Cellarlar Heroes

november 05, 2006.

there are stars [...] in every house and
on every street
... everybody's a star ( * )

[ vodcast :: rpc30/31 "we need rock 'n' roll!" -- part 1 / part 2 ]

I recorded my very first cassette on my very first cassette recording machine, which must have been a christmas or something present ... sometime in the early 1970's. I (think I) do no longer have that cassette, but I still remember at least two of the songs that were on it, recorded by posing a microphone in front of our tube radio's (one) loud speaker. One of these was John Lennon (and Yoko Ono)'s Happy Xmas (War is Over). The other one was Ray Davies' Celluloid Heroes, from the Kinks' Everybody's in Showbiz album.

I'm telling you this, because, unlike the Lennon song, Celluloid Heroes ever since has been probably the most persistent among my personal PMT's, my 'perpetual music tracks'. By this I mean: musical images (melodies, tunes, songs ...) of which - at mostly unpredictable and sometimes inconvenient moments in time - parts start and continue to loop-play, unasked for, inside of your head, and that often seem near impossible to turn off again, except by 'replacing' them by some 'next' PMT ... ( ** )

A most curious phenomenon.
And why is it Celluloid Heroes that after all of these years still pops up to play inside my head, and not Happy Xmas, which was on the same tape? That can hardly be because as a kid I was more of a Kinks fan than a Lennon fan. I like(d) Kinks songs, but I never ever bought a single Kinks album. I did buy Lennon's albums in the 1970's though ... (Well, so maybe I should have bought Kinks records, and that stubborn 'inside my head' recording is but there to remind me ... :-) ...)

All of this has gotten as far as being written down on this here page, because since the morning after our Paradiso Cellar Hall Placard on tuesday evening october 10th, Celluloid Heroes has been playing persistenly for several weeks again ... though - curious enough - it was only after a few days that I realised that the first line had changed: my in-head recorded Ray sang "Everybody's a hero, and everybody's a star" ... (instead of "Everybody's a dreamer ...") ... The reason must reside in the words 'cellar hall' and me naming - without thinking - the ookoi set we did that Paradiso evening: Cellar Hall Heroes ___ thus causing - but also caused by - a curious circle of associations ...

The Cellar Hall placard was the second in a series of public 'presentations' (in front) of and around ookoi's 1024, many more of which will surely follow. [ Including those were it actually will be possible to obtain a copy of the dvd ... (at the time, official copies are not yet available ... ) ] We set up in Paradiso's cellar hall (thanks to Jan Dietvorst and Paradiso) on the eve, and indeed as part of, an event entitled Darkness is Enlightening, which included, in the big hall right above our heads, performances by Lydia Lunch and Genesis P. Orridge's Psychic TV ( *** )

We streamed from 20h00 until midnight, with live sets by Ate M. Hes, by Wiel, by Rinus van Alebeek, and by us, ookoi ...

Setting was great, so were the sets and the recordings that I have just been listening to. I do think this was a particularly fine 'placard'.
It ended with someone from the audience grabbing the microphone around midnight, and commenting our combined 'Paradiso Cellar Hall All Stars' set.

Here's what the man (he wore a fur cap) told us:

"We need voice! We need punk! ..." he moaned, he groaned, "we need rock 'n' roll! ... I like rock 'n' roll, like Vince Taylor ... Vince Taylor working on station ... we need rock 'n' roll station to Vince Taylor ... we need ... rock 'n' roll ... we need punk ... we need rock 'n' roll ... please ... give me ... rock 'n' roll! ... "

But then, hey, haven't we been feeling that way all along? Did not the guy with the fur cap, in but secs, here sum up many a good year of our lives?
Thus, in the best of traditions, we decided to document the Paradiso Cellar Hall placard as a two part Raudio vodcast: "We need Rock 'n' Roll!" part 1, and "We need Rock 'n' Roll!" part 2 ...
Clicking the images will beam you on to ookoi's YouTube page, where you may watch the clips (as well as (extracts from) earlier Raudio vodcasts) ... Alternatively, if you scroll down a bit, you'll find them embedded on this page...

Added August 11th 2019: The second of these clips, the Rock 'n' Roll part 2 has been viewed more than 22000 times. I guess that's due to early hits, probably from visitors thinking they'd hit upon the Gary Glitter song with the same name. Curiously, Part 1 attracted not even 8% of Rart two's viewing volume ...

[ Earlier related SB-entry : funky shit! ]

notes __ ::
(*) ... "celluloid _ cellular _ cellarlar _ cellar hall" ... the motto's lines of course are taken from the lyrics to Ray Davies' Celluloid Heroes. Ookoi's set in the Paradiso Cellar Hall Placard of tuesday october 10th, 2006, was entitled Cellar Hall Heroes. The similarity, indeed, is purely coincidental. Or is it ? [ ^ ]

(**) The expression 'PMT' stems from a recent article by Steven Brown in the Journal of Consciousness Studies (volume 13, nr. 6, may 2006), entitled The Perpetual Music Track: The Phenomenon of Constant Musical Imagery ...
(Added november 29th, 2006: ) This is surely related to what often is referred to as: earworm. During this year's edition of the 'Beurs voor Kleine Uitgevers', on sunday december 10th in Paradiso, Amsterdam, FPCM will be spreading them, for free ... 'Mopjes', we Dutch sometimes say ..
Here is (a transduction of) Peter's own description of his deal ('Mop')... :
"Reader!

It goes this way. You walk in, state open, look around, let yourself be led. By something. No idea. Without for zoeken to find your hands this.
An expenditure. You thumb, late pages rustle. You think wanting sniff the fragrance of verse paper cut. Rondgeklopte caress back. Gutenbergs mirakel herbeleven.
You read say u. now you give to the eyes the costs. Black on blank, columns, rules, senses, words characters. Your senses lead u. grope, feel, smell. To sigh.
The welt.
Have! A new love, a new friend who you tell what you want, he who you are. Or can become.

And there - or here - between the rules shrieks the wonder of the small editor.

There is information, knowledge, instruction, an idea, an idea, impulse and insight. Sensitive judicious pivots, the cross point of then now and then. You are in contact with now with! You are in contact with with already!

And in already I am.

The smallest editor of everything. The smallest editor of all. And most fine. Directly in contact with your spirit, your interior interior. Immaterial. Delicious.
I want your soul. I have your soul. I am your soul.
Easy zat.

Nothing to thank. It has been given you.
Soon you run further, to. Lives further. Everything what you move are differently. You are your new friend, your new I.

Directly of between these rules a new song sits in your head sits. New mopje. Definitely a praise song. A melody to whistle. You purse lips. Whistle! Buitenzintuigelijke a bel tone which there no longer goes out. Unforgettable. Try it but."[ ^ ]

(***) Here's how these two fit into my 'personal soundscape' : I remember Lydia as a singer mainly from her 1982 recording of Lee Hazlewoord's Some Velvet Morning, as a duet with Rowland S. Howard (who at that time played guitar with Nick Cave's Birthday Party).
Genesis P. Orridge I remember from the fine Throbbing Gristle albums to which most notably Alien Brains' Nigel Jacklin introduced me, and from his compilation of William S. Burroughs' tape experiments and cut ups, released on the Industrial Records label (Nothing here now but the recordings, 1981, IR0016) ... [ ^ ]

(****) To subscribe to the Raudio Pod- and Vodcasts, get the feed's URI by clicking the green podcast button in the sidebar ... You will probably be aware that meanwhile Raudio ceased its activities. [ ^ ]