With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

“I’ve seen all the frowns on the faces of the clowns” August 5, 2012

Filed under: Observation — justwilliam1959 @ 5:05 pm
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Regular readers will have noticed quite a few sports related posts on this blog recently, largely related to the London Olympics of course. However this is also a sports related post, but it doesn’t relate to the Olympics. I took part in the York 10 k Jane Tomlinson race this morning. Well I say race, but for me it was just a personal challenge. Many years ago I was doing two half marathons a year, many with my good friend Al Sloman. I also ran the 1986 London Marathon with Al, who is a blind runner. My last half marathon was in Wycombe in 1995 and I have now completed the York 10k three times. I did the Leeds 10k and Hull 10k last year too. Having done far less training than I had hoped and being somewhat porky at the moment I set myself a target of between 80 and 90 minutes. I was incredibly pleased to have finished with an official time of just over 68 minutes and I didn’t walk any of it! I also have a nice red t-shirt and a medal sponsored by the UK arm of Wal-Mart; Asda.

Howard Webb dresses for charity for the York 10K (or perhaps not!)

Clearly my performance wouldn’t have brought me even close to Mo Farah, but then I am considerably older than him! He probably had a better build up too. I arrived at the start at 8.20 (for a 9.00 start) with Catwoman, who was my chauffeur, coach and supporter for the day. I have a bladder that is smaller than a gnat’s eyeball so obviously I needed to empty it. The queue for the chemical portaloos was immense, but having joined it I wasn’t budging. So I was actually in full bladder emptying mode when the race started. But given I was always going to start with the less fast runners I still had plenty of time to join the slow pack. It took me 12 minutes from the starting whistle to cross the start line. Why was it a whistle and not a pistol? Well it was started by world-class football referee Howard Webb.

As is the norm the “Theme From Chariots Of Fire” was played before the race along with the British national anthem. Music can be inspirational so just how disappointed do you think I was when the PA was blasting out Cheryl Cole‘s “Fight For This Love” when I eventually crossed the start line. To make matters even worse that same slice of Cheryl’s special brand of crap pop was playing again! So as this is a music blog I will spare you anything by Cheryl and let you enjoy a few of running related songs and a song about Cheryl Cole née Tweedy.

 

 

“Yes we’re going to a party party, yes we’re going to a party party, yes we’re going to a party party” February 9, 2012

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:12 am
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I can hardly believe it really. I started this blog because I was as they say ‘between contracts’ and frankly I was a little bored. But now it’s probably my favourite hobby. Why am I telling you all this? Well the blog is three years old today, 9th February 2012. I have loved every moment and I have met some wonderful people through it too. The most amazing thing is that I would have been knocked out if my viewing figures went into double figures on a weekly basis but now the total for three years is an incredible 1.04 million. I’d like to thank each and every one of you; especially the 51 who have subscribed and the 180 who are following it on Twitter.

I have made close to 450 posts and there have been nearly 530 comments. Some of the more amusing things are the search terms that have landed people here. The top 10 search items for the 12 months to 9th February 2012 are;

lady gaga 10,670

street signs 3,923

esthera sarita 3,555

rod stewart 2,910

imelda may 2,561

bjork 2,019

spencer elden 1,828

michael jackson 1,649

kate bush 1,625

dream catcher 1,385

The Lily Allen Naked experiment clearly still has some residual interest with 368 hits for Ms Allen naked. The naked thing is quite weird; many of you have searched for a favourite celeb naked including; Lady Gaga, Rage Against the Machine, Take That, Bono, Rod Stewart, Kate Bush, Simon Cowell & Louis Walsh. I mean come on people, first it’s not kind of site and second who really wants to see some of those naked? Louis Walsh naked bloody hell that’s perverse!

The largest referrals outside of search engines this year came from;

Facebook.com

williamyoung.org

barelyawakeinfrogpajamas.wordpress.com

pretendinglifeislikeasong.wordpress.com

glasswalking-stick.blogspot.com

A big thanks to all of those. The Will Young one came about after I said some nice things about him in another of my anti X Factor posts.

The most viewed YouTube video from my blog in the past 12 months has been Wyclef Jean‘s “Stripper Song”. It’s a great song but there is no stripper in the clip, it’s just audio!

As for the most downloaded pictures from the blog in the last 12 months, that tells a similar story to the naked searches and the Stripper Song. Here they are in order of popularity;

the most downloaded picture on my blog Feb 2011 to Feb 2012

Number 4 and 5 take things to another place entirely!

Who do you think you're kidding Mr Hitler? That bus doesn't go to Poland

Back in the days when he was a laughing-stock.

And finally I also had the audacity to start three new blogs in the last 12 months. Feel free to check them out, rate them, comment on them and stuff.

http://withjustahintoflearning.wordpress.com/

http://withjustahintofamelia.wordpress.com/

http://starsinmyglasses.wordpress.com/

Thanks again for bothering to take a look it’s a pleasure having you here. I’ll close with a few birthday related songs;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vhSQiH9oeo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgqD826HGuI

 

“You don’t need no baggage You just get on board” May 22, 2011

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 10:17 am
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This post just contains some random bits of news of the good, bad and ugly variety. Starting with someone I haven’t posted about for a while Ms. Lily Allen. Lily recently had her traditional pre-nuptial event, the Hen Night on May 20th. Maybe that was to make sure she had a great night before the end of the world. But wait a minute it was supposed to end yesterday and clearly it hasn’t! Anyway she had a very special guest at her Hen Do, none other than Gordon ‘F-Word’ Ramsay. Who gave her and her friends some cookery lessons. I know someone else who would probably love that; Catwoman. Regular readers may know that Catwoman and I will be getting all matrimonial in September and our respective Hen and Stag nights will be in August at top-secret locations so there will be no tabloid interference!

Geri we can see that there's a big white space in your life, but do you have to fill it with a bloody album?

Now for some rather terrible news. Geri Halliwell is back in the studio recording a new album. Now I’ve thought about this quite seriously for a moment and maybe, just maybe, the portent for the end of the world wasn’t earthquakes but a new Geri Halliwell album. What do you think? Anyway the album will apparently be called ‘Putting On The Bling’ and will feature a cover of the old standard “Putting On The Ritz”. Oh boy I can hardly wait I am so overcome with disinterest.

ooooh two middle fingers how very shocking and offensive......NOT!

Corey Taylor off of Slipknot has been invited to speak at Oxford University. Now for me that is either an inspired choice or a big mistake, but I’m looking forward to it. Corey says that he expects to swear and sweat a lot. So perhaps you wouldn’t want to be sitting at the front! I wonder if he’ll do it in full stage mask or not?

Paul McCartney has announced that he will be releasing a covers album consisting of pre-rock songs that were admired by his Dad. He said that he has wanted to do it for ages but decided to wait after ‘Rod Stewart went mad on covers’ with his American Songbook series. McCartney has also said that the new Foo Fighters album has inspired him to record a heavy rock album, of original songs not covers! Rod Stewart is also recording a new album with Jeff Beck which along with some covers will also have some new material.

WARNING! Please do not look at this picture immediately after eating. It may cause vomiting!

 

“Now hold on a minute before we go much further, give me a dime so I can phone my mother” April 17, 2011

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 3:36 pm
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Dizzee enjoyed dressing as an 18th Century poet whilst promenading with a powerful female. Thatcher hasnt aged well has she?

Hello people, I have some assorted bits of music related news for you in todays post. Some old, some new and some strange. Beginning with Dizzee Rascal, who according to the UK tabloid press has an addiction. But not to drugs, drink, sex or gambling, but to 18th century poets. He is very much into his Wordsworth, Byron, Blake and Keats. Mr Rascal, formerly known as Dylan Mills, is hoping that classical English poetry will have an influence on his next album. Sounds interesting doesn’t it? Read about it here in the soaraway Sun and be careful your phone isn’t tapped!

Simon makes one last appearance on Page Three before he departs for the USA

Most of you probably know that Simon Cowell will be leaving the UK version of X Factor to launch and take part in the US version. It still seems most likely that he will take Cheryl Cole with him, providing the Americans can understand her one assumes. My only wish is that the opportunity is taken to get rid of Louis Walsh. What do you think and also who would your ideal fantasy X Factor judging panel consist of? My vote would be Lily Allen, Keith Richards, Jeremy Paxman and Nick Clegg. The latter choice is largely because there should always be one idiot on the panel and surely he will be out of a job soon won’t he?

Clearly Liam was buzzing about the new Beady Eye Bee Side

You’ve probably all heard of the post Oasis band Beady Eye, which is basically Oasis without Noel. I have listened to their album and it’s not bad, it’s hardly ‘Definitely Maybe’  or ‘Morning Glory’ but it’s ok. Anyway this isn’t a review but a rather strange piece of news about Liam Gallagher. According to a report in the NME (click here to read it) he likes to warm up before he goes on stage by listening to Rod Stewart’s “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy”, let’s pray he doesn’t do a cover version of it! What song do you use to get pumped up before work? For me it’s often “Complete Control” by the Clash or “Do Anything You Wanna Do” by the Rods.

Billie Joe auditions for a part in the new version of Snow White

Tom Hanks is currently preparing to produce a film adaptation of Green Day’s ‘American Idiot’ album. The director is likely to be Michael Mayer who was the director for the ‘American Idiot’ Broadway musical. Could this be this generation’s ‘Tommy’? Only time will tell. Click here to read the NME report. What album would you like to see turned into a film? I would definitely vote for David Bowie’s ‘Diamond Dogs’

And finally how small do you think the world’s smallest working guitar actually is? Well you’re probably wrong. It is in fact no bigger than a human blood cell and obviously impossible to be played in a conventional way. It has to be played by having lasers directed at the strings. Read more about the Nano Guitar in the Guardian by clicking here.

 

“I’m on a mission and it involves some heavy touching yeah!” February 9, 2011

Filed under: Observation,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 10:10 pm
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Today, February 9th 2011 I would like to say a very big thank you to all my regular readers and all those of you who have just stopped by a couple of times. Also to those of you who comment, regularly or otherwise, I salute you! Why all this fuss I hear you say? Well simply because it is now the second birthday of my little blog. It has now surpassed any ambitions that I might have for it. I have made more than 260 posts and received more than 860,000 visits. If I’m honest 20 hits a week in the early days blew me away, but this level, well I can only imagine you search for something and luck brings you to this blog.

A picture of Lady Gaga’s rear end has been downloaded more than any other picture or file, to date 919 people have downloaded it, or one of you has downloaded it 919 times! Check it out below. The post that has been viewed the most times, with more than 68,000 views was published in the blogs first week back in February 2009. You can relive it by clicking here.

The most popular search terms that have arrived here are;

1     Lady Gaga            95,939

2     Pink Floyd 58,786

3     Kate Bush 42,253

4     Eminem 41,966

5     Slipknot                   39,670

6     Lily Allen 38,993

7    Michael Jackson 25,341

8    Beatles 24,572

9   Catwoman 23,220

10 Pink                            16,903

So finally a big thank you once again for your support and encouragement, I have also made friends of many other bloggers, check out my blog roll for many of them. So rather than the traditional happy birthday please enjoy Lady Gaga with “Love Game”

     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
 

“Waters runnin’ in the wrong direction, got a feelin’ its a mixed up sign” December 13, 2010

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 7:35 pm
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How the hell do they keep slim with all those calories????

Hello once again dear readers and we’re passed the halfway mark to Chrimbo on my UK Christmas Number One Advent Calendar. It’s December 13th and todays treat is the first of the reality TV Pop Idol/ X Factor songs to take the Christmas number one spot. It was number one in Christmas 2002 and was begotten by ‘PopStars: The Rivals’ That show formed a boy band and a girl band and then put them into a Christmas chart battle. The winner by a long way was Girls Aloud with “Sound Of The Underground”. Can anyone remember the name of the losing boy band? it was One True Voice and their single was a double A side with “Sacred Trust/ After You’re Gone”. The girls were number one for four weeks that Christmas.

The girls would do anything to get a part in the next Pirates Of The Caribbean movie, even walk the plank!

Personally I kind of like that first Girls Aloud single, it’s still my favourite of theirs. Remember this was back in the days before Cheryl Cole  was Cheryl Cole and before she became the Nation’s Sweetheart and launched her lip syncing solo career. Back then she was just plain (well some would say not so plain!) Cheryl Tweedy. It’s funny how the little altercation in a nightclub toilet from those days seems to have been airbrushed from Cheryl history isn’t it? Anyway check out Lily Allen’s “Cheryl Tweedy” here.

The judges for Popstars: The Rivals were Pete Waterman, Gerri Halliwell and Louis Walsh. Will someone please explain how such a dipstick as Louis has survived so long in the business? I really don’t get it. As for Girls Aloud, whether you love them or hate them you have to admit that they are one of the few reality TV acts with any degree of longevity. Cheryl has now released two solo albums whilst Nadine Coyle has just released her first. Kimberley Walsh, Nicola Roberts and Sarah Harding have all tried their hands at acting as well.

No airbrushing here is there! 😉

 

“Aunty Milly, ran willy nilly when her legs they did recede” December 8, 2010

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 6:23 am
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So here we are then ready to reveal what’s behind the cardboard door of my UK Christmas Number Ones Advent Calendar for December 8th. Where the hell does the time go? Anyway today’s choice whizzes you way back through the sands of time to the Christmas of 1968 when “Lily The Pink” was number one for the Scaffold. It held sway at the top for three weeks. There were supported by some big stars although to be fair one of them hadn’t become a star at that point. Backing vocals on the song were provided by our stars and those stars were Elton John, who was not much more than a small stone in the celebrity universe at that time and Graham Nash off of the Hollies and later Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. In fact it is thanks to Mr Nash that the line “Jennifer Eccles had terrible freckles” was added to the song. In reference to the Hollies smash “Jennifer Eccles”

The song was based on a traditional folk song “The Ballad Of Lydia Pinkham” although the band provided most of the new lyrics. The band was from Liverpool and counted Mike McGear, Paul McCartney‘s brother among their members along with Roger McGough and John Gorman. The Scaffold performed a lot of McGough’s poetry in their live shows and they also had two other top 10 UK hits with “Thank U Very Much” in 1967 and “Liverpool Lou” in 1974. The latter was recorded with Paul McCartney and Wings.

Not the Scaffold at all, just an excuse for me to show another picture of the delightful Lily Allen........ Lily In Pink!

The band broke up in the late 70s but have reformed on a few occasions, often for charity and most recently to record a special song to commemorate Liverpool’s year as UK City Of Culture in 2008. Enjoy the band performing the song below.

 

“But with a little help from my friends I found a light in the tunnel at the end” November 2, 2010

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 9:52 pm
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Many hundreds of people have found their way to this blog by searching for Lily Allen, so on behalf of those people and myself I would like to say to Lily that we are all thinking of her at this sad time. Lily suffered her second miscarriage, this was at quite a late stage in the pregnancy. Hopefully the paparazzi won’t be hounding her for a while. You can read the report on the BBC Newsbeat site.

Gaga in disguise with glasses!

Apparently an US university has now dedicated a course to none other than Lady Gaga. The University of South Carolina now lets you enrol on a sociology course which is dedicated to the life, work, music and rise to fame of Gaga. The lecturer Professor Mathieu Deflem is a fan, as you might have guessed. The Professor is also partial to Frank Zappa, Prince, Led Zeppelin, Alice Cooper, Status Quo and Ritchie Blackmore. the course also has its own blog, click here to see it. Read the BBC report here.

Now these next pictures completely passed me by, but Rihanna did a rather titillating photo shoot for the Russian GQ earlier this year. What do you think?

 

“To keep in silence I resigned, my friends would think I was a nut” May 20, 2010

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 8:49 pm
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No one was prepared to argue with Lily's new security guards Ethel and Doris

Todays post may be a bit random, I haven’t posted for a while so I just fancied getting back in the saddle as they say. Incidentally do you, like me, ever wonder who ‘they’ are? I should also warn you that this post makes a brief return to the Lily Allen Naked experiment.

Lily suggested that her next album might be a bit more soulful

So first up is the news from the 55th Ivor Novello awards that the wonderfully talented and entertaining Lily Allen won three awards; Best Song Musically & Lyrically for “The Fear” PRS Most Performed Song also for “The Fear” and Songwriter Of The Year along with Greg Kurstin. You can read all about it here on the BBC website. A few of my other favourite artists also won awards; Paul Weller, Johnny Marr and Bat For Lashes. The Ivor Novello Awards started in 1955 and are awarded largely for songwriting and are named after Welsh performer Ivor Novello (I bet that you never guessed that did you?) Learn more about the award that is nicknamed the Ivor here at Wikipedia

Catching falling stars appeared easy after winning three Ivors

An artist who has previously won an Ivor Lifetime Achievement award is Peter Gabriel, that was back in 2007. Today he is in the news for a slightly different reason. He is back in the UK to support a campaign to stop the development of the Woolley Valley near Bath. The valley is threatened with significant farming developments which it is claimed will ruin its picturesque appearance. So why is Gabriel interested in the Woolley Valley I hear you ask? Well it just so happens that he lived there for quite a while and more importantly, for me anyway, it is overlooked by Solsbury Hill. That hill is the subject of what I feel is far and away Mr Gabriel’s finest song, click here to listen to it and read the Guardian article about the campaign here. There is a well organised campaign to save Woolley Valley. You can show your support by visiting their site and signing the petition or even donating to the cause, click here to show your solidarity! And now that you have done something for the environment, make yourself feel even better by listening to one of the most inspiring songs that I know, “Solsbury Hill”

Or hear it again in the video below, this time with the appropriately named Happy Tree Friends

 

“And I dreamed I saw the bombers riding shotgun in the sky” May 2, 2010

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 6:32 pm
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Hello good people of the blogosphere, this is a quick post to say a big thank you. After 14 months my blog has now surpassed 500,000 hits, I am truly blown away. In that time there have been 125 posts from me and there have also been 268 comments and I must confess it’s the comments that I love most! So keep ’em coming folks!

Now listen folks, you don't have to come to my house to read my blog, just do it on line, it's much easier!

The top search terms that directed people to this blog in that period have been; Pink Floyd, Lily Allen, Kate Bush, Slipknot, Catwoman, Beatles, Pink, Michael Jackson Thriller, Bjork and Creed. Strangely of all the tags I have added the top five are David Bowie, The Beatles, Steal The Smile, BBC and Kate Bush of which only the Beatles and Kate Bush feature in the most searched list

Steal The Smile are also among the top 3 links made from my blog, with a large number of people heading to their MySpace page, click here to take that journey yourself!

I would also like to thank some other bloggers who have direct plenty of traffic my way and I recommend that you check them out;

Strange Cousin Susan

Barely Awake In Frog Pajamas

Pretending Life Is Like A Song

As usual I would like to mark this occasion with a song, can any of you guess why I chose this particular song? Incidentally it is Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock” performed below by Matthews Southern Comfort