Leonard Smalls

Love 'em! Saw them a few times - most memorable was at the Mean Fiddler in 1988ish... Gabby was covered in blood after being hit by a glass, then he set himself on fire (as you do) as the band played on. And meanwhile, there was a riot outside due to the amount of folks trying to get in without tickets. Worrying and still excellent!

Featuring some great bass by Etienne Mbappe... https://ranjitbarot.bandcamp.com/album/bombay-makossa?fbclid=IwAR2a22URS2PcqO_tG2WzJKh_KcCeNEPdvpkQrkiR3EUusA-_CqwmkTLmEB8

I always take two pairs of pants, just in case...

Enjoying these guys - played with them last Saturday in Birmingham...

I once did a gig wearing 9 different hats... At the same time!

Choked played the Dark Horse in Moseley, Birmingham last night... Not many folks turned up (30 or so) which was a shame as all 3 bands (including us!) were on fire... Not literally, of course as that would have been a bit too exciting. It was also the 1st gig we used the Tourbus (Vivaro van) which meant I could have a whole 3 pints of Real Ale and enjoy the other bands. After we'd played our guitarist had rather too many, plus rum'n'cokes, and chucked up outside (the shame!). Still, highly recommend Ünhang from Brighton; loads of energy, tight as and musically interesting as well as being rockin'. Here's us though, more importantly:

A bit of Rolling Stones 😁

This little lot... We're on first so can actually watch the other bands with a pint as it's our first trip out in The Tourbus (i.e. Vauxhall Vivaro)

Trying to convince the band to do a punkyfunky version of this:

Jonas Hellborg in not playing too many notes shock!

My mum was a piano teacher, so I grew up listening to mainly classical music, from Bach and Telemann right through to Mahler, but rarely anything more modern. I was dragged to recitals and various operas - can't stand opera to this day! However, I still have a love for Baroque music and have also developed a taste for big'n'heavy orchestral stuff like Shostakovich and occasionally Mahler... But my mother can't cope with any popular music at all - especially anything beyond 50s rock and roll - so she was a bit appalled when I discovered punk and new wave at about the same time she splashed out on a B&O music centre... I'd play my records and listen to John Peel - she somehow thought that "horrible noise" would pollute it! And my dad was a bit of a skiffle and trad jazz fan; in his understated northern way he'd extol the virtues of Chris Barber ("he's not too bad") and The Vipers Skiffle Group ("they're ok") - I still like a bit of that stuff now, daddy-o!

I only do it cos I know how fond you are of tuneless noodling in no discernible key! Still, this month's ditty is a touch more conventional...

"Yes my Darling Daughter" by Edie Gorme...

I usually do that!

When I was a kid in a small village in Cheshire AI meant a chap with a rubber glove impregnating livestock... And if we're talking about gettin' jiggy with the Artificial Insemination Man there's only one choice, Funk!

Early and funky Japan...

One man's rubbish is another's gold... A mate of mine once found a pair of fully working Quad 405 power amps and matching pre in a skip just off Hammersmith Grove! And while we may agree on Magma, I'd be quite happy to bung any incarnation of the Jeffersons in the skip, unless it's in the original reggae 😁

Name or place don't ring a bell... I met the bloke through Nic of Trilogy Audio fame. Can't remember what he was called but I think his amps were Ongaku!

I know someone who was so into his valve driven SET hifi he made concrete horns that went 20m into his garden... It went surprisingly low for about 8w/channel!

I'll come! 😀 And when we move to the environs of Marciac/Pau or thereabouts I'll set up my own troupe consisting of 14 one string basses and an angle grinder. We'll be called "Effondrement de Nouveaux Bâtiments".

His earlier stuff with Derek Bailey was probably a lot more weird - his nonette and tennette (😁) is possibly more film-y, but evocative all the same. Though I think I was more freaked out when I first heard The Residents or even Cabaret Voltaire back in the day.

As I said in my other post, being musically shocking is quite difficult. My 2 examples were lightly shocking simply by being different. Back in 1976 many folks were shocked by the Sex Pistols - simply because, for most people who hadn't heard of the New York Dolls et al they'd never heard such a racket or seen such an attitude. Similarly, when Elvis, Bill Haley etc rocked up older folks thought it was the end of civilisation. And Ornette Coleman appalled the "jazz establishment" with his "Shape of Jazz to come". Never mind what aficionados of classical music thought when Schoenberg ditched melody and key with his twelve tone system!

Many do! Though what is a good tune? In western music that means something that is purely (or at least largely) in our major and minor scales (i.e. Ionian and Aeolian modes) - probably because we are conditioned virtually from birth to hear those as "right". Though until about the 1500s neither mode was widely used at all - more likely that a good tune then was in the Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian or Mixolydian modes. However, if you were brought up with "Persian tuning" where an octave is divided into 24 notes rather our twelve, completely different possibilities for a good tune occur, similarly for those brought up on Chinese or Indian music. Then there's the sounds used to make that "tune" and the rhythms involved; the more they veer from the widely accepted norm the less folks will like 'em! However, us angst-ridden outsiders crave novelty... We like it be be different from what the squares dig, daddy-o! Whether that's finely sculpted noise like Gilla Band (who imho sculpt noises with far more skill and creativity than previous noiseniks like Sonic Youth), or weird modal or chromatic stuff with added oddness, like Mr. Parker likes to produce. Though to be musically shocked is quite difficult, methinks; we're more likely to be shocked by content, such as Throbbing Gristle's beautifully wistful "Hamburger Lady" (😁) or with the benefit of modern sensibilities, old rockers singing about their likings for little girls (e.g Mr Chuck Berry himself, though that also had a "good tune"!).

Indeed! Being shocked implies having experienced something that is definitely different and puts you outside your comfort zone. Being good at something relatively "normal" isn't really shocking. This is just a little more shocking: As is this!

New record for us Chokers - 3rd gig of the month! We're on at the Dark Horse in Mosely, 18th February...