The Gonzo Daily - Friday/Saturday
A couple of weeks ago I was writing some blurb to go with my new novel
which was published a couple of weeks a go and which I am rather proud of. In it
I stated that I thought that I had invented a new genre. ‘High Fantasy’ is a
well known genre of literature in which a book is set in an imaginary country
like Narnia or Middle Earth complete with unicorns, dragons, dwarves and any
other inhabitants dreamed up by the author. ‘Low Fantasy’ is apparently what
happens when I book is set on Earth involving “ nonrational happenings that are
without causality or rationality because they occur in the rational world where
such things are not supposed to occur” I believe that I have invented a new
genre: ‘Low-life Fantasy’.
The vast majority of my book and indeed my previous novel The Blackdown
Mystery (1999) is largely set in mental hospitals, and disused industrial
estates, and the characters are mostly homeless, disabled, substance abusers,
and/or on benefits a friend of mine read what I had written and was appalled.
“In the current climate you can’t talk about people being on benefits” he said,
adding that it would adversely affect my sales. I have been thinking about this
ever since. And I will say this now. Some of you already know this, and some of
you don’t. I am seriously ill and in receipt of two non-means tested state
benefits, and whilst I can write amusing bollocks about cryptozoology or obscure
rock musicians I am in no state to hold down anything approaching a proper
job.
And so, another week trundles towards its end. Its been a fun week, on the
whole and, once again, Jessica and I have quite a lot to show for out toiling in
the potato shed. However, next week the calm voyage of our little ship is
threatened by a looming iceberg.
Although I can no longer walk unaided, am in constant pain and I am as mad
as a hatter I am more than slightly worried by my impending interview with the
DWP doctors. Yes, next Wednesday at ten o’clock I will be up in front of the
medical examination board who wish to discover whether I am a parasitic enemy of
society or not. One hears all sorts of horror stories about people who are
terminally ill or in an even more grievous condition then me being told that
they are fit to work. I would therefore, like all you people out there in
readership land to keep your fingers crossed for me next Wednesday morning, and
hope sanity will prevail.
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Merrell Fankhauser - C...
COMING TOMORROW
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
Review: Steve Hackett - Leeds Town Hall
YES: BILLY SHERWOOD RELEASES NO MAN’S LAND VIDEO
Gonzo Weekly #152
www.gonzoweekly.com
4th Eden, David Gilmour, Pink Floyd, Hard Meat, Transmetropolitan, Patto,
Steely Dan, Little Feat, Neil Young, Digitiser, Mr Biffo, Roy Weard, Dogwatch,
That Legendary Wooden Lion, Hawkwind, Jon Anderson, Mack Moloney, and Yes fans
had better look out!
The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#152) is available to read at
www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It
has 4th Eden on the front cover together with an interview with him inside, Doug
goes to see David Gilmour at the Royal Albert Hall, Jon muses on Patto and rock
and roll archaeology. We review volume one of Transmetropolitan, and Xtul are
back in the deep woods. Neil unearths a hidden gem, Thom waxes all poetical
like, whilst the legendary Roy Weard continues his regular column, C J Stone
does his, and Mr Biffo has more of his regular slices of insanity from the world
of Digitiser 2000, and there is a radio show from Strange Fruit, one from Friday
Night Progressive and another from our latest addition to the team Mack Moloney.
There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and
pademelons wanting a snooze (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who stayed
up too late last night, but I got carried away with things that rhymed with
OOOOS) than you can shake a stick at. And the best part is IT's ABSOLUTELY
FREE!!!
This issue features:
Patto, Hard Meat, Damon Albarn, David Bowie, Paul McCartney, James Dean
Bradfield, Sting, Engelbert Humperdinck, Tom Jones, Guy Garvey, Steve Hackett,
ELO, Frank Zappa, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's
Mystery Hour, Smokin' Joe Kubek, John Russell Murphy, Steve Mackay, Carey
Lander, Ronald Gordon Honeycombe, Robert Cooper Phillips, Robbin Thompson,
James "Jim" Diamond, Michael Hugh Scully, Richard Edward Geoffrey Howe, Brand
X, The Raz Band, Johnny Winter, Alexis Korner, 13th Floor Elevators, Nucleus,
Spirits Burning, The Pirates, Martin Eve, 4th Eden, David Gilmour, John
Brodie-Good, The Allman Brothers, Steely Dan, Little Feat, Neil Young &
Crazy Horse, Mr Biffo, Roy Weard, Xtul, Hawkwind, Yes, Billy Sherwood,
AndersonPonty Band, John Lennon, Rod Stewart, Grateful Dead, The Osbournes,
Chris Bell, Tuatha de Danann
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
Issue 151 (Corky Laing)
Issue 150 (Roger Dean)
Issue 149 (Tony Palmer in Space)
Issue 148 (Wally Hope)
Issue 147 (Thom the World Poet cover)
Issue 146 (Bee and Flower cover)
Issue 145 (Dave Brock cover)
Issue 144 (Percy Jones cover)
Issue 143 (Billy Sherwood cover)
Issue 142 (Daevid Allen and Spirits Burning cover)
Issue 141 (Rick Wakeman cover)
Issue 140 (Jaki Windmill cover)
Issue 139 (Raz cover)
Issue 138 (Galahad cover)
Issue 137 (Chris Squire cover)
Issue 136 (Neil Nixon cover)
Issue 135 (FNP cover)
All issues from #70 can be downloaded at www.gonzoweekly.com if you prefer.
If you have problems downloading, just email me and I will add you to the Gonzo
Weekly dropbox. The first 69 issues are archived there as well. Information is
power chaps, we have to share it!
You can download the magazine in pdf form HERE:
SPECIAL NOTICE: If you, too, want to unleash the power of your inner rock
journalist, and want to join a rapidly growing band of likewise minded weirdos
please email me at jon@eclipse.co.uk The more the merrier really.
* The Gonzo Daily is a two way process. If you have any news or want to
write for us, please contact me at jon@eclipse.co.uk. If you are an artist and
want to showcase your work, or even just say hello please write to me at
gonzo@cfz.org.uk. Please copy, paste and spread the word about this magazine as
widely as possible. We need people to read us in order to grow, and as soon as
it is viable we shall be invading more traditional magaziney areas. Join in the
fun, spread the word, and maybe if we all chant loud enough we CAN stop it
raining. See you tomorrow...
* The Gonzo Daily is - as the name implies - a daily online magazine
(mostly) about artists connected to the Gonzo Multimedia group of companies. But
it also has other stuff as and when the editor feels like it. The same team also
do a weekly newsletter called - imaginatively - The Gonzo Weekly. Find out about
it at this link:
www.gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/…/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit…
* We should probably mention here, that some of our posts are links to
things we have found on the internet that we think are of interest. We are not
responsible for spelling or factual errors in other people's websites. Honest
guv!
* Jon Downes, the Editor of all these ventures (and several others) is an
old hippy of 56 who - together with an infantile orange cat named after a song
by Frank Zappa, and a small kitten totally coincidentally named after one of the
Manson Family, purely because she squeaks, puts it all together from a converted
potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with
various fish, and sometimes a small Indian frog. He is ably assisted by his
lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, his elderly mother-in-law, and
a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the infantile
orange cat, and the adventurous kitten?
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