Whit bank holiday round up

It's the bank holiday here in what has turned out to be very much a month of holidays this year so I will be out shortly sitting out in the sun as the last few days have been the hottest so far this year.

The windows here at Kitty Towers have needed to be open for most of the day not just for fresh air although just how fresh air is with car based pollution, wood burners and b-b-q's going is another matter but just to let some of that heat build up out.

I've been enjoying that Beano Summer Activity Special between playing some new compilations of music by Chuck Berry, in many ways the poet of the rock and roll era and Fats Domino presented in fresh stereo with all the original hit versions and completing the final touches in sorting out my Beano and Dandy classics whose home had to be moved when the new washing machine came earlier on in the month.

Thanks to some odd ideas around door dimensions and layouts it's very difficult to get anything in and out just using the backdoor, you often have to use the front and go through the lounge to the kitchen so much had to be moved.

There should be a new feature or two added in the front garden if you take the grumps word at face value as they are already here to be fitted this weekend.

Think Pink

This week we're not going monochrome which I remember doing in part of 1983 in move that baffled my parents but more monocolour.

Despite what it was doing on Friday, were are leaving Spring for Summer so a few t shirts needed replacing so I bought a couple in pink cos they go with most of skirts and short trousers.

Take the same concept but at foot level with added cuteness with pink Hello Kitty ankle socks to wear too and you can get things being more feminine but on your own terms which is more me than "little girl dresses".

It may not be everyone's idea but I wouldn't want to be in any place that just insists I gender confirm to the narrowest of expression - skirts/dresses only or not allowed in.

After all it is what what women and girls fought against in the classroom and work place for a very good reason.

Footwear of the past II (and something to read)

Well it's a week after the Coronation and a warmish weekend after the damp squid that was much of last week and we are officially going backwards as far as this blog goes, more with an entry in line with its earliest.

Coming I believe Wednesday, after last weeks Coronation inspired edition which given used prices are starting to rise already so I'll keep, is this years Summer Activity Special, the more modern and hip title of what we knew as the Summer Special with quizzes and stickers.

It isn't going to be be available to order at D C Thompson's online shop but can be ordered via Amazon as this has only just emerged unlike most years and I don't know, very few people do know, the across the issue plot as there's been no advance publicity unlike previous years.

If we're going back in time to the years we'd devour that, then there's every probability we'd of been in cute girls ankle socks with your skirt, dress, short tails or short trousers not unlike these and oddly enough I hadn't posted about cute socks for a good few years here.

If we'd of gone back a bit further laying across the floor in our school skirt or pinafore dresses reading or playing you might of been in long socks and these are some white pereline ones with a poppy patterned weave I had recently which are genuine vintage designs.

Everything as it was in an entry just like they used to be on here.

How about that boys and girls?

His Day - The Coronation

 This is a special edition for a number of reasons, one being the subject, the Coronation on Saturday of our King and also because it is the 1,100th post on this blog which is quite something.

It was very much His day as his destiny, to be King was set at birth and like his mother to have a centuries old coronation service but one where leaders of other faiths, a cross section of people by ethnic and other diversity that reflect modern Britain were in attendance, taking part.

These things usually take some planning such as the route to be taken, the nature of the procession and facilities for people who  have come to see it.

The Stage Coach wasn't used this time but a more modern much more comfortable one 

Westminster Abbey was the ultimate destination for the service and ceremony and here page boys assist keeping the train of his robe straight.

After the service with the annotating and crowning of Charles our King but the crowning of Camilla our Queen,  they made there way back to Buckingham Palace where they went on to the balcony to wave to the public

Serving royals and children also joined as here they are looking at the fly past.

Sadly because of the rainfall the full flypast wasn't possible but a foreshortened one featuring the Red Arrows was possible as shown here.

Sunday saw the Coronation Concert from Windsor Castle and here Lionel Richie plays the piano performing Easy, recorded while with The Commodores and All Night Long.

Manchester's Take That did party with their first performance since 2019 performing Shine and Never Forget.

Katy Perry amazed audiences and what a dress!

Updating the Nows - Now Yearbook 1978

The last time we visited the topic of the Now Yearbooks was in early February which was for the three cd Now Yearbook 80-84 Extra as my involvement around this series was with records and the last records we reviewed here were Now Yearbook 80-84, a three lp set of songs from that period not included on standalone releases and the vinyl only five lp per year Extra.

Time flies and while the series has covered 1985 and more recently 1986 given I had original vinyl editions of Now 5 through 8 and the related Hits compilations I skipped over them.

In early September the series did go backwards in time to 1979 and on April 28th this year the series took a further leap back into the 1970's with the release on pink vinyl of the 1978 yearbook which like previous volumes places three lps in inner sleeves into a single outer.

Obviously in condensing four well filled cds to three lps some items are missed out but everything that should be here is and given back then we were on KTel and Ronco edited and more mid fi twenty track single lps this set is a real asset for vinyl fans of chart music of this year.

As with previous editions we get the tracklist but sadly no brief background notes on the tracks which is a pity.

LP1 opens with the epic ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ from Electric Light Orchestra, the timeless ‘Baker Street’ from Gerry Rafferty, and Rod Stewart’s no.1‘Da Ya Think I’m Sexy?’ 

Reggae influenced Pop from 10cc follows, plus Justin Hayward’s ‘Forever Autumn’ from the massive ‘Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds’ album with the first side closeing with sophisticated Pop from Wings, before the peerless ‘The Man With The Child In His Eyes’ from Kate Bush. 

Flipping over to Side Two, a stack of Pop classics from Bonnie Tyler, Clout and Suzi Quatro, before Rock-infused Pop from Billy Joel, Elton John, and the classic ‘(Don’t Fear) The Reaper’ from Blue Öyster Cult.

LP2 is a celebration of Disco in 1978 which was massive. 

A floor-filling run of Disco gold, led by the stunning version of ‘Macarthur Park’ from Donna Summer alongside the sophisticated groove of ‘Le Freak’ from Chic, ‘Boogie Oogie Oogie’, ’I’m Every Woman’, and Odyssey’s ‘Native New Yorker’,.

Side two pays tribute to the incredible line-up of artists in the charts of 1978 with their roots in Punk and beginning the burgeoning New Wave movement , kicking off here with the number one 1 ‘Rat Trap’ from The Boomtown Rats, the era-defining ‘Teenage Kicks’ from The Undertones, and ‘Ever Fallen In Love…’ from Buzzcocks, alongside classic singles from Siouxsie And The Banshees, The Rezillos, The Jam, Elvis Costello & The Attractions, and Patti Smith.

LP3's first side is all about the pure Pop smashes of the year – starting with the Pop brilliance of ‘Take A Chance On Me’ from ABBA, the year’s biggest seller in the UK ‘Rivers Of Babylon’ from Boney M., and Althea & Donna’s Reggae- number one 1 ‘Uptown Top Ranking’, along with Blondie’s breakthrough ‘Denis’, Olivia Newton-John’s smash ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’ from the smash hit film Grease’, Pop gems from Baccara and Renaissance, finishing with the sublime Easy Listening Pop of ‘Lucky Stars’ from Dean Friedman.

 Side two of the final record rounds-up further Dance oriented smashes from Marshall Hain, Eruption, and Hot Chocolate, tributes to the sci-fi craze of the time: ‘I Lost My Heart To A Starship Trooper’, and ‘Automatic Lover’, and drawing to a close with two of 1978’s biggest ballads – the Motown number one smash ‘Three Times A Lady’ from the Commodores, and the classy soul ‘Wishing On A Star’ from Rose Royce.

This set may not have every single track you like but does give a fantastic overview of a very diverse year in music where singles sales were amongst the highest ever in the UK from a year I remember well.