BP Fallon | Home of Death Disco New York

BP Fallon has just done the strangest television appearance of his career so far, being interviewed by a pair of puppets on Irish TV. In the celebrated line of such cutting-edge celebrities as Sinead O'Connor and Shane MacGowan, BP travelled to Ballydung Manor to be the special guest on the 100th edition of the hugely popular Podge & Rodge television show.

The anarchic Podge and Rodge are famous for their no-holds-barred pugnacious interview style - often winding up their victims like a clockwork orangutang - but this time they were largely respectful and clearly genuinely fascinated by BP's adventures in music, asking him about everything from working at The Beatles' Apple Records and appearing on Top Of The Pops with John Lennon to his best-selling books on U2 and Boyzone to his acclaimed photographic work.

The programme had the highest viewing figures ever of any Podge & Rodge show.

Says BP "I was a big Podge & Rodge fan before - I wouldn't have gone on their show if I didn't dig them - but having met them I've got to say that they're genius. Absolutely brilliant!"

It was not be the first time that our Mr Fallon has been interviewed by a non-human. When he was promoting his book U2 Faraway So Close, he was interviewed on Irish TV by Dustin The Turkey who has since gone on to enjoy hit records with such fabbos as the late Joe Dolan and Sir Bob Geldof who's almost always on time. In May in Serbia, 'The Duck' as Louis Walsh calls Dustin The Turkey will be singing the song that is Ireland's entry in the 2008 Eurovision Song Contest [This is all true. We are not making this up].

And meanwhile the BP Fallon Podge & Rodge interview can now be seen on YouTube! What a hoot!

Podge & Rodge with BP Fallon
Podge & Rodge with Sinead O'Connor

Special thanks to Marion Cullen & Trevor Keegan & Robert Lanigan | Shimmy Marcus

Photos [above]: Podge & Rodge with BPF by Shimmy Marcus using Fuji FinePix 9500 | Screen grab by shift apple 3

Hot on the heels of being voted 'Best New York Band' in the Village Voice Readers Poll, Semi Precious Weapons arrived in the UK for their first-ever London shows with Alan McGee describing them in The Guardian as "the most important band in America"

Blowing minds at sold-out shows at the hippest clubs in London - The Boogaloo in Highgate, The Queen Is Dead in London's West End and The Old Blue Last in Shoreditch - when new fan Kate Moss was spotted cheering on SPW at Death Disco in Notting Hill Gate the British talboids went into a frenzy.

The reports in The Sunday Times, The Independent [UK], NME and The NY Times were less frenetic, focusing on the rise of SPW.

Having conquered England with their kunty rock'n'roll ditties, our electric warriors nipped over to Paris to dispense French kisses sonically and visually in the beautiful temple of music La Fleche D'Or where the Parisiennes - always hip to the new vibe, especialy when it looks so amazing too - went completely mad for a most stunning rock'n'roll show. Fantastique!

Photos: Justin Tranter and Kate Moss shake a tailfeather at Death Disco London.
SPW do handstands and The Eiffel Tower in Paris France. All pix by BPF using Fuji FinePix 9500

BP FALLON'S WANG DANG DOODLE INTO 2008
RING THEM BELLS: FOUR HOURS OF RADIO RAMALAMA!

Our multi-tasking fave DJ once again brought Ireland - and the whole wide world on the web - into the New Year from the Dublin studios of the top Irish radio station TodayFM with his annual sonic extravaganza BP Fallon's Wang Dang Doodle Into 2008.

Indeed, when he was on the air listeners to the radio and the web could send txt msgs or emails direct to BP in the studio. "No longer does one sit there wondering if anyone's out there. It's an added pleasure that this is interactive broadcasting".

"It was a gas to be doing this live from my hometown Dublin" notes our man with the jukebox tan, "while every week in New York I do my Wang Dang Doodle show which is available 24/7 on BreakThruRadio. And it's a brill vibe that both boogaloos can be heard not just in Ireland or America but all over the world. Global, baby!". With its seven million listeners, BreakThruRadio is the most successful web radio station on the planet and BP Fallon's Wang Dang Doodle is one of the station's most popular shows. And meanwhile from Dublin on TodayFM we had...

SEMI PRECIOUS WEAPONS - WE LOVE YOU

Debut album available to download FREE from www.semipreciousweapons.com

1. Taste
2. Magnetic Baby
3. Semi Precious Weapons
4. Bleed To Heal
5. Genius
6. Her Hair Is On Fire
7. That's Kunt
8. Jesus
9. Time Zones
10. Rock'n'Roll Never Looked So Beautiful

WE LOVE YOU - SEMI PRECIOUS WEAPONS

A Conversation With BP Fallon Part 1 In this intimate chinwag, BP talks to Harley Sears about his childhood in Ireland and Germany, falling in love with rock'n'roll at eleven, the impact of seeing American rock star Gene Vincent, finding himself as a celebrity pop pundit on Irish TV whilst still a schoolboy and the furore it caused - and the influence of working at The Beatles' Apple Records. 9:41

A Conversation With BP Fallon Part 2 In this emotional segment, our man BP talks about working with Marc Bolan and Tyrannosaurus Rex and how they became T.Rex and the joyful lunacy of T.Rextasy... and the sad death of his dear friend Marc. 7:39

A Conversation With BP Fallon Part 3 The Birth of Punk Rock. BP flashes back to the beginnings of punk, talking about everything from Silverhead to Sid Vicious to managing the great Johnny Thunders, a union that produced Johnny's classic So Alone album. 9:15

A Conversation With BP Fallon Part 4 "BP TELLS IT LIKE IT IS. WATCH IT HE'S A GENIUS. BP FALLON IS THE UNSUNG GENIUS OF IRELAND" says Alan McGee, who displays this segment on his MySpace under Heroes and adds' "BP FALLON ROCK'N'ROLL CHARACTER BAR NOBODY". Here, BP talks about Alan McGee and Death Disco and about becoming the manager o f Semi Precious Weapons, SPW producer Tony Visconti, the record industry... and jewelry. 9:02

A Conversation With BP Fallon Part 5 "What's the good in being in a good band? It's absolutely fucking pointless!" In the final part of this superbly informative Harley Sears production, BP on the music business and how to navigate the collapsing record industry, plus Semi Precious Weapons, Ahmet Ertegun, Sam Phillips... and why people listen to music. 9:57

BPF is havin' a rockin' good time on America's leading independent web radio station BreakThruRadio.

BP Fallon's Wang Dang Doodle airs every Friday and is available to stream 24/7. Each one-hour show will continue to be available from The BTR Archive. Says BP “I'm ultra vibed. Such a gas to be DJing music that people can hear on demand anywhere on the planet at any time they choose. Bring it on!"

Hear this week's show, the forty-eighth BP Fallon's Wang Dang Doodle on BTR, with - from London - the Wang Dang Doodle Artist Of The Week Tarka Cordell, bless him. Rest In Peace, Tarka. And thank you for the upful vibes.

Says BP “At the beginning I asked myself if the BTR scheme was some scam, ripping the musicians off. It's not. On terrestial radio, the record company monolith often spends more money on getting the record onto the radio than there is money to be made from getting it played - and you have to pay the record company back. The days of sales of forty million of Thriller by Michael Jackson are long gone. If people get to hear your music and they dig it, they'll come see you play live and live music is booming while the record industry is collapsing. The name of the game is to get your recordings which are your calling card out there into the biggest free-form market, the web.

“For the first time ever, with the likes of MySpace, YouTube, people's own sites, Flickr, etcetera, the control and power is coming to the bands and, even more importantly, to the audiences. BTR is part of this new world and it's a pleasure to DJ there”.

Magnetic Baby/Rock'n'Roll Never Looked So Beautiful/Jesus/Dirty Lady/Snap A Shot/The Otherside
Buy it now!

FREE! THE SEMI PRECIOUS WEAPONS REALITY SERIES MAGNETIC BABY Episodes #1 and #2!

Semi Precious Weapons go back into the studio at the beginning of June with Tony Visconti and Mario McNulty to complete the debut SPW album - already the most eagerly-awaited new recordings from the New York demi-monde since The Ramones first LP. Fuck yeah.

They then hit the road with their brilliantly kunty music, a tongue-in-chic fuck you with an effervescent smile. In some places The Precious Midwest Tour may ruffle a few feathers but those people need to be plucked. The rest of us will get off on the most exciting and fearless new band on the planet. Glamour! Sexuality! Rock'n'Roll! Hit Songs! Killer Musicians! And in Justin Tranter the most charismatic and lewd showman since the king was Prince with his purple reign. You have been warned.

Photo [above]: Justin Tranter in the shower in New York in Tommy and Roy Couture by BPF using Fuji FinePix 9500 and from the latest shots uploaded on BP Fallon's Flickr which as well as SPW also include Carl Barat, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bono as MacPhisto, Anna Nicole Smith, Robert Plant, ModRocket, Mick Jones and Kate Moss.

Also in there somehow: Alan McGee, Tony Visconti, The Stooges, Peaches, Shane MacGowan, Bobby Gillespie, Courtney Love, The Raveonettes, The Hedrons, Phil Lynott, The New York Dolls, Keith Richards, Brian Jones, Ronnie Wood and Andy Warhol.

Plus! See what goes on at Haus Von Precious during one of SPW's famous loft parties, by DejaRad

Plus! OUR FAVE NEW YOUTUBE CLIP: "Sonny And Cher we're not!" Love, playful affection and "Rot in jail, you cunt!"

at home with Kate & Pete and Pete's new warble about her and him, KP Nuts. And fuck the begrudgers.

Thursday March 15 LADY OF LUXURY & ALAN McGEE PRESENT LUSH LIFE
12 midday @ Mugshot 407 E 7th Street, Austin, Texas

Semi Precious Weapons

New York's wildest wildboys Semi Precious Weapons kick off Alan McGee's SXSW Party, playing outside under the Texas sun! Also performing: The Hedrons [Glasgow], Tobias Froberg [Sweden], Vincent Black Shadow [Baltimore] and Earl Greyhound [NYC] plus DJ sets by Death Disco mainmen Alan McGee and BP Fallon. The only time it's cool to come early! Free Admission! RSVP HERE!

Thursday March 15 THE AUSTIN CONVENTION CENTER Room 18ABCD

4.15pm: BP Fallon moderates the SXSW panel 'Artists Speak Out' with panellists Hugh Cornwall from The Stranglers, Marco Pirroni from Siouxsie And The Banshees/Adam And The Ants, Kathy Valentine from The Go Gos and Michael Des Barres of the lock-up-your-daughters combo with whom BP first came to America in 1972, the wild English torn-velvet orchids-in-the-gutter punk group Silverhead.

8pm: Semi Precious Weapons with that provocative cock-in-pocket tongue-in-chic rock star Justin Tranter bringing this show to a volcanic climax! This wipeout thrown by the most passionate NY rock mag kicks off at 4pm and also features Takka Takka, Goes Cube, Foreign Islands and A Place To Bury Strangers.

Saturday March 17 at FACTORYPEOPLE
1325 S. Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas

4pm: Death Disco/Semi Precious Weapons
DJ set by set by BP Fallon and Justin Tranter
The party in this feted emporium of fashion FactoryPeople is titled 'DJ Sets By Rock Stars'

and one of our dodgy duo lives up to the title gorgeously!
Free Admission! All Ages!

You've repeatedly asked us to make it available. And we're happy to bow to pubic pressure! On New Year's Eve so many people all over the world tried to log on to hear BP's live TodayFM broadcast that - like the global Yuletide oversubscription to iTunes - the system crashed. So here - broken up into four ear-sized sonic chunks for your aural pleasure - is the complete 75 tracks of the most rocking radio programme of the year so far!

Part 1: Tracks 01 - 17 [MP3 26mb] Part 2: Tracks 18 - 39 [MP3 33mb]
Part 3: Tracks 40 - 60 [MP3 30mb] Part 4: Tracks 61 - 75 [MP3 29mb]

Want BP Fallon's Wang Dang Doodle Into 2007 on your MP3 player?
PC - Right click a MP3 link and choose "Save Target As…" or "Save Link As…"
Mac - Hold down the Control (ctrl) key and click on a MP3 link - "Download Link to Disk" or "Download Linked File"

Justin Tranter, Chest Rockwell, Cole Whittle and Dan Crean filmed in New York at one
of their magnetic Ars Nova shows. Soundtrack is SPW's signature tune Semi Precious Weapons,
produced by Tony Visconti. Video © 2007 David Becker and Pamela Romanowsky

BP FALLON GETS WEAPONIZED
SEMI PRECIOUS WEAPONS GET FALLON

It's been an open secret in the US music business for several months and now it can be confirmed - BP Fallon is the manager of the hottest new group in America, Semi Precious Weapons.

Says BP "I had no choice. SPW are putting the madness and joy back into rock'n'roll... their music celebrates and elevates and liberates and yes, they'll annoy a few people but that's fine too. And Justin Tranter is one of the most charismatic creatures I've ever met".

Says Semi Precious Weapons mainmain Justin Tranter "A friend of mine sent me to BP's website and after reading two sentences of The Beep Bio I knew this man had to hear me and my band play. I figured if any geezer of importance in NY was going to understand what we were doing, it was him. And after the first time SPW played at Death Disco in New York, BP got on the mic and said 'When these cats got on stage I thought they'd either be crap or brilliant. They're fucking brilliant'.

Justin continues "Nine months later I see that not only does Mr Fallon understand what I'm doing but he understands it better than I do. What a pair we make - the six foot tall platinum blonde frontman of variable sexuality and the five foot tall bald rock'n'roll Yoda! It's a marriage made in glam heaven".

...AND TONY VISCONTI COMES ON BOARD!
BP FALLON AND SEMI PRECIOUS WEAPONS continues >>>

Photos: Justin Tranter @ Ars Nova NYC by BPF | Screen grab from the SPW DVD I Can't Pay My Rent But I'm Fucking Gorgeous by David Becker & Pamela Romanowsky of Cabin Creek Films | Chest Rockwell & Justin Tranter @ The Middle East Boston by BPF

BP FALLON GETS STONED AGAIN
THE ROLLING STONES AT NEW YORK'S INTIMATE BEACON THEATRE

The music of The Rolling Stones is about sex and blood and death and redemption and joy and more sex.

“The Rolling Stones, they're a great fucking group!” mad ol' Phil Spector enthused in the grooves of The Stones 1964 recording Andrew's Blues and it was true then and it's true today and it's true tonight at New York's 2,800 seat Art Deco vaudevillian Beacon Theatre.

Jagger the lithe showman, tight English rock star arse and rock star skinny body, more energy than a cat on a hot tin roof, cunning lyrics from those child-bearing labial lips.

And Keef and Ronnie and MJ when he’s guitaring, these cats can fucking play, this lascivious cauldron of rock’n’roll, blues, country– “Well, we’ve got the hang of it by now” as KR said to BPF somewhere in Germany – and Keef and Ronnie knit and weave their guitars like two old smiling biddies at the foot of the guillotine and Charlie’s great tonight and every night and the catalogue of songs from their forty-plus years is remarkable, a few of which they now air for our sonic delectation: Jumping Jack Flash, Shattered, All Down The Line with Bobby Keys and the brass blaring, Sympathy For The Devil with Lisa Fischer wailing, Some Girls with MJ omitting the line "Black girls just wanna get fucked all night", Tumbling Dice, Start Me Up, Brown Sugar… even Satisfaction sounds vaguely fresh and in Honky Tonk Woman at Mick’s exaggerated delivery of “I laid a divorceeee in Noo Yoik citteaaa!” the Big Apple audience goes even more ape.

We all feel well lucky to be here.

BP FALLON GETS EVEN MORE STONED continues >>>

Photos by + © BPF from The BPF Stones Archive:
Shades Away! Keef’n’Ron Go 3D Olympic Stadium Munich 1998 | Goldilocks and Honest Ron Hotel Kempinski Moscow 1998 | Mick Jagger Olympic Stadium Munich 1998

Mick Jones and BP Fallon are crouched against a wall on Seventh Avenue, pretending to ignore the biting cold wind. These two chums have just snuck out of Movida - the New York club where BP is DJing the 61st Birthday Party of his friend Bob Gruen, the legendary rock'n'roll photographer - for a little Jazz Woodbine vibe.

People hurrying by do a double-take at the man in the elegant suit and the twinkling eyes. One geezer, insulated against the cold by a tatty Ramones t shirt over his corpulent frame, kneels before his Clash hero Maestro Jones and kisses the pavement.

CLASH BANG BOOM continues >>>

Photos: BP Fallon and Mick Jones by chance | Mick Jones climbing the Teotihuacan Pyramid Mexico 1992 by BPF from his book U2 Faraway So Close | Mick Jones NYC 2006 by BPF using Fuji FinePix S9500

He sang in a desultory manner, done it a million times, drawled out Chuck's mighty duo of Sweet Little Sixteen and Roll Over Beethoven and his own double dynamite 1957 explosion of Great Balls Of Fire and Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On, wasn't about to burst a gut at 6.30pm in a New York record store to a bunch of Jerry Lee nutters and a posse of hungry photographers. "You here for work or for fun?" you ask one of the snappers. "Work" he says glumly and you immediately hate him. This fellow's photographing The Killer and he doesn't know how brilliant that is. Idiot.

Jerry Lee Lewis

So Jerry Lee's on autopilot but those hands on the keyboard of the beautiful fire-engine red Baldwin piano... the fingers, they dance, run up and down the keys, tinkle 'em, pound 'em, bash 'em, poke 'em, caress 'em oh so fine and oh so effortlessly and he isn't even trying... well, he's an old cat now... years of hellraising and more drugs and drink than all his Sun Records label-mates Elvis, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison combined. Had more wives than all of 'em, too. And ol' Jerry Lee Lewis is the last man standing.

Photos: Jerry Lee Lewis NYC 2006 by BPF using Fuji FinePix S9500 except The Million Dollar Quartet - Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Elvis and Johnny Cash - at Sun Studios Memphis 1956 courtesy of Sun Records

Following the recent sad death of Arthur Lee, we reflect on the extraordinary New York benefit concert in June for the Love mainman.

“Bernard, you old tart!” exclaims Robert Plant with a big grin on his bearded face as he greets the new arrival, breaking away from a group of people to hug his skinny chum. Will the circle be unbroken? Yes.

Robert, he’s standing backstage at The Beacon Theater when Bernard Patrick Fallon ambles in laden down with CDs and cameras and a candle and incense and a little soundsystem for his dressing room and a plastic bag of electric light-up red peppers for around the top of his DJ booth. BP’s DJing tonight’s concert ie playing in between band changeovers. His friend with the smiling rural face Robert Plant is topping the bill, singing for the first time ever with an American band.

This Plant and Fallon… well, it’s been many a mile and many a smile since they worked together professionally. Mind you tonight, it’s hardly professional in the “We’re getting paid” mode, seeing as they’re giving of their services free to raise money for Love mainman Arthur Lee who’s got acute myelogenus leukemia and is already facing $100,000 in medical bills.

WE DID IT FOR LOVE continues >>>

Photos: Arthur Lee flyer | Robert Plant sings for Arthur Lee by Radek | The DJ & The Singer, The Beacon Theatre NYC 2006 by Bob Gruen | The Rock'n'Roll Guru & The Golden God, The Hyatt House Sunset Strip West Hollywood 1973 photographer unknown courtesy The Beatle BandAides

Our good friends at New York's we-know-what's-happening web emporium Kill Shop Kill are now selling the most must-have item you can put on your body - the famous Death Disco t shirt. Featuring the DD skull'n'earphones logo, this garment by-passes the usual roller-coaster rules of fashion to be satorially suitable for any occasion - movie premiers, hanging out with Neil Young or Paris Hilton or walking the dog... or doing the dog. Dazzle your friends... and yourself in the mirror! Ah, the Death Disco t shirt: tomorrow's look today. Invest in your future here

CARL BARAT DJs AT DEATH DISCO NEW YORK!
A PRETTY DIRTY NIGHT WITH A DIRTY PRETTY THING!

Carl Barat hopped off the plane from London at JFK, popped into The Roseland Ballroom to dig Arctic Monkeys and then high-tailed it to Death Disco New York to DJ up a storm. The Boppin' Barat opened with The Fabs and Paul's shout of "One, two, three, fuh!" into I Saw Her Standing There before slapping on Brown Sugar by The Stones and Carl's leaping about behind the decks as is everyone else on the dancefloor and from then on in it's somewhat of a kaliedescopic blur, adventures in the ozone laced with rock'n'roll and bright young things and another bright young Thing too, all doing the boogaloo and the shimmy shimmy shake and the let's-twitch-awhile... or something.

Carl arrived at DD with Dirty Pretty Things guitarist Anthony Rossomodo and their man of the world, Creation's reknowned Stephen King. Our pal Mr King, he manages these DPT retrobates with our esteemed Death Disco co-founder Alan McGee. "We're a happy family, we're a happy family", The Ramones once sang and BP played The Ramones sliced into The Ventures as well as a bunch of cuts from his fave new album Riot City Blues by Primal Scream plus The Black Keys and Red Organ Serpent Sound and Shirley Ellis and Peter Vogelaar with John Lee Hooker and The Libs' song that namechecks Death Disco, Don't Look Back Into The Sun.

When they played that song at the Death Disco: more words + pix >>>

GW Bush sings the John Lennon song Imagine. See this powerful and disturbing video here

If The Sweet had had brains, they still couldn't have been more colourfully contagious than this going-for-it gang who's compelling lead vocalist frontman is a 21st Century Boy mutant morphing of Ziggy with a bad hangover, Iggy with a mad stylist and Freddie Mercury on the high notes, all drama and quivering tonsils and his hand going up in the air like he's going to drop down a yo yo out of it at any moment. Johnny Thunders, bless him, he'd've laughed at them and then got up to jam and had a ball. What a groove.