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 doesn't remember me coming through the door, nor when I went away to get her a coffee, but funnily enough she's ok on 30 years ago, I think she'd thrown me out the house, She knew!. She had tired of the rat's tail that was growing down my face and the inverted skunk look, she told me to leave. 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, Hibee or Jambo! Unless you were on the broo and shootin' up you werent cool, and if you were, it didnt matter. My Mum didnt want me shootin up, far from it, she just wanted me turning up like the wee Catholic boy she'd brought up. 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. You could escape and 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.....I knew we'd get back there. I bet Terry Pratchett would approve, Sweet Dreams, el Tel.
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, writing down the answers and making us look like we had a clue. 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 page with 'Take Care', and in my head I'd always thought it was to do with AIDS.History suggests it would be 1986 before we were talking about it in Edinburgh so it must just have been a cautionary thought after I was caught straddling a table in the tayside bar while wearing the gold lammie and my chuckies dropped into an ashtray full of lit fags.
The putrid smell of burning bollocks is not to be advertised but I will suggest 'Dont try this at home'.....
Its a while now since the band tied me to a tree. It was the night of the election, and tied to a tree in 83 ....it 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....
The part below (as above) was written two years ago, but I was so lazy I didnt bother to re-read it....2 years on the truth continues to come out.....Happy 2015
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!
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