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

RIP - Bert Jansch

(Thanks to Brother Don for the link)

Viv Albertine

Thursday November 3rd – The Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh (with The Tango Rhums)

Friday November 4th – Beat Generator Live!, Dundee
(with The Creeping Ivies, more support acts to be announced)

Saturday November 5th – Secret Show, details to be announced closer to the time

Sunday November 6th – Mono, Glasgow (with Aggi Doom)

Viv Albertine, ex-guitarist and main songwriter for highly influential, all female punk, and indeed Post-Punk band, The Slits, plays her first ever Scottish solo dates in November. A founding member of The Flowers of Romance with Sid Vicious, a band of legendary proportions in the punk scheme of things, but who never wrote a song or played a gig; and latterly of The 49 Americans, and Adrian Sherwood’s Dub-influenced collective, New Age Steppers. Viv retreated from Rock’n’Roll to study film-making in 1982 after the demise of The Slits, then working mainly as a director, mostly for television, throughout most of the 1980s and 1990s. Her freelance directing work included stints with the BBC and the British Film Institute

In 2009, she began performing as a solo artist, playing venues around London showcasing new material.. In March 2010 she released a four-song debut solo E.P. titled Flesh on Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore's Ecstatic Peace! label.

She additionally recorded a cover version of David Bowie's Letter to Hermione for the Bowie tribute album We Were So Turned On: A Tribute to David Bowie which was released on September 6, 2010.

Viv Albertine's debut solo album is scheduled for release in 2012, her first major recorded work in 25 years, and she is currently writing a book, to be published in tandem with the album release.

I'm having some computer problems so it seems like a good time to leave you with the latest David Lynch protege... I guess that it's not particularly safe for work either visually or sonically. Ain't them the breaks.

Maybe a wee recap is in order. The weekend disappeared faster than one would have hoped but the twisted turns weren’t completely devoid of entertainment.

Saw a couple of movies… “Fright Night” – a remake – isn’t too bad and is savvy and stupid enough to entertain. Mid way between an episode of Buffy and True Blood lite. It’s pretty good Saturday afternoon mind candy. Not a classic but neither is it an utter waste of two hours.

Which is more than can be said for “Cowboys and Aliens”. True tripe but not of a very high order. Liked the premise but is there some kind of union agreement where all monsters are modelled on a cross between Stripe and “Alien” (a la the original Ridley Scott-fest). Gave that guy Daniel Craig a chance and he blew it – unless his part was playing a lump of wood. In that case C+A is oscar material. Even as mindless pish goes, this was pushng it. Shame really because of the two, I didn’t expect this to be the clunker.

RIP - Sylvia Robinson