1 Elvis Juice, down to the last can.
A tiny slither of red.
No cigarettes, plenty of The Man in the High Castle.
Not enough pretzels.
Welcome back, part 2 of the playlist, I bet you can’t wait. Hope y’all enjoyed part 1 and the Spotify playlist worked for those who fancied a listen (link is on my Insta page of the same name if you wanna get involved). Anyway, the music blog.
So I was driving around the other day doing a few last minute bits, getting new tyres on the Q5 sorted for Mazz_B and dropping beers off for Vinny for helping with a job well done turning the Harry Potter under the stairs area into a den for the children. Anyhoo, there was a quiz Q on the radio. Always one for a pop quiz, my ears pricked up. The DJ, I forget which radio station it was but knowing me probably Absolute (other radio stations are available 😉), asked ‘before Phil Collins took over singing duties for Genesis, who was their lead singer? I guess a new generation of peeps wouldn’t realise that’s where Peter Gabriel started out, if indeed they’d even heard of Peter Gabriel, or Genesis for that matter?
PG’s (Peter Gabriel that is, not Paul George the underachieving basketball player for the LA Clippers) Sledgehammer, what a strange music video that was! I remember seeing that for the first time on TOTP and thinking WTAF!! No more drugs for that man!!
As for Phil Collins, Maggie is a big fan of his drumming, as I realised when we were watching Johnny HD sing the Elton John track I’m Still Standing on YouTube one day. I nipped off to make her a sandwich and when I came back the next track up auto started and she was sat there fascinated by the gorilla playing Phil’s drum intro to In the Air Tonight. What a girl 😍
Fact of the day: Phil Collins was the drummer on the Band Aid track Do They Know its Christmas. He also played Live Aid at Wembley then got flown by helicopter, Noel Edmonds being the pilot, to Heathrow before hopping on Concorde (as you do) to JFK then another heli to Philadelphia to play the U.S gig too!
Back to the music and the play list. You Can’t Hurry Love, exactly the kind of upbeat track I was looking for in 2020 to lift the spirits! Gotta love a bit of Phil 😉
Hallelujah. What a fantastic Happy Mondays track, the remix by Oakenfold and Andrew Weatherall is epic. I’ve seen Oakenfold, of last weeks Waterfall fame, DJ a few times. The first time was supporting U2 at Roundhay Park in Leeds back in the day. And the other was in Las Vegas, which was pretty cool. I’m pretty sure I saw Andrew Weatherall DJ back in the day too, at the Student Union in Preston. Jeremy Healy was definitely there, I’ll have to ask me mate Snorter he’ll remember! We went to see Athlete together back in the day. Billy bonus, Snow Patrol were their support act.
Sorry Chemical Bros., Free Yourself is going to have to wait for another day. And let’s get onto them another day too, probably in and around ‘The Uni Years’. Still, While My Guitar Gently Weeps. George Harrison, beautiful sole. Vegas connection right here…Frank Sinatra used to come on stage at Caesars Palace back in the day and sing ‘Something’, introducing it as the best Lennon-McCartney song ever written. When it was in fact written by, George Harrison!
Back to the journey here, passing the A38(M) Aston express way I was thinking about our kid going to Birmingham Uni and me having to drive down that nightmare of a road as a young 17-yr old having just passed my driving test to go stay with him and go to some cool gigs. Neds Atomic Dustbin at the Aston Villa Leisure Centre was one such time, I wonder what happened to them? “Soap for sore eyes, (I need an intermission)
If looks could kill, (I’d kill your television). What a great track, I might add it to the playlist! It was a fleeting thought, and then I got back onto thinking, would we ever get to Swynerton?
Bennie and the Jets. I didn’t think you liked Elton John? Name that film? And the Beastie Boys version, what a great tune!! In a gym in a portacabin at RAF Valley working out whilst doing my search and rescue training in the winter of discontent that was 2001 listening to that track will always be a high (or low, you decide) light. When I arrived at Valley and walked into my room in the Mess to see the curtains closed and flapping away I was thinking, who leaves the window open in December? Then I went to shut it and realised, it was shut 🥶
Skyscraper by Dave Lee Roth of Van Halen fame. Back in the day I went into HMV in Preston and bought the Skyscraper album cover t-shirt in white and when I got home I immediately cut the sleeves off I was that much of a rock star. I took that t-shirt to a sunny scout camp and pretty much wore it the whole time I was there, including when we played in a volleyball tournament. Looking back there’s two things about this, 1. I feel I carried that team to the final. And 2. That t-shirt must have stank!! Check out the music video to Just Like Paradise, complete with Steve Vai playing a 3-neck guitar and some amazing scenes of Diamond Dave climbing Half Dome in Yosemite National Park.
Btw, total spin off moment here…if you haven’t seen the Alex Honnold documentary Free Solo about him climbing the 3000’ vertical rock face that is El Capitan, OMG watch it! It’s awesome, that dude is awesome! Nuff said!
I’ll leave you with London Grammar’s Strong, heard more recently in Normal People, what a great series. And the High Contrast Mix, bangin’! That song was also made famous in our Afghan Det video from ~2013. Stepping off the cab with my long to collect the Go Pro with a mob approaching on mopeds was good fun, looking back…
Next time. Episode 4: Breaking out of Heaven, I mean isolation!
Things to be grateful for: My vegan protein arrived (trying to cut down on diary, what can I say!), I need something to aid recovery from running 5.5miles per day! I’m bloody 44!!
“This must be just like livin’ in paradise, And I don’t want to go home” 🤔
David Lee Roth, 1987
My Life in Music 