Headbang - 30 March 2018 - track listings and votes

Last night was the second time we had held a Headbang at Jeb's place - and it all went very smoothly. So much so, we were all set up and ready to start at 7:30 pm prompt - we just had to wait a few minutes for the taxi carrying Andy, Gerry and James to arrive and off we went. Lessons learned - no gathering in the pub beforehand and no curries!

Gary was a late cancellation and, of course, Steve and Aidan were unavailable, but we welcomed Jeb's pal Francis for the first time and we saw the return of two junior Headbangers - James Marshall and Dylan Tyrie. Malcolm was delayed a little but we started anyway and he joined us halfway through the OBITUARIES theme, where we played 9 tracks from recently deceased artistes:

Ray Thomas	Moody Blues	Ride my see-saw	1980
"Fast" Eddie Clarke	Motorhead guitarist	Please don't touch	1981
Dolores O'Riordan	Cranberries vocalist	Linger	1994
Hugh Masekela	Trumpeter	Tribute	2018
Mark E. Smith	Fall	Latch key kid	2008
Dennis Edwards	Temptations	Papa was a rolling stone	1972
Edwin Hawkins	Edwin Hawkins Singers	Oh happy day	1973
Barbara Ann Alston	Crystals	Da doo ron ron	1963
Eddie Amoo	Chants (backed by Beatles at Cavern); Real Thing (first all black group to top the British charts)	You to me are everything	1976

The vote for most missed went to Dolores O'Riordan, with Ray Thomas next best and Mark Smith in 3rd place. There was one lone nomination for Eddie Amoo.

Three other Obits that we didn't play tracks for were France Gall (winner of Eurovision Song Contest for Luxembourg in 1965), Vic Damone and Sir Ken Dodd.

Sticking with tradition, SEPTUAGENARIANS was next. 18 tracks were played and we all voted for our Top Tens:

1	James Taylor	Fire and rain	83
2	Chris Thompson	Blinded by the light	60
3	George Kooymans	Radar love	57
4	Bobby Whitlock	Southern Gentleman	46
5	Jeff Lynne	Showdown	46
6	Snowy White	Bird of paradise	41
7	Graham Bonnet	Only one woman	39
8	Albhy Galuten	American Woman	29
9	Colin Kilgour	To love somebody	27
10	T-bone Burnett	Palestine Texas	26
11	Donald Fagen	Who's that lady?	25
12	Tony Iommi	Never say die	23
13	Lee Oskar	Spill the wine	22
14	Alice Cooper	Under my wheels	17
15	Steve Priest	Blockbuster	5
16	Steven Tyler	Walk this way	4
17	Kenny Loggins	Your mama don't dance	1
18	Michael des Barres	Get it on

Yes - that's our very own CK at number 9! In honour of his recent 70th birthday, I dug out an old video clip from our West Highland Way adventure back in 2010. You can view it again on my You Tube channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Ca4hj9A_UA.

In addition to the above 18 who became Septuagenarians since our last gathering, there were another 16 who passed this point that we didn't play tracks of:

1	George Porter Jr	Bass and singer with Meters
2	Albhy Galuten	Technology executive and futurist, Grammy Award-winning record producer, composer, musician, orchestrator and conductor
3	Dick Diamonde	Former bass player with The Easybeats
4	Rick Marotta	Session drummer
5	Anita Pointer	Pointer Sisters
6	Corky Laing	Drummer with Mountain
7	John Gosling	Kinks keyboards
8	Ray Flacke	Session country guitar
9	Mark Andes	Bass with Canned Heat, Spirit, Jo Jo Gunne
10	Larry Carlton	Session guitar
11	Shakin' Stevens
12	Mike Moran	Record producer
13	Elaine Page
14	Jimmie Fadden	Drummer with Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
15	Jeffrey Osborne	Lead singer with LTD; songwriter
16	Richard Tandy	Keyboards - ELO

Next up was the return, by popular demand, of NEW(ISH) ARTISTES. Six relatively recent performances were shown:

Phoenix	1901
Lana del Rey	Ride
Blackberry Smoke	Waiting for the thunder
Dua Lipa	New rules
LCD Soundsystem	Call the police
LP	Lost on you

The last-named was the clear favourite of the Headbangers with Blackberry Smoke next, followed by Lana del Rey.

Theme 4 was inspired by Dave, who pointed out that we've never done that staple of 70's rock concerts - the 20 + minute long DRUM SOLOS. Logistically, this was a difficult request to fulfill given the time constraints, but I managed to get short excerpts of drum solos by 15 drummers who specialised in this:

Sandy Nelson

Surfaris

Jon Hiseman (with Georgie Fame)

Buddy Rich

Dave Grohl (& Animal)

BJ Wilson (Procul Harum)

Kenney Jones (Faces)

Mitch Mitchell (Jimi Hendrix Experience)

Ian Paice (Deep Purple)

Michael Shrieve (Santana)

Keith Moon (Who)

Don Brewer (Grand Funk)

Neil Peart (Rush)

John Bonham (Led Zeppelin)

Ginger Baker (Cream)

The votes, based on the performances viewed, produced a slightly surprising result, with John Hiseman the clear winner courtesy of his 1967 performance in a stint with Georgie Fame. Honourable mentions too to Sandy Nelson, Ron Wilson of the Surfaris, John Bonham and Ginger Baker.

Moving on to theme number 5 - ONE HIT WONDERS - the 3rd time we've done this at a Headbang. 12 OHW's were featured and the voting was:

1	Ram Jam	Black Betty	93
2	Matthews Southern Comfort	Woodstock	90
3	Edwyn Collins	Girl like you	89
4	Members	Sound of the suburbs	75
5	Bobby Fuller Four	I fought the law	74
6	New Radicals	Get what you give	67
7	Cornershop	Brimful of Asha	66
8	Only Ones	Another girl, another planet	65
9	Brenton Wood	Gimme little sign	53
10	Splinter	Costafinetown	44
11	Hothouse Flowers	Don't go	40
12	John Otway & Wild Willy Barrett	Really free	25

Just two themes left now and the clock was ticking towards taxi time. Time for a team photo, using the Clachaig Inn video as a backdrop as we all sang along to To Love Somebody:

TWIN GUITAR BANDS was next up - a theme that we recently used in our River Dee Radio show. Nine tunes played by bands whose guitarists share the limelight and interplay. Results were:

1	Lynryd Skynryd	Freebird	75
2	Fleetwood Mac	Black Magic Woman	70
3	King Crimson	Heroes	66
4	Thin Lizzy	Don't believe a word	50
5	Rolling Stones	Tumblin' Dice	45
6	Clash	Should I stay or should I go?	42
7	Wishbone Ash	Jailbait	36
8	Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers	Fooled again	36
9	Status Quo	Mystery Song	30

The last theme was a bit of a rushed one - songs with ROCK 'N' ROLL in the title. Seven tunes were played - the last one truncated a bit - but no time for voting:

David Bowie	Rock & Roll Suicide
Little Feat	Rock n Roll Doctor
Dave Edmonds' Rockpile	I knew the bride (when she used to rock and roll)
Johnny Winter	Rock n Roll
Ramones	Rock 'n' roll high school
Oasis	Rock and roll star
Robert Plant & the Band of Joy	Rock and roll