With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

“Give In To Me” – Pure Obsessions & Red Nights September 14, 2025

Filed under: Review,Single — justwilliam1959 @ 7:29 am
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A Michael Jackson cover by a metal band? Will that work? Fuck yeah! This is on a par with Alien Ant Farm’s cover of “Smooth Criminal” from 2001. “Give In To Me” in its original form was the seventh single released from Jackson’s eighth studio album ‘Dangerous’ in 1992.

Apparently Pure Obsessions & Red Nights recorded the song six years ago during the sessions for their ‘Mr. Strangler’ trilogy. They take the song from it’s syncopated modern pop R & B roots to another level entirely. They bring some magnificent dark metal and industrial vibes to give their take on the tune a deep and Stygian gothic feel. This is not some awful facsimile type of cover. They make the song feel new, fresh, disturbing, bombastic and absolutely fucking awesome!

Philippe Deschemin, who took care of mixing and mastering, reflects on the release: “During the recording of the Mr. Strangler Trilogy, I wanted to step aside from my own compositions and work on a cover. I’ve been a Michael Jackson fan since my early days, and many of his songs have a strong rock foundation. The choice of ‘Give In to Me’ felt natural. With the Trilogy leaning toward Gothic Metal and Industrial Rock, I wanted to push the guitars and give the song that weight. I’m glad to finally release it, six years after its recording.” Give this cracker a spin, you won’t regret it!

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Mayhem’s Most Popular Posts – November 2024 December 2, 2024

Filed under: Mayhem's Most Popular — justwilliam1959 @ 10:41 pm
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This is the fifth issue in our fun newish series where we share the latest post with the most views for a given month and the archive post with the most views. This one covers November 2024. The biggest read post was my review of “Age Of Stupid” by the Jellybricks posted on 10th November. The most-read archive post was “Billy liked to peel the labels from his bottle of Bud”, the fourth ever post on this blog, from way back in February 2009. It was an on this day trivia post, just like much of my early stuff and it featured the A Team, Bobby Boris Pickett, Boy George, Captain Pugwash, Ian Dury, Jay Z, Mike Shinoda of Linkin Park, Michael Jackson, the Rolling Stones, Sheryl Crow (obviously given the snippet of lyrics in the post title), and the Smiths. I would like to think that my writing has improved, but I am not so sure!

If you have enjoyed this article, feel free to follow the blog, or follow us on; Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky, Linkedin, and EMail. Are you interested in writing and reviewing for With Just A Hint Of Mayhem? If so then please get in touch.

 

On This Day Berry Signs Wacko And His Bros And Top Of The Pops Ends! July 26, 2024

Filed under: On This Day — justwilliam1959 @ 1:41 pm
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On 26th July 1968, The Jackson 5 signed a one-year contract with Motown Records after label executive Hank Cosby was blown away by their audition, in which the five brothers played and sang James Brown’s “I Got the Feeling.” among other classic tunes. The group broke US chart records soon after when their first four singles; “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” “The Love You Save,” and “I’ll Be There” all reached number 1 on the Billboard chart. The group appeared on the UK BBC Top Of The Pops show many times, if you include the moments when their song was featured as a dance section by in-house dancers Pan’s People it was 23 times. The first was in February 1970.

While we are talking about Top Of The Pops on July 26, 2006, the final edition of the iconic British music TV show was recorded at London’s BBC Television Centre in front of a studio audience of just 200 lucky punters. It was first broadcast on New Year’s Day 1964 (my fifth birthday!), the series ran to 2,260 episodes, making it the world’s longest-running music show. Sadly, with hindsight, it was co-hosted by Jimmy Saville. But there were plenty of other hosts; Janice Long, Mike Read, Dave Lee Travis, Tony Blackburn, Pat Sharp, Sarah Cawood, Rufus Hound and Reggie Yates. There were no acts in the studio for the final episode but plenty of classic clips including; The Rolling Stones (they kicked the show off with, rather appropriately, “The Last Time”), Spice Girls, Sonny and Cher, Wham!, Madonna, Take That, Beyonce, David Bowie, Gnarls Barkley, Michael Jackson and Coldplay. The show ended with a video of Shakira and Wyclef Jean performing that week’s number one song, “Hips Don’t Lie”. I miss Top Of The Pops, but I don’t miss Saville, he can rot in hell!

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The Mayhem Monthly Top 20 Song Chart – July 2022 August 3, 2022

Filed under: Mayhem Top 20 Chart — justwilliam1959 @ 3:26 pm
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Here comes the fifth monthly Mayhem Top 20 Song Chart, this time for July 2022 and it is still as eclectic as most of the previous charts. July’s number one is “B-Side” from a very young York band, the Corsairs who I was lucky enough to see play their first gig a few weeks ago at the Fulford Arms. Another local band, Vaquelin has now remained in the chart for three months in a row with “Roads Leading Nowhere” which was number one in May, dropped to number 20 in June, and is now at number 17. Last months number one by Randy Newman falls to number 8. Stevie Wonder’s “You Are The Sunshine Of My Life” goes from number 3 last month to number 2 in July. The reggae flag is flown by Dave Barker’s “Smooths And Sorts” (no. 4) (for the fact fans Dave was the Dave from Dave and Ansell Collins) and “Your Honour” by Pluto Shervigton (No. 10). The Last Of The Fallen Angels featuring Hannah Robinson are at number 3 with the wonderful “Red Dress”. Hannah’s rather excellent single “Confusion” reaches number 7. Meanwhile another Last Of The Fallen Angels collaborator, MARQ Electronica is at number 5. Soul is represented by the aforementioned Stevie Wonder, Chris Clark, Michael Jackson, and a lost gem from Wilson Pickett’s time at RCA, “Mr. Magic Man”. This month’s number one in the artist charts was the late, great Sylvester, he is number 9 in the song chart with a classic b-side, “Was It Something That I Said”. As always there are some timeless classic artists there, notably the Sex Pistols and Steely Dan. Some more recent classic artists are her, Panic! At The Disco, and Biffy Clyro. Biffy arrive here courtesy of their cover of David Bowie’s “Modern Love” which is good news as this is the first time that the Dame has not appeared in the song chart himself! Toad The Wet Sprocket make their first appearance in the Mayhem charts while Hootie and the Blowfish take “Only Wanna Be With You” to number 6. The Hootie tune is there as I have been reading a review copy of Hootie drummer Jim Sonefeld’s rather spiffing new autobiography. That review will be on these pages soon! Finally, how did Slik (featuring a very young Midge Ure) make it to number 20 with “Forever And Ever”? Well, it is only me to blame, that is a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. We would love to hear your thoughts on the Mayhem Song Top 20 Chart. Check out the complete list below and click here to access a Spotify playlist of the whole top 20!

1 B-Side – The Corsairs
2 You Are The Sunshine Of My Life – Stevie Wonder
3 Red Dress – The Last Of The Fallen Angels
4 Smooths And Sorts – Dave Barker
5 You Do What You Want – MARQ Electronica
6 Only Wanna Be With You – Hootie and the Blowfish
7 Confusion – Hannah Robinson
8 You’ve Got A Friend In Me – Randy Newman
9 Was It Something That I Said? – Sylvester
10 Your Honour – Pluto Shervington
11 Modern Love – Biffy Clyro
12 P.S. – New Version – Toad The Wet Sprocket
13 No One Is Innocent – Sex Pistols
14 I Want To Go Back There Again – Chris Clark
15 Got To Be There – Michael Jackson
16 Viva Las Vengeance – Panic! At The Disco
17 Roads Leading Nowhere – Vaquelin
18 Dirty Work – Steely Dan
19 Mr. Magic Man – Wilson Pickett
20 Forever And Ever – Slik

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“People coming, people going, people born to die” September 5, 2017

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 2:41 pm
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Did you know that there was almost a collaboration between rap giants RUN DMC and the King of Pop himself, Wacko Jacko? I didn’t either until now. But during the recording sessions for Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’ album an idea was mooted, possibly by or via Quincy Jones, for him to record with RUN DMC. The song would have been an anti drug song purportedly called “Crack Kills” which suggests that there might have at least been the germ of an idea ready. I reckon that this partnership might have sounded pretty good. What do you think dear reader?

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“The trial was a pig circus, he never had a chance” February 3, 2016

Filed under: Observation — justwilliam1959 @ 11:18 am
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The other day I decided to take a quick count of all the artists in my album collection where I have at least 10 albums by a single artist. I included CDs, LPs and cassettes (although the only non compilation cassettes that I have are David Bowie bootlegs). Oh and while I’m on bootleg recordings obviously I have included them whether they are live, studio outtakes or simply unreleased stuff. I have not included digital recordings. I was surprised to find that there are 4o artists where I have at least ten releases by them. The list is below, (artist followed by the number of albums) there are no real surprises for me, are you surprised at any on this list? Have you ever done anything similar? I have also added a song from each of the top ten artists 🙂

David Bowie 141
Bob Dylan 30
Johnny Nash 26
Bruce Springsteen 26
Beatles 25
Neil Young 25
Elton John 19
Bob Marley 19
U2 19
Rod Stewart 18
Pink Floyd 17
REM 17
Elvis Costello 15
The Eels 15
Prince 15
Paul Weller 15
Ryan Adams 14
Led Zeppelin 14
Madonna 14
The Clash 13
Elvis Presley 13
Radiohead 13
Kate Bush 12
Oasis 12
Lou Reed 12
Stevie Wonder 12
Morrissey 11
Tom Waits 11
ZZ Top 11
Jeff Buckley 10
Julian Cope 10
Johnny Cash 10
Michael Jackson 10
John Lennon 10
Manic Street Preachers 10
Kylie Minogue 10
Iggy Pop 10
Rolling Stones 10
Frank Turner 10
The Who 10

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“Tryin’ to live without your love is one long sleepless night” May 13, 2015

Filed under: Observation — justwilliam1959 @ 2:05 pm
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A few months back I finally succumbed to the seductive ways of Spotify and I signed up for the premium service. Oh boy I wished that I had done it sooner. The amount of new albums that I have listened to lately is phenomenal. My current faves are ‘The Day Is My Enemy’ and ‘The Magic Whip’ by the Prodigy and Blur respectively. I have also rediscovered some classic old albums especially in the reggae genre; Culture, Peter Tosh and Third World to name a few.

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On top of all this there are countless playlists and it is these that I use for my workouts in the gym. Yes I have been a regular gym goer since January this year. Let me tell you I wasn’t just gifted with such a buff body, I have to work at it! Anyway the reason for this post other than to give Spotify yet more free publicity is to mention a song that popped up on one of those playlists in the gym last night. It was a kind of greatest hits of the 70s playlist and the song has always been one of my favourites.

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Hearing it once again made me think that perhaps it is one of the finest most timeless pop songs ever. I am talking about the Jackson 5‘s magnificent “I Want You Back”. Put aside any prejudices about what Michael became, before he became the weird, cartoon-like plastic surgeon’s Mr Potato Head he was a supremely talented young boy. His pre-adolescent vocals on this song are electrifying. On top of that you get the full might of the marvellous Funk Brothers who were the Motown house band. James Jamerson‘s bass line is sublime in my opinion. Berry Gordy Jr certainly rated it as he had a share in writing it. I would love to hear your opinion on the song and any other suggestions for the finest and most timeless pop songs.

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“It’s time for the good times, forget about the bad times, oh yeah” August 6, 2014

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 8:19 pm
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34065_1249362578348_440_460Madonna‘s “Holiday” has been in the UK top ten singles chart on three separate occasions; 1984, 1985 and 1991. It’s highest place came in 1985 when the song reached number two. It was also included on Ms. Ciccone’s first album. The song was written by Curtis Hudson and Lisa Stevens. But it was not actually written with Her Royal Madgeness in mind. It had previously been offered to and rejected by Phyllis Hyman and former Supreme Mary Wilson. Madonna’s version of “Holiday” was produced by her boyfriend at the time DJ/ Producer John ‘Jellybean’ Benitez. Does anyone know what happened to him?

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“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.

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“And my old man plays the piano for Christmas” – Advent day 25 December 24, 2013

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 8:54 am
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25-numberWell this is it good people of the blogosphere and the world-wide web. To quote Noddy Holder ‘ It’s CHRISTMAAAASSS!’. The bearded weirdo may have already arrived in your neck of the woods. If he has then I hope that he brought you what you hoped for if he hasn’t then I hope that you’ve been good! This is December 25th, Christmas Day and Day 25 of the With Just A Hint Of Mayhem advent posts. That also means it’s my last post in this years advent postings. Thank you very much for reading and normal, non-Yuletide service will be resumed very soon. Above all that have a wonderful Christmas and a 2014 that brings you all the good things that you can handle. In the meantime I still have two songs with the number 25 in their title for you.

Edwin+StarrThe late great Edwin Starr brings you the first of those songs “25 Miles”. The song reached number 6 in the US charts in 1969. Edwin was let down by UK record buyers as the song only reached number 36 here. The song was his second biggest hit in the USA, “War” was his biggest making number one in 1970. “25 Miles” was written by Edwin along with Johnny Bristol and Harvey Fuqua. Legal action saw Jerry Ragovoy and Bert Berns being given a writing credit as their song “32 Miles Out Of Waycross” was seen to be very similar to “25 Miles”. The Ragovoy and Berns song was recorded by Hoagy Lands and also under a different title (“Mojo Mama”) by Wilson Pickett and Don Varner. A young Michael Jackson once recorded a cover of “25 Miles”.

Everything-But-The-Girl-008The final song in this years advent posts comes from Tracey Thorn’s Christmas Album ‘Tinsel And Lights’ and it is called “25th December”. If you own the UK release of the album you may not have heard the song as it was a bonus track included on the US release. The song is actually credited to Everything But The Girl. “Tinsel And Lights” was released last year, 2012, and is a great album. It’s not strictly a Christmas album as not all the songs relate to Christmas but it is pretty darned good.