Press
Slum Turkeys
11th September 1987

This is from The Evening News. As I mentioned, I don't know anything about the band but I certainly recognise a couple of faces so I feel I should know something.If Tony is Ass the drummer,and I 'm pretty sure it is ,I used to knock around with him and his brother Les. I'd never met people from Partington before and was pleasantly surprised they spoke English. I remember his other band did the support for The Meteors and The Guana Bats at De'villes onetime. Also it was probably one of these young chaps who lived on the ground floor of Charles Barry Crescent and had a full-sized skateboard ramp built in the living room....well why wouldn't ya! They were definitely younger than me as my generation got our kicks from saying things like "got our kicks", and hitting old bicycle wheels with a stick while chasing it up the road.
Such larks we had...
Also on the other side of this article is a nice feel-good story about young Michelle Jones from Ashton under Lyne who rescued "Sqeekie" the pigeon while doing her newspaper round and nursed him back to health; "on ya" Michelle. I do hope that it wasn't the pigeon who eventually nested on my balcony and brought up it's young. For about three months they drove me crazy and as I didn't have the heart to get rid of them, and also because there was so much "stuff" for want of a better word, on the balcony, I could barely get the door open to shoo the pesky varmints away, I let them stay, rent free, and play happy families. Every morning at first light they'd be sharpening their beaks on old coke cans,bottles etc,that had been deposited there ,along with a ton or more of old newspapers that my X flatmate had left on the understanding that at some point in the nearish future he would come back and retrieve said papers,perhaps for his own personal archive.but more likely he was just a mad hoarder.He'd also left a fully dismantled '59 Triumph Tiger in the downstairs living room for about two years on the same understanding; never did rescue and resuscitate that bike...
Well after rustling a few feathers ,including most of mine,they eventually departed without so much as a "tara pal and we'll be back next year" , just a big pile of crap; and I was out there quick smart with the Marigolds and the Pine-o-clean giving it some serious cleansing ritual business. Never again, unless perhaps they're ospreys or parrots or somethin'......
Elton John with your "Skyline Pigeons";you can keep 'em.....