The Dandy Summer Special 2018

It's summer and like it did when I was originally ten, age dysphoric me goes away for a boys holiday free from anything grown up and like those days, I also will be taking something with me which back then I bought in the local newsagents with some sweets.

Unfortunately this is 2018, not 2008 or even 1978 so rather than calling in my local newsagent who'd also stock cherryaid to go with the dandelion and burdock, I had to order my dandy comic Summer Special online to be delivered to the door.

One difference between the Beano Summer Activity Special and the Dandy's is the Dandy as a comic no longer in weekly production, is more a retro summer special with reprints from previous ones from the 60's, 70's and 80's rather having a few new token cartoon strips drawn so it acts more as a compilation of past issues and in some ways pulls me more into that ten year old boy I was then reading Korky the Kat and Beryl the Peril and life in that era.

It's like stepping into the past and reading the same cartoon strips as is.
In general the printing quality was better than those I recall during the 1970's being not just more colourful but sharper

Getting set to go

 

I'm going to be away for a few days with friends in South East England very much as my feminine boy self just relaxing being out of doors having fun.

Sometimes having the health and disabilities I have takes a lot out of you so this time is really helpful so I'm sorting my skirts and dresses out as it has been very hot lately ready for packing my suitcase complete with things like suncream cos I burn easy.

English classics

After a break from this mini series of entries within the blog I return with a couple of discs that fall under the heading of British classical music although they have their differences.

Gustav Holst is a composer whose work reflected his interest in the spiritual and mystical to whom one work alone his Planet Suite was started in 1913 and premiered in September 1918 in the last days of World War One. 

This work was played in this years First Night of The Proms on Friday, July 13th together with Ralph Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending on a WW1 themed concert. 

It is a matter of some regret however the popularity of this suite has caused many to overlook his may other works such as Beni Mora and on this arresting performance by Sir Andrew Davis  and the BBC Philharmonic orchestra it is coupled by the Japanese Suite.

Classical music has a great variety of genres within it such as Orchestral, Choral, Baroque but one  that has become established in the twentieth century is the orchestral movie soundtrack.

One favourite of mine is the soundtrack of Watership Down the 1978 animated movie based upon the Douglas Adams novel that I recall seeing on vacation that year which was originally issued on record and tape by CBS/Columbia.

It has a spoken word prologue and the whole of Angela Morley's score for it with the jazz syncopation in parts well performed  

This recording was remastered for Super Audio cd (playable on regular cd too) by Vocalion records here in Great Britain to a demonstration worthy style.

Peter Fermin: A tribute

(Picture credits: Kent Press)
It was announced on Monday, Peter Fermin, artist, puppet maker and the creator of Bagpuss and Basil Brush who worked with the late Oliver Postgate of Small Films had died aged  89.

Peter believed passionately in the appeal, the soul of traditional animated films and their puppets  feeling they had soul that appeal more greatly than computer generated icons (CGI) to viewers being more relatable.

There are many series he had a hand in of one one I feel on balance is the one most of us hold the greater affection for and that is Bagpuss, "a saggy, old cloth cat, baggy, and a bit loose at the seams" for whom Emily the owner of a shop that repaired and sold old things so loved.

Her affection for him remains a most poignant moving thing for me and many others who have seen the original series from 1974 with it's sepia toned introduction.

It would be a mistake to ignore his involvement in other series Small Films made  and that are fondly remembered such as the railway series set in Wales, Ivor The Engine, which was popular with us boys or the Viking adventures of the Saga of Noggin the Nog.

 One which I loved to pieces was The Clangers from the early nineteen-seventies but with new series too  set on a small planet inhabited by family of small creatures called Clangers who share their life with people like the Soup Dragon whose Blue String Pudding and Green Soup underground.

The Clangers communicate in Clanger, a language using whistling something to which much to the annoyance of ones parents and teachers many of us used too and the series had a narrator who would explain what was going on while allowing the characters to communicate directly to us in Clanger. 

It was a peaceful co-operative space world so many of us loved in the era where man's space exploration was at its peak, eagerly followed by schoolboys and girls and also featured a musical tree that played music and an Iron Chicken.

These cartoons, in part Peter's life work were and are core parts of our childhoods I cannot say to hear of his demise doesn't make me sad, it does but thanks to digital media they live on able to offer something that more glossy more, commercially savvy series lack.

R.I.P Peter.

Reflections on Alan Longmuir and the Bay City Rollers

There's a bit of an unwritten rule on this blog which is to say it's not themed by things such as sport, anime or for that matter music even if they were a part of my boyhood or feature in someway in my more adult little boy/adult schoolboy present.

Part of this is to avoid week after week on entries around just one topic so the blog reflects more the whole but allows them to shine within that.

There is no getting around the fact the Bay City Rollers were a part of my boyhood even if having the level of interest in them was very much atypical of any boy of that era being something that I shared more with girls from late juniors into the first few years at high school where I did introduce this when I was asked to give a short introduction to my First Form class upon joining.

That introduction smoothed my integration into their number gaining me a good number of female friends  and critically of my best buddy Andy to whom you know I miss so much who also liked them AND was a boy.

We'd talk about them, sharing the weekly glossy fan magazines, annuals and gather around our tape recorders singing along to Remember, Give a Little Love and Love Me Like I Love You. 

We also watched Shang-a-Lang, the tv show featured them, other upcoming artist and had features on hobbies and interests, one being cars that interested me.

We all had our favourites within the group, Woody being mine, and like most of group we had tartan everything.

On Monday July 2nd It was announced at 6 AM Alan Longmuir, the bass player who left in early 1976, who is pictured in the middle died after three weeks of being ill following a visit to Mexico.

He joined to form a four original member reunion concert at Edinburgh Castle for Hogmanay 1999 and was due to perform with Les McKweon later this year.

Alan and the band were a important part of my boyhood, the backdrop to much that happened so this entry is a tribute to him and what he meant to me and my friends back then.