Entertainment For Lively Minds
Mick Green passes...
Posted by MarkHagen on 11 January 2010 - 10:43pm.
...this morning, at only 65. What a great guitarist he was, and a lovely man too. You can keep your Claptons & so on; he was the legendary Brit player for me.
The last time I talked to him he told me a great story about the difficulty of getting your hair into a quiff in the days before hair dryers. It involved holding your head over a gas ring to dry your hair and...well, you can probably guess the rest.
Very sad about this, and in the week we all started getting excited about the Feelgoods again too.
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One of the original rockers
He had an amazing career, from Shakin' all over to the Pirates revival, backing McCartney and to think, the last time I saw him live he almost died (re-told in a post last year) RIP big man.
http://www.wordmagazine.co.uk/content/bizarre-events-gigs
Did he play...
...on Shakin' All Over?
Fine guitarist, all the same.
No - he wasn't on the
No - he wasn't on the original Shakin' All Over.
I've got a 2 CD set of Johnny Kidd and The Pirates and your ears immediately tell you when Mick joined the band.
Very sad news, and hoping for a fulsome tribute in the magazine (probably next months given the timing)
No, I think Alan Caddy played on the original
Genuinely sad news
I met Mick a number of times, once even having a raucous dinner and carrying his guitar home for him! He was a real gent, and a genuine enthusiast who always kept his love of playing the guitar (he'd been teaching schoolkids in recent years), and he was a genius on it right to the end (though to be honest it's a few years since I saw him play.) I hope there will be some suitable appreciations in the press, he'll deserve them all. RIP Mick.
Sad news indeed, a great guitarist
and as someone mentions above, what with the Dr. Feelgood and Ian Dury movies out they might have led more people to discover not only his music, but his overlooked influence on raw rocknroll guitar music.
my first gig
was the Pirates back in 1978/9. And brilliant they were too. RIP.
Another legend gone
May have not been in the same league as some, undeservedly or not, but fondly remembered for a great night out at Uni many years ago.
Wednesday night, Uni bar, "R'n'B" night, long before anyone had heard of Beyonce or other suchlike and in the heyday of punk.
First up, Blast Furnace and the Heatwaves aka Charles Shaar Murray plus friends.
Second up, The Bishops, formerly the Count Bishops.
Third up, the mighty Pirates.
Much beer consumed, much "dancing" and general merriment.
Got home, tee shirt drenched, and threw it in the dirty washing bag. Two weeks later, visit parents with said dirty washing in tow (as you do) and tee shirt was still in a pretty sodden state.
Clearly the sign of a good night out...
Sounds like a storming gig!!
I've still got 2 Blast Furnace records - splendid slabs of straightforward fun.
Still
considered to be one of my best gigs, despite the rose tinted by age spectacles and the considerable number of gigs attended subsequently.
A great, great night, nothing fancy, just heads down old fashioned fun!
Didn't realise the Furnaces had ever released anything...off to Amazon for a browse...
2 singles
One featuring Phil Lynott and Bob Geldof on backing vocals I recall - "You can't stop the boy" with the lyric
you can't stop the boy from being skin and bone
from naming his cat Dee Dee Ramone
hanging around with the Boomtown Rats
you can't stop the boy from acting like that.
Blimey how do I remember that?
Amazing
what stuff you can trawl from the grey matter at times. Can't remember that much about them, to be honest, other than a sense of awe at being in the same room as CSM. Just a great night of kick ass R n B!
Singles
I'll give them a listen later and see how they've worn!
Can't Stop The Boy
Here's one of them
South Of The River
RIP
"We're all in it together" is one of my favourite pub rock tracks of all time.
Very sad
Great guitarist, as all have said. I met him once at the Electric Circus in Manchester playing with his post and pre-relaunch Pirates band Shanghai, with Cliff Bennett on fantastic Howlin Wolf style vocals. Lovely bloke, down to earth.
Shanghai...
Would love someone, somewhere to reissue the two Shanghai albums. When you see some of the things that do get reissued......
I've got the first one...
"Fallen Heros"...I think I'll transfer it to CD. I remember them on the Whistle Test doing "Candy eyes" (??) in those pin striped suits looking hard as f*ck. And "Over the wall"..... Brilliant band.
A true British Great...
... for forging the path followed later by Wilko Johnson et al. Saw The Pirates on a blinding three header with The Smirks (what a great lost band they were) and Otway and Barrat headlining. The Pirates took the place apart even though they seemed pretty ancient at the time (much younger though than I am now). Thought he was a bit underused with McCartney's band in a two guitar lineup, he really flourished in the classic three piece power-trio setting. He made a hell of a lot of noise! (and a great one too).
Peter B - I envy you your gig too, saw a version of Blast Furnce once supporting Wilko at the SHeffield Limit club -decent - but I never saw the legendary (Count) Bishops though I had most of their vinyl output.
Whatever happened to great no-nonsense rock'n'roll? (A great British tradition).
Cheers Mick, I owe you one.
No-nonsense rocknroll...
The answer to that is The Jim Jones Revue or Graham Day & The Gaolers!
Mark Hagen on Mick Green
Mark has written a lovely post about Mick Green on the BBC Music blog following Mick's funeral yesterday:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcmusic/2010/01/in_memory_of_mick_green.html
Some more goodies just for the hell of it...
I always felt there was a lot of Mick Green & Wilko in
The Screaming Blue Messiahs - such a great band.