Blog: Too Much Apple Pie

My hero! Buy 'Look Around You'

Linking to five-year-old pop videos as if they were brand new; it's what I do best. In fairness, though, I've only just discovered this song this week and cannae get enough of it. (Don't try this at home, kids) Steso Songs - The Worse mp3

Linking to five-year-old pop videos as if they were brand new; it's what I do best. In fairness, though, I've only just discovered this song this week and cannae get enough of it. (Don't try this at home, kids) Steso Songs - The Worse mp3

It's the new single from Allo Darlin'! Allo Darlin' - Capricornia First heard this last night on Gideon Coe's 6 Music show and didn't immediately place it as being an Allo Darlin' song, despite the fact that we go back years . But you know those rare occasions when something jumps out of the radio at you (not literally) the moment you hear it? That's exactly what happened to me with this song. And you can imagine what a pranny I felt [...]

There can't be many songs that would leave you feeling joyful, sad and nostalgic all at once. But the Divine Comedy's At The Indie Disco is definitely one of them, if you happen to be of a certain generation and disposition. Simply devastating.

The Monkees go A Cappella - with highly impressive results. Merry Christmas, pop chums! Riu riu chiu, la guarda ribera; Dios guardo el lobo de nuestra cordera, Dios guardo el lobo de neustra cordera. Riu riu chiu, la guarda ribera; Dios guardo el lobo de nuestra cordera, Dios guardo el lobo de neustra cordera. El lobo rabioso la quiso morder, Mas Dios poderoso la supo defender; Quisola hazer que no pudiese pecar, Ni aun original esta Virgen no tuviera. Riu riu chiu, la [...]

Just in case you were in any doubt as to the the sheer wondrousness of the internet age, I give you, in its entirety, the Christmas Eve 1984 edition of Mike Read's Pop Quiz !

Christmas time, mistletoe and w- not on my watch! (as ever, click below to listen) 1 The Joseph & Mary Chain - The Twelve Days of Christmas 2 The Sweptaways & Magnus Carlson - Cry Cry Christmas 3 Les Paul - Jingle Bells 4 Jose Feliciano - Feliz Navidad 5 The Monkees - Riu Chiu 6 The Sweptaways & Marit Bergman - Christmas Party 7 The Futureheads - Christmas Was Better in the 80s 8 The Springfields - Jingle Bells 9 The Cory Band & The Gwalia Singers - Stop [...]

Typically, I'm about three years late with this, but what a brilliant version! Eddie Argos it

We're very quick as a nation nowadays to become outraged by the latest insensitive or deliberately provocative comments from high-profile celebrities, gathering in our thousands on Twitter or newspaper websites' comments sections to register our displeasure and to demand a public apology and/or the culprit's immediate resignation or sacking. I can't usually get too worked up about this sort of thing as, well, I have a pretty inappropriate (or just plain puerile) sense of humour myself. Life's too short, and all that. But this week there has been one instance of such ill-judged behaviour that has genuinely annoyed [...]

Right then, it's, what, December 7th, so I think I'm just about OK to start with the Christmas stuff. And what better way to begin than with Rock 'n' Roll Santa , a spot of inspired lunacy from Jan Terri. Yo La Tengo covered this song but I'd never have heard either version had it not been for resident Christmas songs guru Spike, so ultimately she's responsible! (I suspect this'll be a song that you'll either love or hate. Me, I love it!) Jan Terri - Rock 'n' Roll Santa [...]

November 23rd was a sad day for fans of light-hearted Antipodean TV music quiz shows as it saw the final edition of the Adam Hills-hosted Spicks & Specks , after seven years and 266 episodes. If you've never seen it, Spicks & Specks was basically Never Mind The Buzzcocks without the malice or a penchant for humiliating blameless members of the public. (Please tell me Buzzcocks doesn't still do that godawful identity parade.) Anyway, here is the star-studded* final episode of Spicks & Specks in all its glory. [...]

You may recall I linked to the worst, most-punchable Christmas advert in history the other month; well, quite by chance, whilst watching an episode of Homes Under The Hammer earlier (don't ask), I heard something that sounded ominously familiar; someone from days of yore singing about "My Brother" to the exact same tune as the punchable Littlewoods Christmas ad music! Further investigation revealed My Brother to have been a novelty hit in the 1950s for Terry "and June" Scott, which, in time-honoured style, has ended up being appropriated (albeit [...]

Just in case you were in any doubt that I'm a big softie. Lavender Diamond - Open Your Heart mp3

This week's playlist sees us travelling all the way back to the first chart of the 1980s - or, if you're being finicky, the final chart of the 1970s; it's for the week ending 5th January 1980 anyway, so would actually have first appeared on 29th December 1979. Hang on, I'll start again... This week's playlist sees us travelling all the way back to the final chart of the 1970s. And what a week it was! But don't just take my word for it - cop a load of these. [...]

Annika Norlin covers fellow Swedes the Deportees' song The Doctor In Me . Nice.

Long-term readers of this blog will remember a series we ran a few years ago entitled Search Us , in which I'd catalogue some of the more unlikley and outlandish internet searches that somehow ended up landing the unwitting Googler (other search engines are available, albeit no one uses any of them) here. These searches ranged from the pornographic ( Keeley Hawes nude ) to the pornographic and disturbing ( Watch Paul Jewell Derby porn ); from the curious ( Is Wincey Willis dead? ) to the speculative ( Norwegian band's name, I [...]

Took this footage on my phone from this evening's Euro 2014 qualifier between Turkey and Croatia. In it, Turkish playmaker Hamit Altintop takes what I would have to declare to be the most outrageous dive I've ever seen perpetrated by a professional footballer (and I've seen Cristiano Ronaldo). There was no one within three feet of him! (Apologies for the rather shonky picture quality, by the way, but I literally filmed the video direct from my mobile phone while pointing it at the telly! Still, though, a couple of clicks later and it was uploaded to [...]

Inspired by STV's recent Scotland's Greatest Album series (you can read the final results from the viewers' vote here ), I've decided to cobble together my own list of favourites by artists from north of the border (Spotify availability permitting). Unlike the TV version, however, there'll be nae Rod Stewart or AC/DC here. But I have served up lashings of cheese. 1 Strawberry Switchblade - Since Yesterday 2 Orange Juice - I Can't Help Myself 3 God Help The Girl - God Help The Girl 4 Camera Obscura - [...]

The shocked visage you see above is that of an especially annoying, over-confident contestant on last night's Pointless, realising that he'd just given an incorrect answer and had thus been eliminated. It was much like the bit in a movie where the evil genius realises that his sinister plan has backfired and he's not going to gain control of the world after all. (Oh what's it called, you know the one I mean... Evil Genius Sinister Plan Man .) Anyway, this may not reflect especially well on me, but that has to one of my favourite [...]