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Some bands with bad names - Embryo, The Rockers - who manage to overcome that setback and still make good records. There are also concerns at the lack of editing in some records. You need to have a very good song to justify four minutes on seven inch vinyl. But the New York Dolls, Stranglers and Iggy will keep things right. 

Go Buddy Go   The Stranglers 
We Dont Care  Slaughter & The Dogs 
Albert Hammond Bootleg   Half Man Half Biscuit
I'm Different   Embryo
My Little Underground  Jesus & Mary Chain  
The Painted Word   Television Personalities
Duty Free Technology   Penetration 
Johnny Jukebox   Radiators From Space  
Bad Detective  New York Dolls 
I Want To Tell You    The Rockers
Mantovani   Swinging Cats
Attack Of The Giant Ants  Blondie
Can I Join Your Band ? The Creation 
Nightclubbing   Iggy Pop 

One of the lesser lights of English punk rock was the squirmingly named Embryo, whose single 'I'm Different' is on this week's show. They were from Dartford in Kent and took the traditional route to the stage by starting a band at school in the 1970s. According to an interview on the website , their first amplifiers were a modified television set and a tape recorder permanently set to 'record'. As someone who needs directions to the 'on' switch of an amp I am in awe of such ingenuity. Any suggestions on how I can convert an old Radio Rentals cast off to a Marshall stack substitute will be welcomed. In The Undertones, the man with the soldering iron was Feargal, a Radio Rentals employee. Whether he was a repairman or a mere aerial installer I was never able to establish but he did have access to a Ford Escort van, which came in handy transporting our 'Fish' PA speakers. 'Fish' is not the name of an obscure electronics company which has since been bought out by Peavey. It was the name Feargal gave to the speakers which he constructed from a few sheets of chipboard in 1977.  Solder ran in the veins of the Sharkey men. Sharkey senior, Jim, is credited with wiring a speaker in the bedroom of a teenage Eamonn McCann to the radio downstairs which was tuned to Radio Luxembourg. His son kept the band connected to the national grid long enough to make the move to proper amps. Whether he could have wired up a guitar to a TV, tape recorder, or microwave oven, we never found out.

We await the Halloween experience in Derry this Saturday night. I am of the age that I am beginning to look for the things that could go wrong - very public excesses of alcohol, torrential rain, thousands of pounds of ratepayers money being set alight in the form of a fireworks display. Is there a Halloween version of Scrooge ? A cousin of Ebeneezer's, perhaps, who sits at home and turns up the sound on the television so he can't hear the fireworks ? Who leaves the outstretched hand at the door free of nuts or apples ?
As legend has it , most of Derry dresses up for the night. Wits will say that married men use it as an excuse to wear their wives' clothes. Fake policemen will be stopping cars in the centre of town. I will do my best to resist but as Pacman costumes are being constructed in the room next to me, even I cannot poop this particular party. I could go as Morrissey, sing one verse of 'This Charming Man" and then lie down on the ground, whispering "I'll be grand once I get my breath back. You go on ahead without me." I am of that age.
I am also of the age that remembers when Halloween was done on a street by street basis. It wasn't a marketing opportunity for the city's tourist industry. Only children dressed up, with what was available in the house. No one counted bed occupancy rates as we were allowed to stay up past midnight and there was no school the next day.
Some people bemoan the American influence on our Halloween. Pumpkins instead of turnips. "Trick or treat" instead of 'Any nuts or apples ?"  Can I add a moan about it all being too, well, organised ?