Dozens of songs listened to, here are five that stood out:
Just for you!
This weeks “louder then the rest” tunes:
Here are five more tunes that stood out from my listening over the last week. Enjoy!
Presenting a new feature at the Virtual Hot Tub, my Songs of the Week. Each week, I will pick five songs that I’ve enjoyed listening to over the last seven days, and share them here for your enjoyment.
Now I listen to probably hundreds of songs in any one week, so choosing just five won’t be easy. Each track will have stood out for some reason or other – perhaps it was poignant, perhaps relating to something going on in my life. Most likely it will just be a proper banging tune that I’ve loved.
This is intended to be a regular weekly feature, but we’ll see how that goes. It’s not easy running this Virtual Hot Tub, you know.
Here’s the five for week ending 03/07/2016:
There you go – five killer tracks. No explanations necessary. Unless the multitudes of readers want to know why songs are chosen, then I’ll reconsider.
For now – keep rockin’.
Forget using your super smart, internet enabled portable phone as a means of playing music. And forget iPods, too – sadly the swines at Apple have decided to sacrifice their master product, in order to concentrate on their vile mutant phone. My mate Greeny has a much better music playing machine than any of those.
Greeny has a jukebox.
The jukebox is named Florence. After Florence and the Machine, as she’s a machine, obviously. Florence stands proudly in the corner of the lounge, neither dominating the room or sitting back like a wall flower. But Florence has presence: when the lights are on and the tunes are spinning, you will be drawn magnetically to this wondrous device.
He’s been collecting 7 inch singles since he were a lad, has Greeny. Now Florence is a treasure trove packed full of delightful vinyl gems. There’s a wild variety of musical genres in Florence, spanning the decades. She’s regularly re-stocked and/or has the records switched out and replaced with others, keeping the music selection fresh and entrancing.
Florence holds around 84 records. Don’t forget that there’s a song on side A and B, so that’s a generous amount of music to enjoy.
It’s a lot of fun gathering around the jukebox in Greeny’s front room, with a few beers and spinning some records. I would love one of my own, one day – though they cost a few hundred quid, so it’s unlikely. I’m collecting a few cool 7 inch singles just in case, though…
Here’s a list of the records that are currently stocked inside Florence. Remember Greeny has to rotate the records, as he has far more than this! Which songs would you choose to play?
And if you’re interested, this jukebox is a Rowe AMI RI-3.
The tracks:
Repetitive, moi?
I love lists. These random playlists serve no purpose other than to remind me of music that’s buried away in my iTunes, waiting to be rediscovered. One song leads to another; one band creates a ripple effect leading to another needing to be heard again.
I was out on the longboard this time, on a beautiful sunny afternoon. I didn’t have long, however, before other commitments would tear me away. Here are a few songs chosen at random by my iPod as the skate soundtrack that day.
Well, two different Siouxsie and the Banshees tracks, from different albums, one after the other. Most strange. Great songs, though.
I remember really enjoying the Stones track; the Shirley Bassey number was a bit out of the blue. But then, random is what this game’s all about.
Till next time, groovers!
It’s been a long while since I shared a random playlist with you.
I recently went out for a skate, split between riding my Mindless longboard and spending some time on a classic old school Santa Cruz Street Creep. Whilst skating around, I switched the iPod onto shuffle and these are the tunes I heard.
Not a bad selection by the iPod there.
Bring Your Own Vinyl Night
Queen’s Head, Mold
Friday 8th April 2016
Got a record collection? Want to spin those discs on a nice turntable for an appreciative bunch of vinyl enthusiasts? The Bring Your Own Vinyl Night is for you!
Held monthly in the Queen’s Head pub in Mold, North Wales, this event goes from strength to strength. The idea is simple: each participant gets 15 minutes to play whatever records they want. That’s vinyl only; no CDs, MP3s, cassettes or whatever else. Just have a beer and enjoy the music.
My pal Adam was back on the decks tonight, and was the first of our crew to step up. He played a great set of songs from movies, that went something like this:
A special prize if you can name the films these songs are from! A great set from Adam, I think one of his strongest. In particular, I thought “Sleepwalk” was an exceptional track.
Then it was my turn:
Suicidal Tendencies – Possessed to Skate
Regular readers will know the story of my Suicidal records. Here’s a quick recap. Going back to the height of my skateboarding days in 1988 (or thereabouts), my friend Kelvin Bedford gave me the album “Join the Army” by Suicidal Tendencies. A few years later, as a broke student, I sold that album and another ST record to my mate Graham. Now fast forward to the recent past, and although I had the CDs, I was kicking myself for not having the vinyl anymore. They were easy enough to buy off Discogs. However, sadly Kel had passed away a couple of years ago, so I thought it would be great to have the copy he originally gave me back. I contacted Graham, and he gave me the records for free. What a gentleman! I bought him a beer or two as a thank you.
Not so brief that recap, but now you have the background. I wanted to play a track off the classic “Join the Army” record, as it was back in my collection, and this had to be it. Many fun memories of my old skateboarding days always come flooding back with this fast paced punk rock/metal hybrid. And I still listen to it when I skate nowadays (which isn’t often enough). “Possessed to Skate”. RAD.
Iggy & The Stooges – Gimme Danger
The next song is a favourite I was introduced to in my university days. I was already a fan of the early Stooges albums, but hadn’t heard “Raw Power”. It’s a superb record, full of barely restrained energy and chaos. “Gimme Danger” is a the second song on the album, lulling the listener in to a false sense of comfort after lead track “Search and Destroy” decimates your speakers. “Gimme Danger” still has an air of menace, however – a sense that anything can, and will, go wrong. Decadent and beautiful, a masterpiece.
Chris Isaak – Wicked Game
And so on to Chris Isaak. I have the “Wicked Game” album on CD, so I can regularly bask in the warmth of Isaak’s voice and imagine desert roads, truck stops, motels and neon lights. This version is on a 7″ single that Greeny gave me for Christmas, and I’m so glad I have it. Timeless Americana that always carries a hint of David Lynch, thanks to the song being included in “Wild at Heart”. I usually drunkenly sing along to this at 2am. I’ve also attempted “Wicked Game” at Karaoke a couple of times; I think I got away with it.
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Sexy Mexican Maid
One of my favourite RHCP songs ever, you can find this sensual little number on the fantastic “Mother’s Milk” record. It’s a slow funky groove that deserves to be heard more often, from one of their greatest albums. “Sexy Mexican Maid” shows the Chili Peppers exploring their sound and developing towards “Blood Sugar Sex Magik”, whilst still happy to languish with their sexually charged lyrics.
So last up was Ben the Swede, who recently moved house and now had access to his full vinyl collection. The theme was bass, of different types:
And there you have it: another great night with some great songs and some very cool people.There were some killer tracks from PIL, Perrey & Kingsley, Elvis Costello and more. You can see the full playlist on the Halcyon Dreams blog here.
Thanks all – looking forward to the next Vinyl Night!
You can listen to this Bring Your Own Vinyl Night (and previous ones, too) on the Mixcloud page here.
The Halcyon Dreams Facebook page is here.
Thanks Graham!
RIP Kelvin Bedford
Phoenix
Sci Fi Weekender 17th – 20th March 2016
Hafan Y Mor Holiday Park, Pwllheli
Day 2 at SFW, and again it’s all a blur. I recall it was a lazy start to the day for me, breakfast and chilling in the caravan. Kurt was feeling better, but Greeny was starting to suffer with the illness. It would be mostly be another day of watching Star Trek, Big Bang Theory and Top Gear for those two.
Adam had got up early and made it to see a showing of a new independent film called Pandorica. Classed as an action-horror, reports about the film were very enthusiastic. The Q&A with Director and cast was my first event of the day – it was interesting although I’d not seen the film! Definitely one to keep and eye out for: word of mouth was very positive.
The highlight of the afternoon was, undoubtedly, an appearance by the incomparable Brian Blessed. Larger than life and twice as loud, Blessed’s sci-fi credentials are suitably top notch. A life long fan of science fiction, as well in starring in numerous genre pieces – you may have heard of Flash Gordon – his enthusiasm was both apparent and infectious.
Professor Elemental hosted the Q&A with Brian Blessed, who wisely let the great man get on and tell his tales! A solid job from the Professor – a daunting task well executed.
Blessed’s talk ranged from his acting work to his many explorations and mountaineering adventures. His recollections of the Flash Gordon movie, and it’s well deserved appreciation by audiences the world over, were affectionately told. An unmissable audience with a real living legend.
In the afternoon I took some photos and looked around the stalls again. Unfortunately, this years SFW again clashed with MCM Memorabilia in Birmingham, so genre based merchandise was thin on the ground. I picked up some cool Elvira cocktail glasses though!
A good feature this year was the retro gaming section, where numerous old consoles could be played for free. This was very popular, and although I don’t play video games it meant I always knew where to find my crew if we split up. They were always playing games…
Every year at SFW, the Cosplay final is something to behold. There’s always a sense of excitement in the air, as the costumed competitors take the stage. And every year, the audience and competitors are enthusiastic and good natured. Everyone cheers for each other, and there’s a real sense of community. It’s nice to witness all the attendees rooting for each other; even though there will always be favourites, there is no bitterness.
The costumes were exceptional, as you can see (hopefully) from the photos here. Not everyone entered the competition, but there were so many great costumes whether they were entering or just dressing up for fun. Massive respect to everyone.
I find it great fun spotting and naming the characters. The variety and imagination on show is consistently astounding, not to mention the talent that goes into making the costumes. So again, thanks to all the Cosplayers for letting me take your photos. Too many of my pics didn’t work out. I also missed far too may opportunities. But I hope that the photos here capture some of the creativity I witnessed.
And I sincerely apologise for not dressing up! I lost count of the number of people who chastised me (with good humour, of course) for not dressing as Tony Stark…
Anyway, there can only be one winner of the Cosplay final, and that was the Robot Overlord fellow. I can’t remember the character’s name, but I swear it was truly incredible!
Later on in the evening, I zoomed over to the Prog Rock area to catch some music. I was very happy to catch the Focus set; the song “Hocus Pocus” was an obvious highlight. I only saw a couple of songs by Ian Anderson (of Jethro Tull fame) – though they were impressive – before heading back to the spaceport.
For the rest of the evening, my compadre, Ste and myself had a few beers and hung around with various SFW attendees. We saw some old pals and met a few new ones. I took more photos – including the now traditional “no photos” social media-proof shades pics. And we managed to stay up partying till after 2 in the morning!
Not such a good thing going home Sunday…
Still, another great time at Sci Fi Weekender. And yes, Greeny and Kurt got better, thanks for asking.
If you were there, it was good to see you. Hopefully we’ll see you next year.
And big thanks to Adam, who organised the whole thing for us!
The Sci Fi Weekender site is here.
The HRH Prog site is here.
PS: There are photos left unpublished, so there will be Bonus Scenes in a few weeks. Be warned!
Cosplay winner!
Platinum Al's Virtual Hot Tub 