23:29

Why 23:29? The figure just came to me. I don't know why, but I am still reading "Tom Waits on Tom Waits" so maybe that has something to do with it.

Anyway on Monday I finished the Step Challenge and decided I wanted to keep up ten thousand steps a day. The weather has been against me but I have hit more than ten thousand three days running and I am sure I can do it over the next three days.

Tonight I met Kirsty and Mark and Fiona in Bohemian for Kirsty's birthday tea. We had some amazing food and enjoyed company and the excellent atmosphere. We talked TV, film and music and Sparks' "Number 1 Song In Heaven" came on, (the music in Bohemian is always excellent) and Kirsty said she had never heard of Sparks , and it was my fault , cos I am her dad, I mentioned some classic Sparks songs to no avail, but they are now another band for her to discover. I had said that in my opinion they are probably the most innovative and excellent band going, and have put out some amazing music including collaborations with Franz Ferdinand (FFS) and Faith No More.

Then I found out that The Coyotemen are active once more and playing Think Tank? tomorrow night, so that means one last gig night before the end of March.

This means I have been quite active for the last few weeks and intend to keep up the pace. I will find a reason to walk at the weekend, and I will leave you with another Sparks song , "The Rhythm Thief" from "Li'l Beethoven"

Enjoy and sleep well my friends.

It's 21:04

#LikeNoOther #2 This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us - Sparks

Although the first two songs may seem to have a vague glam rock connection , there's going to be a lot of different stuff on this.  I first saw Sparks performing on The Old Grey Whistle Test  performing "No More Mister Nice Guy" from A Woofer in Tweeter's Clothing which was OK , the most striking thing was Ron Mael's Chaplinesque looks and I liked the album title. More androgynous American rock but nothing special.

Then they signed to Island and gave us Kimono My House , more plays on words and phrases , but the lead single "This Town Ain't Big Enough For Both Of Us" was totally amazing.

From the opening piano motif you are hit with Russel Mael's falsetto , the a stop with a heavy stop start four note single heavy guitar riff before launching in a streamrollering you in almost Wagnerian style a song that still stands today as  one of the most amazing three minutes you will ever hear.

Everytime I listen to it, I don't want it to stop, there's always a change round the corner, and while it may be generally in 4/4 time it's hardly easy to dance to like your normal pop song should be, but it never loses your attention.

Plagiarists

You can see it's influence in things like Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody and since then Sparks have continued to expand their musical envelops , collaborating with Giorgio Moroder on No 1 In Heaven and are still producing amazing music. Li'l Beethoven is an wonderful album.

This Town was when I though Sparks were special and was revisited on their collaborations album Plagiarism as a duet with Faith No More,  Mike Patton providing an amazing foil for Russel Mael. See the video at the end.




Recently they collaborated with Franz Ferdinand as FFS , a major success but you feel the Mael's were in the driving seat, but Franz Ferdinand's angular rock proved a brilliant vehicle for more Mael exploration and play.

So that's my thoughts on this great song.

THe Dangers of Decent Music Ring Tones

Sunderland

It's 2am on the Saturday before Christmas, and I'm still suffering from the current UK novovirus, but after going to bed at seven , woke up at eleven, managed to do most of my online Christmas Card sending from Moonpig , plus a few Christmas Presents which means that tomorrow will be a little less physically stressful. Sunday will not be a good idea for a shopping perambulation as it's the Newcastle vs Sunderland derby, so Sunday will be stay at home.

Anyway I'd been meaning to write this post for a while , but due to being laid low, have not really been up to writing it, but here goes. I like many other people assign favourite songs as ringtones for friends and colleagues. One of the benefits of this is that you immediately know who is trying to contact you and you can answer or ignore as is your predilection:



Here's a few that I have set up:

• Dad - Sabre Dance
• Fiona - Game Of Thrones
• Juliet - Bat Out Of Hell
• Kirsty - Hysteria
• Nick B - April Skies
• Carol H - Carol
• Lee - Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
• Andy - Oh Yeah
• Sue - We Care A Lot
• Chris - Arnold Layne

You can click through to listen to the samples if you so desire, but all of these are excellent pieces of music, not sure why I chose Andy's but he's got it anyway. So the thing is if someone rings you when you're in work or out and about , that's absolutely fine and it serves it's purpose, but and here's the punch.......

...when I work from home I usually have Radio 6 or a CD on, which generally means good music while I work, but when one of these people call I just think it's the Radio, so a couple of weeks back Sue was wondering why I was out of breath as a suddenly sprinted across the room realising Faith No More were coming from my phone and not my radio. Earlier in the week it was the Smiths.

So something to be aware of if you have music ring tones and work from home while listening to music.

Right I'm now going to listen to some classical music music and hopefully drop off into a deep sleep.