Now That's What I Call Stuart's Favourite Music 67 - Erasure - Fingers and Thumbs (Cold Summer's Day)

It's been a month since I last posted my previous favourite tune, so I've decided to go back to one of my all-time favourite bands.  Today's track is Erasure's Fingers and Thumbs (Cold Summer's Day), an absolute corker from their 1995 self-titled album "Erasure".

It only peaked at number 20 in the UK charts in December 1995 which is dreadful considering the amount of tat that was filling the charts at that time (yes, I'm talking about you Oasis, Boyzone and, East 17), but considering the band were not considered 'mainstream' at the time, it was still a respectable position.  Remember, this was before the internet and online streaming was a thing.

This is the single version, but the one featured on the album was a 6-minute and 44-second masterpiece, featuring an extended instrumental section between the second and third choruses.

An absolute classic of track.

Now That's What I Call Stuart's Favourite Music 26 - Ace of Base (The Sign)

I have always felt that my childhood pretty much ended the day I walked out of my secondary school on Friday, June the 25th 1993 following my last GCSE exam, and some songs/bands remind me quite vividly of this time in my life,  Ace of Base being one of them.

"The Sign" came out in November that same year, and will forever be imprinted in my memory due to the constant air time it had on the local radio station (Essex FM) when I was doing my work experience at the Evening Echo newspaper during my brief time at Basildon College in 1994.

The song was a big hit for Ace of Base, reaching a very impressive number 2 in the UK charts, and an even more impressive number 1 in the US Billboard Hot 100 singles.  It stayed in the charts for 16 weeks.

Now for me, the 90's wasn't really a great decade.  Sure, it had a few good things going for it, but the music wasn't one of them.  During the early 90s, my interest in music was almost non-existent apart from listening to Erasure, Jean Michel Jarre, Mike Oldfield, and a few movie soundtracks.  I suppose this song, along with The Beloved's Sweet Harmony are the two songs that really define my musical tastes from those early years of a decade that to me will always be fondly remembered by me for playing my Amiga 500, getting my head around playing Magic The Gathering (some card game) with my friend Dan, ogling over Terry Farrell (Jadzia Dax in Star Trek Deep Space Nine) and watching Noel's House Party on a Saturday evening.

Anyway, on a separate note - I do really hope to update my blog with more posts over the next couple of weeks (and not just music and game covers).  Work has been considerably busy and stressful and has pretty much taken over my life.  I'm literally living and breathing servers, and computers to the point where I'm even losing sleep!  Yes I know it's not healthy, but what can I do....  It pays the bills!!! 

Onwards and upwards, and don't forget you can check out my other favourite songs by clicking here.

Retro Game Boys Episode 5 - Lemmings (Commodore Amiga)

Our first episode of 2016.  Kieran gets to choose the game for this edition of the Retro Game Boys.  This time it's Lemmings for the Commodore Amiga

 

Let's Go!

 

Alive and Kick'Starting'

Kickstarter is addictive....  There I said it.

Last year, I backed my first Kickstarter...  a book called "Commodore 64: a visual Commpendium", by Sam Dyer, and published by Bitmap Books.  It surpassed all expectations and became quite a hit with fans of the Commodore 64 (including me).

So, when I heard that Sam was producing a follow up book entitled "Commodore Amiga: a visual Commpendium", I just had to back it immediately.

The book had a target goal of £25,000 so I think it came as a bit of a surprise to most when the total amount pledged to the project came in at just short of £130,000.  Wow.  It just goes to show how much love there is for the old Commodore computers.

Anyway, after several months of waiting, the book finally arrived through the letterbox today, and WOW.

The book is fantastic, and considerably larger than the Commodore 64 one.  The graphics on each page depicting various well known games are truly remarkable, with a small piece of text from well known people from the Amiga days (game/demo programmers, designers, graphic artists and fans)

AND due to the massive success of the project, backers also get loads of cool extras with the book as standard.

• Shadow of the Beast 2015 Remix CD by Tim Wright (CoLD SToRAGE)
• I Love Commodore Amiga Sticker
• Metal Amiga engraved bookmark
• Amiga pen
• Amiga Ball Pin
• 6x Demoscene postcards (one signed by the author of the book)
• Another World poster
• Ask Me About Loom badge (from The Secret of Monkey Island) Limited to first 100 Backers

I highly recommend this book (and the Commodore 64 one) to any person who has an interest in old computer games - even if you never had a Commodore computer.  I cant wait for Sam's next book which I hear may be about the Spectrum.

Amiga Book - http://www.funstock.co.uk/commodore-amiga-a-visual-commpendium-book
C64 Book - http://www.funstock.co.uk/commodore-64-a-visual-commpendium-c64-book

Now, I've just got to wait for the other Kickstarter projects I've backed to arrive, including Matt Gray's "Reformation" C64 music project, From Bedrooms to Billions : The Amiga Years, Marcel Donne's "Project Sidologie" CD Box set, and Uncle Art's Elite 2 (Frontier) Orchestral and Retrogaming Music Remakes.

Both Books - the Amiga Commpendium and the C64 Commpendium.

Both Books - the Amiga Commpendium and the C64 Commpendium.

 

Remember this from The Secret of Monkey Island?

Demoscene Postcards

A3 Poster from the cover of Another World

Shadow of the Beast 2015 Remix CD by Tim Wright

Sticker!

The full booty!

Oh yeah, I got my name in the book as an official backer!

Songs that remind me of my childhood Number 26 - The Sign (Ace of Base)

Oh my, it's been just over a year since my last "Song that reminds me of my childhood".   To make up for it, here's one that some may argue was not a song from my childhood at all.  Here's "The Sign" from Ace of Base.

I've always said that my childhood pretty much ended the day I walked out of my secondary school on Friday, June the 25th 1993 but I'm going to stretch it a little here because this song came out in October of that same year, and will forever be imprinted in my memory due to the constant air time it had on the local radio station (Essex FM) when I was doing my work experience at the Echo newspaper during my brief time at Basildon College in 1994. 

Now for me, the 90's wasn't really a great decade.  Sure, it had a few good things going for it, but for me music wasn't one of them.  During the early 90s, my interest in music was pretty much non-existent apart from listening to Erasure, Jean Michel Jarre and Mike Oldfield.  I suppose this song, and The Beloved's Sweet Harmony are the two songs that really define my musical tastes from those early years of a decade that to me will always be fondly remembered by me for playing my Amiga 500, getting my head around playing Magic (some card game) with my friend Dan, ogling over Terry Farrell (Jadzia Dax in Star Trek Deep Space Nine) and watching Noel's House Party on a Saturday evening.

Anyway, on a separate note - I do really hope to update my blog with more posts over the next couple of weeks.  Work has been considerably busy and stressful and has pretty much taken over my life.  I'm literally living and breathing servers, and computers to the point where I'm even losing sleep!  Yes I know it's not healthy, but what can I do....  It pays the bills!!!   The good news is that this time of year is usually a quiet time for us in the IT department at EHS (most of the students are either on study leave for their exams, or have left), so hopefully things will calm down for me so that I can get myself sorted again in time for the mass of work we'll be doing to the school network over the summer holiday. 

Onwards and upwards, and don't forget you can check out my other "Songs that remind me of my childhood" by clicking here.