tell you that you're eighty, but brother you won't care

howdy pop pickers

just earlier this week (as opposed to later next) i had an episode with the radio. or moment, or indeed incident, look you see, whichever is the appropriate wording. this is something which i have noted occurs with greater frequency as i make do with whatever time i have left in this world. taking as a given that the only radio station left which plays a decent music mix and does not have too many annoying ads (just promos for their own stuff) is Radio 2, increasingly i am becoming aware of why having a CD player in any sort of vehicle is important. 

it would be normal for these episodes to feature specific djs (or presenters, or whatever they call themselves these days. influencers, probably. mostly, it happens when Zoe Ball is testing the patience of her employment on the basis of "well, you all said anything would be better than Chris Evans", or when that renowned Alan Partridge parody act, Jeremy Vine, elects to discuss a subject which he is ill equipped to do. sure, there's also those minor incidents if it happens to be one of the twelve (12) weeks of the year that Steve Wright isn't on holiday and is in the mood to sing the songs "better" than the original artist. and on the same note, when they decide that someone like Craig Charles is a perfect, like for like stand in for Steve Wright (who apparently needs a lot of holidays) and he bombards audiences with his raga boombastic funk overload. 

this incident (episode, or whatever) was not related to the above. as it happens, it happened on the show hosted by the nice lady who is on after five (5), or her equally nice stand in. anyway, she asked someone or other who had called in, for some reason which escapes me , if they knew what was the number one single forty years ago this week. 

as the person what phoned in hummed and haaaa-ed about what it could be, so to did i. mostly i was trying to work out when forty years ago was. before i could work it out, the nice, non-Zoe, non-Jeremy, non-singing mode Steve said that it was Ashes To Ashes by David Bowie. i said no, that can't be right, that was number one in 1980, not forty years ag.....oh, fu.....dge (or similar), 1980 was indeed forty years ago, now that i think. 

maybe this Einstein fellow had a thing with his "theory of relativity" stuff. distances away from time do feel all so weird and disjointed, non-linear if you like. for me the 80s feel really, really close (and that might i yield be down to my preference for what music i listen to), the 90s a distant, long time ago mostly forgotten memory, and did the 00s even happen. or some of the 10s. surely it is not me who experiences such distortions, but with my limited social circle (according to someone i know, no one actually likes me, quite the opposite as point of fact) i really rarely have the margin to discuss such things. hence me writing here. 

so, Ashes To Ashes. i am publishing this incident or episode here and now, for at the time of this appearing "live" on the internet (whatever that is), this is the very last day (by GMT) (and that monk made calendar) that the single was number one. it was toppled, at the least, by a splendid song by an exceptional band. 

whether famously or infamously, Ashes To Ashes of course had all sorts of connotations. of relevance here, however, is that it was the at the time second number one single off of Bowie. the only other (that i am aware of) was Space Oddity, so of course, ha ha ha, Bowie only got to number one when he sang of Major Tom (until Let's Dance etc). 

did i do anything special to commemorate the impromptu yet factual 40th anniversary celebrations of Ashes To Ashes being a number one single? back in the days when the charts meant something, for they were based on sales and not theoretical assumptions pertaining to "streaming"? not really. well, yes, the radio got turned up a few notches, and indeed i did sing along with the song, since they did play it on the radio after the previously mentioned exchange between radio show host and person calling in. no, it was not me calling in. 

right, time, either reading this or writing it, is probably better spent listening to Bowie. if that sentence makes any sense, which i think it does. kind of. oh. 

be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!