Showing posts with label UB40. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UB40. Show all posts

Tuesday 29 September 2020

The Second Finest Roxy Music Album? - #FruitfulSeptember #12

On my afternoon walk yesterday I was listening to "Stranded" the third Roxy Music album, and my Emopeak headphones ran out of power. It is slightly annoying that you get about four announcements that you have low power then the shut off. I only  need one warning telling me the power is about to go off.

Anyway "Stranded" is another brilliant Roxy Miusic album and does contain their finest ever song "Mother Of Pearl"  with two sections that are a universe apart but do fit together, almost worthy of th edeparted Brian Eno. The album opens with their firs album based single "Street Life" , complete with debutant Eddie jobson's violin solo, followed by the mellower "Just Like You", then the slightly off kilter "Amazona" with lots of guitar effects before closing with the overlong religious "Psalm" closing a satisfying first side. The second side opens with the powerful "Serenade" slipping into the awesome "Song For Europe"  preparing you for the magnum opus "Mother of Pearl"before slipping out quietly with "Sunset".

If anyone wer to put this forward as the greatest Roxy Music album I couldn't argue with them, although my preference is for "For Your Pleasure.

I was shocked my the number of buses I saw on my morning walk, and as approach my 63rd birthday I'm gonna be reminded of my age my the number 63 Stagecoach bus that goes up Netherby Drive every twenty minutes.

So for the #FruitfulSeptember I am not going with another Roxy Music song, but with "Cherry Oh Baby" by Eric Donaldson that was covered by UB40 on their first "Labour of Love" album.

The weather is now bright sunshine, so enjoy the rest of the day.

Wednesday 28 March 2018

Keep on Moving


It's Wednesday and I'm feeling better but not 100%. As for many things the solution is "Keep On Moving" , keep active , keep doing things. I said this in my first post of the week and that caused my friend Julie to get "Keep On Movin'" by Soul II Soul as an earworm. That's not a bad thing as it is a great song.

The last two days I've used the bus to get in to work but today I will be walking and have another album loaded to listen to on walk in which I will write about soon.

The song I've chosen is Bob Marley's "Keep On Moving", a pre Island song but it does appear on the deluxe version of "Exodus"  as well as any number of buget compilations. I first remember coming across the song on UB40's first "Labour of Love" album and they do a cracking version too, but it is a great song.

Anyway time to get off to work and to KEEP ON MOVING. Have a great Wednesday.

Saturday 30 July 2016

I Love Seeing People Smile


I love seeing people smile , I love seeing people happy and I love smiling and being happy. Seeing a smile is infectious , I always smile back and sometimes I smile at people and they smile back at me. Yes the context has to be right  (I watch Gotham and have seen some very worrying smiles) , but a smile does make you feel better.

I know society is not good at the moment and I am hopeful we can progress , I detest spitefulness greed and idiocy which seems to be the modus operandi for the government , but my friends and their friends are positive and pleasant people. I love going into work and the only pressure is to get the job done well and that means that there are plenty of opportunities to smile at work as there are lots of wonderful people that I work with.

It does help that the weather is generally summery at the moment , I woke up early and , the sun is streaming through the window although I am still very tired so will be going back to bed after this.

Steffen .. Exit Stage Left with two chairs
There have been a lot of free concerts in South Shields and tomorrow UB40 play Bents Park in South Shields , I tried to get to The Proclaimers and Lindisfarne the other week but I was a bit late and the gates were shut, and there were still huge queues outside , and I was amazed at the number of people complaining that the gates had been shut . It was very popular and public safety is paramount. Oh and my friend Steffen Peddie is playing The Customs House tonight ... now he WILL make you smile (and laugh loads).

Anyway I chose UB40's Sing Your Own Song as it always makes me feel good , and I hope it does the same for you.


Anyway , the weekend is just starting , so smile lots and enjoy other peoples' smiles. It's a simple concept and I know some people are only happy when they are miserable (Usually Mancs and soap opera characters... try Coronation Street and Eastenders, although I have met some brilliant Mancunians in my time such as John Cooper Clarke and others)

Friday 6 February 2015

Dogs and Mice



Birds in the Garden
Today has been more than a little weird. The weather is still wintery and I was going to refill the bird feeders in the garden, I went into the garage and picked up the bag of bird feed from the floor which was almost empty. I though that I was sure I'd only used about half of it , no matter, although the bag only had a small hole in it. Then I looked on the shelf and saw the half full bag of bird feed , secured with an elastic band. It look like there has been a very fat mouse or two in our garage. So I filled up the feeders and think I best store bird seed on the top shelf in future.





Oxfam Dog
Then today in the Oxfam shop we had a visit from a lovely friendly dog , who was also extremely well behaved and brought a smile to everyone's face.

The only downer is that , I think due to the wear, my knees nearly seized up causing a lot of pain, making it difficult when crouching sorting out music and looking for stuff for a Valentine's day display. The irony is that it's best to keep moving as it just hurts when you have been still for a couple of minutes , so in a way I suppose my body is telling me to get a move on and stop being so lazy.

So now I'm back in the house and will watch some catch up tv tonight , and the obvious song for this is the excellent Rat in Mi Kitchen by UB40. Have a brilliant Friday night.

Saturday 15 June 2013

Magna Carta

On this day in 1215 King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta , to in theory create a fairer society for the people and not subject to the whims of a despotic ruler. Well actually it was more about maintaining the barons' interests than actually being for the good or the people as a whole. Much like every government since up to the present day. Here's an audio of the event.

So obviously that should have influenced my June's Tunes choice for today. Problem being that the first band that come to my mind are the seventie's beardy folkies Magna Carta who never really set my world alight. There was a song called "Lord Of The Ages" that went on a bit with portentious spoken bits , which is  available on Youtube here and is just as toe curlingly awful as I remember. Anyway was trying to think of a related song , maybe "Sign Your Name" Terence Trent D'Arby or "Signed, Sealed , Delivered I'm Yours" by Stevie Wonder or "King" by UB40. Decided to go with Stevie Wonder: