The trials and tribulations of living abroad...
View Article  Wilson Pickett - Soul singer

Wilson Pickett, the soul singer best known for the hits Mustang Sally and In the Midnight Hour, has died of a heart attack, aged 64.

 

Pickett had been suffering from health problems for the past year and died in a hospital yesterday near his home in Virginia.

 

He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991, the same year that his career was revived as a result of several of his songs being featured in the Alan Parker film The Commitments. Pickett, who is survived by his fiancée and four children, will be buried beside his mother Lena in Louisville, Kentucky.

 

One of the most popular black singers of the '60s, Wilson Pickett helped introduce the aggressive style of rhythmic style of soul music. Aided immeasurably by the excellent studio bands backing him at the Stax Studios in Memphis, Tennessee, and The Fame Studio in Muscle Shoals Alabama, Pickett scored a series of R&B and pop hits on Atlantic Records between 1963 and 1972 that included "In the Midnight Hour," "Mustang Sally," and "Funky Broadway."

Raised in Prattville, Alabama, Wilson Pickett moved to Detroit, Michigan at the ...   more »

View Article  British Day - 1066 and all that

A recent government wheeze intended to unite the Brits in a ‘British Day’ seems to have stumbled at the first hurdle.

 

An initial suggestion was Remembrance Day, November 11th.   Cue cries of outrage and horror.   Rightly so too.  

 

Next, one of the less bright in the House suggested 14th October, the anniversary of the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

 

Not a particularly sound choice as, if I recall my history correctly, that particular battle didn’t go well for the English.   King Harold II of England lost to Duke William of Normandy.   It was the last time any foreign power was to conquer Britain.

 

Really well thought out choice then.   

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