It seems to have taken forever, but we are now halfway through the EU farewell tour. And where better to celebrate the achievement than in Ireland.
The series has not been without its challenges. For some countries, the challenge has been to track down enough good stuff to make a full post. That is going be the issue next month when we do the three Ls and then Malta
With Ireland the problem is the exact opposite - what to leave out? I could have spent days agonising over my selection but decided against it. This is today's five; if I had done this tomorrow most if not all of them would have been different.
It being Ireland we'll need some folk, some showbands and a bit of literary pretension (as opposed to the sort of pretension embodied by that gigantic arse B**o). We have ticked all those boxes, and taken the opportunity to pay tribute to Brendan Bowyer, one of the greats of the showband era who sadly left us a few weeks ago. Microdisney are in there because they are one of my favourite bands, while the "Munster Hop" must be one of the happiest sounds in the world.
Last time out we featured Mia Doi Todd. Just add an A and that gives us Tim Maia. Well, strictly speaking, adding an A and a Tim and taking away Doi and Todd gives us Tim Maia, but you know what I mean.
The late, great Tim was and always will be the undisputed Brazilian King of Soul. He also released ten different albums called "Tim Maia", which really puts that weed Peter Gabriel in his place.
I have recently discovered the delights of Mia Doi Todd. She has been making records for the best part of 20 years but for whatever reason had completely escaped my attention until a few months ago. Then the lovely people at ORG Records sent me a copy of her 2008 album "GEA" which they have just reissued.
"GEA" is a cracking album and I would heartily recommend you give it a listen. It set me off on trying to track down her other records, and I have now acquired a handful of them. Apart from "GEA" my favourite is probably 2011's "Cosmic Ocean Ship". Here are a couple of tracks from that.
We're now well into the 12th year of this blog, yet somehow we've never featured the mighty Z.Z. Hill. What an extraordinary omission. It's time to put things right.
Part 13 of our EU Grand Tour brings us to Hungary, land of spas and goulash. Also the home of Zsa Zsa Gabor, Ferenc Puskas, Franz Lizst, Laszlo Biro and these formidable performers.
I went to Hungary once. I liked it very much and I would like to go again. I realise that reads like something a primary school child would produce if asked to write about their holidays, but the creative juices aren't really flowing at the moment. Maybe I need a couple of shots of palinka to stir them up.
. "Fekete Beat" - Sarolta Zalatnay
You may notice a common theme to the videos. It would appear that in 1976 some bright spark decided to ship a job lot of pop stars down to Lake Balaton and shoot all that year's promo videos in one go to save money.
The lake works nicely as the backdrop for some wholesome fun while Beata Karda is smiling sweetly, but it all becomes slightly seedy when Hairy Gyorgy turns up. And you have to feel sorry for Corvina who get fobbed off with a pedalo. Presumably the budget had nearly run out by then.
Nobody could accuse Sister Carol of being parochial or of lacking ambition. First she's going to conquer the world, then she's going to conquer the universe.
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