Poll Results - Top Crooner

1. Frank
2. Tony Christie
3. Tony Bennett
4. Paul Quinn
5. Tom Jones

Odd Songs that mean the world and yet... #1

Avenues and Alleyways

"Avenues and Alleyways" is a 1972 single recorded by Tony Christie as the theme song for the television series The Protectors. It was written and produced by Mitch Murray and Peter Callander, who were also responsible for Christie's "Las Vegas" and "I Did What I Did For Maria".

Following the chart-topping success of the re-release of "Is This the Way to Amarillo?" in 2005, this song was also re-released and peaked at #26 on the UK Singles Chart. On its original release, it had only reached #37.

It is included in the soundtrack of the 2000 film Love, Honour and Obey, starring Ray Winstone and Jude Law and that is where it first really seeped into my soul. A disarming melody combined with almost oddly poetic lyrics = my no.1 Karaoke tune, all thanks to Ray of course - Geezer!


Sleep like a baby,
my little lady,
Dream till the sunrise
creeps into your eyes
Dream till the sunrise
Turns on the day.

In the Avenues and Alleyways
while you sleep there's a whole world coming alive
Able and his brother, fighting one another
in and out of every dive
The Avenues and Alleyways
where the strong and the quick alone can survive
Look around the jungle
see the rough and tumble
Listen to a squealer cry
Then a little later
in the morning paper
Read about the way he died.

Wake up my pretty
Go to the city
Stay through the daytime
safe in the sunshine
stay till the daytime
turns into night.

In the Avenues and Alleyways
Where a mans gotta work out which side he's on
any way he chooses
chances are he loses
no one gets to live too long
the avenues and alleyways
Where the soul of a man is easy to buy
everybody's wheeling
everybody's steeling
all the low are living high
Every city's got em
can we ever stop em
some of us are gonna try.

Lyrics taken from http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/t/tony_christie/#share

Poll Results - Favourite Protest

1 = Occupy St Pauls
1 = Poll Tax Riots
1 = Paris 68
1 = Greenham Common

And all the others...

Poll Results - Best British DJ

1 - John Peel

Well, what did you expect? Chris Moyles? Are you mad?

John Peel

(30 August 1939 - 25th October 2004)

Poll Results - Best British Guitarist

1 = Bert Jansch
1 = Davy Graham
1 = Johnny Marr
1 = Graham Coxon
1 = Pete Townsend
1 = John Martyn
1 = Nick Drake

Strings of Desire - #6

The six strings that drew blood - Rowland S. Howard's Jaguar.

Guitar thug blew into town
His eyes like wheels spinnin' round
Jerkin-off at every sound
Layin' all his crosses down
O yeah
He got Six Strings
The Six Strings that drew blood
The bar is full of Holy-Joes
A Holy-hole-a-whole-aria
Around the neck of our consumptive rose
Is the root of all his sorrows
O yeah
He got Six Strings
Six Strings that drew blood
A Holy-hole-a-whole-aria
Six Strings that drew blood
In the bathroom under cover
He turns on one tap to discover
He's smashed his teeth out on the other
Well he look in the mirror and say
Don't fuck me brother
Cause I got Six Strings
Six Strings that drew blood
Numbin' the runt of reputation they call rat fame
Top-E as a tourniquet
A low tune whistles across his grave
Forever the master and the slave of his Six Strings
A Holy-hole-a-whole-aria
Six Strings that drew blood.

(c) Nick Cave/The Birthday Party

Home of the Hits (cont...)

4999 and rising!!

Strings of Desire - #5

George Harrison 12 String Rickenbacker 360/v12

Quite simply one of the most stylish of guitars ever. Brought to notice by 'The Quiet One' (GH not I.D.S.) the 360 was at the forefront of the west coast sound epitomised by The Byrds. It's chiming jingly-jangly sound made it one of the most loved and sort after guitars of that (and indeed every) decade, since.
Cue song...

It's been a hard day's night,
and I've been working like a dog
It's been a hard day's night,
I should be sleeping like a log
But when I get home to you
I find the things that you do
Will make me feel alright...

Strings of Desire - #4

Guild M-20 Acoustic

Good enough for Nick Drake, good enough for us all!

Don’t you have a word
to show what may be done
Have you never heard
a way to find the sun
Tell me all that you may know
Show me what you have to show
Won’t you come and say
If you know the way to blue

Have you seen the land living by the breeze
Can you understand a light among the trees
Tell me all that you may know
Show me what you have to show
Tell us all today
If you know the way to blue?

Look through time and find your rhyme
Tell us what you find
We will wait
At your gate
Hoping like the blind

Can you now recall all that you have known
Will you never fall
When the light has flown
Tell me all that you may know
Show me what you have to show
Won’t you come and say
If you know the way to blue?

Bert Jansch (1943-2011) RIP

It is with great sadness that I heard today of the passing of Bert Jansch, a leading figure in the British folk revival of the 60s and one of the most respected musicians of his generation, he died of cancer aged 67.

Bert was a founding member of Pentangle, he also renowned as a guitar virtuoso and was sometimes hailed as a British Bob Dylan.

Neil Young said: "With deep regret Pegi and I acknowledge the passing of Bert Jansch. Pegi and I were lucky to play with him on all of our shows for the last couple of years. He is a hero of mine, one of my greatest influences. Bert was one of the all-time great acoustic guitarists and singer songwriters. Our sincerest sympathies to his soul mate Loren. We love you Bert."

Born in Glasgow on 3 November 1943, Jansch released 23 solo albums, the last of which, The Black Swan (2006), featured collaborations with Beth Orton and Devendra Banhart.

He was the recipient of two lifetime achievement prizes at the BBC Folk awards – one for his solo achievements in 2001 and the other, in 2007, as a member of Pentangle. The band reformed in 2008.

In June 2009, he discovered he had a golf ball-size tumour on one of his lungs following what was at first a routine visit to the dentist. Following treatment, he went on to co-headline a US tour with Young. Jansch had recently been forced to cancel a live show in Edinburgh due to ill health and was living in a hospice in north London at the time of his death.

Those he influenced included Jimmy Page, Nick Drake, Graham Coxon, Donovan, Bernard Butler and Paul Simon. According to fellow guitarist Johnny Marr: "He completely reinvented guitar playing and set a standard that is still unequalled today … without Bert Jansch, rock music as it developed in the 60s and 70s would have been very different."

Jansch told The Guardian last year: "I'm not one for showing off. But I guess my guitar-playing sticks out."

He was a true virtuoso, a major influence on my more recent musical tastes and will be greatly missed.

Strings of Desire - #3

Johnny Marr's White on white Fender Jaguar

I could have chosen almost any one of Johnny Marr's guitars from his first album Rickenbacker, his 'The Queen is Dead' green Telecaster or his 'How Soon is Now' Epiphone Casino. However, in the end I couldn't resist his current axe du jour, the fantastic white on white Jaguar that he used as his main guitar with The Cribs.

Having been fortunate enough to see him in action up close with the Jarman boys on their last tour of 'Straya. I was blown away by the tone, feel and of course style of the Jaguar. Fender are due to produce a Johnny Marr signature Jag in January 2012, which if their attention to detail matches Johnny's will be an absolute must for any self respecting guitar stylist!

Strings of Desire - #2

Rickenbacker 330

Despite not being able to play it when I bought it, this is the first proper guitar I ever owned. The classic Rickenbacker 330, made famous by Messrs Weller, Marr, Townsend et al.

If you want a trebly jangly feedback enducing experience, then look no further. especially when twinned with the VOX AC30.

Ladies & Gentlemen, I give you the perfect Zap! Wham! Kerpow! Mod guitar!!!

1,2,3,4...

Strings of Desire - #1

The Graham Coxon Fender Telecaster

Exhilerating, innovative and very talented. Graham Coxon is one of the best guitarists to come out of Britain.

His solo work and Blur back catalogue are testimony to his ear for a vibrant mix of melody and discord. The majority of his finest work has been written on a Fender Telecaster. And for that reason alone...


...I want one!

The inevitable demise of Capitalism (part two)

Extracts from 'A day in the bear pit' by Jonathon Glenister

"The thing, the thing is. Our position is unassailable. All the while they take to the streets, we can sit back and relax. They'll never win by protesting. The only chance they have is rejecting the very mechanisms which sustain them.

Society is broken. Community is non existent.

But they cling to the weakest of positions through fear. Whilst they continue to trust their high street bank and the lure of their credit card driven lifestyle, they are hooked, they are hooked!

And we shall remain untouchable and unopposed!"

Poll Results - What do you get when you fall in love?

1- All of the below
2= Pneumonia
2= Lies & pain & sorrow
2= A pin to burst your bubble

'A Day in the Bear Pit' by Jonathon Glenister

Jonathon 'Tubs' Glenister is a leading right-wing financier who actively whipped up panic around the time of the first GFC. He then hedged his position in light of the impending crash and increased his personnel fortune to the tune of $1.3bn (US).

He is most probably one of the singularly most obnoxious people on the planet. His latest book 'A day in the bear pit' is due to be published in November. In it he predicts the date of the next Global Financial Crisis and predicts that on that day he will treble his own personal fortune.

He must be stopped.

The inevitable demise of Capitalism (part one)

(Extracts from 'A day in the bear pit' by Jonathon Glenister)

"Sitting at my desk, shares up, shares down. Best thing is I can make even more when the market crashes!

Politicians! Politicians? A bunch of bed-wetting arrivistes who haven't got the cojones to get stuck in! Losers, every single one of them out there - that window there. Losers!

Sympathy! Sympathy? Who for? All those weaklings who haven't got the 'kin nerve? Nah, they can all eat it as far as I'm concerned.

Cowards! Cowards, the lot of them!"

Poll Results - Who do you blame?

1 = Thatcher
1 = Cameron
1 = Blair
1 = Clegg
1 = Johnson
1 = Bush
1 = Them all !

The Comic Strip presents...

Five go mad in Dorset

"Blah blah blah, stolen plans, blah blah blah, missing scientists. Blah blah blah, Kidnap boy. Blah blah blah, everything ties up. Blah blah Submarine. Blah blah leave it out!"

Not forgetting "ham and turkey sandwiches, bags of lettuce, hard-boiled eggs, heaps of tomato, and lashings of ginger beer!"