Bah Bumhug!

It's only the middle of November and already Mariah Scarey's perennial favourite All I Want For Christmas is at number 59 in the UK singles chart. Who's buying it? Stop it! It's bad enough that the biggest retailers think Christmas is already here. Let's all just pipe down and wait until the 25th of November when the festive frolics officially begin here chez Monsieur FizzyPop. Oh, hang on. My mistake. Christmas IS already here. The Coke ads have begun.

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Burt Bacharach & Adele - Baby It's You


This was one of the highlights of Burt Bacharach's recent concert in London at The Roundhouse. Adele's voice seems to wrap around Burt's song and arrangement like it was the original and the best. Baby It's You is such a sweet song and deserving of the orchestral treatment whereas other fab Burt standards were reduced to medley status. Don't you just hate getting a burst of your favourite only to have it cruelly snatched away just as you're getting into it. I know the back catalogue is HUGE, but it is better to have the full wax rather than just the crack!

Adele's in no hurry to work with Burt again though. Quite rightly she surmises that it would be a predictable get-together. Looky here at the ITN interview where she talks about cracking the USA. She suggested a more left of centre collaboration; someone no one would expect. Adele and Same Difference? Oui? Non?

••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

25 years ago (that's 1983 for those of you what can't add up), the likes of Kajagoogoo, Howard Jones, Heaven 17, Nik Kershaw, Paul Young, Nick Heyward, Tony Hadley were all young hairdos around town in their twenties. Now bewigged and tucked in blokes in their late forties, they're all getting together for a retro fest on ITV 1 this Friday. Now That's What I Call 1983 - great title - will be typical ITV fare: slight whiff of gorgonzola, an audience on poppers and Denise Van Outen being all laddish. Clicky here for all the programme info. The ever-entertaining John (on the right) of Phagz on 45 quite rightly pronounced 1983 as THE most important year in pop. Or at least in his world. But I agree wholeheartedly. Just look at this list of tracks Chelsea Kelsey put together for his own CD compilation of that year. Now that's what I call 1983...