We set up the gear on Friday afternoon and after the usual technical snags, all was well - with thanks to Gary for coming to our rescue with a long HDMI cable. Thanks also to Nigel for letting us use his projector again.
In the end, we were seven in number - Gary was double-booked, Jeb was at Celtic Connections and Dave, as per above, was more than 11,000 miles away. Andy, Malcolm, Colin and I had a couple of refreshers in the Douglas before heading to Aidan's, armed with the pre-Headbang essentials - the curries.
Aidan had set up his kitchen table and we all sat down to eat before the music started just before 8 pm. As usual, it was the OBITUARIES section that opened the evening and these were the tracks we played:
| Hugh McDowell | ELO cellist | Roll over Beethoven |
| Pete Shelley | Buzzcocks | 16 again |
| Anne Margot Coxall, aka Honey Lantree | Honeycombs' drummer | Have I the right? |
| Ray Sawyer | Dr. Hook back-up singer | Sylvia's Mother |
| Dean Ford | Marmalade vocalist | I see the rain |
| Eric Haydock | Hollies' bass 62-66 | Just one look |
| Clydie King | Backup singer for Dylan | Abraham, Martin & John |
| Ted McKenna | Drummer with SAHB | Faith Healer |
As usual, voting for the "most missed" was done by a show of hands and Ray Sawyer and Pete Shelley each garnered 3 votes, so I had the opportunity of being the arbiter with the casting vote, but, being the contrarian I am, I would opt for Dean Ford.
There were another 5 musical notables who had passed since our last gathering:
| Scott English | Writer - Hi ho Silver Lining, Mandy, Bend Me, Shape Me |
| Jody Williams | Guitarist with Bo Diddley & Howlin' Wolf |
| Nancy Wilson | Jazz singer/civil rights activist ("How glad I am") |
| Pegi Young | Neil Young's former wife and backing singer; Founder of the Bridge School |
| Daryl Dragon | Captain & Tenille |
Next up was the SEPTUAGENARIANS section. Over the last couple of months, a total of 14 notables had reached the not-so-grand old age of 70 and we played tracks from 9 of them and then voted, with the following results:
| 1 | Jeff "Skunk" Baxter | Reeling in the years | 55 |
| 2 | Ozzy Osbourne | Paranoid | 49 |
| 3 | Mick Taylor | Apolitical blues | 42 |
| 4 | Merry Clayton | Gimme Shelter | 37 |
| 5 | Steve Perry | Don't stop believin' | 37 |
| 6 | Bill Nelson | Maid in heaven | 35 |
| 7 | Mary Weiss | Remember (walking in the sand) | 26 |
| 8 | Ted Nugent | Journey to the Center of the Mind | 22 |
| 9 | Southside Johnny | I don't want to go home | 12 |
Five other recent Septuagenarians who didn't feature were:
| Alan Parsons | Project/Worked on Abbey Road and Let it Be |
| Barbara Mandrell | Country Singer |
| Daryl Braithwaite | Lead singer with Sherbet 1970-84 |
| Chester Thompson | Mothers of Invention/Genesis drummer |
| Larry Byrom | Steppenwolf guitarist 1970-72 |
We followed this by a commemoration of THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED 60. This weekend is the 60th anniversary of the plane crash that took the young lives of Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Ritchie Valens and we played a track from each of them before showing a video that attempted to explain the true meaning of Don McLean's famous tribute, American Pie.
The next theme was an extremely short one - I thought we had a NEW KNIGHT OF THE REALM to pay tribute to - Nick Mason - but, on closer inspection this morning, it was "only" a CBE he was awarded in the New Years Honours List! The track we played was One of These Days, but the video stalled a bit halfway through.
Theme number 5 was meant as a homage to Brian Matthew, who did his last show for Radio Two early in 2017, shortly before he passed. He had a regular 3 track Loose Connections spot on his Sounds of the 60's show (on which I featured back in 2013 - check https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U6S6X79sQk) but also had a complete show at Xmas each year where each track had a link to the next one, with the last track taking us back to where we started. So this was how our CONNECTIONS theme went:
| Blues Incorporated | Oh Lord, don't let them drop that atomic bomb on me | The birth of British R'n'B - Alexis Korner & Cyril Davies |
| Graham Bond Organisation | Harmonica | Graham was a member of Blues Inc. |
| John Mayall's Bluesbreakers | Walking on Sunset | Jack Bruce was in both of the above and the Bluesbreakers |
| Cream | Tales of Brave Ulysses | Jack formed Cream with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker |
| Rolling Stones | Lady Jane | Eric Clapton was asked to replace Brian Jones when the latter was sacked - Mick Taylor eventually took the job |
| Ronnie Wood | Ooh La La | Replaced Mick Taylor when he left the Stones |
| Jeff Beck Group | Shapes of things | Ronnie Wood played bass with JBG |
| Rod Stewart | Gasoline Alley | Rod was vocalist in JBG |
| Faces | Angel | Rod and Ronnie joined up with 3 remaining members of Small Faces after Steve Marriott left to form Humble Pie |
| Small Faces | All or nothing | After the Faces folded, the 3 remaining members of the Small Faces briefly got back together again |
| Humble Pie | Black coffee | Steve Marriott formed Humble Pie with Peter Frampton after leaving the Small Faces first time around in the '60's |
| Steve Marriott & Alexis Korner | Get off my cloud |
Theme number 6 now - ONE HIT WONDERS. This was the 4th time this had been used. Just 6 tracks were played and the votes were as follows:
| 1 | Wild Cherry | Play that funky music | 31 |
| 2 | Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians | What I Am | 25 |
| 3 | Ashton, Gardner & Dyke | Resurrection Shuffle | 23 |
| 4 | Blackfoot Sue | Standing in the road | 18 |
| 5 | Rattles | The Witch | 15 |
| 6 | Carole Bayer Sager | Movin' Out | 14 |
HAPPENINGS 10 YEARS TIME AGO next and the theme I picked from our February, 2009 show was OBITUARIES. In those days, we did a full vote in this section and this was the pecking order:
| 1 | John Martyn | May you never | 47 |
| 2 | Eartha Kitt | Just an old fashioned girl | 30 |
| 3 | Delaney Bramlett | Poor Elijah | 30 |
| 4 | Billy Powell (Lynryd Skynyrd keyboards) | Sweet Home Alabama | 28 |
| 5 | Davy Graham | All of me | 26 |
| 6 | Ron Asheton (Stooges) | TV Eye | 23 |
| 7 | Dave Dee | Hold Tight | 22 |
| 8 | Lux Interior (Cramps) | Live it up | 10 |
Yes - you read it correctly - Eartha Kitt was voted 2nd most missed a decade ago! What were we thinking of?
Gerry had suggested the next theme following remarks made during our River Dee Radio shows about the number of artistes whose musical careers started or developed at Art School. We could almost do a complete evening on this theme, but I chose 14 acts for this evening's show of ART SCHOOL ARTISTES. It's getting later in the evening and deciding how to rank these acts would be tricky at the best of times - if you'd actually seen the videos. How Andy managed to submit a voting form for this section we'll never know:
Andy did submit a voting form, but marked it as "too difficult" - hardly surprising, was it? Here's the final results:
| 1 | Ronnie Wood | Stay with me | Ealing Art College | 81 |
| 2 | Freddie Mercury | Another one bites the dust | Isleworth Polytechnic | 78 |
| 3 | Jeff Beck | Little Wing | Wimbledon College of Art | 72 |
| 4 | John Lennon | Stand by me | Liverpool College of Art | 65 |
| 5 | Pete Townsend | Magic Bus | Ealing Art College | 63 |
| 6 | Jimmy Page | The Wanton Song | Sutton Art College | 61 |
| 7 | Ian Anderson | Aqualung | Blackpool College of Art | 60 |
| 8 | Bryan Ferry | Let's stick together | University of Newcastle upon Tyne | 54 |
| 9 | Eric Clapton | Double Trouble | Kingston College of Art | 49 |
| 10 | Eric Burdon | When I was young | Newcastle Art College | 40 |
| 11 | Keith Richards | Happy | Sidcup Art College | 37 |
| 12 | Ray Davies | All day and all of the night | Hornsey College of Art | 36 |
| 13 | John Mayall | Rolling with the blues | Manchester College of Art | 29 |
| 14 | Syd Barrett | Apples and Oranges | Cambridge Art School | 10 |
Just gone midnight now so had to skip through some of the tracks in the last theme - NOTABLE ABSENTEES - in order to make the budgeted 12:30 pm finish - especially for Steve, who was booked on a train to Edinburgh for the rugby at 7:30 am! We did have time for a quick vote however:
| 1 | Joe Bonamassa | King Bee Shakedown | 38 |
| 2 | Fratellis | Chelsea Dagger | 31 |
| 3 | Stiltskin | Inside | 30 |
| 4 | Jesus and Mary Chain | Blues from a Gun | 28 |
| 5 | UFO | Doctor, Doctor | 26 |
| 6 | Sonic Youth | Sugar Cane | 25 |
| 7 | Gordon Giltrap | Lucifer's Cage | 18 |
Finally - the team photo - and it had to be backdropped with Freddie, didn't it? We had 2 attempts at it - one with flash and one without:
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