COVER NERD! - GOMEZ - 'GETTING BETTER'
Cover Nerd Gomez NealI like covers a lot, and here in my bi-weekly spot I hope to share with you some of my favourites here.
Tell me what you think and please feel free to submit your favourite covers by clicking here
I was recently sorting out a drawer at home and found an old training notebook from when I started work at Heathrow in 2000. Most of the pages weren’t used but towards the back there was a list of 20 songs from a Pub Quiz that I compered back in March 2002.
Old Pa used to work in Isleworth, and a short stroll from his work was The Red Lion Thursday was quiz night, and always had a music round. Bizarrely the winners of the music round used to win a random prize and on one occasion Old Pa’s team won an ironing board. I’d like to think that because it was such a prized possession that no one wanted to be without, the team members instead decided to sign the ironing board cover and left it on the stage and thus started a tradition that continued for many a quiz to follow. I haven’t been back for a number of years but would love to think that they still have the board there.
As I had recently started seeing Shellhunter, I was invited to join Old Pa’s team as I do like a good quiz, and have a great memory for obscure facts which often come in helpful. The format of the quiz was 4 rounds of general knowledge with the music round sandwiched in the middle. The compere who changed every week would provide the music round and the pub would supply the rest.
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| We're not Bieber's girlfriend. Okay |
After taking part almost every week for a good few months, I got friendly with the manager and asked if I could do the music round one day. He obliged and I decided to do a round of 20 cover versions. I recorded about 20-30 seconds of each song on my MiniDisc player (I think I was one of the very few) and had my masterpiece. To give me some moral support, Flycasual and Shellhunter both came along and took part, unfortunately Old Pa was working. It was a success, and the manager said was he looked forward to me coming back again if I wanted to......to be continued
As for this song, I have always been a fan of Gomez ever since I first heard Whipping Picadilly, and although they seem to come and go, they always sound great. Looking through the 20 songs from the quiz, this is one I like the most and had forgotten about it until I found the list. It featured on their album Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline from 2000 which had some B-sides and Radio 1 sessions on it.
NERD ALERT! - This song was used in an advert for a Philips 'Boombox' (see here)
If you want to a taster of some of the tracks from the quiz, click here for the spotify playlist.
