Thursday, 18 February 2016

That's Entertainment : The Babys / John Waite / Bad English



Do you ever get those moments where you figure out something and you think to yourself ‘how the hell did I ever not know that?!?’  It happens to me all the time, but then again, I am clueless.

So with Valentine’s Day, I was listening to WSFM (not much of a crime, I admit) and they played The Babys Isn’t It Time.  It’s one of those late seventies easy listening ballad rock n roll numbers that seems to get tacked on to ALL THE HITS OF THE SEVENTIES 3 CD boxsets or on to late night RAGE when they’re feeling cheesy - and for good reason, it was #1 here in Australia.  It’s got a bit of a disco vibe to it; a bit of a stomper…great for singing along to.  Of course, I never knew the band were The Babys or that they had another hit with Every Time I Think of You and a minor hit with Back On My Feet Again (which, personally, I like the best).  So dot 1 to dot 2 - I figured out The Babys.

Then…I discover John Waite is the singer.  Who?  Well John Waite had a US #1, Australian #5 hit with Missing You in 1984.  Check out the video.  Surely, you recognise the tune?  It’s straight out of Richard Mercer's Love Song Dedication.

Caller : Well, my boyfriend…his name is Killer, he is locked up in Silverwater…so I thought you could play me a song while I cry myself to sleep.
Richard Mercer (deep voice) : John Waite’s Missing You?
Caller [sobbing] : Yeah.  That’d be grouse.  I miss him so much.
Richard Mercer : No conjugal visits?
Caller : No [sobs].  He’s a softy…really.  He just likes shotties and ….
Richard Mercer [sympathetic]: Let’s play that song.

See that kind of ballad.  The one that flies across the universe, bridging souls and make hearts beat as one.  The kind I listen to in the privacy of my home AND would never admit to it.

So John Waite, there’s dot 3.  

Right.  Now, in early 1990, there was a band about called Bad English.  They were kind of lumped in with the hair metal rock of the late 1980s - and why not, they sounded and looked like a hair metal clone.  They had a #4 hit with When I See You Smile and a couple of other very, very minor hits.  

It’s another one of those ballad staples rolled out for Love Song Dedication.  The sort of thing I like to screech along to with the windows down, wind in my hair and sun shining down.  Go on, sink your teeth in to these lyrics - preferably with the music clip blaring and you singing out at the top of your voice:


When I see you smile, I can face the world
Oh, oh
You know I can do anything 
When I see you smile, I see a ray of light
Oh, oh
I see it shining right through the rain 
When I see you smile 
Baby when I see you smile at me
Oh, yeah

And the point is?  Well Bad English’s singer was John Waite (actually, Bad English were 3/5 of The Babys).  So dot to dot to dot and whammy!  

Sometimes I even astound myself.  

So listen, sing and enjoy.


*** No…I am not Killer locked up in Silverwater.  

The Babys




John Waite solo




Bad English







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That's Entertainment : Valentine's Day


Well, Valentine’s Day is upon us.  

And I’ve got no advice.  Nothing.  

But I do have something for you in the music dept, no matter what state of the heart you might find yourself in.

So sticking to that old adage - something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue and a silver sixpence in her shoe.


Something old:

Herman’s Hermits : I’m Into Something Good 


This was Herman’s Hermits debut single that went to #1 in 1964.  Funnily enough, the song was co-written by Carole King.  It’s a quintessential Sixties pop ditty and always makes me think of the TV show Heartbeat.  Awesome song to sing along to.  Makes me want to drink Fanta.

AND

Blondie : Hanging on the Telephone


It’s cool to find Deborah Harry (and a woman) being the pursuer here, pleading not to be left hanging, cause if she is, there’ll be trouble pal!  (And who in their right mind would ignore Deborah Harry - the ultimate sneering, posing front woman?  Puh-lease!).  And just a tick under two and half minutes, it’s pop punk perfection.



Something new:

St Lucia : Dancing On Glass


I discovered St Lucia at a Walk The Moon gig where the sound tech was whirling some of his own fave tracks pre-show on the PA.

Anyway, this is St Lucia’s new single Dancing On Glass and the album dropped last week, so it’s fresh as.  With an 80’s synth, a gleaming pop heart beat and dance floor filling vibes, Dancing On Glass asks the pertinent questions about starting a relationship: will this last?  for how long?  is the break up inevitable?  And will I get hurt?  

I’ve had it on high rotation and each time I hear it, I just want to dance.  Not on broken glass, because I have sensitive soles.  But good pop does that to me.  

Anyway.  It’s catchy as all hell and I recommend sniffing out the entire album which is like a slab of party you won’t want to leave.  



Something borrowed:

Pet Shop Boys : Always on my Mind


When I was a kid, this was a smash hit for the Pet Shop Boys in late 1987 (the Xmas #1 in the UK).  They’d played it for a 10 year anniversary tribute to Elvis and because it was so popular, decided to record the track and release it as a single.  The one thing I didn’t know was it was an Elvis Presley song.  Only today, did I actually discover Elvis didn’t do it first and he covered it too.  Ha!

That said, Always On My Mind is right up there with my favourite Pet Shop Boys songs.  Better still, the regretful lyric is absolutely fabulous.  Basically, the singer presents the facts: they’re a crap lover yet despite all their failings and despite admitting to taking the relationship for granted, the subject was always on their mind.  It works perfectly as an apology or as a lament.  

Great to sing out loud and the film clip is eccentric (clips from the Pet Shop Boys’ movie It Couldn’t Happen Here [released at their commercial peak in 1988 because they didn’t want to tour].



Something blue:

The Cure : Pictures of You


Robert Smith could write some really psychedelic pop songs and then he could write this, one of the greatest and most beautiful goth ballads of all time.  

Lifted from 1989’s Disintegration, conceivably one of the greatest albums of all time, Pictures of You transcends everything.  Deliciously melancholy, you need a dark room, candles, a bottle of red wine and pillow to cry in to for the ‘one that got away’ or that unrequited love.

Don’t believe me - check this lyric and try not to blub (or let your mascara run):

If only I’d thought of the right words
I could have held on to your heart
If only I’d thought of the right words
I wouldn’t be breaking apart
All my pictures of you.

I’d have no qualms calling this a masterpiece.  It’s exactly what it is.  



Sixpence:

Sixpence None The Richer : Kiss Me


Ahhh, Dawson’s Creek.  I’m not sure if Katie Holmes ever got any of my fan mail.  I’m thinking not.  Sigh.  

Sixpence None The Richer had a #1 hit here with Kiss Me an infectious little pop-ballad.  The band followed it up with a so-so cover of There She Goes and then dived head first in to obscurity.

Why Joey ended up with Pacey, I will never know.  Makes me want to jump up and down on the couch in frustration.


Happy Valentine’s Day!


Hidden ‘Cockles of your Heart’ Track

J Geils Band (criminally underrated / forgotten) : Love Stinks

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Thursday, 4 February 2016

That's Entertainment : Comedy Gold


Music.

Comedy.

What’s not to love?

It’s the best of both worlds when done right.  

In the past 10 years or so, there seems to have been a real mix of musical comedy with a slew of Aussie, Kiwi and British shows incorporating well crafted, excellently written and performed pop songs seeded within the narrative of the show.

For mine, the best of the bunch have been New Zealand's The Flight of the Conchords who seamlessly created homages to well known songs/sounds and created their own body of work as well as the UK’s The Mighty Boosh, who mixed psychedelic comedy with their chords.  Both groups took their shows on the road to much critical and commercial success, blending their music, gags and wit in to a rip roaring show full of fun which literally had people splitting their sides AND dancing in the aisles. America’s Portlandia also meshes quirky humour and music (that said, co-creator/writer/actor Carrie Brownstein is the singer/guitarist of the band Sleater-Kinney)

And that’s not to say comedy tv shows haven’t always parodied popular music.  But my bent is music actually created for the show, placed within the show. 

So without further ado, get ready to rub your funny bone, tickle those ivories and warm up the vocal chords because here’s my platinum selection of comedy gold.

*** Please note - I’ve left a couple of songs off this list.  A bit too risque for a family friendly column such as this.  I hope you understand.  (RE: South Park)

*** Also - if you’ve got any songs you think I might like, drop me a line.  I’m always looking for new TV to watch and songs to snort lemonade out my nose laughing to.



Matt Berry  One Track Lover From Garth Merenghi’s Dark Place ( 2004 )



Flight of the Conchords Fashion Is Danger From Flight of the Conchords episode New Zealand Town (2009)



Portlandia The Dream of the 90’s From the episode Farm (2011)



Matt Berry  Snuff Box Theme From Snuff Box (2006)



The Mighty Boosh Love Games From The Mighty Boosh episode The Legend of Old Gregg (2005)



Chris Lilley  She’s A Naughty Girl From Summer Heights High (2007)



The Mighty Boosh I Did A S*** On Your Mum From The Mighty Boosh episode The Chokes (2007)



Steve Coogan The Day My Computer Said Hello From I Am Not An Animal (2004)



Flight of the Conchords Hurt Feelings From Flight of the Conchords episode The Tough Brets (2009)



Not The Nine O’Clock News Nice Video, Shame About The Song



Flight of the Conchords Inner City Pressure From Flight of the Conchords episode Bret Gives Up The Dream (2008)

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Monday, 1 February 2016

That's Entertainment : Phil Collins


There’s a girl that’s been on my mind…all the time.  Su-su-Sussudio.  

Phil Collins.  Deadset ****ing champion!


Yep.  You read right.


I like Phil Collins.  And have no fear, this isn’t some Patrick Bateman-esque monologue.

I just like his songs.

A great drummer, lead singer of Genesis and a massive selling solo singer of the 1980’s and 1990’s, there was a time in Australia when Phil Collins couldn’t go a whole seven minutes without one of his tracks being played on the radio.

And the good news - for fans of good news…he’s re-releasing ALL his solo studio albums in 2016 with ALL the bells and whistles.

I got in to Phil Collins as he was monstering the airwaves and charts around 1985 with his album No Jacket Required, that was home to HUGE hits like Sussudio (a song he wrote in his stu-stu-studio), One More Night, Don’t Lose My Number, Who Said I Would and the sublime Take Me Home.  I actually had a live bootleg copy of his No Ticket Required concert and it was ace!  Chockfull of all the hits from his previous two solo albums, it contained hit songs like the atmospheric In The Air Tonight, You Can’t Hurry Love, Against All Odds, Easy Lover and Like China.

In the other years, he was performing with Genesis and acting in movies like Buster where he delivered a lovely version of Groovy Kind Of Love (yep…I am a sap!) [the better version is on Serious Hits Live] [[And it’s a great song to sing in the car or the shower…just saying]].  

Yet, by 1989, he delivered …But Seriously, another album full of chart hits like Another Day In Paradise, I Wish It Would Rain Down, Something Happened on the Way To Heaven and That’s Just The Way It Is.  In fact, Another Day In Paradise was the first ever mini-CD single I bought (and the last, if memory serves, as the format was discontinued because most people at the time had tray CD players and these smaller discs would only sit on the spindle to be spun).

Taking the album on tour, it culminated in Serious Hits Live and then another period of sustained Genesis success in 1991/92.

The follow up albums in the 1990’s were still successful and one of my faves was Dance Into The Light. 

Feeling the brunt of critical criticism, changes in taste and smaller sales saw Phil move out of the charts and work for Disney, and release hits collections, collect divorces, release covers albums and dance in to retirement.

An amazing drummer who has guested on plenty of other peoples songs over the years, Phil has remastered his previous 8 solo albums and intends to record a new album too.

And sure, he was overplayed.  He walked a fine line between cheesiness and sophistication.  But he always sounded great.  It’s funny how a contemporary wave of pop/rock bands/artists are paying him more credit and he’s gone from being a superstar, to a reviled creature and back to some iconic status.  That said, Phil Collins did write a good pop song.  A lot of them.  Anyway, never really cared for the knockers or the critics.  I’ll always have him on my Sony Walkman, Discman or I-pod and that’s just the way it is.  So when you’re feeling blue, all you have to do…is whack on some Phil Collins.   





That’s Just The Way It Is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdFtcAa_pYk









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That's Entertainment : David Bowie


So, here we are…2016.

I promised myself I’d make sure I kept to my one article each Friday this year (last year was a bit haphazard with so much on) and I wanted to go BIG.  Really dive in to the record collection.

In essence, I wanted to make some ch-ch-changes.  

Little did I know, that by the end of the first week of the year, I’d have a new album to sink my teeth in to and be mourning the death of a musical, artistic and cultural icon.

On Friday 8th January, (on his 69th birthday) David Bowie released his 25th studio album titled Blackstar.  Early reviews suggested it was Bowie at his best, with bleak soundscapes, pop flourishes, saxophones and nuanced musings about the human condition and life & death.  He’d explored these with 2013’s unexpected The Next Day, which set out to deconstruct the Bowie myth.  

Little did we know, but Blackstar is/was Bowie’s swan song, a farewell letter, a gift to his fans, a legacy and a fitting epitaph to a career that was over fifty years long.  A beautiful ta-ra to a life less ordinary, it was filled with references, hints and illusions of his pending demise.  The film clip (and song) Lazarus plays as a wave goodbye.  Its unnerving and beautiful.  Much like the film clip of Queen’s These Are The Days of Our Lives where a dying Freddie Mercury said I still love you as his last words on film with a wry, cheeky kiss goodbye, Lazarus does the same.

Musically, I came in to Bowie with the Let’s Dance era of arena shows, world tours, MTV saturation.  I didn’t know that for about 15 years, he’d already had a dozen albums, the same amount of fashion changes and had ridden the wave of cultural and critical acclaim to be re-launching himself for the period that was his commercial zenith.  He did Dancing In The Streets with Mick Jagger in 1985, when I didn’t know Mick Jagger was a Rolling Stone.

I first met Bowie, as Jareth the Goblin King, in Labyrinth of all things, a Jim Henson film.  We had the soundtrack on cassette, procured from Woolworths in Bloxwich and I was cool.  Little did I know, in the Bowie canon, it truly is the uncoolest album but to me, I love it and forever will.  My favourite Bowie song - As The World Falls Down - is contained within.  It sticks out like a sore thumb amongst the rest of the soundtrack but it is a lush, gothic wonder.

Of course, after that, it was constant album releases that pushed the envelope of soundscapes, technology, style, fashion and art.  Then I learnt about his past - by the late 1990’s, Bowie’s best of’s were always double-disc and critics lamented a track left off here, a quality single left off there.  By the time of his 2014 retrospective, it was 3-discs and I was lamenting a tack left off here and a quality single left off there.

He was an actor too.  Amongst his filmography were interesting choices - The Man Who Fell To Earth (cult sci fi), Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence (the fated WWII prisoner of war), The Hunger (cult vampire), Labyrinth (cult fantasy) and The Prestige (cultish magic, as Nikola Tesla).

And Bowie roamed the earth, straddling music, film and art, like a giant.  He was quirky and queer, but he was also quintessentially rock n roll and a supreme talent.  He was a pioneer and a progenitor of technology, sounds and styles that were much appreciated, much lauded, much derided, much aped but never matched.

A chameleon.  A master of reinvention. 

Forever evolving, never boring.  

An icon. 

And he was just a man.  A man who was loved by his family and friends.  From all the anecdotes I’ve read, he was genuinely witty and warm.  A caring soul.  He had his foibles and his peccadilloes.

It’s easy to put rock stars on pedestals.  Too many rock stars’ posters adorn bedroom walls.  

However, in this instance, I think the outpouring of love and flowing tributes are fair.  I’ve watched a slew of videos, some I’d never seen or barely remembered, and watched re-broadcast docos.  

David Bowie, a bit like the Queen, has always been there (in my lifetime anyway).  You kinda take for granted they will always be around.  The hear David Bowie had died just didn’t seem real.  It’s facetious, but I was in shock.  You never really know what you’ve got until it’s gone and listening to all his albums this past week really hammered home what he meant to me and millions of other fans through the years.  

So I suppose it’s fitting, that the final line sung, on the final album recorded should be : I can’t give everything away.  Cryptic to the end, interpret it as you will.  It’s filled with sax; I love it.  Sax will be cool again in a year what with Blackstar topping the world’s charts.  

For now, you’ll hear me screeching to Life On Mars and shredding frets, whilst shedding the odd tear.

Farewell spaceman.  

RIP David Bowie 1947-2016


A selection of my favourite Bowie songs.

Ziggy Stardust (1972)


As The World Falls Down  (1986)


Life On Mars  (1973)


Lazarus  (2016)


I’m Afraid of Americans  (1997)


Let’s Dance  (1983)


The Pretty Things Are Going To Hell (1999)


Ashes to Ashes  (1980)


I Can’t Give Everything Away  (2016)


Hallo Spaceboy  (1996)




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That's Entertainment : 2015


Okay, so it’s almost Christmas.  Which means the year is almost over.  Which means that the year has hurtled by at a million miles an hour.  It’s gone…in a blink of an eye.  And this time of year always gets me pondering the past and the future.  

I’d like to think I’ve done something meaningful with 2015.  Can’t say I succeeded.  Oh, maybe I did…just a smidgen.  

It wasn’t all beer and skittles.  Along the way music lost a couple of shining stars when Ben E King, BB King and Scott Weiland (of Stone Temple Pilots) passed on.  Other’s to leave us included: Motorhead’s Phil “Filthy” Taylor; Percy Sledge (When A Man Loves A Woman singer); Cilla Black and Lynn Anderson; Chris Squire of YES; Gary Richrath (formerly of REO Speedwagon [their peak years]; that sexy thing Errol Brown (Hot Chocolate singer); Lesley Gore (It’s My Party singer); and Steve Strange.  Even Lee’s grandfather left us with a song in his heart - a single cassette tape recording of his warm rendition of Because of You with a fond farewell coda that had his mourners simultaneously laughing and crying.  

On the flip side, there were plenty of wonderful releases in 2015.  

For mine, I can’t go past the pop wonder that was Walk The Moon with their second album Talking Is Hard which is chock full of toe tapping, dance floor filling, shouty pop rock numbers that will leave you with the biggest smile on your dial.  Their US #1 hit Shut Up And Dance along with it’s video, have quickly become one of my favourite all time songs and seeing them live in early September was one of those great nights out, so much so, as soon as tickets went on sale for their return shows in January became available, I snapped them up.

Another great album by an Aussie act was Atlas Genius with their album Inanimate Objects.  Another indie album of great songs, these guys really have the world at their feet and I can say that I reckon they’ll be ruling the world in the next 5 years along with Walk The Moon.

Saddest release of the year was Perth’s Emperors who recorded and released their new album Chupacabra then broke up.  Sigh.  

There were releases from old timers - Duran Duran, A-Ha, Everclear, Def Leppard.  Death Cab For Cutie released their latest gloom pop masterpiece and The Wombats were held off #1 on the charts with their 3rd LP, Glitterbug (by none other than Lee Kernaghan and his cash in, kerching album for the 100th Anniversary of the ANZACs).  Something new from Wolf Alice, Everything Everything and Tear Council and Bloc Party dropped their lead in single for their next album sounding nothing like they used to but winning me over in the process with the guts to do something different and unexpected.  And of course, there were 20th Anniversary celebrations for Garbage, Foo Fighters, Everclear, Smashing Pumpkins…hell, everything I grew up with now getting the remastered midas touch.  I am getting old.

And here’s the proof.  1985…

1985 was the year I started my own musical journey.  This was the year I got my first tapes and religiously watched music television.  It was the year of A-Ha, Wham!, Madonna, REO Speedwagon, Foreigner, Dire Straits, Starship, Phil Collins, Bryan Adams, Tears For Fears, Simple Minds, John Parr and Huey Lewis and the News.  It seems like only a heartbeat ago, but it’s 30 years.  I think it’s still fresh and new but I’m guessing, really, it’s old and dated.  In 1985, if someone had said to me to listen to stuff from 1955, I’d have run screaming to the hills so I’m sure right now, in 2015, when I tell people younger than me about 1985, I must be that sad old fogey who listens to that poxy s#ite from so so long ago.  I laugh to think that some of the school teachers Alex and Zach have were born when I was listening to Ratcat or early Stone Temple Pilots in the early 1990’s, and they could care less or have NFI, so what does it say about my own kids?  Well, a good song will always be a good song.  So they’ll get a well rounded pop music education ha!

But 1985 was the year of Back to the Future, and 2015 was the future.  Oct 21, 2015 was way way way in to the future.  For a day this year, it was the present.  And ever so quickly, it has merged in to the past.  That 9 year old boy is nearly 40.  And he often asks himself where the hell did that time go?  Oh I know.  It’s been spent listening to songs and albums that have amassed from a single cassette tape of the Ghostbusters soundtrack in to a spare room filled with 6000 CDs.  I’d like to think I’ll never get Alzheimer’s because I have a memory attached to every song I’ve ever listened to and I hate to forget it all.  But as long as there’s a song in my heart, I’m sure I’ll be able to hum along.


So Merry Christmas one and all.  Or Happy Hanukkah.  And Happy Festivus!  Here’s to a great 2016!


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