Xmas Headbang

Another full house of 10 at Gary's last night for the 3rd Headbang of 2016. New technology came in to play with the use of Gary's new 65" curved TV and sound bar and, although there were a few mishaps early on, it all worked out OK in the end. For the record, and future reference, we eventually disabled the sound bar and used Gary's mega speakers fed through Dave's DAC and Gary's mixing desk.

Sticking with tradition, we opened with the OBITUARY section, where we played 19 tracks from 18 recently deceased artistes:

Padraig Duggan (Clannad guitar/mandolin)	Theme from Harry's Game
Toots Thielemans (Harmonica)	Midnight Cowboy
Gilli Smyth, aka Shakti Yoni (Gong)	Dreaming It
Fred Hellerman (Weavers)	Goodnight Irene
Prince Buster (Cecil Bustamente Campbell)	Madness
Buckwheat Zydeco (Stanley "Buckwheat" Dural Jr) (Accordion)	Hey Joe
Rod Temperton (Songwriter)	Boogie Nights
Bobby Vee	The night has a thousand eyes
Pete Burns (Dead or Alive)	You spin me round (like a record)
Joan Marie Johnson (Dixie Cups)	Iko Iko
Angus Grant (Shooglenifty fiddle)	Tammienorrie
Leonard Cohen	Bird on the wire/tribute
Leon Russell	Wild Horses
Mose Allison	Your mind is on vacation
Kay Starr	Rock and roll waltz
Sharon Jones	Tribute
Craig Gill (Inspiral Carpets' drummer)	This is how it feels
Greg Lake (ELP, King Crimson)	21st Century Schizoid Man/The Sage

The Obituary section always throws up names that have never been played before at a Headbang - only Leonard Cohen, Leon Russell and Mose Allison from the list above have featured previously. Inevitably, it's the bigger names that win the popular vote, and that was the case this time too - Leonard Cohen was deemed to be the artiste most missed, with Greg Lake in second place. Honourable mentions went to Buckwheat Zydeco, Angus Grant and Rod Temperton.

Additionally, there were another 3 notables from the music industry who had passed:

Dave Cash (DJ)

Phil Chess (Chess Records)

Bobby Wellins (saxophonist)

Next up was SEPTUAGENARIANS. A record number of 28 had reached this notable birthday since the last Headbang and we played 21 tracks, after which everyone voted for their Top 10. The results were, in places, difficult to translate. As an example, there were 3 votes for artistes who didn't even have a video played on the night, and one person voted separately for two members of the same band - 7 points for one and 3 for another! Anyway, this is the final result:

1	Peter Green (Fleetwood Mac)	Oh Well	81
2	Justin Hayward (Moody Blues)	Question	66
3	Dan McCafferty (Nazareth)	Morning Dew	56
4	Keith Reid (Procul Harum co-songwriter)	A salty dog	42
5	Joe Egan (Stealers Wheel)	Stuck in the middle with you	36
6	Daryl Hall (Hall & Oates)	She's gone	28
7=	Benny Andersson (ABBA)	Dancing Queen	26
7=	Gilbert O'Sullivan	Nothing rhymed	26
9	Martin Barre (Jethro Tull)	My Sunday Feeling	24
10	Roy Wood (Move/Wizzard)	Fire Brigade	22
11	Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge etc drummer)	You keep me hanging on	22
12	Doug Ingle (Iron Butterfly organist/vocalist)	In-a-gadda-da-vida	21
13	Don Powell (Slade)	Martha my dear	17
14	Chris Dreja (Yardbirds bass/rhythm)	Heart full of soul	9
15	Clive Bunker (Jethro Tull drummer)		7
16=	Jane Birkin	Je t'aime (moi non plus)	6
16=	Barry Gibb (Bee Gees)	The First of May	6
18	PP Arnold	The first cut is the deepest	5
19	Ron Griffiths (Iveys/Badfinger bass)	No matter what	5
20	Richard Carpenter (Carpenters)		5
21	George Young (Easybeats)	River deep, mountain high	4
22	Loudon Wainwright III	Reciprocity	3
23	Helen Shapiro	You don't know
24	Tony Clarkin (Magnum guitarist)
25	Chris Slade (AC/DC drummer)
26	Jerry "The Bear" Penrod (Iron Butterfly bass)
27	Jerry Donahue (Fotheringay/Fairport Convention guitarist)
28	Valerie Simpson (Ashford & Simpson)

A pretty classy list, I think - you could make a good album - maybe even a double album - out of that lot. The last track played was an Abba karaoke-style sing-along video with on-screen words, by special request of Jeb. There was more ogling of the Abba singers' tight leather trousers than there was group singing though.

It was also the first time at a Headbang for 4 artistes - Hall & Oates, Gilbert O'Sullivan, PP Arnold and Loudon Wainwright III.

We had started late and now had little chance of getting all the programme completed before the scheduled taxi arrival of 12:30 pm, but I pressed on with the North American semi-finals of the PLACE NAMES KNOCK-OUT. First up was EAST v WEST:

• Boston Tea Party - SAHB
• Harlem Shuffle - Stones
• Belfast to Boston - James Taylor
• Englishman in New York - Sting

                               v

• By the time I get to Phoenix - John Walker
• Get out of Denver - Eddie & the Hot Rods
• Viva Las Vegas - ZZ Top
• Waking up in Vegas - Katy Perry

I have to confess that I played the wrong selection for the WEST - I accidentally picked the 4 tracks that had been randomly selected if they reached the North American final, rather than the 4 tracks that had been drawn for this semi-final in the pub last week, which were:

• Monterey - Eric Burdon
• San Francisco - Scott McKenzie
• Hollywood Nights - Bob Seger
• Fake Tales of San Francisco - Arctic Monkeys

I guess we'll never know whether the correct tracks for the WEST would have beaten the EAST - the vote on the night was a clear 9.5 v 0.5 win for the EAST (Gerry sat on the fence) - unless, of course, we made it a 2-leg affair and played the reverse fixture at the next Headbang?

NORTH v SOUTH was straight-forward:

• Echo Beach - Martha & the Muffins
• Ohio - Neil Young
• Anchorage - unknown
• Running back to Saskatoon - Guess Who

                                v

• 24 hours from Tulsa - Gene Pitney
• Tupelo Mississippi Flash - Steve Gibbons Band
• A rainy night in Georgia - Tony Joe White
• Statesboro Blues - Taj Mahal with Gregg Allman

The result was a little closer this time - 6 v 4 in favour of SOUTH, so the North American final to be played at the next Headbang is EAST v SOUTH. The tracks for this have already been drawn, and this leaves, by default, the remaining 4 tracks from the original pool of 12. for whichever team makes it through to play the UK in the overall final.

There were Headbang debuts in this section for John Walker, Gene Pitney and the unknown female who sang Michelle Shocked's Anchorage.

We had time for 2 team photos, the first of which was in front of SAHB:

The next one was in front of ABBA:

 

Aidan also took a short video of Gary performing his party tricks last night - doing the hula-hoop whilst trying to juggle at the same time - and after a few beers. Check it out here - https://youtu.be/Sbs95thvlAo