With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

“I find it hard to tell you, I find it hard to take” December 4, 2010

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 6:11 pm
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After the success of his version of Mad World Gary planned to get a star tattoo for each finger

Are you waiting to open the door for the 4th December on my UK Christmas number ones advent calendar? I hope so. Apologies for being a little tardy with this one, let’s blame the weather shall we? Anyway as you open that cardboard flap very carefully you will be releasing “Mad World” by  Gary Jules and Michael Andrews. The song was originally a hit for Tears For Fears back in 1982 when it reached number 3 in the UK chart. The song was the third single from the band and was written by Roland Orzabal.It was originally the B Side of the band’s second single “Pale Shelter (You Don’t Give Me Love)”

Surely Curt's hairstyle was never cool, not even in the 80's. Was it?

The Gary Jules and Michael Andrews version is slowed down and in my opinion almost menacing at times. It was taken from the soundtrack from one of my favourite films, ‘Donnie Darko‘. It was number one in the UK during Christmas 2003 and held the pole position for three weeks. It also reached number one in Canada and Portugal. It has been covered by quite a diverse group of acts including Adam Lambert and Die Toten Hosen. TV shows have used it to great effect on many occasions too including CSI, Smallville and the Vicar Of Dibley.

Success didn't really go to Gary's head, but he was turning into the Incredible Hulk or maybe the Jolly Green Giant (OK that was really corny wasn't it?)

Michael Andrews is well-known for his film scores, including Donnie Darko (obviously), My Suicidal Sweetheart and Funny People. Gary Jules is attributed with what in my opinion is a truly wonderful quote. “I found out that people through the ages are exactly the same as now, they had the same issues, the same desires. One thing that’s clear when you read old literature is that there are some great universal truths – things like fart jokes, guys screwing other people’s wives and the hunger for power.” I have to agree on the fart jokes comment.

Enjoy the Gary Jules and Michael Andrews version below

Here are Tears For Fears performing the original song on Top Of The Pops in 1982

And finally experience Die Toten Hosen playing (or maybe murdering) the song live.

 

“She said she’d like to bathe in milk, he said, ‘All right, sweetheart'” December 3, 2010

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 7:24 am
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So let’s open that little cardboard door for December 3rd shall we? What’s behind it? It’s not chocolate but it might relate to one of the ingredients used in some chocolate, yes it has a link to milk! A milk related Christmas number one? Whatever could it be? Well obviously it’s “Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West)” by Benny Hill. It was number one in the UK during Christmas 1971 and stayed on top for 4 weeks. It actually prevented the T Rex classic “Jeepster” from reaching the top.

The song was chosen by David Cameron as one of his Desert Island Discs, he said that it was one of the few songs he could remember all the words to. As many of you regular readers will know my Dad was a Milkman (as was Benny Hill incidentally) . My Dad spent twenty-seven years with Express Dairies serving customers in Uxbridge, Middlesex. I had the great honour and pleasure of working as his milk boy from 1970 until 1975. Oh and by the way he wasn’t called Ernie, he, like me, was called Bill, or William if you prefer to be formal. But there was a milkie at the same depot called Ernie and he really did get fed up of that song. I know it’s a novelty song, but I still like it, I hope you enjoy it too!

 

“I write “I’m sorry” but my letter keeps coming back” December 2, 2010

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:03 am
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Here we are on December 2nd and the second day of my Christmas Advent Calendar. As I said yesterday, this year it’s all about UK Christmas number ones, next up is one of my favourite Elvis songs. It may not be classic Sun Records or Elvis or Memphis Sessions Elvis, but it’s definitely not Fat Elvis! It’s a truly classic pop song and it’s “Return To Sender”. It was the UK Christmas number one for 1962, just before my 4th birthday (wow that’s bloody old!) it held the top spot for three weeks. The session player who provided the baritone saxophone sound was in fact Bobby Keys. He has played with the Rolling Stones for years and also played on George Harrison‘s ‘All Things Must Pass’ album.

Elvis clearly didn't trust the US Postal Service so he delivered this one directly to President 'Tricky Dicky' Nixon

and here is an extract from that very letter to Nixon

On January 8th 1993, what would have been Presley’s 58th birthday the US Postal Service released a set of Elvis stamps. Apparently many people bought them and used them to send letters to fictitious addresses in the hope that they would be returned stamped ‘RETURN TO SENDER‘!

Here is Elvis performing the song as Ross Carpenter in the film ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’

Here is a later period (Fat Elvis) with a live version of the song

I’d like to finish with two postal related songs for your further pleasure. Starting with “Blame It On The Pony Express” from Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon. I love that song. After that you’ll get the Box Tops with “The Letter”

 

“Arms that chain us, arms that lie” December 1, 2010

Filed under: News,Rants — justwilliam1959 @ 11:22 pm
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So the X Factor finalists have their own Top Trumps game? In my opinion it's kind of appropriate as trump is another word for fart and this bunch barely have a muppet fart of talent between them!

Firstly this post is NOT in my Advent Calendar series OK? It’s another random selection of music stuff. Firstly and I am saddened to say it in many, many ways a Bowie song is at number one in the UK. It’s the X Factor finalists cover of Bowie’s “Heroes” Thankfully I haven’t been able to hear Wagner on the recording. The singles only other saving grace is that it is raising funds for the ‘Help For Heroes‘ charity which supports those British soldiers that have been injured in the ridiculous wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that we followed the Americans into. But believe me, it is the UK Government I have a gripe with and especially former Prime Minister Tony Blair, I have every respect for all the British troops that are out there right now. Go and buy the single and throw it away if you have to. In the meantime take a look at the classic original below.

You know I always thought that Santa's Elves were a little more cuddly than this!

Next some very good X Factor related news. Corey Taylor off of Slipknot has recorded a Christmas single and he wants it to beat whatever single the X Factor show produces for the Christmas slot. Let’s get behind this one people, let’s make Corey this years “Killing In The Name Of“. Buy it and keep a muppet off the number one spot. The song is called “X-M@$”. Check it out below and click here to read the NME report about the song.

US politics often baffles me, especially where outgoing officials are allowed to grant pardons for previous misdemeanours by various criminals, jailbirds and wrongly accused. However I was pleasantly surprised to read that the ousted Governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, has issued a pardon for Jim Morrison off of the Doors following the singers arrest for allegedly getting his todger out on stage in Miami in 1969. Fair play Charlie and frankly, about bloody time too! It has always bothered me that with all the people and all the police at that concert there was never any evidence to prove that Jim actually did the deed. Read about the pardon by clicking here.

Enjoy “Break On Through” below

Apparently it was the dog's bollocks that Jim exposed, not his own!

 

“R is for the reindeer prancing by the window pane”

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 7:59 pm
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Before X factor the race for the UK Christmas number one was often quite exciting, well at least it was for a teenager like me. Well ok I’m not a teenager anymore, but I was…… honest! So to follow-up my Facebook experiment last year I will be undertaking a post a day until Christmas and whereas last years were all about cover versions, this years advent calendar from me is all about UK Christmas number ones over the years. There have been nearly 60 and I promise you that some you will love and frankly there will be some that you won’t.

So to kick things off by opening the little cardboard door on my advent calendar for Decemebr 1st and behind that door is…….. “Christmas Alphabet” by Dickie Valentine. This was Christmas number one in the UK in 1955 and stayed at the summit for three weeks. Dickie’s parents name him Richard Bryce when he was born in Marylebone in London. This song was the first actual Christmas song to reach number one in the UK. It was also his second number one of the year and a further three top ten hits. Being a crooner it was probably the advent of rock n roll that stilted Dickie’s career. Sadly he died in a car crash in Wales in 1971 aged just 41.

Here is Dickie with his Christmas Alphabet

And now a cover of the song from the first Carpenters Christmas Special TV show, sung by Karen Carpenter and Kristy McNichol

And finally here is Dickie once again with “Mister Sandman” hmmmmmmm………I wonder if there is a mash-up out there of this song and Metallica’s “Enter Sandman“?

 

“And she know why she came here, and she know where her clothes suppose to be” November 29, 2010

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 9:15 pm
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For a few months my blog has been getting thousands of hits from people searching for Lady Gaga, but seeing as how very media savvy she is I understood that. But over the last two days I have also had hundreds of hits from people searching for Colonel Gaddafi‘s nurse. I mean I have posted about Gaddafi’s all female security guards before and nurse has come up a few times, most recently in the Gregory Isaacs obituary when I gave you “Night Nurse” So that one stumped me for a while, well until I read the Guardian’s report on the latest Wikileaks exposure. Apparently Gaddafi’s personal staff includes a 38 year old Ukrainian nurse, one of a team of four, who ‘know his routine’ This is all according to the US mission in Tripoli, who also described the 38 year old nurse, Galyna Kolotnytska, as a voluptuous blonde. The obvious allegations appear to centre around a more than medical liaison. So does that mean that Gaddafi is in fact the Arab world‘s Berlusconi? Who know? Who cares?

Read some of the Guardian’s coverage here.

"You want my nurse you kiss me first little man!"

But I must say all the Wikileaks stuff does make rather interesting reading and apart from hits to my blog there is also a genuine link to Lady Gaga as well. The alleged source of these and other leaks is Bradley Manning a US soldier who was working as an intelligence analyst. He has been in solitary confinement for 7 months and his trial is expected to start soon. He allegedly downloaded all the material while stationed on an US Army base just outside Baghdad. He claimed it was ‘childishly easy’. Apparently he took a CD-RW labelled Lady Gaga into work and then pretended to listen to Miss Germanotta on headphones, apparently even going as far as lip-syncing her songs. But what he was really doing was wiping the disk and uploading thousands of diplomatic files.

I wonder what Gaga herself thinks about it all. We probably won’t find out for a while as she has retired from social networking to support Alicia Key’s initiative to raise money to combat AIDS in Africa. Many celebrities have signed off of Twitter and Facebook and the like until a certain amount has been raised for African AIDS charities. You can support the charity, which is called Keep A Child Alive, by clicking here. Donate people, you know it makes sense!

I thought I’d finish with a moderately appropriate song, ladies and gentlemen I give you “Freek-A-Leek” from Petey Pablo. Geddit?

 

“It’s just an instant gut reaction, that I got I know I never ever felt like this before” November 27, 2010

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 12:26 am
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On a recent flight business class flight to Australia it appears that Jay Kay off of Jamiroquai sat next to John Lydon off of Public Image Limited aka Johnny Rotten off of the Sex Pistols. Jay Kay says that Lydon spent the whole flight farting really smelly ones. He even said that after that experience he would prefer to travel cattle class in future. He went on to say that smoking has been banned so why not farting. But frankly and let’s be honest here, how many of us could complete a long haul flight without having to pop at least one little one out? Perhaps Jay Kay was jealous because he couldn’t muster up a decent response, maybe he could have caught up and got a second wind!

Jay Kay tries out his anti fart hat

But Johnny is still able to squeeze another one out

Just to show a degree of impartiality you can read the story on the Guardian website and also on the Perez Hilton Blog. Amusingly the Guardian chose to use Viz favourite Johnny Fartpants in their headline. Personally I think the whole thing is rather amusing, but then farts always are? Aren’t they?

But when Jay Kay farts he farts cars!

As far as appropriate videos I could only really go with the Sex Pistols “Belsen Was A Gas”

And for Jay Kay it has to be “Canned Heat”, doesn’t it?

Gaga cooks up a storm

In other news, this time from the Sun, yes you heard it right, the ghastly Sun gets a mention on my blog! They report the culinary talents of Lady Gaga and Cheryl Cole and show Katy Perry and Russell Brand‘s cat finishing off their turkey. It was their real turkey and not Russell in ‘Get Him To The Greek’ Read all about it here. Maybe John Lydon had been eating the Cheryl’s scones or Gaga’s casserole and that is why he had such high-octane flatulence. Incidentally I wonder if Gaga used the meat from her meat dress to make her meal?

Hansel and Gretel never had it so good.......... Lady Gaga gingerbread people!

 

“I don’t wanna take no pictures I just wanna take some shots!” November 25, 2010

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 11:28 pm
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Did any of you see Will.i.am‘s appearance at the American Music Awards at the weekend? It would be fair to say, well in my opinion anyway, that he looked like a bit of a knob. he was wearing a Lego baseball cap, at the usual hip hop style or indeed chav style jaunty angle. Only it wasn’t really proper Lego was it, because Lego is mostly square and that hat certainly wasn’t square. I wonder what the other Peas thought of it. There was also a great piece in the Guardian about it as well, which actually had the hat dissed by a kid who went on to make his own hat from proper Lego. Click here to read it.

I reckon he must have felt like a bit of a brick (misprint!)

Obviously many other rock stars have worn hats that were somewhat loud; Slash and Jay off of Jamiroquai to name but two. I just felt that Will.i.am’s millinery disaster zone was even worse than one time Guns n Roses member; Buckethead. What did you, dear readers think of it?

I also wonder whether that mild obsession with the Danish plastic toy will lead to worse things for Will.i.am, like Lego Porn, you have been warned!

But back to Will.i.am and the other Black Eyed Peas, have you seen their new video, for the new single “Time(Dirty Bit)”? There is a lot of pixellation that makes them seem somewhat Legoized. See what did I tell you it really will be Lego porn next!

 

“A great philosopher once wrote, naughty, naughty, very naughty”

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 12:39 am
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It would appear that the Performing Rights Society recently undertook a survey to determine the most controversial song ever and surprisingly many of the usual suspects are in the top 10. Controversially I am still just a little under the influence so to speak 😉 Here is the top 10;

Smack My Bitch Up – Prodigy

God Save The Queen – Sex Pistols

Relax – Frankie Goes To Hollywood

Kim – Eminem

Killing In The Name – Rage Against The Machine

Ebeneezer Goode – The Shamen

Suicide Solution – Ozzy Osbourne

Get Your Gunn – Marilyn Manson

Angel of Death – Slayer

Dear God – XTC

In my view the songs represent many people’s view of controversy, but not mine! I can see that people might have been angered and provoked by many things in their topics; religion, firearms, death/ suicide, drugs, violence, sex and being against the monarchy. Well maybe they’re right, but I for one do not think so, but it is, after all about the rock n roll! well not just the rock n roll but also the sex and drugs too. Hmmmmmm…… “Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll”

I’m also surprised that there is no room for Max Romeo’s “Wet Dream“, Donna Summer‘s “Love To Love You Baby” and “Je T’Aime” from Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin. However there were only 1,700 people in the survey! read the story on the BBC here.

 

“Einstein can’t be classed as witless, he claimed atoms were the littlest” November 24, 2010

Filed under: News,Observation — justwilliam1959 @ 11:14 pm
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This will be another short post, I promise. Largely because I have imbibed a few units of alcohol while watching a rather dull Champions League game (Glasgow Rangers versus Manchester United) with some new work colleagues in London. Anyway after travelling back to my hotel in the Old Kent Road (yes that’s one of the cheap brown ones on the Monopoly board) I switched on the TV to catch the BBC news. As expected the main coverage was the student protests in London. Click here to read the story

Now as I have said before I very much support the actions of the UK students although I do not condone the violence and damage to property that a rogue element seem to perpetrate. Anyway there was a rather funny clip shown where at the height of the protests, while some idiots were trashing a police van. Why was it funny? Well largely because the young lady interviewed on camera shouted her protest at the government, it was something along the lines of “they will be charging us £9,000 a year, for three years, that’s £21,000” Forgive me for being cynical but that young person really does need an education in basic arithmetic, doesn’t she?

OK amusement over, let’s get back to some music and for today I thought I’d go for a couple of slightly appropriate songs from the late and very definitely great Mister Ian Dury! Ladies, gentlemen and those of you with both bits, please enjoy “There Ain’t Half Been Some Clever Bastards” and “Clever Trevor” Also as many of todays protesters were in fact school kids I thought that you might also like Alice Cooper‘s classic “School’s Out” from 1972 and performed here on the Beebs sadly missed Top Of The Pops show.