“Ev’rybodys talking about John and Yoko” April 30, 2013

The European Union recently voted to ban the chemical compound Neonicotinoid from pesticides. This came after a number of scientists reported that it was extremely harmful to bees and may have played a part in the decline in the worldwide Bee population.

I assume they get a buzz out of doing that!

Before the decision a number of protests were held including one in Brussels a few days ago. So why I am posting about this in my music blog? well mostly because the protesters adapted a John Lennon song to meet their needs; The were singing the line ‘all we are saying, is give bees a chance’. I love it and I suspect Lennon would have approved too. Click here to read the story on the BBC website.

It soon became clear that the chemicals were having a really strange effect on the Bee population!

” When everyone has lost their heads around us” April 29, 2013

Scottish songstress Emili Sande has broken a UK chart record previously held by the Beatles. Her album, ‘Our Version Of Events‘ has spent 63 consecutive weeks in the top 10 of the album chart. This is now a week longer than the Beatles album ‘Please Please Me‘ which charted in the top 10 for 62 consecutive weeks between 1963 and 1964.

Emeli’s album has now sold more than 1.82 million copies and has achieved weekly sales of more than 100,000 on three separate occasions. The album has spawned three UK number one singles: “Read All About It” with Professor Green, “Beneath Your Beautiful“, with Labrinth, and “Next to Me“. The latter was also the third most played pop song of 2012.

The Beatles album contains no UK number one singles. Unless of course your refer to the NME charts from 1963 where the “Please Please Me” single made it to the top spot. It only reached number two in all the other UK charts at the time.

“Stand up beside the fireplace”

Apparently Paolo Di Canio the manager of Sunderland Football Club says he has improved his command of English by using a karaoke machine and listening to Oasis. So is his English better than it was? That is probably a definite maybe. Whilst his club may survive for another season in the Premiership I suspect that it is unlikely that they will live forever unless he really keeps his beady eye on the opposition; d’you know what I mean? The owners of the club have told Paolo to don’t look back in anger and to just roll with it!

There was another piece of premiership news in the UK press this week as well. Chris Martin off of Coldplay was spotted with his friend Jay Z at the Arsenal versus Manchester United match this weekend. I guess they had 99 problems but a pitch ain’t one!

“Oh I just wanna show you off to all of my friends” April 27, 2013

One Direction were recently given the honour of having their wax sculpted likenesses made and put on show in Madame Tussauds in London. personally I am really struggling to tell the real Wand Erection from the wax version. I hope that no one makes that mistake when it comes time to melt them down in a couple of years. But hopefully their careers will be on the wane by then so some wax activity will provide the chance to flog some 1D candles made from either the real 1D or their wax counterparts will bring in some much-needed cash for the band and for Dr Evil a.k.a Simon Cowell.

“You could be the DJ I could be the dance floor” April 24, 2013

JLSasaurus now extinct……. WOOOO HOOO!

It is with obvious regret and sadness that I have to announce the appalling news that JLS will be breaking up. I would also like to ask is that first sentence true? Well technically the bit about JLS breaking up was, but the obvious regret and sadness was in fact complete bollocks. My only sadness is that this didn’t happen so much sooner. How did we manage to give these useless pop muppets the oxygen of publicity for nearly five years! They arrived via a TV show which is less tasteful than the sulphur discharge from Satan‘s hemorrhoids; that’ll be the X Factor. They didn’t even finish first, that was the equally short on talent Alexandra Burke.

Someone stole all the toilets and toilet doors so JLS were left squatting and unable to go…..is that why they are full of shit?

In five years they have clearly wrung their teenage audience dry (well technically they have drained the coffers of the parents of their teenage audience); four albums and five UK number one singles? What has the world come to? As if Westlife were not bad enough these boys have taken the worst of them and added a dance beat and more stage dancing. so goodbye to Oritse Williams, Marvin Humes, J.B. Gill and Aston Merrygold. I would love to say I’ll miss you, but that would be a lie. But I guess the ensuing solo albums might be so bad that they’ll be good for a laugh. One will do an album of German oompah style covers of the Dead Kennedy’s back catalogue, another will spit out a concept album about how My Little Pony‘s are made and the other two will collaborate on a re-recording of everything JLS have ever recorded using only flatulence and water! But obviously being the superstars that they are they couldn’t just break up and go away, they have to do the obligatory farewell tour, which has been very imaginatively titled ‘Goodbye; The Greatest Hits Tour’ which as you have probably guessed will be in support of the album ‘Goodbye: The Greatest Hits’. So clearly not a cynical cash in is it? Then there will be the reunion tour in 2023 to look forward to.

By the end of next year our fan base will be about as big as this!

Finally and just to add a degree of balance I have included a video of one of their UK number ones just in case any of their obviously distraught fans has arrived here by mistake!

“I hate to turn up out of the blue, uninvited” April 14, 2013

A few days ago the one billionth song was downloaded in the UK only ten years after the legal download was first launched. Now that is quite a phenomenal performance isn’t it? The top 10 most downloaded songs in the UK are;

1. Adele – Someone Like You

2. Maroon 5 ft Christina Aguilera – Moves Like Jagger

3. Gotye ft Kimbra – Somebody I Used To Know

4. Black Eyed Peas – I Gotta Feeling

5. Rihanna ft Calvin Harris – We Found Love

6. Kings Of Leon – Sex On Fire

7. Carly Rae Jepsen – Call Me Maybe

8. LMFAO – Party Rock Anthem

9. Bruno Mars – Just The Way You Are (Amazing)

10. Jessie J – Price Tag

No real surprises there really, all artists of the modern age. Of course there have been the campaigns to get old songs in the chart via downloads. Some of these have been successful and many haven’t. We now have the annual let’s stop X Factor getting to the top at Christmas. That probably peaked with the success of Rage Against The Machine‘s “Killing In The Name”. There have also been the slightly more ridiculous campaigns which probably culminated in the arrival of Judy Garland’s “Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead” from the Wizard Of Oz at number two in the charts this week aimed at ‘celebrating’ the death of Margaret Thatcher. I was in two minds about this plan, but frankly right now I don’t think it feels right. The whole idea of celebrating anyones death is odd. Why not just get out on the streets to protest against what the current government is doing to the country. That makes more sense doesn’t it?

“Who takes all the glory and none of the shame” April 8, 2013

I won’t say much about the death of the grocer‘s daughter, I will just let the music speak for itself!

“His eighty eight key smile is so pleasant to see” April 3, 2013

A 1877 Steinway Grand Piano has finally returned to Detroit after a long restoration. The piano was used for many years in Motown Studio B in the Motor City. It will be on display in the Motown Historical Museum along with some of the now unusable strings and hammers. The restoration was partly funded by Paul McCartney who played the piano along with Berry Gordy in New York last year shortly after the restoration.

Can you imagine how many famous Motown artists have tickled the ivories on this beautiful instrument?  Click here to read the full report on the BBC website. A story about a Motown piano can really only have a couple of songs to go with it right? In my opinion one of them is very good and was produced by Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards from Chic and the other one was crap despite being produced by George Martin. What do you think?

“Now I need a place to hide away” March 23, 2013

The working title for the Beatles classic “Yesterday”, well at least until the lyrics were completed, was ‘Scrambled Eggs‘. I’m sure that many of you know that already. But did you know that Paul McCartney also tried to collaborate with Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonics Workshop. Delia created the Doctor Who theme and McCartney wanted her to replace the string quartet of “Yesterday” with a full on electronic sound.

If that had happened maybe Kraftwerk, Can and the like would not be seen as influential as they are. Imagine if the Beatles had also invented electronica. What kind of music world would that have given us? If you want to read this story on the NME site click here.

If anyone has made, or can find, a mash-up of the Doctor Who theme and the Beatles “Yesterday” I would love to hear it. I certainly can’t find such a mash-up, but I have found a couple that use either “Yesterday” or the Doctor Who Theme.

“Where is that moonlight trail that leads to your side?” March 12, 2013

Following the Oscar win for the Bond theme “Skyfall” Adele is being tipped to record the theme from the next James Bond movie as well. She wrote the song with Paul Epworth and she will need to record another two Bond themes to catch up with the current record holder for recording the most theme songs to this iconic film franchise. Dame Shirley Bassey has sung three Bond songs;

“Goldfinger” (1964) – written by Leslie Bricusse, Anthony Newley and John Barry.

“Diamonds Are Forever” – (1971) – written by John Barry and Don Black.

“Moonraker” – (1979) – written by John Barry and Hal David.

All three were produced by John Barry. “Goldfinger” was the best chart performer of the three reaching number 21 in the UK and number 8 in the USA. Shirley was initially earmarked to record the opening credits song for the Thunderball film from 1965. The song was called “Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” but Cubby Broccoli the film’s producer decided that the song had to have the same title as the film. This resulted in  a new song called, unsurprisingly, “Thunderball” being written. It was recorded my another Welsh singing star, Tom Jones. A version of ”Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” was recorded by Dionne Warwick and this version is included on the film’s soundtrack album. Incidentally Adele’s “Skyfall” is only the second Bond theme song not to appear on the accompanying soundtrack album. The first was “You Know My Name” sung by Chris Cornell for Casino Royale from 2006.