Whip it. Whip it good.

On Twitter today who cares about National’s education policy, what matters is that the excellent Lawrence Arabia – I really am a fan – is cross. First this:

Had to turn off the Panel due to some fool scoffing at ELO/Olivia Newton John's "Xanadu." What a fucking pleb.

Fair point. And then this:

PS. an indication of my rage is that that was the first time I have used the F word in a tweet.

Another fair point. Lawrence is a very polite tweeter. Next he posted a link to Olivia Newton-John performing ‘Xanadu’. The vid is a bit Mary Poppins at first with all those umbrellas and then later a bit low-budget Busby Berkeley. But still, Olivia:

But wait, here is Jeff Lynne of ELO with ‘Xanadu’. Fair enough, he wrote it:

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With all due respect to ELO and Olivia Newton-John, there is another ‘Xanadu’. Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich of Wiltshire – Salisbury, most of them – had a hit of that name in 1968 and here is their wonderfully insincere video of it. Parental advisory: contains a whip:

Fun fact: DBMT had more Top Ten hits in New Zealand than anywhere else. Among them was “Bend It”, a great favourite of Gilbert and George. Also “Hold Tight” – the Stones weren’t the only band playing like that in 1966: