sound of the suburbs

Looks like Sound Of The Suburbs has made it to that all important first birthday. 201 posts and over 31,000 hits later I've still got the energy and enthusiasm to continue sharing my thoughts and various musical bits and pieces with those of you that care to stop by. It must be said that probably my biggest enemy is lack of time and of course the boring fact that where I live the only possibility I have is of a 56k dial up Internet connection and believe me up loading those files often takes one hell of a long time!
So who shares their birthday with Sound of The Suburbs? Elizabeth Taylor, I must say I've always fancied the thought of a pint with Richard Burton. Joanne Woodward who of course if not famous herself would be by association with her marriage to Paul Newman. Laurence Durrell, they forced me to read 'My Family And Other Animals' at school, and must admit it's not such a bad read. John Steinbeck, author of one of American literature's classics 'Of Mice And Men'. Nancy Spungen, RIP, punk groupie that helped fetch the Pistols down. Steve Harley, ex journalist and Bob Dylan fan that made some people smile with his Dylan impersonations and even managed to make a career out of it.
Every birthday needs music to help along the celebrations, and so I've chosen three topical songs. From 1980 and Altered Images (anyone remember the film of the same name?), the 12" remix version of 'Happy Birthday', for those of you too young to have been around at the time the 12" single was the latest marketing gimmick and for better or as the case often was worse everyone had their remixes. 'Birthday Blues' sums up how we feel depending on our age, I can remember hitting thirty was for me a big bummer that I took a long time coming to terms with, forty was OK though I must admit dreading the thought of fifty probably the symbolism. The song is taken from Wreckless Eric's great 1991 album 'The Donovan Of Trash', good news for fans of Wreckless and good music his classic third album from 1979 'Big Smash' is at long last about to be released on CD, complete with it's original bonus compilation and three live tracks recorded in Australia, get it here. Last track is from The Sugarcubes and is the demo version of 'Birthday' sung in their Native tongue. I must say that this song and the album from which it was taken took me by surprise in 1988 with it's charming and powerfully naive sounding pop gems , I was lucky enough to catch the band the following year in Toulouse, which was a great gig, and cemented my lasting admiration for pop's number one pixie Bjork. I read good reports about their recent concert in their home town, I just hope they have the good sense to leave it as a one off.
Year two starts tomorrow, maybe Sound Of The Suburbs will start walking!