It all started in 2010; and by 'it' I mean this blog
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The Cat & Fiddle pub in Los Angeles (formerly on Sunset Blvd., now on Melrose) is a hangout for UK ex-pats, including many musicians and/or thesps. Even ex-pros. So it's no surprise that their football team, Hollywood United, is legendary. How many other pub sides ply their trade in the 5th tier of the American soccer pyramid? (And they play exhibition/charity games too.) Their ground is the…
Welcome to Up the Junction (Box) #3 - the third instalment (See 1 & 2 here) of our irregular photographic feature that steadfastly reuses to be a Photo Challenge - a feature that nevertheless has got grown men & women men all over the country (and beyond) seeking out painted Openreach/BT/Virgin communication cabinets and junction boxes in every new town they visit. And for that reason alone I…
I mentioned yesterday in my piece about Phil Collins that Genesis were once interrogated on Tiswas by Sally James in one of her Almost Legendary Pop Interviews. That's right, Tiswas - home of the custard pie, Spit the Dog, Compost Corner, and the (many, many) buckets of water. There was something quite satisfying in seeing earnest/smug/unsuspecting (often all three) musicians being, quite…
I've noticed people are treading very carefully around Phil Collins at the moment. He's been through the wringer of late, that's for sure; last time I looked him up on Wikipedia he's still an 'is' and not a 'was'. Always a good sign. The Sunday Times brought him in from the cold this weekend by, seemingly, bestowing national treasure status upon him. Maybe they've all forgotten his…
In 1989 when Chris Isaak unleashed Wicked Game into the big wide world it was described by one music critic as a brooding and sorrowfully conflicted song. In the nearly forty years since the reverb laden rockabilly revivalist released his seminal piece of work I don't think it's lost any of its brooding or indeed sorrow. And when Tenacious D covered it a couple of years ago they only piled on the…
The witching hour - generally recognised as 3.00am - is linked with spiritual portals, visual tricks and sleep disruption. If you believe in this kind of folklore (some might say mumbo-jumbo) then you'd be ill-advised to stare into mirrors at nighttime. Doing so, it's said, invites spirits to trap your soul or even to step through into the physical world. Brian Connolly, for all his faults, never…
The Beatles could never be accused of letting the grass grow beneath their feet; their sixth album was recorded in a four week window during October and November 1965 (less than three years since Please Please Me - their 1st.) and was released on 3 December. Talk about In Like Flynn. Rubber Soul's cover photograph was shot by Robert Freeman on 23 October in Lennon's back garden in Weybridge. It…
Welcome to August's Photo Challenge. This month is all about animals. And birds. And creepy crawlies. And the response has been amazing: you've all gone animal quackers. As per our Royal Charter, Rol's first out of the traps: ''He y John, here's one of my dad's cows from nearly 20 years ago.'' ''And a couple of my sister's geese - particularly vicious - they hated me. Also from times long gone.''…
I can't tell you how thrilled I was this week to discover that Bob Stanley (St. Etienne) has curated yet another brilliant compilation album; this time it's a homage to car travel and the British motorway - comprising library music culled from 1966-1982; I guess in car years that's roughly the lifespan of the Ford Escort Mark1 to Mark 3. And as if that wasn't Thrills Thrillington enough, imagine…
Walking through St. James's Park, one of London's eight Royal Parks, is never not an experience to savour. After the Saturday afternoon jostle thru Covent Garden and Piccadilly Circus, this most tranquil of gardens provided the necessary counterpoint to the hot and humid trek that had begun some 15,000+ steps earlier after a boozy lunch in King's Cross. And to have a local Sherpa on hand as our…
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