Las Vegas Carpets Unknown

Six degrees of Rock 'n' Roll

Thanks to Fred Dellar at Mojo here is a link to the "bandtoband" site. Find the common link between two bands through performing members. Couldn't make a link between Dusty Springfield and Roxy Music!

Carpets of Great Hotels

Carpet outside the Stomp theatre at the Aladdin/Planet Hollywood Hotel, Las Vegas
Carpet in the Snackalot area of the Grail Theatre at Wynn Las Vegas

Last Night coming back from Las Vegas

Continental 4:50PM flight, Seat 4B

British Airways Business LHR to JFK

Real Flowers in California

Fake Flowers in Las Vegas

London, land of the $80 pair of converse sneakers

Carpets of the great hotels of the world

Soho Hotel corridors

Millerton, NY

Carpet at McCarran Airport Las Vegas

Continental evening meal LAS to EWR Seat 9C

New York Groove

Time Out New York just did a special issue on the greatest New York musicians of all time. Of course designed to stir debate. They put together a fun collection of YouTube performances which you can see here.

Also a list of the 50 greatest songs by New York's best (according to them) can be linked to here.

Time Warp. Answer to May 20, 2007 quiz relating to Stephen King's 24 favorite Rock 'n' Roll tracks. This will make no sense, so don't even try, unless you have linked here.

The Sex Pistols (C'mon Everybody)

Nighthawks (Mystery Dance)

The Ramones (Needles and Pins)

The Cast of Oil City Symphony (In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida)

Patsy Cline (Stupid Cupid)

Peter Sellers (She Loves You)

Jan & Dean (I Get Around)

Cheap Trick (Don't Be Cruel)

Jerry Lee Lewis (Sixty Minute Man)

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (Needles and Pins)

Virgin Atlantic Breakfast LHR to JFK

London carpets

Room and corridor carpetting at the Montague Hotel, London

Aer Lingus coach dinner JFK to Shannon

IBR 1975 Page Six

This page represents one of the many reasons that Island was such a unique label.

All these records went on to sell more when they were released on other labels later! The Dylan albums were released on Asylum in the US after Bob Dylan had a falling out with CBS after they released the out-takes compilation "Dylan." David Geffen scooped him up for two records before Dylan returned to the loving arms of Columbia.

The first three Brian Eno "vocal" records marked an escape from his Roxy Music identity and his path to becoming the Kevin Bacon of the music industry. Everything in pop is six degrees from Eno. "Here Comes the Warm Jets" includes his thinly-veiled attack of former bandmate Bryan Ferry -- the song "Dead Finks Don't Talk" includes the verse:

"Oh you headless chicken
How those poor teeth take so much kicking?
You're always so charming
As you peck your way up there."

Guest musicians on "Warm Jets" include longtime collaborator Robert Fripp (King Crimson), Phil Manzanera, Andy Mackay and Paul Thompson, all from Roxy Music; John Wetton, sometime Roxy, UK, Asia, Yes, Crimson, etc. bass player; sometime Womble and Sex Pistols collaborator and guitarist Chris Spedding, along with various members of Hawkwind among others!

A very short clip of "Paw Paw Negro Blowtorch"

"Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy)" included contributions from Robert Wyatt, known from Soft Machine and Matching Mole, as well as for his interpretation of the Elvis Costello song "Ship Building;" (here performed on the "Old Grey Whistle Test") and Phil Collins (Genesis, Brand X) who might have being doing session work because he wasn't sure if the "Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" project was really ever going to get finished! Fun too was the inclusion of the Portsmouth Sinfonia, a classical music group made up of musicians assigned to instruments that they were not familiar with. (Here they play "Also Sprach Zarathustra").

Third time is a doozy! "Another Green World" is one of the great records of the 1970s. Released in November 1975 it marked the commercial transition of Eno's work into the ambient arena. (The title track is known in the UK as the theme music to the BBC arts series, "Arena"). John Cale (The Velvet Underground) joined the Eno players on this record.

An amateur video set to "St. Elmo's Fire."

Why the Internet is Wonderful

Ickmusic just reminded me about Viking Kittens. You cannot watch without cracking a smile. There are some more animated animals performing at the rathergood.com website.

Saving the Best for Last

Sylvia Miles is back from Cinecittta filming "Go Go Tales." Here is her fantastic holiday card.

Beatles moment

Here is the coming attraction for Julie Taymor's Acrosss the Universe.
Here is the website for The Beatles' Love.

Millerton, New York

Crowded House rebuilding

Happy news. Neil Finn and Nick Seymour are planning to work together again. AP story here.

Great new website here.

More Las Vegas Rugs

Downstairs bar at Wynn Las Vegas
In-room carpetting at the Hilton Grand Vacation Club on the Las Vegas Strip
Corridor carpetting at the HGV Club

Say Goodbye

The call letters for one of New York's greatest rock radio stations have gone. WNEW-FM 102.7 hasn't been a classic rock station for several years. This past week the station became WWFS Fresh FM.

Here's a story about the switch in the New York Daily News.

WNEW was huge in the 1970s. There was also a sister station WNEW-AM which was the only station in New York playing standards that served a very distinct niche that has not been replaced.

Here's a story about WNEW-FM closing down in 2003 on CNN.

WNEW-FM put out a box set for their 25th Anniversary which pretty much sums up the kind of music they used to play. Amazon link and here is the WNEW Firecracker 500 from 1996.

I'm not sure who you are, but you look familiar

Here's a relatively tough picture quiz. A tiny bit of an album sleeve. You have to identify the artist and the name of the album. I found it quite easy to do nearly all the artists. Names of albums tougher. I guess artists brand themselves which makes it easier. Brought to you by our good friends at Capital Radio. "Well, this is 194, how are ya?"

Click HERE for joy, and a little frustration.

How to fold a t-shirt

Rock 'n' Roll remembers

Things blurred in the late 1970s and early 80s. I spent much time at Hurrah in the West 60s in New York City where many fine bands performed in a low-ceilinged space which was located in what felt like someone's windowless loft. Next door was the Coliseum -- the car show was a big deal there before the Convention Center was built -- now it's the Mandarin Hotel, Whole Foods and some of the most expensive restaurants in the world. Since I worked nearby at Lincoln Center -- or at least a block away -- I would often get there early because there wasn't anything to do in the neighborhood. So early, that I would be at the soundcheck. Aside: do not be tempted by the recently released "Live at Harrah" DVD. Even if your favorite band of all time is listed on there, you will be majorly disappointed. It SUX. So back to the pictures. Brother Marc may have taken this picture of Tina Weymouth -- heart be still, but she wasn't there (at Hurrah, I mean). I really, definitely, took the photo of Peter Perrett from The Only Ones. Alot of folks think they were marvy, just the bees-so-wonderful. Actually, they were quite smacked out faboo drone and really had one, yes one and only one, hit record -- Another Girl Another Planet. And it was into the haze from there. Love 'em. Meanwhile, Talking Heads played their first ever gig in England at the Rock Garden in Covent Garden. Tanya Hyde and the Tormenters opened and Tina hid behind a speaker stack for the whole show -- alot of information in a dysfunctional sentence! Those pictures to follow. John Cale and Brian Eno were in the audience and were jockeying for the chance to produce the next big thing -- The Heads. I guess that's what they were doing. I asked them to sign the only piece of paper I had on me. I clarify, I begged for an autograph from each deity. Somewhere I have a torn out NME crossword puzzle with their signatures in the margin. Keep checking eBay -- when I find it, you will see it there. There is no obvious connection between Peter Perrett and Tina Weymouth. It just amused me that they both seem to have the same hairdo.

Say Goodbye

Longtime New York City populist independent bookstore Coliseum Books closed this weekend. Having moved from 57th Street and Broadway a couple of years ago to 42nd Street opposite Bryant Park, it was a valuable resource. An Associated Press story can be read here.

Meanwhile in London the on-again, off-again Theatre Museum in Covent Garden has finally closed. It was always a little dusty and a little subterreanean, but it was a good thing that isn't any more. Here's a reference in Mark Shenton's Stage blog.

TriBeCa New York Evening

TriBeCa New York