Thursday 17 January 2013

Hello Peeps - another throwback to the 80's and January

Yes, its another year, so its like Groundhog day for me as I trawl the archives looking for some nonsense to write nonsensically about, and yes I found it. Issue 9, 1983, it was all urban angst, no money and unemployement, mine closures, marches, or, or, or, megabucks, big brick like mobile phones with battery pack attachements that looked more at home on a world war II battle field, oh and big hair with a bucketload of kajagoogoo. Kajagoogoo was a name that Chris Tarrant had introduced during a game he had on Tiswas.

Tiswas, the saturday morning show when most of us were heading to bed, had its riotous moments, some say the dark anarchistic undertones when buckets loaded with goo, aka, sticky yellow shit, were poured onto someone's head, and the bairns would shout "Da Da loooook, he kajagoogoo on his head...or maybe not... I need to get out more.....or maybe not as the pictures suggest, I used to go out too much some say. I used to call it my humanitarian work.

I do remember by 1986 finding myself nearly run over by a guy from a band called Bros, well i say band, more a couple of erses who the record company decided to advance too fast a car to. I was drinking in one of my London dives and they clearly came to join us. Within 5 minutes we were going outside for a pagger, nothing to do with trying to run me down, that's excusable, as an 80's drunk i was frequently an obstacle for car drivers, so fair play, I never minded them hitting me, even the Higsons managed a hit out of it, but when someone steals your drink and he has a stupid name like Matt Gloss, clearly the son of a painter who never used oils, anyway, he steals my pint and I lose it, he argues over his pronunciation of his name, and I argue its not my fault he cant pronounce his own name, he raises his hand to push me and I completely lose it, he buys me a fresh pint and all is well, but he was warned not to come back.... and we never saw him in the pub again, or the charts for that matter......  Take Care, Vinny



Our best cover was Issue 9, the drawing was superb and the lumberjack shirt that Ian McCulloch was wearing set off the whole ensemble. We were running out of the white letraset letters but had enough to complete the bottom section highlighting interviews with the Farmers Boys, David Weddell from the Happy Family, Ralph Smith from Europeans in Tropic and Brian Sinclair of the Tayside Bar.The Farmers Boys seemed to pick up where Orange Juice left off, leaving the crowds very happy and finding that good songs and good vocals are all you ever need. In the interview Roy Terre got the low down on moving from the Higsons label to EMI, the usual comparisons with other bands but finding common delight in the Monochrome Set. Finally Baz gave us his address so you could all write to him in Halesworth. To put it in context they were signed at the same time as Kajagoogoo a band that rarely got a mention in Deadbeat. The interview with Davie Weddell confirmed it was the end of the Happy Family as sadly a lot of broken promises and a general apathy had left the band with no gigs and no appetite. This issue also had a review of the Plastic Flies a poor punk band who were encouraged to split up, quick as well as confirming that Edinburgh was duller than Glasgow, or as Ian McCulloch put it during the gig at the Playhouse, "Glasgow was much more fun". The Happy Hints page had the legendary Cocktail Cat sketch, which I'm sure Auntie Lynne and Auntie Kath wrote long before its subsequent use. They had fine inventive minds and produced three ways to make trousers longer which proved very useful when drainpipes and white socks drifted out. Sew on extensions included Arabian curtain fringes, Russian mink fur fabric and technicolour ethnic beads. There was a lot of news for February not least in Dundee where the Dance Factory had 3 gigs including Eurythmics at the mighty price of £2.50. Some unknown singer called Madonna had her debut single released by Sire, a self penned song called "Everybody" as we wrote back then, oh and Keith also said "Madonna is an accomplished ballet dancer and actress who turned to music in the late 70's learning to play drums and keyboards." Next thing you'll be telling me she can sing too and she was only 3 in the 70's, and she looks ok getting her kit off at 60,....ooops 50,,,,.

There's a review of the St Andrews Festival '83 - Bayneys quasi nightclub - well - for 4 days the local community centre was turned into a venue - it seems they had a Dundee night on Wed 9th feb with Swing Club, AAGA and Scott Gowans, followed by Saturday 12th with So you think you're a cowboy and The Frontiers, Wed 16th it was St Andrews finest with Kix and the Rhyme Tray (Paul Milner & Derek Anderson) and finally Saturday 19th saw APB with Stereo Exit supporting. At £1.50 a ticket you had be wealthy in this part of the country, it was 50p a pint in the bars remember!

China Crisis get a page dedicated to their 12" EP with most emphasis on Greenacre Bay, which I can still sing to myself as I type. "Greenacre Bay,...repeat ad nauseum..." superb...