On August 19th, 1977, the Sex Pistols started a six-date undercover UK tour as “The S.P.O.T.S.” (Sex Pistols On Tour Secretly). Their reputation meant they would be unlikely to be booked into venues that would be shut down by the police, so, they assumed a different name in each venue (including “Tax Exiles” and “A Mystery Band of International Repute”)
In 2005 also on August 19th, a life-size bronze statue of Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott was erected in his home city of Dublin, Ireland. Lynott, who died in 1986 at 36, was celebrated during an unveiling ceremony, that was attended by his former Thin Lizzy bandmates, including Gary Moore, Brian Robertson, and Scott Gorham.
19 Aug 2014 On 19th August 2014 Kate Bush requested that fans did not take any photographs or record footage using mobile devices at her upcoming 22-date residency at the Hammersmith Apollo in London. The then 56-year-old star said on her website: “I very much want to have contact with you as an audience, not with iPhones, iPads or cameras. It would mean “a great deal to me, although I know it is a lot to ask”.
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Here comes the fourth monthly Mayhem Top 20 Song Chart and it is perhaps more eclectic than previous charts. June’s number one is from an old singer songwriter who has not featured on the Mayhem chart before, Randy Newman with “You’ve Got A Friend In Me” from Toy Story. That is quite a turn after number ones from Prairie Brigade, the Hazy Janes and Vaquelin. This month has a few newer artists in the lower end of the chart, but it is mostly classic oldies. The newer acta are Glytsh (number 11), Ideal Husband (12), Ruby Addy (17) and Bull (18). Meanwhile for the first time since we started the song chart last months number one remains in the chart, at number 20 it’s Vaquelin. Those Vaquelin lads have made Mayhem Song Chart history! A few songs feature after my recent weekend at the David Bowie World Fan Convention, “Starman” (Bowie), “Warszawa” (Donny McCaslin), “Rêvalité” (-M-) and “Love Me Tender” (Mick Ronson). Soul gets a few entries with Stevie Wonder, Millie Jackson and Mel and Tim. Reggae goes top 5, at number 5 it’s Clancy Eccles with “Fattie Fattie”. I suspect that not many charts include both “Prince Andrew Is A Sweaty Nonce” by the Kunts and “Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee” by Doris Day, but the Mayhem song chart for June 2022 does. The Doris Day tune was written more than 100 years ago in 1912, I think her version was from the early fifties. Also featured are Fleetwood Mac, the Wonder Stuff, Carl Douglas and Thin Lizzy. We would love to hear your thoughts on the Mayhem Song Top 20 Chart as we hope to make it a regular feature. Check out the complete list below.
1 You’ve Got A Friend In Me – Randy Newman 2 Welcome To the Cheap Seats – The Wonder Stuff 3 You Are The Sunshine Of My Life – Stevie Wonder 4 Albatross – Fleetwood Mac 5 Fattie Fattie – Clancy Eccles 6 Starman – David Bowie 7 Warszawa – Donny McCaslin 8 Rose Coloured Glasses – Millie Jackson 9 I May Not Be What You Want – Mel and Tim 10 Love Me Tender – Mick Ronson 11 (Hard)core Memories – Glytsh 12 SBB (Lo Fi Demo) – Ideal Husband 13 Rêvalité – -M- 14 Kung Fu Fighting – Carl Douglas 15 Be My Little Baby Bumble Bee – Doris Day 16 The Boys Are Back In Town – Thin Lizzy 17 Sour Milk – Ruby Addy 18 Stuck! – Bull 19 Prince Andrew Is A Sweaty Nonce – The Kunts 20 Roads Leading Nowhere – Vaquelin
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Thanks to a site called Obscurify. It claims to tell you how obscure your listening on Spotify is. Compared to the rest of the UK I am now supposedly 98% more obscure than other users in the UK, that has increased from 90% in July! It also lists my most obscure artists, which currently are
Woke Up Dead, Promethium and Hat’s Off Gentlemen It’s Adequate stay in the top 5 and there are new entries for the talented British artist Kid Acne and TV Theme legend Barry Gray!
So who were the top artists for August (24th), September (15th) and October 7th? Check the full lists below, but I can reveal that Sparks were chart toppers in August, Elvis Costello and the Attractions in September and Millie Jackson in October Surprisingly David Bowie was close but no cigar, finishing 17th, 3rd and 2nd respectively. There are a few new artists in there, notably Dexter, Cowgirl, Thirst and The Helicopter Of The Holy Ghost. I was pleased to see Delilah Bon and the Tuts making an appearance too. Also plenty of the usual classic acts, including Rolling Stones, Elton John, Marvin Gaye and the Sex Pistols. Regular readers know that as I share this Spotify account with my wonderful wife Catherine (a.k.a. Catwoman) a few artists finished much higher than they might have done if they were only my choices 🙂 Notably Gregory Porter and Billy Joel . Give Obscurify a spin and let me know what your chart looks like and how obscure your tastes are 🙂
Mayhem’s Top 20 Artists on Spotify (October 7th 2021)
Millie Jackson David Bowie Sex Pistols Elton John Specials Billy Joel Scala and Kolacny Brothers Emmylou Harris T Rex Skinner Brothers Kid Acne Paul Young Stevie Wonder Marianne Faithfull Counting Crows Steven Wilson Wildhearts Be Bop Deluxe Kacy Musgraves Brian Eno
Mayhem’s Top 20 Artists on Spotify (September 15th 2021)
Elvis Costello & The Attractions Thirst David Bowie Cowgirl Billy Joel The Police Rolling Stones Captain Ska Sting The Helicopter Of The Holy Ghost Uriah Heep Nick Lowe Tom Robinson Band The Tuts Bad Manners Faintest Idea The Skints Gentleman’s Dub Club Catfish & The Bottlemen MK
Mayhem’s Top 20 Artists on Spotify (August 24th 2021)
Sparks Velvet Insane Thin Lizzy Gregory Porter Marvin Gaye Dexter Nazareth Billie Eilish Genesis Gil Scott-Heron O’Jays Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes Johnny Nash Delilah Bon Bob Marley & The Wailers The Clash David Bowie Tin Machine Avalanches Kate Bush
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Day 7 of the With Just A Hint Of Mayhem, mostly, punk themed 12 days of Christmas series I hope you’re enjoying it so far. What plans do you have for a socially distanced Chrimbo? Todays choice might upset some punk purists, but frankly I don’t give a shit! This thrown together band includes 50% of the Sex Pistols (Cook and Jones) plus Phil Lynott and Scott Gorham of Thin Lizzy. Lynott had a great punk attitude and he associated with many punk luminaries. They were originally called the Greedy Bastards but for this release they were the Greedies. Put on your Christmas trousers and strut your stuff to “A Merry Jingle”.
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It’s great news that David Cameron and his dreadful Conservative government have at least postponed the vote on the repeal of the fox-hunting band. Having been out foxed Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP he is now a little like a fox on the run himself. Some UK newspapers are even referring to this as a humiliation for him. I’d like to think that he does feel humiliated but somehow I doubt that he does.
Well if you won’t let us posh arseholes hunt and kill foxes we’ll bloody well hunt vicious lambs instead!
For me the idea of chasing after a fox with a baying group of red jacketed toffs on horseback and a pack of dogs is not vermin control. It’s sadism. Anyway we and the foxes, live to fight another day. But don’t let the subject drop! This is but a small victory.
As I have said before this is a music blog so let’s celebrate with some fox related songs.
Cameron as the fox in a fox hunt? I’d pay to see that!
Is it really December 17th? It is? Oh well Christmas will soon be over. But in the meantime we’re at day 17 of this years advent calendar blog posts. this means that we are now at the 17th letter of the alphabet, which as you know is ‘Q’. Can you guess which band will feature under the letter ‘Q’ in my ABC of British bands? Really? Are you sure? I’m thinking that most of you guessed Queen, in which case you’d be wrong. Todays band proudly representing the letter ‘Q’ are the Q-Tips. (Any free advertising here for Q Magazine is purely coincidental and accidental; unless the publishers of that great magazine would like to ply me with money and gifts!).
The band was formed in 1979 by the remnants of one hit wonders Streetband who hit the charts with “Toast”. Three members of that band stayed together and they were John Gifford (guitar), Mick Pearl (Bass) and Paul Young on vocals. Yes that Paul Young the one with the spiky hair and who layed his hat anywhere he damned well wanted to. They brought in another guitarist, Dave Laswell and Baz Watts on drums. They then added a brass section consisting of Oscar Stuart Blandamer, Tony Hughes, Richard Blanchchard and Steve Farr. The band was further augmented by keyboard player Ian Kewley. Later in their career Gifford and Blandamer were replaced by Garth Watt Roy and Nick Payne.
The band was quite short-lived, breaking up in 1982 when Paul Young signed a solo contract. During their time they were a highly praised live act. They also supported some massive names including the Who, Average White Band, J Geils Band, Bob Marley, The Knack and Thin Lizzy. They began by playing lots of soul music covers but in the end they had a substantial amount of self-penned material as well. The band briefly reformed for some live dates in 1993. In case you were wondering they took their name from a well-known brand of cotton swabs. Now enjoy some rather spiffing tunes from the Q-Tips.
Weird 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;
The Killers – “Human”- ‘Are we human, or are we dancer?’
The Beatles – “I Am The Walrus”- ‘I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus, goo goo g’joob.’
Thin Lizzy‘s first album was released in 1971 and was called, perhaps unimaginatively, ‘Thin Lizzy’. But did you know that it was going to be named after Phil Lynott‘s cat Pippin. The album title would have been ‘The Friendly Ranger’ because Pippin had a white face with a black strip across the eyes which looked a little like the Lone Ranger‘s mask. Although the album title must have been a disappointment for Pippin, Phil made up for it by naming his music publishing company Pippin The Friendly Ranger. The album did feature a track called “The Friendly Ranger at Clontarf Castle“.
That is probably a level of fame achieved by no other cat in rock history. Morrissey had a cat called Minnie, Debbie Harry‘s was called Sunday Man and the Factory Records cat based at the Hacienda was known, in keeping with every Factory asset. as FAC191. This post is dedicated to my beautiful wife Catherine a.k.a Catwoman on this blog as she has been ill over the Christmas period.
It has just been reported that former Thin Lizzyguitarist and superbly talented solo artist Gary Moore has died. There is no news as to the cause of death, his manager confirmed that he was found dead in a Spanish hotel room this morning.He had been on holiday in Spain. His talent crossed many genres; rock, blues and metal. He first came to prominence in the Irish band Skid Row, who he joined aged just 16 in 1969.
He joined Thin Lizzy as replacement for another Irish guitarist, Eric Bell, he had previously played in secondary school bands with Phil Lynott and another Lizzy guitarist Brian Downey. His partnership with Phil Lynott went beyond Thin Lizzy including hits such as “Parisienne Walkways” He has also played with many artists from BB King to the Travelling Wilburys. He provided a guitar solo on the Wilbury’s track “She’s My Baby”
Read the BBC report here. I am sure that his family, friends and fans around the world will miss him. RIP Gary Moore …… Rock On!
Back in the days when everyone knew me as Billy, now it’s more like Old Bill
This may seem a bit self-indulgent, but is it just me or is there anyone else out there who either loves or loathes songs that include their name? My name is William, but these days most people know me as Bill. As a boy I was known as Billy and some of my Scottish relatives called me Willie, or Wullie as it sounds in a strong Glaswegian accent. I also suffered from being called Little Billy for quite a few years as my Dad and grandfather were fellow Williams. So at the top there was my Grandad, Bill then my Dad, Billy and finally me, Little Billy. Perhaps that is one of the reasons my son is not called William.
Anyway onto the songs, I have always thought that derivations of my name feature in a hell of a lot of songs, but that is probably because I listen out for it. I’m not sure which the most common names used in songs are but I reckon possibly Johnny for the boys and perhaps Susan/ Sue/ Suzie for the girls. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this as well. I was also surprised to find that there are far more William/ Billy songs that I like than those I don’t like
Now onto those William related songs. I have put them into three categories; The Good (those that are ok), the Bad (those that I really don’t like) and the Ugly (reserved for the one William or Billy song that I really, really do not like) I have included songs where my name is included in the lyric and not necessarily in the title.
The Good
“William It Was Really Nothing” – Smiths. Probably one of my most favourite William songs. This clip is the famous Top Of The Pops appearance from 1984 where Morrissey pulls open his shirt to reveal the words ‘MARRY ME’
“Wedding Bell Blues” – 5th Dimension. This act featured Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Junior who went on to have a massive hit in 1976 with “You Don’t Have To Be A Star”
“All The Young Dudes” – Mott The Hoople. Simply for the ‘Billy rocked all night about suicide’ line. This is the song that Bowie gave to Mott to ensure that they didn’t break up. Apparently they turned down “Suffragette City” and Drive-In Saturday”. This version is from the Freddie Mercury Tribute concert at Wembley in 1992 and features the remaining members of Queen, David Bowie, Ian Hunter and the late, great Mick Ronson
“Rat Trap” – Boomtown Rats. This one is here as one of the songs main protagonists is Billy. Apparently when Bob Geldof was unsure about releasing this song. He played a demo of it to Phil Lynott off of Thin Lizzy who said that if Geldof didn’t do it he certainly would
“My Girl Bill” – Jim Stafford. This song has a great twist and check out the amazing shirt collar on Mr Stafford
“Bill When Are You Coming Back” – Supremes. This was a post Diana Ross B Side and I love it. I always preferred the Supremes without Diana
“C’Mon Billy” P J Harvey. Great Artist, Great Song……’Nuff Said!
“The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill” – Beatles. A classic track from my favourite Beatles album, the one known as ‘The White Album’ but is actually called ‘The Beatles’
The Bad
“Billy” – James Blunt. I never have liked James Blunt, I just don’t like his voice, so I guess there was no chance for this song with me
“Little Willy” – Sweet. I have grown to like this a bit more over the years. But to have a song like this out when you’re going through adolescence is no fun. A great opportunity for other kids to diss the size of one’s budding manhood!
“Which Way You Going Billy?” – Poppy Family. A Canadian act with what for me ranks as one of the most insipid songs of the sixties
The Ugly
“Billy Don’t Be A Hero” – Paper Lace. What can I say? I really, really, really, really dislike this song. It was a UK number one in 1974 for Paper Lace, but the US hit was by Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods
Thin Lizzy
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 