Unfinished Scribbling #1

FEAR AND TERROR! IT IS THEIR CURRENCY and some people are making a killing e.g Drugs companies,
How many people do you know who’ve had/got swine flu? How many of them have died? and How many people do you know caught up/killed in a terrorist attack? If yer answer to any of the above is none, then what have you got to fear? Surely fear is based on our actual experiences not virtual ones that we’ve read about in the papers or watched on TV.
Not to say things don’t happen, but I aint gonna spend my life being scared of what could happen. Life’s too short.
Don’t fear their fear, because that’s what they fear; Us not being scared of what they try and make us scared of.
Swine flu. Millions will blindly get themselves and family inoculated with a drug that hasn’t been tested on humans. 1st trials are taking place in Australia as I type.
Australia a country (penal)colonised by British criminals/ America it’s founding fathers were English radicals.
Diagnosis without seeing a doctor. Website crashes with 9million hits per hour. Population of Britain is around 50million, give or take the odd lorry full of illegal immigrants. That’s a lot of people shitting themselves of a temperature and a runny nose.
Or wanting a week off work, go on fuck the economy up
Britain is the worst hit country for cases of swine flu 100,000 cases a week, or 1 in 500 depending on which representation of the figures the media thinks will scare us the most.
Swine Flu a biological terror attack?

THE BERMONDSEY JOYRIDERS - 3 Track Promo

Imagine Cock Sparrer meeting Chelsea and The Heavy Metal Kids, and that’s what you’ve got with The Bermondsey Joyriders, which is no surprise really when you consider the band features original Cock Sparrer guitarist and songwriter Gary Lammin, on Vocals. Original Chelsea Guitarist Martin Stacey on the Bass and Keith Boyce from The Heavy Metal Kids on Drums. This is the sound from the streets, the toons of the terraces. No major political agenda here, just foot to the floor fun and spills rawk and roll of the highest calibre. These 3 tracks were selected by the shuffle button on my CD player and serve as a sampler of The Bermondsey Joyriders 10 track debut CD/download, which is available via the band here. Highly Recommended!

THE CLASH - "We are not a teeny bop puking group!"

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, and it’s been a while since I posted any Clash stuff. So here as the saying goes; I’m gonna kill two birds with one stone, not that I advocate cruelty to animals, it’s just a saying. Anyway today’s offering is 4 tracks of prime time 1981 Clash recorded live and shown on Austrian TV as part of a program about The Clash. I say 4 tracks, but it’s more like 3 and a bit as Clash City Rockers fades in, but you do get Somebody Got Murdered, London’s Calling and Safe European Home in their entirety and some choice words from Joe Strummer. In the great Rock’n’Roll tradition of Johnny Thunders and Sid Vicious, Topper Headon puked up on an airport terminal carpet. The Clash had flown to Vienna to promote their appearance on Ohne Maulkab a state TV show for teenagers. At the press conference arranged for the band, one journalist asked about the puking incident and the resulting response is a classic/bizarre and rather aggressive/defensive rant by Joe. Not the finest words that he ever said, but funny as fuck. Looking at the state of Topper in the photo, I don’t think it was the in-flight food that had made him ill, and Joes response/reaction to the comment suggests that Toppers heroin use was becoming a strain on the band. Hear it all for yerself here! Once again Thanx goes out to the good folk over at The Clash forum for the recording.

Let the numbers be the words.

753,118 Total number of people estimated to have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Between 92,481 and 100,971 civilians killed in Iraq 140 British soldiers killed in Iraq
4,168 American soldiers killed in Iraq 184 British troops killed in Afghanistan 739 American soldiers killed in Afghanistan . Total number of all coalition soldiers killed in Afghanistan 1,247.…..

A whole lot of dead for a whole lot of nothing!

This little piggy came home sick today.

Haven’t been feeling to good for the last few days; tired, aching limbs, sore throat and headache OINK! OINK! Ticking all the boxes so far (except for a temperature and the shits) for a dose Swine Flu. Well that’s if you believe the propaganda. Swine flu pandemic paranoia read all about it! My boss at work said I best go home. Before I’d got sent home from work I was having a break, and someone asked how I was feeling ,so I told ‘em. Not too well blah, blah, blah and no I hadn’t started to grow a curly tail, they then went on to tell me that they’d heard that the whole country’s was going to be given compulsory vaccinations against swine flu ermmm! Yeah right! They can stick that somewhere else other than in to my arm I wouldn’t be too keen on even choosing to get vaccinated, I mean who knows what’s really in the drug Tamiflu? and with Donald Rumsfelds company making a load of money out of it I don’t trust ‘em for a minute, call it pandemic paranoia if you like, but the whole thing stinks! I mean thousands die of the flu each year, thousands have aches and pains etc and carry on regardless, I know I do, So here I am dosed up on Paracetomol and Ibroprofen, not feeling 100% but swine flu? Nah I don’t think so! it’s just modern life sickness caused by the real pigs!

Life is even cheaper when war is carried out on the cheap!

A weeks along time in politics, so what’s been happening, same shit just getting different days. One lot of shit that’s been going on for far to many days, months and years Is our very own Vietnam, the pointless and futile fighting in Afghanistan. With all the news reporting, one thing puzzles me.
Why are people surprised that soldiers are being killed? It’s a war, not some Playstation/X-Box Medal Of Honour/ Ghost Recon Game. It’s the real thing and young men are dying and I’m surprised that there haven’t been more British soldiers killed, cos this is a fight the West (US and Britain) will never win. I mean, if the might of the Russian bear couldn’t defeat the Mujahidean (predecessors to the Taliban) in the 80’s, then I don’t think the cash strapped British Army and The Americans are gonna stand a chance against fanatics prepared to die for their cause. What about our cause?
What are our troops fighting for? Control of the Brown and The Black; Heroin and Oil, that’s what, yeah I know we’re told it’s ’a war on terror’ but that’s bollocks. There is no terrorist threat, other than one being created by Britain and America. The one that started way back in the 80’s when the U.S armed and backed the Mujahideen to end the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, and one that continuues with every news story of Guantanamo Bay Torture, the banning of the Burkah etc all these are another roadside bomb being planted on a dirt track in Hellmand ready to blow apart an ill equipped passing British Army land rover. Twenty years ago it would have been a Russian tank. But now the cold war has become a very hot war when it’s British soldiers dying in a fight to kill the Frankenstein monster America created, a war that despite being done on the cheap is costing Britain a lot, when we can ill afford the expense, at least with the 2012 London Olympics Britain stands a chance of winning something.

I’d just finished preparing and posting the above when I now read on the front of one of the Sunday papers that our troops are using vehicles that the US Military rejected as being unsafe. So we are fighting their war on terror against insurgents that they created with their substandard equipment, that is one special fucking relationship Britain has with America!

SLAUGHTER AND THE DOGS - Manchester 101

Today’s musical offering links tenuously with yesterdays post. Slaughter and The Dogs named themselves after Mick Ronsons solo album Slaughter on 10th Avenue and David Bowies Diamond Dogs album, and Mick Ronson played guitar on a couple of tracks on Slaughters debut Do It Dog Style. There you go, the seemingly random sometimes isn’t that random. Manchester 101 was recorded live at Queens Hall in Nuneaton on 7th Dec 2005, and contains all the classics Even if at times the band veer of into Drum and Guitar solo territory, they still have a bite to them. If you’re hungry for some re-formed old skool punk rawk, they’re just a click away!

THE NEW YORK DOLLS wiv MICK RONSON - Live @ Max's Kansas City 4/7/76

I say New York Dolls, but in reality they were The Dollettes. Only Sylvain and David remained from the original Dolls, although Bassist Peter Jordan had been Arthur 'Killer' Kanes stunt double, hiding behind the amps and playing bass while Arthur stood on stage incapacitated.
Never mind flogging a dead horse, The Dolls were fucking it’s corpse by the time of this show. The guest appearance by Mick Ronson shows that a Spider From Mars is no substitute for Johnny Thunders.
Sorry it’s only one long MP3 and that the sound’s not to hot, but that’s the way I got it. For completists only, even though it’s not the complete set, just the numbers they did with Mick which include Teenage News, Pills, and Personality Crisis. Anyway if you fancy a blast of this Rock’n’Roll Curio you know where to click don’t ya.

GC HQ I ON U !

HAVE YOU SEEN THIS PERSON, OR DO YOU KNOW OF HER WHEREABOUTS?

She goes by the name of Samantha Wright and is 25 years old, 5ft 6inches tall, of medium build with dark brown eyes and long brown wavy hair. She was last sighted in Edinburgh Scotland a year ago, but only reported as a missing person in Jan 09 when she failed to contact her family at Christmas or for her Birthday. If you have seen her or know of her whereabouts leave a message in the comment section or contact The Missing Persons help line on 0500 700 700. This post is for her dad Jem who is worried beyond belief as to what has happened to his daughter, and just wants to know that she's OK.

Some Summer Sunday Sounds.

A lawn mower, a police siren, shouting children, a jet plane overhead, the screech of a car, loud music, the neighbours talking……. and amongst it all…moments of silence and birds chirping.

S*M*A*S*H - T*H*E D*E*M*O*S

“This is the sound of the suburbs” Welwyn Garden City in Hertfordshire to be exact “a satellite of London.” Local lads S*M*A*S*H’s flame shone brightly for a couple of years, when they went from ’local band’ status to darlings of the music biz, thanks to the music press sponsored pre Brit Pop;
New Wave of The New Wave, which was basically a load of bands with the attitude, style and sound of bands from between 77-79 lumped together by the NME and Melody Maker, S*M*A*S*H along with These Animal Men were the best of the bunch.
Like the Stone Roses on PCP was how S*M*A*S*H were described by the NME in 1994. On this their first demo recorded in 1990 when they were called Smash At The Blues they sounded more like The Stone Roses without the PCP. With their second demo, (not sure if it is actually their second demo, but it’s the second one in this post) an MC5 aural assault had started to creep into their songs, and they were just S*M*A*S*H. By the time of their 1993 Self Abused demo the PCP had kicked in and thanks to favourable reviews in fanzines, local radio station and a review in the NME the band were on their way, and what a great fucking band they were ,touring tirelessly up and down, and across the country with cheap gigs, cheap merchandise and their own fanzine; Petal Buzz, which helped to spread the word and build them a large and loyal following. Two independently released singles in 1993 received rave reviews and sold out endorsements from The Jesus and Marychain, Joe Strummer, New Statesman and The Guardian soon followed as did a Top Of The Pops appearance and a record deal with Virgin subsidiary Hi-Rise which saw the 2 singles re-released as a mini-album before their debut album Self Abused hit the streets in Sept 1994. More gigs followed including support slots with The Ramones, The Cramps and Corrosion of Conformity.
Sadly S*M*A*S*H disappeared from the radar in 1996. They did start playing again in 2003 and released a second album Icon in 2007, which I don’t think is a patch on their debut, the PCP seemed to have worn off, saying that though, it’s a ton better than a lot of the shite that’s been about over the last few years. Maybe S*M*A*S*H were a band of a moment and that moment may well have past, who knows, because I saw ’em live again at Club 85 in Hitchin a few years back, and they were still on the ball.