Thursday, 19 December 2013


That's Entertainment : Hall & Oates 1980-1985


So here we are: it's almost Xmas, 2013 is nearly up and Festivus is here.  For those of you who partake in the Christmas traditions, I shall wish you the merriest of merries.  For those who don't or chose not to celebrate, carry on ;-)  Me? The Festivus stick is up and the Ashes have been won 3-zip thus far...so I'm a happy chappy.  Another year is over and 2014 is the year I get published, or at least get a bloody book deal!!!

Now, to the important stuff. 
In the early to mid-1980's, when MTV was new and pop was dominated by lashings of synth pop, New Wave leanings and hyper colours, one duo rode high on the back of a quarter of highly successful LPs.  That duo was Hall & Oates.

Now you can say all you want about them being naff, and ever so Eighties...but come on...check out the tash!

Or better still, chuck on this whirlpool of their greatest hits...not a dud there.

After starting in the early 1970's and writing successful songs for other acts as well, Hall & Oates hit the zeitgeist with their Voices (1980), Private Eyes (1981), H2O (1982) and Big Bad Boom (1984) LPs.  Releasing a string of hits that blazed to the tops of the charts around the world, so a five year period, Hall & Oates owned video and radio spots for their infectious, R&B flecked, synth pop.  Their success began when they included more electronic sounds and urban beats as well as being adopted by MTV as a video staple.  In fact by the time Big Bad Boom was being released, they were using the Synclavier II - one of the first computerised synth set-ups).  They had their singles remixed by cutting edge DJs for their 12 inch mixes for the clubs, and even today, Hall & Oates are still radio giants AND sampled and covered in large numbers by newer acts.  They even did a stint on American Idol.  

But for mine, it's the cheesy, sugary Kiss On My List that wins me.  The vocal is exquisite and is a fab little ditty to belt out in the shower.  

All these songs are essential on your Ipod.  Hall & Oates are a little time capsule of that early-mid 80's period of my youth, a guilty pleasure and someone in the genre I reckon had the magic to make wonderful pop music.  

Anyway, I hope you enjoy.  No matter how crap things are, a little bit of Hall & Oates is the tonic.

And that folks, winds up 2013.  I'm going to have a couple of weeks off from the column, but if you feel so inclined, check out the blog and read up on some of the ones you may have missed here :  http://giveitaspin76.blogspot.com.au/

Thanks for reading, and once again, if you want to opt out of this email, please let me know.  If not, I'll pester you forever.



You Make My Dreams      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz2W3QfXnHc


I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccenFp_3kq8










Mighty Boosh use of I Can't Go For That






And a Queen vs Hall & Oates mash-up - classic!

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Thursday, 12 December 2013


That's Entertainment : One Hit Wonders 1991-2001


This week, leading in to the Xmas parties and late nights trying to catch a late night taxi, I've compiled a list of artists who only ever once troubled the compilers of the ARIA Chart [actually - upon a further inspection, ONE artist listed here actually hit #40 with their 2nd single...so really, I should have cut them, but hey.].  DOUBLE POINTS IF YOU CAN GUESS WHO.

Imagine.  You slog you guts out for probably years.  You refine your sound, practice your chops and most of the time, out of nowhere, you suddenly get gifted a song that hits the pointy end of a lot of countries' Top 50s.  For those fifteen minutes, you're on all the music programs, you do all the interviews, you take all the photos for Smash Hits and the like.  

So that magic moment passes you by, your left to rue missed opportunities or the like.  And then suddenly, you never repeat that success.  You're naff, you're forgotten...except by drunken screechers like me warbling at a party or bleating on and on and on about how unfair it was that you're a sad one hit wonder.

But fear not, for clods like us love nothing better than to sip a few lemonades and go to Xmas parties where DJs trot out songs from this list.  Most of them are party anthems.  I had to cut it down, so I arbitrarily chose 1991-2001.  There are soooooo many more songs that could be included but there isn't time or space.

I've chucked in a few other little one hit wonders - not your classic 'novelty' type songs that the Brits seem to love and cherish and send hurtling to the #1 spot on their charts.  Like Stiltskin - a band that had their song used for a Levi's ad in the mid-1990's before the singer went on to a short lived stint as vocalist for Genesis when Phil Collins moved on.  And Linda Perry (singer of 4 Non Blondes) actually is a hit factory for Pink [Let's Get The Party Started], Gwen Stefani [What You Waiting For?] and Christina Aguilera [Candyman].   And did you know that Shannon Hoon [singer from Blind Melon] provided backing vocals for Guns N Roses on their song Don't Cry from their Use Your Illusion sets?  And the Electric Hippies?  Well they were 2 of the other blokes from Noiseworks.  And did you also know, there's a song on here that I use to annoy the crap out of my wife?  Yep...the very simple chorus repeated over and over drives her insane.

Anyway, all these singles are either annoyingly catchy ear candy or great little pop hits from almost 20 years ago.

And I'm sure you'll be out there during this Xmas Party season, commandeering the Karaoke microphones and ensuring that all these fine artists score their 2 and 1/2 cents per spin and have that 15 minutes of fame stretch out for another three and half minutes.

Oh, by the way, did you guess the band with the 2nd minor hit?  It was the Crash Test Dummies who hit #40 with their follow up single Afternoons and Coffeespoons.



Londonbeat : I've Been Thinking About You   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGw3w_njQ4g

EMF : Unbelievable  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waacof2saZw

KWS : Please Don't Go  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w1TzLR2tYc

Blind Melon : No Rain   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmVn6b7DdpA

4 Non Blondes : What's Up?   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NXnxTNIWkc

Crash Test Dummies : Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIbcqgXh5-4

Stiltskin : Inside   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuTVKO0RScI

Francis Dunnery : American Life In The Summer Time   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML8fJKUgB7M

Electric Hippies : Greedy People  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAkbxSfcI08

Deep Blue Something : Breakfast At Tiffany's   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ClCpfeIELw

Babylon Zoo : Spaceman   http://vimeo.com/68450506

OMC : How Bizarre  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2cMG33mWVY

White Town : Your Woman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIQWt3oMids

Los Del Rio : Macarena  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiBYM6g8Tck

Blue Boy : Remember Me    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2Eah_EGiDc

Chumbawamba : Tubthumpin'   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS-zK1S5Dws

Cornershop : Brimful of Asha    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LBnMRWeV-E

Lou Bega : Mambo No 5  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unlc89KvLt4

Len : Steal My Sunshine   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1fzJ_AYajA

Bomb Funk MCs : Freestyler    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ymNFyxvIdaM

Baha Men : Who Let The Dogs Out?   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qkuu0Lwb5EM
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Thursday, 5 December 2013


That's Entertainment : Spin-offs


This week, I'm looking for something breezy to mull over and present to you.

So, I thought I'd take a look at spin off groups - basically, bands that were created when members in a current band were either bored, jaded or needed so creativity on the side OR were created when band members left or were kicked out of their respective bands and started their new one almost right away.  Some times bands die or go on hiatus, and a number of members splinter off in to other groups - for example Blink 182 begat Angels & Airwaves AND +44; Duran Duran splintered in to Arcadia and The Power Station; Oasis dissolved and 4/5 of the band became Beady Eye whilst Noel Gallagher started the High Flying Birds.

The greatest spin off I can think of is the Foo Fighters.  When Kurt Cobain suicided, Dave Grohl was left doodling his demos which ultimately would become the self-titled debut album and a popular legacy that matches Nirvana's (IMO).   Pearl Jam are the ultimate spin off - gaining members from Mother Love Bone (whose singer Andrew Wood died of a heroin overdose - and was a band that took members from Malfunkshun AND Green River and begat some of them to both Mudhoney and Pearl Jam) and Temple of the Dog (a tribute album to Andrew Wood) and these days also contains Soundgarden's in and out drummer.  Keeping up?  Similarly, Joy Division's singer Ian Curtis committed suicide and the remaining members regrouped as New Order (roping in the drummer's girlfriend and future wife) to take on where Joy Division left off but in a more electronic vibe.

Mick Jones was kicked out of The Clash, so eventually ended up fronting various incarnations of Big Audio Dynamite, with B.A.D. II being the biggest in 1991 with Rush and The Globe.   Tina Weymouth (bass) and Chris Frantz (drums) were the in Talking Heads and husband & wife.  They started the Tom Tom Club to groove on the side.    The Sex Pistols imploded and snot nose singer Johnny Rotten / John Lydon created Public Image Ltd.  The Jam and The Smashing Pumpkins would up and the singers' started new bands in the Style Council and Zwan.  Kim Deal who thought she was getting a raw deal in The Pixies started her own band in The Breeders.  Miffed with their own bands, Robert Smith of The Cure and Steve Severin of Siouxsie and the Banshees collaborated for The Glove - a weird, arty, psychedelic concept album.

Of course there's Electronic.  A creation of Bernard Sumner (vocalist and guitarist of New Order) and Johnny Marr who was now bandless after the breakup of The Smiths recorded their debut album together.  The song most remembered is Getting Away With It, which also featured the Pet Shop Boys' Neil Tennant and in turn created a classic.

Then of course there's Queens of the Stone Age (Kyuss AND ), Them Crooked Vultures (Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl, Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme and John Paul Jones [formerly of Led Zeppelin], Velvet Revolver [Stone Temple Pilot's singer and members of Guns N Roses] and Audioslave [Soundgarden's singer Chris Cornell and Rage Against The Machine's musos].  1960's trippers Jefferson Airplane finally became 1980's corporate pop Starship, before eventually melding the two in to Jefferson Starship.

Finally, there's the Travelling Wilburys.  The classic spin off AND supergroup which produced two wonderful albums.  George Harrison was riding high in the late 1980's with his Cloud 9 .  He mentioned he wanted to do an album with his mates and when he was called to record a B-side for the single of This Is Love, he and his 'mates' and produced Handle With Care.  Jeff Lynne - one of the mates, producer of Cloud 9 AND the vocalist mastermind of ELO - Electric Light Orchestra and Roy Orbison [legend] had had a meal and decided to do something together and here was their chance.  The decamped to Bob Dylan's home studio to record and Tom Petty got involved by fluke as George had left a guitar at Tom's place, went to fetch it and Tom Petty returned with George.  Anyway, Handle With Care was created.  The record company scoffed, suggesting this was no throwaway B-side...and could they do 9 more songs and release an album.

Sure enough.  It all came together and one of the classiest, greatest supergroup spin off albums of all times hit the airwaves.  Eric Idle wrote the album liner notes.  From there, they all basically worked on each others next records which were all hits.  Sadly, Roy Orbison died and the remaining four released the second album wryly titled by George Harrison Vol 3.  

So there you go.  Sometimes alls well that ends bad.  Go and enjoy!




Travelling Wilburys - Handle With Care  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8s9dmuAKvU

Tom Tom Club - Who Feelin' It  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3EIwOXhHnNU

Arcadia - Election Day   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3Yy6c0Tlvk

The Power Station - Some Like It Hot  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgYqIvnPvqQ

Big Audio Dynamite II - The Globe  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPrPNpzLHIk

Foo Fighters - This Is A Call  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imxAeQZjBeI

Pearl Jam - Alive  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM0zINtulhM

New Order -  Ceremony  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pr6SxJb-Dw

Starship - We Built This City   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_EdzOSSDV0

Public Image Ltd -  Public Image   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cifo77azntk

The Breeders - Cannonball   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxvkI9MTQw4

Style Council - Shout To The Top  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m94ip38UKs

Zwan - Honestly  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLPgz9K4D20

Electronic - Getting Away With It   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46z4K-tV_Io

The Glove - Mr Alphabet Says  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yylfV1SaWSY
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