Showing posts with label Andy Bell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Andy Bell. Show all posts

Sunday, 26 April 2026

Snapshots #445: Songs About Places Beginning With W

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...

Peter Shelley - Wisconsin

14. Useful for campanologists.

That's a handy bell!

Andy Bell - Weston-Super-Mare 

That's a great tune from the Erasure dude.

13. Tastes like Homer's beer.


Duffy - Warwick Avenue

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...

Mark Lindsay – Windy Wakefield

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...

Marc Riley With The Creepers - Bard of Woking

10. Found in the back of a taxi and on short British Airways flights.

Back of a cAB... and on BA flights.

Abba - Waterloo

9. Looming over a Norfolk Festival.

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...

The Houghton Weavers - The Martians Have Landed In Wigan

8. Confused, but they still made a rich packet.

"Rich packet" was an anagram.

Cheap Trick – A Long Way To Worcester

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.

Goldfrapp - Ride A White Horse

Whitehorse is the capital of Canada's Yukon territory.

6. Lapwings dressed as lambs.

The Mutton Birds - Wellington

We needed a native band to sing about the capital of New Zealand.

5. Modern American Music Hall players.

New Vaudeville Band - Winchester Cathedral

4. Globe loathing.

Theatre Of Hate - Do You Believe In The Westworld?

I didn't say they had to be real places.

3. The Pink... Parsons.

Lily The Pink meets Alan Parsons.

Lily Allen - West End Girl

The Pet Shop Boys were disqualified for upsetting George.

2. Curt is always with them.

Ian Curtis, that is.

Joy Division - Warsaw 

1. Regularly received mail from strangers.


He was known for "getting cards and letter from people" he didn't "even know".

Always Number One in my heart...


I had a few of these leftover, so tune in tomorrow.

More of this gubbins next Saturday.


Friday, 27 July 2018

My Top Ten High Street Retailer Songs Vol. 1


A visit to the cinema on one of the nearby retail parks earlier this week confirmed that Toys-Я-Us has finally gone the way of the dinosaurs. I felt a bit sad about this, not through any loyalty to a huge American company which was too lazy to spell its name properly (or get its letters the right way round), but because I often popped in there if I had ten minutes to spare before a movie, to see if they had any toys Sam might be interested in that weren't extortionately priced. This got me thinking about all the big high street names we've lost over the last few years, and once again I felt a twinge of nostalgic sadness for the stores of olde that we'll never see again. Many of them have been immortalised in popular song though. Here are ten great examples (of songs, not stores)...



10. They Might Be Giants - Toddler Hiway 

A second appearance this week for TMBGs, with one of their earliest tracks, taken directly from their 1985 demo tape for inclusion on their self-titled debut album. Just 26 seconds of goodness...

In the mornin' sun 'round seven o'clock
The parking lot fills around Toys-Я-Us
And my little girl, she will get away
Ride her bike down Toddler Hiway
Take your Close'n'Play
Toddler Hiway


9. Manic Street Preachers - Sculpture Of Man

The shop most famous for selling that poster of a tennis player scratching her bum causes the Manics to go on an anti-consumerist rant...

Wills and Harry dressed in drag
Standing over the sodomised body of their mother
Would make a beautiful poster in Athena


8. Andy Bell - Electric Blue

Sadly, the Army & Navy Store was Erasured from existence some time ago, and you probably don't want to dig too deeply into why Andy Bell was a frequent customer...

Eyes wide electric baby
All dyed in cobalt blue
Stole from the Army Navy store
Army Navy store

My dominatrix baby
Dolled up in rubber tube
Hey have you done me lately?


7. The Monochrome Set - Two Fists

Sold all their shops to WH Smiths 20 years ago. Three years earlier, The Monochrome Set wrote this...

I know you're as hot as hell and the summer is high
You've got a mind to make love but that means
Someone must die

And I can see what's coming like a rusty nail
It fits right into your world view like a wind in a sail

But that's what love is about or what else am I here for?
I guess I'll wait in John Menzies then I'll go back for more


6. Scritti Politti - Mrs. Hughes

I used to hate going in BHS when I was a kid. "It's too hot," I used to tell my mum. I'm not sure if it was too hot, because I never went in there as an adult. Then one day, it wasn't there anymore. Only Green remembers it now...

Tell me again and I'll touch Mrs. Hughes
You've got her confidence you get to choose
I can hardly refuse

Down the town center where somebody died
By British Home Stores just sitting outside
Looking self satisfied
But the point was beside


5. X-Ray Spex - Warrior In Woolworths

Poly Styrene pays tribute to the home of Pick n Mix. I had less problem with being dragged into Woolies as a kid. Bought some of my first records there too.

Warrior in Woolworths
Humble he may seem
Behind his servile innocence
He plots and he schemes

See also The Jam - Saturdays Kids...

Saturday's girls work in Tescos and Woolworths


4. Nick Heyward - These Words

Nicest pop star I ever met. Have I said that before?

Homebase, on the other hand: just too bloody expensive to survive.

I love Elvis
She loves Woodstock
I love Homebase
She loves sunblock
How many times can you make a stand
To fall from the highest of all you've said and done?


3. T-Rex - Misfit 

Long before McDonalds, there was Wimpy. Marc Bolan was buying his burgers there way back in 1966!

Wimpy bar misfit
I don't wanna be
Like Billy the kid
Left hangin' from no tree.

See also Jethro Tull - Up To Me...

Take you to the cinema
And leave you in a Wimpy Bar 
You tell me that we've gone too far 
Come running up to me


2. The Specials - Man At C&A

Even nuclear war does not phase the man at C&A.

I'm the man in grey, 
I'm just the man at C&A
And I don't have a say 
In the war games that they play

See also Half Man Half Biscuit - Venus In Flares...


The man behind the mask at C&A’s was quite polite
He said that when I wore my mac I wouldn't have to fight


1. The Freshies - I'm In Love With The Girl On The Manchester Virgin Megastore Check-out Desk

What Frank Sidebottom did before he became Frank Sidebottom... hung around the Virgin Megastore all Saturday...

It has to be said that if you were a young lady when I was growing up, then 10 points were immediately added to your sex appeal if you worked in a record shop. Whether you would actually want to appeal to the sort of losers who spent all their Saturday afternoons flicking through the racks... well, that's another matter entirely.

Nobody is allowed to mourn the Virgin Megastore for one simple reason: Richard Branson is a dick.



Any old stores in your record collection? Or have the all closed down?

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