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| Contemporary photograph shows a crazed Danny Thompson lunging for Bert Jansch as Jacqui McShee recoils in terror! |
Pioneering UK folk-jazz group Pentangle's civilised acoustic arrangements of Trad Arr's beloved songs belie the dangerous passions behind their formation! Famed fatstring fiddler Danny Thompson, visiting th' IoF© on his Bucket List tour, revealed yesterday how they came close to never playing a note together! We relax poolside while th' Danster tells the shocking truth for the first time as a FoamExclusive™, and Kreemé serves her signature frothing stoups of mead. |
| Thompson, yesterday |
DT It was like this, Farq, and incidentally what a buxom wench Kreemé is. Phwoar doesn't do her justice. If I were sixty years younger I'd ...
FT3 Yes, it's ironic that when you're old enough to know what it's all about, you're too old to do anything about it. Thank you Jesus, right? But let's get back on topic.
DT Right. Which was?
FT3 Pre-gig fisticuffs.
DT Right! First time I played with the Pents, that would be at Nether Scrotum, in Frottinghamshire, a pub called The Witch's Sleeve it was, gone now, don't look for it, they told me to sit down? I could not believe it. They were all sitting down, see, it's the folkie tradition. And there was me standing with my bull fiddle, tuning up, and Bert [Jansch, rhythm guitarist - Ed.] says, "okay Dannyboy sit down please and thank you. No showbiz grandstanding on our stage thank you very much". So I thought maybe he was joking, laughed, okay Bert haha. There were no lols back then, we only had hahas. So Terry [Cox, tambourine, backing vox - Ed.] chimes in with, "something funny, mate? We 're all sitting down. The audience is sitting down. You sit down". And I'm wondering what I've got myself into. Jacqui [McShee, synth, gong - Ed.] goes, "show some respect, you fat cunt". Quiet, like, polite, but she's not smiling. John [Renbourn, Chapman stick - Ed.], he leans over, like, and spits on me shoe. Big greenie, hawks it right up on the toe of me shoe. I'm still tightening the top string, doyng doyng doyng, I'm confused, and Bert shouts SIT DOWN! and the string snaps, DOYYYNNNGGGG! and so do I. I've had enough of this bunch of weirdos, and I lunge for Bert, punch him right in the nose, easy target haha, and they all pile in on top of me, Jacqui kicks me in the nads, wearing fucking clogs ... fuck me, what a fracas!
FT3 Unbelievable! So! How did the matter resolve itself?
DT (drains stoup of foaming mead, belches roundly) Well, Bert's throttling me, blood pouring out of his nose, and suddenly he starts laughing? And everyone falls away and they're all just laughing, can't stand up it's so funny. I get my breath back and the audience is laughing and everyone's killing themselves except me because I think my ankle's fucked, and John comes over and pats my cheek, like, and says, "it was a joke! A JOKE!" and everyone helps me to my feet and the audience is applauding. So naturally I see the funny side of it. Years later. Yesterday.
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FT3 They let you stand up, though.
DT I couldn't. Jacqui's clog bust my ankle.
FT3 So the joke was on them, then.
DT (laughs) Any chance of Kreemé getting me another foaming stoup of mead?
FT3 Did you bring a Nalbum?
DT (produces album from Afghan shoulder bag) It's a Very Special Edition of our first album, @192. It's from the box set, with slewage of extra tracks. Uh - Kreemé?
This story is the first in what is sure to become a much-loved regular FoamFeature©! Look for more Shocking Truths right here! Or not!
What's yer favorite scandal? I just watched A Very Royal Scandal about the Duke of Pork. No new news, but it's always good to reminded what an absolute shit he was. If anything, they were too soft on him, showing a "human" side I'm not sure is there.
ReplyDeleteI think, Farq, you mean 'absolute shit he is'. He's still on the scrounge, swearing at 'flunkeys', nose still deep in the trough...
DeleteI'm so out of the loop. My absolute favourite scandal ahs to be the Profumo Affair, the real-life sixties spy story that "rocked" the UK Establishment back in the real-life sixties. Starring two fantastic dames, Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies, it was 100% salacious fun with none of the Epstein seediness, plus betrayal of National Secrets. It was an impossible to follow act. Mandy's response to the judge when told Profumo denied everything was "well, he would say that wouldn't he," which resulted in gales of laughter. If you've never heard of any of this it's worth a gewgle.
DeleteI don't wanna be too contemporary...the world is near-scandal-proof anymore, so...JFK/Marilyn Monroe? ( too soon?)
ReplyDeleteSnorkers, this was a bolted-down secret at the time and only came to light when nobody cared any more, so I'm not sure if it qualifies as a scandal.
DeleteThis is probably not the sort of scandal you’re after Farq, but WGAFA, it’s a scandal in my books.
ReplyDeleteTalk Talk, the band, (as mentioned by MC of Escher on a previous thread) who were on the EMI label, developed from a pop group in 1981, releasing some great singles and albums that got better with every release until in 1986 they released Colour of Spring many peoples favourite album by them. The following album Spirit of Eden in 1988 was not as successful as the previous album and the band felt they could not tour it. EMI then sued the band because it was not ‘commercially satisfactory’ - a similar situation as Neil Young and Geffen I think. The band were soon extracted from their contract.
Anyway typical bloody record company, they recouped their money by releasing a very popular best of, but also an album of remixes without the bands input or permission.
The band made a final album in 1991 on Verve Records.
Spirit of Eden is my favourite of their albums, and Pentangle's famed fatstring fiddler Danny Thompson played bass on it too, in an interview in Mojo Magazine Danny didn’t have a good word to say about his experience recording with Talk Talk, “I always preferred Duran Duran anyway” he said, or something like that.
I suppose ten years existence for a band isn’t bad, but its such a shame that they didn’t do more.
I'm with Tommo. The Durries have been FoamFeatured®, but Talk Talk never will be.Too bloody depressing, like Blue Nile. Too much wrist-to-forehead Beautiful Suffering.
DeleteThe John Bercow bullying scandal from a few years back where former Speaker of the British House of Parliament was accused, found guilty and punished for bullying Parliamentary staff under his management and eventually banned from Parliament for life. A fitting end to probably the most mendacious, treacherous arrogant self-serving British politician I can recall in my lifetime. Particularly so as he fancied a Peerage for himself and a seat in the House Of Lords and that can now never happen.
ReplyDeleteTo me he was the epitomy of what is wrong with British politics and just to scrape the surface of his political mendacity this was a guy who was top of the list of expenses troughers claiming close to the maximum virtually every year and totalling over £1million in a 10 year period who avoided censure by hurriedly handing over over £5000 to the Government to cover any 'errors' in his expenses.
Nevertheless opposing leader and Prime minister of the time, Gordon Brown courted him (there had been rumours of a potential defection for years) to replace Mick Martin as Speaker of The House Of Commons in the wake of Martin's failure to deal with the expenses scandal effectively and with primarily Labour support (even though he was a Tory) he got himself what was an effective promotion (and the only one as an MP he was ever likely to get) and pay rise (effectively doubling his pay) to become Speaker, a position which he and his wife abused repeatedly and brought into disrepute in so many ways. From start to finish his Speakership was a running scandal.
That he is now banned from Parliament (and has been kicked out of the Labour Party, he finally switched when he left the Speakership), as a result is wholly appropriate and for me a satisfying confirmation that what goes around eventually comes around and even the mendacious and manipulative can get a little of their just deserts!
It also a sage reminder of how rotten mainstream politics in the UK is.
*applause*
DeleteFave 10/10 no-filler-all-killer scandal? Just off the top of my head I'm still awaiting the remastered and expanded deluxe box-set of the Thorpe/Scott affair. And a good write-up of Lib Dem MP Mark Oaten's desperate hair-restoration efforts plus Keith Vaz's washing-machine sales MO would be very welcome.
ReplyDeleteI've just read the Wiki page on the Jezza Thorpe affair. What a mess. WHAT A MESS.
DeleteThe great disappearing Dixie beer 6 pack scandal, circa 1974 in New Orleans. Oh, how it pains me to relive the HORROR, that was sent out across the community of my hometown. But to satiate the thirst of the blood hordes at the IOF, I will suffer and endure.
ReplyDeleteDixie was a beloved, local brewery in NO, that had a rather different tasting beer - almost like it had a slight bit of iodine added to the brew. But, it was local and beloved. They even had a devout cast of empoyees, if for no other reason, than you were allowed to sip their brews while you were on the clock, except for those operating motorized vehicles.
Despite the best efforts of their crack QC team, in '73 they had an entire batch of beer, 6 packs, kegs, and otherwise, distributed to bars, restaurants and groceries throughout the metropolitan NO area which had one slight (and, by slight, I mean MAJOR)issue. Someone had apparently decided to up the iodine quotient in the brewing process, which yielded a beer that was somewhat worthy of being the protagonist in a remake of Arsenic In Old Lace. It was vomit inducing bad.
So, the cracks PR heads at Dixie decided to only way to make up for their mistake, was to under take a massive giveaway of their product, which was brewed at appropriate iodine levels. They did this through 2 major methods - a coipon for a free 6 pack that was published in al of the then exisiting daily papers in NO, and another one for which they dispatched brewery trucks throughout the city, bearing 6 packs that were placed for at the doorstep of every house, on every other street, in the city limits of NO.
While one could applaud these efforts at rekindling the image that the brewery had in the city, my then young self thought more of protecting the citizenry from yet another revulsive gulp of iodine laced barley and hops. With the able assistance of a buddy and his family's bread van, we followed one of the free 6 pack trucks, quickly and adroitly, grabbing every free 6 pack that we found and abscounding with them in the bread van so that we could perform our own qc.
Were we hailed as conquering heroes? Were our noble efforts knighted by the aristocracy in the queen city of the south? Neigh, our efforts went unappreciated due to the efforts of one of the city's finest, who pulled over the van for speeding and operating with an expired license plate. The options given were 2 fold - return the beer to the brewery, or face tickets, misdemeanor charges, and fines. That was one long ass ride to the brewery.
pmac, I'd like to thank you for sharing this story. A man needs guts to 'fess up to his crimes, especially on a widely-read forum such as this where the content is scrutinised daily by the NO PD and Judiciary. Whilst [grammar - Ed.] I cannot condone your actions, nor forgive them, your courage is not in doubt and does you credit.
DeleteIodine? You know what that does, right?
No greater intrigue than the back-room machinations here at the Isle o' Foam, the details of which I'm not at liberty to discuss for legal reasons (let's just say there's a reason we've been transplanted from our old renovated off-strip Vegas motel to this island outside of US Jurisdiction).
ReplyDeleteBTW, Great start to this new FoamFeature!
Gee, thanks, MrDave! *snurfle* It can get kinda lonesome bein' th' internet's only Rock n' Roll Comedy Blogger. Sure, I'm my own boss, and the hours are more like minutes, but there are times when I ax myself, gee, Farq, is this even funny? Is anybody laughing out there? And in th' ensuing silence, that endless void of th' soul, I gots to admit, why, I cry a little, MrDave. Not knowing if th' lazy slobs out there are appreciatin' my finely-tuned witticisms, my satirical allusions, the tart rejoinders an' waspish asides what are the tools of my humble craft. Call me a sentimental old fool, but I watch the tear that tracks through the clown's makeup in the dressing room mirror with the lightbulbs all around it, and I say, in the emotion-choked whisper of an old man in the twilight of his life, fuck 'em.
DeleteAny youse bums want this album? It makes for swell listening, and the xtry trx feature that rare first psychy single. But ya gots to ax, fercrissakes. I'm not about to break my balls uploading something for nobody.
DeleteYes please!
DeleteDO NOT MOVE. Stay right there. Be right back.
Deletehttps://workupload.com/file/FeJbc8bMtYH
Delete(If any *Americans* out there haven't heard this for some inexplicable reason, download with confidence. It may be Trad Arr but it's also jazzy, swings like a motherfucker, and sounds like the bells of heaven. TWO guitar virtuosi, and the greatest rhythm section you probably never heard of)
A real UK scandal that I don’t think has been properly concluded yet, is the awarding of more than £200m in government contracts to supply face masks and surgical gowns during the Covid pandemic to a company called PPE Medpro.
ReplyDeleteThe Conservative peer Michelle Mone and her husband, Doug Barrowman, denied for years that they were involved in PPE Medpro, but recently admitted that they were, and had lied to the press about it, but added… lying to the press was “not a crime”.
Of the over £200m contract, £122m worth went unused because they didn’t conform to NHS standards.
Barrowman was paid at least £65m from PPE Medpro’s profits, which has how been put into trust for their family. Oh btw these profits were distributed ‘offshore’, nicely avoiding having to pay any tax on the profits. Great work if you can get it.
And so it goes…
The first time I saw Richard Thompson live, Pentangle was the opening act. This was 1994 in a smallish theater in Detroit. and the band apparently had no roadies. We were shocked to see Bert Jansch and Danny Thompson -- who also supported Richard on his set -- schlepping their own equipment onto the stage. Talk about a scandal.
ReplyDeleteBeing British means I'm pretty immune to scandal as it's such a common part of life here; from the bastard offspring of the royals since ever through politicians voting for their own big pay rises and gold trimmed pensions to fat cat companies not paying tax worth talking about. Meanwhile over 4.3 million kids live in poverty according to the Governement's own stats. Scandal? Don't start me. Grrrrrrr!
ReplyDelete