With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

“Today’s the day when I see clear, a tiny thread of smoke appears” April 8, 2010

Filed under: Obituary — justwilliam1959 @ 9:15 pm
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This is a post to mark the sad passing of Malcolm McLaren earlier today aged just 64. Rather than write thousands of words about him I thought I’d just pick a few tunes of bands he managed his own stuff. Enjoy! Goodbye Talcy Malcy. (The BBC obituary of Malcolm is very good, click here to see it) 

Malcolm McLaren outside the infamous Kings Road Shop 'Sex' he set up with Vivienne Westwood

“Jet Boy” – New York Dolls -McLaren was their manager in the early 70s for a period 

“Anarchy For The UK” – Sex Pistols – Malcolm came to prominence by bringing the band together and managing them until their demise in 1978 

“C30 C60 C90 Go” – Bow Wow Wow – Malcolm took over as manager of Adam and the Ants and fired Adam, he the brought in Annabella Luwin aged just 14 as the singer 

“Double Dutch” – Malcolm McLaren – This song annoys many people I know, but I love it! 

“Madame Butterfly” – Malcolm McLaren – I don’t like opera so why do I like this?

 

“Faces look ugly when you’re alone” April 5, 2010

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 8:53 pm
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Hello peeps, long time no post, but I am resolving to post more this month. So let’s just see if I can manage it shall we?

Anyway the subject of this post is the film ‘The Strangers’, ok I know it’s not a new movie, but I was out with friends last week and they said that it was the scariest movie they had ever seen. Now for me when someone says that you really have to see it. Don’t you? I went into HMV this week and bought the DVD of the movie, it was on offer for only £7. The first concern I had was that it was just a C15 certificate (for those of you across the pond that means that you must be at least 15 to see it or buy it).

So this afternoon we sat down to watch the film. Personally I thought it was probably the least scary Scary Movie I have ever seen. Even Catwoman wasn’t scared. So to our friends A & G (who shall remain nameless) I have to ask, just how many supposedly scary films have you seen? Overall I thought it was generally a poor movie. Very darkly lit, to the extent of not being able to see properly. The sound recording meant that much of the script appeared mumbled. I wasn’t very impressed and in fact if anyone wants to buy the DVD I’d be happy to sell it for £7 plus postage, but personally I wouldn’t waste your money!

The moment that two members of Slipknot began a revolt over wearing masks (somehow I think I will be taking some crap for this comment!)

There was another moment in my life when someone warned me about a scary film. It was back in 1974 and my Mum showed me a tabloid report of teenagers having killed themselves after seeing ‘The Exorcist’. Her words to me were along the lines of “don’t you dare go and see this film” It was an X Certificate (the 70s version of todays C18) and I was underage at just 15, but that had never stopped me before. So I conferred with a couple of mates who had been given exactly the same warning from their parents and obviously when we realised we’d all been warned our simple curiosity meant that we simply had to see it. We did the usual of sending the tallest in the group to buy a ticket as he looked the oldest. He went into the theatre and opened the emergency exit briefly to allow us other two in. (We were such criminals weren’t we?) The film was more scary than ‘The Strangers’ by a long way, although no film has yet seriously scared me ever! It was quite a good movie, although having seen it more recently I think it looks dated now. For me the funniest moment of that cinema visit was the scene where the two priests are trying to use religious faith and power to bring a levitating Linda Blair back onto the bed. They were chanting something like “The power of Christ compels you” over and over. Some wag at the back of the theatre shouted “All together now!” Well we just fell about and that probably turned many other moments in the film into more comedic moments than they actually were.

As I have said before this is a music blog so I will finish with some songs that concern strangers;

“Strangers When We Meet” – David Bowie. Originally found on the soundtrack to the excellent Buddha Of Suburbia a TV adaptation of Hanif Kureshi’s book. Also in my opinion one of the Dame’s (an NME name for Bowie in the 70s and 80s) finest singles of the 90s

“Strangers In The Night” – Frank Sinatra. One of Ole’ Blue Eye’s best loved songs. The NME sometimes referred to Bryan Ferry back in the 70s as Frank Sinister after he covered a Sinatra song. They also rather amusingly referred to him as Byron Ferrari. Speaking of Frank, which we were; “To Do Is To Be” – Socrates, “To Be Is To Do” = Sartre, “DoBeDoBeDo” – Sinatra

“People Are Strange” – The Doors. Jim Morrison once said “Film spectators are quiet vampires” although in the case of The Strangers they wouldn’t just be quiet they would be asleep!

“Goodbye Stranger” – Supertramp. This song was included on the bands wonderful ‘Breakfast In America’ album from 1979. The song was also included on the 1999 soundtrack to the film ‘Magnolia’ which also featured “The Logical Song” and a number of songs from Aimee Mann

“Mama Tried” – Merle Haggard. He was a favourite of my Mum, but why is it included here I can hear you ask? Well simply because it was used in ‘The Strangers’ and it’s also a very good song

 

“When we had simplicity and we had warm toast for tea” March 25, 2010

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 11:20 pm
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This is Ryefield School in Hillingdon a great place where I was a pupil from 1965 to 1970

Once again it’s been a long while since my last post, but not as long ago as the last time I attended Ryefield Junior School in Hillingdon. I was just a little boy called Billy in those days. I attended the school from 1965 until 1970 up until I was 11 years old. I discovered this week that it is Ryefield School’s 50th birthday celebrations this year, I hadn’t appreciated that I was just one year older than the school. One year and three days to be precise as it opened on January 4th 1960. So how did I find out about this auspicious occasion? Well I have mentioned Ryefield in a previous post and the present Headmaster Mr Dodd was doing some research and chanced upon my blog. Serendipity huh?

Anyway it got me thinking about those good old school days and for me Infant and Junior School was so much more fun than Senior School. I will remember Ryefield for many things. But the two that spring to mind immediately are the wonderful headmaster from my days there, Mr Yates. I don’t know much about him other than the fact that to me he was a wonderful man and although I didn’t realise it at the time he was probably my first mentor from outside my family circle. He encouraged me to learn by reading and indeed writing too. I also loved all those mental arithmetic tasks he set. The second thing that is in my mind about those years is my first ever foreign trip. It was a school trip to Paris and it was my first ever flight too. One of the things we were asked to do was write a postcard on the first day to send back to our parents. I did write my postcard, but I left it in my case and gave it to my Mum and Dad when I came home. I can only assume that they weren’t too worried about me

And so on to the music, for that is the purpose of this little blog. And obviously todays choices are all school related, I hope you enjoy them and as usual your school song suggestions would be welcomed

Schools Out – Alice Cooper. OK I know this was an obvious choice, but it is good isn’t it. For me it was one of the defining moments of early 70s music television

Remember The Days Of The Old School Yard – Cat Stevens. Just how talented was this man? Still just as talented these days now he is known as Yusuf. I believe the additional female vocal on this track is Elkie Brooks. Linda Lewis also recorded an excellent cover of this song, although sadly I can’t find it on line

Teacher I Need You – Elton John. A classic slice of Elton and Bernie from the wonderful 1973 album ‘Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player’

Teach Your Children – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. This is accompanied by a photo montage that shows the Iraq war through the eyes of children

Don’t Stand So Close To Me – Police. Written by a former teacher, Gordon Sumner aka Sting and probably the only lyric which manages to rhyme cough with Nabokov, albeit it rather clumsily! This is the original version which is so much better than the 1986 remake

Be True To Your School – Beach Boys. This one says it all really doesn’t it and with added cheerleaders too.

 

Brits Special “I’m On The Right Track, Yeah I’m On To A Winner” February 17, 2010

Filed under: Observation,Review — justwilliam1959 @ 6:33 am
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It’s February 2010 (the 16th to be precise) and ‘With just A Hint Of Mayhem’ is coming to you live from the Brit Awards 2010. Well ok almost live and actually not really there but just in front of the telly! Just like last year really, if you want to relive my post from last years Brits click here

This years awards were hosted by the rather spiffingly talented Mr Peter Kay (Garlic Bread?) Interestingly the ad breaks featured a Master Card advert which was the story of last years Outstanding Achievement award winners the Pet Shop Boys doing a concert at someone’s house! Who would you choose to do a gig at your house? I would opt for David Bowie or Kate Bush!

First up to perform was the delectable Lily Allen. She sang “The Fear” with quite a strange cast of dancers; Pram Pushers, Men in Bowler Hats, Suits with no trousers and Union Jack Boxer Shorts and also some Umbrella Parachutists (is that a word?) dressed in pink camouflage gear. truly spectacular indeed! Lily was wearing a black hot pants type outfit, which I rather liked but Catwoman definitely didn’t! Hmmmmmmm I wonder why?

The first award was presented by Page 3 and ‘I’m A Celebrity’ veteran Sam Fox. She was introduced by Peter Kay as Sam Fleetwood, Mick Fox, Sam Fox in reference to the debacle that was the Brits presented by Sam and Mick Fleetwood off of Fleetwood Mac in the late 1980s. She presented the Brits Memorable Performance of the last 30 years. It seemed we were expecting a list of nominees, but there didn’t appear to be one. The award was given to the Spice Girls and was collected by Scary and Ginger or Mel B and Geri Halliwell as they prefer to be known these days

The next award was for Best British Male Artist and was presented by Andy Serkis who played Gollum in Lord Of The Rings and most recently played Ian Dury. The award went to the hugely entertaining Dizzee Rascal, thank god it wasn’t Robbie Williams! After this we endured JLS performing “Beat Again” they arrived on stage on strings, which confirmed my suspicions that these pop muppets are indeed puppets!

Mel B returned to the stage to present the next award to Jay Z or Jason Zed as Peter Kay called him. He won Best International Male Solo Artist. He spoke of his Glastonbury appearance and mentioned (tongue in cheek methinks) how he was influenced by the Spice Girls.

Noddy Holder off of Slade presented the best album of 30 years of the Brits award to Liam Gallagher for the Oasis album What’s The Story Morning Glory. Obviously Liam swore because the sound disappeared and the ‘audio has been muted’ appeared in the corner of the screen. As he left the stage he threw the microphone into the crowd and allegedly also threw the award into the crowd as well. Peter Kay referred to him, rightly so, as a knobhead when he did leave the stage.

Kasabian then played live and for me they were somewhat lacklustre, what did you think. I thought the flames at the front of the stage were more exciting.

The next award, the Breakthrough Act, was presented by Geri Halliwell (was this a Spice Girls take over?). Geri had to apologise for her earlier failure with Mel B to thank the other Spice Girls! It went to, shamefully in my opinion JLS. Pixie Lott, La Roux and Friendly Fires were all also nominated and missed out to the aforementioned muppets!

Courtney Love presented the Critics Choice Award to the delightful Ellie Goulding, I think I may have to download her album very soon.

Next to perform was the fantastic Lady Ga Ga. In my opinion she is a true star and a real mold breaker. She wore a kind of lace mask, fright wig and a body stocking that seemed to reveal more than it covered. A great performance and someone I would love to see in concert. She also dedicated her first song to the late, great and sadly departed Alexander McQueen.

Idris Elba off of London’s Burning (who he?) presented the Best British Group Award to Kasabian. Personally I felt it should have gone to Muse. Incidentally up to this point I had guessed every winner correctly!

Cat Deeley presented the first of Lady GaGa’s awards for International Breakthrough Artist. This was followed by a fantastic and inspired duet from Dizzee Rascal and Florence off of Florence and the Machine. It was the classic and one of my all time favourite songs; “You Got The Love” which was originally by the Source featuring Candi Staton.

There followed a short film clip of Prince Harry extolling the virtues and wonderful charitable work of the Brits Trust. He came across as quite amusing and very human and showed that one is down wiv da kidz! Which coming from someone like me who is very anti royal is big praise indeed.

über Knobhead Jonathan Ross presented the Best International Female award to (no surprises here) Lady GaGa. her second of the night so far!

Dame Shirley Bassey presented the Solo British Female award, one which she herself actually won in 1977. It went to one of my current favourite singers, Lily Allen. Lily wore a red wig, which she claimed was to make it hard for the cameras to pick her out for that ‘disappointed’ shot had she not won. Incidentally she clearly seemed surprised and very giggly!

Jay Z and Alicia Keys then duetted on a storming “New York State Of Mind”. Mr Z is my second favourite rapper after Eminem and Alicia possess one of the finest soul voices of her generation.

Mika presented the Best International Album Award to Lady GaGa, her third and final Brit of the night. I believe the new Queen Of The Brits deserved every one of them!

Cheryl Cole then performed “Fight For Your Love” amidst a cast of a thousand dancers. For me the dark glasses and dance moves suggested our Cheryl is something af a Janet Jackson wannabe. I didn’t spot Cashley in the crowd though, perhaps he texted her earlier!

Alan Carr had the honour of giving the Best British Single Award to JLS, well that one was voted for by Sun readers so what do you expect?

Tom Ford (is he a fashion designer?) presented the Best British Album Brit to Florence and the Machine for the brilliant album ‘Lungs’. Florence gave a very gracious acceptance speech. ‘Lungs’ is one of my favourite albums of recent years I also loved her set at last years Reading Festival

Finally the winner of the Outstanding Achievement Award who also had the honour of closing the show was Robbie Bloody Williams. He performed a medley of hits, including a song which I really do not like, “Angels” As regular readers might have guessed the appearance of Robbie was definitely not a highlight for me.

So in summary 3 Brits to Lady GaGa and sadly 2 to JLS and in my opinion that is 2 too many!

 To finish here are a few Brit News links for you;

Sky News

The Guardian

 

“Yes we’re going to a party party, yes we’re going to a party party” February 8, 2010

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 11:57 pm
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I can hardly believe it but this is the first birthday of my blog. Where did the time go?My posts have had far too much David Bowie, the Beatles and Steal The Smile, but do you know what? I don’t care, it’s my blog and I’ll post if I want to (thanks to Lesley Gore for that bit!)

I have also become a reluctant and very poor expert on Slipknot without masks (ok I know that it was really Cradle Of Filth in that picture, well at least I do now!)

On the way I have come across some great people and blogs. You know who you are, but Mickey Glitter and Punky Mama get special mentions as regular contributors of comments. You should also check out the excellent Australian Heroin Diaries Blog

So far there have been 111 posts including this one, 217 comments (including mine, cos I do like to reply to all of you, even the critical comments!) and nearly 400,000 hits. I really couldn’t ask for more, originally I would have been ecstatic hits reached double figures so now I’m totally blown away. The most searched terms that arrived here so far (all with more than 10,000) have been Pink Floyd, Lily Allen, Kate Bush, Slipknot and Catwoman

So thank you very, very much dear readers I really appreciate you being here, please come back soon 🙂

So here are a few birthday songs to celebrate my blog’s first birthday

“Happy Birthday” – Stevie Wonder

“Happy Birthday” – Altered Images

“Birthday” – Beatles

 

Ruby Turner at the Theatre Royal York Friday 5th February 2010

Filed under: Review — justwilliam1959 @ 11:18 pm
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On Friday 5th February 2010 I had the real privilege of seeing Ruby Turner live. It was a last-minute thing for me following my regular e-mail from the Theatre Royal in York. I had heard of Ruby a long while ago (I am a music anorak don’t forget!) in particular for her excellent contribution to Jools Holland’s Rhythm and Blues Orchestra. She referred to him as Jools or Mr Holland, that’s a sign of how close she is to him 😉

Ruby at the Fountain

Ruby writes or co-writes many of her own songs, which incidentally ws something I didn’t know. Some of those songs are truly amazing, especially the appropriately named “So Amazing”. However for me she really excelled in both her choice and performance of covers. Starting with the oft covered “I’d Rather Go Blind“. I first heard this song in a version by Rod Stewart in the early 70s. Ruby’s version is exquisite, especially when she goes into a capella mode.

The Magnificent Ruby Turner

But she surpassed herself with her version of Lorraine Ellison’s “Stay With Me” which remains one of my most favourite songs ever. Ruby really does the song justice (unlike David Essex’s cover from many moons ago!) Her encore was an excellent version of the Staple Singers classic “If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me)” which she used as a superb way of showcasing her band which had talent to spare.

If you get the chance to see Ruby live DO NOT waste it. In my opinion she is the nearest modern-day equivalent to Aretha Franklin. Ruby was also born in the same year as me (1959 fact fans!) , so no wonder she is so talented! 😉

 

“Cause only two of you had dinner, I found your credit card receipt” January 16, 2010

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 9:57 pm
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I was reading the Guardian newspaper earlier today and chanced upon a rather amusing article about the music tastes of what many might consider the more evil of our world leaders. The article itself can be found by clicking here.

I thought he might have been more of a Master Of Puppets period Metallica fan

In a nutshell here are the favourite artists of our favourite despots, or as one Guardian headline put it; The Axes Of Evil

Osama Bin Laden – Whitney Houston. So why don’t we send Whitney to the badlands between Afghanistan and Pakistan and just ask her to sing “Saving All My Love For You” especially for Osama. He’d be in her arms faster than a cruise missile

Where's Osama? Just send Whitney! It's not right but it's ok

Robert Mugabe – Cliff Richard. Now here’s the thing, apparently at the Zimbabwe Independence Concert in 1980 Mugabe was disappointed that Bob Marley was chosen to headline, he considered him somewhat scruffy and allegedly would have preferred the more wholesome Cliff Richard. Clearly Mugabe wasn’t aware of Bob Marley’s tireless efforts to gain justice for Africa. However I’m sure Mr Marley would be sickened by what Mugabe has done subsequently. Here is Bob Marley singing “Zimbabwe” in Zimbabwe in 1980

She said son you be a dictator boy and make your enemies paaaay! (to the tune of Sir Cliff's "Bachelor Boy")

Colonel Gaddafi – Lionel Richie. I can now imagine the Colonel rocking around his tent to Lionel’s “Dancing On The Ceiling” or perhaps “Machine Gun” by the Commodores might be more appropriate

Judging from his body guards you'd think he might have preferred the Supremes or the Three Degrees

Nick Griffin – Kate Rusby. Clearly a very, very, very long way from being a world leader, but definitely a bigoted racist arsehole who is not as bright as he thinks he is. It is interesting that his choice of British Folk Music is perhaps the whitest form of music in the UK. However even the folkies have a Folk Against Facism Movement. So once again the racist thugs of the BNP get it wrong. Maybe we should organise a Political Celebrity Death Match between Nick Griffin and Robert Mugabe, in the hope that both might pop their clogs

Nick was devastated when he realised he couldn't play his records because they were black, if only he'd bought the special edition white vinyl versions. Still he could now agree with the majority of people in Britain, that he is indeed a complete tosser

Kim Jong-Il – Eric Clapton. I wonder when we will hear them say Kim Jong-Well or will he always be sick? I can now only ever picture Kim as his puppet in the wonderful ‘Team America’ movie. I wonder what his favourite Clapton song is?

Kim always liked to listen to a bit of Slowhand when he took time for a little "Slow Hand" of his own 😉

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – Chris De Burgh. A member of Dubya’s so called Axis Of Evil and potential owner of nuclear weapons. But frankly how can you take him seriously now you know he listens to that bloody awful “Lady In Red“?

Just one more dig at Lady In Red and I'll rip my wig off and shove it right where the nuclear reactors don't shine!

 

“The world won’t get no better if we just let it be” January 14, 2010

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 10:09 pm
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Hello dear readers and those of you who just like to look at the pictures. This post is a little random and maybe in the spirit of all of my earliest posts. Today is the 14th January 2010 and it marks 32 years since the last proper Sex Pistols gig. Certainly the last one to feature Sid Vicious and not one of those reunion shows. That show was at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco and Johnny Rotten’s last words from the stage were “Ever get the feeling you’ve been cheated? Good Night” I actually have the bootleg of that gig and judging from the bass playing it was clear that, as Rotten later observed, Sid was out of his brains. Here are the Pistols with “Bodies” from that very gig

As for Mr Rotten, or Lydon as he is known nowadays I was disappointed when I saw him advertising British butter (click here to see it). However he was recently quoted as saying that it paid him enough to put up the initial funding for the PiL tour he is currently undertaking, so now I feel very relieved.

Sid dry humps a lamppost and johnny dresses as a Hasidic Jew, just another boring day for the Pistols then!

Today we also received the sad news that Teddy Pendergrass had died. Teddy (or Theodore to his parents) was the voice of Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes. Ha! I bet plenty of you thought Harold was the singer didn’t you? They had some massive hits in the early 70s with wonderful songs like “Wake Up Everybody” and “If You Don’t Know Me By Now“. The latter was covered in a somewhat mediocre way by Mick Hucknall with Simply Red. Teddy went solo later in the 70s and had another string of hits including “Close The Door” and “Turn Off The Lights” Hey those titles fit together nicely don’t they? Teddy was involved in a road traffic accident in 1983 which left him a paraplegic, but he continued to perform in spite of that. His rich and distinctive voice will be sadly missed by those of us who love such sublime soul music.

In his youth Teddy always like pussy............cats!

Finally and perhaps most importantly I experienced a really bizarre coincidence yesterday. Just as I opened my newspaper to read about the awful earthquake in Haiti, Steely Dan’s “Haitian Divorce” popped up on my iPod. So I thought that I would give you the link to the BBC report of the disaster and also a link where you can donate to the relief effort. Pay whatever you can, because even if your day has been pretty shit it cannot be anywhere near as bad as those affected by the quake. Do it, you know it makes sense 🙂

 

“I can’t bear to see the sun go down, casting stormy shadows all around” January 11, 2010

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 4:48 pm
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I guess no one missed it, as for every snow flake being unique it's all very well saying it but let me see the proof!

As I trudged through the slush and snow this morning I got to thinking about winter songs. There really aren’t too many of them are there? Especially if you discount all the Christmas and December specific songs and also songs that by default are associated with Christmas such as Winter Wonderland. I also thought that as this is the UK’s coldest winter for 30 years I ought to at least mark it with a post!

So during my break today I thought of five winter songs which you can find below, hopefully these will help you get through the cold and boredom, especially if you are still stuck indoors. I spoke to someone yesterday who hasn’t been able to leave the house since last Tuesday, hello Mum! I’m also damned sure that you can send me many more winter songs too, so that’s your challenge dear readers! No Christmas or December songs though and whilst all mine have Winter in the title that doesn’t have to be the case

“Rock And Roll Winter” – Wizzard. This band were formed by the very talented Roy Wood who initially found fame with the Move and went on to form ELO with Jeff Lynne and Bev Bevan, also off of the Move. Wood bailed out in 1972 to form Wizzard just a couple of years before ELO went stratospheric! This song ended up being release in the Spring in the UK owing to some kind of dispute with the label I believe

“Winter” – Tori Amos – Ms Amos is a fantastic singer songwriter whose music I really enjoy, although not as much as Kate Bush, someone she is often compared too. She is also a good friend of one of my favourite authors; Neil Gaiman. Tori began composing her own instrumental pieces at the age of just 5

“Winter Melody” – Donna Summer I find it a little ironic that one of my favourite songs from someone named Summer is actually about Winter! This song is taken from Donna’s Four Seasons Of Love album released in 1976. It contained just four tracks; Spring Affair, Summer Fever, Autumn Changes and Winter Melody. there is also a reprise of Spring Affair at the end. The album length was just over 30 minutes

“Hazy Shade Of Winter” – Simon And Garfunkel – This song was written by Paul Simon and recorded by the duo for their Bookends album released in 1968. The Bangles later covered the song for the soundtrack of the 1987 film Less Than Zero 

“It May Be Winter Outside (But In My Heart It’s Spring)” – Love Unlimited – These ladies began by providing backing vocals for the late great Walrus Of Love himself, Mr Barry White. The trio included his wife Glodean James and also his sister-in-law Linda James. This song reached the UK top 20 in 1975

Just to round this post up one casualty of this bad weather has been the cancellation of a number of gigs. My son’s band Steal The Smile were due to play at the FaceBar in Reading last Thursday, but the snow meant that the gig was cancelled. So if you were looking forward to seeing them last week here is a little something for you. Click here and go straight to their MySpace page, do not pass go and do not collect $200, just click and listen to some great songs from an excellent young band. They might not be winter songs but they are bloody good songs!

Swine Flu gets to the 100 Acre Wood

 

“Through the coldest winter in almost fourteen years”

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:09 am
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Hello once again dear readers, I’m back with another brief post and one which celebrates yet another birthday. Today is January 10th and it is the day that Roderick David Stewart becomes a pensioner, the old fella is 65 today.

Clearly Rod had forgotten to bring his winter clothes on his latest trip to England

My Dad was a bit of a Rod Stewart fan, especially at News Years Eve owing to Rod’s Scottish roots. In fact my Dad insisted that Rod was indeed Scottish and I argued that one with him for years. Actually Rod was born in London although his Dad was a Scot. We also had Rod’s version of “Sailing” played at my Dad’s funeral back in 2001.

OK own up who has hidden my bus pass and pension book?

Rod has always been a keen footballer and played at Centre Half for Middlesex School Boys in the 50s. He also famously spent a short time with Brentford FC. He was once quoted as saying that the only two things he could do were to play football and sing. Along with dating and/ or marrying a string of leggy blonde beauties presumably.

Rod those shades are fooling no one, we know exactly what you're looking at!

During the 60s he played in a number of bands whose personnel included; Ray Davies (later of the Kinks), Long John Baldry, Mick Fleetwood and Peter Green (the latter two went on to form Fleetwood Mac) among others. He began to really make a name for himself when he became lead vocalist with the Jeff Beck Group. It was in Jeff’s group that he first met Ronnie Wood. They both left the Jeff Beck Group in 1969 and went on to join Ian MacLagan, Ronnie Lane and Kenny Jones, the three remaining members of the Small Faces to form the Faces. The rest, as they say, is history.

No Rod I don't think you're sexy and I certainly don't want to get either jiggy or ziggy with you!

So let me finish this brief post to wish Rod a very happy birthday and let’s listen to a few of his greatest moments (in my opinion anyway, so that means definitely no room for “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” or “Baby Jane”)

“The Killing Of Georgie” – Rod Stewart (a live version from 1977). In the original video for this song Rod wore quite a bit of eye shadow and seemed to come across as quite camp. Apparently his Dad made it very clear he didn’t like that look!

“Downtown Train” – Rod Stewart. For me Rod is a great songwriter and a great vocalist, but he is also a great interpreter of other peoples songs. This is his excellent version of the great Tom Waits song

“You Can Make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything” – Rod Stewart and the Faces. This was the final Faces single and remains my favourite. It signalled the end of a great band way back in 1974 when even I was young. Incidentally the full title for the single is “You Can make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything (Even Take the Dog For a Walk, Mend a Fuse, Fold Away the Ironing Board, or Any Other Domestic Shortcomings)”

“You Wear It Well” – Rod Stewart – Definitely my favourite of all of Rod’s UK number one singles

“Mandolin Wind” – Rod Stewart – A song that always helps me get mellow