After a break to allow you all to refresh your punning pituitaries and to rest your wordplaying wrists we're back with another round of Pun Fun, in which you are invited to rework the title of a well-known song to fit a theme. And the theme this time round is:
PARTS OF THE BODY
Bones, organs, joints, glands or valves, anything that goes to make up the human body is in scope - from the biggest belly to the smallest villi (stop sniggering - honestly, some of you are so juvenile).
As for previous topics you can enter one title only. Entries should be sent to leggies27@hotmail.co.uk by Sunday 1 March. Voting will open next Monday.
I'm looking forward to receiving your collective body of work. If you are struggling for bright ideas just follow Leee John's lead and unleash your imagination.
An old friend of the blog - and former guest host - has a brand new record out. I am referring to the Artist Formerly Known as Asthmatic Harp, now trading under the name Hannah Lou Larsen.
Hannah's new "Peach Pine Ocean" EP is her first release since the single "Buddha On A Shelf" in 2023. In the interim she has been keeping busy doing things like growing her family and relocating from Glasgow down to Oxford but has now resumed recording and performing live.
As regular readers know I am not very good at explaining why I like the records I like, so I don't tend to make inadequate attempts to describe them when you can just listen to them yourselves and hopefully agree with me. If you are looking for insights in this specific case you would be much better off reading Hannah's recent interview with the good folks at Postcards From The Underground.
Suffice to say there is something about Hannah's sound and sensibilities that has always connected with me, and it is no different with "Peach Pine Ocean". The whole EP is excellent but at a pinch my favourite track may be "Memorials".
You can find the EP and "Buddha On A Shelf" at Hannah's Bandcamp page. While you are there why not check out her old Asthmatic Harp stuff as well.
While I was strolling around the Salt River district of Cape Town last week I chanced upon a local thrift shop. It had a small selection of CDs among which I found a volume of the Numero Group's 'Eccentric Soul' series of compilations. With 40 tracks over two CDs and an asking price of five rand (roughly 25p) I thought this was too good a deal to resist.
And so it has proved. This particular volume is devoted to the Way Out label from Cleveland which operated from 1963 to 1973. Here is a small selection of the many fine tunes you can find on the album, starting with a band whose name is crying out to be featured in Rol's Namesakes series if it hasn't already. According to Discogs there are at least 14 of them - this lot are #3.
Apologies for my absence here in recent weeks but until yesterday I had been in South Africa since the beginning of February, having managed to tag a holiday onto a short work trip so that I could catch up with all the local Gogginses in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Stellenbosch.
I also took myself into Cape Town one day - the poor family had earned a break from me - and checked out the street art in Salt River and the second-hand record and book shops in Observatory. Some examples of the former below, some of the spoils of the latter will follow when I get myself sorted out.
I caught a couple of shows while I was over in SA including the premiere of a revival of the play "Marabi" at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg which featured some very strong performers. But the highlight was a big family outing to see the Ndlovu Youth Choir in Cape Town.
The Choir started as a community project in the small town of Marapong about 15 years ago - and all the members are still recruited from there - but has grown to have an international reputation, in no small part as a result of making the final of "America's Got Other People's Talent" a few years back.
The Choir put on a great show with some excellent vocal arrangements and lively dance routines. The photo below shows the smallest choir member attempting unsuccessfully to teach some moves to a confused elderly audience member as a form of community outreach.
The set was a mixture of reworkings of hits by the likes of Queen, Adele and Toto and various local musical styles. The latter were more to my personal taste, and one of the highlights was their version of a song by the late great Busi Mhlongo. So here are a couple of tracks from Busi's 1999 album "Urbanzulu" and a couple of clips of the choir to see us out.
This is the last you will be seeing of me for a little while. I'm hopping on a plane to Johannesburg tonight for a few days' work before catching up with local branches of the Goggins clan.
I'll be back here some time in the third week of February, and Pun Fun 4 is provisionally scheduled for the 23rd. Until then, stay groovy.
Last Friday's post about the music of Guyana kicked off with a track from "Fighting For Survival", the 1981 album by the Yoruba Singers. I mentioned in passing that their 1974 debut album "Ojnga's Own" was also available on Bandcamp.
While "Ojinga's Own" is not quite as splendid as "Fighting For Survival" - the band's sound had not yet incorporated some of the influences that made the latter so special - it is still a very enjoyable record with an agreeably funky rumble throughout. Here are a couple of prime cuts.
Normally when I announce the Pun Fun winner I do so with great fanfare - their name in lights, celebratory music, that sort of thing. But I don't think it is appropriate this time for reasons that will become apparent when you see the Top 5.
Trumpet Up - Elvis Costello & The Attractions (Ernie)
How Can You Mend A Broken Harp - Al Green (Alyson)
Timpani, I'm Not Your Daddy - Kid Creole & The Coconuts (Rol)
Hanging On The Xylophone – Blondie (The Swede)
Cello I Love You - The Doors (George)
You will probably be yelling "fix!" and demanding that some independent election observers are brought in to verify the results, and I don't blame you. I thought I might be in with a chance of a Top 5 finish but there is no way I should be beating, for example, Alyson's brilliant harp pun or The Swede, whose pun was so good that three different people tried to submit it. What we have is further proof - not that it was needed - that democracy is a flawed process.
My magnanimous congratulations to the rest of the Top 5 and a special mention to Mark whose REM pun narrowly missed out and might have been there if it hadn't been for a split in the bassoon vote. Many thanks to everyone else who took part and better luck next time.
We will be back with Pun Fun 4 in about four weeks. Until then here are a couple of the songs that made it all possible.
Links stay up for a month or so. If you are an artist or copyright holder and want me to remove the link, or if you want to get in touch for any other reason, e-mail me on leggies27@hotmail.co.uk.
