Showing posts with label Shalamar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shalamar. Show all posts

Sunday, May 03, 2020

The shit I post on Facebook . . . musical edition (Day 5)

Day 5 of my task, to choose 10 albums that greatly influenced my taste in music. One album per day for ten consecutive days. No explanations, no reviews, just album covers. Every day I will ask someone else to do the same... today I nominate PC Thank you for nominating me MR . . .


"No explanations, no reviews, just album covers . .  ."

Total bullshit, of course. My early love for Shalamar meant that I didn't fall into that snot-nosed trap of sneering at dance music as not relevant, not deep and not, quite simply. fucking wonderful.

It also helped that Jody Watley was drop dead fucking gorgeous.

Friday, March 29, 2019

Round 188: Another False Dawn



Darts Thrown: March 29th 2019
Blog Written: March 29th 2019

Highest Score: 140
Lowest Score: 3
Sixties: 31
100+: 6
180s Missed: 1

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

I thought I might as well dive straight back in. Round 188 was thrown in one session whilst listening to Radio 2's 'Sound of the Eighties'. I've sub-titled it 'Another False Dawn' but that's bollocks. In truth, the darts thrown weren't that different from the previous round. I guess I hit more 100 plus shots this time around. And I did actually throw for a 180 twice. (One isn't shown in the pic above 'cos one of the sixties bounced out when I threw my third dart.)

Thankfully I'm not superstitious when throwing darts, otherwise I'd be locked into listening to Bananarama MegaMixes when throwing darts (fuck you Gary Davies), and I know I'm tired 'cos I was even enjoying a Terence Trent Darby track when throwing. (Sleep deprivation does that to you.) Before I leave the Sound of the Eighties, it was nice to hear Jody Watley picking Duran Duran's 'Save a Prayer' as her favourite song of the 80s. My first 7 inch. (Insert pic of Les Dawson here.)

Too many darts bounce out. I'm not sure if it's the board or the darts themselves. It's probably neither. I think my throwing acton can be a bit lack lustred  when I'm tired.

The book in the picture? B.J. Ripley and J. McHugh's biography of John Maclean. It was part of the Lives of the Left series that Manchester University Press published in the late 80s and early 90s. Have I read it? No. Will I read it? Not in the foreseeable future. Why did I buy it? "cos I'm like that. I read a few books in the 'Lives of the Left' series (the biogs of Kautsky, De Leon, Haywood and Mann off the top of my head) and I had even more of the series that I picked up as remaindered copies from London bookshops on my bookshelf back in Britain (all now in a landfill in the Home Counties, most probably), so the anorak in me means that I will still pick up cheap copies when I see them. Anyway, my excuse is that read Nan Milton's biog of her Dad years ago and I also read Harry McShane's autobiography around about the same time (both published by Pluto Press). I never really bought into the adoration of Maclean but that just might be my ingrained SPGB'ism. I do think it should be pointed out that he joined the Social Democratic Federation at the height of the impossibilist revolt within its ranks - 1903/04- so it begs the question, 'what was he thinking?'. I guess I'll leave that question for another day. There's a Denzel Washington film with my name on it.

Friday, December 14, 2007

Friday's Playlist #26

An ongoing series:

  • (59) Soft Cell, 'What?' (Non-stop Ecstatic Dancing)
  • (34) Duran Duran, 'Save A Prayer' (Rio)
  • (22) Depeche Mode, 'Leave In Silence' (A Broken Frame)
  • (21) Ultravox, 'Reap The Wild Wind' (Quartet)
  • (17) ABC, 'All Of My Heart' (Lexicon Of Love)
  • (16) Simple Minds, 'Glittering Prize' (New Gold Dream, 81,82,83,84)
  • (13) Carly Simon, 'Why'
  • (8) Mari Wilson, 'Just What I Always Wanted' (Show People)
  • (7) Evelyn Champagne King, ''Love Come Down' (Get Loose)
  • (6) Shalamar, 'There It Is' (Friends)
  • I wasn't going to do a playlist this week. Too much listening to Fad Gadget, Diesel Park West and Billy Childish adds up to a limited choice for a playlist, but what with Steve Coleman's 10/10/82 talk falling into my lap late last night, I thought I would conjure up a playlist from the charts from that particular week.

    I can't say with any authority that SPGB members back in '82 were listening to the songs selected, but I know that I was.

    If you fiddle about with the boombox at the top of the post, you can listen to them today. Cheers.

    Spotify Playlist Link.