Exclamation Mark

Although I've rightly described David Sheppard's Brian Eno biography "On Some Faraway Beach" as like wading through treacle (I'm just over half way through, the book is also extremely readable. Almost every page throws up something I either didn't know or hadn't noticed.

The band Ultravox were originally called Ultravox! , a homage to the German band Neu! (originators of motorik, and heavy influencers of lots of bands) , the exclamation mark was dropped at some point , possibly when John Foxx left and Midge Ure joined. That was one thing I was unaware of.

During the Brian Eno and Steve Lillywhite produced first album Brian Eno was invited to work with Bowie (who had recently been producing Iggy Pop) on his next album at the Château d’Hérouville where Elton John recorded "Honky Chateau" and the single "Honky Cat" was obviously a nod to this.

The thing is this album was "Low" , the first of the "Berlin Trilogy" and while Bowie , Eno and Iggy were between Berlin and the Château d’Hérouville I was unaware and always assumed that the album was fully formed in Berlin.

We will go with the finest song from the Ultravox! debut , "My Sex", it is disturbingly good , with John Foxx's monotone machine voice over a fragmented lush backing.

Morning

Is Saturday better than Friday? Friday has the anticipation of the two day weekend combined with the fact that it's the last day of work , whereas Saturday you can get up when you want , you don't have to go to work but you only have one more day before Monday comes around. This is not true for many people who work in retail, banks , call centres and the like so apologies to all those.

I once read of an American car shop who noticed that most of their sales came on Friday afternoon and Saturday so they changed their working week from Monday to Friday to Friday to Monday (that doesn't seem to make sense but it does) so employees went from a five day week to a four day week for the same pay and profits increased. This model wouldn't work for everything but is definitely an example of how you should always look to improve situations in a way that benefits everybody.

As I said I finished "Brief Answers To The Big Questions", the final Stephen Hawking book in around a week and it is a very interesting, easy and thought provoking read which I would recommend to everybody. My next book is going to be "The God Delusion" by Richard Dawkins, a far heavier tome but I do like Dawkins' sensible and logical arguments although he does, ironically, get a bit evangelical at times. Still I will see how it goes.

I;ve been enjoying the single "Ibtihaj" by Rapsody with GZA . I though "Ibtihaj" was some kind of acronym but it's actually the name of Ibtihaj Muhammad, the first female Muslim-American athlete to earn a medal at the Olympics. The chorus, male backing vocals sounds like a eerie Bowie song like say "The Bewlay Brothers". It is a great sound and I heard it again on Radcliffe and Maconie on 6Music this morning but Chris Hawkins has also been playing it.

Take a listen and definitely check out the books.

Enjoy your Saturday.

Drinking Cherry Cola in Unmarked Cars

I don't know what put this into my head , possibly the fact that the BBC (and virtually all the media, see here) had reported that the outcome of the meeting between Angela Merkel and that dangerous clown Boris Johnson was that the UK had thirty days to sort out the brexit backstop when what she had said was a sarcastic comment that it might be thirty days or two years to sort out the backstop, but I cannot find any trace of that , all the media just mentions the thirty days, but really these days , generally we can't trust what's being said.

This made me think of when the BBC were so anti product placement that songs had their lyrics changed to ensure they weren't banned from the radio. One example was the Kinks "Lola" which was fine addressing gender fluidity in majorly homophobic times but Coca Cola was an absolute no no and had to be changed to Cherry Cola, the irony being that there is now Cherry flavoured Coca Cola (and lots of other atrocious flavours) , I wonder if "Lola" gave them the idea?

The when Mott The Hoople were going to call it a day David Bowie gave them "All The Young Dudes" which kicked off their singles sales bt was only approved when the line "And Wendy's stealing clothes from Marks & Sparks" became And Wendy's stealing clothes from unmarked cars"  although eventually the original words were restored.

Again the censors didn't like that but let though:

"But she never lost her head 

Even when she was giving head"

again addressing trans and sexuality in Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side"  a hit single from the Bowie produced album "Transformer".

So I'll leave you to savour "All The Young Dudes" but seriously check out the rest of the songs.

2012

This is post 2012 ans 2012 was the year that the UK staged the Olympic Games with those amazing opening (mastered by Danny Boyle) and closing ceremonies celebrating the diversity and history of this country resulting is a racist tirade from the Daily Mail denigrating the Windrush citizens who came here and help rebuild this country after WWII , the article on their website was eventually pulled.

The celebrations included our NHS and industrial heritage and each of these ceremonies last a while but these days you can watch them on your big screens.

There is also a plethora of music featuring David Bowie, Queen , Muse and many, many more.

This post is one of those diary posts so that I can easily find this in the future. There was a great TV series on the BBC about the "preparations" which I can't find on iPlayer but I can find "W1A" that morphed out of it with much of the office comedy.

So enjoy your Wednesday and if you have eight hours spare get these videos on your big screen.

How To Win The Lottery and Make money on Scratch Cards

Basically don't buy them. It amused me that whet the National Lottery started there were lots of books on "How To Win The Lottery"  (surprisingly there are still lots of books on this, who buys them?)  and I've heard people talk about about how to win at scratch cards. Jordan Ellenberg wrote a book called "How Not To Be Wrong" and it contains a chapter on how to win on certain lotteries where there is a trickle down if the main jackpot is not won, but this requires a sizeable dedicated team and a lot of money to crack it. Remember that for each person to win £5 million on the National Lottery  more than 2.5 million people have to lose, yes you might win, but it is not very likely is it.

Today it is hot but raining and thing is in some ways that's not a great thing , because the water falls then because of the heat in evaporates filling the clouds with more water to rain down on us. The benefit is we don't have to water the garden but is a definite symptom of global warming.

Been listening to a lot of vinyl this morning while relaxing , Boston, Bowie , Brubeck and Split Enz , the laser etched disks still amaze me (on my instagram feed here), and the first side of the Boston album is close to perfect, I should really play the second side sometime, but it is twenty minutes of vinyl perfection.

So what should I share with you, I think we'll go with the best football song ever, "England's Irie" by Black Grape for the chorus lines:

"I live in a land of class hypocrisy, 

We're going to win the National Lottery, 

E I Adio, I don't think so"

Don't you think so?

I am not sure if you are aware of my writing on Vocal but these are a few of my stories if you would like to sample them:

1. The Never Ending Story - An Index of All My Vocal Writing
2. A Halloween Film Evening
3. A Waterfall of Clouds
4. The Witch's Promise
5. Waiting For The Green Light - The Genius of Bill Hicks

Conspiracy, Autocorrect and 1984

I went to write this post there was this link to a Messianic Bible which apparently proves that English Bibles are flawed and this proves that Jesus (Yeshua) is the true Messiah. I though the Jews were still waiting for the Messiah. Can't say any more but it's a bit like saying the Hebrew Spiderman comic corrects the errors of the American Spiderman comic.

I'm not sure why the ad came up apart from the face that I have been including a lot about "2023" by The Jams and "The Illuminatus Trilogy" by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea (which is shaping up to be rather good (lots of conspiracy theories based on actual conspiracy theories in a vaguely underground detective novel.

The last nigh I met with Chi Onwurah very briefly after autocorrect on her email told me to meet her at "campervan" opposite the Tyneside Cinema. What she thought she had sent was Ampersand which is in Commercial Union House for the fortnightly Labour Party meeting , but I will catch up with her properly in next couple of weeks to talk about my various issues with the current state state of the Labour Party , but also how we address the "idiocracy" that belies every word of the right wing media.

Maybe given all this, and the fact that "Space Oddity" is playing on the radio , we'll go with "1984" by David Bowie because your devices ARE watching and listening to you. I found this very hard edged live take from a 1973 NBC TV Special from The 1980 Floor Show which produced the album "Diamond Dogs" as the George Orwell estate refused permission for Bowie to use 1984.

Drab Dreams and Diamond Dogs

Another gorgeous day, and this morning I woke at a reasonable time, not six am like yesterday. I've been having some very mundane dreams this week , which seem to be like going to work. Nothing I can really remember, or worth writing about apart from the pure mundanity, although when I woke up I thought that the guitar riff for  David Bowie's "Candidate" was the riff for "Rebel,Rebel" (the Rolling Stones song that they never wrote, or to my knowledge performed). Actually "Candidate" is sandwiched between "Sweet Thing" and "Sweet Thing(Reprise)" and the latter piece plays out in a crunching guitar sequence that perfectly leads into "Rebel, Rebel"

Obviously "Candidate" is not "Rebel,Rebel" but at least it's the same album and fairly close to it. I have a feeling the Feedburner spike is about to come to an end , but it's given me my highest blog activity since I started so that is rather excellent.

That means the song that I am going to feature is the nine minute "Sweet Thing/Candidate" sequence from "Diamond Dogs".

Enjoy you Thursday.

#AprilSongs #11 Thursday's Child

Up to 11 now and for this Thursday am going with David Bowie's "Thursday's Child" the opening song from his "hours" album. I've found a live take from Paris 1999 for your delectation. "hours" is not one of my first division Bowie albums but , like all Bowie albums it's definitely worth diving into.

I'm having things done to my roof and am working from home, so this is just a short marking post. Probably the shortest post that I have done since I started blogging, but sometimes you just have to accept that you don't actually have enough words to actually fill up the page. Actually if you take the time you can always find words to just put on the page, maybe I could write a very short story with each post such as a man who has lost a cat and found a packet of cigarettes, benough enough of this madness, it's time to return to normalcy.

Enjoy your afternoon.

#TenAlbumsInTenDays #4 - #1 - Bardo Jordan Reyne

I've been nominated for the #TenAlbumsInTenDays by my friend Tim Barlow and this is my fourth nomination and I'm always up for it but each time I want to take a new angle on it. Now generally we always probably hit our teenage years between 14-18 but I am wondering if I can do ten albums from the last decade. Too often people limit themselves to a particular time, and that doesn't mean that the albums of that time were bad or less good, but maybe they did hit us with more impact because we had a lot less experience of what was available to us.

So I am kicking of with Jordan Reyne's "Bardo" which is more hypnotic dark Celtic mood pieces, and a welcome return as she had said she was retiring from music. Ever since I first saw her, she has been the most striking artist I have have experienced, combining so much talent in one person.

When "Bardo" was announced I immediately pre-ordered it because I knew it would be brilliant, and I was not disappointed. Yes it is more Jordan Reyne, but that is more musical adventure and perfection , tinged with her antipodean Celtic menace, although I believe she is now based in Poland. That also brings  a connection with my Chain post yesterday which was the actual pronunciation of "Warszawa" from David Bowie's "Low".

I do hope to get to see her again, but will share the opener from "Bardo" with you "Exiter".

My First Chain Appearance

Well I was chosen for The Chain once before but pulled at the last minute for what was deemed a better connection. I gave up when I heard a connection that was basically "Ronnie Wood or Keith Richard had a similar hairstyle", What? That week Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie were away so not to blame for that aberration.

Anyway yesterday I got a text from Sarah at 6Music as I had put in a suggestion that I had then forgotten about. I then remembered it was the Peter Schilling song "Major Tom" which is the theme song used in "Deutschland 83" (and 86 and 89) , the eighties cold war  German drama (with some very funny dry comedy).

The song is perfect eighties a la Flock of Seagulls, although I originally that it had been especially commissioned. It wasn't, but I had never heard it before in my life.

Then I met my friend Katie for a meal at Bohemian (now Junk It Up) which also had a vinyl section (yes I know, unusual cross selling) and the single that was at the front of their section was "Major Tom" by Peter Schilling, so I had to buy it.

While the lyrics sometimes hit the creakiness of Abba's (it is their second language after all) the very short chorus is wonderful and the overall song is great and sticks in your mind like all great pop music.

The Chain link is from Bowie's "Warszawa" from "Low" part of the Berlin Trilogy. The two connections are Berlin (via "Deutschland 83") and "Major Tom" with the "Space Oddity" connection. The show will be available for a bit here and my appearance is around 72 minutes in, 1.14.26 according to my friend Nigel.

So this is just to mark that I've been on The Chain. and my entry is recorded here, number 7868.

#AprilSongs #6 Saturday Night Fish Fry

SIx days into this and this morning I'm on https://www.thechain.uk/The Chain with by suggestion to follow Bowie's "Warszawa", but today's choice for #AprilSongs is Louis Jordan's "Saturday Night Fish Fry".

I am not sure when I first discovered Louis Jordan, but was almost shocked when I heard "Ain't That Just Like A Woman" because the main riff (played in alternative versions by brass and piano) is the same note sequence as Chuck Berry's signature guitar riff. So Chuck didn't get it from Michael J Fox in "Back To The Future" but from Louis Jordan back in the forties. Musicians always "borrow" from others but it would be nice to see a little acknowledgement (Led Zeppelin I'm looking at you).

Also the brass section reminds me of Frank Zappa's take on  "Stairway To Heaven" (which was the subject of a copyright claim for it's similarity to Spirit's "Taurus") on "The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life" where the brass section play the guitar solo perfectly.

So I need to shower before I get my phone call from 6Music.

#AprilSongs #5 - Friday

Still banned from posting on Facebook and no one has noticed, am getting about four visits for each of the #AprilSongs posts, but also the realisation that I am maybe too reliant on Facebook to spread my posts.

Anyway back to the sequence and the first thing that came to mind was "Friday on My Mind" the first UK Number one by an Australian band The Easybeats and covered by Bowie on his generally excellent "Pin Ups" album, but I have shared this before, though that is not a reason not to share again.

Instead I've gone into my JJ Cale catalogue and simply "Friday" with his wonderful hypnotic laid back guitar sound.from his "5" album, referring to weekly pay and a five day week, which are both gone for so many people these days. Seriously I think this song contains just a single chord, absolutely amazing but very listenable, with some sweet guitar licks.

I've also just heard an amazingly trippy piece by him called Durango which I have never heard before but is definitely JJ Cale territory with a touch of Steely Dan's "Do It Again".

So it's Friday morning and if you have a non working weekend have a great day.

Future Islands

Just a quick one about blog targets for 2019. Last year I posted over 300 times (with the aim of beating my previous highest year of 2017 with 264 posts. This year I want to take the blog over 2,000 posts since day one which means just over 200 required this year, that still requires around two posts every three days so i am going to have to find something to talk about. Given that I seldom see anyone these days it does give me an option to say things that people may or may not listen to, but it's always pleasant when someone mentions something that I have written about.

I'm  still reading "There Is No Map In Hell" and it reminds me of "Fermat's Last Theorem" in that it's almost a gripping adventure , with the will he / won't he on almost every page, getting more and more tense as you near the end of the book.

I've also been adding more CDs to my Discogs store here due to the fact that I play vinyl more than I play CDs and listen to most of my music via various digital platforms such as my phone and Kindle Fire and Home Network.

I have bought a hell of a lot of CDs without really getting to know them, but also some have only required a single listen and it's pointless having them boxed up doing nothing.

Anyway, this is post 1799 so I will share Motorhead's take on David Bowie's "Heroes", and it is more than up to scratch. I've seen King Crimson's take which is great as well, and while I am sure there will be versions that don't cut the mustard, this certainly does.

Friday is almost upon us.

I Shot A Man In Tesco ... Just To Watch Him Die

Over the last couple of days I've been listening to "90 Bisodol(Crimond)" and been slightly taken aback by it's sheer quality and brilliance. Saying that, you can probably apple that to most Half Man Half Biscuit albums.

I once said that whatever Bowie album you are listening to is your favourite Bowie album after listening to "Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps)"  (post here) and in the HMHB canon "90 Bisodol(Crimond)" certainly lives up to that.

There are a couple of songs that are maybe not quite as good as the rest, but still great none the less and or me these are "Excavating Rita" and "Something's Rotten In The Back of Iceland" and they are crammed full of excellent wordsmithery and litererary references, and these are the least good bits of the album, which emphasises how good it really is.

"The Coroner's Footnote" and "RSVP" are both lovely tunes with a very dark twist where you don't know whether to laugh or grimace. I just enjoy.

In the middle of the album (running wise) is "Descent Of The Stiperstones" (I think it should be spelt Styperstones for some reason) which is the big song on the album, and excellent off kilter Crossroads narrative ("The Crazy World of Arthur Brownlow"). For some reason I though this was the closer but no matter, there is a lot of great stuff still to come.

The title is taken from a great line in "L’Enfer C’Est Les Autres" and that line playfully plagiarising a line from "Folsom Prison Blues" by Johnny Cash, and this album is a really great end to end play. The finale "Rock and Roll Is Full of Bad Wools" (I still don't know what that means) is a right on swipe and the majority of plastic football fans that have grown up thinking it the top six of the Premier League, Real Madrid, Barcelona , PSG or any team with money and it does mention Roots Hall.

Have a brilliant Christmas everyone, Yule love it.

Desert Island Discs

Today my friend Krista published her Desert Island Discs selection on Facebook here, and as such inspired me to do one. I thought I best read the concept of what it is, though I roughly knew it, but here's a definition:

"Each week a guest, called a 'castaway' during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usually, but not always, music), a book and a luxury item that they would take if they were to be cast away on a desert island, whilst discussing their lives and the reasons for their choices."

So that's basically what I'm going to follow, Krista had annotated hers with years and events but  maybe mine wont be that detailed, though hopefully it will provide you with a little insight into what makes me tick. Although this will be albums it is not necessarily my favourite album list, just albums that mean something to me and I wouldn't grow tired of. It also dates me fairly and squarely in the late sixties, early seventies but that's just the nature of the beast.

So here goes:

1. Future Games by Spirit: Still my favourite album of all time and it's sort of a film for the ears featuring dialogue from Star Trek and Sci-Fi "B" Movies with some fine songs and plying. I still listen to it a lot and it still makes my mind fly.
2. Electric Ladyland by Jimi Hendrix Experience: An absolutely gorgeous cornucopia of blues, space rock and containing his take on Bob Dylan's "All Along The Watchtower" which must rate as the best cover version ever, a double album that again takes you places that you want to be.
3. Live At San Quentin by Johnny Cash: My dad introduced me to Johnny Cash, and my friend Chris Waring reinforced that, although he was not deemed cool by my school contemporaries, though he is now. This is one of his live prison albums and just encapsulates the outlaw spirit that a lot of us would like to live.
4. Stranded by Roxy Music: Always one of my favourite bands, and though this was the first without Brian Eno in contains what is probably their finest song "Mother of Pearl" and that is something that would have to be in my music collection.
5. Quadrophenia by The Who: Their second concept album which actually makes a lot more sense than "Tommy" and contained a photo story book about Jimmy the Mod ending up on Brighton beach, which I spent time on when I was down there. Lots of unforgettable songs with motifs for each band member, each representing a facet of Jimmy's "quadrophenia".
6. Blood on the tracks by Bob Dylan: There are lots of choices for Dylan but this has "Lily,Rosemary and The Jack of Hearts" one of my favourites story songs that I never tire of, and "If You See Her, Say Hello" which still makes me think about my split with my first girlfriend. The album was about Dylan's divorce so no surprise there.
7. Scary Monsters and Super Creeps by David Bowie: Again not even my favourite Bowie album but a consistently excellent one with not a dud on there. Maybe tomorrow I would have chosen differently but I wouldn't complain if you put this album on.
8. Li'l Beethoven by Sparks: This is just like a box of musical fireworks. Sparks always surprise and delight and bring a smile to your face and this is probably my favourite album of theirs.

Book:

Clive Barker's Imajica: A thousand pages of majick, adventure, magical creatures spanning five dimensions, and one of those books you just don't want to end, but it is always a delight to read again.

Luxury Item:

A Guitar: And maybe one day I can learn how to play, though just making noise on one is always very therapeutic for me.

So that is my Desert Island selection, tomorrow it may be different but I wouldn't complain if this was all I had on that Desert Island.

We Want Our Empire Back!

After finishing Michael Moorcock's "History of The Runestaff" I've continued with the follow up trilogy "Chronicles of Castle Brass". The first is set in a post apocalyptic world (so post that the human race is now functioning again) with the British Empire re imagines as a mad, evil, ever expansive war mongers (which really is close to what it really was, and at the start of the next book there is a resurgence of desire for a return to the "Dark Empire" which closely reminds of the brexit mindset of isolationism while expecting everyone to do what they want.

The best analogy for brexit is the Netflix one from David Osler (@finance_LL):

"I'm going to cancel Netflix and negotiate with each film producer separately, to get the best deal for me and my family #Brexit" 

A Little of the genius of David Osler

 That's it in a nutshell, I don't need to say anymore. You can read more here.  and some of his tweets you can see to the right. Brilliant.

I still haven't got Netflix and was thinking of the time it takes if you want to download a series from an illegal site, with the risks involved, maybe two or three hours. For £5.99 you can get a month of Netflix and watch as much as you want. An hour of my time is worth a lot more than £5.99 so really it's no contest, I will be subscribing eventually.

That's enough of that, today I have to go and pick up some Bowie vinyl that the GPO decided to deliver at mid day on Friday and I do intend to have a most relaxing weekend although that seldom happens and there will be things to do.


 have just started the last episode of series three of "Black Sails" so I have plenty of ways of spending my time.

I was going to choose a Bowie piece as I'd mentioned him, but thinking on "Black Sails" we'll go for some Alestorm to wake us all up.

Have a good Saturday.

I Smell Winter

There was a red sky last night , and one this morning, so I don't know what that means. It's cold and snow is forecast. I have a feeling that we may be in for some inclement weather. This week it has been dark and windy and not conducive to sitting out on the porch with a drink.

This month my walking has been excellent and I expect to hit the target by Saturday, so almost a week to spare.

I also  have been listening to more Bowie, this time "The Lodger" and again, I am finding it an incredible list, possibly "Yassassin (Turkish for Long Live" is one of my favourites but all the songs are excellent. I just can't believe that one person can be responsible for so much consistenly excellent music, but I am not complaining.

I took th etitle of the post from and excellent Housemartins song which seemed perfect for the time of year, and the video highlights the plight of the homeless and rough sleepers, and it has majorly worsened since this song was released and this video put together.

If you can please support organisations such as Shelter to help get people into accomodation.

The Bowie Result

Yesterday I started listening to "Heathen" and after two songs the power ran out on my Emopeak headphones. in th emiddle of "Slip Away" the third song. Due to inclement weather I decided to tak ethe bus into work and restart my listening this morning and while I wouldn't say it's my favourite Bowie album it's just another excellent collection of songs.

"Afraid" sounds like The Flamin' Groovies and lots of songs have a familiarity, but never want to skip to the next one because the currnet song is always excellent.

So basically the result , in my opinion, is that this Bowie album may not be your favourite but you still want to listen to it and are enjoying the aural ride. The single at the time was "Everybody Says Hi" but I like every song on the album and this has whetted my appetite for other Bowie albums outside of the favourites canon.

A Bowie Experiment

Today I will test my theory that I proposed in my last but one post here that the Bowie album you are listening to is your favourite Bowie album. I will make sure it's one that is not on my usual list of favourites, maybe Heathen or Outside, but I will let you know later which one I chose.

It is still very dark outside and it is Monday.

6Music is doing a Home Town Glory feature on Glastonbury, and I remember the only time I visited there there was a pub / hotel called Backpackers with a sign on the door saying "No Jeans, No Shorts, No Backpacks" not sure if it was meant in irony or stupidity, we didn't go in.

I found a market with a record shop and my mate Mike O'Brien had either told me about or played this amazing version of "I Fought The Law" by Oysterband with Yarinistan, and I found a compilation CD which had it on. I put a slideshow on Youtube because I couldn't find an online copy anywhere.

So enjoy this on your Monday.