D.I.D.
Posted by Bill on June 14th, 2008
It was quite a thrill to be asked on to Desert Island Discs, a bit like getting a knighthood without the militaristic connotations. An endorsement if you will, a validation.. I’ve been a fan of ‘Discs for quite some time, and the castaways are usually venerable politicians and esteemed writers, Nobel Prize Winners, former Secretary Generals of the UN, and captains of industry, basically some right top bananas. I’m guessing probably not many picked The Undertones. You can get my choices from the BBC website, but those 8 are the short list, I had to leave off quite a bit as you can imagine. Had to choose between Ever Fallen In Love and Teenage Kicks, the latter got the nod, only because I saw The Undertones at the Colston Hall and ‘Desert is quite a personal journey through your life, and this was a vivid memory (if anyone was there, or can remember the year then let me know – would love to hear your thoughts on it). I seriously did want to be the Talking Heads keyboard player, and I will maybe try and shout that out at The Tom Tom Club gig at Meltdown next week..Would have loved to put in some of David Byrne’s solo stuff also.. The King Curtis track, Memphis Soul Stew is a corker, and is about 7 minutes long, so they only had time to play the last 2 (instrumental minutes) but check out the whole track, because the best bit is at the beginning when King is introducing the band members one by one, as they start playing as ‘ingredients’ in the ’stew’…’ a little pinch of Mississipi congeros’ .. ‘gimme ’bout a half a teacup..of bass!’ – brilliant. We played a couple of Bowie covers in my first band, but Rebel made it in over Suffragette City, or Moonage Daydream. I was such a Pretenders fan, so that was a hard choice, Kid, Up the Neck, I Go to Sleep, Private Life, Message of Love, Back on the Chain Gang the list was going on..eventually went with Talk of the Town, great song and is typical of the sound, Chrissie Hynde’s classic vocal and James Honeyman-Scott’s jangling rich guitar sound -
don’t get me started – I’ll be here all day and the chameleons won’t feed themselves..
hope to see you all at a large temporary marquee-type structure somewhere soon,
‘Maybe tomorrow, maybe someday..’
b
June 24th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Hola Bill,
I heard you on Desert Island Discs the other day/week. Glad Ms. Young is getting a few more trendy types onto the show – hope you don’t mind being referred to as trendy.
Are you really half Troll? You’re not really just an Elf with delusions of grandeur.
Do you know a natural or herbal remedy for indigestion? Maybe I’ll just try a nice glass of Merlot.
Cheers
gx
June 27th, 2008 at 10:11 am
Completely irrelevant to the story, but will you sign up to go for Eurovision 2009 – that is, now, before you arrange to go galavanting off to somewhere like Australia again whilst the competition takes place next year?
Britain needs you. See the links below to see how we’d all love it!
Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10224352826
Online petition:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/bbeuro09/petition.html
June 27th, 2008 at 10:57 pm
Dear mr Bailey this is not so much as a post but more or a request. I hear on the that funny little talking box that some might call a radio that you will be visiting us in New Zealand. Yay, very good but alas my joy was only granted to me for a brief moment as i found out that you would be not visiting us in deep deep south. Are you scared or you just dont like us?
Queenstown is a beautiful place for a lovely break and perhaps one night only at a delightful club called revolver, i even asked the owner and he thinks it is a great idea to. I know you will be in christchurch but its so far and so expensive to get to and very flat. So if you would be so kind to just maybe think about it, that would be just lovely. Also maybe this will help my request but we do have the best tea and coffee making facilities for as far as the naked eye can see. PLEASE and thankyou
July 1st, 2008 at 8:00 pm
hate to break the news to you, bill, but you are, basically, a right top banana.
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Hello Bill
I liked your varied choice of music on Dessert Island Discs. Have a look at this story I found about serious humor.
“Mechanism And Function Of Humor Identified By New Evolutionary Theory”
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Mechanism_And_Function_Of_Humor_Identified_By_New_Evolutionary_Theory_999.html
July 16th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
I knew I recognised Simon Amstell before, but put it down to ‘one of those familiar faces. You know?’ Then I found this old footage of ‘Games Master’ on youtube.com.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ezCSYdWFTKY&feature=related
It really is him! Brilliant.
July 19th, 2008 at 9:11 am
PS
An interesting film on Utube is
“Where the hell is Matt”
Music idea from poem
“Stream of Life”
Cheers Marlene
July 19th, 2008 at 9:13 am
Sorry me again
Not sure if my question re “are you doing any more Sydney shows” went through – computers are not my strength
Cheers Marlene
July 25th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
Hi
Will you be doing a Friday or Saturday show in Sydney?
July 26th, 2008 at 1:50 am
Hey Bill!
Looking forward to seeing you in adelaide/ australia in September. BTW I think I am married to your doppleganger… if it wasnt for his brown eyes that is!
August 4th, 2008 at 3:05 am
Hi Bill,
Looking forward to seeing you live in Christchurch, NZ on the 3 September. Maybe you would like to come for pizza beforehand(We’ll shout)? Feel free to come if you want.
August 15th, 2008 at 12:19 am
Can’t wait to see you in NZ! WOOP WOOP!
August 25th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Hi Bill,
Is it true that you went to school with Tim Birt.
August 30th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
Hi Bill
I just wanted to share this with you as it gave us all a
really good laugh at the Reading festival this weekend. You may or may not know but
the killers were playing, (I hasten to add I left the
field to watch the Manic Street Preachers instead) but before I left I saw the largest banner i have ever seen taken into a gig and it said “I’ve got ham but I’m not a hamster”.
Just thought you would like to know your comedy is getting through to the intended recipient and that hopefully Brandon Flowers was on stage saying “why that Bll Bailey”!
We were laughing about this for quite some time after and thought you may enjoy it too!
Loads of love Trina
September 5th, 2008 at 12:47 am
Hey Bill!
Just saw your show last night in Wellington. Was awesome. Thank you for a great night out.
I’ve been a huge fan for some time now, I used to live in Gloucester UK but never got the chance to see you perform live so I was very exited to hear you were coming to New Zealand.
My partner and I came up from Invercargill to see the show and we both really enjoyed it.
Hope you enjoy your stay in NZ and thanks again for a good time
September 6th, 2008 at 4:08 am
Hi Bill,
Not sure if you care, but my stepfather was asked for your autograph a few weeks ago. You had recently done an interview for bma (local street press in canberra) and this bloke saw the front cover and my step dad and asked for your autograph. The guy wouldn’t take no for an answer. haha. So my step dad signed it in your name (against his better judgement). You would think the australian accent would have given it away but no.
Anyway look forward to your show in a couple of weeks, and if required my stepfather may be available to help with some of the autograph signing burden (he will also be at the show – he will be the bloke that looks and walks like you plus about about 15 years).
Cheers
Chris
idiot@large
September 8th, 2008 at 4:51 pm
I wish I was the keyboard player in Talking Heads! I absolutely love (Nothing But) Flowers at the moment!
January 2nd, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Dear Mr Bailey
As someone who suffers from Disassociative Identity Disorder I wish to complain in the strongest possible manner to my unfortunate ailment being likened to a trivial radio broadcast…
Oh do shut up Richard the nice man was only using DID as an innocent abbreviation…
Now look her Bernerd this mind is only big enough for one of us…
Ah but as I am an “alter” a part of you if you destroy me you destroy yourself…
- Hence the abandonment of the inaccurate nomenclature “Multiple Personality Syndrome”…
Exactly, now be a good chap and pass the Chris de Burgh if we lash him to the Undertones his eyebrows may create the buoyancy required to enable our post-punk raft to get off this s***ing island…
Your a genius…
Why thank you – but I’m nothing without me…