ABOUT THE IDIOT BASTARD
As many
of you probably know, from 1988 onwards I was a regular contributor to Fred Tomsett's excellent little organ T'Mershi Duween. During this period I also wrote
a monthly From A
to Z column for Cindy Zeuli's sadly now defunct Dweezil Zappa Fan Club Magazine, and other
bits and pieces for the also now-demised Society
Pages and the short-lived Z-Zine. This activity led to credits and/or
acknowledgements in Michael Gray's Mother!
The Frank Zappa Story (Plexus, 1993), Ben Watson's Frank Zappa: The Negative Dialectics Of Poodle
Play (Quartet, 1994), Neil Slaven's Electric Don Quixote: The Story Of Frank
Zappa (Omnibus, 1996) and Kevin Courrier's Dangerous Kitchen: The Subversive World Of
Zappa (ECW, 2002). With the ever-increasing gaps between issues of TD, I asked Fred whether he'd mind me
putting out a non-profit making newsletter. Nothing happened for ages. Then I
got around to buying a computer.
I have
posted this site purely so that I can continue to write about Frank, his music,
his collaborators, and any other old crud I choose to stuff up the cracks to
help keep the memory alive. The site's inception has resulted in: further
credits and/or acknowledgements in Billy James' Necessity Is...The Early Years of Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of
Invention (SAF, 2001), Greg Russo's 'son of revised' Cosmik Debris: The Collected History and Improvisations of Frank Zappa
(Crossfire, 2003), Nigey Lennon's updated edition of Being Frank: My Time With Frank Zappa
(California Classics, 2003), Barry Miles's Frank
Zappa (Atlantic Books, 2004), and the liner notes of the Tornadoes CD, Now And Then (Crossfire, 2005); Don Preston
designing me the Idiot Bastard Son logo (see above); the Muffin Men bequeathing
a previously unreleased tune and awarding me a Green Muffin (see above - from
which Fred has since taken a big bite); my recording debut on the Eyeinhand Sampler, Volume 1 (Vaso
Music, VM 032), an album dedicated to the memory of FZ and featuring a plethora
of alumni; my helping Thana Harris to rehearse two songs from Sleep Dirt for her Zappanale #13
appearance; my liner notes for the Zappanale 13-18 CD sets; my compiling the
Zappanale 17 and 18 double and Bonus discs; my helping Napoleon Murphy Brock
and the Muffin Men get together for Zappanale #14; my listing as a private
supporter of the authorised adaptation of Thing-Fish at the Battersea Arts Centre
in August 2003; regular contributions to the Arf Dossier; the appearances of Nigey
Lennon, Ed Palermo and Candy & Bob Zappa at Zappanale #13; copious
unbecoming mentions in Academy Zappa -
Proceedings Of The First International Conference Of Esemplastic
Zappology (SAF, 2005); the uncredited
inclusion of my 'inbetweenie' track (Lou-Lou) on the third disc of the
Zappanale 15 CD set; my appearance in the Muffinz Moovies Vols 2
and 3 DVDs; the compilation of the 20
Extraordinary Renditions and 21 Burnt
Weeny Sandwiches CDs for Cordelia
Records; and (organ rising music) the writing of my own book, Zappa The Hard Way (Wymer
UK, 2010), documenting Frank’s final world tour.
The
last edition of T'Mershi Duween
was published in April 2000, comprising both issues 63 and 64. There are
currently about 28 or so issues of the 64 still in print, the earliest being
25. There are then a few extant between 29 and 39, but Fred has a complete run
from 41 to the last dynamic double issue. Everything else is out of print and
likely to remain that way. Stocks of some of these issues are very low, so
don't dawdle. Fred can be contacted at hope.pandorasboox@tiscali.co.uk if you
have any queries or want to order copies.
Pip!
Pip!
The Idiot
Bastard
(a.k.a. Andrew Greenaway and,
occasionally, Stanley Hope)
Somewhere in
January 2011
Contact: disco.boy@blueyonder.co.uk