Biscuit Tin

Time for a bit of a pick'n'mix blog - a biscuit tin with something for everyone.

Sandi Thom

Nice to see my latest favourite is at No 2 in the singles chart. Not bad, eh?

The Indigo Girls

There's a new album on the way, and to prove it, you can see the Lasses in the studio in their video diary - what a great idea for a video diary to be on the website so you can see it evolve.

Last Ten iPod

Instead of reporting my top ten iPod songs (which doesn't change very often) I thought I'd report the last ten songs played (I generally have it set to 'shuffle' so it changes every day). That might be slightly more interesting and show the type of thing I listen to on a semi-regular basis.

Cherish ~ Madonna

John Sinclair ~ John Lennon

My Name Is ~ Eminem

Telegram Sam ~ T.Rex

The Other Man's Grass Is Always Greener ~ Petula Clark

American Girl ~ Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Below My Radar ~ Beverley Knight

Suffragette City ~ David Bowie

Fallen Angels ~ Buffy Sainte-Marie

Sound Of A Gun ~ Buzzcocks

Fat Arse

Self-realisation is an important thing, a measure of growth and maturity, and very Buddhist. I looked inward today (after looking outward) and decided I have a fat arse. OK, I admit it, my name is Owen and I have a fat arse.

Six years ago, it was much nicer. In the late '90s I went to the gym regularly (down in Norbury), I was fit and reasonably toned and then one of the discs in my lower back >slipped< (oops). It's been downhill all the way since then.

Anniversaries

I'm a bit crap at remembering anniversaries. I've just let two slip by that are important to me:

• 22 May 2000 - I gave up smoking, having my last tab at about 6.00pm that day. I won't say that was last ever tab, but that's the big day.
• 23 May 2000 - I had my microdiscectomy operation at mid-day at Atkinson-Morley Hospital in Wimbledon and was zonked out of it on morphine and codeine for the next couple of days. They didn't remove the disc, just snipped off the bit that was 'sticking out' and pressing on the nerve - that's why it still slips every now and again (the alternative is to take the disc out and fuse the two vertebrae).

Siouxsie and The Banshees Re-issues

Now, this is exciting news. On a trawl through 'favourite' websites I came across the following on the Siouxsie/Creatures site:

"The first batch of reissue albums is released in the UK on 29th May 2006. The 4 first albums have been remastered and had some bonus material added.

The Scream has Hong Kong Garden and Staircase Mystery added. (this is all on the deluxe version, but for those who don't want the double disc version with Peel sessions etc this is a great release).

Join Hands has Love in a Void (remastered version for the first time) and the album out take Infantry.

Kaleidoscope has Israel, 5 tracks from the Original Warner Chappell Demos (very very different versions of tracks including the first version of Eve White Eve Black to be recorded) and 3 tracks from the Polydor Demos done with Budgie just before recording the album.

Ju Ju (which will become a double disc Deluxe version in 2007) has Spellbound 12", the very rare Arabian Knights 12" version (Australian 12" EP had this one) with Vocoder vocals and Fireworks, produced by Nigel Gray who did Ju Ju.. Of course this went on to be re recorded and strings added and released prior to Kiss in the Dream house.

All come in limited edition digipak versions.

The Japanese part of Universal are to release mini replica album sleeve versions.. when we have more news we'll let you know.

New on USA soon as discussions are still in progress re release date and availabily. The second batch are due for the Autumn this year."

'Kaleidoscope' was one of my favourite albums from the early '80s - I still recall going into my finals at college with 'Christine' reverberating around my head from playing it so much.

I've been picking up and putting down Siouxsie/Banshees CDs for the past year or so, debating whether to buy them or wait for the re-issues... now is the time to splurge.

Noddy Holder Website

I'm pleased to report that Noddy Holder finally has his own website. It's been a long time coming, and it still needs a lot of work, but it's there!

I was so overcome with admiration that I had to post a welcome message in the guestbook. Well, you never know, Noddy might actually read the message and reply - wouldn't that be fab?

In posting an entry about Noddy's site earlier, I somehow managed to bugger up the coding that threw the sidebar to the bottom of the page - what a pain to sort that out! As a result, this blog now looks a bit different...

Patent Pending

Having spent the evening attempting to see Morrisey at the London Palladium, I've decided something must be done about tall people, especially tall people that can't keep still but just *have* to talk to each other endlessly throughout the show.

I've been considering the problem for several minutes and I think we have three main solutions:

1. kill them.
2. tie them to their seats.
3. introduce height restictions by row.

Now, I accept that this might be going a bit too far for a civilised society so, as an alternative, I need to commission the design and development of a new product for the concert-going public - portable platforms. Strap on, expandable platform soles that you add to your shoes once you get to the venue and see what the challenge will be to see your band de jour. Patent pending on this brilliant idea so hands off!

Chelsea 2

And here are some more photos:

Chelsea

I've spent the afternoon and early evening at the Chelsea Flower Show and what a lovely time I had. The rain kept off and I spent 4 1/2 hours wandering round the gardens and the displays in the great hall. I took 138 photos. Here is a selection:

Retro Record Bag - 1974

International superstar DJ time again, this time revisiting 1974:

The Golden Age Of Rock And Roll ~ Mott The Hoople
Red Dress ~ Alvin Stardust
Bangin' Man ~ SLADE
Amateur Hour - Sparks
Teenage Rampage ~ Sweet

I'm pleased with that set - playing Alvin Stardust at the Retro, an unlikely SLADE track and the ever popular Sweet! Who would ever think of Sparks? And opening with the glorious Mott to set the tone. It worked for me! And someone came up after SLADE to comment that they remembered buying 'Bangin' Man' way back in the day - that was nice.

Christopher played a nice musicals cast recordings set (and I recognised the 'Guys & Dolls' track) and Don did obscure Scottish songs. One of the most interesting songs of the evening was a Siouxsie song I hadn't heard before that Stephen played - I was secretly convinced it was a Slits track.

I quite like doing the record bag thing. I know no-one is really paying any attention or realises the themes involved, but that's not really the point. The point is to stand up and do it.

Now then, 1975 is next ... that's going to be a challenge...

Whatever happened in the '80s?

After my epiphany yesterday when I was transported back to the '70s courtesy of the Buzzcocks, I sat on the bus this morning mulling over the decades and I realised I've lost half one somewhere. Half a decade, I mean.

Over the first couple of years of the '80s I was at university in Cardiff (Croeso y Caerdydd), then a spell on the dole and then the bright lights and golden pavements of London, living first in Vauxhall for a year or so and then moving down to Clapham. I recall being sacked from my first job (in a photocopying shop off Oxford Street) and then settling down into ACAS and serving teas and beers to both sides during the miners strike when they came along for arbitration (Arthur Scargill gave us a huge bag of sweets as a thank you for working into the wee small hours - nothing from management, of course!). That takes me up to about 1984.

I don't really have any strong memories until about 1988 at which time I was working in Fulham Unemployment Benefit Office, caseloading people to get them into work, into training, onto other benefits and generally off the unemployment register. I was quite good at that job.

HIV and AIDS had appeared by then and, since St Stephen's hospital in Chelsea (which is no longer there) was one of the few places actively treating sufferers then I had a goodly number of them on my caseload. I suppose a lot (most?) of them are dead now. It was terrible seeing ostensibly healthy men one week and then two weeks later seeing them again and they'd changed colour, massively dropped weight to skin and bone and sometimes not able to string words into a full sentence. A mix of the disease and early drug treatments I suppose. Some brave men wanting training so they could set up support groups and suchlike. They were generally treated badly by the system with all the scares of the 'gay plague' so I did what I could (and I'm pleased to say that my colleagues in other offices did as well).

I remember a heroin addict who was the same age as me to within a couple of days who was trying radical treatment to come off, with huge doses of methadone under medical supervision. Both of her brothers were doing time for dealing. I remember a Scottish woman whose family had been killed in Beirut and she was the sole survivor of the bomb who needed help with housing and dentistry (a confidence thing) - I supplied a few phone numbers and I got a gushing letter of thanks from her a couple of months later saying she was back on her feet and starting a new career. I remember a young woman from Roehampton with a Princess Di haircut who didn't know where Charing Cross was - she thought it was the hospital up the road in Hammersmith and didn't realise there was a place a few miles east with the same name.

I liked that job but I outgrew it and at the end of the '80s (1990 to be precise) I moved into the Employment Department and bought my flat in Streatham.

So, what happened between 1984 and 1988? I don't really know. I worked at ACAS and lived in Clapham but that's about it. Now, I could understand it if I lost those years in a haze of booze and drugs but I didn't. I didn't live the life depicted in the 'Taboo' musical (although flatmates went clubbing in Soho and to the WAGG club and all that stuff). Music even passed me by over those years - I seem to have come alive again musically with Michelle Shocked, the Indigo Girls and Kirsty MacColl - I can quite distictly remember walking across Clapham Common during a summer bus strike with them being played on my walkman radio. Robert Plant ('Manic Nirvana') is also in there somewhere. And I went to Egypt - my first 'exotic' holiday.

Suggestions on a postcard please...

BUZZCOCKS!

I went up to HMV on Oxford Street this evening to pick up my copy of Sandi's single (that entered the chart at the weekend at No. 15 based on downloads). There was a loud band playing that sounded quite ok in a 'loud band' kind of way, with a sax/horn player that reminded me of Laura Logic.

Now, Laura, as every right thinking child of the '70s will know, was the first sax player with X-Ray Spex. I mention that thought since it took me back to '77-'78 and when I walked out of HMV I saw a poster announcing the Buzzcocks would be playing in a few minutes time. The Buzzcocks? Is that possible? Is it a tribute band using the name?

It was the Buzzcocks, the real thing. Time has not been entirely kind, with Pete looking like everyone's favourite uncle with a beer belly and Steve's face showing his age (Steve might have have had some alcoholic uppers to get him going too). They got on stage 18 minutes late (I was counting), played for just under 30 minutes and then did a 3 song enchore.

They started off with a few of the new songs from the new album, all nice and fast and short, sounding new but with the qualities of the oldies. Then started a few oldies - they really took me back to the olden days - could this really be the Buzzcocks in front of me, with Pete looking a like a podgier version of me Dad way back in 1978? It was. Amongst other classic songs they played 'Orgasm Addict', 'Harmony In My Head', 'Ever Fallen In Love' and the final song of the enchore was 'Boredom' - o joy! That was a wonderful 40 minutes taking me back to 1978!

I *had* to get the new album ('Flat-Pack Philosophy', the title song was the first song they played) and that'll be added to my iPod. I was shocked - shocked I tell you - when I plugged in my iPod on the tube home to realise that I only had 'Ever Fallen In Love' on the machine. I am ashamed. More will be added immediately.

Thank you, Buzzcocks, for a wonderful surprise gig. I was moist of eye a couple of times and that was your fault - keep the spirit alive.

Big Brother Coherence

I'm not sure I can make a coherent comment on Big Brother. It's still early days and I'm still only just learning their names, but what a wierd bunch they are. They're all obviously "big personalities" otherwise they wouldn't have applied for the show but I can't help but wonder which nonentity exec at C4 chose this particular bunch and what they thought might happen when they started interacting? Or not interacting as the case might be.

At this early stage, none of them have particularly attractive personalties, the stereotype and token characters are quite sad and (being shallow) they're not a particularly nice looking group. They all so blatanty media savvy (or think they are). So, will I become addicted to it? Probably.

Give it a few weeks and a few evictions to whittle the numbers down to a more manageable level and who knows what appalling television they will produce...