The Saturday List #400 - The ten best moments of my life (excluding the family and naughty bits etc!)

 When I started this series, I thought that maybe, I'd do a couple of dozen. To get to 400 is pretty amazing. I enjoy putting these together, it's a bit of fun. It gives me something to focus on for the week as I plan it. Some lists are weeks or months in the planning, requiring pictures and research. Some are slightly easier. I had planned a very different list, but yesterday I attended a double funeral. It was for the parents of one of my best mates, who both passed away unexpectedly at the turn of the year. The celebrant give a wonderful eulogy about embracing life. It inspired me, so I have shelved the planned list until list 500, which is something to look forward to, sometime in 2025 if we are all still here!

I got thinking about life. What are the best moments. I'm not going to include my first kiss, the birth of my kids, daughters graduation, etc, they are wonderful but are also private. These are moments shared and I hope in some way inspiring, they certainly inspired me.

1. The Ramones at the Roundhouse on the 6th June 1977. I've written about this many times. I was a lost soul and music gave me a reason and a purpose. I despair to think what my life would be like, without this absolutely pivotal moment.

2. Manchester City winning the 1999 tier 3 play off final at Wembley in 1999. I've had some wonderful moments at football. I support Manchester City and the absolute low point was 1998, when they were relegated to the third tier of the football pyramid, what is now called League one. They were absolute rubbish at the start of the 1998/99 campaign. Somehow, they got their act together and ended up in the play off final against Gillingham. You couldn't get tickets for love nor money. I eventually got two from a dodgy tout, for a silly amount of money. I genuinely thought it may be the last time I'd see City at Wembley. I was in the Gillingham end. I took my nine year old nephew Alex. In the 89th minute, City were 2-0 down and I was devastated. Somehow, they scored two goals, survived extra time and ended up winning on penalties, thanks to Nicky Weaver. I've seen them win FA and League Cups since, watched last minute Premier League triumphs on TV, but nothing will ever top that, as I genuinely felt the club would die if they lost. I doubt they'd be where they are now. Half way through extra time, Alex said to my Uncle Roger, I feel ill, my heart is beating too fast. I replied "It's called excitement son, that's why we watch football".

3. Traversing the Settle to Carlise railway in the th snow in 2018 with my good lady. Over the last few years, myself and the missus have got into the habit of having a special day out on luxury train once a year. This started when we saw one going from Mill Hill Broadway to Bristol, where my brother lives. It was a lovely day. A champagne breakfast and a five course dinner, on a comfy train, with a nice destination for a few hours walk around. It isn't cheap, but it is fun. In March 2018, during the beast from the east. We chose the Settle to Carlisle journey that year. The train set out in bright sunshine, but as we travelled north, blizzards hit. At Carlisle, the electric engine was swapped for a steam engine for the trip over Englands most scenic railway line. Seeing the dales and hills in the snow was magical, sharing it with a special person was a cherry on the cake. I made a little video of it. 

4.The False Dots at Dingwalls, 1984. I've had many great moments playing with my band. I really struggled to pick one, so I'll pick two, both great for totally different reasons. Our gig in February 1984 at Dingwalls was amazing. The band was at the absolute peak of its powers. Our singer, Vennessa Sagoe was a force of nature. It was our biggest London gig and Dingwalls was packed.

 We absolutely nailed it and got offered a management contract as a result. Sadly, it all fell apart from there. The manager was only interested in Venessa and she was not interested in him. But the moment was the highlight of our incarntion as young wannabees.

5. The False Dots at The Dublin Castle, November 2022. In 1990, I disbanded the band and they stayed disbanded until 2000. We have had various incarnations since and done some brilliant gigs. During lockdown, I took over the role of singer, something I'd never even contemplated singing before. It was meant to be a temporary thing during lockdown, so we could write songs, but I found that I enjoyed it.  In November, we did a gig at The Dublin Castle. It was brilliant and a real buzz. I realised I could do it and that I loved it. We are playing again this coming Friday at the Dublin Castle. Please come down, details are here and this is what we sound like www.wegottickets.com/event/573818

6. The Premiere of A Tale of Two Barnets at The Phoenix Cinema, Finchley. Back in 2012, Director Charles Honderick and myself made a film about the London Borough of Barnet in 2012. It was partially funded by the Barnet Trades Council. It's not perfect, we had a miniscule budget and the situation was changing by the day, as the stupidity of the administration running Barnet seemed to do more stupid things by the day. The Trades Council booked the Phoenix Cinema for the Premiere. We were still editing the film and making last minute updates to the last minute. We'd booked the cinema for two hours. So many people turned up that we had to have two showings. It was also shown at the House of Commons and The Edinburgh festival. You can watch it here www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsbWZh86oPU - It was a real buzz, especially afterwards, when people came up and said "I didn't realise what was going on" in their droves. 

7. Listening to The Damned playing New Rose in studio seven at Mill Hill Music Complex. My lifes mission and work has been building Mill Hill Music Complex studios. I was inspired by Punk Rock and when the Damned turned up and I heard them playing New Rose (the first ever UK Punk single to be released) in studio seven, I almost shed a tear. For some people, a blessing from the Pope would be the pinnacle of their life, to me, this was the ultimate vindication of my lifes work. There are bigger, more financially successful acts than The Damned to use the studios, but none are as iconcic for me personally (apart from possibly the Ramones, who sadly will never use the studios). 

8. Seeing my name on the wall of The Roundhouse. To me, the Roundhouse is the iconic venue of all venues in London. In 1977, it was the place I really discovered music and many of the best gigs of my life where at the venue. To this day, it is somewhere is my venue of choice to see bands. When they asked if they could put my name on the wall, I was chuffed beyond belief. 

It is even better when friends randomly spot it and send me a picture!

9. The day I bought my Fender Stratocaster. I own quite a few guitars. I use different ones for different purposes. The one I use for gigging is my Fender Stratocaster. When we first started the band, Hank Marvin's son Paul was the drummer. We got to rehearse at Hank's gaff in Radlett and Hank let me play his favourite Strat through his favourite Fender Twin Reverb amp. I was blown away. I sounded good! I wanted that setup ever since, I've had a couple of Fender Twin Reverbs, but none sound like Hank's which was custom built for him by Fender. Hank advised me that when I get enough money for a decent guitar, try every one you can before you buy. Don't buy the prettiest or the one with the best sound. Buy the one that feels like and extension of your fingers. I followed his advice and ended up buying one from Barnaby Marder's shop in Richmond.  It has served me well. When I brought it home, I felt like I was a real guitarist at last.

10. Reading the personal reference from my old Biology teacher Bob Wright, for my first IT job. Back in 1983, I applied for a job in IT. I had to give a couple of references. I'd not had any proper jobs, so I nipped around the corner to see my old Biology master from Orange Hill, Bob Wright. Bob gave me a Scotch ( I was 21), we had a chat and he gave me a sealed envelope. I had no idea what he put. I got a D for my biology A level, so I was by no means a star pupil. I got on well with Bob. He took us for a biology field trip to Millport in Scotland for the A level course. I was very into punk but we got on.  ten years later, I fould the reference. I'd never read it before. It must've been handed back to me at some point. When I read it, I was gobsmacked. It was the most glowing reference I could imagine, whilst still being 100% honest. Bob had highlighted strengths I didn't know I had at the time. I didn't get on with too many of my teachers, but Bob was one that I have ultimate respect for. I just hadn't realised he actually liked me until I read it.

Rock and Roll music has never been about musical virtuosity

 There has been a social media storm about the comments of an account called @lachlan regarding Meg White, drummer of The White Stripes and stating that they'd have been a much better band 'with a decent drummer'. My friends at Bally Studios had their say, I added mine.

From our friends at @BallyStudios - we agree, in fact we’d go a bit further https://t.co/g7M95JiD28 pic.twitter.com/av5scZyXK9

— Roger Tichborne/Rog T (@Barneteye) March 14, 2023

I didn't realise that there was such a Twitter spat on the subject, until I decided to have a look to see the full context. It seems the bloke who posted the tweet had second thoughts, deleted it and offered a 'Mea Culpa', which is fair enough. We all make mistakes

By now you’ve probably seen an ill-advised (and since-deleted) tweet I sent out yesterday about the White Stripes and Meg White. It was an over-the-top take on TWS and White as a drummer, and was, let's face it, just truly awful in every way. Petty, obnoxious, just plain wrong.

— Lachlan Markay (@lachlan) March 14, 2023

It got me thinking about the whole issue. As someone who has played in many bands (and been slung out of a couple for not being good enough technically), it is a matter close to my heart. To me, the matter at the heart of this is "What is Rock and Roll Music".  As someone who has spent my adult life going to gigs, it has never been about virtuosity, It is about the chimistry of the individuals. Two of the very best live bands I've seen were The Ramones and Crass. Neither had any degree of musical virtuosity to speak of. Tommy Ramone did not do a single complicated fill on The Ramones first three albums and when Mark Bell replaced him for the fourth album, the band did not become a better version of The Ramones. As for Crass, they were all 'anti musicians' when I followed them around, deliberately not playing music of technical complexity. They were, however, one of the most powerful and compelling bands I've seen and I've seen a few. 

At the other end of the scale, we have bands like Queen and post Barratt Pink Floyd. As a guitarist and a songwriter, I can appreciate the craft, but it leaves me completely cold. It's a personal thing, if you love them, that's fine, but they don't rock my boat. For me, Rock and Roll works best when there is a band, who all spark off each other. When this happens, there is a creative buzz. It may or may not be technically accomplished, but when it is buzzing you can feel it. 

I know thousands of musicians. All aspire to improve, be better and make better music, but putting the best players together does not guarantee that a rock and roll band will be better than one that has average players who gel. If you were to replace Johnny Ramone with a technically brilliant player such as Joe Satriani, for me it would destroy the essence of what makes the Ramones. It may well be brilliant and something that would have sold five million records, but it would not have the essence of what made the Ramones. 

On Sunday, I went to The Boogaloo club in Highgate, to watch the Midnight Crawlers. They play a blend of rockabilly tinged country music, think of Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Hank Williams. The music was simple but brilliant. When a band have a common vision and put the work in, it comes together. I am of the opinion that often technical brilliance does not sit well with Rock and Roll. If you worry too much about playing the right notes, you end up with a performance that is too conservative. I've played with people who have come off stage to raptuous applause, only to say it was a terrible gig because they fluffed a note in their keynote solo. The same players have said how brilliant a gig was, when the crowd drifted off, bored by the passionless performance. Live music should not simply be a recreation of a recording. It should be live, edgy and dangerous.

As to the White Stripes. Seven Nation Army is a wonderful piece of music. When new, young rock bands start getting together, it is almost always a song they start with. It is beautiful because it is simple. I've seen kids starting drum lessons and being shown the song, coming out beaming, because they can play a bon fide hit. For me, I buy into the punk ethos, set by Mark Perry of the Sniffin Glue fanzine. He put three chords on the cover, with the invocation "Now go and form a band". A generation of teenagers did just that. Some gave up, some are now brilliant, some (like me) are somewhere in the middle. Loving what we do and entertaining people 45 years later. We need the Meg White's to inspire us. It may well be that if Jack White had got together with another drummer, he'd have done something brilliant, but it would not have been the White Stripes. I think that working with Meg gave him space that a more technically brilliant drummer may not. Of course a great drummer will make a band sound brilliant and when a song has been codified, as Seven Nation Army has, it will sound amazing when performed live. But I do suspect that the song would have been a completely different beast if it had orignally been put together with a really top notch, technical drummer.

I think that the truth is that people who criticise players like Meg White don't really understand rock and roll or how bands work. Players like Paul Weller, evolve. The Jam was a very different beast to The Style Council and both are different to his current solo work. You develop and you find different musicians to give you different challenges. It's all part of the fun. I sometimes think that when bands don't really know what they are doing, they are at their most creative. Once they 'know the rules' they become less creative. The likes of Lachlan are entitled to their views. They are just as valid as mine and it's what makes the world of Rock and Roll go down. I'm sure if her watched my band, The False Dots, I'd be the first one to get the boot. 

Here's one of our ditties, if you think it sounds OK, why not come down to The Dublin Castle next Friday, 24th March and watch us. More info here www.wegottickets.com/event/573818

Happy to swim in raw sewage - Matthew Offord MP replies to our concerns about water quality in local streams

On the 9th January 2023, I sent an open letter to Matthew Offord MP, concerning water quality, following highly worrying reports in the media about water quality in Barnet.

I am pleased to report that Dr Offord has finally responded. Here is his repsonse. I really suggest you read it. It is, perhaps, the most interesting reply I've ever had from an MP (click on the image for a more readable version).

So lets see what he has to say for himself. Dr Offord swims in the Thames, sails on the Welsh Harp and Scuba dives off the South Coast. The problems with dumping of sewage are a passion of his. Dr Offord admits that one outlet is discharging into the Welsh Harp a nature reserve, where he sails. When Dr Offord says that he has a passion for dealing with the problems, I can only conclude that his idea of being passionate and mine are rather different. My version of passion is to get up and put every ounce of energy I have into what I am passionate about, until the deed is done and done properly. I suspect that Dr Offords idea of being passionate is to lie in bed thinking about it, vigorously. I do respect the fact that at one stage he voted against the government, but he acquisced and voted to allow the disgusting practice to continue.

Some things should be immediately changed, or at the very least as quickly as possible. A situation where swimmers, divers and sailors are put at risk, simply because they want to indulge in healthy outdoor pursuits is completely unacceptable. 

The net result of Mr Offord and his Conservative colleagues voting for the government measure is that he will be swimming, diving and sailing sewage for the next fifteen years, he may be happy with that, but I am not. 

Mr Offord is one of 292 Tory MP's who think that is OK. 

Last night, 292 Conservative MPs voted to allow sewage dumping by water companies in our rivers and coasts for at least 15 more years.

Can you spot your MP on the list? pic.twitter.com/VXXafEGXjZ

— Liberal Democrats (@LibDems) January 26, 2023

Here is my original email to Dr Offord.

Dear Dr Offord

I am writing to you to ask your views on the high level of sewage in local waterways and what action you will be taking to address this. Like yourself, I am a dog lover and a dog owner and I have become increasingly concerned about the levels of sewage, bacteria and other contaminents in the local waterways. There have been several reports of dogs becoming ill following exposure to water contamination in local streams. A local stream in the Borough of Barnet was featured on the BBC News last week. I have seen first hand sewage contamination in folly brook in Mill Hill and there have also been concerns about discharges into the Silk Stream and other streams feeding into the Welsh Harp. Many of these pass through areas where both dogs and children exercise.

My personal view is that the way to resolve this is to have far steeper penalties for water companies discharging sewage into local waterways, which act as a punitive deterrent. There should also be strong powers to deal with misconnections. Home owners employing cowboy building firms deliberately misconnecting to save costs should be liable for punitive fines to facilitate the costs of cleanup as a deterrent. I would personally like to see a clean water bill brought forward, with households given a six month amnesty to resolve issues and then heavy fines. I would recommend that a proper inspectorate of water quality are set up, who have enforcement powers and statuatory targets to deliver. The current system simply isn't working.

 
I would be interested to know your views on this matter

Regards

Roger Tichborne 

Mill Hill Park now licensed to have events for up to over 5,000 people

 I was having my usual Monday trawl through forthcoming council meetings and found a very interesting paper being discussed by the Environment Committee tomorrow. It seems that Barnet Council are increasing the size of events that can be held in Mill Hill Park and Copthall from 1,000 people to over 5,000 people. Just thought you may like to know this. It seems that the new Labour adminstration will be continuing the previous Tory council policy of monetising parks.

The Saturday List #399 - My top ten recent social media posts featuring Mill Hill Music Complex studios.

 This week, we've had some wonderful artists in Mill Hill Music Complex this week. It inspired me to put together a list of some of my favourite more recent social media posts by the wonderful artists that use our studio and have put NW7 on the global musical map!

1. Lets start with the post that started the list. The rather wonderful Megan McKenna was in the studio and posted this lovely clip showcasing them!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Megan McKenna (@meganmckenna)

2. Another band we are really proud of are Flo, who won a Brit award recently. Here they are doing there stuff in our car park! If you look closely, you may see Dr Who and theTardis in shot, clearly a big Flo fan, having travelled half way across the Universe to watch this!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by FLO 🪐 (@flolikethis)

3. Our car park is pretty popular, here is Ashley from Raksu doing his stuff!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ashley Tebi Rak-Su (@ashley_raksu)

4. Had to include this picture of The Foundations outside studio 9

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Mill Hill Music Complex (@millhillmusic)

5. It's always great to have David Cross of King Crimson and The David Cross band in the studio

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by David Cross (@davidcrossmusic)

6. Another guest we love havng around is General Levy, here recording in studio 1

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by General Levy (@generallevy)

7. We've had a long association with Boz and Lyn Boorer and it was great when The Shellelagh sisters got together in 2019 to rehearse for a series of reunion gigs

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Lyn Boorer (@vinylboutiquerecords)

8. We have some amazing Jazz artists coming through the studios. Perhaps the nearest thing the UK has to a Royal family of Jazz are the Dankwroths and we were lucky to have both Emily and Alex in studio 16

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Emily Dankworth (@emilydankworth)

9. This is probably my favourite pic on Instagram, from the rather wonderful Midnight Stokers, outside of studio 7

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Karl Flinter (@themidnightstokers)

10. And here is one of my favourite videos of the last few years. I think Gasoline Thrill are rather wonderful, have a butchers hook at thsi

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Gasoline Thrill (@gasolinethrill)

And finally, 

My little band, The False Dots have been a bit busy of late. Here is the last video we put together. We will be appearring at the Dublin Castle in Camden Town on Friday, 24th March, if you fancy a night of fun and good music - Click here for more details www.wegottickets.com/event/573818

That's all folks!

The Friday Joke and some musings on life 10th March 2023

 Ok, lets start with the Friday Joke. I think we all need a joke to start the weekend off. Once more I am endebted to Robert Wilkinson for this gem. A bit risque, but it made me smile.

I walked into the bedroom naked and said to my wife:
"What would the neighbours say, if I went outside like this?"
Wife ; "They'd say I married you for your money. "

— Robert Wilkinson (@robertwlk) March 9, 2023

Ive often asked my missus why she married me, but as she's a very honest person, I've never had the courage to ask, as I may get an answer I don't like. It wasn't for my sense of humour, as I'm definitely "not funny". I'm rather hope it's not for my amazing good looks. This might sound strange, but whenever she comments positively on a mans looks, they are invariably wrong uns. She reckoned Saddam Hussein was rather handsome and Osama Bin Laden had a 'kind face', which is quite worrying at times. She insists this is a purely a comment on their physical appearance.... As to my prowess in the bedroom? If I ever ask her if she enjoyed it, I am met with "Yes, can you now get me a cup of tea" or "yes, can you let the dog out" the such like . I suspect that the main motivation for such activity is because she can't be bothered to get out of bed and something needs doing. I suspect that when the house is cold it happens far more regularly. Was it for the money? Well, I'm not skint, but I'm certainly not the richest guy either. Was it for my impeccable music taste? We do have a few artists in common that we like, but if I want to listen to Wire or The Fall, I have to sit in the shed. Is it because I am a great cook? I am a pretty dab hand in the kitchen these days, but I can't say that was a key thing when we hooked up 37 years ago. In truth I don't really know at all, what I do know is why I married her, It's because I'm a slightly less miserable git when she's around.

Have a great weekend. Here's a tune for you. If you enjoy it, Please come and see the False Dots at The Dublin Castle in Camden Town on Friday 24th March, it should be a wonderful night

Full details here - www.wegottickets.com/event/573818

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