Roger Daltry on his life. Interesting Direction.

Understand a few things - this is a man who belonged to one of the most famous bands in history.  It was the U2 of the 1970s - an era of more sex and everything else than the 80s or 90s when U2 went shuffling beyond the coils of mere mortality into the echelons of the greatest groups in human history.

Daltry - cannot by any means be considered a Conservative or prude.  This is a guy who probably did more of everything there was to do than most musicians today could ever imagine doing or having. 

He would be a definition of leave me alone so I can do ....

And yet, reading about his life is more interesting than for the more prurient points.






Why my wife let me cheat on her: Roger Daltrey on why his attitudes to marriage vows are far from straightforward




By Nicole Lampert
Daily Mail
15th July 2011



Roger Daltrey may be 67 and a grandfather ‘many, many’ times over, but he’s more excitable and fidgety than a toddler. He’s backwards and forwards in his chair, his hands pounding a handkerchief, his legs bouncing up and down as if they are pulsing with energy.

The angry man of rock is as angry as ever, and he doesn’t like being called old. The Who lead singer famously sang ‘I hope I die before I get old’, and says he still believes that.

‘We tend to think of age only in time, but I don’t think it has much to do with time at all; there’s a whole load of other things,’ he says. ‘I’ve met 16-year-olds who are old and 90-year-olds who are young.

‘Every day, I visit a mate of mine who is 85; he’s old in years but has the brain of a teenager. Wonderful. Old puts a slant on things. Yes, I’m a grandfather, but in some ways I feel the same as when I was younger.’

Physically, Roger is in incredible shape with a full head of hair and a physique you wouldn’t mess with. ‘You have to keep fit being a singer — that’s part of the job,’ he says. ‘You can’t do it unless you have incredible stamina.’

He has just finished decorating his house, which is why he is exercising his fingers with a tightly rolled up handkerchief. ‘Building work and guitar playing don’t mix’ he laughs.

Time has, however, taken its toll. Last year Roger had emergency surgery after doctors found a pre-cancerous growth behind his vocal chords.

‘That was a bit of a scare because I didn’t know what it was,’ he recalls. ‘I was finding it difficult to sing, the notes were becoming more difficult and taking up more energy.

‘I got lucky — I found probably the best throat guy in the world and he got me back to a voice that is probably better now that it has been for years.’

His throat still has to be checked twice a year and it could ‘go pop’ at any time. But instead of leading the singer gently into retirement (with a fortune estimated to be £32 million he hardly needs the money) he’s working harder than ever.

‘I have deliberately kept singing because I have to at my age,’ he says. ‘If I stopped for even a year my voice would slowly deteriorate until it’s not there at all. That’s a fact about getting to my age. Rock musicians have never been this age before and so we are in the land of the unknown really. I could never stop. I just love to play. I enjoy singing; being in touch with something that is inside of me.’

But as he tours the country with his Tommy Reborn show, 40 years after he first sang its lyrics, and then moves on to America where The Who have an even bigger following, he is his band’s sole emissary. It’s the first time he has done the show without main songwriter and other surviving bandmate Pete Townshend. And he admits he does not know when they will perform together again.

‘Pete is almost stone deaf,’ he says sadly. ‘He deafened himself in the recording studio, and when we last performed he had to stand right next to the speakers to hear anything. I don’t know what Pete will do. I don’t want to do a tour and have him end up completely deaf.’

The pair have been together for 50 years since meeting at Acton County Grammar School in West London. They are as infamous for their rows as Mick Jagger and Keith Richards and Roger says they still fight like ‘cat and dog; it’s creative differences’.

We talk about how the two Rolling Stones have fallen out over Richards’ book; in particular the claims that Mick is not well endowed. ‘If I was Mick I would just say, “Yeah, I’ve got a small ****, who cares? I’ve done all right with it!”’ cackles Roger.

‘I love Pete to bits,’ he says. ‘He’s incredibly complex; bordering on madness. But when he is creative, some of the music he makes is incredible and we’ve been together for 50 years; we’re like brothers.’

He has lost his two other bandmates, Keith Moon and John Entwistle to drugs. He was the only one in the band not to touch the heavy stuff. ‘I wasn’t a goody-goody; I dabbled in the natural,’ says Roger. But I was in a band with three alcoholics and someone had to be straight. They were three lunatics.

‘I also got warned off chemicals very early on by the man who made Purple Haze [LSD]. His name was Owsley Stanley, The Bear. He told me to never touch chemicals and I believed him because he was the man.’

He was famously thrown out of the band for a week for physically attacking Moon, who was providing drugs for the others. He says he only became angry with his bandmates when it started to affect their performances.

‘I don’t think anyone who hasn’t done this job can understand how hard it is; particularly with nerves,’ he says. ‘You are completely naked up there and you will be judged. It’s very tough psychologically.

‘So it’s easy to see why musicians would go for a bit of Dutch courage here, a bit of something else there. Keith used to throw up before every gig. The quality of the playing went down because of the drugs and we were better than that. I didn’t know how to deal with it, so I thought the best way was to get rid of the drugs.’

He says he still remembers his bandmates whenever he plays. ‘Keith and John made their stamp on that music and when we play it, it’s like they are back alive; they still echo in the music and they always will.’

On the domestic front, Roger was also always the most settled, and recently celebrated his ruby wedding — although that is not to say there weren’t plenty of groupies. He had a four-year marriage to model Jackie Rickman, which produced his first son Simon. They were divorced in 1968 shortly after another son, Mathias, was born as a result of an affair with model Elisabeth Aronsson.

When he married American model Heather Taylor in 1971 — she was the inspiration for Jimi Hendrix’s Foxy Lady — it was with the proviso that he was allowed to stray, although he insists he behaves himself now their three children have become parents themselves.

‘It’s not an open marriage, but in the early days of our relationship she never put restrictions on me,’ says Roger. ‘I was in one of the biggest rock bands in the world, going out for four months at a time. At that age do you expect me to come back and say, “Oh yes darling, I was a good boy?”

‘Over years we have developed something a lot deeper than that — she is the most extraordinary woman I know.’

Today Roger, who grew up in a poor West London household and had to make his own guitar, is as well known for his charitable work as his music. His work for the Teenage Cancer Trust has helped create 20 units for teenagers suffering from cancer.


His annual week-long series of gigs at the Albert Hall has made more than £12 million for the charity while he has spearheaded its spread to America (the first unit will open at UCLA in September) and Australia.

We get on to the issue of U2, who recently faced a demonstration at Glastonbury after moving their multimillion-pound company out of Ireland, depriving their suffering country of their tax revenue.

‘I find it very interesting that people who spout socialism don’t want to pay for a socialist state. Weird,’ he says. ‘It doesn’t quite add up.’

When it comes to British politics he has a lot to say. A lifelong Labour voter, he’s disgusted by the last Government. ‘I was appalled at what Labour did to the working class — mass immigration, where people were allowed to come here and undercut our working class,’ says Roger.

‘It’s fine to say everybody can come into your country, but everybody should work towards a standard of living expected by people who live here. Not come here, live 20 to a room, pay no tax, send money home and undercut every builder in London. They slaughtered the working class in this country. I hate them for it because it is always the little man who is hurt badly. It’s terrible. It frustrates me.


‘We have got to stop pandering to people because we won’t be able to afford to keep this going. At the very least, it should be a pre-requisite that people have to learn English.

‘What really made me angry about that period is not that people shouldn’t come here — that’s fine — but you have to make allowances for the strain that is going to put on your social services and they made none.


‘Talk about sticking their head up their a***. The arrogance, the audacity. They don’t realise how hard the average man has to work to get that and to pay those taxes.’

The Tories should not expect Roger to turn to them, however. ‘I’ve become very cynical,’ he says. ‘I don’t see anybody with a pair of balls out of the whole bunch. They are so spineless.’

He is passionate about everything. There is the NHS, which he has seen at first hand: ‘When you look at how it is run you see there is nobody in charge. Everybody’s been digging trenches for 50, 60 years and now those trenches are so deep its going to be really hard to get any sort of movement.’

And at the other end of the spectrum, there is his adoration of the Queen, who presented him with a CBE six years ago. ‘She’s amazing,’ he gushes. ‘She talks with her eyes. She has a twinkle in them — wow — she’s so special. I think she’s so wonderful and we, as a country should be so proud of her. It’s a dreadful position to be in; she can never be free. But her dedication to duty has been amazing.’

He has also been outspoken about his dislike of reality shows — although he reveals he has been in talks for The Voice, the new BBC talent show, which will choose a new singing star.

‘The problem with these shows is I don’t like the people they choose. It’s partly because the public doesn’t understand what great voices are; they tend to choose mediocrity,’ he says.

‘With a singer like Adele you know within 20 seconds it’s her; and she has a quality that they don’t seem to be able to find in these shows. They end up with singers who are technically brilliant but have insignificant voices; they are great backing singers.

‘My agent wheeled me in to see the American Idol people but I didn’t want to do it. I have been talking to The Voice. I quite liked the idea but I will be on tour when they start filming.

‘I’m not sure I would have been any good. I could have listened to 100 voices and said I don’t like any of them. And I would hate to really destroy someone; that’s what I don’t like about those shows. There are people in them who would never win a karaoke competition and it’s public humiliation.

‘With The Voice, I liked the idea you have to choose the voice before seeing the person, but a great voice is one in 5,000; otherwise it’s a mass of mediocrity. Ooops!’ he guffaws. ‘That will get me unemployed for the rest of my life in television.’

Grey, yes, but definitely not old. His energy is certainly undiminished.

‘People ask how I feel about singing the same songs I’ve been singing for 40-odd years but they don’t understand that when I’m singing it that night, it is like I will be singing it for the first time.’






















music

Lennon was a closet Republican: Assistant




Tuesday, June 28, 2011 6:35:03 EDT PM



John Lennon was a closet Republican, who felt a little embarrassed by his former radicalism, at the time of his death - according to the tragic Beatles star's last personal assistant.

Fred Seaman worked alongside the music legend from 1979 to Lennon's death at the end of 1980 and he reveals the star was a Ronald Reagan fan who enjoyed arguing with left-wing radicals who reminded him of his former self.

In new documentary Beatles Stories, Seaman tells filmmaker Seth Swirsky Lennon wasn't the peace-loving militant fans thought he was while he was his assistant.

He says, "John, basically, made it very clear that if he were an American he would vote for Reagan because he was really sour on (Democrat) Jimmy Carter.

"He'd met Reagan back, I think, in the 70s at some sporting event... Reagan was the guy who had ordered the National Guard, I believe, to go after the young (peace) demonstrators in Berkeley, so I think that John maybe forgot about that... He did express support for Reagan, which shocked me.

"I also saw John embark in some really brutal arguments with my uncle, who's an old-time communist... He enjoyed really provoking my uncle... Maybe he was being provocative... but it was pretty obvious to me he had moved away from his earlier radicalism.

"He was a very different person back in 1979 and 80 than he'd been when he wrote Imagine. By 1979 he looked back on that guy and was embarrassed by that guy's naivete."

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
lennon

James Blunt: Saved the World from World War III (all by himself)

'I stopped World War Three by refusing US orders to destroy Russian forces,' claims James Blunt


By Andrea Magrath
15th November 2010
The Daily Mail

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1329822/James-Blunt-stopped-World-War-3-refusing-destroy-Russian-forces.html#ixzz15P7AlbCc

James Blunt's refusal to obey orders during the Balkans war prevented the start of World War Three, the singer has claimed.


The 36-year-old chart-topping singer made the stunning claims in an interview with John Pienaar on Radio 5 Live's Pienaar's Politics.


Blunt, a former cavalry officer in the British Army, was leading a NATO column under order to seize the Pristina airfield in Kosovo in 1999.

Facing a 200-strong Russian advance, the then- 25-year-old was given orders to 'destroy' the Russian troops by the Supreme Allied Commander of the NATO Forces in Europe.

'I was given a direct command to overpower the 200 or so Russians who were there,' the You're Beautiful hitmaker has revealed for the first time.

'I was the lead officer, with my troop of men behind us... It was a mad situation.'

'The direct command came in from General Wesley Clark was to overpower them. Various words were used that seemed unusual to us. Words such as "destroy" came down the radio.'

He said his men were given orders by the American general to 'reach the airfield and take a hold of it.'

But Blunt - who served under his real name James Blount - says: 'We had 200 Russians lined up pointing their weapons at us aggressively.'

The singer, who has gone on to sell over 11 million albums since leaving the forces in October 2002, risked a court martial by refusing to go along with the orders to attack, a command he feared would spark a major conflict with Russia.

'I was declining my order. I was very clear on that,' he said.


'There are things that you do along the way that you know are right, and those that you absolutely feel are wrong.

'That sense of moral judgment is drilled into us as soldiers in the British army.'


Blunt's instinct was backed by the commander of the British Forces. 'Fortunately, the singer remembered, 'Up on the radio came General Sir Mike Jackson, whose words were, "I'm not going to have my soldiers start World War Three."

'He told us why don't we sugar off down the road and, you know, encircle the airfield instead.'


When quizzed on whether he thought following General Clark's order would have started World War Three, the musician replied: 'Absolutely,' adding that he would have refused the command regardless of Sir Mike Jackson's intervention.

Blunt, who wrote the track No Bravery during his stint in Kosovo, says he was deeply affected by his time serving in the Balkans.

'War is an absolutely terrible, ghastly thing,' he said. 'I wouldn't bother describing the things we saw.'


No Bravery was included on his multi-platinum album Back To Bedlam - recorded just months after he left the military - and became a theme for protesters of the war in Iraq.

Blunt performed at the Help for Heroes benefit concert at Twickenham in September. He is currently promoting new album Some Kind of Trouble in the US.


















singers

Sex and Rock n Roll: Gag me

I have decided that I like some things Camille Paglia has to say:


Madonna’s dance-track acolyte, Lady Gaga, with her compulsive overkill, is a high-concept fabrication without an ounce of genuine eroticism.


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
sex

Pushing the Envelope

Dear Adam Lambert,

I know that I should include evidence in any statement I make concerning any issue or claim.  I was raised this way both in academia and in the several years of law school - facts, facts, and more facts.  Do not let emotions carry you away or you will find yourself carried back on your shield.

In this case, I don't care enough, although I am becoming annoyed with the claims you are making, along with the gay and lesbian consortium - that what ABC did and CBS after it, was either discrimination or bias.

I recall reading, and the facts of this will not disappear off the internet, within hours of your action at the AMA, that you were a performer and what do performers do - they push the envelope.  You mentioned this several times within the first 24 hours.  Then ABC received over 1500 complaints and your story changed, although no one called you on it for whatever reason - it was an unintended act, and look at Madonna and Britney kissing on television.  Their kiss was neither blurred nor edited out.

Except you gave the facts away when you opened your mouth for the second time - you are a 'performer' and what do 'performers' do - they push the envelope, like Alice Cooper and Ozzy Osborne.

Which is it Adam?  You are a performer pushing the envelope or it was an action that just occured without any thought.  You are either pushing the envelope or it was an unintended act.  It is NOT both.  Performers who accidentally do something noteworthy did it by accident and do not receive any mention, rather they do their craft and live maturely.  You, by your example, live to push the envelope.  It would appear to me, based on all evidence available, that it was planned to push the envelope.

Adam, you do not push an envelope if it is accidental, unintended, happenstance, unexpected.

You push the envelope through intention, purpose, direct action with the goal of causing discomfort that will in turn force reconsideration.

Which is it Adam?  Intentional with the goal of envelope pushing, or accidental and simply the act of a guy who wanted to kiss another guy who looked hot?

Madonna did it intentionally - to push the envelope.

No singer simply starts kissing their band members or back up dancers for fun - because they can't wait until the show is over.  Poor judgment.  Raging hormones pushed to the forefront by the glamour of stage, and fans.  Acting out.

I suspect a couple 'performers' will now 'push the envelope' to make a statement.  Perhaps Stefani Germanotta will kiss a back-up singer/dancer in her next performance (I so do not like the moniker she has adopted and prefer her real name to being gagged by gaga) - she will immediately claim solidarity with gays and champion equality, and march off to applause.  What a role model.

In any case, Adam, you are left to figure out what it is you did and whether it was intentional (envelope pushing like Madonna and Britney) or accidental / spur of the moment (simply the desire to kiss a guy you have probably wanted to kiss publicly).

Your choice.  Take a stand and accept the consequences.












sex

Music Soothes

Well, according to Neil Young (Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young) he "has lost all hope that music can change the world." He doubts that "a single song can make a difference."

He opted to attack President Bush, which is easy, the guy is defenseless "What is wrong with George Bush? That would take a really long time. let's talk about what is right with him, it is a much shorter answer." AFP, 2/8/08 - Music Cannot Change the world, says Neil Young.

Neil - at least he didn't think a song could change the world. He's ahead of you.

Saying goodbye to a mother ... a little early.

I do not believe I have lowered myself to needing a fix of celebrity nor of writing about them and will not do so again, but for the recent (last couple weeks) events.

I liked Heath Ledger. I thought he was a good actor, better than many who are touted as superstars. He did not die accidentally - taking 1 too many of anything. He was an addict and he died from an addiction that went too far. He left a daughter who will never know her father but for the few films he made and they only showed the fictional side of Ledger, not the father. She will never remember him, will not have any memory of his holding her, but for a photo. He will not be there for her first day of school or graduation. His addiction took him and his daughter suffers.

Chad Butler - nothing dramatic like Marilyn, but addiction again. Whatever the music and whatever the form, his addiction took him away and left a void for a family that mourns.

Brad Renfro - 25 years old. I cannot say I thought him a great actor, but he was far from the worst. He was taken by his addiction to heroin. It took him and left a family that mourns.

Three in the last six weeks. So many others, you could fill a page from the Chateau Marmont to the Viper room, singers and actors taken away by addiction. Anna Nicole Smith, perhaps not the best at anything, but still undeserving of death at her age or in the way she died. Addiction took her and left a daughter who will never know her mother. A daughter who will suffer her entire life with a loss that will never be filled by a sperm donor and his friend. What a bloody tragedy for that baby girl - to have a grandmother who is next to certifiable, and a biological sperm donor who has little interest in his daughter compared to how he is perceived. What happens to her is on his hands AND on Anna Nicole Smith's soul. She is equally responsible. Tragically, when history repeats itself the media will play up every angle but the one they should.

Britney Spears - I will admit, I liked most of what I heard from her. She was an entertainer and that is what singers and actors are supposed to do - entertain. I do not need nor want them to lecture or educate me. They would have a difficult time, all of them together, coming close to being useful enough to paint your house properly - but they do serve a purpose - to entertain, and Britney did that. Where and when it all went haywire will be what future biographies try to explicate. I make no pretense at knowing anything, but what we hear and read and maybe infer from what we see unfold on our screens nearly every day with her unhealthy behavior. What bothers me the most is two little boys will never know their mother, and her addictions and illness will take her away from the only two people who really could and would love her unconditionally. That angers me more than the fact she will be taken away as the others were - because she could be helped, intervention could be managed, and it could be remedied. In a year or two, she could be healthy enough to see her children and within a year or two after that, she could, while still young, stage a halfhearted comeback and earn enough to tide her over for the rest of her life if she lived modestly. She would have her children and they would have her. that is all they would ever want - their unfulfilled pleas in the darkest of night, broken hearts, empty lives.

Instead, an addiction and foolish, feckless, immoral, repugnant people manipulate her for gain. From the media who would not leave you alone. When you were on top the mainstream media referenced you, but when you fell apart on the world stage, they played it up to the hilt. The magazines and paparazzi who followed you everywhere, were directed or instigated in their pursuit of you - whatever the case, you were hounded and instead of respecting your very real need for privacy, they fed off your carcass long before you or they knew you were dead.

Shame on them, on the poodle and the rasputin, on your lawyers, managers, and parents - shame on all of them. You cannot hide behind the law when God reveals all. Lawyers have responsibilities but they also have hearts and families and understand what death is. They should understand their role in your demise, for their Judge will not let them forget.

There are moments, brief that they may be, when I pray that God is real and is the very angry God of the Bible for in those moments I know these people who feed the addictions and manipulate the innocent, feign their legal duties and or obligations - will understand the warmth of hell's embrace for eternity.

Goodbye Britney. I know I am a little bit early (a month, a year, or maybe a couple) with this, but you have resumed your erratic lifestyle within minutes of being set lose on Los Angeles. It's back to Rite-Aid for lipstick and the gas stations for the paparazzi. You have become a joke and the world knows it. The poodle who is sucking off you now - he can make all the interviews he may wish, the world knows what he is and his protests will make no difference. The rasputin reptile will face the same - the world knows what they are and while they may live the rest of their lives in the gutter, no one will let them stick their dirty, smelly heads above the sewer line.

Goodbye and I am sorry for your sons.


Post script: Few people would have guessed the changes that occured in Britney's life between February and April, but, as a result of the actions taken by people (parents), she is doing much better and hopefully ... the positive changes will continue.







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