Christmas Edition 2022

Okay Christmas entry here we come as I woke up super excited and put on white shirt, blue and  white tie, grey jumper with blue trim, grey shorts and grey with blue bands sock to go to my parents for the day.

Yes really!

There will be a full entry on this at some point 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.

I'll splice an entry in for this which was a Big Present, 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 liked Duran Duran a lot and have a many albums of thiers but this only came out last record store day comprising of a whole show from 1982 on the Rio tour.

There was a dvd and cd set issued several years back but this is the first time its been on lp record.

Christopher Robin and Winnie The Pooh are heros and this is my new diary.

I had some money and vouchers besides this plus some grey and blue socks.

Christmas Greetings and pause

So it's Monday, the last Monday before Christmas Day where if we didn't feel we'd gone back several decades to our boyhood before you often would as old rituals are reinacted and the emotions come flying back.

Who doesn't love the stories of Christopher Robin, Winnie The Pooh and friends caught so well here in the throes of singing Carols as we all did.

Can you see yourself in Christopher there? I'd bet you you can because he enbodies so well the spirit of being that little boy with his friends sharing in that magic.

Life without a teddy bear or  two is unbearable and a christmas teddy is so much fun and at times a real comfort when the world all seems topsy turvey.

***WISHING EVERYONE A HAPPY XMAS AND ALL THE BEST FOR 2023***

Posts should resume around Boxing Day.

Christmas themed fun!

Cor, it's really cold, has been pretty much Wednesday with temperatures down as much as minus seven degrees c so the long thick layers have had to come out to try to survive these untypical conditions.

Apart from yesterday's excitement as Santa made his appearence here, something else that marks this time of year has made its appearence too.

Rather like Summer, the beano produces a special christmas themed edition involving all its cast of legendary characters with a common story running complete with sheet of stickers you can peel off and use.

As ever there are quize's, jokes and puzzles to read and have a go at beyond the regular editions we get.

Monster Fun, the recently launched title that builds on previous Cor characters came out with a street date of December 7th with its bi-monthly Christmas edition all themed with seasonal ghoulish fun and pranks including a single page story based upon an idea by a young reader.

In a year that has had its own challenges, having these comics is a real joy.

Just thirteen days to go!

It's Advent now!

 Ay up, we're in December now!

We begin the countdown for Crimbo here with something that Mr Zee-Zee has already started as he makes 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 was colder out this week, temperatures down to three degrees but although the hat, gloves and dufflecoat were on, I was still in short trousers out on the street, interacting with folk.

I usually tend to run down this blog and the others over crimbo as I like to spend time making it happen, being with me folks and that so we should pause in two weeks time, the 19th until Boxing Day Monday.

Back to the past

I tend to post a variety of different things on this blog connected in some way or other to LB or original boyhood life as lives and it's what makes it what it is.

When we do look at that life, many start by looking very much at the lifestyle of a schoolboy, exploring more what we studied, the way we were taught, the realationship we had between teachers, headmasters and ourselves which is something that is different in many ways today than it was for us.

It's not so surprising then that for many adult little boys or school boys that when it comes to how we wish to re-present ourselves, we gravitate towards School Uniform and especially grey short trousers. buying and indeed wearing them publically even if you might tone it down a bit.

You might be forgiven for thinking there was little else but the thing is were were only that school boy at school or in some other context related to it such as when your grandad asked about how school life was.

We did have a life connected to it for obviously sharing friends from school in it such as our playing indoors and out, on the street, in the park or in my case in the woods playing rough war based games.

Back then you either had older worn school clothing as play wear such as say shorts that had obvious wear in the "seat" so it didn't matter so much if we fell over or caught up in branches snagging a little or you might of had some things bought more for play which with me included T Shirts and after the protests over long trousers I made back in the day, sports shorts which given the era where short in the inside leg.

The thick nylon ones I had then aren't made anymore so for modern playwear I decided after a few years to get these Trutex, the well known UK schoolwear supplier green pe shorts to wear for those sorts of activities that may taking sensual things like laying across the grass or floor playing.

Related a bit to that was coming in more around the mid to late 1970's were tracksuits, which some schools did include as a uniform item but have their uses on cold winter days.

That's a modern version of one I had which does share one advantage for disabled boys like me, teemed with t shirts and velco trainers, I can put it all on without assistance.

For a number of us cubs, scouts and venture scouts were good memories of times outside of school learning life skills, going on adventures and having a whale of a time so you may either collect scouting based memorabilia or go the whole hog and have a uniform you like wearing  although obviously you would use a bit of common sense around how and where you might in public

I have a "wolf cub of today" uniform based around the 70's one I was familar with (which wasn't far removed from the pre 1967 Wolf Cub one) with a Wolf Cub ensigna as if that change never happened simply because the previous ethos is and was more me even if in the era of my boyhood that change had happened.

I'm a pretty tactile boy really who loves being outdoors.

I'll add before signing off this week, I am "remastering" this blog with additional bits added that expand on original entries and a few entries that when I restored it, failed to publish.

Thriller forty years on

 Somethings are events and you know where you were at the time which is why I do post from time to time things about albums just by one artist or some compilations because they take you back to those times rather than being a music blog.

1982 was a pivital year in some ways as expections from others would be more adult like as I was still following the same interests as I had for a good number of years previous with days punctuated by school timetables and when which comic or magazine came out.

Into a year that still included Korky the Cat and Dennis The Menace came a new release by an artist that was to grow massively as complex as some aspects of his life were, sometimes overshadowing his musical achievements.

In late May I wrote about Michael Jackson's solo albums but this week a special edition of what is his "signature" album, Thriller came out on the back of couple of regular fortieth editions.

There is a expensive so-called one step boxed edition on vinyl by Mobile Fidelity which I passed on having as you know a very nice dutch original but there was a Super Audio cd version for much less that I did get.

It comes as their releases now do in thick card gatefold sleeve with the disc in a protective cloth inner.

The gatefold retains the original centre spread picture and the original fonts and cursive writing on the front unlike the regular 40th issues.

That to me looks classy, almost like a miniturized lp jacket with a booklet inside that has all the lyrics and pictures of the original.

Regarding the sound which is one reason to buy it having the first US cd issue this brings forth greater dynamics than the original lp mastering for a disc aimed at disco and funk fans to play and no doubt dance to.

This makings songs such as the title track even more spooky while tracks like Billy Jean gain "heft" and greater seperation in the sound of individual instruments once you turn the volume up.

Was this worth getting? For me as fan of this album that defined an era in my life and of millions of others whose music has stood the test of time I would say it is.

It sounds fantastic.

Previous post link:

Looking back at M.J's finest albums

Reflecting on conflict and roles

Most of the weekend was taken up with reflecting on conflict with having both people within my family who served in the Military some physically and emotionally affected by the conflicts they served in and those who lost fathers in the same conflicts with it being both Armistice Day on Friday and Remembrance Sunday yesterday which when I was more able did parade and still stand to attention for theTwo Minutes  Silence hearing the last post being sounded.

That in some ways ties in with how I appeared at the time mainly wearing what in other contexts might be school uniform, ties all straight, black shoes polished so you could see your face in them, often on wreath laying duties.

Not that surprising then that I would be out on Friday looking pretty much as I did, except for being nearly always in short trousers now compared to my teens in royal blue banded turn over socks doing the same thing.

(Picture credit: Albert Prendergast Ltd)

I did order some lambswool Scottish Argyle patterned ones in grey for winter should things get very cold that look most smart too.

Like me the roles I've played haven't really changed  nor has my appreciation of what those who sacrificed their lives for and why we value it.

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.

After a pause for Christmas, the now legendary EXTRA volume was issued on January 6th 2023 that rounds out the main selection.

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, 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

Overall this is a fantastic top up!

Spooky Monday

Spookiness is very much in the air this week providing a much need respite from more challenging adult concerns this week in a very fast moving period in our countries political history.

It's to be found in the windows, on the doors and in the gardens of the houses here all festooned with webs, graves, ghosts, gaint spiders and pumpkin lanterns hand made by children.

It also is to be where I will be found this weekend enjoying ghoulish fun and fireworks, far removed from the crazyness we've been living through these last five weeks just being the boy I am .

Ghoulside stories were always such fun.

Classical Music sacd Round Up - more Sinfonia Of London

The last time we looked at  this mini series of entries was in April before we improved the regular cd  reproduction so we are looking at a pair of discs that share the same performers.

Music from stage and screen has been permitted in the classical chart for a good number of decades now not least for being comissioned in a similar way to that plays and ballet, moving along the action with a musical interlude.

\In the case of stage shows often they are as much a part of the appeal as the storyline.

How you go about taking arrangements for film to that of the concert hall varies, some pieces can be performed well as stand alone pieces and others benefit from bring rarranged into concert suites intermixing the seperate elements.

That mixture is what we have here with works by fim composers Erich Korngold and Franz Waxman among others.

The suite from The Wizzard Of oz is most effective in this recording by the Sinfonia Of London conducted by John Wilson.

John Nicholson Ireland (13 August 1879 – 12 June 1962) was an English composer and teacher of music from Bowden, Cheshire.

The majority of his output consists of piano miniatures and of songs with piano. His best-known works include the short instrumental or orchestral work "The Holy Boy", a setting of the poem "Sea-Fever" by John Masefield, a formerly much-played Piano Concerto, the hymn tune Love Unknown and the choral motet "Greater Love Hath No Man".

This is a great sounding selection of short works by Ireland, extremely well recorded.

Hot off the press in early November was this new recording of Rachmaninov's Symphony no.3 which is his most popular coupled with the Isle Of The Dead that can live with my regular cd box set of all his symphonies conducted by Ashkenazy on Decca.

Spooky smiles!

After last weeks trip to the past, we go on the past inspired present as we get towards Halloween which always was fun time of the year.

Having just come in from doing a bit of exploring I felt a bit tired so I had some fruit and a glass of water while just chilling out with a stash of comics to read.

Yes really I do wear short trousers as short as I did in my original younger days and the table has been given a bit of a tidy up.

Recently this bi-monthly issue of Monster Fun, heavily insired by the original mid 70's Monster Fun and Cor! comics arrived with a seasonal collection of monster and ghoulish stories in full colour which the norm these days where of course we had mainly black and white on newsprint.

Also today in 1978, Monday October 16 was the Twentieth anniversary of Blue Peter, the long running BBC children's magazine style tv show where presenters from the past such as Leila Williams, Christopher Trace, Valerie Singleton, John Noakes, Peter Purves joined the then team of Lesley Judd, Simon Groom and Christopher Wenner for celebrations while showing clips from the past.

It would of been its 64th anniversary near enough today and that was marked on Friday's show with a ten minute segment between features including one on an all boys dancing team.

I did say I had been about and the spookness continues out of doors with pumpkin lanterns and fantastic outdoor features like this giant spider's web.

I'll bet he has has no problems getting on to the Web!

Would it surprise you to find actually there's something I do really love?

I first encountered this when I was chronologically little usually in folded over cardboard containers from the frozen food cabinet in our nearest Iceland looking for something to have with our Sunday main meal.

Called Neapolitan Icecream, it has the strawberry, vanilla and chocolate flavours all in one arranged so when you slice it, you get equal portions of each flavour and it went well with jelly!

Just marvellous!

The last days of Juniors

We're going back a bit as part of the series of posts last tackled in October last year connected with my boyhood past which would been tackled sooner other than a absence of any photographs of me at the school building in question or even of the building in its earliest days.

As I wrote a few years back our original school was a victorian building that as much as I liked the brick architecture  and bell tower -wasps nest be damned- it had been increasingly obvious this was no longer capable of housing the number of pupils it had on role not least for a major expansion of this part of the area and the site itself was cramped struggling to provide a playing field for outdoor games and junior playground.

School lunchs had to cooked and eaten in the nearby village hall because we had no school hall and kitchens plus the lack of hall meant indoor PT and games also had to be in village hall.

It was also the case that French was in the annex of the village hall so you can see really things needed to change and our parents had a uphill battle with the local council to build us a proper modern school.

With a lot of support from the M.P. eventually we got one.

During 1973/4 the school was built on land on the estate although that took much lobbying and as we saw our school built as were a few new bits of the estate at the same time, being cautioned NOT to investigate and play on the sites or else, plans were being made for the transition.

Around May we were taken there to see the new building for ourselves and for us it was utterly amazing to see a school with lots of space inside and out, self contained with new facilities such as a school library with reference books.

We spend a few lessons in the building learning how all thes new  books were organized, the Dewey system categories and how to check out books which was totally new to us.

In June of 1974 in what would be the last four weeks of Junior 3 we moved across, gaining new big playgrounds marked up that we got used to although unlike the current school set up there were not any formal play structures to play on.

This was the much long for hall which at the time had a fawn coloured border windows fitted to use natural light which was controlled by a long hooked pole.

At the time where the two blue roller blinds were were sliding doors used to store PT equipment such as mats for gynastics, benches for vaulting apart from holler hoops, balls and bean bags.

Musical instruments such as Triangles and Tambourines were also stored there as we took music in the hall too

The hall was used for thrice weekly whole school assemblies with the words or hymns on a big hanging book that was set to the ones we used.

As I mentioned before, we did gain a modern kitchen  but at the time I was there we cleared away the school desks and ate at the table, with older children such as us supervising the youngsters, putting out the dinners for them.

In the current school set up tables are set in the hall and by a serving hatch childing line up to collect their dinners.

There were two buzz word around school design in this era, open plan and home bays.

The school was designed on an open plan basis meaning there were next to no walls between teaching areas.

Some teaching areas were dedicated to say science, arts and crafts and we would move to those areas for those subjects.

Infant/Reception had their own self contained bit.

We as Juniors had a Home Bay.

Home bays were area typically a corner of the school where there would be chairs, draws for our school books where we take prep, read stories together and just beyond it the tables we normally used.

That was our own patch to which we went to different parts of the building for such as Maths that required a chalkboard  and so on.

One issue with this was potentially we could hear noises from Infants and so that system was changed a good number of years a go to dedicated classrooms with doors although personally I found the corridors as a governor there at the time as claustaphobic.

They also did establish a seperate teaching era for Junior 4 aka Year Six in modern terms with individual desks rather than groups at tables.

The school logo changed as did its title with the many education reforms of the late 80's and beyond, we were a County Primary at the time but the basic ethos remains the same as much as obviously the slipper and its flexible friend have long departed.

I loved my time in Junior 4, being one of the bigger boys, learning a lot in a brand new school with modern ideas.

I know from my involvement as a legal adult todays boys and girls still do.

*All pictures are from publically published sources and those showing pupils are those long departed.

The new reign begins

As we settle into a new reign some of the new symbols we will encounter along that way are emerging not that all the previous ones will just go.

Firstly, the new Royal Cypher has been designed and approved looking rather like this, C for Charles, our King, R for Rex, Latin for ruler and III the roman numerals for Third, traditional with just a hint of contempary in the font.

That is likely to feature on things such as any new Post Boxes commissioned or replacement to damaged ones.

There are a good number of older Post Boxes about going back to the reign of George VI and before in our Towns and Villages.

It was announced a set of commemorative stamps would be issued by the Post Office marking the passing of our late Queen of some seventy years service.

This is something that Andy, my long departed schoolboy soul mate, very much missed, and I would of been delighted with as avid stamp collectors back then buying the stamps to mount and getting First Day Issue Covers franked addressed to us.

A new reign brings over time new coinage and new cins will be issued starting on the left with a Fifty Pence piece with now familiar smaller design rather tha the original we had from 1968 until a couple of decades ago where the many of the original coins were redesigned.

The one on the right will be a special commemorative£5 design rather than the polymer backed note we are familiar with

The reverse shows the new relief of our King, approved by him for new coins and notes to issued as needed, previous notes showing The Queen will remain legal tender.

Dad and my Grandad did collect coins several decades back.

A new classical disc for autumn

It isn't really that far off the start of what American's call The Fall which I'll probably talk a bit more about on another blog but the last days of brilliant sun and highish temperatures are almost over so more than ever I look at things to do within the home.

In the early days of this blog I did blog around things I had when I was at least officially growing up because back then I could only of written or typed a short account of those times because the internet didn't exist.

One thing there is a series of posts about classical music records I had because back then most of my purchases were on the lp form, compact discs didn't arrive here until around 1984/5 in the local shops and I didn't get a player until June of 1986 anyway.

Over time I bought compact discs to replace and in many respects hugely expand on the range of recordings of works I had.

I did keep a few hidden away in the closet and as I moved back more into more serious attentive listening from records I even bought a few back used from trustworthy dealers.

 Recently I did buy a brand new classical record of John William's Violin Concerto No. 2 which was a comission by the violinist Anne Sophie-Mutter that takes a four movement structure, a nod to traditional after many post modernist works that have been written in recent decades for various events.

Recently it was recorded by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer who has written scores for many films such as the Harry Potter series digitally and issued on record form outside of compact disc and downloads.

It sounds fantastic on my vinyl system and so it can join my playing pile over the next few months on rainy days.