As you can see from my feeble attempts at some arty black and white photos above, Ian's band Xenon played at the Erith Working Man's Club last night. Click on any photo for a larger version. A really good gig and a pity a few more people did not turn up, as they would have had a cracking night. You can see all of the photos I took - both black and white and colour here.I had an encounter with a couple of teenaged Chav girls on the 99 bus from Plumstead yesterday. I got on and walked to the back of the lower deck to find the two playing very loud sounds (I won't dignify sub Crazy Frog helium induced drum and bass with the dignity of being called music - it sounded like the person on the mixing desk had recorded themselves during an epileptic fit). Anyway, I politely asked the two to use headphones or turn the noise off. They started sneering and giggling (difficult to do at once, I would think) and after I then informed them that failure to comply was a criminal offence under the 1990 Public Transport Act, and that not only could they get a criminal record in the unlikely event they did not already have one, but they would also get a mandatory £500 fine. Resentfully they turned the volume down, but not quite off. As I was with my Mother, I left it at that. They threw dagger looks at me and I smiled back sweetly. After Mum and one of the Chavettes had got off, I was left sitting on the opposite side of the buses' back seat to the original protagonist. As she moved to get off at the Pom Pom, she ended up stumbling and almost falling over - her stilletto heel had not given me the painful injury she had intended as she had deliberately stood on my foot. I love my steel toecapped boots...
Only nearly forty years too late I have become a convert to the excellent and groundbreaking radio comedy series "Round the Horne". I am amazed I have not been aware of the show until a few months ago when I came across an archive recording being broadcast on BBC7. It is laugh out loud funny and features many talents, including the incomparable and sadly missed Kenneth Williams. You can hear more below:
Play Full Length Episode
Round The Horne - The Clissold Saga Part 1 - The Millionaire
You can hear regular episodes of the show on UK DAB radio, or over the interweb by visiting the BBC Radio 7 website.
Apparently Ken Livingstone is proposing to increase the daily London congestion charge to £25 for a car with an engine capacity of over three litres. Kenny Everett had a novel solution to this kind of problem, way back in the early eighties - check out the video clip below; it may well bring back some memories. Your thoughts and comments can be left by clicking on the comments link below if you wish.
On a lighter note, some new shops are finally getting close to opening in the new but largely empty Erith Riverside Shopping Centre. Dominos Pizza looks like it is only days away from opening its' doors to trade. Two other as yet unidentified shops are also being prepared. Finally the new centre seems to be taking off, thank goodness.
Apparently Ken Livingstone is proposing to increase the daily London congestion charge to £25 for a car with an engine capacity of over three litres. Kenny Everett had a novel solution to this kind of problem, way back in the early eighties - check out the video clip below; it may well bring back some memories. Your thoughts and comments can be left by clicking on the comments link below if you wish.
On a lighter note, some new shops are finally getting close to opening in the new but largely empty Erith Riverside Shopping Centre. Dominos Pizza looks like it is only days away from opening its' doors to trade. Two other as yet unidentified shops are also being prepared. Finally the new centre seems to be taking off, thank goodness.
Thanks again for taking pictures on Saturday night!
ReplyDeleteIt's strange but after what, 10 years of gigging there's been very few gigs where I've ever had pictures taken and it's interesting to have even from a purely selfish view. I only have a handful of photo's of the times I played with Dirty Trix (we were signed, toured, recorded an album etc) and it's now a big regret. Actually for about 6-8 years I don't think I was in any photo's really as no-one had a camera (most of my mates were poor students or it just wasn't considered to take a camera) which is a shame.
I like the fact that this lot seem different to the last 2 lots, they seem more…um…active? I don't think I was any more active than I usually am (actually probably slightly less as I played a gig the night before and as it was a support slot I went from 0-60 in 3 seconds and jumped about like a loon, ok there was an element of showing off but it was a new venue for us and it's a "proper" rock pub so worthy of The Rev' loosin' his head) as much as possible. I was quite literally swinging from the rafters (oh and holding the hand of a stunning rock chick while singing to her, tongue in cheek*) but back to the photo's there seems to be a real sense of movement and off the cuff-ness. The lot before were great but looking at them they seem very portrait where as this lot seem more "live". I'm going to have to set up my own Fliker account I think.
Love the story about the girl on the bus, damn funny!
I keep meaning to buy a pair of steelies but as it's been "summer" thought I's stick to my Converse. Talking about amusing situation involving annoying people at the gig Friday there was a young bloke who seemed ok (actually I thought he worked there) but as the evening went on he got very pished and antisocial. He was all in black, black "leather" trench coat, big black DM's, very heavy, very metal. Anyway he was chucked out for trying to start a scuffle so sat outside glaring at everyone then suddenly screeched and stormed past us and punched a tree.
The CRACK of his knuckles was strangely sweet on the ear.
After a few min's I had a look to see if he was ok and he was sitting on the floor cradling his hand and whimpering. I left him to it to be honest.
I'm a HUGE BBC7 fan and Round The Horne is one of my fav's. In fact to be honest I only really listen to BBC7 and Planet Rock on the radio anymore (I'm not counting Heart Fm that I have to suffer at work although Kevin Greening on Smooth FM is quite good). Funny to think that the show is 40 years old but still funny AND abit close to the edge (god knows what it was at the time) did you know Betty Marsden left because she thought it was too rude? You know? I know you know…. LOL!
Mind you no one knows what the hell I'm going on about when I drop Polari into my everyday conversation. "Pleased to varda your Eeek" seems to be a fav' at the moment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Round_The_Horne
It's strange, I'm listening to a lot of radio comedy at the moment as the job I'm stuck on at the moment means I can have my i-pod on in one ear and listen to stuff I've recorded. To be honest the classics (Round The Horne, Hancock etc) really deserve the title. Stuff I'm taping off Radio4 and BBC7 that’s new (last 7 years or so) is mostly very samey. Maybe I'm being unfair but it’s the older stuff that seems funnier, mind you Fag's, Mag's and Bags (set in the world of "shop" and the Asian family that run it), The Boosh (took me ages to get into it but great, "I am the spirit of jazz") and Married (universes collided, the first series is best, loses its way after then) are all worth checking out.
Domino Pizza in Eriff? Will wonders never seize??
God it's great to see the area regenerated, I would love to track down the people who designed and agreed the old 60's town centre and have them summarily executed for crimes against humanity…although technically as most of the population of Erith could be considered more Primate than Homo-erectus (Hur hur!) they may get off on a technicality.
Wanna test them out when they open?..Domino's that is not the population of Erith.
I've got mixed views on the Congestion Charge. I think public transport has improved drastically in the past 5 years or so (especially the buses) so I'm sorta for it but then seeing as one of our car's is classed as a disabled transport I don't have to pay and I never drive into London anyway so it doesn't really effect me. I'm against it if they bring it to Greenwich as I've heard rumblings as that’s too far from Central London in my view.
*-Difficult to do believe me!
at least you aren't talking about Rush.
ReplyDeleteI just thought by embedding the show in your blog can it be said that your "giving us the Horne"?
ReplyDelete