So after nearly eight years of blogging I am approaching my 1,000th post on here. This one you are reading is post 999. But for post 1,000 I made a little offer to my Facebook friends, I asked them to name one song (or one artist) that they wanted me to include in post 1,000. So before I get there I would like to extend that offer to any of you in the blogosphere that would like their song added and receive a name check. I promise to try to say something nice about your song choice! Just message me or add a comment.
Anyway now for post 999, I went through a whole range of ideas for this one;ย songs about or related to the emergency services was a favourite until I thought of doing a sum. So what follows is a list of twenty songs with numbers in their title. If you add all those numbers together they total 999. Trust me they do, I used a spreadsheet ๐ I hope you enjoy them and that you exercise your brain with a bit of mental arithmetic while you do!
Obviously most of you are aware that there is a referendum looming for us folk in the UK. It is a vote on whether we as a country should stay a part of the European Union or whether we should leave and go it alone. Personally I fundamentally disagree with the need for a referendum; if an elected government can’t make big decisions then why are they there? Give the people a referendum on all big decisions from keeping Trident to MPs pay. That would be much fairer and a true reflection of what people want. But no; we are lumbered with making a massive decision on a subject that no one really knows the answer to Just listen to all the drivel spouted by both the Brexit (incidentally I despise that invented word) and Remain camps. If anyone truly understands this decision and all its implications then I have never heard of them. Do I understand it? Of course not, although in some sleepless moments I might think that I do. But I am enjoying the spectacle of the Tory party tearing itself apart over it. Anyway I thought I would put a helpful list together of the reasons to vote Remain and the reasons to vote Brexit on June 23rd. I hope that you like it and feel free to add to itย and share your opinion.ย I have also added a referendum poll if you wish to cast a vote here. Oh and obviously there is some (in)appropriate music too. Feel free to suggest your own referendum stay or leave songs.
Reasons to vote Remain
Reasons to vote Brexit
1 Brexit is a shit word concoction which shows no imagination
5 It will annoy the Biffers of Britain First and their ilk immensely
5 Gideon will be upset
6 Donald Trump wonโt like it
6 UKIP will have no reason to exist
7 To stop Boris Johnson succeeding in his reality TV interview for the Prime Ministerโs job
7 Millions of UK ex pats will be returned to the UK from Europe. (Incidentally why arenโt they called immigrants?)
8 To cling on to a very thin chance to ditch the unelected House of Lords
8 To lose all the lovely foreign folk that clean for us, work in our essential services, pick our food and serve our food. You know those people that do the jobs no native of this country wants to do
9 To cling on to a slim chance of seeing the end of the monarchy in the UK
The other day I decided to take a quick count of all the artists in my album collection where I have at least 10 albums by a single artist. I included CDs, LPs and cassettes (although the only non compilation cassettes that I have are David Bowie bootlegs). Oh and while I’m on bootleg recordings obviously I have included them whether they are live, studio outtakes or simply unreleased stuff. I have not included digital recordings. I was surprised to find that there are 4o artists where I have at least ten releases by them. The list is below, (artist followed by the number of albums) there are no real surprises for me, are you surprised at any on this list? Have you ever done anything similar? I have also added a song from each of the top ten artists ๐
David Bowie 141
Bob Dylan 30 Johnny Nash 26 Bruce Springsteen 26
Beatles 25
Neil Young 25
Elton John 19
Bob Marley 19
U2 19
Rod Stewart 18
Pink Floyd 17
REM 17 Elvis Costello 15
The Eels 15
Prince 15
Paul Weller 15
Ryan Adams 14 Led Zeppelin 14
Madonna 14
The Clash 13 Elvis Presley 13
Radiohead 13
Kate Bush 12
Oasis 12
Lou Reed 12
Stevie Wonder 12
Morrissey 11
Tom Waits 11
ZZ Top 11
Jeff Buckley 10
Julian Cope 10
Johnny Cash 10 Michael Jackson 10
John Lennon 10 Manic Street Preachers 10
Kylie Minogue 10 Iggy Pop 10
Rolling Stones 10
Frank Turner 10
The Who 10
Don’t you just love Elton John’s “Bennie And The Jets” from his 1973 double album ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road‘? I certainly do. I knew that it wasn’t a live recording but the applause included on the track makes it sound as though it is. Did you know that the applause wasn’t even recorded at an Elton gig? In fact it is drawn from recordings of the audience clapping and shouting at Jimi Hendrix’sIsle Of Wight festival set in 1970.
I know of another occasion where that kind of thing has happened too. The sound of the crowd used on the title track of David Bowie’s ‘Diamond Dogs‘ album is actually the applause taken from a live album by the Faces! Can any of you offer any similar gems?
The synthesiser intro to Elton John’s magnificent (in my opinion) “Funeral For A Friend”, the opening track on the ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road‘ album, was recorded by David Hentschelย an engineer and, obviously, a synthesiser player. Apparently Elton only heard it for the first time after it was finished.
Daft Punk‘s stunninglyย great single “Get Lucky” is nowย the biggest selling UK single of 2013. The song which also features Pharrellย 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.
Another three UK singles have finally reachedย 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 Andrรฉ. 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 nestย 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 Andrรฉย 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!
It would be fair to say that many rock stars who seemed to really have balls in their early years become progressively eunuch-like as they get older. especially those that step away from the dark side to accept the odd award from the UK Royal Family. No names mentioned for now, but they and you know who they are.
However in my opinion one rock ‘n’ roll Knight of the Realm clearly showed this week that he still has balls and I salute him for that. Sir Elton John played a show in Beijing in China this weekend. as usual the set list was vetted, as it is for any major performance in China. However what he did outside of the songs was brilliant. he expressed his support for Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei. There were apparently gasps from the audience when he said it and it doesn’t seemย to have been reported in any of the Chinese media. Well there’s a surprise! Click here to read the story on the BBC website.
Itย follows a lot of support for pussy Riotย from artists playing in Russia in recent months and Bjork‘sย chant of Tibet, Tibet when she played the Chinese capital in 2008. Are these protests a sign that rock ‘n’ roll is ready to show its huge cojones once again? I hope so!
I have a feeling that the Chinese government may have censored the next video as the sound disappears after a few seconds, what do you think?
Judging from this picture Elton is also supporting China right? (geddit??)
This month, November 2012, marks the 60th anniversary of the UK singles chartย which began in the NME in 1952.ย We’ve come a long way from crooner Al Martino‘s “Here In My Heart” all those years ago to the current resident of the number one spot in the UK singles chart; Robbie Williams with “Candy”. Maybe we haven’t come too far though as Robbie does fancy himself as a crooner doesn’t he. I must confess that Robbie’s current number 1 is one of the few songs of his that I like.
The chart now includes downloads which have helped to boost sales of singles considerably. Apparently there have been 3.7 billion singles sold in that 60 year period in all formats. But the peak for the physical format was the 80s which recorded 640 million singles sales. ย The biggest selling UK single ever was Elton John’s “Candle In The Wind ’97” which was the singers dedication to Princess Diana. It sold 4.9 million copies and therefore raised millions for charity. Personally I prefer the original version. Does anyone ever play the Diana version these days? Incidentally do you know what the biggest selling single never to top the charts is? It’s Wham! with “Last Christmas/ Everything She Wants” which lost out to Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas” which is the second best-selling single ever back in 1984.
There have been more than 1,200 number ones in the chart’s history. The artists with most number one singles in the UK are;
As a teenager I can still recall lining up my cassette recorder microphone near the transistor radio to record my favourite songs from the Radio 1 chart rundown back in the 70s. How many of you did the same? I know of at least one fellow blogger who did. You can check out his excellent post on this chart milestone on his Every Record tells A Story blog by clicking here. You’ll even be able to see him on the chart history documentary on the Beeb! Recording the charts now seems almost pointless given the availability of music on-line, which I think is a real shame. But hey that’s progress right? Talking of progress, the first ever UK number one single based on download sales alone was as far back as 2006. It was the excellent “Crazy” from Gnarls Barkley.
There are also a number of chart records an artist probably wouldn’t want though, like;
Most Top 75 hits (97 of them) without a number one. That one is the honour of the Glee Cast. I hope they keep that one forever
Most Top 40 hits without a number one is easily won by Depeche Mode with 40 of them.
But perhaps the one you really should feel sorry for is Sash! A record ofย five number 2 singles and no number 1.
But let me finish on a better note. The first single I ever bought was a classic UK number one in my opinion. It was “Sugar Sugar” by the Archies and stayed at the top for 8 weeks at the tail end of 1969. Personally I fell that the charts will stay with us for many years yet, albeit very much adapted from the old days of purely physical sales. I would love to hear your thoughts on this fabulous UK Charts anniversary.
It seems that the Elton John vs Madonna feud, which seems almost totally driven by Elton is still running. Back in 2000 he said her “Die Another Day” was the worstย James Bond theme ever. A couple of years later he accused Madge of lip-syncing her ‘live’ shows ending his mini rant with ‘anyone who lip-syncs in public on stage when you pay ยฃ75 to see them should beย shot’.ย I’m not sure I can agree that lip-syncersย should beย shot and I don’t believe Madonna does lip-sync, although I have never seen her live. The next output from Elton’s bile fountain was to call Madonna a miserable cow when she refused to play at his stag party in 2005. Given the other outburst from Reg can you blame her?
Elton went a little too far in trying to emulate Mo Farah’s mobot!
His latest round of not so kind words for Madge came in an interview on Australian TV and may have had its rootsย in the fact that he was beatenย to a Golden Globe award by Her Royal Madgenessย earlier this year. He apparently said “sheโs such a nightmare. Her careerโs over…and she looks like a fucking fairground stripper. Sheโs been so horrible to Gaga” Oooh Elton you’re such a bitch! is madonna a nightmare? I don’t know her personally so I can’t answer that. is her career over? I hardly think so given the success of her current album ‘MDNA’ and the supporting tour. Does she look like aย fairground stripper? Personally I have never been to a fairground that had a stripper, have you? So I’m not sur what planet Elton is on with that comment. Has she been horrible to Gaga? Well she has suggested a degree of plagiarism from her given some similarities between her old hit “Express Yourself” and Gaga’s “Born This Way”. Of course it should also be noted that Gaga is also the Godmother to Elton’s son.
It is interesting that Madge has never joined in by responding to these attacks from Mr Dwight. Could he be a little jealous of her? If so then I really don’t see why. Personally I’m a fan of both Madonna and Elton and I like both their new albums. My advice to Elton would be shut your gob and get on with making and playing music if you wanted a reaction fromย Madge it doesn’t seem to be happening does it?
Madge clearly being horrid to Gaga
Madonna was also recently in the news again for having the balls to stand up and express support for the jailed members of Pussy Riot when she played a show in Moscow. She was adding to a wide spectrum of western support for the band members currentlyย incarcerated by the Putin regime. She also gave her support to the gay rights movement in Russia.ย It wasn’t long before the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia, Dmitryย Rogozin, responded by accusing Madonna of a moral lecture and then suggested that she ‘Either take off your cross, or put on your knickers”. How does he know she has no knickers on? Has he been to her fairground strip show?
Is she a fairground stripper or does she just feel like a right tit?
And finally in the interest of supporting music and freedom, rather than playground spats hereย is one of my favourite Madonna songs followed by one of my favourite Elton songs.
Some months ago when Elton John announced a UK tour of some places that never seem to get big rock stars performing the list included theย Greatย Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate. So as I live just down the road and as Sir Elton is now 65 I thought I had to get tickets for me and my wonderful wife Catherine a.k.a Catwoman to regular readers. I love Elton’s music, especially the early stuff, but until today I had never seen him live. It was well worth the wait and the ticket price.
The support act was theย amazingย 2Cellos, which does exactly what it says on the tin. The act consists of two cellists from Croatia; Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser. If you had said to me before today that two guys playing cello could be really exciting and create anย amazingย rock sound I may well have laughed at you. But frankly these guys are outstanding. They played three covers; Michael Jackson’s “Smooth Criminal”, U2’s “With Or Without You” and an electrifying version of “Purple Haze” the Jimi Hendrix classic.
Just as we all thought they were about to start another song Elton and his band took the stage and raced right into “Saturday Night’s Alright For Fighting“. 2Cellos remained with the band for that and many other songs during Elton’s incredible two and a half hour set. He seemed to show no sign whatsoever of his recent illness and really seemed to be enjoying himself. The band who included long time Elton stalwarts Nigel Olsson on drums and Davey Johnstone on guitar. These guys have played together for more than 40 years now and I think that trust and knowledge of each other really shows.
The backing vocalists could undoubtedly be an act in their own right including; Rose Stone a founding member of Sly and the Family Stone and the sister of Sly and Freddie Stone and also Tata Vega who produced some terrific albums for Motown in the 70s. Having started the set with a superb rocker the band followed up with “Bennie And The Jets” and “Levon”. I was really pleased with the eclectic set list Elton had chosen. It included many of his biggest hits along with some of those that are not heard as often. Those included two fantastic selections from the ‘Goodbye Yellow Brick Road‘ album; “Funeral For A Friend/ Love Lies Bleeding” and “Grey Seal” and the gorgeous “Mona Lisas And Mad Hatters” from ‘Madman Across The Water‘. I was disappointed to see so many people head for the bar and the toilets when Elton played “Hey Ahab” from his recent collaboration with the supremely talented Leon Russell.
Most of the crowd were out to have a good time and the rain didn’t seem to dampen anyone’s spirits. Although it was quite ironic to be listening to “Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me” when the weather had created the effect that the sun had never really come up! There was an element in the crowd that seemed to fit with the stereotypical breed of Harrogate snob. They seemed to be there more for the social occasion, to drink Pimms and most importantly to be seen. One bloke and his wife/ partner asked us to swap seats with him so that he could sit near his friends. We refused largely because they had been getting up and going in and out of the grandstand duringย the whole show (well the part they stayed for anyway). But it wasย interestingย that five minutes after our refusal all his ‘friends’ left without telling him! I named him Mr Yo Yo Bollocks.
There were two ladies who spent most of the show dancing around and trying to get everyone else up, including the security guards. They were draped in a ‘we love Elton’ Union Jack and seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely, but I suspect that their hangovers may be huge. It took “I’m Still Standing” to get everyone up, most of whom stayed up for the rest of the show. When Elton and the band left the stage it was hard to figure out what the encore would be as they had played some many classics, but of course it was the beautiful “Your Song”. Preceded by Elton signing a whole bunch of autographs for those at the front.
Elton John is a talented musician, a gifted songwriter, a real showman and aย consummateย performer. There are not many people around that can match him I believe. It is nearly 39 years since I saw my first ever gig (Jackson 5 at the Wembley Empire Pool in 1973 if you’re interested!) and todays show is easily in my top 5 ever. If you are going to one of the shows on this tour I’m sure you’ll enjoy it. If you’re not then do whatever it takes to get a ticket; sell your grannie, send your kits out to clean chimneys or get your dog to wine ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ (OK probably too late on the last one). And finally thank you for a great gig Elton!
I have no film from tonights show (I was enjoying myself too much to get my phone out) so here is a clip of Elton playing “Your Song” from a couple of years back, followed by 2Cellos with their version of “Smooth Criminal”
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 