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Gerry Anderson always says he decided to give up playing bass guitar when he realised he was in grave danger of being in a band that played at weddings. Wise words from the man whose Fender Precision I borrowed when the Undertones reformed in 1999. Last night, I found myself playing at a wedding. Well, to be more accurate, it was a 'do' to mark a wedding anniversary, that of my fellow Undertone John O'Neill. The most civil man in rock and roll decided to celebrate his thirty years with Caroline by holding a party in a Donegal hotel. With the promise of a dinner and all the desserts you could eat, The Undertones found themselves as the night's entertainment. It was brilliant, if I say so myself. Projected behind us was the original wedding video from July 1980, so we felt like we were the Velvet Underground at the Factory. (No, Andy Warhol didn't do John's wedding video, but you know what I mean.) We were so inspired we did a couple of Velvets cover versions. We also had a stab at Gloria, as close to the original as we could. Allow me to get a bit misty eyed with nostalgia, but the whole evening brought me back to playing in the Casbah in 1977, albeit with better amps. The Casbah was a bar in Derry, where we played every weekend for eighteen months. Our Hamburg, if you forgive the comparison. I mention the Casbah because there's a going over the future of another small music venue, the 100 club in London's Oxford Street. It's under threat, surprise surprise, like many other small music venues around the country. The Casbah closed in the early 1980s and is now buried under a shopping centre in Derry. Like The Harp in Belfast, there's nothing there to mark the spot. Should there be ? Or would that be missing the point ? Punk was all about the here and now, which was there and then. Blue plaques for punk wouldn't work.Ìý I'll stop now before someone points out the illogical stance of a presenter who refuses to play a punk record made after 1987.Ìý
The Pride of East Kilbride may sound like a flute band but it is now our official title for Jesus And Mary Chain, who were from the Scottish new town. William and Jim Reid's hair were magnificent vertical structures but it wasÌýtheir guitar's tendency towards feedback that marked out their records.
How close did the Flaming Groovies get to actually nicking a complete Beatles song ? The title "Yes It's True" sounds like a b-side and the song itself sounds like it belongs on With The Beatles. I imagine the Groovies would regard that as the highest praise.ÌýHomage, your honour, is the case for the defence.
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Jesus & Mary Chain - Never Understand
Ramones - I Can’t Give You Anything
Razorcuts - Sorry To Embarrass You
Slits - FM
Sham 69 - Hey Little Rich Boy
Crispy Ambulance - Deaf
Suicide - Girl
Tenpole Tudor - Confessions
Eater - Queen Bitch
Flaming Groovies - Yes Its True
Adverts - Great British Mistake
Design For Living - One To The Wise
Gang Of Four - Guns Before Butter
Nick Lowe - No ReasonÌýÌý
So, who is the oldest punk rocker in the world ? I ask that question after reading about a man in Leicester who now uses his weekly pension to follow The Damned. He is known asand I actually met him once when The Undertones played in Leicester a couple of years ago. I suspect that he's introduced to every visiting punk band as a matter of course. It may well be a Leicester tradition, like morris dancing or haddock slapping. "This is Jonno, he's Leicester's Oldest Punk". I think I said hello, pointed to something and then ran in the opposite direction. I never said I was nice, did I ? Jonno's now 66 but he's a callow youth compared to the grand old man of punk, Jet Black. Jet's real name is Brian Duffy and his real age is 72. He's the drummer (and founder) of The StranglersIs he the oldest punk rocker ? No. , of New York electronic duo Suicide, is two months older than him. Is Alan the oldest punk rocker ? That's where my list ends. Anyone older ? Anyone ?
Another outing for the MC5/Phil Coulter collaboration of 1966, which was probably learned from a copy of Them Again bought in Hudsons Department Store. It was the first single by the Motor City boys but already you can hear what made them great. I love the story where they took out a newspaper ad against Hudsons, who refused to stock their first MC5 LP 'Kick Out The Jams' because of bad language. The MC5's advert added to the bad language, and then Hudsons retaliated by withdrawing from sale all records on the Elektra label. You're the boss of Elektra records - what would you do ? Drop the band ?Ìý Yes, as it turned out.
Buzzcocks - Sixteen AgainÌý
Magazine - Rhythm of Cruelty
Replacements - Hangin Downtown
Cramps - I'm Cramped
John Cooper Clark -ÌýThe It Man
Dictators - California Sun
Rote KapelleÌý- Fergus! The Sheep
X Ray Spex - Plastic Bag
Mouse &ÌýThe Traps - Public Execution
Victim - The Bluff Brigade
MC5 - I Can Only Give You Everything
Fall - Your Heart Out
Scritti PolittiÌý - Is and Ought The Western World
Big Star - September Girls
My drumming chum Billy Doherty was on Talkback last week being asked about the theory that drummers should be classified as athletes, following research on Blondie's Clem Burke. I missed Billy's words as the remote control for the radio was just out of my reach when I was lying on the sofa but both he and Clem are great examples of the type of drummer who gives you more beats for your for your bucks. Have a look at in 1977. Without getting too technical (for my benefit rather than yours) I much prefer the drummer who hits the hi-hat cymbal for the full sixteen beatsÌý rather than the drummer who takes a more stately approach and makes do with eight. Its a subtle difference , admittedly, but for me it marks out the punk rock drummer from the more common rock drummer.
Tommy Ramone only became the Ramones drummer because they couldn't find anyone in New York who could drum as fast as he could. He was really supposed to be the manager/producer/musical director but in 1974 drummers didn't do frantic. In fact, years later, while Blondie were in limbo, Clem joined the Ramones. He became Elvis Ramone but legend has it that he had to leave before he even played any shows with them. He simply couldn't keep up with the rest of the band.
I always suspect the drummer who halves his hi-hat beat doesn't really like punk at all. He'd rather be in a proper rock band, playing songs with more chords but a smaller bpm. Of course the same could be said of the bass player who employs the up stroke as well as the down stroke. Simply put, going up and down means you can play a very fast repeat note with half the effort. Again, the template was Dee Dee Ramone, whose right hand was a blur. I, being a lesser bass player, start off a song with that intention - all down strokes - but its just too painful. A build up of lactic acid in my lower arm, according to my science homework of April 1976. It only affects bass players, not drummers. Funny, that.
Was it ever fair to run a campaign called Knuke The Knack ? Maybe not but it would have made a great T shirt. I've never played the Knack on the show before because of an inbuilt prejudice at an American version of New Wave (always sarkily spelt Noo Wave in NME) which makes no sense thirty years later. Talking of nukes, the Television Personalities couldn't have been too popular among CND supporters with their 1986 single. Maybe they'd watched too many episodes of Dr Strangelove. I'm away to queue outside the pictures for the Runaways movie.
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Talking Heads - With Our Love
Runaways - Cherry Bomb
The Beat -ÌýStand Down Margaret
Television Personalities - How I Learned To Love The BombÌý
Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again
Stooges - No Fun
Jonathan Richman - New Teller
The Knack - That's What The Little Girls Do
Young Marble Giants - Click Talk
Boys - Do The Contract Hustle
B52s- 53 Miles West Of Venus
Tools - Over Now
Velvet Underground - Rock And Roll
First of all, can I say that I thought the Was it a cat or a hat or a cat who was a
hat ? Call Dr Seuss..... If the interview in the Guardian had been that
picture, with a couple of paragraphs on how great the extended edition
of Bona Drag is and a few words on the reissue of Every Day Is Like
Sunday, then no harm would have been done. Throw in a couple of
slaggings of unlikely targets like Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys
(he called him an "NME creation" - what, like ?) and a
general grump about how other singers stretch their talents far too
thinly across a career, and you would have had an entertaining
interview with a very witty Mancunian.Ìý It's as well Morrissey isn't in
the government or he'd have had to resign by now, after making the comment
about the Chinese nation and how he regards them.
"Did you see
the thing on the news about their treatment of animals and animal
welfare? Absolutely horrific. You can't help but feel that the Chinese
are a subspecies"
He was giving an interview to the poet Simon
Armitage, a self confessed Smiths and Morrissey fan. I think Simon
himself was a bit taken aback and there's been some reaction to the
comment, most appropriately from the organisation Love Music Hate
Racism, who said they wouldn't be able to accept any future donations
from him. But when I read the paper on Saturday, I thought this would
be one of the big news stories of the weekend. It wasn't. A few of the
papers tried to keep it going but I don't think it has the legs to make
it to this coming week. Does that say more about Morrissey's ranking in
the industry of human happiness than it does about our attitudes to
both animal welfare and racist comments ?
I missed Mr Weller's appearance in Belsonic last week which was no doubt improved by the presence of Wilko Johnson as a surprise guest, a meeting facilitated by Ralph McLean. I saw the photo but can only assume it sounded great. The presence of the Jam's 1978 double A side on this week's show unearthed a in 1980, standing beside Pete Townshend outside the Marquee Club. Weller, despite being a fan, looks like he's waiting for a bus. Pete looks amused. What really struck me was that in 1980 Townshend and The Who were considered old hat. Boring Old Farts, to use the parlance at the time. BOFs who did produce brilliant records at one time but BOFs all the same. Townshend at the time was 35. Weller today is 52. I can't say what age UK Subs singer Charlie Harper is. I'm still waiting for the carbon dating results.
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The Jam - A Bomb In Wardour Street
Alternative TV - How Much Longer ?
UK Subs - I Couldn't Be You
Chills - Pink Frost
The Mumps - Stupid
Gymslips - Yo Yo
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Suburban Relapse
Television - Guiding Light
Scapa Flow - Somewhere
Lurkers - Ooh Ooh I Love You
Sonic Youth & Lydia Lunch Death Valley '69
Girls At Our Best ! - Go For Gold
The Remains - Me Right Now
Acid Drop - Distance
