Getcha passports ready - the middle-aged dummies are going to the British Isles! Top 31 song countdown. (8 Viewers)

[krista4]

Is there any other resource you guys are using other than Wiki and Google to vet these? I've tried for a couple groups to find information on members but can't find anything.

I have a variety of tricks I use to try to find stuff on more obscure artists, sometimes still without success. Please just do a simple Wiki/Google and if you don't find anything, that's fine. I'll still be vetting and might find more, but if you've done that first and didn't find anything, it's a super-useful first step.

More happy news: Mumford & Sons' Marcus Mumford was born in the US, but to English parents.

Indeed happy news when I found that yesterday, unhappy news, I thought it was already known. Could have sworn I read they were A-Ok in the thread.

Coulda been here and I missed it.

 

[krista4]

The Isle of Barra, if I'm not confusing it with some other random Scottish island, is notable for its airport being basically a shed next to a beach which constitutes the runway, and is a go to place for many aviation geeks

If I see any other random trivia points I will continue to derail the thread

This is not a derailing - it's one of the best parts of these threads!

 

[krista4]

Lostprophets are partially ineligible but mostly eligible - Ilan Rubin (US) was a member from 2006-2008.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

Is there any other resource you guys are using other than Wiki and Google to vet these? I've tried for a couple groups to find information on members but can't find anything.

I think @Dr. Octopus had another resource, but that's all I've used.

I've only used Wiki and then google searches based on names from there that weren't hyperlinked. Sorry.

Luckily the lists posted already are great starts. @Eephus linked liner notes for Dire Straits earlier. There may be a site for that - or maybe that was a simple search as well.

 

[Doug B]

Luís Alberto Figueira Gonçalves Jardim disqualifies The The's 2nd album, Infected. The third release, Mind Bomb, with Johnny Marr and James Eller is good to go

Reading about Marr's career now to check something. I had no idea he was an official Pretender for a few weeks in 1987. "Hey, Omar Hakim! Slap it high!"

 

[falguy]

I think I'm just gonna pick 31 Beatles songs and call it a day.

Or hire an intern to do my vetting.

 

[Hawks64]

Is there any other resource you guys are using other than Wiki and Google to vet these? I've tried for a couple groups to find information on members but can't find anything.

I think @Dr. Octopus had another resource, but that's all I've used.

I've only used Wiki and then google searches based on names from there that weren't hyperlinked. Sorry.

Luckily the lists posted already are great starts. @Eephus linked liner notes for Dire Straits earlier. There may be a site for that - or maybe that was a simple search as well.

Hmm...there was another site that someone shared with me in the other thread when I was doing the vetting but I can't recall who it was if it wasn't you.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

I think I'm just gonna pick 31 Beatles songs and call it a day.

Or hire an intern to do my vetting.

If only you already had a list like that available?

 

[Eephus]

Is there any other resource you guys are using other than Wiki and Google to vet these? I've tried for a couple groups to find information on members but can't find anything.

I think @Dr. Octopus had another resource, but that's all I've used.

I've only used Wiki and then google searches based on names from there that weren't hyperlinked. Sorry.

Luckily the lists posted already are great starts. @Eephus linked liner notes for Dire Straits earlier. There may be a site for that - or maybe that was a simple search as well.

Discogs has a lot of credits information

 

[DrIanMalcolm]

I think I'm just gonna pick 31 Beatles songs and call it a day.

Or hire an intern to do my vetting.

Interns also have to be eligible by birth to do the vetting.

 

[Dr. Octopus]

I think I'm just gonna pick 31 Beatles songs and call it a day.

Or hire an intern to do my vetting.

Honestly most of the biggest bands/acts out there have no issues - outside of later career fillers.

 

[Doug B]

Is there any other resource you guys are using other than Wiki and Google to vet these? I've tried for a couple groups to find information on members but can't find anything.

This is not 100%, but there are sometimes magazine/blog interviews and such with musicians -- even obscure ones -- that help resolve the eligibility issue.

One I tried to figure out last night was Blockhead's drummer Charley Charles after krista posted about him yesterday. I struck out, though. Charles died in 1990 -- had he lived into the 2000s, I'd bet money some modern-day fans would've sought him out and put up some kind of interview on a blog somewhere.

(@krista4 , BTW -- in the absence of any evidence otherwise, I think we have to treat Charles as Guyanese)

 

[krista4]

Yes, I do end up using Discogs a lot for credits, but I thought (maybe incorrectly) that AAABatteries was looking for something to research where people were born.

 

[falguy]

I think I'm just gonna pick 31 Beatles songs and call it a day.

Or hire an intern to do my vetting.

Honestly most of the biggest bands/acts out there have no issues - outside of later career fillers.

Yeah, and you all saw my picks in the other thread so it won't be too much trouble for me.

 

[Doug B]

Hmm...there was another site that someone shared with me in the other thread when I was doing the vetting but I can't recall who it was if it wasn't you.

discogs or allmusic, by any chance? Those are more for credits than for our eligibility criteria, though.

EDIT: Bah - shoulda kept reading.

 

[krista4]

OK, only one list left to vet at the moment!

I'm waiting to hear from the selector on this one, as it's possible that there is a different band with the same name that's eligible. And it's also possible that the selector merely misread the name of the band's origin as "Ireland," but just in case, it appears I need to clarify that...

ICELAND IS NOT PART OF THE BRITISH ISLES

 

[krista4]

More happy news: Mumford & Sons' Marcus Mumford was born in the US, but to English parents.

Indeed happy news when I found that yesterday, unhappy news, I thought it was already known. Could have sworn I read they were A-Ok in the thread.

I just did a search for "Mumford" in this thread, and they had not been previously mentioned. Perhaps you're mixing us up with another 31 songs from the British Isles selected by middle-aged dummies thread.

 

[Doug B]

Hmm...there was another site that someone shared with me in the other thread when I was doing the vetting but I can't recall who it was if it wasn't you.

discogs or allmusic, by any chance? Those are more for credits than for our eligibility criteria, though.

EDIT: Bah - shoulda kept reading.

Actually, Allmusic may be better than I thought. You can search for individual biographies for musicians, and if you get a hit the biography section will have the artist's place of birth. I just did a quick one for one of the New Order guys, Bernard Sumner, to see.

EDIT: Checked out Roland Gift (Fine Young Cannibals), too -- I assumed he was Carribean, for some reason, but nope. Tea and crumpets all around.

 

[krista4]

OK, only one list left to vet at the moment!

I'm waiting to hear from the selector on this one, as it's possible that there is a different band with the same name that's eligible. And it's also possible that the selector merely misread the name of the band's origin as "Ireland," but just in case, it appears I need to clarify that...

ICELAND IS NOT PART OF THE BRITISH ISLES

Now I heard back from the selector. It was indeed an Ireland/Iceland mishap.

 

[krista4]

Hmm...there was another site that someone shared with me in the other thread when I was doing the vetting but I can't recall who it was if it wasn't you.

discogs or allmusic, by any chance? Those are more for credits than for our eligibility criteria, though.

EDIT: Bah - shoulda kept reading.

Actually, Allmusic may be better than I thought. You can search for individual biographies for musicians, and if you get a hit the biography section will have the artist's place of birth. I just did a quick one for one of the New Order guys, Bernard Sumner, to see.

Sometimes they have the place of birth, but very often they do not.

 

[Doug B]

Sometimes they have the place of birth, but very often they do not.

Yeah, there will be some misses. I just checked out Charley Charles over there ... they had his place of death (London, UK), but not his place of birth. I guess you get what you pay for.

 

[Eephus]

I just did a quick one for one of the New Order guys, Bernard Sumner, to see.

Another guy who was in a band with Johnny Marr.

 

[Eephus]

EDIT: Checked out Roland Gift (Fine Young Cannibals), too -- I assumed he was Carribean, for some reason, but nope. Tea and crumpets all around.

That's a Good Thing

 

[Doug B]

I just did a quick one for one of the New Order guys, Bernard Sumner, to see.

Another guy who was in a band with Johnny Marr.

Johnny Marr and Aynsley Dunbar both have Bacon numbers <2 with most of the music industry.

 

[krista4]

Sometimes they have the place of birth, but very often they do not.

Yeah, there will be some misses. I just checked out Charley Charles over there ... they had his place of death (London, UK), but not his place of birth. I guess you get what you pay for.

Well, yeah. I had already looked him up there.

 

[Yankee23Fan]

I think I'm just gonna pick 31 Beatles songs and call it a day.

Or hire an intern to do my vetting.

I started there

 

[Gr00vus]

So this is the top 31 songs by acts from Zanzibar, right?

 

[Don Quixote]

EDIT: Checked out Roland Gift (Fine Young Cannibals), too -- I assumed he was Carribean, for some reason, but nope. Tea and crumpets all around.

Maybe someone can top my three straight songs with “crazy” in the title from the US artists one.

 

[Doug B]

The book Rock Obituaries: Knocking On Heaven's Door appears to be searchable through books.google.com. There is an entry for Charley Charles, so it seems to go fairly deep. No new information on Charles' origins, though.

 

[falguy]

vetting.com and vetmaster.com were of no use. FYI.

 

[Doug B]

If we get desparate: UK vital records

 

[Doug B]

So ... do ANY of y'all know anything about Charley Charles? Yeah, the drummer for The Blockheads.

EDIT: This site actually has a chat function, so I figured "what the hey":


Hello and thanks for getting in touch with us! What can we help you with today?

Do you know who Charley Charles is? The drummer for the band Ian Drury and The Blockheads?

General Register Office is connecting you with a live agent.

He was born in Guyana and I am trying to find out if his parents were English citizens living in Guyana, or else were his parents Guyanese

His birthname is Hugh Glenn Mortimer Charles, born in 1945

I don't know his exact birth date, though


EDIT2: It's past 5:30 in Georgetown, Guyana ... I don't know if I'm going to get a response

 

[timschochet]

OK just sent you my list.

 

[simey]

Sometimes they have the place of birth, but very often they do not.

Yeah, there will be some misses. I just checked out Charley Charles over there ... they had his place of death (London, UK), but not his place of birth. I guess you get what you pay for.

I only saw that he was born in Guyana and immigrated to England when he was 14. He served in the British Army for 6 years, and then started being in bands for the rest of his life.

 

[simey]

I don't know his exact birth date, though

May 17, 1945

 

[Dr. Octopus]

I think I'm just gonna pick 31 Beatles songs and call it a day.

Or hire an intern to do my vetting.

Honestly most of the biggest bands/acts out there have no issues - outside of later career fillers.

Yeah, and you all saw my picks in the other thread so it won't be too much trouble for me.

You won’t be alone - there’s bands we all know will see heavy representation, as they should.

 

[simey]

You won’t be alone - there’s bands we all know will see heavy representation as they should.

Dr. O, did you see that Charlie Watts widow, Shirley, died last Friday?

 

[Dr. Octopus]

You won’t be alone - there’s bands we all know will see heavy representation as they should.

Dr. O, did you see that Charlie Watts widow, Shirley, died last Friday?

Oh no, I did not. Obviously sad but it’s nice on some level they didn’t go so far apart.

 

[simey]

You won’t be alone - there’s bands we all know will see heavy representation as they should.

Dr. O, did you see that Charlie Watts widow, Shirley, died last Friday?

Oh no, I did not. Obviously sad but it’s nice on some level they didn’t go so far apart.

That's what I was thinking. They had a nice love story.

 

[Eephus]

I strongly suspect Charley Charles will be ineligible. The Black population of the UK was minuscule prior to WWII. It increased dramatically after that due to the Windrush generation of immigrants from the Caribbean and African colonies. It's unlikely that Charles' parents in British Guyana would have been UK citizens in 1945.

 

[Eephus]

Good news: I had a lovely walk with Lou this morning listening to some of my all-time favorite music.
Bad news: My long list has grown out of control.

 

[krista4]

Guys, I ruled Charley Charles ineligible a day ago (pending any evidence to the contrary), and the selector sent me a replacement pick many hours ago. I think we can let Mr. Charles rest in peace.

 

[Eephus]

Guys, I ruled Charley Charles ineligible a day ago (pending any evidence to the contrary), and the selector sent me a replacement pick many hours ago. I think we can let Mr. Charles rest in peace.

It just figures he was a drummer

 

[Doug B]

Guys, I ruled Charley Charles ineligible a day ago (pending any evidence to the contrary), and the selector sent me a replacement pick many hours ago. I think we can let Mr. Charles rest in peace.

I just sent the Guyanese records folks Charles' birthdate (thanks, simey!) and a return email for me

I wish they'd ask "What's this for?" "Um ... online music draft. Y'know ... serious business."

 

[krista4]

I don't want to pick on anyone, but here's an example of something that is extremely unhelpful to me.

As I mentioned, when your list comes in, I'll ask you the following questions:

1. Have you or anyone you know checked your list against the ineligibles and partial ineligibles listed in post #3 PLUS checked any other bands not listed there? If not, please do so before returning to this PM.
If yes to #1:
2. Have you or anyone you know checked your list to ensure it is in song title then artist name format?
If yes to #2:
3. Have you or anyone you know checked your list to ensure that your your favorite of the 31 songs is at the top of your list, and the songs are in descending order of preference from there?

I don't care who you are or how much I "trust" that you have vetted, I'm still going to ask those questions.

When the answer to the first question is "I checked [names of two bands] and I don't think there's anything else even questionable," then that's neither the "yes" answer I requested nor is it useful.

And it's even less helpful when I scan down your list and immediately find one that is ineligible. Like, not even "what about Charley Charles" ineligible but "literally every member is an American" ineligible.

 

[krista4]

Guys, I ruled Charley Charles ineligible a day ago (pending any evidence to the contrary), and the selector sent me a replacement pick many hours ago. I think we can let Mr. Charles rest in peace.

I just sent the Guyanese records folks Charles' birthdate (thanks, simey!) and a return email for me

I wish they'd ask "What's this for?" "Um ... online music draft. Y'know ... serious business."

In the US one, I was looking at a band's website and they had a "contact us" link (obviously this was not a well-known band), and I figured hell, I'll send them a note to ask. I never heard back from them.

 

[Leroy Hoard]

OK, only one list left to vet at the moment!

I'm waiting to hear from the selector on this one, as it's possible that there is a different band with the same name that's eligible. And it's also possible that the selector merely misread the name of the band's origin as "Ireland," but just in case, it appears I need to clarify that...

ICELAND IS NOT PART OF THE BRITISH ISLES

Now I heard back from the selector. It was indeed an Ireland/Iceland mishap.

This makes Baby Bjork cry.

 

[Doug B]

In the US one, I was looking at a band's website and they had a "contact us" link (obviously this was not a well-known band), and I figured hell, I'll send them a note to ask. I never heard back from them.

I figured the Guyanese records drone on the other end could've been Charley Charles grand-niece or something -- and wouldn't that have been a fun little story?

 

[Don Quixote]

Guys, I ruled Charley Charles ineligible a day ago (pending any evidence to the contrary), and the selector sent me a replacement pick many hours ago. I think we can let Mr. Charles rest in peace.

I just sent the Guyanese records folks Charles' birthdate (thanks, simey!) and a return email for me

I wish they'd ask "What's this for?" "Um ... online music draft. Y'know ... serious business."

Could send an email to the folks at https://charleycharles.com Maybe offer to buy a scarf if they can help you out.

 

[Hawks64]

Is there any other resource you guys are using other than Wiki and Google to vet these? I've tried for a couple groups to find information on members but can't find anything.

I think @Dr. Octopus had another resource, but that's all I've used.

I've only used Wiki and then google searches based on names from there that weren't hyperlinked. Sorry.

Luckily the lists posted already are great starts. @Eephus linked liner notes for Dire Straits earlier. There may be a site for that - or maybe that was a simple search as well.

Discogs has a lot of credits information

That's the one I recalled.

More happy news: Mumford & Sons' Marcus Mumford was born in the US, but to English parents.

Indeed happy news when I found that yesterday, unhappy news, I thought it was already known. Could have sworn I read they were A-Ok in the thread.

I just did a search for "Mumford" in this thread, and they had not been previously mentioned. Perhaps you're mixing us up with another 31 songs from the British Isles selected by middle-aged dummies thread.

Well, my memory sucks But glad they are eligible.