It's All In A Good Cause

The Richard de Lone Special Housing Project will be taking part in the Marin Human Race on May 9th at the Marin Civic Centre for the first time since the non-profit shindig started twenty seven years ago. The Richard de Lone Special Housing Project will be sponsoring several runners besides having an information booth.

The Richard de Lone Special Housing Project have also been selected by the Mill Valley branch of the Tamalpais Bank as the charity that they are sponsoring this year for the Race.

The Richard de Lone Special Housing Project, which accepts donations all year long at its own website will soon be announcing the details for this year's exciting RDSHP Benefit Concert at the Great American Music Hall. Past benefit concerts have consisted of Elvis Costello and Ry Cooder, Jim Keltner and Nick Lowe. Can't wait, especially as the concert is for such a good cause. Richard de Lone Rocks!

Alternative Miss World

I was on the verge of booking myself onto Eurostar, to spend a weekend in Paris, on the bank holiday weekend (May 2nd) when I received an extraordinary invitation for Andrew Logan's Alternative Miss World contest.

Brian Eno once remarked,‘The Alternative Miss World should be entered for the Turner Prize!’

This extraordinary beauty contest that brought Leigh Bowery to London, that intrigued artists like the late Francis Bacon and David Hockney has attracted 'fashionistas' from Zandra Rhodes to Ryan Style will be entering its 12th outing since 1972 at London's Roundhouse, (where I saw every rock band perform decades ago!) on Saturday May 2nd.

Andrew Logan's Alternative Miss World promises to be a Crufts-inspired competition, which will thrust twenty hard-core exhibitionists, including head-hunter Janet Slee, Gallery owner Matthew Flowers, club 'phenomenon' Daniel Lismore & milliner Piers Atkinson, onto the stage to compete through Daywear, Swimwear and Eveningwear for the ultimate accolade; the coveted title of boom boom: The Alternative Miss World. Judged on poise, personality and originality by a panel of the 'ruthless crème de la crème of the creative world', contestants pull every trick in the book to gain attention, favour and those all-important votes. Past competitors have included actress Jenny Runacre, The Royal Academy's Norman Rosenthal, Sarah Lucas, 80 year-old Russian Pani Bronua and ‘Transformer’ Burnel Penhaul.

Andrew will hosts/hostesses the evening with 'quickfire-wit' Ruby Wax and the mastger of the double entendre, Julian Clary.

I hope I don't blow out my eardrums (again) as there will be Live music from The Irrepressibles, the siren sounds of Bishi and Moscow’s Aquaaerobika on the agenda. If all that isn't enough, there will also be video art, semi naked boys, dancing girls, drink, friends & family, performance, glitter, dazzle and spectacle.

Judges include Zandra Rhodes , Textile Queen Celia Birtwell, Bruce Lacey, the elemental artist, pilot and AMW veteran, Molly Parkin, the film director Ken Russell, Rocky Horror’s Creator Richard O’Brien, Hollywood film star Tim Curry, South Asia’s Cultural Guru Rajeev Sethi, Philip Hughes, London’s 'Latest Hotspot' Amy Lamé, Jonny Woo the 'Darling of the East End', Time Out’s Tony Elliott, the Roundhouse’s Supremo Marcus Davey, and the Alternative Miss World of The Universe 2004 Miss Secret Sounds of Sunbird Rising.

Rumour has it that stars including Elton John and Grace Jones will be attending. Paris will have to wait for a few days.

The event's details are:

The Alternative Miss World
The theme is The Elements
The place is The Roundhouse
The date is 2nd May
The time is 8.00 pm
The night to crown it all!

Tickets: £27.50 Groundlings and £50 Seated

From the Roundhouse Box Office

T. 0844 482 8008

www.Roundhouse.org.uk

A popular music festival is cancelled

Sob! Not only is the legendary Sweetwater club in Mill Valley (temporarily) closed due to a funding delay, but now The 2009 San Francisco Blues Festival has been cancelled due to lack of money.

'We may well have seen the last of the San Francisco Blues Festival. The combination of rising production costs and lack of sponsorship support leaves me no choice but to cancel this year’s show," says founder Tom Mazzolini, "I’m sad to say this, but we may well have seen the last San Francisco Blues Festival."

It will be a crying shame if the longest-running blues festival in the United States, which has been held in the bay area for the past 36 years doesn't get resurrected. Over the decades, It has been host to blues music legends like B.B. King, Etta James, Taj Mahal, Junior Wells, and John Lee Hooker, as well as rocksters like Johnny Winter, Los Lobos, Austin de Lone, Steve Miller, Taj Mahal and Little Richard, to name just a glittering few.

Music loving protesters in the SF Bay area are already clamouring for the festival to be reinstated, so if solvent IT workers buy T shirts from the San Francisco Blues Festival site, maybe enough cash will be raised to fund the festival for an encore next year?

Rotten Hill Gang - woweee zoweeeee!

Richard Young and Jeremy Zimmermann

I almost blew my eardrums out tonight at the most sensational gig I've been to in ages. The Rotten Hill Gang's gig at the packed-out, purple hazed Movida club club underneath the London Palladium was a riot. If they don't get signed to a major label after their exhilerating performance tonight, there is no justice in this world.

Jeweller Stephen Webster, one of the band's co-managers grabbed the microphone and made a passionate speech about managing this exciting band. Unfortunately, as I was standing at the side of the stage next to the speakers, I couldn't hear his dialogue, but he was incredibly enthusiastic, just like his glamorous looking band.

Mick Jones, who guested was riveting to watch. The rest of the band (Gary Stonadge: bass, Arran Ness: drums, André Shapps: guitar, Alexia Collen: vocals, Krysten Cummings: vocals, Redskin: rap) was incredibly tight and everyone leapt up to dance seconds into their first number. I'm delighted I saw them play in such an intimate club.

The Rotten Hill Gang's future gigs include one at the Inn On the Green, Ladbroke Grove on Friday 13th at about 9ish, and one on February 18th at the fabulous sounding Cuckoo club in West End's Swallow Street. Can't wait!

Transfigured Nights Scores!

Jed Town, one of New Zealand's leading audio-visual artists has 'flitted between punk, video-art, ambient electronic and film scores" throughout his fascinating and versatile career. He has provided the score for David Blyth's ahead of its time Transfigured Nights, and also other iconoclastic scores for several of David Blyth's extraordinary films in the past: the documentaries, Fish Tank Telly and Our Oldest Soldier. And parts of Jed's 'original, haunting and evocative' album, Music for Dungeons, features as the soundtrack of David's Bound for Pleasure controversial documentary.

Transfigured Nights had its MANGA MAD New Zealand premier on Thursday February 26th at the Moving Image Centre, Galatos off K Road, Auckland at 7.30 p.m. The evening, which 'evocitically explored Exotic Sex Fantasy Media' was a sell-out. It was definitely worth attending for David 's futuristic visuals and Jed Town's sensational sounds.




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Huey of the Fun Lovin' Criminals guests with the Rotten Hill Gang

There is an incredible buzz about the Rotten Hill Gang's gig at the swish Movida club club on Tuesday February 10th. Not only is Mick Jones going to be in the band's line up on the night, but I also hear that Hugh "Huey" Morgan the front man of the rock/hip hop group, the Fun Lovin' Criminals is going to be playing too. Key figures in the Music Industry will be attending the gig and I understand that top casting director, Jeremy Zimmermann (he worked on the Hellboy movies) has booked himself and his entire office in for the gig.

The Sweetwater's Resurrection

I do hope for the sake of musicians, and besotted Music lovers that the Sweetwater music club in Mill Valley California will re-open in the near future. According to the January update on the club's website, 'all site planning, architectural, acoustic analysis and permits were complete as of August 2008.' But since then, the project has experienced 'a number of costly delays'. Until the club's tragic closure in 2007 (the building's owners 'pulled the plug on the month-to-month lease extensions under which the venue had operated for the previous two years'), it was for over thirty years the most important live music club/showcase in the San Francisco North Bay Area.

Impromptu legendary jamming sessions at the club happened regularly, consisting of international musicians ranging from Richie Havens to Marty Balin. Legend had it that Elvis Costello, Jerry Garcia, and James Burton , the guitarist for Elvis Presley and Ricky Nelson not only jammed together on one occasion but also swapped guitars while playing.

During my visits to the Sweetwater, I have also constantly marvelled at Austin de Lone, who was not only MD for many of the famous Village Music parties at the club, where he performed with the likes of John Lee Hooker, Robert Cray, Albert Collins, Jerry Garcia, Sammy Hagar , Charles Brown, plus every brilliant musician imaginable. But he was also the host for the Sweetwater's packed out Open Mic nights on Monday nights.

According to the Sweetwater's most recent update, they have also moved some of their already booked shows to 142 Trockmorton Theatre, and will be working with Lucy Mercer, owner and Artistic Director of the theatre on keeping their 'music alive 'until the opening date, which will be 3 months from the time they restart the 'build-out'. Hope it happens soon.

Mick Jones Guests With The Rotten Hill Gang

I was having lunch with Richard Young, the celebrity photographer/ my old photographer on the defunct Ritz Newspaper today. (One of his sons is Sam Young, the international d.j.). We were in the middle of fondly reminiscing about our 'crazy' times working together (once we were trapped underneath the Palladium's stage with Mink de Ville and his band just before they were due to perform).

Richard suddenly announced he is co-managing the band, the Rotten Hill Gang with Stephen Webster, the jewellery designer. Ex-Clash vocalist and lead guitarist, Mick Jones of Carbon Silicon will be in the band's line-up on the night along with ex-fellow band members of the Big Audio Dynamite.

Richard has invited me along to the Rotten Hill Gang's next gig on February 10th at the Movida club in Argyll Street, built amidst the vaults of the London Palladium Theatre. I shall be there!

Austin de Lone's Magnificent Seven

While I was ogling the Inaugural Celebrations on a big screen at The Arts Club in London's Dover Street last night; the fab Austin de Lone's Magnificent Seven band played to a packed house at an emotional Inaugural Celebration Bash at the 142 Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley.

The highly charged evening celebrated the change 'and promise' of the new administration of Barack Obama, America's 44th President! I wish I had been there in the flesh, as I've been told that my favourite chanteuse Ms Caroline de Lone (Austin's daughter) exquisitely warbled "Waiting on the World To Change", a song by John Mayer, as the opening song in a medley of 'hope and joy'. Other songs in the medley included "People Get Ready", "One Love", " A Change Is Gonna Come", and "Yes We Can". Other guest artists included (apologies if this sounds like a press release:) the wonderful Linda Tillery, Maria Muldaur, Annie Sampson, Timothy Hockenberry, and the charismatic guitarist Craig Caffal. My spies from over the pond assure me, a fine time was had by all!

The Bonnie Simmons Show

When I was in the San Francisco Bay area over the Christmas holidays, the de Lone family took me to visit Bonnie Simmons, who until recently managed the band Cake for eight years. She is currently busy hosting her "eclectic" weekly show on KPFA. Unfortunately I missed Austin de Lone's and Paul Roger's live appearance on her show a few days ago. Their performance was hyped as:

'BOTH playing their grand piano at the same time - original songs and covers, ranging from the sentimental to the sardonic - just the way they like it.'

All was not lost. I visited the Bonnie Simmons site, found the relevant link and was able to wallow in retrospect (!) while listening to them on line. Did see Audie and Paul perform in the highly entertaining Christmas Jug Band in Mill Valley during my vacation. Both musicians appeared to do a witty double act with their accordions, and Paul's laugh out loud daft dancing was a hoot.

AUSTIN DE LONE - SOUL BLUES

Austin de Lone is a (Marin based) killer keyboard player, which helps makes his compelling new Soul Blues album sound lethally hypnotic.

A free download track from Paul Carrack's new album

Paul Carrack, who has toured and recorded with Austin de Lone has got a stupendous new album out titled I KNOW THAT NAME. Go to his site and click on the free download of the album's track: "I don't want your love I need your love" . You won't regret it.

Austin de Lone ROCKS

When I was a teenager, I saw ALL the bands play at London venues like UFO, Middle Earth and "Implosion" events at the Roundhouse in the heady days when Jeff Dexter was THE most famous disc jockey in England. I even attended the 'exclusive' Doors and the Jefferson Airplane double bill (when I was in diapers of course!). If I remember correctly (!) Jefferson Airplane had top billing, but of course Jim Morrison stole the show. I used to (primarily wear Biba and Ossie Clark clothes) and hang out with a lot of musicians in those days too. It must have been a long time ago, because "Lemmy", who is best known as the founding member of the heavy metal band Motörhead used to be good looking in those days!

Back then, everyone on the London 'Scene' seemed to be heavily involved in the Music Industry and I thought nothing of hanging out backstage at rock concerts (like "Blind Faith") in Hyde Park, and eating dinner in boxes (usually reserved for royalty) at the Royal Albert Hall, while seeing major artistes like Janis Joplin perform. Jimi Hendrix (whom I saw devour his guitar several times) even tried to run me over in his car on the Zebra Crossing at Marble Arch once!

I used to be crazy about West Coast rock at the time (The Grateful Dead ensemble was one of my favourites), and one of my biggest fantasies was to marry an American rock star and live in San Francisco. It didn't happen, but my sister Lesley did marry the legendary and versatile musician called Austin de Lone, who was 'gonged' with a "Milley" award in 2007 for bringing national and international honour to Mill Valley. Keyboards are his speciality ..... he also reworks bands as well as being a composer, songwriter, and producer. (He also helps organise benefit concerts in the name of Richard de Lone, his Prader-Willi Syndrome son).

Austin ("Audie" is his nickname) started the pub rock movement in England during the early Seventies with his legendary band, "Eggs Over Easy", and has worked and played with everyone in the Music Industry, including rocksters like Huey Lewis, Bruce Springsteen, David Crosby, Lightening Hopkins, Nick Lowe, Commander Cody, Loudoun Wainwright, Boz Scaggs, Howard Tate and Elvis Costello to name just a few. He currently resides in Mill Valley, California. He is the only musician I know now, so it was a huge treat to hang out in Mill Valley during Christmas and the New Year and listen to his pulsating sounds.

I now very rarely see live music in London (there aren't that many rock venues left now), so it was a delight to see Austin and his talented daughter (my niece) Caroline (I dedicated "Crushed", my YA novel to her) perform while I was there. On New Year's eve, we saw one of Austin's groups, the tight AUSTIN DE LONE'S SOUL BLUES EXTRAVAGANZA perform at the beautiful non-profit 142 Throckmorton Theatre.

Guest artistes included the brilliant Dan Hicks (he performed his haunting song, "I Scare Myself") and The Swizzle Sisters, a raunchy blues singer called Lisa Kindred (her "Steppin' Up In Class" CD is addictive!), Maria Muldaur, the youthful and sensational Lorin Rowan (of the Rowan brothers), does he have a portrait of himself in his attic?!) and the charismatic Caroline de Lone. Will Durst's Big Fat Year End Kiss Off Comedy Show who opened the act were hilarious.

'Los Angeles is hell frozen over,' was one of their many laugh out loud wisecracks.

I also, caught Bonnie Raitt and Caroline (again) guest at the Mabel John show (after she left Motown, she was the director of the Raelettes, who backed Ray Charles), plus her magical musician son, Paul Collins also at the Throckmorton Theatre. Caroline is only sixteen (going on seventeen), but she is a natural performer with a belting big voice. Bonnie Raitt predicts she will do very well with her singing career. Praise indeed!

Other highlights of my action-packed holiday included a visit to George Lucas's lot in San Francisco (he lives in Mill Valley alongside all the old West Coast rock stars), and an intoxicating visit to Francis Coppola's Rubicon Winery in Napa Valley. I loved the film memorabilia upstairs which included antiquated magic lanterns. I had an exciting time, but the most positive thing about my trip was getting ideas for my work-in-progress novel, and a sizzling idea for a rock 'n' roll screenplay. There's nothing like a holiday to get the inspirational juices going!

Pick Of The Pops From One Who Knows

Thanks to Ms Caroline de Lone (I dedicated Crushed, my Young Adult novel to her) for recommending some of her favourite current music acts to me. I adore the track, "One More Time" from Daft Punk's "Discovery Album". This track has a special poignancy for me. After Caroline and her dad, Austin de Lone performed with his "All Star Band" at the Porretta Soul Festival last summer, the de Lones stayed with me in the U.K. before returning to Mill Valley. Coco and I made a soft focus video for YouTube, dancing 'exquisitely' to "One More Time" in my office. Sadly, this 'masterpiece' can not be seen by the public as my YouTube account has now been made private.

Other recommendations from Caroline include All American Rejects, Death Cab For Cutie, Norah Jones (Coco sings her song, "Come Away With Me" beautifully), and Lady Gaga (a title after my own heart!).

Metronomic Score for Code Grey

Clive Ashenden (of Snatching Time notoriety) co-wrote, co-produced and starred in Code Grey, a 'tense thriller which morphs into a surreal comedy about perception', specifically made for the Straight8 Film Competition. (The making of Code Grey can be viewed on this YouTube link).

It's a nifty, fresh and original short with some laugh-out-loud moments, but what grabbed me was Steve Cartwright's compelling metronomic 'ticking' that underlays the score. Code Grey can be viewed on YouTube.

Piracy in Argentina

A friend has just retured from a vacation in San Bernardo in Argentina, and told me he was amazed to find that EVERYTHING (on the racks and shelves) in a record and DVD store he went into was a pirate copy. He couldn't understand why the local police there haven't intervened. Unfortuately, he was in such a blur, he didn't focus on the name of the shop. Grrrrrrrr!

Holiday

I'm currently taking a much needed vacation in northern California (Mill Valley), visiting family: my sister Lesley and musician brother-in-law, Austin de Lone, and their two offspring: Caroline and Richard de Lone. I always find that going away on holiday gives me loads of fresh ideas and this trip is no exception. I had decided not to take my laptop so that I could take a break and rest my hands, but as there is a iMac in my bedroom in the holiday house, I am compelled to write ..... after I go to the Mabel John concert (her special guests are Bonnie Raitt and Austin de Lone's daughter, Caroline de Lone and the Christmas Jug Band's gigs while I'm here.

Tarot reader supreme

Les Mason gives psychic readings at the Psychic Circle under his professional name, Theo (He's one of the most popular clairvoyants on the site). He also gives private readings: he's a brilliant psychic and I should know: I consulted him a few years ago, when I was confused about which writing project I should pursue. Should I write Crushed, my YA novel, the script, the play, my laundry list etc?! Les predicted my novel was the most likely one to initially succeed. In retrospect, he was right. Les has just featured in a magazine article in "The Circle" magazine, and next week (Monday September 22), he will be appearing in a BBC documentary called "Dom's On The Case" at 9.15 a.m. He recently appeared on BBC'S Breakfast TV, being filmed having teeth implants put in under hypnosis, the first man in England to be brave enough to do so. Les is not only the psychic to the stars, but he is also a star himself.

New Book co-op

I went to a new book co-op meeting at the Writers' Guild of Great Britain's office in Kings X at lunch time. (Tasty catered food). The co-op will be a non-profit making limited company, but the Guild is supporting it. One of the co-op's aims is to help book writers (traditionally published and self-published) with their marketing. A brilliant idea! When my two novels ( "Crushed and "Frantic") were published in 2006, I had to promote them myself on the net: a time consuming learning curve. The new book co-op will be extremely useful when I (finally) finish my third novel.

I thought the meeting was very interesting. At the end of the meeting, an enthusiastic writer/poet called Leo Aylen wrote down headline stuff like: 'Are you interested in additional distributing for books? Are you thinking of self-publishing? Are you interested in joining a writers' co-operative open only to Guild members? The first stage is to create a website with a page given to every subscribing member. The cost will depend on the number of subscribing writers.' He then stormed into see the Guild's Assistant General Secretary. 'Print that in the e-bulletin,' he commanded. It was just like, 'Hold the Front Page!' This new book co-op is going to have another meeting quite soon. Material for a new play, perhaps?!

Procrastination is addictive

Before John Kobal, the film historian died (he had the largest movie stills collection in the world), he was writing a book on Cecil B. De Mille which unfortunately didn't get published posthumesly. He used to call me at the crack of dawn every morning without fail and a) inform me how his writing was progressing, and b) how many pages he had just printed out in order to put in his file. I have just unearthed a shocking pink file in my (cluttered) office and now want to print out my work-in-progress novel's pages to file. Mind you, when I do print out what I have written, it looks (horrible and) completely different than what it looks like on the screen. But now, I am thinking perhaps a green file I've got would be more suitable for my new book! I have started to write again but I can't resist procrastinating.

Sat Raimondo - The Healer who unnblocks writers

My RSI has been so chronic recently, I recently consulted a powerful healer called Sat Raimondo after a friend insisted I see him. I was praying for a miracle and got it. Sat Raimondo works from his home in central London and I arrived not knowing what to expect: I've never consulted a healer before. He instantly made me feel at ease by talking about ordinary things. He was absolutely charming. He sat me in a chair and did spiritual healing on me. He told me to shut my eyes, so I was unable to see what he was doing. I felt a deep heat when he lightly touched my limbs and hands and immediately I felt incredibly relaxed. I had no sense of time so didn't know how long the healing session took, but afterwards, he gave me the most wonderful massage on my hands for ages. Afterwards, I floated back home on the tube, completely oblivious to the rush hour crowds. He must be a miracle worker as he seems to have cured me. Since going to him, I have been typing frenetically without my thumb joints threatening to pop out of their sockets. Since going to him, my writer's 'block' has disappeared and I'm full of creative ideas. I know who to consult when I get blocked with my writing again.

(Sat Raimondo, who also gives all kinds of healing including Reiki, also does psychic readings and Indian head massages. He can be contacted on 020 7242 2163 or at satraimondo@hotmail.com).

Art on the Underground

Art on the Underground want to use extracts from my novels Frantic and Crushed in a book called "Piccadillyland", which will be distributed at both ends of the Piccadilly line (Heathrow Terminal 1,2 & 3, Cockfoster and Uxbridge) between June and December. Extracts from my books were chosen because I happened to mention several Piccadilly tube stations in my prose. Somebody who works for London Underground must have read my books thoroughly to discover this information, info which I had completely forgotten I had written! The book will contain extracts from 120 authors, so I presume they all wrote about stations on the Piccadilly line ..... I would love to know which employee on the London Underground has taken time out to read all these books.

The Prolific Terence Pepper

Had lunch with Terence Pepper, the Curator of Photographs at the National Portrait Gallery. I gave him a copy of my novels Crushed and Frantic. In return, he gave me his delectable, glossy books: Angus McBean Portraits and Horst Portraits. That's the best barter I've ever done! We spent most of the lunch trying to think of witty inscriptions for our books. In the end, his inscription was much more original than mine! Terence is currently curating the Vanity Fair exhibition for May 2008. It has already had loads of publicity - not surprising as 'some of the greatest portrait photographs of the 20th century' were published in Vanity Fair - a lot of them are going to be on show at the exhibition, thanks to Terence's curating skills. He's also bringing out a fully illustrated book (with curator David Friend) on the show which I drool to own. The snag is, I shan't be able to do another barter. No way am I going to finish my new book by May next year - unless a miracle happens.

My first interview

My first fan letter was from Danette Bocage, a 27 year old 'girl' in Hawaii. I was surprised that adults love Crushed besides 11-12 year olds at which the novel is aimed at. Danette Bocage has just interviewed me for her blog - it looks great - and she has asked me to stay in today, as we shall be chatting (on her blog). She lives in Hawaii and I live in London. She's ten hours behind, so I presume, due to the time difference we shall be chatting during the evening - my end.

The Impersonator

It's not every day one gets to have lunch with a novelist who has written one of your favourite novels. But, today I did. Diana Hammond lives in Paris, but came to London for a few hours, specifically to check out Waterstones in Piccadilly. She craved to browse/investigate new titles written in English.

I loved her novel, "The Impersonator" so much, I put it at the top of one of my Amazon Listomania lists. Diana is not just a novelist though. She's also a screenwriter and used to live in Hollywood, making a fortune from prolifically writing screenplays, irrespective if some of them didn't get made.

Over lunch, I confessed in the past I had showed my work-in-progress novels to people with horrific results. One well-meaning editor had even suggested a plot line for my new book which blocked me for months. Diana was horrified. She never shows her work to anyone until after she has finished it. We both agreed we belong to the breed of writer who doesn't like writing an Outline for their book before commencing writing. I find that when I do write a detailed synopsis of my unwritten book before I start, I feel I'm restricted by a straightjacket .... and tend to write to formula.