My word there’s some excellent music locked in them grooves.

I may be an old hippy but I’m absolutely loving listening to Echoes by Pink Floyd.  Storming track.

And I’m only just scratching the surface (literally as well as metaphorically) of stuff that will delight.  I have a fun few weeks (possibly months) of rediscovery ahead.

It seems that one of the bands that I grew up with is re-forming.

Not any old band no but probably the band that influenced my tastes more than any other (thanks to my brother).

Yup SWANS are coming back.  I somehow doubt they’ll be returning to the likes of classic pieces such as this but I’m still going to be looking out for albums and concerts.

Made my day!

On Saturday I was in Birmingham at the jazz festival.  I’d specifically wanted to see “The Hot Djazz Trio of Cracow”.  Never heard of them before but they sounded intriguing enough.

They turned out to be pretty decent.  Two guitars and a double bass.  No singing and no banter (I guess their English wasn’t too great) but the music was good.  It reminded me of fillums of the Caribbean for some reason.

And that was Satdy.

Sunday was spent in the company of walkers in Derbyshire (not the “Vale of Pewter” tho).  We started in Monyash and did about an 8 mile walk.  Some lovely people and conversation for the day.

I think I may well be walking next Sunday too.  Grand.

Nicely timed (totally coincidentally) to be on Darwin Day I was looking forward to him going on about that somewhat, seeing as that’s his schtick sort of thing.

But he didn’t really.  He mentioned it but didn’t really go off on one.

The place wasn’t full though and it felt more like a private party for him and his mates.  More than half the crowd were teen girls who all fancy him and go to as many of his shows as they can afford.  Even to the extent that he mentioned one or two of them on the front row by name.

But how embarrassing for him.

He did spend quite a lot of his time talking about his wife and daughter.  It seemed like a desperate attempt at times to deflect the horny masses from embarrassing him further.

But the majority of the horny masses were of the “I go to sci-fi conventions” type.  You know the “find gangs of similarly obsessed people and then it’s not an obsession no more, strength in numbers etc” kind of people.

Like me and my pals who go to juggling festivals (of all things!)

Not impressed by the vibe I’m afraid.

And it’s a shame because he’s pretty darned good.  I have to say that as he rather effectively hit back at a nasty critic by the medium of song at one point.

As far as the show went it started and ended poorly for me though.

He did acknowledge the bad start by saying that he’s always bad at starting.  Then he tried to intimate that he’d never heard of “Cradle of Filth”, as if.

But it proper picked up after that with some excellent gags and just the wrong side of “wrong” comments.  Very good indeed.

And then he finished a great evening with a pretty meh song.  But the crowd loved it, I suppose some people need a bit of wry-smile-at-best pathos after a good night’s proper hilarity.

Oh and I agree, the dancing bear was really not needed.  Even if embarrassing a physics nerd is quite a giggle under normal circumstances.

A very good night out, but you can’t have every note as a high one.

Well no longer do you need to come up with a band name by using inspiration alone.

Try this:

* 1: Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

* 2: Go to Random quotations:
The last four words (more or less if it makes sense) of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

* 3: Cover art for the album sleeve – Go to flickrs ‘last seven days‘ section:
Pick the fourth picture.

So for my first band/album:

Band name: 8837 London

Album name: Intimidations of the Prophets

Album cover: Here

We’re waiting to see Take That.

said the spotty oik. Well at that time I’d never heard of them. Shows what I know.

Yesterday I cycled to work through the city centre here and saw an huge crowd outside HMV, at 8am. I didn’t fancy stopping so zoomed past and on to work.

After work I was off up to the uni for my german class and at DMH there was another huge queue of folk. Still didn’t stop to ask and wasn’t interested beyond “Oh there’s a queue”. Just read in the local rag that it was all about another new and thrusting young band. This time called “Paramore”. Never heard of them either.

No doubt they’ll go far.

Have fun.

You need to have headphones on and play at full volume:

Jingle Bells

Have fun.

Here you go. The productivity of insomnia at the weekend.

A list of the number 1′s in the UK singles chart on my birthday through the years as taken from the source of all truth aka Wikipedia.

1971 – Dave and Ansil Collins – Double Barrel
1972 – The Pipes & Drums & Military Band of The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards – Amazing Grace
1973 – Dawn featuring Tony Orlando – Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Ole Oak Tree
1974 – ABBA – Waterloo
1975 – Mud – Oh Boy
1976 – ABBA – Fernando
1977 – Deniece Williams – Free
1978 – The Bee Gees – Night Fever
1979 – Art Garfunkel – Bright Eyes
1980 – Dexys Midnight Runners – Geno
1981 – Adam and the Ants – Stand and Deliver
1982 – Nicole – A Little Peace
1983 – Spandau Ballet – True
1984 – Duran Duran – The Reflex
1985 – Paul Hardcastle – 19
1986 – Spitting Image – The Chicken Song
1987 – Starship – Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now
1988 – Fairground Attraction – Perfect
1989 – Kylie Minogue – Hand on Your Heart
1990 – Adamski – Killer
1991 – Cher – The Shoop Shoop Song (It’s in His Kiss)
1992 – KWS – Please Don’t Go/Game Boy
1993 – George Michael & Queen with Lisa Stansfield – Five Live
1994 – Stiltskin – Inside
1995 – Livin’ Joy – Dreamer
1996 – George Michael – Fastlove
1997 – Olive – You’re Not Alone
1998 – Aqua – Turn Back Time
1999 – The Backstreet Boys – I Want It That Way
2000 – Britney Spears – Oops!…I Did It Again
2001 – Geri Halliwell – It’s Raining Men
2002 – Holly Valance – Kiss Kiss
2003 – R. Kelly – Ignition (Remix)
2004 – Eamon – F**k It (I Don’t Want You Back)
2005 – Akon – Lonely
2006 – Gnarls Barkley – Crazy
2007 – Beyoncé featuring Shakira – Beautiful Liar

So I’ve got the coolest ska track there when I was born, a couple of ABBA songs, a couple of Eurovision winners, one swear word (not counting a 4 letter word beginning with C), the odd novelty song and also a couple of good tracks.

I find it interesting that through the entire 90′s I don’t actually recognise, couldn’t hum, sing or tell you any lyrics of any of the songs EXCEPT the most annoying song on the list. In fact I looked through and can only recognise 18 of them and I only know Double Barrel ‘cos I downloaded it a while ago when I found out it was no 1 when I was born.

If you’re interested here’s the no 1′s for some other folk’s zeroth birthdays (in date in the year order):

K: Rolf Harris – Two Little Boys

Ana: Goombay Dance Band – Seven Tears

Pee: Art Garfunkel – Bright Eyes

Nicky: Bucks Fizz – My Camera Never Lies

Clurb: Irene Cara – Fame

My bro: The Equals – Baby Come Back

Unca D: Art Garfunkel – I Only Have Eyes for You

Rebecca: ABBA – The Name Of The Game

Well good heavens. What fun. Yet again Clurb has the coolest one (except maybe me).

And just ‘cos I can, after the clicky is the same thing but for albums: My I’m bored!

1971 – Rolling Stones – Sticky Fingers
1972 – Tyrannosaurus Rex – Prophets, Seers And Sages The Angels Of The Ages / My People Were Fair And Had Sky In Their Hair But Now They’re Content To Wear Stars On Their Brows
1973 – David Bowie – Aladdin Sane
1974 – Carpenters – The Singles 1969-1973
1975 – Bay City Rollers – Once Upon A Star
1976 – Abba – Greatest Hits
1977 – Abba – Arrival
1978 – Original Soundtrack – Saturday Night Fever
1979 – Leo Sayer – The Very Best Of Leo Sayer
1980 – Sky – Sky 2
1981 – Adam & The Ants – Kings Of The Wild Frontier
1982 – Paul McCartney – Tug Of War
1983 – David Bowie – Let’s Dance
1984 – Various artists – Now, That’s What I Call Music II
1985 – Various artists – The Hits Album 2
1986 – Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music Street Life – 20 Great Hits
1987 – Curiosity Killed The Cat – Keep Your Distance
1988 – Fleetwood Mac – Tango In The Night
1989 – Holly Johnson – Blast!
1990 – Carpenters – Only Yesterday – Richard & Karen Carpenter’s Greatest Hits
1991 – Eurythmics – Greatest Hits
1992 – Simply Red – Stars
1993 – R.E.M. – Automatic For The People
1994 – Blur – Parklife
1995 – Wet Wet Wet – Picture This
1996 – Alanis Morissette – Jagged Little Pill
1997 – Charlatans – Tellin’ Stories
1998 – Massive Attack – Mezzanine
1999 – Abba – Gold – Greatest Hits
2000 – Moby – Play
2001 – Ash – Free All Angels
2002 – Doves – The Last Broadcast
2003 – Justin Timberlake – Justified
2004 – D12 – D12 World
2005 – Bruce Springsteen – Devils And Dust
2006 – Gnarls Barkley – St Elsewhere
2007 – Arctic Monkeys – Favourite Worst Nightmare

So more ABBA, 2 yes 2 Best of the Carpenters, the best ever Now That’s What I Call Music (including Dr Mabuse by Propaganda), and only 1 Simply Red monstrosity.

You lot:

K: Beatles – Abbey Road

Ana: Barbra Streisand – Love Songs

Pee: Barbra Streisand – Barbra Streisand’s Greatest Hits Volume 2

Nicky: Iron Maiden – The Number Of The Beast

Clurb: ABC – The Lexicon Of Love

My bro: Small Faces – Ogden’s Nut Gone Flake

Unca D: Jim Reeves – 40 Golden Greats

Rebecca: Sex Pistols – Never Mind The B******s Here’s The Sex Pistols

OK so now Clurb has gone to very uninteresting but Rebecca wins I reckon, although Nicky should win a prize for most inappropriate one.

Done now.