Backlash edited by Simon Price, 9th December 1995

“Do you love anyone enough to give them your last Romo?”

Yes I’ve dusted off the scanner and once again sit scanning ephemeral pop trivia late into the night. There’s been too many requests in the intervening months for me to try and fulfil, this just caught my eye. Got love Pricey tearing Pearl to shreds, although I do quite like her Price Cube dig. Anyway…I guess this goes with this.

Oh and Andy Catlin got in touch. Go to his website to see nice pictures. http://andrewcatlin.com

Ian Gittins interviews The Happy Mondays, 28th November 1987

Very early interview with the Mondays. Oh how the time has simply *flown* by. Don’t believe me? Well compare and contrast the above with this recent gem.

Jonh Wilde interviews Public Enemy, 28th November 1987

Jonh Wilde interviews Public Enemy, 28th November 1987. Photos by Andy Catlin.

Good to hear from Kulkarni regarding this issue in the comments. Here’s the interview that “utterly changed [his] life forever”. Hope it stirs happy memories.

Public Enemy on the cover of Melody Maker, 28th November 1987

Public Enemy on the cover of Melody Maker, 28th November 1987 in response to another request that came through. Photo by Andy Catlin

And so here’s the first post since the BBC announced the planned closure of 6Music. Who knows if it’ll happen or not but I’ll be one of the many to be sad to see it go if Thompson does pull the plug. I often sit scanning to Freak Zone on the iPlayer – why not add to the sites traffic by taking a listen too – I guarantee you’ll hear something new and incredible.

Over at the continually amazing Quietus, Luke Turner nails the situation completely and drew my attention to this revelatory Information Is Beautiful graphic breaking down the BBC’s annual budget across major categories. To summarise, in terms of cash spent; Norton, Robinson & fucking Clarkeson = 6Music. And really; £2m for 3 days of Jo Whiley et al driving everyone absolutely fucking mental at Glastonbury, that’s a fucking disgrace! Only a fraction of the bands are actually filmed and then the footage can only be shown on iPlayer 7 days due to rights issues – how is that value for money? It was all very different not so long ago and much the better for it.

EDIT: Worth drawing everyone’s attention to this link from the comment left by Matt

Good points about 6Music. Why not tell the BBC this (I have) via their consultation survey? The more who do so, the more likely the station will be spared the axe. https://consultations.external.bbc.co.uk/departments/bbc/bbc-strategy-review/consultation/intro

David Stubbs interviews The Butthole Surfers, 2nd April 1988

David Stubbs interviews The Butthole Surfers, 2nd April 1988. Photos by Andy Catlin.

You can either read this for the outrageous Stubbsianisms that pepper this interview, cf. “Plunging in at the anus and excavating, tunnelling a giant point of exit at the sockets, they are one part giant surge of flesh, one part holy revelation.” or for Gibby’s quotes, which ironically, sound a lot like Stubbs alter-ego to be - “Hue and what? Fuck me…Humourless and Cry [more like!]“

Either way it’s worth reading.  And if you’ve never heard of the Butthole Surfers then why not track down Locust Abortion Technician or Hairway to Steven

The Butthole Surfers on the cover of Melody Maker, 2nd April 1988

The Butthole Surfers on the cover of Melody Maker, 2nd April 1988. Photo by Andy Catlin.

This because I was in the office the other day and The Butthole Surfers came on the stereo.

“Wow! Who put the Butthole’s on?” I asked.

“Oh I dunno who it is…it’s the Dumb and Dumber soundtrack”

Gah!

Mat Smith interviews The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, 12th December 1987

Mat Smith interviews The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, 12th December 1987. Photos Andy Catlin.

Anyone know the location? I think it’s in Vauxhall, on the site of those awful glass tower blocks of St. George’s Wharf (when it was still a piece of waste ground / car pound) but it’s hard to tell from the fish eye lensed photos.

So which one’s Rockman and which one’s Kingboy? Some quirky irony in the story of how they “found a field they were happy with” to burn piles of their own records in order to save money when in the not too distant future they’d be burning piles of their own money to save themselves from having to make more records. The state of paranoia over record sampling  and not allowing their photos to be taken through fear of being sued seems so ludicrious now. If you didn’t know better and saw this in the papers today you’d think it was some sort of Banksy stunt.

Don’t take five (take what you want)

R.E.M. cover, 27th May 1989

Michael Stipe from R.E.M. on the cover of Melody Maker, 27th May 1989. Photo by Andy Catlin.

Battered but beautiful cover from back when R.E.M. were still cool and making OK records. You used to be able to buy this cover on a T-Shirt.