A relaxed Friday

It was mine and Geth’s sixth wedding anniversary today.  We have had a ludicrously hectic year and we’re both really tired at the moment, so we decided a good few weeks ago that the absolute best thing we could do to enjoy our anniversary was to doze on the sofa with a takeaway pizza.  We’re so old now.  <bones creak>  Also, Geth has a bad cold and he needs a few days of sofa dozing to get over it.

I’ve had a really productive day, though, with lots of writing done including my daily 4,000 words on my NaNo novel.  Looking forward to a really quiet weekend now!

OOTD 23rd November 2018
OOTD: I always wear my wedding shoes on wedding anniversaries, even around the house! Dress unknown brand (thrifted from Steff 2016), tights Pretty Polly (2018), shoes DKNY (2012).

Today’s earworm playlist:

Mariah Carey – All I Want For Christmas Is You
John Leyton – Johnny Remember Me
Thompson Twins – You Take Me Up
Duran Duran – Notorious
Florida-Georgia Line and Bebe Rexha – Meant To Be
Talking Heads – Psycho Killer

Music Review: Now! That’s What I Call Music #101

Today, 23rd November 2018, is the release of Now! #101!  It’s also mine and Geth’s sixth wedding anniversary 🙂

November 2018
This is the way the world looks in November 2018, with pretty anniversary cards on our dresser.

We’re now entering a new exciting era of Now! compilations where I only have to review them every four months!  The first hundred compilations were characterised by a gradually worsening quality of music.  I pray this trend will not continue.  Pop music can’t get any worse than it currently is.  Right?

Track 1: Little Mix and Nicki Minaj – Woman Like Me

Great reggae-style rhythm, but the tune’s pretty dull.

Track 2: Calvin Harris and Sam Smith – Promises

Sam Smith’s voice is great as ever, but the tune is pretty forgettable.  Somehow got to number one for weeks on end.

Track 3: Ariana Grande – God Is A Woman

I really like the tune on this one – nice and epic.

Track 4: George Ezra – Hold My Girl

A little slow for me, but it’s a nice tune.  Only entered the charts today, so it was definitely not a hit when chosen for this Now! compilation!

Track 5: Rita Ora – Let You Love Me

Great atmosphere on the chorus – tune’s a bit generic, but it’s an okay pop track.

Track 6: Benny Blanco, Halsey and Khalid – Eastside

I reviewed this one for New Hits Friday.  It’s grown on me a bit since then!

Track 7: Jess Glynne – All I Am

I’ve never been much of a Jess Glynne fan – I find her stuff very boring and the lyrical content very saccharine, and this track is no exception.

Track 8: Cardi B, Bad Bunny and J Balvin – I Like It

Not super keen on the rap (except the enjoyable nonsense in the first verse about Balenciaga et al.!), but I do love the Latin tinge, and it’s very danceable.

Track 9: The Weeknd and Kendrick Lamar – Pray For Me

Black Panther soundtrack song – really like this epic track.

Track 10: Silk City, Dua Lipa, Diplo and Mark Ronson – Electricity

Bored of these ’90s dance-inspired beats now.  The tune is very generic too.

Track 11: Dynoro and Gigi D’Agostino – In My Mind

I really like the eerie atmosphere – there’s some great instrumentals here.  Not keen on the dance beat though.

Track 12: Loud Luxury and Brando – Body

I reviewed this one for New Hits Friday.  I’m still not hugely keen, but it’s a really irritatingly catchy track that’s constantly ending up on my daily earworm playlists.

Track 13: Maroon 5 and Cardi B – Girls Like You

Repeated artist alert!  We’ve already had Cardi B on track 8.

It’s a bit saccharine, but it’s a nice tune.

Track 14: Marshmello and Bastille – Happier

Too slow for me, and the tune’s very dull and generic.

Track 15: Clean Bandit, Marina & The Diamonds and Luis Fonsi – Baby

The vocalist on this is calling herself Marina now, but she was formerly known as Marina & The Diamonds (not a band, just a solo artist with a band name, kind of like Florence & The Machine – this was a bizarre 2009/2010 micro trend).  I’ve missed her vocal style and way with a tune.  This is very Latin-inspired, especially due to the involvement of Luis Fonsi.  Great party pop tune.

Track 16: Ellie Goulding, Diplo and Swae Lee – Close To Me

Repeated artist alert!  We’ve already had Diplo on track 10.

Not exciting or original enough for me, but at least it’s got some semblance of a melody, and it’s starting to grow on me with time.

Track 17: Cheryl – Love Made Me Do It

The lyrics are okay if kind of cheesy, but the tune is terrible.

Track 18: Panic! At The Disco – High Hopes

I reviewed this one for New Hits Friday.  It’s become one of my songs of the year – really like this track.

Track 19: The 1975 – Too Time Too Time Too Time

Yes, I know the title’s supposed to be written in all caps with no spaces, but I won’t be having any of that nonsense here.  This is a dignified blog.

Lovely upbeat tune, though – really like this one.  One of my favourites of 2018.

Track 20: Mabel – One Shot

Not a hit – only got to number 44.

It’s a pretty tune, but it’s very generic.

Track 21: Take That – Out Of Our Heads

Not a hit yet (as of 23rd November 2018)!  They did perform it on Strictly last weekend, so maybe it’s not even out yet.

There’s a nice old-fashioned big-band feel about this one – it’s very jaunty.

Track 22: Lily James, Jessica Keenan Wynn, Alexa Davies and Celia Imrie – When I Kissed The Teacher

Taken from Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.  Songs from musicals have been a bit of a chart trend this year.  It’s a fairly bog-standard cover of the Abba song, as is normally the case with jukebox musicals.

Track 23: Andrea Bocelli and Dua Lipa – If Only

Repeated artist alert!  We’ve already had Dua Lipa on track 10.

Not a hit yet (as of 23rd November 2018).

Standard pretty, slow romantic song from Andrea Bocelli – I never get sick of his voice.  Dua Lipa does fine, but she can’t hold a candle to Bocelli.

Track 24: DJ Khaled, Justin Bieber, Chance The Rapper and Quavo – No Brainer

I reviewed this one for New Hits Friday.  I still find it really dull.

Track 25: Dave and Fredo – Funky Friday

This track is:

  1. The second number one this year to get to number one after exhortation from the previous number one artist (in this case Sam Smith with Promises – the previous example was George Ezra (Shotgun) telling people to stream Baddiel & Skinner and the Lightning Seeds’ Three Lions).
  2. The second number one this year to feature the word ‘Friday’ in the title (after Lil’ Dicky and Chris Brown with Freaky Friday).

Nothing much else interesting about this song.  It’s very dull and unmelodious and repetitive – no idea why enough people were listening to it to get it to number one.  Oh, wait, there’s a good instrumental electro bit for three seconds – then it goes back to the boring rap.

Track 26: DJ Snake, Selena Gomez, Ozuna and Cardi B – Taki Taki

Repeated artist mega alert!  We’ve already had Cardi B on both track 8 and track 13.  That is far too much of one artist for one Now! compilation!

I do like the background instrumentals, especially the atmospheric whistling, and the Latin vocals are nice, but the rap is very dull.

Track 27: French Montana and Drake – No Stylist

I quite like the atmosphere, but it’s very repetitive.  Are they trying to win a competition to see who can say ‘Gucci’ the most times in a song?

Track 28: Dennis Lloyd – Nevermind

Great rhythm, very noddable.

Track 29: Khalid – Better

Repeated artist alert!  We’ve already had Khalid on track 6.

The track is so boring that I couldn’t even concentrate on writing this sentence.

Track 30: Martin Garrix feat. Khalid – Ocean

Repeated artist mega alert!  We’ve already had Khalid on track 6 and track 29.  That’s two mega alerts on one compilation, which is not an auspicious start for the second century of Now! entries!

It’s a pretty tune with a gorgeous atmosphere – I really quite like this one.

Track 31: Halsey – Without Me

Repeated artist alert!  We’ve already had Halsey on track 6.

Urgh, this track is so slow!  I do like the synthy background instrumentals though.

Track 32: B Young – 079ME

I reviewed this one for New Hits Friday.  I still think it’s too similar to Jumanji.

Track 33: Stay Flee Get Lizzy, Fredo, Young T and Bugsey – Ay Caramba

Repeated artist alert!  We’ve already had Fredo on track 25.

I reviewed this one for New Hits Friday.  I’m still not keen on it at all.

Track 34: Travis Scott – Sicko Mode

There’s no tune, and the rap is extremely generic, but I quite like the eerie quality of the backing track.

Track 35: Shawn Mendes and Zedd – Lost In Japan [Remix]

Good atmosphere, but the tune’s a bit dull.

Track 36: MK, Jonas Blue and Becky Hill – Back And Forth

More ’90s-inspired instrumentals.  Very generic tune.

Track 37: Jonas Blue, Liam Payne and Lennon Stella – Polaroid

Repeated artist alert!  We’ve only just had Jonas Blue on track 36.

Okay tune with a good pop beat, but it’s not super exciting.

Track 38: Au/Ra and CamelPhat – Panic Room

I quite like the atmosphere, but it’s a bit repetitive.

Track 39: Sigala, Ella Eyre, Meghan Trainor and French Montana – Just Got Paid

Repeated artist alert!  We’ve already had French Montana on track 27.

Daft song about payday.  The tune’s pretty uninspired, but it’s got a good beat and it’s quite fun – it’s a good danceable party track.

Track 40: David Guetta and Anne-Marie – Don’t Leave Me Alone

The tune is very generic and forgettable. I quite like the electro instrumentals, but on the whole there’s nothing interesting going on here.

Track 41: Hardy Caprio and One Acen – Best Life

Very repetitive, not very inspired, highly boring tune, dull rap.

Track 42: ZieZie – Fine Girl

I quite like the tune, but there’s some very irritating stuff with the vocals going on here.

Track 43: Sigrid – Sucker Punch

Not a hit yet (as of 23rd November 2018).

Nice bit of classic pop with a good atmosphere.

Track 44: Selena Gomez – Back To You

Repeated artist alert!  We’ve already had Selena Gomez on track 26.

The verse is nice, but the tune on the chorus irritates me.

Track 45: LSD – Thunderclouds

LSD are a collaborative project between Labrinth, Sia, and Diplo, hence the name.

It’s the mobile phone advert music.  I actually had it stuck in my head before it got into the charts – it’s a really incessant earworm.  It’s a bit of a messy track, but quite a good tune.

Track 46: Dean Lewis – Be Alright

Dull, acoustic-y ballad.  I never thought I’d type this sentence, but the Streets did this theme much better in Dry Your Eyes back in the ’00s.

Now! That’s What I Call Music #1-#100: the statistics

Well, I meant to post this back around the end of July, shortly after I finished my Now! marathon…but…life got in the way.  What can I say?  I’m a busy girl.

But seeing as Now! #101 is out today, I thought I’d better do my wrapping up of the first 100 entries before we move onto the new era!

I remember that as I gradually listened to all the Now! compilations, they seemed like more and more of a long slog every day.  This is partly due to (a) the fact that every project gets boring after a while and (b) my considered and consistent opinion that pop music has got gradually worse over the course of my lifetime.  However, the stats also show that Now! compilations have got longer over time, although they seem to have levelled off in recent years due to the fact that nobody’s interested in increasing the amount of data you can fit on a CD anymore.

Average track number of Now! compilations for each decade:

  • ’80s (Now! #1 – Now! #16): 31.1875
  • ’90s (Now! #17 – Now! #44): 38.6071
  • ’00s (Now! #45 – Now! #74): 43.0667
  • ’10s (Now! #75 – Now! #100): 44.1154

It also seemed like there were a good number of occasions where I was all like ‘ooh! I’ve seen this song performed live by the actual artist!’ or getting excited about the fact that I was going to see the artist soon.  Apparently, that didn’t happen quite as often as I thought it did:

At the end of the Now! marathon on 20th July 2018, I had seen 60 of the 4,020 tracks on Now! compilations performed live by the original artists, and I was scheduled to see 49 more at various gigs and festivals, some of which I have now seen.  That still leaves a massive 3,911 tracks that I have never seen live, though – most of which I have no interest in seeing!  Maybe I’ll revisit this particular statistic at some point, but I am definitely not going to be doing a similar thing to the Band Aid baby bucket list with this one!

Of the 4,020 tracks on the first 100 Now! compilations, there were 46 songs that were repeated across compilations.  21 of these were on disc two of Now! #100, which I let slide because it was a special celebratory entry, but that still leaves 25 tracks annoyingly taking up slots that could have been given to new tracks.  The most egregious offender was Candi Staton’s You’ve Got The Love, which was featured three times – on Now! #19, Now! #36, and Now! #63.  Florence & The Machine then did an identical-sounding pointless cover of it, which was itself featured twice – first on Now! #74 and then as a duet with Dizzee Rascal on Now! #76 – meaning the song has been featured on Now! compilations a total of five times.

Repeated artist alert!  I was annoyed by an artist being featured more than once on the same Now! compilation a total of 141 times.  Over 100 of these occurred during the ’10s, which has been an era of collaborations – it’s not at all uncommon for there to be four or five artists credited on a track.  5 of the instances were repeated artist mega alerts, which meant an artist was featured THREE times on the same Now! compilation.  The reason this annoys me so much is that when I dabbled in DJing during my university years, I was always taught that you shouldn’t feature songs by the same artist during a single set – it needs more variety.  As such, when it happens on a professionally-created compilation, it’s fairly infuriating!

As mentioned, there were 4,020 songs on the first 100 Now! compilations.  That’s a lot of songs to review in 100 days, which is why the vast majority of what I wrote was one-line stuff like ‘slow and dull’ or ‘happily nodding along here’.

Not on Spotify: of the 4,020 tracks, 152 were not on Spotify, which is highly irritating when you’ve developed the lazy 21st century habit of adding stuff to a playlist with one click.  I mitigated this in three ways:

  1. ‘Not on Spotify’ Type 1: lazy tribute version substitute.  If Spotify didn’t have the original but had a tribute/karaoke style version instead, I just slotted that into the playlist to save having to perform a Type 2, which took effort.
  2. ‘Not on Spotify’ Type 2: YouTube Pause (TM).  This involved having to pause the Spotify playlist, navigate to a browser tab with YouTube on it, and press play on a video.  SUCH HARD WORK.
  3. ‘Not on Spotify’ Type 3: Can’t Find It Anywhere!  This only happened once, with Omero Mumba’s Lil’ Big Man on Now! #54.  The track is apparently so awful that nobody wants to put it on Spotify, YouTube, or DailyMotion, and I certainly wasn’t going to go down the old-fashioned route of downloading it (who puts that much effort into listening to a song nowadays?), so it was the one song in the whole Now! marathon that I didn’t actually listen to.

144 times I had to do the hard work of pausing my Spotify playlist.  144.  I also listened to 7 soulless tribute covers, and had to skip 1 song, which, while it sounds like it was for the best, means that in some respects I didn’t actually achieve 100% marathon completion.  Please just put your stuff on Spotify in future, music people.

A list of the most featured artists on the first 100 Now! compilations:

Robbie Williams: 29 compilations
Kylie Minogue: 24 compilations
Calvin Harris: 23 compilations
David Guetta, Rihanna: 21 compilations
Britney Spears, Coldplay, Girls Aloud, U2: 20 compilations
Katy Perry, Sugababes: 18 compilations
Tinie Tempah: 16 compilations
Boyzone, McFly, Justin Timberlake, Take That: 15 compilations
The Black Eyed Peas, Little Mix, Jason Derulo, Phil Collins, Oasis: 14 compilations
Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran, Ellie Goulding, Erasure, Gabrielle, Ne-Yo, Ronan Keating, Tina Turner, will.i.am: 13 compilations
Backstreet Boys, Chris Brown, Flo Rida, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, Olly Murs, Pet Shop Boys, Pink, Queen, R Kelly, The Saturdays, Steps, Texas, UB40: 12 compilations
Akon, Atomic Kitten, The Beautiful South, East 17, Elton John, Enrique Iglesias, Eternal, George Michael, Nicki Minaj, Pitbull, Spice Girls: 11 compilations
Duran Duran, Emeli Sandé, Jessie J, Kanye West, Louise, Maroon 5, Nelly, One Direction, Rita Ora, S Club 7, Sean Paul, Taio Cruz, Wet Wet Wet: 10 compilations

Well done, Robbie.  That record will take some beating.  It doesn’t even count all the times he was featured as part of Take That and as part of charity singles.

And finally: the record for longest gap between first and latest appearances (not counting the repetitions of UB40 and Phil Collins on Now! #100) is held by U2, who first appeared on Now! #5 (released 5th August 1985) with The Unforgettable Fire and most recently appeared on Now! #99 (released 23rd March 2018) with You’re The Best Thing About Me.  That’s a gap of 32 years and 230 days, which is nearly as long as I’ve been alive!

See you in 2051 for the Now! #101 – Now! #200 stats!

A wet Thursday

Well, I kept up my 4,000-word NaNo streak, but I didn’t have that great a day otherwise.  I had a gain at Slimming World so I’m out of range again (maintaining is so hard!) and it rained all day, which is not good on a day when I’m out and about so much.  I did get some unexpected music practice in though.

Looking forward to a quieter day tomorrow.

OOTD 22nd November 2018
OOTD: cosy for a rainy day. Glasses Emporio Armani (2017), jumper Carlo Colucci (vintage 1980s, bought at vintage fair 2017).

Today’s earworm playlist:

Thompson Twins – You Take Me Up
Duran Duran – Winter Marches On
Florida-Georgia Line and Bebe Rexha – Meant To Be
Boy George – Everything I Own

Phone Box Thursday: Compton Terrace, London

Here’s the second of the numerous phone boxes along my pleasant walk from Highbury Fields parkrun to the Thistle City Barbican.

Red phone box
Red phone box, Compton Terrace, London, 18th November 2017.

(Coordinates 51°32’41.5″N, 0°6’11.9″W.)

This phone box is a K2 model (I’ve mentioned before that you can distinguish these by the slightly more bulbous top), which is quite a common sight in central London – less so elsewhere.

A productive Wednesday

As hoped, I’ve had a good day for getting stuff done!  Another 4,000 words written on my NaNo novel, and lots of stuff watched off the digibox.

A typical busy Thursday tomorrow, so it’ll be a bit tougher to squeeze everything in.

OOTD 21st November 2018
OOTD: day in the house. Dress Triumph (vintage 1980s, bought at vintage fair 2018), belt H&M (2017), tights Primark (2017), boots Carefree (2017).

Today’s earworm playlist:

Calvin Harris and Sam Smith – Promises
Sarah Brightman and Steve Harley – The Phantom Of The Opera
Duran Duran – Notorious
Traditional – Deck The Halls
Duran Duran – White Lines

Exploring the known world

Another 4,000 words on my NaNo novel took me to 80,000 words today!

I also cleaned and tidied the house, or some of it anyway, because Geth and I were having guests round for boardgaming tonight.  Having guests round during NaNo month is a good thing because otherwise the house would literally not get cleaned for a full month.

We’re playing Pandemic Legacy series 2, which is the latest legacy game in a series of legacy games that we’ve been playing with the same group of people for three years.  It’s a bit scary that it’s been three years.  I’m really enjoying this one, though, and I’ll do a review of the full campaign when we finish it sometime in 2019.  It gets more and more interesting as you explore more of the world map.

Looking forward to a full day of catching up with admin tomorrow.

OOTD 20th November 2018
OOTD: busy boardgaming Tuesday! T-shirt Katharine Hamnett for Help Refugees (2017), jeans Zara (2018), boots Carefree (2017).

Today’s earworm playlist:

Thompson Twins – You Take Me Up
Def Leppard – Pour Some Sugar On Me
Tracey Ullman – They Don’t Know
Duran Duran – Winter Marches On
Duran Duran – White Lines
Leo Sayer – Moonlighting
Duran Duran – Hungry Like The Wolf

A non-stop weekend!

Over the past three days I have:

  1. Volunteered at parkrun
  2. Gone to see Fenwick’s Christmas window (a Newcastle Christmas tradition)
  3. Gone to a vintage fair
  4. Gone to an incredible Culture Club gig at the Metro Radio Arena
  5. Run the Town Moor Half Marathon
  6. Recovered in the pub
  7. Eaten recovery pizza
  8. Got a whole load of recorded TV watched and started my annual Christmas TV project
  9. Started a new bucket list project
  10. Got a total of 12,000 words written on my NaNo novel, taking me up to 76,000 words

Tomorrow is busy again as I’ve got lots of admin and a boardgaming evening!

OOTD 17th November 2018
Saturday OOTD: gig-going outfit. Blouse Hermann Lange Collection (vintage 1980s, bought at vintage fair 2018), jeans Levi (2018), boots Primark (2017).
OOTD 18th November 2018
OOTD: post-race recovery outfit. Glasses Emporio Armani (2017), jumper Jac (vintage 1980s, bought at vintage fair 2018).
OOTD 19th November 2018
OOTD: busy Monday catching up! Glasses Emporio Armani (2017), hoodie Internacionale (2000), t-shirt Gildan for Beat:Cancer (2017).

Today’s earworm playlist:

Taylor Dayne – Tell It To My Heart
Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper – Shallow
Arcadia – Election Day
Duran Duran – Girls On Film

Race Review: Town Moor Half Marathon 2018

Geth and I hadn’t done any races put on by the North East Marathon Club before, but having heard good things about the Town Moor Half Marathon, we decided to give it a go this year – even though it did mean (a) running a half marathon the night after a gig and (b) stretching our race season into November, which is when we’re usually curled up at home for our winter running slump!

The North East Marathon Club’s aim is to put on affordable marathons for people in the north-east of England.  Most of their events are lapped courses, so you can choose what distance you do – the Town Moor Marathon is seven laps of the Town Moor, and if you choose to do the half, you do a special half distance lap first before doing three laps of the main course.

I’m glad I did it for the experience, but boy, doing a lapped half marathon is tough.  You have to run past the finish funnel three times before finally being able to run into it on the fourth occasion, and every time you pass it, your legs beg you to call it a day and your brain screams ‘do we really have to run that full lap AGAIN?’  I was better trained for this one than I was for the Great North Run, and I did end up running it about three minutes faster (so I got a PB, somehow!) but it felt much, much harder.

Also, that gravel.  It hurts your feet and gets in the way when you’re running a 5k parkrun.  It hurts much, much worse when you’re ten miles into a half marathon.

Great goodie bag though.  Gloves instead of a t-shirt!  Gorgeous medal!  And I really, really needed that chocolate bar.  Good stuff.

Gig Review: Culture Club at Newcastle Arena, 17th November 2018

I was really looking forward to this gig.  Not even the fact that Geth and I, at some point in the past, got it into our heads that it’d be a clever idea to sign up for a half marathon the day afterwards could spoil my excitement!

Culture Club
Culture Club – and for once, my gig photo is only semi-blurry!

First of all, the support acts for this tour were cracking.  Geth was more excited about the support bands than the main act!

Tom Bailey, formerly the lead singer of the Thompson Twins, was first on.  He played a mixture of Thompson Twins classics and stuff off his new album.  I really quite enjoyed the new stuff and will be checking out the album, but it was definitely the classics that went down a lot better with the audience.  My highlight was Doctor, Doctor, which has long been a favourite of mine due to its gorgeous synth line and its frequent use in Doctor Who montages.

Tom Bailey setlist:

(We Are Detectives – the band came onstage to this tune)
Love On Your Side
Science Fiction
You Take Me Up
Lies
Lay Your Hands On Me
Doctor, Doctor
Hold Me Now

Next up was Belinda Carlisle, who was brilliant and still rocks the stage like she did thirty years ago!  Her voice is still gorgeous too.  My highlight from this set was Heaven Is A Place On Earth, because it’s been a favourite ’80s song of mine for such a long time, and I couldn’t believe I was actually getting to hear it live – but there were so many great hits!

Belinda Carlisle setlist:

Live Your Life Be Free
We Want The Same Thing
In Too Deep
I Get Weak
Circle In The Sand
Summer Rain
Leave A Light On
Heaven Is A Place On Earth

Culture Club are one of those bands where you’re never entirely sure how long a reunion is going to last, because there have historically been tensions among the members.  Indeed, the full original band was not a hundred percent present, because drummer Jon Moss left the tour partway through the US leg and is not performing on the UK leg.  I’m sure he has his reasons, but I was super disappointed not to see him, not least because it means I’ve now got to track him down separately for my new Band Aid baby bucket list project!

It was a fantastic gig though.  So many hits that I’ve heard all my life and never dreamt I would actually see performed live by Culture Club.  So many nods to classic artists beloved by me and clearly also by Boy George – the wee Wham! tribute during Church Of The Poison Mind, and the glam rock section during the encore with T.Rex and Bowie covers.  Victims, my favourite Culture Club song, which I’d been praying they’d play since I bought the tickets.  The wonderful finish of Karma Chameleon, with moments from my life flashing before my eyes: the hilarious Lothian Buses number 26 bus that never fails to crack me up; the crappy old Audiogalaxy download that I had of the song for years that had a slight jump during the first repetition of ‘you’re my lover, not my rival’; the time that my old schoolfriend Laura wrote the lyrics down wrong in my homework diary in high school and I had to correct them:

Homework diary, 7th October 2000
Homework diary, 7th October 2000.  It’s actually ‘lovin’ would be easy’, but I was closer than she was.

I got super emotional during Karma Chameleon, in short.  I’ve had the Now ’80s channel on all day today, and every time it’s come on, I’ve just been staring at the TV all like ‘I actually saw that performed live by Culture Club at the weekend’.

Wonderful concert.  Probably my favourite of the year so far.

Culture Club setlist:

God And Love
It’s A Miracle
Let Somebody Love You
Time (Clock Of The Heart)
Everything I Own
The Truth Is A Runaway Train
Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?
Victims
Different Man
Miss Me Blind
Church Of The Poison Mind/I’m Your Man
Life
Let’s Dance
Get It On
Karma Chameleon

Updated Band Aid baby bucket list progress: song artists 1/37 (2.7%); message artists 0/7 (0%); total artists 1/44 (2.3%).