OK it’s a big day for all my UK readers, yes it’s General Election Day. I would like to urge you to turn up and vote and if you were thinking of sitting on your arse and not voting please think again. Spoil your paper if you believe that is your only option but make sure you turn up to vote. A couple of months ago I was in the depths of apathy about the election, I am pleased to say that I am no longer there. I will be voting to rid us of the current regime.
It is not for me to tell you who to vote for but may I suggest that you ask yourself the question can you really and honestly be prepared to put up with another five years of Tory rule? I certainly can’t. So vote for whoever you like but if you’re undecided then avoid the Tories and UKIP like the plague!
OK this is essentially a music blog so here is a, hopefully appropriate, song from the Style Council. Enjoy it and then get out there and bloody well vote!
I am a fan of the Smashing Pumpkins but I do feel that Billy Corgan can be a bit of an arse sometimes. My name is William, but as a boy I was knowns a little Billy, as a teenager just Billy and today people know me as Bill. So I believe that this enables me to comment on some recent views expressed by Mr Corgan. Apparently during a gig in Lima, Peru Billy Corgan told the crowd that he wants to be known more formally these days. He said “My name is not Billy. My name is William”. Listen to me Willy Corgan, you may have great musical talent, just sometimes you’re a bit of a pretentious twat ok? Having said that at least it’s not Will.i.am is it?
I am pleased and a bit excited to announce that my blog reached a fantastic landmark last weekend. It has been around for just over six years and on April 4th it received its one and a half millionth hit! Yep that’s 1,500,000. If I include the hits for my other three blogs the total is in excess of 1,600,000. Now don’t get me wrong, I realise why many people have arrived at my blog; so many have searched for various celebrities in a state of undress notably Lily Allen and there was even a search for Meatloaf naked which arrived here. Recently thanks to glamorama.cl a Chilean gossip site there have been loads of hits in search of pictures of J-Lo‘s bottom. If you are interested my other blogs are;
Anyway by means of a celebration I thought I would give you some random statistics which show how far around the world this blog has gone and the countries that still haven’t succumbed. In addition I have made a very special top twenty where if you add up the numbers in the song titles they add up to 1,500,000. There was only a bit of artistic licence involved in this. I hope you enjoy the tunes. Incidentally the geographical stats have only been available for three years.
If you are from any of these countries or indeed any other country then feel free to come and say hello. Actually even if you’re from another planet I’d be happy to see you here! And now here is the top twenty that really does add up to 1,500,000.
As many of you are aware there will be a General Election in the UK in May. Well for the first time that I was granted the legal right to vote in 1977 I really cannot find any politician or party that inspires me enough to put my ‘X’ next to their name on May 7th. What are the main options?
Tories a.k.a Conservatives – I despise this party and I think hell might freeze over before I voted for them and Cameron is an incredibly weak leader in my opinion
Liberal Democrats – like many former Labour supporters who switched to them in 2010 I feel betrayed after they joined forces with the Tories. I hope Nick Clegg loses his seat, his party is as good as over.
Labour – lacking in direction when they should be crushing the other main parties. Sorry but they chose the wrong Milliband brother to lead them.
UKIP – Farage and his cronies? Why would anyone vote for this bunch of racist, Daily Mail supporters with no more than one policy
Greens – My heart says possibly but my brain says no. From what I’ve seen I don’t believe that they have the ability to lead or to influence a minority government
BNP – Fuck off you racist scumbags!
Obviously I can’t vote for the nationalist parties of Scotland, Northern Ireland or Wales as I am in England. I would have gone for the ‘None Of The Above’ movement but then I saw that they propose to actually stand candidates, that goes a lot against the grain for me. So all I hope is that the Monster Raving Looney Party are standing in my constituency or I may simply go along and spoil my ballot paper. The government do record and publish the number of spoiled ballots so perhaps that is the most effective protest that we have in this “democracy” of ours. What do you think and feel free to cast your vote in the poll.
Back in the olden days a.k.a when I was somewhat younger than I am now the UK chart rundown show was on a Sunday. This is where it has remained for years. However now that there will be a unified release date for all music (presumably from all the major labels at least) the UK Chart Show on BBC Radio 1 will shortly be moving to the Friday drive time slot; 4pm to 6pm.
That’s progress I suppose and that also raises the chance that I might listen to it again. I have fond memories of chart shows in the distant past. Sitting next to the radio taping your favourite songs and hoping that the first generation Smashie and Nicey characters didn’t talk over the intro or the fadeout. But one of my favourite things was the official announcement of the new chart on Radio 1 when it was on a Tuesday lunchtime. I always made sure that I had my transistor radio with me so that me and my mates at Bishopshalt School in Hillingdon could find out whether David Cassidy and the Osmonds were still clogging up the UK charts (they were), whether Slade had gone straight in at the top (they had) or whether Bowie would get his first number one single (yes but not until 1975 with a reissue of “Space Oddity“). Johnnie Walker was the bloke who usually read out the new chart on Tuesdays and he has always been one of my favourite broadcasters. He spoke over a chart music bed of the excellent “Time Is Tight” from Booker T and the MGs. Enjoy that tune now along with my favourite song about the charts; Pete Wingfield‘s superb “Eighteen With A Bullet” and a favourite of mine by the magnificent Mael Brothers a.k.a Sparks.
Last year I enjoyed a great day at a small local festival here in York. The Apollo Festival, you can read my review of last years event by clicking here. This year sees this wonderful family friendly music festival enter its third year. It was started in 2013 by Stuart Kelly and he has grown the show really well. Last year more than 3,000 people turned up which was close to doubling the amount of music fans that were there for the inaugural festival in 2013. If things go to plan you could be among 4,000 happy Apollo punters this year. I certainly will be as I have already purchased tickets for myself and the delightful Catwoman.
If you live in or near to York, or even further afield, then you have no excuse for missing this event in June. Prices are very affordable at just over £15 each ticket. Significantly less than what you’d pay for a day ticket to one of the major festivals. But even keeping prices low hasn’t affected the quality of the acts playing. Last year was great and I also experienced a few bands that I had previously never seen or heard of. One of the highlights from last year for me was And The Hangnails. We also saw the Entertainment Company and we liked them so much that we have booked them for Catwoman’s ‘significant’ birthday party next year.
The line-up for this year has two excellent bands that for one reason or another I have never seen before despite being a fan. Those bands are the fabulous Space and the headliners are the superb Inspiral Carpets. The ticket price is worth it for those two alone. One of the stages for 2015 will be curated by Rick Witter of Shed Seven, so I reckon that might be quite interesting. Other acts appearing are CryBabyCry, Happy Daggers, Hello Operator, Kimberly Kennedy, The Mothers, Rime Suspex, Rupert Stroud and Kid Conventional. I saw Hello Operator recently at the Basement in York City Screen and they are were excellent; a very loud, very powerful and explosive British rock band. I will be there along with my wonderful wife Catherine (a.k.a Catwoman) and hopefully a few of the friends that I have been promoting the festival to; John, Caron, Amelia, Shaun, Tracey you know who you are! Simon P, I know you’ll be there too and it looks like once again your music recommendations to me will be spot on! Finally I would like to say a big thank you to Stuart Kelly for starting this festival and building it to an even bigger level. Look out for my festival review at the end of June. Now get off your arse and get yourself a ticket! I will see you at the 2015 Apollo Festival at the York Sports Club, Shipton Road, York on Saturday 27th June. If you fail to turn up after all I have said then I will have to send the boys round!
Kanye West has been announced as a Glastonbury head-liner and an on-line petition is started to prevent this. What’s the point? That is all bollocks. He is more suited to Glasto than Mumford and Sons are as headliners at Reading and Leeds this year in my opinion.
However I do have issues with Kanye being feted as a genius. I think his early albums; ‘The College Dropout‘ in particular were very good. But for me, since then he has spiralled downhill to the point where in my opinion ‘Yeezus‘, which was highly acclaimed in the media, came across as a kind of Emperor’s New Clothes thing for me.
So my question to you about Kanye West is; Twat or Genius? Let’s vote people!
So it’s now legally official that Robin Thicke and Pharrel’s “Blurred Lines” is the same or incredibly similar to Marvin Gaye‘s classic “Got To Give It Up“. Whilst I think that “Blurred Lines” is pretty shit and a long way from Pharrell William’s usual standards this whole ‘your song sounds like my song so pay me’ stuff is getting ridiculous.
Sam Smith giving Tom Petty a writing credit for “Stay With Me” because it ripped off Tom’s “I Won’t Back Down“; really? Oasis made a career out of it didn’t they? Maybe Status Quo should sue themselves for copying the same song over and over. Frankly the same could be said of much of UB40’s efforts after their first album. In case you’re wondering I am a fan of many artists including Oasis, Marvin Gaye, Tom Petty and Sam Smith, Pharrell Williams and a handful of Quo and UB40 songs. Personally though I think that Robin Thicke is a misogynistic twat! What do you think?
I really can’t bear John Lennon’s“Imagine” although I am a big fan of much of what Lennon has recorded solo and with the Beatles. I believe this dislike of “Imagine” puts me in a minority so I was very pleased to come across someone else who doesn’t like it. None other than the brilliant John Cooper-Clarke.
He says ‘I regret ever hearing it in the first place. It’s nausea-inducing. The shallow sentimentality of it is ghastly. When I heard it I thought, maybe he’s just never been any good’. He goes on ‘I love the Beatles and John is one of the great voices, so it’s tragic that he should put his name to such drivel. The fact that it’s Britain’s number one song is suicide-inducing’
Very well said in my opinion Mr Cooper-Clarke. How many you agree or disagree or don’t really give a crap about it?
This is my first post of 2015 and it will be quite a short one. I would like to celebrate the birthdays of two music icons who were born twelve years apart and who both had many hits on the RCA label. So happy birthday to David Bowie who is 68 today and Elvis Presley would have been 80 years old today. Feel free to enjoy a few tunes from these amazingly talented people.
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 