Lucky 13 Final Podcast of 2006 is Here

Well I had a good blow and got on with it - the last podcast of 2006 that is. It has a very surprise guest at the end who some of you may know! Another mixed bag this time from The Rockmother but slightly more awake this time as broadcast from the kitchen table and not bed. Have a great New Year everybody and see/comment/lurk/blog/link/post/read you in 2007. Hurray!

Get the last podcast of 2006 here - it is fine and dandy and there is something for everybody.

Pondering

Due to fending off flu and pretending I've only got a cold as I hate being ill even though I have to admit - right now I do feel shit and merely getting through today has been a bit of a struggle. Consequently I've been 'zoning out' and pondering a few things. Firstly, I've had a song going around my head incessantly that I haven't heard for years but used to love - 'Violence Grows' by The Fatal Microbes. It was one of John Peel's favourites which is where I first heard it. I wasn't allowed to listen to John Peel so I had to hide an old transistor radio in my pillow-case and play it really quietly through the pillow to hear anything that was banned. I'm glad I did. The Fatal Microbes were a UK punk group. Honey Bane (Donna Tracey) was lead vocals with Gem Stone (Gemma Sansom) on drums, Pete Fender (Daniel Sansom) on guitar, and Scotty Boy Barker (Scott Barker) who was replaced as bassist by It (Quentin North). I was trying to put up an mp3 of the track here but it won't accept the code - bugger. Here's a picture of some of the original founder members instead

Honey Bane later released the EP "You Can Be You" with the band Crass under the name Donna and the Kebabs. This featured the track Girl On The Run, which was recorded whilst Bane was on the run from a children's home. In fact, she was on the 'most wanted' list for 3 years. Jimmy Pursey (Sham 69), in his capacity as talent scout for EMI-subsidiary Zonophone, signed her on a 5 year contract at the age of 14 I think. 3 singles were issued in the spring of 1981, including the top 40 hit Turn Me On, Turn Me Off. Honey Bane has two singles in the Guinness Book of British Hit Singles.


I never knew that Pete Fender, Gem Stone and It had originally met when they formed the band Punktuation in 1976. With an average age of just 13 years, it would make them probably the youngest punk band in the country at the time. Vi Subversa who was the lead singer of Poison Girls was another favourite of mine - I also had no idea that they were all related - she is Gem Stone and Pete Fender's mother. Apart from Charlie Harper (UK Subs) she is thought to be the oldest punk vocalist alive today. Here's a picture of the Fatal Microbes Violence Grows EP cover. Incredible.


And I've just finished reading this:

I really enjoyed it. It takes a while to get into. I said that about Booker prize-winning Vernon God Little (also by the same author) which I never did get into - in fact I could never get past the first two pages. There was something about the 'voice' that I found irksome. I will definately go back and re-visit and give it another go. Sometimes you need to read the new stuff before you can tackle the original I find. DCB Pierre is not his real name. The nom de plume stands for Dirty But Clean Pierre. Dirty But Clean I guess referring to himself and Pierre was a nickname given to him as a child - it is the name of a Seventies cartoon character. DCB is Australian but raised in Mexico and now living in Ireland. He once sold a house on behalf of a friend and spent half of the proceeds on his once allegedly gianormous drug habit. Interesting. Next - I'm reading this:


I don't know much about it but it's apparent theme is possibly quite similar to the book I've just finished which is a coincidence as I was given it for Christmas. The other one I bought for myself.

I think that's it for now.

PS: Get your slutpods here

It's Awful - But I Like It

Classic tv sitcom - am resorting to youtube as I'm feeling poorly and therefore lazy! Enjoy it everyone.

Stamp U Like

I think mine would be this one - I've always really liked it for some reason.

What Would Be Your Stamp?

Royal Mail are putting up the price of stamps again on the 9th January 2007 and at the same time are releasing a limited set of Beatles album covers as the latest range. Here they are:


If you could choose an album

from your own collection to make into a set of stamps

which one would it be?

For Those About To Rock

we salute you!



Everyone has just gone out - all the entertaining is over - and I meant to put this on the last podcast for you all but forgot so.....................I've just put it on really loud to drown out the nextdoor neighbours new bloody Christmas present - a guitar that they can't play**!!
Hopefully they will have picked up some tips from this little ditty.

**First words uttered in bed by me on Christmas morning:
'Fuck - nextdoor have got a bloody guitar'. Fast forward a couple of hours - our nextdoor neighbour shouts over their Christmas lunch to the other:
'Fuck - nextdoor have got a bloody synthesiser keyboard!'. We won! Ha! Bossa Nova rhythms anyone? It's like a Kraftwerk convention round here.

Hope you all had a nice Christmas.

Murder Most Fowl

Yum - this is what we are having over at Rockmother Towers for lunch this year. Their plumage reminds me of fine silk spotted handkerchiefs - oh no - I don't think I can eat it now it's too pretty.

Happy Christmas everybody and thank you very much for popping by as you do most regularly my little bloggers and blogettes.

Highlights of my week this week were (in no particular order):

seeing Henry Winkler as Captain Hook in panto at Wimbledon Theatre - he was truly great. Bobby Davro played Smee and kept ad-libbing constantly and making all the other actors laugh on purpose. Do you think Bobby Davro is his real name? I might have to wiki that.

walking down Hounslow High Street feeling like a super-model as everyone else was
(a) in really bad track suits
(b) really fat
(c) had 'croydon facelifts' - scraped back hair that made them look even more ugly
(d) being really horrible to their kids and eating Macdonalds in the queue to see Father Christmas
(e) staring at me (my son said it was because I was wearing 'mans shoes' - a nice pair of brogues actually - a high fashion item actually sweetie!)

mananging to avoid heavy work party drinking from Weds - Sat. Result!

Got to dash - sweet dreams everybody - hope you all get lots of nice presents.

Romo xx

*if anyone is bored or has insomnia then you can click here for mildly soporific podcasts 1-12*

It'll Be Up In The Morning Madam

Yes - podcast no12 will be up in the morning - click here to get there.

Happy Christmas everybody - it's a one hour special - something for everyone I hope and not one Christmas song in sight. xxx

UPDATE: You can all get it now - I talk too much in this one - just fastforward if you get bored - I won't mind.

Fulcrum

You'll have to have this little gem for now in place of the next forthcoming podcast - it's much better anyway.


Click here for podcasts de Rockmother 1-11 (they go up to 11 just like Spinal Tap)

I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper

Which one was your favourite? Mine was Carol - she's the blond one at the back with the heavy eye make up. I used to think she was really cool. She ended up a hairdresser I think. The demented looking rabbit-toothed one singing main vocal ended up marrying Andrew Void-Blubber and becoming a pseudo-opera star. It's an absolute classic.

For One Night Only

Apparently that last podcast wasn't drunken enough so I'll do another one tonight - awfully hungover this time. Luckily for all you lot I don't have webcam - last night's podcast was done topless from bed with a glass of wine in one hand and a mic in the other - needless to say I woke up with the laptop dangling off the bed. It had conveniently uploaded to slutbitch before I fell asleep which was a small bonus.

For all you shoe and glittery sock fetishists out there - here's a photo I took of my feet by mistake this morning in my hazy hungover state.


Enjoy.

Binge-pod

I'm going to an incredibly meeja Christmas lunch today and then I'm going to come home and do the final poohcast of 2006 a la Romo style. You have all been warned!

GET YOUR PODCAST HERE!

Well Done Everybody - it's an absolute Blogxplosion!

This year - we have all been awarded the coveted accolade of making the cover of Time magazine. It is in recognition of the millions of us that have continued to spread and share information over the internet via Blogger, Myspace, Facebook, Second Life et al. You can read more about it here. We are just behind Bono who made it last year. For some reason killer ex-alcoholic Bush made it in 1994 and a few other highly controversials were Adolf Hitler and Ayatollah Khomeini.

GET ANY OF THE 10 ROMO FOR REAL PODCASTS HERE - CLICK AWAY CLICK AWAY CLICK AWAY.....

Beatles - NEW VIDEO - Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows

This had an exclusive last Saturday on TOTP2. I would be interested to know what you think - of course the resolution isn't that hot.

Enjoy.

How To Make Blogging Look Really Boring

This could have been so good couldn't it? But instead - it was dull as ditchwater and said well.....not much really. Watch this space - there are plans afoot - and regular readers if I were to make a little programme about bloggers and blogging for a rival station to the one above - would you all give me kind permission to feature some choice snippets of your blogwork - whether it be writing, pictures or music?

Answers on a postcard or podcast please. Preferably non-Beta!

Thank you.

Romo x

Beta Blogger anyone?

Unlike Beta blockers it appears that beta blogger does not serve to calm your nerves. Apologies to all if they thought I haven't been around over the last few days - I have - and I've tried to leave some nice comments too but Betta Slogger won't let me. Has anyone got any idea why? Firstly, each time I log in as a Blogger account holder person it keeps making me re-do word verification which is my worst nightmare - really! Then I try to just be 'other' - same thing, then I just try to be bloody anonymous and it keeps just refreshing and not posting.

Anyone bored yet because I am.

Very. Oh well, at least Barry Manilow is on the Royal Variety Cock-up - bloody hell - I've just seen David Gest being introduced to HRH - what HAS the world come to? perhaps he was giving him tips on eyebrow tattoo techniques and spray on hair products?

Can the Passenger in Seat 12 Row A Please Stop Farting?

A plane had to make an emergency landing in Nashville yesterday as passengers were complaining of a sulphurous smell in hte cabin. Apparently a female passenger with a flatulence problem kept striking matches and blowing them out so people didn't have to suffer her farts.

Talk about fart power! Read the whole article here - it hilarious.

Click here for my latest podcast

No10 is up and running

Ladies and gentleman, pop-pickers and poop-pickers - the next Mother of All Rock poohcast no.10 is here. Use this link to get it - sit back, relax and TURN IT UP.

xx

It's The Little People That Count

Now I've only just recovered from regrettably joining the tagging brigade - let's get back to stuff that interests me rather than myself! Check this out - I've been reading his blog for ages - I love it. Big up to the little people.

They are everywhere......you just need to look for them.....

and when you find them and if they have fallen over or hurt themselves then do the right thing and put them upright again or buy them a cup of tea.

Take Two

Good evening and welcome to tag take two as I cocked it up last time. In fact, I have a morbid fear of being tagged and indeed having to tag which probably explains why I didn't do it correctly as I got into a bit of a flap. But...I hate getting things wrong so......here it is - correctly this time.

1. At 17 I applied to 4 London drama schools - on each audition day I sat at the kitchen table and couldn't go as I had a very strong feeling I would never be good enough.

2. My youngest brother has two godparents - Ridley Scott and Charlote Rampling

3. I happen to own the giant heart-shaped diamond ring that the Baron's wife (Choochie-face) wore in the original Chitty Chitty Bang Bang film. I have never worn it.

4. The only time I got an A+ for creative writing was when I wrote a review of seeing Liberace at the London Palladium in 1980

5. I smoked skunk weed every day pretty much between the years 1997 - 1999. I also had legendary parties at that time - 3 floors of the house - a different DJ on each floor and a butler sink full of never-ending champagne on ice - although I remember the parties really clearly - I couldn't tell you which year they were in.

6. I always wanted to play the saxophone and was never allowed

7. I went to college with the founder-members of the Brand New Heavies. In 1984 they asked me to be their keyboardist and I said no because I couldn't be bothered. My best friend shagged the guy that became and still plays keyboards for them. He did it without bothering to take his socks off. We still laugh about it now.

8. I've got a thing where any volume setting on the tv, radio etc must be set to an even number otherwise I feel a tiny bit anxious

9. I love shoes and always have - I currently have c.50 pairs despite the fact I have worn the same pair of violet converse hi-tops for the last few months

10. When on long car journeys across London and ever since I was a child I look out for places I would sleep if I were ever homeless. I don't know why I do it and have recently been really wondering why. I've come to the conclusion that it must be a form of insecurity.

11. Spinal Tap is one of my favourite films (note it's no 11!)

12. I take a stills camera with me everywhere I go

13. I'm a very loyal friend and hate liars or any form of injustice

14. My one big regret is that I've never been part of a band

15. I cry really easily

16. I say "that's ridiculous!" far too much

17. I've never had a 9-5 job and probably never will

18. My great-grandmother was Anglo-Indian. My great-grandfather got chucked out of the army for marrying her and turned to drink.

19. I'm a good gardener

20. I can rustle up tasty meals when others swear blind there is nothing to eat

21. I'm a good mimic

22. I can read and write Greek fluently although can only speak it semi-fluently

23. I'm spectacularly bad at any sort of exam but apparently have a high IQ

24. I'm not very good with authority figures

25. I prefer to drive and not be driven


Can I stop now? I'm never tagging again - that's enough. Buenos noches mon petit blogees. xx

Photo © my Dad 1972

Tag - you're it

I've been tagged - not like Pete Burns on his new carcrashtelly show but cybernetically tagged. It's actually the second time I've been tagged. The first time was by the very clever nevertrustahippy but it was so long - about 40 things you had to write about yourself I just couldn't bear to go there. I'm quite shy really you know. Anyway - the also very clever and I've always imagined extremely elegant Arabella has gone and tagged me. I couldn't bear to let her down so here goes....


1. If my shoes don't match my handbag, I'm even happier.

2. The first record I bought was 'Hong Kong Garden' by Siouxsie and the Banshees and "What Do I Get by The Buzzcocks - on the same day at the same time £1.20 for two singles from Earls Court Road

3. One of the things I like to eat is: baked salmon in lemon and herbs with quinoa and spinach with goats yoghurt on the side - and beetroot!

4. A few years ago I considered becoming a mentor for kids struggling at school and/or homeopath

5. I miss the never-ending perfect feeling of the heatwave in 1976. We watched the Wimbledon Final on the tv in the garden and the top melted in the sun while we were eating fresh peaches and the juice was running down our arms. And sometimes when I see things of real beauty like the light in the trees at a certain time of day I really miss my friend Abbie and wish she could see it too. I've only just realised that it's ok to miss people and that that feeling never really goes away.

UPDATE:
I think I've done this wrong - I might have to do it again later - I just copied Arabella's subjects rather than telling you 5 random things about me - derrrrr

1 . sometimes I appear thick but really I'm not!

'Remember that it isn't always the sensational stuff that writers are looking for; it can just as easily be something that you take for granted, like having raised twins or knowing how to grow beetroot. Mind you, if you know how to fly a helicopter or have worked as a film extra, do feel free to let the rest of us know about it.'

Over to Istvanski, Bob Swipe and Firsty

By the way - look what I found while I was looking for a picture of a tagged ankle - why on earth would anyone want to manufacture or buy these revolting boots?

They are on ebay by the looks of it if any of you are interested.....

Airhead

Voici le glamour!
There was a nice post from Dick Headley this week showing a before and after aerial photo of Gatwick Airport - it's quite astonishing and I suppose not altogether surprising but even so.... It made me think about how aviation has changed and how 'special' flying once was. My grandmother didn't fly for the first time until she was in her 60's. I went on my first flight when I was 7 when we de-camped to Greece for a year (yes - my mother did a Shirley Valentine - I think I'll save that for another post) and my son went on his first flight aged 9 months!

Gone are the halcyon days of BOAC, Freddie Laker and British Caledonian - I always remember seeing this ad on the tube on the way to school in the late 70's/early 80's

Flying used to be quite glamorous by all accounts


with nice ladies to do nice things for you - and look at the legroom!

One of my distant cousins Edna was a BOAC hostess in the 60's - I remember there always being a photo of her in her uniform waving from a red sports car looking radiant ontop of my granny's telly much to my mother's chagrin who was/is an artist. Now and again she would jet in from somewhere exotic and was treated like royalty when she visited the family - usually in sunny Bournemouth where they had all settled to dye their hair purple, wear dentures and eventually die in the other way. And goodness, we never heard the end of it. Such status! Edna this Edna that.

Anyway...Dick's post made me go on a little trip down memory lane which I thought I would share for a brief moment.

Doors to manual.

And no smoking in the cabin.