When Indie was real

I have just been Tweeting with 1p Album Club (follow them - they're great!) about Carter USM. I was, for the second time this year, reminded of the great Bloodsport For All single release gig / trashing / minor riot that was 17th Jan 1991 at HMV 363 Oxford Street. I was working at the HMV Trocadero store at the time, and was also a huge Carter USM fan. I trotted up to the cavernous store that day, and had to sign-in through the staff entrance. Back then, this HMV store was hallowed ground for any/all record store employees, and to get my 33% staff discount off my 7" single, I had to follow protocol. I remember queuing up to get the Bloodsport 7" signed (this is a link to the video - blink and you'll miss me), then after that, a lot of jumping around (ermm.. 'moshing'), and then amazement at the aftermath.

Back then, 'indie' music really was independent, but no less important. Carter's first LP came out on the tiny Big Cat records, the enormo-band that was Mudhoney (well they were to us in Surrey), were on Sub-pop, in fact to my memory to get a Mudhoney EP I had to travel to the Rough Trade shop in Kingston 'cos no-one else stocked it.
Even at this pre-Nevermind moment the biggest record shop on the planet had recognized the popularity of 'indie' music, then paid the price for inviting us anarchists into the place. 

There was Carter USM, PWEI, Neds Atomic Dustbin, Fugazi, Mudhoney, Lush, Snuff (my personal fave-at The Venue New Cross I moshed so hard I got punched and then threw up on some poor stray grebo lying on the floor), Leatherface, Mega City Four, Lard, Pixies (I have a pristine unused ticket for Kilburn National 89-damned train strikes & flakey 'friends') and so much more. The cool guys in the Warp Records t-shirts didn't cotton on until '92 when Trompe Le Monde came out and Nirvana had gone stratospheric, by which time almost all of those bands had signed to big labels and gone all  Blue Bell Knoll.

I remember being so surprised at the excitement the Stone Roses debut caused, they sounded like The Smiths to me, and they were old news by '89, and anyway, we had The Poppies! I didn't understand the reverence that the jangly crap of the first two Primal Scream Albums were held in, we had Jesus Jones!! Then, Screamadelica came out, and I'm Free by Soup Dragons, and Groovy Train by The Farm, all these big label bread-heads were doing was ripping off PWEI, Carter, Neds and the like!! The nerve.
But my Doc Marten'd, floppy hair'd, army trouser'd smelly jumper look had been cottoned onto too, by some bloke called Kur(d)t. After that, it was all over.


But once in a while i can listen to the poetry that is The Taking Of Peckham 123, and wonder at how such a tiny band, from Sarf London, could have written such amazing lyrics, to such malevolent music. Only a few years later did I realize what a debt they owed to Tom Waits Small Change, or Billy Bragg's Levi Stubbs Tears, or even Ray Davies etc. Now, we have the likes of Jake Bugg, claiming to be the new pretenders. And oh, how he pretends.

A Time To Be Radical...

So, Easter has come around again (Google it - it takes at least 3 dozen pictures before a cross appears), and as usual it has arrived with very little pomp and ceremony as Christmas does, but with 8ft snow drifts and the usual plethora of Christian 'Leaders' speaking out.

It seems to now be tradition for the senior members of the various denominations to 'speak out' at Easter time. This is, I suppose, fitting, as Easter was the time when Jesus did his most radical, public act. The act of dying, and rising from the dead again. So it is of course entirely appropriate that we as Christians should embrace this radicalism.
What troubles me is that we don't do this the other 361 days of the year.

As you can see from this gruesome (but probably far more realistic image than the idealised images we are usually presented with) Jesus suffered, and did something extraordinary. Something extreme, something radical, for us.
And yet as Christians we complain when we shout out (once a year) about the increasing inequalities society is subjecting us to, that no-one listens. As was pointed out to me on Twitter this morning, that is because we really are too polite, and the secularists, the church haters and baiters, know their stuff, shout louder, so are heard.

So how do we live a radical life? How do we prove to the dissenters that Christians are not all bigoted, homophobic, intolerant, twisted, hypocrites who are totally out-of-touch-with-reality?

Well we are fighting an uphill battle, that we have no-one to blame but ourselves for. For centuries we have kept our church buildings locked, put a gate at the front of the church building where only people in silly hats and long capes can go. (As a child I used to think Jesus dead body was in the holy table at the front - scary). The Catholic church's unbelievably arrogant dealing with the scandalous levels of abuse has done God's work a huge disservice/dishonour (not mention the bizarre cult of celebrity surrounding The Pope), and is often secularists first 'go-to' subject to prove that we are not a people that show love and understanding. The Anglican Church's complete inability to agree on anything, and their erosion of our values and beliefs in order to be popular (how's that working for you?). And any number of crazy little pockets of Christian off-shoot sects/cults say that they are the chosen ones, whilst the Jews continue to be part of one of the most divisive and intractable wars in the world, and their leaders frequently behave in a less than loving manner toward their fellow man.
The biggest mistake we have made, is creating religion out of God's word, religion is run by men, and men make mistakes, become arrogant, hoard, and in doing that and so many other things, give fuel to our haters. 

But also we need to SHOUT about the GOOD stuff that the body of the church (see pic below for explanation of that) is doing in the local and world community. The work of the Salvation Army for the homeless, for women's rights, the work of Tearfund & Christian Aid the world over for poverty, of thousands upon thousands of local church families reaching out to the young, the broken, the hurting, for no other reason than that is what we are called to do by God, with no ulterior motive.

Our work will, of course, only end when Jesus returns, but until then, we should stop being polite, start being radical, and if that upsets a few Christians OR non-Christians along the way, then so be it. Otherwise we should stop complaining, give in to persecution  and pack up our tents and go home.

Those of you that are reading this and formulating your rebuttle as we speak, please watch the video below. Please (as 'even' I had to) look past the shiny, middle class, white-skinned stereotypical Americanism of the videos presentation, and listen to the message.

As Christians, we have failed SO often, to grasp what this guy is talking about. But what he is talking about, is the truth, and God's true message. I wish I could live up to it, and I fail miserably on a regular basis, but I'll keep trying, keep annoying people, and keep speaking out of turn, as I hope it may turn one person to Jesus.

Thanks for reading. Keep questioning your leaders, whether they wear dog collars, suits, robes, or jeans, you owe it to mankind. You only owe Jesus your obedience. He paid all other debts for us.

"Its Whoop Of Gorillas....."

Last night we (well.. I..... Becca just sat and marveled at me mouthing along to all the words) had a Blackadder Goes Forth marathon. I was struck by how amazingly popular it was at the time (and still is), and how wordy it is, how generally intelligent and 'high brow' it is. Then I realised that TV like this now, would probably only make it to Channel 438+1 (v 3.56), if in fact it would be made at all, mainly because its audience would be a mere 7 million, not enough to fuel the advertisers pockets. There are moments, and only moments (I say this as a die-hard fan of all thing Adders Black) when the ensemble reach th heights of Python or Peter Cook. No, really.
I then discovered I had the documentary about the show made in 2008 (Blackadder Rides Again) so I dutifully stayed up until 1.00am watching it. It was quite interesting.
Rowan Atkinson for instance, said he suffers from a stutter, quite incredible considering the lines he delivers, and then Stephen Fry mentioned the Schoolmaster Sketch. Oh helloooo YouTube... One wonders whether underneath that searing, frightening exterior (above) was he absolutely petrified? It truly is 5 minutes of utter joy for us, however.

In an amusing side note - I tweeted a YouTube clip of the poo-poo monologue and @'d Stephen Fry. He tweeted back which was nice, but more weirdly, i am now being followed by an extra 50-60 strangers, as if touching the hem on my tweet maybe gets people closer to Mr Fry.... What an odd place Tweet-land is.

Watching the schoolmaster sketch from the Secret Policeman's Ball, I was reminded how back in about 1986, a school friend, Jon and I, mimed along to the below.

Jon was very priviledged, because we had it playing in the background on his huge 27" television (in his room!!) and then we video recorded (in 1986?!?) ourselves miming along. I would love to see it again. I think there was a viewing at my house in front of my mum and dad and sister. How cringeworthy.
Anyway, that was a nice trip along memory lane. Happy 30th Birthday Slackbladder.

Little Trains

I wouldnt normally share such private stuff (I can hear you all laughing), but this song just came on unexpectedly on my iTunes just a minute ago. I havent heard it in ages.

Expectedly i was reduced to a tearful blob. Its mine & Becca's song for reasons that you can figure on your own, around when I left HMV, which was really trying time for Becca.

I haven't been myself of late

I haven't slept for several days

But coming home I feel like I

Designed these buildings I walk by

You know you drive me up the wall

I need to see your face that's all

You little sod, I love your eyes

Be everything to me tonight

Be everything to me tonight

I never know what I want but I know when I'm low that I 

I need to be in the town where they know what I'm like and don't mind

The streets are full of Goths and Greeks

I haven't seen my mum for weeks

But coming home I feel like I

Designed these buildings I walk by

You know you drive me up the wall

I need to see your face that's all

You little sod, I love your eyes

Be everything to me tonight

Be everything to me tonight

Lyrics (c) Elbow (band)

(I'm driving Becca up the wall, I need to see her face, thats all - get the picture? It even mentions how i miss my mum) I know he's talking about Manchester, but who cares, music is there for our own interpretation.

And yes I am crying just writing this.

PS. The video is SO awesome.. model trains!!!

Its Only A Shop, isn't it.....?

So today I have found myself reading the news websites in disbelief. Reading them with tears streaming down my face. These tears seem and feel utterly preposterous. Its only a shop, isn't it...?

Well to many of us, no. HMV is (was?) a place that became a shop that became a brand that became a product that went out of business. But once upon a time, not that long ago, before ISP's and VoiP's, jpg's and mpeg's, on a Saturday afternoon, we went to HMV, in the hope that our lives would be changed. Frequently we went there not expecting anything other than for the girl behind the counter to look up and notice the shy, poorly dressed youth slinking about the shop with a Talking Heads LP under his arm. That she would rush over, all boobs and tattoos, and offer her hand in marriage screaming  "you like such cool music!!!".
I have no idea where my love affair with music started, my parents weren't hippies, they didn't go to Woodstock, They owned Abba Arrival, and an Elvis Best Of LP. Mum loved Tommy Steele, Dad loved Russ Conway and Mrs Mills.There was a copy of Rolled Gold on cassette however. And if there was an epiphany, it was hearing the guitar intro to Its All Over Now.
Once I was old enough, I bought my records from Woolworth's (another store now gone, ohh how i scorned people that cried when they closed....).
HMV was a step up, a cool shop, a shop staffed by aloof, grown-up know-alls. HMV wasn't in our town so it was untouchable, a treat. Our nearest one was Guildford. To my memory it was dark, crowded, dusty and defeaning. I spent hours in there. You could then, they didn't try and 'upsell' you a DVD you didn't want, with your purchase.

So what am I blethering on about? I don't know. But I suppose I'm trying to tell you all that HMV was NEVER just a shop, it was where you went looking for Iron Maiden, and came out with the Pixies. You went to a 'pa', a signing session, and saw the place get wrecked (ref: Carter USM '91). Met famous people, made lifelong friends, and met old friends you couldn't stand anymore trying to get some 'discount'.

I ALWAYS wanted to work for them, and in Oct 1990, I was standing in a friends house and got a phone call from the Assistant Manager of HMV Trocadero, saying i had been accepted as a Christmas temp. I jumped up and down like a right berk. Almost ALL HMV staff seemed to start that way. Off I went to work on my 'cool'.

I went full-time, and spent two extraordinary years at that place, discovering Miles Davis, The Who Live At Leeds, Shostakovitch, crummy happy hardcore dance music, realising that I loved U2 however hard i tried not to. I foisted my bands demo tape on shoppers, I tried to explain that this indie group Neds Atomic Dustbin were the future, I wore DMs, I had floppy hair. I sneered, I thought Massive Attack's Blue Lines was shit, and that You've Got The Love by The Source was a pile of dancey drivel. E(beneezer Goode) would fix that.

Ultraviolet (Light My Way) just came on the stereo here whilst I am typing, and it has transported me back 22 years, to a memory of standing behind the tills (tills with ashtrays!!!) to a sudden melee outside, and people running inside the shop in excitement, Bono was on the roof of Tower Records (or somewhere) filming. It turns out this was The Fly video. Another melee was because Roddy Frame walked past (!). Stuff like that happened all the time, HMV were the centre of things. Richard O'Brien used to come in all the time, and carefully talked down to us lowly sales assistants, with great gusto. Morrissey came in, but wasn't mobbed by American tourists (the only people who thought Kill Uncle 'rocked') No-one turned up to a p.a. by Craig McLachlan and Check 1-2. No I don't remember him either. We heard about Jane's Addiction doing a warm up gig in the Marquee so off one of us went for a 'special afternoon break', in the name of music, to get tickets. We heard of REM's secret gigs as Bingo Hand Job, not so lucky there. We got free EMF tickets, and still went!

I noticed on MTV one day this hairy angry AWESOME band getting loads of airplay, (this is 1991 folks when hardly anyone had Sky!!). I said to my manager "I just can't keep Nirvana's Nevermind in stock, what should i do?". "Rack it out on the front wall, Nick". The rest, is history, with Pearl Jam snapping at their heels. So you see, I started grunge too.

We had our own section in those days too, I ran Rock and pop cd M-S (a guy in corduroys called Marcus ran the tapes section). This meant I had Van Morrison, the Rolling Stones (but not the coveted Beatles section). We did our own buying too, we had great relationships with all of the record companies, this meant frequent free tickets, free promo stuff, free t-shirts. When the guy from Silver Sound came in his van it was like Christmas, a truck FULL of hard-to-get imports!!!! I was also the t shirt buyer for quite a while, and made a success of Red Dwarf, Simpson's and James t-shirts. I had an affair with a one of the girls from one of the t-shirt sellers, at least with her voice, then one day she said her pic made it into a published book, I excitedly turned to page 113, there she was, my dream girl, pale, thin goth-like. Affair over. HMV girls often got me in trouble, one of them moved to HMV Sutton, and rang me asking for some Led Zeppelin Remasters on CD (VERY scarce at the time) - I had it all piled up to be sent, then the manager noticed and put a stop to it.

"If you had sent those I would have fired you, Nick". He needn't have worried, 18 months later I left HMV in cloud of drugs, stupidity and general teenage angst anyway, having been shipped off to their London warehouse to get me out of the way. The dream was over. I blew it.

In 2002 I went back to HMV. Things were different. Computer to search for stuff, instead of just having it all in your head. Shop playlists, strict controls with buying.

It went downhill once Amazon got their teeth. HMV sat back and arrogantly puffed on its (probably) Lou Reed promo cigars and waited for these upstarts to f*** off. They didn't.

And here we are. HMV gone. 

from this.......

to this.

So - my thanks to the HMV of Brian McLaughlin, of a passion for music, the HMV that gave me my best (wo)man at my wedding, the HMV that had Bowie for tea. 

Most importantly thanks to staff past and present:-

(Troc) Martin, Jenny, Boyd, Chris, Simon, Jim, Marcus, Dermot, Chris, Scotty, Anna and anyone else who put up with me in 1990-192.

(Northern Ireland) Dave, Michael, Dave, Ian, Sara, Anna, Fiona, Sarah, Trevor, Stan, Zoe, Joan, Paul, Dave, Chris, Ciaron, Jacqui, Warren, Danny, Jackie, Una, Gav, Joe, Ben, Cathy, Rachael and many many more who put up with me 2002-2008.

I leave you with a lyric that stuck in my head from the day i heard it, on the shop floor of HMV Trocadero in 1991, blasting out of the shop stereo, (with the older members of staff shaking their heads at U2's descent into Bowie-Berlin plagiarism)

"You can throw it up

Or choke on it
And you can dream
So dream out loud
You know that your time is coming 'round
So don't let the bastards grind you down".

The Woodman's Cottage

Planning For More Plate Glass

So it has been reported on the BBC Website recently that another beautiful Victorian building in central Belfast is going to be torn down, to be replaced by another gaudy plate glass covered monstrosity - to be apartments I gather. WHO in the Belfast planning department thinks this is a good idea?!? There are now innumerate newly built empty buildings dotted all over Belfast, not that this is our problem, but if private contractors want to waste money building developments that lie empty as the we continue to experience the worst recession in 25 years, then that's up to them.

However there are also innumerate beautiful, old empty buildings in Central Belfast. How about a planning law that states no more new buildings can be built until all existing ones are developed and filled!?! Surely, for example the old Bank Of Ireland building would be worth renovating and occupying. And what a place to have your offices?!

As Northern Ireland moves forward, and the dark days move ever further into memory, I can understand us wanting to remove any trace of the old, but there have so many spectacularly bad planning decisions in Belfast recently, that, even since i moved here 10 years ago, it is virtually unrecognizable as the architecturally beautiful city it once was.

Wake up and see who I am

So, those of you that know me will be wondering what has become of me. Posting a picture of a football match on my blog?! Professing a love for football?!?!

Well.. I posted rather hastily and high & mightlily on facebook earlier today, commenting on the horrible situation in Egypt. A friend called me on it, and rightly so. But it has made me realise something about myself.
For most of my adult life I have disliked football. The game, the overpaid whingeing players, the clubs dripping with money, the homophobia, the hypocracy and the corruption. The fact that football is our 'national game' and that it is presented as a role model to our nations (mainly) male youth. This role model leaves me feeling hopeless for the men of the UK.

But it really is just a mirror of what is happening in our society.

I'll let you into a couple of secrets about me - I have a Panini '81 football sticker album which I feverishly collected. I completed Derby County. (Division 1 as was!!). I also went to see Liverpool play Charlton at The Valley in '88. When they scored I just stood there whilst grown men jumped about like ballerinas and I didn't get it.

But then I was offered a ticket for the FA cup Final 1988 between Wimbledon & Liverpool. I was in the Wimbledon supporters end. There must've been about 3000 of us and 100,000 red shirts. It was incredible. I was behind the goal when Beasant saved the penalty. I watched Vinnie flip the bird to royalty. I lifted young Liverpool fans up to my pen (it was still terraced then) so that they could see. I saw grown men cry when Wimbledon won.

Then my best mate went to see Liverpool play Tottenham . He was 16. He got punched in the face and his nose broken, and called a 'f*****g scouse git' by a Tottenham fan (we are from Surrey - I know I know, you dont stop to ask when you punch someone) and the police just laughed at him as he cried clutching his broken nose, the London policemen obviously showing the disdain for the 'scouse kid' that the government clearly felt for the whole City of Liverpool. The love affair ended there.

So what also happened? I spent most of my late teens and 20s and 30s having no genuine male friends. I always thought that men were obsessed with talking about football (don't like it), drinking beer (eugh - talk about a social pariah - I hate it) and (talking about - lol) 'shagging'. Well since this isn't the case, I think I have denied myself lots of great, deep and interesting relationships.

Recently I have come to the realization through my church friends and my belief in God, that one of the things missing in my life, are male friends. In the last couple of years, this has begun to change. And no, its not all been about football beer and... Well.. Stuff. So it seems I am finally allowing myself to be happy, enjoy peoples company for no reason other than it being enjoyable, and that guys aren't all shallow beer-swilling berks.

I'm not there yet, but things are moving forward. Who knows, I might like football one day. Although its unlikely that this will happen in Northern Ireland. One thing I still dislike about football is the identity the team you support gives you.

Pop Music Reaches The Ice Age

A Big Husky Yawn

The New Boring - from The Guardian
Wow. Finally a national newspaper noticed something I've been bangin' on about for years.(mainly on facebook - the eternal mouthpiece to nowhere).
WHY WHY WHY does having a husky female voice mean genius?! WHY does being 18 yrs old and able to sing and play a guitar at the same time (sharp intake of breath) mean you're the future of pop?!! WHY does wearing meat equate to genius?! WHAT is the excitement with Mumford & Son - they're, so, you said it, beige. I'm not saying any of this music is even bad, just, its so polite, homogenized, and inoffensive. Not that I even want to be offended.
Pop is in the doldrums and I have no idea what will save it. I haven't been surprised by music for about 15 years or longer. In fact - the last time I heard something mainstream that actually made me sit up - would be Beck. 1994. Oh dear.
Soy un perdedor, baby.

Celebrity Pastors

Mark Driscoll has a new website folks. And it has caused me to post a new blog entry...


I have had many debates in my head, and few with friends, about the biblical basis of celebrity pastors and preachers. It is something that I struggle with. After all, in their day, the disciples, and Jesus, were celebrities.


There's an interesting blog post by Kevin DeYoung here>>> Theses on celebrity pastors

I am a very reactionary person, so these are my first thoughts. But I continue to see a lot of the high profile pastors and preachers behaving in a way that makes me uncomfortable. It seems to be a mixture of
(1) keeping up to date (hence MD's website looking fresh and modern - nothing wrong with that).
(2) ensuring mainstream appeal
(3) Oh - and talking about God
I dont know what the answer is, but I think preaching the Word and being famous these days is somewhat unavoidable. But I think that presenting yourself in a certain way only helps to foster these things.
Hugely popular pastors seem to go hand-in-hand with big church. Which is also a debate raging in my head. Big church can be good, more people more believers more people to spread the Word.
But also, big church means quiet people getting lost, it means worship services being executed with split second timing-leaving little or no room for the Holy Spirit to intervene or God to speak, and also that the operations bcome very costly, diverting money away from the needy.
I'm digressing. I'll post this and add to it more later on.........