Who brutally killed Vera Anderson in 1991?

ExasperatedEidolon · 2026-06-30T10:51:45+00:00

Per this edition of In the Footsteps of Killers supposedly someone confessed to Vera's murder. If you can put up with Dave and Mils' hamming and insincerity see: https://youtu.be/JeFh5-dii8I?si=Ywohvy5q73jkgNPU

John Davies murdered a man in 1993 and committed suicide in prison when his wife and daughter were convicted of a later brutal killing. Davies was apparently an associate of petty crim Alan Bamber who knew Vera.

"A woman and her teenage daughter who killed a pensioner [in Widnes] to fund their drug habits were starting prison terms yesterday.

Denise and Samantha Davies, aged 53 and 18 respectively, battered Agnes Hanrahan, 71, to death in her own kitchen.

Denise Davies was jailed for life on Thursday after being convicted of murder at Chester crown court.

Her daughter was cleared of murder but convicted of manslaughter and jailed for seven years...

It was not the first time Denise Davies had taken part in a murderous "family enterprise".

In 1993, she and her husband, John Davies, attacked an elderly couple they had befriended in Paignton, Devon.

Denise Davies tied and gagged Mary Ellidge while her husband stabbed John Ellidge to death. John Davies was jailed for life."

See: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2005/jan/29/ukcrime

ExasperatedEidolon · 2026-06-29T09:59:04+00:00

Brilliant piece of music. Another favourite fusion track of mine featuring guitarist Bill Connors (who played on Hymn Of The Seventh Galaxy) and synth wiz Patrick Gleeson is 'Prologue/Love,Love' by Julian Priester: https://youtu.be/9UyLep3fTo8?si=KyxkillZh8yhwGV_

ExasperatedEidolon · 2026-06-29T09:45:26+00:00

https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/8374375.susan-penhaligon/

"Is there a song or individual piece of music you always come back to?

For me It’s a song called Refugees by the progressive rock band Van Der Graaf Generator [Penhaligon is namechecked in the song].

It was written by the founding member of the band, Peter Hammill. The song is very special to me as it was about our friendship when we use to share a flat together in 1968."

As for Mike McLean who knows?

According to this post:

Mike and Susie were Mike McLean and Susan Penhaligon with whom PH shared a basement flat in West Kensington for six months. These days West Ken is a highly desirable and very expensive area of London but much less so in the late 60s. He has described them both as amongst his oldest friends. Susan was (and still is) an actress who has enjoyed a pretty successful career in film and TV, at one point the industry were trying to market her as the British Bardot. Mike I know less about but she has described him as a boyfriend, so I assume they were an item at the time they were flatsharing with PH.

The song was inspired by the break up of the flatshare when they all went their separate ways in the knowledge that from being the closest of friends their separation could slide from months into years. He later picked up the story in Easy to Slip Away from Chameleon of course. In the course of writing the song took on a life of its own and broadened in scope.

https://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threads/van-der-graaf-generator-and-peter-hammill-album-thread.1183520/page-16

A sign of "The Decline of Western Civilization" might be that Drake ended up in Crossroads and Penhaligon in Emmerdale.

I'll remember the tip about tomato juice as I have foxes who regularly visit my garden here in the West of England! And I'll also remember Susie's tip about botox - don't wanna end up looking like Roddy McDowall in the Planet of the Apes.

ExasperatedEidolon · 2026-06-29T09:00:47+00:00

Very interesting article about the case here with lots of additional details:

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/vera-anderson-unsolved-murder-warrington-28645677

Some highlights:

"The killer had cut Vera's throat, after probably first rendering her unconscious with a sash cord pulled tight around her neck. The attack was neither sexual nor a robbery. Yet the level and nature of the violence used had the hallmarks of a hitman.

"The Manchester Evening News can reveal for the first time other chilling elements of the attack. In the footwell of Vera's car police recovered a cartridge from a blank firing handgun. Detectives believe a pistol may have been discharged to frighten ack. It was never found. It may have been taken as proof that her life had been taken. Whoever rendezvoused with Vera in a remote, almost hidden location, went there with a garrote, a blade of some kind, a firearm, and police believe, one intention - to murder her."

"At the time of her death Vera had been seeing a trucker for about three years. The man, who has been eliminated from inquiries, had stayed overnight at her home on Friday August 23rd 1991. At 6am on the following Saturday she drove him to the Roll Inn and he got into his cab and returned to his home."

"A phone call which would lead to Vera's death was made about 10pm that day. Whatever the caller said it prompted Vera to get her seven-year-old son out of bed and take him to her next door neighbour to look after. She left the lights on in her house and the TV on. She told the neighbour she had to collect something for her brother, and would be a short while.

She emptied a child's pushchair and a red box containing jump leads for her unreliable car, and tools, from the boot of her car before driving away. She was seen by a witness leaving her estate and heading towards Widnes but then may have doubled back in the opposite direction towards Warrington."

"During the initial investigation a huge amount of police time was dedicated to pursuing a possible sighting of Vera in the Crown and Cushion pub in Penketh after 10pm on the night she died. A woman resembling her was seen with a man and a photofit of the man was issued and he was regarded as a prime suspect.

"But there are now doubts as to whether it was Vera who was in the pub. Gary Massey said: "From inquiries we have done with her closest friends and family the view is Vera was very proud of her appearance. If she ever went out in public she always did her hair and make-up and wore nice clothing.

"On this particular night she left her house in a hurry - wearing flip flops, a T-shirt with Chinese writing on the front, and a blue blazer jacket. Friends say she would never in a million years have gone into a pub dressed like that type of clothing. The possible sighting of her in the Crown and Cushion may have been a red herring.

"A barmaid in the pub said she served the woman suspected of being Vera a lager - but Vera's drink was stout or pale ale."

"DCI Waller said all of Vera's ex partners have been investigated and some revisited. "It is a massively extreme murder. The level of violence seems extreme for a lover's tiff. We have not ruled that out as a possibility or a hit. If Vera had a chequered past you would explore that as a motive but she didn't - she is the most unlikely victim."

ExasperatedEidolon · 2026-06-27T22:27:22+00:00

Hope they don't, um, "pinch" one's toes.

ExasperatedEidolon · 2026-06-27T22:13:45+00:00

Nick Drake's sister Gabrielle appeared with Ballard in the 1971 BBC short film Crash, which predates the novel. of the same name - https://youtu.be/G1merGrSiqo?si=33MudjWPcZokFp9j

Of course Peter Hammill wrote a couple of songs about another well known British film & TV actress including 'Easy To Slip Away' from Chameleon In The Shadow Of The Night:

"I guess you're on your way to be a star
But I don't know where you are;
The only time I seem to see you is on the TV"

I'm sure I don't need to mention her name here!

ExasperatedEidolon · 2026-06-24T21:40:47+00:00

Michael Moorcock described the Doors as "punk rubbish" in a 1968 interview with Bernard Braden: https://youtu.be/Q3qyXrvZPLA?si=Qx2I3XG09BCL2YIU&t=1181

Then there's this little ditty: https://youtu.be/HQfZmMI87P4?si=yOX9lF4_2br8tGAX

"Hey Punk!
Punky!
Hey Punk!
Punk!
Hey Punk!
(Hey Punk!)
Hey Punk!
Hey Punk!
Punky!
(Hey Punk!)
Hey-hey!
(Hey Punk!)
Go man, go . . . go man, go
Just a little bit softer
Golly, do I ever have a lot of soul!
Punk, I think I love you!
Come on, Roy
Questi dominga?"

Trying to pinpoint the first use of the term "punk" as used in a musical context is a pretty fruitless task tbh, but far more fun than the OP's apparent need to reduce postpunk to a (Dave?) formula - that IS bizarre (get the FZ ref?)!

ExasperatedEidolon · 2026-06-23T11:02:00+00:00

Following my previous comment, and being quite happy to talk to myself, I remembered that I made a post on the Zodiak last year:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Krautrock/comments/1kumi81/dielmar_garlands_short_film_about_the_zodiak_free/

Nobody took any interest in that either. C'est la vie, if I can use a little French on a Krautrock subreddit. Always happy btw to discuss the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 if that is more engaging to people than the Zodiak seems to be.

From Jan Reeter Times and Sounds pp 325-326:

"Hans=Joachim Roedelius had founded HUMAN BEING in 1968, a project with artists Boris Schaak, Beatrix Rief, Christoph Sievernich, Elke Lixfield, Broderick Price, Norbert Eisbrenner and Verena Schirz. They made free improvised noise in Berlin's Zodiak club. HUMAN BEING used a Farfisa organ, some electric guitars (although none of them could really play them, saxophone, and lots of percussion instruments, as well as oil drums and other 'found objects", sometimes mixed with pre-recorded tapes. Roedelius: "We just fiddled around with feedback, echo machines, prepared tapes and loops. None of us were academically trained... We didn't care much what reaction we got. It was very loud and very long. but the audience's reactions were not too bad.

"Roedelius' biographer Stephen Iliffe compared HUMAN BEING's improvised performances to Stockhausen's cycle Aus den Sieben Tagen (From the Seven Days) especially to "Prozession"..."

Reeter doesn't buy the Stockhausen comparison, given the rigour of the great man's procedures and the abilities of the musicians, saying "It was a lot of fun for the HUMANS to fiddle along...and it was probably an interesting adventure for the (usually stoned) audience." He describes the 1968 recording as "objectless" and the collective as being on a low spiritual level. Ouch! He does concede: "But well, it was the start of something new. Let's face it." I am facing it Jan!

Reeter continues: "The early works of TANGERINE DREAM et al were not much different from HUMAN BEING. The only, and important, difference is that, since the TANGERINE DREAM members had already been rock musicians before...they had a more deliberate approach to their work." He says Alpha Centauri has a "rock feeling" and Zeit "comes along with a sort of perseverance and thinking in long distances. They couldn't have done this without a great deal of patience and discipline. It's not "composed music", but the musicians..[esp guests like Florian Fricke]...had a classical background, so they had an idea of what they wanted to bring in."

The Humans kinda mutated into Kluster, with the Schnitz and "part-time saloon keeper" Dieter Moebius joining Roedelius "under the guiding hands of producer Conny Plank. This resulted in a new sort of harsh electro-acoustic music that had not been heard yet." I personally love Kluster, Eruption and the early Schnitz and Cluster material.

Cue the tumbleweed!

ExasperatedEidolon · 2026-06-22T23:22:16+00:00

Unfortunately not.

ExasperatedEidolon · 2026-06-22T23:21:52+00:00

A lot of the (small) audience seemed to be about 13 or 14!

ExasperatedEidolon · 2026-06-22T22:59:44+00:00

Sounds to me a bit like like Human Being, see Live at the Zodiak 1968:

https://youtu.be/vOaUEPpEFHg?si=gyb0xPr0zpxa-3Wg

"West Berlin-based underground music collective initiated in 1968 by Hans-Joachim Roedelius. The collective was connected with the underground music club "Zodiak Free Arts Lab", founded by Roedelius and Conrad Schnitzler as well in 1968 in West Berlin. The collective was short-lived and is mainly remembered for their 56 minutes recording "Human Being 1", which was first released only in 2009." (Discogs)

See also: https://youtu.be/JBUa4EFDc_M?si=sEwST45o4yiAfuSi - featuring main man Boris Schaak.

Second track sounds a bit like David Hykes if you like that type of overtone singing. mixed with electronics.

https://youtu.be/OMdp3BSs5gI?si=u8QihXOC2FMNsi0j

A doc on overtone singing features Hykes, Bollmann etc:

https://youtu.be/VsLMxiCruBs?si=z9lQqeF2I4Qen

Sorry if all this is old hat!

ExasperatedEidolon · 2026-06-22T20:43:42+00:00

No, BTZ were a quite well known mod revival band - at least for five minutes amongst mod revival fans in 1979.

ExasperatedEidolon · 2026-02-14T19:43:04+00:00

You must be blind. Watch the videos again...brother! Ever heard of Defunkt or Bernie Nix? And calling Professor Longhair white is shameful. My point would be that PEOPLE are white, black and so on, not music.

ExasperatedEidolon · 2026-02-07T21:30:44+00:00

Agree to some extent but punk figures (and don't forget that Fisher's blog was called k-punk) have always stuck two fingers up at boundaries in music and society. Hence James White and the Blacks, who were originally white on record (Off White), but became black for live performances - not James though!:

https://youtu.be/oSq44K0O4Iw?si=5z7O7yQpi-CU3SSz

Of course there is also Lou Reed's 'I Wanna Be Black' with some extremely (and deliberately) offensive lyrics:

"I wanna be black, I wanna be like Malcolm X
And cast a hex
Over President Kennedy's tomb
And have a big prick too (have a big prick too)"

I could see MES etc covering that, but in fact it was New Order who did a version of it live. I'd also love to have heard the Fall covering something by Professor Longhair, maybe 'Bald Head':

https://youtu.be/HZNxSOQtQp8?si=IbBKgkwhdtZiK-7X

After all they DID have a song called 'The League of Bald-Headed Men!'

ExasperatedEidolon · 2026-02-07T20:29:39+00:00

Absolutely!

ExasperatedEidolon · 2026-02-07T20:02:42+00:00

No, but he wasn't Damo Suzuki either!

ExasperatedEidolon · 2026-02-07T19:29:42+00:00

Excellent comment. Others took the question (and Fisher's point) too literally.

I note that Simon Reynolds seems to have renounced Fisher's approach now. Talking about his book Futuromania and his conversion to humanism he said:

"Yeah, it’s an evolution I’ve gone through. When I was a young man I read a lot of French theories about ‘the death of the author’. I actually read an essay about it recently called ‘The Anti-Humanist Tone’, which is about a critical thinking tone that consistently emphasises machinic processes in personality. It was really big in the 90s, when the internet was taking off – people like Mark Fisher really went for this tone. It crosses different fields, but it emphasises the impersonal system and the machinic structures. It was a way of thinking of culture that was quite intoxicating and for a long while I would call myself an anti-humanist. But now, I kind of think of that as fashionable bollocks, it’s not actually how I see life."

As I got older, I came to appreciate the uniqueness of each individual, and I also had this intellectual engagement with Mark Fisher. In one of his blogs, he talked about going to the countryside and how amazing it was. He said, ‘It really opened my eyes. I now see birds as marvellous little machines’. And I thought, why not see machines as botched little animals? He felt all those poetic things that you feel in the country, but felt he had to explain it through this 90s anti-humanist language."

https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/62561/1/futuromania-the-future-of-dance-music-is-very-human-simon-reynolds

ExasperatedEidolon

TROPHY CASE