The Boat that Rocked.

Above you can see both sides of a flyer published by the nefarious gang running GC's Nightclub on the Europa Industrial Estate in Fraser Road, Erith. Captain Tweed's intelligence agent has been hard at work. We now have conclusive proof that the club organisers are intending to blatantly break the Council's rule that the venue can only be used for occasional one off events, not regular activity; the rule states they can open 15 times in 12 months, yet if you read the details on the GC Nightlub Facebook page you will see that they intend to have regular openings on Friday and Saturday nights, hold custom car shows, have foam parties, under 18 nights, Bunny nights (whatever they are) and host live bands. All in a derelict warehouse with no amenities or planning permission on the middle of a hideous and run down industrial estate. They plan on bussing punters in from Gravesend, Dartford and London - not that there is any parking, of course. Still, the evidence is all there on Facebook - the Chav tribal networking site. You can also read further coverage and feedback from local residents on the News Shopper page here.

Well, it seems like off air recordings of me on Radio Caroline are a bit like buses. You wait ages then two turn up. The new one was made available by Steve Martin, formerly of RFM and Caroline. It is much better quality than last weeks' meagre offering. If I can find somewhere to host the 55Mb MP3 file, I will let you hear the results - I was still sounding very young and squeaky. The recording is me hosting an overnight album show, and the first record gets stuck in the groove. All good fun.

It seems like the derelict Erith Swimming Baths are attracting the attention of local low lives who have been firing rockets at the building from parked cars. They are no doubt visualising themselves as a kind of Happy Shopper Al Qaeda. I could not make it up - read more here.

I am not completely au fait with Twitter, but Stephen Fry has one that you can read here.

I was saddened to hear that seminal East London rock music venue the Ruskin Arms closed for good last night. The place was famously the cradle of Iron Maiden, and Colin Ward used to hold Radio Caroline rock road shows there on a regular basis. The pub is being redeveloped as apartments, a surgery and shops. A real loss.

I was climbing the escalator at Euston underground station on Wednesday morning, and I noticed that the familiar roughly A4 sized adverts on the walls of the tunnel has been replaced with mini flat screens displaying videos and commercials. What was especially galling was that they all seemed to be showing the amazingly irritating "I'm a PC" commercial by Microsoft. My irritation turned to mirth when I noticed that roughly half the screens were showing the familiar Windows Blue Screen of Death. I wish I had a camera with me at the time.

Since it changed in use from the Millennium Dome and became to O2 Arena, the venue has become extremely successful. People come from all around London and beyond to visit the place; the exception seems to be residents in South East London. To be honest, I thought until recently, the Arena was on the North side of the Thames - I did not realise that it was only a bus ride from Charlton railway station. This might explain the slight geographic demographic skew of the place. People in the local area just don't know how close the place actually is to them.

And now onto the main feature. The team behind Four Weddings and a Funeral have made a comic drama set on board a fictional offshore radio ship, during the summer of 1966. The film is called "The Boat that Rocked" and stars pretty much all of the usual suspects that Director Richard Curtis normally chooses. I retain an open mind about the whole affair. I will probably go and see it, only to sit in the cinema, picking holes in the accuracy, like the sad old anorak I am!

Below is a trailer for the movie; the ship very much looks the part (though too clean and shiny - there's no rust - unheard of!) The crew look too old; most in reality were early to mid twenties throughout the offshore radio era. Let me not get too caught up over technicalities such as there being no antenna wire strung between the antenna towers, the film is intended for a general audience, and as such I think it may well be a big success. We shall have to wait and see.