Matthew Stuart

St. George's Place, Lime Street in 1961, Liverpool 📸Joe Neary.

BETOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! 💙

37 years ago James brown was lit 😭😭😭😭

In 1976, a Soviet singer was told the lyrics to his new song were too politically risky to broadcast. The words were about an American cowboy riding across a prairie while his sweetheart named Mary knitted stockings for him. During the Cold War, that kind of sentimental view of America would never get past the censors. So Eduard Khil and composer Arkady Ostrovsky made a decision: sing the whole thing without any words at all. Khil performed it on Soviet television in a brown double breasted suit, grinning the entire time, belting out nothing but “la la la” and “trololo” while strolling and gesturing dramatically. It aired, people enjoyed it, and that was that. Khil went on to become one of the most celebrated singers in the Soviet Union, awarded “People’s Artist of the USSR” in 1974 and known across the country. When the Soviet Union collapsed his career faded and he ended up singing cabaret in a cafe in Paris. In 2010, someone uploaded that 1976 clip to YouTube. It exploded. Millions of views in weeks. Khil had no idea until his 13 year old grandson told him “Grandpa, everyone knows your song on the internet, all around the world.” His son said his father thought someone was making fun of him. He kept asking “Where were all these journalists 40 years ago?” But he embraced it, adopted Mr. Trololo as a stage name, and performed the song live again on Russian television on New Year’s Eve 2011. He passed away in June 2012 at 77 after a stroke. In 2017, Google honoured him with an interactive doodle on what would have been his 83rd birthday.

Happy 45th birthday to former Everton midfielder Gareth Barry! 🎉🔵

Cottage Pied. 🤷‍♂️