Being english can't say I'd ever heard of him until recently recommended but these are both belters!!!

Legendary indeed

Got a plastic pint glass on the head second song in so flounces off and cancels the show. Just got back home now £75 out of pocket. He was looking for an excuse and claimed "Morrissey has been hit by a bottle and the show can't continue" It was a plastic glass, he wasn't hurt ad only went off when he realised he was wet. Lesson learnt. Won't be taking any more money off me in future. This is why I don't feel guilty about downloading his stuff from mp3 blogs!

Two days after watching the Specials kick off their tour in Liverpool I sat down to view Timewatch last night on the BBC (the story of the Coventry Blitz). Ghost Town is generally acknowledged to be the sound of the desolation of living in an urban wasteland in the early 80's. Watching the documentary on the blitz of 14th Nov 1940 puts all that in perspective. The Luftwaffe systematically destroyed the city over the space of 12 hours. Such a job was done that from then onwards the RAF used this as a justification for no holds barred retaliation. A new verb to "Coventrate" was coined to describe utter destruction from the air. Now here's the frightening stats that have played on my mind all day. If I heard correctly the narrator said that the destruction of Coventry saw between 500 - 600 deaths. The "Coventration" of Dresden caused 35,000 and Hamburg 50,000. This town in coming like a ghost town indeed. This post is not looking for answers. It's just been playing on my mind and I thought I'd share the ruminations on the madness of war on the day I bought a poppy.

I put this under the Rolf v Adam Ant thread below but on second thoughts it deserves its own space

Adam Ant Alone In His Padded Cell

Birmingham Six - the Pogues
Borstal Breakout - Sham 69
Caught By The Fuzz - Supergrass

are my top three jail songs - over to you for better or worse

Reading the interview with Danny Baker in the latest issue got me looking forward with relish to his new show (I hope there's a download so I can listen in the car on the way to work). It also got me thinking back to his shows in the mid 90's. One in particular stuck with me. It was a phone in (or maybe write in) about the funniest ways you've hurt yourself doing something stupid. The two faves I remember were

1) a bloke who told the story of when he was a child in the woods playing Zulus. He made a "spear" from a stick and in a moment of genius tied a piece of string to it, so when it was thrown he could drag it back then throw again. You can see it coming can't you....he threw the stick, it jerked back on the string and poked him in the eye. Pure Homer (D'oh!)

2) the bloke acting cool in front of mates & the girls in the pub, lighting a cigarette by striking a match on his teeth. Yep match head lit but broke off leaving him with a small fire underneath his tongue! Cool blown.

Any other classics............

Enjoyed reading the interview with our Lord Steven Patrick in the latest issue. Having just re-read The Stranger by Albert Camus it struck me that the thoughts of Morrissey are taken almost verbatim from the final chapter where L'etranger (Meursault) reflects on his life and the fact that nothing really matters.

see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stranger_(novel)

While Meursault takes "responsibility" for his actions by accepting the consequences, the motivating philosophy alters the actual intent. In the end, Meursault realizes that everyone's life ends with death. By accepting this, he also deduces that the life one leads and the manner of one's death are completely irrelevant.

So is Morrissey's philosophy second hand? Any other instances you can think of whereby an artist assumes the voice of another whilst trying to pass as an enigma?

I must just have the look of an annoying person I suppose. The type of person that instantly draws attrition from famous people, or maybe I'm just meeting the wrong ones. After a gig in Liverpool Bob Mortimer was in the pub opposite - walking past him (obviously within earshot) I said to a friend "there's Bob" Before he'd turned around to look Bob had loudly proclaimed his greeting.

Next up Graham Day of 80's Hammond Pop Gurus the Prisoners at a gig in Stoke. Me "Hello Graham" Graham "F-Off" - what a gent. I could go on but thought I throw it open to others

Any one else attract this sort of feedback?

Maybe its like Steve Coogan's character doing observational comedy....."Have you ever noticed that when you walk down the street people shout w*nker at you and spit on your anorak?"

In balance Robyn Hitchcock, Ian McNabb, Ian MacLagan, and Billy Bragg and Ed Ball were all very nice people when I've met them at gigs.