The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

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What would you do if Cat Stevens interrupted your dinner with a wigged out performance?

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I’ve been enjoying a bit of a Cat Stevens jag of late and can confirm that his best song is Matthew & Son.

But some of the Youtube clips of him performing it are…odd.

Here we have Cat giving it his all in a full-on, wigged out TV appearance in which the producer decided the best setting was a fake restaurant with a group of bored diners.

Full marks for capturing how I suspect most people react when their tasty treats in a restaurant are interrupted by some naff musical interlude – a blank look covering up thoughts of ‘Please get on with it so we can continue discussing the relative merits of Steven Wilson’s Jethro Tull remixes.’

The woman on Cat’s left in the opening section gets extra points for her ability to show not even a tiny bit of interest in what’s going on.

I also like Cat’s reaction in the first 20 seconds…his girding of the loins as he prepares to deliver a powerhouse performance in front of studio extras who clearly don’t give two hoots about what he’s doing.

And does he say ‘Shit’ at 9 seconds?

The Shadows

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I really enjoyed this documentary about the Shads. While they have a bit of reputation for being somewhat safe and predictable, the programme captures a sense of how thrilling it must have been when they burst onto the scene with Apache – kicking off an astonishing run of hits.

Where do we stand on the Shads?

Most ridiculous supergroup?

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If you were playing a game of ‘invent the most unlikely supergroup ever’, I reckon a winning combination might be: Chaka Khan Ian Anderson Jack Bruce Nik Kershaw David Clayton Thomas Bobby Kimball

And yet it happened.

ATM: Honest 2nd-hand vinyl shop

by 8 Comments

Further to the vintage vinyl thread….

It seems I may have in my collection a few fairly valuable vinyl LPs. Rather than go down the ebay route, I’d much rather take them to a 2nd hand shop and do a quick deal, even if I don’t make as much money from the deal.

So, does anyone know of a shop with a 30 mile radius of Redhill that wouldn’t try to screw me?

Rick Stein and Ralph McTell

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This has been troubling me for quite some time. But does anyone else suspect that Rick Stein and Ralph McTell could be the same person?

The look veeerrrry similar, they have the same vocal inflections, and Ralph can cook a fantastic fish soup.

Let’s check out the evidence. Here’s Ralph being interviewed (in a kitchen, which makes it even more suspicious).

How lucrative is touring??

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Having trawled through the Companies House site, an interesting little titbit is how much money it’s possible to make from touring.

In 2012, Ian Anderson was on the road a LOT (http://www.ministry-of-information.co.uk/setlist/12.htm), mostly in smaller venues which, I suspect, generally didn’t sell out.

Guess how much he paid himself as his share of touring profits? I was surprised…..