Wild Bill Shatner and memories of Rock'n'Roll

[zotz]

Last night after work I was called by a disreputable man who for purposes of discussion we will call "Glen". He'd called me last week about maybe going for a drink sometime, and this time suggested that we go to a friend's birthday drink. We're nott talking about a friend of mine here : this is someone I met a few times in the late eighties when he and glen were heavily involved in the infamous Edinburgh garage band scene, where every new band turned out to be a new combination of members of all the other bads. There was a comic strip about this, in fact.

Johnny was in Johnny and the Deadbeats, and the Pterodactyls, and at least one other band (something to do with buffalo, I think). Now, as I remember it, Johnny and the Deadbeats were just the Pterodactyls with someone else singing, which about gives you the flavour of these bands. The only one i think you've any chance of having heard of if you haven't lived in Edinburgh is The Thanes (who should not be confused with an earlier band called the Thanes.

Anyway, I met Johnny a few times about fifteen years ago, and apparently Glen reckoned this qualified me to go to the guy's birthday drink. I was slightly dubious (partly because my clearest memory of Johnny was not letting him into the Potterrow because he was so drunk he couldn't stand up) but I didn't feel like turning Glen down. I don't see him nearly often enough. So, at very little notice I went over to a pub called Minder's (insert obvious joke here) to join Glen and Dave (with whom I didn't, unusually, discuss borrowing a portastudio) for a couple of quite rapid pints before hailing a taxi and heading over to Corstorphine.

Being spawn of the South Side, Corstorphine isn't somewhere I go drinking very often. Ever, indeed. The pub in question's halfway up Corstorphine Hill and quite big. A barn, in fact. And it was empty. There were half a dozen people down one end and that was it. Oh, appart from four people lurking up at the other end, one of which was Johnny. He was there with his girlfriend/wife and a couple from Poland.

I was a bit surprised to find so few people, as there were a lot of people I would have expected to be there, some of whom i would have known and would like to see again. Never mind, I thought, they'll probably turn up later. I would like to make it quite plain that I was wrong. No-one turned up later, and in fact the place closed at eleven and we all went home. Still, i think it justified me being there, as there would have been six rather than seven, which is a significant difference. Also, i got introduced to the Polish couple as being the only person in Edinburgh never to have been in a band with Johnny, which is only a slight exaggeration.

It was quite a nice evening, in fact, although nothing dramatic happened until the way home, when Glen remembered that he had the new William Shatner album in his pocket (I AM NOT MAKING THIS BIT UP) and insisted on lending it to me. Actually, it's better and less funny than you'd expect from the version of Common People. Shatner, of course, doesn't actually sing as such, but then neither do Lou Reed or Mark Smith. I don't think I'll be buying a copy, but it's a pleasant listen, and more interesting than I'd thought it would be.

Comments

[randomchris.livejournal.com]

I thought the version of Common People was great. But then I enjoy comedy music.

[zotz]

Yes, likewise. I just needed to point out that it's not representative.

[occular.livejournal.com]

I agree, it's very different from the Shat Man's previous musical outings in outlook. For a start, some of the inner real shatner comes through, rather than it being all covers or fluffy songs....

[zotz]

Yes. There are actually some pretty good songs on there, too.