Give me your matches, I like to burn stuff

Like being a cat person or a dog person, you're either Hallowe'en or Bonfire Night. Of course, some people are both, but most have a preference for one or the other. Hallowe'enies are extraverts who like dressing up, or those who are still nurturing their inner trick or treater, or goths, or people who love Druidical myths ("It's actually the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain..." Guy Fawkesies are those who are more interested in actual history and like pretty colours in the sky and still feel a childhood thrill of danger about going back to a lit firework*. I am of the latter camp. Saturday, we went to our local display on Wanstead Flats. We have been to it in previous years but this was the first time as a Newham council tax payer so I wanted to get my £133 a month's worth. It was a good 'un: cherry cola trails, a disintegrating phoenix, electrical weeping willow tree, all to a dystopic soundtrack of the music from War of The Worlds, Armageddon and um, Frozen.

Sunday, we went to Victoria Park. Victoria Park's used to be stupendous, with burning skeleton and robots roaming the crowds, then it ceased and now it's come back smaller, less crowded, but still cool. The theme was the Great Fire Of London and accordingly, there was a fiery tableau of 17th century London, accompanied by cannons of fire, set to a macabre spoken word soundtrack including "Ring a ring of roses, a city full of smoke, four and twenty people, all begin to choke", as well as Burning Down The House and instead of Fire Starter, another Big Beat anthem, Right Here! Right Now! It's a terrible shame that no display ever uses the little-remembered Sleeper song Pyrotechnician (I think I love you). On the other hand, Fireworks Night must be to Katy Perry as Christmas is to Shane Macgowan.

* I suppose if you examine it more closely, Guy Fawkes night is about religious intolerance, so let's draw a discreet veil over that.

Festive 50 1988 Number 34

Yesterday, I said that I don't like comedy bands. I do, however, like sly irony, which the Pooh Sticks have in spades. This song is about having all the cool records by the cool bands: Orange Juice, The Pastels, The Velvet Underground, The Seeds, The Monkees, The Ronettes - but on tape. As this was the medium that  most of my "record" collection was on at the time, I could relate. What would the modern day equivalent be, I wonder? I've got it on Spotify? I've seen it on youtube?

I like the middle 8, which references The Sun Is In The Sky by the Soup Dragons, which Martin Whitehead of Subway Recordings failed to send to his punters (later, I bought a copy when they were having a sale - presumably they found a stash in a cupboard).

The live version has the divine Amelia Fletcher riffing off the Primitives and wailing "stop killing me, you're killing me," although on this version, she's singing "I'm alright with you" - a Pastels song from '87. God, I'm such a nerd.