Other 30th birthday stuff

My 30th birthday celebrations didn't centre entirely around buying records. I managed to fit in some other cool stuff too while I was in London...

Breakfast at Ed's Diner

I'll be honest with you, waking up as a 30-year-old sucked. Completely. But I discovered the fastest way to cheer yourself up on a milestone birthday is by consuming a large amount of sugar for breakfast. That's the only reason I'm smiling in the photo below, because I'm off my face.

The cornerstone of any nutritious breakfast:

Pancakes, sausages and strawberries with maple syrup.

Washed down with a peanut butter milkshake.

Nom nom nom nom nom nom nom

Ed's Diner
I love 50's shit

Trocadero Arcade 

In between a bit of record buying there was time to visit the Trocadero arcade, which used to be awesome, but isn't so much these days as they got rid of a load of games. Still, I did find some to keep me entertained. 

There's always time to fight some
zombie pirates on your birthday...

... And enjoy a bit of Whack-a-Shark

Although my reactions are obviously a lot 

slower now I'm an old bastard

Hard Rock Cafe

I'm partial to a bit of gawping where rock memorabilia is concerned, so Hard Rock Cafe was the obvious choice for tea.

Here's a little fact for you. Hard Rock London was actually the one that started the whole chain, after Eric Clapton gave them a guitar in order to reserve a place at the bar. And it's still there today.

My giant slab of a cheese burger was amazing, as were the onion rings that were big enough to wear as bangles on my scrawny lady wrists. Oh and I highly recommend the mojitos as a way of numbing the pain of becoming a 30-something.

This was the best cheese burger I've ever had.

Thanks to my best friend Steven for pointing out my photobombing boobs

View from the table: Cool shit that you want to take home but aren't allowed to.

The drumkit you can just see on the left was John Bonham's

 of Led Zeppelin and the black coat belonged to Queen's 

Brian May. Not sure who the bald guy belonged to.

The walls of the place are jam packed with stuff, so there's a lot to take in. The only problem is that you can only really look at what you can see from your seat as the tables are crammed in so tightly it's hard to have a wander round and look at everything. But I guess that just gives me an excuse to go back sometime to see the rest.

Post-burger: Approximately 14lbs heavier and
about to burst out of my jeans at any second

We Will Rock You 

I have a little confession to make. I've never been that keen on musicals. Apart from Grease, which I will happily watch anytime due to its killer songs, awesome dresses and hot looking John Travolta, I have always struggled to sit through musicals. I promise you I have tried. I even watched a bit of Moulin Rouge once, but that probably ranks among the dullest 30 minutes of my life. Either that or the bit of Dirty Dancing I watched once. They were equally as shit, so it's a close tie.

Anyway, as this musical is based entirely around Queen songs I thought there was a chance I might like it. And it's written by Ben Elton, so I was confident it would have some good laughs. But if it did end up being shit I figured I could just sit in the theatre doing this...




We Will Rock You is basically a piss take of manufactured music and is set on iPlanet, where everyone dresses the same and thinks the same, and where all music sounds the same. I've spent my entire life feeling trapped in that world, so I could instantly relate.

The story follows a group of rebels who are trying to bring back real bands and proper music. It's very cleverly written with little references to Queen lyrics everywhere and lots of laughs. And of course, lots of singing! But it worked and I absolutely loved it. I may not be a complete convert to musicals, but if the soundtrack kicks ass then I'll happily give it a go.

Famous people I share my birthday with

• Justin Bieber (I know, but it gets worse...)
• Nick Griffin (Urgh, told yer)
• Kesha (a singer apparently)
• Dafydd Ieuan (drummer with the Super Furry Animals)

Other stuff that shares my birthday

Ok, so according to the weird world of Wiki, 1st March is also...

• National Pig Day in America (errrr to celebrate pigs, I guess?)
• Self-Injury Awareness Day
• Beer Day in Iceland (the date prohibition ended in 1989)

Verdict: Awesome birthday fun  

P is for Punk Pilgrimages

“Most of my heroes never used their real names, so I thought I’d join them,” explained Bobby Pinn, my punk-worshipping guide on his decision to adopt a pseudonym. “Who knows, by the end of the afternoon maybe you’ll have one too.”

As the skin-searing sunshine pierced through the high rises of New York’s chaotic streets, Pinn welcomed me to his Rock ‘n’ Roll Walking Tour – a two-hour jaunt around the musically rich East Village. As the zip code that witnessed the conception of music’s most raw and honest genre, I was desperate to see, hear and feel where punk was born.

On the southwest corner of East 9^th Street we gazed skyward to the apartment block across the road, counting up ten floors. It was here, Pinn informed me, that a quarter of one of New York’s most famous musical exports resided for over two decades. Jeff Hyman, more commonly known as Joey Ramone, once owned three of the apartments here and spent much of his downtime battling his Obsessive Compulsive demons within their four walls. One of punk’s most unlikely forefathers, The Ramones’ wiry frontman is a key figure of this walking insight into New York’s musical heritage.

Joey Ramone's former residence

Past toothless, crazed drunks demanding quarters for beer, we came to a 35-year-old Aladdin’s cave of punk rock attire. Behind its peeling paint and well-worn exterior, St Marks Place’s Trash and Vaudeville has many stories to tell, having dressed everyone from Iggy Pop to Joan Jett over the years. Photos of its famous frequenters are proudly displayed behind the counter, but a signed Slash top hat is one of the most impressive aspects of the décor.

Trash and Vaudeville

Fittingly, it’s here that one of the genre’s best known photographers happened to stroll by, personifying the area’s punk history. Roberta Bayley, the photographer responsible for the iconic cover of The Ramones’ debut album, happily dished out her business cards, emblazoned with the iconic image of the leather jacket and denim-clad gang of four skulking in front of a wall located right here in the East Village.

Roberta Bayley's iconic photograph on The Ramones debut

It was a tribute to one of the UK’s punk greats that was, for me, one of the highlights of the tour. A vibrant portrait of Clash legend Joe Strummer stands as a proud memorial to the inspirational singer on the side of Avenue A’s Niagara Bar, it’s creation filmed for the video of his cover of Bob Marley’s ‘Redemption Song’. As I posed for a photo, Pinn pointed out that it is the only wall in the area that never gets tagged by gangs or graffiti artists.

Me and Joe

More snaps were enjoyed by other East Village icons, many of which would go completely unnoticed were it not for Pinn's extensive work tracking them down, including the Led Zeppelin building on St Marks Place (see previous 'L' post).

After two hours, my time was almost up and as a fitting end to a fascinating ramble, it was the venue that gave birth to punk that became our final stop.

  

Unrecognisable from its glory days, 315 Bowery was once home to the genre’s most famous haunt and is as interwoven with the story of punk as the bands that spawned it. Forced out by rocketing rents, CBGB’s is today the home of plush menswear store John Varvatos.

CBGB's Then

CBGB's Now

Stepping inside, I was met by the refreshing cool of Varvatos’ air conditioning – an atmosphere a million miles from that of punk’s Mecca at full capacity. Having poured over tales of the sweat-soaked shows held here from 1973 until its dying breath on 16^th October 2006, I know that personal space and modern luxuries were not characteristics of CBGB’s. I was relieved however to see its mark on the building hadn’t been entirely stripped away; lovingly salvaged from the gutting process, entire sections of the graffiti-drenched walls hang proudly within Varvatos’ spacious interior, offering visitors an insight into the building’s place in the punk history books.

CBGB's Then

CBGB's Now

Pinn talked positively about Varvatos’ dedication to keeping its heritage alive with features from its past and in-store performances, but I couldn’t help feeling I was too late. When I closed my eyes I could almost feel the reverberations of a thousand and one punk gigs and at that moment I would have given anything to experience the chaos and intensity of one of those legendary shows.

As for my punk moniker, I’m still working on that one.

L is for Led Zeppelin

While in New York last summer, I took a rock n roll walking tour of the East Village, which offered a real insight into the city's music links. The tour's put together by Bobby Pinn, a man so obsessed by the city's musical heritage that he's spent years researching who lived where, who rocked where and who died where, and when.

One of the absolute gems of the tour was getting to visit the building that adorned the cover of English rocker's Led Zeppelin's sixth album, 'Physical Graffiti'. Upon reaching the St Marks Place site, our punk guide pulled the 12" record from his bag, holding it up for comparison alongside the real life apartment block. "Anyone know what's missing from the album sleeve?" Pinn asked, as we huddled in for a look.

Led Zeppelin's 'Physical Graffiti'

The real life 'Physical Graffiti' building

After a few lame guesses on our part, Pinn went on to explain how the real building actually has five floors, while the album sleeve has just four. Yeah, I know, it's easy to see now, right? Well, it's claimed Jimmy Page's drug dealer lived on the fourth floor of the apartment block at the time the album was made and rather than risk drawing attention to him, it was decided the floor he lived on would just be removed from the image.

I'm not sure how true that is, but it's an awesome story. My theory is that the building was too tall for a 12" sleeve to have all five floors included, so I think one had to be removed to fit the space. Of course, it's the drug dealer story I usually share with people - it's more rock n roll isn't it?