Memories....

So many memories.
Here's a video of Blue Train (who had just changed their name from Go! Service) performing their single "Land Of Gold" in London's docklands in 1985. Jo and Danny from the band found fame several years later as It's Jo And Danny.
So why is this bringing back so many memories? Because I was there, that sunny day. I was standing behind the camera as this video was being filmed. I'd stayed at Dan Treacy's place after a TVP's gig, and we popped over to check how the filming was going. I've not seen this clip for 23 years, and I can feel the ghost of my young self, dressed in anorak and stripey T-shirt, sitting on my shoulder. It's odd, but somehow, deeply reassuring.

Last night......

Was great. Had a meal here, with a great steak (blue) and Bearnaise, some fabulous cheeses, and several glasses of Pouilly Fuisse . Wonderful. Felt a little fragile this morning, but that passed once the winter Sun started to shine. I love it when London is crisp, cold, shivering.
Tonight is all about relaxation: a little bit of telly, some wine, and lots of sleep.

TUNE!

This has been rattling round my head for the last couple of days, and it's something that lifts my spirit every single time I hear it. Sweet, sweet soul music from Freddie Scott.

You can crawl, you can walk, you can beg or you can talk....

Went to a number of Pubs last night, the first being The Fisherman's Arms in Willesden to see The Jez. Bless 'im he's currently nursing a couple of broken bones (which explains the title of this post, for the JJ obsessives out there) namely his ribs. He managed to fall off his bike at the weekend, poor bugger. He was fairly chipper, considering, just a bit desperate to get out of the house. At one point he had to sneeze, and the pain nearly knocked him of his bar stool. However, the Jez continued to bravely drink his pint. What a trooper.
Then off to The Paradise, which was RAMMED :( Not sure why, might have been something to do with Comedy night going on upstairs, but it was full as I've ever seen it. So, after a swifty, it was off to the William The IV (or the Wiv, as it's obviously known) round the corner. Much more room to stretch out and enjoy. Hurrah!
Looks like being quite a busy weekend, kicking off tonight with an Xmas party over in Chelsea. Bring it on!

One more for today.....

I need to skate again.
Soon.
Especially at Meanwhile II. Look! It's been transformed!

It's all about me.

Or, more accurately, it's not all been about me recently, has it? With the divorce looming, it's been a little difficult to let others in, to let people know what I've been up to. I think that's got to change. I'll be doing my best to let you all in again, little by little. Forgive me for being aloof.

London by night.

See the Centre Point tower? That's where I was last night. There's a new member's club on the 32nd floor, Paramount, and I was up there for a friend's leaving drinks. The view is simply incredible - the whole of London laid out in front of you, in all its twinkling, late-night beauty. The London Eye, the marvellous roof of The British Museum, the Post Office Tower (it'll always be that for me - never the "BT Tower" - pah!) ......
You can walk all the way around the tower, watching planes drift overhead on their slow descent into Heathrow, see snaking lines of buses crawl along Oxford Street, see the spoke-like roads of Seven Dials bursting out into Covent Garden. It made me proud to live here, happy to recognise so many wonderful places, wistful at the memories that the views brought to mind.

A wet Wednesday in October.

Just the sort of day I used to try and bunk off school when I was a kid. I would feign a cold, or some sort of lurgy, and impress upon my parents that under no circumstances should my puny immune system be subjected to the rigours of a walk to school, let alone an entire day at the aforementioned establishment. To my shame, this tactic normally worked, and, with my sisters cries of "but he's not ill!" ringing in my ears, I would eagerly listen to the noise of my parent's cars disappearing off down the drive: I was free!

A day off school is simply one of the best days ever, you're free to lounge around in your pyjamas, watch unsuitable telly (don't forget, this is the mid-70's, so that actually means "Pebble Mill At One"), eat what you like (endless glasses of Lemon Squash and as many Rich Tea Biscuits as I could scoff) and the glorious, lazy hours of absolute inactivity. I would lie on the sofa, doing nothing. Sit on my bed, doing not much. Lie spread-eagled on the bedroom carpet, doing bugger all. Bliss.

But the thing which really sealed the deal for me was my dad's hi-fi. I was now its Master. I could turn the huge Sony amp (a TA 1150!!) up as far as I dared, and play whatever I wanted. My Dad had put all of his Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel onto Reel-to Reel tapes at the start of the 70's so that would always be a starting point, but from 1976 onwards, the best thing to play on a day off was always "New Rose"; with the empty house reverberating to those opening voodoo drums, whilst I sat at the foot of the stripped pine stairs (very 70's) and marvelled at the power, and the naughtiness of it all.

Thanks for all of the kind words yesterday

It's very much appreciated.

I'm getting divorced.

So there it is. Now you know why i've not realy posted much here (or on Down With Tractors, for that matter) for quite some time. I really haven't felt like interacting with people, involving them, or boring them to death with details of my private life.
There's a line in The Lover Speak's "No More I Love You's" (no, NOT the Lennox version, that was a cover!) where David Freeman talks of a language leaving him, and I can most definitely empathise: it's a slow, lingering death, a gradual erosion of something which once was precious, now reduced to a ghost of what it was.
If there's one thing it's taught me though, it's that I don't want that language to leave me forever. I don't want to forget how to feel. I want to find that language, and start speaking again. Part of this will be me finding my blogging voice again, after this enforced hiatus, so i'll be doing my best to post as much as I can over the coming weeks.
Thanks,
Iain
x

It's been rather busy on the gig front (for once)

Which means I've been living the rock'n'roll lifestyle once again, so please forgive the lack of updates. Last weekend was the Wireless festival in Hyde Park, which is always a pleasure to attend. When I worked for Xfm, we were instrumental in the launch process for Wireless (we were one of the launch partners, and it was I who announced the festival to the press at a photocall in the Islington Academy). I was the first DJ to go onstage an announce one of the bands (the Rakes, on the main stage, IIRC) so there's always a place in my heart for Wireless. It was great to be back there as part of a new, confident, forward-thinking radio team, but slightly sad to meet some of my old work mates and see how things have fallen away at Xfm. Here's a station which, from it's position as sole broadcaster from the site, was now relegated to selectively highlighting parts of the festival, and no longer had a dedicated "stage" either. I still hope that any new management structure will sweep away the last vestiges of the idiotic middle management cronies from GWR who placed Xfm in such a parlous state.
The actual gigs? Well, I saw......fragments of bands, as I was somewhat occupied in clebrating the end of a truly successfull week at NME Radio. Here's to many, many more. However, I would say: turn it up a bit. Fatboy Slim was WAY too quiet. Pah.

Last night saw the completely welcome return of Lowgold to London, for another Islington show. They dedicated "Let Me Into Yours" to me, which flabbergasted me; though not as much as the actual song itself, which was the best i've ever seen them play it. I was left, just like last time, with a tear in my eye. They're still the best band of the last 10 years for me, and in an ideal world, they'd be much bigger than they currently are.

Portrait of the artist as a young man (in a big coat, somewhat obsessed with The Smiths)

That's me, outside Our Price Records, Watford High St, in 1987.

Well, that was an interesting month!

Interesting for one reason: I'm back on the airwaves! I'm now on the newly-launched NME Radio, doing the afternoon show. It's been a long time, but it feels great to be back on air. Shadowglobe is currently in "wait" mode, but it Will return: we're eagerly anticipating launching V.02, so watch this space for news of that as well.
Apart from that, I've been massively busy with my friendfeed page, so if you're wondering what happened to the long stream of links and videos I normally post, well, they're on friendfeed. It's turned into one of those services I simply can't live without: I can't recommend it highly enough. If you have any interest whatsoever in Social Media, you need to sign up.

...And this is what I really know...

Today is hot. Really hot. Hot enough for me to get out of the sun, and just look at the heat from a distance, as I cower indoors, away from pollen and sunburn.
The real advantage of staying indoors, is that the stereo is there. Which means I can play this whilst looking at the sun:
Colourbox "Baby I Love You So"

I'm a dried up seed........

Went jogging this morning, along the promenade in Brighton. One of the first tunes to pop up on the ipod shuffle was "Ambition" by The Subway Sect. I've loved "Ambition for years, probably ending up loving it even more after it was covered by The Jesus And Mary Chain (it was a staple of the early live gigs I saw, and ended up as the b-side to the 12" of "Never Understand"). I can remember Jim Reid being interviewed about the song, and asserting they had covered it because The Subway Sect "had made such a huge mess of the song in the first place". Nothing could be further from the truth. It's one of the only Punk songs I know which can transmit all of its anger and frustration in a truly effective way. It's fairly accurate to say it's not as stereotypically "punky" as their first single "Nobody's Scared", but that's missing the point.
It was the lyrics of "Ambition" that supplied with the material for my first real piece of graffiti - in large letters on a development of flats round the corner from my house in Hatch End:
"Am I guided, or is life free?
'Cos nothing ever seems to happen to me"
Here's footage of The Subway Sect, live in Glasgow last year, performing it: