Headbang votes - 5th January, 2024

 11 votes now in and here's the results, starting with the THEMES:

Trios narrowly beat 'Genarians and Now and Then. The score for the Obituaries theme merely reflects the lack of heavyweight departures recently. It would be difficult to repeat the winning theme with sufficient quality tracks but the high scores for the 2 runners-up themes mean they deserve a return at the next gathering.

There were 18 separate tracks nominated by the 11 voters. As many as 7 of those nominations were for medley tracks I put together. Two tracks stood out from the rest in the voting:

Performances from the current millennium are beginning to dominate the nominations - partly, no doubt, due to the higher resolution videos and sound.

Five of these nominations came from the 'Genarians theme with three each from Trios and the Corporate Ads themes - so why did the latter fare so poorly when it came to the votes for best themes? Another Headbanger voting anomaly. All the themes had at least one nomination for favourite tracks.

Headbang - 5th January, 2024

Six in person and six virtual for last night's Headbang. Another big effort and an early rise for Malcolm in Christchurch, and a special mention for Phil, having just moved from hospital to nursing care but still able to join us for a while. It was a bit easier for Rob G, a mere 400 miles away, and Rob D and Aidan, both just over 100 miles from Banchory - in opposite directions.

The group at Chapel House seemed to be enjoying themselves OK, as became increasingly obvious as the evening wore on - Andy may have some responsibility here when he passed round drams to the lucky 6 mid-evening.

Teams seemed to work OK this time and I'm a bit more confident about using it now that I know a bit more about it.

Anyway, a change in the batting order - Jeb had suggested we should have some sort of BOOZE related tracks, given the season we were in, so I picked out 4 very short clips, followed by a full live track of a 3 piece Thin Lizzy with Eric Bell on lead guitar, a moustache-less Phil Lynott on rhythm and Brian Downey on drums on what became their big breakthrough single:

The next theme was suggested by Andy - TRIOS - so I picked out 6 bands that met this criterion and we each had 2 votes as to our favourite performances:

Jack, Eric & Ginger's reunion gig at the Royal Albert Hall in 2005 took the honours here.

The 'GENARIANS theme had been moved from its traditional starting position but that did not signify a reduction in quality - far from it. A total of 12 acts were played, including some big hitters. This time we had 3 votes each:

It seems the older you get, the better you are appreciated. Is that why Carly Simon's year of birth, originally published as 1945, was recently changed to 1943?

Others with music connections who had recently reached their 70th birthdays were noted:

And those 80, 90 and even one CENTENARIAN:

Rob G suggested the next theme, which I loosely labelled CORPORATE ADS - basically songs that mentioned businesses and/or brands. Rob suggested a few tracks that would qualify so I set about looking for suitable quality videos and added a few more I found. Two votes each this time and the surprise winner was an act that I don't think we'd ever featured before:

Novocaine is a brand name of the drug Procaine, which is a local anaesthetic. Novocaine for the Soul was the lead single from Eels' 1996 debut album and reached no.10 in the UK singles chart.

The OBITUARIES theme had also been moved down the pecking order a bit. It had been a fairly quiet period for major rock star casualties. Two votes each for the "most missed":

The voting surprised me - I had thought Shane McGowan would run away with this theme - how wrong could I be?

Others with musical connections who had recently passed were noted:

Finally to what is usually the main event - the JUKEBOX. There seemed to have been a little confusion about whether this theme would appear or not. I had initially proposed that we might give it a rest for a little, but, by popular demand, it had a stay of execution. However, the rules would be relaxed and nominations would be on a voluntary basis - there would be no reminders issued. The upshot was that we had nominations this time from 8 of the 12 in attendance this evening. I had added a further track that (former?) Headbanger Gary had suggested and we each had 3 votes:

It was a very close battle with 4 tracks just a point apart. St Andrews College (NZ) and Kirsty MacColl tied for the lead but I decided to use my (self-appointed) casting vote for Kirsty MacColl.

The final theme of the evening saw the return of the NOW AND THEN theme for its first appearance since 2009. I picked 5 acts from when they were entered into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland - and they were the "now" part and merged that track with the same one from their heyday. We never got round to deciding which of the 5 acts performed best overall but we did complete the now and then comparison votes on each track:

The only band whose "now" performance bettered their original was Talking Heads at their 2002 award ceremony.

We pretty much finished on time and even managed a team photo:

Phil missed out on this photo and I barely appeared so here I was:

Australian Pink Floyd

Dave, Jeb, Steve, Harry and me went to the Music Hall last night to see the Australian Pink Floyd's 50 Years of Dark Side of the Moon show last night. We had great seats - right in the middle of the stalls and just 7 rows back. It was a terrific spectacle - here's a couple of the photos I took:

Plus a couple from Jeb:

And Steve's ones:

Headbang - 29th September, 2023 - Final votes

Firstly, here's the votes for the final theme - CARS:

A comfortable win for Tracy Chapman's 2020 live performance of her classic Fast Car.

The voting for the 5 themes was:

There were a lot of OBITUARIES this time but it was the heavyweight quality of those who had passed - Tina Turner, Tony Bennett and Robbie Robertson in particular - that made this theme the most popular. The LEFTIES and 'GENARIANS each earned top ratings from 3 of the Headbangers, but note has been taken of the poor performance from CARS and the JUKEBOX, the latter getting bottom marks from 4 Headbangers.

On reflection, I wonder if it may be best to give this theme a rest for the next Headbang and if/when it returns perhaps we need to slacken the strict criteria as it seems most have been struggling in recent times to find suitable nominations? Feedback welcome.

When it came to the favourite tracks, 15 tracks were nominated by 9 Headbangers and the results were:

The videos above were from 6 different decades from the 1960's to the current decade, with only the noughties failing to be represented. All 5 themes were represented by at least 2 tracks - the 'GENARIANS theme had the most nominations - 5. The medleys seemed pretty popular too.

Headbang - 29th September, 2023

Just 5 of us in attendance at Dave's last night but we had another 5 join in via MS Teams - the first time we had used this medium rather than Zoom. Phil joined the gathering from Ulverston and Rob D wasn't far away on vacation in the Lake District. Rob G was in Derbyshire, Aidan in Edinburgh and, for the first time, all the way from New Zealand, it was good to see Malcolm again.

An earlier than usual start (and finish) was planned and, in fact, those of us having curries beforehand were well ahead of schedule and ready to go at 6:30 pm - a full 15 minutes before the planned start.

We started with a theme carried over from the last Headbang, at which we'd done "Lefties". This time it was "Lefties who switched" and the votes (2 each) were:

Then it was the traditional start with 'GENARIANS. First of all, the Septuagenarians:

A very even split of the votes here. Perhaps the Octogenarians/Nonogenarians would be different:

A clear win for Sir Mick - although only just ahead of Willie Nelson - still going strong at 90.

Other Septuagenarians not featured were:

Other Octogenarians/Nonogenarians were:

Now the OBITUARIES  - and there have been loads since the last Headbang. This time it was 3 votes each:

Tina was a clear winner, but honourable mention to Tony B.

Other Obits not featured:

Next was the Jukebox and this time we had 13 nominations, including one from long-lost Gary Grant whose last appearance at a Headbang was over 4 years ago. We played the Jukebox in 2 parts and everyone had 3 votes:

Brandi Carlile's cover of the Elton John classic won the vote.

Just half an hour left until the taxi was due to arrive at 11:15 pm so we had to rush through the last theme - CARS - Colin's nomination - and we didn't quite have enough time to do the voting which will be reported on later, but here's the tracks that were played:

Just time for a slightly dodgy team photo:

 

Headbang - 28 April, 2023 - votes

 The votes have all now been cast from last Friday's Headbang. Best themes:

I often comment what a broad church we are and the voting here certainly demonstrated that. Four of the five themes each had at least one Headbanger who thought they were the best and at least one who thought they were the worst. Perhaps this shows there wasn't much to choose between them.

There were 20 nominations for the best tracks - a pretty wide range from 10 voters. Just 7 of the 20 tracks had more than one nomination - i.e. 13 of them were sole nominations:

With 3 nominations each the top 3 were clear, and the Burt Bacharach medley from 8 separate acts was the winner. Interesting to note that 4 of the medleys were nominated.

The 20 nominations were from 8 separate decades from the 1950's through to the 2020's and all 5 themes had at least one nomination. There was at least one anomaly/contradiction - the Obituaries theme was equal last, yet as many as 6 of the tracks from this theme were nominated amongst the best - go figure, as the Americans would say.

Headbang - 28 April, 2023

The first combined virtual/in-person Headbang of 2023 was beset by some technical glitches again - mostly affecting the remote users. We had a bit of a late start as well, which didn't help. A proposal was made that, next time, we either forgo the pre-match beers or we start earlier. Even better would be if we could agree a date when the geographically distant Headbangers could come to Banchory for a day or two - but that may be difficult to arrange.

Anyway, here's the tracks played and the results:

1) 'GENARIANS - 3 votes each:

Pat Benatar perhaps a surprise winner here - but she was aided considerably by an all-female line-up of stars including Sheryl Crow and the Dixie Chicks.

Other 'Genarians were:

2) OBITUARIES:

Jeff Beck was always favourite to win this one - only Burt Bacharach came close.

Other recent Obits were:

Remember Bobbi Ercoline, the girl on the Woodstock album cover?:

3) LEFTIES - 2 votes each:

Some were apparently slightly reluctant to vote for grunge music but Nirvana's great live performance, in their pomp in 1993 on their home turf of Seattle, won Kurt Cobain the battle of the left handed guitarists.

4) JUKEBOX - played in 2 halves - 2 votes each in each half:

Rodrigo y Gabriela and Pendulum were the 2 qualifiers from the first 6 and Moloko and Eagle Eye Cherry from the second 6. Rodrigo y Gabriela won overall after the secondary vote from the 4 qualifiers.

5) PLAGIARISM:

It was, I think, unanimous, that Ed Sheeran has no case to answer in the current court case.

We ran out of time again so the planned final theme - LEFTIES WHO SWITCHED - will be carried over to the next gathering. Just time for the team photo:

The photo was taken with my iPhone on a timer and was a little dark, so I lightened it a bit, but it appears as if the image on the screen in the background has somehow magically come to the front. Of course, that's not the case as the image has come from the projector.