Deadbeat: November 2021

Saturday 13 November 2021

November Deadbeats - 1982 - 1985 - Fanzines, tapes and singles as the clocks go back

So many bands, so many years, tears and putting back the clocks! In OCtober when the clocks go back it should help us get out of bed easier, but for me it was just an excuse to have another 3 pints, roll another joint or find the pernod I'd hidden from the flatmates on my return from France. Jim, Si and I famously went to Paris and the year earlier I'd been lucky enough to go backstage to see the Clash after we'd met the road manager aloft the Eiffel Tower. A few fun size mars bars later he got us backstage passes for a sold out gig I thought we had no chance of getting into. Backstage the buffet was temendous. There were only 8 of us and as 4 of them were the band and they looked fucked after a 2 hour set, I ate my fill and left. Later, when Stu the roadie would tell us it was all sex'n'drugs'n sausage rolls after Aztec Camera at the Dundee Dance Factory, I got to embellish the story. My mum always said, never let the truth get in the way of a good story. So 13 November 1982, issue #5. Roddy and Campbell on the cover. Interview with Roddy inside. It was one of those nights you never forget. A great gig with my favourite single at the time, "Pillar to Post" ringing in my ears. "We could send letters" dripping off the end of every sentence as my pinkie tried to reach those chords. I never could play guitar. I could play the bit that created that sense of anticipation. Somehow, those 6 or 7 bits of strumming just before the chorus. Yep, my guitar prowess almost lasted 4 seconds. Our interview lasted nearer 40 minutes. Roddy was very generous with us. Let us talk nonsense and forget that we were supposed to listen to his answers and not interrupt. Worse still was when you felt you were advising George Best on how to dribble. Luckily no offence was taken and we said our thank yous and nashed off. It was our first interview and how lucky were we. November 1983 and it was Kirk Brandon on the cover of #19. The Invitation & Alarm were also interviewed and the brilliant Rutkowski sisters, Sunset Gun were reviewed.

The Bluebells and Hey! Elastica were playing the Queens Hall for a Radio 1 gig on October 22nd, Friends Again were releasing "State of Art" and one year down the line Roddy had moved to WEA who were about to re-release "Oblivious". It was action packed was #19, a five week issue from Oct 18-Nov 22 there are clear signs that the Deadbeat tape release was a tad time consuming. #19F was a free sheet. Had to advertise the Deadbeat tape.

#20 would be dated Nov 22 - Dec 20 while #21 just described itself as Dec-Jan 84. We need a rest and none was coming. The tape did well. We took it to A & R guys who were less receptive but I still love it. The Stawberry Tarts songs are epic and the missing link between Sparks and Franz Ferdinand is right there. Its the second track. Its superb and I listen to it at least once a week. "Walking in a straight line". Proper, aggressive, electric pop. Played with painted faces and feather boas to make TREX weep!

#28 had Twisted Nerve on the cover. Never understood why to be fair. I think I was so blasted that we hadn't put an issue out for a while and the guys gave me a picture I thought would print ok. it was November 1984. Caig had that great Robet Pant story from the service station. The one with the £50 note and the long queue. Ionic that old BIG LOG Robert should have a picket line form in a service station.

It was a strange time for me. I was still arguing with St Andrews Uni over whether I had a degree. It was a shabby dialogue with the Geology department over my pass in the first year exam, I'd done for the 4th time. I chose Geology because it was easy. Apparently if you went to lectures or field trips it was. Simon had proved it by passing 1st and 2nd year. My problems were that field trips coincided with Dance Factory days and so I never went on any. I also rarely attended lectures as it wasn't really my thing. When I finally got confirmation I'd passed it came with the barbed comment that I'd put my additional paper inside the back cover of my first paper, not the front cover. I decided that only in Geology would that be the triassic not the jurassic part of my answer paper. They liked to layer it on thick.

Back to the issue, #28, and I just noticed the back page was dedicated to the FRONT. A new venture, but without a location. The miners strike is really biting and TEST Dept get a mention. Also EMF offer to do some creative work, presumably for bands as it does mention covers. I need to read this afain I've no idea what was happening in 1984. Did I stay at your house? Please let me know! Deadbeat Tape 2 is advetsied as is a compilation album THE STAND. featuring All the CATS, Neon Barbs, Carole Jenner and Radio Cairo it gets a review. GETTING THE FEAR are interviewed as well as the Twisted Nerve. Roddy gets the usual mention, it is November after all. 1985 would come along a year later. Now I really dont know whats happening!! Its the last issue of Deadbeat, I just didn't know. Each day would go by and we'd print a couple of pages. It was a lot of analysis paralaysis. One to finish later! I need to read these issues if I'm going to have a chance to remember......ok where's the light switch....

Wednesday 3 November 2021

Jim Salisbury legendary manager of Life Support was 60 last week

Deadbeat were trying to catch up with him but he was 'aff tae his mammees' in Blackpool. She has a 90th after all and that takes precedence. Jim's association with the band started early on when he offered Si the dining room to sleep in. Si had always been a big old unit so the lack of a bed posed no comfort issues and the floor became his. Most students rarely had use for a dining room, or at least most of the ones we knew. Latterly I would realise there had been plenty who considered a flat without a dining room a squat. Well what did we know. Jim was a very good driver, in all conditions. Rain, wind, snow even sunshine, he always hit the ball from left to right and pretty much mastered crossing the traffic too. I remember him driving a van down the Perth to Dundee dual carraigeway. The bonnet flipped up and he perfomed a majestic slider from left to right. Blinded as he was by the metal curtain in front of his windscreen he was armed only by his memory of the road ahead, the side windows and the youthful yelps of passengers. "You're approaching the hard shoulder, you're on it, you're going over the kerb, you're on it again, you're sliding across the outside lane, that's the crash barrier!" Jim was blessed with one of the greatest drivers tips. If you want to slow a car down, you take your foot off the accelerator. Most people think its the brake but if you stop accelerating a bit earlier, it leads to better braking. Ask Si the next time he's accelerating towards the stop sign! Jim's slider took on a will of its own. Jim had a car. That's why he became our manager. A lovely wee Hibs-mobile. Well, it was green. One day on the Dairsie bypass a wheel passed him. He glanced over and said that nearly hit us as it overtook the green VW beetle. Next thing, Jim slides over to the other side of the road. Yes, a wee left to right slider, on three wheels. Oh the fun we had in the days when MOTs could be bought for pennies! Jim drove us to gigs but he wasn't a roadie. He'd reverse the van to the nearest point, then he'd admire our strength. With one arm against the van and another on a wee cigarellio, he'd smile at our endeavours. That's it Simon, loosen off those fingers. Grip it and rip it. Well done Mark, good that you're carry a micophone and an extra packet of strings. What that? oh its rizla. Yes good, I'll be through soon once I've locked the van! One day that we all remember like it was yesterday. It was probably 1984. It was Galashiels and the famous club known as JJJ's. We were booked to do an afternoon slot and an evening one. We did the afternoon slot. It took us over 2 hours. The Saturday racing was on and the locals kept asking us to "shut the fuck up". We were happy to let Mark re-tune his guitar every song and Jim always enjoyed the chance to give us some feedback. He did. It was candid. He said we weren't playing any worse than normal but turning it down was probably wise. He also reminded us that we only had a 40 minute set and were booked for 2 lots of 90 minutes. The gaps for the racing should therefore grow. Good advice from the teacher. Gratefully received. The JJJ's manager saw us start on schedule at 2pm. When he came back at 4pm he said to Jim are you guys still playing. Jim said it was the third encore. It was going down well so he hoped these old guys would come back in the evening. Mr JJJ said "Doubt it. Young team came in the evening." Jim nodded sagely. "That's good, another audience to buy the single. We've sold a couple already." The evening came and went. A tough crowd. The manager saw the whole set. He was now out of his head. Jim and him argued over the money. We filled up the van. The manager said we were shit. Jim argued we'd been brilliant in the afternoon and that perhaps energy levels had dropped and the band had tired a bit. Money wrangles grew worse. Jim asked is that all the gear in the van. We said yes. He went back to haggling. We went back to the van, shattered. Jim appeared clutching notes. "DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE" and off we drove as Mr JJJ came running out of the club after us. Jim lent a hand to the songwriting penning many a good tune, not least, "I've been walking in rain". A colourful song that discusses the merits of rainwear and on a spiritual level how "seems like things will never be the same". The metaphor of the rain being one of life's hardships that we tumble through or trudge lonely along in. As if we're walking in the cloud line. The darkness that envelopes us as we walk in that cloud. How there seems no end, but worse still, when you turn aound you cant even see when it began. During the early parts of the lockdown, I was reminded of this 80's classic. Back then it seemed the fog in our time was the political situation. There were parts that were personal but what made the tune so good was it was happy. Like one of the dark altered images stalking songs, this was a jolly wee tune about darkness. The darkness doesn't go away but sometimes we learn how to embrace it, accept it and then sing about it. As years went by we would meet up to get slaughtered regularly and sing songs that only we knew as classics. We bought a card. It did the birthdays. It stayed in its wrapping paper. It never got posted. It had a small note. We drunk some beer, we've smoked some gear, we've scored spectacular goals We've played our gowf, drunk in our howff, even played from rabbit holes Dominoes we've played, caravans we've stayed, we've watched some superbowls But Brexit came and to our shame, stole our butchers and Bacon Rolls So raise a glass to Jimbo, happy 60th!

Movember SIPPS

It's not just about the moustache. Movember is also a good time to move your final salary pension scheme to a sipp.

I am not a professional and therefore this is not advice. What I do know is that the gap between rich and poor continues to widen. In December interest rates will may go up. Politically this corupt bunch may not want to stall their Brexit bounce, often called a dead cat bounce. If they start moving up transferring from a final salary pension scheme to a sipp will be less beneficial.

There are two main reasons why a SIPP has been so popular in the last few years.

With annuity rates being so high the transfer value of a pension becomes relatively huge.

Basically 20-25 times the pension value.

Ok, what am I talking about ?

If you are 40+ you may have had a pension with an employer in the past called a final salary scheme, if so, that's what I'm talking about.

In my case it wasn't a bank but from 78-89 I worked in WM the place that printed the first Deadbeat. After university I got a full time job so I was in the pension from 86-90.

I left it alone and after many takeovers it became the RBS pension fund. They were due to pay me £1400 a year when I left in 1990 and by 2017 it was nearly £5000. It went up every year, roughly inflation to save getting too anal.

I asked for a transfer value. This is the value they believe it's worth to them to get me off the books. I'm joking, but the real calculation is not too far away. The real calculation is the cost of buying an annuity to cover it.

The first years I asked it wasn't too much so I left it alone. The main reason was interest rates were higher. The game got more interesting when interest rates plummeted. When I was 51 they offered a transfer value of £104,000 but as the pension started at 60 I thought even my life expectancy was better than that.

There are two main reasons cited for moving to a SIPP, portability and life expectancy.

As readers know, my Deadbeat days are being remembered by reading the copy. I was very drunk. By the time I reached 40 I was a very high functioning alcoholic whereas now I merely have early onset through drinking too much. In short my life expectancy is shorter than most in the pension fund.

When you die your pension tends to die with you or can go on to your spouse at half the rate. These final salary schemes used to be well funded but when Gordon Brown and the Tory Blair stopped the tax credits on dividends they were raiding the pension funds in a way Maxwell or the Banks used to. It was the safety net the poor had and although many of the rich benefitted having a final salary scheme ensured public sector workers as well as clerks in an office had a paid up retirement plan.

I've never voted Tory until 1997 when I did so by mistake. I'm still disgusted by what they did. They clearly thought they were taxing the rich, but they were killing off the final salary scheme. Battering 100,000 rich bastards with the hard work of 10,000,000 poorer ones is the Tory way. Just look at how we will pay for the furlough.

I digress. The second reason cited by advocates of the SIPP is flexibility. This is because when you die, your pot of cash goes to your beneficiary.

Back to my example. I knocked back £104,000 and took £130,000. My basic believe was that I wanted an amount that would last me until I was 80. If I see 80 there'll be a stewards enquiry. If I die late 60's Jackie gets the cash.

My own circumstances of partner being 10 years older also has a massive impact. If she was 10 years younger then I'd probably not have transferred it as even a half pension for another 30 years is worth a fortune.

If I thought interest rates we're going to stay low as long as they have have, I would've waited until this year. That's where the gamble is. Like a good joke it's all about the timing.

I've not explained this very well but have you have got a final salary scheme asking for a transfer value is merely an enquiry. Your pension fund send these out all the time and it is not an application or an obligation.

One pal from the post room found his 30 years were worth £800,000 as opposed to a pension of £22,000. His only problem was he nearly drank himself to death in the first year!!

For some it is like a pools sorry lottery win. Even if you have a small pension it may still be worth making the move.

Start by asking for a benefit statement from your employer and or ex employer. I only had 2.

I moved the RBS one at £130,000 and I bought a mix of bonds, investment trusts and other shite. Greggs have been a great performer.

I once asked Alastair Darling in to the office as he was our local MP. I showed him around and said if I could do anything for our staff it would be to do the old Marx thing and get them to own the factors of production. Give them the company for free over a number of years. That we would probably open a single company SIPP and give them some shares every year. If Labour could legislate for that then the workers would soon own their own companies and we wouldn't need to re-nationalise as the railway workers would own the trains etc. He said they didn't like share ownership after Maxwell and then in government did everything to encourage the privatisations while raiding the pension funds of the unions workers and the few rich people who weren't already offshore how fucking naive.

I digress. We had one shot at the balancing out society after Thatcher and they all went over to the other side of the ship, taking us down with them.

This is why it's important that people get fair value from their pensions. Most people will not know how sleight of hand works. How the poorer in society are encouraged to glance of their shoulder at the poorest while the richest snaffle a few more Ten Bob notes off the table.

It drives me aff ma fucking trolley. I digress.

There was a campaign in the 90's to get everyone to consolidate their pensions. It was called mis-selling later. What it did was to manufacture an issue so a solution could be manufactured.

They say that the service industry could replace manufacturing in this country but they were lying. Manufacturing still exists, but it's manufacturing or fabrication of nothing. Every time you'll notice somebody takes 3%, there's slicing all the way. Even in transferring your own pension to a SIPP you'll pay a tax of 2-3%, it's called advice, but even if you've already decided, you need to pay it.

Half of that advice money goes into the pot for funding failed pension funds. The rest into the lucrative business of transferring funds.

Take my post room pal. He transferred £800,000. £24,000 was taken away but he still had £776,000. Fucking loads, as he said. As a rich person he was delighted to pay extra tax! £12,000 goes into that pot and the other £12,000 went to the firm who typed the letter for him. What a great game to be in. Your customer says thank you for your help and tips you £12,000!

Ha ha the game just rolls on but even paying that money it may still be very worthwhile.

You may have to fund your children or neighbours, so regard the pot not as your pension, not even you and your partner's, this is the family pot, your community pot. This is the wee stash of cash above the kettle. The miners are unlikely to go on strike again but when the nurses do, you've some cash for their jar! The SIPP ja should be invested but as the latest stock market crash is due 2022/23 get the cash and put it in the jar!

Keep it safe and keep spreading the joy. What a great thought, we could do a crowd funding SIPP and buy a venue, recording studio and community hub....get our local tennis club to fill out the lottery funding forms then building the studio and venue on the end of the hut.....what joy.