Everybody wants to be Michael Jackson

This is truely great. Click on the image to see how everyone in Nigeria wants to be Michael.

My Favorite Michael Jackson Video

Mihcael Jackcon's last performance

Surely when the money mahcine gets into full swing we'll see all of this on DVD very soon. And to quite honest I'm looking forward to seeing it. What a great performer.

Michael Jackson - Dirty Pop (With NSYNC) (MTV AWARDS)

Here it is, just go straight to the end of teh clip to see Michael Jackson!

Michael Jackson - Billie Jean Motown 25th Anniversary

I was very sad to hear the news of Michael Jackson's death last week. This, for me, and for many is one of his finest performances. In fact, its probably one of the finest TV performances of any artist ever.

There's been so much crap written about this man over the years that I have no idea what is true and what is pure lies. Interestingly I've never heard anyone close to him speak of him in bad or negative terms, ever.

Was he weird or wacko? Anyone who lives a life like his must be different. How could you be normal living the life he lived? Being on stage and famous from the age of five. I wouldn't wish fame on anyone. How awful it must be to be followed around all your life with people watching everything you do and say, fliming you and constantly taking photos or everything you do. He could never do the normal things we do, like going to the shops for a pint of milk, or popping dopwn to a bar for a drink, or sunbathingon a beach. Of course he was different.

Anyway, we've lost a superstar. How disappointing and how sad, especially as we were looking foward to his comeback.

I remember seeing him in one of his last public performances just a few years back, maybe it was the MTV awards when he came out just at the end of a song from another group (maybe NSysnch?). All he did was make a few dance moves but his presence was huge, dramatic, exciting, superb!

RIP (but they won't let him will they?).

Roy White & Steve Torch

I'm not sure if I wrote about these guys before. Anyway, another discovery of a band from the 1980's who I never even heard of until about three years ago when I found this record in a dusty record shop back room.

There's a piece on them on the Music..isms blog, with music downloads. And another on 'Raiding the Vinyl Archive'. If you're interested in discovering lost music from the 1980's I recommend it.



Parade (this is recorded directly from vinyl)





Who's Asking You - White and Torch



Bury My Heart - White and Torch






Here's an email from Roy white from 2008, as he recounts events(taken from Bored Teenagers) . There's also a photo of Roy White from Liverpool University in 1977.

Hi Dizzy,
Wow, where did you get that photo???????
God we were cocky kids. Thought we were the business but in reality, were rather shit, ha ha.
I remember the gig as it was the last gig Berlin did. Memory rather hazy but we'd gigged for about a year and a half by the time of that gig. We got a few really good reviews in Melody Maker and Sounds and record companies were showing interest. Decca were showing the most and they strung us along, spent 3 weeks recording in London with Nick Tauber producing but they blew us out and signed Slaughter and the Dogs as their token 'Punk' band. That gig was a day or so after they told us and we were all quite depressed. Our roadie attempted to pull Dave Ambrose's (A&R guy from EMI who was showing interest) teeth out with a pair of pliers as we hated record companies at this point. I believe he was actually successful at pissing on his head from a balcony - such was our fury at being blown out by Decca. We eventually decided to carry on but changed the band name to 'Fun'. A track called 'I Heard You Call My Name' was included on the Liverpool compilation album 'Street to Street. Basically the same line up as Berlin. I left shortly after that album was released and joined forces with Steve Torch. Berlin days were quite amusing really. Joe Stummer once got up for a jam at a gig called Swinging Apple. We actually caused a riot at Wigan Casino because our roadie and a journalist from Sounds had sprayed 'Fuck You Pricks' across the back of the stage, then trashed the dressing room while we were on stage!! Even the bouncers wanted to kill us.
Anyway, thanks for igniting a long lost memory.

Cheers,

Roy

There's a feature on Raiding the Vinyl Archive in which Roy White gets involved in the comments.
Also see music..isms for more .

Bringing it all back to the present, here's Roy White in his band the Truemen

Fingerprintz - One of the great forgotten bands of the 1980s

I know, I've written about Fingerprintz on a number of previous posts but quite a few people have requested some music from them. I haven't been able to track down their music on sale anywhere, except on vinyl on ebay. I have no knowledge of a CD release of their music. So, here's a few tracks (recorded from vinyl LPs and found on a torrent on the web). I really love their music and i discovered this group some years back while going through the bargain bin at Easons book store. What a find! I paid 99p (or was it 50p) for the album Beat Noir and managed to find their two other albums just a few years ago.



Get Civilised - from Beat Noir



The Chase - from Beat Noir



Echo Head - from Beat Noir






And from Distinguishing Marks:


Bulletproof Heart



Houdini Love