The Heavy are a British band from Bath. They have been around a while but haven’t had massive success yet, although two of their three albums have made it into the US top 200. Hopefully they may now be on the verge of greater success after Guinness have chosen to use their 2012 single “What Makes A Good Man?” as a soundtrack to their new advert set in the Congo.
The advert is another Guinness advert to focus on real people. This time it’s the Sapeurs of Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, who are the stars. These are everyday working men who transform themselves into sartorial gods in the evening. Check out the advert and then the full song below.
Blur, who have been a little inactive on the new music front recently launched some new merchandise which you can buy on-line. Is it branded trainers, hoodies, t-shirts, baseball caps and the like? No, it’s a tea set, beer mats and flat caps. Better hurry up if you want a Blur tea set though, apparently only 300 were made. Click here to get yours. Blimey next they’ll be selling whippets named after the band members and maybe branded pipes and slippers. What other random merchandising can we expect? Cup cakes from Ozzy Osbourne, BingoWings.com on-line bingo from Madonna, X-Factor ear plugs made from Matt Cardle’s ear wax, Robbie Williams and One Direction toilet paper, Olly Murs manure? All your suggestions would be very gratefully received.
According to Joe Anderson, the Mayor of Liverpool, his city’s artists can claim more UK number one singles per head of population than any other city in the world. There have been 57 so far, including 17 from the Beatles. Let’s stick to cities and not smaller towns and villages though, otherwise Westlife might put Sligo on top of the list with their 14 UK number one singles. Incidentally I wonder how many number one singles London has had? Or any other city for that matter.
Joe was writing in Q Magazine to counter London Mayor Boris Johnson‘s ridiculous claim that London ‘made’ the Beatles. Surely it was Liverpool and possibly a degree of Hamburg that ‘made’ the Fab Four? What do you think of Boris’ comments? I think he is a complete arse!
Here are those Liverpool acts and their UK number ones;
14 March 1953 : Lita Roza – “(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?”
25 January 1957 : Frankie Vaughan – “The Garden of Eden”
14 February 1958 : Michael Holliday – “The Story of My Life”
29 January 1960 : Michael Holliday – “Starry Eyed”
7 December 1961 : Frankie Vaughan – “Tower of Strength”
11 April 1963: Gerry and the Pacemakers – “How Do You Do It?”
2 May 1963: The Beatles – “From Me to You”
20 June 1963 : Gerry and the Pacemakers – “I Like It”
8 August 1963: The Searchers – “Sweets for My Sweet”
22 August 1963: Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas – “Bad to Me”
12 September 1963 : The Beatles – “She Loves You”
31 October 1963 : Gerry and the Pacemakers – “You’ll Never Walk Alone”
28 November 1963 : The Beatles – “She Loves You”
12 December 1963 : The Beatles – “I Want to Hold Your Hand”
30 January 1964 : The Searchers – “Needles and Pins”
27 February 1964 : Cilla Black – “Anyone Who Had a Heart”
19 March 1964 : Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas – “Little Children”
2 April 1964 : The Beatles – “Can’t Buy Me Love”
7 May 1964 : The Searchers – “Don’t Throw Your Love Away”
28 May 1964 : Cilla Black – “You’re My World”
23 July 1964: The Beatles – “A Hard Day’s Night”
10 December 1964 : The Beatles – “I Feel Fine”
22 April 1965 : The Beatles – “Ticket to Ride”
5 August 1965: The Beatles – “Help!”
30 September 1965 : Ken Dodd – “Tears”
16 December 1965 : The Beatles – “Day Tripper”/”We Can Work It Out”
23 June 1966: The Beatles – “Paperback Writer”
18 August 1966: The Beatles – “Yellow Submarine”/”Eleanor Rigby”
19 July 1967 : The Beatles – “All You Need Is Love”
6 December 1967: The Beatles – “Hello, Goodbye”
27 March 1968 : The Beatles – “Lady Madonna”
11 September 1968 : The Beatles – “Hey Jude”
11 December : 1968 The Scaffold – “Lily the Pink”
23 April 1969 : The Beatles with Billy Preston – “Get Back”
11 June 1969: The Beatles – “The Ballad of John and Yoko”
30 January 1971 : George Harrison – “My Sweet Lord”
3 December 1977 : Wings : “Mull of Kintyre”
20 December 1980 : John Lennon – “(Just Like) Starting Over”
10 January 1981 : John Lennon – “Imagine”
7 February 1981 : John Lennon – “Woman”
24 April 1982 : Paul McCartney with Stevie Wonder – “Ebony and Ivory”
14 January 1984 : Paul McCartney – “Pipes of Peace”
28 January 1984 : Frankie Goes to Hollywood – “Relax”
16 June 1984: Frankie Goes to Hollywood – “Two Tribes”
8 December 1984 : Frankie Goes to Hollywood – “The Power of Love”
9 March 1985 : Dead or Alive – “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)”
15 June 1985: The Crowd – “You’ll Never Walk Alone”
29 August 1987 : Ferry Aid – “Let it Be”
20 May 1989 : Various artists – “Ferry Cross the Mersey”
22 July 1989 : Sonia – “You’ll Never Stop Me Loving You”
26 May 1996 : Baddiel, Skinner & The Lightning Seeds – “Three Lions”
14 June 1998: Baddiel, Skinner & The Lightning Seeds : “Three Lions ’98”
March 26 2000: Melanie C featuring Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes – “Never Be the Same Again”
August 13 2000: Melanie C – “I Turn to You”
February 4 2001: Atomic Kitten – “Whole Again”
July 29 2001: Atomic Kitten – “Eternal Flame”
January 20 2002: George Harrison – “My Sweet Lord”
April 28 2002: Sugababes – “Freak Like Me”
August 18 2002: Sugababes – “Round Round”
September 1 2002 : Atomic Kitten – “The Tide Is High (Get the Feeling)”
October 19 2003 : Sugababes – “Hole in the Head”
September 30 2007 : Sugababes – “About You Now”
Christmas number one 2012 : The Justice Collective – “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother”
I would like to take this opportunity to wish all readers of this blog a very happy and prosperous new year. I hope that 2014 will be everything you want it to be. Keep on rocking!
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.
This is apparently the 666th post on this blog, so I thought I’d celebrate that with devilishly beastly top 13 Satan songs. I’d also love to hear what other songs you might have chosen. Given that we are days away from Halloween I suppose that this borders on being a topical post too 🙂
So finally after a few false starts Stephen Morrissey has published his autobiography wich is either very cleverly or very lazily (depending on your opinion) titled ‘Autobiography’. Most of the reviews have been reasonably good, perhaps driven by the reviewer thinking they might get a scathing review of their own critical talent from Mozzer. Anyway I haven’t read the book yet which rather interestingly is published by Penguin Classics.
So if I haven’t read the book what is the purpose of this post? Well simply to publicise something that has been published on Tumblr under the title ‘This Charming Charlie’. It is a collection of Charles Schultz‘s Peanutscartoon strips with their original dialogue replaced by Morrissey lyrics. Click here to check it out, but do it quickly because someone (I wonder who, because it certainly doesn’t seem to be Mozzer) is taking a copyright action against Lauren LoPrete’s site.
Stuart Goddard‘s Mum was once James McCartney’s cleaner. But to put that into something that most people will understand, Adam Ant’s Mum was once Paul McCartney’s cleaner. Adam was born Stuart Goddard and Paul McCartney’s name is in fact James Paul McCartney. Mr Ant was born in Marylebone so I assume that his Mum cleaned for Macca when he lived in London back in the days when young Master Ant was heading for his teenage years. Do you know the occupations of the parents of any other superstars?
Is Mr Ant following in his Mum’s footsteps?
These aren’t music related but I used to work at a London Transport bus overhaul works in Elstree from 1977 to 1983. At the same time we had Todd Carty‘s Dad working in the factory and Snooker Champion Steve ‘Interesting’ Davis’ Dad driving a staff bus. Todd played Tucker Jenkins in Grange Hill and Mark Fowler in Eastenders. But in a music related connection I did go to school with Chris Doveton whose daughters make up one-third of the superb band the Tuts and one half of the rather excellent Colour Me Wednesday. The Tuts have just completed a successful European Tour in support of Kate Nash and Colour Me Wednesday have been promoting their excellent first album ‘I Thought It Was Morning’ which came out in July. If you haven’t checked out the Tuts and Colour Me Wednesday yet you need to explain in no less than 500 words why you haven’t. if you don’t then I will have to arrange for Mrs Goddard to turn you upside down and use you as a mop!
The song that I have chosen to support the trivia element of this post is Adams Ant’s “Apollo 9” which was released in 1984, some 15 years after the launch of the rocket of the same name. Is it possible that Mrs Goddard was still polishing Macca’s floors when that launch took place in 1969? I have also decided to blatantly plug the Tuts and Colour Me Wednesday. Why would I do that I hear you ask? Simply because I can is my answer!
Apparently Aretha Franklin’s excellent cover of the Band’s equally excellent song “The Weight” featured Duane Allman on slide guitar. The song was recorded at the world-famous Muscle Shoals studio in Alabama. But what I found most interesting is that Duane played slide using an empty bottle of decongestant pills. Personally I thought he was hooked to harder stuff than that!
I also feel that a major pharmaceutical marketing opportunity has been passed by. I think rock songs could be used to advertise prescription and over-the-counter products. Imagine that folks, rock music involved with the promotion of drugs! No one will believe that will they? Anyway I thought I’d kick things off with a request for Department S to reform and re-record their big hit “Is Vic There?” as “Is Vicks There?” Or maybe the Belle Stars could record “Sign Of The Times” as “Sinex Of The Times”. What do you think? I would love to hear your ideas for pharmaceutical promotion.
The Heavy are a British band from Bath. They have been around a while but haven’t had massive success yet, although two of their three albums have made it into the US top 200. Hopefully they may now be on the verge of greater success after Guinness have chosen to use their 2012 single “What Makes A Good Man?” as a soundtrack to their new advert set in the Congo.
The advert is another Guinness advert to focus on real people. This time it’s the Sapeurs of Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo, who are the stars. These are everyday working men who transform themselves into sartorial gods in the evening. Check out the advert and then the full song below.
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 