NIKKI COREVETTE!

Exciting fan moment coming this month for Kimmer at the Ann Arbor Rock n Roll Revival show. I finally get to meet Nikki Corvette! We love her and she reminds us of our favorite girl singers of the 1960's and all that is retro fabulous.

Two decades before the Donnas were doing their best to be the "chick Ramones," we had Nikki and the Corvettes. Bomp has reissued on CD the band's sole album -- think of a sexed-up punked-up Shangri-Las, fueled by Chuck Berry guitar riffs -- along with their two singles. You get 16 foot-tappin', head-boppin' songs about boys, "Backsteat Love," and dancing that I think would require a supreme effort to NOT enjoy. Bubblegum punk that tastes as good as it looks.

HAPPY RETRO THANKSGIVING!

ENGLISH POP SINGER JULIE DRISCOLL

Tonight I was discussing my favorite decade and the ultra cool fashion models of the time with my pal Rock Photographer Heather Harris. I mentioned how Twiggy invented the waifish short hair and painted on lower lashes look. No no pointed out Ms Harris you must see Julie Driscoll!

Have to admit I had never been exposed to Ms. Driscoll before that I was aware of. Turns out she did sing back up with Rod Stewart with Long John Baldry so I had seen (heard) her at least once. She is fantastic and here is more on the lovely Ms Driscoll nee Tippetts.

Julie Driscoll is an English singer and actress, known for her 1960s versions of Bob Dylan's "This Wheel's on Fire", and Donovan's "Season of the Witch", both with Brian Auger & The Trinity. She and Auger had previously worked in Steampacket, with Long John Baldry and Rod Stewart.

"This Wheel's on Fire" reached number five in the United Kingdom. With distortion, the imagery of the title and the group's dress and performance, this version came to represent the psychedelic era in British music. Driscoll recorded the song again in the early 90s with Adrian Edmondson as the theme to the BBC comedy series Absolutely Fabulous, whose main characters are throwbacks to that era. 

Since the 1970s Driscoll has concentrated on experimental vocal music, married jazz musician Keith Tippett and collaborated with him. Her name is now 'Julie Tippetts', thus using the original spelling of her husband's surname. She participated in Keith Tippett's big band Centipede and, in 1974, took part in Robert Wyatt's Theatre Royal Drury Lane concert; released a solo album, Sunset Glow; and was lead vocalist on Carla Bley's album Tropic Appetites.

Later in the 1970s she toured with her own band, and recorded and performed as one of the vocal quartet 'Voice', with Maggie Nichols, Phil Minton and Brian Eley.

IT'S ALL TOO BEAUTIFUL: ITCHYCOO PARK

"Itchycoo Park" was released by mod band The Small Faces in August, 1967. Together with "Lazy Sunday", "Tin Soldier" and "All or Nothing", the song is one of the band's biggest hits and has become a classic of its time. The song reached number 16 in the American Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1968.

Long running British music magazine NME cites readers poll voting "Itchycoo Park" number 62 out of top 100 singles of all time.

"Itchycoo Park" climbed to the top of the charts again when it was re-released on 13 December 1975. The song was first thought of by Ronnie Lane, who had been reading a leaflet on the virtues of Oxford which mentioned its dreaming spires.

A number of sources claim the song's name is derived from the nickname of Little Ilford Park, on Church Road in the London suburb of Manor Park, where Small Faces' singer and song-writer Steve Marriott grew up. The "itchycoo" nickname is, in turn, attributed to the stinging nettles which grew there. Other sources cite nearby Wanstead Flats (Manor Park end) as the inspiration for the song.

Marriott and Small Faces manager Tony Calder came up with the well-known story when Marriott was told the BBC had banned the song for its overt drug references, Calder confirms:

"We scammed the story together, we told the BBC that Itchycoo Park was a piece of waste ground in the East End that the band had played on as kids - we put the story out at ten and by lunchtime we were told the ban was off." - Tony Calder

Ronnie Lane on the true location of Itchycoo Park:

"It's a place we used to go to in Ilford years ago. Some bloke we know suggested it to us because it's full of nettles and you keep scratching". - Ronnie Lane

Another local park, in the nearby town of Ilford, called Valentines Park, was also often referred to as Itchycoo Park. Itchy Park is located in the East End of London and dates back to the Victorian era.

A NAUGA STORY!

A Nauga Story

The small chameleon-like animals known as Naugas™ have long been known as the source of beautiful and durable fabrics that look like fine, soft leather. And since Naugas shed their hydes without harm to themselves, the fabrics they help make came to be known as Naugahyde®, The Cruelty Free Fabric™.

Despite the popularity of these little animals and their HIDES, little is known of their origins and how they first came to America.

Some researchers say Naugas™ are native to the island of Sumatra. Ancient Nauga artifacts recently found near the Coliseum in Rome have, however, cast doubt on this theory.

One prominent historian believes the first Naugas arrived in America in 1778 when they delivered designer clothes from France to George Washington's Continental Army. Others suggest they arrived far earlier, pointing out an abandoned tenth century Viking settlement that was recently unearthed in Newfoundland. Among the tantalizing evidence is the discovery of two Nauga names, Olaf the Red and Erik the Navy Blue, on a fragment of stone tablet at the site.

But like most immigrants many Naugas simply arrived with little more than their hydes on their backs and a willingness to work hard for a better future.

Before long Naugas™ were succeeding in many industries and professions.

Thomas Maroon built a nationwide chain of dry-cleaning shops.

Catherine Orange completed the first solo transatlantic flight by a Nauga in 1932.

HISTORY OF BOBLO ISLAND IN DETROIT MICHIGAN

Boblo Island Amusement Park was a theme park which ran from 1898 until its closure on September 30, 1993.

Sky Streek and White Sands

The park was located on Bois Blanc Island, which is part of the Province of Ontario, Canada. It lies just above the mouth of the Detroit River. The people of Detroit characterized it as that city's Coney Island.

The Nightmare, Falling Star, Wild Mouse, Sky Streak, Screamer, ferris wheel, zoo, and the carousel were the signature attractions. To move visitors around the island the park constructed a mini railroad. The rides were sold off in 1994. Henry Ford also had a dance hall designed and built by Albert Kahn. It was second largest in the country, holding 5,000 dancers at full capacity.

The island is a five minute ferry ride from Amherstburg, Ontario, and 18 miles from Detroit, Michigan. For more than 85 years, the park was serviced by the SS Ste. Clair and the SS Columbia ferry boats. The Boblo Island Amusement Park was famous for those two steamers, which went between Detroit and the island. They could hold over 2,500 passengers each. The ferry boats were sold off in January 1996.

S.S. Columbia

THE TOUCHABLES

Theatrical trailer for the swinging sixties mod film The Touchables. Directed by Robert Freeman, written by Donald Cammell and Ian La Frenais. Theatrical trailer for the swinging sixties mod film The Touchables. Directed by Robert Freeman, written by Donald Cammell and Ian La Frenais.

Mark Ellis

I acquired the soundtrack LP to The Touchables in the late 80s, hooked initially and unsurprisingly by the groovy girls on the cover and the inclusion of my fave Hammond organ demon, Wynder K Frog, on the track list.

I read somewhere, the synopsis for this long lost artefact of swinging London excess and marvelled at the plot concerning an arrogant pop star kidnapped by four pulchritudinous dollybirds and kept as a sexual plaything in a see through pleasure bubble in the English countryside. Blimey! That’s all I could find out at the time…oh yes and its lack of availability….darn! Nothing on the LP either to convey fevered kinky couplings, except a bit of greasy Hammond courtesy of Mr Frog….the sometimes patchy soundtrack also featured a bit of white soul from Ferris Wheel, flowerpop from Roy Redman and cult psych band, Nirvana. It also turns out to have been directed by Beatles photographer, Robert Freeman and written by the masterful Ian La Frenais and the late great genius, Donald Cammell….I still haven’t seen it!

Anyhow, the wonderous Youtube has come up trumps with some footage from this scarce movie..enjoy….