If you reached the top of Mount Everest, you would scream:
Song: Road to Nowhere
Artist: Talking Heads
Comment: i could see myself screaming that...

The next time you stand up in front of a group of people, you'll say:
Song: When Something is Wrong With My Baby
Artist: Sam & Dave
Comment: "something is wrong with me". i must be about to fight for a friend!

Your favorite thing to say when drunk is:
Song: Children Of The Revolution
Artist: T. Rex
Comment: and start a party!

Your message to the world:
Song: Come And Get These Memories
Artist: Martha Reeves & The Vandellas
Comment: there are a lot of *memories* i wouldnt mind giving back...

When you think of your best friend you think:
Song: More Than This
Artist: Roxy Music
Comment: right now, this song is perfect for what was.

Your deepest secret:
Song: Summer Days
Artist: Phoenix
Comment: this isnt so much a secret. its my life right now. hello, i need a job.

Your innermost desire:
Song: Situation
Artist: Yazoo
Comment: move out - move out. yes. i would like that.

Your oldest memory makes you think:
Song: Certain Kind Of Lover
Artist: The Lovelites
Comment: im pretty sure this is inappropriate for a childhood memory.

Somewhere in your wedding vows, you'll include:
Song: I'm a Lady
Artist: Santogold
Comment: i suppose i would be a lady with her mind made up.

On your deathbed, you'll whisper:
Song: Adore
Artist: Lo-Fi-Fnk
Comment: to the few people who would actually attend me in my critical days. "i wanna thank you for the day, i had the best of times."

Your friends say behind your back:
Song: Things We Said Today
Artist: The Beatles
Comment: things are said one day. mean something different another. no deep in love though.

You say behind your friends' backs:
Song: Miss Miss
Artist: Figurine
Comment: "its all downhill from here, its time to move on" that whole growing up. getting left behind. friends changing. marriage. depressing.

Your opinion of MySpace:
Song: Let Me See You
Artist: Girl Talk
Comment: sometimes i like, sometimes i dont. either way, its addictive.

When you wake up in the morning, you mutter:
Song: The Soul of my Suit
Artist: T. Rex
Comment: rock-n-roll, yeah.

If you found yourself lost on a desert island, you'd yell:
Song: dollar girl
Artist: Orchestral Manoevers In The Dark
Comment: i guess i get cheap on an island. anything to make a buck. now where i'll spend it is another story.

Right now, your feelings are:
Song: Oh My Lover
Artist: The Chiffons
Comment: nope, no feeling of love for anyone. not like this song is suggestion. nice song though.

What's your excuse for reposting this:
Song: take a course in happiness
Artist: Stevie Wonder
Comment: its always nice to take the time to enjoy music and its meanings to you.

Your life's soundtrack:
Song: lets make our love song
Artist: Figurine
Comment: if only life was a love song. its nice to dream though.

The day you fall in love will be the day that:
Song: Melt With You
Artist: Modern English
Comment: ooh, a perfect song to play with falling in love.

You scream during sex:
Song: American Bandstand Boogie
Artist: Barry Manilow
Comment: im having some poppy/dance sex!

Your farewell message to the readers of this:
Song: Leave Me Be
Artist: The Zombies
Comment: all i wanna do is be alone, ha

Interview with No More Kings

(Oct 28, 2008)


Q: Hey Pete/No More Kings, how have you been?
A: We've been well, thanks! We've had a bit of a break from touring. and we just finished recording our second album.

Q: For those who don't know No More Kings, can you give us a short introduction of the band and the music?
A: The elevator pitch, eh? i guess 'No More Kings' is a pop-funk-rock band, with songs about the Karate Kid, Smurfs, and zombies. sonically, we're somewhere between Maroon 5 and Jamiroquai.

Q: You released an impressive debut album in 2007, which has been received quite well. How would you describe the self-titled debut?
A: Thank you! The originally concept for the album was that it was a 'thank you letter' to the 80's, for raising me. I grew up, essentially, in front of a television. So I've had all these things rattling around in my head for years. And when it came time to write an album, it made sense to pay tribute to some of those movies and tv shows that influenced me growing up. There are a few, more introspective songs on the album too. but the whole project is pretty light-hearted and fun.

Q: Obviously a lot of inspiration for the album was drawn from modern pop culture and tv. Why the fascination with specifically this and what made you write songs and record an album about all this?
A: Oops. I think I accidentally answered this above. Sorry.

Q: A lot of time goes into creating and producing an album and there are many things going on in the process. What is the toughest and what is the most rewarding part of the whole process?
A: Wow, great question! Well, there were a lot of both really: tough parts and rewarding parts. I wrote all the songs with my writing partner Neil Robins, who I've been great friends with since high school. So we were very open with each other, and didn't really worry about pulling punches. Co-writing can be a delicate thing - collaboration of any kind, really - and so there's a lot of back-and-forth that happens. The challenge then becomes how do you make something that fits both people's sensibilities, while becoming something new entirely. 'No More Kings' has such a specific fingerprint that we had to constantly pull back and ask, 'is this the right feel?' But honestly, every new step was a giant reward. we worked with some fantastic musicians on this album, so it was really exciting to record with them, and see it all come together. And then when we took everything to be mixed, there was a whole new level of excitement. And of course getting the final packaging in my grubby little hands was the greatest feeling!

Q: You have to decide which songs will or will not make the album. How hard is it to make that final decision as to what songs make or don't make it?
A: I guess normally that would be a difficult process, since each song can feel very precious to you. I've heard artists talk about their songs like they were their children. Which means someone like Billy Joel has thousands of children. Weird. But for us, it was really just a matter of running out of time. There was only one song that didn't make the album, a song called 'Missy'. And the only reason was that we ran out of time to record the final vocal tracks. Of course, there were tons of song ideas that didn't make the cut, for other reasons. but those never got a chance to become full songs.

Q: Which of the songs on the album is the most interesting to perform live?
A: I really like performing 'Umbrella'. it sort of comes and goes like a rainstorm, you know, very simple and soft beginning, then it builds and finally trickles away with just piano. It's a lot of fun to get lost in.

Q: Currently, what are your plans and goals for the (near) future? And how do you plan on accomplishing those goals?
A: We have a lot of similar goals that we had with the first album, for our new album: make a video that we can be proud of, tour, etc. But this time around we want to really push the limits of what we can do online. We're looking into streaming live shows, making lots of fun short video content, animations, doing live video chats with fans. We obviously want to grow our fanbase, but more than that we want to really connect with the fans we already have.

Q: Who would you say are the main influences on your sound and songwriting?
A: I grew up listening to Michael Jackson, The Beatles, Billy Joel, Boston; that kind of stuff. Neil and I both had a steady diet of 60s and 70s funk groove stuff like Sly & The Family Stone, Bill Withers, Al Green, The Isley Brothers. I guess we just sort of tried to mash that stuff together.

Q: If you could play a show anywhere in the world, where would you want to play?
A: Definitely Tokyo. I lived in Japan for a while, and I was in a band there. We mostly played small venues. But when the 'No More Kings' project started back up, I instantly wanted to play big shows in Japan.

Q: And if you could also pick someone to play that gig with, who would it be?
A: Ahh! That's a tough one! Barry Manilow?

Q: What is the best thing and the worst thing about being a musician?
A: The best thing is all the free gummi bears in the green room. The worst thing is 10 hours in a sweaty van.

Q: Where can we find more information on No More Kings?
A: The best place is www.nomorekings.com , but myspace.com/nomorekings has some good stuff too.

Q: Okay a few random questions now.
Q: Who was the best songwriter in The Beatles?
A: Well George was the most consistent. All of his songs are awesome. But for me, Paul is best. I love his melodies and epic arrangements.

Q: Day or night?
A: Night

Q: Club venue or arena venue?
A: Yikes. Club I guess? But a cool club. Like a swank Austin Powers lounge type club. I don't think we're quite the arena rock band.

Q: CDs or digital music?
A: aren't CDs digital music? Is this a trick question? I'm curious what the next format will be. Music-fruit. You have to eat it to hear the songs. "Dude, you hear the new NMK album yet? It comes in banana and cantelope"

Q: Okay, final question. What are your thoughts on people downloading music, both legally & illegally?
A: My official thoughts are that people should pay for stuff they consume: movies, music, art, books. And I think most people want to. as long as there's a safe, convenient way to do it. I absolutely hate all the precautionary measures that companies take to keep their stuff from being stolen. I bought a cd the other day and it asked for a blood sample before it would play in my car. It's all becoming a little 1984 big brother. But obviously, as an artist, I want as many people as possible to see/hear my art. I just hope that enough people pay for it to make it possible to keep making more.

Thanks for the interview Pete/No More Kings, it was a pleasure talking to you!

On the show...

Hola BRYAN peeps!

Sean, Shelley and Charlie were all sat in the studio, tummies rumbling, when (from a mist of BBC radio presenters who had assembled sheep-like in the open centre to look at exciting things on a screen and listen to a man talking) BIG food arrived…yummy!

There was a first for radio, too. Gerald Jackson (he of the Monday night classic music programme) popped in to tell us about Morning Call. Sean had been filling desperately while he tried to work out what on earth he was on about when the legend that is Gerald Jackson swept into the studio like a knight on a white charger to put Sean on the right track again. He walked among us. He told us stuff... thank you.

After we had been fed, we made a naughty stereotypical joke (om om om…) but were just kiddin'! Just to clarify, Liverpudlians are NOT thieves, well some might be, but the vast majority exude love and kindness. So to confirm then, "Scouse-house" is not when you come back home and your most treasured possessions have been taken away in a stolen van. It's a kind of dance music.

The lovely students from Blackburn College found some real gems of people talking about stuff for us, 'I like Arctic Monkeys' and 'there's no where to go in town that cheap… and good', awww they're a nice lot, aren't they? We thank them for their efforts and look forward to more groovy radio stuff from them over the coming weeks.

REVELATIONS IN THE STUDIO! A technological stride in CD cases, the lever operation is almost organic (Ed: tut, tut sean!) the CD just pops up ready to play from the plastic case and Shelley shows off her brand new sexy nails.

Trappist, right, gave an interview, and in the cool fashion, discussed the subjects of the variations of the word Trappist you can get just by taking out letters, rap, trap…etc. There were others but BBC values prevented us from speaking of them. They also said some mega cool things like 'higgledy piggeldy' and 'we have twelve songs'. And oh how they chuckled when Sean played them Barry Manilow, that was until they succumbed to his charms (that's Barry's musical charms btw).

Shelley songs were all the rage today, somehow. She brings new, fresh, unsigned talent from all over the North West, and bloody good they were too! She played Burn by The Forge, which we all agreed sounded like California… although only Sean had been and he thinks Mama Cass IS California or she ate it... or something.

If you walk just past house 666, you get to an even more sinister place, and today we met Norman and Maureen, the residents of 668, they are the NEIGHBOUR OF THE BEAST. The elderly couple don't mind living next door to Beelzebub, although they do think the dead body's are occasionally a bit of an eyesore. Check out Steve Royle on a Saturday morning from nine o'clock on BBC Radio Lancashire for more of this kind of nonsense.

If YOU want to get involved just email us here at sean.mcginty@bbc.co.uk or myspace us! www.myspace.com/seanmcgintyintroducing

Adios until next time,

Charlie and Sean
----

This week’s playlist...


Armrug – Car Trouble
Fox Cubs – You Never Learn
Kings of Leon – Sex on Fire (ooooohhh what a track!)
Morning Call – A Little Late
Sky Larkin – Fossil
I call shotgun - two tracks from one band
The Hot Melts – (I Wish I Had) Never Been In Love.
Cage the Elephant – In One Ear
The Forge – Burn
Sons and Daughters – This Gift
The Street Light – Just Give Me
The Glove Puppets – Wouldn't You
Trappist – Alcoletch, Derrogator, Terrortears
Sound Marshals – Where No One Knows Me
The Young Knives – Rumour Mill.
Johnny Foreigner – Eyes Wide Terrified
Music by Numbers – Static
A Silent Film - Two Days

Mon 4 Aug – Kylie Minogue

I'll try to keep the smug gloating to a minimum, but suffice to say my current job has some stellar benefits! Sure, I'm back behind a desk answering all kinds of flustered calls from people whose English is less than proficient, retaining my position as the first person they have to speak to and the last person that they want to. And I am more than a little demystified by the amount of stress, time and inventive expletives used to book an artist into a venue, a festival or a stadium. Yet as I was given my guest pass and "free bar" wristband upon entering the O2 Arena for Kylie Minogue's last European date of her promotional tour for her most recent album X, I couldn't help but feel more than a little excited! It may have been offset by the shame of Brighton Pride that a friend and I merrily endured Saturday prior or the woozily choppy ferry ride along the Thames to the venue itself (complete with a visual display that outdid that old proverb about alcoholic receptacles stranded upon precarious structures), but I was back in gay mode for what had been promised as a visual spectacular soundtracked by disco ditties so pleasurable that any guilt that should have been felt was quite frankly told to piss right off... even if my half-hearted attempt at high street/soulless fashion, complete with eyeliner, betrayed my own cynical ideas of gay signifiers and iconography. Still, if I can't hook up with someone at a Yazoo concert, how in the hell can I at one of Kylie's??!!

For those unfamiliar with the O2, I really cannot stress how fucking gigantic the place really is. A couple of months ago, I did actually go and see Neil Diamond there with a wonderful friend of mine (not my thing... but he did barmily recite an impassioned sermon calling for tolerance of the gays and transgenders to thousands of white-bred traditionalists, which was really quite hilarious), and our having to walk around the whole of the stadium to get to seats that rendered the mighty stage down to a respectable speck in my line of vision really left me in awe... and kind of like I'd walked into a Nazi rally by mistake! This time, however, the whole work party had taken up a good three-row block of seats that sat on the upper left (and within throwing distance) of the stage... given the visual opulence of the show to follow though, it really didn't matter where you sat in the end. I'd heard that Kylie's team of designers, choreographers and video artists had done well to out Showgirl her last tour and that the widely reported £10 million price tag of the tour suggested we were in for a treat, but it became something else entirely once album track Speakerphone started buzzing ominously through the speakers as the black curtain wrapped around the stage elegantly fell...

What you had for £10 million was the most intoxicatingly bizarre visual resplendence that amount could buy. Most of it would most certainly have been used to design, orchestrate and finally power the enormous visual panels kitted along the far wall and the stage floor itself, as well as a fair amount used to portray the various patterned sequences and scenarios beamed through in digitally-enhanced Technicolour gloss, most featuring Kylie in all variety of cyber-kitten get-ups from Kabuki to space vixen to Night Porter-style rebel. Another sizable chunk would have been spent on the physical setpieces themselves, among which were a black pyramid that rose from centre stage to reveal the titular star wrapped inside a detailed Japanese headdress before the night's first truly memorable song performance, Come Into My World, and the enormous golden skull she saucily strapped herself onto and that carried her centre stage about thirty feet in the air for Like a Drug. The costume changes were innumerable, even for the intensely acrobatic dancers; a mixture of different pop culture reference points, the most eyecatching being her tiny sky blue cheerleader outfit for Heart Beat Rock and her first costume which most was most probably inspired by the villainous angelic robots that populated her appearance on BBC's Doctor Who last Christmas, a long flowing black tunic with gold details and a nuts'n'bolts-style chunky halo.

Being a show fronted by an international icon as opposed to a celebrated musician, the event itself was very well-executed, nary a hitch, slip-up or crazy spontaneous moment to be seen or heard. For a show of such galvanizing virtuosity though, one could be forgiven for wondering if maybe the music itself could have afforded to be a little more adventurous in their arrangements, given that so much money was spent to necessitate one keyboardist, one guitarist, one bassist, one drummer, two back-up vocalists and a brass band trio. One of the night's standout moments was the band finally rocking out in the fade-out to Slow, no doubt inspired by Tricky's own punk-flavored interpretation on his new album. And fan favorites such as Confide in Me and the new album's best kept secret Stars could have been added instead of the am-dram tongue-in-cheekiness of the showgirl interlude featuring a spirited-if-displaced version of Barry Manilow's Copacabana (At the Copa). Understandably, it's all in an effort to tick boxes for each denomination of Kylie's huge fanbase, which embraces nursery school children as much as it does elderly party-rabblers, and the sheer glossiness of the whole shebang is pretty much critic-proof. Though Kylie's own personality and influence on the night yielded some curious results, especially with her more recent work...

The first half was definitely slower and a little more robotic than the second and the influence of Kylie's present-day peers were highly in evidence. The Gwen Stefani influence that seems to have eaten away at so many female soloists recently was in full swing, quite flagrantly so on the cheerleader atmos on the aforementioned Heart Beat Rock. Björk's more recent oriental fashions and headgear were referenced for the Kabuki segment on the tour, which still provided some of the night's better songs. Speakerphone and Nu-di-ty were daringly (and racily) performed in spite of their drawing the latest album's most critical daggers, the latter especially sounding like a Britney Spears knockoff. And even if she managed to pull it off, the video display of Kylie in digitally spiritual rapture that provided a backdrop for her otherwise moving rendition of No More Rain quite inescapably, maybe even tastelessly, ripped off Madonna's finest moments from the Ray of Light era. However, whenever Kylie finally gave in to her back catalogue of camp fun and frolics (which, let's face it, is the single most defining and lovable attribute about her as a pop singer), it was the stuff of pop heaven, especially those that tested her upper register. The relentless bombast of Your Disco Needs You justifiably drew the loudest reaction of the night from the crowd, alongside Come Into My World and On a Night Like This. And thankfully, she knows how to pull off a great encore that quite elegantly traversed her latest (The One and Love at First Sight) and with one last camp gesture embraced the Stock Aitken Waterman days finally with I Should Be So Lucky.

The spit and polish of the whole night was precisely as shiny and calculated as the X album, but to draw a critical line under all of that would be unfair. Though Kylie embraces arty cyber-retro references in all of her songs and videos that allow listeners with a degree of so-called sophistication to enjoy her work, a Kylie album/show is about having a good time first and foremost, and on that level alone the performance last night was a success. It also must be said that her winning vivantism goes a long way in making all of this camp pomposity digestible, if not credible, herself keeping a playful handle on the show with trademark mid-show banter that encourages the audience rather than belittles them. X isn't the best Kylie album, especially when compared to those indelible dance hits from years ago, but it's still trussed up in the best possible package a pop star can provide for their fans and Kylie's European tour ended on a fabulous note last night. If only this whole Gwen Stefani thing would just stop... :^/

Songs mentioned in Dave Barry's Book of Bad Songs [preview here] (this list will make the best sense to you if you read along in the book... and some of these are mentioned as being good songs, so read the book before getting upset):

Bad Song Survey Results
Winners:
1. MacArthur Park
2. Yummy Yummy Yummy (I Got Love In My Tummy)
3. (You're) Having My Baby
4. Timothy

then (in a clump):
Afternoon Delight
You Light Up My Life
Y.M.C.A.
Achy Breaky Heart
Muskrat Love
Honey

other songs mentioned:
MacArthur Park
Love to Love You Baby
Chewy Chewy
Sugar, Sugar
Simon Says
Yummy, Yummy, Yummy
Golden Throats: The Great Celebrity Sing Off (album)
Diana
Puppy Love
You Are My Destiny
My Way
Escape
Him
Tutti frutti
Do That to Me One More Time
Love Will Keep Us Together

The Bobby List:
Bobby Vinton - Mr. Lonely, Roses Are Red
Bobby Vee - Take Good Care Of My Baby, Rubber Ball
Bobby Rydell - Wild One, Volare
Bobby Sherman
Bobby McFerrin - Don't Worry, Be Happy
Bobbie Gentry - Ode to Billie Joe
Bobby's Girl
Bobby Sox to Stockings
Me and Bobby McGee and Me and Bobby McGee (I Honestly Love You, Have You Never Been Mellow, Let's Get Physical)
When the Red, Red, Robin Comes Bob, Bob, Bobbin' Along
Bobby Goldsboro - Honey, See the Funny Little Clown, Watching Scotty Grow

other songs mentioned after The Bobby List:
In the Ghetto
Stop and Smell the Roses
One Hell of a Woman
Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me
Woman, Woman
Young Girl
This Girl Is a Woman Now
In the Year 2525
I've Never Been to Me
Seasons In The Sun
Jean
A Horse With No Name
Wildfire

honorable mentions:
The Candy Man
I Am Woman
My Ding-a-ling
My Sharona
Morning Train (Nine to Five)
The Night Chicago Died (Billy, Don't Be A Hero/Billy, Don't Be a Hero)
Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is (Saturday in the Park, 25 or 6 to 4)
Disco Duck
Playground in My Mind
Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree
Signs
American Woman
I Love You Period
The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
Wind Beneath My Wings
Norman

In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida
Stairway to Heaven
Layla/Layla ((Unplugged))
Free Bird
American Pie
Taxi
A Whiter Shade of Pale
Another Brick in the Wall
Hey Jude

Ten Request Songs That Top 40 Bands Hate Most
1. Stairway to Heaven
2. Proud Mary
3. Louie Louie
4. Stairway to Heaven
5. Proud Mary
6. Free Bird
7. Stairway to Heaven
8. Feelings
9. Stairway to Heaven
10. Stairway to Heaven

Requests Most Hated By Bands Performing At Wedding Receptions
1. New York, New York
2. Cab Driver not sure if this is the one mentioned or not
3. New York, New York
4. Mack the Knife
5. Joy to the World
6. The Girl From Ipanema
7. In the Mood
8. New York, New York
9. Bad Bad Leroy Brown
10. New York, New York

Weenie Music
Feelings
Sometimes When We Touch
Elusive Butterfly

Barry Manilow:
- Mandy
- Looks Like We Made It
- Copacabana (At the Copa)
- I Write the Songs

John Denver:
- Annie's Song
- Sunshine on My Shoulders

David Cassidy
- I Write the Songs

Donny Osmond
-