It certainly is refreshing, but it suffers from the same problem as the non-light version, which is that the taste is a bit weak. I much prefer the ginger beer and will be reviewing the ‘Refreshingly Light’ version of that soon.
A nice quiet day today – I spent most of it working for a client before getting a bit of my own writing done in the afternoon.
Looking forward to spending the evening on my 3DS again!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Tyler Lyle – Lost And Found [The Midnight Remix] Duran Duran – Rio Limahl – The Neverending Story Duran Duran – Girls On Film The Beatles – She Loves You Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello – Señorita Mika – Grace Kelly Rod Stewart – Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? The Midnight – Days Of Thunder Stormzy – Crown The Human League – One Man In My Heart Trevor Something – Summer Love Mark Ronson and Camila Cabello – Find U Again
A couple more recently released videos for current chart hits.
Miley Cyrus – Mother’s Daughter
NSFW video full of intersectional feminist imagery. I can’t get over the fact that Miley seems to be wearing Britney Spears’ catsuit from the Oops…I Did It Again video though!
Mark Ronson and Camila Cabello – Find U Again
This is a cracking video with an actual storyline. It’s black and white, and we start off outside a motel, which gives me some nice Psycho vibes. However, instead of a slasher horror, the story is an endearingly daft tale about bounty hunters who are being hired to take out Camila Cabello. They’re all told about their job through the use of retro telephones, which of course I absolutely love.
Mark Ronson is one of the bounty hunters, and is the first to find the club where Camila is performing. He irritatingly parks his car across two parking spaces, and then there’s a completely unnecessarily prominent advert for Marc Jacobs eyewear when he removes his glasses. However, he’s too intrigued by Camila to kill her, and so when the rest of the bounty hunters show up, he rescues her instead and they drive off into the sunset.
So nice when a video has an actual coherent narrative!
Geth and I arrived back in Newcastle this evening after a weekend in Colne with the in-laws. I drove there and back and find that I’m getting more used to my new car now.
We had a nice quiet morning today and then went for lunch with my mother-in-law Anne – Boundary Mill in Colne have a nice new pizzeria. There was a lot of pizza this weekend so Geth and I will be doing Slimming World ‘SP days’ the rest of the week to make up for it!
A quiet evening in with writing and my 3DS before getting back to work tomorrow.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Mark Knopfler – Local Hero Duran Duran – Union Of The Snake Rod Stewart – Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? Duran Duran – Hungry Like The Wolf Hitoshi Sakimoto – Final Fantasy XII Main Theme Miley Cyrus – Mother’s Daughter
I had this oven pizza with the in-laws when I was in Colne over the weekend. I was so hungry that I forgot to take a photo of the actual pizza, so here’s the box instead!
I’m not usually a fan of multi-cheese pizzas (plain old mozzarella is my preference) but this one was really good. The stuffed crust was nice as well – not too rich like I sometimes find stuffed crusts to be.
I went to Pendle parkrun again this morning. I didn’t feel that slow but was quite disappointed with my time – will have to get back to less tough parkruns over the next few weeks to try and get faster.
In the afternoon, I went for a nice lunch with the in-laws, and have had a quiet day otherwise.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Miley Cyrus – Mother’s Daughter Meat Loaf – Modern Girl The Proclaimers – (I’m Gonna) Burn Your Playhouse Down Sam Cooke – Wonderful World
It’s been a while since I went to a gig by myself. Geth wasn’t interested in going to see Rod Stewart, so I just bought the one ticket. I still had a great time, though – concerts for me are about enjoying the music rather than socialising!
The venue had advised showing up promptly for doors at six o’clock, and I can understand why – when Geth and I went to the Culture Club gig we arrived a bit later and it took ages to get through the queues. This has been an understandable feature of big arena gigs in the UK since the Manchester Arena attack a couple of years ago, as everyone has to be scanned and bag-searched and metal-detected before they go into the venue. However, because I showed up bang on six o’clock, the queue was still small and soI was in my seat by ten past six, even with my brief stop at the merch stall to buy a set of badges! It was another hour and twenty minutes before the support act were due to come on, so I settled in with my 3DS to pass the time.
The support act for this tour were Johnny Mac & The Faithful, who had co-written a song on Rod’s latest album, Blood Red Roses. I hadn’t heard of them prior to the gig, but they were the epitome of what I would describe as a ‘BBC Scotland’ band – a Celtic rock act from Glasgow, whom I wouldn’t be surprised to see on the BBC’s Hogmanay coverage at some point. They started off with a couple of original songs before launching into a series of traditional Celtic standards such as Galway Girl and The Irish Rover – I hadn’t expected this type of music at a classic pop/rock gig, but it was very high-energy and enjoyable. They then moved onto a couple of Rod Stewart covers in order to get the audience pumped, before moving onto Howling At The Moon (which my Duranie brain misheard as Howling Like The Wolf) and finishing with a track called Johnny Rod, in which the aim was apparently to crowbar as many Rod Stewart titles into the lyrics as possible.
I’ve been to a lot of gigs but I have never seen such a good effort made by a support band at ‘being a support band’ – it was all about getting the audience excited for the main event! They were obviously very grateful for the support slot, and they put me in the mood to start listening to some more folky stuff again.
Johnny Mac & The Faithful setlist:
Little Wild Heart Took A Train Galway Girl Pay Me My Money Down The Irish Rover Ooh La La Handbags And Gladrags Howling At The Moon Johnny Rod
After they’d finished, we didn’t have long to wait for the main event. A series of impressive visuals on the big screen heralded the entrance of Rod and his band, who immediately launched into the music – it was a couple of tracks before Rod greeted the audience and introduced the band. Although the current tour is in support of the Blood Red Roses album, the show was really a greatest hits set, which is to be expected from artists who have been going for decades. I certainly wasn’t complaining!
The early part of the set included solo hits like Young Turks and Faces classics such as Stay With Me, as well as a rendition of Rod’s ’90s duet with Tina Turner, It Takes Two. Tina’s half of the duet was ably covered by the lead backing singer, one of six women in Rod’s current touring band, the ‘White Swans’. When the six of them had arrived on stage at the beginning, dancing in matching outfits, I’d assumed they would just be doing dance routines, but it turned out that three were backing singers and the other three were multi-instrumentalists, playing violins, mandolins, drums, and many other things. They were really good, as were the rest of the band, and I wish I could find out a bit more information about the performers online.
Because it was a long set, there were quite a few ‘transition songs’ that went on while Rod went offstage for a costume change. One of these was a cover of Mark Knopfler’s Local Hero, which, as I mentioned in my most recent Music Video Monday post, is a revered local anthem in Tyneside, and Rod (famously a football fanatic) introduced it by making reference to Newcastle United. I assumed that they must have chosen a locally important song for each stop on the tour, but apparently they also played Local Hero in Paris a few days previously, so it must just be part of the regular set for some reason. Another of these songs was a cover of Donna Summer’s She Works Hard For The Money, performed by the backing singers. I’ve had it my head for four days as a result!
After a series of slower songs, some of which were tracks from the latest album and some a lot older (a notable standout was a cover of Ewan MacColl’s Dirty Old Town, which Rod first recorded and released fifty years ago this year), the show finished with four mostly-more-upbeat tracks that are arguably Rod’s biggest hits – Baby Jane, Sailing, Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?, and Maggie May. The third of these was a lovely kitschy moment that involved pink neon leopardskin visuals onstage and hundreds of giant balloons falling from the ceiling. The final song, Maggie May, was technically an encore, but it was a bit confusing – the curtain only went down for a few brief seconds before rising again between the last two songs, and Rod never said anything along the lines of ‘thank you and goodnight’, and the lights didn’t go up for a good several minutes after the band went offstage for the last time…so there was a lot of clamouring from the audience for an encore that never came. I don’t think anyone could have complained about the set though.
Rod Stewart setlist:
Having A Party Young Turks Some Guys Have All The Luck Tonight’s The Night (Gonna Be Alright) Stay With Me Forever Young Rhythm Of My Heart The Killing Of Georgie It Takes Two Tonight I’m Yours (Don’t Hurt Me) I’d Rather Go Blind Rollin’ And Tumblin’ Local Hero Grace Reason To Believe Dirty Old Town I Don’t Want To Talk About It Have I Told You Lately She Works Hard For The Money Baby Jane Sailing Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? Maggie May
A great hit-laden set and a great night out! I’m always really grateful that legendary artists like Rod are still out touring (rather than retiring like normal people!), as it means we can all continue to enjoy them.
A nice quiet day of writing today with the chart on in the background while Geth was out shopping with his mum. Boardgaming with the in-laws again this evening!
More of the same tomorrow (plus actually going to parkrun for once).
Today’s earworm playlist:
Stormzy – Vossi Bop Mark Knopfler – Local Hero Rod Stewart – Some Guys Have All The Luck Rod Stewart – Da Ya Think I’m Sexy? Traditional – The Irish Rover
I lost another pound at Slimming World this morning. Very happy with that! I’m only having small losses at the moment, but it’s the fourth week in a row I haven’t gained (and also the fourth week in a row that I’ve been keeping a food diary to hand in at group, which is why I’m going to keep doing them until I get back to my target range!). I also broke my streak of always gaining on race weeks, which really proves I just need to avoid overeating after races.
I then spent a nice evening with Geth’s family trying out a new boardgame. Looking forward to a quiet day tomorrow.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Joe Jackson – Is She Really Going Out With Him? The Beatles – She’s Leaving Home The Communards – Don’t Leave Me This Way Donna Summer – She Works Hard For The Money Trevor Something – All Night T.Rex – Cosmic Dancer Charlie Puth – One Call Away Christina Aguilera – Genie In A Bottle Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 5 Peter Hames – Ordinary Man
(We’ll just pause here while I have a nerd moment about that longitude coordinate being so pleasingly close to zero! Annoyingly, in tracing the route on Google Street View, I found that I missed a phone box that was even closer, so I’ll need to go back to the area next time I’m in London.)
What’s interesting about this phone box is that it’s red on the inside as well, which is more obvious now that it’s seemingly been emptied of its contents. I hope it stays around as it provides a nice bit of decoration for the tourist-ridden Cutty Sark promenade.