With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

“Hey sugar, you almost got us punched in a fight” March 3, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 7:03 am
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Hello once again on this 3rd day of March. I would like to point out that todays post is a little shorter than other recent posts as I have been suffering from a bad case of man flu. Ladies you just don’t understand this, but it’s terrible! Anyway I do have a great way to kick off todays post. There has been a considerable furore over cuts to arts budgets in British Columbia in Canada and in a novel way of raising the profile of the issue a theatre director and an arts group treasurer have organised an excellent spoof recording of a Bonnie Tyler song. The link to the song is on the news page which you will find if you click on the song title, which is “Total Eclipse Of The Arts” I would like to thank Tracy, who runs a number of great Yahoo Groups, notably FAMOUS_WOMEN_IN ROCK, for this story.

So onto the birthdays first starting with Mike Pender of the Searchers who is 67 today. The Searchers took their name from John Ford’s classic western movie. They were a Liverpool band who like their contemporaries the Beatles also played at the famous Cavern Club and indeed the Star Club in Hamburg. They have another link with the Fab Four too, their original drummer Norman McGarry took over the drum stool with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes after Ringo Starr left to join the Beatles. The band had three UK number ones; “Sweets For My Sweet” in 1963, “Needles And Pins” and “Don’t Throw Your Love Away” both in 1964. All of these songs were covers, the originals were by the Drifters, Jackie DeShannon and the Shirelles respectively. In December 1966 the group changed drummers again, the new guy was in fact my namesake Billy Adamson, as far as I know we’re not related! Do any other readers have any namesakes like this? Major or minor any will do, just let me know. Anyway to close this piece on the Searchers here they are with “Needles And Pins” which incidentally fact fans was co written by Sonny Bono.

Before their initial success the boys had to share one guitar

Before their initial success the boys had to share one guitar

Today is also Ronan Keating’s 32nd birthday. Ronan is so far the only member of Boyzone to have carved out a solo career for himself. In my opinion he has slightly more talent than Robbie W, which those regular readers among you know is not a lot. If any Robbie or Ronan fans have stumbled upon this blog by chance, then please note this is my opinion! It is with great sadness that I have to add that Ronan entered the Guinness Book Of Records last year by becoming the only performer ever to achieve a run of 30 consecutive top 10 singles in the UK Charts. He also briefly managed Westlife. So are there any redeeming features? well actually for me there are two.Firstly Ronan is currently climbing Mount Kilimanjaro with a group of celebrities to raise money for Comic Relief. Secondly it is for one of my guilty pleasures, Ronan’s single “Life Is A Rollercoaster” It was a UK number one in 2000 and was co written and produced by the supremely talented Gregg Alexander the man behind the wonderful but short lived New Radicals.

Ronan had done everything he could to make himself lighter for his RyanAir flight, but now he didn't have a coin for the toilet!

Ronan had done everything he could to make himself lighter for his RyanAir flight, but now he didn't have a coin for the toilet!

On this day in 1973 Slade went straight in at number one in the UK singles chart with “Cum On Feel The Noize”. This was the first time this had been done since the days of the Beatles. The bands manager was Chas Chandler who was also Jimi Hendrix’ manager and was also credited with discovering him. When Chas first saw them in 1969 they were called Ambrose Slade. At Chas’ suggestion the band capitalised on the current skinhead craze and wore boots, braces and cropped their hair. Later that year they shortened their name to Slade. They signed to Polydor in 1970 and went on to have the first of their six UK number one the following year with “Coz I Luv You” Their trademark spelling appears to have predated text speak by many years! Allegedly the band turned down the opportunity to represent the UK in the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest, now that would have been interesting! So without further ado here are Slade with the excellent “Cum On Feel The Noize” Clearly by this time the skinhead look was long gone and just check out Dave Hill’s headgear, what’s that all about then? Please feel free to enter the Slade caption competition below 🙂

OK here's the deal, you provide a caption for what Dave and Jim are saying behind Noddy'd back and I'll include it in a future post!

OK here's the deal, you provide a caption for what Dave and Jim are saying behind Noddy's back and I'll include it in a future post!

It was on this day in 1985 that Michael Jackson visited Madame Tussauds in London to unveil his waxwork lookalike. Here is Michael on that visit and the picture below shows a very different version of his waxwork, so clearly it has been someone’s job to keep him up to date. That must be the busiest job at Tussauds!

Even a personal appearance in the ticket office didn't improve ticket sales

Even a personal appearance in the ticket office didn't improve ticket sales

 

“I bought you drinks, I bought you flowers, I read you books and talked for hours” March 2, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 9:42 am
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Good day everyone I hope you had a jolly good weekend and are prepared for another fun working week. Just to get you underway here are a couple of Finance Industry pieces. have any of you seen the Swiftcover Insurance advert on UK TV which is fronted by Iggy Pop? Well it seems that musicians are classed as entertainers and as such are unable to insure through the company, wow their marketing people must have really worked hard on that one. Click on NME to read the story, the page also has a link to YouTube so you can see the advert for yourself if you haven’t already.

Here’s a fun banking game too, that’s right I said banking, not wa…. oh never mind. This was in the Observer today it’s an on line game called ‘Wheel Of Misfortune‘ There is a banker attached to a wheel and you have to throw knives at the wallets and briefcases and balloons to score. However should you hit the banker well, he does show a bit of pain. Click on the name to play (unfortunately you do have to register to play)

OK so now let’s get on with the business at hand for today, 2nd March 2009, starting with some birthdays. First up is Lou Reed who is 66 today. Lou was named Louis Allen Firbank by his parents. At the age of 17 he was sent to a psychiatrist to receive eight weeks of shock therapy aimed at curing him of severe mood swings. After his time with the Velvet Underground ended in 1970 he went back to live with his parents home in Freeport, Long Island. During this time he took a job as a typist for his father’s accountancy firm, earning just $40 a week. Imagine, if he had stuck at that career he could be swimming in money now as a ‘disgraced’ (copyright tabloid papers) financier/ banker. I for one am glad he didn’t though. Here is Lou with his classic “Satellite Of Love” The observant among you will notice that I could have made a big DB reference in this piece, but as there were two yesterday I declined. But the production on this song was by DB and Mick Ronson.

lou and Laurie had just been turned away from the RyanAir check-in desk for carrying too much luggage

lou and Laurie had just been turned away from the RyanAir check-in desk for carrying too much luggage

The second of our three birthdays is that of the late great (the return of those l’s & g’s) Karen Carpenter. She would have been 59 today. She was just 32 when she died in 1983. Karen had a voice like no other and whilst by many the Carpenters were seen as very easy listening, middle-of-the-road fare, the musicianship, production and vocals on their songs were exceptional. My parents loved the Carpenters, which is why I never really got into them until late on. Well in those days it certainly wasn’t cool to like the music your parents liked. I feel that has changed somewhat in recent years though. On a trip to London in December 1976 the group were presented with 21 Gold Discs for UK record sales. They had to leave them behind at Heathrow Airport because they were too heavy to take on as excess baggage. Maybe they should have flown Ryanair, then again perhaps not! Here are the Carpenters with the excellent “Goodbye To Love” This contains some excellent guitar solos too.

It had taken a while but Karen finally mastered the art of playing the invisible drums

It had taken a while but Karen finally mastered the art of playing the invisible drums

The final birthday today is Mr Paltrow from Coldplay, otherwise known as Chris Martin. He is 32 today. The band have recently started recording sessions for their next album. Brian Eno is once again involved and for the first two weeks of recording he asked Chris Martin to stay away from the studio to enable the band to work on the music with no restraint. It’ll be interesting to see how that turns out. Actually by todays standards (well especially Guns N Roses) a new album from Chris and the boys next year must be seen as somewhat prolific. Their first album ‘Parachutes’ came out in 2000 and if they finish it in time their 5th will be out in 2010 (5 albums in 11 years!). Coldplay met at University College London and an initial band including Chris Martin and Jonny Buckland was called ‘Pectoralz’ not a great name in my opinion. At one point Chris met Tim Rice-Oxley a classics student and asked him to join the band. Tim declined and went on to form his own band, Keane. Enough of them and back to Coldplay, here they are with “Fix You” live in Toronto, with a somewhat gushing intro by Chris.

Now the other Coldplay boys had photographic evidence that the sun really did shine out of Chris' rear end

Now the other Coldplay boys had photographic evidence that the sun really did shine out of Chris' rear end

On this day in 1967 Arnold George Dorsey, better known as Englebert Humperdinck was number one in the UK with “Release Me”. Englebert was always a hot property on the music scene, having been born in Madras, India. Arnold named himself after a German Opera composer. It seems quite amazing now that a song like “Release Me” could be a hit at the height of psychedelia. Indeed it even prevented the Beatles double A side “Strawberry Fields/ Penny lane” from reaching the UK top spot

Englebert wondered how much longer he could keep the sun balanced on his head and when he would have to give it back to Chris

Englebert wondered how much longer he could keep the sun balanced on his head and when he would have to give it back to Chris

This day in 1999 saw the death from lung cancer of the late great (l & g back with a vengeance) Dusty Springfield. She was only 59. Dusty was born in 1939 as Mary Isabelle Catherine Bernadette O’Brien and was convent educated. She took the name Dusty Springfield when she formed the folk and country based Springfields in 1961 with her brother Dion (who became Tom Springfield) and a friend Tom Field. I’m not sure who he became. she was a massive success in the 60s but was in the wilderness for many years before she hooked up with the Pet Shop Boys in 1987 to record “What Have I Done To Deserve This?”

Dusty had been invited to test a prototype of the new iPod

Dusty had been invited to test a prototype of the new iPod

And almost finally on this day in 1960 Elvis Presley spent a short time on UK soil for the only time in his life. He was travelling back to the US from Germany after completing his National Service and his plane stopped to refuel at Prestwick Airport near Glasgow in Scotland. It is said that Colonel Tom Parker, Presley’s Manager prevented Elvis from touring overseas because he (Parker not Presley) was an illegal immigrant to the US. I wonder whether things would have turned out differently had Elvis been allowed to tour outside the US? Anyway as this piece relates to his National Service here is Elvis with “G.I. Blues”

Elvis was ready to kick start his RyanAir flight from Prestwick

Elvis was ready to kick start his RyanAir flight from Prestwick

And finally on this day, while searching for an Elvis in the army picture I found this, I had to show it as it is just so naff! What do you think?

Words fail me, this is just awful!

Words fail me, this is just awful!

 

“did you see the suits and the platform boots?” March 1, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 8:34 am
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I’m back again and it’s a brand new month, time Marches on doesn’t it? Anyway there have been some excellent comments in response to the current banking farce and also about the Chris Allen naked story, we still don’t know who he/ she is although Tom has owned up to searching for naked pictures of the elusive Chris. No one has found us yet via the Lily Allen naked route though, I’m beginning to think that’s a good thing.

I have also received a couple of e mails relating to my comments about that splendid airline company Ryanair who as you know offer some very cheap headline fares and then charge for everything else on top. The UK press today says they are floating an idea to put coin op slots on the aircraft toilets. You’ll need to spend a pound to ‘spend a penny’. On a similar note I reckon you’ll love the link sent to us by Nick H, just click on Ryanair. Maybe it’s actually true!

The new cheaper Ryanair fleet had just been delivered

The new cheaper Ryanair fleet had just been delivered

Larry sent this one to the Dead Zone Yahoo Group, which is where I borrowed it from. It’s an excellent link to a site showing Billy Idol’s “White Wedding” video but doctored so that it has him singing about what is actually in the video. Trust me this one is very funny!

Billy held out his arms ready to fly, he figured it would be so much cheaper than Ryanair

Billy held out his arms ready to fly, he figured it would be so much cheaper than Ryanair

Feel free to send me things that you think the other readers may enjoy, mostly music related but hey there’ll always be the occasional rant about things like Banking and Ryanair 🙂

So onto todays ton of trivia, well maybe not a ton, but quite a lot! Starting with a couple of birthdays. Firstly 1st March 2009 is Roger Daltrey’s 65th birthday. Does that mean he’ll be getting a “Magic Bus” pass? Roger is one of the two surviving members of the Who along with Pete Townshend. In 1972 Roger took the starring role in a fully orchestrated version of the Who’s “Tommy” at the Rainbow Theatre in London. According to Pete Townshend, who was in the audience, this was the moment when he realised just how good Daltrey was. He spent the next few years worried that Daltrey would leave the band, thankfully for us that didn’t happen. In 1973 Daltrey released his first solo album called, very imaginatively, ‘Daltrey’. Most (or maybe all) the songs for it were written by none other than Leo Sayer with his co writer Dave Courtney. Leo went on to record some of the songs for his own albums in the future, notably “One Man Band”. My favourite track from that album and yes it’s also one of the 50 songs in my top 10, was “Giving It All Away” This clip is from a 1973 edition of the Beebs excellent “Old Grey Whistle Test” it also features Russ Ballard from Argent on guitar.

The front row at this gig soon became aware just how many baked beans Roger had eaten before the show

The front row at this gig soon became aware just how many baked beans Roger had eaten before the show

Today is also the 36th birthday of Ryan Peake guitarist with the band Nickleback. For some strange reason my mate Dave always calls them Stickleback, but then his better half calls him Nobby, so perhaps we shouldn’t go there eh? Nickleback got their name from something Mike Kroeger, also a band member, used to say every day when he worked at Starbucks. After a sale if a customer paid cash he often asked “would you like your Nickel back?” I presume that if Gareth Gates formed a band now it might be called ‘Doyouwantfrieswiththat’ what do you think? Anyway here are the Nickleback boys with “How You Remind Me”

The band much preferred fans to wave their phones and not their flame throwers during the slow songs

The band much preferred fans to wave their phones and not their flame throwers during the slow songs

On this day in 1970 Mott the Hoople appeared at the Northcote Arms in Middlesex (I think I’ve had a pint or two in there in my much younger days) They were supported by none other than Genesis in the days before they had a singing drummer! Mott have reformed for a London gig later this year are any of you guys going? If you ever read Rock books you must read Ian Hunter’s ‘Diary Of A Rock n Roll Star’ Ian was Mott’s front man and the book is about the bands early 70s days touring in the US. It is truly an excellent book. In 1972 after a show in Zurich the band decided to split up. After hearing this news one of their biggest fans, none other than David Bowie (another Bowie reference at last!) offered them one of his new songs to persuade them to carry on. The band rejected “Suffragette City” but went on to record “All The Young Dudes”. The rest as they say is history. Here’s one for you fact fans, Mick Jones of the Clash was also a big fan of Mott too. My favourite Mott the Hoople song is “Saturday Gigs” which is about the band’s history and also features the late great (another l & g comeback) Mick Ronson who was a member of the band for just a short while in the mid 70s

It was clear that Ian Hunter had the Austin Powers look even before Austin existed

It was clear that Ian Hunter had the Austin Powers look even before Austin existed

On this day in 1977 Iggy Pop appeared at Friars in Aylesbury and his keyboard player was none other than David Bowie. (Whaddya know, no Bowie references for a while and then two arrive at once, a bit like Mr Daltrey’s Magic Bus perhaps?) Iggy with Ziggy now that’s cool! The support band that night was the Vibrators. I wonder if they’ve changed their name and now tour as the ‘Rampant Rabbits’? 😉 Well if the Stones Roses (see yesterdays post) considered ‘Angry Young Teddy Bears’ as a name it’s not beyond the realms of possibility is it? Anyway let’s get back to the Igster, if you haven’t heard his original version of “China Girl” click the title to check it out, it really does blow Bowie’s version away!

Iggy had to sell his shirts to pay for his RyanAir extras

Iggy had to sell his shirts to pay for his RyanAir extras

And finally I’ve included this as I used the word motley the other day and didn’t mention the crue at all. On this day in 1997 a Motley Crue fan who claimed his hearing had been irreparably damaged after a show in New Jersey had his lawsuit thrown out of court. The judge told Clifford Goldberg (aka Chris Allen? Well you never know!) ,who was sat near the front of the stage that he knew what risk he was taking. Presumably Clifford said “Wot?” In the meantime here are the boys with “Smoking In The Boys Room” Is that headmaster scary or what? “Wot?” oh shut up Clifford I’m not talking to you!

The boys had looked forward to Halloween all year long. "Wot?" said Clifford

The boys had looked forward to Halloween all year long. "Wot?" said Clifford

 

“We don’t care about no government warning” February 28, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 8:03 am
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hello everybody, well I have some interesting news on our recent ‘Lily Allen Naked’ experiment. As you may recall we were trying to see whether anyone would arrive at the blog using ‘Lily Allen Naked’ as a search term. It seems that there are millions of sites allegedly offering pictures of Lily in the buff. So the experiment didn’t work, but strangely enough, there was a search term used Thursday which led someone to my blog. Don’t worry guys it doesn’t tell me who it was but I’ll guess it was Tom or Jes. The search term was ‘Chris Allen naked’ Does anyone know who Chris Allen is? I certainly don’t, there are plenty of Chris Allens that show up when you Google the name but I don’t know which one someone wanted to see naked. So any insights from you dear readers will be much appreciated.

Anyway if you have arrived at this blog with a desperate desire to view the talented Miss Allen naked, just so you’re not too disappointed here is Lily…….errr…… in the pink!

we'll drink a drink a drink to Lily in pink in pink in pink!

we'll drink a drink a drink to Lily in pink in pink in pink!

And as a special bonus here is Lily with “The Fear“. Check out her new album too, it is rather good!

Another piece of hot news (well perhaps just lukewarm by the time that you read it) Damon Albarn has confirmed that Blur will be headlining one night at Glastonbury this year. I’ve seen them live twice and they were great both times although so much better with Graham Coxon. It’s great to see Mr C back in the fold.

Graham really hoped the photoshoot would be over soon, he was busting for a pee.

Graham really hoped the photoshoot would be over soon, he was busting for a pee.

Anyway lets’ get back to todays trivia megamix starting with the birthdays. First of those is Cindy Wilson from the B-52’s who was born on 28th February 1957 and is 52 today. Cindy was born in Athens, Georgia in the US, this fact fans is also where REM came from. Cindy’s older brother Ricky is also in the band. I guess most people assume that the band named themselves after the B-52 bomber (like U2 naming themselves after the U2 spy plane). However this is not the case, B-52 was also the nickname in the southern states for the ‘Beehive‘ hairdo and Cindy and Kate Pierson of the band sported that style of hair. But I suppose as the hairstyle is named after the nose of the plane they were indirectly named after the plane after all! Incidentally the bands hairstylist La-Verne was even among the credits on their first eponymously titled first album in 1979. Cindy left the band in 1992 (although she rejoined in 1998) and for their US tour that year was replaced by Julee Cruise (whose biggest hit was the theme to the stupendous ‘Twin Peaks’ TV series from David Lynch). Although somewhat strangely for a one off fundraiser for the Democrat presidential candidate Jerry Brown Cindy’s place was taken by Kim Basinger. As a reminder of just how good they were (indeed still are) here are the B-52’s with “Rock Lobster”

Cindy and Kate thought they'd been stung by their hairdresser, $50 and nowhere near as high as Marge Simpsons hair

Cindy and Kate thought they'd been stung by their hairdresser, $50 and nowhere near as high as Marge Simpsons hair

The last of the birthdays is that of King Monkey Ian Brown, former front man of the Stone Roses and now a very talented solo star. Ian is 46 today. He is just a few months younger than Roses guitarist John Squire and they were brought up just a couple of doors apart and went to Altrincham Grammar School together. They had been called ‘English Rose’ after a track on the Jam’s ‘Setting Sons’ album. They were booked for some Swedish gigs after Brown befriended a Swedish promoter while hitching around Europe and wanted a new name. Apparently they considered the name ‘Angry Young Teddy Bears’ before settling on the ‘Stone Roses’ a combination of their previous name and part of the name of one of their favourite bands the Rolling Stones. Somehow I don’t think their acclaimed status would have been the same had they adopted the ‘Angry Young Teddy Bears’ moniker. What do you think? While you’re pondering that one here are the boys with “I Wanna Be Adored”

The Angry Young Teddy Bears all received Painting By Numbers sets that Christmas. What a load of Pollocks!

The Angry Young Teddy Bears all received Painting By Numbers sets that Christmas. What a load of Pollocks!

On this day in 1968 Frankie Lymon was found dead at his mothers house of a suspected drugs overdose. He was just 25. As the lead singer with ‘Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers’ he became the youngest UK chart topper in 1957 aged just 13, when they reached the summit “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” He then became the youngest headliner at the London Palladium in 1958 aged just 14 while promoting their UK hit (which I believe failed to chart in the US) “I’m Not A Juvenile Delinquent“. Frankie retained the youngest UK chart topper record until 1972 when ‘Little’ Jimmy Osmond went to number one with the dreadful “Long Haired Lover From Liverpool” aged 9.

Frankie and the boys were looking forward to their appearance on Sesame Street to teach everyone about the letter 'T'

Frankie and the boys were looking forward to their appearance on Sesame Street to teach everyone about the letter 'T'

On this day in 1970 Led Zeppelin played a gig as the Nobs in Copenhagen after Eva Von Zeppelin, a relative of the Airship designer Ferdinand Von Zeppelin threatened to sue if the family name was used in Denmark. Later that same year Led Zep were voted Best Group in the New Musical Express (NME) readers poll, which broke a run of eight successive wins for the Beatles.

the hotel hairdryer was never strong enough for those Led boys

the hotel hairdryer was never strong enough for those Led boys

This day in 1998 saw ‘Cornershop’ sitting at the top of the UK singles chart with the excellent ‘Fatboy Slim’ remix of their superb song “Brimful Of Asha“. the Fatboy loved the song so much that he did the remix for free. The Asha in the song’s title is Asha Bhosle a Bollywood Playback singer. Indian films have relied heavily on song-and-dance numbers attributable to Broadway musicals. Almost always, the singing was performed by background singers while the actors and actresses mimed. Bhosle has sung more than 12.000 of these songs. Two other Playback singers, Lata Mangeshkar (Asha Bhosle’s sister) and Mohammed Rafi are also name-checked in the lyrics.

Once again Tjinder had fallen asleep at the mic

Once again Tjinder had fallen asleep at the mic

The next two aren’t strictly ‘onthisdays’ for February 28th, but it’s not a leap year so here are a couple from 29th February. Firstly on 29th February 1980 the glasses that Buddy Holly had been wearing when he died were discovered in a police file in Iowa where they had been for 21 years. The Beatles name is in part an homage to Buddy Holly and the Crickets and in one of lifes full circles Paul McCartney now owns the publishing rights to Buddy’s song catalogue.

The Invisible Man felt stupid for getting himself stuck in the Hall of Mirrors at the Fun Fair

The Invisible Man felt stupid for getting himself stuck in the Hall of Mirrors at the Fun Fair

Also on 29th February 2000 Eric Clapton received a 6 month driving ban in the UK for driving at 45mph in a 30 mph zone. So not such much of a slowhand after all are you Mr C? What’s your favourite Clapton song? This is mine, it’s “Layla” from his days as Derek and the Dominoes, although I really don’t like the unplugged version of it. Contrary to popular belief the signature guitar riff on that song came from Duane Allman and not Mr Clapton.

Eric was pleased that he had a friend like JJ to help him get to his gigs while he was banned from driving

Eric was pleased that he had a friend like JJ to help him get to his gigs while he was banned from driving

So dear reader if you have read this far, you have reached the end of todays post and I salute you! 🙂

 

“It’s 8:15 and that’s the time that it’s always been” February 27, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 9:43 am
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Another week gone already here we are at Friday again, I hope that you liked the Free Banking Bonus Post yesterday. If you haven’t read it you’ll find it just below this one.

A big thank you too for all the views and comments (Mickelodeon, Marcy and Catwoman) on my “Bank Robber” post yesterday. I’ve followed up with a further “Bank Robber….too” post which you will find below this one and a poll to choose the banking anthem. Get voting people

So without further fuss and stuff it’s on with the motley, not crue just the motley ok!

Let’s start with a couple of birthdays. Firstly Paul Humphreys from Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD) is 49 today (27th February 2009). I liked OMD a lot when they first came on the scene, so did the NME, they had a weekly anagram of the bands full name running for quite a few weeks which was often good for a chuckle. Does anyone else remember that or are they the only sad anorak? My favourite song by the band is “Enola Gay” and yes it is one of the 50 songs in my top ten! But did you know what the song is about? Well Enola Gay was the name of the plane that dropped the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945. The bomb itself was nicknamed ‘Little Boy’ hence the lyric ‘ is mother proud of little boy today’. But for me the scariest lyric in the song is ‘this kiss you give, is never ever gonna fade away’ So here is OMD’s “Enola Gay” Is that anyone else’s favourite?

The OMD boys in their audition for the 'Men In Black' movie

The OMD boys in their audition for the 'Men In Black' movie

The second and final of our birthdays today is that of Rozanda “Chilli” Thomas one of the singers with all girl R & B combo TLC. she is 38 today. Along with “Chilli” the group also included Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez. Sadly “Left Eye” was killed in a car accident in Honduras just before the release of their third album in 2002. You clearly had to have a nickname to join the group and let’s face it they are way better than Scary, Sporty, Baby, Posh and Ginger aren’t they? Talking of nicknames, there was unusually for me a point to it, do you know where the TLC name came from? Tender Loving Care? Nope. Totally Lousy Crap? Definitely not. T-Boz Left-Eye Chilli. yep that’s the one, the name comes from the first initial of each of the girls nicknames. All the girls sang within the group and “Chilli” also did their choreography too. Here are the girls withe rather jolly tuneage entitled “No Scrubs”

After another early start the girls had once again had to get dressed in the dark

After another early start the girls had once again had to get dressed in the dark

On this day today in 1964 a 21 year old former hairdresser and cloakroom attendant at Liverpool’s famous Cavern Club was number one in the UK charts. Her name was (and indeed still is) Cilla Black and the song was her version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “Anyone Who Had A Heart” which had previously been recorded by Dionne Warwicke (who for those fact fans out there is Whitney Houston’s Aunt). The week that Cilla was number one was also the first time in UK chart history that the top ten had featured exclusively UK acts

Cilla was a little worried that her red flower was too discreet to enable her 'Blind date' to identify her

Cilla was a little worried that her red flower was too discreet to enable her 'Blind date' to identify her

On this day in 1967 Pink Floyd recorded their classic single “Arnold Layne” This was back in the days when they released the odd single and also when the late great (those l’s and g’s are still hanging in there) and supremely talented Syd Barret was still a part of the Floyd. When EMI signed the group it is alleged that one of the record companies executives asked of the band “Which one of you is Pink?” I would have loved to have been there to hear the answer! Interestingly “Arnold Layne” covered the topic of transvestites and was banned by pirate station Radio London although, here’s the surprise, the BBC continued to play it. The song reached number 20 in the UK and it’s follow up, “See Emily Play” hit number 6. That song was to be their last single for 12 years in the UK. Come on who remembers what that 1979 song was? Answers in the comment box or a postcard if you prefer. I just have to add of course that David Bowie (yep another Bowie reference) did an brilliant cover of “See Emily Play” on his Pin Ups album of covers from 1973. He also recorded a great live version of “Arnold Layne” with David Gilmour a year or so ago. Click on the titale and tell me which version you prefer

no one knew that Pink Floyd had secretly been recording a psychadelic version of 'The Hokey Cokey' with Chas and Dave in an East End pub

no one knew that Pink Floyd had secretly been recording a psychadelic version of 'The Hokey Cokey' with Chas and Dave in an East End pub

And finally today there have been a couple of redheads mentioned; Ginger Spice, Cilla Black (not sure she’s a natural redhead though) and yesterdays banking bonus post included Mick Hucknall and Simply Red. So I thought it was about time I gave a plug to another (soon to be) famous red head, my son Luke. Yes this is another blatant plug for his band ‘Steal The Smile‘ check them out and tell me what you think of them, add them as a friend on MySpace too if you haven’t done so already, click their name for the link. here is their band logo 🙂

The Steal The Smile Logo

The Steal The Smile Logo

 

“My Daddy was a Bank Robber….too”

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 9:38 am
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Thank you for all you banking song suggestions following my original banking rant yesterday. In fact there were five new songs suggested by Marcy, Mickelodeon and Catwoman. I might have guessed that Catwoman’s would be from a musical. Anyway I will keep this one very short and I will end it with a poll including the five from yesterdays post and your suggestions. Get voting good people, obviously the bad people and anyone in the banking industry is also allowed to vote too. Personally I’m torn between the Clash and the O’Jays

 

“My Daddy was a Bankrobber” February 26, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:07 pm
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Welcome back dear readers, I thought I’d throw in a free bonus post for you today. I was just thinking about the latest published horror stories from the banking industry, notably that bunch of bwankers at RBS and I thought how about a list of top 5 songs relating to the banking industry;

So here is my view;

1 “BankRobber” – The Clash

2 “Loser” – Beck

3 “Stand And Deliver” – Adam & the Ants

4 “Take That To The Bank” – Shalamar

5 “Money’s Too Tight To Mention” – Simply Red

I can think of plenty more but I would love to know what songs you guys would include

Let’s think about it as well, these banking and finance companies run up some of the biggest debts in history and then come cap in hand to various governments for a bail out. Fair enough so far, I wouldn’t want to see hundreds of employees who toil honestly lose their jobs. But then the bank big wigs decide that they should be still allowed to take their enormous bonuses. The guy who got RBS into this position has a bigger pension that most can even dream of. Hold on a cotton pickin’ minute here, I’m a taxpayer that is MY damned money he and others are getting! OK some perspective if I committed benefit fraud to the tune of just a few hundred pounds I might well be spending some time in prison, oh I’m sure I could ask for a bonus but I would imagine the response I would get would be more painful and embarrassing than dropping the soap in the prison showers

OK rant over so let’s listen to the Fun Boy Three with “The Lunatics Have Taken Over The Asylum” and fade out for a while!

Let’s get some comments going I’d love to hear your ideas for songs related to the current state of the banking industry

 

“And you sip your Napoleon Brandy, but you never get your lips wet”

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 8:20 am
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Here we are again, my my doesn’t time fly? Probably not if it wants to take a suitcase on a Ryanair flight though!

Just to let you know I posted a brief update about the NME Shockwaves Awards last night. Want to know who won what? Well just read the post below this one 🙂

In other music news President Obama presented Stevie Wonder with the Library Of Congress Gershwin prize for services to music. This is presumably for all the fantastic work he has produced in his lifetime, well with the exception of “I Just Called To say I Love You” perhaps. Well done Stevie!

Anyway normal service will now be resumed with todays birthdays. February 26th 2009 is the 81st birthday of Fats Domino. Wouldn’t his name make a great meal name for a pizza for Dominos Pizza – The Fats Domino deep crust with lard, butter, chips, deep fried Mars Bars, pork scratchings and blueberries. Do you like the sound of that one? Incidentally can you guess where Mr Domino actually got his name from? Yep you’re right, his size. He wasn’t obese by any means and certainly not by todays standards. He weighed 224lbs (that’s 16 stone in English!) in 1950, but he was only 5′ 5″. His first hit was a song called “the Fat Man” which was effectively a song called “Junkers Blues” with new lyrics by Fats himself. He is perhaps remembered by most people for the classic “Blueberry Hill”, how many times have I sung that in the shower! I also loved the way Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard’s character in ‘Happy Days’ used to sing the refrain whenever he thought he was onto a good thing with a member of the fairer sex. Fats was at one time believed to have been one of the many who perished as a result of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. To the extent that graffiti reading RIP FATS was painted onto his home. He was later found to be alive and well. So to celebrate his birthday here is Fats with “Blueberry Hill”

Fats really wanted some help to push the piano off the stage at the end of his set

Fats really wanted some help to push the piano off the stage at the end of his set

The second of todays birthdays is that of the late great (those l’s and g’s are just ever present!) Johnny Cash he would have been 77 today had he not died in September 2003. After graduating from High School he worked for a short time in a car plant before enlisting with the US Airforce. He was stationed in Germany which is where he learnt to play guitar and write songs. He even formed a group with some fellow servicemen called the Landsberg Barbarians. His first published song “Hey Porter” was published in the US forces journal the ‘Stars and Stripes’ in the early 50’s. Early in his career he claimed that his ancestry was from the Cherokee nation, it turned out that this was not strictly true and his roots can apparently be traced back to 17th century Scotland. I’m half Scottish, perhaps we’re related, but I doubt it because I never have any cash! I acquired a taste for the music quite late on really, largely because my Mum and Dad loved him, so it wasn’t cool for me to like him as a teenager. But I absolutely love the stuff he did with Rick Rubin in the years before his death. So from that period here he is with the excellent cover of the Trent Reznor song “Hurt” This song makes me cry almost every time, OK so I’m a wuss, I can live with that!

Johnny was desperate to figure out how to lengthen his guitar strap

Johnny was desperate to figure out how to lengthen his guitar strap

The final birthday for today is that of Sandie Shaw, she is 62 today. I wonder if anyone will buy her some shoes for her birthday? Her real name is Sandra Goodrich and she used to work as an IBM machine operator in Dagenham, Essex in the UK before she found fame. She spent most of her early singing career singing in bare feet, she didn’t necessarily choose this option, but her manager Eve Taylor (who also used to manage Adam Faith) felt it would be an excellent gimmick that the press would pick up on, and that they certainly did! She was the first UK winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1967 with “Puppet On A String”. The following year she celebrated her 21st birthday with a party in the Madame Tussauds Chamber Of Horrors in London. I’m not sure if that is where she found him, but in March of that year she married fashion designer Jeff Banks. She spent quite a long while away from the limelight before a barnstorming return with an excellent cover of the Smiths “Hand In Glove” in 1984. Morrissey was a lifelong fan and had always wanted to work with her. So for Mozzer it was truly mission accomplished!

Sandie wanted everyone to leaf her alone

Sandie wanted everyone to leaf her alone

On this day in 1969 Peter Sarstedt was at number one with his classic song “Where Do You Go To My Lovely” The song was a joint winner of the Ivor Novello award in 1969 along with David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” (at long last another Bowie reference!). His two brothers also had hit songs. His older brother Richard had a big hit with “Well I Ask You” as Eden Kane in 1961 and his younger brother Robin had a hit in 1976 with “My Resistance Is Low” Here is Peter with his classic “Where Do You Go To My Lovely” watch out for the intro too, I think that is Simon Dee. Does anyone know what happened to him?

Peter wondered whether anyone else could see the caterpillar that had found it's way onto his top lip

Peter wondered whether anyone else could see the caterpillar that had found it's way onto his top lip

And finally on this day in 1997 songwriter Ben Raleigh died after setting fire to his bathrobe while cooking. He should have just ordered a Fats Domino Deep Pan from Dominos! He wrote many songs including “Tell Laura I Love Her” and one that I’m sure most of you know whatever age you are, “The Scooby Doo Theme” come on grab yourself a scooby snack and sing along!

All together now...... Scooby Dooby Doo Wher e Are You.....

All together now...... Scooby Dooby Doo Wher e Are You.....

 

NME Shockwaves Awards special!

Filed under: Review — justwilliam1959 @ 12:11 am
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As many of you know tonight saw the music fraternity out once again for an annual awards/ lovefest. This time the NME Shockwaves Awards, mostly seen as a good alternative to the Brits and indeed often called the Brats. It has been argued by some that the NME awards have become too commercial these days. never as commercial as the Brits though, surely?

Anyway the results for tonight are

Godlike Genius Award goes to the Cure, but then we all knew that didn’t we? seeing as how it was announced weeks ago. There is a great free CD of Cure covers with this weeks NME

Outstanding Contribution to Music goes to Mercury Award and Brit winners, the fabulous Elbow. Oasis won Best British Band, no real surprise there, but to me they sound a little old and tired these days, especially on the new single “Falling Down” what do you think?
Noel Gallagher also won best blog, hey I’m going for that next year 😉

The magnificent Muse won Best Live Band and also Best Album Artwork for their excellent live album “HAARP” Have you heard it? On top of those two awards Matt Bellamy also won the sexiest man award. I love the band but Matt doesn’t really do it for me in that way, but then again I’m straight. Ladies (and gay men) was Matt Bellamy a good choice for sexiest man?

MGMT won two awards; Best New Band and Best Track for “Time To Pretend” I saw them supporting Radiohead last summer and they were bloody good

Alex Turner was the recipient of two awards; Best DVD for the “Arctic Monkeys Live At The Apollo” and Best Video for The Last Shadow Puppets “My Mistakes Were Made For You” However he did lose out in the Best Dressed award to his girlfriend Alexa Chung

Even those nice boys the Jonas Brothers won two awards, mind you those were Worst Album (“A Little Bit Longer”) and Worst Band

Barack Obama rather unsurprisingly won Hero Of The Year, now that is one I certainly agree with.

His predecessor in the White House George W Bush also won a well deserved award, for the 6th year in a row too, the Villain Of The Year. I wonder who it will go to next year now that Dubya won’t be around?

The Killers deservedly won Best International Band with fellow countrymen the Kings Of Leon getting the Best Album gong for the superb “Only By The Night”

Hayley Williams from Paramore won the Sexiest Woman prize and yes I can agree with that. Another woman, Amy Winehouse won the Worst Dressed award. Was she really that bad?

One of Amy’s buddies, Mr Pete Doherty won Best Solo Artist, well do forgive me but has he done that much from a solo point of view yet?

Best Dancefloor Filler was the rather good “Dance Wiv Me” by Dizzee Rascal and Calvin Harris

The rest of the awards were; Best Live Event – Glastonbury, Best TV Show – The Mighty Boosh, Best Website – youtube.com (well at least that proves the vote wasn’t rigged otherwise it would have gone to nme.com!)
, Best Venue – London Astoria and lastly the Philip Hall Radar Award – The Big Pink

Check out the pictures and post awards party news at the NME

 

“I wanna say, I wanna tell you, about the young ideas, but you turn them into fears” February 25, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 10:14 am
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Hello again folks, well it looks like the ‘Lily Allen Naked’ experiment didn’t work. There were twice as many views yesterday than normal, but most of these were views of the gig review I posted in addition to yesterdays usual post. So I guess that means gig reviews and fart jokes can impact the views on this blog but the suggestion of a picture of Lily Allen naked can’t. So does that conclude the ‘Lily Allen naked’ experiment? Maybe it does except to say that we might possibly go for a ‘Lily Allen naked experiment at a future date. Although the fact that this paragraph now contains the phrase ‘Lily Allen naked’ five times might make a difference for today. Confused? I’m not surprised!

So on with the show, kicking off with a couple of birthdays. First up for February 25th is that it would have been the 66th birthday of the late great (still there aren’t they those old l’s and g’s) George Harrison the youngest of the Fab Four. Sadly though he succumbed to cancer on 29th November 2001. George wasn’t the first Beatle to release solo material, that was Paul McCartney, however George was the first to release an album on the Beatles Apple label with “Wonderwall Music” the soundtrack to the film ‘Wonderwall’. This also went on to become the title of one of the top Beatles tribute bands Oasis’ songs “Wonderwall”. If anyone has any idea what a Wonderwall is please send your answers on a postcard, or more preferably in the blog comments facility. There may even be a small prize available for the best answer! George was also the first Beatle to have a solo number one with “My Sweet Lord”. The story of the plagiarism legal battle he faced from the writers of the Chiffons “He’s So Fine” over “My Sweet Lord” is well documented so I won’t dwell on that here. However a little known fact about the song is that Harrison originally gave it to Billy Preston and in fact it was lined up as a potential single for Mr Preston. Seen as a more ‘junior’ writer within the Beatles Harrison had also originally given the wonderful “Something” to Joe Cocker before the moptops recorded it for the Abbey Road album.

George wondered how long it would be before John and Paul would let him play with a big boys guitar

George wondered how long it would be before John and Paul would let him play with a big boys guitar

Incidentally “Something” was written about George’s wife Patti who later went on to marry his friend Eric Clapton. Clapton wrote both “Layla” and “Wonderful Tonight” for Patti. This must make her the only person to have so many classic songs written especially for her surely? In spite of the fact that Patti left George for Eric the guys stayed great friends right up to Harrisons death.

In the 60s George really took Flower Power to extremes

In the 60s George really took Flower Power to extremes

In 1974 Harrison set up his own label ‘Dark Horse’ it’s first signings were Ravi Shankar and the band ‘Splinter’. Apart from Harrison himself the only act to have a hit on ‘Dark Horse’ were Splinter who charted with the song “Costafine Town“. Have a listen to it, I think it’s aged quite well, what do you think? George produced two Splinter albums under the not well disguised name Hari Georgeson. This became the name that the NME used for him throughout the 70s too

George soon realised that what he thought was just a frog in the throat was in fact far more serious

George soon realised that what he thought was just a frog in the throat was in fact far more serious

Here is George with the criminally underplayed “When We Was Fab”

The last of todays birthdays is that of Stuart “Woody” Wood of the Bay City Rollers, it’s his 52nd birthday. The band had been around for a while before Stuart joined in January 1973, the same time as lead singer Les McKeown joined the group. The band’s rise to the heights of ‘Rollermania’ began in 1974 with “Remember (Sha La La)” and peaked in the UK in 1975 with their two number ones “Bye Bye Baby” and “Give A Little Love”. They also hit the top spot in January 1976 in the US with “Saturday Night”. Most of their sings were either covers or written for them by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter, however in December 1975 they had a hit with “Money Honey” which was written by Stuart Wood and fellow Roller Eric Faulkner

Woody was sure he had requested a mirrored ceiling, but decided he'd have to put up with a mirrored floor instead

Woody was sure he had requested a mirrored ceiling, but decided he'd have to put up with a mirrored floor instead

On this day in 1963 saw the first release of a Beatles single in the USA when “Please, Please Me” was issued on the Vee Jay label. I would imagine that a copy of this single might be quite valuable, largely because the name of the band was spelled wrong as the Beattles. The boys went on to capture all the top 5 places in the US singles chart for one week in 1964

How things might have looked if the Beatles had arrived in a more modern age

How things might have looked if the Beatles had arrived in a more modern age

And (almost) finally for today the Jam signed a £6,000 contract with Polydor Records.The band (Paul Weller, Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler) came together at school in Surrey and went on to play chart and r & b covers across pubs and working men clubs across Surrey and surrounding area. As punk began to break in 1976 they rode the wave like many others, but were never really a punk band in my opinion, a great band nonetheless. They started to get gigs at the Marquee and the 100 Club in London and in 1976 they auditioned for Terry Slater of EMI and were turned down. Perhaps not on the scale of Decca turning down the Beatles but still a big mistake. Their audition for Polydor’s Chris Parry came about after Chris was urged to see them by one Shane McGowan, then leading the ‘Nipple Erectors’ but later more well known as front man of the Pogues. They were a part of the Clash’s short lived ‘White Riot’ tour in 1976 but left following an argument with the headliners. It took them just 11 days to record their first album on which all the songs were written by Paul Weller who was just 19 at the time. Their first single was the album’s title track “In The City” Click the song title to see the band performing the song at the 100 Club in Oxford Street in 1977. Weller disbanded the group in 1982 to follow a new direction with the Style Council and then later to massive solo success. Breaking a great band up at the height of their success may have seemed like the wrong thing to do at the time, but it certainly never harmed Mr Weller’s career. Buckler and Foxton now tour as what in my opinion are little more than a tribute band ‘From The Jam’

Paul and Bruce practice for their advanced guitar Ninja exams

Paul and Bruce practice for their advanced guitar Ninja exams

Catwoman and I saw Paul Weller at the Manchester MEN Arena last year and he was fantastic, he even included a few Jam and Style Council songs in his set. If you haven’t heard his current album ‘22 Dreams‘ shame on you. Go and rectify that issue NOW! In the meantime click on the album title to hear a BBC4 sessions version of the title song

paul steadfastly refused to wear a red nose, even for Comic Relief!

paul steadfastly refused to wear a red nose, even for Comic Relief!

And finally finally, now I really mean finally this time! Here is probably the most infectious and annoying clip I have seen for ages, it’s a cat dancing to the “Peanut Butter, Jelly Song” just play it once and it will stick in your head for hours!