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!
Big congratulations to Bradley Wiggins who yesterday became the first Brit to win the Tour de France in the whole of its 108 year history. I hope this is an excellent spur for the Olympics too. For most of the Tour Bradley was unassailable, particularly the time trials. But there was also some brilliant team work and support from Team Sky. Even the French seem to have taken to Bradley with some pundits referring to him as Le Wiggo.
Bradley is a big Paul Weller fan apparently and this is a music blog not a cycling blog so here is a Paul Weller song for the talented Mr Wiggins, followed by a few cycling related songs. Enjoy them and feel free to suggest your own bike related music.
“Sunflower” – Paul Weller. I chose this for two reasons; first it’s one of my favourite Weller songs and secondly the sunflower is yellow just like the leader’s jersey in the Tour de France.
“Tour De France” – Kraftwerk. The German auto-bots are big cycling fans and keen cyclists too.
“Bike” – Pink Floyd. A great track, quaintly English and very Syd Barrett
“Bicycle Race” – Queen. This one was probably the obvious choice and who can forget all those naked women on bicycles? I was a teenager at the time, so I couldn’t!
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!
Apologies for being a bit slow off the mark with this post but I couldn’t let the passing of one of rock musics true greats go without a mention on this blog. Many of you are no doubt aware that Jon Lord aged just 71 lost his battle with cancer that he had fought for sometime. Leicester born Lord is probably most famous for his role as keyboard player in Deep Purple. he also co wrote many of their biggest songs, including “Smoke On Water” and “Child In Time“. He was one of the co-founders of the band back in 1968 and a constant member along with drummer Ian Paice from 1968 until 1976. Lord’s wife Vickie is the twin sister of Ian Paice’s wife Jackie.
He also played with the Flowerpot Men and Whitesnake. He came to London in the late 50s with an ambition to become an actor and whilst he did get a few bit parts he continued a parallel career as a musician. He was a member of various jazz and blues combos including the Artwoods, who were led by Ronnie Wood‘s older brother. He also played as a session man on a number of recordings, notably “You Really Got Me” the Kinks‘ 1964 UK number one.
Lord was effectively Purple’s leader for their first few years. This can be evidenced by the fact that their first major chart success with “Hush” a cover of a Joe South song doesn’t contain a guitar solo but an organ solo from Jon Lord. He also became a renowned classical composer and worked with some of the best orchestras in the world. My thoughts go out to Jon’s family, friends and many fans around the world. RIP Jon Lord Rock Legend, rock on Jon! I would like to end with some of the words used by his family and friends to announce his death; “Jon passes from Darkness to Light”
If you have read, seen or heard the news headlines recently you might be forgiven for thinking that Madonna (aka Her Royal Madgeness) was changing her name to Sue. But don’t worry it’s not true, well not as far as I know at least. But she is currently being sued on at least two fronts.
Madge disses frogs legs, I think!
Firstly she is being sued for the use of a sample from the Salsoul Orchestra‘s “Ooh I Love It (Love Break)” which was released in 1977. Is this something she has used on her current album ‘MDNA’? No it’s apparently sampled on her 1990 smash “Vogue”. It has taken 22 years for VMG who represent the Salsoul Orchestra to figure this out. VMG have claimed that the reason it took so long is that the producer of Madonna’s song, Shep Pettibone deliberately hid the sample. Here is their statement; “The unauthorized sampling was deliberately hidden by [Madonna] within ‘Vogue’ so as to avoid detection. It was only when VMG specifically looked for the sample, with the technology available to it in 2011, that the sampling could be confirmed” VMG served legal papers over the issue last year and again in February of this year.
Marine Le Pen is clearly a big fan of Vogue as she ‘strikes a pose’
The second litigation relates to an image used in her recent Paris show. The video screens showed a picture of the leader of the National Front, France’s far right party, Marine Le Pen with a swastika superimposed onto her face. That image was also closely followed by an image of Adolf Hitler. It wasn’t the first time the images have been used on the MDNA Tour, so clearly it wasn’t contrived just for the Paris gig. I think this one could get quite interesting. What do you think?
This next video proves that Madge needs to nip things in the bud or she’ll end up with a real bum deal!
It seems that the new leader of North Korea, Kim Jong-Un, has his own song. He doesn’t sing it, but it’s lyrics seem to draw from one of his speeches around the time he became leader. The song is called “Onwards Towards The Final Victory” and as you might expect it is getting significant airplay on the countries radio and TV networks. His father Kim Jong-Il also had a song, his was called “There Is No Motherland Without You“.
The only way is Up!
Personally I find all this a little strange, I mean I know our own British national anthem, which incidentally is far less rousing than Kim Jong-Un’s little tune, is an awful ode to the power of the monarchy, but imagine if all of our Prime Ministers had their own song! So obviously I thought how about finding some possibly appropriate songs for our head public servants. I know that they see themselves as leaders, but actually they are really servants aren’t they?
Our little cat Betty, or to give her full name, Mrs Betty Slocombe has gone missing. She is also affectionately known as Betty Boo. She is just over a year old and blind in one eye. She has a very sweet nature and has never been gone for more than a couple of hours before. We last saw her on Saturday morning, 30th June. We miss her terribly and can’t help thinking how scared she must be.
We have put leaflets through the doors of about 70 houses, notices on local notice boards and in local shops. we have searched empty properties and walked up and down the riverbank a few times. we have given her details to the RSPCA and Cats Protection and a number of local veterinary practices. She is also the subject of a missing cat advert on gumtree.co.uk (click here to read it) and now has a Facebook group (click here to see that) But as yet we still don’t have her back.
We live in Huntington in York in the UK. If you have any friends in the area please pass this post on to them. People have been incredibly supportive with possible sightings and happy ending stories of their own cats going missing. We are incredibly grateful to everyone who has responded so far.
I will certainly keep you updated on progress and will post again when she comes home. I know that this is almost certainly nothing like the pain of having a child go missing, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t hurt. I keep thinking that maybe I didn’t look after her well enough, however stupid that sounds that is how it feels sometimes. I feel like I have let Betty down. Both Catwoman (aka my beautiful wife Catherine) and I are very worried about her and can’t help thinking how scared she probably is. Even her older brother Benny seems out of sorts since she disappeared too. We hope that maybe she has been trapped in an outhouse or shed or something and that it will be opened soon so that she can make her escape.
I have said on many occasions that this is a music blog, so to stick with that I couldn’t really think of anything more appropriate than this excellent piece from Grandaddy; “What Happened ………..?” (Incidentally and sadly Betty is not one of the cats in the video). Betty is one of our Fambly Cats and all of us would like to know where she is and have her come home very soon.
It may have passed some of you by but we are in the middle of the European Football Championships, better known as Euro 2012. Against the majority of expectations my national team, England have not only progressed beyond the group stage they actually won their group as well. Putting France into second place and eliminating one of the host nations, Ukraine.
Later today England play Italy for a semi final place where the winners of todays game will play Germany. I believe that England can win today. However recent history says that if we do and then go on to play Germany in the semi final the game will go to extra time and Germany will win the penalty shoot out. Just like at the Italia ’90World Cup and on our home turf in Euro ’96. Obviously I would love for ‘football to come home’ and for us to beat the Italians, the Germans and whoever awaits us in the final. But it’s now 46 years since we won a major tournament. Is this our time? Well my fingers are crossed and so far the team have been light years better than their disastrous showing at the South Africa World Cup back in 2010 so who knows.
How many of you can actually remember this? I can, but I was only 7 at the time
So let’s cheer the team on with the first hit England song, the most heartfelt England song and in my opinion the best England song. All three of which went to number one in the UK charts. ENGERLAND, ENGERLAND, ENGERLAND….. repeat until you lose your voice!
Many of you will already know that the NME celebrates its 60th birthday this year. It was first published in March of 1952, it was later that year that it also published the first ever UK singles chart based on sales. That was in November 1952 and featured Al Martino‘s “Here In My Heart” at number one.
As part of their birthday celebrations the NME has published a list of the top 100 songs since the paper has been around. I’m sure that there will be plenty of debate about what is in and what isn’t in the list. I was particularly surprised that there are no songs from the 50’s included. How about Elvis Presley’s “Heartbreak Hotel” that was pretty damned ground breaking. Incidentally the spread of songs from the other periods are;
60s = 22
70s = 16
80s = 19
90s = 19
00s/ 10s = 24
Why not cast your vote in my favourite decade poll below 🙂
My favourite song of all time; Bob Marley’s “No Woman No Cry” reaches number 86 and Mr Bowie has “Space Oddity” at number 39 and another song in the top 5 (more of that one later). The Beatles have three entries in the top 100. Thankfully Westlife, Cheryl Cole and their ilk are nowhere to be seen in this list.
So without further ado and in traditional reverse order here is the top 5;
Some months ago when Elton John announced a UK tour of some places that never seem to get big rock stars performing the list included the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate. So as I live just down the road and as Sir Elton is now 65 I thought I had to get tickets for me and my wonderful wife Catherine a.k.a Catwoman to regular readers. I love Elton’s music, especially the early stuff, but until today I had never seen him live. It was well worth the wait and the ticket price.
The support act was the amazing 2Cellos, which does exactly what it says on the tin. The act consists of two cellists from Croatia; Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser. If you had said to me before today that two guys playing cello could be really exciting and create an amazing rock sound I may well have laughed at you. But frankly these guys are outstanding. They played three covers; Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal”, U2’s “With Or Without You” and an electrifying version of “Purple Haze” the Jimi Hendrix classic.
Just as we all thought they were about to start another song Elton and his band took the stage and raced right into “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting“. 2Cellos remained with the band for that and many other songs during Elton’s incredible two and a half hour set. He seemed to show no sign whatsoever of his recent illness and really seemed to be enjoying himself. The band who included long time Elton stalwarts Nigel Olsson on drums and Davey Johnstone on guitar. These guys have played together for more than 40 years now and I think that trust and knowledge of each other really shows.
The backing vocalists could undoubtedly be an act in their own right including; Rose Stone a founding member of Sly and the Family Stone and the sister of Sly and Freddie Stone and also Tata Vega who produced some terrific albums for Motown in the 70s. Having started the set with a superb rocker the band followed up with “Bennie And The Jets” and “Levon”. I was really pleased with the eclectic set list Elton had chosen. It included many of his biggest hits along with some of those that are not heard as often. Those included two fantastic selections from the ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road‘ album; “Funeral For A Friend/ Love Lies Bleeding” and “Grey Seal” and the gorgeous “Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters” from ‘Madman Across The Water‘. I was disappointed to see so many people head for the bar and the toilets when Elton played “Hey Ahab” from his recent collaboration with the supremely talented Leon Russell.
Most of the crowd were out to have a good time and the rain didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s spirits. Although it was quite ironic to be listening to “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” when the weather had created the effect that the sun had never really come up! There was an element in the crowd that seemed to fit with the stereotypical breed of Harrogate snob. They seemed to be there more for the social occasion, to drink Pimms and most importantly to be seen. One bloke and his wife/ partner asked us to swap seats with him so that he could sit near his friends. We refused largely because they had been getting up and going in and out of the grandstand during the whole show (well the part they stayed for anyway). But it was interesting that five minutes after our refusal all his ‘friends’ left without telling him! I named him Mr Yo Yo Bollocks.
There were two ladies who spent most of the show dancing around and trying to get everyone else up, including the security guards. They were draped in a ‘we love Elton’ Union Jack and seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely, but I suspect that their hangovers may be huge. It took “I’m Still Standing” to get everyone up, most of whom stayed up for the rest of the show. When Elton and the band left the stage it was hard to figure out what the encore would be as they had played some many classics, but of course it was the beautiful “Your Song”. Preceded by Elton signing a whole bunch of autographs for those at the front.
Elton John is a talented musician, a gifted songwriter, a real showman and a consummate performer. There are not many people around that can match him I believe. It is nearly 39 years since I saw my first ever gig (Jackson 5 at the Wembley Empire Pool in 1973 if you’re interested!) and todays show is easily in my top 5 ever. If you are going to one of the shows on this tour I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. If you’re not then do whatever it takes to get a ticket; sell your grannie, send your kits out to clean chimneys or get your dog to wine ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ (OK probably too late on the last one). And finally thank you for a great gig Elton!
I have no film from tonights show (I was enjoying myself too much to get my phone out) so here is a clip of Elton playing “Your Song” from a couple of years back, followed by 2Cellos with their version of “Smooth Criminal”
