dimland radio 12-8-18 show notes

A Memory Of Pete Shelley

 
Musician Pete Shelley died on Thursday. He was a founding member of one of the UK's earliest and best Punk rock bands.

I shared some memories of my experience with the Buzzcocks and Pete Shelley.

This Cartoon Again?

Yes, I talked about the above cartoon again, because something else occurred to me when I listened to last week's show.

 

President George H. W. Bush Died...

...And some folks on the internet couldn't get past their hatred of GHWB and President Trump. I gotta tell ya, it gets mighty tiresome.

 

I hope the people who had all that fun focusing only on the bad stuff Bush 41 did remember that when other people remember only the bad things of Jimmy Carter's years as the president.

 

During this talk I also touched on how original the phrase "Make America Great Again" is, why people tend to focus on only the good stuff of those who died (unless they allow the partisanship take over, that is), an aspect about the Apostle's Creed (not Apollo's Creed) that I hadn't know about, and there were two moments when I got emotional watching the funeral of GHWB.

Three Cool Things

 

1) This live footage of the Buzzcocks in concert from 1981 is pretty cool.

 

 

2) Geologist/blogger/podcaster Sharon Hill's response to being invited by a TV producer to maybe participate in yet another mystery-monger program. Her response (above) was brief, to the point, and way cool.

 

3) As Pres. George W. Bush greeted Michelle Obama at the funeral service for his father, he slipped her a piece of candy. Now that's not only cool, it's pretty damn sweet.

Music heard on the show...

Dimland Radio opening theme song: 'Ram' by The Yoleus 
First ad break bumpers: 'Telephone Operator' & 'Qu'est-Ce Que C'est Que Ca' by Pete Shelley

Second ad break bumpers: 'I Generate A Feeling' & 'Homosapien' by Pete Shelley

Closing song: 'Angler's Treble Hook' by $5 Fiddle

That's it! See you next Saturday night for Dimland Radio 11 Central, midnight Eastern on www.ztalkradio.com you can also download my show from the z talk show archives page. You can email your questions and comments to drdim@dimland.com

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Images used under Fair Use.

concert memoirs pt. 30 - love & rockets & buzzcocks

Love & Rockets w/Orgy
3/5/99 First Avenue w/John, David & Kjrsten Ticket Price: Unknown

The opening act, Orgy, was ok. Just ok. I hadn’t heard much about them before the show. I knew they did a cover of New Order’s brilliant “Blue Monday”. About all this new Goth band did was remind me that the bands they resembled were much, much better.

Case in point, the headliner Love & Rockets. This was my second time seeing this band, the first time since their hit, “I’m Alive.” I never thought much of that song. It isn’t an awful song, but L&R have much better songs. Songs that don’t have Daniel Ash doing that annoying growly voice technique.

L&R were doing a techno-industrial sound at this stage of their career. They still had much of their style from before (including some of the Ash growl), but they were bringing in that techo sound that you would find in the ‘Run Lola Run’ soundtrack.

I really liked it. The show was loud, fast and flashy. I had their latest album, ‘Lift’, so I was familiar with the new material. My friend, John, however was not. I’m not sure how much him enjoyed the show. David may have known the material, but David was always more accepting of new stuff if it moved him. L&R were really moving the crowd that night.

I liked the gimmick when, during the song “R.I.P. 20C”, David J had a sign out in front of him that listed all the acronyms used in the song. Not an especially exciting memory - it just stands out.

Correction 1/21/09: My friend, David, informed me that it was his now wife, Kjrsten, who attended the show with us, not his ex-wife, Diane. I made the correction. Sorry, David and Kjrsten.

Buzzcocks w/Lunachicks, Down By Law & Boris the Sprinkler
11/6/99 First Avenue w/John & Amy Ticket Price: Unknown

Uh, does that say “Amy”? A concert with a woman? Who is this Amy?

Well, it had happened before that I attended a concert with a woman (Paytee, The Jayhawks, First Avenue, 7/9/95), but this time was a bit different. Whereas the earlier show was with a female friend, this young woman was more important.

There’s a story here. I stated before in this series that I had worked at a shirt printing shop in Minneapolis. I left the company in the spring of 1999 to work at an ad agency. Although, I had left that company, I still kept in loose contact with the guys still working there. I would even visit if I got off early at the agency, which was rare.

Because I had left Cold Side (the printing company) was left with one staff artist and they needed two. They hired a talented, young artist named Amy.

I got off early on a Friday afternoon and decided to go pay a visit on my friends at Cold Side. The day had been a particularly stressful one and I thought it would be nice to unwind with my old coworkers.

When I arrived, I was almost immediately set upon by one of the printers. He was so excited he was like a little puppy. Jumping around me and telling me that I just had to ask Amy out. He said she was perfect for me. That she was so much like me that they had taken to calling her Amy/Jim.

I wasn’t much of a ladies’ man (still ain’t much of one) and any talk of getting me involved with a woman made me want to run for the hills. I ain't gay. I'm just afraid of women. I told him if he didn’t settle down I might leave.

I didn’t leave.

A group of us ambled over to a local bar (Amy was in the group). Amy and I sat together and, as the night wore on, we found the rest of our group had all left. We didn’t close the bar, but pretty close to it. I got her home, we hugged, and we parted at the door.

She told me that I had nice hands.

Well, as evidence that the printer was right about how much alike Amy and I were, we each had a ticket for the Buzzcocks show the next night.

This brings me to this entry’s show. John and I headed to First Avenue together and we met up with Amy there. The three of us sat in a corner somewhere upstairs as the opening acts played. John and I have always had a habit of irreverently joking around. We would joke around just about anywhere whatever the situation. We were joking around that night and Amy joined right in. Amy is very funny.

The Buzzcocks played and they were great as always. Amy and I opted to stay off the floor, but John was itching to get into the slam dancing. Off he went, but he didn’t last long. He came back winded. Well, we weren’t getting any younger.

When the show ended, I didn’t hang out with Amy. I know, I know. I just met her and I wanted to take things slow. Yeah, sure! I was scared.

Well, I would be seeing more of Amy, after all, she did become my wife.

concert memoirs pt. 24 - buzzcocks & paul weller

The Buzzcocks

11/20/93 First Avenue w/John Ticket Price: Unknown

Geez! Of the last five shows I attended at First Avenue (or anywhere else, I’m sure) three were is see The Buzzcocks. I guess I really liked these guys. You will also notice that the numbers of shows I went to per year had greatly reduced. One or two a year was my pace.

If memory serves, this was the show at which the band had television sets dressing the stage. They were promoting their first new album in quite a while, Trade Test Transmission. I may be mistaken but I think the album title refers the test screen that used to be seen on the TV at the end of the broadcast day. I could be wrong. Anyway, I think that’s why they had the TV’s.

The televisions were plugged in and the screens were just showing snow. And, at the very end of their show, Pete Shelley and Steve Diggle each grabbed a microphone stand and smashed out the TV screens. It was a cool effect, however I don’t think the First Avenue staff appreciated the stunt. I saw the staff fellows sweeping up the mess rolling their eyes and shaking their heads. Anything to stay in show business, eh, boys?

So, the next day the band was at the downtown Minneapolis record store, Northern Lights, (No, it’s not there anymore.) doing an instore record signing appearance. I got my copy of their new album signed by the band. I forgot to ask them if the First Avenue people knew they’d be smashing televisions, but I did remember to gush all over Pete Shelley about seeing his fantastic solo show (First Avenue, 8/20/86) and going on about how great it was.

What a fanboy I am!

Paul Weller
5/16/94 First Avenue w/John Ticket Price: Comp. Tickets

It had been more than six months since John and I had gone to a show at First Avenue, but we would still head down there fairly frequently for the Tuesday and/or Saturday dance nights. First Avenue’s usual practice in those days was to hand patrons as they walked in a few complimentary tickets for upcoming concerts and a couple dance nights. Usually, the concerts didn’t interest us much. So we didn’t make much use of them.

You might also get some comp tickets from the bartenders. John and I had gotten to know one bartender, Pete, pretty well. Ok, we didn’t hang out with him or anything, but he knew us and what we drank and thought we were pretty ok. Now and again he would flip us a couple comps. I’m certain we weren’t the only ones he’d do that for.

One Saturday night at the Disco (that’s what we called First Avenue), Pete grabbed a couple comp tickets for us. As he was picking them out, I said to John that it would be so cool if he gave us tickets to the upcoming Paul Weller show. We were planning on buying tickets, but we hadn’t yet. Well, Pete slapped two tickets to the Weller show in front of us. Thanks, Pete!

John and I were both big fans of The Jam and The Style Council, so we were pretty geared up to see Paul in concert. We had never seen him before.

He was promoting his self-titled solo album, which I had and knew very well. John wasn’t as familiar with his solo material and that was all that Paul played. No Jam tunes, no Style Council tunes. Paul had moved on.

I really enjoyed the show. John had a harder time with it not knowing any of the material. But he did perk up at the end of one of Paul’s tunes (Bull-Rush, I think) when he kicked into a few bars of The Who’s Magic Bus. He told me that he wished they had played more of it than they did.

This brings to mind the story about our discovery of The Jam, so I may as well relate it here. It was 1984, I was in art school and John was going to the University of Minnesota, poli/sci major. We were both getting into new music. The underground stuff. Stuff we weren’t hearing on the radio. We were looking for anything that was cool.

On one of my visits to the local record store one of the fellows working there asked if I’d ever heard of The Jam. The record store guys knew me to be a huge Who fan and figured that I might be interested, so Marty (one of the guys) put the band's first album, In The City, on for me to hear. I liked what I heard, but I didn’t want to spend money on them just yet.

John had bought the second album by The Vapors - Magnets. (Yes, they had a second album. They put out two and they are both very good. Too bad they only had the one hit. The name escapes me... Turning... hmmm... Turning Burmese. Something like that.) Anyway. John had heard good things about a band called The Jam and wrote the name on the inside of the cassette cover of his copy of Magnets. By that time, The Jam had broken up and Weller was doing The Style Council thing, but John was intrigued by what he had heard.

He picked up the cassette of The Jam - Snap, a collection of their singles. He popped it in his car stereo and drove around listening to it. This was John’s favorite way to listen to new music. I was working at Wendy’s back then and John came through the drive-up. He pulled around and I leaned out the drive-up window to chat. He held up the cassette case and exclaimed, “These guys are great!”

He was plenty excited about them. John isn’t one to go into major displays of excitement, but he was pretty jazzed about The Jam.

And through John, I got jazzed about them, too.

concert memoirs pt. 23 - buzzcocks, the the, killing joke & buzzcocks

The Buzzcocks w/Jazz Butcher

11/20/89 First Avenue w/John & David Ticket Price: Unknown

Here we go! We really were anticipating this show. The Buzzcocks was one of our favorite bands. I’m not sure about my friend David, but John and I had never seen them before. David is a few years older than John and I, and had gone to lots of concerts. He might have seen them before.

Anyway, the closest John and I had previously gotten to see The Buzzcocks was the fantastic Pete Shelley solo show (First Avenue 8/20/86). That show had impressed the hell out of us, but now we were going to see them all! We were ready!

They kicked off with ‘I Don’t Know What To Do With My Life’ and we went crazy. Slamming, pogoing, skanking! What great fun it was. And we kept going right through the chanting chorus of ‘I Believe’. “There. Is. No. Love. In. This. World. An-Nee-Mooooooore!”

We were spent. And we loved it.

The The
2/21/90 First Avenue w/John Ticket Price: Unknown

Well, look here, it’s another all-ages show.

For reasons unknown to me this show had been rescheduled from 11/6/89, but what does it matter?

This was another of my favorite bands from the 80’s. I just love the album Soul Mining! This show was in promotion of their lastest album, Mind Bomb. A very good record in its own right.

I know it’s hard to call The The a band, when much of their material is Matt Johnson’s. Working mostly solo in the studio, then getting a touring band together. At least, that's what I understand to be true.

I don’t have a lot to relate about this show. I enjoyed it and I’m fairly certain that The Smith’s legendary guitarist, Johnny Marr, was in the band at the time.

Killing Joke
3/1/91 First Avenue w/John Ticket Price: Comp. Tickets

I don’t have much here. But have you noticed that I had only one show listing for all of 1990 (The The, First Avenue, 2/21/90)? Well, I had really been dropping off the concert going thing since about 1987 or so. Both John and I had begun to lose interest in the whole process.

So, anyway, that’s it.

The Buzzcocks
11/18/91 First Avenue w/John, David & Diane Ticket Price: $11.00

Another great show by a favorite band. As I recall they set off again with ‘I Don’t Know What To Do With my Life’ and ended the main set with ‘I Believe’. And they rocked us with another outstanding punk rock show in between.

I think it was at this show that David’s girlfriend, Diane, attended along with us. And it was also the show at which I was feeling ill. I’m not sure what was going on, but I felt pretty lousy. Still, I pushed myself in the slam dance pit. I wasn’t about to let the band down.

So it was more slam dancing, sweating, pogoing, exhaustion, with a little illness thrown in for good measure. Lots of fun.

concert memoirs pt. 16 - ramones & pete shelley

Ramones w/Funseekers
7/27/86 First Avenue w/John Ticket Price: $8.00

This is one of my feather-in-my-cap shows. True, it wasn’t very early on, it wasn’t at CBGB’s, but it was before Dee Dee left the band. And well before they all died, most of them anyway. I hope that doesn’t seem to mean, because I do feel very fortunate that I was able to see them play.

It was a hot July night, the local leather-clad rockers and John and I (John eventually owned a leather jacket but not at that time and I’ve never owned a leather jacket) gathered at First Avenue to take in the greatness of The Ramones. The excitement was as unmistakable as were the heat vapors that could be see rising from the crowd on the main floor.

As a gift to their fans, the godfathers of punk rock had the club play the video of a song from their latest album, ‘Animal boy’. The song was ‘Something to Believe In’ and the video was brilliant. It was a biting parody of the whole BandAid, ‘We Are The World’ trend. The Ramones weren’t attacking the cause, they were merely attempting to deflate the celebrity ego. Besides, if your not in it, you’re out of it. Check for the video on YouTube.

Finally, as the crowd bellowed, “Hey, Ho! Let’s go!”, The Ramones took the stage. And they delivered the goods! “1-2-3-4!” “Gabba Gabba Hey!” Pinheads. Banners. Fantastic songs! And best of all, fun!

Pete Shelley w/Information Society
8/20/86 First Avenue w/John Ticket Price: Unknown

Here’s another great show. The Buzzcocks was one of my favorite bands, but they had broken up by the time I had discovered them, so it was cool to at least be able to see Pete Shelley. And he didn’t have that I’m-only-playing-my-solo-work attitude. He was more than happy to crack out a few Buzzcocks tunes. And we loved it.

There was a good crowd in attendance, but, surprisingly, it wasn’t a packed house. There was plenty of room to dance and pogo and slam our hearts out. And the dozen or so fans down front (John and I included) were going wild. It was exhilarating!

Pete kicked off with his solo effort ‘Telephone Operator’ and kept us jumping with others of his excellent solo tunes and lots of Buzzcocks classics. We were exhausted when we called him back for his encore, but we didn’t stop. In fact, we were so enthusiastic that we got him back out for a second encore!

He and his excellent band came back out after the first encore and Pete looked a bit surprised and certainly pleased. However, he had apparently run through all his rehearsed material, because he treated us to an encore performance of ‘Telephone Operator’.

It was wonderful!

I can’t remember a thing about the opening act, Information Society, but when you’ve seen such a great show why waste brain cells remembering the opening act?