Well, it’s been almost fifteen years and Jarvis Cocker still hasn’t gotten his much deserved knighthood for jumping onstage during Michael Jackson’s ludicrous “messianic” performance at the 1996 Brit awards when the King of Pop implied he had the power to heal children and sick people. While the incident is well-known, of course, in the UK, this story is less known outside of Britain.
As Cocker told BBC’s Question Time in 2009:
“He was pretending to be Jesus. I’m not religious but I think, as a performer myself, the idea of someone pretending to have the power of healing is just not right. Rock stars have big enough egos without pretending to be Jesus – that was what got my goat, that one particular thing.”
Cocker and his friend, former Pulp member Peter Mansell jumped onstage and caused comic confusion before being led off by security. It was reported at the time that Jarvis “mooned” Jackson (that’s what I always believed) but this is not true at all.
The incident itself, which took place on live television. GENIUS!!! Even if you’ve seen it before, it’s still laugh out loud funny.
The police detained the Pulp frontman on suspicion of assault. A former attorney, comedian Bob Mortimer represented Cocker, who was released without charge.
Noel Gallagher, of Oasis proclaimed, “Jarvis Cocker is a star and he should be given an MBE.” Clearly the editors of the Melody Maker felt the same way. I was already a huge Pulp fan at the time, but this made me love them—and their lanky, fashionable and intellectual frontman—all the more.
After the jump, Jarvis Cocker’s press conference about the incident, Cocker looking back on the Brit awards stage invasion in 2009 and how the story was reported on at the time in Amercia..
Meet Greg P. Ciarlante, busted by Portland police on 1/02/2011 for possession of cocaine and dealing methamphetamine. Mr. Ciarlante’s lurve for cocaine must come from Robin Williams’ side.
As reported last week, Chic guitarist/legend Nile Rodgers is battling cancer. He is updating his blog with regular posts about it, and it makes for a very moving read. If there is anyone left on the face of the planet who doesn’t think this guy is the shit, here’s a relatively recent interview clip where he dishes the dirt on Atlantic Records and Studio 54 dj Tom Savarese’s involvement with “Dance Dance Dance (Yowsah Yowsah Yowsah)”:
The Heartbreakers in their original incarnation - Johnny Thunders, Richard Hell, Jerry Nolan and Walter Lure - performing “Chinese Rocks” and “Pirate Love” at CBGB in 1975. The absolute essence of snarling New York gutter punk.
Hell left the group in 1976 before The Heartbreakers recorded their first and only album, L.A.M.F.. So, for those folks who are only with familiar with that album, it’s a bit strange hearing Hell singing lead on “Chinese Rocks.” But Hell’s distinct wail in tandem with Thunders’ is as urgent as rock and roll gets. The Unrighteous Brothers. Seeing this band on the Bowery in the mid-70s was a shock to the system.
This is absolutely awesome. Very early this morning surfer Maker Visser rode 30-40 foot giant waves in Maui in complete darkness lit only by LED lights built into his life vest and surfboard while helicopters hovered overhead filming the event.
It wasn’t until I saw the pictures I realized how big it was. This project has been two years in the planning and it was the scariest, but most exciting thing I have ever done,” says Visser. “Riding in complete darkness meant I had to go off feeling. I had to zone out from how you normally ride and just be part of the wave. I am so pumped to achieve something that no one thought possible and that I was told was couldn’t be done.”
And in other birthday news, singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston is turning 50-years-old on January 22nd and if you want to wish him a happy birthday, there is a call in number where you can do just that.
If you dial (936) 463-4688 you will hear a message from Daniel and afterwards you can record your birthday greeting. Callers are asked to “tell a story, sing Daniel a song, cover one of his songs, or anything else that lets Daniel, and his fans, know how much he means to you and to the world of music. Throw on a party hat if you got one, and leave any message you want. Any length you want. Anything goes.”
Many of the messages will air on a special edition of his new podcast, Daniel Johnston Radio on January 22nd at 8pm CT. The live birthday show will also include Daniel’s music, stories and special musical guests.
Below, the trailer from Jeff Feuerzeig’s brilliant documentary, The Devil and Daniel Johnston.
Moog pioneer Jean-Jacques Perrey was born on this day in 1929, making him 81-years-old today. His work with partner Gershon Kingsley, as Perrey and Kingsley, provided the iconic electronic theme tunes for TV shows like Wonderama and The Joker’s Wild and inspired musicians like Air and Stereolab. Other Perrey and Kingsley songs were used prominently in Disneyland. The Beasties Boy’s The In Sound From Way Out! instrumentals album swiped both its title and art from Perrey and Kingsley’s album of the same name.
Perrey’s solo number, “E.V.A.” (co-written with Twin Peaks composer Angelo Badalamenti) is one of the most sampled songs in the history of hip hop and has been used in countless TV commercials. His music has also been heard on South Park.
Charles has created a superb blog Archived Music Press, which contains scans of old copies of the UK’s N.M.E. and Melody Maker from 1987-1996, featuring articles on Public Enemy, The Happy Mondays, Radiohead, Pulp, Kurt Cobain and many more. As Charles explains:
I recently retrieved a large pile of old N.M.E. and Melody Makers from a dusty attic. Most of my copies are from around 1987 to 1996. Somehow can’t bring myself to throw them out so I thought I’d start scanning in some of the more interesting covers, reviews and articles at a decent resolution so they can be linked to, read, printed and generally preserved for posterity. I figure someone’s bound to have a use or interest in this stuff if I keep at it. If I feel particularly inclined I might write a few words about the musician, band or journalist.
It’s also my way of saying thank you to all the people who’ve taken the trouble to upload material I’ve gratefully found on the web over many years. All pages will be scanned full size at 150dpi. In simple terms this means you’ll be able to re-produce any page you find here to good quality on A3 size paper.
Two of the planet’s most dangerous minds, Timothy Leary and Paul Krassner, meet in a video shot by Nancy Cain, Paul’s wife, a few months before Leary’s death.
There is an aura of sadness (perhaps mine) laced with much humor and hope in this intimate video. Understandably wistful and distracted at times (he’s dying), Leary becomes most alive when talking about death. He seems to be genuinely excited about exploring the psychedelic possibilities of the final frontier (or is it?), the ultimate out-of-body experience, THE death trip. In these moments you see the fearless shaman who always embraced expanding his realities, regardless of public outcry or legal persecution. And it is both moving and inspiring.
In an e-mail message to Dangerous Minds, Nancy reminisced about Leary and that day in September of 1995:
Paul and Timothy had been friends since the early days at Millbrook when the famous LSD experiments took place. Now that Timothy had inoperable prostate cancer that was moving into his bones, we stopped by more often to visit him at his home up Laurel Canyon. Even though he was not well, Timothy was ever the perfect host. On the afternoon of this interview I had tagged along, and Paul and Tim were happy to have me record what would probably be one of the last times they would be together. Paul interviewed Tim. I could feel the sweetness and the warmth that they felt for each other. The back and forth and banter was wonderful. Tim’s remarks about technology and the future still seem fresh and innovative today.
Among other visits with Tim in Laurel Canyon, I recall one Sunday afternoon with guests Ed Moses, the painter, Harry Dean Stanton, the actor, and Aline Getty, the heiress (by marriage). Aline was currently touring with Timothy, doing college gigs. They had a traveling psychedelic video show and gave a talk on the subject of death. They were both near it. Death, that is. Aline had AIDS and Tim had senility (so he said). They did a flashy good show, which I had seen at Chapman College in Orange County. That afternoon Aline was playing us the videotape that she and Tim shot the previous week when they were busted at the airport in Dallas for smoking a cigarette inside the terminal. They set the whole thing up (perhaps more of an art event, I thought), arriving in a silver stretch limo and video of them looking around the airport for a police officer to light up in front of. The nice young cop said, “Oh, please go outside to smoke—don’t do this—you give me no choice.” So Aline and Tim were busted and carted off to a place where the camcorder couldn’t go. They were the first, I think, to get popped for any nicotine-related crime, other than Connie Francis (smoking on an actual airplane). I think it was quite satisfying for them. Especially for Aline. Tim, after all, had already had some rather more astonishingly terrifying adventures, including escaping from prison and being a fugitive.
On an afternoon not long before he died, I recall Tim asking each of his guests to join him in a balloonful of nitrous oxide. At first I said no, but Timothy pointed out, “Why not?” He shuffled over to his closet carrying a gigantic wrench, pulled back the sliding door and revealed the hugest tank of nitrous I had ever seen.
During the political conventions in 1972 in Miami, there was a lot of nitrous. We had what they called E-tanks full of the gas. Hudson Marquez, of TVTV, scored it by posing as a whipped-cream artist. Nitrous is used to propel whipped cream, which I hadn’t known until then. An E-tank of nitrous, which is the size you see at the dentist’s office, is heavy but it can be carried. The tank in Timothy Leary’s closet would need to be moved on a dolly. Anyway, Timmy took his wrench to the thing and expertly filled the first balloon. “Here ya go. Take it back over to the bed so you can fall back if you like. But wait till we all get there so we can do it together.” We had our twenty seconds that day.
On the day Timothy Leary died, Friday May 31, 1996, on Channel 9 they said it happened a few moments after midnight. The news crew interviewed a friend who was standing out on Timothy’s driveway. She said that he suddenly sat up in his bed and said, “Why?” Then a moment later, “Why not?” He seemed excited and he died. Channel 9 then showed a recent clip of Timothy standing outside a club on Hollywood Boulevard wearing a jazzy black and white sport jacket. On TV, Timothy was disregarding the reporter altogether and looking directly into the camera. “Don’t ask me anything,” Timothy was saying. “Think for yourself.” Then he added, “And question authority!”
We’re pleased to share Nancy Cain’s video of Paul Krassner interviewing Timothy Leary (October 22, 1920 – May 31, 1996) on September 5, 1995 in its entirety.
For insight on the cultural impact of video read Nancy’s fascinatingly informative “Video Days.”
Paul Krassner’s homepage is a motherlode of wit, insight, provocation and counterculture history. Indispensable.
