I HAVEN'T ENTIRELY GONE AWAY

Many many thanks to all of you who have dropped me a line or left a comment this past few weeks asking after me and saying that you were missing the daily ramblings.

I don't know why, but round about my birthday last month I had a bit of a panic attack about the blog. I've been a bit bored writing in this past few months and things haven't been helped by my PC going a bit haywire meaning that postings and loading up mp3s that used to take maybe 15-20 minutes were taking the best part of an hour to sort out....especially when I was trying to load multiple tracks.

I was also distracted by the football at Euro 2012 most evenings and whisper it, I rediscovered a real love for golf and have been playing a lot more this year than I have the past five or six.  Oh and work has been hectic meaning that even during lunch breaks I haven't had the energy to draft stuff to send them back to the house for a final polish and post.

Excuse after excuse after excuse.

I am so very very sorry.

And the thing is, there's going to be a wee further delay before it all gets back to normal with the completion of the on-going series on Edwyn Collins, The Fall & The Smiths as well as the Saturday singles from Scotland.

The reason is that I'm off to Ireland tomorrow for just over a week. It's coming up to the second anniversary of the sudden death of my brother in a road accident in County Mayo and once again the occasion will be marked with a visit to the memorial that has been place by the side of the road where his car skidded off in the rain.  It's not a doom and gloom occasion - it's one in which his friends and colleagues gather to remember Davie and the happy times he brought us all....and this year there's a golf day been added to bring us together.

So it's not quite a holiday but it does mean I'm away from the PC for a wee while.  Normal service will resume on Monday 16 July.

In the meantime, I want to indulge myself by sharing the contents of a quite astonishing email.  One that really helped me get over the self doubts about whether TVV serves any useful purpose.

It was headed 'Thank You - Lovely Blog Post'

Hi JC,

I read your blog about Pete de Freitas, my dad, from 2009. I just wanted to thank you, it was a lovely thing to do and indeed made my eyes well up. Today is the 23^rd anniversary of his death and my cousin found your blog entry – he died on her birthday. Strange how these things happen and are all connected eh?

I never got the chance to form any real memories of my dad as I was only 9 months old when he died, but thanks to people like you, I get a the chance to understand and know him through your memories and thoughts and opinions.

My mum tells me he loved a tequila and grapefruit juice – not a drink I am particularly fond of, but nonetheless I have drank one every year since I found out – perhaps you will join me today – Cheers!

Kindest regards,

Lucie de Freitas


I was, and still am, amazed that Lucie got in touch.  In case any of you are wondering about the original post, here it is reproduced in full:-

II CAN'T BELIEVE IT WAS ALL OF 20 YEARS AGO....

But it is.

14th June 1989 when the life of Peter Louis Vincent de Freitas ended as the result of a motorcycle accident.

He was 27 years of age. And he was the first dead pop star I ever shed a tear for.

Born in 1961 in Trinidad, Pete de Freitas was a bit of a posh boy, educated at a famous Roman Catholic public school near Bath, England, and while he was far from dim, he was never keen on pursing an academic career. So by the age of 19, he was living in London, sharing digs with another lad from his old school, and both of them dreaming of forming a band.

Pete's flatmate had a big brother who was involved in the music industry, part of an ever-growing new scene on Liverpool. That big brother and his close mate started staying overnight at Pete's place whenever any of the bands they were involved with played in London. Pete would sometimes go along to the gigs, which is what he did one August night in 1979.

Pete's flatmate's brother was David Balfe, and his mate was Bill Drummond. The band they took Pete to see at the YMCA on Tottenham Court Road was Echo & The Bunnymen - a three-piece act backed by a drum machine. The drum machine was in fact 'Echo', the humans were 'The Bunnymen' -Ian McCulloch (vocals), Les Pattinson (bass) and Will Sargeant (guitar)

The band were getting a lot of attention, but it was widely felt that they would sound a lot better with a real drummer. Within 12 months of seeing them for the first time, Pete had that gig, just in time for the recording of the band's second single, but their first for a major label.

From 1980 - 1986, Echo & The Bunnymen were one of the most entertaining bands on the entire planet. All four band members contributed to the songwriting, which showed in the magnificently tight unit that was the guitarist, bassist and drummer, while up front they had a hugely charismatic singer who was not slow in offering his opinions on any subject under the sun. They attracted a huge following, many of whom dressed in identical clothes and wore their hair in the same way as their idols. They enjoyed Top 30 success with seven of their singles, but it was their LPs which found them at their best, all four of them going Top 10.

Live, they were truly electrifying, with shows that stretched out for well over two hours featuring not just the hits, but great and unusual versions of album tracks as well as a handful of covers from many of their own influences.

Many people associated with the band, not least their larger than life manager and the frontman had predicted massive things for the 1984 LP Ocean Rain. And while it sold in impressive numbers, it didn't conquer the world...

The band began to drift apart in some ways. First of all, McCulloch recorded a solo single. The others started producing and appearing on records by other bands. And in 1986, Pete de Frietas left the band.

Along with two members of the Bunnymen road crew, he took himself off to the USA to form The Sex Gods. The idea was to take the money he had made from his time as a Bunnyman, head off to to places like New York, New Orleans and Jamaica, filming themselves as they went along living a truly hedonistic life. It was a bender to end all benders....

There were drunken rows, drug busts, near fatal car crashes amidst the chaos. Later on Pete de Frietas would admit he was going insane. He was eventually brought back to the UK by Bill Drummond.

He was temporarily replaced as the drummer, but the rest of the band soon realised how much they needed him, and he was allowed to re-join.

Echo & The Bunnymen released an album in 1987 called The Game - this time with very little hyperbole, and although it went to #4 in the UK charts, critical reaction was lukewarm. This time it was singer Ian McCulloch who decided that enough was enough, and he quit in 1988, intent on the solo career.

The other three decided to keep going, on the basis that having failed to really crack America with Mac at the helm, they could maybe succeed with someone different, unlikely as it might seem. The new recruit was Noel Burke, ex-frontman of St Vitus Dance....and someone who sort of looked and sounded like Mac....

The new line up were in rehearsals in Liverpool in June 1989, and Pete de Freitas was on his way there when he crashed his motorcycle on a back road near Rugely in Staffordshire. As I mentioned earlier, he was just 27 years old.

Years later, Les Pattinson in an interview with a music magazine said that he still thought of Pete every day. At his funeral, the three remaining original Bunnymen cried their eyes out....albeit McCulloch could not bring himself to speak to Pattinson and Sergeant for what he considered a betrayal in replacing him as singer.

I remember reading about Pete's death in a newspaper the next day. My eyes welled up and my throat tightened. The man who I thought was the coolest man on planet pop was no more.

Quite a few years earlier, not far from my school, I had seen a motorcycle accident when the unfortunate rider was hit by a bus whose driver couldn't have seen him. It was an incident that I hadn't thought about much since, but it was the vision that flashed before my eyes as I read the paper, and it was something that gave me some sleepless nights over the next few weeks. Even as I type this, I can see that accident from over 30 years ago....all triggered off by the premature and sad death of a pop star.

You'll see from the photo above that Pete was good looking man. He was someone who just about everyone I ever went out with during my years at University would admit to fancying. When you heard about the way he lived his life, you just wanted to be him.

He was only two years older than me. And while I have had a great and memorable almost 46 years on this planet, there's still a part of me that wishes that I had lived his life for just one day...as long as that day wasn't June 14th 1989.

R.I.P. Pete de Frietas. I still think of you every time one of your songs comes on my i-pod....

mp3 : Echo & The Bunnymen - Show Of Strength
mp3 : Echo & The Bunnymen - Heads Will Roll (Summer Version)
mp3 : Echo & The Bunnymen - Never Stop (Discotheque)

These are different mp3s from the original posting.  They're the three that jumped out as I was typing....and of course two of them are the A and B sides of a 12" single!!

And wasn't Pete a standout dtummer???

As promised....will be back on Monday 16 July.

PS : No mp3s available.  dmca notice served which also led to the 'offending' post being taken down as well.