While I am writing this I am listening to my friend Juli's show AMOK on Pride Radio so you can time this at 7pm on Sunday night.
It is one of the non 6Music shows where I am certain to hear something I haven't heard before, as well as being fun to listen to. That's another benefit of the internet the sheer choice of listening and watching options. The only problem this gives me is that the amount of time I have is still the same, but the amount of choice I am given increases exponentially almost daily.
Internet radio can be brilliant as AMOK proves, go and give it a listen and release you inner Industrial Goth.
Number 58 has been awkward to track down a song for, I have a couple in my collection that would have done but decide to look a little further afield and came across "58" by The Age of Stella and found this live take from The Maze in Nottingham. These are a band I have never heard of but I am well impressed with their stuff.
This is the penultimate post in this sequence, and I may actually hit the 120K hits by the end of number 59 which is a brilliant one to end #ALifeInNumebrs on.
I often hear (and see thanks to social media), people complaining that there is nothing on television. That is in these days of so many channels that you can get lost. The thing is you can only watch one thing at once, but some people seem to think that means they can only watch one thing, their TV diet is often X-Factor, EastEnders and if they are feeling adventurous maybe Coronation Street and Britain's Got Talent. Needless to say I don't watch these , but I do remember the days before BBC2 existed and you couldn't record anything.
It is true that since the digital explosion there are an awful lot of channels filled with unwatchable dross, but this very fact means that there is always something that you can watch. Groucho Marx once said that he found TV very educational, if he walked into a room where the TV was on he'd walk out and find a book to read. TVs have always had an off switch.
Today the options to watch high quality content has never been better. There are films and TV series that I will never see despite them being must watch programmes. Dexter, Braquo, and 24 are three that immediately spring to mind.
Also I remember everyone complaining about repeats on television, now you have whole channels screening repeats DAVE and GOLD are two that spring to mind though there may have been name changes and one may be the other.
Anyway we are up to number 57 in #ALifeInNumbers and it has to be Bruce Springsteen's"57 Channels (And Nuthin' On) which does hit the nail about the choices we are presented with which are maybe no real choice at all.
Me, I find that 6Music , Radio 2,3 and 4 then BBC2,4 , Film4, Sky Living, Atlantic and Arts provide me with far more than I need. If I then add Youtube and TED then that gives you a small indication of my tastes.
This is another contrived shoe in , but it's a great and funny record. It was released in 1956 (even older than me) and starts off counting to and from ten 1-2-3-4- 56 -7-8-9-10. Like all great comedy the Goons were very hit and miss, but for me "Bloodnok's Rock and Roll Call" is a definite hit.
This morning I was hoping to update Song of the Salesman but it's running slow , the support adon't seem to have a clue. It's funny how so much technology support is outsourced to the cheapest bidder regardless of their ability to do the job. But that's the world we live in today.
Still this week I have got to see The Bonzo Dog Band and Half Man Half Biscuit , found a great venue in the most ridiculously inaccessible town centre location. I do loke walking in parks but not after a late gig finish on a cold rainy night. Wylam Brewery's Grand Hall in The Palace of Arts is impressive though.
Anyway enjoy this wonderfully sunny day and if you fancy some lovely food and drink slip down to Wildflower Cafe on Westgate Road.
Well we're on the home straight now, after this four more posts. It's already been a great week with various excellent things happening. Last night got a huge compliment from management at work which is a sort of cherry on the cake for this week so far.
Tuesday night I say the Bonzo Dog Band at the Sage, which has now become a very fluid lineup but it was an absolutely brilliant night, and on Tuesday my friend Jessica and her friend Asher opened Wildflower Cafe on Westgate Road. I work near St James' Park so was hoping to walk there, I needed some cash so got some from the St James' cash machine (it only had twenties), then set off. I then realised there was a large derelict area / building site which would mean a long right or left detour, however when I got there I notices a tarmaced path that seemed to skirt the new Science building a head straight to where I was going,
I got there and then saw across the road a big "Wildflower" sign in the window. I got in and was greeted by Jessica and Asher and there were two girls having coffee and chatting. The place has been furnished via Freecycle,and is bright and airy and welcoming with some of Jessica's designs on the walls, art displayed and books and things to catch the eye. I was trying to find a menu to display , but the fare is mostly if not all vegan, with felafel , hummus and tiffin! There is lots of choice and I decided on a cheese and tomato toastie and a coffee which I can show you (See Right).
It was delicious, and just right for my dinner (I'm from Preston , it's dinner), too many times toasties are served in doorsteps or huge slabs of pretentious bread. This was perfect, and complimented by green stuff with dressing, which I also enjoyed.
I am looking forward to making this a regular eaterie and general good place to go, though I can see it's going to be popular, it aleady is with me.
Anyway #ALifeinNumbers is "Ol' 55" a song I first heard by the Eagles, so they're getting their second run out in this sequence, but it was written by Tom Waits, and it is one of many songs that you probably don't know have been written by him. So I'm going to include the Eagles version AND the Tom Waits version, because I can, assuming Tom Waits has let it out on Youtube. He's very protective of his music and sued Levis and got them to take out big billboard apologies when they used Screamin' Jay Hawkins' version of "Heart Attack and Vine".
So enjoy the music and enjoy your Thursday my friends.
I'm hoping to hit 120K viewsby the end of #ALifeInNumbers , but with six posts to go I will probably fall just short. I need four hundred hits and with an average of 50 per post I'll be 100 short. Not to worry.. This is a kludge one and Dave Wright mad an early suggestion of 534321 by Manfred Mann to cater for the first five posts. I didn't use it then and am not going to use it now, as I have gone for Patti Smith's take on the same song , 5-4-3-2-WAVE , which is great fun.
Anyway I am feeling very tired and I've nothing much more to say apart from the fact that this has been an interesting week so far, having seen The Bonzo Dog Band last night, and Looking forward to Half Man Half Biscuit on Friday , The CureHeads a week on Friday and the Star Spangled Chestwigs for two gigs in December, so although I want to sleep, I may not give my body that option.
So looking forward to the next couple of weeks and all the great things that are going to happen. Sleep well my friends.
A weird thing happened last night. I was going to see The Bonzo Dog Band at the Sage and decided to walk from the centre of town to the Sage over the Tyne Bridge. As you walk over the bridge there's a big sign with the Samaritans phone number to help people who may be thinking of ending it because things are so bad jumping over the side is the only way they can see of dealing with things. I know how easy it is to jump over the side because I did it in a charity abseil. While I have fleetingly thought of that once or twice in my life I reasoned that was not the way to make things better, also the number of people I would hurt by doing that weighed on my mind, and am I in a good place now.
Watching the Bonzo's it was great to see Rodney Slater (75) saying the crowd were getting better at getting older and a great night was had by all. After the gig it 15 minutes til the next bus and I walked back across the Bridge and had looked over the side and got vertigo, but when you come into Newcastle it's wonderful that you are walking above the rooftops. But again it is worrying that the exit option is so close. If ever you feel like this talk to friends or Samaritans, think of your friends, loved ones and people who rely on. We probably don't tell each other how much we like or love each other.
The other thing is that the older we get the more likely we are to lose friends and loved ones, Leonard Cohen recently declared he was gong to live forever on the front of the Times Culture magazine. I think he had a feeling he was on his way and was displaying his wonderful sense of humour. Enjoy your time with loved ones and friends, that will give you memories that will stay with you forever.
One other thing is that while I was waiting for the bus there's a psychological block that tells you it's a long way because it's across the river. I walked up to St James in around 15 minutes and saw my bus at the traffic lights , so had to then run 250 yards, which luckily I can still do.
Anyway back to #ALifeInNumbers and we hit 53. Sorry if this has been dark, it's actually meant to be positive and helpful.The song is "53rd and 3rd" by The Ramones and we have the album version and a live version with Rancid. This is classic Ramones and a great way to wake up your Wednesday.
Have a great day by friends, the weekend is in sight.
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.
