The Mole Man

When i was a mere slip of a teenager there was a sweet shop and tobacconists at the top of Catherine Hill in Frome where you could buy Marvel comics. Not the cheap monochrome British editions of the stories but the real thing shipped as ballast from America and rubber stamped with the price in shillings and pence (D.C. titles could be found at Wards in Cheap St). My copies are long gone but the memory is still fresh.

One of the comics was an early edition of the Fantastic Four where they battle the Mole Man. Moley lived in a hollow Earth, had an army of mindless drones to do his bidding, some sort of earthquake device plus a gert big monster thing at his command. I think he also had a bit of a crush on the invisible girl Sue Storm but i could be wrong. He had no super powers of his own and was a bit crap as a villain. He was ugly , troll like and squinty eyed but, as i was scribbling lyrics on a bit of scrap paper one day, he popped into my memory and the tale of true love that is "I'm In Love With The Mole Man's Girl"was born.

It's not just me that remembers him fondly - there's a character in the Simpsons called Hans Moleman and Bravo have a show called "Saul of the Molemen" that airs amongst their late night cartoon slots.

Marcel Marceau

I think mimes are very much like Marmite you either love or hate them. I love Marmite (not as good as Bovril though) but hate mimes. The most famous of all mimes has passed away - the one who taught Bowie to get stuck in a glass box - no sorry that was second-hand through Lindsay Kemp one of Mr Marceau's students (i must be more accurate).

Anyway.....

I just can't get this picture out of my head. Marcel's family are sat on the sofa watching the telly whilst at the back of the room Marcel suddenly gurns and rolls his eyes. He points theatrically at his chest and then waves his arms in the manner of a drowning man, eliciting no response he silently points at his rib cage and begins to clutch at his throat the family continues to watch t.v. unaware of his distress. Meanwhile he sinks slowly to the floor in a rubber legged fashion simultaneously holding his nose as he disappears from view behind the couch.

It's what he would have wanted - mime in peace.

highway patrol junior brown

Here's what country music should sound like. That combination six string steel guitar is a thing of wonder.

Count Five - Psychotic Reaction

Here's a classic - the Detectives used to cover this right at the start of our sordid career. Dig the sitar guitar and the way the harp player annoys the drummer.

STANDELLS SOMETIMES GOOD GUYS DON'T WEAR WHITE

I've calmed down now so here's the Standells

Geoff Barker

We had another play on the radio last Sat' (courtesy of a request - no less!) on the Geoff Barker show.

Geoff's an unusual beast in these post-Peel days 'cos Geoff champions bands. If you don't know who Mr Barker is try listening to his Saturday Rock "n" Roll Party on local BBC radio across the west of England.

Now, there are many d j.s who support up and coming bands who have a chance of success but, Geoff gives air time to bands he knows are never gonna be massive - he puts them on his show 'cos he likes them and they bash round the various small venues and festivals giving people enjoyment.

He puts the wrong track on now and again, loses bits of paper with requests on and gets the gigs a bit muddled up sometimes - but isn't that fantastic in this age of super slick broadcasting - it's a breath of fresh air! His programme gets a large national and international number of hits on the listen again facility so it's not just me who likes it.

I listen to commercial local stations at work and they never seem to feature local bands in fact unless they are sponsoring a local event they tend not to get overly involved with the music scene in the area at all. They also seem to have a fetish for mainstream eighties synth pop i swear 3TR f.m. or whatever it's called played "Don't you want me?" by the Human League four days on the trot last time i was on night shift in fact the whole night shift programming is so dull it's unbelievable but it's not always my choice what station we tune in to so i have to experience it.

They should hand over the airwaves from midnight to six to someone who really likes music and let them get on with it, at the moment the music is just there to fill in the gaps between their crappy wacky ads for carpets and plastic guttering.

So more like Geoff and less nights with Simple Minds broadcasting on a permanent loop.

Thursday Night Live!

It hasn't quite got the ring of Fri or Sat night live but it'll do.
Played down the Crown as advertised - bit of an up and down gig - sound wasn't dire but it wasn't brilliant. Good crowd in early, petered out a bit half way through then went mad at the end. As usual you play for over two hours people only get pissed enough to dance for the last half-hour and the ask "aren't you gonna do any more?".
Alan Wilson legendary C.E.O. of Western Star our record label turned up and stayed for a bit but was lured away by the tempting offer of two for one curries at the local take-away.

Crown Inn

We're playing at the Crown in Frome town centre on thurs. The band has a history with the venue we used to have a Sunday residency there for a while back in the day and did a gig there on the night of Chas and Di's wedding (Bunce was grounded and had to escape down a drainpipe from his bedroom window to make the date).

We did a farewell party there when a former landlord left - there was a food fight and an argument about a lock-in which precipitated a mini riot through the town centre - Police were involved as Ivan and I calmly watched from a second storey window whilst drinking free ale.

The Somerset Standard at the time quoted the Police as saying "as the fight rolled down Bath St it was like a scene from the film Zulu".

It was so long ago the town centre probably resembled the above pic.

Happy days.

Holiday Attractions

This is the first sea-side hol's we've taken without the kids so we never needed to seek out those activities that rainy days take you to - you know local farms and parks that promise Universal Studios and deliver universal disappointment.

Looking around though i have some suggestions for improvement - amalgamation that's the key! How about Monkey Tank World tanks, right, driven by monkeys it couldn't miss. Liven up a gloomy day with a visit to the Tollpuddle Martyrs of the Caribbean pirate union museum. Negotiations not going too well - fifty strokes of the cat. Disciplinary procedure - 1st keelhaul warning + final written plank - I'd join.

Anyway we had a jolly good time and so did our mutts Buddy and Ollie - see above.

Mark + Michele's Wedding

Just got back from a weeks holiday which we put on hold for a day to go to our old friend Wils' wedding. The invitations were sent by word of mouth but all the guests managed to gravitate to the right place at the right time. The organist at St Mary's church seemed to have taken the brown acid and was only using the bass and treble keys on the keyboard but the ceremony passed with nary a hitch. On to the reception at a large marquee just nor' west of Rudge.



Superb food, embarrassing anecdotes and quaffage of grape and grain followed. The Detectives played during the evening entertainment which ended with karaoke style versions of Teenage Kicks, Take the Skinheads Bowling, the Banana Splits song and a scraped together attempt at Dirty Ol' Town - lovely sub X-Factor vocals from Mike Tozer and Mark himself. Apologies to my cuss' Joss' mate Justin we were just too pissed to attempt the Ramones cover.



Andy nearly didn't make it as we had forgotten to tell him the venue, Paul got hammered (but still kept the beat), Steve stepped in on bass for the finale, Chris Andy and myself dredged up songs we hadn't played for years and Ivan had to BUY! a pint.



The lovely Gill was unsure about the whole invitation business as she has not had our experience of Mr Wilsons "piss-up in a brewery" approach to organising his entire life but had to admit it was a fine day out. Oh, and she also saved the day by nipping back to Frome to fetch the decks from our garage as the bloody disco - some bloke Sinjun or something like that (paid in advance no less) failed to turn up.



D.J Eyeball Paul stood in and kept the dancefloor grooving as the night slowly wound down.