With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

“I told you ’bout the swans, that they live in the park” March 30, 2009


Hello once again dear blog readers. My blog has been going for around 7 weeks now so I thought I’d check some of the stats available on WordPress. Firstly here is the top 10 search items (and number of searches) that people have used and found their way here;

1 pink floyd 431
2 kate bush 157
3 johnny cash 123
4 johnny winter 88
5 george harrison 73
6 smokey robinson 69
7 the smiths 62
8 dire straits 43
9 the byrds 39
10 tim buckley 23

I’m really pleased to see that Kate Bush is doing so well, I’m also quite amazed by the sheer volume of Pink Floyd searches. If you found your way here from searching I’d love to hear from you! As she did so well here is a picture of the delectable Ms Bush

"Oh England My Leotard" perhaps?

"Oh England My Leotard" perhaps?

Some of you may recall that we also ran an experiment some weeks ago to see if it was possible to drive people to the blog by including a particular phrase, that phrase being ‘Lily Allen Naked’. Well I can report some success, ‘Lily Allen Naked’ is in fact the 18th most popular search item ,with 13 searches , to arrive here. Although clearly all those 13 people (although it could be one person 13 times) will have been disappointed as there are no naked pics of Lily here. So apologies to you folks. I’d love to hear from you too, although obviously I’ll understand if you wish to remain anonymous 😉

Of all the many links I include in my posts I can also confirm that the two most clicked items have been the Myspace pages for ‘Soft Toy Emergency‘ (7 clicks) and my son Luke’s band ‘Steal The Smile‘ (9 clicks). click on their names to increase their total clicks.

OK enough of the stats, numbers excite me but perhaps not everyone! On to the tried and tested format and kicking off with a birthday. Mr Eric Clapton is 64 today. Did he ever cover the Beatles “When I’m 64”? Perhaps he should now! He has been a part of many bands in his time; the Roosters, Casey Jones and the Engineers, John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers, the Yardbirds, Cream, Blind Faith and Derek and the Dominoes. Indeed he was also one of the few non Beatles to play on a Beatles song. He played guitar on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. George Harrison returned the favour by guesting on the fantastic “Badge” by Cream. Click on the song title to see Eric with a live version of the song from the 80’s, watch out for Phil Collins on drums!

Eric discusses matrimonial time share plans with George

Eric discusses matrimonial time share plans with George

There are quite a few ‘onthisdays’ for March 30th starting with on this day in 1967 the photo session for the cover of the Beatles ‘Sergeant Pepper’ album took place at Chelsea Manor Studios

Just in case there is anyone on the planet that hasn't seen this album cover here it is again :-)

Just in case there is anyone on the planet that hasn't seen this album cover here it is again 🙂

Also on this day in 1976 the Sex Pistols played at the 100 Club in London for the first time. They began a weekly residency there in June 1976. One of my biggest musical regrets is that I turned down the opportunity to see the Pistols live in late 1976. They were playing at Brunel University near where I grew up. I’m sorry to say that I chose to stay in the pub!

The other guys always thought it was hilarious to set Glen's microphone stand too high for him

The other guys always thought it was hilarious to set Glen's microphone stand too high for him

On this day in 1978 Paul Simonon and Nicky ‘Topper’ Headon off of the Clash were arrested in Camden Town, London after shooting pigeons with air guns from the roof of Chalk Farm Studios. It was later discovered that these were prize winning and very expensive racing pigeons. It required four police cars and a helicopter to make the arrest. The pairs fines totaled £800

Once they had established exactly where the Clash were they would avenge the death of their brothers by dropping pigeon shit bombs

Once they had established exactly where the Clash were they would avenge the death of their brothers by dropping pigeon shit bombs

Also in 1978 on this day U2 won £500 and a chance to audition for CBS Ireland in a talent contest which was held in Dublin and sponsored by Guinness. Strange fact of the day, Guinness, which I really enjoy, began life 200 years before I did!

Bono puts his hand up to attract the teachers attention as he desperately needs to pee

Bono puts his hand up to attract the teachers attention as he desperately needs to pee

And finally on this day in 2000 Sir Michael Jagger off of the Rolling Stones paid a visit to his old school, Dartford Grammar. He was there to open a new arts centre bearing his name. He was quoted as saying that he spent the worst years of his life at school!

Mick's old school uniform clearly didn't fit him anymore

Mick's old school uniform clearly didn't fit him anymore

 

“We don’t care about no government warning” February 28, 2009


hello everybody, well I have some interesting news on our recent ‘Lily Allen Naked’ experiment. As you may recall we were trying to see whether anyone would arrive at the blog using ‘Lily Allen Naked’ as a search term. It seems that there are millions of sites allegedly offering pictures of Lily in the buff. So the experiment didn’t work, but strangely enough, there was a search term used Thursday which led someone to my blog. Don’t worry guys it doesn’t tell me who it was but I’ll guess it was Tom or Jes. The search term was ‘Chris Allen naked’ Does anyone know who Chris Allen is? I certainly don’t, there are plenty of Chris Allens that show up when you Google the name but I don’t know which one someone wanted to see naked. So any insights from you dear readers will be much appreciated.

Anyway if you have arrived at this blog with a desperate desire to view the talented Miss Allen naked, just so you’re not too disappointed here is Lily…….errr…… in the pink!

we'll drink a drink a drink to Lily in pink in pink in pink!

we'll drink a drink a drink to Lily in pink in pink in pink!

And as a special bonus here is Lily with “The Fear“. Check out her new album too, it is rather good!

Another piece of hot news (well perhaps just lukewarm by the time that you read it) Damon Albarn has confirmed that Blur will be headlining one night at Glastonbury this year. I’ve seen them live twice and they were great both times although so much better with Graham Coxon. It’s great to see Mr C back in the fold.

Graham really hoped the photoshoot would be over soon, he was busting for a pee.

Graham really hoped the photoshoot would be over soon, he was busting for a pee.

Anyway lets’ get back to todays trivia megamix starting with the birthdays. First of those is Cindy Wilson from the B-52’s who was born on 28th February 1957 and is 52 today. Cindy was born in Athens, Georgia in the US, this fact fans is also where REM came from. Cindy’s older brother Ricky is also in the band. I guess most people assume that the band named themselves after the B-52 bomber (like U2 naming themselves after the U2 spy plane). However this is not the case, B-52 was also the nickname in the southern states for the ‘Beehive‘ hairdo and Cindy and Kate Pierson of the band sported that style of hair. But I suppose as the hairstyle is named after the nose of the plane they were indirectly named after the plane after all! Incidentally the bands hairstylist La-Verne was even among the credits on their first eponymously titled first album in 1979. Cindy left the band in 1992 (although she rejoined in 1998) and for their US tour that year was replaced by Julee Cruise (whose biggest hit was the theme to the stupendous ‘Twin Peaks’ TV series from David Lynch). Although somewhat strangely for a one off fundraiser for the Democrat presidential candidate Jerry Brown Cindy’s place was taken by Kim Basinger. As a reminder of just how good they were (indeed still are) here are the B-52’s with “Rock Lobster

Cindy and Kate thought they'd been stung by their hairdresser, $50 and nowhere near as high as Marge Simpsons hair

Cindy and Kate thought they'd been stung by their hairdresser, $50 and nowhere near as high as Marge Simpsons hair

The last of the birthdays is that of King Monkey Ian Brown, former front man of the Stone Roses and now a very talented solo star. Ian is 46 today. He is just a few months younger than Roses guitarist John Squire and they were brought up just a couple of doors apart and went to Altrincham Grammar School together. They had been called ‘English Rose’ after a track on the Jam’s ‘Setting Sons’ album. They were booked for some Swedish gigs after Brown befriended a Swedish promoter while hitching around Europe and wanted a new name. Apparently they considered the name ‘Angry Young Teddy Bears’ before settling on the ‘Stone Roses’ a combination of their previous name and part of the name of one of their favourite bands the Rolling Stones. Somehow I don’t think their acclaimed status would have been the same had they adopted the ‘Angry Young Teddy Bears’ moniker. What do you think? While you’re pondering that one here are the boys with “I Wanna Be Adored

The Angry Young Teddy Bears all received Painting By Numbers sets that Christmas. What a load of Pollocks!

The Angry Young Teddy Bears all received Painting By Numbers sets that Christmas. What a load of Pollocks!

On this day in 1968 Frankie Lymon was found dead at his mothers house of a suspected drugs overdose. He was just 25. As the lead singer with ‘Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers’ he became the youngest UK chart topper in 1957 aged just 13, when they reached the summit “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” He then became the youngest headliner at the London Palladium in 1958 aged just 14 while promoting their UK hit (which I believe failed to chart in the US) “I’m Not A Juvenile Delinquent“. Frankie retained the youngest UK chart topper record until 1972 when ‘Little’ Jimmy Osmond went to number one with the dreadful “Long Haired Lover From Liverpool” aged 9.

Frankie and the boys were looking forward to their appearance on Sesame Street to teach everyone about the letter 'T'

Frankie and the boys were looking forward to their appearance on Sesame Street to teach everyone about the letter 'T'

On this day in 1970 Led Zeppelin played a gig as the Nobs in Copenhagen after Eva Von Zeppelin, a relative of the Airship designer Ferdinand Von Zeppelin threatened to sue if the family name was used in Denmark. Later that same year Led Zep were voted Best Group in the New Musical Express (NME) readers poll, which broke a run of eight successive wins for the Beatles.

the hotel hairdryer was never strong enough for those Led boys

the hotel hairdryer was never strong enough for those Led boys

This day in 1998 saw ‘Cornershop’ sitting at the top of the UK singles chart with the excellent ‘Fatboy Slim’ remix of their superb song “Brimful Of Asha“. the Fatboy loved the song so much that he did the remix for free. The Asha in the song’s title is Asha Bhosle a Bollywood Playback singer. Indian films have relied heavily on song-and-dance numbers attributable to Broadway musicals. Almost always, the singing was performed by background singers while the actors and actresses mimed. Bhosle has sung more than 12.000 of these songs. Two other Playback singers, Lata Mangeshkar (Asha Bhosle’s sister) and Mohammed Rafi are also name-checked in the lyrics.

Once again Tjinder had fallen asleep at the mic

Once again Tjinder had fallen asleep at the mic

The next two aren’t strictly ‘onthisdays’ for February 28th, but it’s not a leap year so here are a couple from 29th February. Firstly on 29th February 1980 the glasses that Buddy Holly had been wearing when he died were discovered in a police file in Iowa where they had been for 21 years. The Beatles name is in part an homage to Buddy Holly and the Crickets and in one of lifes full circles Paul McCartney now owns the publishing rights to Buddy’s song catalogue.

The Invisible Man felt stupid for getting himself stuck in the Hall of Mirrors at the Fun Fair

The Invisible Man felt stupid for getting himself stuck in the Hall of Mirrors at the Fun Fair

Also on 29th February 2000 Eric Clapton received a 6 month driving ban in the UK for driving at 45mph in a 30 mph zone. So not such much of a slowhand after all are you Mr C? What’s your favourite Clapton song? This is mine, it’s “Layla” from his days as Derek and the Dominoes, although I really don’t like the unplugged version of it. Contrary to popular belief the signature guitar riff on that song came from Duane Allman and not Mr Clapton.

Eric was pleased that he had a friend like JJ to help him get to his gigs while he was banned from driving

Eric was pleased that he had a friend like JJ to help him get to his gigs while he was banned from driving

So dear reader if you have read this far, you have reached the end of todays post and I salute you! 🙂

 

 
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