KAMALA is an ALIEN! Also: There's a Joy Division and Herman's Hermits connection to me!

It's election day in the U.S. and it's Famke Janssen's 60th birthday. Believe it or not, those facts are connected! And learn about the link between Joy Division, Herman's Hermits ... and me!

One of Famke Janssen’s earliest roles was playing Captain Picard’s alien love interest on “Star Trek: The Next Generation.” And her character’s name? It was Trump! No, just kidding … her character was actually called Kamala! And before he was a chart-topping popstar, Herman’s Hermits frontman Peter Noone was an actor on Britain’s long-running soap “Coronation Street.” It;’s all in today’s Trivquiz comics!

So what’s the Joy Division connection? Well, as a young teen, Peter Noone went to St. Bede’s College in Manchester. That’s him, circled on a school trip, probably around 1961 (below):

By age age of 15, he was already a TV soap veteran and at 16, he was a pop star fronting Herman’s Hermits. The group enjoyed their first UK chart-topper in 1964 … around the same time that Rob Gretton and Steve McGarry were first-year schoolboys at St. Bede’s. That’s Rob on the left and me on the right:

Rob Gretton went on to manage Joy Division and NewOrder, was a partner in Factory Records and was co-founder ofThe Haçienda nightclub. His own label, “Rob’s Records, was the launching pad for Sub Sub, the band that later resurfaced as Doves.

I went on to do a bit of drawing.

You can read more about how Rob and I broke into the music business in this piece from my ART OF THE NOISE newsletter:

Finally, here are Herman’s Hermits on “The Ed Sullivan Show.”

Hey, Steve! Why am I getting all these emails from you?

As I’m still a novice on Substack, I’ve realized that the way I initially set it up was a bit clumsy. I figured that readers who enjoyed the soccer material might not be interested in hearing me bang on about my work on The Minions, or sharing old punk rock sleeves I designed back in the mists of time …so I set up separate publications for each discipline. I’ve realized now that there was no need to be so convoluted!

Instead, I’ve now created separate sections under my one STEVE McGARRY COMICS banner and there’s where you will now find:

PLAYING FOR A DRAW for all the soccer content

ART OF THE NOISE for all the music-related stuff

TRIVQUIZ for daily music, movie and TV trivia quiz comics

TRIVQUIZ FOOTBALL for the daily soccer trivia quiz comics

As an early subscriber, you are automatically signed up to receive all my newsletters now that I’ve consolidated the site. If you want to opt out of any of them … and I sincerely hope NOT ALL of them … it’s a simple matter, as this article explains:

https://support.substack.com/hc/en-us/articles/8914938285204-How-do-I-subscribe-to-or-unsubscribe-from-a-section-on-Substack

Thanks again for supporting my work … it’s genuinely appreciated! And feel free to send friends my way if you think they might like my old guff!

Cheers!

Steve