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Saturday

Monday

Sad, but inevitable news

The announcement of Iain Banks passing was hardly unexpected.  Banks' had announced he was terminally ill two months ago with typical self-deprecating humour; 'I am Officially Very Poorly' was the opening line of that statement.

The news still made me sad, Banks' twisted storytelling has been a constant in my life since reading 'The Wasp Factory' more years ago than I care to recall.  I've already said my piece on what Iain Banks meant to me here.

I was watering the plants when I heard the news and right after the bulletin came Public Image's 'Rise'.  Somehow it felt right.  It always was a fine song, now it will be inextricably linked in my mind to a fine writer too.

I'll miss both of him.



Wednesday

Only one destination

Heading for home today, I switched off the radio rather than listen to wall to wall coverage of the State funeral of Saint Margaret (OK, I know it wasn't technically a State funeral, but you get the point) and reached for the MP3 player.  And up came this little, rather appropriate, gem...

The Final Taxi

I have no idea why that won't load as a video, so here's a more recent official Wreckless video, courtesy of the man himself

 

For a more pointed response to us coughing up an alleged £10million for the whole business, you could do worse than go here for Pete Wylie's take on it all.


Sunday

Cuttings volume 1

The first of an occasional series, 


of completely random cuttings, that for no logical reason I seem to have collected from old music rags - back in the days when they turned your fingers black.

There was also a great 'Top 5 Lemmy sayings' I remember from around the same time, featuring, among others, "'Ere, this fruit machine's knackered".  Which, given the fact that I once saw him spend an entire evening on the fruit machine in the Marquee - at least it appeared that way - seems quite believable to me. 


Thursday

Wilko Johnson - the last encore


I still can't quite see how he does it!

Was lucky enough to catch Wilko's last show at the Robin 2 in Bilston, see here for a full review at Louder Than War, but here's a couple of pics, from a memorable night: