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 a number of Zappanale 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 (2008), 21 Burnt Weeny Sandwiches (2010), On Broadway: Covers Of Invention (2013), Rare Episodes (2014), Weasels Re-Ripped (2015) and The Idiot Bastard Sons Of Mr. Green Genes (2016) CDs for Cordelia Records; my becoming an auxiliary member of the Zappa Early Renaissance Orchestra; the co-organisation of the biennial Festival Moo-ah; and (organ rising music) the writing of my own books, Zappa The Hard Way (Wymer UK, 2010), documenting Frank’s final world tour, and Frank Talk: The Inside Stories Of Zappa's Other People (Wymer UK, 2017), a compendium of the interviews I have conducted with the people who knew and worked with Frank over the last three decades.
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 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 England
October 2017
Contact: