Shameless self-promotion time

In a shocking turn of events which may stun the faithful readers of this 'ere blog I have to announce that I have today revisited the site of past glories and chiselled arcane words of wisdom into the very rockface of the blog landscape. Or, to put it another way, my old music blog, 15 Albums, is again open for business. Check it out ( should you want to, of course ) for my take on the classic Abbey Road album by The Beatles.

"Once there was a way to get back homeward / Once there was a way to get back home"

Favourite Gig Fridays: Geno Washington

After writing about Dexy's Midnight Runners recently at t'other blog, I thought I'd mention the time I saw the man who was the inspiration for one of their biggest hits, Geno.

Geno Washington is a veteran Soul singer who was very popular with Mod audiences in the swinging' '60s and gained a reputation for exciting, energetic live performances. When I saw him it was back in May 1988, when the memory of the Dexy's tribute was still pretty fresh and helped him relaunch his live career.

As I've done a couple of times before, I'm going to quote from my dusty, cobwebbed diary ( with modern asides in italics ) so please excuse any bad grammar, bad language or just plain '80s language - it was a loooong time ago :-(

"Me and Sarah ( the bad grammar begins! ) went over to the Stroud Sub Rooms to see ( The Legendary ) Geno Washington & The Ram Jam All-Stars ( phew! ) - saw Paul and Nick there. ( A couple of mates not known for their gig-going activities. ) The first band on were called Double Agent and they were crap. They were one of those middle-aged ( steady! ) showbands who only appear once a year ( thank God! ) and play endless cover versions: 'Thanks, you're a lovely audience. We love you! Slurp! Slurp! This is an old Cliff Richard song.....' Bleeeuurrghh!! After suffering all that we were relieved to see the Lemons ( legendary Stroud psychobillies ) hit the stage. Thud! Dressed up as cowgirls, with the added attraction of 'Anal Sex' on sax, they churned out their usual thrash-country-abilly stuff. Though I've grown a bit tired of their limited 'music', they're still quite a good laugh and were very welcome after the previous group.

"Eventually Geno Washington and his band came on. He's about 50 ( actually 43 in 1988 ), is short and bald, and his band look like they came out of the Ark ( and bear a strange resemblance to the Monty Python team ) - BUT they were GREAT! They played R'n'B, straight blues and some ska, with an energy that a lot of younger bands couldn't manage. Geno got the crowd going like a real old showbiz pro - it was corny ( singalongs etc.. ) but fun. Me, Sarah and even Paul got up and danced and had a very good time. Strangely enough, Nick didn't dance. ( I don't think my mate Nick has ever danced in his life but, hey, each to their own. ) The band played such standards as Got My Mojo Working, Stand By Me, Al Capone and others, and got called back for a couple of shit-hot encores. We came out of the gig knackered and soaked with sweat ( that's twice in one week - what a masochist I am ) but happy. ( The other gig was Faith No More at the Bristol Bierkeller as seen in the very first Fave Gig Fri ) Also, all the money raised went towards Meningitis research - a very important cause around these parts. An excellent gig."

And a few days later I wrote this:

"Oh, yeah I saw Martin 'Ameeba' at the Geno Washington gig and I gave him a copy of the Death Planet Commandos demo tape. He must've liked it 'cos the Ameebas offered us a support slot with them. It's the Wednesday after next at the Night Owl in Cheltenham. Should be good."

Actually, it was the Worst Gig Ever, see here for evidence.....

But the Geno gig was legendary.

Shameless plug department

If you're not Following my other blog, 15 Albums, you're gonna miss out on my epic review of New Day Rising by Husker Du. And yu don't want to du that, du yu?

Do yourself ( and me ) a favour: check out 15 Albums. It's good for you. And it's full of marrowbone jelly. ( That last statement might be a lie..... )

15 Albums

I saw a meme on Facebook the other day: in 15 minutes think of 15 albums that are important to you and list them. Well, we love lists don't we?

Actually, 15 minutes is a long time so I decided to do it in 5 minutes. I sat down during a break at work today, with no access to my record collection or t'internet and wrote down the first albums that popped into my head. Did it in 4 minutes.....

1. Never Mind The Bollocks by the Sex Pistols

2. London Calling by the Clash

3. Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band

4. The Band by The Band

5. Psychocandy by the Jesus & Mary Chain

6. Surfer Rosa by Pixies

7. Pet Sounds by the Beach Boys

8. New Day Rising by Husker Du

9. Searching For The Young Soul Rebels by Dexy's Midnight Runners

10. Are You Experienced? by the Jimi Hendrix Experience

11. Exodus by Bob Marley & the Wailers

12. Physical Graffiti by Led Zeppelin

13. Deserter's Songs by Mercury Rev

14. Abbey Road by the Beatles

15. The Soft Bulletin by the Flaming Lips

That just seemed to scratch the surface of my collection, so I jumped straight into list 2, my only rule being not to include any artist from the first list, or there could be another 3 or 4 albums by Springsteen, Zep etc. Again, done in 4 minutes.

16. Introduce Yourself by Faith No More

17. Master Of Puppets by Metallica

18. Harvest by Neil Young

19. Purple Rain by Prince & the Revolution

20. Element Of Light by Robyn Hitchcock & the Egyptians

21. Surrender by the Chemical Brothers

22. The Blueprint 3 by Jay-Z

23. Is This It? by the Strokes

24. Crossing The Red Sea With... The Adverts

25. This Is The Sea by the Waterboys

26. If I Should Fall From Grace With God by the Pogues

27. Rave On by Andy White

28. The Dark Side Of The Moon by Pink Floyd

29. Otis Blue by Otis Redding

30. Supernature by Goldfrapp

It's funny seeing this list and seeing the random connections my brain was making between artists. Crossing The Red Sea made me think of This Is The Sea, and the Waterboys in turn made me think of other "Celtic" 80's bands like the Pogues and the underrated Andy White. How I went from Neil Young to Prince I don't know.

It amazes me that I got as far as no. 28 before I shouted out "Dark Side!" Phew - almost left it out! But I also unforgivably left out these: Everything Must Go, The Stone Roses, Blonde On Blonde, Songs In The Key Of Life, Ziggy Stardust, Rocket To Russia, Automatic For The People, Raw Power, ( What's The Story ) Morning Glory?

Maybe I ought to do a 15 Albums series of posts, setting down my thoughts on each album and what they mean to me. Or maybe another blog? Hmmm.....