i tried to laugh about it, cover it all up with lies, I tried to laugh about it, hiding the tears in my eyes

flower and chocolate

Neave's guinea pigs.

she carved his name into a tree , etched a heart t.l.f.e.

could this be the start of something? could it be the end of a phase? could it be the start of the future? could it be the good old days?

I know you really shouldn't take months to write a fanzine, but it's been 18 years and I was a little rusty around the edges. Finally it's here though, this almighty pop! number five, I hope someone enjoys it and my spelling mistakes and bad grammar don't spoil it too much. It comes with what I think is an excellent compilation CD, and is on my this almighty pop record label, which I am about to start this month. The first band on the label is Play People and you should be able to buy their CD single by the end of next week. I will also be selling the last bunch I have of the first four issues of this almighty pop as a package deal, as much as I have liked them hanging around in my garage for the last 18 years it's time for them to find new homes, thats if anyone will have them. For details on the new fanzine, the record label and the old fanzines head on over to www.thisalmightypop.com

this almighty pop! number five .... about bloody time!

I found this amongst the this almighty pop original photocopies, I can't remember but maybe it was meant to go in number one. I just wish I could find the tape Kevin Pearce sent me with those songs on.

Where's Clare Grogan Now?

I share my birthday with a silver beatle

the winter turns to springtime,
and the springtime turns to summer,
we discover how we've lost another year


And your lips were warm your hands were cold
I never thought I'd feel this old
Isn't grey hair just the first light of a new dawn?

all words © withered hand new dawn

sunny day and i'm looking for her you see

I'm not normally the gloating type but I had to mention the wonderful little pop artifact that dropped through my letterbox the other day. It's a small 3" cd-r , lovingly put together by Kris of Heaven Is Above Your Head and who is also the ace guitarist with A Smile And A Ribbon. I really didn't want to break into to it, but I had to, I managed to loosen the red thread that was holding it together and place the mini cd into the player, there is a great selection of songs on it, some I'd heard, some I hadn't and some I'd forgotten all about like Po!'s "Sunday Never Comes Around".


Sweet Sixteen by A Smile And A Ribbon gets mentioned in an earlier post below and it's nice to hear it again after the bands triumphant UK tour. Once I get This Almighty Pop! number five finished, my next silly idea is to start a cd-r record label and I want to release something by A Smile And A Ribbon but I fear by the time I get around to it they will be just too big or just say no when I ask them.

Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam

I'm on a mission to expose my 4 year old daughter to what I think is good music, before it was bedtime tonight her favourite two songs were Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam by the Vaselines and Doing It Right by the Go Team, . Not a bad start.

In return she's promised to teach me some new chords.

apples are good

I am forever downloading songs from other peoples blogs so I thought it only fair that I start and do a few play lists myself. I've been bringing in the odd crate or two of my 7"s out of the garage and these songs are the ones that caught my eye and needed to be played. They are all a bit crackly as in their time they were played quite a lot and it seems I didn't look after them as I thought I had. No real theme to them but I have noticed quite a few scottish and north east connections.


Speak to me Rochelle always reminded me of Orange Juice. Oranges and Lemons is from the Prescriptions one and only 7", it is an organ led garage theme from 1960's Hartlepool. For some time Jesse Garon and the Desperadoes were one my favourite bands and The Adam Faith Experience was one in a line of perfect singles. Me and Michael were just talking about Prefab Sprout the other night on the way to the Jens Lekman gig at the Cluny so Lions in my own garden (exit someone) needed a play. Freak Storm was (i think?)the first Hellfire Sermons single, I've just ordered their compilation CD from Bus Stop I wish it was here now. Make It Better was co-written by Terry Gibson who I put my first gig on with. I wish there was a Gravy Train compilation I could order from Bus Stop or any label come to that. Honey Trap were a band that I saw at the Broken Doll and I seem to remember their music reminded me of Felt, Make Me Happy has guitars that could almost be from Poem of River, Riding the Equator in particular. Cincinnati brings to mind Strawberry Wine MBV ,even though I can't remember thinking that at the time. I Remember Caroline is from a test pressing of Watercolour 3 (was it ever properly released?) it sounds a little warped and has some terrible surface noise, sorry. Ain't That Always The Way, I've got a tape of Paul Quinn and Edwyn doing this and Pale Blue Eyes live on radio one but I've no idea where I might find that. I love the way they released Little Things even though Terry Hall is pissing his back off and swearing halfway though.



1. Speak To Me Rochelle / The Desert Wolves 2:27
2. Oranges And Lemons / The Prescriptions 3:20
3. The Adam Faith Experience / Jesse Garon and The Desperadoes 3:06
4. Lions In My Own Garden (Exit Someone) / Prefab Sprout 2:35
5. Freak Storm / Hellfire Sermons 3:33
6. Make It Better / The Gravy Train 3:38
7. Make Me Happy / Honeytrap 2:38
8. Cincinnati / Holidaymakers 2:26
9. I Remember Caroline / The Sweetest Ache 3:04
10. Ain't That Always The Way / Paul Quinn 3:07
11. Little Things / The Colourfield

download apples are good

i fell in love with a girl

It was mine and Michael's first Popklubb experience on Saturday night, we've arrived at the party late , seeing as it has been going since 2006. The venue is really nice, not sure but it must be some sort of working mens club , a really nice big hall, it had to be for the amount of people who turned up. The live music was provided by one of my favourite Swedish bands A Smile And A Ribbon, they played a storming set. Quite a few new songs I'd not heard before but I wanted to hear again straight away, like Sweet Sixteen. There were six in the band this time as they were joined by a saxophonist who embellished some of the songs beautifully , especially when he picked up the flute. He did have a flute didn't he? They also feature on guitar my joint favourite blogger Kris from Heaven Is Above Your Head, it seems such a long time since someone has wrote so enthusiastically about the music that they love. Kris told me that not all of the band are into indie music and infact the drummer is a guitarist in a hardcore thrash band. They all wore Black Flag t-shirts at the gig before this one.

Just before they played their last song The Boy I Wish I Never Met, Kris dedicated a song to an old band called Bulldozer Crash, which made me smile a lot. The rest of the band as well as the crowd looked puzzled and bemused as I think only me and Kris had heard of them, still it made my night as I've not had a song played for me since the Love Parade gigs all those years ago.

I also fell love (again!) on Saturday night, she had the nicest smile I have seen, no really she did, she danced nearly all night with her friend and her friends boyfriend, but I just sat, cos I can't dance for toffee, anyone know of anywhere I can I get indie dance lessons in the north east? I guess it goes without saying that of course I didn't even talk to her, I don't even think she noticed I was there. She might be at Jens Lekman tomorrow night, fingers crossed!(She wasn't but her friend and boyfriend were) Not that I'll speak to her then either. Dear me, I'm sounding like a daft teenager instead of a forty year old, ahhh... so fuck!

I run to her house like it's all downhill

If only I had someone's house to run to like it's all downhill. Actually maybe I don't as I'm not as fit as I was when I was 19, and I'd probably have a heart attack before I made it half way. Reading parts of Fresh Air last night reminded me to give this Waltones track a spin . I just recently added it to my iTunes library so I thought I would share it. I first heard a song called Bold by them on a flexi-disc with the fanzine Irresponsible Spirit and it has remained a favourite, even the crackly whirry flexi version that I have also recently ripped. There is a compilation of everything they did available from Cherry Red called You've Gotta Hand It To 'Em. As much as I love my crackly vinyl it might be nice to have them all in one place , there is also a few unreleased songs on it. The Corn Dollies were another band who were on Medium Cool who I really liked, I must dig out Forever Steven and Be Small Again two more perfect songs. One of which was produced by Robert Forster but I can't remember which one. Here is the Waltones songs , enjoy the static.....
Bold
Downhill

remember arthur seaton said he wouldn't be beaten

This was in amongst my fanzine originals. I once had it printed onto a t-shirt and thought I looked cool as fuck. When I look at it now I'm not sure I got the words right. Was it "wouldn't" or "won't"? Time to find that Pale Fountains LP in the garage, I hope those mice can't eat their way through my plastic record cases.

fresh air

I did a little tidying up in my garage today, only to find it was being used as a home for at least one family of mice, which wouldn't have been so bad if they hadn't used my fanzine collection for bedding, quite a few have sadly been destroyed, fanzines that is not mice. The little blighters have also been nibbling away at the originals of This Almighty Pop, but Fresh Air managed to escape intact. The only fanzine I sold every issue of, well I only printed 100 and sold them for 20p. I've just scanned and printed myself a copy, if you fancy doing the same I've also done a PDF of it that can be downloaded here Fresh Air

I love the way you look when you forget yourself

See I haven't forget, will get it in the post this week. For the same photo effect go here http://labs.wanokoto.jp/olds

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

I very nearly forgot to give it a spin today. It would have been nice to have put this on my ipod and woke to it this morning. Never mind, maybe I'll remember next year. If your reading this and it's still the first of May download it from Kris's old The Rain Fell Down blog here...

The Rain - First of May

Oh dear, I had a funny feeling that I was starting to repeat myself, now I'm sure I am ....... First Of May 2007

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.