Here’s a theory for you, if you’re a fan of modern music, and if you’re the kind of person who has favourite bands or artists. It works for me, see if it works for you. When you have a favourite artist or band (examples for me include Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin and Bob Dylan) it… Continue reading Favourite songs and favourite artists, a theory
Here’s one of my favourite pop trivia challenges. Try it, if you’re into such things. What do the songs “Virginia Plain” and “Up the Junction” have in common with each other, and with no other singles that have reached the UK Top 10? We’re dealing here, respectively, with Roxy Music’s debut hit, which reached #4… Continue reading More pop trivia: What do “Up the Junction” and “Virginia Plain” have in common?
If you’re quick, and can get down to the Greenwich Theatre in South East London on either of the next two evenings, you can catch a touring production of “A Spoonful of Sherman”, a celebration of the Sherman family of songwriters. Alternatively you can check out the touring schedule here and catch the show elsewhere… Continue reading “A Spoonful of Sherman”
After yesterday’s reflections on “You’ve got to hide your love away”, here’s another Beatles song that has been on my mind in the last few days, “Golden Slumbers”. Did you hear Elbow’s version of it? It was released before Christmas last year and accompanied an advert for John Lewis. You can check out the official… Continue reading “Golden Slumbers” and conjunctions
This earlier piece, about my childhood enthusiasm for London Transport, could have been written anytime in the last 20 years. It recounted a week that I spent with a schoolmate, just before my 11th birthday, travelling the length and breadth of the London Underground. What prompted me to finalize and publish it was hearing the… Continue reading “You’ve got to hide your love away”
There are years when I go to plenty of gigs, at least one per month. Some years, like last year, I go to hardly any. In 2017 there were planned shows that had sold out before I could get tickets, like Tony Visconti and the remaining Spider from Mars playing the whole of the Ziggy… Continue reading Andy White, and “50 quid man”
Two years ago I wrote regularly about Earworms, beginning with this piece, prompted by the Queen song “Keep yourself alive”. There were enough pieces to justify creating a Category for them, but it hasn’t been used since last May. Even in 2016 some of these posts recorded the fact that there were no Earworms stuck… Continue reading Three recent Earworms, and why there might not be many more
This earlier piece contained a challenge based on the titles of UK #1 hit singles: 33 songs where the first word (or words) of the title were also the title of another song that reached #1. Here are the clues again, followed by the answers. The clues The first song title consists of a single… Continue reading More Pop Trivia: titles of UK #1 hits contained within other #1s (the answers)
It’s time for some more pop trivia based on songs that have reached #1 in the UK charts. If this sort of thing doesn’t appeal to you, look away now. Last September (blimey, four months ago already) I posted this piece about UK #1 hits whose titles run on (and on, in some cases). The… Continue reading More Pop Trivia: titles of UK #1 hits contained within other #1s
Last month, in this piece about the Clarence Carter song “Patches”, I posted some links to it and gave you a “mascara warning”, noting that it “is right up there with “Honey” by Bobby Goldsboro as a song that is likely to make a grown man, or a grown woman, cry”. I was reminded of… Continue reading More about songs that make you cry
The Compartments 