Electric Roulette - the hip side of music and pop culture

Free album? Electric R' approved Eagle and Talon!

2009-07-08T15:16:50+01:00

Okay.

Want a free album? Of course, it being free means the kicker is that it'll be a download... but free tunes are free tunes right? No band in their right mind would give you a buncha 45s fer nuthin', regardless of how much you've screwed your eyes up and wished wished wished.

Anyway, the band are Eagle and Talon. Their LP is called 'Thracian' and it's great!

If you want to know what it sounds like, you can read our review by clicking here.

Illegal downloaders can prove that they are in fact sticking it to the man by making a donation to the band... but the chances of you doing that are about as likely as you getting laid.

Click here to download Eagle and Talon's ace 'Thracian' album

Free live Specials CD with the Sunday Times

2009-07-08T14:14:43+01:00

Ok, it's not strictly free, you have to buy a weekend rag to get it, but if you fancy getting your hands on a Specials live CD, one is being given away with this weekend's Sunday Times (12th July 2009).

According to the newspaper's website, a 12-track live CD will be given away, all the tracks recorded live at the Brixton Academy during the recent gigs there. if that's not enough, there's also an 'exclusive' interview in the newspaper's magazine too.

Which means it might be worth getting up a little bit earlier this Sunday and beating a path to the newsagents - it's certain to be in short supply.

The Specials website

Via Modculture

Abba: Are they reforming?

2009-07-06T11:21:35+01:00

I can smell it. ABBA, Swedish super popster, are going to get back together. It's a hunch, sure, but I can almost taste it. Dig. Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus have confirmed that they'll be taking part in a concert later this year called, predictably, Thank You For The Music: A Celebration Of The Music Of ABBA. The group stopped making records in '82, but never officially split up. Surely time has healed the wounds enough for one last blow-out gig? Don't be surprised if there's a residency at a huge venue akin to the one Michael Jackson was set to do.

It Felt Like A Kiss: Adam Curtis takes you through time and scares you witless

2009-07-05T11:28:42+01:00

Adam Curtis is a genius. He's been making documentaries for television and leaving all destroyed in his wake. He's given us The Century of the Self, The Trap - What Happened to our Dream of Freedom, the incredible The Power of Nightmares and provided a short documentary which appeared in Charlie Brooker's News Wipe. Now, along with the Punchdrunk Theatre Co, he's made a spectacle so dazzling, so mind-frying, that you might never quite think the same thoughts again.

Curtis has taken over a disused 5 storey building in Manchester for 'It Felt Like A Kiss', which is part of the Manchester International Festival. There's been a lot of big talk about it, which was more than enough to pique my giddy glands... however... the past two days has seen me close to puking with terror.

Before I even entered the fray, I was sent a mysterious email concerning the event which said things like "The filmed content contains graphic scenes of strong violence that some people may find disturbing", "The event is not suitable for people with a heart or respiratory condition" and the incredibly ominous "Patrons enter at their own risk." I know someone and his girlfriend is one of the actors in it... and he told me she'd been having nightmares about the whole thing.

What on Earth was I letting myself in for?

Curtis, who has now turned his back on TV to make documentaries and share ideas solely online on his own BBC page (here) had been sharing trailers and teasers, all of which added to my anxiety. Stood outside the building, tension mounted and a cheery volunteer said "make sure you've had a poo and a wee before you go in...". Was it going to be that bad? I'd pretty much convinced myself I was going to die in there.

Then you enter the blackness through a gawping clown mouth.

Of course, I'll keep this spoiler free for those that are attending the event, or indeed, going to spend their time trying to get their hands on returned tickets (to say that I advise this would be an understatement), but I'll try to convey what happens to you.

Over many floors, you travel through time, able to interact with absolutely everything. If you stumble across a CIA filing cabinet, by all means, have a nosey. I inspected criminal reports, letter boxes, postcards, racks of clothes, audio equipment... everything is ON limits.

Through the winding corridors, the dimly lit rooms of terrifying enchantment, through the strobe lit spaces, you blink and paw your way around a time-line that slowly begins to make some kind of sense. Figures lie slumped, droning music tracks your footsteps and classic rock 'n' roll appears from nowhere, all leading you to Curtis' latest piece, somewhere in the belly of the building.

In effect, you're given an almost living, breathing history of the world since 1959 and suddenly, a thread appears and then, astonishingly, everything starts to slot into place. Like all good art... it starts to slot into place in comparison with your own life. You begin to look at yourself. Not in some chin-stroking poncefest... this is Adam Curtis. He makes you reassess whether you like it or not in a language that's direct and easy to understand.

Huge ideas emerge from the looking glass... seemingly inauspicious events reveal a huge knock-on effect... you begin to think about history in a completely different light... which is nothing to be sniffed at. Between Curtis and Punchdrunk, they've created one of the most visceral and staggering things I've ever taken part in. It's a documentary that you physically walk through.

To cement the ideas, you have to go through the mill. There are sections that will scare your trousers brown. There are decision to be made. The building itself plays games with your mind and you run blindly around only to discover that you're being taught a lesson in fear, loathing, loneliness and freedom.

Heavy eh?

Not so. The whole experience was exhilarating and stupid amounts of fun. If possible, you need to experience this funhouse gone mad. With any luck, the project will make its way to other cities and, hopefully, Curtis' collage documentary will find itself online for all to see. Until then, I'm staying under the bed, teeth chattering, knuckles white and having a good long think.

A phenomenal achievement. [MG]

Kraftwerk at the Manchester Velodrome - the shape of things to come?

2009-07-05T11:18:41+01:00

I was going to write an in-depth gig review of the Kraftwerk/Steve Reich gig at the Manchester Velodrome, but decided against. For a start, there are numerous review already in the mix (including some that might have been written by people who didn't actually go). And of course, as we couldn't get press passes (and had to pay our way in), why should be spend our time lauding it up? Saying that, there are some things we couldn't resist commenting on.

In terms of the music, this was Kraftwerk by numbers, essentially the same set as they brought to Manchester a few years back (and not far from the first time I saw them in the early 90s). The Model, The Robots, Radioactivity, Home Computer, Showroom Dummies, Autobahn, you know the score. Even the robots seemed old hat, there was even a Florian Schneider one and he's long gone. Surely the band can stretch to a few new heads?

But what really set this gig apart was the 3D. Yes, donning the dodgy specs, we saw a gig like no other - images of pills and power stations thrust into our faces, words hovering in front of our vision, effects taking hold of our heads. It was weird, it was bizarre - it could be the future. Of course, only certain bands can pull it off - the kind of bands whose audience sits and watches a gig rather than throwing themselves head first into a mosh pit. Bands like Kraftwerk for example. Or Jean-Michel Jarre. or anyone else whose actual consists of standing statuesque-like in front of an old keyboard. If that's you, get some 3D into your act.

Oh yes - and there were the Olympic cyclists too, doing a few circuits round the Velodrome as Kraftwerk knocked out Tour de France. Nice touch, if not the life-changing event some have suggested it was. Great gig, great sound, nice robots, coolTron suits, amazing 3D and celebrity cyclists too. Steve Reich as well, if your tastes are more avante garde than my own. Shame about the bar running dry, the metal box venue (on the hottest day of the year) and the queue for food, so taking all that into account, we'll give it a 9 out of 10.

Images of the Velodrome gig at Wallpaper

New York Dolls back for one more London gig

2009-07-05T10:44:36+01:00

Not sure how I feel about the New York Dolls these days - sure, they're one of the most influential bands ever and Johnny Thunders was one of the coolest dudes ever to hold a guitar. But he's long dead and just two of the original five remain. If that's enough 'doll' for you, you can catch the reformed band once again in London - at the HMV Kentish Town Forum on Friday 4th December 2009.

David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain will be joined by newbies Steve Conte (guitar), Brian Delaney (drums), and former Hanoi Rocks bass guitarist, Sami Yaffa to rip through material from ‘New York Dolls’ (1973), ‘Too Much Too Soon’ (1974), and ‘One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This’ (2006), not to mention recent Todd Rundgren-produced studio album 'Cause I Sez So’, all for an admission price of £22.50.

See below for tickets and if don't own those first two albums, more fool you.

Gig tickets for New York Dolls in London

Bughouse Scratch DJ Coffee Table - home decor for vinyl addicts

2009-07-05T10:33:35+01:00

If you love your vinyl, you'll love the Bughouse Scratch DJ Coffee Table.

No, it doesn't spin your discs, but it give you a place to store two of your favourites within, your prize vinyl then protected by a glass top, perfect for showing off rarities to your crate diggin' mates. The DJ 'console', as you might have guessed, is an image transfer, printed onto pine laminate.

Pine sides and brushed chrome legs finish things off, with the whole thing selling for $850, which works out at around £515. See over the page for a close-up look.

Bughouse Art & Design

Via Switched On Set

Audiobooks hit the Spotify website

2009-07-05T10:28:02+01:00

All that time on the PC doing damage to your reading? No worries, you can now mix the two - with audiobooks now available for your reading/listening pleasure on Spotify.

Well, we say 'audiobooks', but we mean 'audiobook' - just one is there as a trial right now, Chris Anderson's Free: The Future of a Radical Price, which also hits the traditional bookshelves this week. The book itself is narrated by the author and 'considers a brave new world where the old economic certainties are being challenged by a growing flood of free goods – newspapers, DVDs, T-shirts, phones, even holiday flights.' Not exactly Harry Potter, but what do you want for nowt?

To be fair, it's probably in tune with Spotify and by all accounts it's a decent read - so check it out for yourself if you fancy giving your brain a workout. If all goes well, more audiobooks will follow. Hopefully something a bit lighter.

Spotify website

Viva hits DVD - Russ Meyer for the modern era

2009-07-05T09:51:20+01:00

Remember Viva? We reviewed it on Cinedelica some time back when it was doing the rounds of the arthouse circuit, but now the movie has finally made it to DVD in the UK.

Check out the full review or let us tell you that Viva is a take on the Russ Meyer/Herschell Gordon Lewis-style exploitation flick of the late 60s and early 70s (think Beyond The Valley of the Dolls), with director Anna Biller heading up the cast as a bored housewife looking for kicks in 1972 LA - model work, call girl, stage star etc etc. It's very good, but don't take our word for it, check out the review and numerous others that give the movie the thumbs up.

You can pick it up from 6th July 2009 for just under £10 from Amazon via the Cine Excess label. Not heard of that? Well, you soon will do - a collaboration between Brunel University's Cult Film Archive and film director Roger Corman, it promises to offer some never-before-seen movies from the cult movie man's archive for the first time in the UK. We don't now what as yet - but we're already seriously excited about the prospect.

Find out more about Viva at the Amazon website

Thoughts on playing popular music

2009-07-05T01:27:06+01:00

I'm a DJ. Now to some, that really means something. It promises untold cool. People look at DJs and imagine a glamorous world filled with hip-cats, all discussing cool, obscure records. They hang in hip bars that no-one else knows about and get free coke in the back room. Mostly, that isn't the case at all. Far from it.

Fact is, DJing puts you one rung below the bar staff in a venue, but with far more agonies. Bar staff, ever popular because they can give you exactly what you want... namely 'a drink'... turn up at work without much thought beyond 'I can't be bothered with working tonight' or 'payday!' DJs, not so.

You prepare your records mentally for months in advance, hunt out new tunes that'll dazzle in your set. You sit amongst piles of 45s, flicking through each one, making mental notes of what tracks goes with what. You pull out the slow-burning psych funk thing that you've never been able to categorise and know damn well that it'll go down a treat kinda early on.

You haul your arse, along with a heavy bag or two to your chosen venue, getting slight shoulder ache and wondering if anyone will notice that you've got sweaty pits from your brief manual labour. And then what happens?

You get let down.

Most people who read this site are invariably bonded by a love of obscure records. Garage punk, raw soul cuts, prog hammond breakbeat monster jams... whatever. If you got every one of us together, and mates... like minded people... you probably wouldn't fill an average sized football stadium. As such, the chances of us starting a super successful night full of people who totally Get What You're Trying To Do are slim to shit.

The best you can hope for is a handful of people you don't know who are willing to take a chance on your tunes. Your friends - if they turn up at all - are great to see when they're having fun... but it's a bit of an empty victory. You like the same records as them pretty much. That's why you're mates. You aren't switching them on to anything new. And on you plug with a notion that some day, you might end up with a floor with a thousand people getting their mind's blown by this amazing music.

Of course, there are successes. I've had full floors with people demanding to know what that record was, or what do you call this kinda music. It's great. However, far more frequent is the inappropriate request. In a garage punk/psych set, I got asked for 'Toxic' by Britney Spears. Not a bad track... but the chances of me having it were nil. I've been asked for 'Last Christmas' in August at a psychedelic night. I've been asked for Jason Mraz when I was playing predominantly '60s music. During a set which saw me playing mostly funk and soul, a man came along and said:

"Got any Whitesnake?"

When I said no, he made an assumption.

"Oh well, it'll have to be The Proclaimers then." And off he walked. I shouted him back to tell him I didn't have any of their stuff either, and he looked at me eyes that said: "Are you sure you're a DJ?" As a peacemaker, I played an instro and told him to sing what he liked over it. And he did. Very loudly.

Yet, at no point did I question myself. I had this nonsense courage of my convictions that I was somehow right and that he was somehow wrong. I don't need to play popular music because I'm more than just a tune jock. I'm here to educate as well... or some other claptrap you convince yourself with when faced with a largely empty dancefloor.

It's pretty much given that all the DJs I know care far more about the tunes being played in a public space than any other human on the face of the earth.

And so, the day after Michael Jackson died, I was asked to fill in at this bar. I duly took it up and planned a night of cool music and shit. Thanks to MJ's untimely death, I figured it would be pretty churlish to not make the night an ad-hoc tribute. Records by Michael Jackson, The Jacksons and The Jackson 5, alongside those that inspired him and artists that were big when he was in his full '80s pomp.

This meant, playing popular music.

And you'll never guess what happened. People went nuts. I've never had a crowd like it. I threw on 'Get Into The Groove' by Madonna and people were dancing on tables. People bought me drinks when I played 'Fascination' by Human League. People punched the air and copped off with each other during 'Do You Wanna Be Startin' Somethin'? Diana Ross' 'Upside Down' had people hugging, pie-eyed and loving the moment. They were young, fashionable, pretty and impossibly thin, throwing money at the bar staff to get more drunk... to loosen them up for more fun and fumbles in the taxi ride home with a stranger.

Miles better than playing 'Psychotic Reaction' to two dozen blokes in Cramps t-shirts and their long-suffering girlfriends.

Of course, this won't stop me playing my niche records. I'm too far gone. I'm hooked on playing records that say This Should Have Been Famous Way Back When And Now I'm Giving It The Air It Has Been Deprived. I can't help it. It's programmed into my DNA now. However, thanks to a rollicking night of classic pop (which, of course, didn't include anything remotely new and was justified in my head with some record collector guff) I've been offered a second monthly night, away from my Chin Stroking. They want me to play pop music. I've said yes.

So now, into the unknown. The populated dancefloors of popular music I go... [Mof Gimmers]

ZX Spectrum: Play online for RSI fun!

2009-07-05T00:58:01+01:00

Me. I was a ZX Spectrum kid. I had a Commodore 16k, but it was rubbish... even then. Other kids I knew had Commodore 64s, Amiga CPC464s and Atari somethingothers with cigar shaped joysticks, but for me, Spectrum Was King. I graduated to a Spectrum 125k with a built-in tape deck, so I didn't have to much about with the volume on my separate when the line of tippex had worn off. It came with a James Bond pack and a gun. It was amazing. Saboteur, Jet Set Willy, Footballer of the Year, Jetpac and Fantasy World Dizzy set my world on fire. Now, those games are so crude and small that mobile phones are standing around in the showers, towels poised and ready to gloat. Yet still, the birth of the home computer grips some of us with a fever that's hard to shake. The thought of those rubber keys make us sigh with nostalgia. Now, you can play pretty much every game online without downloading a damn thing.

Click here to roll back the years

Michael Jackson... wait... here us out

2009-07-05T00:19:19+01:00

Okay. A million words have been written about Michael Jackson, most of 'em complete junk. However, amongst the unreasonable criticisms, the sickly fawning and overplaying of His Last Ever Performance, there's a few good pieces. One such article that's definitely worth a read is on the Koax Koax Koax blog. You might not agree with it all, but it's definitely worth your time.

Only Fools and Horses prequel, or Before The Glue Boilers

2009-07-05T00:06:16+01:00

You remember Only Fools and Horses right? I mean, there's that one where Del falls through the bar. There's that one when they ran through fog as Batman and Robin. That one where Del fell through the bar. "Bonjour". That one where the Peckham Spring Water fell through the bar at Bruce Wayne's mansion. That one where Bruce Wayne had a bottle of Peckham Spring Fog in that bar and Uncle Albert told that war story about that time when Rodders was replaced with a spring. Well, it's back... but not as you know it.

Derek Trotter is returning to BBC One in a prequel to Only Fools and Horses about his teenage years. It'll be called Sex, Drugs and Rock 'n' Chips. It'll be set in 1960 and was written by John Sullivan. Now, remember all those times Del talked about his Dear Old Mum... she's in it too.

She's called Joan and she likes A Bit Of The Uvver. Sullivan reckons it'll give viewers an insight "into why Del and Rodney turned out they way they did". Mercifully, for the time being, it's only a one-off.

Sullivan said the new show would be "set in the real 60s, before The Beatles and Mary Quant made London the coolest place on the planet". "The drama will feature South London at its least glamorous, where money was scarce, the staple diet was rock salmon and chips, and the flicks offer the only hint of glamour," he said. A teenage Trigger will also appear in the show, as well as Boycie and Denzel.

Two words: Muppet Babies.

Blur accidentally prompt the death of the review

2009-07-04T23:56:22+01:00

Ironically, after saying 'Sorry bub, things keep getting in the way, back soon', I stumble across something that made me want to vent a little. Of course, it being a topical story in the world of music, it could only be about one of two things: Michael Jackson's death or The Blur Reunion. It's the latter. And the NME.

Over at the NME, they've done a review of Blur's Hyde Park gig. Now, there's nothing wrong with that. Far from it. If someone had paid for us lot to go, we woulda reviewed it in a heartbeat. However, that's not how the music industry works. Or rather, how almost every PR person works. That's what people actually mean when they say 'The Music Industry' in a sniffy way. So yeah, PR people send out 'accreditation' to the usual candidates, effectively underlining their very 20th Century Way of thinking. More People Read Music Magazines Than Anything Else... despite the fact that there's a number of websites that dwarf the traffic and readership of conventional press.

As a result, the dailes, weeklies, fortnightlies and monthlies in the UK, by and large, have become so complacent that often, when you're reading their reviews, you get the impression that it's being written by interns from Chelsea, or somewhere equally vapid.

So anyway, the NME reviewed the Blur gig... and essentially, it goes like this.

THIS HAPPENED. THIS HAPPENED. THIS HAPPENED AS WELL. THEN THIS HAPPENED. THIS HAPPENED TOO. IT REMINDED ME OF THIS OTHER THING. THEN THEY DID THIS SONG. IT WAS LIKE THIS. THEN THEY DID THIS. THEY FINISHED WITH THIS. IT WAS GOOD/BAD.

For a rag that's just had a two page spread on Swells' passing, and including some of his rockin' vitriol, they failed to get sparked up by a past master... they've completely forgotten what made 'em such a fun read in the past, whether you agreed or not. The most recent issue of the NME contains a feature that points out how many number one hit singles were played at Glastonbury last weekend. Invigorating huh?

Click the link below to see how standard issue a review can be and daydream of a time when people throw tickets for big shows at The Big R and sort us out with private jets and shit. [MG]

Read the full NME article here.

Dig Fuzz.

2009-07-04T11:45:21+01:00

Have you dug our man Paul 'Super 8' Fuzz's blog. He's been writing away over there, looking at ER thinking "Shit. These swines aren't paying me in nuthin' but uncomfortable hugs... I may as well stick to my own".

Fair and true.

His great little articles will be sporadically appearing... HERE. So pay him a visit at What Would Jesus Blog? and read about pinball machines, hot air balloons, NASA and more. In the absence of me being able to get things together any time soon, he's yer man.

UPDATED Michael Jackson RIP

2009-06-25T23:23:06+01:00

*Michael Jackson has died after paramedics were called to the singer's home around midday local time on Thursday after he stopped breathing and suffered a suspected cardiac arrest. He was rushed by ambulance to a local medical centre, but his death was announced shortly afterwards.*

The article written before the news was confirmed is overleaf.

Har. Har de har. Ho! HO! HAAARGH! Stoppit! Y'killin' me! He's a kiddie fid, right! HAR! HAR! AND THAT THING HE DID WITH PAUL MCCARTNEY!? HARDEHARHAR!

And so goes the general response to the news that Michael Jackson, who has been taken to a Los Angeles medical centre, according to the US media. The Los Angeles Times reported that the Jackson wasn't breathing when paramedics arrived at his home. The paramedics performed CPR and took him to the UCLA medical centre. On the cusp of his dates in London, feverish fans will be wondering if he's pulled through. There's no immediate reports suggesting either way... regardless, I won't be cheering the death of Michael Jackson for a whole buncha good reasons.

First up, I've long thought that Michael Jackson has been mentally ill for some time. It's not surprising really. I mean, you live under the microscope and too often, the sun's gonna burn you out. However, that's not stop people sniggering and laughing at the weird kinks in his personality. I guess no-one would mind if I pulled the nose of someone who was in the middle of a nervous breakdown... or kicked someone up the arse who was suicidal and bipolar. Right?

People are wheeling out the whole 'child molestor' schtick as well... which doesn't sit right with me. Sure, he's messed up a little in the head, but did a judge ever convict him? I sure as hell wouldn't rest until he was behind bars forever and a day if that was my kid... unless, y'know, getting a big wap of cash is enough to make you forget about all that stuff surrounding the unending mental anguish of your kid.

Just sayin'.

Also, and most importantly, he made a whole bunch of brilliant records from the '60s onward. Hell, Michael Jackson has more brilliant tunes on Thriller than the Sex Pistols - a universally canonised buncha idiots - ever made in their entire career. He's made more great tunes than the entire output of solo Beatles. None of those guys ended up with a fresh line of LA Gear sneaks. None of those guys were signed to the coolest record label in the universe. And I'm not even a hardcore Michael Jackson nut!

There's people speculating (10.30pm, 25 June) that he's died. Jumping the gun with remebrance galleries and the like. Seems a bit wrong. While we wait for reliable sources and news, I figure it'd be best to remind yourself of some of the coolest, most brilliant songs anyone ever made. Forget all the crap that surrounded his life. If you believe the rumours, Lennon funded the IRA, Sid Vicious killed his missus, Chuck Berry filmed gals taking a leak and... on and on and on the rumours go. Don't piss on a man while he's dying down the hospital. Gallows humour is only fun when you're witty in the first place.

[Mof]

From Jazz Funk & Fusion to Acid Jazz - The History of the UK Jazz Dance Scene

2009-06-25T19:01:25+01:00

It's been 10 years in the making, which just might give you an idea of the depth of From Jazz Funk & Fusion to Acid Jazz - The History of the UK Jazz Dance Scene.

The work of Mark 'Snowboy' Cotgrove and designed by one of our favourite artist/designers Swifty, this 290-page book looks at the evolution of black music and clubbing in the UK from the early 70s to the mid-90s, taking in the all-dayers, weekenders and clubs, including The Goldmine, Chaplins, Lacy Lady, Berlin, The Central, Chaplins, Crackers, Electric Ballroom and The Wag.

Over 200 DJs, dancers and promoters have been interviewed, including Baz Fe Jazz, Pete Tong, Gilles Peterson, Paul Murphy and Kenny MacLeod, with the words accompanied by a plethora of rare memorabilia and photography. The book is the first to be published by Chaser Publications (from the people behind Straight No Chaser magazine) and is available now directly from Authorhouse for £15.99 or from Amazon in the UK for £18.99.

Find out more at the Amazon website

Swells RIP

2009-06-25T18:54:08+01:00

There's a lot of people out there who think they're good enough to be a rock critic. 'I can write a bit and I totally like loads of bands! I'm always talking about music!' And so, 99% of music writers are the dullest people on Earth. It suits, because rock musicians are just as boring. They tangle up in some beige heap, all trying to cop a feel of each other. However, all the best people churning out words into the music press void weren't too fussed either way... they'd pretty much write about anything but music in their work. One of my favourite music writers who ever lived, criminally underrated too, is Steven Wells (aka Swells)... or should that say was? Because the mighty Swells passed away to cap unofficial ER Death Day following Sky Saxon and Farrah Fawcett to the dirt.

Wells left school with minimal qualifications and jobbed it in dead-end jobs before getting lost in the punk scene, fronting the socialist Leeds art-punk band The Mekons. Later, he started to do the circuit as a punk poet and stand-up as "Seething Wells", "Swells" or "Susan Williams".

The latter guise saw him stealing into the pages of the NME, presumably as they were so thrilled that they could get a record collector type girl in the mag. They didn't know what they were getting into. Soon, the fey indie was being met with Black Flag, Extreme Noise Terror, Napalm Death and the Butthole Surfers. And Daphne and Celeste.

Swells was incredibly irritating to read at times, tearing strips off your favourite bands and winding up all who crossed him for kicks. See, that's what he liked doing best. He'd turn up at the NME offices in clothes that stank up the place and shove it in the face of the fringes that took the whole thing so very, very seriously. He kicked off an article about NME darlings, The Manic Street Preachers with "Let's stop pretending to be excited about a band who are obviously just dragging their bone-weary carcasses through the motions, shall we?" Even hardened MSP nuts had to have a snort of laughter at that. [read it here]

There's more to Swells schtick though. In the '90s he wrote for comedy shows On the Hour and The Day Today. He started the Attack! Books publishing house and flung out a debut novel called 'Tits Out Teenage Terror Totty'.

He could drive you spare. He could make you laugh your guts up through your nostrils. He was never, ever boring. The world of journalism... of which he invariably didn't consider himself to be part of... has a huge hole in it which may never be filled again. His words were an adrenaline rush for everyone concerned, including him.

He died after losing his battle with lymphatic cancer. [Mof Gimmers]

Click here to read his last article.

Farrah Fawcett RIP

2009-06-25T18:32:10+01:00

The last of the truly great pin-ups has passed away. RIP Farrah.

What did LPs look like in Communist Russia?

2009-06-25T18:22:22+01:00

Dear Anorak

Sorry for stealing a picture that you used on your site. Fact is, we needed something to illustrate an article we're linking to. An post you've done. It's pretty cool. That's why we're linking to you.

Hope you don't mind.

The Roulette Idiots.

Click here to see a load of cool album covers from commie Russia.