With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

“Well I gave him roasted toadstools and a glass of dandelion wine” April 1, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 10:34 am
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Good day to you regular bloggees, is that the correct terminology for blog readers if the writers are bloggers? Anyway welcome to April 1st also known as April Fools Day or All Fools Day in some quarters. Have you read any of the papers today? There’s a great story in the Guardian in the UK, it says that they will no longer publish on paper but that they will move publication exclusively to Twitter. I wonder how many people fell for that one! If you want to know more about the April Fools day tradition check it out at Wikipedia

I thought that I’d once again stray from the usual format today, well mostly anyway. I do have a couple of ‘onthisdays’ before we move on to a more All Folls day related post.

Firstly I would like you all to take time out and listen to at least one Marvin Gaye song today, the 25th Anniversary of his death. He was shot dead by his father at his parents home in LA. Marvin’s father was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and sentenced to 5 years. If things work out there will be more on Marvin tomorrow.

Also on this day in 2001 the UK press was full of stories about former Spice Girl and one time Scary Spice Mel B. Allegedly she had been advised to sell her £3.5m mansion (which incidentally is in Marlow where I used to live!) because she couldn’t afford to run it. She had supposedly told friends that she had taken out a £500k bank loan to help with the upkeep.

In order to help cut the running costs at her mansion Mel B sold the butlers uniform

In order to help cut the running costs at her mansion Mel B sold the butlers uniform

So onto the April Fools related stuff and I promise that this will not involve any digs at that Fat Dancer from Take That (copyright Noel Gallagher). But it will include David Bowie, yes him again! As much as I really dislike this song today is the perfect day to bring it back. Can you guess what it is yet? yep you’re right it’s “The Laughing Gnome” not exactly the Dame’s finest hour but in many ways better than a lot of the crap he produced in the 80s. Sadly as I am a big Bowie fan my collection includes “The Laughing Gnome” and all the 80s crap too. Bowie recorded Gnome in 1967 which is when it was originally released, it was never a hit then though. But it was reissued on the back of his Ziggy related success and reached number 3 in the UK in 1973. When he did the Sound And Vision tour in 1990/91 there was a phone line where you could call in the hits you wanted him to play. The NME mounted a campaign to get him to play “The Laughing Gnome”. It was quite successful too as I believe that he did play it once on that tour. Click here to listen to that Bowie classic, I double dare you!

This fan let's Mr Bowie know that he prefers "Moonage Daydream" to the "Laughing Gnome"

This fan let's Mr Bowie know that he prefers "Moonage Daydream" to the "Laughing Gnome"

I’m not a big fan of comedy records but I do have a soft spot for “Ernie (The Fastest Milkman In The West)” by Benny Hill (a UK number one in 1972) perhaps because my late great father was a milkman, although he wasn’t called Ernie. Although amusingly enough there was an Ernie who worked at the same depot, I don’t recall him being particularly fast though. I worked as my dad’s milkboy from 1970 to 1975, I suppose that was my first ever job. It was a fantastic job too, I never realised until the last few months of my Dad’s life, he died in 2001, exactly how great those years working together had been. It gave me the perfect opportunity to spend so much time exclusively with my Dad, if I was to live my life again that is something I would definitely not change.

Benny only just failed the audition to join the Spice Girls as Cupid Spice

Benny only just failed the audition to join the Spice Girls as Cupid Spice

And to end this April Fools Day post what better song to do it with than Steve Miller’s “The Joker” enjoy yourselves good people!

Every pack of cards has two jokers and now so does this post! Heath ledger RIP

Every pack of cards has two jokers and now so does this post! Heath ledger RIP

 

“Let’s talk about all the good things and the bad things that may be” March 28, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 7:53 am
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Hello there dear readers how the devil are you on this fine Saturday (March 28th)? probably better than Britney I should wager. I have had the feeling for some time that she is being pushed back into centre stage way too early. I really don’t believe she is well yet and this clip suggest that I may be right. She was filmed at a gig on March 24th while singing “Do Something” she skips across the stage and shouts ‘Merry Christmas’ to the audience. Who is actually looking after her welfare is what I’d like to know? It seems to me that too many people will keep milking their Britney cash cow until she can’t be milked anymore. Click here to get to the clip from the NME site. But I would also be interested to know what you think so feel free to comment.

Just one birthday to cover today, it’s the big 40 for Cheryl James. Who is she? Well she is Salt off of Salt-N-Pepa. Pepa was Sandy Denton and the pair were joined in the band by Deidra ‘Dee Dee’ Roper also known as DJ Spinderella. Their first big chart hit was with “Push It” in 1987 which reached number 19 in the US and number 2 in the UK. The song was originally a b-side and started to gain a lot of radio airplay after it was remixed by San Francisco DJ Cameron Paul. The song has been covered and sampled by many other acts, indeed Girls Aloud played the song live on their 2008 tour. “Let’s Talk About Sex” also reached number 2 in the UK, sadly they never made number 1 in either the UK or the US but did reach the summit in other countries including the Netherlands and Germany. They also had a UK number 3 hit when they joined EnVogue for “Whatta Man”. But here they are with my fave “Let’s Talk About Sex”

The girls did indeed "Push It" so much so that they ripped their jeans

The girls did indeed "Push It" so much so that they ripped their jeans

On this day in 1992 more than $100,000 worth of damage was caused at the Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre, California after Ozzy Osbourne invited the first two rows of the audience up on stage with him. Several others feeling somewhat left out also took up the offer and as the numbers grew the band were forced to leave the stage. Here is Ozzy with a classic solo single “Perry Mason”

After a starter of bat Ozzy enjoyed a main course of '4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie'

After a starter of bat Ozzy enjoyed a main course of '4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie'

On this day in 2001 The artist formerly known as Sean Combs, Sean Puffy Combs, Sean John, Puffy, Puff and Puff Daddy amongst others told MTV that he now wanted to be known as P.Diddy. Then in 2005 he changed his stage name agin, this time to Diddy. Did he? Yes he Diddy! How soon before he joins Ken Dodd’s Diddy Men? Here is Mr Diddy whatever with “I’ll Be Missing You” which bizarrely became the theme for the period of Princess Diana’s mourning. I thought that was a remarkably strange outpouring of grief for the UK, what happened?

Diddy Daddy or whatever he calls himself had sat in the chair for so long it had begun to take him over

Diddy Daddy or whatever he calls himself had sat in the chair for so long it had begun to take him over

 

“Bernie Rhodes knows, don’t argue” March 19, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 5:45 pm
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OK let’s get back to normal (bloody hell I’m not really normal am I?) service for this post. Before the birthday and ‘onthisday’ stuff let me start by saying that I’ve really been hammering the Soft Toy Emergency CD that I picked up for free at the Fibbers gig the other night. It’s bloody brilliant! You MUST check these guys out.

Whilst I’m on the MUST check out vibe, here is yet another shameless plug for my son Luke’s rather excellent band, Steal The Smile. Click on the name to head to their MySpace page.

As a follow up to celebrities some of the readers may know or indeed have met and following the piece on Justin Hawkins in a recent post, check out this picture of Simon P with Mr Hawkins. Feel free to send in your own starstruck pics and I’ll be happy to include them here.

Simon picks up some nail varnish tips from Justin

Simon picks up some nail varnish tips from Justin

Thank you to the wonderful people at Popbitch for this info but if you’re a Boy George fan and you’d like to write to him while he is banged up (oooo errrrr missus!) here is his new addresss; George O’Dowd, HMP – Edmunds Hill, Stradishall, Newmarket, Suffolk, CB8 9YN.

Popbitch also provided a link to this excellent clip of Ricky Gervais meeting Elmo, you have to watch it’s bloody funny

I also stole this musical related joke from Popbitch (and you’ll find the link to the Popbitch site in my favourite websites on the blog)
Q: What do you get when you cross Feargal Sharkey with Bernard Manning?
A: Racist undertones.

So onto just the one birthday for today, 19th March. It is the 50th birthday of Terry Hall off of the Specials (now reformed), Fun Boy Three, the Colourfield, Vegas and indeed solo. The Specials were originally known as the Coventry Automatics, Coventry being where the band originated from. As with so many excellent bands it was the late and very very great (very big l’s & g’s here) Mr John Peel who first played them on the radio. He played the rather excellent “Gangsters” on his show in early 1979. Hall left the Specials with Lynval Golding and Neville Staples to form the Fun Boy Three just after the massive success of “Ghost Town”. The Fun Boy Three also had two separate collaborations with Bananarama; “It Ain’t What You Do (It’s The Way That You Do It)” and “(He Was) Really Saying Something” It was of course the Specials, thanks to Jerry Dammers setting up Two Tone Records, that helped drive the late 70’s early 80’s ska revival forward. This was a great launch pad for many bands; Madness, the Beat (the English Beat in the US), the Selecter and many more. The Specials were invited to open for the Clash on the ‘On Parole’ Tour after Joe Strummer saw one of their gigs in 78/79. Here’s one for you fact fans, do you know who produced the first Specials album in 1979? No? well it was none other than Declan McManus better known as Elvis Costello. One of my favourite Specials songs is “Do Nothing” click the title to hear it and see it.

The Specials during their pole dancing period. The boys hadn't realised that it was supposed to be just one person at a time on the pole!

The Specials during their pole dancing period. The boys hadn't realised that it was supposed to be just one person at a time on the pole!

Sticking with the Specials for a moment or in fact I think it was the Special AKA, after Terry Hall had left. You may recall they released a song called “Free Nelson Mandela”. The week after the song was released there was an excellent letter in the NME. It was something like “I loved the Special AKA single so much that I bought it on the day of release. However I was extremely disappointed not to receive my free Nelson Mandela like it said on the cover” I wish that I had written that! Anyway here is the wonderful Amy Winehouse and a cast of thousands with an excellent version of “Free Nelson Mandela” from the Mandela Birthday Concert in Hyde Park last year.

A Pizza To You Rudy perhaps? I wonder if they received a free Nelson Mandela with that?

A Pizza To You Rudy perhaps? I wonder if they received a free Nelson Mandela with that?

On this day in 1965 the ‘Tailor And Cutter’ magazine published an article asking the Rolling Stones to wear ties to save tie makers from financial ruin. What the bloody hell is that all about then. I’ve had to wear a tie for most of my working life and indeed at school too, which started before many of you readers were born. I’ve never enjoyed wearing a tie, I’ve never seen the point. let’s face it they don’t keep you warm or keep your shirt buttoned up. OK maybe they act as a bib or napkin for messy eaters. But seriously what is the point of tying a coloured piece of cloth around your neck. You may well wonder why I still do it, I have two words in my flimsy defence; peer pressure! Yeah it’s feeble isn’t it. OK then let’s have your tie comments please.

Clearly no one had told new boy Ronnie Wood about the no ties rule

Clearly no one had told new boy Ronnie Wood about the no ties rule

On this day in 1976 the death of late great (here are those lovable l’s & g’s again) Paul Kossoff off of (now say that fast!) Free and Back Street Crawler and also the son of the excellent actor David Kossoff. He died of heart failure whilst on a flight from LA to New York aged just 25. He had a long history of drug abuse. Kossoff was with Free from 1968 to 1973, appearing on their final album and also one of my favourite albums of all time ‘Heartbreaker’ Although the band actually broke up for a few months during 71/72. When the band formed in 1968 their ages ranged from just 15 to a rather ancient 18. Kossoff was 17 at the time. Here are Free with the title track from the “Heartbreaker” album

That was either an enormous amp or Paul was very small

That was either an enormous amp or Paul was very small

 

“We don’t care about no government warning” February 28, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 8:03 am
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hello everybody, well I have some interesting news on our recent ‘Lily Allen Naked’ experiment. As you may recall we were trying to see whether anyone would arrive at the blog using ‘Lily Allen Naked’ as a search term. It seems that there are millions of sites allegedly offering pictures of Lily in the buff. So the experiment didn’t work, but strangely enough, there was a search term used Thursday which led someone to my blog. Don’t worry guys it doesn’t tell me who it was but I’ll guess it was Tom or Jes. The search term was ‘Chris Allen naked’ Does anyone know who Chris Allen is? I certainly don’t, there are plenty of Chris Allens that show up when you Google the name but I don’t know which one someone wanted to see naked. So any insights from you dear readers will be much appreciated.

Anyway if you have arrived at this blog with a desperate desire to view the talented Miss Allen naked, just so you’re not too disappointed here is Lily…….errr…… in the pink!

we'll drink a drink a drink to Lily in pink in pink in pink!

we'll drink a drink a drink to Lily in pink in pink in pink!

And as a special bonus here is Lily with “The Fear“. Check out her new album too, it is rather good!

Another piece of hot news (well perhaps just lukewarm by the time that you read it) Damon Albarn has confirmed that Blur will be headlining one night at Glastonbury this year. I’ve seen them live twice and they were great both times although so much better with Graham Coxon. It’s great to see Mr C back in the fold.

Graham really hoped the photoshoot would be over soon, he was busting for a pee.

Graham really hoped the photoshoot would be over soon, he was busting for a pee.

Anyway lets’ get back to todays trivia megamix starting with the birthdays. First of those is Cindy Wilson from the B-52’s who was born on 28th February 1957 and is 52 today. Cindy was born in Athens, Georgia in the US, this fact fans is also where REM came from. Cindy’s older brother Ricky is also in the band. I guess most people assume that the band named themselves after the B-52 bomber (like U2 naming themselves after the U2 spy plane). However this is not the case, B-52 was also the nickname in the southern states for the ‘Beehive‘ hairdo and Cindy and Kate Pierson of the band sported that style of hair. But I suppose as the hairstyle is named after the nose of the plane they were indirectly named after the plane after all! Incidentally the bands hairstylist La-Verne was even among the credits on their first eponymously titled first album in 1979. Cindy left the band in 1992 (although she rejoined in 1998) and for their US tour that year was replaced by Julee Cruise (whose biggest hit was the theme to the stupendous ‘Twin Peaks’ TV series from David Lynch). Although somewhat strangely for a one off fundraiser for the Democrat presidential candidate Jerry Brown Cindy’s place was taken by Kim Basinger. As a reminder of just how good they were (indeed still are) here are the B-52’s with “Rock Lobster”

Cindy and Kate thought they'd been stung by their hairdresser, $50 and nowhere near as high as Marge Simpsons hair

Cindy and Kate thought they'd been stung by their hairdresser, $50 and nowhere near as high as Marge Simpsons hair

The last of the birthdays is that of King Monkey Ian Brown, former front man of the Stone Roses and now a very talented solo star. Ian is 46 today. He is just a few months younger than Roses guitarist John Squire and they were brought up just a couple of doors apart and went to Altrincham Grammar School together. They had been called ‘English Rose’ after a track on the Jam’s ‘Setting Sons’ album. They were booked for some Swedish gigs after Brown befriended a Swedish promoter while hitching around Europe and wanted a new name. Apparently they considered the name ‘Angry Young Teddy Bears’ before settling on the ‘Stone Roses’ a combination of their previous name and part of the name of one of their favourite bands the Rolling Stones. Somehow I don’t think their acclaimed status would have been the same had they adopted the ‘Angry Young Teddy Bears’ moniker. What do you think? While you’re pondering that one here are the boys with “I Wanna Be Adored”

The Angry Young Teddy Bears all received Painting By Numbers sets that Christmas. What a load of Pollocks!

The Angry Young Teddy Bears all received Painting By Numbers sets that Christmas. What a load of Pollocks!

On this day in 1968 Frankie Lymon was found dead at his mothers house of a suspected drugs overdose. He was just 25. As the lead singer with ‘Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers’ he became the youngest UK chart topper in 1957 aged just 13, when they reached the summit “Why Do Fools Fall In Love” He then became the youngest headliner at the London Palladium in 1958 aged just 14 while promoting their UK hit (which I believe failed to chart in the US) “I’m Not A Juvenile Delinquent“. Frankie retained the youngest UK chart topper record until 1972 when ‘Little’ Jimmy Osmond went to number one with the dreadful “Long Haired Lover From Liverpool” aged 9.

Frankie and the boys were looking forward to their appearance on Sesame Street to teach everyone about the letter 'T'

Frankie and the boys were looking forward to their appearance on Sesame Street to teach everyone about the letter 'T'

On this day in 1970 Led Zeppelin played a gig as the Nobs in Copenhagen after Eva Von Zeppelin, a relative of the Airship designer Ferdinand Von Zeppelin threatened to sue if the family name was used in Denmark. Later that same year Led Zep were voted Best Group in the New Musical Express (NME) readers poll, which broke a run of eight successive wins for the Beatles.

the hotel hairdryer was never strong enough for those Led boys

the hotel hairdryer was never strong enough for those Led boys

This day in 1998 saw ‘Cornershop’ sitting at the top of the UK singles chart with the excellent ‘Fatboy Slim’ remix of their superb song “Brimful Of Asha“. the Fatboy loved the song so much that he did the remix for free. The Asha in the song’s title is Asha Bhosle a Bollywood Playback singer. Indian films have relied heavily on song-and-dance numbers attributable to Broadway musicals. Almost always, the singing was performed by background singers while the actors and actresses mimed. Bhosle has sung more than 12.000 of these songs. Two other Playback singers, Lata Mangeshkar (Asha Bhosle’s sister) and Mohammed Rafi are also name-checked in the lyrics.

Once again Tjinder had fallen asleep at the mic

Once again Tjinder had fallen asleep at the mic

The next two aren’t strictly ‘onthisdays’ for February 28th, but it’s not a leap year so here are a couple from 29th February. Firstly on 29th February 1980 the glasses that Buddy Holly had been wearing when he died were discovered in a police file in Iowa where they had been for 21 years. The Beatles name is in part an homage to Buddy Holly and the Crickets and in one of lifes full circles Paul McCartney now owns the publishing rights to Buddy’s song catalogue.

The Invisible Man felt stupid for getting himself stuck in the Hall of Mirrors at the Fun Fair

The Invisible Man felt stupid for getting himself stuck in the Hall of Mirrors at the Fun Fair

Also on 29th February 2000 Eric Clapton received a 6 month driving ban in the UK for driving at 45mph in a 30 mph zone. So not such much of a slowhand after all are you Mr C? What’s your favourite Clapton song? This is mine, it’s “Layla” from his days as Derek and the Dominoes, although I really don’t like the unplugged version of it. Contrary to popular belief the signature guitar riff on that song came from Duane Allman and not Mr Clapton.

Eric was pleased that he had a friend like JJ to help him get to his gigs while he was banned from driving

Eric was pleased that he had a friend like JJ to help him get to his gigs while he was banned from driving

So dear reader if you have read this far, you have reached the end of todays post and I salute you! 🙂

 

“It’s 8:15 and that’s the time that it’s always been” February 27, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 9:43 am
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Another week gone already here we are at Friday again, I hope that you liked the Free Banking Bonus Post yesterday. If you haven’t read it you’ll find it just below this one.

A big thank you too for all the views and comments (Mickelodeon, Marcy and Catwoman) on my “Bank Robber” post yesterday. I’ve followed up with a further “Bank Robber….too” post which you will find below this one and a poll to choose the banking anthem. Get voting people

So without further fuss and stuff it’s on with the motley, not crue just the motley ok!

Let’s start with a couple of birthdays. Firstly Paul Humphreys from Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark (OMD) is 49 today (27th February 2009). I liked OMD a lot when they first came on the scene, so did the NME, they had a weekly anagram of the bands full name running for quite a few weeks which was often good for a chuckle. Does anyone else remember that or are they the only sad anorak? My favourite song by the band is “Enola Gay” and yes it is one of the 50 songs in my top ten! But did you know what the song is about? Well Enola Gay was the name of the plane that dropped the Atomic Bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945. The bomb itself was nicknamed ‘Little Boy’ hence the lyric ‘ is mother proud of little boy today’. But for me the scariest lyric in the song is ‘this kiss you give, is never ever gonna fade away’ So here is OMD’s “Enola Gay” Is that anyone else’s favourite?

The OMD boys in their audition for the 'Men In Black' movie

The OMD boys in their audition for the 'Men In Black' movie

The second and final of our birthdays today is that of Rozanda “Chilli” Thomas one of the singers with all girl R & B combo TLC. she is 38 today. Along with “Chilli” the group also included Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins and Lisa “Left Eye” Lopez. Sadly “Left Eye” was killed in a car accident in Honduras just before the release of their third album in 2002. You clearly had to have a nickname to join the group and let’s face it they are way better than Scary, Sporty, Baby, Posh and Ginger aren’t they? Talking of nicknames, there was unusually for me a point to it, do you know where the TLC name came from? Tender Loving Care? Nope. Totally Lousy Crap? Definitely not. T-Boz Left-Eye Chilli. yep that’s the one, the name comes from the first initial of each of the girls nicknames. All the girls sang within the group and “Chilli” also did their choreography too. Here are the girls withe rather jolly tuneage entitled “No Scrubs”

After another early start the girls had once again had to get dressed in the dark

After another early start the girls had once again had to get dressed in the dark

On this day today in 1964 a 21 year old former hairdresser and cloakroom attendant at Liverpool’s famous Cavern Club was number one in the UK charts. Her name was (and indeed still is) Cilla Black and the song was her version of Burt Bacharach and Hal David’s “Anyone Who Had A Heart” which had previously been recorded by Dionne Warwicke (who for those fact fans out there is Whitney Houston’s Aunt). The week that Cilla was number one was also the first time in UK chart history that the top ten had featured exclusively UK acts

Cilla was a little worried that her red flower was too discreet to enable her 'Blind date' to identify her

Cilla was a little worried that her red flower was too discreet to enable her 'Blind date' to identify her

On this day in 1967 Pink Floyd recorded their classic single “Arnold Layne” This was back in the days when they released the odd single and also when the late great (those l’s and g’s are still hanging in there) and supremely talented Syd Barret was still a part of the Floyd. When EMI signed the group it is alleged that one of the record companies executives asked of the band “Which one of you is Pink?” I would have loved to have been there to hear the answer! Interestingly “Arnold Layne” covered the topic of transvestites and was banned by pirate station Radio London although, here’s the surprise, the BBC continued to play it. The song reached number 20 in the UK and it’s follow up, “See Emily Play” hit number 6. That song was to be their last single for 12 years in the UK. Come on who remembers what that 1979 song was? Answers in the comment box or a postcard if you prefer. I just have to add of course that David Bowie (yep another Bowie reference) did an brilliant cover of “See Emily Play” on his Pin Ups album of covers from 1973. He also recorded a great live version of “Arnold Layne” with David Gilmour a year or so ago. Click on the titale and tell me which version you prefer

no one knew that Pink Floyd had secretly been recording a psychadelic version of 'The Hokey Cokey' with Chas and Dave in an East End pub

no one knew that Pink Floyd had secretly been recording a psychadelic version of 'The Hokey Cokey' with Chas and Dave in an East End pub

And finally today there have been a couple of redheads mentioned; Ginger Spice, Cilla Black (not sure she’s a natural redhead though) and yesterdays banking bonus post included Mick Hucknall and Simply Red. So I thought it was about time I gave a plug to another (soon to be) famous red head, my son Luke. Yes this is another blatant plug for his band ‘Steal The Smile‘ check them out and tell me what you think of them, add them as a friend on MySpace too if you haven’t done so already, click their name for the link. here is their band logo 🙂

The Steal The Smile Logo

The Steal The Smile Logo

 

“And you sip your Napoleon Brandy, but you never get your lips wet” February 26, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 8:20 am
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Here we are again, my my doesn’t time fly? Probably not if it wants to take a suitcase on a Ryanair flight though!

Just to let you know I posted a brief update about the NME Shockwaves Awards last night. Want to know who won what? Well just read the post below this one 🙂

In other music news President Obama presented Stevie Wonder with the Library Of Congress Gershwin prize for services to music. This is presumably for all the fantastic work he has produced in his lifetime, well with the exception of “I Just Called To say I Love You” perhaps. Well done Stevie!

Anyway normal service will now be resumed with todays birthdays. February 26th 2009 is the 81st birthday of Fats Domino. Wouldn’t his name make a great meal name for a pizza for Dominos Pizza – The Fats Domino deep crust with lard, butter, chips, deep fried Mars Bars, pork scratchings and blueberries. Do you like the sound of that one? Incidentally can you guess where Mr Domino actually got his name from? Yep you’re right, his size. He wasn’t obese by any means and certainly not by todays standards. He weighed 224lbs (that’s 16 stone in English!) in 1950, but he was only 5′ 5″. His first hit was a song called “the Fat Man” which was effectively a song called “Junkers Blues” with new lyrics by Fats himself. He is perhaps remembered by most people for the classic “Blueberry Hill”, how many times have I sung that in the shower! I also loved the way Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard’s character in ‘Happy Days’ used to sing the refrain whenever he thought he was onto a good thing with a member of the fairer sex. Fats was at one time believed to have been one of the many who perished as a result of the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans in 2005. To the extent that graffiti reading RIP FATS was painted onto his home. He was later found to be alive and well. So to celebrate his birthday here is Fats with “Blueberry Hill”

Fats really wanted some help to push the piano off the stage at the end of his set

Fats really wanted some help to push the piano off the stage at the end of his set

The second of todays birthdays is that of the late great (those l’s and g’s are just ever present!) Johnny Cash he would have been 77 today had he not died in September 2003. After graduating from High School he worked for a short time in a car plant before enlisting with the US Airforce. He was stationed in Germany which is where he learnt to play guitar and write songs. He even formed a group with some fellow servicemen called the Landsberg Barbarians. His first published song “Hey Porter” was published in the US forces journal the ‘Stars and Stripes’ in the early 50’s. Early in his career he claimed that his ancestry was from the Cherokee nation, it turned out that this was not strictly true and his roots can apparently be traced back to 17th century Scotland. I’m half Scottish, perhaps we’re related, but I doubt it because I never have any cash! I acquired a taste for the music quite late on really, largely because my Mum and Dad loved him, so it wasn’t cool for me to like him as a teenager. But I absolutely love the stuff he did with Rick Rubin in the years before his death. So from that period here he is with the excellent cover of the Trent Reznor song “Hurt” This song makes me cry almost every time, OK so I’m a wuss, I can live with that!

Johnny was desperate to figure out how to lengthen his guitar strap

Johnny was desperate to figure out how to lengthen his guitar strap

The final birthday for today is that of Sandie Shaw, she is 62 today. I wonder if anyone will buy her some shoes for her birthday? Her real name is Sandra Goodrich and she used to work as an IBM machine operator in Dagenham, Essex in the UK before she found fame. She spent most of her early singing career singing in bare feet, she didn’t necessarily choose this option, but her manager Eve Taylor (who also used to manage Adam Faith) felt it would be an excellent gimmick that the press would pick up on, and that they certainly did! She was the first UK winner of the Eurovision Song Contest in 1967 with “Puppet On A String”. The following year she celebrated her 21st birthday with a party in the Madame Tussauds Chamber Of Horrors in London. I’m not sure if that is where she found him, but in March of that year she married fashion designer Jeff Banks. She spent quite a long while away from the limelight before a barnstorming return with an excellent cover of the Smiths “Hand In Glove” in 1984. Morrissey was a lifelong fan and had always wanted to work with her. So for Mozzer it was truly mission accomplished!

Sandie wanted everyone to leaf her alone

Sandie wanted everyone to leaf her alone

On this day in 1969 Peter Sarstedt was at number one with his classic song “Where Do You Go To My Lovely” The song was a joint winner of the Ivor Novello award in 1969 along with David Bowie’s “Space Oddity” (at long last another Bowie reference!). His two brothers also had hit songs. His older brother Richard had a big hit with “Well I Ask You” as Eden Kane in 1961 and his younger brother Robin had a hit in 1976 with “My Resistance Is Low” Here is Peter with his classic “Where Do You Go To My Lovely” watch out for the intro too, I think that is Simon Dee. Does anyone know what happened to him?

Peter wondered whether anyone else could see the caterpillar that had found it's way onto his top lip

Peter wondered whether anyone else could see the caterpillar that had found it's way onto his top lip

And finally on this day in 1997 songwriter Ben Raleigh died after setting fire to his bathrobe while cooking. He should have just ordered a Fats Domino Deep Pan from Dominos! He wrote many songs including “Tell Laura I Love Her” and one that I’m sure most of you know whatever age you are, “The Scooby Doo Theme” come on grab yourself a scooby snack and sing along!

All together now...... Scooby Dooby Doo Wher e Are You.....

All together now...... Scooby Dooby Doo Wher e Are You.....

 

NME Shockwaves Awards special!

Filed under: Review — justwilliam1959 @ 12:11 am
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As many of you know tonight saw the music fraternity out once again for an annual awards/ lovefest. This time the NME Shockwaves Awards, mostly seen as a good alternative to the Brits and indeed often called the Brats. It has been argued by some that the NME awards have become too commercial these days. never as commercial as the Brits though, surely?

Anyway the results for tonight are

Godlike Genius Award goes to the Cure, but then we all knew that didn’t we? seeing as how it was announced weeks ago. There is a great free CD of Cure covers with this weeks NME

Outstanding Contribution to Music goes to Mercury Award and Brit winners, the fabulous Elbow. Oasis won Best British Band, no real surprise there, but to me they sound a little old and tired these days, especially on the new single “Falling Down” what do you think?
Noel Gallagher also won best blog, hey I’m going for that next year 😉

The magnificent Muse won Best Live Band and also Best Album Artwork for their excellent live album “HAARP” Have you heard it? On top of those two awards Matt Bellamy also won the sexiest man award. I love the band but Matt doesn’t really do it for me in that way, but then again I’m straight. Ladies (and gay men) was Matt Bellamy a good choice for sexiest man?

MGMT won two awards; Best New Band and Best Track for “Time To Pretend” I saw them supporting Radiohead last summer and they were bloody good

Alex Turner was the recipient of two awards; Best DVD for the “Arctic Monkeys Live At The Apollo” and Best Video for The Last Shadow Puppets “My Mistakes Were Made For You” However he did lose out in the Best Dressed award to his girlfriend Alexa Chung

Even those nice boys the Jonas Brothers won two awards, mind you those were Worst Album (“A Little Bit Longer”) and Worst Band

Barack Obama rather unsurprisingly won Hero Of The Year, now that is one I certainly agree with.

His predecessor in the White House George W Bush also won a well deserved award, for the 6th year in a row too, the Villain Of The Year. I wonder who it will go to next year now that Dubya won’t be around?

The Killers deservedly won Best International Band with fellow countrymen the Kings Of Leon getting the Best Album gong for the superb “Only By The Night”

Hayley Williams from Paramore won the Sexiest Woman prize and yes I can agree with that. Another woman, Amy Winehouse won the Worst Dressed award. Was she really that bad?

One of Amy’s buddies, Mr Pete Doherty won Best Solo Artist, well do forgive me but has he done that much from a solo point of view yet?

Best Dancefloor Filler was the rather good “Dance Wiv Me” by Dizzee Rascal and Calvin Harris

The rest of the awards were; Best Live Event – Glastonbury, Best TV Show – The Mighty Boosh, Best Website – youtube.com (well at least that proves the vote wasn’t rigged otherwise it would have gone to nme.com!)
, Best Venue – London Astoria and lastly the Philip Hall Radar Award – The Big Pink

Check out the pictures and post awards party news at the NME

 

“I wanna say, I wanna tell you, about the young ideas, but you turn them into fears” February 25, 2009

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 10:14 am
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Hello again folks, well it looks like the ‘Lily Allen Naked’ experiment didn’t work. There were twice as many views yesterday than normal, but most of these were views of the gig review I posted in addition to yesterdays usual post. So I guess that means gig reviews and fart jokes can impact the views on this blog but the suggestion of a picture of Lily Allen naked can’t. So does that conclude the ‘Lily Allen naked’ experiment? Maybe it does except to say that we might possibly go for a ‘Lily Allen naked experiment at a future date. Although the fact that this paragraph now contains the phrase ‘Lily Allen naked’ five times might make a difference for today. Confused? I’m not surprised!

So on with the show, kicking off with a couple of birthdays. First up for February 25th is that it would have been the 66th birthday of the late great (still there aren’t they those old l’s and g’s) George Harrison the youngest of the Fab Four. Sadly though he succumbed to cancer on 29th November 2001. George wasn’t the first Beatle to release solo material, that was Paul McCartney, however George was the first to release an album on the Beatles Apple label with “Wonderwall Music” the soundtrack to the film ‘Wonderwall’. This also went on to become the title of one of the top Beatles tribute bands Oasis’ songs “Wonderwall”. If anyone has any idea what a Wonderwall is please send your answers on a postcard, or more preferably in the blog comments facility. There may even be a small prize available for the best answer! George was also the first Beatle to have a solo number one with “My Sweet Lord”. The story of the plagiarism legal battle he faced from the writers of the Chiffons “He’s So Fine” over “My Sweet Lord” is well documented so I won’t dwell on that here. However a little known fact about the song is that Harrison originally gave it to Billy Preston and in fact it was lined up as a potential single for Mr Preston. Seen as a more ‘junior’ writer within the Beatles Harrison had also originally given the wonderful “Something” to Joe Cocker before the moptops recorded it for the Abbey Road album.

George wondered how long it would be before John and Paul would let him play with a big boys guitar

George wondered how long it would be before John and Paul would let him play with a big boys guitar

Incidentally “Something” was written about George’s wife Patti who later went on to marry his friend Eric Clapton. Clapton wrote both “Layla” and “Wonderful Tonight” for Patti. This must make her the only person to have so many classic songs written especially for her surely? In spite of the fact that Patti left George for Eric the guys stayed great friends right up to Harrisons death.

In the 60s George really took Flower Power to extremes

In the 60s George really took Flower Power to extremes

In 1974 Harrison set up his own label ‘Dark Horse’ it’s first signings were Ravi Shankar and the band ‘Splinter’. Apart from Harrison himself the only act to have a hit on ‘Dark Horse’ were Splinter who charted with the song “Costafine Town“. Have a listen to it, I think it’s aged quite well, what do you think? George produced two Splinter albums under the not well disguised name Hari Georgeson. This became the name that the NME used for him throughout the 70s too

George soon realised that what he thought was just a frog in the throat was in fact far more serious

George soon realised that what he thought was just a frog in the throat was in fact far more serious

Here is George with the criminally underplayed “When We Was Fab”

The last of todays birthdays is that of Stuart “Woody” Wood of the Bay City Rollers, it’s his 52nd birthday. The band had been around for a while before Stuart joined in January 1973, the same time as lead singer Les McKeown joined the group. The band’s rise to the heights of ‘Rollermania’ began in 1974 with “Remember (Sha La La)” and peaked in the UK in 1975 with their two number ones “Bye Bye Baby” and “Give A Little Love”. They also hit the top spot in January 1976 in the US with “Saturday Night”. Most of their sings were either covers or written for them by Bill Martin and Phil Coulter, however in December 1975 they had a hit with “Money Honey” which was written by Stuart Wood and fellow Roller Eric Faulkner

Woody was sure he had requested a mirrored ceiling, but decided he'd have to put up with a mirrored floor instead

Woody was sure he had requested a mirrored ceiling, but decided he'd have to put up with a mirrored floor instead

On this day in 1963 saw the first release of a Beatles single in the USA when “Please, Please Me” was issued on the Vee Jay label. I would imagine that a copy of this single might be quite valuable, largely because the name of the band was spelled wrong as the Beattles. The boys went on to capture all the top 5 places in the US singles chart for one week in 1964

How things might have looked if the Beatles had arrived in a more modern age

How things might have looked if the Beatles had arrived in a more modern age

And (almost) finally for today the Jam signed a £6,000 contract with Polydor Records.The band (Paul Weller, Bruce Foxton and Rick Buckler) came together at school in Surrey and went on to play chart and r & b covers across pubs and working men clubs across Surrey and surrounding area. As punk began to break in 1976 they rode the wave like many others, but were never really a punk band in my opinion, a great band nonetheless. They started to get gigs at the Marquee and the 100 Club in London and in 1976 they auditioned for Terry Slater of EMI and were turned down. Perhaps not on the scale of Decca turning down the Beatles but still a big mistake. Their audition for Polydor’s Chris Parry came about after Chris was urged to see them by one Shane McGowan, then leading the ‘Nipple Erectors’ but later more well known as front man of the Pogues. They were a part of the Clash’s short lived ‘White Riot’ tour in 1976 but left following an argument with the headliners. It took them just 11 days to record their first album on which all the songs were written by Paul Weller who was just 19 at the time. Their first single was the album’s title track “In The City” Click the song title to see the band performing the song at the 100 Club in Oxford Street in 1977. Weller disbanded the group in 1982 to follow a new direction with the Style Council and then later to massive solo success. Breaking a great band up at the height of their success may have seemed like the wrong thing to do at the time, but it certainly never harmed Mr Weller’s career. Buckler and Foxton now tour as what in my opinion are little more than a tribute band ‘From The Jam’

Paul and Bruce practice for their advanced guitar Ninja exams

Paul and Bruce practice for their advanced guitar Ninja exams

Catwoman and I saw Paul Weller at the Manchester MEN Arena last year and he was fantastic, he even included a few Jam and Style Council songs in his set. If you haven’t heard his current album ‘22 Dreams‘ shame on you. Go and rectify that issue NOW! In the meantime click on the album title to hear a BBC4 sessions version of the title song

paul steadfastly refused to wear a red nose, even for Comic Relief!

paul steadfastly refused to wear a red nose, even for Comic Relief!

And finally finally, now I really mean finally this time! Here is probably the most infectious and annoying clip I have seen for ages, it’s a cat dancing to the “Peanut Butter, Jelly Song” just play it once and it will stick in your head for hours!