Our family holiday this year took us to Northumberland, a place I haven't been since I was a teenager when my parents took me to Seahouses on what would be our last family holiday together. I wasn't all that impressed, and after that I chose to stay home with my sister when they went away. Suffice it to say that Seahouses holds more appeal to a fifty-something... though fortunately there was enough to keep Sam entertained to. How long before he no longer wants to go on holiday with his parents.
When I lyric-searched Seahouses, I kept getting these guys... but no relation.
Although the song title at least is appropriate, thanks to us (for once) choosing the best week of the summer to be away... a little too hot for me on a couple of the days.
We stayed in Beadnell, a lovely quiet village just down the coast from Seahouses, and one that clearly means a lot to Geordie prog-folk bloke Richard Dawson...
She asks why we spend precious time Crafting our sheaves by hand When we could acquire all we need From the bastle at Beadnell Or one of the abundant caskets of parting cloud Which every sundown Float to ground on their dark balloons
Now if you're wondering if the house at the top of the page was our holiday accommodation... sadly not. That's actually the former home of William Armstrong, the Tony Stark of Victorian England, a "scientist, inventor and philanthropist" who I suspect made most of his fortune from arms dealing. That house, Cragside, was once described as "truly the palace of a modern magician". It was probably the most impressive place we visited, though the ostentatious display of wealth left a sour taste too.
On then to Alnwick, home of a far more wholesome magician. In the grounds of Alnwick Castle, we fought dragons and learned how to fly a broomstick just like Harry Potter and his chums.
One final treat came with a boat trip around the Farne Islands to visit some grey seals (sadly, the puffins had all left for their winter holidays). The lighthouse on the photo is the one where local legend Grace Darling made her dramatic rescue back in 1838...
Sadly, we didn't get as far as Lindisfarne on that trip... we're saving the Holy Island till our next visit.
Anyone who's ever made it across those steps At Lindisfarne, that Lindisfarne Where the tide comes in early and leaves us stranded Without our family until the morning
Welcome back to the wonderful world of "bands with the same name", as George likes to call it.
Saddle up for an underwater horse race...
SEA HORSES #1
Leaping from the oceans of Congleton and Macclesfield in 1988, these Sea Horses recorded three albums of ethereal wispiness before disbanding... just as John Squire formed his own bunch of Seahorses below. This lot kicked up a bit of a fuss, and after a while, according to a quote I found online, "Chris* Squire brought the name for an undisclosed figure and there's 15,000 reasons why we can't tell you. [The Sea Horses and their producer] each took a share to cover their losses... and not long after Chris Squire's Seahorse died." (Spoilers!)
*I don't know why they insist on calling him Chris Squire, because Chris Squire is the bassist in Yes and has nothing to do with any Seahorses. Maybe they're just taking the piss?
After falling out with Ian Brown and ending The Stone Roses, guitarist John Squire teamed up with busking songwriter Chris Helme to form The Seahorses. They didn't have the best of starts after Squire admitted he didn't like any of Helme's songs and wanted to stick with the ones he'd written instead.
These Seahorses broke up during the recording sessions for their second album after a big bust up between Squire and Helme in which Helme "turned a Larrivée guitar into match sticks".
Getting in on a technicality, this Pittsburgh band contributed a song to a 2006 Halloween compilation called Brains Are Served, which also featured Weird Paul, Sexually Active Corpse and Johnny Cash(less Society). Grab a copy next time you see it in a charity shop near you!
Here's a little tip for John Squire next time he wants to use a band name that's already been used. Rather than shelling out 15,000 clams, how about just sticking an exclamation mark on the end?
Here are some Seahorses! (or it might just be one bloke) from Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2012.
Also from 2012, and not even bothering with an exclamation mark, here are some Peruvian Seahorses. From the image illustrating their bandcamp page, I'm thinking they mean no 'arm.
I chose this particular tune because of its "title"...
Next, some folky-indie Seahorses from Edinburgh, the alias of one Ailsa McEwan, whose song-writing "channels the emotional vulnerability of her hero Jeff Buckley, the dreamy melancholia of The Smiths, and the haunting existential poetry of Leonard Cohen".
There were many more Seahorse-related bands out there - including Seahoarse, Seawhorse, The Plain Seahorses, The Winged Seahorses, Road of Seahorses, Seahorses Forever, Let's All Ride Seahorses and - my personal favourite - Seahorse Divorce.
But which band makes you see horses... and which makes you see red?
Hands up if you had your mum buy Weetabix just so you could get the free gifts?
I found a website that details all the free gifts given away inside a packet of Weetabix, from the 1930s to the present day. I remembered quite a few of them from the 70s and 80s.
They don't have free gifts inside Weetabix anymore. Further evidence, if evidence were truly required, that life was so much better when we were kids.
As discussed last week, I couldn't eat Weetabix with cold milk, so I had hot milk (which made them dissolve into a paste) and a large spoonful of Golden Syrup to make them palatable. Sam eats his with just cold milk, nothing else. He's a much healthier child than I was.
Here are some songs that mention Weetabix, starting, of course, with Mark E. Smith...
Real ale, curry as well - sophisticate! Spanish guitar doesn't get far In computer teaching job His dreamgirl sings adverts for the Weetabix A fancied wit that's imitation of Rumpole of Bailey
The Seahorses were John Squire's band after he fell out with Ian Brown. I see John's working with Liam Gallagher these days. He obviously has a penchant for collaborating with Neanderthals.
Please, may I leave the table? I don't think that I'll be able
To swallow your family values again today
Because a giant squid, he stole my wife and kid
Full story and pix, ten pence off your Weetabix, yeah, yeah
And now... from Norwich... it's the quiz of the week!
Where do I begin?
For a start, the theme tune is instantly recognisable, so clearly I watched this quiz show every week when I was too young to know better. I didn't remember the rules, so I looked them up. Contestants started with £10 and answered questions to boost their kitty - though they lost money for wrong answers. At various points in the show they were allowed to use their winnings to purchase the mediocre prizes that were on sale... so a brand new Mini Metro wouldn't really have cost you £140 back then.... would it?
The most memorable part of Sale of the Century (far more memorable than Nicholas Parsons and his "dolly birds") was that opening announcement... "Live from Norwich...!" I don't want to be mean to the people of Norwich (Alan Partridge does a good enough job of that), but it's hardly Las Vegas, is it? Nevertheless, the original UK version of SOTC (based on a US game show) ran from 1971 - 1983, so I guess it was a ratings winner.
Pointless trivia time - the show was revived by Sky in the late 80s, featuring the TV debut of one Simon Cowell. He won £20 worth of cooking utensils. If only his 15 minutes had ended there.
Here are some songs that pay tribute to The Quiz Of The Week, starting with the band John Squire formed after quitting The Stone Roses...
The word "Satellities" is clearly one that's ripe for inclusion in a future edition of Namesakes. It looks like it would be a very long edition, even by this blog's patience-testing standards. Here's one of the more recent contenders, with lead singer Johnny Vic performing live with a 16 piece choir at the Church of Saint Saviour in Hampstead.
Two TV lawyers have opened proceedings this weekend. Raymond Burr's Perry Mason yesterday and Harry Hamlin from LA Law today. I would have preferred a photo of his colleague, Susan Dey, but I couldn't find a shot of her with a camera. And I spent a long time looking...
Time to reveal My Top Ten Songs called Hello, and just Hello... or a repeated use of that word... or Hello (with something extra in brackets). Once again, I was overjoyed with the response. Thanks to all who played along and trawled their record collections for suitable suggestions (and unsuitable ones). I'll do my best to tally up the points below...
First off the incorrect answers...
(Remember, I will award bonus points for songs I own that didn't make the Top Ten and any that I didn't know but might have given a place to if I had.)
Straight off the mark, C can have a bonus point for suggesting The Rentals, a band created by former Weezer bassist Matt Sharp. I'd never heard it before, but it's not half bad.
C was then first to suggest Adele, which I do own... mainly because I ripped the other half's copy of 25... so that gets a point too. I like Adele and if this had been recorded in 1975, it might have made the chart. I just don't like the modern production sheen that's slopped over it... and most other 21st Century chart hits. It saps the soul from what is otherwise a rather nice tune. In my humble opinion. Similarly Charity Chic's suggestion of Beyoncé. I don't mind a bit of Beyoncé, but this one sounds a bit Beyoncé-by-the-numbers. (I'm very impressed that Beyoncé is such a big star that autocorrect automatically adds an accent to her name. You know you've arrived, etc.) And because I like Mark Owen best out of all the remaining Take Thatters, I'm going to give Alyson a bonus point for this. Because it's quite chipper.
The Swede can also have a bonus point for D.R. Hooker, which I had to listen to the whole album to hear because the single track wasn't on youtube... but it is suitably mental. I'm tempted to deduct a point for his suggestion of Oasis... but then loads of other people went and suggested it too. The chances of Oasis ever cropping up on this chart are somewhere in the remote territory between slim and feck all. Just so you know.
George can have a bonus point for Terry & Gerry, which I can't find anywhere on t'internet, but I'm assuming it's great. Because George suggested it. Or maybe his point is for reminding us how great Hello Walls by Faron Young is. It's a point, anyway: treasure it, George.
Lynchie can have a bonus point for being first to suggest Hello Hello by Talk Show, which I'd never heard before. Apparently they were very big in 1997... in Brazil. Not bad for its era though.
Last month's winner, Martin, can also have a bonus point for suggesting Bic Runga - Hello Hello. I love a bit of Bic, but hadn't heard this one before. Nothing for Evanescence though. I liked the piano, but I kept waiting for it to get going. I'm going to be vicious though and deduct a point for his suggestion of Elton John and Lady Gaga, because a) it's awful; and b) it comes from a film called Gnomeo & Juliet. Neither of them needed the money that much. Martin also can't have any points for Matthew Sweet (and Susannah Hoffs), but only because their cover of the old Todd Rundgren track in question has other words in its title: Hello, It's Me. Otherwise, it's a decent track.
Walter can have a bonus point for Eminem. This is in my collection, but it's mid-period Eminem which is pretty weak. I prefer his earlier stuff and the comeback album.
Jez can't have any bonus points for Martin Solveig Feat. Dragonette (although the video is rather entertaining) or the Stafford Brothers feat. Lil' Wayne & Christina Milian (which is a great example of the mystery of modern chart pop: how can so many people want to put their name to such utter dribble?). Jez also wins the coveted Worst Suggestion Of The Month award (minus two points) for Hello Hello by Twinkle... which my boss caught me watching at work, and now I'm looking for a new job.
Final bonus points go to my old Aussie pal Deano for bringing The Cat Empire, Dan Zanes and Merril Bainbridge to my attention. Good work, even though none of them make the list below...
Nobody got this one, even after I gave a clue. I'm not the biggest expert on Henry Rollins, and I do find his music a bit shouty at times, but he seems like a decent enough bloke on the radio. Found the album this comes from (Nice) in a charity shop and it's been well worth the 95p I paid for it.
I know, I know. It's hard enough getting people to admit to liking ELO. What chance have I with the Jeff Lynne-less Part II formed in the late 80s by original drummer Bev Bevan? They released two albums of new material in the 90s, following the ELO template of orchestrated Beatles shenanigans, but without Jeff's magic touch. Still, not bad if you like that kind of stuff.
Nobody got this one either... until I gave a partially accurate clue: "A forgotten Britpop band formed by half of a more famous group." C then did her research and came up with John Squire's short-lived Stone Roses replacement, a band that split up after one album in the late 90s due to "creative differences" and the fact that Squire thought their new material sounded "shit".
C suggested this first, even though she couldn't remember what it was called. Then she did remember, so two points for that. 1 point for everyone else who remembered it: bonus point to Jez for remembering that it had a bracketed Petrol on the end. This is from 1990, a pretty awful year for music so I'm not surprised it wasn't a hit. Surely poodle rock haircuts were out by then too? Couldn't lead singer Tom Dunne keep up with fashion and buy himself a pudding bowl?
The lyrics make this for me...
She wears diamonds, she wears rubies She wears stones as big as my ones That came from the coliseum And she says "D'you wanna see them?"
She came from Greece, she had a thirst for knowledge?
Millionaires is, to me at least, the great unsung James album. This is one of the tracks. It's rather lovely. Apparently it was also used in the soundtrack to a movie I've never seen called The Consequence of Love.
Jez was the first (and only!) person to suggest this. That gets him 2 points. It's not my Number 1 though, Jez.
If you were in any doubt that I would choose this song, the brackets should have tipped you over the edge. 2 points to Rigid Digit for suggesting this first. 1 point to anybody else who suggested it.
Here's the one I didn't think anyone would guess... and guess what? Nobody guessed it.
To be honest, I knew chuff-all about My Pleasure until I saw an advert on facebook suggesting I might like his music. I seem to remember there was an offer from his record company (Adult Teeth) to get a free EP, so I sent away for this... and then didn't listen to it all for a year. Until I came to compile this chart, in fact. When I did listen to it, I thought it was great. Lo-fi indie "weird pop" with shades of Jarvis, Half Man Half Biscuit, Denim et al. Worth your listening time if you're into any of those.
(Oh, but if you look back at the clue I gave for this one, you'll see that I couldn't have been more obvious if I'd tried!)
As obscure as this was, it wasn't quite as obscure as The Swede's suggestion of this Beatles "track". He gets one point for Most Obscure Suggestion of the Month.
Perhaps I should start a new series here called Defending The Indefensible, seeing as though so many of you expressed an aversion to this fine tune (even Alyson!). The Swede was first to hint at it, though he couldn't bring himself to speak its name so doesn't get any points. C named it but refused to make it an official suggestion, preferring to guess at Adele instead. Lynchie was the first one to suggest it seriously, even though he thought The Swede had beaten him to it. 2 points to Lynchie. 1 point to the rest of you, no points for the haters.
Anyway, the point is, I can see why this song causes so much upset. Of course I can. Big slushy 80s ballads are never going to be cool (unless you were a very uncool 12 year old in 1984). But I think this song deserves appreciation for being something else entirely. Indeed, if I wasn't featuring it here, I would have to squeeze it into Volume 2 of My Top Ten Stalker Songs, because it's creepy as hell... much more so than Every Breath You Take. Plus Lionel will always be cooler than Sting. (Cat: meet pigeons.) And don't even start me on the (yes, much-parodied) video in which Lionel proves, undisputedly that stalking DOES pay... but maybe only if you're stalking blind girls.
The proof of a good song though often comes in its re-interpretations. So if the big synthy strings and over-produced 80s echo of Lionel's original might stick in your throat, can I suggest versions by Me First & The Gimme Gimmes (pop punk), Richard Cheese (lounge), Paul Anka (swing*) or even Lionel himself, paired with Jennifer Nettles (country... or so it says on the label).
No?
Your loss.
(*Sez Jez: "from Anka’s 'Rock Swings', which shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the phrase 'Rock'")
Here's a little clue to help you with future editions of The Glorious 10th. If Prince has a song with the word/s of the month, chances are it'll be near the top. Hello was the b-side to Pop Life, available on the peerless 3CD Prince: The Hits & B-Sides compilation, but also (as Jez points out) there's a somewhat different Hello backwards at the end of Side 1 of Purple Rain.
C was the first to guess this. 2 points. 1 to the rest of you: though many of you seemed to think it would be my Number 4, perhaps because those of you were only familiar with the backwards version thought I was being sneaky. Which I would have been...
1. The Beloved
I have something of a love-hate relationship with the whole baggy era (and indeed, I'm not even sure The Beloved fit into the baggy category, though they're from that era and the sound and look fit). There were undeniably some great songs recorded by those bands, but they were always a bit cool and laddy for me to cherish the way I would the Britpop bands a couple of years later. Of course, the worst excesses of Britpop were even laddier, but at least they weren't flirting with dance music and rave culture as much: both of which left me cold.
Hello is my favourite tune by The Beloved despite its Church of Rave qualities, because the lyrical choices are so gleefully uncool. It sounds like Paul McCartney's far-worthier Let 'Em In has been rewritten by a bunch of cheeky 6th Formers... which is exactly what I was in 1989. Where else will you find Willy Wonka, The Supremes, Cannon & Ball, Desmond Tutu, Mork & Mindy, Billy Corkhill, Salman Rushdie, Kym Mazelle, Zippy, Bungle and Jeffrey Archer all in the same song? (Plus Vince Hilaire, who Rigid Digit describes as "Crystal Place and Portsmouth midfield maestro", thereby answering a question I have pondered for 27 years.)
Congratulations (and 2 points) to CC for being the first to guess this one, and (5 points) to my old pal Dave for being the first to guess it would be Number One. Although Dave has an advantage in that we are the same age and we survived the 90's gigging scene together, plus he likes Zippy & Bungle. And probably even Jeffrey Archer. 1 point to everyone else who mentioned it.
OK, so time for the scores on the doors. (RIP, Bruce.) I've added these up as best I can, taking into account all the arcane rules I made up for such things. Apologies if I miscalculated your score, but I'm sure you'll live.
1 point - George (Although last month when I gave George 1 point, he protested that I shouldn't have.)
2 points - Alyson, The Swede, Martin (how the mighty have fallen) and Walter.
3 points - Lynchie, Deano & Rigid Digit.
4 points - Jez.
5 points - Dave and Charity Chic.
But this month's undisputed winner, with a majestic NINE points, has to be...
Well done, C. You win the glory of being a real winner. Enjoy your prize.
Now, I know what you're all waiting for. What you really came here for. Never mind the answers to last month's Glorious 10th... what about this month's?
Come on back tomorrow. I'm knackered now. I had to marshall a birthday party for 20 hyperactive 4 year-olds yesterday, you know!
