With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

“We don’t need no education, we dont need no thought control” December 14, 2010

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:00 am
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Purely another opportunity for me to show this picture, nothing else!

December 14th. Are you getting excited yet? Maybe you will when you help me open todays little cardboard door on my UK Christmas Number Ones Advent Calendar. It’s a real doozie. It was number one at Christmas 1979 and stayed at the top for 5 weeks. It was the bands only official post Syd Barrett UK single as well. It was the mighty Pink Floyd with “Another Brick In the Wall – part 2” taken from the album ‘The Wall’ which was pretty close to a Roger Waters solo album, allegedly. In my opinion it is truly a brilliant album and to give the Floyd their only UK singles number one, well that is amazing!

This is certainly how I felt at school, how about you?

The song is a protest song against the rigid education system, mostly from a private schools perspective. But when I was was at school in the 70s I must admit it was a very rigid system, certainly in the sense that no one really explained what my purpose was. Why did I have to sit these exams, why did I have to go to 6th form and why was I supposed to go to University? At the time I never really understood and actually left school aged 16. I was however a little lucky as I went to Grammar School, this meant that I took (and passed) my ‘O’ Levels in Maths and English a year early! But after that I dropped out and bunked off most days. I managed to fail 7 ‘O’ Levels in the 5th Form, largely because I didn’t try and didn’t attend. However I was gutted that I failed Art as I really did turn up and put a lot of work into it! Anyway it’s all done now and luckily it did me no harm.

In the end I felt I was able to walk away from the mincer by leaving school at 16

In 1980 the apartheid regime banned the song in South Africa as it was used by people protesting against the racist education system. the Islington Green School Choir appeared on the song at the behest of producer Bob Ezrin. The school was not far from Britannia Studios where ‘The Wall’ was recorded. The song also hit the top of the US charts and was number one in many European countries as well.

As a footnote I just had to mention this. Many of you will be aware of the recent student riots in the UK in protest against University fees. Well it seems that Dave Gilmour’s son Charlie was a naughty boy during the protests. Well more of a total twat really, he swung off the flag on the Cenotaph thus denigrating the memories of millions of war dead. Charlie you twat! Anyway there was a letter to the Guardian today from a Mr Alan Cripps of London  and it goes like this ‘ David Gilmour‘s son In University fees protest? Surely he don’t need no education? Top man Mr Cripps, I loved that letter. Read the Charlie Gilmour story in the Guardian by clicking here.

 

“And she know why she came here, and she know where her clothes suppose to be” November 29, 2010

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 9:15 pm
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For a few months my blog has been getting thousands of hits from people searching for Lady Gaga, but seeing as how very media savvy she is I understood that. But over the last two days I have also had hundreds of hits from people searching for Colonel Gaddafi‘s nurse. I mean I have posted about Gaddafi’s all female security guards before and nurse has come up a few times, most recently in the Gregory Isaacs obituary when I gave you “Night Nurse” So that one stumped me for a while, well until I read the Guardian’s report on the latest Wikileaks exposure. Apparently Gaddafi’s personal staff includes a 38 year old Ukrainian nurse, one of a team of four, who ‘know his routine’ This is all according to the US mission in Tripoli, who also described the 38 year old nurse, Galyna Kolotnytska, as a voluptuous blonde. The obvious allegations appear to centre around a more than medical liaison. So does that mean that Gaddafi is in fact the Arab world‘s Berlusconi? Who know? Who cares?

Read some of the Guardian’s coverage here.

"You want my nurse you kiss me first little man!"

But I must say all the Wikileaks stuff does make rather interesting reading and apart from hits to my blog there is also a genuine link to Lady Gaga as well. The alleged source of these and other leaks is Bradley Manning a US soldier who was working as an intelligence analyst. He has been in solitary confinement for 7 months and his trial is expected to start soon. He allegedly downloaded all the material while stationed on an US Army base just outside Baghdad. He claimed it was ‘childishly easy’. Apparently he took a CD-RW labelled Lady Gaga into work and then pretended to listen to Miss Germanotta on headphones, apparently even going as far as lip-syncing her songs. But what he was really doing was wiping the disk and uploading thousands of diplomatic files.

I wonder what Gaga herself thinks about it all. We probably won’t find out for a while as she has retired from social networking to support Alicia Key’s initiative to raise money to combat AIDS in Africa. Many celebrities have signed off of Twitter and Facebook and the like until a certain amount has been raised for African AIDS charities. You can support the charity, which is called Keep A Child Alive, by clicking here. Donate people, you know it makes sense!

I thought I’d finish with a moderately appropriate song, ladies and gentlemen I give you “Freek-A-Leek” from Petey Pablo. Geddit?

 

“It’s just an instant gut reaction, that I got I know I never ever felt like this before” November 27, 2010

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 12:26 am
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On a recent flight business class flight to Australia it appears that Jay Kay off of Jamiroquai sat next to John Lydon off of Public Image Limited aka Johnny Rotten off of the Sex Pistols. Jay Kay says that Lydon spent the whole flight farting really smelly ones. He even said that after that experience he would prefer to travel cattle class in future. He went on to say that smoking has been banned so why not farting. But frankly and let’s be honest here, how many of us could complete a long haul flight without having to pop at least one little one out? Perhaps Jay Kay was jealous because he couldn’t muster up a decent response, maybe he could have caught up and got a second wind!

Jay Kay tries out his anti fart hat

But Johnny is still able to squeeze another one out

Just to show a degree of impartiality you can read the story on the Guardian website and also on the Perez Hilton Blog. Amusingly the Guardian chose to use Viz favourite Johnny Fartpants in their headline. Personally I think the whole thing is rather amusing, but then farts always are? Aren’t they?

But when Jay Kay farts he farts cars!

As far as appropriate videos I could only really go with the Sex Pistols “Belsen Was A Gas”

And for Jay Kay it has to be “Canned Heat”, doesn’t it?

Gaga cooks up a storm

In other news, this time from the Sun, yes you heard it right, the ghastly Sun gets a mention on my blog! They report the culinary talents of Lady Gaga and Cheryl Cole and show Katy Perry and Russell Brand‘s cat finishing off their turkey. It was their real turkey and not Russell in ‘Get Him To The Greek’ Read all about it here. Maybe John Lydon had been eating the Cheryl’s scones or Gaga’s casserole and that is why he had such high-octane flatulence. Incidentally I wonder if Gaga used the meat from her meat dress to make her meal?

Hansel and Gretel never had it so good.......... Lady Gaga gingerbread people!

 

“But if you go carrying pictures of chairman Mao, you ain’t going to make it with anyone anyhow” November 16, 2010

Filed under: News,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 7:26 pm
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Clearly the new iPad would be difficult to carry, maybe it's the weight of all those Beatles songs

So at last the two big apples come together. The Beatles back catalogue are now all available on I Tunes. There was previously a lengthy trademark dispute between the Beatles Apple Corps and Steve Job’s Apple company. This was resolved a while ago and the gap between then and now was potentially down to EMI. That is certainly something that Paul McCartney hinted at. Steve Job was very happy with the deal and was quoted as saying that it had been “a long and winding road to get there” You can read the story by clicking here. Personally I have all the Fab Fours albums on CD so I am unlikely to buy anything of theirs from I Tunes. However it made me think that we ought to pick a Beatles song to beat this years X Factor song to the Christmas number one spot in the UK. Ideally “Revolution”, what do you folks think?

James Blunt holds his hand up and voila...... World War Three is prevented!

I would like to thank my good friend Nick Horslen for sending me this story. Apparently whilst he was in the army and stationed in Kosovo James Blunt prevented the start of World War Three. Does that explain why he went on to write such crap songs? I saw him on TV recently when he chaired ‘Never Mind The Buzzcocks‘ on BBC2, personally I thought he was devoid of humour although he was clearly trying. To be fair he was better than Jedward when they appeared on the show. You can read the Blunt Story on the Guardian website by clicking here. Incidentally I often wonder why he changed his name from Blount to something which rhymes with the ‘C’ word, do you?

Incidentally I love Weird Al Yankovic‘s take on Blunt’s “You’re Beautiful” which is wonderfully retitled “You’re Pitiful” I always used to slip this into my mobile disco set when I played background music at weddings. It worked well as people couldn’t hear it perfectly well so thought James had changed the words!

A new band I came across recently are the Ambassadors Of Morocco who have a new single out called rather interestingly “Wikipedia” I can’t get the chorus out of my head and it will be on my I Pod tomorrow for certain!

Talking of a great and catchy chorus have you seen the video for the new My Chemical Romance song? I’ve never been a big fan of the band but this song and the accompanying video are brilliant and somewhat weird too.

let me finish this post on a roll, a Rick Roll. This is the metal version of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”. Not bad for the former tea boy at RCA. Does anyone know what he’s up to these days?

 

“Everybody wanting a piece of Michael Jackson” November 8, 2010

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 9:51 pm
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Accordion to our sources NATO stopped an Arcade Fire gig (I've been dying to use that joke for ages!)

Another selection of random news snippets for you all in this post. Firstly are Arcade Fire the only band ever to have a gig pulled by NATO? It would certainly seem that way after the NATO top brass and the Portuguese government have forced the cancellation of the band’s show during the weekend of 20th to 21st November. Apparently the gig clashed with the weekend of a NATO summit and it was felt that security forces would be stretched too thin by having to police a gig by the Canadians and 20,000 of their fans. The band have said they will come back at some time in the future. Read the story here in the Guardian.

The band quickly regretted their decision to defy NATO orders.

I've heard of throwing the baby out with the bath water, but not this! Clearly this followed an acrimonious meeting with the Fab Four about publishing rights!

There will be a ‘new’ Michael Jackson album released in December, it will be called ‘Michael’. It is believed that it contains a number of songs that Jacko had been working on in the few years preceding his death last year. It has been reported that all the songs have been ‘recently completed’, which clearly suggests that the self titled King Of Pop either had nothing to do with the completion or that he isn’t actually dead or maybe he is communicating from beyond the grave! It has been reported at various times that he had been working with many acts before he popped his clogs; including Lady Gaga, Akon and Will.i.am. The latter has been quoted as saying that to release any ‘new’ material in this way would be disrespectful. For a limited period you can hear a stream of one of the songs “Breaking News” by clicking the title. It sounds reasonable if not a little weird. The cover of the album has a typical over the top Jacko theme painted by Kadir Nelson. Read the story at the BBC and the Guardian.

Another typically understated Jacko picture

I recently chanced upon a JPEG file for a film poster of a starring role by none other than one of my all time favourite singers Mr Johnny Nash. He starred in the movie ‘Take A Giant Step‘ It was released in December 1959, when even I wasn’t quite one year old. I wonder if it’s available on DVD. So in a very gratuitous use of that opportunity here is that poster, followed by a clip of Mr Nash singing “I Can See Clearly Now” on Burt Sugarman’s Midnight Special.

Amy Winehouse has been recording again with Mark Ronson, they have been laying down three tracks for a Quincy Jones tribute album. One of them has been ‘leaked’, it’s a cover of Lesley Gore‘s “It’s My Party” which was produced by Quincy back in 1963. It’d be fair to say that the vocal is certainly different and I’m not sure yet whether it works for me or not! Read about it on the Guardian website and then check out the video below followed by the original. My favourite cover of the song was by Bryan Ferry off of Roxy Music for his first solo album ‘These Foolish Things’ back in 1973, click here to hear it.

 

“And he’s making wine from water while he dresses like his daughter” November 5, 2010

Filed under: Observation,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 10:54 am
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Yesterday morning I arrived at the station in plenty of time as usual to catch the 7.27 from York to Chesterfield (I really do get to the most exciting places don’t I?). The first thing I saw when I came into the main concourse was the cancellation notice for said train accompanied by quite a few angry commuters. Personally I refuse to get angry about that kind of stuff anymore, frankly it’s a waste of energy. So the cancellation of the Cross Country Trains 7.27 service from York to Reading via Birmingham was an opportunity for me. I dashed over to Costa Coffee and spent 30 minutes reading the Guardian with a cup of tea. Obviously the tea wasn’t reading the Guardian, I was!

Incidentally the train was cancelled owing to a ‘shortage of train crew’ which I don’t think had anything to do with the stature of the driver, guard or trolley dolly!

When I eventually boarded the train it was, as expected very crowded. So I figured I would just lean against the wall in the vestibule, listen to my iPod and read. I positioned myself opposite the open door and was listening to the hubbub af anger and complaint. Phrases like “couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery”, “there’s less shit in a sewage farm” “what a bunch of useless tossers” were used to describe the rail operator, so it was clear that many people were very angry. Not me though, I don’t see the point, anyway there was quite a lot of swearing too, that stopped however, straight after a vicar boarded the train. (Incidentally it was a male vicar and sadly not Dawn French in her Dibley role). The comments then became most polite “did you see that thing on ITV last night”, “the weather isn’t great is it?” and “did you watch the football last night?”. Now I don’t know why this happened, is it because everyone has respect for a man of the cloth or perhaps people have an underlying belief that bad language offends religious people. I would love to hear your thoughts on the matter though. I am no authority on religion, I’m not religious and considered myself an agnostic, then an old boss of mine said that an agnostic was just an atheist with no balls, so I guess that’s what I must be!

As always this is a music blog and this post gives me the opportunity to post some vicar related music, something I don’t think I’ve done before. So for what you are about to receive may the god of rock and the no balls atheist make you truly thankful, Amen!

Firstly the incredibly underrated Mansun with “Stripper Vicar” The song is taken from the excellent ‘Attack Of The Grey Lantern‘ album which singer Paul Draper originally conceived as a concept album where the Grey Lantern was a superhero in an English Village. But he apparently he ran out of steam so it’s only partly concept. In fact Draper has referred to it as con album rather than a concept album! “Stripper Vicar” was released in 1996 with the album following in 1997.

Next it’s the Smiths with “Vicar In A Tutu” preceded by “Bigmouth Strikes Again” taken from a Whistle Test performance. The song is track 8 on one of the greatest albums of all time (in my humble opinion at least) ‘The Queen Is Dead’ from 1986

And finally, not really music, but very funny, Rowan Atkinson as a vicar in a ‘Not The Nine O’Clock News‘ sketch on Songs Of Praise

 

“It’s hard to believe that there’s nobody out there, it’s hard to believe that I’m all alone” November 1, 2010

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 8:07 pm
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Hardly Wodka from Varrington is it?

This post will be made up of just a random selection of stuff, starting with P Diddy aka Puff Daddy aka Sean Puffy Combs aka Sean Combs etc. etc. Anyway Mr Diddyman has been the face of Ciroc vodka for some time and as an advertising campaign that has been rather successful. Pre Diddy sales were 60,000 cases per year and Post Diddy sales are 400,000 cases per year. Now that is a result! (Thank you to those nice people over at Popbitch for that information.

Some wonderful X Factor news to report. Joe McElderry‘s new single entered the UK chart at number 6 and then dropped to 20 a couple of weeks back! RESULT!

Now for some rather more amusing X Factor news. Did you watch Diana Vickers perform her new single on the show recently? Did you have any idea what she was singing about? No nor did I. But worry no more for help is at hand, click here to see it translated and watch carefully for the blatant steal from the Red Hot Chilli Peppers “Under The Bridge“.

Then there is some really weird news from the world of X Factor. Jedward have spent £3,000 on a bed sheet that was signed by Michael Jackson and MaCaulay Culkin. Whatever you might have thought of Jacko, that certainly seems a strange thing to do. Sleep innocently with a young ‘friend’ and then sign the sheet with them. But for me paying £3,000 for the sheet is even stranger! Read the story in the Guardian here.

Jedward audition for a part in a remake of the Deadly Bees

Meanwhile a final X Factor related story, Elton John has given his opinion of the show. He describes it as ‘boring, arse-paralysingly brain-crippling’ I have to say that I do agree with him, I just wish it wasn’t so bloody addictive! Read his comments in the Guardian by clicking here.

Here’s a great clip from a 1966 movie ‘The Deadly Bees‘ featuring the Birds proto R & B/ Mod band featuring Mr Ronnie Wood off of the Faces and the Rolling Stones. There has to be a joke about the Birds and the Bees here doesn’t there?

Did you ever wonder what kind of backstage riders your favourite bands have? Well check out a Blink 182 rider here at the Smoking Gun website. I guess there are not many bands who want X Rated lesbian porn and boxer shorts are there?

Finally check out this song from an artist that is very new to me, Lauren Pritchard. It’s called “Not The Drinking”

 

“If Adolf Hitler flew in today, they’d send a limousine anyway”

Filed under: News,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 4:31 pm
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A collection of randomness awaits you in today’s post. Starting with a rather bizarre picture that was sent to me last week. Now obviously I read a lot of conspiracy theories (I don’t believe most of them though) and I have also read Ira Levin‘s ‘The Boys From Brazil‘ So from all that wealth of knowledge I have gleaned that most of the top Nazis from the 2nd World War disappeared to South America after the war, possibly including Adolf Hitler himself. Personally I never believed that at all and I believe that the picture below, which was taken on a London Bus recently clearly proves that Hitler is not in South America, but that he is in fact residing in Shepherds Bush in London. Is that Eva Braun with him or is it his Mother?

Hitler Hiels a bus!

OK so like I’ve said loads of times this is a music blog so here is a song that mentions Mr Hitler. It’s one of my favourite songs and this is undeniably a great excuse to play it, please enjoy the Clash with “White Man In The Hammersmith Palais”

Some rather sad news now, Sony is finally retiring the Walkman after 30 years of sterling service, I owned one in the early 80s although I can only imagine that a Walkman in a cupboard must feel like Woody in Toy Story when Buzz Lightyear arrives. In this case of course Buzz Lightyear represents the MP3 player or iPod. I read a brilliant post about the demise of the Walkman on the Barely Awake In Frog Pajamas blog. Click here to check it out, you’ll find some top tunes there too! You can also read about it in the Guardians Music Blog.

RIP - the Sony Walkman

What better song to play at the Walkman wake than “C30, C60, C90 Go” by Bow Wow Wow which includes wonderful lyrics such as “C30 C60 C90 Go, off the radio I get a constant flow, hit it, pause it, record it and play, turn it, rewind, and rub it away”

Did you know that Tina Turner once advertised Pearl Drops, way back in 1972? She should have sponsored fright wigs, especially at Halloween!

It’s not too late to save the 100 Club, just click here and contribute, I have! There has been live music at the venue since 1942 when it opened as the Feldman Swing Club. In 1976 it hosted the International Punk Festival which featured the Sex Pistols, Siouxse and the Banshees, Buzzcocks, the Damned and the Clash. More recently bands such as Gallows and the Automatic have released tracks recorded at their gigs at the 100 Club. Click here to see a comprehensive list of acts that have played the club. Watch the Jam performing at the 100 Club in 1977 below.

Sir Elton found writing pop songs a real pig these days, so he decided to leave to those X Factor muppets

Sir Elton John has said that he will no longer be releasing singles, he says that he is not able to compete in the singles Pop Charts with the likes of JLS and Lady Gaga. He says he will continue with what he calls fun side projects, like with the Scissor Sisters. He will also explore elements of his own musical heroes, like his current release with Leon Russell. Click here to read details of the story, which is taken from a GQ interview, on the BBC site.

 

“We would be warm below the storm, in our little hideaway beneath the waves” October 27, 2010

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 12:59 pm
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Of all the expected stars in this years football World Cup it was perhaps a rather unexpected and left field star that caught the attention of the world. Who was that? None other than score predictor extraordinaire, Paul The Octopus. I am sad to report that Paul passed away this week at the ripe old age of two and a half, which is apparently a good age for an octopus.

The conspiracy theorists are already at work in suggesting that the real Paul died just before the World Cup Final and an imposter has been in his place since then. The management of the Oberhausen Sea Life Centre in Germany have denied that there ever was a fake Paul. Fake or otherwise Paul certainly displayed far more talent than England, France and Italy combined!

Whilst he was a German resident, Paul was actually born in Weymouth in England. I’m sure he would have played with more pride in the England shirt than any of the World Cup squad did (or should that read World Cup Squid?). Perhaps he was in the process of signing for Manchester City, they seem to buy up anyone in football that is successful and gets a lot of press. With eight tentacles he would surely make a good goalkeeper

Read about his sad demise in the Guardian and the BBC.

Obviously with this being a music blog I can only really finish with one song can’t I? yes it’s “Octopus’s Garden” from the Beatles classic ‘Abbey Road‘ album. Although not the last album they released it was the last one they ever recorded.

 

” The eagle picks my eye the worm he licks my bones” October 24, 2010

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 6:31 pm
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Hello once again regular readers and welcome to any new readers, I would love to hear from you via the comments function and also feel free to utilise the ‘rate’ option for each post.

A blue plaque not a blue meanie

A few more bits of music related news for you today. Firstly the house that John and Yoko lived in during 1968 finally gets an English Heritage blue plaque. The Marylebone property (basement and ground floor) was purchased by Ringo Starr in 1965 and before the Lennon’s moved in it was rented out to Paul McCartney and Jimi Hendrix. Read the story on the BBC.

Yoko thanked the builders for converting her former home into the leaning tower of Marylebone

To celebrate take a  listen to “Yer Blues” from the Beatles ‘White Album’

Nick Clegg steals food from children as his contribution to the governments spending cuts

Now for some rather disappointing news, well in my opinion anyway. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat Leader and Tory Party muppet appeared on the BBC’s Desert Island Discs show this weekend and chose a book, a luxury item and 8 records (actually it’s 8 pieces of music. Why is that bad news? Well he’s only gone and chosen a David Bowie song hasn’t he. I just feel bad when people I don’t like happen to like people who I do like, does anyone else feel like that? The Bowie song he chose was “Life On Mars”, he also selected songs by Prince, Johnny Cash, Radiohead and Shakira. So begrudgingly I might have to credit him with some taste, I’d still never vote for him again though. Click here to read the report on the BBC. You can watch Mr Bowie performing the song below at the Yahoo Internet Life Music Awards in New York City in 2000, very ably supported by Mike Garson on piano.

Nick Clegg contemplates another luxury item to take to his desert island. Let's hope the cuts aren't too sharp eh Nick? Don't want any problems with inflation do we?

In another piece of Bowie related news Cheery Vanilla his one time squeeze from the 70’s has published her memoirs and the book is enticingly titled ‘Lick Me’, which is actually quite appropriate given her name. She is quoted as saying that if you’re given the chance to sleep with David Bowie you do it, even if you have giant carbuncles on your thighs. I’m not sure whether she did have those carbuncles though. Read about the book by clicking here.

Cherry Vanilla chooses a novel way of promoting her new book

A week or so back Take That revealed the cover to their new album, ‘Progress’. It is yet another take on the Ascent Of Man idea. The worrying thing about it for me is why Gary Barlow is looking up Mark Owen’s backside. Robbie is right in the middle and Jason Orange seems to have been given a real surprise. One which made him leap high. The Guardian analyses the picture here. What do you think of it?

It's a bit camp and a bit yellow isn't it?

Click here to read a list of 10 things that British Sea Power wished they hadn’t done from the drowned in sound website. My favourites are the fans dressed as 10 foot teddy bears and one of the band dressing as some kind of Geordie/ zebra hybrid to commemorate Kevin Keegan‘s appointment as Newcastle United manager.

The British Sea Power Teddy Bear was a bit grizzly that night!