Flyer
International 1
10th January 1986

Used to love The Wobble one.....bit of a hero really. I was working 12 hour night shifts at Ferranti’s in Wythenshawe in ’78 after our neighbour burnt down part of the factory, and so myself and various other unemployed young lions availed ourselves of the opportunity to earn the double bubble, moving all the stock for a couple of months,( thanks Mrs. F!) There was lots of forced downtime in the wee small hours, having to listen to the Foreman’s only cassette of The Hollies Greatest Hits over and over; f*#@*n’ hate hearing The Hollies ever since!), and so I set about making my first (and only) crossword; needless to say, it was musically based. Well one of the clues was “an unfirm base for P.I.L.” O f course it was ol’ Jah Wobble himself; clever hey! Upstairs for thinkin’....Don’t know what the point of all that was really. Slightly embarrassing, tinged with a warm and fuzzy feeling; there’s bound to be some German word for such perverse and conflicted emotions. I saw him numerous times through the ages; one time at one of those (many) third full/ three quarters empty Hacienda nights; maybe ’84 ish. After duly enthralling the madding crowd he just sat on the stage alongside us while the discotheque business proceeded and was up and down dancing like he had two arms, two legs, a head and a sense of rhythm; did a good impression of a thoroughly nice chap. My flatmate was busy a couple of peeps along being chatted up (or visa versa) by Graham Fellows I do recall; all in a night’s work.
First time I heard the single “Dan McCarthur” I laughed me socks off; I thought surely that man is taking the piss! Perhaps he was....brill all the same though. “Visions of You” (the Adrian Sherwood refix with Sinead O’Conner on backing vocal duties) would still be one of my all time fave songs. The man from Whitechapel just completely invented a whole other way of playing bass.
My new favourite band I’ve never heard of before, The Jazz Butchers, are on there too.