Daily Mail On Top Form

From The Daily Mail:

Malcolm Young (pictured) had to make the decision to retire in September when he couldn't remember the song anymore, due to dementia...

It was essentially Malcolm who decided the band's fate and insisted the band 'keep making music' but they were able to keep it in the family when they hired Stevie Young, the pair's nephew, to replace him. He had played with the band before, on a tour in 1988.

It was then AC/DC stayed together and put out their next album - their first without Malcolm on bass - entitled Rock Or Bust.

Very sad.

But of course, none of AC/DC's albums officially featured Malcolm Young on bass as he always played the rhythm guitar.

Let's see how long it takes the DM to rectify this :-)

Battleship

I took my little lad and one of my big lads to see this film.

As per usual, all those film reviews which gave it one or two stars turned out to be very reliable - the film was AWESOME.

It was about 50% Transformers, 30% Independence Day, and 5% Mars Attacks. They filmed it on the scene of Pearl Harbour, the aliens borrowed the protective shield from the last Harry Potter film and/or War Of The Worlds, the injured veteran was using Gary Sinise's artificial legs from Forrest Gump and to round things off the old guys from the Crimson Permanent Assurance hi-jacked their own ship and saved the day, one of whom was a foul mouthed old yob like the butler in Arthur.

The list goes on: there was a football match between sworn enemies like Escape to Victory, the blonde love interest was basically Kelly McGillis out of Top Gun, it had a female American popstar (Rihanna) in it like Austin Powers in Goldmember (which had Beyoncé), and like Iron Man 2, the soundtrack had two songs by AC/DC, only they used two good ones, "Hard as a rock" and "Thunderstruck".

And so on and so forth. we're still trying to work out which film the two geeks on the mountain were from, Wayne's World, perhaps? Funniest of all is one of the key scenes was towards the end where they are firing at random using grid co-ordinates, like in the good old fashioned game "Battleships" (upon which the Hasbro game is based and in turn on which the film is loosely based).

Short Lists

Ho hum. This morning's short list was "AC/DC songs named after a type of fish".

Former Tory got the obvious one, "C.O.D." straight off. The others I can think of are "The Jack" (from the albums "TNT", "High Voltage" and "If You Want Blood, You've Got It") and "Big Jack" (from their recent album "Black Ice"), 'jack' being the popular name for several species of fish. Was it really that difficult?

So let's try an easier one: "Popes who named themselves after members of The Beatles".

Short Lists

I've not done one of these for a while, so today's Short List is "AC/DC songs named after a type of fish". How many can you think of?

Short lists

Songs by Bob Dylan and AC/DC which had the same title

1. Shot of love (points to EKTWP)
2. Baby, please don't go (double points EKTWP for most obscure one of all time)
3. Are you ready (Bob Dylan, AC/DC).

Next list: Soviet leaders against whom a coup d'état was mounted while they were on holiday at a Black Sea resort.

Short Lists

Famous people who shot somebody 'by mistake' (exclude accidental suicides)

1. Dick Cheney (submitted by Ross)

2. Willie Whitelaw (Jer)

3. William S Burroughs (DBC Reed)

4. Ashley Cole (The 23)

5. Charlie Sheen (belated entry by Joseph Takagi)

Next short list: Songs by Bob Dylan and AC/DC which had the same title

Click and highlight to reveal clue: Both of the Bob Dylan songs I'm thinking of were from his 'Christian' albums

AC/DC: Black Ice

Out next week some time, most of the songs are already on YouTube.

Track listing (wait for it) ... Rock'n'roll train; Skies on fire; Big Jack; Anything goes; War machine; Smash'n'grab; Spoilin' for a fight; Wheels; Decibel; Stormy May Day; She likes rock'n'roll; Rock'n'roll dream; Rocking all the way*; Black ice ...

... but the best bit of the promo video (about 20 seconds in) is this: "Will be sold exclusively at Wal-Mart and Sam's Club". I have no idea who Sam's Club are**, but I do know that Wal-Mart are much hated in leftie circles ("Wot? Cheap goods for lower income people? Jobs for semi-skilled workers? Trade not aid? Pah!"). For $11.88 ("Wot? An evening's entertainment for under twelve bucks? Do they know how much an opera ticket costs nowadays? Pah!"). 

The State of Maryland once went so far as to enact a punitive law that only applied to Wal-Mart, which was thankfully ruled 'not enforceable' by District Judge Motz***, decision affirmed by the US Court of Appeals For The Fourth Circuit a year later, Judge Michael dissenting.

* On a pedantic note, why the "g" at the end of that particular present participle? And why do the official song titles miss the apostrophe after the "n" in the word "and"? Ah well, who cares...

** JP point out in the comments, Sam's Club is part of Wal Mart

*** 'Motz' is German for 'whine' or 'moan', which adds yet another level of hilarity.