Isaac Hayes: Theme from Shaft

Small Story - 23 February 2025

Mrs Tea at Johnny's and I had a few days in Dorset last week. We spent some time looking around the market town of Sherborne and also visited Shaftesbury among other things.

Now Shaftesbury is quite touristy but I thought of a campaign that could attract even more people. Shaftesbury needs a theme song. I think it would go like this...

Theme from Shaftesbury

Where's a good place to go if you've got a couple of hours or so

(Shaftesbury)

You're not wrong

Where do they make the most delicious apple cake?

(Shaftesbury)

It's even better warmed up

Where did King Canute die, in the year 1035?

(Shaftesbury)

I did not know that

Look, it's a work in progress. There needs to be a bit about the hill that's in the Hovis advert too.

I should probably apologise to Isaac Hayes too, but he died in 2008. So if his family or estate are reading - it's an homage to the fabulous Theme from Shaft from the 1971 film Shaft.

The Monochrome Set: Jacob's Ladder

Small Story - 16 February 2025

Back in 2016 I wrote about watching the Royal Rumble on tv with a couple of friends. That annual get-together halted after the 2019 edition when it moved to a channel none of us were paying for, but this year we were back together.

There were some good matches on the bill. The Women's Royal Rumble, a tag-team title match and the Men's Rumble. I won't say anything in case you're planning to watch it. 

But for me the highlight was the ladder match between Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens. I don't think I'll be giving anything away if I say that they knocked seven bells out of each other.

So my 'ladder' song is Jacob's Ladder by London post-punk outfit The Monochrome Set. One of those groups I've known of but never really investigated.

Jacob's Ladder is their biggest 'hit'. It reached number 81 in 1984.

808 State: In Yer Face

A Small Story - 9 February 2025

I genuinely hadn't intended to write anything this week, Nothing much had happened of any note. The ideal week to give it a miss under my new 'Small Story' banner.

But then I woke up yesterday morning, looked at the clock and saw it was 8:08. I was mildly amused but thought little of it. Then, later in the day, when I went to the kitchen to start dinner the cooker clock said 18:08.

8:08 was in my face again - was the universe trying to tell me something?* If so, I'd better pacify it by choosing 1991 top ten hit In Yer Face by Manchester electronic combo 808 State.

I've still got the album this features on, ex:el, which has another couple of cracking tracks on it. I saw them live in the same year in Heaton Park, at the Cities in the Park festival. Don't remember a thing about it which seems kind of appropriate.

* No, it's a coincidence. 

The Dickies: Banana Splits (Tra La La Song)

A Small Story* - 2 February 2025

* If you're bothered enough to wonder why Small Story and not Track of the Week I wrote about that.

What better way to start a new theme than by looking back? Lots of ways probably but this is one I've chosen. 

Nostalgia eh? This week I was back at a pub that is very close to where I grew up. It would be fair to say I was familiar with it in my late teens and early twenties. I'd popped in to see someone and find out a bit more about a darts league they run there.

I walked in to find The Dickies' 1979 top ten hit Banana Splits (Tra La La Song) blaring out of the tv screens. Some sort of MTV 70s 'Sound of the Suburbs' 1976-1980 music programme was playing.

Banana Splits was soon followed by Cool for Cats by Squeeze, Going Underground by The Jam, Messages by OMD and Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart. I was in my element.

But it was that Dickies' song that really hit the spot for me. I'd have seen that same video on Top of the Pops in the spring of 1979 and been blown away by their speed, energy and general craziness. They became my first real favourite band and I set about buying all their records from that late seventies period. I still have them.

So that was the looking back. Looking forward I don't think I'll be joining the league. Too long a format for me, there's also another possibility closer to where I live now. That pub won't play the Dickies though.

Which is a shame as I still find them a whole 'mess of fun'.

Me and Small Stories

After a week of deliberation following the tenth anniversary of Track of the Week I've decided that it's the right time to retire that feature. There will be a replacement though, Small Stories.

Why Small Stories? At the back end of last year I went to a talk by the broadcaster/biographer/cellist Dr. Kate Kennedy. It was about life-writing - biographies/autobiographies and the various challenges that brings. Style came up too and the fact that the "small stories" covered by blogging and micro-blogging was another aspect of autobiographical writing.

I realised that that's exactly what I'd been doing for almost ten years with Track of the Week. Writing autobiographical small stories.

So farewell Track of the Week, hello Small Stories. 

I'm not going to lie to you, it's practically the same - this just gives me the option to skip the occasional week or even write more than once a week. Or even write something not associated with a song. Until I get fed up or think of another different format I suppose.

Enjoy! Or not, I'm not here to tell you what to do. I appreciate you reading at all (if you do.) And I don't mind if you don't, it's your life. 

Sleeper: What Do I Do Now?

Track of the Week - 26 January 2025

This weekend marks the 10th anniversary of me starting this whole Track of the Week business. The first post was Chemtrails by Beck (although the seed was perhaps sown the year before when I heard With You I'm Born Again by Billy Preston and Syreeta in a supermarket.)

Anyhow - I think that's quite an achievement. One post a week for ten years. A decade of a person's life . The highs and lows, (and flat bits I suppose) mapped out and attached to different songs* week by week. A triumph of discipline if not quality.

So is now the time to wrap this all up? As the Strokes asked Is This it? (That was another possible for this week.)

I don't know to be honest. Maybe I'd miss it. Or perhaps something else should replace it. Choices appear to be:

• Carry on regardless
• Have a break then pick it up again
• Stop altogether
• Do something different
• Write something when I've got something to write about

Or something else I haven't thought of yet.

While I think about it here's What Do I Do Now? Sleeper's 1995 single that reached number 14 and is from the terrific album The It Girl which was released the following year.

* OK, I've used different (and differently-titled) versions of Wrong Place, Right Time by The Fall and Jumper Clown by both Marc Riley and the Creepers and The Wedding Present. If I do carry on then this gets more likely I suppose.

The Futureheads: News and Tributes

Track of the Week - 19 January 2025

So, the news is I went to see a tribute band this week. Some old friends and I headed to Reading to meet another old friend to see The Smyths, ably supported by Billy Blagg. 

You probably don't need a degree in music history to work out who these were tributes to. (When I was younger this type of act were called 'impersonators'. 'Tribute' gives the endeavour a much better image I fancy.)

It's very rare I see a tribute act. I've seen a couple of Beatles ones with Mrs Tea at Johnny's over the years but that's all I can remember.

It was a great evening. It's not hard to pick holes in some of the musicianship or delivery but it was fantastic to hear some of those old songs played live after all these years.

I could go with a song by one of the original acts featured but that doesn't quite feel right. So instead let's have something by north-east post-punkers The Futureheads.

Second album News and Tributes from 2006 spawned minor hit Skip to the End and another very good single in Worry About it Later. Here's the title track.