It's The Glorious Twelfth!

Today is the Glorious Twelfth, a big day in the Socialism calender, the start of open season on grouse shooting. Now we're not avocating blood sports but, as British rural tradition, and, in the past but sadly not this year, a slow news time of year, this is the start of silly season where tweed clad toffs take aim and blast poor grouse out of the skies and into the pot. Anyways, it's also an excuse to raise a glass to one of our stupider traditions. Bottoms up, chin chin, cheers.

A Few 12th Facts

Buddha Machine

Buddha Machine sounds like the name of some crappy late 90's band or other, but is in fact the greatest thing Socialism has been introduced to all year, a portable Chinese-made noise art box, the kind of thing that every home should have. Whilst looking like some cheap approximation of an iPod that you might give to a three year old ("they'll never know the difference..."), if switched on, the speaker on the front groans to life with a constant, revolving drone tone, like something from Jason Pierce's wet dreams. Flick the black switch on the side and the drone changes. There are ten in total. They only stop when you switch it off or the batterys run flat. Until then, it just loops and loops and loops, a catatonic pulse to work to, to read to, to drift off on drugs to... on and on forever. We bought ours in the Rough Trade shop, where they told us Brian Eno bought about 20 the other week. It figures, it's genius. Can't recommend this thing highly enough.

Google it or click here for some vague info...

Tony Ogden, RIP

World Of Twist are one of the great lost rock bands - try finding their music on i Tunes, on Acquisition even, it's nigh on impossible, it's as if they've fallen through the cracks into some kind of British 'Nuggets' world. At the time they were around, the early 90s, post Roses and Mondays, they were touted as the next big thing from the North, which is pretty amazing considering how out there they were - one glace at their debut single cover proved that pretty successfully (if you never saw it, it was simply a set of 60s silverware against a red background, a kettle, a jug, no text, no information about the band). Their singer, Tony Ogden, was as cool and as weird as you could get - permanently clad in a black leather shirt and skinny white jeans, he looked like a 50s movie star fronting a Jetsons version of a pop band. Actually, permanently clad like that unless stark bollock naked in a forest or dressed like he's been taken off a Quality Street chocolates box (as seen in two of their deranged press shots). On top of all this, the music was pretty good too.

Anyways, news reached Socialism towers last week that Tony had passed away. The band only ever released one album then retired from the public eye. Rumours of new bands and of new WOT records abounded, but nothing ever came to fruition. It's a damn shame really that he'll now be remembered as some Mancunian Syd Barrett, someone who promised so much but then disappeared and robbed the world of his skewed genius. He'll be missed by those who remember... and the one's who don't don't know what they are missing.

Click here to read John Robb's piece in yesterday's Independent

or

here for a bunch of MP3s from the World Of Twist