Birth

1948. Millie Small, of "My Boy Lollipop" fame, born in Clarendon, Jamaica.

In Custody

1967. After a night in police custody, "Mama" Cass Elliot, appears at West London Magistrate's Court charged with larceny. When the case is called, the prosecution offers no evidence against her and the magistrate, Mr. Seymour Collins, dismisses the charges. A warrant still exists for another unamed person who is thought to have actually taken the items. This individual was also left to settle the bill which remained unpaid. When undertakings are given by Cass that she'll see to things, the prosecution also ask for the outstanding warrant to be dismissed.

In Court

1999. Country singer Johnny Rodriguez (47) appears in court for the first day of his murder trial in Uvalde, Texas. During the opening statements, his attourney, Jay Norton, tells the jury that he shot and killed Israel "Bosco" Borrego (26), a drinking buddy, in an act of self-defence, thinking he was an intruder at his mother's house in Sabinal, Texas on August 29th 1998. He tells how Rodriguez saw a shadowy figure in the house at 4 a.m., took a pistol from a cushion on the couch and fired one shot, hitting Borrego in the abdomen. The 26 year old died several hours later.

Tony Hackebell, attourney for the prosecution has a different story to tell, saying that Rodriguez had invited Borrego to a late-night drinking party at a house across the street from his mother's. The shooting had occured some time later when Borrego was cooking breakfast for Rodriguez.

In Hospital

1994. Glen Frey undergoes surgery at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for diverticulitis. As a result of being hospitalised, the second half of The Eagles' "Hell Freezes Over" tour is postponed until the New Year.

On Television

1968. The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour (ABC, U.S.A.) Guest stars: Harry Belafonte, Cass Elliot. Here's "Mama" Cass with a great version of "Dream A Little Dream". I know she's already had a mention today but thought this was too good a clip to miss.

Death

1978. Australian pop star, Johnny O'Keefe dies in a Sydney hospital after a heart attack, aged 43. He is credited with being the first rock singer in Australia with a career that spanned performing and management over 26 years. He's best remembered by the rest of the world as composer of "Real Wild Child" which has been covered by everyone from Buddy Holly to Iggy Pop.

Babble

My mood, which has been one of doom and gloom lately, has lifted a bit. My blog for the Two Red Shoes Ballroom has been linked to from the Northern Scot, the local newspaper for Elgin where the ballroom was. Add to that the fact that the daily paper for the area, the Press & Journal, has said they'll cover the memorabilia exhibition that is meant to start this week in the Red Shoes Theatre - yes! it is the same building, which reopened last year - and you might see why I feel a bit happier.

After six months of being on, then off, then on again, it seems I will get to draw a line under this at long last. I know you can stage an exhibition of memorabilia anywhere but it seemed that such a famous venue was the ideal place to hold it. While I don't have any memorabilia that links directly to the ballroom, I do have memorabilia for most of the bands that played there. 

The Animals hit, "House Of the Rising Sun", entered the chart on the day the band played Elgin and I've got the gold disc presented to Hilton Valentine. Unlike modern awards discs which are just vinyl records plated (and often discs by other artists!) this is a gold plated pressing master for the single. A totally awesome piece of pop history. I'd love to have a handbill for Pink Floyd when they played to 12 people in the Two Red Shoes but I've got a flyer for the Love-In Festival just over a week later when they went out on stage in front of 10,000!

Anyway, I'll be heading north tomorrow to hang the exhibition and will be putting a virtual version online at the same time. So, watch this space.

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When I saw local classic rock covers bands Blue Fuses and, later, Foulplay playing gigs at pubs in Egham and Staines on a Saturday night I started to realise that ‘looking like a hardnut’ helps a workaday rock muso, in their daily grind, to get
through the concert without mishap. For example, once you ‘come off stage’ gasping for a pint and maybe a smoke and you will need to stroll through an often hostile audience, whose temperament may not be awfully well disposed to you, to get to the bar for a little drink. In these circumstances, it pays if you don’t flounce through the bar-room wearing a one-piece pink shrug and nylon leotard looking like Darkness singer/guitarist Justin Hawkins. It also helps if you look a bit more authentic  (auf-fentik) wearing, maybe, a sombre pair of dirty jeans and a plain T shirt, a bit of 24 hour old fungus on yer chops and a swagger that says, “do you want some, mate?” Obviously, if there are ladies at the venue, you are likely to get a drink from one of these admirers...but this will also invoke ill-feeling from the other alpha males in the room who will, naturally, suppose you are “out to get their birds” and give you ‘a good seeing to’. All of these complications are far more exaggerated if you are playing a working man’s club or a drinkers boozer and all the punters at the establishment have an-inbuilt and overwhelming desire to “give you a good kicking” because you are a fairy, you are a nonce and you are a general neer-do-well.

So I have come up with a strategy for all you budding rockers out there who hope to get through  to ‘last orders’ without having the contents of your nose splattered all over the flock wallpaper.  I hope it helps you to enjoy your concert safe in the knowledge and belief that you will be able to go out into the crowd for half-time drinks and puffs without fear of a bottle being cracked over your head or, at the very least, being ‘accidently’ tripped-up (ha! ha!) as you head back from the bar with a tray load of drinks for your bandmates.

Before I begin on Rock Hard 101, I do  need to define ‘hardness’. To the average British geezer a person who is ‘rock hard’ is anyone who can give a slap, if required, to a recalcitrant yob who jogs his arm ‘accidently’ as he passes. Or who can wink at a lay-dee but who has the good grace to nod understandingly to the lay-dee’s bloke when he notices. Who can drink 2-3 pints in an interval. Who swaggers to the bog like a cross between John Wayne and Dr Dre and, upon entering said shite-house, swings the door of the bog so violently that it almost tears it off of its hinges. Who rolls his own. Who buys his own pints (and never drinks bottles of ‘poof’ drinks like juice.) Who wears a few livid battle scars on his face and/or arms. Who looks like he can ‘handle himself’ in a bundle. Who talks the talk and, far more importantly, walks the walk.

[The Kinks- dirty student scroungers!]

Lesson 1 - hair

It is best by starting out on this lesson by saying that long hair is a no-no. I know you like it and you need it long so that you can headbang - but most of the gents in the quintessential British boozer either have NO HAIR or have No. 1 cuts.

Their attitude is that any man who has long hair is a hippy and is gay. They also have firm opinions about the cleanliness of long hair... so Bob Marley would not be welcome (notwithstanding his general ‘hardness’) because of his long, dirty,
dreads. Neither would Who vocalist Roger Daltrey during  his ‘Tommy’ days because of his frothy head of golden bubbles.  Although, Roger would be more welcome nowadays because he has almost gone bald.

[Who- Frothy head of bubbles not welcome!]

Lesson 2 - clothes

The Kinks circa 1970 would not be considered rock hard because of their long hippy hair. [See above.] But, worse, their clothes scream-out ‘dirty student scrounger’ and so they would not be welcomed. Neither do you want your clothes to mark you out as some kind of intellectual ‘arty-farty’ prat. So Booker T. & the M.G.’s would not be welcome in any Middlesex public bar and neither would Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. Your choice of clothes should either be a) understated and similar to the clientele’s own George at Asda-type choice or b) way over the top and military in attitude. The circa 1966 Yardbirds would be very welcome because their style is understated (their hair could do with a wash and a cut though) as long as they left Eric Clapton at home- he often looked like a bit of a hippy. Nowadays Eric looks too ‘posh’ and so would be given a few smacks just for being ‘a rich city banker’ or words to that effect. In the early 1970’s the band Slade looked the part. In those days, before glam, glitter, top hats and stupid heels, this band looked like what they were... a bunch of brummie hard-nuts with a grudge to settle. In those days you would offer to buy them a drink if they strolled into your bar, not just because you wanted to get ‘in’ with the lads but because you feared for your own safety if you did not.

[Slade- buy them a drink- or else!]

Lesson 3 - T shirt

Noel Jones (lead singer with Blue Fuses) wore a sensible Black Pudding T-shirt to his recent Staines Working Mans club gig the other month. Last Saturday, at the Crown Egham, Noel chose to wear a footie shirt.  Another good choice. It is what I call a ‘camoflage’ choice. If all the punters and punteresses in the pub are football fans you need to blend in. Obviously, a good knowledge of soccer is required  in this case or you could make an almighty blunder. However, I have also seen Noel wearing a Cradle of Filth T-shirt in the past and this kind of shirt would be strictly a no-no in the saloon bar at The Crown. Not only has this type of T-shirt got witchcraft connotations, it also says ‘I am a weird beard and I need my head to be kicked in’ to all the regular drinkers.  So here are a few simple rules about your choice of shirt. a) never wear pink (too poofy); b) never wear sleeveless shirts unless you are a hip-hop star or a rapper (too poofy); c) never wear a ‘funny’T shirt (they won’t like the joke).

[Yardbirds- leave Eric at home!]

Lesson 4 - build

Fat bastards, on the whole, look mean and aggressive ...but...all the geezers in the pub know that they can ‘take you’ easily because you are out of condition. They like to quote Michael Caine in Get Carter ‘You are a big boy, I know, but you’re out of condition, one hit and you’re down’.  Plus, the downside of being ‘of comfortable build’ is that you are less attractive to the lay-dees. So, although Meat Loaf is one big tough slab of meat, he would not be welcome in my pub on the corner because he is a fat git with long hair and stupid ill-fitting pink-hemmed suit. However, Buster Bloodvessel aka Doug Trendle is just a normal beer-drinking fat bloke who wears sensible clothes and has got a ‘boiled head’ (i.e. a boiled egg in the place of a head of hair.) So it is how you make your build work for you that counts. Mama Cass Elliot would also have been very welcome in The Wheatsheaf & Pigeon any time because she is just a normal fat bird with everyday jumble-sale clothes and a big appetite.

Lesson 5- facial hair

Neither Billy Gibbons nor Dusty Hill would be welcome in my local because they both look like Santa Claus on a night off. Your choice of facial hair should not be too gay (Freddie) or too outrageous (Frank Zappa). Frank may well have looked like a
mean sonofabitch back in the day but your eyes would keep being drawn back to the dead hamsters beneath his beady eyes. In the end you would just have to ‘give him a good kicking’ because of his ‘stupid poncy tash’. It is best to keep your choice of facial hair to a minimum. Stubble is great (remember how masculine everyone thought George Michael was back in his Wham! days with his stubble?) Full-on face covering, beards (like The Beach Boys in 15 Big Ones ) make you look scary and killer-like (Charles Manson) or, worse, may make you look like Rolf Harris.

[Beach Boys- killer beards?]

Lesson 6- swagger

Your swagger as you cross the bar is more important than anything else. If you sway across the room in a pink dress teetering on vertiginous high-heels and you look like that fairy Rob Davis out of Mud you will probably get your face kicked in. But you can pull it off if you look like David Daniel “Dee” Snider (Twisted Sister) because, although you are wearing a frock and make-up, you swagger up to the bar looking like a Polish scaffolder on his night off... as if you mean business.

[Dee Sinder- fairy with swagger?]

Conclusion

Lemmy (out of motorhead) is a man’s man. Warts, Nazi clothing, grizzled features, swagger, worn out thin build and a F*** You attitude.

He is the personification of Rock Hard.

© Neil_Mach
Sep 2008

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Keith Moon was best known as a member of the Who, but he was far more than that, even within the context of his role within the group. Moon, with his manic, lunatic side, and his life of excessive drinking, partying, and other indulgences, probably represented the youthful, zany side of rock & roll, as well as its self-destructive side, better than anyone else on the planet. In that sense, he was the soul of the Who, as much as Pete Townshend was its brain and Roger Daltrey was its heart; and, along with John Entwistle, Moon was at the core of its sound, and not just for his drumming per se. He played the skins with the kind of wild abandon that most trained musicians before him, not knowing any better, would have described as lunatic, in the worst sense of the word, and he lived his life with just about that same degree of intensity (even once running himself over with his own car). But more than the drumming itself, it was the lunacy that he brought to the personality mix of the four members that kept their music and their playing, not to mention their image, on the cutting edge of youth, even as they all moved into their thirties and tried to get more serious about music.  Moon's musical importance was similar to that of Brian Jones in the Rolling Stones. In much the same way that Jones, through his talent (and his abuse of it) helped lift the Stones above the level of every other blues-based band going, and made their image distinct, Moon did the same thing for the Who. When Jones left the Stones, to die just a few weeks later, they became more professional musically; they settled down with a true and admirable virtuoso in the guise of Mick Taylor, and their sound tightened up, but the youthful edge, the teenage lust was gone, not only from their sound but from their playing. When Keith Moon died, the Who carried on and were far more competent and reliable musically, but that wasn't what sold rock records.  Moon occasionally played on other peoples' records, but he only finished and released one solo album of his own, Two Sides of the Moon (though another may have been planned in 1975). Not taken seriously at the time, this record now appears to have captured the essence of Moon's nature. Recorded in a series of marathon sessions that were as notable for their huge bills for alcohol as the studio time involved, it is a strange, haunting mix of innocent '50s/early-'60s rock & roll and leering, joyful lust, and a savage sense of wit directed at the music business and played out both between and in the songs themselves. - Bruce Eder (All Music Guide)

Moon died of an accidental overdose on September 7, 1978.  The drug he OD'd on was prescribed to help him in his battles against alcoholism.  He and his girlfriend, Annette Walter-Lax were staying in a flat owned by Harry Nilsson.  Mama Cass Elliot died in the same room as Moon four years earlier.

Quando speri di poter dormire sul treno ma hai promesso a qualcuno che avresti fatto il viaggio con lui

Quando la tal persona ti rintrona di chiacchiere per quasi due ore e necessiti di uscire dalla modalità ingegnere

Quando ti rendi conto che la giornata al corso sarà lunga ma che ci saranno i colleghi e l'aperitivo finale a movimentarla

Quando esci dalla metro e la luce del sole ti investe facendoti uscire dal grigiore dell'inverno

Insomma, quando sarebbe il momento perfetto per una canzone che ti ronza in testa da un po' di giorni:

Accendi l'Ipod, scegli "casuale" nella tua compilation e la prima canzone a partire è proprio La Canzone... Beh, che dire? Destino? Caso? Non me ne importa, la giornata acquista un senso tutto nuovo e sono contenta di averla cominciata così. E devo dire che è finita altrettanto bene:) Che brividi al ricordo di queste scene viste per la prima volta...

Make your own kind of music - Mama Cass Elliot

Nobody can tell ya;
There's only one song worth singin'.
They may try and sell ya,
'cause it hangs them up
to see somone like you.

But you've gotta make your own kind of music
sing your own special song,
make your own kind of music even if nobody
else sing along.

So if you cannot take my hand,
and if you must be goin',
I will understand.

You're gonna be knowing
the loneliest kind of lonely.
It may be rough goin',
just to do your thing's
the hardest thing to do.

But you've gotta make your own kind of music
sing your own special song,
make your own kind of music even if nobody
else sings along.

So if you cannot take my hand,
and if you must be goin',
I will understand.

You gotta make your own kind of music
sing your own special song,
make your own kind of music even if nobody
else sings along.

LINK

01 - It's Getting Better
02 - Dream A Little Dream Of Me
03 - Make Your Own Kind Of Music
04 - Words Of Love
05 - New World Coming
06 - Move In A Little Closer, Baby
07 - One Way Ticket
08 - The Good Times Are Coming
09 - Easy Come, Easy Go
10 - Don't Let The Good Life Pass You By
11 - Ain't Nobody Else Like You
12 - A Song That Never Comes

LINK