With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

“And now as tears subside I find it all so amusing” April 25, 2010


This one will be a bit of a random post, kind of the post with absolutely no theme whatsoever. Now there’s an idea, how about a future post all about TV and movie themes? Me likes that! 

First up is a great clip of Talcy Malcy’s funeral winding its way through London. Truly an entertainer to the very end. Cash from Chaos indeed (actually that sounds a bit banking industry related, only for them it was chaos from cash I suppose!) Click here to see my recent post on the death of Mr McLaren 

 

One of the songs played at Malcolm McLaren’s funeral was Sid Vicious’ version of the Paul Anka penned Frank Sinatra classic “My Way” Check it out below 

I would also like to remind you that you can still get an exclusive Steal The Smile track “Two Years On” from my recent post about this superb young band. Click here to go to that post and download the song. Trust me, you WILL NOT be disappointed! You can also click here to view some video footage of the STS boys (Henry, Johnny, Luke & Oli) hard at work and having plenty of fun in the studio. They also have another gig coming up in a couple of weeks at the FaceBar in Reading. I’ll be there, why don’t you get your arses down there too? Check out the boys playing the FaceBar from a couple of years back, with an excellent cover of Pendulum’s “Blood Sugar” 

OK I said this would be random and indeed it is. Do you have any idea what John Squire off of the Stone Roses and the Seahorses has been up to lately? Well he has been doing new designs for the covers of classic Penguin books. How rock ‘n’ Roll is that? Click here to see his handiwork. 

I think this looks just a teensy weensy bit like a stone rose, what do you think?

The Sunday Times has published a list of the richest young UK music stars, all under thirty. Joint top are Charlotte Church, Katherine Jenkins and Leona Lewis, all worth an alleged £11m each, followed by Katie Melua and Cheryl Cole, both worth a measly £10m each. Craig David is the highest placed man at a lowly 7th place with just a tiny £8m in the piggy bank, bo selecta indeed!  I wonder if the other girls off of Girls Aloud are envious of Cheryl being worth twice as much as each of them? Click here to read more. The full list is; 

1. Charlotte Church £11M
1. Katherine jenkins£11M
1. Leona Lewis £11M
4. Cheryl Cole £10M
4. Katie Melua £10M
6. Joss Stone £9M
7. Craig David £8M
8. Natasha Bedingfield £6M
9. Lily Allen £5M
9. Nadine Coyle £5M
9. Sarah Harding £5M
9. Nicola Roberts £5M
9. Kimberly Walsh £5M
9. Jamie Cullum £5M
9. Duffy £5M
9. James Morrison £5M
9. Paolo Nutini £5M
9. Amy Winehouse £5M  

 

“did you see the suits and the platform boots?” March 1, 2009


I’m back again and it’s a brand new month, time Marches on doesn’t it? Anyway there have been some excellent comments in response to the current banking farce and also about the Chris Allen naked story, we still don’t know who he/ she is although Tom has owned up to searching for naked pictures of the elusive Chris. No one has found us yet via the Lily Allen naked route though, I’m beginning to think that’s a good thing.

I have also received a couple of e mails relating to my comments about that splendid airline company Ryanair who as you know offer some very cheap headline fares and then charge for everything else on top. The UK press today says they are floating an idea to put coin op slots on the aircraft toilets. You’ll need to spend a pound to ‘spend a penny’. On a similar note I reckon you’ll love the link sent to us by Nick H, just click on Ryanair. Maybe it’s actually true!

The new cheaper Ryanair fleet had just been delivered

The new cheaper Ryanair fleet had just been delivered

Larry sent this one to the Dead Zone Yahoo Group, which is where I borrowed it from. It’s an excellent link to a site showing Billy Idol’s “White Wedding” video but doctored so that it has him singing about what is actually in the video. Trust me this one is very funny!

Billy held out his arms ready to fly, he figured it would be so much cheaper than Ryanair

Billy held out his arms ready to fly, he figured it would be so much cheaper than Ryanair

Feel free to send me things that you think the other readers may enjoy, mostly music related but hey there’ll always be the occasional rant about things like Banking and Ryanair 🙂

So onto todays ton of trivia, well maybe not a ton, but quite a lot! Starting with a couple of birthdays. Firstly 1st March 2009 is Roger Daltrey’s 65th birthday. Does that mean he’ll be getting a “Magic Bus” pass? Roger is one of the two surviving members of the Who along with Pete Townshend. In 1972 Roger took the starring role in a fully orchestrated version of the Who’s “Tommy” at the Rainbow Theatre in London. According to Pete Townshend, who was in the audience, this was the moment when he realised just how good Daltrey was. He spent the next few years worried that Daltrey would leave the band, thankfully for us that didn’t happen. In 1973 Daltrey released his first solo album called, very imaginatively, ‘Daltrey’. Most (or maybe all) the songs for it were written by none other than Leo Sayer with his co writer Dave Courtney. Leo went on to record some of the songs for his own albums in the future, notably “One Man Band”. My favourite track from that album and yes it’s also one of the 50 songs in my top 10, was “Giving It All Away” This clip is from a 1973 edition of the Beebs excellent “Old Grey Whistle Test” it also features Russ Ballard from Argent on guitar.

The front row at this gig soon became aware just how many baked beans Roger had eaten before the show

The front row at this gig soon became aware just how many baked beans Roger had eaten before the show

Today is also the 36th birthday of Ryan Peake guitarist with the band Nickleback. For some strange reason my mate Dave always calls them Stickleback, but then his better half calls him Nobby, so perhaps we shouldn’t go there eh? Nickleback got their name from something Mike Kroeger, also a band member, used to say every day when he worked at Starbucks. After a sale if a customer paid cash he often asked “would you like your Nickel back?” I presume that if Gareth Gates formed a band now it might be called ‘Doyouwantfrieswiththat’ what do you think? Anyway here are the Nickleback boys with “How You Remind Me

The band much preferred fans to wave their phones and not their flame throwers during the slow songs

The band much preferred fans to wave their phones and not their flame throwers during the slow songs

On this day in 1970 Mott the Hoople appeared at the Northcote Arms in Middlesex (I think I’ve had a pint or two in there in my much younger days) They were supported by none other than Genesis in the days before they had a singing drummer! Mott have reformed for a London gig later this year are any of you guys going? If you ever read Rock books you must read Ian Hunter’s ‘Diary Of A Rock n Roll Star’ Ian was Mott’s front man and the book is about the bands early 70s days touring in the US. It is truly an excellent book. In 1972 after a show in Zurich the band decided to split up. After hearing this news one of their biggest fans, none other than David Bowie (another Bowie reference at last!) offered them one of his new songs to persuade them to carry on. The band rejected “Suffragette City” but went on to record “All The Young Dudes”. The rest as they say is history. Here’s one for you fact fans, Mick Jones of the Clash was also a big fan of Mott too. My favourite Mott the Hoople song is “Saturday Gigs” which is about the band’s history and also features the late great (another l & g comeback) Mick Ronson who was a member of the band for just a short while in the mid 70s

It was clear that Ian Hunter had the Austin Powers look even before Austin existed

It was clear that Ian Hunter had the Austin Powers look even before Austin existed

On this day in 1977 Iggy Pop appeared at Friars in Aylesbury and his keyboard player was none other than David Bowie. (Whaddya know, no Bowie references for a while and then two arrive at once, a bit like Mr Daltrey’s Magic Bus perhaps?) Iggy with Ziggy now that’s cool! The support band that night was the Vibrators. I wonder if they’ve changed their name and now tour as the ‘Rampant Rabbits’? 😉 Well if the Stones Roses (see yesterdays post) considered ‘Angry Young Teddy Bears’ as a name it’s not beyond the realms of possibility is it? Anyway let’s get back to the Igster, if you haven’t heard his original version of “China Girl” click the title to check it out, it really does blow Bowie’s version away!

Iggy had to sell his shirts to pay for his RyanAir extras

Iggy had to sell his shirts to pay for his RyanAir extras

And finally I’ve included this as I used the word motley the other day and didn’t mention the crue at all. On this day in 1997 a Motley Crue fan who claimed his hearing had been irreparably damaged after a show in New Jersey had his lawsuit thrown out of court. The judge told Clifford Goldberg (aka Chris Allen? Well you never know!) ,who was sat near the front of the stage that he knew what risk he was taking. Presumably Clifford said “Wot?” In the meantime here are the boys with “Smoking In The Boys Room” Is that headmaster scary or what? “Wot?” oh shut up Clifford I’m not talking to you!

The boys had looked forward to Halloween all year long. "Wot?" said Clifford

The boys had looked forward to Halloween all year long. "Wot?" said Clifford

 

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


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! 🙂