Check this amazing video out – just two and half minutes, and I guarantee you will say ‘wow’ at the end…

Continuing my series (#1, #2) of formative music – this is the marvellous Mr Blue Sky by the Electric Orchestra, taken from their 1977 album – Out of the Blue. You can wonder at how Jeff Lynne got his hair to look SO HUGE.

I remember the cassette of this album in my dads Mini Clubman estate for years and years, and he loved this tune – it is a 100% happy song, including the uplifting vocoder sounds and the orchestral ‘rock opera’ segment at the end.

There is also a cover version of this on the loose by Ms Lily Allen, which is amusing enough due to the squirly analogue synths she uses. I also just realised the Out of the Blue (the album) shares its name with Ferry Corstens seminal trace track – I wonder if there is any connection?

Lyrics after the jump.

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Second a new series of posts about formative music. I was reminded of this recently by a facebook post from an old neighbour. This is Uptown Top Ranking by Althea and Donna.

This is another strong memory from childhood parties, and also I remember this being on Top of the Pops back in 1977 – I would have been ‘ahem’…8 when this was played.

Lyrics after the Jump

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This is not a food blog, ever, there are many better people at cooking than me – but because my forays into the kitchen are quite rare, I must mention this one. We invested in a relatively cheap slow-cooker (Morphy Richards), mainly because I love stews and the like in the winter. I got to try it for the first time yesterday, with a recipe for one of my favourite meals – the flemish/french Carbonnade.

Prep was pretty easy (done in the morning) – beef (browned), onions (softened and mixed with garlic, thyme, salt and pepper and some sugar and flour), some bacon or pork belly (chopped and crisped) – all into the pot with 500ml of beer – it advised a hoppy beer so we went for Stella – although on reflection the carbonnade may have been darker and stickier if we had gone for a dark/brown beer.

10 hours later the house smelt amazing and we cooked up some french fries (that’s the traditional way of eating it – I am advised), and devoured it with crusty white bread and a heavyweight Medoc (which I can feel just behind my eyes this morning).

One point for the slow cooker – it was awesome! I’m having a go at curry today – eek!

Absolutely brilliant and scarily accurate remix of Gordon Brown at the Labour Party Conference – from the brilliant cassetteboy. (via)

This is the first in an irregular series of posts where I’m going to reflect on some music from my formative years…all via the wonder of YouTube (where I firmly believe you can find ANYTHING). First up – Dat by Pluto Shervington.

I vividly remember this tune spinning at my parents parties when I was a boy, and years later I used to drop it as a DJ – its a purely feelgood tune with a great big skankin’ melody.

Lyrics after the jump.

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No more words for this one…I hope he gets humiliated at the polls in return.

As daft as a pudding! I love this literal remake of A-Ha’s - Take On Me (via)