#john leach

[rhetthammersmithhorror]

Witch's Night Out | 1978

[wolfgang1097]

Halloween Chaos

What's up folks? It's me, Ari. In honor of tonight's spooky holiday, I want to share a little bit of a crossover with y'all:

(Sorry I didn't use any color; I'm running out of paint. Don't worry, when I get more paint, I'll get this colored and post a colored version and monochrome version in future (possibly for next year along with something else).)

Anybody remember Witch's Night Out? As you can see here, the witch herself is in the background chillin' in somebody's lawnchair as she watches White Spy (as a werewolf), Black Spy (as a vampire), and Phil (as a Frankenstein monster) make absolute fools of themselves because Halloween is a holiday where everybody gets to cut loose for once during the year and be whatever or whoever they want, just as she (the witch) intended. This time, the witch has a wand bag on her to make sure some rat doesn't steal her magic wand again just like that one time.

You may be wondering why I drew Black Spy, White Spy, and Phil the way they are. Well, wolves are part of the canine family (including werewolves, technically) and we all know White is a dog person. Black is apparently insanely comfortable with the supernatural (*cough*For Whom the Belle's Toad*cough*), not to mention that he even incorporated vampirism into at least a couple of his schemes. Yes, I did draw Black in his outfit he wore in the paperback strip "Pearl-1 Hit-2," but this time he has his actual pearl pin, has his hair slicked back, and is donning a black cape. As for Phil, he is stronger than both Black Spy and White Spy despite his tall, skinny, and lanky appearance. Apparently, he wanted to be a Frankenstein monster anyway, and he probably said it right just like Bazooey did.

Anyway, hope y'all like this. Happy Halloween. Peace.

I do not claim ownership of any content. Anytown's Witch's Night Out belongs to Leach/Rankin Productions and Jonathan Rogers. Spy vs. Spy belongs to the defunct MAD magazine and Antonio Prohias. Phillip "Phil" Dengler belongs to me.

[northernexposureonly]

CHRIS IN THE MORNING: Listen, Cicely. Can you hear it? Spring's sweet cantata. The stains of grass pushing through the snow. The song of buds swelling on the vine. The tender timpani of a baby robin's heart.

NORTHERN EXPOSURE 3.19 Wake Up Call

[20y2]

[longliverockback]

The Alan Parsons Project Pyramid [Super Deluxe Edition] 2024 Cooking Vinyl ——————————————————————— Tracks LP One: Half Speed Mastering 01. Voyager 02. What Goes Up… 03. The Eagle Will Rise Again 04. One More River 05. Can’t Take It with You

Tracks LP Two: Half Speed Mastering 06. In the Lap of the Gods 07. Pyramania 08. Hyper-Gamma-Spaces 09. Shadow of a Lonely Man

Tracks CD One: 01. Voyager 02. What Goes Up… 03. The Eagle Will Rise Again 04. One More River 05. Can’t Take It with You 06. In the Lap of the Gods 07. Pyramania 08. Hyper-Gamma-Spaces 09. Shadow of a Lonely Man 10. Voyager • What Goes Up… • The Eagle Will Rise Again [instrumental version] 11. What Goes Up… • Little Voice [early version demo] 12. Can’t Take It With You [early version demo] 13. Hyper-Gamma-Spaces [demo] 14. The Eagle Will Rise Again [alternative version backing track] 15. In the Lap of the Gods, Part 1 [demo] 16. In the Lap of the Gods, Part 2 [backing track rough mix]

Tracks CD Two: Eric Woolfson’s Songwriting Diary 01. Pyramid Structure Talking 02. Little Voice • What Goes Up… 03. The Eagle Will Rise Again 04. One More River 05. In the Lap of the Gods 06. Pyramania 07. Broken • Pyramania 08. Shadow of a Lonely Man 09. Start of writing «Gemini for Eye in the Sky» 10. Start of writing «Nothing Left to Lose» 11. Start of writing «Snake Eyes» 12. Pyramid [instrumental] 13. Pyramid [clavichord] 14. Little Voice 15. Broken 16. On It Goes 16. Open Your Eyes 17. If I Could Do It All Again 18. We Can Do It 19. Taking It All Away 20. Elsie’s Theme 21. Hazel’s Theme 22. My Name Is Lorna

Tracks CD Three: Studio Recordings Vol. 1 01. Voyager [backing track out take] 02. Voyager [early stage] 03. Voyager [vocal experiment] 04. Voyager [light relief jam] 05. Voyager [early mix] 06. Voyager [John Leach Kantele take] 07. What Goes Up… • Little Voice [demo] 08. What Goes Up… [Dean Ford vocal take] 09. What Goes Up… [isolated choir take] 10. What Goes Up… [early rough mix] 11. What Goes Up… [choir] 12. The Eagle Will Rise Again [Colin Blunstone vocal take excerpts] 13. The Eagle Will Rise Again [rough mix featuring backing vocals] 14. The Eagle Will Rise Again [orchestral Strings] 15. The Eagle Will Rise Again [rough mix backing track]

Tracks CD Four: Studio Recordings Vol. 2 01. One More River [intro takes] 02. One More River [Lenny Zakatek lead vocal takes] 03. One More River [Lenny Zakatek vocal gymnastic takes] 04. One More River [experimental break] 05. Can’t Take It with You [rough mix] 06. In the Lap of the Gods [John Leach cimbalom takes] 07. In the Lap of the Gods [choir Takes] 08. In the Lap of the Gods [backing track takes] 09. In the Lap of the Gods [orchestral Strings] 10. In the Lap of yhe Gods [Hail to the King choir] 11. Hyper-Gamma-Spaces [projectron] 12. Shadow of a Lonely Man [Eric Woolfson’s piano take] 13. Shadow of a Lonely Man [Alan Parsons’ experimental demo vocal] 14. Shadow of a Lonely Man [Eric Woolfson’s demo vocal] 15. Shadow of a Lonely Man [orchestral woodwind] 16. Shadow of a Lonely Man [Olive Simpson backing vocals] 17. Pyramid [US radio advert 1] 18. Pyramid [US radio advert 2] 19. Pyramid [Bob Harris cinema playback introduction] 20. Pyramid [audio guide Alan Parsons commentary] 21. Pyramid [audio guide Eric Woolfson commentary 1] 22. Pyramid [audio guide Eric Woolfson commentary 2]

Tracks Blu-ray: Original album remastered in Stereo 2024 01. Voyager 02. What Goes Up… 03. The Eagle Will Rise Again 04. One More River 05. Can’t Take It with You 06. In the Lap of the Gods 07. Pyramania 08. Hyper-Gamma-Spaces 09. Shadow of a Lonely Man ———————————————————————

Ian Bairnson

Colin Blunstone

Stuart Elliott

Dean Ford

Phil Kenzie

Jack Harris 

John Leach

Duncan Mackay

John Miles

David Paton

Alan Parsons

Eric Woolfson

Lenny Zakatek

* Long Live Rock Archive

[haveyouseenthismovie-poll]

[politicaldilfs]

In Memoriam

Bah, humbug. I'm fighting a cold and, of course, severe dread over the current state of the world. Normal Christmas Day stuff. So all of that considered, I decided to work on an In Memoriam post to help close out this wonderful holiday season, a first for this blog. Real festive, don't you think? Here's some daddies who passed away in 2024. Enjoy fapping to these deceased gentlemen? (I know I will.)

[mikyapixie]

6 years ago today Ralph Breaks The Internet released in theaters!!!

Did you know that they were going to give Ralph a girlfriend & big sister to Vanellope in the movie until they decided to cut her out of the movie entirely???

[eppysboys]

Sam Leach and Joan McEvoy's Engagement Party, 17th March 1962 🕺💃

Earlier in the evening, The Beatles performed at the Village Hall in Knotty Ash, Liverpool. The evening was billed as a "St. Patrick's Night Rock Gala". Sam Leach, (Liverpool concert booker) booked The Beatles and Rory Storm and The Hurricanes to draw a big crowd so that he could make enough profits to pay for his engagement party, scheduled to follow the night's show. Both bands attended Leach's party, which didn't end until the following afternoon. Also present at the party was Mike McCartney, Paul's girlfriend Dorothy 'Dot' Rhone, Brian Epstein, Bob Wooler and Ted 'Kingsize' Taylor.

In his book Sam Leach has a distinct memory of 'a gang of us' (presumably including Beatles and Hurricanes) travelling to the party from Knotty Ash in a van. Their driver (not Neil Aspinall) pulled out from the Village Hall into the path of a speeding articulated lorry which seemed to have appeared from nowhere. Everyone braced themselves for the inevitable impact but miraculously the lorry, its brakes screeching hysterically, managed to stop less than a foot from the side of the van. Shocked, stunned, shaken and stirred, everyone in the van travelled the 1.5 miles to the party in complete silence. 

Hurricane Johnny 'Guitar' Byrne diary entry for 1962 mentions the party:

"Bought Zodiac. Knotty Ash, Orrell, then Sam Leach's engagement party. Had row with Eileen. Got home 6."

The party was at the family house in Huyton, thrown by Dolly, mother of Vera and Joan McEvoy.

"I can vouch for the fact that Brian fell in love with Vera and pursued her all night. In fact after the party he wrote more than one letter to Dolly asking her could she help him fix a date with Vera. Unfortunately for Brian she wasn't interested." Sam Leach (She seemed a little interested, as displayed below)

"Brown, who was married (but separated) at the time of her liaison with Epstein in 1962, describes him as "...very emotional. He always gave the impression of being cold and icy, but he was very softhearted, very tender, very gentle, and he had a lot of feelings. And he was all man, I don't care what they say." (Ray Coleman, The Man Who Made The Beatles)

"We’d been to the Knotty Ash Club for my sister’s engagement. The Beatles had played there, as did Rory [Storm] and a few other groups. Afterwards, as usual, we all went back to the house and Brian came along.

If you saw the Beatles in my mother’s they were just a scruffy bunch of boys. And who’d look at them? I wouldn’t bother with them but then Brian stood out and Brian looked like the real thing. He was handsome. He was tall. He was immaculate. That’s why I let Brian get behind the bar with me and help me serve the drinks. He was the best of the bunch.

So we were just behind the bar when Elvis came on, 'Heartbreak Hotel’. He loved it, I loved it, and we started dancing. There wasn’t much room. You know, you could go two steps forward, three steps back and that was it. So we sort of got a bit close and everyone was laughing at us, saying, like, 'What’s going on?’ But if you moved sideways you fell over the crates. There were crates of beer in there and everybody’s coats. We ended up on top of the coats or on top of the crates if we just moved the wrong way. And we got pretty close but I wasn’t surprised by the way he was acting towards me.

We were dancing and kissing at the same time. He was probably one of the sexiest fellas I had ever met. People say, 'Oh well, Brian was gay.’ but he wasn’t very gay with me. He was just like any other man and more. He was very easy-going and casual and funny. He’d make you laugh and he could dance. You know he could move. He said to me, 'I’ve seen you in different places and I thought you were stuck up.’ And I said, 'Well, I thought you were stuck up because I remember being in your shop and you were like the big boss.’

I think he was pretty fresh. In a house where people are looking at you it’s not like a club with all the lights out and people tend to be aware of others but Brian wasn’t that bothered. He was interested and he showed it. Maybe he’d had a bit too much to drink. I don’t know. But I can’t say that because I met Brian afterwards and he was still interested.

The next day he called round to the house. I wasn’t there so he talked to my mother about poetry. I don’t know how they got talking about poems but Brian came the following day with a book of poems for my mother with a little letter. He also gave her a letter thanking her for having the party because everyone had made such a terrible mess of the house. It was full of eggs and rubbish and bottles everywhere and he apologized for the actions of everybody else at the party.

Well, my mother just thought he was the most wonderful person in the world. At last a gentleman has come through this door and not Teddy boys and hooligans and all the rest of it. In the first letter he said he’d enjoyed meeting her, loved coming to the house, felt so welcome and would she mind if he came around again to see me. I said to my mum, 'Well, that’s impossible. How can I see him? You know I can’t go out with Brian.’ She said, 'You will have to’.

My mother was in love with Brian: 'He’s beautiful. He’s wonderful.’ So she sort of arranged it. I didn’t want him to come and pick me up at the house because I didn’t want people to see us going out. I arranged to meet him in a little cafe in Bold Street. We had a coffee and a chat and then I can’t really remember where we went. We went somewhere for a drink around Bold Street where there were all these little dives at the time. But I had to be back for nine o'clock. Another time I met him in the Tower and we had a little chat. We met in the back office and had a talk.

I liked Brian as a man and I think Brian liked me. But then he suggested if we were to go out we’d have to go to Southport or Manchester - anywhere out of Liverpool because he didn’t want to walk into my husband in Liverpool. We were separated at the time but it was a little bit awkward, you know.

It’s hard for me to believe Brian was gay. I think if I had been free and if I’d seen more of Brian I think we could have got serious. I think he was all man. I just can’t accept that he was gay.

In the shop Brian seemed like a man, like your dad shouting at you and superior. He had an attitude of superiority. But later on I discovered he was just like any other man. I thought he was a very passionate, loving person. He was like two different people. So if there’s a third person involved - this gay person - I just say he’s one hell of a man to be able to please everybody. You know, he was just unique. That’s all I can say." Vera Brown, In His Life, The Brian Epstein Story.

"George always fancied Joan and when I began dating her, he asked her to let him know when she finished seeing me. 'But don't tell Sam', he added. 'He’d batter me!' Today she probably feels like battering me for spoiling her chances." Sam Leach, The Rocking City

"Later in the evening, Joan had a headache and said she was going upstairs for a lie down. I went to fetch a couple of aspirins from the kitchen and said I'd follow her. Bob Wooler then made a typically cheap remark about pre-marital sex. Before I had a chance to sort him out, Paul and George grabbed him and made him personally apologise to Joan." Sam Leach, The Rocking City

"Rory Storm was lying on the floor hopelessly drunk. He shouted up to Paul, 'I wanna be in the picture'. So, as you can see, Paul bent down and lifted his foot into the shot." Sam Leach

"The night rolled on and I found Lennon, completely sloshed, sitting in the kitchen rolling raw eggs down Ann Barton's birds-nest hairstyle. Each time one broke, he gave a gasp of astonishment at the gooey yellow mess spreading across the tiled floor. Dolly found out and gave him a severe rollicking, which sobered him up enough to utter a sincere, 'Sorry, Mrs Mac'. Everyone liked and respected Dolly McEvoy and that was the only time I ever saw Lennon genuinely humbled. He disappeared for a while after that and was found later fast asleep in the bath.

When he finally came downstairs, he once again started to apologise. Dolly had forgotten all about it, but he was still apologising as he left at nine the next morning. As we stood outside, he shook my hand gravely. 'That was the very best party I've ever been to . . . honest,' he croaked. I was pleased everyone had enjoyed themselves, but when John started thanking me for a third time, I put him in a taxi and packed him off home. As he left, I slipped an egg into his pocket. He never did tell me how that hatched out." Sam Leach, The Rocking City

[blondebrainpowered]

A Fish Called Wanda, 1988

[wonka-vision-1971]

These are who I would cast for Phantom of the Paradise, Ik Linda Ronstadt and David Bowie were ideas to be put in the movie but in my opinion it still works.

Warren Zevon as Winslow Leach

Linda Ronstadt as Phoenix

Elton John as Swan

David Bowie as Beef

Meat Loaf as Philbin

Bonus pic of Linda and Paul Williams together, OH and Warren Zevon actually wanted Linda to sing the music he played and wrote so that's kinda funny.

[idontwanttospoiltheparty]

The Virtues of Amsterdam

On the topic of John and Brian's relationship and the buildup to the Barcelona trip, a passage from the book The Rocking City: The Explosive Birth of the Beatles was brought to my attention, which I found interesting so I wanna post it here and talk a bit about it.

Background: Sam Leach was a promoter in the early 60s, and put on many shows for the Beatles, whom he met after they returned from their first Hamburg residence. In 1999 he published a book chronicling his connection with the band.

The author situates the following passage, found on p. 159 here, in early 1962, after an evening of pub crawling with Sam, John, Paul (who by this point has gone home), and Brian.

Brian was doing the driving that night, so didn't have too much to drink. About four in the morning, he dropped me at my house and I invited him and John in for a coffee. The Beatles had no bookings that weekend and as we sat around the kitchen table, Brian was trying to persuade John to go with him on a short break to Amstendam. In those days, few of us knew much about homosexuality and I thought it was a good idea for John to go. 'The break will do you good, John, I said, casually, to which he gave me a short, sharp kick to the shins under the table. Looking at his bleary eyes, I figured he was well tanked up and ignored him. Brian continued to extol the virtues of Amsterdan and again I said John should go and enjoy himself. This time his kick drew blood and I glared at him angrily. At that moment, Brian excused himself and went to use the toilet. Once he was out of the room, I reached across the table and grabbed John by the collar, hissing, 'What are you playing at?' He doubled up with laughter and gasped. 'You bloody fool! Can't you see he's after me?' If anyone ever had a blank expression on their face, I did then. My befuddled brain struggled to grasp his meaning. Well, it was 1962! Nevertheless, I nodded sagely. 'Oh… I see.' When Brian returned, I got John out of the situation by reminding him of a forthcoming party. 'I was forgetting Rory's getting engaged on Saturday. We're all invited, so I'm afraid Amsterdam is out.' Lennon's reply didn't help. 'Is Rory getting engaged again?' Clearly disappointed, Brian dropped the subject. At Rory's 'engagement' party, I collared John and asked him what he'd meant by Brian being 'after him'. Hooting with laughter, Lennon told the gathering what had happened and everyone had a good laugh at my expense. The next time I took my Tower publicity material to NEMS, it was an embarrassed Brian who asked if John had said anything about him. His relief was obvious when I lied. No. Why should he?'

My anon was implying that the above passage demonstrates Brian putting pressure on John early on in their relationship, when the power was more tipped in Brian's favour.

While I agree that before securing a recording contract John's position was more precarious and Brian was arguably the more powerful one out of the two (though John was already enjoying a decent amount of local fame by this point), I feel this passage actually shows that*, even when John was in an objectively less powerful position than the one he was in by April 1963, he seemingly had no qualms ignoring Brian's invitation, since he never did accompany him to Amsterdam. This would indicate that when he accepted a similar invitation a year later, it was not because he felt it would be career-ending to turn Brian down.

Now, does that mean John definitely went to Barcelona because he was nothing but enthusiastic about the prospect of alone time with Brian? Not necessarily! The account he provided Pete Shotton about his sexual encounter with Brian might suggest that John was more relenting to Brian's apparently endless advances, rather than eagerly consenting ("Eppy just kept on and on at me."). Of course, both Pete in his book and John within this anecdote have an incentive to play down any genuine interest John may have had, but there's certainly a plausible version of events here where maybe Brian does not take no for an answer and spends possibly over a year propositioning John until he finally acquiesces. While this scenario certainly doesn't put Brian in the most flattering light, it's very different from the idea that Brian directly harnessed his position as John's manager to coerce him into sex.

Personally, I'd say the above passage from Leach's book makes it seem like John found all of this mostly amusing, at least by this point in time. It could definitely have eventually stopped being fun to him, but I also think it's very possible that John was consistently giving Brian mixed signals and perhaps quite deliberately keeping him hanging.

*I'm taking the passage from Leach's book at face value here, but I think it would be fair to question whether the author was (perhaps entirely subconsciously!) informed by the Barcelona story and misremembered some details here. I do think this is based on a real memory, but it should never be forgotten that a lot of Beatle anecdotes have been heavily influenced by narratives.

[duranduratulsa]

Up next on my 80's Fest Movie 🎬 🎞 🎥 🎦 📽 marathon...Weird Science (1985) on amazing blu-ray! #Movie #movies #comedy #teenmovies #weirdscience #johnhughes #anthonymichaelhall #ilanmitchellsmith #kellylebrock #BillPaxton #ripbillpaxton #robertdowneyjr #RobertRusler #SuzanneSnyder #brittleach #JudieAronson #michaelberryman #davidleeroth #bluray #80s #80sfest #durandurantulsas6thannual80sfest

[longliverockback]

The Alan Parsons Project I Robot [SACD] 1984 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab ————————————————— Tracks: 01. I Robot 02. I Wouldn’t Want to Be Like You 03. Some Other Time 04. Breakdown 05. Don’t Let It Show 06. The Voice 07. Nucleus 08. Day after Day (the Show Must Go On) 09. Total Eclipse 10. Genesis Ch.1 V.32 —————————————————

Ian Bairnson

Allan Clarke

B.J. Cole

Stuart Elliott

Steve Harley

Jack Harris

John Leach

Duncan MacKay

Alan Parsons

David Paton

Peter Straker

Stuart Tosh

Dave Townsend

Eric Woolfson

Lenny Zakatek

* Long Live Rock Archive

[johnschneiderblog]

It couldn't have happened to a better guy

And I mean that quite literally. I've heard my friend Hugh Leach called a gentleman's gentleman. The shoe fits him perfectly.

If you paid any attention to the Lansing State Journal in its heyday, you no doubt saw Hugh Leach's byline. He already was a reporter when I joined the LSJ staff in 1977. He retired in 2008; I followed suit four years later.

As you can see, Hugh ran into some good luck recently - a $2-mill prize on a scratch-off ticket. As he told the Michigan Lottery folks, his habit was to buy one $20 scratch-off every two weeks:

"When I saw I matched '02' for a $2 million prize, I thought: 'Wait a minute. This can’t be right.' I looked the ticket over a few more times and then said to my wife: 'I think I just won $2 million!'"

Answering the obligatory questions posed to a new millionaire, Leach listed a new lawnmower among the first things he planned to buy.

That's our boy.