The Paranoid Squirrel

Another live show this week recorded at a venue I’ve not been to before namely Under The Bridge which as the name suggests is under Stamford Bridge, home to Chelsea F.C. The band in question were/are Glen Matlock, Slim Jim Phantom and Earl Slick who collectively have been in The Sex Pistols, The Stray Cats and David Bowie. Obviously choice cuts from their more well know work are played albeit in a...

After a 37 year absence The Dictators NYC, that’s Handsome Dick Manitoba, Ross “The Boss”, JP Patterson with Ramones associate Daniel Rey and Dean Rispler finally return to London to play The Highbury Garage as a prelude to their Rebellion Festival appearance. The last official Dictators album came out 26 years ago in 1991 a gap of 13 years since 1978’s “Bloodbrothers” but even so none of the song...

For me, this week’s live show features 4 of the best unsigned DIY bands I’ve come across. Literally. Making their first foray into Central London it is Whitstable based band Flame Pilots, featuring friend of the show and Squirrel Associate Arkwright. Then it’s a live welcome return to The Paranoid Squirrel in the form of Cars Like Sharks. Up next is The Drej who regular listeners need no introduct...

Off the back of last week’s show we have an acoustic Captain Sensible song starting things going which is swiftly followed by a new track from the up and coming Murder City Devils album “The White Ghost Has Blood On Its Hands Again”. Sad news reached the Squirrel dray on Monday regarding the health of former Heartbreaker bassist Billy Rath. As a tribute to him I play you a track from the Heartbrea...

As Motörhead have just announced three Arena show for November with The Damned as special guests I play tracks from both with the addition of The Sensible Gray Cells (Captain, Paul Gray & Ant Thickett) as they are also playing a London date in November. Up next is another new track from The Mutants “Rhythm and Punk Review” album. For the next few tracks I seem to be in “Classic Rock” territory wit...

This week’s show starts of with a tribute to Tommy Ramone who sadly passed away on the 11th July. Apart from the obvious Ramones tunes aired I also play a track from the Lords of Altamont cover album “Lords Take Altamont” followed by The Crazy Squeeze whilst discussing Downloads vs Real life Records. The best band name of the year so far goes to Spliff Witchard whose new album “Next Stop…Never” ha...

Not many bands will get me staying out late one of the exceptions to the rule will always be The Yo-Yo’s as club gigs seem to be only once a year. As a Sonisphere warm-up the band played Chris McCormack’s Jubilee Club on the 4th July. Only Tom Spencer and Danny McCormack remain from the band that produced the classic “Uppers & Downers” for Subpop but Simon Maxwell drummer from the Loyalties and Ro...

So the run of studio episodes lasted one whole week but I think you will agree with me that 50 odd minutes of Honest John Plain who was aided and abetted by Robbie Rushton on drums, Gary Pearce on guitar and Nick Medlin on bass, recorded at The Water Rats in London is a fair exchange. Frustratingly HJP isn’t able to promote his latest solo album that sees him working with Glen Matlock, Martin Cham...

After a six week break I return you to an all studio show. Kicking things off are The Ramones who are followed by a track from the new Nazareth album “Rock ‘n’ Roll Telephone”. From there on in it’s pretty much all new material from; Carnival Sun, Jackson Firebird, The New Christs, The Royal Cream, 5 Seconds Of Summer, Peter Pan Speedrock, The Mutants featuring Wilko Johnson, Wayne Kramer, Rat Sca...

Once again this week we go live with sets from the recently reactivated Role Models, The Hip Priests who are all set to release album number three “Black Denim Blitz” on August 11th and making their UK debut promoting their brand new album “Right Between The Eyes” from Sweden the Chuck Norris Experiment. Recorded at The Pipeline, London 13th June.

Even with a super backlog of CDs & mp3 I’m taking you on a trip down memory lane in the form of Adam West. For those of you who think Adam West was the actor who played Batman in the 1960’s US Television show and have no access to Wikipedia here is the lowdown. Adam West was formed in the early 1990s, when vocalist Jake Starr decided to form a garage band with a 1960s Rock n' Roll sound. They rele...

“Camden Rocks….The Squirrel Shakes” This week’s show is dedicated to The Camden Rocks Festival that was held on the 31st May. 200 bands playing at 20 venues strewn across the Borough. I only managed to take in 6½ bands whilst The Squirrel faired better with 8½. Bands featured are New Device, The Peckham Cowboys, Chris Catalyst, The Eureka Machines, Star Scream and Ginger Wildheart.

On this week’s show The Squirrel and I travelled up to The Jazz Café to see Progressive, Psychedelic Rockers Motorpsycho who hail from Trodheim, Norway. One of us came away happy, the other not so. This would have been the third time I’ve seen them in three different settings, the first was at the Borderline with the second at the Garage where the band played the whole of their “Death Defying Unic...

This week’s live show was almost a studio affair no small part to my shoulder still giving me gyp. I just didn’t feel up to venturing out. Fortunately industrial strength painkillers and Jamesons dulled the pain. So off I rode up to Hoxton to see Outlaw Country Rocker Bob Wayne at The Bar & Grill, Hoxton Square, who was over here promoting his current album “Back To The Camper”. This was my first...

Back to an all live affair this week with Courtney Love recorded on the first night of her just finished UK tour at The Shepherds Bush Empire. Her band also just happens to feature one Ginger Wildheart.  

On this week’s show I get around to playing a whole bunch of tunes that should’ve been on Episode 376 namely, a brand new track from Mother’s Children’s “Lemon” album, ditto The Peckham Cowboys, The Cry and Wonk Unit, but before all that it’s The Wildhearts that start this week’s show off. Up next it is The Germans who featured Pete Coyne, Kris Dollimore, Mark Wrangham and Rat Scabies. This week’s...

Welcome to Episode 376 of The Paranoid Squirrel Rock Show and for the first since 1879 I bring you an all studio episode. What a better way than starting proceedings off with some Motörhead. Which is swiftly followed by Mary’s Kids with their contribution to the AM Records split 7” with T-55. We stay in Scandinavia for a while with a track off the new Chuck Norris Experiment CD and rejoice in the...

Welcome to “Two Sides Of The Same Town”. On this Episode I go to two gigs on the same day that were 15 miles apart. The bands in question are The Drej, that feature one of my top three all time favourite drummers, who were playing The Garage in Highbury & Islington and Borracho, who feature a couple of ex-Adam West members who I last saw in Stockholm, Halloween 2006, who were at The Iron Horse in...