With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

“Baby, it’s amazing just how wonderful it is, that the things we like to do are just the same” May 15, 2015


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As regular readers will know I am a 70s music fan. So I am always interested in 70s music trivia, particularly if it involves the UK charts. I was pleased to read a little bit of trivia that I don’t believe I have published before. There is only one British act who had at least one UK top 50 hit in every year of the 70s from 1970 to 1979. That band was Hot Chocolate. I haven’t been able to verify the next one but I understand Elvis Presley also achieved at least one top 50 UK hit for every year of the 70s.  Diana Ross almost made it, as she only missed the UK top 50 in 1972. Do you know of any other artists who have done this?

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Here are all of Hot Chocolate’s 1970’s UK top 50 hits (including their chart position), there is hardly a duff one among them in my opinion.

1970 “Love Is Life” 6
1971 “You Could Have Been a Lady” 22
1971 “I Believe (In Love)” 8
1972 “You’ll Always Be a Friend” 23
1973 “Rumours” 44
1973 “Brother Louie” 7
1974 “Emma” 3
1974 “Cheri Babe” 31
1975 “Disco Queen” 11
1975 “A Child’s Prayer” 7
1975 “You Sexy Thing” 2
1976 “Don’t Stop It Now” 11
1976 “Man to Man” 14
1976 “Heaven Is in the Back Seat of My Cadillac” 25
1977 “So You Win Again” 1
1977 “Put Your Love In Me” 10
1978 “Every 1’s a Winner” 12
1978 “I’ll Put You Together Again” 13
1979 “Mindless Boogie” 46

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“I just don’t know where my home is anymore” May 6, 2015


errol brown

Hot Chocolate‘s lead singer Errol Brown has died from liver cancer at his home in the Bahamas, aged just 71. That is really sad news, Errol was an iconic figure from my youth. For me Hot Chocolate were a superb singles band, particularly back in the days when singles were all I could afford. I would always do what I could to buy any Hot Chocolate single as it came out. I once even bought a single that they released on the Beatles Apple label. I can even tell you were I bought that one, in the Harrods sale in 1976.

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Their hits are pretty much all classics and the majority really haven’t dated at all. Even the non-hits are pretty darned good. In the mid 70s I bought a Hot Chocolate single called “Blue Night”, it wasn’t a hit. But the B-Side (ask your grandparents if you don’t know what a b-side is) is a song you might know; it was “You Sexy Thing”. It looks like the record company may have got it wrong when making that a B-side initially.

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Errol Brown and Hot Chocolate were a great band that were loved by many people. My thoughts go out to Errol’s family, friends and fans. Errol Brown RIP.

 

 

“Feet fail me not, this may be the only opportunity that I got” September 19, 2012


The team at the finish, just how fresh do we look? 😉

Regular readers will know that I took part in the world-famous Great North Run last Sunday. It is a half marathon (13.1 miles) which starts in Newcastle and finishes in South Shields. It was my first half marathon for 17 years so I wasn’t expecting a great time. I was part of a team of five and I am pleased to say that I came third in that little group with an official time of 2.44. But also big congratulations go to the rest of the team as well; Stuart O’Hara, Nick Cooper, Simon Downs and David Carline. In the overall race I was 35,301st, but I did still have a pulse at the end of the race and I have suffered no major aches or injuries. To my knowledge I was beaten by a the fridge man, a gingerbread man, a Scooby Doo (although I did beat another Scooby home) and Jesus. JC carried a heavy wooden cross for the whole run and gave me a rather disdainful look when I asked whether he was in fact Jesus or Brian.

The atmosphere and support were tremendous and perhaps the only negative was the heavy rain at the start. especially as it took me 50 minutes to actually reach the start line from when the gun went off. But there were somewhere in the region of 55, 000 entrants. A lot of our excellent Olympians and Paralympians were also there to offer support. In fact I was even able to high-five with the swimming superstar Ellie Simmonds and the magnificent Mobot himself, Mo Farah.

Up to now we have raised 83% of our target sponsorship for the Save The Children charity. So thank you to all of you who have contributed so far, but it’s not too late. Click here if you would like to donate. I also promise that this will be my last begging post for some time. So now for a special treat how about some appropriate songs?

 

“How can you decline such grand designs?” July 26, 2012


So many people will be writing about the Olympics in the coming weeks so I thought I’d get my mention out-of-the-way in advance of the opening ceremony. Personally I have been a little bored with the journey of the Olympic flame, especially after discovering that there are thousands of torches and not just a handful. The constant news stories about the whereabouts of the flame; ‘the flame has now passed through the arse end of nowhere carried by A N other’ have left me completely underwhelmed. How do you feel?

however, the good news is I am really looking forward to the opening ceremony. Has Danny Boyle arranged the weather? Will David Beckham kick a flaming football? Will Olly Murs spontaneously combust to light the flame? I really don’t care, I’m sure it will be one of the most spectacular Olympic openings there have ever been.

Anyway in the spirit of this being a music blog here are a few of appropriate tunes for the Olympics (starting with one of my favourite songs of all time) and while I’m here I want to wish the GB team all the best and I hope they win more medals than they have ever done!

We’re all looking forward to women’s beach volleyball aren’t we?

And finally how about a Billy bonus of another song from the rather excellent and sadly missed Gene!

 

“Cartoon capers happen in reality, rich man poor man living in fantasy” June 24, 2010


At last England get their groove back!

At last the England team showed some spirit and fight in beating Slovenia one-nil. Gone were the pathetic shadows that played against Algeria and back were players who actually seemed to have pride and passion. So now, thanks to a late USA goal against Algeria, we have to play Germany on Sunday at 3 o’clock. But at least we now appear to have a team more like Gladiators than Muppets.

aaawwwww come on guys, who stole my number?

Let’s hope it’s not the usual result against the Germans in a World Cup knockout match. As we well remember we beat them in the final in 1966, then lost 3-2 in the 1970 Quarter Finals after being two goals up and  in 1990 we lost on penalties in the semi Final. We also lost on penalties to them in the Semi Finals of Euro 96. How good would it be for Sundays match to go through extra time and for us to beat Germany on penalties? We must win a penalty shoot out sometime, right? just don’t let John Terry take one!

Have England got their mojo back? I hope so. I am proud to be an England supporter once again anyway!

On Sunday boys go out and do it for God, for Fabio and for England!

Here is Defoe’s goal from the Slovenia game

And finally as usual this is a music blog so here are a few appropriate(ish) songs

Everyone’s A Winner” – Hot Chocolate. These guys were one of my favourite bands in my formative years and did you know that their famous “You Sexy Thing” song was originally the B Side of a non hit called “Blue Night”?

Victorious” – Linda Bengtzing & Velvet. Honestly I had never heard of Linda before searching for appropriate songs for this post, but I now know she is Swedish!

Let’s Go All The Way” – Sly Fox. This was a big hit in 1985 and the vocalist was formerly a singer with one of my favourite bands Parliament/ Funkadelic, his name is Gary ‘Mudbone’ Cooper

 

“If you’re 555, then I’m 666” March 10, 2009


hello again people, I’ve been away for a long weekend in west Burton, Yorkshire. So I guess you could say I’ve “Gone For A Burton!” If you’re not sure where that phrase comes from just click on it and you probably still won’t know as there are so many possibilities (for me this weekend it probably relates more closely to the Burtons Ale option). I can also report a modicum of success with our Lily Allen Naked experiment, three people arrived at this very blog over the weekend by using the Lily Allen naked phrase to search! It’s ok Tom and Jes you can stop now! So once again to those of you who have arrived here to see an unclothed Lily, I’m sorry you’ve been disappointed, now wash your hands! Now click here to see Lily with Alan Carr in a great spoof of the current Cadbury advert

A kind of normal service will be resumed with this post with a birthday and a couple of onthisdays. Coming up this week in addition to the usual stuff will be a post about the first five songs to appear on my iPod when I use the shuffle function, will there be something embarrassing, possibly, but you’ll find out soon enough. Anyway for now let’s go on with the show!

I’d like you all to wish a very happy 34th birthday to Edie Brickell off of Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians. Edie and the New Bohemians had a hit in 1988 with “What I Am“. (UK 31, US 7) The song was also a hit for Emma Bunton (aka Baby Spice off of the Spice Girls) in 1999. Edie married Paul Simon in 1992 after the couple met when Edie was performing on Saturday Night Live on US TV. She is his third wife and for a brief period in the 80s (11 months in fact) Simon was married to none other than Princess Leia from Star Wars (well ok Carrie Fisher!). Incidentally when Windows 1995 was released in August 1995 the disc contained a few videos, notably “Buddy Holly” by Weezer and also “Good Times” by Edie Brickell. The song even has a cameo voice over from the late great (can’t keep those l’s & g’s down!) Barry White. That was truly a wonderful song, although I’m not sure of the relevance to Windows 1995. Maybe it was the songs hook line, “good times, bad times, give me some of that” users of ’95 will know what I’m talking about I hope!

Edie and the gang try, apparently unsuccessfully, to recreate the Simpsons opening credits sofa scene

Edie and the gang try, apparently unsuccessfully, to recreate the Simpsons opening credits sofa scene

On this day in 1977 the Sex Pistols famously signed their contract with A & M records on a trestle table outside Buckingham Palace in London at 7 am in the morning. The contract lasted just 6 days! After signing the band went to A & M’s London offices for a party. This resulted in the Managing Director’s office being trashed and Sid allegedly vomiting on said MD’s desk. Strangely enough there are no confirmed reports of any diced carrots! Here are the boys on their first live TV appearance with “Anarchy For The UK” on the late great (they’re back) Tony Wilson’s UK show ‘So It Goes’. As you will see this was pre Sid and also a few months in advance of the now infamous appearance on teatime UK TV with Bill Grundy

Malcolm McLaren always thought he was the 5th Pistol, but as this picture shows it was clearly Sting off of the Police!

Malcolm McLaren always thought he was the 5th Pistol, but as this picture shows it was clearly Sting off of the Police!

On this day in 1979 Gloria Gaynor started a 3 week run at the top of the UK singles chart with what many see as a classic disco song, “I Will Survive” Personally as a mobile DJ I really dislike that song, largely because I’ve had to play it hundreds of times! The song was originally a B-Side to a cover of a Righteous Brothers song, “Substitute” That song was also a big hit for a South African band called Clout in 1978. OK to those of you too young to understand the concept of a B Side, well back in the day our music used to arrive on a not so compact 7 inch plastic disc with a groove cut on each side. Usually there was one song on each side, the main song was the ‘A Side’ and the supposedly lesser song (i.e. something that was banged out really quickly in the studio) was the ‘B- Side’. Hot Chocolate’s “You Sexy Thing’ was also originally a B Side to a song called “Blue Night”. How do I know that? Well I actually bought “Blue Night” during my Hot Chocolate fixation in 1975! Anyway let’s get back to Glo shall we? Firstly
click here to see the classic alien video version of “I Will Survive”. Then click here to see Glo herself perform the song. Why’s there a roller skater in the video, what’s that all about then?

Gloria didn't know how to tell George (off of George McCrae) that most of his eyebrows had fallen onto his top lip

Gloria didn't know how to tell George (off of George McCrae) that most of his eyebrows had fallen onto his top lip

And finally on this day in 2004 Corey Taylor from Slipknot married his girlfriend Scarlett. He has since divorced. He is the singer with Slipknot and also Stone Sour, he is allegedly recording solo material at the moment, some of which may even have a country feel to them! Slipknot famously wear masks on stage, I guess this may help avoid being mobbed in public in a similar manner to the whole Kiss make-up thing, although to be fair, Gene Simmons certainly seemed to invite publicity with or without makeup. I saw Slipknot at the Reading Festival a few years ago having wondered just how good a band who seemed to sell more hoodies and other merchandise than any other band was! I was somewhat disappointed, actually I thought they were bloody awful, however I listened to their last album and was very pleasantly surprised, it was pretty damned good! So to finished here are those crazy masked chaps Slipknot with “The Heretic Anthem” live in London.

The Slipknot boys were a little suspicious that their new masks were somewhat like the emperors new clothes

The Slipknot boys were a little suspicious that their new masks were somewhat like the emperors new clothes