May The Fourth .... Be With You ..... Star Wars Day

Today is a very sunny May 4th to start the Bank Holiday Weekend. Peter Mayhew who played Chewbacca died this week aged 74, he was 7'3" and played Chewbacca in all th elive action Star Wars films.

May blogging is a lot more leisurely, this being my second May post in four days. The song I'm going to play is "Take It Easy On Me" by Irish band A House, just because it came on The Chain just as I started to write this, and it's just one of those moments when one of those great records you had forgotten about comes on the radio (This time RadMac on 6Music)

So today is going to be a mowing the lawn and posting things day, assuming that the weather holds but we shall see how that goes.

I know this is a very short post as I can't really think of anything more to say at the moment so will leave you with A House, and have a good weekend.

After The Late Show .....

I'm considering going to bed now (just after eight). Obviously there are times when I'm wide awake but others where I feel I'm wrecked, although compus mentis enough to pen a few words. Part of this is also the attempt to hit fifty posts this month, which I didn't set out to do , but the fact I got another #TenAlbumsInTenDays nomination meant that combined with #AprilSongs (which finishes tomorrow) meant that I posted a few more selections than I expected to.

Wreckless Eric has just been on Marc Riley's 6Music show talking about working with Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick and I remember buying the "Live at Budokan" on yellow vinyl in 1978, and because this am slightly tempted by getting it again. I'm quite surprised that I've never mentioned Wreckless Eric on this blog as I have been a fan since I first heard him in 1977, although I suppose I've rectified that now.

So who do I soundtrack this with?

Well at Budokan they covered The Move's finest rock and roll moment "California Man" which is a little more metal than The Move's version but an excellent band playing an excellent song for you to enjoy.

Maybe it's bed time.

#AprilSongs #7 Sunday Evening

Continuing on in this sequence I've done the first week without being too obvious, and today is "Sunday Evening" by The Black Angels. On first listen you think 1960's Garage Psychedelia, but it's actually only five years old and I have a couple of their albums which I obviously need to revisit.

This is one of the problems with any music collection, you don't listen end to end, and very often will buy things then listen and forget or not even listen.. I am currently selling CDs that I wont play again on Discogs , I do actually like playing a single or album and share Vinyl Plays on my Instagram Channel under the tag #VitalVinyl

So today will be just relaxing though maybe a trip into town to get a few things, and maybe catch up on some TV shows, as well as possibly another blog post later on.

Just listening to 6Music interviewing to an artist talking about the last album they "streamed" , not listened to, and that is part of the problem that at times people don't really listen, but that has been with us since the advent of CD allowing us to program and skip stuff we didn't like or were bored with. Don't get me wrong I love the convenience of digital, but sometimes taking away the controls from you is a good thing which is why I listen to the Radio and Vinyl.

Enjoy your Sunday

My First Chain Appearance

Well I was chosen for The Chain once before but pulled at the last minute for what was deemed a better connection. I gave up when I heard a connection that was basically "Ronnie Wood or Keith Richard had a similar hairstyle", What? That week Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie were away so not to blame for that aberration.

Anyway yesterday I got a text from Sarah at 6Music as I had put in a suggestion that I had then forgotten about. I then remembered it was the Peter Schilling song "Major Tom" which is the theme song used in "Deutschland 83" (and 86 and 89) , the eighties cold war  German drama (with some very funny dry comedy).

The song is perfect eighties a la Flock of Seagulls, although I originally that it had been especially commissioned. It wasn't, but I had never heard it before in my life.

Then I met my friend Katie for a meal at Bohemian (now Junk It Up) which also had a vinyl section (yes I know, unusual cross selling) and the single that was at the front of their section was "Major Tom" by Peter Schilling, so I had to buy it.

While the lyrics sometimes hit the creakiness of Abba's (it is their second language after all) the very short chorus is wonderful and the overall song is great and sticks in your mind like all great pop music.

The Chain link is from Bowie's "Warszawa" from "Low" part of the Berlin Trilogy. The two connections are Berlin (via "Deutschland 83") and "Major Tom" with the "Space Oddity" connection. The show will be available for a bit here and my appearance is around 72 minutes in, 1.14.26 according to my friend Nigel.

So this is just to mark that I've been on The Chain. and my entry is recorded here, number 7868.

#AprilSongs #6 Saturday Night Fish Fry

SIx days into this and this morning I'm on https://www.thechain.uk/The Chain with by suggestion to follow Bowie's "Warszawa", but today's choice for #AprilSongs is Louis Jordan's "Saturday Night Fish Fry".

I am not sure when I first discovered Louis Jordan, but was almost shocked when I heard "Ain't That Just Like A Woman" because the main riff (played in alternative versions by brass and piano) is the same note sequence as Chuck Berry's signature guitar riff. So Chuck didn't get it from Michael J Fox in "Back To The Future" but from Louis Jordan back in the forties. Musicians always "borrow" from others but it would be nice to see a little acknowledgement (Led Zeppelin I'm looking at you).

Also the brass section reminds me of Frank Zappa's take on  "Stairway To Heaven" (which was the subject of a copyright claim for it's similarity to Spirit's "Taurus") on "The Best Band You Never Heard In Your Life" where the brass section play the guitar solo perfectly.

So I need to shower before I get my phone call from 6Music.

Dream Complex

I woke from an amazingly complex dream , just having to deal with people who don't understand reality. It reminded me of a situation at the PPA many years ago when I was charged with making 2 + 2 = 5 because someone had run an obsolete report and it didn't balance with the new one. There was an office full of idiots coming up with solution which were basically calculate to n decimal places and that might not solve the problem. I asked to speak to the accountants about it (it was caused by the VAT rate of 17.5% ) but I was told I was not a high enough grade to talk to accountants, so I instructed my team to SAY we were working on it if asked and at the end of two weeks told them it couldn't be done. Luckily in my present job I work with accounts who listen and have a more than basic grasp of numbers.

I was considering mowing my lawn today, but am going to give it another week to ensure it is up to being mowed, it's not laziness, it's being sensible.

I've decided on the theme for #AprilSongs and each day I will post a song relating to that day, it may be simply or complexly related, so Monday may be New Order's "Blue Monday" (or one of the many covers) or something by the Happy Mondays,  while Thursday could be the Theme for Morse / Endeavour by Barrington Pheloung because Morse's boss is called Thursday.

Another beautiful day although still cold, but looking forward to another great weekend.

As it's the ^Music Festival I thought I'd share Pete Wylie's "Heart As Big As Liverpool", mine and John Peel's favourite song about Liverpool , but ignored by the hip 6Music DJs. Amazingly it is not easily available on Amazon, my Handy Wah! compilation going for an eye watering £200, still you can listen on Youtube.

Today Is So Gorgeous ...

...that I went out in the garden and refilled the bird feeders before seven am. When I first started blogging that would have been enough for a post, and as it's more like a diary than anything else, it should really be enough for a post now, but although my posts are still bite sized, one sentence is never enough.

Lots of friends start blogs and come in with a big excellent piece and then that's it. On the one hand they may think that's enough or they may just realise what they have let themselves in for. Here's a few:

• The Ape of Wrath
• Peas on Earth
• Grumpy Geordie
• Little Wittering
• Dust on the Stylus
• Molecules of Madness
• Soul and Tonic
• Thumbrella
• Tea on The Tyne

These are just a few that seem to have been abandoned, but what they contain is still worth taking time to read and enjoy.

So yes a very short post and I'll leave you with "Eye Know" by De La Soul  because it just came on 6Music and sort of goes with the mood.

Have a great Friday everybody we aren't leaving the EU today and hopefully the whole Brexit thing will crawl away into a corner and die.

Musical Mind Wanderings

On my walks to work this week I was listening to Janelle Monae's "Dirty Computer", in my opinion the best album of  last year which I eulogised here and one of the things I love about it is the way it is bookended by two beautiful and wonderful songs, the title track with vocal arrangement and contributions from Brian Wilson and "Americans" which is a brilliant state of the nation song.

I was wondering what to play next  as I was maybe ten minutes away from work, and was tempted by Jethro Tull's "Passion Play" but then went for Thousand Yard Stare's "Fair To Middling" EP which is obviously a shorter listen. I couldn't hum a song from the EP but every one is so easy to slip into full of wonderful guitar motifs and extremely unskippable.

This is how music should be, not everyone has the same taste (I was sat next to  a girl listening to Happy Techno on the bus neccessitating me to put on my headphones and contuing with "Dirty Computer"), but syou should enjoy what you listen to. I'm not a fan of elevator music , phone hold music or lounge jazz but there must be people who are.

The problem with the music "industry" is things are decided by people who think the know "what the public wants" and certainly don't want to risk offending anybody.  It the sixties and seventies the top thirty singles charts were the gauge of public taste and  people like me were worried that one daye the tope thirty would become static and we'd be forced to listen to the same dross over and over. Ironically that is the staple of most local radio stuck in a particular vacuous time warp playing the records I want to forget, smooth , easy listening cheese.

Don't get me wrong I love Abba, Boney M, Erasure  and lots of great pop , I mean one of the greatest heavy metal riffs is the intro to Abba's "Voulez Vous" , basically good music is good music but sometimes certain radio stations just really turn you off. My Radio channel of choice is 6Music, but again that is not  to everyone's taste, though a musician friend once told me no one would ever listen to DAB channels.

New Year, New Book

I've finished "swords of Corum" by Michael Moorcock and now taking a break from Science Fantasy (though there is little Science and a lot of Fantasy and it suffers like "Elementary" of finishing off incidents too quickly ("I Killed All The Gods")) , and now I am starting "There Are No Maps In Hell" by  Steve Birkinshaw about his record breaking run of the 214 Wainwright Fells.

This is a book I bought just because of the title when I saw it in the 3 Peaks Cycle Shop in Settle (which also sells book and breakfasts and the people are really helpful. I'm hoping to get back there soon and try their breakfasts. They say never judge a book by the cover, so should you jusdge one by it's title? Well the title sold it to me and the cover is fairly good although completely different to my recent reading.

After this I will be back on Moorcock's Corum books in the "The Prince With The Silver Hand" which is heavily based on Irish Mythology, so looking forward to that as well.

This morning 6Music (John Hillcock) played "Bang The Drum All Day" and it sort of sums the feeling of coming back to work after the New Year for me. It is Friday though, so have a great day.

Xeronius

Another made up word, although it may be real. Sometimes Google is a positive. Turns out there are bands, artists , twitter users with that name but no definition, but a name wouldn't have a definition.

I heard some lyrics to a "Christmas" song on 6Music this morning which were essentially:

"I Hate This Time of Year

 It's Dark and it's Cold

And I Feel I'm Getting Old.."

To me that doesn't exactly give me positive vibes, quite the opposite. I don't think it'll be on my Christmas playlist. The song is "Home Alone, Too" by The Staves and can be listened to here (a radio session).

I decided to watch the final episodes of "Electric Dreams" Channel4's series based on Philip K Dicks' short stories, and"The Father Figure" played like and excellent Stephen King story, "Autofac" featured the wonderful Janelle Monae (her "Dirty Computer" is my album of 2018) in a post apocalyptic Amazon scenario which featured, for me, a brilliant twist. I am currently watching "Safe and Sound", with the chilling exchange:

Q: "Have your ever seen a terrorist attack?"

A: "They're on the news feed all the time"

You can see them on all 4 here.

So I think to accompanty this pre Christmas post we got to have more Janelle Monae, haven't we.

Sharing

There was a homeless guy in th epassage down the side of the Tyneside Cinema asking for spare change. I said I had none (which was true) but was going to visit my friend Krista at Kota to make a donation to Craig Puranen Wilson's memorial seat at the Tyneside Cinema. She wasn't in so I slipped a note under the door, and you can still donate of Facebook, but Facebook won't accept anything from me and won't say why despite me raising a ticket about it, so my only way of donating to causes is to send money to the person running it.

Anyway on the floor below is 586 Records and I was hoping to find a reggae 12" and saw "Jammin'" by Bob Marley on 12" and it has a live take of "No Woman, No Cry" on the "B" sided and was reasonably priced giving me change from a fiver.  I had a crack on with the owner who was listening to 6Music remarking I wasn't sure whether it was live or a recording as Tom Ravenscroft sounds so much like his dad John Peel.

This meant I had some change for the homeless guy who asked the guy in front of me if he had any spare change and I think he was surprised that I had come back and gave him some money. The thing is you can't always do that, and sometimes beggars can be aggressive or unfeasibly persistent hassling you for more after you have given them something, but most are grateful for any help you can give them, so I try to help when I can

So this is another excuse to listen to "No Woman, No Cry" by Bob Marley, and we all know what he would have done.

4:45

Due to a 7:15 AM doctors appointment this morning I set the alarm for 4:45. Obviously outside it's black and windy and I hopefully will be getting a 6:25 bus to find out what they have to say, it's just an annual health check and I will ask them to do a 'flu' jab. Did you know that 'flu' is probably the only common word that has a double contraction and therefore needs two apostrophes to indicate int's shrinking from influenza to 'flu'.

One of the good things about getting up early is, in theory, you can do more during the day, and after a week off coming back to quarter end / month end I have a lot to get through this week.

I've managed to keep up my steps on my holiday and today may not be a full step day due to the doctor's appointment but we shall see.

6Music is playing, and I always think that 6Music almost negates my need for a music collection. They are currently playing  "Master Pretender" by First Aid Kit, all their records are wonderful so I will share that with you. The video is rather good too, so worth watching and listening to.

I am looking forward to tomorrow and maybe a more leisurely lie in.

Morning Dark

When I left my bed this morning it was dark. I had to put lights on. It was 6AM. Autumn and grey skies are here.

In the shower I seldom want to come out, hot water on your body feels so nice, knowing that when it stops you will be cold and wet and have to dry yourself off.

The other thing is you know it's Monday and have to go to work. Will I walk or will I take the bus? I will start walking but my give up and get the bus eventually.

Yesterday I did 18K steps so that was a bit more than I expected to do, but it was fairly.

I must say I am very impressed by Claire Evans novel, "The Fourteenth Letter"  and although the clues are strewn throughout I didn't see the endgame coming and I still have 25 pages to go, so I'm well impressed with that and I only bought it to get myself free delivery on something.

Also in the last couple of weeks I heard a great song on 6Music called "Chevrolet Van" by The Nude Party. The record is great, but you get some interesting results on Amazon,Google and Youtube when you search for Nude Party.

Anyway have a great Monday everybody.

Jah Live

This shows just how easily I am distracted. I switched on the radio this morning and Mary Ann Hobbs was playing Bob Marley's "Buffalo Soldier". This threw my mind back to the mid seventies, when after getting into Bob Marley and The Wailers through seeing their performances of "Stir It Up" and "I Shot The Sheriff" on The Old Grey Whistle Test and buying the absolutely sublime live single "No Woman, No Cry" I must have heard on John Peel, there were few other music sources at the time though Johnny Walker and Alan Freeman played good stuff, put he played "Jah Live" which I had to have.

The 'B' side was "Concrete" , "Jah Live" in Dub so I've included that as well.

This was fairly difficult to track down though my DJ friend John Allan who had a record shop at Lane Ends, Preston managed to source me a copy. He was an absolutely top man but I believe died in a road accident. Any I used to often exasperate him with hard to get singles that I'd heard and maybe I might try and get a copy on vinyl as reggae and ska do lend themselves to playing on vinyl.

I know this is a short post, and if Mary Ann hand't played that song I wouldn't have written it, but it is a chance to hear a Bob Marley song that you have probably never heard.

I have a walk to Wylam to do, you enjoy your Sunday my good friends.

I Know

We're now into September and I won't be posting as much as I was for #August50, I actually posted 54 times last month, almost two a day, but for some reason the song "I Know" by Gary Wright's Wonderwheel came to mind when I was making coffee this morning. This is a song that has stuck with me since 1972 when it came out though for some reason I didn't buy it at the time.

Gary Wright was a member of Spooky Tooth and at some point parted ways to form Wonerwheel, and later found solo success with the excellent "Dream Weaver" which you will have heard unless you musical diet is X-Factor, Local Radio and Britain's Got Talent.

I found a live take of this which looks VERY 1970s but it is still a fine song for inclusion in #SongsYouveNeverHeard.  Although as I'm writing this the title track of the Arctic Monkeys' album "Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino" is drawing to a close and when I first heard it I wasn't too sure but now I think it is. The benefits of listening to Mary Ann Hobbs on 6Music. Recently I was surprised to find out her age and the fact that she is married to Miles Hunt of The Wonderstuff!

The spell checker has just suggested Tranquility should be spelt Tranquillity, that is strange or maybe not.

It's the first day of September, Autumn starts here, and the grey skies are clearing so the weekend is looking good.

Listening To John Niven

On Sunday 6Music broadcast a show by one of my favourite authers John Niven. The series is called Paperback Writers and has a writer talking for an hour about music that has shaped him and influenced him.  If you want to catch it (before September 2018) you can listen to it here.

Now I'd missed it on Sunday, but then remembered there;s a BBC Radio iPlayer app that you can download onto your phone, and thought "Aha" . As well as music and podcasts I can listen to radio shows on demand on my phone.

So that was my listening for my walk to work this morning. He opened with Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Up Around The Bend" a song I loved since I first heard that razor sharp opening riff, although the lead guitar parts seem remarkably muted compared to the main riff.

He played a lot of great music including Television's "See No Evil" which I tried to emulate in my song "Communication" for The Bok  (and failed totally), and actually pointed out a very dark concept of Middle of The Road's "Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep" that I hadn't countenanced before about losing your mother as a child.

He also talked about and played a song from The Wishing Tree, the band he was a member of in his early twenties who, from the song he played, well worth a listen.

Basically this has given me another option for listening on my walks, which is all very good.

Clouds and Total Football

Looking out of the window and there is an amazing cloud formation overhead. Here's my nstagram post.

Well it looks like the site visits have taken another dive, c'estla vie. The last two nights I have gone to bed early and this morning I was wide awake at 2:30.

I had woken from a dream but the dream was very influenced by the book I'm reading Matt Haig's "How To Stop Time" which is certainly a page turner but the main protagonist is possibly the most depressing since Stephen Donaldson's Thomas Covenant. Both characters have a heavy burden but it does become wearing in the way it's presented., although other charaters do provide the hope and lighter sections.

The rain has taken a break so I may be able to walk into work to day and listen to some good music.

Today is the first round of the Carabao Cup and Preston North End are playing Morecambe, and on 6Music Chris Hawkins has just played "Total Football" by Parquet Courts so it has to be that doesn't it.

Have a good day everyone.

Three

This was going to be the third post I posted yesterday for #August50 ,which I think I've decided will probably be impossible without resorting to one line posts, which plenty of bloggers do. The other alternative is Vlogging but I doubt anyone would want to see me, and hear me talk, it's bad enough me actually rambling on in single words.

Today I don't want to walk into work, I don't want to mow my lawn, and lots of other things but they have to be done so I will attempt all of them. Obviously the black cloud is still floating aroundbut I don't have to let it cast it's shadow over everything.

I also need to change the music on my phone, although there's probably a lot more on there than most people have in their music collection because they now subscribe to Deezer or Spotify or Apple Music or Amazon Unlimited or YoutubeMusic and it plays exactly what the want to hear. Think about that for a second. Why not get a radio?

Music like BBC4 is a sort of bane of my life because you put them on and then you're happy to stay watching or listening until you are forced to switch off. 6Music has provided me with todays music, "Pool Hall Richard" by The Faces.

Enjoy your Tuesday.

Answers on a Postcard

Remember that for competitions and requests? This morning I emailed John Hilcock standing in for Chris Hawkins on 6Music and got a positive response withing five minutes. There are some ways we have progressed. John was asking about songs about Dallas and I immediately thought of  Dallas by Steely Dan, one of their finest songs, but they rated so lowly that it's never had a digital release.

The Matt Haig Book is a little weird with the main protagonist thinking about ending his life but finding a reason to continue. I saw a meme about suicide that it doesn't stop the pain it just passes it on to others, and that is something that I am sure would stop me were I ever in that black a place. The number of good things in, and peripheral to my life of worth looking forward to. Enjoyin TV and holiday s with Fiona and friends, seeing Juliet's amazing fodcreations when as a small child pizza was a base with cheese and ham, no tomato, going to gigs and meeting up with Kirsty and Juliet and Molly, Mark's music and car perfection talks and his continual excellent taste in music, phone calls to my dad who can still be a curmudgeon, and then all my friends in Newcastle and Preston.

If we sit down and started writing a list of what we have to look forward to most of us would only stop when our arm started to ache.

So it's back to work today, and I am even looking forward to that, there's a lot aI could complain about but far more positive things.

So I am  sure I was going to write about about more things and a couple of years back I started an #August50 target to hit 50 posts in a month. When I first tried I hit  30, though the most I've done in a month is 43, but I could probably hit 50 this August so I'm going to set myself that target to do it. It's still less thatn two posts a day. I once saw a blog which had hundreds of posts each day, but each post was just a link to anther site. Very strange.

It's grey out but there's lots to look forward to, including mowing the lawn one evening this week, the football season has started, Preston won their first match despite missing two key players, and  my friend Krista is back from Finland so it is going to be a great week.

Have a good one everyone.

Electronic Deluge

Yesterday started so warmI couldn't wear any jacket to go to work, resulting in me trying to fit things into not very deep pockets ad hanging thing things round my neck, and finished with an incredible deluge wich you can see a little of here, I always think I'm at the highest part of Newcastle therefore immune to any potential flooding but Lanercost is higher that my house and the West Road runs down to that, so although unlikely to be stuck in a final flood, I'm certainly in it's path.

Last night was another early night as I was absolutely shattered (again). I don't know if it's the weather, or I'm run down, or the left shoulder situation is taking it's toll, or my body is just about to give up the ghost. This Thursday I have a Liver Biopsy so that's a day in hospital courtesy of the NHS, meaning I'm going to miss meeting up with my friend Paul in Whitby / Robin Hood's Bay, and have a couple of days recuperation as the football season starts.

I think August may be difficult for walking as four out of the first five days need to be taken easily and I don't want to risk causing internal bleeding, especially with the ITP that is always lurking.

This morning we have blue skies, the grass on lawns is certainly recovering so at this moment in time things are looking good.

There's just been an Advert on 6Music for Nemone's "Electric Ladyland" supposedly drawing together every type of"electronic" music, I must check this out but expect it will just be disco or rock with synthesisers, citing Kraftwerk as the inventors of electronic music while anyone with any knowledge of music knows that the first fully electronic film soundtrack was "Forbidden Planet" by Louis and Bebe Barron, and electronic music has been produced since a very long time back.

So we'll go with my favourite Kraftwerk piece, "Ruczuk", though from this live version you can see where "Autobahn" came from.