scaryblog

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts. 08/09/63 : It Happened At The World's Fair - Elvis Presley Obviously we weren't going to be able to get through the year without at least one visit with The King - this takes up him up to eighteen and two clear at the top ahead of The Rolling Stones. And I'm sure it will all be perfectly bearable but also completely inessential. Well - this is peculiar. Half of it is rock'n'roll-ish, but it's more swing-y in a Sinatra kinda style than I was expecting - unexpected but not bad. And the other half is more like nursery rhymes with some particularly bad lyrics - unexpected but bad. I can't complain too much though because it's ten tracks which are done in 22 minutes, so you can't say it outstays its welcome - but it was surprisingly close to doing so. We're at #14 in the charts this week on his nineteenth week of a twenty week run, with it having peaked at #4 on it's 3rd-7th and 13th-14th week...

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts. 22/09/63 : Summer Holiday - Cliff Richard & The Shadows Oh good - them again. Which brings us up to eight visits with Cliff - but at least I know I'm going to tolerate at least one of these tracks. I even remember not minding the film when I saw it many moons ago - and found it most amusing it had Una Stubbs in it because I only knew her from Celebrity Squares and Give Us A Clue at the time. Well, I obviously knew I was going to recognise the title track, but I'd forgotten that "Bachelor Boy" was also on this album - I also recognised "Foot Tapper", but that was mostly because I'd heard when listening to various Shadows tracks earlier this year. The rest of it is in a similar vein - it's a bit dated and twee, but it is at least charmingly dated and twee, so I didn't mind it. We're at #15 in the charts this week on their last week of a 36 week run, with it having peaked at #1 - for FOU...

A favourite act in a new, old venue for my first gig of the year! I first saw Marina (back in her Diamonds day) at Glastonbury in '10 and she's up there with the artists I've seen most live, having also caught up with her at the O2, Royal Albert Hall and BST over the years - and she always delivers. But I've never been to Alexandra Palace before - I feared it was going to be an almighty faff to get to, but then I realised I could drive to Hatfield and it was two stops down the line, which saved me a good hour off the trip. It really wasn't the right temperature for the walk up the hill, but the views over London were impressive once you made it up there. And, considering I headed up there before the doors opened (so I'd have time for a nosey around), I was surprised how many people were already there queuing to be let in. It was quite the diverse crowd (L , G, B, T - and me!) but surprisingly young  considering how long Marina has been around - I did see a coupl...

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts. 29/09/63 : Pickwick -  Original London Cast A couple more albums to report that I've ignored - I couldn't report on Hitsville! (#14) because the internet doesn't seem to know anything about it and I decided against listening to Buddy Holly's third posthumous compilation album (#18) because a) I think that's pushing things a bit far and b) a load of it was overdubbed by someone else three years after he died! Which brings us to a musical that I can tell you absolutely nothing about. Now, sometimes these forgotten musicals from the 60s turn out to be surprisingly decent and it's not clear why they haven't been revived because they still have a lot to say that's relevant to the current times. But the other 95% of the time it's entirely obvious why they've been forgotten... Hmmm. It's not dreadful, but it's very dated - it also thinks it has very clever wordplay, but it's very forced ...

Continuing my trip up Empire's top 20 films of 2025 #10 :     Pillion Yes, Pillion is a kinky dom-com in which Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling wrestle in assless lycra, get frisky at a Picturehouse (the sadly now-closed one in Bromley, film location fans), and don their fair share of leathers and chains. But Harry Lighton's remarkably assured directorial debut is also a brilliantly observed study in consent and connection, in the discovery of community and the path that creates to the actualisation of the self, and in not only how hard it can be to set boundaries but also how hard it can be to stick to them. Finding pathos amid all the PVC, Lighton's unconventional love story is as much about baring souls as baring butts, and all the more glorious for it. I've heard a lot of people be very nice about this, but I'm not convinced it's one I'd have chosen to watch under normal circumstances.  Colin (Harry Melling - a loooong way from Dudley Dursley here)...

Continuing my trip back through the 1963 album charts. 06/10/63 : I Remember You -  Frank Ifield Well, I didn't expect Mr Ifield to be the first person we met twice in the year - and I can't say I'm massively looking forward to it, but I suspect it will be bearable (but pretty cheesy). Hmmm - it's only just bearable because it really is super super cheesy. Additionally, he does more yodelling on this than her did on our previous visit, which isn't exactly a great thing - see also, the harmonica. OK - I'll take some more Merseybeat albums now please (although I suspect I've already heard them all for this year). We're at #12 in the charts this week on his 35th week of an impressive 36 week run, with it having peaked at #3 in its 3rd-5th weeks. The top five this week were  The Beatles ,  The Searchers ,  The Shadows ,  Frank Ifield  and the  Cliff best-of and there were no new entries in the chart this week. Wikipedia doesn't have an entry for the albu...