2016 The year the music died

                It is common knowledge that 3rd February 1959 was the day the music died with the loss of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper, That day immortalised by the lyrics of Don Mclean's American Pie.
                 The following morning as the lyrics tell us Don shivered at every newspaper he delivered on his paper round on a cold February morning, delivering the news of the tragic plane and the loss of such talent. I wonder if he shivered throughout 2016 with every months headlines announcing the loss of another musician.

January - David Bowie & Terry Wogan, Paul Kantner, Jimmy Bain, Glenn Frey, Dale Griffin, Clarence Reid, Colonel Adams, Ed Stewpot Stewart, Pierre Boulez, Robert Stigwood, Paul Bley
February-  Viola Beach, John Chilton, Johnny Murphy, Vanity (Denise Matthews), Maurice White,
March - Phife Dawg, Lee Andrews, Peter Maxwell Davies, Keith Emerson, George Martin. Martin White
April - Prince, Billy Paul. Papa Wemba, Victoria Wood, Jeremy Steig, Merle Haggard, Leandro 'Gato' Barbieri,
May - John Berry, Guy Clarke,
June - Bernie Worrell, Henry McCullough,
July -  Might have had a months off, not sure
August - Rudy Van Gelder, Tom Searle, Matt Roberts,
September - Prince Buster, Jerry Heller,
October - Bobby Vee, Pete Burns, Dave Cash,
November - Leonard Cohen, Sharon Jones, Mose Allison, Leon Russell, Jimmy Young
December - George Michael, Rick Parfitt, Greg Lake

This list contains all sorts of musicians from Jazz to orchestral to composers to Radio 1 founding Dj's (3 of these) and I'm sure I've missed some. and maybe 2016 started early with Lemmy passing in late 2015.

These are just a few I have highlighted, i thinks we all know the big names and what they did.
Bobby Vee a contemporary of the buddy holly with possibly his best known turn being Rubber Ball.
Pete Burns click here to see my previous blog entry
Martin White, contribution to music was being the producer for  the Rocky Horror Picture Show
Johnny Murphy played a musician, not sure if he could play or not.
Robert Stigwood, launched the Bee Gees

Christmas day bought us the news that George Michael had passed away, aside from having some great hits the speculation over his sexuality in the 1990's seems to eclipse the artists work, and eventually an incident "outed" him. From that point on the press seemed to consider him fair game and ignoring his talent and contribution instead focusing on any misdemeanour. and now following his death we are hearing about the good charity work he performed and donated to.
Its amazing how quickly they turn. My personal view is sexuality is up to the individual and if they want to announce it they should have that right and not be "outed" by anyone else.

The viola beach story i suppose is similar to the 1959 loss, up and coming musicians torn form us in a tragic accident.

but is 2016 really the year the music died ?
Some really good new artists have seen success in 2016 and have dominated, but also there has been some interesting news with the Led Zepplin lawsuit.
Following the successful suing of Pharrell Williams by the family of Marvin Gaye for plagiarism 2016 saw a lawsuit against Led Zepplin for copying the riff in stairway to heaven. This to me was a worrying thing, I think it was one of the Gallagher brothers who when asked about the likeness of their music to the Beetles replied that its impossibly not to be influenced by great music, or words to that effect.
others encapsulated the sentiment in song lyrics, including Natasha Bedingfield with These Words -

Threw some chords together
The combination D.E.F
It's who I am it's what I do
And I was gonna lay it down for you.

I'm trying to focus my attention
But I feel so A.D.D
I need some help some inspiration
But it's not coming easily...

Tryn'a find the magic
Tryn'a write a classic
Don't you know, don't you know, don't you know?
Wastebin full of paper
Clever rhymes, see ya later

and even better put by Twenty One Pilots with Stressed Out -

I wish I found some chords in an order that is new
I wish I didn't have to rhyme every time I sang

what a challenge to create new music that isn't similar, I am really pleased that the Led Zepplin lawsuit collapsed and feel it will allow freedom for artists to be artists and influenced and inspired.

Maybe the music didn't die after all.

Maybe its in the playing of the recording that the music will always live on .....
or we should just drive to the levee and drink whiskey and Rye

Christmas, consumerism and pressure

Pre Christmas moan !!!

Nice Christmas message tomorrow 

As the last few days before Christmas fill our supermarkets with crazed shoppers desperate to buy enough food to last the Christmas Day closure for the next 5 years and the stores remove Christmas stock before it's even happened I had a moment to think yesterday about the pressure we/they put us under.

I use my local Morrisons as a local shop due to its proximity. This last weeks it's just got hellish, queuing for 15-20 minutes at the tills to pay for a loaf of bread!!!! What !!! Are we in some collapsing communist eastern block country. No wait it's just the hoards desperate for Christmas cheer stored in out of season food and booze, and let's not forget for this week only bulk food shopping is a family activity so each trolley is now accompanied by both parents and 2.4 children all throughly fed up of the supermarket. I just want to pay for my loaf of bread oh and buy extra wrapping paper which has been replaced with mini eggs at Morrisons !!

Ok supermarket rant over for now, I will save my rant about being accused of shop lifting by a computer ever time I try to adjust my shopping or the computer can't work out why the weight of a 7kg bag of charcoal is 7kg. And the carefully chosen voice exclaim "unexpected item in the bagging area, are you stealing form us you untrustworthy human"... sorry I said I'd save that rant.

The discussion about commercialisation of Christmas and the increasing pressure to spend is not a new one and dates back to the Victorian era. I'm not talking about a feast here I fully support the tradition of Christmas dinner with a roast bird etc I fully support decorations, and I fully support the giving of gifts and cards to loved ones.  What I worry about is the need to spend a fortune and the behaviour that causes.

Do we really need the spend or is there more to it. Do we really need to beg borrow or steal, some will feel there have no option some will not know any different. Over the last few years I've seen people I know or know of struggling to pay off last years Christmas debt and borrowing for the next Christmas with a higher interest lender. I seen 'houses broken into' and crisis loans and claims made after. And the world carries on blinded by the Christmas lights.

Everyone's hearts bleeds to genuine stories of loss at Christmas and it's those families that I think we should look at for strength.

A few years ago we had a skint Christmas, one of those where unexpected events mean you've  spent any reserves and it's a general strain to make ends meet and achieve children's dreams on Christmas morning. That Christmas was amazing we had a great time together as a family and the lack of spend on presents was barely noticed, thank the lord for seconds hand items. The gift of Christmas for me is family. (Tomorrow's blog entry will be about my family memories) 

This year as with any year as we get closer to Christmas focus turns from the kids I what to buy each other, me for my wife and my wife for me. As ever the question is what do you want for Christmas and the realisation that I've missed the hints and bought something else.

 When my wife asked me what I'd like I thought for a while and decided rather than spending £50-£100 on me I would rather we had a family day out together. And so we did. Which is a rarity for our household. Not only did I enjoy it but so did they and that meant so much more than an item in wrapping paper, the family together having fun enjoying and celebrating life together. Isn't this what's it's about? The giving of a gift not the present within the wrapper?

I really enjoyed looking at the families faces on Thursday, we had a great day out! 

I managed to have a couple of moments thought yesterday and the chance to catch a few of my children sitting at the dinning room table, so I asked the question

    "What was your main present last Christmas?"

Well the answers varied and took a while, I'm still not convinced they actually knew or remembered the main present we had sourced 12 months ago. 

Right rant over ! As I'm sitting in a separate room from my family as I write this, oh the irony

Questions to any reader

 "what was your main present last year "

 "What was the best thing about Christmas last year?"

Merry Christmas all !!!!!

Post publishing addition.

I know someone who when short of cash near Christmas will go quiet and avoid us, then when finally pinned down will say they feel bad because they want to give the kids £10 for Christmas, I tell them every year! Don't give them £10 just buy them a selection box and smile

Nico Rosberg has driven his last F1 race

Who saw this coming ?

Today Nico Rosberg announced his retirement from Formula 1.

Apparently he had made the decision before the lights went out at the start of the last grand prix, so the 2 big questions are Why and Who is going to replace him?

So why has he quit, in a statement he shared on social media  he states it has always been his aim to be world champion and he has now achieved it. Well done Nico. for Nico winning the world championship has been a tough job and we have seen that on his face during difficult moments along the way and we have seen it played out in the press speculation regarding his friendship with Lewis Hamilton. Now Nico Rosberg is formula 1 world champion and be retiring he never has to defend it, he will be the undefeated F1 world champion 2017. Of course there is a phrase, when you're at the top there is only one way to go.
In Nico's statement there is also a mention of being a husband and father, Thanks to some very strong characters in the 1970's Formula 1 has become a lot safer than it was and the number of deaths has fallen but Motor sport is still dangerous and being a dad and not missing your kids grow up must be everyone's dream. But it doesn't happen overnight, Nicol will have to tie up all his loose ends and then learn how to be around for his family.  I think there is some merit in his comments about spending time at home.
Lets no forget the rosberg family is a racing family and its been 36 since his dad won so I do not think this is the last we have heard of the Rosberg's in racing, who know his daughter may have a carrier in the sport herself.

My personal view is that Nico was not the fastest f1 driver on the grid in 2016 but the combination of car and driver consistency gave him a well deserved championship win.

So Who's Next ?

Twitter and face book have been alive with speculation today as to who will replace Rosberg.

My view is that the likes of Massa and Button have made their decisions and have not taken those decisions lightly so I don't feel they will just come back due to a nice car being dangled.

There has also been a lot of fantastic captions and pics posted on social media which have been really amusing, these have hinted at Verstappen and of course Alonso. Again its only my opinion but i think verstappen is safe and secure at Red Bull and I will keep saying until we see the winter training i think 2017 will be a good year for red bull with the new regs.

The question around Alonso is also for me relatively simple, Alonso is one of if not the best f1 driver on the 2016 grid but i think he will stay where he is certainly for 2017 as he has gone through the pain with his team and already chosen to stay



This is not finished, but got a few things on so will finish later...

PLEASE COMMENT WITH YOUR VIEWS