43 years ago on 4th April 1981 Bucks Fizz won the Eurovision Song Contest in Dublin for the UK with “Making Your Mind Up”. It was a great pop song and the skirt-pulling part of the performance was quite a sensation at the time
On 4th April 1964, the Beatles took over the US Billboard singles chart thanks to The USA hugely taking to Beatlemania. They held the top 5 places with “Please Please Me” (5), “I Want To Hold Your Hand” (4), “Roll Over Beethoven” (3), “Love Me Do” (2), and at number1 “Can’t Buy Me Love.” They also had another nine singles on the chart, bringing their total to fourteen on the Hot 100.
Back in 1970, also on 4th April, British Pub Rock stalwarts Brinsley Schwarz were earmarked for Stateside success, to achieve that their PR company flew 133 UK journalists to New York to see the band support Van Morrison at the Fillmore East, at the cost of £120,000. The event turned into a disaster. The group planned to leave a few days before the show to rehearse but were denied visas on a technicality, not drug convictions as some online stories suggest. They were finally given visas on the morning of the show and arrived just hours before the concert. The plane carrying the journalists was delayed after a mechanical fault, delaying the flight and when the journalists arrived In New York 18 hours later, they were all hung over. I can only assume that the PR company also paid the journalists’ bar tab. Brinsley Schwarz, according to most sources gave an underwhelming live performance, resulting in several poor reviews. Nick Lowe was perhaps the most successful member after the band’s eventual demise.
I had forgotten just how wonderful this song is 🙂
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This was a gig to kick off the launch of the new Soma Crew album ‘Confused OK’ which we reviewed here at Mayhem Towers a few days ago, click here to read it. But before I tell you about Soma Crew I have to speak about the two support acts. The first to take the stage was Pascallion. His guitar style was like Chet Atkins on a Hendrix trip with some Jeff Buckley thrown in. As for his songs, wow, imagine if a Thom Yorke demon had possessed Bob Dylan, that is how it sounded to me. Obviously, this just proves that sometimes demonic possession can be good, right? When Pascallion used prerecorded backing tracks (or were they samples) it was like Groove Armada attempting acoustic folk. This guy is very good!
Sewage Farm was next, they sounded like early Nirvana but leaned more towards garage than punk. There were some great hooks and melodies on display and some of these were quite Beatlesesque at times. There were occasions where they reminded me of ‘Monster’ period R.E.M. This band are three great musicians but I want to give a huge shout-out to the drummer he was stunning on the night. So based on this set, I can confirm that, at least musically, don’t stink! They probably don’t stink from a personal hygiene perspective either, but I didn’t get close enough to confirm.
Finally, it was time for the monumental, magnificent, magical, mesmerising, mighty musical powerhouse that is Soma Crew. This bunch is clearly one of the best bands to arise in York and their new album is, for me, possibly their best yet. Soma Crew is always a great live band and tonight was no exception. The new songs are superb on record but in a live setting, they blow up and rip the multiverse apart with more power than Thanos held in the Infinity Gauntlet. Frontman Si Micklethwaite tried to add another dimension to the show with white sheets and his white suit upon which some psychedelic, surreal, and epilepsy-inducing projections were played. Is this similar to those 1960s Pink Floyd Happenings? Incidentally, those projections worked perfectly on Si’s suit for most of the night. There were many highlights in this relatively long set, particularly from the new album. For me, the best moments were”Mirage” and “This Illusion” but the one that blew everything else out of the water was “Propaganda Now”. That really summoned up the spirit of Hawkwind. This has been one of the best gigs I have been to this year so far!
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Mike Walsh has a gorgeous new tune out. It is called “Take Time” and is introspective, emotional, haunting, ethereal, and has a gossamer sheen of beauty. The lyrics address that we need to be in the moment but also take time out sometimes to help ourselves to more balance, perhaps self-love. Mike is London-based but arrived via Madrid. This song is worth giving a spin, particularly if you love emotional music, I do!
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Past Life Romeo is the new solo project of Camila Djadja, a singer-songwriter who was formerly in the rock group Sugar Pills. She has also composed film soundtracks. The track “Drew A Heart <3” is the second single from her EP, ‘You Look Just Like Me’, scheduled for release in May. It is a haunting electronic song with some light Drum ‘n’ Bass touches. This tune wears its pop hat proudly and has an array of infectious hooks. Is it a song about unrequited love? Maybe, that is certainly my take on the song. But what a gorgeous single this is, from the music, to the voice, to the production, and some great lyrics. I particularly love “I get high while you come down listening to My Bloody Valentine“. You need this song, even if you don’t know you need it!
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Mayfire have never featured on WJAHOM before, well actually they have as they used to be called City Snakes. This is their third single using the new moniker and it is a proper banger, but also a song about yearning with a pinch of sadness. It has a Tom Petty and power pop feel to it. I particularly love the underlying heavy riffage and guitar solos which underpin the yearning soulful vocal. This band, one of the finest to emerge from York, is destined for much bigger things!
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On 2nd April 2013 BBC Radio 2 closed a series called The Golden Age Of The Album with a show that ran down the top 100 albums of all time as voted for by their listeners. Having read through the top 100 it looks like only one album per artist was allowed. But for me Coldplay coming top with ‘A Rush Of Blood To The Head’ shows how bland music had become, I am not a huge Coldplay fan, but in my opinion that isn’t even their best album. Keane’s ‘Hopes And Fears’ has some good songs but it is very middle of the road. As for Duran Duran’s ‘Rio’. where did that come from? It is an OK 80s album but by no means a classic. The usual suspects in these lists are all there Pink Floyd (4), Rolling Stones (6), The Beatles (8), Kate Bush (24), David Bowie (61) and many more. I suspect that the list probably said more about the age profile of Radio 2 listeners at the time. But David Bowie is included for ‘Let’s Dance’, come on the 80s was his artistic nadir wasn’t it? Dido’s ‘No Angel’ number 4, that is such a dull record, as is David Gray’s entry at number 67 with ‘White Ladder’. I know that many of these sold loads of copies, but do sales make a great record? Anyway, you might not agree with my thoughts and opinions, but I would love to hear yours. The full list is shown below.
1 Coldplay – A Rush Of Blood To The Head 2 Keane – Hopes & Fears 3 Duran Duran – Rio 4 Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon 5 Dido – No Angel 6 The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers 7 Pet Shop Boys – Actually 8 The Beatles – Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band 9 U2 – The Joshua Tree 10 Queen – A Night At The Opera 11 Fleetwood Mac – Rumours 12 Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin IV 13 The Police – Synchronicity 14 Madonna – True Blue 15 James Blunt – Back To Bedlam 16 Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run 17 Adele – 21 18 Oasis – Definitely Maybe 19 Simon & Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water 20 George Michael – Faith 21 Dire Straits – Brothers In Arms 22 Electric Light Orchestra – Out Of The Blue 23 Meat Loaf – Bat Out Of Hell 24 Kate Bush – The Kick Inside 25 Kylie Minogue – Fever 26 Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde 27 Michael Jackson – Thriller 28 Paul Simon – Graceland 29 Billy Joel – An Innocent Man 30 Kinks – The Kinks 31 Guns N Roses – Appetite For Destruction 32 Pulp – Different Class 33 The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds 34 Stevie Wonder – Songs In The Key of Life 35 Take That – Beautiful World 36 Blondie – Parallel Lines 37 ABBA – Arrival 38 Prince – Purple Rain 39 The Eagles – Hotel California 40 The Human League – Dare 41 Supertramp – Breakfast In America 42 R.E.M. – Automatic For The People 43 Wings – Band On The Run 44 Amy Winehouse – Back To Black 45 Joni Mitchell – Blue 46 Bon Jovi – Slippery When Wet 47 Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road 48 Robbie Williams – I’ve Been Expecting You 49 Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On 50 Neil Young – Harvest 51 Carole King – Tapestry 52 The Verve – Urban Hymns 53 Celine Dion – Falling Into You 54 The Who – Tommy 55 Donna Summer – Bad Girls 56 George Harrison – All Things Must Pass 57 Maroon 5 – Songs About Jane 58 Bob Marley & The Wailers – Exodus 59 Donald Fagen – The Nightfly 60 Gerry Rafferty – City To City 61 David Bowie – Let’s Dance 62 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Déjà Vu 63 Elvis Costello – My Aim Is True 64 Roxy Music – Flesh and Blood 65 Steely Dan – Can’t Buy A Thrill 66 Culture Club – Colour By Numbers 67 David Gray – White Ladder 68 Bryan Adams – Reckless 69 Neil Diamond – Beautiful Noise 70 Phil Collins – Face Value 71 Genesis – Invisible Touch 72 Barbra Streisand – Guilty 73 Frank Sinatra – Songs for Swingin’ Lovers! 74 Simply Red – Stars 75 Van Morrison – Avalon Sunset 76 Rod Stewart – Atlantic Crossing 77 Sade – Diamond Life 78 Buddy Holly & The Crickets – The Chirping Crickets 79 Whitney Houston – Whitney Houston 80 Michael Bublé – Crazy Love 81 Shania Twain – Come On Over 82 Emeli Sandé – Our Version Of Events 83 Elvis Presley – Moody Blue 84 Bee Gees – Spirits Having Flown 85 Eric Clapton – Slowhand 86 The Pretenders – The Pretenders 87 Eurythmics – Be Yourself Tonight 88 The Carpenters – A Song For You 89 John Lennon – Double Fantasy 90 Don McLean – American Pie 91 Chic – C’est Chic 92 Aretha Franklin – Lady Soul 93 Daryl Hall & John Oates – Private Eyes 94 Earth, Wind & Fire – I Am 95 The Doobie Brothers – Minute by Minute 96 Lionel Richie – Can’t Slow Down 97 Diana Ross – Diana 98 Paul McCartney – Pipes Of Peace 99 Dionne Warwick – Heartbreaker 100 Cee Lo Green – The Lady Killer
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York’s delightful psychedelic drone noiseniks Soma Crew release a new album ‘Confused OK’ on 3rd April. It is their fifth album and coincidentally the fifth time we have featured them on WJAHOM. The album will be available to purchase via Bandcamp on CD or preferred digital download. The album was written during the latter end of the pandemic and recorded last year. According to the band the album “addresses the turmoil in the caged conditions of lockdown, reflecting on recent years of political unrest, public mistrust and personal mental health“. If you read this before the evening of April 3rd you can catch the band at a launch gig for the album at the Fulford Arms in York. I will be there!
The album opens with “These Careless Lips” which seems to describe anxiety about and fear of those in power. It evokes the finest moments that the Velvet Underground left us with. “Tranquilizer” has a very dark feel and has an eerie almost demonic guitar riff. This track would be an excellent inclusion on the soundtrack of a great British psychological horror film. The reverb effects that underpin the song are phenomenal and the extended close is full-on psychedelic. I sense a cryptic element to “Mirage” is it about the forced confinement of lockdown, is it about oppression or is it about someone fighting with doubt and confusion? I think it covers all three and so much more. It has the usual Soma Crew righteous riffing but the stand out here is a driving hypnotic bass part from Chris Goodhead. If you put Television, Spiritualised and the Stooges in a blender and had the about record a song it might turn out to be “Let It Fall”. The song is about finding hope after deception for me and I love it! Like many of us I have experienced at least a small degree of mental health issues and “This Illusion” describes the way people with mental health are treated by physicians and those around them. This one has a bluesy dreamy (or maybe nightmarish) vibe. The line “there is only I that is me” says so much more than seven words ought to. The long fade is mesmerising and stays with you long after the track has finished.
Who knew that Soma Grew could take glam rock and turn it into an obsidian twisted music fantasy? Well, they have with the magnificent “Another Life”. On hearing “The Sheltering Sky” I wondered if this might be what Jim and William Reid might have sounded like had they ever had the chance to collaborate with Marc Bolan. The first single from the album is also the final track, “Propaganda Now” which is accompanied by a stunning video. This is probably the heaviest track on the album and it rocks like an absolute bastard. This is a tune that Hawkwind would be proud of. Lyrically it is my favourite track, and there is some tough competition. On their YouTube page, the band describes “Propaganda Now” as ” lyrically informed by an awareness of the increased discrepancy between fact and its interpretation through social media. Participation in the dispersion of information is unavoidable in contemporary society, and it is virtually impossible to be sure of the veracity of sources. Visual cues are taken from historical posters where images are used to persuade the viewer of a particular point of view. In these circumstances we are presented with a dichotomy, and our innate circumspection is smothered”. The band is firing on all cylinders and Si Micklethwaite’s vocal delivery is his best on the album. If you have not experienced Soma Crew yet, get this album, you will not be disappointed. I had a CD copy of the album for review and the gatefold sleeve, booklet and the CD itself showcase some beautiful art and concepts. The really wonderful old-school touch of including the lyrics in the booklet gets top marks from me. By all means, download or stream the album, but the CD version is something special to behold.
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Here is the Mayhem chart for March 2024. Regular readers know that the chart is based on my Spotify listening habits over the last month. The chart remains contemporary-ish, rather than just an oldies chart However, the top three “Legacy” artists are Kate Bush, David Bowie, and Steve Harley/ Cockney Rebel. David Bowie returns to the chart after missing out for three months. Obscurify also suggests the most obscure artists I have listened to and for March those are Liz Davinci, The Apocalypse Disco and The Chinaskis. There is a top ten artists chart and a top 5 songs chart. There is the usual eclectic mix of artists, including four that were in the top ten last month (Crawlers, Bambi Thug, Delilah Bon, and Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes). Four of the artists in the artist’s chart also appear in the song’s chart. Delilah Bon has been in the artist charts for four consecutive months and now she tops the song chart with the mighty “Maverick”. Drunk Mums crash straight to the top of the artist chart! So without further ado here are those charts in full! Click on the header of the song chart for the playlist on Spotify.
MAYHEM ARTIST CHART MARCH 2024
1 Drunk Mums 2 Caity Baser 3 James 4 Crawlers 5 Delilah Bon 6 SAHRA 7 Bambi Thug 8 Scene Queen 9 Mortimer Nyx 10 Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes
MAYHEM SONG CHART MARCH 2024
1 Maverick – Delilah Bon 2 Wailing Night – Mortimer Nyx 3 Life’s A Fucking Miracle – James 4 Finger – Scene Queen 5 Celestial – Dying Habit
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This is the 22nd song in the Play It Again Mayhem series, which began in 2020. Check out the previous entries along with this new one in the Play It Again Mayhem Spotify Playlist click here to take a listen! So far, 15 of the 22 songs are from the 1970s. But this one was released in 2001, so incredibly modern, right? The song is “Buck Rogers” by Feeder. It reached number 5 in the UK chart and went to the top of the Indie chart. The reason I have selected this one, apart from the fact that it is a great song that we don’t seem to hear very often, follows a recent conversation with my son Luke. We were in a restaurant and the song came on in the background. We both immediately identified it as Feeder but couldn’t remember the title. In my all-knowing wisdom and a brain full of music trivia, I said that the title is not in the lyrics and that the song was named after a car! How wrong was I with that? I certainly managed to send me and Luke down a rabbit hole looking for cars that might give a befitting title to such a great song. Luke was the first to find the true title and suggested that if I say anything with enough conviction it is, at least initially believable. Maybe I should go into politics, don’t worry I am not planning that! Anyway, this song was really chosen by me, my son, and Mr Rogers from the 25th Century!
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I haven’t actually counted for a while, but I believe that I own around 120 books about David Bowie. Thanks to Nicholas Royle I now own 121, or at least thereabouts. I was completely unaware that Royle’s book ‘David Bowie, Enid Blyton and the sun machine’ existed until I took a look at the schedule for the 2024 York Literature Festival and saw the title. As a Bowie fan, I therefore had to be there for Nicholas Royle’s session at York St. John University to talk about his new book on Tuesday 12th March. Royle, who is the Emeritus Professor (English) at Sussex University, opened the session by playing Bowie’s older song “Memory Of A Free Festival” as this was the song that provided part of the book title with its repeated refrain “The sun machine is coming down and we’re gonna have a party”. Then he read from the book. But the most interesting part was the interview with Nick by Dr. Sam Reese originally from Aotearoa New Zealand, and now a senior lecturer at the Centre for Writing at York St. John University. Reese asked some insightful questions about how the book came about and what it actually is. In essence, the book came about thanks to Covid, well at least that was probably the catalyst and it is largely a memoir, or is it? Anyway, that whole evening saw me buy the book and get Nick to sign my copy and now, while on holiday in Cornwall (I am not sure why I said that, is it even remotely relevant?) I have got around to reading it.
I think that my fear was that this would be a very academic and deep tome that I might find difficult to read. It is academic at times but Royle writes in a style that even a bloke with one English O Level from 1974 can read and devour easily. One of the first things that intrigued me was the title. How can you write about Blyton and Bowie in the same book? Sure they are both associated with Beckenham and were great artists in their own spheres. Well, what Royle focuses on is their ability to access the undermind or the subconscious mind or self. I think from this book it is clear that both Bowie and Blyton were able to work in their own undermind with natural and unknowing skill. The memoir thread of the book takes the reader through Royle’s personal experience of Covid and lockdowns and his reacquaintance with both Bowie who he kind of lost touch with in the 1980s, and Enid Blyton. The book is written as a series of “ghost lectures” from a university lecturer who has opted for voluntary severance. The lectures flow together beautifully and are all anchored with a specific piece of music or song. Mostly Bowie songs but also some classical pieces.
I have not read anything by Enid Blyton since I was in junior school, but I am encouraged to go back and reread some of my favourites. The Famous Five, which features strongly in Nicholas Royle’s book and my personal memories of loving the Secret Seven series. Some of the insights into Blyton are drawn from biographies and also her own autobiography and perhaps something that is personal to Nicholas Royle’s family. His paternal grandmother and artist and illustrator had an affair with Enid Blyton sometime in the 1920s. There are many things that I love about this book, perhaps the biggest thing is the continued discussion about what a sun machine is. Maybe a time machine, maybe a way that an idea dawns on an artist, or something that might be different for every artist. Do I have an undermind? I hope so. Can I access my undermind? I hope so. If you are a fan of David Bowie, Enid Blyton, or indeed sun machines you need to read this book. It is eye-opening. I loved it! And finally, I was going to put together a playlist of all the music used in the book, but someone on Spotify has already done that! Thank you tommymackay1959, click here to play it.
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