Showing posts with label Manfred Mann. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Manfred Mann. Show all posts

Friday, 29 May 2026

Fun Fact Friday #8: Bird Brains


Hello bird brains! Another Fun Friday quiz for you. Test your knowledge of all things feathery...


1.  Which Flamingo Fact is true?

A) Flamingos can only stand on one leg at a time.
B) Flamingos can only eat when their heads are upside down.
C) Flamingos can only fly if their wings are completely dry.


2. Which Albatross Fact is true?

A) An Albatross can swallow a fish bigger than itself.
B) Albatrosses can sleep while they are flying.
C) Albatrosses like to ride on sharks’ fins.


3. Australian Musk Ducks can mimic human speech. One duck made headlines in 1987 because it learned to say…

A) ”Strewth, mate!”
B)  “Throw another shrimp on the barbie!”
C)  “You bloody fool!”


4. What do Bassian Thrushes do to help them find food?

A) Sing a “Worm Song”.
B) Sneeze.
C) Break wind.


5. Which Blue Tit Fact is true?

A) A Blue Tit weighs the same as a chicken egg.
B) A Blue Tit weighs the same as a pound coin.
C) A Blue Tit weighs the same as a satsuma.


6. Which Blue Jay Fact is true?

A) Blue Jays aren’t actually blue.
B) Blue Jays can only eat blue insects.
C) Blue Jays can only fly on windy days.


7. Which Pigeon Fact is True?

A) Pigeons are good at spelling.
B) Pigeons are good at multiplication.
C) Pigeons are good at punctuation.


8. Which Woodpecker fact is True?

A) A woodpecker wraps its tongue round its brain when hitting wood.
B) A woodpecker can drill a hole in a tree faster than a power drill.
C) A woodpecker laughs whenever it sees a worm or grub.


9. Which Owl Fact is True?

A) Owls cannot move their eyes.
B) Owls can be taught to play chess.
C) Owls will sometimes keep mice as pets.


10. Which Crow fact is True?

A) Crows can pick locks using their beaks and claws.
B) Crows can tell other crows about specific humans they don’t like. 
C) Crows can redirect lightning bolts during thunderstorms so that they hit buildings.


Tweet me your guesses in the comments.



Sunday, 12 October 2025

Snapshots #417: Songs You Can Live In


Why is there a picture above of Sophie Ellis Bextor holding a camera? Two reasons - firstly because she had a big hit in 2001 with a song called Take Me Home. And secondly, because I couldn't find a picture of Shakin' Stevens or Peters & Lee holding a camera.

A house (even This Ol' one) isn't a home... but it could be. So could all the places mentioned in the songs below...


15. Big gigs at Butlins.

Butlins run a series of big gigs called Weekenders.

The Weekenders - Inelegantly Wasted In Papa's Penthouse Pad In Belgravia

14. Now in interstellar space.

NASA's Voyager probes have now passed beyond our galaxy...

Voyager - Halfway Hotel

13. Fooled Ulric into thinking they were someone else.

"Fooled Ulric" was an anagram.

The Colourfield - Castles In The Air

12. She could have been part of last week's quiz. They mix Astbury and Weller with maximum effort.

Last week's quiz involved songs with repeated names - like Lisa Lisa. If Ian Astbury and Paul Weller got together, they could form a supergroup called Cult Jam. Maximum effort = full force.

Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam with Full Force - I Wonder If I Take You Home

11. Half of Ernie the Explorer!

Ernie the Explorer was Ernest Shackleton. Half of his surname is...

Shack - On The Terrace

10. New man and old Sherlock in a good stuffing.

Paul Newman joins former Sherlock Jeremy Brett to create a key ingredient in stuffing...

Paul Brett's Sage - Cottage Made For Two

9. Les Verts.

Nickname of the famous French football club...

Saint Etienne - Wood Cabin

8. Stratofortress.

It's full name is the Boeing B-52 Stratofortress...

The B52s - Love Shack

7. Mayall, Dodd, two thousand, two hundred and forty pounds. 

Rik Mayall, Ken Dodd and a ton (in UK measurements).

Rik Kenton - Bungalow Love

6. The first red reshuffle.

"First red" was an anagram...

The Drifters - Come On Over To My Place

5. A good reason to pull onto the hard shoulder.

Puncture - You Can't Rock And Roll (In A Council Flat)

Extra marks if you got that one.

4. Between red and white.

ROSÉ (featuring Bruno Mars) - APT. 

3. Goes after a spider, leads a Mystery gang, wrote songs with Cynthia.

Spider-Man. Fred leads Mystery Inc. and drives the Mystery Machine. Cynthia Weil wrote songs with her husband Barry Mann.

Manfred Mann - Semi-Detached Suburban Mr James

2. Brain tissue.

Apparently, the softest cells in your body are in your mushy brain tissue.

Soft Cell - Bedsitter

1. Can Sam send a cryptic clue?


"Sam send" was an anagram.

Take your pick between...


...and...


Don't leave home next Saturday morning - stay in for more Snapshots!

Wednesday, 13 September 2023

Product Placement #21: Maxwell House


At the end of the first proper date I ever went on, driving my dad's car and feeling all so grown up, I dropped the lucky young lady back at her house... and she asked me in for coffee. I didn't drink coffee, but I took her up on the offer, because I'd seen enough films to know that coffee could be code for something else. Turns out she just meant coffee, and it was horrible instant yuck. I seriously suspect it was Maxwell House. I drank it, then she told me her brother would be home soon, and I left. The next time I saw her, she'd got back together with her former boyfriend. 

Nowadays, I drink a lot of coffee, but I've never been a fan of instant. When I was a kid, I drank tea, because that's what my mum drank. By the time I started work, I was drinking buckets of tea every day. Then I started working nights and tea wasn't enough. There was a crappy Klix Coffee Machine in the kitchen at work, and I started drinking it purely to help me stay awake. I didn't like the taste, but there's a theory that you have to taste something 15 times before you can properly decide if you like it or not. Machine coffee was still preferable to the jar of Maxwell House behind the kettle. I've no idea what Victoria Wood saw in it.

Here are some other people who enjoy Maxwell House far more than I ever did...


Presumably they needed the money.

I had too much coffee today
My mind's going blank, can't keep track of what's happening


And I thought I was a caffeine addict!

Marshall Tucker takes his Maxwell House can fishing... but there's no coffee in it.

Well, I'm goin' down to the river
I got a cane pole in my hand
Got my red worms in a Maxwell House coffee can
I'm gonna sit under a shade tree on a riverbank where it's cool
I'm gonna close my eyes and dream and let the cork bob away my blues


While this guy uses it as a way of convincing his fans he's a man of the people...

And we like cold keg beer and fixin' up trucks
Old bird dogs and the woman we love
Maxwell House steamin' out of a coffee cup
We say our prayers, send 'em to the sky
Bust our backs, barely getting by
Carolina to California up to Illinois
Yeah, there's guys like us
Blue collar boys


Maxwell House coffee was named after its first big customer - The Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville. President Theodore Roosevelt reportedly said that the coffee there was "good to the last drop", and that became the company's advertising slogan. 

This is the 'Coffee Blues'. I likes a certain brand:
Maxwell's House, it's good till the last drop
Just like it says on the can, I used to have a girl
Cookin' a good Maxwell House, she moved away
Some said to Memphis and some said to Leland

But I found her, I wanted her to cook me
Some good Maxwell's House. I understand
If I can get me just a spoonful of Maxwell's House
Do me much good as two or three cups this other coffee


The Maxwell House Hotel had a chequered history, housing soldiers during the civil war, being reputedly haunted following a violent murder, and hosting the first national meeting of the Ku Kluc Klan. It was destroyed by fire on Christmas night 1961, and later demolished.

Here's some "coffee-drenched death metal" from Stockholm...


After that, your ears probably need a rest. So settle down and listen to some late night Tom Waits... what a writer!

A cab combs the snake, tryin' to rake in that last night's fare
And a solitary sailor who spends the facts of his life like small change on strangers
Paws his inside pea coat pocket for a welcome twenty-five cents
And the last bent butt from a package of Kent's
As he dreams of a waitress with Maxwell House eyes
And marmalade thighs with scrambled yellow hair
Her rhinestone-studded moniker says "Irene"
As she wipes the wisps of dishwater blonde from her eyes



Sunday, 29 January 2023

Snapshots #276: A Top Ten Doo Doo Songs

All hails Michael McDonald, King of Doo! Well, Doobie. Because he's from the Doobie Brothers. You see? Have I explained that enough?

Here's ten songs with some Doo in them...


10. Filthy.


"The Filth" is not particularly complimentary slang for The Police.

The Police - De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da

Some of Sting's very best lyrics, right there.

9. When Henry Met Serena.

Lenny Henry meets Serena Williams.

Lenny Williams - Shoo Doo Fu Fu Ooh

(Top 40 hit in 1977, pop pickers.)

8. Laverne's Street Blues.

Lauren Laverne from Kenickie & 6Music sings on the Hill.

Lauryn Hill - Doo-Wop (That Thing)

7. He can always sell any dream to me... and may be related to #8.

Joshua Kadison sang "Jesse, you can always sell any dream to me". And this is another Hill.

Jessie Hill - Ooh Poo Pah Doo

6. Interdit aux moins de 21 ans.

That's the warning label that appeared on copies of Serge & Jane's infamous 1969 Number 1 hit. And I'm sure nobody under 21 bought a copy.

Jane Birkin - Di Doo Dah

5. White lies from a Glasvegas social worker.

Glasvegas sang about their social worker, Geraldine.

White lies are fibs.

The Geraldine Fibbers - You Doo Right

4. Played keyboards in the band.

That's Manfred Mann (born Manfred Sepse Lubowitz), who played keyboards in the band that took his name. Paul Jones sang the songs.

Manfred Mann - Do Wah Diddy Diddy

3. The Longer Tonsils.

A rather fitting anagram.

The Rolling Stones - Doo Doo Doo Doo Doo (Heartbreaker)

2. Ask Ethan.

Anyone who watched GLOW will recognise the subject of today's second anagram, the wonderful...

Kate Nash - Do-Wah-Doo

1. Charley's Chandeliers.

Charley Pride sang about Crystal Chandeliers.

An obvious Number One...


Doo come back next Saturday for more Snapshots...


Sunday, 11 December 2022

Snapshots #270: A Top Ten Suburban Songs

Here's what the internet suggested when I typed "suburban camera" into my search engine.

Slow down. Here are this week's suburban answers...


10. The Offspring?

The Descendents - Suburban Home

Who doesn't want to be stereotyped?

9. Zealots.

The Fanatics - Suburban Love Songs

The Fanatics were Simon Fowler's band prior to Ocean Colour Scene.

8. Sulphuric Children.

The chemical symbol for sulphur is S. So these are the S-Kids.

The Skids - Sweet Suburbia

7. Euphemistic initialism used to express frustration.

FFS!

That's an amalgamation of Franz Ferdinand & Sparks, in case you were unaware.

 FFS - Little Guy From The Suburbs

6. US Quiz Rota found to be all messed up

"US Quiz Rota" was an angram.

Suzi Quatro - Official Suburban Superman

5. Wogan’s entrance room.

That would be a Terry Hall.

Terry Hall - Suburban Cemetery

4. Bassett, between two blokes.

Fred Bassett. Remember him?

Manfred Mann - Semi-Detached, Suburban Mr. James

3. Prisoner remembers the good times inside.

Prisoner reMEMBERS the good times inside.

The Members - The Sound of the Suburbs

2. Where you can buy a Geordie term of endearment, lads.

In the "pet" shop, boys.

Pet Shop Boys - Suburbia

1. What Spider-Man’s Uncle does with his sheets. 

Uncle Ben always folds his sheets. With great bed linen comes great responsibility.


More next Saturday.

Sunday, 17 November 2019

Saturday Snapshots #110 - The Answers


If you were a rebel without a clue yesterday morning, here comes a giant relief... this week's answers.


10. Repetitive male title can't get Minogue right.


You spell it Kylie, not...

Mr. Mister - Kyrie

9. Double Tutu for holy people.


Double Decker + Desmond Tutu.

Desmond Dekker - The Israelites

Still hard to hear that without thinking of Vitalite.

8. Sounds like a pink loft... or what happens to Neil Diamond after he stops talking and starts getting emotional.


Pink!'s real name is Alecia Moore.

Neil Diamond sang I Am I Said.

Alisha's Attic - I Am I Feel

7. Wedlock between two fellas creates powerful medicine woman.


Two men with Fred (Wedlock) in between.

Dr. Quinn was a Medicine Woman.

Manfred Mann - The Mighty Quinn

6. Unlikely weather forecast threatens us all with death.


I'm amazed that Brian got this by recognising the artist from the photo.

Another Sunny Day - You Should All Be Murdered

5. Dustin Hoffman meets girl with axe, by muddled, rackety aunt.


"Rackety aunt" is Tanya Tucker muddled up.

Dustin Hoffman was the Rain Man.

Lizzie Borden had an axe.

Tanya Tucker - Lizzie & The Rain Man

4. Bumbled horses cross the line every time.


Bumble Bees + Gee Gees...

Bee Gees - You Win Again 

3. Sovereign & subject together promise a brighter future.


Tough one this. But Brian saved the day!

Citizen King - Better Days

2. Most babies are: it's the amniotic fluid. The hell, you say!


Hell is The Underworld.

Babies are born slippy.

Underworld - Born Slippy

1. Flawless relation found beneath pitch.


Pitch = tone.

Is there are more perfect pop song? I know Teenage Kicks takes the Peel plaudits, but it doesn't contain this line...

His mother bought him a synthesizer
Got the Human League into advise her

...which is surely one of the best rhymes ever written into a chart hit.

Why aren't teenage lads making noises like this anymore?



Live Fast, Die Young... but not before coming back next week for more of the same.

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