Bob Dylan | With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

“Hey little sister what have you done?” September 2, 2009

Hello once again dearest readers, this post is something of a news and catch up style post. Largely because apart from my Reading reports last weekend I haven’t posted much of late. So let’s start by clearing out my mail box folder that is titled ‘Blog Stuff’. So just be warned that you may have seen some of this stuff already, but I reckon it’s worth at least a second view anyway!

First up was the news from two weeks ago that Mr Robert Zimmerman (aka Bob Dylan) is to release a Christmas album this year. A number of commentators have suggested that this may damage his credibility. Somehow I don’t think so, many supposedly credible artists have recorded Christmas songs with no damage to their credibility. I mean how about the Dame’s (that’ll be Mr Bowie to the non regular readers) duet with Bing Crosby back in 1977 on “Peace On Earth/ Little Drummer Boy” Anyway the ‘DYLAN TO RELEASE CHRISTMAS ALBUM’ headline prompted the Independent newspaper in the UK to put together a top ten worst rock n roll career moves. It includes things like marrying your 13 year old cousin (Jerry Lee Lewis), showing your potential Nazi leanings (Clapton, Bowie et al), getting your non musical spouse/ girlfriend involved in your music a la John & Yoko, Paul & Linda, Pete & Kate, Pete & Jordan, er well ok the last one probably helped Peter Andre’s career really and that one isn’t in the article anyway, but I thought it was worth a mention. Anyway now you get the drift read the whole thing by clicking here. Incidentally Bowie’s supposed Nazi salute at Victoria Station on his return to London by train in 1976 was in my opinion just a wave, that looked just like a Nazi salute when captured in still photograph form. Why do I believe this you may ask? Well largely because I was there. I’m not usually the sad kind of fan who does things like that, but I only worked 5 minutes walk from Victoria at the time so I thought it was worth going, well that and the fact that I am a massive Bowie fan too!

Bob really got into the Christmas spirit by designing and using enormous candle shaped drumsticks.

Just about a week ago Living TV ran a report on the most expensive wedding singers, I have reprinted the top 12 and their prices below (the original source was in fact the New Zealand Herald);

1. The Rolling Stones – up to £5 million

2. Sir Elton John – up to £2 million

– Kylie Minogue – up to £2 million

4. Christina Aguilera – up to £1.5 million

5. George Michael – £1.3 million

6. Amy Winehouse – £1 million

– Sir Paul McCartney – £1 million

– Leona Lewis – £1 million

– Jennifer Lopez – £1 million

10. Barry Manilow – £750,000

11. Rod Stewart – £600,000

12. Duran Duran – £500,000

You could book me and my mobile disco for much less than any of those! I reckon that Gareth Gates and Leon Jackson would be up for paying you to appear at your nuptials celebration, what do you think? Why no Billy Idol? He could make some money by turning up at half a dozen weddings each weekend just to sing “White Wedding” at each one. Incidentally I found a wedding songs site, click here to check it out. Interestingly enough none of the above top 12 seem to feature much on any of the song lists, maybe that’s why they have stooped to playing weddings themselves methinks!

Back in my day the couple didn't get bare until the wedding night! Oh that's a different type of bare is it 🙂

Many of you will have seen the many different subtitled versions of the clip taken from a film about Hitlers last days in his bunker in Berlin. The first one I saw was Adolf talking about the Chelsea versus Manchester United Champions League Final in 2008. Now that was very good, but one which I think is even better is as usual the same clip of film, but this time Hitler learns that Michael Jackson has died and will be unable to perform at the Fuhrer’s birthday celebrations. Click here to see it and let me know what you think of it as well.

"hello mikey wikey it's adolfy wolfy here" - "why isn't he waving back? Am I too old for him or something?"

If you have read any of my posts from the Reading Festival will know from the anguished comments added by my good friend Nick H that we managed to miss the appearance of Them Crooked Vultures a band (although back in the day the moniker would have been supergroup) that has John Paul Jones off of Led Zeppelin, Dave Grohl off of the Foo Fighters and Josh Homme off of Queens Of The Stone Age amongst it’s membership! So for all the rest of you that may also have missed them here is a video from their appearance at the Brixton Academy just before the Reading and Leeds festivals. Click here to see it and take comfort in the knowledge that they will be touring in the UK later this year.

And finally for today let’s end with some sad news, it has been reported today that Charlie Watts has left the Rolling Stones, just three years before their 50th Anniversary. 68 year old Charlie took a massive amount of persuading largely from KeithRichards to take part in the last Stones Tour and it seems that with the possibility mooted by Mick Jagger of more Stones activity next year the oldest member of the band has decided to quit. Now that is BIG news, let’s face it though Noel leaving Oasis doesn’t even begin to compare does it?

So until the next time dear readers, ain’t it a shame that Charlie Watts won’t be appearing at a wedding near you soon! 😉

Charlie is an excellent drummer but he was pretty crap with chopsticks

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“Like a cat in a bag, waiting to drown, this time I’m coming down” August 17, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 10:05 pm
Tags: Andrew Ridgeley, Arctic Monkeys, Atlantic City Expressway, Barack Obama, Belgium, Bob Dylan, Bob Marley, Bon Jovi, David Cameron, Editors, George Bush, George Michael, Gregory Isaacs, Herge, Jackson 5, Jackson Browne, Jeffrey Daniel, John McCain, Kate Bush, Mail On Sunday, Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Michael Moore, NHS, Phish, Poirot, Raze, Shalamar, Stephanie Mills, Thompson Twins, Tin Tin, Tony Blair, Verve, Wham

Hello once again dear readers. I haven’t posted for a while but this week’s furore over the NHS drew me back to the keyboard. Essentially many right wing politicians in the US who clearly don’t understand Obama’s health reforms have been scaremongering by pointing out the terrible state of the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. Many of the comparisons they have made between US Healthcare and the NHS are at best inaccurate and at worst outright fabrication! The argument was then compounded by a complete twat (copyright Dave Cameron) of a Tory MEP garnering himself an appearance on US TV to criticise the NHS. Before you wade into this debate from an American point of view I would suggest that you complete just a modicum of research. Firstly read this article from the Guardian which answers a number of the points raised by Republican politicians, click here to read it.

You should also watch Michael Moore’s movie “Sicko” which offers a brilliant comparison of US versus European Healthcare. But then if you’re a right wing politician in the US you certainly won’t watch anything from Michael Moore will you? Wasn’t the best right wing criticism of Moore a couple of years ago that he was a rich, fat, white man? Hold on a cotton picking minute here, that description could apply to many Republican politicians as well surely.

Also for those of you who fell for the argument that Stephen Hawking would not have survived if he had not been American. He is British, his voice box happens to have an American accent! He himself has said that he would not be here if it wasn’t for the NHS.

In my opinion the NHS does a fantastic job. If I were to fall ill in the UK I know I would be treated regardless of whether I have health insurance. That would not be the case in the US. Millions of people in the US are unable to afford private healthcare. If we consider ourselves part of a caring society we should not even consider leaving these people outside the system!

The doctors and nurses from the NHS that treated my father before he died from Lung Cancer back in 2001 did a fantastic job. I have a friend who is an A & E nurse in the north, you would be hard pressed to find a more dedicated healthcare professional. The NHS like any large organisation is not perfect, however before you jump to conclusions get your facts right!

OK rant over, this is essentially a music blog after all and I thought I’d link to a few medical related songs to tie in. I hope you like them! Oh and as usual there is a tidbit of trivia for each one!

“Doctor Doctor” – Thompson Twins. Did you know that no one in the band was called Thompson? In fact they took their name from the two detectives in Herge’s Adventures Of Tin Tin. I’m looking forward to the movie adaptation of that, are you? Is it true that along with Poirot, Tin Tin is the only other famous Belgian ever? If any Belgians are reading this please add a comment to put me right, name some famous Belgians that aren’t fictional characters

Belgian? This looks like two British MPs on holiday to me

“The Medicine Song” – Stephanie Mills. Stephanie was married to Jeffrey Daniel off of Shalamar for a short period. Jeffrey is the man who taught Michael Jackson to Moonwalk and Stephanie was also romantically linked to Jacko when they appeared together in the late 70s adaptation of the Wizard of Oz called the Wiz! Now that’s what I call a link!

See Jacko really did used to be just an ordinary black kid (with an extraordinary talent though!)

“Night Nurse” – Gregory Isaacs. The Cool Ruler in my opinion had the potential to be a third world superstar along the lines of Bob Marley. However it was the lines that put paid to it, Gregory had a serious cocaine addiction which badly affected his voice at times and also caused the loss of most of his teeth.

Gregory wears a hat like that and looks cool, if I wore a hat like that I'd look like a twat (copyright Dangerous Dave Cameron)

“Knocking On Heaven’s Door” – Bob Dylan. Mr Zimmerman wrote this song for the soundtrack of the 1973 film ‘Pat Garrett an Billy the Kid” and it is one of his most covered songs. Perhaps the best known covers are from Eric Clapton and Guns ‘N’ Roses although let’s not forget that Ruth Lorenzo also covered it on X Factor. On second thoughts let’s forget!

Bob seems to have taken Johnny Cash's advice and is trying to steal a car one piece at a time

“Sexual Healing” – Marvin Gaye. Following my earlier comments about Belgium I should point out that this song was in fact recorded in Ostend in Belgium! It has also been covered by many people from Phish to Kate Bush. Click here to hear Kate’s wonderful version.

Marvin auditions for the Village People with the YMCA dance

“The Drugs Don’t Work” – The Verve. This song gave the band their first UK number one single. At various times Richard Ashcroft has said that the song is about his addiction, the death of his father or his love for his wife.

The drugs don't work? Indeed boys, indeed! 😉

“Heal The Pain” – George Michael. My favourite George Michael album is ‘Patience’ (I guess that kind of fits with the medical theme too…………. think about it!) One of the tracks from the album caused a great deal of controversy when the video was released. The track was “Shoot The Dog” and it showed Tony Blair as George W Bush’s poodle. Hmmmmmm so what’s wrong with that then, it was true wasn’t it? Click on the song title to check out the video and make up your own mind. Incidentally there might be a prize for the first person to tell me which song George samples on the track

George heals the pain (well I think that's what he's doing) of the other bloke off of Wham

“Doctor My Eyes” – Jackson Browne. This song has been covered a few times, most notably by the Jackson 5 in 1973, click here to hear their version. Jackson Browne himself recently won his case against John McCain and the Republican party for using his song “Running On Empty” without his permission.

So no chance of John McCain getting through that door then, thankfully!

“Bad Medicine” – Bon Jovi. Jon BonJovi played in a band called Raze at school and later he went on to play in a covers band called Atlantic City Expressway. Also when he first left school he worked in a women’s shoe shop. Is that a fetish thing maybe?

Jon's hair transplant was a moderate success, he had wanted more on his head really. Oh nad please, no searches for naked Jon BonJovi as a result of this picture ok?

“Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors” – Editors. The video was shot around Prague in the Czech Republic. The band were once named as the second biggest band of the decade by the Mail On Sunday. Actually I’m not sure that’s an accolade I’d want! Incidentally those cheeky chappies from Sheffield, the Arctic Monkeys were first

The band just before they were eaten by Triffids

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“Someday I’ll have a disappearing hairline, someday I’ll wear pyjamas in the daytime” June 5, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 4:42 pm
Tags: A, Ace, Adam Perry, Blur, Bob Dylan, Busted, Calexico, Charlie Simpson, Chris Difford, Coffee, Cookie, Costa Coffee, Crash Test Dummies, Damon Albarn, Dumb And Dumber, Dusk York, Emily Lloyd, Emmylou Harris, Fightstar, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Giles Perry, Glen Tilbrook, Graham Coxon, Greenwich Village, Holly Johnson, Jack White, Jason Perry, Jerry Lewis, Jim Carrey, Jim Henson, John Lennon, Kit Kat, Led Zeppelin, Matt Willis, McFly, Meg White, National Express East Coast, Nestle, Noel Gallagher, Oasis, Paul Carrack, Paul McCartney, Peter Falk, Pretenders, Prince, Robert Plant, Ronald Reagan, Roxy Music, Sheena Easton, Smiths, Starbucks, Top Of The Pops, Twitter, Tyka, White Stripes, XTC, York

Hello once again dear readers, like I’ve said before it is my aim to get back to more regular posting so here comes the second one for the Jumping month of June. I thought doing this post after a serious spillage incident on the train last week. There I was crammed into my tiny space (otherwise known as a seat) on the 7pm Kings Cross to York train with my nose in a good book (1983 by David Peace for those of you who asked!) Then lo and behold the coffee angel arrived in the aisle with the drinks trolley, now obviously I can’t resist a good coffee so obviously (a repeat word…… obviously) I had to order one, which I did, along with a Kit Kat. At the moment the Coffee Angel was about to place my drink on the pathetic excuse for a fold down table the train rocked (and not in a heavy musical way either) and faster than you can say Caffe Americano with a double shot I was the subject of a minor caffeine downpour. I thought it was rather amusing, my suit needed a dry clean anyway, but coffee angel was worried I was going to complain, but I didn’t and my reward was…….. a free Kit Kat and a fresh cup of coffee. Actually now Ive read that back it sounds dull enough to be condensed to 140 characters and posted on Twitter. But enough of that drivel during the rest of the journey I was moved to come up with a list of coffee related songs for this post. So without further adieu here they are and each one contains a frothy topping and a sprinkle of trivia.

The coffee was better in those days but clearly the coffee angels weren’t!

First cup, er sorry first up is “Starfish And Coffee” which is obviously a favourite breakfast menu of ‘The Artist Formerly Known As Prince, Then Known As Roger Or Symbol And Now Known As Prince Again’ or TAFKAPTKAROSANKAPA for short. Prince’s sister is called Tyka, I wonder if her nickname was Chicken at school? Staying with Prince and a loosely related coffee theme, the diminutive one once wrote a song for Sheena Easton called “Sugar Walls” probably not the type of sugar you’d put in your coffee though. But there’s a prize to the first person to tell me what that song is about without the use of explicit language!

Prince had clearly overdone the froth on his Cappucino

Second dose of caffeine is “Black Coffee In Bed” by Squeeze and written by the Lennon-McCartney of their generation; Difford-Tilbrook. They were joined by the rather talented Paul Carrack who in addition to Squeeze and as a solo artist has also had hits with Ace and Mike & The Mechanics. He has also played on sessions by many other bands including Roxy Music, The Smiths and the Pretenders. In a strange coincidence he also sang vocals and played keyboards on a relatively minor Mike & The Mechanics hit called “Another Cup Of Coffee”

You won’t like him when he gets angry and Mr Carrack gets very angry if he has no caffeine

The next one of our Barista favourites is “One More Cup Of Coffee” from the wonderful Mr Zimmerman or Bob Dylan to his friends. The song is taken from Dylan’s ‘Desire’ album and is a duet with Emmylou Harris. The song was covered extremely well by Jack and Meg on the first White Stripes album and is occasionally covered live by Calexico. Also none other than Robert ‘Percy’ Plant off of Led Zep recorded the song for his ‘Dreamland’ album in 2002. The song was written at a corner table in the ‘Other End’ nightclub in Greenwich Village New York. I was kind of hoping it had been written in a coffee bar!

Bob tries to find inspiration over a coffee….. come on Bob, Noel Gallagher sat at the same table and wrote “Roll With It”

The next one of our old beans in this post is the excellent Canadian band the Crash Test Dummies. Their biggest hit in the UK was “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm” but they also released a song called “Afternoons And Coffee Spoons” Both songs were taken from their excellent album ‘God Shuffled His Feet’ In 1995 they recorded a splendid cover of XTC’s “The Ballad Of Peter Pumpkinhead” for the Jim Carrey movie ‘Dumb And Dumber’

In the early days the band even dressed as Crash test Dummies and it certainly didn’t harm their pulling power judging from this picture

The next act to bring us a cuppa is Holly Johnson off of Frankie Goes To Hollywood with his solo single “Americanos” It was Holly’s second solo hit and reached number 4 in the UK charts. It also features on the soundtrack to the 1989 movie ‘Cookie’ which starred Emily Lloyd, Peter Falk and Jerry Lewis. I know that strictly speaking the song is not about coffee, well not even strictly speaking, it’s actually got nothing to do with coffee. But Caffe Americano is undoubtedly my favourite coffee so I had to include it here. I always drink it black (often with an extra shot) with no sugar and many coffee houses (in this case Costa Coffee) give this an acronym of BAM (as in Black Americano). This lead to me gaining the nickname BAM BAM Bill for a while. Maybe not a great nickname but at least it wasn’t Pebbles! Over the years I have also noticed that black coffee seems to be the drink of choice for the majority of Project and Programme Managers. Does anyone agree?

“Relax” said Holly as he ordered coffees for him and his ‘flat’ mate Ronnie

I like a cup of coffee when I am deeply engrossed in a good book but Blur clearly prefer theirs in front of the telly! Well judging from their song “Coffee And TV” Vocals on the verses were from Graham Coxon and Damon Albarn sang the chorus. the lyrics were all Graham’s and apparently deal with his attempt to give up alcohol. The video for the song features a milk carton called Milky which was created by ‘Jim Henson’s Creature Shop’ Blur were originally called Seymour, I’m not sure that works as well as Blur though. I have seen them live twice at festivals, once with Graham and once without. I certainly prefer them with Graham in the band. So it’s great news that they are reunited for a few gigs this year and possibly some new recording too.

Now either he’s really excited or they’re both seriously injured

The final coffee song in this post is one of my favourites, it’s by the minimally named ‘A’ from Leeds and it’s called “Starbucks“. The original members of the band included three brothers; Jason, Giles and Adam Perry. Since the band took a hiatus (is that code for breaking up?) Jason has worked with Matt Willis off of Busted and has also produced for McFly! Jason do us all a favour and get ‘A’ back together and stop working with these pop muppets! But to be fair Charlie off of Busted’s current band Fightstar are quite good! (Did I really just say that?)

With the proceeds of the single the band bought the worlds first Starbucks Jet Pack

So do you have any favourite coffee songs or indeed favourite coffees? Let me know by adding your choices in the comments

No it was just the earth moving for Milky in the Blur video

I will end this post by saying a big thank you to those wonderful people at ‘Dusk’ in York where I did many of my early posts in this blog. Excellent coffee, good food, free wifi (are you reading this Starbucks?) and great company. Check them out and if you know their web address please let me know

Dusk in York

“And when that rainbow’s shining over you, that’s when your dreams will all come true” April 29, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:56 pm
Tags: Big Brother, Bob Dylan, Bradley McIntosh, Bruce Springsteen, Catwoman, David Bowie, Def Leppard, Elton John, Elvis Presley, Goon Show, Gracelands, Hannah Spearritt, Ian Hunter, Jade Goody, Jo O'Meara, Joe Elliot, Jon Lee, Kaleidoscope Business Services, Michelle Pfeiffer, Mick Ronson, Morrissey, Mott The Hoople, Paul Cattermole, Rachel Stevens, Rich Kids, Robbie Williams, S Club 7, Shilpa Shetty, Simon Fuller, Slaughter And The Dogs, Spice Girls, Suede, Tina Barrett, Westlife

Hello everyone, I’m back with a normal(ish) post, you know the type, a birthday and some ‘onthisdays’. Long time no post I know but I’ve been a bit busy. But right now I have a bit of time so here goes!

Catwoman has posted another excellent blog including some music, now I wonder where that bit came from! But seriously if you’re looking for a great VA (that’s Virtual Assistant if you didn’t know) then get in touch with her. Click on Virtual Assistant to visit her Kaleidoscope Business Services site and click on Virtual Assistant again to read that excellent blog. The brighter ones among you may have figured that Catwoman is not her real name, it’s…….. her secret identity!

Catwoman, probably not the best seamstress in the world judging by this outfit!

Today the 29th April 2009 is the 30th birthday of Jo O’Meara off of S Club 7, or to give her full name, Joanne Velda O’Meara. Jo was joined in S Club 7 by Tina Barrett, Paul Cattermole, Bradley McIntosh, Hannah Spearritt, Rachel Stevens and Jon Lee. The group was put together by Simon Fuller one time manager of the Spice Girls. Wait a minute so the Spice Girls and S Club 7 are manufactured bands? Surely not! 😉 Apparently Rachel Stevens was the only member who didn’t have to audition, I wonder if she was the only member who could sing too? What do you think? The group scored 11 UK top 5 hits from 1999 to 2003 including 4 number ones. I still play “Reach” quite often at my mobile DJ gigs and I have to grudgingly admit that it is a good party song, very grudgingly though of course! Here are the ‘Club (it doesn’t have the same ring as the ‘Dead does it?) with “S Club Party“. Jo was embroiled in the racial bullying row on Celebrity Big Brother in 2007 along with Jade Goody for their alleged racial comments to Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty. To me the whole concept of a show like Big Brother (celebrity or otherwise) is bloody awful. Anyway Jo is planning to release a new solo album later this year, somehow I can’t see that one being added to my Christmas list! But if it was it would certainly be just ahead of anything by Robbie W or Westlife! (oh come on I haven’t had a dig at Robbie for ages, give me a break!)

Jo meets the newest member of S Club (that's Jo on the left by the way!)

On this day in 1976 after playing a gig in Memphis Bruce Springsteen took a cab to Gracelands, Elvis’ home and climbed over the wall. A guard stopped him assuming that he was just another crank fan. Wait a minute he tried to climb the wall into Elvis Presley’s home, that surely makes him a crank fan! I wonder if Mr Presley was at home that night?

Bruce sits on the edge of Elvis' bathtub, well it was during the King's Fat Elvis period!

On this day in 1981 Sir Elton John paid £14,000 for 232 Goon Show BBC Radio scripts at Christies Auction House in London. The Goons was also a favourite of Prince Charles, which goes to prove that Charles does at least have some taste!

for someone so generous Elton looks as tight as a ducks arse here!

And finally on this day in 1993 the supremely talented Mick Ronson died of liver cancer aged just 46. In my opinion he remains the best guitarist ever to work with David Bowie, and there have been some excellent players since. There is a great quote from Def Leppard’s Joe Elliot at the time of Ronson’s death. “If there’s a god up there why does he do this? It can only be because he’s trying to put together the ultimate band” Mick came from Hull in Yorkshire which is not too far from where I live now! He first played guitar with Bowie on a John Peel session on 5th February 1970 after John Cambridge another Bowie musician persuaded him to leave his job with the Hull Parks Department. He went on to play on four of Bowie’s albums; ‘The Man Who Sold The World’, ‘Hunky Dory’, ‘Ziggy Stardust’ ‘Pin Ups’ and ‘Alladin Sane’ I wonder if Bowie’s 80’s output would have been as crap if Ronson had been involved? What do you think? Mick also produced and did the string arrangements for Bowie and the pair famously produced Lou Reed’s ‘Transformer’ with Mick also playing guitar on the album (and also piano on “Perfect Day”) After the Ziggy years Ronson went on to work with many other excellent bands and musicians. He appeared on Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue in the mid 70s. It is said that it was Ronson who persuaded Dylan to wear make-up on that tour, which seems a little surprising as Mick was apparently dead against the make-up and stage clothes for the Ziggy tour at first. He also produced the Rich Kids, Slaughter And The Dogs, Suede and Morrissey among others. He also famously became a member of Mott The Hoople for a short period in 1975, he was a long time friend of Ian Hunter. Click here to visit the official Mick Ronson website and sign the on line petition to have Mick inducted into the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame. Let’s get him in there guys, I know I can count on you! It’s a great website too. Click here to watch Mick perform an excellent live version of “Slaughter On Tenth Avenue” from his first solo album

Mick Ronson - gone but never forgotten

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Show Of Hands at Saltaire 17th April 2009 April 20, 2009

Filed under: Review — justwilliam1959 @ 9:49 pm
Tags: AIG, Bob Dylan, Miranda Sykes, Phil Beer, Show Of Hands, Steve Knightley

Hello peeps, long time no post, well ok some of you probably didn’t notice, oh well! Anyway I have returned to post a review of a gig I was at on Friday evening. Those of you who know me are well aware that my musical taste is seriously eclectic (everything except most opera and a lot of country). I’ve never seen myself as a folkie either, although I am a big fan of Mr Zimmerman.

Let me cut to the chase I got a ticket for the gig as a 50th birthday present from Rachel V. She and Catwoman are big fans of the band. The band are ‘Show Of Hands’ and I must admit they are excellent in a live environment. Terrific musicians, great harmonies, good songs (some superb covers too), much self deprecating humour and in great danger of giving folk a good name to non-folkies like me.

Show Of Hands with Miranda, she's the clean shaven one! Incidentally Catwoman loves your hair Miranda!

The band is made up of Steve Knightley and Phil Beer. They were ably assisted by Miranda Sykes on Saturday on double bass and beautiful vocals. There was no support act, in fact this is a band that doesn’t really need one, they’re that good, trust me! Check out the ‘Show Of Hands‘ website. Miranda also has her own website, click here to check it out

On the 'face' of it the boys were considering a more 'rock' direction 😉

The gig was at the Victoria Hall in Saltaire near Bradford in the UK, which incidentally is an excellent venue. The acoustics are supreme, the band played a couple of songs literally unplugged from their amps and the sound was incredible.

I’m very new to Show Of Hands so I don’t know much about their back catalogue. But for me there were a number of highlights on Saturday. In particular a new song called “AIG” which is based on the comments of a US senator about the finance company AIG, if I remember rightly this fabulous songs chorus included the refrain ‘Arrogance, Incompetence and Greed’ (apologies to the band if I got that wrong). I also loved their cover of Dylan’s “Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power)”, I would even go so far as to say that I preferred it to the original. The lyrics are printed at the end of the post as they are some of Dylan’s best, well I think they are! The band seem to have quite a large repertoire of their own songs and my favourite of those that they played on Saturday was “Cousin Jack”. They generated an awful lot of audience participation for that one from the fervent sell out crowd. Click here to see the band in the video for the rather excellent song “Roots” which they also played at the show

The boys were so talented they could play their instruments telepathically

They are scheduled to play a lot more UK dates between now and early July so if they are in a town near you and you haven’t seen them just do it, you will not be disappointed! If you’ve seen them before you can ignore the last sentence as you’ve already got your tickets I’m sure

Senor (Tales Of Yankee Power) – Bob Dylan

Senor, senor, can you tell me where we’re headin ?
Lincoln County Road or Armageddon ?
Seems like I been down this way before
Is there any truth in that, senor ?

Senor, senor, do you know where she is hidin’ ?
How long are we gonna be riding ?
How long must I keep my eyes glued to the door ?
Will there be any comfort there senor ?

There’s a wicked wind still blowing on that upper deck
There’s an iron cross still hanging down from around her neck
There’s a marching band still playing in that vacant lot
Where’s she held me in her arms one time and said, Forget me not.

Senor, senor, I can see that painted wagon
Smell the tail of the dragon
Can’t stand the suspense anymore
Can you tell me who to contact here, senor ?

Well, the last thing I remember before I stripped and kneeled
Was that trainload of fools bogged down in a magnetic field
A gypsy with a broken flag and a flashing ring
He said, Son, this ain’t a dream no more it’s the real thing.

Senor, senor, you know their hearts is as hard as leather
Well, give me a minute, let me get it together
I just gotta pick myself up off the floor
I’m ready when you are, senor.

Senor, senor, let’s overturn these cables
Disconnect these tables
This place don’t make sense to me no more
Can you tell me what we’re waiting for, senor ?

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“I’m ready to go anywhere, I’m ready for to fade” February 24, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:04 pm
Tags: Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Byrds, Chris Hillman, David Crosby, Doris Day, Estelle Axton, Gene Clark, Glastonbury, Jim Stewart, Monkees, Richard Dreyfuss, Roger McGuinn, Rupert Holmes, Silhouettes, Slumdog Millionaire, Stax, Stax Records, Stephen King, Terry Melcher

OK I’m going to open with a little experiment, the other day when I included a link to a fart joke on this blog I had three times the amount of the usual daily views I had been getting, many of which came from people searching ‘fart’ on t’interweb. I’m not going to get into why you would do that, it’s to each their own right? Anyway the experiment is that todays blog text will include a phrase which I suspect many people may search on, so here goes! Lily Allen Naked!!! Well let’s see how many views come to the blog based on that shall we? I would like to thank Tom W for coming up with that idea, top thinking mate! Incidentally if you arrived at this blog to see Lily Allen naked I’m sorry to disappoint you, but here is a picture of her anyway!

Lily wondered where she had hidden the torch again

In case you didn’t see any news yesterday, Mr Springsteen has been confirmed as the Saturday headliner for this years Glastonbury Festival. That was the slot which was somewhat controversially filled by Jay Zed (copyright Karen McP) last year. well I say controversial, I mean Noel Gallagher was somewhat aggrieved by it! The strong rumours for the Friday and Sunday nights are Blur and Neil Young. Here is the Bruce news on the
Beeb

It’s also big congrats to ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ which swept up at the Oscars yesterday, winning eight in total including best film score and also best individual song for “Jai Ho“. Incidentally one of the other best individual song nominees was featured on this very blog just a few days ago, that was “Down To Earth” by Peter Gabriel from the wonderful ‘Wall-E’. How many of you have seen ‘Slumdog Millionaire’? I thought it was a superb movie. Funny, moving, serious, feelgood, great music, all in all a great combination of the best of everything. What did you think of it?

So without further delay let’s kick off with a birthday. Today is the 24th February and it is the 62nd birthday of Rupert, not the bear, but Mr Rupert Holmes. His biggest hit was “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)” which was a massive hit in the US where it went to number one. Obviously at that particular moment we had a bit more taste in the UK as it only managed number 23 here! Rupert was born in Northwich, Cheshire in the UK although he grew up and has lived most of his life in the US. His Mum was English and his Dad American. It may seem unreal now but at the height of his Pina Colada driven success Rupert toured the world and the Marcos government in the Philippines even had to provide with a military escort when he was there. There is a very special distinction for “Escape” that as far as I am aware in US chart history didn’t happen before and hasn’t happened since. “Escape” reached number 1 in December 1979 then fell to number 2 in the first week of January 1980 (replaced by “Please Don’t Go” by KC and the Sunshine Band, before jumping back to the top spot the week after. It thus became the only song to end a decade at number one and climb back the following decade a real 70s/ 80s hit. Now that would be an interesting argument for the DJs that work 70s and 80s clubs (we have one of each in York). Maybe it wouldn’t though, because in my experience most DJs in those type of clubs are a long way from good! But of course I would say that as I am a very good Mobile DJ! I’m still taking bookings for this year if any of you are interested. Highlights in the coming months are weddings, 40th Birthdays, 30th birthdays and indeed a 70th birthday! I am happy to do gigs all over the planet, but please be aware that if the travelling distance from York in the UK is significant then so will the price be 🙂

Rupert didn't quite appreciate the difference between cufflinks and handcuffs

Of course having discussed Pina Coladas I couldn’t leave you without the recipe, so just
click here! Mr Holmes has also said at various times “whatever else I do in my life my tombstone will be a giant pineapple!”

On this day in 1973 the final live appearance of the Byrds took place at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey. The Byrds are one of the acts, along with Jimi Hendrix, who recorded classic interpretations of Bob Dylan songs. The most famous of those Byrd songs is probably “Mr Tambourine Man” which you all know was written by Bob Dylan, but did you know that their version was produced by a chap called Terry Melcher, who is Doris Day’s son? Some radio stations apparently refused to play the Byrds “Eight Miles High” claiming that is was completely drug related. Roger McGuinn, David Crosby and Gene Clark who wrote the song said that in fact it was about their experience of flying in a plane at 40,000 feet. How wrong can one be? 😉 My favourite song by the Byrds is probably “So You Want To Be A Rock N Roll Star” which was written by Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman, supposedly about the manufactured and overnight success of the Monkees. The song was also groundbreaking in that it featured an African musician, Mr Hugh Masekala on trumpet. The observant among you will have noticed that there are two Byrd song links on this piece…… enjoy!

Upon arrival at the Police Station the boys realised that they had been framed

This day in 2004 saw the death of Estelle Axton who had helped to create Stax Records. She set up the Satellite Record label with her brother Jim Stewart. They were contacted by lawyers in 1960 and told that the name was already in use. They changed the name to ‘STAX’ which comes from the first two letters of each of their surnames. I guess ‘AXST’ just didn’t work out! Estelle was heavily involved with the selection and development of many artists on the label including Booker T & The MGs, Isaac Hayes, Rufus Thomas and the wonderful Mr Otis Redding. Stax was to Memphis what Motown was to Detroit. It is also interesting to note that whilst Stax specialised in soul, r &b and predominantly black music it’s two founders were white. This must have been seen as quite a brave move considering segregation was still widespread in the US in the late 50s/ early 60s. Here is the late great (see they’re still around) Otis Redding with the rather excellent “Try A Little Tenderness” from the Monterey Festival in 1967

Estelle Axton with her brother Jim Stewart

The rather splendid Stax Records logo

And finally on this day in 1958 the classic song “Get A Job” by the Silhouettes was number one in the USA. It was recorded in October 1957 and is seen by many as the definitive doo wop song. It went on to sell a million copies and has been used in some great movies too. Notably ‘American Graffiti’ which starred a young Richard Dreyfuss and one of my favourite movies the excellent adaptation of Stephen King’s novella ‘The Body’ which was filmed as ‘Stand By Me’. The song is quite appropriate for many of us now too, given the current economic climate which those clever marketing people have re branded and made into the commodity we now know as ‘The Credit Crunch’ which in layman’s terms remains a recession surely?

The boys were frequently caught bragging about their many fishing trips

With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

“Hey little sister what have you done?” September 2, 2009

“Like a cat in a bag, waiting to drown, this time I’m coming down” August 17, 2009

“And when that rainbow’s shining over you, that’s when your dreams will all come true” April 29, 2009

Show Of Hands at Saltaire 17th April 2009 April 20, 2009

“I’m ready to go anywhere, I’m ready for to fade” February 24, 2009

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With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

“Hey little sister what have you done?” September 2, 2009

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“Like a cat in a bag, waiting to drown, this time I’m coming down” August 17, 2009

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“Someday I’ll have a disappearing hairline, someday I’ll wear pyjamas in the daytime” June 5, 2009

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“And when that rainbow’s shining over you, that’s when your dreams will all come true” April 29, 2009

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Show Of Hands at Saltaire 17th April 2009 April 20, 2009

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“I’m ready to go anywhere, I’m ready for to fade” February 24, 2009

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