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; 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 🙂 I hope you enjoy them and that you exercise your brain with a bit of mental arithmetic while you do!
Facebook? Angel or Devil? More devil probably, but whilst there are some good things about this social networking behemoth there are also some terrible things about it. In one small action I have raised issues with Facebook when some pages had posted blatant racist comments. One was “we’re not racist, we just hate Muslims”the Facebook Police do anything about it? No they damned well didn’t. Many other people have raised similar issues with Facebook often to no avail.
But it when it comes to a historical photograph of a nine-year old Vietnamese girl, Kim Phuc, running from an American napalm attack in 1972 Big Brother Zuckerberg decides that it is not suitable for his social network beast because it breaches the rule on pornography. Why? Because it depicts a naked nine-year old girl. The question is why is this girl naked? Her clothes had been burned from her body by this horrific attack. I am not for a moment saying that this is an easy picture to look at, but it is a truly iconic picture that brings home the violence and futility of war in the most powerful way. Do we need to see these pictures? Of course we do. It is things like this that may one day make people think more of seeking a peaceful outcome to conflict and not war. In the western world, increasingly so since the Second World War, we are anaesthetised to the horrors of war because it happens in other countries and is served up in bite-size pieces on our evening news. OK so Zuckerberg changed his mind on this picture after some heavy protest. But in my opinion it shows how much power this unelected billionaire, and many like him, have. For me Zuckerberg and Facebook crossed a line that they most definitely should not have. Zuckerberg you do not run the world, stop behaving like you do.
I recently had the misfortune to come across a FaceBook page for the Chilton Patriots. They refer to themselves as a white patriotic community in County Durham. Their pages are filled with hate posts and ironically I was accused of sending hate mail from York when I commented on their page suggesting that they are arrogant, uneducated twats. Clearly I don’t know that for certain and my judgement was based on the largely thoughtless and hate filled posts on their pages. So I have had a good long think and I have decided to send them an apology for calling them arrogant, uneducated twats. That apology is included in my open letter below. Incidentally the number of likes on their FaceBook page equates to around half the population of Chilton and more than twice as many as subscribe to this blog. So clearly there are a lot of similarly minded people around. To be fair their FaceBook page states (IN CAPITALS) WE DO NOT WANT TO HEAR YOUR LEFT WING MULTICULTURALIST BULLSHIT ON HERE, SO IF THOSE ARE YOUR VIEWS… PLEASE DON’T BOTHER EXPRESSING THEM. WE DON’T CARE !!! So I suppose they won’t be particularly bothered by anything I say. Including, and I am being a bit pedantic here, it should read LEFT WING MULTICULTURAL BULLSHIT
I think I know what the response of the Chilton Patriots to this letter will be. But in order to have some balanced views I would appreciate comments from all parts of the world, whatever your sexuality, ethnicity or religion. Regular readers will know that I am not a bigot, as for these patriots, well I’ll let you form your own opinion on them.
An Open Letter to the Chilton Patriots Group
Dear Representative(s) of the Chilton Patriots FaceBook group,
I realise that my nasty comment on one of your posts must have struck a nerve so I wholeheartedly apologise for referring to you as arrogant, uneducated twats. Clearly that is not the case entirely as you did reply and suggested that you had received hate mail from York. Hate mail? Really? Just three words is hate mail? Wow. I also find it quite ironic that a group based upon hatred of anyone who may be different to them can see my phrase arrogant, uneducated twats as hate mail. So I believe that I should reword my comment on you and précis it down to perhaps one word; racists.
You also said that you saw no condemnation of the murders committed by ISIS on my FaceBook pages. This is probably true. However getting anyone to read any kind of political post is difficult on a social networking site such as FaceBook given that people seem to spend most of their time talking about Katie Hopkins, X-Factor, sharing Britain First posts (more on that later) and watching cute kitten videos. Anyway for your information I do condemn any terrorist atrocities under whichever flag they are committed. The people who carry out these murders are not religious they are evil, murdering scum. The same goes for those who shot holiday makers in Tunisia and the man who shot and killed many people in the church in America recently and those that are currently burning black community churches in the USA. Indeed the same can be said of the IRA murders in the 70s and 80s. You need to move away from the ridiculous idea that all Muslims are terrorists in the same way that all Irish Catholics were not terrorists.
Am I a patriot? Well that depends on your definition of the word my friend. I am proud to be English, proud to be British, proud to be European, proud to be an Earthling and proud to be a human being. I am proud to live in a country that enables free speech, even if it does give the likes of you a platform to espouse vitriolic hatred of groups that do not fit your definition of normal. I am a white, straight male and I have friends who are the same. I also have friends who are gay, and friends whose skin is a different colour to mine. I have friends that are religious and that includes Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists and Jews. I also have friends that are atheists. Personally I don’t believe in god. Just in case you might think that I am sexist I also have a number of friends that are women.
I also love all kinds of music; rock, soul, reggae, punk, rap and most other things apart from perhaps opera. Doesn’t it annoy you that they don’t do operas in English? I’m sure it must do
I also note with interest that your Facebook group makes liberal use of the English flag, the flag of Saint George. That is a flag that I am also very proud of. Although an American comedian once said that pledging allegiance to a flag is about as useful as reciting a love poem to a sock. I tend to agree with him. I assume you know that Saint George was not English and that he is from Greek and Palestinian descent? Some histories have him as Lebanese. Not only that he is also the patron saint for a number of foreign countries; Georgia, Malta, Bulgaria among others. Among all the saints he is also a bit of an exception in that he is often venerated by Muslims. He also slayed a dragon, well ok perhaps the last part isn’t true, but I suppose one never knows.
I also note with interest the phrase ‘true English blood’ that appears on your page. Can you explain what you mean by this? Clearly Saint George never had true English Blood. Are you suggesting that there are indigenous English people here in our green and pleasant land? Somehow that is very unlikely given that this island has been invaded raped and pillaged over thousands of years by the Romans, the Vikings, the Angles, the Saxons and perhaps more. Many of us are probably 40th generation Roman or 30th generation Viking. Let’s not forget the Scots either, they once held York. I assume that being English means that you also hate the Scots? If so that is a shame as I am half Scots and very proud that my Scottish father served in the Royal Navy for 12 years.
During the Second World War this country might well have been overrun by those evil, scumbags the Nazis. I believe that they too hated anyone who was different to their definition of normal. They killed millions of people; Jews, blacks, gays, gypsies, disabled people and probably others. It seems to me that knowingly or perhaps inadvertently you seem to share some of their ideology. But I am very pleased to see that you haven’t stooped to using the swastika yet, well not as far as I can tell anyway.
You are free to hate me and you probably will, but I don’t hate you I pity you. I assume that someone so full of hatred must surely have some serious issues. Maybe if you stopped reading (and believing) the tabloid newspapers and supporting UKIP, BNP and the like it might help with those issues.
Incidentally if like Britain First you are in fact a brilliant satirical joke put together by Chris Morris and Charlie Brooker then I salute you for putting one over on me. Click here to read that story!
Also my sentiment and opinions regarding hate groups or communities built on hatred are the same whatever their flavour; from right wing English thugs to ISIS
Peace and Love and proud to be full of left wing multicultural bullshit
William xx
P.S. This is largely a music blog so please enjoy the following tunes which are largely related to the subject matter above
Regular readers of this blog know that I will always be attracted by the lure of a free gig and last Saturday was no exception. Those lovely folk at The Inkwell in York (a fab independent vinyl records and books and tapes and stuff emporium) hosted the launch of local bandWorm’sEP launch. The shop is rather small but it was rammed on Saturday, according to Facebook 39 people said they were there. I can honestly declare that I was one of those 39 alongside any non Facebook members that were in attendance. Can they really fit that many people in the Inkwell?
Was it worth the visit? Fuck yeah! It was a great afternoon spent with an excellent band. Worm’s influences in my opinion are somewhat eclectic and range from Nirvana, Foo Fighters, jazz, acoustic Fleetwood Mac and everywhere in between. This is one hell of a talented band and I would certainly pay to see them again. I know this session was a free gig, but I did buy their EP which I must say is rather bloody spiffing and only cost three quid!
It has been on rotation in the car this week and I am loving it. My favourite tracks (and there are six fine tunes on the EP people!) are “Choke”, “Breathe” and especially “Sort It Out”. This four piece York band are very talented and seem to have a great sense of fun and camaraderie. Great musicians, great stage presence and great songs. What more do you want? Socks as dampers for the microphones? Well they had that too! If you get the chance definitely go and see them and make sure that you buy the EP too!
I had heard of the Amazing Snakeheads before this gig and indeed I had listened to some of their stuff on-line. However what brought me to this gig was actually one of the support bands who added me to their cheap list. Honestly I feel more honoured to be on a cheap list than I would to be on a guest list! Anyway the band who invited me were the magnificent Avalanche Party. I saw them at the Woolpack in York a couple of months back and stayed loosely in touch via Facebook following my review of the Woolpack show. Avalanche Party were the first band of the evening to take to the stage and once again it was a bloody good performance. They have some excellent material; “Mountains” is a great song and their cover of Nancy Sinatra‘s “These Boots Are Made For Walking” is a truly inspired choice of cover that really suits the harder, punkier feel that the band give the song. They are a very tight band of very accomplished and talented musicians. They seem well-drilled and rehearsed but also have the right amount of star presence and swagger on stage. Their free 2 track CD has been on loop in my car on the journey to work for the past few days too. If you get the chances you really need to go and see Avalanche Party. If I find out that you did have the chance and didn’t take it I will have to send the boys round!
Second to grace the stage on Sunday were the Valmores. For me the jury is still out on that name. They were pretty good, certainly their playing was strong and it felt well rehearsed. Their songs are mostly strong although the lyrics I could decipher suggested that they might be trying too hard to be controversial. Songs about heroin and the rubbish state that England is in. The lead singer has a good voice although he seemed to want to be Jim Morrison off of the Doors but in a much cleaner 21st century kind of way. The Valmores do have potential to achieve more and I hope that they do.
The Amazing Snakeheads were the headliners and I think that it would be fair to say that I saw no snakeheads they were bloody amazing. They were also one of the loudest bands that I have seen for some time, but that might have been heightened by the fact that I was standing next to the speaker stack! Glasgow’s Amazing Snakeheads are probably the best perpetrators of loud, angry, scuzzy blues rock that I have ever seen. The band set up is drums, bass and guitar with the guitarist also providing the at times tonsil shredding vocal. We even had a crowd invasion from frontman Dale Barclay. I really enjoyed them, but I can imagine that they may be a bit of a Marmite band in that you’ll either love them or hate them. “I’m A Vampire” is my favourite Snakeheads song; what’s yours?
Have you ever thought about having a garden gnome on display at your home but then thought that you were too cool to do it? Well think again, especially if you are a fan of a Manchester band that you may have heard a little about. Yes folks you can now buy a full set of Gnome Roses who look remarkably like the Stone Roses. You could create your very own Spike Island next to your garden pond. Check out the Gnome Roses on Facebook and purchase them here at Alternative Merchandise. If you have already bought yours or received them for Christmas feel free to send me a picture and I will definitely give you a mention on this blog!
Creator of these little gems is Andrew McDermid and he has ideas to expand the range, starting with the Ra-Gnomes with the advertising strap line of ‘Hi Ho Let’s Go!’. He also plans to work on the Rolling Gnomes, Kurt Cobain and Queens Of The Gnome Age. What? No Bowie as “The Laughing Gnome“?
Catwoman and me have a friend called Jo Bagshaw is a truly creative designer of some really superb jewellery. She designed the jewellery for our wedding in September 2011; including an excellent pair of cufflinks which take pride of place in my collection. It was through Jo that we came to be at a gig by the abundantly talented Lisbee Stainton on Friday night. Jo knows Lisbee as she has recently designed some fabulous jewellery pieces based on the award-winning angel wings/ guitar logo used by Lisbee. Click here to reach Jo’s website.
So how was the gig? Well first I have never been to such a packed house at the Basement in City Screen. It is a very small venue but there must have been more than 50 people there. There were two support acts starting with Lauren Varley who played a set of her own songs, including “Mr Cold Feet” and she also added two superb covers one of Johnny Cash and the second an inspirational and soulful version of “House Of The Rising Sun“. Lauren is York based and I would definitely go and see her again. Great voice, great songs and smart and brave choices for cover songs. Click here to hear more of her and click here to find her on Facebook.
The second of the support acts was Aimee J Ryan. When she said that she did ‘go on a bit’ between songs she was right! Aimee has some good songs but her sound didn’t seem to be very clear. This was surprising given that the vocal sound quality for both Lauren Varley and Lisbee Stainton was crystal clear. But she definitely has talent so click here to check her out on Facebook.
So now we get to Lisbee, from who we were expecting great things. It would be fair to say that she met our expectations. She not only has some excellent self penned songs, she plays guitar well and is a very accomplished singer. Her rapport with the audience is far better than some more established artists that I have seen playing live. She opened by walking straight into the audience from the dressing room to provide many of us with percussion instruments. I used mine throughout the show.
She also had us singing some multi part harmonies, well I say singing but…… at least we tried! I really loved “Girl On An Unmade Bed” along with a couple of new songs which may, hopefully, find their way on to her next album. Her band is also incredibly talented. I believe that Lisbee has the talent for greater success and if you get a chance to see her take it, you will not be disappointed. Click here to find Lisbee’s official website and make sure you check out the video for the wonderful song “Sidekick” which she also played on Friday. You can also find her on Facebook by clicking here. If you have been to any of the gigs on Lisbee’s tour I would love to hear from you.
I am pleased to see that someone has kicked off a Facebook campaign to make Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” the UKChristmas number one this year. I posted something of a similar sentiment a short while ago, click here to read it. This new Facebook campaign was kicked off in response to the X Factor naming one of this years crop of average karaoke singers, another insipid, bland girl group, Rhythmix. The name is also the name of a UK charity that uses music as and to help children and young people from difficult backgrounds. It gives many young people the opportunity to make music to help them develop and learn. Check out the charity website here.
Simon Cowell will do anything in his desire to rule the world, including throwing babies to sharks
When the charity contacted the X Factor team they were told to “get a lawyer”. Effectively because they didn’t have the rights to the name for use as a band, basically they held the rights for educational purposes only. That’s within the letter of the law I’m sure, but ethically and morally it suggests that Cowell and his cronies are emotionally bankrupt.
Nirvana's unused sleeve for their cover of the Commodores "Brick House"
So let’s get behind this campaign and spoil this years pop muppets Christmas. Click here to find the page on Facebook. In the meantime enjoy the band doing the song at the Reading Festival in 1992. They even insert a short burst of Boston’s “More Than A Feeling” a song fromwhich Kurt Cobain claimed to have ripped off the riff for Teen Spirit from.
Do you ever feel like Big Brother or simply the Nanny State is watching us or coming to get us even? Are there people and organisations out there that would like to control what we see, hear and read? I believe that there are. I guess the recent phone hacking debacle has gone some way to proving this. If scum tabloid newspapers can get away for years with listening to people voice messages (and who knows what else) then what the hell must the ‘powers that be’ get up to?
Spencer Elden recreates that classic album cover aged 17
So a small part of this kind of state is reflected in the recent action by Facebook. They removed a picture of the iconic cover of Nirvana’s classic album ‘Nevermind‘ from the album’s Facebook page. Presumably because it shows……..shock, horror…. a baby penis! They have apparently rectified what has been described as an administrative error, personally I see it as more of a cock-up. What do you think?
Spencer Elden in a TV appearance around the time he turned 20 earlier in 2011
Click here to read about it in the Guardian. Spencer Elden, now aged 20, was the baby in the picture. In 2008 he was quoted as saying “Quite a few people in the world have seen my penis, so that’s kinda cool.” He is the son of a friend of Nirvana’s photographer.
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 