Welsh born Paul Bradley Couling (Mal Ryder) never made it as a rocker in Britain, but with his band The Primitives he became a superstar in Italy during the sixties.

I took part in four international Sanremo festivals, and all the top Italian TV shows, photo’s on the covers of all top magazines, scandals in the papers of my supposedly flirts, there were paparazzi everywhere, my private life was non-existent, my shows, full houses, and I was getting mobbed everywhere I went. I drove fast sports cars, well, you name it I did it !!!!!   I was doing so well in Italy by this time, that it was pointless going back to England, as I had nothing going for me there, and I was making one hit after another in Italy, at first with The Primitives cover versions of a Young Rascals song called ‘I Ain’t Gonna Eat Out My Heart Anymore’ in Italian ‘Yeeeah’.  Success was growing every day, so much so that every song got in the charts, most to N° 1. and selling a million copies, like my version of the Bee Gees song ‘I’ve Got A Message To You’, in Italian ‘Pensiero d’amore’, after which I made a musical film, one of four I made in my career as an actor.”

Mal’s stardom would remain an Italian phenomenon. Try as he might, success in Britain eluded him.

At one stage I tried to make it back in England, with a record, using part of my real name Paul Bradley for the Baby Records. We recorded it in London’s PYE Studio. All songs where in English. This LP came out in 1980 called Silhouette from which was taken some singles which got into the charts in Italy and in many other countries, (but not England.)!!!”

“Yeeah” is so good I’ve included two versions in the following montage, which also includes a raunchy cover of The Spencer Davis Group’s “Gimme Some Lovin”, with Ryder sounding like his Welsh brethren Tom Jones, and “Pensiero d’amore”. The first 100 seconds of this video is among my favorite rock moments of all time - Mal emoting like a motherfucker while a stoic Italian audience responds with bemused indifference.
 
Super stella!
 

 
Two years after the Summer Of Love, Andy Williams drops acid and organizes a be-in on his network TV show.

I experienced the things that most people did when taking psychedelic drugs – the intensely heightened senses, the beauty of colours and sounds, the contrasting phases of feeling. One moment, I would feel like I was a lord of the cosmos, the next I would be focused on a microscopic detail – a coloured thread fluttering in the breeze, or specks of dust hanging in the air.”

In this clip from Andy’s NBC variety series, which aired in March of 1969, Donovan and his parade of flower children create some Aquarian vibes and the audience is swept along on a contact high.

40 years later, Andy’s warm relationship with Rush Limbaugh and comments about Obama suggest he might be be due for another consciousness raising session.

“Obama is following Marxist theory. He’s taken over the banks and the car industry. He wants the country to fail.”

Andy, we love you. Come back. Grooviness awaits.
 

 
Marianne Faithfull and David Bowie performing ‘I Got You Babe’ at London’s Marquee in 1973. This was filmed for American TV show The Midnight Special and was Bowie’s last appearance as Ziggy Stardust.

Faithfull’s nun habit created a bit of a scandal when the show was aired. Her other habit, heroin, may explain her somewhat disengaged performance that night.

From the Ziggy Stardust Companion:

The last song - “I Got You Babe” was a duet sung with Marianne Faithful and was filmed at about 10pm at night.  Bowie warned the audience - “This isn’t anything very serious.  Its just a bit of fun - we’ve hardly even rehearsed it.”  Bowie’s costume for this song was the bright red PVC corset, PVC thigh-length stiletto boots and two black chest-hugging feathers (he was The Angel of Death), while Marianne Faithful was dressed as a decadent nun with cowl and a black backless cape, which left her bottom exposed to the audience as she quickly ran off stage at the end of the performance.

 
The Bubble Baba challenge is the world’s only blow-up doll rafting race. It takes place every year in Russia. Here’s some footage from this year’s event. I love the point of view shot from the contestant’s perspective; the doll straining to achieve victory.

From the looks of the photograph it’s a unisexual blow-up doll event. I wonder what kind of problems a fully inflated plastic cock could cause in a situation like this? Position must be very important.
 

 
Thank you Violet Blue

 
Joe Meek was a brilliant, innovative and influential British record producer whose short life was filled with bizarre and ultimately tragic drama.

Meek produced several hit records in the 1960s and was often referred to as the English Phil Spector. His experimentation with electronic effects, including reverb, echo, distortion, compression, close-up miking, filters and multi-tracking, resulted in the distinctive “Meek sound.” Telestar Telstar, a spacy instrumental by The Tornadoes was his biggest hit and still sounds as excitingly fresh as it did 50 years ago. His other big international smash (and a personal favorite of mine) was the hard driving, percussive Have I The Right by The Honeycombs. The rhythm track of the song was augmented by Meek using a bunch of microphones clipped to banisters while the band stomped it’s feet on the recording studio stairs and beat a tambourine directly into a microphone.

Sadly, like Spector, Meek’s life became a tabloid nightmare that has to a great degree overshadowed his musical legacy.

Meek was gay at a time when being gay was illegal in the United Kingdom. His sexuality was the source of extreme mental conflict for Meek, he actually thought he could be cured of his homosexuality. Fear of incrimination pushed him into an increasing sense of isolation. Perhaps in an effort to seek some kind of cosmic sexual healing, he became obsessed with magic, the occult, extraterrestrials, and conspiracies of all sorts. He claimed to communicate with the ghost of Buddy Holly via ouija board and in seances. He reputedly placed microphones in graveyards to record the voices of the dead.

After a series of devastating personal and financial catastophes, Meek eventually became a paranoid recluse. His life ended at the young age of 37 in murder and suicide.

Joe Meek’s brief ascension into the heavens of pop stardom and crushing descent into a hell of circumstance and social pressure, as well as one of his own making, is a story as compelling and offbeat as any in the annals of rock and roll’s dark side. This hour long documentary tells that story in riveting fashion while also providing fascinating insight to his particular musical genius. The Very Strange Story of The Legendary Joe Meek.
 

 
The latest masterpiece by the true genius of the form, StSanders. This guy’s videos are a well known phenom for good reason and he keeps getting better. Total hilarity and it only improves with multiple viewings.

 
Dr. Phero is a skit from the defunct Japanese variety show “Vermilion Pleasure Night.” The entire series is available on DVD from Amazon. It is totally weird fun.
 

 
I could fake it and pretend I have some culturally significant insight about this video, but I don’t. It’s mod and sexy, it’s black and white and Barbi Benton is in it. Shot in 1970. Dig?
 

 
Serge Gainsbourg and Jerry Lee Lewis rhapsodizing about women and fucking in Bourges, France, 1987. Raw video footage shot for French TV but never broadcast for obvious reasons. This is epic.
 

 
For readers lucky enough to live in Los Angeles, this weekend there promises to be a pretty fabulous terrible event in the form of the Everything Is Festival! sponsored by the very wonderful people at the Cinefamily organization and the Everything is Terrible! video terrorists. Dangerous Minds will be attending so please say “Hi” and offer us free drugs:

Imagine a weekend where all your fantasies come true.  A weekend where you can just be…free.  Laugh until your sides literally split open, and feel as cool as a skateboarding, shade-tippin’ dog.  We’re talking about the festival to end all film festivals—Everything Is Festival! (aka the 10th Annual Gathering Of The Terribles)!  For reasons beyond our control (God’s plan), we at Cinefamily are giving the found footage freaks at Everything Is Terrible! free range of the weekend, and letting them do whatever the hell they want (note: we did have to say “no” to the all-night helicopter foam party).  This makes it the official L.A. premiere of their latest mash-up feature-length film, 2Everything 2Terrible 2: Tokyo Drift, not to mention some of EIT!’s favorite movies in their uncut glory, plus dance parties, BBQs, a return of the Cinefamily Found Footage Battle Royal, and top-secret über-rare prints from the vaults of Cinefamily and Austin, TX’s famous Alamo Drafthouse! For more info on becoming a contestant in the Found Footage Battle Royale, click here!

Sounds pretty good terrible, doesn’t it?

More from Everything is Terrible! This clip is especially terrible.