Dear James,
I always thought those screechy-scratchy guitars in Fashion were courtesy of Mick Ronson. This is the part of the Freddie Mercury tribute concert I told you about, where from my 15-year old point of view, lots of people I'd never heard of came on stage and played lots of songs I'd never heard of. When I told this to my girlfriend at the time, she retorted "What? Queen?" That relationship didn´t last long, though principally because I put a wet floor cloth on her head while she was trying to fix a leaking washing machine. That was probably my fault, though I would argue that she had no sense of humour.
It was said after the concert that this was the best part of the night, although if you consider that the same night included Paul Young singing Radio Gaga and Lisa Stansfield gurning all over I Want to Break Free, that's not saying much. I was going to write that within a year of this performance, both Ronson and Ian Hunter were dead, but it turns out Mr. Hunter is still very much alive, and in 2001 toured the US with Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band.
And here's some things I never knew about Mick Ronson:
1. He was from Hull and had a posthumous solo album called, wait for it, "Heaven and Hull".
2. When they came to look for Mick Ronson to get him to join David Bowie's band, he'd given up on London and was busy marking out a rugby pitch.
3. Ronson co-produced Lou Reed´s "Transformer" album with Bowie, and played piano on "Perfect Day".
4. He was also partly responsible for Lulu's cover of "The Man Who Sold The World." To think, I once bought a Lulu album based on that cover.
5. The last song Ronson ever played guitar on (the solo) was The Wildhearts' "My Baby is a Headfuck".
And speaking of all this guitar business, which I wasn´t really but it´ll do, I was walking home today when I saw this beauty in a music shop window. Do you know if they're any good?
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