Dancing Bears rolling back the years

"Looking back on the days when, we had such....."

Fun! You guess it and I'm sure Maurice and everyone else did too. That's what happens as you hit 50, you get bookings for all the private parties, shame I couldnt get blasted away but I'm sure you'd have a good one. I saw the Beautiful Suit a year ago, Donna alive and kicking cowboy joe and anyone else who got in her way at Simon's 50th. I'm not sure if it was the Ruby suit or Beautiful suit as once you get to 50 its all about getting the band back together, names rarely come into it.

I did the same myself last December as Tucker, Ross and Simon squeezed Dock of the Bay, Teenage kicks and Whole Wide World around my warbling.

But now, I'm off to Spain again to walk 500 miles. I'll try and write that September/October Deadbeat update, and the August one too but art is now immitating life as my attention is dragged off again...this time to vbcamino3, the new blogging home for the month of October.

Buen camino

www.500m.wordpress.com
www.fatal-bananas.blogspot.com

Rocky Reihill returns to Edinburgh Friday 5.22pm

Barney clearly still has Mark's guitar but if you want to catch up with the vile rapport guitarist, fat Si or Fat Al we meet at Waverley off the 5.22 fi London

The cherry orchard - deadbeat reunion Saturday august 3

Yes, you've guessed, Caitlin is upholding the traditions of nostlagic 80's nonsense, see you on Saturday, bevvy afterwards. Proud father, beaming unashamedly, that's what years of drinking does....

Deadbeat issue 16 - festival round up 1983

Its always jumpin in July

Jumpers for goalposts, and golf, that's what july does. Well that and jumping about a Glastonbubble and at other festivals like the collapse of the Berlin wall, what's that? News just in July it was still intact? hmmn... I'm sure it wasnae the last time I passed it but I agree, July may not have been the month.

July however was the month Strawberry Switchblade did agree to arrive on the cover of Deadbeat  issue number 16. Its too hot, never mind the summer of 84, this is 2013 and its not for me all this heat.

aha - the picture above suggests it wiz more August, mind you the picture below suggests I need a nose job, that or a haircut, a shave, and also the long awaited diet, oh and a smile wouldn't be out of the question either.....

Grumpy git mair like. Anyway, I have found the issue 15 that had Pavlov Orange and many other stars not least

cant argue with Deadbeat, there are no mistakes there, its not the Scottish Sun. Oops that issue 14 and 18.....

15 is a well kept secret but you'll find it if you have a look in 2012, as for issue 31

Issue 30 is available but its 31 that covers June/July, must get some of that calomine lotion that slaughterhouse 5 sang about, these midges are jumpin this year.

See you during August, Spiegel tent is good, or at the Cherry Orchard, there aint much Checkov on this year but you know you gotta check out Checkov...issue 16 had a review of some budding actress back in the day, now we didnt tip her for an Oscar, but we did like her...

Aye it's June

Just like June the curtains are closed

So sang I - as roddy frame sang the same into a microphone

It's never left me in all these years that a wee line like that reminds us all that we choose what to listen to - what to develop as a thought, what to ponder and what to ignore and get on with the real moment of our life!

Clearly I had a moment - in June - but the curtains were closed!

I opened my eyes in July but all that existentialist stuff had receded into another era

Cheers

Al

Alan McEwan

May'dness - issues12,13,25&30

Everyone looks younger in 1983 as the pix below suggest

Happy 50th Keith !!

This is why I will walk again in September 2013

Are these acorns still on the camino 86 km from Santiago ? For this And many other mysteries I will walk again

C

Go back to your constituencies and prepare for government (by emigrating)

As the seeds were being sown so avidly in the testing ground, Margaret prayed for Scottish Independence. Thatcher was sitting round the cabinet table and announced, go back to your constituencies and prepare for government, oh sorry could the Michaels please stay back, we know your constiuents wont vote for you so we have a new plan, you're emigrating. They dont know you down here so we've told everyone you're really good, and they're all members of the club so you'll have a 5 minute interview and that's that. It was April 1983.

We have never had to face a choice like it, and we never would again. The choice was simple, she was a psycho and had to be opposed. Her policies seemed to involved deregulation, selling the family silver and all the council house stock. I could agree with the latter if it was to then build new homes, but 30 years down the line as kids struggle to get on the housing ladder, its clear that wasnt the plan, sell sell sell, dont build build build. As to the former, deregulation clearly left us a legacy Harry Enield's load'sa'money predicted as he waved his wad. The birth of the bankrupt banks and what a 21st birthday they'd have. I wont try and talk about what happens when you push one half of society out, Les Miserables has just won the odd oscar, so its a well trodden path, but let me bring discord...where there is....and may my legacy be the next generation of politicians, moulded in my likeness.

The legacy is clear for me, but I can cast my mind back to the Deadbeats of April....in fact I did, in April last year, its a belting month..................

As the daffodils fade, the sweet scent of the April Deadbeats were upon us. Easter holidays meant working and earning some dosh to go back to St Andrews with, well it did in 1983 for issue 12, I earnt enough to take Deadbeat to London and put it in Virgin in Oxford Street and Rough Trade. In these days of surfing for downloads its hard to comprehend what a massive step forward the Virgin megastore was. You could trawl through the racks for hours, flicking your fingers, much the same as we glide through the touch sensitive screens of 2012. I'm chuckling as I remind myself that A Flock of Seagulls were releasing 'nightmares' and I'm reliving some as I read the reviews, not least Life Support. Happily Peppermint Pig by Cocteau Twins and Alphaville by the Monochrome Set survive the patchy reviewer's ear, while The Marine Girls, LP "lazy ways" warms us up for the summer of 83. There's a review of U2's gig at Tiffany's in Glasgow and interviews with Friends Again, APB and Pop Wallpaper, other reviews include Club Feet in Dundee where I said it makes Edinburgh's Hoochie Coochie look like Wigan, obviously not everyone was drinking the same stuff as me, but I did like the way the DJ followed "Rip it Up", with "Boredom". 22 Beaches, Wild Indians, Sleep Detectives, Tears for Fears and Fun Boy Three complete the issue.

Issue 24 in April 1984 was another of the great additions to the racks of Ripping Records, Record Shak, Tayside Bar, Groucho, Virgin and the other fine stockists of Deadbeat. Interviews with Dancing Bears, Morrissey, Kirk Brandon Del Amitri, Danse Society, there were loads.

Have I got Scottish music 2, aka Deadbeat's second tape was finally released. The incomparable Dancing Bears with Ritchie Lambert's superb dancing songs a lasting memory for me. He's still gigging down south and last summer somebody sent me a youtube link for a video of a gig at Roslin. If I ever get a Deadbeat reunion organised the Dancing Bears would have to be there. I'm 50 in December, seems like an idea.....if not we could have a Deadbeat Tapes Karaoke.....Jo Doll must be well up for reliving some Circus of Hell, Jeremy Thoms doing some Strawberry Tarts....Martin Stephenson and the Daintees....Hey! Elastica, Josef K, the Cubs,..

Back to April 1984, Morrissey was indeed a charming man. After their gig at Clouds in Edinburgh he gave us a quick brush off but asked us to send some questions through to him. As sceptical as we were, a week later they all returned with answers. Popstars back in the day were so much more friendly. Like Gillian Gilbert in April 1985 after the New Order gig at the Barrowlands. She was absolutely superb and I discovered the tape of the interview in the garage last month. The chuckle factor is huge as I asked one stupid question after another. Thankfully Gillian interpreted them successfully so the answers negated the need for me to print some of the questions, phew!

Paul King adorns the cover of Deadbeat with our new letraset, Deadbeat's experiment was close to the deathknell as we seemed to spend more time printing than publishing. It was an experiment, a bit like the rolls I was making at my mum's roll shop, the picnic basket, opposite the pear tree pub in Edinburgh. As well as selling Deadbeat's I was selling Chicken and Avocado rolls, Brie and Apple, and this experiment was far more successful in 1985 than changing the letraset. The problem with working though, was taking its toll on the interviews and the energy to put another issue out. There is however some gems and the Paul King and Gillian Gilbert interviews ensured that an issue needed to be produced. The review of the Crucial Xylophones was also another driving force in getting the issue published. We had also finally completed Deadbeat Tape 3 and The Government, Men Men, Rhythm System, Relations, Pulsebeat Plus, Swirle, Crossfire & Splash me I'm Drowning deserved to get their music out.

Oh and of course, the reviews of the Immaculate Fools at the Dance Factory in Dundee were superb. So good I have to remind you all especially the DJ!!

What a bunch of Deadbeats

I read in happy hints to keep warm in winter put all your tapes old copies and singles on the wall as the Eco way to look after your prized 80's artefacts, watch for your band going up soon ...

Mad March

It was my Mum's 80th on March 3rd, 3/3/33, an easy birthday to remember when you were growing up and I remember her 50th really well as we were interviewing Annie Lennox in Dundee!

The best interview I took no part in. I just stared while Hilary asked all the questions. Annie was superb, warm, friendly and an excellent host as the tequila threatened to get shared out, but more of that later.

My Mum doesnt remember yesterday, but funnily enough she's ok on 30 years ago, I think she'd thrown me out the house. She had tired of the rats tail that was growing down my face and the inverted skunk look, fair enough I thought, Dundee and St Andrews were certainly more fun for me than Edinburgh at that time. Edinburgh was still very partisan, punk or mod, student or hippy, hibby or hearty! Unless you were on the broo and shootin' up you werent cool, and if you were, it didnt matter. You were always having to choose sides, although when it came to politics there were no sides to choose, you were either for the testing ground or you were'nae in the country, and finally of course you could watch the Young Ones while they tried to parody all of this psuedo anarchy and get yourself completely straightened out, but that was never going to 'heppen', not when there was a gig at the Baracuda and a really bad sound system for poor Annie and Dave.

Issue 11 was a great issue, Keith loved Eurythmics and had given us these questions which meant I could just drool and stare at Annie while Hilary did the work of asking the questions and writing down the answers.  I'm sure I mentioned it a hundred times on the pages of Deadbeat through the years but Annie's smile was so infectious and later when she did "Sisters" with Aretha Franklin, I remember  thinking I heard her say,  it must've been the pinacle of her career (,,,well,,,after that interview with Deadbeat........not)


I remember signing off the Hiccups piage with 'Take Care', and in my head I'd always thought it was to do with AIDS but history suggest it would be 1986 before we were talking about it in Edinburgh so it must just have been a premonition of me straddling a table in the tayside bar while wearing the gold lammie and my chuckies dropped into an ashtray full of lit fags, or what the band were going to do to me later in the spring when I got so gassed that they tied me to a tree. It was the night of the election, and tied to a tree in 83 was no more than I deserved after....after, well, to be honest, the amnesia does have its benefits, but it was in May 83 and so its irrelevant....







You can always re-invent history so when you see Deadbeat promoting Gary Glitter's rescheduled dates you can tell that what it now says is him and jimmy so vile were disliked by all at Deadbeat and should've been strung up by the short and curlies until one by one the curly ones gave way and......well at least that's what it said in the cartoon in issue 11.......but enough of that revisionist nonsense the review of his Dundee gig says he was 'strutting and posing like a cock in heat', aye you heard it here first.

There were many bands interviewed in issue 11 and where are the Swing Club now, Purveyors of the "Sloane Square malady" and many others that worked well for me. It really is 30 years ago and some since they supported Aztec Camera, and a bit like my mum, I seem to remember that gig better than the last time I went to a gig.

Its of the moment though, music, it has its moment, its vibe lives for ever, but it is a moment in time, and me singing Sloane Square melody, malady etc, will always have me strolling happy through the streets of Dundee.

Dundee looked a lot better then by the way, Jam jute and the Junkies, or was it Jam, jute and Jo Doll!

Also passing through the Dance Factory doors that month were the Bluebells and Roy Terre confidently predicted that Ken would adorn the front cover of smash hits, although it was hardly much more of a prediction than backing Desert Orchid to win the King George or Gold Cup, Red Rum to win the national would've seemed an outside chance and Shergar to be in a Tesco near you 100/1.

We were really pissed about the Cruise and Pershings missiles, and in our own little Cuban Crisis decided to print a page of enlightening talk about just what dual control meant when it came to launching these things, before getting back to the serious matter of comparing Altered images Clare Grogan with Bonnie Tyler, now there is a comparison to make you shudder. I know which one I'd want singing the eurovision song....

By issue 23, 1984 had arrived Hibs had still not won the cup, JFK's nephew pled guilty to possession of H and we remarked that at 30 he should really be a bit wiser. That enabled a seamless link to a Mr President review before my traditional moan, this time about someone stealing my ghetto blaster from the motor while I jumped out to buy some fags. Having given out the time and location, make and model, you'd have thought I knew a Deadbeat reader had it.....but alas, no, and I had to carry on without it and do my interview with Malcolm Ross with paper. A Ghetto blaster for those under the age of 50 is the things they carry on their shoulders in films from the 70's, it never looked good when you turned up at someone's flat with a ghetto gblaster to do an interview.

Picture the scene, as the interviewee looks over your shoulder to see if there's an entourage and their flat is about to be wrekced by some freak with a ghetto blaster and his 50 mates. It was quite a light ghetto blaster and as such would've been easily lifted out of my motor, by someone as young as 3.......but I digress. The interview with Malcolm proved that March was the month for good interviews. He was just trying to get 'Ape the Scientific' off the ground, and admitted to enjoying the Farmers Boys despite himself! A far cry from the days of watching the Fire Engines, Thursdays and Scars.

It was a good month for Albums as well was March, and Keith got the Smiths first offering through the post (and kept it). It was the greatest thrill getting an album like the Smiths for nothing, I got Sparkle in the Rain. Simple minds are a good band, but there was no comparison, THE SMITHS, were a great band, and at that moment, in 1984, I knew I was getting first dabs on the next postbag

The beautiful voices of Sunset Gun were reviewed and we expected "Stay with me" to be hugely successful but somehow it wasn't. We reveiwed Autumn 1904, and despite being out of season we predicted great things, hmmn, a theme is developing, oh well, we were wrong there too. I still stand by how good everyone was.

Take Care

Vinny

PS - 1985 - would've been issue 29, which I mentioned last month, we were too busy hawking the Deadbeat tapes around A & R guys in London. They rarely got signed, but we did get them some publicity and, we got our free LPs!

Email Hacking - why do we get persecuted?

Well, its not like the old days when we used to carry our Deadbeats around on a bus - my apologies if any of you got a junk mail from my email address - it seems the hackers are very resourceful - I even found one posted to this website this morning.....Take care, Vinny

Rhythm System issue 30

The rest of the interview is found if you follow the tab for issues 27-33

February Fun eh.. How good is Rattlesnakes?

I think its time I paid attention to the nosense that masqueraded as nonsense back then when I was wearing my Articulated Van hat. Self praise is no praise indeed, but do I care? I do like the review I gave and I got onto you tube and found a German gig which was loaded on by someone called mgvintage, I think, and I played the whole gig twice. Its now that I cast my mind back to the nosense that I wrote. The last paragraph in particular where I gush about how well they use silence. Many try but few have succeeded the way Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Echo & the Bunnymen, and a few others have, they just knew how to ride that emotional wave without surfing into sleep, superb.

As LPs go Rattlesnakes and Ocean Rain were released 30 years ago and they are complete albums. I love songs on Highland Hard Rain on many different albums from the era, but rarely do I get out of my seat (every 40 minutes you'll find) to click an album on from the start again, ahh, the benefits of Alztheimers, every time is like the first.

the funniest thing when you read a review like that you wonder what was going on in your life, another good day, another bad day, well you'd think I'd lost my virginity the day I heard Rattlesnakes!

I cant wait for the mad March hare now, to remind what was going down in March 83, 84,85 & 86. This therapy is superb. I cant tell you what I was doing last week but I've got hard evidence for what I was doing in the early 80's.

Well, actually that's a lie. I once reviewed Tony Benn at the Caird Hall in Dundee and I put the review in a week before his 'gig'. I called it a 'Song for Europe' which was loosely based on one of my favourite tracks by Roxy Music at the time, the other being 'Chance Meeting' which shouldn't be confused with Josef  K's 'Chance Meeting' which is the same name, but a different song, although when we covered one of them I'm sure most of the adoring public weren't sure which song we were covering, (but Mark was a shit guitarist, he was certainly no Malcolm Ross, who funnily enough was interviewed in March1984, his issue sold out and is still considered the must have by the collectors, oops, typo, collector!)

I digress, so back to the Song for Europe. I wrote the review because I was taking my half of Deadbeat down to Edinburgh and in the Dundee half was this and that but we were wan page short of a picnic. From memory - I draw a blank - but that doesnt stop me making something up, which is exactly what I did on the bus to Edinburgh that famous February night. I thought it would be quite cool to have the new issue of Deadbeat out with a review of our Anthony Wedgie Benn, so I wrote it on the bus, got a kerry oot, typed it at the folks and gave the copies over to Keith watched his masterly use of the glue pen and we wandered down to the printers.

I dont know if it did bear any resemblance to the events of that night and I must get someone from Dundee, ooops, fi Dundee, to have a quick look and correct me. Either way it was a great wheeze as we had Deadbeat in Groucho's and the Tayside Bar the day after the 'gig' and we thought we were Lou Grant, I'm certainly as fat as Lou Grant, but that's enough of 80's American tv, I'm also as fat as Danny Devito but I carry it better than he did in Taxi, another reason Deadbeat rarely hit the shelves on the days it meant.

It was when the Tube hit the screens and suddenly our world was changed. The pop videos grew during the early 80's into mini movies and everyone had a part to play. I remember when the Scars were doing a video for "All about you" which involved Rab Scar singing, 'It was a cold day, outside today....' so of course, the video was shot, yes you've guessed it, in Freezing February up the top of Arthurs Seat, in Auld reekie where the wind blows and even the women wear pants under thier kilts. But from one big budget blockbuster to the  You Tube and other mediums of today, is quite frankly mesmirising. I mean, when I was only 5 there was all this stuff about Walking on the  Moon, and then 15 years later, The Police have got a song and a video, and then another 30 years later, still we wait. Its all a myth. Nobody, is Walking on the Moon.

"I hope my legs dont break, Walking on the Moon..." HELLO HELLO is there anyone out there, nobody is Walking on the Moon. I've walked to Spain, albeit, I started in France, it was certainly a lot quicker, but nobody is Walking on the Moon. Walking to Spain is great. I remember that too as I did a blog. When I walked it in 2007, me and Si the bassist, walked the 500 miles to Sanitago de Compostela, and can I tell you , right here, right now, its a lot better than Walking on the Moon. 'I hope my legs dont hurt, Walking on the Moon' HELLO HELLO, it all depends how  far you walk. If you play golf you'll walk a long long way as the golf ball once hit will travel miles, or if you are walking to the pub and haven't been informed that the Moon doesnt have one yet, you'll walk a long long way, so yes your legs may hurt, but not as much as walknig the Camino to Santiago nd I'll tell you why. Its because you have a pack on your back that weighs something. When you are walking on the moon, even fat boys like me will feel like they are walking on air, I could run faster than Bolt, well that's not true, as we would probably not be able to fit in the same space craft, him needing the height and me needing the width, I suspect I'd need to book two seats, but I off on one again. The second time I did the work across Spain, Europe's premiere pub crawl as I sold it to my mate Harry, I was fit enough to be able to eat and drink even more at the end of each day, so the 500 mile walk took us a few days more in 2011, but all that nonsense is on the other blogs www.500m.wordpress.com and www.fatal-bananas.blogspot.com - that's Fat Al and Bananas for those who havent gathered that Vinny is now so Fat he's using his old name again, it also looks good on golf balls when you mark them fatal.

So you wont hear me digging out the Police album then, but you will be delighted to know that I'm getting the band back together for a 2020 gig. Not sure how many of us will still be breathing by then, but it was never about the music was it?

February Fun - Lloyd Cole 1985 - Bluebells 1983

What a big jump from issue 9, as someone once wrote "....an enigma on my files, nascent and naive, ignominous fate awaits, innocent faith in these...", and with this foreboding do we migrate to the dark ramblings of issue 29, as the youthful bambi of deadbeat's desire, bludgeons itself on the print machine which outweighs it....oh, and for the health and safety community out there, dont lift heavier objects than you are able, they will probably hurt you and judging by the print quality, its probably pointless.

Yes,

So that was 1985, but I'm more fond of  the Bambi days, yes issue 10, the one with Switch on the cover, aka Charlie Higson if I'm not mistaken. They were called the Higsons, the had a single called 'Run me Down' and along with the Farmers Boys and Serious Drinking they were putting Norwich on the map, its a town in  East Anglian, well, ok a city, as that's what their football team is called, and at the time they were my favourite team, I liked the strip.  So good an area was it, that John Peel moved there, and more important than that they had a record shop called BACKS, and it sold Deadbeat. Not many in 1983, but we could proclaim ourselves as a nationwide rag. February 1983 also saw the demise of one of the great Deadbeat outposts, The Tav in Dundee aka the Olde Tavern was to be making way for a road. now on so many levels that is so stupid. If Dundee was to keep people from bypassing it a road is the last thing it needs. more traffic lights and pubs like the Tav could only encourage people to stop for a pint, a fag and a chat, its well said the seeds of despair for the Dandy were planted in 983, although it was another scoop the far thinking  people at Deadbeat, failed to spot, lets face it. February was also the month we were getting ready to interview Annie Lennox, but more of that in March.

Yes February 1983 was braw. It was Bambi braw.The Tayside Bar, Bruces, Groucho, Rockpile and the Watergate studios were selling Deadbeats and we were having to print the next issues early to keep up with demand in the city of Discovery. Meanwhile across the silvery Tay and the frothy Forth the Record Exchange, Ripping Records, Virgin, Scales, the other record shop and Ezy Ryder were all phoning up demanding more copies of issue 9, when they weren't selling out of Aztec Camera's 'Oblivious' as it headed into the top 40. I'm sure I've heard 'Oblivious' more on the radio this year than any other, clearly the pop pickers just look back 30 years, oh no, that means we could be getting............................................

As predicted in issue 9, issue 10 proudly confirmed, the Undertones did indeed book a gig at the Playhouse March 31, Glasgow Tiffany's April 1st and Aberdeen's Fusion on the 3rd April, fingers on the pulse or what....we even mentioned "Hippies please note that Eric Clapton plays Edinburgh Playhouse on April 8 & 9" and followed that up with and for those who really want to see some music "Pop Wallpaper are at the Edinburgh College of Art on Feb 25th. A review of Pop Wallpaper's demo is sandwiched between "Fields of Fire" and "Rip it Up". It was a tough ask, and I wasnt impressed, but I hasten to add, I'm not a good judge. Just because I really enjoyed Rip it Up, everything else was given lip service. Having rubbished the demo, I then published Evan Henderson's Dalkeith Road address and phone number, although after the review the only kind of calls he'd be getting he'd probably not want. Happily Pop Wallpaper ignored me and produced some fine music as well as the flexi disc in issue 17.

Happy Hints had a campaign to "Adopta Bee in 1983", such wisdom in such young minds.

Cleaner than dogs and cheaper to feed......you can take it for a fly and it will ward off intruders, Each will come complete with a dinky black and yellow jumper......

The Bluebells review from their gig in Dundee is another highlight of issue 10 in February 1983. I remember it well, do you remember where you were in February 1983, well I remember where I was the day I first heard "Cath, Woaah Woahh...you led me up the garden path", yes the Dance Factory in Dundee.

Mark had written Life Support's classic 'On Your Own' a few years earlier using the same riff in the chorus, it used in a lot of songs, eg the Velvets 'Waiting for the Man', and I really liked our line, "your old man, when he sees me splits his sides in laughter, he used to think that you were 'stupit', now he thinks ah'm even dafter", but when you heard the way the Bluebells put it together it was perfect pop. It took until the Frattelli came out with some of their stuff for me to hear a song so instantaneously brilliant. I remember that day at T-in-the-park when me and my 13 year old daughter Caitlin, divided up, she for the Editors and me to see the Fratellis. It captured the mood, in 2006, just as the Bluebells had in 1983, although I did wonder where the years had gone as my daughter carried me back to the bus!

Pure Energy and undiluted fun. Aye, Bambi was Braw.

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...