FRANK SIDEBOTTOM AND THE VENTURES...whats the connection?

Got a nice surprise in the mail today from my good friend Mel Bergman in California. It's a music project that himself, Deke Dickerson and friends collaborated on with Nokie Edwards.

Nokie Edwards was the lead guitarist with original instrumental surf kings THE VENTURES from 1959-1968. Tons of great tracks: 2000 lb bee, pedal pusher, swingin' creeper and their biggest hit...walk don't run.

Mel is the Guitarist in THE PHANTOM SURFERS and Deke was in THE UNTAMED YOUTH and this platter is an authentic sounding homage to the mid-60's period Ventures.

However....track Five is called DO THE FRANK SIDEBOTTOM....

How can this be? you ask.....Well, let me explain.... back in 2005, my band THE STAGS played a couple of European shows with The Phantom Surfers. One of these was at Wigan where we somehow managed to get Frank out of retirement to compere the show.....this kickstarted his career and led to me becoming Franks road manager.
Mel and the rest of the band where totally knocked out with Frank....instantly recognising the genius that it was. Frank ended up singing SHEENA IS A PUNK ROCKER with the Surfers and it brought the house down.
Frank and The Surfers stayed in touch and plans were made to record a Frank Sidebottom and the Phantom Surfers EP, for U.S. release and a west coast tour to promote it. Frank was really excited about this. Mel sent six or so instrumental tracks over but Frank being Frank....He never actually got round to finishing it. Sadly, Chris Sievey, Franks alter ego, contracted cancer and died. He did tell me he had recorded vocals on a couple of the tracks. It's possible they are tucked away somewhere on his portastudio. Problem is Chris/Frank was a disorganised, unconventional maverick. How you would even start to figure out the mystery tracks whereabouts totally beats me.

Anyways...it seems this particular song has gone full circle. Mel and the guys have paid tribute to Sidebottom by keeping its original title and having one of the all-time great surf instrumental guitarists play on it. I'm positive that Frank/Chris would be completely jazzed at this unlikely outcome....you know he would.....he really would....thankyou!

SKATEBOARDS? .....I ALMOST MADE THEM RESPECTABLE

What we got here are 3 bands/artists generally regarded as 'plastic punk' by most punk obsessives but as these videos show.... these bands could really rock!

First up is JOE JACKSON in 1979 with the title track off his 2nd album 'I'm the man'...this fully rips along!
This song has the classic line 'Skateboards?....I almost made them respectable' ..a strong enough reason to love this song for this single fact alone.

Following this is ELVIS COSTELLO in 1978 with 'Pump it up'
When my dad saw this routine on Top of the Pops ....it made him feel sick and wanted to write to the BBC to complain.......good job he never got to witness the Sex Pistols.

To finish it's THE BOOMTOWN RATS with a spirited live performance in 1978 of a great album track 'Don't believe what you read'.
This clip is from the short-lived, brilliant REVOLVER tv show that had PETER COOK as the host.

It seems to me a shame that these bands had their heads turned and for whatever reasons got themselves ran through the mainstream 'Music Machine' to to lose all the sharp edges and become the acceptable face of punk at the time.....New Wave.

KILLER DILLER RADIO guest spot

Had great fun on Tuesday night as a guest on KILLER DILLER radio show. Big thanks to Johnny Alpha for cutting me some slack with my choices. Listen again HERE for some 90's garage, '77 punk, surf instros and good old rock 'n' roll

Verona Bike Expo 2012....part three

On Friday we were joined by Sideburn's Rome correspondent Mick Phillips and our friends at CO-BUILT Anthony, Geoff and Anna and Wilky #99.

We hosted a party at MR. MARTINI's bike shop that involved DJ'ing from a hydraulic car lift, nice food, drink, dancing and a charity raffle that involved some poor sod bidding 100 euros for a box of Thornton's chocolates, concealed in a plastic bag... donated by the Ace Cafe. There was some nice items donated by DAVIDA, RUBY HELMETS and MR. MARTINI himself.

ROLLERBURN

Everything is starting to fall into place for this upcoming event.....it's gonna be a hoot!

RULE BRITANNIA....WITH THE STAGS

Oh Yea, Oh Yea, Oh Yea!......There's gonna be a wedding! Here's the official poster....by Royal Appointment.

LANCELOT LINK......IN COLOR!!

 I noticed that the last few posts have been mainly monochrome...so, for no reason other than to add some color to FULL FROKKUL...here are some Lancelot Link comic covers and a clip from the TV show with the band singing "Evolution Revolution", another song squished through THE STAGS mangle and served up on the DO THE TON album

MOTORCYCHO MAILSHOT

Lots of thanks to Norman McFuzzybutt over at MOTORCYCHO magazine for a package through my letterbox today! A big bunch of 45's, stickers, buttons etc. This mag has been in existence for 15 years now and also has a blog page that you can visit HERE

MOBILE AND THE LENTALISTS....new band

The first gig for a project band I'm playing bass in, takes place this Sat 16th October at THE TUDOR HOUSE, Wigan.
The Lentalists play loud, twin guitared, amped-up, driving 60's garage in the vein of 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS, THE LITTER and BOB SEGER SYSTEM.....
This band is something of a local supergroup with members from THE V.C.'S, THE STAGS, MOCO and THE MALLADIES.
Looking forward to seeing how this new band is received on its debut outing

Dennis and Lois documentary....

Dennis and Lois Doc Teaser from cassflix on Vimeo.
Fantastic teaser for an upcoming documentary about Dennis and Lois from New York.
The absolute biggest fans of Frank Sidebottom I ever met! The couple met at a FATS DOMINO gig and ended up running the Merch stall for THE RAMONES in 1975-6. Chris Sievey once told me that it was Dennis who actually suggested that the boys all wore black leather jackets.
Dennis and Lois are my kind of people... rabid toy and record collectors

UGLY BUGS BALL part two

More pics... at the top we got BAMBI LA BEAU performing her "Cleopatra" routine then a bunch of random snaps...the caterers ran out of paper plates so TOPSY STAG ate her hotpot out of a washing up bowl!!

UGLY BUGS BALL PART ONE

First few pics from this weekends UGLY BUGS BALL with The Stags here in Wigan! A great party for sure....some good bits were an eight-armed drum solo from Arachnid Kenny Roquette, a bug related burlesque routine, a human fly buzzing around a giant turd stuck to a blanket and full-on honking saxaphone by our special guest Mike the Fireman. The party was totally sold out and people showed up in some great costumes. Next up is a Halloween party with The Stags  Friday 29th Oct.  at THE ROARING PSYCHEDELIC OCTOPUS in Wigan. It's an official OCTOPUS/SIDEBURN/DAVIDA HELMETS bash with amongst other things, special guest DJ Sideburn head honcho, Gary Inman......absolutely not to be missed!
Thanks to GoGo Lou and Wilky #99 for these pics.

UGLY BUGS BALL......WITH THE STAGS

C'MON AND CRAWL TO THE UGLY BUGS BALL....This Saturday 25th Sept. THE STAGS play The Ugly Bugs Ball in Wigan. For one night only the Royal Oak, Wigan is being transformed into an upside down insect utopia.

It's gonna be a truly bugtastic evening with performances from THE STAGS (with special guest), THE UGLY BUG STOMPERS (17 piece brass band) ALAN ANT (vinyl disc-slipper) and BAMBI LA BEAU (buxotic burlesque dancer)

Other activities include a fancy dress contest with prizes, hot food, wild cocktails, crazy decor and a lucky dip!

This is a ticket only event....NO PAY ON THE DOOR! It's almost sold out but I do have a handful of tickets left. Cost is 10 quid (inc. free cocktail, food and confectionaries) get in touch if you wanna come and I can hold your tickets on the door.....call 07785 110645 and quote "spider bollocks!"

SHUT YOUR MOUTH.....The Mummies

If I have to explain....then you wouldn't understand!

The Mummies in Portland, Oregon

The Mummies play their last show ever this weekend in Portland, Oregon. It has been organised by our good friend Cecilia who has relocated to Portland from Paris. The show has been engineered to coincide with Cecilias wedding to Ryan Epoxie that very same weekend. We were invited to the wedding but sadly we are unable to attend due to poor finances, work commitments and ill heath.
I'm sure it is gonna be one hell of a party with a bunch of our friends from all over the world and we are gutted we can't make it.....we wish Cecilia and Ryan all the best!!!
Here's a some pics from The Mummies playing in Spain a coupla years back and a shot of the happy couple!!