Engelbert the English Eurovision Entry

Gerry Dorsey better known as Engelbert Humperdinck is England's surprise entry for Eurovison this year with "Love Will Set You Free" . I don't know if it's age or what but I personally think the song is fine , if reminiscent of Jim Croce's "Time In A Bottle". It also has shades of a Jacues Brel song sung by Scott Walker , and I think is all these reminders it causes are the reasons why I like it rather than the song itself.

Engelbert himself is a sprightly 75 years old and so a change for the X-Factor rejects we normally get , bringing a bit of quality and a sense of humour to the proceedings. I really wish him well and if the song doesnt get a decent placing , well it just shows what idiots voters can be (hey the put David Cameron in charge here!!).

With a sense of mistiming Roy Hodgsons's maiden England game takes place against Norway , with the tabloid hacks sharpening their paws waiting to pounce , no doubt the Sun will have sum pathetic headline again on Roy's pronunciation of the letter "R". And least you can understand what Roy Hodgson is saying unlike teh bleatings of your average tabloid journalist.

That Looks Familiar

We were talking aboutmusic in the Stand last week and the subject of Fleetwood Mac came up. A couple of us agreed that Lindsey Buckingham was a mad genius and Tusk was their best albim. After Rumours the execs at Warner Brothers were looking forward to bumper bonusses and were horrifed at what the band presented them. This was at the height of punk and I remember NME being stunned by the unexpected brilliance of the album , especially the title track. The fact it was a double album made this an even bigger coup.

Anyway the point I am making about this is that Camper Van Beethoven were stuck in a remote cabin and recorded their own version of Tusk , so there actually two similar looking albums with the same tracks by different bands. I have both.

While Mojo magaize have cover disks of revisited albums , the nearest to Camper Van Beethoven's exercise is te East Star All Stars "Dub Side Of The Moon" Anyway the samples abouve and a coupe of relevant tracks below for you to peruse!

Panic

In 1990 I remember seein a TV program in which some expert reckoned the average family had to spend £2000 a month on insurance premiums to cover them in case something went wrong. At the time my wage was about £1100 a month . I think you can spot the flaw in his argument, Basically he was trying to scare me into a situation where I'd be too frightened to do anything.

Today I saw a sign reminded us that the Digital Switchover is coming as though it wer the ent of the world . "You could lose ALL your TV channels!!" . Well no , actually , you wont , worst case is you will lose the ability to recieve the channels if you dont have a way of receiving digital channels and if you you buy a TV they have a digital receiver built in. But they're still trying to frighten people.

In Michael Moore's film "Bowling For Columbine"  he wonders why there are so many gun related deaths , compared with Switzerland who have mandatory gun ownership , and Canada where guns and ammunition are as freely available as in the USA. This is a very nice little theory cartoon from the film:


These days if you take out a new mobile phone contract you really need to insure against it been stolen of getting broken. The only insurance you really need is to back up your data and phone numbers . Insurance isn't cheap when the list price of a replacement iPhone or iPad us up to £700 !!

In Britain the Daily Mail and Express have a new crisis every week. Bird 'Flu , Pension Crash , The Economy is going to explode , Britain is going to be hit by a Tsunami , turned into a desert or flooded. The list is endless. Oh yeah and there's Al Quaeda , a convenient bogeyman . It was Iraq , now it's Iran , then it'll be China - oh sorry they have money so like the USA can do what the hell they like.

Anyway , my advice is take reasonable precaution , enjoy life . If you want to avoid pregnancy during sex , wear a condom , don't dismember  the guy or woman!!

Twenty Five Minutes To Go ......

My god I nearly missed todays post . Thanks to a message from my friend Carol , I was reminded with twenty five minutes to go. Incidentally that's a song by Johnny Cash which you can listen to below.

Well another trip to Darlington tomorrow and hopefully I can have a day free of the travel hassles that have beset me this week . Now it's time for bed said Zebedee - oh and that reminds of the sketch that made Jasper Carrott a national name!!

It's Late

And I have nothing to post although I was extolling the virtues of Charlie Brooker to my friend Carol today so I will repost Charlie's initial iPad review which was hilarious and stuff about Black Mirror as well.


Oh and the trailer for the excellent Black Mirror

Disco Apocalypse

In less than a week we have lost two giants of seventies disco. First Donna Summer , and now Robin Gibb.

As part of the Bee Gees , Robin Gibb took the world by storm soundtracking the film "Saturday Night Fever" with the aid of a few other artists. But it was the Bee Gees who had the lions share of the song credits on the album with "Stayin' Alive" , "Night Fever" and "Jive Talkin'" among others. Their self reinvention was amazing , give that they were a white pop band who then took the disco dancefloor by storm. I have lots of favourite Bee Gees songs notably the afformentioned "Jive Talkin'" , as well as "Tragedy" and "Alone".

Apparently five Donna Summer singles have reentered the top 200 singles , and its a symptom of digital music that this can happen immediately. Watch out for massive sales of Saturday Night Fever and the Bee Gees Number Ones collections and it's re appearance at the cinema.

However the song that inspired this blog post is by Jackson Brown , see below:

Another Summers Day .....But It'll Either Rain Or Go Dark Before Morning

A Sunny Corner of The Garden

Well although theres a bit of rain , and summer doesnt really start while about June , loads of people have been whining about the fact we've had no summer and thats it for this year and the British weather is appalling . It's weather , it's unpredictable , get over it.

We've ad the Daily Mail and Express predicting froods , and snowdrifts akin to The Day After Tomorrow , and ...... we're still here , no state of emergency. In fact today has been a great day weatherwise as you can see from the photograph of my garden. It's been a great daty for sitting out and talking in the weather.

It seems lots of people arent satisfied until something bad happens and they'll point out that they predicted it . Well as a farmer I knew once said  "It'll either rain or go dark before morning" , and you know what ... he was always right!!