Heim is where the heart is...

heim? , yes heim...in fact Icelandic for home. woke up feeling shit today, got them damn late autumnal blues, so i put on a favourite couple of tracks and all is right with the world...
First up we have Sigur Ros with 'Samskeyti' off the album "Heim", this track always makes me feel calm, i found out about Sigur Ros just after the 1st album had come out and they fascinated me by their use of the Hopelandic language (a lead singer invention) and emotive musical phrases. The idea of Hopelandic was so that their songs were accessible to all and people could put in meanings to songs with relevance to how they feel whilst listening to it, clever eh? Sigur Ros have seen me through some bad patches, some of you older readers will know that I had cancer 3 years ago and I used to play their albums to take me away from the reality of it all..very cathartic!
The second track today is the Paul Oakenfold remix od Massive Attack's 'Unfinished Sympathy' a track that never fails to move me. Massive attack were a mighty force around the late 80's and early 90's and I remember blasting them out when I worked at Virgin Records in Southampton. They were known for their production values and vibe, you could see customers start to nod and shimmy to the sounds emanating from the shop speakers. Thats when record shops were good and staff were allowed to play what they want without having a corporate radio station blasting out pap all day as they do now! Those days of the Virgin Empire were great, the manager used to smoke weed in his office and all of us staff knew what we were talking about and loved music so much...those days are now gone. I remember we hosted the Video premiere in shop of George Michaels 'I want your sex video' as it wasn't being shown on telly...the shop filled with hundreds of people just to see a video, it wouldn't happen today, the magic of the retail record shop has gone...may it rest in peace.

ciao

on being nude...

Nude, nudity, nudeness...is it all relevant. Here's a track by Radiohead called 'Nude' a terrific and lovely piece that makes me quiver. At my age looking at myself nude I see a lived in body that has seen the scars and knocks of a lifetime, it bears the memories of too much good food and drink, it shocks me into submission...when you're young, you see a perfect you, a body that has no imperfection, a body that you want to keep and have all the good intention of doing so...some succeed but most don't, your body is designed as a vessel to carry your thoughts, your education, it carries your love and your desires but most of all your body is designed to carry your spirit and if my spirit can only fit into a body my size, then that's good enough for me!

Through my travels around the African continent I have always been seduced by music, from Natasha Atlas in Egypt, through to the Kora players of the Gambia via the anti apartheid groups led by Johnny Clegg in Southern Africa...the melodies and song styles are amazingly different and exciting...Amadou and Mariam from Mali took a place in my heart a few years ago now and it's really nice to see them over here being accepted as a touring band worth going to see...there latest album starts off with a great little track called 'Sabali' and perhaps shows us that their music can perhaps adapt to western influences, not that they should or hopefully will though! Check them out and if you like it try and listen to 'Welcome to Mali' ..it's a real rhythmical joy.

Ciao

Have you tried love?

well....have you? 'Have you tried love' is a wonderful prelude to an album by the 5th Dimension, they were one of those bands that your mum and dad used to get groovy with on Saturday night Seaside Special television...it really is a lovely bit of work though and it's amazing what you come across in old albums that you explore..

You will hopefully have realised by now that if you click the name of the song a new little player should appear, this will be my new home for the forseeable future, it's a lot more cosy and easy to access :)

Love is a funny thing, people have the most odd and ingenious ways of expressing it..love songs are the backbone of society, where would we have been without our beloved mix tapes that we did for anyone that caught our eye...the kids today don't know what meaning a mix tape had...can you remember mix tapes that you did, I'd love to hear about them if you post onto the blog :)
'Love' by Air is a new song off the new album called Love 2 and don't you just love these french boys, taking electronica to bohemian heights, it's a groovy little album and well worth the pennies.

I've seen someone I fancy so I'm off to do an MP3mix ...it doesn't have quite the same ring does it :(

Ciao

listening problems

Hi folks, I understand some of you are getting the join google page before you can listen to the songs...all you have to do is just sign up to google, its totally FREE...once you are signed it it will give you the option of saving the track or just opening in your favourite media player.

I will try and find a better alternative for you but in the meantime if you just sign up to google you can enjoy the content.

thanks :)

Baby the stars REALLY did shine bright!

Some of you may not know this but I used to work for Virgin, in the old days of the little shops where everyone was actually interested in music, and this is where my love for anything Aural came from, I discovered many precious tracks on my journey and was always excitably forcing music down friends earholes on a daily basis.

I had always liked Everything But The Girl since I fell in love with Tracey Thorn's voice when she was a tender young thing in the Marine Girls, after that she teamed up with Ben and created 'Night and Day' on Cherry Red Records under the EBTG moniker, a 7" which I still hold dear to my heart, they made some lovely early albums but the day arrived when I put on the latest EBTG album promo from the WEA records rep and was encapsulated in a land that was part Nashville and part Sheffield...the lush orchestral sounds eminated from the system and I wept with it's beauty and defaince against the current pop system. Baby The Stars Shine Bright was and will always be an album for me that ties up my life at that time, it was camp, honest, loving and beautifully produced! 'Come on Home' was the first single and typified how the rest of the album would develop, it shocked record execs who swooned as their lovely indie band became Country and Western Favourites...but strangely enough it worked, the album sold in its zillions and it was heard eminating from hi fi demo shops all over the world. The lushness of 'Come Hell or High Water' meant that it became a personal favourite...it became an album for lovers, an album which found new fans and stardom but most of all it became an album classic...I hoped for many years afterwards that they would do a similar styled follow up but it was never to be..but my memories take me to a good place every time I still listen to it...

Under the bedclothes part 1

A defining John Peel show moment...



...And the Native Hipsters, 'Ooh Look...'

First Times

When I thought about going back to my music memories, I realised that I cannot actually remember what my first ever gig was...I went to see so many gigs betweem 1978-85 that it was in the hundreds and it's all gone a bit blurry. I know I was taken to see Shirley Bassey in Australia by my lovng parents during the late 60's and I think I can blame this early exposure to gaydom as the catharsis for my confirmed batchelorhood of today!

At the end of my school days I was a confirmed rocker into Thin Lizzy, Ufo, Uriah Heep, Rainbow and of course the mighty monsters known as Black Sabbath and I used to be found at the local Rock Disco headbanging into bass bins whilst patchouli flung its sweaty way off my then fairly long hair!. Over the years I would witness different reincarnations Of Black Sabbath who trotted out every time a new album came out. One of the most memorable times was in a June concert at The Southampton Gaumont in 1978 for the 'Never Say Die' tour with a little band called 'Van Halen' as the support act!
The price of the ticket was 3.50! just times that by at least 10 theses days!
I remember being down at the front of the stage surrounded by Hells Angels types and big dirty bikers :) The abnd came on and frightened me to death with the volume and the atmosphere, Ozzy in his day was the Prince of Darkness rather than the dark lord that he is now!
So I present to you today the title track of the tour album...ladies and Gentlemen, Black Sabbath with 'Never Say Die'....coming soon ..How i found punk under the bedsheets...

ReBirth

Hi all...today is the day I return to my first love...music...over the coming months and possibly years I hope you will join me on a wondrous journey through an eclectic mix of tunes...some with a story and some without.

I wanted to open the music blog with a bang so have given you this Soulwax remix of The Gossip's 'Standing in the way of control', a lovely monstrous event which in my opinion is the best version...More cowbells I hear you cry!...to be honest I think Beth and gang latter attempts have been a bit hit and miss really, I think fame took over before the talent really came out..
This is just an opener page but please follow me and I can promise laughter tears, revealed skeletons in my cupboard and all sorts of mischief.


Welcome to 'Piddy's Place' Reborn :)

I need your vote please!!!

Hi folks...a little help please...I have entered a comp and have a wine name and label that people need to vote on..the prize is a trip to Aus for 2...whoever votes for me will be put into a hat and will tag along to the vineyards of Oz with me...cli...ck on the following to vote...thanks...

http://www.nakedwines.com/competition/entry_detail.htm?competitionEntryId=4931&hasVoted=false

please let me know if you vote so i can put you in the hat...ta xx

the ballad of lucy jordan

I couldn't ind the latest live version but here is the magical version form the Broken English film...enjoy!

I said a hip hop a hippy ...

well bloody hell, it's only been 17 days (good prince song that!) and I am now obsessed with Tweeting and twitter...it's so easy to get sucked into reading little scentences and sitting there thinking..but i want to know more! ..so you wait for the persons next tweet and bugger me it's a different subject all together..but i adore it..I tweet with Moby, fearne cotton, philip schofield, ashton kutcher and Demi, stephen fry and even normal people too like jane Fonda! I have learned lots about Trancendental meditation from David Lynch, kabballah from Ashton Kutcher etc etc...Jonathan Ross is a great tweeter and I find it fascinating when he goes to walk the dogs and tells us what the lovely Jane is eating!...please join twitter and follow me :)
I was watching Marianne Faithfull the other night on the BBC Sessions and I thought..bless her..she was very alluring for an old bird but she was fascinating...so what if she read lyrics off a music stand and missed a few notes, the woman is a semi legend...I wasn't quite sure of the arrangement for 'The ballad of Lucy Jordan' but it was okay and lovely to see her performing it...these BBC sessions are brilliantly done, especially if you are watching on the HD channel...I'm sure I could even see the booze permeating from Ms Faithfulls pores ...oh joy!
OOh must go , my 'Tweetdeck' is tweeting at me!!

Ciao

Easter Tweets to all :)

I know I'm late but I have just discovered the joys of 'Twitter'...so please if you are on Twitter let me know so I can follow you or if you are not a Tweeter then please join as quickly as you can ....I love to Tweet :)

Holding Out For A Hero!

Come on then ...do your worst...go here... http://piddy77.mybrute.com and fight with me in the arena...it's a very cute and cool game called 'My Brute' and you are allowed to have 3 arena fights each day...its an awesome little time waster and I am looking for people to join me as pupils...go ahead, click on the link and lets do battle! :)

oh you nasty boy!

I went for an internal job interview last week...I frazzled my nerve endings for 2.5 hours and didn't get the job...yesterday I was in the office and there was a young lady walking around...one of the management team introduced her to me..."Neil, this is xxxxxx xxxxx and she is the new communications officer (the job I went for)...I stumbled with my words because one part of me was telling me to rip her fucking head off, and the other part was going 'hello nice to meet you'...how confusing is that!

...just as you thought it was safe to go back into the water

I have decided to start writing again after a break...watch this space for outrage, gossip, freedom fighting, fairy dust, films, music and the whole caboodle :)

Coming soon to your internet connection...

Film of the week




Knowing - the film that M Night Shyamalan should have made

Happy Glastonbury Weekend!

Today I am angry but also excited...I am angry because my PC picked up the dreaded 'Beagle' virus and is near enough completely fucked...I am trying to rescue all the really important bits off my hard drive and will then have to re format the whole sodding thing...its a nasty little virus that somehow deletes a lot of your executables so programmes won't start up, and it also deletes anyhting to do with security maintenance etc...and before anybody says anything I was fully protected with Firewall and anti virus and spyware trackers, so fuck knows how the little bastard infiltrated me :(

I am excited because it's Glastonbury weekend, a whole weekend where there is something worth watching on TV...starts tonight at 7pm on BBC3 with the Editors etc...marvellous stuff...I have my little portable tent and calor gas stove set up in the lounge, i have also arranged for the neighbours to start shouting 'shrooms' 'shrooms' at the top of their voices at 4 in the morning and also have soaked the sleeping bag in water to get that freshly rained and dew ridden field feeling.


...ITV on the other hand have all the has beens (except for Ami W) trotting out for Nelson Mandelas 90th birthday party..god forgive us.

I am still losing weight...soon I shall look like a stick, albeit a stick that has had too many Krispy Kreme donuts and snapped off the tree because of it's weight...nevertheless a stick!

If you would like a personalised BOdy Protein assessment and an introduction to fabby weight shifting products then email me at piddy77@ntlworld.com . I can discuss your personalised approach with you and all in the strictest confidence...a totally FREEE service!


I have just rediscovered this amazing 1981 film, it's always been one of my favourites and is now available in high definition dvd...oh the joys of modern technology...

have a great weekend...

Ciao x

Cats and Engineers...

I had to post this, it's one of the funniest things I have seen on youtube for a long time...please enjoy it and give me your reactions to the cat yodelling demonstration at around 5 minutes...I nearly pissed myself, I hope you do to (..but in a nice way!)



Happy Sunday

Ciao x

Perfection!