Saturday, April 19, 2008

Saturday Night With Cousin Pete


These are in tribute to my cousin Pete who occasionally babysat me at my Auntie Flo's house on a Saturday night when I was 7 or 8 years old.

To me Pete inhabited a noisy, exotic and rather dangerous-looking world of Brut aftershave and soap-on-a-roap, platform boots, Slade, Mott, Sweet, football pools he did with my Uncle Les and (whisper it) girlfriends, one of which I once caught him snogging enthusiastically when I came downstairs for a glass of water.

He often played me his records and they frightened me to death.

When Pete got older he had his very own mobile disco - imagine it! a mobile disco!! lights and everything!!! And a van!!! And loads and loads of singles in those hardwood black boxes with chrome latches on.

I heard recently his son DJs, but it'll be all laptops and mp3s now and where's the romance in that, eh?

Tchh. Young people today.

Mott The Hoople - 'All The Young Dudes' (1972)
Mott The Hoople - 'Roll Away The Stone' (1973)

[There should be some Slade here too, but I haven't got any].

11 comments:

  1. Huzzah - you're back and brought goodies too. I've been camping just outside your old home town - how many ferries do they need there? Two going across and one chuggabug boat running up the river from the castle thingy to the quayside last time I was there . Some silly reversed his tractor/mower off a cliff on our last visit - whoops.

    Getting back to Mott, have you read Diary of a Rock 'n' Roll Star? One of my fave rock reads.

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  2. I have not PM, but I take your tip kindly.

    Dartmouth ferries? Three car ones going across (two crisscrossing alternately at the Lower end), one Passenger, the one to the Castle you mention. It's a troublesome, huge and raging river, obviously(200 metres across)and there are Grockles to be making money out of x

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  3. Aha Davy. You've brightened the 40 watt bulb in the shed already.

    As Peters and Lee would say ....


    "WWW Where the fuckin ell have you been?"

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  4. What a great story! I love your blog.

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  5. ah mott - i'll be stomping about all day now.
    and a mobile disco - what a magical thing - it was always the strips of lights that did it for me.
    there used to be a brilliant father and son dj team playing drum & bass at the poor old falling down jazz bistro as part of the happiness stans thing -they were ace
    x

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  6. surely the proper title was a mobile discotheque??

    I love how all the lads who owned these things spent next to nowt on the records but loads on new lights every other month as if that was what got you the gig at the church hall/miners welfare/upstairs room at the pub for Tracie's 18th birthday bash.

    But i suppose thinking back, it was the lights we talked about afterwards....

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  7. No lids or locks on our record cases it was always schweppes boxes for us. And those bass bins were HEAVY!

    Our motivation for starting a mobile was to play all these great records we had and educate the masses. Ha! Not much chance of that at Kevin and Sue's wedding bash at the British Legion. We still we managed to slip in some Parliament amongst the Mrs Mills, Wurzles, and Olivia & John though.

    Happy days.

    Welcome back.

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  8. Slade, Mott, Sweet...I long for the day when this brand returns...

    focssd

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  9. Welcome back! Hope it was a good break!

    I can't look at pictures of any of the aftershaves of the 70s without thinking about my dad. It must have been cloud of 'fragrance' floating around him, a bit like the dirty kid in Snoopy.

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  10. Pigpen! I loved him!

    There was no escaping The Wurzels in the West Country in the mid 70s was there Darce? 'I drove my tractor through your 'aystack last night, oo-ar, oo-ar'. They made I laugh mind.

    focssd, always focssd.

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