I was 8 in the summer of 1972 and I vividly remember being an a café at a seaside town (probably Blackpool or St Annes) with my family when a song came on the radio: Whats he singing? comments my mum who worked in the rag trade .Ive got a sewing machine? my first exposure to Hawkwind.

My mate Mike wishes he could go back in time to see the Space Ritual tour I got into them 18 months after theyd toured it.if only. It was at his house on one of those many happy evenings that I was introduced to the Space Ritual LP in all its fold out psychedelic glory. Orgone Accumulator (track one side 2) is still the quintessential hard rock song for me how could you not like it?

So when the chance came to see the band Space Ritual (essentially Hawkwind circa 1970 without Dave Brock) I wasnt going to say no. The band used to be called Ex-Hawkwind but a lawsuit put paid to that.

Nik Turner looking his age but still looks like a cheeky buggar and was sprightly enough to have a dance with Angel – their expressive dancer. Mick Slattery looks like a sixty year old Harry Potter and Terry Ollis some stoneage throwbackbut what a glorious sound they make especially when they did (Mikes favourite) Assult and Battery..the visuals were good too! The band obviously enjoyed themselves as much as the audience did and long after the gig had finished, they were still chatting to the faithful. Great night!

Thanks For the photos Tony + for the Freebee John
Excellent BBC4 documentary on Hawkwind

A wonderful night in a criminally under populated B.S.C. saw Vincent Vincent and the Villains give a master class in how to get an audience going.

First up was The brute chorus who gave a storming performance that took no prisoners the single Chateau (limited edition of 500 get yours now) gives a good account of them but you really have to see them live for the full effect. The Zappa-esk lead singers fab!

Cheeky cheeky and the nosebleeds had perhaps the oddest supporting singer Ive seen in a while – Imagine Chas Smash crossed with Ian Curtis and youre almost there.

VV+theVs didnt have to win the crowd over we were all there on the strength of the wonderful LP Gospel Bombs (got my vinyl copy signed by the boys thanks to Will Church the nicest bass player Ive ever met) and they didnt disappoint.

What doesnt come across so much on the LP is how good the drummer is Hes Very Very Good! Vincent has wonderful guitar poses with his (authentic looking) shiny red 50s guitar a more natural front man you cant imagine. Cinema, Blue Boy, On my own, Killing Time, pretty girl everyone a winner. My only criticism was that they didnt play Sweet Girlfriend Ill just have to wait for next time.

Catch these Vs whilst theyre flying high

What a fabulous thing QUIMS is. Without it I wouldn’t have heard of the Lodger and so Lee and I wouldn’t have gone to see them support the Wave Pictures, who we enjoyed so much that we got a babysitter when we found out they were supporting Jeffrey Lewis who I also first heard at a QUIMS meeting. So we went, mainly for the Wave Pictures and hoping that Jeffrey Lewis would be goodand………..he was……….very, VERY GOOD!

The WPs did a great set including ‘Love you like a madman’. Chatting to them afterwards it turns out that the song listing the fridge contents will be out CD after next and the one about Johnny Cash is called ‘Now that you’re pregnant’ and Lee is now the proud owner of a WP T-shirt. These guys are prolific, evolving before our eyes – go support them!

Some bands (like the Phantom Surfers) can get away with Lo-Fi recordings, but mostly, things sound better when not recorded in your bedroom. The Jeffrey Lewis tracks I’d heard before were good but I wondered if he would be little to ‘Twee’ for my taste…….but let me tell you people, live he is fantastic! A revelation!! Imagine Jonathan Richman but with the Rockier Roadrunner bits thrown in too.

The first track he did was backed by the Wave pictures. “We did this on Marc Rileys show last night and it worked so well, were doing it again”. Were 90% water which flows according to nature but its that other 10% that keeps going up hill was the basic premise.

photo:6Music
He did solo songs about bad trips on acid, how Herman Dune were better with 2 brothers in the band and also had his band with him featuring his WILD brother Jack doing ‘Crass’ covers, really tight interchange of vocals on ‘shoot the head, kill the ghoul’ and a song about the man with golden arm “You said my arm was made out of shit” what a line! There was even room for a bit of education with ‘The history of Communism in Korea’ sung with the aid of one of his self illustrated large comic books. An encore of The Chelsea Hotel oral sex song had us in stitches what a joy what a joy!

Either of these acts would be well worth the entrance fee but together – an absolute bargain!

Bob the Chiropodist

Why doesn’t anybody warn you when you are a teenager, no matter what your musical tastes are then, when you hit forty you will have an uncontrollable urge to start listening to country music (you know it’s true). Having found myself in this condition the search was on to find music that couldn’t possibly be linked to the likes of shania twain and Garth Brookes. Enter “The Handsome Family” comprising of husband and wife duo Brett and Rennie Sparks. He writes the tunes and she provides the lyrics. On first listening you are confronted with what seems like pleasant enough country inspired melodies, but tuning into the lyrics lines pop up like “Darling don’t you know/It’s only natural to want to kill, a beautiful thing” and you happily realise “Take me home country roads” won’t be featuring on any of their albums.
After some well spent money on a fair bit of their back catalogue and checking gig listings for about a year, finally they were doing a UK tour. Not Manchester though, so traversing the pennines to York was the only way to see them. Luckily our good friend Digs lives there, so Gerry (my wife) Bob and myself met up with him there and we took ourselves off to the gig.
Fibbers is just my kind of club, a tiny place where you can stand with a pint at the bar and watch the bands play. Having arrived there and got our first drink, I was beside myself when I realised Brett and Rennie Sparks wre just milling around the club themselves watching Napoleon the 3rd the support act.
When they came on stage themselves they really didn’t disappoint, starting with “Far from any road”, very Nancy Sinatra/Lee Hazelwood, and continuing for an other hour or doing a really entertaining set.

What I didn’t realise about them live is, besides the music, connecting with the audience is a real important part of the evening, so inbetween songs they have a great banter with the crowd making it a very cozy affair (tonights banter was mainly about the nettles that had stung Rennie on the way into the gig).
After the gig Rennie Sparks was flogging cds at the back of the club, where I even managed a very drunken conversation with her. The next day digs reminded me on the way home i had said (sluringly) that it been “one of the best nights of my life”. Maybe a slight exaggeration but that’s how I felt at the time.
For first timers try to listen to a copy Of “In the air” probably their most complete album.
Also check out their web site Rennie likes to do a bit of painting, some great paintings of fans pets, in pet heaven.

Mike McD.

As an serious indie-kid, I always felt that I should know more by Wire – but you know how it is, if you’re not in at the start and theres a huge back catalogue (some of which youve heard and sounds impenetrable) you just shrug your shoulders and think “23 years too late”. I had ‘Outdoor Miner’ and ‘Dot Dash’ on various compilations, got the 12″ single of ‘Eardrum Buzz’ and a CD of ‘Manscape’ in a bargain bin in the early 90s but that was all until I recently got a copy of ‘On Returning’ a compilation from 77-79 and what a revelation that was! Please investigate their back catalogue – it’s ACE!

The gig started with support from Lonelady, a 3 piece reminiscent of Low with their quiet space filled bits followed by ramshackled noisy bits. I admire anyone who dares to go on stage with 3″ stiletto heels, although I was (professionally speaking) glad to see she was wearing more sensible footwear after the gig

Wire came on with Bassist Graham Lewis saying “What is it? 30 years?” and preceeded to play a hard hitting but melodic wall of sound that was a joy to behold. You could tell theyve been doing it a while cos drummer Robert Grey did the whole gig with his eyes shut! The new tracks from the LP ‘Object 47’ rocked the place.

The only slight hiccough was later on in the set when Lewis and Grey started one song and Colin Newman started another and it was stopped after 20 seconds. “Fuck me..” shouted one wag near me “..thats even short for you guys!”. Newman has a black macbook on stage with him, dont know why but I like it!

Would I see them again? Damn right I would. They even promised to do Outdoor miner one day “But not tonight” and to be honest, it wasnt needed. Here’s what they did do…..both encores included

Bob the Chiropodist