With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

On This Day Coldplay Proved That Mainstream Music Was In Need Of Defibrillation! April 2, 2024

Filed under: On This Day — justwilliam1959 @ 10:10 pm
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On 2nd April 2013 BBC Radio 2 closed a series called The Golden Age Of The Album with a show that ran down the top 100 albums of all time as voted for by their listeners. Having read through the top 100 it looks like only one album per artist was allowed. But for me Coldplay coming top with ‘A Rush Of Blood To The Head’ shows how bland music had become, I am not a huge Coldplay fan, but in my opinion that isn’t even their best album. Keane’s ‘Hopes And Fears’ has some good songs but it is very middle of the road. As for Duran Duran’s ‘Rio’. where did that come from? It is an OK 80s album but by no means a classic. The usual suspects in these lists are all there Pink Floyd (4), Rolling Stones (6), The Beatles (8), Kate Bush (24), David Bowie (61) and many more. I suspect that the list probably said more about the age profile of Radio 2 listeners at the time. But David Bowie is included for ‘Let’s Dance’, come on the 80s was his artistic nadir wasn’t it? Dido’s ‘No Angel’ number 4, that is such a dull record, as is David Gray’s entry at number 67 with ‘White Ladder’. I know that many of these sold loads of copies, but do sales make a great record? Anyway, you might not agree with my thoughts and opinions, but I would love to hear yours. The full list is shown below.

1 Coldplay – A Rush Of Blood To The Head
2 Keane – Hopes & Fears
3 Duran Duran – Rio
4 Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon
5 Dido – No Angel
6 The Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
7 Pet Shop Boys – Actually
8 The Beatles – Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
9 U2 – The Joshua Tree
10 Queen – A Night At The Opera
11 Fleetwood Mac – Rumours
12 Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin IV
13 The Police – Synchronicity
14 Madonna – True Blue
15 James Blunt – Back To Bedlam
16 Bruce Springsteen – Born To Run
17 Adele – 21
18 Oasis – Definitely Maybe
19 Simon & Garfunkel – Bridge Over Troubled Water
20 George Michael – Faith
21 Dire Straits – Brothers In Arms
22 Electric Light Orchestra – Out Of The Blue
23 Meat Loaf – Bat Out Of Hell
24 Kate Bush – The Kick Inside
25 Kylie Minogue – Fever
26 Bob Dylan – Blonde on Blonde
27 Michael Jackson – Thriller
28 Paul Simon – Graceland
29 Billy Joel – An Innocent Man
30 Kinks – The Kinks
31 Guns N Roses – Appetite For Destruction
32 Pulp – Different Class
33 The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds
34 Stevie Wonder – Songs In The Key of Life
35 Take That – Beautiful World
36 Blondie – Parallel Lines
37 ABBA – Arrival
38 Prince – Purple Rain
39 The Eagles – Hotel California
40 The Human League – Dare
41 Supertramp – Breakfast In America
42 R.E.M. – Automatic For The People
43 Wings – Band On The Run
44 Amy Winehouse – Back To Black
45 Joni Mitchell – Blue
46 Bon Jovi – Slippery When Wet
47 Elton John – Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
48 Robbie Williams – I’ve Been Expecting You
49 Marvin Gaye – What’s Going On
50 Neil Young – Harvest
51 Carole King – Tapestry
52 The Verve – Urban Hymns
53 Celine Dion – Falling Into You
54 The Who – Tommy
55 Donna Summer – Bad Girls
56 George Harrison – All Things Must Pass
57 Maroon 5 – Songs About Jane
58 Bob Marley & The Wailers – Exodus
59 Donald Fagen – The Nightfly
60 Gerry Rafferty – City To City
61 David Bowie – Let’s Dance
62 Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young – Déjà Vu
63 Elvis Costello – My Aim Is True
64 Roxy Music – Flesh and Blood
65 Steely Dan – Can’t Buy A Thrill
66 Culture Club – Colour By Numbers
67 David Gray – White Ladder
68 Bryan Adams – Reckless
69 Neil Diamond – Beautiful Noise
70 Phil Collins – Face Value
71 Genesis – Invisible Touch
72 Barbra Streisand – Guilty
73 Frank Sinatra – Songs for Swingin’ Lovers!
74 Simply Red – Stars
75 Van Morrison – Avalon Sunset
76 Rod Stewart – Atlantic Crossing
77 Sade – Diamond Life
78 Buddy Holly & The Crickets – The Chirping Crickets
79 Whitney Houston – Whitney Houston
80 Michael Bublé – Crazy Love
81 Shania Twain – Come On Over
82 Emeli Sandé – Our Version Of Events
83 Elvis Presley – Moody Blue
84 Bee Gees – Spirits Having Flown
85 Eric Clapton – Slowhand
86 The Pretenders – The Pretenders
87 Eurythmics – Be Yourself Tonight
88 The Carpenters – A Song For You
89 John Lennon – Double Fantasy
90 Don McLean – American Pie
91 Chic – C’est Chic
92 Aretha Franklin – Lady Soul
93 Daryl Hall & John Oates – Private Eyes
94 Earth, Wind & Fire – I Am
95 The Doobie Brothers – Minute by Minute
96 Lionel Richie – Can’t Slow Down
97 Diana Ross – Diana
98 Paul McCartney – Pipes Of Peace
99 Dionne Warwick – Heartbreaker
100 Cee Lo Green – The Lady Killer

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Live At Worthy Farm – Saturday 22nd May 2021 June 3, 2021

Filed under: Review — justwilliam1959 @ 7:28 pm
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I suppose this is a review of sorts, I mean I watched it “as live”, and that for me is the crux of the issue, not actually live, but “as live”. Maybe it should have been called ‘As Live At Worthy Farm’ On a positive note the lowering of some Covid restrictions meant that I was able to watch it with five mates round at my gaff 🙂 So thank you Simon, John, Paul, Pete and Rusty for helping to make it a great night! Maybe it was luck but we did not suffer any of the technical difficulties that thousands of other paying punters did. I am not sure who put the whole show together, but on paper the line up looked good and I love the way the sky got darker as the night went on.

The whole thing was kicked off with a blistering set from what seemed like a really fired up and ready for it Wolf Alice. They appeared to give it their all in the stone circle, despite the lack of a roaring crowd. “Don’t Delete The Kisses” was an incredibly powerful way to open the whole show. Meanwhile “The Last Man On Earth” was truly epic and suggests that the new album will be ace. The incredibly talented Michael Kiwanuka followed and his set was funky, jazzy and majestically soulful. Particular highlights were set openers “You Ain’t The Problem” and “Rolling” from his incredibly classy third album ‘Kiwanuka’ from 2019. Next to enter the Glasto site was George Ezra in very stripped back way, just him and a guitar walking around playing and singing, like a mobile busker. He played a few songs next to a raging fire and we thought maybe he was going to be sacrificed in a Wicker Man style, but don’t worry Ezra fans, he wasn’t! IDLES were bombastic and frankly hotter then Ezra’s fire. One of the few acts on the night to attack this vile UK government, “Reigns” is a great protest song. “Kill Them With Kindness” was another highlight for me. Their incendiary set was like a mini best of from their three albums to date. As a footnote it looked like they were playing in a warehouse full of strange junk, in fact it was filmed at Joe Rush’s “Carhenge” workshop!

HAIM were next and another of my highlights, the three sisters rocked the hell out of the Stone Circle. “Summer Girl” and “I Know Alone” were particular favourites of mine. When I have seen them in the past I was always mesmerised by the gurning antics of Este Haim, which sadly were not really evident in this performance. The next band, for me, are a bit Marmite, in that people seem to either love them or hate them, yes I am talking about Coldplay. personally I thought their first couple of albums were good, but they seem to have become a bit identikit and boring musically. Although they have great Glasto credentials, having headlined four times so far. They were filmed in front of the iconic Pyramid Stage, or at least a skeleton of it, with a stunningly good light show. The old songs were the winners for me, “Clocks”, “The Scientist” and especially “Fix You”. Next was Damon Albarn, an artist I really like, however I felt this set was a little self indulgent, although a long way from terrible. The crowd at my house went moderately wild in a socially distanced stylee when he played a couple of Blur songs, “Out Of Time” and “This Is A Low”. His set was a little underwhelming, however the thing that captivated us was the new Barnet sported by Mr Albarn, he has a mullet! Yes, seriously, a mullet! Damon, sort yourself out!

Rate My Mullet!

Jorja Smith is only 23 and yet her music has a beautiful maturity, she is a supremely talented singer songwriter with a fantastic voice. I love her ‘Be Right Back’ EP which came out in May. Her first big UK hit was “Blue Lights” and she opened her set with a powerhouse version of it. The Smile were the special guests and if you have not heard about them yet you really do need to crawl out from under your rock and scrub the moss off. Smile is Jonny Greenwood and Thom Yorke of Radiohead aided and abetted by Nigel Godrich and Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner. Skinner’s jazz background perhaps carried the most influence on the music, which showcased that Radiohead can do pop, especially synth pop with a huge dollop of prog. I really hope the Smile record and release an album, it will be worth it for “We Don’t Know What Tomorrow Brings” a synth pop banger that the likes of Depeche Mode would salivate over. But the most outstanding tune for me was “You Will Never Work In Television Again” which is full to the brim of great melodies and hooks. They even managed to fit in an unreleased Radiohead tune, “Skating on the Surface”. The Smile pretty much capped the evening for me, plus I had consumed a hell of a lot of wine by then. So I don’t recall too much about Kano’s set (humble apologies to Kane Brett Robinson a.k.a. Kano). I do remember marvelling at how fast this guy can rap, he spits his words at almost superhuman speed! The whole event was closed by a, so I am told, marvellous DJ set from DJ Honey Dijon featuring Róisín Murphy. Sadly the wine had really done for me by then! I should also give a shout out to all the artists and poets who provided spoken word interludes PJ Harvey, Jarvis Cocker, Kae Tempest, Kurupt FM, Little Amal and Mr Glastonbury himself, Michael Eavis.

The Smile – part 1
byu/docinwestchester inradiohead

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“The lights go out and I can’t be saved” March 14, 2019

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 2:34 am
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William Willett

My beautiful wife Catherine a.k.a Catwoman is far more active than I am, so much so that she subscribes to Country Walking magazine and I subscribe to the sedentary Q and Mojo! Anyway which of those threw up the best and perhaps most musically related fact recently? You guessed it, none other than the December 2018 issue of Country Walking.  So last weekend our American friends across the pond slipped their clocks back an hour, well most states did, Then in a couple of weeks the UK clocks go back an hour to hit British summertime. Why did we do that? Was it Farmers? Was it the postal service? Was it World War 1? Was it School Children? Actually it was none of those. In reality it was the brainchild of William Willett. His steadfast belief was that money was wasted by not changing; less  productivity in the darker mornings and power for lighting in the evening. He also enjoyed playing golf in the evening so his campaign which hit pay-dirt in 1916, the year after his death was somewhat selfish.

Chris Martin

I can almost hear you asking what the hell has this got to do with music? Well that William Willett bloke is none other than the great-great- grandfather of Chris Martin off of Coldplay. Of course and so appropriately Coldplay had a hit with a song called “Clocks”, which made the UK top 10 for the band in 2003.

 

Latitude Festival 2016 Day 3 Sunday 17th July July 27, 2016

Filed under: Review — justwilliam1959 @ 10:51 pm
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latitude_festival_2016_-_line_up_poster

The final day at Latitude, really? Where on earth did the time go? Wherever it went I had a great time, even on day three. Catwoman went to have a massage today, yes a massage, that is how diverse this festival is. Meanwhile I visited the comedy tent to see Spencer Jones. He is like an adult Punch and Judy show. Whilst he has some very clever visual comedy I personally think that his act was incredibly over long at thirty minutes, but the crowd seemed to love him. I met up with Catwoman and some of the gang for a wander across to the Cabaret tent for one of the highlights of the weekend. Tina C – Herstory; redneck, white trash (it ain’t a colour thing it’s a state of mind), country and western hoe down comedy. Who knew a drag act could be this good? Give me a HELL YEAH!

I dropped by the Lake Stage and caught most of a stunning set from Martha Ffion. It was like Orange Juice had been blended with Altered Images and dusted with some 21st century sparkle. Bloody brilliant! I may have only been there for a short part of Laura Mvula’s Obelisk Arena set, but oh boy this lady oozes class. Jamie Woon was next at the recommendation of Claire (thank you!). He sings very modern R & B that is clearly rooted in old skool soul music. At times he reminded me of the Groove Corporation. Does anyone else remember them? I often go and see a band whose name I like, even if I have never heard of them before. That is why I found myself at the Sunrise Arena again. This time for Little Green Cars. They are a great American band who play highly charged and often emotional rock songs with pitch perfect harmonies. A little like Vampire Weekend but without the African style guitar sound. The BBC 6 Music stage hosted someone who I haven’t seen live for quite a few years, Roots Manuva. He is living proof that British Rap works, especially with such a tight band behind him.

Then it was off to pay my final visit to the Obelisk Arena a.k.a. the main stage. The Lumineers were on. I thought that they were pretty good although perhaps a little too ‘safe’ for me. I also feel that the Lumineers could be one of those bands that is far better live than on record. They were followed by M83 (is it eight three or eighty-three?). I saw them some years ago at the Reading Festival and they are clearly a very good band. But personally I was surprised that they were so high up the bill. M83 are a very original band who may be influenced by the likes of Coldplay. In the meantime I believe that Imagine Dragons and Bastille among others may just owe a little debt to them. The evening was wrapped up, for me at least, by a stonking set from soon to be scouse superstars Clean Cut Kid at the Lake Stage. Can we see them on a bigger stage next year please? So then it was back to our canvas mansion for cheese, wine and a major mosquito attack, okay maybe it was horseflies but they certainly pack a nasty bite (or sting or whatever). In summary I actually enjoyed camping, I loved the great company and I love this splendid festival even if I am working class and therefore technically shouldn’t fit in. Catwoman and I will be back next year provided that the rest of our gang believe that we passed the audition and the initiation!

 

Live At Leeds – Saturday 2nd May 2015 May 5, 2015

Filed under: Review — justwilliam1959 @ 8:27 pm
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live-at-leeds

This year was the first time I have been around for Live At Leeds and thanks to my good friend John Hayhurst I even got a cheap ticket. On top of that John’s research on the bands, singers and venues was immaculate. After collecting our wrist bands at the First Direct arena we headed to the Key Club. The first band on stage were Forever Cult. I would describe them as a bit grunge, a bit indie and a bit classic rock. They were bloody good, “Yasmin” is a great song. All three were excellent musicians but the drummer attacked his kit like a reincarnated John Bonham. He even had a look of the great Bonzo about him too.

forever cult

We were entertained on the same stage next by the Treason Kings. They are full on heavy, hard and hairy rock at its best. Maybe with even a bit of a prog twinge. I mean who else but someone with an awareness of prog history would write a song about their chest of drawers called “Chest Of Drawers”? An excellent band in my opinion.

treason kings

After that it was a brisk walk to the O2 Academy for Gaz Coombes. I have seen him a few years ago when he was still with Supergrass, now they were a great band weren’t they? Mr Coombes solo is different from Supergrass but still su-fucking-perb.

gaz coombes

The Belgrave Rooms took us in next. We caught the last pert of Alex Burey’s set. He is a young london singer songwriter who is a bit like a jazzed up and more funky Jake Bugg with an extra added Orange Juice/ Edwyn Collins. Chloe Black was what drew us to the Belgrave. She owned the stage with her striking monochrome look and wowed us with just an iPad and a keyboard. For me she has a range of influences from Amy Winehouse to Bjork via Ballad Madge (a.k.a Madonna) She seemed a little nervous at first but it was a really packed house.

chloe black

We made a dash to get to a small bar called Milo’s for the highly recommended Crybabycry. The bar is quite small and rammed to the rafters with punters. That might have helped or hindered a performer or band. But I believe Crybabycry raised themselves for it. They are a truly stupendous band. Their songs are often underpinned by a classic glam rock drum beat from a very talented drummer. All three are very talented musicians and their songs are wonderful. I can hardly wait to see them again, but I will see them next month at the Apollo Festival in York.

crybabycry

After this and a brief burger stop we whizzed over to the Holy Trinity Church where we stayed for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Being an old church the acoustics are fabulous. Frances was first on for us. Great voice – Tick, great pianist – Tick, Great songs – tick. She clearly ticks all the boxes for me and has the gifts and talent to be really successful.

frances

The second act we saw in the Holy Trinity Church was Freddie Dickson and the Guard. What a fucking amazing find they were. I thought that I was detecting shades of Coldplay and Radiohead and then I thought nope these guys are very much of their own making. I believe that they are probably one of the best young bands that I have seen in years and believe me I have seen some great young bands; Avalanche Party and the Tuts to name but two. Freddie’s voice is off the scale of phenomenal rock voices. This band really ought to be huge!

freddie dickson and the guard

Having settled in to our prime spot on the pew just in front of the stage we were next entertained by Seafret. They might look a little like Simon and Garfunkel but they come across like a turbo charged and folky McAlmont and Butler. They are from Bridlington, they are Seafret and they are bloody marvellous.

seafret

 

The penultimate performer for our time at Live At Leeds was Laura Doggett. She has a brilliant band, an amazing voice and her songs are truly captivating. I felt there were quite a few influences in her songs and performance; Florence, Kate Bush and Stevie Nicks. It was a superb set, the one thing that didn’t work for me though was the often very twee between song conversation.

laura doggett

Finally it was time for Lucy Rose, or perhaps it wasn’t time. The were a multitude of equipment problems for which Lucy apologised, although clearly it wasn’t her fault. Eventually she had the techie set up a microphone and an acoustic amp, whereupon she came out and took requests, from her first album. Not many artists would have the commitment and the balls to do this, let alone actually pull it off. But Lucy Rose really did make it work. Eventually the equipment problems were sorted and she was able to perform some of her planned set. Lucy Rose; a trouper, a true performer and a great singer-songwriter. The packed audience loved her and frankly so did I.

lucy rose

 

And finally it’s the public service announcement. All the videos ( a selection of artists that we saw on the day) are courtesy of YouTube and all the photos are courtesy of rock photographer John Hayhurst. (I borrowed them from your Facebook page Mr H)

 

BBC Music Awards 2014 – December 11th 2014 December 11, 2014

Filed under: Review — justwilliam1959 @ 10:10 pm
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Awards-Logo640December 11th 2014 saw the first ever BBC Music Awards. The show was broadcast live from Earls Court in London. Whilst there were only four awards there were plenty of live acts including; Coldplay (Stunning), Labrinth with Ella Henderson (Class), Clean Bandit (is there anyone that doesn’t love them?), Gregory Porter (why does he wear that balaclava?), George Ezra (a proper Buddha Pest), Wand Erection (whisper this, but I thought that they were alright!), Ed Sheeran (how can one man with a guitar be that bloody good?), Calvin Harris (super Scot) with John Newman (voice of the year and pearly king) and Ellie Goulding (sublime disco), Catfish and the Bottlemen (best newcomers and 70s fashion aficionados), Paloma Faith (quirky and wonderful), Take That (now known as Taxdodge That), Will.i.am (a bit Bollywood Disco, not a bad song, still.a.twat) with Cody Wise (better.than.will.i.am)

bbc musicThe first award was for Best International Artist. Chris Evans who co-hosted the show with Fearne Cotton picked a young Welsh lass from the audience to announce the winner, which was Pharrell Williams. He was presented with his award live in LA by Gwen Stefani.

pharrell-williams-grammy-hat-has-a-hip-hop-historyIdris Elba presented the award for Song Of The Year and guess what? There was another trip to LA for Gwen Stefani to present yet another award to Pharrell Williams. This time for the stupendous “Happy”.

CF1-e1386329747254The BBC Introducing Award for Best Newcomer went to Catfish And The Bottlemen. A good choice methinks. I am really keen to see them play live now. The award was presented by Fearne Cotton after they played live.

Ed SheeranFuck me, Bowie was nominated for Best British artist but sadly he didn’t win it. Tom Jones presented the award to Ed Sheeran. I was surprised that Pharrell hadn’t been quickly given British citizenship. But then Sheeran’s “Sing” was a collaboration with Pharrell though.

Was this a better show than the Brits? Probably, but they need more awards. Also I thought Paloma Faith and Tom Jones finale had so much promise until they strangled “God Only Knows”. Was that as bad a cover of the song as David Bowie’s version in the 80s? Probably!

 

Reading Festival 2013 – Day 1 – Friday 23rd August August 24, 2013

Filed under: Review — justwilliam1959 @ 7:51 am
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So here we are once again and Nick Horslen and I have arrived at the Reading Festival site for the umpteenth year. I think it’s more than 10 years for us as a team. As for me I have missed only two from the last 20 years. I attended my first ever Reading in 1976 and got in through a hole in the fence, which doesn’t seem so easy to do nowadays. Today turned out to be the hottest day at the Festival for a few years; for the weather at least!

Wytches (why is there a new wave of making your band’s name appear to be from ye olde English language?) were first up they sound a little Doorsy and their guitar wig-outs were like a harder edged garage band. Pretty good though.
King No-one from Leeds were on the BBC Introducing stage; fans of Vampire Weekend maybe? I like these dudes.
Night Engine are channeling the vocal ghost of Billy McKenzie and answering the questions can gingers rock and can they funk? The answer in my opinion is fuck yeah! Irish band  Kodaline come on like the bastard love sprogs of Bono and  Chris Martin but with more balls! This band deserves to  be HUGE!
If you want top performance power pop look no further than the fabulous Parquet Courts. Top band! So what were New Found Glory like? As the sign said ‘Pop Punk’s Not Dead! Right on. They played the whole of the  Sticks and Stones’ album.

Next came our first visit to the comedy stage for the excellent Shappi Khorsandi and Idiots of Ants who weren’t so good. They weren’t really able to engage with the audience.

Does what it says on the tin no. 1; Frank Turner – mightily awesome! Although perhaps not as awesome as I have known him to be in the past. His Mum introduced him, which was a nice touch. He also had a Cobain moment as he was pushed on to the stage in a wheelchair; his Mum explained that he had a bad back, however he stayed in the chair for about a minute! Interestingly he got the whole of the Main Stage crowd, including us, to sit down for one of the choruses of “Photosynthesis” to which we all sang along. Now that is a little ironic given that the chorus starts with the line ‘I won’t sit down’

We met 3 thirds of the Tuts and half of Colour Me Wednesday outside the Festival Republic Stage! I saw the Tuts earlier this year when they supported Kate Nash and I am looking forward to seeing Colour Me Wednesday later this week in Leeds. If you are reading this post and you haven’t heard the Tuts or Colour Me Wednesday then I order you to do something about that!

Has Marc Bolan been reincarnated? Nope it’s the Temples on the Festival Republic stage! Kate Nash is supremely talented and after her set I am now an even bigger fan than I was when I saw her in York earlier this year. It was great to see Nadia Tut make it onstage eventually too! A brief note to the festival organisers; what is wrong with a bit of a stage invasion instigated by Kate herself? It would have been fun and no harm would have been done. But at least three people made it up.
System of a Down on the Main Stage; loud, heavy, technically superb but would I ever listen to them outside the confines of a festival? I doubt it. Does what it says on the tin number 2; Green Day. They were very, very good and certainly had more energy than last years Friday headliners the Cure. But in a way it is kind of identikit pop punk. They played the whole of the ‘Dookie’ album, which will be 20 years old next year. I felt that apart from a few songs it hasn’t aged well. “Basket Case” will always be a classic though. The light show was superb and Billie Joe‘s stage presence is unquestionably great. The best part for me was the storming encore of “American Idiot” (I do believe I will never tire of that song) and “Jesus Of Suburbia“. Then just when we thought it was all over Mr Armstrong came back on for a solo acoustic rendition of “Time Of Your Life”. All in all a pretty good day. Now bring on Day 2!

 

“Stand up beside the fireplace” April 29, 2013

Filed under: News,Observation — justwilliam1959 @ 5:30 pm
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Sunderland v Everton - Premier League

Apparently Paolo Di Canio the manager of Sunderland Football Club says he has improved his command of English by using a karaoke machine and listening to Oasis. So is his English better than it was? That is probably a definite maybe. Whilst his club may survive for another season in the Premiership I suspect that it is unlikely that they will live forever unless he really keeps his beady eye on the opposition; d’you know what I mean? The owners of the club have told Paolo to don’t look back in anger and to just roll with it!

article-1328116439383-118D3CB6000005DC-144536_636x431

There was another piece of premiership news in the UK press this week as well. Chris Martin off of Coldplay was spotted with his friend Jay Z at the Arsenal versus Manchester United match this weekend. I guess they had 99 problems but a pitch ain’t one!

jay--z-and-chris-martin-warching-football--1367229699-custom-0

Noel

 

“You made me feel alive, but something died I fear” October 1, 2012

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 10:54 pm
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Curses! Tin foiled again!

The Official Charts Company have released details of the biggest selling CDs in the UK since the format was included in album sales. The list probably holds no real surprises, but clearly has a few disappointing entries in my opinion. The fact that James Blunt, Dido, Leona Lewis and David Gray are in the top 10 shows how bland the UK’s music tastes have become in my opinion. Is this a result of many people buying their CDs from large supermarkets these days? Who knows, but surely that plays a part. Anyway here is the top 10;

1- Gold Greatest Hits – Abba: 4m

2 – 21 – Adele: 3.5m

3 – What’s the Story Morning Glory – Oasis: 3.4m

4 – Back to Black – Amy Winehouse: 3.225m

5 – Back to Bedlam – James Blunt: 3.209m

6 – No Angel – Dido: 3.031m

7 – Come on Over – Shania Twain: 3.02m

8 – Spirit – Leona Lewis:2.95m

9 – Urban Hymns – The Verve: 2.9m

10 – White Ladder – David Gray 2.8m

There are clearly some classic albums in the list from Oasis, the Verve and Amy Winehouse. But the current top-selling UK CD is Abba Gold, probably soon to be overtaken by Adele’s ’21’. One thing that surprised me was that Dire Straits’ ‘Brothers In Arms’ , the first million selling CD was not in the top 10 or even the top 30. Dido has one more album in the list at number 11. Robbie Williams and Coldplay have three albums each in the top 30. The Beatles’ compilation ‘1’ is at number 12 and there is no entry for Queen in the top 30 either.

 

“You’re not down with who I am, look at you now, you’re all in my hands tonight” March 10, 2012

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 11:31 pm
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A white parka? Seriously?

XFM listeners recently took part in a poll to name the greatest front man of all time. So many great blokes to choose from and they went for Liam Gallagher. Now don’t get me wrong Liam has been very good in the past, particularly in the early days of Oasis, but the greatest front man of all time? I don’t think so. The full top 20 was;

1. Liam Gallagher
2. Freddie Mercury
3. Dave Gahan
4. Dave Grohl
5. Matt Bellamy
6. Brandon Flowers
7. Morrissey
8. Jim Morrison
9. Kurt Cobain
10. Alex Turner
11. Paul Weller
12. Mick Jagger
13. Tom Meighan
14. Eddie Vedder
15. Joe Strummer
16. Ian Curtis
17. Caleb Followill
18. Ian Brown
19. Thom Yorke
20. Chris Martin

A white double-breasted jacket? Seriously?

I agree with many of these, but I am surprised Robert Plant and John Lydon didn’t make the cut. Who do you think should have been included? Click here to read the report on nme.com.

Liam wasn't very happy with his dental work