With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

Latitude Festival 2016 Day 2 Saturday 16th July July 26, 2016

Filed under: Review — justwilliam1959 @ 5:30 pm
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I think I enjoy camping, and camping it up as well, obviously! The lack of a shower over this whole weekend was not something I looked forward to, but one lives with it and let’s face it, it is very much a first world problem. After another delightful breakfast with the gang we set off to the main site where I started the day with a delicious Dirty Chai. If you haven’t read my previous posts I should point out that this is nothing perverted, it is simply a Chai Latte with on or two shots of Espresso added to it. Many of us kicked the day off in the Literature tent for an overview of ‘The Life Project’ by Helen Pearson. It is about a study that began in 1946 that included all the babies born in a particular week in March and staying in touch with them to understand their development throughout the years. The exercise was repeated every twelve years with two notable exceptions; 1982 and 2016. The reasons for those gaps in the study seem largely to be the Thatcher government and current austerity measures respectively. Nonetheless this remains the biggest study of its kind ever.

Oh wait? Did I not tell you that Latitude has pink sheep? (Photo courtesy of my delightful, delovely wife Catwoman a.k.a Catherine)

Oh wait? Did I not tell you that Latitude has pink sheep? (Photo courtesy of my delightful, delovely wife Catwoman a.k.a Catherine)

After that I thought I needed a musical interlude so I wandered off to the Sunshine Arena for Pumarosa. They delivered a very festival friendly summer sound. A kind of dreamy hypno-trance. Is that a new combo genre? I really don’t know. But if you want a reference point I found them musically reminiscent of the Beloved. Pumarosa’s lead vocalist is a supremely talented singer and a musical whirling dervish to boot. I look forward to seeing this band again some time. Being British the next thing I did was very stereotypical. I saw a queue near the Alcove stage and joined it thinking I was lining up to go into the Alcove. However I was wrong I was one of the lucky folk to visit the DIY Den for a brilliant acoustic set from the singer and mainstay of Frightened Rabbit. A really intimate set, I loved it and I think I might have become a Frightened Rabbit fan as a result.

frightened rabbit

I popped into the Comedy tent next where I caught a proper laugh out loud Aussie comedienne, Felicity Ward. But it was time for more music after that so I dashed across to the BBC 6 Music stage where I was hoping to see Ratboy, however the programme timings were wrong so I missed him. I did see the DMAs though who were bloody good. They offer a sunny indie pop sound with some great earworms in their sing along choruses. Back to the Sunrise Arena which I do believe is my favourite stage. Here I saw The Very Best. Now if you call your band The Very Best you either have to be very confident in your abilities or stupidly arrogant. This lot are most definitely not stupidly arrogant. Are they as good as their name suggests? Definitely and possibly even a bit better. They are made up of Swedish, British and Malawian musicians and as a result they take the best of Swedish Pop, the best of African music and they mix it up with an inherent ability to party. They handled a brief loss of sound immensely well with a quick switch to acoustic delivery. I loved their song “We Okay” which in my opinion deserves to become a festival anthem.

I made my first visit to the BBC Introducing stage after that to catch an excellent set from Vincent Burke a highly recommend friend of Barbara (one of our festival gang). He even got a decent round of applause for his sound check. I loved his songs and he has a great voice. He seemed a little nervous but clearly won the crowd over. I doubt that anyone walked away from his set disappointed, I certainly didn’t. His songs are terrific. “He Paid To Have Himself Murdered”is a truly excellent and quirky story song. He also has a truly moving protest song in “Remembrance Day”. It feels like Vincent comes from a long line of great British singer songwriters from Cat Stevens, through Clifford T Ward, Billy Bragg and many more. Next it was a must see for me in the Film and Music tent. This is one that I had really been looking forward to. Cassette Boy vs. DJ Rubbish, a comedy disco that was clever, topical, political, entertaining and truly bloody hilarious. I danced solidly for more than an hour. Can Latitude ever top this? I doubt it. All together now “all the dinner ladies, all the dinner ladies”.

vincent burke

Rob Auton’s Sleep Show was a highly rated event in the Poetry tent. It certainly succeeded in sending me to sleep. Th first few minutes were okay, but after that it was like watching paint dry. Thankfully there was still the Cabaret stage to come. This time for a fabulous set from Johnny Woo – The Glory. This was alternative, comedy entertainment at its best, especially the death of Princess Diana sketch. So the further demise of Diana it was time for the sun to set on another excellent day at Latitude and back to our tent corral for cheese and wine. Yes this is a truly brilliant festival, albeit a tad middle class!

 

 

Jimmy Cliff – O2 Academy, Leeds – Monday 18th August 2014 August 19, 2014

Filed under: Review — justwilliam1959 @ 6:00 pm
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I bought a couple of tickets for this gig on a whim a few weeks ago. I have always liked Jimmy Cliff and I still have a ‘best of’ and the soundtrack for ‘The Harder They Come’ in my collection. Back in the olden days I owned maybe half a dozen Jimmy Cliff 7 inch vinyl 45 rpm records. My lovely wife Catherine (a.k.a. Catwoman) came with me. But I had warned her that the Academy was not a seated venue.

Anyway the lack of seats was not a problem at all as this quickly became one of the best gigs either of us had ever been to. Jimmy is a true entertainer; magnificent stage presence, fabulous rapport with his audience, an amazing band and, even after all these years a wonderful voice. It’s so hard to believe that he has been recording and playing live for more than 50 years! He opened with the sparse but supreme “Bongo Man A Come” which he seamlessly blended into a cover of the classic Ethiopians song “Rivers Of Babylon”. The proper one that includes the Far-I references, not the bland and sanitised rubbish that Boney M had a hit with in the late 70s. from the off Mr Cliff had the whole audience eating out of his hands. When he said sing, we did. When he said shout, we did. When he said wave your hands, we did. When he said jump, we did. When he said clap, yes you guessed it, we did!

jimmy cliff

All the hits were there “You Can Get It If You Really Want”, “Miss Jamaica”, “Wonderful World, Beautiful People”, “Many Rivers To Cross”, “The Harder They Come”, “Sitting In Limbo”, “The World Is Upside Down”, “Hard Road To Travel” and an excellent “Vietnam” which he used as a chance to plead for world peace by replacing the chorus with references to other world conflicts and trouble spots; Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel and more.

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The cover versions that Jimmy has done over the years always seemed carefully selected and he performed them magnificently tonight. These included Cat Stevens’ “Wild World”, Johnny Nash’s “I Can see Clearly Now” and a rather excellent song from the Lion King, “Hakuna Matata”. Catwoman and I had sore feet by the end of the evening from all the fancy footwork we attempted. We danced the Ska, rocksteady, reggae and others like nobody was watching. There was some really mental dancing going on around us too. In fact the audience may have been more worn out than Jimmy Cliff at the end. He still looked fresh after remaining on stage for nearly two hours including three encores. When he comes back to dear old Blighty I will definitely be in the queue for tickets and I urge you to do the same. You will not be disappointed! And finally, please note that none of the pictures or the videos on this post were filmed by me. I was too busy enjoying the show! None f them are actually from this show either.

 

“I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon” November 29, 2012

Filed under: News,Observation — justwilliam1959 @ 8:31 pm
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Based upon information released recently it is alleged that the US Government had planned to blow up the moon in the late 50s as a means of intimidating their nemesis in the Cold War, the Soviet Union. After the Russians effectively took the lead in the Space Race with the launch of Sputnik in 1957 it was apparently believed that a show of strength like blowing up the moon would really scare the Russians. Apparently it was called ‘A Study of Lunar Research Flights’ or ‘Project A119‘. Even that sounds a little James Bond like doesn’t it?

It really does seem like a crackpot scheme and it is unlikely at the time that anyone possessed enough in their nuclear arsenal to actually complete the task. At best it might have left the man in the moon looking more like the elephant Man and the satellite’s surface covered in high levels of radiation. In addition any debris that fell to earth would almost certainly have been radioactive as well.

I wonder if this idea came from the same think tank that thought of the idea of using an explosive cigar to blow up Fidel Castro or to rig the voting in Florida in 2000 in favour of Dubya. Ooops wait a minute that second one was true wasn’t it? had it happened then Neil Armstrong probably wouldn’t have been there to utter his famous ‘one step for man’ line. But then again maybe it did happen and didn’t work very well other than to make the moon radioactive. That would certainly give more credence to those people who believe the moon landings were faked and took place in a film studio directed by Stanley Kubrick.

I’d love to know what you think of this incredibly stupid, yet potentially real plan of  Eisenhower’s government. Bearing in mind that his Vice President was Tricky Dicky Nixon, maybe it isn’t surprising! Anyway as I have said many times before so here are a few songs that may not have happened or certainly wouldn’t have been the same had the moon been blown to smithereens, feel free to add your own moon related songs.

Apologies but there are two kiddie fiddlers for the price of one on this next one!

And finally a special Billy Bonus, my favourite track from Pink Floyd’s ‘Dark side Of The Moon’; “Brain Damage”

 

“And somewhere between the time you arrive and the time you go may lie a reason you were alive, but you’ll never know” October 6, 2011

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 10:41 pm
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I know he wasn’t a singer, musician or songwriter but Steve Jobs sure as hell left an incredible mark on the music industry. His genius, foresight and innovation has fundamentally changed the way we buy/ obtain our music and indeed how we listen to it. Are there many households, or even people, in the world that don’t have an Apple product that can play music? iPod, iPhone, iPad, iMac even if you have none of those you may have iTunes on your pc. I think that names like iPod will become synonymous with portable music players in the same way that ball point pens are mostly called biros and vacuum cleaners are mostly called Hoovers (although Dyson may take that crown in the long run)

Back in my schooldays inventors and innovators were old, dead or probably wearing a white coat in a secret nondescript lab somewhere in the world. This generation of innovators, inventors and geniuses (or should that be genii?) are much more visible. For example are there any of these names that you don’t recognise; Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Mark Zuckerberg?

His life is also a lesson for those who focus on a formal qualification being the golden ticket to a successful career. Mr Jobs dropped out of college, did that stop him having a great career? I think not! In addition to the music related innovations that he was responsible for he also put a lot of money, time and effort into Pixar. So you could argue that he also helped to save Disney studios, who frankly would have been on their knees without Pixar.

Steve Jobs will be sadly missed. In my opinion whatever you may think of Apple from a corporate perspective it would be very difficult to argue that this wasn’t a truly great man. RIP Steve Jobs.

I have tried to think of the most appropriate music I could with which to mourn his passing and celebrate his life. I have chosen a few tracks from what the previously available Ping function on iTunes revealed as his favourite albums a few years ago. Enjoy and celebrate the life of a great man.

 

“When we had simplicity and we had warm toast for tea” March 25, 2010

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 11:20 pm
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This is Ryefield School in Hillingdon a great place where I was a pupil from 1965 to 1970

Once again it’s been a long while since my last post, but not as long ago as the last time I attended Ryefield Junior School in Hillingdon. I was just a little boy called Billy in those days. I attended the school from 1965 until 1970 up until I was 11 years old. I discovered this week that it is Ryefield School’s 50th birthday celebrations this year, I hadn’t appreciated that I was just one year older than the school. One year and three days to be precise as it opened on January 4th 1960. So how did I find out about this auspicious occasion? Well I have mentioned Ryefield in a previous post and the present Headmaster Mr Dodd was doing some research and chanced upon my blog. Serendipity huh?

Anyway it got me thinking about those good old school days and for me Infant and Junior School was so much more fun than Senior School. I will remember Ryefield for many things. But the two that spring to mind immediately are the wonderful headmaster from my days there, Mr Yates. I don’t know much about him other than the fact that to me he was a wonderful man and although I didn’t realise it at the time he was probably my first mentor from outside my family circle. He encouraged me to learn by reading and indeed writing too. I also loved all those mental arithmetic tasks he set. The second thing that is in my mind about those years is my first ever foreign trip. It was a school trip to Paris and it was my first ever flight too. One of the things we were asked to do was write a postcard on the first day to send back to our parents. I did write my postcard, but I left it in my case and gave it to my Mum and Dad when I came home. I can only assume that they weren’t too worried about me

And so on to the music, for that is the purpose of this little blog. And obviously todays choices are all school related, I hope you enjoy them and as usual your school song suggestions would be welcomed

Schools Out – Alice Cooper. OK I know this was an obvious choice, but it is good isn’t it. For me it was one of the defining moments of early 70s music television

Remember The Days Of The Old School Yard – Cat Stevens. Just how talented was this man? Still just as talented these days now he is known as Yusuf. I believe the additional female vocal on this track is Elkie Brooks. Linda Lewis also recorded an excellent cover of this song, although sadly I can’t find it on line

Teacher I Need You – Elton John. A classic slice of Elton and Bernie from the wonderful 1973 album ‘Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player’

Teach Your Children – Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. This is accompanied by a photo montage that shows the Iraq war through the eyes of children

Don’t Stand So Close To Me – Police. Written by a former teacher, Gordon Sumner aka Sting and probably the only lyric which manages to rhyme cough with Nabokov, albeit it rather clumsily! This is the original version which is so much better than the 1986 remake

Be True To Your School – Beach Boys. This one says it all really doesn’t it and with added cheerleaders too.

 

“Is it really necessary 4 me 2 go out of the room, just because u wanna undress?” March 31, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:21 pm
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Well here we are again and it’s the end of March, that’s a quarter of the year gone already, where did it go exactly? I mean you often hear people say where did the time go, but does it actually go anywhere? Answers on a postcard please or just in the blog comments, or maybe you don’t have the time, if that’s the case where did it go? I mean you often hear…….. oh bloody hell it’s not Groundhog Day is it? 😉

I was going to call this post Big Balls and Sugar Walls, read on and I’m sure you’ll guess why!

If you read yesterdays post you may recall that I spoke about some of the search stats for the blog, well don’t worry I’m not going into that much detail today! But I just had to tell you that there have been 4 searches using the phrase ‘invisible man and invisible women naked’ that have arrived at this blog. The reason they arrived here is that in a previous post I made a joke comment about the invisible man in a picture. however what interests me is why anyone would search for something like that, I mean how would you know from a picture that the invisible man or woman was naked? So if you are prepared to admit it was you who searched then let me know. Also let us know whether you actually found the picture too.

I spent the usual ridiculous amount of time trying to buy Reading Festival tickets last night. The Seetickets site was down almost from the start and the Ticketmaster site seemed to have run out of tickets in a matter of minutes. As for the telephone lines, what a waste of space! So rather than give up I tried Viagogo, official ticket exchange partner of the Reading and Leeds Festivals. Viagogo are aimed at preventing touts from scamming money off real music fans, that is a principle I totally support. However when I pay more than double the face value and also get hit with a £50 plus admin fee my support diminishes somewhat. This seems no better than touting to me. What is the answer in the longer term, probably a Glastonbury style registration system and also stop putting the tickets on sale at 19.00 on a Monday evening, what happened to 9.00? when tickets used to go on sale in the morning they were usually available throughout the day. I have been going to the Reading leg of the festival for around 20 years and have missed only one in that time, but the shambolic way the tickets are sold tells me that I could be in line for missing more in future. Well at least the line up is pretty strong. Headliners are Kings Of Leon, Arctic Monkeys and Radiohead. I was totally gobsmacked that Radiohead are appearing, I mean I love them, but they always seemed like more of a Glasto or V Festival band. As for the rumours of AC/ DC or Blink 182 headlining, well that came to nothing. But already the rumour mill for Reading 2010 is turning and suggests that two of the headliners will be Blink 182 and Green Day. If that’s correct remember where you read it first ok? 😉

Reading Festival 2009 Line Up

Reading Festival 2009 Line Up

Now on to the usual stuff, starting with a birthday. It is Angus Young off of AC/DC’s 54th birthday today. Although some sources have him as 52 or 50, this is thought to have come about following comments made to the press when he first adopted the school uniform look for gigs. Although a part of one of the biggest and best Aussie bands ever, Angus McKinnon Young was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He was just 18 when he formed AC/DC in 1973 with his brother Malcolm. They took the name from seeing those letters on the back of a sewing machine owned by their mother. Here is Angus with the rest of the AC/ DC gang with “Big Balls”

probably the only 50 something man who might seem attractive to Michael Jackson, but only if he is fooled by the school uniform!

probably the only 50 something man who might seem attractive to Michael Jackson, but only if he is fooled by the school uniform!

On this day in 1967 Jimi Hendrix began his first British tour with Cat Stevens. It was on this tour that Hendrix set fire to his guitar for the first time

No one could light farts the way Jimi could. The wind didn't cry Mary it cried fan me and flame me!

No one could light farts the way Jimi could. The wind didn't cry Mary it cried fan me and flame me!

And on this day in 1987 Prince’s – ‘Sign O’ The Times’ double album was released. The Purple One actually intended it to be a triple album but Warner Bros talked him down to a 22 track double album. I still rate this as my favourite Prince album. he even duets with Sheena Easton on “U Got The Look”. Although my favourite songs are “Starfish And Coffee” and “If I Was Your Girlfriend“. He also wrote a rather risque song for Ms Easton called “Sugar Walls”

Say what you like about Prince but he sure had big balls, well at least one anyway!

Say what you like about Prince but he sure had big balls, well at least one anyway!

And finally on this day in 1992 White Zombie’s ‘La Sexorcisto: Devil Music Vol. One’ was released. It was their first release on a major label. The band named themselves after a Bela Lugosi film and lasted until the fabulous Rob Zombie left in 1998. In 1993 their single “Thunder Kiss ’65” was played hundreds of times on MTV. Here are White Zombie with a fantastic video and cover of KC and the Sunshine Band’s “I’m Your Boogie Man”

So they made ugly music for ugly people did they?..........

So they made ugly music for ugly people did they?..........

....... yeah she is butt ugly right? ;-)

....... yeah she is butt ugly right? 😉

 

 
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