4th Virtual Headbang - 19th August, 2020

 Last night's Headbang was fraught with difficulties, but somehow a number of us managed through it all. Here's what happened to the regulars:

• Phil Bates - was double booked and had apologised for absence a week ago.
• Steve Paterson - phoned me yesterday afternoon - he'd been rushed off to A & E after taking a funny turn following their return from their aborted French trip. Initial suspicion of a stroke or TIA was disproven but Steve knew he needed a quiet evening resting to recuperate fully.
• Andy Marshall - late cancellation - reason unknown at this stage.
• Dave Williamson - on holiday on the West Coast but planned to join us remotely, only to be let down by dodgy/non-existent wi-fi/internet signals.
• Malcolm Lodge - dodgy internet at Rashenlochy forced him to sign off and on a few times before being able to join in fully.
• Jeb Tyrie - just a few miles east of Malcolm, but the same sad internet story.
• Rob Dunnachie - strong internet in Maryburgh but couldn't play the audio tracks in the Classical Connections theme. Probably needs to download alternative media player for his Mac - Dave uses VLC successfully on his Mac.
• Gerry Mullins - had an unexpected call from his best man and spent most of the evening on the phone to him, then had to take the dog out, so missed most of the show.

Thankfully Aidan Meehan and even renowned luddite/technophobe Colin Kilgour had few problems and were able to participate fully. Invitations to potential future Headbangers Harry Salter, Gordon Moir and Stewart Craig were declined on this occasion - but perhaps next time?

Anyway, we did eventually get the show on the road and this was the line-up:

GENARIANS - One Septuagenarian and two Octogenarians were played:

SEPTUAGENARIANS
Ted Turner (Wishbone Ash)	Jailbait
OCTOGENARIANS
Darrell "Dash" Crofts (Seals & Crofts)	Summer Breeze
Johnny Nash	Medley

There were another 4 who had reached the age of 70 since our last gathering, but we didn't play any music by:

Rodney Crowell	Singer/songwriter
Liberty DeVitto	Drummer - Billy Joel's band
Patti Austin	Singer
Tommy Aldridge	Drummer - Ozzy/Whitesnake

OBITUARIES - We played a medley of excerpts from the following who had recently passed:

Judy Dyble	Fairport Convention/Trader Horne vocals	Reno, Nevada
Emitt Rhodes		Really wanted you
Denise Johnson	Singer - Primal Scream + Smiths & Stone Roses	Movin' on up
Wayne Fontana	(& the Mindbenders)	Game of love
Trini Lopez		If I had a hammer

Then it was time to pay homage to the late, great Peter Green, with a medley of some of his best known tracks - The Supernatural; Black Magic Woman; Need Your Love So Bad; Albatross; Man of the World; Oh Well; Rattlesnake Shake; and The Green Manalishi (with the two prong crown).

A few others who had passed recently but weren't acknowledged musically last night:

Annie Ross	Jazz singer/actress
Tim Smith	Cardiacs' front man
C.P. Lee	Alberto y Lost Trios Paranoias
Julian Bream	Classical guitarist & lute player

NONSENSE TITLES - a new theme suggested by Malcolm. I made a mash-up of 2 tracks, the first of which contained 7 songs from the 60's with meaningless titles:

Crystals	Da doo ron ron
Little Richard	Bama lama bama loo
Major Lance	Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um
Koko Taylor	Wang dang doodle
Manfred Mann	Do wah diddy diddy
Otis Redding	Fa fa fa fa fa (sad song)
Marmalade	Ob la di ob la da

The second track was of 5 tunes from slightly more recent times:

Rocky Sharpe & the Replays	Rama lama ding dong
Bad Manners	Ne ne na na na na nu nu
Trio	Da da da
Police	De do do do, De da da da
Crash Test Dummies	MMM MMM MMM

CLASSICAL CONNECTIONS (2) - the second time we'd used this theme. This time, we played 5 rock tracks, each preceded by a short excerpt from the classical music that apparently "inspired" them/they copied:

David Bowie	Life on Mars?	Rachmaninov	Piano Concerto No. 2 Mov. 2
Noel Gallagher (Oasis)	Don't look back in anger	Pachelbel	Canon In D Major
Muse	Plug in baby	Bach	Toccata and Fugue in D Minor
Radiohead	Exit Music (for a film)	Chopin	Prelude in E-Minor (op.28 no. 4)
Doors (Alive)	Hyacinth House	Chopin	Heroic Polonaise (Op. 53 in A flat major)

The connections were not immediately obvious in all cases, but I would urge everyone to listen to them again - there is definitely more than a hint of plagiarism here.

CANADA DAY - just over a month ago Canadians celebrated the 153rd anniversary of the passing of the Constitution Act, 1867, so Andy Marshall suggested it was time to feature some of their musical heritage, which we did by playing the following:

Gordon Lightfoot	Early morning rain
Joni Mitchell	Chelsea morning
Band	The weight
Alanis Morissette	Hand in my pocket
Arcade Fire	Modern man
Leonard Cohen	The gypsy's wife
Neil Young	A man needs a maid

We had a chat afterwards about which was the best track and we all found it difficult to separate them, but, in the end, 3 Headbangers voted for The Band, 2 for Alanis Morissette and 1 each for Leonard Cohen and Neil Young.

OUT OF AFRICA - another of Andy's suggestions and also a feature in one of our recent River Dee Radio shows. Just 4 of the tracks featured in our RDR show were played, all of them by artistes from Mali:

Tinariwen	Sastanàqqàm
Ali Farke Toure & Toumani Diabate	Sabu Yerkoy
Fatoumata Diawara	Sowa
Vieux Farka Toure & Julia Easterlin	Masters of war

Again, it was difficult to separate them when it came to voting but the latter Dylan cover found favour with 4 of those present.

Partly due to the earlier technical delays, with time marching on, we had to skip theme number 7 which will now be used at our next gathering in 6 weeks' time (1st October), but we managed to squeeze in Jeb's suggestion of:

GIANT GIGS

 Research revealed 11 rock gigs that were attended by more than a million people and we played tracks from 4 of them:

Jean-Michel Jarre		1979	Bastille Day	Place de la Concorde, Paris	1,000,000
Beach Boys		1985	Independence Day concert	Philadelphia Museum of Art	1,000,000
Various		2009	Paz Sin Fronteras II	Plaza de la Revolución, Havana	1,100,000
Jean-Michel Jarre		1986	Rendez-vous Houston	Houston	1,300,000
Rolling Stones	You can't always get what you want	2006	A Bigger Bang tour	Copacabana Beach, Rio	1,500,000
Stevie Wonder	Higher Ground	2005	Live 8	Philadelphia	1,500,000
AC/DC, Pantera, Metallica, The Black Crowes, E.S.T.	Enter Sandman	1991	Monsters of Rock	Moscow	1,600,000
Jean-Michel Jarre		1990	Bastille Day	La Défense, Paris	2,500,000
Jorge Ben Jor		1993	New Year's Eve	Copacabana Beach, Rio	3,000,000
Rod Stewart		1994	New Year's Eve	Copacabana Beach, Rio	3,500,000
Jean-Michel Jarre	Oxygene pt 4	1997	The 850th Anniversary of Moscow	State University of Moscow	3,500,000

 That was it then. All that remained was for everyone to grab a drink and smile for the team screen shot: