If you’re a regular radio listener, there’s a chance you might have heard a track on this 1973 album.

However, I’m certain you’ve heard Apache, the instrumental track released by The Shadows which reached number one in the charts in July 1960. Aided by an echo chamber, the sound was fairly revolutionary for the time.

It was in 1973 when Michael Viner’s Incredible Bongo Band did a version that it was to be used as extensively in hip hop as it was. The sessions were brought about by Viner, an executive and artist manager at MGM Records.

When “The Thing With Two Heads” was being made by MGM a chase scene was required, along with music for the sequence. Soundtracks being Viner’s remit, he and a friend (Perry Botkin, Jr.) went into a studio to record the track. The then invented Bongo Band was a “lark” according to the pair, but the music took on a life of its own. The tracks Bongo Rock and Bongolia were released on a 7″ and to everyone’s surprise went on to sell over 2 million copies.

With the success of the singles an album was recorded in Canada, in less than a week. Viner chose the material, and said of Apache;

“I just liked it and felt that it could have been a little more rhythmatic than it was, and thought it could have used more percussion.”

The album contains a mix of original compositions, such as Bongolia, and cover versions, including (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones.

The bands version of Apache is used by many radio DJ’s as instrumental music which runs under them talking for a length of time between records. I think I first heard the Incredible Bongo Band’s version being used by John Foster on BBC Radio Cleveland, and I recall Clare Grogan using it on BBC 6 Music. Indeed, last night I heard the Grand Master Flash Remix being used on the radio.

Apache has been sampled many times since 1973 by hip-hop artists, and I’m sure I heard a new release just a few weeks ago which utilises part of the now famous release.

Waiting for some water to boil, I noticed this on the side of the pasta sauce.

“Perfect for two people looking for a bit more excitement.”

I don’t feel excited yet.

Just a quick post… In protest against the increase in fee’s payable by internet broadcasters numerous stations have gone silent for a day, including Yahoo! However, last.fm didn’t. You can decide for yourself on whether they should have or not - TechCrunch make the argument for, and last.fm against.

The majority of my listening is still via conventional long wave and medium wave, or the online streams of those stations, but internet radio can provide a nice alternative.

Ars Technica: Internet Radio “Day of Silence” hushes thousands of stations

Link: SaveNetRadio

Recently I updated my LinkedIn profile and signed up to Facebook. I’ve never been that keen on social networking - perhaps due in part to the embarrassing lack of friends and professional contacts. ;-) However, I really like last.fm because it has a clear purpose, well defined areas, a good interface and a clean design. Connections can be made on the rarest of tracks that you post a journal entry on, for example.

This weekend I noticed a few articles / posts about LinkedIn and the possibility of opening their platform to developers. This would be quite cool - several nice apps have been added to Facebook that I now use. However, some have been commenting on what Facebook can do to attract some of LinkedIn’s market. It’s an interesting discussion at the moment. Nick O’Neill points out that you can control which friends view what on Facebook now, and if this was extended to specify business and leisure relationships it could negate the need for profiles on social and professional networks.

Nick also describes how on LinkedIn there is currently an absence of distractions in user’s profiles, and opening up for applications could result in something similar to what Nicholas Deleon describes today on CrunchGear.

Facebook was started for college and university students (although now anyone can join), and LinkedIn for professionals. I really like both networks and now I have up-to-date profiles on both will continue with them. LinkedIn has my positions, competencies and other professional information, and I really like that it informs me my profile is only 25% complete, with guidance on how to improve this. Another simple but useful feature is the ability to download a profile as a PDF. Facebook has my favourite music, events, groups and so on. All the information I see when I log in relates to personal updates from friends, and the groups I belong to have great members, focussed topics and no spam.

For the foreseeable future, I definitely see my relationships and profiles remaining separate. Both are great social networks that I enjoy using. If you’re on either, you’ll find me on the links in the right hand menu.

Update: The second paragraph got a little confused and has been corrected.

A few weeks ago I saw Kate Russell mention this on Click - it’s an extension for Firefox. It makes the tabs different colours which is really handy when flicking between pages. I’ve found it especially useful in previewing changes, working with two admin panels etc.

Download ColorfulTabs for Firefox.

The default WordPress theme is very nice, in my opinion. However, I knew I’d have to theme a few WordPress blogs over the next month so coming up with something for this one seemed like a good idea.

The design was very easy to do. It’s a simple two column layout with a header and footer in CSS and XHTML. Once all the links and lists were cleared up it was a case of taking over to WordPress.

I remember trying to theme Invision Board and Mambo CMS a few years ago and it was a nightmare. The resulting code with a few changes was a mess and I never got something I could be proud of at the end of it. Working with WordPress has been an absolute pleasure today. Like Textpattern, it seems happy to let you set up a template file consisting of your own structure (or in this case, index.php, header.php, sidebar.php and footer.php) and insert the PHP code to do the hard work. All the CSS is your own and finding and fixing bugs is incredibly easy.

If only I could grasp Drupal’s template system as quickly.

Everything is simple black, grey and white. I’ve stuck to the default for most things, with a few icons from the Silk set. I thought it best to leave the sidebar (your honour) on every page, so have done that. I wanted to try something different for the sidebar bullets, but apparently Internet Explorer didn’t like the lower-greek list-style-type, so circle it is.

I’d love to know your thoughts… it’s not my favourite piece of “design”, but I guess it does the job for now. And it’s valid. Woot. 8-) The only bug seems to be WordPress strips the @ from my flickr URL in the navigation.

On Tuesday I travelled to Birmingham for Johnnie Walker’s book signing. A few weeks back Johnnie was talking on Simon Mayo’s show and although some of the great stories he told aren’t in the book, it’s still well worth finding. Having heard a few documentaries and interviews he gave about the pirates, and then being a Drive Time listener it’s a fascinating commentary.

Johnnie Walker was a DJ on Radio England and then Radio Caroline, pirate radio stations in the 60’s. (If you’ve heard Richard Allinson do the non-stop oldies on Radio 2, the jingle samples a Swinging Radio England one). The Marine Broadcasting Offences Act came in on midnight, August 14th, 1967. Walker was the DJ on air at midnight and continued broadcasting despite the act now being law, joined by the audience of Radio London who had closed earlier that day.The act made it illegal for UK companies to advertise on the stations, and eventually due to non-payment of bills the ship was towed into the Netherlands. Following that Johnnie appeared on Radio 1, some American radio, Radio 1 again, Radio 5 and Radio 2 - I think there might be more.

I started reading on the train shortly after leaving Birmingham and didn’t put it down until Durham. It’s a very captivating read, very balanced and honest and it’s really easy to envisage the setting. Reading the early chapters I surprised myself how much I sympathised with the author - I honestly couldn’t stop reading.

I’m almost half way through, around the time of Johnnie driving a van around London having come off Caroline. I giggled when I read the description of someone overtaking him in an open top Jaguar in Shephards Bush (”It’s that flash bastard Simon Dee“) having seen The Story of Light Entertainment edition on radio last year.

Johnnie Walker presents a weekly show on BBC Radio 2, covers for Terry Wogan and will be on Pirate BBC Essex this August.

To Birmingham today for a book signing at Waterstones. Never been to Birmingham before - with only a few hours I wondered around the centre and the shops for a while. (The book signing was with Johnnie Walker who has an Autobiography out).

Back of the Mailbox, Birmingham. Home of BBC WM, BBC Asian Network and BBC Radio 2, as well as the Archers and some nice shops.

Birmingham Council House

Bull Ring, Birmingham. Someone told me in the queue that this area used to be quite run down. I have to say it looks fantastic and there’s plenty of nice views over the city and the canal.

There’s a few cities I like (Newcastle, London, Southampton) and those not so much (Manchester and Cambridge). Birmingham seems a really vibrant place, there’s plenty going on and the people were all very nice. Could definately see myself living there. The only downside is the rail transport, of which many, many trains were delayed in and out of the city. The train from Newcastle is a Virgin Voyager which I still find really uncomfortable in comparison to the GNER ones on the East Coast Mainline.

A while ago I set up a few Google Alerts for the names of various towns and got a few relating to award winning Fish and Chip shops. Checking back, one of them is just down the road, and it’s easy to see (or taste!) why they are.

You get a carton full for a quid and they’re probably the best I can remember having. It makes a nice change to the flat, tasteless ones that seem to be around at the moment.

Over time I’ve used MySpace, Blogger and others for blogging, but having seen the latest version of WordPress (on which this blog runs) have decided to set-up something here. Hope you like it - please leave a comment on a post if you’ve something to say!