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...

December Deadbeats

Merry Christmas - the Deadbeat party pics arrive

I hope!!

Publishing was always a problem for us....

deadbeat gatherings - the pics

YES !!

It is 20:12 on Dec 20th 2012, that'll be 20/12 for those of the gregorian calendar or the gregarious guys that met at the Oxofrd, cue, the pictures

Aha, are they there?


Well maybe  I'll try again - oh no I've missed my posting, it'll be near 22:12 by the time this hits the web, the world could've ended by the time I finish this.....

November Deadbeats gather at the Ox

What a superb night, Here's the pictures - ooops - forgot to take any - thankfully Hilary brought her camera and I'll update this page in December, with the odd picture, suffice to say I've been needing to rest my over worked liver again......

October Deadbeats the new term has started

Whether I'd just got back from a Parisien excursion or just warming up for going back to uni, or preparing for life without it once I'd run out of interest and St Andrews had run out of patience, October was a great month. I'd long been distracted by the drink and October 82 was the start of the longest pub crawl of my life. I think it lasted until I was 42 whereupon the doc asked me how often I drank.  When I explained it was a daily occurence, she enquired "what was a daily occurence", and I said drinking of course. I think it started when we did the interview with Stu the roadie of Aztec Camera. It was all "Sex'n'drugs'n'Sauasage Rolls" and I couldn't disagree. When Roddy Frame joined us around midnight in the Hotel in Dundee the interview was rocking and rolling and Deadbeat really had begun to make some sense. Issue 5 had a ring to it, this wasn't just a summer ruse to get into the hoochie coochie club and some gigs, this could be the ultimate Groupies passport back stage. Interviewing was a great excuse to go up to speak to people after gigs, and as I explained to my doctor a certain amount of fortitude was required.

Issue 5 - sex'n'drugs'sauasage rolls - back in the days when I had thumbs. I came home that night and was so out of my face when rolling a joint that I ruminated on why the thumb was the most important digit in the hand. It was like discussing chess pieces and what they could do, and for me the thumb was king. You could never roll a joint again was how it started and by the end I think I was bordering on bestaility, but htankfully I couldnt spell it, a bit like most things in the early days of Deadbeat. We had a thing with Rhythm, we kept missing a letter and prior to computers that meant tippex or snopake (other typo correction products may exist). It difficult to explain to my daughter but I can type reasonably fast if not quite as accurately as I would like and nowadays I have a penchant for putting letters in the wrong order. Some form of older age dyslexia, but for me its the type of word and the rythm of the typing. "Like it!", rhythm of the typing. The issue is, I see the 'r' and then, the 'y' catches my eye, I just hit it a bit like text speak,  but the problem is this aint a text. This is supposed to be writing, engaging, dragging you towards the page , but back then I had the 'jakey' problem of doing the typing at 3am.

At 3am the world is different. You type a sentence and half way along the sentence you make a typo. Your mind will ponder this while you type another six words. This is called walking into a room and hearing the door close behind you. You now have a sentence that has filled the line and you mispelt a word by missing out a letter and you need to squeeze it in. Guess what, that's like buying a pint and then pouring the dregs of the last pint in, IT DOESNT FIT! Now at 3am when you're already feeling like superman you know it will fit and so you ponder it and move on, by the morning you're delighted as you recollect somewhat hazily, I must have typed up that review last night when I got in and there's the finished article on the typewriter. Into an envelope it goes for Keith to read when it gets to Edinburgh. Once Keith gets it, he thinks brilliant, I'll put it straight in as I've no time to read it, or he reads it and thinks, 'shit, there's a typo he's no bothered to fix, he must mean it, it must be his humour....', but I digress again back to the docs

25 years later when I was trying to explain to my doctor that I'd always drunk and I'd learned early on that the quickest cure for a hangover was to get some more drink down me, she seemed quite perplexed that I didn't consider this a problem. I explained that as long as I had cash it was no problem, but that there were difficulties when I drank too much as I'd noticed recently that between 6 -8 pints of Mr Tennent's tonic remedy was fine but my days of drinking 12-20 were long gone and I was left quite ill, in fact the last time I'd gone a day without a drink was the last time I'd had 20 pints in a day. When quizzed further as to when I'd last gone a week without a drink, I chuckled and had to work out when we first started the saturday night party circuit where bottles of spirit would be drowned in a soft drink of preference as we sought the out of body experience know locally on the southside as getting nuggets, plastered, just prior to becoming paralytic. She'd clearly heard enough and explained to me my liver count was a tad higher than the average bear and just short of where a certain George Best had been, prior to his cremation that blew up the crematorium like it was some petrochemical plant down south, or mybe that's just a hazy recollection. A sustained period of alcohol withdrawal was recommended and I should return 6 weeks later. This inevitably left me somewhat shaken as I genuinely hadnt gone a day without drink and a large chunk of my social sphere never mind my body relied on my attendance at the pub. I'd always been quite happy nursing my alcoholism on the seriously dependent side rather than the must have at all costs, but I digress. 1983 October was issue 18.... still....

This issue was similar to the one in September, spanning as it did both months, and as I've already described, this was a great issue but suffered from us not presenting it well enough. I know this as I've got loads in the garage which I cant say about number 5. There'll be a few in the Oxford Bar, strewn around the tables, until Harry throws them in the bin but at least after 30 years the ink might finally be dry.

issue 27 - The Wild Indians where are they now..... and will they appear at the OXFORD Bar on Saturday?

Issue 32 was a printing disaster. I rarely started printing until I came home from the pub, which was after I finished work which meant it was past midnight. Whilst I never lost any thumbs or fingers I think it was more luck than judgement. Many's the time the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel was a train and I got out of the way just in time. I had a proper confidence in my own ability when nobody was about, and despite the fact I'd never been given any health and safety guidance, never mind tuition on how to print, it all seemed to work out fine, as long as there wasnt too much dark colour. That was a big Deadbeat problem as we liked the layout of a couple of black stripes with white letraset either side of Hilary's drawing as the front cover.

Issue 32 was a struggle, no doubt about it. Working was getting in the way of Deadbeat and the glorious masterplan of getting a job to get the cash to buy the print machine and try and make a proper living about of doing a fanzine, or growing it into a bigger publication was just turning into an exercise of pissing into the wind followed by eating the yellow snow. I think you'd call that a waste of time that was not even enjoyable but as previously mentioned I may have been pissed at the time and sustenance is everything when you're taking a winters walk back through the meadows. It all happened so quickly but everything was coming crashing down. The rest of the band had left St Andrews a year after me but leave it they had in 1984 so we were now over a year in the other world, no longer shielded by our cocoon or more importantly no longer forced to be together. As Squeeze had sung earlier, it was "when my drinking became a proper stinking". I remember one gig we were doing at the Waterloo Bar around this time and I'd taken a bottle of pernod on stage with me and over the course of the gig I did a Jaysus, and turned Water into Pernod. I had a pint glass of water and put a few drops of Pernod in it at the start of the gig to give it some flavour. As I topped up my pint glass of water and Pernod,  it became Pernod and water, until its full conversion into Pernod. As I explained to the Doc in 2004, that's why I had to give the spirits up, they were far too easy to drink. Billy Connolly had a joke going around at the time about a Zombie.

The Zombie, was a cocktail creation of Connolly's, but it had a resounding resonance for some of us. You drank it and you loved it. You could drink all you liked and chat away as it it never got you drunk as long as you sat on that bar stool. However, and there's always a however, and I'm doing my best to try and tell the joke badly, as I'm sure any attempt to paraphrase Billy would be doomed, but the however was delivered with all of Connolly's comic timing and genius, as you got off the stool to visit the bogs you found that a "Zombie" only got you drunk from the legs up. Visually, he had you, you'd been watching his face, and all of a sudden the legs were going this way and that, and to be honest, that's how I was with spirits, untouchable until I stood, well, fell.....

My Doc always looks at me with an unreserved glee suggesting relief, that I'm not one of her children but she was cheered to know that I'd given up spirits, so now 25 years later, I could have a bash at giving up lager, pregnant pause, for 6 weeks.

As I staggered out the door, I felt like I'd just drunk a Zombie. The relief at being told you didnt need to get pissed every day wasn't quite as beneficial as the Doc might have thought it. I was clearly in disarray. I went immediately over the road to the international bar to contemplate my future. This was not good news and would need much more consideration, it would need a plan.

Like Deadbeat, I decided to plan some time in the new year as the best date to start but I'd have a warm up in December, talking of which, it will soon be December.....so I better get this party started..

5pm Oxford Bar, Edinburgh Deadbeats gather

November Deadbeats were some of our finest, issue 6 had one of the best covers and I'd tell you more about the issue if I had one but I dont, so you'll have to settle for a picture of the cover

A great drawing of Siouxsie Sioux and one year later was issue 19 with Senor Brandon on the cover - oops Siouxsie upside down, no wonder he rhairs standing on end, if she'd been at the Olympics I'm sure she'd have been a gymnast, but that's another story. Someone on saturday can tell me how to rotate the picture, ...

Vinnybee warms up for November 24th Party

They travel from all over to the Oxford Bar

Yes, the party is on and they travel from Dundee, London, the southside and Leith

Saturday November 24th - Oxford Bar 5pm

Tell some stories, sing some songs badly, see you there

September Deadbeats, November Soirees

After the Anniversary in August, Saturday November 24th - Edinburgh - Oxford Bar is the working venue for the next excuse for a party - time and venue will be confirmed nearer

Another look at a bygone age sees issues 2 and 3 get a rare outing. The photocopier at Wood Mac took a good pasting during 1982 as the 2nd and 3rd issues were cut and pasted together before the advent of a computer.

It is obvious that a shaky hand was in use and as ever with technology we see the evidence today that drunks can utilise the machinery very successfully, albeit too often when it comes to drunken texts and emails, but that could be for another day. As it is my shaky hand was on a camera taking this picture of Stuart Adamson during the gig at Night Moves, the spray on the left and right is that tired old habit of gobbing. Needless to say Stuart was nonplussed and the eejits ejected.

The evidence from 1983 is that we had colour pictures that became black and white blobs once the photocopier took its picture. Surpisingly there are no pictures of arse cheeks in these early deadbeats, back when sitting on the copier was the popular past time at the Christmas party, but maybe there is evidence in issue 6, I dont know as I dont have one.

Notice how 16 year old Paul McLaughlin is one minute smoking a fag, looking like he's borrowed a red jersey from Santa, while the next moment he's adorning the second edition of Deadbeat and morphed into

a  hand holding a fag in his wrong hand as his face crumples in the confusion of how will I lift that cup of coffe without buring my face with the fag, mid you, that's even clearer in the colour copy. 5 minutes later he realised he did have another hand but it wasnt required as the fag was finished and he could use his shooting hand to lift the coffee.

But what else was in these early issue - clearly the typing was all straight except for the almost straight headings. If I'd been allowed to do techie drawing I'd have been fine, but why have I got Siouxsie Sioux - she's clearly in October, even I can read that, but as I've pasted the front and back cover I'm far too lazy to delete them.

But back to issue two and issue 17 and 18 and 26 and 33

issue 17 and how did we end end up putting Colin Moxley on the front of our anniversary edition? Well, it was easy, 2 pints and I was writing a review, 4 pints an interview and an evening session at la Sorbonne saw you get the front cover. Its clear to see we were on a roll, 1000 editions with flexidisc were sold out in no time at all so we turned to the Screaming Nobodies and they responded with issue 18 along with Crucial Xylophone Slaughterhouse 5 and the Dum Dum Boys it wasnt a bad follow up, but it was a bad cover!

To be fair to the cover it looked excellent, until it was printed. Quintessential fanzine fodder, young kid, microphone & boxing gloves - superb, summed up everything about us. We had a voice and we were going to fight the latest load of Thatcher nonsense. If you think about where Spitting image were at the time, Hibs had been hit by the potato blight, the Young Ones, like our manufacturing industry were no more, and Pilton was fast discovering its own plight. The image of the boxing gloves, microphone and a young kid prepared to use it were superb.

It bombed, lucky if we sold 700, so what if society wasnt ready for a fanzine sticking to its grass roots principles we would persevere, we needed to we were getting £20 for a full page ad and I wasnt getting a student grant anymore, one has to put a little by for one's luxuries, clearly before drink and fags were reclassified as the necessities they were. Issue 19 would surely see us cover our costs...

By 1984 the world had definitely changed for me, if not all of us. Issue 26 lasted the whole summer of my final resit of resits. I kind of figured I wasnt getting a degree when after three years masquerading as a student and then another year allegedly working from home and failing the exams in the summer I had three exams still to pass. How many times do I need to be insulted by the examination body. I'd gone to St Andrews on a whim as the guys I was going into 6th year with were all on a different planet from me and so I left in 5th year to cash in on the glory trail that was getting a degree. I started with maths, migrated to Economics and after a crash course in 1st & 2nd year Psychology where the practical question asked me to diagnose someone who was clearly speeding - I thought Psychology's for me, but I needed to pass the other stuff and after starting Deadbeat in 82 it seemed most unlikely I'd pass another exam, a feat I excelled in. At subsequent sittings I failed 2nd year Economics 4 times and Geology and Computing 3 times, but what a good session we'd have every May. I'm sure they only failed me in Economics as I'd explained what Thatcher was doing with creating 3million unemployed as a way of battering the unions. Lets face it, if you're unemployed your not likely to be carrying your card. Unfortunately my tutor agreed in discussion and not when I trotted out the same old tosh in exams, but who gives a toss about that, its 30 years on Vinny, get over it,

Yes issue 26 was a good one - it deserved to be out for the summer. I never saw the June Brides but I was a big for of their music and as the back cover shows there were a few bands to see before the next stage of the revolution......oh and the shameless promotion of our very dodgy single. I remember asking each time I went into the shops how many Deadbeats, Tapes and singles they'd sold. The chuckle factor with the latter was huge when one day somebody in Perth bought one, probably Simon's old man trying to get us up the charts. The usual response was 78 Deadbeats, 6 tapes and what single...oh yeah, there's a box down here, do you want them back...?

 Who could forget the Dancing Bears, but issue 31 didnt go for them on the front cover we went for Crucial Xylophone, they were superb, just the name, CX, naw, its no goan tae work Boab....I remember being down in London for the Men they Couldnt Hang, it was about this time I was clearly struggling to keep doing any form of recreational habit, I've struggled for the last 25 years on alcohol alone, its been tough...........but this issue shows me at the printing helm, a mistake no doubt to think I could turn my hand to printing, I clearly couldnt write, I was too shaky to put the letters in a straight line, I scratched every free LP as I tried to lift the needle onto the vinyl but apart from that, it seemed reasonable to think I could become a printer................ah, I've always said, life is this good always, and I'll drink to that!

issue 33 has gone missing - a bit like Deadbeat - 1986 the beginning of an end - certainly not for hair gel, as the Alarm demonstrate, its not even the beginning of the end of hair gel, but it may be the end of the beginning...

I'll have found some copies by November 24th - you can be sure of that but I got a job and ran out of time to print. Keith and I stumbled along trying to put together a belated closing issue but it never happened. We finally found a good home at the Inch community centre for the massive print machine and I painted the back room of my folks house.....you'd never know it'd be a print room!

countdown to 30 years anniversary

With only 22 hours to go, there's clearly a lot of excitement in the air. My daughter's trying to find out the location so hopefully she's not computer literate....blogs are so old hat, (they dont count as computer literacy), that with me not on facebook and the myriad of social media available to the communication Grumpy old Deadbeat's (G.O.Ds), she clearly thinks it'll be a small party....see you 5pm Friday, its cracker (deadbeat) jack

august - its the festival and our PARTY!!!!

We meet in the Speigeltent at George Square Friday afternoon and then we go for a tapas,,,or whatever.

Keith & I cant wait, after 30 years of hard work, a bit like the REAL MCHOY we have padalled our DEadbeats and we look forward to the party - 5pm Friday seems a good time to meet so see you there

July Deadbeats

While my daughter goes off in search of Juliet in Girona, or is it Verona, its certainly Italy, I'm left organising that first anniversary or is it 30th anniversary party. Now that Kieth's confirmed its either Friday evening August 17th or during the day on Saturday 18th, its just a venue we seek.

What a clever plan to try and find a venue during the Festival. So while I'm contemplating my navel, it'll be great to all meet up again, and thanks for all the kind comments Jeremy, once I learn how to respond to comments I'll thank Gary, Evan etc as well, in the meantime I'll concentrate on a venue. The Oxford Bar saw many a Deadbeat glued together and is in the centre of town, how difficult can it be to choose a venue, I'll ask Keith I'm so decisive nowadays, but back to the July Deadbeats.

I think issue 15 is the one with Pavlov Orange and that film maker who once stood with the Mic in hand for the  Skids, arghh, my brain freeze continues, he had a stripey jumper in the issue and his usual mop of fair hair, he wasn't singing 'Into the Valley', but yes. Richard Jobson, phew, I really am struggling today.

Issue 16 with Strawberry Switchblade was the one before Evan and Co put together the flexi disc in issue 17, and was July-August so will definitely qualify for a July Deadbeat. It was the one with the interview from Inverness ice rink when Keith and I went up to see Echo & the bunnymen and then got stranded as the last train was after we returned to the station. We ended up walking through Inverness, and to paraphrase the Prats, 'what a mess' we were. We went to a party somewhere and then were emptied onto the streets when the host turned out to be somebody's child and we were in the wrong place at the wrong time as far as the parents were concerned, aw, how times have changed, now I send my daughter to crash at Keith's in London and he comes home to find she's partying in his flat.....but we made it back from Inverness (not really a mess, just us) and having waited from 3am in the habit of the station dweller, got the 6am and poured ourselves out at Waverley clutching some more returned issues that would fill the back issues no. 14 shelf.

 After another year had passed we had surpisingly done only another 10 deadbeats. Definitely an omen, as by 1985 we'd only managed another 4. Either the drugs weren't helping or we were running on empty.By 2012 all we'd managed was a blog about what we didn't manage.

This issue had the June Brides, a band I really liked. It also had an interview with a band called Dormannu a band I didn't really like, but I felt it compelling to talk everything up so I did. We were running out of white letraset at the time and didnt have a capital "A" for August so made the issue July - Sept and slept for an extra month. It was amazing how simple decisions can be. As you can tell from the printing I'm now the printer and there are a few things I am and most of them were words related to parentage, personal habits and printer wasn't one. Thankfully I've only put the cover and not the page inside it which was frerquently glued to the one before owing to a build up of ink commonly associated with shit printers using shit print machines. Stevie had shown us in previous issues how difficult too much black was and so from that moment on we started taking pictures of bands who wore bright colours.

The ideal solution was to use black and white spread out as in the Happy Hints page, as you can see from the quality, the printing was so easy even a halfwit like me could do it without too much smudging.

So issue 31 is missing. I'll away to the garage and try and find it. Issue 32 was clearly Sept - Oct 1985

Just like June the curtains are closed....

Ah, yes, June, the summer, end of school term, start of oblivion. Summer festivals should clearly have been the thing that got the Deadbeats out of neutral and started hyping and we did, eventually. There was oblivion to do first and when I chat to fellow parents I'm suprised how many forgot how much oblivion they indulged in, I'd go further, I wonder why we have chosen to bin these irrelevant radge moments in our life instead of embracing our stupidity, or the learning process that adolescence is. Keith & I were to be found blindly bumbling around the Hoochie Coochie Club in the summer of 1982 and Allan Campbell's BLAM! was the prompt that made me think, we could do this and by 1984 George Orwell was being lauded louder than the two tribes that seemed to be going to war, and I'm not talking about Brian Blessed's encounter with Picasso, talking of which I as lucky enough to get a good look around the museums in Madrid recently and I will shamelessly stick on a cartoon I so enjoyed from, the gallery that has Guernika

2 months later the first Deadbeat arrived and it was terrible, like all of them to be honest, but with a huge amount of pride I'm delighted to say there were bits we were really proud of. Its superb after all of these years that there is the time to chuckle over it. The Deadbeat years were superb years but like everyone else, its because they were our formative years. I loved them. We had to make value judgements that even now are as stupid as they were then. We were interviewing the Clash in La Sorbonne and then choosing not to publish on the basis that it was the right thing to do. I had met the band in Paris having been given a backstage pass by the tour manager at the top of the Tour'Eiffel, in September 1981, in exchange for a fun sized mars bar, other brands are available. I say the band, as I was stood dumbstruck, there was Joe, Mick, Mick's partner, Topper and Paul, oh and me. There was nobody else, I had my backstage pass, I had no questions, no conversations, just admiration and  a huge appetite so I made my apologies and explained I had really enjoyed the gig, was in awe of them and starving, possessing as I did a permanent hunger.

Back to the Deadbeats. Issue 14 was Tracey. Issue 26 was in July. Who has control over these pictures.

There was a great picture from the gallery which I have reproduced without permission, I hope its ok.

I'd suggest you go to Madrid and see it for real as its really really special close up, one of the good guys on the right of the picture is clearly not chosen for the job.

So time for a cartoon

I thought this was a superb cartoon and for me symbolises the Spanish Civil war as the cartoonists tried to explain to the world further afield what was going on. I think it is such a good cartoon it doesn't need me to add any more words, but I will! There are great ways of describing the good being led by the corrupt or the bad encouraging the perpetuating of others madness.

Just like June the curtains are closed....and all I can sayis this picture reminded me of that moment in Roddy Frame's Aztec Camera classic.......although they are opened occassionally.... you could of course argue that this is Jeremy Thoms at his finest, thank you for the comments Jeremy, once I work out how this correspondence works I'll email you! Keith and I are meeting in August to celebrate 30 years since the first issue, I live on the Southside, he's morningside, so at present its likely to be the Waiting Rooms - I also turn 50 in December which is when I've got a venue to arrange and people like yourselves and the Dancing Bears to book!

April Deadbeats

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, and 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!!