Phantom, Rocker & Slick - 'Men Without Shame': The pictures on this are, presumably, of Men Without Shame; but ignore those, turn this up and just have a blast! My old original 45 of this song was thrashed mercilessly until the grooves went white.
The band are Slim Jim Phantom, (now drummer with The Head Cat); Lee Rocker (Stray Cats)on bass, and Earl Slick on guitar, who played for David Bowie, John Lennon etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqnQxaP4P58&feature=related

Cream - 'We're Going Wrong': the first Link is to the version which appeared on Tony Palmer's 'All My Loving' TV documentary in 1968. Very powerful!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyu2Fg6NIA8&feature=related

This second is a rather splendid version from Cream's Spaulding gig in May 1967, (Jimi Hendrix was also on the bill); I had never heard this or knew it had been bootlegged; amazing!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2Wb9LszeSA&feature=related

Quite Incredible To Find: but maybe it's a sign of the times, that someone has their new MHB's sweat shirt up for sale on EBay.
The 'Motorhead' Babylon Book from 1981 is also on there under 'Motorhead history book' and has 3 bids, currently running at £11-01 + £3 postage.
There's also a hoody on there with our MHB Dagger on one sleeve. These people have the cheek of the devil, don't they. It would be great if there was enough money to sue them for breach of copyright, but without such funds, I presume we must simply remain flattered but ripped-off.

Lemmy The Movie: We can now enjoy a review from MHB, Klaus Fabry:
"I took the time to fly out to the US for this event, and saw the Lemmy movie twice, and Motorhead onstage twice as well.
To make it very clear, the movie is such a professional thing, and I am sure no one will be disappointed. Greg and Wes gave their very best with their work, that's my personal opinion.
The movie has such cool and funny episodes / parts because of Lemmy's great humour, like we know him.
As far as I could tell, there are plans to screen the movie at a couple of festivals in Europe. Time will tell.
The Motorhead set-list was the same as last year's tours, but great to enjoy, anyway."

Have You Noticed: how ears get bigger the older we get? Some years ago now, this was pointed out on TV with Michael Hesseltine as the model; showing photos of him in his youth, and as he was at the time, and yes, definitely bigger with age.
Something on TV over the weekend prompted remembering this, during an interview with some old boy who looked as if he had a Jodrell Bank dish attached to either side of his head.
So I wondered, is this a phenomenon which happens to aid our ailing sense of hearing in our elder years, an ear trumpet of sorts, which our ripe-age expands and grows to assist in picking up sound?
Our bodies are wonderful, if flawed, pieces of machinery, and every time I think about the multitude of things which can and does go wrong with us, I think about a theme in Mick Farren's Victor Renquist vampire series of books, and also Hawkwind's 'Fable Of The Failed Race' song.
The Hawkwind lyrics are no more than about 4 lines of verse and tell us very little, but along with Farren's theory and the title of the Hawkwind song; are we indeed a failed and flawed race, created by aliens on some far-away galaxy, placed here as an experiment whilst those very same aliens improve upon our flaws to make a far better model?
Mick Farren's theories about that race using us to build the pyramids of Egypt, ziggurats of Mexico etc is quite captivating, thought-provoking, and are a joy to read. Recommend the whole quartet of books wholeheartedly.
'The Time Of Feasting.'
'Darklost.'
'More Than Mortal.'
'Underland.'

Mr Cadbury Met Miss Roundtree: on a Double Decker. It was just After Eight, and they got off at Quality Street. He asked her name? "Polo, I'm the one with the hole," she said, with a Whisper.
"I'm Marathon," he replied, "the one with the nuts."
He touched her cream eggs, and then slipped his hand into her Snickers. He fondled her flapjacks, and she rubbed his Tic-Tac's. It was a fab moment, and she screamed with Turkish Delight. But three day's later, his sherbet had dip-dab, and it turned out Miss Roundtree had been with Bertie Bassett, and he had Allsorts.

Why Do Cats Go Crazy: after they've had a number two? Does anyone know? Is it something with younger cats, perhaps? But thinking about it, even some of our past moggies in their senior years raced around the garden like a greyhound after a good turnout. I meant to ask the vet last week when I took our new cuplrit for her 2nd annual jab, but forgot.
Sometimes we feel particularly good and satisfied after such an event, so perhaps it's the cats way of celebrating a feelgood factor?
But it's a good job we don't go running around the garden like a lunatic.

Just An Unashamed Plug: as Mick Farren says when he mentions his books. Lemmy was hopping around his dressing room at the Plymouth show last year: "Look," he said to everyone who walked in, "it's the advert for the Hendrix tour when I was his roadie! Look at all those dates we did, I'd forgotten most of them!"
He had a copy of my 'Bournemouth Rocks!' book in his hands, see what he was talking about, (the rest of it is well worth seeing / reading, too), and get a copy today! www.natula.co.uk

Face Book - Electronic Dogging: Those of you who frequent the Message Board will be aware that MHB Paddy Campbell mentioned a couple of 'Motorheadbangers' face book sites. In turn, I posted a message saying that despite the title they were nothing to do with the fan club, and never will be.
Mrs. B made me aware (and wary) of Face Book quite some time back when a post by a work colleague was taken either too literally, or the wrong way, and a husband was out to find and beat seven colours out of said collegue for what was on screen about his wife.
I later posted here about hubby and wife frends, (who shall remain nameless), who not only spend most of their spare time answering the emails attached to the damned thing, but were also propositioned for threesome sex.
If I spent my spare time like that there would be no fanzine going out over the weekend, no stories written etc. I know we all choose what we want to do with our leisure time, but a headline in yesterday's Star said that STD's had increased remarkably; and Face Book was to blame. How they came to that conclusion I don't know, but it seems as if this frenzied media trend called Face Book is no more than cyber-dogging.

Hendrix Alive Project: played locally last Friday at Mr Kyps, and my review is on http://www.mrkyps.net/gigreviews.asp?ID-1331 (click the appropriate heading on the left). They are from Holland, and in my misery of being a life-long would-be but with no natural aptitude guitarist, I spent the whole HAP set standing in front of Eelco Bisschop watching him play. Their website is http://www.hendrixaliveproject.com/ and despite my thinking Eelco could have cranked up the volume, he is something of a shy character. It was quite amusing, when he threw a few 'rock star poses' a local photographer tended to miss them, and his mounting frustration was quite apparent. It was as if the guitarist was playing a game, catch-me-if-you-can. There may well be some photos on Kyps' site by now, so have a look while you're there.

Motorheadbangers Fanzine 87: will be collected on Friday evening and mailed out over the weekend / very early AM on Monday morning.
Yes, there will be no less than two surprises for the Anniversaries within the envelope, although I'm not sure if we'll be getting a 35th anniversary gig at Hammersmith in the summer to celebrate, as nothing has been published as yet?
But as a fan club, I thought it would be nice to mark the 30 years of our being in existence - and indeed, are there any other rock fan clubs out there older than Motorheadbangers?
The wonderful thing about Motorhead is that they have never retired, and thus we haven't had to suffer any 'comeback' tours, simply because thery have never been away.
If you care to check You Tube, Lemmy's post screening debut of the Lemmy The Movie 'Question and Answer' session is on there, and Phil and Mikkey join him onstage with Wes and Greg - nice to watch. http://www.bravewords.com/news/134942

'My Friend Jack' by The Smoke: was one of my fave raves in 1967.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKSUnZKpgfU&feature=related

Motorheadbangers April 2010 Fanzine 87: When you get yours at the beginning of April, make sure you check the envelope for an Anniversary souvenir.

The Ballad of Davey Crockett: was a well-played 78rpm record when I was growing up. It had The Ballad of Robin Hood on the other side. Early American import TV programmes also gave us several series of Davey Crockett adventures, and he was quite a hero.
Fess Parker, who played Crockett, died this week aged 85, so he had a pretty good life; and owned a vinyard in America.

The Motorhead UK tour dates posted recently, plus a list of Motorhead summer festivals, will be included with the fanzine.

Motorhead Autumn Tour Dates Announced:
November 8th - Music Hall, Aberdeen.
November 9th - O2 Academy, Glasgow.
November 10th - Newcastle City Hall.
November 12th - King George's Hall, Blackburn.
November 13th - The Arena, Llandudno.
November 15th - Derby Assembly Rooms.
November 16th - Manchester Apollo.
November 18th - De Montfort Hall, Leicester.
November 19th - Colston Hall, Bristol.
November 21st - Southampton Guildhall.
November 22nd - Cambridge Corn Exchange.
November 24th - Wolverhampton Civic Hall.
November 25th - Leeds O2 Academy.
November 27th - Brixton O2 Academy.
November 28th - The Brighton Centre.

People Who Know Me Well: will be aware how irritated I get with repitition. Sitting in a factory hearing 'The Powerplay' on the radio, or seeing TV adverts too often, drives me crazy.
Have you noticed Alan Titchmarsh's talk show has been moved to the 5pm slot? This is to try and poach some of the 8 million The Weakest Link viewers, but no, it won't work. It's fun trying to answer the questions whilst eating dinner, and it has become socially acceptable, so hard luck, AT.
But, I watch AT until 5.15. when like everyone else, I switch over to TWL, and his viewing figures must plummet. But one evening last week he had 3 guests on and asked them; "What are your favourite, and least-favourite TV ads?' I'm not sure who the male guest was, but I felt thrilled when he said that he changes channels when the 'Go Compare' opera singer ad comes on. Mrs. B thought it was just me being odd, but this admission proved a point; as I have been doing so, or hitting the Mute button with all of the Go Compare ads; and I think they are made to BE irritating so that we remember them - and it's worked! Luckily, we Go Compare hater's have become familiar with the 10 to 15 second start to their numerous ads, and I for one have the hand-set within arm's reach ready and waiting to hit Mute.
But if you notice, the majority of the ads these days are for Insurance, as despite the recession, we still need it, and they make SO much money out of us they can afford to hammer the screens and our senses with a non-stop blitzkrieg of banal idiocy. Direct Line, with Stephen Fry's voice-over, is, oddly enough, not that irritating. But DL must be very well off as their ads are played at EVERY commercial break on EVERY station.
Just think, if we had non-commercial TV, everything advertised would be cheaper! WE pay for the ads when we buy the commodity, and that's the most irritating thing of all. They all make far too much profit. Now, if I watch BBC programmes, I don't get any ads...

RIP Carol Clerk: I only knew of Carol via her 'The Saga of Hawkwind' book (recommended), so perhaps this will help magnify her life of rock writing: http://thequietus.com/articles/03885-legendary-rock-writer-carol-clerk-rip I can't tell you enough how good a read the Hawkwind book is, and with the multitude of comings-and-goings of personel with the band, how Carol managed to get and keep her head around everything quite amazed me. Carol's best epitaph will be her life in her own words in Neil Daniels' 'All Pens Blazing - a Heavy Metal Writers Handbook' which is available from Amazon. And pleased to see in the photo in the above link, Carol enjoyed her beer and fags. I still miss mine, but...

...the news strikes a chord in that we must be grateful for every day. On my annual hospital appointment yesterday, (following on from the 2006 heart valve replacement op), I was informed that had I not visited the doctor's when I did, and had the operation, I would have died by now. Yet at the time it appeared as if there was no urgency attached as far as the doctor's were concerned, and likewise it didn't seem life-threatening to me. But it was nice to know even though we're four years on, and despite the minor setbacks, when I wake up every morning from now on, the days will be far more valued than they were yesterday.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: To be honest, what with the Hollywood writers' strike a while back, and 'Lost' disappearing from our screens due to it, and now it's back again with the final series; I 'lost' interest ages ago. But it's back, and my son called me in to see the film trailer for 'The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,' which was shown in the ad break before 'Lost' started.
Like 'Prison Break,' 'Lost' has so many unbelieveable events happening in the plot that it annoys me. My son says 'It helps move things along, it's a film, don't worry about it.' But it would be unacceptable if I wrote fiction which such ridiculous things going on. Presumably it's due to this weird 'time-slip' affecting the island, but dead people, killed off ages ago, are appearing back in the plot alive and well again. Eight of the survivors went back to civilisation and were the centre of a media-storm, and now they're back on the island again, so what the f**k happened there???
'Prison Break' was just as stupid. The T-Bag character lost his hand, cut off at the wrist early on in the story. It was sewn back on and he was handcuffed to a radiator; so he pulled his arm away from the sewn-on wrist and escaped. In desperate circumstances, yes, it may happen - now he's got a prosthetic. Pennyless, T-Bag was later dumped in the middle of a desert and left to die at one point. A biker just happened to pick him up, and next scene, he's checking into a posh hotel. Where did the money come from? The Michael character and his brother, on the run permanently, always managed to have a charged cell phone, seemingly with millions of free minutes the way they use them. I appreciate some things are left unseen, (like going to the toilet), but even when they are in a hotel, their phones are still working; but how the Henry did they charge them? So we must assume they have a charger, somewhere, yet being 'on-the-run' they don't carry luggage. Ah, but of course, they steal a lot of cars, and the owner must have left the cigarette lighter charger there. Fool me! It must be what they call poetic license.
But I can assure you, after reading all three Stieg Larsson books, there will be no such monumental plot flaws in 'TGWTDTattoo,' or in the other two films which will follow.

Blues Britannia: (21.00 to 22.30 yesterday) followed last week's BBC4 TV's Heavy Metal Britannia documentary, and was 90 minutes of excellent viewing. It traced how the blues records came into England and were picked up by the likes of Brian Jones, Keith Richards, Mick Fleetwood, Paul Jones, the the band's they spawned copying the music - The Yardbirds, Fleetwood Mac, The Stones etc. A fair amount of time was given over to interviewing the black blues artistes; Champion Jack Dupree, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker etc; so it was another tiny speck of gold amongst the landfill of crap our TV programmes are. But it encourages me to read more books, so there is a plus side.
It may well be available via the BBC iplayer if you missed it.

The X-Files: are much better since moving from Virgin to Bravo. Toward the end of the Virgin run, or re-run, (well, more like re-run, re-run, re-run, re-run, actually), the episodes were getting much too familiar, and rather than seeing them again to the point of boredom, I'd go and read.
But Bravo seem to have bought the re-run rights to a different batch which are not as familiar, and they are a joy to watch. Last night's episode with 'the luckiest man in the world' is a classic, and as with many others, there was a silent lesson to be learned.

During the ad breaks, one of those short-term loan companies came out of the woodwrok. What a rip-off! Agreed, the idea of such a loan is to see us through the last week or two from mid-month to pay day, when the loan is settled, so it would be very short term. And it's a good job, too, at an APR of 2,356% the shorter the better! What are they like? Is it no wonder The Bank of Mum & Dad's ZERO% APR prospers and thrives.

Heavy Metal Britannia: Last evening was pretty good, and great seeing some metal on TV. As Motorhead came to fame right on the end of heavy metal as such, but at the start of the NWOBHM and Punk, so too was Lemmy's (short) interview at the end of the programme.
A follow-on show from 10.30 until 11.00 had a clip form each band featured. The Motorhead clip was 'Louie Louie' from Top of the Pops in 1978. This was a gem, as video recorders were expensive and uncommon, so the clip was finally aired and made available. (So if it wasn't before, it'll probably be on You Tube by now.)

All Smoke And No Fire: In the past we had synthetic cigarettes - they failed miserably because they were the same price as the real thing; but the real thing was and always will be better.
Then they gave us electronic cigarettes - which gave off harmless smoke to everyone in the room, the smoker enjoyed them (?), but the real thing was better.
Now, according to a feature in our local Bournemouth Daily Echo, smokeless cigarettes are the latest trendy "give up the dreaded weed" come-hither.
The Page 7 headline in Tuesday's edition read "Will The Smokeless Cigarette Stop Our Pubs From Closing Down?" and are, apparently, "the invention pubs and restaurants have been dreaming of." They are called Similars, (I bet they had a 3 weeks of intensive executive brainstorming to come up with that one!), and a quote read - "I transferred without a hitch, having been a conventional smoker for years. It feels and tastes like the real thing."
But the problem is, once again, the price!
When I buy my Daily Echo at our village Co-Op / Post Office every day, I look at the fags and the prices; and see Marlboro at almost £7 for 20.
Similars are £6 for 10 - yes that's SIX QUID for TEN!
So smokers are hardly going to be rushing to the shops and beating their fellow smokers off with a stick to buy a packet, are they.
How ridiculous.
What a waste of time developing such a product.
Even if the retail price was 50 pence for 10 smokers would still want their "old faithfuls," because everything else is not good old Nic O-Tine; and anything Similar just doesn't hold a candle to the real deal.
Of course, I am speaking as an ex-smoker who gave up after a (hereditry) heart op, but I sympathise nevertheless, and these fags, which ought to be called The Great Pretender, will no doubt be boycotted just like the other pretenders in the past.
So the answer is a resounding No, Similar's will not be the answer to the decline of pubs and restaurants.
Similar's are being launched at the town's BIC in two weeks time, and I bet there won't be a crowd elbowing one another out of the way to be the first customer.
It would be far easier if certain pubs and restaurants were designated for smokers, and others not, and then everyone would be happy.
And which proved to be the more popular, would be interesting.

Waking The Dead: on Alibi last evening was a repeat from 2005, but I must have missed it before. The episode was titled 'Straw Dogs,' and the murderer killed his victims whilst he played Motorhead songs on a cassette machine.
It's a time of day when I start nodding, and Mrs. B had gone to bed, anyway, not feeling too good; so it was Sky plussed to watch another time.
The episode reflected back to serial killings in 1979 / 1980, where the murderer sent one of each of the victim's fingers to the police pickled in a jar. But someone had resurrected the killings present day, so the cold case team had to delve back to the original investigation.
And much to my delight, the victims were being murdered with 'Sweet Revenge' and 'Stone Dead Forever' aptly playing in the background. The songs, from the 'Bomber' album, nailed the era perfectly, and even though the flashback to the (then) young copper in charge of the case, had him saying they were "a bootleg tape of some band playing at Reading Festival;" yes, Motorhead played Reading Fest in '79, but they didn't play those tracks.
A smacked leg for the writer, who had one part right and the other part wrong.
Nevertheless it was GREAT hearing those songs on TV, and a treat that they are part of a crime thriller.
The murderer was a failed musician turned roadie, who grabbed victims when they tried getting backstage to see the band.