Rock Around the Clock

What are you doing New Years Eve?

Cork-popping, good-footing, leg-shaking, shindigging? If so I'm sure you've got your tunes sorted. If not, allow me to lively up you night with a full five hours worth of New Year's Eve floor-fillers and foot-stompers. Mixing new tunes and old acquaintances into a punch bowl of funky covers, soul shakers, new wave nuggets, theme tunes, rock 'n' rollers and rip roarers where anything and everything goes from Primal Scream to Peggy Lee, Sammy Davies to Sly Stone, Bo Diddley to Belle and Sebastian.

Fill your boots with bangers, bankers and belters below..

Rock Around the Clock 1
Sparkly, bubbly ice-breakers to soundtrack the to-ing and fro-ing



Rock Around the Clock 2
Tunes to warm up the room



Rock Around the Clock 3
Tunes to lively up your legs



Rock Around the Clock 4
Rocking the roof right off..



HAPPY NEW YEAR and see you in the sci-fi sounding 2010!!!

Clocking Off For Christmas...

View from our upstairs window last Friday..

Well that's almost it from me for this decade..Happy Christmas, Feliz Navidad and Mele Kaliki Maka to everyone who's chipped in with contributions, comments, recommendations or link ups. And a discreet nod to those stealthy footed silent types who read but never write..

I say almost, as I'll be back on the 31st. Having been asked to do the tunes for a New Year's shinding, I've rattled up a roll call of 'bangers', 'bankers' and rootin' tootin' tunes - running to a total four CDs worth. Tune in New Year's Eve and you can grab the full set for a limited period only...

So that'll be me blogging off, logging off and leaving you with two tunes used in the last poddy - The Ventures (soundtracked our cracker test) and Big Tiny Little (the piano madness used to close the 'cast). So until then, have yourselves a swinging little Christmas playmates and go easy on the scoops and stodge..

Big Tiny Little - Tiny's Christmas Medley



The Ventures - Jingle Bell Rock



If you haven't checked it out yet, you must get your snow-boots over to Fades In Slowly, where Adam has created a 'bloggers of the world unite' selection box in the style of Peely's festive 50 with between tune links from St John of Peel...

Podrophenia 7 - Christmas Podding

Artwork by Paul Oddsock

Following in the tradition of festive specials Piley and I bring you a bumper edition for the Christmas Podrophenia : 10 tinsel tunes, 8 celebrity messages (can you spot them all) and 2 special guests as Marmite Boy and Coops join us for a sleigh ride through cyberspace..

Brian Setzer, Sufjan Stevens, Shonen Knife and Barbara Streisand are a few of the tunes hand-picked for the playlist. While in other news there's a cracker consumer test, possibly the most miserable Christmas song ever, retromania with Burley aftershave, Ronco adverts and Avon Boosters. A Wood Watch update and find out which one of us has, ermm, 'fiddler's fingers' ~ I say!

It's perhaps rowdier than our usual poddies as assorted other halves, 2 Mini-Mondo's and 1 Tiny Piley add some background clatter to the goings on ..

Serving suggestion - play it while you're writing or delivering cards, wrapping prezzies, enjoying a glass of egg nog (what is egg nog?) or trimming the tree. Whatever you're doing fill your boots and raise a glass ~ or is it fill a glass and raise your boots? ~ for Christmas.

Podrophenia 7 - Christmas Podding



Or via iTunes (should be up later today)

Breaking A Birthday Rule....

For the first time - EVER. I'm lumbered with working on my birthday. I never work birthdays - it's just not done is it? And, really, shouldn't they be public holidays anyway?

Historically it's booked off and I'll indulge in one full day of lazing and loafing broken only by a trip to Wah Hing for a lunchtime special (L3 - sweet and sour chicken with rice). But, due to some annual leave confusement, I'm here in the office. Ho hum.

Hopefully I'll be able to swing a late(ish) start, an early(ish) finish and an extended trip to Orbital or Gosh comics with spot of Denmark Street window shopping in between.

So what do we do for tunes? Perhaps a few about someone I share birthdays and barnets with...

The Sonics - Roll Over Beethoven




Walter Murphy - A Fifth Of Beethoven

Funky Friday - The Hardest Working Man In Snow Business

It's a Pop Quiz - I can guarantee - guarantee, you won't unmask the secret Santa performing the opener from today's sackful of goodies. Although, in all fairness he's mainly famous in the States. Full marks to Coops for putting this slice of fleet-footed festive funkery on my 'sleighdar'. Santa's Got A Brand New Bag is a cracker that shimmies and shakes likes James Brown on ice..

So what else is on the Christmas list today? The Godfather Christmas of Soul shaking a festive leg with Shrek and Boogaloo Santa busting full bearded moves.

? - Sock It To Me Santa



Brat - Funky Christmas



J.D. McDonald - Boogaloo Santa Claus

Countdown To Christmas - Ho, Ho, Ho-down

The spirit of the season and a Christmas tingle finally took hold over the weekend. Fired by a medley of : the New York Dolls tinsel, glam and glitter at Friday's gig - how loud? Choco Girl popping by with homemade cards and crocheted tree trims. Piley, Coops and Marmite dropping round to record the Christmas podcast. A trip to my favourite pub decked out in festive finery and a rewatch of Scrooged starring NY Doll David Johansen as the cab-driving, stogie-chewing Ghost of Christmas past. All lit by a low-lying golden December sunlight.

All of which means it’s time to unwrap some winter warmers and set the yule blog ablaze by way of a blugrass shinding on Christmas Time's A Comin, and a ragtime tear-up on the jolliest, jauntiest version of Here Comes Santa Claus

The Grascals - Christmas Time's A Comin'



Big Tiny Little - Here Comes Santa Claus






Oh and the newly remastered It's A Wonderful Life has been bought and tucked away for a closer-to-Christmas treat..

Funky Friday - These Are A Few Of My Favourite (Soul) Things...

As featured in Kill Bill

You may remember a while back we posted Keith Mansfield's 'Lola' sound-a-like Soul Thing on the blog. It's a track that's popped, shuffled and randomised it's way into becoming one of my most played tunes of the year. Which, is why when Adam from Fades In Slowly kindly invited me to find five tunes for his Festive Fifty - Soul Thing was a shoo-in.

Digging deeper into variants of Soul Thing becomes a cat's cradle of endless editions: orchestral, strings, stereo and mono madness. However, I won't slump your shoulders with every available flavour - but, guide you to selection of covers, reworks and highlights..

James Royal's Vocal version! With lyrics n'everything

James Royal - House of Jack



Tony Newman's Hammond fired hip-shaker

Tony Newman - Soul Thing



Keith Mansfield retitled versh. Refitted with funkmungous breaks and brass

Keith Mansfield - Funky Fanfare



And the theme to 'The Queen Street Gang'? No, me neither

There's No Business, Like Seventies Show Business

Had a visit to the local 'Unseen 1963' exhibition recently, possibly the most historically-boggling photography collection I've ever seen. Piley's got all the info on it, but in essence, 'Unseen 1963' is over fifty candid, posed and offstage shots of sixties Pop Stars snapped at Southend's Odeon cinema. A mixture of dead-legends and heavy-hitters including The Beatles, the Stones, Cliff, Bo Diddley, Roy Orbison, the Everlys and The Kinks all caught backstage or meeting and greeting local competition winners in our very own Southend cinema .

One of the faces, I recognized was Samantha Jones. Originally one of The Veronons Girls, a group orbiting in shadow of The Beatles early career. Samantha eventually went solo, becoming something of a hit with the Lowlanders in Belgium, the Netherlands and winning the Knokke-Heist music festival. During the seventies she settled into the showbiz circuit of clubs, cruises and occasional TV appearances.

So what does she sound like? Well there's two sides of Samantha on offer today

A cheeky hotpants, Bakers Boy hat and suede boots sounding slinky piece of pop-funk. The sort of tune you'd get during a disco scene in Please Sir

Samantha Jones - Today Without You



And a belting evening-dress and show-closer 'Handbags and Gladrags' type soul ballad

Samantha Jones - Do I Still Figure In Your Life



Morecambe & Wise


Wheeltappers & Shunters (it's well worth watching this clip to the close, for the 'all together now' sing-a-long of Show Me The Way To Go Home)



That's Samantha, sat on Macca's lap..