Never get out of the boat: July 2006

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Dance like a monkey...

I must admit to approaching the first Dolls album in 30 odd years with some caution..
Need not have worried, seriously, it ROCKS! Basically, starting where Too Much too Soon left off
its as though its 1974 again. David J's voice sounds like a few fags have been smoked inbetween mind you and in all fairness we could do without Micheal Stipe's cameo, but you can't have it all.
I read a thing where Noel Gallagher out of Oasis said, in response to critisism that Oasis had become a bit formulaic and didn't experiment etc like, say, Radiohead, 'Let the others do the experimenting, we'll blow the roof off everywhere we play'.
Thats the spirit of rock'n'roll for you and theres plenty of it here.
Between this and Primal Scream it's a rockin' summer....

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Rock'n'Roll part 3 - Saigon

Here's another of my greatest non-hits, 'Saigon'. This is my favourite of all the stuff I did for Bellboy.
Recorded at the beginning of 97 this was a deliberate move away from the four to the floor techno stompers that had become my trademark. The guitar came out of mothballs and this one features real bass guitar too. This track was scheduled as a single but potential problems with the Apocalypse Now samples (and the label having a bit of difficulty getting their heads around a radical change of direction) meant it was tucked away on the 2nd Bellboy cd compilation State of Play 2, as a bonus unreleased track. About 6 months after this came out Death in Vegas came out with The Contico Sessions, this wouldn't have been out of place on there so I knew I was on the right track even if the label didn't.
This track also featured in the 1998 Paul Spurrier film Underground grim tale of urban decay starring Ian Dury!
Heres the tune

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

Bono

In between saving the world Bono still has time for a pint.
Apparently in Ireland theres no equivalent word for the Spanish 'manana'.
There's nothing that requires that level of urgency.
Irish fella told me that so dont start.
Did this illustration as part of a St Patricks day thing but the client bottled it and wouldn't use it.

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Latest from the garden...

After last years pumpkin fiasco (3 pumpkin plants just about took over the whole patio and then when they were just about ready for picking a hedgehog attack and half of them got nibbled) Ive stuck to tomatoes this year. 15 plants altogether with a good few big bunches of golfball size green tomatoes already.
Ive also experimented with chillis this year - theres 6 plants. I've had them inside as i thought they might be a bit sensitive, but with this heatwave we're having ive got them outside now.
The grapes are looking good too - I gave the vine a good chopping before last winter so this years crop look much better than last year's.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

That cat's something I can't explain...

Monday, July 10, 2006

My Kurt Cobain story

A couple of weeks after Kurt Cobain topped himself, on a regular Tuesday morning, I was going about my business in the record shop i managed in Aberdeen. Next thing a couple of geezers came in, a journo and photographer. They explained they were doing a feature for Select magazine (serious rock mag a la Mojo or Q) on the recent demise of the aforementioned KC.
As Nirvana came from a small town near Seattle called Aberdeen the idea of the piece was to get vox pops from punters in the American Aberdeen and the Scottish one with individual reactions to the sad news and asked if I would mind if they hung around the shop to talk to the customers.
No problem, except at 9,30 on a tuesday morning there was no-one about so after half an hour they got bored and did me instead. I was a bit gumpy as per usual in the morning so reeled of some flippant comment about KC being a bit of a twat who bough the whole rock'n'roll death trip blah blah. Photo taken and off they went.
Next month in Select theres the article with my pic and sarcy comment. Within hours the phone in the shop is going mad with angst ridden Nirvana fans offering death threats and the like to yours truly and the shop window is full of spotty faces with greasy hair ponting in at me going 'thats him..'. A couple of them started following me home so I had to do a detour through a few gardens to shake them off. I was also a club dj at the time, and fairly well known locally, so I had grand delusions of being assasinated in mid backspin on the decks, I was more concerned about which record i'd be playing as the shots rang out - it would have had to be something obscure and cool.
The spooky thing was on the next page of the article theres a Nirvana pic and the bass player, Kris Nobolisk or something, is my double! (except I'm slightly better looking). Needless to say for the next couple of months we didn't sell much Nirvana and other grunge type stuff as the pimply punkers gave the shop a wide berth.
And thats my Kurt Cobain story.