Tuesday 27 July 2021























'Helium'
(taken from the best-seller:
'The Slightly Dubious History of Rock' by Titus Luxor
- available at all good book stores)

I was wondering how old Nad Sylvan was.
So I Googled it (other search engines are available)
Turns out he's 62. Older than I thought.
I think Nad is OK. He grasps the poisoned chalice of
'trying to be Peter Gabriel' and gulps it down like a German in a Bier-Keller.
Sometimes he screws up, but mostly he's great.
I've heard lots of recordings/seen PG do 'Supper's Ready' live
and even HE can't sing it.
Shit, those albums are one-offs.
Nobody can sing it. Parts of 'Williow Farm' are done with Helium FFS!
Actually there is a long lost 1972 BBC documentary which was never aired
partly because they discovered the bulk of the footage
was Phil Collins counting his money, but mainly because
the original film reels were lost in a mysterious fire
(allegedly started when Tony Banks poured petrol
through the letter-box and tossed in a lighted match)
In one surviving snippet (look for it on YouTube)
our intrepid BBC reporter stops a member of the backstage crew
"And what do you do?" he asks in a 'terribly' British way
"I'm Peter Gabriel's Helium roadie".
Well...that inspired  the name of one of the biggest rock bands you've never heard of. of.
'Peter Gabriel's Helium Roadie' (PGHR) were phantasmagorical
(with a capital F)
































They were very, very big in Japan.
From the catchy pop of 'Oh Baby the Juice is Runnin' Down My Leg'
to the far-out, side long, space epic that is 'Star of Serious'.
Of course there were line-up changes/dead drummers
but 'The Helium' as the hard core fans called them, always 'Rocked'
(with a capital W) (the singer had issues with his false teeth)
The whole band trgically died in a mysterious fire
(allegedly started when Tony Banks poured petrol through the letter-box and...
(STOP IT...Ed.)
regards
Titus

afterthought:
I write things at times
On occasions it rhymes
If this causes one smile
Then it's all been worthwhile

8 comments:

  1. Never heard of Nad Sylvan and the rest obviously verges on defamation, and i´ve always liked the 80´s chartbusters the remaining members put out, but i´d say you got a knack for this... is it called absurdist humor over at your parts too? It got me giggling badly :-D, wondering where this would all end up. A part two would be nice, but maybe a bit risky ;-D.

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  2. I'd say it was satire but absurdist is good. The problem is, as you say, it requires the reader to have some prior knowledge. Cheers for reading

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  3. Well, cheers to you and thanks for taking the time to post this stuff (and all else). I´m sure that you know that every good lie has a fair amount of truth mixed in as reinforcement to make it pass at least basic stress tests, i mean basic examination :-D.

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  4. I had waited YEARS to see Steve Hackett live. And then Nad Sylvan ruined it for me.

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  5. Father Tiresias30 July 2021 at 12:12

    I like him, too. He`s doing a good job. But i also thought that he was younger. Well, "time is a jet plane". Even my former fantasy KateBooshka will be 63 years today ... and we're still running up that hill.

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