Another one from the spinning stable. Heard a snippet of this track on some spinning mash up on Friday night’s session.
A great bit of early ’90’s House.
Glad I’ve been true to myself – nearly fifty and still pumping away to tracks like this on a Friday night whilst clad in day-glo lyrca (albeit pumping the pedals on a static bike alongside 12 other middle aged men and women fighting the battle of the bulge, more like the winter of our discontent than the second summer of love.) 🙂 🙂 🙂
Track of the week 7/1/18
Following rave reviews on Radio 5 Live, on Friday night I tuned in to watch a new Channel 4 series – Derry Girls, which, I was promised, would as funny as The Inbetweeners.
It opened well, with this track (not all of it) as the backing to the opening scenes. Must confess, did have to use Google to remind me who it was, but a great track and, coupled with fact that Derry Girls was pretty funny (although still some way to go if it is going to reach Inbetweeners status), it became an obvious choice for track of the week.
I can’t believe I haven’t done a Christmas track of the week before, but I haven’t, so it has to be this.
This for me is, and always will be, the iconic Christmas tune.
It was first released in December ’84, when I would have been in what is now Year 11. Watch the video, it is, quite simply, a collection of my musical heroes from when I grew up.
But its not that. Its the sentiment. It’s the message. It hammers it home:
Tonight thank God its them, instead of you
A more brutal, honest and true lyric has never been sung.
And it was borne out of genuine altruist. Bob Geldof and Midge Ure saw those dreadful images on the news of famine in Ethiopia and they did something about it.
In the world before Twitter and FaceBook and SnapChat they bought the plight of those poor people into our consciousness, they spawned a whole new “charitable industry”, they raised millions, they changed the way we look at the world. The world is wonderful place: embrace it, enjoy it, live it, but its not a perfect place and, outside your window, there’s a a world of dread and fear.
And, to top it all, a great sing-a-long tune as well
Went to see them on Monday at the Bristol 02 Arena.
Bloomin’ brilliant.
Its ten years since they released their first album. I was vaguely aware of them, but I distinctly remember barreling down the M3, on my own, on the way back from Heathrow, having taken some students to the airport, when I heard them on Radio 2, doing a session for Dermot O’Leary and being blown away by what I heard (Elvis ‘Aint Dead was the hook that got me.) Went out & got the album (possibly for Christmas or birthday, or possibly an early Amazon purchase?) and played it, and played it and played it.
And 10 years on, have now seen them live twice, would go and see them again in a Heartbeat (see what I did there?!) – brilliant musicians, a fantastic live act. Just as in Cardiff in ’15, Elvis ‘Aint Dead was the pick of the pops, although every minute of the show was fantastic.
(Note: A little bit of googling has allowed me to discover that the session I speak of was on Saturday 15 December 2007, but alas,
this episode is not currently available on BBC iPlayer Radio
The hook is the sampling of “More, More, More” – Andrea True Connection – but who cares how you’re hooked when the track is as good as this, and the video looks, well, just fun.
A great tune, and feel good song – just what we need now that the sun is stolen from us for most of day.
I’d like to think that I’d thought long and hard about this week’s TotW before deciding on this, but no, it’s just one of those happy coincidences.
I’ve been listening to this a lot this week and resolved to make it track of the week when I realised there was a certain synergy, what with it being Sophie’s 18th Birthday weekend, and reaching the age of consent.
I love the high tempo and energy of this track. I’ve never seen a video for it, but in my head throughout the song we watch someone running – from what and to where we don’t know, but just an ever changing vista as our running runs through fields, urban landscapes, the beach – ever where and nowhere.
Have bought the track on iTunes and have added it to my running playlist – where will it take me?
I knew the name “The Go Go’s” back in the day, but didn’t really know anything of them – probably just an ace before my time? I was more aware of Belinda Carlisle (a guilty pleasure – it is only in recent years that I have come out as a fan!) and Jane Wiedlin’s “Rush Hour” was a big hit in ’88 when I was in the constant rush hour that is London who both began their careers in the Go Go’s.
Anyway, (re)-discovered the Go Go’s as I had “My lips are sealed” floating around in my head and turned to trusty YouTube. Was expecting the Fun Boy Three to pop up, but The Go Go’s was the number one result. Listened to it and, through the magic that is YouTube, it then suggested I listen to this – Head over Heels which is a fantastic bit of frothy punky pop.
Bit of a left field entry this week – I certainly wasn’t into Genesis back in the day, in fact they were (in my humble twelve year old opinion!) the complete antithesis of cool, irrelevant prog-rock dinosaurs that were rightly being swept away by Mod, Ska and New Wave music.
So how come this track has made it onto my coveted track of the week list?
Well, one I am now much more tolerant and much less tribal, and if I like a track, so be it.
But more importantly, it was the final track accompanying the final scene of the final series of “Halt and Catch Fire”- a fantastic series that I have been watching since the summer (on Amazon Prime) that charts the personal computer revolution and the rise of the world wide web.
Has to be up there with some of the best telly I’ve watched in the last couple of years – in the same pantheon as Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, Stranger Things and Deutchsland 83. (Oh and Vikings, just remembered that great series.)
Track of the week 15/10/17
Another bit of wonderful music: calming, beautiful, brilliant.
A song to soothe the soul when the day has been long or difficult, or both.
One’s troubles get washed away in the tempestuous ocean rain, leaving you calm, refreshed and restored, and able to sail your ship away in the slack that inevitably comes after even the most violent storm.
