Kenny MacLean

Another tragic loss yesterday Kenny MacLean, the bassist for Platinum Blond, passed away. MacLean was only 52, and was reportedly found on Monday by his sister, collapsed in the bathroom of his Toronto recording studio. An accomplished artist in his own right he had just released his third solo album "Completely".

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...Although you would be hard pressed to hear anyone mention Platinum Blond today, back in the mid 80's they were an extremely popular and successful band credited with a string of hits that included "Hungry Eyes," "Crying Over You," "Standing in the Dark" and "It Doesn't Really Matter." As I've mentioned previously the 80's was an extremely creative era for music, it saw the birth of the New Wave genre, it was a time were artist and band alike on both small and large recording labels were free to experiment with new idea's new sounds and of course new looks. Platinum blond was part of that movement and although they were never my favorite, I did never the less respect them for their significant contribution . MacLean joined the band for their second album "Alien Shores" in 1985, which went quadruple platinum and featured their only US hit "Somebody Somewhere" he will be missed.

Micheal Crichton

We lost another great man this month, Michael Crichton, passed away on November 4, 2008. I have to admit I've never been a big reader, not because I don't like it... I just never seem to find the time, but I was always a big fan of his work. I have read the following Crichton books: The Andromeda Strain, Jurassic Park, The Lost World, Congo, and Sphere. It is always sad when a great storyteller dies and we are left wondering what other great stories we may have read if he had lived. He died of cancer in Los Angeles early this month, he was only 66. He will be missed...

Fans - Malcom McLaren

Released in 1984 this is an incredibly difficult album to find but every once in a while it does come up for sale on E-Bay. I scoured the Flee Markets for a few years before I acquired my copy. For those dumbass's that don't know who Malcom McLaren is, he was the manager of iconic punk rock band The Sex Pistols during their meteoric albeit short lived rise to glory during the late 70's. Over the years he experimented with many sounds and idea's. Many call him innovative, while other claim he did nothing more than steal original ideas from others and make them his own. There are argument to merit both sides, and I suspect he may be a little of both. This album is his attempt to fuse Opera, 80's New Wave and R&B together to create an entirely new sound and if do say so myself it worked out incredibly well. The stand out track on "Fans" is of course Madam Butterfly, the single that charted on both sides of the Atlantic. It's an amazing creation of two musical genre's that are seldom mixed and he pulls it off successfully. This album is by no means perfect, the rest of the album is more of the same but none of the other tracks seem to work anywhere near as well as Madam Butterfly, although I do like "Boys Chorus". If you find this album grab it, its worth it just for the one single and also I would think as a collectors item in a few years.

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The Tracks are as follows...

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"Madam Butterfly" ( UnB el di Veremo)

"Fans" (Nessun Dorma)

"Carmen" (L'Oiseau rebelle)

"Boys Chorus" (La sui monti dell' Est)

"Lauretta" (O mio babbina Caro)

"Death Of A Butterfly" (Tu Tu Piccolo)

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Produced by Malcolm McLaren and Robbie Kilgore

Produced and Engineered by Stephen Hague and Walter Turbitt

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Virgin Records

The Church

Another band that I liked very much that never seemed to reach their full potential ( at least not in North america ) was The Church. They were another Australian band formed in Canberra in 1980. Initially associated with New Wave sound of the mid 1980s, their music later became more "prog rock" featuring long instrumental jams and complex guitar interplay. In 1988, With the album Starfish and the American Top 40 hit "Under the Milky Way." they had there most significant comercial success. I believe this song was one the best singles of the 80's and I'll include a link to the video so you can check it out. The band went through several line-up changes in the 1990s and continue to perform to this day. In 2007, they recorded new music to soundtrack a short film based on Jeff Vandermeer 's book Shriek: An Afterword . The band has put together an internet-only album that compiles the extended tracks and the film was released to the internet on August 14 this year. The members are as follows...

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Steve Kilbey

Marty Willson-Piper

Tim Powles

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Peter Koppes

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former members...

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Nick Ward

Richard Ploog

Jay Dee Daugherty

Sex Pistols DVD

I'm looking forward to picking this up, It's hard to believe that there's never been an official Sex Pistols concert DVD. The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle, The Punk Rock Movie, D.O.A. and The Filth And The Fury featured live Pistols footage, but there hasn't been an official DVD or video of the Pistols in action. That changed on Oct. 14 when Rhino Records released " There'll Always Be An England ". The footage is from a show that the band's original lineup (singer Johnny Rotten, guitarist Steve Jones, bassist Glen Matlock and drummer Paul Cook) performed at London, England's Brixton Academy last November. The set list features songs from Never Mind The Bollocks, their cover of The Stooges' "No Fun," the B-side "Did You No Wrong" and covers of The Monkees' "(I'm Not Your) Steppin' Stone" and Jonathan Richman's "Roadrunner" from The Great Rock 'N' Roll Swindle.The DVD also comes with more than 90 minutes of bonus material, including a documentary called The Knowledge. Julien Temple directed the piece, in which he follows each Sex Pistol around London as they revisit their old stomping grounds and see how they've changed.

Stormtrooper Armor - Build- Assembly

It arrived last month all wrapped in plastic, how excited was I. Faster than you can say "fourty year old geek" I unpacked it.

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Got to be very careful when removing the plastic, I myself used a J.A Henckles steak knife to do the job, nothing but the finest German steel for my armor.

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Ok I decided to start with an easy piece so I did the biceps. I used Lepage 5 minute Apoxy glue on one side and Velcro on the other . I tryed to buy the apoxy that came in the syringe but it was totally dryed out. So I went back to the store a second time and bought the glue that came in two separate tubes. I used blue painters tape to stop excess glue from getting on the armor and the clamps I left on for about 10 minutes.

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Here are the biceps completed, you gotta be careful with the glue it's extremely strong stuff, if you screw it up and make a mess there are no second chances. As fortune would have it my first assembly was a success.

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I finished the forearms, not much different than the biceps used Apoxy glue on one side and velcro on the other..

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I attached the shoulder straps to the chest plate using industrial velcro, also added velcro to the back plate as well. This will help hold the straps in place. The instruction say to use appoxy but I decided against it. I've researched how others approach this part and most do not use glue so I'm goin with the crowd.

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The Shoulder bells attach to the bicep armor using velcro, this part ain't exactly rocket science.

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There are distinct inner and outter halves for both left and right of the calf . Just like on previous parts, I used appoxy on the front and velcro on the back. Gettin tired of hearing me repeat myself, too bad.

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Another veiw of my masterpeice in progress.

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This next part made me extremley nervous because I aint what you'd call a handyman. After drilling a hole in either side of the Shin/Calf armor and also in the sniper plate, I used rivets to attach them, I put washers on the opposit side to make sure they stay nice and sturdy. I was so sure I was going to crack the armor, and make a total mess of things, but as fortune would have it, everything worked just fine.

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And here's what it looks like...not to bad if I do say do myself.

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Drilling holed in the thigh peice, you'll see why in a sec.

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Once again I used the rivet tool to attach the power cells to the thigh armor.

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Started working on the webbing. The Chest, Ab and Cod will be linked useing a combination of velcro and buckles...but mostly velcro.

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I bought the heavy duty snap fastener kit at Fabric World. It comes with 10 sets of snaps, which should be about as many as I need. I cost me $5.25 including tax. RT --- also includes an additional 6 sets when you buy the armor.

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I used heavy duty snaps to attach the thigh armor to the cod peice, velcro also works great.

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And once again I used industrial snaps to attach the ABS belt to the canvas belt.

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The canvas belt with the snaps attached, you may want to get a proper snap tool, I found that useing a hammer and the little steel peice provided (left) was a bit tricky.

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Here a picture of the completed belt ( front only ). The battle is of course only half over, the Thermal detonator still has to be attached to the back.

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This is were it will eventually sit. If I can ever get the damn thing done. I took me three hours to attach to ABS plastic belt to the canvas belt.

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After spray painting the back of the Thermal detinator grey I drilled two holes so I could attach the belt clips.

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I used metal screws to attach the belt clip to the back of the TD, I also put a bit of apoxy glue on the screw so it stays in place forever...err...hopefully.

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Here's a shot of the back of the Thermal detonator with the belt clips attached. If there are any question about my procedure send me an e-mail and I'll do my best to confuse you even more.

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A fine job if I do say so myself.

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This will give you an idea how the webbing holds the entire suit together. I desighned it to I can just step into it. The only problem with this approach is that you will need some help attaching the chest plait and shoulder straps to the back peice once it's on. The way I have done it is deffinatly not the easiest way, you will always need assisstance getting dressed, but it works for me.The nice thing about and ALL velcro assembly is that at a later date I can always change it.

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And here's a shot of the Thermal detonator attached to the back of the belt.

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Although it was'nt entirly done I just had to do a test fitting...not bad ehh...it hides my beer belly...can someone please pass me a Bud.

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And here it is, the completed project, I'll add some fans, speakers to the helmet at a later date.

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I just replace the AB button ( little black buttons on the stomach ) with screen accurate AB buttons which I ordered from Vader Dave in Des Moines, Iowa. These are the colors used in the original Star Wars movie they consist of 6 grey and 3 blue buttons.

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The final part to my puzzle were the boots, these I ordered from Champion Attitude ( CABOOTS ) in El Paso, Texas. They provided excellent service arriving in just over a week, now I'm finally ready to go.

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Now it's time to go hunt some rebel scum...

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For more information on the artist that engineered this high quality armor which is commonly known as the RT-Mod please see think below...

http://www.rt-mod.com/

Bowie Live in Santa Monica 72

EMI has just put out Bowie and the Spiders Live in Santa Monica . This has been a big bootleg for years and kind of had an offical release in the late 80's early 90's. That version was taken from the radio broadcat so the sound was not great. This is the first time it has been released from the multi-track tapes so the sound should be alot better. This is concidered to be the best show " Bowie and the Spiders from Mars" ever did so if you love Bowie you might want to drop the $20.00...Thanks Steve.

The Mockers - New Zealand

A band based out New Zealand they formed in 1980 the remnants of another band called the Ambitious Vegetables with the line-up of Gordon Costello, Andrew Fagan, Gary Curtis and Charlie Mannell who all attended Rongotai College together in Wellington. The Mockers fell into the New Wave / Pop genre and released their first single in 1980,"Good old Days", followed in July of 1981 with their second "Trendy lefties" in 1982 the third single "Woke Up Today" was released. All three songs enjoyed some success locally receiving regular airplay. The Mockers were lead by singer /song writer Andrew Fagan, the band charted successfully in 1985 with the hit "Forever Tuesday Morning" which became a massive hit in New Zealand. Eventually, like most bands they dissolved and went their separate ways, Fagan moved to London...

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Original Line Ups...

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Ambitious Vegetables

Gordon Costello, Andrew Fagan, Gary Curtis and Charlie Mannell.

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The Mockers

Andrew Fagan, Gary Curtis, Dean Hazelwood, Geoff Hayden, Tim Wedde and Brett Adams.

Later members included..

Murray and Gordon Costello, Brendan Fitzgerald, Steve Thorpe, Paul Lightfoot (guitar) 1984

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Thanks for the additional Info Mouldytone

Forever Young - Alphaville

It's difficult to pinpoint the exact origins of the new wave movement, what is widely accepted is during the late 1970s and the 1980s. It emerged from punk rock as a reaction against the popular music of the 1970s ( and the corporations that controlled it ). I myself believe it began the very first moment the Sex Pistols took the stage... others believe it was actually David Bowie that started it, some credit Roxy Music, and there is merit for all these arguments, each one of these bands a pioneer in there own right. What is clear is that during the 1980's something very special happened to the music industry. The corporate ties that bind were completely broken and for the first and only time in history the spotlight was shared by an eclectic mish-mash of bands from both large labels, and independents, from diverse genres, also and perhaps most importantly from different countries, nations from all around the globe contributed, it would become the most musically creative decade the world has ever seen. Alphaville was one of Germany's contributions to the New Wave movement and Forever Young was their debut album. This is another one of those must have perfect albums every track a masterpiece, not a single throw away on the entire creation. The album produced no less than four singles,"The Jet Set", "Big in Japan", "Sounds Like a Melody", and of course "Forever Young" all of which charted well all over the globe. The other tracks are equally impressive and I believe one track in particular "Fallen Angel" had it ever been released as a single also would have charted successfully perhaps even going to #1. It is of course Alphaville's most critically-acclaimed album and an estimate 2,000,000 copies have been sold since its release. I think it is so very easy for us to forget especially in today's musical environment that a music industry exists outside the United States or the UK... for a short time a little while ago ( It seems like yesterday to me ) we all had privileged to catch a glimpse of it...

Forever Young - Track List

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1. "A Victory of Love"

2. "Summer in Berlin"

3. "Big in Japan"

4. "To Germany with Love"

5. "Fallen Angel"

6. "Forever Young"

7. "In the Mood"

8. "Sounds Like a Melody"

9. "Lies"

10."The Jet Set"

Spice Girls reunion beats Led Zep

Off Topic Alert

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You just know I was going to mention this one...This is from the BBC news...The Spice Girls have beaten Led Zeppelin to an award for the Best music reunion of the last 12 months.
The girl group won best live return at the Vodafone Live Music Awards after getting back together for a world tour. It was judged to have been better than the one-off comeback by rock legends Led Zeppelin, the Verve and James Morrison also nominated. Emma Bunton was present, and said she was "a bit shocked" to beat such venerable rock acts as Led Zeppelin. "We had a great time," she said of the comeback tour. "So I just feel very lucky that I had the opportunity to do it again." The pop group's victory will raise eyebrows among rock fans, but Bunton told the BBC News website: "The thing is, when you go to a gig, you go for fun and entertainment and a night out. "And that's exactly what we did and I think that's why people enjoyed it so much." ...