Death is out and on parole!

Yes kiddies, as of 20th May `Death in the guitarfternoon` is available in all bad record stores, all over the world. If your local sound-emporium ain`t got it, then please give `em the word, okay? It was time to go global, as online sales weren`t bad, but having thought about it, maybe it was asking a lot of Fairy-freaks to actually get it together to get online, get PayPalled-up, and buy the thing with a credit-card, as `our kinda people` are usually, shall we say, a bit on the `relaxed` side? Yes, relaxed is as good a word as any, so don`t mess about, join the folks who are groovin` outta their nuts on it, buy the bugger! Incidentally, it`s so right and fitting that the company who are helping me get legit is called `Proper Distribution`, how perfect.

     I am terrifically impressed by the reaction it`s got, beyond my wildest dreams really gang, it is about to get reviewed incredibly favourably by a buncha USA mags, and next month Uncut Magazine are including a review, along with putting a track on the freebie CD that`s on the cover, which is nice. Uncut have kindly put a `We thought you were dead` interview in the current (May) issue, i can`t blame `em tho`, for a while there i thought i was dead too. Uncut Rocks!

    What else? Oh yeah, on Friday 10th i did the Lee Brilleaux memorial gig down on Canvey Island, as usual, a funny and touching event, more so this year, as 10th May would have brought Lee`s 50th birthday. Lee`s death is still something that i really haven't come to terms with people, i dunno why, it just seems so terribly wrong, he should have lived forever, taking his music and his personality to lovers of real music all over the world, it is such a drag. It sure gives me second thoughts about Life, The Universe, and Everything.

  Anyway, you don`t wanna hear me rant about the unfairness of life`s lottery do ya? No, of course not, so about the gig.

  It was a throwaway affair, i was aided and abetted by two giants of rock, being Dr Kevin, the Feelgood`s drummist, and Big George, who a week or two ago was just an ordinary Godling who played Bass on my album, but since then has been elevated to the dizzying heights of `Music Broadcast Presenter Of The Year`, beating the crap outta Mark Lamarr and co, which is soooooo perfect, Lamarr didn`t review `Death`, even tho` i sent him a copy, and Big George`s idea of revenge makes the mafia look like a buncha particularly effeminate sissies all dressed up as girls. Good ol` Bug Jug. That`s Big G`s secret name. Oops! Sorry George.

  So George kinda knew the songs, having played `em on the disc, and Kevin spent a good twenty seconds listening to each song, (the man is a pro after all) and away we went. We did `El Diablo`s hangin` ten`, `Crying all night`, Mrs Hippy Burning`, `Downtown Jury`, `I`m a Police Car`, and ended up with our hooligan version of the Feelgood song that began my association and lifelong friendship with the boys, `As long as the price is right`, and we were off. It was a nice little outing, but when i do it for real, i will be going with the two-guitar line-up, as my songs are definitely not a three-man job are they? No, i`ve gotta have at least two axes whacking it out, otherwise it just doesn`t work. A few weeks back i had a chat with Michael Bruce of the Alice Cooper band, KLANG! And we both feel the same, Michael said "I`m still lookin` for that other dude", and i may have found mine, a chap called Pete Cippa, and if it works, once we get the songs off, fitting a bass! -player and drummer into the picture will be so much easier, then Larry Wallis and The Meatmen may be able to go out and make a noise, we`ll see. I need management and organization, anyone got any ideas? While i`m at it, i really fancy playing or recording with a going concern, does anybody want an itinerant axeman for a while......?

  What else? Oh yeah, `Kings of Oblivion`. It would seem that, now that i`ve done this thing, actually pulled it off without the aid of a buncha tossers called The Record Company to fuck it up, it looks as if Russell, Sandy, and yours truly are gonna do it again, why not?

  At the moment, i am writing songs, the chaps are looking at their scribblings, and when it`s all together, (spot the Oxymoron) we`ll go into a studio, record Bass, Drums, Rhythm and Guide Vocals, then i`ll bring it back to my studio and add the requisite twenty-million guitars, good plan huh?    My working title is `So near yet so what`, but nae doot that`ll change at least a dozen times, as these things do. It was Sandy who came up with the title `Kings of Oblivion`; we took it from a Bowie song on `Changes`. Bewlay Brothers where are you now?

  I imagine that if i hit it off with my new best friend Pete Cippa, we would have to include him in live shows, should they come to pass, the funny part about all this, is that Pete has absolutely no idea of these plans, i`d better tell him to check out the site, it`s only fair, ennit? Hi Pete.

  Songs that look as if they`re making the grade so far are `When Castro`s at the bat`, `When i was dead`, `Among the subs`, `Long time dead`, and `Old enough to know better` (and much too young to care) i am having a lotta fun writing `em gang, i just hope that The Curse Of The Fairies keeps it`s distance this time, time will, no doubt, reveal all.....................

  Okay kiddies, what else before i go back to slaving over a hot Axe? Oh yeah, the IMOTORHEAD site is giving away six signed copies of `Deathternoon` in a competition, so get on and win one immediately. This is care of my good friend Ace Trump, who rides herd on the Motorhead site, got along little doggies Ace, you`re the best, yeeeeha!

  Okay dudes and dudesses, i hope you are all having a good time, i really wanna thank you people out there for not only buying `Death`, but for the floods of @`s letting me know that it is going down well, keep `em coming folks.

  That`s it, i`m off, and let`s be careful out there, okay......?

  The Vicar of Dolby.

HISTORY ...

`Yes kiddies, despite the forces of evil doing their damndest to thwart me, we have lift-off. For most of you lunatics who sent off months ago, when i was still foolish enuff to believe that Things Would Go As Planned, your discs should already have arrived on your doormats, anybody who hasn`t got it yet, if it ain`t there by Tuesday, then please let me know either by fax or fone or @ mail, the details are elsewhere on this site, and the mighty Ribbed Records Inc will send huge fleets of trucks careening across the globe to get `em to you, okay?

Good. I havn`t been here for a while, i got sick of having to pass on the fact that the album was delayed yet again, it happened so often i was feeling low, but now that i`m back,

HOW ABOUT THIS SITE HUH? My site-keeper Fee has done a fantastic job despite me. Any other web-mistress would have run out of tether ages ago, but Fee tweaks away at it all on her own, hunting, or `trawling`, as she puts it, around the WWW looking for me-related stuff,and i am very proud of it. She`s fun and talent in one power-packed-package, ok, ad over, let`s talk Art.

The Artist, one Savage Pencil, has gone beyond my wildest dreams really. I wanted you whacky zanoids to have something more than a booklet with lyrics in it, so a poster it is, and it is fab. I went for your standard idea really, just an ordinary, everyday, rotting-corpse-zombie-smoking-guitar-toting-creature, gunning down an opponent, (and that imagary is to be seen around the old site) but as we went along, things came up, as in:

I was sitting around at Sav`s lair, a veritable alladin`s cave of wierd and wonderful stuff, ( he is very big on Hot-rod Art, the Mexican Day of the Dead, Japanese movie monster etc...) and i was holding one of his proofs for `Death`, when it hit me-the paper felt good. Sav told me it was just photo-copier paper, and i`d never ever given CD paper a moment`s thought, but i knew that Something Had Just Happened That Was Really Important, being: Not only the quality of the paper,but the finish was different. I realized that CD art is usually on glossy paper, and this was kinda satin in effect, so this immediately became A Big Issue. We had to have good quality paper with a minimum of gloss, more of a `Satin` finish. It would be different. Yeah baby!

Printers apparently, are not wild about `different`. "Well, it was good enough for Sting yada yada yada....", and "well, they wanna read your lyrics don`t they?" For a start it had to be folded to fit the jewel case ( strange name huh? ) and i wanted thick paper, ooer! and a certain amount of varnish, as the shiny stuff is called, was needed to seal the colour, "Well, you gotta have varnish, but of course it`ll crack the moment we fold it, and by the way, the machine won`t fold it, wrong design," and of course, the ( true but annoying ) fact that these things must be folded a certain way, as air being trapped has a destructive effect on the print, but we got there eventually. Man, Sav was creating something that looked wonderful, but it absolutely had to be done up right, or not at all. If i was gonna commit myself to bringing out what i consider a fairly expensive item, if i was gonna pay Savage P dough, and he was gonna spend tortured nights trying to make H.P Lovecraft feel uneasy in his grave, nobody was gonna get in the way of the end result being something that you guys could enjoy, so cop that you forces of evil, one up for the freaks. Yeah baby!

Incidentally, one of the pros i asked to help me on my first time out of the trap, felt it would be a good idea if my art was printed in Germany. This didn`t happen, although the software containing the information did enjoy a nice tour of Europe, it ultimately got realized in Croydon. Croydon, proof that them bad old forces of evil are still in there, tryna get in one last kidney-punch to my soul. Bastards!

Okay gang, i`ve probably done the art bit, so what next?

The illustrious Devil with a Blue Pen Nigel Cross has just completed transcribing his latest hour and a half of me rambling answers to his rather cool questions, so i`ll have a quick gander at it, and make sure that i ain`t too embarrassing, ah-what the Hell, as i always talk crap why should i expect any different this time? I`ll just get it up and you can be the judges, okay folks?

That`s it, i`m off to work on my next project, working title `So near yet so what?` along with a (fingers crossed ) `Kings of Oblivion` line-up album, so there we are then.

Look after yourselves, and have that fun kiddies,

Vlad The Inhaler.