With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

“And then he said sent off your right back for taking the base from under his left-winger” Blog Advent Calendar Day 8 December 8, 2014

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 1:10 am
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Today is December 8th and that is exactly 34 years since John Lennon was savagely murdered. So today’s advent blog post in the ABC of British bands series will feature a quirky band that I believe Mr Lennon would have approved of. It’s day 8 and therefore the letter ‘H’ so today I bring you the legendary Half Man Half Biscuit.

hmhb

The band was formed in Birkenhead, Merseyside in 1984 by friends Neil Crossley and Nigel Blackwell. They were soon joined by Simon Blackwell (Nigel’s brother), Paul Wright and David Lloyd. The band is still performing and recording although Nigel Blackwell and Neil Crossley are the only original members. Their first album has a great title that is a bit of a word play on the Beatles song “Back In The USSR”; it is called ‘Back In The DHSS‘. They broke up in 1986 and then reformed in 1990 with an announcement on the John Peel show. Peelie had always championed the band and they recorded twelve sessions for his show.

Half-Man-Half-Biscuit

The band once turned down an appearance on Channel 4’s ‘The Tube’ because it would have meant missing a Tranmere Rovers match. The band have been mentioned in many UK TV shows including Byker Grove, Hollyoaks, Football Focus and Brookside. Mainstream chart success sadly eluded them but they had many UK Indie chart number ones. ‘Back In The DHSS’ went to number one in the Indie album charts in 1985. EP ‘The Trumpton Riots’ hit the top along with “Dickie Davies’ Eyes” in 1986. Their highest UK Singles chart hit was an album track that made it to number 56 in 2010 thanks to downloads. That song was “Joy Division Oven Gloves” It was taken from their 2005 album ‘Achtung Bono‘ and was part of the online campaign to save Radio 6 with a sadly missed target of reaching number 6. So now I would like you to enjoy some music from a band that I saw live at the Reading Festival in 1990.

HMNB-Wirral

A man who perhaps should have joined Half Man Half Biscuit; Lionel Rich Tea :-)

A man who perhaps should have joined Half Man Half Biscuit; Lionel Rich Tea 🙂

 

 

“What about elephants? Have we lost their trust?” August 5, 2014

Filed under: News,Observation — justwilliam1959 @ 10:35 pm
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Irrational-Killers-fan-meme-the-killers-25047452-400-346Weird 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;

  1. The Killers – “Human”- ‘Are we human, or are we dancer?’
  2. The Beatles – “I Am The Walrus”- ‘I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus, goo goo g’joob.’
  3. Michael Jackson – “Earth Song”- ‘What about elephants? Have we lost their trust?’
  4. Lionel Richie – “All Night Long”- ‘Tom bo li de se de moi ya, yeah jambo jambo.’
  5. Carly Rae Jepsen – “Call Me Maybe”- ‘Before you came into my life, I missed you so bad.’
  6. Black Eyed Peas – “Boom Boom Pow”- ‘Beats so big I’m stepping on leprechauns.’
  7. Duran Duran – “The Reflex”- ‘The reflex is an only child, he’s waiting in the park.’
  8. Wham! – “Club Tropicana”- ‘Club Tropicana, drinks are free, fun and sunshine, there’s enough for everyone, all that’s missing is the sea.’
  9. Taylor Swift – “Love Story” -’Cause you were Romeo, I was a scarlet letter, and my daddy said stay away from Juliet.’
  10. Oasis – “Champagne Supernova”- ‘Slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball.

memes-killed-itFeel free to add your own weird lyric suggestions to the comments section on this post and then vote in the poll below.

 

 

 

“Move to the flow of the pyramid blaster” – Advent post day 3 December 3, 2013

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 8:10 am
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8162440-number-3--christmas-tree-decoration--part-of-a-full-set

Are you ready to open the next box on the advent calendar? What delightful chocolate awaits us? well none actually because this is the With Just A Hint Of Mayhem Advent Calendar blog post for 3rd December so instead of chocolate you’ll get two songs. Incidentally what advent calendar do you have at home? Does it contain sweets or chocolate? Mine is a Spiderman one and Catwoman, my lovely wife, has a Maltesers calendar.

Is Mr Richie wearing a Christmas jumper?

Is Mr Richie wearing a Christmas jumper?

The first of todays number themed songs is the Commodores smash hit from 1978, “Three Times A Lady”. The song which was written by Lionel Richie was a number one in the UK and the US. It comes from their album ‘Natural High’. Personally I preferred their more funky efforts and this song for me saw the band and indeed Mr Richie plunge into some bland identikit ballad territory. Songs such as “Still” and “Hello” just didn’t do it for me. I do love a good ballad though and the Commodores have some that are far better than “Three Times A Lady”. In particular “Just To Be Close To You”. “Three Times A Lady” has been covered by artists as diverse as Cobra Starship, Kenny Rogers, Conway Twitty and Bill Bailey. Bill included a German translation of the song in his Part Troll live show. I first saw the Commodores when they supported the Jackson 5 in 1972. Yes I really am that old!

The+KLF

The second song on todays posts comes from one of my favourite acts of all time; the Kopyright Liberation Front, better known as the KLF and sometimes the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu or the JAMMs. This sadly short-lived band was the brainchild of Bill Drummond and Jim Cauty. Drummond co-founded Zoo Records and was also manager of Echo and the Bunnymen and the Teardrop Explodes. In addition to the music the KLF were also infamous for acts of art terrorism which included burning a million pounds on a remote Scottish island. The song I have chosen is the bands only UK number one as the KLF “3 a.m. Eternal (Live At The S.S.L)” from 1990. They also hit the UK number one spot in 1988 as the Timelords with “Doctorin’ The Tardis“. This was apparently achieved by following the rules set out in their book; ‘The Manual (How To Have A Number One The Easy Way)’. Remaining true to their words Cauty and Drummond by withdrawing their back catalogue from sale. This remains the case for most of the world, although some copies of their output are produced via Arista in the USA.

Pyramid_Blaster

 

“I wish the world were truly happy living as one” December 24, 2011

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:00 am
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Happy Christmas dear readers and good people of the blogosphere. This is the last post in my ABC of Motown Advent Calendar. It’s the 24th December and technically that means the letter Y, but I’ll throw in X and Z for free along with a couple of Motown Christmas songs. The big bearded dude in red arrives on his venison powered sleigh tomorrow. I hope that you get everything you want this Christmas and more importantly I hope that you have a really enjoyable Yule.

The first song for the letter X has been a tough one to find. But I have found one, I know hardly anything about it so if you have any information feel free to get in touch. I do feel like I’ve cheated you a little though, the song is called “Xmas Twist” although the chorus uses the proper phrase ‘Christmas Twist’. The song was released by a group calling themselves the Twisting Kings. So clearly no cynical tie-in with a popular dance craze then! The song was written by Berry Gordy and Barney Ales. Gordy was the producer for the song which was released in November 1961. It can be found on a couple of compilation albums to my knowledge; #A Motown Christmas Volume 2′  and ‘The Complete Motown Singles Vol. 1 1959-1961’ released in 2001 and 2005 respectively.

For the letter Y I have chosen a song from a superb act who haven’t yet appeared in this ABC of Motown. It’s Gladys Knight and the Pips with “You Need Love Like I Do (Don’t You)”. The most memorable line up from the Pips included her brother Merald ‘Bubba’ Knight and two of her cousins; Edward Patten and William Guest. Her first pitch at fame came when she won a local TV talent show aged 7 in 1952.Gladys and the Pips were the first Motown act to record the classic song “I Heard It Through The Grapevine” which they took to number two in the US charts. In their early Motown career they were the opening act for Diana Ross and the Supremes. It is alleged that Diana had them kicked off the tour because Gladys and the Pips were far more powerful a talent and probably a very tough act to follow.  “You Need Love Like I Do” was an US hit in 1970 reaching number 25 in the Billboard charts and number 3 in the US R & B charts. It never charted in the UK. The song was another from the talented song writing partnership of Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong. It was also recorded by the Temptations.

The final song from my ABC of Motown selection is a rather well-known album track from the Commodores who made an appearance in this Advent Calendar with the letter J on December 10th, click here to read it. The song is “Zoom” and should not be confused with the Fat Larry’s Band song of the same name. It was never released as a single in the US but made it to number 38 in the UK charts in 1978. The album it came from was released in 1977 and in the US it was called ‘Commodores’ whilst in the UK it was called ‘Zoom’. The song was written by Lionel Richie and Ronald LaPraed from the band. The album also included two other Commodores classics in “Brick House” and “Easy”. Fergie sampled “Zoom” on her ‘Duchess’ album on the track “All That I Got (The Make-Up Song)”

Finally let me wish you a Happy Christmas once again and to finish please enjoy two of my favourite Motown Christmas songs from the Jackson 5 and then Stevie Wonder.

Incidentally if you’d like to know the songs that came before in the ABC of Motown Advent Calendar, here they are;

  1. ABC – Jackson 5
  2. Bernadette – Four Tops
  3. Cloud Nine – Temptations
  4. Do I Love You (Indeed I Do) – Frank Wilson
  5. Endless Love – Diana Ross & Lionel Richie
  6. Farewell Is A Lonely Sound – Jimmy Ruffin
  7. Gotta See Jane – R Dean Taylor
  8. How Sweet It Is To Be Loved By You – Marvin Gaye
  9. I’m In A Different World – Four Tops
  10. Just To Be Close To You – Commodores
  11. Keep On Truckin’ – Eddie Kendricks
  12. Let’s Get Serious – Jermaine Jackson
  13. Money – Barrett Strong
  14. Needle In A Haystack – Velvelettes
  15. Ooo Baby Baby – Smokey Robinson & the Miracles
  16. Pops We Love You – Various
  17. Quicksand – Martha Reeves & the Vandellas
  18. Rockin’ Robin – Michael Jackson
  19. Superstition – Stevie Wonder
  20. Take Me Girl I’m Ready – Junior Walker & the All Stars
  21. Up The Ladder To The Roof – Supremes
  22. The Night – Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons (this is the only one based on artist name rather than song)
  23. War – Edwin Starr
 

“You see you’re my heart, you’re soul you’re my stone inspiration” December 10, 2011

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 7:10 am
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It’s December 10th and that Saint Nick dude is getting closer and appropriately enough todays song on the ABC of Motown Advent Calendar is about being close. It is one of my favourite songs from the Commodores and it’s called “Just To Be Close To You”. I only saw the Commodores live on one occasion and that was back in November 1973 at my first ever gig where they were supporting the Jackson 5.

When released in 1976 the song reached number 7 in the US Billboard chart but was a number 1 in the US R & B Chart. Sadly it could only limp to number 62 in the UK chart. Like many of the bands hits it was written by Lionel Richie. The band was originally called the Mystics and decided that they needed a new name. William King a founder member who is still with the band decided to open the dictionary at a random page and point a finger at a random word on that page. Obviously that word was commodore. King is quoted as saying ‘We lucked out, we almost became the commodes’

Whilst the band left Motown in 1986 Lionel Richie stayed and went on to even greater success, although personally I have always preferred the more rough and funky sound of the earlier Commodores material. The band is still around and continue to play live.

 

“I’ll Hold you close in my arms I can’t resist your charms” December 5, 2011

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 12:02 am
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It’s December 5th folks, that’s now less than three weeks until the bearded weirdo in red arrives. That also means that it is now Day 5 of my ABC of Motown Advent Calendar and we’re up to the letter E. I have chosen a very popular song that actually is not really one of my own favourites. It’s “Endless Love” which was written by Lionel Richie who recorded it as a duet with Diana Ross. It was used as the theme tune to the Brooke Shields film of the same name.

It has been covered by many people, most notably, again as a duet, by Mariah Carey and Luther Vandross. The original was an US and Australian number one and reached number 7 in the UK. The Vandross Carey version only reached the chart summit in New Zealand. It reached numbers 2 and 3 respectively in the US and UK charts. Billboard once named the song as the greatest duet ever, I certainly don’t agree with that. What about Simon & Garfunkel’s “Bridge Over Troubled Water” or Queen and David Bowie’s “Under Pressure”? (OK technically the latter isn’t really a duet unless you count it just as a Bowie Mercury duet)

So tell me dear readers what do you think is the greatest duet of all time?

 

“But when you want money for people with minds that hate, all I can tell is brother you have to wait “ February 25, 2011

Filed under: News,Rants — justwilliam1959 @ 10:57 pm
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So in his recent speeches the evil dipshit that is Gaddafi has blamed the uprising in Libya on a number of things. Firstly hallucinatory drugs, the BBC and now Osama Bin Laden. What or who will be next in line for blame? Surely he won’t blame it on the sunshine, or the moonlight? But perhaps he will blame it on the boogie.

Incidentally most western leaders need to accept some responsibility, notably Tony Blair who met and shook hands with Gaddafi, surely in the knowledge that Gaddafi had always had the blood of his people on his hands. Quite a number of music celebs have helped in a small way to prop up and legitimise the Gaddafi family by playing private gigs for them. Stand up Lionel Richie, Beyoncé, Timbaland and Mariah Carey. Read about that in a rather amusing essay from Alex Petridis in the Guardian by clicking here.

But to be serious for a moment I believe that  he needs to shoulder all of the blame on himself. He also needs to step down, run away or even kill himself. Personally I don’t care wich, but he sure as hell needs to stop murdering his own people. I still find it hard to believe that so many politicians in the west fell for his lies. The western press made us all see him as a figure of fun rather than the scum bag murderer that he really is.

I found a really excellent anti Gaddafi site recently, it’s called Gaddafi Duck, click here to check it out. Hopefully when his time comes he will not get the chance to duck! Another idea occurred to me; maybe we should secretly replace him with a pop star. This could be done in such a subtle way that some people might not even notice, ladies and gentlemen let me present to you Lady GaGaddafi!

She's already got the uniform as well!

I bet that all the bible bashing fundamentalists and believers in the Mayan Prophecy are wetting themselves over all the things that have happened lately. Floods and earthquakes in the southern hemisphere, massive solar flare activity, murder and mayhem in the Middle East and North Africa and dictators falling like dominoes. Have the end times started? Well personally I don’t believe so. In fact I think all that stuff is utter bollocks, but to each their own I suppose.

So after this little rant (well it is a rant of sorts) let’s finish with the Beatles.

 

“Howling in shadows living in a lunar spell” December 14, 2010

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 10:33 pm
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Well there really isn’t a great deal to say about this fantastic album cover animation other than it is truly brilliant. It’s called Battle Of The Bands and it truly is a fight to the death!

If I have noted it correctly it contains album covers from all the following artists, if you see any I have missed just let me know!

Foreigner, Yazoo, Billy Joel, Shaun Cassidy, Violent Femmes, Rick James, Eminem, Joe Jackson, Beastie Boys, 50 Cent, Roxy Music, King Crimson, Scorpions, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Duran Duran, Velvet Underground, Pink Floyd, Coldplay, Rush, Boston, AC/ DC, Def Leppard, Replacements, Jane’s Addiction, Love And Rockets, Depeche Mode, Ozzy Osbourne, Weezer, B 52s, Dead Kennedys, Van Halen, Dio, Iron Maiden, Night Ranger, Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, OMD, Nirvana, Asia, David Lee Roth, Black Flag, Cars, Michael Jackson, Beatles, Journey, Green Day, Hermans Hermits, Madness, Phil Collins, Lou Reed, Madonna, Tom Petty, Bob Seger, Lionel Richie, Devo, Jimi Hendrix, Quiet Riot and Metallica.

My favourites are Michael Jackson and Roxy Music, what are your favourites? Can you find the hidden Ozzy track?

 

“Well she really fills her clothes from head to toe, I want the world to know I love her, love her so” December 11, 2010

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 9:04 am
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reet petite asleep perhaps?

It’s December 1986 and a song that was recorded nearly 30 years before makes it to the top of the chart and also 3 years after it’s singer died. Can you guess what we’ll find when we open the December 11th Cardboard flap on my UK Christmas Number Ones Advent Calendar? It’s the truly stupendous Jackie Wilson with “Reet Petite”. Back in the 70s this was always one of the favourite songs of my mate Glen’s Dad Bill Voisey.

Jackie meets Elvis

Jackie Wilson was a truly gifted vocalist. How can people not be moved by  “Your Love Has Lifted Me Higher And Higher” and “I Get The Sweetest Feeling“. In 1985 Wilson was mentioned in the post Lionel Richie Commodores hit “Night Shift” along with the likes of Marvin Gaye. Wilson was mentioned in quite a few songs and in fact “Reet Petite” was given reference in David Bowie’s “Red Money” from the 1979 album ‘The Lodger’. “Reet Petite” was number one for 4 weeks including the Christmas of 1986. Jackie’s cousin was Levi Stubbs Jr off of the Four Tops, probably one of my favourite vocalists of all time and very sadly missed.

The song also made the top slot in Ireland and Holland, enjoy the video below, after some other Jackie Wilson classics

 

“Cause only two of you had dinner, I found your credit card receipt” January 16, 2010

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 9:57 pm
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I was reading the Guardian newspaper earlier today and chanced upon a rather amusing article about the music tastes of what many might consider the more evil of our world leaders. The article itself can be found by clicking here.

I thought he might have been more of a Master Of Puppets period Metallica fan

In a nutshell here are the favourite artists of our favourite despots, or as one Guardian headline put it; The Axes Of Evil

Osama Bin Laden – Whitney Houston. So why don’t we send Whitney to the badlands between Afghanistan and Pakistan and just ask her to sing “Saving All My Love For You” especially for Osama. He’d be in her arms faster than a cruise missile

Where's Osama? Just send Whitney! It's not right but it's ok

Robert Mugabe – Cliff Richard. Now here’s the thing, apparently at the Zimbabwe Independence Concert in 1980 Mugabe was disappointed that Bob Marley was chosen to headline, he considered him somewhat scruffy and allegedly would have preferred the more wholesome Cliff Richard. Clearly Mugabe wasn’t aware of Bob Marley’s tireless efforts to gain justice for Africa. However I’m sure Mr Marley would be sickened by what Mugabe has done subsequently. Here is Bob Marley singing “Zimbabwe” in Zimbabwe in 1980

She said son you be a dictator boy and make your enemies paaaay! (to the tune of Sir Cliff's "Bachelor Boy")

Colonel Gaddafi – Lionel Richie. I can now imagine the Colonel rocking around his tent to Lionel’s “Dancing On The Ceiling” or perhaps “Machine Gun” by the Commodores might be more appropriate

Judging from his body guards you'd think he might have preferred the Supremes or the Three Degrees

Nick Griffin – Kate Rusby. Clearly a very, very, very long way from being a world leader, but definitely a bigoted racist arsehole who is not as bright as he thinks he is. It is interesting that his choice of British Folk Music is perhaps the whitest form of music in the UK. However even the folkies have a Folk Against Facism Movement. So once again the racist thugs of the BNP get it wrong. Maybe we should organise a Political Celebrity Death Match between Nick Griffin and Robert Mugabe, in the hope that both might pop their clogs

Nick was devastated when he realised he couldn't play his records because they were black, if only he'd bought the special edition white vinyl versions. Still he could now agree with the majority of people in Britain, that he is indeed a complete tosser

Kim Jong-Il – Eric Clapton. I wonder when we will hear them say Kim Jong-Well or will he always be sick? I can now only ever picture Kim as his puppet in the wonderful ‘Team America’ movie. I wonder what his favourite Clapton song is?

Kim always liked to listen to a bit of Slowhand when he took time for a little "Slow Hand" of his own 😉

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad – Chris De Burgh. A member of Dubya’s so called Axis Of Evil and potential owner of nuclear weapons. But frankly how can you take him seriously now you know he listens to that bloody awful “Lady In Red“?

Just one more dig at Lady In Red and I'll rip my wig off and shove it right where the nuclear reactors don't shine!

 

 
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