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Showing posts with label Out On Blue Six. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Out On Blue Six. Show all posts
Wednesday, 17 April 2019
Friday, 12 April 2019
Monday, 8 April 2019
Thursday, 4 April 2019
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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Saturday, 30 March 2019
Wednesday, 27 March 2019
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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Monday, 25 March 2019
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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Saturday, 16 March 2019
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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Wednesday, 13 March 2019
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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Saturday, 9 March 2019
Tuesday, 5 March 2019
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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Monday, 4 March 2019
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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Friday, 1 March 2019
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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Wednesday, 27 February 2019
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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Tuesday, 26 February 2019
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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Monday, 25 February 2019
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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Tuesday, 19 February 2019
Out On Blue Six: Everything But The Girl/Karen Ramirez
Beautiful song, two beautiful versions. The original by EBTG, and Karen Ramirez's cover.
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Thursday, 14 February 2019
Out On Blue Six: Billy Bragg
Earlier today I posted Billy Bragg's Fourteenth of February to celebrate St Valentine's Day. But if, like me, you're single and the whole day is a pain in the hole, don't worry, cos Billy's got us covered to with Valentine's Day is Over....
And in just 5 minutes time that's exactly what it will be. Over for another year.
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Out On Blue Six: Billy Bragg
Hello young lovers everywhere! And old ones too! What else would I choose for St Valentine's Day but Billy Bragg's The Fourteenth of February? Enjoy...
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Tuesday, 12 February 2019
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