With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

Music reviews, gig reviews, fun trivia and extra added random stuff!

“For you things, seem to turn out right I wish they’d only happen to me instead” December 6, 2018

Filed under: News,Obituary — justwilliam1959 @ 10:06 pm
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I guess it must be my age in that so many people who were a part of my younger years have left us. I am sure many of you are now aware that northern punk stalwart Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks passed away at just 63 after a suspected heart attack. The Buzzcocks were a classic British band in so many ways. They did not ape the US vocalisation of some, they stuck to their guns, remembered their roots and produced some amazing music along the way. Contrary to popular belief the band were probably not named after a slang term for a vibrator. But supposedly about the buzz or the happening with cock being English north-western slang for mate, pal or friend. The band formed in Bolton in 1976 in a coming together of Pete Shelley and Howard Devoto. Both became early fans of the Sex Pistols, travelling down to London to see them play in February 1976. After that Devoto and Shelley were the instigators of the Pistols now infamous and iconic show at Manchester’s Lesser Free Trade Hall in June 1976. The pair was unable to get a band together to get on the bill for that gig, but with the addition of Steve Diggle and John Maher the Buzzcocks opened the second Sex Pistols Manchester show in July 1976. By the end of that year they had recorded and released their ‘Spiral Scratch’ EP. The following year they signed for the United Artists label and released the punk classic “Orgasm Addict” a song that was very risqué for the time.

The Buzzcocks embraced punks DIY attitude and principles even though they signed to a major label. the band disbanded in 1981 but got back together later that decade. Shelley and Diggle were the constant members overseeing a number of personnel changes. Over the years the Buzzcocks released nine studio albums and a string of compilations. For me they were best remembered as an incredible singles band. How can anyone not love “What Do I Get” and their biggest hit (a UK number 12 in 1978) “Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve)”. I was lucky enough to see them a couple of times in London in 1978 and then once again in York on the Buzzcocks 40 tour just a few years ago. My thoughts are with Pete Shelley’s family, friends and fans, he will be very sadly missed. RIP Pete Shelley.

 

 

Skylights – Promo CD – September 2018 September 8, 2018

Filed under: News,Review — justwilliam1959 @ 11:53 pm
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I was lucky enough to be on the mailing list for an excellent 7 track promo CD from the talented Skylights from York. I am very familiar with two of the tracks; “What You Are” and “YRA” which I have previously reviewed for this blog. Both of these are now accompanied by a couple of excellent videos (see below) and are almost instant anthems. On the basis of those two tracks alone it is clear that this is a tight band with a potentially bright future. “Nothing Left To Say” has the same anthemic qualities as the previously mentioned tunes and will be released with an accompanying video next month. They definitely have a DNA link to the better parts of so-called BritPop. Most notably here in “Take Me Somewhere” in which I can hear the melodies of Cast and Dodgy with perhaps the delivery of Oasis at their prime. On top of that the riff here has a late 70s power pop like quality at times.

The CD also showcases three demo recordings. “Britannia” is an epic melodic, fuzzed up banger that has influence from the Verve and especially the Stone Roses. meanwhile “Driving Me Away” does not do what it says on the tin, it drives you towards this rather excellent and very talented band. They show their softer side on the yearning hook-laden “Darkness Falls”. Rob and Jonny Scarisbrick on soaring vocals and pounding bass respectively are aided and abetted by supreme sticksman Myles Soley and axeman extraordinaire Turnbull Smith in a quest for greater success for Skylights. Can they do it? Well on this evidence I reckon they can. In fact with another three or four songs of the quality and calibre of those on the promo means there could be a brilliant début album on the cards.

 

 

Catherine Rocks The Cleveland Way Part 2 June 7, 2018

Filed under: News,Observation — justwilliam1959 @ 8:59 pm
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Regular readers and people who know me will by now be aware that my wonderful wife Catherine has embarked on a mammoth 109 mile charity walk on the Cleveland Way in the North East of England. I posted about it recently click here for part 1. Why is she doing this? Well four years ago Catherine and I were totally devastated by the loss of two children as a result of an adoption disruption. It was clear to us that the support needed by vulnerable children was just not available. There was no money and no urgency to the long-term support that was needed. It is incredibly important to both of us that the children and young people in our community have access to the support they need to thrive and to grow into happy and resilient adults. We know that we are unable to do anything now for the children we lost, but we want to try to make a difference to the lives of other children and young people. We want to do whatever we can to try to prevent what happened to our children from happening again. Please feel free to contribute toward Catherine’s target of £10,000. Her efforts so far means that she is already at 85% of that total. Click here for the link to donate.

Anything you can add to that will be invaluable to the two charities we are supporting. Those charities are The Island (Enhancing the quality of life for vulnerable children and young people in York) and SASH (Working to prevent homelessness in young people aged 16-25 in York, North Yorkshire & East Yorkshire).

The Island offers support to vulnerable 8-13 year-olds in York who are struggling to cope at home, at school, or in the wider community, or who are experiencing difficult transitions in their lives. The Island links these young people with volunteer mentors with whom they meet on a weekly basis over the course of a year (or longer if required). This allows them to develop supportive, ongoing relationships, whilst also providing them with the undivided attention and the ‘islands of space and time’ they need to increase their confidence and self-esteem, participate in worthwhile recreational activities, and move forward in their lives.

SASH run supported lodgings schemes which help young people develop the skills they need to live on their own. They provide an emergency nightstop service that makes a difference to young people’s lives when most needed.

The final leg of her journey is tomorrow, Friday 8th June where she is due to take the final step of those 109 miles at around 5:30 pm. I cannot begin to tell you how proud I am of this very special lady. I love her down to her bones and apparently those bones are aching like hell at the moment! So dig deep and contribute whatever you can 🙂 To spur you on here are a few walking related songs.

 

Northern Radar – Artist Of The Week – Queen Zee May 30, 2018

Filed under: News,Observation — justwilliam1959 @ 7:17 pm
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Move over Liz and Phil, Wills and Kate, Harry and Meghan there is a new monarch in town who goes by the name of Queen Zee. I would like to thank those Arch Dukes of music cool over at Northern Radar for asking me to write an artist of the week slot for this excellent band from Liverpool. Just click here to read it!

 

Catherine Rocks The Cleveland Way! May 26, 2018

Filed under: News,Observation — justwilliam1959 @ 4:37 pm
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Many of you who know me will by now know that my wonderful wife Catherine will very soon be embarking on a mammoth 109 mile charity walk on the Cleveland Way in the North East of England. A map of the Cleveland Way is shown at the very end of this post. Why is she doing this? Well four years ago Catherine and I were totally devastated by the loss of two children as a result of an adoption disruption. It was clear to us that the support needed by vulnerable children was just not available. There was no money and no urgency to the long term support that was needed. It is incredibly important to both of us that the children and young people in our community have access to the support they need to thrive and to grow into happy and resilient adults. We know that we are unable to do anything now for the children we lost, but we want to try and make a difference to the lives of other children and young people. We want to do whatever we can to try and prevent what happened to our children from happening again. Please feel free to contribute toward Catherine’s target of £10,000. Her efforts so far means that she is already at 46% of that total. Click here for the link to donate.

Anything you can add to that will be invaluable to the two charities we are supporting. Those charities are The Island (Enhancing the quality of life for vulnerable children and young people in York) and SASH (Working to prevent homelessness in young people aged 16-25 in York, North Yorkshire & East Yorkshire).

The Island offers support to vulnerable 8-13 years olds in York who are struggling to cope at home, at school, or in the wider community, or who are experiencing difficult transitions in their lives. The Island links these young people with volunteer mentors with whom they meet on a weekly basis over the course of a year (or longer if required). This allows them to develop supportive, ongoing relationships, whilst also providing them with the undivided attention and the ‘islands of space and time’ they need to increase their confidence and self-esteem, participate in worthwhile recreational activities, and move forward in their lives.

SASH run supported lodgings schemes which help young people develop the skills they need to live on their own. They provide an emergency nightstop service that makes a difference to young people’s lives when most needed.

Both charities need your support. They only exist because people in our community care enough to help them do what they do. Please click here to find Catherine’s Virgin Money Giving page. Now obviously this blog is essentially a music blog so I have picked ten walking themed songs (ok the first one loosely links to Catherine’s walking route) I hope that you enjoy them. In fact feel free to listen while you donate 🙂

 

 

“And we can build this dream together, standing strong forever” March 5, 2017

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 9:23 pm
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I have always been somewhat against the use of classic rock in advertising, especially if the artist has been known for their rebelliousness or anti-establishment tendencies. However I believe that Grace Slick off of Jefferson Airplane/ Starship fame has hit on a brilliant idea to overcome that and I am amazed that no one has hit on this before, unless they have and I just never heard about it. The US fast food chain Chick-Fil-A approached Grace to ask for permission to use Starship’s 1987 smash hit “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” in an advertising campaign. Now Chick-Fil-A’s Georgia based owners have a Christian philanthropic foundation known as Winshape that is a big opponent of same-sex marriage. On top of that the company’s Chief Executive, the rather interestingly named, Dan T Cathy has been very critical of supporters of gay rights.

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So the very clever Grace Slick has chosen to take the money she receives for use of the song in the Chick-Fil-A campaign and give it to the organisation Lambda Legal. Lambda is a civil rights organisation that helps LGBTQ people and people living with HIV and Aids. They also plan to help any transgender kids impacted by the reversal of the federal policy on toilet usage that this vile so called administration has repealed. Slick is making a wonderful public example of such a bigoted corporate organisation. I would urge any artists who might naturally feel the urge to reject corporate offers like this to follow Grace Slick’s lead and fight back in this way. Sadly this has also brought out the crazy end of the Christian right-wing as a number of on-line trolls have issued death threats to Slick. I would love to hear what you think of all this. Have any of you protested by not eating at Chick-Fil-A?

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“Don’t look back, ’cause you know what you might see” November 4, 2016

Filed under: News,Observation — justwilliam1959 @ 12:37 am
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So if recent reports are true we could have an Oasis reunion tour of some type next year. Click here to read the report on the NME website. I am sure that there will be many people who are very excited by this news, but I am not one of them. In my opinion the first two Oasis albums; ‘Definitely Maybe‘ and ‘(What’s The Story) Morning Glory?’ remain stone cold classic albums. The third album ‘Be Here Now‘ was frankly a shambolic, over-egged pile of shite. After that they never reached their early heady heights again, although there was the occasional excellent single in that time.

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I saw Oasis twice, first in a tiny dive of a pub in Windsor in 1994 with about 100 people and secondly at Knebworth in 1996. Two excellent shows in two very different venues and circumstances, but both bloody good. Personally and with hindsight I think that they should have quit after Knebworth, it was mostly downhill from there. Noel‘s subsequent solo career proves to me that he was the real talent behind Oasis. Liam‘s post Oasis activity has so far been Beady Eye and to be fair they were nothing but the remainder of Oasis but without Noel to write the songs. I saw Beady Eye at the Reading Festival a few years ago and they came across like a below average Oasis tribute band who largely wanted to perform their own sub standard songs.

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But if you are a big fan or if Oasis were always ‘your band’ then just go ahead and enjoy yourself. But for me Oasis are not a band that should reform, I think that it could kill off the tarnished legacy that they have left. But no doubt the whole circus will provide copious copy on those darlings of the intellectual press the tabloids! As usual I would love to hear your thoughts on the boys from Burnage getting back together via the comments on here.

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“Let my mouth go where it wants to” October 23, 2016

Filed under: News,Observation — justwilliam1959 @ 11:23 pm
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Is Madge getting a little desperate? I mean I’m pleased that she is not supporting Trump in the US elections, but offering a blow job to Hilary voters? Seriously? Also is that not a little ironic given what Bill got up to with Monica Lewinsky?

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Madonna made the offer while she was introducing a show by American comedian Amy Schumer. She apparently said; “If you vote for Hillary Clinton, I will give you a blow job, okay?. I swear to God – and I’m good. I’m good. I’m not a douche and I’m not a tool, I take my time, I have a lot of eye contact, and I do swallow.” Read the article on the Pink News site by clicking here.

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I am sure that there might be many takers, but perhaps not among her large gay fan base. Incidentally I reckon she should have set a limit though or maybe first come first served? (OK that last comment sucks the big pun!)

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“Jetzt wollen wir tanzen mechanik” September 25, 2016

Filed under: News,Observation — justwilliam1959 @ 12:18 am
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Have you ever dressed as your favourite pop or rock star? Maybe in the privacy of your own home or at a fancy dress party? Have you ever thought about taking it even a stage further than that and maybe dressing like your favourite musician all the time? Perhaps even changing your name legally to reflect your dedication? Well if you have then you have something in common with a man formerly known as David Sanborn (not the saxophone player who played on David Bowie’s ‘Young Americans‘ album). The former Mr Sanborn from Florida is now known as Kraftwerk. He has been posting pictures on his life as Kraftwerk on his Flickr account.

Kraftwerk eats lunch

Kraftwerk eats lunch

Incidentally whilst I have dressed up on many occasions for fancy dress I have never dressed as a pop or rock star, well mot yet at least). I want to hear your pop and rock star dressing up stories or anything else that you have done to show your dedication to your favourite artist.

Kraftwerk's Driving Licence

Kraftwerk’s Driving Licence

 

“I can wait forever till the end of time” July 9, 2016

Filed under: News,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 7:20 am
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Do you still own cassettes? I have a few that I plan to convert to MP3 files when I can be bothered to get around to it. But do you still buy cassettes? Some people do, well at least they did until relatively recently. Nsync‘s album ‘No Strings Attached’ which was originally released in 2000 was the top-selling cassette album in 2011 when it sold a massive eleven copies! It was also the top-selling cassette in 2009 and 2010 when it sold 23 and 13 copies respectively. No one seems to have any idea how or why this happened. Do you know?