2010 A Review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 510,000 times in 2010. If it were an exhibit at The Louvre Museum, it would take 22 days for that many people to see it.

In 2010, there were 428 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 1078 posts.

The busiest day of the year was March 17th with 4 views. The most popular post that day was Imelda May – Rockabilly Lives.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were expectingrain.com, thevinylvillain.blogspot.com, sonstrust.wordpress.com, search.aol.com, and facebook.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for the runaways, meg white, led zeppelin iii, runaways, and carole king.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Imelda May – Rockabilly Lives July 2009

2

The Runaways December 2009
2 comments

3

Tapestry – Carole King April 2009

4

More Ray LaMontagne October 2008

5

Past Masters September 2009
1 comment

Thanks for dropping in and I hope you will find something of interest in 2011.

In the meantime………………be lucky.

HD

New Years Day

Best wishes to you all for 2011.

Helpless Dancer will return on 10th January 2011.

Be lucky !!!

“Next Year, Baby” – Jamie Cullum

Next Year,
Things are gonna change,
Gonna drink less beer
And start all over again
Gonna pull up my socks
Gonna clean my shower
Not gonna live by the clock
But get up at a decent hour
Gonna read more books
Gonna keep up with the news
Gonna learn how to cook
And spend less money on shoes
Pay my bills on time
File my mail away, everyday
Only drink the finest wine
And call my Gran every Sunday
Resolutions
Well Baby they come and go
Will I do any of these things?
The answer’s probably no
But if there’s one thing, I must do,
Despite my greatest fears
I’m gonna say to you
How I’ve felt all of these years
Next Year, Next Year, Next Year
I gonna tell you, how I feel
Well, resolutions
Baby they come and go
Will I do any of these things?
The answer’s probably no
But if there’s one thing, I must do,
Despite my greatest fears
I’m gonna say to you
How I’ve felt all of these years
Next Year, Next Year, Next Year

To buy the music of Jamie Cullum click HERE

Fiona with Blue

Cover Story – Diane Birch

Having won my “Song of the Year” for 2010 Diane Birch caught me out with the sudden release,  of a seven track EP featuring all cover versions as a tribute to the music she loved growing up, music she heard via the older sisters of her friends, movies and other sources that were already nostalgic in the mid 90′s for the era that was the 80′s.

For this release Diane  has teamed with fellow New Yorkers and “astronauts of progressive soul” (Guardian UK) the Phenomenal Handclap Band to record ‘The Velveteen Age.’

 As such she has put her own seductive spin on songs by The Cure, Joy Division, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Echo & The Bunnymen, This Mortal Coil, The Sisters of Mercy and Peter Murphy.

 ‘The Velveteen Age’ was produced by S-Curve’s Steve Greenberg and Phenomenal Handclap Band’s Daniel Collás and Sean Marquand, and mixed by Steve Greenwell. Birch contributed arrangements with Collas and Marquand, and played all keyboards.

‘THE VELVETEEN’ AGE TRACKLIST:
This Corrosion (Sisters of Mercy)

Kiss Them For Me (Siouxsie & The Banshees)
Bring On The Dancing Horses (Echo & The Bunnymen)
Atmosphere (Joy Division) Primary (The Cure)
Tarantula (This Mortal Coil)
A Strange Kind of Love (Peter Murphy)

Diane Birch with The Phenomenal Handclap Band
Produced by Steve Greenberg, Daniel Collás & Sean Marquand
Arranged by Diane Birch, Daniel Collás & Sean Marquand
Diane Birch – Vocals and Keyboards
Luke Riverside – Guitar
Pier Pappalardo – Bass
Patrick Wood – Drums
Quinn Luke & Patrick Wood – Backing vocals

“During my teenage years as a Goth these songs were amongst my nearest and dearest,” says Birch, who appears in one of her vintage Victorian wedding dresses at age 16 in the photo on the EP cover. “Sitting in my bedroom with my headphones pressed into my ears till they hurt, each song gave me a weird kind of hope for my future. I would have never imagined I would get a chance to record them one day, let alone with some of my closest friends.”

To buy the EP click HERE which I would recommend if only for her haunting take on Joy Division’s “Atmosphere”