PROLOGUE:
If you’re lucky/unlucky to live as long as me(55)life changes dramatically. You realise that the half a stone of girth you’re carrying is either going to go now, or forever hold it’s place. You realise that no longer do you attract most women that you meet, and that perhaps the younger ones may even think you’re an old fart! [Read more →]
Nick Fisher and I have been having a major email conversation about Women. Probably our favourite subject aside from Music! Nick’s wife is in her early Fifties, as is the Mad Princess, my girlfriend. Nick and I are rampant old(well, middle aged)gits, whilst our other halves are far more reserved when it comes to sex. And I spose we’ve been discussing why this should be so, and I think I have a number of insights. [Read more →]
For us hardcore Ramones fan, any post mortem utterence from the Holy 4 is manna from Heaven. Sometimes you have to put aside your predjudice and use your imagination to enjoy music. [Read more →]
When I was a young boy my Ma was the ladies bathing hut attendant at the Maldon prom lake. And generally, tho’ especially in the school summer holidays, I lived on Maldon prom. It was a secure feeling to know my Mother was close by, if I needed the odd sixpence to spend at the kiosks on top of the hill leading to the lake, or comfort of some variety. [Read more →]
I first saw Kelly in the Rock bar where Wade and I used to hang out and drink Fireballs, on Federal highway in Deerfield beach early 1989.
She was with a person who she initially told me was her sister. Actually she was a friend from her neighbourhood in Howard beach, a district of New York, a fellow Dusty. A Dusty is someone who smokes Angel dust, PCP, a heavy duty anaesthetic.
Kelly was a unique looking gal, [Read more →]
When it was first announced that the remaining Beach Boys would reunite initially I was filled with dread. Mostly because of Mike “Dick Dastardly” Love, the major villian of the Beach Boys history. On the Smile dvd Brian says Love hated Smile, and when he’s asked if they’ll ever work together again, Brian firmly answers in the negative.
So many people have said Love told Brian not to “f**k with the formula” as early as the start of Pet Sounds in 1965. Amazing then that Love has taken time out from suing his cousin(which he has done numerous times over the past 20 years) to work with him again. [Read more →]
This piece was written 4-6-12.
I switched on the radio yesterday afternoon, to hear a DJ in his best BBC tones inform us that “the nation is celebrating the Queen’s Diamond jubilee this weekend”. Really? Which nation might that be then? Certainly not my nation. Save for one Union Jack, there’s no bunting or banners, and not a whiff of a street party in these parts. [Read more →]
I’ve recently been listening to “Imagine” by John Lennon, and also reading “Lennon remembers” by Jann Wenner, which I bought in 1972. Lennon hypes his first solo album throughout the book, so I delved into the archive for my vinyl copy, and also found a bootleg cd of sessions for the John Lennon/Plastic Ono band album.
I suppose John Lennon was my first hero proper, after my Pa and Jed. Jed reminded me of Macca, with a touch of Lennon thrown in for good measure. The perfect human being! Of course there was Spiderman, the Hulk and Silver Surfer before John, but I digress…… [Read more →]
I’m seem to have fallen out of love with the net. It’s been a gradual process these past couple of months.
Over the Christmas period I contracted a dreadful cough, which got so bad I managed to crack a rib or two, and slip a disc in my back as a result. Then this ghastly flu descended. Quite frankly I’ve never been that ill in my life, and thought I would die, and welcomed the idea as an escape from the awful pain!
As a result of a pony ISP,(you know who you are, Primus!) my landline and net went down on Christmas eve, tho’ it had been on/off since the 16th of December. [Read more →]
I had a ghastly and unsatisfying meal on November the first 2011, completely lacking in any nutrients. I had to eat my own hat! Why you ask? Because the Beach Boys SMiLE was finally released! This monstrous meisterwerk, much beloved by scholars of the arcane for over four decades finally gets the full treatment it deserves…… I think! For me, since the first bootleg cassette I had of it in the early Eighties, it’s been a major musical obsession. [Read more →]
