Apologies for my tardiness. I was busy testing the new Peace Bridge in The Town I Love So Well. I love The Fall so well, too, especially when they twist a sixties guitar riff and squeezeÌýout yet another gem. That's what Dead Beat Descendent is. Don't argue. It came from the Brix years, when Mark E Smith combined his domestic life with his working life and seemed very happy. Of course when he's happy , he smiles, and a million dentists shudder.
To reflect the excitement which has swept the population of Derry off their feet, there's a contrived link with the new Peace Bridge across the Foyle. Orange Juice, personal friends of mine for four days in December 1980, presentÌý "Bridge" a non hit from 1984. Which was the same year the last bridge in Derry opened.
Add to that Jilted John, who still makes me laugh, and we have a show we can all be proud of. Like the bridge. See , it's everywhere.
The Fall - Dead Beat Descendent.
Orange Juice - Bridge
Wedding Present - Felicity
Pop WIll Eat Itself - Black Country Chainsaw Massacre
Breathers - Love Is Together
Vibrators - No Heart
Wire - I Feel Mysterious TodayÌý
Jilted John - Paper Boy Song
Beat - Two Swords
Devo - Jocko Homo
Carpettes - Small Wonder
Dentists - Snapdragon
Public Image - Memories
Yellow Payges - Our Time Is Running Out
New York Dolls - Dont Start Me Talkin'
Did Patti Smith ever accept the invitation to play at a horse race meeting ?Ìý
She should. We (Derry's best punk band The Undertones) did it this week in Dublin.
Our list of strange places to play is growing. Last week it was a punk rock bowling festival in Las Vegas, this week it was The Undertones Handicap, the 8.35 at Leopardstown. I am not making this up. There was a race (one mile, 12 runners on the card) named in our honour after we agreed to perform for the punters at the course. Ìý
I don't know if the intention was to cheer people up after they lost money, or to depress them even more, but we had a great day at the races. Before 'The Undertones Handicap' (an extended handicap for three year olds and upwards rated 50-75) we were also brought into the winners enclosure, as I believe it's called, to judge the horses on their appearance. How do you do that ? Check their teeth? Put your hand in the vicinity of their nether regions? ÌýNo. You decide which has the best mane, or tail, or even that pattern that you see on their hind quarters. We acquitted ourselves. Then after the race, you present the winning owner with the trophy. Then the MC asks you questions for the television. Then you go on stage and play your songs.
Afterwards Paul Cleary, of much loved Dublin band The Blades, came up and said we played wonderfully. He's now a doctor, so he should know. What we lacked were horse-related song titles. Suggestions welcome. I offered Jump Boys , but that's a bit lame. If we were Devo, we could have Whip It. Or Jockey Homo. I'll stop now.
Ìý
Being first isn't everything but it's still good to have in your scrapbook. The Damned have a couple, including the first punk rock single in the UK (New Rose) and first LP (Damned Damned Damned). Being first isn't being best, either, and that's the case with their triple eponymously titled debut. It's not a classic, although behind the pantomime vampire and furry suit, they had a decent guitarist and songwriter called Brian James to come up with at least one bona fide brilliant single. But I'm not playing Neat Neat Neat tonight. Instead a lesser light from DDD which is still better than anything _________ ever came up with. (insert name of least favourite prog rock band).
Apart from that , this is the first show with the new policy on eligible years. 1989 is now the cut off point for records on the show, after much deliberation by the UN Commission on Punk Rock who finally delivered their findings to me this week. Cue 1988's Come Get Me by 14 Iced Bears. Best not to rush into these things, I reckon.
Damned - I Fall
Sex Pistols - Submission
Celibate Rifles - Back In The Red
Stiff Little Fingers - Wait and See
The Clicks - Beat Of My Heart
Eyes - Disneyland
Barracudas - I Wish It Could Be 1965 Again
Seeds - Cant Seem To Make You Mine
ÌýJoe Dash - Surgery
Eater - No BrainsÌý
14 Iced Bears - Come Get Me
Josef K - Crazy To Exist
Television Ìý- Glory
Joy Division - Chance (Atmosphere)
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A distinctly non American lineup this week, to compensate for last week's Californitastic offering. The Clash song is one of the highlights from their first LP, even though the riff is a nick from Pretty Vacant and was originally called I'm So Bored With You, which could have been a title from the Boys first LP. And that's not a compliment.
Talking of the Boys, their little played (on this show, anyway) third LP gets a run out. Recorded in Hell. Yes, really. Hell in Norway, I'm sure you're familiar with it.
Add to that the teenage talents of Fatal Microbes and you have a show which , er, shows, that the UK was indeed the source of the rock that is punk.
Clash - I’m So Bored With The USA
Adam & The Ants - Fall In
Fatal Microbes - Violence Grows
Specials - Doesn't Make It Alright
Girls At Our Best - Fun City Teenagers
Go Betweens - Cattle & Cane
Action Pact - Sixties Flix
Chimes - Through To You
Smiths - Vicar In A Tutu
Magazine - Touch & Go
Tomorrow - Why
Lurkers - Room 309
Elvis Costello - I’m Not Angry
Boys - Bad Day
Dr Feelgood - I’m A Hog For You Baby
Tonight’s show was recorded in a hotel room in Las Vegas. Other people have done much more adventurous things in hotel rooms in Vegas in the early hours of the morning but I have a radio show to do.Ìý Even though its Las Vegas, the theme is Californian punk, as that’s the state I find myself in most days this week. Undertones related business.Ìý See earlier posting.
The records start with The Dead Kennedys and their version of the Nevada city’s anthem which is possibly one of my favourite DK records. They’re from San Francisco, where I left a really good coat in the back of a taxi. ÌýIf Jello Biafra finds it could he contact the show? Or he could do a version of ‘I Lost My Coat In San Francisco’
ÌýLos Angeles features via the Doors and X, with the common theme of Ray Manzarek, playing organ in the former and producing the latter. Add to that the bowling suggestion by Camper Van Beethoven and we’ve the basis of a half decent show. Back to Blighty punk next week. ÌýColder, greyer and, arguably, cooler.
Dead Kennedys -Viva Las Vegas
Descendents – I’m Not A Punk
X - Los Angeles
Aurora Pushups - Victims Of Terrorism
Go-Gos - Skidmarks On My Heart
Germs – Lexicon Devil
Dickies – I’m OK, You’re OK
Spats – She Done Moved
Flipper – Way Of The World
Black Flag – Nervous Breakdown
Standells – Riot On Sunset Strip
Avengers – We Are The One
Flaming Groovies – Teenage HeadÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý
Doors – Love Her Madly
Rhino 39 – Prolixin Stomp
Camper Van Beethoven – Take The Skinheads Bowling
I write this as I am sitting in a darkened dressing room in Oakland, California, which is to San Francisco what the Waterside is to Derry. Kind of. I am performing Undertones songs , with my fellow Undertones, to Americans who like that sort of thing. Having a wonderful time, etc. So what's happening with After Midnight, you might wonder ? Well, armed with a netbook I have recorded the show in a hotel room in Las Vegas, while the rest of the band went to see the Hoover Dam. Such dedication, eh ? Hopefully the internet angels have delivered the recording safely in the arms of Radio Ulster personnel.
If not then Paul Moore will do the show in my absence. Win, win, as they say.Ìý
The Undertones are on a very short tour of California, with a day out to Las Vegas to perform at the 13th Punk Rock Bowling Festival which didn't seem to feature much bowling but did provide the strange vision of punk rock fans (leather, pale complexions, beer bottles) roaming the streets of Glitter Gulch, that part of downtown Las Vegas where the old style casinos are (Golden Nugget, and that neon cowboy that waves to everybody). I have to say we had a wonderful time there while actually playing, with a lot of Americans saying kind things about the band. While not playing , I found myself walking the barren streets of Las Vegas. A lot of bail bond offices, which didn't reassure me. Anyway, we're due on stage shortly so I must go and get my make up and wig on. Adios, amoebas.
