Friday, December 10, 2004
Rude Boy Returns
At 6am I could not have been blamed for thinking today was going to be an ordinary Friday. I would go to work, then meet Dave for a couple of pints at about 12, then head up to a small club off Lothian Road to see a band play with a few mates. Nothing extraordinary - nothing too exciting. In actual fact, this day would go down in the history books as one never to be forgotten.
At work, I got through a full shift by lunchtime freeing up the rest of the day to my every whim. And so I joined Dave and Tom and a couple of others from his work for a couple of pints in Clark's. It was their team Christmas lunch and spirits were high and laughter loud as we sat in our usual place in the back room of the pub.
After returning to the office to make sure all was well I met up with a couple of other work mates and we went off to Hamilton's which was heaving with once a year drinkers clogging up the bar and cheering hysterically at anything anyone did with a party hat. Since it was renovated, Hamilton's has become a pretentious bar at times - I much prefer Clark's; always the same, totally reliable and you get a damn good pint.
So I left Hamilton's after my mate Rob from Fife called to say he was nearly into Edinburgh for the gig. And this was when the fun started. I jumped into a cab in Stockbridge to head to Lothian Road to find that my driver was an ex-Merchant Navy and ex-Bovver Boy. That is to say, he was (and still is) a big fan of 2-Tone, as he soon revealed when he burst into some enthusiastic singing and recalling the days when the Punks, Skins and Teddy gangs ruled the roost in urban Britain.
He dropped me off at Shakespeare's and I met up with Rob. The bar was ridiculously busy, and what was even worse was the only two bar staff they had on so me and Rob headed for another bar just down the road called The Office - which was even worse than Hamilton's. It was full of toffs quaffing champagne in their tuxedos and talking about how much they earned. So there we sat until Colin Ross showed up with his lad and had a few more drinks.
The time had come to make our way into the club for the gig and as we made our way up I felt my belly grumble. The others walked on as I stopped by a chuck-wagon for a quick hot dog. As I waited for the onions to fry I noticed a bright light behind me. I turned to see a camera man and a pretty interviewer from Scottish Television, stopping people as they came down Lothian Road. They had stopped this bloke dressed in checked flare trousers, a retro shirt and shaved/coloured hairstyle with long sideburns. They were talking to him about his plans for the night and what it was like to be in Edinburgh during Christmas, but even though I couldn't make out his replies, I was already thinking to myself how they should be covering the Neville Staple gig I was attending later on.
Once they finished with 'Winnie the Pooh', I approached and told them just as much.
"You should be covering the gig over there - Neville Staple from The Specials is playing - the ultimate Rude Boy!" I said.
The camera man knew who I meant. The young female interviewer turned her face in ignorance.
"Billy Sloan's covering it anyway," she said. "If you see him punch him for us will you?"
We laughed and I departed happy with my contribution to on-the-spot media freelancing for the night.
I joined the rest of the gang in the Citrus Club which was disppointingly quiet. The gig started with Concrete Jungle and moved through all the Specials classics like Rat Race, Enjoy Yourself, Gangsters, Too Hot and a 7 minute rendition of their number one hit, Ghost Town. Neville also covered a few of his own stuff, and despite the couple of fat topless skinheads down the front causing them to stop playing during A Message To You Rudi for their over-the-top enthusiasm, it was a great wee gig.
Some gig pictures. Click to enlarge
During the dancing of one of the numbers, I noticed a bloke alongside me with one of the infamous Dangermen t-shirts on. Only those lucky to have been at the secret Madness gigs in London back in May were able to get them and I spoke to him briefly about the gig, not immediately noticing his obvious Cockney accent.
After the gig I met Neville himself, shook hands and got his autograph. I told him it was people like his who keep it all going, and that if he stopped we'd all be f****d. Naturally, he agreed.
But that wasn't the brilliant thing to which I earlier referred to earlier.
While finishing off my last drink and discussing with Rob the merits of him giving me a lift home, Colin Ross came up to me and asked if this was the bloke he was standing with to which I had spoken during the gig - the guy wearing the Dangermen t-shirt. It was of course. He asked if I recognised him, and I looked at the man; slightly shorter than me, balding blond'ish hair and nobody I could think of that I knew.
"This is John Hasler," Colin said proudly.
I looked at him quicker and more closely at the man staring directly at me.
"Nah! Yer taking the piss!" said I in confidence.
The man pulled out his wallet and collected his bank and credit cards in his hand, fanned them out like a deck of cards and held them up before my face.
"John Hasler, Exp. 02/05" read the card I saw first.
I could not believe it! To say I was shocked as the reality sunk in was an understatement. He asked me my name and shook my hand when I wished him good health and told him was an absolute privelege to meet him.
For anyone who knows anything Madness, you will by now be sitting at your computer screen's as dumbfounded as I was that this legend was standing in a dingy wee club in Edinburgh in the middle of December at a gig with only about 100 people in attendance. I asked him why he was here - he just said 'for Neville'.
For anyone now sitting at their computers wondering what I'm talking about I shall endeavour to shed some light on this historic moment...
No doubt you will have heard of the Beatles, and of the fact there was a fifth Beatle - Stuart Sutcliffe. Well, if there is an eighth member of Madness - his name is John Hasler.
He was there when they started, and was involved with rehearsals when the band only consisted of three others: Mike Barson (piano), Chris Foreman (guitar) and Lee Thompson (sax). They played to stolen records in Mike's bedroom songs by Fats Domino and Smokey Robinson. John played drums for a bit and even had a hand in singing until he was chucked out because he couldn't sing. Then he became their manager, getting gigs in pubs in London as they built up to being a seven-piece band and the fame that eventually came their way. Madness even wrote a song about him which was also a hit - Bed and Breakfast Man.
Click to enlarge
They guy is a legend, and who would ever have thought I would meet him where I did.
At work, I got through a full shift by lunchtime freeing up the rest of the day to my every whim. And so I joined Dave and Tom and a couple of others from his work for a couple of pints in Clark's. It was their team Christmas lunch and spirits were high and laughter loud as we sat in our usual place in the back room of the pub.
After returning to the office to make sure all was well I met up with a couple of other work mates and we went off to Hamilton's which was heaving with once a year drinkers clogging up the bar and cheering hysterically at anything anyone did with a party hat. Since it was renovated, Hamilton's has become a pretentious bar at times - I much prefer Clark's; always the same, totally reliable and you get a damn good pint.
So I left Hamilton's after my mate Rob from Fife called to say he was nearly into Edinburgh for the gig. And this was when the fun started. I jumped into a cab in Stockbridge to head to Lothian Road to find that my driver was an ex-Merchant Navy and ex-Bovver Boy. That is to say, he was (and still is) a big fan of 2-Tone, as he soon revealed when he burst into some enthusiastic singing and recalling the days when the Punks, Skins and Teddy gangs ruled the roost in urban Britain.
He dropped me off at Shakespeare's and I met up with Rob. The bar was ridiculously busy, and what was even worse was the only two bar staff they had on so me and Rob headed for another bar just down the road called The Office - which was even worse than Hamilton's. It was full of toffs quaffing champagne in their tuxedos and talking about how much they earned. So there we sat until Colin Ross showed up with his lad and had a few more drinks.
The time had come to make our way into the club for the gig and as we made our way up I felt my belly grumble. The others walked on as I stopped by a chuck-wagon for a quick hot dog. As I waited for the onions to fry I noticed a bright light behind me. I turned to see a camera man and a pretty interviewer from Scottish Television, stopping people as they came down Lothian Road. They had stopped this bloke dressed in checked flare trousers, a retro shirt and shaved/coloured hairstyle with long sideburns. They were talking to him about his plans for the night and what it was like to be in Edinburgh during Christmas, but even though I couldn't make out his replies, I was already thinking to myself how they should be covering the Neville Staple gig I was attending later on.
Once they finished with 'Winnie the Pooh', I approached and told them just as much.
"You should be covering the gig over there - Neville Staple from The Specials is playing - the ultimate Rude Boy!" I said.
The camera man knew who I meant. The young female interviewer turned her face in ignorance.
"Billy Sloan's covering it anyway," she said. "If you see him punch him for us will you?"
We laughed and I departed happy with my contribution to on-the-spot media freelancing for the night.
I joined the rest of the gang in the Citrus Club which was disppointingly quiet. The gig started with Concrete Jungle and moved through all the Specials classics like Rat Race, Enjoy Yourself, Gangsters, Too Hot and a 7 minute rendition of their number one hit, Ghost Town. Neville also covered a few of his own stuff, and despite the couple of fat topless skinheads down the front causing them to stop playing during A Message To You Rudi for their over-the-top enthusiasm, it was a great wee gig.
Some gig pictures. Click to enlarge
During the dancing of one of the numbers, I noticed a bloke alongside me with one of the infamous Dangermen t-shirts on. Only those lucky to have been at the secret Madness gigs in London back in May were able to get them and I spoke to him briefly about the gig, not immediately noticing his obvious Cockney accent.
After the gig I met Neville himself, shook hands and got his autograph. I told him it was people like his who keep it all going, and that if he stopped we'd all be f****d. Naturally, he agreed.
But that wasn't the brilliant thing to which I earlier referred to earlier.
While finishing off my last drink and discussing with Rob the merits of him giving me a lift home, Colin Ross came up to me and asked if this was the bloke he was standing with to which I had spoken during the gig - the guy wearing the Dangermen t-shirt. It was of course. He asked if I recognised him, and I looked at the man; slightly shorter than me, balding blond'ish hair and nobody I could think of that I knew.
"This is John Hasler," Colin said proudly.
I looked at him quicker and more closely at the man staring directly at me.
"Nah! Yer taking the piss!" said I in confidence.
The man pulled out his wallet and collected his bank and credit cards in his hand, fanned them out like a deck of cards and held them up before my face.
"John Hasler, Exp. 02/05" read the card I saw first.
I could not believe it! To say I was shocked as the reality sunk in was an understatement. He asked me my name and shook my hand when I wished him good health and told him was an absolute privelege to meet him.
For anyone who knows anything Madness, you will by now be sitting at your computer screen's as dumbfounded as I was that this legend was standing in a dingy wee club in Edinburgh in the middle of December at a gig with only about 100 people in attendance. I asked him why he was here - he just said 'for Neville'.
For anyone now sitting at their computers wondering what I'm talking about I shall endeavour to shed some light on this historic moment...
No doubt you will have heard of the Beatles, and of the fact there was a fifth Beatle - Stuart Sutcliffe. Well, if there is an eighth member of Madness - his name is John Hasler.
He was there when they started, and was involved with rehearsals when the band only consisted of three others: Mike Barson (piano), Chris Foreman (guitar) and Lee Thompson (sax). They played to stolen records in Mike's bedroom songs by Fats Domino and Smokey Robinson. John played drums for a bit and even had a hand in singing until he was chucked out because he couldn't sing. Then he became their manager, getting gigs in pubs in London as they built up to being a seven-piece band and the fame that eventually came their way. Madness even wrote a song about him which was also a hit - Bed and Breakfast Man.
Click to enlarge
They guy is a legend, and who would ever have thought I would meet him where I did.
Colin 11:53 pm
1 Comments:
I must admit I didn't know that there was an eighth member of Madness, however I can imagine the look on your face when you met him.
Glad you enjoyed yourself big man!
Glad you enjoyed yourself big man!
