Fuckin' Martin Bashir, how does he work?

After his interviews with the People's Princess and the Prince of Pop, it's clear that Martin Bashir has always been building up to this interview with the Kings of Horrorcore. I figure Messrs J and 2 Dope didn't do their research as they too may fall foul of the Curse of Bashir with their untimely deaths.

BTW, I love how there is a Juggalo-crime expert.

Zombie vs Shark vs Windows 7

Someone in the Microsoft advertising department must be a fan of Lucio Fulci's Zombi 2 aka Zombie Flesh Eaters aka Zombie.

Best Coast

So I was working tonight at the Royal Festival Hall for Glen Campbell peforming his 'Greatest Hits and More' show. And it saddens me to say the night was quite a poor shambles, far from being a storming return of a classic country star, Glen just came across as unproffesional, at best.

Either suffering from an alcohol addiction or perhaps just being quite lazy, Glen look bored and awkward on stage: putting his hands in his pockets for solo routines, hamming up a pre-rehearsed banjo duel offer (lifted straight from Deliverance), hitting bum notes, taking his guitar off after a number only to realise he needed it straight away, finally walking off stage pre-encore with his microphone still in hand. Even the material he played, mostly covers of old country songs and scaled down contemporary rock classics (Foo Fighters, Greenday) seemed like a cheap, uninspired attempt to copy the success Johnny Cash acheived just before his death. The emphasis was hardly ever on 'Greatest Hits'.

It seemed like perhaps Glen was just a guy who got lucky with a couple of tracks in the 70's and now was milking it for all he could (which wasn't much by the way only about 42% of seats were sold for the 3000 seater RFH). By the end of the concert though I felt that maybe Glen wasn't the greedy sloth that I had pegged him as, and that he was being forced into this by a support and backing band of friends and family who were either using him to further thier own careers or just didn't want to let go of the stage. Despite the admiration and applause of a Yankophile audience, the whole event didn't sit well with me.

That said, when he played Rhinestone Cowboy my heart completely melted.

A clip of Jon Lovitz in High School High, sadly only available in German

Moonlight Shadows

The Shadows. How cool were they? Just watch them perform Apache here - the bassist stops playing at the end and just smokes a cigarette. Effortless cool.



Furthermore, they were immortalised in Supermarionation in Thunderbirds Are Go! I first watched this film on a day off sick from school during the Thunderbirds revival of the early '90s. Not even the presence of puppet Cliff (who would leave an older me, wanting to watch tennis, emotionally and mentally scarred) could drain their cool here.



But what happened? See their performance here on One Show antecendent Pebble Mill in 1986. I've got nothing against the song, I've got a lot of time for Mike Oldfield & Maggie O'Reilly's Moonlight Shadow, which they covered on their album Moonlight Shadows (I'm not making that up). It's the sort of outdoor performance that would become standard on Top Of The Pops in the next decade, where what little cool remains bleeds out into the daylight. And how little is evidenced by Hank's jacket. As Bobby said, it's the definition of naff.



Moonlight Shadows also features covers of other pop hits (Against All Odds, Every Breath You Take, Jennifer Rush's The Power of Love, Lionel Richie's Hello) and Elaine Paige musical ballads (Memory, I Know Him So Well). I am still not making this up.

Sloane Ranger

Due to the washed out weather conditions of this bank holiday weekend and the loss of my springtime harrington, I've had to resort back to my winter Barbour wax jacket, possibly for the foreseeable future. The past 72 hours though have led me to the conclusion that it is the perfect English overcoat. Stylish, warm and most importantly water proof, the Barbour adds an air of distinctly Anglican formality to whoever's wearing it. Not to discredit the quilted Barbour, but it's just not in the same league given that the wax jacket practically pays for itself with the ample pocket space and a bit of retail subterfuge.

Apologies about the Diana photo, the only decent shot I could find, bar the ones of myself ofcourse.

Further Reading

I of Infinite Forms

Our friends at Records On Ribs have just released the self-titled album by Chicago proggers Ga'an, and it's available to download entirely for free! I'd say some kind words about it, but I already wrote some for the release - you can read those and grab it from their site here or, if you prefer, from ClearBits (fka Legaltorrents) here.

EDIT: I should also add that Records On Ribs have some of the cassette versions of the album for sale.