Cuttings, volume 2

The late, great Ray Lowry, from the pages of the NME...

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.

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.

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. 

"The sky is turning red..."

A couple of classic London rock & roll icons (with apologies to Mike Coles)

 

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:

 

The Damned & The Dickies... oh yes it is!

Cap 'n' Dave are waving bye bye

 

Stan Lee being a Dickie

Two for the price of one.  Read a full review of their recent Birmingham gig, with additional pictures, here at Louder Than War.

Feel free to leave a comment!

Brian James Grand Cru

It seems only fair to give a bit of a mention to Brian James 2012 album release.

Sneaked out without fanfare amid the 35th anniversary of 'Damned, Damned, Damned', his 'Chateau Brian' set is as far away from an anniversary cash in as it's possible to get. 

If anyone had a right to cash in on 'Damned, Damned, Damned', it's James.  After all he wrote the damn thing!

But no, the original Damned guitarist has been going his own way for a long time and this album is little more that James' acoustic guitar and piano for the most part.  It's a fairly mixed bag - James has for a long time been a great guitarist in need of a singer & lyricist.

But anyone who was lucky enough to see him reprise his old 'Damned, Damned, Damned' material a couple of years back at The 100 Club will know he remains a fine player and nobody plays 'Damned, Damned, Damned' quite like Brian James.

You can hear tracks from 'Chateau Brian' here.