28 October 2008

MOTORHEAD – MY KIND OF METAL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_S_5n66cNo

Amnesty International is an organisation that warms the cockles of my heart. The problems in the Middle East, Burma and Zimbabwe would be unchallenged and possibly ignored but for the brilliant, hard working activists standing up for Human Rights around the world.

The warmth I have mentioned above also applies to the music I listen to, and there’s no better at spewing out molten lava Rock/Metal sounds than the British Heavy Metal band that goes by the name of MOTORHEAD. The vocalist, Ian Kilmister, known to all as Lemmy, growls out the lyrics like he was born smoking heavy tobacco and sipping neat vodka. If you add ‘Philthy Animal’ Taylor (Drums) and guitarist ‘Fast’ Eddie Clarke the band (the 1980’s line up) becomes a toxic tonic of tinnitus causing tantrums on a massive scale. HEAVY!

Some of the sounds that MOTORHEAD have slammed out over the years include: We are the Road Crew, Deaf Forever, Ace of Spades, Sucker, No Class, Killed by Death, Doctor Rock and my own favourite, Overkill, (with it’s false endings) are all devastating sounds which cement the band’s reputation for being not only the loudest and fastest Metal band, but also signal the lyrical deftness of those involved with crafting the songs. A MOTORHEAD song will stick in your mind long after the first listen and you want more and more and more and mo…..…

Lemmy is a colourful character, even if he almost always dresses in black. He has said that if MOTORHEAD were to perform near your house, your lawn would die. The band’s front man has a habit of collecting Nazi memorabilia, but it seems he isn’t a dedicated follower of Fascism (apologies to BILLY BRAGG).

One day, in roughly 1986, my Uncle came over from the UK to visit my family and he presented a 7” single by MOTORHEAD to my brother. Deaf Forever was on the A side and a live recording of Killed by Death was on the reverse. Well it was a great source of pleasure to my sibling and envy to me. How dare he own such an item of sonic sandblasting? Of course my brother has grown up and moved on from those days but I have made it my business to listen to MOTORHEAD on a regular basis either on the Internet or on CD.

A great sense of excitement comes over me whenever I put MOTORHEAD on the stereo. If you hear this writer playing their music it’s usually to attempt to banish negative thoughts. Who needs Heroin when Lemmy and co can send your spirits soaring? The great man has even said that he got a letter from a fan telling him that MOTORHEAD’s music led him to abandon plans for suicide.

Now living in LA, Lemmy is still active and shows no signs of slowing down although he was diagnosed with Diabetes a couple of years back. Of his ambitions, the Sexagenarian says: “Still haven’t fucked Halle Berry yet.” Quite a bawdy remark, it should be said that Berry is Diabetic too. So Lemmy you’ve already got something in common with the Hollywood star.

MOTORHEAD are touring constantly and have played in Dublin several times in the past. They’re due to appear in Dublin’s Ambassador venue on 31st October and 1st November next. If you’re not deafened after the first gig, you’ll definitely be stone deaf by the time the second night’s over. As Lemmy famously said: “You have to come to see us live if you want to hear MOTORHEAD properly”. Sorry Lemmy, I’ll stick to the stereo, but the sound MOTORHEAD crank out remains truly DEVASTATING!

NOTE: NO EARS WERE DAMAGED IN THE WRITING OF THIS ARTICLE. ALMOST.

20 October 2008

JOHN PEEL: 1939 - 2004






From about 1985, until his death in 2004, I listened to 'Dr. Excitement' or to use his better known name: John Peel.

I loved his sense of humour ("I can't turn water into wine, but I can certainly turn Red wine into piss" was a favourite of mine) and his warm Liverpudlian accent. He never lost touch with his roots - he was a lifelong supporter of Liverpool Football Club.

For me John was a kindred spirit and he had many devoted listeners to his programmes not only on BBC Radio 1 but also on BBC World Service, Radio Eins (Germany) and latterly on BBC Radio 4, where he presented a weekly lifestyle programme dealing with primarily family foibles and it was called 'Home Truths'.

But it was his music shows that really impressed me: JESUS AND MARY CHAIN, THE FALL, BHUNDU BOYS, MUDDY WATERS, SAM "LIGHTNIN' " HOPKINS, THE SMITHS, RONNIE RONALDE, LONNIE DONEGAN, DICK DALE, THE RUTS, HEFNER, WHITE STRIPES and THE UNDERTONES (whose song 'Teenage Kicks' was his favourite tune of all time). He was responsible for championing possibly thousands of bands and solo artists and some of these people's careers sky-rocketed as a result of his support (MARC BOLAN/T REX, DAVID BOWIE, ROD STEWART, ELTON JOHN to name but a handful).

Peely's impact on the music world was profound and his programmes were a fantastic repository for music fans who had little or no time for the mainstream. It is often said that John was ahead of the pack when discovering new musical trends and everyone followed the great man. Indeed Hip Hop DJ Tim Westwood was still at school when Peel was playing the first wave of classic Hip Hop sounds in the early 1980's.

It is quite likely that my Vinyl, Audio Tape and CD collection would be less than half its size if I hadn't come across his programmes, first on my battered little red transistor on Medium Wave in the mid eighties and later through the pipe on crystal clear FM, beamed in from London.

Towards the end of his life John had been diagnosed with Diabetes and had put on a lot of weight. I can recall an amusing (as ever) interview he gave to 'The Independent' newspaper in the summer of 2004, where he joked about giving himself injections in public with Insulin and people thinking he was a drug addict.

That a man broadcasting from a foreign country many miles away could give me so much pleasure over the years was uncanny and I shall never ever forget the irreplaceable JOHN ROBERT PARKER RAVENSCROFT.

His memory shall stay with me till the day I die.

13 October 2008

PUNK ROCKERS

It is widely believed that the music genre known as Punk Rock started in 1976 with the release of the seminal 'Leave Home' by the RAMONES. But at that time I was roughly 4 years of age and, like a lot of kids at that time I couldn't have appreciated the fuss.The SEX PISTOLS giving 'cheek' to BILL GRUNDY at prime time TV stirred up an amount of anger from middle aged people who viewed JOHNNY ROTTEN, and the like, as obscene in their words and actions.

So it was a sort of irony, a few years later in roughly 1979, that my uncle came across the Irish Sea from LONDON, to visit our family home. My dad had just got his hands on a brand new AKAI stereo and was getting acquainted with classical music and the pleasures of vinyl. Well my uncle TED (along with a guy from BELFAST, ROGER ARMSTRONG) had founded a record label in LONDON (CHISWICK RECORDS) and had begun (since c.1975) releasing 7"singles. When he came to see us TED brought over a couple of freshly pressed singles, one for me and one also for my sister: THE DAMNED's 'Smash It Up' was the title of the singles he delivered. It was the first slab of Punk I had ever heard and of course I wanted to hear the circular piece of plastic played on the new stereo.

At that point my father probably wished he'd spent his hard earned money on a LAWN MOWER or some other gardening implement rather than on the flash AKAI he had purchased. Definitely not a fan of PUNK. He's not exactly the sort of person who would have been pogoing to PUNK or blowing his nose on peoples shirts. A gentleman to a fault, my dad, and not impressed with the loud crunching obstreperous music being blasted out he grudgingly placed the vinyl on the deck and prayed for it to be over quickly (rather like a sermon on Sunday's).

As I say I was too young to appreciate what was going on at the time. However I did start listening to JOHN PEEL from about 1985 onwards and he played plenty of that sort of music on his programmes. He introduced me, and possibly thousands of others, to the likes of the RUTS, BUZZCOCKS, UNDERTONES and many other lesser known acts. In 1988 I came across a band that was to change my life: RAMONES. I managed to get and Audio Tape of the band which contained 30 tracks and I have never known a band to have as many great tunes as they recorded. I can recall jumping into my Dad's car while it was parked on the driveway and playing the tape on the car stereo over and over again with my brother beside me in the front passenger seat. It was the only way to listen to that kind of sound without annoying anyone.

I have been listening to PUNK for years and it has not lost its allure. What interests me, though, is the energy that loud, raucous music does to people. FRANK COTTERELL-BOYCE had a series (now over) on BBC RADIO FOUR and it featured characters (fans) that lived as young adults around the late 1970's. The five episodes are entirely fictional but they evoke the moments when PUNK was in the ascendancy. Each episode features characters who were present at an ADVERTS gig back in 1977 and it tells the story of what subsequently happened to each person since that time. A sort of rite of passage. Now in the noughties they have either had children or, as in one case, are in prison. I think that, even though the music was central to PUNK, there was clearly a culture present and PUNK fans from that time will be able to relive some of feelings and emotions of what went on then, by listening to, of all stations, BBC RADIO 4. Back in the 1970's PUNK would probably not have gotten any attention on that radio station - how things have changed!

What is it about that form of music that is synonymous with violence and rage though? I read, a few years back, in a football magazine, 'WHEN SATURDAY COMES', of a man, a hooligan, who would get an erection if there was any chance of violence brewing up at a football match. Now I suspect there was possibly some journalistic license there but, it comes back to energy which is a good thing, in theory at least. Life affirming. Whenever I listen to the likes of 'Hurry up Harry' or 'Suspect Device' I don't get stiff, but it certainly makes me want to jump about. Had I been around in the 1970's I probably would have been a quiet unassuming chap. Times certainly change and even though I LOVE PUNK music I could do without all it's accessories: Drugs, Pins through the nose, Leather jackets, spitting and urinating, dyed hair..... but not the energy.

Even though my parents hated everything about PUNK I could at least enjoy the sound. There is something wonderful about JOHNNY RAMONE's Mosrite guitar chopping away and also JAKE BURNS' (SLF) growling out vocals. I simply cannot get enough of the sound. Even though, admittedly, I would probably have balked at it back in the day. The media have sanitised it over the years but I find it difficult to get excited, in quite the same way, about other forms of music even though there is plenty of good music out there today.

Towards 1980 CHISWICK RECORDS folded and that gave way to ACE RECORDS and a myriad of other musical treats. Over the years, my Uncle would ply me with records. I received everything from 'Southern Soul' to folk music from MADAGASCAR, a marvellous musical education for me. But I could never get that noisy, scrawny, ranting PUNK out of my ears and still can't today!

06 October 2008

Hard News

Dubliners have a large array of newspapers to choose from on a daily basis as well as on Sundays. Not only do newsagents supply the Irish titles but there are also many UK based papers sold here too. To add to that the main newspapers from central Europe (BERLIN ZEITUNG, LE MONDE etc) as well as the NEW YORK TIMES and THE WALL STREET JOURNAL are available to purchase. They give the impression of a shrinkage in the size of the world.

I was never terribly cool or hip as a teenager. A child prodigy? NO! But from the age of 13, or so, newspapers (particularly the British ones) fascinated me. Whilst my contemporaries were getting intoxicated on non-permissible substances, I was returning from the shops with the likes of the DAILY TELEGRAPH or the FINANCIAL TIMES under my shoulder. Indeed there was a time when each week I would explore the news stands for papers I hadn't bought before: TODAY (Eddy Shah's ultimately unsuccessful coloured tabloid), THE TIMES, the GUARDIAN, even (horror of horrors) the DAILY MIRROR. Travelling through the English countryside on election day 1987 I can remember reading the INDEPENDENT and enjoyed reading MILES KINGTON (RIP).

I bought the MAIL ON SUNDAY for a time in the 1980's as well fairly regularly. But as soon as they signalled their support for the CONSERVATIVES in the forthcoming election (1987) I knew I had to look elsewhere for my print fix.

Tabloids are usually short on detail and context preferring to publish celebrity gossip rather than hard news. They are usually fuelled by half truths, straying into people's personal, private lives. Anything to increase circulation.

The people of LIVERPOOL , en masse, have stopped buying the SUN as a result of printing untrue allegations concerning the city's football supporters. Following the HILLSBOROUGH football disaster (1989), in which some supporters lost their lives, the SUN claimed that LIVERPOOL fans had urinated on some of the bodies of the deceased - a sick slur for which the tabloid has since apologised, but has had little effect as most Liverpudlians refuse, even to this day, to buy the red top.

British politics, for me, is a very exciting scene to explore however, the UK's press, unfortunately, is biased. Open any British newspaper and you Will find that,far from being impartial, they support either LABOUR or CONSERVATIVE. In time of an election the press will, collectively, turn up the heat and add to the various debates being held. Furthermore most newspapers (tabloids as well as broadsheets) for most of the 1980's and 1990's were opposed to the LABOUR Party. This lead to the decline of SOCIALISM as an effective force in British politics and paved the way for 'NEW LABOUR' under TONY BLAIR. During this time the party's policies moved decisively to the right of the political spectrum.

One of the most galling facts about the SUN is that, as the largest selling paper in the UK, it has a huge influence on which party gains power at WESTMINSTER. RUPERT MURDOCH (the paper's Proprietor) isn't a British citizen yet he wields a great deal of authority over which party leader gets to step into 10 DOWNING STREET , as PRIME MINISTER, following POLLING DAY.

In IRELAND our newspapers are, I think it's true to say, more reserved in tone than those in the UK. No title would link themselves to any particular political creed: the reader is allowed to make up her/his mind on the basis of factual information distilled by the many fine journalists that this country is blessed with. It is hard to imagine THE IRISH TIMES resorting to sensationalist headlines, on the contrary it keeps everything it reports in full context and provides excellent analysis. It has a reputation as a newspaper of record - however dull it may be.

THE IRISH INDEPENDENT is slightly more colourful in comparison, but it still reflects public opinion in a concise manner. Former IRISH TIMES writer, KEVIN MYERS now writes for THE IRISH INDEPENDENT and he can be controversial from time to time. Lately he has caused anger in the AFRICAN community here by saying, in one of his articles for the paper, that the only thing that AFRICANS contribute to the world is AIDS. I think, whatever your view, it is good that such comments, in a free country, can be made. The right of reply is, also, just as valid. Readers have a right to reply and to add their points of view.

There was a time, years ago, when all the content of an IRISH newspaper was strictly news. Not anymore. On any given day, now, the papers have plenty of print devoted to SPORTS, FINANCE and ENTERTAINMENT as well as HEALTH/SOCIAL matters and, of course, a subject close to the hearts of many IRISH people: PROPERTY!

With the reduction in circulation, these days, most newspapers now have websites set up so that people can view their favourite writers and access vital information even when they are abroad and not able to get a physical copy of their newspaper of choice. This allows readers to scroll down pages rapidly online and it is becoming more and more popular. However there will always be a demand for HARD COPY. From swatting flies to mopping up spilled drinks, the physical use of a newspaper shouldn't be underestimated.
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