Good shout LA

in 1980 Bon Scott was found dead in a Renault 5 outside 67 Overhill Road in East Dulwich, very close to Forest Hill. About 500 metres up the road is the TA centre in Forest Hill, where Status Quo used to practice in one of the halls before they made the big time.

I disengage, I turn the page.

In the late eighties Status Quo were appearing at St James Park in Newcastle. I lived four miles away but could hear them by opening my front door and standing in the doorway.

As an aside my daughter is a good friend of Francis Rossi's son (well one of them anyway)

I went to school with Billy Idol in Bromley.

And one of my mates down here is Mat Hartley ex The Cure !

Old, Ungifted and White

On the subject of fellow pupils, Jeff Beck (played Sheffield with Johnny Depp the other day) was a couple of years ahead of me at Elmwood Secondary in Hackbridge.

A friend waited tables at the café that opened where the Wallington Odeon was. Beck went in for a burger, left without paying and said friend had the cost deducted from his pay. Whenever Beck is mentioned he always says 'sod still owes me for that burger!'

Other pupils at Elmwood, but not necessarily pop related were the pianist Roy Budd who wrote, among other things, the theme music for Get Carter. My claim to fame is that I beat him at marbles.

The actor Edward Woodward (Callan), who lived in the next street to me in Wallington, also went to Elmwood. Again, not pop related, but he did record a few albums.

Quite a few other 'names' also went to Elmwood. Strange. Clearly not worth saving though as it was demolished to make way for houses. Anyone else on here go to Elmwood?

Dad and I watched games standing on the muddy slope of the Holmesdale Road end. He cheered and I rattled.

No, and I bet not a lot of people know that.

Dad and I watched games standing on the muddy slope of the Holmesdale Road end. He cheered and I rattled.

Think this has been mentioned before but in a documentary about Lou Reed's Transformer Herbie Flowers said he did the original baseline for Walk on the Wild Side on an upright bass then offered to overdub it on electric bass because he knew he'd earn an extra £12 for the session. The drummer on Transformer was John Halsey who was Barry Wom in The Rutles.

In the 60s there was a club in Woodgrange Road, Forest Gate called The Upper Cut, owned by the boxer Billy Walker. It was opened by The Who (Otis Redding also played there). On Boxing Day 1966 Jimi Hendrix wrote Purple Haze while waiting to go on stage there - tickets for the gig were 4/-.