Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah

It's been a "same old, same old" day at work...

...but a lot going on, news-wise!

It's twenty years since the abolition of the despised "Section 28" anti-gay legislation in the UK - yet here we are in 2023, and in a move more extreme that anything that nasty piece of legislation ever achieved, the paranoid fascists in Putin's benighted Russian despotate have decided that a non-existent "international LGBT public movement" is "an extremist organisation" to be banned. Dangerous lunacy, or a diversion from the failings of the war in Ukraine and the Russian economy? Or both?

There's been a slew of deaths - most notably, the controversial Nobel Peace Prize-winning centenarian statesman Henry Kissinger, whose legacy was either that it was his hard work that led to the end of the bitter Arab-Israeli wars in the 1970s and also paved the way for détente with the Eastern Bloc countries so easing the path out of the Cold War, or else it was his intervention that prolongued the horrors of the Vietnam War by authorising the bombing of then-communist-occupied Laos and Cambodia - a move that facilitated the rise of the genocidal Pol Pot regime - and the part he played in providing tacit support to the brutal dictatorships in Chile and Argentina enabled those dictators to "disappear" thousands of their own people and decimate the economies of their countries. You choose.

The deaths were also announced of former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer under both Blair and Brown Alistair Darling, the stalwart of the classic Scouse TV soap Brookside for 17 years "Jimmy Corkhill" aka Dean Sullivan, and...

...the man with the worst dentistry in pop history, founder-member and singer-songwriter of The Pogues Shane McGowan! Best-known, of course, for that perennial Xmas favourite Fairytale of New York (with the lovely Kirsty McColl), I've chosen this one instead by way of a tribute:

The Pogues - Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah

There's going to be a helluva party in Fabulon tonight when Shane reunites with Kirsty.

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And, finally...

It's St Andrew's Day today! Have some Scottish shortbread.

Enjoy!

Oh, the noise and the rout, swillin' poitin and stout

Nat King Cole, Rob Lowe, Clare Grogan, Rudolf Nureyev, Stephen Gately, Patrick Duffy, Alexander McQueen, Robin Knox-Johnston, Kurt Russell, John Boyega, Rory McGrath, Jeff Banks, Hozier and - erm - Stormy Daniels were all born on this day - but it was also, according to legend [largely promoted by Guinness, as far as I can gather], the date Saint Patrick died.

Of course, we have come a long way from the legendary exploits of a 5th century expatriate Welshman in the Emerald Isle; Paddy's Day nowadays is merely an(other) excuse for a booze-up [albeit, in these COVID times, likely to be somewhat muted again this year].

To celebrate properly however, it's not just about "the wearing of the Green", getting shitfaced on "that black stuff" and trying to do Riverdance impressions (as above) - it's an excuse for a raucous sing-song...

...and for that, as far as such things go, you can't get much better than this "Oirish supergroup"!

The Pogues & The Dubliners - The Irish Rover

On the fourth of July eighteen hundred and six
We set sail from the sweet cove of Cork
We were sailing away with a cargo of bricks
For the grand city hall in New York
'Twas a wonderful craft, she was rigged fore-and-aft
And oh, how the wild winds drove her
She'd got several blasts, she'd twenty-seven masts
And we called her the Irish Rover

We had one million bags of the best Sligo rags
We had two million barrels of stones
We had three million sides of old blind horses hides
We had four million barrels of bones
We had five million hogs, we had six million dogs
Seven million barrels of porter
We had eight million bails of old nanny goats' tails
In the hold of the Irish Rover

There was awl Mickey Coote who played hard on his flute
When the ladies lined up for his set
He was tootin' with skill for each sparkling quadrille
Though the dancers were fluther'd and bet
With his sparse witty talk he was cock of the walk
As he rolled the dames under and over
They all knew at a glance when he took up his stance
And he sailed in the Irish Rover

There was Barney McGee from the banks of the Lee
There was Hogan from County Tyrone
There was Johnny McGurk who was scared stiff of work
And a man from Westmeath called Malone
There was Slugger O'Toole who was drunk as a rule
And fighting Bill Tracey from Dover
And your man Mick McCann from the banks of the Bann
Was the skipper of the Irish Rover

For a sailor it's always a bother in life
It's so lonesome by night and by day
'Til he launch for the shore and this charming young whore
Who will melt all his troubles away
All the noise and the rout
Swilling poitín and stout
For him soon the torment's over
Of the love of a maid he's never afraid
And old sot from the Irish Rover

We had sailed seven years when the measles broke out
And the ship lost it's way in the fog
And that whale of the crew was reduced down to two
Just myself and the captain's old dog
Then the ship struck a rock, oh Lord what a shock
The bulkhead was turned right over
Turned nine times around, and the poor dog was drowned
I'm the last of the Irish Rover

Sláinte, mo chairde!

Not as much about torture, sodomy and death

Sod all this festering season power-ballad-cum-glam-cum-bells-cum-choral Xmas nonsense - here's what promises to be a proper record!

"It is a very different record than volume one," Pirates of the Caribbean producer Hal Willner told Rolling Stone. "It seems happier – not as much about torture, sodomy and death."

In the second instalment (the first was in 2006) of a project instigated by none other than the alt-sex-god Johnny Depp (who else), a new compilation of pirate ballads will feature contributions from some of the most anarchic motley crew of artists (possibly) ever assembled in one place!

Featuring such stars and mega-stars as Iggy Pop, Patti Smith, Marc Almond, Tom Waits, Keith Richards, Angelica Huston, Michael Stipe, Courtney Love, Nick Cave, Marianne Faithfull, Todd Rundgren, Beth Orton, Macy Gray, Susanna Hoffs, Antony Hegarty, Shane MacGowan, Dr John, Sean Lennon and Mr Depp himself, the album Son of Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys sounds like it may be an essential addition to the anthology of bizarre miscellanea that forms our music collection...

Here's Mr McGowan and Mr Depp with one of the tracks from the compilation - Leaving of Liverpool:

Shane MacGowan and Johnny Depp - Leaving of Liverpool

Son of Rogue's Gallery will be released via Anti-Records on 19th February 2013 as a double CD.

Just one of those fabulous flights

Over at the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp, we are celebrating the genius that was Cole Porter - on the occasion of his 120th anniversary today.

To mark this auspicious day, we should also celebrate here (if perhaps in a more earthy way), with this fabulous cover of Mr Porter's Miss Otis Regrets and Just One Of Those Things...

Kirsty MacColl & The Pogues - Miss Otis Regrets / Just One Of Those Things

I have, of course, blogged previously about that fabulous film of Cole Porter's life De-Lovely...

Merry Christmas your arse, I pray God it’s our last...

All this bullshit in the news about the lyrics of the finest Christmas song ever made is beginning to get on my tits. It just makes me want to sing along even more...

Pogues and Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York

You're a bum
You're a punk
You're an old slut on junk
Lying there almost dead on a drip in that bed
You scumbag, you maggot
You cheap lousy faggot
Happy Christmas your arse
I pray God it's our last

The boys of the NYPD choir
Still singing "Galway Bay"
And the bells were ringing out
For Christmas Day

Indeed.

More about Fairytale of New York on the BBC

Shakin’ bloody Stevens!

The UK Charts have (officially) become a laughing stock this week. As we oldies remember, you used to have to sell a couple of million seven-inchers in Woolies every week to stay at the top, and many thousands to even enter the top 40... Nowadays it takes fifty chavs and a dog to buy it.

This week, due to the effects of the relaxation of the law which means that every download - no matter how weird - counts towards the so-called Top 40, we have a host of rubbish from yesteryear hitting the chart just because people are downloading them (at 50p a pop) for their parties! Just take a look at it and weep...

CHRISTMAS "CLASSICS" IN TOP 40
8 Mariah Carey - All I Want For Christmas Is You
12 Pogues & Kirsty MacColl - Fairytale of New York
23 Wham! - Last Christmas
25 Andy Williams - It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
27 Wizzard - I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day
33 Shakin' Stevens - Merry Christmas Everyone
37 Slade - Merry Xmas Everybody
38 Band Aid - Do They Know It's Christmas?

Does anyone really think that Leona Lewis deserves to be in the chart, let alone Mariah (warbling t**t) Carey, Andy Williams, and bloody Shakin' bloody Stevens??

No wonder EMI and HMV are going down the pan...