Links

Oot – The May edition of my What’s On column in the Broughton Spurtle

Interview with Friends are Friends (formerly Epic 26) – The penultimate article for STV Local in the series about the bands involved in the Sick Kids Charity CD, No Colour Too Strong to Paint, which will be launched this Saturday (May 7) at Maggie’s Chamber in the Cowgate.  Unfortunately I can’t go, but I’m sure it’ll be a good night.

Links

An interview with Edinburgh Inventor Ben Schogler about his brand new musical instrument, the skoog

An interview with Col McGregor of Frantic Chant, the mastermind of the Sick Kids charity CD

A post about the pros and cons of doing the door for charidee on Ten Tracks

Links

A review – Around The World in 80 Days by Lung Ha’s Theatre Company at The Traverse (for The Edinburgh Reporter)

An interview – Imperial Racing Club on their involvement in the Sick Kids charity CD (for STV Local)

Link – Steve Heron

My STV Local interview with Steve Heron about his involvement in the Sick Kids charity CD.

Links – Music

A couple of links to things I’ve been writing:

A post about Roofraiser – a fundrasing campaign to help save The Forest Cafe – for Ten Tracks

An interview with Edinburgh band Inspired for STV Local

Link – The 10:04’s

My second band profile for STV, promoting the charity CD No Colour Too Strong to Paint which is being released in May to raise pennies for The Sick Kid’s Foundation.  In this interview I spoke to Steven from the 10.04’s, the local band behind the upcoming Haddow Fest weekend.

 

Link – Sick Kids Charity Album

21 Edinburgh bands are teaming up to release a charity album to raise money for the Sick Kids Foundation.

I wrote an article about it for STV Local.

Let’s Get Lyrical #11 – Hanson

Let’s Get Lyrical officially starts today! I am devastated that I’m not in Edinburgh for tonight’s event, Why Do Songs Have Lyrics? – based on some of the ones I’ve uncovered for this blog it seems a pertinent question! But I am house sitting in Perthshire, so all I can really do is take you back to the nineties.

Remember the nineties, internet? The decade of parachute pants, opal fruits, and ecstasy? No? Well then I shall ease you in gently by initially only going as far back as 1997, when Hanson shocked the world by writing a number one song about something called an ‘MMMbop‘.

It went a little something like this.

You have so many relationships in this life
Only one or two will last

This seems a little bit bleak, to me, but at the time Hanson were aged 12, 14 and 16 so perhaps they didn’t have the plethora of life experience to fall back on that the likes of N-Dubz enjoy today.

You go through all this pain and strife
Then you turn your back and they’re gone so fast
And they’re gone so fast

I was going to say they’d been watching too much Dawson’s Creek until I googled it and discovered that show actually started the following year.  But essentially I think that the media must have played a part in this outlook on love, because having seen the video documentary they made at the time (I had some enthusiastic fan-friends), their family life was cheesily happy; their parents were totally in love and kept spewing forth babies, and all of them got along really well.  Nary a pain or a strife to be seen.

So hold on to the ones who really care
In the end they’ll be the only ones there

The ones who really care?  Mum and Dad, by and large, innit?  Obviously it’s every parent’s dream to outlive their child, but sadly it doesn’t always work out that way…

When you get old and start losing your hair
Can you tell me who will still care?
Can you tell me who will still care?

WELL.  A lot of people manage to ensnare romantic partners, who are willing to at least give an appearance of caring as long as you return the favour.  If you’re in Hanson there are also about 8 million brothers and sisters, so the odds are that at least one or two might be fond of you.  And the Salvation Army are very caring, I’ve heard.  Help The Aged.  Your nosy neighbour.  Your own children.  Any pets that may rely on you for sustenance.  Members of the Bridge club you go to every Thursday.  Do old people still play Bridge, or is that a literary myth?  Anyway, hopefully lots of people still care about you when you’re old.  Be optimistic, guys.

Chorus:
Mmm bop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, ba duba dop
Ba du (Yea-ee-eah)

Mmm bop, ba duba dop
Ba du bop, Ba du dop
Ba du bop, Ba du dop
Ba du (Yea-ee-eah)

…. Yeah.  Well what do you expect, they were only kids.  It was probably pretty stressful coming up with actual words for all those pesky verses, they deserve a chorus consisting essentially of noises.

Plant a seed, plant a flower, plant a rose
You can plant any one of those
Keep planting to find out which one grows
It’s a secret no one knows!

Um, guys?  That’s not a secret.  Although I do like the idea that Hanson had a planting frenzy before writing that bit, touring up and down the length and breadth of America planting seeds everywhere and moving on before they had time to grow, just to keep the mystery alive.

Repeat Chorus

Yeah I will! *dances round kitchen burbling unintelligible chorus noises*

In an mmm bop they’re gone.
In an mmm bop they’re not there.

According to an interview they did at the time with Smash Hits magazine, an ‘mmmbop’ was an unspecified period of time.  You should use that next time you’re running late.  “Sorry, missed the bus, but I’ll be there in an mmmbop!xx”  And let me know whether you get away with it, please.

In an mmm bop they’re gone.
In an mmm bop they’re not there.
Until you lose your hair. But you don’t care.

I think, Hanson, that you do care, by virtue of the fact you wrote a song about it.  If you didn’t care, you would surely not dedicate so much time and energy to the subject.  Also, why are you so worried about losing your hair? Is there a history of early balding in your family?  Worse things happen at sea, y’know.  You guys are so emo.

Repeat Chorus

Can you tell me?  You say you can, but you don’t know.

Is that a challenge?  I can totally tell you! Wait though, what are you actually asking?

Can you tell me which flower’s going to grow?

Oh right.  Well, depends what seed it was, really.  It should have told you on the packet.

Can you tell me if it’s going to be a daisy or a rose?

Well, what did the packet say?

Can you tell me which flower’s going to grow?
Can you tell me? You say you can but you don’t know.

Only because you haven’t given me enough information!  God you are so annoying, stop acting like a freakin’ 12 year old!  …oh.

Repeat Chorus