With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

“Exterminate! Bosh bosh bosh loads of money” April 21, 2010

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 10:37 pm
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I thought I’d better post and tell you of the somewhat bizarre experience I had on my journey to work this morning. But I should warn you that it registers very high on the Boreometer (according to Catwoman anyway!) I was travelling to Sheffield for an all day meeting (how dull is that?). But the all day meeting wasn’t the bizarre part, that happened when I arrived at Sheffield Railway Station. I headed towards the taxi rank and saw a crowd of people outside. Obviously curiosity got the better of me (but that comes from living with Catwoman) and I had to investigate. 

When I saw what all the fuss was about I was quite excited, but many of you would have wanted to hide behind the sofa at this point. I could hardly believe my eyes, there were three Daleks on the station concourse. Apparently they were on their way back to Skaro when they were obviously grounded by the volcanic ash cloud, but one of them did say that they were expecting to be picked up by the Royal Navy at any time soon. Sadly the Doctor was nowhere to be seen. But you can see the story on the BBC site by clicking here 

How do the Daleks know who's who? Well obviously they have names; Meet Derek, Dennis, Deano and Dave

 

In reality they were there to promote a new Dr Who game that will be available free from the BBC in June. I tried to get an autograph, but let’s face it how would a Dalek hold the pen. I did come away with a poster, a postcard and a pen though. You can see more of the New Daleks on the BBC site, just click here. I also had a behind the curtain Wizard of Oz type experience when I saw the man who provides the Dalek voice, Nick Briggs, standing behind a curtain speaking on their behalf. So I guess they’re not real after all, or maybe I’m just back in Kansas! 

So as I have said before this is a music blog so I’ll finish with a few related songs; 

“Doctor Who Theme” – Ron Grainer and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. The original theme from the 60s and the best in my opinion. Also includes some great Tardis sound effects. 

“Doctorin’ The Tardis” – The Timelords. This was in fact the KLF also known as the Justified Ancients Of Mu Mu also known as Bill Drummond and Jim Cauty. They recorded this song based on their book ‘The Manual’ which was basically a set of instructions to make a number one record. Guess what? This did indeed reach the top of the charts in the UK 

“Tom Baker” – Human League. This is a B Side from relatively early in their career 

And to finish let’s pay a visit to the Gay Daleks! 

And those regular readers may have noticed that this blog now contains embedded videos, yep I upgraded 🙂

 

Brits Special “I’m On The Right Track, Yeah I’m On To A Winner” February 17, 2010

Filed under: Observation,Review — justwilliam1959 @ 6:33 am
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It’s February 2010 (the 16th to be precise) and ‘With just A Hint Of Mayhem’ is coming to you live from the Brit Awards 2010. Well ok almost live and actually not really there but just in front of the telly! Just like last year really, if you want to relive my post from last years Brits click here

This years awards were hosted by the rather spiffingly talented Mr Peter Kay (Garlic Bread?) Interestingly the ad breaks featured a Master Card advert which was the story of last years Outstanding Achievement award winners the Pet Shop Boys doing a concert at someone’s house! Who would you choose to do a gig at your house? I would opt for David Bowie or Kate Bush!

First up to perform was the delectable Lily Allen. She sang “The Fear” with quite a strange cast of dancers; Pram Pushers, Men in Bowler Hats, Suits with no trousers and Union Jack Boxer Shorts and also some Umbrella Parachutists (is that a word?) dressed in pink camouflage gear. truly spectacular indeed! Lily was wearing a black hot pants type outfit, which I rather liked but Catwoman definitely didn’t! Hmmmmmmm I wonder why?

The first award was presented by Page 3 and ‘I’m A Celebrity’ veteran Sam Fox. She was introduced by Peter Kay as Sam Fleetwood, Mick Fox, Sam Fox in reference to the debacle that was the Brits presented by Sam and Mick Fleetwood off of Fleetwood Mac in the late 1980s. She presented the Brits Memorable Performance of the last 30 years. It seemed we were expecting a list of nominees, but there didn’t appear to be one. The award was given to the Spice Girls and was collected by Scary and Ginger or Mel B and Geri Halliwell as they prefer to be known these days

The next award was for Best British Male Artist and was presented by Andy Serkis who played Gollum in Lord Of The Rings and most recently played Ian Dury. The award went to the hugely entertaining Dizzee Rascal, thank god it wasn’t Robbie Williams! After this we endured JLS performing “Beat Again” they arrived on stage on strings, which confirmed my suspicions that these pop muppets are indeed puppets!

Mel B returned to the stage to present the next award to Jay Z or Jason Zed as Peter Kay called him. He won Best International Male Solo Artist. He spoke of his Glastonbury appearance and mentioned (tongue in cheek methinks) how he was influenced by the Spice Girls.

Noddy Holder off of Slade presented the best album of 30 years of the Brits award to Liam Gallagher for the Oasis album What’s The Story Morning Glory. Obviously Liam swore because the sound disappeared and the ‘audio has been muted’ appeared in the corner of the screen. As he left the stage he threw the microphone into the crowd and allegedly also threw the award into the crowd as well. Peter Kay referred to him, rightly so, as a knobhead when he did leave the stage.

Kasabian then played live and for me they were somewhat lacklustre, what did you think. I thought the flames at the front of the stage were more exciting.

The next award, the Breakthrough Act, was presented by Geri Halliwell (was this a Spice Girls take over?). Geri had to apologise for her earlier failure with Mel B to thank the other Spice Girls! It went to, shamefully in my opinion JLS. Pixie Lott, La Roux and Friendly Fires were all also nominated and missed out to the aforementioned muppets!

Courtney Love presented the Critics Choice Award to the delightful Ellie Goulding, I think I may have to download her album very soon.

Next to perform was the fantastic Lady Ga Ga. In my opinion she is a true star and a real mold breaker. She wore a kind of lace mask, fright wig and a body stocking that seemed to reveal more than it covered. A great performance and someone I would love to see in concert. She also dedicated her first song to the late, great and sadly departed Alexander McQueen.

Idris Elba off of London’s Burning (who he?) presented the Best British Group Award to Kasabian. Personally I felt it should have gone to Muse. Incidentally up to this point I had guessed every winner correctly!

Cat Deeley presented the first of Lady GaGa’s awards for International Breakthrough Artist. This was followed by a fantastic and inspired duet from Dizzee Rascal and Florence off of Florence and the Machine. It was the classic and one of my all time favourite songs; “You Got The Love” which was originally by the Source featuring Candi Staton.

There followed a short film clip of Prince Harry extolling the virtues and wonderful charitable work of the Brits Trust. He came across as quite amusing and very human and showed that one is down wiv da kidz! Which coming from someone like me who is very anti royal is big praise indeed.

über Knobhead Jonathan Ross presented the Best International Female award to (no surprises here) Lady GaGa. her second of the night so far!

Dame Shirley Bassey presented the Solo British Female award, one which she herself actually won in 1977. It went to one of my current favourite singers, Lily Allen. Lily wore a red wig, which she claimed was to make it hard for the cameras to pick her out for that ‘disappointed’ shot had she not won. Incidentally she clearly seemed surprised and very giggly!

Jay Z and Alicia Keys then duetted on a storming “New York State Of Mind”. Mr Z is my second favourite rapper after Eminem and Alicia possess one of the finest soul voices of her generation.

Mika presented the Best International Album Award to Lady GaGa, her third and final Brit of the night. I believe the new Queen Of The Brits deserved every one of them!

Cheryl Cole then performed “Fight For Your Love” amidst a cast of a thousand dancers. For me the dark glasses and dance moves suggested our Cheryl is something af a Janet Jackson wannabe. I didn’t spot Cashley in the crowd though, perhaps he texted her earlier!

Alan Carr had the honour of giving the Best British Single Award to JLS, well that one was voted for by Sun readers so what do you expect?

Tom Ford (is he a fashion designer?) presented the Best British Album Brit to Florence and the Machine for the brilliant album ‘Lungs’. Florence gave a very gracious acceptance speech. ‘Lungs’ is one of my favourite albums of recent years I also loved her set at last years Reading Festival

Finally the winner of the Outstanding Achievement Award who also had the honour of closing the show was Robbie Bloody Williams. He performed a medley of hits, including a song which I really do not like, “Angels” As regular readers might have guessed the appearance of Robbie was definitely not a highlight for me.

So in summary 3 Brits to Lady GaGa and sadly 2 to JLS and in my opinion that is 2 too many!

 To finish here are a few Brit News links for you;

Sky News

The Guardian

 

“Yes we’re going to a party party, yes we’re going to a party party” February 8, 2010

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 11:57 pm
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I can hardly believe it but this is the first birthday of my blog. Where did the time go?My posts have had far too much David Bowie, the Beatles and Steal The Smile, but do you know what? I don’t care, it’s my blog and I’ll post if I want to (thanks to Lesley Gore for that bit!)

I have also become a reluctant and very poor expert on Slipknot without masks (ok I know that it was really Cradle Of Filth in that picture, well at least I do now!)

On the way I have come across some great people and blogs. You know who you are, but Mickey Glitter and Punky Mama get special mentions as regular contributors of comments. You should also check out the excellent Australian Heroin Diaries Blog

So far there have been 111 posts including this one, 217 comments (including mine, cos I do like to reply to all of you, even the critical comments!) and nearly 400,000 hits. I really couldn’t ask for more, originally I would have been ecstatic hits reached double figures so now I’m totally blown away. The most searched terms that arrived here so far (all with more than 10,000) have been Pink Floyd, Lily Allen, Kate Bush, Slipknot and Catwoman

So thank you very, very much dear readers I really appreciate you being here, please come back soon 🙂

So here are a few birthday songs to celebrate my blog’s first birthday

“Happy Birthday” – Stevie Wonder

“Happy Birthday” – Altered Images

“Birthday” – Beatles

 

“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
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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!

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!)

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!

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!

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

Mick Ronson - gone but never forgotten

 

“Are we living in a land where sex and horror are the new gods?” March 14, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:55 pm
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Welcome to the weekend good people, bad people and those who aren’t sure. It’s time to let your hair down for a couple of days, well metaphorically in my case! It’s 14th March and just one day away from those dastardly Ides, so remember to stay bewared so to speak.

Did you make a donation to Comic Relief yesterday? If not it’s not too late and if you did feel free to donate more. Just click here and remember just £5 will buy a mosquito net for an African child. This could help to eradicate Malaria which is one of the biggest killers of children in Africa. Just think that if everyone who read this blog yesterday donated just £1 that would total £450! For the latest update on Comic Relief click here, the ‘on the day total’ topped £57m!

I have a confession to make about last night’s show though and I can’t believe that I’m about to say this. But Robbie Williams was bloody good last night in the Little Britain sketch. To be fair he wasn’t singing, thankfully but nonetheless he was good. Click here to see the sketch. What do you think of it?

That little devil Robbie Williams raids the tranny dressing up box with David Walliams and Matt Lucas

That little devil Robbie Williams raids the tranny dressing up box with David Walliams and Matt Lucas

We continue todays post with a few contributions from some regular readers. Firstly thank you to Tom who passed on a great video and indeed a potentially great band today. We were talking at the Hospital Radio Station on Wednesday night about Ringo Starr’s solo efforts, which in my opinion have been somewhat patchy. Anyway Tom mentioned that there was an excellent video on YouTube promoting the current single from a band called Blame Ringo, click on the song title to see it, it is all filmed at the famous Abbey Road zebra crossing that was featured on the cover of the Beatles Abbey Road album. The song is called “Garble Arch (A Day In The Life Of Abbey Road)” So tell me, how many of you have had your picture taken on that crossing? Feel free to mail a copy to me and I’ll happily publish it in the blog for you. Blame Ringo’s website is pretty good too, click here to check it out.

This Beatles fan makes his feelings clear about Ringo having a bum deal even if he wasn't the best drummer in the band. To be fair Meg White wasn't the best drummer in the White Stripes either!

This Beatles fan makes his feelings clear about Ringo having a bum deal even if he wasn't the best drummer in the band. To be fair Meg White wasn't the best drummer in the White Stripes either!

I found this while I was searching for a Blame Ringo picture. So I had to include it. Why? Because I can of course!

I found this while I was searching for a Blame Ringo picture. So I had to include it. Why? Because I can of course! Indeed it even features Catwoman as well

Secondly here’s a great tip off from Nick H who lives in what used to be the hometown of Mary Shelley who wrote the rather spiffing Frankenstein. Nick has given us an excellent link to a brilliant cover of Gary Numan’s “Are Friends Electric?” by Jack White’s new band ‘Dead Weather’. It consists of Jack himself, obviously, Allison Mosshart from the Kills on vocals, Jack Lawrence from the Raconteurs and Dean Fertita from Queens of the Stone Age. Click the song title for the video and click here for the band’s web site.

Jack tried to warn Allison that she was about to feel a little prick....... from the thorn bush of course, you readers are just sooooooo rude! ;-)

Jack tried to warn Allison that she was about to feel a little prick....... from the thorn bush of course, you readers are just sooooooo rude! 😉

And finally for those readers contributions here is a brief one from Marcy. She wanted me to let you know that she lives a mere stones throw (well if you can throw a stone 7.1 miles) from Mr Davy Jones off of the Monkees. Davy also plays a few shows in Marcy’s home town too. Do any other readers live near a celebrity? Let me know and maybe I can include it in a future post

A horse walks into Davy's Bar and orders a beer, Davy serves him and says "why the long face?"

A horse walks into Davy's Bar and orders a beer, Davy serves him and says "why the long face?"

Anyway let’s move on with the trivia and useful/ useless (delete as appropriate) information for today.

Firstly the birthdays and today is the 63rd birthday of Jim Pons who was the bass player for classic 60s band the Turtles who had a massive hit with the classic (ok so I’ve overdone the classic superlative, so what?) “Happy Together”. Jim didn’t join the band until after that though. He was also a member of Frank Zappa’s Mothers Of Invention. The Turtles first hit was a cover of Bob Dylan’s “It Ain’t Me Babe”. Before this they were called Crossfires From The Planet Mars. Another classic Turtles hit was “She’d Rather Be with Me” which does indeed feature Jim on bass.

Everyone else had walked across the Abbey Road crossing, but the Turtles had to show off by crawling across

Everyone else had walked across the Abbey Road crossing, but the Turtles had to show off by crawling across

The second and last of our birthdays today is the 26th birthday of Jordan Taylor Hanson. He was, somewhat obviously, a member of Hanson who had a massive hit with “MMMBop“. I must confess that I love that song, a true guilty pleasure is that one I suppose. Does anyone else admit to liking it? Jordan preferred to be known by his middle name Taylor and he was just 14 at the height of “MMMBop’s” success. The band have the honour of appearing twice in TV’s Celebrity Death Match. The first time they fought the Spice Girls and both they and the Spice Girls were killed by a chainsaw toting Marilyn Manson. Bizarrely they came back for a rematch with Manson (hey I wonder if it was billed as Manson vs Hanson?), they lost again after Zac Hanson lost control of the chainsaw. Please note that Celebrity Death Match was not real and no stars were harmed during the making of it. Although there are some I would like to see on a real version! any guesses or suggestions? Incidentally fact fans, “MMMBop” has been featured as House’s mobile phone ring tone in House MD.

On further investigation it became clear that Hanson were in fact Triamese twins who shared four legs and three heads

On further investigation it became clear that Hanson were in fact Triamese twins who shared four legs and three heads

On this day in 1985 the mighty Frankie Goes To Hollywood played a show at the Sheffield City Hall in the UK. The band were absolutely mega in 84/ 85 with their first three singles all reaching number one in the UK. At that point they were only the second group ever to achieve that feat after Gerry and the Pacemakers in the 60s. There are various stories as to how the band got their name all relate to a newspaper or magazine headline of a star going to Hollywood. To be perfectly Frank it was one of the following Franks; Frank Sinatra, Frankie Vaughan (one of my Mum’s favourite singers!) or English comedian Frankie Howard (titter ye not!). “Relax” had reached number 6 in the UK charts after an appearance on Top Of The Pops and then the infamous Mike Read banning incident occurred. Allegedly Mike objected to the sexual content of the lyric, this of course gave the band and the song such publicity it shot to (read no innuendo into that smutty people) number one, where it stayed for 5 weeks. The follow up “Two Tribes” went to number one and stayed there for a phenomenal 9 weeks at the same time “Relax” climbed back to number 2. The third single “The Power Of Love” was number one for a short period in December 1984. It’s nativity themed video means that is still seen as a Christmas song by many, but I’m not convinced! The rise of Frankie also led to a proliferation of ‘FRANKIE SAY……’ Tee shirts. Here are the Frankie’s with “Relax” on Channel 4’s the Tube in late 1983.

They had reached page 42 in the Kama Sutra but now neither i=of them had a hand free to turn to the next page

They had reached page 42 in the Kama Sutra but now neither of them had a hand free to turn to the next page

And finally on this day in 1991 REM played the first of two nights at London’s Borderline billed as Bingo Hand Job. Not only did they come up with a different name for the band they also gave each other new names for the shows; Michael Stipe was the Reverend Bingo, Peter Buck became Raoul, Bill Berry was the Doc and Mike Mills had the honour (?) of being Stinky. Out of those I would rather have been called the Reverend Bingo but a number of people have told me that Stinky would be more appropriate. Hmmmmmm I’m not sure why that is 😉 Anyway to finish here are REM with the Muppets on a cracking version of “Furry Happy Monsters”

Michael had heard that many dog owners resembled their dogs, but.......

Michael had heard that many dog owners resembled their dogs, but.......

..... he hadn't realised that he was starting to look like his gargoyle!

..... he hadn't realised that he was starting to look like his gargoyle!