WE'RE PUTTING THE BAND BACK TOGETHER (Kinda)

Although I still wait for a satisfactory phone and broadband connection, I have been provided with have the most amazing TV service and am profoundly grateful. Meanwhile all focus is on preparing for Friday’s launch of the Boss Goodman tribute CD on Friday at The Inn On The Green on London’s Portobello Road. Plus there’s a very nice review in the current Terrascope Online…

PORTOBELLO SHUFFLE: A TESTIMONIAL TO BOSS GOODMAN & TRIBUTE TO THE MUSIC OF THE DEVIANTS & PINK FAIRIES (Easy Action)
I’ve always thought of tribute albums as a bit of a mixed bag. Well, when I say “always”, ever since the mid-1980s when I took a hand in helping one-time betting shop manager and future Porcupine Tree lyricist Alan Duffy launch a series of ground-breaking tribute LPs on his Imaginary Records label (mine was in point of fact a very very small part - I pointed him towards a few bands, and wrote some sleeve-notes for the second, a tribute to the music of Captain Beefheart). It was a brilliant idea, and Alan’s execution and choice of artists - both covering, and being paid tribute to - was exemplary; however it’s a measure of my unease perhaps about the whole idea of one artist covering the music of another that bands being invited to contribute to Terrascope compilations over the course of the following 20 years or so were invariably encouraged to contribute something original. There were of course exceptions – but generally speaking, I thought it better that a band which few people were familiar with (and to be fair, the very nature of the magazine’s cover discs were such that many of the artists featured were at the time either overlooked or just starting out) would be doing themselves more favours if they showed off their own originality rather than demonstrate their prowess at performing someone else’s material.
‘Portobello Shuffle’ is an entirely different kettle of fish though - in so very many ways. To begin with, it’s far, far more than a tribute to the music of the Deviants and Pink Fairies, as deserving as those two legendary outfits of the British underground scene are of all the accolades going. The sub-title ‘A testimonial to Boss Goodman’ reveals the importance of this release: and what says it all is the stellar line-up of artists who have freely given of their time, and talent, to help raise both spirits and funds for the bands’ now ailing former road manager, sound-man and booking agent Dave ‘Boss’ Goodman, a man who was generally regarded as the fourth, fifth or even sixth Pink Fairy depending on which line-up you care to shake a stick at. (Click here for the rest.)

The secret word is Creativity