There's Too Many Nouns To Get Out Of My Head

Iron Fist
Stay Clean
Be My Baby
Rock Out
Metropolis
Over The Top
One Night Stand
I Got Mine
Thousand Names Of God
Shoot 'em Down
In The Name Of Tragedy
Just 'cos You Got The Power...
Going To Brazil
Killed By Death

Whorehouse Blues
Ace Of Spades
Overkill

I'm back home from my annual 37hours round trip...Ears ringing after another perfect night last night; such was the superlative show put on by the noisy trio and support Girlschool despite the latter's short set (bah!).
Above is the Motörhead set list as I remember it, although no promises on the accuracy...it was as usual a night of musical oblivion when your humble narrator was once again uplifted in feverish delight. Not least Dear Readers due to the fact that I got to sing along in the sidelines to Bomber and Killed By Death with a certain bass-maestra, Ms Enid Williams...I jest not. Fuller details to follow as I ease myself back into the real world over the next couple of days...

Right now bedways is rightways

Zero The Hero

My mood is somewhat like the North Atlantic weather at the moment - changeable, very changeable but Pop Pickers any gloomy listlessness is as always shortlived here in Victory Mansions and it's onwards and outwards. Stiff upperlip and all that.

So blind was I in 1983 that I refused to condemn the Black Sabbath album release Born Again. However, deep down inside I knew this was a busted flush, as much as I admired Ian Gillan this was not what I wanted to hear. Nevertheless ever the optimist I played along with the silly 'supergroup' pish. It was only when erotically charged but bad tempered shinto goddess 'Onibaba' hurtled me south to see this funny incarnation that it dawned on me how warped this set-up actually was. I stood aghast on the overtrodden Reading earthen floor in abject stunned disbelief as Gillan screamed and jazzed his way through Sabs classics, I'd have called it murder, if killing songs were possible. I mean it was Smoke On The Water that did it - although it was one of only 3 tunes I could squeeze out from my guitar at home (I mean who couldn't manage the riff from Smoke On The Water...?), but as a track, I hated it. And man, did your humble narrator detest it even more when I heard Tony Iommi crank out the opening chords...I thought it was a wind-up, a little taster, a spirited nod to the frontman's heritage but no, they delivered every bloody boring note and screech of it.

And then there was the Stonehenge stage-set; you would not believe me if I didn't set out the story word for word here...taken from The Guardian;

It has been widely claimed that Spinal Tap's Stonehenge set was taken from a notorious Black Sabbath live extravaganza, the 1984 Born Again tour. In BBC TV's Rock Family Trees, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath, Ian Gillan (the then vocalist) recalls the meeting with LSD, the designers: "We were all going, 'Something earthy, maybe.' And Geezer said, 'Stonehenge.' The bloke says, 'That's a brilliant idea. How do you visualise it?' He said, 'Life-size of course.'"

The result was actually three times bigger than Stonehenge. Sabbath had to hire the Birmingham NEC for rehearsals as that was the only place it would fit - and that was without the stage. They assumed it would be all right in America, as "all the places are bigger over there". Then at the first gig they couldn't get it in the doors.

In the December 1994 issue of Mojo magazine, Gillan adds: "On the last day of rehearsal we're wondering what this dwarf is doing hanging around backstage. When we do the dress rehearsal, the dwarf emerges in a red leotard, long yellow fingernails and little yellow horns. He's going to be the baby [a diabolical baby is featured on the cover of the Born Again album]. Then we hear this horrendous [recorded] scream and suddenly we see this dwarf crawling across the top of Stonehenge. He stands up as the scream fades away and falls backwards off this 30ft fibreglass Stonehenge on to a pile of mattresses. Then - dong, dong - bells start tolling and all the roadies come across the front of the stage in monks' cowls, at which point War Pigs starts up."

At first this may seem like a case of the film being inspired by real incidents, but this is improbable - the tour happened the same year This Is Spinal Tap was released.

Back to the album itself, it really isn't too bad all in all, there is some tracks like Disturbing The Priest which please. Many didn't like the album cover, but Pop Pickers I did then and still do now - a prized Japanese import slice of pressed black rests in the confines of the Victory Mansions vinyl cellar.

On to other news...Michael Moorcock maybe scribing a Doctor Who novel...Fantastic - keep it dark Mike, real dark...

I'll be jaunting off to Motorhead tomorrow morning, read "middle of the night" and if I can be bothered then maybe I will fire off a few mobile phone images of the day's ardous trek. Watch this space...failing that I will be back on Friday evening.

RIP Edward Woodward.

History Shows Again And Again...

Your humble narrator is feeling a bit brittle at the moment, a bit low as they say, work-life balance is proving considerably hard going. I am due some holiday leave in 3 weeks time, the first since last January - plus I will have an interim 2 days off in order to travel to see Motörhead next week - my annual pilgrimage, of course.
I avoided the usual Friday lure of the boozer after my shift today, it would have merely fueled my lugubrious state further.
Not even sitting in front of the DVD player earlier this evening and watching the original and best version of Godzilla from 1954 was capable of alleviating the feelings of burden...Alas, never mind Dear Readers I will shortly "pull myself together" and produce a Blog Post of merit of that I am certain...for there is indeed much to talk about e.g. a review of a little shiny disc kindly provided by regular contributor and fellow Sonic Assassin, George Ternent.

Have a bloody Good Weekend Readers!

It's Alright Ma, It's Only Witchcraft

I've liked Black Sabbath since I first had the ability to listen to proper music...I mean they epitomise my teenage morose, those legendary Dark Princes of Downer Rock. Nor am I one of those who had to choose sides when Ozzy left, and Dio came in. I was more than happy to enjoy both directions - the Blizzard and Heaven + Hell. Besides, I genuinely believe that Tony Iommi is God. No, really!

Seriously though; I'd ride the length of the country to see Dio fronting the Sabs for the first times in 1981 and 1982, I remember the latter journey quite clearly because my arse was quite literally frozen to the bike seat and my fingers had lost all feeling. But it was my toes and knees that I recall as the worst affected and those joints never warmed up until near the show's end by which time it meant I was back on "Onibaba" for the ride to the nearby Boarding House for some Ovaltine and a cosy night in with the Landlady hehheh (ok I made up that last bit, forgive the nod to the 1971 cult film Get Carter there).

I was a Ronnie James Dio fan long before I encountered Sabs, I mean my very own freak jeans were identical to his star and moon breeks, and most especially thanks to the guy's work with Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. Pop Pickers do you remember Rainbow's Long Live Rock n Roll release?
One day back in '82 I think it was, your humble narrator was listening to this fine selection on my National Panasonic cassette player (remember those things then?) while I attending to garden chores as my mother looked on as Overseer. It was during the playing of the song Gates of Babylon that the matriarch came over to my corner of the tattie patch and said "what's all this about sleeping with the Devil then?"

What Is This That Stands Before Me?

It would be remiss of me Dear Readers if I were not to participate in some 31st October antics, indeed failure on the part of your (haunted) humble narrator not to celebratre albeit briefly by mention of the ancient celebration here of All Hallows' Eve. For after all this is the land of The Wicker Man. So how about some tales of the supernatural and the uncanny to settle your fragile soul this very night?

The very same night when the blue-skinned hag, Cailleach Bheur is awoken from her summer slumber to serve out her sentence during the bleak Winter. Perhaps too scary to mention, but mention I will, is the Knoggelvi who scours the coastline for unfortuate victims, an evil skinless creature with sickly yellow veins through which the blackest foulest blood courses. The grotesque beast's pulsating mass, gaping slavering mouth, long apelike arms and bloodshot red flaming eye is sure to strike uncontrollable fear upon anyone who crosses his path. He rises from the sea and with him he brings pestilence and misery. A fine fellow by sounds of things then!

"If crops were blighted by sea-gust or mildew, if livestock fell over high rocks that skirt the shores, or if an epidemic raged among men, or among the lower animals, Nuckelavee was the cause of all. His breath was venom, falling like blight on vegetable, and with deadly disease on animal life."Right I'm off to have some Rat Salad...

Toodle Pip! (cue: manic laughter, and fade to black!)

Oh No, Here It Comes Again

Really Dear Readers I have so much to thank the late great Tommy Vance for, his little corner on the Friday Night airwaves was essential listening to during my metal formative years. Sobering as it is but many a track I hear nowadays still tugs my memories back to the first time I heard it on the Friday Rock Show. The great thing was that the FRS hit the airwaves just after the 10pm news headlines on BBC Radio 1, there were no words just sound as a usually rocktastic track heralded 2 hours of music heaven. Neon Knights by the Sabs was one such programme opener way back in 1980, no matter how many times I've heard this little ditty it never fails to transport me back to the first time that song heightened my senses.
Never underestimate the friendly music damage that a certain Mr Vance inflicted on my willing soul. Now that's what I call music.

Right, you may wonder why your humble narrator has reached ground zero of sentimentalism this chilly, gale force blown, sea-salt odoured evening on the edge of the abyss that is Victory Mansions?
Well I have just to quote Bowie, I stumbled into town, with the arteries hardened due to excess post-factory drinks. The divine opportunity to wash away the week long blues, the heart rending knowledge that you have just spent another chunk of life in the service of the 'man', the depressing reality that you have turned over another 5th of the week working extra and unpaid while the bonus junkies reap the rewards, the rousing image of the blonde barmaid smiling (with pity) as she gently pulls your 3rd pint and the nirvana of discovering how fecking tasty an iced up glass of Crabbie's alcoholic ginger beer actually is...and realising that you rode home on the strength of the very same gingeresque vapours.

Yeah, life isn't too bad when you have forensically examined it under the microscope of a beer glass bottom, and all that in spite of the mediocre sausages and mash served up by the sour serving lady at the lunchtime works canteen while you wind-up colleagues and indulge in fatalistic chit-chat. No, Pop Pickers, it isn't a bad world all in all when you consider the shit others are in, so with 40% Proof infusion I begin to realise that there is mucho to be thankful for. For a kick-off I'm still in a job after a summer of uncertainity - not that I love to work but I work to live, or love, er, you know what I'm saying, I still can see, hear and enjoy the best music on this mortal lump of space rock. And I still live in hope of a few years left of rock'n'roll debauchery. Hoping, nay I crave it!

Have a great weekend readers!
Rock Forever!!

Falling Off The Edge Of The World

It will be some 6 days now under the cosh of the sea storm. The above image coming (almost) live just around the corner from the family seat at Victory Mansions. Sea storms around here are an exercise in the power, brutality and...beauty of Rán, the sea goddess.

'...with fearful might the sea surged'

No Mortal Was Meant To Know Such Wonder

There are a few songs which just stand out, so indelibly tasty you'll even be able to recount the very moment you first heard it. If it were not for that sweet audio embellishment then more often than not the rest of that particular day would be lost among the plethora of other experiences we absorb or endure. Quite the reverse in fact for its unforgettable nature of the music which upon hearing it again conjurs up the entire events surrounding that particular experience, a song which evokes the past like a powerful sensory spell. Come to think of it Pop Pickers I've got a whole back catalogue capable of doing just that, a veritable musical autobiography if you will. But then regular readers will have guessed that already - sentimentalism is afterall, my middle name.

The Blue Öyster Cult track I Love The Night from the Spectres album (1977) is one such piece of delightful music. It was an unusually sweltering (I say unusual because it is rarely if ever hot in the climatic sense round these parts) afternoon, i'd skipped work to take a bike ride out for a beach picnic along with some other saddle tramps and birds (I apply the early eighties term here for effect). On the way back through town I was feeling particularly buoyant (most likely from the additive laden refressssssshments at the picnic - if you catch my drift) I stopped at my local record shop to charge the senses further. Strapped inside the rucksack I hurtled the ten minute blast home, a few minutes later the Spectres LP was doing the rounds on the old stereo.

When I heard the haunting strains of the Buck Dharma penned I Love The Night emit from the gently rippling vinyl grooves my heart stopped, it was one of the most beautiful sounds I had ever heard come from a piece of black plastic. Maybe it was my jolly mood having spent a debauched afternoon and rode Onibaba like the wind back from the beachhead and the fact I'd still a few bob left to buy an album but whatever it was this song was the icing on the cake if you like. I understood the song's intentions to infect and invigorate right off and I soaked up every mellifluous moment again and again and again.

There are several notable songs on the Spectres album namely of course the homage to the king of kaijū, Godzilla. And there is the AoR bitter sweet melody of Death Valley Nights and the pretty amazing and dare I say it, charming, Nosferatu. The album is as metal goes a lightweight effort all in all, very much a reflection of the Blue Öyster Cult direction of rock as they began drifting away from the harder edged early years. Not that there is anything wrong with that per se given the breadth of the Cult's talents. Having said that, some of their best efforts came during the likes of albums' Cultösaurus Erectus and Fire of Unknown Origin. Nevertheless, if I am asked a Top Ten list of tunes I'd listen to then more often than not I Love The Night will feature. It is the song's nod to the undead, the vampire hunger undertones, indeed it's quite the love song really - perhaps the only love song which your humble narrator is readily and repeatedly able to endure without inducing some kind of gastro-oesophageal reflux.

With A Smooth Outcome

Right then Dear Readers as promised yesterday here is a little tale that Top Bloke, Professor Motörhead Alan Burridge shared with me the other day about the following clips; (Warning the following contains of scenes of Eighties Pop)

"I was invited to 'The Motorhead House' in London for a weekend which Lemmy, Wurzel, Phil and Pete Gill shared. Phil and Pete were at their Welsh and Sheffield family homes, but Lemmy and Wurzel were around most of the time. Helen and Paul from the original MHB's were around, too, and Hawkwind's Dik Mik, Motorhead roadie, Johnny Allen, and a few more people I didn't know nor can remember.

Lemmy hadn't long been to Germany to record this clip, and had originally flown over with Kirtsy McColl to mime guitar and do his 'Shadow's Footsteps' behind her while she sung her then new single, 'Terry.' So Lemmy played this scratchy, black and white clip of himself with Kirsty, and then 'Relax' appeared. It's just typical Lemmy, isn't it, and you can bet your life he screwed the stripper, too!"

Thanks for sharing the story Alan!

By the way Pop Pickers it was the third watch of 'Relax' video that I actually realised Kirsty MacColl walks across the stage too...!

I Should Be Tired, And All I Am Is Wired

Ever had one of those days when it literally disappeared from your grasp and before you know it the sun has gone down?
It has been like that today in the confines of Victory Mansions...nevertheless I was able to pursue some internet trawling and bring you all a taste of Motörhead excellence courtesy of YouTube, and indeed it is a 1981 clip worthy of inclusion in the virtual pages of your friendly neighbourhood blogsite Moving Like A Parallelögram.

More tomorrow dear Fight Fans, as thanks to Motörheadbangers frontman Alan Burridge sending some stuff earlier this week there will be some nostalgia coupled with a few Lemmy clips; you've been warned.

Motörhead Tribute Made In Japan

There are a wonderous collection of Motörhead Tribute albums out there; Notably, top of the pile being Sheep In Wolves Clothing released by Professor Burridge and Motörheadbangers (very limited but a few copies left I think)

However, when I found out that fine gentleman Shuhei Hasegawa was involved in a Tribute album I just had to seek out a copy. It took me a while mind you, it isn't easy ordering non-mainstream stuff from Japan sometimes but I persevered and thanks to those very friendly people at HMV Japan it all worked out rather nicely!

So Pop Pickers here as promised is my take on the Tribute album featuring Japanese bands Tyson Z; Die You Bastard; Tokyo Yankees; Mad 3; Cerberus and Mosquito Spiral.

And 'tis a fine collection of tracks indeed starting off with a cover of one of my Motörhead favourites Love Me Like A Reptile; and I tell you what any band which chooses that little ditty is sure to get the thumbs up from your humble narrator. And so Tyson Z delivers a super interpretation of Love Me Like A Reptile and a blistering version of (We Are) The Road Crew. There are no doubts as to the musical ability of these guys and dare I say it, Tyson Z provides each track with a gusto that speaks of outright homage to Motörhead. Brilliant, just brilliant.

And there is the brace of songs by Die You Bastard; of which it just had to include the tune, well, er, Die You Bastard. And the cover of the Lemmy/WoW version of Stand By Your Man. I have to say that the Die You Bastard cover is outrageously fantastic!
It hurtles along like a steam train on chemically enhanced coal.
As for Stand By Your Man, I never liked this song in whatever guise it comes, the Lemmy/Williams effort included.

Tokyo Yankees deliver their precision audio attack through Ace Of Spades and Overkill respectively. Ace of Spades is pushed into your ears at unrelenting speed while Overkill ruptures your senses like a manic wood-saw free from its bench moorings. It is in other words without doubt an amazing treat to audibly behold.

And then there was the Ramones-esque ferocity of Mad 3 and their tremendous versions of HeadGirl's cover of Please Don't Touch and then Ace of Spades. Blimey!

Now I like Cerberus, I mean dear readers I like them a lot. Their heavy covers of Tear Ya Down and (Don't Need) Religion work for me. It has all the flavours of a goodly audio thumping.

The final pairing of covers is put out by Mosquito Spiral; the magic version of Over The Top and the old fav Overkill, it is always good to end a session with this track because it is, well, a killer!

So there you have it a brief heady journey through a fine fine fine selection of Motörhead songs and Motörhead versions of songs. All the way over from Japan to the crumbling edifice here that is Victory Mansions. I do like all of the album with the exception of Stand By Your Man but that's only because I just can't enjoy that song - the Mad 3 version is actually a great example of punk shock and awe.

Did I mention the album cover?
Oh my word when your humble narrator starts talking album art he literally never shuts up but there is just something more than a little bit special about this distinctly Japanese homage to Mr Joe Petagno's creation. All good!

The package is made complete with a decent little CD booklet including a dedication to the project from Lemmy himself which is endorsement indeed.

As Tribute albums go this works very well, you can sense that it has been made with the highest level of love and respect for the subject matter. And that is what Tributes are all about.

****½

Motörhead Tribute is out on XXX Records and is even available to buy for those not living in Japan via the likes of HMV Japan and other online purveyors of fine music such as DiskUnion.

Nice!

This just in from Japan! Brilliant! Review to follow.

Hardware

According to the blurb on SciFi Cool site;
Ahead of their October 13th DVD & Blu Ray release of Richard Stanley’s 1990 sci-fi epic “Hardware”, the fine folks over at Severin Films have produced a new promo video featuring Lemmy of Motörhead. In the video, Lemmy recreates his cameo role from the movie as a cab driver recalling nostalgic memories from the past as he drives through a now dystopian wasteland.

It was the movie that stunned audiences, shocked the MPAA and marked the debut of one of the most uncompromising filmmakers in modern horror. Golden Globe® winner Dylan McDermott (The Practice, Dark Blue) stars as a post-apocalyptic scavenger who brings home a battered cyborg skull for his metal-sculptor girlfriend. But this steel scrap contains the brain of the M.A.R.K. 13, the military’s most ferocious bio-mechancial combat droid. It is cunning, cruel, and knows how to reassemble itself. Tonight, it is reborn…and no flesh shall be spared. Stacey Travis (GHOSTWORLD) co-stars – along with appearances by Iggy Pop, Lemmy of Motörhead and music by Ministry and Public Image Ltd. – in the kick-ass sci-fi thriller from Richard Stanley (DUST DEVIL) that Fangoria calls “gritty, trippy and frightnening…HARDWARE is one of the best horror movies you’ve never seen!”

Meanwhile, here was the noisy trio live on US telly the other night, don't say I'm bad to you. Have a good weekend!