IN SEARCH OF NESSIE.

Hi bigmunkeyman fans.

After me last night in Edinburgh, where I’d paid me way by workin’ a few shifts behind the bar ( I actually drank more than I earned!), it was off to Loch Ness to look for me old mate Nessie.

Last orders please !!

Got back to the tent to find Toots had had more than a good time at the festival !!

Me an’ Mc Arthur tried to get her into the car but she was havin’ none of it. ” Am awrate. ” She said in a rather alarmin’ Scottish accent. “I’ll meet yer on the way .” And so off we set but not before sayin’ goodbye to me old piper mate in his Campbell Tartan ( I think it was Campbell anyway!)

So, with me drivin’ an’ McArthur navigatin’ ( with his door firmly locked!), we set off from Edinburgh to Inverness. We went over a bridge whilst lookin’ at The Forth Bridge, that takes you into the Kingdom of Fife.

The Forth Bridge is a cantilever railway bridge that spans the Firth of Forth. Building started in 1883 and took 7 years to complete, havin’ a length of 8,296 ft, and the worlds second longest single span of 1,710ft. It was designed by Sir Thomas Bouch, but after the collapse of the Tay Bridge ( another of his projects), it was taken over by Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Baker. It’s an engineering marvel !

Not a brilliant photo but then again I was doin’ about 90 an’ McArthur was hangin’ out the window…. again ! He never learns!

After a drive through the Grampian Mountains with stunnin’ scenery, we decided to bypass Inverness this time as I was in a hurry to see Nessie. I’d heard she was only gonna be around for a few days and so drove down to a village called Drumnadrochit, which is right on the Loch Ness.

Loch Ness is under that mist an’ so is Nessie! Last time I spoke to her she said ” Call me Misty.” I took this to be a code for ‘ When the mist is there, so am I .”

This was such a magical, mystical view that me an’ McArthur just had to sit a while an’ contemplate our next move.

So, hope you join us next week when we continue the search for Nessie.

Catch yer later jammers.

IN SEARCH OF THE ‘ MCMAN CLAN’

OH FLOWER OF SCOTLAND WHEN WILL WE SEE YOUR LIKES AGAIN……….

Hey jammers, at last I’ve made it to Scotland in search of my heritage, as I know I have ancestors from The Kingdom Of Fife. The first place to visit was obviously Edinburgh as the festival was happenin’ ! Managed to find a campsite pretty close by and the tent was put up and the beer cracked open !

After refreshments it was a little wander into the city, going through a park where we heard bagpipes. Well, would you believe it but it was me old mates from Ottawa, ‘The Sons Of Scotland’. “Hey, Bigmunkeyman !” They shouted. Course I had to have a little session with them.

Hadn’t lost my touch on the bagpipes …… or with the ladies !! She was a good lookin’ woman and hey, I am bigmunkeyman!

Had a go on the big base drum and hadn’t lost me touch on that either !! Of course another attractive lady helped !

After draggin’ myself away from all this attention, I finally made it into the city itself. Heck, it was BUSY ! I’ve not been in such a large crowd since Woodstock. The vibes were amazing with street performers, markets, free spirits and folk from all around the world.

One of the main features for anyone would be to visit Edinburgh Castle which is a fortress on top of the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation dates back to the 9th century BC. Even I don’t remember that far back ! The castle (of which I don’t have  a photo of cos Toots had disappeared with the camera !), is a backdrop to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo, which is held every August. You should try and make it there ! Now, the word ‘Tattoo’ apparently is derived from ‘Doe den tap toe ( toe is pronounced too), which is Dutch for ‘last orders’, translating as ‘close the (beer) tap’. This was a signal played by the regiment’s Drums and pipers, every night to signal to tavern owners to turn off the beer so that the soldiers would return to their billets at a reasonable time !!( Ha ! Fat chance of that!!)

Now, a strange thing happened. Way back I had a friend called Arthur and the last time I saw him was when we were touring Scotland and he fell from the car I was driving, shouting ” Och aye the nu !” I thought he said ” Ach, I’m all right now “, so I carried on drivin’ shoutin’ ” Bye, bye baby !”, and I’ve never seen him since. I often wondered what became of him and back in the 70’s I mentioned this story to a group of Scottish singers who turned out to be the legendary ‘Bay City Rollers !’ The rest is history. So, who the hell do ya think I bumped into but Arthur busking on his bongos !

I said ” Bloody hell Arthur, how have you been ?” Arthur replied ” Bigmunkeyman, I remember you, but I no longer go by the name Arthur.” “What yer called then ?” I asked. ” Well,” he said, “some call me Peanut, some call me Pican.” ” Others call me Cashew, but only if they have a head cold!” ” But you can still call your old friend Mc Arthur!”

So, me and me old mate mc Arthur spent the rest of the day getting re acquainted. ” What’s with the skirt Arthur ?” I asked.

” This is not a skirt!” he answered. ” This is the sacred robe of ‘The Psychedelic Punks’!

That put me in my place !!

Anyway, catch yer later jammers when next week I go in search of a certain monster ! Hope you join me !

BIGMUNKEYMAN’S BIG UK TOUR.

Hey, hey, hey, how’s it going bigmunkeyman fans ?

Just got back from me big UK tour, meetin’ up wi’ old friends, makin’ new friends and just some general shenanigans !!

A few of us set off for Dublin Port and the driver got us there lickety split There was me, me girl Toots Maytall an’ a dutch friend of ours called Volks van de Vagon. The rest were hopefully waitin’ up in Lancashire, but first it was Derbyshire we were headed for to attend a naming ceremony for TT ( Tiny Tigz). Once there we met up wi’ The Major, Ellie an’ Jess, a crackin’ crowd, although Ellie or was it Jess, said the Major was a major pain in the a**e !! Anyway then it was off to  Morecambe Lancashire to meet the posse who threw a whoop ass party !!

Let’s barbi an’ don’t burn the snags…… again !!!

Toots was involved in the veggie part makin’ garlic bread wi’ plenty of garlic an’ some bread !

 Party started, music pumpin’ an’ drink flowin’. That’s me an’ Volks van de Vagon (in purple) an’ the Jamaica twin Teds.

Lookin’ cool. Start the revolution bro, all hail the Che.

Toots, Volks an’ some random kid they are tryin’ to adopt…. apparently !

Then it all got a bit daft, someone parachutin’ in late an’ Lanzo  is still on the run , what a man !!?

Howler showin’ off doin’ the Funky Gibbon. ‘Do do do the funky gibbon’ is surely one way to clear a party ! Oh well, I have got a four hour drive to Edinburgh tomorrow ! Bring on the Scotland leg.

Catch yer later jammers.

IT’S A BIGMUNKEYMAN MONSTERMASH Part 2 Totally Locked !

Hey jammers, still with us ? Good, then let the party continue! Milky said that no Hallowe’en party would be complete without ‘Thriller’ Michael Jackson.

Did you know that this was voted the most influential music video of all time? The last time I saw Mickey j he asked me for some milk an’ then said he had to dash cos he had a doctors appointment………..

‘Enter Sandman’ Metallica was next on the deck an’ this classic is from their 5th album called Metallica (aka The Black Album;)

Oh dear, my memories of a metallica gig was when I was doin’ the Pyrotechnics at the Guns and Roses/Metallica Stadium Tour an’ James Hetfeild walked straight into a 12 foot flame durin’ ‘Fade To Black’. He suffered pretty bad burns an’ never spoke to me again.

Anyway, back to the party music an’ next up was ‘Monster Mash’ Bobby ‘Boris’ Pickett and The Crypt Kickers.

‘The Miskaberts’ Monster Mash

Believe it or not this track reached No1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in ’62. it was banned by the BBC for bein’ too ‘morbid’!!

‘BAD MOON RISING’ Creedence Clearwater Revival was next an’ this little beauty was written by band member John Fogarty an’ was from the album ‘Green River’ ’69. We all remember the scene from the film ‘An American Werewolf In London’ where the 2 guys are walkin’ across a foggy moor an’ this track is playin’, so creepy but pretty funny film!

An’ of course, no Hallowe’en party could end without playin’ one of me favourite bands, Rolling Stones an’ ‘Sympathy For The Devil’ from their ’68 album ‘Beggars Banquet’.

We wanted to play some ‘Kiss’ but didn’t have any but it got me to thinkin’ about the time Gene Symmonds asked me to get some black face paint for him an’ I forgot, so had to get some black paint from me uncle’s shed. It wouldn’t come off his face…. it was Hammerite !!! He never spoke to me again.

An’ so it all ended like all good parties should ! Hope you had as much fun as us. Happy Hallowe’en.

IT’S A BIGMUNKEYMAN MONSTERMASH ! First blood part one

Hey jammers, how’s yer jammin’?

Me an’ ‘The Miskaberts’ had a big Hallowe’en bash this weekend an’ what a munkeymash it was!

All of the gang dressed up an’ the home brew was a flowin’. Engel ‘Engelstein’ decided to play DJ an’ kicked it all off with a classic Alice Cooper track to get us in the spooky mood.

‘WELCOME TO MY NIGHTMARE’

This track is from their 1975 concept album of the same name. In ’64 ‘The Earwigs’ were formed an’ renamed in ’66 as ‘The Spiders’ who went on to have a No.1 radio hit with ‘Don’t Blow Your Mind’. They then renamed themselves ‘The Nazz’ but Todd Rundgren had a band called ‘Nazz’ so they had to change their name an’ needed a gimmick of some kind. Now, I always thought that their lead singer Vincent Furnier looked like bloody Bette Davis in ‘Whatever Happened To Baby Jane’ what with his caked on makeup an’ I told him so.He wasn’t keen on the name Bette so chose Alice Cooper after we were muckin’ about with an ouija board.

I can remember one incident when we were at the Toronto Rock’n’Roll Revival Concert in ’69 when I thought it would be a laugh to smuggle a chicken onto the stage ‘cos Alice had an act that involved rippin’ a pillow case full of feathers apart. He grabbed the startled chicken an’ threw it into an even more startled crowd, they went crazy an’ the chicken ended up somewhat plucked…… or words to that effect !! Did Alice really bite the head off that chicken an’ drink it’s blood? Well, he’s hardly gonna deny it !

An’ so now the home brew of ‘Real Northern English Bitter’ was goin’ down a treat when there was a bang as the door flew open an’ there stood ‘Milky Joe’, only the best DJ this side of the Watford Gap! I think he’s a friend of Keith Richard’s who met him after fallin’ out of a cocnut tree. So,Milky took to the decks an’ it all went coco loco…

MILKY JOE

His first track to hit the decks was ‘THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST’ Iron Maiden. This track was Bruce Dickinson’s record debut an’ was their first ever UK No1. I was their mascot for a while but was too busy tourin’ an’ so they created ‘Eddie The Head’

Their mascot Eddie was inspired by me an’ was originally a papier mache mask. He first appeared on their debut album ‘Iron Maiden’

Next up was ‘Paranoid’ Black Sabbath

One day me mate John ‘Ozzy’Osbourne asked if he could borrow me pet bat for one of his gigs. I didn’t give it another thought until I found out he’d bit it’s head off!

‘Bloody ‘ell Oz, what are ya doin’?’ “I thought it was rubber!” He replied. “And it bit me first!” He was right an’ he had to be inoculated for rabies! As for me pet hamster, I haven’t spoken to Freddie Starr since !!

‘HEY,HEY,WE’RE THE MONKEES’

Hey cats, how’s yer jammin’?

I’ve just got back from a brilliant week at the ‘bigmunkeyman’ look-a-like competition, held in honour of ….ME !!!!

There were some pretty cool characters attendin’, ( not as cool as bigmunkeyman of course), an’ some downright weird ones too, yes, you humans know who you are !! Even the odd canine got into the swing of things, but everyone was accepted tho’, that’s the name of the game.

Monkey themed music was the order of the day such as, ‘The Monkees’, ‘Gorillaz’, an even ‘The Goodies’ ‘FUNKY GIBBON’ ! No, I don’t own a copy of this (but then again, does anyone ?)

He thought he was in with a pretty good chance of winnin’, seein’ as he turned up with Dame Edna Everage style shades. Believe me the competition was pretty stiff.

I remember back in the day when I went bird watchin’ with the great Bill Oddie from ‘The Goodies’, an’ when he realised that I wasn’t actually lookin’ at birds of a feathered variety, he turned to me an’ said ” OOH, you’re a Funky Gibbon ! An’ the rest is history.

now, this is pretty damn realistic !

I don’t even have a copy of ‘The Monkees’ album anymore, no, I loaned that to Damon Albarn an’ never got it back ! D’ya think that’s why he called his next venture ‘Gorillaz’?

We found that the cat really got into the spirit of things, he must’ve been bloody hot in there. Top marks for effort.

‘The Monkees’ were a great group that were only put together for a TV sit-com back in ’66 but made some very well known hits durin’ the mid ’60’s before the sit-com was cancelled in ’68. I remember havin’ a drink with a couple of producers ( Bert Schneider an’ Bob Rafelson ), an they shouted across the bar as I came back with the drinks. ” Hey, hey, here’s the MUNKEY !!”

Obviously some didn’t have to make as much of an effort as others !

The line up of ‘The Monkees’ was Micky Dolenz ,Michael Nesmith,Peter Tork, an’ Davy Jones. Now, Tork was good with strings an’ keyboard, Nesmith guitar, Jones could play drums but was far too small to be behind the kit an’ so became the singer an’ Dolenz could also play guitar but they needed a drummer so he had to learn pretty quickly !

The massive success of the TV series an’ spin off records caused pressure to tour an’ so they made their debut live performance in Hawaii in ’66. They also went on to tour Australia an’ Japan. Although it was all a success an’ the fans acted in the same way as ‘Beatlemania’,the music publishin’ company wouldn’t allow them to play their own instruments on their records or use more of their own material.

“Is it because me is a monkey?” Booyakasha !

Anyway, ‘The Monkees’ first single was ‘Last Train To Clarksville’ from the album ‘The Monkees’, but it was their 3rd album ‘Headquarters’ that despite sittin’ right behind ‘Sgt.Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ in the charts, there wasn’t one hit single from it! After Tork resigned in Dec. ’68, the rest continued as a trio until Nesmith left in ’70 an’ even then Dolenz an’ Jones continued to tour thro’ most of the ’70’s.

‘The Monkees’ were often accused of copyin’ ‘The Beatles, even earnin’ the nickname ‘ Pre Fab Four’ an’ bein’ falsely accused of not playin’ any instruments or even singin’ on early albums which I think is very unfair. They were a fun group who gave alot of enjoyment to many people, even today. Kurt Cobain ( Nirvana) put their logo on the back of one of his guitars, Tom Petty said he was inspired by them more so than ‘The Beatles’, an U2 are big fans.

Who doesn’t love a Monkey ?

We thought that some of the competitors were gettin’ a bit ridiculous ! At least they made a bit of an effort.

I entered my look-a-like competition in disguise !

Why don’t you vote for who you think is the best by leavin’ a comment ?

Catch yer later jammers.

ROCK’N’ROLL HAS NOW ENTERED THE BUILDING

Hey cats, how’s yer jammin’?

Wow, what a trip that was in me spaceship! I found meself caught up in a timeslip wormhole an’ it whipped me back to the ’50’s. What a trip time that was an’ it got me to rememberin’ the days when music was startin’ to develop. After seein’ me old band mates an’ bein’ careful not to bump into meself, I had to dig out a photo of the band we used to be in called ‘The Miskaberts’

The band members were; ‘Two Hands’ Tui ( foreground), ‘Engel ‘Fingers’ Maginty (background), ‘Loverboy’ (middle), and ‘BB’ Boing ( at the end). ‘ Loungeroom’ Lizzie took the pic.

In the very early days there was Bill Hayley and The Comets ( somtimes known as His Comets) an’ these started in ’52 an’ were the first group of white musicians to bring Rock an’ Roll to the attention of white America an’ the rest of the world. This style is what we now know as ‘ Rockabilly’. Bill once said to me after a particularly energetic gig, ” You’ve got some energy, bet you could rock around the clock!” I said “What, 1 2 3 or 4 O’clock rock?” Rock Around The Clock apparently became one of the most important recordings of Rock an’ Roll history.

‘TWO HANDS’ TUI on his double bass. Don’t know where Bill Hayley got his style from !

Now, around the same time were blues/jazz artists such as Chet Atkins but in ’54 when I was sound engineering for Sam Philips at Sun Records, a little unknown 19 year old from Tupelo, Memphis suddenly put a Rock’n’Roll jazz beat to an energetic sound creatin’ true Rock’n’ Roll as we know it today…. and that young man? Elvis Presley ! I knew he’d go far an’ after speakin’ to ‘The Colonel’ we agreed he had to go global an’ he moved to RCA. One thing about ‘The Colonel’ he certainly knew how to advertise an’ promote.

Elvis brought youth culture an’ sexuality to a frenzy. He knew exactly how he wanted his sound to be an’ when recordin’ ‘Hound Dog’ in ’56, he had 29 takes at it an’ chose the 27th! Ha! If I’d been the engineer that day it would’ve been done in one !!

Some of the great tracks from this ’56 album are ‘Rip It Up’, ‘Long Tall Sally’, and ‘Ready Teddy’. Some of the greatest Rock’n’ Roll songs.

Another perfectionist in his sound was Sinatra who incidently didn’t like what Elvis was doing to music. I said to him “Now look here Frank, yer both great performers just different. What if I get yer both on the ‘Ed Sullivan Show’ an’ you can maybe sing together?” So they did, an’ sang ‘Love Me Tender’ an ‘Witchcraft’ at the same time as the one song. It worked !

Actually that cheered me up a bit ‘cos I was still sad at losin’ another mate ‘Buddy Holly’ in that planecrash. I remember it was snowin’ hard an’ me an’ The Miskaberts’ were just leavin’ after our gig at ‘Surf Ballroom’ , Clear Lake, when Buddy walked out. We offered him a lift but he said he was catchin’ a flight so I said “Ok,bye bye American Pie.”…….

When I was talkin’ to Don McLean later about the crash he must’ve taken it on board even though the plane wasn’t actually called ‘American Pie’!

Elvis once told me that his favourite film was ‘The Wild One’ with the great Marlon Brando starrin’ in it. All of these films of the 50’s such as ‘On The Waterfront’ an ‘Rebel Without A Cause’ all contributed to the change that was to come.

Rock’n’Roll was pure rebellion when the kids were startin’ to step away from their conservative parents who had very rigid views. They classed it as the ‘Devils’ music as they just couldn’t understand this new wave of youth.

One gig that me an’ ‘The Miskaberts’ were at also had Jerry Lee Lewis an’ Chuck Berry on the set. Chuck had been given the headline spot an ‘ Jerry bein’ Jerry wanted to get one over on him so he set fire to the piano that he’d been playin’, walked off stage an’ said to Chuck ” Follow that!”  It was a great stunt. ‘Fingers’ Maginty wasn’t so impressed though…. it was his piano !!

” WHAT ARE YOU REBELLING AGAINST?”

” WHAT YA GOT ?”

All of this great music an’ great times have led so many future bands  to appreciate the emotion that music creates. People like  Little Richard an’ The Big Bopper, well, there are just too many to mention an’ we all have a favourite.

As the great late John Lennon once said “Before Elvis there was nothing .”

Catch yer later Jammers. ( Bigmunkeyman has now left the building)

” GROUND CONTROL TO MUNKEYMAN “.

Hey cats, how’s yer jammin’?

This week I’ve been listenin’ to all of me old Bowie vinyls an’ I have quite a few !

One of the earliest that I have is’ London Boy’, a collection of recordings from ’66 to ’69.

I can remember back in ’62 when I loaned me saxophone to David Jones as he was known back then, so he could play with his first band ‘The Kon Rads’. The rest of the band were, Neville Wills, Alan Dodds, and Dave Cook.

When he joined ‘The King Bees’ in ’63, George Underwood was also in the band. Yeh, I know, the one that nearly blinded him in that school playground fight !Bob Allen, Dave Howard, and Roger Black made up the rest of the band and their first single was ‘Liza Jane’.

Later in ’64  he joined ‘The Manish Boys’and in ’65 ‘The Lower Third’.

In ’66, when I’d just got back from a huntin’ trip, David noticed me knife an’ asked me what kind it was.

” A ‘Bowie'”. I replied.

The rest is history!

Later in ’69 after I’d just got back from me first moon landin’ with me old mate ‘Buzz’, Bowie was so impressed that he wrote ‘Space Oddity’ for me. If I remember rightly the original words were ‘Ground control to Munkeyman’, but they got changed somewhere along the way !

That’s me playin’ the Mellotron on that track yer know…well, Rick Wakeman got stuck on the underground and was late for the recordin’ session ! David turned to me and asked “How’s life on Mars?”

I said “No David, it was the Moon that I went to.” He must’ve been a bit distracted or somethin’.

I can remember a free concert in Hyde Park that me old mates ‘The Rolling Stones’ held and Bowie performed ‘Space Oddity’ for the first time. It was a gas! The single was released in ’69 and again later in ’75.

Bowie used to love the ‘cut-up’ technique when writin’ his lyrics just as his favourite author William Burroughs had done before him.

I don’t think that this technique creates any disjointedness at all. By takin’ the power out of words, true feelings an’ concious thoughts can be free.

Once Bowie had become mainstream with ‘Space Oddity’, that’s when he started to really play around with different personas as he had a great love of mime an this gave the way forward for one of his greatest creations…. Ziggy Stardust.

It wasn’t just about the music but about the whole act.

But, as with all great creations somethings have to end and so he killed Ziggy off an’ started to think about his next creation. I thought he was bloody crazy at the time to have done such a thing an’ said to him “You’re a lad insane!”……..

                                               Don’t know where he got the idea from ……

A track on this album is entitled ‘The Prettiest Star’, no, not written about me this time ! Most people thought that it was written about Marc Bolan who I’d introduced to Bowie some time before. It turns out to be about Bowie’s future wife Angie.

After this came a slew of magical albums;

Pin Ups-Oct ’73 – acknowledging artists he admired.

Diamond Dogs Apr ’74- a controversial album cover.

Young Americans Mar ’75- androgynous Ziggy or alienated Aladdin?

Station To Station Jan ’76

Phew, no wonder he was gettin’ worn out ! At this stage everyone was treatin’ him as Ziggy an’ not realisin’ David Jones may be behind it !

Then it was crunch time. There comes a time when every great artist has to say STOP!!! He recorded ‘Low, Heroes and Lodger between ’77 and ’79 in Berlin an’ these became known as ‘The Berlin Triptych;.

At this stage he had reached an all time low an’ turned to me an’ said ” This is one of the worst periods of my life.” I put me hand on his shoulder an’ replied “We all have scary monsters in our heads”……..

It doesn’t matter whether we are rich or poor, famous or a ‘nobody’, we all have the same weaknessess an’ make the same mistakes. To me, tryin’ to not show a weakness is weakness itself. Be yourself an’ then you are a ‘somebody’. You are you. Be you.

All of a sudden through the ’80’s he went from strength to strength. Now, that would’ve made a good album title but he never went with it ! Anyway he reinvented himself again. Even through the ’90’s he carried on with the reinvention.

All in all though, the fondest memories I have  would be the early years ‘cos of my own ‘Oddities in space’!

FLY ME TO THE MOON !……….

Catch yer later Space jammers, once I’ve regrounded !

PLEASED TO MEET YOU, HOPE YOU GUESS MY NAME……

Hey there jammers.

So, here I am still in the UK enjoyin’ listenin’ to yet another great British band…… The Rolling Stones.

Keith Richards and Mick Jagger were always mates as they were at school together and loved the same kind of music especially the likes of Muddy Waters. I suppose it only seemed natural really that they’d form a band  and so they did, with Brian Jones, Ian Stewart, Bill Wyman an’ Charlie Watts in ’62.

One day they were asked what they were called, I looked down at a Muddy Waters album that had the track ‘Rollin’ Stone’ on it an’ said to Brian ” That’s a good name!” an ‘ the rest is history !

In ’62 they had their first gig at ‘ The Marquee Club’ an’ in ’64 came their first album ‘The Rolling Stones’

When Jagger was filmin’ ‘Ned Kelly’ in ’69, he wrote ‘Brown Sugar’ an’ I remember his mock baronial hall called ‘Stargroves’ where the band used to record some of their stuff. He even let ‘The Who’ an’  ‘Led Zep’ record there some time later. But, it was their mobile studio I remember the most ‘cos I used to park it outside thier houses an’ do tunes. They actually cut ‘It’s Only Rock And Roll’ ( But I Like It’) in Ronnie Woods’ house with David Bowie! ( It was recut later, but they kept the rythm)

In ’69 while ridin’ me Hog, some daft twit pulled out on me  an’ I went flyin’ apeways ! Jagger said ” Bloody Hell, you alright Munkeyman ?” ” Your knee is really cut up!”

I replied ” Let it bleed, hows me chuffin’ bike ???”

He was so impressed with me hardness that he wrote ‘ Monkey Man’ on the album ‘Let It Bleed’ It,s a special song that not many people know about !

Later in ’81 after Keith had been livin it up in Jamaica ( climbin’ coconut trees or somethin’!), he was pretty tight with ‘ The Wailers’ an’ wanted a reggae sound for ‘Start Me Up’. ‘cos after 15 years of playin’ Rock an’ Roll he was interested to get into the mechanics of how you did reggae.

I think that Mick ‘n’ Keith have pretty strong egos an’ considerin’ what volatile personalities they have, the band get along very well!

Anyway, goin’ back to ’69,  ‘The Stones’ organized an’ headlined a free festival at ‘The Altamont Speedway’ in San Fransisco. I was with ‘The Hells Angels’ at the time an’ we were asked to do security for 500 dollars worth of beer ! Now, I know a bit of trouble started an’ a fan got stabbed up an’ beaten ( durin; The Stones singin’ Sympathy For The Devil !) but the guy was packin’ a gun !

There were also 3 accidental deaths, loads injured (includin’ some of the acts !), cars stolen an’ loads of damage but hell, what a festival !

ME ON ME HOG

JUST CRUISIN’ BROTHER .

I know that ‘The Angels’ don’t come with a good reputation, but the things that we do in our youth doesn’t always determine the rest of our lives.

We may have the fun, we may have the time of our lives, but, at the end of the day we are still our own souls, there to create our own destiny.

One of the great British Angels I remember was me best mate, now the late ‘ Black Frank’,( BF to his mates). He was like a father to me.

Now, he got this name when we both worked down the pit/coal mine. It’s a dirty job but hey, someone has to do it !

SNAP TIME DOWN T’PIT.

Me’n’ BF had some pretty amazin’ times cruisin’ on our Hogs, imagine, 30 dirty bikers all ridin’ down to ‘Santa Pod’ ! Wow, the comeraderie between us all was amazin’. We’d then all sit an’ listen to ‘Deep Purple’, ‘ Rainbow’, ‘Bad Company’, an’ ‘Steppenwolf’.

One of my best, most treasured possesions has to be BF’s ‘Hells Angels’ colours/patches.

I will treasure these an’ all the memories forever !

RIP ‘ Black Frank ‘ You’ll never be forgotten.

Catch yer later jammers.

MY GGGGGENERATION !

Hey there bigmunkeyfans !

Decided to stay in the Uk for a while ‘cos I fancied catchin’ up with a few old jammers an’  mates. One of my favourite British bands has to be ‘The Who’. I could write about a dozen blogs on them !

Way back in ’64, the Mod scene in London was in full flow by the time ‘The High Numbers’ ( who would of course become ‘The Who’ ),were launched.

A 17 year old drummer called Keith Moon joined them an’ he was the catalyst that changed their sound an’ once they started to write their own mateirial they changed from R’n’B an’ soul.

Pete Townsend’s writin’ was aimed mostly at young male fans an’ reflected the harsh realities of growin’ up an’ it appealed to a youth market that felt little or nothin’ in common with the older generation. It’s about steppin’ away from yer parents, people have to accept. His writin’ is pure rebellion put into musical anarchy ! Surely these could be consisdered the first Punk records. It’s all music sensationalism an’ about squeezin’ the sound up ! Pete’s lyrics are so true an’ it all depends on the perspective of what you want to feel. He later said ” There comes a time when you can’t keep doing windmill arms an’ givin’ yourself nosebleeds. Sometimes it’s beyond the beyond !”

Can’t think where Mooney got his style form ?

Their first single as ‘The Who’ was ‘I Can’t Explain’ in ’65, but before this I can remember at one of their particularly loud shows I first met Pete an’ asked him “What are you called?”

Pete: “The High Numbers”

Me: “The who?”

Pete: “No, The High Numbers”

Me: ” The who?”

Pete: Who are you?”

I banged my chest an’ said ” Oo oo, oo oo”

He just laughed an’ the rest is history !

In ’67 I can also remember when I was settin’ up their eqipment for a US show ( The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour ), an’ Mooney bribed me to put a few extra charges into his bass drum ( they liked a bit of exhibitionism )……. FLIPPIN’ ECK !!!!! The explosion set Pete’s hair on fire an’ deafened him for about half an’ hour ! Once we’d put the flames out on his head, do you think it stopped him from smashin’ up the equipment as normal ? What do you think ?

I was then known as Bigbangyman an’ they weren’t ever asked to appear on a US variety show again, can’t understand why?……..

Another time in ’67 at Monterey, Hendrix was appearing at the same time as ‘The Who’. Now, they thought that Hendrix copied their habit of smashin’ guitars up on stage an’ they figured that if he went on first then they would look as if they were copyin’ him. I tossed a coin an’ The Who won an’ they went on first ! Pity Jimi had to go one better an’ set fire to his guitar ! At least it wasn’t Pete’s head this time !!!!

In ’69 ‘Tommy’ the rock opera was released. Pete got the idea from ‘Rock and Roll Circus’ ( more about this in next weeks journey), when he had to put together 3 songs to form one set. ‘Tommy’ was later taken on by Ken Russel who made it into one of the most iconic films with a menagerie of quality musicians and singers, Tina Turner an’ Eric Clapton to name a few. Even Oliver Reed an’ Sexy Jack’ Nicholson got to appear, although their singin’ isn’t maybe their strong point here !

When ‘The Who’ appeared at ‘Woodstock’ they were as memoralble as Hendrix. Apparently there was loads of LSD floatin’ around backstage ( even in the ice cubes). Must be why Roger looked so startled when the sun rose over the horizon at 4 am as he performed the magical ‘See me , Feel me’.

In ’78 ‘ Who Are You’ was released an’ it was the last time that Mooney played drums for them. The last time I saw Mooney was in LWT’s studio for a recordin’ of ‘The Saturday Banana’.

‘Two Sides Of The Moon’ Mooney’s album of ’75. Dependin’ on which side of the inner sleeve you looked at, you’d see either his face or his arse ! Typical Mooney style !!

In ’02 on the eve of their Us tour, John Entwhistle died, promptin’ Pete to write ‘Old Red Wine’ in his memory.

These guys all had great egos ( don’t we all?) but they never clashed. I’ve never known a band get on so well ! That’s Rock’n’ Roll!

We are the Mods, we are the Mods, we are, we are, we are the Mods ! ( Quadrophenia)

So, that’s all fer now so off to me next gig.

Catch yer later Jammers !