If this were a paranoid conspiracy part of the internet, we might be wondering if there was a curse on Buffy The Vampire Slayer. First, the proposed revival / reboot series was cancelled with very little explanation. Then actor Nicholas Brandon, who played Xander through the show's entire run from 1997–2003, died of "natural causes" back in March. He was the same age as me. And now, we hear of the passing of Anthony Head, aka Rupert Giles, a little bit older, but no age really (he was 72).
If you never watched Buffy, you might recall Head playing the Prime Minister in Little Britain, or his recurring role as Hannah Waddingham's estranged husband in Ted Lasso. And if that still doesn't ring any bells, well... here's his brother.
Both brothers appeared in the lead role in Chess back in the 80s... but only Murray got on Top of the Pops. Anthony got his chance to sing on TV a little later...
If that's all a little Broadway for your tastes, then here's Manchester band Cruush with their very own tribute to Anthony Head's most famous character...
As a follow-up to last week's post about there not being a lot of boys named Gary anymore, I promised to tackle girls' names next. And Sam was once again very helpful, particularly when this song popped up on an in-car mixtape...
Still one of Paul Heaton's finest hours, that - and I love the guest appearance by George Michael in the video.
Anyway, as the song played, Sam told me, "there's none of those girls in my school."
(I had to search for that one. Not enough songs about girls called Philippa. There was a Pippa in my 6th form. I fancied her. No chance. She went out with my mate Simon.)
So then, I hear you ask, if Sam doesn't go to school with any of the girls above... what are his female schoolmates called? Well, he knows at least five girls called...
As with the boys' names then, there's been another major shift in what parents are choosing to call their kids these days... and the most popular names are ones that would mostly have belonged to old people when I was a kid.
It's also highly unlikely that Marie will be the name of anyone's latest flame in Gen A... making all these old songs sound even more out of date.
5. The city with the longest name is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit. But we call it...?
There was also a question about what the following three cities have in common… New York, Mumbai, Istanbul. But I’ll give you the answer to that one… as I might have done to one of the questions above, being unable to resist an obvious tune.
As a follow-up to yesterday's post about the power of boredom, here are some song titles in similar vein. As we've got Barbra Streisand socking it to Ryan O'Neal above, in the 1979 movie The Main Event, I thought we'd let Babs kick off proceedings today...
That one was written by the songwriting team of Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen who also wrote a bunch of classic Frank Sinatra hits including High Hopes, Come Fly With Me and the majestic All The Way. Nothing boring about those guys.
Still, at least Babs only finds love boring. These guys are bored with pretty much everything...
I always admire a title that spills over onto the next line. The Front Bottoms are from New Jersey. Iffypedia explains their name, in case you can't work it out for yourself. They also quote singer Brian Sella: "This is our name. If you don't like it then you don't like it."
Next we have Jason Lytle, with a song he presumably wrote about The Supreme Leader of North Korea...
Blimey. What a bunch of bores. Still, as the aforementioned Manchester miserablist turned dubiously-opinionated bore once had it...
What really lies Beyond the constraints of my mind? Could it be the sea With fate mooning back at me? No, it's just more lock-jawed pop-stars Thicker than pig-shit Nothing to convey They're so scared to show intelligence It might smear their lovely career
Sam has started to question the song titles when they appear on the in-car stereo. The view screen gives us track info, but only as much of the title as can be squeezed into a 10cm box. So longer titles take some figuring out. For instance, he was convinced that The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get by Morrissey was actually called The More You See Norma, The Closer I Get, which would actually be a much better song title... especially for Morrissey.
This also led to the following exchange when One Night In Bangkok by Murray Head (Or: One Night In...) flashed up on the screen...
(Anyone reading this nonsense for the first time might question why that particular song would be playing in my car. Longtime readers are probably immune to that by now.)
"Year 5 are doing this for their song in the Nativity Play this year."
"What?"
"Yes, it's a really big, complicated song to sing."
"They're singing One Night In Bangkok for Nativity!? Why?"
"Miss XXX chose it."
"Are they going to rap the verses like he does? I can't wait to hear them singing 'I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine!'".
"Well, they're doing it."
I don't see you guys rating
The kind of mate I'm contemplating
I'd let you watch, I would invite you
But the queens we use would not excite you
"Are you sure about this, Sam?"
"Wait, what's it called again, this song?"
"One Night In Bangkok."
"Oh. Maybe the one Year 5's doing is called One Night At Christmas. It's a bit like this one though."
"We're going out tonight - out and about tonight..."
Yes, I actually went out on a Saturday night... whatever makes her happy, as Brett sang. So all I expected to provide you with this Sunday morning were the pre-prepared answers, no scores. Then you only went and hoovered up all the points in a three horse race that took under an hour - a record! Congrats to Rigid Digit, Martin and Lynchie... who just pipped the other two to the trophy by one point. Thanks also to Chris for mopping up the stray half point a bit later.
Commiserations to Brian, who stayed out late with the hope of sweeping in to get an early victory. Hope you had a nice night out before that, Brian!
Answers then...
10. In the days before mobile phones, these neanderthals ruled the airwaves.
Pretty self-explanatory, this one... if you remember it.
