This is the place that my day-to-day thoughts and other small nuggets of banality are recorded - the bigger stuff e.g. "On Tour" has its own section accessible via the home page.
If you have a friend of bobspace account you can respond to these posts amongst other benefits, including access to more content.
Courtesy of StreetView
The scan doesn't do it justice, but the quality of the original was beautiful - a classic from the heyday of Viz and a poignant reminder to me of my folly in binning my collection.
Following the purchase of a music streamer to compliment my, now "classic", hifi, for the last year or so I have been using the Tidal music streaming service.
All the usual advantages of such a service but with a minimum of CD-quality sound and a rapidly increasing amount of content available at 96Khz 24bit resolution - as a great conductor once said, "all else is gaslight".
But, is it really?
Never one to pay heed to those who truly know better, I thought I'd try a few digital/analogue comparative listenings, man-a-mano or indeed stream vs. vinyl.
This required sitting back and giving truly uninterrupted headspace to a few of my better-quality LPs and 12" singles.
And the result?
Unexpected and three-fold;
- Listening to my old vinyl has reminded me that the album format is still the most satisfying way to listen to music, by a country mile - so much more emotionally involving.
- As for many old duffers, actually having a record in my hand is an experience in itself, an activity requiring reverence and care for the delicate physical objects involved.
- 45s are still a pain to listen to, one track and you are done, the spell is broken - get up, lift and store the arm, put the disc back in its sleeve, get another disc out, clean it...
So having failed absolutely to answer the question asked, I needed to answer another, are my 45s condemned forever to decorate the inside of an unopened cupboard?
In the midst of my nostalgic reverie, the "solution" quickly crystalised - mixtapes - the physical and analogue incarnation of the playlist!
Accordingly, I have purchased a secondhand cassette desk (well, three actually) but before delving into that particular adventure, I shall rewind, set the counter to 000 and play through my life in tape recorders.
One - ITT SL60 / 1972
The idea of being able to record had appealed to me for some time and so I went into overdrive with what I might now call "project cassette recorder".
Details spared, this is what I ended up with - and I remember my first recording, the Star Trek theme tune, recorded through the built-in mike from our monochrome TV set.
Similar standards of recording engineering, primarily targeted at TOTP, saw me through the next few years, before taking the quantum leap forward of connecting to my Mum's new Grundig radio via a 5-pin DIN lead!
Still within the 1970s, playback quality was to receive a similar fillip, we didn't have the word upgrade in Scotland then, with the addition of my Grandad's Sinclair speaker.
Two - Hitachi TRK5280-E / 1979?
Much loved and even more played, my ITT had succumbed to the fate of all things mechanical, especially the cheap and fragile.
And as my world of music was given a reset by punk, new wave, NWOBM and other discoveries, so was my recording capability - it was now stereo, had the radio built-in and a headphone socket.
This was the game-changer (again, not available in the Scotland of 1979), I didn't have to be in the kitchen to record, nor indeed to listen to the radio and this could be done until the small hours, with the addition of headphones.
Out of these nocturnal listenings came an unforgettable recording - Whole Lotta Rosie (live) recorded from the Friday Rock Show on a BASF Chrome tape.
This wasn't suitable for the machine but emphasized the guitars on the track, pushing them straight into my consciousness. Magic.
Three - Tandberg 3000 / 1980
This, very hefty lump of kit was passed down to me from my grandfather and I thought would prove to be the springboard to a life of hi-fi recording.
Alas, despite the glamorous image of the reel-to-reel deck - think Mrs Wallace and Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction - it never hit the spot.
Dull and noisy, unless run at a minimum of 3 3/4 ips*, it ate alarmingly expensive tape at an alarming rate, very clearly, very quickly a dead-end in this story.
Four - Pioneer CT3A / 1982?
Following the disappointment of the Tandberg, this I thought was something of a disappointment too.
Having waited a couple of years to fork out for a cassette deck, the world of cassette deck styling (at least for my budget) had moved on from that of solid aluminium fascias and controls to the very obviously lightweight and plastic.
However, what initially felt like a let-down became a constant companion through my latter years of education - giving its all through six years of service and three replacement heads.
As I studied through many an evening, this machine provided the background of recorded vinyl and radio that kept me company and sane.
Too many memories to mention.
Five - Sony Walkman WM22 / 1985
The other machines here were things I truly desired as objects and for the world they opened up to me, but looking back I'm finding it hard to remember why I really wanted a walkman.
In the field, however, I really did warm to this device.
On my daily commutes to and from campus, particularly in the winter when it was dark and damp, inside the bus as well as out, this kept the cold out and the warmth in.
As a bonus, it fitted nicely into the top pocket of my combat jacket.
Ghost in the Machine, was my first listen on the walkman, in the shop as a test and on the way home.
As an aside - the Walkman/cassette was the only true practical portable music format of the era, however portable players, and I'm not talking about a Dansette here, did still exist for vinyl.
Six - Denon DRM700 / 1989
Having laid my faithful Pioneer to rest, it was time too for me to move on, leaving my youth and Edinburgh behind as I headed "south" to start the rest of my life.
Amidst all of this change, a constant remained, my bubble of music, kept aloft by my collection of cassettes and still-thriving Hitachi Radio Cassette.
However, as I discovered, life soon settles and it started to get comfortable again, this time with the advantage of an independent income.
Time was ripe to assemble a completely new system and that was to include a tapehead's essential, a three-head deck, this deck.
And very good it turned out to be, fed with better quality cassettes it really produced a recorded sound close enough to that of the source to remove the annoyance of noise and the nagging suspicion of loss of clarity.
As an example, my clearest recollection of it was testing its recording of A New Flame, which I'd bought a promo copy of on vinyl, not my usual style but a beautifully clean sound which held my attention.
I loved it for the sound it made and I loved it as a thing!
However, by 1995 when it was nicked, I was basking in the newfound glory of digital and Britpop and to be honest, cursed the theft of my collection of Blur, Suede, Oasis, Bluetones, Paul Weller, etc. CDs more than I did the DRM700.
Changed but very happy days, bar the break-in.
---------- Twenty-seven years ----------
Seven - Denon DRM700 / Yamaha KX390 / Denon DRM600 / 2022
That will bring us back to Do(e).
Bob, Feb 2023.
John Lennon said of Elvis that he didn't die in 1977, he “really died the day he joined the army", and as far as one-line generalisations go it was unfortunate in its accuracy.
Elvis was not a great musician and he never wrote a song and he didn't single-handedly invent rock'n'roll, but he was the first amongst a few young men who drew upon the existing musical stock of America and sang it anew, with energy, from the heart and without restraint.
Indeed, if it were not for Elvis it would be hard to imagine rock'n'roll having the impact it did, he was the one who turned up at Sun studios and asked to sing, the sound was his and is now ours.
If it were not for Elvis would we care about anything John Lennon ever said?
And all of this took place from 1954 until he entered national service in 1958 when he left us with a catalogue of recordings marking the departure of the train from the platform built by C&W, hill-billy, the Ink-Spots, gospel, Frank Sinatra and many others.
Even in some of his early films, exploitative though they were, there was still something new, who else could have sung Jailhouse rock?
But when he returned from the army, rock'n'roll and all its excitement and adventure had finally been chewed up by an uncomprehending corporate America and spat out as another glossy product, the broken mould had been remade and Elvis just had to fit, the Colonel made sure he did.
Farewell.
If you're curious or want to share a bit of my love for Elvis '54 -Army try the following edit of an ILR broadcast from 1985 presented by Pete Townsend.
Shorn of its Radio Forth adverts for "Lewis Upholstery’s One and Only Once a Year sale" amongst others, it tells a listenable version of '54 -' 58 - just do the man justice and concentrate on the music.
Click the label and save the zipped set of .MP4s - give it time, 80MB.
Some other places to look if you want to understand Elvis and to some extent America during 1954 - '58.
Peter Guralnick's Biography of these years
The Sun Sessions and Louisiana Hayride - you really are listening to the birth of r'n'r and it is beautiful.
Ed Sullivan and Milton Berle performances, priceless.
Google and Youtube as ever fill in the gaps, happy hunting
As I write it would appear that Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson is the odds-on favourite to be this nation's next Prime Minister.
There is a considerable amount I could say about him, which speaks ill of him as a politician and hence those who would vote for him but, on this occasion, I have decided to let him do it himself.
Two links follow with Eddie Mair, Britain's best but smuggest interviewer, asking Boris to provide answers to some questions.
I'll warn you - this is excruciating stuff.
A further update - following BJ's shouty Friday Evening, I have to admit I had a heartwarming smirk over the whole episode, especially as the Tory press chose to splash a Guardian headline over their front pages.
To quote from The Guardian,
Symonds is heard saying Johnson had ruined a sofa with red wine: “You just don’t care for anything because you’re spoilt. You have no care for money or anything.”
This apparently chimes with what one of his schoolmasters thought,
And from my point of view that is what really bothers me about Boris - is that he just doesn't care, he is prodigiously lazy and slapdash at best, at worst a self-serving proven liar.
In many interviews (viz above and the recent Conservative "leadership" hustings in Birmingham) he ducks answering the questions asked by brushing them aside and saying I would rather talk about something else.
As someone who pays his salary - I would like to see some accountability.
And finally (for today) what Boris said about the last time there was a change of Labour leader whilst in office,
“It’s the arrogance. It’s the contempt. That’s what gets me. It’s Gordon Brown’s apparent belief that he can just trample on the democratic will of the British people. It’s at moments like this that I think the political world has gone mad, and I am alone in detecting the gigantic fraud.”
And with another tanker-load of cloying Grade-AAA wind-bagging,
“They voted for Anthony Charles Lynton Blair to serve as their leader. They were at no stage invited to vote on whether Gordon Brown should be PM… They voted for Tony, and yet they now get Gordon, and a transition about as democratically proper as the transition from Claudius to Nero. It is a scandal. Why are we all conniving in this stitch-up? This is nothing less than a palace coup… with North Korean servility, the Labour Party has handed power over to the brooding Scottish power-maniac.”
Boris was asked about the GB comment on LBC, I have just seen this - from either yesterday or today and didn't provide an answer.
Still more regarding Boris and his ability to say one thing and do something completely different - apart from looking after himself.
https://eu-rope.ideasoneurope.eu/2018/02/14/boris-johnson-remember-what-he-said/
Boris as we all know, however, can write a good rabble-rousing speech or Telegraph column - take a look at Boris's income from his activities for example in 2018-19,
From 11 July 2018 until 10 July 2019, articles for the Telegraph Media Group Ltd, 111 Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1W 0DT, for which I expect to receive £22,916.66 a month. Hours: 10 hrs a month. First payment received on 13 August 2018.
...or perhaps...
2 November 2018, received £94,507.85 from GoldenTree Asset Management, 300 Park Avenue, 21st Floor, New York, NY 10022 via Chartwell Speakers, 14 Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1X 8HN, for a speaking engagement on 8 November 2018. Travel and accommodation also provided. Hours: 2 hrs. (Registered 09 November 2018).
One would have thought the people at GoldenTree Asset Management would have something better to do with 2 hours and £94,000+, in many industries you would expect more than 2 hours of waffle, indeed you would be investigated for having taken a bung.
or a small sample of political donations,
Amount of donation, or nature and value if donation in kind: £50,000 for office and staffing costs
Date accepted: 1 October 2018
Amount of donation: £3,000 for office and staffing costs.
Date accepted: 21 December 2018
Amount of donation, or nature and value if donation in kind: £10,000
Date accepted: 15 January 2019
Amount of donation or nature and value if donation in kind: £20,000
Date accepted: 15 January 2019
If you can't be bothered to add them all up they come close to £500,000.
Why we, as a nation, tolerate politicians - especially the like of Boris or say Tony Blair - that are supposedly "serving" us simply to gain publicity and additional income for their own benefit is beyond me.
The above has been sourced from parliamentary disclosures via https://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/10999/boris_johnson/uxbridge_and_south_ruislip
Fabulous dahling!
bobspace the only place to be!
Respond here...
Respond here... Second Time around
And a final little flourish - why not, I'll knock myself out
Nice!
Snowdonia here we come - the Devils in Skirts!
Just a bit of test text here, enough to span the width of the boblog page and a little bit more.
Just a bit of test text here, enough to span the width of the boblog page and a little bit more.
By this stage, things were really going down hill!
No, I think they were just as poor as ever.
This is me!
Lady Roughdiamond
Actually Lady Ruff-Diamond.
another trivial response!
Time for tiffin!
In the deserts of Sudan
And the gardens of Japan
From Milan to Yucatan
Every woman, every man
Hit me with your rhythm stick.
Hit me! Hit me!
Je t'adore, ich liebe dich,
Hit me! hit me! hit me!
Hit me with your rhythm stick.
Hit me slowly, hit me quick.
Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!
In the wilds of Borneo
And the vineyards of Bordeaux
Eskimo, Arapaho
Move their body to and fro.
Hit me with your rhythm stick.
Hit me! Hit me!
Das ist gut! C'est fantastique!
Hit me! hit me! hit me!
Hit me with your rhythm stick.
It's nice to be a lunatic.
Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!
Hit me! Hit me! Hit me!
In the dock of Tiger Bay
On the road to Mandalay
From Bombay to Santa Fe
Over hills and far away
Hit me…
Starting to look good!