Musings on the byways of popular culture
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Interesting mini-series that still seems to have left England with more questions than answers. Shame there wasn’t a third match to decide things though – and how ridiculous that there’s now no more test cricket until the beginning of August.
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Simply the most engaging, insightful, joyful, endearing and pleasurable piece of telly I have seen in a long, long time.
(For those of outwith the UK and without VPN the programme is entitled ‘Nothing Like A Dame’)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0b5y3xn/nothing-like-a-dame?suggid=b0b5y3xn
As a sort of continuation/ tangent of the two album thread of a couple of weeks ago, I am asking you to list two songs from a band/artist that could sum up their career.
Now obviously this will have to police itself (ie the Police & Stink can be listed seperately, as can Wings & the Fabs – common sense please).
I will kick things off.
The Beatles – I want to hold your hand & I am the walrus
The Police – So lonely & Dont stand so lose to me.
Slade – How does it feel & Look wot you dun
I think these 3 examples give a flavour of the artist whole output.
Over to you.
Cue tumbleweed…
Her: I’ve just downloaded the latest season of “Call The Midwife” – apparently the last episode is set in late 1962.
Me: Ah, so I suppose in the final scene someone will say “Hey, have you heard the song by that new band The Beatles? They’ll never get anywhere with a daft name like that…”
Her: Do you have to shoehorn a pop culture reference into every bloody thing we talk about?
———-
Surely I’m not the only one who does this…do I need help, or are there others out there with a similar disposition?
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44 years ago this week I walked down the hill to the small group of shops in the village we lived in.
Amongst the Woolie’s, Boots and small, local independent shops was an electrical store, a shop that sold fridges, washing machines and records.
Behind the record counter were the two most contrary, intimidating characters you could ever not wish to meet.
I took the album out of the rack.
I queued and, to my horror, the string-bean with the long, greasy hair became free first.
I handed him my intended purchase.
He looked at it, looked up at me, and looked down at the album again.
He yelled.
“Ladies & Gentlemen, Finally, we have have someone with taste.”
He winked at me.
“Finally, we have someone with taste.”
“Every one of you still shopping, you better bring an album this good up to the counter. If not, why would you bother?
It remains my proudest moment.
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I was pleasantly surprised to read this story about Ed Sheeran vs secondary ticket touts, and am consequently rethinking my hitherto opinion of the man.
I was tickled by one affected fan’s comment – “My dad spoke to Viagogo yesterday and they 100% assured him I would get entry at the gates this evening” – in the words of Mandy Rice Davies ….
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In addition to the radio, I’m sure most of us here were exposed to various music through performances on TV.
From dedicated music shows (Later, OGWT, TOTP….), music slots of the various talk shows (Wogan, Letterman, SNL….) to Saturday morning childrens TV (Swapshop, Going Live… yes a lot of us were students !), TV has been part and parcel of our musical upbringing, covering all manner of genres and tastes.
So folks, what are the greatest / your most memorable “TV performances” ?
I’ll start with a left field suggestion, one which would probably destroy any music credibility if i was bothered about that kind of thing. Its Wet Wet Wet from Going Live! back in March 1990. Its one of those performances that has always stuck in the memory and showed that this “teeny bopper” band could actually play (and I actually went to see them live at their warm up gigs at Manchester Boardwalk). Note the clip goes on a bit – the performance is actually only the first 5 minutes……
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Imagine you weren’t allowed to link to copyrighted material. That would be your internet pretty much finished (unless, of course, you are Google or Facebook and can afford to pay the ridiculous ‘license’ fees).
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I’ve always loved this song. But why? I feel it has something to do with (as is the case with a lot of Abba songs) the high pitch of Agnetha and Frida’s vocals giving a euphoric quality but interested to hear any other analyses.
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Windows Media Player, or whoever supplies the autofill info for when you rip a CD, seems to have come up with some new ways to slice-and-dice music genres and some pretty idiosyncratic choices.
Up until now, I have usually left the information as suggested, but, if I do change it, I usually only use “Rock”, “Pop” or “Alternative”. This probably tells you more about my lack of concern for the too-exact categorisation of ripped CDs than the scope of what I choose to call my musical taste…. but not much more.
However, the other day I was offered “Singer/Songwriter” (John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band’s Shaved Fish); “Contemporary Pop” (Richard Hawley’s Coles Corner); “Classic Rock” (This Mortal Coil’s It’ll End In Tears) and … best and most weirdly of all … “Retrospective Pop” for discs 1 and 2 of The Rolling Stones’ Singles – The London Years and “Indie/Alternative” for disc 3.
I called the whole lot of them “Rock” and had done with it, but am still wondering quite what “Retrospective Pop” actually is: something you didn’t think was “pop” at the time, but now you come to look back at it…? Any better ideas?
Handy tip from The A.V. Club that you can stream sets from Barcelona’s Primavera Sound Festival one day behind (link below) If my U.S./Euro timeshift calculations are correct Sparks are on in about 10 minutes. Not too excited about the rest of tonight, but some good acts over the next couple of days, so depends who they choose to stream… (Handy since Twitch.tv have suspended their live classic Doctor Who stream until Monday)
https://news.avclub.com/here-s-your-chance-to-catch-primavera-sound-live-witho-1826468160
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No, nothing to do with the peak of Raymond Douglas D’s lyrical canon, I’m talking the Victoria Park shindig, the National tomorrow, Nick Cave on sunday. I believe @SteveT is attending on sunday, but any other denizens of this deep who might fancy a ludicrously priced beverage of dubious provenance? Below may help a timing. Let me know. https://clashfinder.com/s/ape2018/
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Not relevant to the post, but …
When I first read the name Joy Division in Smash Hits, I thought she was a MOR singer of the Elaine Paige, Barbara Dickson variety, and fully expected to see her pop up on The Two Ronnies or Tom O’Connor’s Big Nigh Out.
Anyway, back to the point …
The title of Joy Division’s second album is: Closer (as in nearer) or Closer (as in the last act, about to end) ?
I’ve always gone for the former, but in idle moment the correct pronunciation is now bothering me (There are more important things to concern ones brain with, I’m sure, but this is now bugging me)
I’m still bothered by the change of pronunciation of the Milky Bar manufacturer from Nes-alls to Nes-lay
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FLAMING JUNE!! As it is the first Friday of a new month, please gather round and tell us your thoughts on what you have been reading / watching / listening to or otherwise enjoying.
And are there any events / releases coming up that we should be aware of ?
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Some life-lessons from 2016. Some have been superseded by reality, but some are eternal truths. In my opinion. Especially Nos. 1, 2, 5, 17, 20, 35, 37, 39 probably, 40 almost certainly.
Further comment on #37: Our UK roads are already full of cars and getting fuller, yet everyone considers it a Rite Of Passage for their kids to get a car and learn to drive it. There is a little shortcut called Bunns Lane in North London between Mill Hill and Grahame Park, favoured by driving instructors, that I was obliged to drive when I was employed and driving a company van. One one journey a few years ago I counted 13 driving school cars in that single road. Guaranteed Total Gridlock in about 10 years, folks, possibly sooner. The common Sci-Fi trope of the driverless car you just call up to get you where you need to get to and then it goes away cannot come soon enough for me. I used to quite like driving. These days I fucking hate it.
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Theresa May responds by doubling the price of Motley Crue and Guns and Roses albums
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The Govt down here has legislated that online shopping has to pay GST which, hitherto, it hasn’t.
Amazon has spat the dummy and says it will not mail any items to Australia. So forget you VPNs. Maybe an aggregator who on-sends but looking like a right royal pain in the arse.
Up til now, we have had to wait weeks and weeks for items to be mailed unless you offer your first born in freight charges but now everything will be channelled through Amazon Oz which is more expensive and has a fraction of the offerings in UK and USA.
🙁
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Benin-born Angelique Kidjo is releasing a track-by-track cover album of Talking Heads’ Remain In Light. On drums, a certain Tony Allen.
For those who are not scholars of Mr Byrne, this album was when the Heads went African** after listening to lots of Fela Kuti.
(*) yes, I am aware that Tina Weymouth is a woman (**) except for I Zimbra from the previous album
Where do Afterworders stand on this vital issue? Will the Levee break?
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Deciding which records/cd’s to cull when you have run out of space is a tremendously difficult thing to do. It takes careful consideration as in my experience once you have decided to take something off your shelf and consign it to storage in the attic/garage or ,heaven forbid, the skip chances are you will want to listen to it. At the weekend I was looking for something I couldn’t find and started looking through a couple of boxes of stuff I was about to file in the garage – stuff that had been in boxes for maybe the last year. Whilst searching I came across ‘The indestructible beat of Soweto’. I have no idea why I consigned this cd to a future life of purgatory. It is brilliant. It has been redeemed and now sits proudly back on my shelf. So fellow AW’ers – have you regretted throwing something out in haste?
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Ryan Adams sounds, for the most part, like Ryan Adams. Ok, he has gone ‘off piste’ many times with his unofficial output, but on record you pretty much know what you’re gonna get and the same is true of most artists. But back in 2001 his band Whiskeytown released their album ‘Pneumonia’. Track nine was a song called ‘Paper Moon’. which is notable for sounding like nothing else in his catalogue, so much so that I would argue that you would be hard pressed to identify the artist if you heard it ‘blind’. Can you think of any other examples like this? Remember that Richard Thompson techno track that closed his last album, or the Manic’s foray into skiffle? Any more?
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Well worth a listen through BBC iPlayer – a Radio 4 documentary on the art of interviewing rock stars. Interesting contributions from a number of writers including Caitlin Moran, Barney Hoskyns, Dawn Slough …. and Julie Birchell sounding all of seven years-old. Includes entertaining reminiscences of John Lennon and Courtney Love.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b3vv2q
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Two of my “Crew” have bailed out of the THE The gig on 6th June at Brixton Academy. I have put them on the Getmein reseller site that is associated with he ticket seller but also wanted to see if any of the massive are interested. The original costs are as follows:- Type: Full Price Ticket Details: Price Level 1, Stalls Standing, Incl. 1.25 Levy Ticket Price: £45.00 x 2 = £90.00 Service Charge: £5.65 x 2 = £11.30 Facility Charge: £1.25 x 2 = £2.50 Delivery Charge: £2.75 Total Charge: £106.55
If anyone is interested in the pair from here they are at the £45.00 per ticket price only* Please PM me and we can make contact and meet up before the gig.
* Sorry for sounding like a massive t̶w̶a̶t̶ ticket tout but needs must and all that Cheers, Razor
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If we had to elect a Patron Saint (an honorary figurehead if you like) I’d vote Robert Plant.
– Unlike Kate Bush, he’s male, and a sizeable proportion of us on here are men. Sorry, but it’s true.
– unlike Bowie, he’s alive.
– He’s current AND heritage. Unlike Macca who even his most fervent fans would admit is probably purely a heritage act now.
– I think he’s less divisive than Dylan or Richard Thompson. A lot of people on here (including me) have respect and love for what he does and what he has done.
– But crucially, he’s not a bland favourite. He excites, but also repels people who don’t like him. You want a Patron Saint to be someone that not everyone likes, so the rebels can be happy to have someone to kick against.
So what do you say? Sir Robert Plant, Patron Saint of The Afterword?
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Bit far for me to come, but this looks good…..
Opening for 3 days only in August.
