I saw this whilst out shopping in the fantastic Piccadilly Records.  It looks like they have taken a cue from the internet and have posted a comments board on their shop wall.  What a lovely thing to do!

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As a tribute to Rage Against the Machine releasing Simon Cowell’s stranglehold on the christmas number one (and helping to make a big fat pile of cash for charity in the process) here’s a take on “Killing in the Name of” you may not know of.  “So why haven’t you played it in the podcast?” I hear you ask.  Well it just so happens I’ve given it a spin in the mildly festive Show 50!

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I happened to be walking through Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester on Friday night to find a crowd of people watching this excellent Caribbean steel band playing a bunch of cover versions. As I turned up they were playing an instrumental version of ‘Patience’ by Take That which was actually superb. Anyway I managed to video some bits and bobs of the rest of their set:

Here’s half a minute or so of them covering Jimmy Cliff’s ‘I Can See Clearly Now’. This works so nicely with steel drums!

Next up they did a cheeky version of ‘Tainted Love’ by soft cell:

Their final tune (before the encore) of the evening was their version of Bob Marley’s ‘no Woman No Cry’. I’m really pleased I managed to video the whole tune complete with crowd singalong. Excuse my shakey dancey camera!

But that wasn’t it! For an encore they only went and did a blistering steel version of the Lambada! Again I managed to video the full thing. Wonderful stuff!

I think the band was called Hi-Tech Caribbean Systems (at least that’s what their t-shirts read!). I was chatting to one of the band members afterwards and it seems they don’t have a CD of their tunes or a website! Such a shame as I’d happily play any of their tunes and I bet lots of others would too.

Sort it out guys!

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Thought I’d stick this up for a bit of a chuckle with the sample spotters.  Okay so let’s kick off with an original tune:  Billy Squier ‘The Big Beat’…

…which was a tune sampled by one Dizzee Rascal for ‘Fix up Look Sharp’…

…as well as up and coming rapper Jay-Z for ‘99 problems’…

and oldie rap crew O.P.P for ‘Wickedest Man Alive’.  I couldn’t find a video on youtube for this, but I rather helpfully gave it a spin on show 43!

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Bobby “don’t worry be happy” McFerrin gives a demonstration of the strange link between music and our brain by playing the audience like a piano.  Wonderful stuff and well worth 3 minutes of your time.  Incidentally, anyone with even a passing interest in science and music could do much worse than sticking their nose in the book ‘This is your brain on music’.

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What happens when you combine Stevie Wonder and The Beatles into one neat little package?  Awesome happens.  Here, Mt. Wonder belts out his rendition of The Beatles’ ‘We Can Work it Out’ in the way that only he can.  It seems that you can pick up this tune on a compilation of Beatles cover versions, which includes the wonderful version of ‘Live and Let Die’ by Dragononnaires which was featured on an earlier podcast.  Pick it up here, or indeed here if you’re more vinyl inclined.

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Just ordered this little Gem from Fat City Records (follow them on Twitter)- an AWESOME reggae cover version of ODB’s  ‘Shimmy Shimmy Ya’ by Prince Fatty.  This one’s going in the next podcast for sure!

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Awesome clip of up and coming singer Stevie Wonder belting out ‘Superstition’ on Sesame Street. Incredible musician, fantastic tune, brilliant show. What more could you want? Some muppets dancing in the background would’ve been nice. Anyway, enjoy!

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