Chalkhills Digest Volume 5, Issue 220
Date: Monday, 7 June 1999
Chalkhills Digest, Volume 5, Number 220
Monday, 7 June 1999
Today's Topics:
A Few Words While the Microdot Kicks In
I mean, "XTC videos: get 'em *HERE*"
SUBJECT: Bendall's Bailing
the drums, The Drums, THE DRUMS!!!!
AV1: The Singles?/Hitchcock
Andy Never Had It So Good
Re: Motley Pinecone's Frying Circuits
XTC on Imagine Radio
Cooking Santa
LSD and the CIA
Re: Robyn Hitchcock presents...
Easter Theatre
A number of responses
Turn me on, Napoleon
Harvest Festival
Songwriters...Now we're talking!!
The Residents
Girls Just Wanna Have 34D
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Heroes and rogues / Together surrounded by nature.
---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message-ID: <3755A5F2.9C759EEB@averstar.com> Date: Wed, 02 Jun 1999 17:45:23 -0400 From: Harrison Sherwood <sherwood@averstar.com> Organization: Averstar, Inc. Subject: A Few Words While the Microdot Kicks In > From: "Duncan Kimball" <dunks58@hotmail.com> > Subject: I 'ear you've been a naughty boy, Clement > >From: "Steve Oleson" <Steve.Oleson@OAG.STATE.TX.US> > >Subject: DIMSDALE!!! > > > >Psychedelics certainly had a part in the growth of the publics' > >appreciation of the surreal and absurd! > > Hmmm. I'm sure there are any number of doctoral theses about this. Is this shit any good? I don't know, man, it's been, like, 45 minutes and I don't feel a thing.... Who'd you get it from? Kanuba? He's a fuckin' ripoff, man, you oughta know that by now. This stuff's crap. Listen, you got any bong hits we could do? Look, it's all very well us sitting around watching the room get dark and listening to Jefferson Airplane records, but, like, I can't be wasting my time with this if I can't be sure I'm not gonna get any Cosmic Revelations, you know? I want to Walk with the King, dig, not just watch the walls breathe or something. It's like, you take this shit into your body, you don't know WHAT the fuck's in it, could be elephant tranquilizers or something for all I know, and for this kind of risk you expect some Big Thing to reveal itself to you. Did you see the Beatles Anthology, the part where George talks about looking at acid through a microscope, and all he sees are these big, long _ropy_ things? Scared him shitless, he said, and he stopped doing acid right _then_, man, Cold Turkey, dig? (Yeah, right, you get it--"Cold Turrrrrkeeeyyy..." I love that song.) Except you can't _see_ acid under a microscope, the molecules are way too small and shit, so George was just telling a big whopper, you know? Weird. I mean, why the fuck would he *say* something like that? Think somebody *told* him to? Think maybe somebody *got* to him? Is your scalp tingling? I think my scalp just started tingling. Did you notice that? I don't see any trails yet, but my scalp is tingling like a motherfucker. Put on "Bathing at Baxter's," man! I think it's finally happening. Is it hot in here, or is it just me? Am I in here? Is it me who is hot? Is it I who am hot? Woah, man. Slow down! *Maintain*! Screw grammar! No, *grammar*, I said, not Grandma! Don't be gross! So they were talking in Chalkhills about Andy Partridge secretly hangin' out there, you know, like reading about himself and shit with a fake name, and some people were saying it was ridiculous 'cause he just *hates* Chalkhills and the Internet and everything to do with it, and he said it was like attending his own funeral, listening to all the ghouls analyzing his songs and his soul and stuff. But some other people said that would be *just* the sort of thing that Andy would get a big laugh out of doing, freaking people out by just _being_ there, you know? Staring in the window like a pervert.... So we went into this sort of weird paranoid vibe where everybody was asking each other if _they_ were Andy, you know, kind of like Are you him? No? Are *you* him? (Hey, wasn't that, like, in the Bible or something?) 'Cos the Net is like, nobody's got a face, you're only a name, you know? And anybody can be ANYbody, you know? Like you might be, like, Billy Corgan behind your email address and I might be John the Baptist! Did the phone just ring? If it's my dad tell him I'm *definitely* not here, OK? You got any beer? *Is* the phone ringing, or was that on the record? So the thing I wanted to tell everybody about the Andy thing was, like, you're looking down the wrong end of the barrel, you know? Ever stop to think that the solar system is made up of a central, like, nucleus, and the planets are like electrons whirling around it, just like in a big *atom*? And that one atom, the solar system, could be just *one gazillionth* of all the atoms that go to make up the single *hair* one one huge giant's head? Like we're sitting on the tiniest little insignificant part of a tiny little insignificant part of a tiny little insignificant part of a huge honkin' _person_? That's what Chalkhills is, see? You can't be *inside* or *outside*, you just *are*. Asking if Andy is *present* in Chalkhills is, is, is, is, the wrong question! Andy CREATED Chalkhills, Chalkhills exists because Andy exists! No Andy, no Chalkhills! ANDY AM THAT ANDY AM!!!! What? Just a guy? Yeah, sure! ON ONE LEVEL!!!! But dig it: Pay No Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain! Pain! Oh! Tension! Tether Manby, hinders quirtin'! Pi No Extension To Thee, Mourn, Be Kind or Certain! Spay No Detention Doobie Menses Guy the Spurtin'! Can you see it, like one of those Chinese acupuncture charts, a huge picture of Andy, there, naked, hands splayed and head turned discreetly, with every _chi_-point on his body carefully marked--"Zan Zhu: Location: In the depression proximal to the medial end of the eyebrow, directly above inner canthus; Indications: Headache, eye diseases, facial paralysis." And right in the middle of his chest, directly between the nipples, the Shan Zhong Point, it's marked "Chalkhills: Seat of Godhood...." I must insist, I hear the phone ringing. CAN YOU PLEASE ANSWER THE PHONE??? Man, I'm really peaking now. I really *do* feel like John the Baptist... White Rabbit's about to start, isn't it? Good; this version kicks ass... What the fuck? What's that? WHAT'S THAT??? Up there on the fuckin' wall?!?!? Oh Jesus Christ-- * ------------------------------ End of Chalkhills Digest #5-218 ******************************* PULL THE CURTAINS!!!!! Oh, God, oh god oh god oh god oh god..... Harrison "Goo Goo G'Joob" Sherwood
------------------------------ Message-Id: <199906030033.UAA12743@mail.netwalk.com> From: "Ian C Stewart" <ian@AUTOreverse.net> Subject: I mean, "XTC videos: get 'em *HERE*" Date: Wed, 2 Jun 1999 20:30:37 -0400 As some of the more eagle-eyed members of this list have reminded me, the actual URL for my XTC video page is not whatever blah I typed last time, but in fact it is..... http://www.netwalk.com/~stewart/xtcvideo.htm and by the way, if anybody has the entire promotional video for "The Disappointed" in NTSC format and is willing and able to trade with a brutha like me, lemme know at ian@autoreverse.net because YOU are my new favorite person. The rest of that AUTOreverse article on AP demos?
------------------------------ Message-Id: <199906030220.CAA135110@out4.ibm.net> From: "Shoalin" <shoalin@ibm.net> Subject: SUBJECT: Bendall's Bailing Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1999 09:28:16 +0700 The Rolling Stones review of AV1 says duringm the making, "The protracted studio process nearly destroyed these New Wave graduates..., ...and producer Haydn Bendall abandoned the sessions." Anybody got the inside poop on why Bendall bailed (and Bait took over)?
------------------------------ From: Melsta@aol.com Message-ID: <28e75f95.248823fc@aol.com> Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1999 14:31:24 EDT Subject: the drums, The Drums, THE DRUMS!!!! Hello Piles of CaCO3! I wish to describe to you a most interesting musical phenomenon that I have recently experienced. Part 1: I am a long-time XTC fan, but I'm one of those who listens more to vocals and lyrics than drums and instrumentation. In fact, I never really could hear the drums or the bass parts in music unless I really concentrated on them. They just didn't stand out for me when I listened to a song. I think this is not too uncommon in music lovers, particularly women. My husband, on the other hand, is a major drummer fan - in fact a frustrated jazz drummer himself (on the inside, not that he actually plays drums). He is always talking about his favorite drummers etc. like Bill Bruford, Jack DeJohnette and Steve Gadd (the Big Three) and I just never got it. Part 2: I have attention deficit disorder and just started a new medication that really seems to help. A very unexpected side effect of this is that now I CAN HEAR THE DRUMS!! It's really bizarre. New songs, old songs, rock, pop, jazz and r&b the drums ring out clear as a bell. I'll be driving down the road with the radio on and laughing my head off because all these songs I've been listening to all my life now sound COMPLETELY DIFFERENT! Like where did that cow bell come from in "Dirty Deeds (Done Dirt Cheap)" (I find I like Metal better now). And why do the Beatles suddenly sound so mechanical instead of melodic? I'm still no connoisseuse, but at least I can hear them. Really, it makes a lot of songs boring. Like the aforementioned Beatles (whom I have loved literally all my life). Now I know what y'all mean when you talk about Terry's Big Drum Sound. I'll have to hunt down that peasoup thingie. Now I know what my husband means when he says someone should take the cymbals away from Terry. Now I don't know for a fact that this is a function of the medication. It could just be a maturing of my brain. I AM turning 32 this summer, you know. Don't want to make the dreaded post hoc ergo propter hoc error. But whatever it is, it's a scream. Just had to share that. On an unrelated note to Ben: I know exactly what you mean about White Music growing on you. Never mind the weisenheimers out there "yeah, it grew on me about 50 years ago". I never used to like it all, but now I'm quite fond of it. And this happened pre-medication, too. TTFN Melissa "and I'm going to write a novel, and it will start out 'I was 31 when I first began to hear the drums . . .'" Reaves PS Any news on the band? AV2 in the works? Can we hope for a "back of the truck" tour?
------------------------------ From: ElizaS33@aol.com Message-ID: <ad3563e5.2488271e@aol.com> Date: Thu, 3 Jun 1999 14:44:46 EDT Subject: AV1: The Singles?/Hitchcock I hope this hasn't been discussed ad nauseum, but I did a search and couldn't find anything. I was browsing a German site called CyberCD (http://www.cybercd.de/) and they had a listing for a 9-track "mini-album" from Japan called Apple Venus Vol. 1 Singles. It did not, however, mention what was on it. Anyone know? Robyn Hitchcock is a fabulous live act. Not only that, he's opening for Jon Brion at Largo tomorrow and I'm going! Yay, me! Oddly, I know very little about his recorded output, although I've seen him live probably eight times in the past two years; I was put off early in life by the Yip Song, which was the first thing of his I'd heard and which I find spectacularly annoying, and quite surprised by how much I loved his live acoustic shows much later on. So I'm always afraid to buy one of his 500,000 CDs in case it's more in the Yip vein. (I did buy the soundtrack to the Demme picture, though.) Any personalized recommendations based on those parameters would be muchly appreciated. Also - is the song he does about Gene Hackman on an album? I think I had something else to say about XTC but I forgot. Oh well, I'll save it to legitimize my next urge to post on an off-topic thread... ;-) Elizabeth The Gallery of Indispensable Pop Music http://homepages.go.com/~popgallery
------------------------------ Message-ID: <3756DA57.D0BEC252@averstar.com> Date: Thu, 03 Jun 1999 15:41:17 -0400 From: Harrison Sherwood <sherwood@averstar.com> Organization: Averstar, Inc. Subject: Andy Never Had It So Good Listen: Andy Partridge can bitch all he wants to about us kooky Internet wackoes with no lives and weird obsessions, how we crawl in and we crawl out and we play pinochle on his snout: But Andy Partridge don't know Nuthin' about Nuthin'. Andy Partridge ain't got A. J. Weberman: http://www.dylanology.com/ Weberman has obsessively hounded Bob Dylan since the late Sixties, essentially making a living out of what he calls "Dylanology," the study (and promiscuous freestyle libeling) of Bob Dylan. Weberman is also credited with inventing the fine art of "garbology," or "going through celebrities' garbage cans looking for embarrassing items." Apparently he's also got a bee in his already infested bonnet about the vital importance of listening to songs both forward *and* backward--to get the *full* story, you see. Check this site out; it's real plain this guy's one wheel shy of a tricycle: His essay, "Bob Dylan: The Man and the Meth," is pretty indicative of the Weberman Style: It's desperately obvious to everyone but A. J. Weberman that he's got a very hard time figuring out just where Bob Dylan ends and A. J. Weberman begins: > One day in September 1970, my lifepartner Ann Duncan and I were on our > way to the Cafe Gaslight on MacDougal Street and we happened to pass > Bob Dylan's townhouse. For four long years I had been studying Dylan's > poetry, trying to crack the code of his symbolism. As I eyed the home > of the reclusive poet I wondered what went down behind the door that > Dylan had slammed in my face when I had tried to discuss my work with > him. Just then I noticed Dylan's shiny new steel garbage can. My mind > flashed back to a Lord Buckley riff from Johanna and Whale: "I ain't > out side anymore, I'm inside now." and said to myself, "Now, there's > something that was inside and it's outside now." I lifted the lid, I > reached in and the first thing, THE FIRST THING, that I pulled out of > Dylan's garbage was a half-finished letter written by Bob Dylan to > Johnny Cash. Click here to see a recreation of the discovery of > garbology and the letter to Cash. [Nota Bene: The words "click here" above are not a link. The Weberman Style.] [I'm really allowing some very embarrassing cats out of the bag, here, but the rules of Full Disclosure demand it. From Weberman's essay of Garbology: "I was forced to train an associate garbologist Aron Morton Kay (who would later achieve notoriety as the man who throws pies at celebrities)...(Kay's notoriously effective pie "hits" include, among others: Gordon Liddy; E. Howard Hunt; former New York Mayor Abe Beame, Senator Daniel P. Moynihan; and William F. Buckley.)" I sometimes wake up in a cold sweat remembering that once in 1979 I bought a loose joint in Central Park from a fat guy in a tie-dyed t-shirt who was introduced to me as The Yippie Pieman. At the time I thought it was about the coolest thing I could possibly have done. Tbe weed turned out to be fake. Which says pretty much everything you need to know about the Yippies.] Weberman's site also serves up, free of charge, some of the most annoying (and unstoppable) MIDI files ever inflicted by humans. Harrison "Cracking the code of Partsy's symbolism the *honest* way" Sherwood
------------------------------ Message-Id: <4782AD6ADDBDD2119B570008C75DD5C10A314B@MGMTM02> From: Lawson Dominic <LawsonD@parliament.uk> Subject: Re: Motley Pinecone's Frying Circuits Date: Mon, 24 May 1999 11:21:47 +0100 >> I've inferred that the Beatles wackiness > in later years, must have been inspired by MP. > > Does anyone out there harbor similar delusions? Yes, but the Beatles were wacky long before MP surfaced. Try the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band for the real starting point....."Do Not Adjust Your Set" featured, I believe, several Pythons, Neil Innes (Bonzos/Rutles) and other Bonzo Dog members, and was on the TV in the mid to late 60s........I think! Before my time, oh aged subscribers! Dom.
------------------------------ From: mollyfa@juno.com Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1999 03:05:37 -0400 Subject: XTC on Imagine Radio Message-ID: <19990604.030538.11654.0.MollyFa@juno.com> Well, I found out a great web site where you can make your own radio station. Well, I made four of them and two have XTC on it. If you're interested go to my web site: http://www.angelfire.com/mn/mollyfa99/index.html. Click on the link and you'll hear New Wave/80s music or go to http://www.angelfire.com/mn/mollyfa99/myguestbook.html to hear my fave genres. These two have XTC on them. Tonight I heard I Like That which totally flipped me out. After that they played another great song by one of my fave bands, Talk Talk. You get a chance to pick what artists you want on the station. If you're interested go to http://www.imagineradio.com. I highly recommend it. :) Molly
------------------------------ Message-Id: <199906040946.LAA02112@mail.coss.nl> From: "Mark R. Strijbos" <mast@coss.nl> Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1999 11:48:51 +0200 Subject: Cooking Santa Dear Chalkers, Our Japanese correspondent John Boudreau said: > > single mini-album seems to be sold in Japan!!! > Now we know the REAL reason no bonus tracks were included on > the Japanese AV Vol. 1 !!! I thought Andy didn't want the demos > released because he didn't feel they were worthy ??? Ummmm..... Think again... this Japanese mini album looks like it's just a collection of the 3 UK cd singles on one disc with no new material whatsoever. What is much more exiting is that Cooking Vinyl is considering the November release of the perfect XTC Xmas gift: a double CD _and_ LP (yes!) with the Apple Venus demos and outtakes (!!!). Perhaps this will help ease the wait for AV Volume II which won't hit the shops before March 2000 Mark R. Strijbos COSS Holland bv
------------------------------ From: CCooli9575@aol.com Message-ID: <b781b81e.24890352@aol.com> Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1999 06:24:18 EDT Subject: LSD and the CIA >A fascinating topic. Another curious aspect is how the acid scene came >about. Zappa has said - 'tho how serious he was is unsure - that it was >part of a covert government plan to disable youth unrest and dissent. Other >theories I have read assert that Soviet intelligence had a hand in the >large-scale manufacture and distribution, as part of their efforts to >undermine the west. I read somewhere a while back that research was done by the CIA on LSD as a truth drug to be used on captured prisoners of war, so they used US Army volunteers as study subjects sometime during the 50's. When the GI's started wandering into the woods and rapping with the trees, the study was abandoned and LSD was found to be too unstable, unpredictable and useless for their purposes. A few years later, of course it was declared illegal to posess or distribute it. Figures. The feds decide nobody could have it if they couldn't. So I wouldn't be surprised if Zappa was onto something; I'd sooner believe him than the CIA.(And I happen to know someone here in Vermont who's a retired CIA operative, and he could tell you some really interesting stories. He has confirmed that reports that the CIA distributed crack around the nations inner city neighborhoods are to his knowledge untrue, however, but he'd probably confirm the story of the 50's LSD experiment) Chris
------------------------------ Message-ID: <19990604143837.47823.qmail@hotmail.com> From: frederick rains <f_rains@hotmail.com> Subject: Re: Robyn Hitchcock presents... Date: Fri, 04 Jun 1999 07:38:37 PDT A while ago, or maybe it was just last week (but there's no accounting for time zone difference), Dunks posted a query about who Robyn Hitchcock was, seems as how word had got spread 'round to him that an RH show might be something to see, indeed. Well, Robyn is simply a very hard thing to peg down. His history is that he was a singer in the Soft Boys until they broke up after recording two albums that went largely unheard in the New Wave of the late 70's. His solo material has gone back and forth from albums with a full band (most famously The Egyptians, whom he arguably did some of his best stuff with), and unaccompanied acoustic material. His sound? There are a lot of comparisons to psychedelic songwriters like Syd Barret and Roky Erikson, but those are really just starting points. His performances are very unique, as he enjoys a rapor with the audience which can only be described as a cross between spoken word and improv. And you, Dunks, you lucky dog you, will get the chance to see the movie Jonathan Demme directed called "storefront Hitchcock" which I just learned Robyn will be bringing with him to show in Australia. So if you get a chance to see his show or the film (or both!) they're highly recommended. The film is suppossed to be on par with Demme's other performance films, "Stop Making Sense" and "Swimming to Cambodia", but has never been officially released by the movie company that owns it. If you're not sure if he would be your cup of tea, ask your local record store if you can take a listen to either "Storefront Hitchcock's Soundtrack" or "Moss Elixir" on a listening station. They were both on Warner Bros, so hopefully they should be easy to find. Good luck, and have fun if you decide to go! FredMan
------------------------------ From: "Damian Foulger" <damian@imclaser.com> Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1999 09:38:12 -0500 Subject: Easter Theatre Message-Id: <19990604094131.02850a06.in@ceo.ceolasers.com> I've just been listening to ET with headphones and noticed something odd about the first section that Andy sings in: 'I heard the dandelions roar in Picadilly Circus.' It sounds like Andy is either singing twice, once on the left sound stage and once on the right, or there is some strange effect applied to his voice. If it is his him singing twice, it's very close! Anyone any ideas? Andy is really very clever isn't he? Dames tWd -- Waiting for AV2
------------------------------ Message-Id: <4.1.19990604103123.0092b2c0@130.127.28.14> Date: Fri, 04 Jun 1999 10:41:09 -0400 From: Adam Tyner <ctyner@clemson.edu> Subject: A number of responses >It was a Duran Duran album called (I think) "Thank You". >It's an album of covers.... If memory serves, that's the release the All-Music Guide said was the worst album Duran Duran ever released. >I think Andy was credited on that album as "Sandy Sandwich", but I could be >wrong.... That's correct. So is it known definitively that Andy produced it? The album says "Produced by the Residents", although I don't suppose that means anything. >Even though the critical reviews of AV1 are for the most part absolutely >stellar, it would still make me sleep better at night knowing that the boys >were finally getting some solid monetary reward where it really counts -- >at the music store cash register. Nowadays, it seems that critical acclaim is the best indicator that an album won't sell well. ;-) >And the Number One Reason to Unsubscribe.... >1. Andy probably thinks we're idiots. Who cares? -Adam -- Adam, fighting the forces of crappy web sites! http://www.he-man.org/ (Masters of the Universe) http://www.daddies.org/ (Cherry Poppin' Daddies) http://www.clemson.edu/~ctyner/ (Everything else!)
------------------------------ Date: Fri, 4 Jun 1999 10:58:31 -0500 (CDT) From: Marshall Needleman Armintor <mojo@is.rice.edu> Subject: Turn me on, Napoleon Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.96.990604105637.13461A-100000@is.rice.edu> <<They had stockpiled something like 16 million trips, and the plan was to 'turn on' the entire United Kingdom by releasing the acid into all the major reservoirs in the British water system. Powerful, odorless, tasteless, undetectable until too late. Imagine the entire British public starting the day with a 'spiked' cuppa ... Scary, huh?>> <<great story, but impossible. you see, lsd is NOT water-soluble. if one was to put 16 million hits into a reservoir, all the acid would stay in one clump and kill 5 people, not dose a nation.>> Even more impossible: when I was living in England, I remember hearing that a great number of dwellings and other buildings had water storage tanks in the ceilings, a practice not particularly widespread here in the States. Reason: during the Napoleonic Wars, Britons were suspicious that the French would secretly poison the water supply(ies) preparatory to an invasion and took appropriate measures...so, even if chemistry cooperated, unlikely they'd get everyone at once, or even the next day. marshall np Bowie, _Aladdin Sane_
------------------------------ Message-ID: <002001beabf3$71975ba0$7ceaabc3@vucqprlj> From: "David Seddon" <D.Seddon@btinternet.com> Subject: Harvest Festival Date: Tue, 1 Jun 1999 06:55:03 +0100 I agree with your comments from 5-219,Ted. Isn't HF one hell of a song. You know, AP and lots of listees go on about how good ET is ( fair enough), but for me HF is a far better song and I think it's one of the best he's ever written. It never fails to uplift me and it has a celestial beauty. The lyrics are superb and whilst I find ET to be a bit too clever and in part bitty and forced to be really great, HF is effortless. When I first heard it, it reminded me of Hey Jude in it's hymnal, poetic and transcendental way, unwinding as it does to a very satisfying conclusion. I found ET reminded me most of a song by Sagittarius called "My World Fell Down" which was produced by one the Beach Boys, I think. A good song, but somehow unsatisfying. Now Sagittarius, that will probably have lost some folk, but they were on the Nuggets album. Snippets "from the first psychedelic era". I note that this double album is now out on 4x boxed CD, and I will be buying it. Anyone got it or heard it? Is it as good as I hope? The double from the late 70s was awesome!
------------------------------ Message-ID: <001f01beabf3$6e840120$7ceaabc3@vucqprlj> From: "David Seddon" <D.Seddon@btinternet.com> Subject: Songwriters...Now we're talking!! Date: Tue, 1 Jun 1999 06:40:24 +0100 Rock on Harry!! He said: "The book "Kaleidoscope Eyes" has such information in it as well as the effects of LSD on rock groups, both direct (and in XTC's case) indirect. In fact, as I have previously mentioned there is a nifty chapter on Julian Cope, Robyn Hitchcock (go see him) & Andy Partridge." Don't know about the LSD stuff, cos I've got different views on drugs...but: Julian Cope!!! Now we're talking! Old Drulian himself is quite a character...a mate of mine in Bath went to see him on his talking tour. He performed in Waterstones in Bath, for two hours the talk was all of Standing Stones and Ancient monuments. Apparently it was very good! Of course, he also dresses up as his alter ego, an ugly looking dude who looks like he had an overdose of radiation, and marches around London protesting about nuclear power etc. This man is seriously weird, and natch seriously talented!! Aside from XTC, I think that the Teardrops were my fav band in the early 80s and I used to play for a band (The Dead Trout) who gigged with them and the other assorted rockers of the time, who were in Dalek I Love You. Later we were RAIJ (still are in our spare time) and used to gig with the Melotones and Bog Shed, so there you go...maybe a bit of a come down! Waterstones in Bath is quite a place for Rock Star spotting!! I met Andy P outside there (wrote about this in 5-144) and my mate often spots Van the Man in there flicking through the religious and mystical sections. Mr. Cope is one hell of a songwriter, and tho' Robin Hitchcock's ok, I reckon Julian C has it on him anyday. This guy is so prolific and his stuff is incredibly original, if often very odd. A personal view this, but alongside of AP and Kate Bush, I reckon him as Britain's best songwriter these last 15 years or so. Never seen him live solo, but I've deffo got it in mind. I'm told that he's rather good. Only thing I've heard that's more ear prickingly odd but still rather intersting these last 10 years was Scott Walker's Tilt. Tho' I don't play that now, it did knock me sideways in it's power. Now SW is also one hell of a talent and the lyrics of his songs are as wild as The 13th Floor Elevators. It is intersting to note the triangle between these three artists. Cope is TFE and Scott Walker nuts!! If there are XTC fans reading still reading this letter, then I would recommend these three artists as they are cutting edge on the artistic side of rock music (well Scott was in the 60s and 70s) without being so off the wall that they became unmusical and boring. Scott's greatest hits package "Boy Child" would be quite an experience for those who'd never heard it. I remember playing it in college years ago and having about 3 people knock on my door wanting to know what it was. Cheers David S
------------------------------ Message-ID: <19990605002953.49986.qmail@hotmail.com> From: Daniel Wrzesinski <rockhurley@hotmail.com> Subject: The Residents Date: Fri, 04 Jun 1999 17:29:52 PDT I am almost positive that Neville Farmer wrote in "Song Stories" that Andy produced for the Residents. Does anyone else remember reading that? danny-boy
------------------------------ Message-ID: <3758FE49.9B45755D@which.net> Date: Sat, 05 Jun 1999 11:39:05 +0100 From: B Blanchard <b.blanchard@which.net> Subject: Girls Just Wanna Have 34D Shit shit SHIT I can't resist this one, but then my reactionary character is all so dependent on my (sometimes chemically affected) hair colour. What, pray, dear John Gardner, is a typical blonde. And how does the character of a typical blonde differ from that of a typical blond female. Did she have big tits too? Belinda (shoulder length dark blonde/mousy coloured dead straight fine hair which has a perm in it to make it curlier and make it look thicker, giving it more body, and has two different shades of hilites in, one shade is a bleach blonde which many many hilites gives a shimmering summery look about it, and another a mid colour hilite in between the natural mouse and the bleach blonde, so as to give the effect of a fuller head of thicker healthy shiny hair. I thank you.)
------------------------------ End of Chalkhills Digest #5-220 *******************************
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