Namesakes #197: The Dream Police

That's Cheap Trick at the top of the page, because we're starting today with their 1979 US Top 30 hit Dream Police. Watch out for some pretty ropey acting at the start of the video from the members of the band who don't like doing that sort of thing...

"But this is Namesakes," you cry! "Surely there can't be more than one band named after that old Cheap Trick song?" You must be dreaming!

DREAM POLICE #1

Well, clearly these guys didn't steal their name from Cheap Trick, since they were plying their trade back when Rick Nielsen and co. were still in high school.

These are the Glaswegian Dream Police, formed in 1967, featuring Hamish Stewart who would later join the Average White Band, and Matt Irving who ended up playing bass in Manfred Mann's Earth Band. I'm going to resit a gag about how this song might have been a Scottish World Cup tune...

Dream Police - I'll Be Home (In A Day Or So)

DREAM POLICE #2

Danish punks from 1978 next, and I'm sure they wouldn't have been seen dead listening to Cheap Trick records.

Dream Police - Demise

DREAM POLICE #3

Some Norwegian hair metal next, from 1990. These guys openly admit to being named after the Cheap Trick tune. Guitarist Trond Holter previously played on Ole I Dole's 1985 album 'Blond Og Billig' 

and would later change his name to 'Teeny' when he joined glam rock group Wig Wam in 2001. 

Dream Police - When The Sun Goes Down 

DREAM POLICE #4

A Swedish Dream Police from the same year... they had to change their name when the Norwegians came knocking, so they became Snakepit Rebels instead.

Dream Police - Sex, Booze & Tattoos

DREAM POLICE #5

Side project of Brooklyn punk band The Men, starting in 2010 when Mark Perro and Nick Chiericozzi clearly wanted to show their funkier side.

Dream Police - Revenge

DREAM POLICE #6

Finally, some electro-bobbins from Barbâtre, France in 2020. The best I can say for this is that it's not even two and a half minutes long. But you're entitled to disagree.

Dream Police - Pro Patria Vigilant

Which ones will be policing your dreams tonight - and which ones will be giving you nightmares?

Snapshots Sea Spillover

A few more songs of the seas I had leftover after this weekend's Snapshots...

The Coral - Arabian Sand

The Felice Brothers - Gulf Of Mexico

Honeybus - Cross Channel Ferry

Marty Wilde - Sea Of Love

James McMurtry - Long Island Sound

Half Man Half Biscuit - 13 Eurogoths Floating in the Dead Sea

And a classic for the Celtic Sea... with an excellent old video too.

Snapshots #456 - Songs About Seas & Oceans

This is Frank Ocean. His Uncle Billy appears below.

Here are some songs about Oceans and Seas...

15. Takes the lead in the Bossa Nova.

The Boss, obviously.

Bruce Springsteen - Atlantic City

14. Some are trumpeters, others are mute... all are crazy.

The Wild Swans - Sea of Tranquility

Yeah, I know that one's on the moon. It's still a sea. Of a sort.

13. Ain't no stopping Eno now.

McFadden & Whitehead sang Ain't No Stopping Us Now. Brian was an Eno.

Brian McFadden - Irish Son

12. Seabird that is utterly wet.

Shearwater - Red Sea, Black Sea

11. Pretty bottom.

The Beautiful South - The Mediterranean (Morcheeba Mix)

10. Home for Top Dogs.

Where the Alpha Males hang out.

Alphaville - Big In Japan

9. Unique korma ingredient. 

Just in curry.

Justin Currie - The Dead Sea

8. I Wonder if Lowe and Heyward know her?

Stevie Wonder and two Nicks.

Stevie Nicks - Wide Sargasso Sea

7. Any game involving #5 would be this.

Coldplay - Yellow

6. There's a great distance between Henley and McLean.

Don Fardon - Indian Reservation 

Or even...

Don Fardon - Hudson Bay

5. All Right Now, it's Easy.

Free and EZ.

Freeez - Southern Freeez

4. Can you pick these guys up on your way home from work?

Dry Cleaning - Anna Calls From The Arctic

3. Where the drum machines make their home.

808 State - Pacific State

2. Show off your Aussie cookware.

Brag about your billycan.

Billy Bragg - North Sea Bubble

1. Cybil alone has the answer.

"Cybil alone" was an anagram.

Billy Ocean - Caribbean Queen (No More Love On The Run)

That had to be Number One today, didn't it?

Swim back for more next Saturday.

Saturday Snapshots #456

It's Saturday morning, and I'm wasting away again in Margaritaville. If you've seen my salt shaker, please let me know.

Meanwhile, here are some people to identify. How are their songs connected?

15. Takes the lead in the Bossa Nova.

14. Some are trumpeters, others are mute... all are crazy.

13. Ain't no stopping Eno now.

12. Seabird that is utterly wet.

11. Pretty bottom.

10. Home for Top Dogs.

9. Unique korma ingredient. 

8. I Wonder if Lowe and Heyward know her?

7. Any game involving #5 would be this.

6. There's a great distance between Henley and McLean.

5. All Right Now, it's Easy.

4. Can you pick these guys up on your way home from work?

3. Where the drum machines make their home.

2. Show off your Aussie cookware.

1. Cybil alone has the answer.

Some people claim that there's a woman to blame, but I know it's my own damn fault.

Answers tomorrow morning.

Celebrity Jukebox #80: Bonnie Tyler

We interrupt our scheduled programming for a tribute to Bonnie Tyler, who died on Wednesday. Those of you waiting with bated breath for the Cancel Culture Club postscript... it'll be here next week, I promise. But Bonnie takes priority.

Regular readers of this nonsense will know that I'm a huge fan of the overblown melodramatic glory of Jim Steinman. Nobody has stretched the pure essence of the rock n roll mythos to such wonderfully ludicrous extremes, and in Meat Loaf, Jim found the perfect voice for his theatrical, sturm und drang histrionics. 

However, there were times when Meat just wasn't available. Either because he'd knackered his voice from all that bawling... or because he and Jim weren't quite seeing eye to eye. When that happened, Jim tried singing the tunes himself... but most people agreed he wasn't quite up to the job... and that's when he discovered Bonnie Tyler.

Up until then, Welsh chanteuse Gaynor Sullivan had been carving about a pretty decent career singing reasonably average tunes like Lost In France and It's A Heartache. I'm guessing Jim must have heard one of these, because in 1983 he offered her a song written for Meat which looked like it wasn't ever going to get recorded. And the rest is history...

Other Steinman / Tyler collaborations followed - not all of them hits, but all of them amazing.

Bonnie Tyler - Faster Than the Speed of Night

Bonnie Tyler - Rebel Without a Clue 

Bonnie Tyler - Holding Out For A Hero

Winnipeg punk band The Washups pay tribute to the latter of those here...

The Washups - Bonnie Tyler Cried 

And here are a few more lyrical tributes...

No Nets - Bonnie Tyler

LUCA - Bonnie Tyler

And I'm not Bonnie Tyler, and I'm not Toni Braxton

And this song is not gonna save your relationship

Los Campesinos - We Are All Accelerated Readers 

Losing Bonnie Tyler will be accepted by many people as just another dead star... but for me, after saying goodbye to both Jim and Meat not so long ago, this feels like the end of an era. Still, given the grand mythology of angels and devils, heaven and hell that they all dabbled in... I like to think they'll be re-united and singing with the seraphim as we speak.

We'll close today with another Steinman/Tyler favourite, this one featuring Todd Rundgren on guest vocals...

Rest in peace, Bonnie. You were magnificent.