Christmas 2022

Okay Christmas entry here we go after being away for a few days for Christmas having packed a sweater, skirt and a dress to wear being familar with this side of me as much as we've battled over it in the past.

Yes really!

There will be a full entry on this at some point in the new year but basically it is the four cd book form set of songs from 1980-84 Now didn't include the the individual yearbooks and extra volumes.

Call Rupert the Bear an addiction going well into boyhood, a name some used to describe my dress style back then and this is this years Rupert annual with a nexture of reprints and fresh material that makes me feel great.

This is card wrappers worth of books starting with this years Beano annual which like the comic is firmly set in the modern day even if some characters we grew up remain as does Bash Street School.

Then we have the Dandy Annual, the comic outside of the Summer Special no longer exists so we have fresh stories based on our favourites such as Korky the Cat, Winker Watson, the Jocks And The Geordies, Keyhole Kate and Desperate Dan.

The modern world is around them but things are more as they were. Love it!

Then we have the compilation with the theme Things That Go Bump In the Night which draws from old stories from the Beano, Dandy and others in the old D C Thompson stable around that theme which pulls you into the past well.

I enjoy this series of compilations a lot for that.

 The Big Present this year was a three lp version that takes three concerts from San Francisco's Fillmore undertaken in 1997 by Tom Petty that go beyond the greatest hits and the new album but into songs from artists such as the Byrds and Grateful Dead that aren't in their recorded catalogue otherwise and in any event were some the best concerts the band ever did.

I also had a copy of the Record Store Day lp issue of Duran Duran's 1982 Hammersmith Odeon concert which is a double album on gold coloured vinyl.

Christmas greetings

So after a few weeks of Advent posts, we come the one before the actual day where you're always thinking about how people who normally don't see you all decide to drop in being unfamilar with our feminine ways.

Sometimes I feel it's best that when it comes to people coming to you while not leaving anything really "out there" around, you just present as your feminine boy self, even say a festive santa outfit that girls might wear.

The best present is of course to be just you.

WISHING EVERY FOLLOWER A HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND ALL THE BEST FOR 2023

* Image credit: zerochan

Moving ahead in the cold

Cold enough?

It's been a very cold few days here with temperatures well in the minus region - we don't do degrees f here - so being out has meant being wrapped up even when its been okay to be out on wobbly paws.

Catmas is beginning to take shape with a christmas carols by the tree event being held last Saturday for everyone young and old who was up to it.

Yesterday one Mr S Claus put an appearance in as the christmas lights, reindeer and sleighs are multiplying in the gardens coupled with local shops being decorated out.

 

This is one of two official trees, outside a local church, the damp excuse of a tree provided by the council, wilting and at a bit of angle due to the ongoing subsidence issues here is being ignored by us cos it just isn't a proper Christmas tree we can use for things.

Isn't this how you'd sooner spend Christmas with your family?

Advent is here!

 Hey, we're in December now!

We begin the Christmas countdown here with something that  a friend has already started as they make a pictorial Advent Calendar at one site every year which I really like.

Christmas is really for Children and whose of us who may in law be adults but retain much of our childhood selves, enjoying all the little rituals we re-enact year after year and one for me involves advent calendars.

While things are different than they were, as the sort of ones I had often had things connected more with the Christmas Story like angels, shepherds and the like, this one, based on the hit tv series Paw Patrol is one the one I've got.

It's simple, no toys behind each square or anything like that, just the choco but simple is really what I'm wanting not those more adult type ones certain people are pushing that cost tens of pounds.

It also means I can read a bit per week of this years Beano comic christmas special with 68 full colour pages just as I did back then.

It was colder out this week, temperatures down to three degrees but although the hat, gloves and dufflecoat were on so were the dresses and skirts, still out on the street, interacting with folk.

I usually tend to run down this blog over christmas as I like to spend time making it happen, being with my folks and that so we should pause in two weeks time until Boxing Day Monday.

Now yearbooks 1985

 One, two, three, four, the count off to Raspberry Parade by Prince takes us into the next clutch in the 80's volumes of Now That's What I Call Music yearbook series starting with the transitional year that was 1985.

As with all of the series there was a book format four cd version which I opted for for the short write ups on each song, a bit of a background capsule to what was going on in that year and even a quiz at the end!

This is a condensed three lp version too.

The four discs are held in pockets which I lined with mylar inner sleeves as paper against plastic tends to mark them.

This volume is more effected by licensing issues meaning no Madonna, Prince ,David Bowie or solo Phil Collins but casual fans who probably have compilations by them will buy it so while regretable it's not the end of the world and certainly the rest of the material included more than makes up.

Pop pickers of the generation will know some of the hits were originally include in the Now 5 and 6 compilations that have had sort of cd re-issues but the others mainly from the CBS (now Sony) and WEA labels were on HITS 2 and 3 which never had a cd issue at all so from that point of view this set is valuable.

1985 was a year some of the previous years US hits finally charted here in the UK such as Bonnie Tyler's Holding Out For a Hero from Footloose, ZZ Top's Legs from Eliminator and Maria Vidal's Body Rock which had charted in the States in late August of '84, Pat Benatar's excellent Love Is a Battlefield from late 1983(!) plus Dan Hartman's I Can Dream About You from the film Streets Of Fire.

1985 was to be a memorable year for Shakin' Steven's as the wheels came off his career as he sang Merry Christmas Everyone, Tears For Fears and Simple Minds finally broke through with Shout and Don't You (Forget about about me) respectively as did Simply Red with Money's Too Tight (to mention) and the short lived popularity of Jennifer Rush took off with The Power Of Love.

In the world of Soul and R&B 5Star started their career scoring a hit with All Fall Down, Phil Collins joined Earth Wind and Fire's Philip Bailey for Easy Lover, Whitney Houston emerged with Saving All My Love For You, Loose Ends were Hanging On a String, Steve Arrington's Feel So Real got massive airplay and DeBarge scored a big hit with Rhythm Of The Night.

The brilliant Sade continued with The Sweetest Taboo.

Talked about records included Lionel Richie's comeback Say You,Say Me, Tina Turner's We Don't Need Another Hero, Paul Hardcastle's 19 and Harold Faltermayer's Axle F from Beverley Hills Cop and the cheesy but fun Tarzan Boy complete with yodels by Baltimora.

Pure pop included Queen's comment on the Live Aid concerts One Vision, the rather good Go West with We Close Our Eyes, Strawberry Switchblade's lolita fashion influenced Since Yesterday and Katrina & the Waves debut Walking On Sunshine.

In rock Foreigner scored with I Want To Know What Love Is, U2 followed up the previous years Pride with the Unforgettable Fire from the album of the same name, Marillion had a hit with Kayleigh from the Misplaced Childhood album and Bryan Ferry had a solo hit with Slave To Love from his Boys And Girls album.

The teen sensation aspect were covered by Norway's A-ha with Take On Me with its groundbreaking video while Nik Kershaw and Howard Jones maintained the previous years success with Wide Boy and Things Can Only Get Better during which Duran duran split into two for Powerstation who had a hit with Some Like It Hot and Arcadia both featured in this volume with Election Day.

Personal favourite is the atmospheric Life In a Northern Town by the Dream Academy.

On January 6th Now released the EXTRA volume, a further three cds worth of hits from 1985 which comes in a simple card folder with slots for each disc.

The main strength of this three cd Extra is the tracks that often or missed off but non the less were favourites.

There is a selection of fantastic indie and alternative from Toyah (Willcox), Sharp & Numan's Change Your Mind, Inbetween Days by the Cure, Bring On The Dancing Horses by Echo and the Bunnymen, the unforgettable Lost Weekend by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions and Love Like Blood by Killing Joke.

Pop at its best is well represented by breakout act Go West with Don't Look Down, Cry by Godly and Creme, the motownesq I'm Your Man by Wham, Laura by the utterly brilliant Nick Heyward, Look Mama by Howard Hones and Don Quixote by Nik Kershaw.

Rock features a remake by the Far Corporation of the Led Zep classic Stairway To Heaven, Pat Benatar with We Belong from her Tropico album, ZZ Top with Sleeping Bag, Celebrate Youth by Rick Springfield, one bigger in the U.S. than the U.K. sadly, and Can't Fight This Feeling by REO Speedwagon.

Soul and R&B showed the changed taking place across black music with the more traditional Dare Me by the Pointer Sisters, Shelia E with A Love Bizarre, the U.K.'s Five Star with Let Me Be The One while Cameo came out with Single Life

Looking back on it  as I lived it with Record Mirror and Smash Hits magazines arriving through the door upon reflection 1985 had a very lively and diverse music scene.

Overall this is a fantastic top up!

Going forward staying the same

The way that it goes sometimes can be odder than you might expect when you look at places where people who like for various reasons to return to their childhood both when it comes to the sorts of things they did and even how they would of dressed.

For instance what would you of expected of a site that was mainly for and about those who like to return to boyhood and school boy pasts?

Normally I'd expect a lot of talk about more overly masculine hobbies, relating patterns that may be more physical such as play fighting and rough housing and that sense of being a group of lads together.

Equally you'd expect to see more around boys casual and especially school uniforms with short and long trousers.

Imagine then to find that when asked about other sorts of clothes beyond boys school uniform for a number to freely volunteer that they like and have worn "girls" school wear such as skirts, pinafore dresses and gym knickers.

That really was so unexpected  so actually people like me do exist in those spaces even if on the surface they appear to be very much traditional boys only spaces.

The ramblings of a damp day

 Almost approaching Winter so reaching for more grippy footwear given the combination of weather and twisting, bumping and sinking sidewalks and pretty gloves has been something I've been doing as I've been gradually getting back on my feet this last week.

Not the sort of weather for that although it's so timeless and summery.

Won't be long before the ghoulish comic comes here but Josie And the Pussycats were a favourite cartoon series of mine combining an adventure per episode with a musical performance you could play air tambourine to in an era that included the Archies and The Partridge family were on tv with the Monkees a repeated treat.

You could say that era and me were very much at one with each other so elements show up in the extended current version of the young me that loves music or school related anime and enjoys the whole experience of handling and playing a record as "Stack O' Tracks" the 1968 album of Beach Boys instrumental versions is current playing out from my original copy.

It will soon time to put up Advent Calendar's another childhood ritual as one square at a time we count down the magic of Christmas and all that brings.

Until next time, bye.