i don't fancy yours much...

The Dead Milkmen's 1988 album Beelzebubba was an album that a friend lent me when I was at college. I think it's fair to say that Bod, for that was his nickname, saved me from a lifetime of listening to very dour and serious post-hardcore art-rock. And he did this solely by introducing me to something called COLLEGE ROCK.

The Dead Milkmen - Punk Rock Girl



I mentioned Camper Van Beethoven in a recent post and I didn't know if there was a link between the two bands - aside from the snotty vocals and irreverent humour. Having just looked at the DM site, there is a link (of sorts): "We returned from a tour once to find them [CVB] camped out in our house".

The Dead Milkmen - Smokin' Banana Peels



I remember my brother and I finding this song, and the "mellow... it's so mellow" bits, hilariously funny at the time - now it sounds like a weird post-Up-On-The-Sun Meat Puppets track. This is no bad thing, obviously.

The Dead Milkmen - The Guitar Song



This was always my favourite track, due mostly to the weirdly moving impassioned delivery. I don't know which Milkman sings it but I first heard it at the same time that Whose Line is it Anyway? was gently tickling the ribs of the UK. As such, in my mind, I see Greg Proops.

Visit - The Dead Milkmen
Visit - The Dead Milkmen (wiki)
Buy - Beelzebubba...
... although Death Rides a Pale Cow: The Ultimate Collection looks pretty good!

tears of a clown

As Domino Rally winds it's way to it's inevitable demise (the seemingly endless gaps between posts are never a good sign, are they?), take heart from the fact that I'm going to get through the list of songs that I intend to share with you before I pull the plug. Yes, despite appearances to the contrary, there is an element of planning in what I do here!

I recently delved into the the world of the comedy song, looking at the work of DJs, actors and the like, as well as yer dedicated comedy songwriters.

But what happens if you're one of these last but you wake up one day and think, "actually, I have deep thoughts that matter" and remove your clown shoes?

One such band was The Divine Comedy, who peddled a very British strain of kitchen-sink banter since forming in 1989. They were never strictly a comedy band but achieved success when Neil Hannon adopted the pose of a rakish dandy for Something for the Weekend in 1996 and released a series of quirkily comedic songs like Generation Sex and National Express. And, of course, Hannon wrote the theme tune and the genius My Lovely Horse for Father Ted.

However, in 2001 they released Regeneration, a definite move away from what had become their signature sound. Neil took his suit off, put on some baggy combats and stood in the street with his bandmates. Like a proper band.

The Divine Comedy - Love What You Do



They recorded Regeneration with Nigel Godrich, who since then has become a by-word for "Danger! Thom Yorke crossing!" Back then I knew him as the bloke who did the last Pavement album and my favourite Beck album, Mutations. He really does have a knack for recording synths and a way of setting the tone with a few well-placed textures, as evidenced on this track. Listen for the great wobbly sound that kicks in at 1.34.

The Divine Comedy - Eye Of The Needle



Blimey, has it got cold in here? It's not exactly "it's hard to get by when your arse is the size of a small country", is it?

Visit - The Divine Comedy
Buy - Regeneration

drop me in for the badda-das

Bad News was the spoof New Wave of British Heavy Metal band featured in the first series of The Comic Strip Presents... This metal spoof was in production at the same time as This Is Spinal Tap.

Obviously Tap has had more long-term success but Bad News put a quintessentially English-toilet-circuit spin onto the pretensions of musicians, heavy metal or otherwise. Sometimes they overdid the 'we can't play our instruments' jokes but anyone who has ever been in a band (especially one that has been in a recording studio) will wince in recognition at some of the studio dialogue here.

The lines 'drop me in for the badda-das' and 'I've never had to move my arm up and down so many times in my life' definitely passed into Johnny Domino lexicon.

Bad News - Excalibur



Bad News - Warriors Of Genghis Khan



Bad News - Hey Mr Bassman



The characters were in the main extensions of the Young Ones archetypes - Ade Edmondson's Vim Fuego had the same barely-controlled rage as Vyv (just slightly more coherent), Rik Mayall's Colin Grigson was self-important, effete and pretentious in the same way as Rick, and Nigel Planer is just as dopey being Den Dennis as he was as Neil.

It's pretty clear that the Bad News boys had been listening to the infamous, hilarious Trogg Tapes. For more band-based shenanigans see also Father Ted's A Song for Europe - "play the f**king note!"

Buy - Bad News
Visit - Bad News

i feel sorry for the elephants

Being 10 years old at the time, The Young Ones TV show came about at completely the right time for me and my mates at school. So when they rose from the dead to record the first Comic Relief charity single, I couldn't have been happier.

Little did we know that this would eventually lead to The Stonk by Hale & Pace.

As Vyv says, "Completely ready when you are, Shaky!"

Cliff Richard and The Young Ones - Living Doll



The Young Ones - (All The Little Flowers Are) Happy



This is the B-side to the single, the kind of fly-on-the-wall-in-the-studio scrapping that Messrs Mayall, Planer and Edmondson would perfect with Bad News. But that, my friends will have to wait until a later time...

Visit - Comic Relief
Visit - The Young Ones
Visit - The Young Ones at the BBC
Visit - Cliff Richard

old tige

I've recently been trawling for humorous songs from the darkest corners of my collection. Obviously, if you're going to do anything at all about comedy in music, you have to feature Half Man Half Biscuit. They're kind of the blueprint for how you can do this kind of thing well and for a long time - you just need to have a bit of intelligence.

I remember an article in an old copy of Smash Hits that looked at the finances of contemporary (mid 80s) musicians and the only act to make any kind of profit was HMHB. Wish I could remember who else was featured, but I do know they all had massive major label advances up the wazoo.

Half Man Half Biscuit - Old Tige

This was from their first Peel Session and was always one of my favourite recordings of theirs. Musically it's a pretty faithful talky-song until 1.29 when Nigel obviously gets bored and drops the cheesy American accent. At the end it all dissolves into some quite chilling Muttley-esque laughs.

Jim Reeves - Old Tige



The other week I was going through some of my late Grandad's old records when I found this, the original version of Old Tige. I still like the Half Man Half Biscuit version, but I really like the Jim Reeves version now as it shamelessly tugs at my heart strings.

The Biscuits didn't change any of the words in their version but even though I've heard them mercilessly ripping this song to shreds for years, I'm not ashamed to say that this is one of the saddest things I've ever heard - especially when the ghostly chorus cranks up in the dying seconds of the track.

If this doesn't get you, you either have a heart of stone or have never owned a dog.

Or you never had a Grandad who had a dog and who loved soppy country music.


Visit - Half Man Half Biscuit
Visit - Jim Reeves
Buy - Gentleman Jim - Definitive Collection (*doesn't have "Old Tige" but I can't find it anywhere. any ideas?)

fab fm

As far as novelty records go, acts like the previously covered Barron Knights were your hardcore committed act. I mean, they weren't playing at this stuff, this was their job and what they did.

But amongst the many regular dabblers in novelty, none strikes the fear of God into right-thinking listeners more than the Radio DJ. Endlessly enamoured of the sound of their own voice, the many hours DJs have to empty their brain-pan into a microphone just aren't enough for them. So they decide to release a novelty single and the world cries itself to sleep.

Kenny Everett - Snot Rap



Kenny Everett was always my favourite comedian when I was a kid - he was just so stupid and inventive and definitely ahead of the game in the modern short-attention-span stakes. But this is pretty bad stuff.

In his defence, five years later some people were still making the mistake that rappers were tone-deaf morons who just talked over backing tracks. I'm thinking in particular of Prince's Dead On It from 1988's Black Album.

What follows is one of the darkest corners in my record collection. For Christmas 1982, my Grandmother bought me 3 singles: Our House by Madness, Musical Youth's Youth Of Today and this.

Young Steve & The Afternoon Boys - I'm Alright



Steve Wright was the mainstay of Radio 1's afternoon programming. Pop Hits, a host of wacky characters and lots of catchphrase comedy. The kind of thing to get you through an afternoon at work and lead you up to your journey home. I don't know if he came up with the masterstroke that was "Alright?" before Michael Barrymore, but as far as catchphrases go, it ain't much is it?

Steve is still on the radio, having shifted over to Radio 2 to play inappropriate tracks on Sunday Love Songs. Typical phone-in request:

"This weekend my beautiful daughter is marrying her wonderful partner and all of the family are so proud of her. Can you tell her that I love her very much and play Back To Black by Amy Winehouse? Thanks Steve, love the show."

It's also worth catching to here some truly terrifying letters from people wanting to make contact with lost loves from many years ago. I'm sure I've heard listeners aged 50 and over trying to get in touch with people they haven't seen since they were eleven. Steve Wright: the stalker's friend.

Damien & The Social Workers - Damien

Damien the Social Worker was one of Steve's characters. Basically he was a bit of a hippy, a bit wishy-washy and he was (to 1982 eyes) unnecessarily concerned about the environment and the crap that people put into their bodies. It's almost as though Steve was inventing Gillian McKeith.

Visit - Kenny Everett
Visit - Steve Wright fan page (with audio clips)
Buy - something good, for Christ's sake

live in trouble

Growing up in England in the 1970s and 80s, you couldn't move for variety acts (like family-friendly singing artistes The Dooleys and funnyman Mike Yarwood) popping up on every page of your TV Times. To put this into some kind of context for the benefit of our overseas viewers, Mike Yarwood was a comedy impressionist who started all of his characters with, "Hello, I'm (insert name of person being impersonated, invariably Deputy Dawg, Frank Spencer or Bob Monkhouse)". Never a good sign.

If any younger readers want to complain about how they have it tough, I urge them to listen to these tracks by The Barron Knights. These guys were my Sex Pistols, the best that we could hope for in our Saturday afternoon TV schedule, with their stoopid versions of hit songs.

The Barron Knights - Live in Trouble Part 1
(please note this vinyl is very old, hence the jump in the middle - the missing line is "They flew right off the end / And landed in the Thames / Hand in hand")



To be fair , The BK's had chops, chucking out fairly faithful versions of such popular faves as Leo Sayer's You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, Brotherhood of Man's Angelo and Float On by The Floaters. This was a time when Irish people were thick and homosexuals were intrinsically hilarious ("What?! He doesn't like girls? The very idea!"). Also if you wanted to do an impression of (at the time, very dangerous, foul-mouthed comedian) Billy Connolly, all you had to do was put on a hyper-exaggerated Scottish accent. And shout.

The Barron Knights - Live In Trouble Part 2

This was one of the records I remember playing on repeat as a child alongside The Muppet Show Album and Regatta de Blanc by The Police. Sure, it's all very dated, but the last track (Kenny Rogers' Lucille), genuinely made me laugh out loud when I played it for the first time in years the other day. It's just what people do - re-write the words to popular songs to make your mates laugh.

The Barron Knights will be celebrating 50 years in showbiz next year.

Visit - The Barron Knights
Buy - Funny in the Head: The Best of the Barron Knights