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Monday, April 26, 2010

MUSIC FOR THE MASSES

Online backing for Tina Turner’s song “The Best” pushed the 1980s recording into the UK Top Ten at the weekend.

It’s a song favoured by Rangers’ football fans. Supporters of their Old Firm rivals, Celtic were pushing online for “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” the Gerry and The Pacemakers’ hit from 19-oatcake.

Both are good songs but it got me thinking as to how – and why – do fans target particular tunes and make them their own unofficial club anthems. I support Scottish Cup finalists, Dundee United and their fans, the Arabs, love songs by John Paul Young and Daniel Boone – yes, that’s right, John Paul Young and Daniel Boone. No not tracks from United fan, Ricky Ross and his band Deacon Blue but John Paul Young and Daniel Boone.

Who are they, you may well ask?

It turns out that John Paul Young is an Australian pop singer-songwriter who had a 1978 worldwide hit with "Love Is in the Air" while Daniel Boone was a one-hit wonder with the 1972 single "Beautiful Sunday."

You’ll agree neither is a household name, like Tina Turner, but their songs are belted out great style by the Tannadice faithful. I have failed to find out just why, out of millions and squillions of pop songs, the tangerine and black clad United fans picked these tunes.

The lyrics have no obvious sporting references nor are they adulterated rudely or controversially, as has happened with other terracing offerings. The words have not been altered, unlike, for example, those in “Knees Up Mother Brown” which have been amended to “Who Ate All The Pies?” which many fans direct at seemingly overweight players performing in front of them. Other popular tunes have been crudely changed and I certainly won’t repeat them here.

Having joined in the United singing many a time, I do like these two songs for what they are, jolly singalongs. “Love Is In The Air” even appeared on the playlist during our wedding festivities. Well, it did suit the occasion.

Don't know if John Paul and Daniel are aware of their popularity among the United support. Maybe they'll pick up on it online - or via this blog offering.

Thursday, April 08, 2010

BECAUSE IT'S TIME, I'LL LEARN ONLINE

With great anticipation I will be attending a social media for business course next week. I will be a rookie.

OK, I Tweet and Facebook, I’ve got my Google Alerts, I blog and I have used social media for clients and their PR, and so on. And I have attended various seminars that have been hugely interesting but, equally, baffling. Not, I must add, because the speakers weren’t good, far from it.

But, clearly, I am nowhere near an expert and that makes learning more essential. After all, I struggle to put links into my blog text properly (hopefully this effort will prove me wrong.)

On the web, there is wall-to-wall expertise, mostly free, too. Some of the information is riveting, some too geeky for me, but it all goes to show that social media/digital media, call it what you will, isn’t going away in a hurry.

The thing I really like about Twitter, for example, is the willingness of clued-up people to share their tips or, the pitfalls, the etiquette and the dos and don’ts. I am way behind when it comes to guidance and reference points.

Already, I have been grateful to the likes of Craig McGill at www.contently-managed.com and Michelle Rodger at www.brazenuk.com for many snippets of invaluable instruction and help selflessly supplied. Indeed, all of those I follow on Twitter amaze me with the links they readily and gleefully put up.

Some day, I hope to be equally informative and helpful to anyone logging on to my blog or following me on Twitter or elsewhere. At the moment, however, through lack of knowledge, I wouldn’t feel confident to advise anyone too closely.

So, in the interests of making a start, I am pleased to reveal that next week’s course is organised by Glasgow Opportunities GO Group http://www.go.uk.com whose personnel were hugely efficient in arranging for a 50 per cent fee reduction.

The day-long event is being led by Kyle MacRae http://blethermedia.com/ whose reputation is deservedly very high in this field.

I just hope I don’t end up wearing the dunce cap with a capital “D” at the end of it.