www.ianedmundson.co.uk
Home | Books | Cancer | Contact | Bio | Gear | Images | UNTRUTHS | Video | 12string bass

UNTRUTHS
An archive of that which was written about.

2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025

Ian's 2019 blog archive

January 1st 2019:
Resolution(s) and so on:

Glad to see you here. Congratulations on making it through 2018.
Let's hope we all say this again at the same time next year.

I have made a few new year's resolutions, which are mainly all about self-improvement and therefore private, but one of them is to work on playing my 5-string bass more and then getting used to my fretless bass again.

January 9th 2019:
Naughty me:

I have broken down already this year and have just bought a new bass guitar - an Ibanez Sound Gear SR1305 5-string bass. I was tipped off about it and it is mint and it was also going ridiculously cheap. Pics when I have collected it (hopefully that will happen on Friday).

I have done a couple of very long writing sessions on the Slade book and am happy that it is picking up again. I have lots of scrapbooks here for quotes, etc.

14th January 2019:
Workshy Fop:
I didn't get as much done on the book as I wanted to last week. A few things got in the way, but I am still quite determined to get some decent writing sessions in.

I did buy the 5-string bass and I collected it on Friday and used it Saturday and Sunday. I'm quite pleased with it and I am finding my way around it quite well. I am going to persevere with it this time.

Nice eh?

January 17th 2019:
Love is:

It's my late first wife Julie's 57th bithday today. She never got to be old. She passed away, far too young, in 1986. Even though my life has moved on since then and I married again and had two wonderful children, I still miss her so much. She really didn't deserve the heart problems that she had.

It is so sad. She turned me from a (slightly) screwed-up twenty-something into a (slightly) responsible adult and I think that if we were still together now, my life would obviously be different. You can't regret things, because that doesn't change anything, but she should still be here. I really hate it that she's gone. For a long time, I wished that it had been me, or that she had just left me and was still alive, which would have been better. If I could change one thing, she'd still be here. There is nothing romantic about dying young. Nothing. It is just heartbreaking. My wife Lynda is having a procedure today to try to resolve her own heart problems. I will fret until she is back home.

January 23rd 2019:
Getting there:

Well, Lynda didn't have the cardioreversal (Cardioversion) procedure on the 17th. They have found a hole in her heart while they were doing a preparatory echocardiogram on her. The doctor was astonished that nobody had found it sooner. Fortunately, the hole is between the two chambers that doesn't kill you, but it does cause her a lot of discomfort. Her meds also cause her pain and keep her awake. She has been referred to Leeds for an operation  and it can't come too soon for her.

The band has a few Fridays off this month and I have to say I am enjoying the more relaxed pace, though I love gigging.

The Slade book - THE NOIZE - is just about done. I have had some proof copies sent and we have gone through them to make a few last-minute revisions, before final publication - we are aiming for February 1st. I have done an 'unboxing' video to briefly show the proof copy.

24th January 2019:
Exciting:

Well, we have done the last revisions to the Slade book and have now set it to publish. It is quite a piece of work. The royalty rate on Amazon is not bad, but after we look at our share and deduct the actual printing costs for each book, Chris and I will get a pint each out of it. This is because it is full colour on white paper. It was never about the money, anyway. But we will be published authors and this was a book that needed to be written. I've spent so many hours sat at the computer writing the book and I am just so glad we have finally signed it off. That's one of my biggies ticked off the list.

I can move onto the next project now, which is a book of photographs of my guitars. I expect to sell precisely two copies and one will be mine. Who cares? Again, it is not for the money. I also intend to consolidate my 5-string bass playing, to write and record at least six new songs this year and hopefully a couple of old ones. My biography has been totally neglected for a while and I need to consider how I am going to deal with the musicians in it.

25th January 2019:
Lend me your money:

Well, bless me soul!! The Slade book is selling quite well. It went to number one on the Amazon music reference books page for a while. A lot of people have ordered it, which is nice. Some people still seem to think that I am going to be rich from the proceeds. I'm not - see yesterday's blog entry for the explanation. Even at £28 (which I think is steep, though a lot of other music books are fetching that money), it doesn't pay two authors a bundle. So, when it comes to begging letters being ignored, it's more likely to be those that are written to me rather than the other way round.

29th January 2019:
Update from publisher:

The Slade book has done very well in its first week.
Thanks to Amazon for their help in prepping a Kindle edition that will be on sale shortly....

2nd February 2019:
Beer bashes and books:

The Slade book continues to sell, not exactly at a groundbreaking rate, but enough to show that it was a very worthwhile exercise. Don Powell, Slade's drummer has had a look at a copy and was quite impressed. He has been sent a copy to his home address. The other band members will be getting theirs shortly.

This weekend is quite busy. The band played at the Bent N Bongs beer bash in Atherton last night. We have a gig at The Dungeon in Tottington tonight and also the jam night tomorrow. Not many free Fridays left, now. I did 125 gigs last year and this year looks like it is already going to be busier.

February 10th 2019:
Good Venues and Shitholes:

Good Venues
We played at The Little Lion, Atherton last night. Always a fun little gig and we'd like to thank our mates who came down to watch us. We have just scored an extra return gig there on May 6th (the Bank Holiday Monday), playing outside from 4 til 7, or thereavbouts.

Shitholes
I've been asked by a number of gig goers about whether we are playing return gigs at a couple of other venues and, while I can't name the actual venues concerned, as it is not what you do in Showbiz; one in Horwich will not get us back, because they jerked us around very badly a short while ago and the place is managed by an utter clown.

One in Harwood also won't get us back because we were unable to get on their roster of bands for this year as Graham was having a life saving operation two days before the charity gig that gets you more gigs - yet we supported their cancer charity gig the year before. When two of us are affected by cancer personally, their attitude takes the biscuit.

We could get back on their roster of bands, but I have absolutely no wish to go in the stinking little place ever again. So much for being one of their landlady's 'favourite bands'. Two venues in Bolton town centre have changed management and seem unable to get back to us and have their own little roster of about six bands that they will not stray from.

Not that we really need these places.

February 18th 2019:
Learning for seniors:

I have restarted at college on Wednesdays. The band is gearing up to do even more and more busy weekends of gigging, but this Saturday's gig had to be pulled, after Friday's venue screwed my voice with their smoke machine. I was not impressed.

Since I last blogged, I have been amazed at how well the Slade book is doing. I feel honoured that Chris Charlesworth, the highly respected music journalist, has reviewed it here and Shindig have reviewed it in their forthcoming edition.

I was asked about the book on Facebook and if we had written it as fans.
I thought I'd give a full reply of how it came to be.

I'm (admittedly) a fan going back to 1972. Over the years I have bought everything, saved everything and never thrown anything away. In the late 70's - early 80's, I took my camera to some Slade gigs and what eventually became www.slayed.co.uk and its sister site, www.sladeforum.co.uk came out of all that.

The site grew and grew and has always been very factual. People have said for a long time that the superb Chris Charlesworth book on Slade needed to be followed up. I always have been interested in writing and felt that the Slade story needed to be brought up to date and still be told properly.

The group have varying degrees of interest in the fans, co-operation with official projects and an unofficial project wouldn't get any help from the band, so I always left the idea alone. Daryl Easlea is writing a Slade book for Omnibus, so I was relieved of the responsibility for that.

I bought a discography book about my favourite band Cheap Trick and thought "There should be a Slade discography book." I bought that author's Nazareth discography book and it made me get on with it.

After a start was made and I got a little feel for what I was doing, I got in touch with Chris Selby and asked if he wanted to do the book with me. It became a 50/50 partnership and I couldn't have done it without him and he wouldn't probably have done it without me.

To the book:
There is about 5 and a bit months solid work in there. We are both serious Slade historians and archivists. The book has a quick pre-music preamble on each of the band members, then we get into the pre-Slade bands - The Vendors, The N'Betweens, Steve Brett & The Mavericks and tell their stories and illustrate their relaeses chronologically. The band eventually found the line-up that became known as Slade.

The format of the book after the pre-Slade period is: Year by year - Summary of the band's year. Releases in date order illustrated and discussed, track by track, and whatever information we could get in there, with band quotes and reviews attached to each release.

There are similar details for all of the releases after the band ended and the solo works.

Is it from a fan's perspective? Yes and no. The main thing was to be as informative about each release as possible. Nobody wants to read me going on about how horrendous 'Okey cokey' was, or even worse, 'Ready to explode'. Personal opinions were kept out of it as much as possible.

Being 'fans' helped us get the book together, but we certainly don't say everything is wonderful that they released. We have bust a couple of myths in the book. We have tried to take a lively and comprehensive textbook approach. Over the years we have met band members and have made friends with people who know all sorts of things. The knowledge is there and we had to be selective with some things we put in the book.

It's not 'The Slade Annual'. We have tried to do *the book that we would have wanted* and one which we believed fans would not be disappointed with. Some are kindly calling it The Slade Bible, which pleases us no end, as it means we have got it right (I hope).

Amazon are doing it at a reduced price at present - just below the price we wanted to put it out at, except that their system actually forced us into the price we ended up with.

It is on sale at Amazon.

23rd  February 2019:
Bleeding hell:

The Slade book is still selling steadily. I am very happy about that and so is my co-author, Chris. We have sent all of the band copies (except for Noddy Holder, as I frustratingly can't find his actual postal address - but the opportunity to pass one to him will no doubt come up at some point). We have had favourable reactions from two of them, with the other one getting the book only yesterday. It would be wrong to quote the band's reactions to the book, as it is unofficial / unauthorised, but we are pleased that they seem to like the book.

I spent an amount of yesterday in Accident and emergency with my wife Lynda, as she had a prolonged nosebleed and caved in and finally asked me to take her to hospital.

I messaged a local guy who was selling a bass rig and will he get back to me? No. Well, it is getting less likely that I will buy it by the hour. I don't really need it, I am wondering where I would put it, if I bought it, etc.

Happily listening to the new Joe Jackson album - 'Fool' - which is up there with his very best.

28th February 2019:
Babies, birthdays and bass rigs:

Happy birthday to my son-in-law Chris.

I am slightly baffled by the Wigan guy who has a bass rig up for sale, but can't actually be bothered to reply to my messages to him about it, when I say to him that I am very keen on it. Cash waiting, as they say. But it can also be spent elsewhere.

This cute little bundle is my Grand-daughter, April. Proud as Punch.
Also pictured, my lovely daughter Rachel and Axl.

3rd March 2019:
Bookings, bass rigs and beautiful pictures:

The band have taken our first booking for next year. Early.. but there you go.

The chap in Wigan finally got back to me about the bass rig, but I have decided against it. I saw a HiWatt rig and was seriously thinking about it, but my storage is pretty much full and I would only aim for the same configuration as my existing Hartke bass rig, so I didn't splurge. Til today, that is - I bought 2 PA speakers from a mate.

Andy Worthington kindly sent us some great photos he had taken of the band last week. God, I look old in them.

March 7th 2019:
A glittering career in music:

I have been working on my own memoir for the last few years, on and off. My late Aunt went through Alzheimers and it was so sad. I soon began to doubt my own memory. If you don't think about something for years, you can have trouble remembering it. I decided to write things from my life down as some mental exercise for myself, but mainly as a keepsake for my children.

The last couple of years has been busy for me on the publishing front. I put out a number of music-related photobooks and of course, THE NOIZE - THE SLADE DISCOGRAPHY, which I did with Chris Selby. A number of people think that this is a mock-up. It's not. This is the front cover of the book. I will be giving it a limited full release, again via Amazon, to allow some friends to buy it if they want to..

I have a couple of other ideas for books to follow this.
One will be a book of my guitars. Again, that one is going to be just for me, not for chasing sales.

11th March 2019:
Available here until it's not.

Today I published my memior, 'A glittering career in music'. I wrote it for our children. It's my life up to now. We all have our stories and it's a shame that most people don't write them down. Even though the book will be taken out of print on March 31st at 11.59pm, this book will be there when I am long gone. My grandchildren will be able to read it. It's NOT an ego trip, as I have said before.

I pressed the 'publish' button with quite some nervousness. I have told tales. I have settled scores. I have recalled what an utter farce Universal Credit was when it started, when it was actually born in a dysfunctional office that I worked in. I have had some laughs along the way and have laid myself bare on the odd occasion. Names of old bands and ex-bandmates have had to be changed in some cases. I wasn't going to miss these people out and stupidity on both sides - sometimes theirs and sometimes mine - is revealed.

I will definitely breathe a sigh of relief when the book is finally taken off sale. I am not particularly interested in the sales. They are irrelevant. Sales are not what this book was all about.

Available here until it's not.
When it's gone, it's gone and I will be able to breathe a sigh of relief.

Saturday 16th March 2019:
Blow up yer granny:

Steve Aldous reminded me of a tale that didn't make it into my book. It's quite a good one, so here it is, in a sort of abridged, hurried form...

BLOW UP YOUR GRANNY.

I always had to be careful whereabouts I stood on stage with Bad Habits. If it wasn’t Ian McSherry doing a dervish round the stage, being entertaining and threatening to throw his back out, or clonk me with his guitar, as he ran past me about three times a minute, then it was Ken and his explosives.

Explosives.

Yes, you heard that right. Explosives. Ken was very fond of pyrotechnics. Loud ones. They accompanied our brand of mighty rock and usually went boom in a quite convincing manner at a strategic point and once took part of Lynda’s pub ceiling down, which was quite embarrassing, as Ian Mc had to hand a piece of ceiling over the bar to Lynda, with a muttered “sorry…..”

On one particular night, we had been booked by Brian, the landlord at The Starkie Arms in Heywood – the only venue ever to have a Christmas tree take up the whole stage when we arrived to set up. Brian quite liked Bad Habits and booked us to play in the grand ballroom, upstairs at the Pack Horse Hotel in Bolton.

It was UP STAIRS, too. No lift. But I digress.

If I was to watch the videotape of the evening’s performance, I would now see four much younger men, with better quality hair, playing 80’s rock songs with a degree of vim and vigour… and those bloody pyrotechnics. As we were on a big stage, in a ballroom, Ken had loaded the canister up with a fairly lethal dose of whatever it was that went boom and I kept as far away from it as possible.

We were about to start ‘You give love a bad name’ and Ian warned the audience that “the next song goes with a bang…… heh heh.” Small children were shepherded away from the stage and off we went into the song.

“Shot through the heart and you’re to blame… You give love a bad name”
BOOOOOOOOM!!!!
Into the song.

Pure pomp rock. Riff, riff, riff. Shake that hair. I am wearing a purple wig. Ian is wearing a black wig that often went off into crowds and could by now walk round a room by itself. It was really minging. Ken had a Tina Turner wig on, behind his drums and Steve on keyboards had a sort of blue-rinse Phyllis Pearse from Corrie curly wig.

The head-shaking stopped as we heard a commotion down the hall. On the tape, Ian prowls the stage, playing mighty riffs and his head pops up like a meerkat, looking off into the distance and darkness. A look of confusion crosses his face. He motions us to stop playing by moving his hand across his throat. I think his voice must have gone, but he stops playing guitar. He puts it down and jumps off the stage and heads off-camera, to the back of the room. We shamble to a halt and look on, bewildered.

The tape rolls on. I stand there squinting through the stage lights, finding it difficult to see what is occurring, but there’s a small commotion and a crowd forming at the back of the room. I hear voices, but nothing is clear. After a minute, Ian comes back on screen and talks to us.

An old lady, in a wheelchair, at the back of the room, was so shocked by the explosion, that she jerked in her chair and went over onto her back. She told Ian in a sort of anguished Polish accent that “I thought I was back in the war…”

Ken removes the canister which contained the explosive from sight. You have to laugh. It’s a bit late now.

The tape stops, but we re-start about ten minutes later and all concerned have a jolly evening. The tape is copied between us and is put in a mock art sleeve and the show is titled “BLOW UP YOUR GRANNY”.

The pyrotechnics didn’t see a lot more outings. They were a pain in the arse to set up for Ken and you couldn’t use them safely in small pubs.

The moral of this tale?
Don’t try this at home kids.

19th March 2019:
Phew:

The memoir book gets deleted shortly. Sales are exactly as low as I originally wanted them to be - or maybe slightly up from that. I was not interested in making any money from it and I will be glad to delete the book.

23rd March 2019:
JJ:

Listening to lots of JOE JACKSON right now. Still.

The book is still available on Amazon for the time being, as people have started to buy it and I am not totally averse to money at this point in my career. It will be removed on the 31st.

31st March 2019:
Gone, gone, gone:

Well, the book has now gone from Amazon. Thank God. I removed it later than I originally planned to, as a couple of people asked me to leave it up until pay day, so they could order. I did and now it's gone. My original intended audience have got it, anyone else was a bonus.

Writing a book about yourself seemed like a bit of a conceit to me - I have always thought WHY do it unless you have 'made it big' in some way? I don't think I have. I don't even particularly think I am that interesting. I had specific motives for doing mine and as I have said, it was written for a few people who have all been given a copy. Whether they will even read it or not anytime soon is totally up to them. Probably they will root it out when I am gone (hopefully many years from now).

What did you miss if you didn't buy it?
Ask someone who bought it.

18th April 2019:  
Not much:

I haven't forgotten to blog, but there hasn't been lots to write about.
A couple of new-to-me guitars. Lynda has a date for her first heart operation in June.
She needs two operations.

21st April 2019:
A statement:

A STATEMENT

"I have taken the decision to step down as an admin of the SLADE Facebook group page.

Along with another person, I was brought in a few years ago to bring some order and knowledge to the group.
At the time there were (with our addition) five admins.

#One was the founder of the page who had not visited the page for some years.
#Two was ineffective.
#Three, who asked myself and another person to become admins, was struggling in a number of ways, and so he needed some assistance in the group.

I became #Four and another person became #Five.

#Three had previously asked to merge my Slade forum with his own forum, as his kept breaking down and was totally problematic. I declined his kind offer of his effectively taking over my perfectly-working forum, as I saw absolutely no need to re-badge it, or hand over any control.

As time went by, it became apparent that only the two most recent admins were going to do anything.
#Two left the group.
The founder, #One, stayed invisible and #Three remained inactive.

A couple of years ago, there was a kerfuffle about the rules that were put in place to protect members and to instill common courtesy and to deter drunken keyboard warriors. #Three read a couple of complaints from the type of people who simply HAVE TO object to a group having any rules and then started to undermine the two new admins, who were effectively keeping order, by asking members if the rules should go. At which point, I saw things sliding back into the swamp and so, the group members were consulted to vote either for or against each rule and all of the rules were retained by a massive majority (all about 97-98% of each vote).

The thorny subject of rules raised its head again, earlier this year and I ran the vote on the invididual rules once again, to let the members decide if they wanted to keep the rules or not. They were all kept, unamended, with whacking great majorities. The members decided.

Admin #Three didn't get involved in this and maintained a low profile. He did not read the group consistently,.

In this last couple of weeks, some people (almost predictably) started kicking up about there being rules again and the other newest admin and myself gave notice to quit as Admins in the group. One of us was actually getting threats and we were both insulted and sent abuse.

Admin #Three decided to ask people if they wanted to relax the group rules as he thought they were 'a bit harsh' and were causing a bit of grumbling. This angered me intensely. I had sorted the rules out and had consulted everyone, so that everyone was happy and then Admin #Three caught a whiff of a grumble and started posting and in effect blamed us for whatever nastiness took place.

At which point, I consulted with the other newer admin and we stepped down as Admins immediately. #Three could do it. Since that point, we have been begged to return, but we will not. Ordinary membership has its perks. It is great not to have any responsibility or abuse chucked at us. #Five has left the group, as it has taken a toll on him. Imagine a Facebook group about a dead pop group, populated by a small number of trolls sending someone into such a low way. It is not called for.

Admin #Three accused us of a couple of things and I have personally asked to see a single example of my speaking to any group member like a child. He does not respond to this - as he can't find one. I object strongly to his blaming the admins for doing admin duties and then also his caving in to the trolls, after he has read comments from a few troublemakers, objecting to the most uncontroversial set of rules that you could imagine.

We will not return as admins.

In a poor and shabby display of utter pettiness, #One removed #Five from the group. #Five had given notice to leave the group and was saying his goodbyes to friends, but was removed a day early, with no consultation or thanks..

The Slade Facebook Page has sometimes been a very difficult place to be an ordinary member of, but it is an appalling place to be an Admin of.

I would like to close by thanking members of the forum at www.sladeforum.co.uk for my never having to raise my voice, or stamp my feet, except with one individual who is banned from just about every Slade and Film site on the internet."

29th April 2019:
Filthy lucre:

I know I said it was gone, but for reasons that totally elude me, that may be connected to money, I have put my memoir back up on sale on Amazon until May 7th. After that it is REALLY gone for good. Never to return.

I had a couple of let downs for the mates rates books, so have a couple of spares, which I am not deadly concerned about selling.

Also, last night's jam night was eventful. I was timekeeper and a few people got hacked off at how long 20 minutes is. This led to a long messenger conversation with two extremely disgruntled individuals. I am getting totally fed up of the awkwardness of enforcing the totally necessary timekeeping aspect of the jam night.

Now we have clarified that a 20 minute spot is a 20 minute spot and that we have to time it, one is more conciliatory and we are OK. The other is barred. We don't need his psychodrama every week and his behaviour, which could lose a venue its licence.

9th May 2019:
Accusation, Competence and Immorality:

Pub landlords have got on my wick a bit recently.

Accusation
I got a message from a venue asking if a couple of their mic stands had 'found their way into our van'.
They didn't.
I am still cooling down after that insult.
I was very careful not to vent my anger at the question.

Competence
One local landlady had two diaries and - of course - WE lost out.
Why US?
We booked the dates last year.
We had two options for replacing the date and had it replaced the next day, but that's not the point.
If a venue cancels us and it is not for a very good reason, we bin them off.
And local bands DO talk amongst themselves.

Immorality
Another somewhat gifted local landlady rang me up at home last week. She apparently knew nothing of a date we had got booked there. I remind her that it was her husband's birthday bash and that when we were booking it, the last time we played there, I placed her right on the spot at the time of making the booking - and added that she quite pointedly beat us down on our normal price. A short confused silence followed, then she suddenly remembered the conversation and got down to the important business... .

"How much did I beat you down to?" she asks.
"£15 off our normal fee", I say.
(Smug grin of her achievement at the expense of a band comes quite clearly down the phone line).
"Oh yes, that's OK," she purrs."But you are on again later in the month?"
"Your husband said that wouldn't be a problem.."
All sorted. Posters dropped off.
She gloried in beating us down by £15 and was floating around the pub on a little fluffy pink cloud of achievement.

On the day of the gig, she actually tried to underpay us by ten pounds.

I told the others that it would happen.
I expected it and she didn't fail to disappoint me.
Trying to con us out of ten pounds. How bloody cheap is that?
It leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

15th May 2019:
STAR LETTER!!!

A local 'expert' writes - via Facebook Messenger.
Thanks for your time.

27th May 2019:
Smoke and mirrors:

We played in Padiham the other week. Nice little venue, but there was a table in front of the stage with four people at it, all vaping. It stank. They thought our stage lights were rather funky, so they blew smoke at us. I waved to them to stop doing it. It was starting to cut my voice out. They saw me do it. They carried on. I stopped playing and shouted "for fuck's sake" at them. They looked a little shocked, and then I carried on playing. They started again. We reached the end of a song and I told the band I wanted to stop playing. Graham told the smokers that it was badly affecting my voice.

We started again. They started again.

After we finished the next song, I put my bass down and went offstage to the gents to breathe a bit of cold air. A woman at the table came over to apologise to me. The guy opposite her was seemingly enjoying my distress. H ewould have enjoyed my fist in his face if we had had to carry on for longer.

I asked the landlord about this and he said it wasn't illegal to vape in pubs. Obviously, it might affect his takings, so it's hard luck for the health and safety of his customers and any performers in his venue. I had a good mind to ask for the accident book, but the damage was done and I know to be extremely firm next time we are there. No vaping, or no band. I'm not being soft about this - I have had to cancel a few gigs because of this, this year, after being hit by a smoke machine.

My voice hasn''t been right since then. I got through the jam night the night after (just) and then this weekend's gigs have been quite uncomfortable, voice-wise. I couldn't hit some notes at all, or if I did my voice just cracked. At least Saturday night's venue had a NO SMOKING OR VAPING indoors sign on each of their doors.

6th June 2019:
Competence and Conceit:
I have just has two very annoying things happen, after a very nice lunch today with three friends:

Competence
A landlady at a local pub has rang me, complaining that she thinks we are booked at her venue on Saturday, when we are not. We are booked elsewhere. I have previously set her straight over a date conflict between the same two venues and supplied her with all of our correct dates (See May 9th). That information appears to have fallen by the wayside.

Last time I spoke to her, I gave her next year's dates, as she cancelled us on Aug 31st, as her venues has - AHEM - been running TWO diaries and - despite us being in the diary nice and early, AND HAVING ONCE AGAIN CONFIRMED THE DATES, we were cancelled - so we are NOT BACK THERE UNTIL DECEMBER. I have copied my text to her, explaining all of this, to the owner of the pub as well.

Conceit
Also, a drummer who I used to work with years ago, has been in touch with me, asking about a copy of my memoir. He went very strange and snotty on me a few years ago, as he is "AN INTERNATIONALLY RENOWNED BLUES DRUMMER," or words to that effect, and he decided that his name and image should be removed from my Youtube, Facebook, websites and indeed my memory. I disappeared from his reconstituted website, along with anything we had done together.

As he had been a mate, I used to host his website for free and did all upkeep exactly as per his wishes. He then decided to pay somebody for doing it and they now do a comparatively defective job, but never mind. He now is asking me about the book. No doubt so that he can see if he's in it.

Well, he can fuck right off.
It is my story, not his.

All of the copies of the book, bar one have sold and I have now unpublished it. I have one other copy which I am going to arrange to deliver to our friend Sandra next week.

He has a bloody nerve asking me about it, when he has asked me to remove his name from here there and everywhere. He is the one who threw up in the pond outside Soundlab studio, earning us a ban and leading to his eventual sacking. His name is NOT in the book. Nor my phone, not my life.

8th June 2019:
THINGS THAT PLEASE ME NO END

8th June 2019:
And I liked it...

30th June 2019:
'Realising your place in the scheme of things'

Last night we played to a fairly lively and occasionally involved crowd at a pub in Heywood. We've played there before and have always gone down rather well. The crowd last night were certainly not there to see us, but they danced to our songs, whooped and sang along and quite oddly, when we stopped playing each song - silence. It was baffling. Really really baffling. We were going down great guns and people were playing air guitars and running across the front of us. They knew a lot of the songs, but whenever we stopped playing - silence.

One woman clapped at the very end, because we did a couple of requests for her. Other than her - silence. Not even a polite ripple. It was almost like a conspiracy. Have the younger people of Heywood never seen a band? Do they not know what normally happens at a gig in the real world?

The lads were mainly there to get drunk and then to find some drunk girls to shag (as one of them charmingly put it, voiding his bladder, while still holding a beer in one hand, stood next to me in the gents - tip of the week - always wait til you get to the urinals before letting go) and, being blind drunk, to then not manage to remember a thing afterwards.

The girls were there to get drunk and wear their highest heels and to get pulled, or to simply have a nice night out with their mates and to totally avoid being pulled. We were providing the loud and inadvertent soundtrack to their mating rituals. While they definitely listened to us, every pause was probably an opportunity for them to try to pull the girls, so they ignored the hell out of us.

The pub is right at the end of a long-ish pub crawl and probably the last stop before a nightclub, or some convenient bushes, shop doorways or some equally convenient nearby bus shelters for the aforementioned shagging.

A couple of the young gentlemen even decided that it was too much effort to go back in to find the gents and sprang leaks against the wall at the side of the pub front door, while we were packing up and while women were waiting for taxis, just a few feet away. Where's a Policeman when you need one? Confused...

6th July 2019:
I needed that.

Last night we played a gig at the Flying Horse in Rochdale. Rochdale used to be a bit of a stronghold for my guitarist (who lived there for 20 years) and myself. There were masses of venues, both in the town centre and in the surrounding areas. Then a load of venues either closed, fell down or were demolished. I managed to score us a gig at one of the few remaining venues.

We turned up at 8.20pm and were told that the stage are wouldn't be cleared of punters until 9pm. So I went and sat in the car and struggled with finding something decent to listen to on the radio. It was nearly 9.30 when we managed to load in and start setting up. I was already a bit knackered by this point, but I soldiered on.

The venue assembled a raised stage in a corner and the place filled up nicely. Lots of people came along that we knew. We ended up going on at 10.45pm. The first half went down realy really well and we did about an hour. A very short break and we inevitably lost some punters, as it was now getting late. We were due to finish at 1am, so we went back on at midnight. It's always great to play to people who haven't seen the band, as you can make them have it in a way that you can't in places that you visit regularly.

The second half was more glam based than the first half and also went down really well. Our mate Donna got up with us for one song at the very end.

I got home some time after 2am and was up going on for noon today. Weekends are tiring.

9th July 2019:
The Great Escape:

I'm giving Facebook and Messenger a break for a while. Out of neccessity. Other things to do. If you message me that way, I may not see it for some time. It's quite liberating to be away from other people who just post what colour their lunch is and expect you to applaud it. Seriously though, I am behind with things.

I have a number of things I need to do this year....
More on those shortly.
More college.
More Slade stuff.

Oh by the way, the rest of our weekend was very good, gig-wise.

16th July 2019:
Ho-hum.

A weekend off from the band, apart from the jam night. On the Friday, I went to watch KISS in Manchester and they were extraordinary. Their stage show is the best thing I have ever seen on a stage. Musically not the best, but they played superbly. I don't think I blinked throughout the whole show.

:

Thank God for the back-projection screens.

On Saturday, I went along to the annual LukeFest in Kearsley. We weren't playing, due to band holidays, but I still went along to support the event. Lynda was feeling a lot better, so she met up with some friends. We cam back for our evening meal and I promptly fell asleep after that and didn't go back for the two bands that I intended to go to see.

Sunday was the jam night and I got to try out my new camera on some of the other players.

More jam night photos from 2019 on Facebook

23rd July 2019:
Tricks and Treats.

On Sunday morning I set off for Glasgow to go watch my favourite band, Cheap Trick. They played The Ramblin' Man Fair festival on Saturday and one of the conditions for them doing that show, is that they can't play any other English shows that year. Knowing that Glasgow was the only chance to see them, I booked a ticket, got a cheap hotel, close to the venue and booked advance rail tickets that were unbelievably cheap, as long as I traveled on specific trains from Preston to Glasgow.

It meant me handing over bass duties at our Sunday jam, but I am not a total slave to my job. If it had been a regular gig, I'd have been stuffed. But the jam can be handed over. So I did.

Knackered from the Saturday night gig with my band I got a bus into Bolton and was at the railway station for a little after 10am. The train for Preston left shortly afterwards and I was sat on it. I had a nice wait at Preston but the Glasgow train sailed in right on time and nobody was sat in my pre-reserved seat. All good so far.

On landing in Glasgow, I first found the venue and satisfied myself that I'd be able to get back to it easily enough, then went back to my hotel, at check in time. My room key was a sort of smartcard device and would it work for me? No. Back down to reception. My room was serviceable enough. There was a bit of hanging around to do and I watched a Harry Potter film for a while. At about 6.15 I sloped off to the venue. I got a sandwich on the way to fill up.

I met a few people I knew outside the venue. One chap had fown over from Germany. Dedication.

The support band, Anchor Lane, suffered from an inferior room sound, though they played an enthusiastic and skilled set. Their lead guitarist decided it was all about him and stood teetering on the front of the stage all evening, forward of the monitors. Unfortunately, the stage lights were not on him there. Object lesson. Stay where you can be seen. They played some meloodic and energetic stuff and I'd love to hear more from them.

But it was Cheap Trick that I went to see... Were they great? Yes they were. The room sound was a bit naff for them too, but they rose above it and played a blistering set, with practically all of the best songs you'd dream of them playing.

As I made my way out, at the end of the night, I went to the merch stall, where the support band were supposed to be hanging out and signing things. They were possibly hanging out backstage and they maybe lost a lot of sales as a result.

My train journey home was unspeakable. My scheduled train was cancelled, but I managed to get a slightly earlier one, which ended up reaching Preston more than two hours later than it should have, which sent my wife utterly histrionic - telling me that my tea was in the dog - and stressed me out to the nth degree. She decided the trip wasn't worth it. I decided that it was.

August 9th 2019:

Catch up time.
What's been going on?
Surprisingly, not a lot. I've been gigging, getting realy exhausted and building flatpack furniture and getting exhausted again. Very rock and roll.

Chris and I have announced a special limited edition updated Convention edition of our book THE NOIZE. It will only be available for  collection at the Convention after being ordered in advance. The cover is brilliant and we are not showing it in advance of the day. People want to see the cover, but it is being unveiled when the first person collects their copy. Extra exclusive content on some other releases is being added and the book is having adjustments to the text and layout. We are selling it for less than the Amazon RRP.

I have been thinking about what to do next, book-wise. I seem to have lost some enthusiasm for recycling the Slade live photo collection, but will probably do it early next year.

I am considering the idea of another rock discography book at present, for publication at some point next year. The band I am thinking of writing about have been well and truly covered book-wise, but as far as lavishly illustrated disographies go, they have been totally neglected in recent years.

I have been buying camera equipment in advance of my photography course which starts in September. A Nikon camera and a pair of additional lenses, plus filters, a battery grip , memory card, spare batteries, carry bag, Dummies book. Phew.

Yesterday was the first anniversary of our little mate Margaret's passing away. Lynda was fragile all day and I avoided mentioning it to her. Our newest cat, Edward, was supervising the flat pack assembly and I commented on how Marg would have loved him. We had a smile at that.

I put an extract from my own book on the front of this website as a background image. It goes to the main page quite quickly, so here's the text.

It didn't end well...

August 25th 2019:
When the last note is played...

This weekend I literally pulled myself out of the house to play on the Saturday. I usually am like a coiled spring waiting to get out and get to it, but I hadn't been well all week. My throat had been a real mess, I was coughing up things that stood a fairly good chance in a fight with Doctor Who and sneezing all night and I was really uncomfortable. I had a semblance of a voice on the Saturday morning, so we didn't cancel. I didn't even tell the band all week how utterly sick and dreadful I was feeling all week, nor at the gig. I struggled through the gig and missed a lot of notes as my voice would crack and give up on the way to them. The punters didn't seem to notice or care.

There would some quite pointed complaints from our guitarist, Ian,about my bass volume in the second half, which doesn't seem excessive on the bits of video I have seen - but he certainly isn't saying it for effect. It looks like there is a problem.

I was quite upset about this and it was the straw that broke the camel's back for my confidence in my hearing. I am obviously not hearing things properly if my bass is 'taking over'. My hearing is quite damaged. I have tinnitus and my ears whistle all the time. Should I carry on doing this if I am not hearing what the overall sound balance is like? If I don't get 'my sound' (the appropriate tone for my playing that makes me happy) from my amplifier without it being too loud, then it's maybe really time I stopped doing this.

September 2nd 2019:
Peace at last.

After all of last week's angst, I took a deep breath and got on with it, because we had a gig to do and a jam night to run this week. I approached it in much better health than last week, though my throat is still not quite right. I was so ill last week that I didn't really cope at the gig.

I have fully accepted that my bass sound was causing problems on stage and worked to get a more trebly, less boomy sound that I could live with. It had to cut through at a lower volume. My playing style stops the type of trebly click that Graham, our drummer, would like to be there all the time, but I am not going to stop playing bass how I play, as well as doctoring my sound.

This weekend's gig and jam night went well. I used an acoustic bass for part of the jam (we have a project that we are working on for gigging) and that sounded wonderful, so it's going to get taken out to some of our regular gigs too. I have kept my eye on my settings and I just need to make sure that they stay fairly constant.

Onward.

September 20th 2019:
Literary ambitions and how to avoid them

The book THE NOIZE is getting a special limited edition, signed and updated version made available to fans at The 2019 Slade Fan Convention at the Slade Rooms, Wolverhampton on October 19th. It is available by pre-order. Instructions to order at www.slayed.co.uk

I am currently getting stuck into restoring images for SLADE: SIX YEARS ON THE ROAD, to have it ready for November.

The work is stalled on my detailed illustrated discography of The Who at the moment, as I have too much else going on and it seems more and more like a really mammoth daunting task. It will get easier when I sit down and make a determined start on it and get into a few proper writing sessions.

5th October 2019:
Look look.

I had been saying that I would reissue my photo books, all collected into one affordable volume, on Amazon.
Here it is... at last. You can order it here , if you feel that way inclined.

22nd October 2019:
A month onwards.

I've left the blog alone for a while, as I have been getting things done. We published a limited edition 100-copy special edition of THE NOIZE with some extra release information in it and I was able to present that, plus my new 'Slade: Six years on the road' photo book to Don Powell at the 2019 Convention. He was astonished at the detail in THE NOIZE and loved the look of the photo book.

Frank Lea (Jim Lea's brother) briefly attended the convention, but avoided Chris and myself, or was kept away from us, so I sold Jim Lea's copy of the photo book to a fan.

In other news, I am (startlingly, perhaps) no longer a member of The Slade Facebook Group, which I used to be an admin of. My heinous crime, that led to my expulsion? Annoying another admin by posting adverts for a Slade book that he doesn't own, months after its release and I have also been accused of the sin of sarcasm. Dear God, if you can look at that group without using some sarcasm, you are the walking dead.

Nigel, who brought me in as an Admin, was the same one that chucked me out. Previously, he had tried to partner up with me, in running the existing Slade Forum, as his Slade in Wales forum kept breaking down. I politely declined his offer to move in and start taking any credit for my hard work and to start ballsing things up. I politely told him to go and make a forum of his own that worked properly.

What I find the funniest about my sudden expulsion by Nigel is that, along with Mark F Tully, I was brought in as an group admin by him to calm some of the horrific silliness down, bring in some rules and be the sherriff who cleaned up the horseshit in the group, as he couldn't cope with it all. He occasionally loses the plot and does rather daft things, like raging at his fellow admins and at members. Those posts are there to see.

When the deviant voters in the group started to revolt at the idea of it having any rules - even though they were accepted by 98% in member polls - and chose to bug Nigel about them, he got a bit stressed out. Instead of backing the admins, he caved in and the loudest voices won. I resigned as an admin, as I was sick of the thankless task and of being undermined and stabbed in my back, while trying to help him deal with the people who were moaning at him. It wasn't an admin team. it was a mental hospital ward.

Mark had previously been kicked out by the group owner - the mysterious and 100% absent Frode - for making wordy explanations to the mentally infirm, so they understood things more clearly, thereby winding them up in the process by unintentionally making them feel stupid. They just were...

Mark was bullied and threatened while he was there and we both talked of leaving. neither of us needed that kind of shit. This was back in April. When Mark was removed, I got an abusive messenger message from some utter cock who obviously thought he had achieved something by sending me some abuse. A bit uncalled for, really. This is the kind of mental giant we were dealing with. Enjoy.

I had only instituted that set of specific rules - at Nigel's request - to address some really specific problematic issues and I even held member votes on them - several times - to ensure they were still agreed and accepted by the group members. They were. Both times.

I find it laughable that Nigel said to me that I was 'breaking the rules' by advertising my Convention edition of the NOIZE book on the group. I wrote the rules, not him and I actually understood them and knew perfectly well that Rule 4 clearly stated that sellers could link to adverts on sites with buyer protection (eg Amazon and Ebay).

Nigel said he would talk to Frode (the invisible group owner) and get that rule amended or removed, so I would therefore then be seen to have broken it. No admin is more important than any member. Except two of them, who are still there.

A bit of a furore kicked up after my removal and I was sent the odd screengrab and I got a lot of new friend requests, but all group debate was removed by Derek, the other admin, who was by now firefighting and keeping the peace there, and zapping any posts about my sacking, so that Nigel didn't see them and have some sort of further breakdown about it. By removing those posts and Nigel's comments to AJ Birch, my evidence was removed, so members couldn't see what was going on.

Fortunately and rather amusingly, I have the screen grabs of him denying he had kicked me out, then - quite hilariously - one of his other multiple personalities barged in and admitted to it. I also have Admin confirmation that Nigel threw me out.

Derek is a lovely guy and he has done his level best to calm Nigel down. It has got to the point of Nigel inviting me back to the group and saying he would leave my posts alone. I responded saying that I'd really rather not. Derek then made me a further tempting offer, involving Admin responsibilities, but I said that a break would do me good and declined finding my boxing gloves and dealing with all of the foolishness again. Nigel can have all that..... Not that he does the admin work.

A group where admins misuse rules against other admins and then even want to remove thoserules to get rid of other admins, or members is not a safe place to be. The bullying on there is horrific. Someone as vulnerable as Nigel should realise that and behave a lot better than he does himself....

It has been pointed out to me that, with my website, forum and books and many other things, like work with Slade's record companies on their new and archive releases and also their solo releases, that I have "probably done more in the cause of promoting Slade than any other member there". Maybe, maybe not. Such things don't count when the mob get involved. Their credibility suffers immensely, but who on Facebook has any credibility anyway?

Motto: I wouldn't join any club that would have me as a member.

It was suggested that I set up a REAL SLADE FANS FACEBOOK GROUP. Nothing on Earth would induce me to even start to think of doing so. There are far too many Facebook groups, devoted to Slade. They could all do with being merged into one and admined by someone suitable, who was elected to do so. I do not volunteer for controlling the loonies.

Derek would comment further afterwards: "Yes, I found out that Ian had been ejected, so what can I add? It was a very trying and miserable task being caught in the middle and trying to sort things out. I see it as a stupid mistake made in the heat of anger, but who amongst us has never said or done something that they shouldn't have in the heat of anger. Also, I have yet to meet the person who has never told a lie. But, it is very uncomfortable to be the victim of a lie, as I also know from experience and such a relief when the truth finally comes to light. However, I do believe that the best course of action to now take over this incident is to draw a line underneath it and start afresh. John Derek Pitt."

I am currently working on another music book, so the detailed discography of The Who that I was getting ready to start on remains on the back burner at present, as it is still a massive and daunting task. There will be lots of research involved and it's going to be very hard work. It's 50/50 as to whether it will happen at the moment, but I do intend to buckle down and return to the project. It has been suggested that I take on lucrative discographies of a couple of other bands on, but I don't have the enthusiasm for that work. If I don't feel it, it's not worth doing.

The band has been very busy. We are currently doing three nights work nearly every week. Next year will probably fill up, but there are lots of gaps at present. I'd like to get the band on at the Slade Convention next year, but I doubt the guys would want to travel and money does have to come into it for them.

It was my birthday yesterday and the day was marked by a far more special event. My step-grandson, Jamie Daniel Marriott.

28th October 2019:
Success!

One of our favourite landlords has booked the band for one Saturday every month next year and through 2021.
We also have New Years' Eve 2019, 2020 and 2021 booked at that venue.

17th November 2019: 
Overloaded

I have almost filled the band's diary for next year. Now I am looking at it with a degree of mute horror, as it looks like a whole lot of work. Some weekends off are built in, but not many. Working forward a further year, I have kept going back to the list and sticking more weekends off in. This all assumes that there is still a band then. Anything could happen, God forbid, but I calm myself down with this thought: well what else are you doing during the week, that weekends are seeming such a chore? All will be well, hopefully. I do get very tired and am slightly wreckage for a day or two after weekend.

26th November 2019:
It gets busier

We offered some dates to venues and those managers have still not got back to us, so those dates have been reclaimed and made available to all again. There are just 4 Saturdays left to fill, though I may declare an extra weekend off, as this schedule is quite punishing.

27th November 2019:
It gets busier

Three Saturdays left next year.

2nd December 2019:
Busier

Only one Saturday left next year, now. I'm choosing carefully who it goes to. I was hoping one of our favourite venues would have it, but the landlady there isn't responding to messages, but that's just how it goes, sometimes. We will probably give it to someone, during our next few gigs. Though, looking at next year's massive run of exertions, I am tempted to call it a weekend off.

12th December 2019:
Competition time

If you're visiting the site to look for the answers to the questions on the Slade forum, the name of my band is on the menu at the top of this page, my autobiography is in the bookshop (even if you can't buy it now), my surgery is on the cancer page and my 7" single can be found in my CV if you check out 'Disinformation'. Don't say I'm not helpful.

If you don't win a copy of SLADE: SIX YEARS ON THE ROAD, you can buy it here.
THE NOIZE - The Slade Discography is also available here.

Soon be Christmas...

24th December 2019:
Interrupted transmissions.

We had to cancel last Saturday's gig, as my voice packed up towards the end of Friday night's gig in Southport. I'm a bit fluey - voice dropping out, throat really sore and it just feels flakey and I am having  a bit of trouble swallowing - a lot of people's voices seem to be going.

I was 'benched' for the jam night on Sunday, so that my voice could recover for tonight. I did see the point of that, as my voice really wasn't working. Andy Worthington covered for me.

Last night, I let the venue for tonight's gig know that I was going to be unfit to play and that we were going to have to cancel the Adlington gig. I was as fed up as you can get over that.

I'm ill and I know that it's not really my fault, but I feel like I have let the venue and my bandmates down.
It would have been worse if I had tried to sing and failed. It would have been embarrassing and I would have set my recovery back again.

I've got a couple of years (at the most) of doing this left and I want to go out and gig as much as I can, while I can, so any setbacks like this really annoy me.

All entries text and images in this online diary are © Ian Edmundson

www.ianedmundson.co.uk