Heart of a Punk Soul of a Rasta

The Blockheads
Severn Cellars Shrewsbury 23rd April 2010

And so I was all set to see the Blockheads (again), and there was a bit of historical symmetry at play here too. Last month I'd seen the Dub Master himself Mr Denis Bovell (of Matumbi) at The Severn Cellars, now as I've said it was the turn of the Blockheads. No? What? You haven't got the symmetry? Well Matumbi toured with Ian Dury & The Blockheads back in the seventies when the world was good, full of endless possibilities and nuclear Armageddon was only a four minute warning away - yes four minutes, only enough time to listen to "What a Waste"!

But then the real "A" BOMB was well and truly dropped, by way of this statement from The Blockheads on FACEBOOK:

Severn Cellars on Friday has been cancelled due to negligence at the venue. We apologise to anyone who was hoping to come on Friday and had already purchased train tickets to Shrewsbury (we know some had). We would also advise any fellow musicians to blacklist and not accept work at this venue as is not an honourable establishment and you may very well end up not getting paid.

So no Blockheads! No chance for me to tell you (again) how good their 2009 "Staring Down The Barrel" album was........IS! No opportunity for me to reminisce about Ian Dury and the Blockheads gigs of old. No opportunity for me to corner Norman Watt-Roy to find out exactly what bits of bass he played on the Clash's Sandinista! album. But worse than all of that: I needed to get another gig organised for Friday!

In the absence of a live review I will leave you with something much better than the shit you'd have got from me. From Trouser Press Magazine July 1978 Ian Dury with mouth in full free fall, priceless!

Please note: Chaz Jankel is younger than Brinsley Forde.