This Sunday the BBC radio programme Desert Island Discs commemorates 75 years since it  was first broadcast on 29th January 1942. 
In that time more than 3000 castaways (guests) have chosen their eight pieces of music, one book and one luxury item to accompany them on a mythical Desert Island. Of the various kinds of music that have been selected, classical music has been the most popular. And when in 2011, Radio 4 asked listeners to vote for the songs they'd most like to take with them if marooned on a Desert Island, 25,000 people picked a Top Ten containing 8 pieces by classical composers: Vaughan Williams & Elgar (two each), Beethoven, Handel, Holst and Mozart. 
Just outside the Ten in 12th spot was Johann Pachelbel's well known 'Canon in D major' – but have you heard it played like this ? Maybe! As over 9 million views on YouTube testify, this version by student Laura Lāce from Latvia is quite something.
Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls, I give you 'Canon Rock'

Laura Lāce: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwrrcpcKag7QTHVJSADZUyA

Hang Múa, Ninh Bình

I nicked this photo off my son's Instagram page. Ninh Binh is an hour south from Hanoi, Vietnam.

"We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us"

Now this is going to sound real flash - so here goes. 

Recently one of my  FRIDAY MUSIC SPOT  listeners in California (told ya) put me onto a website called 'Live from Daryl's House' and in particular Episode 77 featuring Elle King.

The Daryl is none other than Daryl Hall (Hall & Oates), while Elle King is a GRAMMY nominated singer described by The New York Times as

"a sassy, hard-drinking, love-’em-and-leave-’em hellion with bad tattoos and a broad pedigree across rock, pop and country. She has Adele’s determination and Joan Jett’s stomp, Brenda Lee’s high-voiced bite and some AC/DC shriek"

They missed out mentioning Janis Joplin, so I will. I've checked out a lot of her music and as a result have found it impossible to pick just one song for this week. Therefore we have two, a bit like one those double 'A' sided singles they use to release years ago.
Depending what mood your in today, you can pick. Do you feel like dancing or just moved in other ways?
Elle King - Song and Dance (or skate):

Elle King - other Song:

There's also a great band version of 'Can't Be Loved' that's worth a spin……

A Diner ? Maybe a Snack Bar - or just a Garden Shed. (London SW17 0BB)

"How did I miss that one?" 
Occasionally you hear a song from way back and wonder why you have no memory of it, despite it being very popular at the time. 
Over Christmas BBC4 aired a programme called 'Top of the Pops: Christmas Hits'. Normally such a title would have us grabbing the tv remote, faster than you could sing "Merry Christmas, everyone", and swiftly changing channels. However on this occasion we didn't.
Intrigued no doubt by the opening song, a lesser known track by The Rolling Stones, we remained watching. Aside from a few dodgy 'hits' and a couple of the anticipated well worn festive ditties, the show was more unexpected than expected, playing music spanning four decades.
Question: In 1987 who had one of the biggest UK hit singles of that year? The Bee Gees, Madonna, maybe the Pet Shop Boys? Well Rick Ashley was 'Top of the Pops' for 5 weeks and, shortly before Christmas that year, so was T'Pau with 'China In Your Hand'. As they played this song I simply had no recall of such a big hit.
The single went on to top the charts in 5 other european countries, but didn't do so well in America and Australia. And here lies the explanation for my missing memory. During the height of its popularity I was away in S.E. Asia before moving on to Australia.

No longer missing, here is that TOTP performance.

During research I discovered that the single release was a shortened version of the album track and it was also slightly sped up to reduce its length. I'm sure you'd like to hear the longer version with extra verses plus I also found a 'live' performance with the guitar taking the sax solo. 
Longer version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfvJS4UO7xI
Live version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5ch-Z9HqV4

Finest Moment

My son suggested that John Mikel Obi's finest moment for Chelsea was the 2012 Champions League final in Munich.
Let's not forget this moment: Obi Wan's diving header into the bin. Never tire of watching this…

A new view from the Bridge

My brother got complimentary tickets for yesterday's Cup match at the Bridge. And I was able to enjoy a cracking view of the game from the front row of the West Stand Upper. See below.

Chelsea 4  Peterborough 1 
The official programme yesterday reproduced the 1965 programme design - a nice touch I thought.

Plenty of team changes for the Blues and a chance to impress or not. So who caught the eye ?
Ruben Loftus-Cheek had a very good game and was unfortunate to be sub'd after JT was sent off. No comment on that, but the referee had a poor afternoon all round.  
Nathaniel Chalobah also played well, without being spectacular. While Michy Batshuayi did okay, but I was looking for a bit more from him. He's to static at times, just a target when he needs to pull defenders away more often.
Good to see Kurt Zouma playing again. Him and Branislav showed great power in the air.
Pedro and Willian were different class.

Finally I can't go without saying farewell to John Mikel Obi (Obi Wan) - who won 10 major trophies during his 10 seasons with Chelsea.

Sutton United v Wimbledon

To commemorate the FA Cup 3rd Round tie being played today, I thought I'd post a memory from the 1963 Amateur Cup Final played between the sides.
Wimbledon won 4-2 on the day and here they are with the cup. Remarkably during my autograph hunting days I've managed to get EVERY member of the team to sign this picture.

Match report from the 'News of the World'"
Wimbledon 4 Sutton United 2 (Empire Stadium, Wembley, 4th May 1963. Attendance: 45,000. Receipts £16,700)
Jubilant Eddie Reynolds achieved the amazing feat of heading four superb goals to give Wimbledon their first Amateur Cup triumph... yet the result of this exciting final between Surrey rivals was in the balance until the burly Irish leader netted his last two in the closing three minutes of the game.
In fact Sutton were the more polished side for most of the time and, though centre-half Terry Price was partially concussed by a nose injury, they hit back to equalise through Mickey Goodall and Trevor Bladon after Reynolds had put star-studded Wimbledon two up in the first eight minutes of the second half.
Reynolds was the undisputed hero but Wimbledon, with six internationals in their side, could be rated lucky to have pulled off this smash and grab victory in their third final. Sutton deserved a better fate at the first attempt and it might have been a different tale had Price escaped injury.

(Slightly dodgy) YouTube footage:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&feature=related&hl=en-GB&v=EwyDcdJGnYs

Last week I watch a bio-documentary on Channel 4 called "Bruce Springsteen: In His Own Words".
The very next day in the New Year's honours list Raymond Douglas Davies, one of my all time favourites, became Sir Ray Davies. 
Straight away my mind went to the collaboration between these two legendary artists on an album released six years ago entitled Ray Davies 'See My Friends'*. This is their version of the Kinks 1981 single 'Better Things'. Not much to watch on the video but at least this great track gets 2017 off on a positive note.

* Check out new versions of other Kinks favourites on this album, especially Mumford & Sons - Metallica - & 'All Day and All Of The Night/Destroyer' with Billy Corgan.