My Top Ten

Wednesday, 16 April 2025

Teacher Songs #1

I stumbled across this old Fist of Fun clip on the Tube of You last week, in which Stewart Lee and Richard Herring play two very different teachers. I'm sure we all recognise the stereotypes. It made me wonder, what type of teacher will I be remembered as? I'd like to think I'd be midway between the two... without the cringe on either side. But we can never knew how others might see us, particularly students...

I wonder what kind of teacher George was? Or Swiss Adam?

All of this made me realise there was a series to be had in songs about teachers. Many of which would be cancelled if they were released these days. All the more reason to celebrate them!

Here are the three best teacher videos I could think of off the top of my head...

...but there's many more where they came from!

Tuesday, 15 April 2025

Namesakes #133: The Rainmakers

Until today o'clock, I thought a Rainmaker was someone who did a rain dance, or made those funky windy chimey things, with the aim of making it rain. Turns out that's not the case, and the web of lies insists that a Rainmaker is someone who "excels at bringing in new clients or revenue" to a business.

Shows what I know.

Anyway, here are a bunch of bands who claimed to be Rainmakers. I'm, not sure how much moolah any of them brought in though...

THE RAINMAKERS #1

We start today with some doo woppy Rainmakers from 1965...

The Rainmakers - Barbara

THE RAINMAKERS #2

Next, an LA garage band / bunch of bloody hippies* from 1966, originally known as Starbuck & The Rainmakers, though they resurfaced at the end of the decade as Eddie Todd & The Rainmakers...

(*This judgement based solely on the song title below.)

Starbuck & The Rainmakers - Let Your Hair Hang Long

THE RAINMAKERS #3

Far more clean-cut, judging by their photo at least, this lot pitter-pattered down from Noo Joisey in 1967.

The Rainmakers - Jeanie Green Bean

THE RAINMAKERS #4

Yet another 60s garage band, this time from Traverse City, Michigan. They look like they're posing for a horror movie poster... but don't be afraid!

The Rainmakers - Don't Be Afraid

THE RAINMAKERS #5

70s soul, Phillipines-style.

The Rainmakers - Sinta, I Won't Last a Day Without You

THE RAINMAKERS

Funky London-based Rainmakers from 1976 who released a rather literal single called Let It Rain.

I couldn't find it anywhere on t'web.

However, I did find this from 1976, which I'm shoe-horning in just to irk the purist.

Wellington Womble - Rainmaker

THE RAINMAKERS #6

Hailing from Kansas, my own personal pick of the Rainmakers are predominantly remembered for their UK Top 20 hit of 1987 which added a bit of wop-bop-a-loo-bop back into the charts in the year the 80s started going downhill. Stephen King was a fan, quoting their lyrics in both The Tommyknockers and Gerald's Game. (I'm surprised this didn't push me to investigate them further.)

They were very big in Norway, and active on and off in the 90s and 2010s, though they don't appear to have done anything new since guitarist Steve Phillips died of Covid in 2020.

The Rainmakers - Let My People Go Go

THE RAINMAKERS #7

Clubby antheeeeem from 1995 by the same people who brought you Ooops and the Scumboys.

Rainmakers - Don't You Want My Love

RAINMAKERS #8

Um-chigga, um-chigga, um-chigga dance tune from 1997 by Rainmaking DJs Jordi Slate and Felipe Volumen.

Rainmakers - Urban Break

THE RAINMAKERS #9

Young Aussie Rainmakers from 2009...

The Rainmakers - One Voice

THE RAINMAKERS #10

American indie Rainmakers from 2020...

The Rainmakers - Gangsta Nation

THE REIGNMAKERS #11

Boston twin "battle rappers" whose family apparently "reigns over all bars over bullshit". I hope their raps make more grammatical sense.

The Reignmakers - Eye Of The Storm

THE RAINMAKERS #12

Finally, some rather jazzy Rainmakers from South Africa... sort of.

"The Rainmakers are a prime example of this fruitful exchange between North and South. The bandleader and bassist, Bänz Oester and Javier Vercher on tenor sax, come from Europe; the pianist Afrika Mkhize and drummer Ayanda Sikade count among the continent-hopping talents from South Africa. The four of them form a close-knit, inseparable unit. In other words, we are dealing with a formation in which individual strengths are not showcased in egocentric fashion, but are transformed into a collective energy."

Bänz Öster and the Rainmakers - Jaipur

Lots of songs to make it rain... but which is your Purple Rain... and which just leaves you Crying In The Rain?

Monday, 14 April 2025

Listening Post #29: 2025 is hotting up...

You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you! Goddamn you all to hell!

Last week, I put forward an early contender for my album of the year, thinking it might be looking like a bit of a quiet one. Then all hell broke lose, firstly with the announcement of a new Pulp album, their first in 24 years...

And hot on their heels, Neil Hannon decided to get out of bed again...

Meanwhile, as he eases slowly into his retirement, some old geezer from New Jersey found SEVEN albums lying around in his attic that have never been released before and decided to put them together as a new box set, Tracks II...

2025, you spoil me.

Sunday, 13 April 2025

Snapshots #391: Bad, Wicked & Evil Songs...

For some reason, these words kept coming into my head this week: Evil, Bad, Wicked, Sinful, Wrong, Corrupt, Fiendish, Dark, Despicable, Terrible, Horrible, Awful, No, Good, Repulsive. I've no idea why. But I figured I'd find some appropriate tunes to go along with them...

15. Jagged rocks.

Reef: "a ridge of jagged rock, coral, or sand just above or below the surface of the sea."

Reef - Repulsive

14. CMKT4.

Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV, aka...

Frank Black - Horrible Day

13. When a pidgin grows up, it'll make a lovely bunch...

Languages that starts as pidgin develop into creole. Add a lovely bunch of coconuts...

Kid Creole & The Coconuts - I'm Corrupt

12. They're so out of control, they could break both your arms.

Wild Swans - Dark Times

11. A dedicated trumpet player meets the builder of Brookside close.

Roy Castle knew a thing or two about playing his trumpet with dedication. The creator of Brookside was Phil Redmond.

Roy Redmond - Ain't That Terrible

10. Often encountered during a cholera epidemic.

Often encountered during a cHOLEra epidemic.

Hole - Awful

9. Call the orthodhauntist.

Spooky Tooth - Evil Woman

Yes, I know that the Orange Dictator isn't a woman. But I wanted to get Spooky Tooth in here somehow!

8. I let Weepy scramble my brain.

"I let Weepy" was an anagram...

Pete Wylie - Sinful

7. Your closest advisers.

Inner Circle - Bad Boys

6. You could have chosen conkers, chestnuts or pine cones... what made you choose acorns?

Why oak?

Wye Oak - Despicable Animal

5. Turner's furniture shop.

They took their name from the slogan on the store above, in Hull.

Everything But The Girl - Wrong

4. Money talks... on this safari.

Money talks, but it don't sing and dance and it don't walk, according to Neil in Forever In Blue Jeans. Add a bit of a Swinging Safari...

Swinging Blue Jeans - You're No Good

3. Curse Flanders!

Damn Ned!

The Damned - Grimly Fiendish

2. Never meant to make your daughter cry...

That's a lyric from Ms. Jackson by Outkast.

Janet Jackson - Nasty

1. Martin, you Yellow git! You're fired!

I sack Chris (Martin)... or to put it another way... Chris: I sack!

Chris Isaak - Wicked Game

Some less evil Snapshots next weekend...

Saturday, 12 April 2025

Saturday Snapshots #391

The good news is, there will be no further tariffs imposed on Snapshots guesses this weekend - so feel free to identify the artists below and work out what might connect their songs, safe in the knowledge you'll only be paying a 10% guess fee. Unless you're in China...