Amusing anecdotes & random ramblings
Music
The rise of Chinese pop culture…
Jan 28th
When my sisters and I were growing up (younger than ten), we were somewhat discouraged from consuming Western pop culture, ie music and films, by our parents. (Can’t you tell?) Thus, while my schoolfriends were (perhaps) reading Smash Hits et. al., we were listening to Cantopop and comedy films from Hong Kong, procured at great expense and effort from Chinese shops in Liverpool.
One of the tapes we used to constantly listen to on those long drives to Liverpool were albums by Sam Hui, who along with his brothers also used to make knock-about comedy capers like Security Unlimited. They were simple, but had catchy tunes and comedy routines – in the back of my head, I can probably still recall the Security Unlimited way of learning how to drive. Think of a working class Nolan Sisters branching into Carry On films, with no innuendo.
Then we got a radio, I discovered how to control the television set, and I threw myself into UK pop culture (Smash Hits! Neneh Cherry! Doctor Who!) while my parents wondered where exactly they had gone wrong.
Fast-forward 25 years, and a chance Googling reveals that American casinos are so keen to get Chinese gamblers coming in, they book Sam Hui to perform at Las Vegas, and casinos in Connecticut have Chinese-language websites where lots of Asian pop stars perform, for the cash. I’ve seen casinos put up Chinese-language signs in London and Manchester to compel Chinese gamblers to come in, but this takes it to a whole new level.
As for that Security Unlimited – the film my sisters and I must have watched hundreds of times on repeat on a dodgy VHS – is now on YouTube, and also available via Amazon.com video-on-demand. Technology, eh?
Now if only I could speak Chinese.
Quite possibly the best new Pet Shop Boys song of the moment…
Dec 21st
Throbbing beats that can’t be ignored, and a lovely heart-felt lyric. Straight from 1981 (or thereabout…)
Of course, you may prefer the cynical but hopefully romantic lyrics that the Pet Shop Boys are more justly famed for:
Ahhh…. Cardiff…
Nov 17th
When I first moved to Cardiff in December 2001 and found myself at numerous friends’ Christmas house parties, I did note – as you do – that everybody’s music collection included plenty of CDs by the Stereophonics, Manic Street Preachers – and even Catatonia, depending on how old the partygoers were. Via some magical osmosis, without actually sitting down and listening to those CDs, by 2006 I was quite familiar with a fair few tracks, thus sparking off a sense of Welsh nostalgia every time Kelly Jones (he was in my local pub in West London, once) or James Dean Bradfield‘s voice spikes out of the radio.
Anyway, fast forward to today and I’ve only just heard the new single, Innocent. And I loves it. That quite Welsh lyrical combination of sour nostalgia for a time in the future. And a rockin’ good tune.
Or maybe that’s just me.
If you're a UK Pet Shop Boys fan
Oct 16th
then apparently Absolute Radio is your UK radio station of choice, according to comparemyradio.com. Mind you, they’ve only played a track 11 times in the last 30 days.
Just thought you might want to know that.
Pet Shop Boys – you need love…
Feb 8th
The new Pet Shop Boys single. It’s fab. For the following reasons:
- It’s going to be fab at concerts, hearing fans scream back the various call-and-beck lines
- Lyrically, it’s an age-old theme but with the typical Pet Shop Boys twist
- It’s catchy as hell. Did I mention that?
- Love Etc. – I mean, could there be a more Pet Shop Boys title?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsYzsV4RzdE&hl=en&fs=1]
Magical musical tour
Nov 23rd
A former music writer colleague of mine once told me that the great thing about new music was that it was always there for you, when you were ready.
Given that my last CD purchases of simple pop bands Alphabeat and Scouting For Girls drew sustained moaning from my music-loving neighbour, it’s patently high time that I stopped hearing new music via music video channels, and had my musical horizons somewhat expanded. Fortunately, my friend muzikfiend is visiting from the States, with a declared intention to spend a week going to as many music concerts and clubs as possible, so I thought I’d join her.
So first off was Sneaky Sound System at the Koko. I’d heard pretty much nothing about them, so was pleasantly surprised to find a popular energetic electro-pop-dance band from Australia with a couple of catchy songs that I still can’t forget.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DndO0odK-uc&hl=en&fs=1]
Next, it was Ladytron at the Shepherds’ Bush Empire. I have listened to, and liked a couple of their songs before so I was looking forward to it, but was “super non-impressed”, as muzikfiend puts it. It seemed as if they had no passion, no desire to be there – they were just going through the very bored motions, and they didn’t play their more popular tunes. However, the crowd around me seemed to love it, so it was probably just me not attuned to their cold ways.
Now, onwards to an impromptu club tour of London
Acieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeedddddd
Aug 22nd
An email flew across UK new media types today, exhorting people to take part in a flashmob to celebrate 20 years of acid house. Or as most people would term it, acccieeeeeeeeeeeedddddddd – courtesy of D-Mob’s We Call It Acieed, which was probably the closest mainstream charts got to it.
But to hear people twittering and muttering about it, apparently everyone was simply getting on down t’acid house in the second summer of lurve (1988). Except unsurprisingly, I was trapped in my parents’ bedroom probably not doing much except watching TV and imagining that simply every cool kid was getting on down t’Acid House in the big cities. And they probably were.
Personally, out of D-Mob’s ouevre, I preferred D-Mob & Cathy Dennis – C’mon get my love. And to think she went on to write some of Kylie’s greatest hits. Ahhh, the 1980s…
How can we take the time if we never make the time?
Jul 2nd
There’s a fascinating article in the Washington Post about what happened when they persuaded a world-class violinist, using a rare Stradivarius, to play some of the world’s ‘best’ classical music purposes while standing on an intersection in a busy Washington D.C. Metro station. Would commuters stop, and listen in awe – or move on in their busy lives?
Ironically, the article itself – as presented on the web – is so hideously long and complicated, I had to skim-read to find out what happened next. So the article online is definitely not a work of art. 