Christmas edition

 By the time you read this I should be back from being away for a pre christmas get together playing games, competitions such as a version of the hit BBC show Pointless and a meal together,

Things have been hotting up here with visits, errands with CatMas cards, last minute organizing and so on but I did dig out a few favourite records to play in the gaps apart from cds of Carols from Kings as well I love a carol or two.

There will be a pause until at least after Boxing Day this year although I'm not quite show this year what the next post will be here.

All that remains is to wish you all a Happy Christmas and all the best for 2025.

kk

Moving towards the day

One more week before we go on the CatMas pause here as not much Tm will happen until after we've actually got through the christmas period with things like cards to write, preparations to be with friends just before Christmas week - bit of a first with me - and the inevitable visits although to be fair CatMas with Mom doesn't seem the same.

This weekend scouts will be out ho-ho-ho with Mr Claus although due to leadership recruitment issues the local Brownies folded a few years back, more's the pity  so they won't but in GirlGuiding there is a actually a Christmas badge and this is one from that bleak period in 2020 that I'm sure really helped.

As ever, across the area the signs are all though from candy canes, reindeer's of many sizes, post boxes for santa to leave his presents and many elves.

The official trees are are up, the council tree on a green presently soggy lung, one by the CoE church and this the one we the community raised funds for as it is where it can be used for carols and other gatherings, all illuminated and decorated.

I might just add this is first post on the new Chromebook since it arrived last week and was set up.

Replacing ones Chromebook

Friday it must be said wasn't a good day beyond even the mini tornado we had in the morning tearing up trees and blocking roads off.

I had problems with one cellphone sim provider, a laptop that died as the gales raged around me with no prior warning and the trackbar went on my Chromebook. Trying to control it with a mouse on your lap isn't so easy.

That the three things in a day your mothers always caution you of saying the pattern to be complete before things can get better

So after sorting out the laptop - ordered from the supplier of the last one a good decade ago - we got on to the task of looking for a brand new chromebook maybe something a bit beyond the basic educational models.

I found an Asus Cx3402CB with an interesting back story of being bought, opened once only for owner to find it wasn't a Windows notebook that seemingly he wanted (I wouldn't get one unless it was a fully spec'd and featured laptop).

This one he was selling this which had everything a Chromebook Plus had outside of the AI I was less bothered about such as 8gb of ram to fight sites like Tumblr and Reddit with with their ridiculously massive continuous feeds of photographs each far bigger than the screen needs to display clearly really driving your hardware trying to keep it all loading smoothly and some 256gb of solid state memory.

It is a bit bigger too, 14 inches rather than the usual 11  to 12.5 inch which helps the peepers read the text with less eyestrain.

It was all there with less than one hour use, wiped, for a massive discount and setting up is as easy as entering your Wifi stuff,  adding your account and you're done.

Another advantage of being bigger is a bit more space between the keys so it helps cross that rubicon between Chromebook and MacOs or Windows 11 when it comes to productivity and the bigger screen helps when using things like Pixlr to edit pictures with or working with Google Docs

We'll see how this unexpected pre-christmas present works out.

Playing again

 

Bit of a damp squid of a weekend outside, another missing cat in the neighbourhood this time white and from someone whose only just moved into the neighbourhood so the microchip details aren't up to date and a few things coming from the Swan.

So I've been playing a few Beatles records I bought ten years ago that at one place people keep on saying they never got and now they're really expensive used as they've been unobtainable for a good few years new.

Now there's always people who just get into something, an author, a series of models or whatever late in the day but a number of folks just kept putting off being them and you didn't have to buy the box set which I didn't but individually which I did a few at a time from the cheapest sources.

What I have now is a bit better, replacing cartridges and what not and while obviously these records aren't any better than when they were bought and well cared for, the quality in them shines a fair bit more from early albums like A Hard Day's Night which in the U.K. was a thirteen track album of all beatle performances and that great compilation Mono Masters that compiles single and that which sounds better than my late 1970's box set of singles.

That's great as set of artifacts but the limits in cutting seven inch records not least for inexpensive portable players to avoid jumping does show on modern high quality equipment.

Snowy refections toward Winter

Last week Winter came early as temperatures plunged to minus four, snow came although for us it was around two and half to just over three centimetres unlike our neighbours higher up who had more of it and in some spots such as around Ilam in the Staffordshire Moorlands school was closed as the village was cut off.

Those kinds of experiences I remember quite well from the days of walking through the snow at school, armed with change for the callboxes in case I needed to summon help and a few hours later writing down after tea all about it.
 

When I say writing down all about I don't mean just a cold factual this is what happened today list with linking words statement, I mean writing about how I felt about about it, what thoughts were going through my mind.

 

That wasn't easy given the whole idea of reflection is something that never was talked about and it was rare for people to ask you even what you felt about anything, so like you had feelings but often great difficult in knowing where to start conveying them.

But I did seem to find I could find a way of doing it "on paper" if perhaps I might well be more expressive if we could go off somewhere quiet with a few dolls and show more through play how I was feeling.
 

That's why in a way being along this more child-like pathway really has over the years been better for me cos at least it helps in getting that whole side better so you do feel okay about showing more about your emotions and knowing just how and what you feel about things.

Sometimes people conflict what they may think about and idea or thing a person did which you may feel is wrong with how as a person, when you know and have been with them heaps they really are even if perhaps you don't agree with something or other they are doing.

I met and have spent time with some very famous people for hours on end, sometimes with their family too outside of politics, public roles and so on so it kind of irritates me to hear people saying "X was Evil" for some policy that you may of disagreed with, perhaps even with good reason that cannot be equated to that of an evil act, when you know they were just not like it cos You had been with them just talking, enjoying a meal, even perish the thought, playing with them.

You also know how kind they were to you personally, even offering you help at garden parties and children's parties on landed estates, playing games, rowing along pools and lakes.

Sometimes I feel that funny adult trend of judging people by things like politics really makes little sense as you really don't know anything about the person themselves.

It won't be long before the big countdown to Christmas begins so the Advent calender is ready to go up in a week or so.

Sun in stereo!

It's a few years since I looked at a series that rounded up around a theme a group of mainly American hits typical twenty-five or more and presented them in something called "Digitally Extracted Stereo" or D.e.s. for short.

This is very different than often crude and hard to listen to attempts to create stereo from mono recordings either by smothering in echo or pushing low and hi notes to the left or right channel and does create a realistic sounding stereo spread with instruments and even whole vocals seperated out and placed. 

This latest volume looks at Sun Records, the Memphis, Tn, label that was one of the very first to launch rock and roll from the mid 1950's and covers many hugely influential artists and songs often covered by others not least the "British Invasion" groups of the mid 1960's. 

We get prime slices of Elvis in his pre RCA output, Jackie Brenston's Rock 88 arguably the first ever rock and roll record ever, rockabilly by Carl Perkin's including Honey Don't as featured by the Beatles on the album Beatles '65, Jerry Lee Lewis  and the Big O himself Roy Orbision.

Country is also represented with Charlie Rich and Johnny Cash too.

These are the original hit recordings sounding as full and clear as they can from very good sources and if you are lacking a sampler of the Sun Records output can be strongly recommended.

Updating the nows - Now Yearbook 1977

We pick up from ourlast main entry from May 6th  where we went back to 1974 with this, the 1977 edition as we didn't bother with vinyl copies of the outstanding 80's and 90's editions released between these two.

 

1977 was many things.

It was the year of the Silver Jubilee with all the street parties, events including presentations of commemorative mugs at school marking it, it was when officially I became a teenager when magazines like Look-In and features on pop music mattered as I was very much into music back then.

It was the year that saw much of the mainstays of 1972-1976 drop out of the charts and new more direct "new wave" bands come in.

We had The Muppet Show on ATV at the weekends that was must see tv which for us back then was in colour and Mutli-Coloured Swap Shop on the BBC although we loved 'Tiswas" on ATV Saturday mornings.

It was also ten years since Radio One started in September 1967.

As with all vinyl editions this is a three lp version reduced to just 49 tracksand reordered to fit the format compared with cd versions with single thin jacket and lined inners.
 

We kick off LP1 with a timeless anthem from Queen with ‘We Are The Champions’ from the News of the World album and followed by the huge instrumental rock of ‘Fanfare For The Common Man’ by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. 

The song that would open ‘Live Aid’ years later is next up from Status Quo with their signature ‘Rockin’ All Over The World’although it was written by John Fogarty, and followed with classic pop-rock from 10CC with ‘Good Morning Judge’ and Yes with their huge hit ‘Wonderous Stories from the Going For The One allbum.’. 

Hot Chocolate enjoyed their first #1 with ‘So You Win Again’, and Donna Summer and Boney M. both make the first of two appearances on this collection with Top 3 pop smashes ‘Love’s Unkind’ and ‘Ma Baker’….

Flipping over for a side two we are celebrating easy-listening pop brilliance, and opening with a run of four #1s: Manhattan Transfer with ‘Chanson D’Amour’, David Soul with the UK and US #1 ‘Don’t Give Up On Us that some were infactuated with’, Leo Sayer with another trans-Atlantic chart topper ‘When I Need You’, and Deniece Williams with ‘Free’. 

Olivia Newton-John’s ‘Sam’ continues the run of pop gems that also includes #1 ‘Angelo’ from Brotherhood Of Man’, ‘You’re Moving Out Today’ from Carole Bayer Sager and Meri Wilson’s unforgettable ‘Telephone Man’. The superb vocals from Elkie Brooks on ‘Pearl’s A Singer’ closes the first LP in style.

LP2 opens with an amazing run of punk and new wave classics that I mentioned at the start: The Stranglers with ‘No More Heroes’, The Clash with their debut ‘White Riot’, Ramones with ‘Sheena Is A Punk Rocker’, and The Jam with their first Top 20 hit ‘All Around The World.

 Elvis Costello with the classy ‘Watching The Detectives’ leads into defining tracks from Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers with Roadrunner, Boz Scaggs, and Ram Jam plus a hit from the tv soundtrack to ‘Rock Follies'.

Flipping over to side 2 European disco leads the hits with Baccara’s chart-topping ‘Yes Sir, I Can Boogie’, alongside massive tracks from Belle Epoque and the debut ‘Daddy Cool’ for Boney M. ‘The Crunch’ from The Rah Band was an instrumental smash, as was disco-flavoured re-working of the ‘Star Wars’ theme which gave Meco a US chart topper. 

The side winds down with two of the years’ biggest soul ballads – the Floaters hit #1 in August with ‘Float On’, and the Commodores released an all-time classic, with ‘Easy’, featuring Lionel Richie on vocals.

The concluding LP opens with one of music’s defining moments: Donna Summer’s #1 ‘I Feel Love’ with its production showcasing the role of the synthesizer – the track not only signalled the future direction of pop music but has also filled dancefloors since its 1977 release. 

The Trammps ‘Disco Inferno’, Heatwave with ‘Boogie Nights’, The Emotions’ ‘Best Of My Love’, Rose Royce with ‘Car Wash’, chart newcomers Chic with ‘Dance, Dance, Dance’, ‘Nights On Broadway’ from Candi Staton and side-closer ‘Don’t Leave Me This Way’ from Thelma Houston all feature here in a stellar run to celebrate disco as one of the dominant genres in 1977 and was set to dominate in future years.

The final side opens with the sumptuous ‘Telephone Line’ from the Electric Light Orchestra, and ‘Silver Lady’, the second track and second #1 from David Soul on this collection.. Smokie had an enduring hit with ‘Living Next Door To Alice’, and 10cc hit big again with ‘The Things We Do For Love’. 

Liverpool Express and Alessi Brothers enjoyed hit ballads, whilst 1977’s singles chart saw ‘Way Down’ from Elvis Presley go to #1 in the wake of his death of which I did own a copy at the time. The final track is 1977’s biggest seller – the first single to sell over two million copies! – and the years’ Christmas #1!! as ‘Mull Of Kintyre’ from Paul McCartney & Wings closes this retrospective.

That was the last single I bought in 1977 after Jonathan Richman's Egyptian Reggae and that diversity is really what I loved pop music back then and the loss of Marc Bolan that year hit more more than Elvis Presley not least as I'd spent half my life following growing up with him.