If anyone can drag me back out to Walthamstow to go to a gig there for the first time since before the turn of the millennium, it would be someone like Dan Stuart, the last time I went to anything in Walthamstow it was either when The Ice Mummies opened for Paul Di Anno's Killers or when we supported Stray both at the Royal Standard. If it was the latter then it ties up nicely as Stray were playing the 100 club on the same night, amazing really as back in the 90's Stray were lucky if they pulled 15 fans a show.
On getting to Walthamstow Central and walking down Hoe Street to the Trades Hall I played a game of which shops used to be record shops, as there used to be 5 of them along Hoe Street at one point, including Small Wonder and the brilliant Ugly Child Records all of which have sadly gone now. The Trades Hall is in a 1960's I guess, brick monolith and the gigs are in the downstairs bar with some very cheap beer that was more than welcome.
The audience for this edition of the Walthamstow Rock & Roll book Club was attended by a good assortment of long-term Green On Red and Dan Stuart fans most of whom started to see Green On Red back in there 80's heyday.
The first half of the show was Dan Stuart being interviewed on stage by Alan Jones, the legendary Rock Journalist and funder of Uncut magazine, as well as author of among other books Can't Stand Up For Falling Down. After the introductions the first question Alan put to Dan was what was the first song he ever wrote. That allowed Dan to tell us about writing Apache Princess when he was about 12 years old, as the discussion centered for a while about Dan's early life as an Australian kid whose dad moved the family to Tucson, making him feel like an outsider before joining his first group the Serfer's or Surfers dependent on which member you ask, who lived communally at Serfer Hollow.
The conversation meandered in and around Dan's trilogy of Marlow Billings books, The Deliverance Of Marlowe Billings, Marlowe's Revenge and The Unfortunate Demise Of Marlowe Billings that originally came in a box set, along with a spoken word version of the book across 5 cd's as well as the Vinyl and cd versions of the soundtrack album, Allan mentioned how hard it was to make spoken word versions of his books as he always wanted to revise things as he read them.
They also touched on Dan's breakdown when his marriage broke up and his first poetry book Barce Lona Blues that came out of an invite Dan got to go and perform a show with legendary Spanish punks Trapera Del Rio whose singer Morfie Grei was a cousin of his wife.
Allan also asked Dan about how different people interpret the meanings of his songs in different ways, at which point Dan gave the best possible answer for me, that if a song means something to you then that's what it means, all lyrics are open to interpretation, this was the attitude that got me into so much trouble as a kid, it stopped me paying attention in English lessons at school, as I never agreed with my English teachers fixed interpretations, it also shows why I've always connected to Dan's music and writing so strongly.
As Dan spoke about the psychotic break he had and the Russian doctor who helped him out of the pits as he rebuilt his life in Oaxaca Mexico and the effect that the book The Trouble With Being Born by EM Cioran had on him, as well as the mystery surrounding Ambrose Bierce's disappearance.
Allan also asked Dan about his love of golf, or at least the period of his life when he played lots of golf with his dad and how it helped him find himself again. Dan promised that his next book will be a real doorstop about a year in his life in Australia as a teenager.
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They then took a few questions from the audience that got rather confusing, especially the question asked by one gent about a fight at a Green On Red gig in New Cross, that the guy mistakenly claimed was at the Vox, it was actually at The Venue in March 1991 according to my bootleg of the show, I haven't played the boot to hear if the fight is captured on tape or not, as I have no memory of said fight either, or who the support act was, as the guy claimed It might have been Oasis.
After a break for us all to get some more cheap Beer and wine Dan returned to play a short solo set on acoustic guitar that allowed Dan to convince us all that he's no preacher, a sinner at best, as he slowly picked at his guitar and brought out every bit of emotion he could as he sang. He may have got used to exclaiming What A Day but he still complained that it hurt his fingers to play certain notes.
Gravity Talks was deliciously slow and seemed full of extra meaning. The Day William Holden Died sounds better and darker stripped right back than the album version, this had loads of pathos. No Free Lunch was as close to a sing along as this set got, sounding rather stark when stripped back this far, as the reality that you always have to pay was made crystal clear once more.
Why I Married You is full of bitter regret as well as happy memories of his wife, both the golden years they had before everything went sideways.
Dan then gave us a reading from Chapter One of Marlowe's Revenge that he read almost like he was trying to sound like Boss Hog in the Dukes Of Hazzard, all that was missing was a huge cigar for Dan to chomp on while reading, it certainly added several levels to the tales he was reading.
When he picked up his Acoustic again it was to play Gringo Go Home one of the best songs he wrote in Mexico, a great tale of being told to go home, to someone who really has led a very peripatetic life and doesn't really know where home might be.
Rock 'N' Roll Disease was played like a folk blues song full of passion for what went on back in the day, this now has a twinge of sadness for those that were lost along the way.
Dan introduced the final song of the show by telling us about his current hacienda in Tucson and the record player he was gifted and how much he's enjoying playing vinyl again before playing a slow deliberate version of the Commander Cody & the Lost Planet Airmen classic Down To Seeds & Stems Again Blues a song that hit me hard, as it made me think of my main man Greens whose funeral I attended the day after this show, who helped me out of that predicament more than once, including during the pandemic, so thanks Dan for a rather piquant and spot on song choice.
All that was left afterwards was for Dan to sign all the books he could and to chat with all the friends he's been seeing and speaking to for a few decades now.
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