The Quattros are playing at my favourite-est venue on earth on Friday and I can't attend.

But maybe you could attend and represent me?

Premiere coming up at GFT in December. Full details soon.

I never heard this before but it's frickin' tops. Thanks to Mike Buck via the facebag. At least it's been good for something today.

Most likely not safe for work

RIP - Betty Driver

The Barracudas in Madrid on 2nd December. Another one that'll have to go ahead without me. Dammit. But hey, Wreckless Rigby will be here so I'm VERY happy about that. This is all based on surviving Nortonpalooza of course.

Under any normal circumstances, I would have deigned to attend one or both of these Los Plantronics shows in Englandshire but this is not possible. If you're in the vicinity then please roll up and represent me. Cheers.

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Crazy Clown Time!

Recent and ongoing events are making me re-evaluate stuff. Whether or not it’ll be possible to action any of these findings remain to be seen but we’ll see. I was recently made aware of this by Sir Francis Macdonald and hadn't heard it before but it seems very apt.

RIP - Donna Rose (Reeves)

I'm stunned to learn of the passing of my friend Donna.

Luckily for me. I got to see her for an hour or so last October in Camden when she was over visiting Barney Koumis and seeing Mack Stevens at Hemsby.

Qina, Tony and Vanessa and I hooked up with her for an aperatif. She joked that her husband - the one and only Brother Randall - would be jealous that she was meeting "a Scientist".

Donna was a trooper and not one for taking prisoners. She and Randy were - shit ARE - one of those great couples. They used to send me videotapes that I treasure to this day as I do the Robert Tilton T-shirt they did when they ran his "fan club". To top it all off, the road trip we did from Dallas to Springfield, Mo via Memphis and Black Oak (Arkansas) is indelibly stamped on my heart and soul. My brother just reminded me that my nephew Jamie was born when I was out there on the "In Search of Elvis" tour in August 1992. After that leg, I made my first visit to San Francisco to that historic meeting with another great rock'n'roll couple.

Randy recently told me to get my arse on a plane for the premiere of "Spinal Tape" in Dallas. Sadly I couldn't due to circumstances on this end but here is another example of how you should never hold back.

So long Donna. You made a difference to everybody you ever came into contact with. Not too many people can pull that one off.

Photo: Donna and I outside Elvis' gaff - August 1992

Once upon a time, well a little over two years ago, I met two kids in Spain that were about to set out on an adventure entitled “The Dahlmanns”. You know that I’m not one for expectations but the bar for this one was set ludicrously high but why wouldn’t it be? I mean, all the signs from the shows to the demos and the bush telegraph action suggested that big things were possible.

However, I was way less than prepared for what they’ve actually delivered.

Why what is left of the record business isn’t chasing them and pelting them with wads of money begging them to come on board and help save its sorry backside is beyond me. This isn’t some poxy indie scratchings assembled in a spotty youth’s room. Nope, this one harks back to a time when making a record was an event or rather when an album was a clunker free zone.

Eleven songs, each a teen pop anthem that weaves through stellar pop to glam punk with essence of folk rock and even country. Everything but the kitchen sink boiled down to create an effervescent classic that is capable of instilling genuine euphoria in a grizzled, cynical old Hector like me. Maybe you won’t recognise what’s happened to your face but that expression that will crack across yours is undoubtedly a smile.

“All Dahled Up” isn’t a record that requires to be accompanied by a thesis, or that should be explained. My f-f-fascination with Lines lyrics is my problem. On the face of it she writes like Jackie DeShannon and sings like a punk rockin’ Helen Shapiro. Blimey is right.

The cadence of Line’s voice is really quite exceptional. There’s a velvet clarity verging on being folky reeling around the ability to belt it out. Not once over the course of this piece does she bellow like one of those caterwauling over-singers (Expression © David Scott) that seem to plague us.

If something this plain good and pure and true can’t catch fire then there is simply no hope. End of. However, whatever... the pop thrills that radiate from “ADU” at least attest to the fact that it is still possible for rock’n’roll of this calibre of to be made.

So it appears that fine pop produce is making like the proverbial corporation bus (do they still have those?). Nothing for ages then two rattle along in unison and I can see a third a little way in the distance but I can’t tell you about that just yet.

Recently on farcebook, I alluded to the fact that I believed that this is equal to, if not better than the first Blondie album and I stand by that claim whether you agree or not. Actually, between this and the new Quattros opus – I’m finally getting the inkling of what it might feel like to be a proud parent or maybe doting grandfather is closer to the mark. But without any of the mess.

“All Dahled Up” will be available on CD from Pop Detective and on vinyl from Screaming Apple by the end of this month and hopefully shows in support of this momentous occasion will be forthcoming also. As soon as I know, you’ll know.

Photo by Pål Andreassen

I finally got to read Caryn Rose’s “B-Sides and Broken Hearts”. It’s an excellent snapshot of a world that quite possibly doesn’t exist anymore. Or if it does then sadly there’s all too little evidence of it doing so. In this case, familiarity does not breed contempt other than the fact that whenever these kind of obsessions are covered in print they seem to be compared to “High Fidelity”.

Dunno about you but I always preferred the film which is sacrilege in some quarters. I can reason this not least because it starts out with “You’re Gonna Miss Me” and MX-80 Sound’s “Hard Attack” appears in the front of one of the shop racks. We know these people is what I’m trying to say.

And I know exactly when I got the news about Joey and that sets the scene for this entire thing. Luckily I was with people that did understand the enormity. Lisa Simon wasn't so lucky. Some of this is pretty moving. I’m less inclined to go along with the premise that Pearl Jam ever made a listenable record. But hell, she even includes references to The Replacements version of “Black Diamond”. “B-Sides...” really is a superb haven and I wouldn’t be surprised if Santa is toting a number of these for lucky girls and boys that might enjoy a stay in this particular kind of universe.

It’s all about the passion that somehow seems to have gotten lost in recent times. The best book about music since JD King’s as yet criminally unpublished “Like A 45 at 33”.

All the details you need to snag a copy (or indeed copies) are here.

Groovie goings-on. A prime example of the inevitable.

(thanks to Brother Don for the link)

Another Friday, another raft of good intentions at this point in time. Saw “The Skin I Live In” last night and was a wee bit underwhelmed. I heard it was “uncomfortable to watch” but really it was an extended episode of “Tales of the Entirely Expected”. They yardstick being that if I can see the “twist” coming then it must be pretty bloody obvious.

Still, it’s well-assembled and Elena Anaya is hubba plus so no real harm done. Almadovar is a master craftsman to be sure but this lacked atmosphere despite the components themselves being exquisitely composed. I don’t know about art but I know how many beans make 10 when I start to fidget.

Been making a lot of stupid mistakes this last week or so. When I went to donate blood the other night I made a total horses arse of filling the form out. Things like this irritate the beejesus out of me. I’m jonesing for The Wurlitzer and a general dose of Spain methinks. Who’s going to the Norton bash? Please advise…

Got a bit of a deadline going for an important upcoming cultural artefact that I'll tell you about in due course. Also the scoop on "All Dahled Up" is just about ready to roll.

RIP - Charles Napier