CD-SHOP by Courtney Love on MUSIC by MGCK Music by UK Copyright Advice
SEPTEMBER
2005 - And it looks like we're all heading
Thurs 28 Sept @ Albanach: Dugald Brough and Chris from Reiser - starts 9pm. and Midnight Musikal Madness at The GULAG: STARVATION BOX @ 12 on the dot
30 September 2005 - what you've all been waiting for The Launch of The NEW REVOLUTION (no not the Bolsheviks.. though the planet could use some o'' that) the new music venue on Lothian Road... (Edinburgh.. not Wolfgang, Wyoming - it would probably rock a bit more in Wolfgang, Wyoming.)
Listening to the new JEGGSY DODD album: "Wake Up And Smell The Offy". Favourite line so far: "There's a horse's head at the foot of my bed, but I don't know.. any gangsters," from track 'House of the Wonderfully Weird"
3 Sept
05 Sat MGCK
Music 
"If it keeps
on rainin' the Levee's gonna break..." 
Zeppelin had it pegged way back when and today New Orleans is under water.. the globe keeps warming and turning like a chicken on a spit.. nobody seems to realise it's down to every single one of us to change our lives, stop producing waste, stop making babies.. stop living as if there's no tomorrow but the one we decided we want. You are just a face in the crowd, but it's down to you (and the Spaghetti Gods). ["Face In The Crowd" photographic art courtesy of James Miller by 2001]
Incredible Radio Interview with Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans
May the Linguini be with you.
LEITH FM 'Social' get together last night discussing the next broadcast.. I won a Plymouth Gin polo shirt in the raffle!! and McBrandy serenaded us with some very politically astute self-penned tunes. Speaking of the politically astute:
*Last
month we saw him at the Edinburgh Book Festival. This
month
George Galloway will be on a whistle-stop tour of key places in America with
none other than actress AND activist Jane Fonda!
Gorgeous George said there were some things he didn't want to discuss before his US tour, in case he ended up having a 'Jack Ruby moment' in an underground car-park somewhere in the hinterland.
6 Sept
05 Tues MGCK
Music
"So many
things slip sliding away..." 
Letting things slip and slide that need to be addressed.. my old pals the 'Prog Rockers' for one.. haven't dealt with them yet.. and, my seventh sense tells me Andy G is gettin' a little hot under the collar. He wants to release an album on his Dead Earnest label and I'm dragging my feet about it's content; i.e... which tracks? which backing? new ones? old ones? good ones? bad ones? Shall we re-record ones?? All my apologies Andy right here on this page.. I'm losing my focus.. The Summer of Lull is over and it's back to school time and I just haven't got a grip yet. I swear to you here and now.. I will make it down to Leicester to see Ian about the DAT's.. I swear on my tippy toes and cross my heart and hope to die if I don't do it like prontito!.. I'll get down there in the next 2-3 weeks. And yes.. I'll do the Dundee dates in October. Are we still friends? Come on.. I said it all in public!!! [Wow.. I just noticed Dead Earnest is promoting the forthcoming 'ELECTRA' album on his website and we haven't even decided the track listing yet!!.. or WHICH tracks??? but.. I guess this is proof he's Dead Serious... ok.. we'll do it.]
Another bit of news: a new venue in Edinburgh opening up with a 1,500 audience capacity...the guy was looking for likely bands that I 'rated' as being crowd pullers and pleasers. I told him I know of a couple of 'crowd pullers' but their music is, shall we say, hmmmm. I also know of some so-so bands that have slightly better music and pull a bit of a crowd and then I know of a couple of bands I REALLY REALLY rate who don't seem to pull too furiously packed a crowd at any given gig, yet are head and shoulders above the rest.. Which ones did he want to hear about?? If you want him to hear about you
OH NEKTAR last night.. hhhmmmmm.....there are indeed some SONIC issues with the NEKTAR bar... I'm not entirely sure what they are. Some bands too loud.. some bands too soft.. some bands not at all... BIG F*CK OFF PA.. maybe too big for the space. Good gear.. I don't know.. I think it might be the shape of the room. I'm not sure.. it bodes for an interesting night on the 18th. Come along at your sonic peril and bring ear-plugs just in case. I mean, last night this punky band called 'LEGLESS' almost destroyed my capacity to ever mix a track ever ever again... If you're a musician.. your ears are very important to you.. you NEED them.. Beethoven might have been able to do without, but the rest of us - I'm pretty sure - we NEED them.. so bring your sonic guards just in case. My Motto on music nights from now on: "Don't leave home without them." (oh and PS.. Etrangere are improving in leaps and bounds.. Emma aka 'Elvira', the new singer (first gig at Nektar last night) looks great and sings 'STALKED' in an awesomely perfect way.) So come and see them play: Sun 18 Sept @ Nektar: ELECTRA, ETRANGERE & The COVIETS
Other gigs in Sept: Sans Trauma @ Cabaret Voltaire 22 Sept. and
there is something going on 30th Sept. Details later.
[Someone keeps sending me email alerts about a Henry Rollins gig on the 15th Sept at a Venue in some American city they never name.]
I need a breather after August.. lots of cozy nights 'in' with ma baby (no flood waters please)...or maybe there's nothing I really want to see right now (i.e. floating corpses, oil slicks, swimming rats). Looking towards Glasgow...some great bands in Glasgow (just received a 2-trk CD and 7-inch single from Glasgow band EMER - the manager must know I'm a sucker for a heavy riff.. the tracks start out all sweet thoughtful pained and sensitive and then flip into da 'killer' riff.. which hooks me like a fish-on-a-line every time. The tracks are produced by Andy Miller (Mogwai, Delgados, Scout Niblett, Arthur Baker, Songs Ohio, Arab Strap, Sons & Daughters, Desert Hearts, My Latest Novel, etc etc etc.) Visit their website www.emernoise.co.uk and yes, without question.. they'll get a spin on LeithFM's next broadcast) and of course.. looking 'south'.. London seems to be calling me at the moment. Must get down there S-O-O-N. [Please fortify the Thames barrier.]
.... on Storm Watch _ [sorry don't know who to credit for phots]
More
photo ops from the New Orleans Disaster sent by Fifi J.. this one
entitled..
"Out of every disaster comes a little ray of sunshine"
10 Sept
05 Sat MGCK
Music
"Just spell
my name..." even if it's TOILET!
Thought for the Day: "He who speaks the truth should have one foot in the stirrup." Hebrew proverb
My friend
and 'colleague', 'Mad Dog', raised the thorny issue of mean
journalists (i.e. frustrated individuals with sharp pencils, tiny non-erectile
penises/clitori,
diminutive stature, and shoes that are just too tight) and their bad attitudes
and bad (but-sadly-sometimes-true) reviews; i.e an evil Evening Snooze (d*ckhead paper)
which actually said some dodgy things about Bannermans. I like
Bannermans so don't like that journalist. But, sometimes you've got to
stand your ground. Someone else was harping at me (what a cry-baby) about something he read on these
very unoffishal pages.. what he called a bad or, actually, he was more
specific, he termed it an 'abusive' review of a band who are
actually SHITE. (Let's
play SPOT THE REVIEW!!)
It's not my fault they're SHITE.. Maybe they should just bite the bullet and change
their name to.. uh.. 'SHITE!' 
Even the pussycat knows it's true!
I would tell him and anyone else glancing across this text: in 'shoo-biz'.. you're lucky to get a mention.. lap it up with a spoon. The eternal Hollywood axiom to remember: "say what you want about me, just spell my name right.' Journalists have an agenda too, but be happy when they focus their knee-capping Black & Decker in your direction. Possibly someone new will read it and know you exist. "There is no 'bad' publicity." So.. -
Just
smile and flip 'em the finger!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
11 Sept
05 Sun MGCK
Music
"Pet
Hates..."
The MUSIC NAZI
speaks!! a letter to the Editor
""Dear Unoffishal, I write with reference to the above. I live in a small seaside town. We have one venue and a bingo hall, but a thriving local music scene. I love most of the bands who play around here, but occasionally will speak my mind about the ones I don't. As a result, I have recently (just yesterday) been dubbed 'The Music Nazi' by a local promoter. A title I relish without any connection to the sins of the 'actual' Nazis.. thanks.. But really.. my most acute and instant and immediate pet hate: the emergence of PR in alternative/indie/rawk music.. the trend of musos, who should be spitting, farting, throwing up and/or choking on their own (or someone else's) vomit, being 'bland' and 'nice'; acting like friendly little good-will ambassadors so they can get ahead. Tell it to Jim Morrison who would spit in your face or worse! [documented fact]. There was a time (once upon a ...) when musicians and artists were SHAMANIC and carried a flame of some gut-truth about "what's goin' on" and were unapologetic for their conduct which was merely a conduit for that truth (and a hell of a way to have fun).. a funnel away from the nicey nice gloss that lies (pun intended) over most gross realities in our culture. Ask Frank Zappa a question and you'd get 'an answer' or if the question was really stoopid, escorted out of his presence. That's all you'd get. Not some nice I'm-trying-to-sell-records-here PR pap. So yeah.. PET HATES! Get the pap and PR out of it. Love Ratty, the Music Nazi"" [Editors reply: Maybe they ARE trying to sell records.]
Anyway, dogs are ALWAYS happy - so, it's time to PLAY: WHAT KIND OF DOG ARE YOU?
{I did mine.. I'm a guide dog to the sensibly impaired.]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14, 15,
16 Sept
05 Wed, Thurs, Fri MGCK
Music
Forget the Pets and HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE!!!
Listening to and LOVING the new DANDY WARHOLS album: ODDITORIUM...track titles, i.e. 'Love is the New Feel Awful' and 'A Loan Tonight'. Read The Independent review in which the guy (The Independent's own Music Nazi) slagged the Dandies for '10-minute psychaedelic songs' and thought.. I've got to get me some of that.
Thought for the Day: "What ever happened to 'Rolling Stone?" General query from the awed masses who remember the periodical when it was GREAT, CUTTING EDGE, BLEEDING EDGE, P-O-L-I-T-I-C-A-L !!!!!!! I mean, really, WHAT HAPPENED???
FOR CUTTING EDGE BLEEDING EDGE NEWS, NOTHING BEATS 'THE ONION'! http://www.theonion.com/content/node/33930
and then this (paying
close attention to the dates) [courtesy of
eagle-eyed 'Unoffishal' reporter David 'South Central KDY']
http://money.cnn.com/2005/09/14/news/fortune500/gillette/index.htm
Other Hot News Flashes: ""In January this year, NASA fired a rocket into space. As planned, it collided with a comet on July 4. We still don't know whether this has nudged the comet into a new orbit. A Russian astrologer called Marina Bai wants the Americans to stop treating the solar system like a giant pinball machine, and is suing them for disrupting the cosmos. The hearing finally started in Moscow today.""
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19 Sept
Mon MGCK
Music
Heads Down, Here
comes the Review
Last
Night at Nectar: ELECTRA, ETRANGERE, & The COVIETS: There's
no escaping it.. ELECTRA,
normally a formidable vocalist of astonishing
range and capacity, was... uhhh... SHITE. For a woman who can sing the
hind-legs off most anything she's pointed at (and look good doing it) last night
she completely lost the soggy plot. Dodgy soundchecks are no excuse.
Dodgy
crowd (3 drunken Hi-Bee fans heckling her)? No excuse. Lousy lighting
so we can't see her pretty face? No excuse. No stage? Just eye-level
with the crowd?? NO EXCUSE. As the stand-up comedians say,
she bombed like Dresden. She died the death and it's her own fault. She's run the
course with the lousy backing music. ADVICE: Get
SERIOUS Honey or get OUTTA da game.. get yourself some real musos.. start anywhere.. a harpsichord, a
triangle, a bongo, a mad axe-man.. just start with a drum and bass...
anything that's organic. Don't let that extraordinary instrument you've got lurking in
your throat go to waste. Later, courtesy of the BBC, I was watching Robert
Wyatt (ex Soft Machine) doing his quite incredibly musical thing surrounded by musicians to die for...
that's what Electra Ladyland needs. So for last night's painful performance she should
give herself the big 
ONE
FINGER
review... Don't
darken another stage until you get it right ('cause it could be SO RIGHT), i.e.
get some 'GREAT' musicians to share the glory.
Next: ETRANGERE: I
would give them the same advice, but in a different way. ETRANGERE
have grown in leaps and bounds and well.. a BIG leap with Emma the front
woman, but here lies the problem. The band is now vocally (and other
anatomical parts) top-heavy with Emma,
Sue Squires and even occasionally Andy M, all lending
voices. They need another instrument. A lead guitar or drummer..
some 'light and shade'.. the set goes from start to finish without much dynamic.
Partly due to the wonderful, but ONLY rhythm guitar parts of Andy
MacFarlane's and the metronomic beat of the drum
machine.
Also.. for me.. I
prefer it when they're taking chances and do their own material as opposed to
covers. We've heard the covers a million times.. the one they can keep is
'Tear-Stained Letter' sung by Andy M. They do it so well. I think one cover
per set is ok.. but really, more material like 'STALKED'. Great
song. But indeed..
ETRANGERE
have grown from 2 people
with one guitar doing a couple of numbers at the Full Moon Club to almost
a 'band'. There's room to grow
more. Now to the
COVIETS... I like the 6 foot plus
skinny frontman with
the glasses.. so did about 20 girls who stood glazed-eyed watching him. No
they're not into music.. they've come to see the dude.. and here's the cut: Maybe this IS what makes you a star. GROUPIES.
These girls were nothing more or less than groupies. You couldn't have
distracted them with a fire alarm or a 747 hurtling through the bar while he was on stage. Can't say
much about The Coviets' (Coviats'?) music, cause, really, nothing caught my ear.. He's no Jim
Morrison (more like a taller Ian Brown), but he's cute and the girls like him..
so maybe they're on their way. 
A photo of another love of my life: Brad 'the Style Nazi' Boles - back in New York, where he belongs. [photo courtesy of S. Camejo}
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'HIGH HITLER': Watched a documentary on Hitler's 'vitamin' requirements while he ran the Third Reich. The dude was awakened every morning by his medico with an injection of amphetamine (the at-the-time 'new' pharmaceutical miracle). Before he even got out of bed he was flying. While watching, I wondered... can you get this on the NHS? Will they DO housecalls????
23 Sept
Fri MGCK
Music
Shall We Add Something Else to Our Plate?
On
the recently Re-Released Twelfth Night CD (out on Virgin) there's a blurb in the
CD Liner about future releases; i.e. 'THE VOCALISTS' CD, which will include none
other than Electra... who, yes, did tread the boards for Twelfth Night as
Vocalist and Recording Artist. Of course, nobody from the band or
their management or Virgin or anyone else have spoken with with ELECTRA or
her representatives about this future release in over a year. A little bird has told me
they owe her some money from past record and CD sales.. must contact Mark Hughes
and find out, 'what's goin' on'.
Fri 23 Sept @ Cabaret Voltaire: LAST GREAT WILDERNESS and Jonny Panic?. [apparently LGW did a storming set with new song 'Alaska'.. i missed it.. ..f*ck f*ck f*ck it]
28, 29, 30
Sept 05 MGCK
Music
End of the month
Ran into Esme from LeithFM on the street yesterday. Reminds me, a flurry of activity is about to hit the fan. Other gigs and events listed at top. On my way to Leicester to see a man about a dog.. or some DATS. Do they exist? are they with Lord Lucan? Dr Livingston I presume? Nothing to say, just living in hope, not even livin' in sin. Oh yes.. getting right into Robert Wyatt's significant solo back catalogue: current favourites - DONDESTAN and CUCKOOLAND, not to mention his Soft Machine years which Jim has the FULL complement of. So out there and natural and .. completely UN-COMMERSHAL, yet brings home the bacon.
Read an article in a 'street sheet' about Jimmy Devlin and River Records. They're just mining the past.. mining the past. Digging up old tapes of recording sessions and live gigs by anybody and everybody who had a name. He said sometimes the tapes are in such bad condition they have to be 'baked' before they'll give up their aural prize. I'm on a similar mission. To find some music that cost a fuck of a lot to record and was lost in the landslide some time ago. A jog down memory lane with a very of-the-moment-appeal. When I get back it will be .. OKTOBER!!!!
LAST
NIGHT AT the GULAG (Downstairs at EGO): STARVATION
BOX - At 11pm, I was standing on the steps of the EGO
club in the rain. Doors closed.. street absolutely EMPTY.. is this the
place? my mind's lips formed a question? I could see diners in the
Civil List funded Hallyon Club next door polishing off their roast fox and
Niger-child souffle. An hour and a quarter later we were IN the GULAG and it
was HEAVING.. .. wild raucous, loud and even more important.. so far
underground. A word of mouth
event.. no posters.. no publicity.. no notice in mag or rag.. it was just the
HAPPENING (yes I call on the verbiage of the uber groovy 60by s psychaedelic
corps) place to be. STARVATION
BOX were
punked to their max and the lead woman/girl guitarist person Sirraya.. Soraya or
Sarrria.. do not know her name.. looks like she might be able to pull it off.
The drummer with R-E-B-E-L
(maybe his name?) tattooed
in LARGE
letters
across his throat left no doubts as to his lifeby s ambitions, affiliations,
preferences and how he spends his time. No day jobbers need apply here.
Means
they just might make it somewhere into the music gallactics.
It was good. Supposedly the lyrics are a main feature of the package, but
inaudible under the sheer sweaty
mass of last nightby s heavinby crowd and punked mic sound. Oh yeah.. and they
had the added glitz and gloss of the great man himself - Kenny Brady
soothing and stressing his psychaedelic fiddle. .singing into the hole like a
newly deranged Jim Morrison with the by killer on the roadby by yeah..
good night. You may need a pedigree
of KOOL to get into Gulag on most occasions.. but you can try yer luck at the
door on any night.
IN
OKTOBER: 
Fri 7th OCT - DUNDEE's DOGHOUSE will be the place to be: ELECTRA, SAZ, SAME DIFFERENCE & AWAITING EXILE - (Free Entry dependin' on yer attitude)
Fri 14th Oct: @ THE SUBWAY, Edinburgh: SHOCK N AWE & PAUL RESEARCH
What?: PIRANHA POETRY Open Mic Night- MON OCT 3rd with special guest 'Tickle' (piranha july slam semi finalist)
Where?: The Holyrood Tavern, Edinburgh
Who?: MC Gaz death
When?: doors 8.30pm, show 9pm
What Else do you need to know?: FREE to get in and park ya bum....
BE THERE...... or BE SOMEWHERE ELSE! If you don't know how.. take lessons on COUNTERCULTURE.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you're looking for last month's things: i.e. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Yellow Cafe Legends (Rodney Relax, Gaz Death, MyElectricLoveAffair, The Gay Police, etc), Guy Pratt, The Forbidden, Puppetry of The Penis, The Edinburgh Film Festival: 'S-T-O-N-E-D' and REN-SA go to Last month's blog: August 05
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Always an eyeful: The Universe Today
Sites worth a visit and support are: http://www.adbusters.org and Be an 'Antipreneur' - anti-corporate - self-motivated activist: http://adbusters.org/metas/politico/antipreneur/
*****Want to do a good thing?! Send an email to letters@radiosix.com with the subject line VOTE and in the body of the text just write: Song: Jonny Cash, Artist: Electra, then your name and address and press SEND.
as always www.clearchannelsucks.org (note: this site seems to have been closed down.. probably by some legal suit from Clearchannel themselves.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UNOFFISHAL SITE ARCHIVES: Current 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012
2011 2010 2009-in-ONE-BIG-BITE! 2008: Dec-Nov-Oct-Sept-Aug 08 Jul-Jun-May-Apr 08 Mar 08 Feb 08 Jan 08 2007: Dec 07 Nov 07 Oct 07 Sept 07 Aug 07 July-June-May 07 Apr 07 Mar 07 Feb 07 Jan 07 2006: Dec 06 Nov 06 Oct 06 Sept 06 Summer 2006 May 06 Apr 06 Mar 06 Feb 06 Jan 06 2005: Dec 05 Nov 05 Oct 05 Sept 05 Aug 05 July 05 June 05 May 05 April 05---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------SPACE: The FINAL FRONTIER! Always an eyeful: The Universe Today
Sites worth a visit and support are: http://www.adbusters.org and Be an 'Antipreneur' - anti-corporate - self-motivated activist: http://adbusters.org/metas/politico/antipreneur/
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright ©
MGCK Music -all rights reserved.92503 HK