A Classic Motorbike in A Love Song - #ALifeinNumbers #52

Bike Music

I suppose I was brought up with motorbikes, British ones of course, generally. Japanese were dismissed as "japcrap" yet my mates still went for Yamahas. Did you know that the Yamaha logo is three tuning forks? It took me years to notice that.

These days almost every bike you see is Japanese with the odd Harley Davidson. If I see a British bike I will tend to photograph it, I still think they look great like  50s American Cars.

Harleys were seen in films such as Easy Rider, but I never knew anyone who had one.

 
One foreign bike that that a few of my friends had was the 250 Ducati Desmo, which despite the orange livery looked absolutely class. My brother tended to crash bikes a lot , one day spending three days in a muscular paralysis, he took a right hand bed too fast the bike slid across the road hit the pavement, through him off and crushed him against the school railings. He also once took a motorbike apart and put it together again and had a box of "things" left over. The bike still ran.

My problem with motorbikes is and was that I could never coordinate balance, gears, brakes, clutch , accelerator so always ended falling off. My limit was Speedway bikes which just have an accelerator. I do enjoy riding speedway bikes which just have an accelerator, and to this day Speedway is one of the only "going round in circles" sport that I actually enjoy.

Anyway we come on to #ALifeInNumbers #52 and there are two versions of this song, both of which are brilliant. The song is "1952 Vincent Black Lightning" written and originally performed by Richard Thompson. The structure is weird, the playing amazing , the story wonderful but sad but typical Thompson. Dick Gaughan covered it and his version is also excellent so I am going to include both versions. His is here.

The thing is I will never be able to play this song like I will never be able to ride a motorbike.

So enjoy you Tuesday my friends, the next post features one of my favourite bands, although really all these posts do.



Oh and I found this version by a band called Red Molly , a wonderful version. This is the first time I have posted three versions of the same song, and I love them all . This is great, looking for a great song I've found another great band. Their version is here. Today is a very good day.

A Short One - #ALifeInNumbers #51

This is just a very short post.This morning I seem to have been doing lots of things with no end product.  I 'm going to be positive thought , this week I am going to see The Bonzo Dog Band and Half Man Half Biscuit and over the weekend I managed to to vent my spleen about bad and annoying things, although that may happen this week. Anyway good morning to you all, and it's time to hit the week head on.

We're up to number 51 on #ALifeInNumbers and it's the excellent "51st Anniversary" by The Jimi Hendrix Experience a great way to kick start the week. Unfortunately there's very little Hendrix available on YouTube so I've included a cover by the excellent Hamsters.

So have a great day my friends.

Rush Makes Formula One Watchable - #ALifeInNumbers #50

Well it's Sunday evening and this weekend has included a lot of catch up TV mostly involving lot's of gore, violence , and shouting, but that's enough about the election fallout. Though the reality has been American Horror Story (Roanoke not  the election) , Ripper Street , Arrow and the excellent Rush about Niki Lauda and James Hunt. I must say I do find Formula One (and virtually anything that has things running round a track) incredibly tedious but Rush is a truly wonderful film.

The weather has been most depressing, drizzling greyness and I have a garden covered in leaves that I could do with clearing but it's far too wet to do anything with it, and as it is going dark at around 4 pm I'm not sure I will get to do it til next weekend.

So back to #ALifeInNumbers and we hit 50 today. I am sure there are lots of possibilities but I have gone for the raucous "50 Foot Queenie" by Polly Jean Harvey. It's her second entry but she is one of my favourite singers, and this will certainly blow any cobwebs away. Not music to drift off too, but it's something from one of our most original talents.

So enjoy the weekend as it drifts away and prepare yourself for the challenges of this week.

Thank you for reading my friends and feel free to follow me by email.

A Wonderfully Arty Vegan Lift To The Weekend - #ALifeInNumbers #49

In a week that has felt like the world is raining hammer blows on us, today I had two pieces of good news. My friend Craig is out of hospital, but posting on Facebook and sounding very upbeat and positive, though has a drug stash almost as big as mine.

Not Wildflower

Not Thousand Yard Stare

Secondly my friend Jessica, well we've met twice, she has given me cake and I know her mum and we are Facebook friends, and her friend Asher Turnbull are opening Wildflower, an art / vegan café in Westgate Road on 15th of November.





I mentioned that their logo reminded me of the one that one of my favourite bands, Thousand Yard Stare ,had used for their new album (which is excellent by the way). If you follow the tag or click on her name you will find details of the amazing exhibition where I first met Jessica , but as yet I haven't visited  Wildflower but will do as soon as it opens.


While I am pleased to have a vegan eatery close to home I will give a real review when it opens but I am just going to share Jessica's words with you for this. Yes it's a bit lazy I know, but as well as being an amazing artist , she can write too:


Wildflower is a vegan art café opening up on 283a Westgate road, just a little walk from town. We are a friendly place aiming to help creatives express themselves while eating delicious cake!

The café is owned by two very creative young vegans, Jessie and Asher, who aim to make this place spectacular. We want to have many fun events and parties, such as still life drawing sessions, anarchy knitting groups, themed dinner parties, vintage markets, art markets, live music, comedy, upcycling workshops, cooking demos and many more things! All with demonstrating an eco friendly ethic, and helpful attitude towards the local community.

We have started out with very little money, but have so far managed to get most of our furniture from Freecycle, which has been rather glorious. But there are a few essential things that you simply cannot get for free, such as ovens (that work properly!) so we are raising some money to try and get those few essential things! Link to our crowd funder is here: 


Their Facebook page is here  and this is where it is, so also handy for me for lunch.

Anyway this is being woven in with my #ALifeInNumbers  sequence and for number 49 it was always going to be "Funk #49" by the James Gang. The James Gang featured Joe Walsh on guitar, and I have always loved his economic style. Pete Townshend once said that Joe Walsh was his favourite guitarist and you can see the similarities. The chord holsds sway in their songs and this means that they are easy to follow for budding musicians. I've included an excellent live session but you can here the James Gang original here.

Have a wonderful Saturday night my friends.

Staying Positive - #ALifeInNumbers #48

I'm staying positive and will likely have a rant on And Annoyingly over the weekend. This morning we learned of the loss of Leonard Cohen, but he will live on in his writing and music and my belief in the evolutionary process makes me feel he will be progressing in one form or another, and no doubt his record company will have a treasure trove of unreleased material.

Anyway we are at the the weekend (well almost) and this is time for the good and sensible people to regroup and realise they can actually do good, and make a world actually worth living in. The thing is not to give up and very often you find something new to work towards.

Stay Cool

Anyway we come to number 48 of #ALifeInNumbers and it's "48 Hours" by The Clash from their first album, one and a half minutes to blow any cobwebs away. Incidentally The Clash and Leonard Cohen are still label mates, they may have departed this mortal coil (well Leonard and Joe) , but Mick Jones still produces some great music, and actually I am going to include "The News" by Carbon/Silicon because it's an incredibly positive way to start the day.

Stay positive and find good things this weekend my friends.

Post Office and Customs Tarot and a 747 - #ALifeInNumbers #47

Yesterday I got home and saw a note through the door. from the Post Office. There was apcakage for me but I have to pay £8 Customs Duty and an £8 fee to the Post Office to administer the Customs Duty. This is on to of the £37 I paid for the item , which is a Goth Rock Icon Tarot, which looks absolutely beautiful, so yes a lot of money for a small package but I've just had a thought, if Brexit goes through there will be a hell of a lot more instances of this I think.

Psychobilly Tarot

Still, at the weekend I will have the thing in my hands, so I am looking forward to that. I don't know much about Tarot, but have a beautiful Psychobilly Tarot set. These are both limited editions and things of total beauty.

Anyway we are up to Number 47 in #ALifeInNumbers and again  this is a slight kludge which was bound to happen the further we get from Number One.

I'm still disappointed I forgot to include "Map Ref. 41°N 93°W" by Wire for number 41, but hey we are up to 47 and for this I am going for "747" by Joe Louis Walker, so enjoy this slice of Rhythm and Blues as you venture out this Tuesday.

Toot and Smile - #ALifeInNumbers #46

This is the first blog post I've done since I got home. I try to keep things positive, but I am sad that Brexit and Donald Trump are causing many people to think aggressive bullying, racism and misogyny , as well as the demonisation of the weak and poor is now ok. Farage, the tories and Trump do it so it must be OK.. Well you know what, it isn't, and I hope I am never brought that low.

Anyway I want to be positive, and I will be, despite the storm clouds there are lots of great things to look forward to, like spending time with friends and loved ones, getting out to great gigs (although Blyth is a bit awkward for The Men That Will Not Be Blamed For Nothing, still one of my favourite live bands), and in Newcastle we have so much to enjoy and savour.

I am thinking of my friend Craig who is going through a difficult time at the moment, but he is the most loving, positive , inclusive person you could meet and he is the sort of person that makes life worth enjoying. We need to all follow that example, put a smile on other people's faces, that is a great way to live.

I've just realised that I missed at least one great song from my list because my list was on my home PC. Bugger.

Anyway we hit Number 46 and it's a bit of a kludge but it's "54-46 Was My Number" by Toots and The Maytals, and it's an excuse to fit one Toots song in. I found this live cut , but click on the title if you want to download the studio version.

Anyway that is Monday over with, enjoy your week my friends.