In a recent issue of Record Collector Magazine Bill Harry a former PR man for the mighty Led Zeppelin recalled a story that caused me to laugh out loud. It is a story that proves that whilst in many people’s eyes Robert Plant was a true Rock God he was (and probably still is) very human indeed.
Bill Harry said of the Led Zep gig in Holland; ‘The band was on a massive stage and the hall was packed with thousands of kids. The sound was crystal clear. You could hear everything. Suddenly in the middle of a number Robert Plant farted. You could hear it clearly over the PA. It was unbelievable to hear a rock star fart on stage. Everyone stood there stunned, then broke up laughing. And it was totally unrehearsed’
Robert had farted so hard that he blew himself over!
I have always felt that the day fart jokes, fart stories and farts themselves were no longer funny to me then I would be mature. I am pleased to report that based on that assumption I am definitely not mature yet.
Have you ever heard of Milky Edwards and the Chamberlings? No? Nor had I until recently. They (if indeed they are a they) come across as a classic ‘lost’ Motown band, perhaps in the mold of the Four Tops. From what I have discovered on-line Milky Edwards first appeared on YouTube last year with a video showing a record playing a cover version of some classic early 70s rock with the supposed album cover propped up behind. The album cover is very reminiscent of a 1960s Supremes album cover (see below).
It never really took off until the links were posted last month on David Bowie’sFacebook page. Why were they published on Bowie’s page? Well largely because the cover versions were all taken from the Ziggy Stardust album. The songs published so far are; “Starman”, “Moonage Daydream” and “Soul Love“. Mark Ronson and Tom Jones have denied any involvement in the recordings as have Bowie’s camp. But for me I would be very surprised if Bowie himself has played no part in this. I also believe that it is a wonderful hoax. There is even a website with the strap-line ‘rediscover the music of Milky Edwards, click here to see it. What do you think of all this? Have any of you got the inside track on these recordings? Personally I bloody love these tracks!
Fifty seven years ago in 1956 Frank Sinatra had the honour of becoming the first artist to have a UK number one album with ‘Songs For Swingin Lovers‘. Since then there have now been 1,000 number ones; sadly the thousandth is Robbie Williams‘ second swing album, ‘Swings Both Ways’. It’s such a shame that it couldn’t have been Jake Bugg with his new album, ‘Shangri La’. But I suppose it might have been worse given that Lady Gaga’s ‘ARTPOP‘ was 999th.
I thought I’d check out which rock ‘n’ roll gods had the 666th UK number one album and it wasn’t any kind of god or devil just Nickleback with ‘Silver Side Up’
Robbie has now had eleven solo number one albums, equalling Elvis Presley. If you count his number ones with Take That it’s fifteen which is the same number as the Beatles. However Robbie is way behind on the weeks spent at number one in the UK albums chart list. The Beatles top that at 174 weeks with Robbie languishing in sixth place with just 31 weeks. The acts between him and the Beatles are Elvis Presley (63 weeks), Abba (57), Rolling Stones (45) and Simon and Garfunkel (40). I suspect Gary Barlow will have the 1,001st number one next week with his new album, which from what I have heard might rate as the dullest UK number one album for some time! Click here to read more about Robbie on the BBC.
For the second time in my gig going life I have seen Bryan Ferry or Byron Ferrari as the NME once dubbed him. The first time I saw him he was fronting Roxy Music in about 1977 or 1978. He was good then and after tonight I can honestly say he has got even better. He owned the stage with his lounge lizard-like persona, a true consummate performer.
The Bryan Ferry Orchestra opened proceedings with some excellent jazz readings of some of both Roxy and Ferry’s greatest songs including the not often heard “Bogus Man” and a later Roxy classic “Avalon”. The orchestra also made up the large part of his band. When the main man himself appeared they were augmented by an amazing guitarist, a very talented drummer and two incredibly entertaining backing singers.
Bryan had paced the show very well. Some early highlights for both myself and the delectable Catwoman were “Don’t Stop The Dance”, “On The Radio”, Bob Dylan’s “Knocking On Heaven’s Door” and “Carrickfergus”. The Charlie Parker tribute was also brilliant as was the images on the set of overhanging screens. There were even outings for “Sign Of The Times” from the ‘Bride Stripped Bare‘ album and the Platters cover “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes”.
After an interval, yes an interval; it must be for those of us of a certain age the Bryan Ferry Orchestra kicked off the second half of the show. Mr Ferry had changed into a really slick suit and oh boy did he start to kick ass. He really built the show to a fine crescendo with John Lennon’s “Jealous Guy” (there really isn’t much live whistling any more is there?), “Street Life”, “Love Is The Drug“, “Let’s Stick Together” “Hold On I’m Coming” and “Shame, Shame, Shame before closing with a storming version of early Roxy Music classic taken from the ‘For Your Pleasure’ album, “Editions Of You”.
In all perhaps one of the finest shows I have seen and I have seen plenty! The UK tour is almost over but if you’re going to see him play in Birmingham next Tuesday you’re going to have a blast! By the way none of the videos in this post were filmed by me an nor were any of the pictures mine.
As rock films go I have never really considered soft porn classic ‘Emanuelle’ to be among the best. In fact I have never even considered it to be a rock film! However I recently learnt that part PDF yet he score was inadvertently supplied by King Crimson from a piece written by Robert Fripp. The film’s producers plagiarised the last track on the original album, “Larks Tongues In Aspic (Part 2)”. One of the first people to let Fripp know was King Crimson bass player John Wetton.
Robert then went off to see the film in Leicester Square. He said that he found the film ‘rather boring’ but noticed that every sex scene was soundtracked with “Larks Tongues In Aspic (Part 2)”. The composers of the film’s soundtrack claimed to have worked on the music for six months but seemed to have completed their work just a week after Crimson performed the track on French TV. Fripp successfully sued the film makers and composers. According to a recent interview Fripp says ‘I still get pitiful amounts of money from reshowings of ‘Emanuelle’ around the world’ That must be the only money shot that keeps on coming; right? Personally I’d rather have sex to Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On‘ album than “Larks Tongues In Aspic (Part 2)”. How about you dear readers?
Anyway I can’t use my usual trick of taking a line of lyric from the song I am posting about as it’s an instrumental, so I have included the link and a lyric from “Easy Money” which is on the ‘Larks Tongues In Aspic’ album.
Geri meets 3 of the 393 people that bought her new single
Once upon a time she was one fifth of the pop world conquering Spice Girls who sold their songs by the Starship load. Nowadays Geri Halliwell a.k.a. Ginger Spice is selling barely enough CDs (ok I recognise that many are probably downloads these days) for one person to carry. Geri’s new single in Australia, “Half Of Me” sold just 393 copies in its first week. To be fair that is probably 392 more than perhaps a new Victoria Beckham single would sell.
Geri celebrates after the first six copies of her new single had been sold
Anyway it seems that Geri is taking it reasonably well. She decided not to perform the song on the Australia’s Got Talent Final TV show. Instead she performed a version of the Spice Girls first hit “Wannabe”. She admitted that deep down she was gutted. In contrast the Australian number one single, “Alive” by Aussie X Factor winner Dami Im sold 44,000 in the same period. Click here to read the story on the BBC.
Geri spends all the profits from the sales of her new single on a cab ride across the road
It’s clearly a long way from those heady days of her early solo career where she achieved four UK number ones; “Mi Chico Latino“, “Lift Me Up”, “Bag It Up” and an atrocious cover version (in my opinion) of the Weather Girls disco classic “It’s Raining Men“. The latter was also number one in Belgium, France, Ireland and Italy. She has never had an Australian number one solo single though and with “Half Of Me” only making it to number 281 that seems unlikely to change. Her biggest solo hit in the land down under was her first single “Look At Me” which made it to number 3 in 1999. Should we start a campaign to have “Half Of Me” adopted as the anti X Factor Christmas number 1 in the UK this year? No I didn’t think you’d go for that either!
I recently read an article on Mott The Hoople in Classic Rock magazine which was written by the extremely knowledgeable and very talented music writer Kris Needs. back in the early 70s Kris ran the Mott fan club for all the Seadivers (if you were one you will know what that means). I assume from the article that the fan club address was also Kris’ home address. On one occasion a young Asian girl turned up with some mates. She was studying at Lady Margaret Hall in Oxford which is relatively close to where Kris lived in Aylesbury. This young woman had written to the fan club on many occasions and was mostly known to Kris as Member 262.
It turns out though that she was none other than Benazir Bhutto who went on to become Pakistan‘s Prime Minister before she was cruelly assassinated in 2007. I never knew that Benazir was a Mott The Hoople fan so I’d like to dedicate this post to her memory and I hope you now all enjoy “The Ballad Of Mott” and the excellent “Saturday Gigs“. finally if you ever come across something written by Kris Needs I recommend that you read it, he is bloody good! Especially his autobiography ‘Needs Must: A Very Rock ‘n’ Roll Story’. My good mate John Williams has a signed copy of it too; lucky git!
In a recent issue of Record Collector Magazine Bill Harry a former PR man for the mighty Led Zeppelin recalled a story that caused me to laugh out loud. It is a story that proves that whilst in many people’s eyes Robert Plant was a true Rock God he was (and probably still is) very human indeed.
Bill Harry said of the Led Zep gig in Holland; ‘The band was on a massive stage and the hall was packed with thousands of kids. The sound was crystal clear. You could hear everything. Suddenly in the middle of a number Robert Plant farted. You could hear it clearly over the PA. It was unbelievable to hear a rock star fart on stage. Everyone stood there stunned, then broke up laughing. And it was totally unrehearsed’
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