P.I.R. 40th Anniversary & The Whispers

This week  I had the pleasure of a BIG 10 cd box arrive Tuesday that had been preordered  a while back - more or less the minute I heard about it - as it seemed unbelievable.
It's taken four whole days to listen to it all!

Produced very much with the blessing of Messers Gamble and Huff themselves under Ian Dewhirst and programmed by Ralph Tee who in 1986 made the legendary 14 lp retrospective, this set gives us over 170 songs a good number previously unavailable on cd from the very beginning of their record label into the 90's and one previously unissued track. 

Some have unique 12" mixes and 45 edits.

You see  40 years ago the label was established and this is THE anniversary set.
Tracks in the soul, funk and 'disco' genres are covered with for instance disc seven for instance is mainly jazz influenced  with Dexter Wansel featuring.

Everything has freshly mastered for this set from the original masters to sound as good as it can.

If that wasn't enough there's a 60 page booklet giving track by track narration and a US label discography something that's very handy.

For people like me who love this stuff it's a dream come true - such much timeless soul -  and what is more this little gem only costs £41.37 from Amazon which is very little to pay for such a set.

I did however spend some money on some extra separate cds on Edsel of albums by MFSB who were the backing musicians of many of the labels hits and also of Teddy Pendergrass and Archie Bell & the Drells.

Edsel do most of the post 1976 albums from that label sounding really good.

Today's second feature is The Whispers.

In 2002 apart from the Shalamar reissues I once talked about Sanctuary who own the UK rights to the SOLAR back catalogue decided to start a complete Whispers reissue campaign which got me interested as someone who did like this soul groups music having bought both the 1994 30th Anniversary set and 1999's And The Beat Goes On 2 cd compilation albums.

For reasons that I honestly can't remember, this 8 cd series laid incomplete in my collection as I think I'd started at the end(!) probably because my original cd of 1987's Just Gets Better In Time had gone all sticky in the way many cds made by Nimbus in the UK during that period were prone to and I was thinking more about getting a  replacement.

In time I did get "The Whispers" famed for the smash hit And The Beat Goes On as well as My Girl coupled with 1987's seasonal album Happy Holidays and Imagination from 1981 with its smash It's A Love Thing coupled with This Kind Of Loving from the same year that suffered from the same fate as other albums on SOLAR at this period little promotion as the distribution deal was changing. 

A few years later I found the second disc in the series Bingo-The Janus Years which as the name suggests covered all the material recorded for Janus Records  a division of Chess featuring the Bingo album and a favourite song  by them of mine Mother For My Children from 1974 but that was it.

Recently I've finally get around to completing it aided by something I didn't have back then - Amazon - although quite a number of these discs are discontinued with single cds versions still available new from Unidisc of Canada.

The Whispers story on album begins around 1969/70 and the Soul clock label so I picked up 'Planets Of Life the Soul Clock recordings' because apart from that album you do get the other non album 45's which set the scene for the moved to Janus from 1972 through 1974. 

A word of warning the Canadian cd doesn't have the title track and the German is poorly copied from a lp with lots of filtering to hide crackles etc.

From Janus they moved in 1975 to Soul Train a label created by the people behind the legendary Soul Train black music tv show releasing One For The Money (also a 45) and Open Up Your Love from 1975 and 1976 respectively.

1979 saw the release of the acclaimed Headlights album a favourite of mine a with its singles (Olivia) Lost and Turned Out and the 'quiet storm' Lets Go All The Way which in this series is coupled Whisper In Your Ear featuring the single Can't Do Without Your Love. 

These were the first albums they issued on the SOLAR imprint.

Finally we get to 1981's Love Is where You Find It featuring In The Raw as well as Emergency, one of the first albums to have a uptempo dancing and slow romancing side configurations which for this series is coupled with 1983's Love Is Love released during a period of very rapid change in R&B  music as electro and rap was making its way into the mainstream.

Holidays of the past

I didn’t go to Blackpool, Lancashire in the 1960’s as my family tended to go to caravan sites in North Wales which isn’t far from the North-west Midlands.

We did go in the early 1970’s when my Nan was alive – just as she survived attempted suicide following a nervous breakdown and delusions – and in an album currently MIA there are pictures of me in shorts and t shirts there.

My shorts were not as long as his but made of white cotton, held by a snake clasp belt and usually stripy coloured t shirts.

At the time it still had some of its glamour not that was as refined as it’s opposite along the coast Morecambe but started losing its way in 80’s and 90’s as families with children seemed to go overseas more and more as Disneyland Fla and Paris become must visit places instead.

A spot of Boccherini plus Holst

I think I last mentioned Boccherini late in 2006 in connection with his Cello Concertos but recently I picked up this set of two cds of his String Quartets which Naxos put out in 2002.

I love chamber music but Boccherini tends to be somewhat neglected when it comes to commercial recordings so it's a delight to have these performances  which are excellent at budget price so well recorded. 

In addition I picked up a copy of the 1997 budget 'Duo' reissue of the classic 1967 Opus 12 Symphonies cycle originally issue as three lp box set by Raymond Leppard and the New Philharmonia Orchestra now slotted in two gorgeously filled cds very well digitally re-mastered.

 

Anyway, this cd from Japan arrived that combined two much loved performances of Holst's The Planet Suite and Also sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss by the Boston symphony Orchestra conducted by William Steinberg.

These well very well received on lp record in 1970 and 1971 and were issued on cd in 1987 and 1988 with me buying my copies in 1992 and 3 with the Strauss coming with two other Strauss recordings and the Holst with another short work.

Those cds were very good for the period but this newly mastered version with both main performances is truly exceptional with more depth, transparency and imaging than the original cd versions even though they are just regular but very well manufactured cds.

Changing times

Just put me in pretty dress and put my hair in a plait with colourful lovely silk ribbons and I'll be your little feminine sissy forever.

Shannon Doughty in Little House on the Prairie

Or why not put me in frilly little party dress with matching panties?

Just make it so!

The Literary Round Up

 I think I'll begin this blog with a few words on the death of Maurice Sandek who was born on June 10th 1928 and who sadly died Tuesday last (May 8th 2012).

Maurice you see was a writer and also a children's illustrator  when he wasn't doing that, he work on stage sets and  a few other things.

As stories go he give us a big one "Where the Wild Things are" which was later adapted as a play and a good many others.

Maurice knew childhood sadness all right having lost many of his family in the Holocaust but he also knew of children's resilience and the the ability to find fun in the most trying of situations.

He'll be missed.

Having converted  a few book vouchers I had as birthday presents for my bigger self for something well, you know - littler - is so easy you'll wonder how come more don't, I've finally gotten around to reading them.

I think we all know I love Jacqueline Wilson's  work so I bought three books with four stories  with a bit of a common theme that of emotional ups and downs.

Dustbin Baby is a title for 'older readers' by which I think they mean people my age and is the story of April Showers attempt to piece together the whole history of her life through all the carers, foster parents back to the teenage boy who found her in the bin all cold and lonely.

It's a very moving and thoughtful  story that does have a happy ending.

The Bed and Breakfast Star is the story of a families struggle having fallen on hard times  told  mainly though Elsa, lost their home and goes through the revolving door of no homes available and dumping grounds otherwise know as Bed and Breakfast accommodation that  is run down for welfare benefit claimants.

Elsa is a happy go lucky kind of a girl who we learn misses out on her education but in the end is the heroine raising the alert as the fire risk accommodation actually catches fire!

The Suitcase Kid talks about some that ought to talked about handling family break with Andy having to spend alternate weeks at each parent, custody battles and new step families.

The Lottie Project on the other hand is Charlie's discover of her Victorian twin through a school history project where she discovers as bad as her life is her twins is much worse.

It also tackles the difficulties of employment for single parents.

Going back to school

 

A traditional classroom with desks, sloping seat chairs with the teachers desk complete with bell.

 Tellingly for the era, the wooden paddle is hung next to it in full view of the whole class no doubt as a reminder to every child to behave.

We wore a lot of grey back then such as in our shirts, short trousers and socks and at at traditional sloping wooden desks and chairs.

I loved being a schoochild and would willing go back tomorrow as much as I'd opt to wear pinafore dress as a LSG.

I've also been walking rather a lot  not just cos the weather's been better but also I felt a bit stiff getting into a vicious circle of to hard to move so don't move, so even harder to move.

I'm purposely not setting targets, creating schedules or anything that may make it seem like a chore or worse still, remind of you school PT instructors barking instead I'm incorporating walks into everyday activities by extend the stroll to the corner store or just taking off any old how  for a mile or two whenever  I get a 'wanna be outside running around' feeling.

So far in I've lost five pounds without making any diet changes and more importantly can do a mile without feeling tired. That's some achievement

Junior maypole dancing

 

Seeing it's May I was starting to think about what kinds of things I used to do around this time of year and one of the things that stuck in my mind was school maypole dancing

While that  picture wasn't taken it my school, it was taken at a school in Gloucestershire of the Victorian type like ours, actually, how the Maypole is set out is very very similar to how we did it.

Those who had two left feet were selected as 'ballast' to hold the maypole down, the uniform was similar except the boys nearly always had shorts on and in alternate boy/girl pairings we'd dance weaving in and out creating the plait you can see from the top of the pole downward.

One difference is we have what in England you'd call 'Pumps'  a cotton with rubber soled gym type shoe that you had to clean and polish before the public performance with matching three-quarter length socks.

I use to take me ages to polish and whiten mine!

I was pretty good at it actually having a good ear for the tunes we danced to so we kept in time with the music as well as each other that does help.