Headbang results - 28th August, 2015

After some logistical difficulties, we all made it safely to Dave's last night for the second of this year's Headbangs. It was almost a full house - the only regular missing was Malcolm.

The track listings and votes cast last night were as follows:

OBITUARIES

Played mostly in chronological order of the videos shown:

Ben E. King	Stand by me
Jack Ely (Kingsmen)	Louie, Louie
Twinkle	Terry
Cilla Black	You're my world
Percy Sledge	Warm and tender love
Chris Squire (Yes)	I've seen all good people
BB King	When love comes to town/Thrill is gone
Errol Brown	Emma
Eddie Hardin (Spencer Davis Group)	Gimme some loving
Val Doonican	Stone Fox Chase
Wayne Carson (Songwriter)	The Letter

A confession here - the Spencer Davis video I showed didn't feature keyboardist Eddie Hardin, who didn't join until later, and then left with drummer Pete York in 1968 to form Hardin & York. Apologies.

Voting was by a show of hands, with BB King clearly the "most missed", with Cilla being a slightly Surprise, Surprise runner-up and Ben E. King was in 3rd place. The first yellow card of the evening went to Errol Brown.

There were another 7 mentionables who didn't get a track played:

Ronnie Carroll

Louis Johnson (Brothers Johnson)

Johnny Keating

Ornette Coleman

Harold Battiste (Producer/Arranger etc)

Lynn Anderson

Bob Johnston (Producer)

SEPTUAGENARIANS

There were as many as 20 who achieved the biblical three score years and ten since our last gathering. Three of them were from CCR, and there were two each from the Zombies and Deep Purple. Seven weren't deemed worthy of a video, which left us with just 9 tracks to play here and this time votes for each were cast, with the outcome as follows:

1	Debbie Harry (Blondie)	I'm always touched by your presence dear	58
2	Gary Brooker (Procul Harum)	A Salty Dog	57
3	Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple/Rainbow)	Highway Star	53
3	Ian Gillan (Deep Purple)	Highway Star	53
4	Labi Siffre	Something inside so strong	45
5	John Fogerty (CCR)	Fortunate Son	41
5	Doug Clifford (CCR drummer)	Fortunate Son	41
5	Stu Cook (CCR bass)	Fortunate Son	41
6	Rod Argent (Zombies/Argent)	Time of the Season	40
6	Colin Blunstone (Zombies)	Time of the Season	40
7	Bob Seger	Hollywood Nights	37
8	Ken Hensley (Uriah Heep)	Wizard	32
9	Kim Carnes	Bette Davis' Eyes	28

Bob Seger was the only one to suffer the ignominy of a yellow card. The other 4 Septuagenarians were:

David Sanborn (Saxophonist)

Dave Peacock (Chas &)

Betty Davis (Miles' wife)

Jim Gordon (session)

Anne Murray

Moving more up to date, the next section was 9 tracks long and was:

GLASTONBURY 2015

Voting was:

1	Justin Hayward	Nights in white satin	68
2	James Bay	Hold back the river	59
3	Who	My generation	58
4	Songhoy Blues	Soubour	52
5	Patti Smith	Gloria	43
6	Hozier	Take me to church	39
7	Paul Weller	White Sky	33
8	Suede	So young	32
9	Motorhead	Ace of Spades	21

The deterioration in Lemmy's performance was all too obvious.

So far, all the form-filling homework was completed fairly successfully, but the night was young and nobody had over-indulged yet, but I thought it was time to give everyone a break and voting on the next 3 sections was done by a show of hands/popular acclaim. First up was:

SUICIDE WATCH

Featured were 13 diverse artistes who had ended it all. I didn't expect a lot of them to have their videos played in full and so it turned out. You can probably guess which ones got the Yellow Card treatment:

Artiste(s)	Group	When?	How?	Song
Kurt Cobain	Nirvana	1994	Gunshot	Heart-shaped box
Bob Welch	Fleetwood Mac	2012	Gunshot	Miles away
Screaming Lord Sutch	& The Savages	1999	Hanged	Jack the Ripper
The Singing Nun		1985	Overdose of barbiturates & alcohol	Dominique
Del Shannon		1990	Gunshot	Runaway
Michael Hutchence	INXS	1997	Hanged	Need you tonight
Richard Manuel	Band	1986	Hanged	I shall be released
Pete Ham/Tom Evans	Badfinger	1975/1983	Hanged	No matter what
Ronnie Montrose	Montrose	2012	Gunshot	Bad Motor Scooter
Phil Ochs		1976	Hanged	The Highwayman
Vincent Crane	Atomic Rooster	1989	Overdose of Anadin	I can't take no more
Stuart Adamson	Big Country	2001	Hanged	Big Country
Ian Curtis	Joy Division	1980	Hanged	She's lost control

Clearly the most missed was always going to be Kurt Cobain, but I was a little surprised that Stuart Adamson pipped Ian Curtis to 2nd place.

The next feature was inspired by Andy's request/reminder to me that Old Blue Eyes' centenary is coming up in December. I was also aware that Blues great Willie Dixon and Jazz star Billie Holiday had both just passed this milestone, and, with a bit more research, I unearthed another 5 who would have been 100 this year, had they survived.

2015 CENTENARIANS

Artiste(s)	Died	Age	Song
Robert Lockwood Jr	21 November 2006	92	Take a little walk with me
Billie Holiday	17 July 1959	44	Strange Fruit
Les Paul	12 August 2009	94	World is waiting for the sunrise
David Honeyboy Edwards	29 August 2011	96	Gamblin Man
Willie Dixon	29 January 1992	77	Spoonful
Brownie McGhee	16 February 1996	80	Feel so good
Frank Sinatra	14 May 1998	82	New York, New York
Sister Roberta Tharpe	09 October 1973	59	Didn't it rain

This section was understandably a little abbreviated as well. Everyone knew Frank Sinatra would be the most missed and Willie Dixon was a shoe-in for 2nd place, but there was a fairly lengthy discussion about 3rd place. Jeb made a strong case for Sister Roberta Tharpe, but, in the end, Billie Holiday's eerie performance of Strange Fruit gave her the nod.

It was round about here that Gary had to leave, so it was time for a quick team photograph. BB King was chosen as the backdrop, but it never quite worked out - and a few of us weren't quite ready when the camera snapped:

Moving on, the next section was:

HEAVEN V HELL

This was intended to be a straight battle between Good and Evil, playing 5 songs with a Godly connection in the title, and another 5 referencing the Devil. Unfortunately, I screwed up a little by not playing the Sex Pistols' track that was planned. This was supposed to be the line-up:

Beach Boys	God only knows
Rolling Stones	Sympathy for the Devil
Byrds	Jesus is just alright
Cozy Powell	Dance with the Devil
George Harrison	My Sweet Lord
Graham Parker	Hey Lord Don't ask me questions
Sex Pistols	God Save the Queen
Charlie Daniels Band	The Devil went down to Georgia
Beck	Devil's Haircut
American English	Devil in Disguise

It was a predictable win for the Dark Side, but whether playing God Save the Queen might have swung things, we'll never know.

It was now after midnight and taxis were due at 12:30 am, but I thought we just had time to squeeze in the last theme of the evening, which was:

RIVERS

Not everyone saw every track, some of which had to be cut short, but here's how the votes worked out anyway:

1=	Ike & Tina Turner	River Deep Mountain High	42
1=	Talking Heads	Take me to the river	42
3=	Bruce Springsteen	The River	38
3=	Jimmy Cliff	Many rivers to cross	38
5	Joe Cocker	Watching the river flow	26
6	CCR	Green River	22
7	CSNY	Down by the river	16

A dead heat for first place and likewise for the next two. CSNY's track definitely suffered from being the least viewed as everyone scurried for the taxis.

What we didn't have time for was the final voting for the Top Themes and the Top 3 Tracks, but we'll now do this by e-mail.