"Numb" by U2

Birthday wishes go out today to The Edge*, for more than thirty years now a member of earnest stadium anthemizers U2... Despite the band's utterly Dublin-esque Irish cred The Edge was born at London's Barking Maternity Hospital to Welsh parents; he and his family moved to Ireland in 1962, when The Edge was just one year old (although he was then still too squishy to be The Edge, and so they called him David).

In addition to playing guitar for U2 - and thus being instrumental in imbuing the group with its distinctive sound, a clearly winning combination of soaring melodies and ringing chords - The Edge also plays keyboards and sings backing vocals. One time, though, when he performed lead vocals for the band is on the song Numb; taken from the band's 1993 album Zooropa, Numb was the album's lead single, and the song's video (directed by Kevin Godley of Godley & Creme fame) features him in all his scrummy goodness, being backed up (for a change) by Bono and Larry Mullen, Jr.. Oh yeah, and Adam Clayton's in there somewhere too, no doubt lurking behind the looped sample from the Leni Riefenstahl film Olympia which gives the tune its backbone.

*Or just 'Edge' - although I've made my feelings known in the past how much I love a name and/or title with a definite article in it...
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Happy Birthday Princess Beatrice

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I can scarcely believe it myself; the fifth lady in the Royal Family is 22 today! It seems like only yesterday I was sequestering myself indoors on a gorgeous summer's day alternately hunched over the radio or pacing my room, awaiting the news that she'd been born... In other words, my usual ritual when a royal birth is pending!

Having overcome her parents' divorce and dyslexia in the years since - all of which she had to do very much in the public eye - Princess Beatrice is poised to take on a role as a senior royal, unlike her shy younger sister Princess Eugenie, whose intentions toward her royal role have yet to be made clear. Much of the credit, it must be said, for her having turned out so well belongs with her parents - The Duke of York and Sarah, Duchess of York - whose divorce was probably among the most civil in British history, likely because they never once forgot that their primary responsibility having had children was being parents. It's enough to make one want to add a verse or two to that grand old nursery rhyme The Grand Old Duke of York...

At the time she was born much was made of how propitious was the birth of Princess Beatrice; having come into the world on the eighth day of the eighth month gave her at least as many advantages as being born royal - at least according to Chinese mythology, for whom the number eight is especially lucky; that she was also born in 1988 and the Year of the Dragon only confirmed it. The real confirmation, of course, has been the passage of years, and in watching her blossom from a rambunctious tot to a very regal yet very real young woman.
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"One Step Beyond" by Madness

Birthday wishes go out today to Chris Foreman (Chrissy Boy to his friends) guitarist and founding member - with Mike Barson and Lee Thompson, in 1976 - of second wave ska pioneers Madness.

One Step Beyond is the title track of the band's 1979 debut album, and was their first single; it was originally performed by ska musician Prince Buster as the b-side to his 1967 single Al Capone.

The video was primarily shot in the Hope and Anchor Pub, located in the London borough of Islington, which was at the time a prime venue in the pub rock movement; Chas Smash appears in the video, even though he was not then a member of the band, because he'd recorded the majority of the vocals in the song, including the intro (which sometimes was and sometimes wasn't included in radio play).
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