a musical history – by Terence Ruffle

Like I’m sure many other Beach Boys fans did, I eagerly awaited the reissue of “Pacific Ocean Blue” by Dennis Wilson. I’ve had a very clean copy on Mini disc, taken from an original pristine 1977 cassette tape, for a number of years. I love the album, the songs, and I love Carl Wilson’s backing vocals.

This music is of course unmistakably the work of a Beach Boy. But certainly a sight more left field. And of course Dennis has this strangely Gothic, Operatic slant on certain songs (see “Cuddle up” as an example prior to POB) which fascinates me. [Read more →]

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(This is the final part of a three-part story. Part one is here.)

When we got to the Hammersmith Odeon for the David Bowie gig on July 2nd 1973, there were a lot of glam kids wandering about. But they looked like a bunch of David Cassidy fans! Tho’ there were a few Zig-a-likes, mostly girls

Unlicenced merchandise ran even more unchecked than it does nowadays. There were lots of cheap Bowie scarves, posters and mags. Of course, wish I’d bought a bunch of it now, it’d look great next to my official Ziggy program and ticket, and the signed (albeit in 2000) unpublished Ziggy pic. [Read more →]

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(This is part two of a three-part story. Part one is here.)

There was a very important thread running through my life in those days, and that was Veronica Peyton. Veronica was my second girlfriend, and pretty much the hippest person on the planet at that time. At least I thought so.

We met at school. It was 1972, the autumn term. Her parents were great, they’d drive us back to their fabulous abode,and let us listen to our music quite loud, on an original early 60’s Dansette record player!

I’d heard of Roxy Music through “Virginia Plain”, but never heard their album, which Veronica had. [Read more →]

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I read with some amusement recently that Steve Jones, the guitarist with the Sex Pistols, saw David Bowie at the Hammersmith Odeon, the night before he retired as Ziggy Stardust,on July 2nd, 1973.

I was there, tho’ I don’t recall seeing Steve.

But I do recall guitarist Mick Ronson (Ronno) playing a white Les Paul at the gig, one that looked remarkably similar to the one Steve Jones played in the Pistols. I wonder if this was one of Jonesy’s infamous heists? Perhaps if anyone knows they could leave a comment?

To give you some background about myself at the time, I was sixteen and had been gig-going since the previous year (see Emerson Lake and Palmer article).
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