Sunday, 15 November 2026

Snapshots #474: DESTROY! Songs


You may wonder why I featured the gentleman above atop the page yesterday. Perhaps because he seems hell bent on destroying civilisation, democracy and all human decency?

I couldn't possibly confirm or deny.

Here are some songs instructing us to destroy things.


15. Stamp it: HIT! Or something like that.

"Stamp it: HIT!" was an anagram.

Patti Smith - Break It Up

14. Trucker paint job indecision.

Red Lorry Yellow Lorry - Cut Down

13. The ability to cough up furballs and be terrified of cucumbers.

That's cat power, that is.

Cat Power - Ruin

12. Lard replaced by 8's Namesake and Scouse Stan.

Mark Radcliffe & David Boardman - Tear It All Down

11. Sideshow bloke isn't completely odd.

Sideshow Bob isn't completely weird.

Bob Weir - Bombs Away

10. Hammond, Camus and Einstein were misplaced and suspicious.  

Three Alberts get lost and paranoid.

Alberto Y Lost Trios Paranoias - Kill

9. Savages.

The Primitives - Crash

8. Cougars and Pumas run wild in Essex.


Two Fords and David Essex.


7. Geoff and Darlene shack up together.


Geoff Love & Darlene Love, in a Love Shack.


6. Turn the wedding attendant, Ms. Juniper.


Turn the (wedding) page, Jennifer...


5. Oscar was a lazy sod.


4. Hendrix strums, denying the order of things.


"Hendrix strums, denying" was an anagram.


3. She spends some of her time in Carsphairn, and the rest in civilization.


She spends some of her time in CarsPHAIRn, and the rest in civiLIZation.


2. Hardworking insect get fried in a fish restaurant.


Remove the ant from "fish restaurant" and then rearrange...


1. Small settlement where The Midwich Cuckoos lived... on film.


The first adaptation of John Wyndham's novel The Midwich Cuckoos was in a film called Village of the Damned...

The Damned - Smash It Up


More of less destructive Snapshots, minus the Orange Authoritarian, next Saturday morning...

Saturday, 14 November 2026

Saturday Snapshots #474


This quiz is rigged! It's bad, it's really bad. And the people who play it CHEAT! That's how they win. If I were to play it, I would win bigly, because I am the best at quizzes ever. I would win in a LANDSLIDE! Everyone says that. People come up to me all the time and they say, "Sir - why don't you play Saturday Snapshots?" And I say, "because it's a stupid game for LOSERS!" I bet they can't even identify the people below - all of whom voted for me - or work out the link... which is clearly something to do with Russia, because everything is linked to Russia in the end. Except me, which I DENY! 

Thank you for your attention to this matter.


15. Stamp it: HIT! Or something like that.


14. Trucker paint job indecision.


13. The ability to cough up furballs and be terrified of cucumbers.


12. Lard replaced by 8's Namesake and Scouse Stan.


11. Sideshow bloke isn't completely odd.

10. Hammond, Camus and Einstein were misplaced and suspicious.  


9. Savages.


8. Cougars and Pumas run wild in Essex.


7. Geoff and Darlene shack up together.


6. Turn the wedding attendant, Ms. Juniper.


5. Oscar was a lazy sod.


4. Hendrix strums, denying the order of things.


3. She spends some of her time in Carsphairn, and the rest in civilization.


2. Hardworking insect get fried in a fish restaurant.


1. Small settlement where The Midwich Cuckoos lived... on film.


Answers tomorrow. I won't need them, because I got them all RIGHT. You probably will though: LOSERS!


Friday, 13 November 2026

Celebrity Jukebox #90: Stacy Keach



I've long been a fan of hard-boiled private eyes. Even at a young age, I was into Bogart and Chandler, Sam Spade and Phillip Marlowe. It's an interest I shared with my Dad, and though I was only in my early teens when Stacy Keach appeared on TV as Mike Hammer: Private Eye, I remember it as being a show that both I and my Dad enjoyed.

In recent years, I've been reading a lot more noir and procedural writers, but when I tried a bit of Mickey Spillane, Hammer's creator left me rather cold. He's not a patch on Chandler or Hammett, or more modern writers like Lawrence Block, Joseph Wambaugh or even Ed McBain. The TV show was better... but maybe that's only in my memory.

Anyway, I had a great affection for Stacy Keach, who signed out earlier this week to go and pound gumshoe leather on another plain. 

Lost Dogs were a 90s band described as a "Christian rock version of the Travelling Wilburys". Let's not hold that against them, because they've just saved Stacy Keech a place on the jukebox...

Is that Stacy Keach passed out on the beach?


And if that wasn't enough, Stacy was also known to lend a hand to Fascinating Aïda...

G-spots are a joy
G-spots are a G
G-spot manipulation should go hand in hand
With a nice fantasy about Tom Cruise
Or even Stacy Keach


And for completeness' sake, I'll throw these two in...



In the end, this is the best tribute I can offer today. Harlem Nocturne, by Earle Hagen, with Bud Shank on sax.



Thursday, 12 November 2026

Listening Post #60: Not Sounding Anything Like The Smiths


The busiest man in showbiz, Wild Billy Childish, is back with one of his many, many bands, Thee Headcoats (two e spelling, as opposed to the times he spells it with one e) to answer a question I'm guessing he must have been asked a couple of times over the years. 

Why didn't you sound like The Smiths?

Asked on his bandcamp page if he liked The Smiths, he replied that he preferred Les Dawson's version of Girlfriend In A Coma. And yes, I went over to the Tube of You to seek that out... d'oh.

Anyway, I think it's fair to say Wild Billy preferred The Kinks...



Wednesday, 11 November 2026

Celebrity Jukebox #89: Richard Lloyd... and Tommy Walsh!?


Earlier this week, the darkness doubled and the Cadillac pulled out of the graveyard as Television guitarist Richard Lloyd followed his bandmate Tom Verlaine into the afterlife.
 


I didn't think I'd find any lyrical tributes to Richard Lloyd, but then I remembered that The Damned wrote a song all about Television... it's not the most complimentary though, given that it was written after Verlaine and co. refused to let The Damned support them at a gig in the US...

Richard Lloyd you're here this night
You should have rode the golden stars


Still, immortality in song is worth celebrating whatever the antecedents. Which might explain why today's post also shines a light on this gentleman...


I will confess that I know very little about Tommy Walsh. He was a presenter on a well-known TV show I never watched and a bunch of lesser known TV shows I never watched either. He was a builder, but I'll try not to hold that against him. My brother was a builder, and ditto that.

Truth be told though that most of what I know about Tommy Walsh comes from Nigel Blackwell... 

Back-to-back Cadfael
Ross Kemp on Watership Down
Are we living in the last days?
My life coach died in a car crash
Plummeted his mother into hopeless despair
She hangs about the laurel walk
I never know what to say to her
Have you seen Tommy Walsh’s Eco House?


Did Tommy ever build an Eco House? I'm presuming he must have.

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