The Shindig! team


Editor-In-Chief: Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills jon@shindig-magazine.com


high in the ’60s and ’70s but the writing about music is best nowadays mostly thanks to you. Keep up the good work. Peter from Stockholm. Aww shucks… we trust you’ll spread the word then Peter.


Dear Shindig! Re: the John French (Drumbo) autobiography; buyer beware!! This is one of the most weird, achingly detailed (the memory of the bloke!), frustrating and annoying read any rock fan could have. Even Beefheartians will be ongoingly frustrated by


his narrative, to say that Drumbo suffered for his art is an understatement! At numerous points in his story, Beefheart appears as a violent obsessive tyrant with no musical skills except his dadaist “genius”. At one point, Mr French is relieved of 13 demons in


an exorcism, and frustratingly he was eligible for the draft to Vietnam, which is alluded to but he fails to mention what happened in later chapters. Enough criticism, this is not really a work of


literature, but gives lots of insight into the bonkers musical evolution of Zappa and Beefheart. As a postscript Drumbo’s reformation of a Magic


Band, and the tours and recordings, two albums, one DVD, with Drumbo doing a Captain on vocals was a triumph, so at least he recovered some self esteem and hopefully some dollars. Dave Gee


Jon, Yesterday when I read about the sad loss of Craig Lindsey, late of The Playn Jayn at such a young age I was shocked. As your news item stated, very little recognition has come the way of that band or the individual members involved. I was privileged to stand on stage with Mike Jones after The Playn Jayn in the early ’90s in his band The Other Side, playing harmonica with them intermittently while doing the same with The Chemistry Set, but that’s another story… so purely from the point of view of a young 18 year old fan of The Playn Jayn and by way of honouring Craig’s memory, here is my personal recollection of my first experience of The Playn Jayn back in 1984. Venue: The Boston Arms, Tufnell Park, mid-summer


1984. The doors to the venue opened and much to the relief of some local drinkers, a few hundred mods squeezed from the bar area into the venue which was instantly full to capacity for the headlining act that night, The Truth, who were still coasting along on the previous success of Nine Below Zero. It wasn’t too long before someone got on stage and started up on the kit (being teenagers, we thought he was a roadie as he looked to be more than 22!), then a cool looking guitarist appeared on stage and immediately struck a very big crunching guitar riff that got our attention, along with a funky looking bass player with a Hendrix hair-do, now this was interesting… there were no introductions or good evenings and absolutely no evidence of any support band nerves from these three who were calling themselves The Playn Jayn. Just a big loud exciting noise. The riff sped up and was now getting even louder


and more intense, everyone was watching, waiting, something was definitely going to happen. They had a vibe about them. What happened next has stayed with me clearly for over a quarter of a century! Out of nowhere (okay, so it was probably only from behind the


PA stacks!) like a pair of demons, leapt two blonde haired singers in long black coats straight onto centre stage like a demonic Sam & Dave! These two grabbed their mics and started prowling the stage grinning and unnerving us lot down at the front as the song exploded into life. For the rest of their superb set I did not take my eyes off that stage, but it was those two front men who held the crowd’s attention. I had never experienced such a total rush from any band before, never mind one I was seeing for the first time. Put simply, it was just an outstanding gig, psychedelic for sure, ’60s garage, sure, even a bit of rock ’n’ roll and metal in there somewhere, and the songs were full of instantly memorable riffs and lyrics. It was a fantastic set but it was the twin front man performances of Craig Lindsey and Mike Jones that really stayed with me after that night. There was no night out more exciting in ’84 than being totally pounded by The Playn Jayn (at The Marquee especially) when they were on top form, which they always seemed to be. There were dozens more Playn Jayn gigs for me


and my mates after that. A Playn Jayn gig was an event, it was always mesmerizing, they were simply a power house of a rock band and utterly unique. So, I will never forget my first Playn Jayn gig, it was their intense and distinctive stage persona and their powerful performances of songs like ‘Chamber Door’, ‘I Love You Like I Love Myself’, ‘Crystal Ball’ and the unforgettable ‘Cardinal Charlotte’s Memorial School’ that gave me, and no doubt hundreds of others, such good times then and so many great memories today. So, for those of us who will always remember the adrenalin and excitement of a Playn Jayn gig, three cheers for Craig, Hip… Hip… Hip… Hooray. Thank you The Playn Jayn, and thank you Craig Lindsey. RIP. A Captain Of Suave. What a lovely letter… if you don’t have our second annual please send me an email and we will get one out on the house. Thanks for the memories… and, hey, we really must do something on The Chemistry Set one of these days.


Hi Jon and Andy, I’ve been a subscriber to Shindig! for a year now and remain in awe of the quality of your research and writing. The last issue covering The Hollies, Ramones and The


Incredible String Band was outstanding, but I must thank you for the article in an earlier issue on my favourite “local” bands from the ’60s, The Poets. I’ve lost count of how many times I saw them in my home town between 1967- 69 and have a particular fond memory of them sharing the bill with The Dream Police in Kirkcaldy YMCA with both bands sharing the stage for the encores including a great version of The Beatles’ ‘Come Together’. I’ve recently been listening to Del Shannon’s album


from ’67 Home And Away. This gem of a collaboration with Andrew Loog Oldham remained unreleased until around 2006. As I understand it was less experimental but still a very good album. The Further Adventures Of Charles Westover was released in its place. Home And Away was intended to be the UK Pet


Sounds and has a number of great songs written by Del and also by the relatively unknown but talented Billy Nicholls. So how about an article on Del’s work from the late


’60s and the catalogue of writing and recordings by Billy Nicholls? Gordon Higgins Gordon, we covered Billy many years ago, but Del is indeed ripe for coverage. Thanks for the tip.


Associate Editor: Andy Morten andy@shindig-magazine.com


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