John Peel - One Year On
Now Playing: Teenage Kicks - The Undertones
Topic: Obituary
This Thursday (13/10/05) will see the first anniversary of the untimely death of legendary Radio 1 DJ John Peel; and will also be the first National John Peel day, marked by a series of gigs up and down the country, and a special live programme on Radio 1.

I was at work when the news first broke. My flat mate Tom, texted me the message "Heard about John Peel. Terrible news..".

When you get a text like that, it usually means only one thing.

Sure enough, tuning into Radio 1 over the Internet, the entire station seemed to be in a state of shock, with the sombre tones of DJs such as Jo Whiley relaying the news, interspersed with repeat plays of Teenage Kicks by the Undertones (Peel's favorite track).

And we were sat vigil like, listening to Steve Lamacq pay tribute throughout the evening, on a hastily scheduled tribute programme. That was one death, we didn't expect.

-----

I could've met John Peel. I could actually have gone over, introduced myself, and shook his hand.

It was either Reading '96 or '97. I was stood at the front of the new bands tent with a couple of other guys, waiting for electro band Broadcast to come on. The three of us seemed to turn round in unison, and sure enough at the back of the tent was, John Peel. The first guy turned and mumbled, something along the lines of "save my place, man", and high tailed it down to meet the man. The second guy, awe-struck shuffled down in pursuit. And there was, me stood at the front, like a fool thinking it would be much easier to take a photo of him on my camera, which didn't have a zoom lense, and so wouldn't have come out anyway. So I choose to do that, than rather meet the man. A missed opportunity.

Of course, whenever I've related this tale to friends of mine since, I've always been the guy who went down and shook John Peel's hand; but the truth was I never did.

And now I'll never get the chance.

Still, at least I met Mark & Lard (twice, and that is true, honest).

Some fascinating extracts from John Peel's autobiography can be read on the Telegraph (cough!) website here, here, and here.

The book itself is released on October 17th (Margrave Of The Marshes by John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft).

And It's Goodnight From Him
Now Playing: Ronnie Barker Tribute, BBC 1 04/10/05
Topic: Obituary
An incredibly polished and detailed account of Ronnie Barker's television career, which makes you wonder how many of these the BBC have 'ready to go'.
What age much the Beeb's more senior alumni reach for the camera crews to start visiting your close personnal show biz pals, eager to tell anacdotes of a life not yet over?

If a celeb were to for example, jump ship from the BBC to ITV, would their tribute show automatically get junked?

The pre-recording of such programmes, could of course go some way to explain, why Ernie Wise was still turning up on tribute shows, years after his own death!

Ronnie Barker
Now Playing: The Two Ronnies, Open All Hours, Porridge
Topic: Obituary
The legend that is Ronnie Barker passed away yesterday aged 76. Ronnie, you will be sorely missed. Though why Sky News and ITV News Channels seemed content to play clips of Ronnie alongside ex-PM John Major, I have no idea.

Check out the obituary on the Guardian website Here.

Fork'andles?

Take 'Frapp And Party!
Now Playing: Goldfrapp Live @ Bristol Academy 02/10/05
Topic: Pop
...with a tagline like that I should be writing for the NME, no really! (Or erm, Smash Hits, perhaps???)

With a new album to plug (Supernature), Alison Goldfrapp and Co, strutted their stuff at the foot of their tour of various musical haunts up down the country of this fair island, with a visit to Bristol's Carling Academy sponsored by Carling, probably the best gig venue in the world. (oh no it can't be, because that would it mean it being sponsored by Carlsberg, wouldn't it, you fool!)

Anyway, back to the gig.

And much flooring of hangers on and newbies was provided by opening the set with two tracks from their second album Black Cherry (Train and TipToe), followed by another two from their debut Felt Mountain (Utopia, Pilots, lots of Operatics from Alison), which kinda showed all those "I'm going to go see this band cos their singles on an ad for T-Mobile" lot. Aha! Not me, I was there when they were advertising Vodafone with Garry Oldman, so there!

In truth I was completely wrapped that they made it to #3 in the singles charts with Oh La La, and #2 in the album charts with Supernature, though it would've and should've been #1 if it wasn't for James (I'm so dull as dishwater you can file me under Keane, Coldplay, Travis, etc; for dulness) Blunt! So if I seemed a bit too cocky in the above paragraph, it was merely so I could set up that mobile phone gag, okay! (Though my close personnal friends long ago branded me for life for my elitist music tastes, for only liking bands when their unknown and unheard of. But, I protest my innocence! The Big G still kick ass, perhaps even more so).

Anyway, it was pretty much Supernature all the way after that. The encore opening with Oh La La, and ending with fantast-ique rendition of Strict Machine. No covers a la Physical or Yes Sir, this time around. Shame

Nuff respect though. Best gig in ages.

Interesting post-script. There appeared to be half a Kenickie lookee-likee convention going on in front of me (hey '90s indie kids). With not only a Lauren Laverne (CD-UK, XFM, etc) lookee-likee, but also a Marie du Santiago (Erm, no idea) lookee-likee. Where Johnny X and Emmy-Kate Montrose were I have no idea. Oh and it couldn't have been the real Laverne, as she had a mullet, and sounded far too Southern. Though I'll be checking CD-UK this Saturday just to make sure. It should be said that Laverne was mightly impressed with Alison Goldfrapp's operatics during the Felt Mountain stuff. You could the Wow's forming from her lips. Does that make sense?

Check out Goldfrapp via their official website here.

Valance Watch #1
Australian hottie, Holly Valance (www.hollyvalance.com) has somehow neglected to mention the filming of two new REVERSE ads for British telly in her latest blog entries. Why, I hear you cry? This is where her really talent lies! If they gave out BAFTA's for adverts, she'd be first in the queue.

2 Maple Rd 01/07/04 - 30/09/05 R.I.P.
So long 2 Maple Rd. You have served us all well for all this time. The roll call of house mates in full in order of leaving

Travis (not strictly a contemporary, as he'd moved out by the time I arrived, but he still came back over the summer to regail us all about how much better the Aussies were than us at sport. One word, The Ashes (Okay that's two, but who's counting)
Jo
Seve
Kerstin
Inma
Annie (1)
Grimmy
Tom
Annie (2) She came back when she realised she had no where else to live after the summer holidays
Mark (that is me... I was my own house mate)
Charlotte
April (you still owe me money!!!!)
Sabine

Oh yeah, and the Polar Bear.... which I assume is still in the atic.

Moving...
Moved stuff around to new house.

Got lost along the way....

Note: This is a punchline. For full gag set-up, read entry below. Preferably first.

Housing
Housing has been a major bone of contention over last few months. It was a joyous day, when the solicitor's letter popped through the letter box and onto the mat for all to see. With glee, the letter was torn from it's envelope, to reveal the words within "You have been evicted, please live the Big Brother House, please do not swear" (or it would have been words to that effect, had I actually been living in a hit reality show for the past year of my life) And in actual fact, much swearing was done in deed.

Yes, the land lady had decided to throw us all out, just because she could.

With fellow house mates going home to foreign parts, moving in with their boyfriends, moving in with their Uni mates, or going completely off the rails in a mad drugs frenzy; it was up to your writer in chief to strike out on his own once again, and seek out new accomodation, or move back home with ones parents, but as much as I love them both, once you've tasted the freedom...

Well despite having a whole two months to find somewhere else, it was down to the very last 6 days before I struck lucky and found myself a new postal address.

Such fun was had looking round, at the various dives of Bristol. The homes not fit to squeeze a dozen illegal immigrants into a tiny room in the basement. The homes that had recently been beautifully decorated by the two current tenants even though they'd only moved in a week earlier, as they listened to their classical music, and did things with Joss Sticks. (I'm not even sure what a Joss Stick is, it just sounded good in this passage). The home which would've been really quite nice, had it not meant sharing with (horrors) a couple! (Hey, Mum and Dad!!!). Or the house where everyone else was most definately born after the mid-eighties, and yours truly would've been nicknamed Grandad. Or even the house which was absolutely gorgeous, but (snif!) they decided that they wanted a girl instead (sob!).

Well, the search is over, as I begged and pleaded with my former colleague Spam to let me move into her three bedroomed house, with her other house mate Mike; a mere 5 minutes from where I currently reside. The only problem being that the dozen or so times I've been round previously, I've got lost along the way....

Blogging - Why?
Yes, I’ve finally joined the likes of disgraced Tory MP and general buffoon, Boris Johnson (www.borisjohnson.com); ex-Neighbours hottie, and one time chart topper (till she was dropped by her record label), Holly Valance (www.hollyvalance.com); one time glan rock star and now world renowned nonce, Gary Glitter (don’t ask for the url); and launched my own blogging page, on the website I created some 8 years ago and have barely altered since the 2002 World Cup in Korea and Japan.

For starters, I’m in the very early stages of planning a trip abroad to see my good friend and ex-housemate Greg and his girlfriend Caitlan, as they begin their new life together in New Zealand.

I say, early stages, because they haven’t actually gone yet, and won’t be going until some time in November.

Still, I’ll be able to wish them well tomorrow as we’re embarking on a rather long pub crawl taking in every pub on Bristol’s Gloucester Rd, from the Wellington, right into the centre of town; and including that scary biker pub we never quite made it into before, as it was a bit scary and there were always lots of bikers in there, wearing leather.

Still, tomorrow’s the day, and it might turn out to be quite a short pub crawl, and quite a long night in the casualty department of the Bristol Royal Infirmary, especially if any those fore-mentioned bikers happen to be reading this entry.

Ahh, who am I kidding? What are the chances of that happening? Bikers can’t read.

The Wonders of Tripod
Man I love Tripod.

Eight years I've had this website.

Barely touched it since the 2002 World Cup, and 3 years later, it's still here in all it's outdated glory.