and the video is a simple idea done really well.

On the latest Discover Weekly playlist that Spotify kindly compiled for me, this track appeared. To be honest I only knew the Carpenters version and was further surprised to learn that Klaatu were at one point suspected to be an actual undercover Beatles?!

I consider myself to have a pretty decent knowledge of all things Fab but I confess I wasn’t aware of this at all.

https://youtu.be/9URM_5R-vWk

…is surely provided by this interview with Randy Newman.

I mention the Beach Boys, and how I love them (‘yeah, they’re great’), but that Brian Wilson’s arrangements sound meek next to Nelson Riddle’s. ‘Absolutely. Those guys were really sophisticated. Gordon Jenkins, Billy May. The Beach Boys was baby stuff.’ The one pop writer he gives unqualified praise to is Carole King. He recalls going up into the hills above LA with his teenage friend Lenny Waronker — the son of a music executive, who grew up to be one himself — so they could listen to a hip Chicago radio station. ‘He’d say, “Oh, that’s a Carole King song.” And it was better, her stuff. I could hear it. And a lot of the reason it was better is that she knew the old song repertory.’

Let’s start with a twofer.

Heaven is a Place in Perth by Belinda Carlisle.

Just brilliant. Lyrically, vocally, musically and, er, productionly.

The 80s was a purple patch for 60’s / 70’s survivors. Winwood and Clapton spring to mind.

Any other suggestions welcome…

Let me say from the outset that as a Rangers fan I have no wish to downplay my club’s pitiful exit of the Europa League at the first hurdle against Luxembourg’s fourth best team. I publicly stated at the time of Pedro Caixinha’s appointment as manager that I feared it would not go well, and so far he has presided over some shocking performances, notably our worst ever home defeat (against who escapes my memory) and now this abject capitulation. We don’t have the luxury at this fragile stage of our rehabilitation of some exotic experiment. We need solid, tangible progress. The ‘Portuguese-James-Bond-who-talks-a-helluva-game’ is vanishingly unlikely to provide this as far as I’m concerned.

However, there is surely a broader theme emerging here. St. Johnstone, managed admirably by Tommy Wright (a credible contender for the Ibrox post in many people’s view) exited tamely against Lithuania’s FC Trakai. Wright made the point that St. Johnstone have one of the smallest budgets of the SPL, but what budget do FC Trakai have?

This recent Scotsman article, covers these issues well:

“It’s been one week since you looked at me, cocked your head to the side and said I’m angry. Five » Continue Reading.

I am ready now to fall.

No particular reason for posting – just a reminder of my favourite line from my favourite Dels song. Goosebumps time for me.

And here it (quite lideralee) is.

Paul Haig – Something Good.

And good it most certainly is in that rich vein of Scots-Americana-80’s.

Great voice.

TMFTL.

Anyway, just thought I should lighten the mood from all this heavy decline of civilisation shit – I just stumbled upon the rather amazing fact that you can, in certain conditions, see the Isle of Man from Blackpool prom, even though distance and the curvature of the earth should make this impossible.

If you are lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time, you are seeing it with the help of an atmospheric phenomenon.Refractive looming, refractive towering and maybe helped by a Superior Mirage, helps you to get a clear view of the hills and valleys, as the light is affected by the atmospheric conditions. (…) In this instance the layers of differing refractive index cause the rays of light to be bent, and sometimes reflected, downwards. Under these conditions you can actually see over the horizon, which is why you can see more of the Isle of Man than you strictly should be able to from Cleveleys.

Far out, Man!

https://www.visitcleveleys.co.uk/about/views-across-water/seeing-isle-of-man.php

I thought, given the interesting reception my recent posts about Grenfell Tower and Climate Change received, that I may as well come out of the closet as a qualified fan of *some of* the ‘Alt-Right’.

The above video is provocative and mocking but y’know, boo-fucking-hoo. Non left-liberals have had to put up with far worse for decades on the BBC.

I don’t expect many on here to like videos such as this, but isn’t there just a tiny sense that maybe a pricking (insert own joke here) of an overly comfortable, complacent worldview mightn’t be such a bad thing?

Any informed rebuttals of the points made (however snarkily) in the video eagerly awaited, as well as more general comment about ‘no-platforming’, ‘generation snowflake’ etc.

From the ever wonderful Clive James…

When you tell people once too often that the missing extra heat is hiding in the ocean, they will switch over to watch Game of Thrones, where the dialogue is less ridiculous and all the threats come true. The proponents of man-made climate catastrophe asked us for so many leaps of faith that they were bound to run out of credibility in the end.

The usual calls for witch-burning will no doubt ensue, and the authority of the keyboard player of D:Ream Brian Cox invoked, despite the fact his hit should have been retitled in line with his worldview ”Things Are Worse Than We Thought and we only have 50 days/weeks/months/years to save humanity*

Apologies if this awful subject is covered elsewhere on here but I only found Vulpes Vulpes’s commendable link to the Just Giving page.

The absolute cause of this tragedy is yet to be known, but we can make some observations. Mine are:

This is an awful event that almost certainly wouldn’t have happened if the residents had been more middle-class, influential and litigious.

Theresa May has responded woefully to this, and is about as far from her original USP of ‘strong and stable’ as it’s possible to be.

Corbyn is shamelessly exploting this event for ‘the cause’. Are you confident the many tower blocks in Labour-run areas are safe Jeremy? Because if you’re not, your recent posturing looks utterly deplorable.

That said, the public seem to be on your side. Just consider though, that Blair and Cameron would have been on the scene in minutes, emoting for all they were worth with the survivors, but I thought we’d moved beyond such superficiality?

Seems not.

Songs of Love by The Divine Comedy.

Utter lusciousness from start to finish, only enhanced by it being used as the theme tune of one of the all time great comedies.

https://youtu.be/7o05wDl7IJk

at least that was my initial reaction on seeing the image accompanying this article 😉

http://i.imgur.com/fdUx0Jwh.jpg

No denying it’s lost its buzz over the years as Scotland have sadly declined but it still has something, even if that is mainly nostalgia from our point of view. This image is from a programme from Scotland v Spain in 1984 and the strength of the Scotland squad, drawn from the best teams on both sides of the border and Barca (!) is staggering. We’re in with a shout as any team is in a one-off game but by jings it’s a big ask. Brian.

Bygone Scottish Fitba

in the morning it won’t be there no more…

Well, let’s hope. Anyway, for now this is my GreatestRecordOfAllTime.

https://youtu.be/kND8TRZap8Y

Recently bought a used HP laptop. Chief reasons for purchase were 8gb of ram and a core i3 processor or higher. Both aspects fine.

But what surprised me was the appreciable difference in audio quality. It has B&O Play, and on first listen through the in-built speakers the sound was sharp and clear but still inescapably tinny. But playing it through a pretty basic bluetooth setup (logitech adaptor connected to my ancient but ever trusty decades-old Technics midi system) the difference is appreciable, even compared to an iPad Mini 3, which was my Spotify player of choice previously.

Pleasantly surprised.

Up Around The Bend by the mighty CCR.

No particular reason – it came up on a spotty playlist and was just reminded what an utterly virile example of rock’n’roll it is. Wonderful.

I’m sure it must have been mentioned on here before but visited John and Paul’s childhood homes recently and found the experience quite moving. It helped (no pun intended) that I was on a group of genuinely interested and engaged Beatles fans – one of the guides remarked that the previous group had seemed bored.

I found it to be very tastefully done, and with a nice bit of social / historical context added by the husband (John’s home) and wife (Paul’s home) guides.

Fantastic Mike McCartney photos of ‘our kid’ on display at 20 Forthlin Road.

Only thing I would maybe change is in incorporating a brief (non-disembarking) tour of prominent landmarks on the way. For example, we went along Penny Lane but I only realised this when overhearing the driver. But I guess there are countless other tours which cater for this.

I’d done the Beatles Story museum on the Dock before and we went again. It was fine, but was stuff I was overly familiar with. The house visits though were superb and will stay with me.

This report on Scotland’s fathomlessly futile friendly against Canada on Wednesday is just brilliant gallows humour. A sample:

34.41 Scotland score in the most fittingly shambolic way possible. The collection of buffoonery has to be broken down piece by piece to truly be appreciated. • Lee Wallace’s cross is deflected by Manjrekar James • Goalkeeper Thomas goes to push the ball clear but doesn’t get it past the sliding Steven Naismith in front of him • Ball hits thigh of Naismith and rolls over the buttocks of left-back Maxim Tissot • Tissot, on the deck, whirls round in a panic and goes to clear • Instead of clearing, he whacks the ball off Scott Arfield who, due to actually being on his feet, was in a much better position to remove the danger • The ball spins out a further eight yards to Tom Cairney who mishits his first-time volley • Ever the instinctive hitman, Naismith sticks out a leg and cushions the ball back across goal, as it slowly bounces over the line. As an aside, if you watch the footage of this goal on YouTube, provided by ESPN’s Spanish language channel, the commentator decides to do the » Continue Reading.

I start the bidding with the fantastic Instinction by the Spands. Anyone else wish to pay homage to the boldly bespectacled Buggle?

Brilliant tune.

Posted for no reason other than that I just watched a rerun of TOTP from ye olde 1983 on which they featured on the closing credits. Includes some ‘long after most DJs have retired to the BBC bar’ footage of Mike Read, virtue-signalling that he’s above the run of the mill R1 deejays by singing and marching along to said song.

Bless him.

To be fair, I did kind of feel at the time that MR had more of a knowledge of pop history and context than yer average R1 personalidee…

…underneath the stars…”

A truly wonderful pop song.

Preconceptions aside, this is just a great pop record, no?*

Remarkably minimalist, and much better than it needs to be in order to shift many units.

Guess what I’m saying is that now is a pretty good time to experience pop music, all things considered…

*see also Sorry and Let Me Love You