The team at the finish, just how fresh do we look? đ
Regular readers will know that I took part in the world-famous Great North Run last Sunday. It is a half marathon (13.1 miles) which starts in Newcastle and finishes in South Shields. It was my first half marathon for 17 years so I wasn’t expecting a great time. I was part of a team of five and I am pleased to say that I came third in that little group with an official time of 2.44. But also big congratulations go to the rest of the team as well; Stuart O’Hara, Nick Cooper, Simon Downs and David Carline. In the overall race I was 35,301st, but I did still have a pulse at the end of the race and I have suffered no major aches or injuries. To my knowledge I was beaten by a the fridge man, a gingerbread man, a Scooby Doo (although I did beat another Scooby home) and Jesus. JC carried a heavy wooden cross for the whole run and gave me a rather disdainful look when I asked whether he was in fact Jesus or Brian.
The atmosphere and support were tremendous and perhaps the only negative was the heavy rain at the start. especially as it took me 50 minutes to actually reach the start line from when the gun went off. But there were somewhere in the region of 55, 000 entrants. A lot of our excellent Olympians and Paralympians were also there to offer support. In fact I was even able to high-five with the swimming superstar Ellie Simmonds and the magnificent Mobot himself, Mo Farah.
Up to now we have raised 83% of our target sponsorship for the Save The Children charity. So thank you to all of you who have contributed so far, but it’s not too late. Click here if you would like to donate. I also promise that this will be my last begging post for some time. So now for a special treat how about some appropriate songs?
Many of my regular readers will know that I am not a big fan of the institution of the British Royal family. However I am a big supporter of an individuals right to privacy. I felt that it was fundamentally wrong for one of our most scummy tabloid newspapers, the Sun, to print the naked pictures of Prince Harry recently. Especially as their sleaze-bag owner Rupert Murdoch agreed with his equally sleazy editor, Kelvin McKenzie that it was ‘in the public interest’. Now that a French magazine has published some topless shots of Kate Windsor I wonder if the Sun will do the same? Their definition of ‘public interest’ must surely relate to topless shots of the future Queen? Or have the scum at the Sun finally found some morals? I doubt it, they’re probably just scared of a backlash and a drop in sales.
This is a newspaper which has been proven to have lied on many occasions before, including Hillsborough and phone hacking so clearly they are not the best moral barometer are they? Anyway back to these paparazzi pictures of Kate. They were supposedly taken by a long-range telephoto lens while the Royal couple were on a private holiday in France. In my opinion this is a perverted Peeping Tom approach, pure and simple. If that photographer had done the same thing at my house or yours he would and should be arrested in my opinion. The editor of the French magazine Closer (nothing to do with the UK magazine of the same name incidentally) claims that is no different to what you might see on many beaches across Europe. That much may be true, however how would women relaxing topless on a beach feel if some scummy bloke took pictures of them and published those pictures without their permission? Indeed what if someone did it to the French editor. Incidentally I have not seen the pictures and I will not be wasting time searching for them. What do you people think of this issue?
Is this the first time I have sent any kind of begging letter on my blog? Probably not. But here it is anyway. I will be running the great North Run from Newcastle to South Shields on Sunday September 16th this year, barely a week and a half away! Why am I doing this? Firstly because my boss and good friend, Mr Nick Cooper ‘press ganged’ me and three others (Stuart O’Hara, Simon Downs and David Carline) into taking part. So the St John’s Ambulance volunteers along the route could have a busy day! Secondly we will be raising money for the Save The Children charity which I’m sure you will agree is an excellent cause!
So onto the begging part now. we have a target of ÂŁ1,500 to raise and so far we are at ÂŁ969 or 64% of target. So any donation that you can make, whatever size, would be very much appreciated. As is usual for these things we do have a ‘Just Giving’ page to make it easier to support us. Click here to get access to it.
Of course this is a music blog so I can’t end with no music can I? So here are thirteen (one for each mile of the run) running related songs for you to listen to while you donate!
1 “Running Away” – Sly and the Family Stone
2 “Run Runaway” – Slade
3 “Keep On Runnin'” – Spencer Davis Group
4 “Run For Home” – Lindisfarne
5 “Runaway” – Del Shannon
6 “Run Run Run” – Jo Jo Gunne
7 “I’m Gonna Run Away From You” – Tami Lynn
8 “Running Away” – Roy Ayers
9 “Running Up That Hill” – Kate Bush
10 “Run To The Hills” – Iron Maiden
11 “If You See My Rooster (Please Run Him Home)” – Memphis Minnie and Black Bob
It seems that the Elton John vs Madonna feud, which seems almost totally driven by Elton is still running. Back in 2000 he said her “Die Another Day” was the worst James Bond theme ever. A couple of years later he accused Madge of lip-syncing her ‘live’ shows ending his mini rant with ‘anyone who lip-syncs in public on stage when you pay ÂŁ75 to see them should be shot’. I’m not sure I can agree that lip-syncers should be shot and I don’t believe Madonna does lip-sync, although I have never seen her live. The next output from Elton’s bile fountain was to call Madonna a miserable cow when she refused to play at his stag party in 2005. Given the other outburst from Reg can you blame her?
Elton went a little too far in trying to emulate Mo Farah’s mobot!
His latest round of not so kind words for Madge came in an interview on Australian TV and may have had its roots in the fact that he was beaten to a Golden Globe award by Her Royal Madgeness earlier this year. He apparently said “sheâs such a nightmare. Her careerâs over…and she looks like a fucking fairground stripper. Sheâs been so horrible to Gaga” Oooh Elton you’re such a bitch! is madonna a nightmare? I don’t know her personally so I can’t answer that. is her career over? I hardly think so given the success of her current album ‘MDNA’ and the supporting tour. Does she look like a fairground stripper? Personally I have never been to a fairground that had a stripper, have you? So I’m not sur what planet Elton is on with that comment. Has she been horrible to Gaga? Well she has suggested a degree of plagiarism from her given some similarities between her old hit “Express Yourself” and Gaga’s “Born This Way”. Of course it should also be noted that Gaga is also the Godmother to Elton’s son.
It is interesting that Madge has never joined in by responding to these attacks from Mr Dwight. Could he be a little jealous of her? If so then I really don’t see why. Personally I’m a fan of both Madonna and Elton and I like both their new albums. My advice to Elton would be shut your gob and get on with making and playing music if you wanted a reaction from Madge it doesn’t seem to be happening does it?
Madge clearly being horrid to Gaga
Madonna was also recently in the news again for having the balls to stand up and express support for the jailed members of Pussy Riot when she played a show in Moscow. She was adding to a wide spectrum of western support for the band members currently incarcerated by the Putin regime. She also gave her support to the gay rights movement in Russia. It wasn’t long before the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Dmitry Rogozin, responded by accusing Madonna of a moral lecture and then suggested that she ‘Either take off your cross, or put on your knickers”. How does he know she has no knickers on? Has he been to her fairground strip show?
Is she a fairground stripper or does she just feel like a right tit?
And finally in the interest of supporting music and freedom, rather than playground spats here is one of my favourite Madonna songs followed by one of my favourite Elton songs.
Occasionally I find a topic or some crap trivia that might fit into more than one of my blogs and this one is one of those. In addition to here in ‘With Just A Hint Of Mayhem’ you will find it in my ‘With Just A Hint Of Learning‘ blog! If you already regularly read both then please accept my apologies for subjecting you to twice the usual drivel!
Did you know that Starbucks is named after a character from Herman Melville‘s classic tale ‘Moby Dick‘? In the book Starbuck is the name of the first mate of Captain Ahab. It also possibly is in part a derivation of Starbo which was a mining camp located on Mount Rainier in the late 1800s/ early 1900s. One of the guys involved in the creation of the company was Gordon Bowker, he initially favoured the name of Ahab’s ship from Moby Dick, it was called the Pequod. However it was pointed out to him by business partner Terry Heckler that; “No one’s going to drink a cup of Pee-quod!”. Actually I wonder if he heckled him about it?
Anyway in the long run they settled for Starbucks which they saw as a name ‘evoking the romance of the high seas and the seafaring tradition of the early coffee traders’. Did you also know that Gillian Anderson‘s character Dana Scully in the X Files was given the nickname of Starbuck by her screen father after the character in Moby Dick.
There is also a music link here, well a couple actually. Electro boffin Moby is actually a descendant of Moby Dick author Herman Melville, apparently he is the great great great-nephew of the writer. Moby’s real name is Richard Melville Hall. Additionally a big US hit from 1976 was “Moonlight Feels Right” which was performed by a band calle Starbuck. Surely the latter (or latte?) would have been a better inspiration for the Starbucks name because they could have changed the lyrics to advertise. How about a quick chorus of ‘flat white, feels right’ everyone!
We are now just over two weeks away from the start of the 2012 Reading Festival. Since I moved north to York in 2007 this has become my annual pilgrimage back south where I meet up with my good friend and festival buddy extraordinaire Mr nick Horslen. Undoubtedly soon to qualify as the oldest rockers in a field in Reading (our combined age is definitely over one hundred!) we have attended the world’s number one rock festival for many years. Although I live nearer to the Leeds end of it I won’t be going there until I can only move by Zimmer frame as I have always seen Leeds as the snotty young brother of Reading.
I have mixed feelings about some of the headliners this year. The Foo Fighters are always awesome an I doubt that will change this year. The Cure, who headline the main stage on the Friday night haven’t played the Reading Festival since 1979 so I’d like to think they’ll have something special up their sleeves for this year. It’s Kasabian that really concern me, I find them a little predictable and almost Spinal Tapesque, like someone said today I’m going to invent a rock band. I may be convinced otherwise but for me they come across as Leaden Zeppelin, Slightly Dark Sabbath or Shallow Purple. I am sure that there are plenty of you out there that disagree with that opinion, so feel free to comment.
There are some great acts lower down the bill on the Main Stage that for me are ‘must see’ performers. Those are; Florence and the Machine, Paramore, Eagles Of Death Metal, Cancer Bats and the truly stupendous Enter Shikari. The Kaiser Chiefs are third on the Main Stage bill on the Sunday, which I find a bit surprising. They have been lacklustre at best lately in my opinion, what do you think?
I am disappointed that I will probably miss Justice in the NME/ Radio tent as they are on the same time as the Foo Fighters. But there are a number of other bands and artists that I want to see on the NME/ Radio 1 stage; notably the Horrors, the Joy Formidable, Hadouken, the Hives, At The Drive In (who are on at the same time as Kasabian) and most of all Graham Coxon.
On the other stages I will do my best to watch Less Than Jake, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, Azealia Banks and Grimes. But of course I can’t ignore the often excellent BBC Introducing stage where Nick and I often pick a band with the wackiest name to see, but we are also open to recommendations too! So I’m currently considering Wet Nuns, Fish Tank, Dingus Khan and Attention Thieves.
Nick and I often meet some really interesting people at the festival and last year was no exception. In fact last year we met a great bunch of people, mostly South African, but with a smattering of Brits. One of the South Africans was a hilarious bloke called Jason Steyn. (Jason if you’re reading this let me know if you’ll be there this year). They shared their booze, we shared our food and supplied me with a Prince Charles mask! if those guys are back again this year and indeed if you want to meet me and Nick we will be just to the left of the front of the lighting/ mixing tower as you face the main stage, although obviously not if we’re at one of the other stages. You can’t miss us, Nick is very tll and grey haired and his festival nickname is Silver Dude. I am somewhat shorter, slightly older and have hardly any hair, my festival nickname is Billy Baldust. (Actually I just made that one up, but there will be a prize for anyone who comes up with a better one!
Anyway that’s enough wittering on from me. I would love to hear your comments on this post or indeed on any of my posts. I would also love to meet you at Reading and would be more than happy to give you a name check on my posts from the festival! Whetehr I see you or not I hope you enjoy yourself!
Regular readers will have noticed quite a few sports related posts on this blog recently, largely related to the London Olympics of course. However this is also a sports related post, but it doesn’t relate to the Olympics. I took part in the York 10 k Jane Tomlinson race this morning. Well I say race, but for me it was just a personal challenge. Many years ago I was doing two half marathons a year, many with my good friend Al Sloman. I also ran the 1986 London Marathon with Al, who is a blind runner. My last half marathon was in Wycombe in 1995 and I have now completed the York 10k three times. I did the Leeds 10k and Hull 10k last year too. Having done far less training than I had hoped and being somewhat porky at the moment I set myself a target of between 80 and 90 minutes. I was incredibly pleased to have finished with an official time of just over 68 minutes and I didn’t walk any of it! I also have a nice red t-shirt and a medal sponsored by the UK arm of Wal-Mart; Asda.
Howard Webb dresses for charity for the York 10K (or perhaps not!)
Clearly my performance wouldn’t have brought me even close to Mo Farah, but then I am considerably older than him! He probably had a better build up too. I arrived at the start at 8.20 (for a 9.00 start) with Catwoman, who was my chauffeur, coach and supporter for the day. I have a bladder that is smaller than a gnat’s eyeball so obviously I needed to empty it. The queue for the chemical portaloos was immense, but having joined it I wasn’t budging. So I was actually in full bladder emptying mode when the race started. But given I was always going to start with the less fast runners I still had plenty of time to join the slow pack. It took me 12 minutes from the starting whistle to cross the start line. Why was it a whistle and not a pistol? Well it was started by world-class football referee Howard Webb.
As is the norm the “Theme From Chariots Of Fire” was played before the race along with the British national anthem. Music can be inspirational so just how disappointed do you think I was when the PA was blasting out Cheryl Cole‘s “Fight For This Love” when I eventually crossed the start line. To make matters even worse that same slice of Cheryl’s special brand of crap pop was playing again! So as this is a music blog I will spare you anything by Cheryl and let you enjoy a few of running related songs and a song about Cheryl Cole nĂŠe Tweedy.
So many people will be writing about the Olympics in the coming weeks so I thought I’d get my mention out-of-the-way in advance of the opening ceremony. Personally I have been a little bored with the journey of the Olympic flame, especially after discovering that there are thousands of torches and not just a handful. The constant news stories about the whereabouts of the flame; ‘the flame has now passed through the arse end of nowhere carried by A N other’ have left me completely underwhelmed. How do you feel?
however, the good news is I am really looking forward to the opening ceremony. Has Danny Boyle arranged the weather? Will David Beckham kick a flaming football? Will Olly Mursspontaneously combust to light the flame? I really don’t care, I’m sure it will be one of the most spectacular Olympic openings there have ever been.
Anyway in the spirit of this being a music blog here are a few of appropriate tunes for the Olympics (starting with one of my favourite songs of all time) and while I’m here I want to wish the GB team all the best and I hope they win more medals than they have ever done!
We’re all looking forward to women’s beach volleyball aren’t we?
And finally how about a Billy bonus of another song from the rather excellent and sadly missed Gene!
Some recent research by Ofcom the UK’s communications industry regulator has provided some really sad news. We now communicate more using text and e mail than we do actually speaking on the phone or face to face. More people interact with each other via texts and social networking sites than speak to each other.
I find that very disappointing. Whilst a lot of my communication at work is via e mail I still regularly use the desk phone or mobile phone. I als prefer to meet someone in person when I can, especially as in most cases they are in the same building as me. Does this news ultimately mean that evolution will lead to human vocal cords shrivelling away and becoming as useful as an appendix?
You can read the news story here on the BBC site. As usual and as I have mentioned many times before this is a music blog so now I need to share some, hopefully appropriate, songs with you. But I should warn you that I have even more sad news……. one of them is by Cliff Richard!
“Don’t Speak” – No Doubt. This was the biggest single taken from the bands 1995 album ‘Tragic Kingdom‘ and was a UK number one early in 1997. It reached number one in at least twelve other countries.
“It’s Oh So Quiet” – Bjork. The song was written in German and the first English version appears to be by betty Hutton in 1951. But in my opinion Bjork has made it her own!
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 