Every Michael Jackson cloud has a silver lining, and yesterday this came in the form of a souvenir. As one of the first five million people to buy tickets to see “This is it”, we were entitled to a cardboard folder containing a set of three tiles depicting the great man:
Hard to describe how moved I was when I first saw this magnificent offering; although “not at all” comes close. In fact, having pithily observed that he must have had to take his gloves off and found a rare drug-free day to sign such an autograph, I was ready to throw the cardboard crap into the rubbish bin. But then she who must be obeyed muttered the magic word “don’t”, followed by the magic words “collectable” and “eBay”.
Apparently, those that weep pay good money for stuff like this. Already the Jacko forums are buzzing with the quality of souvenir being provided in each country, and Thailand has one of the better offerings (hard to imagine how bad the others must be). Even now, Betty Sue from Ohio is counting her savings so she can own another piece of Michael junk. The bidding will start soon. I think I am turning into a bit of a fan.
I have previously revealed that my teenage years were spent under the bedclothes doing what all teenagers did in the days before masturbation was invented; listening to the radio. My musical education was provided by the likes of Radio Luxembourg and Radio Caroline; so it was a real joy to re-discover those years watching “The boat that rocked”.
The boat that rocked was written and directed by Richard Curtis who wrote Blackadder (he also did Bridget Jones’s Diary, but we will forgive him eventually). Very loosely based upon Radio Caroline, it’s an affectionate and often amusing story with Philip Seymour Hoffman, Bill Nighy and Kenneth Branagh. But the real star is the music, a fantastic soundtrack with music from The Kinks, Procol Harum, Hendrik, Martha Reese and the Vandellas, Smokey Robinson etc. etc. The songs alone makes it worth watching; available from a torrent near you.
Suffused with a musical glow, I went hunting for new releases from some of my favourite bands and came up gold. FIrst, Third Eye Blind, who have not made an album since 2003, have finally released Ursa Major. Next, the weird and wonderful Handsome Furs have made a second album, Face Control. And finally, Placebo, one of my favourites, end a three year break with Battle for the Sun.
If you have never heard Placebo, here is their singer Brian Molko speaking French (we will forgive him eventually) and knocking out a cover of Bowie’s Five Years which I personally prefer to the original:
And Bowie returns the favour by performing Without You I’m Nothing with Placebo.
I’m unclean, a libertine And every time you vent your spleen, I seem to lose the power of speech, You’re slipping slowly from my reach. You grow me like an evergreen, You never see the lonely me at all Without you, I’m nothing
Genius. Michael who?
Comments 🔗
2009-10-25| Jock saysAlmost ‘young enough’ to remember it …. tried a few Google’s looking for the original DJ’s …. Johnnie Walker, Simon Dee etc but couldn’t find a definitive site … except wikipedia with all it’s links of course ..