The Forgotten Blurs

So the new Arctic Monkeys single, "Brianstorm" is completely redunkulous...

and of course, everyone is going to be kneejerk haters, and pretend to be over them while actually jumping around their bedrooms to it. I love it, and I say so now.

Anyway, their drummer is sick, and that ties into a thought I had earlier today while eating a relaxing 15-minute lunch in my truck (I'm an expert now at eating a meal faster than you can order one). I was listening to the Buzzcocks' classic "What Do I Get?" and it occurred to me that almost any "Punk Rock" (I use it loosely) band is bought or sold on the heavyweight status of their skinbasher. Topper Headon, Rick Buckler, Bill Stevenson, D.J. Bonebrake, George Hurley, Steve Shelley, Brendan Canty, David Lovering - these guys are some of the best drummers ever, but because they play punk rock, a supposedly simpler form of music, you'll never hear them mentioned in the same breath with fuckin' robots like Neil Peart or Danny Carey. My real point though is, what the hell happened to John Maher??? As the drummer for the Buzzcocks, he seemed like the most agile of the UK punk drummers; his fills often sounded like machine gun fire. The man was a giant among children, a blur in a suit. And I thought of this today; if you google him or wiki him or go to allmusic.com, it's like he's been gone off the face of the earth for almost 2 decades. So if you know where he is, drop me a line... and next time you have a beer, raise it to John Maher, and all of the forgotten blurs.