Fashion musings

Eighties fashions for girls was an influence for some of us but it wasn't all satins and neon colours there was something of a more peasant, rustic revival and very very dressy.

This more obviously girlie mode of dressing was more me than the seventies trend for unisex styles for having short shorts and jeans with everything and very much remains with me as much as like a pretty satin party dress.

Billy Joel, The Piano man Pt.3

Following on from the first two posts of this series, finally the specialty record company Mobile Fidelity re-issued Billy's 1983 album a few weeks ago.

While from the part of view of artistry this fails to keep up with his artistic development such as that on the previous years The Nylon Curtain, what it makes up for is his abilities to bring about a fine pastiche of 50's music for the 80's which hit the nostalgia market head on.

It also helped no end that Billy had embraced the pop video for stations such as Much Music and MTV so those memorable songs from the album such as the singles Uptown Girl, Tell Her About had lodged their way into ones visual recollections of that era. Billys performances on what I can consider to the best songs on the album such as the uptempo Christie Lee, the doowop inspired the Longest Time  and plaintive An Innocent Man are amongst the best he's ever recorded.

This remastered super audio cd that also has a layer that plays in regular players offers much improved transparency over the original and 1998 remastered edition coupled with an amazing rich sound that makes you feel Billy's singing in your room on a good quality stereo.

Strongly recommended for Billy Joel fans.

The chilling little style of this Sissy Gurl

Well a few things I had planned to do are off so I might as well get today's blog done.

One of things I recall thinking about heaps was about everything that would happen after the last period of afternoon school finished. 

When I went to day school it was kind of easy in that you'd pair off with a few friends and call in at the neighbourhood store to select some sweets to share while you talked about the day and what you thought of Master x's lesson.

At boarding school we had it back in the dorm but because tea was early it was frowned on as it 'spoilt your tea' so you'd leave them for later or weekends.

I have always loved lollipops still walk around the curb licking them that speaks volumes about me I guess.

Actually I have a pinafore dress not a million miles like that of the girl on picture and used to read while sucking on a lollipop so perhaps one way to visualize me is think of that little at least in spirit if not in dress. 

Tammy will wear their dress from now on as a adult little and accepts his sissy gurl side.

The only thing that matters is having fun reading and sucking your lollipops.

Link:Lollipops

Jessops and HMV closures

I guess it had to happen really and was more question of when rather than if but the UK photography chain Jessops went into receivership as of January 9th brought about by an inability in the part of directors, creditors and suppliers to extend credit to this long established but ailing concern that goes back many decades.

It's my understanding some suppliers had during last year offered credit to them to enable their products to be sold as it was the #1 high street outlet for their goods.

Jessops was the first chain in the UK I established a relationship with as a consumer, a place where at the time you could get all manner of advice connected with photography, the virtues of different lenses, filters, film etc over the sales counter. 

My local branch would root out stuff for me to try instore without obligation. They also run a photography residential school with industry experts providing tuition.

Two things probably did for this type of retailing, the first being digital photography has  less repeat custom after buying a camera and maybe a spare memory card and for Dslr users an additional lens or two. You sure wouldn't be buying a new memory card each week in the way you bought film and although they'd invested in instore printing, a lot of casual users either print at home or don't even print their images so you wouldn't be getting much of an income stream from that!

 
As a traditional film slr user I saw reductions traditional products in stock to the point while on vacation I couldn't get medium speed print film and ended up visiting a well known drugstore that had better stocks off the shelf!

Also many users use smartphones as cameras leading to a drop in demand for digital compacts that come on contracts while professionals users would use online stores that held larger 'to go' supplies with rapid delivery 

Last week, he said trying desperately not to come over all smug, it's finally happened, music retailing has moved from the high street.  Poor ol' Nipper.

Well okay, I know that's Birmingham Bull Ring, not Broad Street, but you know what I mean -our town and city centres - with the shock announcement late last night (January 14th) the national music and video retailer HMV was planning on going into administration following poor Christmas sales.

Sounds familiar, eh? And rather like with Jessops they also were being bankrolled by the suppliers who provided much of the January 25% off "Blue Cross" sales stock as did two state owned banks who to put things with my usually matter of factness, want their money back.

Some other similarities include high rents, failure to capitalize on online sales, poor in store stocks (I mean just seven studio albums by the Stones in the branch in a large city branch near me???), uncompetitive online store pricing (Amazon often cheaper).

HMV potentially could of gotten into downloading but after a brief messy store attempt, partnered up with 7Digital who run that for them which would be fine except 7Digital are a big brand in their own right so most would of gone straight to them.

As much as I feel for for all the staff I'm expecting nearly all the branches to go simply because it seems to me you can't run a big chain anymore because of the overheads and also your immediate best sellers, new albums, are stocked by both supermarkets such as ASDA and Tesco cheaply and the likes of Amazon for those who want cds but many more  prefer to download and these can obtained cheaply from the big three Amazon, iTunes and 7Digital.

You can do niche cd selling from a small side street location with an internet presence backed by a warehouse.

Hmv failed also to capitalize on the "Vinyl revival" by stocking few new and re-issue titles that many who like a physical album buy which was the tipping point for me becoming fed  up of having to order run of the mill cd titles only to return later at my expense to collect, getting an account at Amazon  ordering from them. I guess I wasn't alone in that!

I get the nostalgia many are feeling, remembering the first time I visited HMV Oxford Street London and the Manchester store still having those records and the many BritPop vinyl  titles on 7" and 12" lp I bought new that are most collectible.

I just feel by years end the high street will be that much the poorer.

Billy Joel, the Piano Man Pt.2

This is the slightly over due part two of our music specials on Billy Joel whose music I loved growing up.

Following a bit of a gap the program resumed with 1978's fantastic 52nd Street jazz influence album with it's hit singles My Life and FM album favourites like Zanzibar which like all of  Mobile Fidelity's  issues in this series isn't just a finely mastered cd besting regular Columbia/Sony issues but also a even better sounding super audio cd that can be played on a dedicated sacd player or many Blu-Ray players that have playback built into them.

These releases use a mini lp style of presentation complete with lyric inserts which I much prefer over plastic jewel cases.

 On July 31st 2012, the specialty reissue company Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs as part of it's program of Billy Joel reissues put out a new version of Billy Joel's 'new wave' Glass Houses album from 1980, the one with 'It's Still Rock and Roll To Me' on it.

If you like Billy Joel as I do then you're no doubt familiar with numbers like 'All for Leyna' but what makes this so enjoyable is it hasn't had any extra narrowing of the quiet and loud passages applied to it so when those drums kick in you can tell! 

Plus it sounds really clear in the presence area great for Billy's voice and the percussion.

The last edition of I bought was the 1998 Sony re-master which I have on Minidisc.

This 1982 album saw Billy emulating the feel of the 60's with many a nod to Paul McCartney and featured hits such as Allentown that caught the despondency of the early 80's Reagan era America as the smokestack industries faced decline.

This new version on regular cd is the best I've ever heard this album which although recorded digitally was actually mixed to analogue tape.

It is to be hoped the 50's pastiche that is An Innocent Man gets this treatment soon.

Rod Stewart

If you were around in the 70's you could not of escaped Rod Stewart, the UK singer-songwriter responsible for many of decades top selling records but where do you start if you're not a rabid fan of his given many compilations have been issued in the passing decades most of which had cd re-issues?

At the risk of sounding like boring, I feel his best solo material was recorded for Mercury between 1969 and 1974 taking in such gems as You Wear it Well, Gasoline Alley, Reason To Believe and unforgettably, Maggie Mae.

While some of these albums have been re-issued by specialty labels such as Audio Fidelity and Mobile Fidelity, these discs will be dear to track down regardless of sonic merit  so I'd suggest most would be better of getting new a 3 cd set called "Reason To Believe -The complete Mercury studio recordings" having all the albums and some bonus tracks in a single inexpensive set.

For an overview of his career from the mid 60's to 1990 I feel there's one which is a complete no-brainer  and that's "Storyteller" as it does just that telling the story of Rod's music career over 4 cds that originally came out in 1990 costing a small fortune.

It was recently repackaged but keeping the notes and can be got from Amazon UK for £7.99 shipped. Although a few tracks from the mid 60's were sourced from records, most of this set sounds really good.

I would put this now above "The Story So Far - the best of" a 2 cd set issued by Warner Broa. in the UK in 2003 as Storyteller has more 'classic' Rod while all The Story So Far adds is some remakes and less essential tracks he did with Helicopter Girl even though I bought "Story So Far" on release.

Finally, Rod was an essential part of the Faces who emerged from the Small Faces and you simply have to have a selection of their rootsy bar music that included tracks like Stay With Me and Cindy Incidentally. Although there's a new double cd set due out in October which I hope to get, One that can be got cheaply and is very good is The Best of the Faces (Good boys ...while they're asleep).

Currently available on Rhino and priced at £2.99 on Amazon UK you really cannot go wrong with this single cd retrospective..

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.

Duran Duran lps

This is a all new post for my followers about a band I pretty much grew up with in high school and to whom I have many many recordings by on singles, lp albums and compacts discs.

Japanese Mini lps:
These were a cross between a full length album and a 12 inch single that were issued in lp style jackets in Japan often with a lyric sheet:
Nite Romantics - note this one plays at 45 RPM like a (UK) 12" single but has 4 tracks including Fame a cover of the David Bowie number Planet Earth and Girls on Film.

Carnival - five track album of remixes including My Own Way, Rio, Hungry like the Wolf and Hold Back The Rain (I like the guitar work on that track). Note it is different than the US and Dutch versions of the same title.

Tiger! Tiger! comprises of the 12" mixes of the singles from Seven and the Ragged Tiger plus 12" of Is There Something I Should Know.

There was 2cd set that has these versions on issued in Japan in 1991.

Duran Duran (S/T):
I have two versions because I was Durannie as we who followed them rabidly called ourselves back in the day.
The first was my original 1981 UK lp on EMI which has 9 tracks including To The Shore.
The second is the re-packaged 1983 version for Japan that added the Is There Something I Should Know single to the start of the original 9 track album taking it to 10 tracks. It's very quiet as Japanese vinyl always was and sounds great.

Rio:
Again 2 versions:
The 1982 original UK one
The 2009 re-mastered lp that has two discs of which the first is from the original UK version and the second that plays at 45 Rpm has unique to America versions from their third and final lp version meaning you can play this as the Americans heard it or in it's UK configuration.
It arrived today!!!
The sound quality is marvellous with deep bass clear transients and is very quiet.

Seven and the Ragged Tiger: I have just the UK 1983 edition of this, a often maligned album by them taking in The Reflex, New Moon On Monday which I had the lyrics from smash hits magazine blu-tacked on the bedroom wall and Union Of The Snake.

I never got Arena - the live album that is a kinda of sound track to the sci-fi concert video - on vinyl as this was as I mentioned on the Now post was an era of format change and my first exposure to Arena was via the Capitol/EMI XDR cassette tape and then a few years later the Japanese pressed compact disc.

Marillion

Yes pop pickers it's been a busy year and this overdue part of the vinyl project is complete.
You see I original had these albums initially as I bought them for my brother but only got around to buying one for myself namely Misplaced Childhood back in the day as I had them copied to tape. Needless to say tape isn't in my current stereo system so I had to put matters aright and as they were intended for lp at the time I bought the UK first issue lps.

Formed in Aylesbury, England in 1979 they are a progressive rock band -aka Prog Rock - and as such hark back to style of song writing which scans more like prose with strong imagery and complex musical arrangements.

Script For A Jester's Tear EMI EMC 3429: Issued in1983 and home of He Knows You Know and Garden Party which were hit 45's this was the first album and sounded the most like 70's Genesis.
Fugazi EMC 24 0085-1: issued in early 1984 this was one album that really made me pay attention to what this new band had to offer featuring the hits single Assassing.
Real To Real: Issued late 1984 this is a live album part recorded in Canada and part in the UK that did feature their first single Market Square Heroes that wasn't issued on album.
Misplaced Childhood EMI MRL2 (EJ24 0340-1): One of the best selling albums of 1985 featuring the singles Lavender and Kayleigh that remain popular to the present day. On lp it sound a lot better than the UK cd version I have.
Clutching At Straws EMI EMD 1002: Issued in 1987 the album that is very much about the touring life it was the last studio album to feature vocalist Fish and the home of the singles Incommunicado and Sugar Mice

Billy Joel, Piano Man

This week we're back to music and looking at Billy Joel who I followed certainly around the time I was in high school  and I've been collecting recordings by him ever since.

He was born William Martin Joel in 1949 in Long Island, New York formed a band called the Echoes in 1964 the year of the 'British Invasion and later on formed a hard rock band in late 1960's called The Hassles from which a duo with their drummer Jon Small.

In 1973 on the strength of shows in the Northeastern United States he signed a recording contract with Columbia Records  which led to his debut album album Cold Spring Harbour being issued. 

The first two cds by Billy I bought were An Innocent Man and The Bridge in their European issues following up with the Japanese cd made for Europe of Nylon Curtain, The US versions of Storm Front plus River Of Dreams and a minidisc (RIP) of Streetlight Serenade together with Greatest Hits III in 1998.

Recently I have acquired a couple of specialty label cds from Mobile fidelity (Mofi) of Chicago, Ill. by him and it's these I wish to talk about.

In so far as most Britons are concerned he came to notice during Elton John's unavailability late 77, Early '78 but actually Billy went back much further than that but simply they'd not heard that early material.

 
Piano Man which remains one of the finest albums by a contemporary rock artist taking his observations on NJ life including the controversial Captain Jack that tackles drug abuse . 

As well it is worth noting this album is clearly influenced by Elton's Tumbleweed Connection as well as having a Western theme running thru it.

Piano Man is a fictionalized account of his own story working the bars, trying earn a dollar.

Turnstiles was the next one up and was the second just issued by Mofi which features New York state of Mind in it's original mix rather than the remix used for all previous cd versions as well as Miami 2017 and the epic Say Goodbye To Hollywood.

All these discs are Super Audio cds with a higher resolution layer for suitably equipped layers and  a regular layer for my own cd player.
 
I was fortunate to borrow  the the Audio Fidelity 52nd Street which I didn't like  finding it too muddy so elected to elected to stay with my 1994 Sony Mastersounds gold disc.

Now That's What I Call Music!

Yes back in late 1983 this classic series of compilations started as I remember well seeing the ads on TV and in the record stores -remember them? with the bold idea of making good on the promise of earlier chart based compilations by labels such as Ronco and KTel by having less tracks, the full versions of songs (no more crude edits) and a nice short blurb about each track.

The blurbs are that good I keep going back to from for a background reminder!

As intimated I actually bought a good many of these during the 1980's for the simple reason they had all the chart songs I liked and what was more the sound quality was extremely good for the most part. If an album had more than four songs I liked it was often cheaper to by these albums for anything other than the artists I personally collected such Duran Duran where you'd want the picture sleeves and non album b sides.

This ties in with a theme on my main blog and is the next bit of the vinyl project for this year too hence this post and an ongoing entry.

You see in the 1980's a lot happened not least in how we listened to music starting with the lp record going through a period where the cassette was the hip thing and finally to where we're at today, the compact disc and in all this change sometimes it was hard to know what version to buy.

In the main I bought the lp versions having a decent phonograph based system by 1983 but by 1986 was spending quite a bit of time using cassette Walkman players and 'Brixton briefcases' aka portable stereo radio cassette recorders, so I did get Now 8 originally on pre-recorded cassette and had Now 3 on tape too as it was a freebie with a Walkman I bought.

Equally the arrival of Now '86 a special cd only compilation did result in me putting off getting Now7 on lp or tape and I bought Now 9 which was a single cd because it was felt a double like the lp version was too expensive for the usual buyers meaning I missed several tracks and Now 10 which was a double cd (the first).

Unfortunately the 'perfect sound forever' cd wasn't as my copies of Now '86 and Now 9 are very hard to play and with having a few of the original lps a bit the worse for wear, I'm replacing these cds and a couple of albums that are noisy
.
The Collection thus far:
Now 1
Issued 28 November 1983
The one that started it all off, it contained no less than 11 no 1 singles and almost all are memorable and issued on cassette and lp which I bought and countless thousands all did. This was released on cd eventually to mark 25 years of NOW being established.
Now2
Issued April 7 1984
Titled in roman numerals (II) the cover was plainer but it contains many of the best songs from the end of 1983 and early 1984 by the likes of Slade, Duran Duran, Rolling stones, Fiction Factory, Frankie goes to Hollywood and Queen.
My copy was very noisy with a slight skip on Radio Gaga and a scratch that runs thru the first four tracks on side two with a big skip on Undercover of the Night.I scored a mint copy for only £2 plus mailing!
Now3
Issued August 11 1984
This album launched the era of the Pig thanks to Danish Bacon which dominated the next few issues being on the front cover. I originally bought this on tape it had yet another mix of Two Tribes not otherwise on the 45 and have just gotten a acceptable play copy of it on album.
Now4
Issued December 8 1984 and the very first NOW to have CD issue - a single one - that outside the London area you just didn't see so I got the lp. This album has a special mix of Paul McCartney's No More Lonely Nights that didn't appear on vinyl!
Now5. I had this on vinyl but lost it! Too bad as it had the last classic Duran Duran single and Marillion's Kayleigh amongst others.I just got a good play copy of this very cheaply which was a relief as I was badly let down by one seller who sent me a Excellent copy that looked as if it had been used as a scratching post by a cat. There is a tiny just at the start of side two but otherwise it is as new playing wise.
Now6
Issued December 7th 1985 and I brought this new that Christmas. Can anyone forget Baltimora's tazan Boy with that jungle call?
Now7
Issued August 23 1986 .
This one I missed out on as only just over an handful of the songs featured in cd only NOW '86 album that's a whole lot of missing hits such as Owen Paul's Your My Favourite Waste Of Time and Pete Wylie's Sinful.
hidden unlisted on side three at the end is 'hidden track' Queens A Kind Of Magic.
NOW '86. This was a cd only compilation a cross between Now7 with 5 songs from Now8 being the first NOW to have West End Girls on it but the cd ceased being playable several years back and I'm only left with a copy on MiniDisc although I still have the case and inserts.
I recently got a replacement copy.
Now8
Issued December 6 1986
That was the second Now album I had on cassette but when the tape got damaged I picked up okay copy of the record version that I've been able to replace for a mint one.. There was a 18 track single cd version of it issued at the time with the reason for being a single cd because cds were very expensive compared to records back then and it was felt the average NOW buyer wouldn't stump up over £20 for 2 cd set.
Now9
Issued April 4 1987
From the year of the Yuppie with padded shoulders, braces, mobile phone like a brick with a big antenna sticking out and loadsa money, this one sold more on cd than the others did.Perhaps with the chart being a bit lame at the time the short playing time of the cd was more acceptable and with cds going more mainstream people wanted the singles on cd and this was good way of doing it.
I have the cd bought new but am looking for a replacement as the disc is deteriorating due a pressing problem although I have made a back up copy.I managed to get a copy in really good condition apart from a tiny indent on the out edge of one of the two discs on Monday (5/16/2011) for a very cheap price from the person I got the better Now 2 copy from. Just needed a clean to remove fingerprints. What surprised me is the LP seems to have been mastered separately and sounds fuller than the cd version and has 15 tracks missed of the cd although that only managed 61 minutes out of possible 74 back then. As we're talking about missing songs by acts like Erasure, Bon Jovi A-ha etc it's crazy!
Now10
issued December 5 1987 - The first NOW go 2 CD and at a discounted price too I got this on CD.Stylistically House Music was coming on and featured on the second disc.I recently got a copy of the lp version for comparison.
Now11
issued April 2 1988
Somewhat typically I drifted back to vinyl as most of the artists I like who issued singles during this period I already had the cds of and I was dropping off buying 45's so this was the cheaper option for pop and house music.
Now12
Issued July 23 1988
Now13
issued December 3 1988
Now14
Issued April 1 1989
The last new Now album I bought on lp as i was moving toward cd centred listening at the time making an edited version for replay on my Aiwa cassette walkman.
Now15
Issued August 26 1989 I remember making the cassette edit on a TDK AR 100 minute tape for my walkman
Now16
issued December 2 1989
Now17
Issued May 5 1990
By this point I was losing interest in chart music as had drifted mainly toward 'club' sounds such as House, Madchester and HipHop so this was the last album I bought new.
Smash Hits -Now that's what I call 80's
Issued August 1987
I originally had the cassette but that got mangled and was left with a copy on cassette a friend had copied from the lp before I got mine which I transferred to MiniDisc. Unfortunately the only machine that could play this tape right lacks the type of noise reduction he used back then so on the quiet parts the high notes are raised together with any crackles. I recently go the cd version but this misses off the Summer '81 #1 smash hits One Day In Your Life by the late Michael Jackson for some strange reason.
Now -The Christmas Album a compilation of 18 songs with a Christmas theme such as I wish It would be Christmas everyday, Thank God it's Christmas, Last Christmas and Do they know it's Christmas time that came out on lp, cassette and cd in November 1985 as a single album.I have the lp version.
Now 1985 (Millennium series) - bought the 1999 2 cd set as it had most of hits from 1985 and being missing NOW5 it was a reasonable stop gap.

Raves from the grave!

Well I have eventually started to tackle the question of what to do about tracks I really liked from my mix tapes back in the 80's that I don't have either cds or even vinyl copies of cos I was skint at the time. They were tapped straight off of the radio on my Pioneer GhettoBlaster - a big somewhat expensive stereo radio cassette recorder that handled all sorts of tapes and had dolby to cut tape hiss for good measure.

I have decided to chase them on various music download sites and in time to group them in files.

So far I have gotten:

Billy Satellite: Satisfy Me Aug 84

Ratt: Round and Round July 84

Night Ranger Sister Christian June 84

Dwight Twilly Band: Girls April 84

Twisted Sister: We're Not Gonna take It '83)

Twisted Sister: I Am (I'm Me) (UK April 83)

Twisted Sister: I Wanna Rock (84)

Twisted Sister: Stay Hungry (84)

Twisted Sister: Leader Of The Pack

Twisted Sister: Come Out and Play

Winter sports

I've always loved the Winter as cold as it often gets  not just for natural beauty but also for the many things you can do both inside and out on a Winters day.

One of my favourite sports to watch is Winter Skiing which is shown on the BBC as well as British Eurosport and it is sport many girls do take up although it is an expensive hobby to get into.

Off on the snow you really can move fast but it also requires good co-ordination too.

Here they are enjoying themselves in lovely girlish coloured attire, Who said girls can't ski or it's not feminine?

And why shouldn't sissy gurls like me go skiing in girlish winter sports attire?

Ultimate Girl bands

Why is it all female bands get a a rep as just eye candy?

Take the Bangles for example, fine practitioners of classic 60’s based pop rock dismissed because of hairdos. All three full albums, All Over The Place, Different Light and Everything are of excellent quality.

Not a few hit singles either.

Factor in a good debut mini-album on Miles Copeland’s I.R.S. records and surely they, not Bananarama, were the best all girl band of the 80’s.

Do visit here for more http://www.thebangles.com/

As far female contributions to a mixed gender band the Wilson sister’s contributions to Heart add a vital dimension to that longstanding groups sound.
If you don't own anything by Heart, I would strongly recommend a two CD set - 'The Essential Heart' - on Epic/Sony Music as it covers all their music from the first album 'Dreamboat Annie' to 1995's acoustic set 'The Road Home. The mastering quality of this compilation is excellent - better on the tracks from 'Heart' and 'Bad Animals' than the original 80's Capitol Records CD's.
The European catalog number is 510519 2.
Visit the following links for more on Heart and the Wilson sisters:-
www.annandnancy.com
www.capitolrecords.com/heart
www.legacyrecordings.com/heart