D-d-d-d-id you know that when the Who’s “My Generation” single was first released that the BBC refused to play it? Well it’s true, but why would they do such a thing I hear you ask? was it because the powers that be thought that Roger Daltrey was really on the verge of singing ‘f-f-f-fuck’ as opposed to ‘f-f-f-fade’ in the lyrics? No; apparently it was because that famous stutter adopted by Mr Daltrey on the song might actually offend stutterers everywhere! What do you think of that?
“He’s a rich bloke and he’s. gone to far coz he knows it don’t matter anyway”. That doesn’t have the same ring as rich girl does it? But in fact the classic Hall and Oates song “Rich Girl” is actually about a man. In a recent interview in Nashville with TMZ John Oates was asked if the song was about anyone in particular. He said that the song, which was written by Daryl Hall, was about an ex boyfriend of Sara Allen who was Daryl Hall’s girlfriend at the time. The man in question was the spoiled heir of a fast food fortune called Victor Walker; his father owned the Walker Bros. Original Pancake House in Chicago and a number of KFC franchises. Hall just felt that Rich Girl worked better than Rich Guy. Victor knows the song was written about him. I’d like to thank a fabulous Facebook buddy of mine for giving me this story; that’ll be you Samuel Glass Jr!
Sara Allen was clearly an important muse for Daryl hall as she was also the subject of two hall and Oates classics and indeed two of my favourite songs from the duo. Those songs are “Sara Smile” and “Las Vegas Turnaround (The Stewardess Song)”. You probably gathered from the sub-title of the second of those songs that Sara Allen was an Air Stewardess in the 70s. Sara’s sister Janna Allen went on to cowrite songs with Daryl and John, including “Kiss On My List” and “Private Eyes“. sadly she died from leukemia aged just 36 in 1993.
The Brits has kicked off well with a storming “R U Mine” from those Sheffield scallywags the Arctic Monkeys. Will it all go downhill from here? Let’s find out shall we? Well at least James Corden was finally on fire for the first time hosting this show. Well the sleeve of his jacket was to set up a lame joke about the Arctic Monkey‘s pyrotechnics. Thankfully this will be his last Brits. The British Female Brit award was presented the shortest man in music Prince Rogers Nelson accompanied by his new band. Corden interrupted for a selfie with the purple one. Ellie Goulding won it and given the nominees deservedly so in my opinion. She was somewhat awed by meeting Prince too.
Katy Perry was next on stage and she went a bit Stargate Cleopatra on us. She sang “Dark Horse” from her new album ‘Prism’. I presume it’s not a George Harrison tribute. Kylie and Pharrell Williams presented the International Male solo Artist award after more inane and unfunny shite from Corden. It was won by Bruno Mars; personally I expected it to go to Justin Timberlake although I would have voted for Eminem.
Tinie Tempah and Fearne Cotton rocked up to present the British Breakthrough Act Award. It was well won by the rather excellent Bastille. I love the ‘Bad Blood’ album. Sadly Corden was back after that with a dreadful interview with One Direction which included some pathetic jokes about Justin Bieber in prison. Then we were subjected to Bruno Mars with “Treasure”. But to be fair I judged him too soon, that was a good performance. Really classy modern R & B.
Next up a welcome return from Lily Allen to present the award for Best British Group. Thank fuck it wasn’t won by Wand Erection. It went to a proper band instead. The marvellous Arctic Monkeys. The previously known winner of the newcomer award was the understated but talented Sam Smith.
Now we have the Global Success Award presented by Rosie double-barreled surname. Who the fuck is she? Was this Award manufactured for the ultimate manufactured band One Direction? Can’t we just sell them to the USA? Is Harry Styles having a wee the most controversial act of this years show? Sadly it probably is. The revolution doesn’t start here!
Beyonce live, now that was bloody good in my opinion. But was she lip syncing “XO”? The nest award was for best British single, presented by Katy Perry. Was she trying an English accent? Won by the fabulous Rudimental which thankfully beat Olly Murs and Wand Erection.
The first collaboration of this years show was Disclosure and Lorde with a really cool and funky take on Lorde’s “Royals”. Followed by a brilliant live rendition of “White Noise” with Aluna. The International Group award was presented by Cesc Fabregas (WTF?) and Nicole Scherzinger. The winners were Daft Punk. Could it really have been anyone else? The legend that is Nile Rodgers collected the award on their behalf.
Ellie Goulding was next to perform. She did “I Need Your Love” and “Burn”. I loved the massed percussion during “Burn”. I have really grown to like Ellie’s music. Noel Gallagher was there to present the best male solo artist award. Let’s hope he has a new album out soon. Fuck me Bowie’s only gone and won it! Kate Moss accepted it on Bowie’s behalf at his personal behest. A brilliant speech written by the Dame too. This has made my night!
Nick Grimshaw that bloke from Radio One who is moderately more talented than Chris Moyles stepped up to present the International Female solo artist award. Lorde was the winner and a bloody good choice too. Bowie is a Lorde fan. Then we had yet another shite interview by Corden with Nile Rodgers and Pharrell Williams. The British Video award was voted for live on Twitter during the show and was presented by Jimmy Carr. Sadly it was won by Wand Erection with “Best Song Ever”, but it isn’t is it?
Rudimental and Bastille combined on stage to become Bastimental for the night. It certainly made up for a second 1D award for the night. Blimey just how sexy is Ella Eyre? Now we are onto the final award of the night, it’s the one that everyone wants. It’s best album and it was presented by Emilie Sande. It went to the Arctic Monkeys. It is a great album, but I was hoping for a second Brit of the night for David Robert Jones. But well done to Alex and the boys, although their acceptance speech was largely bollocks wasn’t it?
The show was closed by Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers. What a barnstorming performance from two music masters. “Get Lucky”, “Good Times”, “Happy” the hits just kept coming. Overall I think this years show was an improvement on last year. Some marks out of ten from me; James Corden 1/10, Bowie winning a Brit 10/10 and for the overall show 5/10 could do better.
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.
Songs returning to the top of the UK singles charts on separate chart runs is not an uncommon occurrence. Often after a death; “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “My Sweet Lord“. However in the USA it has only happened once to my knowledge. That was a feat achieved in 1960 and 1962. The song was originally by Hank Ballard and the Midnighters, although their version only made it to number 28 in the US chart in 1959 and even that was as a B-Side to “Teardrops On Your Letter”
If indeed Justin Bieber has retired, and I for one really hope he has, it nows seems clear what he will do in his retirement. He intends to become an egg thrower if current press stories are to be believed. The young Pop Muppet has been accused of throwing eggs at his neighbour’s house. I wonder why he did this; is it because his thoughts are a little scrambled, is his brain fried, did he buy his monkey or was it poached, has he simply shelled out too much or is the yolk on him. Can anyone answer these eggstraordinary questions? Click here to read the story on the BBC’s Newsbeat website.
Pharrell Williams‘ rather excellent song “Happy” has returned to the summit of the UK singles chart having deposed “Timber” by Pitbull featuring Ke$ha. I have loved this Pharrell song from the moment I heard it on the soundtrack of the rather excellent film ‘Despicable Me 2‘. I suspect that it could be a big year for Pharrell, I believe he has a new solo album ready to go and also a collaboration with Paloma Faith due out in February.
I haven’t been a regular McDonalds customer for many, many years but I do think that their choice of music for the recent TV ad for ‘Spicy Chicken McBites’ was inspired. It is a version of ‘Real Wild Child’ by Ivan Allison. Who is Ivan I can hear you ask? OK so you didn’t ask, but I’ll tell you anyway. He is none other than the drummer from the Buddy Holly and the Crickets. Allison’s full name was Jerry Ivan Allison and he was more than just a great drummer; he also co-wrote some of the bands biggest hits with Holly. Those included “Peggy Sue” and “That’ll Be The Day”. The first release of the song came from Australian rocker Johnny O’Keefe back in 1958. The song has been covered by many artists from Jerry Lee Lewis to Jet Harris before James Osterberg a.k.a Iggy Pop took his version into the UK top ten in 1986.
I can’t believe that I missed the news that Junior Murvin a very talented reggae star passed away in early December aged 67. Thank you to Record Collector magazine for including a suitable tribute in their ‘Not Forgotten’ section. The song which brought him to my attention was “Police And Thieves” from 1976. The song remains one of my all time favourites. I still have the CD version of the album of the same name. The song was written by Murvin with some lyrical tweaks from Lee Perry about the Yardie turf wars in Jamaica. But it also resonated strongly with British youth, particularly punks in 1976-77 against a backdrop of riots at the Notting Hill Carnival which for me was largely sparked by ridiculously hard-line and provocative policing from the Metropolitan Police. The Clash also recorded a rather excellent cover of the song, but the original, produced by Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry remains the best. I used to have Junior’s ‘Muggers On The Streets’ album from 1984 on vinyl. My thoughts go out to Junior’s family friends and fans. RIP Junior Murvin.
Have the Beliebers started to lose faith in their pop Muppet Apollo? Certainly in the UK it would seem that the belief level among the once fundamentalist Beliebers has fallen drastically. Justin’s latest album failed to make the UK top 40. Its first week sales propelled it to the less than heady heights of number 46 and the following week it barely managed to stay in the top 100 falling a staggering 48 places to number 94. It is only a fan compilation, however it is also the first time an album of his has failed to reach the UK top 20. However the chart is not necessarily a barometer of quality given that One Direction are now number one and Olly Murs is at number 4. Given that Mr Bieber has 48 million Twitter followers though that chart performance must be disappointing. USA sales figures for the album are unavailable.
Is this as a result of his announcement that he is retiring? Is he really retiring? His management says that he isn’t. I will continue to belieb believe that he is though, how about you. I think the retirement of the Canadian monkey botherer can only have a positive effect on the world of Pop and music in general. What do you think?
