The song was originally written by Randy Newman for Eric Burden for his first solo album in 1966. The three Dog Night version is a funky and chaotic arrangement.

Three Dog Night – Mama told me not to come

In 1981, before The Spice Girls and their limp squeal for ‘girl power’, there was Grace Jones.

Grace Jones had more ‘girl power’ than any other female performer, and was 110% more scary than Scary Spice – that’s the real one, not the Bo Selecta version.  Do you remember the assault on the late Russell Harty?  What great live television.

Pull Up To The Bumper is Grace Jones at her funky best, and the promo video shows off her elegance and that brilliant shuffle that beats Michael Jackson’s moonwalk every time.

I have fond memories of my childhood. There were some great music and television programmes when I was growing up in the 1970’s. One of the highlights of each school summer holiday was the extra children’s programmes on BBC each weekday morning. As well as the very British Why Don’t You, there was more chaotic and exciting American shows such as The Banana Splits and the wonderful Sesame Street.

In 1973 Stevie Wonder made a guest appearance on Sesame Street and the show included a live performance of my favourite Stevie Wonder track, Superstition. Now, this was at a time when I was listening to the likes of Gary Glitter, Slade and Sweet; and suddenly I was confronted with a musician who was appreciated and loved by my older brothers and sisters. But it wasn’t Little Stevie Wonder’s voice, song or keyboard playing that kept a young boy of nine mesmorised, but the cool sound of the wah-wah funky guitar.

The performance was fantastic, and like the street funky wah-wah guitar in Ike & Tina Turner’s classic Nutbush City Limits, has remained as fresh today as it was in 1973 when Stevie Wonder mixed it up with Big Bird, Grover and the letters F-U-N-K and Y!

Stevie Wonder rarely performs live nowadays but with his forthcoming European Tour many people will be remembering songs such as Superstition, You Are The Sunshine Of My Life and He’s Mistra Know It All from his classic 1970’s albums like Inner Visions and Songs In The Key Of Life; as well as his later pop hits I Just Called To Say I Love You and Happy Birthday, the song he released to celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King.

You can buy Stevie Wonder Tickets for all European concerts on the tour.

The UK leg of the forthcoming European Tour will see Stevie Wonder playing two nights in Birmingham and Manchester, and three nights at the O2 Arena in London before heading off to play concerts in Holland, Germany, Italy and France.

European Music Events

You can now buy Coldplay Tickets for their forthcoming live concerts in the UK and rest of Europe, as well as all other major music events from Viagogo.

Viagogo is a safe place to buy and sell 100% guaranteed genuine Madonna Tickets.

Here is a rare treat, especially if this is your favourite David Bowie track, too.

According to YouTube this was filmed on 2nd February 1976 during final dress rehearsals for the opening night of the Station To Station world tour, at the Pacific National Exhibition Coliseum, Vancouver, Canada.

If anyone has any doubts how good YouTube is, here’s your answer. David Bowie looks cool and he and the band sound great.

While Joy Division and New Order were always the most popular and most commercially successful bands on Tony Wilson’s Manchester based FactoryRecords label, I always loved the white funk of A Certain Ratio (ACR), so it was with great anticipation and excitement that I watched them perform live on The Tube on Channel 4 in 1985.

How Wild Party was not a big hit for them, I shall never know.

ACR are still together and you can listen to other classic tracks like The Fox, Do The Du and Shack Up on the official ACR MySpace page.