Like many bands the Killers considered many names before finally settling on the Killers. At one point they apparently considered the Genius Sex Poets. I don’t know about you, but for me that would have been so much better. I can even picture it on a T Shirt. The reason they chose the Killers is thanks to New Order. It was the name of a fictitious band on the drum kit during the video for “Crystal”. Which was released the year Brandon and the gang got together; 2001. You can watch that video at the end of this post.
While we are speaking of the Killers, did you know that “Mr Brightside” has appeared in the UK charts every year since its release in 2003. This includes 35 consecutive weeks from July 2016 to March 2017. But it has never made it any higher than number 10 to date. Interestingly and rather surprisingly they have never had a UK number, well up to now anyway. But “Human”, “When You Were Young” and “Somebody Told Me” all made the top 3. But to make the band feel better all five of their studio albums hit the top spot over here in dear old Blighty.
Click here to read my review of the fabulous album, ‘Human’ from the mightily talented rag ‘n’ Bone Man. Thank you to those nice people at Subba CultchaSubba Cultcha for giving me the opportunity to hear it before its release on 1oth February.
Weird lyrics are great aren’t they? Often they might be confused with crap lyrics I suppose. Such as Thin Lizzy’s “Jailbreak” contains the line ‘tonight there’s gonna be a jailbreak somewhere in this town’. Somewhere? Obviously it will be at the jail won’t it? That for me is a crap lyric. A weird lyric for me comes from Haircut 100’s “Love Plus One” as in ‘where do we go from here, is it down to the lake I fear’. Then of course this little gem from Pharrell William’s wonderful song “Happy”; ‘Clap along if you feel like a room without a roof’. Anyway, maybe there is a very thin line between weird and crap, what do you think? Online music company Blinkbox Music recently undertook a survey to find out the weirdest lyrics. They asked 2,000 people for their opinion and the resulting top 10 weird lyrics were;
The Killers – “Human”- ‘Are we human, or are we dancer?’
The Beatles – “I Am The Walrus”- ‘I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus, goo goo g’joob.’
Well aren’t those December days just rushing past, this is the sixth day of my UK Christmas Number Ones Advent Calendar and therefore it must be (a bit of an easy one this) December 6th. So go ahead put your fingernail in the frame of the little cardboard door and pull it open carefully. Todays song takes us back to Christmas 1981. It’s those good Sheffield folk, the Human League with a little ditty called “Don’t You Want Me”. It was number one for five weeks in total and became the 30th different UK Christmas number one.
The hair and make-up artist left the country after this job
It was the band’s only UK number one and also reached the top in the US charts as well. They went on to have a further number one in the US with the excellent “Human” in 1986. “Don’t You Want Me” has become a bit af a party staple, I certainly play it at pretty much every mobile DJ gig I ever do. Yet another 80s song that I like, what’s up with me? The 80s was generally crap, wasn’t it?
In the early days Phil could only afford half a haircut
The band released their first single, “Being Boiled” in June 1978. The NME review was quite positive, although guest reviewer John Lydon dismissed the band as trendy hippies. Apparently David Bowie saw them play live at the end of 1978 and allegedly claimed that he had ‘seen the future of Pop Music’. They were even name checked in the Undertones song “My Perfect Cousin” with the line; ‘His mother bought him a synthesiser/Got the Human League in to advise her/Now he’s making lots of noise/Playing along with the art school boys’ An obvious dig at arty music too.
Nowadays Phil (like me) doesn't have any hair to cut
The band originally included Martyn Ware and Ian Craig Marsh who both left in 1980 following a big bust up with Phil Oakey. They went on to form Heaven 17 and thanks to the Human League’s Virgin contract Marsh and Ware also received 1% of royalties from the next League album, which was ‘Dare’ home of “Don’t You Want Me”
The song has been covered a few times, including versions by Alcazar, Mandy Smith and the Farm. Click on the artist names to see and hear those versions.
Enjoy the original Human league video for the song below.
And finally here they are performing the song on Top Of The Pops
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 