London Locations ( November 2012 ) Part One

I recently spent a fantastic couple of days in that there London Town with my mate Glenn. We were there to see The Dandy Warhols at Heaven ( review to follow, of course ) and to generally take in the sights. Friday, the day of the gig, was very wet and windy ( just for a change! ) but Saturday was much brighter and I managed to take a lot of photos. Would you like to see some...?
( Thought you might... )

This is a cool-looking bar near to our hotel in Waterloo. There was also a fascinating shop nearby called Radio Days, which sold all kinds of vintage and retro memorabilia, from old radios and record-players, to vintage glamour posters and mags, to fab 'n' faded clothes, to cocktail accessories. I had a good nose through a bunch of old music mags but came out with nothing. Time waster!

After chomping on a full English Breakfast on Saturday morning, Glenn and I wandered along the South Bank until we came to the Tate Modern. What an amazing place! Formerly a power station, the Tate is a huge, imposing structure with vast interior spaces... as you can see...

"I call this installation Girder With Rivets..." ( Glenn showing off his latest masterpiece... )

"And this one is entitled Lack Of Chairs... "

As well as just messing about, we also took the chance to look at some proper artwork. Luckily, there was a brilliant exhibition of Surrealism on display featuring, among others, these awe-inspiring works by Giorgio de Chirico, Paul Delvaux and Picasso. Cool or what?

From the Tate we headed along the river bank, past The Globe Theatre...

and on past The Golden Hind and Southwark Cathedral ( where a graduation ceremony was taking place, with loads of beaming students and parents ) and on to our original destination, before we'd been sidetracked by Surrealism, London's latest skyscraper  -  The Shard...

Apparently the second-tallest building of its kind in Europe, The Shard is a stunning new addition to the London skyline, which I'll definitely have to visit when it's fully open to the public ( from next February ) and visitors will be able to book tickets to a viewing area at the top. It should be an amazing view from up there...

Further London locations to follow, featuring St. Paul's Cathedral, Christmas lights, life-size M&M's and a giant gorilla :-)

Adam Ant at Bristol O2 Academy

A year on from the last Ants Invasion of Bristol, Sir Adam Of Ant returned with another storming set of Pop hits and Punk perversion. And this time I even dragged Sarah and her mate Jacqui along. Well... I say "dragged" when in fact they had both been obsessing over Adam for weeks before the gig and were ready for some Friday night Antics...

Due to Bristol Academy's ridiculously early doors on a Friday night we missed the support ( probably no great loss ) while having a drink over the road in the slightly more sophisticated Colston Hall.We made our way across to the venue and, after about 20 minutes of listening to some groovy old rock 'n' roll on the pre-gig soundsystem, Adam and his band appeared to rapturous applause.

Still rocking the Hussar / Napoleon / NHS glasses look ( well, it's certainly unique ) Adam launched into a set which veered wildly across his career from the S&M days of Whip In My Valise and Beat My Guest, through the Burundi beat of Kings Of The Wild Frontier and Dog Eat Dog ( "Brush me, Daddio!" ) to the MTV-friendly likes of Strip and Goody Two-Shoes. Just as he had done a year previously Adam concentrated as much on old school Ants material like Fall In ( a great singalong ) and a cracking version of Zerox as he did on Top 10 stuff like Stand And Deliver. It was a good half dozen songs into the set before he spoke to the audience, telling us that Kings... still feels new every time he plays it ( and it still sounds awesome... but it needs some Marco... ) and regaling us with the surely apocryphal tale of how he was inspired to write Lady. ( It involves going through Malcolm McLaren's pockets to nick loose change and meeting a 7' 9" naked dominatrix... all good stuff! )

Highlights of the set for me were an atmospheric Ants Invasion, a sensual ( of course ) Physical, an audience-pleasing Ant Music and a Rockabilly reading of Goody Two Shoes  -  never my favourite of his songs, but pretty damn special tonight. Even Vive Le Rock sounded good...

I'm glad to report that Mr. Ant's recent flurry of touring hasn't affected his performance ( steady! ) and Adam is in fine, enthusiastic, cheeky form, with his stage moves still sending people weak at the knees... including my companions :-)
And, it has to be said, his voice is in bloody good shape for a man of his age, still managing to hit some impressively high notes, although occasionally reigning it in somewhat when necessary. I do however miss the  bonkers Native American yelping of the old Ants' backing vocals on the Kings... songs. Adam of course still does all that but his band don't really rise to the occasion. Come on, guys! After all, ridicule is nothing to be scared of...
New song Cool Zombie was unveiled and sounded pretty good. It should be interesting to see how well his new album does when released. Adam's unlikely comeback has been pretty amazing so far
( I never thought I'd be seeing him play these wonderful songs 30 years after his first brush with fame ) and it would be fantastic to see him actually sell some records too. Again, it's unlikely... but the unlikely is something Adam has always specialised in.
After a final, mass outbreak of  "doing the Prince Charming" in the encore ( I can't believe I did that! ) Adam and band took their bows and left. And so did we... to have a few drinks and mess about in Bristol...

Oh dear! Time to go home...

Never forget...

Four more years!

Phew!

( Please don't screw it up... )

Happy Halloween!

It's a little early for April Fool jokes, isn't it?

According to SFX, the House Of The Mouse is buying out Lucasfilm to the tune of $4 billion and will release a new Star Wars movie in 2015. Really?

I've got a bad feeling about this...

Ahhh, that's better...

I was a teenage Death Planet Commando

In celebration of the 25th anniversary of the first Death Planet Commandos gig, The Glass Walking-Stick proudly presents:
Part One of The Secret History Of The DPC...

Long before I joined the Punk band previously known as Primitive and embarked on a two-year mission of maximum rock 'n' roll I was also in a succession of almost bands, bedroom bands, made up bands. They went by such cringe-making names as Magus, Heretic, Vicious Bastard ( lovely! ), Perverse Society and Sons Of Evil. I also hit on the name Primal Scream which I thought sounded pretty cool ( I'd read about John Lennon going through primal scream therapy and thought it sounded Punk ) but I discovered some band from Glasgow already had the same moniker. Whatever happened to them? The name that hung around the longest was Sons Of Evil and my concerted graffiti campaign around my sixth form managed to convince people that we actually existed. Well, we did... sort of...

Alongside various fly-by-night band members such as Martin "Trev" Trevitt, Mark "Casey" McAsey and someone called "Spaz" ( according to my old diary, but I really can't remember him ) the Sons Of Evil were basically me and my mate Paul  -  pictured above on the drums.

And here we are again, propping up the bar in a Blackpool B&B. Paul and I were thick as thieves for many years and had various adventures, mostly involving alcohol and chasing after girls  -  although, in my case, too much of the former and too few of the latter :-)

Inspired by a thriving local gig scene ( bands such as The Lemons, Final Verdict, Major Detail, The Patrol, Ronald Rim Ram and Primitive themselves ) as well as by seeing bigger bands passing through ( Crass, Tenpole Tudor, Omega Tribe, Poison Girls, Newtown Neurotics ) we thought we'd give this Punk Rock thing a go. Paul tried guitar and bass before settling on drums, while I had always wanted to be a guitarist... well, ever since seeing old footage of Hendrix on the Old Grey Whistle Test, anyway. Unfortunately, I was never going to be the next Hendrix or even the next Joe Strummer, or even a competent guitarist for that matter. But we were young and had the old "three chords is all you need" Punk spirit on our side. We practiced in an old cow shed which had been converted into a snooker room, so we always had beer and peanuts to hand, and could always play a couple of frames of snooker when the musical inspiration was lacking. Which was quite often...

We never managed to break out of the cow shed and achieve international fame, but we did have a laugh and I started to write dodgy lyrics which got better as time went by and which I began to stockpile for future reference. Time passed and the Sons Of Evil retreated into the mists of obscurity. I gave up thoughts of being the next Joe Strummer, while nightclubs and horrible '80s suits began to replace Punk gigs and leather jackets. Until I found myself working with this young man...

In 1987 I was packing greeting cards for local card company, Paper House, when I met Ade, Primitive's frontman. I remembered Primitive from various gigs around Stroud and especially from the one above, a Battle Of The Bands at Stroud's Marshall Rooms which they really should have won, being the audience's favourites but, unfortunately, not the judges'. Primitive claimed to be "Gloucester's fastest band", being inspired by American Hardcore Punk, not the more stodgy UK Street Punk that had been so prevalent in the  previous few years. Ade invited me along to one of their practices at Time Out Studios in Gloucester Docks and I was impressed by their sound and their songs. It turned out their excellent Malaysian drummer, Lee, was going back home, leaving the drum stool vacant. It also turned out I happened to know a drummer by the name of Paul. A devious plan began to form in my mind. With all the arrogance of youth I proposed that Paul joined Primitive... as long as they took me on too as rhythm guitarist...
Cocky bugger wasn't I?

To be continued...

( Thanks to Mark B for this post's title )

The Doctor Who Experience... a carnival of monsters