It was with great sadness that I heard of the death of keyboard supremo Ian McLagan today aged just 69. His death was caused by complications from a stroke that he suffered earlier this week. Ian or Mac was keyboard player for the Small Faces and the Faces. He also played sessions for the Rolling Stones among others.
His playing of the Hammond Organ was a major part of the Small Faces sound. He also received co-writing credits for some excellent songs. The Faces “Cindy Incidentally” was my favourite of his cowrites. He wrote that song with Ronnie Wood and Rod Stewart. He also played on one of my favourite Rolling Stones songs, “Miss You“.
My thoughts are with Ian’s family, friends and fans. RIP Ian McLagan
Already it’s day 4 of this years advent calendar blog posts. so it’s 4th December and in the ABC of British bands we have so far visited Sheffield (ABC), Liverpool (Beatles) and London (Clash). Today we go north to Glasgow to hear from Deacon Blue. This is a band who have been around nearly 30 years. They took their name from a Steely Dan song from 1977’s ‘Aja’ album entitled “Deacon’s Blues”.
I finally got to see the Who play live on Tuesday 2nd December 2014 at the First Direct Arena in Leeds. I have always been a little reluctant to see them given that two key members; John Entwistle and Keith Moon are no longer with us. But my good friend John Williams convinced me to go by describing the band as one of the greatest bands to see before they die! The Standard Lamps filled the support slot very well. Clearly an accomplished band that sound retro with touches of perhaps the Jam and Ocean Colour Scene.
The Who started as they clearly meant to go on with “I Can’t Explain” followed by “Substitute”. This was a set list overloaded with Who classics including many of my favourites; “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, “Behind Blue Eyes”, “Pinball Wizard”, “Magic Bus”, “Who Are You” and “Baba O’Riley”. For me the peak was “5:15” which is my favourite ever Who song from 1973’s classic album ‘Quadrophenia’. There were even outings for the somewhat underplayed “Join Together” and “Squeeze Box” among many, many more.
There was an amazing film clip of John Entwistle’s magnificent bass playing and film and vocals of Keith Moon’s “Bell Boy” again from ‘Quadrophenia’. There was even time for a live rendition of the mini rock opera “A Quick One While He’s Away“. The band was on stage for well over two hours and the band very ably supported Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend. For me the stand out players were Pino Palladino on bass and Zak Starkey who was truly magnificent on drums.
Daltrey was having a few problems with his ear monitors. I don’t know if that resulted in the lack of an encore or whether one wasn’t planned. So we had no “My Generation”. But that really made no difference to what was an amazing show. I am certainly glad that I went.
Please note that none of the pictures or video used in this blog was taken by me.
December 3rd and day three of my ABC of British bands advent post for 2014. So as it’s day it must be the letter ‘C’. This sounds a bit like Sesame Street doesn’t it? Anyway today’s band is going to seem like an obvious choice for my regular readers; it’s the Clash.
I love the ‘London Calling‘ album and it often appears in many of the ‘best album’ lists that magazines publish when they run out of ideas. But did you know that it appears in the best albums of the 70s lists in the UK and the best albums of the 80s in the USA. This is because it came out in 1979 in the UK and it wasn’t released until 1980 in the UK.
Now I hope that you enjoy this little selection of Clash ditties that were hidden behind the little cardboard flap on the advent calendar for today.
December 2nd and therefore day 2 of this years Christmas blog post advent extravaganza. We are also at the letter B in the ABC of British bands. Who will it be today? I think you can guess can’t you? Yes it’s the Fab Four a.k.a the Moptops a.k.a the Beatles. To be fair the pictures are a big clue aren’t they?
Back in their early days the band produced their own kind of advent thing with a free flexi disc to fan club members that always included the odd Christmas song. Did you also know that the name of the band is not mentioned once in the 1964 film ‘A Hard Days Night‘? Or that the first Beatle to have a solo number one single was George Harrison with “My Sweet Lord“. I already knew a lot of this trivia but I learned a lot that I didn’t on the excellent site beatlestrivia.com you really need to check it out.
Anyway now I hope that you enjoy some of my favourite Beatles songs and one of their Christmas songs.
Blimey where has the year gone? It seems like only yesterday that I was putting together last years Christmas posts for this blog. This years advent blog post theme is an A to Z of British bands. I should point out that they are not all bands that I like, but hopefully someone out there does. Anyway the first post on this first day of December relates to one of Sheffield’s finest, a band who in my opinion recorded one of the best albums of the 1980s. I am referring, of course to ABC. Is there a better way to start a series like this? I think not!
Martin Fry basted and wrapped in Baco Foil ready for Christmas
ABC’s début album ‘The Lexicon Of Love‘ released in 1982 was also a major success for former Buggle Trevor Horn who produced it. The album topped the UK album charts, although sadly the band never topped the UK singles charts. They did reach the peak of the US Dance Chart on three occasions from 1982 to 1987 though. The band is now largely just singer Martin Fry and can be found on many 80’s nostalgia tours. Now it’s time for you to enjoy a few of my favourite ABC songs.
Probably hard to believe in the light of recent events but back in the 60s Rolf Harris’ manager wanted to have Sandie Shaw banned from the bearded Aussie paedos TV show to preserve Rolf’s clean-cut image. What had Sandie done to cause such a furore? She had an affair with an older married man. That man had lied to her about being married as well. Sandie was scheduled to sing the six song candidates for the UK entry for Eurovision 1967. The rather dreadful “puppet On A String” eventually won. Clearly no damage was done to the reputation of Jake The Peg either. He damaged that reputation himself; if only he had been found out back then! Anyway, enough of the bearded weirdy, enjoy some classic Sandie Shaw. Personally I think she has always been horrendously underrated. What do you think?
I just heard the sad news that reggae legend John Holt has died. His manager confirmed that he passed away in a London hospital on Sunday night. He was just 67. He started out as the lead singer of the Paragons and wrote many of their songs; including “Wear You To The Ball” and “The Tide Is High“. The latter went on to become an international hit for Blondie in the 80s and later for Atomic Kitten. I always preferred the Paragons original version. He also recorded as a solo artist while he was with the Paragons cutting tracks like the original of “OK Fred” in 1979. This was later a UK hit for Errol Dunkley in 1979. He recorded tracks with legendary reggae figures such as Duke Reid, Leslie Kong, Bunny Lee, Prince Buster and Alton Ellis.
He recorded and released many albums and singles and was a superstar in Jamaica. Sadly in the UK he was never as popular. His 1974 cover of Kris Kristofferson‘s “Help Me Make It Through The Night” reached number 6 in the UK chart. He released his last solo album, ‘Peacemaker’ in 1993. I still have a copy of the fabulous ‘1,000 Volts Of Holt’ album from 1973, only the CD version though. My vinyl copy wore out years ago.
My thoughts go to his family, friends and fans. John Holt RIP.
Sinead O’Connor as well as being a very talented singer and songwriter is also a qualified medium. She also believes that she is a better Medium than she is a singer-songwriter. If that is true then she must be a truly amazing Medium!
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 