The Beatles were your Dad’s band. A relic of the past with the individual ex-members producing music that probably would not have got the attention it did without their legacy. Dad had the second Beatles album and I listened to it, but it seemed like nothing special. Like many things you had to compare itContinue reading “From the pouring rain, very strange”
Tag Archives: Michael Ball
And I’ve travelled many days to reach this place to make my stand
The Electric Light Orchestra were everywhere in the 1970s. Jeff Lynne’s love of The Beatles manifested itself in the band – originally Roy Wood was the “biggest” member but after two albums (imaginatively titles ELO and ELO2) Wood left and Lynne fused classical music with melodic pop (including a lot of strings) to make OnContinue reading “And I’ve travelled many days to reach this place to make my stand”
You’ll sell the ground beneath your feet
The first of two appearance of Fish as a lead singer, this one as a solo artist. Fish had been the lead singer of Marillion and when he left the group in looked like a double your money situation. Marillion released Season’s End and Fish released Vigil In a Wilderness of Mirrors – both greatContinue reading “You’ll sell the ground beneath your feet”
Young Blokes Sitting on the Benches
Scout summer camp. Little did I know that the 1978 camp was the best one I would ever go on and it was downhill from there. Being the youngest in my year at school had never really proved to be a problem to me (though statistics do show that, on average, it reduces life chances)Continue reading “Young Blokes Sitting on the Benches”
We Are All Just Prisoners Here of Our Own Device
They were yacht rock. Not that anyone called it that at the time, it was named that retrospectively and I only found out when I watched a Katie Puckrik documentary about the soft rock/ country crossover music of that period. The Eagles were the sound of the summer for several years in the mid-1970s. ThatContinue reading “We Are All Just Prisoners Here of Our Own Device”
Miss me madly and I’ll be yours
John Hawkins loves Altered Images. Michael Ball loves Altered Images. John Peel loved Altered Images. He was on Top of the Pops saying that they would be the band of the 80s. Well they weren’t. I’m not even sure that there was a band of the eighties. The Jam had a sequence of Top 5Continue reading “Miss me madly and I’ll be yours”
We all have our sins
1993 was a good year for stag nights. In those days it was a stag night, not a weekend in Amsterdam or week in Prague, making the British look like thugs abroad and cavorting with prostitutes. The worst that happened to men in Brightlingsea was being chained naked outside the Swan pub. First was Dave’sContinue reading “We all have our sins”
The spirit dance was unfolding
Who was the most talented Beatle? Received wisdom says that it was John Lennon, but Jim Smith (a very smart man I know from online fora) made an impassioned case for Paul McCartney in an internet group that I was part of. The easy answer is not Ringo. Famously when asked if Ringo was theContinue reading “The spirit dance was unfolding”
Thank you for that almost heavenly time
My parents had Mike and me young. Mum was 20 and Dad 22 when I was born (22 and 24 for Mike). My parents were also born to young parents, though not quite as young as that due to the Second World War. This meant that my grandparents were relatively young when I was bornContinue reading “Thank you for that almost heavenly time”
Just a Foreign Town With a Foreign Mind
I am not qualified to write about Japan. At least not compared with Michael. I like some of their stuff, but Mike is a devoted fan of the group and their solo work. Japan were way ahead of their time. The way they looked and sounded in the late 70s were mainstream in 1981. WhenContinue reading “Just a Foreign Town With a Foreign Mind”
Five Miles Out 