Lever's Book of the Dead

In the last post we were talking about Neil from the Young Ones and I was inspired to go find "Neil's Book of the Dead", something I owned as a kid but somehow lost/had stolen as is the case with all cool things in a young person's life, or did I just have a bunch of shifty friends?? (BTW that was a silent f )

So I looked for a cheap 2nd hand copy of this out-of-print tome and found one with somebody in the US. In the description was this odd little credit; "from the estate of the late Greg Shaw"

Intriguing but I think nothing of it. I order "Neil's Book of the Dead". It turns up. I'm so hippy

And there, inside the front cover, an envelope, pressed, at home between the dust cover and the folio page... An inked letter adressed to Greg Shaw, BOMP!, CA 91510 and a phone number for guest list/booking info, with a 25c US stamp and a Los Angeles postmark PM, 17 January 1990. Actually it's not a letter, it's a poster... Blackbird, Lingerie, January 19.

How very interesting...

So I go do some quick research and it only turns out that Greg Shaw is this very cool dude who set up the Bomp! record label, which released recordings by Devo, The Germs, Stiv Bators (of The Dead Boys), he founded the now-defunct "Mojo-Navigator Rock & Roll News" and "Phonograph Record" Magazines, wrote "The Doors on the Road", was manager for the Flamin' Groovies, used the term "Punk" to describe '70s rock 'n' roll before what we now all know and love as "punk" became punk after which he then he called rock 'n' roll "garage", coined the term "power pop", set up the Voxx record label...

Unfortunately Greg Shaw died in October 2004, but you can read all about him here with a TON of info & links to follow if you're so inclined.

I haven't yet found out who/what Blackbird is yet though...

But man, that's a nice and unexpected little piece of history here