TLAP: Old Speckled Hen Zero

At the end of the year, I'll do a chart rundown. Better get a few more reviews in then...

Old Speckled Hen Zero

What's it like? Well, this is an interesting one. Back in our younger day, The Man Of Cheese and I had many a happy but spectacularly hammered night out that involved significant quantities of regular Old Speckled Hen. Although not the strongest ale (nor the weakest, in our defence), it seemed able to generate disproportionately large hangovers. I was curious to see what I'd make of the neutered version, then, and the news is good: it's alright! The twin malt four hop brew delivers plenty of flavour, and you actually feel like you're having a beer when drinking it - this sounds obvious but so many alcohol-free ales seem to have overlooked this crucial element. Not too sweet either. As a result, this is right up there in the top quartile of alcohol-free ales, in my view. Footnote: I even felt slightly sub-par the morning after drinking this, but that may just have been a deeply-engrained Pavlovian response.

Would I drink it in a pub? Yes.

Would I drink more than one? Yes.

Would I drink it all night? Quite possibly.

Stats: 0.05% ABV. Calories 12 kcal/100ml. Currently a steal at only £4 for 4 x 440ml cans, from Morrisons

Stars: ★★★★⯪

Old Speckled Hen is produced under the Morland Brewery name (though that is now owned by Greene King, and Zero is brewed at GK's excellent Bury St Edmund's site). But anyway, Mor(e)land gives, gives, gives me more, more, more...

Homonyms #9: Come Together

For the purposes of this blog, homonyms are different songs with the same title. And for the purposes of my sanity, I'm limiting each post to two songs, however many there may be that fit the bill.

Today we examine two different takes on, ahem, unity. Of sorts.

Our first Come Together is by Blur, from their oft-maligned debut album, 1991's Leisure. I say maligned but, thinking back, I seem to recall most people (myself included) were just a bit disappointed that it wasn't all as good as There's No Other Way. In fairness to Damon et al., they set themselves quite a high bar there. Anyway, here's their very-91 offering.

I usually write something here along the lines of "there's always a bigger fish" ... and so it is today, for this is the brilliance of Come Together by The Beatles, a popular Scouse beat combo who I feel may go far.

Poor Blur, I've just lined one of their lesser moments up against one of the greatest moments of the biggest band of all time. Anyway, other acts who also want you to come together include Primal Scream, The Internet, Spiritualized and, er, that's about it, I think; everyone else just covers The Beatles.

So, do you want to come together, or do either of these drive you apart?

Buried answers

The answers to last week's logic problem:

Blogger	Radio station	Format	Decade
Andy	Radio 3	Spotify	60s
Bob	Radio 1	Cassette	70s
Charlie	Radio 4	MP3	80s
Debra	Radio 2	Vinyl	00s
Erica	6 Music	CD	90s

Don't know what Bob is doing listening to Radio 1, given his preference for music of the 70s. Also, if I was a single man, I'd probably want to meet Erica...

Anyway, that was alright, wasn't it? And here's I Buried All The Answers by Fink, which seems appropriate. I know nothing about Fink, having only found this by searching for songs about answers. Seems he's from Cornwall, is in his mid-fifties, and has pivoted in an acoustic direction after a 30-year career focused on electronic music and DJ-ing. Really, where have I been?

My freedom's a delusion

From every-home-should-have-one Songs From Northern Britain, this, for me, is ultimate form Teenage Fanclub.

Your sadness don't lie
Your feelings can't hide
You always know why
But your reasons are sly
You never deny
What you feel inside

I, I disappear when you're not here
In my life

I can't slip away when I see your face
I lose my confusion
Your love is the place where I come from
When I'm on my own I'm lost in space
My freedom's a delusion
Your love is the place where I come from

My sadness don't lie
My feelings can't hide
I just can't deny
What I feel inside

I can't slip away when I see your face
I lose my confusion
Your love is the place where I come from
When I'm on my own I'm lost in space
My freedom's a delusion
Your love is the place where I come from

I can't slip away when I see your face
I lose my confusion
Your love is the place where I come from
When I'm on my own I'm lost in space
My freedom's a delusion
Your love is the place where I come from

"Logic is the beginning of wisdom..."

"...not, the end." So said Mr Spock in Star Trek VI. Notwithstanding that, I used to love logic problems as a kid, and would spend hours putting ticks and crosses in little puzzlebook grids. So here's one I made just for you.

There are five bloggers: Andy, Bob, Charlie, Debra and Erica. They each prefer different radio stations - Radio 1, 2, 3, 4 or 6 - and they each prefer to collect music in different ways - cassette, CD, MP3, Spotify playlist or vinyl. Oh, and they each blog about the music of a different decade: 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s or 00s.

The clues below are all you need to work out who likes which station, which format and which decade, just with logic - no guesswork is required. Here are the clues:

1. Charlie blogs about 80s music; his preferred medium is MP3.
2. The blogger who has embraced Spotify also loves Radio 3.
3. Erica blogs about 90s music.
4. The vinyl collector (who isn't Andy) loves Radio 2 and blog about 00s music.
5. The CD collector loves 6 Music, but not 60s music.
6. Bob (who doesn't listen to Radio 4) blogs about his cassette collection of 70s music.

And here's a grid to help organise your thoughts. Use ticks to mark intersections you know to be true, and crosses to mark combinations that are definitely untrue. Easy, right?

And another grid for your answers:

Blogger	Radio station	Format	Decade
Andy
Bob
Charlie
Debra
Erica

And (don't groan) here's The Logical Song (sorry!) to listen to whilst you think...

New to NA: Ghostwoman

Let's be honest, I'm in the second half of middle age. My finger can still feel a pulse, but it is nowhere near on it. That's just the way it is, and also right and proper.

Lucky for me, then, that I still get exposed to plenty of new music, courtesy of Amusements Minor. He's an avid user of Spotify, and has invested enough time and effort in it for the algorithm to have a pretty good symbiotic relationship with him. And, by extension, me.

All of which is longhand for saying that I heard this from AM's Spotify playlist, and rather took to it. That out-of-time chiming guitar line hooked me, the minimalist backbeat and bluesy vocal reeled me in. This is The End of a Gun by Ghostwoman, about who I know very little other than that they are from Canada (I think), this was on their second album, 2023's Anne, If, and they are worth investigating further.

This is their Bandcamp, if you want to hear more. Why wouldn't you?

Oh, and I'm too tired to make a joke about a song that's already three years old being new to me, but you can make your own, I won't be offended...

Monday long song: You Are The Magic

You may have seen in the news that an auction of Johnny Marr's guitars at Christies last week raised more than £3.6 million. Incredible. One guitar, a 1982 Rickenbacker 330 Jetglo, sold for £358,400 ... but then it was used on This Charming Man, Still Ill and What Difference Does It Make? so that's probably fair enough. Spoiler alert: I didn't buy it.

There were also some charity lots, mostly Smiths-era tour posters, and 100% of the sale proceeds of these went to The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and The National Autistic Society. Which was nice.

What you might not know is that the Christies auction brochure was wonderfully detailed, and makes a lovely PDF for those who can't afford Marr's Guitars. If you missed it, don't worry, I didn't, and will make my download available here until someone tells me off for doing so.

Anyway, here's You Are The Magic, a lovely, low-slung piece of lazy haze from all the way back in 2003 when Johnny was still plying his trade as chief Healer.

Blue Friday: Is This What You Really Want?

I sometimes think Dears frontman Murray Lightburn is the Moz it's still socially acceptable to like. From the 2020 album Lovers Rock, here's Is This What You Really Want?

Well nobody wants to die
But does anyone want to live
Another day 
Going through 
the motions

Leaving this behind
I think all of us will miss
Everything upon 
which you left 
A mark

And since
All these years
Is it still the same song?
Can we ever look
Beyond
These sins
From the past
Will lead us to despond
Is this
What you really want?

Are you
Singing the same old song
Or can we ever look
Beyond
These sins
From the past
Will lead us to despond
Is this
What you really want?
La la la la-la
La la la la-la
Are we singing the same old song
Or can we ever look
Beyond
These sins
From the past
Will lead us to despond
Is this
What you really want?
Is this
What you really want?
Is this
What you really want?

Randcamp: Autumn

One way or another, September marks the start of Autumn, whether you go for the meteorological (1st Sept) or the equinox (today). So it seemed like a good subject for this month's Randcamp ... except I had to listen to a whole batch of dreary sixth-form poetry about mists and falling leaves, mostly set to desperately earnest but entirely predictable musical offerings. Sigh. At least I found these three.

The Blue Herons are a jangly duo who even called their song Autumn Leaves but redeemed themselves by singing about a drop in atmospheric pressure in the first line. Okay, so they almost ruined that with a strange pronunciation of "atmospheric" but I let it slide.

Autumn Glow by Boat To Row sounds like what you'd get if you crossed Gavin Osborn with early Jake Bugg. This is a good thing. The track dates from 2010, and their dotcom address just redirects back to Bandcamp, but they were still active in 2021, so who knows?

Peacock Affect is the stage name of a singer-songwriter from Exeter. I chose his take on Autumn because it was so very different from everything else I was hearing as I researched this post. I wonder if maybe he wasn't in a very good place when he wrote this? 'Tis the season for mists and melancholy, after all...

So, three quite different Autumn vibes... Any of them making you want to wrap up warm and go for a trudge through predictable fallen leaves?

Homonyms #8: Loser

For the purposes of this blog, homonyms are different songs with the same title. And for the purposes of my sanity, I'm limiting each post to two songs, however many there may be that fit the bill.

Today we take a detour into self-deprecation, self-effacement, self-pity and maybe even self-loathing.

Our first Loser is by Tame Impala, and is currently pulling up proverbial trees after its inclusion in the recent Spiderman film, Brand New Day. Social traction, if that's even a phrase, has been helped further by an engaging video starring Joe "not just 'Steve Harrington' but also a musician by the name of Djo" Keery. Here it is.

But there's always a bigger fish or, in this case, a bigger loser. I picked up Beck's Loser on 7" vinyl from the Woolworth's bargain bin for 49p, back in the day. I can picture the slightly tatty cover now. This was his third single but first hit, and went top ten all over the place (though only reached #15 in the UK). I have fond memories of trying to decipher the lyrics with my good friend Tim, on late night drives back from wherever. Get crazy with the Cheese Whiz indeed...

Other losers include Limp Bizkit, The Grateful Dead, Motorhead, 3 Doors Down, and probably loads more - we're everywhere, after all.

So, are these lucky losers or a lost cause?