Friday, March 9, 2007

Karaoke - 8th Mar 2007

It was a quiet affair this week at the Birches Head Hotel.

There were people in but they weren't very excitable and the number of singers was on the low side but not to worry, we still had a good time and many songs were sung and *everyone* got to sing new songs tonight which was cool. Ranging from the girls singing Sugababes - Ugly to Andy, with a little prompting, singing the Fratellis - Whistle For The Choir which I reckon probably had the most audience participation of the night... top song dude :)

This weeks songs:


Just realised there were 4 Beatles songs sang tonight!! This must put them a little higher in the most sung artist chart now. Need a plan to fight back and get the Fratellis on top. This shouldn't be too hard, I enjoy singing Henrietta, Whistle For The Choir is turning into a very regular and popular song, Chelsea Dagger can be done now and then when the beers flowing, and..... Baby Fratelli is on the next Sunfly!! (leaps around the room :) ) Ben from Sunfly has put up a preview of what's on this months Sunfly on the KJForum and you can see them here in this thread.

** NEW SONGS **

Happy Mondays - Step On - Last minute choice as I was going to The Knack - My Sharona but when I had a go at it at home I found that it wasn't as easy as I thought. Step On is quite easy to sing with very easy lyrics but once again I found myself singing really low and struggling with it ala Snow Patrol. It was ok in the end but will be a nostalgic one-off.

The Knack - My Sharona - Yep, the song that I wasn't going to do I actually ended up doing anyway due to an offer to duet it with me by Andy after I mentioned to him that I'd changed my mind on it. The song starts and Andy looks at me and then leaves me to it, the hustler :p! Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be I just wish that Sunfly had done the radio version of the song instead of leaving the full 1 minute 38 seconds instrumental break in towards the end. Another one for the 'one-off' collection.


and so ends another week. ciao for now.
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Monday, March 5, 2007

Karaoke - 2 Month Thursday night stats

Just a little post to see how the karaoke's developed over the first couple of months of the year. No doubt patterns may emerge as the year go's on but there may be some already!!



Not terribly exciting at the moment as we're only two months in, but as the year progresses it will be interesting to see how it pans out.
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Sunday, March 4, 2007

Karaoke - 1st Mar 2007

Evil, evil alcohol....

Or at least that's what my head was saying Friday morning as I definately drank a little bit more than I should once more. I actually think that it's not the amount that I'm drinking becuase I've definately drank more, but the mixing that is causing the bad hangovers. Once more it was a lager, sambucca (not sangria!) and jack daniels mixture that was the source of my friday woes.

It was worth it though (usually is), and I enjoyed the night. Highlight was some lad coming over to me and saying "you're effin brill you are, I didn't know your name was Shaun, mines Shaun too" ... errr, ok, let's leave it at that then :)

Singing wise, one new one tonight: Bad Moon Rising by Creedance Clearwater Revival (see below) and plenty of crowd type songs. Henrietta went down well as did Same Jeans. I did Grace Kelly again at the request of Tina but I'd had a few drinks by then so wasn't my best attempy. Scott did a couple of new ones which were cool, Me Plus One by Kasabian (I'm sure you could do it at the higher pitch ;) ) and Open Your Eyes by Snow Patrol. Strangest moment of the night was a girl who having previously sung Eminem - Mockingbird sang Benny Hills Ernie!! And I thought my range of songs was odd at times!

The complete rundown:

Shaun: Fratellis - Whistle For The Choir
Others: Pink - Who Knew
Others: Rhianna - Unfaithful
Scott: Black Crowes - Jealous Again
Shaun: Creedance Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising
Others: Neil Diamond - Sweet Caroline
Others: Eminem - Mockingbird
Tina & Louise: The Corrs - Angels
Scott: Kasabian - Me Plus One
Others: Sandi Thom - What If I'm Right
Others: Tenacious D - Tribute
Others: Elvis - I Just Can't Help Believing
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Eurythmics - Thorn In My Side
Shaun: Mika - Grace Kelly
Others: Ugly Kid Joe - Everything About You
Others: Sugababes - Ugly
Scott: Cinderella - Gypsy Rose
Others: Meatloaf - Paradise By The Dashboard Light
Tina & Hayley: Lily Allen - Smile
Shaun: The Fratellis - Henrietta
Others: Marty Robbins - Devil Woman
Others: Benny Hill - Ernie
Others: Britney Spears - From The Bottom Of My Broken Heart
Others: Elvis - You Don't Have To Say You Love Me
Scott: Snow Patrol - Open You Eyes
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Dusty Springfield - Son Of A Preacher Man
Others: David Hasselhoff - Jump In My Car
Shaun: The View - Same Jeans

** NEW SONG **

Creedance Clearwater Revival - Bad Moon Rising: Picked this one up when looking for some new songs to help practice my guitar playing with (which is going well by the way, I'll blog about it soon!). Fairly simple song, really enjoyable to do and I think I did it justice. One for the 'will do again' book.

th-th-th-that's all folks...
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Thursday, March 1, 2007

27th Feb 2007 - Another day, another year older

As the title suggests, today is (well was, given that it's now Thursday) my birthday, 32 before you ask!, and what better way to enjoy it than to see The Fratellis live.
The gig was at the Carling Academy in Birmingham and after picking Scott up at 4:30 we made our way down there. It was a relatively easy place to get to with the Londonderry House NCP car park literally just around the corner from the Academy and so by 6pm we were having a pint (or two) in Scruffy Murphys which was about 200 yards away.
Eager Frats fans were already queuing to get into the Academy at 6 even though the doors weren't open for another hour. We took our place in the queue at around 5 minutes to 7 and were tempted by the 'buy a drink at the Academy Bar and get your ticket stamped to queue jump into the gig' promotion. Unfortunately the queue to get served in the bar was bigger than the one to get in the gig and so we left and rejoined the gig queue once more!

It wasn't long before we were in though and I was a little suprised at the type of venue it was. I now realised how I managed to get standing tickets.... there were no seats! You have to bear in mind at this point I have only ever been one gig before and that was to see Kasabian (+ the Fratellis) at the MEN Arena and so thought that all gigs were similar. Scott told me that this was the more typical gig setting, likening it to Stokes Sugarmill albeit slightly larger. Not that I was complaining mind as it all felt a lot more up close and personal than the MEN event (I could actually make out faces on the stage this time!!).

After an hour or so of getting in the support act, The Enemy, came onto the stage. I'd read bits and bobs about these guys, some good..some bad, but overall I thought they were fairly alright. They sound a little like a Babyshambles/Arctic Monkeys cross and I can't say that any of their songs really stuck in my head. The only one of their set list that I recognized is their next single, It's Not Ok, which I've heard on the radio a couple of times. You can check it out here .

The Enemy we on for around half an hour and once they had finished we were treated to a montage of 'Mon The Fratellis' pictures which had been put together by fans on the official forum. This seemed to go on forever and it started to repeat before finally, at around 9ish, The Fratellis made their way onto the stage.
After the usual "Ladies & Gentlemen, we're The Fratellis" they kicked straight into their first single, and album opener, Henrietta. After that you knew it was going to be a good night and so it was as they played all the album songs plus B-Sides: Nina & The Pimp. Baby Fratelli absolutely rocked live and I dare say that that sent the crowd even wilder than Chelsea Dagger did although it was mighty close given that the crowd were already very excitable after an amazing sing-a-long to Whistle For The Choir! After finishing with Got Ma Nuts From A Hippy, Jon eventually came back on stage for the encore. As he picked up the acoustic guitar he said he normally plays For The Girl but tonight he "couldn't be arsed" and preceded to play Cigarello (which is also a great song). Less than half a verse in and he switched it to the more crowd familiar La La La's of For The Girl which he then sang the whole song to. Barry and Mince re-entered the stage for the final two songs the last of which was the Goldfrapp cover - Ooh La La which the Fratellis did as a cover on Radio 1's Live Lounge and have now made their own as a gig ender.

The Setlist:
  • Henrietta
  • Everybody Knows You Cried Last Night
  • The Pimp
  • Flathead
  • Vince The Lovable Stoner
  • Doginabag
  • Creepin Up The Backstairs
  • Pretty Like A Girl, Filthy Like A Boy
  • Nina
  • Ole Black and Blue Eyes
  • Baby Fratelli
  • Whistle For The Choir
  • Chelsea Dagger
  • Got Ma Nuts From A Hippy
  • For The Girls (Acoustic)
  • Cuntry Boys & City Girls
  • Ooh La La
Although the set didn't last that long (we were out for just after 10) it's nothing but pure energy with their catchy riffs and sing-a-long choruses that had everybody in there rocking along. I'd lost my voice by the end of the night but it was worth every piece of my vocal chord in doing so.

Scott and I decided that a good way to end the night would be to find a curry house in Birmingham and grab something to eat. After walking up and down the entire city centre it seems that there is not an Indian to be found anywhere. This is in stark contrast to our local city centre, Hanley, where you can't walk more than 50 yards without having your nasal cavities bomarded by the smell of Bombay!!
So, back to car and a drive back along the A34 towards Walsall where there was bound to be some restaurants open, we eventually came across the 'Basmati' about two miles outside Walsall. This was after, despite being told by Scott to *stay* on the A34 I managed to come off it by accident not once but twice and ended up having to backtrack around unfamiliar territory to get back on it again (my navigational skills are somewhat lacking outside of Stoke-on-Trent!!). Anyway, we eventually got our curry, which was very enjoyable and all that matters (:p), and made the trek back home which had us arriving back at around 1am.

All in all a very enjoyable birthday and all that's left for us to do now is to figure out which gig we're going to next ;)
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Monday, February 26, 2007

Karaoke - 22nd Feb 2007

I had a bad head on Friday so I can safely say that I was drunk this night. Not sure how I managed to scribble down all the songs sung and by the look of my writing I had trouble deciphering some of it but still managed it in the end!

Once again, some of my work colleagues descended upon and that made for an interesting night. Sue, who's normal quite reserved at work got up to sing on the karaoke (Robbie Williams - Straighten Up and Fly Right) and she entertained us although it was not so much her singing but her 'elaborate' dancing. You go girl!!



In amongst all that the girls did a new song, Thorn In My Side, which I thought (from what I remember) sounded pretty good, and Scott walked off on not one, but two songs, which shocked me as he normally knows whether or not he can do the song he's doing!!

As for me, I stuck to songs I know and that I can sing even when pissed! I did try one new one, Hot Love by T-Rex but it's very much like the Snow Patrol - Spitting Games song: I can sing it fine at home or in the car but when you get on the mic you find that it's in a low tone that you just can't get right. Ah well. As you can tell, I'm running out of new stuff to sing...

so, the rundown of all the songs sang goes like this (apologies now if I've got the wrong people singing!):

Shaun: Bloodhound Gang - Bad Touch
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Eurythmics - Sweet Dreams
Others: The Commitments - Try A Little Tenderness
Others: Robbie Williams - Angels
Others: Atomic Kitten - Tide Is High
Shaun: Razorlight - In The Morning
Scott: Take That - Shine
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Girls Aloud - Love Machine
Others: Robbie Williams - Straighten Up & Fly Right
Others: Patsy Cline - Crazy
Shaun: Black Eyed Peas - Pump It
Scott: Abba - S.O.S.
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Eurythmics - Thorn In My Side
Others: Bob Marley - Jammin'
Andy: Dire Straits - Money For Nothing
Shaun: Marc Bolan & T.Rex - Hot Love
Others: Abba - Waterloo
Scott: Rolling Stones - Angie
Tina & Lisa: Nikki French - Total Eclipse Of The Heart
Others: Cher - If I Could Turn Back Time
Others: Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars
Tina, Louise & Hayley: Chicago - All That Jazz
Others: Shania Twain - That Don't Impress Me Much
Others: Roxette - Listen To Your Heart

** New Song **
Marc Bolan & T.Rex - Hot Love - I picked this literally the night before as I was searching around for the Fratellis - Ooh La La Goldfrapp cover on YouTube. On one of the sets, the Frats kind of merged the two songs together and it sounded really cool so thought I would have a go. It's a really simple song and I could sing it fine in the house and in the car, but on the mic I really struggled to get the right tone. Won't be doing it again but if you don't try, you never know!
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