Banchory Headbangers: Headbang

Andy and Steve were otherwise engaged but the other 10 of us participated in last night's Headbang - 5 at Dave's and 5 remote. No problems this time with logging in to Teams but there was a persistent echo/feedback that was very annoying and made the usual banter/conversation well nigh impossible.

A partial solution to the echo was to mute all the remote participants whenever any of us at Dave's were speaking - but that was to the detriment of the usual interaction. Dave and I are planning to do further research before the next Headbang to try to find suitable solutions.

Anyway, Gerry, Jeb and me - at the Douglas for a quick pre-match beer - were joined by Aidan who had a late change of plan to attend in person. Curries collected then Gerry drove us over to Dave's - on schedule - where all the remote participants - including Malcolm at breakast time in Christchurch - were already online - about 20 minutes early!

Once curries were consumed we tried to resolve the feedback issue - to no avail - so we just decided to proceed with the music, by now about 15 minutes later than planned.

The usual start was SEPTUAGENARIANS - and the votes for the 4 tracks played were:

Other Septuagenarians - no tracks played - were:

The second theme was VIOLINS - tracks where violins had a strong presence:

(Phil was having technical difficulties so didn't manage to vote via WhatsApp and soon had to leave the meeting).

Theme 3 was OCTOGENARIANS. Just as the last time there were so many who had recently reached the age of 80 that I had to split this theme in two - this was part 1:

No casting vote so a tie between Ian Gillan and Jose Feliciano.

The 4th theme was an acknowledgment of the pending centenary of the GRAND OLE OPRY - an American institution since 1925. Initially just a country music radio show, for 3 decades from 1943 the broadcast came from a live concert venue - the now legendary and esteemed Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. The radio show now comes from a new purpose built venue but the Ryman, after refurbishment, is a much sought-after concert venue - and not just for country music stars. We played 4 examples and the voting was very even:

I think that's our first ever 3-way tie. Incidentally, Gerry's phone battery had now died so his vote was manual and, as a result, the WhatsApp polls don't tell the full story.

Next was OCTOGENARIANS (2):

Neil Young's second appearance was a clear winner.

There were plenty of others with recent big birthdays too:

Not to mention some Nonogenarians and even a Centenarian:

It still being officially AUTUMN, that became our next theme - just as we did at this time last year:

Green Day are real live crowd pleasers and regularly go down well with the Headbangers too.

Time for the OBITUARIES. First of all a few short entries in a continuous medley:

Then the main men:

There were others who had recently passed as well:

I decided it was time for another vote on some more songs from the past that would probably be NO LONGER PC in today's woke times. The votes this time were for the one that is thought to be most offensive to the audiences of today:

(Our) Andy put in a late remote vote for Killing an Arab, which would have tied it with Blue Mink's "curly black and kinky, mixed with yellow Chinky". The only surprise is that, in a time of the Jeffrey Epstein/Andrew/Trump/Guiffre stories in the news, that Wishbone Ash's subject matter didn't gain more votes.

So now we come to the JUKEBOX and it's confession time for me. The track with my name against it was put in to see if anyone would smell a rat - and nobody did. The alleged Eminem & Jelly Roll track is not real - it's AI created. nobody seemed to like it anyway:

The final theme was 4 tracks from JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE!. He's an American late night show host and comedian who usually ends his shows with a live music performance. Think Letterman (now retired). Like the other networks - Jimmy Fallon (NBC) and Stephen Colbert (CBS) - his ABC show regularly mocks Trump, but one of his recent comments so offended the Donald that he got on to ABC's owners (Disney) and managed to get Jimmy Kimmel's show taken off air. Thankfully it's back on now. Anyway, here's the votes: