Month: May 2012

Caption Competition


It might just be my twisted imagination but I think there’s something slightly sinister about this picture. What do you think? The best one gets the usual prize (if you haven’t already got one. You all have, haven’t you?)

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Don’t Forget To Remember Me


The Grim Reaper continues his May sweep through the pop world, now he’s taken Robin Gibb.

Though I think the Bee Gees have gained some appreciation and even cred in recent years, some people still regard them as being a bit naff. I saw them live in the late 1980s and it was a terrific concert, they really were excellent, but the other week I told someone that and he said “You saw the Bee Gees???” with the tone of someone who thought I was a bit soft in the head. It makes you wonder how many great hit songs a band has to write to be considered serious artists, I certainly don’t have a problem saying that the Gibbs are up there with Lennon & McCartney as the best pop songwriters that England has ever produced.

Though Barry’s falsetto was the sound most people associate with them, Robin’s voice was no less distinctive. His quivering tone often sounded like a fragile little boy on the verge of tears which added an intense, melodramatic sadness to early ballads like the ones below. As Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne says in his tribute here, his voice “sounded like no one else before or since.”

And spare a thought for Barry, that’s all his brothers gone now.

Download: My World – Bee Gees (mp3)
Download: I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You – Bee Gees (mp3)

Home Alone


I’m doing a freelance job at the moment, not a huge one but it’s better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick and good to keep the creative juices fresh. I knew this already but doing it has only confirmed to me how much I don’t like working from home. I wouldn’t call myself a people person but it’s nice having some direct contact with other human beings during the day, even if it’s only to bitch with them about what an arsehole the boss is.

I still go through the same morning routine as always — shower, shave, breakfast, get dressed, take the kids to school — but now instead of heading on to the office I turn around and come back home. My empty, empty home.

Download: Lonely Days – Bee Gees (mp3)

And what idiot was it said being unemployed meant more time for blogging? Oh right, that was me. Not quite working out that way so far.

Today we are all City fans


I don’t even like Manchester City but I went berserk with joy when they got the title-winning goal in the last minute of the last game of the season yesterday. Not because of any gentlemanly, neutral appreciation of the drama, but because it snatched the trophy from the grasp of that other team from Manchester, and schadenfreude is rarely more pleasurable than when it involves bad things happening to United.

Hopefully I’ll be going even more ballistic next Saturday.

Download: End of The Season – The Kinks (mp3)