Ronnie's Toilet Seat Guitar

[Droopy]

I'm just now watching the lads on (I think) TOTP and the segment seems to have some sort of bog theme.....there's toilet paper being thrown about and Ronnie is playing a wild guitar made from a toilet seat!

It's one of the niftier novelty axes I've seen.....anyone know anything about it???

[Droopy]

Or at least why that segment was styled as it was.......???


no one.............????

[Guest]

If I knew what song they were playing, I might have a bit of a clue, and I doubt I ever saw them on TOTP. I'd guess that it's something to do with TOTP taking Top 20 music so seriously and the Faces making fun of themselves for being there. In those days no-one played or sang live on TOTP (not that many do today), so Ronnie could have been playing air guitar and we'd still have heard the record!!!!! I'd guess that I'm close to accuracy.

[Droopy]

Oh no!!! TOTP was lip-synced??? I wasn't paying enough attention......damn!! That's depressing....Is it still? I've never seen it on the telly, only old stuff on video....

I'll have to take a look later and tell you the song list.....

And Sandie, while you're "here", since I know you're also a big SF fan, perhaps you can tell me this: Were ANY of their TV appearances actual live performances???

TIA.....

[Droopy]

Sorry....read your post too quickly....you answered my question already....

What's the fun of lip-syncing??!! And when are we Septics going to get a great live show like that Jools Holland thing y'all have????

Why is my country so fucked?????

<rhetorical question....>

[mcnarie]

lip sync was done on both sides of the pond well before pop ever raised the ugly spector... err, specter of Janet Jackson's supernipple, or even the Beatles. Many shows had artists (ie talent) mouthing to their records, or even to pre-recorded versions of their material recorded specifically for the lipsync. The Beeb did it a lot, and now finds artists who can't actually perform live specifically demanding it.

Many great bands went to the Beeb studios to pre-record live versions of tracks they were later to "mime" to. If the artist in question wanted (or was/were forced into) the exposure of TV, he/she/they had to pre-record and then mime. That way, they were miming to what they'd done especially for the show, as it were. Silly, yet nothing new, nothing special, not even a sign'o'the'times. It happens all around us, from the government on down.

At least some of these "lost takes" can be recovered and salvaged for killer box sets.

A great book should be written about this "protective" process... the supposed "5 second delay" on radio, etc. If it has, I've not read it. It has a great deal to do with radio security, which takes us right back to Churchill.

Sorry, I can't explain further right now. I'm getting my computer back together so I can update the Faces site again soon. I had a crash the other day that took even me by suprise.

C'est la vie!

Daver

[Guest]

Rupe asked me to type up his response for this (apparently he can't log on to this website):

The clip of Woody playing "bog seat guitar" was from a 1970 TOTP TV performance when the Faces were promoting "Long Player", they played two songs that day "Richmond" (which we will feature in our forthcoming Ronnie Lane documentary "the Passing Show"), and "Bad N' Ruin" which was where Woody's infamous guitar came in. For the record it's one of the few surviving Faces' performances surviving in the BBC vaults which strangely also ncludes another performance of "Bad N' Ruin" (plus "Tell Everyone" and "Sweet Lady Mary" from Long Player).
R

[Droopy]

Thanks to both of you! I hadn't gotten around to finding the clip again yet....(distracted now by the new HiWatt release "Strawberry Pop"....not bad....)

I'm still wondering about the guitar itself.....curious to know if it was playable, and if so if it was a production model or a one-off.....

I'd love to have a toilet guitar.....it would certainly reflect my playing abilities!


Thanks again!

[paulb]

Wot about the great set (Long Player/ Nods ?) they did on 'Sounds of the 70s' ?!

[spazz]

in 1977 i bought an ampeg dan armstrong plexi-glass guitar in a pawn shop in santa maria ca..hanging next to it was a toilet seat guitar looking just like the one in the bad ' ruin video....a few years later i found a dan armstrong plexi bass in another pawn shop in santa maria i just saw the vid and thought holy shit.
any body know if that stuff was "lost" or stolen?
i still got the bass but the guitar is gone.