For one day only, this weeks desktop.

This gentleman.



One day only because I will only be at work for the one day this week. Today, in fact. I am off for the rest of the week. Tomorrow, weather permitting, I will be painting the fence. Then, during the evening, Jennifer and I will be going to see "Quantum Of Solace" at The Electric. The rest of the week, who knows? Films, chores, whatever. I have a lot of stuff on the V+ box to watch.

Why Elton for this weeks desktop? No apologies, I liked 70's and some 80's Elton. Also, there is a particular Elton song, that has been a major ear worm for me in recent times, I intend to make the centerpiece of my entry in this years world famous Swiss Toni Shuffleathon. Or if not a centerpiece you might want to call it the 'end of side 1 track', if you are an old fogey still thinking in terms of vinyl.

Get involved. Read all about the Shuffeathon here. I am sure that Swiss will be glad to hear from you. He is one of the good guys.

**

The Stranglers at the Carling Academy, Birmingham. A couple of weeks ago.



Old punks never die. They just go on tour. Forever.

Actually, those punks are just the guys in the band. The other punks, the paying punters in the audience, just get old. They squeeze their pot bellies into tight jeans. They shave their heads to disguise their bald spots, or maybe indulge in a bit of a Bobby Charlton comb-over. (I went for the former.) They stick on T-shirt with a groovy logo. (Mine was a cybernetic skull T-shirt from Boxfresh. I looked 'ard.) They indulge in some low level pogoing. Much easier on tired legs and arthritic joints.

My people...

Jerry, you really must stop being such a cynic. You know how much you enjoyed The Stranglers.

Sure did.

Jet Black looks as old as the Himalayas, and is faintly mountain like, but is still the straightforward, down-the-line drummer he ever was. Dave Greenfield has the air of a bonkers chemistry teacher and can play a keyboard solo while downing a pint. Jean-Jacques Burnel is much fatter than the last time I saw him, but he still has a bass sound that could shake out your fillings. (Also, to these heterosexual eyes, he is still astoundingly sexy. If I had a daughter I wouldn't leave her anywhere near him.) As for Hugh Cornwall? Nowhere to be seen. He left long ago, around the time that The Stranglers stopped seriously troubling the charts. (Not that Hugh has exactly been a chart mainstay himself in the subsequent period since leaving The Stranglers.) Instead we had big, shaven headed Geordie Baz Warne, who is a really good guitarist and gave a good approximation of the Hugh Cornwell sneer.

I did enjoy the gig. It was billed as a greatest hits tour and greatest hits is what we got. All the way from the early New Wave classics like "Peaches", "Hanging Around" and "No More Heroes", to the later, more poppy, psychedelic songs like "Golden Brown", "Strange Little Girl" and "Always The Sun".

Well worth the effort of going to see them.

A word or two about the support act. Starbase 109.



They were the best Kraftwerk piss take I have ever seen. Maybe the only Kraftwerk piss take I have ever seen. As far away from what you would expect a support band at a punk gig to sound like as it is possible to get. I am just surprised they were not bottled off. Or shot. There were some rough people at that gig.

They were a band out of an 80's nightmare (or would that be 80's heaven? I suppose it is all down to who you are and what you groove to). Two guys on synthesizers, backed by a drum machine. Songs about vacuum cleaners, the Manchester metro, finding spiders in the bathroom (accompanied by one of the band waving a giant spider on a stick over the audience; the spider being totally destroyed by an audience member who got his hands on it) and androids.

They were brilliant. They were terrible. They were genius. They were bonkers. Maddest thing I have seen in ages. I would like to see them again.