With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

“tough is the leather thats strapped to my skin” October 23, 2016

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 10:43 pm
Tags: , , , ,

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Hello good people of the blogosphere. This is a somewhat gratuitous post from me as it involves my late, great father with whom I shared the same name; Bill Adamson if you were unaware.

HMS BELFAST DURING THE KOREAN WAR 1950-1952 (A 31985) The Korean War 1950-1952: An American S.51 helicopter flies over HMS BELFAST in the Yellow Sea, 1951. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205187744

Anyway here’s a little question for you. What did my Dad have in common with arch new romantics Spandau Ballet? Did he play in a band? No. Did he wear a kilt as a part of early new romantic fashion? No he didn’t, although as a Scot he was probably more entitled to than they were. Did he play in a band? No he didn’t, although after a couple of pints he could turn out a mean version of “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” or “Sailing”.

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OK I’ll put you out of your misery. HMS Belfast is what they have in common. That was the ship that my Dad served on during the Korean war in the early 1950s and it was on the HMS Belfast that Spandau Ballet played one of their early gigs back in 1980. Incidentally it is an even more tenuous link but my Dad served in Korea at exactly the same time as first man on the moon Neil Armstrong. Have you got any tenuous links to share? Feel free to let me know what they are!

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The boys from Spandau Ballet were delighted when they discovered that they were able to smuggle their budgies on the HMS Belfast

The boys from Spandau Ballet were delighted when they discovered that they were able to smuggle their budgies on the HMS Belfast

 

“For here am I sitting in a tin can” September 13, 2012


I still have heroes, do you? You might have guessed that David Bowie is one of mine and so is Neil Armstrong. Both men were in the news for very different reasons recently. Firstly there was the sad death of Neil Armstrong a true pioneer. Secondly the supposedly retired Mr Bowie has opened his archives to the Victoria & Albert museum in London for a massive exhibition of costumes, set designs, lyrics and many other delights next year. Click here to read the Bowie story.

I know I am a bit late posting about Neil Armstrong but a public memorial service has just been held to honour him in Washington. Click here to read about it on the BBC website. He is a man who I am sure will be remembered in thousands of years as the first human ever to walk on a body that wasn’t earth. Coincidentally he served as a pilot in the US Air Force in Korea in the early 1950s. Which was exactly the same time another of my heroes, my Dad saw active service there in the Royal Navy on board the HMS Belfast. Neil Armstrong RIP.

For this post I thought I’d choose a few space related Bowie songs and one that was produced by him for Lou Reed.