Ticket
The Apollo
7th May 1988

Ladies ‘n gen’lmen heeere’s Johnny! So this was a good night and the big fella, his mrs & kin were all in fine form. They played for a long time from what I recall with June whoopin’ an’ a hollerin’ while jigging about in bare feet a lot of the time and putting on a good show. Pretty much up to this point I didn’t know too much about country music except for the obvious cheesy stuff that would hover round the charts from time to time; usually the “big hat” crap of George Hamilton 1V and the like. Of course I realised that, as with most types of music “99 % is shit” as The Cash Pussies once deduced; but conversely there was a lot of good stuff that I just hadn’t been exposed/ educated to. After all it was really just white man’s blues, and as most music is folk music i.e. music of the people it’s bound to have some merit.
So Hank Williams was okey dokey even if he wasn’t from Muskogee, Bob Wills, Bill Munroe and much much later the likes of Gram Parsons, Towne Van Zandt, Steve Earle and so on , who gave it a credibility it had lacked for many a year and dragged it kicking and screaming from its Grand Ole Opry red neck ways.
A few of us went up to Edale one time for a Bluegrass festival which was full of duelling banjos and the like but on the whole I quite enjoyed it. I’m not so sure my companions, who came along for the ride, took to it quite the same though....The Clash too showed it’s influences and there was a bit of a short-lived punkabilly phenomenon sometime around the early ‘80’s, with people and bands looking for new interest and directions to go in. One such manifestation was another Malc McClaren invention by the name of She Sherriff; what happened to her? I’ve actually got a country version of “Guns of Brixton” by a band called Tom Gribbins and the Saltwater Cowboys which to my ears sounds like a genuwine country band and not just a pastiche piss take.....so it kinda worked both ways. Ween also had a great album a few years back, this time in a country stylee! Is there anything they can’t/ won’t do?! There’s a particular stand-out called “Piss Up A Rope”.....probably the best love song never written!
It’s true country music’s got more clichés than you could poke a stick at and there’s plenty of send ups even in the country lovin’ fraternity. I think “Drop kick me Jesus through The Goal Posts Of Life” ,the ubiquitous “Don’t Bogart that Joint My Friend” and Kinky Freedman’s “They Don’t Make Jews Like Jesus Anymore” say it all.
I don’t remember country music being particularly big in the U.K. especially of the “big hat”, boot scootin’ variety; well certainly not round Manchester anyway ,and thank f#*k for that! I’ve always pretty much been of the opinion, try anything once except perhaps suicide and line dancing; the chances being if you were to try the latter it might well lead you to want to try the former, so beware if you ever feel the urge!
So Johnny was good though I don’t recall him playing “Man in Black” which would be about me favourite of his. So I’m sure “Daddy’s singin’ bass and mamma’s singin’ tenor” at the great gig in the sky...... And on a slightly different tack (well it’s all music..)I missed out on a freebie to see Mary J. Blige the other week, who in a world where the word “diva” gets thrown around like it’s nothin’, really is one of the great voices of the time, without resorting to all the vocal gymnastics and oversinging that seems to pass for “soulful” these days, I did however get to see Cat Power who has her own unique take on country/ rock singing; a beautiful woman with a beautiful voice.
Bit out of practice with the uploading stuff; basically had to relearn everything but it’s a bit like riding a bike, which I’ve never been very good at. Nice uploads Dandeman,; you should write a book or summink. That story about Patti Palladin in Salford's a classic! Right, think that's all me Apollo related stuff; off to shizzle me nizzle....ciao muchachos