Rise and Fall - Michael Molloy and Alex Evans

I didn't know Michael Molloy, but I know a number of people who did. They tell me that he was a very talented young man. Michael was one of three people who died in the coach crash on the A3, in September 2012, returning to Liverpool from Bestival. He was a musician and his dream was to create music. Because Michael was denied the chance, his family and friends have made his dream reality with the release of Rise and Fall, featuring Michael on guitar, with vocals from his friend, Alex Evans. You can download the song on iTunes.
www.michaelmolloymusic.com

On 3rd May 2013, Chris Morgan joined me in the studio at BearTown Radio.
Part of the interview concerned Michael Molloy.
Click the Play button to listen.

I played the song on my radio show,
Mid Morning Madness on BearTown Radio,
on 30th April 2013.
Click the Play button to listen

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Uncovered
The Mjollnir Affair Pt I

A novel by Max Darkness

Uncovered is the story of a rock band by the name of Mjollnir. They aren’t quite as popular as they once were. Their CDs aren’t selling, people are not attending their live shows and interest in the band is almost non-existent. They hit rock bottom one night in Huddersfield when five people and a dog turn up to see the show and the singer falls off the stage and lands on the dog, killing it. After the gig, on the verge of packing it all in, someone jokingly comments that they’d probably get a bigger audience as a tribute band. So, they decide to give it a try and Thor’s Hammer take to the stage.

Whilst Mjollnir may not be in demand, Thor’s Hammer, the cover band, certainly is. It isn’t long before they are doing such great business that the genuine article is once more being courted by the fans and press alike.

Rock impresario, Dan D. Lion wants them for his ‘Classic RockFest’ at Donington Park. There’s lots of money at stake and all the band has to do is ensure that no one finds out what they’ve been up to.

It all seems so easy until journalist Dave Malcolm gets suspicious, so, the band’s manager, Mac Biggar, decides to have him kidnapped for a while. That’s when things start to get weird. Dave’s friend Max Darkness turns up and after Dave is released, the two go on a road trip, determined to see that justice is done.

But who is guilty and of what?

There’s the small matter of the band’s first singer – he was murdered and his ghost appears to be haunting the band. Now his remains have been found, but who murdered him? It could be anyone. How about effete snob and Mjollnir keyboard player, Hampton Court, or his heavily armed butler, Turret? There’s no end to the list of possible suspects. Could it be mad Geordie bass player Gordon ‘Gimme’ Moore? Black, Irish ex-punk, Dermot ‘Septic’ Murphy, or even the new boy, psychotic drummer Zil? Last but not least, there’s Mjollnir’s American guitarist Tyler Kennedy Woodrow Davidson III, who is being hunted down by the girl he got pregnant eighteen years earlier, her crazy redneck brothers and the eighteen year-old daughter he’s never seen.

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Discovered
The Mjollnir Affair Pt II

A novel by Max Darkness

Discovered is set amidst the highly competitive world of professional Scrabble and takes place, in Blackpool, during a week-long World Championship tournament.

Edward Turret, butler to Mjollnir keyboard wizard, Hampton Court, is attempting to realise his ambition of becoming World Scrabble Champion. However, during the competition, details of Turret’s strange past begin to emerge; a love affair, his extreme wealth, and, maybe, murder. Naturally, all of this comes as a shock to Hampton Court and his trailer park trash wife, Tammy-Lynn, especially when Turret disappears and Hampton is forced to prepare his own camomile tea.

Journalist Max Darkness is on assignment to cover the week’s events but, in realitity, he’s come to see punk band, The Cynics, who have secured a residency at ‘The Dive on the Prom’. Max and his daughter, Lulu, become fugitives from the law after Max is framed for murder and Lulu assaults a policeman who is trying to arrest her father. In making their escape, they are forced to don disguises, which works out fine until Lulu almost runs her father over, with his own car.

Punk band, The Cynics, fall into the clutches of Blackpool mobster, Patrick Martin, after he sees their guitarist, Shark, deliberately electrocute a troublesome fan during a gig. They become embroiled in a bizarre plot to abduct the head of the ‘midget mafia’, an achondroplasic dwarf named Eeyore. However, The Cynics get so much more than they bargained for when they try to kidnap ‘The Seven Dwarfs’, as the little people arrive at the theatre for their performance.

Reality takes a beating and it becomes apparent that people are not necessarily who you thought they were. Moreover, just because someone died, doesn’t mean that they are actually dead.

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