The Boys were Back in Town

The boys were back in town last weekend for Dublin’s Phil Lynott exhibition and birthday commemoration. It was a terrific weekend; not too much whiskey in the jar, but a lot of Guinness in the glass! Dublin on a Saturday night can be Live and Dangerous, especially when packed out with visiting French Rugby fans, but thankfully it was a peaceful and respectful commemoration with little need of any Sunday Jailbreak!

Enough of the clichés.

A good exhibition should keep the visitor both entertained and interested with the right balance of visual and audio presentations, and catch the eye with unique, preferably exclusive memorabilia. A visitor should leave with a feeling that they have learned more than they knew, and with a warm glow of affection for the subject. Get it right and the visitor should also leave with some merchandise tucked firmly under the arm, or at least a new tee-shirt. Dublin’s Lynott exhibition successfully fulfilled the above criteria.

Over 10 rooms or so, the exhibition traces Lynott’s story from Manchester birth, Dublin childhood and formative teens, through his glory years of Thin Lizzy success to the climax of his sad all-too-early end in London. Personal early photos and school reports were thankfully kept as a brief introduction to the man, with the bulk of the exhibition material concentrating on his musical career. Set lists, tour accounts, advertising posters, tour programmes, candid photos and personal letters home built up a picture of this complex man, following his rise from teenage band member to international headliner. DVD presentations of concert footage (including his Top of the Pops appearance), the reminisces of fellow-band members, and collections of his personal effects, put flesh on the man.

The ‘wow’ factor was provided by his Fender Precision bass, stage clothing and Manchester United jacket!

The pity is that it was a temporary exhibition as it would have been great addition to Dublin’s more permanent rock-heritage attractions. There was one well-known photo I half-expected to see; it’s of Lynott casually posing with Gary Moore and George Best in a local pub. It wasn’t there, but in a way that was as it should be. When the exhibition is over at least this bit of Dublin’s Lynott will still be there to discover for anyone taking a Guinness at O'Donohue's pub on Merrion Row.


And what did I learn? That Thin Lizzy's first London gig was upstairs at Ronnie Scotts Club; that Phil was a rampant Man Utd fan; that £40 was a considered quite a good fee at the begining of their career; that Tim Booth of Dr Strangely Strange (who I once met and can thank for turning me on to Paul Brady) designed the 'Thin Lizzy' type face; that the same money that bought you a Lizzy LP in 1976 buys you less than a third of a pint of Guinness in Dublin now; and that my mate Geoff, a normally fantastically talented photographer, forgets to activate his flash when over-awed by the presence of the famous! More of the last in my next post...

London's Burning!

We've found ourselves playing some real classic songs as the soundtrack for our recent tours. It's amazing how appropriate lyrics written some 30 years ago are now. The Clash captured the disturbances and civil disobedience of the late 70s and early 80s on their first eponymous album; though the Nottinhghill area which saw the 70s violence was virtually unscathed this time as, thankfully, were all areas covered on our rock tours. Along with the descriptive 'London's Burning', Joe Strummer and his band cohorts also called for a 'White Riot, white riot, a riot of my own'. The classic 'Police and Thieves' (from the same album though originally written by Junior Murvin) contains the lines 'And all the crowd come in, day by day, no one stop it anyway' and this certainly described the early days of the disturbances when an over-whelmed and under-prepared police failed to meet the initial challenge. In truth, we could have done with a few more scenes such as grace the reverse picture from that Clash album; truncheon-weilding police, chasing rioters, ready and willing to dole out a bruising.

One tour client suggested the Stones 'Street Fighting Man' as an appropriate inclusion to our soundtrack. It's not; that was written in response to anti-Vietnam political riots and doesn't apply to the current looting mob. This was a cowardly lot who'd soon disappear if they were really faced with street fighting rather than the softly-softly and measured restraint approach shown by our London Met police.

The Jam's 'Town Called Malice' definitely makes the soundtrack cut though. As does Kaiser Chiefs 'I predict a riot'.

The Beatles inevitably have a comment; 'When the rain comes, they run and hide their heads'. Well, England's famed climate and 16,000 coppers on the streets seems to have dampened looter activity over the past few evenings.

Putting aside our flippancy, the real sadness is the damage and disruption caused, and the impact these events have and will have on so many innocent Londoners. And it could have a real impact on rock music. One event in the last few days was the burning down of Sony's Warehouse in the neighbourhood of Enfield. The fire reportedly destroyed the entire stock of CDs and vinyl of more than 100 small independent labels (including XL Recordings whose office we visit on our tours). Although some of the short-term problems of supplying product from the like of Artic Monkeys and Adele may be overcome, there's talk of the warehouse also having contained masters and and hard drives. If so, that may mean some recordings could be lost forever. It's also going to mean hard times for the indie labels themselves, along with their roster of artists and staff.

Whatever the causes of the misnamed 'riots' - social revolution, unemployed boredom, summertime blues, or simply mindless greed and hooliganism - most Londoners agreed with Lennon's sentiments, 'When you talk about destruction, don't you know you can just count me out'.

The Boys Are Back in Town! Lynott returns to Dublin

Rock fans never need a reason to visit Dublin. For one thing there's always good live music to be had somewhere. For another the city has some tremendous record shops. And the third; it's one of the few cities (outside of perhaps Memphis and Liverpool) that really exploit their rock heritage.

One of the city's most famed sons was Phil Lynott, best known for his band 'Thin Lizzy'. Though born in the UK's West Midlands, Lynott's mother is a Dubliner and Lynott was brought up in the city and is buried there at St. Fintan's cemetery in Sutton, northeast Dublin. There's a fine permanent statue of the man just off Grafton Street, but over the next month the city also hosts a fantastic temporary exhibition, at St Stephen's Green Shopping Center, dedicated to the musician's life and times. Amongst a heap of memorabilia on display is Lynott's 1972 diary, containing hand-written lyrics to some of Lizzy's most memorable songs.

Lynott's birthday, on August 20th, is to be commemorated when a special pageant is planned for the city. Costumes have produced in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and will no doubt bring the colour and exuberance of Brazilian carnival to the streets of Dublin. Incidentally, one myth that has recently been exploded (by his mother, Philomena) is that Lynott's father was Brazilian; he was actaully British-Guyanian.

Unfortunately, the exhibition only runs until August 31st so it’s a case of getting your skates on if you want to be one of 'the boys back in town'.

Recommended accommodation: St Stephen’s on the Green. Not as pricey or as noisy as the Temple Bar hotels but just as conveniently situated for all Dublin’s attractions.

Memories are Made of This

I was overjoyed recently to discover, on-line inevitably, some memorabilia that evoked long-forgotten personal memories. And it reminded me that preserving rock heritage very much includes ensuring that ephemera, even apparently the inconsequential, is saved. The history of the rock age will not be told and interpreted through the 'concrete' artifacts of buildings, stage gear and instruments. The real stuff of history will be the ticket stubs, handbills and posters that contextualise the personalities and performances.

On a recent ‘Classic Rock’ tour we stood outside Finsbury Park's Rainbow Theatre (nee the Astoria and now a Brazilian church). I did my best to bring the building to life with tales of Zappa's misfortunes there, Pink Floyd's seminal performance of Dark Side of the Moon, Hendrix's first guitar burning, The Who's 'Tommy' show, Van Morrison's historic BBC live broadcast, Clapton's return gig, and Bob Marley's triumph. But the thing that really brought the whole thing to life for tour participants was holding a facsimile ticket for the Beatles first fan club show, held in this very building, December 1964; a facsimile copied from an original to be found for sale on the MEM Cinema & Music Memorabilia site (http://www.rockpopmem.com/).

Palpable shivers were brought to collective spines as each in turn was presented their own 'ticket to ride'. So much history in such a little bit of paper. And to think that the original holder of this ticket would have paid just 8/6d for it. (Here's one for the historians; when did scalpers first appear?). In 'modern' money that's about 44p (75 US$ cents, half a €uro, less than one Brazilian Real). That's what a rock (pop) show was then worth; even for the biggest band.

Fantastic isn't it? McCartney's show in Hyde Park cost about £90 last year. How times have changed. But it is by examining such ephemera that historians begin to understand rock's changing position in our social history. It's not just so called 'valuable' memorabiliia that's the key. For a few months (perhaps years) Amy Whitehouse (RIP) material will now fetch a premium, but will it ever illustrate anything other than the story of yet another poor, troubled kid caught up in, and beliveing, the rock'n' roll dream'? Historians wil have plenty of examples to choose from. The key is to preserve the generic, not the specific. A poster for the Crawdaddy in Richmond will be worth a thousand autographed Stones LPs (especially since the vandals who now own the building have erased all memories of its illustrious rock past.

Me? My emphemera will only interest a limited audience. It's not the real stuff of history. My purchases from MEM’s site were a programme for Frank Zappa's 1972 Oval show (with Jeff Beck and Welsh band, Man, among the supports - and what a show!), and an original handbill for one of the first formal concerts I ever went to; a package tour with Gene Pitney headlining. But the real reason for going? To see my then 'fav' band, Amen Corner, who were also on the bill. It seemed a lot at the time (and a significant percentage of my weekly pocket money), but I'd wager the ticket was not more then 5s (anyone got one?). Happy days, happy memories, and two pieces of rock history that I'm now proud to own.

What your favourite piece of memorabilia? Will it broadly inform future generations or just be something for the grandkids to wonder at?

Be There or Be Square!

London 60s Week is just around the corner.

This is a great event celebrating all things 60s. Think of it as a kind of 'Edinburgh Festival' , but in London and focusing on th 60s! Music, dance, cinema, talks etc., etc.

London 60s Week is organised by a collection of people who were actually 'there'. Perhaps surprisingly, they remember it! The beauty is that with every event you get authenticity not some cheap commerical rip off. The idea of 60s Week is very simple: connect today's youth with yesterday's creativity and see where the combination takes us.

One event to get into your diary if you're in London on Friday, July 29th, is the '60s Shake'n' at the GARAGE, Highbury Corner. There's a packed night's entertainment; three bands, retro DJs, GO-Go Dancers (yeh!). But for me the pride of place is taken by the tribute band 'Small Fakers'. They are great. I was lucky enough to have seen the Small Faces in their heyday and this is the nearest you'll get to recreating those mad, bad, Mod nights! And at just £7.50 a head it's a bit of a give-away.

Tickets are available through http://www.hmvtickets.co/events/3665


Groovy, man!

Rockin' All Over the World

Thirty-nine nationalities and counting... Here we are early July, with nearly six months left of the year to run, and we've just recorded our 39th nationality aboard the London Rock Tour. Phenomenal. We carried 39 different nationalities in total last year (not counting Scottish and Welsh who we count as UK), so there's a good chance we'll top this in 2011.

The reach of rock is simply amazing. Its power and social impact immeasurable. A trivial force, think some, though (near) future historians will recognise its impact on things like anti-war and social change movements, fashion and even education. Rock has shrunken our planet; The Beatles, Led Zep, Hendrix, Queen et al, stand beside global brands like Coca Cola, Microsoft, F.C. Barcelona and Disney.

McCartney told a funny story illustrative of rock's reach, at his Hard Rock Calling, Hyde Park concert last year. As he looked out over the assembled masses, flags of all nationalities waving above our heads, he reflected, without false pride, on how Beatles lyrics had been used around the world to teach the English language - another globalising factor. The first time he was 'Back in the USSR' he was asked to say 'hi' to a senior member of the Russian government who had apparently learned his English from Beatle songs; 'Hello', said Macca, by way of an opening. ‘Goodbye', answered the Minister! But Russian politicians did learn that 'All You Need is Love' and the 'iron curtain' was drawn back.

Happily, we already count Russians amongst this year nationality crop, but perhaps more surprising are the Puerto Ricans, Maltese, Lebanese and Syrian rockers ('power to the people' there, too) who've stepped aboard the 'Magic Bus'.

Latin American is well represented with Ecuador, Chile and Peru in addition to Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, but inevitable the big three to date are the UK, the USA and Australia.

What we're now interested to see is which will be the 40th country... Outer Mongolia, perhaps, or Malawi? I wouldn't bet against either as we're truly rockin' all over the world!

The Young Jagger

London's National Portrait Gallery has a fascinating display of portraits of a very young Mick J on show until November. It includes previously unseen shots taken by Gered Mankowitz, who was just 18 when appointed the Stones 'official' photographer.

And what age-defining images Mankowitz created in that London epicentre of '60s counter-culture, Mason Yard. In his studio, right next door to the Scotch of St James club and the Indica Art Gallery, not only was the Stones image moulded, but also that of the new-to-London Hendrix.

Inevitably, there's not a plaque to be seen recording the history made in any of these buildings.

Arguably, two of his best Stones shots are those that graced the covers of 'Between the Buttons' and 'Out of Our Heads'. The latter looks like Mason's Yard might have been the location. It captures that 'bad boy' menace so important to the band's early market poitioning! What a truly great rock photo.

If you're felling flush then you can aquire limited edition copies of Mankowitz's photo's from Jill Furmanovsky's RockArchive.com. There's a great book, too; 'Hendrix at Mason's Yard', currently on Amazon for £18. If you're really loaded (or think it's a good investment) you can get an authographed copy for £330 from Snap Galleries, where they are exhibiting Mankowitz's work until November.

The cheapest way to view Mankowitz's art though is at The National Gallery; that's free!