Of Romans, boffins, whales, hogs and the Sunshine Band

It's another snippets post, dear reader:

• Historical discoveries news: The remains of London’s earliest Roman basilica - dating back almost 2000 years - have been discovered under an office block in Holborn.
• Another festival season we won't be going to news: London rapper Little Simz has been announced as the curator of the 30th edition of the Meltdown Festival at the South Bank Centre. Sigh. It'll be dreadful. Again.
• Precocious teen you love to hate news: Aged just sixteen, a teenager from Twickenham has landed a $1million deal in Silicon Valley for his self-coded AI program. At his age, my preoccupations were mainly Blondie, Tubeway Army, Not the Nine O'Clock News and masturbation (not necessarily in that order)...

• Boffin birthday news: Alongside fellow celebrants Peter Gabriel (75), Kim Novak, Stockard Channing, Robbie Williams, Peter Hook of New Order, Joyce DiDonato, Kevin Bloody Wilson and Sonia, and on the same date as the late George Segal, Peter Tork, Jerry Springer, Oliver Reed, Tennessee Ernie Ford and Emanuel Ungaro, it happens to be the 80th birthday today of the marvellously erudite Sir Simon Schama, stalwart of BBC history documentaries and house fave here at Dolores Delargo Towers; indeed, we have not one but two of his series lined up on iPlayer to watch.
• He made his home in that fish's abdomen news: A kayaker in Chile was swallowed - and then spat out - by a humpback whale!
• Another day, another load of wild beasts on the loose: 20 feral pigs, believed to have been deliberately set loose in Scotland's Cairngorms National Park, have been caught and killed. Hog roast, anyone?
• And, finally... How old?! news: Unbelievably, it is fifty years since KC and the Sunshine Band first dominated our discos and the charts - and by way of a celebration, the faboo DJ Cummerbund has come up with this [almost 15-minute long] slice of brilliance!

DJ Cummerbund - Everybody and The Sunshine Band [mash-up]

Wow!

And the weather? Dankness continues.

From Chesney's bum to a Cummerbund

The weather's turned very wintry, indeed. We had slushy snow yesterday morning, there was a frost overnight (-1C/29F), and we're not expecting any temperatures in double-figures (C) for a few days. Yuk.

To cheer ourselves up a bit, how about a little selection of some of the "newer" choons that have caught my ear of late?

How about we start with quite a surprise - the return of 1990s "one-hit wonder" Chesney Hawkes... with a decent song and a rather faboo "Saltburn-spoofing" video (with several flashes of his arse) to boot!

Chesney Hawkes - Get A Hold Of Yourself

House favourites here at Dolores Delargo Towers Duran Duran are still going strong - even with a cover of an old ELO song, they still hit the spot!

Duran Duran - Evil Woman

[And at 6pm GMT, you can click here for the official premiere of the band on stage at Madison Square Gardens in New York performing this very song]

Now for something completely different - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart as you have probably never heard him before...

Sarahbanda - Rondo alla Rumba [Mozart y Mambo]

Speaking of updated versions of old classics, this:

Pet Shop Boys - All The Young Dudes

Something that pricked my ears up, when I heard it on the radio the other day, turned out not to be new at all (in fact one commenter remarked it was "2019's best 80s song"), but it's new to me, so that's all that matters!

Georgia - About Work The Dancefloor

Another "hangover" from Hallowe'en - how about Alice Cooper vs Bruno Mars... vs Gene Wilder and his monster?! Genius:

DJ Cummerbund - Uptown Frank

[RIP, Teri Garr]

Leaving the best to last (as is my wont), Dame Sophie does it again [with a superb video, a "sequel" to her huge 2001 (and again in 2024 thanks to the aforementioned Saltburn) hit Murder On The Dancefloor, complete with the same judging panel, and filmed in the camp-as-tits Rivoli Ballroom]!

Sophie Ellis-Bextor - Freedom Of The Night

As ever, dear reader - let me know your thoughts...

Duck and cover

Time, methinks, for another selection of the "newer" choons that have caught my ear of late...

As is my wont, this collection is again peppered with nostalgia and a few "comebacks" - such as that of the crazy duo who were responsible for that eternal earworm Barbra Streisand.

DUCK!

Duck Sauce - Nonchalant

Then there's the resurgence of a lady who's very close to our hearts, being one of the dance music gay icons of the 1990s [see here and here]...

Funk Cartel and Ultra Naté - Supernatural

We turn next to a singer who (to me, at least) actually bears the epithet of "new", the artiste formerly known as Louisa Rose Allen:

Foxes - Sister Ray

...and here's a chap who seems to have been "under the radar" for years as a DJ promoter, but whose penchant for 80s music led him this year to do a (rather good) update of a dearly-loved classic:

Martial Simon - You Keep Me Hangin' On

Speaking of remixes, I have featured this genius-of-the-mash-up previously, of course [see here, and more recently, here] - but now he's only gone and landed himself an MTV Award; for this slice of brilliance!

DJ Cummerbund - Shaxicula (Toxic x Love Shack x Dragula) [Britney Spears vs The B-52's vs Rob Zombie]

Finally... Never mind all that hoo-ha about "the great ABBA comeback". I'm foaming at the gash over the fact that none other than the Vengaboys have returned! [With a cover of a choon by "cool kid" Charli XCX, no less.]

Vengaboys - 1999 (I Wanna Go Back)

Absolutely fantabulosa!

As always dear reader, let me know what you think...

The Shirley Bassey leather years

Many happy returns to the self-titled "stately homo of heavy metal" Rob Halford of Judas Priest, 70 years old today.

Now, as any fule kno, I am not the world's greatest heavy rock fan [despite having spent an inordinate amount of time in my teenage years accompanying two childhood friends Carol and Lois, who were, to venues such as "The Cross Keys Miners' Institute Heavy Metal Rock Night"] - but I do love a bit of salacious gossip; and if that happens to involve rock's greatest gayers, well so be it...

On whips:

"Once we were on [Top of the Pops] with the Osmonds. I had my whip with me and I'd heard Marie wasn't happy about that. So, I went to see her in her dressing room with her curlers in." Did he use the whip on the show? "Of course I did. I'm not going to have any Mormon telling me what I can and can't do with my whip."

Apparently, when Freddie Mercury started wearing leathers, Rob Halford said he'd like to see him get on a bike and do a lap at Donnington; Freddie retorted that he'd like to see Rob Halford don a tutu and dance at Covent Garden.

They weren't enemies, though:

"Freddie [Mercury] is my ultimate hero. The closest I ever got to Freddie was in a gay bar in Athens on the way to Mykonos. We kind of glared at each other across the bar, in a kind of smiling, winking way. When we got to Mykonos I was determined to track him down, but I couldn't because he'd rented this huge yacht. It was festooned in pink balloons and it just kept sailing around the island. He's someone I wish I'd really met."

On coming out:

"The biggest myth about this new stage gear is that I had somehow masterminded the image as a cover and a vent for my homosexuality – that I was getting a thrill from dressing on stage as I’d like to dress in the street, or the bedroom. This is utter bollocks. I had no interest in S&M, domination or the whole queer subcult of leather and chains. It just didn’t do it for me. My sexual preference was for men, sure, but I was – and still am – pretty vanilla. I’ve never used a whip in the boudoir in my life."

"I must admit, I still occasionally look back at Priest photos of that late seventies era, and suspect that they were our Shirley Bassey leather years. But that is probably just me being me."

Here's Rob and the boys in those "Shirley Bassey leather years", with a song I remember my aforementioned friends head-banging to:

Judas Priest - Living After Midnight

...but all this serves as a good enough excuse as any for another of those faboo pop-vs-metal mashups of which I am extremely fond [see here, here and here], featuring Mr Halford and Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and - erm - Wham!

DJ Cummerbund - You've Got Everything Icarus Wants

Love it. And, I must admit, I like Rob Halford too.

Rob Halford inteview in The Guardian

So happy together

Alongside the likes of Marc Bolan and T.Rex [long overdue, I'd say!], Nine Inch Nails and The Doobie Brothers, "Wibbler Whitney" and some-dead-rapper-to-make-up-the-quota, our very own Depeche Mode has gained a place in the bizarre "Rock & Roll Hall of Fame" - a museum-of-sorts in Cleveland, Ohio [that has a publicity machine that tries to make its entry process seem as "important" as, say, the Grammys or the Brits]. It's hardly David Bowie is... at the Victoria & Albert Museum, but I digress.

As I'm always in the mood for a good mash-up, here's another - one, of course, that highlights the talents of the "boys from Basildon", by way of a celebration. I don't know who's more "out of it" - them, The Turtles, or Britney!

Depeche Mode vs The Turtles - Happy with Jesus [DJ Cummerbund mash-up]

...and it features the lovely Gunhild Carling from Postmodern Jukebox [see here, here and here], to boot... How faboo!

[NB nominees who did NOT get inducted into this "prestigious establishment" in 2020 included Pat Benatar, Thin Lizzy, Motorhead, Judas Priest and Kraftwerk...]