A Question

Carl from The Chefs had a girlfriend called Fiona Russell who went to the London College of Printing in the early 1980s. She organised a session where someone made a video of us playing. Does anyone know who that might be, and crucially, whether I could get hold of a copy of that video? I've got a still from the session, and that's all.

Esquire

DJ Sonny sent me this- it is from the Thai Esquire magazine and he says it's all right to show you. Thanks Sonny!

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Busy

Phew- it's been a busy few days.
Thursday night was a house concert in Battersea with Martin, a long drive but I did enjoy the gig, which was lovely.
Then Friday, I started worrying like mad about whether everything would be OK for Friday night.
Fin and Lou turned up in Enfield (Martin's percussionist and bass player for the night) and I sent a casual, unflustered text to Alex telling him where we were going to meet. He called from London Bridge to tell me he'd gone down the wrong fork of the Northern Line, but there was enough time to get him a sandwich and a cup of tea in Ray's Jazz Cafe at Foyles before we went down to the Borderline for the soundcheck.
The staff there are really friendly and welcoming and remembered us from last year, and we were done in a trice: the Daintees had already finished. It was nice to see John and Kate (guitar and drums) again.
We had an early start- we were onstage at 8. It worked brilliantly having Alex there; we all made small mistakes, but generally for a band that never plays, I thought the rehearsals paid off and we did pretty well. I heard some little extra tootlings from some quarters, and given a minor dispute about extra tootly bits during one of our rehearsals, I had to comment that the Horns have worked out a way of measuring the quantity of parts they play, and were making adjustments upwards during the gig!
I really enjoyed singing the old stuff again and hats off to the guys, the feeling on stage was great. They have embraced Alex's youth and in turn, he fitted in with them really well, something that is quite hard for a young person to do sometimes. We sang Happy Birthday to him on stage for his 21st birthday and he loved that. This was the first time the Offsprogs had seen us and I was delighted because they were impressed!
The Daintees had a fantastic night too; the audience sang along right from the start. I was going to say 'roaring along' but actually it sounded rather tuneful and good.
This incarnation of the band had not met each other before; the audience probably thought Martin was joking when he introduced them to each other on stage!
There was an electric atmosphere, and it's funny to say that a lot of Helen and the Horns fans became Daintees fans that night, because normally its the other way round!
I do want to say to the people who came to see us, thank you for turning out: we had a really good showing and that made me very happy. And thank you to Martin for sharing his London show with us again this year. Alex loved it and wants to do more Helen and the Horns gigs!
Last night, I was roadying for Martin's wedding gig in Surrey, for a lovely couple called Terri and Graham. Jim the fiddle player came along, and Martin played a load of  Daintees favourites with a slightly old-timey flavour. I got up to sing the Charlie Poole Airship Song and noticed Terri singing along so I invited her up- she has a great voice! I dropped Martin off at Luton this morning and now I am slumped in a heap for the rest of the day.
Yesterday, I had a lovely surprise: Martin and the guys met up for a coffee with me and on his back, Martin had a gig bag. He has bought me a Spanish-style guitar to say thank you for the roadying I've been doing. It was a dream come true, because I had to sell mine when I moved house, which was sad even though I liked the young girl I sold it to: she looked arty with a red beret and I told her the guitar was full of songs, because most of Suburban Pastoral was written on that guitar.
So now I have a lovely instrument to get to know!
BTW if anyone filmed the Horns of Friday I would love to see it.
P.S. FOUND ONE! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjCdHazGdxU

Night

Well, you know it was a pretty fabulous night: can't go into detail right now as I am roadying today and have to check a Pope-free route through town, but will fill you in tomorrow!

Tonight: At the Borderline!

I'm excited!

Last Interview

I had a lucky strike today; an interview I'd been trying to set up for weeks suddenly cropped up with an hour's notice. I snaffled a mouthful of Twiglets for lunch and headed on down to Camden's Parkway to a wonderful record shop called No Hit Records at number 88, which is packed full of rockabilly vinyl (including the Bison Bop series which I had no idea were still in circulation), and loads of CDs of really interesting music: old soul, horror rock, surf music, all sorts.
While I was waiting I browsed and bought a CD for my little brother's Christmas present of rockabilly songs all dedicated to girls and named after them (don't tell him if you are reading this, Sarah!).
My interviewee turned up; she had been away for four weeks in Cyprus and had come back with a poorly ear, so I tried not to exhaust her.
She has a head full of interesting stories and she's going to take part in Gina's documentary too. I could have spoken to her for weeks but I could see she wasn't feeling well and even after half an hour she was looking pale. I remembered being interviewed for a German Radio Show and three hours later feeling as though a vampire had drained my red corpsuckles dry!
So that's another one to transcribe, I hope this weekend.
What a pity Chrissie Hynde is not going to be in the book! There are too many silly myths about her floating around, the silliest of which being that she's not a good guitarist. She's very good indeed: she's just not Eric Clapton or another one of those twittish widdlers.
I am left wondering if she was the victim of anti-American racism at the beginning of punk; it probably did her favours in terms of her career to feel eventually separated from it, but her beginning was very much embedded in mid-seventies germination of British punk .
The pic (sorry about the quality) is from an elpee cover- I thought they looked like a family band. I couldn't work out who they are- anyone know? The woman is playing a double-necked guitar. Amazing.

Cancer Link

Art Site

Martin has revamped my art site and put all the Medea drawings there as well as some other new stuff:
www.helenmccookerybookart.com

Froot

I grew these in my tiny and quite sunless yard. I think there are enough quinces to make quince jelly.
I've got some tomatoes which are big but still green (the garden over the back has a greenhouse full of bright red ones) and also some olives which are too tiny to ever ripen. There is a small lemon tree which I thought had died and it was too difficult to throw it away: I was chopping bits off it and putting them in a bin bag week by week when it suddenly came back to life. I grow parsley, thyme, bay, chives and rosemary but you're never going to get fat on a diet of that! Next year I will plant the tomatoes and courgettes earlier; I have never managed to grow tomatoes from seed before and I feel quite proud. I might also try potatoes and maybe get one of those apple trees that is just on one stalk and try to grow cooking apples. The problem is the lack of light, but I remain optimistic.
Years ago I grew carrots in a plant pot. Their ferny foliage was a beautiful bright green and when I picked them they were tiny and delicious. And in our old house we spilled some parsnip seeds in a flower bed by accident. I looked after them and we ate the monsters for Sunday lunch when they were big enough to pull up.

Phew

Tomorrow's the last Helen and the Horns rehearsal before Friday.
Will we crack it?
We're nearly there!
Tickets £15 plus booking fee etc.
Supporting Martin and the Daintees
Here:
http://www.seetickets.com/nme/price.asp?code=459043&filler3=id1nmearts

Other

People ask what sort of music I make.
It's not folk.
It's not jazz.
It's not rock.
It's definitely not hip hop.
It's not soul or R & B.

On the social networking websites, there's a choice called 'Other'.
From now on, that is me.

Rock'n'Roll Jamboree Artwork

New Shouts and Ranties

I started reading Cordelia Fine's book, Delusions of Gender, last week. It is currently being rubbished but I am finding it interesting and funny.

Here are some facts I know:
1. The 11-plus used to be passed by more girls than boys. Girls' marks were therefore downgraded to give an even gender balance in grammar schools. This type of thing is still happening: note Gareth Malone's experiment with teaching boys outdoors in a primary school. I dread to think what will happen if teaching of boys and girls becomes more separated, or rather, I can tell what will happen: the boys' way will become the superior way!
2. My sister wanted to be an air traffic controller when she left school in the 1970s. She was very logical and good at maths. You are only allowed two attempts at applying.
On her first attempt, she was rejected, because the interviewers felt that they would train her up, and then she might leave to have a baby.
On her second attempt, she was rejected, because the interviewers felt that they would train her up, and then she might leave to have a baby.
3. My mother got a place at Oxford. She was made to give this up, because after the war the returning soldiers were entitled to places at University and people like McMum had to get out of the way so they could take up their entitlement.

On the other hand, I know very many empathetic men, in particular those whom I know best, my two brothers. They have not been brought up in a feminist household, yet both cook for their spouses (they taught themselves), and the elder brother paced round all day when I was giving birth to my first child, as he was so worried.
My partner is one of the most empathetic men I have ever met, and so is my sister's partner.
I also know many ambitious and focused women who put their friendships second to their careers!
But of course, I am not a scientist, and the things I have mentioned above are not part of a scientific study, they are purely personal observations.
This is one of the criticisms that is currently being levied against Cordelia Fine's book. The scientific community say that although she uses accepted academic studies, her research has not appeared in a peer-reviewed scientific journal.
From what I know about peer reviewed journals, their panels act as gatekeepers to what enters the public domain and what does not.
And the personnel on most of these panels?
Men, of course!

Trolley Bullies

The underground platform was muggy and crowded at Euston.
A train drew in and we surged forwards towards the doors.
A large and fierce woman pushed straight to the front of the crowd, using her tartan shopping trolley to barge through so she was in premier position to be me-first into the carriage.
The doors opened.
There stood a large and fierce man, with an identical tartan shopping trolley which he used to shove her out of the way so he could get off.
Politely and triumphantly, we entered the carriage in our original order.

Hurrypost

Also- Take One has been sent off to the pressing plant!!!
The Lost Women of Rock Music has gone off to be scanned so I can finally start working on it!!!
Off to a rehearsal with Alex to get those trumpet parts squeaky clean.....