The Night - Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons

In one of Frankie Valli's superb cuts for Motown he assumes the role of an asexual romantic sage, dishing out advice to the lovelorn and dateless - like a sparkly-toothed soul pop version of Denise, the hot-flushing agony aunt from This Morning.

...though Frankie never made me choke on my Frosties by talking about 'women's problems'.

I was disappointed to discover that in 2003 Frankie Valli doesn't really look like Frankie Valli anymore. He looks like someone wearing a cruel, ill-fitting Frankie Valli mask.

I think the whole Frankie mask illusion is down to the deep, leathery tan, beige leisure wear and cocky gait found only in ageing singers of light pop and South African police chiefs.

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London Girls - The Vibrators

Easily the best pure pop band of the punk years with a song that gets most of it's bubblegum flavour from it's producer, the king of the trashy pop cash-in, Mickey Most.

You'll be glad to know that the rotten, nihilistic, blank generation spirit of the punk rock era is alive and well in Chiswick, London W4...

Only last week I spat (gobbed?) at the assistant in Mortimer and Bennett's delicatessen in Turnham Green when she announced that they'd ran out of bergamot, citroen Maison de Miel honey, lovage, goose eggs, wynad pepper and those ultra-fruity vine-ripened red peach Tringelinette jams.

I mean it, man... what the bloody hell am I supposed to drizzle on my nettle-coated Yarg cheese?!

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Manifesto & Book News

If it's ever been on K-Tel or Ronco, it's in. If it features hand claps, cow bells, syrupy orchestration, walls of sound, wrecking crews, sha-la-las, toothy teen idols, candy-based metaphors for carnal acts or lyrics about hugging, squeezing and rocking all night long, it's in.

Hungry groupies, payola, crooked DJs, foreign tours, golden discs, TV spectaculars, screaming fans and packed out concert halls...



> Martin Lampen (latest book news, contact details and other stuff)

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