I’m not sure how we got here, but get we here we did.
It’s Friday! And that can mean only one thing: fish and chip supper!
Okay, let’s try that again.
It’s Friday! And that means it’s time for the latest chunk of reconstituted tuneage that is Vol 4.2 of the Friday Night Music Club!
As with last week’s instalment, this is the mammoth Vol 4 broken down into easy-to-swallow, hour long pieces, only with the running order tweaked – some songs added, some taken away, some just moved – from when the long mix made its appearance here back in April 2021, albeit via a link to Soundcloud.
You know the drill by now: any skips or jumps are down to the mixing software; any mis-timed mixes are down to me; all record selections are, of course, mine.
Oh, and a cursory look down the track-listing will tell you that this one needs one of these slapped on it:
You probably know all of this already, but Sadiq Khan and Donald Trump are not exactly fans of each other’s work.
Shortly after the terrorist attacks in London on Saturday night, Khan, the Mayor of London, issued a statement which, amongst other things, contained the next two sentences, right next to each other, exactly as I have written them here:
“Londoners will see an increased police presence today and over the course of the next few days. There’s no reason to be alarmed.”
But cometh the hour cometh the orange buffoon let loose with a phone and a Twitter account, for soon Trump had tweeted this:
Which isn’t quite what Khan had said, now is it?
Brace yourself, for I’m about to do something which I’ve never done before and am extremely unlikely to do again: I’m going to say something nice about Theresa May.
For earlier today, she said: “I think Sadiq Khan is doing a good job and it’s wrong to say anything else – he’s doing a good job.”
Ok, that’s me being nice about her over. Because she had to be asked several times whether Trump had been right to criticise Khan, but she avoided the question on each occasion, which you have probably noticed she has rather a habit of doing (on the rare event where she allows herself to be placed in a position where people might ask her questions, that is). Only when the question was rephrased to ask whether there was anything which Trump could say which she would be prepared to criticise was her pro-Khan response teased from her.
Khan’s office, on the other hand, were a little more forthright in their response:
“He has more important things to do than respond to Donald Trump’s ill-informed tweet that deliberately takes out of context his remarks urging Londoners not to be alarmed when they saw more police – including armed officers – on the streets.”
And Trump’s next move? This:
In case you’re unclear, “MSM” isn’t Trump’s latest covefefe tiny handed typing error, it’s short-hand for “Mainstream Media”. So, in Trump’s mind, a) he was perfectly justified and correct to misinterpret Khan’s statement for his own nasty ends, b) that Khan had in some way back-tracked or climbed down from his first statement, and c) the mainstream media had somehow colluded with Khan to make it look like Trump had been wrong.
I started following Trump on Twitter a few months ago, because I couldn’t believe that some of the things I had read he had tweeted could possibly be true. Genuinely sorry to report that I’ve yet to read one that wasn’t.
And conversely, he seems to be oblivious to the fact that we can all read what he tweets and draw our own conclusions without the need for media, be it mainstream or otherwise, to spell it out for us. Since he seems to live in a bubble of constant amazement about things which are pretty obvious (“Nobody knew what a tough job being the President is….” – no Donald, we all knew that, it was just you that didn’t) where he has to have the simplest things explained to him by his advisors, it’s hardly surprising that he judges the rest of the world by his own stupid, ignorant standards.
Ok, folks, here we go with your weekly dose of virtual interaction, a day later than I promised. So, I’m unreliable. Guess you’ll just have to put up with that.
To refresh your memories, last week I asked you for records you can link to The 101’ers “Keys To Your Heart”.
First out of the traps this week was CC, with this suggestion:
“Keys to my Heart to Heart of Glass by Blondie to (I love the Sound of Breaking Glass) by Nick Lowe off Jesus of Cool to She Left Me for Jesus by Hayes Carll”
Never heard that before. Not bad at all, cheers CC.
Next up, The Swede:
“Double link alert! The 101ers were so called because the band lived together in a squat at 101 Walterton Road in Maida Vale. Assuming Walterton Road ran odd numbers on one side of the street and evens across the road, one of their neighbouring houses would have been Number 99. So how about ‘Other 99’ by Big Audio Dynamite, fronted by (here’s that second link folks) Joe Strummer’s future partner in crime, Mick Jones.”
Good stuff. I have to admit pretty much all of B.A.D.’s output passed me by, bar “E=MC2” so it’s good to have a pointer for where to start in the event that I ever muster up enough enthusiasm to investigate further.
Next up, is George, who writes:
“In binary code 101 is equivalent to the number 5 in the decimal system. There was a pop group from the 1980s called Five Star………I’m going to start again………..”
Ah. Okay. We’ll come back to you when you’ve had chance to ponder a while longer.
In the meantime, the mere mention of Five Star brings out a Pavlov’s Dog type reaction in me, but instead of salivating and looking hungry (which are pretty much my default settings anyway), I can’t resist posting this. Yes, again:
Whilst George is a-pondering, here’s The Swede, again:
“I got quite excited for a moment there, thinking that George might suggest ‘Mind Your Own Business’ by Delta 5. Then it all went horribly, horribly wrong.”
It seems The Swede, building upon Swiss Adam’s multiple suggestions last week, has stumbled upon another way to get more than one record played here: suggest what you thought someone else might have suggested before they’ve actually suggested anything. You’ve got to admire his chops, haven’t you?
Nothing further from George at this point, so while we wait, here’s The Great Gog:
“If you didn’t want the key to someone’s heart, you could always Throw Away The Key (a slightly under-achieving hit for Linx in 1981). The lead singer of Linx was David Grant who enjoyed further solo hits, and a couple of duets with Jaki Graham. That then leads me to Graham Parker, and linking back to heart, The Beating Of Another Heart from 1980’s The Up Escalator.”
“Here goes. 101 in binary is 5. And The Tympany 5 were Louis Jordan’s backing band, and the song Ain’t Nobody Here But Us Chickens” before clarifying: “That’s 101 in binary is 5 in the decimal system. 101 in base 4 is 17 in base 10.” But we all knew that, right?
And now, I’m delighted to be able to finish off this week’s suggestions with two first-timers to this mullarkey.
First, we have What’s It All About, Alfie? who writes from the North of Scotland – a country which seems to have more than its fair share of entertaining bloggers – but having had a darn good rummage around their blog I’m none the wiser as to their identity. I think – given a recent post was about Jackie magazines – that the blog is written by a lady. If so, I’m even more pleased because, bar Marie’s suggestion back on The Chain #10, we’re a little light on female contributors. (And if not, ermm…sorry!)
Anyway, here’s their suggestion:
“First thing that came to mind was 808 State – Pacific State, just because they also have a palindrome number (is it still called that if it’s not a word?) in their name.”
Doubtless you’ll all know that the song in question is know under several guises: “Pacific 707”, “Pacific State”, or just plain “Pacific”, (and for completists/pedants, one called “Pacific 808 98”, which is practically a drum and bass remix) but that matters not a jot here since it’s the band name we’re concerned with. So I’ve gone with the Pacific 707 version, partly because we then have two of those pesky numerical palindromes for the price of one, but mostly because it’s the best postable copy I have:
But we’re not done just yet, for finally another suggestion from another lady, who – get this – doesn’t even write, nor has she ever written, her own blog.
“So when my little pigeon brain heard the word keys in the title “Keys to your heart” I immediately thought of a song that features a key quite frequently and is a wonderful camp euro dance classic (if that’s even an official music genre). It just reminds me of dancing with my best friend, Simon in G-A-Y many years ago “The key, the secret” – Urban cookie collective.”
“Quite frequently” is a bit of an understatement, isn’t it?
I have to admit to having a bit of a soft spot for that one too, as it goes.
So, welcome to you both, thanks for joining in, and please feel free to make suggestions in the future. And to any other non-bloggers out there who read this, think of a link then don’t post it for whatever reason, please do: I’d love to hear – and play – your suggestions (and I will, provided the link stands up to scrutiny and I can track down the song in question if I don’t already own it).
Ok, to my own suggestion, and if the 101’ers have got the Keys to Your Heart, then before they can use them, they first need to cross the river to your heart by using the bridge to your heart, which luckily one-hit-wonders WAX built back in 1987:
And by posting that, I hope I’m proving to any possible contributors that your choice doesn’t have to be good to get posted! (But I bet you’ll all have the chorus to that running round your brain for ages now).
So, to round things up for another week, here’s the official selection, which I love, but which none of us got anywhere near. I’m quite pleased about that, as I love the diversity of your suggestions, so keep them coming, more power to your elbow etc etc etc.
Lifted from their timeless “Rum Sodomy & the Lash” album, here’s The Pogues:
(Sorry George, more Zippyshare-ness for you to contend with)
And the offical reason for that song? “Joe Strummer stood in for Shaun MacGowan as The Pogues’ vocalist on several occasions…” Our reasons, whilst slightly more convoluted, are way better than that, no?
So, your suggestions please, along with your explanation as to how the hell you got there, via the Comments box below, for songs to link to “Dirty Old Town” by The Pogues.
A History of Dubious Taste 