:: archive

LONGEST SERVING TEE SHIRTS Parishioner Robin Coates: Apologies if this is a string that has been and gone however... Sitting at the recent Lords Test vs Pakistan I was intrigued by the man close by who was wearing a faded white T Shirt emblazoned with all the details of the Peter Gabriel World Tour 1993..... Incongruous in its setting maybe - obscure in it's content perhaps - however clearly worn with pride - What other original faded glories are still stalking public spaces I wonder?

THE INMATES OF DUNROCKIN' Parishioner Stuart Booth: What about Martin Stone then, whom I first saw as co-lead guitar (with founder Kim Simmons) in the original line-up of Savoy Brown (see SHAKEDOWN, the first LP, on Decca), He was terrific as a blueser but went on to play with Mighty Baby and then pub rockers Chilli Willie & the Red Hot Peepers. I did see him return briefly to "da blooze", when the band backed US bluesman Little Joe Blue at London’s famed Tuesdays 1970s blues nights at the 100 Club when he blew the guest star off the stage much to LJB’s scowling-faced antipathy. Not a word then (as far as I was aware, anyway) until blow me down, I heard that he was now an ace second-hand rare book scout-cum-collector, mainly scouring the USA for former hippie, ‘get-your free-books here’ and now mega rare-books dealer (Tom) Driffield.

WHAT RHYMES WITH PARALLELOGRAM? Parishioner Paul Dennehey: New to the parish, with a couple of thoughts... Lemmy's use of 'parallelogram' is not unique. The Saw Doctor's great 'You Broke My Heart' contains the lines..."I was standing on the edge of the parallelogram, roaring me head off, 'Pass it in, Sham!' " But the record must be held by India Arie in Intro, Outro and Interlude on Acoustic Soul, where she squeezes in Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Donny Hathaway, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Wonder, Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie, Minnie Ripperton, Sister Puma (? from Black Uhuru?), Tammy Terrell, Karen Carpenter, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitgerald and Sarah Vaughan. Oddly, all dead except Stevie Wonder and..er...Sister Puma. Finally - Strange Support Acts...I saw Creedence Clearwater Revival at the Royal Albert Hall in 1970 supported by Quintessence. The memory of Shiva trying, through a fug of incense and patchouli oil, to persuade a crowd of conventional rockers, to chant the Hare Krishna Mantra, is still fixed in my mind. Also on the bill was Wilbert Harrison III, a one man blues band whose 'Lets Stick Together' had recently been successfully covered by Canned Heat as 'Let's Work Together'.

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