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The Cream Also Rises / July 26 2007
I have just been scanning some old publicity shots for the Slaughterhouse 5 website and was reminded of another boozy photographic session we did with top rock photographer Ed Sirrs.
We were very in awe of the famous snapper; but although he was so well-respected within the industry and had such a glowing reputation, he wasn;t [...]
Fun On Tour: Garlic and Drugs and Rock’n'Roll / June 6 2007
Once, when Slaughterhouse 5 were playing in London, I remember telling Miles Copeland III Jnr (our big boss at the time, IRS Records head honcho, former manager of The Police and general all-round music business luminary) that he had bad breath.
I don’t think I really offended him. Thankfully, he took the statement as it was [...]
Black Holes and Poisonous Musings / May 3 2007
How sad I was (hehe) to learn today that puffed up, miserable progressive rock band Muse have cancelled dates on their US tour with My Chemical Romance after members of the bands and their crews were struck with food poisoning.
Apparently, some of them became ‘violently ill’ after a gig in Virginia on Sunday (it wasn’t [...]
The Return of Tap / April 25 2007
How delighted I was to learn today that seminal rock band Spinal Tap are to reform. They will play the Live Earth concert at Wembley Stadium in London in July. The group were created for Rob Reiner’s cult 1984 film This Is Spinal Tap.
I have worked with Rob Reiner’s famous father Carl, who directed my erstwhile [...]
Network With Us / April 2 2007
My dear friend Nelson Galaxy came round for tea and biscuits yesterday evening. We spent most of the time setting up elements of our musical network of friends in cyberspace. Oh what fun we had: listening to Burt Bacharach, drinking ice-cold rose wine, eating pretzels, laughing and singing and making lovely new acquaintances from all [...]
Air Indoors / March 26 2007
I’ve just bought a new air ionizer for the studio and it’s brilliant.
Ionizers reduce the amount of positively-charged molecules – ions – in the air that lots of electrical equipment such as one might find in a recording studio can produce. These positively-charged ions are converted into negatively-charged ions such as one might encounter in [...]
. . . And All That Jazz / March 24 2007
Aren’t guitars great? I’ve just bought a new one: a gold seventies Fender Jazz Bass. It’s gorgeous.
I don’t play bass much but I needed one for various recording duties and this beauty winked at me in the dusty shop and whispered: ‘We should be together.’
I have several guitars: an 80s black and white Fender Telecaster [...]
In Quintessence / March 10 2007
Hooray! Squeeze, one of my favourite bands of all time, are reforming for a series of gigs. Hooray!
That’s made my day, that has. (I’m sat here pecking at my keyboard with an Enormous hard-on and wearing a big satisfied grin – nothing else.)
It is no secret how much I admire the songs of Difford and [...]
Morrissey: Nil Points / February 25 2007
I must say that I am very disappointed to hear that former Smiths singer Morrissey will not after all be involved with the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest. In January, the BBC said it was talking to the singer to write and possibly perform a Eurovision track but now says he ‘definitely will not’ be involved.
I [...]
Monkey Magic / February 15 2007
Congratulations to the Arctic Monkeys who scooped two awards – best British band and best British album – at the BRITs in London last night.
I don’t really like their music, it’s a little pedestrian and unsophisticated for my tastes, but anything to do with our simian cousins is fine by me.
Monkeys, I just flippin’ love [...]
