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:

Vale Philip Chevron of The Pogues

Irish folk-punks the Pogues are a unique band, if ever there was one. They're not all that far removed from other Irish folk groups like The Furies, The Dubliners or the Chieftains, except that the Pogues are wilder, faster and more in-your-face than any of those acts. They play traditional Irish folk music with all the grit, spit, and aggressive swagger of the English punks of the class of '77 (The Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, et al).

Reknowned for their alcohol intake and the slurring, toothless vocal delivery of their frontman Shane McGowan, the Pogues are endearing in their own rambunctious, shambolic, ragged fashion. Where the Furies are beloved of my parents generation, The Pogues are truly a GenX band.

It comes with some sadness the news that Pogues guitarist Philip Chevron passes away from cancer this morning after a long battle with cancer. It's even more shocking when you consider that he was given a clean bill of health in April 2012, but another tumour appeared in August that year.

Equally shocking, as i reflect on the band, is the fact that Shane McGowan is still alive and standing. Shane is a bloke who, to look at him, makes Keith Richard look like an alter boy. His reputation for beer drinking, drug taking and hell raising makes Pete Dogherty look like the rank amateur he really is. Based on this, I thought he'd be the first Pogues member to shuffle off the mortal coil, but alas...

So Rest in Peace, Philip.

Here's a Pogues classic in tribute: "If I Should Fall From Grace with God"