It started off pleasantly enough - bit of snackage and cup of tea in Tony’s Caff, followed by a stroll around the bookshop. But then we had to walk past HMV on the way home. Boyf, it seems, is afflicted with some kind of condition that makes this physically impossible. So, as always, we ended up going into HMV.
Wandering over to the books section, my interest was piqued by the following title - Slash: Surviving Guns N' Roses, Velvet Revolver and Rock's Snake Pit.
Slash grew up in the place where most of the best people come from and that is
‘Cool,’ I thought, ‘I wonder what it says about when he was a kid in Stoke…’
But what the author, Paul Stenning, had written was not cool. At all. He started by saying that Slash was born in Hampstead in
“inexplicably moved to Stoke”.
Then went to say that when Slash was about 11 the family moved to
“A world away from the old, dank streets of working class Stoke.”
And then, as if he hadn’t been rude enough about my proud, unique, and highly-creative home city, he said Slash had some difficulties fitting in at school in Calfornia because,
“As anyone who has come across a Stoke native knows, that particular vernacular of speech is very distinctive, often grating and perhaps the hardest of accents to shake off.”
Aside from the wrongness of what he said about Stoke, you would expect a rock biographer to know that strong accents are an essential element to being a proper rock star. Think about it - The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Jam, Black Sabb - what would they be without their accents?
I’ll tell you what they’d be. They'd be McFly.
Paul Stenning would be happier if all rock stars shook off their awful working class accents and became posho members of McFly.
Paul Stenning. More like Paul Stinking I say. And if I ever meet him I shall tell him that, along with many other clever and witty put downs.
Grrr.
(Extra Potteries-points if you can understand the title...)
13 comments:
I'd love to hear Slash with a Stoke accent, I was a bit disappointed when I first heard him speak and there wasn't a hint of Potteries about his voice at all.
It'll be interesting to see what the man himself has to say about his childhood in Stoke when his autobiography comes out at the end of the year.
I believe the term is, LMFAO!
Ooh, I could knock his teeth in?
Sam: Yeah, me too. I heard about the autobiography, might even read that one.
Yorksdevil: :-)
The Moon Topples: Well done, the Potteries points are yours! You should be especially proud as I don't suppose you've been anywhere near Stoke. My accent isn't as strong as all that, it's quite faded nowadays, but I people can still tell I'm from somewhere vaguely north-western.
Hmm, the only person I knew from Stoke was, I believe, a [koff] - "puddleyedded kedger".
Or maybe he just had a speech impediment.
"puddleyedded" I'm familiar with, but "kedger"? You're going to have to enlighten me...
You know, I had no idea Slash hailed from England...then again, I don't really pay much attention to the bands he played in.
Reminds me of a bio of my favorite band I read, it had so many mistakes in it it was embarrassing, and the author acting like the lead singer was the only person in the whole band. Thankfully he realized the error of his ways and rewrote it a few years later. It was much better the second time around.
I was watching the hockey last night and during some of the stoppages they played some Ozzy Osbourne. I was reminded that he is actually a lot clearer when he sings than when he speaks.
I believe a kedger is someone who will say "can you lend me a fiver until pay day, I will pay you back then" when they have absolutely no intention of paying you back.
So a puddleyedded kedger is both a nutter and a scrounger.
But it was the eighties.
Hey! Do you think it was Slash!
I thought the whole idea of rock was rebellion, uprising, etc. Maybe I missed the point completely. If Slash had come from a posh neighborhood he would have been branded a poser.
Silverneurotic: Slash wasn't the writer, so he can be forgiven! Glad your fave band redeemed itself!
Yorksdevil: I'm afraid Ozzy might not be quite the man he was during his singing days...
Metal4Life: Ahh yes, I do remember the term Kedging - seemed to mainly apply to lifts in people cars for some reason.
It was almost definitely slash!
Tenacious: Agreed!
I don't know about Slash, but have you seen those blonde twinnies who've gone into the Big Brother house? (I'm not addicted yet! ;) ) - not sure what they'll do for Stoke's reputation really....I can't understand a word they say! lol! ;)
Love the look of that line-up for the acoustic festy thingy - I wouldn't mind going to that! Thanks for letting us know.
Hope all is well, and you're remembering to write a bit of your novel every once in a while... still waiting......!
Have a great weekend, Julia. Glad to see the odd post coming through these days. It's a busy old time, eh? :)
I once got to talk to Tommy Gunn on the phone (one of the founders of guns and roses). A friend of mine was hanging out with him in a bar in America. It was quite a short conversation though as Tommy was allegedly hammered and had to leave to play a gig with his new band and had to be on stage in twenty minutes time.
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