Comments on: PAPER LACE - “Billy, Don’t Be A Hero”

By: Waldo

Waldo — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 14:00:11 +0000

Just wrong.

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:18:24 +0000

“Lovely man…and a good single.”

By: Waldo

Waldo — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 12:15:14 +0000

Come on then, MC, what did Dale say about “It’s You”? I personally found it nauseating and Freddie himself about as amusing as Harry Worth, the man with only one joke.

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 08:42:42 +0000

Now there’s genuine 1974 comedy for you. Speaking of which, Freddie Starr had a top ten hit round about this time with his heartrending ballad “It’s You.”

By: Erithian

Erithian — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 08:39:17 +0000

Great to see you back on these pages Doc, you’ve been missed. To risk another spoiler a couple of decades away, we want you back for good. Even if you can’t stand the 70s…

A favourite gag of the time from Bob Williamson, the Peter Kay of his day: “Terrible accident at the Nestle factory the other day - a bloke fell into a vat of chocolate, and his mates all sang “Billy, Don’t Be An Aero”.”

By: Doctormod

Doctormod — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 03:13:19 +0000

Thank you, Brian.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 20:40:21 +0000

Not to worry Doc, it’s been a bit of a dry-spell with alot of un-inspring #1’s in the Brit Charts. Consequently, we’ve learned to go off subject very, very well …..

By: Doctormod

Doctormod — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 20:23:49 +0000

Oh dear. There I go again. I hadn’t read the “Seasons in the Sun” thread when I wrote that.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 20:23:15 +0000

DOC MOD !! You old choir girl !

Baby, please come home …..

By: Doctormod

Doctormod — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 20:09:17 +0000

Re: Waldo (31)

Actually, I was wondering when we would get around to discussing how long regular contributors would last. I can tell you now that the second we enter the 1980s is when Waldo leaves the building, Clodagh Rodgers moments an’ all.

And around that time, I might well be back. For now, there are either no microchips in my brain that process most of the music under discussion–or else I’ve carefully crafted selective amnesia about it and don’t want to be reminded. Loved the 60s, hated the 70s–with the exception of ELO and the group whose cheerful faces now appear at the top of the page. (Ooops! Sorry–I suppose alluding to them or the 80s at all will get me in trouble for the nonce.)

By: Erithian

Erithian — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 16:46:20 +0000

Yes, hopefully I’m here for the duration, although I rather drifted away in the early 90s, albeit always finding pleasure in at least a few corners of the top 40. It’ll be a drag when we get to the early Noughties when there was a new piece of dross at number one nearly every week. But even at an age when hardly anything in the chart is pitched at me, I can still hear the likes of Sean Kingston, Sugababes and especially Plain White T’s and think they’re great pop records.

Wasn’t it the Mayor of Chicago who said he’d like Paper Lace and the writers of “The Night Chicago Died” to “jump in the Chicago River, going down three times and coming up twice”?

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 07:51:37 +0000

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:47:10 +0000

” Actually, I was wondering when we would get around to discussing how long regular contributors would last. ”

Although not contributing regularily ( hurrah ! ) I read everybody’s posts. I learn alot of useful and useless stuff.

As for the music , I have been experinceing a renaissance of musical appreciation as my kids get older and have started playing and listening to alot of music I wouldn’t have got to, if not for them. I think that FT can do the same.

But if I was to ask my kids ( age 13 , 15 , 17, ) to jump into this - they wouldn’t . That’d be lame.

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:40:18 +0000

Singing Drummer : Levon Helm ( of The Band ).

By: Matthew H

Matthew H — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:33:33 +0000

Sorry, Andy Sturmer.

By: Matthew H

Matthew H — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 16:32:37 +0000

And Don Henley. And the fellow out of Jellyfish. Roger Manning?

By: henry s

henry s — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:49:08 +0000

The Believer put together the ultimate list of singing drummers in their music issue a couple of years ago…(makes sense, being that their marketing person is also the drummer in Comets On Fire, the same guy who released the Colossal Yes LP, in the same sensitive-drummer tradition as Dennis Wilson and Epic Soundtracks)…to preempt the trainspotters, Roger Taylor was the only key omission…

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 14:25:26 +0000

Aye, that would be her.

There was Wyatt-era Soft Machine, of course, and also Sir Lord Baltimore (and for Canadian readers, Skip Prokop in Lighthouse). And the Beach Boys whenever Dennis sang lead.

By: mike

mike — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 13:23:05 +0000

What, her out of the Breakfast Club?

I forgot about the Carpenters, of course.

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:20:56 +0000

…although she didn’t as a rule drum on her own hits.

By: Matthew H

Matthew H — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:05:18 +0000

June Miles-Kingston?

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:48:19 +0000

“Yellow Submarine.”

Also Kevin Godley did at least some of the vocals on “Rubber Bullets.”

And there is a certain singing female drummer who will come to global prominence about a decade hence…

By: mike

mike — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 11:16:39 +0000

So, is “Billy” the only UK Number One to feature lead vocals from the drummer? ‘Cos I can’t think of any others. What about other bands whose drummers were the lead singers? (I would have said the Dave Clark Five, but apparently not.) Genesis being your starter for one…

By: Marcello Carlin

Marcello Carlin — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:57:07 +0000

Actually you are quite correct, yes it was Black Lace (”Good record” - Winton, D) as featured in Rita, Sue And Bob Too.

I must have got it confused with “Gang Bang,” the B-side to the Sensational Alex Harvey Band’s 1974 single “Swampstake.”

By: Mark G

Mark G — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 10:43:55 +0000

“gang bang” was Black lace, surely?