Get your skis on! Country Dirt play Twisted AM Lounge Sunday 10/01/10 8pm
Country Dirt support The No Frills Band – Local goodtime folk faves with added tuba!
Country Dirt vs the bleak Mid-Winter
London’s hottest new country music band – COUNTRY DIRT – showcases London’s finest contemporary country musicians, including;
Marianne Hyatt (Dragstripper)on vocals
Patmo Sheeran (Big Self, Stone Rangers) on BIG guitar and vocals
Bob Staunch (Jegsy Dodd & the Original Sinners) on boogie-woogie-bass
George Blacklock (Blacklock & Brown on acoustic guitar, vocals and mandolin
Frank Brown (Hangin Ropes) on the 5 string banjo and harmonica
‘…. adding aural shooting stars and neon fire to the roadhouse vibe.’ Gavin Martin, Family of Rock
www.myspace.com/countrydirtband www.hyattesque.com http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.myspace.com%252Fthenofrillsband&h=a1b8c0b41996fd568e70ddef92320e47 http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=277333642032&ref=mf
Twisted AM Lounge @ The Windmill, 22 Blenheim Gardens, London, SW2 5BZ
Filed under general | Comment (0)There’s a Thin Line between Love & Haight
I made it back to the Red Victorian Saloon today just in time for the Peace rap at 9am and caught site of my dashing ally, Troy presiding over about 10+ participants, brunching. I pulled up 2 the round table & heard a soft spoken guy named Robert describing a Feng Shui technique performed for young mothers. Apparently based on a Native American custom, I think he said it relied upon positioning to induce familiar comforts from common perceptions of shared experience – for example, how “we” all feel during a hot afternoon or cold snowy midnight. Well, I get depressed on sunny days – doesn’t make me special, just weird - would I be incurable? So I asked what was the intent of this technique and Sami Sunchild asked to intervene with instruction on how she likes to conduct Peaceful World Conversations.
Sami Sunchild, proprietoress & Bonny, multi-lingual Peacemaker in Paraguay
Sami is the 84 year-old artist in residence and founder of Red Vic Peace Center- though the hotel has been around since the turn of last century. Preliminary introductions would last 30 seconds, to include one’s name, the home with which each identified growing up and the home most identified as an adult, with a description of the view, if it would fit into the time slot. We were all introduced to each other as Swedes living in Berlin, a German in New Zealand, a Mexican & Austrian in LA, some Southern Californians & Vegasians in Frisco, a Southern Californian in Paraguay and one Texan who’d relocated to London. Sami asserted our common orientation as white, middle class and college-educated whilst migratory to other states & countries, emphasising how well equipped we were to help others less fortunate than us, people devoid of food and shelter. (I refrained from qualifying that I hailed from the Cherokee & Choctaw nations as a proper American mutt and settled for passing for white, as it was Sunday.) We were then urged to tell a 3 minute story about ourselves involving a decision made toward a better world. First we would split into two groups – about 5 folk each – synopsise titles round the group then recount our stories in entirety. Sami kicked off our group with memories of her choice to adopt 2 children, both from cultures different to her own and each other. We soon sampled tales of volunteering in a teen crisis centre, educating LA communities about the Holocaust @ The Museum of Tolerance, explorations of Fatherhood, whistleblowing for the Department of Energy, a mapmaking internship for the Parks council, selling door-to-door disarmament & non-intervention in S America on an airforce base as well as other lifestyles outside consumerism.
German Martin's NZ N Coast Piccy
Troy took over and invited us to host weekly Peaceful World Conversations, in our own migratory hoods - cafe or other public space – and gave us a web address where we might download a free pdf with specifics on how to do it, even offering to direct world travellers our way.
http://redvic.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/PWCManual.pdf
He also mentioned that the Red Vic was in the process of establishing itself as a historic site for it’s LEGACY OF LOVE – the social experiment that was the Summer of Love. Ask & ye shall receive.
Well I was a little late, but en route to my 11 o’clock - Glide, sweet as crystal methodist serenity with a soundtrack to match - my connection called from all the way cross the pond, “…fill ‘er up @ 1286 Fillmore St, Noon sharp - bring an instrument if you got one, but strap yourself in, Toots, cuz you’ll be singin & dancin thru a Love Supreme by the time it’s through. Gotta go ” click. I could not ignore my ride #71 approaching that v street as the pre-recorded buslady sang it out loud, and I simply do NOT ignore serendipitous intervention like that, so I flew away from Haight to a Love Supreme as promised. Crosstown on #22 to a glass fronted building where the numbers matched and there it was, THERE IT WAS:
St John Coltrane African Orthodox Church, Jurisdiction of the West
I’d been to the last church service of the year ’09 @ Glide, but would ring in the new year on the 1st Sunday of 2010 at the church of John Coltrane. About 10 or so in the congregation of thee jazz church 12.15, musician time, fashionably late but always ontime. There was the unmistakable sound of saxophones and congos warmin up just outta sight. I sat down next to a multi-instrumentalist named Hollywood and returned the penetrating gaze of a glorious Black Dread Jesus directly ahead of me. Swathed in indigo robes, the sun on his left, a crescent moon on his right, sparkling smatter of stars reflecting his luminescnt orb halo, adorned with a red Celtic cross, just radiating from the back of his head. He blessed me with his right hand and held a book in his right, with the words, “I am Alpha and Omega, The Beginning and The Ending”. Only a larger than life tempera panel, adorned with gold leaf behind the drum kit 5 rows ahead of me, but I did feel the gaze. To his right sat an early gothic hooded, berobed in blushin rose Mary mother of the ancient Christ child, perched on her lap. An Oriental St Gabrielle flanked her on her left and a gold haired St Michael on Dreaddy Jesus’s right. To my immediate left was the sacred image of John Will I AM Coltrane in white robes, holding a sacred sax in his right hand and a scroll in his left, “Let us Sing All Songs To God to which all Praise is Due”. Whew!
The warmup music crescendoed to a jam and the musicians filtered on to the stage, including Bishop King in his collar and sanguine sash on sax, the Deacon on drums, the pianist snuck in off the street as did one of the stylish elder backing singers. One of them handed out tambourines to the crowd. Sister Mother Marina swept into the room from backstage to conduct the bvs and all of us with her voice, “Rise Up and Praise the Lord Jesus!”. She wore a t-shirt that read, “Damn the rules, it’s the feeling that matters”, motto to the image of St John. She made us feel it all right, as we sang and danced our way through ‘Thank-You, Jesus’, ‘Keep on Walkin’, ‘Lord’s Prayer’, ‘Can’t Keep it to Myself, Gotta Tell Somebody Else’, ‘Hallelujah’ and countless other gospel choons. The prophecy was indeed made manifest. We were singin, dancin, bumpin, beatin, shakin & screamin for more than an hour, I’m sure. At one point, the Deacon drummer brought out an English horn I think and the Bishop was on drums. He conducted us all with his drumsticks and beats – one song had a marathon coda. He simply would not give up on us til we got it right – together. Hell he even came into the crowd & danced with us. One of the musicians sang us through the gospel in Matt 2:19 and from the Old Testament’s Isaiah 61.1. Then a very young backing vocalist, Sister Erin, sang us through “I Honor You Right Now, Just Because You’re God”. She sealed it with a little spoken word, “We have got to get it together, Brothers & Sisters! We got a lot of work to do in the year 2010. So many trials to face. Some of us are losin homes….”
Bishop King, saxophonist supreme, divine drummer and super-soul dancer took the pulpit, “It took a God to help save you from yourself, to release you from your dark desire and monkey mind. Lord, hide me in your glory.” He implored us to do as Sister Erin had spontaneously asked, because “coming together and giving praise magnifies the presence of God.”
“God is with us through the ages and manifested through those he chooses”. The Archbishop Franzo Wayne King D. D. spoke to us of the seemingly unlikeliness of many prophets and saints, but that the prophets & saints were raised up from their own people in their own time. He turned to St John Coltrane who had experience suffering and disappointment and could empathise with his own people through his great creation, the music. In 1969 when the St John Will-I-Am Coltrane African Orthodox Church, Jurisdiction of the West, was established, there was talk of how “God is Dead”, but then there was also the Death of Hippie, ”wickedness in high places” and the Summer of Love was coming to a shuddering halt, replaced by a “den of iniquity: druggin, drinkin liquor and rubbin up against each other in the dark”.
“Coltrane came to remind us that God is so alive, and we needed to know and needed to hear…Who gives God a name? John Coltrane: A Love Supreme. Words to quicken inside you and remember God’s greatness.”
“Praise God for the Heathen in the House”, the he did spontaneously sing.
The Archbishop King delved into the sung gospel earlier – he must’ve known that I was gettin a little antsy at hearin bout God as a man. Matthew 2:19 tells the story about how Joseph took Mary and the baby Jesus to Egypt, during Herod’s paedo-killing spree decree, but that an angel told him to ARISE & take the baby Jesus and his mother back to Israel when Herod had died. Bishop King noted the emphasis on the mother and clarified that women are the wisdom of God, the 3rd part in the trinity – The Holy Spirit, our 1st teachers. I felt much better.
"May there be peace & love & perfection throughout all creation, O God", St John Will-I-Am Coltrane
“Where is the God in Your Fear?” King focused on the “power of God to visit us” and identified Coltrane as an angel messenger of God who had RISEN up from his people. I looked at the son of God before me, felt the sun’s heat through the window behind me and began to realise how perfectly placed was this jazz church. ”God is all. We are the ambassadors of God. All of us together is God. We are the ‘body’ of Christ….” Joseph had to take his christ child and its mother wisdom, rise up from the fear and go to Israel, the land of Peace, so that Jesus would be known as Jesus of Nazareth. The saviour of our collective soul would lay down his life to be reborn in all of us, and he came from the unlikely small town of Nazareth. Similarly John Coltrane would hail from the city of Jazz, never to receive the acclaim he deserved in his lifetime, lay down his life in his music and rebirth us with A Love Supreme: Part 1, A New Year’s Revolution.
St John The Divine Sound Baptist, Iconographer Rev Mark C. Dukes, A.O.C. Copyright 1987
Bishop King gave the floor to Sister Katie – with the church for nearly 20 years - who recited her beautiful poem ‘Music of the Soul’. We all hugged each other goodbye to another jazz jam, looked each other in the eye and said, “God Bless You”. We’d been there for 3 hours, and it was hard to go.
Tune in to www.kpoo.com every Tuesday 12-4pm PST for John Coltrane conciousness broadcast to you live and direct
Filed under general | Comment (0)If UR going 2 SAN FRAN CISCO…. Died, Crucified, Disnified
Frisco Flora - Dec 09
be sure to bring your history book or something that Googles, because you’re not gonna find jack if you’re lookin 4 what put this psychedelic city on the map. Well you can if you hold your breath & dig deep. I’m kinda sick, mo like mad as hell & not takin it anymo. God Damn the pusherman and city planning! Try to find somethin, anythin, hell I’d settle for a fuckin plaque to commemorate say ye olde Psychedelic Shop on The Haight. It’s a pizza joint now – gimme strength, there’s not even a gluten-free option there. I stumbled over to the Red Victorian Saloon/Peace Cafe to watch a free movie advertised on the wall outside – Summer of Love, History 0f The Haight – and enquired about the time, not disclosed. The person behind the counter asked what I wanted to drink as response. Coffee, please, and before I could qualify, he began to prepare that bitter, bottomless cup of shit which made my cunt-ry famous. I piped up, Latte please, to which I received a torrent of restrictions – no latte, no cappucino, no toilet, not even for customers. Had I transformed into a panhandler? OK, what about the film- he pointed me to some literature which I couldn’t see from white heat in my eyes. I reiterated that the film was advertised on the wall outside. He then detoured me to the Red Victorian Cinema down the road apiece. Twas a red herring, obviously. DAMNIT, why was it so hard to get to the heart o this place & how did my pretty, city by the bay, Frisco – YES, FRISCO!! – become a ghost town & feedin trough, all gussied up in day-glo war paint, like a whore on a holiday? I gave it a coupla daze & got back. Luckily that little shit-kid-bitch was gone & I spoke to a mo dignified peer who offered to play “Summer of Love” on the spot – much mo like it. I sat down w a giant latte, and focused through the trashy cell-chat of a loud fuckwit who planted her big, fat dumbass in front of the screen. Luckily my dashing peer showed again, offering to maximise the volume for me, and it was glorious. Behold the Human Be-in, The Death of Money, The Diggers’ Free clinic, Survival School, The Free Store, The Oracle – the micro-cosmic socialist experiment that was The Summer of Love, launched on the Summer Solstice 1967, ending a few months later in October at the Death of Hippie march - beseeching us all to “Bring the Revolution to Where You Live”. Those kids didn’t wanna work, well too bad there were not mo Diggers who did organise to redistribute resources & inspire future generations with something to work for besides dope & fuckin in the streets. Shame the Morning Star Ranch or The Red Dog Saloon in Virginia City, Nevada couldn’t or wouldn’t handle the spillover of teenage runaways, whose composite, fragile, endoskeletal deconstruction was in desperate need of rebuilding.
MorningStar or Mission-ary
I don’t mind performing Hippie acts at home, but did we have to bury the flagship? “If you can act it out, it’s real”, “Culture is more important than politics”, “Spiritual Values are mo important than the GNP”. What happened to the seething turmoil of those young people then & the struggle for human rights?
Huffas & artists in the same league?
Why the hell are we bombing life off this planet, as the polar ice caps and Greenland melt, so that the water tables & pestilence rise, and the coastlines recede?
Family feud'll get us all killed
Why are we shopping ourselves to hell?
Half Bros & sons of Abraham, Union Sq - Dec 09
Do some elite few of us have something to fall back on, besides this everyday, earthly paradise?
Frisco Lights - & to all a goodnight
My spiralling paranoia was diverted by the lovely Dawn, another soeur-stren behind the counter at the Red V, who introduced me to a Peace Rap, next Sunday 9am – tomorrow – b4 the amazing Glide Service I will attend, which is an agnostic soul gig service of the finest order, with a revolutionary, civil rights sermon thrown in for good measure.
Glide Church choir & band, Frisco
I hope to hear mo about laughin yoga seshes there for my non-stop chronic pain, and the mulitple-part choir & horn section too. The Summer of Love extends into the bleak mid-winter, but mostly it’s Love vs Haight.
Milk Mural @ the old camera shop
Mining for Gold, ResonanceFM 23.30-01.30, 18 December 2009
I’ll be singin w Country Dirt, performing extended entre-song prose, & interviewed by legendary Gavin Martin
Me as Morrissey
who will also recite from his own specially curated selction of spoken word genius on Johny Brown & Inga’s (aka Band of Holy Joy) weekly Friday broadcast of ”Mining for Gold” – Resonance FM (104.4) – 18th December – 23.30-01.30 + 1
http://icecast.commedia.org.uk:8000/resonance_hi.mp3.m3u
Filed under general | Comment (0)Alt Psyche Xmas Show @ EasyCome 16 Dec
Ho-ho-ho…. you ho! Who you callin a ‘ho’? Who said that?!
Hurtz so good!
Country Dirt will join Sailorette and Hank Dog himself for Hank Dog’s penultimate, alternate Xmas EASYCOME on Weds 16th December @ the OLD NUN’S HEAD, so gumm on down and fill your face with our oh so cuntry crimbo pie round 9pm…. mmmmmmMOM!
EasyCome – London’s longest running acoustic club for 17 years
EasyCome, Old Nun’s Head, Nunhead Lane London SE15 3QQ
http://www.myspace.com/countrydirtband
andyhankdog@hotmail.co.uk
Filed under general | Comment (0)Got my FRock On! – Talkin Motown Revolutions….
No, I did not get to sing w legendary Jack Ashford’s Funk Bros on 9th Nov, down The Borderline. However, I am Superstar Sub for a Day on the mighty Family of Rock blog – 2DAY. Check me out & MO on the link below:
http://blog.familyofrock.com/index.php/2009/11/talking-motown-revolutions/
I hear a rumour that Thee Jack Ashford is in town, playin at the Borderline – and there might even be an open mic sesh too! Miracle of Miracles, when Smokey’s in your eyes!! …. well, you can take the grrrl outta the country… Nope, that part never happened, but who cares, I’d still go back for Jack to do it again. Am I crying? I should be. I didn’t want it to end. The neo-Funk Bros kinda snuck up onstage, whilst we were all swayin round, trancelike, to the pre-show, canned Motown soundtrack of our lives, & treated us to a jam that would tease us mercilessly… Lineup included 2 guitarists – one RAWK virtuoso, the other, Mike Fango, made sounds that might force me to chuck my Pro-Tools out the window, and Man what a drummer! Brendan Calhoun (The Tito Jackson Band) seemed to hypnotise the bassist, Jacomo, a UK stand-in, and was perfectly synched up to Felix Hernandez on congos & chimes. Baritone saxophonist, the trombonist & trumpeter Carmello Argentini Scapin all gave good horn. The keyboardist was simply sublime. We were introduced to them solely by the music they made & they defo did not disappoint.
A plummy guy named Chris put a mic to his lips (is that what I’d mistaken for an open mic?) and introduced the true star of the show: the legend himself, Jack Ashford. He parted the crowd like Moses and mounted the stage like Ali to give us a soul symposium that would silence any backchat. 2 Grammies, a lifetime achievement award and, next year, a Star in Hollywood’s Graumans Chinese Theatre are all matched by his colossal stage presence; though equally balanced by a real artist’s humility: “The greatest achievement is to share success. Success for one person gets stale” and “You are the reason for my success. I just made you happy.”
Ashford seems to perceive himself solely as conduit between the past and future hope of Motown. When he arrived “… back when my hair was dark, before I became a clean cut caveman…”, he asked God to make him special. Ask and ye shall receive. On the stage before us, he spun a winding tale of intrigue involving other legends such as Sherrie Payne (The Supremes); Joyce Vincent (Tony Orlando & Dawn) – “ ‘Oh Jack, you taught me so much’ ”; and Berry Gordy himself, whom he credits as the reason he is here today and why’s he’s married. (Had to love it when his wife heckled him from the audience, at that point!) Motown was a “VERY close family”, maybe too close. Studios were referred to as ‘the snake pit’: “When the sniping was over, the hits were made”.
He made quite a point about the anti-star system of Motown – “Berry did NOT put all those musicians together.” and “Smokey Robinson didn’t even own a car!” – describing it as a musical pilgrimage to Detroit, Michigan by “different faces and different races”: “We did not know we were making history.” He also explained why Motown cannot be recreated in our contemporary cult of celebrity: “Imagine Beyonce, JayZ and Bootsy Collins together in the snake pit. There’d be no one left standing.” Perhaps a rare insight into why he would moonlight. Since his work was never credited at Motown, he simply shadowed its modus operandus outside its boundaries. He cranked out some hits for Stax Records and even Sesame Street, but would fly the nest in the mid 60s, with other such notables as Mike Terry & Joe Hunter, to sign a $25m recording contract with RCA as Pied Piper Productions– the mighty (snarrff) Giant holding a torch for Northern Soul enthusiasts everywhere, even as I write. I never realized he’d co-written a neat little hit and title track for the film ‘You only live Twice’ for Lorraine Chandler (whatever, Nancy!).
The first time Jack Ashford graced the UK, he tells us, was in that tour organised by Brian Epstein in 1963, with Kim Weston, The Kinks and Marianne Faithfull which was cancelled whilst he and Kim were en route, mid-air. Nevertheless he did make it back in 65, in a tour organised by Bobby Shafto (Radio Caroline), which would introduce Motown to the UK officially. Someone in the audience whispered in my ear that the show was broadcast live from the goodship lollypop, Radio Caroline, but I dunno, did that ever happen? Where do I download? ….. answers on a postcard, please. My head was about to spin. Jack Ashford told us so many stories, gave us so much, so much belly laughter. Hell, we were only halfway through the showand we hadn’t even heard the singers, whom he soon introduced as Janine Marie, Valencia “Baby Girl” Robinson & Art Madison as they took the stage. When he struck up the band and exited the stage, I could have died happy really. They launched into the 1st choon, ‘Ain’t too proud to beg’, I was in a double-digit figure female herd that rushed the stage and danced like banshees. The set-list went a little something like this:
Ain’t too Proud to Beg
Heard it through the Grapevine as Marvin (Art) vs Aretha (Baby Girl) mashup
Signed Sealed Delivered
Papa was a Rollin Stone
What’s Goin On
My Girl
Losin You
I Wish
All very competent ….. with few exceptions. I mean there were some fluffed lines and frankly should the singers be singin from a hymn sheet? Some of them have been on this tour for yonx. I wanted to see some soul shapes bein thrown around – show us how it’s done from the stage ya know? Kinda brought me down.
At one point thee Jack Ashford did grab the mic from offstage left, where he was sneakily playing his tambourine like back in the day, and paused the show to deliver a sermon – “Once I was the teacher, now I’m the preacher” – for his dearly departed collaborators and conspirators from the snake pit, including Johnny Ripper, Joe Henderson, Earl van Dyke, James Jamerson. It was moving, in spite of the cheesy keyboard and chime accompaniment. I’ll write it again, Jack Ashford is the star of this show. See ya in church!
Country Dirt on Radio Joy tonight
Wow, far as I’m concerned, Country Dirt’s arrived – on Radio Joy! Right now they’re playing PussyWhip – earlier it was Sadie & Black Velvet Heart. I’m so psyched. Thanks a trill, Johny Brown & Inga
Back in london on Madness bus
We’re doing Children in Need on Friday, Catherine Saint???? on Sunday The Big Issue – tunes at the Folgate
No clue what we’re doing with the Big Issue
What’s the complication w Madness
Roddick seen some guy got out of prison in NYC when he first sold it. He was saying that he got oout of prison it was only like a one off one or 2 pages – som ebody got Dickensian about it. Something like he reminds me of a Clerkenwell broker. I bought a tale of two cities recently. I was staying in this hotel and I was reading a couple of pages of it. Paper money and willy nilly and the man was held hostage in l.ondon and whoring and sleeping on the streets. Just before ai rang I was thinking nothing’s changed really since then. Poverty exists within the working classes. People shrug it off.
Fantastic year for Madness – 1st decade of the 21st C who woulda thought it
I’d put money on it being a fantastic year for Madness. The fact that we’re still alive as a band and still operating, says it all really. Crosby said, If you ‘re alive when you’re 50 and you’re still playing, it’s a done deal then. People come and go….
If I’d have put money on it, yes I would. When we played Benny???? Castle a few years ago. Getting messages from my jewellers? and their mates that they really dug it. We’ve got a good bunch of songs we’re a good live act, and just like in Chess, if you make the right moves, you’re in. If you make the right moves to get in front of the public, then it’s their choice. b ut with a bunch of songs like ours and still the sort of quirky, proverbial passion that we’ve got
Stage presence – story behind that – Chris Foreman out of the band any tensions within the band you keep together.
It’s a quirky thing. Mark has decided that he wants to quit the tour and have a rest. There’s a space for him to do that and there’s a mutual respect and love for him to do that. And also a concern that he’s OK. We’re friends first Political tensions are always there. It doesnt’ seem to ther’s some underlying respect there, and that’s part of a sort of checks and balances, I suppose. Chris drives me nuts and viceversa, but at the same time there’s a mutual passion underlying our beliefs.
We look like a band mostly, but sometimes we look like a bunch of people in group therapy and as in all familiies some people evolve, some don’t and some are in the process of it. I can always fall back on. With art there’s always going to be some kind of conflict, there has to be and with 7 people in our band there are 21 decisions to be made. In that environment, there’s an air of compromise – we have to give space to each other. I’m quite tense about going into rehearsals over 2 particular band members that’s OK, fIf yhou go into the boxing ring too cocky you get knocked out. I don’t mind that tensikon it comes with the package and it keeps you on your toes keeps you aware. It’s a a funny, strange beast – a band – you know
Were the roles that you play quite defined, when you were a bass player in the Invaders?
Peoples’ natures are all part of the alchemical process of what adds up to a band. From my band members’ commitment and determination to detail have been great.
Encouraging turning up to rehearsals and arrangements of songs
Timelined account
In the beginning it was very ganglike in the band -with seven members a similar dynamic to The Spice Girls. The A&R boss and soap opera beginning, the gang sort of thing – very similar to their situation or The Osmonds or The Partridge Family. It was a bit of gang before it became a band – each person had their own sort of tags.
Liberty in Folgate in long gestation – decades old some of the songs. Great songs, moves story along. Title track journey
Myself and Suggs spent many years talking about London and burning down/ scrubbing lONdon called “Vanishing London”. We were in the Crown and Goose in Camden talking about this book “The Worse Street in North London”. It dates back to when they were buildin the Roundhouse in London and when George Bernard Shaw was putting the first public toilet in Parkway and we came across the Liberty ?????? judges ?????that was just really interesting that there could have been an environment in London which drew artists to it, and once there a summons couldn’t even have been served on you. You were outside the law. That time would be a great thing to place with Madness. There’s an expression “Act global, think local” and the songs sort of evolve from that interest. A matter that we were passionate about and interested in. The songs evolve from a piece that Suggs had, and he’d worked with a piece from Mike and I’d brought in some music for the blackheads. So it sort of grew. The whole record took awhile because we never move very quickly. There are 2 batches of songs – the current stuff and the ones that we’ve had for awhile, which was Clive Langor produced and we just wanted to clear the decks you know? The whole process was about 2 or 3 years. 18 months it sort of grew.
The fear of the immigrant at the end – was derived from being in London and being Irish – you know “No blacks, no dogs, no Irish”. Through travelling, and seeing the perpetual scapegoat in every society, you develop an understanding that here’s always someone to blame whether it’s the Americans blaming the Pollocks or the Dutch blaming the Belgians. There’s always someone doing it. Heard a conversation a few years ago. Someone was discussing where would London be in 50 years, a few years ago. The guy said, I’m from Trinidad, but London’s a melting pot. I don’t want to bring my culture here. I want my culture to be assimilated here. I found that really interesting. The plight of the “immigrant” is a contemporary issue – whether it’s the Northern Ireland situation or in London or the Somalians,and feeling the basis of a lot of things like racism and violence etc
Another song – been to Ibitha advent of actual fascists in Britain in political power – you’ve experienced on a street level
It’s back to the fear thing – 79 was the recession and here we are again – people fighting for their future and want comforting. There’s a crack for the ne’er do wells and the fascist idiots to play on people’s fears. They’ve been doing it for years – taking our jobs our homes our countries. It’s v strange because on the one side the government encourages influx of cheap labour and yet they do nothing to protect people from the hatred it brings. People come here from Somalia, yet they’re reducing services that those people might need to survive. It’s the same with the old Italiam lombards – when things are tough this is when they recruit these people. I’ve always been more wary of those in the background – the faceless ones in drawing rooms and nice offices who are actually carrying that sort of hate.
The mad in madness – I always thought of myself as embodying the spirit of Madness. Me and Suggs share a bit of that. It’s a great privilege bein in the band and I don’t know where we’re heading or if age is taking over. One thinks abnout age and youth and I feel I was much more radical when I was younger – involved in the CND and Greenpeace and it’s funny how things change. I think that many of these things are designed to distract the populace from what they reallay should be worrying about. I don’t know if I’m radical anymore, I’m more family orientated. I mean you can’t even smoke in your house anymore. I worry about our liberty bein taken away. TAking liberties.
Pricing out ?????? The train takes you from one terminal to the other – they call it a free service but they defo charge.
Lee’s a bit of a poet. He works alot with Mike and Mike creates the lyrics for many of the songs.
Mrs Hutchinson is about Mike’s mum’s battle with Cancer. I felt a sort of pathos for Lee, looking at him when he was young. It always comes through in the songs. He’s a natural actor. I always thought he should have been an actor. I think he’s got it.
Many moons ago when we reformed back in ????? people asked if we thought we could pull it off. I always believed we’d be fine. We’re a band that cares and we’re a really good live band. We give a lot. I’ll be 52 this time. It’s something I’m prepared to do. It’s part of the show. We played at the Lee fest in Australia and a coupla bands like Elbow and ?????? watched from the side of the stage. From the day we supported the Pretenders at the Lyceum and blew them off the stage and we’re still feelin now 30 years later and we’re playing to 100s of 1,000s of people in Australia, it’s good to have that feeling – makes you work harder. It’s born of a very old fashioned band We’re a livin cliche – we hired a van and toured to the North to Manchester and didin’t have a record deal. We just did it ourselves Like a comedian in a working man’s club, it’s a bit of a baptism of fire.
BAss player to dancer to shouter to horn player…. – It’s partly a well-oiled machine – every gig we do we have a chat about what worked and what didn’t in the set We’ve never lost that attitude. Yes it has grown – like a family vibe where you can be yourself to an extent.
I loved that gig with Oasis in France. We’d had for a couple of months – Oasis didn’t want to follow us on the mainstage, so we endured playing the second stage. We just said, “Fuck it, we don’t care”, then Oasis split up. The promoter came up to us and said, “Will you play? We’ve got no one, we’ve got no one” and we said, “Of course we’ll play”. We did 3 nights at Whiskey-a-go-go in LA 2 shows a night. That feeling of the underdog was very motivating – it was a real buzz – and it made us better. I think Madness feeds off of that energy.
http://www.bandofholyjoy.co.uk/radio.html
If you’re not there today, try later on the archives
Twin powers ACTIVATE!
A night of Holy Joy @ The Buffalo Bar
“They’re in the basement!…”
Country Dirt had what I’d recall as our 1st London gig – ie proper audience of chinstrokers’ anonymous. Great set, great night out – dark & rainy as it was. Gavin Martin shined his countenance upon us, and we were truly blessed on a night of Holy Joy underground at The Buffalo Bar.
“What a night with excellent live music from Jamie Jamieson (12 Dirty Bullets) doing an acoustic set and Country Dirt fronted by the sensational Marianne Hyatt (I am biased but thats what other people said too!).”
http://blog.familyofrock.com/index.php/2009/11/holy-joy-in-highbury-and-islington/
He also had us jumpin round the joint, with diy shakers, to his fab punk-n-soul revival set, and again I had to be edumucated bout my home state all the way across the pond and how many years later? By way of walk-on music to Country Dirt’s performance, Gavin introduced the crowd to a track by a li’l ol band from San Antonio, Texas called the Sir Douglas Quintet, with a tune entitled “She’s About a Mover”. Never heard of em before last night, now I just gotta have mo. Fellow DJ Dele Fadele spun out some amazing Moroccan grooves, Slavonic line dance choons, hell even Siouxie Sioux was on the menu - I mean whaddaya got, Mr? Our hosts Johny & Inga from the mighty Band of Holy Joy gave us a set of beautiful obscurity in nearly every genre – love it when I can’t figure out why the music moves me, quite literally – where I don’t recognise a song but it immediately resonates and I gotta throw shapes? However, I could pick out a few sophisticated classics when they played ”Je T’aime” and Nina Simone’s “I Think it’s Gonna Rain Today”. Just …. swooney!
But that was just the launch. It’ll be on a monthly loop. Y’all come back now ya here?
The Buffalo Bar, 259 Upper St N1 (1st thang you see exitin Highbury & Islington tube, right beneath Famous Cock)
Filed under general | Comment (0)8pm,Saturday 21 Nov – Country Dirt@The Buffalo Bar, Islington – free guestlist!
Radio Joy hosts a sparkling Saturday night’s musical entertainment at The Buffalo Bar, Islington
Lineup: Johny Brown & Inga, legendary Band of Holy Joy – www.bandofholyjoy.co.uk + Jamie Jamieson, 12 Dirty Bullets – www.myspace.com/12dirtybullets + Country Dirt – www.myspace.com/countrydirtband
Country Dirt - Sing out Sistah!
DJs: Gavin Martin, Del Fadele, Nick Halsted & Chris Carr
8pm-3am, £5 less’n ya comment below for the free guestlist
Buffalo Bar, 259 Upper Street N1 1RU 020 7359 6191 (nr Highbury & Islington tube, below The Cock)
Filed under general | Comments (5)And finally the 1st final – FRock RAWKS!!
Got some special mention on Gavin Martin’s FRock Blog for the big quiz finals – based on Pete Frame’s legendary Rock Family Trees – Wednesday 18th November at the historic Elgin pub in Ladbroke Grove. Thanks a trill, Gavin!
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And to close the evening came the amazing Country Dirt. I’m biased, of course. But they are great AND they got people dancing.
So great was the music and so good the chat afterwards that I ALMOST could forgive The Elgin ipod for – not once but twice! – breaking the cardinal rule of ANY venue with its eyes set on rock glory – NO COLDPLAY ON THE SOUNDSYSTEM.
Still a good time was had by All (All Green that is, brother of Al).
Lets do it agin, y’all.
http://blog.familyofrock.com/index.php/2009/11/and-finally-the-final/
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