A Big Week In The News, Being Traitorous and Dolly Turns 80

Well, what a week. I had intended to write another post that followed on from last time, but after two fairly routine vaccinations on Monday, I spent the rest of the week in bed with flu-like symptoms. It seems I was one of the unlucky ones who got quite bad side-effects, but on the upside, I should avoid Shingles, Pneumonia, Sepsis and Meningitis in the years to come. I was in two minds about having them as we’ve become human pin-cushions of late but then I thought of all the people of my generation who would still be around had they been offered the childhood vaccines now freely available. Also, a few days of feeling a bit shitty is still far better than getting the diseases listed above, so I went for it.

Not much to do when you have a duvet pulled up to your chin but I did manage to listen to the radio and scroll on my phone. In fact I did manage to do an awful lot of scrolling and it turned out to be quite a big week for news stories on social media. First of all the World Economic Forum took place in Davos where world leaders from government, business and academia met to discuss global issues and set priorities. Even David Beckham turned up to address issues with social media, which was quite ironic this week of all weeks.

The beautiful Davos in Switzerland


The not so beautiful Davros (impossible not to think of him when you hear the word Davos)


So what was discussed at Davos? I’m afraid the detail eluded me what with having a fever an’ all but it seems there was one very impressive speech from a world leader we know very well over here because of his time at the Bank of England. It will be remembered for a long time. There was another speech that will be remembered for a long time also, but perhaps for all the wrong reasons. Earlier in the week some of the posts on social media made me chuckle, but as the days have gone by I’m starting to think it’s all a bit sad. Having witnessed my own mum deteriorate mentally from the age of 80, I can see the signs. It was another three years until she was officially diagnosed by which time things had really got quite bad. I hope the administration in charge have the levers needed to address such a serious issue otherwise we really are in for a tough time.

A country whose name is apparently interchangeable!


A much-loved character from our childhood who was also obsessed by “windmills”, but he needed them to grind his grain, not generate clean energy


Whatever happens, there now seems to have been a line crossed in the sand and for the male and female leaders of European countries, it’s time to…


In other news, there has been a very public falling out between the Beckhams and their eldest son. Most people will not be remotely interested in this but it even made it to the national news, so just shows the level of interest in their lives. Again, the first posts on social media made me chuckle, but for VB, former Spice Girl, this week has been excruciatingly embarrassing, and it’s sad that it’s come to this. A not very-talented singer and a good footballer have managed to amass a fortune through hard work and self-promotion, but, they didn’t ever consider that their children might not have wanted to be part of the copyrighted “brand”, especially as adults. Also, as the old saying goes, “A son is a son till he takes him a wife, but a daughter is a daughter all of her life”. I hope they can work things out behind the scenes but I fear worse is yet to come.

There was no actual footage from the wedding held for Beckham Jnr and his new bride, but the former Spice Girl has been accused of humiliating her son by doing a bit of this with him…


From all accounts it wasn’t that bad but VB would have been wise to remember that it was the bride’s day and only she should be centre stage. But what do I know? I do remember that not long after the film Dirty Dancing came out this song became a hit all over Europe and many of us tried doing the Lambada for the first time. Like most South American dances it is a bit raunchy and not something we were used to in the Scottish Highlands, but maybe at weddings of the rich and famous it’s de rigueur.


Did you watch it? The latest series of The Traitors came to a conclusion on Friday and again, such was the furore, it featured on the national news. I for one just don’t get it but I seem to be in the minority so ended up watching the whole series (for research purposes). Personally I think of it as reality tv for middle-class people. It’s touted as “a game” where you have to be really clever to oust the traitors from the castle. To be fair, you do have to be a goodish actor if you’re chosen to be a traitor, but other than that it’s just a lot of people sitting around asking each other who they’re going to vote for, and lying a lot. Anyway, it got massive viewing figures, and the area it takes place in is just north of us so good publicity for The Highlands. The castle is at Ardross and I discovered this week it used to be owned by Mr Perrins of the famous Lea and Perrins brand. Look what a dash of Worcestershire Sauce could buy you in those days.

The beautiful Ardross Castle just north of the Cromarty Firth

This year’s finalists with the diminutive Claudia (who comes to our town for her spray tans!)

I didn’t mention who won the show in case anyone hasn’t watched it yet but no worries about spoilers with this next story, again on national news. It was Dolly Parton’s 80th birthday last week and she is still as busy as ever. I watched two programmes last night on BBC2 about her and it’s impossible not to smile when doing so. She is so upbeat and positive the whole time, exuding that wholesome Southern Charm. It seems she has been like that since childhood and it’s hard to believe she is not like that all the time but even Dolly must have her dark days, especially after her husband Carl died last year. She hides them well though and no-one ever sees her without her signature wigs, make-up and outfits. Even during filming, she never emerges from her dressing room or trailer without being fully Dollified. It’s just who she is.

Hello Dolly!


To finish off this longish post (sorry), here is a clip from 12 years ago when she appeared in the Legends slot at Glastonbury. I don’t know what Dolly’s undergarments are like, or if it’s all cosmetically enhanced, but she certainly has a perky bottom for someone of her years. This song, Jolene, was unbelievably the only one that remotely bothered the UK Singles Chart, reaching the No. 7 spot in 1976. Dolly has written over 3000 songs during her lifetime and apparently wrote both Jolene and I Will Always Love You during the same song writing session in 1973. Not a bad return on the time spent.

Jolene by Dolly Parton:


I think I’ve told this story before, but even to this day Mr WIAA winces when he hears the song Jolene. It came out at just the wrong time for him, before he’d had work done to remedy his slightly discoloured teeth, which had come about because of the tablets his mum had taken for morning sickness ahead of his birth. Oh yes, kids can be cruel, and because his teeth had a “greenish” hue, his classmates’ playground taunt was Joe Green, Joe Green, Joe Green, Joe Green… , sung along to the melody of Dolly’s famous hit. Needless to say, his schooldays weren’t the best years of his life but it just goes to show, sometimes a little bit of “work” is needed to make life as a teen just that little bit more tolerable.

Until next time…

Jolene Lyrics
(Song by Dolly Parton)

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I’m begging of you please don’t take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Please don’t take him just because you can

Your beauty is beyond compare
With flaming locks of auburn hair
With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green

Your smile is like a breath of spring
Your voice is soft like summer rain
And I cannot compete with you, Jolene

He talks about you in his sleep
There’s nothing I can do to keep
From crying when he calls your name, Jolene

And I can easily understand
How you could easily take my man
But you don’t know what he means to me, Jolene

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I’m begging of you please don’t take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Please don’t take him just because you can

You could have your choice of men
But I could never love again
He’s the only one for me, Jolene

I had to have this talk with you
My happiness depends on you
And whatever you decide to do, Jolene

Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
I’m begging of you please don’t take my man
Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene
Please don’t take him even though you can

Jolene, Jolene

Postscript

For those followers who are happy for me to update them on any change at the top of the UK Singles Chart, I found out at 6pm on Friday that this song is the new No. 1 – Raindance by Dave (ft. Tems)

Stranger Things, Heroes Of A Different Kind and A Return To The 1980s

Well, last time I celebrated publishing my 500th post and also this blog’s 10th birthday, but enough of all that back patting and time to crack on with post 501 and my 11th year of blogging. Thanks to everyone who dropped by to congratulate me though.

In the early days of the blog I was often surprised by how one post led onto another, as a connection I hadn’t hitherto noticed became apparent by the time I got to the end. This happened last time. In my very first post I had shared the song Life On Mars? with the video clip of David Bowie in his pale blue suit, as he had passed away the day before on the 10th of January 2016. For the blog’s 10th birthday and anniversary of his death I decided to share it again, with another Bowie song at the end of the post, Heroes, chosen mainly because again he was wearing a pale blue suit. He was after all voted The Best-Dressed Briton in History.

So, what’s this amazing connection I hear you ask? I had also compared pouring over the new UK Singles Chart back in the ’70s, when David Bowie was at his prime, with the UK Singles Chart of today which I have just started to follow again. Because we consume our music so differently nowadays with downloads and streaming rather than purely physical copies counting towards “sales”, it can look very different. Last year the UK Top 10 was awash with hits from the smash Netflix animated film Kpop Demon Hunters, and for the last two weeks the actor/singer/songwriter Joe Keery/Djo (the handsome Steve Harrington from Netflix’s Stranger Things) has secured the top spot in the Singles Chart with his song End of Beginning.


Last week I was more fixated on my blog’s anniversary to dive deeper into the effect Stranger Things has had on music charts, but now I have, and I will share it with you. For anyone who hasn’t watched Stranger things yet, why not? It’s a drama set in the 1980s, centred on a group of young people from the fictional small town of Hawkins, Indiana. A nearby secretive government research facility experiments on children, and after a young girl called Eleven with psychokinetic powers inadvertently creates a wormhole known as the Upside Down, it connects Earth to a hostile realm. It blends investigative drama with supernatural horror, and references the popular culture of the ’80s. The final episode, of the final season, aired on New Year’s Day here in the UK and after an emotional ending where this little gang of misfits saved the world, the song used for the end credits was David Bowie’s Heroes, suggested by Joe Keery himself.


Because of it’s inclusion in this top rated show, Heroes is now back in the UK Singles Chart along with other relevant songs like Diana Ross’s Upside Down. The soundtrack contains some of the biggest hits of the 1980s and they have been propelled back to fame, the biggest success story being the Kate Bush song Running Up That Hill used to great effect in Season 4 (written about here). After 37 years she finally reached the No. 1 spot in 2022. In Season 5, one of the characters is given a cassette tape with Tiffany’s I Think We’re Alone Now and yes, you’ve guessed it, it’s back in the UK Singles Chart.

I think We’re Alone Now by Tiffany:


Other songs used on the S5 soundtrack are as follows:

  • When Doves Cry by Prince
  • Purple Rain by Prince
  • Landslide by Fleetwood Mac
  • Here Comes Your Man by Pixies
  • The Trooper by Iron Maiden
  • Sweet Jane by Cowboy Junkies
  • Rockin’ Robin by Michael Jackson (The Jackson 5 version also featured)
  • Fernando by ABBA
  • Pretty in Pink by The Psychedelic Furs

I have just checked and eight songs are now back in the current Singles Chart because of Stranger Things, but although I said such lists look very different nowadays because of these popular Netflix shows, maybe it’s selective memory coming into play. I seem to remember in the summer of 1978 most of the songs in the charts were either from the film Saturday Night Fever or Grease (it was a John Travolta summer). Likewise, our Saturday evening cop shows often threw up a hit or two from the stars involved – I’m looking at you David Soul and also you Telly Savalas. Even our own home grown shows could generate successful top-selling artists once Mr Cowell got his hands on them – Robson & Jerome anyone? Maybe things haven’t changed all that much after all.

I Think We’re Alone Now was written and composed by Ritchie Cordell and first recorded by Tommy James and the Shondells. The song was originally written as a romantic ballad, but when James and Cordell recorded a quick demo, they made the song faster. Tommy James later wrote: “Ritchie originally wrote the song as a mid-tempo ballad. I said no way and started speeding it up. I put on a nasally, almost juvenile-sounding lead vocal, and without realizing it, we invented “bubblegum” music.” 


Until next time…

I Think We’re Alone Now Lyrics
(Song by Ritchie Cordell)

Children behave
That’s what they say when we’re together
And watch how you play
They don’t understand

And so we’re running just as fast as we can
Holdin’ on to one another’s hand
Tryin’ to get away into the night
And then you put your arms around me
And we tumble to the ground
And then you say

I think we’re alone now
There doesn’t seem to be anyone around
I think we’re alone now
The beating of our hearts is the only sound

Look at the way
We gotta hide what we’re doin’
‘Cause what would they say
If they ever knew?

And so we’re running just as fast as we can
Holdin’ on to one another’s hand
Tryin’ to get away into the night
And then you put your arms around me
And we tumble to the ground
And then you say

I think we’re alone now (alone now)
There doesn’t seem to be anyone around
I think we’re alone now (alone now)
The beating of our hearts is the only sound

I think we’re alone now (alone now)
There doesn’t seem to be anyone around
I think we’re alone now
The beating of our hearts is the only sound

10 Years of Blogging, 500 Posts and A David Bowie Anniversary

Well, I didn’t know if I could do it but I have timed things to perfection and this will be my 500th post, just ahead of this blog’s 10th birthday, which is tomorrow. 500 posts in 10 years won’t seem like a lot to some of the daily bloggers, but my efforts are usually quite long, require a fair bit of research, and at times I’ve been MIA (regular followers know why), so I’m quite chuffed with myself. Of course the fact I wrote 100 posts in my first 10 months of blogging shows that I’ve really slowed down over the years, but 50 posts per year seems like a good average to me. I hope to get an achievement badge from the WordPress people once I press the publish button on this one, and a birthday badge tomorrow!


I started this blog, by coincidence, the day we heard the news that David Bowie had died, so it was inevitable my first post would feature him. I had planned to write about “music and memories” – pick a song from my past and write about what life was like back then, with a few musical anecdotes thrown in. The decade I was most invested in chart music was the 1970s, as anyone born right at the start of the ’60s will probably agree. The songs you listen to then stay with you for life, and in a Pop Quiz, I am the expert on the Top 30 for those years.

And so it came to pass, on day one of the blog, I was writing a tribute for one of the few true icons (that word is used far too loosely nowadays) this country has ever produced. It didn’t take long for me to realise this would become a pattern as if I was getting older, my pop idols of the ’70s would be getting even older. David Bowie died of cancer, on this day in 2016 at the relatively young age of 69. We didn’t ever have to watch him get really old and infirm which is a bit of a blessing, and right up until his death he was still crowned the best-dressed Briton in history. I’m sure, however, his family would have liked to have had him around for a lot longer.


The very first song I shared around here was therefore Life On Mars? and I have pretty much shared a Bowie song every year since on this date. The film for Life On Mars? (we didn’t yet call them videos) still looks pretty avant-garde today, 53 years on. This leads me to believe I was born at just the right time for a life-long fascination with the theatre, frills and falderals of pop music. In the 1960s we watched our favourite pop stars in black and white, and in the main, especially on UK prime time telly, they were dressed fairly conservatively – men in suits and women in those evening dresses that looked a bit like nighties. It was starting to change at the tail end of the decade but once we started to watch them in colour at the start of the 1970s, glam rock had really taken hold in Britain, and boy were we in for a treat. David Bowie was definitely the most flamboyant but we also had T. Rex, Sweet, Slade and Roxy Music. What a great time to be entering our teenage years and I know many of my blogging pals still hold those years very dear indeed.

Life On Mars? by David Bowie:


Here is something I haven’t mentioned before – last summer I started following the Official UK Charts again, and I get an email every Friday at 6pm telling me what’s changed since the week before. As the months have gone by I’ve become familiar with the runners and riders, but because we consume our music so differently nowadays, via streaming mainly, the charts are nothing like the ones my friends and I used to follow with avid interest in our teens. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, the Top 10 was hogged by only three artists, Taylor Swift (with three songs from her The Life of a Showgirl album), Olivia Dean (with three songs from her The Art of Loving album) and three songs from the stars of the animated film, KPop Demon Hunters (the most watched film in Netflix history). The song Golden stayed at the top spot for weeks in the autumn of last year, performed by the fictional, animated, K-pop girl group Huntrix (the first time this had happened since the Archies achieved the same feat in 1969 with Sugar, Sugar).


I don’t think K-pop is really for my generation (you don’t say!) but for the youngsters of today, it seems all pervasive. During the month of December the Top 10 stayed pretty much the same with Wham!’s song at the top spot, Mariah Carey as runner-up and the usual suspects filling the other slots (all songs from 40-60 years ago). Now we are into the new year we’ve had a song that’s been sitting around the Top 10 for quite a while finally reach the top spot (Raye’s Where Is My Husband!), and yesterday I got an email telling me that it had been replaced by someone called Djo. Who the heck is that I thought, and blow me down, if it isn’t the musical moniker of Stranger Things actor Joe Keery, aka the handsome Steve Harrington. His song End of Beginning was originally released in 2022 and has hovered around the lower rungs of the chart since then, but with Season 5 just having ended his fan base have taken to streaming his song in big numbers. Another Netflix show that has influenced our UK Singles Chart. Here is Joe/Djo with his song.


Well I don’t know about you, but I think the Top 10 of my teenage years was far more innovative and interesting, with big change happening every week. In the interests of research however I will keep tabs on things and give all of you who would rather poke your eye out with a sharp stick than listen to the current Top 10, an update!

I didn’t really expect my 500th post to go this way but I often don’t know what I’m going to write about until I sit down at my computer. The really great thing that’s happened since I started this game 10 years ago, is that I’ve made an awful lot of new like-minded friends, both virtual and in the real world, which I certainly didn’t expect. There are regular features I join in with, like Rol’s Saturday Snapshots, John’s Photo Challenge and Ernie’s Pun Fun. We’ve had four quite big BlogCons in cities all over the UK and a fair few mini meetups with two or three bloggers. It’s not how we made new friends in the old days, but it’s how things happen nowadays, so maybe I shouldn’t be so dismissive of how the teens of today operate.

I’m definitely going to keep going, and if I’m spared I’ll aim for another 500 posts in 10 years. Whether blogging and WordPress will still be around at that point is anyone’s guess, but I hope it survives in some form.

To end, I really think I should share something else by David Bowie on this, the anniversary of his death. Here he is singing 1977’s Heroes [starts at 1:00] at Live Aid in 1985. There is no bright blue eye-shadow this time, but just like in the film above, his hair is tinged with red and he is sporting a well-cut pale blue suit – an homage I suspect. I still have my copy of Words magazine from when the song Heroes was released and back then they wrote, “Of all our current top rock stars, David Bowie is the one most likely to remain a major musical force decades hence… .” And they continue, “Listening to this [Heroes], you realise that Bowie’s strength and durability lies in the fact he refuses to fit neatly into any specific category. He will constantly surprise even his most dedicated followers, while maintaining an unvarying high quality of performance.” They weren’t wrong.

Heroes by David Bowie:


Until next time…

Heroes Lyrics
(Song by David Bowie/Brian Eno)

I, I will be king
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing, will drive them away
We can beat them, just for one day
We can be heroes, just for one day

And you, you can be mean
And I, I’ll drink all the time
‘Cause we’re lovers, and that is a fact
Yes, we’re lovers, and that is that

Though nothing, will keep us together
We could steal time, just for one day
We can be heroes, forever and ever
What’d you say?

I, I wish you could swim
Like the dolphins, like dolphins can swim
Though nothing, nothing will keep us together
We can beat them, forever and ever
Oh, we can be heroes, just for one day

I, I will be king
And you, you will be queen
Though nothing will drive them away
We can be heroes, just for one day
We can be us, just for one day

I, I can remember (I remember)
Standing, by the wall (by the wall)
And the guns, shot above our heads (over our heads)
And we kissed, as though nothing could fall (nothing could fall)
And the shame, was on the other side

Oh, we can beat them, forever and ever
Then we could be heroes, just for one day
We can be heroes
We can be heroes
We can be heroes
Just for one day

We can be heroes
We’re nothing, and nothing will help us
Maybe we’re lying, then you better not stay
But we could be safer, just for one day
Oh-oh-oh-oh, oh-oh-oh-oh

Postscript

I did get my achievement badge for publishing 500 posts so have edited it in above. Yeah me.

And now my birthday badge.

An American Odyssey in Song: Maryland and “Moonlight Feels Right”

Welcome to this occasional series where I am attempting a virtual journey around the 50 States of America in song. For anyone new to this place, I have a continuous route map where I enter and leave each state only once. Suggestions for the next leg always welcome!

Well, I’ve been stuck in Delaware since the summer of 2024, but now I’m ready to pick up my route and the next state I’m heading into is Maryland.

Maryland was founded by the 1st Baron Baltimore and it’s most populous city was named after him. Looking at a map of Maryland, it’s a markedly “watery” state, with Chesapeake Bay cutting right through its middle. Its western section contains stretches of the Appalachians and the central part of the state is mainly farmland. National Geographic once dubbed Maryland, “America in Miniature,” due to the fact that nearly every kind of terrain can be found there.


In 1790, the national capital was moved from Philadelphia to land in Maryland selected by the first President George Washington for the creation of the federal government. The land donated was along the north shore of the Potomac River and became Washington DC. The majority of Maryland’s population is concentrated in the cities and suburbs surrounding Washington DC, and in and around Baltimore. Maryland has the highest median household income of any state, owing mainly to its proximity to Washington, D.C., and a highly diversified economy spanning manufacturing, retail services, public administration, real estate, higher education, information technology, defense contracting, health care, and biotechnology.

There are still strong maritime traditions in the Chesapeake Bay area and the state food is the serving up of blue crabs with Old Bay Seasoning. Maryland has a very distinctive state flag with the Calvert (black/gold) and Crossland (red/white) family coats of arms. The Baltimore Oriole is the state bird, inspiring the name of the baseball team. Johns Hopkins University, the world famous research institution is in Baltimore.

As for film and television, the musical Hairspray follows teenager Tracy Turnblad’s dream to dance on The Corny Collins Show, a local TV dance programme. When Tracy wins a role on the show, she becomes a celebrity overnight, leading to social change as Tracy campaigns for the show’s integration.


The crime drama The Wire is one of the best things we ever watched on television. The idea for the show started out as a police drama loosely based on the experiences of a former homicide detective and public school teacher. Set and produced in Baltimore, The Wire introduced a different institution of the city and its relationship to law enforcement in each season.


As for celebrities who hail from Maryland, the swimmer Michael Phelps is one as is the actress Goldie Hawn. In the world of music we have the great Billie Holiday as well as Tori Amos, David Byrne and Toni Braxton.


But what song can I share that refers to the state of Maryland? As it turns out the song Moonlight Feels Right by Starbuck has been shared around here before as part of another series, but it does mention Chesapeake Bay so it’s a perfect candidate. It was never a hit in the UK, so although I know the song well it must be from hearing it on the radio over the years. It was however a big hit in the US, Canada and Australia, so I wonder why it didn’t strike a cord over here. To me it just screams 1976 America (as we called it back then), and reminds me of another song from across the pond I also like from that year. Yes, one of the very first songs I ever wrote about around here was I’d Really Love To See You Tonight by England Dan & John Ford Coley. In Scotland, even during a heatwave, it is never warm after dark, so back in 1976 I just loved the idea of those “warm winds blowin’ the stars around”. Likewise, in Moonlight…, we are painted a picture of warm summer evenings by the coast, with the moon and stars shining brightly in the night sky.

I’ll take you on a trip beside the ocean
And drop the top at Chesapeake Bay
Ain’t nothin’ like the sky to dose a potion
The moon’ll send you on your way

You say you came to Baltimore from Ole Miss
Class of seven-four, gold ring
The eastern moon looks ready for a wet kiss
To make the tide rise again

Moonlight Feels Right by Starbuck:


It’s from a long time ago now, but when I wrote about Delaware and mentioned I’d be heading into Maryland next, I did get one song suggestion from Khayem. He wrote:

Try searching The Divine Comedy and Maryland on YouTube and you should find it easily…

I did search and the song he refers to is this one, Maryland Electric Rainstorm, from their 1998 album End Of The Century/Fin de Siècle.

A new road, when on an old man’s bad advice
He left to cross the woods, but just
Got totally lost, and then
The Maryland electric rainstorm broke
Over his head, making him wet, upset, then
The Maryland electric rainstorm broke everything
Soaked through his skin, into his heart and soul


So there we have it, a whistle stop tour of Maryland and not many songs shared. Next time I’ll be heading into West Virginia and I already know that state will throw up a fair few tunes. Please do add your suggestions to the comments boxes if you have any.

Until next time…

Moonlight Feels Right Lyrics
(Song by Bruce Blackman)

The wind blew some luck in my direction
I caught it in my hands today
I finally made a tricky French connection
You winked and gave me your O.K.
I’ll take you on a trip beside the ocean
And drop the top at Chesapeake Bay
Ain’t nothing like the sky to dose a potion
The moon’ll send you on your way

Moonlight feels right
Moonlight feels right

We’ll lay back and observe the constellations
And watch the moon smilin’ bright
I’ll play the radio on southern stations
‘Cause southern belles are hell at night
You say you came to Baltimore from Ole Miss
Class of seven-four, gold ring
The eastern moon looks ready for a wet kiss
To make the tide rise again

Moonlight feels right
Moonlight feels right

We’ll see the sun come up on Sunday morning
And watch it fade the moon away
I guess you know I’m giving you a warning
‘Cause me and moon are itching to play
I’ll take you on a trip beside the ocean
And drop the top at Chesapeake Bay
Ain’t nothin’ like the sky to dose a potion
The moon’ll send you on your way

Moonlight feels right
Moonlight feels right

Moonlight feels right
Moonlight feels right

Summer Romances, “On The Beach” and RIP Chris Rea

I was saddened to hear of the death Chris Rea just before Christmas. He was just 74 but once you read about the various ailments he had suffered over the years it seems he did well to live that long. In 1995 he got peritonitis and nearly died. Pancreatic cancer came along in 2001 which led to diabetes, and then he had a stroke in 2016. Some people are very unlucky when it comes to health issues whereas others, against all the odds, seem to live a very long and charmed life (I’m looking at some octogenarian band members here).


Most of us know that Chris was a Middlesbrough lad, and his accent confirmed that, but I have just found out that his father was an Italian who had come over to Britain and set up an ice-cream factory. The unusual surname, ending in a vowel, should have given a clue but in the world of music you don’t question such things. Chris apparently started dating his wife Joan when he was just 17 so they were together a very long time – she will be bereft.

Chris Rea blended blues, pop, soul and soft rock and made 25 studio albums, featuring chart hits which included The Road to Hell, Driving Home for Christmas, and tracks such as On the Beach and Josephine that earned popularity in the Balearic dance scene.

The one I’m going to share however is On The Beach from 1986. I had a particularly nice summer that year as I went with the flatmates of the time to Zakynthos in Greece for my first ever all-girls holiday. Two of those flatmates I am going to have a Zoom call with tonight as we have a weekend away to plan. Since the kids have grown up and people have started to retire there is much more time for such adventures, and other than my biological family and the family I created with Mr WIAA, it’s the only other family I’ve ever been part of, the urban family we had for nine years in the Aberdeen of the ’70s and ’80s. Not sure if we’ll be planning a weekend in Zakynthos however.

On The Beach by Chris Rea:


But my beach holiday is not necessarily why I chose to feature this lovely song. I’m going to bore regular readers with a story that I know I’ve mentioned before, but worth retelling I think. One of the flatmates I went on that holiday with ended up moving south in 1987, the same year I moved north to the Highlands (yes, our little urban family had broken up). After moving around a bit over the years she ended up in a lovely house in Berkshire, which had been a gardener’s cottage, but not like any gardener’s cottage I’ve seen. She was too late but it was next door to the house Chris Rea used to own and from which he had recorded the song about the “road to hell” (driving home to Berkshire from London). His recording studio in the garden had shared a party wall with the home office my friend set up there and I often wondered when we went to visit whether On The Beach had actually been made there.

One more story before I go, Chris Rea also had himself a nice summer in 1986 as On the Beach was inspired by a trip to the Spanish island of Formentera off the coast of Ibiza. Chris is quoted as saying, ‘That’s where me and my wife, became me and my wife. That’s what it’s about. Yeah, I was ‘between the eyes of love.’ It’s a lovely island’. In the summer of 1986 I had just come out of a very long relationship which obviously wasn’t going anywhere and is why I was having my first “girls holiday”. We all had a little holiday romance which was exciting indeed but upon my return, looking all tanned and dressed in summery clothes, I met a chap in a local nightspot and instantly fell in love! He worked for a local oil company which was the norm back in the Aberdeen of the 1980s but we spent the next six weeks practically joined at the hip and one of the first things he did was give me the On The Beach album, which I still have. I couldn’t believe how lucky I was, as we just seemed to click so perfectly.


But these chaps who worked for oil companies were slippery characters and as the weeks went by I started to question him about his past and like me he’d had a long-term relationship, but unlike me, he was still in it! I was devastated and felt such a fool. I was out of practice with the rules of dating and had only ever gone out with people whose past I was fully aware of. I had given my ex an ultimatum and accepted that the relationship had to end. My new chap had also been given an ultimatum but was weak, and had a new job lined up in our Scottish capital so they could finally get married (against his will so he said?!). I still believe we had something special that On The Beach summer, and we did speak on the phone a few times after he moved away, but who knows, maybe I was just a massive Fool who was tricked into thinking that. I’ll never know the answer, but I do know he didn’t stay married for long, which is not surprising.


One more song before I go. The version of On The Beach I shared above was the one released as a single, however the original version from the  album was a much slower, more contemplative affair. It seems most people now prefer the original, but in case you want to compare and contrast for yourself, here is a clip.


Until next time, RIP Chris Rea, and remember to watch out for slippery characters who work for oil companies.

On The Beach Lyrics
(Song by Chris Rea)

Between the eyes of love I call your name
Behind the guarded walls I used to go
Upon a summer wind there’s a certain melody
Takes me back to the place that I know
Down on the beach

The secrets of the summer I will keep
The sands of time will blow a mystery
No-one but you and I
Underneath that moonlit sky
Take me back to the place that I know
On the beach

Forever in my dreams my heart will be
Hanging on to this sweet memory
A day of strange desire
And a night that burned like fire
Take me back to the place that I know
On the beach

Happy Hogmanay and My End Of The Year Review

I’ve left this until the last minute, but like last year on this day, I wanted to share my favourite things of 2025 before we cross that imaginary line that takes us into “next year”.

Music

I really should start with music as this is supposedly a music blog, although it definitely veers into other territory most of the time. This is the first year that I’ve not shared my thoughts about the Brit Awards that took place back in March. This is when I find out about all those artists that may have slipped under my radar, and if I have heard of them, it means I can put a face to the name.

Charlie XCX and Sabrina Carpenter

As usual there were some stunning performances on the night, although not from this year’s big winner, Charli XCX, as she apparently wanted to enjoy the show rather than feel the pressure of having to perform. Personally I just don’t get her kind of music but I don’t think she’s really targeting my demographic. An artist who did perform on the night, Sabrina Carpenter, seems to target young girls which I find quite frightening. She looks like an ’80s Page 3 girl, always seeming to dress in her underwear, and her poppy hits are instantly forgettable. I did enjoy American, Teddy Swims, who sounded a bit like Rag ‘N’ Bone Man and also Ezra Collective who performed a collaboration with Jorja Smith. There’s always a party going on when Ezra are on stage and they won the award for Best British Group of the year. They certainly justified their win with their performance at Glastonbury, later in the year.


When it came to the award for Best International Artist, that statuette went to Chappell Roan, who was my favourite new discovery of the year. I’ve not yet done a deep dive into her material but this song, although heavily played on the radio, stuck with me. Pink Pony Club is a story song that was written in 2019 but became a hit in 2024-2025. Roan’s debut album, The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, released in 2023, was met with widespread acclaim and praised by music critics for its “bold and emotionally charged nature”. I think she’ll be around for some time.

Film

Right at the start of this year I wrote about the Robbie Williams biopic and said it could well turn out to be my favourite film of the year. 12 months on it turns out I was right. I’m not generally a fan of biopics as we usually know the star’s life story already and why watch an actor sing and dance their way through the film when we can still watch plenty of footage of them via other means. Also, it’s often a highly edited version of the star’s life and only from the age of adulthood. All that was turned on its head in Better Man as Robbie was played by a CGI chimp. It sounds ridiculous but you get used to it incredibly quickly and the 8-year-old Robbie/chimp is very, very cute. The story takes us up to Robbie’s concert at the Royal Albert Hall around the time of his Swing While Your Winning album and despite the fact he has had to face his many demons along the way (the messy side of addition is not shied away from), at this point in his career he has made peace with himself and those closest to him. If you haven’t seen it yet, give it a try, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.


My other favourite films of this year are as follows:

A Complete Unknown (the Bob Dylan biopic – written about here)
Conclave (life imitates art – a BAFTA winner about the machinations that surround the choosing of a new Pope)
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (the third film in the murder/mystery series – currently on Netflix)

Books

Since instigating “Reading Hour” in our house at the start of 2024, I’ve read more books than I usually would in a year (I would thoroughly recommend it if you can find that elusive hour). My favourites of 2025 are as follows:

Butter – Asako Yuzuki (set in Tokyo, you learn a lot about Japanese culture)

The Writing On The Wall – Jenny Eclair (a 16-year-old girl of today magically finds herself in her own bedroom, in her own house, but in 1976 – I was 16 in 1976 so I loved the descriptions of the differences between girls then and now)

Here One Moment – Liane Moriarty (set in Australia it flips back and forth in time telling the story of the protagonist’s life, solving a puzzle as we go)

Cher: The Memoir Part 1 – Cher and others (I got this one free on my Kindle and although at first it felt like a lot of Cher anecdotes rolled into one, I became fascinated by her life story – we’ve only got to 1980 when she returned to acting, so I eagerly await Part 2)

Television

As ever, especially since Covid, a lot of telly-watching has been done in the living room of WIAA Towers this year. We have our favourite sofa spots to watch telly from and I fear the day will come when we morph into Maris Pipers. My Top 10 dramas of the year are as follows (Top 5 in bold):

SAS Rogue Heroes; Miss Austen; Toxic Town; Adolescence; This City Is Ours; The Bombing Of Pan Am 103; Blue Lights; Riot Women; Trigger Point; Shetland.

I am fully aware there have been other exceptional dramas on streaming channels we don’t subscribe to, but hey, we can’t have them all. We’ll catch them at some point no doubt. The drama that caused the biggest furore this year was Adolescence which was a remarkable piece of television where each of its episodes was shot in one continuous take. The story centres on 13-year-old schoolboy, Jamie Miller played by Owen Cooper, who is arrested after the murder of a girl in his school. Investigations at Jamie’s school and interviews by a forensic psychologist uncover Jamie’s views towards women associated with the “manosphere”, and the mockery he has received via social media. His poor family have to cope with the backlash from the community and work together to cope with the situation. It certainly was an eye-opener into the world of contemporary teens and I ended up watching it three times.


A shout out too for Shetland which until recently, I thought only went out in Scotland. It’s been going for a long time now, and has had a change of personnel, but I still think it’s one of the best crime dramas on telly. The last series finished recently and release was limited to one episode per week (like the old days). I was kind of excited all day ahead of the final episode airing and it certainly didn’t disappoint.

I’ve never been to Shetland but my friend’s husband covers the Northern Isles as part of his job, so she’s gone up with him twice recently on the ferry from Aberdeen to visit all the locations featured in the show. The Police Station is apparently a Council building but Jimmy Perez’s old house (in the water) is easily identifiable.

Sport

A new category for the review, but there were some fantastic sporting achievements this year, which if you’re a fan, would have given you a real high.

I’ll work backwards, but if you watched the Scotland v Denmark football match that took us through to next year’s World Cup in North America, it would have had you jumping in the air with joy. It’s 28 years since we’ve been at the World Cup finals and a generation of young men and women will experience it for the first time. It was tense for a long time when the match could have gone either way, but with two goals scored right at the end in injury time, the win was decisive and the Tartan Army will be looking out their kilts in readiness. No Scotland, No Party!

Earlier in the year, the England Women’s Football Team won the Euros after a nail-biting penalty shoot-out. And, the England Women’s Rugby Team won the World Cup. They’re definitely both showing the boys how things should be done.

Finally in this section, I’ll have to mention that back in April, Rory McIlroy won the Masters golf tournament in Atlanta. We were actually having a reunion that weekend with my two ex-flatmates and their husbands, who both play golf, so after our dinner we had to retreat to the bar at the back of our hotel in Pitlochry to watch the final round live. Mr WIAA definitely doesn’t play golf, not do I, but of course we did know of Rory’s prowess on the fairway so enjoyed watching the drama unfold. Rory did win after a play-off, which really was a big deal, as it means he is: one of only six players to have won all four big tournaments; the only European; and the first person to do so since since Tiger Woods in 2000.

Theatre/Concerts

I wrote recently about my trip to London to see ABBA Voyage (link here) so I won’t go there again. I’ve not actually been to our local theatre that often this year which is unusual for me but I did really enjoy the NTL showing of Dr Strangelove starring Steve Coogan. I don’t know quite how he did it but he managed to play four characters. The play is based on the 1964 film of the same name by Stanley Kubrick, adapted for the stage by Armando Iannucci and Sean Foley. Well worth a watch.


So there we have it, my review of the year in terms of what I’ve watched, read and listened to. Hopefully I’ve given you some recommendations.

At the end of last year I wrote that I was sad to see it end, as it had been such a good one. To be honest, I kind of feel that way again which is a bit of a worry as I don’t know how long my luck will hold out. We have a new puppy in the family who is a joy, I still love volunteering at the charity shop, I’ve had lots of reunions with friends and family, and my garden has looked spectacular (my top hobby this last summer). We have lost my mum, but as anyone who has had a relative with Alzheimer’s knows, it can become a blessing when they pass. A horrible, horrible disease.

I’ve just managed to get this one finished before I have my Hogmanay drink. A cocktail made by Mr WIAA. Happy New Year when it comes!

Until next time…


Pink Pony Club Lyrics
(Song by Daniel Nigro/Kayleigh Rose Amstutz)

I know you wanted me to stay
But I can’t ignore the crazy visions of me in LA
And I heard that there’s a special place
Where boys and girls can all be queens every single day

I’m having wicked dreams of leaving Tennessee
Hear Santa Monica, I swear it’s calling me
Won’t make my mama proud, it’s gonna cause a scene
She sees her baby girl, I know she’s gonna scream

God, what have you done?
You’re a pink pony girl
And you dance at the club
Oh mama, I’m just having fun
On the stage in my heels
It’s where I belong down at the

Pink Pony Club
I’m gonna keep on dancing at the
Pink Pony Club
I’m gonna keep on dancing down in
West Hollywood
I’m gonna keep on dancing at the
Pink Pony Club, Pink Pony Club

I’m up and jaws are on the floor
Lovers in the bathroom and a line outside the door
Blacklights and a mirrored disco ball
Every night’s another reason why I left it all

I thank my wicked dreams a year from Tennessee
Oh, Santa Monica, you’ve been too good to me
Won’t make my mama proud, it’s gonna cause a scene
She sees her baby girl, I know she’s gonna scream

God, what have you done?
You’re a pink pony girl
And you dance at the club
Oh mama, I’m just having fun
On the stage in my heels
It’s where I belong down at the

Pink Pony Club
I’m gonna keep on dancing at the
Pink Pony Club
I’m gonna keep on dancing down in
West Hollywood
I’m gonna keep on dancing at the
Pink Pony Club, Pink Pony Club

Don’t think I’ve left you all behind
Still love you and Tennessee
You’re always on my mind
And mama, every Saturday
I can hear your southern drawl a thousand miles away, saying

God, what have you done?
You’re a pink pony girl
And you dance at the club
Oh mama, I’m just having fun
On the stage in my heels
It’s where I belong down at the

Pink Pony Club
I’m gonna keep on dancing at the
Pink Pony Club
I’m gonna keep on dancing down in
West Hollywood
I’m gonna keep on dancing at the
Pink Pony Club, Pink Pony Club

I’m gonna keep on dancing
I’m gonna keep on dancing

The Infamous Joni Mitchell Bedroom Scene and Spoiling My Surprise


Hope everyone had a good Christmas and were given some lovely presents. Here is our little collection sitting under the tree. There was a tense moment however on Christmas morning, which looked as if it might lead to an “Emma Thompson moment” for me. In case you’ve never watched the much loved Richard Curtis movie Love Actually, Emma Thompson’s character who is married to Harry, had accidentally found a square-shaped box containing a beautiful gold necklace in his coat pocket, which she fully expects to be given as a surprise Christmas present. Come the hour, she opens this “surprise” gift with expectant glee, only to discover that it’s a Joni Mitchell CD boxset, a great present as she’s a big fan, but in that split second she realises that the gold necklace was for someone else, and she has to quickly extricate herself from the room. An emotional scene then takes place where she has to pull herself together before re-emerging to join the family.

Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell:


I think this emotional scene has traumatised women of a certain age and we all dread getting that metaphorical boxset one day. This year I thought it had happened to me and this is why. Because I keep a tight control on the finances around WIAA Towers, and because we have a shared bank account and credit card, we tend not to be able to give each other surprise presents, but that’s fine by me – I’d rather be solvent than have a diamond ring. We choose our own presents from each other, then wrap them and put them under the tree. This year, just before Christmas Day, I had printed off the latest credit card statement to check all was shipshape only to find a purchase from a local jeweller right at the bottom. I usually question Mr WIAA about any entries that can’t be explained but this time I let it slide as I thought he might, for the first time ever, be surprising me with a piece of jewellery.


And so it came to Christmas morning and as it was just the two of us we had a cup of tea first, and then leisurely started opening the presents under the tree. I had some from friends so opened them first but then I spotted something new, a rectangular box from “Santa”, that hadn’t been there the night before. Aha I thought, the surprise piece of jewellery. I ripped off the paper only to find some toiletries in nice Christmas packaging. My heart sank so I had to question Mr WIAA about the mysterious purchase on the credit card as I didn’t want to be like Emma and have to extricate myself from the room to listen to sad Joni Mitchell songs. It was at this point he reached for a smaller box hiding behind a bottle bag, also from “Santa”. I had kind of spoiled the surprise but it was indeed a box containing the beautiful heart-shaped earrings I’d casually admired when out shopping the previous weekend. He had apparently felt guilty as he’d had quite a few expensive items of sportswear and equipment this year whereas I had just chosen my perennial favourites, a few books, some pyjamas and some eats.

So, “What’s It All About?” – To all those middle-aged women who are now deeply suspicious of a surprise present from their partners because of that particular scene in Love Actually, try not to be. I spoilt my surprise which should have turned out better than it did. Of course it wouldn’t have been spoilt if we didn’t share bank accounts but I’m not quite ready to surrender control, yet. Maybe by next Christmas?

The song Both Sides Now featured in Love Actually was from Joni’s album of the same name, released in the year 2000, featuring the plaintive sounds of a more mature woman. 


Until next time…

Both Sides Now Lyrics
(Song by Joni Mitchell)

Rows and flows of angel hair
And ice cream castles in the air
And feather canyons everywhere,
I’ve looked at clouds that way.

But now they only block the sun,
They rain and they snow on everyone
So many things I would have done,
But clouds got in my way.

I’ve looked at clouds from both sides now
From up and down and still somehow
It’s cloud illusions I recall
I really don’t know clouds at all

Moons and Junes and Ferris wheels,
The dizzy dancing way that you feel
As every fairy tale comes real,
I’ve looked at love that way.

But now it’s just another show,
You leave ’em laughing when you go
And if you care, don’t let them know,
Don’t give yourself away.

I’ve looked at love from both sides now
From give and take and still somehow
It’s love’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know love at all

Tears and fears and feeling proud,
To say “I love you” right out loud
Dreams and schemes and circus crowds,
I’ve looked at life that way.

Oh but now old friends they’re acting strange,
They shake their heads, they say I’ve changed
Well something’s lost, but something’s gained
In living every day.

I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From win and lose and still somehow
It’s life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life at all

I’ve looked at life from both sides now
From up and down, and still somehow
It’s life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life at all

It’s life’s illusions I recall
I really don’t know life
I really don’t know life at all

A Look Back At Christmases Gone By and “I Believe In Father Christmas” (Does That Mean I’ll Get Presents?)

This is my 10th Christmas as a blogger, and boy, how things have changed in those 10 years. Regular followers around here will perhaps know what I am talking about, and I expect most people’s lives will have similarly changed, but to sum up my own situation here are how things were back in 2016. As well as dealing with all the admin attached to Mr WIAA’s business, I was still turning up at work every day to a traditional office where we still used paper, pens and folders. I had work colleagues I sat next to and we had Christmas lunches and nights out. I also however had to look after my mum who lived in a retirement flat nearby, and had an adult DD back living with us after a period of independence. I felt like the squeezed filling in a sandwich. How on earth did I find the time to take up this new hobby called blogging?

The Sandwich Generation: 2016


The first big change happened in 2017 after the walls came down (literally) at my workplace, and the adoption of LEAN working (working from home, hotdesking and no paper at all). I didn’t last long, and threw in the towel later on that year. Time to try new things I thought. That plan however was severely tested as my mum’s health deteriorated and she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in early 2018. After struggling on myself for nearly a year, we eventually found a lovely care home for her and she was there for over seven years, only passing away last month. As for DD, she met Mr Right in 2017, moved in with him in 2018 and got married in 2023. They are now happily ensconced in their new house with Alfie the puppy. Strangely enough, despite having more time on my hands now, my blogging output has very much diminished over the years, but what can I say, that first year I was a very keen blogger!

Empty Nesters: 2025


But this time I’m going to look back at a Christmas from much longer ago, 50 years ago, as the 1970s seems to be the decade I return to time and time again around here – the decade when I listened to and consumed the most music. Also I spotted this meme on social media recently and fully agreed with the sentiment (where did all those years go?).

How I feel all the time!


All the mainstream artists of the day released a seasonal ditty back in the ’70s and ironically they are songs we still hear on the radio and on compilations today. Why is this? Well we did consume our music in a very different way back in the ’70s, with whole families sitting down to watch Top of the Pops every week – a few slots on TOTP pretty much guaranteed you the coveted Christmas No. 1 position, and boy must those royalties still be rolling in for Slade and Wizzard, who between them assumed blanket coverage of December 1973’s airwaves with both Merry Xmas Everybody and I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday.

By Christmas 1975, an artist I had not really taken much heed of until that point, released a very satisfying seasonal record called I Believe In Father Christmas. His name was Greg Lake, first of King Crimson and then of Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Sadly, Greg was yet another casualty of 2016, my first year of blogging and the year when so many music legends passed away (George Michael, David Bowie, Prince…).

I Believe In Father Christmas by Greg Lake:

Greg wrote this song as an objection to the commercialisation of Christmas which in the intervening 50 years just seems to have got worse. Back in 1975 it reached No 2. in the UK Singles Chart but unlike some other Christmas songs from that era I feel it has stood the test of time. Something that I wouldn’t have known then was that the instrumental section between verses comes from a Suite by Prokofiev. If I had been a prog rock fan back then this might have made sense, but being a teenage girl I really wasn’t. Those of us who had older brothers were a bit more au fait with artists such as Emerson, Lake and Palmer who were attached to that sub-genre, but I didn’t, so was far more interested in my teen idols at that time, who often went by the name of David.

Thinking back to Christmas 1975, this song coincided with a very busy time for me education-wise as it would have been the year I sat my important Scottish “O Grade” Prelims (all 8 of them) in the build up to the holidays. Listening to a bit of festive music on our little kitchen transistor radio, whilst having breakfast before yet another big exam, would probably have been a bit of a tonic that set me up for the day. Also, thinking back, the ’70s were a bit of a grim time in Britain, so maybe the public took to buying seasonal tunes in their millions to make life just that little bit cheerier. Other big-selling records from that time were by Mud, Johnny Mathis, Paul McCartney, Mike Oldfield, Boney M and even The Wombles.

Sadly, very few contemporary artists have released anything recently that I think will be remembered in 50 years time. Even this year’s festive No. 1 by Kylie, called Xmas, has very little going for it and it seems she is bargaining on inspiring a new dance craze with the four letter title, like the YMCA boys did with their song. I have my doubts.

The Christmas flowers from DD’s in-laws that arrived when I was writing this!


Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it from all of us here at WIAA Towers – only myself and Mr WIAA now, but we will be seeing DD and Mr DD on Christmas Eve (they want to spend the big day on their own this year as “it was just so stressful hosting last year” – wish I’d tried that one back in the day!). Have a good one.

Until next time…

I Believe In Father Christmas Lyrics
(Song by Greg Lake/Peter Sinfield)

They said there’ll be snow at Christmas
They said there’ll be peace on Earth
But instead it just kept on raining
A veil of tears for the Virgin birth
I remember one Christmas morning
A winters light and a distant choir
And the peal of a bell and that Christmas Tree smell
And their eyes full of tinsel and fire

They sold me a dream of Christmas
They sold me a Silent Night
And they told me a fairy story
‘Till I believed in the Israelite
And I believed in Father Christmas
And I looked TO the sky with excited eyes
‘Till I woke with a yawn in the first light of dawn
And I saw him and through his disguise

I wish you a hopeful Christmas
I wish you a brave New Year
All anguish pain and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear
They said there’ll be snow at Christmas
They said there’ll be peace on Earth
Hallelujah Noel be it Heaven or Hell
The Christmas we get we deserve

Trips To London, ABBA Voyage and “Money, Money, Money”

I feel under pressure. My objective was to have pressed the publish button on 500 posts before this blog reaches its 10th birthday at the beginning of January, but I am now way behind schedule with seven still to write. As regular followers will know, there is a good reason for that, but as I still plan to reach my goal, I’d better get a wiggle on. Time for a web-diary type post.

It’s only 12 days ’til Christmas but I’ve not started thinking about it yet so no festive songs this time. Instead I’ll write about the other big things that have being going on around here over the last three weeks, starting with the trip to London we were advised to still go ahead with despite my mum’s passing. It had been planned for ages and it would be a while until her funeral service so it was a nice respite.


Just about every one of my friends had already seen the ABBA VOYAGE show in their purpose built arena in Stratford, but one who hadn’t, asked me a while back if I wanted to go. Then it turned out her husband wanted to join us so Mr WIAA decided to come too. This was the same couple who came to Eurovision with us 10 years ago, when we dressed up as Bucks Fizz, but this time we decided the outfits were just a little too outlandish (especially the mens’) for people of our vintage so I left my bright blue knickerbockers at home!

The hologrammed ABBA on stage!


As for the show, it certainly was an experience. You are in awe of the technology that allows them to be there on stage…, without them actually being there on stage, and the big wraparound screens showing them up close and personal were spectacular. I thought it would feel as if I was back in 1975 again, but I didn’t, as the arena is far more state of the art with fancy light shows than the small theatres I went to see bands in back then, and of course the audience is generally made up of people of a certain age. In the hour and a half running time however, there were only three songs we didn’t know with the rest all being crowd-pleasers, everyone singing along and dancing to the music. Would I go again? Probably not as I’ve done it now, but I’m glad I did.

Money, Money, Money by ABBA:


The ABBA show was on the Sunday night of our three day trip to London which left plenty of time to do other things. We split up with our friends on the Saturday which was fine as I had got in touch with our blogging pal Ernie Goggins of 27 Leggies to ask if would be willing to show us round his ‘hood? He was going to be available and was happy to do so, which led me to sending out a last-minute invitation to C from Sun Dried Sparrows to ask if she would be able to come through from Suffolk. I thought I had left it too late, but hurrah, she was free too, so we planned to meet up at Liverpool Street Station mid morning.

Ernie took his role as guide very seriously and had planned out a route that took in Brick Lane, Spitalfields Market, Graffiti Alley, The Huguenot Quarter, Shoreditch and The Dissenters Cemetery. The weather was a tad inclement but luckily we managed to fit all that in before the rain really started to pour down, after which we headed to the Barbican where Ernie had worked in his youth so he knew all the nooks, crannies and shortcuts! There we found a great photography exhibition featuring the icon that is Debbie Harry, back in her heyday. A great day was had by all and I now feel familiar with a part of London I had never visited before.

As for the rest of the trip we became very familiar with the Westfield Shopping Centre as our hotel was attached to it, but also The Olympic Park, the Docklands Light Railway and Canary Wharf. There, the tall glass towers housing financial institutions skirted the south side of the old East India Dock, but on the north side there was still Warehouse No. 1 and 2, which had been spared in The Blitz and was now a Museum, celebrating how the docks and wharfs of The Isle Of Dogs had at one point been the busiest in the world.


Crikey, my trip to London has fairly used up a lot of my words so I’ll be brief with the other things that have been going on around here of late. Even if you’re not a football fan it would be impossible to miss that we are now building up to the next FIFA World Cup to be held in North America next year. Scottish fans have not been privileged to watch their national side play in that competition for 28 years, but in a spectacular match against Denmark, where we scored two goals in extra time, we suddenly topped our group so are now definitely going to be taking part. For anyone aged 35 years or less, it will be a first-time experience so excitement is running high although I see the cost of tickets, flights and accommodation is going to be prohibitively high for all but the fans with the most Money, Money, Money. A great shame. Such was the spectacular nature of the goals scored in that last match, the merchandisers have been hard at work, and prints of those goals have been selling fast.


The hero of the night was Scott McTominay who seemed to defy the laws of gravity with his goal. Scott is also namechecked often in this song, already shared around here last year for the Euros, No Scotland No Party. It is true that until the Tartan Army arrive at a tournament, the party has not really begun, so I hope a fair number of them have enough money in their bankies to make the big trip across the pond to Boston and Miami.

No Scotland No Party by Nick Morgan:


We had a birthday in the family yesterday. Yes, Alfie the puppy turned one-year-of-age. We look after him a few times a week so despite not having chosen to own a dog ourselves, he is most definitely now shared by all of us. Needless to say he got a fair few presents and DD baked him some “pupcakes”, so he certainly was a pampered pooch.

Alfie in his new ball-pit with his birthday treat-holder!

What’s It All About, Alfie? by Cilla Black:


The final thing I wanted to share is that last week the charity shop I volunteer in moved to new premises in the centre of town. It’s big and shiny, like a “real shop” but maybe not the kind of place octogenarians are going to be able to help out in. An empty unit became available when quite a large chain clothes shop closed down, so those who plan the shop side of fund-raising quickly snapped it up. I think they had forgotten however that charity shops, in order to make money, rely on volunteers of a certain age to run them and even I was pretty tired after a four hour shift, what with a steady stream of customers queued up at the till, stock to price and replenish, shelves to tidy, and trips up two flights of stairs to fetch things. It feels at the moment like hard graft with no time to chat to your fellow volunteers or engage with customers, which was the fun part. The initial flood of business might tail off, but if it does the shop won’t make Money, Money, Money so a bit of a catch-22.


Although I said we no longer have time to engage with the customers, I did manage a quick chat with a 50-something year old chap with a hipster haircut who bought a clutch of singles, all from the 1980s. In fact it could have been a Who’s Who of people who appeared at Live Aid. I love catching people off guard as I don’t think they expect the volunteers to have much knowledge of the records we sell. I still don’t know why he liked the look of these particular singles so much but one of them was this, The Riddle, by Nik Kershaw. I ended up with an earworm that lasted several days, and I still don’t know what it’s all about!


Until next time…


Money, Money, Money Lyrics
(Song by Benny Andersson Bjoern Ulvaeus)

I work all night, I work all day
To pay the bills I have to pay
Ain’t it sad?
And still there never seems to be
A single penny left for me
That’s too bad

In my dreams I have a plan
If I got me a wealthy man
I wouldn’t have to work at all
I’d fool around and have a ball

Money, money, money
Must be funny
In the rich man’s world
Money, money, money
Always sunny
In the rich man’s world

Aha-aha
All the things I could do
If I had a little money
It’s a rich man’s world
It’s a rich man’s world

A man like that is hard to find
But I can’t get him off my mind
Ain’t it sad?
And if he happens to be free
I bet he wouldn’t fancy me
That’s too bad

So I must leave, I’ll have to go
To Las Vegas or Monaco
And win a fortune in a game
My life will never be the same

Money, money, money
Must be funny
In the rich man’s world
Money, money, money
Always sunny
In the rich man’s world

Aha-aha
All the things I could do
If I had a little money
It’s a rich man’s world

RIP Mum: Songs From The Funeral

Well, a lot has happened since my last post a fortnight ago. The biggest thing being that on Monday we had a funeral service for my mum, which despite being small and intimate, was packed full of all the elements I know she would have approved of, and some she might not – but which went down really well with everyone who attended and watched online. She would have come round I know.

DD’s chosen flower spray

There seems to be a tipping point with age of death, which might be individual to each person, but unlike when someone dies prematurely at far too young an age, there are others whom everyone can agree “had a good innings”, and the funeral service is more a celebration of their life. I think my mum’s service fell into the latter category. Even around here, we seem to be writing tributes all the time for our musical heroes who are passing on at an alarming rate, but there is a totally different tone when it’s for someone like George Michael as opposed to when it’s for Burt Bacharach. I really enjoyed writing Burt’s tribute as I could revisit all those great songs of his I loved listening to growing up, however, I was totally bereft when George died suddenly on Christmas Day 2016, and his heartfelt tribute stretched to four parts.

But back to my mum’s service. It was held at the funeral home as opposed to in a church which is the first thing my mum might have raised an eyebrow at, but the church she had attended in town closed in the years since she went into the care home, so that was no longer an option, and her minister had moved away. Fortunately the minister from our local church was happy to conduct the service (despite the fact we never attend) and so we jointly came up with the Running Order as I called it, although I think it’s supposed to be the Order Of Service.

Although last time I included some of my mum’s favourite artists and music, I took a different tack for her funeral service and the song that accompanied her coffin entering the room was this one, My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose by our National Bard, Rabbie Burns. My mum would never have thought of herself as anything but a Scot, not for any other reason than that was just what she was. It seemed apt therefore to have this sweet Burns song commence proceedings. In the video clip below the singer Karen Matheson is introduced by Mr WIAA’s old art teacher, Donnie Munro, of popular Scottish band Runrig. The audio clip is by Margaret Donaldson and was the one used for the service.

My Love Is Like A Red, Red Rose by Margaret Donaldson:


My luve’s like a red, red rose,
That’s newly sprung in June:
O my luve’s like the melodie
That’s sweetly play’d in tune.

Having just read up about Burns and the song, it seems he was more the “compiler” of A Red, Red Rose rather than its author. He could take childish/unsophisticated sources and turn them into magic. Many composers have set Burns’ lyric to music, but it gained worldwide popularity set to the traditional tune Low Down in the Broom. In the final years of his life, Burns worked extensively on traditional Scottish songs, ensuring the preservation of over 300, including, thankfully for Scots the world over on Hogmanay, Auld Lang Syne.

The service then went on to contain a hymn, a couple of readings from the bible and a prayer which is what my mum would have expected, and would have appealed to the many old friends and relatives who were watching from abroad and from our village in Aberdeenshire. When it came to the eulogy I was not prepared to leave it in the hands of a minister who didn’t know my mum, so I elected to write it myself. All this blogging for ten years should surely help with that I thought, and it did. I was advised that 1000 words would take 10 minutes but after testing that theory we found you get 1400 words into 10 minutes so I used every one of them wisely, telling the story of her life (the detail of which people were amazed I could remember) and throwing in a fair few humorous stories along the way. I was very pleased with how it turned out. After setting the scene with the eulogy we watched a slide show of 40 photos, chronologically recording my mum’s life (easy for me to put together as I have generations of family photos in my loft). Sadly the slide show hit technical difficulties at slide two so we missed the three photos below but luckily it righted itself fairly quickly.

Photos of my mum as a youngster from the chronological slide show of her life


The song I chose to accompany the slide show was again, very apt for my mum, and although I think she would have been a bit shocked by its inclusion, it was the element that everyone commented upon afterwards. It was Jimmy Unknown by Doris Day. My dad was called Jimmy and was present in more than half of the photos we shared so it was just perfect. Although I had been trial-running it for a week, poor DD was not prepared, and seeing photos of herself with granny and grandad definitely tipped her over the edge.

Over the mountain, over the sea
Somewhere my Jimmy is waiting for me


Jimmy Unknown by Doris Day:


After the slide show we had another reading and prayer followed by the final hymn – something we all knew how to sing. In today’s more secular society we are just not familiar with the hymns and prayers the previous generations grew up with, which can make it awkward when trying to sing along to the music at a funeral or wedding. It suddenly goes up when you think it’s going to go down (Mr WIAA’s pet hate), or vice-versa.

The music I chose for the committal, when the curtains are pulled shut to hide the coffin, was the same piece of music I chose for my dad’s funeral 22 years ago, Highland Cathedral. It just made sense to bring them together like that. As I said above, my mum and dad always saw themselves as Scottish and after I moved to The Highlands, they became very familiar with my neck of the woods. It’s hard to find a version that isn’t too rousing played by a massed pipe band, but I thought this version found a balance. The photo is one of the cathedral in the centre of our town.

Highland Cathedral by The Band of Her Majesty’s Royal Marines Scotland:


There were only 25 of us at the service, 10 family/extended family members and 15 of my friends and neighbours who knew her. I know that quite a few watched from the village and they got in touch to tell me what a lovely service it was which was a relief. My cousin in Perth, Australia, watched at 10.30pm however my cousin in Melbourne had to wait until we had a recording of it, as it would have been 1.30am for him.

Afterwards we went to the hotel recommended by the undertaker who helped me organise things, for the “funeral tea” (although I later discovered they also own that hotel – makes sense!). Fortunately most people came and I had a lovely chat with my best friend from Primary School who had also worked with my mum at the village Health Centre. The biggest difference between us now is that most older people from rural Aberdeenshire still speak in the native Doric, whereas I lost that over 40 years ago. Two cousins came whom I don’t see nearly enough of, so plans have been made for the coming year. I also had to thank all those friends who came for support as they knew we had such a tiny family.

So, “What’s It All About?” – My mum was 90 when she passed away and despite having Alzheimer’s at the end, I think we could all agree she had a good life. My dad passed away too soon which made his funeral a really sad affair but I’d like to think my mum’s truly was a celebration of her life (although apologies to DD for making her very emotional). Life will be a bit different now with no more visits to the care home, but despite all my worries at the outset, she was well looked-after there right to the end.

Until next time…

Jimmy Unknown Lyrics
(Song by Ruth Roberts/Bill Katz)

Who will be my Jimmy Unknown?
Someone to love me and call me his own
Over the mountain
Over the sea
Somewhere my Jimmy is waiting for me

Will he be handsome? Will he be strong?
Lifting my heart like a beautiful song
Over the mountain
Over the sea
Somewhere my Jimmy is waiting for me

The day I surrendered
My lips to his charms
My secret of love
Will be lost in his arms

Who will be my Jimmy Unknown?
Someone who never would leave me alone
Over the mountain
Over the sea
Somewhere my Jimmy is waiting for me