Thursday, 26 July 2012

My alternative Olympic Opening ceremony

So the Olympics finally get under way officially tomorrow evening with an opening ceremony directed by Danny Boyle and although most of its content has remained top secret we do know there will be an idyllic countryside scene and a raincloud (which may probably be provided naturally anyway) to reflect "Britain of old." . Anyway here's a few of my own suggestions as to what should also be included in a ceremony to give the watching world a true reflection of British life.

1. A group of tracksuit-clad chavs swagger into the arena with the latest smart-phones and music blasting out of them. They all sit on a park bench in the middle of the field. A bottle of White Lightning cider is passed round and one of them rolls a joint. Every so often they spit on the grass and swear at passers by making two fingered gestures to the spectators. Another chav rides in on a scooter, holding a Staffy on lead. The dog is let off its leash and allowed to run wherever it wants in the stadium. The dog urinates on the athletics track before attacking officials and members of the audience. Dwain Chambers runs past and offers the chavs some drugs, which they accept and a quick exchange is carried out.

Chavs should feature in the Olympic Opening Ceremony as a true reflection of
British Life.
A car enters the arena and parks nearby. A smartly dressed couple get out on their way to sample a bit of British culture, perhaps a play at the theatre. They are sworn at by the chavs as they get out of their parked car. The couple hurry on trying to ignore the insults as they go. The chavs eye up the car and they get an idea.

The chavs twok the car and then go off on a joyride doing two laps of the athletics track at 100mph before torching it at the finish line, causing a huge fire. The chavs swagger off holding their White Lightenting and giving two fingered gestures to the crowd as they leave the stadium.


2. The arena is turned into a giant Job Centre. Queues of people line up looking for a job but slowly leave the arena looking disconsolate. A big dole queue forms with over-worked staff trying to organise the melee'. The queue includes lots of young 16-24 year olds who have no hope of getting a job. A group of children proudly run out with a giant white flag emblazoned with the design of a P45 form. The jobseekers stand under the P45 form and are then smothered in the flag before marching out of the stadium.


3. A fleet of lorries enter the stadium and park in the middle of the green. The back doors burst open and a groups of illegal asylum seekers cart-wheel out in all directions. They then run as fast as they can to hide amongst the spectators, never to be seen again.

4. In the corner a giant petrol station is built and as the ceremony goes on around it the display price goes up and up.


5. Now its time for the athlete's parade, and what better way to show our famous British sense of diplomacy  than giving the flag-bearers the flag of their rival nation. So let's start by giving the Iranian Olympic team the flag of Israel, the Indian team can fly the flag of Pakistan, North Korea can carry the flag of South Korea and vice-versa and just so as we are not left out, why not end up with Sir Chris Hoy carrying the flag of Germany for Team GB! As for the Union Jack, let's give it to the Irish Olympic team and help put decades of religious conflict well and truly in the past!

6. Now the grand firework finale and who better to set them off then our chavs from the opening scene. Since twoking the car they have gone and bought some fireworks and are now looking for a letterbox to put one through. They find a house and an angry old man comes out shaking his fist. the chavs beat him to the ground. One them films it on a mobile phone and uploads it onto the giant screens in the stadium. The chavs then set off the fireworks off on him and run off, leaving him for dead.

7. Now then, who could we get to light the Olympic flame? Daley Thompson? Steve Redgrave? David Beckham perhaps? No! Let's celebrate how us British love to promote the underdog and at the same time show our history of slapstick comedy, by getting Eddie the Eagle Edwards to ski-jump his way into the stadium with the torch in hand, but then comically trip over and completely miss the cauldron. One of the chavs triumphantly goes up to the torch and flicks the embers of his joint which makes the Olympic flame burn and the London 2012 Olympics are declared officially open!

Tuesday, 17 July 2012

My worst number ones

Last weekend provided me with some entertainment by watching "Britain's Favorite Number Ones" on ITV . The mission was to find the UK's favorite number one from sixty nominated by "industry experts" inevitably including Paul Gambacinni. Sounds great, but there was one problem though. Now correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the whole point of a good countdown show is trying to guess which songs will be coming up next and if viewing with others having a debate as to which "item" would eventually be the number one number one?. But host, Fearne Cotton insisted on taking the whole fun out of the programme by telling us what the next five songs were in the form of little "teasers" before the commercial breaks.. grrr! I really don't want to know that Madonna, Blondie, Rihanna, Oasis and David Bowie made up the next five songs in the countdown! Why are you spoiling the fun for me Fearne? However it was not really a shock that Bohemian Rhapsody turned out to be the winning song (I'd actually worked it out about half an hour before because it's the only one they didn't mention in any of the teasers in a weak attempt to disguise it.)

Anyway I thought for your amusement and my own I would compile a list of songs which definitely should NEVER have made it to Number 1 and what I would have said about them if I'd been filmed in front of my mixer on the countdown show. Enjoy.

 Everly Bros - Cathy's Clown 1960

A negative dirge about not loving somebody any more Yuk!


Billy J Kramer & the Dakotas - Little Children 1964

A song that would be considered akin to paedophillia if you listen to the words, but they didn't exist in 1964 did they?????


The Scaffold - Lily The Pink 1968

Annoying song that has plagued kids songbooks and easy guitar cord books


 . Clive Dunn - Grandad 1971

 Amusing, if you are 5 or 85


Benny Hill - Ernie The Fastest Milkman in the West 1971
.
Annoying and just don't get it,


 Chuck Berry - My Ding a Ling 1972

Repetitive, irritating and immature sexual humour that only belonged in the early 70s


Donny Osmond - Puppy Love 1972
.
Awful it's songs like these that made punk fashionable five years later


 Jimmy Osmond - Long Haired LOver from Liverpool 1972
.
Irritating not a patch on a then young Michael Jackson


Dawn - Tie A Yellow Ribbon 1973

The most irritating song ever written and recorded


Mud - Lonely This Christmas

The suicide rate normally increases at Christmas largely due to this song


 The Wurzels - I Got A New Combine Harvester 1976

 Just because I grew up in rural East Yorkshire doesn't mean that I'm anything like these guys


Renee & Renato - Save Our Love 1982

Luckily I was only a baby when this was out
 .

 . The Timelords - Doctorin the Tardis 1988
.
To my ears Doctor Who is just a series of noises and this is no different


Mr Blobby - Mr Blobby 1993

How the hell did this get anywhere near number 1 ...twice..


 Robson & Jerome - Unchained Melody/Up On the Roof 1995

Should have stayed on Soldier Soldier



Hanson - Mmmbop 1997

I really did want to punch each and every one of Hanson


Teletubbies say Eh oh 1997

Don't tell me a load of 3 year olds went to HMV and bought this single..


Aqua - Barbie Girl 1997

Cheesy horrible


Bewitched - Ce'st Le Vie 1998

Hate this song it was crap when it was in the charts and is crap when I hear it out at 90s nostaligia nights


Anything by Billie 1998

Nuff said

 Vengaboys - Were Going to Ibiza 1999

This song irritates me in so many ways:

1. The way she pronounces "Ibiza" so it rhymes with "pizza"
2. It rips off a 70s number on called "Typically Tropical by Barbados
3. The way that "Meditteranean Sea" doesn't quite fit the song

A1 - Take on Me 2000

Just because your band also begins with A and named after the longest road in Britain doesn't mean that you can do a good cover of an 80s classic


Bob The Builder - Can We Fix It 2000

See Teletubbies


Atomic Kitten - Whole Again 2001

This typifies music around this time..rubbish


Gareth Gates - Unchained Melody 2002

Just because you were in a reality show doesn't mean you have the right to trample all over a classic


Eamon F u right back 2004
 Frankee Fu I don't want you back 2004

I grouped these together. Chavvy Jeremy Kyle music


Chico - It's Chico Time 2006

Dreadful


Sean Kingston - Beautiful Girls 2007

I once got requested this song 7 times in a night and have hated it ever since


Any X Factor finalist collaborations 2007-11

Nobody has a divine right to get to number one


Scouting for Girls - This Aint a love song 2010

I just hate Scouting for girls


Joe McElderry - The Climb 2010
Bad song bad winner of X Factor




Tuesday, 10 July 2012

Why we should all get behind Andy Murray


I am not a tennis fan, particularly, but like many people in this country I take a passing interest in Wimbledon and occasionally the other grand slam events each year. The Davis Cup and the Masters series do not particularly interest me and if there was cricket or football on the other channel I would most certainly be watching these instead. However this year I could not help being captivated by the famous old tournament.  Britain...yes Britain, not Spain or Serbia have a Wimbledon men's singles finalist for the first time in the professional era in the shape of Andy Murray. He did not bottle it in the quaters or the semi's Henman style, but he made it to the final two of the tournament, overcoming difficult opponents from round one. In tennis I have a motto that if I've heard of them then they must be good. I'd heard of all of Murray's opponents from Davydenko in round one, through Karlovic, Baghdatis, Cilic, Ferrer, Tsonga and finally Federer in the final. There were no gimmes in that run.

The tears he shed after his defeat in the final showed how much he wanted to win this tournament and how much he cared. People have often written Murray off as aloof, humourless and boring in interviews. With the voracity of the British press for a headline I do not blame him. He is probably scared of saying something out of place and has been bitten before by the press when they reported his off the cuff comment about "supporting anybody but England" in the 2006 World Cup. I think this so-called aloofness is more a case of self- preservation than how he actually really is. I heard him on a live radio show on Radio Five Live as a guest and in this more relaxed studio environment he came across as a humorous and engaging character, liberated by the more friendly surroundings where headline chasing was not the object of the journalists present.

There is also a conspiracy for Murray to be disliked. Unlike his peers Murray did not come through the British LTA system and instead opted to train at the Schiller International School in Barcelona when he was fifteen. The fact that Murray is the best British tennis player by a country mile,and puts to shame any other  player brought through the English system exposes starkly the incompetence of the LTA to produce world class tennis players. This I think has irked some people at the top of the sport in this country because his success has made them look rather silly.

Murray has also had to overcome a lot of problems in his life. His parents split when he was nine, around the same time that he survived the worst school massacre ever witnessed in this country at his school in Dunblane. He also has a knee condition which he has had to overcome in order to play tennis at the top level. It is his single-mindedness and professionalism and a heck of a lot of talent that has enabled him to get to where he is in the game and so what if he doesn't kow-tow to the celebrity-obsessed media who want him to quip a funny joke for the papers or appear in panto at the London Palladium. He is different and disliked in this country because he is an absolute professional who has no other focus in life but to do what he is good at, win tennis matches.