Removing the unwanted

 

We are still recovering here, dealing with only the most necessary first, fighting negative mental thoughts and images along the way.

A few things will be dealt with  in due course such as some remarks on Extra in a series I am buying although it's not in my preferred format and newer legwear given my liking for short skirts even in the fall.

The main thing is a bit more work removing duplicates that happen not because I've had a memory failure buying the same things twice although we've all done that once but more because I compare editions of cds and records looking for the best sounding and in best condition if used ones.

It can take a couple of attempts, sometimes more to get a copy I'm really happy with being at times frustrated at both how some treat their records and cds and just how bad some people are at grading even visually.

It can produce bundles that do take space, space that as we get to CatMas will be needed for new things so they're going Tuesday and the odd clothing item that just didn't work out but is in great shape. 

1,250 post and a show girl

Well this week is officially the 1,250th post on this blog that goes back to time of early social media that made making connections easier, finding out about websites with fairly specific focusing when it came to what they were about  

Today such sites seem endangered - will there be an endangered sites listing  like we have with buildings? - but music was a focus of one and music is an interest of mine going right back to childhood.

This week (technically Friday) saw the release of the 12th Taylor Swift album from here 2006 debut that almost dates this blog really where country music is a given although she's embraced synth pop, hip hop beats, folk and more indie territory with here last release Tortured Poets Society.

It's a bit early to give definitive thoughts as it usually takes several plays before things really settle with me but overall I'd give it a solid 4/5, a little less deep lyrically than the last but having more infectious pop sensibilities and melody, nearer 1989 than subsequent albums.

The main inspiration seems to be a reflection on her life, specifically her career in music that shows in both titles and subject matter.

The opener, The Fate of Ophelia is a personal favourite. 

Testing the system

 With other sad news from within the group in this Saturday afternoon that I may comment on later on in the week when I've crystalized my thoughts, thoughts this weekend were more with setting up the hifi, something I've had to get my head around from my mid teens when I first had separates albeit hand me downs and quality used equipment.

Thins like the Tuner are easy to check, it either gets stations clearly sounding good or it doesn't but things like tape decks and record decks normally need a bit more work and often have specific resources you use with it to check and reset matters.

This is what is called a Test Disc which is basically a record with tests to check the arm is set up correctly, speed is spot on, the left channel really is coming from the left and so on.

They are still available new, a sign of the interest in good vinyl reproduction that some expected to go the way of the Dodo by the end of the 1990's but this is one from 1979 from the magazine HiFi For Pleasure  that I used to read and made for them by PYE Records to their specification.

It's very similar to what I had then and recently I came by a used copy which is useful as the instructions are easy to understand so I used to check and reset my turntable with this weekend.

Now what we need is brand new Cassette Test Tape!
 

The thing that never stopped

A rather damp weekend with not that much on the TV here so I might just put the radio on and listen to a bit of music after a few rough days emotionally when everything has seemed up and down and even the night doesn't bring rest.

 I can remember a point when just nothing seemed to work whatever you had socially just stopped working, nothing was being shared, nothing was offered and you just felt totally isolated from everything you'd know for the period before.

You could ask as much as you like but you never got to the bottom of what this game was really all about, what it was you did wrong or even if you had and it just continued until the lead people just lost the influence they had and others slowly got back to being themselves resuming contact. 

By that point you'd lost trust expecting repeat shows the minute you didn't quite make some group or others grade and it never really stopped.

I'd like to think cycles could be broken but these days I just find it hard to believe. 

Tuning out

 Seeing the news is very meh....

Well we were going to have a long blog entry but on the day in question when I was typing this, I had a couple of blackouts so really aren't up to a lot apart from resting so I did play this that arrived in a bumper consignment of recordings and watch the last night of the proms in the evening.

Surprisingly one two in the six discs released in this installment of the English classical music label Hyperion's vinyl edition that are albums released in the last three years in cd before a vinyl edition was prepared this is a 2025 issue featuring the Nash Ensemble performing four pieces by the french impressionist composer Debussy featuring cello and violin.

The playing is superb, the recordings when issued on cd won great praise, and technically they have a much fuller sound than those whose recollection of classical music on vinyl might of expected with hardly a rustle or click.

I felt for just £21 that was well worth it for some 54 minutes of fine playing.
 

The shape of television to come

 

Things always change.

To the person born in the early nineteen fifties, the big entertainment in the home was the radio which may of been a music program, news and current affairs, weekly drama shows or sports and people would gathered by it listening intently.

By the end of that decade, with the second Commercial channel, Associated Rediffusion, for those here in the Midlands on channel 8, tv had made a grand entrance, taking a prime spot in the living room, pushing the radio to one side.

Probably why can be answered in that sets became cheaper and Commercial television provided more the shows people wanted to watch, quizzes, entertainment shows and drama for children where the BBC still felt it was in order to give viewers what it thought was good for them.

For a long time while we gained things like colour television, the information system, Teletext, stereo sound and wide screen pictures things stayed the same even as satellite television and digital services came in giving us more channels, potentially better pictures and even catch up channels.

Today it seems we are at a crossroads in how both consume television and on what as more people choose individual programs through streaming services  and watching on tablets or the ever present smart phone and yet some are unable to get good mobile or fibre broadband services which makes the suggestion by some in broadcasting that one can just "switch off" television by antenna or a satellite dish one that would impact more remote parts of the UK and the least well off.

Access to news and current affairs, sports and at least some everyday tv shows is part and parcel of the shared culture of us all so to lose that would bring social costs and yet there is no clear vision by broadcasters on the way forward, how gaps in internet services can be reduced and what replaces satellite given many operators don't just wish to lose the costs of sending signals up to satellites but also the infrastructure costs of a network of tv transmitters for reception via your antenna.

Perhaps a report set by Parliament to examine this question making recommendations and a binding agreement by the stakeholders  is what is needed because owners of facilities such as satellite services need to know now so they can commission the next generation of satellites which typically takes some four years ready for 2029/30.

Updating the nows - Now Yearbook 1976

We are back on road, rolling back the years with the Now Yearbook so after a gap as I didn't bother with the 1997 edition we pick up from the 1977 Volume and jump back in 1976 the year of the IMF bail out and the great Summer Heatwave.

Back then we'd be sat around the record player or Hifi feeding discs as that was the dominant recorded music format then with our besties talking and singing along which is a good a reason to get the record version (it's on a four cd version) as that just takes us right back.

Basically we get a selection from the cd version with the only moan from me about where Love Me Like I Love You is, a top 5 Rollers hit it delivers on lime green vinyl.

 Record One kicks off in magnificent style with signature songs from legendary artists: A number 2 in 1976, Queen’s ‘Somebody To Love’ is first up, followed by Electric Light Orchestra with ‘Livin’ Thing’, Fleetwood Mac with ‘Say You Love Me from Rumours’, and 10cc with ‘I’m Mandy Fly Me’. Dr. Hook had a huge hit with ‘A Little Bit More’, and Chicago chart topping number1 with their all-time classic ballad ‘If You Leave Me Now’, while the side closes with Eric Carmen’s enduringly popular ‘All By Myself’. 

Flipping over to Side Two we have huge hits from the year – including 4 number1s: 14 years after making their UK chart debut, Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons enjoyed their first chart-topper with ‘December 1963 (Oh What a Night) following on from their 1975 resurgence’, while Leo Sayer reached number 2 in the UK, and had a number1 in the US with ‘You Make Me Feel Like Dancing’. 

Pop gems follow from David Dundas, Bryan Ferry, Sailor, Smokie – and Slik, featuring a pre-Ultravox Midge Ure reached the top with ‘Forever And Ever’ produced by the same team that had hits with the Bay City Rollers. 

Showaddywaddy celebrated their biggest hit and their first number 1 with ‘Under The Moon Of Love’keeping us entertained that christmas, and the UK won at Eurovision, with the winner ‘Save Your Kisses For Me’ by Brotherhood Of Man not only topping the chart but also becoming 1976’s biggest seller and bringing the first LP to a close.
 

Record Two opens with a stellar run of pure-pop classics. Elton John celebrated his first UK number1 single, in a duet with Kiki Dee on ‘Don’t Go Breaking My Heart’, and Cliff Richard with ‘Devil Woman’, Tina Charles debuted with ‘I Love To Love’ and The Real Thing with ‘You To Me Are Everything’. 

More pop nuggets follow from Billy Ocean and Dana, before the side finishes with R&J Stone with ‘We Do It’ and the evergreen ‘Midnight Train To Georgia’ from Gladys Knight & The Pips.

 Side Two opens with ‘Silly Love Songs’ gave Wings a UK number 2 and became ‘76’s biggest seller in the US and opens a run of great vocalists; Neil Diamond, Daryl Hall & John Oates with ‘She’s Gone’, Paul Simon’s ’50 Ways To Leave Your Lover’ and a trio of the year’s classic rock smashes: ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ from Thin Lizzy, ‘Squeeze Box’ from The Who, and closing with the epic ‘Music’ from John Miles.
 

Record Three celebrates ‘76’s dancefloor scene with a stunning collection of disco and soul gold: First up, Donna Summer with her debut smash ‘Love To Love You Baby’ before ‘More More More’ from Andrea True Connection and Candi Staton’s timeless ‘Young Hearts Run Free’. Melba Moore with ‘This Is It’ comes ahead of Diana Ross with the genre-defining ‘Love Hangover’, and the side is completed with huge floor-fillers from Tavares and Barry White ahead of The Isley Brothers with the soul standard ‘Harvest For The World’.

 On Side Two country music is represented with Dolly Parton making her UK singles chart debut with ‘Jolene’ three years after it was a hit in the US, but it was a Dutch band, Pussycat, who hit the top with their country-pop track ‘Mississippi’. Bonnie Tyler made her chart debut with ‘Lost In France’, and ‘Forever And Ever’ gave Demis Roussos a ’76 chart topper, and an easy-listening classic, whilst Guys N Dolls had a second Top 5 hit with their cover of ‘You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me’. The LP ends with a trio of the year’s most beautiful ballads: Gallagher And Lyle with ‘Heart On My Sleeve’, ‘Love And Affection’ the stunning singles chart debut for Joan Armatrading, and finishing with a second peerless single on this collection from Elton John with ‘Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word’.

This is an enjoyable rump through 1976 in music even if for licensing reasons we have no Abba or David Bowie present.