Banchory Headbangers: Headbang 19 Aug 2016

The 3rd theme of the evening, which will become a regular, although spasmodic, feature, was KNIGHTS OF THE REALM, featuring rock stars who have been awarded the KBE. On this occasion we trawled back to show 4 of those previously knighted, plus one more recent:

Sir Paul McCartney	1997	Maybe I'm Amazed
Sir Elton John	1998	Border Song
Sir Michael Jagger	2002	Dead Flowers
Sir Van Morrison	2015	Gloria
Sir Roderick Stewart	2016	Pool Hall Richard

You will note that Sir Cliff and Sir Tom did not feature - nor for that matter did Dame Shirley. Bono and Geldof, being Irish, only have honorary KBE's and cannot call themselves Sir, so that's why there were only 5 featured here. Elton's performance of the Border Song won him the popular vote on the night.

The next theme was a short one called BREXIT BLUES, inspired by the recent EC referendum and the events that followed in the days immediately afterwards when it looked like we might have some sort of political Armageddon:

Clash	Should I stay or should I go?
Steely Dan	Do it again
Fun Boy Three	The lunatics have taken over the asylum
Who	Boris the spider

Then we had another of our knock-out features - PLACE NAMES. 12 videos with song titles from each of 6 separate geographical areas have been made available. This time around, it was the UK v Rest of World, with the random draw for 4 songs each having been made a week prior, so the line-up was:

REST OF WORLD

Mike Nesmith - Rio
Crosby, Stills & Nash - Marrakech Express
Gary Moore with Phil Lynott - Parisienne Walkways
Paul McCartney - Back in the USSR (live from Red Square)

Led Zeppelin - Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Ian Dury & the Blockheads - Billericay Dickie
Simple Minds - Chelsea Girl
Peter Gabriel - Solsbury Hill

It's the luck of the draw which 4 videos were chosen, but it looked like a shoe-in for the UK with Ian Dury and Peter Gabriel's wonderful bike-riding show, but, a little surprisingly, there were 2 votes out of the 9 present for the Rest of the World. The UK still, however, made it through fairly comfortably to the final against one of the North American areas, who will play their knock-out rounds at the next Headbang. However, having already played 2 of their strong suits, the UK may find it tougher in the final, as no repeat showings are allowed (my rules!).

Now it was the return of the regular annual theme from GLASTONBURY. 10 tracks were chosen, with a variety of styles and genres, reflecting the eclectic nature of the festival. The first track featured Adele's Rolling in the Deep, but it was really an introductory video, and I initially thought that this may have adversely affected votes for her, but it may, in the end, have helped:

Adele	Rolling in the deep	85
Elle King	Exs and Ohs	74
Squeeze	Up the junction	68
Jeff Lynne's ELO	Don't bring me down	61
Ronnie Spector	Be my baby	59
ZZ Top	Gimme all your loving	49
Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats	Trying so hard not to know	31
Last Shadow Puppets	Miracle Aligner	24
Underworld	I exhale	22
Wolf Alice	Moaning Lisa Smile	22

There had been a couple of requests for some more newer music at the Headbangs, but it's noticeable that the bigger names generally appear at the top of the voting lists and the newer acts generally don't fare so well.

TIME was marching on - and that was the name of the last main theme, featuring songs with Time in the title. There was one uncompleted voting form, which may have affected the final outcome in a very tight finish:

Led Zeppelin	Good times bad times	55
Talking Heads	Life during wartime	54
Pink Floyd	Time	48
Roberta Flack	The first time ever I saw your face	43
Rolling Stones	Time is on my side	40
Doors	Love me two times	39
Bob Dylan	The times they are a changin'	31
Eric Burdon & the Animals	Good times	29
Zombies	Time of the season	21

There was a suggestion from Andy that it would be good to have time at the end of the evening to replay some of the most popular tracks, so I allowed for this when putting the programme together. Thus begat the REPRISE theme. There were calls for: