With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

Mayhem Takes Over The World, Almost! January 9, 2024

Filed under: Observation — justwilliam1959 @ 7:15 pm
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How many countries are there in the world? Well according to Worldometer there are 195 countries in the world today. This total comprises 193 countries that are member states of the United Nations and 2 non-member observer states: the Holy See and the State of Palestine. This means that Worpress sees countries slightly differently because, in the almost fifteen years since I started With Just A Hint Of Mayhem, it has been viewed in 226 countries, so I guess some of those are not “real” countries. On top of that, there are six countries (coloured grey on the map above) where no one has taken even a single view of With Just A Hint Of Mayhem. So if you reside in any of the following places, or you know someone who does, ask them to come and say hi to Mayhem. The countries/ places that are missing out on all the fun are Western Sahara, Chad, Eritrea, Burundi, Svalbard (Norway), and North Korea. Why have I written this post? Well, I am proud of the reach the blog has had, but it also allows me to feature some appropriate(ish) tunes. Before that, the top ten countries that have visited the site the most are (the full list can be seen at the end of this post)

1 United States
2 United Kingdom
3 Germany
4 Chile
5 France
6 Canada
7 Spain
8 Mexico
9 Australia
10 Italy

If you have enjoyed this article, feel free to follow the blog, or follow us on; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, EMail. Are you interested in writing and reviewing for With Just A Hint Of Mayhem? If so then please get in touch.

The Full Mayhem World Domination List

1 United States
2 United Kingdom
3 Germany
4 Chile
5 France
6 Canada
7 Spain
8 Mexico
9 Australia
10 Italy
11 Brazil
12 Netherlands
13 Argentina
14 Ireland
15 Colombia
16 Sweden
17 India
18 Poland
19 Turkey
20 Belgium
21 Philippines
22 Peru
23 Indonesia
24 Russia
25 European Union
26 Norway
27 Denmark
28 Japan
29 New Zealand
30 Switzerland
31 Greece
32 Venezuela
33 Finland
34 South Africa
35 Malaysia
36 Thailand
37 Austria
38 Portugal
39 Czechia
40 Hungary
41 Romania
42 Ecuador
43 Israel
44 South Korea
45 Singapore
46 Croatia
47 Serbia
48 China
49 Saudi Arabia
50 Hong Kong SAR China
51 United Arab Emirates
52 Ukraine
53 Slovakia
54 Bulgaria
55 Costa Rica
56 Egypt
57 Pakistan
58 Taiwan
59 Algeria
60 Morocco
61 Guatemala
62 Vietnam
63 Slovenia
64 Uruguay
65 Lithuania
66 Bolivia
67 El Salvador
68 Puerto Rico
69 Estonia
70 Dominican Republic
71 Georgia
72 Panama
73 Cyprus
74 Bangladesh
75 Tunisia
76 Latvia
77 Malta
78 Bosnia & Herzegovina
79 Lebanon
80 Iceland
81 Kuwait
82 Honduras
83 North Macedonia
84 Paraguay
85 Sri Lanka
86 Armenia
87 Nigeria
88 Albania
89 Iraq
90 Trinidad & Tobago
91 Nicaragua
92 Luxembourg
93 Jordan
94 Jamaica
95 Azerbaijan
96 Qatar
97 Kenya
98 Libya
99 Belarus
100 Nepal
101 Isle of Man
102 Jersey
103 Moldova
104 Mauritius
105 Ghana
106 Myanmar (Burma)
107 Oman
108 Guernsey
109 Bahrain
110 Kazakhstan
111 Bahamas
112 Cambodia
113 Montenegro
114 Tanzania
115 Syria
116 Palestinian Territories
117 Mongolia
118 Brunei
119 Côte d’Ivoire
120 Maldives
121 Barbados
122 Ethiopia
123 Curaçao
124 Réunion
125 Uganda
126 Zimbabwe
127 Zambia
128 Namibia
129 Senegal
130 Yemen
131 Macao SAR China
132 Sudan
133 Haiti
134 Madagascar
135 Cuba
136 Gibraltar
137 Angola
138 Guadeloupe
139 Botswana
140 Belize
141 Martinique
142 Cayman Islands
143 Aruba
144 Guam
145 Grenada
146 Fiji
147 Uzbekistan
148 Cameroon
149 Rwanda
150 Afghanistan
151 Monaco
152 Andorra
153 Mozambique
154 Bermuda
155 Papua New Guinea
156 Turkmenistan
157 New Caledonia
158 Suriname
159 Iran
160 St. Lucia
161 Kyrgyzstan
162 Mali
163 Bhutan
164 Seychelles
165 American Samoa
166 Guyana
167 Malawi
168 Cape Verde
169 Antigua & Barbuda
170 French Polynesia
171 Greenland
172 Faroe Islands
173 U.S. Virgin Islands
174 St. Vincent & Grenadines
175 Laos
176 Djibouti
177 Åland Islands
178 French Guiana
179 Congo – Kinshasa
180 Dominica
181 Turks & Caicos Islands
182 San Marino
183 St. Kitts & Nevis
184 British Virgin Islands
185 Unknown Region
186 Gabon
187 Liberia
188 Benin
189 Mauritania
190 Togo
191 Gambia
192 Liechtenstein
193 Burkina Faso
194 Eswatini
195 Timor-Leste
196 Caribbean Netherlands
197 Guinea
198 Somalia
199 Northern Mariana Islands
200 Niger
201 Tonga
202 Cook Islands
203 Lesotho
204 Congo – Brazzaville
205 Mayotte
206 South Sudan
207 Samoa
208 Falkland Islands
209 Sierra Leone
210 Equatorial Guinea
211 Guinea-Bissau
212 Sint Maarten
213 Nauru
214 Tuvalu
215 St. Martin
216 Kosovo
217 Tajikistan
218 Solomon Islands
219 Anguilla
220 Vatican City
221 Vanuatu
222 St. Helena
223 Palau
224 St. Pierre & Miquelon
225 Micronesia
226 Central African Republic

 

With Just A Hint Of Mayhem is ten years old! Part 2 February 1, 2019

Filed under: News,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 11:56 pm
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Here we go with part 2/ day 2 of the With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 10th birthday celebrations. Regular readers will know that yesterday I gave you the top ten most viewed posts on the blog since it began back in February 2009 (Click here to view that again). Today I bring you the top ten countries that have given With Just A Hint Of Mayhem the most views. Don’t worry there will be plenty of music in the coming days including things like my top ten favourite singles, albums, bands and more stuff too! Don’t forget that you can also find us on Twitter  and FaceBook .

So on with the countries who have visited the site most often

USA 173,833

UK 116,030

Chile 27,682

Germany 26,344

France 22,616

Canada 19,208

Mexico 15,273

Spain 14,654

Australia 11,828

Brazil 8,475

Incidentally there are a handful of countries that have never visited With Just A Hint Of Mayhem, well at least not yet. If you can make it happen for Svalbard, Western Sahara, Bujumbura, Chad, Turkmenistan, Kosovo, Djibouti and unsurprisingly, North Korea. There are also thirteen countries with only one view each in 10 years.

So to celebrate how about a few world related songs? Don’t mind if I do 🙂

 

 

KRON – “Raptoid” EP August 16, 2017

Filed under: Review — justwilliam1959 @ 9:55 pm
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Los Angeles synth supremos KRON recently unleashed their unbelievably powerful EP “Raptoid” on Ring The Alarm Records. The sound this bunch make belies the fact that there are only three of them and that their sound is simply not organic in any way. It is pure synth power with hints of Giorgio Moroder circa the Midnight Express score. They produce a barrage of sound that will not just make you want to dance but will stand over you with menace until you start to move.

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All of the eight tracks on this EP would fit perfectly into a film soundtrack. Opener “Proof You’re Gone” would grace the Exorcist and title track “Raptoid” would be perfect on the next instalment of the Terminator franchise. “Valley Of The Wind” is Mogwai on steroids. My favourite track is “Neo Kong” with its vocoderish sound that takes on Daft Punk and leaves them in a bloody pulp. Michael Sherer, Sean Krell  and Sam Newell started out as the house band for Ghosting, a regular art/tech dance party held in a warehouse in LA’s Chinatown. The crowds just got bigger and bigger as they flocked to see the trio now named KRON. It was not just to hear the attack of KRON’s modular synths but also to witness the galactic analog video synth visuals.

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I really need to see this band live and if they are ever playing in the north of England I will do my damnedest to be there. On Facebook they have perhaps the best genre description that I have ever seen; “Mortal Kombat-Safari House-Horror Synth”. They also describe themselves as “Equal parts Giorgio Moroder, Simian Mobile Disco, sentient rogue Microsoft screen saver, and Amun-Ra (the ancient Egyptian sun-god)”. It is the rogue screen saver part that really interests me. Bottom line this has the hallmarks of a classic album that will be played regularly in my house. A big thank you to those delightful folk at Noisy Ghost PR for letting me take this EP for a spin.

 

Happy 8th Birthday to my blog! February 9, 2017

Filed under: Observation,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:19 am
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Hello good people of the blogosphere and thanking you for coming to visit my blog. The With Just A Hint Of Mayhem blog is eight years old today, Thursday 9th February 2017. This blog is an Aquarius. So I was going to treat you to another numbers post (i.e. songs with 8 in the title) but then my wonderful wife Catherine a.k.a. Catwoman gave me an even better idea of which I will tell you more soon.

8th-wishes

Firstly though here are some stats for the eight years that this blog has been alive;

1,587,200 visits (most from UK, USA, France, Chile, Mexico, Canada, Germany, Spain, Brazil and Australia)

1,016 posts (including this one)

842 comments

1,019 followers

Most common subjects via tags (David Bowie 141, Beatles 132, the BBC 107)

The post with the most views (68,439 to date) was published when the blog was only 8 days old, click here to read it, it was titled “We Are Starlight, We Are Golden”.

Most searches;

lady gaga 96,870
pink floyd 57,082
kate bush 41,699
lily allen 34,810
eminem 34,675
slipknot 27,081
catwoman 21,443
beatles 16,794
pink 16,497
bjork 12,772

Many of you searched for naked artists and the most popular search there was 2,620 searches for Lily Allen Naked, you pervy bunch you!

Anyway enough of the stats! How about the birthday celebration idea that my wonderful wife came up with? Well how about some music from a selection of artists that were also born on February 9th? You want some of that? OK well here you go.

Carmen Miranda born 1909

Ernest Tubb Born 1914

Carole King born 1942

Major Harris born 1947

Holly Johnson born 1960

Travis Tritt born 1963

Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo (off of Daft Punk) born 1974

James Owen Sullivan a.k.a The Rev (one time drummer with Avenged Sevenfold) born 1981 and sadly died in 2009

keep-calm-its-my-8th-birthday

 

 

 

“But don’t you dare get to the top and not know what to do” – Advent day 11 December 11, 2013

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 6:24 am
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advent-day-11_2078894aCan you believe it’s the 11th December already? Where the hell is the time going. Still I am very close to being in the smug zone; I’ve bought all my presents now it’s just a case of wrapping them, posting some of them and hiding the rest! Have you done all your Christmas shopping or will you be waiting until the turbo kicks in on 24th December? Anyway enough of all that, it is of course day 11 in the With Just A Hint Of Mayhem advent posts which means you get two songs with the number 11 in their title.

funny-celebrity-pictures-how-thoughtful-of-uFirst up it’s U2 with “11 O’clock Tick Tock” which is the band’s second single released in May 1980. It was a non-album release produced by Martin Hannett who had previously produced Joy Division among others. There is also a great version of the song on the mini live album ‘Under A Blood Red Sky‘. In their early days the band often played the song twice during their set because they didn’t have much material. An earlier version of the song had different lyrics and was called “Silver Lining”

Julian-julian-casablancas-16833737-667-1000Second tune for today is from Julian Casablancas off of the Strokes; it is called “11th Dimension”. Casablancas is the lead singer of the Strokes and “11th Dimension” is so far his only hit outside the band. It was taken from his 2009 solo album ‘Phrazes For The Young‘. Describing the song as a hit is a little loose; it only charted in Japan where it reached number 48 in 2009. One of Casablancas’ most recent recordings was the vocal on “Instant Crush” from Daft Punk’s planet-conquering album, ‘Random Access Memories’. He has also inspired someone to write a song about him. Notably Courtney Love who included a song called “But Julian, I’m A Little Bit Older Than You” on her first solo album, ‘America’s Sweetheart’ in 2004.

CARD

 

“I picture the rain on windows and I think of home” – Advent post day 1 December 1, 2013

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:08 pm
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211061_511805772225628_391093463_nWho would have thought that time passed so quickly? It seems like only yesterday that I was posting my twelve days of Christmas  advent blog. But here we are almost a year further on. So are you ready for this years With Just A Hint Of Mayhem Advent Calendar blog posts? I hope so because I have chosen a really eclectic mix of music for you. The theme is songs with numbers in their title and the plan is to count up from number one today to number 25 for Christmas Day.

58711So for today, 1st December I have two songs for you, starting with the Tremeloes. The band was originally called Brian Poole and the Tremeloes and were signed by Decca Records instead of the Beatles allegedly because the band were more accessible geographically as they were in London with the Beatles being from Liverpool. Interestingly the first chart hit for the Tremeloes was in late 1963 with a cover of the Isley Brothers song “Twist And Shout” which had also been a hit as part of an EP for the Beatles earlier in the year. Brian Poole’s daughters Shelly and Karen were also successful in the music business after becoming Alisha’s Attic and having a string of top 30 hits from 1996 to 2001. But the Tremeloes song I have chosen reached number two in the UK in 1969 (and only number 27 in the US) and it is “(Call Me) Number One”. This one doesn’t feature Brian Poole. It’s a bit of a shame when you name your song that and then it doesn’t make it to number one isn’t it?

daftpunk_interstella5555The second song hiding behind the little cardboard flap of the advent calendar today is by the band that has one of the best-selling singles of 2013 with “Get Lucky”; Daft Punk. I have picked their big hit from 2000, “One More Time” which reached number one in France and Canada and number two in the UK charts. It was the first of six singles taken from the album ‘Discovery’. In 2010 “One More Time” was voted the greatest dance record of all time by readers of Mixmag magazine.

 

“We’re up all night to get some” June 28, 2013

Filed under: News,Observation — justwilliam1959 @ 10:30 pm
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Daft Punk‘s stunningly great single “Get Lucky” is now the biggest selling UK single of 2013. The song which also features Pharrell Williams and Nile Rodgers reached sales of one million only 69 days after it was released. Only one other French act has hit the million mark for a UK single and that was David Guetta with “Titanium” which hit that peak a few weeks ago some 79 weeks after its release.

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Another three UK singles have finally reached the heady heights of one million sales this year and they were released in 1976, 1995 and 2001. The songs in question are;

“Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” – Elton John and Kiki Dee. I assumed that had already sold in excess of a million

“Mysterious Girl” – Peter André. Seriously? Who on earth is buying this crap so long after it was released. If I find out who you are I will come to your house cover you in honey and tie you down above an ant’s nest. I will also put a wasp’s nest on your head. All the while you will be forced to listen to Peter Andre‘s Greatest Hit ( a very short compilation) over and over on endless loop.

“Whole Again” – Atomic Kitten. Once again, who the hell is still buying this? the punishment will be similar to the above but instead of listening to Peter André you will be subjected to an endless loop of Kerry Katona‘s appearances in TV commercials for the Iceland chain.

However as an act of leniency on my part if you ‘fess up to these appaling crimes now then you will be forgiven. So if you are guilty and also feel the need to come clean then come to Father Bill’s Confessional Box a.k.a the comments facility in this blog!

 

“What keeps the planet spinning” June 26, 2013

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 10:12 pm
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Those two chaps off of Daft Punk; Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo met as young lads at school. In a strange twist of fate though they both attended the same show as their first gig some two years before they met. It was Bruce Springsteen in Paris on the Born In The USA tour in the mid 80s.

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