As with everything else they've ever done, the Mighty 'DC get it right when it comes to Christmas. What else could you possibly want to find under your yuletide, or for that matter any other kind of, tree other than a "Mistress For Christmas". Hooray!
Let's hear Sonny Boy Williamson's thoughts on the holiday season with "Santa Claus"
Wise words indeed, from none other than Gary Glitter Esq. Here's the Black Crowes doing "Back Door Santa", proper Christmas Rocking and they have a new album on the way in the New Year so don't put your head in the oven just yet.
If you, like I, have often wondered what would happen if a couple of the Sex Pistols joined Thin Lizzy then wonder no more!. Here, as the first post of December, is a Christmas number dedicated to Kenny White.
A "mate" of mine rang me from Lodon last night to kindly let me know that he's going to see Led Zep at the O2. He's knocking off some bird from Hello magazine and so has secured a free ticket.
Sickened.
He described telling me about it as "dancing in front of a fella in a wheelchair".
I still rate the night the Coff and I went to see Page & Plant at the Point as one of the best concerts I've ever seen. I don't think there's much chance of a tour as Plant seems to be, quite understandably, interested in other things. His new album with Alison Krauss is a humdinger.
Good luck to Norman Mailer who passed over the weekend. I actually met him on two occasions and he was very pleasent to me when there was nothing in it for him. My favourite story about him is the one where he nearly lost his eye to some punk in the late seventies/early eighties. Mailer though the young ruffian had implied that his dog was homosexual (it was a poodle for christ's sake), "Nobody calls my dog a faggot!", Nice
Go and read;
The Naked and The Dead
The Executioner's Song
Oswald's Tale
The Fight (Best book on sports I have ever read, although that's a pretty short list)
here's a bizarre clip of Mailer biting off part of Rip Torn's (excuse me) ear after the actor has hit him on the head with a hammer. You are unlikely to see many authors acting the mick like this.
Check out this great documentary on Philo from the BBC for one week only, still the greatest Irish rocker of them all.
Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour is back on the wireless in the States (it'll be back on th BBC soon - it will never, ever be on RTE) It's very heavily scripted but I really enjoyed the first series, a lot of great music ,a good 50% of which I hadn't heard before, which is saying something at this point. This is the way radio is supposed to be, turning you onto stuff you missed, one person's record collection out on 
display for the rest of us. Don't get me started about the state of radio (and television) in this country because it will be very hard to shut me up. We're at the dawn of Irish digital radio, will RTE drop the ball? Does the Pope have a Sunday gig?
Tune into Series 2. If you dig this then you should really check out Little Steven's Underground Garage. Another bloke who knows his onions.
Addendum: News just reaches us that Bob has done a car advert for the sponsors of his show to the shock of a lot of his fans. So what? the show stays on the air and Bob gets a few quid and possibly a new car, it's called show BUSINESS folks.
It's been Joe Strummer week around my house. First off, I finished the really excellent Redemption Song: The Definitive Biography Of Joe Strummer by Chris Salewicz (his Mick and Keith is also highly recommended). It's easily one the best, and certainly one of the most thorough, rock biogs I've ever had my hands on. The only problem being that when reading about a life like Joe's, one feels only jealously and inadequacy at one's own meagre existence. Even during his so called lost years between the end of the Clash and the emergence of the Mescaleros, he really seemed to be having a ball. Bastard.
I also laid out for the DVD of Joe Strummer:The Future is Unwritten. reading the afore-mentioned biog filled me in on the fact the Julien Temple, the director, was a close mate of Joe's and it certainly shows here. This is rock n' Roll documentary as it should be, a film worthy of it's subject. Go and buy it, even if you don't like Joe, a great rockin' history, the footage is revelatory. The Clash showed how to do it, get in, make one of the greatest records of all time, change everything, stop, do not reform.
Earthquake Weather, Joe's first solo non soundtrack album, isn't the greatest record ever made and not a patch on the great work he later did with the Mescaleros (If you're reading this then I hardly need tell you that The Clash were one of THE great groups and their records, for the most part, reflect this) but it's still worth a listen. It's out of print at the moment as far as I'm aware (no doubt it'll be re-released at some stage) so here, for your delectation, is one of the highlights, Island Hopping.
I was lucky enough to see Joe Strummer live three times (with the Mescaleros of course, I'm not that bloody old), twice in the Olympia and once over in London supporting the Who at Wembley Arena. I've great memories of the Olympia shows - His changing of the lyrics of 'A Message To You Rudi' to incorporate mentions of O' Connell Street, His leg going a mile a minute as he shouted at the band, half his age, to hurry up into 'White Riot', White Man in Hammersmith Palais and Joe walks back out at the end to urge us to support local groups. Joe was the man, plain and simple. To Paraphrase Bob Dylan, talking about Johnny Cash, You could set your compass by Joe.
If anyone knows where I can get hold of some of the Joe Strummer radio shows from the BBC world service then let me know.
Last week we went to see the reformed Police in Croke park. This was one that we had all been looking forward to. The Coff, as a drummer, has been a fan of Stewart Copeland since he was a young lad and I had just finished reading the rather fine
"One Train Later" by Andy Summers, it's a great read and the best book I've ever read about the joy of learning how to play an instrument. Taking all this into account, it's very sad to relate that the concert was a huge let down. The pacing was all wrong, a lot of the songs seemed to be taken at a canter rather than a sprint and Sting (what the hell happened to Sting after the Police broke up?) didn't seem that bothered. In fact, Copeland and Summers both played very well but were let down by Mr. Consciousness. Of all the concerts we went to this year, the weather was the best we got and the stadium is fantastic but it just didn't make it. If I could compare it to the U2 shows in the same venue a couple of years ago, when they set the stadium on fire, it really came up short.
.jpg)
I see that Bowie's Buddha of Suburbia is back in the shops. This is the one that first alerted hard core fans like myself that the man's creativity wasn't completely gone. The cd had been out of print for years and your's truly, the fool that he is, paid a fortune for it on ebay a couple of years back. Anyhow, if you were to sly over here for a minute, you might be able to catch it for nowt. You didn't hear it from me of course.
A lot to catch up on...
first off, what some people have said will be the last outdoors Rolling Stones show (although I doubt it), Aug 18th, Slane Castle 2007. The weather yet again let us down as we hit town early to buy bus tickets to take us from Dublin out to th
e wilds of Slane so we hit the Oval on Abbey Street to wait it out. The bartender knew which side his bread was buttered on and stuck 40 Licks on the stereo leading to a massed sing along at 12.30 in the afternoon - nice. By the time the weather cleared and the old gang had assembled - Coff, Willy, Denis, Murt, Kenny and myself, it was getting on in the afternoon and a good many pints had gone down. Stopping only for a t
asty burger and a trip to the off licence, we made our way to the bus stop only to be greeted by a queue that you could see from space and the rain started again. We made a deal with a taxi man and were on our way although we did end up with a day's march to the actual gig when we got there, that said we could enjoy a few beers in the back of the cab so it's all swings and round abouts.
Missed both Frankie Gavin and the great Tinariwen by the time we got there so I can't say much about them. The Hold Steady sounded like they were playing with a blanket over their heads and the Charlatans were really shite and totally out of place. This didn't matter a jot once the opening blast of 'Start Me Up" rang out to begin two hours of fantastic rock n' roll thrills. Jagger made frequent mention of the fact that it had been 25 years since they had been in the venue (and his attempt at Irish gave everyone a great laugh) and in fairness, apart from the recent "Rough Justice", the set list could have been exactly the same. Highlights included a great "Dead Flowers", "Midnight Rambler", James Brown's "I'll Go Crazy" and the encore of "Brown Sugar" with Jagger running round like a man half my age, not to mind his. Great, great show. Getting home from Slane was, as always, a pain in the arse but I did manage to run into Don Brady in the Oak playing the part of the drunkest man in the universe.
Electric Picnic
Friday
Good old Electric Picnic took place last weekend. Three days of music and sitting 
round in a field drinking- how can you beat that? Spent the Thursday night in Hayes' gaff hitting the booze and got in to the campsite the next morning about 10.30. All set up and sitting down with a drink by noon - the cocktail hour. We'd bought a load of cans and managed to sneek in a bottle of Absolute while we were at it so we were in fine form before we heard a note and in fact Friday was a bit confused. I remember seeing the Good, The Bad and The Queen (great), a bit of Manic Street Preachers (alright), a bit of
Bjork (Confusing, when you're drunk) and not being able to even get near the tent for Modest Mouse (boo!). Night ended for me at the Bacardi tent, sipping cocktails and chatting to the 
nice English bloke who was telling me how he got there and then, casually, took a pair of glasses out of his pocket and put them on. Then he turned them on, something out of an Elton John nightmare. I had to ask him to take them off before I could follow what he was saying. Bed for me.
Saturday
Most refreshed after yet another night asleep on the ground and the breakfast of champs - warm beer and half a pack of Camels. First musical stop of the Day was Marlena Shaw who wished us peace and love several times but no hate and war for some reason. Good bloody singer through. This was followed by an extended stay in the old style saloon, which made me feel very much at home in my Roy Rogers gear. Nicest bouncers in the world but what's the story with this eco cup business - pay a €3 deposit with your first drink and then hang on to your glass, the theory being you can leave it back to the bar at the end of the night (at which point surely you'd just want a last drink?). I'm all about saving the world but don't give me a pain in the arse. Back to the main stage for the fantastic Easy Star All-Stars, who actually make Pink Floyd and Radiohead listenable, blasting it out in a reggae style. Jarvis Cocker next, great show, great arse wiggling although he could do
with a few more songs. The Polyphonic Spree were a bit too over the top for me, the singer having the biggest god complex I've witnessed since Micheal Flatley. "Supergay" was one comment bandied about ( this comment lead to a long tirade from Myself and Jim aimed squarely at the always immaculately turned out Niall O'Doherty, the final remark containing reference to the fact that there is a lot of soap in the world but you are only in the possesion of one arse) while "a poor man's Arcade Fire" was another. I'm not even mad about Arcade Fire so you can see where this left me.
The Jesus and Mary Chain gave it out in fine style - loud and rockin' and even seemed close to having a fight on the stage - result. Tried in vain to get into see the Beastie boys but to no avail. At this point I headed for the tent as I was falling asleep standing up, getting old you see. Things I missed - everyone getting a bit browned off at the Chemical Brothers (I've never seen the attraction in watching someone play records) and Hayes jumping on the Carousel while out of it. In a misjudged attempt to impress a member of the opposite sex, he claims, he used his hat to whip the wooden horse then jumped from beast to beast and finally held on between two of these mighty animals, stage coach style. He slept alone that night.
Sunday
Woke early on Sunday and managed to use the surprisingly clean facilities and get a 
proper breakfast with coffee and actual food. Then back to the vodka and beer. In with Rachel and Hayes for the spiritual sounds of the Dublin Gospel Choir (great version of Stevie Wonder's "As") and then over to the chill out stage to spend my Sunday morning getting down with the hippies (interesting chat with the vendor who was out of it on acid on the way). Lovely set up here and enjoyed some mellow sounds with my beer, special mention to the dude out of Kila who is some musician. Back to the main stage for Horace Andy giving us a bit of Studio One. We then went in search of the "special guest" in the tent and realised after about 30 mins that we were in the wrong one, but got in to see the end of the Beastie Boy's "secret" show and out of the torrential rain. Did 
get to hear them do "Sabotage" however, which was all I wanted frankly. Back to the main stage in the drizzle for a fine show from Soul II Soul. Went back to my tent at this point for some supplies and had my times mixed up so we had to listen to Rilo Kiley on the radio which was annoying but made up for it by sneaking in several cans for Iggy and The Stooges on the main stage. The man is a force of nature and, as always, gave a fine account of himself. Life, it would appear, begins at 60.
Took a lift home at this stage with the redoubtable Jim Roche (bit of panic in the car park when the van got stuck in the mud) as my daughter was starting school the next day and staying on would only have shown me, as the man says, to be the leading asshole of the state.
Great festival, highly recommended but how many more years left before the whole world turns up to it.
Lastly, good luck to Pavarotti. I'm no expert on his music but that was a proper star who carried himself well. Remember him this way.
I've recovered sufficiently from last weekends revels to attempt to weave the tale. Regular readers will have already heard the savage tale of this year's Oxegen experience and how I predicted that this would be a much sweeter affair, not least because of the different promoter. I was right, of course. An example of how to do it right and it made the return to "real life" all the more heartbreaking.
Friday night we only made it as far as the Hayes house in Portarlington and sat up half the night boozing it up good-o and listening to classic eighties rock from the likes of Toto, Journey, The Jovi and their ilk. Someway to prepare for a country festival says you, the only way says we.
The weather actually seemed to be ok on the Saturday morning as we drove from Portarlington, through my home town of Tullamore and on to Mullingar. Needless to say we were all dieing and we had to stop and buy even more beer because we had taken a large chunk out of our weekend allocation on the first night, but you'll have that.
Very smooth sailing when we got to the car park as the Coff refused to stop his jeep until we were ordered to on pain of death. This cut out a lot of that walking shit that can so ruin a kick off, we got our provisions in and got the tent up just before the rain started again.
As we're becoming old hands at this, a lot of other punters spotted our tent raising skills and requested help with their own meagre efforts. I was having none of it and took a seat with the first few cans although, the Coff, Willy and the Hayes all helped out. I may add that one of these 'gents' was up making a fine breakfast the next morning and wouldn't even offer the boys the time o' day so we'll be watching for him again.
Finally made it into the arena at about three after a lot of drinks by the tent, was it still raining? Can't remember to be honest. The campsite was pretty much right beside the main stage but our first port of call was Ricky Skaggs and Kentucky Thunder on stage two - an early highlight, fantastic music played by superb musicians. He had the crowd eating out of his hand.
Caught a bit of Aimee Mann at the main stage, very good she was too before suffering through Steve Earle's desperate set. He needed a band as one dude playing protest songs to a half drunk crowd in the rain does not a good experience make. He tried with "Galway Girl" and "Copperhead Road" but he was a let down. The same could not be said for The Waterboys who gave great show, special mention goes to Steve Wickham's fantastic coat but what was the muckball version of "Walk On The Wild Side" about? They were followed by another disapointment in the form of Kris Kristofferson who again delivered a dreary set with just an acoustic guitar and appeared to be reading some of his lyrics out. The set was enlivened somewhat by the fantasticly staggering exit of Hayes as he headed for the hills, worse for wear.
Once Kristofferson finished, I headed for the tent myself and found Hayes half in and out of it but couldn't move him, I took a seat cracked open a few cans and listened to the Christy Moore set (very good, if you like the sort of thing) in comfort - that's how close the camping was to the stage!
Day 2
After 9, yes 9, hours of sleep (amazing what a shead load of booze and the absense of children can do to a body) I awoke fresh and well to face the day. Once the breakfast 
rolls, Coffees and morning ablutions had been taken care of we again hit the beer in the presence of the sun for a change. Headed in a bit earlier this time to catch a fine if subdued set from Niall Toner followed by equally fine turns from The Hillbilly All-Stars, The Hothouse Flowers (the great lost Irish band) and the Blind Boys of Alabama (almost enough to give the boy religion). Caught a bit of Kila at stage 2 and then a really great set from Paul Brady, a surprise to me, on the main stage. When he played "The Island" you could hear a pin drop and it was genuinely affecting. Well done Sir!
The Fest closed with certainly the finest shirt of the weekend which covered the back of the mighty Glen Campbell, who played all the hits and included a Beach Boys medley - result!
A surprise finish to the musical part of the fest took place as we joined a queue for food, a discussion broke out on the merits of Whitney Houston which prompted yours truly to step out of the line and gave a full throated (HELLO!) version of "The Greatest Love Of All" much to the amusement of all and sundry.
The line forms here for next year.
This is amazing - get it while you can, it won't be there for long. If anyone has "Revolved", I'm missing a few of the tracks, give me a shout.
The One band we saw three times while we were in Tennessee were the incomparable Dempseys. I've really never seen anything like them, a three piece band of jaw-dropping musical skill. You'll probably have already 
seen them without knowing as they featured heavily in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line. Their repertoire focused on early rock n' roll and country (why not?) and their guitar player, Bradley Dean Birkedahl, might be the greatest I've ever seen close up. His medley of the styles of all his favourite guitar players has to be heard to be believed. Joe n' Ron on the bass and drums aren't too shabby either. If these guys ever tour Europe, people won't know what hit them.
Still haven't got around to weaving the tale of the Nashville visit so here goes.
We got into town on the Friday afternoon, after a drive down the music highway, about 200 odd miles from Memphis. A nice touch was that when I stopped for a jacks break it was at the official George Jones/Roy Acuff rest stop. Does this state take it's musical heritage seriously or what.
When we hit Broadway looking for our hotel, little did we know that the CMA Fan Fair was
in full swing, meaning the streets were teeming with country music fans of all shapes and sizes. The Coff almost crashed the car trying to get to the cowboy stores so we could get tooled up, we bought a fine collection of hats, boots and belt buckles so we could fit in, although we really only succeeded in standing out of course. High tailed it to the hotel, put on the gear and headed back out - the first thing that happened is as the 
four of us were waiting on the corner for a taxi, a baseball wearing fool in a truck roared out "Faggots!" in our direction. This upset us somewhat until we realised that we looked like extras from "Midnight Cowboy" standing on the corner, trying to drum up some business (see Photo).
Up and down the fine bars on Broadway, one thing to be aware of in Tennessee is that no matter what dive you go into, every band will be absolutely fantastic and prove the axiom that there aren't a lot of guitar players in Dublin, just a lot of people who own guitars. My favourite boozer was quickly decided upon as Tootsie's World Famous Orchid Lounge, I'd been hearing about this place for years in various books and documentaries but nothing prepares you for what a kip it first appears to be and how quickly you fall in love with the place. It's on two levels with a stage just inside the door and another one at the back upstairs, they advertised live music from 10 in the morning and I felt it my duty to put this to test on the Sunday morning which lead to a truly great day of boozing. The staff are great and ferociously easy on the eye and the clientele were second to none in their quest for a good laugh and a story. A GREAT spot. Let the pictures speak a thousand words...
I must point out that there are other things to do in Nashville apart from drinking, check out the old Ryman Theatre where they used to hold the Grand Old Opry before 
they built the facility out of town. We got the backstage tour with a sweet old dear who was near to retirement, three times she asked me where I was from and told the same stories over and over again but it was nice, they'll let you record a cd of your own beautiful voice as well but too many of Tootsie's cocktails meant this was simply out of the question for me.
Don't miss the Country Music Hall of Fame and RCA Studio B tour. They must have spent millions on the hall of fame, a fantastic building with exhibits on everyone who's ever mattered in country music - Jimmie Rodger's or Hank Williams' guitar? check. Merle Haggard's 
government pardon? check. The Original sign from Nudie's Taylors in LA? check. Elvis' matching gold Cadillac and piano? of course. Look at the photo of the "Waylon" wall - class.
Studio B is where anyone who was anyone recorded, it was Elvis' favourite studio in Nashville and they let me play the piano - heaven.
Make a trip to Ernest Tubb's Record Store of course, and don't miss the Grand Ole Opry. Warning: while it was great to go to the Opry, it does celebrate the worst in country music as well as the best, i.e. on the night we went we got to see Porter Wagoner which was pretty fantastic but also had to sit through some god awful "new" country by overweight no-counts who couldn't even be bothered to get dressed up for the occasion.
All in all, I'd go back tomorrow.
Here's something special for you, not long now 'til The Stones hit Slane for what should be a downright groovy day out. In preparation for that here's their 1974 released tour film, shot on their 1972 tour of America, i.e. when they were just about at the height of their powers. No, I couldn't get my hands on the infamous "Cocksucker Blues"(I've never even seen it so if anyone can help me out...) but here's the replacement, "Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rolling Stones". Ignore the fact that the camera man appears to be in love with Jagger and that the sound isn't amazing, it's the Stones!, with Mick Taylor!
Get it while you can, it won't be there for ever.
It seems that my favourite promoters have dropped the ball again.
Worst conditions in 100 years? come on!
No stewards to move "opportunistic" fans?
If I had paid €500 for a ticket. I'd be feeling just a tad put out.
There was a report on the evening news showing the traffic chaos and then interviewing people as they walked out early. One bloke complained about the diva constantly taking breaks during the show, comparing her to to Bruce Springsteen playing for three hours straight, after he'd paid €200 for the ticket, a fair point surely.
On the other hand, I found it hard to feel sympathy for the woman who complained that the "helis" (yes, she said "Helis") let her down and she had to take a car. Rock n' Roll.
More bollocks about the way concert goers get ripped off in Ireland as today's Irish Times has this about charges;
Event promoters will have to include booking fees and other charges in their advertised ticket prices under new regulations due later this year.
The measure, designed to ensure consumers know the overall price of an event and do not have to pay "hidden" charges, and which is expected to be introduced following a period of consultation, is to be announced today by Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Micheál Martin.
The move comes amid growing consumer complaints over the price of event tickets. For example, tickets for this weekend's Barbra Streisand concert, which was beset by traffic chaos and bad weather, cost up to €550, even before additional charges were added.
Here's a review from someone who was there, sounds like a real fan who got jipped and check the link at the bottom for the threat of legal action, I shall expect a letter soon.
Just had to share the new purchase, Rattlesnake skin boots - class, and yet, ridiculous.
Another view here.
Nikki Sixx out o' the Crue has just been on the phone looking for me to give them back.
 |
| provided by http://www.hit-counter-download.com . |
