When I was a lad, there was not a better song than Blue Monday by New Order. It’s never to be forgotten drum beat propels me back to secondary school. But that’s a whole different ball game. I present for your delight the full 7 minute version of perhaps the greatest song of the 1980s:

This great, great song came to mind when I received a tweet from His Sweet Surprise asking me to plug his “catchy song for the summer”, Radio (When I Listen To). Call it a perk of the job. People think my opinion counts for something!
 
If the name His Sweet Surprise doesn’t ring a bell, you might remember his alter-ego Paul Gogarty. Yes, the President of the Emmet Stagg appreciation society is now a bona fide popstar. In his dreams.
 
I decided to start with the Long Wave Extended Mix and this is where New Order comes in. In listening to the opening bars, you will notice that wonderful drum beat. Here it is:

There’s even a touch of twenty first century dance going on in there. But then the surprise of the lyrics starts and you discover it makes any X-Factor cover song sound like a classic. Then I watched the video:

What can I say? Environmentally friendly as a wind up camera was used. Ian Curtis will be spinning in his grave.
 
But young GoGo isn’t the only green-tinged slightly famous politician flogging songs around the Twittersphere. Last week, I got another ‘please listen to me’ tweet. This time it was from Dan Boyle (no, not the Olympics guy. If only).

Dan eschews the electro-pop populist approach of His Sweet Surprise for the even more environmentally friendly acoustic sound which he hopes might be a good thing. He also ignores 60 years of rock history as he goes for the ‘Buddy Holly’ wobbly voice:

I think not. How many missed notes and cracked voices did I count…

Is there any solution to save our ears? Well, we could vote green and keep them far too busy so they can’t reach for a synth or a guitar….or just ignore their tweets.

(Picture: His Sweet Surprise)