Top 10 Bond songs and Top 10 AMAZING trivia

SEAN CONNERY was almost in Skyfall, one Bond girl was a transsexual and the metal chains baddie Jaws chewed through were made of liquorish? With SPECTRE & Writing's on the Wall riding high, we pick our Top 10 James Bond songs and favourite trivia about each film.

Sam Smith's Writing's On The Wall became the first Bond theme to ever hit No.1 in the UK – but does that make it the best?

With a little help from the clever people at fancy dress specialists Morph Suits, we run down our Top 10 favourite Bond belters and uncover some fascinating facts about each song and each film.

For Your Eyes Only

For Your Eyes Only

Performed By: Sheena Easton

Music Chart Peak: 8

Song Fact: This song was originally offered to Blondie, but Debbie Harry didn’t like the lyrics.

Movie Fact: Bond Girl, Carolyn Cossey, used to be a man and was the first transgender model to pose for Playboy.

The Spy Who Loved Me

Nobody Does It Better

Performed By: Carly Simon

Music Chart Peak: 7

Song Fact: Radiohead lead singer, Thom Yorke, allegedly declared this “the sexiest song ever written”

Movie Fact: The chain that Jaws bites through during the pyramids fight scene was actually made of liquorice.

SPECTRE

Writings On The Wall

Performed By: Sam Smith

Music Chart Peak: 1

Song Fact: It took Sam Smith 20 minutes to write this song.

Movie Fact: At 50 years of age, Monica Belluci (who will play Lucia Sciarra in the movie) will be the oldest Bond girl in history.

They called them Bond, James Bond

Skyfall

Skyfall

Performed By: Adele

Music Chart Peak: 2

Song Fact: Adele apparently asked to read the entire script of the move before taking on the Bond theme song.

Movie Fact: Sean Connery almost landed a role in Skyfall, but the casting crew eventually decided Connery could never return in a Bond film as anyone but Bond.

Goldfinger
Goldfinger
Performed By: Shirley Bassey
Music Chart Peak: 21
Song Fact: Shirley Bassey loved the music so much, she accepted the offer to sing this Bond song before she’d even read the lyrics.
Movie Fact: The scene where Bond removes his wetsuit to reveal a crisp, dry tuxedo is based on a real life mission.

Live and Let Die
Live and Let Die
Performed By: Paul McCartney & Wings
Music Chart Peak: 9
Song Fact: This song won the Grammy award in 1973 for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocals.
Movie Fact: Sean Connery was offered an eye-watering $5.5 million to return as Bond, but turned it down giving his personal seal of approval for Roger Moore to play 007.

Thunderball
Thunderball
Performed By: Tom Jones
Music Chart Peak: 35
Song Fact: Two weeks before the movie opened, John Barry’s original song “Mr Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” was rejected and he was asked to write a new song using the word “Thunderball”. In 1990, the rejected song was eventually released.
Movie Fact: Bond stuntman, Bill Cumming was paid a $450 bonus to jump into the shark-infested pool.
Diamonds Are Forever
Diamonds Are Forever
Performed By: Shirley Bassey
Music Chart Peak: 38
Song Fact: Kanye West sampled this iconic track on his 2005 song “Diamonds From Sierra Leone”
Movie Fact: Sean Connery’s $1.25 million fee to return as James Bond meant that the special effects budget had to be cut back.

A View To Kill
A View To Kill
Performed By: Duran Duran
Music Chart Peak: 2
Song Fact: Bond legend has it that a very drunk Duran Duran bassist, John Taylor, approached producers telling them that he thought the last few Bond themes songs hadn’t been much good and suggesting that Duran Duran would “fix the problem”.
Movie Fact: Roger Moore returned to the role aged 57, making him the oldest actor to ever play Bond. 

Casino Royale
You Know My Name
Performed By: Chris Cornell
Music Chart Peak: 7
Song Fact: When creating his Bond theme Chris Cornell was inspired by Paul McCartney’s Live and Let Die and Thunderball, sung by the legendary Tom Jones
Movie Fact: The car barrel roll stunt featuring the Aston Martin DBS broke a world record for the most barrel rolls assisted by a cannon.
THe NEW JAMES BOND FILM SPECTRE IS OUT IN UK CINEMAS ON OCTOBER 26
FOR FILM-THEMED COSTUMES AND MORPH SUITS GO TO: www.morphsuits.co.uk

Top 10 facts about Saint Helena

Napoleon had high praise for the coffee on Saint Helena

Two hundred years ago today, on October 15, 1815, Napoleon arrived on the island of Saint Helena where he was exiled for the rest of his life.

1. Saint Helena is in the South Atlantic, 2,500 miles east of Brazil, 1,200 miles west of Africa. It covers an area of just 47 square miles.

2. The Portuguese discovered Saint Helena in 1502 but from 1676 it was governed by the British East India Company.

3. Saint Helena is now Britain’s second oldest remaining Overseas Territory, after Bermuda.

4. The comet discoverer Edmond Halley set up an observatory on Saint Helena in 1676.

5. Napoleon had high praise for the coffee on Saint Helena.

6. Charles Darwin had a five-day stopover on Saint Helena when sailing on The Beagle in 1836…



Saint Helena is now Britain’s second oldest remaining Overseas Territory



7. …and he described the island as “a curious little world within itself”.

The first ever aircraft landing on Saint Helena was made exactly one month ago at the island’s newly built airport on September 15, 2015

 

8. The first ever aircraft landing on Saint Helena was made exactly one month ago at the island’s newly built airport on September 15, 2015.

9. The island is named after St Helena, mother of Emperor Constantine the Great and alleged discovered of the True Cross.

10. St Helena is the only place on earth where the mating of whale sharks has been seen by humans.

 

Saint Helena is in the South Atlantic, 2,500 miles east of Brazil

Top ten facts about curry

This week is National Curry Week so here are some facts about curry

Not only is this National Chocolate Week (see yesterday’s Ten Things) but it is also National Curry Week, so here are some hot and spicy facts.

1. The word curry comes from a Tamil sauce known as kari. It is first recorded in English as carriil in 1598 and carree in 1681.

2. “To curry” meaning to dress tanned leather or rub down a horse and dates back to before 1300.

3. A curry weighing a record 15.34 tonnes was made in Singapore this August.

4. The tallest ever stack of poppadoms was 5ft 7in high and was made in Nottingham in 2012.



Chicken tikka masala was invented in Glasgow, not in Birmingham



5. 85 per cent of the 10,000 Indian restaurants in Great Britain are run by people from Bangladesh.

6. The Curry Capital of Britain award was inaugurated in 2001. It has been won most often by Bradford, which has taken the title five times.

7. Henry IV Part 2 is the only Shakespeare play that includes the word curry but he wasn’t talking about Indian food.

8. Indian food was introduced to the UK by Sake Dean Mahomet who also introduced shampoo.

85 per cent of the 10,000 Indian restaurants in Great Britain are run by people from Bangladesh

9. He opened our first Indian restaurant, the Hindoostanee Coffee House in London, in 1810.

10. In 2009, the House of Commons debated a motion to recognise that chicken tikka masala was invented in Glasgow, not Birmingham

Top 10 facts about Cuba

Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean

ON October 28, 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered the island of Cuba and claimed it for Spain.

1. In 1762, the British seized Cuba from Spain but gave it back a year later in exchange for Florida.

2. The Cuban national anthem, La Bayamesa, was written in 1868 at the Battle of Bayamo when the Cubans overthrew the Spanish authorities.

3. The third and fourth verses of the anthem include very derogatory remarks about Spain and the Spaniards. These verses are no longer sung.

4. Cuba is the largest island in the Caribbean and the second most populous, after Hispaniola.

5. Cuba is said to be the only country where the total forest area is greater than 50 years ago.

Christopher Columbus discovered Cuba in 1492

6. President Fidel Castro declared a nationwide ban on Beatles music in Cuba in 1964…

7. …but he relented in 1990 when he unveiled a bronze statue of John Lennon sitting on a bench at John Lennon Park, Havana.

8. Lennon’s glasses have been stolen so often from the statue that they are now kept by a guard who puts them on the statue when visitors approach.

9. Cuba has one doctor for every 170 people. This is the world’s highest doctor-patient ratio.

10. Christmas was a normal working day in Cuba from 1969-1998. It became a holiday again after a visit by Pope John Paul II to Cuba in 1998.

01Nov2015

Top 10 facts about James Bond

THE new James Bond film Spectre has been released this week. Here are some facts, shaken and stirred.

 

1. From Dr No to Skyfall, James Bond has killed a total of 369 people and slept with 55 women. 

2. Bond is the 224th most common surname in the UK and there are 1,011 people in the United States named James Bond. 

 

3. Ian Fleming’s house in Jamaica was called GoldenEye. It was later bought by Bob Marley. 

4. From Russia With Love was the last film President John F Kennedy ever saw. 

 

5. In the films on average, Bond has a drink every 10 minutes 53 seconds. 

6. According to a paper in the British Medical Journal in 2013, James Bond’s weekly alcohol consumption in the books about him was 92 units. 

 

7. The paper concluded: “James Bond was unlikely to be able to stir his drinks, even if he wanted to, because of likely alcohol induced tremor. 

8. Daniel Craig, is the only 007 to have had more vodka Martinis than on-screen kisses. 

 

Daniel Craig, is the only 007 to have had more vodka Martinis than on-screen kisses

9. According to a study by lottoland, George Lazenby was involved in more violent acts per film than any other James Bond.

10. The scene in Skyfall where Bond breaks into M’s house was filmed in a house that John Barry, composer of the James Bond theme, use to live.

Top 10 most disgusting and weird foods from around the world

Singaporeans love their food because it isn't only a source of national pride, but more importantly because it tastes good (well, to us anyway)! The reverse might be true about this Skyscanner list of 10 items though, which others from around the world find appealing, but chances are we might not share those same sentiments...

1. Baby mice wine

Some may argue that the Bordeaux region in France produces some of the best wines, but here’s something that probably won’t make the list – baby mice wine. This alleged health tonic involves drowning baby mice in a bottle of rice wine (which presumably tastes like gasoline). It is believed to alleviate asthma conditions and rid liver disease. 

Baby mice in a vat of wine? Why not! Photo credit: Yun Huang Yong / Flickr

2. Balut (fertilised duck eggs)

If you're bothered by the obsession that bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts have with egg whites and protein, how about a balut instead – a fertilised duck egg that's almost ready to hatch, but becomes a delicacy instead. Popular in the Philippines, Thailand and Cambodia (amongst a few other countries too), balut is eaten when the embryos are approximately 17 days old, where the bones are barely formed. How do you eat it? By elegantly sucking out the egg after boiling with a sauce made from chilli, vinegar and garlic! 

Not exactly the kind of weekend brunch you were expecting. Photo credit: kinObe / Flickr

3. Fafaru

Think about Tahiti and you picture beautiful and tranquil French polynesian seas and exotic waterfalls, so when you think about the local cuisine, it is hard to stray away from fresh seafood. Strangely enough, Fafaru is a far-cry from that. Why eat it fresh when you can eat it decomposed? Fish or shrimp is marinated in seawater for three days in the sun, and the contained water is then used to marinate fresh slices of fish. Ironically, you do have to serve the dish after 10 minutes or so with coconut milk to ensure optimal freshness. 

Fresh fish is overrated, but much prettier to look at than Fafaru. Photo credit: Manu / Flickr

4. Kiviak

Here’s a winter wonderland you won’t want to be caught in – eating some traditional kiviak. Made by removing the insides of a seal and then stuffing it with little auks (or birds, for those who don't know), kiviak is eaten particularly during weddings and birthdays seven months after they have been stuffed and sewn up. 

Seal with stuffed auks for winter, anybody? Photo credit: Krassestory

5. Tuna eyeball

Here’s something to look at! This palm-sized tuna eye is going to stare right back at you – even when you're cooking it (lightly) then serving it with light dashi and soy dressing.

What are you looking at? Photo credit: Kenneth Berger / Flickr

6. Huitlacoche

Sure, we may all be some fan of the prized truffle or the common mushroom, but here’s a fungus that you might not actually be able to stomach. Huitlacoche (pronounced as “wee-tlah-KOH-cheh”) is generally found on the ears of corn and is sometimes called corn truffle. This earthy ingredient is sometimes used to flavour quesadillas and soups in Mexico. 

Corn truffles for the foodie in you! Photo credit: Glutton for Life

7. Casu Marzu

Even the most daring cheese-lover may turn his or her nose away from this one. Forget about blue cheese because Casu Marzu has to be top on the list for the strongest smelling (and arguably the most disgusting) cheese ever. In fact, it's so bad that the European Union banned the production of this cheese. So what exactly is it? Well, just an ordinary block of pecorino cheese that's left outdoors for larvae to form, consume and excrete the cheese. Then all you have to do is to top that larvae-infested cheese with some wine. Buon appetito! 

Oh, you know, just some cheese with live larvae on it. 

8. Fried tarantula

Arachnophobes will probably want to skip this one. In fact, even if you're not, you might want to stay away just in case. Considered a regional delicacy in Cambodia, the huge tarantula is usually served in a mixture of sugar, salt, garlic and MSG after an intense oil bath. 

They said anything fried can't be that bad... Photo credit: lets.book / Flickr

9. Surströmming

Herring fish is not a bad ingredient at all, but once it has been fermented the Swedish way, surströmming is going to be one of the most potent and pungent ingredients you're going to use. The typical fermentation process takes approximately six months and enough salt is added to ensure the fish does not decompose, but still, the result of it is a can of repulsive fish that's enough to turn your nose and stomach inside out. 

Not the kind of canned fish you were expecting. 

10. Khash 

When it’s cold and snowy outside, many of us will turn to soup to feel better. In Armenia, Khash is typically consumed as a winter delicacy, which is a warm bowl of cow’s feet, head and tripe (and other mysterious cow parts) boiled all night into a thick, flavourful broth. 

Mmm... delicious warm, wintery broth... wait, is that a cow's head?!

Top 10 facts about Jeremy Corbyn

Corbyn is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Cheese

A great deal has been written about the new Labour leader in the past few days.

Here are some facts you may not have seen.

1. His middle name is Bernard and he was brought up in a seven-bedroom manor house in Shropshire. His mother was a grammar school maths teacher.

2. He lives with his third wife, Laura, a coffee importer from Mexico. He has three sons from his second marriage.

3. He is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Cheese.

4. He gained two E-grade A-Levels, went to North London Polytechnic for a course in Trade Union Studies but left without a degree.

5. In his early childhood he was known by the nickname “Jelly”.

6. He is a vegetarian, does not drink alcohol and does not have a car but rides a bicycle.

7. In 2001 he won the Beard Liberation Front’s Beard of the Year title. Rolf Harris was second.

8. He supports Arsenal and is a member of the In Arsène We Trust group of Arsène Wenger fans.

9. In 2009 and 2010 he claimed the smallest amount in expenses of any MP.

10. When he was living with his first wife they had a tabby cat called Harold Wilson and a black mongrel dog called Mango.