With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

The Voyeurs, Avalanche Party & Blind Eye – The Duchess, York – Tuesday 24th February 2015 February 27, 2015


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I once again had the honour of being on the Avalanche Party cheap list. It’s a badge I wear with pride! Anyway there’ll be more about Avalanche Party later.

blind eye

First up tonight were Blind Eye and I think that it would be more than fair to say they were miles better than the similarly named and now defunct, Beady Eye. This band have funk, rhythm, talent and enthusiasm in equal measures. Their choice of cover versions suggests that they know their rock history or that their parents have great record collections. They played very good versions of Stevie Wonder‘s “Superstition” which was more in line with the Jeff Beck version of the song. They also gave us a storming version of the BeatlesCome Together“. But Blind Eye are more than just a covers band, their own songs are very good too. They seem very young but I think they have great potential. This century’s Cream one day maybe?

avalanche party

Now this blog (i.e. me) has raved about Avalanche Party before and I will continue to do so now. I have a question for promoters, festival organisers and their ilk; why are this band not bigger? Why have you not given them the opportunity to play larger stages? Could they handle that transition? Of course they could! Avalanche Party rock like proverbial fuck! The band was pretty damned good when I saw them last year and now they are even better. A really tight and well rehearsed band with powerful playing and great songs. “Mountain” has classic rock potential and their new single “Money” is superb and has a great lyrical play on some very familiar words from a rock ‘n’ roll standard. Have you seen Avalanche Party yet? If not I want to know why. I don’t want feeble excuses, your reasons for not having seen them should be accompanied by a letter from your parents. I mean you really do need to see them even if it means having to sell your Granny!

voyeurs

Tonight’s head-liners were the Voyeurs who recently signed a deal with Heavenly Records. They are a band who probably would not exist if there had been no Velvet Underground. The keyboard player even sported a Nico T Shirt. They are masters of drone rock and I do mean that in the nicest possible way. They suffered some technical problems with keyboards and the tiny audience would have put off many bands. But the Voyeurs took it in their stride. I don’t smoke dope, but if I did then the Voyeurs would be a great soundtrack for imbibing the herb. I would love to see them on one of the smaller stages at Reading this year. I would definitely enjoy them in that kind of setting. Have any of you seen them?

As regular readers probably know I really can’t be arsed to take video and pictures with my phone at gigs, I prefer to enjoy the experience. This means that none of the pictures or films shown here were shot or taken by me!

 

“And she never walk down Lime Street any more” January 3, 2014


joe anderson liverpool mayorAccording to Joe Anderson, the Mayor of Liverpool, his city’s artists can claim more UK number one singles per head of population than any other city in the world. There have been 57 so far, including 17 from the Beatles. Let’s stick to cities and not smaller towns and villages though, otherwise Westlife might put Sligo on top of the list with their 14 UK number one singles. Incidentally I wonder how many number one singles London has had? Or any other city for that matter.beatles and boris

Joe was writing in Q Magazine to counter London Mayor Boris Johnson‘s ridiculous claim that London ‘made’ the Beatles. Surely it was Liverpool and possibly a degree of Hamburg that ‘made’ the Fab Four? What do you think of Boris’ comments? I think he is a complete arse!

boris-funny

Here are those Liverpool acts and their UK number ones;

14 March 1953 : Lita Roza – “(How Much Is) That Doggie in the Window?”
25 January 1957 : Frankie Vaughan – “The Garden of Eden”
14 February 1958 : Michael Holliday – “The Story of My Life”
29 January 1960 : Michael Holliday – “Starry Eyed”
7 December 1961 : Frankie Vaughan – “Tower of Strength”
11 April 1963: Gerry and the Pacemakers – “How Do You Do It?”
2 May 1963: The Beatles – “From Me to You”
20 June 1963 : Gerry and the Pacemakers – “I Like It”
8 August 1963: The Searchers – “Sweets for My Sweet”
22 August 1963: Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas – “Bad to Me”
12 September 1963 : The Beatles – “She Loves You”
31 October 1963 : Gerry and the Pacemakers – “You’ll Never Walk Alone”
28 November 1963 : The Beatles – “She Loves You”
12 December 1963 : The Beatles – “I Want to Hold Your Hand”
30 January 1964 : The Searchers – “Needles and Pins”
27 February 1964 : Cilla Black – “Anyone Who Had a Heart”
19 March 1964 :  Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas – “Little Children”
2 April 1964 : The Beatles – “Can’t Buy Me Love”
7 May 1964 : The Searchers – “Don’t Throw Your Love Away”
28 May 1964 : Cilla Black – “You’re My World”
23 July 1964: The Beatles – “A Hard Day’s Night”
10 December 1964 : The Beatles – “I Feel Fine”
22 April 1965 : The Beatles – “Ticket to Ride”
5 August 1965: The Beatles – “Help!”
30 September 1965 : Ken Dodd – “Tears”
16 December 1965 : The Beatles – “Day Tripper”/”We Can Work It Out”
23 June 1966: The Beatles – “Paperback Writer”
18 August 1966: The Beatles – “Yellow Submarine”/”Eleanor Rigby”
19 July 1967 : The Beatles – “All You Need Is Love”
6 December 1967: The Beatles – “Hello, Goodbye”
27 March 1968 : The Beatles – “Lady Madonna”
11 September 1968 : The Beatles – “Hey Jude”
11 December : 1968 The Scaffold – “Lily the Pink”
23 April 1969 : The Beatles with Billy Preston – “Get Back”
11 June 1969: The Beatles – “The Ballad of John and Yoko”
30 January 1971 : George Harrison – “My Sweet Lord”
3 December 1977 : Wings : “Mull of Kintyre”
20 December 1980 : John Lennon – “(Just Like) Starting Over”
10 January 1981 : John Lennon – “Imagine”
7 February 1981 : John Lennon – “Woman”
24 April 1982 : Paul McCartney with Stevie Wonder – “Ebony and Ivory”
14 January 1984 : Paul McCartney – “Pipes of Peace”
28 January 1984 : Frankie Goes to Hollywood – “Relax”
16 June 1984: Frankie Goes to Hollywood – “Two Tribes”
8 December 1984 : Frankie Goes to Hollywood – “The Power of Love”
9 March 1985 : Dead or Alive – “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)”
15 June 1985: The Crowd – “You’ll Never Walk Alone”
29 August 1987 : Ferry Aid – “Let it Be”
20 May 1989 : Various artists – “Ferry Cross the Mersey”
22 July 1989  : Sonia – “You’ll Never Stop Me Loving You”
26 May 1996 : Baddiel, Skinner & The Lightning Seeds – “Three Lions”
14 June 1998: Baddiel, Skinner & The Lightning Seeds : “Three Lions ’98”
March 26 2000: Melanie C featuring Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes – “Never Be the Same Again”
August 13 2000: Melanie C – “I Turn to You”
February 4 2001: Atomic Kitten – “Whole Again”
July 29 2001: Atomic Kitten – “Eternal Flame”
January 20 2002: George Harrison – “My Sweet Lord”
April 28 2002: Sugababes – “Freak Like Me”
August 18 2002: Sugababes – “Round Round”
September 1 2002 : Atomic Kitten – “The Tide Is High (Get the Feeling)”
October 19 2003 : Sugababes – “Hole in the Head”
September 30 2007 : Sugababes – “About You Now”
Christmas number one 2012 : The Justice Collective – “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother”

 

“Spike heels make a hole in a life boat, drifting away when I’m talking and laughing as we float” – Advent day 16 December 16, 2013


16It’s December 16th and therefore day 16 of the With Just A Hint Of Mayhem advent posts. I’m enjoying the music in these advent posts and I hope that you are too.  So on to two songs with the number sixteen in their title.

tennesseeeerniefordThe first song for today is from Ernest Jennings Ford who was better known as Tennessee Ernie Ford. The song is about working in a coal mine and it is called “Sixteen Tons” it reached number 1 in the US charts in 1955. The song has been recorded by many artists; including Stevie Wonder, the Redskins, Tom Jones, Johnny Cash, Bo Diddley, Robbie Williams, Dandy Warhols, Tom Morello and the Eels. Whilst Elvis Presley never recorded the song he did play it live when touring the US in 1955. The Clash had the Ford version of the song played just before they came on stage during their ‘Sixteen Tons’ US tour in 1980.

Jack White took over the cover of the May 2012 issue of Interview magazine-815282The second for today features an artist that appeared as part of one of his earlier bands on day 7 of my advent posts. It’s Jack White with a track taken from his first solo album, ‘Blunderbuss’ released in 2012. White says that the inspiration for the song came from his daughter. When Jack asked her what she would like as a snack she said sixteen saltine crackers, he said she could have three. The singles B Side was a cover of U2’s “Love Is Blindness“. The single was sadly largely ignored in the UK reaching only number 129 in the UK singles chart. The album went to number one in the UK though and also reached the top in Belgium, Canada, Switzerland and the USA.

 

“In fact here’s just another ordinary day” September 16, 2013

Filed under: Joke — justwilliam1959 @ 4:04 pm
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Apologies in advance, but this came to me via amail earlier today and I couldn’t resist passing it on 🙂

steviewonder

Stevie Wonder is playing his first gig in Tokyo and the place is absolutely packed to the rafters. In a bid to break the ice with his new audience, He asks if anyone would like him to play a request. A little old Japanese man jumps out of his seat in the first row and shouts at the top of his voice “Play a Jazz chord! Play a jazz chord!” Amazed that this guy knows about the jazz influences in Stevie’s varied career, the blind impresario starts to play an E minor scale and then goes into a difficult jazz melody for about 10 minutes. When he finishes the whole place goes wild. The little old man jumps up again and shouts “No, no, play a Jazz chord, play a Jazz chord”. A bit irritated by this, Stevie, being the professional that he is, dives straight into a jazz improvisation with his band around the B flat minor chord and really tears! the place apart. The crowd goes wild with this impromptu show of his technical expertise. The little old man jumps up again. “No, no. Play a Jazz chord, play a jazz chord”. Well now truly irritated that this little guy doesn’t seem to appreciate his playing ability. Stevie says to him from the stage “OK jerk. You get up here and do it!” The little old man climbs up onto the stage, takes hold of the mike and starts to sing….. “A jazz chord to say I ruv you…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwOU3bnuU0k

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“Baby I could never steal you from another” April 21, 2013


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Last year I published a post about Bruce Springsteen having written the song “Hungry Heart” for the Ramones. Click here to read that post. I read recently of some other songs that were supposedly written with other artists in mind.

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First there are two from the Eurythmics. Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox wrote “There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart)” for Stevie Wonder. Stevie never recorded it although he did supply the harmonica break on the song. The band originally had Tina Turner in mind to join them on “Sisters Are Doing It For Themselves” but she allegedly felt it was too feminist and the gig became Aretha Franklin’s. Seriously? Tina thought it was too feminist?

WTF? Miss Stevie turned me down????

WTF? Miss Stevie turned me down????

Finally, and this one surprises me assuming it’s true; Prince wrote “Purple Rain” hoping to get Stevie Nicks to record it. Maybe it’s not too late. If you’re reading this Stevie Nicks (highly unlikely I know) then let’s hear it! I would love to hear of any ‘written for others’ stories that you might have.

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“His eighty eight key smile is so pleasant to see” April 3, 2013


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A 1877 Steinway Grand Piano has finally returned to Detroit after a long restoration. The piano was used for many years in Motown Studio B in the Motor City. It will be on display in the Motown Historical Museum along with some of the now unusable strings and hammers. The restoration was partly funded by Paul McCartney who played the piano along with Berry Gordy in New York last year shortly after the restoration.

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Can you imagine how many famous Motown artists have tickled the ivories on this beautiful instrument?  Click here to read the full report on the BBC website. A story about a Motown piano can really only have a couple of songs to go with it right? In my opinion one of them is very good and was produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards from Chic and the other one was crap despite being produced by George Martin. What do you think?

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“Toss and turn, fall to sleep holding my pillow tight” November 11, 2012

Filed under: News — justwilliam1959 @ 8:13 pm
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I know that many people thought that Michael Jackson was a little odd, me included. However I suspect that his weirdness shielded some of the odd behaviours of his family. Jermaine Jackson couldn’t resist the temptation of lumbering one his offspring with a ridiculous name; Hello Jermajesty! But now he is playing the name game on his own name. He has allegedly applied to the courts to be allowed to change his surname from Jackson to Jacksun, apparently for ‘artistic reasons’. I guess he won’t be blaming that on the moonlight or the boogie but definitely the sunshine! I’d love to hear your views on Jermaine’s proposed change.

 

“Seen a lot of things in this old world” November 7, 2012


This will be one of my shortest posts ever, I promise. I would like to say a big well done and sincere thanks to the American people for seeing sense and re-electing Barack Obama and not sliding to disaster with Romney. I’m sure that much of the world feels the same.

I nailed my colours to the wall the on this election quite clearly on an earlier post (click here to see that post) and I am so pleased America delivered. Enjoy Obama’s victory speech below and the song that was played as he took to the stage.

 

“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


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

 

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


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