Laibach have performed a show in North Korea. I love Laibach.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-33995268

When you don’t actually live in a place, you can’t really gauge what’s actually going on.

Here in NZ, Corbyn is being reported as a little-known, far left nutter who is gathering up momentum via rent-a-crowd to take the leadership of the Labour Party.

Corbyn has had some great publicity here due to Blair formally trashing him – his profile has been raised immeasurably by that. In his piece, Blair insults Michael Foot but changes the language to make it also appear that he is paying him respect. He is actually saying “this bloke is worse than Michael Foot!”.

I’m not sure what happened to Blair. He may have some history with Corbyn, who knows.

As Billy Bragg points out, Corbyn is as establishment as it gets. He’s been a North London MP for more than 30 years. It’s weird that he is being portrayed as a left wing chancer from nowhere who is trying to smash thie state. He knows the system, he is part of the system.

But is he genuinely coming across well where it counts – in the UK? Can you see him leaning over the despatch box and tying Cameron up in » Continue Reading.

I enjoyed the jokes thread. This one is about “sight gags” – moments of silliness that come and go in the blink of an eye. Two examples:

The opening scene of the first League of Gentlemen, we see a hearse traveling slowly through the village. The floral tribute on the coffin says BASTARD.

In 30 Rock, whenever Alec Baldwin’s character (in his 50s, a bit overweight) has to run or do something physically agile, he is clearly replaced by a young athlete as a body double.

Care to share?

A previous link to a Debbie Harry song made me think that her work with Blondie is among the finest pop music ever to grace my turntable. Effortless, dignified, perfect pop. Yet, the solo work – well…

It’s obvious she has star quality, charisma and a ton of talent. Within the band, there may be more committee decisions, more vetoes by the drummer, more input into the image, direction, artwork and publicity. The band may also get more resources – Mick Jagger may have been able to play Wembley Stadium with his band in 1987 – but a solo show with latest single “Lets Work” nibbling at the underside of the charts would only really warrant a show at the Ipswich Gaumont at best.

When such artists lose magic by shedding their band, they will normally regroup toot sweet with the lads soon enough. Even my own beloved Depeche Mode have had each member going it alone from time to time with cheapo half-arsed artwork, unpublicised shows and albums with only occasional good moments.

Is there an example of a successful solo artist being attracted to the idea of being in a band and then staying there? Yes there’s » Continue Reading.

This Top of the Pops! version of Wuthering Heights gets funnier the longer you stick with it. I honestly couldn’t make it to the end.

Two questions :

1. Did you know that if the Earth was suddenly bone dry – and then shrunk to the size of a snooker ball…it would be much, much, smoother than a snooker ball? 2. Why did I call this piece “Johannesburg”? There is a reason.

Listening to The The’s Infected LP the other day, this line came up:

“It’s high noon at the UK Corral” I concede that it’s a little bit Rik-the-people’s-poet but it is a clever line.

As is Carter USM’s Sherrif Fatman:

“More aliases than Klaus Barbie, the Master Butcher of Leigh-on-Sea”

Klaus Barbie was a senior Nazi known as the “Butcher of Lyon”, who spent many years after the war, on the run from the French, living under different aliases. He was actually working as a spy for the Americans. At the time, there were TV ads promoting the services of your local “Master” Butcher. Leigh-on-Sea is a seaside resort close to where the writer grew up.

There’s a great deal going on with just that one line.

What other great one-liners are there?

I was listening to some godawful prog noodling on Dad Rock FM the other day and the song utilised a sound effect that was big at the time. It’s a swirly kind of sound that makes everything sound far out. Itchycoo Park, about 50 seconds in. That. What’s it called?

https://youtu.be/14ViwvgtvbA

The Pope has delivered a scathing speech in Bolivia that calls for an overhaul of capitalism, an end to global austerity measures, secret international trading deals and urgent action to address climate change. Capitalism, he says, is “the dung of the devil”. At the end of the speech, he put on a miners’ helmet to huge applause.

So far, so irrelevant to most of us, but IIRC Pope John Paul II had a major role in getting Poland to kick Bishop Brezhnev up the arse and then, eventually the other eastern bloc countries followed suit. Changed things a great deal.

What surprises me is that Popes are meant to be a quiet as church mice, quietly blathering on about kerrissht and spirituality. This one is a bit of a stirrer and I am beginning to warm to him.

Saturday night at our house involved me realising at 9:40pm that we didn’t have any milk for the morning and having to get into the car to get some. I just made it to the supermarket before they closed. Phew!

Anyway, as if all that wasn’t enough – I tuned into Dad Rock FM and there was the voice of Alice Cooper, speaking with a lovely teenage snarky sarkiness about various things. I thought times had got tough and he was reduced to presenting a radio show in Auckland – but according to the internet he’s been doing this for 11 years and it’s syndicated around the world.

He’s good – but not entirely without cheese. After the break, he promised, he would be back with some freaky facts “and I warn you…you are going to have too much fun.” One of his facts was : “Venetian blinds were not invented in Venice, like you’d think, but they first appeared in Japan, There you go…I always thought Venetian Blinds would be a great name for a band….and…here’s a band that should have made more records…The Vapors.” Total Partridge.

Anyway – he also played this. The intro whammed me back » Continue Reading.

This is Sooty manhandler-in-chief Matthew Corbett – or is it The Afterword’s sweetheart, Richard Thompson. Did they both once swim in the same amniotic fluid? Perhaps they did.

Who else might have an unlikely twin somewhere…?

View post on imgur.com

http://i.imgur.com/H13Fk4s.jpg

Tracklist so far :

Uptown Funk Gangnam Style Fireworks Wrecking Ball Let it Go Don’t know Ed Sheeran I think Imagine Dragons Don’t know Muse

I would say that this is my 10th disco at our Primary School in as many years. They have one every term. The music, I suspect, is roughly the same as what is playing at your local primary school disco.

I noticed in Canada a few months ago that the pop music on the radio was the same as being played here in NZ. I am sure, in “our day” there was more local music for local people.

Ooh it’s Shake it Off. Excuse me…

This is the message it seems from the IMF and the various European countries that have “bailed out” Greece in recent times. There’s a moralistic tone to the reporting – where the Greeks have been living beyond their means, being fiscally irresponsible, skulling ouzo and smashing plates – behaving like a spoilt teenager when the going got tough. June 30 is the latest Do or Die deadline.

If we are to compare the nation states of Europe to a family unit, Greece is actually more like the elderly man, once the head of the family – now struggling to pay his household bills. 70 years ago, when the whole family was in danger – he was fighting for the cause and suffering huge personal losses. Now the same allies and former enemies are ganging up in him, wanting repayment for loans that Greece needed to have because the international banking system collapsed. The wider family collectively decided that this banking system needed to be propped up. This is like the scene in Friends when the group goes to a posh restaurant, the richer ones ordering lobster and fine wine – while the poorer ones look at the prices and » Continue Reading.

This Economist for HSBC believes that NZ has a “rock star” economic position – and he’s been trying to get the phrase to stick for a while now. Discussing which particular rock star New Zealand’s economy resembles, he writes :

“…we think perhaps Nirvana. Certainly, central bankers around the world would agree that strong growth and low inflation are close to a heavenly combination.”

1. Nirvana were not a rock star, they were a band. 2. If anything resembled Nirvana, it would be wonderful for only a short time before being so depressed that it kills itself.

He may know his onions re fiscal matters, but he clearly has no idea what he is talking about when he wanders onto our patch. Stick to the spreadsheets, son.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11466769

This is an article that intrigued me because these two unfortunate women were trapped in a lift for three days. To stave off dehydration, the report says that they drunk their own urine.

It don’t think that is likely, unless they happened to be carrying receptacles with them. I think the more likely scenario is…well…I don’t think I have to spell it out.

Also, as someone pointed out on TV last night – this was a perfect opportunity to declare a miracle and not mention anything about the urine drinking.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/69227077/kiwi-nun-trapped-in-rome-lift-drank-urine-to-survive

I am so ashamed.

Last night I watched an if you will about Motörhead on TV. Now I knew that Lemmy was in Hawkwind – no problem there – and Hawkwind did the brilliant, berilliant Silver Machine. But I had never seen footage of Silver Machine being performed live before. I had no idea that Lemmy provided the vocal for that song. May God have mercy on my soul.

I am assuming that absolutely everyone else knew that. But this passed me by.

Would you like to confess anything similar?

A week or so ago I was at a course in a cheapish hotel. In the gents loo was this condom machine. I think everything about it is very funny. The jumbo jet (hinting at the glamour of international travel), the slogan “take ’em everywhere!” – the fonts used, even the heading “Two Condoms”.

I liked it so much I took a picture – and here it is.

As I do this, I am aware that there will be a sea of bemusement, near-total indifference from the Massive.

What’s my point? Well…we all seem to appreciate music in a private way. To me, it doesn’t really matter if no one else likes The Rock Steady Crew. But humour is not the same. We all seem to want to share funny stuff – possibly because we like to react as an audience, together. It somehow feels incomplete if you can’t share a funny thing with someone else.

So tell me… is there anything or anyone that you – and you alone – find amusing? Can you explain why? Let this thread be your audience. I am interested in this kind of thing, genuinely.

» Continue Reading.

I know we have tickled this trout before, but yesterday I listened to two songs in a row on DadRock FM that had lyrical howlers:

1. Moonlight Shadow – Mike Oldfield

I like this song very much, but think how much better it would be if the words actually meant something? Even so, there is a very irritating bit. “4am in the morning”. I gave the radio what for, I can tell you – I said in my best Dayyvid Baddiel sneery sarky voice “What…as opposed to 4am in the afternoon??”.

2. Saltwater – Julian Lennon

“We are a rock revolving around a golden sun We are a billion people rolled into one”

There were at least 5 billion of us when he wrote that. Even if we allow for poetic licence, what would have been wrong with “5 billion” – why instead sing “a billion”? I think in those pre-internet times it might have been harder to instantly get the right number. He probably couldn’t go to a library either because he’d be pestered by fans.

Neither of these things make me want to go all Lynne Truss and fork out my own eyes with a, erm, » Continue Reading.

Jack Warner – FIFA grande fromage from way back, is citing an article from The Onion – yes, The Onion – as proof of US wrongdoing.

Wait until he gets to the articles about Princess Kate giving birth to a lizard!

http://time.com/3902835/fifa-officials-falls-for-onion-gag/

I completed this exercise earlier today, thinking that it was probably Sparks on TOTP. But no…that led me back to earlier songs – Roxy Music, Slade and Little Jimmy Osmond. Then I went back further to Alice Cooper and Benny Hill. And then the clincher – I totally remember Grandad by Clive Dunn late 1970. He was 50 when he did that, you know.

You have to be really disciplined here – you have to recall an actual time when you watched this song on the TV. Nostalgia shows may play tricks with our memories. I searched through 1969 online and although we had Lily the Pink, Albatross, Sugar Sugar and Boom Bang a Bang as singles in the house – I cannot in all honestly remember seeing those on TV – not even Lulu! It could be that we didn’t have a telly, or that I was just too young.

So, after having checked all the registered historical facts, I can say with absolute clarity that my earliest TV memory of pop music is Lee Marvin’s Wanderin’ Star in March 1970. I remember it because I loved it and it was on our new telly in the front » Continue Reading.

As there’s been a few rumpo-themed threads recently I thought I’d slap another one on the table for you to look at.

What I am wanting is your *least* sexy pop stars. I don’t mean the ones that are simply not much to look at – I am talking about the ones who have been bashed repeatedly by the ugly stick but still tousle their hair, turn up their collars and peer in a significant way through venetian blinds bathed in street lighting – tortured by the thought of breaking another young woman’s heart.

In this example, Jesse Rae is reassuring a young lady that he’ll be home soon and she shouldn’t be sad. I think she’ll be all right somehow, Jess!

https://youtu.be/dOad0FU9zF8

In the 80s there was this song about living in a box by a band called Living in a Box but I can’t for the life of me remember what the song was called. All of their other hits are all over You Tube, of course – but not the one I’m after. There are a fair few pop music boffins here…so does anyone know?

Most people dahhn the pab would say that Michael Jackson didn’t do anything any decent after Thriller. In fact, many would contend Off the Wall was his last slab of the good stuff. I don’t agree. There was still some quality material after that.

So my question is – what would a ten track album of the best of all of his post-Thriller music look like? Here are my suggestions:

Will You Be There Stranger in Moscow Black or White Jam Scream Leave Me Alone The Way You Make Me Feel Smooth Criminal Blood on the Dancefloor They Don’t Care About Us That would be a great album. Any thoughts? I am risking zero comments, I realise, but I enjoyed listening to the songs again.

Just thinking about Brucie thanks to the other thread – and it made me wonder if he was the oldest living pop star i.e. someone who has had a hit single in the charts. He isn’t – I am thinking it could be 91 year old Doris Day…?

There’s a famous true statistic that no first class cricketer has ever reached 100 years old. What about pop stars?

http://youtu.be/9Hp8aeqjysM

It’s Mothers Day here in New Zealand – but before I get to that, here’s a picture of Charlotte Church.

She’s got me wanting to watch Network. I’ve only seen it once and that was years ago.

In the film, the news anchorman goes off script, commenting in a scathing way about the state of the nation. He fears the sack…but the audiences love it and he ends up mobilising a mass protest movement. He gets the whole city to open their windows and shout “I’m mad as hell – and I’m not going to take it any more!” Charlotte Church has obviously seen the film.

When I saw Network all those years ago, I wondered who – in real life – could carry enough influence to wander off script, stare into the camera lens, and help put a stop to all this shit. It’s not going to be Russell Brand, Charlotte Church or Eddie Izzard. I think the British people, bizarrely, would respond best to an establishment figure. Elected politicians aren’t going to.

My mum died in a NHS hospital. After nearly 3 years I am still not able to express in any articulate way just how disrespectful » Continue Reading.