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Post by pulphack on Jan 8, 2020 20:46:14 GMT
Mr Connolly is far too modest - but that's probably because I agree with him. The last election and the media was a case in point: the left wing media and press bashed Boris and bleated about Jeremy being picked on, while the right wing media decimated Corbyn and complained about the flak Johnson was getting. Truth is, as an anarchist who thinks they're all idiots, it looked to me like handbags at dawn on both sides. Eye of the beholder, etc. That's the problem with getting on board with dogma, it makes you look at things through one eye half-closed. Although it has to be said, the choice of Bozo, Magic Grandpa or the Leader of The Student Union made you yearn for the days of Ted and darling Harold, and they weren't exactly heavyweights in the MacMillan or Atlee class (both of whom were the last leaders of their parties to really have any perspective and intellectual clout, in my admittedly limited view).
But anyway...I kind of agree with Crom about a lot of film and TV. There IS good stuff out there, mind, it just gets harder to find. But in genre terms I do prefer old books to new. The best books of the 2010's I read were non-genre, 'general' fiction. He has made me head back to the shelves and dig out an Odhams volume I have where I've only read the William Haggard - the other two unread 1961 novels now beckon...
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Post by pulphack on Dec 27, 2019 14:26:07 GMT
I didn't think it was that bad but you do have a point. Gatiss is an excellent writer but there have been a couple of times when he's gone OTT (some Dr Who and last episode of Sherlock spring to mind)and not had an editor brave enough to say 'hang on...' This is not a criticism of him, as every writer is prone to this, and it is something that TV suffers from particularly. In a different genre, it happened to John Sullivan in the '90's, and is also why a lot of writer/director led US TV can go awry after three successful and tight seasons. It's the 'can't see the wood for the trees' syndrome, and very easy to fall into (he says, never having been successful enough to have the chance!). A lot of the blame falls on producers who won't say anything for fear of upsetting the name talent.
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Post by pulphack on Dec 20, 2019 18:51:26 GMT
The masterful Mr Maitland triumphs again. It's 1979 once more and it makes me feel like a teenager all over again... sadly... but what more do you want? Blood, sex, humour, pop culture references galore and Martian Dance to top it all off. Splendid! 'last calendar' ?
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Post by pulphack on Dec 14, 2019 9:18:24 GMT
Having spent the early nineties down in Balham quite a bit, in an indoor market that was once a fleapit cinema (and is now a Sainsburys carpark) esconced in the small shop from which the legendary psych/prog dealer Hugo Chavez-Smith sent original and didgy 'reissue' vinyl wending across the glob, I feel like I must have heard albums by all of the bands on the Scarfolk bill... too bloody accurate for parody, really...
Sad that its music that tempts me back to talk crap, but as the last two novels I read were 'Bleakly Hall' by Elaine DiRollo and Angela Thirkell's 'Summer Half', it has to be said that I haven't been in the Vault zone this year, book-wise. However, Elizabeth Hand looks well worth investigation, and seems to have been around for years so I'm sorry she's escaped notice before. Back in the 90's I wrote a short story (long lost) that mined similar 'psych band in haunted house making album with mysterious disappearances' territory, though there was a lot of 'Turn Of The Screw' in my lost piece, as well as a frankly libellous portrayal of a record dealing acquaintance (who becomes somewhat murderous and sexually suspect in the course of the story) - not Hugo, who was a lovely bloke, incidentally - who would have sued (he has form) and so it's probably just as well its lost.
Good gravy, that psych/folk site brought back some memories... Hugo was big on that as he was trying to direct my ex-wife's band in that direction before he recorded them, and he loved Trees particularly. A lot of it would, I think, sound drippy to me now, but the things that have really haunting quality stay strong - Pentangle and Comus particularly, for different reasons. I never got the Incredibles, though I did like COB and the first ISB album which Clive was on.
What I really wanted to do was waffle about Shagrat and JP Sunshine. Because I can, really, and only Dem can delete it...
Actually, he did have the Shagrat CD as I gave him a copy years ago, having got one myself and then been passed one by a chum. It's an up and down affair, as befits Steve Peregrine Took - erratic in life and art. However, noteable for having Larry Wallis on guitar and co-writing. I loved Lazza, who was a Pink Fairy and in the original Motorhead line-up (allegedly saying they needed a second guitarist then quitting in a huff when they got one, and - on first meeting Phil Taylor - saying to Lemmy 'he's an 'orrible little c*&t, isn't he? We've got to have him...') as well as producing for Stiff, recording the immortal 'Police Car' and writing a hit for Dr Feelgood. He died last month, I was sad to hear.
As for JP Sunshine: I read about them in Unhinged magazine about 30 years ago (and shocked myself when I realised it was that long ago). Funded by the drug dealer who played bongos for them, the real talent was Andy Rickell on guitar, who joined the Crazy World Of Arthur Brown when they went quietly mad in Puddletown, Dorset making the unreleased for years 'Strangelands' album. Arthur departed after walking round a supermarket in Dorchester trying to scare people in a devil mask, then slinking off in disgust when the staff played 'Fire' repeatedly over the tannoy system (he must have a been a regular for them to even have this to hand. Urban myth alert). Renamed Rustic Hinge (and the Provincial Swimmers) Rickell and Drachen Theaker (drummer and tabla ace) concoted a gradually more and more complex Beefheartian stew that formed 'T on the Lawn For 4', tapes of which, like 'Strangelands', appeared 20 years later on Reckless in an out of running order and unedited form. Going more and more mad they had Rod Goodway and Adrian Shaw from JP Sunshine join them and then get alientated as they were told they were crap. Goodway and Shaw decamped to Bristol and formed Magic Muscle, who were a festival band of the Hawkwind/Pink Fairies ilk, though I don't think they got on vinyl at the time, and only really recorded when they reformed at the end of the 80's/start of the 90's and toured again. Shaw, meanwhile, had been in Hawkwind, and both he and Goodway ended up in a touring version of The Bevis Frond, as they were chums of Nick Saloman. (Incidentally, High Tide had a house in the country a short hike from Puddletown, and their poor drummer had a breakdown there from which he never recovered. I dunno about the hippy dream, there are aspects of it that sound more like a nightmare)
All of which is dreadfully boring, really, if you're not into that sort of thing, but you asked for it, Steve, dredging up some long forgotten memories of gigs and record dealers and odd recordings that littered that part of my life. God, I've wasted it. Reminds me of Wilko Johnson in the Dr Feelgood documentary where he says 'I suppose I've wasted my life...' in a tonme that says it was always going to be that way ahyway, so what fu*&k.
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Post by pulphack on Dec 7, 2019 11:52:39 GMT
There are three films that I like (Bandwagon, I Thank You, and Backroom Boy), but everything else about Mr Askey has always puzzled me. Not as irritating as Norman Wisdom, but then who was? Apparently Arthur had a thing about trying to make a star of his daughter, and allegedly Anthea was relieved when he gave up, as she was trifle reluctant.
But the main thing about Mr Askey, as our own Mr Connolly will remind you, is that he ended up married to Theresa May...
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Post by pulphack on Sept 8, 2019 14:53:27 GMT
To be honest, I can't remember a bloody thing about writing any of them. It's another life, now.
Kenny Everett is a lot more fun and more worth your time, to be sure.
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Post by pulphack on Sept 8, 2019 14:51:14 GMT
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Post by pulphack on Nov 29, 2018 16:01:52 GMT
ELP and Gr*&$%lade are the reasons why prog rock has a bad name. No-one remembers Hatfield And The North (apart from Jonathon Coe) do they? Slight exaggeration. But years of explaining you like prog rock when you mean Fairport Convention and Faust, and not Emerson Laker And Farmer (imagine a Brazilian footballer, an airline owner, and Ted Moult as a band - splendid) can make a grown man slightly surly on the matter.
I don't read books any more, sadly. Hence the long silence. But get me on prog...
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Post by pulphack on Feb 15, 2018 13:31:00 GMT
We watched Requiem on the iplayer last weekend, over two days. It's very evocative, well-shot, and has some neat twists and turns in what is - in many ways - a pretty straightforward story. Makes great use of location and atmosphere. If I was being picky I could say there were a few plot strands that are fragile, but that would be just for the sake of it. It moves well, so you don't really notice, and it's probably just me thinking 'I'd do that differently'. The end is very reminiscent of Twin Peaks in a good way, and overall it made me think of Machen, as there are some very Arthur-influenced references to old races and underground. I've tried to say that without giving too much away! Overall, one of the best things on the box for ages, supernatural or not.
By contrast, watched Trauma over three nights this week. Ok, so it might seem an odd comparison as it's not supernatural in any way whatsoever (apart from a contrived 'haunting' metaphor at the end), but as this was supposed to be about a 'serious' issue and therefore important drama, it was full of stock characters parroting polemical dialogue, and wafer thin characterisation. I bet it gets great reviews because of the subject, though the treatment was poor. It was written by the bloke who did Dr Foster, so he's hot. I never saw that, but I hope it was better than this. Angsty, wet liberal, and full of people who are self-obsessed that we're supposed to be sympathetic with, on both sides. Does this mean the concensus is that we're all self-obsessed, so we'll love this stuff? If so, we must be, as it'll get awards.
I rant at length about it as Requiem is far more nuanced and subtle, and has characters who are more than one dimensional, but because it's 'genre' it'll get marginalised. Hopefully I'm wrong.
Rant over!
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Post by pulphack on Jan 1, 2018 10:28:14 GMT
Good Morning
Just a quick check-in to say that I wish everyone all good things for the year ahead (as long as The Donald doesn't manage to cause WW3 halfway through).
Personally, I'm hoping for a much better year than 2017 which, for a myriad of reasons, will not go down as the best for me and mrs ph. That's mostly why I haven't posted much since summer, although I have been checking in. The board, as ever, changes subtly as time goes on - a lot more of the 'classic' era ghost stuff this year, thanks to Rosemary, Lurkio and Mr Connelly, all of which has been fascinating for me as that's not something I had a great knowledge of. (Ends sentence on preposition. Black mark. Is that actually a preposition or has my sketchy knowledge of grammar let me down a second time?) Also excellent to see Crom drag the board back towards the area of men's action, which is more my hammer (or H&K MP5). There was more I could have contributed to his ruminations - hopefully this year I will.
So happy new year to the above, and Dem, FM, Craig, James, Andy, Lord P, Charlie, Dr S, Shrinky the Stationmaster, Jojo (who is a personal hero of mine for his tinder dry wit and soul of brevity, which I wish I possessed), and anyone else I've forgotten (sorry).
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Post by pulphack on Sept 9, 2017 8:11:52 GMT
The Pentateuch Etc Etc actually had a bloody hardback book with it, illustrated by Patrick Woodruffe - I only know this, I swear, because I like PW and still have a book of his art work I bought back in 1979 (his work is probably scattered about here, as he did a lot of SF & fantasy paperback covers in the '70's - I bought the book becasue he'd done some Moorcock covers I adored at 14). Personally, Greenslade are a prog too far for me: I like Dave Greenslade in Colosseum, where drummer and overseer Jon Heisman kept a firm hold on his excesses, and his dad Arthur was a wiz in the big band/BBC orchestra days, but under his own steam... I did get a Greenslade album once. I played it twice, and I swear it was pressed with the hole off centre, as it sounded well out of tune by the time it got to the last track. Not that you you could tell too well as they were getting all polyrhythmic and complex arrangements by that time... the trouble with that kind of thing is that it only works (as in classical and western art music) if you have a really strong theme, or else it descends into pointless chaos. Guess where Greenslade went...
Having said that, there was one good thing about them - the theme from 'Gangsters', a BBC crime series, which was actually dead simple by their standards, and had a strong central melody. Hmm, pity they didn't learn a lesson from that.
Anyway, all this to take your mind off being barred from footy for the foreseeable. Blaming a dodgy prog band won't work. Making yourself a sacrifice on the altar of cross-polytonal dualling kepyboard solos will be no appeasement to the Gods of Prog. Don't do it. Trust me - if even I won't go near them, then they are too hideous to contemplate.
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Post by pulphack on Sept 8, 2017 8:58:55 GMT
Good gravy... there truly is a meaning to the seemingly tangled skein of life... It started out so well, and ended up so... perfectly...
And it transpires you have no-one to blame but yourself! Having said that, the logic that got you to Greenslade also fired me into buying some bargain bin cut-outs back in the late seventies (when a teenager, I add) that even now - nearly forty years later - make me wonder what the F*&K I was thinking!
Still, sounds like a good game...
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Post by pulphack on Sept 7, 2017 17:28:12 GMT
That's splendid, Lee - the John Smith books are wonderfully bleak and downbeat whilst still being wryly funny.
Of course, istead of asking the stupid question I could have just looked at the Brash Books site - which I since have - and found this out. It's a cracking imprint, by the looks of it. Some great crime fiction there.
And run by someone who doesn't mind answering idiots who could have answered their own question with some brains...
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Post by pulphack on Sept 7, 2017 9:59:14 GMT
There is not a duff track on the Aliens album, and I shall prove that to Mrs ph by playing it later, and no doubt annoying her (she's very into Foreigner at the moment - don't ask). There's recentish concert footage of Roky on youtube and he looks well and happy after decades of illness and abuse, so that's very pleasing. I understand that he had a Nick Lowe moment* and got a cheque for a large amount after one of his toons ended up on a movie soundtrack, which gives us all hope. And was no more than Roky deserved after the private hell of the seventies and eighties he seems to have gone through.
(*Nick Lowe once related how he was sitting at home in Brentford when a cheque popped through the door for about a million bucks - Curtis Stigers' version of 'What's So Funny 'Bout Peace Love And Understanding' had been on The Bodyguard soundtrack album and he was due some royalties! He rented the movie and had to watch it three times before he caught the 30 seconds that appeared in the background of one scene.)
As for Greenslade - the curse of the three hour bass solo strikes again?? How??
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Post by pulphack on Sept 7, 2017 8:40:53 GMT
Best way to get anyone interested in digging deeper into a subject is to mention the big names that everyone knows as a hook, and then signpost them to lesser-known but perhaps 'better' names. 'Better' as in more distinct voices, something a bit unusual, something off the beaten track. Without wanting to get into pointless arguments about 'good' and 'bad', it's perhaps a useful rule of thumb that the more general something is, the more appeal it has simply because it has less to turn people off. Which is one hell of a skill or knack to have. I remember Charles Shaar Murray writing about heavy metal once, and he stated that he found one band indistinguishable from another as he listened to very little and heard only the basic form in each band, whereas a fan who listened to lots of metal could tell the nuances. He likened it to apples - he didn't like them much so an apple is an apple when he ate it, whereas someone who ate a lot of apples would be able to tell one variety from another easily. He was being snobby about metal at the time, but his basic point is sound.
As for my point - I've forgotten what it was...
Roky Erickson - now there's a horror rocker of wonderfulness: the 1980 album on CBS is one of my faves, even thirty three years after picking it up. 'Creature With The Atom Brain' - now there's a classic toon...
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