In a confirmation of my suspicion that lockdown is atrophying my brain, I have been arguing with someone about whether Jack Nicholson could ever have been an opera singer. This eventually led us to his cameo in 'Tommy', which definitively proved that he couldn't. I was tempted to post that clip, but let's be honest, this is the scene we all want to see:

Which deserves to be followed by this:

I  have two questions arising from that scene. Firstly, when Elvis sings "Turn your head to the right", why do both he and Ann-Margret turn their heads to the left? Secondly, why is the blonde in the front row not wearing any trousers?

The laser cutter isn't working properly and my boiler isn't working at all. The former is possibly because of floating in the the y-axis belt tensioners, or perhaps because the head acceleration is set too high for vector cutting. The latter may be because the pressure sensor has failed or alternatively because there is a leak. It increasingly seems as if Nietzsche was correct and there are no absolute truths.

So, instead let's talk pub rock again. I've only just heard that Larry Wallis died in September. Although he was at one point a member of Motorhead, I always think of him in the context of the Live Stiffs tour. He was Wreckless Eric's producer, Dr. Feelgood recorded at least one of his songs, and on the original studio version of the following number he was backed by the rhythm section of Eddie and the Hot Rods. Here's 'Police Car' from the album of the Stiffs tour:




And let's have another obscure but brilliant track from a live album of the time 'Live at the Hope and Anchor'. This is Phil Rambow with 'Underground Romance':




Fun fact: Rambow co-wrote 'There's a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He's Elvis' with Kirsty MacColl. Here's a different take on that song from the Tex Pistols featuring Rambow:




That track also features Martin Belmont on guitar. Belmont is, of course, a pub rock stalwart and was in the original Rumour. I am hoping to see Graham Parker (sadly without the Rumour) next week. I've twice had tickets to see Parker in recent years and failed for various reasons to get to the gigs. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

So, I was in a small, rather attractive market town in Warwickshire and decided, as one would, to go for a curry. The entrance to the first place that I came across was up some stairs that took me past the door to the gents and just as I reached it Elvis Presley stepped out wearing his full Las Vegas stage suit. Obviously I was somewhat surprised, after all everyone knows his food of choice was peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

Anyway, I couldn't get a seat because the place was packed for what was presumably some sort of secret comeback gig - and I must say he looked good for a man in his eighties - so I strolled off in search of another Indian restaurant. (For the benefit of colonial readers any British town of, as in this case, around 6,000 residents will have three Indian restaurants). On my way back an hour or so later - Onion Bhaji followed by Subz Ghosht - I heard him singing. He didn't sound anything at all like this:

I have been to a talk on the Battle of Towton given by Chris Murphy of the Towton Battlefield Society. It was informative and entertaining, and in particular was very strong on the context and personalities. Murphy is given to a colourful turn of phrase and I was taken both with his assertion that the Wars of the Roses is the new Rock & Roll and that Edward IV was Elvis. I was less convinced by the idea of Henry VI as Stephen Fry, but one can't have everything. He included a special section on local notable John, 9th Baron Clifford (the 'Flower of Craven' or ' Butcher Clifford' according to one's taste). Otley wasn't actually on Clifford's land, being owned by the Archdiocese of York, but he was the nearest big cheese. There is one obvious problem with focussing on the Flower/Butcher in a talk on Towton; as discussed on this very blog quite recently he died the day before. It probably didn't matter because the majority of the packed out hall - the sight of which prompted the bon mot about Rock & Roll - appeared to have only come to get away from Storm Desmond which was raging outside. As with the previous year's talk on Richard III - also a sell out, although against a background of snow that time - their grasp of what was going on appeared to be slim. There were no actively racist questions this time, but the first one to be asked, after two hours of bigging up the events of Palm Sunday 1461, "Isn't it true that the 28,000 casualties are a huge exaggeration, that it's all myth and that it wasn't a very important battle after all?" was unsurprisingly met with a curt "No!". In fact it is only modesty that prevents me from pointing out that for the second year running the only sensible question was asked by me.

I went to the Flying Duck last night to see the rather fine Alex Graham and the Concords. They are a piano trio plus vocalist playing rock and roll (the expected Little Richard and Jerry Lee Lewis plus Chuck Berry, Elvis, Carl Perkins etc) with a smattering of more modern stuff from Queen, T. Rex and so on (I said more modern, I didn't say modern per se), all in a boogie woogie stylie. Highly recommended.


After the gig one of the yummy mummies of Ilkley told me that the band were all students at Leeds College of Music. In one of those coincidences beloved of this blog I had the previous day been to that very institution and whilst I can't confirm that either Alex or the Concords are students there, I can advise that they look as if they might be - four very young men in skinny trousers with hipster beards. I'm glad to say that they eschewed the ponytails though. The college shares a building with BBC Leeds and, more importantly, the Aagrah restaurant. Strangely I haven't yet been summoned in to the former to share my worldview with the good people of West Yorkshire and so apart from numerous visits to the latter - which don't really count - this was my first time inside since it was a construction site. On that occasion I was showing our new audit partner a 'typical' project. Apart from its central location the reason for choosing the College/BBC building as a showcase was that of the two managing engineers (electrical and mechanical) one was a woman and one was black. Possibly you won't be surprised that they were the only ones of either type that we employed across dozens of jobs.


Anyway, my reason for visiting on this occasion was to hear Ed Miliband and Ed Balls speak. [Oh no, it's politics - there go the readers again] on the subject of university tuition fees and, although not much reported in the media, improving opportunities for all young people. I will limit myself to saying that ensuring that everyone in society gets a fair crack of the whip is the primary issue on which I will base my vote in two months time (taking as a prerequisite an aversion to invading other countries on the basis of dodgy dossiers), because I would prefer a society in which there is genuine meritocratic diversity rather than the need to pretend that it exists by a bit of window dressing.

Today's cultural entertainment was Dr Faustus, mostly by Christopher Marlowe although with two new acts - not thankfully in faux archaic blank verse - replacing two of the original. It was a very busy production, possibly verging on the confusing. However much of the business was very good, with the special effects and illusions being a highlight. The cast were excellent with a special mention for Siobhan Redmond strutting her stuff in a basque as Mephistopheles.

"I don't remember putting Elvis in it"

Intellectually, I have to hold my hands up and admit that I have no idea what they were driving at. Sin is bad, perhaps? There were some nice digs at bankers and Australian media magnates, but possibly they were unnecessarily cruel to poor old Amy Winehouse. The staging of the exposition of the seven deadly sins reminded me of Jerry Springer: The Opera, which is no bad thing. The Pope spoke with what I believe was a German accent. Was that meant to be Benedict XVI in some sort of comment on the various scandals? Or was it simply that Faust was himself German? Redmond seemed to affect some sort of Mittel European accent, but she is from Glasgow so one should be grateful to understand her at all.

The relevance of this will be lost if you haven't seen the production

And, being shallow, I do like a play with a few recognisable quotes. "The face that launched a thousand ships"; that'll do nicely.