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Nice Harley, wrong suit. Should have brought me leathers...
Mike Nicholls
Who else played on the next Bowie album as well as Our Ronno?
A Heavenly HB to David Bowie who would have been 75 tomorrow.
Like his friend Mr Dylan, his kids will be alright because dad was smart enough to sell his moonage back catalogue for many a hundred million dollars in drag.
Now he's gone, but let's face it ... there was only ever room for one.
HB Phil Spector, the ultimate producer and, what the hell, second-degree murderer, who would have been 82 today.
Strange how few of my FB chums chose Darlene Love's Baby Please Come Home as their fave Chrimbo single. It's a classic Phil production: soaring vocals, better-balanced than it's maker, Wall Of Sound at its highest ... the lot.
For those with seasonal amnesia (hic!) Spector was also responsible for 60s and 70s hits by The Crystals, Ike and Tina Turner and even John Lennon's inexplicably underrated Rock & Roll album. In fact it was Beatle John who renamed Phil's wife Veronica, Ronnie, as in The Ronettes.
Author and rock journalist Mike Nicholls actually spoke to Spector, perhaps typically as a result of answering a phone in an unattended office of one of the world's major record companies.
Read more about Mike's liaisons with the Spectors in chapter 79 of his 40 year memoir My Life With Rock N' Roll People, available now on www.ghostwriterbooks.net
A happy heavenly birthday to Lemmy of Motorhead who would have been 76 tomorrow.
Visually renowned for his mutton-chop sidies and military clothes, the singer and bass player's look was matched by an equally distinctive - and influential - gravelly voice first heard on Hawkwind's 1972 top three hit Silver Machine.
It is indeed a mighty long way down Rock 'n' Roll, from Stoke-on-Trent to the Hollywood stroll. In between came stints with Jimi Hendrix and real legends such as the death-head biker logo and album titles like No Sleep 'till Hammersmith.
Lemmy also lived in Colville Houses in London's Notting Hill, a block away from Author and Rock Journalist Mike Nicholls. The two of them shared many a JD fizz throughout the 80s before the singer dropped a real bombshell: He had moved to LA.
"I've always toyed with the idea of living there and people say how healthy I look with a tan which is probably because the bars close an hour earlier - but the drinks are bigger!
"My local is the Rainbow Bar & Grill which is always full of great looking women and I meet more English people there than in the UK. When bands stop by on tour it really pi**es them off that I'm staying put while their next stop is somewhere in the snow belt. Most people who slag off LA have never been there."
Read more about Mike and Lemmy's adventures together, mainly in Soho and Camden, in Mike's 40-year memoir, My Life With Rock N' Roll People, available now on Ghostwriterbooks.net.
Who is watching Sky Arts right now? (Something to do with a Rock 'n' Roll Circus). Check out Eric's cardigan - Starkey, where are you!?
John Lydon at the climax of his "I Could Be Wrong, I Could Be Right" one-man-show tour at Highbury'a Union Chapel this weekend.
"He's just so fu**in' funny!" commented a builder built like the proverbial sh*t-house on his way back into the theatre for another round of punishment.
Indeed no-one there got out alive as local lad Johnny fumed and fi**ed way his way through his past life and much to say about the present. This included no holds barred opinions about whingeing footballers - '"You wouldn't have heard George Best complaining about that" - politician Dianne Abbot and of course his former Pistols band-mates who recently won a major court case against JL in order to get their music played in a film being made by Disney.
"Steve, Paul and Glen are the lowest forms of life," he snarled, "spiteful, vindictive and prawns easily manipulated by Mickey Mouse. Steve Jones could hardly read. Those who do the least hate you the most.'
As a means of asserting his own literary credentials, Lydon proclaimed his love of Charles Dickens and Ted Hughes, thanks to his mum reading to him at an early age "... not like those toffee-nosed counts coming out of university waffling about Marxism when they don't know what it means."
Then came a good kicking for Sid Vicious "who was as dumb as a door-bell and a coat-hanger for every silly fashion which came along. We asked our friend Lemmy to try and teach him to play the bass and he came back with one of the worst school reports you could imagine."
Questions from the floor ranged from the inane, croissant or pain chocolat (answer: "you silly c**t!") to what was the first record you bought. This turned out to be Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town by Kenny Roger's which earned an icy response from his father, "Why did you buy that, you fu**ing c**t?"
The same charming epithet was pledged to me, right in front of JL on a stolen front row seat but I seemed to be in good company; Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and, of course Malcolm McLaren all received a bashing before a scorching rendition of Bodies, performed karaoke style, complete with an explanation of its actual lyrical content:
"My mother had three miscarriages and it was left to me to get rid if the buckets of mess and puss and slime and flesh. The last one had a tiny hand."
Yes, anger is still an energy but our host couldn't resist telling the story about the gig the S*x Pistols played for the impoverished progeny of striking firemen in Huddersfield 44 years ago.
"It was almost as messy as the miscarriages when the big cream cake we brought got chucked around and ended up all over us. The kids got it more clearly than the adults but then we're all kids at heart - that's the best thing to be."
HB Adam Ant, still the King of the Wild Frontier, 67 today. 🎉🥳 It may well be four decades since the fabulously visual singer, songwriter and film star made the best-selling album of the year but he remains a master of image and its role in keeping his fans satisfied.
During his roller-coaster career, author and rock journalist Mike Nicholls met Adam many times and found him as amusing and eccentric as he was talented and creative. Interviewing the artist for The Times in 1990, Mike discovered Adam had become a bit of a TV legend in America. How? "I only work with the best people," he explained. "Unlike a lot of pop singers who have tried to get into film, I've never played the part as myself. There's been a whole range of characters including killers, thugs and general nasties. Being No. 1 in the charts equips you for nothing except looking good."
Well, he certainly does that and we can't wait to see his latest look when Adam tours the UK next year. Meanwhile, read all about how the son of a domestic cleaning lady became one of the biggest names in pop in Mike's 40-year memoir, 'My Life with Rock N' Roll People', available from www.ghostwriterbooks.net.
Mike Nicholls with his old Mancunian mucker, as Toby Young haltingly put it, Paul Morley at the Walthamstow Rock 'n' Roll Book Club (where else?) on the occasion of the worldwide launch of Paul's memoir-with-a-difference, From Manchester with Love.
In case you're not familiar with enough books and films about the late Tony Wilson, the Granada TV/Factory Records/Hacienda version of The Great Gatsby this 600-page tome refers to him on most of them.
Congratulations to interviewer Rose Marley who was occasionally cheeky without being rude, the graciously welcoming (not to say patient) staff at the Trades Hall ( lager £3 a pint) and promoter Mark Hart even if he wouldn't let me ask enough questions.
Shame on Factory art director Peter Saville for not attending even though Paul went to see him pay verbal tribute to Wilson a couple of years ago. Good to see New Hormones (ie Spiral Scratch) founder and original Buzzcocks manager Richard Boon back in the room, glowing, if bald, following his recent few rounds with the grim reaper.
More tales from The Stow as they emerge. X.
A happy heavenly birthday to exceptional singer, songwriter and non- biological younger brother to Bob Dylan, late Beatle George Harrison, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison TOM PETTY who would have been 71 today.
Along with starring with all the above in the Traveling Wilburys, Tom was a fabulous performer in his own right, the missing link between 60s pop and post-punk rock 'n' roll. He also worked with the outstanding producers of the day including Jimmy Iovine, the man behind Tom's pal Bruce Springsteen.
Petty and Iovine created classics like Refugee, Here Comes My Girl, Even The Losers and Shadow Of Doubt, tracks which were as underrated as Tom was humble and super laid back.
Author and Rock Journalist Mike Nicholls first met Tom in West Hollywood in 1978, the year after the cool and charismatic star toured Europe with the equally modest Nils Lofgren, another major Bruce associate.
"One of the things I have in common with those people
and many of the British Invasion guys (The Searchers, The Animals) is that I always go for the feel of a song rather than the tiny details," Petty told Nicholls in a later interview. "The heart of it is more important than having every word in place," he emphasised, presciently pointing out why so many of the records of the past few decades have been over-produced rubbish.
Read more about Tom and Mike's adventures together in Mike's 40 year memoir, My Life With Rock N' Roll People, available now on Ghostwriterbooks.net.
HB Daryl Hall, the uncrowned king of AOR, 75 today.
Apart from being in possession of the best white soul voice in the history of rock, Daryl Hall is one of the genre's most distinctive singers and versatile instrumentalists.
He is best known for his partnership with John Oates, the attractive duo scoring timeless hits in the 70s and 80s like She's Gone and Rich Girl.
Yet his career dates back to working with Philly label supremo Kenny Gamble having honed his craft in church choirs from an early age. "My mother was the director of a Methodist church choir so I grew up surrounded by harmony and that whole religious sound," he told author and Rock journalist Mike Nicholls on releasing his third solo album Soul Alone.
" I wanted to adopt more of a street edge to stop the sound sliding into MOR which can easily happen when producers take the technology too far. If there's no formula to hide behind then you're forced to go with your instinct."
You can read more about Daryl's opinions about modern music - and relationships ( he's been married a few times) in Mike's 40 year memoir, My Life With Rock N' Roll People, available through www.ghostwriterbooks.net.
HB Leonard Cohen, singer, songwriter and priapic poet who would have been 87 tomorrow.
A favourite with the ladies for more than half a century, the mournful maestro released one brilliant album after another from Songs of ... to the final You Want It Darker, each one packed with classics.
Gems like Suzanne, So Long Marriane and Halleluja have been devoured by successive generations while more are bound to follow: First We Take Manhattan, Democracy and Closing Time are also likely to become international anthems.
Author and Rock journalist Mike Nicholls met the cryptic mystic a couple of times and fell under the spell of his sardonic wit.
"My life is a mess," said the former novelist, "I have no opinions about anything of any depth. I feel my head is surrounded by a swarm of bees and I just try and move with dignity from one step to another," he intoned one humid afternoon in New York in 1988.
Soon afterwards he came to London where Mike tracked him down in Fred's, a private dive bar next door to Private Eye in Soho. Chatting about the record industry, Leonard remained as solemn and articulate as ever
"The marriage between music and money is very dangerous," he declared, "Many manage to transcend this spectre and sing good songs. We need to discover an alternative."
Some years later he discovered his manager had ripped him off so badly that it was necessary to embark on a world tour in order to fund his lust for wine, women and song. Then again at least arenas full of adoring fans were able to see him perform.
Read more about one of the most beautiful lovers and loners of modern times in Mike's 40-year memoir My Life With Rock N' Roll People available now on Ghostwriterbooks.net.
HB Dave Stewart, former Eurythmic and co-worker to the mega-stars, 69 tomorrow.
Strangely enough the mischievous muso from oop north has written or produced for everyone from Aretha Franklin to Bob Dylan and even one of The Beatles. And that's just a fragment of the guitarist's CV since he's also been musically involved with Mick Jagger, Bryan Ferry, Tom Petty and one of Bananarama with whom he shares children.
Author and Rock journalist Mike Nicholls first met Dave in a disused railway station in the middle of nowhere where his then band The Tourists were shooting a cheap video. Within a couple of years the artist-cum-entrepreneur had turned a suburban church into a world-famous recording studio.
"A fluke, actually," claimed Sunderland's finest." "Annie (Lennox) and me were in debt so needed to record the Sweet Dreams album somewhere basic. It turned out to be above a timber factory in Camden Town.
"It was so noisy we had to wait until the machinery stopped before we could lay down the vocals. That album did well enough for us to able buy what became The Church nearby, and rent it out to other groups."
Buying this facility gave taste for collecting properties, usually in sunny climes. Mike later met the enigmatic guitarist in Cannes where he had just acquired a mansion, the first of many around the world.
Yet their strangest encounter was in a London hospital where they both happened to be outpatients. Read all about it - plus the rest of the stellar names dropped above - Mike's 40-year memoir My Life With Rock N' Roll People (Ghostwriterbooks.net)
HB Al Stewart, singer/songwriter, historian and award-winning wine buff, 76 tomorrow.
This picture was taken when the intensely lyrical troubadour released the typically nostalgic Time Passages in the late 70s.
"That album enabled me to indulge my two main enthusiasms - drinking wine and reading history books," the one-time folk singer told author and rock journalist Mike Nicholls with characteristic dryness.
After working with the likes of Jimmy Page and Van Morrison, Al went on to write about older legends such as Nostradamus, the ancient seer who eerily prophesied some of the world-changing events of the 20th century.
" I've heard that thousands of people went out and bought his book after hearing that song," he told author and rock journalist Mike Nicholls during one of their many interviews. Not that he was beyond writing about this era himself. Titles like Between The Wars cryptically namecheck notorious nutters while Down In The Cellar and Uncorked speak for themselves.
Even by rock star standards the troubadour has always had a taste for the old vino, especially French reds. "When I first moved to London I enjoyed several glasses a night even when I was living hand-to-mouth," added Al "and when success came in America I shared my house in the cheap end of Bel Air with more than 3000 bottles. I joined clubs all over California and went to what were amusingly called virtual tastings.
"Then I got married and was obliged to run the collection down. Still there's enough to see me into my senility" quipped the multi-instrumentalist who has always seemed remarkably sober - and is still on the road.
Read more about Al and his adventures in Mike's 40-year memoir, My Life With Rock N' Roll People, available now on www.ghostwriterbooks.net.
HB Glenn Tilbrook, the melodic tunesmith of Squeeze, 64 tomorrow!
Like co-founder/lyricist Chris Difford he has survived the whims of the music industry for many decades despite early success with hits Up The Junction and Cool For Cats.
Their intuitive blend of pop and rock might have invited comparisons with The Beatles but they were still dropped by major labels every now and then. Yet here's Glenn, still smiling, currently on stages all over the place.
"I suppose we're a bit like Marks & Spencer," he told author and rock journalist Mike Nicholls, "not the most fashionable brand but still respected for our quality ... Squeeze can still produce the tastiest sandwich."
Yet who'd have thought that after almost half a century they'd still be taking us to some fantastic place? No wonder their latest album was called Cradle To The Grave ...
Read all about Mike's life Trans-Atlantic times with Glen in My Life With Rock N' Roll People, available now on www.ghostwriterbooks.net
Not yet average Joe ... nor an average Joe Strummer pic. Whither the charismatic snarl, the rockin' barnet and the non-stop pumping leg action?
Probably the most reflective photo of one of The Clash ever taken, courtesy of NME legend Pennie Smith circa '79. In happier times the hell-raising streetpoet would have been 69 today and raging against anyone in authority everywhere.
Read about his pre-globalist international exploits with author and journalist Mike Nicholls in Mike's 40-year memoir, My Life With Rock N' Roll People, available now on www.ghostwriterbooks.net. HB Joe, wherever you are.
‘I’m dancing in the moonlight
It’s caught me in its spotlight
On this long hot summer night.
‘It’s three o’clock in the morning
And I’m on the streets again
I disobeyed another warning
I should have been in by ten.’
‘I always identified with this song, frequently finding myself in trouble for the same reasons when it first came out,’ said author and rock journalist Mike Nicholls. ‘It continues to cast its spell and certainly captured the mood yesterday in my rural town. The long hot summer night brought out clusters of people, rocking in the moonlight to the sounds of their smartphones and speakers, imbibing strange brews from the 24-hour garage while the last train rattled its lonely way home. As the midnight hour passed, it became what would have been Phil Lynott’s 72nd birthday.’
‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ appeared on the album ‘Bad Reputation’. The year was 1977, one of the high summers of punk. Despite having pinned his colours to the masts of the good ships Clash and Buzzcocks, Mike was an old school rocker at heart while Phil was always happy to raise a glass to the new punk generation, fronting The Greedy Bastards with sundry S*x Pistols and other members of Lizzy.
Phil’s reputation has grown and mellowed with time for this afternoon sees the grand unveiling of a monument to him in West Bromwich, the place of his birth. Perhaps there was a full moon on that long hot summer night too?
Read about how Mike first met Phil in ‘My Life with Rock n’ Roll People’ … and much more besides. Available from www.ghostwriterbooks.net.
https://youtu.be/daS9B4nnQhA
Thin Lizzy
"Somebody up there likes me!" HB Mick Jagger, a splendid 78 today. Like the rest of The Stones he keeps on rolling though this picture was snapped decades ago by royal photographer Norman Parkinson. Those faraway eyes have seen a few lovers change hands too!
Author and journalist Mike Nicholls interviewed the world's most notorious rock star a number of times, on the road in the US and Europe not to mention many a gig and party.
Read more about their close encounters in Chapter 66 of My Life With Rock N' Roll People, Mike's 40 year memoir available now on www.ghostwriterbooks.net.
"Somebody up there likes me!" HB Mick Jagger, a splendid 78 today. Like the rest of the Stones he keeps on rolling, many decades and lovers after his faraway eyes were snapped by royal photographer Norman Parkinson.
Author and Rock Journalist Mike Nicholls never got this close to the singer but met him many times over the years, both on the road in the US and Europe and at numerous gigs and parties.
Read more about their interviews and encounters in chapter 66 of Mike's 40 year memoir My Life With Rock N' Roll People, available now www.ghostwriterbooks.net.
Meet Rebecca Eite aka Be### of Bexatron, an urban four-piece she fronts and whose dynamic music she writes with 'The Gregster,' guitarist Greg Radcliffe. His sparkling solos spread glam-punk stardust all over their album 'Hey You!' (Zube) which wears its influences well.
The New York Dolls are there, ditto Iggy and The Stones as they shoot through 'Mandy Meltdown', 'Dirty Disco' and 'Co Co (I Should)', the drums blasting pop-rock with a glorious dance edge.
Rebecca's vocals are loud yet controlled, the mix indicates teamwork and the spirit of Soho is never far away.
Perfect for summer clubbing... or any season. Highly recommended. 'Hey You' is available from bexatron.com. Check out their website for future gigs too.
HB Boy George, 60 today. 🥳🎉🎂 Even before George’s career took flight in the early 1980s, author and rock journalist Mike Nicholls had tracked down and interviewed the cult figure at the Sundown Club near Leicester Square, London.
That meeting sparked a friendship that lasted for decades. Mike traced the rise of Boy George’s career across newspapers and magazines from Record Mirror to the Daily Express and the Evening Standard, leading the audience applause all the way.
Culture Club won their first record deal the year after Mike met George. They went on to release the single that captured the public's imagination, ‘Do You Really Want To Hurt Me’, around the time that pop photographer Neil Mackenzie Matthews snapped this iconic image.
Read about that first, historic meeting between Mike Nicholls and Boy George in Chapter 8 of Mike’s memoir, ‘My Life with Rock n’ Roll People’, and much, much more besides. Available from www.ghostwriterbooks.net.
HB Superproducer Martyn Ware of The Human League and Heaven 17, 65 today.
Amazing what studying computers can do for a guy, not to mention that old favourite, musical differences. Martyn co-founded the League in 1978 and left before they peaked - only to find greater fame and fortune with projects like producing Tina Turner's comeback album
He also proved to be a dab hand at playing the property market as Author and Journalist Mike Nicholls discovered while interviewing Martyn for the Sunday Times:
"I sold my place in Notting Hill just before the politicians moved in and bought a house in Primrose Hill which quadrupled in price in less than a decade."
Here history was repeating itself since earlier the musician had picked up an apartment on the island of Giudecca near Venice, again just ahead of another member of the rich and famous: "David Furnish, husband of Sir Elton John, who turned his two-bedroom bolt-hole into an art gallery."
Like the artist's early adoption of computers, there's nothing like being ahead of the game ...
Read more about Mike's adventures with Martyn Ware dating back to when they first met at Manchester's Russell Club in the 40-year memoir My Life With Rock N' Roll People out now on www.ghostwriterbooks.net
HB Jack Bruce, virtuoso bassist in pioneering blues-rock trio Cream, superb songwriter and jazz musician who would have been 78 today.
Jack may not have been as famous as his Cream colleague Eric Clapton but he enjoyed an equally varied career. When the trio disbanded after making a few of the greatest albums of the 60s (Disraeli Gears, Wheels Of Fire) Bruce recorded the monumental Songs For A Taylor, still one of the greatest solo LPs to come out of the UK.
He then went on to join jazz-fusion stars Tony William's and John Mc Laughlin and continued recording and performing until the age of 70. He could have been even more of a legend as he explained to Author and Rock Journalist Mike Nicholls before one of his London gigs in the 90s:
"At point I was talking to Jimi Hendrix about putting a band together with Steve Winwood and a couple of others. There were also offers from Led Zeppelin, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young and Emerson, Lake and Palmer but Cream had just done a major tour of America, 200 shows in as many nights and I was exhausted. So I recorded my first solo record in 10 days.
Read more about Jack's brilliant career in Mike's 40 year memoir, My Life With Rock N' Roll People, out now through www.ghostwriterbooks.net.
HB Ian Dury, the original rock 'n' roll wordsmith and street corner philosopher, who would have been 79 today.
Fabulously Dickensian in appearance, Ian Dury was one of the few pre-punk singers to find favour with the new wave audience before topping the mainstream charts.
With the song S*x and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll he coined an immortal phrase while with Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick his band The Blockheads invented punk funk.
Author and Rock Journalist Mike Nicholls interviewed Ian on several occasions and discovered him to be as amusing as his finest lyrics. "I don't want to stockpile too much material" he said in the late 70s, "if I died tomorrow someone might add violins to the songs."
On another occasion Ian admitted "I'd done a bit of delinquent poetry before going into the music business but I left it because I decided it was a bit of a wank-off. So I just make things rhyme to keep me interested."
Read more about their afternoon chats in Mike's 40 year memoir, My Life With Rock N' Roll People, available now on www.ghostwriterbooks.net.
HB Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode, 59 today.
From humble beginnings in Basildon, Essex, Dave became one of the most charismatic singers of his generation, Depeche Mode going on to be the first act to playing four consecutive nights at the Hollywood Bowl.
All a far cry from the day they walked into the Record Mirror pub in Covent Garden to meet Author and Rock Journalist Mike Nicholls 40 years ago. They had just released their debut indie single Dreaming Of Me and were poised to become kings of the futurist scene.
"We were the first band to play Croc's in Rayleigh, the original New Romantic club," Dave told Mike. "The resident DJ and promoter Rusty Egan then gave us a gig at The Venue in central London and it all grew from there."
Read more about their boozy fast times together, not to mention afternoon tea chez Mrs Gahan in Mike's memoir, My Life With Rock N' Roll People, available now on www.ghostwriterbooks.net.
HB Iggy Pop, 74 today. If you thought you had a difficult childhood, spare a thought for Iggy who grew up in a Detroit trailer park, tormented by the perpetual drone of American traffic. No wonder he went on to form the atonal Stooges and become The Godfather of Punk!
Author and Rock Journalist Mike Nicholls first met the singer and proto-performance artist in 1977, that watershed year when the former James Osterberg released both The Idiot and Lust For Life and toured the UK with his famous pal David Bowie on keyboards.
Spying Mike taking notes in front of the stage at the Manchester Apollo The Igster threw a chair at him. They enjoyed a slightly more civilised encounter when Iggy supported the S*x Pistols in Finsbury Park some two decades later.
HB also to The Godfather of Goth Robert Smith of The Cure, 62 today. From humble indie roots his band have become one of the most successful alternative acts to have emerged from the UK. In the U.S. The Cure were one of the first stars of college radio while by 1990 they were headlining Glasto amidst dozens of other European festivals.
This was the same year that his band found themselves headlining over Bob Dylan. Read about their conversation in a hotel bar in chapter 86 of Mike's memoir My Life With Rock N' Roll People out now on Ghostwriterbooks.net. Iggy bares all in chapter 37.
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