Christmas special

 

Ho ho ho! This wasn't the kind of Christmas entry you would of expected a year back don'tcha think but it says a lot about how I feel about me that it's here

This year was a load of fun as got to know a number of others online who have this more still a child thing about them and I had found ways of letting that out at work too which made things less of a problem than they had been in the past.

The other crazy thing was my sister in law came on over and both of us were singing and making actions to along to that great rockin' number Wombling Merry Christmas by the Wombles as it was on the local radio station as she arrived! This didn't phaze her partner either.

One thing I missed for long time was a tradition of boxes containing a selection of candy usually chocolate children always have presented to them and this year the Hello Kitty selection box put in an appearance.

As well we had annuals and this year I had the Beano annual a comic I grew up with remaining a barrel full of child like fun I could sit on the floor and read. I like Minnie The Minx and the Bash Street Kids.

I also like the Dandy with Korky the cat, Bananaman and Desperate Dan and had this years annual too.

The initiated know I love reading not withstanding the difficulties I have with both holding books and also with my reading abilities and so I had this years Jacqueline Wilson annual which apart from having some drawing sections, also has some new short stories to read and I adore her books loads.

After going out to eat, I watched Ratatouille on the tv which was fun as for some reason I'd missed seeing it at the local movie theatre and made a note to get the dvd as anything that funny could help on either rainy days or when I'm not well.

Haydn string quartets

 I do love classical music and I had two new recordings by the Takacs Quartet of Haydn's String Quartets Op 71  & 74.

They are strongly regarded by The Sunday Times and The Strad magazine.

Teasing and Bullying: Some thoughts

Sometimes I feel like talking about more important questions and today I'm talking about teasing and bullying.

Sometimes it can be hard for people especially children to tell when someone is said to be teasing or when it it is they are being bullied. This can in some situations lead to a "Zero tolerance" approach being adopted but that of itself doesn't make it any easier to judge what's what and may not be so effective anyway in teaching people the control we need in our social relationships.

For instance sometimes what we call teasing acts a glue linking us together in much the same way as gossip can help in understand what really is going on.

Personally I see nothing wrong with playful teasing where everyone is in on the joke. But when someone feels humiliated by attacks on their appearance, beliefs and inadequacies, then it's little consolation that the person who is doing the teasing was "only kidding".Having some judgment about who is really being hurt, as opposed to benefiting and maturing by the process is a must.

It's true when something changes in character, by degree, it does become difficult to ascertain precisely when the critical point occurs. 

On the continuum from 'affectionate teasing' to hateful verbal abuse, mistakes will be made however making things so restrictive in what we may say does reduce depth of our exchanges as well as adding an awkwardness to anything less than entirely affectionate.

For most people from around the age of 10 onward we learn to read more into what people are saying and doing reading faces, tone of voice, posture and so on so we can tell if what they are saying is meant to come over as a joke between us or if they are being deliberately mean.

Actually the absence of this is very visible in forums where great mythunderstandings can easily form! 

Mean certainly has to be dealt with as either parents, teachers or even forum moderators to make sure they understand what they are doing is hurting and maybe make some restitution .

Equally some need to be encouraged to stand up for themselves like the person who frequently get their 'worms' wrong and find others laugh at them for it or picked on because of their background both things we may not be able to change (and when it comes to colour why should any of us?)

It's all about balance I feel.

My Teddy

 

My teddy bear Theodore The Bear, got covered in nasty wet stuff  a few weeks back and I had to carefully wash and clean him up. Do you know what it feels like to have stuff land above you head soaking your arms right through? He says it gives him the shivers to tell you the truth but anyway Tammy sorted me out and let's me sleep on the bed though today they've put the spare overs and that on. I've never see his friends bear never mind had tea with them.(sigh)

I have a few companions too

BFN, everyone. Theodore

Christmas recollections

While arrangements around Christmas including writing that all important letter to Father Christmas to get to the North Pole continue one thing I remember about Christmas were the trips up to my Nan and Grandad's around that time as they were fitted in with shopping being just a few miles away.

I'd spend time with him helping out with the gardening or going with him to get plants while on other occasions he'd swing me on the garden swing at the top end of the garden terrifying Mum as my co-ordination is pretty lousy as I'd enjoy it in my t shirt and shorts.

It was there our family parties with cousins were held not least one just after Boxing Day for which we'd be scrubbed up protesting in the way as boys just do about the very idea of being scrubbed up and having to dress tidily as we played Kerplunk, Battle stations and the like together while the grown ups watch Darts from Jollies night club just on the south side of our city region or snooker.

Another thing I loved around then was Shari Lewis's Lamb Chop sock puppet show that was shown on national television at the time as I loved puppetry, practising with old grey socks we'd worn out.

Integrating being LSG

 2011 shaped up to be the year where that age old conundrum of mine of being a little sissy gurl having some feminine traits not least liking to wear skirts at times together with the whole thing about me seeing myself as still a ten year old in a tartan skirt who loves to play rather than the adult started to get squared.

Work cannot be helped but when I come home, rather like when I was at school, I can just get a drink and a biscuit and then start playing even if sadly it is by myself until it's time for tea and ultimately bed of course with my teddy bear.

Equally while it matters to be informed about what is going on, in general I really don't need to watch the news so often so I can watch things like Discovery Kids and CBBC the recent BBC channel that has children's shows like I used to watch rather than more adult shows with just the odd music or documentary show which is what we did back then anyway even though with this Digital Switchover now complete in this tv region we have more channels than the through I grew up with.

There's nowt wrong with being a little sissy gurl, enjoying being more a child still and having that life.

The Kinks are Well Respected Men!

Well it's almost an annual ritual here that every year as we approach the Christmas season, a expensive box set arrives for me to buy, starve the cat for a few weeks or something a bit like that and this year is no exception.

The Kinks are quite simply one of the most important British groups of the 60's who took R&B, created the heavy metal riff with You Really Got Me and pioneered social comment in popular music with albums like Face To Face as well as The Village Green Preservation Society exploring the British way of life and inspiring countless acts ever since.

Entitled the Kinks In Mono, this set comprises of the seven UK albums of the period plus two discs of mono collectible versions plus a disc with four of their EP recordings on it, housed in a mini lp style sleeve, gatefolded with credits and fresh photographs on the inner folds.

The first three albums -Kinks, Kinda Kinks and The Kinks Kontroversy - are R&B albums with a high number of originals such as Stop Your Sobbing,Tired Of Waiting and Till The End Of The Day leading to the band being adopted by the 'Mods'.

From 1966's Face To Face onward Ray Davis's introspective song writing comes to the for with such classics as Dandy (a massive hit for Herman's Hermits in the States), Sunny Afternoon, David Watts as covered by The Jam, Death of a Clown, the impossibly perfect Waterloo Sunset, Starstruck (from Village Green Preservation Society) and Victoria from 'Arthur'.

The EP disc takes in four UK EP's (Kinksize session, Kinksize Hits, Kwyet Kinks and Dedicated Kinks) with Louie Louie, All Day and All Of The Night, A Well Respected Man, Dedicated Follower of Fashion and Set Me Free while the Mono Kollectables has singles mixes, b sides and the mono Lola and Apeman singles.

The mastering for is very good, a little louder than the early Kinks discs from mid 1980's but with plenty of contrast between the loudest and softest volumes and much improved on the 1998 re-issues with Village Green having a brand new mastering exclusive to this set.

For the money I think it's worth it, lacking a set of Kinks albums on cd.

At the bottom there are some picture one of the discs in the box and another of the book which is like the Pop Annuals Radio Luxembourg and Thank Your Lucky stars had out back then telling the Kinks story.

It's no weighty tomb of knowledge never mind a set of lyrics so you'll go whistle if that's what you want but as a slightly goofy period like introduction to the band it serves well being a fun read.

Malory Towers Forever

 

As I think I've mentioned  the odd time to my friends I've been re-reading Malory Towers, the classic story of a all girls high school on the coast of Cornwall, South-west England directly overlooking the sea as written by Enid Blyton.

As with a number of novels back then due to the whole issue of boys being picked on for reading books popular with girls you just had to "borrow" a copy, read it out of sight of other boys and never mention it.

That meant I was late getting my own copies to enjoy reading  and so far in I've just finished the Fifth volume.

Her books were a big part of my childhood that I loved mainly for their sense of innocent adventure, well observed characters and moral tales interwoven into the narrative.

I mixed them in with things like the Jennings  and Just Williams as a gripping yarn of a story is just that where you're a boy who loves stories like this.

With Malory Towers we see the world of this  boarding school which is a Castle like building with four wings, mainly through the eyes of Darrell, a first year boarder aged 12 getting to grips with induction procedures, new school rules, making new friends who as the series progresses we learn all about, their strong points and well their failings and learning to take on more responsibilities for themselves.

Each wing has inter-house competitions and for some sports their are coveted matches with other schools, the values of giving your all for your team and team mates, honour and being a gracious winner are write right through.

We also have escapades, ill thought out actions like going awl to perform and becoming so ill we can't sing, playing tricks on teachers and even some serious stuff like poison-pen letters not to mention theft.

For some such stories were (possible are even) a fantasy -a school life in childhood never experienced but preferable to the one they had - but to me much of this was very much like the reality apart from the poison-pen letter bits.

Newsflash: I did play tricks on people back then!

You could say it was really a guide cluing me in to what I was to experience making the transition from day school easier. 

I hope to re-read a few more of her series in the upcoming year.

The Beach Boys: SMiLE with Wild Honey

Well after all the gloom of the last few weeks which is still rumbling around us, I felt like talking about something that would make some of us SMILE, Namely the fact this Beach Boys album or perhaps more accurately "The SMiLE Sessions" have after 44 years finally come out in an authorized form.

There's that much and sometimes one-sided stuff written about smile that I don't feel like going into it but in essence it was a projected follow up to the Pet Sounds album of 1966 involving collaboration between Brian Wilson and Van Dyke Parks dashing off fragments of music and lyric and stitching them together as a kind of audio collage a process that would involve many fragments per song.

The year 1966 it has to be remembered was one of the most important in popular music with many lyrical, musical and technological innovations all coming together revolutionizing what was thought of as low class transitory music for kids and making it into high art with such albums as Blonde on Blonde, Revolver, Paisley Sage Rosemary & Thyme and singles like Good Vibrations.

Good Vibrations really was the stating point for this album - listen closely and you'll here all the edits and overdubs - with Brian Wilson in the studio conducting session musicians making all the backing fragments ready for the beach Boys to return from touring to add their voices.

At the same time there was much interest in what was going on with even a news team filming Brian at work at Leonard Bernstein's bequest and yet these sessions never officially saw the light of day until now.

The first thing to say about the sessions and what has been issued is it's as far away from fun in the sun car and beach songs as you could ever get very few number lend themselves to the concerts you had back then with instrumentals like Holidays and even Wind Chimes as beautiful as they are to hear anew in their original form being too challenging for the concert audience of the day.

This lead to some friction between the touring band and Brian and was a bigger issue for Capitol Records who required a record to sell with potential big hits on it and Brian launched a royalties dispute with Capitol to upping the stakes.

Brian also had his demons - it's testimony to how he is today he's happy to even talk about this period - and the competition between him and the Beatles, the disagreements in the band over the session material, the fractiousness relationship with Capitol took a heavy toll on his nerviness and increasingly erratic state of mind and so the the project got put on the high shelf 90% completed with dozens of snippets left.

Parts were re-used, songs featured in other albums Surfs Up from the 1971 album of the same name, Cabin-Essense on 20/20 and re-recordings on that half hearted replacement Smily Smile like Vege-Tables and Wind Chimes and Heroes and Villains (a favourite).

I bought the two lp version with bonus tracks on side 4 because for me at least I don't have a use nay a need to be able to re-assemble any number of fragments to make my own version as Brian's version based on approximation of 2004 he did as a solo project is good enough for me.

It's also true I appreciate greatly the physical product so something as tactile as an lp sleeve with a beautiful colour art book and easy to read lyrics is appreciated and what's more this 180 gram lp pressed here in Europe sounds superb with no one click or pop.

I also find the small gap when you change discs over helps giving you time to take in the compositional delights.

After September 1967's under produced Smiley Smile using bits from the SMiLE sessions that just totally confused people just three months later Wild Honey emerged as a group only Motown R&B influenced set.

Short on playing time this back to basic set was a major improvement during this turbulent era that was well respected in the UK but regarded by Hippy S.F. centric America as "Irrelevant".

In 2017 treated to a true stereo remix rather than than the mono and fake stereo many of had during the 70's and 80's this album which is the home of the Darlin' and Wild Honey singles and energetic How She Boogalooed It this sounds fantastic.

Curiously while the sleeve pays homage to that whole transition from mono to stereo only records being issued no where on front does it state it is the true stereo mix!

*Updated by Tammy 2017*

Past Winters

 

We're entering Winter, the start very much of the cold season where some grown ups would push extra thick layers at you not least when like me you are a disabled gurl and thought by some to be more vulnerable to the cold.

At the time I was little old fashioned having a liking for Duffle Coats usually grey or green as my last one was with big fat fasteners and a hood for school but to be honest I never got that cold.

Actually I often went out in shorts and long socks back then, never feeling cold at all even if it had been snowing watching the other boys sledding down the bank.

The Autumn is a magical time of carpets made of orangey red leaves that look all the better for natural sunlight so I like to walk about this time of year, taking photo's enjoying it before the Winter comes in.

Walking along the path that lead to my school whose building has been repurposed since with its tall trees brings back lost of golden memories such as those I experienced in October.

Christmas presents from the past

 Somebody mentioned to about the new range coming to ToysRUS in time for the upcoming Christmas festivities.

This got me thinking about some of the things I had and maybe you did too from your chronological childhood and I feel like talking a little about them this week.

At the time there were at least in my country quite a number of shows on the television featuring Magicians who invited members of the public to take part in their acts and these shows really held my attention.

It was just so super exciting to see something disappear and then by magic reappear at the waving of a wand or a chant so my folks bought me a magic set with a wand, hat and a few other things to try these tricks out.

That's all the bits and that you used to perform your magic with.

I also had something quite useful as I have dyspraxia  which makes trying to write neatly something of a pain and that was a basic Child's Typewriter with a small frame, limited to A5 or maybe going as far as A4 paper.

I used that to write short stories, thank you letters, lists and labels for school projects on.

This was well before the personal computer was widely available with word processing programs like Word Star came about never mind MS Word so you really didn't have too many choices!

We didn't have the spell checker - hurrah for the Can-E spellchecker on here! - so you had to use a little erasure and overtype this  being before even correction fluid became widely available for budding typists.

Mine was a Petite a bit like the one below which I kept until high school when I got a grown up manual typewriter.

Toto, Chic and Linda Ronstadt

This weeks Teenbeat  edition may well be the last one this side of  Christmas features part of a trend thought the last few years in Europe at least of offering older albums in special low price packs.

To me Steve Lukather, Jeff Poraco and Bobby Kimball were not just in demand LA based session players gracing many albums in the seventies through the eighties - just check the notes on your albums from that era for the extras!  - but the core of a talent group going under the name of Toto who released many albums but to which with the exception of 1982's IV with it's clutch of hit singles like Africa and Rosanna don't register on the general public's index of sings they know.

Tot's music is perhaps best characterized by strong arrangements involving horns, keyboards and other instruments as well as fairly thoughtful lyrics in a sound which does also rock 

Their first album shows promise with Child's Anthem and Hold The Line which as I recall was a 45 but the first side is lacking a bit of something, the second - you can tell I was brought up in the lp era - is a strong set.

The next album in the pack is 1979's Hydra which has more of uniform concept showing the potential of rock to be musically challenging in the title track especially and is the home to '99' a Favourite of mine.

1981's Turn Back I feel got lost in a clutch of splendid releases that year although it contained Goodbye Eleanor a fast paced rocker and is a very strong album.

The pack does include IV which was huge seller and a good album but one I felt was a bit too mellow and almost too polished while it's follow up Isolation from 1984 has more of a rock feel with songs like Carmen, Holyanna and Stranger In Town the video of which is etched in my memory.

If you've ever been curious about Toto or just wish to explore some classy music this set is a cheap way to do it.

Well I don't know about you but one of the highlights during the year at our high school was the School Disco which we were lucky in that we had a proper dj set up and mc spinning the discs  some of which we supplied from our own modest collections.

One the most in demand request for discs was from the group Chic which I had a decent set of 45's at the time to which we danced to loving funk and Soul music at the time.

This takes me to a recent 2cd set issued by Music Club a budget UK label called Chic Magnifique which I purchased.

This disc has 37 recordings by them including  all the hits we loved such as Le Freak, My Forbidden Lover, Good Times, Hangin' as as well as a few tracks from the 1992 Chic-ism comeback album .

It comes with excellent notes that reveal just how many of these tracks have been sampled by today's R&B/Rap acts and reminds me so much of those 'Good Times'.

Also up on the deck but for different reasons a couple of  discs by the noted singer-songer writer Linda Ronstadt except that for me at least this was amongst the stuff we heard on FM radio back especially at weekends and evenings in the dorm then so frequent that although many of her hits from that period are burnt into my brain I never bought any albums by her then or afterward.

Born in 1946 in Tuscon, AZ, Linda's career started in 1967 with the Stone Ponies which is represented on Greatest Hits by Different Drum but then she went solo recording for Capitol having a huge hit with You're No Good and Asylum/Warner with a swathe of hits throughout the 70's such as Blue Bayou, It's so Easy and Hurt So Good. 

Later on she explored jazz-pop with Nelson Riddle and Mexican folk with such tracks as What's New but inevitable it's the 70's material you come back to.

These two speciality reissues from 1993 and 1998 of her 1976 and 1980 compilations mastered by Steve Hoffman for DCC Records showcase that material.

An artist who plows a musical furrow for a while and moves on is hard to compile so it helps to have some prime slices in their original album form which this set I bought recently does.

Five prime slices with their front and rear covers in a slim box with track listings, this boosts your appreciation of what she achieved.

Autumn 2011

One of the things I really enjoy doing is going for walks anywhere really from country parks to just a local section of footway or even sidewalks and in this area I'm most fortunate to have access to open countryside.

Well the other day when I was about making my way toward the local canal (inland waterway) I cam through this area on the edge of modern housing development with an image that sums up 'The Fall' well so I grab my camera out from the jacket pocket and took this picture, with its rich colours.

There's been no manipulation applied to it with the colours being exactly as captured!

Vampire Bund

The story revolves around Mina Țepeș, Princess-Ruler of all vampires, and her werewolf protector Akira Kaburagi Regendorf. Like other vampires, Mina has been in hiding with her people for many years. Seeking to end centuries of isolation, Mina gains permission to create a special district for vampires called "The Bund" off the coast of Tokyo, Japan by paying off the entire national debt of the Japanese government with her family's vast wealth.

Following a discussion show where known vampire movie actor Seiichi Hirai (who was revealed to be an actual vampire) is killed by her during his rampage, Mina reveals to the world the existence of vampires while mentioning her desire for both races to live together as they are residing on "The Bund". However, tensions run high as fearful humans and extremist vampire factions begin to interfere with Mina's wish for peace with the human world. This causes Mina and Akira to defend "The Bund" from these attackers.

Sakura in her School Uniform from Vampire Bund

Record collecting

When I first started record collecting the way in which you built collections up differed a good deal from what it is today.

For instance all but the most smallest of towns had actual record shops who held a certain level of stock including all the current releases and could order up any 'back catalogue' items thing still available new but not the biggest sellers, for you.

In addition there were mail order outfits which you usually subscribed to a years catalogue and update list which you used to fill out a order form making sure you made clear what to do if any items wasn't available and enclosing a money order or cheque.

Two examples I can remember in the UK were Cob Records and Adrian's in Essex that had massive catalogues covering titles from the UK and all over the world many of which in the smaller towns you'd never see.

One smaller outfit based in Telford, Shropshire was Oldies Unlimited who tended to specialize more in 45's (or singles to Brits) and one thing they quite a few of was special packages of so many singles by named artists that were a very cheap way of establishing your collection.

Recently I received a similar style pack in the mail from eil.com who aren't generally the cheapest place for stuff although they have monthly promotions that help in the same vein.

This was a pack of five singles for the UK market by the female rock singer Belinda Carlisle all mint unplayed copies in their original picture sleeves for just over £10

The titles included were Leave A Light On, La Luna and Summer Rain from her Runaway Horses album, Little Black Book from the Live Your Life, Be Free album and finally Big Scary Animal from belindacarlsilereal which came out in 1993 when vinyl singles sales started falling.

I liked her music an awful lot but bought albums on cd mainly back then so I was glad to get this set cheaply.
This is the cover of Big Scary Animal as issued in Europe:

Kansas remasters

Following from my liking for structurally simple uncomplicated songs about romance I slowly graduated toward more complex music such as that by Kansas ( I couldn't really get into four sided concept albums) but the majority of their albums I had were on tape so I was mighty glad to get this cd set recently.

Beginning in the 70s from their hometown of Topeka, Kansas, the group produced a wild mix of rock anthems, introspective ballads, and loose jams on their studio albums.

Many of you have heard of "Carry On Wayward Son" on Classic Rock radio stations which was a smash hit for the group back in '76. Well that's from an album called Leftoverture that happens to part of this extremely cheap 5 cd set."Dust in the Wind" (off the featured '77's Point of Know Return album) is hardly indicative of the full-bodied, keyboard-and-violin-fueled anthems that grace most of their albums.

The albums included are:-

Kansas (S/T)

Song For America

Masque

Leftoverture

Point of Know Return

The discs are the Sony Legacy remasters from the 2000's that happen to sound extremely good to my ears coming with bonus live tracks too in card lp style covers.

I have the US 1996 re-master of Monolith from 1979 featuring the hit People of the South Wind as well Audio-Vision which had the hit Hold On.

I first bought Drastic Measures as a lp record in August 1983 shortly after its US release and following a selling off period in the late 80's while I was trying to build up my cd collection, I have been without a copy!

This was a pity as it was a enjoyable album the Prog rockers when John Elefante joined the band taking lead vocals.

It came out briefly on cd in 1996 and I bought a copy although it is long period out of print (England's Rock Candy re-issued this title a few months ago but that not as good sounding)

The song Mainstream takes a pot shot at the label people who stifle artistic development and Fight Fire With fire is a up tempo rocker.

YouTube - Kansas - Fight Fire with Fire

I also got the matching 1996 Legacy cd of  Vinyl Confessions the 1982 album with the hits Play The Game Tonight and Play On both of which shared as did most of tracks the bands strongly felt Christian beliefs.

My boarding school life

 Encountering and talk with someone for a few week rather got me to thinking a little about writing something about my boarding school life although my own pictures seem to have disappeared over the years.

So you wanna know about boarding school?

Well I went when I was 11 and 1/2 and it probably as as well as there were lots of problems at home revolving around Dad that were affecting me emotionally.

As much as I'd love to say I went to this gorgeous old building with orchard and that, it was actually a very modern boarding school on the edge of a small town and as close we got to an orchard was a field with wild poppies growing in it.

The school was what you call co-ed taking both girls and boys in it.

I quite liked it because it gave me security, a host of friends and more of a chance to be myself because for once I was in the right place at the right time.

When you mention boarding schools people tend to weigh in with opinions from either 'my Island horror story' or 'the very making of me' but oddly enough I think the best portrayal is in fiction specifically Enid Blyton's Malory Tower or St Clares series that you might possible of read before those who had it in for Enid removed her books from libraries in England tossed in with the boyish wit of Jennings of which I read a lot at the time.

Her portrayal is very similar to my experience in that it's a multifaceted thing because you are part of a social unit who live and breathe together for all of the time so everything is that much bigger. The good and the not so good.

If you live away from people as I did it's a great thing because you have a ready made supply of playmates available from daybreak to sunset from different backgrounds plus my family had issues amongst themselves (they still do sadly) so it provided a bit of an escape from them.

I suppose the first thing to say when I arrived was there were more boys so when the first morning had began it obvious the head boy had rather more to 'take care of' trying to settle in so standing very nervously by the wall, the Head Girl puts her arm through mine and says "I'm Jo and I'll take care of you".

This leads to the biggest tear stain heart to heart ever as I explain what stuff is like at home and why I really hate how I looked to the point of hurting myself deliberately (we'd call it "self harming" today) all with a vocabulary of a nine year old as my English wasn't terribly good then. She doesn't really understand it all but says she'll help me which is good enough.

By a stroke of luck while the individual Dorms are gender separated, they alternate along one long corridor so you could see them about and talk in the common room or in the grounds.

By a bit of persuasion I was able to get to play netball and rounders with the girls as I wasn't much good at rugby or cricket and swimming was mixed.

In my school, the  Dorms for us held about 3 or four to one room in which  which you can put up some of your own things such as posters, action man figures and you could have your own tv and tape player.

In the evenings the Subbuteo table was out and all us boys would be around it going hell for leather to make our teams players win which was little different from the recess football matches we'd start and inevitably send the ball on to the flat roof to the consternation of our headmaster.

If you wished although in the common room where you could read watch tv and have drinks before getting dressed for bed and lights out. No talking ever after lights out!!

Generally we could play in our dorm, the hall, outdoors in good weather under supervision, in in our common room although that's where we'd listen to music mainly in and sometimes we could arrange activities such as cubs or school would take us out to places like the movies or the theatre especially when we were older.

The other side of being in a boarding school was you had to accept this space had rules and you had staff who would see you looked after yourself when it personal appearance and hygiene because that was their responsibility.

We also wore uniform outside class grey skirts for girls or trousers or at a push depending on the staff shorts for boys like me with grey or red jumpers and white tops -nothing really fancy (I'd of loved a blazer!) which I didn't mind cos at least nobody was able to be nasty about clothes you had.

If I was lucky the girls would make me over in a skirt and white pereline socks which was marvellous.

The first thing you learned in your first term as that the 'social ground rules' were different, so If anyone said anything catty regarding another it would last well beyond communal mealtimes and 'broadcasting' your thoughts willy nilly or making wild accusations was a very silly thing to do cos the group would be upset for ages and you couldn't escape it.

You'd pretty much have to apologize to the person and the group and take whatever sanction they'd apply so we all could move on and you could be spanked by the staff during the day and for certain things outside school hours.

In hindsight that was the best training for using the internet ever ('Everything seen cannot be unseen') as well as being very useful in large organizations dealing with group issues.

So you see my school experience was actually pretty good not because of some big edict from above but just from being flexible and showing compassion.

Hollies studio albums on cd

Well apart from some bad rain Tuesday night, it hasn't been a bad ol' week at all as far as the weather goes having been out a bit. Indeed the sun is shining very brightly as I type this out. 

The Hollies: Bus Stop c/w Stop! Stop! Stop! The Sound: 

The most striking thing is the lack of grey harshness compared to my experience of the 6 CD box Clarke, Hicks and Nash set that is remarkable value for money in some ways (and no doubt the same on the individual stereo/mono cds) and a sense of more resolution that is most marked on Bus Stop. Stop Stop Stop is the re-titled US issue that is the same as the UK For Certain Because album which is a gem of the Hollies 60's output. 

For once I did feel like turn the volume right up and noticed the 'scale' increased sounding like you're surrounded by a beat group with real dynamics sound lacking the oppressive buzz of limited mastering. 

There's some good low end on this cd. 

To summarize, If you're looking for the best currently available For Certain Because on cd then this is it outperforming the UK EMI editions and Bus Stop as much as it is a hodge podge of tracks over two years does gel reasonably well giving you good versions of the songs from their respective UK tape sources.

BGO also issued the first two US Hollies albums, Here I Go Again which comprises of a selection from their UK lp Stay with the Hollies with singles and b sides while Hear! Here! is essentially the same as the UK Hollies album of 1965 bar two tracks changed for I'm Alive and Look Through Any Window. 

This disc is all mono which is as well as those early stereo mixes weren't to great as either stereo or punchy sounding. 

Having completed my collection of the 2011 BGO discs my attention moved toward the last full year of the Nash era Hollies, a period of rapid change across the entire pop music scene and within the group itself.

In essence Graham Nash wished for the group to expand musically and lyrically in the way such luminaries as the Byrds, Beatles and Beach Boys had upping the 'Oh Wow' feel rather than producing perfect two and half minute pop songs, feeling that with December 1966's For Certain Because album they'd shaken of the mantle of recording other peoples work.

What he could not of foreseen is the way the singles and albums buying public would divided into two camps and the attempt to main pop success by the old standard of hit singles would eventually lead to a situation that he'd leave the band as he felt increasingly he was writing songs that couldn't supply them with the hits they required.

Telling the first album Evolution, as issued in the UK had no lead single and announced to the World the Hollies had embraced psychedelia where as the issue by Epic Records who'd acquired North American rights from Imperial rejigged it to 10 tracks from 12 and made Carrie Anne a hit single the opening cut. 

This album and it's follow up Butterfly were remastered in 1999 by Peter Mew for EMI and suffered as did the whole series from the misuse of noise reduction leaving it sounding dead and tonally grey.

In the UK in 1989 BGO did issue on cd both albums in their UK form and in 1999 Sundazed did but based around their US configurations.

In the case of Evolution the tracks orphaned from the UK release are placed at end of the cd re-issue adding Open Up Your Eyes, Jennifer Eccles and Signs That Will Never Change at the end.

The Sundazed cd in STEREO SC 6122 does sound very good being mastered by Bob Irwin at Sony Music from the UK tapes.

In November 1967 the follow up album Butterfly was issued which in my opinion is a more cohesive set of tracks seeing the band sing about Astral Plains and seeing all the colours of the rainbow in Try It, invoking child like wonder on Pegasus and chord changes on Dear Eloise.

For all of that it's still a beat album by the Hollies although with the benefit of hindsight Elevation Observations amongst others sounds like a Crosby Stills and Nash song before they all hooked up.

The North American version was re-titled as Dear Eloise/King Midas In Reverse featuring these two US Singles cut to 11 tracks adding Leave Me from the UK Evolution album.

Thankfully when Sundazed re-issued it on cd as SC 6123 they reinstated the UK sequence adding the US only tracks immediately afterward and well as Do The Best You Can in stereo.

BGO issued it briefly on cd as CD BGO 79 and it's a close call between the two for sound (I just about prefer the Sundazed).

King Midas is the US mired in reverb squashed stereo where is the orchestration? version: The best sounding stereo one is on the 1991 Epic Anthology.

It's been commonly held that Graham Nash's exiting the Hollies was the step back from sophisticated pop but I'm less than convinced of it even if some of that studio trickery and backwards tapes era stopped. 

For one thing the unique vocal sound, a sound Terry Sylvester more than filled the missing Nash's shoes as part of, soared for much of the late sixties into the mid 70's on such classic records as The Air That I Breathe. 

For another sophistication lyrically wasn't a million miles removed from what Graham himself did as part of C,S,N & Young and for me nowhere is more evident than on the 1970 album Confessions of the Mind. 

 Altered in that irritating America knows best level from this UK 13 track album to the 11 track Moving Finger it show their concern about relationships in such numbers as Little Girl dealing as it does with the impact of relationship breakdowns on children and the notion of having given something your all, in returning home, head held high for trying in Gasoline Alley Bred.

Thankfully when making an excellent job of reissuing it in 1997 Sundaze reinstated the missing 2 tracks from the UK original and as with the other two discs Bob Irwin mastered it well from the UK tapes. Catalogue number SC 6125

Going back a little to that mid sixties period, unfortunately there's not a really good cd of Would You Believe out there as it wasn't issued in the states as that and BGO in the UK have yet to issue the album with 8 of its songs "Beat Group" that was issued instead probably as there's not a studio album to match it up with in a 'twofer' package even though Sundaze have re-issued it in mono on lp. 

That lp sounds wonderful. 

In the end I've decided to get the now deleted UK EMI 'ORIG' stereo&mono cd as this had less extra limiting applied to it than the later two on one by EMI in mono. 

This has the folk flavoured Fifi The Flea, a cover of Buddy Holly's Take Your Time, I'll Take What I Want and Hard Hard Year a song whose maturity was to show just where they were headed in a matter of months. 

My modest hope is BGO will issue Beat Group on cd in mono with Imperial's 1967 release Greatest Hits and add Stewball together with I've Got A Way Of My Own as bonus tracks. 

Lost Canal pictures

Well well well! After last weeks scary moment I'm feeling much better and have been busy doing Something Else over the weekend. As well I have my broadband back.

A friend seemed to like the boat picture I took and obviously loves the Trent & Mersey canal part of which goes through here to Runcorn via Northwich. Also if I'm not mistaken wasn't there a tv program called Rosie and Jim set on a narrowboat shown over here???

Anyway the upshot of this is I've decide to post a couple of pictures I took three years ago but get messed up on my old camera so not previously published on this blog or any other site so it's a kind of exclusive for you!

The first is of a Narrowboat decorated for a Festival that passed this way with flowers and plants the second taken during the summer when we have a lot of boat people pass by and use our stores.