Johnny Moped

It's Halloween again. Only recently has it seemed to have taken off in Australia, with little kids walking around in supposedly creepy costumes knocking on doors going "Trick or Treat!"

Seriously, none of them are actually very macabre, or scary at all. I reckon if they knocked on the door of any given house an they were greeted with this, they'd shit themselves:



That's Pogues frontman Shane McGowan. With all the drink and drugs that guy has taken, it's no wonder he looks like that, but then it's a wonder he can still stand up. And it shows, especially when you see him interviewed in a new biopic on one of the man's heroes: Johnny Moped.

The band (and eponymously-named singer) Johnny Moped were a short-lived London punk phenomenon, playing the same haunts as The Pistols and the Clash. The band featured at various times Chrissy Hynde (The Pretenders) and Captain Sensible (ex-The Damned) in their ranks. Shane was one of the loyal fans who attended most (if not every) gig they played from 1977-78.

The documentary "Basically, Johnny Moped" has been filmed by Captain Sensible's son Fred. I won't give away the general plot of the story, but this is something I want to see. Basically Johnny's live shows would be so outrageous and so insane that you wouldn't know what you were going to get on any given night. They only made one LP ("Cycledelic") and a handful of singles before he dropped off the radar altogether.

Still, the first single "No One"/"Incendiary Device" is one hell of a record. With its slurred, growled and howled vocal line obscuring the words (and from I can make out that's probably a good thing) this still is a goosebump inducing track.

Have you seen "Basically, Johnny Moped"? Is it any good? Leave a comment below if you have. In the meantime, check out the movie trailer and a clip of "Incendiary Device".

"Basically, Johnny Moped" trailer:



Incendiary Device: