The European Union recently voted to ban the chemical compoundNeonicotinoid 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!
You may have noticed that a secret selection recently took place to pick a very important figure. A person that we truly hope will be more successful than the previous occupant of the role, who frankly was a little too old for the task. I bet you think I’m talking about the selection of the new Pope don’t you? Well I’m not, I’m talking about the secretive BBC cabal that selects the artist that will represent the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest.
the recent puff of smoke emanating from Broadcasting House signalled the appointment of Welsh songstress Bonnie Tyler as this years representative. A successor to Englebert Humperdinck from last year. Apparently Bonnie is still ‘very big in Europe’. I’m not sure that is an advantage for the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest. Bonnie’s song is called “Believe In Me” and for me it is an inoffensive ditty that will probably remain towards the bottom of the pile when the votes are cast. If the Beeb were ‘Holding Out For A Eurovision Hero’ I think they will need to hold out a lot longer.
The song was written by an Anglo US team consisting of Desmond Child (US), Lauren Christy (UK) and Christopher Braide (UK). the contest takes place on 18th May in Malmö in Sweden. Which means at least there will be no newspaper headline puns utilising Bonnie’s first hit “Lost In France“. It may also be the first Eurovision that I fail to blog about on the night. For two reasons; first last years contest was really dull and secondly I will be on holiday
What do you think of “Believe In Me” and how do you think it compares with earlier UK entries? In more Eurovision news the composer of the Armenian entry “Lonely Planet” is none other than the great Tony Iommi off of Black Sabbath. He is expecting it to be slagged off, but what the hell, he’s in Sabbath right?
I first heard Kevin Ayers back in the early 70s and ‘Joy Of A Toy’ remains a favourite album of mine. So it is with sadness that I am posting about his demise. He passed away in his sleep aged 68 on February 18th at his home in France. Ayers was a pioneer of the British psychedelic scene and first found fame with Soft Machine. John Peel once said this of him; “Kevin Ayers’ talent is so acute you could perform major eye surgery with it”. Click here to read the BBC report of Kevin’s death.
Kevin has worked with many people, including Syd Barrett, Brian Eno, Mike Oldfield and John Cale. He was there for the formation of Soft Machine in the mid 60s. The band was named after the William S Burroughs novel ‘The Soft Machine’. Kevin once sold his Fender jazz bass to Noel Redding from Jimi Hendrix’ band. This was after an extensive US tour. He grew up in Canterbury and lived for some time in Ibiza and France.
Interestingly he wasn’t the only one in the family with such a pioneering spirit. His father Rowan Ayers was a BBC Producer and was responsible for kicking off the classic BBC music show ‘The Old Grey Whistle Test‘. If you have never listened to Kevin Ayers then I suggest you rectify that right now! I have included a few of my favourite Ayers songs at the end of this post. My thoughts go to Kevin’s family, friends and fans. RIP Kevin Ayers – a true British Rock legend!
As a child I really enjoyed the Narnia stories and although they have lost a bit of sparkle for me as I got older they are still great stories. I think the way that C.S. Lewis‘ Christian beliefs crept into the stories in a metaphorical kind of way soured them a little. Anyway to celebrate the news that a C.S. Lewis memorial stone will be placed in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey next year I thought I’d pick a Lion, Witch and Wardrobe song selection for you. Click here to read the full report on the BBC website. In a strange coincidence Clive Staples Lewis died 49 years ago today, 22nd November 1963, the same day that President Kennedy was assassinated.
Does anyone fancy some stuffed Anaconda? Really? Well it’s quite mature, maybe 120 years and will only set you back £10,000. That’s a bargain if I ever saw one. Anyway I’m not talking about some strange delicacy to be eaten, I’m referring to Albert the stuffed Anaconda who lives in the Ansel Library at the Foreign Office in London. Well, when I say lives I really mean that he is hung from the wall. He has been dead for some time. He’s not just resting, he is indeed and ex Anaconda.
Albert was a gift to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office some time in the late 1800s after he had received the full services of a taxidermist. Albert was allegedly presented by a bishop, in what is now Guyana, to the Colonial Secretary sometime in the 19th Century. As such he is in fact a Foreign Office asset and therefore need to be maintained. This news came to light following a request by the Guido Fawkes website via the Freedom of Information Act.
In my opinion this money could easily have been spent somewhere else and Albert could have been scrapped, buried or given a seat in parliament. I find it incredible that in these times of austerity so much money could have been spent on a dead snake! We are living in a time where budgets are constricted with venom and politicians are rattled! Did the cabinet hold a COBRA meeting? What do you think of stuffed Albert? Could we not have made a few pairs of shoes for the homeless from Albert’s skin or bailed out our local Greek kebab shop?
Click here to read the story of Albert on the BBC. Of course this is a music blog so please enjoy a few snake related songs;
Last year I posted about the death of Jimmy Saville as did many people. At the time I felt that he had been a bit of an eccentric but now it is clear that he was a cowardly paedophile scumbag. In the last few weeks I have had thousands of people searching for Saville arriving at my blog. I just want to make it clear that I have no respect for him and the only feelings I have for him are that he died before he could be tried. If there is such a place I hope he rots in hell.
As usual the downfall of a celebrity brings about a whole range of jokes about that person, usually derivatives of those that have been used for others. One of the many that I have seen was “The Vatican has revealed that Jimmy Saville was only two sexual assaults from getting his own parish!” Now that one did appeal to my sick sense of humour. However what I read earlier on a BBC profile of Scumbag Saville, who was a lifelong Roman Catholic, was that 22 years ago “Pope John Paul II made Saville a Knight Commander of the Order of Saint Gregory the Great . This particular honour is also called a papal knighthood“. So maybe that joke wasn’t too far from the truth after all. What do you think of what appears to be the real Jimmy Saville?
Clearly paedos hunt in packs! I hope Glitter is shitting himself now!
Well it’s been a long wait but Felix Baumgartner has done it. he has jumped from a balloon some 128,000 feet above the earth. He has broken a record that has been held since 1960 by Colonel Joe Kittinger. Felix appeared to have a spot of bother at the start of his jump when he was spinning over and over for a short while. He reached a top speed of more than 700 miles an hour. Click here to read the BBC report of his successful jump. I also found it a little interesting that he jumped over Roswell, site of the alleged crash landing of an alien spacecraft in 1947.
To celebrate Mr Baumgartner’s success I thought that you might like to listen to some jump related songs.
I am sure that most of you are familiar with the ELO classic “Mr Blue Sky” which reached number 6 in the UK charts in 1978. It was taken from the band’s 1977 double album ‘Out Of The Blue‘. I had always thought that the vocoder part at the end of the song said ‘Mr Blue Sky’s gone’. However as my good friend Stuart O’Hara pointed out, having heard Jeff Lynne interviewed on the One Show on the BBC, it actually says ‘please turn me over’. I can hear you ask why, well the answer is simple. The song was the last track on side one of the second disc of the album and it was an instruction to turn the record over. To those of you who don’t know what records are I would suggest that you ask your parents or your grandparents!
In the meantime enjoy once again an ELO classic and a very happy song indeed!
There was a news article on the BBC website this week about the Drifters. Apparently they are touring the UK at the moment and they have sadly had a lot of their possesions and kit stolen during a meal stop in Nottingham. Obviously that is not good news and I certainly hope that they get their stuff back. However what really interested me was what almost appeared like a throwawy line in the report. It said that the group have had 65 different members since they formed in 1953. That must be some kind of record surely. if you know of a group who have had more members then I’d love to know. Acts like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir or the London Symphony Orchestra and probably the So Solid Crew clearly do not qualify!
If I had lost my job would I be in line for a royal honour? Probably not, unless of course I had been a member of Call Me Dave and Bad Egg Clegg’s cabinet. Apparently a number of people who were shuffled towards the exit during Cameron‘s recent reshuffle are likely to be recommended to receive an honour in the Queen’s New Years Honours list.
Personally I really dislike this whole honours system anyway and in the remote likelihood I was ever offered one I would turn it down. But to effectively get one for being made redundant because presumably your performance could have been better, that really sucks the big one doesn’t it? Click here to read the BBC report on this blatant act of nepotism. Am I the only person who is a bit perplexed and annoyed by this? I’d love to know what you think.
But of course this is a music blog, so I thought I’d let you hear a song that has a cryptic message about what I think of the majority of politicians. At the risk of sounding like Rolf Harris; ‘can you guess what it is yet?’
Cand cumperi arta nu cumperi doar ceea ce vezi si pipai cumperi sufletul unui om, sufletul artistului pentru ca el/ artistul s-a uitat in sufletul lui si a scos de acolo ce a gasit
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