Birthday - #Oktoberfest #1 - A Beer and A Cigarette - Terraplane

Last night I got my first Facebook birthday greeting from my friend Keith who moved to the Antipodes nearly twenty five years back although I got my first card on Saturday from my daughter Juliet, plus a phone call from my dad last night. I've not yet gone on to Facebook yet so no doubt there will be the odd greeting. In case you are wondering this is my 62nd birthday.

During the night it's been pouring down and about five am there was a very loud big vehicle that woke me up but didn't manage to see what it was.

I've slightly changed my walking targets , which are a rolling million steps every three months which works out at 340,000 steps a month or 11K a day. My new target is just something to aim for but to try and hit 400K steps a month but I will only hold myself to the 340K. The weather this morning is not conducive to walking.

I was thinking of for October having my own #Oktoberfest with the criteria being something to drink, but not necessarily alcoholic. I have my first two lined up, the first one being "A Beer and A Cigarette" by Terraplane from the Stiff collection "The Akron Compilation" (with it's scratch and sniff cover) which for years I thought was called "The Akron Complication" which to my knowledge has still never been issued digitally. I was introduced to it with The Bok went for a meeting with Rabid Records to sort out our first single (which never happened as they folded but the demos are here on Soundcloud) and the guy said it was the most outrageous song he had ever heard.

It's great and I used it to soundtrack what I thought would be the final night at The Free Trade in 2010 but the financial crash of 2008 meant that the flats never got built and the Free Trade is still going with it;s amazing views down the Tyne.

ALso I am going for another record number of posts in a year and if I do 40 this month (my record is 54 last August ) then I only need 17 before the end of the year, but we shall see how this goes because I may not want to post every day, but we shall see. At least this is a start.

Enjoy your wet Tuesday.

Post 101 - When I First Heard Joe Strummer

I just realised that  this is post 101 this year and I can't let this go by without it's Joe Strummer and George Orwell connections. I've probably done this before (follow the related tags) but what the hell. I've now started to wonder whether I will hit 50 posts this month, it means three posts today and three tomorrow but the #AprilSongs sequence will account for two of those, and this will account for another one so it looks like I might almost match last years #August50 where I did 54 posts , but that is definitely going to stay as my highest number of monthly posts.

Anyway back to the point of this post, I first heard Joe Strummer singing the song "Keys To YOur Heart" with his band the 101ers when John Peel played it. It appeared on the excellent Chiswick Records which was similar to Stiff (when Indie meant Indie) in being independent and similar to Stiff featuring New Wave, Punk and Pub Rock with others in it's eclectic spread, but I bought the record straight away. While not as attack minded as The Clash it is still a great rock record.

The band took their name from George Orwell's "1984" where Room 101 was where you were subjected to your greatest fear. I remember that scaring me as a kid when I saw the fifties BBC adaptation with Peter Cushing (you can watch it here) with the rat cage helmet contraption.

So that is how I first got into the music of Joe Strummer.

Na Pyg Chi Pig

Not Chi Pig

When I walk up a certaing road I see a car on a drive and the registration plate reads NA62 PYG. I have been convinced this was the name of a band that John Peel played and featured on the Stiff compilation "The Akron Complication". though Amazon list it as "The Akron Compilation".

This is one of a clutch of Stiff release that , to my knowledge, have never been released digitally. The album also features a scratch and sniff cover that releases the smell of rubber when you scratch it.

It turns out the band was not Na Pig (or Na Pyg), it was Chi Pig, and when The Bok went sign up with Rabid Records they raved about this album and played it a couple of times as we plotted world domination (which by the way never happened). The album featured some great. bands and is worth tracking down if you have any interest in music .

It shows how your memory can be fooled when an image supercedes the actuall reality, well certainly mine can be.

Anyway Chi Pig have a lot of great stuff on youtube here and "Miami" seems a wonderful album. This is a band I am discovering forty years after the event. "Dismal Dismissal" is playing as I finish this, but definitely a band worth investigating, but again not served well digitally just three songs on Amazon here.

The thing is there is more music in the world that we can think of listening to in our lives, and there is always something new (or old) to discover.

Right I'm going to make my tea now.

In 78 Everyone Born In 45 will be 33⅓ - #ALifeInNumbers #33

Pure Pop

"In 78 Everyone Born In 45 will be 33⅓" was a very clever tagline for a Stiff Records compilation "A Bunch of Stiffs" . For  those who need an explanation singles play at 45 rpm and LPs play at 33⅓ rpm and the album was a compilation of singles released in 1978. That got me thinking again about numbers and measures, how inconsistent they are in certain areas . Imperial weight you have 16 ounces to a pound , 14 pounds in a stone, a hundredweight is 8 stone (112 pounds) , then a ton is twenty hundredweight.






For vinyl playing speeds we have 16 (usually for spoken word), 33⅓ for long playing albums , 45 rpm for singles and 78 rpm for singles prior to the seven inch and made out of shellac rather than the more durable vinyl.

I know it's #33 but I am choosing "33⅓" by Jesus and Mary Chain because every time I get the chance to include one of my favourite bands I will take the opportunity, and it gives you more decent music to listen to.