The Guts and the Glory: The Motörhead Story (2005)

Phil Taylor, the original Animal, is dead!

Years ago my kids had two guinea pigs: Fast Eddie and Lemmy. I always felt bad that I never let them get Philthy Phil and complete the line-up of the greatest guinea pig rock 'n' roll band of all time!

I missed seeing Motörhead in 1983 through lack of funds but finally saw them in '91 with Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor on drums in the Guildhall in Portsmouth (with Wolfsbane if I remember correctly).

This short (65 minutes) documentary is totally worth it just to hear the bickering between Phil and Lemmy. It's really just a load of anecdotes strung together, but what fucking anecdotes they are! Informative and really fucking funny. To be honest though the documentary, just like life, gets a little dull when Phil leaves. Luckily he's back soon enough and everything's right again.

5 stars just for Phil, an awesomely fast, powerful and influential drummer who will be sorely missed. Bye, bye Phil, you little rat bastard.

"This is no reason to cover a man with cheese!"

Letterboxed Review

Records Collecting Dust (2015)

A cool little documentary that I've been waiting to be released for ages. Well they're offering it for free download this weekend (2015-09-05 to 2015-09-06).

The doc's digs through the record collections of some of the greats of punk, hardcore and metal and asks about the sounds they grew up listening to, the records that influenced them and the stores they bought them in. For just under an hour we get to listen to some musical heroes of mine including:

• Jello Biafra (Dead Kennedys)
• Keith Morris (Black Flag/Circle Jerks/OFF!)
• Clifford Dinsmore (Bl'ast)
• Nick Oliveri (Kyuss/Queens of the Stone Age)
• Mike Watt (Minutemen)
• Justin Pearson (The Locust)
• Greg Anderson (sunn o))))
• Matt Pike (Sleep)
• Chuck Dukowski (Black Flag/Würm)
• Mike Neider (Bl'ast)
• Kira Roessler (Black Flag)

There are a couple of issues though. The first is that, due to copyright and expense, we don't get to hear any of the records chosen. Secondly, the doc contains three promo clips of artists featured in the film. There doesn't seem to be any reason for this apart from shameless self-promotion, and leading the pack is, rather obviously, Jello Biafra with a clip of his latest band that lasts 2:35. Considering his sound-bite contributions total 3:53 in a film of just 53 minutes (excluding title and credits) I can't help come to the conclusion that Jello is still a bit of a dick. Personally I would have preferred it of they'd left him out no matter how much of a DK fan I am.

The doc is interesting, doesn't outstay its welcome and it's always a treat to listen to Keith Morris and Mike Watt - I could quite happily hear them waffle on all day.

The whole film reminded me of a store that I used to buy from when I was a kid. There was a crazy golf course beside a beach that, for some odd reason, had an attached record shop. The floor was always covered in sand, the record sleeves had a coating of sea-salt and my mate's brother (who once threw a dart into my forehead) lived out the back in a shed. Ah, those were the days.

Anyway, it's a cool documentary which should have had some cool music in it and it features a dickhead. Oh, and my god, Chuck Dukowski looks old!

To fit in with the doc, here's my first music purchases:

First music ever bought: Glen Campbell's Greatest Hits on tape, probably sometime in '77. It was the only thing I could afford locally and I'd never even heard of him before. I still love Wichita Lineman. That year my gran also bought me a David Soul cassette because I liked Starsky & Hutch! Before this I did what every kid did - taped Top of the Pops on a portable cassette recorder.

First LP: Star Wars by The Sonic All-Stars, in '78. Again, all I could afford. Bought from Woolworths.

First 7" singles: The Sex Pistols - The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle / Blondie - Union City Blue. Both with my birthday money in '79. These were the records that, for me, really started it all, even though the Sex Pistols' single is terrible and most people would never even consider it a true Pistols record.






Letterboxd Review

Until the Light Takes Us (2008)

An interesting documentary about the Norwegian Black Metal scene: its early days; the church burning, murder and suicide and the resultant media outrage; and where it's heading nowadays.

Anti-church, anti-globalisation, anti-american, anti-homogenisation, anti-christ and unfortunately nationalistic, homophobic and racist. Black Metal is a movement that on the surface has a left-leaning libertarian stance but dig a little deeper and an extreme right-wing tendency rears its ugly head.

If only they could have separated their hatred of christian dogma from christian art, maybe the beautiful stave churches would still be standing.

Original letterboxd review

Heavy Metal Parking Lot (1986)

A short doc of American kids in a parking lot waiting to see Judas Priest. That's it.

The Year, 1986. the year of false metal and poodle hairdosl. Not saying Priest were hair metal - they weren't and they're not - but everyone else seemed to be. To put things in context, I was watching Public Image Limited in '86. Sure I love metal and was a huge metalhead back in the early 80s, but then the make up and hairspray came in and I looked ridiculous with a perm. So I know the period, I know the music. Will I be offended by Heavy Metal Parking Lot? Bollocks I will!

It's starts with "You've Got Another Thing Comin'" - awesome! Give me "Breaking the Law" as well and I'll walk away happy. So we got lots of bare chests, zebra-stripe shirts, pimp hats, mirror shades, bandanas, tight dresses, shit cars, and some bad, bad hair.

What I want to know is; where's the designated driver?

The first lovely couple to speak? Man: I'm Dave and I'm 20 years old. Woman: Dawn, and I'm 13. Dave then sticks his tongue down the 13 year old's throat. On camera. Next we have drug guy. What drugs are you on? "Yeah, drugs man! Everything". Right. If he was on acid, as implied, there's no way he'd that coherent. Fuck off home to mummy. Next: to a young woman, what would you do if you saw Rob Halford right now? "I'd jump his bones". Well, there's a relationship that'll never happen.

It's easy to take the piss in hindsight, but I've had my share of crappy haircuts. I've had a mullet, mohawk, indie bowl, a Ramones. I even had hair down to the bottom of my shoulder blades. I've worn lace up black jeans, I had a Snake Plisken shirt, red and black striped trousers. I had bandanas. I never had a perm though, Never. Shut up.

This is fucking Wayne's World for real. It's not up there with Decline of Western Civilisation II but it's close and, hey, dead friends do have a use, and Rob Halford has the biggest balls in metal.

Watch it here but be prepared for a shock at around 17:46.

Original letterboxd review

Alice Cooper: Live at Montreux (2006)

Alice runs through a set of classics with the odd later track thrown in for good measure.

Not so many theatrics as the previous Brutal Planet (2000) set but some of the favourites are present and correct: the sword and the billion dollar bills, the guillotine, the Schools Out balloons, the re-animation chamber and, drum roll please, the beautiful Calico Cooper, yay!

The sound is pretty good but the guitars needed to be a little more crunchy and dirty, especially on the earlier Alice Cooper group songs (Under My Wheels etc.). One rare track performed was Wish I Was Born in Beverly Hills (From the Inside, 1978) with Calico, yet again, playing Paris Hilton complete with a handbag dog.

Highlight of the set has got to be the black and white, straight-jacketed Ballad of Dwight Fry with Alice at his creepy best.

I prefer the earlier Brutally Live dvd but this was still a great show and Alice proves, yet again, he can still kick arse.

This is how it's done Jagger!

Original letterboxd review