It’s a You Tube feast today. Sorry! I’m incapacitated! This Bo Diddley footage is unreal. Bo used to walk onstage and take a fat roll of bills in a money clip out of his back pocket and put it on his amp like you or I might take our shitty little wallet and keys out before playing. Bo suffered a stroke recently but mere illness can’t stop the man. He’ll be 79 this year. The Originator!

Just to re-address the balance this is the MC5 live at Wayne State University doing Looking At You. It’s mind-blowing. Imagine it in colour, real, there, live in front of you. You’d shit yourself. Wayne Kramer and Fred Smith are possibly very high which is why Kramer doesn’t destroy his knees at 3.31. It’s unbelievable.

What’s happening to me?

I know. But how good is this?

Back from a knee op. I think the drugs have made me soppy, this song and video is incredible. This means I am now sacked from diskant I am sure.

Hi

No posts for a while so sorry for that but I seem to have been at home for about 5 mins in the last month. I’ve long been using my Flickr profile as a Blog of sorts so I’m just uploading some photos of the last month or so and I will link them from Diskant as some are Diskant-related.
None more so than the marriage of Matt Tagney at the start of October. Matt screamed and whispered for years in the first band either of us were in, Reynolds. He got hitched to his long term girlfriend Kerry in the scenic surrounds of the Ulster Folk Museum in Northern Ireland at the start of October.

It looked a bit like this (click to go to the photos):

And the micro-holiday that happened around it looked like this:

and some lovely mouse-over action…go on then…

It was ace. As are Matt & Kerry: congratulations!

Coming soon: Glenn Branca’s Hallucination City in London, Ian Scanlon gets married.

Now playing: FSOL – Papua New Guinea, Sonz Of A Loop Da Loop Era – Far Out, Liquid – Sweet Harmony. Fuck knows what’s going on with my music at the moment, I’m thinking about getting a puffa jacket and an undercut again.

It’s Self Promotion Week according to Marceline so here’s some stuff I’ve been up/am up to…(with some visuals to go with it)

Last week I finally made it to 100 gigs with one band as Lords crossed the finishing line. We did the 100th one in the same place exactly as the first one (it even involved hiring a stage) at Susumi in Derby. It looked like this:

It gave me the nice chance to make us 3 into ZZ Top for the poster which looked like this:

Talking of which, I am still self employed though in a world of hurt with various assisting government agencies. Still, I am very busy. Local culture magazine Left Lion have pretty much ignored every musical venture I have ever been involved in but seem to like the artwork. First of all they did a really nice interview here:

Then I had the opportunity to do the cover for the current issue and opted to do a portrait of Frank Robinson, aka Xylophone Man, Nottingham’s much missed busking heavyweight:

Summer’s drawing to a close which is a shame as I finally got into the great outdoors and took advantage of working on my own time to go and see some local sights in the last few weeks. The most amazing of which is the very haunted (so they say) Sutton Scarsdale Hall nr Chesterfield. Daytime:

Night-time, DRC and Gareth surrounded by glowing orbs. It was pretty hairy:

Also visited Cresswell Crags, Ice-Age Gorge nr Worksop:

As well as plenty of day trips to Derbyshire and Norfolk. Nice.

Loads of people are getting married. Congratulations to Barn from Soeza and his wife Sanna; my cousin Matt and his wife Joanne and future weddings: this weekend is former Reynolds yelper Matt and Kerry and in a fortnight’s time it’s Ian Scanlon’s turn as he marries Jane. That’s not all, Phil from Lords is going to be a Dad in December; a month that also sees my 29th birthday for the 2nd year running.

Here’s me and DRC enjoying Barn & Sanna’s wedding party deep in Sherwood Forest:

Lastly, plenty of music going on.
Listening to: new High On Fire, Pearls & Brass, Ike & Tina Turner, Nuggets, Silver Jews, Sir Richard Bishop, Get Hustle Tour CD, Mulatu Astatke, Moondog, Karate and the new Bilge Pump album “Rupert The Sky”.

Doing lots of music stuff too. 2nd Lords LP called “Everyone Is People” is so close to being finished it hurts but probably won’t see light of day until 2008. Read about it here: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=13689829
Not much gigging going down though with baby action on the horizon so lots of time to do other things…
Myself and Neil from Wolves Of Greece are still sporadically making up 2/3 of The Resurrection Men with Andy from Clambake when time permits. We’re also involved in a new band called The Evil Hawk which sees it’s gigging debut in Nottingham on oct 27th with Chrome Hoof. It’s the new project by Michael from Hellset Orchestra and is kind of like Queen.
I’m also kick starting a new band with Katy from Not In This Town called Horsey.
Not to mention Felix which has been on hold while Lucinda took part in a Channel 4 documentary about photographers. See her get stitched up by editing in January 2008.
Last but not least, Edwin Pouncey wrote these nice words in The Wire:

Me and Neil, together with Chris from Hirameka Hi-Fi are also part of Glenn Branca’s orchestra for the performance of Symphony#13 for 100 Guitars at the Frieze Festival at London’s Roundhouse on October 12th. Totally shitting it.

Hope everyone is well!

Craigslist is kind of like the Free Ads in America (though the Craigslist site does appear to have sections for the UK now, anyway…) and, like any public service platform, people get creative with it.

The Best Of Craigslist:

http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/all/

3 random entries selected off the 1st page for you:

You’re not looking for them, but I found your two dogs.

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Date: 2007-08-16, 10:19AM PDT

Sigh. No one is looking for these guys. And I see why. They hump everything in sight, try to dominate our old doggies, try to eat our cats and pee on everything and bark at everything. Neurotic, lick constantly. They know no commands, either in English or Spanish. They are aggressive and probably lived in a puppy mill. You dumped them, probably, and we picked them up before they were killed by traffic. Unneutered, no tags, under 1 year old small males. I hate you, person who dumped these dogs. There are no lost ads on phone poles, no lost ad on Craig’s list, no lost ad in the paper. We put signs up all over, put a found notice in at the local pounds and if you were looking for these filthy little ragamuffins, you would have found them. We are afraid to take them to the pound because under stress, your dogs were snappy and horribly afraid and dogs are judged by temperment for adoption placement. They would not have passed that test. However…..

They are, under their filth, mats and horrible habits, adorable. They have learned “Quiet,” “Come,” “Sit.” They have stopped being so neurotic and we have broken most of their bad habits in just a few days. They are smart and sweet and are looking for guidance and WANT to be good little dogs. One is a purebred little white and buff guy with an underbite, the other is a brown little dog that looks almost exactly like a miniture version of a larger breed dog. They know each other and were obviously (by the same bad habits) raised (poorly) together. We will get them neutered, train them and get them into a good, loving home with people who use the brains God gave them.

If these are your dogs, come on by, I’d like to kick your ass.

Scary Porcelain Dolls

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Date: 2007-07-20, 10:24PM PDT

The thing is, I’m afraid of porcelain dolls. I’m esp. afraid of clowns. These are not clowns, they are just very ugly and evil-looking girl dolls with dresses on. I keep them in the garage, because I’m concerned about them animating at night and attacking me while I sleep.

Please take them away.

MC Hammer Pants

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Date: 2007-06-22, 2:58PM MDT

Guess what,

I was cleaning out my closet and I found 47 pairs of BRIGHT NEON MC Hammer pants. I was going to burn them and dance around the flames to try to make it rain or something, but I thought that maybe somebody would want these. They are absolutely the worst pants of all time. I can’t remember being stupid enough to buy these, but I must have been. Either that or MC Hammer owes me a bunch of rent money. I have them all in a huge garbage sack sitting on the sidewalk. If you want them you must just come pick up the bag and drive away. If anybody comes up and tears the bag and spills those hideous things into the street where my neighbors can see, I will be very unhappy. Garbage collection is on Monday so if they aren’t gone Mr. BFI gets them.

If you want this garbage, email me and I will give you instructions.

Making The Best Of Craigslist the best comedy site for the perpetually bored…

Everytime I open a music magazine, this moron is spouting some ill-informed guff back at me. First of all it was saying that, although he didn’t know that guy from Franz Ferdinand, he was positive that he didn’t think about his music with as much care and love as Serge thinks about the work he does in Kasabian.

That kind of pissed me off. “That guy from Franz Ferdinand” was putting on DIY gigs and playing in countless under-the-radar bands when old Serge was probably putting on an anorak and heading to Knebworth to see Oasis.

But, that’s cool. He’s missed the point. He was aiming his anger at something he mistook for something else. Everyone misses the point from time to time. I’m always doing it. That’s OK.

This month I opened up Q in WH Smith’s and browsed the Top Guitar Tracks selected by rock stars past and present. Serge had been quizzed and had chosen Cherry Red by The Groundhogs.

This threw me into a spin. Perhaps I had been hasty in labelling the guy a knee-jerking talentless fuckwad? Maybe he really does have good taste and maybe he’s actually a good guy.

But no.

He manages to get The Groundhogs in Q and then states he only heard the song a year ago and had ‘had a listen to the rest of the band’s stuff’ and ‘none of it compares’ apparently. In fact, he goes as far as to say Cherry Red is their ‘one good moment’, therefore dismissing a band’s entire recorded output and influence in exactly the same way future generations will (rightfully) dismiss his. Or more accurately, he dismisses a band with a 30+ year back catalogue in the same vein as an obscure one-hit wonder he’s dug up for the benefit of the world who, up to that point, were in the dark.

Serge from Kasabian: EAT A SHIT.