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: