Round 430: The Shendish Hundred

Darts Thrown: June 9th 2020
Blog Written: June 21st 2020

Highest Score: 140
Lowest Score: 7
Sixties: 50
100+: 20
180s: 0
180s Missed: 0

Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

When we went into lockdown, I thought I would come out the other end playing darts like Peter Wright. Instead, most days I play darts more like Edgar Wright. So, it's nice to occasionally play a half decent round. My first 50-Sixties round in a long, long time.

I put it down to my anarcho-capitalist/Pe簽arol dart flights:

*'The Shendish Hundred'? It's a Hemel Hempstead pub darts term from back in the day.

Now for a random video. Alex R. shared this one on Facebook a few days ago. I'd never heard of them before, and part of the reason I'm posting it on the blog is because I know I'll forget it otherwise. The comments on YouTube are annoying 'cos people will insist on making the Talking Heads comparison . . . but it's better than that. I'll need to dig out the lyrics sometime as I'm sure they hold up. But it's the tune that grabbed me initially, and I was adult enough to put to one side that grown men shouldn't be on skateboards.

De Lux - "Oh Man The Future"

Round 162: Walking Wounded

Darts Thrown: February 13th 2020

Blog Written: February 13th 2020

Highest Score: 180

Lowest Score: 11

Sixties: 49

100+: 22
180s: 1
180s Missed: 1

Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

A game of two halves.

Avoided playing darts today because of an increasingly painful right elbow and a fucked up left knee (both dart related), but I thought I'd at least throw in one round before I went to bed.

Big mistake. First half the darts were all over the place. Only hit 13 sixties and I thought I was going to end up with my worst round of darts for about ten months. Thankfully I recovered enough in the second half, hitting 36 sixties, and that penultimate line is arguably the best run of darts I've ever thrown.

The get up and go thing to do would have been for me to immediately launch into another round of darts, so I could capitalize on this fleeting rich vein of form but, me being me, I quit whilst I was ahead. It's the hope that kills you.

I'll leave you with a song. Nothing to do with the aforementioned round of darts. It just happens to be in my tabs, and if I don't post it now I will forget all about it. Though the song dates from 2012, it's new to me. Love the keyboards and how the lead guitarist shamelessly rips off The Byrds. Good man.

The Moons feat. Paul Weller - Something Soon

Round 96: Smashing New Year's Darts Resolutions

Darts Thrown: January 26th 2020

Blog Written: February 15th 2020

Highest Score: 180

Lowest Score: 5

Sixties: 60

100+: 26

180s: 1

180s Missed: 3

Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

New Year's Darts Resolutions (Updated)

• Hit two 180s in one day.
• Hit fifty 180s in 2020.
• Hit a high of 41 - as the lowest score - in a round.
• Hit 60 sixties in a round.
• Hit a 180 in a bar.
• Towards the end of the year, join a pub team and, naturally, go down in flames in ignominious defeat.

I'm now officially half way through my New Year's Darts Resolutions. I refer you to the documented evidence above to show that I've finally hit 60 sixties in one round. I guess the next goal is to hit 75 sixties but don't hold your breath on that one.

The song of the round? No rhyme or reason; I'm just another wannabe axe hero.

The Stone Roses - 'Love Spreads'

The Winmaus of Your Mind

New dart board . . . newish city . . . new 180.

Round 320: The Pug Dance across the room.

Darts Thrown: June 30th 2019

Blog Written: June 30th 2019

Highest Score: 140

Lowest Score: 7

Sixties: 29

100+: 10

180s Missed: 1

Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

Not bad, not bad. Not great, either, mind. A couple of 140s . . . threw for a 180, and the third dart hit the board. Calls for a random tune . . .  and it is random 'cos I never really cared for this song, but the bundle of energy otherwise known as Liam just careered into the room and it made me think of it. No, it doesn't make sense to me either:

Round 319: A Town With Pitney

Darts Thrown: June 30th 2019
Blog Written: June 30th 2019

Highest Score: 100
Lowest Score: 6
Sixties: 20
100+: 6


Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

Just put on a record, for fucks sake. Love, love this song. Eddie Reader did a great version of this song - i.e. it was a faithful rendition - back in the mid-90s, which I may have bought as a single. I had it in my head that it was by P. J. Proby but of course it was by Gene Pitney; how could you mistake that voice?

Round 318: Fight me, Nelson.

Darts Thrown: June 29th 2019
Blog Written: June 30th 2019

Highest Score: 140
Lowest Score: 3
Sixties: 22
100+: 7


Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

Decent high score but mediocre 60s total. Nothing more to add . . . except a YouTube video. 

Next up is Luscious Jackson's 'Here'. I had no idea it was from the Clueless movie. That's a plus in my book. Another cassingle I bought back in the day. It's in my head at the moment because for some strange reason - and it is a strange reason 'cos I never rated them - I've recently been reading/listening up on the Beastie Boys and before they became the most overrated group in the world, BB were a hardcore 4-piece featuring LJ's Kate Schellenbach on drums. The story goes - and it's from KS herself - she was bumped from the band when the other three hooked up with Rick Rubin and they put down the instruments for the drum machines. I guess it sorted itself out 'cos a few years later BB signed LJ to their vanity project record label, Grand Royale. Anyway, LJ always were better than BB. Fight me in the comments if you disagree.

Round 317: Brooklyn Calling!

Darts Thrown: June 26th-29th 2019
Blog Written: June 30th 2019

Highest Score: 100
Lowest Score: 3
Sixties: 22
100+: 8


Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

Just trying to catch up. Comments and observations will be spasmodic. Why 'Brooklyn Calling!'? Well, that's the dialing code, and we never did change our numbers when we moved to Indy. Go figure. Maybe it's a sign . . . probably not. Nothing to read into the Dart stats. Still mediocre at best, though it is a saving grace that despite 100 being a disappointingly high score, at least I hit 8 of them during the drawn out session.

Anyway, here's a music video to break up the bitty text. Why XTC? Because YouTube told me  . . . and because I'm half-rereading their biography on archive.com at the moment. Why Mayor of Simpleton? Again, 'cos YouTube's algothingy told me. Not one of my favourites but it does hold up:

Round 141: Headstart to dizziness

Darts Thrown: March 8th 2019

Blog Written: August 17th 2019

Highest Score: 135

Lowest Score: 2

Sixties: 13

100+: 3

Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

I'm just here for the cool jumper. Anybody says otherwise, and I will deny it whilst blushing like a schoolboy.

Dee C Lee - See The Day

Round 20: It shouldn't work, but it does

Darts Thrown: January 23rd 2019

Blog Written: May 22nd 2019

Highest Score: 120

Lowest Score: 2

Sixties: 19
100+: 3

Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

Look at the date this blog was written. A backlog, people. No specially selected book, as a backdrop with the piss-poor excuses for why I haven't read it. Just a the facts, mam. I have a lot of these to steam through. Maybe I'll provide the colour commentary once they are all on the blog.

. . .  And you just know that I will have mislaid at least one sheet.

But I will use the this rush through as a cheap excuse to post music videos from YouTube. Why not? I need a soundtrack whilst I do this. Next up is Men of North Country's cover version of the Human League's Mirror Man. I stumbled across this version on some Facebook group that I frequent, and I have to admit that it works - especially that guitar break in the middle - and that's something coming from me 'cos I'm usually steadfast in denying to like a cover version of a song that I love . . .  and I love this era Human League. They were so underrated. As someone mentioned in the Facebook comments to the original post, who knew Mirror Man was a lost Northern Soul classic? A good spot.

Round 19: Going way back

Darts Thrown: January 21/22 2019

Blog Written: May 22nd 2019

Highest Score: 140

Lowest Score: 3

Sixties: 20
100+: 2

Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

Look at the date this blog was written. A backlog, people. No specially selected book, as a backdrop with the piss-poor excuses for why I haven't read it. Just a the facts, mam. I have a lot of these to steam through. Maybe I'll provide the colour commentary once they are all on the blog.

. . .  And you just know that I will have mislaid at least one sheet.

But I will use the this rush through as a cheap excuse to post music videos from YouTube. Why not? I need a soundtrack whilst I do this. Next up is The Byrds performing the Goffin/King classic, 'Goin' Back'. Some people insist that Dusty Springfield's version is better but I can't see it myself. (And I did give it a listen.).

According to the wiki page for the song, the Byrds recording song actually created a rift between David Crosby and the rest of the band, which is a shame 'cos that rift resulted in the classic Byrds line up parting ways. Still one of my favourite bands from the 60s, up there with The Kinks and The Beatles:

Round 18: Cherish

Darts Thrown: January 19th 2019

Blog Written: May 15th 2019

Highest Score: 134

Lowest Score: 3

Sixties: 18
100+: 5

Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

Look at the date this blog was written. A backlog, people. No specially selected book, as a backdrop with the piss-poor excuses for why I haven't read it. Just a the facts, mam. I have a lot of these to steam through. Maybe I'll provide the colour commentary once they are all on the blog.

. . .  And you just know that I will have mislaid at least one sheet.

But I will use the this rush through as a cheap excuse to post music videos from YouTube. Why not? I need a soundtrack whilst I do this. Next up is, um, that Kool and the Gang track I was referencing in the last post. Am I half-assing it to plough through this backlog? Am I fuck. That particular ship sailed long ago. This is brilliant. Apparently there's a one-hour version of this track on YouTube. I need to bookmark it for future reference. It would drive everybody else in the house absolutely mad but I'd be too busy relaxing to notice. 

Back in the day, I always had a love/hate relationship with Kool and the Gang but that's because they'd gone down the cheesy as fuck road musical road in the early 80s. I guess bills had to be paid and it's what the punters in the Living Room Chasers and New York, New York wanted. Music in the 80s really did kill me as the decade wore on. I never got over it.

Enough of how the 80s failed me, here's 'Summer Madness' by Kool and the Gang. There's another 37 versions of this song available on YouTube. I suggest you group them all into a playlist and turn your phone off for two and a half days:

Round 17: 90s please (not a darts reference, peeps)

Darts Thrown: January 18th 2019

Blog Written: May 15th 2019

Highest Score: 140

Lowest Score: 4

Sixties: 13
100+: 1

Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

Look at the date this blog was written. A backlog, people. No specially selected book, as a backdrop with the piss-poor excuses for why I haven't read it. Just a the facts, mam. I have a lot of these to steam through. Maybe I'll provide the colour commentary once they are all on the blog.

. . .  And you just know that I will have mislaid at least one sheet.

But I will use the this rush through as a cheap excuse to post music videos from YouTube. Why not? I need a soundtrack whilst I do this. Next up is . . . well, to be honest, I'm still listening to that Paul Weller track from Round 16. It's good, isn't it? I really like that laid back groove. I guess, if I'm having to find a song to fill the gap - and I won't go for the obvious of picking an early 70s Isley Brothers track - then the groove of the Weller track makes me think of this old pop/rap standard from the 1991. Cheesy as fuck, I know but I still think this track is a stone cold classic. I'm guessing it's the Kool and the Gang sample that makes it, but that seems a bit unfair to Will Smith.  It's his version that I first knew and loved, and just because I can't give a tuppeny fuck for his acting career, there's no need for me to begrudge him his proper accolades for what is one of the all time great summer songs.

'Summertime' by DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince:

Round 16: Early morning tea . . .

Darts Thrown: January 18th 2019
Blog Written: May 15th 2019

Highest Score: 134
Lowest Score: 7
Sixties: 20
100+: 3

Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

Look at the date this blog was written. A backlog, people. No specially selected book, as a backdrop with the piss-poor excuses for why I haven't read it. Just a the facts, mam. I have a lot of these to steam through. Maybe I'll provide the colour commentary once they are all on the blog.

. . .  And you just know that I will have mislaid at least one sheet.

But I will use the this rush through as a cheap excuse to post music videos from YouTube. Why not? I need a soundtrack whilst I do this. Next up is a Paul Weller album track that I'd never heard before. It's off the 2015 album Saturn's Pattern album, an album which totally passed me by. If this track is anything to go by, I think I've been unfair and I need to seek it out. It's a bit noodly, a bit meandering but he's always had that six or seven minute track on his solo albums. I think if I'd heard it in normal circumstances, it probably would have passed me by but on this occasion I sought it out after reading a thread on a Facebook Paul Weller discussion group about lost album tracks that have been overlooked. From the thread, it appears I'm not the only PW fan who loved the early solo albums only to be a bit hot and cold as the years wore on. The common theme is that we all seem to carry the torch for The Style Council (unlike a lot of Jam fans) and we all feel he took a wrong turn when he fell in with the Lad Rock wankers in the mid to late 90s.

Well, enough early morning verbal diarrhea; here's "These City Streets" by Paul Weller:

Round 15: Weaving a tapestry, people. There may be fictionalized bollocks along the way

Darts Thrown: January 18th 2019

Blog Written: May 3rd 2019

Highest Score: 121

Lowest Score: 2

Sixties: 13
100+: 1

Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

Look at the date this blog was written. A backlog, people. No specially selected book, as a backdrop with the piss-poor excuses for why I haven't read it. Just a the facts, mam. I have a lot of these to steam through. Maybe I'll provide the colour commentary once they are all on the blog.

. . .  And you just know that I will have mislaid at least one sheet.

But I will use the this rush through as a cheap excuse to post music videos from YouTube. Why not? I need a soundtrack whilst I do this. Next up is 'God Give Me Strength' by Kristen Vigard. Written by Costello and Bacharach, this song features in Allison Anders' film' Grace of My Heart', a loving tribute to the 50s and 60s Brill Building and its songwriting factory and, of course, the main character, Denise Waverly, is a thinly disguised Carole King. Even a numbskull like me knew that. Like millions of other families across the western world in the early to mid 70s, we received a copy of Carole King's 'Tapestry' album as a free gift when our parents bought the Crying Boy painting from our local Woolworths.

Discovered this song one late night when I happened to stumble across the movie on tv. It was half way through the film so I had no idea what was going on, but this scene popped up and I was hooked. Apparently Matt Dillon was playing a fictionalised Brian Wilson, but I don't see any sandbox, And just cos he plays with his specs a few times in the movie, that's not proof enough that he's a troubled soul. (For clarification purposes, Illeana Douglas is miming to Kristen Vigard's vocals. A good old Hollywood staple.)

Why this now? Well, it was either this song or The Cavedogs song which is my first MP3 download. I can't remember which. *Cough* There's been a few more since.

Costello and Bacharach recorded their own version, and it's fine as it goes but this will always be the definitive version for me:

Round 14: What is a Love Grenade?

Darts Thrown: January 18th 2019
Blog Written: May 3rd 2019

Highest Score: 120
Lowest Score: 5
Sixties: 15
100+: 4

Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

Look at the date this blog was written. A backlog, people. No specially selected book, as a backdrop with the piss-poor excuses for why I haven't read it. Just a the facts, mam. I have a lot of these to steam through. Maybe I'll provide the colour commentary once they are all on the blog.

. . .  And you just know that I will have mislaid at least one sheet.

But I will use the this rush through as a cheap excuse to post music videos from YouTube. Why not? I need a soundtrack whilst I do this. Next up is the 'Love Grenade' by The Cavedogs. Why this one? It may have been the first song I ever downloaded from the internet, or at least the second. It's between this and the song I will post for Round 15. I don't know a lot about this band, other than they are Canadian and that I first heard this song on Mark Radcliffe's old Radio 1 evening show. I'd loved to pretend I was a child of Peel when it comes to music, but I probably discovered more new music via Mark Radcliffe on Radio 1. It's the truth.

This song still holds up, btw. Fight me if you disagree:

Round 13: It was 20 years ago today . . . or somewhere in that ballpark

Darts Thrown: January 17th 2019
Blog Written: May 3rd 2019

Highest Score: 100
Lowest Score: 4
Sixties: 15
100+: 1

Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

Look at the date it's posted. A backlog, people. Not specially selected book, as a backdrop with the piss-poor excuses for why I haven't read it. Just a the facts, mam. I have a lot of these to steam through. Maybe I'll provide the colour commentary once they are all on the blog. And you just know that I will have mislaid at least one sheet.

But I will use the this rush through as a cheap excuse to post music videos from YouTube. Why not? I need a soundtrack whilst I do this. Next song up is Madonna's 'Beautiful Stranger'. Why? Don't quote me on this, but it's probably the last single I ever bought. (Buying old singles off the internet do not count.)  Was it really released in 1999? Christ, almighty. Twenty years ago? I'm in the midst of a mid-life crisis . . .  shouldn't I be buying singles right now? Maybe I'll rectify that at some point.

All I can remember about this is that I bought as a cassingle, and I bought it in London. That means I probably bought it in Oxford Street. It's still a canny enough song. Never saw the film. I'm sure it was 'g-r-r-r-r-r-eat.

Round 12: Catching Up, Trev

Darts Thrown: January 17th 2019

Blog Written: May 3rd 2019

Highest Score: 132

Lowest Score: 1

Sixties: 19
100+: 4

Blogger's Note: Written in haste, so there will be spelling mistakes and slapdash grammar.

Look at the date it's posted. A backlog, people. Not specially selected book, as a backdrop with the piss-poor excuses for why I haven't read it. Just a the facts, mam. I have a lot of these to steam through. Maybe I'll provide the colour commentary once they are all on the blog. And you just know that I will have mislaid at least one sheet.

But I will use the this rush through as a cheap excuse to post music videos from YouTube. Why not? I need a soundtrack whilst I do this. Off the blocks, and on the decks, Duran Duran's 'Save A Prayer'. The first single I ever bought. Bought it in the local independent record shop in Hemel by the market. I still think this is a classic. What impeccable taste I once had. (As a side note, Kara's first single was 'New Moon On Monday' by Duran Duran. She's younger than me, and they'd gone to shit by that point but I don't judge her too harshly. At least, not out loud: