With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

With Just A Hint Of Mayhem is ten years old! Part 10b (The Singles) February 9, 2019

Filed under: News,Observation,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 6:42 pm
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With Just A Hint Of Mayhem’s birthday celebrations are nearly over. Today is day 10 and it is February 9th which is the official 10th birthday…. WOO HOO, here’s to ten more years! Today you get two top tens in two separate posts this one is my top ten favourite singles and part 10a features my top 10 albums.

Regular readers will know that so far I have shared with you top ten most viewed posts on the blog since it began back in February 2009, the top ten countries that have given With Just A Hint Of Mayhem the most views, rock/ music related books, biographies and autobiographies, my top 10 Bowie songs, my 10 favourite bands of all time, my top ten favourite male artists, the ten greatest gigs that I have been to, my ten favourite music related films and yesterday my top ten favourite female artists.  (Click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here to view those again). So this is it for the 10th birthday celebrations but there is, I hope, much more to come from With Just A Hint Of Mayhem in the coming months and years, watch this space!

Don’t forget that you can also find us on Twitter  and FaceBook .

So here are my top ten favourite singles of all time, ask me next week and the list may change, although almost certainly not the number 1. I did deliberately ignore David Bowie for this list otherwise he might have occupied three or four places. If you are interested my favourite Bowie single at the moment is “Where Are We Now?”

1. No Woman No Cry (Live) – Bob Marley and the Wailers – In my opinion the greatest song and the greatest version. This will be my funeral song, unless of course I turn out to be immortal!
2. Strawberry Letter 23 – Brothers Johnson – The great Shuggie Otis wrote this but the Brothers Johnson made it their own.
3. I Want You Back – Jackson 5 – This is possibly one of the finest pop songs ever committed to vinyl. That opening piano flourish is magical.
4. White Man In The Hammersmith Palais – The Clash – For me this was the Clash’s finest hour both musically and lyrically.
5. Don’t Let Me Down – Beatles Amazing to think that this was just a B Side. It is my go to song to sing at volume when I am very drunk.
6. Do Anything You Wanna Do – Eddie And The Hot Rods – A truly inspirational song which still inspires me even in my advanced years!
7. God Save The Queen- Sex Pistols – Fear and conspiracy kept this from the number one spot in the Queens Silver Jubilee week in 1977. For me this should be the true UK national anthem.
8. Theme From A Summer Place – Percy Faith Orchestra – You might say that this is one of my guilty pleasures, well maybe, but it is a beautiful piece of music. It was also used to great effect in the TV adaptation of Stephen King’s ‘Rose Red’.
9. Mack The Knife – Bobby Darin – I love story songs and this is easily one of the best. The law says that you have to tap your feet and click your fingers to this, right?
10. Into My Arms – Nick Cave – As love songs go this might be quite strange but it is undoubtedly beautiful too. This was also the first dance at my wedding to my wonderful wife Catwoman a.k.a Catherine.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkM5lrrnq_Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEllHMWkXEU

 

 

With Just A Hint Of Mayhem is ten years old! Part 10a (The Albums)

Filed under: News,Observation,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 6:42 pm
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With Just A Hint Of Mayhem’s birthday celebrations are nearly over. Today is day 10 and it is February 9th which is the official 10th birthday…. WOO HOO, here’s to ten more years! Today you get two top tens in two separate posts this one is my top ten favourite albums and part 10b features my top 10 singles.

Regular readers will know that so far I have shared with you top ten most viewed posts on the blog since it began back in February 2009, the top ten countries that have given With Just A Hint Of Mayhem the most views, rock/ music related books, biographies and autobiographies, my top 10 Bowie songs, my 10 favourite bands of all time, my top ten favourite male artists, the ten greatest gigs that I have been to, my ten favourite music related films and yesterday my top ten favourite female artists.  (Click here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here to view those again). So this is it for the 10th birthday celebrations but there is, I hope, much more to come from With Just A Hint Of Mayhem in the coming months and years, watch this space!

Don’t forget that you can also find us on Twitter  and FaceBook .

So here are my top ten favourite albums of all time, ask me next week and the list may change, although almost certainly not the number 1. I did deliberately ignore David Bowie for this list otherwise he might have occupied three or four places. If you are interested my favourite Bowie album is ‘Diamond Dogs’

1. Live At The Lyceum 1975 – Bob Marley and the Wailers – If I had a time machine I would go back to 1975 and be there for this gig. Probably the finest live album ever.
2. OK Computer – Radiohead – There are still some people out there who don’t like, or maybe don’t get, Radiohead. Why the fuck not? This LP is a work of genius.
3. Dog Man Star – Suede – I loved Suede’s first album but this took them to a whole new level. Were they BritPop? If so then they were one of the best BritPop acts by far.
4. My Merry Go Round – Johnny Nash – This man, for me, has the most beautiful voice that I have ever heard in my life. This album from 1973 has remained among my favourite albums since its release.
5. Skeleton Tree – Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – How can anyone put so much emotion, empathy and sadness in a small collection of songs? I have no idea but Nick Cave certainly achieved it with this album.
6. Abbey Road – Beatles – I love many albums from the Fab Four, but this is the one I always come back to.
7. Never Mind The Bollocks – Sex Pistols – An incendiary début from one of the best punk bands ever. What might have happened if they had stayed together? Who knows but an album like this as your legacy is a great thing!
8. Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too – New Radicals – There is not a track I would skip on this album. The band is effectively the genius that is Gregg Alexander who wrote and produced all the songs.
9. What’s Going On? – Marvin Gaye – Probably the best protest and message album in history and one which is sadly still very pertinent today
10. Desire – Bob Dylan – It took me a long while to acquire a taste for Mr Zimmerman, but this album clinched it.

 

 

 

With Just A Hint Of Mayhem is ten years old! Part 9 February 8, 2019

Filed under: Observation,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 3:31 pm

With Just A Hint Of Mayhem’s birthday celebrations continue. Today is day 9 and I am giving you a list of my ten favourite female artists my ten favourite music related films.

Regular readers will know that so far I have shared with you top ten most viewed posts on the blog since it began back in February 2009, the top ten countries that have given With Just A Hint Of Mayhem the most views, rock/ music related books, biographies and autobiographies, my top 10 Bowie songs, my 10 favourite bands of all time, my top ten favourite male artists, the ten greatest gigs that I have been to and yesterday my ten favourite music related films. . (Click here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here to view those again). Stay tuned, there are only two top tens to come after this! They are my favourite albums and my favourite singles. Yes I know that makes eleven in total, but you’ll get a double whammy on the actually birthday itself 🙂

Don’t forget that you can also find us on Twitter  and FaceBook .

Kate Bush – I fell in love with Kate’s music the day I first heard “Wuthering Heights” back in 1978
Millie Jackson – the sassiest and sexiest voice there has ever been in my opinion
Carole King – not only a great performer but also an incredible songwriter
Karen Carpenter – a true voice of an angel, that voice is a one-off surely
Aretha Franklin – The Queen of Soul was more than worthy of that title
Dusty Springfield – The emotion and soul in her voice still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up
Bjork – she takes no prisoners, a true maverick and a certified genius
Amy Winehouse – I think Amy would have become one of the greatest singers in history had her life not ended son tragically quickly
Madonna – Who doesn’t love Madge?
Roseanne Cash – her songs are stories and her stories are songs. A beautiful voice and great live performer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjydOI4MEIw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeAZ9DQZFz8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLwocVPaGsE

 

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2fPkzJsMU8

 

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!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeMbRObRkco

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHnPWb6GaY4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsWqx8oslYQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-xPregVs2Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2B-Sk5QbEEw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-G3o1xrLs8

 

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 🙂

 

 

“God is an American, God is an American” July 4, 2017

Filed under: Observation — justwilliam1959 @ 4:00 am
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I would like to wish a very happy 4th of July to all my American readers. Stay strong people you only have another three and a half years of President Agent Orange. But if you wish to come back to the Empire just let me know, we used to own you after all 😉

But let me also thank you for making the UK government look less stupid than yours!

5d691099030ed1a4ba02e5a6b3d5d745--presidential-election--election

As I have said many times, this is a music blog so here are a few USA related songs, which in my opinion are bloody good!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGQaH3-LK54

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L4OnoEh2us

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4ZmjusMjFM

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Happy 8th Birthday to my blog! February 9, 2017

Filed under: Observation,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:19 am
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Hello good people of the blogosphere and thanking you for coming to visit my blog. The With Just A Hint Of Mayhem blog is eight years old today, Thursday 9th February 2017. This blog is an Aquarius. So I was going to treat you to another numbers post (i.e. songs with 8 in the title) but then my wonderful wife Catherine a.k.a. Catwoman gave me an even better idea of which I will tell you more soon.

8th-wishes

Firstly though here are some stats for the eight years that this blog has been alive;

1,587,200 visits (most from UK, USA, France, Chile, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Spain, Brazil and Australia)

1,016 posts (including this one)

842 comments

1,019 followers

Most common subjects via tags (David Bowie 141, Beatles 132, the BBC 107)

The post with the most views (68,439 to date) was published when the blog was only 8 days old, click here to read it, it was titled “We Are Starlight, We Are Golden”.

Most searches;

lady gaga 96,870
pink floyd 57,082
kate bush 41,699
lily allen 34,810
eminem 34,675
slipknot 27,081
catwoman 21,443
beatles 16,794
pink 16,497
bjork 12,772

Many of you searched for naked artists and the most popular search there was 2,620 searches for Lily Allen Naked, you pervy bunch you!

Anyway enough of the stats! How about the birthday celebration idea that my wonderful wife came up with? Well how about some music from a selection of artists that were also born on February 9th? You want some of that? OK well here you go.

Carmen Miranda born 1909

Ernest Tubb Born 1914

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWmbFXJDHrM

Carole King born 1942

Major Harris born 1947

Holly Johnson born 1960

Travis Tritt born 1963

Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo (off of Daft Punk) born 1974

James Owen Sullivan a.k.a The Rev (one time drummer with Avenged Sevenfold) born 1981 and sadly died in 2009

keep-calm-its-my-8th-birthday

 

 

 

“Give your leaders each a gun and then let them fight it out themselves” February 6, 2017

Filed under: Observation — justwilliam1959 @ 11:00 pm
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It fills me with wonder that through an accident of history and maybe the genes that gave him such a long life Henry John “Harry” Patch (17 June 1898 – 25 July 2009) will always be remembered as the last fighting Tommy. The last combat soldier from the Great War or World War One who died aged 111 in 2009. It’s like a sliding door moment which led Harry to that place.

harrypatch2

I was recently on a visit to the Somerset city of Wells which is where Harry Patch’s funeral was held. He was buried in Monkton Combe next to his brother and his parents. His memorial stone is outside Wells Museum. He was born in Combe Down near Bath. He believed that the commandment ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill‘ was one to obey and in a 2007 interview he spoke of a German soldier that he shot during his time in the trenches on the Western Front from 1916 to 1918. He said “I had about five seconds to make the decision. I brought him down, but I didn’t kill him…. Any one of them could have been me. Millions of men came to fight in this war and I find it incredible that I am the only one left”.

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Seeing his memorial stone and reading about him brought tears to my eyes and a weird sense of pride. People like Harry should be an example to everyone and his memory of war ought to be a lesson to us all, but sadly it isn’t. He became a great man by accident and lived that role with grace. RIP Harry Patch, you will never be forgotten. This is a music blog so please enjoy Radiohead‘s tribute to Harry Patch and hear the man himself giving the spoken word part of the Imperial Vengeance track.

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“Here there’s no music here I’m lost in streams of sound” January 23, 2017

Filed under: Observation — justwilliam1959 @ 11:33 pm
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david-bowie

Click here to read a David Bowie article that I contributed recently to the magnificent Northern Exposure website. I would like to give a big thank you to the marvellous and passionate music fan Rachel Brown who runs the site! This post also gives me the opportunity to over indulge you with a plethora of tracks from the Dame! Still gone but never forgotten!

dd-bowie

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYMCLz5PQVw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v–IqqusnNQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4d7Wp9kKjA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tgcc5V9Hu3g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8NZa9wYZ_U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGQo6zpVzt8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA27aQZCQMk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87tHmJEpz40

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpdHMaccjw4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avJt0SQec0I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOaqDEjxQAU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMhMaNAmT-U

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VrqCBsbeuc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgPUxjQOk-w

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMhFyWEMlD4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsSlOGzPM90

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjg5_0ztQI4

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