So, who is number one?

A couple of months ago, I wrote about the campaign to get The Who a number one single. Well, this week is buying week and, as I write, you have about 33 hours left in which to buy a download of "Baba O'Riley", and so help the cause.

Sadly, the eXecrable Factor finalists are releasing their group single this week... which is a Michael Jackson cover... and a charity record... so the chances of actually getting The Who to number one are as good as nil. I mean, they were pretty slim anyway, but now...

Oh well. Baba O'Riley is a great record and you really ought to have it in your MP3 collection. Go and buy it. Quickly!

What do you call a man with three wooden heads?

Edward Woodward, obviously. Woodward died yesterday, at the age of 79. For many people, he will be famous for the inestimable Wicker Man (a genuinely unsettling film, in the unlikely event that you haven't seen it), whilst for others he will always be The Equalizer. These were both great roles, supremely executed by this fine actor. For me though, the high point of Woodward's resumé will always be Callan, even though I am too young to remember much about the original TV series. I base this preference purely on Edward's performance in the 1974 film, which is ace from start to finish.

I scoured YouTube this morning, because I really wanted to show you the sequence in which he uses a Range Rover to prevent his quarry leaving their house but guess what? Not for the first time, YouTube let me down. Yes, I know there are plenty of grainy clips from the old TV series, but the only clip I could find from the film is this. Enjoy, and RIP, Ewar Woowar.

Random trivia: Woodward was married to Michele Dotrice, of Some Mothers Do 'Ave Em renown, whilst the theme music for The Equalizer was written and performed by none other than Stewart Copeland, drummer with The Police.

Stung!

Hooray for Sting!

I loved The Police, and he's churned out some great solo work too (especially this), and let's not forget he was the Ace Face in Quadrophenia. And now, bless him, he's let rip on the X Factor (that's X for execrable, obviously). It won't make a blind bit of difference to the success of this appalling show, but Sting says everything I want to say on the subject, and more, and he says it here. Go read, and inwardly cheer.

Remember, remember...

YouTube is awash with old public information films, and of course all the fireworks ones are very popular right now, what with it being Guy Fawkes' Night tonight. This is the one that I remember from my childhood.

And remember kids, doing this is neither big nor clever...

RSI

When I first had a Palm Pilot (this one), back in 1999 or thereabouts, I got quite hooked on Sokoban. I spent hours dragging the stylus across my Palm's greyscale screen - countless boring meetings were spent that way. The great thing about Sokoban is that it proves the old adage that a game can be as simple as anything, yet still be compelling.

Now I've discovered Obechi... I've only played it three times, yet already don't want to stop. It is a sure-fire way to get RSI though...

Let the man hang himself

Countless millions will, no doubt, have watched Nick Griffin on Question Time last night. I was one of those millions. Was the BBC right to give Griffin, leader of the BNP, a platform? Well, how could they deny him it when his party, incredibly, polled more than a million votes nationwide in the last Euro and local elections. So they had to have him on there, eventually. Fortunately for us all then, he was pulled apart, by the crowd, the rest of the panel (carefully chosen, it would appear) and the always-excellent David Dimbleby.

Unbelievably, whilst Griffin confirmed that he is no longer a Holocaust denier, he could not say why he had changed his mind, or what he now believed. Equally unbelievably, he literally laughed off some of the criticism that came his way in the form of his own quotes from the past, coming back to haunt him. He declared that "skin colour is not an issue" when answering a question on his party's policy of repatriation - this from the leader of a party which, until the Equalities Commission forced it to change last week, had a "whites only" membership policy! And that's not all: he lambasted the Islamic faith (relying on a skewed interpretation of the Qu'ran to do so), admitted sharing a platform with the Klu Klux Klan, and more besides - he really did live up to the old aphorism that if you give a man enough rope...

Naturally my hope is that the Great British public will have watched Griffin last night and realised how appalling he and his party are, how the political posturings of the BNP are nothing but an attempt to pull a cloak of respectability over an organisation with vile, racist motives. My fear though is that the sort of people that watch Question Time know this already, whilst those that are tempted to vote for the BNP probably don't watch Question Time. So what can we do? Well, a very vocal group demonstrated outside the BBC yesterday, shouting, screaming and bemoaning Griffin and his ilk. But you don't beat hate with hate, and name-calling just brings you down to the lowest common denominator. If the BNP are going to try to use politics to acquire power, and implement their awful policies, then the way to defeat them is through politics too. It's important to remember that the number of votes the BNP polled at the last Euro and local elections didn't rise significantly, but their proportion of the vote rose because overall voter turn-out was very low. So we - you, me and everyone we know - needs to get involved. It doesn't matter whether your political views are red, blue, yellow, green, purple or Monster Raving Loony, you need to get engaged with the political process, and you need to vote.

That just leaves time, then, to offer kudos to Bonnie Greer for keeping her back turned on Griffin for virtually the entire show, and to close with a short message from your old Uncle Bill...

Live by the sword, die by the sword

Remember the Daily Mail stoking up the fire of complaints and controversy surrounding the whole Russell Brand/Jonathan Ross/Andrew Sachs affair? Well, the "Wail" doesn't like it quite so much when the shoe is on the other foot, does it?

I was going to add my vitriol to the torrent that is currently swamping the Mail, and its columnist, Jan Moir, but I won't. This is mainly because I don't feel I have much to add to the comments of the always excellent Charlie Brooker and Dave Gorman, both of which are worth a few moments of your time.

I do seem to recall making the point, during the Brand/Ross/Sachs epsiode, that people were complaining about something they hadn't actually experienced, and I wonder if that's happening again. So to make sure you know what has triggered all this, read the original article... albeit with a sanitised, less offensive headline. Then bemoan the crass, offensive, stupid and insensitive drivel that Moir has spouted...

Now my heart is full

Tell all of my friends... I don't have too many.

Let's get The Who to number 1!

A campaign has begun to get The Who to number 1 in the UK singles chart, a feat they have never achieved in a career spanning five decades.

The premise is simple - in the week commencing 16th November 2009 as many people as possible (that means you, me and all our friends) need to buy an MP3 download of The Who's classic track "Baba O'Riley" (found on the thoroughly excellent, if not spectacularly titled, album "Who's Next"). If the campaign gets up enough steam, and enough support from people willing to shell out 79p - 99p to add this classic song to their MP3 libraries, then we get The Who back in the charts and hopefully to number one.

There are lots of good reasons to do this. Firstly, The Who have never had a number 1, so this is a great opportunity to right that wrong (and necessitate an update to a music round pub quiz question). Secondly, "Baba O'Riley" is a truly great song and deserves to be brought to the attention of a wider, younger audience - a kind of rock public service, if you will. Next, this kind of grass-roots web campaign could, potentially, highlight people-power in modern music sales, and illustrate how few sales are needed to trouble the charts these days. Also, this can be seen as an experiment in the power of social networking - can we do this? And lastly, wouldn't it be nice to have a proper song topping the charts for a change, even if only for one week? Maybe it's just me and maybe I'm getting old, but don't the charts seem to be, well, just a bit rubbish lately? Here's a chance to do something about that, even if only temporarily.

So, join the campaign and tell all your friends about it too. So far, the campaign has a website, Facebook group, MySpace page and a Twitter feed where you can find out more... join up now and prepare, in ten weeks time, to flex your chart muscle!

There is a light that never goes out

So it seems that conventional 100W light bulbs will no longer be sold in the UK from today. An EU directive requires that these are phased out, and that only low-energy equivalents are sold. Some complain that low-energy bulbs cause migraines and eczema, whilst other bemoan that fact that they take a few seconds to warm up and give a decent light. The Daily Wail, in a typical fit of outrage, even gave away 25,000 conventional light bulbs in protest (for which, read cheap trick to increase circulation) at "further European intervention in British affairs". People have been stockpiling. Yes, really.

The fact remains though that the average energy-saving bulb uses 80% less electricity than an incandescent bulb, and could save the average household £590 in energy over its lifetime of eight to ten years. What's more, if all traditional bulbs across the country were replaced, the carbon saving could be the equivalent of taking 70,000 cars off the road. This is pretty substantial, wouldn't you say?

They're not even expensive any more either. I was in Homebase over the weekend, and they were selling low-energy bulbs for 99p each or, incredibly, three for £1. Who, given this offer, would only buy one?

Anyway, bye-bye incandescent light bulbs, you won't really be missed. Except by the Daily Wail.

Footnote: the title of this post? A song of sublime beauty by The Smiths.