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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concert memoirs pt. 29 - cheap trick, cheap trick & cheap trick

Cheap Trick

11/5/98 First Avenue w/Dave Ticket Price: Unknown

This was the first night of three night concert event. Cheap Trick had rereleased their first three albums: “Cheap Trick”, “In Color” & “Heaven Tonight”. To promote the rereleases the band did this three night concert event with each night focusing on each album. They would play each song, in order, from that night’s featured LP. Then they would play a variety of their other songs afterward.

I had complained about Husker Du (First Avenue, 3/30/87) playing their latest release first song to last in order that last time John and I had seen them. It pissed us off when Husker Du did it, but when Cheap Trick did the same thing three nights in a row it was cool. The difference being that we knew going in what Cheap Trick would be doing and we know the material well. You know what they say about the time bands play their new material, “Time to get a beer.”

This being the first night, they played their first album the self-titled, black and white covered “Cheap Trick”. I really liked that album. It doesn’t have a hit, but it has some great rock tunes, such as, ‘Hot Love’, ‘He’s A Whore’, ‘Oh, Candy’ and ’ELO Kiddies’. They played all the songs with great intensity while still having a load of fun.

These guys are true, road-tested, rock’n’roll professionals. The show was a load of fun and we still had two more nights to go.

Cheap Trick
11/6/98 First Avenue w/Dave Ticket Price: Unknown

On this, the second night of the big event, the band showcased their second LP, “In Color”. This was the best of the three concerts with a big surprise finish.

Dave and I decided to stand farther back then we had the night before to avoid the crowd and still get a good view of the band. We were standing with some other friends, I’ve forgotten who, when Dave’s brother, John, excitedly approached. He was busting to tell Dave, “They’re here! They’re gonna play!”

They were the big surprise finish. There was another fairly noteworthy band in town. They would be playing a show at the Target Center, which is located across the street from First Avenue. There were rumors that they might join Cheap Trick on stage that night, but, until John had come in with his news, we weren’t sure they would. I don’t know where John got his information, but he was correct.

For the last song of Cheap Trick’s concert, Aerosmith took the stage to join Cheap Trick in an amazing, kick ass version of Aerosmith’s ‘Train Kept A’Rolling’! It was fantastic. With the exception of Aerosmith’s drummer, the entire band got up there with Cheap Trick and had a ball!

It was a fun unexpected treat for us and I had a far better view of Aerosmith then when John and I had seen them back in 1983. It was a lot of fun and I’m glad I was there.

Cheap Trick
11/7/98 First Avenue w/Dave Ticket Price: Unknown

Night three of the big Cheap Trick event. It was “Heaven Tonight” that night. It was also a night of technical difficulties.

Something went wrong with one of Rick’s guitars. It just zortched out and stopped playing. No problem. He just got one of his many, many other guitars. However, once he started playing it, he realized it wasn’t tuned right. And, if memory serves, the next guitar he grabbed was also improperly tuned. He was getting a little perturbed and told us that he preferred playing a guitar that was in tune.

Well, they are professionals and they soldiered on.

There was also a special guest for this night’s show, albeit not nearly as exciting as last night’s. The guest was some local Top 40 radio DJ, I can’t remember who he was or what station he was with. He was brought out to do the DJ patter heard at the end of the song ‘On The Radio’.

An interesting note on that song was how Rick introduced it. Let’s face it, if you know the album and the song, you know that it’s pretty much filler. It’s not one of Cheap Trick’s better songs, but they were featuring each album and they weren’t going to leave it out. Rick introduced the song as being “somewhat... shitty.” And he should know, he wrote it.

The show came to an end and I had the feeling that I had been a part of something special. Not quite on the level of The Screaming Blue Messiahs (First Avenue, 7/22/86) or Pete Shelley (First Avenue, 8/20/86), but I’m glad I was there.

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?