Icon #82 Marilyn Monroe

The most iconic actress of all time.

There have been better actresses than Marilyn Monroe, of that there is little doubt.  But has there been anyone before or since who's had the same level of continued attention or caused so much endless fascination?  Probably not.

To put it bluntly she oozed sex appeal and then, because she died so young, that appeal has never waned.  She'll always be beautiful, vulnerable and blonde.

Monroe fought to be accepted as an actress renowned for her talent much as for her looks.  Her greatest performance, in a movie that still holds up today as a brilliant comedy, played on both aspects.

Icon #81 Pele

The Most Iconic Footballer Ever

There are many pretenders to the most iconic footballer of all time.  Today as I write this we have two, at least, who fans will look back on as greats.  We've had many make the most of their gifts (and their looks) to become icons in their own right, faces  you'd recognise anywhere regardless of whether they had a ball at their feet or not.

Edson Arantes do Nascimento however, was from a different age.

Light years ahead of most of his generation of footballers and light years ahead of every game having a camera at it, which is why so much of what we know is drilled down to stats rather than glorious footage.  In 1363 games he scored 1281 goals.

Icon #80 Steve Jobs

I don't think I knew who Steve Jobs was when I bought my first iPod.  It was a fifth generation Classic, the first with video play back and it was the start of my world changing.

From that point on technology started to become a rather expensive hobby and whilst it would be wrong to say every step along that journey has involved Apple, they have been at the heart of it.

I've always loved things that have a bit of soul, things that've been a labour of love or things that have a spark of genius somewhere within.  Whatever you feel about Apple as a business their products have all of that.  My 60gig iPod from six years ago still has it with the click wheel.  Such a simple navigation tool, married to a brilliant menu system all working in a beautifully designed shell that at the time held my entire music collection.  Five years ago I marvelled at that.  All my music.  In my pocket.  Mental.  It went everywhere with me along with my, at the time, dreadfully average mobile phone.

A year after buying my iPod I joined an Audio and TV department and my exposure to Apple products grew enormously.  iMacs, MacBooks, iPods, Apple TV and iPads.  You name it, I've sold it and slowly but surely the Apple story became part of my everyday.  There are still times when I have to explain to someone how iTunes works with an iPod.  Seeing someone click as they 'get it' never ceases being enjoyable.  The simplicity of two devices working together, transferring data without the user having to do anything other than plug them into each other, still makes me smile.

It took a while for me to get into the Apple keynote thing.  I was aware of Steve Jobs and knew the background to his role at Apple by the time the iPhone launched but that was the first keynote I watched.  There were other smart phones around of course but the iPhone did things so seamlessly, in such a simple way, that everyone seemed enthralled.  A great deal of us still are.  Steve Jobs understood what people wanted before they knew they wanted it.  With the iPhone he took everything we loved about our iPods and added layer after layer of other content and then added a phone.  It's almost a shock when mine rings because I use it for so many other things I often forget it does that.  There are other phones that do the same job now.  Other brands, other operating systems and other app stores.  Some of them even look pretty good.  But none of them have any soul, none of them feel like their imbued with genius and none of them feel remotely like a labour of love.  I guess, at the end of the day, none of them feel like one man sat in an office, looked at the final product and said, 'That's brilliant, imagine what we'll do with next years.'

What Steve Jobs created with Apple was a brand with an identity like no other.  Aspirational products, some affordable, some extortionate, but all effortless to use.

As I sit writing this on my beautiful MacBook, dreaming of an iPad, while keeping half an eye on my iPhone, I can't help but think of the quote that's been everywhere today:

'Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me... going to bed at night and saying we've done something wonderful... that's what matters to me.'

I hope that was true, because you nailed it Steve.

Icon #79 John Arthur Collins

I had no idea how to write tonight's post.  There was no place to start with it.  All I can tell you is that 25 years ago today we lost John Collins and there's not a day that goes by when he doesn't cross my mind.

My biggest personal icon.  My dad.

Icon #78 Scott and Charlene

The most iconic wedding ever. (Sort of.)

I can't remember when we started watching Neighbours at school but it must have been around late 1986 or early '87.  We'd all got used to watching it during the school holidays and back before they broadcast it at 5.35pm we had to watch it during our lunch breaks.  How mad does that seem now?

Anyway, Scott and Charlene were the Romeo and Juliet of the late '80s.  Feuding families, a dog called Bouncer, someone called Jim (who's now in every American drama ever made) and healthy dash of suicide.  There were no suicides.  Anyway, Scott loved Charlene and they were gonna get married despite the family opposition and an ugly girl called Jane who it turned out was well fit.  And we here in England went bonkers for it.

I'm not joking either, 20 million people watched them get married to the strains of Angry Anderson's 'Suddenly'.  20 million sat around watching Neighbours and eating their tea on a week night and I was one of them.  Mental.

I doubt if I turned on an episode of Neighbours today I'd recognise a soul in it.  (Can some one please reassure me that Carl and Susan are still going strong?  Ta.)

Tonight's post is dedicated to (from Twitter) @idance36, @lmlc, @jennella2, @BenAdlam, @PublicBenjamin, @LordTweed, @JoC00per and (from Facebook) Jay.

If you've never seen it, here it is in all its glory.

Icon #77 David Icke

The most iconic celebrity meltdown.

Most celebrity meltdowns involve vast quantities of drugs, a few loose tongued prostitutes and an ego the size of Everest.  David Icke fits only the third of those.  He's too busy running away from the lizard people for the other two.

Icke was a sort of semi famous sports news reporter for the BBC.  He'd appear on Grandstand on a Saturday afternoon or report on one of the minor sports during the Olympics.  He'd had a career in football in the early seventies prior to that but arthritis had ended any chance of longevity.  Then suddenly, at the start of the 1990s he went utterly bonkers.  He's reigned in the bonkers a bit since.... well a tad... well you be the judge...

In 1991 he resigned from the Green Party following a visit to a psychic and announced to the world (well, England) that he was now a channel for the 'Christ spirit' and that the world would end in 1997.  There was a nice list of approaching disasters too, just for good measure.  Suddenly that bloke from South to Day who would tell you all about Southampton's latest football match on a Saturday evening thought he was connected to God.  It was big news.  Massive news.  And utterly hilarious. 

I remember him being on Wogan (prime time three nights a week chat show on the BBC back in the day) and remember the interview more clearly than any other.  He claimed to be the son of God.  The audience laughed.  He claimed that wearing turquoise was a conduit for positive energy.  The audience laughed.  He said laughter was good.  Wogan pointed out that they were laughing at him not with him.  

From there things got worse for Icke.  The nation was hungry for more of the crazy but his sudden switch from polite respectable broadcaster to madness had resulted in his family becoming a target for journalists and bullies and he disappeared off the map for a while.  Was he done?  God no, of course not.

He came back with a series of books that in a nut shell have pulled every conspiracy theory ever together in a mash up to end all mash ups.  There's an alien elite running the world in the background?  Oh yes.  Are they actually lizards?  Of course.  Shape shifters?  Probably.  Is George Bush one?  Of course he is.  And yes, just as you'd always feared Kris Kristofferson is a shape shifting lizard like fiend who probably wants you to have a microchip in your brain that turns you into a robot.

Brilliant.

He's gathered a bit of a following, has a bit of a problem with the Jewish community who are pretty certain that when he says 'lizards' he means 'Jewish'.  When he went to Canada the border control only let him into the country when they realised that he actually did mean lizards.  Personally I'd have still kept him out.  He's still churning out books, has, it turns out, a great website, that's just full of the crazy.  There are even DVDs up for grabs.

What do I think?  I think he had a break down and gathered a small following as a result of the bollocks he spouted.  He went away and got better but figured out that if he continued in a slightly watered down version of lunatic, people might buy stuff.  And they have.

Well done Planet Earth.

Tonight's post is dedicated to Tigerblood.

And @L0rdTweed, @idance36, @The1nbetweener, and @SdruhCram.

I picked it cause it's my favourite, but Brian Harvey eating the jacket potatoes and then running over his own head in a car does run it close. 

Icon #76 Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster

The most iconic newspaper headline.

Max Clifford's finest moment?  Definitely.

Almost as soon as I tweeted the topic this morning it came in.  Apologies to those from elsewhere but in the UK it was either this or something about a Scottish football team.  Everyone of a certain age remembers the headline from March 1986 because, although we all thought comedian(?) Freddie Starr was a bit of a mentalist, this confirmed it.

Was it true?  Back in those days The Sun really didn't care about such things.  Three years later the headline 'The Truth' would mean the city of Liverpool would turn it's back on the paper for good because of the lies contained within the article that followed.

These were the days before politically correct headlines and many of you suggested others from (pretty much exclusively The Sun) that were equally memorable from the same period.  But for me at least it's the image of Freddie Starr tucking into a hamster sandwich that has stuck.

Poor old Max it could only go down hill from here, his one moment of utter genius.

Tonight's post is dedicated to (from Twitter) @whitespider, @dumbwitness, @CIAndrews, @grwindi, @germgirl, @lmlc, @BeBelongy, @markyb705242, @stinkyflute, @Jeemie1970 and (from facebook) MC,

Icon #75 The Most Iconic Movie Quote Ever

'Luke, I am your father.'

First up, it's nice to be back doing what I like to do best, running my little projects on Twitter and it's strange to think that I nearly pulled the plug on @diaryofaledger last week.  Response was great today though, so thanks to everyone who got involved.  It really was nice to be feeling properly back to being myself.


So many quotes to choose from today from so many great movies, but in the end it had to be the one from Empire, even if it wasn't the one I thought it would be.  No one mentioned my favourite so it doesn't get put in the mix.  I guess the winner will be contentious so don't see it as winning just see it as me picking my favourite out of all the suggestions.  Which, let's face it, is what #iconthursday is all about.

Why Vader over everything else?  Because it was such a big shock.  We weren't expecting that were we?  Well maybe the grown ups were (they weren't) but all the way through the first film the references were about Darth killing Anakin, it really was a surprise.  It was such a killer twist, the impact could be felt in every play ground across the country.  Some kids jaws didn't close for four years.  How Lucas got the prequels so badly wrong is a mystery when he was capable of such delicious story twists within his space opera.

Looking back now it's all quite obvious but at the time it blew our tiny minds.  Well mine anyway.

(It was always going to be a geek choice today.)

Tonight's post is dedicated to (from Twitter) @hernameisVee, @ihateonionrings, @maverick99sback, @RickHarwood, @comedyfish, @tbag1402 and (from facebook) MC.

What did I think it would be....?  Guess.

Icon #74 Kenny Dalglish

IconThursday is sort of back although I know today's wasn't in the usual format.  I just wanted to kick of the year with one of my own icons.  And today no one feels more fitting than Mr Kenneth Dalglish.


First up this is not a post calling for Dalglish to replace Hodgson, as much as I would like that.  Why do I think that in the short term, at least, that would be a good idea?  That's another post for another day.  But I do hold him in incredibly high regard, the man is, quite simply, a legend.

I came to football late as a spectacle, not really getting the supporter thing until I was thirteen and I've mentioned and retold that story a few times already here.  You don't need to hear it again, but it's here if you're unaware of what transpired in May 1986 when I was thirteen.

Because my football bone developed late I missed most of Dalglish's playing career, only catching a few brief moments of the man's genius with a football.  I've seen enough since to be able to say he was the best player to ever pull on the red shirt of Liverpool and he's up their with greats of all time in terms of how he's regarded.  Just a brilliantly skilful, clever and natural player.

It was as the manager of Liverpool that I came to admire and love Dalglish.  Not just the quiet dignity that he showed post Hillsborough, but that fierce belief in the Liverpool way.  Yes, of course there was some arrogance there and he let managers get under his skin at times, but he knew how and when to bite back.  My favourite ever example was after a massive game against United.  It finished 3-3, I think of we'd have won the title if we'd won and we were 3-1 up at one point.  United had a player sent off and naturally Fergie moaned during the press conference.  Cue Kenny getting his new born baby and inviting the press to ask it questions as they'd get more sense out of it than they would Ferguson.  Brilliant.  Of course only three people in the room could understand what he'd said.  That thick, almost impenetrable, Glaswegian accent is as much a trade mark as his abilities on the pitch were.

He was Liverpool for me and when he resigned a part of the club seemed to go with him.  The pressure on him post Hillsborough was just too much, he had a break down and felt it was best for all concerned if he left, but we've never really recovered from it as a club.  He was the glue that held all that emotion back, kept us focused on the side instead of the grief and when he went it felt like something infallible wasn't as strong as we all thought.  That's in no way a criticism, that was too much for one man to carry.  But I think that feeling that the club wasn't as strong as we thought permeated everything and we've never seemed to have the backbone to keep fighting.  Apart from that one glorious night of course, when all that I've just said went completely out of the window.

We still loved him though, even when he returned to management at Blackburn Rovers.  Anfield celebrated like Liverpool had won the title when they won the league there in 1995.  His brief spell at Newcastle wasn't filled with success and many will say the man had lost his magic touch.  That he was from another era, where he'd been raised by the likes of Bob Paisley.  And that is true.  But look across to our not so distant neighbours in Manchester United and the same manager that locked horns with Dalglish in 1988 is still in place, still delivering success and you can't help but wonder where we'd be if he'd not left, or just taken some time out.  He was the talisman and still is.

No long ago, maybe last season or the one before, he was in the Sky studio during a Champions League night.  You know, when they sit on those silly stools with a flashy monitor in front of them.  I've never seen Richard Keyes so reverential.  Ever.  Dalglish didn't have a bad word to say about Liverpool, not the side, not the manager, not the American owners.  He was hugely respectful of Ferguson and United and all that had been achieved since he'd stepped down at Anfield but there was a glint of envy in his eye.  It was a 'what might have been' moment.  Personally I would love to see him lead the side out at Old Trafford this Sunday one last time.  Not because it would impact the result of an FA Cup tie we have every right to be fearful of, but because for the first time in two years we'd know the side would give everything and play above themselves.  That's the Liverpool way, the Dalglish way and we'd be proud of that.

Dalglish isn't just an icon for me, he is The Icon.  Whatever happens over the next few days that won't change.  I love football because of him.  No one outside of my immediate friends or family has been more of an influence.

Icon #73 Jaws

The most iconic movie theme tune of all time.

Duuun dun duuun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun BOM BOM dun dun dun dun dun dun doo dedoo doo dedoo dede doo dede doo dededoo!

It's the sound of fear.  Although written down it all looks kind of fun doesn't it?  But it's not.  Make no mistake, those few bars of music struck terror into the hearts of cinema goers back in 1975.  No one went swimming in the sea afterwards without hearing those two notes being played in their heads.  

John Williams created something that sounded like a shark attack, something that everyone knows and everyone can relate to.  Sure he went on to make more and more iconic soundtracks that would fill most of our lives and certainly any of us that grew up in the 1970s and 80s can recall them at a split seconds notice.  Apart from Superman, which almost always ends up as Darth Vader's theme from Star Wars, in my head at least.

Jaws was that perfect blend of a movie.  Genuinely scary and made by a bunch of people not fazed by the special effects restrictions of the time.  But without that theme tune, that still sends a shiver up your spine, would it still be as iconic?  I doubt it.

It is not safe in the water.  Do not get in.

Tonight's post is dedicated to (from Twitter) @Bertswattermain, @Giusep03, @LifeUniStudent, @MrsR1ck, @BintySquirrel, @WH1SKS, @domcoke, @clarkycat, @RickHarwood and @Fyb3r_Optic.

And that's it, the last iconthursday of 2010.  Back in January.  

Icon #72 The Smiths

The most iconic indie band of all time (Part 2)

Nirvana got part one last week if you missed it.  Rather than just regurgitate a post that already got written on AT's site back in June I thought it just made more sense to link back to that.

The Smiths were 'British Indie', they totally defined it and their sound is still what makes me think indie, makes me feel indie and what drove so many people to pick up guitars and write songs.

That post, over on Diary of a Maverick Ledger, is retrospectively dedicated to @LordTweed, @Seanhannan, @Chrispey, @lardychap, @nicky_t, @lmlc, @JohnJfar, @DanialNothing, @moviegrrl and MC.

Icon #71 Nirvana

The most iconic indie rock band. (Part 1)

This was not an easy decision tonight and I'm going to make a call on it and say there are two bands that I consider to be equally iconic.  You get Nirvana tonight and I'll do the other band, a British one, next Thursday morning before the final #iconthursday of 2010.  I'll be taking December off like I did last year.

Ok, 'indie' means different things to different people.  For some it's about the record label, for others it's about the sound.  For me it's a mixture of both.  Take Nirvana as an example, they started off on Sub Pop and then moved to Geffen.  They began as indie, but, did the move to a major label change the band massively?  Nope not really.

There were other bands that preceded Nirvana, bands who's influence still holds up and can turn a non musician into one.  The Pixies and Sonic Youth to name but two, but are they as iconic as Nirvana?  For some I guess they were, but it was Nirvana that broke through beyond the subculture in the States and became a cultural phenomenon, changing the face of rock music completely in one glorious year.

The first album, let's be honest, did not capture the worlds imagination, most of us buying it retrospectively in the wake of Nevermind.  Listen to it now and it sounds so raw and full of vitality, the song writing almost a practice run for what was to come.  There's signs of greatness in About a Girl and the stand alone Sliver that's on Insecticide (B-Sides thing).  What followed was an album that stole liberally from many of the acts that they loved.  Cobain was always happy to admit that Teen Spirit was basically a Pixies riff that he'd altered a bit.  What that song did though was seize a generation by their collective scalps and wake them up to something new.  So many kids must have gone back and bought into the Pixies and all off the back of that one song.  Quite right too.  There has never been a better indie rock anthem ever.  Over played now?  For sure.  But don't let that fool your memory of how that song infected everything at the time.  It was everywhere.  The perfect blend of loud and quiet, with lyrics that hinted at the dark side of corporate rock.

Cobain was was always desperately worried about retaining his credibility, the irony being that the credibility he craved was right there in his songs.  Say what you like, I don't care, so much of that music is beautiful.  Dig out that MTV Unplugged album, where its stripped back and all the melody and lyrics are allowed to breath.  It's still stunning 16 years after release.

But it was Nevermind that took them beyond where they meant to be, certainly far beyond what Cobain could cope with them being.  He was a mess of a character at the best of times, but success brought with it all the traditional pitfalls and rock star clichés and sadly one by one he succumbed to them all.

The third studio album In Utero had big shoes to fill and despite being superb in parts it was never going to have the same impact as Nevermind.  I love its muddy quality.  The way it feels stifled and oppressive with few, if any, moments of relief.  By the time it came out in 1993 the downward spiral that Cobain was on had almost consumed him.  The video to Heart Shaped Box is not an easy watch for anyone familiar with the face of addiction but somehow the songs on the album still shine.  All Apologies and Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle, two of my favourite Nirvana tracks, are on that final proper release.

Their influence was amazing.  Poodle rock was gone.  Suddenly all that 1980s glam rock bollocks was confined to history and everyone wanted to be taken seriously.  It took a while for the dust to settle post Nirvana and Cobain taking his own life, and even longer for the genre to fall back to a place where music could be fun again.  

19 years ago a little three piece indie rock band that got a 'lucky' break with a major label, released an album that changed things for so many people.  Personally it opened a door to a world of music that I'd have never discovered and fallen in love with.  I''ll always be grateful for that and it still bothers me that Cobain's gone.  Such a waste of his talent.

'She'll come back as fire and burn all the liars, leave a blanket of ash on the ground.'

Tonight's post is dedicated to @JodieSue, @sfendle, @LastManStood, @wheews, and @007cleggy.

Part Two next Thursday morning so don't feel hard done by just yet. 

Icon #70 The Spice Girls

The most iconic girl group.

Oh God.  It's been a while since I had to write about something I really despise (I dodged it last week rather brilliantly, thank fuck for the Monkees).  Today though the options were limited, basically either this lot or another lot from the 80s, who's iconic status was more than questionable.  

So here in all their, ahem, glory, are The Spice Girls.  A gloriously well packaged load of rubbish that briefly, during the 1990s, pervaded everything.  Everywhere.  How I hated every cringe worthy minute of it.

The whole Girl Power thing left me cold, because, with Geri's substantial (at the time) bosom thrust everywhere, it hardly advocated feminism in its purest form.  

The music?  Awful.  It was for little girls and it sold by the shed load, but theirs was always a star that was going to burn bright and brief as their own personalities came to the fore and the media started to show more and more of an interest in these flung together women's private lives.  Only Melanie Chisholm seemed to have any genuine musical talent of her own, one song from one of her albums was actually quite good and didn't she do something with Bryan Adams?  *shrugs*

They'd all been assigned nicknames, which was terribly convenient for the press pack as Scary, Posh, Baby, Sporty and Ginger started to realise that the monster that had been created around them was more than any of them were really capable of handling and the whole thing came tumbling down.  Geri had a hissy fit and walked, taking her breasts with her and the others floundered on for a bit before calling it a day.

Did they inspire anyone?  I guess it's possible.  

They, along with Take That, felt so constructed, so fake, that it could never last.  The boy band equivalent had a bit of staying power, a bit of talent and have ridden back up the celebrity hill and lived to tell the tale but The Spice Girls never had any tunes that would stand the test of time.  Honestly, I remember one.   And I feel a bit ashamed about that.

Zig-A-Zig ARHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! 

Tonight's post is dedicated to (from Twitter) @DavieLegend, @EmmaBunce, @lardychap, @007cleggy, @nicky_t, @Captainfishy78, @clarkycat, @Jeemie1970, @Giusep03, @KyeLani, @jeninher30s, (and from facebook) Fizz Gigg, Annie, AT, Katy, Toby, Laura and Jackie.

NB I would have loved to have written about The Supremes but as far as I'm aware they were, sadly, not a manufactured group.  

Icon #69 The Monkees

The most iconic boy band.

What's not to love about The Monkees.  Great tunes, great hair and a born from a TV show where they had no artistic control at all the band became what they'd been dreamt up as, a real band making great music.

I loved the nonsensical TV show as a kid (it must have been being repeated on an early evening slot in the late 1970s) and the songs slowly started to become a part of mine and many other kids, life soundtrack, despite being from a different era.  Whether that's still the case now is something I've pondered today as I've mused over whether Take That deserved the post more, or whether the Sex Pistols would have been a more interesting step away from the intended target.

But the Monkees were, however briefly, a world wide phenomenon and the best songs stand the test of time in a way that bands like The Stones and The Beatles would of been proud of.

They didn't revolutionise anything, they didn't break any records, but The Monkees did the one thing every other constructed boy band has failed to do since.  Make music that I like.

To view the video on the mobile site press the YouTube tab.

Tonight's post is dedicated to (from Twitter) @jodiesue, @fionaflaherty, @david1969, @nicky_t, @grim_seamstress, @Our_Jo, @007cleggy, @Girl_In_A_Box, @nicktheguitar, @DarrenWHU, @Jeemie1970, @comedyfish, @justincaul, @TheFagCasanova, @LifeUniStudent, @dougwild, @Mhairifish, @cleggymand, @lardychap, (and from facebook) Will, Mark, Sean, and Toby. 

Icon #68 Bullit

The most iconic movie car chase.

I'll keep this brief tonight because for me there was no other choice.  It's the sound of that heavily souped up Ford Mustang's engine, the point of view shots that remind me of Grand Theft and McQueen, all icy cool and calm, driving the thing to its limit.

Icon #67 Jesus

The most iconic death.

YIKES!  How the hell to I write this one?  I mean I can't really argue that it's not the most iconic death, either fictional or, you know, real, depending on your standpoint, but from the side of the fence that I sit this is not going to be an easy post to write.

Icon #66 Watchmen

The most iconic graphic novel.

The graphic novel was a medium that I'd largely ignored up until recently.  I was under the absurd assumption that comics were for kids, and that I'd moved on from them years before.  God was I missing out.

Icon #65 Converse

The most iconic footwear.

Close thing today but essentially I was making my mind up between two brands.  Or socks.  You little scamps.

Doc Martens or Converse?  Doc Martens or Converse?  The two have spun around in my little mind all day long but it came down to which of them I'd owned and so Converse won out.  Plus they're cooler.

Icon #64 (The Old) Wembley

The most iconic football ground ever.

You were all expecting Anfield huh?  That's a whole other post for another day, but even I would be hard pushed to say it's the most iconic ever.  You guys that suggested it get a little mention at the end of the post though*.

Icon #63 Stairway to Heaven (The Guitar Solo)

The most iconic guitar solo ever.

After last weeks vote for most iconic albums it was odd to go back to me just picking a winner, especially as I knew my actual favourite guitar solo of all time wouldn't get a mention.  But hey there are some 'loose' rules at play here, it didn't come up, so it doesn't get written about.