The Party Crashers

Hello,

More photos!! On the last day of the work before Christmas, I got home and switched on the TV, to see, on the local news, the Winter Festival by the Thames. The reporter explained that this was a recently resurrected fair that had, over a century ago, occurred every time the Thames froze. The Victorians, would set up stalls, sell their wares and put on bear fights & elephant rides on the frozen river.
Of course there was no such fun in the new millenium, just hot dog stands and a couple of bands.

We decided to take a trip down there. We got off at Waterloo, walked along to the river in the bracing cold. There was no sign of any reporters, or stalls, no smell of German hot dogs, no coconut shy, no whoops from a rodeo bull. We carried on walking and looking up and down the side of the river. By now my fingers were more like frozen baby carrots.We ended up crossing the Thames over to Charing Cross. From the bridge we saw a large tent as big as a hangar just behind Embankment. Could this be it? We investigated.



We walked around until we found an entrance. There was a red carpet and 2 man-size golden oscars either side. Smartly dressed couples were arriving in taxis and walking in. Not dressed for any occasion we followed them in.

Green On Red Reunion & Chuck Prophet Solo January 2006

Weekend Junk

Hello
Here's my weekend prospects:
girlfriend's working Saturday, I'll have to do the shopping run solo! I've got £5 off Ocado so I may do that if I get round to it and can book a slot.

I am then planning to try to start to record a version of Alice Cooper's Billion Dollar Babies in my bedroom with a drum machine! I'm going to record the actual song on my recording device and play and record along with it. Hopefullly this will produce an absolutely immaculate version.... maybe not, who knows? Maybe I'll tire myself out just unplugging and plugging all the connections (this often happens) .

On Sunday I got a man Simon, from Tunbridge Wells coming round to play.

Well big plans there, at worst I'll probably just surf the weekend away on MySpace - latest addiction - and have an afternoon sleep.
And maybe do a yoga session with my Geri video.

Billion $ Babies - If you don't know it it goes like this :

Billion dollar baby
Rubber little lady, slicker than a weasel,
Grimy as an alley
Loves me like no other lover.

Billion dollar baby
Rotten little monster, baby, I adore you.
Man or woman living couldn't love me like you, baby.

We go dancing nightly in the attic
While the moon is rising in the sky.
If I'm too rough, tell me,
I'm so scared your little head will come off in my hands.

The Maintenance Man

I've got action trousers
For tools and bits of wire
I'm waiting on a fuse
To fix the men's hand-dryer

Call me when you need me
It won't cost you too much
I can build you a new office
Or fix your radiators up

I am a maintenance man
A maintenance man, I am, I am
I drive around in a big white van
I am a maintenance man

You'll see me up a ladder
Or waving from the roof
I'll stay for a quick cuppa
But then I'll have to make a move

I've got action trousers
For bits of fuse and wire
I'm waiting for a washer
To fix the tumble-dryer

I am a maintenance man
A maintenance man, I am, I am
I drive around in a big white van
I am a maintenance man

My Passions

Buttered Popcorn
My passion for microwaved popcorn, from Sainsburys, started when I began going to the cinema last year. Popcorn cravings - who invented it?

Gorging myself on FriendsReunited.The girl who used to give me Chinese burns in the playground, do star-turns in front of the whole school assembly, sing dressed up in stars and stripes is now doing aPGCE in geography. Then there is the girl who married the class bully on a rainy playtime and Mrs Hamson lent them her ring to complete the ceremony. She is working for deprived kids inLiverpool.

The Beach Boys I wake up on Saturday morning with a childish glee. I don't have the attention span for cartoons especially on my black and white TV. So to perfectly augment my mood I stick on The Beach Boys hits; California Girls, Help Me Rhonda, I Get Around etc. I groove around for a bit then go and cook my breakfast.

Rock Biographies - When I get a good one I give myself eye strain. Recently I've read ABBA, Steve Earle and Motley Crue.

Tea - I drink nine to ten cups of tea a day. Three in the morning before work, three at work and a couple when I get home. At the weekend I push it up to 10-12.

Sketching - I have recently taken up sketching(well Tuesday). These pictures take a lot of hard work and dedication and can enrich the whole of society. If anyone wants to purchase a framed colour print out with a gold-plated dedication, they can pay me £775.15. This can be paid in two instalments of £500.00, taken out of the buyer's salary. Of course the money will go to homeless, orphaned, refugee children that live in my flat.

Shopping for cheap CDs over the Internet. I used to do this in real life trying to pick up bargain CDs. This, however, involves hours of leg work all over London. I've swapped the legwork for fingerwork purchasing via mouse.

Watching gigs - I don't like standing and I don't like getting my ears blasted off but I try to watch a band once a month just to get out of the house - what else is there to do?

My First Kiss, My Worst Date

My first kiss took place when I was hiding in a dark cupboard in primary school. A girl opened the door, kissed me, then ran off. She was about my height but I never got a good look at her. I was in love with her for about three years after that. But I never found out who she was.

My worst date was with a girl called Lydia or something awful.We went to a fancy dress party. She came as the Statue of Liberty. I probably went in jeans and an old cardigan, which was a good impression of dust bowl migrant. Lydia was really tall, about six foot. Far too tall for me. The car ran out of petrol on the way home.It was a miserable night.

Pedal Steel for Pedal Steel

Hi there! Current band, Flatliners, me and anyone who wants to play. Notes I made below in diary type form:

Thursday 5th January 2006

Working on getting BJ Cole to lay down some pedal steel on Pedal Steel.
Plan B: get BJ and the Bear & Old King Cole and abbreviate on the liner notes.
Could get my lap steel out - I do a good cat fight impersonation on it but I'm no Cindy Cashdollar.

Will it be too obvious to have some pedal steel on Pedal Steel ?- Could be... but not if it's any good.

Okay I'm off for a hot bath, with magical spa attachment and bubbles -
... Mmm ... odd... that sounds like something Vince Neil might say!

..........Okay for all you bath-watchers the spa bath event was slightly stressful, even though I had a technician (who claimed to know what they were doing) to operate it. Think our bath's too small. If you want a tsunami in a box then this is what you need. I had to hold on tight to my Pingu soap to stop him being washed overboard


Sunday 8th January 2006

Blister on index finger from messing with lap steel.


Friday 13th January 2006

Er... many thanks BJ Cole - I love it, I'll really have to get to work sprucing up the rest of the track. Bet Robbie didn't make you tea and get out his lap steel to show you.

Results below:

http://www.myspace.com/1000flatline

Assorted Chuck Prophet Photos

Nikki Sudden - Golden Lion, Camden, London

Camden Golden Lion, London, Sunday 5th January

This is a regular boozy, smoke-thick Sunday afternoon laid on by Big Steve of the Arlene's and Alan Tyler of the Alan Tyler Band's. The music-lovers mix with locals in this north London pub.
This particular Sunday afternoon in January was Nikki Sudden..., in too-short and too wide navy-velvet trousers, and velvet crimson jacket(He must've reached the bottom of his suitcase, as he is passing through London on his way back home to Berlin)

There is rumour of Dave Kusworth coming down from Birmingham to join Nikki on stage.

The DJ plays lost country, blues and rock'n'roll songs.The discs sound perfect, and it is very relaxing watching him careful pour out the 7" from the jacket andcalmly cue up the record whilst listeningon his headphones. It's something akin to a white-gloved snooker referee placing the opening white on the table.

Nikki comes on and rolls into his song about carpets.Carpet on the table ....carpets on the floor... - Mess With Me, off Jewel Thief.

Then he seemingly draws the whole room in around him with the sublime and ultra-depressing Kissed You Twice, the opening lines 'moved across the river so tired of watching my mother's TV'. I don't think I breathed until the end of the song.He said he wrote it in Brixton.

Then there was the new song Nikki-Sudden-by-numbers Stay Beautiful & Bruised. And another to go on the new album, called Wooden Floor. Then the shining classic 'You Belong to Me'.
Mid-way through Nikki announced that Kusworth's train had been derailed, but as a consolation prize we got Daryl Bath (Diamond Dogs, Dogs D'Amour, Quireboys, Ian Hunter...and many more). He idled up looking a little worse for wear. His movements when he played wereexactly like a Thunderbird puppet. It was hard to tell if this was his style or if he was not incontrol of his limbs.

Wild Horses is played with Daryl's voice joining Nikki's for the chorus. Daryl's soloing however is electrifying, especially when I was expecting him to fall over at any minute. His voice is a surpriseit's a little cockney voice. If you told me that as a child Daryl Bath played the Artful Dodgerin the stage version of Oliver I wouldn't be surprised.

Also played was the wonderful drinking-boys-together standard Ronnie Lane's Debris. The drinking,the smoke, the music it takes me right back to sitting in a pub in the 70s, ... when I was ... er ........7 or 8! Well it's true it somehow how does.

The whole gig was over too soon, short but sweet and Nikki was off to record a new Jacobites album.

Nikki Sudden Review - The Crypt, Camberwell, London

Hi there,
Here are a couple of reviews I wrote, looking for a home.

Nikki Sudden - The Crypt, Camberwell, London, UK

We showed up about 8. Amazingly it was free. It turned out to be a MAD Pride benefit night, but I've not idea how they could've made any money as the drinks were cheap too.
Nikki was sitting a corner by the door with one of his young women. He looked fantastic - blue suit with matching embroidered scarf, shortish cropped hair.

Before Nikki took the stage there were poetry readings. It took a bit to get use to but they soon turned surprisingly good; an old man ranting about love andsitting in parks, fish and chips, the state of the nation and how its not like it use to be.

After the poetry readings was a mod/punk support covers band. Not bad - the Jam, the Who.
When Nikki came on he was immediately distressed about the sound, it was sorted out during the first song, but I don't think Nikki was totally happy with it, he let out a 'well that's vaguely alright' as he continued.

After that Nikki had to stop mid-song to silence a man standing amid the seated crowdtalking too loudly (the same man had been making love (v. convincingly) to a dark-wooden table earlier in the night - he also proposed to my girlfriend). The man was quietened down and soon left.
Nikki looks great and he must be 40! He has great stage mannerisms and gestures. When he's playing he'll roll his eyes in mock boredom, resembling a mildly annoyed Jagger(when forced to change the lyrics of 'lets spend the night together' to 'some time together'). Also he'll throw his head straight up and fix on a spot on the ceiling for a split secondand he'll ruffle his hair in a similar, but more refined way to Richards.

The songs - loads - Nikki must've played for an hour and a half The ones I remember -
a stack of rolling bluesy numbers - a new song called Stay Bruised Stay Beautiful- the epic Crossroads , Rolling of the Hearse - Teenage Christmas , Wild horses (introduced enigmatically by Nikki- 'I spent the afternoon with one of the people this song is rumoured to have been written for' my money's on Anita P), Back to the Coast (finale - with dazzling bracelet solo) .

After the show Nikki gracious sat by the door and wished people a goodnight.

$1,000 Wedding

This is a band I played in bout 1997.

$1,000 Wedding & the Birth of UK Alt-Country Part 1

Mike and Mark started on the road to the Flatliners way back in 1997. Mike had previously busked and written songs whilst in isolation in Wallasey, opposite Liverpool, and Gyor, Hungary. Mark, lanquishing in 7oaks, had played drums in many metal bands. He was writing country songs and communicating with a multitude of publishers, who wrote to him about the weather and their illnesses, before promptly popping their cloggs.

Mark had a song about drinking whiskey, something Mark was a dab hand at, the song was a radio hit in temperate Holland and earned him a modest royalty cheque. Mark also won an award for lyric writing. He later discovered a talent for ballad writing with a few unknown classics, namely Not Much Of An Angel and Taking It As It Comes.

Mike was on the way to Russia and stayed over at Mark's in order to pick up an important telex at the Russian embassy. Whilst in 7oaks, Mike fell for a cherry red Telecaster in the window of Avalon music. He put down a deposit and realised he'd have to stay to pay for the guitar.
Russia was now firmly on the back burner of the BBQ, and a hot country band was frying on centre grill.

Pooling their songs Mike and Mark created a band. They christened that band $1,000 Wedding.