When I'm putting Snapshot together, I try to get a mix of bands that haven't featured often before, which means that some of the usual suspects and old favourites end up on the operating room floor...
Here's Denzel Washington with the answers to this week's quiz. I almost used his photo yesterday, but you guys are getting a bit too smart when it comes to the top of the page pic, so I went with Warren Beatty instead. Warren is a city in Ohio. There's also a Warren in Michigan. And one in Cheshire. Probably some others too.
Here are 15 more places that begin with W... Washington, Wales and Wuhan were conspicuous by their absence. Maybe in tomorrow's spillover edition...
15. Slightly longer than a Buzzcock.
Pete Shelley was a Buzzcock. This is almost his Namesake...
12. Revolutionary War singer, without his comrades.
60s band Paul Revere and the Raiders were named after a famous soldier from the American Revolutionary War. The band were also named after their keyboard player, whose real name was Paul Revere Dick. He dropped the surname on stage. Can't think why.
The lead singer of Paul Revere and the Raiders was...
I've no idea why he's singing about a town just a few miles down the M1 from me.
11. Lard, Sweet Pea & Ivy.
Lard was, of course, the nickname used by DJ Marc Riley when he worked with Mark Radcliffe in the 90s. He was also in The Fall. But whenever Mark E. Smith kicked him out, he returned to his own band...
Weavers used looms - or wanted to smash them. The Norfolk music festival is held at Houghton Hall... although these guys actually came from Westhoughton in Greater Manchester. Which might explain how they spotted the UFOs below...
I had to listen carefully to make sure Cheap Trick weren't signing "A long was to Wor-chester". Actually it sounds more like they sing "Wister" than "Wuster", but close enough, I guess.
No idea why though.
7. AU + a short Friar + Spider-Man, initially.
AU is Gold. The abbreviation for a Friar is Fra. Spider-Man is Peter Parker.
A top notch - and very tricky - edition of Snapshots this weekend. Many thanks to C from Sun Dried Sparrows for her hard work. C, of course, is an artist (as is Ron Wood and today's header image, multi-disciplinary artist Yayoi Kusama). Perhaps that was the best clue to this week's link...
Extra kudos to C for finding a picture of the Ramones where they don't immediately look like the Ramones. From past experience, I know that's a tough one!
12. A rabbit follows an Ant.
Harvey the rabbit (from the film) comes after Ant (McPartlin) who was P J in P J & Duncan / Byker Grove.
It can't have escaped your notice that Doctor Who celebrated its 60th anniversary last week, blasting its way back onto screen with an old face and a Disney+ budget. Like most British kids, I grew up with The Doctor, and your first Doctor will always be your favourite. Which means you can't beat Tom Baker in my eyes.
Still, I have a great fondness for most of the other Doctors, including the modern incarnations (although Huddersfield lass Jodie Whittaker was let down during her tenure by terrible scripts). They say we spent large parts of our youth hiding behind the sofa to avoid the show's scarier bits... and I do have vivid memories of being behind that old red leather sofa in our living room on a Saturday night... but I'm pretty sure I was acting out the adventures I'd just seen on screen rather than escaping in terror.
Here then is a special edition of TV On The Radio dedicated to all the Doctors.
Search for songs that include the words "Doctor Who" in that order and you're on a hiding to nothing. Unless you want to hear a load of tunes that have nothing to do with Timelords such as this...
She sent me to the doctor who sent me straight to bed
I had far more luck searching for words that were unique to the Whoniverse. Such as TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimensions in Space, as I'm sure you will recall).
Here's someone who would look right at home in an episode of Doctor Who... Thom Yorke.
I'm stuck in the TARDIS Trapped in hyperspace One minute, snake charming The next in a motorcade
Step outside the TARDIS and you may encounter some of The Doctor's greatest enemies. For reasons explained above, I didn't bother looking for The Master, and only found the odd song that mentioned Cybermen... but the Daleks were all over the place.
Dave Balfe and Alan Gill from The Teardrop Explodes formed the most famous band to be named after the psychotic pepper pots, possibly my favourite science fiction bad guys (the Daleks, not Balfe and Gill).
Despite my difficulties in searching for "Doctor Who" songs, I still found quite a few that mentioned the Timelord by name (or, not actually by name, since Doctor Who isn't actually his name, is it?). Although many of them fall into the category that causes serious musos to gnash their teeth to the gums... comedy or novelty records.
Frazer Hines was a minor Yorkshire celebrity due to his role on Emmerdale Farm in the 70s and 80s (back when my dad used to watch it because they had actual farmyard scenes). Prior to that, Frazer was an early Doctor Who assistant when he recorded this...
Once All About Eve were done, lead singer Julianne Regan formed Mice. Here's a little timely advice for any of you who might be considering running off with a stranger in a blue police box...
He's my blue sonic boy I believed in his watery lies And his half-arsed scheme to rule the world But you know it isn't easy hanging out with the timelords When you're a Dalek and can't even climb up the stairs So when you wake tomorrow, stick a bell in your van
There were lots of artists I discovered during this search who looked like they'd only ever get a gig at Comicon, but these guys deserved a special mention, for enthusiasm, if nothing else...
But there was only one song I could choose to close this post, from the insane genius of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, The KLF, The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu and The Timelords... with a little help from The Sweet and (whisper it now) Gary Glitter. A Number One smash that Melody Maker described as "pure, unadulterated agony" and "excruciating", while Sounds called it "rancid" and "a record so noxious that a top ten place can be its only destiny". What's not to love?
Next time I have to go into hospital, I hope I get a doctor like House. I don't care about bedside manner - I just want someone who can work out what's wrong with me and fix it, thanks.
We've all been in hospital this weekend though. Let's take a look at who else was on the ward...
We're getting into haymaking season. When I was a kid, that would mean that my dad and my brother would wake the tractor from hibernation and drag out all the other ancient haymaking contraptions. The mower. The turner. The baler. Inevitably, one - if not all - of them wouldn't be in working order, and so began the lengthy process of getting them ready for the job at hand. Although even when they were ready, they rarely lasted. They usually broke down halfway through the job, stranded amid the dusty rows of hay like a ship on a sandbank, waiting for someone who knew more about fixing farm machinery to come and sort them out.
Afterwards, my dad would return to the house and scrub down his hands with Swarfega, from a rusty square tin just like the one above. Other 80s kids might see green slime and think of Ghostbusters or Tiswas, for me it'll always be reminiscent of summer.
Here are some songs that mention Swarfega, starting with some instrumental try-hardery from a band I never really got...
Today's most appropriate song is this one. You'd definitely need some Swarfega after a lawnmower death. And it's surprisingly listenable... albeit only 26 seconds long...
After all that, I'm crying out for a biscuit. Here's half of one, with a song about remembering you need a tin of Swarfega when you're hiking up a famous Shropshire hill...
Under normal circumstances, that would have been the winner. But then Alison Goldfrapp turned up with an offer I couldn't refuse...
I want to run away with you Your caravan and rabbit stew Don't buy me candyfloss or bears Swarfega fingers, I want you there
Steady on, love. Men of a certain age, and all that. Although it turns out Ms. Goldfrapp was born in 1966, so I'm still young enough to be her toyboy...
