The deep twang came from guitarist Esteban his duelling partner Miguel added a swooning way with a melody. The music of Jesus Escovedo would live on!Įach brother added something different to the band's sound. Stranger still, the four discovered they were all musicians over a tequila-fuelled wake they realised they had found their mission in life - The Bikini Beach Band was formed. The four mourners who met that day were his sons - Miguel, Esteban, Juan and Ricardo.

Because in all those years of touring Jesus' good looks and charm had never deserted him, and a string of beautiful women had poured sour cream on the burning chilli of his soul. The sole mourners were four young men who all arrived clad in black suits, black ties, sunglasses and fezzes. He died a bitter and broken man in 1993.īut at his funeral, a strange thing happened.

Tried again, failed tried, failed.and finally failed without actually trying. The Termytes' ï¿½Mersey Tube Riderï¿½ (Provincial) also failed. He changed his name - and hairstyle - and tried again. His debut single, Gringo Woody Stomp (Mecca Recordings), was released on the same day as The Beatles' She Loves You consigned the British instrumental scene to history. He landed in Southampton, convinced Britain Homeland, he escaped by stowing away on aĬruise liner with only a guitar, a Hawaiian shirt

Escovedo - guitarist, revolutionary,įorced by his political beliefs to flee from his (Even if I do say so myself.Of The Bikini Beach Band begins with one man. Nietzsche is my philosophical idol and my collection of Aphorisms, Notes From The Autopsy of God, which I have been tweeting recently, is very Nietzschian in style. Philosophically I would describe myself as an optimistic nihilist or a jaded humanist. is a homage to Brautigan (have a look at the cover of Revenge of the Lawn, The Abortion, So the Wind Wont Blow It All Away). Brautigan’s writing never ceases to amaze me even though I have read his work many times, (and read him often to my students) his casual inventive turn of phrase - his sheer audacity with the written word still leaves me breathless.Ī reviewer once said of some of my short stories that they were ‘brazenly inconsequential’ I loved the phrase because it reminded me of Brautigan’s work. I found a battered old copy of Slapstick, or Lonesome No More in my year off before college in a second hand book shop in the back streets of Katmandu…as you do.Īnother important influence on my work is the also late and also great Richard Brautigan. This should come as no shock since it was Vonnegut who inspired me to become a writer. My writing, I am sometimes told, is reminiscent of the late great Kurt Vonnegut. this book's rare pleasure is that, as well as numerous running gags, it boasts a wealth of conceptual and structural jokes.' is a venomously intelligent and funny novel with a richly European combination of whimsy and seriousness.

Scepticism Inc by Bo Fowler