Mac and cheese.

Not sure where this was meant to go really. Just a few odds and sods. Sorry.

Interesting things are happening in some music circles and I can’t explain all of them. For instance I would never in all the time in the world have thought I’d take a shine to a highly unlikely collaboration between Sting and Shaggy. Their new single ‘Don’t Make Me Wait’ is utterly charming and it just shouldn’t be. To understand how surprised I am you should bear in mind that I have spent many years harbouring quite dark thoughts about both men.

The last time I saw Sting was on the Graham Norton show and he was wearing a see through vest. He is a man of such abundant vanity I’m surprised he could walk through the wide open doors of a cathedral without scraping the sides of his head. He’s got a lovely voice though. Shaggy on the other hand seems like quite a nice chap but he has a singing voice that recalls a waste disposal unit trying to tackle a bag of walnuts. Anyway, it works, that single. You should give it a try.

Also interesting is that Fleetwood Mac have apparently sacked the most creative person that ever ran through their ranks: the quite incomparable Mr Lindsey Buckingham. It is almost impossible to imagine the band becoming even slightly as successful as they did (the second time around, that is) without him and they should also remember that the last time he formally left, just after ‘Tango in the Night’ in 1987, their subsequent recorded output turned to shit painfully quickly. No doubt he can probably be a bit brittle and demanding as a band mate but then he has the luxury of knowing that he holds most of the good cards.

Fortunately I didn’t buy any tickets for Fleetwood Mac’s approaching tour. If I had I would have sold them on because the idea of replacing Lindsey Buckingham with Tim Finn from Crowded House and Mike Campbell from The Heartbreakers (sans Tom Petty) is just daft. OK, so Crowded House were one of the better bands from New Zealand but that’s no ringier an endorsement than saying that The Proclaimers are one of the better bands from Scotland. As for Campbell taking over on guitar: well that’s like replacing Jimmy Page with George Formby.

And the reason I didn’t get tickets in the first place is because I had to divert the substantial funds required to buy tickets for The Rolling Stones. Fleetwood Mac at their best aren’t far from being one of the greatest bands of all time but in the end there will never be a rock and roll outfit quite as awesome as The Stones in their purple patch. Not only were they musically above all the rest they also practically invented the idea of the rock and roll band. The look, the hair, the poses, the hooks, the attitude, the stage presence. Show me any other decent band and their little tricks and I’ll show you the Rolling fucking Stones. They also have Keith Richards; a man who is to music as God is to religion.

So, needless to say I’m getting a tiny bit excited though there’s still a bit of a wait. And of course I’m more than happy to admit that they’re a bit ropey these days, as well as getting very old, but then nowhere in the music rule book does it say you have to retire early. Miles Davis was still going and if it’s good enough for him then it’s good enough for me. Anyway all you really need to know is that for roughly their first 15 years the Stones were a great bloody band and for about 6 of those they were the best that music has ever had to offer. Perhaps only Dylan and The Beach Boys come close. Oh, you stopped reading half way through the first paragraph. Oh well.

G B Hewitt. 12.04.2018