My Top Ten

Thursday, 17 August 2023

TV On The Radio #15: It's A Knockout

Even as a six year old, I found little point to It's A Knockout. Surely I was the ideal target audience for a ridiculous game show about people dressed in ridiculously over-sized costumes trying to race and falling in water? But no, even at that age, I found myself thinking, "This is stupid". I'm convinced that the only person who really enjoyed It's A Knockout was Stuart Hall, and the less said about him, the better.

Back in 1996 though, it was still OK to name-drop him in a tune...

Brotherhood is back from their sabbatical

Dramatical and hit, we're here to take it all

Three rounds of verse, it's a knockout, Stuart Hall

The Brotherhood - Mad Headz

The North Sea Scrolls was a 2011 collaboration between Luke Haines, Cathal Coughlan and Andrew Mueller. They only did one album, but if you like twisted 70s nostalgia or things that are mad as a fish driving a lorry, then it's a wonderful, wonderful record.

Blakey and Olive

Freaks and fascists

It's A Knockout

With tiny moustaches

The Mosley frontbench

Cheered on by the masses

Take on the cast of

'On the Buses'

A cry goes up
"I'll get you, Butler"
Mosley leers:
He's played his joker

The North Sea Scrolls - Enoch Powell Space Poet

It's A Knockout was, as I'm sure you all know, based on the French game-show Jeux Sans Frontières. I'd argue that the only decent thing to come out of the whole sorry affair was the tune below, in which Peter Gabriel uses the show's puerile farce as a metaphor for world politics. Games Without Frontiers, with Kate Bush on backing vocals (she's the one who sings 'Jeux sans frontières'), is another classic from Gabriel... from an era when his albums took a bit of work. You come to those albums wanting every track to sound like Solsbury Hill, and when they don't it can be a little disappointing. Persevere though, and after a while a world of riches opens up.

Games Without Frontiers comes from his third eponymous album, one the record company knocked back as "commercial suicide"... until today's song started picking up airplay, when suddenly they became interested. That's when Gabriel told them to bog off and took his master tapes elsewhere. Games Without Frontiers went on to become his highest charting single in the UK (tying with Sledgehammer), so nyah nyah nyah to you ignorant record company bigwigs.

If looks could kill, they probably will

In games without frontiers

War without tears

Wednesday, 16 August 2023

Positive Songs For Negative Times #82: The Kindness Of Strangers

This blog can tend to get a little negative when it comes to depicting 21st century society, so I think it's only right that I give a shout out to two individuals who bucked the trend recently.

The first was the bus driver who took Sam & I into Edinburgh from the Park & Ride. When we boarded, I asked him which was the best stop for the Dungeon as we'd booked a specific time slot and I knew it was going to be tight. He gave it a thought and suggested a particular stop, so we headed upstairs to get the best view. As we arrived in the city centre, we started watching the video screen that lets you know the next couple of stops, but the one we were looking out for didn't seem to be coming up. Suddenly, the bus stopped and the driver came upstairs. "I've been thinking about it," he said, "and you'd be better getting off here." He then proceeded to give us detailed directions on foot for the rest of our journey. I don't travel on the bus very often, but this seemed above and beyond normal bus driver behaviour.

The second incident occurred the following day after our trip to Hadrian's Wall. As funds were running low and we were still feeling full from the All You Can Eat breakfast, Sam and I stopped for a baked potato tea in the Asda cafe in Carlisle. Afterwards, we went to grab a couple of bits for the journey home the following day. As we returned to the self service checkout, I realised I'd lost my wallet. You can imagine how I felt in that moment - over a hundred miles from home, with no money, no bank cards (which would need cancelling), no driver's license, no hotel room key-card... I couldn't even think what else, but this was a potential holiday-wrecker. In a panic, but trying to stay calm so as not to scare Sam, I thought about the last place I knew I'd had the wallet... and realised I'd paid for tea in the cafe. A quick dash back to our table... but no wallet. At that moment, a customer on a nearby table stopped me and told me his friend had found the wallet and handed it in at the Customer Service desk. "We were trying to find see if you were on Facebook," he said, "to send you a message." (He wouldn't have found me, but I appreciated the effort.)

As the doctors arrive to cart Blanche Dubois away at the end of A Streetcar Named Desire, she tells them, "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers". It's not something I'm overly familiar with myself, but I'm happy to take it whenever it's offered.

Kevin Morby produced one of my favourite albums of last year, This Is A Photograph. Recently, he released a download only sequel. He says...

“If This Is A Photograph is a house that you have been living inside of, then More Photographs is, perhaps, the same home just experienced differently. As if you, its inhabitant, have taken a tab of something psychedelic and now, suddenly, you've replaced your eyeglasses with kaleidoscopes.”

Make of that what you will, but I do like the opening track...

Tuesday, 15 August 2023

Namesakes #47: The Bushmen

While researching last week's post on artists called Bush, I was surprised by how many bands I found called The Bushmen. But are any of them any good? Let's see...

THE BUSHMEN #1

We'll start with this one, specially for Ernie. Discogs gives them a page, but is clear to stress "This artist does not refer to a specific group of named individuals (such as a band or musical group) but rather defines the collective term for an ethnic group living in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa." The San people of Southern Africa are one of the oldest surviving cultures on earth.

All the other Bushmen are just pretenders to the throne.

THE BUSHMEN #2

Our next Bushmen came from Cleveland, Ohio, releasing one single in 1965. They also recorded as War Babies and members would later form Euphoria.

THE BUSHMEN #3

Also in 1965, more garage rock from LA. I sometimes think that there was a band tuning up in every garage in America in the mid-60s.

THE BUSHMEN #4

Not just in America! Here's the occupants of an Italian garage in 1966 with their translated cover of Somebody Help Me.

THE BUSHMEN #5

New Wave Bushmen from the UK in 1985...

THE BUSHMEN #6

Funky 90s Bushmen with a vibe that reminds me of the Fun Lovin' Criminals...

THE BUSHMEN #7

French punk-power-pop from the late 90s. They released 3 albums, called The Day Blood Turns To Lard, Life Is Hard Then We Die and Watching Neighbours. Clearly by the time of the last one, middle-aged ennui had set in.

Which Bushmen are best? You decide...

Monday, 14 August 2023

Celebrity Jukebox #104: William, Paul & Sixto

The Grim Reaper rarely takes a break these days...

WILLIAM FRIEDKIN

Mark Kermode tells us that The Exorcist is the greatest movie ever made. Not just the greatest "horror" movie, mind, but the greatest movie full stop. And who are we to argue with Mark Kermode?

When I was a kid, I devoured every horror film I could get my hands on from the local video shop. Not The Exorcist though, as it had been withdrawn in the UK as a "video nasty" by James Ferman of the BBFC. I had to wait till 1998 to see it, when it was finally re-released and re-appraised. It was a thrill to see such a notorious film after so long, and at the time it made quite an impression on me. But I wonder how much of that was the illicit hype? Years later, I still rate the movie highly (though not quite as highly as Mr. Kermode) but I don't find it shocking anymore. Has the world changed or have I changed?

I couldn't find any lyrics that mentioned Mr. Friedkin, so I had to go with the obvious tribute...

PAUL REUBENS

Pee-wee Herman is a children's TV character I'm largely unfamiliar with, so my only encounter with the actor Paul Reubens is from his role as The Penguin's father in Batman Returns. His career involved a certain amount of controversy, as it seems he was a little too interested in pornography (or "vintage erotica") for a prominent star of kids' TV, but he appears to have weathered the storm better than many of his contemporaries did.

I was very excited to find a song called Paul Reubens by Felt... but sadly, it wasn't that Felt. (I should have known.)

Felt - Paul Reubens

Reubens also crops up in this... protect your ears.

Grey rustic buildings
Divided by cobblestone streets
Pigeons flock on the pavement
Candle-lit atmosphere in street side bars
Paul Rubens rises in the hazy air
As the cathedral glows in the night
Flares of cerise and magenta stream
Fading in the starry night sky
Paul Rubens rises in the hazy air
As the cathedral glows in the night

In Vain - And Quiet Flows The Scheldt

But my favourite reference comes from a band who describe their music as "Good vibes with a tropical twist". Here, Mr. Reubens features in a less than stellar list that includes Jon Benét, the Menendez Brothers, Orenthal James, Dodi Fayed and... Princess Di.

In the Darwinian Age
Everyone is on their own front page
Everyone's your friend
But nobody cares
They're all much too busy donning their airs

SIXTO RODRIGUEZ

As far as I can tell, nobody wrote any songs about Sixto Rodriguez. I did find a couple called Sugar Man, but they weren't about him...

Regina Spektor - Sugarman

Kris Kristofferson - Sugar Man

Like most people, I only discovered Rodriguez after the documentary, Searching For Sugarman. I'm glad he found fame in later life, and I hope it treated him well.