With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

“Everyone knows one and one makes two, I’m the one and the other one’s you” December 21, 2010


Sir Cliff laughs in the face of the recent cold snap by keeping his shirt open

After a mammoth Beatles Advent Calendar post yesterday, today, December 21st, brings you another person who has so far had three UK Christmas Number Ones. So let’s open that little cardboard flap and see who it is. You’ll firstly be taken back to Christmas 1960 when I was fast approaching the milestone of two years old. It was the first of Cliff Richard’s UK Christmas Number Ones and on this one he was backed by the Shadows, it is called “I Love You”. Cliff is the only act to have achieved UK Christmas Number ones in three separate decades. The other two were “Mistletoe And Wine” in 1988 and “Saviours Day” in 1990. Thankfully the awful, in my opinion anyway, Cliff’s “Millennium Prayer” didn’t make it to the top at Christmas 1999, however it did get to number one for two weeks and was deposed by Westlife, with “I Have A Dream/ Seasons In The Sun“. Of the two I’m really not sure which was the worst, but a 2004 VH1 poll registered “Millennium Prayer” as the worst number one ever. I presume that makes it officially a pile of number twos!

Sir Cliff prepares to celebrate his first UK Christmas Number One

After Hank and the boys moved on Cliff struggled to play his guitar parts on air guitar

Anyway onto the three songs that made it to that coveted UK Christmas Number One spot for Cliff. Firstly with “I Love You” backed by the Shadows in 1960. The song was written by Bruce Welch off of the Shadows and stayed at the top for just two weeks. John Lennon once said that ‘before Cliff and the Shadows there was nothing worth listening to in British Music’ Whilst Cliff went on to massive success without the Shadows, they too were a very successful band. Cliff has had a total of 14 UK number ones, sadly that record is now equalled by Westlife, which puts him and them just behind the Beatles on 17 and Elvis on 21. The Shadows had three number ones in their own right, including the fabulous “Apache” from 1960, and a further seven backing Cliff.

Sir Cliff's cunning plan to disguise himself as Santa wasn't a great success

Cliff waited 28 years for his next UK Christmas Number One which arrived in 1988, it was called “Mistletoe And Wine”, certainly not one of my favourites, but then, to each their own as they say! The song comes from a 1976 musical adaptation of Han’s Christian Andersen’s ‘The Little Match Girl‘. It was Cliff’s 99th UK single, which whether you like him or not is an astonishing record (no pun intended!) It was also his 12th UK number one and the biggest selling single of 1998, it spent 4 weeks at number one. Like many Christmas themed songs it often returns to the UK charts in December.

And there was me thinking that only Freddie Mercury could get away with clothes like that!

The third and so far final UK Christmas UK Number One from Cliff was “Saviours Day” in 1990. The video for the song was filmed in Dorset. It is one of only three UK Christmas Number Ones to remain at the top for just one week. An honour it shares with “Goodbye” from the Spice Girls in 1998 and “Killing In The Name” from Rage Against The Machine in 2009. At the time of writing Matt Cardle’s “When We Collide” has been at the chart summit for less than a week, but I expect that it will remain for a bit longer yet. I find it pretty sad that once again the X Factor gets the Christmas Number One slot. We must do better next year people, let’s make sure it doesn’t happen. We need another Rage Against The Machine moment, let’s start a Facebook campaign now!

Madonna, Amy Winehouse and Sir Cliff Richard in Lego..... a strange trio if you ask me!

 

“Try to see it my way, only time will tell if I am right or I am wrong” December 20, 2010


It’s December 20th and now we’re at day 20 of my UK Christmas Number Ones Advent Calendar posts. Behind the cardboard door today there is a real treat in store for you. We’re going back to the 60s to take a look at the only act to have had four Christmas number ones in the UK. It’s not Cliff Richard, he’s only had three, the Spice Girls also had three in a row in the 90s. But so far no one has matched the UK Christmas Number One success of this UK band. They had the UK Christmas Number One in 1963, 1964, 1965 and again in 1967. I’m sure you will not be too surprised to hear that I’m talking about the Beatles.

As a special pre-Christmas treat I will be giving you all four of their Christmas Number ones later in this post. The songs that made the Yuletide top spot for the Fab Four were; “I Want To Hold Your Hand” (1963), “I Feel Fine” (1964), “Day Tripper/ We Can Work It Out” (1965) and “Hello Goodbye” (1967). At Christmas 1963 the Beatles also held the number two spot with “She Loves You“. Their sequence was broken in 1966 by Tom Jones with “Green, Green Grass Of Home“. In Christmas 1963, 1964 and 1965 the Mop Tops stayed at the top of the charts for five weeks each year and in 1967 it was seven weeks.

“I Want To Hold Your Hand” was also the Beatles first US number one where it stayed for 7 weeks. It  was also at number four in the US on April 4th 1964 when the Beatles had the whole of the Top 5. Up until 1964 the Beatles hadn’t had massive success in the US and manager Brian Epstein suggested to John Lennon and Paul McCartney that they should write a song that would appeal in the US. “I Want To Hold Your Hand” was the result of that request. It was also the first song the band recorded using the new technology of four track recording.

The bands second UK Christmas Number One, “I Feel Fine” was their eighth UK single. In 1964 it was the first US number one in a sequence of six Beatles songs in a row. It displaced the Rolling Stones “Little Red Rooster” at the top of the UK charts, possibly preventing the Stones from achieving what would have been their only UK Christmas Number One. Apparently Paul McCartney has said that the drum sound on the song was inspired by the Ray Charles song “What I’d Say“.

The third of the Beatles UK Christmas Number Ones was a double-A  side, something the CD and download era has made pretty much redundant. The two songs remain classics, for the price of one 7 inch single you got “Day Tripper” and “We Can Work It Out”. The songs were recorded during the ‘Rubber Soul’ sessions and were hurried along in order to provide the band with a Christmas release. Apparently Brian Epstein felt that a lack of releases or a lack of visibility would bring an end to the band’s success. When deciding which song to release John Lennon argued strongly for “Day Tripper” while the Paul, George and Ringo went for “We Can Work It Out”, hence it became the first commercial double-A side release. Noel Gallagher off of Oasis has referred to “We Can Work It Out” as the song that defines the Beatles (with the Beatles obviously being the band that defined Oasis!)

The last of the Beatles UK Christmas Number Ones, “Hello Goodbye” was at the top during Christmas 1967. It was also a US number one. The band filmed three promotional clips for the song, which were never aired in the UK at the time because of the Musicians Union embargo on miming. In an interview at the time of the songs release, Paul McCartney was quoted as saying the following when explaining the meaning of the song; “The answer to everything is simple. It’s a song about everything and nothing. If you have black you have to have white. That’s the amazing thing about life”.

So now go ahead and enjoy the five songs that make up the Beatles four UK Christmas Number Ones and at the end there is a special Beatle Christmas treat for you all! Enjoy!

 

“Howling in shadows living in a lunar spell” December 14, 2010


Well there really isn’t a great deal to say about this fantastic album cover animation other than it is truly brilliant. It’s called Battle Of The Bands and it truly is a fight to the death!

If I have noted it correctly it contains album covers from all the following artists, if you see any I have missed just let me know!

Foreigner, Yazoo, Billy Joel, Shaun Cassidy, Violent Femmes, Rick James, Eminem, Joe Jackson, Beastie Boys, 50 Cent, Roxy Music, King Crimson, Scorpions, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Duran Duran, Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd, Coldplay, Rush, Boston, AC/ DC, Def Leppard, Replacements, Jane’s Addiction, Love And Rockets, Depeche Mode, Ozzy Osbourne, Weezer, B 52s, Dead Kennedys, Van Halen, Dio, Iron Maiden, Night Ranger, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, OMD, Nirvana, Asia, David Lee Roth, Black Flag, Cars, Michael Jackson, Beatles, Journey, Green Day, Hermans Hermits, Madness, Phil Collins, Lou Reed, Madonna, Tom Petty, Bob Seger, Lionel Richie, Devo, Jimi Hendrix, Quiet Riot and Metallica.

My favourites are Michael Jackson and Roxy Music, what are your favourites? Can you find the hidden Ozzy track?

 

“Free your mind of doubt and danger be for real don’t be a stranger” December 10, 2010


Into double figures now as we reach December 10th and after yesterdays advent door from my UK Christmas Number Ones Advent Calendar taking you back to Christmas 1958 today’s brings you much more up to date to Christmas 1996. This was the first of three Christmas number ones in a row for this band. A feat only previously achieved by the Beatles. Can you guess who it is? You really couldn’t get away from them in 96/97 as they loomed over the planet like a ten legged Godzilla pop monster, it’s the Spice Girls of course with “2 Become 1”. Yes it was Scary, Sporty, Baby, Ginger and Posh scored their third UK number one with this song and they went on to have a further six UK number ones. That figure equals the UK number ones of Abba, but is less than Westlife sadly!

They sold in the region of 80 million records in total and in 1998 earned just shy of £50 million. All of the girls went on to reach the top of the charts in their own right as solo acts, except of course for Posh Spice aka Victoria Beckham. The group actually co wrote the song along with Matt Rowe and Richard Stannard. The song reached number 4 in the US charts where they were also a phenomenal success and number one in Ireland. The Spice Girls also recorded a version of the song in Spanish, which presumably helped them get to number one in Spain with the song as well.

The video for the song is Victoria Beckham’s favourite of all the Spice Girls videos, watch it below

 

“Though I know I’ll never lose affection for people and things that went before” December 8, 2010


Today is December 8th 2010, the 30th anniversary of John Lennon. There will be millions more words written about him today, so I won’t add many to that. But I will give you a few Lennon covers, a cover from Lennon and a Beatles song. Enjoy these while you reflect on the life of a great man.

 

“But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao, you ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow” November 16, 2010


Clearly the new iPad would be difficult to carry, maybe it's the weight of all those Beatles songs

So at last the two big apples come together. The Beatles back catalogue are now all available on I Tunes. There was previously a lengthy trademark dispute between the Beatles Apple Corps and Steve Job’s Apple company. This was resolved a while ago and the gap between then and now was potentially down to EMI. That is certainly something that Paul McCartney hinted at. Steve Job was very happy with the deal and was quoted as saying that it had been “a long and winding road to get there” You can read the story by clicking here. Personally I have all the Fab Fours albums on CD so I am unlikely to buy anything of theirs from I Tunes. However it made me think that we ought to pick a Beatles song to beat this years X Factor song to the Christmas number one spot in the UK. Ideally “Revolution”, what do you folks think?

James Blunt holds his hand up and voila...... World War Three is prevented!

I would like to thank my good friend Nick Horslen for sending me this story. Apparently whilst he was in the army and stationed in Kosovo James Blunt prevented the start of World War Three. Does that explain why he went on to write such crap songs? I saw him on TV recently when he chaired ‘Never Mind The Buzzcocks‘ on BBC2, personally I thought he was devoid of humour although he was clearly trying. To be fair he was better than Jedward when they appeared on the show. You can read the Blunt Story on the Guardian website by clicking here. Incidentally I often wonder why he changed his name from Blount to something which rhymes with the ‘C’ word, do you?

Incidentally I love Weird Al Yankovic‘s take on Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” which is wonderfully retitled “You’re Pitiful” I always used to slip this into my mobile disco set when I played background music at weddings. It worked well as people couldn’t hear it perfectly well so thought James had changed the words!

A new band I came across recently are the Ambassadors Of Morocco who have a new single out called rather interestingly “Wikipedia” I can’t get the chorus out of my head and it will be on my I Pod tomorrow for certain!

Talking of a great and catchy chorus have you seen the video for the new My Chemical Romance song? I’ve never been a big fan of the band but this song and the accompanying video are brilliant and somewhat weird too.

let me finish this post on a roll, a Rick Roll. This is the metal version of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”. Not bad for the former tea boy at RCA. Does anyone know what he’s up to these days?

 

“Everybody wanting a piece of Michael Jackson” November 8, 2010


Accordion to our sources NATO stopped an Arcade Fire gig (I've been dying to use that joke for ages!)

Another selection of random news snippets for you all in this post. Firstly are Arcade Fire the only band ever to have a gig pulled by NATO? It would certainly seem that way after the NATO top brass and the Portuguese government have forced the cancellation of the band’s show during the weekend of 20th to 21st November. Apparently the gig clashed with the weekend of a NATO summit and it was felt that security forces would be stretched too thin by having to police a gig by the Canadians and 20,000 of their fans. The band have said they will come back at some time in the future. Read the story here in the Guardian.

The band quickly regretted their decision to defy NATO orders.

I've heard of throwing the baby out with the bath water, but not this! Clearly this followed an acrimonious meeting with the Fab Four about publishing rights!

There will be a ‘new’ Michael Jackson album released in December, it will be called ‘Michael’. It is believed that it contains a number of songs that Jacko had been working on in the few years preceding his death last year. It has been reported that all the songs have been ‘recently completed’, which clearly suggests that the self titled King Of Pop either had nothing to do with the completion or that he isn’t actually dead or maybe he is communicating from beyond the grave! It has been reported at various times that he had been working with many acts before he popped his clogs; including Lady Gaga, Akon and Will.i.am. The latter has been quoted as saying that to release any ‘new’ material in this way would be disrespectful. For a limited period you can hear a stream of one of the songs “Breaking News” by clicking the title. It sounds reasonable if not a little weird. The cover of the album has a typical over the top Jacko theme painted by Kadir Nelson. Read the story at the BBC and the Guardian.

Another typically understated Jacko picture

I recently chanced upon a JPEG file for a film poster of a starring role by none other than one of my all time favourite singers Mr Johnny Nash. He starred in the movie ‘Take A Giant Step‘ It was released in December 1959, when even I wasn’t quite one year old. I wonder if it’s available on DVD. So in a very gratuitous use of that opportunity here is that poster, followed by a clip of Mr Nash singing “I Can See Clearly Now” on Burt Sugarman’s Midnight Special.

Amy Winehouse has been recording again with Mark Ronson, they have been laying down three tracks for a Quincy Jones tribute album. One of them has been ‘leaked’, it’s a cover of Lesley Gore‘s “It’s My Party” which was produced by Quincy back in 1963. It’d be fair to say that the vocal is certainly different and I’m not sure yet whether it works for me or not! Read about it on the Guardian website and then check out the video below followed by the original. My favourite cover of the song was by Bryan Ferry off of Roxy Music for his first solo album ‘These Foolish Things’ back in 1973, click here to hear it.

 

“We would be warm below the storm, in our little hideaway beneath the waves” October 27, 2010


Of all the expected stars in this years football World Cup it was perhaps a rather unexpected and left field star that caught the attention of the world. Who was that? None other than score predictor extraordinaire, Paul The Octopus. I am sad to report that Paul passed away this week at the ripe old age of two and a half, which is apparently a good age for an octopus.

The conspiracy theorists are already at work in suggesting that the real Paul died just before the World Cup Final and an imposter has been in his place since then. The management of the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre in Germany have denied that there ever was a fake Paul. Fake or otherwise Paul certainly displayed far more talent than England, France and Italy combined!

Whilst he was a German resident, Paul was actually born in Weymouth in England. I’m sure he would have played with more pride in the England shirt than any of the World Cup squad did (or should that read World Cup Squid?). Perhaps he was in the process of signing for Manchester City, they seem to buy up anyone in football that is successful and gets a lot of press. With eight tentacles he would surely make a good goalkeeper

Read about his sad demise in the Guardian and the BBC.

Obviously with this being a music blog I can only really finish with one song can’t I? yes it’s “Octopus’s Garden” from the Beatles classic ‘Abbey Road‘ album. Although not the last album they released it was the last one they ever recorded.

 

“The Charts? Legit. Either work hard or you might as well quit” October 26, 2010


This post comes with a strong health warning attached, it contains some seriously CRAP songs!

Last month the AOL Radio Blog published their list of the 100 Worst Songs Ever, obviously this has caused a massive amount of debate. It is all based on opinion after all and there are definitely some entries I don’t agree with. Personally I would have liked to have seen many of Robbie Williams’ songs in there. Click here to see the whole list and if you can’t be bothered I have repeated the top 10 below. I would love to know what your worst songs ever are too? Use the comments function to let me and all the other readers know your choices.

1 “(It’s Time To) Beat Dat Beat” DJ Pauly D – I must confess until I came upon this list I had never heard of this song. Basically this guy seems to be a product of the ‘Jersey Shore’ TV show from the US. Well let’s face it, TV spin offs are often rubbish aren’t they and this is no exception, although I’m not sure it should be in the top ten, there are far worse songs out there. Just picture Anita Dobson singing “Anyone Can Fall In Love” to the Eastenders theme tune or Nick Berry (also off of Eastenders) with “Every Loser Wins“. I wonder what Brian May thought of Anita’s song?

2 “Who Let The Dogs Out?” Baha Men – I certainly agree with this one being in the list, I really dislike this song. Apparently when Victoria Beckham aka Posh Spice went into the players lounge at Old Trafford on one occasion when Goldenballs was still at Manchester United she and her entourage sang this to Jordan who was there because she was dating Andy Cole at the time. I’m not sure what Jordan responded with, but perhaps a mention of the fact that Posh Victoria is the only Spice Girl that has never had a solo number one in the UK would have been good!

3 “Ice Ice BabyVanilla Ice– So Ice always claimed that the bass line in this awful song was never ripped off from Bowie and Queen’s “Under Pressure”, does he think we’re stupid? This is the song which could have been the still birth of white rap, thankfully it wasn’t and Eminem rectified the crap that Vanilla Ice put out. Appropriately enough this was recently covered by the equally talentless X Factor pop muppets, Jedward and Vanilla Ice actually guested on it!That surely is some bad Karma isn’t it?

4 “She BangsRicky Martin – I don’t thing I really agree with this one being here. It’s not my favourite song, nor is it as good as “Living La Vida Loca” but it’s ok. Ricky came to prominence as part of a Puerto Rican Boy Band, Menudo. Their policy was to replace the boys in the band when one of the following event’s happened; 1) Their voice broke, 2) They became too tall or 3) they reached the age of 16. As far as I know Ricky is the only Menudo old boy to achieve such massive success.

5 “Barbie Girl” – Aqua – Does anyone like this song? It’s awful and frankly somewhat pervy in places too. Mattel, who own the rights to Barbie took Aqua and MCA Records to court claiming that the song infringed their copyright and turned Barbie into a sex object. The song’s lyrics refer to Barbie as a ‘blonde bimbo’. Mattel lost the case as the song was deemed to be a genuine parody. The song topped the chart in at least 13 countries worldwide and even made it into the US top 10.

6 “U Can’t Touch This” MC Hammer – Well if you can get past his ridiculous fashion sense with those voluminous trousers then this isn’t too bad is it? The song heavily samples from Rick James’ “Super Freak“. Hammer went on to become a preacher in the 90s.

7 “I Am Woman” – Helen Reddy – Reddy was born in 1941 in Australia. She says that she wrote this song because she felt that there were no songs that reflected what the women’s liberation movements were trying to achieve. It went on to become a massive success in 1972 reaching number 1 in the US Chart. It isn’t one of my favourites, but I fail to see how it ended up in this list. Actually I always loved her song “Angie Baby

8 “I’m Too Sexy” Right Said Fred – A formulaic disco song, sung by two shaven-headed/ bald well toned brothers; Richard and Fred Fairbrass. They had the classically stereotypical gay man look and I wonder whether this image was partly cultivated to broaden their market. This song smacks to me of being a classic one hit wonder. But strangely enough they went on to have quite a few hits, including a UK number one with “Deeply Dippy“. Meanwhile “I’m Too Sexy” actually reached number one in the US. The guys took their name from the Bernard Cribbins hit “Right Said Fred

9 “Ebony And Ivory” Paul McCartney & Stevie Wonder – Paul was never my favourite Beatle and I’ve always loved Stevie, so when I read about this before it’s release I was quite excited. But then I heard it. Let’s face it, it’s crap isn’t it? Should be filed along with McCartney’s “Frog Chorus – We All Stand Together” and Stevie Wonder’s “I Just Called To say I Love You” and these two songs are so bad I think that they are actually bettered by “Ebony And Ivory”

10 “Macarena” Los Del Rio – This is one of those songs that no matter how much you hate it, it gets into your head and you just can’t get rid of it. I really dislike this tune and the stupid dance that goes with it.

In the 70’s Kenny Everett hosted a UK Radio Show called “Kenny Everett’s World’s Worst Record Show” featuring many truly atrocious recordings including “This Pullover” Jess Conrad.

My own worst song ever tends to vary depending upon my mood, however I nearly always goe back to “Billy Don’t Be A Hero” by Paper Lace or “Agadoo” by Black Lace or even “Angels” by Robbie Williams.

 

“‘Cause Chelsea girls are the best in the world for company” October 24, 2010


This post is just a collection of things I have found on the net recently or of things that have been sent to me during the past few weeks. Kicking off with a dance master class from the Godfather Of Funk Mr James Brown. Click here to see it. Check out his robot dance……… totally awesome! Then watch the video below to see him in action on the Shindig TV show in 1965 with “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag

James thought to himself "Man that was some fart!"

Next up is an animated film that accompanied “Basketball Jones” from the mighty Cheech and Chong. I first saw this on the Old Grey Whistle Test in the mid 70s and I have loved it ever since. What do you folks think of it?

The new UK charts were revealed just a few hours ago and unsurprisingly the new Kings Of Leon album tops the album chart. There are also two entries in the top ten for the Beatles with the remastered reissues of the red and blue compilations from the 70s. Meanwhile the new UK number one single is what I probably have to describe as a guilty pleasure for me. It’s not something I would usually like it’s “Just The Way You Are (Amazing)” from Hawaiian singer Bruno Mars. The video does some really clever stuff with cassette tape.

Give me a 'P' please BOB

I would like to introduce an artist that is very new to me, her name is Clarita De Quiroz, (click here for her web site). I discovered thanks to a work colleague who has a friend who has recently written some songs for her. She is definitely worth checking out. She is very gorgeous and very talented….. a bit like me then 😉

Not many people realised that Carlita had started life as a showroom dummy

And finally a clip from the Mott The Hoople reunion gigs at Hammersmith last October. I so wanted to be there, but I couldn’t get tickets. This song is probably my favourite Hoople song, “Saturday Gigs“. It was their final single and the only one they released with the late, great Mick Ronson in the band.