Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

The show starts tonight at Monroe, Iowa. In fact, it's Map Ref. 41Β° N 93Β° W, the 1979 single by Wire. Singer and bass player Graham Lewis wrote the song while flying over the Mid West back to New York after visiting his girlfriend in Los Angeles. Wire had just made their debut in CBGBs. He had a perfect view out of his window of the landscape below. As a student of Geography he knew what he was looking at, including an ox-bow lake. Yes, we've all been taught how they're formed but Graham actually saw a real one. He wrote the song because of his love of maps. I imagine if he'd not been given a window seat on that flight, we'd be a lot worse off. And I would have had a gap at the start of the show.
Tonight's route isΜύ

Wire - Map Ref 41 N 93 W
Gymslips - Dear Marje
Suicide - Diamonds, Fur Coat, Champagne
Stranglers - Mean To Me
Rezillos - My Baby Does Good Sculptures
Murder Inc - Polythene Dream
Johnny Moped - Groovy Ruby
Television Personalities - Three Wishes
Kirsty MacColl - You Caught Me Out
Velvet Underground - White Light White Heat
John Otway - Remember The Alamo
Echo & The Bunnymen - Happy Death Men

Maybe it's because he now advertises insurance, but announced at the weekend that he is to stop stage diving. His own, not everyone else's. Apparently at a recent show in Carnegie Hall, the Ig launched himself into the crowd. The crowd parted like the Red Sea and he found himself getting a close up of the Carnegie carpet. Not a good position when you're 62 years old.
I have never really associated Iggy with stage diving anyway. He is, after all, the man who could walk on the upturned palms of an adoring crowd. (Four minutes and fifteen seconds into from Cincinnati in 1970). I once read that a young David Bowie attempted a similar move, in his early years of devotion to Iggy. It didn't work. The Man Who Fell To Earth indeed.
Writer Frank Cottrell Boyce was on Desert Island Discs on Sunday and, as part of the punk rock generation, he had a story about Iggy.
Like many of that generation, Frank read about the bands from the NME, while not actually seeing them in the flesh. Stories of Iggy clawing at his chest were in young Frank's mind when he and his friends went to see him at the famous Eric's club in 1977. Then this small, slightly camp singer walked out on to the tiny stage. Someone standing behind Frank said "It's Melvin Hayes". The image of Iggy Pop as Gloria from It Ain't Half Hot Mum is one that brightened my weekend. (Nice black and white pic of The Stooges , Iggy second from right, just before they sacked Windsor Davies)

I got a text last night from my friend Deirdre.
"I'm listening to Radio 4 news at 7 and Undertones Wednesday Week bursts in from Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ 6 Music on my non DAB Radio !!! It's still playing !!"
She likes exclamation marks, does Deirdre !!!
That's when I discovered that our band was in the middle of what was thought to be guerilla broadcasting on behalf of the Save 6 Music Campaign. It turns out it was just someone pressing the wrong button, but it made several of the more excitable broadsheets' internet sites. I must admit I didn't realise it was so newsworthy until I was sent a link to the this morning. The comments underneath certainly bring you back to earth.Μύ Someone called Ymhos said "Enlighten your overseas readers. Who are the Undertones?"
Another comment , from Nancy NooNoo put it like this "I was on R$ at the time. They could have picked some decent music for the time of the hijack. That was never going to win over anybody."
Thanks for that. What's Radio $ anyway ?
But the last word goes to the wonderfully named 'Bingo Chuffy'.

Last minute change to the set list to insert a Big Star song, in honour of the late Alex Chilton, A quick YouTube search didn't turn up any vintage TV appearances of the Memphis band, but it did show a very young Alex with the Box Tops performing 'The Letter'. Handsome Young Devil he was. Also tonight, another run out for The Torpedoes '2486' from the latter end of our musical timetable.
Those results in full :

Cortinas - Fascist Dictator
Nerves - Gimme Some Time
Vibrators - We Vibrate
Cramps - Goo Goo Muck
Big Star - When My Baby's Beside Me
Gang Of Four - Not Great Men
Special AKA - Bright Lights
Pop Rivets - Hipocrite
Torpedoes - 2486
Hammersmith Gorillas - Shame Shame Shame
Johnny Thunders - London Boys
Second Layer - Courts Or War
Television - Carried Away
Richard Hell & Voidoids - Liars BewareΜύ

You may have noticed a lack of postings on this blog over the past few weeks. One of my excuses is that I was in Tokyo. Despite being in one of the most technologically advanced cities in the world, I was without a computer and couldn't find an internet cafe. I did find some very enthusiastic followers of Derry punk rock circa 1979, who just happened to have some Undertones records with them. I can't pass up an opportunity to make my mark on such discs, which is why I carry a felt pen with me at all times.
I had hoped to have some record shopping experiences to relate to you but I don't have any. On the third floor of one big record store it occurred to me that technology has now made buying records a homogenic process if you're as narrow minded as I am when it comes to music. I looked through the racks but couldn't see anything that I couldn't get online. The only thing different was that there was Japanese writing on the sleeves. Other than that, they were the usual titles we see in shops here. Except about 50 per cent more expensive. There was one LP by the Liverpool band The Yachts , released in 1979, which can only be got in Japan. Of course, I only remembered that fact when the plane landed in George Best airport. Too late to turn back now, I suppose.

I always hold in reserve a small collection of showbusiness stories, to impress those who are easily impressed. I have deployed oneΜύin this week's show, about the time Paul Weller rang me in my hotel room in Los Angeles in 1980. He invited me and the rest of the band down to a TV studio where The Jam were appearing. They did two songs, one of which was Start!. Didn't actually meet them afterwards or anything, but seeing them in a small studio while outside the Californian Sun was shining was brilliant. There. That's my Paul Weller story used up.

Μύ

Blondie - Kung Fu Girls
Gun Club - Calling Up Thunder
Jam - Start!
XTC -Μύ Jumping In Gomorrah
Girls At Our Best! - Politics
Monochrome Set - 405 Lines
Demented Are Go - Holy Hack Jack
Yachts - Suffice To Say
Lime Spiders - Slave Girl
Liliput - Die Matrosen
Jonathan Richman -ΜύSomeone I Care About
Devo - Be Stiff
Stooges - DirtΜύ
Boys - Neighbourhood Brats
Josef K - Sense of Guilt

Best Welsh Band Ever contenders start the show this week. In my own private list, anyway. The Table (who shortened their name from Do You Want This Table) only made two singles, one of which was Do The Standing Still. I haven't listened to it forensically enough to tell you what the subject matter is, but I refuse to believe one website which says its a list of titles of comic heroes. I know enough to know its a dance song, like The Twist, only better. In fact, I am doing the Standing Still as I write.

The Table - Do The Standing Still
Joy Division - Interzone
Tenpole Tudor - Header Now
Twelve Cubic Feet - Evercare
MC5 - Call Me Animal
June Brides - No Place Called Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ
Pulsallama - The Devil Lives In My Husband's Body
Go Betweens - The House That Jack Kerouac Built
Fire Engines - Everything's Roses
Electric Prunes - I Had Too Much To Dream Last Night
Buzzcocks - I Believe
Clash - The Call Up
Outcasts - Justa Nother Teenage Rebel

Μύ