Needles again..........

Saw them at the Dublin Castle last night, they're shaping up to be a really special band : despite equipment problems, shonky power supplies, wandering microphones and the fact that Big Paul was suffering from some sort of lurgy, it was another belter of a show. The new single is ACE (and is on the NME site at the moment)

*points down*

OK, so the photo didn't work....i'm not sure why*. It's the cover of "Skateboard!" issue 19, early 1979, John Sablosky doing an invert at (I think) Arrow skatepark in Wolverhampton. Riding a Sablosky Deck (obv.) with Indy's and Benjy Boots. I'm really coming round to doing some sort of essay on the way the front covers of the mag show how the craze lived and died over an 18-month period. I realise it'll be of no interest to abso-fucking-lutely (Tmesis!!!!!!!) anyone except me, but I don't care. Watch this space.
*I'm sure nobody cares, but if you head here and do some digging, you may find it.

Here's the cover of the last issue....see what I mean? Shadows closing in, Sablosky showing inverts off to the masses (first time most had ever seen 'em) Protec, tube-socks and Vans...the start of a new style, the end of the craze, the start of "The Dead Days". 

Morning all...

Just a quick one to jot down where my head's at. Full of hayfever, full of tunes, full of images of old-school skateboarding. Been buying up copies of all the old mags, marvelling at how the cover shots tell the story: how the light changes over the last six issues before the magazine (and the craze) died at the start of 1979. The shadows encroach, the moves become more desperate, more focussed....as the oxygen ran out. It was the subtext to my youth, and the memories flow like blood from a grazed knee :)

Crikey

Just got back back from DJ-ing in town, for Des from Choice.....his leaving party. Played about an hours worth of dancehall, old soul, classic reggae...you name it. God, it's nice to be let off the leash.

Gah.

They've switched all the computers at work, nothing works, I can't access emails....
Mind you, on my *Hot Desk* station.... I can access blogger! (it had been blocked by a firewall for about 8 weeks)
Will this mean more regular updates? Let's hope so.
:)

2006? A year of Sad Losses.

RIP Grant McLennan.
To me, the Go-Betweens songs were always suffused with a sense of loss: of longing: of times gone by: of times that are just gone.
"But then the lightning finds us, Burns away our kindness, We can’t find a place to hide. Come the rainy season, Surrender to our treasons, Can we even find our tears? Don’t know where I’m going,Don’t know where it’s flowing, But I know it’s finding you."
("Finding You")

Apart from that, it's been a great weekend: lots of cooking (Gazpacho, Cabbage and Sausage soup, Mango Salsa....not all of these at once, obv.) and some serious relaxation. But I know there'll be some Go-Betweens on the pod when i'm on the 10.49 tomorrow morning. There's been so much loss this year....Martin Gilks, Nikki Sudden....people who were my friends, people who enriched my life, who brightened my thoughts and inspired me. If I do anything this year, it's to try and keep that inspiration alive, even though they're no longer here to do it for me.
On a musical note, today has been filled with "Secondhand Daylight". A constant in my life, returning to give me succour and hope.

Oh bloody hell......

Sorry about the lack of updates, I seem to have been busy :(
But doing what? I hear you cry...well, partying like it's 1999, obv. but also some work as well. DJ sets at Carling Live 24, among others, lots of gigs......um.....
Currently fighting my way through this boxset and also (still) glued to that Sukpatch CD *points down*
Still a little hungover from the weekend, another Championship for CFC and another marathon post-game session...