MOJO Awards 2010

I met Julien Temple last night at the Mojo Awards. I was asked to present him and Wilko Johnson with an award for "Oil City Confidential", a documentary that he made on Dr Feelgood. I have to say I had the the chance to see this film a few weeks ago on BBC4 and I found it amazing. It was equally amazing to meet up with Wilko after so many years.

I shared a flat with him in 1977 and had an amazing time but our stay there ended when a girl who also rented a room there got raped by five men. We suddenly felt it was inappropriate to stay any longer and the place was then taken up by Billy Idol and Steve Strange and then Motorhead. This was the basis for the song 5 minutes. For a few seconds Wilko and I were completely oblivious to the large crowd whilst we hugged like the long lost friends we were. I thought it rather appropriate that Wilko was there on that day, the 100th anniversary of the birth of Howlin Wolf. When the Feelgoods were in their prime we called their music RnB. Rhythm and blues. Nothing like what they are calling by the same name now.

On the same table as me was Peter Hamill who was at the Rainbow gigs in Hugh's absence. Also Jean-Michel Jarre who was very courteous and complimentary about the Stranglers. Although he was also complimentary about my French, I was woefully aware that I have an English accent when I speak it! Opposite me on the table was a geezer called Jarvis Cocker who blanked me for the whole dinner and to my right a bloke from the US, Anthony Hegarty who is a singer in a band called Anthony and the Johnsons and who introduced me to his friend, Mervyn. He seemed to attract people such as Rufus Wainwright and Marc Almond who is a guy who once moved hotels when he learned we were staying in the same hotel because we were scary!

Funnily enough when I was backstage being photographed with Mr Temple he informed me that he had been at the same school as Hugh Cornwell, and they used to squirt ink at him because he was a prefect and, apparently, a real c**t. I said nothing........

JJB 11th June 2010

Photos of JJ on the night can be found here

Some more have also been posted here

The Daphne Du Maurier Festival of Arts & Literature

To continue with my nautical theme, if ever so slightly, a word about the Fowey outing, (the locals call it "Foy"). Although it is no more then a stone’s throw or two from the sea on one side, it is more famously perched on the banks of the river Fowey, as it begins meandering from what is actually the English Channel; but for a few score miles to the west where it becomes the full blown Atlantic; and then on northwards towards Bodmin Moor, petering out at the foot of Brown Willy, the famously desolate peak which itself forms one of the most prominent features of that mystical plateau. Almost exactly due east from it’s summit, you can see ‘Jamaica Inn’, of book and movie fame, on a clear day.

About thirty miles west of Fowey, on the Helford river, is Frenchman’s Creek, the location and title of another novel and movie.

Some three miles west of Fowey lies ‘Menabilly’, re-created in her novel ‘Rebecca’, as ‘Manderley’, (surely, far more romantic) this fine and ancient house was once the home of Daphne Du Maurier. In 1969, she moved a mile or so into another house named ‘Kilmarth’ where she spent the rest of her life and which characteristically she went on to immortalize in another novel, ‘The House on the Strand’.
This then, with all of it’s geographical detail, is clearly DDM territory. Drawing on early inspiration, DDM went on to create a host of characters and placed them in and around the surrounding countryside -she knew and loved - as she famously penned her way into international literary stardom.

No small wonder then, that this highly regarded festival of art and literature is so named. Mis-described by some, as both "highbrow" and "stuffy", it has surely now been wrested from it’s sometime reputation by the appearance of my colleagues and I. Not that this appearance should have been anything other than enlightening to a DDM Fest audience, but anyone reading this is probably only too well aware of our own vicissitudes.


This was the one, NOT, to be missed. Not only the preserve of British art and culture at some of it’s very best, but at it’s location on that particular day, Friday 21st May 2010, it was at it’s Mediterranean-like finest. With an unusually warm if not, scorching hot day, the charm of one of England’s most delightful regions - at any time of the year - and the sub-tropical fauna which is able to survive in the area due to it’s un-British-like weather, it was for us, more akin to leisure than work.

Probably not the place however, for those who prefer the dark sudor of the pub or night club, or the more typical and often bland and even vulgar at times, British seaside resort. This was a well organized, attended, and interesting festival, distinguished from most by it’s uniqueness. The gig itself was as kick-ass as any you might expect from your MIB and it had the added feature of excellent acoustics within the "tent" erected for the occasion. Situated atop the western side of the Fowey gorge, views from the venue, with it’s vistas of the town, are truly awesome as are those - from a suitable vantage point - of the nearby ports of Polperro and Mevagissey to the near east and west, all steeped in the culture of the rich Cornish fishing tradition.

Yes, this was a great day out, the best in the west since the demise of the Cornish Colosseum, and a rare opportunity for the locals to get some Strangling in, but at least they can sleep at night secure in the knowledge that if they haven’t got us or you, most of the time, they do at least have Cornwall, or as Baz put it, Paradise!

Jet Black - May 2010

All photos copyright Ava Rave 2010

Book talk

Hi Mark - you are right that an update for the book is perhaps overdue. Dr D B has certainly been considering this for some time now and my understanding, is that he needs to decide what exactly he wants to write, and then do a deal with a publisher etc., etc. More than that, I can’t reliably say. Like all these things, I won’t have any real news, until I have some real news! Which brings me to some further ‘book’ news. There are a number of book projects in the pipeline at present, but like the one you are writing about, I won’t have any real news, until I have some real news! So, what more can I say but watch these pages where you will find the real story, as soon as it becomes available. I hope this will tide your interest over until that moment. Cheers - jb

Paris and Leuven

Hi folks...
just wanted to say thanks to everyone for the fun that was had in Paris and Leuven...the Wonky bus never fails eh? I was very surprised to have almost the entire audience at the Bataclan sing happy birthday to me (at the instigation of the Brits of course), and at the reception you all gave me when i came out later for the pics...never been hoisted on the shoulders of a crowd before...felt like Bobby Moore! Thanks to you all for making it a laugh and there's nowhere else i'd have rather been for my birthday but Paree...save for an absent friend or two it was perfect...
The next day in Leuven was probably most memorable for the stage invasion at the end of the gig...some people never grow up...and more power to 'em...We've almost always turned a blind eye to the antics of the possessed, but when it interferes with what we do directly that's a different matter and the whole thing was marred, for me anyway, by the guy that grabbed my mikestand and smacked me in the teeth...i think the you tube footage shows it clearly, and he got a couple of good kicks for his trouble which i regret, but get too close and that's what you get...you know who you are, and i do apologise, but believe me i'd do it again in a heartbeat...these teeth weren't cheap...Hope to see you all in Cornwall...keep smiling...

Hi DT and anyone else interested in the subject. No, I personally haven't been able to find myself in the vid. I think it might be difficult even with a lot more footage 'cos there were so many on the beach that day, but, a free choc ice to anyone who spots me!! cheers - jb

Hi Mark

Yes he is indeed a doctor. Not the medical kind, I believe I'm right in saying that he was the first, or certainly one of the first, people in the UK to get a degree in Pop Music! cheers - jb

Hi Rich - Sorry this took so long, been a bit busy! That does make sense about the ravens, I can't think of a better solution. - cheers jb