious ride that I've never seen since.

How can you describe it? Imagine church pew seating, suspended garden swing style from a supporting frame. Position this inside a giant octagonal tombola cover of alternating coloured panels. As the communal seat is pulled back, the cover is spun fowards, creating a whirling illusion of increasingly, hight-tilting seats - until the angle begins to feel impossibly steep.

It may sound simple but it's a ride of such eye-widening, giddy terror that I've never forgotten it. Neither I'll bet have bleached jeans and bull-necked boneheads or spikes 'n' studs punks in the front pews who screamed like piglets and flung themselves to the floor as an escape from tumbling into the 'void'

I've found out it's something based on the haunted swing principle, a ride that seems to have slipped out of circulation since.

Chart-wise July looked like this (Thom Pace though - who he?) with singles snapped up being...


So what shall we spin? How about something punk(ish) and something disco(ish) as that seems be the mood of the month. Aged 13, clocking Sid Vicous riding about in a motorbike jacket, no helmet, no shirt and padlock 'n' studs bling was possibly the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Ps it's a Rabbit padlock available here if you're tempted

Dear Diary - June

Did I ever tell you my The Day I Met Paul Gambo (George Michael, Limahl and Leee John) story?

What's June's news then?

A new bike. Not brand new - but some crazy arrangement built by and bought from my biker neighbor: a combo of racing frame, chopper handlebars, banana seat and an easy rider back rest towering as tall as my neck - a snip at 20 notes

The annual School Arts Festival featuring a one off appearance of our KISS trib’ band (read miming to Detroit Rock City). Paul Stanley if you’re asking.

Food poisoning, sickness and never noshing on Leigh Cockles again (9th)

The Radio Luxembourg Roadshow rolled into Southend. Where, hurrah and hats in the air - I took first prize in the Bits ‘n’ Pieces pop quiz, walking away (age 13) with a crate load of Crocodillo sparkling wine. A few bottles, but nowhere near the full compliment of all 24 made it back to mum and dad’s drinks cabinet if I’m honest.


The last week of June's chart looked like this with singles bought being: The Skids and UK Subs (did I ever tell you my The Day I Met Charlie Harper story) I’m guessing the Anarchy logo is a hidden symbol for Anarchy in the UK (probably as I was still slightly guarded about coming out as a punk fan to my parents).



The Skids - Masquerade



UK Subs - Stranglehold



Taumata-whaka-tangi-hanga-kuayuwo
tamate-aturi-pukaku-piki-maunga
horonuku-pokaiawhen-uaka-tana-tahu
mataku-atanganu-akawa-miki-tora

The Lone Ranger - Quantum Leap



The Johnny Rotten Juke Box Jury (30th) incident can be viewed below, and the press cutting is taken from my scrapbook previously seen here..

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.

Dear Diary - April

It's the return of 'Urcha' - Son of Urcha perhaps? Bit of a dry month entrywise, apart from new jeans, a karate poster (still in my mum's loft: the poster, not the jeans), one lost pound and slow down in the disco business.

Strangely, several of the tunes from this chart were bought but not captured in the calendar (Pop Muzik and Lucky Number were nearly, but not quite bagged too). So what Pick of the Pops should we go for..

Silly Thing - well, we had the Pistols last month
I'm an Upstart - too rowdy
Cool For Cats - strong possibility of getting blog-whacked
(I had a DMCA takedown last week)

Meaning it can only be a reworked theme tune that is an urgent anthem for teenage tear-ups..

The Dickies - Banana Splits




If you noticed Chic's I want your love in the chart above, there's a reggae refit right here if you fancy grabbing.

PS the ghost of Malcom McLaren haunts this chart.

Silly Thing - sleeve design by college chum Jamie Reid
Pop Muzik - written and performed by college chum Robin Scott
Siouxsie And The Banshees - managed by McLaren's assistant Nils Stevenson, whose brother Ray Stevenson was the Pistols first official photographer