Headbang - 8 August, 2025 - Final votes

Votes now received from all 11 who attended last Friday. There were a total of 21 nominations for everyone’s top 3 tracks – over 40% of the total tracks played received at least one vote. Here’s the details:

 Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets received votes from 4 Headbangers – the most of all. Talking Heads and Carly Simon were next best with 3 each and there were 5 more tracks who each received 2 nominations, leaving 13 tracks with just one nomination each.

These tracks originated in 6 different decades with the 1970’s being more than half of the total. All 9 of the themes had at least one track in this list.

The voting for the themes wasn’t so straight-forward. For years, the ranking has covered all the themes in descending order but this time, for some reason, 3 of our group chose to cut the scoring back to just their top 3. Accordingly, the following results may be a little skewed:

What is clear, however, is that the top 3 in the list above are well ahead of all the others.

Headbang stats

The Headbang has been going, in one form or another, for over 30 years but I only started keeping (minimal) records in November 2003, when the original “Gang of 5” – me, Colin, Dave, Malcolm and Gary – attended Dave’s.

5 years later, in December, 2008, the structure of themes started. By then, Andy and Jeb had joined the gang. Gerry joined in March, 2011, Steve in November that same year. Phil made his debut in April, 2015 but didn’t appear again until November, 2019. Aidan was August, 2016, Rob D August 2020. Rob G is our newest recruit – February, 2021.

We’ve had occasional “guest” appearances by Francis, Dylan and James but Ian McRae (who joined in March, 2011) sadly made his last appearance in March, 2016.

In a different way, one of the founder members – Gary – has, effectively, left the group. His last appearance was in July, 2019.

In total, there have been exactly 600 appearances from 17 individuals since November, 2003. In that time, there have been 71 Headbangs, all of which I’ve attended. Colin has only missed 2 whilst Dave missed 6. Dave has hosted the vast majority of the meetings but Jeb, Steve, Aidan and Gary have each taken turns.

The drams should have been flowing on Friday – it was Jeb’s and Gerry’s 50^th appearances. Here’s the full list of attendees to date:

Since themes started in December, 2008 there have been 60 Headbangs at which there have been 366 themes played. Many of these are regulars, repeating at every Headbang (Obits., 'Genarians, Jukebox etc.). At the other end of the scale there are as many as 125 themes that have only appeared once.

Headbang - 8 August, 2025

Almost a full house last night - just Malcolm missing - he had sent his apologies - he was on a plane travelling back from Queensland to NZ. There were 5 of us attending remotely - me, Aidan, Colin, Phil and Rob G - and this rum crew at Dave's:

The usual difficulties at the start with logging in to Teams - not helped by me giving the wrong link address to everyone. Blame the drugs.

Usual start - SEPTUAGENARIANS - 5 tracks and one vote per person:

A clear win for the Clash's mash-up video from a couple of live gigs.

There were 5 others who had recently celebrated their 70th birthdays:

The 2nd theme - and the videos - was provided by Andy:

There was a comment afterwards that the winning act wasn't really Glam Rock, although it's generally accepted that the charts in the years 1971 to 1975 were dominated by this genre and all these performances were from that periond.

In the 4 months since the last Headbang, there had been so many musicians reaching 8 decades that the OCTOGENARIANS theme had to split in two. The first part's details were:

Labi Siffre was a clear, but unexpected winner here.

After that we had Part 1 of the BEST OF THE BEST. Every 10 Headbangs I resurrect the winning track from the popular vote at each session. Previous winners had included a number of Medleys and, rather than play them again as was, I picked out the dominant track and played it in its entirety. The results were:

Honours even between the first 2 tracks. The only full medley that was played in its original form (Burt Bacharach) failed to register any votes.

Now the 2nd part of the OCTOGENARIANS:

Carly Simon's live performance of her classic hit came from the Queen Mary 2 in 2005.

- and that wasn't all the Octogenarians. Here's a few more that didn't feature in the music played:

and there were a few NONOGENARIANS:

Part 2 of the BEST OF THE BEST's votes were:

Too many OBITUARIES  as well, so again I had to split it in two. First of all we played one track consisting of short (one minute approx.) excerpts from slightly lesser lights who had recently passed:

Then we played full tracks from the following 4:

The 8th and penultimate theme was the Jukebox. Six nominations were received and the results were:

Finally, the 2nd part of the OBITUARIES:

An appropriate closing track but the clear winner was always going to be the legendary Brian Wilson.

There were, of course, many others who had recently passed:

I did manage to grab a screen shot of our gathering:

Headbang - 4 Apr 25 - Final Votes

9 votes now in for the Themes and the Top 3 tracks and here's how it turned out:

The short Royal Albert Hall theme came out on top - so might try this again some time. The second part of the Octogenarians had a number of musical heavyweights so no surprise when this came in a fairly close 2nd.

Out of the 46 tracks played, 17 of them were medleys and they featured strongly with 7 medleys nominated when it came to the votes for the Top 3 tracks. A total of 17 tracks received at least one nomination. Here's how it worked out, using the usual 3-2-1 voting system with the number of nominations the deciding factor in the event of ties:

The Annie Lennox medley came out top with 4 nominations. The usual voting anomalies were present, the most obvious of which was that Adele, who won the RAH vote on the night, didn't even get a mention, but Bryan Adams did. Likewise, Eric Stewart, who tied the Octos (2) theme with Sir Rod on the night, didn't get a nomination. The wonders of reflection and the cold light of day.

The music nominated came from 6 different decades, with the 1960's the most nominated. Every theme, bar Today's Birthdays, received at least one nomination.

Headbang - 4 April 25

We got through Friday's Headbang despite a few technical issues (which Dave and I are going to work on for the next time). On the eve of his birthday but the day of his latest Covid jab, Phil wasn't able to join us but otherwise it was a full house - Malcolm from NZ, Robs D & G and Colin from various UK locations, with me, Dave, Aidan, Gerry, Andy, Jeb and Steve (hotfoot from Edinburgh) all in attendance at Chapel House.

It was our first Headbang for 5 months but our first at Dave's for 9 months. Accordingly, we were all prepared for a blitz of Obits, Septs and Octs. For those of us attending in person it was also our first trial of curries from Saffron Garden, instead of the Derbar - and I think the response was reasonably positive.

It was also a trial of a new voting system - suggested by Dave - using WhatsApp polls - and it seemed to go reasonably well. Here's a summary of the tracks played and the votes etc:

SEPTUAGENARIANS

Annie Lennox the clear winner here. Other notables with recent big birthdays were:

SLIDE GUITAR

The then 13 year old Derek Trucks was a narrow winner here.

OCTOGENARIANS (1)

There were so many who had reached 80 recently - and a number of them were big names - so I decided to split this theme into 2 sections. First of all, some of the fairly well-known but lesser lights - a medley of 6 short excerpts from:

 Then, part 1 of the slightly better known:

Maggie Bell a clear winner here.

ROYAL ALBERT HALL

To break up the 2 parts of Octogenarians I had made up a short theme of just 4 tracks, all taken from gigs at London's most iconic venue:

Modern technology in terms of film and sound helped create an "almost there" experience - particularly with the first and last tracks. Creedence Clearwater Revival's performance from half a century earlier didn't have the same tools available and this was reflected in the voting. That said, Adele's emotional performance was terrific and merited the win here.

OCTOGENARIANS (2)

Part 2 - and some big hitters here, each deserving of a career medley:

6  tracks so 2 votes per person for this theme and it was a tie between my (sur)namesakes.

A further 8 musical connections who reached the age of 80 recently but didn't quite qualify to get either an excerpt or a track played were:

and that's not all - 4 NONOGENARIANS were noted:

GENERATION GAME

Another short theme - just 3 tracks of well-known musicians segued to their offspring singing the same song:

The Marleys were the clear winners here.

OBITUARIES

As many as 36 notables with musical connections had passed recently so I had to break this down to 3 sections. First of all, 13 notables, with short excerpts from each, were combined into one 16 minute medley:

Then 7 others each got a track played:

"Most missed" was deemed to be Roberta Flack but Marianne Faithfull ran her close.

The final part of the Obits theme was merely to note the other 16:

(Some of us are getting dangerously close to their average age of passing)

JUKEBOX (20)

This theme was originally intended to feature new music, or at least acts who hadn't previously featured at a Headbang, but with many of our group finding difficulty in meeting the initial criteria, it has since evolved into anything goes (except a particular performance that we've seen before).

Only 7 nominations were received and votes cast were:

My own nomination of Annie Clark's fantastic performance on Later was a clear winner but every track got at least one vote.

We just managed to squeeze the first 8 themes in before our taxi arrived at 11 pm - exactly as I had planned. We didn't need the 2 short themes I had prepared as backup, just in case, but I'm proposing now that you listen to these at home and vote accordingly when you can - here's the details:

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS

PIONEERS OF BRITISH R & B

Malcolm had to disappear - apparently for his 2nd breakfast - before the last couple of themes were played, so we hurriedly arranged to take the team photo:

 Dave was clearly blocking out some of the virtual Headbangers so we thought we'd try again:

Just enough movement to get the 2 Robs, Malcolm and Colin in.

Look out for follow-up emails and WhatsApp messages.

Votes - Headbang 8 Nov 24

 All 9 votes in and the results are:

Quite a disparity in voting here. The opening 2-track theme getting just one third of the votes that the the 3 most popular themes got. Septuagenarians was in 3rd place with a creditable 53 points. Autumn was 2nd with 55 and was just pipped by Hammond Organ with 56.

Our broad church once again displayed disparity in voting - Septuagenarians received as many as 4 first places (8 points) but one last place (1 point). Passed Masters had 2 Headbangers voting it as best theme and 2 others as worst. Go figure.

There were 14 nominations for the Top 3 tracks:

The winning track was a bit of a break from convention as it was a made for TV video rather than the preferred live performance. It was difficult to find a suitable video where Chris Difford was prominent rather than Glenn Tilbrook.

Interesting to see that 3 of the more unusual, slightly offbeat tracks were nominated - Ketty Lester, Willie Dixon and Neil Young.

The only theme that didn't have a track nominated in anyone's Top 3 was the Jukebox. All other themes had at least one track nominated with Octogenarians + having the most - 4 in all, which is slightly surprising given that it didn't rate well in the votes for the best themes. Again, go figure.

Virtual Headbang - 8 Nov 24

Insufficient numbers available to go and disturb Dave's house meant a return to lockdown days with an all-virtual Headbang last night. Andy, Steve and Malcolm sent their apologies but 9 others logged in to Teams OK - albeit CK was either camera-shy or technically challenged:

A gentle 2-track starter theme - TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS:

Bonnie Raitt was the popular choice here.

SEPTUAGENARIANS were next. First we played brief excerpts from 5 "mentionables" but not "notables":

Then fuller tracks from the "notables" with voting in play:

The Squeeze video was the winner here.

Others who recently achieved the biblical three score years and ten - un-notable and unmentionable:

 The next theme was AUTUMN:

Led Zep's brief re-formation at the O2 in 2007 was the clear winner here.

Now for the OCTOGENARIANS +. The plus sign indicates the presence of Nonogenarians and even a Centenarian, but first, brief excerpts from the mentionable but un-notable Octogenarians:

Definitely notable were:

A narrow victory for Jimmy Cliff's performance at Glastonbury in 2003 but good to see a few votes for Ketty Lester's wonderful Love Letters.

The Centenarian was Barbara Parritt from The Toys - remember Lover's Concerto?

A brief 4 track featuring the HAMMOND ORGAN:

It was commented how vital the role of the Hammond Organ was in Bob Marley's classic.

OBITUARIES next - and there were a few. First off, brief excerpts again for:

Then the more prominent ones who recently passed:

The vote here is for the "Most Missed" so it was pretty inevitable that John Mayall would win.

Others who had left us recently were noted:

There were 8 nominations for the JUKEBOX this time and some of the tracks were pretty long so I decided to split it into 2 sections:

Rob D's nomination from Edinburgh Blues Club clearly won the first section but it was a tie between David Byrne and local loon Calum  Bowie in the second section, so all 3 played off in the final vote which was again tied - this time between Rob D's and my selection.

That led to the final theme - the second time for PASSED MASTERS. To qualify for this, the acts have to have been born over 100 years ago and now long gone. Brief excerpts again:

The legend that is Willie Dixon had a landslide victory here.