The Palace and the Punks

[arclight]

Jill I finally got to see the Sex Pistols a few years back and saw SLF at Rock City earlier this year - they were great - and off to see The Damned there in Nov. You have to catch these bands while you still can, it’s like ‘last chance to see’ with the original punk species now!
There’s a CO-OP on the Grey Topper site now
Yes Sam Beckinsale lived in Jacksdale, in fact she moved onto my street and I hung around with her for a while as kids, she had no idea who her real dad was until she moved to the village and the gossips told her, so she wrote to Richard Beckinsale and I remember the day he parked up on our street in his Range Rover and got out with a Dulux dog (could it have been THE Dulux dog, was acting in the whole family including the pets?!) when he came to visit Sam, he died less than a year later.

[jill]

Yeah, you're right. The Ramones might be my all time favourite punk bank (close call on that one though) and I think they're all dead now* I saw the Pistol's on the filthy lucre tour, but that was yonks ago-mid 90s I think. Do you like any of the newer bands? Like the Libertines-Arbeit Macht Frei etc. Went to see the Vines a while back too-mer, O.K.

My brother knew Richard Beckinsale a bit. When he made it, he used to drive around in a Roller with fish and chip wrappers all over the back seats-you can take the boy out of Nottingum, but you can't take Nottingum out of the boy eh . Must have been quite some thing seeing him in Jacksdale-he was a bit of a mega-star then. I think I read somewhere that they had not long been reconciled, or met, when he died. Didn't realise it was less than a year. That is sad.

Edit:* Nah, just checked. Oddly, all the drummers seem to have survived-like Spinal Tap in reverse

[tommo]

Chantel ? I've always found that mixing Alcohol with these type of forums can get you into Serious amount of trouble , mix that with the fact i'm from Clay Cross(Capital of the North) and your looking at a possible Prison sentence!

[tommo]

Oh bollex , see what i mean about Alcohol! my last post ^ wasn't ment for this thread ! F.f.s

[jill]

Jun 17, 2011 22:32:59 GMT tommo said:

Oh bollex , see what i mean about Alcohol! my last post ^ wasn't ment for this thread ! F.f.s

Have you been drinking?

[jill]

Jun 17, 2011 22:26:52 GMT tommo said:

Chantel ?

Arghh. I meant Chanel:

www.imdb.com/name/nm2596460/

And yes, I had been drinking ;D

[arclight]

Did anyone see the Sex Pistols at the Nottingham Boat Club? That must have been something special!

[jill]

No. I've always regretted not going Got an email from Amazon today saying the book's on its way. Will let you know what I think of it

[arclight]

There's a great 2 page review of The Palace and the Punks book in today's Notts Evening Post!
www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/unlikely-village-venue-hosted-classic-rock-n-roll/story-12907541-detail/story.html

[arclight]

Hey Jill this Nottingham Sex Pistols court case is mentioned in the book
20thcpunkarchives.tripod.com/nov/id42.htm
Was after Virgin Records - where Selectadisc ended up - put Never Mind The Bollocks covers and posters in the window and the police made them remove them, it went to court and it was proven that 'bollocks' was an old anglo-saxon word meaning 'small ball'. Johnny Rotten was shouting 'great, bollocks is legal, bollocks bollocks bollocks' ;D
There was a midlands today (i think) story about it but can't find any footage on line, would love to see it.

[jill]

I remember the shop window and the court case very well.

The book came today. Had a little flick through earlier-nice story/bit of trivia about Geno Washington telling the young Ian Brown he should become a singer-cool if it's true Going to read it tonight-right now in fact

[jill]

Hey arclight, come clean-are you actually the author of this here book?

I've read about a third of it. Very nice indeed-lively, engaging style-loving it! Definetly think that local observation on Lawence (all abaht the 'ouses to get some oats) should be engraved on his gravestone-brilliant ;D. I just recently re-read Sons and Lovers. Funny, it's a totally different book from the one I read when I was fourteen-that's corruption of age/the soul for ya

It's bringing back a lot of memories. My ex-who was my bf back in the late 70s- worked at Linby and later Bilsthorpe. He was an old soul boy (Wigan), but got into punk when he met me. Funny how-in youth-the demarcations matter so much.

It's just weird that I didn't see any punk bands there-but then I didn't have a car back then, so wouldn't have travelled-even to Jacksdale and I lived in the Lake District for a while back then, so maybe that's why. I saw most of the bands at Sandpiper.

I kind of like the early glam rock stories too. I also remember the Peter Thompson/Lorraine Underwood tragedy. I actually live near Cromford these days-shocking and very sad.

I lived in Stoke for a while (1995-2000). The Grey Topper seems very like the Wheatsheaf in Stoke-totally non-descript place in a non-descript town, but EVERYBODY played the venue. The very same week I moved there, Oasis played the Wheatsheaf. Noel Gallagher even got involved in the campaign to save it. It's another Weatherspoons now.

Anyhoo long, rambling, post. Liking it a lot-so if you're not the author, pass on my compliments to the man on a job well done ;D

[arclight]

Oh aye Jill I am, aww raight pleased you're enjoying it! Especially as you obviously know your Nottingham Green Onions from your punk perennials Been great feedback for it so far.
We once went in the DH Lawrence museum and started doing a Python-esque Four Yorkshire Men sketch to some American tourists about the hardships of the coal mining days, telling them we all kept ponies in back garden and had to have one in ‘t’pot’ during one strike ;D
That snobby teacher did put us off Lawrence as kids but do love his books now though, his first novel the White Peacock is my favourite, more stripped down from his later books and is set around the Felley and Annesley hall churchyard were I walk the dog (as I’m off doing in 10 mins) And the farm in Sons and Lovers looks over the place. I like how he did come to have empathy for his dad’s dark moods in later life (not too late of course) at having to do back breaking work down the pit all day and despite all his travels the countryside mentioned above was still closest to his heart.
No one could ever find Jacksdale – and this was in the industrial pea souper fogs days too, that Gary Glitter thankfully got lost in –it was like some dark twin of Brigadoon.
Hope you enjoy the rest of it!

[jill]

Congratulations on writing it and getting it out there. It is very nicely written-you've really caught the 'local voice.' You must have spent a fair old time researching it too. I like it a lot.

My aunt kept the corner shop opposite the Lawrence house/museum for a while and I would play there with my 'ascewood' cousins-all 'dunna this' and 'dunna that' -great to hear that dialogue again in Sons and Lovers. I think I know the farm you're talking about-I used to do a few runs roundabout Moorgreen Res-just up from there (Underwood)?. Or maybe I'm getting it mixed up with Haggs Farm-maybe this place was in another of his books. I know Annesley church too-shame that the old house is being renovated really-loved it when it was all run down and goth gloomy. Not sure if it's still possible to get into the old Newstead pit? That's a real urban tourist delight-or was, at least.

On a re-reading of S and L, I felt so sorry for poor old Morrel-the snobbery of his mother (and him) is entertaining, but kind of cruel. Lawrence was a briliant writer though. My favourite is his short story-Odour of Chrysanthemums.

Hopefully I'll manage to read the middle third of your book tonight.

[arclight]

Yep Jill spent a good few years researching, collecting stories and piecing it together, always a labour of love though.
Was your aunt’s shop where the little café is now? Must have been a cool place to visit and play...in hindsight, looking at its heritage. Yes that’s the farm, near Moorgreen and Underwood.
Odour Of Chrysanthemums is my favourite Lawrence short story too! Not just because it’s a great, haunting, little story, but for its location too, the old railway line between Brinsley and Selston pits. My grandad worked at the latter and he lived in the end terrace upon on the hill over looking the old pit and railway line, he used to take me walks along the remains of this when I was a little kid. My sister-in-laws family live at the Brinlsey end near where the cottage in the story would have been.
I was fed up he never mentioned Jacksdale in any of his stories until I came across the letter quoted in The Palace and the Punks describing the dance he went to in the village
You watching the re-runs of Top of the Pops 76 on BBC 4? There's a few Topper bands popping up on there and I'm seeing footage of some obscure ones for the first time like Liverpool Express last week Really shows how cheesy, pantomime and cabaret the charts had become just before punk ruined Tony Blackburn’s and Noel Edmonds world ;D
There are some gems amongst the dross though, Candi Staton - 'Young Hearts Run Free' By coincidence my sister saw her live in a small venue in Manchester last week! She reckon's she still looks and sounds amazing!