Jan 29

Excuse me, but YADDA YADDA YADDA

I can barely remember a single year out of the past 30 years when Carnival hasn’t been threatened with cancellation or at the very least, re-routing. Each time it seems really seriously and each time it leads to nothing. Nada.

Yes, there were a record amount of arrests last year, but that was completely accounted for by the Police making the sensible decision to take pre-emptive precautions rather than allowing people to waltz boldly through with knives (much as the metal detectors on public transport pained me). And yes, there was some trouble at the end that I and the rest of Rotten Hill Gang got caught up in.

Those things aren’t good. In fact they’re very bad. But those and much worse things have happened before and the Police are now better at handling them.

My advice - don’t worry. Carnival will happen again this year and every year for the forseeable future.

Jan 2

Hawkwind - did punk ever happen?

Hawkwind - did punk ever happen?

Do I care much about Hawkwind? Well not very much is the honest answer, them having been consigned to the “But surely punk got rid of all that pompous nonsense” pile by my generation in their teens.

I will, however, admit to knowing little about them beyond Silver Machine and they did play their first gig 40 years ago this year in Notting Hill, so let’s be charitable about them for a moment for the following reasons:

1) They played their first gig 40 years ago this coming August 29 (as a band with no proper name) at All Saints in Notting Hill.

2) They had Lemmy on bass for three years (’72 to ‘75). We all like Lemmy don’t we?

3) Their 40th anniversary gig is to be at the lovely Porchester Hall and B.A.D did one of their earlyish gigs there (1986). I was a roadie back then. Well more precisely I was a computer programmer during the day, then I rushed along to Porchester Hall after work to sit at the side of the stage looking busy.

4) You could make a day of it, going for a session in Porchester’s Turkish baths before the gig.

That’s about it really, four rather specious reasons for giving them a mention. One day I’ll get round to writing about the music scene in the area (Pink Fairies et al) around 40 years ago. then again one day I’ll do a lot of things I keep promising to do.