It was the second of our winter 2008/09 headbangs last night. Having sorted out some logistical difficulties we finally all convened at Dave’s a little after 8:00 pm. First up was curry and beer and then we settled down to the show, which started with the usual Obituary section – this time featuring recently departed Levi Stubbs (Four Tops), Mitch Mitchell (Jimi Hendrix Experience drummer) and Odetta – who she, I hear some of you ask? – Just check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odetta to discover her wide sphere of influence.
Next up were the "Original and Cover" and "Then and Now" sections, followed for the first time by the completion of voting slips. This seemed to go OK - there were 7 of the former and 6 of the latter to vote on.
The overall votes were 17 in favour of the Originals and 24 for the Covers. Two of the Covers received unanimous votes - the Faces version of "Maybe I'm Amazed" was voted to be far superior to composer Paul McCartney's original, and, likewise the White Stripes version of Dolly Parton's "Jolene" got the nod over the original version.
When it came to "Then and Now" the overall vote was a narrow 19-17 "win" for the past over the present. Again two songs got a full house of 6 votes - Cat Steven's 1976 rendition of "Peace Train" was deemed superior to him reprising it (as Yusuf Islam) in 2006. Conversely, Jimmy Cliff's recent rendition of "Many Rivers to Cross" on Jools Holland's Later programme was admired by all - at the age of 60 his voice seems even stronger than it was when the song first featured in 1972's film "The Harder They Come" (although the "Then" version we saw was from 1984).
The main feature of the evening, however, was a "Rock Chicks" category - 65 videos featuring female artistes were shown, followed by another vote - this time everyone was asked to award 10 points to their favourite, down to 1 point for their 10th most popular. I have to say that, by this late stage of the evening, much alcohol had been consumed and, as a result, there were several spoiled papers - I won't go in to details here, but I finally managed to interpret the votes this morning. There were 23 artistes who scored points and the final outcome was (drum roll):
1 Katy Perry - I Kissed a Girl
2 K T Tunstall - Black Horse and the Cherry Tree
3= Janis Joplin - Maybe
3= Debbie Harry (Blondie) - Picture This
5 Patti Smith - Gloria
6 Julie Driscoll (+ Brian Auger & the Trinity) - This Wheel's On Fire
7 Duffy - Mercy
Next up were the "Original and Cover" and "Then and Now" sections, followed for the first time by the completion of voting slips. This seemed to go OK - there were 7 of the former and 6 of the latter to vote on.
The overall votes were 17 in favour of the Originals and 24 for the Covers. Two of the Covers received unanimous votes - the Faces version of "Maybe I'm Amazed" was voted to be far superior to composer Paul McCartney's original, and, likewise the White Stripes version of Dolly Parton's "Jolene" got the nod over the original version.
When it came to "Then and Now" the overall vote was a narrow 19-17 "win" for the past over the present. Again two songs got a full house of 6 votes - Cat Steven's 1976 rendition of "Peace Train" was deemed superior to him reprising it (as Yusuf Islam) in 2006. Conversely, Jimmy Cliff's recent rendition of "Many Rivers to Cross" on Jools Holland's Later programme was admired by all - at the age of 60 his voice seems even stronger than it was when the song first featured in 1972's film "The Harder They Come" (although the "Then" version we saw was from 1984).
The main feature of the evening, however, was a "Rock Chicks" category - 65 videos featuring female artistes were shown, followed by another vote - this time everyone was asked to award 10 points to their favourite, down to 1 point for their 10th most popular. I have to say that, by this late stage of the evening, much alcohol had been consumed and, as a result, there were several spoiled papers - I won't go in to details here, but I finally managed to interpret the votes this morning. There were 23 artistes who scored points and the final outcome was (drum roll):
1 Katy Perry - I Kissed a Girl
2 K T Tunstall - Black Horse and the Cherry Tree
3= Janis Joplin - Maybe
3= Debbie Harry (Blondie) - Picture This
5 Patti Smith - Gloria
6 Julie Driscoll (+ Brian Auger & the Trinity) - This Wheel's On Fire
7 Duffy - Mercy
8= Bobbie Gentry - Ode to Billie Joe
8= Labelle - Lady Marmalade (suspect voting error here by Dave - perhaps meant to be the 2001 version by Pink/Christina Aguilera/Lil' Kim/Mya?)
10= Aretha Franklin - I Say A Little Prayer
10= Aretha Franklin - I Say A Little Prayer
10= Siouxsie (& the Banshees) - Spellbound
The team photo from last night didn't quite come out - it was supposed to have a backdrop of classic "Rock Chick" Debbie Harry:
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