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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 [...]
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 [...]
Kurt Vonnegut RIP / April 12 2007
How sad I am to learn of the death of Kurt Vonnegut.
One of the outstanding figures of modern US literature and of 60s and 70s western counterculture, the writer has died aged 84 in New York.
He has long been one of my favourite authors and indeed, my erstwhile band Slaughterhouse 5 was named for his [...]
Pictures of Tom / April 4 2007
I was sorting through some band publicity photographs today and I came across some glossy prints of Tom Waits that I acquired ages ago.
They were taken by UK photographer Ed Sirrs in LA for a feature in the NME in 1993. He gave some of the prints to me years later as a present.
I mention [...]
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 [...]
. . . 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 [...]
Confessions of a Blog Artist / March 9 2007
I have just consumed a whole family-sized tub of Häagen-Dazs Double Chocolate Chip Ice Cream. Again. (I didn’t mean to.)
It is often said that laughter is a great tonic; well, so is ice cream. However, I am now staring at my extended gut in my full-length mirror and the laughter - ironic though it is [...]
Slaughterhouse 5 Site Update / January 15 2007
The newsdesk at Sh5 Towers informs me that they have posted loads of new photographs and much sought after video-clips over at www.slaughterhouse5.co.uk - go take a look-see. And why not sign up to the Sh5 fanclub while you are there? There are loads of free goodies including three full tracks, one of which is [...]
After Hours / January 12 2007
I’m going to keep y’all informed on the progress of the Nelson Galaxy acoustic album that we’ve been recording.
Provisionally titled After Hours, it is mostly a collection of ‘unplugged’ bare-bones tracks with Nelson and me playing acoustic guitar and singing, with Graham (Boffey) – the drummer from Enormous – shaking his famous tambourine as [...]
