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Grant

About Me

I first got into music in my early teens, largely through my older brothers collection of LPs (hands up anyone who knows what vinyl is?) and friends at school. The Stranglers were probably my first love, and I became slightly obsessed with them, but I adored their music. At 18 I discovered REM, The Long Ryders, The Smiths and The Icicle Works and these bands and their various off-shoots have been my main source of musical entertainment ever since. These in turn led me to bands such as The Byrds, Gram Parsons, Big Star, The Misunderstood, Bob Dylan all of whom I've flirted with to some extent over the years. More recently my collection has seen added albums by The Killers, Embrace, Travis, Keane and the Arctic Monkeys, in an effort to keep myself young in outlook. In my early 20s I got interested in writing about music but never really wanted to go into journalism, as I wanted to control what I wrote about. This eventually evolved into a wish to create a fanzine for one of the bands I liked, and after meeting Sid Griffin in 1993, Rebels Without Applause was born. Since then the fanzine has provided fans of Sid and his music with articles and news and reviews of all his latest releases and gigs, including re-issues of albums by The Long Ryders, Danny & Dusty and Steve Wynn. It has followed his career from The Coal Porters playing sub-pub-rock, via Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman tributes to their current bluegrass incarnation, and has seen the emergence of Western Electric. In 2004 it also saw the reunion of The Long Ryders, who Id never seen live before. Through the fanzine Ive managed to meet Sid, Pat, Neil and the various other band members and see them play countless times. Today an A5 fanzine coming out every only once or twice a year seems out of touch, so I'm hoping that using the blog here, I might be able to keep people more up to date with whats been happening.

My Interests

I'd like to meet:

The guy who hands over those big cheques to lottery millionaires!Or maybe Stephen Fry.

My Blog

Sid Griffin: The Social, London W1 - 27 May 2007

Sid Griffin: Sonic Cathedral at The Social, London W1 - 27 May 2007 A horrible wet Sunday evening is not perhaps the best time for any gig, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the small v...
Posted by on Thu, 31 May 2007 16:20:00 GMT

New Coal Porters Album due in September

Previously announced as due for release in June or August, now scheduled for September! But at least we have a title and some more details....Title - Turn The Water On, Boy!Label - Prima Records LtdPr...
Posted by on Fri, 04 May 2007 08:18:00 GMT

Baby We All Gotta Go Down

Danny & Dusty  Dingwalls, Lock 17, London  16 April 2007   After 2 albums in 20 years, Danny & Dusty finally decided to embark on a tour. Some details below of their set from last night...
Posted by on Tue, 17 Apr 2007 08:04:00 GMT

The Coal Porters at The Apple Tree - 6 January 2007

First Saturday of the year, first gig of the year! Not a bad start. Great show by The Coal Porters, as usual, in a tiny but packed out venue. Sound not brilliant - I cannot believe people go to a venu...
Posted by on Mon, 08 Jan 2007 09:12:00 GMT

Sid Griffin at the 12 Bar Club, London - 15 November 2006

Setlist (highlights are, erm, well, highlighted!)   1.      I Tell Her All The Time   2.      Tell Me You Still Sing   3.  &n...
Posted by on Fri, 17 Nov 2006 07:04:00 GMT

Rebels Without Applause Blogspot

In an effort to keep flying the flag for Sid Griffin and all his bands, I have created a blog specifically dedicated to him, The Coal Porters, The Long Ryders etc. It's nothing special (really!) and i...
Posted by on Mon, 02 Oct 2006 21:56:00 GMT

The Word Is Out

Received this via email the other day and thought it should be shared. It is live footage of Paisley Underground Supergroup Danny and Dusty recorded twenty years ago, performing The Word Is Out at the...
Posted by on Mon, 02 Oct 2006 16:53:00 GMT

Some videos from Sid

Got this in an email from Sid yesterday with some links to videos and thought it only fair that everyone has the chance to check it out: SUMMER DOLDRUMS GOT YOU DOWN? CHECK OUT THESE EXCITING VIDEOS I...
Posted by on Tue, 08 Aug 2006 04:28:00 GMT

Latest news from Sid Griffin camp

Out Now Gram Parsons, Fallen Angel the documentary written by Sid for BBC TV has now been released on DVD with extra footage included by producer/director Gandulf Hennig.   Western Electric have ...
Posted by on Fri, 21 Jul 2006 04:22:00 GMT

Western Electric on MySpace

Western Electric has a brand new MySpace site at www.myspace.com/welectric. Check it out for all the latest sounds from this fine band. Hopefully some new material coming up in the next few months.
Posted by on Fri, 30 Jun 2006 04:57:00 GMT