The Gonzo Daily - 7th January
Wher does the time go? The year is already a week
old. However, at the moment ennui has not set in and I am massively enthusiastic
about everything that I am doing. I know it won't last, but I still have that
freshly minted beginning of term feeling.
About twenty five years ago I went to Southampton
to interview a band called Pop Will Eat Itself, who were (and are) one of my
perennial favourites. I interviewed lead singer Clint Mansell, and then sat back
to watch a massively enjoyable gig, during which a half naked Mansell, writhed,
rapped and chanted a wonderful collection of often scabrous but always witty pop
songs about sex, drugs, rock and roll, and ummmmmmmm more sex, drugs and rock
and roll. At the soundcheck, however, they played the old cowboy song 'Streets
of Laredo' at the soundcheck which gave some sort of hint that their musical
horizons were wider than grebo and hiphop. Dast forward to this morning. I am
listening to Clint Mansells's soundtrack for the Cecil B de Mille-esque Biblical
epic 'Noah'. It is suitably epic, but try as I may I cannot hear any of the
voice of the man who sand 'Beaver Patrol' ("The only way I get my kicks, is go
downtown and hustle chicks") inside the enormous Hollywood strings. It is a pity
really.
People made a fuss about one of the Sex Pistols
advertising butter, and one of the Rolling Stones getting a knighthood. But one
of the Poppies scoring a Biblical epic? The world truly has gone bonkers.
Mice on Stilts, Kate Bush, Three Friends, PFM,
Yusuf, Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Wonder, King Crimson, Elbow, The National, Jon
Anderson, Rick Wakeman, Yes, Hawkwind, and Daevid Allen fans had better look
out!
The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#111) is
available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It
has Mice on Stilts on the front cover, and an interview with the band, Doug's
totally subjective top ten gigs of last year, we send Lee Pomeroy, prog bass
player to the stars to a desert island, and there are shows from the
multi-talented Neil Nixon at Strange Fruit and from M Destiny at Friday Night
Progressive, and the titular submarine dwellers are lost at sea, whilst Xtul are
still causing havoc in the forest. There is also a collection of more news,
reviews, views, interviews and anteaters wishing to snooze (OK, nothing to do
with dozy edentates, 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!!!
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo
Weekly:
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!
* 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 55 who - together with an infantile orange cat named after a song
by Frank Zappa 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?
What has Corinna's column of Fortean bird news got to do with cryptozoology?
