Top 5

And if that ain't enough for you, may I steer you in the direction of this marvellous blog

2) Bob Bogle, Don Wilson and Nokie Edwards out of The Ventures (3 for the price of 1)

3) Davie Allan, out of the Arrows

4) Dave Alexander, out of The Stooges

5) Fred "Sonic" Smith, out of the MC5

1) Brockwell Park 1984 - headlined by the Damned as what was to be the Captain's last gig for a few years, and ably suppoprted by The Fall, Spear of Destiny, New Model Army, Benjamin Zephaniah plus a whole host of shite (I recall Strawberry Switchblade suffered a particularly heavy barrage of beer cans). In a nostalgic mood I trawled the web the other day for any piccies, etc from this fest and hit gold here http://bigboxoftapes.blogspot.com/2009/05/damned-brockwell-park-brixton-london.html

2) Reading 1988 - The first year I went to Reading (I went back in 89, 90, 92 and finally 95), back in the days when it was still primarily a rawk festival, so most of the acts were cobblers. It was, however, the first time I ever saw the Ramones live, and the only time I saw them with Dee Dee on bass. They were, of course, fantastic and blew away all the other longhairs appearing that day. The headliner was Iggy, who also was great. Not as good as when I saw him 17 years later with the reformed Stooges, but still on top form.

3) Crystal Palace Anti Heroin Festival 1985 - As I recall I went primarily because Spear of Destiny were playing, but the day was headlined by the bizarre combination of Hawkwind (including a guest spot from Lemmy) and Vera Lynn (I jest you not). Sadly I left before this curious spectacle, but I do clearly recall a photo in the following week's Sounds showing a leering Dave Brock with his arm round a clearly terrified Vera Lynn. Also, apparently the anti-drugs message wasn't getting through as supposedly the bloke in the Mr Whippy van was selling Class A narcotics along with the mivvies and 99s.

4) Kent to Kentucky Bluegrass Festival - 2006, 2007, etc - This annual free festival of all things bluegrass is held each August Bank Holiday at the same stunning location I had my wedding reception. It's a case of banjos galore as numerous combos, some exisiting and very, very good, and some scratch, mostly as good,  tear through their best Flatt and Scruggs impersonations. It's also funny watching the bluegrass purists - I saw a lot of instrument cases emblazoned with stickers crying "KEEP BLUEGRASS PURE - NO MASSED BANJOS". Huh? I don't even know what would constitute massed banjos. Or indeed if the plural is banjos as opposed to banjoes. The first year there I saw a breakaway bunch of musicians sitting apart from everyone else and talking disparagingly about "those bluegrass people round the corner". What a shock, eh? bluegrass people at a bluegrass festival.

5) Canterbury Fayre 2002 - Great line up at this - The Damned, The Stranglers, Love, The Pretty Things, Arthur Brown. This was the first festival I took my daughter to, so her first festival experience, like mine, was seeing the Damned. Hearing Love open their set with a rip-roaring "7 & 7 Is" was a particularly memorable moment.

1) Las Vegas Grind 1999 - What a fan-fucking-tastic weekend this was. The line-up included The Trashmen, The Wailers, Andre Williams, Davie Allan and the Arrows, The Phantom Surfers, The Saturn V, The Wildebeests, Thee Mighty Caesars, Los Straitjackets, The Untamed Youth and a whole host of other excellent combos. I played there with The Diaboliks, an experience that was only slightly marred by the fact that it was during the period in the band's history when I was not on the best of terms with bassplayer #2. Irritatingly, bassplayers #1 & #3, both of whom were and still are very good friends, were in the audience, and the set would have been considerably more enjoyable had either of them been on the other side of the stage. Best of all though, because it was held in the ballroom of the Gold Coast hotel it meant that rather than have to trudge through a muddy field full of smelly hippies at the end of each evening, we just had to nip upstairs in the lift to a nice, comfy bed.

2) Wild Weekend I 1998 - I was lucky enough to play the first 3 Wild Weekends, WWI in London with The Diaboliks, WWII in Camber Sands with The Charles Napiers (and a surpirse last minute set out of uniform by The Diaboliks) and WW3 with The Dragnet 3. I enjoyed all of three of these excellent festivals, but I think the first was marginally the best, as the line-up included Question Mark and the Mysterions, Thee Headcoats, The Wildebeests, The Thanes, The Monomen, Fortune and Maltese, etc, etc. Mind you, The Rapiers set at WW2 is one of the best live gigs I've ever seen.

3) Devil Dolls Festival 2000 - This girlband festival in Oslo featured the last ever Diaboliks gig. As I recall, we blasted out a top quality set, then at the final note of the last song I whipped my guitar off only for my backstage pass to get hooked behind my ear, which somewhat shattered the cool rock'n'roll image I was hoping to project.

4) Festival Beat 1999 - This one was and still is run by the great Gianni Fuso in a mozzie-infested field somewhere in north Italy. Again it was The Diaboliks at this one, along with The Wildebeests and Groningen's mighty Waistcoats who we were to run into several times again over the next few years.

5) Munich Beat Festival (can't remebmer its real name?) 1996 - This storming Diaboliks set followed a slightly harrowing van breakdown in Hamburg and a breakneck overnight pelt through Germany to try and get there in time. All the pent up energy translated into one of the best performances we wever gave.

Ah, so having written this it appears that it's actually the Top 5 festivals I've played at with The Diaboliks. I really thought I'd done more festivals with other bands, especially the Napiers, but seemingly not.

Also, I ought to make special mention of the marvellous Endorse It In Dorset festival, having just played there for the second year running with The Flaming Czars.

2) The Tell-Tale Hearts (Bass: Mike Stax)

3) The Woggles (Bass: Buzz Hagstrom)

4) Naked City (Bass: Fred Frith)

5) Rockin' Lloyd Tripp & The Zipguns (Bass: Lloyd Tripp)

1) Harry Sledge (from Supervixens) I liked this character so much I named a song after him (Harry Sledge from The Charles Napiers' Square Root of Evil lp. Also to be found on the This Is...Mondo Wray cd and the Killing Time download. Actually, I say "like", but that's probably not quite the right word as Harry Sledge is a truly horrible, horrible character.

2) Tucker McElroy (fromThe Blues Brothers). McElroy is the Winnebago-driving leader of The Good Ol' Boys, and it's in this film that he utters the immortal line "you're gonna look kinda funny tryin' to eat corn on the cob with no fuckin' teeth". Probably the role for which he is most recognised. And rightly so.

3) Chrome Angel (from Citizens Band). One of the first films I saw featuring Chuck, in which he plays a redneck truck driver.

4) Harry (from Cherry, Harry and Racquel). In which he plays a corrupt sheriff and gets to play the filling in a Cherry and Racquel sandwich.

5) Lt Boyle (from Silence of the Lambs). In which he gets his face sliced off by Dr Lector.

1) I Was a Teenage Werewolf (from Songs The Lord Taught Us) - "I was a teenage werewolf, braces on my fangs". Listening back to this the other day, it occurred to me that this is darn near perfect; Ivy's tremolo-laden rock'n'roll guitar in one channel, Bryan's fuzz-drenched garage guitar in the other, Nick Knox's super minimalist drumming (just a tom, apart from a couple of cymbal crashes) and Lux's wild and darkly humourous vocals straight down the middle. And as if that wasn't good enough, it segues via a massive swathe of feedback into Sunglasses After Dark, nicked from (although duly credited to) Link Wray's Fatback/Ace of Spades. Sheer brilliance.

2) Human Fly (from Gravest Hits/Off The Bone/Bad Music For Bad People) - "I've got 96 tears for 96 eyes". Another great example of the Cramps formula desribed in 1 above; Twang, fuzz, toms and humour.

3) I Walked All Night (b side of Like A Bad Girl Should) The Cramps have consistently chosen great cover versions over the years, helping to introduce thousands of fans to all sorts of rock'n'roll oddities. The Born Bad and Songs The Cramps Taught Us series of albums perfectly illustrate this point, and are all fantastic. This cover of The Embers' R'n'B classic was buried away on a single from 1997, which seemed an odd thing to do as it outshines both the A side and the album they had out at the time (Big Beat from Badsville).

4) Thee Most Exalted Potentate Of Love (from Smell of Female). Not only is this the opening track from one of the greatest live albums of all time, but it was on the Smell of Female tour that I first saw The Cramps live (Hammersmith Palais, 29th May 1984). I love the fact that they never released studio versions of any of the tracks from Smell of Female, presumably because they knew they'd never match the energy and raw power captured at this gig(s). About a month after I saw them, The Tube showed a small Cramps feature that had them miming to Potentate and You Got Good Taste in a sleazy nightclub, which a mate videoed on his Philips toploader (possibly it was betamax...) and we watched endlessly until the tape wore out. And now, thanks to the magic of YouTube, here is that clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Cz8LNdFdew Oh how I've coveted Ike Knox's zebra fur clad Vox Teardrop...

5) Elvis Fucking Christ (from Fiends of Dope Island). Not unsurprisingly, the later albums weren't, in my humble opinion, anywhere near as good as the early ones, but then can you name a band who make better albums as they go on? The Bad Seeds spring to mind, but they are the exception to the rule. Anyway, this track brought a smile to my face the morning I heard about Lux's death. "Chicken-pluckin', Run-amok-in'" - yes indeed.

1) Poison Ivy - Not only is she an excellent guitarist, a fantastic songwriter, the owner of faultless musical taste, but she's a redhead. Her stage presence is magnificent too, always stood stage right, big ol' orange Gretsch going through a Fender Twin (is there a finer combination of guitar and amp?), never smiling yet not quite sneering. Such a shame I'll never get to see them play live again. 

2) Lux Interior - What a frontman. Mic down the troat, climbing the speaker stacks, writhing on the floor, wild rock'n'roll vocals, great lyricist. Ah, he'll be sadly missed.

3) Bryan Gregory - What a filthy guitar sound, and what a look. Not one I've ever felt inspired to emulate, but he truly looked and sounded unique.

4) Kid Congo Powers - The king of suave, and guitarist on some of my favourite albums, not only with The Cramps, but also The Bad Seeds and The Gun Club. A year or so ago I saw him on the platform at Victoria station. I glanced up and thought to myself "Oh, it's Kid Congo!". He caught my eye with a look that said "Oh, it's a Kid Congo fan!". Much as I was dying to run over and tell him how much I've loved his music, it was 8am on a cold December morning and I figured the last thing he'd want was me babbling on about Psychedelic Jungle or The Las Vegas Story.

5) Candy Del Mar - Oo-er, seeing Miss Del Mar several times with The Cramps in 1990, chewing gum and playing that Hofner Galaxy had me drooling like a fool.

2) Yellow Eyes - The Gun Club

3) A Pair of Brown Eyes - The Pogues

4) Green Eyes - Husker Du

5) Pale Blue Eyes - The Velvet Underground

1) "I got a feeling that makes me sing to the Lord, when you put your velvety sheath around my glistening sword"
from Space 1999 on the Twelve Point Buck lp

2) "The dude next to me said 'gimme a hit', so I passed him a joint I already lit, when I saw his badge I thought 'this is it', but he just said to me 'man, this is good shit'"
from The Pig Was Cool 7"

3) "You call this a hamburger? Hell, I could make a better hamburger with my asshole"
from Hamburger Martyr on the Burl ep

4) "Everyone but my old man was blown to kingdom come, He was left with a face that looked like chewed bubblegum"
from The Ballad of My Old Man on the Little Baby Buntin' lp

5) "Lupus took the life of Flannery O'Connor, she wrote many books before death came upon her"
from Lupus on the Twelve Point Buck lp

2) From Rusholme With Love - Barry Adamson (from the equally puntastic Taming of the Shrewd ep)

3) Bring Me The Rest of Alfredo Garcia - The Flaming Stars, the vast majority of whose output is pun-related

4) Liquor In The Front, Poker In The Back - Reverend Horton Heat (took me ages to spot that one. Duh)

5) Electric Landlady - Kirsty MacColl (one of the better puns on Hendrix's lp)

1) Rooster Stew - Bo Diddley

2) Chicken - The Spark Plugs

3) Chicken Choke - Link Protrudi & The Jaymen

4) Little Red Rooster - The Rolling Stones

5) Rockin In The Henhouse - Huevos Rancheros

2) The News Quiz

3) QI

4) The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy

5) The Meaning of Liff

John Lloyd, eh, what a top fella.

1) Ray Charles

2) Blind Willie McTell

3) Jose Feliciano

4) Clarence Carter

5) Blind Willie Johnson

2) Mosrite

3) Fender XII

4) Gretsch 6120 (I've got a nice copy, but it's not the real deal...)

5) Danelectro Longhorn Bass

2) Billy Lee Riley

3) Jeffrey Lee Pierce

4) John Lee Hooker

5) Jamie Lee Curtis

but most definitely neither of those talentless quimchins, Dave Lee Travis & Justin Lee Collins.

2) Reverend Horton Heat

3) Dale Hawkins

4) Buddy Holly

5) Big Mama Thornton

1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

2) I'll Cry Instead - Joe Cocker (odd that the bloke responsible for the worst ever Beatles cover -
With a Little Help - should also have done one of the best ones, albeit 4 years earlier and with far better source material)

3) Cry In The Night - Q65

4) I'm So Lonesone I Could Cry - Hank Williams

5) Why Do I Cry?  - The Remains

2) Sonic Youth performing Daydream Nation at the Roundhouse, 31st August.  Best SY album by a country mile, and the band looked like they were enjoying themselves as much as the audience.

3) Rodrigo Y Gabriela at the Hammersmith Odeon*, 9th December. Who'd've thought that 2 acoustic guitarists could enthrall a packed Odeon for 90 minutes. And as for Gabriela's strumming hand...

4) The Wildebeests at the Dirty Water, 15th September. First time I'd seen them since the Las Vegas Grind in 1999, and good to see that they're still as ramshackle/brilliant as ever.

5) Grinderman at the Town & Country Club*, 20th June. Great set from Grinderman, shockingly bad set from Suicide and annoyingly I missed Seasick Steve, who was the opening act.

*Yeah, yeah I know the Odeon is now the Apollo and the T&C is the Forum, but I still live in a world of Marathons, Opal Fruits, Jif not Cif, etc...

2) Chicken (or Lamb for that matter) Biryani

3) Non Veg Thali

4) Onion Bhaji

5) Poppadoms

2) Detail from front cover of The Diaboliks final release, a split 12" e.p. with 54 Nude Honeys

This one was drawn by the fantastic Vince Ray, and as you can see features The Diaboliks and 54 Nude Honeys having a good ol' dust up.

3) Front cover of Charles Napiers' Regular 40 e.p.

This one was knocked up by a bloke called David from Check My Chops, a fanzine dedicated to sideburns(!) Not sure whether it ran to more than one issue...

4) Detail from back cover of The Diaboliks' "Ramrod/Slaveboy" double A-sided single

This one was drawn by a friend of Anja's called Tina (I think). I'd only met her once, and when it came to her drawing the caricatures of the band she realised she had no idea what I looked like, other than she recalled I had a big pair of chops. So for the rest of it, she just guessed, hence the frilly shirt with the Harry Hill collars...

5) The first 3 Charles Napiers "cassette only" releases...

The above picture is taken from the sleevenotes to the "This Is...Mondo Wray" compilation CD as I couldn't be bothered to root through the garage to unearth the original tapes. The Napiers' first 3 recording sessions, at Toe Rag Mk1, were released in their entirity on cassettes with hastily knocked up covers by me. For the first one, I tried to preserve the anonymity of the band by sticking heads of lookalikes onto the hand-drawn bodies (I'm Tim Robbins, Danny is Bob Carolgees, John is Adrian Pasdar) but I couldn't find a good enough lookalike for Clive, so that's his own bonce. By the 2nd tape we'd progressed to all having our own heads on hand drawn bodies and by the 3rd tape it's all real, except for John's left arm which was cut off the edge of the photo, so I filled it in with black marker pen.

2) Buzzcocks - Boredom - 2 notes

3) Shadows Of Knight - Gonna Make You Mine - best garage punk solo of all time.
Excellent drumfill after it too

4) The Squires - Going All The Way - second best garage punk solo

5) The Kinks - She's Got Everything - Dave Davies was the absolute king of the hamfisted solo
best displayed on this cracking number, which was on the b-side of the 'kin awful "Days"

1) The Batmobile

2) The Munsters Koach

3) The Monkeemobile

4) The General Lee

5) Dragula

1) They're unsightly

2) They're a health hazard. You can catch your left foot in your right flare and go arse over tit.
Or get them caught in your bicycle chain.

3) They're a sign of bad music. For example, look at soul - in the 60s soul was good and trouser
bottoms were narrow. In the 70s, soul was bad and the trousers bottoms were generous. 
Co-incidence? I think not. Same goes for The Who - My Generation; narrow strides, good album.
Who's Next; bell bottoms, overblown rock cobblers with synths (ugh).

4) I had a particularly nasty pair of half mast beige corduroy lionels when I was a nipper.
Even at the tender age of 7 I realised they looked 'kin awful.

5) I am neither a sailor, nor a funk musician - the only two groups of people who should
be allowed by law to wear them.

2) Tatty Seaside Town - The Membranes

3) Psycho - The Swamp Rats

4) I Just Don't Understand - Ann-Margret

5) Rumble - Link Wray

2) Y tu mama tambien (2001) - Excellent Mexican film in which two horny teenagers and an older woman
head off on a road trip/voyage of discovery.

3) Vampiros en la Habana (1985) - Bizarre cartoon about a secret potion that allows vampires to exist in
sunlight, and therefore lounge around on the beach.

4) Accion Mutante  (1993) - This is the plot summary from the IMDB: "In a future world ruled by
good-looking people, a terrorist group of mutants leaded by Ramon Yarritu kidnap the daughter
of Orujo, a rich businessman, to claim for the rights of the ugly people. Escaping from the police
in their spaceship, Ramon try to kill his gang in order to get all the ransom. The trip ends abruptly
when they crash in Axturiax, the planet of the crazy miners where no woman lives." Yep, that about
sums it up. Absolutely bonkers.

5) Nueve Reinas  (2000) - Really taut Argentinian con/heist/thriller that keeps you guessing all the way through

I was living in Amsterdam at the time, and was hugely excited to discover that top Nederbiet combo
Q65 were playing a bar in Apeldoorn (about 50 miles down the road). I rang the bar to confirm they
were playing, and the bar owner mistakenly assumed I was travelling especially to Apeldoorn from
England just for this gig. He then excitedly told everyone in Apeldoorn that this English bloke was
coming over just to see the Q65, so when I pitched up at the bar, I was greeted like royalty. The Q65
guys were really chuffed that I'd come so far (I decided not to burst their bubble) and so we gassed
away merrily before their set. Although there were only two original members left, all of them were
friendly and pleasant and we had a good old natter. Then they went on stage and started playing the
most turgid chugga-chugga blues rock it's ever been my misfortune to hear.
I think I lasted about 4 songs before sneaking out and high tailing it back to Amsterdam

2) Bo Diddley, London Astoria, June 1991:

It's always a gamble when you go to see old gits, especially when it's the best part of 3 decades since
they released their last decent record. Although Bo himself was still interesting to see, this gig was
disappointing for 2 reasons - firstly the backing band who seemingly had no idea how to play Bo's
songs and secondly because Bo thought he needed to get "down with the kids" by doing a rap. Dire.

3) Davy Graham, Burgess Hill, Oct 2007:

I discovered the marvellous Davy Graham relatively recently, so when I found out he was coming to
my home town I went through the usual old dilemma of "will he be good, will he be shite" then
decided it was worth the risk of going to see him. Alas, he was awful. Bum notes, timing shot to
pieces, incomprehensible intersong mumblings and a set that lasted about half an hour. Oh well.

4) The Wailers, Las Vegas Grind, Oct 1999:

If you've read this far you'll probably have realised this is Tacoma's Fabulous Wailers, not Bob
Marley's lot. Here's a band who recorded some great rock'n'roll instrumentals in the late 50s,
backed Rockin' Robin Roberts on his great take of Louie Louie in the early 60s, then mutated
into a top quality, fuzz drenched mid 60s garage punk combo (their wild take on The Beatles'
I'm Down is one of my all-time favourite songs). Alas when I saw them at the first Vegas Grind
they were a bit "chicken in a basket"

5) Elisha Blue, The Borderline, sometime in 1989

I'd seen this bloke a few times at the Grey Horse in Kingston, pounding out some electrifying
electric blues (a la Hendrix), so when I saw he was playing the Borderline I dragged a bunch
of mates along, only to discover he wasn't doing his blues set that night. Oh no, he was playing
Prince-style funk. I think we left after half a song.

2) http://www.bagrec.com/ Richard Sanderson's blog is always entertaining,
whether he's talking about music, outer space, atheism, the politics of the left
or even morris dancing

3) http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/ My new favourite website. Blisteringly funny
satirical news spoof, and right up there for me with the mighty http://www.tvgohome.com/ 
(which is no longer updated regularly, hence no longer viewed daily by me)

4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page Notoriously inaccurate, but endlessly fascinating

5) The statistics page for this website - Firstly, because it's interesting to see how many hits
the site gets, and which pages get the most, and secondly because it lists the search terms
people enter into Google, Ask, etc that lead them to stumble (unwittingly more than not I suspect)
upon this site. My favourite is still the unfortunate individual who was trying to find images of a
certain "gentlemen's interest" performer's toilet parts, and ended up here. Bet that cooled his ardour.

2) Frank Bullitt's Mustang

3) Jack Regan's Granada

4) William Bodie's Capri (I never knew his first name until just now. Good ol' Wikipedia, eh?)

5) The Z Cars' Zephyr

2) 1983 Transit. The precursor to the Econoline above. It was late 1994 and The Napiers
had booked their first German tour, so rather than do something sensible like hire a nice,
modern, comfy van I decided to buy a clapped out death trap with no heating or stereo
and back doors that had a tendency to pop open when travelling down the motorway at 80mph

3) 1979 Fiesta. The first of 5 Fiestas I've had, and like my Fender Twin, Watkins Copicat & Fuzzface,
previously owned by my step brother. Towards the end of its life, this little car was held together by
gaffer tape (not an exaggeration), the brakes were shot, the clutch was knackered and on the last time
I drove it the radiator blew up. So I parked it in Sidcup B&Q car park and carried on with my business,
and when I returned the next day to collect it someone had nicked it! They presumably only got a mile
or so down the road before it overheated and died, so they abandoned it, but by the time it was found
the insurance company had paid out on it. Hahahaha.

4) 1997 Mondeo. Not the most stylish of Fords, but it is big and black and as a friend of mine pointed out
"it's got a two corpse boot"

5) 1972 Consul Estate. This was the family car we drove to Italy in that year. That's my parents in the front,
my five brothers and sisters in the back seat and me in the boot with all the luggage. And it looked like
Jack Regan's motor in the Sweeney (albeit the estate version)

(pictures swiped off Wikipedia - not piccies of the actual cars. In case you gave a monkey's)

2) The Hanson Brothers

3) Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet

4) Big Rude Jake

5) The Haunted

2) Bacon (particularly in a sarnie with lashings of tommy k)

3) Gala Pie (with the loooooooong egg down the middle)

4) Roast Pork (with all the trimmings)

5) Scratchings (mmmmm; hairy, crispy pig fat - the king of bar snacks)

2) My Daddy Is A Vampire - The Meteors

3) Daddy Died On Saturday - The Outsiders

4) Gone Daddy Gone - The Violent Femmes

5) I'm A Long Gone Daddy - Hank Williams

2) Dick Dale

3) Colin Pryce-Jones

4) Kid Congo Powers

5) Jimi Hendrix

2) Cadillac - Bo Diddley

3) One Piece At A Time - Johnny Cash ("This is the Cottonmouth in The Psychobilly Cadillac, c'mon" -
could this be the first use of the term "psychobilly" in song?)

4) Twin Cadillac Valentine - The Screaming Blue Messiahs

5) Bring That Cadillac Back - Harry Grafton

Johnny Cash's 49, 50, 51, 52, etc Caddy

2) Colin Gordon

3) George Baker

4) Peter Wyngarde

5) Guy Doleman

Be seeing you...

2) Teenagers From Outer Space - The Meteors

3) Teenage Kicks - The Undertones

4) Teenage Lobotomy - The Ramones

5) Teenage Riot - Sonic Youth

2) L.S.D. - Wendell Austin

3) B.M.C. - The Wildebeests

4) F.B.I. - The Shadows

5) G.L.C. - Menace

* = Three Letter Acronyms

2) Life, The Universe And Everything

3) The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe

4) So Long, And Thanks For All The Fish

5) Mostly Harmless

So almost in order of release, although I marginally prefer part 3 over part 2

2) Burnette

3) Johnson

4) Thunders

5) Rotten

Aargh! No room for Cash...

2) Richard Stark

3) Charles Willeford

4) Carl Hiaasen

5) Ian Fleming

2) Otis Rush

3) Phil Otto

4) Dr Ross

5) Lee Pomeroy

2) Jimmy Duncombe (out of The Rackets)

3) Willy Glover (out of The Pyramids)

4) Nish (out of The Green Hornets)

5) Paul McCartney (out of The Beatles)

2) Johnny Johnson

3) Lefty Frizzell

4) Billy Bob Thornton

5) Cal McCormick

And don't even get me started on Facebook...

2) The Riddler

3) The Joker

4) King Tut

5) Penguin

2) Ramones - Ramones

3) Naked City - Naked City

4) Specials - Specials

5) Grinderman - Grinderman

Generally speaking, I don't like it when bands title their albums eponymously. I think it shows a lack of imagination. I don't even like it when an album is named after its lead track. I much prefer albums to have a distinct title, hence the next list...

2) Songs About Fucking - Big Black

3) Dial M For Motherfucker - Pussy Galore. I don't actually like this band, but a great title
and a cracking cover (a bad-assed dude with an afro and a shooter kicking down a door)

4) Songs The Lord Taught Us - The Cramps. Not 'Songs of the Lord Tortoise' as a friend
of mine thought this was called

5) Liquor In The Front, Poker In The Back - Reverend Horton Heat. Took me years to spot
the double entendre in this title. Duh.

2) Sister Rosetta Tharpe

3) The Duchess

4) Dot

5) Kim Deal

2) Ballad of Robert Moore & Betty Coltrane - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

3) Ballad of My Old Man - Killdozer

4) Ballad of JD - The Vibes

5) Ballad of Rock Ridge - Mel Brooks

2) Craig

3) Brosnan

4) Lazenby

5) Moore

...and having seen Casino Royale, which was excellent, Craig jumps straight in at number two.

2) Moanin' at Midnight - Howlin' Wolf

3) Midnight to Six Man - The Pretty Things

4) Midnight Cowboy - John Barry

5) Midnight Blues - The Detroit Cobras

1) B3

2) C3

3) L100

4) A122

5) D152

2) A Legal Matter

3) The Good's Gone

4) La La La Lies

5) The Kids Are Alright

All killer, no filler

2) Becker

3) That 70s Show

4) Seinfeld

5) Scrubs

I really only have Sky so I can watch the Paramount Comedy Channel

2) Reverend Horton Heat

3) The Wildebeests

4) Killdozer

5) World Domination Enterprises

not to mention Thee Mighty Caesars, Cream, The Jam, Motorhead, Thee Headcoats,
The Oscar Peterson Trio, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Band of Pikeys,
The Jimmy Smith Trio, Big Black, Rapeman, Huevos Rancheros,
Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet, Cee Bee Beaumont, The Meteors,
The Big Three (all 3 of them - Willie Dixon's, Tim Rose's and the Scouse beat ones),
Hipbone Slim & The Kneetremblers, The Screaming Blue Messiahs, The Pirates,
Wilko Johnson, Thee Cybermen...I could go on.

2) I Don't Wanna Grow Up

3) I Wanna Be Well

4) I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You

5) I Don't Wanna Go Down To The Basement

2) Brosnan

3) Lazenby

4) Moore

5) Dalton

Have to wait and see what this Craig fella's like.

2) Dairylea

3) Tesco Deep Fill Cheese and Onion Sandwich

4) Those little cheesey cocktail biscuits

5) Shiny Green Quality Street

2) Dr Explosion - Asturian Trash Trio. Very, very good live,
although they did whine when they borrowed my H&H amp, because it wasn't a Vox.

3) Dr Ross - One man blues band. Plus he played left handed upside down & back to front (the only way)

4) Dr Deleto & His Invisible Vapotron - Rhythm guitarist out of Man Or Astroman

5) Dr John - At his best when he keeps his trap shut and just tinkles the ivories

2) Taxman (The Music Machine)

3) Dear Prudence (Siouxsie & The Banshees)

4) Help (The Damned)

5) She Said She Said (The Black Keys)

2) Who Loves The Sun by The Velvet Underground - About a minute in you hear Lou Reed
cough in the background. Apparently he was a bit tom that day

3) Some Fool's Mess by Gallon Drunk - At one point James Johnston drops his guitar with
an audible clunk, Mike stops the bass but Max carries on drumming. Mike comes back in on
bass, followed by a howl of feedback and screeching organ. Best bit of the song.

4) Shop Around by Johnny Kidd & The Pirates - The organ player decides to change key
halfway through, but the rest of the Pirates decide to stay in the key they were in.
Two bars later, Mr Organ Player rejoins them

5) Bob Dylan's 115^th Dream by Bob Dylan - Ten seconds in and the whole thing breaks down
into raucous and seemingly uncontrollable laughter. But then the whole band come back in and
are tight as a camel's bottom in a sandstorm.

2) Poison Ivy

3) Reverend Horton Heat

4) Brian Setzer

5) PJ Harvey

2) Sophie Skittles - I suspect the 9 years (6 in the Diaboliks, 3 in The Napiers) 
I spent positioned about a foot in front of her crash cymbal has a lot to do with
the diminished performance of my lugholes

3) Debbie Green - X Men, Dutronc, etc

4) Robert Hampson's missus - the original Loop drummer

5) Mavis out of the Priscillas - saw them supporting the Cramps
the other week and bless my soul she was good

2) The Pink Panther (1963)

3) The Return of the Pink Panther (1975)

4) The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)

5) The Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978)

All other PP films (including the atrocious Inspector Clouseau (1967) with Alan Arkin as Clouseau)
should be avoided at all costs. Actually the last 3 in the above list are fairly ropey, apart from the classic
"Does your dog bite?" dialogue from "...Strikes Again" of course.

2) Fuzz

3) Tremolo

4) Echo

5) Feedback

All of the above to be found extensively on the recordings made by the various combos on this website

1) Brian Jones - multi instrumentalist, probably the last person to play slide guitar
on a number 1 single (Little Red Rooster) and anyway, it was HIS band!

2) Charlie Watts - Absolute proof that less is more.

3) Bill Wyman - Great bass player, and can't help but respect him
for getting out when he did (mind you, about 23 years earlier would have been ideal)

4) Keith Richards - Is it lead? Is it rhythm? Who cares, it sounds great

5) Mick Jagger - Preening buffoon