Having implied the other day that I typically read very little quality music journalism, (which doesn't mean it's not out there - just that I don't find it - or don't find it pertinent to me and my tastes,) I then stumbled across this in The Guardian....
It's one of those 'Where Are They Now' articles with two things I particularly noted:
Firstly - the admission by The Mock Turtles that aside from Can U Dig It? they didn't really set the charts alight - in fact they didn't have another Top 20 single - but are still jumping on the Vodafone bandwagon in order to release a Best Of album in time for Xmas... [at least it wasn't a Greatest Hits album - as that would have been a) a misnomer and b) a very short album viz. cd single] ... and secondly the recollections of Clive Jackson aka the Dr from Dr and the Medics.
I met the Dr at the OUP in February 1997 at the launch party for Oxygen - the now defunct FM radio station I helped launch whilst at Oxford. Guy Dennis - Oxygen's resident retro man (Green Flash trainer wearer and last seen at the Sunday Times) was trying to persuade me to give Clive a late night psychedelia show which he would ISDN in each week from a small cottage in rural Wales (is there any part of Wales which isn’t rural).
I listen to a demo, but decided against it – I didn’t think it had enough mileage or that we would get much publicity for the show aside from a few lines about Mr Jackson’s past (which if we had – might actually have swayed by editorial misgivings).
All I remember about the conversation was that the Dr was:
a) Very tall.
b) Liked to be called the Doctor – not Clive.
c) That he used eggs rather than hair gel to create the Kiss-like haircut shown below.
However if the lighting was too strong – it might melt – thus.
Lovely.
