Long 'overNeu Year's visit to Ice Station Zebra on Monday, Agents Rob and Johnny dodgin' the January 'blooze' - likely helped by the fact that neither has done a one-eyed-god damn's worth of 'comic drawin' in the 'winterim' since their last meeting - by easin' themselves gently into 2017's first official 'View To A Swill'....
It was contented chunterin' all the way, 'Our Man In Pester Wails' takin' great pride in showin' off his recent Spaceship Away/Dan Dare: The Big City Caper (controversial?) issue and a few other 'oversize colour reprints', includin' Brett Million: The Angry Planet and Wrath Of The Gods: The Bow Of Delos (by Michael Moorcock and Ron Embleton)....
The latter especially, with its simply gorgeous fully painted artwork, harks back to a far superior era of 'comic illustration' that it's quite clear will never be seen again (aside from in loving reproductions such as these). It's fair to say a good amount of time was spent staring in wonder at these vintage masterworks, Agent Rob scrambling to pick his jaw up from the floor....
Then, Grateful Dead playing quietly in the corner - well, until the startling, rousing guitars of Turn On Your Lovelight (slowly filtering in from 10:30 in the video below) scorched a path across the room! - it was time to discuss the epic, explosive 'grande finales' to both Tobruk and Escape To Athena as well as the Hammer Film Productions of Kiss Of The Vampire and The Plague Of The Zombies and obviously Philip K. Dick's The Game-Players Of Titan, Clans Of The Alphane Moon and A Scanner Darkly ("....it's very well written....")....
Sounds: Two From The Vault by Grateful Dead: Blows Against The Empire by Paul Kantner, Grace Slick et aland Cool Snap and Nerve Pylon by The Lines....
I have to confess that here at Brawlty Towers we're (un)fairly hardy and that the world of celebrity "departures" never really makes much of an impact, Star Men and Star Women simply blink out, here today, gone tomorrow, yours to own on CD or DVD forever.... but.... I probably wouldn't be typing this were it not for Sean Hughes who, courtesy of an introduction via my friend Meeks, blew the bloody doors off our teenage selves when in secondary school. I can clearly remember another good pal, Warky, coming into geography one lesson and reeling off all these weird one-liners, and wondering exactly what was up. It wasn't entirely out of character - Warky was easily the sharpest and funniest of us all - but the slightly abstract content was definitely unusual. Of course, it transpired the jokes were nabbed wholesale from the Live And Seriously FunnyVHS that was presently doing the rounds, a video that myself and my brothers watched twice in a row the evening it eventually stopped by our house....
"That sock still isn't dry...."
Then there was the charmingly chaotic and joyous Sean's Show (courtesy of Channel X, who had brought us the equally anarchic Vic Reeves Big Night Out only a few years earlier). It's always quite difficult to go back and watch something that made such an impression on you as a youngster, but I'm pleased to report that actually, on a recent rewatch, Sean's Show, ahem, stands up pretty well (and far better than I had honestly expected, given its' limited 90's production values). Similarly the second series, which I remembered being fairly poor at the time, was equally enjoyable as the, um, first, er, the second time around...? That, plus Sean's Shorts - he visits Mull! ....and Manchester! - can be found on Sean's own Youtube channel here (as for some reason S2 was never released on DVD nor added to All 4's box sets)....
"I wish that owl would shuttup!"
To top it all off the same group of us saw him live around this (peak) period. Though, hands up, I'll be honest and state that it wasn't perhaps the greatest gig.... It lasted for around 2 and a half hours (on stackable poly chairs!), with the "help me, I'm a vegetarian..." routine dragging (intentionally, I'm sure) on and on (across the stage floor), while the second half's opening salvo was a lengthy Brookside routine that was likely better appreciated if you were a regular viewer. Mind, I'll admit that I was also probably just a bit too young (i.e. a teenage idiot) to appreciate Sean's more sensitive leanings, and can recall Warky's copy of Sean's Book being mocked - especially the bleak poetry - just as much as it was prized....
After Sean's passing I read a fairly astute observation online that he made comedy look so very easy that everyone thought they could have a shot, and I'll admit I was no exception, ambitiously penning The Potter's Guide, my very own (it was an average idea, spread very thinly, at the time) sitcom response to Sean's Show before wising up and, together with Warky, having a fair go at sketch writing for BBC Scotland and The Comedy Unit in the late 90's - a career quite possibly killed by endlessly rewriting the same sketch(es) to no effect, as well as putting our best creative energies into a show that eventually parted ways with our (enthusiastic) script editor (and ourselves by association). The pair of us tackled stand-up comedy for a spell then too, putting on a (best of the worst!) award-winning show at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2000, which I then followed up with a year or so's worth of torture, er, I mean gigging in and around Glasgow....
Sean on set with Dennis Pennis and Roland from Grange Hill....
What followed for Sean was his pair of novels - they were definitely better at the time, but slipped down the rankings considerably as I became better read - and his stint as a team captain on Never Mind The Buzzcocks (a programme about which I have positively nothing positive to say at all, sorry)*. Meanwhile my own comedy ambitions crumbled under the weight of trying to say too much and not really being all that funny - I was a simple gagster, afraid to break out and express my real self (which was too meek and weak to project anything). I suppose this lack of narrative focus is what lead me once again to trying comics, the crafty "a picture is worth a thousand words" helping to get things back on some sort of (not having to die on my arse in front of, hmm, 23 people) track (er, please sit down, Elexender Browne). Sean, on the other hand, graduated to ever loftier heights, being granted parental approval - "that Irish bloke you like...." - as Mod in The Last Detective....
*I take that back. There was a great joke of Sean's in the (inevitable) cash-in book - thumbed through in a charity shop, of course! - about Karen Carpenter being so thin that latterly she used to fax herself to gigs....
Then, to bring things full circle Warky, Meeks and myself caught Sean live in Glasgow for his 'The Right Side Of Wrong' show in 2007 and then (there were two!) again in Edinburgh in 2009 for 'What I Meant To Say Was . . .' and 2010 for 'Ducks And Other Mistakes I've Made'.
Around this time - imagine, if you can, a glorious period when Myspace was a genuinely viable social media networking platform - I was lucky enough to receive a few short messages from Sean in response to a few encouraging things I'd written on his, er, 'wall'? Or is it 'feed'? We certainly communicated after I picked up a copy of The National's High Violet (this week's album of the, um, week) having read in an interview it was his favourite album of that year. After that (and then there was one!) I didn't unfortunately see him live again - there must be a joke in there somewhere about the fact that it's quite obvious that the only person who should be going to a stand up gig on their own is the act....
I'll not lie.... These later efforts were hardly the tightest or funniest stand up shows I've seen simply due to the fact that Sean matured into a more rounded raconteur, his ever-present thoughtfulness, the smallness of the big picture, coming well to the fore. You'd find yourself wincing as much as laughing as he mercilessly prodded and probed, picking shamelessly at (his) life's scabs. It would be hard to imagine him tackling something like 'Live At The Apollo' with his random and profound (and bleak) stream of consciousness approach, the slow-build jokes scattered here, there and everywhere. But there was something deeper there, the three of us, now bumped about by life, our school selves (and ambitions) half a lifetime ago, watching Sean rattle on down the dark path ahead of ourselves, sending back suitably grim reports....
Of course, the beauty of these shows, and Sean's real skill, was how he would begin to slowly tie all the disparate (and often desperate) comedy threads together at the end, making for a genuinely satisfying, er, (emotional) climax. Some of the reviews I read from punters online at this time were pretty rough, but I could easily see why folk would be disappointed with an overweight (and somewhat perpetually defeated) Sean huffing and puffing his way about the stage, taking sly swipes at Stephen Fry and Michael McIntyre and getting slightly narked when punchlines failed to land. Hardly the stuff (thankfully!) we've come to expect/accept in today's more easily interchangeable, quick quip, routine-based comedic climate....
Unlike Sean, however, there's no clever or well thought-out denouement (unless, you count my using a very fancy word just there?) to this blog. No tying things together in a way that'll have you leaving the auditorium with a jolly spring in your step (and perhaps a slight lump in your throat.... c'mon! I said throat!). I'm not even sure I'm making much of a passionate case for what Sean meant to myself (and to Warky, to whom he probably meant just as much, if not more, but in as many different ways). I suppose that's the trick, if I could truly pin down what made Sean Hughes"Sean Hughes" then it wouldn't make him quite nearly so unique, so inspiring and so special would it...?
"Bye bye! Bye bye! Bye bye!"
(....and he never did adverts, so there you go....)
What better way to help readers beat the January blues than to announce that (following on from Lulu's December discount) we here at Braw Books have decided to knock a whopping 15% off the RRP of all our available titles. Yep, if you head over >>here you can browse our superior comic bounty on offer for inferior comic prices....
This means that the Collected Works of John G. Miller, Dave Alexander and Pudsy can now be "yours to own on paper forever" - or somesuch outlandish claim that neglects to consider charity shops, ebay and the fact we're all going to die at one point (and quite possibly at the same time, who knows) - at a fantastic knock me down with a feather price....
Aye, for near enough a tenner you can own some of the very finest comedy writing this country has ever produced.... writing that easily goes toe to toe with countless far more famous and celebrated (and rich!) Scottish novelists and comedians. And these guys can actually draw too - bonus....
For anyone interested Agent Rob has started a blog of his dreams. There's an introductory post >>here where he explains there will be posts from the present, the past and the distant past, as he has notes of dreams going back (at least) to 1994....
Ships That Bite In The Night!
The first dream - featuring Kasabian as special musical guests - can be found here and there should be (at least) something fresh from his dreamscapes arriving every week from here on in. Feel free to check it out and follow. Let's go....
"Farewell and adieu, to you two thousand and seventeen, farewell and adieu, you seventeen and two thousand. For we've received orders for to sail back to Glasgog, and so never more shall we see you again" (thank goodness....)
In the absence of a proposed series of December 'UndergRound Ups of 2017' - instead Agent Rob spent the Christmas holidays this year flat on his back negotiating 'The Land Of The Lurgy' - this behind the curve (lack of) effort'll have to do, a half-arsed cobbling together of images assembled prior, together with hastily written text. Why, in a way it's Braw Books very own Shada. And, being honest, there's precious little "underground" actually on show here, it's mostly just canny swimming in the mainstream, so please adjust your expectations accordingly....
If 2017 was to prove anything it was the certainty that Agent Rob is indeed a replicant as he failed to give anywhere near the correct emotional responses to the year's celebrated blockblusters, remaining pretty much unmoved (for 2 hours plus!) by the likes of Blade Runner 2049, Thor: Ragnarock and Star Wars: The Last Jedi whilst relishing the opportunity to catch erstwhile cult cinema classics Crime Wave, Yojimbo and Sanjuro on the big screen. Proof indeed that for all the amazing technology and megabudgets at the Hollywood machine's disposal it don't always add up to much (except in terms of bloated running time). Maybe they should check out Andrei Tarkoysky's Solaris or Stalker to see how it's done....
The small screen fared a little better, with The Prisoner's first timer retro thrills, the irresistible Stranger Things and Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency's "what's actually going on here?" mindbends pushing all the panic buttons that (the wildly imaginative but curiously flat) Rick And Morty could not. I tried, y'know. I gave it a season and a half but simply no joy (aside from the standout Meeseeks And Destroy episode). Elsewhere Elizabeth Moss acted out of her skin - and often, let's be honest, her clothes - in the relentless adult downer dramas of the year, (Over The) Top Of The Lake and The Handmaid's Tale. And if anything was required viewing as an antidote to the political shitstorming of 2017 then the BBC's The Vietnam War documentary proved it sure weren't no different back then, no sir. It was also great to revisit the Manga phase of my youth, the fact that I watched the bulk of them on crappy res. Youtube videos only adding to the nostalgic 90's VHS vibe. Similarly, The Horror Channel's uncanny ability to source grainy prints only helped further my appreciation of the Hammer and Amicus horror productions....
Of course, lying and sweating under the covers for a fortnight allows you to rest up and listen to the plethora of records you've amassed over the course of the year. Everyone who was anyone back in the heyday was back at it in 2017, with RIDE's Weather Diaries being a particular highlight amongst long awaited return fare from Slowdive, (Mansun's) Paul Draper, Michael Head & The Red Elastic Band and Thousand Yard Stare, as well as almost-as-long-awaited and still exceptional reissues/compilations from Lift To Experience, Bark Psychosis and Acetone. There was plenty of fresher fare to be found too, with Tonstartssbandht's Sorcerer heading up the top of that pile, likely sitting on top of new releases by Mogwai, The Horrors and The Charlatans....
Last year it was old school ambient archiving and this year it was old skool and underground hip hop records, lps that were "slept on" if I've got my parlance - as cribbed from countless Youtube comments - correct, from the likes of MF DOOM, Edan, Masters Of Illusion and cLOUDDEAD. (Plus there was the sneaky bonus find of NAS's classic Illmatic for 33p in a Partick charity shop!). Typing of clouds, there was plenty of aural bounty to be found on (Bandcamp via) Soundcloud, with the likes of (Scotland's very own) Boobs of Doom and Fordell Research Unitas well as The Pink Elephants, Vintage Cucumber, Natural Magic and Ma Holo providing somewhat more eclectic musical forays. Check 'em out....
Nice to see Love's Forever Changes and John Martyn's London Conversation clock up their respective half centuries while The Orb's majestic Blue Room, UFOrb and Assassin releases hit twenty five years young (and still, to this day, sound like the future we were promised but that was never realised). Hopefully this year we'll get to blogging about the sheer majesty of The Orb, something I didn't quite promise but equally never actually realised in 2017. Then again, maybe it was the sheer heartbreak of seeing them taking a straw to clumsily bludgeon Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld and Chill Out at their 25th anniversary show in 2016 that finally broke this loyal camel's back....
The world of books belonged to Philip K. Dick, or course, with Galactic Pot Healer and Dr. Bloodmoney really hitting the spot (in several realities, I'm sure) this year. Though it was a shame that Channel 4's much touted Electric Dreams fell way short of the mark. Not only did Black Mirror trounce it on all fronts, but seeing PKD's work stuck in sub-Blade Runner visuals and acted out in part with British accents - from his books the characters scream America, the settings all Californian sunshine and shabby denim - just felt completely off. Add to that the simple fact that his work just doesn't really translate to film or television. Like J.G. Ballard - whose High-Rise was given a sort of "Carry On Up The Elevator Shaft!" adaptation in 2015 - it's all about the canny exploration of the "inner space". Still, bonus points for casting Steve Buscemi, probably the most PKD actor of all time, in one episode. But for sheer quality of writing it was hard to see past Something Wicked This Way Comes and Ray Bradbury's tight, highly evocative prose - if you're lucky enough to read a modern edition there is an excellent afterword that is by turns inspiring, illuminating, electrifying and chilling....
The world of comics (as ever) belonged to Frank Quitely, but especially in 2017 what with his epic, career-spanning and jaw-dropping exhibition at Glasgow's Kelvingrove Art Gallery. The opening night was a joy, comic creators from right across the spectrum turning out to see 'the local boy done good'. Perfect timing too, considering Agent Rob was beginning to regard his singular, immense talent akin to wallpaper, having stared at page after page of Jupiter's Legacy for hour after hour - finally here was chance to look at the work afresh (and be knocked out by his craft all over again)! At least it made this List, ahem....
Coming a very close second to King Quitely is Goran "Grand Master" Parlov, who returned on art duties with Punisher: The Platoon. His simple, Euro-stylings combined with a mastery of composition and ink tones makes it all look oh so easy. This guy could draw Punisher: The Phonebook and I'd still be queuing round the block for a copy! I haven't been this tempted to pick up a pen and draw a comic since John Romita Jr's work on the original Kick-Ass....
Of course, by far the greatest thing we saw and heard and witnessed all year was when Mark Szaszy decided to share the video for Pusherman's 1996 single Chase It. There's only a select few who gave these excellent 90's heavy rockers a chance - think catchy Oasis-esque songs with Northern Soul-era Verve sonics, but harder and heavier than that pair combined - but they are far and away the great lost band of their day. This footage is absolute gold! These lads meant it, mannnn....
