FRIDAY MUSIC: Showaddywaddy, by JD

Couple of weeks ago I was In Morrison's wandering up and down the aisles and their background music was "Under the moon of love" by Showaddywaddy. And there seemed to be a lot of shoppers singing along with the record (including me!)

So here they are providing a cheerful antidote to the mad world outside!

Showaddywaddy are a 1970s pop group from Leicester, England. They specialised in revivals of hit songs from the 1950s, and dressed as Teddy Boys.

The band was formed in 1973 by the amalgamation of two groups, The Choice and The Hammers. This led to an eight member band, with the unusual feature of having two vocalists, a couple of drummers and two bassists. Their first single, "Hey Rock and Roll" (written by the band), was released in April 1974. It reached number two in the UK Singles Chart. Showaddywaddy then went on to have a further 22 UK hits (23 if Hey Rock 'n' Roll is included) from this point until late 1982.

They had most of their biggest hits with covers of songs from the 1950s and the early 1960s. These cover versions included "Three Steps to Heaven" (originally by Eddie Cochran in 1960), "Heartbeat" (originally written and recorded by Buddy Holly), "Under the Moon of Love" (originally a U.S. hit for Curtis Lee in 1961 and co-written by Tommy Boyce), "When" (originally by the Kalin Twins), "You Got What It Takes" (originally by Marv Johnson) and "Dancin' Party" (originally by Chubby Checker). The above six singles were all produced by Mike Hurst (a former member of The Springfields, who had also previously produced Cat Stevens).

https://www.showaddywaddy.net/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Showaddywaddy

Showaddywaddy - Blue Moon 1980

Showaddywaddy - I Wonder Why, TOTP 25/12/1978

Showaddywaddy - Under The Moon Of Love • TopPop

Showaddywaddy - Remember Then (Top of the Pops, 29/03/1979) [TOTP HD]

Showaddywaddy - Dancin' Party/I Wonder Why/Hey Rock n Roll on The Knees Up plus play-out

About Jess Phillips' 'two-tier NHS' story

In a widely-reported story, Jess Phillips MP says she received preferential hospital treatment from a Palestinian doctor partly because she had voted for a ceasefire in Gaza last year.

In my view the ‘media’ has seized on the wrong aspect. What Ms Phillips is doing is fighting the next General Election. What should have been a predictably rock-solid majority in her Birmingham Yardley constituency two months ago was nearly wiped out altogether by a newcomer who is a white Muslim convert.

The challenger ignored Phillips’ 2023 ceasefire vote (and her subsequent resignation from Labour’s Opposition front bench) and craftily drew attention to her continuing membership of Labour Friends of Israel:

At the count there were fewer than 700 votes between Phillips and McIntyre.

Admittedly this was on a low turnout, and as a 2022 Parliamentary briefing on political disengagement noted ‘People from minority ethnic groups were less likely to be registered to vote, turnout to vote and be elected.’ However now that minorities have seen that their ballot can make a difference they may be more likely to take part.

There will be much more of this in the years to come. ‘The UK's share of Muslims in the population could rise from 6.3 percent in 2016 to 17.2 percent by 2050.’

If there were a fresh General Election now we might see a defeat for Phillips, not only because of Muslim voting momentum but also on account of Sir Keir Starmer’s lamentable first few weeks as Prime Minister. Many of the 20.2% of the electorate that gave him a thumping Parliamentary majority must be experiencing buyer’s remorse already. How long has he got? How long has she got?

FRIDAY MUSIC: Daniel Lanois, by JD

Daniel Lanois is a French/Canadian record producer as well as being a singer/songwriter in his own right. He has produced records for Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, U2 and many others.

I first became aware of him after hearing him sing Jolie Louise on the soundtrack of the TV series Northern Exposure during the early 90s. The incidental music in the show was a very eclectic mix and was chosen to fit in with and reflect the storylines. I later bought his first solo albums, Acadie, and it was worth every penny especially the song 'The Maker' (Last video below) Acadie has its own Wiki page for some reason, I'm not sure why but it is in fact very informative.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Lanois
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acadie_(album)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Exposure

Daniel Lanois Black Dub Live at Michele Clark's Sunset Sessions

Jolie Louise - Daniel Lanois - French and English subtitles.mp4

DANIEL LANOIS - Lotta Love To Give (Video)

Daniel Lanois - Acadie (Unreleased)

Willie Nelson, Daniel Lanois, Emmylou Harris - The Maker

Starmer's Coup

New New Labour has only been running for six weeks, four of them on holiday, but it looks as though it is on a mission to piss-off as many sectors of the British population as possible.

Here are some:

• Pensioners - no winter fuel allowance except for those on income support
• The rich - reportedly planning to leave the country
• Parents (not all of them rich) putting their children through private education
• Drivers - facing more 20 mph zones (which will also increase CO2 emissions per mile)
• Smokers and vapers - facing more outdoor bans (no mention of cannabis users?)
• Homeowners - facing rises in council tax or some other property-related cash grab
• Residents in areas where more armies of dangerous young men are foisted on them under the guise of asylum seekers (and the asylum-granted)
• Those (and it will be many) who will be affected by Starmer’s new bilateral treaty with Germany’s ‘bomb ze Russians’ Scholz
• Everyone facing the planned proliferation of quangocrats, mayors and other high-handed gauleiters

… have I missed anything?

It reminds me of wacko comedians Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson when they talk about ‘running into off-licences and seeing how much we can drink before the police arrive.’ 

Does the Change Labour team feel it is on limited time?

Or is this a rerun of Covidian arrogance - ‘let’s see what we can make the people do?’

Starmer has had validation from only 20.2% of the electorate, but the whole democratic system means nothing to an autocrat. It’s game on, between the people and the new Lord Protector:

In January 2023, Emily Maitlis asked Labour Party leader Keir Starmer, ‘You have to choose now between Davos or Westminster?’

Starmer replied, ‘Davos… Westminster is just a tribal shouting place.’

FRIDAY MUSIC: Merle Haggard, by JD

Merle Haggard will forever be remembered as a true American treasure whose work often reflected his complicated life – his problems with the law, five marriages, six children and the complexities a life in the music business yielded.

Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1994, they said about him:
“Merle Haggard stands, with the arguable exception of Hank William, as the single most influential singer-songwriter in country music history.”

Upon his death, The New York Times agreed: “In Mr. Haggard’s case the sound defined a body of work as indelibly as that of any country singer since Hank Williams.”
Rolling Stone said Haggard: “composed and performed one of the greatest repertoires in country music, capturing the American condition with his stories of the poor, the lost, the working class, heartbroken and hard-living.”

And also at that time, The Tennessean called Haggard “the working man’s poet, an architect of the Bakersfield Sound and a fiercely independent artist who influenced country music like few others.”

Needless to say, much has been written about the importance of the singer-songwriter. But If nothing had ever been reported about Haggard and we only had his music, we would still know the man, his loves, his pains, his demons and his life.
https://merlehaggard.com/pages/biography

Merle Haggard - New San Antionio Rose (Live)

Are the Good Times Really Over (I Wish a Buck Was Still Silver)

Merle Haggard & Willie Nelson "Okie from Muskogee"

Merle Haggard: "Sing Me Back Home"

Merle Haggard "Silver Wings"

Has Boris Johnson lost his mind?

Writing in today’s Daily Mail Boris Johnson says Starmer should stop ‘pussyfooting around’ and let ‘heroic’ Ukraine use British Storm Shadow missiles inside Russian territory. Apparently they are ‘bunker busters.’

Speaking of which, does Johnson have a bunker underneath his Oxfordshire home? He may need it, since Russia has made clear it reserves the right to retaliate against third parties who lend their military resources to Ukraine. Does Boris’ first-class brain comprehend what he and his Green Goddess will face when they finally open the airtight hatch and climb out into an ashen landscape?

Or will he and his family be on a plane halfway to New Zealand when the ‘99 red balloons’ go by? They have no bolt-hole there yet, as far as I know.

By contrast, Rishi already has a second home in California, having signed a perilous ten-year 'security agreement’ with Zelensky in January, warned of nuclear escalation in May and, allegedly not wanting to be a war leader, called an early General Election he was certain to lose. The Sunaks will be okay, if they move in time.

It’s not just the British who have gone mad… or rogue: the G7 declared joint support for Ukraine a year ago, France signed a UK-style security agreement with Ukraine six months ago, and the US another in June.

It’s coordinated.

Do European leaders carry burner phones dedicated to messages from Washington, like husbands conducting furtive affairs?

Does the US think there will be no use of nuclear weapons in Europe? Or do its war planners believe the escalation will stop there and America will be safe?

FRIDAY MUSIC: West-Eastern Divan Orchestra by JD

The orchestra was jointly founded in 1999 by Argentine-Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim and Palestinian-American academic Edward Said, who named the Orchestra and workshop after West-östlicher Divan, an anthology of poems written by the German polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - a central work for the development of the concept of world culture ( as distinct from 'world government' you will notice which is not the same thing at all).

In 2016, the Barenboim–Said Akademie was established in Berlin, Germany, as a state-accredited music conservatory offering Bachelors of Music and Artist Diplomas. The Akademie, for which Barenboim serves as president, is based on the founding aims of the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra.

In 1999, Barenboim and Said, who had become friends in the early 1990s, founded the West—Eastern Divan Orchestra in order to foment a feeling of sympathy and co-existence, chiefly between Arabs and Israelis, through Middle Eastern musical ensembles. Shortly after it was founded, the first workshop was opened in Weimar, Germany, after the organization had received over 200 applications from Arab music students. Barenboim has also expressed interest in musicians from Iran, allocating three chairs for Iranian musicians to play in the orchestra each year; though Iran is not an Arab country and therefore has not been a belligerent in the Arab–Israeli conflict, that particular environment exists in light of the Iran–Israel proxy conflict, which began a few years after Iran's Islamic Revolution in 1979.

In 2016, Ban Ki-moon, the erstwhile United Nations Secretary-General, designated the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra as a United Nations Global Advocate for Cultural Understanding, praising the organization's push for peace and unity, particularly between Israelis and Palestinians.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West%E2%80%93Eastern_Divan_Orchestra
https://west-eastern-divan.org/

Beethoven: Leonore Overture No. 3 | Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 - Eroica - BBC Proms