A Classical Christmas

It's three days after boxing day today and the first one of this new blog of mine so I thought I'd mention something I had this year for Christmas.

When I was twelve I remember listening to a radio program that played short pieces of classical music in the early evening which tied in well with when we had a family evening meal when I was home or just after early evening when at boarding school and they played quiet a bit of Boccherini's music.
It wasn't just such staples as the G275 Minuet  but also his cello works and this Christmas I got the complete set of all twelve of his Cello Concertos that the budget cd label Naxos had put out from 1999 include the third volume that came out just two years ago.
Having played them today on my stereo, I have to say I really love these performances which just feel right, lively but not to 'wirey' and are very well recorded.

This disc of four of his Quartets including the infamous Minuet from Op 13/5 G275 is one disc I bought in the early days of compact disc when this labels pioneering use of PCM digital recording was more appreciated and their discs were more widely stocked at places like the local branch of Richer Sounds as well as mainstream record shops with decent classical stocks.

Christmas

Happy Boxing day people.

As is normal for someone like me I still get children's presents and Mummy bought me this years Beano annual.

There's an old fashioned saying that goes "You can't have the one without the other"

So naturally that other staple annual of the comic I had as a boy also was in with the presents which included socks, underwear and money for music, sweets and books.

Now doesn't that sound just like Crimbo 1974 all over again?

Nausicaa-Of The Valley Of The Wind

This anime was the second animated feature by director Hayao Miyazaki and for it he chose to adapt his own best selling manga whose huge success in Japan help launch Studio Ghibi and this anime bears all the hallmarks that its output over the years  features in its successes, namely magical kingdoms,great characters and stunning animation.

The story is routed in the past, a thousand years ago after a big war where a seaside kingdom known as the Valley of the Wind is one of the few areas that remain populated.
The people of the Valley, lead by the courageous Princess Nausicaa are engaged in a constant battle with the Ohmu, a most powerful group of insects who are guarding a poisonous jungle that is spreading across the Earth.

In the anime, we see Princess Nausicaa  and her brave companions working with the people of the Valley, striving to restore the bond between humanity and the earth.

One of the most important messages in it I feel is that as people we need to work alongside nature  for our own well-being.

Edited 2017 for blu ray pix.

Play acting

Play acting was something I loved when I was younger using anything I could get my hands on "borrowing" things that sometimes lead to repercussions later but I wasn't that bothered about that.

Playing roles like Centurions, WW2 soldiers or acting out our favourite tv shows were just the kinds of things I liked to do with my mates

Amanda's New School

 This is a paperback I've had from my schooldays that I've always had a soft spot for although it is an update of the 1932 original Nesta's New School story.

The outline of the story is Amanda's wealthy adoptive mother dies, and she goes to live with her birth mother and her sister Alice. After a privileged childhood, she has to adjust to a middle class school as well as a new family.

This sort of theme is one I've always adored being less about midnight escapes and epic escapes than many school stories for girls and rather more on the character of the girls such as Amanda being of more practical import for children of either sex with things we have to overcome and adapting to changed circumstances.

The return from the cold

Some people say winter brings its challenges but for me it's all about the excitement of playing in the snow with your mates throwing snowballs or making snow mwn.

Getting out of the car, the hardy boy sets off in the snow unphazed, happy knowing he can cope because he grow up with and has learned to handle our weather.

Relearning resilience I feel is something I need to do as while risks exists, having been pushed in a risk averse situation in recent years, I feel it's done me no good at all. 

Togetherness

There is nowt like the togetherness of a pack of boys together be it in school or in your Scout Pack whose love and protection mean more than words can truly say.

Sheltering from adverse weather or looking for help with things a boy looks for and contributes to his pack who in turn help him.

I am one of the boys and love it.

Team Games

One sport I liked at school was Netball which is traditionally associated with girls and girls only schools.

Boys like me are quite capable of playing Netball too and here they are going on with the ball under pursuit.

The boys go on to run after the ball!

In a good number of Primary aka combined infant and junior schools a mixed sex team is often fielded in competitions.

Boys should wear a t shirt, shorts a bit above the knee ideally and a position identifying  bib and girls a gymskirt/skort or dress with a top and the bib too.
Girls look better in skorts.

 Ready to throw the ball!
Thus a great picture even if it is of a all girls match.

I love ball games running around as part of a team.

Boyhood footwear

Back in the day, boys like me wore leather sandals to school only moving to shoes when we became much older and most were made in England rather than imported as they are today.

The T Bar fastening wasn't too difficult for me to do by myself in the way that laces that had to be threaded and tied in bow were and remain.

The O'jay's and me

The OJays have a long history but it wasn't until Gambol and Huff produces take them into their Philadelphia International label in the early 1970's that they broke big and it was around that era that I first got to hear of them being played on the metropolitan radio stations managing to make a big enough antenna for my radio to pull these stations.

Strangely enough one source of hearing them was the journey to school as one of the drivers who took me always had their stuff plus a shed full of other acts on that label playing out of his car stereo.

Several things hit you of which the first was the production being sparse allowing the musicianship to rise and the vocals to come through clearly.

The second was the arrangements with a strong jazz influence and finally them words - the OJays famously had had 'a message in our music' talking about the state of society - family breakdown, integrity, backstabbers, racism, the importance of love and so on in what in other respects was a cynical no future era. In the OJay's world you could rise above what maybe holding you down.

I was late into getting anything buy the OJay's on compact disc and the first title I did get was "Collectors Items" originally released on lp in 1977 which is a collection of special mixes of their earlier songs. 

This was in March 1992 some 5 months after its October 1991 cd issue.

Shortly afterwards in the States a number of their early albums got issued by Sony legacy but these were very hard to find and in fact I've only just completed my set with the Backstabbers, Ship Ahoy and Survival studio albums plus the Live In London album issued in 1974.

In late 1998 it was announced that WestSide were to re-issue all their post 1976 albums in the UK the following year and in that period I bought each issue as soon as it came out.

They came in the form of either 2 albums on a single cd or three on 2 cds with one album kind of split between the discs which wasn't ideal but they had very good notes about what was happening with the band, all the singles issued with their 'b' sides and so on.

There were all re-released by Edsel in 2004 in the much better 2 album on one cd format.

Cubs Sports Day

Sports days were a big thing when I was younger whither or not it was at school or in other contexts such as Cub Scouts.

To me that was the most fun at the time as it was more about the taking part although there were prizes to be won.

Our sports shorts were really quite short, not that it ever bothered me cos everybody's was and my younger brother had a read tracksuit like the boy in the background.

Scouting and me

The one organization I'd love to have joined when I was a chronological child would of been the Cubs, the younger side of Scouting but it was never to be. In fact my folks never enrolled me to any part of the World-wide Scouting movement which was a pity for although I have disabilities it wouldn't of been hard for them to accommodated me (and I'm sure if asked nicely they'd of been happy too).

This is the Baden-Powell Boy Scouts uniform I'd of been proud to have worn, learning more about self-reliance, serving others and improving my poor confidence at the time.

Taking the promise, one I'd of been happy to made in 1972 as I had no problem uphold the principles and pledging my allegiance.

Smartly dressed I would learn how to be a useful citizen, giving of my best, being the very best boy I can be.

Scouting, specifically channelling the essence of the Wolf cub program through engaging with the sorts of exercises has formed an increasing part of my fully age regressed life, helping me heaps to the point I have a blog specifically about that.

Adding to my classical cd collection

One of my interests crosses over to a means of relaxing and indeed regression and that is music, specifically classical music and as I approach the twentieth anniversary of our first cd player there's two discs I bought recently.

While I have long term plans for my collection, the music of Brahms has figured, not so much as Mozart or Beethoven and whatever may come of my discs of his symphonies at some point, his piano music interests me more for now not least in piano lead chamber music.

These two discs recorded in 1971 and 1980 respectively and carefully remastered from analogue tape are amongst the very best of these core chamber music works and in the case of the Quartet often borrowed on cassette form from the local library that they are a part of my past musical experience that makes now owning them in cd form a joy for the performances have staying power.

The Western, Cowboys and Chris

I was a great fan of "Westerns" at the cinema and on the television watching series like Roy Rogers and The Virginian with my uncle and that spilled over to playing Cowboys and Indians.

I usually played the Cowboy with replica outfits, cap guns in the shape of a revolver inventing storylines with other boys, sometimes 'borrowing' a girl to tie up for a part of the rescue story enjoying it heaps. 

It was my world and I loved it.

Rugby

Rugby was not a sport my boarding school did although the Welsh staff members were very enthusiastic fans of the WRU although had I of gone to a nearby day all boys grammar school almost certainly I'd of played it.

This said I did follow it a lot in the newspapers and on tv not least events such as the Six Nations matches and I knew all the words  to the rugby songs the crowds would sing from the stands.

Like football, you do get muddy especially in the winter months but the combination of mud and adventure is every real boys best friend as I had learned to throw off soppiness and toughen up.

The Dorm and I

It's true I have a somewhat relaxed approach when it comes to some daily routines compared to others and this might be connected with being more child-like.

To me the Dorm is central because for a good period of my schoolboy life that was my "Home base" where I did my homework and slept under the rules of the school and the house master enforcing them.

To a very large extent I learned to live by somebody else's rules, finding the spaces that gave me liberty between them.

Dorms were inspected, boys had to stand by beds and if you failed then you were spanked and made to put it right.
I learned early to be a good boy, do what I was told and confirm to the rules.

Given some of the stuff at home at that time I felt very secure and safe in what today some might see as a rather austere regimented system.

September returns

Tis the time the great going back starts in earnest after seven weeks of the hols as you go through your stuff sorting out what needs to be replaced and your folks, normally your Mum start doing the same with your uniform where you may end up having to try on new trousers.

For me as well it is a reminder of when I left Junior school that clad in short shorts boy separated from his peers when he became a Secondary school boy like two others in J4 so links were severed which took time to reestablish over the years.

That boy was happy and this LB now is happy to going back being a boy. 

Just a relaxing LB

To be honest there's an awful lot of me in him, like outside of formal type school wear, I tend to wear tops very much like that, indeed back in 1989 I did wear boys t shirts and tops for younger teens.

As well, I'd sit on the edge the chair rather than right back in it preferring to wear shorts that do show my thighs like I did back then rather than these long Bermuda types you see in the boys and men's sections of places like discount shops and men and boys wear places.

Given the time of year perhaps I just go the whole hog and get myself a pair of charcoal grey school shorts and be done with it as I'm still him?

Looking back to go forward

Scouting always appealed and when it was I first started to have what in hindsight were regressive signs in my mid teens it was that apart from discovering my shorts of two years earlier were hidden at the back of the draw, it also was my younger brothers no longer worn Cub uniform that I located and upon finding it still fitted when I could would wear it on my own I did.

I liked looking and more to the point feeling like that Cub.

The whole ethos is something I strongly identify with not just then but now.

Late Summer Hols

I went away this week and by way of souvenir, here is a picture of where I stayed.

 As you can tell it was very sunny indeed with all the flower in full bloom in the guesthouse gardens which is something I enjoyed waking up and rushing downstairs to sit out in in the morning. 

I normally have my green camera bag with me with the Minolta X500 and XD7 with me plus a few lenses. These days I have digital cd-roms made of the films for blogging when sending my films back for processing.

I went on a trip on the Welsh Highland Railway with terrific views of Snowdonia National Park.

I'd always pack some short sleeved  t shirts and games shorts to put over my speedos as well as hardier clothing for walking and something more formal for evening dinner with fellow guests.

The last days of Steam

Just take me back in time and I'd join them in a flash cos I just adore steam locomotives so being on the footplate next to the boiler and man stoking it up with coal is just so so kewl to me.

This was built at Swindon, Wiltshire  works of the Great Western Railway on December 31, 1930 Class 5101, 2-6-2T by Collett and disposed of by British railways in January 1962

Childhood fiction

Part of this whole adult still  a child side of me involves reading  often things about or even from  my childhood.

The What Katy Did trilogy  by Susan Coolidge a I originally read but never owned as a child having more of Enid Blyton's novels but a good few years back I bought the 1989 World Distributors editions together with Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm.

I hope to read more.

Playing no matter what

Hand to eye co-ordination was never me strong thing cutting across to varying extents my abilities in playing school sports but the thing was it never stopped me trying or just playing as a purely social thing.

That meant I was prepared to pick up a tennis racket and ball to play with another boy if he felt like a game even though I'm not good at it rather than getting into funk or screaming to anyone who would listen.

The head girl at the Gables

Today I'm going to talk about another book of mine that I've had for a very long time.

It's a story about a girl called Lorraine who wasn't thought of being Head Girl material by all her peers at The Gables, their school being rather quiet and withdrawn, scarcely one of the schools personalities.

The Headmistress, Miss Kingsley has altogether different thoughts so she's appointed but from the get go, a hard struggle for Lorraine to win the girls over begins. 

She decides to organize a School Show, finding a new ally in artistically minded Claudia, taking command in a most surprising effective way.

She finds a newly discovered talent for painting as part of her school life which leads to the unmasking of a dangerous spy ring.

Also spach Zarathustra

Like many, my introduction to this work by Richard Strauss was on the back of 2001: A Space  Odyssey where the introduction was used in the 1968 movie directed by Stanley Kubrick.

I heard a number borrowing from the library, did own the 1979 Riccardo Muti recording on lp and also from my older brother which did own this one that I recently bought in its newly remastered form from the 1974 analogue tapes that I'm currently enjoying.

Many put this recording over Herbert von Karajan's later 1984 digital remake with the same orchestra. 

Schoolboy

As a person with a LB age of 12 this is close to how I see myself just perhaps a year or two younger in full school boy uniform right down to the socks and shoes although I do wear traditional stripped turn over long socks  as do many contemporary British prep school boys.

Although I don't actually own an 'over sized' uniform, the way I dress is based loosely around this but from ranges that fit my size and worn in the same sort of way.
I'd like everyone to treat me as child within I am.

Score!

Hello there!

It's that time of year and I love wearing shorts so these work well being the sort we all used to wear for PE is just great.

Nicely finished I could just fancy a game of Footie, which always was my first love and maybe Rounders over afternoon tea.

The Steve Miller Band on cd

As you know from last weeks entry I do like music, visiting a record shop on my hols which is a bit of a ritual that goes back to around 1977 and 78 when I first got interested more in buying albums being just in my teens than singles.

One group I like is the Blues Rock group, The Steve Miller Band who've been going from about 1968 and in 1990 the British arm of Capitol Records issued this jolly useful compilation of that early work which included Livin' In The U.S.A and The Joker from the 1973 album of the same name.

That was one of the cd's I bought used last week.

The biggest selling compilation of theirs is Greatest Hits 1974-1978 which has hits from the Fly Like an Eagle and Book Of Dreams albums of 1976 and 1977 respectively plus some earlier recordings which was issued by Capitol in the U.S.A and Mercury in the UK/Europe in 1978.

One criticism that can be made of the original lp and cd was the didn't use the original stereo mix tapes but copies often edited for the singles versions.

In 1997 a man called Steve Hoffman who has a music forum I joined this April remastered this compilation for the specialist cd re-issue company DCC Classics in California from those original tapes to great effect.

I recent bought a new old stock sealed version of that cd which sounds much better than my Mercury one I bought way back in March 1987 providing me with great versions of Fly Like an Eagle, Jet Airliner and Swingtown.

This was another I picked up while away although I hired it in 1987 shortly after release from a cd lending service I belonged to and recorded a lot of the songs from it but that tape doesn't play too well anymore.

There is a bit of over lap with the 1974-78 Greatest Hits set but this is good for having songs from 1981's Circle of Love, 1982's Abracadabra and 1984's Italian X-ray Eyes so we get Give It Up, Shangla La and Abracadabra plus a few more tracks from Fly Like an Eagle and Book Of Dreams sounding very good on this 1987 cd. 

This selection of discs gives me great sounding versions of many of the Steve Miller Bands greatest hits and notable album tracks.

My Holiday

Today I'm writing about my visit to the Snowdonia national park, in Wales recently as I had been experiencing a lot of stress and it was having a serious effect on my mental well-being.

I was greeted by exceptional hot, sunny weather affording superb views of Mount Snowdon and the isolated moorlands surrounding it.

The lambs were all out in the fields young and old some having a chew of the grass, others sheltering in the shade of nearby hedges, walls and trees.

A few had the bright idea of exploring the human domain of the narrow roads and we needed to slow down to allow them to cross back into the fields.

I liked the solitude up there but I’m not sure the idea of being literally miles way from the nearest market town would really do for me which I guess is a reflection of my urban upbringing.

Betws–y-coed is a place I like to stop off at as here are good range of shops and spectacular waterfalls. There are a lot woodlands in the area and I took a lot photos – on my ageing Minolta XD7 of the trees, sometimes lying underneath the branches to get the viewpoint I wished to capture.

Llandudno: It remains a largely unspoilt Victorian seaside resort with excellent shopping facilities. The Theatre is really good and many amateur choral performances are hold during the summer season in local churches. On Tuesday there was a Brass Band concert taking place, appropriately enough, on the Bandstand along the promenade. The players were really good – I’m no great fan of Brass Bands but the musicianship couldn’t be faulted.

Bangor: 

I visit here a lot, being a University town with bookshops and some good Pubs that serve meals. There is an excellent record shop on the High Street, Cob Records, whose staff really know about music. The main store is in Porthmadog – this is a ‘satellite’ store – it has a first rate second hand vinyl department that is well worth rummaging through and stock new vinyl releases too.

I did take the bus to Conway going on the river and walking around the castle.

Things that didn’t go as they should: I days filming got wasted as a Fuji film become tight and tore whilst rewinding it out of the camera – we came close Basil Fawty worthy meltdown!

Jennings

I went for part of my childhood to a boarding school where of necessity all your relationships with teachers, care staff and class mates  are very different plus to a very large extent you're living by someones rules wearing a uniform all day with no chance of a change.

While there I read the Jennings series of book based upon the adventures  of two friends at prep boarding school called Jennings and Darbishire which made sense as  was in similar situation and we too had our adventures that seemed incomprehensible to those who were responsible for our welfare on the grounds. 

To me Buckeridge understood as a Form Master himself just what the prep school boy was really like and although I wasn't at prep school I too was endowed with the same spirit for good and ill.

There remains a very large part of my that would enjoy a return to boarding school and I was fortunate to spend six months in a residential college where I could go back to being the boarding school kid with informal dorm parties and all the little intrigues.

Nick Heyward

Hi fans,

I thought I'd set up a page dedicated to the great and badly under appreciated English singer-songwriter Nick Heywood who I followed at boarding school.

Nick who hales from Kent, England was the original lead vocalist of Haircut 100.

The group comprised of Nick, Les Nemes (Bass),Graham Jones (Guitar), Memphis Blair Cunningham (Drums), Phil Smith (Sax) and Mark Fox (Percussion).

The group become known not only for their new wave style but for their preppie outfits.
In 1981, the group released the single Favourite Shirts (Boy Meets Girl) which reached No4 in the UK charts, followed up with Love Plus One which reached No3 in January of 1982.

Early in this year they released the 80's classic album Pelican West, which peaked at No2 and remained on chart for 34 weeks.

They released two more singles in 1982, Fantastic Day and Nobody's Fool both reached No9 in the UK charts.

At was shortly after the release of Nobody's Fool that Nick decided to leave the group for a solo career.
Haircut One Hundred

Nick Hayward solo career.

In contrast to the style of Haircut 100, Nicks solo music quickly revealed a more mature adult style which was evident from his first solo single, Whistle Down The Wind, which reached no13 in the UK charts.

The follow up single, Take That Situation, proved to be his biggest selling to date and reached No 11 and stayed on the UK charts for 10 weeks.

He issued the classic North of A Miracle album in the fall of 1983 produced by Geoff Emerick which was successful reaching no 10 in the UK charts but this was to be his only charting UK album.

The final single from this album, Blue Hat For a Blue Day was his last UK top 20 hit.

He issued the singles Warning Sign and Love All Day which peaked at numbers 25 and 31 respectively in 1984.

In 1986 the album Postcards From Home as issued and the tracks Over The Weekend and Goodbye Yesterday were issued as singles but like all his singles released to 1988, they failed to chart.

1988 saw him releasing an album with Warner/Reprise, I Love You Avenue which featured the single You're My World, which is currently very hard to find.

The singles Kite and He Doesn't Love You Like I Do saw him return to the UK singles chart but neither record made the top 40 although they were featured on the album From Monday To Sunday released in 1993 for Epic records.

He attempted a return in 1995 with the track The World which get as far as No47 and Rollerblade from the Epic album Tangled in 1996 which got as far as No37.

By 1998 he'd signed to Creation records, the label Brit Pop stars of Oasis and The Boo Radleys issuing the album, The Apple Bed.

Unfortunately not withstanding the quality of his 1990's albums they all failed to chart.

Here's a thread from Steve Hoffman Forums where we discussed the man Nick Heyward and Haircut One Hundred - SH Forums

Like many artists today he has his own website where he discusses his life presently and his music.
I would recommend it to all.
See www.myspace.com/nicholasheyward

An original Friends Reunited post

David Gilmour

Music is a part of my life and as something I did sometimes mention on that old Friends Reunited blog and while I may get around to talking more about my liking of the Pink Floyd one day, there is an solo album by a member I do like

Simply entitled David Gilmour, this originally came out on May 26th 1978 between that bands Animals album and the late 1979 album The Wall and is a fairly sombre album which I do like 

This is a original UK first issue from that year with it's lime green Harvest logo that I own although it was re-issued on EMI's Fame mid price label in 1983.

In some ways it's the more mellow end of the regular Pink Floyd sound mixed in with an element of Jazz.

I first heard it on the Friday Night Rock Show with the late Tommy Vance in the late 70's and early 80's and also on the Into The Music show he present around 1984 and 1985 when he played classic album tracks with a nod to the new compact disc versions.

My favourite track is the single There Is No Way Out Of Here.

In 1984 with the Pink Floyd on hold following the issues with Roger Walters that started around the time of recording The Wall and esculated during making The Final Cut David made a second solo album.

David exposes the dank and poisonous underbelly of corruption, deceipt, greed, and shattered allegiances both of the heart and professional affairs in this album

On Murder” embraces the collective grief of the 1980 assassination of John Lennon. This solemn lament is dextrously aided with a futility exuded by Pino Palladino’s concise bass guitar contributions, nearly matching the power of Waters’ trademark strums

While this album has and to a point suffers from that thin sterotypically 80's production, it is one of his finest and certainly better than some of his more recent recordings.