RIP Joana and the Wolf (and Grinderman)

This week I found out that one of my favourite bands, Joana and the Wolf, split up on December 30. And shortly before that—a few weeks earlier—another of my favourite bands, Grinderman, announced that they were going to call it a day.

I remember getting hooked on JATW the first time I saw them, at a screening of An American Werewolf in London a few years ago. Since then I’ve seen them loads of times. They played a lot of free gigs, you see.

People usually haven’t heard of them, but when they hear the name, they tend to assume they were a Florence and The Machine/Jonah and The Whale clone, but this is not the case. JATW were far better than either of those bands, and they started out before them. And it’s a real pity they never released an album.

The video above was at Secret Garden Party 2011 (I was there, man).

Here are some of my previous reviews on this site:

Joana and the Wolf Gig Review – KOKO 2010

Joana and the Wolf

And here is a JATW review that I wrote on proper music rag, Pennyblackmusic:

Joana and the Wolf – Lexington, London 15/8/2011

Ted Hankey the Christmas Poo (and His Tattoo)

Ted Hankey, the fiery former darts champion, was knocked out of the BDO semi-finals yesterday after complaining about the air conditioning. Well, he should try playing a game on our office darts board then. Although I doubt he would, he’d only start complaining about the laminated flooring or the ugly wallpaper in the gents’ toilets or something. And getting up the four flights of stairs would undoubtedly kill him.

After the defeat, he announced his departure from the BDO, which probably means he’ll be swapping leagues and playing for Barry Hearn’s PDC next season. “The Count” would then have the opportunity to change his nickname, possibly to “Mr Hankey the Christmas Poo,” or he could simply try removing one of the letters from his existing nickname.

Joking aside, being temperamental is part of what makes Hankey so entertaining to watch, of course, and on his day, there is no one better in the business at throwing arrows. His 6-0 victory over Ronnie Baxter in the 2000 BDO World Darts Championship final—where he finished on 170 checkout—was my favourite darts performance of all time and was a joy to behold. I honestly believe Ted could have won so many more tournaments if he wasn’t prone to bouts of “darts rage” from time to time.

Having a look through Google Analytics yesterday, I noticed that someone had found this website by searching on The Sun’s website for “Ted Hankey Tattoo“:

Well, I hope they like what they find here! The photo at the top of the page was found online and shows Hankey getting a tattoo of the Bride of Dracula at Pyscho Tattoos in Kinmel Bay. Please note—if you are the owner of the original image, please contact me, and I will either credit you in the article or remove the image immediately. Thank you.

Hopefully someone will find this website via The Sun website again soon, this time searching for “Ted Hankey the Christmas Poo.”