The George Lite Zone

Fire up the Audi Quatro, slap a cartridge in your 8-track, slap a couple of nonces for good luck, then hit it.

Alternatively buy Ashes To Ashes on Amazon, groove to the groove in the comfort of your own home and invite bonnie nickers round to dance the horizontal tango to the strains of that old Father Benny Cake classic - Vienna.

The lineup for this tasty bit of 80’s nostalgia includes: -

1. Introduction - Dialogue: Alex Drake
2. David Bowie - Ashes To Ashes
3. Visage - Fade To Grey
4. The Human League- Love Action
5. Duran Duran - Girls On Film
6. Dexys Midnight Runners - Geno
7. OMD - Souvenir
8. The Stranglers - No More Heroes
9. The Clash - I Fought The Law
10. Heaven 17 - (We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thing
11. Interlude - Dialogue: You’re Nicked
12. Edmund Butt - Gene Genie (Gene Hunt’s theme from `Ashes To Ashes’)
13. The Passions - In Love With A German Film Star
14. Altered Images - Happy Birthday
15. Joe Jackson - It’s Different For Girls
16. Flying Lizards - Money
17. The Beat - Doors Of Your Heart
18. The Ruts - Staring At The Rude Boys
19. The Teardrop Explodes - Reward
20. Tenpole Tudor - Swords Of A Thousand Men
21. Bryan Ferry - Let’s Stick Together
22. Ultravox - Vienna
23. Edmund Butt - Title Music from `Ashes To Ashes’
24. Epilogue: Dialogue: Fandabydozy

Shame there’s no Motörhead in the lineup, Ace of Spades or Bomber would have been great additions. Still there’s always the possibility for a Season 2 OST if the next series gets the green light. Ace Of Spades in particular was pretty iconic of the early 80’s and is the ultimate background music for a bit of on-screen violence.

Still, it’s nice to see The Stranglers in the mix, especially as my cousin Peter Phipps drummed with them at one point. How he found the time whilst dating Tessa Wyatt I’ll never know, though that was back in the 70’s mind. As an aside, a young Tessa popped up in an episode of UFO before joining Richard O’Sullivan in that really alien TV series Robin’s Nest.

Speaking of beermats, the one under this cascade doesn’t look like it’s going to cope with the beery deluge, even with Keri’s attempted rescue mission. Nice pouring Phil.

I was playing about with Last FM last night. Last FM is an application that keeps track of the last tracks you played on your PC, then allows you to display them on social networking sites such as Facebook or on blogs, such as this one. This is done via plugins to popular music players such as Windows media or Win Amp.

Sampling some of these goodies I’ve added, two music quilts on the right hand side of this blog. Far better than the sort that Grandma used to make, these cycle through the pictures of album covers. I created two. One for Hawkwind and one that cycles through the bands listed in my MySpace profile.

I also added a radio widget which allows you to play bands in my favorites or that are similar in nature. Hit the play button on this to get some quality music to listen to while you surf the net.

Finally I’ve added an RSS feed from the site to display the last five tracks I’ve played.

Check it out, I’ve got a feeling that Radio Motörhead will be appearing on a blog in the near future.

It’s Friday night so it must be time for a double bill of gratuitous music videos. Yet another way to get stiff.

Now that’s what I’d call Grindhouse!!!

First Lemmy shakes his blood with the Suicide Girls while Dave Grohl does what he does best and plays the drums.

I still rate him as one of the finest drummers in the world. Shame he didn’t guest with Zeppelin at the recent O2 gig.

From the album Probot

Then Nick Cave and the Raga Girls bring it on.

I actually had the idea for that video, in the sense that the video maker Johnny Hillcoat said, “What do you want to make a video about?” and I asked him, “What do videos looks like on MTV these days?” and he said, “They look like a lot of black girls wiggling their arses at the camera,” so this is basically what we ended up doing, really.

Nick Cave in an interview for BBC Stoke January 2003

A much better quality version of this video can be seen on Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds - The Abattoir Blues Tour [2006]

I saw Nick live in Edinburgh last year and he was superb. This DVD captures him at his best live. All that and the Bring It On video. Quality !!!

If you want to get stiff this weekend check out The Independent. They’re giving away 2 free 10 track CDs that celebrate 30 years of Stiff Records.

Volume 1 on Saturday 26 January

1. Madness - Baggy Trousers (Live)
2. Ian Dury and The Blockheads - Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick (Live)
3. Kirsty MacColl - A New England
4. The Belle Stars - Sign Of The Times
5. Department S - Is Vic There?
6. Chris Difford - Come On Down
7. Jona Lewie - You’ll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties
8. Tracey Ullman - Breakaway
9. Dave Stewart and Barbara Gaskin - It’s My Party
10. Desmond Dekker - The Israelites

Volume 2 on Sunday 27 January

1. The Damned - New Rose (Live)
2. Lene Lovich - Home
3. Theatre Of Hate - Do You Believe In The Westworld?
4. Kirsty MacColl - They Don’t Know
5. Wreckless Eric - Whole Wide World
6. Tenpole Tudor - Swords Of A Thousand Men
7. Rachel Sweet - B.A.B.Y.
8. The Members - Solitary Confinement
9. Nick Lowe - Heart Of The City
10. King Kurt - Destination Zulu Land

Shame there’s no Motörhead, but hey, never look a gift CD in the mouth.

Thanks to MotörheadBlögger for giving the heads up on “The Big Stiff Box Set“. If I hadn’t read his post I wouldn’t have noticed The Independents freebie when it was advertised on the telly.

There’s nothing like a top music list to stir up a bit of controversy. In this case I stumbled on this list of the Top 25 Live Albums on IGN.COM

Gaping omissions for me are Hawkwind’s - Space Ritual, Motörhead’s - No Sleep Till Hammersmith and Thin Lizzie’s - Live and Dangerous.

If anyones got any other great live album suggestions that you think should have made the grade, feel free to post them.

TOP 25 Live Albums

1. 801 - Live (EG, 1976)
2. U2 - Under A Blood Red Sky (Island, 1983)
3. Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison (Columbia, 1968)
4. Neil Young - Live Rust (Reprise, 1979)
5. Boogie Down Productions - Live Hardcore Worldwide (Jive, 1991)
6. Nirvana - MTV Unplugged In New York (DGC, 1994)
7. The Talking Heads - The Name Of This Band Is The Talking Heads (Sire, 1982)
8. The Who - Live At Leeds (MCA, 1970)
9. James Brown - Live At The Apollo (Polydor, 1963)
10. Jane’s Addiction - Jane’s Addiction (Triple X, 1987)
11. [TIE] Peter Gabriel - Plays Live (Geffen, 1983) and Genesis - Seconds Out (Atlantic, 1977)
12. The Quintet (Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Bud Powell, Max Roach) - Jazz At Massey Hall (Debut Records, 1953)
13. The Rolling Stones - Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out! The Rolling Stones In Concert (ABKCO, 1970)
14. The Band - The Last Waltz (Warner Bros, 1978)
15. Cheap Trick - At Budokan (Epic, 1979)
16. Kraftwerk - Minimum-Maximum (Astralwerks, 2005)
17. Blue Oyster Cult - Extraterrestrial Live (Columbia, 1982)
18. Rush - Exit Stage Left (Mercury, 1981)
19. Bob Marley & The Wailers - Live! (Tuff Gong, 1975)
20. Iron Maiden - Live After Death (Capitol, 1986)
21. Sting - Bring On The Night (A&M, 1986)
22. The Roots - The Roots Come Alive (MCA, 1999)
23. KISS - Alive (Casablanca, 1975)
24. The Grateful Dead - Live/Dead (Warner Bros., 1969)
25. Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive (A&M Records, 1976)

Honorable Mentions

Isaac Hayes - Live at the Sahara Tahoe
Cypress Hill - Live at The Fillmore
Donny Hathaway - Live
Marillion - The Thieving Magpie
Rage Against The Machine - Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium
Gov’t Mule - The Deepest End
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Live Alive
Miles Davis - Live - Evil
Marillion - Real To Reel
Miles Davis - Live @ The Plugged Nickel
Al di Meola, John McLaughlin, & Paco de Lucia - Friday Night In San Francisco
Supertramp - Paris
Live Phish - 11/30/94
Pink Floyd - Ummagumma
Ween - Live @ Stubbs
Grateful Dead - Reckoning
Neil Young - Live at Massey Hall 1971
Matisyahu - Live at Stubbs
DMB - Live at Red Rocks
Bob Dylan -Bob Dylan Live 1966, “The Royal Albert Hall Concert”
Wilco - Kicking Television
John Cale - Sabotage
BB King - Live at the Regal
Dave Matthews Band - The Central Park Concert
Ozzy Osbourne - The Randy Rhoads Tribute
Yes - Yessongs
Stevie Ray Vaughn - Live at Carnegie Hall
Van Morrison - Too Late to Stop Us Now
Jimi Hendrix - Live at Fillmore East
The Allman Brothers - Live at Fillmore East
Led Zeppelin - The Song Remains the Same
The Clash - Live: From Here to Eternity
Johnny Cash - Live at San Quentin
Angra - Rebrith World Tour: Live in Sao Paulo
Iron Maiden - Death On the Road
Metallica - Binge and Purge
Pink Floyd - Pulse
Otis Eedding - Live at the Monterey Pop Festival
Frank Sinatra - At The Sands
Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. - Summit: In Concert
Woodstock
Wattstax
Derek and the Dominoes - Live at the Filmore
The Band - Rock of Ages
Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense
Muddy Waters - Newport
Violent Femmes - Viva Wisconsin
Sam Cooke - Live in Harlem
Duke Ellington - Newport
Wes Montgomery - Smokin’ at the Half Note
Oscar Peterson Trio - Stratford Shakespeare Festival
Bill Evans - Sunday at the Village Vanguard

Along with “Greasy Truckers Party” the original Triple Album “Glastonbury Fayre” album has always had legendary status amongst Hawkwind fans. Back in the days before commercialism came to town you could enjoy bands like The Grateful Dead, Gong and Hawkwind for free, whilst indulging in exotic mind altering substances, like tea.

The track listing of the Glastonbury Fayre album reads: -

CD One
1. THE GRATEFUL DEAD: Dark Star
2. BRINSLEY SCHWARZ: Love Song
3. MIGHTY BABY: A Blanket In My Muesli
4. MARC BOLAN: Sunken Rags
5. PETE TOWNSHEND: Classified
6. DAVID BOWIE: Supermen
7. HAWKWIND: Silver Machine; Welcome to the Future
8. SKIN ALLEY: Sun Music

CD Two
1. DAEVID ALLEN AND GONG: Glad Stoned; Buried Fielding; Flash And Fresh; Fest Footprint In My Memory
2. THE PINK FAIRIES: Do It
3. THE PINK FAIRIES: Uncle Harry’s Last Freak-Out
4. THE EDGAR BROUGHTON BAND: Out Demons Out

Silver Machine on this album is the original version with Bob Calvert on vocals, these were replaced by Lemmy’s in the chart conquering single.

The Dead, the Wind and Gong, what’s not to like?

There are currently a batch of re-mastered and extras packed versions of classic albums doing the rounds at bargain prices at the moment.

40th Anniversary versions of the The Doors albums can be found in the shops for under a fiver. The new versions have been remixed and include bonus tracks to keep any Doorheads out there happy. While I think that some of the re-mixes sound inferior to the originals I remember, the new editions sound clearer than they ever have before and at the price are well worth getting hold of.

Pick of the bunch: “The Doors“, “L.A. Woman” (arguably one of the greatest albums of the Sixties) and “Morrison Hotel“.

Speaking of heads and moving on a decade, brings me to the re-vamped Talking Heads albums that have recently dropped in price. Again these have been re-mixed with added extra track goodliness tagged on, but the real icing on the cake is the inclusion of a DVD that has Dolby Digital 5.1 versions of the original albums. Now you can immerse yourself in Road to Nowhere coming at you from all around, while you’re making flippy floppy in your big suit. Fantastic.

Cream of the crop: “Fear of Music“, “More Songs About Buildings and Food“, “Remain in Light“, “Talking Heads: 77“.