Was catching up with the late Vivian Stanshall tonight. He left us this excellent quote.
"If I had all the money I'd spent on drink, I'd spend it on drink."
Does it get any better than that?
I am willing to answer any questions you may have about old Viv but a quick punch into google should do a better job.
drink
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mccutcheon
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Tommy Martyn
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George Best was arguably the greatest footballer ever to have lived. He came from Belfast, Northern Ireland so had no international career to speak of. He played for Manchester United and was the first of the playboy sportstars. Goodlooking and gifted, he liked a drinkie or two, and in those days he could still get up after a night on the ale and play like a genius. He famously retired early (before a series of sad comebacks - does this sound familiar) to concentrate more fully on shagging and drinking. Famously appearing on a live chat show completely off his head. (Bettered only on British TV by the performance of oliver reed. Who was completely pissed on a panel discussion show and addressed a fellow lady guest as, "Oi, big tits.")
The popular line on George is that, like Elvis, he was a flawed genius and that he squandered much of his potential.
He tells the following story about himself....
One night after playing the tables in the casino he retires up to his Park Lane hotel room with his girlfriend (She was an ex Miss World, I can't recall her name.) She pops in the shower and he is sprawled on the bed. Which is covered in money from a big win on the tables. He calls down for a couple of bottles of bubbly. As room service enters his beatiful girlfriend comes out of the shower wrapped in a small towel. George is still lay on the bed covered with money. The waiter, who is from Northern Ireland looks at George heartbroken and says to him, "George, where did it all go wrong?"
The popular line on George is that, like Elvis, he was a flawed genius and that he squandered much of his potential.
He tells the following story about himself....
One night after playing the tables in the casino he retires up to his Park Lane hotel room with his girlfriend (She was an ex Miss World, I can't recall her name.) She pops in the shower and he is sprawled on the bed. Which is covered in money from a big win on the tables. He calls down for a couple of bottles of bubbly. As room service enters his beatiful girlfriend comes out of the shower wrapped in a small towel. George is still lay on the bed covered with money. The waiter, who is from Northern Ireland looks at George heartbroken and says to him, "George, where did it all go wrong?"
Wow, that's a great synopsis of someone I only knew a little about, Tommy, thanks. 'George Best' of course, is the title of the second album by The Wedding Present. (not my fave of theirs by any means but still) I knew he was a superstar footie player, perhaps a womanizer, but that was about it. I wonder if McC knows some more about him.
If memory serves me well, Sloth, that fifth Beatle was Pete Best. Don't ask me where he is now, I confess I wouldn't know. I'm not as much of a Beatles trivia-head as perhaps I should be. Maybe when I'm 60 I will be.
Got my (Liverpool band) Dr. Phibes and The House of Wax Equations 1991 LP in the mail. It's really wild. Half the time it's slow atmospheric ambience, and the other half it's very Black Sabbath. Strange that people would have lumped it in with "shoegazing", but I guess that's just the way the fashion was at the time in the U.K. ('91). I don't remember the songs, but I like it all the same as though I'd never heard it before. VERY cool. Maybe it's good someone stole it from me back then. I'm not sure that even then I realized just what kinds of influences they were borrowing from. I couldn't see the whole picture any more than the British music press could. I remember telling a friend in '91 who asked why I didn't get into more 'old stuff' that I felt there would be plenty of time for that in the future when the current British indie scene wasn't so exciting. I knew it wouldn't last, and I was right. '89-'91 was a renaissance. And it was easy to dismiss U.S. music then, because U.S. bands were doing such a totally different thing. (Let's not use the dreaded Seattle-associated "G" word, shall we? I find it nauseating)
Okay, I've rambled about music again. But you lot have been free of this sort of rambling from me for at least two weeks! HA ha ha...
If memory serves me well, Sloth, that fifth Beatle was Pete Best. Don't ask me where he is now, I confess I wouldn't know. I'm not as much of a Beatles trivia-head as perhaps I should be. Maybe when I'm 60 I will be.
Got my (Liverpool band) Dr. Phibes and The House of Wax Equations 1991 LP in the mail. It's really wild. Half the time it's slow atmospheric ambience, and the other half it's very Black Sabbath. Strange that people would have lumped it in with "shoegazing", but I guess that's just the way the fashion was at the time in the U.K. ('91). I don't remember the songs, but I like it all the same as though I'd never heard it before. VERY cool. Maybe it's good someone stole it from me back then. I'm not sure that even then I realized just what kinds of influences they were borrowing from. I couldn't see the whole picture any more than the British music press could. I remember telling a friend in '91 who asked why I didn't get into more 'old stuff' that I felt there would be plenty of time for that in the future when the current British indie scene wasn't so exciting. I knew it wouldn't last, and I was right. '89-'91 was a renaissance. And it was easy to dismiss U.S. music then, because U.S. bands were doing such a totally different thing. (Let's not use the dreaded Seattle-associated "G" word, shall we? I find it nauseating)
Okay, I've rambled about music again. But you lot have been free of this sort of rambling from me for at least two weeks! HA ha ha...
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Tommy Martyn
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It all depends on how you like your fifth beatle. Stuart Sutcliffe the cool, good looking one. (Who went to my high school! - Prescot Grammar school founded 1544) He stayed in Germany with Astrid his cool, good looking German girl. Then got ill and had a cool, good looking corpse.
Or Pete Best the good looking drummer who shagged the birds Lennon wanted even though he had a guitar and did some of the singing. Lennon got rid of him. Ever hear anyone going on about how good looking Ringo is or what a great drummer he was? Hmmm. When they went to London to record Love me do the record company wouldn't trust him with the job so he just played tambourine.
Don't worry about Pete Best though he has a cottage industry catering to beatles fans.
Or Pete Best the good looking drummer who shagged the birds Lennon wanted even though he had a guitar and did some of the singing. Lennon got rid of him. Ever hear anyone going on about how good looking Ringo is or what a great drummer he was? Hmmm. When they went to London to record Love me do the record company wouldn't trust him with the job so he just played tambourine.
Don't worry about Pete Best though he has a cottage industry catering to beatles fans.
Well, I recall seeing one picture of Pete Best in some book, with a leather jacket, oh for God's sake I'll admit it, he looked like Fonzie from Happy Days. Perhaps all the Beatles looked like that once. Greased hair and black leather jacket. That's okay with me but it seems funny right now because I've had a few drinks.
When you say the record company wouldn't trust him with the job and made him play tambourine, do you mean Pete Best or Ringo? Please clarify, Tommy.
Damnit there was this really cool movie about Lennon and McCartney...I honestly didn't expect to like it at all, a friend picked it out who normally never agrees with me as to what movies are cool to watch, and to my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Can't remember the name. I'll have to figure that out. Yes, it was U.S. made, but even that didn't bother me.
When you say the record company wouldn't trust him with the job and made him play tambourine, do you mean Pete Best or Ringo? Please clarify, Tommy.
Damnit there was this really cool movie about Lennon and McCartney...I honestly didn't expect to like it at all, a friend picked it out who normally never agrees with me as to what movies are cool to watch, and to my surprise, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Can't remember the name. I'll have to figure that out. Yes, it was U.S. made, but even that didn't bother me.
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Tommy Martyn
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Mark.
1) They wouldn't trust Ringo.
2) Never really stopped to compare J Cooper Clarke and Mark E Smith. I don't believe JCC ever took a band out on the road. He is priamarily (I would say exclusively) known as a poet. (The self styed Bard of Salford - no less) The only time I have seen footage of JCC and a band is a set he did for the Old Grey Whistle Test. (I'm sorry to say I don't know who was in the line up. I'm sure that the other musical partner in the cheese nightmares who was not Martin Hannet did put out an albumn I wish I could remember what it was called. If I remember rightly it was Motown influenced.) A T.V. programme I could go on about at length. His version of Beesley Street - six minutes and counting - always won the year end vote as most requested "song" Even now I can hear him spit out "people turn to poison quick as lager turns to piss." It gives me the chills.
1) They wouldn't trust Ringo.
2) Never really stopped to compare J Cooper Clarke and Mark E Smith. I don't believe JCC ever took a band out on the road. He is priamarily (I would say exclusively) known as a poet. (The self styed Bard of Salford - no less) The only time I have seen footage of JCC and a band is a set he did for the Old Grey Whistle Test. (I'm sorry to say I don't know who was in the line up. I'm sure that the other musical partner in the cheese nightmares who was not Martin Hannet did put out an albumn I wish I could remember what it was called. If I remember rightly it was Motown influenced.) A T.V. programme I could go on about at length. His version of Beesley Street - six minutes and counting - always won the year end vote as most requested "song" Even now I can hear him spit out "people turn to poison quick as lager turns to piss." It gives me the chills.
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mccutcheon
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Tommy, I think the only explanation is that John Lennon was gay. That explains why he wanted Stuart Sutcliffe in the band so badly even though he couldn´t play an instrument. That also explains why he married a woman who looks like a man with long hair. That explains why they dumped George Best for Ringo... who was a better drummer, even though he was no good at all around the post on corner kicks.
Marky, The Beatles did have a leather phase. Back in Germany in the early 60´s when they played in the hippest spot in the world... Hamburg. That is where they gelled and met Ringo. Later when they returned to England (I think England still existed back then and not this UK crap) the band stopped wearing leather and started wearing suits because they thought black leather and speed all the time was a bit silly.
Marky, The Beatles did have a leather phase. Back in Germany in the early 60´s when they played in the hippest spot in the world... Hamburg. That is where they gelled and met Ringo. Later when they returned to England (I think England still existed back then and not this UK crap) the band stopped wearing leather and started wearing suits because they thought black leather and speed all the time was a bit silly.
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mccutcheon
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I'm sure the Old Grey Whistle Test was an excellent program. I've heard of many spectacular artists that were on it. There are two DVD's you can get that compile a variety of the performances but to get the one with PIL (the UK version of it) you have to have a DVD player that can play DVD's from all over the world instead of just the U.S./Canada format. Bastard. Other than PIL, though I wasn't too thrilled with the selection of artists on either the U.S. or U.K. version. Sigh. What a shame. Just like with Peel Sessions, we'll never get to see/hear all the great stuff in the vaults. There was a Peel Session by a band called Ski Patrol that I'd just about give my right arm for. I can't even imagine what my life would have been like had I been allowed to tape the Peel show every week in my formative years.
By the way McC I was looking some more in that Sex Pistols book you gave me for Xmas and realized it even has the lead singer of Crispy Ambulance in it! GASP! I sure wish they'd mentioned Crispy Ambulance in 24 Hour Party People, but then they were signed to the European arm of the label, and Tony Wilson didn't seem to be into them that much, so perhaps that's why.
You raised an interesting point, Sloth - perhaps I should mention England specifically more often, but I say "U.K." simply because I've never felt the great music stops at the borders of England. I guess it's a common thing for Americans to just say "England" without being particularly specific about what that means. For example, I don't know if you guys have ever heard Negativland's "U2" that features Kasey Kasem (announcer of American Top 40)saying obscenities and such, but it features a sample of Kasem saying (about U2) "These guys are from England, and who gives a shit?" Well, of course, they're not from England at all, they're Irish. But I think to many Americans it's all the same thing.
You must mean Steve Hopkins, Tommy? The "other one besides Martin Hannett"? It sounds familiar to me what you say about him releasing a solo album that was Motown-ish. I'm gonna look that up out of pure curiosity, though I wouldn't want to own it, really.
The cheese nightmares would make a great band name. LOL! Cheers, Tommy.
Listening to that Pauline Murray CD with the same backing band as Clarke really underscores how nice it is when you have someone TALK over the music the way Clarke does (and indeed, as Mark E. Smith does as well). There's this one song with Pauline where Hannett just does this incredible all-over-the-place bass line to rival Peter Hook and you just want to yell at her to SHUT UP already! Particularly since her melody isn't really going anywhere. She's just not that great a singer. Should have stuck to punk. With Clarke the band are free to roam and be heard, and yet Clarke can add his own poetry in the process. It's just a perfect marriage, I think.
Tommy, it just occured to me there is a great song by a guy called Ed Banger that appeared on Hannett's label Rabid and it's called "Kinnel Tommy" ('kinnel being short for "fucking hell"). Have you heard of that by any chance?
It's kindof a funny song.
You raised an interesting point, Sloth - perhaps I should mention England specifically more often, but I say "U.K." simply because I've never felt the great music stops at the borders of England. I guess it's a common thing for Americans to just say "England" without being particularly specific about what that means. For example, I don't know if you guys have ever heard Negativland's "U2" that features Kasey Kasem (announcer of American Top 40)saying obscenities and such, but it features a sample of Kasem saying (about U2) "These guys are from England, and who gives a shit?" Well, of course, they're not from England at all, they're Irish. But I think to many Americans it's all the same thing.
You must mean Steve Hopkins, Tommy? The "other one besides Martin Hannett"? It sounds familiar to me what you say about him releasing a solo album that was Motown-ish. I'm gonna look that up out of pure curiosity, though I wouldn't want to own it, really.
The cheese nightmares would make a great band name. LOL! Cheers, Tommy.
Listening to that Pauline Murray CD with the same backing band as Clarke really underscores how nice it is when you have someone TALK over the music the way Clarke does (and indeed, as Mark E. Smith does as well). There's this one song with Pauline where Hannett just does this incredible all-over-the-place bass line to rival Peter Hook and you just want to yell at her to SHUT UP already! Particularly since her melody isn't really going anywhere. She's just not that great a singer. Should have stuck to punk. With Clarke the band are free to roam and be heard, and yet Clarke can add his own poetry in the process. It's just a perfect marriage, I think.
Tommy, it just occured to me there is a great song by a guy called Ed Banger that appeared on Hannett's label Rabid and it's called "Kinnel Tommy" ('kinnel being short for "fucking hell"). Have you heard of that by any chance?
It's kindof a funny song.