Yes, it's that time of the week again, which means we're back with those Notorious clues and the silly Charade that is Saturday Snapshots. Identify 10 artists and songs from this lot...
Let's make it An Affair To Remember!
10. How far to Ipanema? It's I, not you.
9. Hello sunrise... is it because you're chillee, perhaps?
8. Escape from Irish town, via Amitri.
7. Vole? Evol? Leo V? Arrrghh! (Somebody call for a pick-up.)
6. I won't be at the station, my sweet. The baby tickers have escaped!
5. Motionless distillery can get it on with anybody.
4. Debut snog for hard boy.
3. Children of a Piper, a Borg and a Beatle.
2. Gyroscopic mortality in question.
1. Adam's Dandies - Adam's Dandy.
Fly North by Northwest to find the answers tomorrow morning.
I'd like to say thank you to everybody who left a supportive comment after Monday's post. I know I'm being particularly vague about why things are pretty stressful at the moment - beyond job issues which I've alluded to but don't want to go into more detail about, for making things worse. There is something else that's causing me sleepless nights but I should be more able to talk about that, one way or another, next week. Until then, your good wishes are much appreciated here, and reflected back upon you all. It's good to have friends, even though I've never met any of you. And thank especially to John, who offered to meet up for a coffee - unfortunately, those damned work commitments have me chained to a (metaphorical) blackboard for the foreseeable, but that was much appreciated too.
Today's latest contender for my albums of the year is the latest record from Midland. A country record, yet it isn't cool Americana nor shiny, cheesy Nashville pop-country. It's a bar band record, good-time country rock, and as with their last album, there's a huge debt to the Eagles... though whether Midland have a trippy, pretentiously epic (in a good way) Hotel California in their future has yet to be seen. At the moment, they're content playing the Heartache Tonight / Take It Easy game, with the odd splash of... whisper it, so as not to offend the musos... Dr. Hook.
The video's fun, but it does kind of detract from the story of the song...
Sadly, this post doesn't represent a return to regular blogging or a resurrection of old features. Things are still tumultuous and may be set to get more so... I'm holding my breath on that one and for the best.
I'm not going to bore you with the ups and downs of my current predicament though, particularly as I know many of you are going through tumults of your own. But I put this tune on a compilation for Sam the other day and the mention of Barnsley leapt out at me.
Barnsley is the town where I work, and has been for the last 8 years. It gets a bad rep, as many northern towns do, but I reckon it's got quite a lot going for it, once you get past the "It's grim up north" cliches. The fact that I hate my job has nothing to do with the town in which I work - indeed, having commuted to Bradford for 20+ years prior to that, I find my 40 minute drive to Barnsley to be a delight... if it wasn't for the rocks rolling round in the pit of my stomach the closer I get to my purgatory. It's certainly a nicer and easier place to get to than Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield or any of the sexier cities round these parts... just one of the factors which makes searching for a new job a bit of a minefield.
Anyway, I can't find any other songs that mention Barnsley, but this one was a favourite of mine back in the late Britpop era and it still stands up pretty well today. I've no idea what these lyrics are about though...
