simply thrilled honey

Just found this today in my garage while I was rummaging about looking for a big spanner that I needed so that I could try and fix my toilet cistern. My first ever gig promotion, whatever happened to Terry, The Gravy Train or This Almighty Pop come to that.

mrs robinson's daughter part three

Here is a link to an mp3 of the song I wrote about her when I was in Bulldozer Crash. Mrs Robinson's Daughter.mp3

We had joy we had fun (Mrs Robinson's Daughter Part Two)

Gable End of 184 Tindale Green. ("When a scabby football is your only friend, it's just you against the gable end")

A girl called Susan was my childhood sweetheart.

We moved to Tindale Green in 1973 and she did too. It was a new council estate that was still being built around us. They were known locally as the matchbox houses as they were built without roofs. Well, they had roofs just flat not pitched. I can't remember the day we first met,maybe it was at school or perhaps we just started playing together that first summer. One of my first memories is of a great big hill of soil, which we would run up and down and sometimes stand on the top singing "I'm the king/queen of the castle", that was until a bulldozer came and took all the soil away and flattened our hill. One day Susan was upset maybe even crying about something, don't remember why, but to try and cheer her up and make her laugh I started to walk towards the hill of soil and at the same time I dropped my trousers, it seemed to do the trick, she laughed anyway.

She was the first girl I ever kissed, she was too nice though because there was two of us who wanted to be her boyfriend so she used to share her kisses between me and Darren Slade. We would sit with Susan in the middle underneath Darren's window cill and she would kiss me first then turn her head and kiss Darren and then turn back to me and give me a kiss and this would go on and on until her lips were sore or one of us had to go home for our tea.


That fence is where our wall and fence was,probably long since replaced with this one.

There was a big fence with a brick wall in the middle near where Darren lived and we would all climb on top of the wall and sing songs but the only song I can remember is Cliff Richards "Summer Holiday", we use to belt it out at the top of our voices, yet none of the neighbours complained....."We're all going on a summer holiday for a week or two -oo -oo...."

There used to be a great big tree just across the grass from Susan's house that we used to climb, not too far up though because we were scared and still quite young, but one day we scaled up it . After we'd been up a while I managed to get down, but Susan's couldn't, so she told me to go and get her dad , and that was probably the moment I lost her forever. Her dad was a giant policeman so instead of going and telling him his daughter was stuck up a tree I went home and left her up there.


The tree almost in the centre is THAT tree.

Something else we would do together would be to lie on the grass side by side looking up at the clouds to see if we could see anything up there. I'm nearly certain we once some elephants in the sky, I once wrote a short story about it called "Elephant Clouds", must try and dig that out someday.

There are loads more I could write but I think I better wrap it up now with few lines of how it all ended.

We were in the same class for five years at senior school, so we continued to see each other everyday we were there. Things change I guess when you go to a big school, more people to mix with and I suppose it was there that we drifted apart, she had other boyfriends and I had other girlfriends, but still at the back of my mind I always thought I would one day go back to Susan and she'd welcome me with open arms. What a big head! I remember writing on a piece of paper that I would love her forever and pushing it down a gap in the floorboards of my bedroom in 184 Tindale Green. I wonder if that bit of paper is still there nearly 30 years later. We left school in 1983, I knew she'd got married when she was 18 and at the time I was totally gutted. We never spoke to each other again for 24 years, not until last week.


I took these photos last year sometime when I was feeling a little nostalgic while working in Tindale Green.

i saw you walking across the street and I saw the boy you were going to meet

I spoke to Mrs Robinson's Daughter today, for the first time in 24 years.

hair like a girl

"...john opened the bottle and there was this almighty pop!"

When she was about 15 my sister-in-law Esther , used to work as a waitress in the Bay Horse pub in Middridge. I would usually be round her house when she came in from work on a Friday night and would help her count her tips from the evening. One night she came in and said that her boyfriend John had opened a bottle of champagne and there had been this almighty pop! And so the name of my fanzine was born. I decided to resurrect the name for the gig me and Michael are organising next Sunday night at the Head of Steam in Newcastle. Hopefully it will be the first of many. It's the first gig that I have helped organise since the one to promote issue 3 and 4 of This Almighty Pop! at the Magnet Social Club in Gateshead way back in 1990 I think. It Featured The Lavender Faction, The Gravy Train (are you out there Malcolm?), The Love Parade and The Perfect Kiss. It was a disaster from start to finish, but I'll save that story for another time. Just wish I could find one of the posters advertising it, there was a great photo of Edwyn on it.The first 50 (wishful thinking?) through the door next Sunday will get a goody bag with badges, a mini zine and anything else we decide to put in between now and then. The theme for the evening is hair, which I think is rather cruel seeing as I haven't got much. If your in the area please come along and say hello.



last-fm gig link

it's gonna be, a lonley lonley day

I'm not sure if i am still classed as a matinee artiste anymore but I've been doing their year end poll and thought I would post my favourite songs of the last twelve months here . I don't think they were all released in 2007 infact I know they all weren't , but this is the year they let themselves known to my ears. In no particular order



1. The Clientele - The Queen Of Seville - This song sounds so lavishly expensive, diamonds, pearls, gold and silver. His voice is incredibly velvety, somewhere girls and boys must be swooning over it. Does it remind anyone else of Luke Haines or Green?

2. Sodastream - Warm July - I only just discovered them this year and then they went and split up a few weeks after I saw them play one of my favourite gigs. This song reminds me of painting Georges new house in Durham last summer and the journey back, wanting to race back to my ex-wifes so I could see Neave before her bedtime, but I usually found myself stuck in traffic at Nevilles Cross, singing along to this. Oh, how I love my iPod all those songs at the touch of a button or two.

3. Darren Hayman - Caravan Song - One of my biggest regrets of 2007 is not sticking around to watch Mr Hayman's performance at the Indie Tracks festival, I was shattered and just wanted to sleep so I buggered off early.Monday morning in the car on the way home after the festival, I just kept playing this song over and over again, the kind of song that makes me want to sing along to it at the top of my voice , I wish I could write a song that would have that effect on people.

4. A Smile and a Ribbon - Book Cover - Another band from Indie Tracks who were head and shoulders above the Fat Tulip sound-a-likes that everyone else seemed to be going crazy for at the festival. The opening lines of this song have been my own personal theme tune since first hearing it.



5. The Go! Team - A Version Of Myself - Almost shambolic and with a childlike beauty that stopped me dead in my tracks when it popped into my head while itunes was in shuffle mode. I feel terrible admitting it but I've been ripping CD's straight to my MacBook and listening to them on that before the CD actually makes it onto my CD player. I never thought I would ever do that .

6. Horowitz - Pop Kids Of The World Unite - Easily my favourites from Indie Tracks, their punky fuzzy wuzzy pop songs stole my heart while watching them, and if I wasn't quite so sensible but a younger and much dafter version of myself I would be spending my redundancy on starting a record label and I would want Horowitz to be on it. I guess though I better hold onto that money just incase those painting jobs don't come in for a while.

7. Cherry Ghost - 4 A.M. - I've been listening to far too many sad songs this year, songs that remind me of what I once had and that make me wonder if I will get anything like it again. The upbeat countrified feel of it still can't cheer me up, but I keep playing it over and over.



8. Jenny Lewis with The Watson Twins - Melt Your Heart - Another sad one with oh so true opening lines that also became a theme which I have had recurring through my days this last year. This one could easily make me cry if I listen to it too much.

9. Parker Lewis - Wasting Time - This band were introduced to me in the last week of the year , they have got loads of great tunes but this one has all the ingredients that I like .. a lazy vocal drawl , jangly guitars and oohwoohwooh backing vocals that embed themselves in your head, oh yeah and they are Swedish.

10. Duke Special - Last Night I Nearly Died - Apart from reminding me of my 6 day hospitalisation this year I do still think it's an almost perfect pop song, nothing much more to say about it.

the snow fell down

Nothing like a snowball fight and a bit of sledging to make you feel alive, even if my fingers did feel as if they were going to drop off.

i've got a chip on my shoulder, i've got a hole in my soul, got a heart that is broken and a story that has already been told

12.00 p.m. today was the deadline for when I had to let my employers for the last 24 years know whether I wanted the pittance of a redundancy they were offering me. I said yes. I don't fancy the alternative, which is to be transferred over to a private company who could send me to work where ever they want me to. So the plan is to start my own Painting and Decorating business, probably the only thing I am good at. So I should be really seeing has thats all I've been doing since I left school. It's all I have been thinking about the last few months and all over Christmas , lots of sleepless nights, a big decision, that I really didn't want to make but it's done now. So if anyone reading this needs a spot of decorating done and you live in County Durham , I'm the man for the job!

nothing is ever as good as it was

I've started ripping more of my cd's into iTunes over the Christmas holidays and in one of the crates of cd's was a copy of the unreleased Bulldozer Crash e.p. Accidental Bleeding. The five songs on it were once going to be released on James Brands' Maladjusted Electronics LTD label, but James just vanished never to be heard of again, so the songs have just been collecting dust ever since. I thought that I would stick one song up here , it's a little different to most of the stuff released on Sunday and Heaven records, I don't even think we used a guitar on this track. I was just getting used to using my computer to record audio. This session was the guinea pig session, so I'm not sure if all the distorted levels were intentional. I'd like to put all five songs up eventually but I really need to get permission from Marc first, seeing as the other four were all written by him, whereas this one was a joint effort. Are you there Marc, yay or nay? Over the last year I have a few requests for a Bulldozer Crash compilation, I don't think any label would be interested so it would have to be a self released one. I have been slowly remastering some of the songs Jyoti sent me from his master copies, so I would like to do it sometime, just not sure exactly when it will all come together.

Accidental Bleeding MP3

shaking, laughing and everything (I wish I was!)

I'm feeling a bit sad and lonely tonight so probably not the best time to be writing in my blog, I just thought I would write a list of some of stuff at this moment in time I really want to do next year, I hope I manage some of them, so in no particular order ....

1. record an l.p.
2. write a real fanzine
3. fall in love at least once
4. read more books
5. organise a gig in newcastle with michael
6. make a good go of working for myself
7. stop buying dvds and not watching them
8. buy more cd's
9. take more photos
10. go to more gigs
11. visit some of those ancient sites around Britain mentioned in Julian Cope's The Modern Antiquarian

porterfield 73

Ian Porterfield has died today. He scored the stunning goal for Sunderland against Leeds in the 1973 F.A. Cup final. It was a beaut. Me and Geoff also named the studio where we recorded all the Kosmonaut songs after him. When I was younger and enjoyed football I scored quite a few goals as Ian Porterfield then as Gary Rowell, then I started collecting records and wearing glasses full time and my football career and interest in it came to an end. I think I'll watch the final again on Saturday though.

and the world comes tumbling down

if i could settle down, then i would settle down

indietracks festival 28th and 29th July 2007 Midland Railway, Butterley.


Admittance code printed. Google Maps printed and numbered 1 to 4. Travelodge reservation printed. Camera and camcorder batteries fully charged. Clothes all packed. Time to go.

It seems so long since I was in Derby, once upon a time when we we young and foolish and thought pop music could change the world and Marc lived in Normanton we would head over to Jyoti's Satya studios all the time, well it seemed like every other month, but I know it wasn't . The streets of Derby have changed so much since my last visit, next time I come I will be investing in either a Tom Tom or Garmin Navigator, it's got to save me a fortune in wasted petrol and hopefully stop me driving the wrong way up and down one way streets. Google maps are not ideal when your driving on your own , it's far too dodgy trying to read directions aswell as keeping an eye on the road.

I finally found my way to Butterley Railway station. It's really nice and quaint, my Uncle Brian would love it, he's really into his trains these days. It's very 50's with a Railway Children vibe about it. I got my ticket for unlimited steam train travel for the weekend. I decided to leave my car and go for my first ride up to Swanick Junction where all the action was taking place. The train ride was over far too quick, as I stepped onto the platform I could see indie kids and indie old folks all over the place. I thought I was going to be outnumbered by all the young 'uns but didn't feel out of place at all.

I went to the big engine shed to get my red wristband ,free indie tracks badge and buy a copy of the festival guide. I managed to catch the last couple of songs from the first band of the day the Loves, then my tummy started rumbling so it was over to Johnson's Buffet for a cup of tea and a ham bun. Then it was time to leg it back over to the shed for The Hermit Crabs, who Jimmy Matinee has been known to rave about. After their I walked out and bumped into Jyoti, who was taking care of Cats On Fire for the day. When they took the stage they looked like pop stars in the making, especially Mattias the front man with a ton of style and attitude. You can just tell he knows he's probably in the best band of the festival, just the way it should be. Their guitar infused music was incredibly exciting and thrilling and a total pop experience that reminded so much of the first time I saw The Love Parade at the Broken Doll , they put a great big smile on my face, I just wish I could grow my hair like Mattias , oh how I long to have a quiff again!


Seeing Rose McDowall live was one of the big reasons for me coming down to the festival, I loved Since Yesterday so much. I can remember it being played on Radio One for months before it was a hit . They did a live session on Richard Skinners Saturday afternoon show probably around that time , they played a beautiful song called Sunday Morning and that was I think my first introduction to the Velvet Underground. I wasn't really expecting any Strawberry Switchblade songs but I was crossing my fingers, hoping that just maybe. Rose played her set in the Church and I loved it, not only did she do Since Yesterday and Trees and Flowers but Sunday Morning and a beautiful version of April Skies to finish with. I managed to camcord some of the songs with my new camcorder, but I really should have had more practice with it before the festival, it might make you feel sick when you watch it. I'll put it up on YouTube as soon as I get chance, at least you'll be able to hear the songs.

I never saw the Orchids in their Sarah heyday so I wasn't going to miss this one. It was a treat to hear some of my favourite ever songs played live for the first time. Everyone knows the songs so well but hearing them live they seemed even more uplifting.. I've never seen a bass player so high on playing , he looked like he was having the most fun out of any of the bands I'd seen all day. A George Clooney look-alike commented to me the next day that he reminded him of Mani's dad!

I didn't stick around for the How does it Feel disco, thought I'd better find my Travelodge in Mansfield , I left it too late to get into the one at Alfreton, I won't let that happen next time. It took me about an hour to find it, according to Google maps it was only 22 mins away. Still better than camping out.

Got up on Sunday morning and headed for the festival, first band on were A Smile and a Ribbon who I didn't want to miss as one of there members is Chris/Kris the author of the excellent And The Rain Fell Down blog, which like one of my other favourite web sites Tangents has ceased to exist. They didn't disappoint either, a fine blend of all the best girl bands going as far back as the fifties, certainly not Fat Tulip/Talullah Gosh copyists as I had been lead to believe. They looked the part aswell, not sure which one was Chris though.

Then it was over to the church for Horowitz who were probably my favourite band of the weekend. There was only three of them and a drum machine but they made the poppiest , fuzziest and catchiest perfect pop tunes. One of them is apparently a ex-Rosehip , a band who they said received their very first fan mail from my friend Michael Robson , each member sent him a separate reply, so he told me the other night. Jyoti remarked that there was something a bit Bulldozer Crash about Horowitz, I had to agree and maybe thats why I liked them. The singer also a reminded me of Pete Shelley when he was rolling his eyes up to the sky. I bought the bands LP and their Tracyanne single and if you are after some exciting pop blasts I suggest you do the same. Every now and again I toy with the idea of starting a record label , if I was to start it next week instead of fitting a new kitchen I would ask Horowitz if they fancied being on it.

Another band who I would want on the label would be Countryside who may have been the youngest band at the festival. The noise they made was gorgeously warped yet splendid. I've no idea what FX pedals they were using but the sound that was being coaxed out of their guitars and synths was dreamy.

The last band I saw was Wake The President who were much better than the "new Belle and Sebastian" label some have tagged them with. They've got there own sound and style, I loved all the songs I heard so I was gutted that I'd only managed to squeeze into the packed church halfway through. The finale was their cover of Psycho Killer, where they managed to get the whole audience up on there feet.

I buggered off after them, I was shattered, shame I missed Darren Hayman as I have since grew to love his Caravan Song. It was a great weekend and I really enjoyed my first festival. If I'd known they were as good as this I wouldn't have waited until I was 40. As I was checking out of my hotel in Mansfield on Monday morning I passed two of the guys from The Electric Pop Group , I was going to say something but didn't.

last night i nearly died but i woke up just in time

I don’t know what is going wrong with my insides, but I have just spent the last six days in hospital with terrible stomach pains and a temperature spiking at 40 degrees at times. I have never felt so ill in all my life, at times I really did think maybe I was never going to get better. I had been having pains in my stomach for a couple of weeks and everytime I went to the toilet I would double up in agony, not wanting to go to the doctors I just put it down to eating something dodgy and my insides would put it right on their own. Only that didn’t happen, the pain just got gradually worse, until last Thursday night when it felt like hot lava was running through my veins one minute and the next I was camped out on Everest with no clothes on unable to stop shaking .

I decided tomorrow I would go to the doctors and get sorted, so I did. She wasn’t impressed I’d waited so long and immediately had me admitted to hospital. Then the tests began, I won't go into all the gory details, but it was very painful. They found out that I had an Urinary tract infection, but that didn't explain the stomach pains or the high temp, I was put on a drip and given tablets to bring down my temp. Over the next 5 days, I was suffering with high temps, low temps, low blood pressure, a blood thinnning drug was stuck straight into my stomach with a couple nurses saying, there wasn't much to get hold of. I was put on an antibiotic drip, then in tablet form which brought me out in red blotches all over my body as soon as I took one, but they made me take another just to make sure that thats what I was allergic too, so I took another one later in the day and sure enough I went ever redder and blotchier. Another sample came back and I had a small bowel infection, but apparently that wouldn't have caused the high temp either.

I couldn't sleep on a night, because I was sharing a room with someone who talked out-loud in their sleep, someone else who snored at incredible volume and another who was a sleep walker.When I did get to sleep I kept having Life On Mars moments, Jack Regan, Kojak and Kwai Chang Cain featured heavily , saving my life on numerous occassions.

I'm so glad that I had treated myself to an ipod for an early 40th birthday present to myself, the battery just managed to make it until I got discharged, I just wished I'd had time to put a few video clips on to watch before I went in, but I guess the batteries wouldn't have lasted quite as long. Have to go back and have a scan on my kidneys in a few weeks. But for now I'm just pleased to be home. Now I'll quit whinging, I'm still alive.

my last fm album quilt and recently played widgets

Isn't that sweet?

She changes colour with the sky, as the cars go rushing by

Took Neave to see the Angel of The North today, she'd seen it on Nina and the Neurons last week, and recognised it from trips to Newcastle and the Metro Centre and asked to go and see her. It's quite disgaceful living only 20 odd miles away from her and never actually going to see her until now, I just got used to passing her on the A1, and that seemed enough. I knew she would be big but standing right next to the giant rusting 50's sci-fi movie robot with wings made me feel so small. I was quite disappointed with Gateshead Council for allowing BNP graffiti to be daubed on the angels feet and the dog poo smeared up them was an unpleasant sight. Apart from that though she's incredibly impressive.


Created with Paul's flickrSLiDR.

I woke it was the first of may, wading through cherry blossom falling

I used to always try to play this song by the Rain whenever it was the first of May, if I ever forgot I would be gutted because it just wasn't the same playing it a day later. I had been thinking about it today and would have loved to have heard it, but like all my vinyl, it's still in a crate at the back of the garage. I probably would have hunted it out tonight if my garage door wasn't broke so I can't get it. New door been fitted tomorrow though. I usually check the Rain fell down blog and noticed a new entry today DROP 55 is all about the Rain song and there is a downloadable mp3 available, have a listen to hear a lost classic, and then remember to play it early on the morning of the first of May next year for best effect. Chris/Kris who writes the rain fell down blog, didn't think the song had been released but I have definately got it on an LP by the Rain , with this song on it,I think it's called To The Citadel, can anyone confirm this?

Me and Neave had a walk in Bluebell Wood on Sunday morning, well I walked she scootered, took my new camera that I am still fumbling about with so photos aren't that great,but put a few up on flickr if anyone fancies a look.

if only i had john lennon's hair, i'd shake my head wildly and sing yeah, yeah,yeah!

Just thought I would post a few MP3's from the Denver single that was put out on the Spanish Elefant record label back in 1996 (I think). My favourite band at the time were Felt, (they are still up there in my top 10 of all time) as you might be able to tell if you have a listen to "World of Pages" . I recorded the songs on my Tascam 688 just after Bulldozer Crash decided to go on an extended vacation. "World of Pages also features the keyboard wizardry of Jyoti Mishra who also indirectly named the band . I used to always have short hair, then for some foolish reason decided to grow it and Jyoti said I looked liked John Denver ( I always thought more Harvey Williams), so again I foolishly thought Denver sounds like a good name for a band! If only I'd been thinking ahead and thought that with a name like Denver the chances of my bands name ever coming up during a Google search was going to be zero! The b-side "Elizabeth Brown's Wedding Day" was me trying to sound all summery like Long Hot Summer by the Style Council and failing miserably. I have also included the song "You, Me and Brian Epstein" recorded at around the same time and released on a compilation CD from America which I never received a copy of. If you would like to have a listen to the songs you can download them from my public Box.net account here....

world of pages 7"

i was bitter for a while but now i know it's true, look for the good in others and they'll see the good in you, fa fa fa faaaa

Once again it's been a while since I wrote anything in my blog. I thought once I bought this MacBook I would be keeping it more up to date with at least one entry a week. I have been adding bits to my northern electrix web page a little more regularly. There has been a free mp3 download of Ocean Child which managed to use up all my regular bandwidth allocation on my web providers server so I had to upgrade to another GB , which was duly used up. Thankfully it was the end of the month so my bandwidth got reset on the 1st. Every thing seems to have died down now, I think it was the review on indie-mp3.co.uk that created the traffic. I'm not complaining though , hopefully a few of those who downloaded the song liked it.

David Macmillan the Radio Cleveland DJ who has been playing Spaceage Superstar has asked me to go on his radio show to talk and play some more of my songs. It's one of those things I've always wanted to do while I've been in bands, it's just a shame I'm doing it on my own instead of when I was in a band. I am really happy about doing it, but scared about it it as well.

Like loads of people for the last few years I have been buying all sorts of stuff off the internet , records, dvds, music equipment, computer bits and bobs and local farm produce. Everything has been fine until last week when I noticed a couple of payments on my card that I didn't recognise. So I googled the name of company and it was connected to online poker sites, knowing that I hadn't visited one of those sites , my heart sank, some bastard has my card details and spending my money. But who? It could be any number of the company's where I have bought goods from in the last few years. I didn't notice the unauthorised payments until 3 days after they occurred and it was 11 at night. I still searched for numbers for my bank. The fraud department was shut. Customer services couldn't help , the cancel your card number kept hanging up on me and the lost or stolen number couldn't cancel it because it wasn't lost or stolen, even though I said "OK then it has been lost", they still wouldn't cancel it. So I had transfer all my money out into another account in case they tried to use it again before I got to the bank to cancel my card. Now I can't get any money out for five days when my new card arrives. It has made me rethink my use of my card on the internet. I'm so used it. Not sure what to do. But I'm pissed off.


I've decided to board out my loft so I can get loads of the stuff that is blocking up my garage into it, so that I can then convert that into a room that I can use as a recording studio. Even though I have just set up all my gear in the corner of my bedroom. You wouldn't believe how happy having all of musical equipment at my fingertips has made me feel. I haven't recorded anything yet, I'm just re-acquainting myself with it all. Some of it has been boxed for over three years. It was packed away before Neave was born. Lifting some of it out of their boxes was like when I first bought them. Back to boarding out the loft, it was going so well until I came out, tidied everything away hoovered up etc, then went to turn the light on and nothing! I must have screwed through an electric cable without releasing it. Shit and bricks. I couldn't be arsed to go back up that night and sort it so I did without lights upstairs for a night. Next morning I was back in the loft looking for the hole in the wire . I ended up taking up every board that I put down the day before and some from the previous week, but could I find the damaged cable, not likely. So I went back down tried the lights and the buggers worked fine. All I can think is I kinked one of the cables and then unkinked it whilst looking for the damage. Arrggghhh, now I have got all those boards to put down again. I may have damaged a few in my anger to find that cable.