It’s that time again, when I remind you of all the things I threw at you last month. We may have had a heatwave here but at least I managed to find the energy to keep up with my usual schedule: thirteen posts in all. In case you missed any, this is what you got.

As is usual for me, the majority of those posts were music-based: nine of the thirteen, to be precise. Amongst the remainder was the previous monthly review. It wasn’t the first post of the month, but a close second. It was Bye Bye June, which was the regular set of links to that month’s offerings, rounded off by a song by June Tabor and Oysterband. See the slight cheat in the connection?

The reason for that second place is that I had already shared my first of five Tuesday Tunes posts for June, in the shape of Tuesday Tunes 206: More Great Intros. As the title suggests, this was another in my occasional series of tunes with recognisable intros, with music provided by Men At Work, Pink Floyd, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Guns N’ Roses, and The Beatles. Some of my usual suspects in that set!

Rather conveniently for me, and with absolutely no planning (as if!) the next week’s was my 1,000th post, which I duly marked with Tuesday Tunes 207: One Thousand Up 🥂, and a set of tunes with ‘thousand’ in their title. These came from Bobby Vee, The Pogues, Traffic, The Shires, and Tenpole Tudor. That’s how to celebrate a milestone: a set of largely unfamiliar songs! It seemed to go well, though, as it was the post which garnered the most ‘likes’ last month.

For the next two Tuesdays I marked the anniversary of the Live Aid concerts from July 1985. The first of these was in Tuesday Tunes 208: Live Aid, which concentrated on the UK event at Wembley Stadium, and included some of the sets by Status Quo, Dire Straits, Elton John with Kiki Dee, Paul McCartney and friends, the amazing full set by Queen, a later reprise by Freddie Mercury and Brian May, and then the final communal singalong to Do They Know It’s Christmas? A fantastic way to spend ten hours in front of the TV!

I followed up with Tuesday Tunes 209: Live Aid USA, which did exactly what it said on the tin. This one wasn’t quite so easy, as the range and quality of official videos from the Philadelphia show was a bit lacking, and I had to resort to playing a couple from feeds of the show in the Antipodes. That was true of the first two, which started with both songs played by The Hooters and then one of the set by Crosby Stills and Nash. After those the official ones kicked in, with songs by Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers, Phil Collins, Mick Jagger with Tina Turner, The Cars, and I followed the previous week’s post in closing with the show’s finale, the assorted acts that were USA For Africa, with We Are The World. I declined to comment on that last one, and for the sake of decency and propriety I think I should do that again now.

For the final one of the month I began another pair, for another trip into the realms of the big charity events with the 2005 Live 8 Concerts. This started with Tuesday Tunes 210: Live 8 UK, and there will be a corresponding follow up next week. For this week, the music came from Paul McCartney with U2, U2 on their own, Scissor Sisters, R.E.M, The Killers, Paul McCartney with George Michael, and I closed my piece (though it was actually the penultimate performance in the show) with the full set played by Pink Floyd. I explained why that was so special for me, and if you haven’t seen it do take a look: it is only a couple of days old but so far this is the post with the least traffic for the month and it would be good to see more visits and likes!

The other four music posts were, of course, my contributions to Song Lyric Sunday. The first of these in June was Song Lyric Sunday: I See A Red Door, in which I followed the invitation to play songs with great drumming by playing a Rolling Stones track driven by the power of the late, great Charlie Watts, and added in a new video by the Mongolian band The Hu, who are simply astonishing.

The following week we were playing a song with a great bass line. I went with Song Lyric Sunday: Plucked Her Eyebrows On The Way, which I’m sure you recognise as a line from an iconic song by Lou Reed, and then for good measure I added in a Beach Boys song on which the bass was played by the legendary Carol Kaye, along with her colleagues from the session musicians known as the Wrecking Crew.

Jim closed his trip around the band’s instruments the following week with songs that featured a great guitar riff. I went with Song Lyric Sunday: Get Your Motor Runnin’ – again you probably recognise the Steppenwolf song from which I took that. I couldn’t resist playing a couple more, one each from The Kinks and Derek and the Dominos.

For the final one of the month we were asked to play a song that began with the first letter of our surname. This gave me Song Lyric Sunday: P For Persuasion, and the chance to play a stunningly beautiful song by Richard and Teddy Thompson. I gave you a live performance, the studio recording, and just for good measure I also dropped in the instrumental version which started it off when it featured as part of a movie soundtrack.

That just leaves three more to complete the set. The first of these is one that was kicking around in my head when I wrote the piece marking my 1,000th post, as this meant for me that I had in my head an advertising jingle from way back in my childhood. This duly became 1001 And Other Ads, in which I played some fun ads from the early days of there being a TV in our house. The first was, of course, for 1001 carpet cleaner, which I contrasted with a 1997 ad for the same product. I also found some 1950s and 60s ads for Walls Ice Cream, Stork margarine, Esso Extra petrol, Frosties (a bit of a cheat, as they imported an American ad and just put a UK voiceover on it!), Heinz Baked Beans, Cadbury’s Fruit and Nut and Dairy Milk. Nostalgia reigned!

I then went for one of my occasional series, in the shape of Friday Funnies 7: Sitcoms. No prizes for guessing what this was about! I concentrated on British and Irish shows, and played clips from Steptoe And Son, Fawlty Towers, Mrs Brown’s Boys, Father Ted, and then closed with a trio from one of the best episodes of Only Fools And Horses. I got a lot of laughs from this one, even though I have seen them all multiple times, and it seems you enjoyed them too.

The remaining post is one where I went with John Holton’s Writer’s Workshop for my prompt, in this case to write about the first sporting event I attended. This came out as The First Time, in which I recalled my first visit to watch a football match, and it gave me the opportunity to reminisce about my wonderful Dad, who introduced me to so many things in life even when, as with football, he wasn’t really interested in them himself but felt he should give his son the chance to enjoy them. He nurtured what has become a lifelong love for the game, and it also enabled me to recall a moment that went down in family legend.

So, that was my July. At this point I usually play you a tune around the month’s name, or perhaps one of my favourites from among those in the posts. For this time, however, I thought I’d go with one that for space reasons I had to leave out of my post for the UK Live Aid concert. Here’s what I missed from the Dire Straits set, which had help from a friend:

That’s a wrap. I’ll see you again for Song Lyric Sunday, if I can decide what to play: so many songs, so little time 🤣