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.

GHS Halloween Party

Well it may get done today as we're doing things a bit differently, a bit more rapidly than usual  but we did get away against most odds with a host issues to work through but it did happen.

Fun thing number one was having booked a cab to get the main rail station here rather limited services more directly "in area", the cab is running late which meant it was as well I allowed very generous timings from projected arrival to when the first preference train would depart.

Then you find the driver doesn't know one route at all although they had a sat nav app on their smartphone and doesn't seem to know the other that well so by the time you encounter roadworks and diversions, well my work is cut out remember 15 year old routes from roughly when we had a car, that went across that area and the back routes to the Town centre.

We did get there thank heavens in reasonable time, enough to buy a Royal British Legion remembrance badge from the sellers at the station and get on platform five for the Avanti service to London Euston that did call where I wanted quicker and the dash to get another cab to the venue.

I arrived doing a quick change act to more suitable skirt before chatting and having a cod and chips tea which having not eaten since midday was much appreciated.

Things were somewhat spookiness inside and out and on Saturday a few others had come as I read my comic and chatted a bit before settling down to a burger and fried onions ready for the Treasure Hunt which took the form of racing around the garden trying to find sheep to which you then place in a pen after having each one recorded.

We then moved on and in my instance took off coat and jumper to Lantern making from carving a pumpkin which had proved a bit elusive in some areas to get but fortunately Jennifer had bought one for me which also saved something more reminiscent of carrying a old school Medicine Football and that was mine carved. 

By early evening it was time for the fireworks display as we battled out out with the massive display in the West Midlands for bangs getting though a good number of fireworks and unlike last year we it was dry which was more fun.

I got through three sparklers which is a lot more than usual as post accident I have massive grip and shaking issues in my hands to the point I didn't safe holding a  flaming *anything* in my hands with dropping either on me or anyone else but did manage that which was personal triumph after all these decades.

We had a bring along a bit of something buffet afterwards, with me avoiding anything connected with cheese for reasons those who know will well understand (you wouldn't want to next me if accidentally had any!)

That was followed by Jennifer's General Knowledge and Music quiz which I score a reasonable 29 out of fifty and a good laugh was had taking part in which is the bigger thing really.

After what seemed an eternity for those of us on early bedtimes, we did get to sleep after talking through the next meet up and other related stuff to get up later the next morning for a Bacon sandwich before heading for a meal.

The meal was scrumptious, I opted for a Turkey Roast, a Sticky Toffee Treacle sweet and a orange flavoured J20 which I must admit was the for time I drunk one and it was really smooth which helped my throat a bit.

Everybody else's look good, was well presented and we had steady walk back before people made their way back home before Iris and Mary kindly offered me a lift to the station where although we had missed one by minutes the next wasn't long back home to the door at decent hour.

I'd like to thank Jennifer for her hospitality, Andi for the trifle, help in the kitchen plus technical support with fireworks and everybody for making it a fun time

* assembled on Asus Chromebook with NO processing or picture editing*

Classical music round up 2024 - bits from the past

I was a bit late getting up this morning  even though I was in bed  and asleep according to my set bedtime although that's probably down to the business around moving from Daylight Saving Time  and how that affects your body clock.

We're a bit busy with getting ready for the spooky weekend but in the throws of that I revisited a set of four really quite old records of mine.

Piano music is a favourite of mine either solo or in the form of a concerto with other instruments typically a full orchestra and Beethoven wrote a set of five such concertos for piano and orchestra which remain hugely popular even today.

This is the third in series of I have that were recorded around 1961-3 for the first time in stereo by the acclaimed pianist Wilhelm Kempff with accompaniment from the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by  Ferdinand Leitner.

The whole set came on four lps, and this like the others is an original  with the "Tulip" logo on the record label.

Given they are over sixty years old, I gave them a very thorough cleaning to remove anything that in that time had worked its way into the groove which helps as there are a good many very quiet passages that don't like any intrusions of dirt and other debris.

That's the rear and it does also show the more usual thick spine with title wasn't commonplace back then as this doesn't have nor do Decca albums of the same era although I have to say the more modern spines with titles are much easier when hunting for your recordings when in racks.

As for the playing, the orchestra is a full on with modern instruments that won't impress those who favour using replicas of eighteenth century instruments but the playing especially the piano just sweep you along in their romanticism which to me is most apt as you just focus on the playing.

It's a set that although there have been a number of great modern accounts  that may offer modern musical scholarship and digital recording you just find yourself very much coming back to.

Two thousand posts

Time creeps up on you. At least that is how it appears to me barking a little still recovering as we look back to another time when as ones world went more electronic and internet based, the scrapbook became more of a electronic blog although what people do with blogs does vary.

The earliest of posts had their origins elsewhere from when various emergent social media tried adding things to keep you more on their pages as we walked out of the walled channels of news and information our internet providers offered to more user friendly browsers that let us store sites we'd look up things more for ourselves from and sites offered unique content such as discussion on music going from the those Use.net boards to sites that looked at things around gender, interests such as anime and things for those of us who loved our past experiences in childhood, realizing that actually there are many of us whether or not it's about the things you did, they way you dressed, what the heck, the life you loved and still love.

This blog always was a mixture of that and all the interests  cos in me at least it is all wrapped in one package - always was - just being yourself in carefree and totally innocent way which for me at least much of adult life just fly over me me like some airplane you read of in a book but never really on that whole projection as it went whizzing by.

That was never my trip, just obviously minding the way how as an adult in law the way things go and the things that clearly could never be but then as time went by you found others of a similar mindset to whom just playing more that way, that was okay (being by law adults) well clear of anything "off" or gets your "ick".

That's the thing between the pages of this journal not always in chronological order often following some sequence, sometimes things from the past I recall, often things in the present, the life as lived and the two thousand of them is what today we celebrate.

Improvements at the sharp end

We're an issue away from an anniversary here, recovering from this flu thingy and one thing that has run from the early days of this blog wrapped around all the things around being, presentation, age dypshoria/regression has been music and to be specific the evolution over the decades of how I hear it.

Records do play a fair part in that although the way things go is hat some recordings may not be on record but say compact disc and some often older albums may not of had (or had less than satisfactory) an issue in that format.

Thus the record deck itself has had upgrades from simple automatic models of my youth to more complex hifi models that play just one disc at a time.

Also the cartridge and stylus have had changes to with them of getting more out of what is in the groove and less of what isn't such as surface noise from the disc itself.

Recently I bought this which offers in a sme bayonet style form a clearer modern cartridge body to which a nude eliptical stylus is fitted to better fit the groove and extract more information.

Compared to others it is a better match for the arm with less lower mid resonances that however slight can make themselves heard.

This sounds just great through my phonostage that takes its output and raises it to play though the amplifier much better than its own built in one.

Now Yearbook Vault 1984

I did suggest it was going be a busy period on music releases last week and on Friday while sneezing my nosy off something a bit familar but also a bit different arrived.

Now Yearbooks, we covered them here looking from 1982 and before with 1977 due next month, rounding up on three very well filled lps the main hits of each year complement my original Now and Hits Lps from the 1983 and 4 respectively and then some older compilations.

In June Now launched a sub series VAULTS, which aims to cover minor hits of the sort that tended to pad out our Ronco and K Tel sets as much as we may of preferred some of them to the big hits back in the day and also American Hits which unless someone did a American Hit compilation you didn't get so I'd buy the 45's where available.

We didn't bother with 1983 as that was well covered on the vinyl front and I have many American and Canadian acts albums from that year I liked anyway so the initial title got a miss here.

Yesterday though they issued Vaults 1984 which although 1984 is well represented with a half of Now 2 and the whole of Now 3 and 4 plus the first Hits  did miss out a number of these min or hits and American hits that never were over here so I thought "What the heck!" and ordered it.

Like the regular Now Yearbooks on LP, these are coming out in three lp sets, three discs stuffed in a single sleeve which means we do miss some of the tracks from the 4 cd version in cheapskate wraparound card or fuller book forms but most of the essentials make it.

Record one  begins with some pop gems from established artists such as Heaven 17, ABC, and Scritti Politti ahead of Wild Life a U.S. single release from Bananarama followed by the solo debut from Helen Terry who had sung back-up vocals on the previous years’ massive seller ‘Colour By Numbers’ from Culture Club features along with Level 42, Soft Cell and Talk Talk who close the first side with ‘Such A Shame’. 

Flipping the record over we get to enjoy the sumptuous vocal pairings of Teddy Pendergrass and Whitney Houston, and Dennis Edwards and Siedah Garrett. The side also features the debut from the Colour Field, M+M’s ‘Black Stations/White Stations’, a commentary or racially defined radio in the States and established artists Tom Robinson and Marillion.

Record Two kicks off with a stunning collection of indie-pop, including Cocteau Twins, Siouxsie And The Banshees, The Icicle Works and the Top 40 debut from Everything But The Girl… plus Malcolm McLaren, The Associates and Blancmange with their cover of ABBA’s ‘The Day Before You Came’, whilst the dance-floor beckons on the other side with electro-dance and Hi-NRG from Sheila E., Divine, Evelyn Thomas, Miquel Brown, and chart regulars Shalamar, Donna Summer and Sheena Easton – with Arrow closing the LP with carnival favourite ‘Hot Hot Hot’.

The final record focuses on singles that found chart success in the U.S. and opens with Culture Club’s ‘Miss Me Blind’, which didn’t get a single release in the U.K, alongside a selection of U.S. new-wave hits from The Fixx, a British group who found more success in the States, Go-Go’s and The Cars. Synth-led tracks from The Psychedelic Furs, Visage and Sparks close the side. 

The Pretenders open the final side with ‘Show Me’, which was a U.S. hit, but not issued as a single in the U.K. Daryl Hall & John Oates, and Rick Springfield continued their run of Stateside hits and Bon Jovi debuted with ‘Runaway’. Scorpions and Judas Priest are up next with rock classics ‘Rock You Like A Hurricane’, and ‘Freewheel Burning’… and the concluding moment is given to ZZ Top with ‘TV Dinners’ one of four singles from their massive ‘Eliminator’ album.

It's a slightly off the beaten track musical overview of 1984 covering much that wasn't on those pioneering 1984 compilations regardless of quality and for those reasons gains a spot in my vinyl compilation collection

Now Millennium series part iv

It's all gonna be happening as the count down for the Christmas season record release schedule begins so batten your hatches, get the Winter Tires ready and let's resume from where we were in June this year with those Millennium compilations from Now That's What I Call Music.

We'd been going for a bit on this blog after everything in the adult world got so messed up I needed time out to recover which in part at least is where all else really fitted in so rather like in childhood the radio played a part with presenters playing hit tunes forming a part of those memories.

From the early nineteen-nineties though the chart moved more away from mainstream pop and rock to more club based sounds and various sub genres such as Grunge, "Shoegazing" etc so what I bought for myself typically on cd based albums was different which is really where a set like this fits in gathering enough of those other sounds you recall but didn't even bother with the four or more double cd Now numbered compilations back then as the misses to hits ratio with you would be rather high.

As mainstream chart as it got with me was a fully functioning reborn Take That and the North Wales retro fused female singer Duffy.

As is the standard in this series, each year has two distinct discs and my copy being the book form has short write ups about the songs and chart performance which all helps bring it all back.

Disc One kicks off with a run of pop gold, Take That’s triumphant #1 ‘Greatest Day’, the band’s 11th #1 single, starts the count for #1’s on this album followed by Girls Aloud’s BRIT Award winning homage to the sounds of the 60s, ‘The Promise’, another UK #1.  Britney leads a string of fabulous pop hits with the infectious ‘Womanizer’ before P!nk’s #1 ‘So What’ and Kylie Minogue’s ‘Wow’. 2008 Was a great year for new and breaking acts; Katy Perry announced herself to the world with the hit ‘I Kissed a Girl’, while The Saturday’s second single ‘Up’ shattered the high expectations set by their debut single. Duffy’s excellent  jazz-inflected smash ‘Mercy’ sits neatly alongside other jazz and swing-inspired hits on this disc with Alesha Dixon’s ‘The Boy Does Nothing’, Gabrielle Cilmi’s ‘Sweet About Me’, and Sam Sparro’s ‘Black and Gold’. Closing off Disc One are a pair of X-Factor superstars with Alexandra Burke’s debut UK #1, Xmas #1 and the best-selling single of 2008: ‘Hallelujah’, and Leona Lewis’ powerful cover of Snow Patrol’s ‘Run’.

Disc Two opens with the epic Coldplay’s  ‘Viva La Vida’ followed by The Killers’ indie dancefloor chart-topper ‘Human’. Back in 2008 we saw some huge trance-pop hits such as Basshunter kicking off a run of dance classics with their emphatic ‘Now You’re Gone’ before Scooter brings a similarly irresistible energy with ‘Jumping All Over The World’. Eric Prydz’s ‘Pjanoo’, Ultrabeat’s ‘Disco Lights’, and H Two O’s essential ‘Whats It Gonna Be?’ follow. Enduring playlist favourites from The Script (‘The Man Who Can’t Be Moved’), Kid Rock (‘All Summer Long’) and Nickelback (‘Rockstar’) lead into Oasis’ psychedelia-infused alt rock track ‘The Shock Of The Lightning’. To close this review of 2008, we have great bands including The Kaiser Chiefs, Snow Patrol, and Radiohead with ‘Nude’.

Disc Three and our review of 2009 opens with the Black Eyed Peas’ global hit ‘I Gotta Feeling’.  This UK and US #1 is followed by a slew of similarly huge floor fillers including David Guetta and Kelly Rowland’s ‘When Love Takes Over’. Next up, synth pop smashes from La Roux’s ‘Bulletproof’ and The Pet Shop Boys’ ‘Love Etc.’.  Local lad Robbie Williams continued his stellar chart run with ‘Bodies’. Lily Allen’s #1 ‘The Fear’ is followed by Florence + The Machine’s debut top 20 hit ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)’. This is followed by a run of RnB pop finishes the disc off with Ciara and Justin Timberlake’s ‘Love Sex Magic’ followed by Flo Rida featuring Kesha on ‘Right Round’, Taio Cruz’s ‘Break your Heart’, JLS’ ‘Beat Again’, and Jason Derulo’s breakout hit, ‘Whatcha Say’.

Massive pop superstars open the final disc; Britney Spears (‘Circus’), Miley Cyrus (‘Party In The USA’), and The Pussycat Dolls alongside A.R. Rahman (Jai Ho! (You Are My Destiny)’). #1 debuts are up next from Cheryl Cole with ‘Fight For This Love’ and Pixie Lott with ‘Mama Do (Uh Oh, Uh Oh)’. Airplay favourites from Paolo Nutini (‘Pencil Full Of Lead’), James Morrison featuring Nelly Furtado (‘Broken Strings’) and Kelly Clarkson’s #1: ‘My Life Would Suck Without You’ feature alongside top 10 smashes from Metro Station (‘Shake It’), Sugababes (‘Get Sexy’) and Little Boots (‘Remedy’). Hip-Hop and Grime are represented here with Tinchy Stryder and Ironik featuring Chipmunk on their huge tracks ‘Number 1’ and ‘Tiny Dancer (Hold Me Closer)’ (sampling Elton John’s classic that revived interest in that song). Our final disc closes with Westlife’s ‘What About Now’ – their 22nd Top 5 hit since their 1999 debut.

This is a great sampling of these two years before we started the twenty-tens.

Steely Dan gets near to finished off

At christmas 2022 in with the traditional Christmas entry was reference to a couple of Steely Dan albums (Two Against Nature and Everything Must Go) I hadn't got then that were being issued by the american specialist company Analogue Productions on both record and Super Audio cd (sacd).

That was part of a projected ten disc reissue series that way back then I had set up pre-orders for  with a major specialist record and cd store in Wales.

This weekend one of the last three titles has eventually been delivered, November 1980's Gaucho although it had been released in the United States last month as apparently they give two company owned retailers over there a two week window before shipping out to the Rest Of The World - aka us here in Great Britain and Ireland.

It featured Hey Nineteen", reaching # 10 on theU.S. pop chart in early 1981, and "Time Out of Mind" (featuring guitarist Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits) was a moderate hit in the spring.

The whole series has been dogged by major delays even on the vinyl side due to pressing plant shortages and with the Super Audio cd, only two plants in the world make them and they're fully committed with other titles to manufacture.

This 1974 album came out around November last year with "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" which reached as high as #4 on the U.S. charts.

 

 Countdown To Ecstasy issued in 1973 home to the singles  "Show Biz Kids" and "My Old School shown in its case came out in June 2023.

 

 

1972's Can't Buy A Thrill that was their first ever album featured the hit Do It Again was issued in January 2023.

 

1977's Aja came out in March of this year although the record version came out much earlier.

That's how it came to be what normally would of been be a single launch of a bunch of titles on one day has been in dribs and drabs in two years so much so I go by my record at the store of what was ordered and what's still in the orders to keep track of it.

And much has happened since then that in many ways I'd lost some of the buzz around these coming out and even doing a full set of entries in them despite their expense so this week we're catching up.

With any luck I'll fire up the player the Saturday before posting and give this a good spin.
 

Classical rest

 

It's been an odd week here not least for feeling rather under the weather really but one thing I had spent some of the evenings doing laying very much in the catbasket has been listening to the last week of this years Sir Henry Wood promenade concerts that this year have included an orchestrated Florence and The Machine concert, a evening of Henry Mancini, the film and stage show composer who gave us Peter Gunn, Moon River and the Pink Panther theme beloved as a child, even played on Saturday in the second half of the Last Night with Sir Steven Hough playing piano.

Talking of him the classical music label Hyperion last month did issue five brand new classical lps, something they hadn't done since the very late 1980's drawn from their modern catalogue and I did get his brilliant account of Chopin's Waltzes in that format.

Classical music on vinyl isn't where rock and pop is - in the centre of a revival - with lots of reissues and many new titles being issued at the same time on record, cd and digital mediums, being more of a nostalgia driven thing with "classic" accounts from the late 1950's to the end of the 1970's often highly regarded by hifi types being issued by specialist companies so it is rare we get modern recordings.

That one sounded great with silent surfaces and I'd like to see them issue around fifteen to twenty a year a mixture of back catalogue and the most desired brand new recordings so we can have a wider choice of in print new classical pressings.

Away and past memories

 

Well I'm just sat here with an achy back having been on my feet for most of the day and having spent ten hours on the move with the twisted section also quite warm.

Really it should of been corrected by a surgical custom made jacket when I was in my teens but for some reason that never happened and my folks never really pursued that matter which is why most people I know in similar circumstances don't have the same level of discomfort as I do.

The trip out generally went well with no traffic issues unlike last trip out but while the last time we've been leaving around four pm allowing for just under a two hour journey an initial offer of leaving at half four got extended to 5pm which meant we arrived back at 7 and had to get something to eat when you just feel shattered.

And his Grumpness had walked his shortish legs off while I stocked up on Coconut Ice and battled with the steep stairs to on set of conveniences, something patrons did notice strangely enough. 

 

On Tuesday September 3rd, we lost Brian Truman, aged 92, who wrote Dangermouse, Count Duckula its spin off series, Jamie and the Magic Torch, Cockleshell Bay plus Chorlton and the Wheelies all of which were amongst our favourite cartoons growing up.

He also presented Children's Hour, Clitheroe Kid, Scene at 6.30, Granada Reports, Brass Tacks and the much missed Screen Test that mixed quizes on current children's films with features on making your own short films.

He will be sadly missed by many of us.

Back to class with tape

 

Funny old week in a number of ways as the post F.A. business has resolved itself so things have gotten more to back to normal and I get ready to be away this weekend so i'll be sorting stuff out for that and obviously school returns which tugs at me never really have mentally at least left that.

Having fixed the power unit issue on my Sony portable stereo recorder I have been continuing with remaking a number of tapes that went around 1997-9 when MiniDisc moved in and pushed its predecessors and their tapes out, not least as I couldn't operate the Tandberg 62 stereo reel deck.

Back in the days you had a variety of tapes you could use and some could be difficult to use to their best because the coating wasn't what most Japanese tape manufacturers used and Japan set their machines based on what what they made. 

Many pre-recorded cassettes used Basf genuine chromedioxide tape as it not only sounded really good but it was really quiet and in the early to mid 80's I did use their domestic blank tape version as it least the machines I had then did a decent job of recording on them.

What did for that and lead me to switch to Maxell XLII  and TDK SA was changing machines to Japanese machines that sound bad on them and because of the impact of that, reduced availability in the high street.

In 1993 I did try one Basf Chrome type as an experiment and that didn't turn out well as the volume as a lot lower than what I recorded it at.

Recently though in a bundle of mainly Japanese tapes I found some late 90's early 2000's ones and I did experiment with them.

While these were mainly pure chrome they had added a small amount of  cobalt oxide japanese type II tapes used and actually they worked well straightaway on one of the Yamaha decks from the mid 1990's keeping much of the the low noise advantage I liked.

So with that I redid Bruce Springsteen's Born To Run and Darkness On The Edge of Town albums given I like listening to his albums rather a lot.

The Bank Holiday round up

 

Well today is officially a Bank Holiday over here although in practice many things such as shops are operating as normal so I'll be out playing for a bit so long as any rain and wind holds off

Molly the brownie dolly is downstairs on a shelf and amazingly the grump has laid a rug that is at least four years old down that had been brought by Mom and then left behind the dining room television which is as well as the old one was frayed with duct tape at the edges.

Last week there was some fun and games at Fur Affinity, the Furry related arts site some of us have an account at where an individual had hacked two X (previously known as Twitter) accounts and redirected the main site itself for a good two and a bit days to various alt-right/anti furry,anti lgtq+ sites which was frustrating as I had a few posts to make there where were time critical just when I was going to be out.

It appears the groups this person placed redirects to were not very happy at all being "played" for this stunt as much as they have issues with us.

In the end a holding page came to say it everything was being prepared to restore the site to normal and inviting us to join their Discord accounts that were carrying updates on progress and actions regarding investigating what had gone on.

This I end up not for the first time via the Furry establishment with something else on the social media front  this  time with a discord account not that I do much chatting as between my paw joint issues, migraines and dizzy spells I don't spend all day online and someday's it's less than an hour across several.

I don't care for the interface to be blunt but it's okay as back up and "What is happening guys?" thing.

The simpliest of things just happen...

 After last weeks look into the great unknown we're away from anything spinning this week although last Friday was rather more like this, crashed out part way talking with your BFF who also did cos we tend to run out of spoons rather quickly.

That said sometimes with the old Windows Laptop that's a bit temperamental having a tendency to switch off suddenly at ten minutes on mains but running fine off batteries until the Battery % amount gets critical  but it does charge the battery up when plugged in to the mains adaptor to 100%.

But when you feel flat there always stuff that really perks you up.

A soft touch dolly in 1970's brownies uniform but don't ask where the knitted hat ended up as I have no idea you can hug and cuddle up to and in the front room there's a more regular 8 inch (20cm) posable dolly on on the shelf looking out.

One LG seems to have a struggle to understand another at their website can indeed live in that mindset, sometimes the odd person has questioned it with me but honestly for some of us it's the most natural thing to the point you're not playing the mind games others around seem to be.

We just don't feel that way.

Classics that were forgotten

 Catching up with things that arrived at Chez Jo's while away.

Hjalmar Borgstrom  the Norwegian composer has been well on the way to being rediscovered since the beginning of the new millenium. 

Some composers do long disappear from public consciousness over time and he is one of his most important works were performed in his native Norway until the Second World War.

No one seems to know just why that was.

 Until his death in 1925, he had also played an important role as a critic too.

With the premiere of his two operas and above all the rediscovery of his extraordinarily picturesque symphonic tone poems, a new page in this story of finding acceptance.

A contemporary of Richard Strauss who studied with Johan Severin Svendsen and Carl Reinecke among others, proves to be a legitimate descendant of Franz Liszt and Richard Wagner; it is difficult to escape the captivating boldness of his programmatic concepts and their unconventionally beautiful realization.

I found these works on regular cd from WDR radio recordings encouraged by a favourable Presto review highly enjoyable.

Summer Camp 2024

 Yes I did indeed manage to get away last week to something that is very much like a summer camp but for adults (in law) doing things that you loved back then as if by magic you'd gone back in time and where there's nothing remotely "adult" going on.

I past years I've written more chronological journal entries but I think it may work better to look more at  themes to which the start point was Jennifer and Katie took a minor detour to drop by picking me up in person before setting out to the Lakes stopping at some photogenic points such as by the grounds of Stonyhurst College (and St Mary's Pre-Prep and Prep school), near the Ribble Valley overhead viaduct along the Settle-Carlisle Line and Whalley Abbey for a spot of lunch.

That proved interesting as it didn't accept Money as in traditional notes and coins of the realm so one of two available credit cards stepped in.

Bring back money, I say!

I did get out, seeing our postman and in the shoppe very much as me (or at least another presentation of me as I can and do Tom Boy as well as not a few girls actually are like) and having partaken of a chicken with salad and tasty vegetable rice, Katie generously shared.
 

We did two Jigsaws or more accurately completed one and were about three quarters through another between us plus a number completed a lego set.

We played rounders one afternoon in teams batting and fielding which was rather fun and a tradition mixed events sports day with bean bag target, egg & spoon race and water relay race amongst other things set in two teams Blue and Red.

I had a green top and white skort on which works for me.

There were a few "makes" such as baking cakes of various sorts such as Carrot, Cheesy Scones, Cup Cakes and chocolate chip cookies which Alice and I made which were shared after extra decorating.

We also made houses out of cardboard tape or gluing precut sections before fitting such things as doors and windows, a patio and in one instance even its very own helipad.

They came out quite well really.

There was a story time but with a difference which was we were given three (I think) introductory paragraphs giving us the people, the situation and an outcome but we had to write and say it out in turns in real time!

Jillian run a general knowledge and name the famous actress quiz which our team The, Staffordshire Three, came second. 

We did have a Charades session on Thursday before getting back for the next day.

Food was interesting in that we had hand made Devon Pasties a 5kg Gammon that provided two and  bit days of ham after a good boiling with salad and a variety of baps/buns and slice breads.

For one evening we held a diy b-bq with farm beef burgers,  sausages and some cheesy thing that can be heated but as a non cheese person I can't say much about how that turned out and on another we submitted and two persons kindly collected a fish and chips order (with the odd variation) which I can as the cod I had was delicious.

Getting back proved something of an ordeal as after relatively minor traffic issues, all hell broke loose between junctions 24 and 21a around South west Lancs when things stalled for what seemed like ages and the attempt to get off to drop me of had a bizarre series of roadworks that near enough two essential towns off  and further along yet more issues with accidents and lord knows what.

You know you're but a few miles off and yet you just can't get there.

Thanks to Iris and Mary for organizing things and everyone who held an event or did things to make this fun, safe event highly enjoyable.