There is little I can add to what has already been written all over the web or Lindsay's on the ball post below. Suffice to say that I'd never imagined that the story of "our Beatles" would end so soon.
Johnny was the only Ramone I've never met in person, but at almost every of the two dozen or so shows I've seen 'm do over the years I always made sure I stood in front of his side of the stage just to get an extra earfull of the near static blur that emitted from his Marshall stacks. He was indeed, as Lindsay once called him, the eye of the hurricane.
In my teens I sat up night-after-night trying to play along to the It's Alive album (downstroke only!), like literally thousands of kids must have done, and often had to give up halfway 'cause my wrist started to hurt. He was the perfect rolemodel for a budding stringwrecker like me, and it was bizarre to learn later on that what must be the most influential guitarist of his generation hardly ever played on his own records.
If Johnny B Goode could play his guitar like ringing a bell, Johnny Ramone could do it so much faster 'n louder, to the point that the ringing in your ears wouldn't stop for days on end...

Rest in peace John.

Although expected, the news about John is a shock. Bruce said that he can't believe they're all gone and therein lies the whole entchilada.

You can see almost all of the bands in some shape or form that The Ramones immortalised. The Stooges, The MC5, The Dolls but not the combo that really put 'em all into some kinda perspective. My last encounter with John in person was an unfortunate one. I referred to Acid Eaters as Odor Eaters and incurred his wrath in the dressing room at The Glasgow Barrowlands. He couldn't get his head round the fact that I might be entitled to my opinion. That was in essence was the Johnny Ramone way, his or the highway. A few years earlier, I was standing in the queue in the Chelsea Post Office in NY and he came up to me and said "What are you doing here?" in his trademark brogue. I was thrilled that a Ramone had recognised me on his home turf.

In the end, where has all this rancour gotten anybody? One of the most important bands of all time is completely gone. Mark and various members of the UK Subs will never a Ramones covers combo make. I know that none of you will ever forget Joey but today, just today, blast your copy of The Eastern Dark's Johnny and Dee Dee at some considerable volume. John might have been a piece of work, but he gave until it hurt. They all did.

Just arrived to find a message from Brother Bruce Milne that JOHNNY checked out yesterday afternoon (Wednesday). He would have been 56 on October 7th (I think...)

I'm thinking back to the days before all this e-mail and cyberbollocks, what did we do with all that free time? The good old days never seemed so good let me tell ya. In a bid to rectify all the crap that has gone along with these things they call firewalls and anti-virus software, I have a guy who can handle these situations out to sort it all out once and for all gamely working his magic on the condition. One longs for the time when you could just apply a cream upon an area to clear up any irritation but these times are long behind we. Unfortunately, So - I'll be checking messages remotely - on and off - for as long as the "fix" takes. I was never sure what was going out and in anyway but after all this maybe I will. Thanks for your patience and indulgence.

Last week's interview with Tony Slug on VPRO is now available on-line here (It's in Dutch, so you foreigners might wanna skip this one).

A new John Waters movie is generally something to be celebrated and A DIRTY SHAME hits up US Cinemas on September 24th. It’s true, Cecil B. Demented was a clunker but he appears to be back on track with this one and the soundtrack would seem to suggest this also. The best thing about all this is the fact that he’ll no doubt be making appearances to promote it so if you get the chance to see him in person then take it. There are few more sussed, if any, on this planet.

It's not like HQ's turntable is doin' overtime these days, way too much at hand and when it's finally time for some relaxation I oft prefer to do some reading and enjoy some ever scarcer silence. So whenever I get these requests to post another "playlist" these days I generally pass the opportunity 'cause there's also little to no new stuff demanding my attention at the moment. Last year at least saw the release of a trio of fantastic rockin' discs by the Ghetto Ways, Dirtbombs and Reigning Sound, but 2004 has still to throw up something of similar quality.
Not that I'm without stuff to listen tho, heck, there's over a century of recorded music out there, and right now there's probably more of it available than ever, so I'm pickin' up my listening pleasures from all kindsa eras. Too bad most people 'll never know all the great sounds from the past beyond the flogged to death Mojo icons. I don't even wanna suggest that my taste in music is better than theirs, just that there's a world out there to discover if they'll only look...
So what does do the rounds on HQ's hi-fi these days?.
For starters, may I suggest The Droogs. Is there anybody out there who still remembers these guys?. Their 'Kingdom Day' LP from '87 is an underrated classic if ever there was one, even with the slightly dated production it holds up really well. Potential arena rock for sure, but one spin will confirm why this still generates excitement and Poison doesn't. Secundo plato has got to be something from the West Texas axis; Buddy Holly, Bobby Fuller or the Crickets, it's kinda frightening how much this kinda pop stuff has gone outta fashion, whatever happened to the Sprague Brothers anyways?. Why has the world forsaken the beauty of good tunes and cool harmonies in favor of the outta tune whine of trust fund collegists?.
Main course this go round are Otis Rush's Cobra recordings. Get these in whatever format available 'cause these are about as blue as the blues can get. The meaning of life encapsulated in just over two dozen songs, it just don't get better than this...
As for desert, let's go for the happy ending. BGP's Super Funk vol.4 is just about the wildest party disc in recent memory. Just don a loincloth and let the music guide ya. I'm sure your gal will understand...

More dates: The Fleshtones are out 'n about on September 18 (18.00 hrs, 36th St, Hampden, Baltimore, MD. More info at: hampdenfest.com) and October 29 (20.00 hrs, Irving Plaza, NYC. with the Smithereens, Dick Dale + guests).

The Nomads have a couple of Norwegian dates lined up for November: 11-11 Tromsö - Blå Rock, 11-12 Oslo - Mono, 11-13 Bergen - Garage. Then it's off to Demark: 11-20 Copenhagen - The Rock. And don't forget the previously mentioned October 23 show in Paris. Plus there's more good news from Nomads HQ: "Björne Fröberg and Chips K. are writing and making demos of new songs as we speak…no idea when enough material for an album can be ready, hopefully next year! In the mean time Bonnier Amigo will re-release the ’85 album “Outburst” on CD sometime this autumn/winter".

Only days after the first rough outline of a proposed Real Kids Euro tour (scheduled for early 2005) came to light, it now looks like the entire thing is canceled after the hospitalization of guitarist Billy Cole due to complications with his liver/hepatitis. No official statement on this yet, but word on the street is that his situation looks rather grim. So fingers crossed that he'll make it out OK. (Thanks to SJ Bink for the info).

Just in from Mr Martin Percival...

Today is the Ramones 30th Birthday celebration in LA. They'll be repeating this on Oct 7th in New York City at a 1,200 capacity club called "Spirit" on W.27th St. Blondie and the Strokes are confirmed to play. There'll be a mini "Ramones Museum" that Arturo is doing with lots of his and Johnny's memorabilia on display. Tickets go on sale next week.

Saw Adrienne Young last night at the Fallen Angels Club in Glasgow. Saddled with the albatross of supposedly being tipped to become "the next Gillian Welch", she ambled through a decent enough set with her group, Little Sadie. Fine players all. What concerned me about it was that it bears little resemblance to what GW is doing. These people play mountain music soaked in bluegrass to the point of folkie. There's no dust bowl chic involved as far as I can see. These kinda overblown expressions can really hurt an artist. They need to build and looking at their website they seem to be well organised, although there's a worrying link to the Phish site. Everything is expected to happen overnight now. This is ultimately the undoing of all "next big things". They did a live session on Radio Scotland's Brand New Opry just prior to the gig so I'll reserve any further judgement until I clock that.

The Rev. Dan P has come up with this little list for you folks in and around "The London"....

Saturday September 11th
The Pleiadians
The Second Coming at the 291 Gallery
291 Hackney Road, London E2 8NA – appearing late til 2am. 020 7613 5676 http://www.291gallery.com

Wednesday September 15th
Wreckless Eric
Madam Jo Jo’s
Brewer Street, London W1
(+ Thursday September 22nd at the Amersham Arms, New Cross)

Wednesday September 22nd
The Scoundrelles
+ unknown others TBC
at On The Rocks
25 Kingsland Road, London E2 – near Old Street tube. £ TBC

Friday 1st October 7pm
End of the Century + Arthur 'Killer' Kane
UGC Shaftsbury Avenue, London W1
Info: Raindance Film Festival http://www.raindance.co.uk/ 020 7287 3833
Booking http://www.ugccinemas.co.uk/ 0871 200 2000 Tickets on sale this Monday or Tuesday
Documentary about the Ramones (unlikely to be released officially due to copyright problems), plus excerpts featuring the late Arthur Kane from work in progress doc on the New York Dolls.

Plus next day Oct 2nd at 5pm Marky Ramone’s home movies and archive footage!

It doesn't happen often these days when you hear something on the radio that is actually good but imagine my surprise when Tom Morton played THE CONCRETES single. "You Can't Hurry Love" (not the Supremes song). 1 minute 55 seconds of sheer pop greatness and at this point in the day maybe even the future of something...? Naturally they're from Sweden, where bands tend not to suck.

Oh yeah and have a look at this, this it's pretty darn funny...

An intimation from the Boss Man c/o Staysick Group...

REAL BOSS HOSSpresents:

The return of...
The Legendary Stardust Cowboy!!
(First LA show in 8 years!!)

Also on the bill:

Big-haired, original '50s rocker extraordinaire, Jimmy Angel
- First LA show in 4+ years! (allegedly to be backed up by Ex Cramp/Hollywood Hillbilly, Fur.

Farfisa-driven garage punk slop from Arizona's The Okmoniks!

The return of those loveable weirdos, The South Bay Surfers!

Rockin' R&B Trash from Rockin' Ryan and the Real Goners!

WHEN? Friday, September 17th

WHERE? 1160 Bar & Lounge in The Ramada Inn
1160 N. Vermont Ave., Hollywood (323) 315-1835

Hosted by world famous comedian & impressionist James Andrew Beck!!

Every day (‘cept weekends) I drive though a little place called Throsk. I guess it was a mining village at one point and at one stage, not so long ago, it consisted of the one drag straight through. Since then though, local authorities – underwritten by insurance firms – have taken to building these things called Industrial Estates. These are places where they hope to build businesses that will replace the lifeblood that the mines and maybe farming once provided. Anyways, I digress… on the way home at night it means that I pass the sign for Bandeath Industrial Estate that has been doctored to read “death trial state” and it never fails to make my mind tick over. Maybe there’s a little metal combo called Throsk holed up in one of these “units” called DTS and this sign will be the cover of its debut release. It never hurt Hatfield and the North and they didn’t need to do no doctorin’. Maybe one of these days I’ll stop and take a picture… then again...

Bruce Milne informed us that Donald Leslie has left the theatre.

"Handsome Dick Manitoba has been promoted from his Left of Center gig to now be a regular DJ in The Underground Garage, Channel 25, on Sirius Satellite Radio every Saturday at 7pm-11pm and Sunday at 11pm-3am. (All times Eastern)". More info on the Dictators Website.

Please join us for *the* event of the season:



The Shooting Gallery & Tiki News presents
"Tiki Art NOW! A Volcanic Eruption of Art"

Don't miss this group show featuring over 60 artists from around the world paying homage to Tiki! This stunning display of neo-primitive images in captured in a 90 page full color catalog available opening night (or later from Shooting Gallery).

Gallery opening Friday, September 17th, 7-11pm
Shooting Gallery
839 Larkin St.
San Francisco, CA 94109
www.shootinggallerysf.com Tel: 415-931-8035

Image by Isabel Samaras
"Marcia Tamahine" Oil on wood (16 x 12 inches)