Entertainment For Lively Minds
Rock & Pop Pilgrimages
In a recent podcast, there was a bit of ribbing of Dylan for going to see places with a rock connection whilst on tour - e.g. John Lennon's old house. Now I'm not a Dylan fan by any stretch, but I thought that was a bit unfair. I'm sure we've all had that daydream of what it would be like to be on a world tour, and decided that as we're a cut above others, we'd do it differently. Yes, once we'd tired of the Sex, Drugs and Rock'n'Roll aspects, we would surely go and see the local culture. Museums, art galleries, places of rock'n'roll heritage. After all it's what we've done before we're succesful...
For example, who amongst us has not gone to New York, to the Dakota Building, and done a Phoenix From The Flames recreation of Mark Chapman deciding Lennon was a Phoney.
Just me then?
So get those photos out - where have you been on Rock'n'Roll pilgrimage to?
George
PS Apt timing, huh?
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Memphis
Oh, it's great.
Graceland
Sun Records
Stax
Tupelo, just down the road
Plus:
Gibson Guitar Factory
Rock 'n' Soul Museum
What's not to like?
Blimey!
If I'd known that you were going to follow me round, I wouldn't bother have taken some of my photos!
The shack in Tupelo looked a bit (not much) different in 1991:
Here's me kicking the wheels of the Chatanooga Choo Choo - perhaps more of a detour than a pilgrimage:
We spent a long time (pre-Internet) locating Weaver D's in Athens:
I worked out where this was and it turned out that it was harder to find somewhere to stop than it was to find the sign from the famous Elvis Costello EP:
Pretty much all of my first two trips to the US were based around music. New York (CBGBS etc) Nashville (Standing on the stage that hank Williams once stood on remains one of the highlights of my life), Memphis (Graceland, Sun Studios - I tried to find the supermarket that Big Star named themselves after!...long gone), Galveston (just because of the song!).
I would recommend going here even if you have to drive a few hundred miles to get there. It's just brilliant:
W's, Paul & John...
...in the parlance of today's youth, I am well jel of your expeditions. One day, one day....
not my pilgrimage, but ...
I spoke to a bloke a couple of years ago who had not only visited (and taken photos of) the street where Ian Curtis had lived, but had walked around all of the significant places in the town where his hero might have walked.
When I told him that I had been at the Glasgow Apollo the night that Joy Division supported the Buzzcocks and that I had found it a distinctly underwhelming experience, the look on his face somehow managed to combine horror, crestfallen jealousy, rage and a bewildered kind of repulsion. I took no pleasure from this, but it was quite a combination.
Once he had recovered something close to composure, I disappointed him further by being unable to remember much more about the gig, beyond the fact that I thought Joy Division weren't very good.
I had similar re: The Manics
"You saw the Manics at Reading???"
"Yup"
"You saw them with Richie?"
"Er, were they a 4 piece then... yeah must have been I suppose"
[look of FURY!]
"They were okay I think - can't really remember..."
At that point I started running! But it really was just a.n.other gig for me. I was probably there to see Carter or whoever else was on that year.
Same for Nirvana. Saw 'em at Reading both times, and they were godawful both times. Their producers earnt their money.
I was there at Reading 1992.......
....that was when Nicky Wire threw his bass into the audience.
Richey made no difference to the live sound. His guitar wasn't plugged in or the amp wasn't turned on. They admitted that. So no difference in seeing them with or without Richey.
And agreed, Nirvana weren't that great either. But nice to say that I saw them live.
I did also see The Stone Roses at Wembley arena supported by the new 3 piece line up of the Manics. 1995 was it???
Expecting
I genuinely thought you were going to tell us he even went into the kitchen..
*shudder*
I saw the Manics at King Tuts Wah Wah Hut...
... just after Motown Junk came out.
Sadly I was as pissed as a lord and quite literally the only thing I can remember was that they played "It's So Easy" by Guns 'n' Roses.
Manics fans get quite angry when I relate this...
Don't have the photos...
but I travelled to Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris to pay homage to The Lizard King, when I was 22. On reaching Jimbo's grave, the scales fell immediately from my eyes, and I saw what a hollow enterprise it was.
I wandered aimlessly around the place, with my then girlfriend, now wife. We happened upon the grave of Oscar Wilde, and read the poems and inscriptions there. I found the whole thing immensely moving, and I think it was at that moment I grew up and out of 'the rock and roll myth.'
I am still thankful that my wife was loyal and tolerant enough to follow me there, and that we were able to bond in that moment over the tragedy of a true genius.
I'm told that...
...Wilde's tomb has been cordoned off because all the lipstick is eating away the stone
The lipstick's been cleaned off
and a glass screen now surrounds the tomb to prevent the osculating hordes from indulging.
Graceland
Imagine my surprise at discovering this picture of Mrs Underpants on the wall of the Jungle Room. Back off, Elvis!
Jimbo
Was on my way there at the same age (22), but gave up halfway, can't remember why. Have seen Serge Gainsbourg's grave/shrine in Paris though.
Otherwise myriad Beatles sites in Liverpool(strangely many years after I lived there) and London. Capitol Building in LA and the Dakota Building on the other coast.
Once spent a week in San Francisco trying to see as many places from the Vertigo film as possible, god I was obsessed.
San Francisco
The first time I visited, Dirty Harry was my guide. Not literally but I recognised so many places from the film that I couldn't help but bore my travelling companions to death with references to the film. They weren't as in to it as me.
Salford Lads Club
Made a pilgrimage there about 20 years ago. Drove down almost every road in Salford trying to find the damn place, then, having decided to give up and drive home, my mate noticed that smoke coming out of the bonnet. We pulled over into the nearest garage to take a look and in the distance, over the other side of a dual carriageway, in an area that was conspicuously NOT Salford, there it was. A pint of water in the radiator later, we reached our Mecca, chatted to the local n'er do well kids (many of whom claimed to have been there on the fateful Smiths day), mugged like idiots for photos (I'll try and dig one out), wandered around the mostly boarded-up houses, then buggered off back down South.
Cheap petrol - so much to answer for...
Every single day
I make a pilgrimage to the white-painted house on the end with the bay window to the left of the screen, at exactly 3:24, parallel with 'Sananda's' shoulder.
I've been doing it for around 30 years.
Most nights, I sleep in the bed, eat food from its fridge, and pad around it in my trackie bottoms, spooning Oxtail soup out of a mug.
Ha, that's brilliant!
You should open a souvenir stand out front.
I used to live ...
... in Eddie Shoestring's house.
Well, it was the one used for exterior shots in Bristol.
Billy Fury
A few years ago, when we lived in Mill Hill, I went online to check out the private school on the next street to us, like we could have ever afforded it (Amy Winehouse went to it apparently). Anyway, I don't know what I had put in the search engine because it came up with Billy Fury's grave. Following a few links it turned out that England's premier rock and roller was buried in the cemetery just behind our house (next to the school). Not only that, but each year on either the anniversary of his birth or death the Billy Fury Appreciation Society met in the local pub to sing songs and swap stories before heading to his grave to pay their respects. It just so happened that this year's celebrations were the coming weekend and his parents were to be guests of honour.
Once I'd stopped wondering exactly how old Billy Fury's parents might be I realised we were away that weekend. But the following weekend we took our baby daughter for a walk and wandered round to have a look. When we go to the cemetery it was deserted, apart from a few squirrels and half a dozen Japanese people taking photos around where the website's directions had instructed we would find the late, former Ronald Wycherley.
Explaining to my wife that our Japanese cousins love their rock and roll and Billy Fury no doubt had a big following there, and not wanting to gatecrash their pilgrimage, we had a walk around the Polish servicemen section, but our little girl was starting to get grumpy and the Japanese were showing no signs of leaving. So we walked up to the grave, only to find that the Japanese family were not there for Billy Fury at all, but an elderly departed relative buried next to him, judging by the picture on the headstone.
I did contemplate trying to reassure them by explaining that the chap buried next to grannie would have a song or two to comfort her in the afterlife, but I thought it may get lost in translation.
Billy Fury used to work on
Billy Fury used to work on the tug boat my grandad captained on the Mersey. 'Sickly lad' was all he'd say on the matter.
Where in Mill Hill?
That's my part of the world...
2300 Jackson St, Gary, Indiana
Last year, in addition to Graceland, and the Ryman in Nashville, I visited the Jackson house in Gary, Indiana. One of them described it as 'not big enough to park two cars in', and that is true (it is square in layout). This looks considerably better than it does on Google Streets, which must have been a few years ago. Just to the right of the picture, there is a big memorial to Michael.
Gary is a dump - endless oil refineries, with the smell of crude lingering in the air - no wonder they got out of there as soon as they could afford to.
251 Menlove Avenue
I went to have a look at the outside during my time at university (it was only a fifteen minute walk from my house/the campus itself. Could never be bothered to go to the other houses though. Apart from that, I suppose you could count the Jacaranda, the Grapes and the Cavern as significant Beatles-related sites couldn't you?
We used to live...
... on Vale Road in Woolton - so much Beatle history there, Menlove Ave, Strawberry Fields, Eleanor Rigby's grave, the village fete, Allerton Golf Course (municipal - all the scallies bunk on, on the 2nd hole) - Paul cycled across it to go home from John's.
Just to be clear ...
in the photograph you're outside the Dakota Building, where his widow still lives, recreating the moment John Lennon was shot dead? Well, I suppose every man should have a hobby.
wondered about that too
I thought I may have misunderstood his "recreation"
It did take me a while to realise exactly what I was looking at
and frankly, I still find it hard to believe.
Lennon had a very black sense of humour...
I think he'd have approved. Especially when everyone else there was putting him on a pedestal.
No, I'd say it was juvenile and more than a little pathetic
It's nothing to do with the murder victim being John Lennon; it's simply about blood, and bone, and bullets, and death - an unspeakable tragedy for the family involved - being reduced to a crass photo opportunity in front of the home of the bereaved.
I have a neighbour who's husband was shot in front of her, 35 years ago, as they were leaving their church. She keeps his picture on the wall, and goes to that same church every week. If I were to send you the address would think it amusing to come and recreate that day for her? For her family? For their friends? I could ask her if her husband had a particularly black sense of humour? You could post it on the Internet.
Although then again, perhaps not.
Are we talking about
the same John Lennon who would impersonate cripples (sorry, disabled people) on stage at every opportunity?
You're being a little harsh on pompeygeorge here, I feel (and a little pompous as well if I may say so).
Bit OTT, Steven.
You've already made your point earlier.
Did you ask your neighbour if you could use her personal tragedy to score a point on an internet blog?
I agree
Lennon had a cruel sense of humour. Juvenile is probably the best description, given that it was one of many things he repented later in life. I did however make the point that I felt the identity of the victim was irrelevant.
The example that I set up was essentially the Lennon murder with the element of celebrity removed. Do that and, as Helena says, his murder becomes just a personal tragedy being used on an Internet blog to score a point, or to try to get a cheap laugh.
Every tragedy produces cruel and tasteless jokes. We've all heard them, and we've all repeated them, and I'm no exception. This seemed to me however to be a quite different thing.
The OP asked a question. Broaden that question out. Think of a murder that happened in your lifetime, famous or otherwise, on your street or in another country ... have you ever gone to the site to recreate the event on camera as a joke or as a holiday souvenir?
I'm sorry if my post - or this response - come across as pompous or humourless, or an overreaction. Either way I
obviously didn't express my point particularly clearly or tactfully and again I'm sorry if that caused offence.
To be fair,
he's recreated the Chapmanesque (fat, deranged and stupid) look rather well.
I don't normally
get riled enough to respond like this, but...
Edit: Thought better of it, in the belief that behind the Clarksonesque 'apology', Steven knows that's not what I meant. I'd like to think he squirms a bit the next time he sees his neighbour.
I genuinely didn't mean to rile you further Helena
I just meant to highlight that your point about using a personal tragedy to score a point (or get a laugh) applied equally as well to the OP, as to me. I accept the criticism.
Deep South
Just booked to go on fly drive next year. Starting in Atlanta we are planning Chattanooga, Nashville, Memphis and New Orleans. Have been to Memphis before but my wife is big Elvis fan and she hasn't so I am looking forward to taking her to Graceland. I have heard that Al Greens Sunday congregational is one of the experiences in Memphis. Anyone been and can make any comment?
Friends of mine went
There wasn't as much Love & Happiness as they had been expecting - a bit more fire & brimstone and preaching against wickedness. Specifically sexual wickedness.
A long session - several hours.
Took the Fab Four Tour
in Liverpool in 2008.Ricky was the cab driver and after talking to us for 10 minutes he realized we were huge Beatle fans.We went to all the famous landmarks and ended up at Ringo's house in the Dingle along the way. We went to the pub that is made famous (on the cover of one of Ringo's records) and then Ricky knocked on the door of Ringo's old home.A little old lady answered and let us in for a visit.I was blown away because we hadn't booked the tour to see John and Paul's house so getting into Ringo's was unreal.The next year I went back to Liverpool and booked a tour of John and Paul's house. Ricky also gave me a private tour with a family I met on the National trust tour.I could go back and do it all again and enjoy it as much as the first time.
The shores of Lake Geneva
Over which I am gazing even now.
Montreux casino and the church in Vevey. And if the latter seems a little obscure, if you go and check the visitor book, you will find it filled with comments from like-minded Wakeman fans. We are not alone.
Wakeman fans??
How many of them come down to Montreaux, by the Lake Geneva shoreline?
Only those who are
going for the one, I'd say.
Muscle Shoals Recording Studios
This wasn't easy to find: despite being listed as a National Monument, and shown in the correct position on GPS, there is nothing outside to say what it is/was. If I hadn't seen Rich Hall's documentary about the South the week before I went, I would never have known this was it.
Badly organised Fab Four tour
A friend was at Liverpool uni. A few of us went up to see him one weekend but also to see some the HJH landmarks. We went to the Cavern - so far so good - and had vague plans to go and see Aunt Mimi's house, but we went to the Adelphi Hotel to discuss and pints of beer were an astonishing 50p. Oh dear.
But we did go to the house where I lived as a toddler off the Aigburth Road - drawback was that my mum later confirmed that it was the wrong house number. Then we hailed a cab and asked to be taken to Brookside Close. The cab waited while we looked at Terry's van and got the security guard to sign our fag packets. Happy days.
Just a few I've been to recently
Wow! Never seen Jimi's tomb before
I can't decide if it's really vulgar in a good way or a bad way.
It's a shrine to health & safety
Six handrails and a wheelchair ramp to negotiate just two steps!
Here's one more. Not really a pilgrimage, I was just record shopping.
Too early for me..
.. Need a little time to wake up
Not Pop
Went on a pilgrimage and had my Photo taken outside 133a Portland Road W11. Anyone know why this is Special. ?
just behind the tree outside the shop.
Did you take
'er indoors with you, perchance?
And only a matter of yards away from there, is this. Who knows the significance of this pub in pop history?
I went back there just a few weeks ago and sadly it's closed down now.
I did
and she,being Puerto Rican,had no idea,
Eventually she said "this is about that thing you're always watching.isn't it ?"
have no idea.
answer please,Mojoworking.
Smiler
It's the back yard of the Prince Of Wales pub in Holland Park where the inside gatefold photo was on Rod Stewart's 1974 Smiler album was taken. It's on the same road as your 'Winchester Club' above.
As I said, I walked past just a few weeks ago and it's all boarded up now.
thanks
would never had gotten that.
A little obscure, I grant you
But I have a certain fondness for the Prince Of Wales because it was my local in the '70s and in fact I met the girl who would become my wife in that very public house. It was around the time of the Smiler photo shoot as well.
I wasn't at the POW that particular afternoon, but I later read that Rod was livid because the landlord allegedly wanted a couple of hundred quid to let them do the photos. Rod pointed out, not unreasonably, that many of the people in that picture were serious drinkers and between them must have spent a king's ransom on booze during the couple of hours they were there.
Funny enough
.. I've had mine take there too. Whatch'a having Terry ?
Amazed there's no Abbey Road yet
Who'll be the first to do the famous Chili Pepper pose?
Fishcotheque chip shop
My mate was a big fan of The Jazz Butcher and once paid a pilgrimage to London to recreate the sleeve of their 1988 album.
Fishcotheque is still there, at 79a Waterloo Rd, London SE1 by the bridge but sadly they've changed the original sign now. Best name for a chippy ever!
The only Rock 'n' Roll place I've done..
The Edgewater Inn in Seattle. Scene of the mythical Led Zep fish incident.
How many rock 'n' roll pilgrimages are there to be made outside of the USA and the UK?
I've posted two such places above
One from Paris (Jim Morrison) and another from Fremantle, Western Australia (Bon Scott).
One Tree Hill?
No, only joking. Though I did once visit a halfway house, halfway down Dominion Road.
The one and only time in London
several years ago, I dragged a patient GLW to 1 Buckingham Place, where a table tennis ball stood in for a weather balloon (much to the derisive amusement of the blokes on the building site across the road).
For her, we went to the Leadenhall St markets (where some of the Diagon Alley scenes from Harry Potter were filmed)
I always start humming Baggy Trousers to myself
when I frequently pass this tube station.
I don't normally hang out in places like this...
...honest.
But this one has a certain significance in Fabular history.
Not only but also
something Pete'n'Dudular?
Correct!
Well spotted.
New Orleans
Loads of times. Got to know a lot of the hometown heroes over the years. Still plan on dying there. Just don't know when.
As if my magic ...
We stayed in a hotel in Putney last night after going to a gig at the Half Moon (see My Nights out section). This morning my girlfriend and I went back to the Half Moon, walked straight past it and took a right hand turn a little later.
We wanted to see the street where Mr Benn lived: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8375309.stm
We are both 44 years old.
Snap - see cheshirecat post above (misplaced this post - sorry)
I've visited St. Martin's church in Vevey too. Pleasant little church. No external signs of its place in Yes history. But the visitor's book contains far more evidence of devotion to Rick Wakeman than to any higher power.
I've also been fortunate enough to visit Studio 1 at Abbey Road (as part of John Otway's 1000-strong Abbey Road Choir that propelled him to his second hit). That was a magical experience - and not just for the privilege of recording with John Otway.
Another place I have taken a detour to visit is Teddington Lock, scene of Monty Python's fish slapping dance.
Passport to Rock...
Yes, I love my Rock&Roll tourism...I'm at work so can't post up photos but here's some links...
Paris
http://retroman65.blogspot.com/2011/11/paris-music-location-photo-archiv...
The Kinks
http://retroman65.blogspot.com/2011/08/kinks-north-london-excursion-text...
Will be putting up some New York Punk - CBGBs, 53rd & 3rd, Joey Ramone Place, Gem Spa, Joe Strummer mural etc and London Punk locations soon.