THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

Dune by Frank Herbert

This has been sitting on our shelf for ages, and being as it's one of those books you 'should' read, I did.

Who would've thought that a modern classic would be just that, a classic? I really enjoyed this, a real page turner. I devoured it. Not my usual sort of thing, I very rarely read fiction, but this was gripping. I think that it'd help you if, like me, you'd recently watched the movie, as Herbert's universe building got a little dense in parts, and it helped me visualise the text.

If I've one, very minor, gripe then it's the ending, which seemed to arrive all of a sudden. But I certainly wouldn't let that put you off, it's an extremely good read.

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They say don't kick a man when he's down. Show me a better time.

Well, it's time for you to crack on and read the other 5 in the series

Plus the two written after Frank's death.

Co-incidently, I donated the original 6 books to the Age Concern bookshop in Wolverton only yesterday, so if you want to complete the story it'll cost you a under a tenner.

Should have jumped right on this!

Whatever Happened To The C86 Kids? An Indie Odyssey by Nige Tassell

For our younger readers, a history lesson. The cassette tape, the streaming service of it’s day. They came in various sizes, which had their own numerical code, The C15. Lasted for 15 minutes, 7 each side. The C30, 30 minutes. The C90, oh go on, guess.

The New Musical Express, or The NME, the internet of it’s day. A weekly newspaper, (I know, a newspaper) dedicated to music.

Back in 1986 the NME released a cassette tape called, cunningly enough, C86. You actually had to send away for it to the paper. Furthermore, they only accepted a postal order. Being the incredibly hip young gunslinger that I was, I duly sent off my £2.95, and a couple of weeks later, the subject of this book popped through the door of 36 Stepps Road, and I was smitten.

It was supposed to be a snapshot of the indie scene of the day, and had 22 bands of various quality, one of which went on to have a very healthy career indeed, but the majority faded into obscurity. Tassell tracks down members of each band involved, and to his immense credit, interviews them about their lives today, rather than what their lives were like back in ‘86. It’s a very neat premise. Some are still involved in the music business, some of the bands are still going, Primal Scream, The Wedding Present, Half Man Half Biscuit, and some have inevitably died. But the majority have returned to real life. A member of Primal Scream is now a security guard in Glasgow. A fair few of them are teachers for some reason. All human life is here right enough.

It actually became a genre within itself, C86. Shorthand for jingly jangly twee shite indie, and very quickly turned into a term of derision, “That’s so C86”. However, the most interesting aspect of this was me going back and listening to it again, and much to my amazement discovering that the tracks that I thought were shite at the time have subsequently stood the test of time far better than rubbish like The Mighty Lemon Drops. Stump for example, with their Beefheart worn on their sleeve. An honorable mention for Big Flame, A Witness and The Mackenzies. All of whom have a copy of Trout Mask Replica somewhere in their collections.

The best track on this is Law by Mighty Mighty, a lovely piece of proto indie funk. “I’ve often thought of killing you, but that doesn't make me guilty of murder”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17xpb0GJvBk

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They say don't kick a man when he's down. Show me a better time.

I really liked the first one (and recent film was good)
, second one was decent(ish) IMHO but after that I/FH 'lost the plot'. too much cod Buddhism.

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Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment

Bunnyman by Will Sergeant

I love a music autobiography. Adore them. It's my genre of choice when it comes to both buying and reading books. But the one thing I can't stand is reading about some indie musician's childhood back in the bad old days of the 60's or 70's. But I almost always persevere in the knowledge that the good stuff is just around the corner.

Will Sergeant is the guitarist in Echo And The Bunnymen, and this tale of growing up in a small town on the outskirts of Liverpool, more than half of which is focused on the aforementioned loathed childhood reminisces, trundles along at a sedate old pace.

I like The Bunnymen, I really do, but to be perfectly honest with you I'm not really interested in reading about the guitarist's boring upbringing. There is genuinely more than half of this book about his terrible home life, his annoying father, his school days, his childhood friends, his even more boring job as a chef in a Liverpool department store. Boy oh boy can he go on.

It only started getting interesting when he buys a guitar, meets some guy called Mac, and starts messing about trying to write some songs. Unfortunately his story comes to somewhat of an abrupt end, as he ends just as they are about to get signed. Perhaps he has a second volume planned, as this just felt unsatisfactory.

I actually met him once years ago when The Bunnymen played at The Pitz. He was really quite odd, I suspected at the time that he may have been on the autistic spectrum, and he alludes to this in the text (his autism, not meeting me). It wasn't a particularly good read, but fortunately I have a massive stack of other books to delve into quite literally at arms length.

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They say don't kick a man when he's down. Show me a better time.

Is the story in those not often very similar? Rags to riches. Anonymous to sucess?

Exactly. It's the same story every-time.

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They say don't kick a man when he's down. Show me a better time.

Thought so. Subtract or add substance abuse of course.

The Basic Writings of Trotsky.
TBH I've not 'finished reading it' as it is 'heavy going'. I found it in the loft. Must have put it there 25 years ago.
I must have bought it over 40 years ago - it is a massive tome and priced £1.15p!!!

Not easy reading. Some of the stuff on the degeneration of the Bolshevik Party is quite perceptive - and in his earlier writings he warned against this party being the 'vanguard' of the workers' movement lapsing into exactly what it became. Some of it is just turgid polemic and you wonder who it was aimed at. Clearly not the peasants/kulaks or 'the proletariat' who largely - and I don't say this in a condescending way - would not have been able to follow the arguments because of a lack of education.

I doubt I'll read all of it.

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Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment