ROVE LIVE

Rove: Johnny Vanguard is a guest on our show tonight has just released his new album and very successful Citizen Urban. Everyone please welcome Johnny Vanguard.

Johnny: Thanks for that great introduction. Man it’s been along time, its great to be here.

Rove: Well welcome back to Australia. I see you love the m & m’s; we've actually got a jar of vegemite here for you as a welcome home gift and to go with those m & m's.

Johnny: Thanks for that Rove. I love vegemite, but I became addicted to m & m's in LA. Man you have to take the bowl away; there must be a million of them.

Rove: We'll package then up for you to take home. So how is it like being back in Australia?

Johnny: Man I really miss it. Its my home and I have a lot of great memories and I think some time in the future I will move back here. After the tour I an doing to promote my new album. I am going to spend some time with my family.

Rove: Ya that’s what I wanted to ask you about your new album, Citizen Urban. It’s been along time since your last album. How does it feel to get this album out and be number one on the charts?

Johnny: What do you reckon man. It feels great. I never thought I could do it again, but here I am. I was a hard slog and it wasn't easy in LA. As you know I had a pretty rough time the last few years. But I am on top of things now, my album is doing great and I will be touring around Australia for the next few months giving live concerts and promoting my album. My manager got me doing so many interviews I don't know when I will sleep, but I am really enjoying it.

Rove: Ya well your concerts were all sold out months ago.

Johnny: Its incredible I get mobbed were ever I go and am signing autographs all day. I really appreciate it and want to thank all my fans out there. Its great to know that after all this time and everything I have been through that people still appreciate my music. I also want to thank all the support I have been getting in the media.

Rove: Except for that scathing review you got from Tyler James the top music reviewer in the country. Did his comment have any validity?

Johnny: Well what can I say. I just hope he will listen to my album again. The record sales speak for themselves. I am hoping we can have lunch together one day and we can talk about my music. I am an artist, that’s what I am about, that’s everything I am.

Rove: So what are your plans for the future after you finish your tour?

Johnny: As I already mentioned I will be spending time with my family. Having a bit of quite time. However I am already working on a new album that I feel is taking me in whole new direction music wise and will be even better then Citizen Urban. It will reflect my new direction and outlook in life.

Rove: Do you mean it will reflect the place your in now?

Johnny: Exactly, my music is so much a part of me that it reflects who I am and what I am is in my music. If that makes sense.

Rove: Yes it does, well thank you for your time and will you now perform Citizen Country from your latest album, Citizen Urban?

Johnny: Love to Rove.

Rove: Everyone please thank Johnny Vanguard. Citizen country, his number one hit song from his new album, Citizen Urban.

CITEZEN URBAN

Format of 2MMM/2DAY Radio stations.

Jacky: Hi Carl

Carl: Hi Jacky. So Jacky what did you do this weekend.

Jacky: Well I was actual able to drag Lee out of the house and we went shopping. You know how I love to buy new clothes. While I actual bought a new CD.

Carl: Why didn't you just get one free from the radio station like we always do?

Jacky: I couldn't wait. It's the new album, Citizen Urban by Johnny Vanguard. When I saw it I just had to get it straight away and I tell you its fantastic.

Carl: I have to agree with you this Jacky I have heard the new album, Citizen Urban by Johnny Vanguard and it is great.

Jacky: I tell you Carl I can hardly wait to interview Johnny about Citizen Urban and meet him in person. This new album is a real come back for Johnny Vanguard and put him back on the charts after so many years.

Carl: That's right Jacky we will be in the studio tomorrow just after 8 and I to will be buying his new album, Citizen Urban, not just for me but all my friends and relatives.

Jacky: and we will be giving away one album each of Citizen Urban to the first twenty callers tomorrow during the interview.

Carl: So tune in tomorrow listeners if you want to hear about this great new album Citizen Urban by Johnny Vanguard and call in to get a free CD.

Johnny Vanguard, An Artest or Pop Singer?

WHO IS JOHNNY VANGUARD, AN ARTIST OR POP SINGER?

“I’m a freaking’ artist not a racehorse.” Johnny Vanguard may not be a racehorse but he may not be an artist either. Johnny Vanguard just realised his first album after five years, “Citizen Urban”, is living in Los Angeles and still dreaming to be a movie star.

Johnny Vanguard was born in the small outback town of Charters Towers in Northern Queensland. He moved to Sydney and joined the band Underlife that soon became a legend in Australian music. Johnny Vanguard played guitar and wrote songs like “Feathers and Tar “, “Spencer Street” and a cover rendition of “Just Keep Walking”. He also sang on numerous tracks and soon became a highlight of the band. In 1994 after many difficulties the band split up and Johnny Vanguard went solo. It was not long after that he went to live in Los Angeles and at the end of 1996 joined up with Mark Holden to do a new album, “Concrete Haystacks”. The partnership did not last long and Johnny Vanguard ended up finishing the album on his own. As he said in an interview with Rolling Stain magazine, “I ended up as part of mad, drunk scenes in Los Angeles.”

Maybe it was the leaving of Underlife, not being able to stay in the partnership with Mark Holden or just living in Los Angeles. One thing is for sure Johnny Vanguard’s life just kept going down hill. Becoming part of the underbelly of the Los Angeles social society would not have helped. The parties, the drugs and the alcohol would have taken their toll on Johnny Vanguard. Some of the greatest stars have succumbed to this seen in the nightclubs of Los Angeles. Stars like Charlie Sheen became the face of some of those weird shit scenes with Johnny Vanguard right next to Charlie a lot of the time. The two of them became notaries when they hung out together for leaving destruction and chaos in their wake. Quite a few settlements were made out of court for damage to nightclubs and to drop some assault charges. Lucky for Johnny Vanguard, Charlie Sheen took care of all the expenses. But their friendship didn’t extend beyond party together and Johnny Vanguard like many times before was on his own again.
By 1997 Johnny Vanguard was waking up, drunk, in strange places. As Johnny himself says, “I’d been in many mad dreams, but this …It was pretty wild.” Johnny Vanguard was going through a settlement with his old band Underlife that had been going on for seven years and was only settled in 1999. Then there was the separation from his long time girl friend, Jo Beth Jo in 1998.

In 1998 Johnny Vanguard starred in a film with Santo a professional wrestler, whom he had met previously in Australia in 1995. The film was called, Santo frente a la muerte, Santo Faces Death and starred Santo, Johnny Vanguard, Jo Beth Jo and Denise. It was during this film that Johnny Vanguard met Denise and had what was called at the time a, stormy “off screen” relationship. This relationship which received extensive press coverage at the time caused the separation of Johnny Vanguard and Jo Beth Jo. They later reconciled, but it was during this break up that Johnny Vanguard released his next album, the acclaimed “City Experiences”.

The reconciliation did not last and they have since broken up again. Johnny Vanguard’s up and down relationship with Jo Beth Jo is a reflection of Johnny Vanguard’s rollercoaster life. Johnny Vanguard struggled to be judged on his music in the early nineties, even when he was at the hight of his career, and is still struggling to find himself. The album, “Citizen Urban” is much like “City Experiences”; the music reflects the emotions of his break up with Jo Beth Jo, very much like his last album. It seems that Johnny Vanguard’s life hasn’t moved on and neither has his music. Maybe he is bitter because Jo Beth Jo has made it as a movie star and he is still dreaming of it.

Johnny is still following dreams, not reality and looks to drugs, drink or the past for comfort. Johnny says he is an artist, hopefully one day his music will reflect this. For now Johnny Vanguard is still running the same old racehorse running the same old horse race.

Movie Review

Movie Rewiew of Fahrenheit 9/11

Fahrenheit 9/11, Entertainment Only?

It received the Palme D, Or (golden palm) award at the Cannes Film Festival and was reported to have received standing ovations and cheers from audiences across the United States and the World. It is certainly clear that the “silent majority” across the United States wanted to hear and see what the film had to say not just be entertained. Michael Moore was able to cover a lot of series issues that affected the American people in a light hearted without taking away from the seriousness of the issues. So what did the film have to say?

Moore showed how the Bush used his connections and power to win the presidential elections through fraud and manipulation. Unfortunately the Democrats as well as the Republicans supported these tactics. The Congressional Black Caucus could not get to support a discussion into the disenfranchisement of the black voters in Florida.

The film then goes onto discuss the Connections between the Bush family and the Saudi government. The film implies that the Saudi government dictates to the US government and not the other way around. The film fails to mention the history of the Saudi government, other Arab governments and the role the US played since the WW2 and more importantly relationship between Israel and the US.

A recent senate inquire just criticized Bush for still implying that the Iraqi government was connected to destruction of the Twin Towers on 11 September 2001. Moore did very well in showing that the attack on Iraqi was bases on lies and puts a very human face by showing the deaths of the innocent Iraqis. The interview with an American mother who lost her son in Iraqi brings this home for the American audiences when she asks why her son was there. However the film implies that the war in Iraq sullied the great tradition of the American military and that it was alright to go into Afghanistan, even though Moore mentions Bush was doing it for the oil pipeline.

The film does not mention the role of previous US governments both Democratic and Republican and the role of US capital as a whole in there attacks on Iraq. To not mention that under Clinton over 200,000 Iraqi children died from the sanctions imposed by the US or the massive anti war movement that has developed was more then an oversight.

The film exposes to a lot of people issues and information that they are normally not exposed to, especially by the capitalist controlled media. For this reason the film is very much worth seeing as the film brings into light those issues that were not brought up or only touched on in the film. The problem is not that Bush is an idiot or that the Bush clique is corrupt or that that war in Iraq is illegal and immoral. It’s that very nature of the capitalist system is immoral, vile and genocidal. The result of 500 years of Capitalism is a world dying from global warming and pollution and 30,000 children dying a day from poverty.

By Tyler James

Hi my name is Tyler and I am in the communication class at Ultimo Tafe, Sydney in the TPC.