Headbang voting etc - 17 January, 2020

It had been hard to settle on a date that suited everyone - last night was the most popular, but Malcolm and Steve were otherwise engaged and Gary had to cancel, so there were just 7 of us - a nice, cosy gathering at Dave's for the first Headbang of the new decade.

We started again with 'GENARIANS. It had only been a few weeks since our last do, so this section was a little shorter than usual. Just 7 tracks were played and they were all Septuagenarians. Voting was therefore swift - and decisive:

1	Chris Stein	Blondie	Heart of glass	42
2	Paul Rodgers	Free/Bad Company	Fire and water	36
3	Adrian Belew	King Crimson frontman 1981-2009	Heroes	35
4	Tom Waits		Heart attack and vine	27
5	Tom Verlaine	Television	Foxhole	21
6	Billy Gibbons	ZZ Top	Gimme all your lovin'	19
7	David Johansen	New York Dolls	Looking for a kiss	16

I suspect the visuals of Debbie Harry played a large part in the result (see team photo later).

There were a few other Septuagenarians that we didn't play:

Jerry Butler	Impressions
Cliff Williams	AC/DC bass
Phil Spector
Morgan Fisher	Mott the Hoople keyboards
Damo Suzuki	Can lead singer

Plus a couple of Octogenarians:

Cindy Birdsong	Supremes
Kim Weston	Duetted with Marvin Gaye on It Takes Two

OBITUARIES was next. Just 4 tracks were played:

Marie Fredriksson	Roxette	The Look
Hugh McKenna	SAHB keyboards	Give my compliments to the chef
Neil Innes	Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band/Rutles	Protest song
Neil Peart	Rush drummer	Spirit of radio

Roxette weren't very popular, but the other three each gained 2 votes from the gathering, giving me the effective casting vote and I opted for Hugh McKenna as the most missed.

FAREWELL GIGS was next - some permanent, others temporary (or fake). Twelve tracks were played and they were, in chronological order of "retirement":

Cream	White room	1968	RAH
Beatles	Don't let me down	1969	Savile Row
David Bowie (as Ziggy Stardust)	Rock and roll suicide	1973	Hammersmith
Band	Up on Cripple Creek	1976	Last Waltz
Elton John	Rocket man	1977	Wembley Arena
Led Zeppelin	Rock and roll	1980	Berlin/Knebworth
Who	See me, feel me/We're not gonna take it	1982	Toronto
Status Quo	Roll over, lay down	1984	Milton Keynes Bowl
Sex Pistols	God save the Queen	2007	Brixton Academy
REM	Man on the Moon	2008	Mexico City
Oasis	Rock and roll star	2009	V Festival, Stafford
Wilko Johnson	Going back home	2013	Koko, London

There was one sentimental vote for what Wilko believed at the time would be his last ever gig, and even one vote for Elton John's very temporary retirement back in 1977, but everyone else regarded the Beatles' rooftop gig at 3 Savile Row as the most significant.

Dave's suggested theme of OFFSPRING, which Bryan Burnett had used for his GET IT ON programme on Radio Scotland just a couple of days beforehand, was next up. The idea was to guess who the parent of each act was - most of them were pretty straightforward, but there were a couple that weren't so obvious:

Arlo Guthrie	Coming in to Los Angeles
Jeff Buckley	Grace
Jakob Dylan	I shot the Sheriff
Charlotte Gainsbourg	Trick pony
Rosanne Cash	Sea of heartbreak
Dweezil Zappa	Peaches en regalia
Inara George	Release me
Jasmine Rodgers	Blood red sun
Ziggy Marley	One Love
Liam Finn	Better to be
Lukas Nelson	Something real