Daisy's Letter From London: February 2014 - Ruts DC at 12 Bar, Denmark St, London

Dear Karate Boogaloo - 

It’s really bitter sweet that I write this, you know. I know how much you love The Ruts. I wish you were here. I really, really mean it. I thought I liked the Ruts too, but, once again, listening to them BECAUSE you like them so much, I heard the band differently. I had you as a filter or as a kindred spirit (if that means someone who I am thinking about so strongly that they might be in the room too). I know your taste in music has heart and soul and boots that have been tramped around in. Last night I could see what you see. 100% men with souls with jackets off - men, dammit, from Hayes Middlesex, where I went to high school - but that old story of ... they were a few years ahead of me. See if I can recreate it for you in case our spirit-connection went behind one of the million rain clouds that have been passing England lately.

It was a Perfect gig. 

Parking space right outside the tiny shop front that is the 12 Bar in Denmark Street next door to Steve Jones' (Sex Pistols) old flat. Open the door and you get a warm reception at the desk. You are required to pay THREE POUNDS to get in. Your mind does a time warp. 

All the faces in the room are immediately Chaucer characters. Esso's (ex-Lurkers) glinty smile from a bench behind a beer on a Tudor hewn-wood table top. Posters cover the beams. Check out the merch desk. Badges £1. T-Shirts £15 (good cotton). Bathrooms are up creaky stairs from the ante-chamber on your left and before you duck through the doorway to the stage cave area which might have been a boiler room at one time (what that big pipe is doing in there, I’m not sure) you could step down left and play pool or pinball. There’s some amplification sizzle and tick and we’re in under the balcony bit at the back.

The band wobble up and balance on the stage: Support band is The Duel - a gutsy blonde girl singer in her red Lurkers t-shirt and her platform brothel creepers. A young Captain Sensible sultan on electric pianos (one strap round his shoulders), a striped t-shirt sailor-face on electric guitar, a stand in bass player, in his best suit jacket, who was great. In the corner is Pumpy Drums - his goatee beard is dyed red today, red sunglasses, red (life aquatic) wool hat - he plays seriously in his cartoon t-shirt: BAM!

Introducing their last song, singer Tara Rez says, “We are truly blessed to have the Ruts playing next. Their first acoustic set in 35 years!” She is wrong, but that’s only because these Ruts have NEVER done an acoustic set. Why not? There is no sensible answer.

The room fills up with your roman descendents and spiky toothy geezers. I am in the front row and remain there for the whole set. Seggs says, “we’re not going to do the encore bit. We’d never get out and back.” They sit down. The evening sets sail.

They seem HUGE and capable to me: big men with broad shoulders and wide ribs and pulsing hearts. The sort of men you’d see at the Thames Dock Yard with rope and inked-arms clanking anchors, smiling with a golden tooth maybe. Every song is powerful and moving and dubbed and echoed with joining in bits and SPECIAL GUESTS Aynsley Jones and Larry Love from Alabama 3.

Highlights for Gary were In A Rut, Rude Boys, Babylon’s Burning ... hold on, no. “Just the whole set really”- and for me Love In Vain (dedicated to Malcolm, their singer who went down the path before Sid and Philip Seymour Hoffman) ... guest vocalist Aynsley Jones, Dave Ruffy’s sweet backing vocals and witty banter in between. Lee Heggerty agreeing to say Hello to you on my camera! The joy that radiated off this band and the hope that he’s telling the truth, that even though this is their first acoustic set, there may be others.

With love from London, Daisy! xo

Daisy's Letter From London: Without People You're Nothing - The Unveiling of the London Joe Strummer Mural

Dear Karate Boogaloo -

Very exciting … Thursday, June 13, 7:00pm, the Joe Strummer Mural London W11 mural, designed and realised by Gary Loveridge with Emma Harrison, had a lovely unveiling ceremony in front of a fabulous flock of Punk Rockers, and Richard Young, a rather well-known English paparazzi geezer (“Oy! Gary, Emma over here!”).

Mural from across the street

Gary, Emma & Mick

MICK JONES, his Clash Royalty suited and rain-coated self (who brought HIS digital camera), came along, and ended up shooting Gary (35 years a Clash fan) into seventh heaven by taking his photo AND signing a declaration of approval AND standing by for photos with happy fans, young and old, from far and wide ...

Mick's declaration of approval

 

Cosmo Johnson (not to be confused with Kosmo Vinyl) who got the train from Watchet, Somerset, a pair of Spanish boys on Boris Bikes, Ray Gange (his grinning Rude Boy-self), Gaz Mayall from Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues, Steve Worral (who writes the wonderful Retroman Blog).

Here is the unveiling moment:

“About time” was the consensus and “well done” to Emma who had a lot of expectations to fill.

After a lot of photos in front of the Mural, there was a general wandering into the pub, catty-corner, for a bit of a pint because these lads don’t want to be seen getting all choked up on the street. A girl’s job here is to offer a few hugs to hide the misty eyes.

It’s been interesting watching the project get realised over the last few years. The seed was planted when Gary happened to be visiting New York on the anniversary of Joe Strummer’s death (22 December). He went to pay his respects down on Tompkins Square Park, 112 Avenue A at East 7th Street… stood with his hero in one of Joe’s favourite cities. Few weeks later, Ray Gange (Rude Boy) came to visit NYC for the DeKoening show. They’d connected via Facebook and we went and had lunch across the street from Avenue A Joe Strummer visible out the window.

The following year, Gary had a show of his punk rock posters at 198 Gallery in Brixton, London, where someone from Notting Hill had come along and said, “could you put up some posters of Joe Strummer at the Tabernacle when we have the anniversary of the Acklam Hall gig for the Arms Aloft (fire brigade union) fundraiser?”.

Gary goes to hang this show, and they’ve got this photo they offered for him to include. It was a photo of the mural in New York. Now it’s December 2012. It got Gary thinking all over again, “why isn’t there a mural in London?” And why not in Notting Hill, Joe’s old neighbourhood?

It wasn’t long before he spotted the perfect wall! It was next to Lyndon’s Bead Shop at 197 Portobello Road at Blenheim Crescent, a short walk from the Tabernacle in Hedgecote Court, past the Rough Trade record shop.

The son in Lyndon’s couldn’t be more friendly. “My dad likes art” he said, “I think he’ll like the idea.” And he did!

Now it just so happened that Emma Harrison had a stall at Spitalfields Market, and it just so happened that Gary saw some badges on her stall that attracted him over. They got talking about punk rock and she did mentioned that she had been a mural artist in New York with Fab 5 Freddie back in the day.

It had been on Gary’s mind that the person who would be right for painting the mural would have to be a young man in a hoodie with an aerosol sort of thing (probably Banksy if he could get his phone number. After all, Gary was brought up not far from Bristol). It was a few weeks later that the penny dropped and he thought, hang on a minute … he’d met a living breathing mural artist, turns out Emma even KNEW the Clash! What are the chances?

They met up and came up with a design. They decided to use an older photo of Joe with his trusted Telecaster guitar and something Gary had heard Joe say on a late night radio show: "WITHOUT PEOPLE, YOU’RE NOTHING." They prepped the wall, marked it out and painted! Joe Strummer always enjoyed a campfire, so there’s one in the corner. The Mesceleros insignia is top right.

The plan

The result

Then all we had to do was pray for good weather. (I admit, I did actually pray. There had been a few showers early on in the week.)

By Julian Yewdall

So, that’s the story of that and we hope you can come and visit when you are in London next. `Rock with us …

On the Scene: Siouxsie setlist from Meltdown

Daisy & Gary were on the scene for Siouxsie's recent show at the Meltdown Festival in London. It was her first London show in five years, and from all accounts it sounds like it was quite a success.

Daisy's Letter From London: May 2013

It's warm, it's cold...Not sure what the weather's doing. I've just put a shepherd's pie in the oven to heat the house. Gary's bouncing about because the Stone Roses MADE OF STONE movie premiere, live from Manchester, is being beamed into the legendary Screen on the Green later. He's had his ticket booked for weeks. He went to that reunion gig in Manchester last year. He bought me a hat:

Arrived into Heathrow last week and went to Chancery Lane where I looked after Bo The Cat. I got a four-paw foot massage every morning (lovely) and walked up Charterhouse Street to the City to meet some friends at Host Cafe on Watling Street (in a church!) - actually the oldest church to St Mary - St Mary Alderymary - opposite Mansion House Tube Station. We had a lovely cup of free-trade coffee (£1) and there were pastries for not very expensive, too. There were sofas (and restrooms). At 8:15am they had meditation (til 8:50) and drop-in yoga. It was a quiet, soothing place to have a catch-up chat, high ceilings and stained glass and gentle whispering barristers before heading over to St Paul's Cathedral. (Continued after the jump.)

Just Daisy! Daisy checks out the Just Chaos! opening at Bookmarc

Our pal, Daisy, who usually checks in once in a while with her Letters From London, happens to be in NYC this week. Last night she attended the opening of the Just Chaos! photo show at Bookmarc in the west village. Here's what she had to say:

Met lots of punk rockers last night - ahem… maybe I shouldn't have started with the word "MET". Did you read the reviews of the Gala at the Metropolitan Museum's annual fundraiser Costume Ball the other day?  Someone on TV actually asked Vivienne Westwood who she was wearing,  and they didn't mean her Bradley Manning jewellery.

I read about the Gala in the Costa Coffee lounge at Heathrow. They have free newspapers. The Times of London loved it: "Crowns are the new Tiara's," they wrote. The Daily Mail hated it (probably because Lady Diana is dead and couldn't be there).  

I am a bit confused about it all.  It's not like the designers were meant to re-create 1976, were they?
I thought Madonna's outfit with her signature crucifix on her bottom was trying hard, and please, someone, give Sarah Jessica Parker something to eat.

Bookmarc is a clean and bright corner bookshop owned by Marc Jacobs. Yes the fashion designer.  I am glad he has a bookshop.  He used to work for Louis Vuitton.  Now there are 200 Marc Jacob stores in 80 countries. This show was organised by Roberta Bayley who invited Punk Photographers:  Janette Beckman, Stephanie Chernikowski, Laura Levine, Julia Gorton, Eileen Polk, Marcia Resnick, Lee Black Childers, Danny Fields, Godlis, Bobby Grossman, Bob Gruen, Chris Stein and Joe Stevens, to put a few photos each in the store windows and amongst the punk rock literature inside.

Sofia Coppola tins of wine and Pelligrino were served.

Because I had been a little thrown by the torrential rain in the morning, but decided to visit the local thrift shop to see if they had anything interesting, $15 got me a pair of red tartan trousers.  Perfect!
I didn't see a pair of converse at the show but I did have a wonderful time - this included:

John Leyland & Andy Schwartz

Speaking with John Leyland (nee SPIN now NYT) about going to the punk show at the Met.  We both hoped the Gala was successful even if the punk exhibit fails. I saw Leee Black Childers (another Warhol Factory man) but we couldn't chat because he was being interviewed all evening pretty much.

Randy Haecker

I admired Laura Levine's photographic career and she told me how she organises events at her shop upstate called The Mystery Spot.

Randy Haecker told me he's working on a Clash Box Set (I forget how many discs but there are quite a lot).  He had a Marc Jacobs bag and when asked to show-and-tell he didn't produce a shirt or a tie, but a book, nicely wrapped, by photographer SHEILA ROCK.  Sheila just had a book launch in London.

I met a real-life ballgirl for the Phillies baseball team:  Ms. Ronnie Norpel.  She's even written a book called Baseball Karma & The Constitution Blues. 

Howie Pyro & Jahn Xavier

I met Howie Pyro who told me his punk rock flyer collection is still up in the Bowery Electric and will be for a few more weeks. 

I stood with Jahn Xavier who could name most of the people on the sidewalk from his youth - and I mean YOUTH.  He was 16 when he played bass for Richard Hell.. he named the CBGB's waitresses amongst others...

My Smoking Life

I met a Jewish-Norwegian man who had given up smoking three days ago.  WELL DONE.  I may have said, it's a bit of a mystery why we smoke, isn't it? And he produced a typed - on a TYPEWRITER - paper - why he liked smoking.

The Huff Post team lead by Mark Sax were on the sidewalk.

Handsome Dick Manitoba and Handsome son Jake were present. 

Handsome Jake & Handsome Dick

It was warm.  It got dark.  Godlis took a last look at the window before heading off to his neighbourhood.

Someone said, "I can't believe I'm nearly 60."

"You have such great skin."

Someone else said, "That's because we don't go out in daylight.  Rock and roll isn't a daylight thing".

I hopped the uptown train with a good friend.  We talked about Dylan, and people we knew, and how we are going to raise some funds of our own, without mentioning google, internet, like it was 1976.

See more photos of the event here.

From left: Julia Gorton, Laura Levine, Bob Gruen, Godlis, Stephanie Chernikowski, Bobby Grossman, Marcia Resnick, Roberta Bayley, and Leee Black Childers.

Daily Travels (UK Edition): Moon over Mudeford Quay

Mudeford Quay is here. Courtesy of Daisy

Daisy's Letter From London: Best of 2012

 

1. 198 Gallery:  Blank Generation Punk Poster Exhibition - Daisy's friend from art school, Lucy Davies, now runs a great Community Gallery that hosted Gary Loveridge's punk poster collection…a good time was had by all!

2. Moonrise Kingdom by Wes Anderson

2A: To ward off homesickness:  I listen to Radio Free Song Club 

3. Dexy's new album, One Day I'm Going to Soar, played in full at Shepherd's Bush (not a dry eye in the house).

4.  Stone Roses reform and play 3 sold out gigs in their home town, Manchester.  This is Gary holding up my new hat in Heaton Park (left).

6.  There is actually a sunny day in the summer and we sit on a hill by Alexandra Palace and have a picnic.  

5.  We played Jack White's fantastic but creepy new solo album Blunderbuss in the car.  Meanwhile Jack White wears BLUE clothes!

6.  Gary visits San Francisco, goes to see Rise and Fall of The Clash and meets up and coming Spanish filmmaker, Danny Garcia - introduces Daisy via Facebook, and Daisy starts transcribing interviews for his new movie Looking For Johnny (Thunders) and the flashbacks begin!

7. Daisy goes to Paris with Alexandra.  While Alex goes to her 30th high school reunion, Daisy enjoys Noir Blanche.  We stay in the crepe district, visit Samuel Beckett, buy a new umbrella.

8. Rough Trade Record Shop events:  We particularly enjoyed Jarvis Cocker reading from Mother Brother Lover.

9. Living legend, Lee Black Childers' book launch at Soho's Society Club.

10.  Gary goes to all of the Memorial events for 10th Anniversary of Joe Strummer's death. Namely:  

- The Arms Aloft in Acton Town gig at the Tabernacle Notting Hill

- Joe Strummer Memorial Poster Pop Up Exhibition at Tabernacle

- Meeting Joe Strummer - a play by Paul Hodson at the Cockpit, NW8

- London's Burning (a particularly good performance by The Phobics) 

- 100 Club weekend of gigs, Remembering Joe: 10th Anniversary Memorial Weekend, which featured Spizz, The Duel, Ruts DC, The Latchicos, Glen Matlock, Eddie Tenpole, and TV Smith

 

Daisy's Letter From London: Nov/Dec 2012

Dear Karatee Boogaloo,

Wee are just back from Chelsea, darling. We went the Vinyl Factory and hung out with Leee Black Childers amongst his photographs of Blondie, Iggy, Mapplethorpe rent boys etc. Seems to me he can't take a photo of someone and not make them look sexy….

The photographs are in his new book - and he got a thumbs up from us when he appeared at an In Conversation event at The Society Club, a tiny Charles Dickens type coffee shop/bookshop (yes, they have those in London) to intrepid Monday Nighters who braved the freezing temperatures.

Leee had just flown in (staying at the St. James Hotel with hot tub… it's where all thee rock and rollers stay when in town)… and maybe he was little jet lagged, i don't know, but he got little tearful when he talked about Johnny Thunders and Sid Vicious.

It is because of Andy Warhol that he became a photographer. Apparently, Leee used to blag his way in to record company parties back in the day for the Buffet Table. He told Andy Warhol that he got in by pretending to be a photographer.

Apparently, Andy Warhol pointed to Jackie Curtis who was smoking a cigarette and drinking a cocktail at the Factory. "She thinks she is a woman." The implication being you don't have to pretend. And Leee was transformed.

Andy Warhol bought a photograph from Childers for $10, but, said Leee, instead of cashing the check at a bank, he took it to the Chelsea Hotel where it was well known someone would pay him $50 dollars for the Warhol check… And, apparently, David Bowie asked him to work for MainMan… and that's where he learned he could order Steak Tartare, Shrimp Caribe and Limos and Tours and all sorts…(Continued after the jump)

Daisy's Letter From London - Dexys at Shepherds Bush, May 8

Dear Mr Boogaloo,

It has been raining here for weeeeeks.  Blowy and cold spiky rain.  Gary is supposed to be laying a patio.  It’s very muddy. 

We’d heard a few bits of Dexys' new record (One Day I’m Going To Soar) online but [sigh] not released yet (Editor: Available June 4 in the UK, and June 12 in the US on import-only apparently). 

We thought, Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to go to the record shop and get it? Maybe listen to it in the shop.  Chat with the man behind the counter.... You know, like in the good old days...Then the tickets went on sale. And I thought I blew it. Then Geoff Deane emailed me to say There are tickets. And there were tickets. Then it rained some more. 

Then, it was the 8^th May and the sun came out. We polished our boots and tucked in our shirts and drove over the westway to Shepherds Bush. We even parked in a free parking space!  

I think you’d like to know that the venue is old.  It just missed being bombed in the war. It used to be an old music hall and still maintains that charm inside.  All red and gold. Then the BBC took it over and broadcast their black and white entertainment programmes from it.  All the National Treasures you can think of who are Knights and Dames now, used the dressing rooms and clicked and clomped the boards.  Names that don’t mean much to Americans, probably. The 02 Empire, Shepherds Bush. 

Anyway, we got there, and this is what it was like: 

(Continued after the jump)

Daisy's Letter From London, December 17, 2011

Dear Mr. Boogaloo -

No trip to the UK is complete without a trip to the Seaside. Most people go in the summer of course but with no sign of Winter, we went for a weekend to Weston Super Mare. 

During the height of the Brit Pop Oasis/Blur rivalry (a battle of the bands that had not seen since The Beatles vs The Stones, so they say), in order to see who could hit the number one spot first, O & B released singles on the same day. Our Damon (good Essex lad) put out Blur’s record “Country House” and our lads from Manchester, Oasis, released “Roll With It” Oasis decided on their way to their headline slot at Glastonbury, they would stop off in Weston Super Mare to shoot that cover.  Get a little beach time.

That’s the old pier. Shortly afterwards, it burned down. The Gallagher brothers had fled the scene. Here’s the new pier:

Gary, not Noel Gallagher

Amazingly, it was re-built and opened last year.  Cost 30 million pounds. There’s a nice covered walk way along the middle so you can even come and stroll on a wet and windy day.  We had no complaints with the weather.  Bit confusing for the time of year, tho.  So mild.  Also confusing was reading the announcement that Guy Fawkes night was going to be celebrated AGAIN. 

A little background: In the UK, every 5^th November, there are many community firework festivals and back garden bonfire nights to celebrate Guy Fawkes’ attempt to burn down the Houses of Parliament.  A good time is had by all.  Except, apparently, this year in Weston Super Mare.  Apparently the firework display was “so rubbish,” it didn’t go down very well with the townies at all, and they booed and went home complaining and disappointed.  Seems we were in town the night the Man In Charge was doing a re-do. 

There was applause.

We went to visit John and his family, who showed us his back garden Beehive.  He has two hives his wife bought him for Christmas and we had some of the delicious honey.  Bee keeping is becoming very popular in the UK since the worry about a strange virus that hit the bee community some time ago causing them to leave their hives and not come back.  John’s swarm is very healthy and apparently will even survive the winter.  He is a member of the local chapter of Bee Keepers and here he is showing his grand-children how it’s done:

Gaye Advert

As you found out when you interviewed Pat Place from The Bush Tetras,  many musicians who came to punk rock met at art school.  I am probably not surprising you to tell you that some of them are still making art or have returned to making art, or in the case of Paul Simenon from The Clash have turned to art. The other night we went to Signal Gallery in Hoxton, Gaye Black had curated Punk and Beyond and included:  Jamie Reid’s iconic graphic design, Paul Simenon (The Clash) paintings, Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) collage, Billy Childish amongst others.  Here are better pictures than I could take and a nice review by our friend Steve Worrall. 

Now the nights have drawn in, it’s nice to have someone read you a book, don’t you think?  We thought we’d go and see what the new Editor-At-Large from Faber & Faber’s new book was like.  Faber & Faber are a rather respectable publishing company, established in 1929 by one Mr. Faber (who pretended there were two Mr. Fabers to sound posh).  Faber is known for publishing the likes of W. H. Auden and T. S. Eliott as well as Ted Hughes,Vita Sackville West, P D James to name a few. Ted Hughes was commemorated just recently in Poet’s Corner, Westminster Abbey.

Jarvis Cocker, lead singer of Pulp, for it is he who is that new Editor-at-Large, was reading. 250 wristbands were sold for entry to said event. W/band included a copy of Mother Brother Lover - his new book of lyrics, and a signing his book. In the queue outside we met the delightful Ms. Sinem Erkas who went to St. Martin’s College.  She had made some rather clever beer mats that she had designed.

Jarvis Cocker beer mat

Michael Jackson beer mat

 Even tho Jarvis had a cold, and told us he’d never read like this before, he did a very good job.  He was soulfully entertaining and was generous with his time at the signing.  

And then it was time to get sorted for Heathrow Airport and back to NYC.

Scratch you later! xxxx daisy

Daisy's Letter From London, Nov. 19, 2011

Dear Mr. Boogaloo,

As we look out of the window across the rooftops of London this morning we see – er – not very much.

It is, in fact, a very foggy day. Yesterday was so foggy the day didn’t even get light. It gave North London a lion witchy wardrobe air after such a run of beautiful colourful autumn days. Large leaves seem to have dropped all at once from the London plane trees to carpet the pavement. Mist in the lamplight. You hear your boots going up the hill and the overground train behind huffing off to Alexandra Palace. It's like I've got off the train in a different era and Stevie Smith or C. S. Lewis are in those low wattage sitting rooms I'm passing.

The Turkish man in the corner shop says, “the nights are drawing in now.”

“Ice cream, eggs, bread.”

Key in the lock.

I didn't tell you what we did at the weekend -

We got to see The Mekons on SUNDAY at NOON at Rough Trade East.

It was a beautiful autumn day.
Here's me with the wonderful Sally Timms (having some curry).

Daisy, left, with Sally Timms

We used to live opposite each other in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, before she left for Chicago. Sally was kind enough to contribute to the very first issue of my zine, The Curse.


That was 1994. Just look at what The Mekons have all been doing since then. Amazing really.
Susie Honeyman played with Rip Rig and Panic, and Vivien Stanshall, as well as a lad down the hill from here called Alan Boyd who plays with Decline and Fall. Lu Edmonds played with PiL last year at that transcendant Terminal 5 gig I told you about.

The Mekons were finishing up a European tour. We were lucky to have this last little round up for an early Christmas present. They were wonderful. There was this lovely after-Church atmosphere.

Daisy's Letter From London, Nov. 7, 2011

Dear Mr Boogaloo -


Have you managed to get all your make up off from last week? No? Me neither.

Here's the story from my pumpkin patch - wonders The Great Pumpkin delivered to us here in the UK:

Hey! I know I mentioned Rough Trade in my last letter – but you might like to know there’s a documentary called The Story Of Rough Trade – you can watch it here. I love Geoff Travis. Hair and No Hair. I like his “let’s try it” attitude. I didn’t realize what a scary time he’s had.

Did you know that the idea behind dressing up on Halloween is that because Departed Spirits come out of their tombs on the 31st October and walk around looking for people to take back to the underworld with them that if you dress up and disguise yourself, they won't be able to figure out it's you and you will remain on earth? And they especially won't grab you if you look like you are a Departed Spirit yourself.

We went to Nambucca on the Holloway Road. They put on a show to channel the spirit of our Dear Departed JOHN PEEL (the 25th of October was JOHN PEEL DAY).

The line up:
14 ICED BEARS (ethereal. very late night radio friendly)
TELEVISION PERSONALITIES
VIV ALBERTINE (The Slits)
VIC GODARD AND THE SUBWAY SECT
followed by Blindness.

Blindness is a local up and coming talented girl band.
I think that’s a clever name. Don’t you?

What we got was an exciting blood pumping night. I swear if I had turned round, I would have being saying hello to John Peel. Wait! Look!

No, no...Not John Peel. Is this Lee McFadden from Television Personalities? (they had that single "Where's Bill Grundy Now"?). I understand Dan Treacy was off sick. Please God let him get well. (Rumour has it Dan might have something to do with Arctic Monkeys - ?)

Enjoy a song from the TVP’s set here. (Lee played with my hero, Mark Perry in Alternative Television. Watching Lee, I think he should visit the States and play with Tom Verlaine. I bet they would get a kick out of each other.)

So here's the poster:

JOHN PEEL DAY 7 years since his death. We loved him. We still love him.

This is Spizz (who was signed to Rough Trade back in the day). Tonight he was Our Hero in this fabulous homemade hero outfit.

Do not be confused. This is not a halloween outfit. He wears this to all the gigs he goes too. It's very practical. He is a biker. I saw him tie his bike up to a lamppost outside earlier. Nice bike.

First Damsel Of Distress comes to stage: Viv Albertine. Here is Spizz coming to her aid as he (a) noticed she wasn't plugged in (b) and needed help tuning up:

The clip that follows is our shimmering Viv Albertine. The gang around me liked the way she looked but found Viv’s lyrics "difficult to listen too". I found it quite the opposite. Her anger was an energy. I gave the little gang a bit of a lecture along the lines of if they want peace and joy, you're here on the wrong day. I quoted Professor of Punk Viv Goldman - "You are listening to Sassitude" I told them. “This is a Real Life she's singing about. We’re hearing a woman channeling pain. Being real. Expressing her inner life not putting on a mask and humming sweet fuck-alls.” I didn’t spit.

To review: I particularly liked her last song "Home Sweet Home". The song “Needles” needed no explanation – but the effect: it was like she just transferred the song’s meaning into you or like she put her eyes on you, and put herself into his skin for a moment - then pointed to The End. It was great. She sang an incredibly cleverly slam poetry song called "I WANT MORE" – Well everything, really, everything she sang had me grinding my teeth; clenching or wanting to pump my fists, shaking my head - wait - not in a hippie way. Viv can handle being on stage on her own. I tell you – she makes living look valuable.

The song is FairyTale but during the lead in she is talking about Keith Levine who gave her some guitar tips. She says "I don't mind my voice being out of tune but I do care about my guitar. Not punk I know..." No Encore. That’s Punk.

We see Edwyn Collins & Graham Coxon present.

Furthering the theme of Glamourous Roadies - some bloke in a Royal Mail shirt comes on and organizes some bits and pieces.

Then a drummer we recognize as PAUL COOK from The Sex Pistols takes a seat. Paul Myers arrives with his own roadie (wearing crash helmet and goggles) and on keyboards – Kevin Younger. The Royal Mail Roadie then reappears in a suave beige jacket you might wear on a golf course with plus fours, some navy slacks (Royal Mail?) and a white shirt and tie and beautiful pale wood guitar. It is himself. It is Vic Godard.

Can we say hell of a set? Can we tell you they smoked? Can we tell you what a JOY it flipping is to hear Paul Cook on drums, on the beat, standing for no nonsense, getting the show on the road – we haven’t got time to hang around. The reggae Rhododendrun Town could have been my favourite. The moment when guitarist Mark Braby plugged in and – huh? nothing? and Vic presented his own guitar for the rest of the set so the show could go on... I don’t know – bits like that. You were hearing a wall of wonderful sound. You were hearing a rolling, well oiled, well rehearsed, poet in motion. Did they have Phil Spector’s phone number in Prison? I think so. Is Vic Godard related to Leonard Cohen in any way? I wonder. That deep soulfulness that you felt in Cohen at Glastonbury –, with a glint in his eye and that mournful, wailing spirit. I felt happiness. I felt warmth. I felt great. No Encore of course and I just felt myself flying through the air, stage diving for the set list (nobody got hurt and Gary confirmed nobody saw up my skirt).

Meanwhile, Gary's like, “Oh great, there's the drum roadie.” He says, "Are you going to throw away that set list with Paul Cook's name on it?"
Drum tech: Do you wannit?
Gary: Cheers mate.

Signed by Vic

Outside afterwards we give my set list to two lads who motored down from Leeds (Wayne looked a bit like a young Paul Cook) and we even get them signed by Vic Godard. I even got Gary to take a photo of me with Mr. Godard who, now I look at the photo, was wearing that Royal Mail work shirt again.

And I have to tell you, we grinned our faces off all night. I know. Not very punk.

Scratch you next week,
xxxxdaisy