TV Party Tonight! Part Two: Fridays - by Scott Carr

Click here for TV Party Part One: George Michael and Queen.

When it was announced at our weekly editorial board meeting (editor's note: over cognac & cigars) that Pencil Storm would be doing a new series dedicated to the YouTube rabbit hole, I was totally on board. I often find myself digging through YouTube for hours searching for a lost piece of footage that takes me back in time. 

My trip down the You Tube rabbit hole this weekend will take you back to the early 1980's when the ABC television network decided that they would give NBC's Saturday Night Live some competition. Originally ABC had thought they should go head to head with SNL with a sketch comedy series airing on the same night and in the same time slot. After giving it some thought ABC decided maybe the better idea would be to air their late night comedy show a night before and call it Fridays. 

Fridays began it's run on ABC in April of 1980 and would last for only three seasons, leaving the airwaves in April of 1982.  The premise of Fridays basically followed the SNL concept:  sketch comedy with a different guest star and musical act each week. 

Fridays really connected with me as I was too young to really appreciate the original cast  of  SNL that included John Belushi, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray, Chevy Chase and others. By 1980  SNL was struggling as it had lost all of its original cast members and producer Lorne Michaels had gone on hiatus from the show. The time seemed right for a new kid on the block. 

Fridays had a pretty strong cast of characters but for me it was the musical guests that kept me watching week after week. Fridays is notable for hosting the American network television debuts of  AC/DC, The Clash and The Stray Cats. At the time of their appearance The Stray Cats didn't even have a record out in America, it would be another eight months before their US debut would be released. Other memorable performances included The Jam, Pretenders, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Plasmatics, Split Enz and many others. The Cars and Devo hold the distinction of being the only artists to make more than one appearance on the show. 

Kiss appeared on Fridays in February of 1982 promoting their album (Music From) The Elder. Kiss performed three songs from the album and this would be the only live performance of material from that album for over three decades. This footage was very sought after by Kiss fanatics around the globe and would eventually resurface on the band's Kissology Vol. 2 DVD set in 2007.

Fridays final episode aired on April 23rd 1982 and featured Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder performing "Ebony and Ivory."

There are plenty of Fridays clips on YouTube, below are a few of my favorites. I'm sure you'll discover others that will keep you occupied for a few hours........television like this does not exist anymore.......

The Clash perform "London Calling" and "Train In The Vain" live as the musical guest on the cult classic comedy show Fridays. You can buy The Best Of Fridays at: https://www.shoutfactory.com/node/217612 For the first time ever on DVD, ABC's cult hit Fridays is here!

The Stray Cats perform "Rock This Town" and "Stray Cat Strut" live as the musical guest on the cult classic comedy show Fridays. You can buy The Best Of Fridays at: https://www.shoutfactory.com/node/217612 For the first time ever on DVD, ABC's cult hit Fridays is here!

Kiss performs "The Oath" live as the musical guest on the cult classic comedy show Fridays. You can buy The Best Of Fridays at: https://www.shoutfactory.com/node/217612 For the first time ever on DVD, ABC's cult hit Fridays is here!

Devo performs "Uncontrollable Urge" live as the musical guest on the cult classic comedy show Fridays. You can buy The Best Of Fridays at: https://www.shoutfactory.com/node/217612 For the first time ever on DVD, ABC's cult hit Fridays is here!

Tom Petty performs "Shadow Of A Doubt" live as the musical guest on the cult classic comedy show Fridays. You can buy The Best Of Fridays at: https://www.shoutfactory.com/node/217612 For the first time ever on DVD, ABC's cult hit Fridays is here!

Steve Forbert performs "Romeo's Tune" live as the musical guest on the cult classic comedy show Fridays. You can buy The Best Of Fridays at: https://www.shoutfactory.com/node/217612 For the first time ever on DVD, ABC's cult hit Fridays is here!

New Zealand band Split Enz on ABC Comedy/Music show "Fridays" performing "I Got You"

Features Amy Kanter on vocals.

Uploaded by rebelsports on 2010-01-21.

Scott Carr is a guitarist who plays in the Columbus, OH  bands Radio Tramps andReturning April.  Scott is also an avid collector of vinyl records and works at Lost Weekend Records. So...if you are looking for Scott....you'll either find him in a dimly lit bar playing his guitar or in a record store digging for the holy grail.

Valley Dale Ballroom, Then & Now and The Ballroom Breakout! - by Ricki C.

Rock & roll returns to the Valley Dale Ballroom this Saturday night, January 14th, with the Ballroom Breakout! The Breakout! features local rockers Terry Davidson & the Gears playing both their own set AND backing Detroit rock & roll legend Mitch Ryder on a set of rockers that you KNOW is gonna include "Devil With A Blue Dress," "Jenny Take a Ride," and – I would hope, on accounta it’s my favorite Ryder tune – Lou Reed’s "Rock & Roll." The Lovebenders will open the night.  (Click here for a poster: Ballroom Breakout!)

Some of the best nights of my rock & roll adolescence took place at the Valley Dale Ballroom. From sometime in 1969 ‘til ’72 a band called Brownsville Station – the pride & joy of Ann Arbor, MI. & environs – would rent Valley Dale and essay their own rock & roll throwdowns at the venue. (Smart business.) The large majority of rock fans would think of Brownsville Station as the one-hit wonders responsible for the 70’s novelty tune "Smokin’ In The Boy’s Room." I – and many, many of my rocker brethren & sistren – would remember Brownsville Station as one of the ten best live rock & roll acts they EVER witnessed: as our own near ‘n’ dear version of The MC5 or The Who; as the act that would play Columbus at least twice a year – at Valley Dale or at the old Agora Ballroom – and leave an audience of a few hundred to a thousand souls pleasantly deafened, hoarse from rock & roll sing/shout-a-longs and trying to dig our car keys out of our sweat-soaked jeans to make the drive back from Sunbury Road to our mercifully quiet homes. We was reamed, steamed & dry-cleaned, ladies & gentlemen, and it felt fine.

Brownsville Station weren’t just a rock & roll band, they were a rock & roll EXPERIENCE. I never saw a band so effortlessly establish a symbiosis with its audience that bordered on worship & hysteria. You weren’t an audience member at a Brownsville Station show, you were part of a tribe of like-minded jump, shout, work-it-all-out cult of crazy people intent on sex, drugs and rock & roll. (And – in a pinch – I guess two out of the three weren’t bad.)  My best friend of the time, Dave Blackburn and I would leave those shows feeling the best I have ever felt in my rock & roll existence. I saw The Who in Columbus on November 1st, 1969, and yeah, of course they were probably BETTER than Brownsville Station, but I didn’t see The Who AGAIN until sometime in 1972 in Dayton. I saw Brownsville Station probably six or seven times in between those times and every one of those shows was a masterpiece of rock & roll mayhem. Plus we were maybe 20 FEET from Cub Koda’s Marshall stacks at Valley Dale, rather than the third row from the back of Vet’s Memorial or the second balcony cheap seats at Hara Arena. Sometimes proximity and quantity count.

Valley Dale recently underwent a $1.5 million renovation, I bet it’s still a great place for a rock show. Myself, I’ve gotta play the rock & roll elsewhere this Saturday night, but you should go, and I am DEFINITELY gonna be there in the future to relive my misspent youth and see what rock & roll The Team Productions have in store for the rockers of Columbus. Details at TheBallroomBreakout.com. – Ricki C. / January 11th, 2017

Mitch Ryder - Devil With The Blue Dress/Good Golly Miss Molly Johnny "Bee" Bdanjek - Drums

ALBUM : BROWNSVILLE STATION 1977 PAIS : USA The other night I was Walking down the street I was getting kinda hungry I decided to get me something to eat Now I passed up all the chain Franchise joints on Hamburger row And stopped at a little greasy spoon place

Cub Koda Guitar, Vocals, Harmonica Michael Lutz Bass, Guitar, Henry Weck Drums Tony Driggins Bass, Vocals

Columbus blues-rockers Terry Davidson & The Gears let loose some rockin' rhythms and cool blues solos at the barber shop.

The Ricki C. Interview - by the Pencilstorm Editorial Board

Ricki C. will be opening for Brian Clash & the Coffee House Rebels this Saturday night, January 14th, in the friendly environs of  Kafe Kerouac, 2250 N. High Street, 614-299-2672.  Music at 9 pm.  (kafekerouac.com)

E/B - You’re the only rocker of my acquaintance that will be eligible for Medicare this year: Why do you still do this?  And can you remember your first gig? 

Ricki - My first gig was in 1968, at my classmate Ermogene Delewese’s birthday party, in her parents’ basement rec room.  It went great.  The first song I ever sang in public was Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride.”  That’s not a bad beginning.  I’m seriously thinking of trying to find out Ermogene’s birthday, booking a gig on that day in 2018, and quitting the music biz forever exactly 50 years after I started.  (I haven’t seen or spoken to Ermogene since graduation in 1970, so that birthday bit might be tough.)

And why do I still do this?  What else am I gonna do, become a brain surgeon?  
 

E/B - After almost half a century in rock & roll, after seeing literally hundreds of bands, can you name your top three performers/songwriters off the top of your head?

Ricki - Absolutely!  Those three are The Who, Bruce Springsteen and Elliott Murphy.  It’s not even close.  Lou Reed would be fourth and he trails by a wide margin.  No, maybe Ian Hunter (originally of Mott The Hoople) would be fourth, because he’s still alive and putting out great records.  Anyway, after the Top Three, things get kinda sketchy, due to Rock & Roll Alzheimer’s.

Plus, The Who comes with a caveat: it’s The Who from 1965 to 1972, from “I Can’t Explain” to the Who’s Next album.  After that, from Quadrophenia on, there’s a big drop-off in quality.  And I won’t even consider the notion of any band not containing Keith Moon to actually BE The Who.  There might be a band calling itself The Who, but without Keith, it don’t count.  

Bruce Springsteen and Elliott Murphy – on quite the other hand – are still fucking brilliant.  They’re both only three years older than me, but I fear that someday I might inhabit a planet that does not contain them, and I don’t know if I wanna live on that planet.

“The smart people won’t listen
And the stupid people don’t wanna know
After love, hope & dreams
All that’s left is a Trump presidency and classic rock radio”

-    Ricki C. / 2016

E/B - There’s a fair amount of politics in your rock & roll, given the demise of The MC5, do you think that’s wise?

Ricki - Yeah, I do.  Plus I think my political songs focus more on people than they do politics. When I first stumbled on the solo acoustic rock & roll act in 1990, my idea was that I would be the Billy Bragg of Columbus, Ohio.  I’ve lost a lot of the agit-prop aspects of the Ricki C. show, I think now it’s more focused on individuals than causes.  That being said, I will never set foot in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame again EVER in my life after they inducted Journey this year OVER The MC5.  Some sins can never be forgiven.

E/B - Nowadays, you’re almost better known as a roadie than as a performer, how did that happen?

Ricki - When Hamell On Trial hired me as his road manager after I opened a show for him at Little Brothers in the late 1990’s, it put a real crimp into the amount of gigs I played.  Then I joined the Watershed road crew in 2005 and that cut even further into my playing time.  Make no mistake, I wouldn’t trade one minute of those tours: Hamell & I criss-crossed America five or six times in the first decade of the 21st century, I got to see 44 of the 48 contiguous United States; and the good times (and beach vacations) in the Watershed van are irreplaceable.  Plus, truthfully, I’m probably a better roadie than I am a rocker.  I’m too OCD to be a rock & roll star.  I want everything to run on time and the wires never to be crossed.  

Also, I’m really, really lazy.  I never seek out gigs anymore.  They just fall in my lap.  Somebody asks me to open, and I open.  Otherwise I just stay home, feel sorry for myself and write Pencilstorm columns about The Dictators and The Neighborhoods.

E/B - Tell us about the gig this weekend.

Ricki - I’m opening up at 9 pm at Kafe Kerouac, just north of campus, for Brian Clash & the Coffee House Rebels.  The Rebels are a scrappy little rock & roll collective, kinda like The Velvet Underground if they grew up in Columbus, Ohio, rather than the grubby environs of New York City.  I’ve known Brian (Griffin/Clash) since my days working at Ace In The Hole Music, that guy is one righteous rock & roller.  

There’s much worse things you could do with your Saturday night (like binge-watching some crap T.V. on Netflix or Hulu), you should come out.    

For more music musings from Ricki C., check out Growing Old With Rock & Roll.

For some songs, check out If All My Heroes Are Losers

Strummer's In Heaven

TV Party Tonight! Part One: A George Michael Rehearsal with Queen - by Colin Gawel

My phone says it's 7 degrees outside right now. The perfect weather to get warm inside a youtube rabbit hole. Following last night's League Bowlers show and many Four String Brews, the staff of Pencilstorm decided we should start a winter series featuring some of our favorite video finds to help get your personal hole started. I'll go first.

TV Party Tonight! Part One: A George Michael Rehearsal with Queen - Colin Gawel

It's funny how one performance can change your entire perception of an artist, but that's exactly what happened to me when George Michael fronted Queen for a single song at the Freddie Mercury tribute in 1992. Sadly, the untimely death of Michael led me to stumble onto footage of George rehearsing with Queen before the mega-show at Wembley. I grabbed my 13 year old son Owen and showed him the clip. I could tell he dug it, but all he said was, "Yeah, so that rocked. Queen rocks. What's the big deal?" I tried to explain the context. "Dude, George Michael crushing with Queen would be like Justin Bieber coming out and crushing with Green Day at the Billie Joe Tribute show." I had his attention now. "Dad, what do you mean?" "Check this shit out little man.."  (I didn't really say it that way. Owen and I pretend we don't swear in each other's company)

Wham!'s official music video for 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go'. Click to listen to Wham! on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/WhamSpotify?IQid=WhamWMU As featured on The Final. Click to buy the track or album via iTunes: http://smarturl.it/WhamTFiTunes?IQid=WhamWMU Google Play: http://smarturl.it/WhamWMEGPlay?IQid=WhamWMU Amazon: http://smarturl.it/WhamTFAmazon?IQid=WhamWMU Stream more music from Wham! here: http://smarturl.it/WhamMStream?IQid=WhamWMU More from Wham!

I was about the same age as Owen when I first saw this Wham! video on the MTV. His reaction upon this initial screening was about how I remembered mine. His mouth hung open wide and a look of abject horror creeped over his face. "That's the same guy? Wow."

When I first saw Wham! my brain just couldn't compute...confused.... there is no other word ...it was just too.... gay. I'm not trying to use the word "Gay" in a derogatory manner. I was a kid who didn't even know what that word meant. It's just that being a fourteen year old boy growing up in the white bread suburb of Worthington, Ohio, my frame of reference was very limited. My idea of diversity was Earle Bruce embracing the forward pass more than Woody Hayes. Being progressive meant liking RUSH more than Molly Hatchet. Judas Priest were Hell Bent for Leather. That shit rocked. I liked loud electric guitars. Sure, I knew something was off with Billy Squier's "Rock Me Tonight" video, but Billy got a pass from me (if not the world) because "In the Dark" ROCKED. Wham! were many things, but they were decidedly NOT rock n roll. In fact, they were a frontal attack on rock. I couldn't make sense of it. 

To a kid who hadn't hit puberty, I suppose"Gay" meant something my little sister liked. And she liked Wham! A lot. UGH.

George had dug himself a deep hole in my personal musical rankings. Somewhere between Tiffany and King Kobra. That's a tough spot. Fast forward to the Freddie Mercury Tribute show in Wembley Stadium. I can't remember the details, but I was watching the show with the Watershed guys in a hotel room somewhere when George was announced to come out. We all kind of moaned..."Ugh.. George Michael....lame... Let's watch just a little to see how bad it is.." Then this happened..

"i don't have the words. This year has cruelly taken so many fine people way too young. And George? That gentle boy? All that beautiful talent? Can't begin to compute this. RIP George. Sing with Freddie. And the Angels."

Mouths dropping in wonder, at the end of the song, we spontaneously piled on the bed hugging, high-fiving and screaming, "George Michael needs to join Queen and tour. RIGHT NOW!!" 

I think almost everybody in the stadium and on Earth instantly had the same opinion. This is no easy feat when considering we were all talking about replacing the irreplaceable Freddie Mercury. At his own memorial show no less. I think everybody also wondered why it never happened. I mean just look at them? It's amazing. It had to be depressing for Queen to downshift to Paul Rodgers and that Adam guy from The Voice or whatever.

Anyway, just last week, I bumped into this clip of George rehearsing "Somebody to Love" with Queen and it's almost more fun than the stadium show. Just the guys rocking. No audience. Oh, other than David Bowie watching from the wings. Under Pressure much? Not George. He KILLS. My mouth was saying, "That roadie looks just like David Bowie" at the exact same time my brain was registering, "Holy shit.. that IS David Bowie."

RIP George Michael. What a bad ass. "I wish that I knew what I know now, when I was younger" - Ron Wood

http://www.georgemichael-thevoice.com

Bonus clip. As good as the previous clips were, Freddie is still.... Freddie. Also, I've always loved the cups of cheap-looking draft beer that are invariably on his piano. To me, that visual perfectly sums up what makes Queen so unique among its peers. A broadway bar band. 

Queen - somebody to love live in Montreal

Colin Gawel plays in the band Watershed and The League Bowlers. Read about him in the book Hitless Wonder or visit him at Colin's Coffee. Visit the Pencilstorm music page for more cool stuff.

Bava Choco - by Ricki C.

This is a blog about Bava Choco that Ricki C. wrote back in October, 2016 that the Pencilstorm editorial board decided we couldn't improve upon, so we're re-running it today.

Bava Choco's release party for their maiden CD - Death Ride - will take place at Ace of Cups this Friday night, January 6th.  Doors at 8 pm, opening set by The League Bowlers at 9 pm, followed by Bava Choco.  Admission is FREE.  Details at Aceofcupsbar.com.

The first thing you’ve gotta know about Bava Choco is that they’re HIGH CONCEPT.  By that I mean that lead singer Patrick Baracus has made sure that ALL ASPECTS of the band have been thought through and considered: the way the band dresses, the way the songs cohere, the stage presentation, etc.  And In these 21st century days of bands having TOTALLY ZERO ideas, creativity or – God forbid – originality of thought or word, Bava Choco really stands out.  (By this I mean, if I see ONE MORE BAND on Seth Myers – my choice of late-night viewing – with ABSOLUTELY NOT ONE REASON TO EXIST, done up in some mish-mash of thrift-store clothes, mismatched haircuts & not one iota of a notion of presentation I'm gonna put a bullet through my head, or more likely through my TV.)  (Just like Elvis.)

Plus, Bava Choco is named after one of the “brands” of dope that Eric Stoltz is peddling to John Travolta in Pulp Fiction.  And if naming your band after a heroin blend in a 22 year old Tarantino flick isn’t HIGH CONCEPT, I don’t know what is.

But really, screw all my HIGH CONCEPT guff: if THE MUSIC doesn’t deliver, why am I bothering to write about the band, and it’s THE MUSIC where Bava Choco really fries my synapses.  I’ve seen Baracus in his previous bands – the mighty MC5-influenced squall of B.A. Baracus, some intermediate band whose name I can’t remember that opened for Colin’s Lonely Bones at the Rumba or Woodlands one Christmas show – and I have to say that Bava Choco is Patrick’s best venture yet.   

Patrick told me one time when the band was still in rehearsals that he was just gonna say, “Fuck it, and unleash all of his Deep Purple and Black Sabbath fantasies” in his new band and – I’ve gotta say – I wasn’t particularly heartened by that pronouncement.  I lived through heavy metal when it was first invented and my rocker brethren KNOW it’s not one of my Top Three rock & roll genres.  But Bava Choco bring such a passion and fresh approach to quasi-metal it really took me back to those days of 1968 & 1969 when bands like Deep Purple were still really INVENTIVE and Tony Iommi actually incorporated some pretty jazzy chord voicings into the melee that was early Black Sabbath.  It really wasn’t until the 1970’s that those bands collapsed into the terminal, plodding, drug-ridden/ravaged sludge-pit morass of metal that rock history is riddled with.  (Are you listening Uriah Heep?)       

Anyway, this is sliding out of hand, I’m about to start mumbling about the ‘60’s & ‘70’s when Bava Choco is a thoroughly MODERN rock & roll band: guitarist Eric French’s riffs & guitar stylings are a joy to watch & listen to and drummer Corey Gillen is a MONSTER of invention.  So just go see ‘em this Saturday night: drink a few beers (then Uber home so you don’t kill anybody), support CD-102.5 and their Big Room Bar and dig The Kyle Sowashes and Earwig while you’re at it.  It’s a Saturday night of rock & roll, what could you POSSIBLY have better to do with your time than that?  - Ricki C. / October 13th, 2016.

ps. Since I’m supposed to be such a hotshot rock critic, two (easily correctable) criticisms of Bava Choco: 1) The first time I saw the band, Mike Lovins – who, by the way, happens to be a KILLER bass player – wore shorts onstage.  Admittedly, it WAS high summer then (I stopped to watch a coupla softball games at Berliner on my way to the gig at CD 102.5), but NO self-respecting rocker should EVER WEAR SHORTS ONSTAGE.  2) Patrick was drinking beer during that set when this is obviously a band that should be swigging cognac straight from the bottle while lurching around onstage.  Beer drinking is for league bowlers, Bava Choco is HIGH CONCEPT.  If Baracus has to go so far as pouring beer INTO a cognac bottle before going onstage, he should take that step and project/protect the illusion.      

For a little preview of the tunes, check out Bava Choco on Bandcamp 

English Pub-Rock and The League Bowlers - by Ricki C.

The League Bowlers will open for Bava Choco at Ace of Cups this Friday evening, January 6th.  Doors at 8 pm, League Bowlers at 9 pm, Bava Choco at 10:30 pm.  Admission is FREE, info at Aceofcupsbar.com.    

Pub-rock in England was an early to mid-1970’s phenomenon/trend that never really translated to America.  Spearheaded by bands like Brinsley Schwarz (which featured a pre-Stiff Records Nick Lowe as co-lead vocalist & songwriter) and Ducks Deluxe, pub-rock was a reaction to the prog-rock and glam-rock trends that dominated English music from 1972 on.  Playing tiny bar venues with small Fender amps and a decidedly low-key but ROCKING return-to-three-minute-songs attitude, pub-rock offered an up-close & personal style of rock & roll for music fans sick to death of 17-minute Yes orchestral suites or the glam-rock stylings of David Bowie, Sweet and Slade.*  Lipstick 'n' lace just didn’t cut it with your workaday rocker soccer fan.  

(* All of whom I loved, by the way, but that's an entirely different blog for a whole 'nother day.)

Pub-rock was the immediate precursor to punk-rock in England and, very likely, punk-rock would never have happened without its musical cousin.  One of the nascent Sex Pistols’ first gigs was an opening slot for Joe Strummer’s pub-rock outfit The 101-ers at stalwart pub-rock venue the Nashville Club (see vintage 1976 review below).  That was the night Strummer glimpsed the musical future spread out before him, leading to his defection to The Clash, and likely sounding the death knell for pub-rock as a music movement.  (Pub-rock also spawned Ian Dury – from Kilburn & the High Roads – and Elvis Costello, who used to open shows and occasionally haul amps for Brinsley Schwarz, fostering his later artist/producer relationship with Nick Lowe.)  

Anyway, I often think of The League Bowlers as a 21st-century incarnation of an English pub-rock band: a repertoire consisting of a handful of catchy, feel-good originals (Kids Down South, Half Of Me, Pretty In A Slutty Way) interspersed with a rockin’ dose of their favorite cover tunes (from The Mavericks to Dwight Yoakam to The Georgia Satellites to Elvis Presley, just to name a few).  Formed from the remnants/ashes of several previous bands bearing the name, the current Bowler line-up is comprised of Colin Gawel (on leave from Watershed and The Lonely Bones) and Mike Parks (who traces his rock & roll lineage all the way back to West Side garage bands of the 1960’s, I first saw him play at a Lazarus teen fashion show, through The Godz and The True Soul Rockers) on lead & rhythm guitars;  Dan Cochran – late of Big Back 40 and Feversmile – now the owner of the Four String Brewery on bass; and drummer-extraordinaire Jim Johnson, a mainstay of Willie Phoenix’s` bands for decades.  

It's an old Italian proverb that what you do the first week in January is what you'll do all the rest of the year.  So why not come out on this First Friday Night in January, catch some quality rock & roll from The League Bowlers and Bava Choco and improve your chances for a fun 2017?  See ya at Ace of Cups, 9 pm sharp.  - Ricki C. / January 3rd, 2017 

                                                 Nick Lowe wrote it in 1974, Elvis Costello made it a hit in 1978.......

CHECK OUT THESE OTHER CHANNELS: ClassicComedyBits1: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7nbIZfgo7QCGPVl0JRJc0Q ClassicComedyBitsTwo: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbWb8xXev0x3rnoaNnMMwvw ClassicComedyBits3: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2qGSU6cBv6_q-ziWdmrdWA FlashBack Past: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPlidqLipzBgWGrVsDs7WaQ The History Of Rock: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQTc1Hk1qHotkYzfjDMr7Eg Flashback Memories: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKIgaXQlYADhJPMeKN4lQlA ClassicComedyChannelOne: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2pyrKu1KV3NkFiN6Q2daBQ MovieMarquee24: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSGhbde901537b8icFQP_eA TheBlooperReel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCigxwpeOsPKY6suji9TNZbg ClassicCartoonMatinee: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRoAFe0p1aaLPPcLM_GuMtg GoldenGreatsOldies24: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpUZQLKkqfAT3tWatK6MHWg TheSoundcheck24: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheSoundcheck24 Sillysongbook24: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxcZKQdgLS4Mq998-L_K_HA Cartooncrazy24: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO5HRE3y6FqUNcSANpZgmQA GizmoTheGremlin: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgOrxNXoNQDF-tGg6jJnlZg FunnyFilms: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8JecJy9Gx-vUFSpbsi69OA Brinsley Schwarz were a 1970s English pub rock band, named after their guitarist Brinsley Schwarz.

Ducks Deluxe - in time-honored rock & roll fashion - cop the riff to The Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane" to power their own truck-drivin' rocker.  It's a long way from the Mean Streets of New York City to the Nashville in Kensington.......

RCA 1974

The League Bowlers, 2008.......

"Half Of Me" as played by The League Bowlers in an alt-country arrangement. Recorded August 1, 2008 at The Thirsty Ear, Grandview, Ohio.

from the Ricki C. archives: New Musical Express, April 17th, 1976, live review section (I used to make the trek every week from the West Side to the Little Professor Bookstore in the Lane Avenue shopping center, from 1975 to sometime in early '79, when I lost interest in English post-punk.  Does anybody else miss Little Professor Bookstore as much as I do?)