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Bookazine Book Review

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Bookazine Book Review: 10 Months in Laos

by Lang Reid

This week’s book review is a tale of an Australian couple who find themselves ensnared in an international web of intrigue and end up spending time in jail in Laos. "10 Months in Laos" (ISBN 1-86350-385-4) is written by Paul Conroy, an Australian journalist, and was published in Australia this year.

The couple, Kerry and Kay Danes, who spend the 10 months in a Laotian jail are, however, not the central characters in the book. Centre stage is a corpse, that of a Max Green, an Australian solicitor and highly educated con man who masterminds a financial scam that fleeces the Australian nouveau riche for countless millions of dollars.

Author Conroy spends much of the book in investigative journalism, following the trail of Max Green’s money transfers, ending up in Cambodia, the country where Max Green was bludgeoned to death. He is indeed a bloodhound, following a paper trail of cheques and transfers from trust accounts, with sizable sums of money eventually ending up in Bangkok, with other sums to Guernsey, the location of which author Conroy claimed not to have been aware. The small tax haven of Guernsey will not be pleased!

Bangkok was visited in the search of the truth, and perhaps what the back cover describes as "Thai transexual (sic) lovers called Ka-toey’s." Our women of the second category get mentioned twice, and have absolutely no bearing on the plot, sub-plot or anything else in the book, and Conroy cannot spell transsexual! This section also contained the well-worn and quite fallacious statement that the Patpong bar girls in Bangkok were sold into slavery by their families!

The review copy was made available by Bookazine, first floor Royal Garden Plaza, next to Black Canyon and Boots and has an RRP of 495 baht. The book had potential, but it was lost in a myriad of minute details. Each chapter I was waiting for the link that was going to hammer the case home, but each time I was disappointed.

There were also too many mistakes in this book, the French actor is Gerard Depardieu, not Gerald and the adjective applied to those well off is well-heeled, not well-healed. That was by page 9 in a book written in the English language by a man for whom English is his native tongue, and a journalist to boot.

Conroy has a talent with his writing, but for a book which took him three years to write it was too loose and too haphazard for me. Most of the names he mentions may have some relevance to Australia, but to English language readers in other countries of the world, these names mean nothing. Other characters, central to the book, are just left hanging in mid air, but not followed through.

It was an intriguing tale which unfortunately did not have a conclusion, nor did Conroy even have a crack at it, and was a little too parochial for it to have a wide appeal. If you are an Australian, then buy this book to reminisce and read one weekend with a tinnie of Fosters. It is a slim volume.

Movie Review: The Banger Sisters

By Poppy

Goldie Hawn is Suzette, a 50-ish rock ‘n’ roll fun girl who, even though she still looks pretty damn good, suddenly realises she has to come to terms with the fact that times have changed.

Suzette loses her job as a bartender at the Whiskey in L.A. After unsuccessfully trying to convince her boss that she’s part of the place’s history ("Jim Morrison passed out in there one night, with me underneath!" she says proudly, waving toward the bathroom). He’s not impressed so she slips a leather jacket over her tattooed biceps, and goes home despondently to her apartment, that is reminiscent of the 60’s and 70’s. Suddenly, she gets the bright idea to seek out her old friend Lavinia (Susan Sarandon), formerly known as Vinnie. She hasn’t seen Vinnie for 20 years.

Lavinia has a nice conventional and comfortable life with her aspiring-politician lawyer husband (Robin Thomas) and two horrible teenage daughters (Erika Christensen and Sarandon’s real-life daughter, Eva Amurri). Suzette brings complete chaos and discontent into Lavinia’s well ordered life and persuades her that she can have a more exciting life by taking up their past pursuits. This is of course somewhat of a shock to Lavinia’s husband and children.

As you would expect, rekindling a relationship after an absence of 20 years takes time. The story is well paced as it moves towards the renewed friendship between the two women.

Not to be missed, Susan Sarandon and Goldie Hawn - what a delightful match. Both great actresses. A very funny movie.

Directed by Bob Dolman

Cast:

Susan Sarandon ... Lavinia Kingsley

Goldie Hawn ... Suzette

Geoffrey Rush ... Harry

Erika Christensen ... Hannah Kingsley

Eva Amurri ... Ginger Kingsley

Robin Thomas (I) ... Raymond Kingsley

Matthew Carey (II)

Justin Neill

Kohl Sudduth ... Hotel Clerk

Mott’s CD review: 

From “Nutz” To “Rage” (Part I)

by Mott the Dog

Starting out from the streets of Liverpool (the birth place of some of England’s finest bands, most notably of course "The Beatles") talented guitarist/songwriter Mick Devonport sought out the best musicians from the city to form a scouse super group to conquer the world, following in the footsteps of previous Liverpool bands.

First recruit was powerhouse drummer John Mylett. John had his own tight distinctive style of drumming, powering the band along with flexibility, using every single space of skin on his mass array of drums whilst adding thunder to the proceedings with his bass drum footwork. The Mylett drum solo mid-set was always a wonder to behold.

There weren’t many bass players who would not be swamped playing alongside this God of Thunder, but one was found in Mr. Keith Mullholand, who always played his bass as if he was a lead guitarist. He used to wear Doc-Marten boots on stage, as he stomped around so hard on the stage, often breaking the wooden planking as his feet added another dimension to the rhythm section.

Of course there, leading this trio was the mercurial Mick Devonport, a Jeff Beck admirer, who had practiced so long and hard that he was a match for his mentor, certainly more consistent, with great song writing skills. A flamboyant showman with a wonderful sense of humour. But a front man still had to be found. Whilst the three of them were sitting in the local pub watching the telly, the Cadbury’s crunchie bar advert came on, with a raunchy soundtrack and a terrific vocal overdub. "If only we could find him," they thought. A quick phone call later and they found out that the young lad was a local Liverpool boy playing in the Cavern the very next day in his own band. That night lead singer David Lloyd was persuaded to break up his band and front this new quartet, aptly christened "Nutz".

A residency was set up at the Cavern for the nighttime, and during the day they recorded their debut album. It was released in 1974 and, quite frankly, did not live up to expectations. Apart from two songs "Joke" and "Round & Round" it was not truly representative of their stage show. A re-think was in order.

Back to the studios, and this time they put the edge into the songs. Right from the opening guitar break of 1975’s "Nutz Too" opener "Natured Intended" you know how hard rock is supposed to be played. Seven hard rockin Mick Devonport rockers including the head bangin "Sinner". A cover of Pete Pizer’s "Changes Coming" and three David Lloyd Ballads, with the beautiful "The Love That You Lost", adding John "Rabbit" Bundrick (later of Free & The Who) on piano.

"Nutz Too" got to the outer regions of the British Charts. Then a couple of bad decisions put a spanner in the works. A tour of America was a disaster, as the albums weren’t even out in the States due to complications with unions over printing rights. This tour lost them impetuous in the U.K., and sinking the band heavily into debt. But record company A & M Records stepped in and put them onto the Black Sabbath European tour of 1976, which gave the band excellent exposure, but was not a happy tour as by now Black Sabbath had turned into warring factions and were about too implode.

Again salvation seemed to be on hand as Nutz were added to the mid-afternoon time slot on Saturday’s Reading Festival, at the time the major rock event of the year. They went on for their forty-five minutes set at the peak of their powers. When they came off, the crowd of 95,000 were baying for more. However, the contract said forty-five minutes, no more, or they would be fined. Management for A & M records were there and told the boys not to go for an encore. In those circumstances, who do you listen too? A suit from the record company or 95,000 screaming fans? They went back on playing 2 encores before the plug was pulled on them.

A & M Records were furious. From that moment on tensions between record company and the band where at breaking point. The band went back into the studio to record a new album, recruiting Kenny Newton on keyboards to fill out the sound. "Hard Nutz" was released in 1977 with very little publicity and the band were sent out on the road with Welsh trio "Budgie", label mates on A & M, but combining Budgies decline, Nutz blowing the headlines off stage every night, and the advent of the dreaded Punk Rock it stood no chance.

In 1978 A & M completed their recording contract with Nutz by releasing "Nutz Live Cutz", an amazing album of pure raw hard rock ‘n’ roll including an amazing version of the Nutz anthem "Wall Banger" clocking in at 12 minutes, plus tracks spanning all three albums. But with no publicity, A & M holding a contract that would run another 2 years, no financial support to tour, the album, which should have been huge, flopped. The moral of the story: don’t upset the suits. So Nutz had to sit out their contract, but this was not the end.

More next week...

Musicians

Mick Devonport - Guitar

David Lloyd - Vocals

Keith Mullholland - Bass

John Mylett - Drums

Kenny Newton - Keyboards (Hard Nutz & Live Cutz)

Albums

Nutz

Nutz Too

Hard Nutz

Nutz Live Cutz