Now Yearbook Vaults 1986

After a bit of a pause - and we're still waiting for the vinyl Now Yearbook 1971 - Now Yearbooks Vault series resumes in the mid 1980's when I was listening to the radio a lot, buying discounted singles and as it was 1986, making a start on a cd collection.

 The vintl edition has some 44 tracks across 3-LPs – pressed in gorgeous purple vinyl – from the 4 cd set but as this was how I listening music for most of the year vinyl's where it's at when it comes to the memories.

The series resumes in 1986 where some singles were overshadowed at the time, some were highlights from albums that had already sold huge amounts, some found greater success internationally – but some like me bought them anyway.

 

Record One opens with ‘Only Love Remains’ a classic ballad from Paul McCartney, a Top 40 hit and the third U.K. single from his ‘Press To Play’ album, and is followed by another beautiful song, ‘The Miracle Of Love’ from Eurythmics, from their ‘Revenge’ album…Billy Idol continued his run of hits with ‘To Be A Lover’ and in the U.S. Tears For Fears enjoyed a hit in ’86 with a re-recorded version of their 1984 U.K. hit ‘Mothers Talk’ whilst Wang Chung hit the Top 3 with ‘Everybody Have Fun Tonight’… Bronski Beat had their final Top 20 hit with ‘C’Mon C’Mon’ and to finish the first side their former singer Jimmy Somerville features with his new band The Communards and their second single ‘Disenchanted’… flip the LP over and 1986 saw David Sylvian release his second solo album ‘Gone To Earth’ and from it the first single ‘Taking The Veil’. Talk Talk follow with ‘Living In Another World’ whilst members of Duran Duran feature in the next two tracks: Arcadia with ‘The Flame’, the last single taken from their album ‘So Red The Rose’, and John Taylor with his first solo single ‘I Do What I Do’, taken from the soundtrack for the film ‘9½ weeks’. Grace Jones features with ‘I’m Not Perfect (But I’m Perfect For You)’ ahead of Swiss duo Yello with ‘Goldrush’ from their acclaimed ‘One Second’ album, and closing LP1, Big Audio Dynamite with ‘C’Mon Every Beatbox’. 

Record Two starts in superb style is Bruce Springsteen with his defining live cover of ‘War’, a Top 20 hit in both the U.S. and the U.K. followed by power-pop from Mike + The Mechanics, The Bangles and Chris Rea with the single version of the title track from his 1986 album – that would become a bigger hit two years later in a remixed version. Sting is up next with the final single – ‘Moon Over Bourbon Street’ – from his debut ‘The Dream Of The Blue Turtles’ ahead of jazz influenced tracks from Carmel and Matt Bianco – and the side closes with The Housemartins and ‘Sheep’ … whilst over on the other side… a stellar opening of alt-pop featuring Cocteau Twins, Siouxsie And The Banshees and The Stranglers. Pop icon Sandie Shaw released the fantastic ‘Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken? And Everything But The Girl’s ‘Come On Home’, the first single from their third album ‘Baby, The Stars Shine Bright’ is featured ahead of the closing trio of sophisticated pop from Fine Young Cannibals, ABC and Nick Heyward with ‘Goodbye Yesterday’ from his Postcards From Home album.

Record Three opens with a run of synth-pop tracks from Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark, Howard Jones, Ultravox and Nik Kershaw, a style that was slowly leaving the charts plus Paul Young, Dee C. Lee and the side’s closing track, a stunning song from Elton John, ‘Cry To Heaven’…and over on the final side Billy Joel enjoyed his 27th U.S. Top 40 single with ‘A Matter Of Trust’, ahead of huge U.S. hits for Daryl Hall, Belinda Carlisle, Heart and Pat Benatar, and to finish, two legendary vocalists: Aretha Franklin with ‘Another Night’ and Lionel Richie with ‘Love Will Conquer All’ which gave him his twelfth consecutive solo Top 10 hit in the U.S.

1986 was diverse, sometimes too diverse but this adds nicely to my original Now and Hits albums with things that missed UK hit centred compilations

The stuff of dreams

Photograph in some capacity or other was always a thing with me from 127 mini roll film cameras, 120 6x6 frame models I had in as a child to the ill-fated Kodak Disc camera to a Vivitar 35mm compact camera that focused itself and even fed the film through.

Then in the mid 1990's came the Olympus full blown system cameras, the OM4 especially with a crateful of lenses, T32 flash, Winder 2 for eating film in seconds and a stash of Practical Photography, Photo Answers  and Photo Techniques magazines, a fair few lurk in the spare room in a box.

While many put their trust in auto focusing and many program modes I was winding film on, focusing by hand and learning metering techniques.

It's fair to say many were more impressed with my pictures than what they'd achieved with those plastic and silicon wonder cameras and really that's where things stayed until I got the Nikon D3500 in 2019 because better results than a compact digital camera for blogs was more what I was needed.

As we entered the 2000's I was more into having films scanned and seeing support for the Olympus OM System drifting away in a radically different world I often thought of a "last film camera system" as while elements of the OM4 were superb such as the spot metering and exposure memory the fastest shutter speed was 1/2000th of a second, the fastest speed I could with flash was a miserly 1/60th which wasn't so go good for fill-in flash and doing multiple exposures was messy.

Thus for many a year I coveted what in many was a much simplier camera that could use a good number of the auto focus lenses that were easier to get and often had modern internal designs.

The Nikon FM2n that originally came out in this form in 1982 was it, with a precision  mechanically controlled shutter that went up to 1/4000th of second but a shutter that could work with flash up to 1/250th of second which was more usable.

Being mechanical, it only needed a couple of LR or SR44 batteries for the meter indicator showing if needed less or more exposure even if that was centre-weighted which I was used to and could predict any errors.

The top plate was delightfully fuss free and overall ergonomics were fantastic - it would just let you get on with things with the eyepiece held to your eye with not one menu tree to explore.

Talking of eye pieces it took 19mm circle correction lenses for those of us who struggle with things in the distance and this variable one just screws in making focusing easy.

Back then there was much arguing in camera clubs and magazines about the best sorts of lenses to use I decided as this was "for best" we'd go with a 50mm so-called standard lens as I found the quality was a bit better and as they had wider apertures than most standard zooms you could more easily get backgrounds out of focus which helps.

I feel lost without that 50.

This example was from 1982, a little more plastic than the earliest but a great performer.

Using that lens with this Teleplus 2x converter doubles the focal length so it becomes a telephoto lens and by setting the focus to 0.45 metres and turning the minimum distance ring on this 2x converter it becomes a macro lens capable of reproducing things life size saving on having a separate lens for that.

I always had a spare Tamron 28mm wide angle lens as it was razor sharp and light, ideal for scenic or whole buildings.

Sometimes you might wish to go wider although you need to think carefully about composition and metering as often sky will show in a good portion of the picture.

This 20mm lens was available in both Vivitar and Cosina brands although in truth both came from the same factory and offers that ultra wide view.

I went with the Cosina branded version as it was noticeably cheaper!

For when I wanted a telephoto I have bear in mind one major thing that doesn't apply as much with digital cameras - the total weight of a camera and lens needs to be below when my hands shake otherwise I'd be totally restricted to photographing with a tripod which isn't always the most practical.

Better quality telezooms that equal single length telephoto lenses in quality and lens speed are both very expensive and very heavy - too heavy for me - so I decided I would compromise with a slightly slower 135mm (F3.5) telephoto as it's things within that range I tend to use use for telephoto work and they tend to be the lightest models.

The loss of half a "F stop" isn't that noticeable in practice 

Being of simpler construction often in more difficult conditions the image quality can be better with less reflectance internally.

That for decades that dream lived on as just that but soon for one last time I'll have that as a new (to me) film camera and accessories, the last ever one I'll need skewed to my needs to use purely for fun.

That's what I tend to miss the most in the digital era.

A day out

Bone ache isn't my idea of fun to be honest but when you have made arrangements to be out you can only either stay at home  or strap up, take painkillers and just replan how you are going to spend the day out.

Fortunately we live in a community that's very much that, one community of different backgrounds so everybody and every group does things and we all join in so you don't have to be involved in the life of the over 60's club at the Village Hall to take part in things they do such as an annual trip to Llandudno on a locally owned touring coach with all mod cons.

And when it only costs you £15, well it's cheaper than diesel even if I could drive plus it's more social so we have a raffle which raised £140 towards Alzheimer's support and yes I actually won three prizes, shortbread, biscuits and fruit wine which the Grump can have as I'm totally dry.

We set out at 9am prompt and got there skirting the M56 near Ellesmere Port after getting on the M6 at Sandbach by 10:47 which I though was good going,

Given the knees were off and I was off foot for part of Friday grand tours of shops were off so I went a chunk of my time enjoying the sun, going along the promenade talking with people from this conurbation and the Black Country as you do, watching some Car and Vintage bike events and the epic battle between man and seagull for the chips.

It was good to see the pier had been not merely restored but remade for a more modern age following last years storms that caused considerable damage, replacing units hat had seen better days and adding a dining experience looking out to see.

Talking of dining I had Cod, mushy peas and chips at the Coffee Centre café next to what was M&S that was delicious.

You can't avoid this, a rabbit hole of a different sort marking Lewis Caroll's connection with the town, in it in its new coat which had a lot of children including a Guides pack all having their picture taken next to it.

We set off at 5pm and elthough experiening some delays along the A55  near Prestatyn we got back and in for 6:50 to grab and salad and tea.

Weather held up well with sun and temperatures around 19 degrees C (we don't use other measurements here) which made being out enjoyable even if plans needed to be changed.

Lilliput Lane

The wet week and the continuation of past trends that started while Mom was very much alive but got paused in the focus free world of the Grump where things just went including things that were promised by her to me at the time just cos he wanted the space for something of his.

There were figurines and a lot of glassware which to be candid isn't really my thing but you might say that was one of her special interests in later life.

The other thing were resin cast historic building such as farms, houses and schools which were things I rather liked too apart from cute resin Beatrix Potter characters I started buying in the 1980's.

Lilliput Lane was founded in 1982 by David Tate. The company was known for its extensive range of realistic miniature handmade models of real English and Welsh cottages and scenes.

Formerly based in Workington, and Penrith in Cumberland the company moved to Langholm in 2009 but stopped operations in 2016.

David died from cancer a year later.

A couple of these kind of "went" in 2023.

Recently I had the opportunity to acquire in it's full boxed edition the Borrowdale School in the Snow Cottages series they had made complete with the replica deeds 

As befits the Victorian era, the school itself is in an imitation stone look, rugged with large windows a must given gas lighting even took a long while to get established even in urban settings, to make the most of natural light.

It's now homed well out of a certain paws way, filling some of the void.

Teenbeat: One more night...

One before the Bank Holiday and the body recovers from the recent heat we return to things that spin and the period where I was very much listening to tapes having a "Walkman" and rather expensive cassette deck to the point not a few things were bought on pre-recorded tapes whatever my thoughts on "dolby" happen to  be.

I did pick up Phil Collin's first two albums on vinyl a while back when they were re-released by Analogue Productions in association with Atlantic Records in the United States as part of the series marking that labels 75th anniversary.

They came in deluxe gatefold sleeves and were cut at 45 rpm for better sound so effectively they became doubles but given the first album run for rather a long time that was a big gain in dynamics and tight clean bass.

One they didn't do was his third album No Jacket Required coming in between two Genesis albums while he plays drums and usually lead vocals - Genesis and Invisible Touch - 

It's quite likely you have this album - it was a massive seller in the UK, Canada, the U.S. and much of Europe and even if you don't you'll know the singles from it such as Sussudio, Take Me Home and One More Night which President Reagan that year said was a song he really liked.

Whatever you might think of his politics he was right,  it is a great song looking at the feelings you have for another who you love deeply, delivered sensitively. 

When it came to the album licensing this differed as in the UK and the Republic of Ireland he (and Genesis) were signed to Virgin Records whereas in other territories it was with Atlantic part of the then mighty WEA (Warner Bros, Elektra/Asylum and Atlantic) group.

That's why we get this clear vinyl remastered edition that does tame so of the very 80's production to improve the focus on Phil's vocals without losing any detail and that while this is intended for North America, it's pressed by Gz in the Czech Republic where originals were cut and pressed in the territory such as the United States or Germany. 

Personally a few decades on I am glad to have a fine vinyl version of this classic album for the collection where it will be loved.

Childhood pasts

Not the greatest of weeks with the heat and that but thoughts were running backwards this week  so here's a few thoughts from the past.

Despite learning to ape stereotypical "Ugh! you expect ME to like that?" comments complete with actions actually i loved cute stuffies and frilly linen on beds and tables

In era when saying that was likely to see you ostrasized if not assaulted, you learned not merely to keep your mouth shut  but even not show any physical expression of interest never mind actually liking them.

We did play games even if for some of time you were on the "wrong" side of the playground and even if games were mixed you preferred to play the girls role.

Kiss chase is a traditional playground game similar to tag we played. One player or group is "it" and chases participants of the opposite sex. When a player is caught, they receive a kiss. The caught person then becomes the chaser.

How to Play. Choose Who is "It": One group (traditionally boys or girls) counts to ten while the other group runs away.The Chase: The chasers run to catch a member of the opposing group.

The Catch: Tagging someone requires a quick kiss (usually on the cheek) upon capture.Switching Roles: The person who got caught and kissed now joins the chasing team, or roles swap entirely after everyone is caught

We also played Kiss, cuddle or torture This was simply a game of chases involving boys and girls, usually in the school playground. When caught, the boy would offer the girl a choice: kiss, cuddle or torture. 

Boys frequently played war games that involved torture sometimes getting close to seeing the Headmaster given the intensity of them. Actual military nterrogation would of only been marginally worse. 

I totally hated it.

This sort of more romance based play was more my thing.

Life was simpler then.

August round up

 

It's been a bit of move around and change kind of a week as I rest the mantelpiece following the acquiring of a Kensington Giftware resin set of a family of really really cute bears in pink dresses where one of Mom's porcelain wheelbarrows with flowers on it replaced a round brass pot with a grid on that I wasn't too keen on to be honest. 

I had to clean the contacts in a old "Bridge" camera as the batteries had leaked although technically they expired in March and I'd forgotten all about it with all the usual domestic mither I get in the course of a week but at least it's working which did concern me initially.

I put a note in the flap where the lens hood goes to remind of when the batteries were fitted and expiry date which might help looking into the long term.

The taking ages David Gilmour About Face album arrived while away so it got cleaned, sleeved as the original was one of those card ones that foxes, leaching onto the disc adding noise and with any luck the first Olivia Dean album, Messy from 2023 should be with me soon for a fair bit less than the usual price.

I've been enjoying the comedy drama series Ann Droid with Sue Johnston in a lot over the last few weeks on the BBC as to be honest I'm more of a radio kind of a girl.

Anyway round up is over and now back to tea!