WAKE UP THE NATION

seems a lifetime since i played my first guest dj sets at a Rock And Roll Lounge gig, just over five years to be precise as you can see above, but i have done so many times since, and not just as a guest, for a while now i have been the official number two, assisting the boss man on every occasion where possible and alone at separate gigs.

but now, The Generalissimo has got The Rock and Roll Lounge a weekly residency at the Frog And Parrot in Sheffield. a venue close to our hearts as he has played at least one friday a month there for ages and we have done loads of successful bank holidays there together (see above), but now weekly. every friday is a Rock And Roll Lounge takeover between 9pm and 1am.

and sensibly we (he) has decided that it is beyond the scope of one person to do every week, so we are splitting it, and last night i did my first solo set. odd thing is, i have played there so many times before, but as my first time on a friday night, on my own, i was bloody nervous! however, the place was pretty busy and as always there, a very receptive crowd. so i plugged in and got em groovin’.

for those who may be interested, here is last night’s setlist.

 

(I’m A) Road Runner – All-Stars/Junior Walker/Junior Walker

Going to a Go-Go – The Miracles

Dirty Water – The Standells

96 Tears – ? and the Mysterions

I Fought The Law – Bobby Fuller Four

The Letter – The Box Tops

Respect – Aretha Franklin

My Guy – Mary Wells

Heaven Must Have Sent You – Continental Four

Makin’ up Time – The Holidays

Check It Baby – Willie & The Mighty Magnificents

Mickeys Monkey – Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

The Onion Song – Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell

My Girl – The Dualers

Till the End of the Day – The Kinks

Sha-La-La-La-Lee – The Small Faces

Valleri – The Monkees

Sorrow – Merseys

Honky Tonk Woman – Rolling Stones

Green Onions – Booker T. & the MG’s

Alabama Song (Whisky Bar) – The Doors

Zoot Suit – High Numbers

Grooving With Mr Bloe – Mr Bloe

Face Of A Loser – Tom Jones

Open The Door To Your Heart – Darrell Banks

Ain’t No Mountain High Enough – Diana Ross

Spinnin Top – The Orlons

You Can’t Sit Down – The Dovells

Mr Big Stuff – Jean Knight

I Can’t Turn You Loose – Otis Redding

Licking Stick-Licking Stick – James Brown & The Famous Flames

Got to Give it Up – Marvin Gaye

It’s Your Thing – The Isley Brothers

Pump It Up – Elvis Costello

Gimme Shelter – Merry Clayton

Tighten Up – Archie Bell and the Drells

I Thank You – Sam & Dave

Too Much Too Young – The Specials

Missing Words – The Selector

Special Brew – Bad Manners

The Horse – Cliff Nobles

I Believe in Miracles – Jackson Sisters

Thank You – Sly & the Family Stone

Parrty, Pt.1 – Maceo & the Macks

Kools Back Again – Kool & the Gang

Get Down With It – Little Richard

I Know You Got Soul – Bobby Byrd

Geno – Dexys Midnight Runners

Should I Stay or Go Now  – The Clash

Ever Fallen In Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t Have) –  The Buzzcocks

Pretty Vacant – The Sex Pistols

Going Underground – The Jam

Teenage Kicks – The Undertones

There’s a Ghost in My House –  R. Dean Taylor

Green Door – Wynder K. Frog

The Snake – Al Wilson

Tainted Love – Gloria Jones

Jimmy Mack Martha Reeves/The Vandellas

Just a Little Misunderstanding – The Contours

Snatching it Back – Clarence Carter

I Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) –  Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings

Blow Your Head –  Fred Wesley & the J.B.’s

Brothers on the Slide – Cymande

The World (Is Going Up in Flames) – Charles Bradley

Ordinary Joe – Terry Callier

Better Man – Leon Bridges

Love Of The Common People –  Nicky Thomas

Guns of Navarone – The Skatalites

Monkey Man – Toots & the Maytals

Rudy A Message To You – Dandy Livingstone

The Harder They Come – Jimmy Cliff

Return of Django – The Upsetters

Liquidator – Harry J All Stars

Israelites – Desmond Dekker & The Aces

Long Shot Kick de Bucket – The Pioneers

Red Red Wine – Tony Tribe

Young, Gifted and Black – Bob & Marcia

Double Barrel – Dave & Ansel Collins

Wonderful World, Beautiful People – Jimmy Cliff

Louie, Louie – Toots & the Maytals

Sympathy for the Devil – Sandie Shaw

(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction – Incredible Bongo Band

Killing – The Apples

see you at the next one?

ttfn

Sime.

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UP THE DOSAGE

​so…

saturday walking home from Oakwell it felt like my chest was being ripped open. bad night.

sunday rang 111. answered SO MANY questions. out of hours doctor rang. answered SO MANY questions. advised that probably a strain/muscular. better night.

monday rang  my doctor. booked in for friday.

today. woke up in pain. went to work. came straight home. then i have spent most of the day at the hospital. had two blood tests, an ECG and lots of waiting.

bloods normal. ECG says my heart is fine and i have NOT had a “cardiac event” but rather it looks like it is muscular.

friday i have to still go see my doctor and he will book me into a clinic where they’ll put me on a treadmill and see what is what. (imagine the episode where Homer is on one, being watched by Mulder and Scully)

until then been told to relax, take it easy for a few days.

there you go.

DRIVING NOWHERE

you’ll remember Felicty Jane II. otherwise known as Betty.

well i took her in for a service last week. that and a new pipe. she’d not been running properly since i got her, but i put it down to the pipe she had on, a Sterling “race” pipe. full revs, high speed, she ran like a dream. low revs, like a dog. so i took her in.

yeah…

so NOT just a problem that a pipe and a service will fix. let me state here and now, the guy i bought her from hadn’t ridden her as he rides automatic scooters. he deals in cars. buys and sells em. so he’d had a call from someone saying they had a scooter as a part exchange/deposit, does he want first refusal? he went through to look at her, liked her, bought her, put her up for sale.

i saw her, liked the look, liked the price, went and saw her, went back, gave him the money and rode her home. all well, as i say, sluggish and not great at low speeds, but open her up and she all but leaps away.

but…

seems that whoever had owned her before that (and the V5 states one previous owner) had attempted to make her go faster, but not done it very well.

they had fitted a larger barrel. badly.

they had fitted a larger carb. badly.

they had fitted what my mechanic called “the largest jet i have ever seen on a scooter” which meant she was sucking fuel into her at a rate unknown to man. not only this, but as she has auto-lube, the oil/fuel mix was really out of sync, which means it was a miracle she hadn’t seized on me (something that my mechanic suspects HAS happened at some point).

the carb had been fitted with NO seals or gaskets, pulling all sorts of crap into the engine.

thankfully, it is salvageable, but at a cost of about three times what the service/pipe would have cost.

so i am saving up. and sitting here pissed off that i have a week off work that had plans involving riding up to Sunderland, down to Lincoln, over to Sheffield and Pontefract, and so many other places.

BUT, after chatting to The enemy, it has been decided that the engine gets done.

my mechanic is one of only three people i would 100% trust to build an engine that i know will be reliable to run and run and run. it’s that or try to sell Betty. at a loss, to then have less money to replace her. which means a risk of getting something much worse and being stuck in a never ending cycle.

then once the engine IS fixed, in the next three years, she is slowly tweaked and finessed and the bodywork and shiny stuff is also updated (panel wrapped, i ain’t made of money!) to turn her into a scooter that would grace the pages of Scootering Magazine. all ready for my 50th birthday.

ride safe.

ttfn.

WAKE UP THE NATION

so i did a show last night (you ought to pop along, you’d enjoy it) and rather enjoyable it was too. so i thought i would let you all have a link to it and see the playlist too.

HERE COMES THE WEEKEND 120117

next week’s show has a COLOURS theme, so if you want to get involved with any suggestions/requests, then feel free to get in touch, details below.

as i say, HERE COMES THE WEEKEND is every thursday, live from 8pm, come have a listen, and a chat. all welcome.

ttfn

I’M WHERE I SHOULD BE

during last night’s show i posted this photo and titled it “comfort break” as it was how i left the desk when i went for such. i later changed my profile photo on twitter and facebook to the snap.

it is only while looking at it now that i see so much of what is me in it. some of it hard for the viewer to make out, but…

the headphones and mic, the decks, the laptop all represent my love (some would say obsession) of music.

the mixlr chat page with some of my good pals, old and new, that share that love.

the pork pie and bucket hats an amalgamation of ska/indie/mod.

“The People United Will Never Be Defeated” & Hecky WSB stickers my love of Barnsley FC and (tenuously) my politics.

the Scootering calendar speaks for itself. so peculiar that you can find so much of yourself without even looking for it.

ttfn

HERE’S THE GOOD NEWS

never do my blood pressure any good going down t’Well, but boy did that win feel good! thought we were going to throw it away in the second half though, but we dug in and saw it out. one of the things i enjoy about social media is the “banter” you can have with opposition fans. doesn’t have to be nasty, can be light hearted…

and, occasionally, they’ll have summat nice to say. this guy even took a really decent pic of Oakwell, which is now my desktop background!

anyhow, that’s today, now onto tuesday night and a visit to the piggys down the road.

YOU REDS!

ttfn

COME ON/LET’S GO

it is saturday.

it is five to two.

can mean one thing.

time for me and The Teen (with The Enemy and her mum following on) to walk down Coniston Road, cut along Thirlmere and then down Grasmere to the legend that is Oakwell.

same route each game. same programme seller, same 50/50 seller, same entrance, same seat.

full of misguided optimism, bets placed, hopes raised, ready to be dashed. whatever the result, back there next home game to cheer the Super Reds yet again.

YOU REDS

ttfn