On the Eve of the Coronation, today's choice is straightforward enough. Though I suspect that British Blues may not be a big part of the weekend music celebrations, so the band King King probably wont get a mention beyond here. 

Formed in 2008 King King are named after a former blues club in Los Angeles. Originally a 4-piece group fronted by larger than life guitarist Glaswegian Alan Nimmo (which explains the kilt ! )

This great track from a 2016 'Live' release is titled 'Waking Up' :

Looks like they're enjoying themselves - hope you do too. Blues Rock forever > long live the King, King

More: King King from their 2020 'Maverick' album, now a 5-piece line up with Stevie Nimmo joining his brother. “I Will Not Fall “ video here 

  

An alternative (and occasional) music posting highlighting something out of the ordinary. Perhaps of limited appeal, unconventional, experimental or just far-out ! Call it what you like (or switch it off, if you don't like). 

C e l e b r a t i n g  T R E E S

-  a love of and a new knowledge too  -

While not necessarily seeing myself as a 'tree hugger' I realise if you consider Margaret's nickname from her South African days then that is exactly what I am: a 'Tree' hugger 😊

But that is something else. It was whilst travelling on a train from the south coast that I found myself thinking about all the trees I could see passing me by through the window. The sheer numbers and varieties, seemed incredible. We're talking evolution timelines and silly numbers here: millions and then billions of years. 

🌍 As a guide: First 'modern' human - Homo sapiens arrive some 300,000 years ago.

🍃 While trees have been on our planet about 380,000,000 years (380 Million).

🌐 Globally, there are estimated to be 3.04 trillion trees, according to a recent study published in the journal Nature. This means that there are roughly 422 trees for every person on earth.

🌱 There are over 73,000 different species of trees on Earth 🌐 

IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING

The earliest trees were tree ferns, horsetails and lycophytes, which grew in forests in the Carboniferous period. The first tree may have been Wattieza, fossils of which have been found in New York State in 2007 dating back to the Middle Devonian (about 385 million years ago). During the Mesozoic (245 to 66 million years ago) the conifers flourished and became adapted to live in all the major terrestrial habitats. Subsequently, the tree forms of flowering plants evolved during the Cretaceous period. These began to displace the conifers during the Tertiary era (66 to 2 million years ago) when forests covered the globe. When the climate cooled 1.5 million years ago and the first of four ice ages occurred, the forests retreated as the ice advanced. In the interglacials, trees recolonised the land that had been covered by ice, only to be driven back again in the next ice age. 

And then there's Oxygen

The Origin of Oxygen in Earth's Atmosphere is tiny organisms known as cyanobacteria, or blue-green algae. These microbes conduct photosynthesis: using sunshine, water and carbon dioxide to produce carbohydrates and oxygen. Earth's atmospheric fills with oxygen about 2.4 billion years ago. 

Finally some appropriate music: Swiss harpist Andreas Vollenweider with 'Under The Trees of Hope' > 

From his 1997 'Kryptos' Album, which I first heard on a plane to America. Must be something about being 35,000 feet up in the air surrounded by clouds, because I remember feeling overwelmed. Amazing track - magnificent [like trees]  

For the love of Tree

   

Her sound combines multitracked vocals and keyboards with elements of Celtic, classical, church, new age, world pop and Irish folk music. And she's been called the "goddess of new age music"! She doesn't classify her music as part of that genre. When asked what genre she would classify her music, she replies "Enya".

This is one of my favourite tracks by her called 'Anywhere Is' from her fourth studio album, the first not to feature guest artists, with Enya on lead vocals, backing vocals, piano, keyboard, synthesizer, cello, violin and percussion. It was released as a single in November 1995. Nice video too. 

From her album "The Memory Of Trees" and a deliberate connection I've made that sets up a special midweek post - coming next Wednesday. Until then ... 

  

Tomorrow is 'Earth Day', an annual event every April to demonstrate support for environmental protection. A good time for this song I discovered earlier this year. 

I think it's obvious who this is about, though not mentioned directly in the lyrics of 'Sister Atlas' by Lancashire folk rock group Merry Hell. 

Words and music are by vocalist Virginia Kettle, wife of guitarist John Kettle. The band also includes his brothers Andrew & Bob Kettle.

>>> So put the kettle on 😁 because we're "on the cover of running out of time magazine" 

Tomorrow is also UK Record Store Day, which sees many old albums and re-packaged releases: fyi 

   

As we head up to Yorkshire for the weekend we are driving into 'Heartbeat' territory. Having been watching re-runs on itv3 of this series for the best part of a year now, music from the 60s as used in the shows is in order.

With such a wealth of great songs to choose from picking one is not easy. Narrowing it down to a group not previously featured on the FMS helps. 

This track has been used a few times, often in chase sequences and ideal for a police drama series. British group The Dave Clark Five with a 2 minute pop song 'Catch Us If You Can'. 

From 1965 it was the title song for the film of the same name, which was retitled 'Having a Wild Weekend' in the United States. The single reached number five in the UK and number four in the US.

I really like the middle section's harmonica passage from sax player Denis Payton > DC5

  

Appears last week's bit of fun went down well. Let's have some more fun with this award winning Video. You may not know the song or the group but I'll bargain you know the show being featured.   

Rather than say any more I'll let you watch the music video and give you the lowdown afterwards.

Cue Weezer and 'Buddy Holly' - and a 1990s video referencing a 70s TV series set in the 50s !

The Story:

Weezer - who aren't actually from Wisconsin but California recorded this track in 1994. 

The video won four MTV awards while the song made a 2021 list of Rolling Stone magazine's '500 Greatest Songs of All Time'.  

Weezer Drummer Pat Wilson recalls in 1995 that the video was clever editing and no computer graphics were used.

"Old footage from the show and new footage of the band seamlessly edited together. We rebuilt the inside of Arnold's, and we dressed up and we would film a scene. We bought some film footage of Happy Days and put it all together. When they filmed us they processed it and made it look a little grainy so it matched the quality of the old footage of Happy Days. For the most part it looked really good. I think the thing that makes it really come off is the fact that Al is in it also.” - Referring to the magnificent cameo from Al Molinaro, reprising his Happy Days role as diner owner Al Delvecchio. 

The video was directed by Spike Jonze [who has done numerous other music videos] 

  

This has become a return to 'live music' week. It started at our 'local' last Sunday evening and continues tonight at the White Rock Theatre with a tribute band called Letz Zep. Then on Sunday it's the 2023 'Hastings Beatles Day'.  

Coming across this great video with its clever editing - I thought Letz have some fun. No further introduction from me, so as not to give it away completely... 

"It's been a long time since I rock and rolled"

  

A recent news item declared that Country Music was the fastest growing music genre in Britain. Reporting 'Country to Country' (C2C) – a three-day multi-venue event that has become Europe’s very own Nashville extravaganza – was the biggest festival to date, taking in such unlikely cowboy hotspots as London, Dublin and Glasgow.

I'm not a big 'achy-breaky-heart' Country fan, but I do like the rougher more rocky side of proceedings with songs about highways, trucks and tequila, beers and bust-ups. 

One of the headliners at C2C was Thomas Rhett, who it appears is huge in America, with numerous hits and awards under his belt. No, I'd never heard of him until now !

He sings "Back when Country wasn't cool" and "Everybody got a story to tell" on 'What's Your Country Song' >

Fancy a beer song or two: definitely check out 'Half of Me' and 'Beer Can't Fix' featuring Jon Pardi, 

  

I shall ignore all the recent stories about what's been said and who apparently wrote what, and putting talk of re-recordings aside, to concentrate on the original music release and for what it's worth - what it's really worth !

There also appears come confusion regarding the actual release date [link here]. Could be this is simply the album coming out in America before the UK, so whether it's the 1st or 16th of March, it is without dispute the 50th Anniversary of 'The Dark Side of the Moon' by Pink Floyd.  

I bought the album when it first came out so I have a copy of the original pressing. Full details are it's the Harvest Label release - Solid Light Blue Triangle record label with black inner sleeve, 2 posters & 2 stickers with a Gatefold album cover only one side opening, all in Good Condition, naturally. In 2016 I found a Record shop in London selling this copy of 'The Dark Side of the Moon' for £500. 

In 2019 it sold on ebay for £720. Then Record Collector magazine had it priced at £995 in 2020. While it famously sold for $3,242 [£2,664] in 2018*. So girls and boys if you have this record please take note, it's worth a few bob. 😊

Todays Star Track is 'Time' - side one, track 4 - with this compiled video [Warning: it begins with alarms bells ringing] - "ticking away the moments that make up a dull day" - some of these lyrics resonate more today than they did to my 20 year old self in 1973 !

* Link to a list of other valuable vinyl: [click] 

   

Part Two of a snowy week begins with a video called 'Ski Sunday falls' - simply 'A collection of the most dramatic falls from BBC Ski Sunday from the 1980's'. Or 'wipeouts' as we called them... "He's Gone" and "he's lost a ski" just some snippets of the commentary ... 

Click this link to view on YouTube > Ski Sunday falls + music

The footage is a bit flaky [old] and even the tape malfunctions just after the mid point, much like the downhill skiers, while the action ends with the excellent 'Ski Sunday' theme tune > ‘Pop Looks Bach’ by Sam Fonteyn. Once the ultra-compact Sony Walkman had been invented we could listen and ski along to this music as well. 

Two songs are played during this compilation and as Gerry Rafferty's ‘Get It Right Next Time’ is interrupted by commentary here's the complete song as this week's Star Track. 

1979 track from his 'Night Owl' album, also released as a single.