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We have reached the end of our scheduled programming for May so, while we are waiting for June to start, let's have a short commercial break.

"Pepsi's Got A Lot To Give" - Johnny Cash (1972)

"Pepsi's Got A Lot To Give" - Delaney & Bonnie (1972)

"Things Go Better With Coke" - Ray Charles (1966)

"Things Go Better With Coke" - The Supremes (1966)

All these - and 61 more - come from "Great Cola Commercials Volume 2". That's right, Volume 2.

And in the interests of balance:

Mellow Mali Magic

After spending too long in the musical fleshpots of Europe, it is back to Africa today. This is the first selection from the bumper haul of West African CDs I picked up in Paris last weekend. And what better way to get the ball rolling with a couple of tracks from "Kabako", the 2009 album from our old friend Nahawa Doumbia, the Queen of the Wassoulou sound from Southern Mali. Perfect for a Sunday.

"N'Teri" - Nahawa Doumbia (2009)

"Lelalo" - Nahawa Doumbia (2009)

From the same part of the world, here is a bit of jolliness from Aminata Kamissoko:

Eurovision Special

I wanted to feature some of my favourite Eurovision performances to mark this year's competition which is taking place in Oslo tonight. The problem is that 99% of them are dreadful, so it doesn't leave you many to choose from.

So - with apologies to those of you who sat through this last time - here are the same three as I featured last year. Once you have seen them I'm sure you will agree they are all well worth repeating, which is which I am providing downloads of each of them as well.

We start with one of the countries that are among the favourites to win tonight: Iceland. I think some will vote for them in the belief that the expense of having to host Eurovision next year would completely finish off its weakened economy, and that this would be suitable payback for the bloody volcano.

Back in 2006 the Icelandic entry was a "statement" by a character called Silvia Night. For the full story, and some extravagant swearing, see last year's post. Despite all the kerfuffle, the song itself is really rather catchy

"Congratulations" - Silvia Night (Iceland 2006)



Next we go to 2008. The song itself is quite interesting, in a post-rock sort of way (did I get that right Mr F?) but it is the choreography that makes this memorable. It is, not to put too fine a point on it, completely bonkers.

"Pokusaj" - Laka (Bosnia & Herzegovina 2008)



But as good as those two are, for me there can only really be one winner.

"Boonika Bate Doba" - Zdob Si Zdub (Moldova 2005)



I haven't seen most of this year's entries so I am not going to make any predictions but, in an attempt to persuade you that Eurovision can be a hotbed of musical innovation, here is the Slovenian effort. In its own way it is as ground-breaking as when Aerosmith and Run DMC teamed up on "Walk This Way". Scandalously, it went out at the semi-final stage.

"Narodnozabavni Rock" - Ansambel Zlindra & Kalamari (Slovenia 2010)

Pardubice Pop

It is Eurovision on Saturday so to get us all in the mood here is some Euro pop and psych from a bygone era - 1960s Czechoslovakia.

A few years ago I was in Pardubice in what is now the eastern end of the Czech Republic. While there I picked up "Vychodocesky Big Beat 1963 - 1971", a compilation featuring bands from Pardubice and Hradec Kralove. Of today's selections, Fantom were from Pardubice and the other two from Hradec Kralove. Traffic fans - the band, not the congestion - may well recognise one of the tunes.

"Krizova Cesta" - Fantom (1967)

"Polepsi Se" - Veterani (1969)

"Kouzelny Ton" - The Sonors (1969)

Here is last year's Czech Eurovision entry. It's competitive failure is inexplicable.

Hail Hall!

A quick one tonight. A couple of numbers from Michael Hall, of whom I know no more than Trouser Press can tell me.

"Let's Take Some Drugs And Drive Around" - Michael Hall (from "Love Is Murder", 1993)

"I Can't Believe You Touched Him" - Michael Hall & The Woodpeckers (from "Dead By Dinner", 2000)

Speaking of trouser presses, here are Blondie with their tribute to the king of them all, the Corby.

El Rego Like He Used To Be

You lot are in for a treat. While in Paris at the weekend I strolled from Marcadet Poissoniers Metro to Boulevard Saint Martin, visiting about ten shops selling CDs from Francophone Africa along the way. I have come back with a bumper bag of goodies.

I try to stock up on Congolese music when I go to Brussels, so this trip I mainly concentrated on West Africa. I have picked up stuff from Senegal, Guinea, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Mali, Burkina Faso, Gambia and Guinea Bissau, along with a few random selections. Artists include some old friends like Nahawa Doumbia and Fode Baro, but most of the names are new to me.

It is going to take me a while to sort through everything but I am sure we have some lovely surprises in store. To tide you over, here is something else from the same neck of the woods - a couple of tracks from an excellent compilation called "Legends of Benin", released last year on Analog Africa.

"Vimado Wingnan" - El Rego et Ses Commandos

"Feeling You Got" - El Rego et Ses Commandos

In the absence of any El Rego clips on YouTube, let's go for something about as different as it is possible to get - a German Schlager version of Sir Douglas Quintet's "Mendocino" performed by a man in a dreadful checked jacket:

Singles Club

I am a bit of old codger and have been collecting music for 35 years. For the first fifteen years or so it was almostly exclusively vinyl with the odd cassette thrown in for luck, and I had a pretty sizeable collection - then, as now, I lacked any self-control when it came to buying music.

Then along came CDs and I got lured away. It was the shininess, I think, that and the fact that it became increasingly difficult to buy affordable turntables, styli and so on. If I had known vinyl would make a comeback in the digital age I would have held on to my collection, but I didn't. Those albums that could be replaced by CDs were, with the result that you can now fit all my LPs into a decent sized cardboard box, even allowing for the fact that I have started restocking since buying a USB turntable.

My singles collection, on the other hand, was a lot smaller but is more intact. And because many of them are obscurities that were not easy to find on CD, it is probably one of the more eclectic parts of my collection (or at least it was before I discovered downloading).

Here is a small selection of my 150 or so singles. Apologies for the quality of some of them. Hopefully there is something for everyone, although in the case of Gerty Molzen it is probably something for nobody. If you like them I'll do it again some time.

"Junior's Groove" - Junior Wells (1966)

"Wallpaper" - Pregnant Insomnia (1967)

"Sticky Jack" - Warm Jets (1978)

"Walk On The Wild Side" - Gerty Molzen (1985)

"These Hands" - Everton Blender (1999)

This is the last post of the week. I am off to Paris tomorrow for a couple of days work followed by a couple of days sightseeing. I had hoped to get myself in the mood with a clip of the Tygers of Pan Tang performing their NWBHM classic "Paris By Air" ("Paris by air/ such a beautiful sight/ nothing can compare/ to Paris by night"). But I can't find one so we will have to settle for this instead: