Big In Banja Luka

From Belgium in 1981, we move forward and across a bit to Yugoslavia (as it still was then) in the mid-1980s.

While visiting Skopje, the capital of Macedonia (or - if you are one of our Greek readers - the Former Yugoslav Republic Of Macedonia), a couple of years ago I picked up a CD with the snappy title of "Hitovi Pop Rock Osamdesetih 1984-85". As you will have guessed it was a compilation of Yugoslav hits from that era.

Here are two of them. First, from Sarajevo, Plavi Orkestar with "Goodbye Teens". Second, from Zagreb, Dorian Gray with "Sjaj U Tami", which you will recognise as a Croatian cover version of "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore".

http://www.box.net/shared/9v35o2nhl0

To fully appreciate the wonder of Dorian Gray you really need to see the video:

The Sound Of Young Ostend

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I had picked up a "Best of Belgium 1981" compilation CD in Brussels while on a day trip for work. Well I have finally got round to listening to it and it is better than I had anticipated.

Here are a couple of hits from the Antwerp Underground: "Give Me A Gun" by Lavvi Ebbel and "Crocodile Tears" by Kuruki.

http://www.box.net/shared/dsdtcg2nge

I quite like them but I am not sure whether that is because I really like them or because they sound like a Flight of the Conchords' 1980s parody. Probably the latter.

Here is some more top-notch sophisticated Continental pop from 1981 (you may want to skip the first 15 seconds which just counts it in - for that matter you might want skip all the rest of it. Si Si):

Mighty Mahmoud

Today we bring you a couple of tracks from the great Ethiopian singer Mahmoud Ahmed.

I was lucky enough to see him in action at the Barbican last year along with other big names from pre-Derg days.

There was a large beard-stroking contingent there for the composer and vibraphone player Mulatu Astatke who is apparently highly innovative but I'm afraid I just found deadly dull. Things took a distinct turn for the better with the arrival of Alemayehu Eshete, known as the James Brown of Addis Ababa in his prime.

But as excellent as he was, Mahmoud Ahmed was a class apart. He has an exceptional voice and is a surprisingly charismatic performer considering his stage movements were pretty much limited to occasonally jumping up and down on the spot and clapping his hands.

The selections are "Abbay Mado" and "Yedetnash":

http://www.box.net/shared/nk5rjt0me5

And here he is performing "Tezeta" last year:

Bonnie At The Fair

Here is Bonnie Raitt with a couple of songs with a fair motif.

From 1972's "Give It Up": "Too Long At the Fair".

From 1974's "Streetlights": a cover of Joni Mitchell's "That Song About The Midway".

http://www.box.net/shared/qft1laahjj

When I was a lad in Dorset our fair was always held in early October on a day known locally as Pack Monday. If you are interested in that sort of thing you can find more details at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dorset/content/articles/2008/10/14/pack_monday_feature.shtml

Inevitably it would rain for several days beforehand so you would find yourself in the evening knee deep in mud trying but failing to enjoy yourself. One year me and Holty went on the ferris wheel in a hugh wind and it broke down while we were at the top - I've never been on one since.

The most recent fair I went to was in Los Naveros in Andalucia at the beginning of May, which was great fun. I won a monkey at the "shoot a plastic duck and win a prize" stall. I gave it to a local woman who I had been dancing with, to promote the old Entente Cordiale (or whatever the Spanish equivalent is).

Enough rambling, let's get back to Bonnie. Also from "Streetlights", here is a fantastic clip of her doing "Angel From Montgomery":

A Cast Of A Thousand

Well it took nearly six months, but yesterday was a red letter day for 27 Leggies as we had our 1000th visit.

Whether you are one of our regulars in places such as London, Ipswich, Johannesburg, Ely in Nevada, and Sarnia (not Narnia as I thought at first)...

Or a one-time visitor from such exotic locations as Seri Kembangan, Mbabane, Oss, Apopka and Kock (no sniggering, it is a beautifully appointed small town in Eastern Poland)...

On behalf of all of us at Goggins Productions, THANK YOU







If you are thinking of thanking us in return that is very nice of you but there is really no need. In the words of Bobby Womack, "You're Welcome, Stop On By":

http://www.box.net/shared/jn9lzrioc4

By my calculation, at the current rate we should reach five figures in August 2013. Tune in then for what promises to be a party and a half!!

Wrestling Midgets

There was a fantastic headline in the Metro today: "Wrestling midgets killed by fake hookers". I think it is the "fake" that makes it so good. For the full sad story - with suitably bizarre photo - click on the heading.

Inexplicably I don't any songs on this theme, but here is a song about a hooker ("Old Compton Street Blues" by Al Stewart): http://www.box.net/shared/p0j637ia51

Here is a song about midgets - in happier times ("Three Jolly Little Dwarfs" by Zoot): http://www.box.net/shared/xqsbxh6c3o

And here are a couple of legends from the Golden Age of Grapple, Giant Haystacks vs Big Daddy. Big Daddy's real name was Shirley Crabtree. One can only assume his parents were going for the "Boy Named Sue" effect. It worked.

It's Terry Time!!

Is there a name more redolent of a certain type of Englishness than Terry? Well, yes, there probably is, but that was a rhetorical question. What I mean is that - while I know there are Terrys and Thierrys all over the world - it is a name that has always seemed quintessentially English to me.

And here are two quintessentially English songs about Terrys.

First, Twinkle with "Terry": http://www.box.net/shared/o205052uuz

Second, Vivian Stanshall with "Terry Keeps His Clips On".

There is another song by a quintessentially English band that starts "Terry meets Julie, Waterloo Station, every Friday night", but I couldn't possibly put something that well known on here. However it just so happens that Mr Stanshall also recorded a song about meeting a date at Waterloo Station. It is called "Blind Date" and I have added it as a bonus:

http://www.box.net/shared/9h07rcoigo

For the clip I had intended to post Kirsty MacColl with her own "Terry", but then I found this. For the benefit of some of our foreign readers, Terry "El Tel" Venables is the former England football manager and very much the sort of cheeky chappie you expect someone called Terry to be: