Band Trivia and Misheard-Lyrics

Here’s some trivia for you pop-pickers. Mentioning Fortune Drive and The Goodness in my previous post reminded me of the connection between the 2 bands…

The Goodness are named after a Fortune Drive lyric!

Steve (Goodness) really loved Fortune Drive. It’s always a toughie naming a new band, but after trying dozens of titles that didn’t work, The Goodness seemed to do the job well. And I guess this connection is why you’ll often find The Goodness supporting Fortune Drive.

Being a sad-old-rock-n-roll-mum I do tend to mishear the lyrics sometimes. I heard Fortune Drive singing ‘When The Goodness comes to town’ when Billy tells me its actually ‘When your goodness comforts me’. And I heard The Goodness singing ‘There’s a time and a place’ when actually it’s ‘There’s a ton of bricks’. Now Megan likes to sing my alternative lyrics in an ironic tone when we’re at a Goodness gig.

If you don’t know the songs this might not tickle you, but for any real fan of either of the bands I will be clearly demonstrating my status as somebody’s mother. No doubt I have probably got some of these ‘facts’ wrong too, and it’s a shame I don’t know the name of the song of FD’s that TG are named after. Will let you know when Bill has re-corrected me.

And then Saturday Night

What a great weekend. Day-time Saturday was the super-ace Flash Mob Silent Disco (see below). And the fun didn’t stop there.

Saturday evening; Billy, Jess, Noah, Emily, Megan, April, Nichole and I trooped down to The Thunderbolt. This fabby pub used to be called The Turnpike and had a seedy, none-to-friendly atmosphere with an even worse reputation. Last year my mate Dave (Davey Mac) and his partner bought it. Now it’s a really welcoming, community-spirited venue for music, comedy and film as well as a real nice boozer.

We went to see Fortune Drive. They’re yet another band that Billy and Noah have introduced me to and we’ve been to see them several times, including at The Croft and an acoustic set at The Old Duke (a pub more usually renowned for jazz), where they were supported by a friend of my boys, Steve Preston of The Goodness (not too digress too much but DO check out The Goodness they are remarkably good, still all under 20 years old, and kind of role models to Bill and Noah, having taken music at St Brendan’s, the sixth form college B&N will start at in September).

Fortune Drive’s acoustic set was an absolute killer that night and there was plenty more dancing to be had. And such a pleasure to go to a gig at a fine local pub which welcomed my teenage friends and family with open arms. Dave Mac even let me give him Go Dutch’s myspace info with the view to maybe giving them a gig sometime. Add cups of tea with Nick, hanging out with Greg, and breakfast and tea with Richole and you’ll see I had an extremely social, rock n roll mum weekend.

Flash Mob Silent Disco

So there’s this phenomenon called Flash Mobs. Word is spread of an event where, at the allocated time and place, a happening happens. A couple of years ago my brother joined a flash mob pillow fight in Trafalgar square. Hundreds of people hitting strangers amicably with soft furnishings. It sounded great and I was jealous.

My friend Greg told me one was happening in Bristol this weekend. I joined the Facebook group and saw that the Valentine’s Day Silent Disco would gather at Bristol’s Centre at 2.58pm on Saturday. The requirements? An ipod, fancy dress optional. I’m an old fart that doesn’t own an ipod, but of course Billy does, so he put together a playlist for me and gave me a 2 minute Dummies Guide to Using the Modern Walkman. Last year for Shambala I made a bonnet out of plastic flowers and day-glo netting. It’s been sitting in my front room for months. I knew this was the perfect opportunity to give it another outing.

Having placed my bonnet carefully in my backpack, with the ipod in my pocket, I stomped down to the centre. As I walked I laughed to myself, excited about the event and loving that that I had a secret day-glo extravaganza on my back. I arrived a few minutes early and rolled a roll-up. And watched as people gathered, all with this silent mission on their minds, saying nothing but eying each other up: ‘is he gonna be part of it?’ ‘Does she know what’s going on?’. A street musician called Dubafex
acted as a centre for the gathering and at just a minute or two past three (come on, this IS Bristol we’re talking about) he stopped the music, I whipped my hat out of the bag, and we started dancing.

My first track was Mardi Gras by Go Dutch. Of course. Good one to start with. Hard to tell how many people were there, at least 100 I’d say. Lots of camera-phones and videos, lots of laughing and smiling, lots of jigging about. One group did that sitting on the floor dance we used to do at school discos. I loved it.

More pics and videos here. (the short vid by Zoe Pither makes me laugh out loud every time I see it)