2. Tony Blair is charging parents £10 for their children to attend his son's birthday party. It's an extra tenner to ask about the decision to invade Iraq.
Who knew?
3. When a friend tells you he has received his estranged wife's divorce petition. apparently it's NOT OKAY to ask "Did she get many signatures?".
4.
5. This little girl just got herself one of them thar university degrees. Her Dad is pretty proud.
This 1983 song was written by Neil Finn, who is better known as the lead singer/songwriter of Crowded House. In 1977, as a teenager barely out of school he joined Split Enz, the band his older brother Tim had co-founded five years earlier. Known for their bizarre stage outfits, they achieved a largely cult following, despite the odd chart hit such as I Got You (also written by Neil Finn).
The burgeoning songwriting talent that was to lead to worldwide acclaim with his subsequent band is very evident here, even if the production seems a little dated. These days Finn performs it alone as a piano ballad, and there are some excellent live recordings of that arrangement on YouTube.
One of my bugbears (stick around long enough and you'll hear about many, many more) is when a piece of entertainment or culture which I like is, for want of a better word, contaminated by its association with someone of whom I disapprove for one reason or another. This sets off confusing emotions and leaves me feeling pathetically unsure whether to just write off the show/band/film etc or somehow find a way to soften my stance towards this interloper, in order to be able to continue to enjoy it.
To illustrate, here are my Top 5 Examples:
1. Extras
Costumes lovingly created by Coldplay
I love Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's follow up to The Office, and some of the cameos are tremendous, e.g Patrick Stewart, David Bowie. But Chris Martin? And him singing as well? No thanks. Anyone who is in a band that indulges in knitting in the recording studio has no place in my world.
Then there's Vinnie Jones. IMDB's profile of him states: "Often plays a very angry brute character, who swears a lot at people he dislikes." Yep, that's about it. He was, it must be said, voted Best British Actor in 2001 by readers of Empire Magazine. Those guys know what they're talking about, right?
2. Puff Daddy
Yes, I know
Yes, that's what I call him. As someone who struggles to remember names I'm buggered if I'm memorising more than one per person. Having long seen him as one of the most overrated performers of all time, and hating that whole clothing line and premium vodka brand thing, I wanted him to be terrible in the Russell Brand comedy Get Him to The Greek, but he actually did a half decent job of sending himself and his image up.
However... whatever possessed Jimmy Page (someone who, hitherto, had been fiercely protective of Led Zeppelin's legacy) to collaborate with him on an awful reworking of the Zep classic Kashmir (entitled Come With Me) I'll never know.
3. Bobby Gould
Lump It!
As a football (soccer) fan loyal to one particular team, these contradictory feelings have to be confronted at fairly regular intervals over the seasons, be they concerning players signed by your club, or about the Manager/Coach. I imagine that Manchester United fans who also support England would have have wanted to lynch their own player Cristiano Ronaldo, after his conniving got Wayne Rooney sent off in the 2006 England v Portugal World Cup Quarter Final. Or perhaps they soon realised what an advantage it was to have a despicable, diving cheat on their side, rather than the opposition.
With regard to my own club, they went through some pretty dark days 20 - 30 years ago, few darker than when managed by the man pictured to the right, Bobby Gould (this sentence only helps you narrow down to about 18 clubs if you're trying to work out which one is mine). The kind of lumpen, direct football which was his trademark tested the fans' patience to the limit, but still we urged our team on. There comes a point with every unpopular manager however, when the thought of a defeat seems almost bearable, as long as it hastens his departure. Gould did in fact win his last game in charge. There was though the small matter of a coffin being passed around the crowd with his name on it ...
4. The Thick of It
The current cast
When the lead actor in one of your favourite comedy programmes turns out in real life not to be the most pleasant of characters, it can be pretty disappointing. The car crash that is Charlie Sheen is bad enough, but when Thick of It star Chris Langham was found guilty of possessing child pornography in 2007, this great political satire seemed finished. It is to the credit of the cast, writers and producers that they regrouped and were able to keep the show alive, maintaining its excellent standards and even producing a full-length feature film (In The Loop). Me? I can't bring myself to watch the old episodes which Langham appeared in. I can't separate the quality of the material and performances (including Langham's - he was very good) from the sordid revelations. And that makes me feel sad.
5. The Lonely Island
The Lonely Island
The Lonely Island are a US comedy troupe who have done some excellent spoof music videos which I have enjoyed and tittered at profusely. They send up musical genres and stars very well, but for me it would be infinitely preferable if they had someone dressed up as, say, Lady Gaga rather than letting the actual star show what a good sport she is by playing along. Maybe I'm alone here but I just find it a bit depressing to read that on their latest album there are collaborations with the likes of Snoop Dogg, Akon, Rihanna and Nicki Minaj, when those people are ripe for really cutting parody.
That said, nothing can stop me from howling at this recent video featuring Michael Bolton. If you only remember him as the mulleted Motown mangler of old, then this will be a revelation.
#002 Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band - Jungleland So sad to hear of the death of Clarence Clemons. Here's a great recording from the legendary 1975 London Hammersmith Odeon gig:
