https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/bible-john#overview
Thursday, 4 April 2019
Friday, 15 March 2019
Issue 67 - Jackie looking good!
Caitlin drew her mum some 22 years ago I felt it was time to put out a birthday issue
Happy Birthday Jackie looking good!
Tuesday, 5 March 2019
Without That Certain Thing - the Vault Festival, Waterloo, London
Sunday March 3rd 2019 Waterloo, Vault Festival
Yes the £9 glass of wine - ouch
I was lulled beautifully into the £5.10 for a pint of Estrella at a nearby bar, but it all meant nowt as my £15 ticket let me watch and review a show.
I stumbled, quite literally into the Vault festival in London's Lower Marches under Waterloo.
I'm a fan of reviewing this kind of theatre as the Vault Festival encourages people to write, act and produce just like bands back in the 80's would play and perform their own songs and Deadbeat tried to showcase them. A creative explosion is good for the soul whether learning a trade or just playing for fun..
Nowadays the price has changed and at these prices the voices are possibly not as cosmopolitan as London is, but nonetheless you have to strike out.
Which I did indeed when I joined the queue for the gents. Only one toilet for us and two for the girls, wonderful irony when more toilets are now gender neutral.
The auditorium filled up quickly. When a late arriving lassie shrieked "ah need a piss" I chuckled, knowing she'd be quick.
On her return she announced "I made it", "you made it" her pal reiterated, the lights dimmed and the action started.
A superb night watching three actors perform an interesting play that engaged at will, sometimes meandered, raised the roof with hysterical laughter, whilst casting a confusingly dark shadow over the many different locations, played out on a fairly small stage. I didn't count the many locations but credit to the actors and set designers for creating and inhabiting the space in our minds.
Botwana's Number One Ladies private detective, may have been an inspiration or possibly 'Sherlock stalks a stalker', but as the play moved on it was clear there were twists and counter twists as they played 'carry on up the cluestalk'. There is always the temptation to squeeze extra in and five one hour episodes a la Sherlock Holmes may have enabled the characters to relax into their roles and the writer to balance the prose.
As it was they moved Helter Skelter through the plot and took the audience on the ride. The laughter from the paying patrons proved there was plenty to please them.
The play opens at a lesbian dating night where it becomes clear one of the characters will enjoy an inner narrative with the audience while the other isn't there for the dating. Our sleuth Sullivan spoke swiftly and her words swung in the air, with the audience, back to her speed date and back to the audience. She's clearly in love with herself, her voice, vast knowledge, great powers of investigation and its funny. She listens, narrates preconceived notions and responds with all the consideration the character comes with.
As the speed date developed the straight character came clean, admitting she was only there to throw a male stalker, Swann, off the scent.
The appalling ends she described to evade including confronting the stalker providing both scary and comedic overtones juxtaposed against the background of being straight at a lesbian speed date.
Our sleuth lost no time in explaining she was out of the game with overtures of double entendre slap stick confusion. The challenge was there, the gauntlet picked up, Sullivan would indeed investigate, "what's your name?", "Madelaine" as through the window peeked, Madeleine's monstrous stalker Swann.
Some jokes really tickle me, and there was something really hysterical about Sullivan the Sleuth being so good at the PI job that she'd given up, told the audience about, won awards for etc, that she hadn't even asked Madelaine her name during the pre-nuptials of the speed date. I thought I heard her say "you're my favourite biscuit....." during the date or maybe I didn't it.
The dialogue was intricate, as it fizzed fast between the two of them. It was very funny. Madelaine squirmed awkwardly as she came clean and dug deeper holes with her narrative while the additional layer of Sullivan the Sleuth's inner dialogue delivery was proving very pithy indeed.
The audience were laughing so much some gags could be missed. It's brave for young writers to put in a laughter break but foolish if the audience don't get it. Some of tonight's crowd seemed to know the play and a few were ahead of the rest of us.
As Madelaine engaged Sullivan the Sleuth, at £80 a day no less, there followed some excellent narrative as the pair bumped into each other, playing out their roles in the play within the play. The work to work, the lunch break and going home all were given locations and the options for the carry on comedy were all max'd out.
The plot developed very quickly into sleuth, stalker and stalked. It was a tricky tightrope to tread as the subject matter is extremely serious and the writer tried to give the stalker a sadder profile to shift the light into farce rather than trivialise the issue, I'm not sure where you go with that but the device used, was to humanise the stalker by turning the sleuth into a stalker too. With stalkers 2-1 up on the stalked it became apparent that majority rules apply and so we moved to comedy.
At first the sleuth was stalking Swann the stalker, then in a bizarre little twist they joined forces, hiding in a bush together, to enable the stalker to be stalked by the sleuth at close quarters.
Keeping up?
The play slides and crashes into 'carry-on' up the 'can stalk will stalk', moving into the full comedic confusion of who's stalking who and why before an explosion back into reality as the stalker realises the sleuth has the jump on him.
It's moving so fast now I did have a bit of trouble keeping up. Madeleine, the stalked, then does a runner and having had very predictable behaviour starts to vary her routines.
At this point I'm a bit confused, but to be fair, I've still not looked at my watch, so my attention is being held.
Sullivan the sleuth shows her hand as she breaks into Madeleine's flat while Swann is angry at his fellow stalker crossing the line. I'm not sure if these were metaphorical lines or comedic crossings of the code as stalker Swann saw it.
I'd never give away the ending and to be fair I'm still not quite sure what happened. There was a bit of a crash and a bang and it felt like the stalked was now being blamed for bringing it on herself. She was standing on a bridge and before she jumped, she threw her phone and then smiled to camera, put on a wig and said 'here we go again', or words to that effect. A serial stalking victim? As we left the Velvet Underground were playing "Femme Fatale" so I guess the moral if there was one, was that, dull deserves what dull gets, for acting like a femme fatale. Hmmm dunno about that.
The play will have benefited the writer, director, cast and crew, which is why new work is encouraged. If it travels to the Edinburgh fringe I'll look forward to seeing it again with a few of the narratives nursed into shape. The way they used the stage was very impressive at times even physical and the actors were all very impressive with their dialogue and movement.
The first 40 minutes were fast, furious and funny. Sometimes you need to focus on the best aspects and stumbling back into the serious stalking subject matter was in my view a mistake. A straight comedic ending would benefit this play enormously.
Vinny Bee
Yes the £9 glass of wine - ouch
I was lulled beautifully into the £5.10 for a pint of Estrella at a nearby bar, but it all meant nowt as my £15 ticket let me watch and review a show.
I stumbled, quite literally into the Vault festival in London's Lower Marches under Waterloo.
I'm a fan of reviewing this kind of theatre as the Vault Festival encourages people to write, act and produce just like bands back in the 80's would play and perform their own songs and Deadbeat tried to showcase them. A creative explosion is good for the soul whether learning a trade or just playing for fun..
Nowadays the price has changed and at these prices the voices are possibly not as cosmopolitan as London is, but nonetheless you have to strike out.
Which I did indeed when I joined the queue for the gents. Only one toilet for us and two for the girls, wonderful irony when more toilets are now gender neutral.
The auditorium filled up quickly. When a late arriving lassie shrieked "ah need a piss" I chuckled, knowing she'd be quick.
On her return she announced "I made it", "you made it" her pal reiterated, the lights dimmed and the action started.
A superb night watching three actors perform an interesting play that engaged at will, sometimes meandered, raised the roof with hysterical laughter, whilst casting a confusingly dark shadow over the many different locations, played out on a fairly small stage. I didn't count the many locations but credit to the actors and set designers for creating and inhabiting the space in our minds.
Botwana's Number One Ladies private detective, may have been an inspiration or possibly 'Sherlock stalks a stalker', but as the play moved on it was clear there were twists and counter twists as they played 'carry on up the cluestalk'. There is always the temptation to squeeze extra in and five one hour episodes a la Sherlock Holmes may have enabled the characters to relax into their roles and the writer to balance the prose.
As it was they moved Helter Skelter through the plot and took the audience on the ride. The laughter from the paying patrons proved there was plenty to please them.
The play opens at a lesbian dating night where it becomes clear one of the characters will enjoy an inner narrative with the audience while the other isn't there for the dating. Our sleuth Sullivan spoke swiftly and her words swung in the air, with the audience, back to her speed date and back to the audience. She's clearly in love with herself, her voice, vast knowledge, great powers of investigation and its funny. She listens, narrates preconceived notions and responds with all the consideration the character comes with.
As the speed date developed the straight character came clean, admitting she was only there to throw a male stalker, Swann, off the scent.
The appalling ends she described to evade including confronting the stalker providing both scary and comedic overtones juxtaposed against the background of being straight at a lesbian speed date.
Our sleuth lost no time in explaining she was out of the game with overtures of double entendre slap stick confusion. The challenge was there, the gauntlet picked up, Sullivan would indeed investigate, "what's your name?", "Madelaine" as through the window peeked, Madeleine's monstrous stalker Swann.
Some jokes really tickle me, and there was something really hysterical about Sullivan the Sleuth being so good at the PI job that she'd given up, told the audience about, won awards for etc, that she hadn't even asked Madelaine her name during the pre-nuptials of the speed date. I thought I heard her say "you're my favourite biscuit....." during the date or maybe I didn't it.
The dialogue was intricate, as it fizzed fast between the two of them. It was very funny. Madelaine squirmed awkwardly as she came clean and dug deeper holes with her narrative while the additional layer of Sullivan the Sleuth's inner dialogue delivery was proving very pithy indeed.
The audience were laughing so much some gags could be missed. It's brave for young writers to put in a laughter break but foolish if the audience don't get it. Some of tonight's crowd seemed to know the play and a few were ahead of the rest of us.
As Madelaine engaged Sullivan the Sleuth, at £80 a day no less, there followed some excellent narrative as the pair bumped into each other, playing out their roles in the play within the play. The work to work, the lunch break and going home all were given locations and the options for the carry on comedy were all max'd out.
The plot developed very quickly into sleuth, stalker and stalked. It was a tricky tightrope to tread as the subject matter is extremely serious and the writer tried to give the stalker a sadder profile to shift the light into farce rather than trivialise the issue, I'm not sure where you go with that but the device used, was to humanise the stalker by turning the sleuth into a stalker too. With stalkers 2-1 up on the stalked it became apparent that majority rules apply and so we moved to comedy.
At first the sleuth was stalking Swann the stalker, then in a bizarre little twist they joined forces, hiding in a bush together, to enable the stalker to be stalked by the sleuth at close quarters.
Keeping up?
The play slides and crashes into 'carry-on' up the 'can stalk will stalk', moving into the full comedic confusion of who's stalking who and why before an explosion back into reality as the stalker realises the sleuth has the jump on him.
It's moving so fast now I did have a bit of trouble keeping up. Madeleine, the stalked, then does a runner and having had very predictable behaviour starts to vary her routines.
At this point I'm a bit confused, but to be fair, I've still not looked at my watch, so my attention is being held.
Sullivan the sleuth shows her hand as she breaks into Madeleine's flat while Swann is angry at his fellow stalker crossing the line. I'm not sure if these were metaphorical lines or comedic crossings of the code as stalker Swann saw it.
I'd never give away the ending and to be fair I'm still not quite sure what happened. There was a bit of a crash and a bang and it felt like the stalked was now being blamed for bringing it on herself. She was standing on a bridge and before she jumped, she threw her phone and then smiled to camera, put on a wig and said 'here we go again', or words to that effect. A serial stalking victim? As we left the Velvet Underground were playing "Femme Fatale" so I guess the moral if there was one, was that, dull deserves what dull gets, for acting like a femme fatale. Hmmm dunno about that.
The play will have benefited the writer, director, cast and crew, which is why new work is encouraged. If it travels to the Edinburgh fringe I'll look forward to seeing it again with a few of the narratives nursed into shape. The way they used the stage was very impressive at times even physical and the actors were all very impressive with their dialogue and movement.
The first 40 minutes were fast, furious and funny. Sometimes you need to focus on the best aspects and stumbling back into the serious stalking subject matter was in my view a mistake. A straight comedic ending would benefit this play enormously.
Vinny Bee
Sunday, 3 March 2019
#Deadbeatfanzine 1982-1986
Never let the truth get in the way of a good story!
That was the motto now - we need a cover for the book - and Gordon Gurvan has taken Hilary's drawings and the other covers to make wine out of water - take a bow and thank you!
I like the tartan as we touched many colourful strands of music, the alternative music scene could be loud as well as quiet, it was just dependent on who the drummer was, lead guitarist, singer etc, but more often who had control of the mixing desk.
Many venues with a good mixing desk allowed some novice friend of the band to do the mixing. I remember a lot of soundchecks where I tried unwittingly to encourage the pal on the desk to turn down the mike'd up drums and bass or you'd never hear the vocals.....more likely I'd never get an interview!
Need to add in all the dots for Goldrush in Perth and that hotel out on the road north, as well as Inverness and the famous ice rink gig and interview after the Echo & the Bunnymen gig in #16. St Andrews, Lesmahagow, Anstruther, Galashiels and all those other fantastic musical outsposts we celebrated. I went to a lot of interesting watering holes watching bands and a small selection of the venues we were lucky enough to see these bands in will never be complete without top billing to the Tayside Bar in Dundee although for me, La Sorbonne and Night Moves were my NB.
A kaleidoscopic view always sharpens the mind of those who have been on the gof course looking for some roughage in their diet, but care should be taken when foraging!
That was the motto now - we need a cover for the book - and Gordon Gurvan has taken Hilary's drawings and the other covers to make wine out of water - take a bow and thank you!
I like the tartan as we touched many colourful strands of music, the alternative music scene could be loud as well as quiet, it was just dependent on who the drummer was, lead guitarist, singer etc, but more often who had control of the mixing desk.
Many venues with a good mixing desk allowed some novice friend of the band to do the mixing. I remember a lot of soundchecks where I tried unwittingly to encourage the pal on the desk to turn down the mike'd up drums and bass or you'd never hear the vocals.....more likely I'd never get an interview!
Need to add in all the dots for Goldrush in Perth and that hotel out on the road north, as well as Inverness and the famous ice rink gig and interview after the Echo & the Bunnymen gig in #16. St Andrews, Lesmahagow, Anstruther, Galashiels and all those other fantastic musical outsposts we celebrated. I went to a lot of interesting watering holes watching bands and a small selection of the venues we were lucky enough to see these bands in will never be complete without top billing to the Tayside Bar in Dundee although for me, La Sorbonne and Night Moves were my NB.
Whether it was a three line review of a tape or a full blown front cover picture and interview with legends like Malcolm Ross in #23, we spoke to a plenty of people and listened to brilliant bands and wrote ridiculously badly and frequently incoherently, incorrectly or just wrong.
We never censored, we could'nae spell it, so the odd bad review of a gig or whatever, or in my case slagging off the production on Knife, sorry Roddy, or even suggesing Madonna was an "accomplished Ballet Dancer and singer from New York", sorry Scotland, we know the truth will never get in the way of a good story, or even a bad one, and time heals everything, so its time to open those old wounds!
I'm wondering why I cant get "I'll be the happiest citizen of all" out of my Happy Family head....
Wednesday, 20 February 2019
A huge thank you to Gordon Gurvan - www.retrodundee.blogspot.co.uk
On display another great concept cover for the Deadbeat annual - a 2020 hindsight must!
When December 31st 1983 arrived we'd had an election and 1984 was on the horizon.
Many of us wondered about the next year never mind the next decade or millenium.
Its hard to figure it out but I'm so grateful so many of the good guys made it.
Take a bow Gordon!
Also - for those who haven't surfed retro dundee go now and check it out alongside the legend that is the TSB - aka Tayside Bar
When people talk about the Apollo they always mention the TSB - well not always, but they should!
Wednesday, 13 February 2019
Tuesday, 12 February 2019
Monday, 11 February 2019
The jam sessions
The jam sessions
When one half of Strawberry Switchblade bumps into one half of the Strawberry Tarts we're suddenly aware it's 1984 all over again as a very entertaining jam session took place at the Wee Red bar at Edinburgh Art College.
Keeping the preservative theme, Salt opened proceedings
Relaxing into their second gig this new band of stalwarts, Including half of the ruby suit nee the 1986 beautiful suit (and also half of Carbona not glue) brought some of those rock n roll ideas up to date while carrying their 50+ wisdom into their songwriting. Their driving rhythm was quite overpowering for the wee red bar initially, as Sharon studiously sung over, under and around the groove. As the songs broke their trajectory, so the instruments struck their own chord and less became more. Suddenly the guitars and drums danced around the vocals as Salt swiftly sailed through the set list. The last three songs had a mixture of fragility and a syncopation that was intoxicating.
Next up was Rose McDowell one half of legendary Glasgow band Strawberry Switchblade and her backing band of 4, including Jeremy Thoms, the one time Strawberry Tart and now Cathode Ray frontman.
It was a supreme performance with a calm and confident Rose delivering a master class in compering the evening.
There's irony somewhere when covering a Strawberry Switchblade song and a Velvet Underground song. Im thinking there was only 15 years between those songs and another 34 years since ......you do you suddenly feel an old audience and dancin Al wasn't going for the splits.
Despite the venue size Rose was taking this gig very professionally and proving perseverance as she plied her trade.
The banter between songs and the performance was a joy to watch and listen to, connecting with everyone in the crowd individually.
The wee red bar is a venue that takes the over 50's until 10pm then kicks us out and puts on a show for the next generation of hipsters. The early finish was a bit surreal but looking at the crowd it was obvious our handicabs bus was outside. I wasn't alone in hobbling out of the show and while we adjourned to a nearby bar it was clear a 3am finish wearing a kebab was a habit for another generation. Early to bed...
When one half of Strawberry Switchblade bumps into one half of the Strawberry Tarts we're suddenly aware it's 1984 all over again as a very entertaining jam session took place at the Wee Red bar at Edinburgh Art College.
Keeping the preservative theme, Salt opened proceedings
Relaxing into their second gig this new band of stalwarts, Including half of the ruby suit nee the 1986 beautiful suit (and also half of Carbona not glue) brought some of those rock n roll ideas up to date while carrying their 50+ wisdom into their songwriting. Their driving rhythm was quite overpowering for the wee red bar initially, as Sharon studiously sung over, under and around the groove. As the songs broke their trajectory, so the instruments struck their own chord and less became more. Suddenly the guitars and drums danced around the vocals as Salt swiftly sailed through the set list. The last three songs had a mixture of fragility and a syncopation that was intoxicating.
Next up was Rose McDowell one half of legendary Glasgow band Strawberry Switchblade and her backing band of 4, including Jeremy Thoms, the one time Strawberry Tart and now Cathode Ray frontman.
It was a supreme performance with a calm and confident Rose delivering a master class in compering the evening.
There's irony somewhere when covering a Strawberry Switchblade song and a Velvet Underground song. Im thinking there was only 15 years between those songs and another 34 years since ......you do you suddenly feel an old audience and dancin Al wasn't going for the splits.
Despite the venue size Rose was taking this gig very professionally and proving perseverance as she plied her trade.
The banter between songs and the performance was a joy to watch and listen to, connecting with everyone in the crowd individually.The wee red bar is a venue that takes the over 50's until 10pm then kicks us out and puts on a show for the next generation of hipsters. The early finish was a bit surreal but looking at the crowd it was obvious our handicabs bus was outside. I wasn't alone in hobbling out of the show and while we adjourned to a nearby bar it was clear a 3am finish wearing a kebab was a habit for another generation. Early to bed...
Friday, 8 February 2019
Scottish Classic Albums
Congratulations to Davie Scott and team, great work with the Scottish Classic Albums series of podcasts released in 2018 and good luck with the next batch for 2019. Its been a superb accompaniment for me on my 500 miles wanders....
I've borrowed some of the text from my Fat Al camino website fatal-bananas.blogspot.com.....
Whenever I walk the Camino I've got songs aplenty in my head. At 400 miles there's Big Country as we climb O'Cebriero in Galicia, the spanish bagpipes and the Celtic landscape. As we enter Santiago the Proclaimers can be heard over the noise of the traffic.
It's such a joy to walk 500 more again this year and a huge thank you to Chewy Racoon's Davie Scott for making my sleeps so much better.
Snoring as many of you will know is the less salubrious side of the sunshine Camino. The walk across Spain provides a new vista for every stage and sometimes many within the same stage.
Followers of FatAl-bananas.blogspot will know the music of the Camino is equally varied. Whether it's "Pillar to post" rattling through my head as I take to dancing down the scree, or "I can see for miles", there's always a song.
The inspirational camino landscape forms songs in your head and they merge with songs that have been there for years.
I've written many songs daundering along, not least bastardised versions of Wednesday week and little boxes have seen me pause to record videos I've loved them so much. Little vineyards on the hillside still tickles me.
Especially the last verse as I rhyme "then the winos, go to Tesco's, and buy the vino, to drink alfresco, and it all tastes, like ticky tacky, and it all tastes, just the same..." scroll to 44 seconds....
In fact I'm so proud of it I want to get the band back together - meantime, sing it to yourself you'll have that song in your head all day.
That's the beauty of the Camino,
You let go of things you didn't know you were holding.
When listening to Davie Scott's series of classic Scottish albums I hear everything from subtlety to granite and as the sun shines, glistening on the feldspars and iron pyrites, whether its the Pyrenees or Galicia, you really do get the big gold dream.
At the time in 1982, I was so entrenched in the north south divide. I'd cross it frequently thinking the charts were for the south and the clubs and gigs were for the north. Nowadays I forget that history was largely written by the south, its irrelevant, just as how shite the charts were in the 80's, its true, but we weren't about the charts, certainly not TOTP, more the live performances on the Tube, OGWT and radio sessions.
Davie Scott, all the engineers, runners and contributors who have put the Classic Scottish Albums podcasts together must have enjoyed a jubilant job in highlighting some of these landmark moments in the history of, what is, local music.
The dark holes from my past have been illuminated not least in finding out that Spencer Tracey used the Tayside Bar, and then did the showcase at la Sorbonne.
I knew I'd heard that "Mary...", song before.
I remember watching both Big Country and U2 months apart at night moves in Glasgow in 1982.
Who knew how quickly they'd be in stadiums.
Stuart Adamson's guitar playing close up taught me I had a whole lot to learn.
I still cant believe how few people were there that night.
Hats of to Stuart Adamson for saying "No Gobbin!"
That form of punk was over, for sure and I'd forgotten an umbrella.
On seeing him at Night Moves I decided to stick to singing!
By November 1982 we were watching Aztec Camera and the Daintees, in Dundee, and this rock n roll thing was "still on fire".
By 1983 "Sweet Dreams" were made of the interview Hilary & I had with Annie Lennox after the Dundee Dance Factory gig.
2 issues later Stuart Adamson was talking to Roy Terre.
Barney was talking to Karen McD.
But back to the point of the Scottish Classic Albums story.
By 1985 we approach my dark amnesiac period so I can't remember if we reviewed chewy Raccoon but I think Davie's brilliant at interviews!
I enjoyed Campbell's apology to Roddy saying "knife" was sterile compared to "high land hard rain". Half full here, wrote as close as I get to a scathing review of "knife" in issue 27 where I felt the polished production had got the better of the songs. Roddy was rougher live and we knew a few of the songs sounded sweeter on stage. It did for me as I think I realised slagging musicians off hadn't been the plan and from issue 27 to the last issue of 33, I slowly lost it.
Music is so important to the soul and many pursue it at a young age. Few are funded in the rock'n'roll lottery of life, but they still carry on. Memories of those venues linger long and whilst most of us have moved on to concentrate on careers, children, camping out in doorways or other aspects of their life, from full time carer to part time alcoholic and back via karaoke at the gym, it's been a blast and better still, it continues to be.
These podcasts are brilliant and I wish them well in getting more bands to share their past and present as there's still many gaps to plug in the encyclopaedic environment this electronic age encourages.
I've got a yearning to be a librarian by the time I reach 60 and if I can master this electronic environment I'll put on record a set list of every band that ever played Night Moves, Tayside Bar or La Sorbonne.
Cross checked against the "I was there" eg the Clash at la Sorbonne!
A lexicon of love, ha ha ha!
Look at those smiles as we sang in Santiago de Compostela......"Yes, I will walk 500 more!!
I've borrowed some of the text from my Fat Al camino website fatal-bananas.blogspot.com.....
Whenever I walk the Camino I've got songs aplenty in my head. At 400 miles there's Big Country as we climb O'Cebriero in Galicia, the spanish bagpipes and the Celtic landscape. As we enter Santiago the Proclaimers can be heard over the noise of the traffic.
It's such a joy to walk 500 more again this year and a huge thank you to Chewy Racoon's Davie Scott for making my sleeps so much better.
Snoring as many of you will know is the less salubrious side of the sunshine Camino. The walk across Spain provides a new vista for every stage and sometimes many within the same stage.
Followers of FatAl-bananas.blogspot will know the music of the Camino is equally varied. Whether it's "Pillar to post" rattling through my head as I take to dancing down the scree, or "I can see for miles", there's always a song.
The inspirational camino landscape forms songs in your head and they merge with songs that have been there for years.
I've written many songs daundering along, not least bastardised versions of Wednesday week and little boxes have seen me pause to record videos I've loved them so much. Little vineyards on the hillside still tickles me.
Especially the last verse as I rhyme "then the winos, go to Tesco's, and buy the vino, to drink alfresco, and it all tastes, like ticky tacky, and it all tastes, just the same..." scroll to 44 seconds....
In fact I'm so proud of it I want to get the band back together - meantime, sing it to yourself you'll have that song in your head all day.
That's the beauty of the Camino,
You let go of things you didn't know you were holding.
When listening to Davie Scott's series of classic Scottish albums I hear everything from subtlety to granite and as the sun shines, glistening on the feldspars and iron pyrites, whether its the Pyrenees or Galicia, you really do get the big gold dream.
At the time in 1982, I was so entrenched in the north south divide. I'd cross it frequently thinking the charts were for the south and the clubs and gigs were for the north. Nowadays I forget that history was largely written by the south, its irrelevant, just as how shite the charts were in the 80's, its true, but we weren't about the charts, certainly not TOTP, more the live performances on the Tube, OGWT and radio sessions.
Davie Scott, all the engineers, runners and contributors who have put the Classic Scottish Albums podcasts together must have enjoyed a jubilant job in highlighting some of these landmark moments in the history of, what is, local music.
The dark holes from my past have been illuminated not least in finding out that Spencer Tracey used the Tayside Bar, and then did the showcase at la Sorbonne.I knew I'd heard that "Mary...", song before.
I remember watching both Big Country and U2 months apart at night moves in Glasgow in 1982.
Who knew how quickly they'd be in stadiums.
Stuart Adamson's guitar playing close up taught me I had a whole lot to learn.I still cant believe how few people were there that night.
Hats of to Stuart Adamson for saying "No Gobbin!"
That form of punk was over, for sure and I'd forgotten an umbrella.
On seeing him at Night Moves I decided to stick to singing!
By 1983 "Sweet Dreams" were made of the interview Hilary & I had with Annie Lennox after the Dundee Dance Factory gig.
2 issues later Stuart Adamson was talking to Roy Terre.
Barney was talking to Karen McD.
But back to the point of the Scottish Classic Albums story.
By 1985 we approach my dark amnesiac period so I can't remember if we reviewed chewy Raccoon but I think Davie's brilliant at interviews!
I enjoyed Campbell's apology to Roddy saying "knife" was sterile compared to "high land hard rain". Half full here, wrote as close as I get to a scathing review of "knife" in issue 27 where I felt the polished production had got the better of the songs. Roddy was rougher live and we knew a few of the songs sounded sweeter on stage. It did for me as I think I realised slagging musicians off hadn't been the plan and from issue 27 to the last issue of 33, I slowly lost it.
Music is so important to the soul and many pursue it at a young age. Few are funded in the rock'n'roll lottery of life, but they still carry on. Memories of those venues linger long and whilst most of us have moved on to concentrate on careers, children, camping out in doorways or other aspects of their life, from full time carer to part time alcoholic and back via karaoke at the gym, it's been a blast and better still, it continues to be.
These podcasts are brilliant and I wish them well in getting more bands to share their past and present as there's still many gaps to plug in the encyclopaedic environment this electronic age encourages.
I've got a yearning to be a librarian by the time I reach 60 and if I can master this electronic environment I'll put on record a set list of every band that ever played Night Moves, Tayside Bar or La Sorbonne.
Cross checked against the "I was there" eg the Clash at la Sorbonne!
A lexicon of love, ha ha ha!
Look at those smiles as we sang in Santiago de Compostela......"Yes, I will walk 500 more!!
Sunday, 3 February 2019
Saturday, 26 January 2019
Listen to Deadbeat cassette 3
A huge thank you to
Gordon Gurvan aka Dundee retro
Many thanks Gordon
.
Monday, 7 January 2019
Living the dream from 1985
Ha Ha Ha how funny is this - A huge thank you to Gordon Gurvan for finding this in his archives- sleeping on a typewriter should not be tried at home!
The end was nigh, as I fell asleep that day. Spiralling costs in the high interest/ high inflation Thatcher days had left us with a price hike required or more advertising and Vinny was asleep at the keys. What had started out as a limited edition secret had become a circulation war. As we usually only got between 7p-8p per issue it wasn't hard to do the maths.
The one true calculation was I'd be myself and 3 weeks later when we walked into the Barrowlands for New Order, then go backstage and interview them, it seemed a small price to pay. Willy Wonka didn't do music halls but what price for a golden ticket .
All the Deadbeat regulars and others besides (Yes Gary, where is that review) benefited as we sneaked ourselves onto guest lists while the sold out signs blew high in the sky. What I had forgotten though was how beautiful small was. Issue 9 was 800 I think and we sold it out. It was a collectors piece and we went to 1000 for issue 10. My recycling roots were shred on the rocks of rising circulation and when we went back down to 1000 for the flexi disc issue it was a much easier gig. What I forgot when you're flogging 1500-2000 and more is that its more travelling to re-stock the shelves, collect the money, watch a band, get pissed then sleep on a floor in Glasgow, Perth, Dundee or Inverness train station! You also stop putting them out quickly as there's still 100's in all the shops.
Had we stuck at 500-800 there would be no back issues to flog and none under the carpet of 1f L 101 union grove Aberdeen and another 15 addresses in Scotland!
Great life lessons
The end was nigh, as I fell asleep that day. Spiralling costs in the high interest/ high inflation Thatcher days had left us with a price hike required or more advertising and Vinny was asleep at the keys. What had started out as a limited edition secret had become a circulation war. As we usually only got between 7p-8p per issue it wasn't hard to do the maths.
The one true calculation was I'd be myself and 3 weeks later when we walked into the Barrowlands for New Order, then go backstage and interview them, it seemed a small price to pay. Willy Wonka didn't do music halls but what price for a golden ticket .
All the Deadbeat regulars and others besides (Yes Gary, where is that review) benefited as we sneaked ourselves onto guest lists while the sold out signs blew high in the sky. What I had forgotten though was how beautiful small was. Issue 9 was 800 I think and we sold it out. It was a collectors piece and we went to 1000 for issue 10. My recycling roots were shred on the rocks of rising circulation and when we went back down to 1000 for the flexi disc issue it was a much easier gig. What I forgot when you're flogging 1500-2000 and more is that its more travelling to re-stock the shelves, collect the money, watch a band, get pissed then sleep on a floor in Glasgow, Perth, Dundee or Inverness train station! You also stop putting them out quickly as there's still 100's in all the shops.
Had we stuck at 500-800 there would be no back issues to flog and none under the carpet of 1f L 101 union grove Aberdeen and another 15 addresses in Scotland!
Great life lessons
On top of the gigs there were all those free records and the record companies were paying for the DB tape ocassionally!
My vinyl collection is solely down to these freebies and although I handed a chunk of the Beggars Banquet into Record Shak when I moved house there's still some lovely pieces of mint vinyl I can look at.
I love the idea of the middle man - lying down on the puddle to help the bands bridge the gap, surely I'll get thrown a crumb or a bottle of Guinness as they go by, see you on the way back down.
I still don't remember getting my typewriter out though for a photo shot, but it is my olivetti!
Sunday, 6 January 2019
2020 Hindsight
I've got the title for the Deadbeat Christmas Annual this year.
It works well for me but how does it work for you?
I'm thinking 2019, open my Christmas present, see 2020 and think,
"I was blind, now I can see....."
Call me St Paul to the Corinthians or another Scottish band but it works for me.
So, next stop, can anyone suggest a cover for the annual, I naturally err towards the most stunning purveyor of tequila I've ever met, oh, and the best smile, haircut was good too...
It works well for me but how does it work for you?
I'm thinking 2019, open my Christmas present, see 2020 and think,
"I was blind, now I can see....."
Call me St Paul to the Corinthians or another Scottish band but it works for me.
So, next stop, can anyone suggest a cover for the annual, I naturally err towards the most stunning purveyor of tequila I've ever met, oh, and the best smile, haircut was good too...
Saturday, 5 January 2019
Happy New Year!
The resolutions have begun, get the website up to date and get the book out by the summer, aka September!From the early beginnings in the Autumn of 1982 through to the later issues and the mad year that 1983 was.
Tied to a tree as Thatcher got re-elected it was certainly discombobulating.
Nowadays I'd say it really fucked wi ma scone, but back then I was still a student trying to learn how to spell and broaden my vocabulary.
Whatever, this year I'm going to go properly retro and dig out these tapes and find the masters that I thought I'd found before.
Turns out I never really put the same records back in the same sleeves and was equally poor when it came to putting the tapes back in boxes.
I think this one was probably 3 years ahead of the Stone Roses but would've worked brilliantly for them!
Quiz lovers will want to check out Keith's superb lyrics sections, oh and the retro X-words.
A great way to hold up a shelf, a wobbly table or just to reach those elusive spices on the top shelf of a kitchen cupboard.
The Deadbeat 2019 annual could just be the perfect Christmas present.
As Andy Robertson leads the Scottish return to Liverpool surely Scotland's recovery is only a fw decades behind.
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