Tony Bennett | With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

“tough is the leather thats strapped to my skin” October 23, 2016

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 10:43 pm
Tags: HMS Belfast, Korean War, Rod Stewart, Spandau Ballet, Tony Bennett

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Hello good people of the blogosphere. This is a somewhat gratuitous post from me as it involves my late, great father with whom I shared the same name; Bill Adamson if you were unaware.

HMS BELFAST DURING THE KOREAN WAR 1950-1952 (A 31985) The Korean War 1950-1952: An American S.51 helicopter flies over HMS BELFAST in the Yellow Sea, 1951. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205187744

Anyway here’s a little question for you. What did my Dad have in common with arch new romantics Spandau Ballet? Did he play in a band? No. Did he wear a kilt as a part of early new romantic fashion? No he didn’t, although as a Scot he was probably more entitled to than they were. Did he play in a band? No he didn’t, although after a couple of pints he could turn out a mean version of “I Left My Heart In San Francisco” or “Sailing”.

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OK I’ll put you out of your misery. HMS Belfast is what they have in common. That was the ship that my Dad served on during the Korean war in the early 1950s and it was on the HMS Belfast that Spandau Ballet played one of their early gigs back in 1980. Incidentally it is an even more tenuous link but my Dad served in Korea at exactly the same time as first man on the moon Neil Armstrong. Have you got any tenuous links to share? Feel free to let me know what they are!

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The boys from Spandau Ballet were delighted when they discovered that they were able to smuggle their budgies on the HMS Belfast

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Amy – The Girl Behind The Name – City Screen York Tuesday 7th July 2015 July 7, 2015

Filed under: Film,Review — justwilliam1959 @ 10:53 pm
Tags: Amy, Amy Winehouse, Mos Def, Salaam Remi, Tony Bennett, York City Screen

I had looked forward to seeing the Amy Winehouse documentary and I really hoped that it would be good. Well in my opinion it was a marvellous documentary of a modern tragedy. It portrayed what I would imagine was the real Amy Winehouse; a very talented and very vulnerable girl. I was moved to tears on a couple of occasions. The recording of the song “Back To Black” was one and hearing her take on fame was another. It was an emotional roller coaster because I also felt great anger at the way the scummy, tabloid paparazzi hounded this poor troubled woman when she was possibly at her lowest ebb.

Tabloid journalists (is that an oxymoron?) and the paparazzi ought to be ashamed of themselves, although I doubt that they are. It felt to me that apart from her two friends since childhood, her first manager and her bodyguard she had no ‘real’ friends. Plenty of people who wanted a piece of her but not many who truly loved her. I may be doing them a disservice, but her parents seemed at best misguided about how to handle her. As for her final gigs, which she clearly didn’t want to do, who the hell made the decision to bundle her on a private jet to do the gig in Serbia? She was wasted and lost and clearly in no fit state to perform. Amy also had a lifelong issue with bulimia. A former girlfriend of mine died as a result of that horrible disease many, many years ago and I can still recall how awful that was.

Amy Winehouse had what seemed to be a natural talent. Tony Bennett said that she was one of the best jazz singers that he had ever worked with. Her death is a tragic end to such a talented life and it has stolen a massive and enduring talent from the music world. Amy was not only a talented singer and interpreter of songs she was also an exceptionally talented songwriter. If you haven’t seen this film yet then I would urge you to do so.