stone roses out-takes from kevin cummins photoshoot, plus the hollow men

Some great unused photographs of The Stone Roses, taken by Kevin Cummins for the NME.
What a combination - a photographer at the top of his game, with the coolest band in years. No-one believes me nowadays, but l saw the Stone Roses at about the time the first album was getting released, at Leeds Warehouse with The Hollow Men (who were from Leeds) supporting. A great night.
You can find plenty of classic shots at Kevin's site. In the meantime, here's something to remember the early Stone Roses by - 'Fools Gold'.



Plus a bonus!  The Hollow Men - 'White Train'



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jorg pretz's binary clock

Jorg Pretz, a physicist from  Aachen University, has devised a binary clock that looks like a racked set of balls on a pool table.

The way that it works, is that when the balls are lit, they all symbolise different amounts of time. The top ball is 6 hours, the ones underneath are 2 hours each, the next three are 30 minutes each, the following five are 6 minutes each, and the ones in the bottom row are 1 minute each.

Therefore the time above would be 11.03. It lights red for am, and green for pm.

Much more awkward to read than a normal clock, but I want one!

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small pop stars - iggy pop

A lot of pop / rock stars are actually a lot smaller than you would think.
Here's the mighty Iggy Pop, dwarfed in comparison with Thurston Moore (From Sonic Youth).

And here's Iggy being charismatic, scary and majestic.



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west ham united ticket prices

West Ham United are not alone in having these kind of prices, it's one of the many curses of modern football.
If you are a working class bloke wanting to take a couple of your kids to a game, you'd better start saving up, or get some overtime booked in.

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aneurin bevan on the nhs

Well said matey boy. We'll certainly miss it when it has been fucked up and disbanded.

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happy bedtime reading

Happy bedtime reading for kids at the Charlie Brooker household.
The children's version of Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist'.

From his twitter feed, which is here

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melanie - lay down

I've been listening to the Melanie (Safka) album 'Candles in the Rain' recently, and 'Lay Down' is one of the cracking tracks on it. Written after her appearance at Woodstock, hence the hippie vibe.
For some reason, until recently, l always thought Melanie was from Wales, but she is from Queens, New York.
Ah well, you live and learn (and l'm an idiot).
Here she is with The Edwin Hawkins Singers on Dutch TV, so you can hear the full version.

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hugleikur dagsson cartoons

Some cartoons by Hugleikur Dagsson that appealed to my sense of humour.
More here.

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leeds united v manchester united 1976

Ahhh....this takes me back.....the old days, when football was still a working class game, followed by a lot of young lads like myself (at the time), who could afford it on low wages.
It was still mainly standing, hooliganism was rife, and a ticket to the game (pay on the day) cost about 75 pence (equivalent to about £6 now).
Times have moved on to such an extent, that l have been to The Jackie Charlton suite in (dirty) Leeds' ground for my brothers wedding reception, and now mainly go to Leeds for comic fairs (and the odd gig).
Still miss the old school football and crowds though.
Photos are from here, where there is also a short video.

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trump's inauguration

A rather excellent piece in the Scottish Sunday Herald regarding Donald Trump's inauguration.
All hail that writer!

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Joe's dead

First post of the New Year, and it's more bad news.
Joe, who was originally a friend of my fathers, and a man who had outlived just about everyone he knew (apart from young whippersnappers like me) died on the 29th Dec.
The top picture is Joe pretending to be dead as a photograph was taken in the pub. The bottom one is his empty chair, with one of his hats, where he used to sit and drink copious amounts of whisky and ginger with me.
An ex boxer, wrestler, promoter (plus loads of hands on manual type work), raconteur, bullshitter and one of the brightest, hardest, and kindest people l have ever met. As an example, he used to own properties that he rented out for years. Rather than continuing with the rents, or selling the properties, he let the long time occupiers have them. He also bought shoes etc for poor friends of mine years ago when their father kept getting locked up, and took them camping and walking (and no, nothing dodgy went on).
Sandy (or as Joe called him 'Soft Cock'), his old dog, had loads of character, and so did Joe.
Although he had issues with his leg that kept him indoors for the last years of his life, he will be remembered and missed by many.
He used to say that he got on better with me than anyone else, and felt we were on the same wavelength, and considered us kindred spirits. Pisstaking bright guys who could take any jokes or insults hurled at us, and respond in kind.
I would say that he was a one off, but can confirm that he enjoyed his life more than most.

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