Towards the end of last year I had a great blast interviewing the fabulously talented Delilah Bon the (not so) secret identity of Lauren Tate. Music fans will also know her as singer with Hands Off Gretel. Delilah will have a first album out in 2021. What I learned from interviewing Delilah/ Lauren is that she is not only a talented artist but also a passionate, funny and caring human being. Click here to take a listen to the interview on Spotify (apologies for a few seconds of silence at the start) and afterwards check out some of Delilah Bon’s ace singles in the videos below. Including a fabulous rap based version of John Lennon’s “Imagine”. Then click here to avail yourself of some rather spiffing Delilah Bon merch!
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Personally I find lists of top ten albums, singles etc. for a given year quite subjective so I have decided not to do that for 2020. But I thought that you might be interested in what has been happening on the With Just A Hint Of Mayhem blog page in 2020. The site had more than 30,000 views for the year for the first time since 2016. December hits were 6,449 which is the highest monthly total since May 2015. There were views from 148 different countries. More than 300 people follow us directly from WordPress, the Facebook Page now has 818 followers and we are close to 1,400 followers on Twitter. A total of 2,523. Thank you to each and every one of you. Stick with us in 2021 and beyond, share all our links (you will find them below) and tell all your friends to come and say hi!
We made a total of 164 posts, and wrote 66,693 words that is more than 400 words per post. The most popular post published in 2020 was written by one of our newer contributors Tom Ray and related to Jeffrey Lewis, click here to read it. The most popular post from previous years was viewed a lot this year and it was “We Make Out In Your Mustang To Radiohead” from 2011, click here to read that one.
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This is the sixth song in the Play It Again Mayhem series which began earlier this year. Check out the earlier posts by clicking here (Betty Wright), here (Elton John), here (Roxy Music) here (The O’Jays) and here (John Miles). This one is another from the 70s, and it is from Steely Dan. This was the third single released from the band’s 1976 album ‘The Royal Scam’. It never appeared on the US charts but reached number 17 in the UK. The song is “Haitian Divorce” which takes it’s title and much of the story told in the lyrics from the easy divorces available in Haiti to foreigners, particularly Americans. It was so simple that it only needed one partner to be there and the divorce could be finalised in a matter of hours.
The song tells the story of a woman who goes to Haiti to get a divorce, she has a brief fling with a Haitian man, fails to get the divorce and nine months later gives birth to a half Haitian baby. The mention of Papa in the lyrics is interpreted in two ways. Firstly as her father telling her to go back and get the divorce, and secondly as the voice of Haitian ruler at the time, Papa Doc Duvalier, who encouraged divorce tourism. The song was written by Donald Fagen and Walter Becker. It was Becker who used a Talk Box on the song over Dean Park’s guitar. Perhaps the most famous proponent of the Talk Box was Peter Frampton on ‘Frampton Comes Alive’. Enjoy the song, I love the jazzy, laid back reggae feel of the track, Why not sing along too? The lyrics are copied below. Please not that the second video is by a rather good Steely Dan tribute band, Steely Damned II
Lyrics Babs and Clean Willie were in love they said So in love the preacher’s face turned red Soon everybody knew the thing was dead He shouts, she bites, they wrangle through the night She go crazy Got to make a getaway Papa say Oh – no hesitation No tears and no hearts breakin’ No remorse Oh – congratulations This is your Haitian Divorce She takes the taxi to the good hotel Bon marche as far as she can tell She drinks the zombie from the cocoa shell She feels alright, she get it on tonight Mister driver Take me where the music play Papa say Oh – no hesitation No tears and no hearts breakin’ No remorse Oh – congratulations This is your Haitian Divorce At the Grotto In the greasy chair Sits the Charlie with the lotion and the kinky hair When she smiled, she said it all The band was hot so They danced the famous Merengue Now we dolly back Now we fade to black Tearful reunion in the USA Day by day those memories fade away Some babies grow in a peculiar way It changed, it grew, and everybody knew Semi-mojo Who’s this kinky so-and-so? Papa go Oh – no hesitation No tears and no hearts breakin’ No remorse Oh – congratulations This is your Haitian Divorce
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After the success of the Christmas messages from bands on the site I thought, why not do one myself, so I did! This is my message to the With Just A Hint Of Mayhem supporters and all those you love and care for. Take a look and feel free to comment! I have added a few of my favourite Christmas tunes below my video 🙂
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Wow, Christmas Eve already, the bearded weirdo arrives on his sleigh tonight led by living venison with an inflamed nose! I wanted to end the 12 Days Of, Mostly, Punky Christmas, with a song that I love by a band that back in the day were the best by far! The Ramones with “Merry Christmas (I Don’t Want to Fight Tonight)”, the video is rather good too 🙂
Happy Christmas to each and every one of you, thank you for sticking with this blog and let’s hope 2021 is so much better, it couldn’t be worse could it?
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How do you fancy another Christmas message? You do? How about one from probably my favourite band in the world right now? OK then Jordan from Avalanche Party has a message for you below, especially if you’re a jazz fan! 😉
After you have taken a look at the message click here to visit the Avalanche Party website and go to the merch tab where you’ll find some great T-shirts and CD and vinyl copies of their album, but surely you already own the album, right? If not get clicking!
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Thanks to Covid this is only the third gig I have been to since March 14th, well that is if I count the Receivers set outside Vinyl Eddie’s for Record Store Day Drop 1 in August, and frankly I do count that one!. The second was an outdoor socially distanced show at the Centre for Early Music in York, Elkyn and Fawn played that one in September. But this is the first socially distanced indoor gig I have been to and huge praise and respect to Joe, Chris, Harkirit and all the staff who worked that night. It felt safe, drinks delivered direct to your table. Sure the rules on not singing, shouting and dancing were a bit weird, but it meant we were at a real gig at last. Special thanks and respect to the security guy who had to eject two people for blatant disregard of the rules. Even in these times some people are just dickheads!
Anyway on to the show, Avalanche Party are probably my favourite band in the world right now and 2020 should have been huge for them off the back of the release of their stunning debut album, ’24 Carat Diamond Trephine’ last year. But Covid and the ensuing shitstorm of a year has laid all the best plans to waste. I have seen Avalanche Party more than anyone except for Frank Turner and David Bowie so obviously I had high hopes for this show. I knew we wouldn’t get the usual raucous, sweaty, passionate, punky performance that we have come to expect, but I still had high hopes for the night.
They opened their first set with “Bugzy” with Jordan on keys and vocals, Jared on saxophone, playing in a very Bowie style and Harry from the Black Lagoons on acoustic guitar. This was followed by a magnificent electronic noisefest run through ace single “I’m So Wet”. “Johnny Dream” was like an outtake from ‘Lodger’ period Bowie. Some awesome bass runs from Joe on this one. Jared’s sax was also very Bowiesque too. Kane the drummer finally arrived for “Praise”, an older song, but one that remains epic and anthemic. Hot on the heels of praise was “Money” another true Avalanche Party anthem, and it seemed even more soulful and anthemic in this setting. It was turning into a wonderful Avalanche Party oldies fest as they closed the first set with “Let’s Get Together”, which makes me think that they have always had a bit of glam rock in them.
Perhaps the highlight of the second set were two cover versions, the Beatles “Tomorrow Never Knows” and a stunning take on the gospel classic “Wade In The Water” that one gave me goosebumps. “Howl” is a stupendous song and perhaps the bands finest single to date, it was great to hear it in such a stripped back form. Jordan sang a couple of songs solo on stage with only his keyboard to accompany him, one of these was “Rebel Forever” I think. Those two songs really showcased what a fantastically versatile vocalist he is, the bloke oozes soul and passion. “Every Last Drop” featured Harry from the Black Lagoons on violin and Jordan joked that this was Harry’s GCSE violin exam. Next was another great almost doo wop style cover of “It’s A Sin” by Canadian artist Tonetta, check him out he is bloody good. The band out did the Flying Pickets and the Housemartins for their classy acapella skills on this number. They closed with a barnstorming, consider it was a stripped back show, take on yet another classic, “Solid Gold”
This is a band who improve every time you see them. They are still on an upward trend and a long way from reaching their peak. They proved tonight that they can perform in any environment and if this type of show is the future of gigs for the foreseeable future then Avalanche Party have it nailed. A true joy to experience, even my wife, who has never seen them before, and to be fair this is not her usual taste in music, absolutely loved it!
All the photos were taken on my cheap Chinese phone, with the exception of the set list which was taken by Avalanche Party’s Joe Bell!
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Day 11 of the 12 Days Of Mostly Punky Christmas series and after Reel Big Fish yesterday how about more ska punk today? Yes? Well let’s cut the rug with the bouncy, bass driven ska punk Christmas party anthem “Oi To The World” from No Doubt.
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I wasn’t sure whether this Christmas message idea would work or not, but I think it has. This is the eighth one and it is now the turn of West Yorkshire Superheroes, PERCY! Earlier this year the band released the rather fabulous ‘Seaside Donkeys’ album and the vinyl release is something special. You can download it from their BandCamp site and from the same place you can still avail yourself of one of the remaining vinyl albums too. Just click here, you won’t regret it! Well worth the investment, this is a classic album. Given that we haven’t seen the last of Brexshit, the vile gift that keeps on giving, PERCY and their songs will be very relevant for many, many years yet! Now enjoy the PERCY Christmas message from singer guitarist Colin!
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So many great bands and so many great Christmas messages, this one is from the Notorious Lightbulbs. This is their third appearance in these pages and there will certainly be more! Check out their fun Christmas message below. Also you need to get this band in your life, check out their socials below.
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 