G. L. I think it was Simon Frith that told me this, that when he was working with Melody Maker the editor's idea of the ideal very loyal reader was somebody (male) who stayed in a town just outside Middlesbrough who didn't have a girlfriend. This was what they looked forward to every single week, this was the highlight of their week - reading Melody Maker or NME. Most of the provinces, and the towns that surround the provinces, things like the music they take a hold. Punk was still strong for a long time up here. Acid house was still very strong up here. The Scottish hardcore scene, the happy hardcore scene, it is basically acid house what 'oi' was to punk - it's that kind of boom boom boom all the time. It's just taking the basic elements. Things like that do stick longer in the provinces. We rely more on this. We don't have the same input from friends and all that to change us. My friends who I talk with about records are very good but there's not an awful lot. It's not a matter of somebody saying 'Have you heard this great new record?' and all that sort of stuff. That doesn't happen all the time. It happens with my good friends fairly regularly but then again I'm getting the same sources as they are - through the radio, through the papers, whatever. It's not a case of people I know going to clubs and saying 'I heard this great tune at a club blah blah blah'. Again the money thing came into it. You didn't have the money to go out and see too many bands. You can also tie that in to a love of the journalists from the music press at that time. The stalwarts - the Nick Kents, the Charles Shaar Murrays, the people who came in with punk, particularly Tony Parsons, Julie Burchill and Paul Morley - a 'Manchester' man, still a big hero of mine. He could have done anything. I once sent stuff off to NME where I reviewed a couple of records. It didn't get printed. It was probably rubbish. That was just after my mother died.
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Repetitive Beat Generation by Steve Redhead (Rebel Inc. 2000)
G. L. I think it was Simon Frith that told me this, that when he was working with Melody Maker the editor's idea of the ideal very loyal reader was somebody (male) who stayed in a town just outside Middlesbrough who didn't have a girlfriend. This was what they looked forward to every single week, this was the highlight of their week - reading Melody Maker or NME. Most of the provinces, and the towns that surround the provinces, things like the music they take a hold. Punk was still strong for a long time up here. Acid house was still very strong up here. The Scottish hardcore scene, the happy hardcore scene, it is basically acid house what 'oi' was to punk - it's that kind of boom boom boom all the time. It's just taking the basic elements. Things like that do stick longer in the provinces. We rely more on this. We don't have the same input from friends and all that to change us. My friends who I talk with about records are very good but there's not an awful lot. It's not a matter of somebody saying 'Have you heard this great new record?' and all that sort of stuff. That doesn't happen all the time. It happens with my good friends fairly regularly but then again I'm getting the same sources as they are - through the radio, through the papers, whatever. It's not a case of people I know going to clubs and saying 'I heard this great tune at a club blah blah blah'. Again the money thing came into it. You didn't have the money to go out and see too many bands. You can also tie that in to a love of the journalists from the music press at that time. The stalwarts - the Nick Kents, the Charles Shaar Murrays, the people who came in with punk, particularly Tony Parsons, Julie Burchill and Paul Morley - a 'Manchester' man, still a big hero of mine. He could have done anything. I once sent stuff off to NME where I reviewed a couple of records. It didn't get printed. It was probably rubbish. That was just after my mother died.
Friday, December 06, 2013
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
The Guts by Roddy Doyle (Jonathan Cape 2013)
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Two Pints by Roddy Doyle (Alfred A. Knopf 2012)
Saturday, August 10, 2013
Bullfighting by Roddy Doyle (Viking 2011)
Thursday, August 08, 2013
The Deportees and Other Stories by Roddy Doyle (Jonathan Cape 2007)
Sunday, April 04, 2010
Friday, April 02, 2010
The Woman Who Walked Into Doors by Roddy Doyle (Penguin 1996)
I missed the 80s. I haven't a clue. It's just a mush. I hear a song on the radio from the 60s or 70s and I can remember something that happened to me; it has nothing to do with liking the song, Song Sung Blue - I'm doing my homework, listening to Radio Luxemburg , the chart show on Monday night, with Carmel and Denise. I'm drawing a map of Ireland, the rivers of Ireland. My blue marker is nearly wasted and I haven't got to Ulster yet. Lily The Pink - I'm sitting on my mother's knee, watching my Uncle Martin singing Delilah; I have a toothache. Somebody else sang Lily The Pink before or after him; I can't remember who - one of my cousins. All The Young Dudes - I'm watching Charlo washing himself at the sink. He still has some of his summer tan. But I don't know any songs from the 80s; they mean nothing - and the radio was on all the time. What did I do in the 80s? I walked into doors. I got up off the floor. I became an alcoholic. I discovered that I was poor, that I'd no right to the hope I'd started with. I was going nowhere, straight there. Trapped in a house that would never be mine. With a husband who fed on my pain. Watching my children going nowhere with me; the cruellest thing of the lot. No hope to give them. They saw him throw me across the kitchen. They saw him put a knife to my throat. Their father; my husband.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
The Snapper by Roddy Doyle (Penguin Books 1990)
Sharon sat down again. She whispered to Jimmy Sr.
- Me uterus is beginnin' to press into me bladder/ It's gettin' bigger.
Jimmy Sr turned to her.
- I don't want to hear those sort o' things, Sharon, he said. - It's not righ'.
He was blushing.
- Sorry, said Sharon.
- That's okay. Who's tha' fuckin' eejit, Darren?
- Can you not just say Eejit? said Veronica.
- That's wha' I did say! said Jimmy Sr.
Darren laughed.
Veronica gave up.
-Da, said Darren.
- No, yeh can't have a bike.
Darren got up and left the room in protest. That left Jimmy Sr and Veronica by themselves.
- There's Cliff Richard, said Jimmy Sr.
Veronica looked up.
- Yes.
- I'd never wear leather trousers, said Jimmy Sr.
Veronica laughed.
Jimmy Sr found the remote control. He'd been sitting on it.
- He's a Moonie or somethin', isn't he? he said as he stuck on the Sports Channel. - And an arse bandit.
- He's a Christian, said Veronica.
- We're all tha', Veronica, said Jimmy Sr. - Baseball! It's worse than fuckin' cricket.
He looked at it.
He looked at it.
- They're dressed up like tha' an' chewin' gum an' paint on their faces, so you're expectin' somethin' excitin', an' wha' do yeh get? Fuckin' cricket with American accents.
Jimmy Jr stuck his head round the door.
- Finished with the paper yet?
- No.
You're not even lookin' at it.
- It's my paper. I own it. Fuck off.
Jimmy Sr switched again; an ad for a gut-buster on Sky.
- Jesus!
- You've got the foulest mouth of anyone I ever knew, Veronica told hi. - Ever.
- Ah lay off, Veronica.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Spacers and an intellectual skinhead
Weekly Bulletin of The Socialist Party of Great Britain 120
Dear Friends,
Welcome to the 120th of our weekly bulletins to keep you informed of changes at Socialist Party of Great Britain @ MySpace.
We now have 1528 friends!
Recent blogs:
Billion Dollar Bribery Prisons: In Capitalism's Stockade Karl Marx and the Classics
Coming Events:
Autumn Delegate Meeting
Saturday 17 October 10.30am to 5.30pm
Sunday 18 October 11.00am to 5.00pm
Socialist Party Head Office, 52 Clapham High St, London SW4.
The Zeitgeist Movement
Wednesday 21 October, 8.30pm
Community Central Halls, 304 Maryhill Road, Glasgow.
Radical Film Forum, Sundays 6pm - 52 Clapham High Street, London SW4 7UN.
1st November - The Fog of War
15th November - Matewan
29th November - Sicko
13th December - Earthlings
Quote for the week:
“I'm completely in favor of the separation of Church and State. My idea is that these two institutions screw us up enough on their own, so both of them together is certain death.” George Carlin
Continuing luck with your MySpace adventures!
Robert and Piers
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
The Commitments by Roddy Doyle (Penguin Books 1987)
- We'll ask Jimmy, said Outspan. - Jimmy'll know.
Jimmy Rabbitte knew his music. He knew his stuff alright. You'd never see Jimmy coming home from town without a new album or a 12-inch or at least a 7-inch single. Jimmy ate Melody Maker and the NME every week and Hot Press every two weeks. He listened to Dave Fanning and John Peel. He even read his sisters' Jackie when there was no one looking. So Jimmy knew his stuff.
The last time Outspan had flicked through Jimmy's records he'd seen names like Microdisney, Eddie and the Hot Rods, Otis Redding, The Screaming Blue Messiahs, Scraping Foetus off the Wheel (- Foetus, said Outspan. - That's the little young fella inside the woman, isn't it?
- Yeah, said Jimmy.
- Aah, that's fuckin; horrible, tha' is.); groups Outspan had never heard of, never mind heard. Jimmy even had albums by Frank Sinatra and The Monkees.
So when Outspan and Derek decided, while Ray was out in the jacks, that their group needed a new direction they both thought of Jimmy. Jimmy knew what was what. Jimmy knew what was new, what was new but wouldn't be for long and what was going to be new. Jimmy had Relax before anyone had heard of Frankie Goes to Hollywood and he'd started slagging them months before anyone realized that they were no good. Jimmy knew his music.
Thursday, October 08, 2009
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
The Van by Roddy Doyle (Penguin Books 1991)
"Jimmy Sr looked carefully to make sure that he'd seen it right. The net was shaking, and O'Leary was covered in Irishmen. He wanted to see it again though. Maybe they were all beating the shite out of O'Leary for missing. No, though; he'd scored. Ireland were through to the quarter-finals and Jimmy Sr started crying."