With Just A Hint Of Mayhem

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

Play It Again Mayhem – “For The Dead” – Gene February 5, 2025

Filed under: Play It Again Mayhem — justwilliam1959 @ 8:52 pm
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Here comes the 34th track in the Play It Again Mayhem series. This time it is the turn of my favourite band of the Britpop era in the UK, Gene, with their first single “For The Dead”. It was released as a standalone single in 1994. It sadly only made it to number 86 in the UK singles chart. It has subsequently been made available on the band’s hits collection and the reissue of their debut album ‘Olympian’. It was a double A Side single coupled with “Child’s Body”. The single was released in a limited edition of 1,994 copies via Costermonger Records. The release sold out in two days. The song received a great deal of attention from the music press: Select named it “Single Of The Month”, whilst NME made it their “Single of the Week”.

I saw Gene for the first time in November 1994 at the Old Trout in Windsor. I went to quite a few gigs at that venue, including Oasis in May 1994. Gene were Martin Rossiter lead vocals, keyboards and piano, Steve Mason on guitar, Kevin Miles on bass and Matt James on drums, percussion and occasional backing vocals. To my knowledge Martin Rossiter and Matt James have released solo material and it has been bloody good! The Play It Again Mayhem playlist has been very 1970s centric, and still is, but this is now the second song from the 90s on the list. Take a listen via the link below, share the playlist and let me know what you think.

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Mayhem’s 12 Days Of Christmas 2024 – Day 7 “Seven Swans A-swimming” December 19, 2024

Filed under: Christmas — justwilliam1959 @ 11:46 pm
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Day seven of Mayhem’s 12 Days Of Christmas posts is upon us, well as I type this it is technically nearly over. So Christmas is now in the fast lane and Chris Rea is on his way home! All of you regular readers (thank you for sticking with me and welcome to all the new readers too) will know that this year, once again, the theme is the classic cumulative song “The Twelve Days Of Christmas”. What gift was presented on the seventh day of Christmas? It was of course Seven Swans A- Swimming. The link to todays tune is not as tenuous as some of the earlier entries.

Today’s track is by Public Image Ltd and it is “Swan Lake” from the ‘Metal Box’ album. The song was originally released as a single called “Death Disco” in 1979 but was remixed and retitled “Swan Lake” for ‘Metal Box’. Guitarist Keith Levene said this of the track “I realised that this tune that I was bastardising by mistake was “Swan Lake”, so I started playing it on purpose but I was doing it from memory. You can hear that I’m not playing it exactly right. It just worked. There’s a few versions of that. The one on Metal Box is version two, which is very different from the simpler, original 12-inch version.” The lyrics are based on John Lydon’s mother dying of cancer he has spoken about the lyrics many times and said “When I had to deal with my mother’s death, which upset the fuck out of me, I did it partly through music. I had to watch her die slowly of cancer for a whole year. I wrote “Death Disco” about that. I played it to her just before she died and she was very happy. That’s the Irish in her, nothing drearily sympathetic or weak.”. In addition to Lydon and Levene another member of the classic PIL line up played on the song, Mr. Jah Wobble. The melody comes from what many consider to be the finest ballet ever written, “Swan Lake” composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

There will be a playlist of all twelve songs when we get to the final one? In fact that playlist is under the streaming Christmas tree already. I will unwrap it soon for you! What do you think tomorrows song will be?

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On This Day Berry Signs Wacko And His Bros And Top Of The Pops Ends! July 26, 2024

Filed under: On This Day — justwilliam1959 @ 1:41 pm
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On 26th July 1968, The Jackson 5 signed a one-year contract with Motown Records after label executive Hank Cosby was blown away by their audition, in which the five brothers played and sang James Brown’s “I Got the Feeling.” among other classic tunes. The group broke US chart records soon after when their first four singles; “I Want You Back,” “ABC,” “The Love You Save,” and “I’ll Be There” all reached number 1 on the Billboard chart. The group appeared on the UK BBC Top Of The Pops show many times, if you include the moments when their song was featured as a dance section by in-house dancers Pan’s People it was 23 times. The first was in February 1970.

While we are talking about Top Of The Pops on July 26, 2006, the final edition of the iconic British music TV show was recorded at London’s BBC Television Centre in front of a studio audience of just 200 lucky punters. It was first broadcast on New Year’s Day 1964 (my fifth birthday!), the series ran to 2,260 episodes, making it the world’s longest-running music show. Sadly, with hindsight, it was co-hosted by Jimmy Saville. But there were plenty of other hosts; Janice Long, Mike Read, Dave Lee Travis, Tony Blackburn, Pat Sharp, Sarah Cawood, Rufus Hound and Reggie Yates. There were no acts in the studio for the final episode but plenty of classic clips including; The Rolling Stones (they kicked the show off with, rather appropriately, “The Last Time”), Spice Girls, Sonny and Cher, Wham!, Madonna, Take That, Beyonce, David Bowie, Gnarls Barkley, Michael Jackson and Coldplay. The show ended with a video of Shakira and Wyclef Jean performing that week’s number one song, “Hips Don’t Lie”. I miss Top Of The Pops, but I don’t miss Saville, he can rot in hell!

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Play It Again Mayhem – “Little Does She Know” – Kursaal Flyers March 5, 2022

Filed under: Play It Again Mayhem — justwilliam1959 @ 4:52 pm
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This is the tenth song in the Play It Again Mayhem series which began back in 2020. Check out the earlier posts by clicking here (Betty Wright), here (Elton John), here (Roxy Music),  here (The O’Jays), here (John Miles), here (Steely Dan), here (Climax Blues Band), here Little Jackie and here for Gwen McCrae. I promised that once I got to ten Play It again Mayhem Posts that there would be a Spotify Playlist, so click here to take a listen!

This time it is the turn of the seminal British band, the much-missed Kursaal Flyers. The band formed in 1973 and took their name from the imitation train which was used to advertise Southend’s famous amusement hall, the Kursaal, which had recently closed. The song “Little Does She Know” reached the UK Top 20 singles chart in 1976 and the band appeared on Top Of The Pops. I guess that the band was surrounded by washing product boxes on the show because they briefly mention detergent in the lyrics. Top Of The Pops was strange sometimes wasn’t it? It has a chorus that many songwriters would kill for and stays in your head a long while, for more than 45 years for me! The song can be found on their third album, ‘The Golden Mile’ released in 1976. Is this tune a guilty pleasure or simply a great tune? For me, it’s the latter! Check out the tune in the videos below (one from Top Of The Pops and the second from Supersonic) and via the newly created Play It Again Mayhem playlist on Spotify.

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“I’m a King Kong man, I’m a voodoo man” Blog Advent Calendar Day 11 December 11, 2014

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 1:05 am
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M~ p11eb02_kinks/40p/bw

December 11th, what a kinky day this is going to be. It is day 11 in this years advent calendar blog post series which regular readers will know is the ABC of British bands. The 11th letter of the alphabet is ‘K’ so todays band is the Kinks and that is why it is a Kinky day!

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Brothers Ray and Dave Davies along with friend Pete Quaife formed the band in Muswell Hill, London in 1963. In spite of the sometimes acrimonious relationship between the Davies brothers the band kept going for more than 30 years before finally calling it a day in 1996. The band had their first UK chart hit in 1964 with “You Really Got Me” which went to number one. This song is often credited with being the first heavy metal riff. (Although the phrase ‘heavy metal’ was allegedly first heard a few years later in the lyrics of Steppenwolf’s “Born To Be Wild”). The Kinks had two further UK number one singles; “Tired Of Waiting” in 1965 and “Sunny Afternoon” in 1966. They also climbed to the top of the singles charts in Germany, Canada, Netherlands, Belgium and New Zealand. I can only assume that the band were a little too English for the Americans. Their first US singles chart hit came in 1981.

the-kinks

Ray and Dave Davies were the 7th and 8th children in their family, the first six were all girls. Their sister Rene died on Ray’s 13th birthday. She had given him his first guitar as a present that day. The band took their name after hearing the word kinky used in British 1960s TV show ‘The Avengers’. Pete Townshend off of the Who once said that Ray Davies was his favourite songwriter of all time. Whilst Marianne Faithfull said that Ray was ‘Very Gothic, creepy and silent. Uptight and fearful of everyone’. Either way I am definitely a fan of the Kinks and I would like you to take some time out to enjoy a selection of their best songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLs09J_x6-c

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ixqbc7X2NQY

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

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ql_m-4jdZE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3nvJ2hmaUI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eSR7nfn-acs

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“And I’ll play you old 45’s That now mean nothing to me” Blog Advent Calendar Day 4 2014 December 4, 2014

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 1:30 am
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Already it’s day 4 of this years advent calendar blog posts. so it’s 4th December and in the ABC of British bands we have so far visited Sheffield (ABC), Liverpool (Beatles) and London (Clash). Today we go north to Glasgow to hear from Deacon Blue. This is a band who have been around nearly 30 years. They took their name from a Steely Dan song from 1977’s ‘Aja’ album entitled “Deacon’s Blues”.

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Deacon Blue had the first of their seven UK top 20 hits in 1988 with “Real Gone Kid“. Their most recent top 20 hit was the third release of “Dignity” in 1994. Their biggest hit to date was  cover of Burt Bacharach and Hal David‘s “I’ll Never Fall In Love Again” which made it to number 2 in 1990.

Deacon-Blue

I hope you enjoy this little selection of Deacon Blue songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLoXKUs1_e0

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

 

“Rock’n’roll with all my friends, hopin’ the music never ends” March 20, 2014

Filed under: Observation — justwilliam1959 @ 9:02 pm
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mr happyI might be a little late with this but today is the United Nations second International Day of Happiness. So let me help you celebrate with a few Happy and Happiness songs. Enjoy them and feel free to contribute some of your own.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7YGTyIA6S4

happy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls8t1AcXN_o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCQ0vDAbF7s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cU5stPus7PA

happiness

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“None of them received a heroes welcome” – Advent day 19 December 19, 2013

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 7:01 am
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slide_19_2087154aDefinitely on the home straight now, we’re on the 19th December. So day 19 of the With Just A Hint Of Mayhem Advent posts brings two songs with the number 19 in their title. Can you guess what the f-f-f-f-first one is going to be?

Paul+HardcastleI’ll put you out of your misery the first tune is Paul Hardcastle‘s “19” which was his fifth solo single. It went to number one in the UK in 1985 and made the top spot in Ireland, Switzerland, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Germany, Austria and Italy. It was also number one on the US Dance charts. Hardcastle was inspired to compose “19” after watching a documentary about the Vietnam war called ‘Vietnam Requiem‘. he was shocked that the average age of the US combat soldier killed in Vietnam was 19. That was his age when he saw the documentary. The song may have performed better in the US had it received more airplay. It stalled at number 15 in the Billboard charts after many US radio stations refused to play it as they considered the song to be anti-American. Hardcastle has always denied this and I believe he is right. He is quoting statistics. Although the average age of 19 statistic has been challenged and various sources have suggested that between 20 and 23 are more realistic. That is still bloody young though! Paul Hardcastle’s 1986 single “The Wizard” became the theme tune to Top Of The Pops from April 1986 to September 1991. He also produced Rory Bremner‘s parody recording of “19”; “N-N-Nineteen Not Out” which was released under the name the Commentators and reached number 13 in the UK charts in 1985.

1349963354063_1483409The second song on day 19 comes from those ancient geezers the Strolling Bones, well that’s what they look like these days right? I am talking of course about the Rolling Stones with their 1965 UK and US Billboard number two hit “19th Nervous Breakdown” It broke a run of five consecutive UK number ones for the band that stretched from April 1964 to September 1965. Those five songs were; “It’s All Over Now”, “Little Red Rooster”, “The Last Time”, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and “Get Off Of My Cloud”. The number 19 is an important number in Stephen King’s ‘Dark Tower Series‘ and this song is referenced a few times within those tales. The song has been covered by the Standells and the Wedding Present. On the US TV show Saturday Night Live in 2012 Mick Jagger performed the song with the Foo Fighters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI-iMy0aZM8

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“From the Queen of England to the hounds of hell” – Advent day 7 December 7, 2013

Filed under: Christmas,Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 9:09 am
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sevenWell that’s it, the first week of December is almost over and now it’s just over eighteen days until the big old bloke in the red coat parks his venison on your roof and somehow manages to squeeze his excessive girth down your chimney! That means of course that today is December 7th and that in turn means that todays choices that sit behind the advent calendar door feature the number seven in their titles.

Queen-To-Appear-In-Lego-Rock-Band-2First I bring you the mighty Queen with a magnificent slice of rock, “Seven Seas Of Rhye” taken from the album ‘Queen II‘. It was the bands first single and their first UK hit. It reached number ten in 1974 which was far better than their first two singles none of which charted. They were “Keep Yourself Alive” and “Liar”. It was the success of “Seven Seas Of Rhye” that supposedly inspired Freddie Mercury to take up Queen as his full-time job. The band made their first Top Of The Pops appearance performing the song in February 1974. The album version of the song fades into a few people singing an old British Music Hall song; “I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside”. It was written by John A Glover-Kind and first recorded by Mark Sheridan in 1909.

s7ev123340The second song for today remains one of my favourites. It is “Seven Nation Army” by the White Stripes. Is this perhaps Jack White’s finest hour so far? Very possibly in my opinion. It was released in 2003 and comes from the album ‘Elephant’. It reached number 7 in the UK chart, number 4 in Germany and number 3 in Italy. While it only made it to number 76 on the US Billboard chart it did climb to number one on the US Alternative Songs chart. It became their second biggest UK hit after “Icky Thump” from 2007. “Seven Nation Army” which was written by Jack White has been covered by many artists including; Living Colour, Flaming Lips, Metallica, Alice Russel, the Oak Ridge Boys, Kate Nash and Kelly Clarkson. It was also massacred (in my opinion) by X Factor runner-up Marcus Collins in 2012.

 

“You been coolin’ and baby, I’ve been droolin'” July 24, 2013

Filed under: Trivia — justwilliam1959 @ 9:38 pm
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pd460

The pa-pa pa-pa theme tune, played in cinemas before the ads to promote the Pearl and Dean company, is called Asteroid. The tune was composed by Peter Moore. I never knew it had a name; did you?

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It was certainly an ear worm for UK cinema goers and provided a great sample for Goldbug‘s cover of Led Zeppelin‘s “Whole Lotta Love” from 1996. The song reached number 3 in the UK charts. Of course an earlier cover of the song by CCS became the Top Of The Pops theme for many years too. Goldbug took their name from a computer virus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vW21T6-PNM

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