Wa Wa Nee

When I was writing the piece on "Overkill" for Men at Work I stumbled across a few video's by Wa Wa Nee another Australian band during the 80's.


Wa Wa Nee were around during the period in time where Oz pub hard rock was at the forefront of music. Men who couldn't dance went to the pub, got pissed and rocked out to the Angles, Cold Chisel or a band of that ilk. God forbid that there could actually be an Australian pop/funk band with influences like Prince with jangly guitars rather than axe guitars.

It is no wonder that Wa Wa Nee struggled a bit in this market. I think they also stuggled because of their band name. I mean what were they thinking when they chose Wa Wa Nee???

Someone must have had a bit of faith in them though because CBS (now Sony) signed them to their label.


Their first single "Stimulation" was released in 1986. With such wonderful lyrics as:

"Lucky guy his world's on fire he can get it up night and day
Oh I wish I could get the feeling
and give the girls something to say
All I need to get is stimulation, so get me up against the wall
You knew I needed stimulation
but I never thought you'd be that bold."

The guy in these lyrics obviously didn't require that nasal delivery system I keep hearing about on the radio hehe.


The track "Sugar Free" made the top 20 in the States.
I remember watching the Tv show "Solid Gold" (remember the Solid Gold dancers???) and the stupid woman host going (and I will have to write part of this phonetically) "Here is wawaaaaanie doing the Sugar Free"


What I want to focus on today is Wa Wa Nee's second album "Blush". I still have a copy of Blush on record and have played it to death.
Around the time Blush came out I also saw Wa Wa Nee live (they were support act for Bros but that is a story for another time) and they were an awesome live act.
In 1988 MTV in Australia used to start at about 11pm at night so they could often play the more "raunchy" videos that you couldn't see during the day.
I don't know if this was a strategy by CBS but two of Wa Wa Nee's single's for the Blush album ("Can't control myself" & "So good") had "adult" video's (i.e. lot's of naked boobie shots).
This seemed rather odd to me especially since the song "So Good" (my personal favourite) is a song about God.


Take a look at the lyrics and the "censored" video.
The track on the Youtube link is actually a longer remix as I couldn't find the original.


Every night I pray God'll be on my side
I need him more than ever
If nothing else but to stay alive, and it's
(Chorus)
So good to know you are gonna be with me
When I need you to
I realise that the world moves
With a lot of loving from the heart of you
Every day I know when I walk on out that door
He's gonna get me home
Make my life worth living for, and it's
(Repeat Chorus)
I really love the way you keep me going on
Remaining happy if I'm right or wrong
Under the umbrella of love I belong, oh yeah
Everything I do from this moment on
I guarantee it's all for you
So I dedicate this love song, and it's
(Repeat Chorus)
Every time it rains, anytime you're feeling blue
Just remember he has an umbrella over you
So good to know you could let me
Love you God and hate you too
You've forgive whatever I do
and I wanna tell you that I love you
(Repeat Chorus)







I also want to include another track from "Blush" "I want you".
They were definitely channelling Price for this song but I see that as a good thing. Prince is the shizz.
This has such a great groove going on.

Overkill - Men at Work

I was really pleased to hear that this song has had a bit of a revival due mostly to Colin Hay's (lead singer of Men at Work) cameo on the show Scrubs.

I have to preface this by stating that I have only watched about 2 episodes of Scrubs and don't know it that well. From what I saw it was quite funny but I never bothered to watch the series from the beginning. Apparently this particular episode was called "My Overkill" and Colin Hay was a mysterious troubadour that appears throughout the episode providing a musical interlude.

When most people think of the band Men at Work they think of the song "Down under" or horror of horrors associate them with that Supernanny show. The theme song to Supernanny is "Johnny Be Good". Someone should tell the Supernanny producers that it is totally unacceppable behaviour to use such a good song for such a crap show. Naughty chair for them! Nuff said.

Anyway back to the song. I have linked Colin's cameo from Scrubs singing "Overkill" plus the original video. I think the mark of really good song is when you can pare it back and you are left with a great melody. No vocal layering, synth, drum machine..just the melody.

Adam Ant

About 6 months ago I bought a book called "Stand and Deliver" which is Adam Ants autobiography.
I was so excited (because I am a big Adam Ant fan) that I celebrated this discovery by purchasing an accompanying Adam Ant T shirt from 80's tees (I know, I know, I need to get out more).
So with my t-shirt on and Adam Ant collection at the ready I began reading his story.

I already knew that he suffered from bipolar and in more recent years got in trouble with the law.
I read quite a bit about the latter because it fascinated me as to how he got to that point.

His book was very interesting. It gave a bit of insight into the scene around the time of the Sex Pistols when punk music was in it's embroyonic stages.
It quite honestly told Adam's story of struggling with a poor family background, being married young, dealing with undiagonsed bipolar, and reinventing himself.
Often when I was reading the book I really didn't like Adam. He came across as a right tosser. He treated woman like crap and was a sex addict to boot.

The one thing I will give him is that he has been able to look back and tell it how it was.
I think he acknowledges how difficult he has been and how his behaviour has manifested itself in his work.

When I got nearer to the end of the book I truly felt sad for this guy.
Here he was clinging on to the fame that he once had.
All of his recent releases bombing badly, record companies refusing to touch him, his acting career failing to take off and his bipolar getting him arrested and committed to a psych hospital.
Even this book was reduced from $30 to $10 in a couple of months.

Here were a few bits of trivia that I didn't know previously about Adam:

His Mum was a cleaner for Paul McCartney
He dated Jamie Lee Curtis and Heather Graham
He was dating Amanda Donahoe well before her age of consent
His Dad was convicted of paedaphillia
Michael Jackson called him to ask where he got his military style jacket from. He also invited him to Neverland to discuss music with him.

Here is a picture of Adam Ant from his younger years and today.


Here is the great track "Stand & Deliver" featuring the dandy highwayman Adam Ant.


ack (l from the 90's so maybe not so recent) "Room  the top"

Please please please let me get what I want....

Hi Poptrinketeers...Well the Pop Princess is off abroad for a week but I will be back with more tracks and a bit of a piece I am working on about Adam Ant.


I want to leave you with a song that I call 1 minute and 53 seconds of heaven.


"Please please please let me get what I want" by the Smiths.


This song has recently been covered by Muse and it caused me severe ear cavities. Actually I have heard numerous covers and I can safely say that no one can capture the emotion of the song like Morrisey.
It also helps that this song was in the movies "Pretty in Pink" and "Never been kissed" (asinine girly teen angst flicks that I adore).


So here it is. There isn't an official music video but I encourage just to shut your eyes and listen.

Corporate Slave -Snog

Today's song is in loving dedication to my job.

It seems fitting at the moment.