Out On Blue Six: Freddie Mercury

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RIP Les Reed

Les Reed, the songwriter behind Tom Jones' classic hits Delilah and It's Not Unusual, has died at the age of 83.

Les Reed, pictured with unlikely Adidas poster boy Tom Jones

Reed had been the pianist with The John Barry Seven and the conductor of his own orchestra but it's his incredible catalogue of 60+ hit songs that he'll perhaps be best remembered for. Here's just a few examples of those chart toppers;

Reed's songs were recorded by artistes ranging from big American stars like Elvis, The Carpenters and Bing Crosby to homegrown talents like Kathy Kirby, Lulu and Des O'Connor. He wrote the scores for the films Girl on a Motorcycle, The Bushbaby, One More Time, George and Mildred, Creepshow 2 and Parting Shots and he was also responsible for co-writing the 1967 novelty song Who's Doctor Who by then Doctor Who actor Frazer Hines and the B-Side to Leeds United's 1972 Cup Final single, Leeds! Leeds! Leeds! Better known as Marching Together, it's a song still sung by supporters of the club on the terraces both home and away to this day.

RIP

Theme Time: The Word - 808 State

Ah yes it's time to look at that enfant terrible of Channel 4 in the 1990s, The Word

Love it or hate it, you cannot deny how influential and important The Word was. It's almost twenty-five-years since the last episode aired and yet almost everything The Word pioneered has now become absorbed by other shows and accepted into the mainstream.

Remember 'The Hopefuls' those shameless glory hunters who gave up their dignity by eating worms and sheep testicles (among other more disgusting stunts) because, as they would each gamely say to camera "I'll do anything to be on TV" Remember how offended and disgusted people were? They're all fairly quiet now when watching celebs eat the very same thing as part of an I'm a Celebrity bushtucker trial aren't they?

It wasn't just gross stunts though; The Word provided a platform for some of the best music of the day (often breaking new bands) and some brilliantly candid, off-the-cuff interviews with famous figures from the world of music, acting, sport and the arts, and the kind of through-the-looking-glass exposes of the weird and wonderful life in America that Louis Theroux would later mine. It was The Tube via a kind of X-rated Tiswas - perfect for the laddish, baggy, grungey, britpoppy 1990s.

Described by Wikipedia as 'a mayhemic mixture of pop music and teen attitude' The Word was must-see post pub viewing on a Friday night for some 49% of the viewing public at that time. It ran from 1990 to 1995 and featured presenters such as Amanda de Cadenet, Mark Lamarr, Dani Behr, Hufty and Katie Puckrick, the one constant being it's main presenter, Mancunian motormouth Terry Christian whose book, My Word, is an eye-opening, candid and funny read of his time with the show.

The theme tune was entitled Olympic, provided by Madchester's own 808 State.

Some full episodes of The Word are available on YouTube, whilst a series of compilations can be viewed on All 4. They're well worth watching, whether you simply fancy a bit of nostalgia or whether you just want to see some cutting edge tele before it become so diluted. Chris Evans was only just around the corner, and he had obviously been paying attention.

Out On Blue Six: Sophie B. Hawkins

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Out On Blue Six: Roxette

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Out On Blue Six: Scarlet

Derry Girls always has a fabulous '90s soundtrack and this week's episode was no exception. As Erin (Saoirse-Monica Jackson) waited for her prom date a vaguely familiar tune began to slowly swell on the soundtrack - a tune I'd actually forgot all about. That tune was the 1995 hit Independent Love Song by Hull based girl duo Scarlet. Come and take a trip down memory lane...

Still beautiful.

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Out On Blue Six: Sinéad O'Connor

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Out On Blue Six: The Beat, RIP Ranking Roger

Another day, another loss to the music industry; Ranking Roger of The Beat (or The English Beat if you are Stateside) has passed away at the age of 56

RIP

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Out On Blue Six: The Walker Brothers, RIP Scott Walker

Scott Walker gone. Words fail me. So I'll turn to this incredible and rather apt song, just one of many beautiful tunes he gave us

RIP

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Out On Blue Six: Reverend & the Makers

Sending solidarity vibes to Reverend frontman Jon McClure who has left twitter this week due to aggression and threats he received there for speaking his mind and talking sense.

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Out On Blue Six: Strawberry Switchblade

....Or you wouldn't believe what this song is about!

I've always liked Since Yesterday by Strawberry Switchblade. Last night, I was at a gig in Liverpool fronted by David Lawrence and Steve Brotherstone, the authors of Scarred For Life, an excellent book about growing up in the 70s and 80s when dark and inappropriate pop culture reigned supreme. Naturally, when it came to the 1980s, the conversation turned to the all-pervading fear of nuclear war and this track - a favourite track of mine- was mentioned.

Why?

Because, as Rose McDowell told The Quietus back in 2015, it's all about the threat of nuclear Armageddon. 

"It was actually about nuclear war. I never told anybody that because I didn't want to write political songs, and I'm also quite private with what I think, so I just wanted to write a song. I didn't actually want to tell anyone what it was about at the time"

What it's about, I've learned, is the debate about whether to commit suicide in the wake of the bomb being dropped and thereby avoid the inhospitable and desperate future that will follow.

"And as we sit here alone

Looking for a reason to go on

It's so clear that all we have now

Are our thoughts of yesterday"

And there was me thinking it was just about a couple breaking up! Funny what you can learn, innit?

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Out On Blue Six: Camera Obscura

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Out On Blue Six: The Clash - Good Luck Lionesses!

I've also been remiss in not mentioning England Lionesses excellent performance thus far in the She Believes Cup out in the US. So far they've won one game (Brazil) and drew another (the US), and tonight they play Japan - which you can watch, from 10pm, on BBC4. I'm hoping for another win and a glorious goal (or goals) from Ellen White, who drew first blood scoring against Brazil last week. 

So here's a suitable track for her and the rest of the squad, to wish them well tonight. The Clash and White Riot!

Good luck ladies!

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Out On Blue Six: The Prodigy, RIP Keith Flint

Stunned to hear of the death of The Prodigy frontman Keith Flint at the age of 49

RIP

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Out On Blue Six: Fine Young Cannibals

I firmly believe that it's only worth covering a song if you propose to do something different with it, but even then it's only the few exceptions that manage to step out of the shadows of the original.

Fine Young Cannibals set about covering Buzzcocks' punk classic Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've) in 1987 and secured a soundtrack spot in the Jonathan Demme film Something Wild as a result. It's a certainly a somewhat different approach. Does it work? I'm not completely certain, but it is not without some charm of its own. Or maybe that's just the interesting dancing of the noodle-legged guitarist, as you'll see in this clip from Top of the Pops

It's like he's stubbing cigs out underneath the heels of too-tight shoes that are pinching him whilst simultaneously silently squeezing a fart out! And I love it!!

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Out On Blue Six: The Beautiful South

A number 2 hit for The Beautiful South in 1998, Perfect 10 is a suitably Carry On like tune from a band whose 1994 best of album was entitled Carry On Up the Album Charts. Jokey in a nudge-nudge-wink-wink innuendo kind of way, it isn't without its own profound message - that of successful relationships which exist outside of the mainstream idea of conventional beauty.

In the sleeve notes of his latest, greatest hits album, The Last King of Pop, Paul Heaton has this to say about Perfect 10;

"One of those songs that sounded so innocent and so romantic as a lyric, but became the opposite when it reached the charts. Written on a scrap of hotel note paper, after a drunken night in London, it was intended as a gentle squeeze in the hips of an equidistant lover. With Paul Weller's understated guitar and Norman Cook's bombastic co-production, the mood soon turned from pre-pubescent Peter Skellern, to a cold, calculating, coffin bound Tom Jones. How success can change your little tune in the cross hairs of public regard"

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Out On Blue Six: Talk Talk, RIP Mark Hollis

Sad to hear of the death of Mark Hollis, lead singer of Talk Talk, at the age of 64.

RIP

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Out On Blue Six: Paul Brady

Anyone remember the BBC Northern Ireland sitcom Safe and Sound that this was the theme tune too? It starred Des McAleer and Sean McGinley as a Catholic and a Protestant running a Belfast garage, and co-starred Michelle Fairley as McAleer's sister and the objects of McGinley's affections. It lasted just one series in the summer of 1996 and has made me love Brady ever since. 

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Out On Blue Six: The Corrs

Sharing this stirring, instrumental gem of a track from The Corrs today because I've finally got my hands on the BBC drama it was written for (and which it shares a name with), Rebel Heart; a drama about the 1916 Easter Rising that was met with such controversy when it was screened back in 2001 that it hasn't been repeated or commercially released.

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Some People (1962)

Pitched somewhere between the kitchen sink and a teen beat movie, Some People is perhaps best described as a cinematic advertisement for the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme. 

It tells the story of three teddy boys (Ray Brooks, David Andrews and David Hemmings) who find their existence rather aimless when they each lose their motorcycle licence following a traffic accident. Looking for something else to do, they decide to resurrect their musical ambitions and find an unlikely supporter in Kenneth More's churchwarden, who offers them the church hall to rehearse in and begins to encourage them onto the straight and narrow path with the prospect of the DofE award. This latter opportunity is delivered much to the consternation of the bitter and unimpressed Andrews, who threatens to upset everything for the group, including Brooks romance with More's daughter played by Anneke Wills.

I've always had a soft spot for Clive Donner's 1962 film, largely because of my appreciation of actors like Ray Brooks and Anneke Wills who play the young lovers from opposite side of the tracks here and who I've loved ever since Brooks was in Big Deal and Wills in Doctor Who. He is a leather jacketed, attractively cherubic and bequiffed motorcyclist whilst she is the sensible and delectable blonde churchwarden's daughter, clearly attracted to a bit of (minor) rough. 

Wills' autobiography has some great anecdotes about the film, from reminiscing about co-star David Hemmings' prodigious amount of bogies up his nose, and finding out she had caught crabs (co-star Angela Douglas was on hand to prise the lice from her mons pubis and squish them into a bar of soap with her perfectly manicured nails) to being received by the Duke himself, who saucily remarked "I liked you in the bath" in reference to one memorable sequence in which Wills' character shrinks her jeans by sitting in a tub of hot water. You can't really blame Phil the Greek; Wills has an amazing bum that looks great in tight denim.

Speaking of dirty old men, this was also the film that the aforementioned Angela Douglas met Kenneth More, the extremely married and twenty-six-years her senior star, who would eventually leave his wife to marry her in 1968. The pair remained together until his death in 1982. More's role as the churchwarden who inspires Brooks and his pals to undertake the DofE was one which he waived his fee for and played for nothing, believing greatly in the moral and character building benefits of the scheme.

What makes Some People stand out from similar fare made around this era is the fact that it is set in Bristol rather than London. It all helps to add some local colour, including a test flight of the supersonic research aircraft the Bristol 188, captured by second-unit director Nicolas Roeg. Look out too for Harry H. Corbett in the small role of Brooks' father, conveying a great emotional depth in just one stumbling father and son heart to heart that hints at his own dissatisfaction with life which ultimately spurs Brooks on to doing something worthwhile. 

Less The Young Ones (as it's not really a musical; no one breaks into song outside of the band rehearsal sequences for example) and more Serious Charge, Some People is a good way to pass ninety minutes and bask in early '60s nostalgia.