Manky Monkey Motors

Rainbow & I went down to "The Brook" in Swaythling, Southampton last night to see The Hamsters play. Great venue. Not been there before. Presumably an old pub that's been gutted & refurbished with part of the upstairs floor removed to give a large 3 sided balcony looking down onto the stage.
The ground floor was heaving with people so we found a good spot upstairs. A great night. The Hamsters were excellent as usual. Very professional & slick though Rainbow wasn't keen on Slim's screaming Hendrix guitar solos. Several camera teams there so I presume they were filming a new video/DVD. Their party piece -lead & bass guitarists walking down into the audience &  passing through the crowd, (using the magic of radio mics), with their guitars illuminated with coloured LEDs, before swapping instruments midway through ZZ Top's Sharp Dressed Man, climbing back on stage, then the lead guitarist playing bass swapping places with the drummer, went down a storm as always. Well worth seeing if you haven't caught 'em yet.
Wilko Johnson was in support, who I believe, (I'm sure I'll be corrected), used to play & write for Dr Feelgood? Quite manic stage presence -all mad staring eyes & strutting up & down but a great stompy Blues guitarist, ably supported by his bass man, a really scary looking little guy who used to play with The Blockheads.
Absolute star of the night though was John Otway. I've seen him before & he's even crazier now. Totally barking but a real show man. Not sure how you'd describe him really. Looks like a bank manager or somebody's Dad who's got lost & somehow ended up on the stage, but from the moment he launched into his 70s punk hits & ripped his shirt open, sending buttons richocheting into the audience, he ruled the place. Had a weird electronic feed-back gizzmo that made all sorts of strange noises when he passed his hands over it, which he was a real virtuoso on, plus a set of electronic drum pads that he put in his pockets before performing a great drum solo by beating himself up! Would do just about anything to entertain the audience, including somersaults onto the stage from the top of a step ladder while playing guitar! He was accompaneid by an Angus Young lookalike on lead guitar doing screaming solos from the top of the same ladder.
Highlight of the night had to be Otway leading the slightly bemused looking Hamsters & Johnson's band in a great version of the Osmonds' "Crazy Horses" with him taking centre stage with his feed-back machine, a mad disco track, "Burn Baby Burn" & finishing off with The Blockheads' "Hit me with your rythm stick" at full pelt with the stage crammed with all 3 bands -3 lead guitarists, 2 basses, 2 drummers & the utterly loopy Otway on vocals.
Brilliant. They're playing a different venue almost every night from now until Christmas. Thoroughly recommended.
Lots of tribute bands coming up at The Brook-
The Bog Rolling Stones.
Dirty DC.
Whole Lotta Led.
La Vida Santana.
Bon Jovi Experience etc.
The Sensational Alex Harvey band, The Saw Doctors, Southside Johnny & The Asbury Dukes -coo, haven't seen them since Knebworth '79. We'll be going back soon I think.
-Manky Monkey Music journo. 8)

The Hamsters used to play at the Horn of plenty in St.Albans nearly every month!! Seen them many a time ;D

Not as good as Bad Manners though ;)

Not seen them yet. The Hamsters used to have a residency at the Half Moon at Putney, just beyond Putney bridge. A real old style, sweaty, smoky back room, but great atmosphere. Saw them there one New Year's Eve. Probably seen 'em a dozen times or more over the years. Had a couple of new tracks- "Ooh, ooh baby" & "2 am". Not bad. Shame their set was quite short cos they were sharing the billing with the other 2 bands but a damn good night out.
Jools Holland & guests at The Hexagon Theatre in Reading, Berks in a couple of weeks. Looking forward to that one. He's got a new album out in time for Christmas so bound to be playing stuff from that. We've got seats in the choir stalls which are actually in tiers behind the stage. Sounds weird. We'll be looking out over the main audience & will be able to make rude faces at him behind his back! Hope we're not expected to sing!   

The Horn was brill, when it was the Horn , with boarded up windows and a nice dark atmosphere ;D

It's bleeding s**te now!! The old Midland across the road was alright, until they closed it, god knows what it is now, think it's offices or something. :(

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin

Hey, I think I just created my first link! Whoo hoo!
John Otway's wavy hands electronic feed-back gizzmo is called a Theremin.

Mr Terrorist.
I was chatting to Ska Man the other night, (scooterist, soon-to-be trikist & owner of the garage that serves as Manky HQ). He reads this regularly but doesn't post -come on people, get involved! Said he was keen to reply to you in praise of Bad Manners but wasn't sure if you were taking the mickey or not!
I like some of the early punk stuff, (Stranglers at the Reading Top Rank suite in the late 70s, tagging along with my brother & his mates), classic rock & 50s R & R, but I've mellowed with age into a liking for Blues & R & B. As Slim of the Hamsters, (real name's Barry - not very rock & roll is it), said the other night, PROPER rythm & blues, not bloody Usher.
Trying to book tickets for BB King & Gary Moore at the BIC in Bournemouth in April at the moment. Mr King is 80 now so probably the last chance to see him over here.

Nope, I'm not taking the mickey about Bad Manners, I a big fan of them, seen them hundreds of times!! Infact my mate's lead sing of a ska band, and they did a blinding gig in Hemel Hempstead along with Bad Manner,s and two other crap bands ;D

http://www.mistakesonline.co.uk/

In fact my music interests are well weird!! Ska, Oi!, punk, heavy metal, classic rock, classical and scottish folk ;D

Swainy, my mate in the Hatfield Rat Pack was in the 4-Skins, and then Skrewdriver, and our other mate was the drummer in Chaos and also Skrewdriver. Me, I'm tone-deaf and can't do anything musical, so don't bother :D

What the 'ell is "Oi"?!
Wet, cold & miserable here today. Torrential rain so can't walk to the garage. Stuck indoors bored to tears. Been looking through my CDs for something to cheer myself up but everything I've got's by guys who've been dead for 50 years, moaning about how their girls have just left them! Ended up putting an old Will Smith album on!
Manky -gettin' jiggy wiv it, apparently.   

Got 2 balcony seats for the BB King/Gary Moore gig in Bournemouth though so something to look forward to next year.

Learn well young Manky and you too can do this sort of thing. ;)

Erm, isn't that the same link I posted?

Oi!? Sham 69, Cockney rejects, Cock sparrer, Infa riot,etc!!

http://punky78.free.fr/sham69_2.mp3

Oh right. All those rather noisy, aggressive chaps. I'm guessing there's no Barry Manilow or Cliff Richard in your collection then.  :)

No, hate them twats >:(

Like the corries though: http://www.easta.com/soundclips/track21clip.mp3

The Coronation Streets?
The sound card's buggered on my laptop so can't check 'em out. Rainbow's just bought a new Dell & I think I might treat myself to one soon. A little Crimble pressie to myself.

I'm off down to Southampton in a mo' on the bike so try not to make too much mess while I'm gone!

No, the corries, scottish folk music!!

(http://www.moray.org/museums/corries/images/corries_pair_tn.jpg)

Bleeding coronation street,  go on, get down to southampton and get wet ;D

Yes but if you were really clever you'd have hidden the mechanics of it like this - The Thereminvox (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theremin)

Don't you just hate show-offs!
Look I spent 20 years or so avoiding computers like the plague cos they didn't interest me at all, so I've got a lot of catching up to do!
Is it just me or do the Corries look like extras from Blake's Seven?
Heard the Cappachalies a few times. Similar stuff? (named after a large black native Scottish bird -see I AM clever!).

Dunno nuthin about music, me.  And that was my computery party piece - it's the cleverest thing I can do and I'm just dead pleased that not everyone knows how!

I don't know how to do it  :-\

You can't do it, me an Wizzkit can - what does that tell you?

Stop picking on him >:( ;D ;D

That it's wimmin's work & far too menial for us menfolk to concern ourselves with?
-Hoo Hoo! Light the Blue touchpaper & retire to a safe distance!! :o

Facking hell son, pushing your luck with that one ;D


Although a woman's place is in the home................................................... :)

Where'd I put my flak jacket & steel helmet?
Obviously said entirely in jest ... ;)

 :D :D :D

Wish my old man thought so - since he retired last January he delights in telling everyone he's a kept man......

I knew someone who drank there, long story but I helped him out at one point, then later on went to see him only to find out he'd been killed by hitting a lamp post a few days before :(

Cor, is that back when who was it, Shade's maybe?, used to park that bleeding transit out the front?!!

Yep, that would be about right, my old man used to take me up there,  that's how I met Bill and the nnc boys.

I remember after the NCC, another club used it ;)

Cor, the old days ;D ;D

Well before my time I'm afraid. I'm just a mere slip of a chimp.