aPalling Birding
The escapades of a Norfolk country gent and birder
Top Tunes
Losing your edge? remember that Yellow-throated Vireo kid?, I was there, when birding was hip... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzuFeXYbOOo
well, no need. Firstly, cheer up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvdma6tCnjw
then improve your flagging cred by dropping one of these at a twitch whilst dabbing your amphetamine wrap:
Of course, you've never heard of them (you'll never be THAT kool) but it's just beautiful, you'll agree? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O31akOzQV_Q
Dontcha wish your last tick was hot like me? http://popbytes.com/img/PartyBen-DontchaSeether.mp3
The best ever death metal band out of Denton http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fKcROeuvCI
Steven Malkmus - genius http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnClsDe1aeA
The Referee's Alphabet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqpJ6XYykHE
Don't be in the 50% that now waste their life at University, do this instead http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4o2VTKSI5wA&feature=related
Meet me in West Germany, October 1983 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0x9Uopr63G0
take 30 seconds to improve your life: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NhvtYMsTAcw&feature=related, also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC03Su5X18Y&feature=related
Paintball's coming home... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxR0JY-FMh8&feature=related
never seen this before today http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpkX1Cnw8wQ&feature=related Clash - Police and Thieves
I think Mr Albini means it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxbTRh1o_RU
must be pretty grim being young today - we had this though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSnLdYBdeHg
Three of the best minutes ever committed to vinyl. Still remember the first time I heard it and have vivid memories of seeing Billy in Matlock 1984 during the Miners' Strike http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4v8VJ0LRgA&feature=related
and I'm still waiting for that Great Leap Forward... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7d6ZwAp28Y
Hate the Police - Mudhoney - a ferocious live band! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEv6RpINrdw
story of my life so far: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksWrhclScFg Badly Drawn Boy - Born in the UK
three versions of a Neil Young song to prove it's hard to make a great song sound bad
a fast one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l3dj0I-tozU&feature=related
a slow one in the Cat Power vein http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CI66iheRBj8&feature=related - my kind of girl!
and the orginal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYV6PAckr5w
more Cat Power http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdQz9ghg_sk&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ydz4yF9Ny0M&feature=related Mike Watt playing a cover of ex-lion tamer by Wire (starts about 1:15). Just amazing. Why do kids listen to fall out boy and think it's rebellious?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfV5DnRKaUw&feature=related the little things, they make me so happy. All i wanna do is live by the sea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wki7LGfTQUI&feature=related NOFX - some good advice here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykJvG5G607I One of the best film scenes ever
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awskKWzjlhk And another...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZI4Kqb634w Black Lips - Bad Kids (awesome!)
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=OQwFWvjg8qw The Smiths - Bigmouth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLLzz9XZTI8 Go Team! - Huddle Formation
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gDW_Hj2K0wo Bill Hicks on marketing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO7ZWfvCjBE Arcade Fire - Intervention
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_-htd-xy0Y The Auteurs - Lenny Valentino (Luke Haines with hair!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBcKVECSPkc Stranglers - Hanging Around
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6M4qE9oeoo Rancid - Antennas
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWeoASkkgZs Mountain Goats - Dilaudid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khpQQLzWHF8 Guided By Voices - Game of Pricks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG708rDGMOY The Rifles - Local Boy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4Iobo18U9w The Thermals - Pillar of Salt
The Clash - The only band that mattered
Taking off his turban, they said 'Is this man a Jew?' Here
The Clash - Thinking Man's Yobs
Anyone who knows me will testify that I'm a bit of a music freak. But bands come and bands go, movements come and movements go and rock stars are a fickle lot at the best of times and not the sort of people you'd be wise to put any amount of faith in. The Clash were different and of their time. They truly were the only band that mattered. No other band has changed lives like the Clash did. Forget the Beatles, the Stones, Oasis, Nirvana. The Clash educated as well as entertained, they edified as well as educated and made you feel it was worth being you and worth being true to yourself and your ideals and above all it was important to be honest.
More than just a group, they were a band of young men with an unwritten mission and an ideology that shaped lives and still does. You won't find fans of another band eulogise about them as people do about the Clash. Through the Clash I learned about other parts of the world, politics, other styles of music, particularly reggae, and the commonality of ordinary people across the globe. Growing up in the 80s there were very few people to look up to. But perversely for a rock group, the Clash took the values of a previous age and promoted them in a time when it was very unfashionable to believe in anything. My father fought in the last war and instilled certain values in me (Edward Murrow, whose London Calling broadcasts inspired the album of the same name, famously flew with a bomber crew) and I saw very little difference between my father's values and the values the Clash were espousing. They made you feel good to have faith in your fellow human beings, for a while at least.
Sadly today, people of my generation, with my beliefs, feel more and more out of step with the world and the Clash seem very much a thing of a now distant past. There really are 'No more heroes anymore' And it's a much, much poorer world for it.
Anyway don't believe me, find out for yourself - it's always the best way.
Police and Thieves in the street,,, fighting the nation with their guns and ammunition http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQXgfD0UKIY
I went to the place where every white face is an invitation to robbery http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuvU0IGz3z0&feature=related
London Calling, now don't look to us - phoney Beatlemania has bitten the dust - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXfaxEaPOjw
Well the people fought the leader and up he flew... with no Washington bullets what else could he do? Sandinista! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z8vPthghRE
Tony Wilson
Here's a great Radio 6 documentary about the late, great Tony Wilson.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/linklaunch.shtml?/radio/aod/6music_aod.shtml?6music/6m_fac
“In the north, it rains and it rains. And yet we managed to produce the industrial revolution, trade union movement, the Communist Manifesto and even the goddam computer. Down south, where the sun never sets, you took all our money and what did you produce? Chas and fucking Dave".
Tony Wilson died due to renal cancer last year. A wonderful character who flew the flag for the north through the dark days of the 80s and early 90s. As a result of the NHS postcode lottery, he couldn't get the drugs he needed:
"I used to say some people make money and some make history, which is very funny until you find you can't afford to keep yourself alive ... I've never paid for private healthcare because I'm a socialist. Now I find you can get tummy tucks and cosmetic surgery on the NHS but not the drugs I need to stay alive. It is a scandal."
Some of the music that Tony Wilson helped to bring to our notice: