Ari Up, singer in punk band The Slits, died seven years ago today. May she rest in peace. She and the band had been on my mind in recent weeks, and when starting to draft this piece yesterday I discovered that the anniversary was upon us. Back in 2010 I read the news of her… Continue reading Ari Up and The Slits
At any point in the last 40 years I could have written you a thousand words about the biggest rock beasts of them all, the great Led Zeppelin, a band that have never been far away from my metaphorical and actual turntables since 1975. I could give you 10,000 words without too much difficulty right… Continue reading Led Zeppelin
Back in May I wrote about taking my son to town on a Saturday to buy the latest Blondie album the day after its release (“Album shopping on a Saturday afternoon”). Yesterday I went a step further, taking my daughter to town after school so that we could buy the new Liam Gallagher album “As… Continue reading Album shopping on a Friday afternoon
Rest in peace Tom Petty, another singer and songwriter taken from us too soon. His first UK hit “Anything that’s rock ’n roll” in 1977 was the first 12” single that I ever bought and I was privileged to see him at the Marquee Club in London a year later, a semi-secret gig for which… Continue reading Tom Petty RIP
Today would have been Marc Bolan’s 70th birthday. As you probably know, he died 40 years ago this month, in the early hours of 16 September 1977. His girlfriend Gloria Jones was driving them back to East Sheen from central London, lost control of the car near Barnes Common and the subsequent crash killed him… Continue reading Marc Bolan, 40 years on
Here are the answers to this earlier challenge, #1 song titles that run into each other. 1 You to me are (Everything I do) I do it for you [or, You to me are (Everything I do) I do it for You to me are Everything] 2 All around the World in Motion 3 Everlasting… Continue reading More #1 Trivia: the titles run on (and on), the answers
Pop music trivia is never far from my mind, especially when it deals with artists and songs that reached #1 in the UK. Here’s a bit of fun regarding chart-topping song titles that run on into other chart-topping song titles. The clues take the form of at least two artists and the years that the… Continue reading More #1 Trivia: the titles run on (and on)
Yesterday I set the following challenge. Can you name five songs that reached #1 in the UK that do not contain the title anywhere in the lyrics of the song? (Instrumentals don’t count.) I linked to this page on the Trivia Menu in case you got stuck. It mentions two of the songs in a… Continue reading UK #1 hit singles: the title is not in the song (the answers)
It’s nearly 20 years since someone set me the following challenge. Can you name five songs that reached #1 in the UK that do not contain the title anywhere in the lyrics of the song? (Instrumentals don’t count.) It has been one of my favourite trivia questions ever since. I managed to get to five… Continue reading UK #1 hit singles: the title is not in the song
Liam Gallagher is back. His new single, “Wall of Glass” (check out the official video here), has been all over the radio, or at least the radio stations I listen to, and he gave a compelling performance at Glastonbury. I watched it from the comfort of my living-room early one Sunday morning after a later-than-planned… Continue reading Word of the week: paraphernalia
The Compartments 