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I'll throw this up in honour of Val's latest real true news broadcast. A timeless classic, never grows old, a bit like myself actually.

 
Old Serge had a good innings for a guy who looked like a tired bank clerk from Nimes in fairness.

Really - plus the evil Gauloises blue hanging off his bottom lip.

French ladies (like Finnish ladies) expect a man to smell like a man, not a Body Shop outlet. And the typical French male never lets them down either. Cigarettes, sweat, red wine, last week's after shave, well worn clothes, and of course garlic. The sexy motherfuckers.

 
I encourage everyone to listen to this playing of the irreplacable George Harrison's tribute song, at his Hall of Fame induction, performed by differing levels of Rock royalty (as well as a son who looks identical to George), but especially want to point out the guitar solo of another member of Rock royalty, a Hall of Famer, as it were, the late, great, duly irreplacable Prince.

 
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I encourage everyone to listen to this playing of the irreplacable George Harrison's tribute song, at his Hall of Fame induction, performed by differing levels of Rock royalty (as well as a son who looks identical to George), but especially want to point out the guitar solo of another member of Rock royalty, a Hall of Famer, as it were, the late, great, duly irreplacable Prince.



Yes, seen that a few times... Prince was amazing there, just took it away. Saw him live once and he was just astonishing. Bit of a statement performance there at the Hall of Fame. Great song for him to take the solo as well and in fairness he did make the guitar weep...
 
The gig I saw him play I was lucky enough to get two free tickets to the Lovesexy tour gig at the Arena and I didn't realise the tickets I'd been given were in the VIP/celebrity area, Boy George was a couple of seats along and Sam Fox sat behind me. Boy George had a plastic bag of tins of Tennants Extra he was slurping from through the whole gig:) We were right up close to the stage so got a great view of the performance.
 


Mik's just sublime. My main man Pete PAMF plays in the band on occasion, the side show stages at the major festivals and the party nights at Whelan's. The Republic Of Loose was another deadly little local project, not sure if they're still going, but they put on a great show.

We did a club night back in the early 90s we called 'Cosmic Slop' at The Rock Garden. We had DJ Speedy flipping on the decks and I designed a stage set for the band based on U2's global tour with the Zoo TV album. I had five television sets of which only one worked properly so I used that one to tune into static. Another had a candle inside behind the glass and another a kettle inside that was left boiling with the steam rising. Another had a pot plant (actual pot, that is) and the fifth one was for smashing at the end of the show.

Instead of your usual rock star type staging I sat the uilleann pipes player on a love-seat with a table in front of him featuring his bong and some other bits and pieces. The bassist wore a full black ninja suit with just his eyes showing. I was body-painted and set my rig to stage left to keep the centre stage area clear for the more mobile players. I did a piss-take on U2's Wavin pipes logo using standard bathroom plastic plumbing pipes and corner pieces, then sprayed it brown and yellow here and there to look like actual used manky dirty toilet piping.

Everything you saw on the stage was put there deliberately, the standing lamps, a window frame with a plastic tree behind it, a table on stage right set like a Dublin family's dinner table: tomato ketchup, a pint of milk, Lyon's tea in a rusty old tea-pot, cream crackers, ash trays with burning cigarettes, a folded newspaper, etc. We even had a washing line with pegs holding up male and female underwear, socks, a shirt, etc. It was quite surreal all told but also great fun to see the reactions we got. We'd invite pals up onto the stage to roll a spliff or two at the table, looking out at their friends laughing and dancing.

Great times in Dublin - back then you had cool shows and gigs pretty much every night of the week, so if you wanted a decent crowd you had to have something different for them. Slop TV was a roaring success with the art college set, the Trinity set, and oddly enough the veterinarian set too. We'd played their lecture hall along the Merrion Row opposite the American embassy in Ballsbridge. They booked us for the Trinity Ball - the 400th anniversary Ball which we played at 0600 with a thirteen piece band for a fee of exactly £1.00.

One punt - strictly for insurance purposes. We were given three AAA passes instead of thirteen, so earlier in the day I went to the copy shop along Sth Gt. George's St where I knew the owner who turned a blind eye and I scanned in the AAA and reprinted around fifteen or twenty of them. The excess ones we sold at the gate for twice the price of a regular ticket. The proceeds spent on MDMA, which I foolishly took at around midnight thinking all would be well by dawn. Biggest mistake ever: I was seeing multiple drumsticks in front of my face and trying to stay focused when I was really fucking out of it. I had to do a photo shoot the next morning at 1000 with Brian, the bassist with Kila (he stood in for the Trinity gig) for Jardin A La Mode, a french fashion magazine who were doing an editorial for wool-wear by Paul Smith. We were still rattled when we started the shoot down in Ringsend on a little cobbled street lined with tiny houses.

When I saw the state I was in in the polaroids, I was mortified - so was Brian.

When the shoot was finished we hit the pub for the hair of the dog.

I think I slept for two or three days after all that.

Never got to see the finished editorial either.

Probably just as well, eh.

 
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The gig I saw him play I was lucky enough to get two free tickets to the Lovesexy tour gig at the Arena and I didn't realise the tickets I'd been given were in the VIP/celebrity area, Boy George was a couple of seats along and Sam Fox sat behind me. Boy George had a plastic bag of tins of Tennants Extra he was slurping from through the whole gig:) We were right up close to the stage so got a great view of the performance.
You're a lucky man if you got to see him play live, he was skyrocketing to stardom as I was coming of age. I was not even a big fan back then, but I'vew become one since he's gone, as I've realized what a musical prodigy he really was, someone so immensely talented as both a musician and a performer that I can only think of Michael Jackson as his contemporary. Where is the Arena located, and what year was that?
 
Sorry odanny, that was Wembley Arena and it is going back to 1993 I seem to recall so it may not have been the Lovesexy Tour but the later 1990s tour. I can't recall the circumstances around how I got two tickets and particularly in the VIP area but the tickets were through a mate who had something to do with the Arena lighting, rigging and stage set-up I think.
 
Around the time I got free tickets for a few gigs- George Benson was one that surprised me because I had him down as an Alexander O'Neill 'soul' singer of that era and didn't know his back history in jazz so when he pulled out this gorgeous looking jazz guitar and let fly with it I was rooted.

Also got to see Annie Lennox and Eurythmics doing an Amnesty gig which was excellent.
 
Thank god yiz have me here to post decent music

Released in 1969 - it's still fairly fresh at only fifty-four years old.

If you like that sort of thing.

Here's something a little younger from 1984, from Robert Fripp and Andy Summers, of King Crimson and The Police respectively:



Two of my favourite guitarists ever.
 
I'll throw this up in honour of Val's latest real true news broadcast. A timeless classic, never grows old, a bit like myself actually.


Some interesting background on the above.

That was our own Phil Lynott who voiced the part of Parson Nathanial in the narration.

He also performed a couple of the songs, including this one.


David Essex voiced the part of the Artilleryman. The great Herbie Flowers was part of the production too.
 
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