Crawfish

When I was a kid and to this day I have taken a pretty dim view of my brother's choice in music, it's pish. He has a Boyzone cd for christ's sake!

As  a teenager I used to dream about going in and taking a 50 pence piece to his Chris De Burgh collection, If I had to to endure Patricia The Stripper or A (fucking) Spaceman Came Travelling through the Gyprock and Anaglypta once I must have heard them a thousand times. I never carried out the vandalism I thought about but the little git did do the very same thing to my Crass, Christ The Album which I only realised years later as it is not the sort of album that anybody in their right mind would play on a regular basis.

Anyway, another of my brother's favourites from a very young age was Elvis and as somebody trying to live up to the ideals of punk all I had was disdain for the man in rhinestones and sideboards that were a mile out. I remember every time an Elvis Presley film came on the telly we had to watch it.  It was usually a bank holiday weekend or Boxing day that these delights were shown on the telly in the 70s and there was always something better on STV, like Sinbad And The Eye Of The Tiger but we had to bloody watch Elvis. I fucking hated these films, even then I knew that the acting was crap, the stories were all the same,  Elvis sees girl, Elvis gets girl, Elvis pisses girl off but at the end always ends up with girl again, oh and Elvis sings a lot of shitty songs.

But there was one song from one film that always stuck in my mind as it wasn't shitty and Elvis didn't look like a twat when he sang it but looked like probably the coolest pesron I had ever seen in my life and was singing one of the most amazing, if brief songs that I had ever heard. Although being a self respecting punk and metal fan it was more than my life was worth to admit to liking this or anything by the King.

Years later, I realised just what I had been missing with my embargo in Presley's music when a friend gave me a loan of his copy of The Sun Sessions albums and I listened without prejudice to the boy from Tupelo.

However I still can not watch GI Blues and every time I hear Wooden Heart (my brother used to play it repeatedly) I want to set fire to wooden toys.

So here is mine and Joe Strummer's favourite Elvis tune, with more than a little help from Kitty White.

E P - Crawfish

And here is the scene from the film

My GS

While clearing out a load of old books yesterday I found the above picture of my Vespa Grand Sportique I had when I was 17. Not the best of pictures but I don't tend to keep photos so it's probably the only one I still have.

When I got this scooter it came with front crash barriers with 12 mirrors attached and a whip ariel, which were quickly binned. I loved the chrome panels and the King and Queen seat on that scooter and it used to make this lovely distinctive ring ding ding noise when you revved up the throttle.

The Who - I've Had Enough

2 Days To Go

Well 2 days to go until JC and I force the dubious pleasure of our combined record collections on the unsuspecting patrons of The Flying Duck . I have to admit that I'm a little apprehensive about the whole thing now.

Last night the first thing I did when I got back from Belfast was check my singles box to see if there were any that should come out and I suspect that,  that will not be the last time I will do that before Saturday.

Due to the fact that I will be going into Glasgow by train and it is a fair old hike from Central Station to the Flying Duck, I have limited myself to one singles box (which holds around 200 7"s) and my Ninja Tunes Wax Sack which I can just about force 60 twelves into. My mate C, said to me earlier in  the week, "are you sure you've got enough tunes?" which got me fretting and trying to calculate exactly how much music I was taking with me, then trying to deduct the multiple singles by some artists and how much of certain genres there was until I realised that that way lay madness and to just lighten up and if I end up playing something twice or a couples of track by The Jesus and Mary Chain, or a few too many northern soul tracks then so be it.

There is one track which I know for a fact I will not play, although I would love to, to see if it garners the same reaction nearly thirty years after the last time I heard it out.

As I mentioned before when I first came to Lanark, the two guys I got in tow with Stiff and Span were punks,  I also liked punk but  had a love of Heavy Metal which neither of them could fathom.

Anyway, once a month, a disco was held in the Guide Hall which we would attend with all the other primary 7s, first and second years. One particular night stands out for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, it was the night that the three of us went wearing ill fitting, by which I mean about 3 sizes to big for us, WWII British Army Battle Dress Jackets that stank and were as jaggy as hell.  We thought we were so cool. The reason that we had bought these, I think,  was that we had recently seen Julian Cope wearing this type of jacket on Top Of The Pops when Teardrop Explodes were on doing Reward, although I could be completely wrong about this.

I will get to the point of the post eventually.

The second reason that this night stands out in particular is because one of the older punks took along a copy of Hanx! the live album by SLF. The guy spent half the night haranguing the DJ (Turps) to put the album on and when the dj eventually capitulated, true to form Turps played the wrong track.  Instead of playing Alternative Ulster he put on Johnny Was.

Those of us who had studied this album were incredulous, if that is possible for an eleven year old,  because we knew that it was a long track and not the sort of tune that was likely to win over the unconverted. A few brave boys tried to pogo but even with the stamina of youth they all gave up about half way through leaving a deserted dance floor and half clearing the hall but give Turps his due, to our astonishment he played the whole thing, all ten minutes of it.

And there you have in a convoluted way, the point of the post, I will not be playing Johnny Was but would secretly love to, to see what kind of response it would get now.

So,  if your in the town on Saturday night why not come along and not hear me playing Johnny Was.

The version posted is not the version from Hanx but is still a live rendition, recorded some twenty six years later in 2006 at Glasgow Barrowlands.

SLF - Johnny Was