With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

“The tyranny of distance, didn’t stop the cavalier” – Advent post day 6 December 6, 2013

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:22 am
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Are you excited yet? It’s less than three weeks to the big day where we all eat too much, drink too much and regret that over indulgence the next morning! But in the meantime I am rationing my chocolate intake to what is behind the pathetic little doors of my Spiderman advent calendar. I’ve said it before but why is all the chocolate shaped like Christmas things? How about some shaped like doctor Octopus, The green Goblin, the Lizard or even Spidey himself? Chocolate manufacturers please take note!

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az_2222_Becoming%20X_Sneaker%20PimpsAnyway it’s December 6th which means that todays songs will contain the number six. It’s an easy concept really isn’t it. The first song for today is “6 Underground” by Sneaker Pimps. The song comes from the Hartlepool bands album ‘Becoming X’. It was their first chart single when it reached number 15 in the UK when it was released in 1996. It was re-released the following year when it made the top ten at number 9. It also made it to number 45 in the US charts that year too. The song was used in the film ‘The Saint’ in 1997 which led to its reissue. The open melody on harp is a sample from the soundtrack of 1964’s James Bond movie ‘Goldfinger’. The band took their name from and article in the Beastie Boys ‘Grand Royal’ magazine. It was about a man who the Beasties used to tracked down classic box fresh trainers and sneakers.

split_enz_wideweb__470x340,0The second song for today comes from down under and it is New Zealand’s Split Enz with “Six Months In A Leaky Boat” taken from their album ‘Time And Tide‘. The song is about the time it took for early pioneers to sail from Europe to New Zealand and Australia. It was released in 1982 and because of the Falklands war it received hardly any airplay in the UK. The Powers That be felt that references to leaky boats in a time of naval conflict would be inappropriate, so it only managed to reach number 83 in the UK and an even more lowly 104 in the US charts. It fared better in Australia where it went to number 2. It also made it to number 7 in both New Zealand and Canada. The song was written by Tim Finn brother of Neil Finn who was also in Split Enz. the pair went on to form Crowded House. The tune has been covered by artists ranging from Marillion to the Wiggles.The band were originally called Split Ends but they changed to Split Enz before their first Australian tour to emphasise their New Zealand heritage with the nz in the name.

 

“I’m gone, beatin’ my chest like King Kong” – Advent post day5 December 5, 2013

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:35 am
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stock-vector-number-christmas-tree-decoration-part-of-a-full-set-vector-7696528Wow this December is flying past at a right old pace isn’t it. I have just ripped off the cardboard flap marked number 5 on my Spiderman advent calendar. Incidentally it’s a Spiderman advent calendar so why is there a chocolate teddy bear behind the door? Anyway along with this years blog advent calendar theme I have two great songs with the number five in the title for you today.

the-stranglers-5-minutesFirst up is the Stranglers with “5 Minutes”. It was the band’s fifth UK top 50 hit when it reached number 11 in 1978. The song was written by the band and sung by Jean-Jacques Burnel. It was produced my much-lauded UK producer Martin Rushent. The song is about a rape that took place in a flat he shared in the 70s. It conveys his feelings on discovering the five men who committed the attack and has both English and French lyrics. Burnel is a karate 6th Dan Black belt and heads up Shidokan UK. When the band first formed in 1974 they were known as Wanderlust and then became the Guildford Stranglers before finally becoming the Stranglers.

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The second song to offer you tremendous aural pleasure today comes from Luniz with their 1995 hit “I Got 5 On It”. The song made it to number 3 in the UK charts and number 8 in the USA. It was taken from their album ‘Operation Stackola’. The band were originally called Luni-Tunes and consisted of two key members; Yukmouth (born Jerold Ellis III) and Numskull (born Garrick Husbands). The meaning of the phrase ‘I Got 5 On It’ in the songs context is to go halfs with someone else on a $10 bag of dope. Anyone up for that? Where’s me Rizlas?

 

“Last night I told her this time it’s all over, making ten times I told her goodbye” – Advent post day 4 December 4, 2013

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 5:56 am
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www.topiarygarden.co.ukIt’s the 4th of December and time to open yet another door on my Advent Calendar musical extravaganza. As it is a songs with numbers in the title theme this year it is obviously number four today. I have two very different but excellent songs for you today.

661888First it’s the Boomtown Rats with “Mary Of The Fourth Form” or “Mary Of Year 10” as it would have to be called nowadays. The song was released in 1977 and became the band’s second hit. It reached number 15 in the UK and number 12 in Ireland. The band broke up in 1986 and reformed earlier this year with great success. Albeit without two of the original members; Gerry Cott and Johnnie Fingers. Singer Bob Geldof once wrote for the NME. The band also number a few famous people among their fans, including Jane Horrocks, J K Rowling, Jim Kerr off of Simple Minds and Courtney Love.

youngSecond song of the day today comes from the late, great country star Faron Young. It is a song that was originally released in 1971 it reached the number 3 spot in the UK the following year. It only made it to number 92 on the Billboard chart in the US. However it did become Faron’s first number one on the country music charts. A live clip of Faron Young singing the song was the first song to be played on the Country Music Television (CMT) cable channel when it was launched in 1983. The song has been covered by Tom Jones in the 1980s. It is also heavily referenced in the fabulous “Faron Young” from Prefab Sprout which was a UK single in 1985. Disappointingly it only made number 74 in the UK charts. The cat owned by Frieda in the Peanuts cartoon strip was named Faron as Charles Schultz admired the singer.

 

“Move to the flow of the pyramid blaster” – Advent post day 3 December 3, 2013

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 8:10 am
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Are you ready to open the next box on the advent calendar? What delightful chocolate awaits us? well none actually because this is the With Just A Hint Of Mayhem Advent Calendar blog post for 3rd December so instead of chocolate you’ll get two songs. Incidentally what advent calendar do you have at home? Does it contain sweets or chocolate? Mine is a Spiderman one and Catwoman, my lovely wife, has a Maltesers calendar.

Is Mr Richie wearing a Christmas jumper?

Is Mr Richie wearing a Christmas jumper?

The first of todays number themed songs is the Commodores smash hit from 1978, “Three Times A Lady”. The song which was written by Lionel Richie was a number one in the UK and the US. It comes from their album ‘Natural High’. Personally I preferred their more funky efforts and this song for me saw the band and indeed Mr Richie plunge into some bland identikit ballad territory. Songs such as “Still” and “Hello” just didn’t do it for me. I do love a good ballad though and the Commodores have some that are far better than “Three Times A Lady”. In particular “Just To Be Close To You”. “Three Times A Lady” has been covered by artists as diverse as Cobra Starship, Kenny Rogers, Conway Twitty and Bill Bailey. Bill included a German translation of the song in his Part Troll live show. I first saw the Commodores when they supported the Jackson 5 in 1972. Yes I really am that old!

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The second song on todays posts comes from one of my favourite acts of all time; the Kopyright Liberation Front, better known as the KLF and sometimes the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu or the JAMMs. This sadly short-lived band was the brainchild of Bill Drummond and Jim Cauty. Drummond co-founded Zoo Records and was also manager of Echo and the Bunnymen and the Teardrop Explodes. In addition to the music the KLF were also infamous for acts of art terrorism which included burning a million pounds on a remote Scottish island. The song I have chosen is the bands only UK number one as the KLF “3 a.m. Eternal (Live At The S.S.L)” from 1990. They also hit the UK number one spot in 1988 as the Timelords with “Doctorin’ The Tardis“. This was apparently achieved by following the rules set out in their book; ‘The Manual (How To Have A Number One The Easy Way)’. Remaining true to their words Cauty and Drummond by withdrawing their back catalogue from sale. This remains the case for most of the world, although some copies of their output are produced via Arista in the USA.

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“I just want to stop and thank you baby” December 8, 2011

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:02 am
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It’s December 8th and we’re at the letter H in this years ABC of Motown Christmas Advent calendar. Todays song is another Holland Dozier Holland classic, it’s “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)” from the supremely talented and sadly departed silky voiced Motown crooner Mr Marvin Gaye. As with the majority of Motown hits the music was provided by the Funk Brothers. Backing vocals were provided by the lesser known Andantes who appeared on more Motown hits than anyone except the Funk Brothers. Jackie Hicks, Marlene Barrow, and Louvain Demps were the ladies who made up the Andantes.

The song reached number 6 in the Billboard charts in the US and sadly only made number 49 in the UK when it came out in 1964. It has been covered by many people, perhaps most famously by James Taylor in 1975. That version reached number 5 in the US and included Carly Simon on backing vocals and David Sanborn on saxophone. Sanborn also provided sax on David Bowie’s “Young Americans” album in the same year.

 

“My tears could melt the snow” December 24, 2010

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 4:55 am
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Almost over for this year then, it’s the penultimate day of my UK Christmas Number Ones Advent Calendar, it’s December 24th, Christmas Eve. So as we are that close to the big day I have decided to take you back to the Christmas of 1974 and I hope you won’t be lonely at Christmas because todays song is from Mud and it’s “Lonely This Christmas”. It stayed at number one for 4 weeks. Like many of the big pop hits of the 70s it was written by Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman, whose publishing company was known as Chinnichap. A bit like a pre Jedward melding of names there methinks.

“Lonely This Christmas” was the second of their UK number ones following “Tiger Feet” earlier in 1974 and a cover of Buddy Holly’s “Oh Boy” in 1975. Singer Les Gray was well-known for his Elvis soundalike vocal, in fact at the time many people believed that “Lonely This Christmas” was by Elvis himself! Sadly Les Gray died of a heart attack in 2004. Drummer Dave Mount died in December 2006.

Of the two remaining band members bass guitarist Ray Stiles joined the Hollies. However lead guitarist Rob Davis has carved out a very successful career as a songwriter. He has written dance hits for Kylie Minogue and Spiller featuring Sophie Ellis Bextor. The latter hit the number one spot with a song that Davis co wrote, it was “Groovejet (If This Ain’t Love)” it also, thankfully, prevented Victoria Beckham from having a solo number one. She remains the only former Spice Girl never to have a solo number one.

 

“Say that you care, take these arms I give gladly” December 19, 2010

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 6:29 pm
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Are you getting excited about Christmas yet? I am just a little excited, but the lovely Catwoman is ecstatic and there’s still just under a week to go! Our Christmas tree is up and decorated now and we’ve officially opened Christmas in our house. So before it get’s too late it’s time to open another little cardboard door on my UK Christmas Number Ones Advent Calendar. It’s now 19th December so obviously it’s day 19 and today I really am taking you right back in time, to a Christmas that took place just over six years before even I was born. You would have first heard this song in 1952, it is “Here In My Heart” by Al Martino.

It was not only the first UK Christmas number one it was also the first ever UK number one single. The first UK charts were published on 14th November 1952 and Mr Martino was on top that day where it remained for 9 weeks. This also means that Al Martino was the only person to be at number one in the UK for 1952, no one else has ever achieved this feat and it is unlikely that anyone will. The song was also a US number one.

Al Martino as Johnny Fontane in the Godfather

Al Martino was named Jasper Cini by his parents when he was born in 1927, he died in 2009 aged 82. He went on to have many more hits in the US and was last seen in the UK charts in 1973 with a reissue of “Spanish Eyes“. I seem to remember that one being a staple of all hotel bands when I went on holiday to Spain with my parents when I was just a young lad. He also turned his hand to acting and appeared as Johnny Fontane in ‘The Godfather’ in 1972 a role he reprised in ‘The Godfather Part III‘. He also sang the them song for the movie “Speak Softly Love”

 

“Beelzebub has the devil put aside for me, for me, for me” December 18, 2010

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 8:15 am
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It seems like a long while ago that I posted my first UK Christmas Number Ones Advent Calendar post, but it’s not even three weeks. Today is December 18th which is obviously Day 18. That means that this time next week the jolly, fat, old, bearded bloke with a penchant for bright red suits will have been and apart from a few more days of turkey related meals Christmas will be over. But fear not, that still leaves room for 8 more Advent Calendar posts from me including todays. I can also promise you that there will actually be some Christmas songs coming up in a few days.

Mr Mercury had more royalty than the royal family!

Anyway behind the little perforated door today you will find a song that has been UK Christmas number one on two occasions. It has been at the top for a total of 14 weeks! Firstly in 1975 for 9 weeks and then again in 1991 for 5 weeks. Probably an easy one to guess (especially as the pictures above give it away just a little bit), it’s the magnificent “Bohemian Rhapsody” from Queen. On paper it’s a song that would surely never work. It consists of some ballad, some opera, some heavy rock, a classic guitar solo, great harmonies, some nonsense lyrics and probably the kitchen sink as well. So if it shouldn’t work on paper it sure as hell does work on record. Listening to it again for this post caused me to horripilate (thanks to dictionary.com‘s daily post yesterday for that one, it means to make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, well something like that anyway).

I don't believe that there is anyone else who could get away with some of the things Freddie wore on stage. Can you picture Westlife dressed like this? You Can? You need a cold shower and quick!

Whilst it spent a long while at the summit of the UK charts it only reached number 2 in the US and that was after a rerelease tied in with the ‘Wayne’s World’ movie in 1992. It originally went to number 9 in the US in 1976. The song was accompanied by what many consider to be the first ever pop video, some years before the birth of MTV. According to Brian May the band wrote most of their songs in the studio, but he says that this one was all in Freddie’s head beforehand. Mercury had wanted to record what he called a Mock Opera song. I presume this is some punning word play on the Rock Opera concept. When it was first a UK Christmas Number One in 1975 it was like nothing we had heard before. It’s second Christmas Number One appearance however was tinged with sadness as it came shortly after the death of Freddie Mercury in November 1991.

Not many people knew that Freddie actually quite liked pussy..................................................cats!

At just under 6 minutes it is also has one of the longest durations of UK number ones. This is probably the longest of all my Advent Calendar posts this year too, although that really wasn’t planned! The song has been covered by quite a range of acts, including; the Muppets, Pink, Rolf Harris (who also had a UK Christmas Number One himself with “Two Little Boys” in 1969), Flaming Lips and the Cast Of Glee. But the latter bunch cover anything and everything don’t they? You can see and hear all the above mentioned covers below after the original Queen version of the song and a medley of “Bohemian Rhapsody/ Radio GaGa” from their Live Aid set in 1985.

 

“Wonder if you’ll understand it’s just the touch of your hand, behind a closed door” December 17, 2010

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:06 am
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Just over a week to the big day now people, it’s December 17th so let’s open todays door on my UK Christmas Number Ones Advent Calendar. This one is a little softer than yesterdays. It’s a cover version of the classic Yazoo song “Only You” by the Flying Pickets. It was number one for Christmas 1983 and remained top dog for 5 weeks. The original was written by Vince Clarke while he was still a member of Depeche Mode. He allegedly offered the song to the band when he left and they declined. He then recorded it himself with superb vocalist Alison Moyet aka Alf when he formed Yazoo. The original version went to number 2 in the UK in 1982.

The Flying Pickets version was a cappella. That is nothing to do with Fabio Acappella who might be the England manager but it just means that they recorded the whole thing without instruments. Bloody tight gits! Incidentally they weren’t really tight gits, they were socialists though and in a bizarre twist none other than Margaret Thatcher claimed that the song was one of her favourites. This kind of echoes the current spat between Johnny Marr and David Cameron. Marr with the support of Morrissey has forbidden Cameron from liking any Smiths songs.

Arthur Scargill turns up at the Police gig but struggles to find Sting and the boys!

During the 1984 Miners Strikes the band performed at a number of benefits for striking miners. Their record company Virgin threw a bit of a hissy fit when the band took part in a protest at the Drax Power Station. Some record shops refused to stock anything by the band owing to their support for the miners. Bad move from the record shops if you ask me. Original singer Brian Hibbard went on to appear in Doctor Who and Coronation Street.

 

“And now you do what they told ya, now you’re under control” December 16, 2010

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:00 am
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Zack was now beginning to regret that pre gig curry

On December 16th you need to be a little careful when opening the cardboard door on my UK Christmas Number Ones Advent Calendar, this one may get a little loud! So let me take you way, way, way back through the sands of time to Christmas 2009. OK so I lied about the way, way, way back thing! Well we did it last year didn’t we? We stopped X Factor Muppet Joe McElderry from getting the Christmas number one. Thank you to everyone who bought Rage Against The Machine’s “Killing In The Name” last year. I’d like to think we can do the same this year, but at the moment it doesn’t look like it, Matt Cardle’s cover of a Biffy Clyro number is sadly way ahead of the competition on the midweek sales chart.

Rage get their tackle out to tackle the PMRC

The Biffy song Simon Cowell chose for the winner was “Many Of Horror” but presumably that title was a little too surreal for X Factor fans so they changed it to “When We Collide”. Anyway back to last year, thanks to an amazing Facebook campaign from Jon and Tracy Morter “Killing In The Name” reigned supreme at Christmas. It might have only stayed there for one week, but people we did it! Now all we need is another campaign to get rid of those useless tossers also know as the coalition government!

This is exactly how they started their set at Reading when I saw them a couple of yeasr back

When “Killing In The Name” was originally released back in 1993 it only manged to make it to number 25 in the UK. But last Christmas it was the first UK Christmas number one to make it on downloads alone. The uncensored version of the song contains the Anglo Saxon expletive ‘fuck’ 17 times. This has managed to get a few people into trouble at various times. In 1993 Radio 1 DJ Bruno Brookes played the uncensored version on the weekly chart countdown show. Then in 2008 the song was inadvertently played over the speakers at an Asda supermarket in Preston, obviously many people complained. For the record, I would not have complained!

In August 2008 in a strange twist the aforementioned Biffy Clyro performed an acoustic version of the song for Jo Whiley‘s Live Lounge live from the Reading Festival. The band obeyed the strict instructions not to use the word fuck as it was a live broadcast. However the crowd didn’t follow that request and could be heard filling the supposedly offensive lyrics in themselves. Poor Jo was forced to apologise to her listeners. I was there that year but sadly I missed that performance.