• Welcome to the ShrimperZone forums.
    You are currently viewing our boards as a guest which only gives you limited access.

    Existing Users:.
    Please log-in using your existing username and password. If you have any problems, please see below.

    New Users:
    Join our free community now and gain access to post topics, communicate privately with other members, respond to polls, upload content and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and free. Click here to join.

    Fans from other clubs
    We welcome and appreciate supporters from other clubs who wish to engage in sensible discussion. Please feel free to join as above but understand that this is a moderated site and those who cannot play nicely will be quickly removed.

    Assistance Required
    For help with the registration process or accessing your account, please send a note using the Contact us link in the footer, please include your account name. We can then provide you with a new password and verification to get you on the site.

Daydream Believer

I was laughing out loud, Harry, until the last paragraph! Was thinking that there might be another 'rubber' reference in here towards the end to consummate the song title - but nice one mate. Lloret De Mar - we went there on a family holiday but I was too young for clubs then as I was only seven. Sure we took in a Barcelona game though and a bullfight while we were there...
 
Neil Young - 'One Of These Days'

Just heard this song again and it reminded me of one of the most intense experiences I'd had as a result of hearing a piece of music for the first time. I'd moved down to Cornwall in early '94 and I was doing Child Protection work which I wasn't really cut out for, if truth be told, but having only recently given a month's notice on my old job in London I found I could go straight into this one as it was covering for someone on long-term leave through stress. Should have realised then that I might have been running into problems...but hey-ho, I thought let's go for it as I'd not been able to get any jobs down here though I'd been trying for the previous six months. Anyway, after about three months of this CP work, doorstepping and struggling with all the abuse issues that you come up against, I was in a right old state and I had to go off with stress myself. A mate of mine sent me a cassette compilation and this was the first track on it. I was playing it in the car and I had to pull over to the side of the road as it had me in floods of tears! Amazing...think it just hit home with the words about friendship and acceptance of people's strengths and weaknesses...not to mention the fact I was missing real good mates like him big-time. Anyway, pleased to report that I can now play it without acting like a big 'jessie' but it always reminds me of how it was. Still, I'm ok now, I'm ok now, I'm ok now...:)
 
Last edited:
The Osmonds - The Proud One

That's the trouble though Rob - I hear the Osmonds singing the Proud One and that's it, I'm bawling my eyes out and today that's really not what I want to be doing......:(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ElxY4m8wkc&feature=related

See, you've set me off completely now....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ElxY4m8wkc&feature=related

crying-smiley-sad-male-cry-tears-smiley-emoticon-000352-design.gif
 
Last edited:
Whoops, sorry for quoting myself, but just wanted to invite any gig reviews etc here as this thread is primarily about the music after all. Won't be seeing any myself till the end of September at the earliest, ie SZ's resident punk band, 'Snide.' More details via links below:-

snide-punk@hotmail.com for details or visit www.snidepunk.co.uk visit us on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/p...9695413?ref=ts or www.myspace.com/snide_punk or on twitter www.twitter.com/snidepunk


new updated myspace site... www.myspace.com/snidepunkuk the other one quoted is my personal one now.

Looking forward to seeing you in Sept! how about a review of the Fiddlers gig?
 
Snide - In Concert, 18.6.09

new updated myspace site... www.myspace.com/snidepunkuk the other one quoted is my personal one now.

Looking forward to seeing you in Sept! how about a review of the Fiddlers gig?

From June 18th, just back from The Fiddler's Elbow, nr. Kentish Town West 'overground,' here's my review at the time:-

Just back from the gig - catch Snide if you can! I was so chuffed that they did 'Blitzkrieg Bop' (cf chapter 93)* & Nobby keeps that bass driving till the end of the road. Cheeky little number called "f*** off, I don't care" at the end. There's hope yet!

*this was a reference to the IABD thread, from which this was lifted.

Looking forward to seeing you & the band again too, matey!
 
That's the trouble though Rob - I hear the Osmonds singing the Proud One and that's it, I'm bawling my eyes out and today that's really not what I want to be doing......:(

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ElxY4m8wkc&feature=related

See, you've set me off completely now....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ElxY4m8wkc&feature=related

crying-smiley-sad-male-cry-tears-smiley-emoticon-000352-design.gif
Sorry, Kay! I've been unable to check these links out I'm afraid (due to lap-top limitations) but just as well by the sound of it as I may have had 'tears before bedtime,' to coin an old Elvis Costello song-title...
 
Dexy's Midnight Runners - 'Jackie Wilson Said'

"Van Morrison once said that Jackie Wilson said, 'I'm in heaven when you smile'..."

Thus spoke Kevin Rowland, the lead singer of Dexy's Midnight Runners at The Old Vic theatre in Waterloo Road in November, 1981, before he and the band launched into a blistering horns attack on Van's paean to the soul legend, who at the time was still in a coma. I'd discovered that morsel of information about Jackie Wilson through talking to a very knowledgeable and likeable chap called Paul a few months later. I'd gone into Paul's record shop in pursuit of some of the soul classics that Kevin Rowland had steered me towards and discovered that he had singles I was after - long since 'deleted', a word of doom for record collectors back in the day - 'Breakin' Down The Walls Of Heartache' by The Bandwagon, 'Give Me Just A Little More Time' by The Chairmen Of The Board and 'Let's Stay Together' by Al Green. The sleeve of the latter still has a stamped motif on of the 'Southend Rhythm & Soul Society,' which I'm guessing was a fantastic little group to belong to. Paul also had a Jackie Wilson compilation on the famous old Brunswick label and some of the proceeds were going to Jackie Wilson's 'survival fund' apparently. Paul's record shop was a little treasure trove - he managed to pack one helluva lot of fine stuff in there for such a small shop. You may have seen it yourself - it's in Westcliff ** along the London Road and quite close to The Army & Navy Surplus Stores, another fine Westcliff institution too.

This record went on to become a hit nearly a year later. The band performed it on TOTP in front of a back-drop of the darts player, Jocky Wilson. I was doing my psychiatric nurse training then with a woman who was living with the drummer, Seb Shelton, and she told me that it was a p*ss take and not a c*ck-up by BBC technicians as was originally thought. Dexy's never really stayed the course unfortunately but seeing some of their concerts - Kevin Rowland disapproved of the word 'gig' - in '81 especially, was a delight and like I say, I've got Kevin and Paul to thank for bringing me some wonderful soul music. If you see Paul in Carmel Records**, please tell him Rob Noxious from Cornwall says 'hi.' Cheers.

**or it was; I really hope it's still there!
 
Last edited:
Good Vibrations:The Beach Boys- December 1966

I'm no Hanif Kureishi but this is the story of my first solo gig(aged 15 just):-

Back in the early/mid 60's when I was a teenager though I loved the bands on Friday night's RSG(Ready Steady Go for younger viewers)-The Stones,Beatles,Manfreds,Dave Clark 5,The Animals and The Who, the Brit pop scene of the time really didn't do it for me.
I was(and to a certain extent still am )a huge Beach Boys fan.Suppose I've always been a bit retro in my tastes.For some reason I started out as a collector of Billy Fury and Adam Faith records.
Anyway, the only gigs(not a word we used back then)I'd been to were with my family at Great Yarmouth on holiday(Billy Fury,Marty Wilde and Lonnie Donnegan)and also at Southend Odeon to see Cliff Richard and The Shadows,The Bachelors and Susan(I wanna be Bobby's girl)Maughn.
Because I was at boarding school I'd missed out on the Stones and Beatles historic concerts at Southend Odeon.But during school holidays as an avid NME reader I knew the Beach Boys were due to play their first UK gig at Finsbury Park Astoria(later the Odeon and then The Rainbow -now closed I believe).It was the premier venue in London at the time.
Tickets were all sold out in a matter of hours of course.
At the time I was a boarder at Highfield College in Leigh.My best mate there,Phil Rees,was a Jewish kid from Wembley(where his father was a Kosher butcher).He was a lot more street wise than me.Though I'd been to a few footy games in town(this was 1966 remember) at Arsenal(and Frasiers programme shop),Spurs,Fulham and W.Ham I hadn't actually seen a concert(as we called them then) up in the smoke.
Anyway Phil convinced me that we could and should bunk into the gig and that's effectively what we did.This was in the 60's era when Revue concerts were the norm.So you didn't just get a ticket for the Beach Boys.On the same bill were Lulu(and her bruverrs),David and Jonathan,Bryan(Polka Dot Bikini) Hyland and maybe one or two I've forgotten :-)
WE arrived outside the Finsbury Park Astoria pretty early ie about lunchtime.Phil's idea was that we should hang around by the backstage door and just bunk in and hide when the opportunity arose.I wasn't so keen but went along with it.
I remember Lulu coming out (with the Bruvvers)after a brief rehearsal(presumably in search of nearbye liquid refresment).She was really nice to us and stopped for a chat.Always had a soft spot for Glaswegians ever since:-)
By late afternoon(this was an era when there were 2 shows 6/6.30 and a second show at 8/8.30)it was pretty obvious we'd missed any chance we had of bunking in via the back stage door (my fault entirely)which was by now firmly closed.Instead we saw the beginnings of a big crowd build up outside the front and the big thrill (for me)of seeing the Beach Boys turn up in a Roller(IIRC)-Dennis Wilson looking really cool-for their rehearsal.
So we went went outside the backstage door again to hear them tune up -with Good Vibrations-and that awesome Thermin sound on the intro-for their performance.At the time I really thought that was the nearest I would ever get to hear them play.Even now whenever I hear the song it takes me back to exactly that moment.
My mate Phil had other ideas however.He suggested we just breeze past the ticket checks.And that's what we did,waiting for a big enough group of fans to turn up we waltzed past an outside and an interior check.Finally we waited in the loos just outside the main auditorium for a big enough group to arrive and we slipped through with them.
Initially we sat down in a couple of seats in the back row(next to a couple of good looking girls)but realising we'd soon be rumbled we saw an unreserved standing area at theback.
And that's where we saw the whole concert from(for free)!It really was one of the great thrills of my life.
Thanks Phil!
(we're still in touch BTW.He's runs a taxi cab firm in North London these days).
That started me off on a lifetime of concert going.The next one(IIRC) was Peter Greene's Fleetwood Mac at The Cliffs.But that's another story!
 
Last edited:
The Who - 'Long Live Rock'

... at Finsbury Park Astoria(later the Odeon and then The Rainbow -now closed I believe).It was the premier venue in London at the time.
quote]

Aha! I'd wondered where 'The Astoria' was, ever since I heard The Who's 'Long Live Rock.' Just going from memory here, but I think the lines I'm thinking of go like this...

'Down at The Astoria the scene was changing/Bingo and rock were pushing out X-ratings/We were the first band to vomit in the bar and find the distance to the stage too far...'

That standing area at the back you mentioned was the safest place to watch The Clash back in '77...although I think they'd taken all the seats out that night following the pandemonium of a gig they'd done with The Jam earlier that year.

It was a great venue. Just over the road was a rough old boozer called the 'Sir George Robey' where my Irish mates would take me to hear some traditional music - first time I heard the non-Thin Lizzy version of 'Whisky In The Jar' was in there. Remember they had a tasteful line in slashed seats too...happy days!
 
'Whatever Happened To Slade?'

...was the title of an album of theirs from 1978. I never heard it, but I thought it was a clever take on their absence from the music scene in Blighty after a failed attempt to export their 'stomp pop' to the States. When they came back, punk rock and disco had supplanted their previous appeal to teenagers. On a personal plus side, however, I was able to see them twice in two smallish venues and they were a fantastic live band. The Music Machine in Camden was the first time in the autumn of '79 and the Marquee in Charing Cross Road in the spring of '80 was the second. They put a lot into it and were enjoying themselves despite their fall from grace. Later in 1980, they went down a storm with all the hairies at Reading and found a new, heavier audience. They had a couple more hits and were back at the bigger venues again. I met Noddy Holder once in a pub near Baker Street and he seemed a really down to earth, likeable bloke bemoaning the fortunes of his beloved Wolves - this was December, 1985 (some women started singing 'Merry Xmas Everybody' when he came in) - and his words on their plight..."they're down, mate"...as they hurtled towards Division 4 encounters with the mighty Shrimpers the following season. We went up, they just missed out. I'm thinking of paying a bit of homage to Slade before the Walsall game by going to Bilston - also Ronnie Pountney's birthplace - and having a pint or two in 'The Trumpet,' their old local apparently. I'll be the one with the top hat with mirrors on if you're there...:)

PS Special thanks to Napster for his thread 'For All Your 70s Music Needs' for 'the beat club' link. The 'Gudbuy To Jane' clip reminded me how great they were!
 
Shangri-Las - Leader of the Pack/Sherbet - Howzat

Ok, I know LotP has been released loads of times but these two songs were the background to the summer of '76 for me. One reason.......and the Sherbet track is a bit of a giveaway......cricket!

The link to WHSB should be obvious to those in the know, the teacher we all had a major crush on and who played cricket locally. A friend and I spent the whole of that summer and the next at various cricket venues (John Burrows, Southchurch and Chalkwell parks mainly) watching our hero....and it was while watching this that we came across someone else....a certain Graham Franklin, who some might remember as a young (and rather lovely!) Southend Utd player. Although there is a chance I might be getting my Grahams confused here, age is a very sad thing!

Unfortunately, his prowess on the cricket field was such that we adapted the words to the Shangri-las to "The guy who got a duck!" Still, happy days and I still love Howzat now - vastly under rated song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syckLQQBShc&videos=jtsuD6lQc1w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfFQ7d3GqEE
 
Ok, I know LotP has been released loads of times but these two songs were the background to the summer of '76 for me. One reason.......and the Sherbet track is a bit of a giveaway......cricket!

The link to WHSB should be obvious to those in the know, the teacher we all had a major crush on and who played cricket locally.

I remember him too, Kay - but not for those reasons! I was only thinking about that Sherbet track recently as it happens. If we're talking cricket, there was also 'Dreadlock Holiday' by 10cc (hello Harry! ;)) which was played all the time at that disco in Vic Circus (Zhivago's?) a couple of years later and though the cod reggae/whiff of imperialism makes me wince a bit, I have to admit that I have a soft spot for it now. The daddy of all cricket tunes though has to be 'Soul Limbo' by Booker T & The MG's, the theme music to the Beeb's cricket coverage since time immemorial.
 
I remember him too, Kay - but not for those reasons! I was only thinking about that Sherbet track recently as it happens. If we're talking cricket, there was also 'Dreadlock Holiday' by 10cc (hello Harry! ;)) which was played all the time at that disco in Vic Circus (Zhivago's?) a couple of years later and though the cod reggae/whiff of imperialism makes me wince a bit, I have to admit that I have a soft spot for it now. The daddy of all cricket tunes though has to be 'Soul Limbo' by Booker T & The MG's, the theme music to the Beeb's cricket coverage since time immemorial.

I know you do, there are others around who know him too (TBS for instance), dear old Ron - he came to my 18th you know! That track was just spot on appropriate for the time for me.....long hot summer and all that....as I said, happy days! And yes, Zhivagos was in the precinct I think.
 
I know you do, there are others around who know him too (TBS for instance), dear old Ron - he came to my 18th you know! That track was just spot on appropriate for the time for me.....long hot summer and all that....as I said, happy days! And yes, Zhivagos was in the precinct I think.

There were two discos there one being Zhivagos and the other the Intercon. If you were trolling around the cricket grounds in that summer Kay you would have spotted my dashing white clad form, particularly at John Burrows.
 
There were two discos there one being Zhivagos and the other the Intercon. If you were trolling around the cricket grounds in that summer Kay you would have spotted my dashing white clad form, particularly at John Burrows.

Probably did Harry! Used to be sat on the wall to the left of the club house, got a nice sun tan!
 
The Faces - 'Debris'

I was reminded of this song once more by another thread entitled, 'Your Favourite Song Of All Time' and because earlier in the day I had heard it whilst recording part of a DVD for a mate's birthday video compilation. It's a rare Faces track which has Ronnie Lane on lead vocal, but it is a song he wrote and I discovered on that DVD ('The Passing Show: The Life And Music of Ronnie Lane') that it is about his dad. It's on the album, 'A Nod Is As Good As A Wink...To A Blind Horse...' but I first heard it on a single though it was actually only the B-side (to 'Stay With Me'). I remember buying that single from Ryan's Records, a dodgy second hand record shop at the top of Vic Circus - at the station end - back in '72. It has an endearing scratch and crackle at the start which gives it the heads up on the CD I've got of ANIAGAAWTABH.

There is an echo-like feel to the song as it starts off with Ronnie saying 'two, three, four' to the intro and it feels sparse, quite unlike the regular Faces sound, until Ian McLagan comes in with his trademark electric ivories. The opening line is "I left you on the debris..." which is a reference to Ronnie's native East End, parts of which were still a bomb site when he was growing up shortly after the Second World War. The next lines are hugely evocative for me - for some reason that I can't quite fathom - when he continues, "...at the Sunday morning market/You were sorting through the odds and ends/You were looking for a bargain." You know then that this is not a 'normal' pop record of its time and that it is rooted in a personal experience, almost like those gritty sixties black and white films which were dubbed 'kitchen sink dramas.' This is surprisingly accurate methinks - I'm now listening to the song as I write this - for in the next line Ronnie sings, 'I heard your footsteps at the front door and that old familiar love song / 'Cause you knew you'd find me waiting there at the top of the stairs.' Rod Stewart then comes in on backing vocals as the song's key line - can't really call it a chorus - comes forth, "I went there and back just to see how far it was." I don't know if any of you have read Orwell's 'Coming Up For Air,' but that book is all about that and I'm reminded of it every time I come home to Southend. It continues with a message to his dad about how " ...and you, you tried to tell me, but I had to learn for myself."

The song continues to a wider frame of reference, but one also quite particular to its times - industrial action. "There's more trouble at the depot/With the General Workers' Union/And you said they'll never change a thing/Well they won't fight and they're not working." No wonder Billy Bragg played this when he had Ian McLagan backing him several years ago! Back in '71 when the song was written, strikes were commonplace. I remember the postal workers were out at that time and the union leader, Tom Jackson - who had a fantastic handlebar moustache, which this ten year old (as was) had only seen in 'Carry On' films - appeared on 'Nationwide' trying to justify the strike. This reference sounds as if it could apply to bus workers with its line about 'trouble at the depot.' Ronnie's home was at the end of a bus route where the buses turned around - he used to entertain bus workers by playing ukelele as a kid apparently in order to win a few pennies. What I know for sure was that it took me back to the old Eastern National bus depot which was situated near where the Sainsburys is now, on the approach to Southend from the Westcliff end of the London Road. That place was a handy little stop off as it had a cheap cafe and public conveniences. My brother used to work on the buses at that time and he was also very left-wing then, so it had a connection for me that I didn't realise until recently.

Ronnie returns to his roots once again and declares to his dad that, "Oh you were my hero, now you are my good friend." Ronnie's mum was disabled by multiple sclerosis so his dad was also a carer - before the term had been invented - as well as the family 'bread-winner,' as we used to say. He continues, "I been there and back, and I know how far it is." Despite Dad's advice, he learned for himself that you need to remember your roots. I guess for Ronnie's generation, growing up in that post-war austerity, the transformation of life for young people in sixties Britain must have been incredible. My generation gained enormously from those developments in the welfare state, which explains why some of us old fogies are still lefties at heart as we've experienced the benefits of education, as well as the health service that Ronnie's dad's generation didn't have. Ronnie concludes by reflecting on how he has left his dad "on the debris" and how they both know that he's "got no money" but it seems as though he helped him out as he wonders "what you would have done without me hanging around." A lovely song, so rich in its evocation of time and place, and it tells you all you need to know about relationships and maybe a bit about class too. So what with all the personal associations attached to it and my love of Ronnie Lane's music generally, I guess this is just my rather long-winded way of saying why this is my 'Favourite Song Of All Time.'
 
Last edited:
Graham Parker & The Rumour - 'Live At Marble Arch'

It's rare for a whole album to remind me of someone, but this little treasure does. It's been described as an 'official bootleg' and I don't possess an original. What I do have though is a cassette tape of it given to me by a very unusual guy and dear friend - back in 1981. I've since managed to reproduce it by dint of an extraordinary piece of luck - involving a headphone socket, an amp, CD recorder and jack lead -onto a 'bootleg' pressing of my own. I love it and it reminds me too of the only time that I saw Graham Parker & The Rumour live - at Blackbushe in '78 - when they supported Bob Dylan. I thought they were the best performers there that day, but try telling that to the 'Bobcats'...

'GP,' as he was affectionately known, teamed up with a tight and tasty band in the mid-seventies who were formed from the remnants of 'Brinsley Schwarz,' confusingly the name of a chap who was also the lead guitarist of this eponymous group. The Rumour had a great rythmn and horn section too and by the time I saw them in '78, they were probably at their peak. This offering comes from 1976 - the 'Year Zero' of English punk rock - and although GP&TR were far from punks they did indeed ride the 'new wave' after years of doing the 'pub rock' circuit in London and beyond. It was a freebie gig for the suits of their record label, Phonogram, when they were entertaining 'visitors from overseas' at their offices in Marble Arch. It's a short but sweet set of about half an hour and like the MC tells the visitors, "you're here to enjoy it..."

I met Tommy, as I will call the chap who gifted me the cassette - after a Scottish defender who he probably detests - when I was playing footy for a team who were getting beaten every Sunday morning in the Walthamstow & District League in early '81. I was back in Southend then after living in London for about a year but was soon due to move into a run-down flat in Hackney, which got condemned by the Council a couple of years later. I didn't know many people up there but Tommy became my closest mate for a long time. He lived a couple of miles west of me out in the then 'up and coming' area known as Islington. I used to walk out there to meet him in his great little local, a fine real ale emporium called The Compton Arms. We'd discovered a common interest in music initially as a lot of the guys I played footy with were older - I was known as 'the youth policy' FFS! - and Tommy's ears were well-attuned to any emergent good music. More so than most actually and he once told me that he could have been a piano-tuner due to his capacity in this respect. He'll tell you that it's a common misconception that blind people have better hearing than sighted people, but the fact is he had incredible hearing - he could tune into four different conversations happening simultaneously! He is a great raconteur and tells some disarmingly risque jokes about disability and I have seen him use his white stick as one lethal weapon - trust me, that f*ck*r bloody well hurts when it's rapped against bone and flesh! He is the greatest and most knowledgeable sports fan I have ever known and has been around the world several times to 'watch' cricket. He also has a radio prog about cricket on Channel Nine in Oz and owns at least one racehorse. He can drink for Scotland and is one of the most generous people I know. He put me up for several months in his small flat when I was homeless - not many people would give up their limited space so generously - and is one of those people who are always on the go, always up to something, always got plans. He keeps in touch with new music to this day whilst I'm still stuck back in the days we met and if you see him, he'll no doubt tell you about the plethora of bands he's seen and who he's met along the way. I don't see enough of him frankly, but it's his birthday next week so I'm going to send him a tape of my own with a track from this on it - and tell him what a star he is. Rock on, Tommy!
 
Last edited:

ShrimperZone Sponsors

FFM MSPFX Foreign Exchange Services
Estuary MFF2
Zone Advertisers Zone Advertisers

ShrimperZone - SUFC Player Sponsorship

Southend United Away Travel


All At Sea Fanzine


Back
Top