Please note the items you are about to read consist largely of scurrilous gossip, vicious back-stabbing and idle speculation. As Jon Stewart might say, its stories are not fact checked. Its informants are not journalists. And its opinions are not fully thought through.
Feb 28. R.I.P. Shug O'Neill, former Cock Sparrer, Guttersnipes and Snipes guitarist who has died today. On the 19th of this month, Shug experienced extreme difficulty breathing and was taken to Paisley's Royal Alexandra Hospital where he spent four days in intensive care. He was transferred to the High Dependency Ward but sadly did not recover. He was 58. Our condolences to his wife and family.
Random news: Tiger Army have released Prisoner Of The Night as a taste for their next album… And here's Dee Snider on Donald Trump's use of Twisted Sister's We're Not Gonna Take It as a campaign song: "Donald Trump is a friend. And I have many friends. But I don't have one friend, not one, that I would nominate, or vote for, for President… Donald Trump is a friend, and I'm just gonna leave it like that."
Oh gawd, now our stage cock has gone missing. Has anyone seen it? No? Oi, Wattsie, why are you looking so shifty? (Seen here on the left - and clearly dressing to the left - is Wattsie either trying to get into a tranny club for nothing… or auditioning for a C4 sex documentary.)
Sulo's brilliant Punk Rock Stories & Tabloid Tales is out now and we hear that there's a second Garry Johnson-inspired album in the pipeline. Never Mind the Bollocks – Here's Garry Johnson has been written and recorded by Paul Waghorn and Insane Society, who first released their version of Gazza's National Service in 2008. Last year Wag wrote a tune for Young Conservatives, which came out with Clyde Ward's Ska version via iTunes. He has since penned music for United, Dead End Yobs, The New Face of Rock'n'Roll, Joey Teen and Boy About Town. The only number that proved a problem was the 8th one, If Looks Could Kill, which was comfortably the worst song ever included on an Oi album. Wag describes it as "awful" adding that "Garry's vocal performance was akin to Les Dawson piano playing style". BUT with some lateral thinking the problem could now be solved… We should emphasise that Wag's takes on Gal's words are completely different from Sulo's. The eight-track project will be released on vinyl this Summer. We'll report back when we know when.
Loads of new albums due next month including the debut LPs from the Bar Stool Preachers, Skurvi and the Muff Wigs. And Spunk Volcano aren't far behind. Exciting.
Feb 27. Our split single with Russian punk band Uchitel Truda will finally see the light of day on May 1st, we're told. The cover as you may recall features Gal and Uchitel singer Pavel in a stirring pose as the Marx and Engels of Oi (that's Sid Marx and Bertie Engels, window-cleaners to the gentry). Suggestions that we add the skiffle song Putin On The Agony (Putin On The Style) to our acoustic set have been dismissed as "frivolous" by Soppy Nige and let's face it he should know. Meanwhile that other great radical Louise Distras is back in the studio recording her second album with our guru Steve Whale, the Yoda of Street Punk.
Rejects update: the boys will be playing their punk set at both of their 100 Club shows in April, the Wild Ones rock set will be resurrected at a later date.
Feb 26. Gal recorded his latest Hungry & Hunted podcast today with guests Skurvi, Sulo Soren Karlsson and the Rebelles – the all-female punk harmony vocal trio of Tracie Hunter (daughter of the immortal Ian), Elizabeth Westwood of Westworld fame, and blues singer Phoebe White. The show features tough and tasty tunes from The Lamplighters, Dirt Royal, Maninblack, Sisteray, the Poly-Esters, Voodoo Kills, Underclass UK, Hard Left, Wolf Bites Boy, Blackmail Snaps, Psykbrit and Sulo who talks about his Garry Johnson album, Punk Rock Stories & Tabloid Tales, which by handy coincidence is released today. The podcast should be on-line in a fortnight (Don't rush yerselves – Impatient Ed). Fit Bird tells us "Gal was proper inundated with tracks this month so if he ain't played yorn, don't fret cos it'll prob'ly be on the next show."
Out now on vinyl – The Cramps' Gravest Hits 12in on coloured vinyl, first released in 1979 and featuring the single 'Human Fly'. Now available from Drastic Plastic Records…the brand new album from The Traditionals, Tried & True (Randale Records) which packs in thirteen oi-some new numbers; the vinyl LP has a printed inner bag with all the lyrics… Bad Religion's 30 Years Live LP, the West Coast band's second live album which was originally released in 2010. The LP is on Epitaph and includes download card.
Feb 25. Seething with rage, Lord Waistrel has vowed to clear up the mystery of the stolen Street Sounds macbook. His Lordship has commissioned a team of private investigators, led by Leading Wren Jane Chalmers of the Amphetameenies, to look into the shocking theft. More news no doubt to follow (and for the real reason Scottish Ska star Jane is all "jolly-rogered up" in our picture, you'll have to wait for issue 14 of Street Sounds…)
Feb 24. Okay chaps, here we go! Our first ever live DVD will be recorded at the Hope & Anchor. We'll be played two sets – an hour-long pure punk for row people set and a half-hour acoustic set. And it'll only cost you a Jack's! Here's the teaser, geezers. Now we're popping off to the Brits (rhyming slang) for our life-time achievement award.
Feb 22. Disaster has struck Street Sounds… or at least a temporary set-back. We can report that an apple macbook containing all the lay-outs for issue 14 was nicked yesterday from a car parked not far from the New Den. "We are distraught," art editor Toes tells us. "This means that all of the editing and page lay-outs will have to be re-done, which will delay publication by at least a fortnight." A fortnight?! That's very nearly half a month! But who was responsible? We don't like to grass but we understand that a suspect looking "remarkably like Vive Le Rock's Eugene Butcher" was spotted carrying a dodgy-looking bin liner down Zampa Road and "chuckling in an Antipodean way." An ashen-faced Toes implores readers "Please bear with us while we sort this mess out. Apologies for the wait."
The Mad Hatties have only gorn and played us on their latest barking mad podcast show. You can hear it here.
As if he ain't got enough going on, a little bird (Zoe Kravitz? – Fat Col) whispers that Gal Gonad is busy writing Oi – The Opera with Sulo Karlsson… apparently they've already got 14 songs in the pipeline. It's gotta have the Yeti in it, Gal. It can't be over till the Fat Lady sings…
Glory Boys alert! Secret Affair recorded their latest single this weekend, a very tasty cover of Frank Wilson's Northern Soul classic Do I Love You (Indeed I Do)…
Prankster Update: never mind BoJo and co, the fiercely apolitical Jolly Pranksters last night came out "emphatically and unanimously" in favour of Brexit. A rally, open to all brethren, with guest speaker John K. Herbert is expected for late April "in a mid-Kent wood" according to our mole. So mote it be.
Feb 21. Right, we can now announce that we'll be filming our live DVD at an historic London rock venue on Friday 22nd April. There will be a token £5 charge on the door to cover running costs and all profits will be donated to Care After Combat. To reserve your place either let Fat Col know or email Dirty Rob. Numbers are limited and it will be first come, first served. Cheers!
Feb 20. R.I.P. Vi Subversa (Frances Sansom) of the Poison Girls who has passed away after a short illness. She was 80.
Record news: The Cundeez Rebellion ep is now available from Urinal Vinyl... SideOneDummy have re-released Flogging Molly's debut album Swagger on coloured vinyl. It comes with a gatefold sleeves and free download...
Feb 19. Read Gal's tribute to André Schlesinger here
Feb 18. Tragically New York rock writer Freddy Alva confirms reports that André Schlesinger has passed away, stating that he died this week from 'medical complications'. Freddy has posted this fine '21 Gun Salute' to our old pal. We are utterly gutted. R.I.P. Maninblack.
Feb 17. We're hearing shock reports from friends in the USA that André Schlesinger has died. This would be terrible news if true. André is our long-term American synth-guitarist. He was a founder member of The Press, New York City's first-ever Oi band, and the leading light in Maninblack, as well as being a private detective, a hardcore socialist and one of the mainstays of SHARP. We'll report back when we are in a position to confirm – or hopefully deny the story.
Feb 16. Great news from tonight's rehearsal session. The acoustic set is now sounding so sweet you could eat it with a spoon, so sweet in fact that we're thinking of adding 'The Drinking Song' to it... and that's not been played for thirty years. In other good news, Gal has finished the second volume of his Riff-Raff Rebels & Rock Gods book. Work on the audio version will begin shortly.
Big love to our friend Jai Hadgraft who suffered a stroke earlier today and is now recovering in hospital oop North. The Gonads blog – now officially twinned with Holby City.
Feb 15. Ravishing Wattsie Watts has had (another) terrible fall-out with her oafish suitor Fat Col over his filthy and charmless Valentine's Day messages. In the end it was our fan club organiser Sandra Lane who silenced the dirty dolt with a poem of her own. To wit, 'To Colin: You said you'd be my Valentine/Up for anything that might happen/Okay my darling, brace yourself/Cos I'm warming up my strap-on'.
So who were the mysterious Heathrow Jets playing the 100 Club on Saturday night? Only the Members! John King writes: 'It really was a special night, electric atmosphere – Newtown Neurotics, The Members, Ruts DC, all brilliant. The place was heaving.' The sound of the suburbs all right...
Feb 14. Happy Valentine's Day! Because we just live to spread love and happiness, here's an announcement to warm your cockles: our live DVD will definitely be recorded on 22nd April at an historic London venue. Numbers will be restricted but you will be able to reserve your place as soon as we've dotted the i's and crossed the t's (And learnt the set – Ed). There will be a small token charge on the door and all profits will be donated to Care After Combat.
Feb 13. Today's hot news even surprised us. Gal has decided to launch a brand new one man stand-up show! It will be called Bushell On The Rampage, it will premier in South London this summer and we'll announce more details when we have them.
In a related story, Colin Gannon has pledged that he will follow in Gal's footsteps with a comedy show of his own to be called 'Fat Col – The Great Nuisanso' in which the beer-gutted fool will take his god-given ability to piss women off from everyday life to the London stage. A call from the Edinburgh Festival can surely be just days away...
We told you about the new UK Subs live DVD recorded at Scarborough (fair), but another Subs DVD is out next week. Dance & Travel In The Punk Rock Age With The UK Subs follows Charlie and co from shows in England and LA in the early 80s via their 90s resurgence and on into the noughties. It's absolutely fantastic that a bloke who went to school with Bruce Forsyth, Samuel Pepys and Christopher Wren and whose first pet was a woolly mammoth is still going strong.
Out now, Max G. Morton's new book Crossroads, a collection of Max's finest zine articles. As well as co-promoting Connecticut's TNT weekender, Morton wrote the rather splendid Indestructible Wolves Of The Apocalypse Junkyard, which inspired our own ditty 'Indestructible Wolves'.
Feb 11. A belated R.I.P. to Jimmy Bain, the former Rainbow and Dio bassist who died last month. Hard-living Scots born Jimmy, who also worked with Phil Lynott, passed away in his cabin while on Def Leppard's 'Hysteria on the High Seas' cruise. He had been battling pneumonia for some time, but the cause of death was lung cancer. Jimmy was 68.
Feb 10. A punk documentary film festival hits London's Regent Street Cinema this month. The films being shown are The Filth & The Fury, Who Killed Nancy? (she did!), Revenge Of The Mekons, Derailed Sense (about Vic Goddard & Subway Sect), Anarchy: The McLaren Westwood Gang, Basically Johnny Moped, I Need A Dodge, and Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten. (Wot? No East End Babylon? A shocking oversight – Ed). The fest runs from Friday 19th to Sunday 21st and you can find the screening times and ticket details from www.punkdocfestival.co.uk.
Those with long memories might well be asking whatever happened to our own movie, Curry On Up The Gonads. The recently liberated Fat Col tells us: "The short answer is nothing: the script was written, and bloody funny it is too; the cast were lined up, the spirit was willing, but the funding was weak... so we forgot about it." Who was organising the funding, we ask? "Toes," he replies, adding quickly: "Never say never, though. It would be tragic if the Gonads movie never hits the big screen. It's got everything: top tunes, big laughs, and more sex than the entire Mary Millington back catalogue." How coarse.
Feb 9. The shaming of Lee Wilson continues apace. Here is a recent picture of the self-styled "King of round-dodging" getting caught in a North London battle cruiser and forced to get his shout in by the outraged oi poloi. It was taken by our favourite snapper Jim Jimmy James who like all decent people was appalled by the Infa Riot frontman's despicable behaviour. So, dear readers, if you see the wretched Wilson out and about ducking his duty do not tolerate his swerving, instead shout the words "In for a round, Lee!", then make him get 'em in and send us the pictorial evidence. He'll be a better person for it.
PS. If you look closely you might notice that the Queen's face on that cockle is actually blinking. It had never before seen the light of day.
Feb 7. The big news is finally out! The Cockney Rejects are back! Original bassist Vince 'Vinnie' Riordan has rejoined the band – the only possible replacement for the late Tony van Frater. All three veteran herberts attended yesterday's gathering at Oi Oi The Shop in Camden to announce the good news, and tickets for their two 100 Club shows in April are selling fast, which leaves just one question: are you r-r-r-r-r-r-ready to rock?
Meanwhile, in memory of Tony VF, Mick is putting the finishing production touches to Tony's solo album. The CD will be released on 4th May – which would have been his 52nd birthday.
Garry Johnson's new book Punk Rock Stories & Tabloid Tales continues to provide endless gales of laughter, some of it intentional. But Gazza is very honest about Shona Wattsie Watts whom he describes as "having the best cheekbones since Debbie Harry" and "the best legs in punk rock". (An outraged Fat Col responds by attacking "Johnson's foul sexism" and adding "legs apart Wattsie's fantastic... I'd imagine"). Garry J also describes Lee Wilson as "the nearest Oi came to a male pin-up" – talk about should have gone to Specsavers! Lee, he adds, is "the Billy Idol of Oi!" Bleedin' idle, more like, given the miniscule number of Infa Riot releases to date...
Brilliant Bad Manners have joined the bill of this June's Big 7 Scooter Rally, which is looking increasingly like the Summer's must-do weekender. Also playing, an array of Mod and Ska combos including the Parkas, the Heavy Sol Band, the Estimators and the Skatonics. More tba.
Out imminently: the split single from the London Sewerage Company and Runnin' Riot. The 7inch comes on brown vinyl (natch) and features '12 Bar Night' by Barnet's mob and 'Double The Pain' from Belfast's finest. It's released by the London Callin' label as part of the 12 Bar Legacy collection. In other news, the Bouncing Souls are currently recording their new album and the Monkees will tour the USA this Summer to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their TV show. The band are also releasing the album Good Times! their first original material since 1997's JustUs. It'll include new songs by Noel Gallagher and Rivers Cuomo, among others. Hmm. 'SE7 Dole Day' might work for them...
R.I.P. Jon Bunch of Lucky Scars who died last weekend aged just 45. Jon was best known as the singer with Reason To Believe, Sense Field and Further Seems Forever. The cause of death is still unknown. Lucky Scars released their debut EP, 'Rock & Roll Party Foul' in December on Spartan Records. You can see the video for their single 'Bandita' here.
Can this be true? A well-placed source whispers that Panther is now a respected reggae producer. Rumour number 2: the Badoes are planning on releasing a split single with Jenny Woo? Can anyone confirm??
Feb 6. This debauched scene occurred in Soho last night. Gal is pictured with Micky Geggus, Terry Hayes & Hoxton Tom stoking rumours that this could be the new line-up of the Cockney Rejects expected to be announced in Camden later today. Alternatively it could be 1) Old mates meeting up for a few beers 2) The next big OiOi supergroup (the CoGos? The 4-Badoes?) or 3 The Teletubies have finally been caught out of costume. Check back tomorrow for The Truth.
Feb 4. Our big curry meet confirmed these plans are now set in stone: 1) We will record our first ever acoustic gig in March 2) We'll film our first ever DVD in April at a special invite-only London show 3) We now have a 90minute live set and we know how to use it.
Feb 2. It's hard to read Garry Johnson's Punk Rock Stories & Tabloid Tales as you have to keep putting it down to stop laughing. One surprise revelation in the book is news that Lee Wilson is campaigning to get Gal into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame! A nice idea but unlikely to work. Maybe Oi folk should start our own Street Punk Hall of Fame to honour the greats – Turner, Geggus, Bedsore, Mensforth, McFaull, Miller, Wilson, Frederiksen and the rest. The music biz never will.
It's our big curry/planning night tonight. On the agenda: our acoustic album, the first Nads DVD, and a two-set London show in April... more news no doubt to follow once the hang-over smog has cleared.
Feb 1. John Lydon turned sixty yesterday but the Gunners-loving ex Pistol insists he won't be cleaning up his act. "Drinking and cigarettes and having fun and staying up for endless days, these are all great attractions to me," he told GQ. "If I can't enjoy being alive, then I don't want to be alive... "
Did we tell you this already? Oxley's Midnight Runners' single 'Combat' is out on coloured vinyl from Oi! The Boat records. The 7" includes digital download.
