Nice.
Anyone fancy buying Charlie’s Devon estate?
by 72 Comments
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Musings on the byways of popular culture
Musings on the byways of popular culture
by 72 Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
There he and his artist wife, Shirley, are content to live their solitary human lives amongst a menagerie that includes fifteen Arabian horses, eighteen dogs, and two cats
What a remarkable life they had. It’s a very interesting article.
Those were the days. I suspect that there are few drummers in 2026 who are earning enough afford a gaff like that.
Imagine having to mow all that lawn! And I bet Ocado won’t even deliver my Waitrose orders that far out into the sticks. So I’m out.
I’d have snapped it up otherwise, obvs.
And you expect Ocado to deliver to your island in Wales ?
To be honest, that was my biggest concern. Well, that and the dilapidated house “needs some work”, like… a roof.
I got supermarket deliveries to my parents remote hillside house (see estate agens thread) sorted during lockdown. After a year or so they were stopped as an apologetic manager told us the trees up the lane were scratching the side of the van.
Well, that explains why Amazon vans look the way they do.
Given that Charlie’s dealers had no trouble finding the place, maybe they could advise Ocado…?
Wot? Up there in me beamer. I’ve just had a hotwax and shammy. It’ll get scratched to buggery mate. Tel you wot I’ll leave yer stash in a pipe at the bottom of the lane. (my parents had a piece of drainage pipe at the bottom of the lane that the papers would be left in by the newsagents).
I was under the impression that Charlie’s heroin habit was fairly short-lived and in the fairly distant past by the time he popped off.
Also my understanding…
Interesting to see that the estate agent’s photos reveal a very modest stereo system embedded in the wall of vinyl; do you think that’s the only music source they wanted in the house?
Also interesting to see that the countrylife website folk obviously scrimp when it comes to sub-editing their pages.
I have known a few professional musicians in my time and they happily shell out on guitars and amplifiers, take great care to attend mastering sessions, then take their acetates home and approve them on the shittiest Tesco midi-system known to man. The closest I’ve seen to a hi-fi in any of their houses was a mid-range Denon midi-system with bookshelf speakers.
I suppose having spent the day making music, they don’t feel the need to play it at home.
Kate Bush has/had a Linn LP12, Naim amps and Isobarik speakers at home. All the more reason to love her.
I’m sure I’ve seen a photo of Martin Barre at home, in a rather cluttered music room, with a Quad 34/306 in the background. Can’t find it now, of course…
I remember Midge Ure, in a an ’80s mag, recording his LPs onto Chrome tapes to avoid wearing out the vinyl. I think he had an Ariston deck.
He also had a Philips CD101 and the first CD (1983) of Vienna. He said there were background keyboard lines he’d totally forgotten about. Vienna had only come out in 1980. Mind you, I can’t remember what I did three years ago, either.
Around the same time, I knew someone who recorded LPs onto 1/4” tape. He had a whole wall of vinyl that had only been played once. It seemed like a pain in the arse to me, lacing up the tape and the reels still took up a load of space.
Crazy, innit? Just buy a better stylus, one that doesn’t wreck the grooves.
And sellotape a 50p to the stylus arm (ABOVE THE NEEDLE) so it doesn’t jump.
I’d have tried an old ha’penny first, then moved up to an old penny…
Steve Lillywhite was on a recent Word in Your Ear podcast. He lives in Bali these days, and says he has no physical music and just streams to a small Bluetooth speaker
that’s sad
Difficult to understand I know, but perhaps in the kids parlance Lillywhite feels he has ‘completed music’
If you listen to some of his productions it is clear that sound quality wasn’t his biggest concern. Not saying that is wrong either, if he was focused more on getting the best songs/performances from his artists.
That sand and salt in Bali is a bugger on your vinyl, will knacker your CD drive and will total your tape heads in seconds.
I expect that he was happy with a rather modest system.
Didn’t see a kit or any evidence of one either. The kitchen looks big enough for a full band practice.
In the documentary series a couple of years ago which focused on each of the Stones, Charlie showed his collection of around 100 drum kits which had belonged to his heroes, mainly jazzers like Art Blakey. They seemed to be in storage, not in his home. I don’t know if they were auctioned off, or are still kept somewhere. He was a big collector of first edition of books and I think they were sold off.
Looks idyllic, but he became a heroin addict soon after moving in
Mitigating circumstances and I wouldn’t do it meself, but it was the dire.
Oh, give it a rest, man..! Yes we know you hated the 80s. I can’t really mount a spirited defence of that period, other than to say that I really enjoyed it at the time. Each to his own, but hating a decade is pretty pointless.
It’ll happen as long as people rise to it
Yeah, I still haven’t learned…
Those big rooms look like they would be a bugger to heat. Some small radiators as well. I may have too much time on my hands today.
I thought exactly the same thing – seriously chilly and despite the £2.75m asking price, no one seemed to think it worth adding a few furnishings or even curtains.
Probably a bit cheaper than the other Charlie’s Cornwall estate.
Yebbut, that’s crawling with grockles every summer for months on end.
Which other Charlie?
The expensive biscuit man?
That’s who I first thought of, when I saw the post title.
Chaz 💖 💗 Cam 4 eva
I saw Camilla riding a camel to Camelot, carrying caramel, camembert, camelias and a Camberwell carrot
Still none the wiser.
Here’s another clue if Flickr works.
Jarvis Cocker Spaniel? I’m not very good at this game…
It does, thanks. So where’s his estate, then? Do we mean Dartmoor?
Duke of Cornwall, as was. I can’t believe a weak joke has ignited a sub thread so long.
It’s about 40 minutes away. I might see if I can wrangle a viewing.
Report back on the important things. The sound system and the record collection.
Loads of original-edition jazz albums in pristine condition, I expect.
The thing with state-of-the-art audio systems is that they can show up all the flaws in your favourite old recordings. To their detriment, perhaps.
Depends. A really good turntable with a suitable well adjusted tonearm and just the right cartridge will emphasise the music in the grooves to the point where the clicks and pops are pushed into the background. Can’t get rid complete, of course…
@fentonsteve? Any thoughts?
Yes. Sweeping generalisation ahead: better cartridges have smaller stylus tips (because: lower effective mass) which means the stylus sits deeper down in the groove.
Many scratches are on the surface but not in the bottom of the groove. I have some charity shop purchases which look like they have been attacked with sandpaper and they play fine.
I also have some which look fine but skip on my Linn with MC cartridge but play fine on my Rega Planar 3 with MM cartridge (which has a bigger stylus tip).
I’ve also played albums I know are gouged down at the cafe on a Pro-ject deck fitted with Ortofon 2M Blue cartridge, not even a click.
So… it depends.
You could just play the CD
But the CD is brickwalled
Gorts! Lock this thread!
I picked it up. I’m happy with it.
Free Spotify and a Bluetooth speaker? Jazz is all in mono, anyway.
I was referring to flaws in the original recording or poor mastering, that can become more noticeable with better equipment, rather than disc damage or even bad pressings.
To be honest, old jazz recordings tend to sound better than modern ones. Less mangling during the mixing & mastering process.
Yes, indeed – it’s no accident that old 1960s BlueNote vinyl is so sought after…
The 60s Blue Note and Prestige albums generally had Rudy Van Gelder as sound engineer in his Englewood Cliffs studio. Miles had Teo Macero producing. Some of the stuff on lesser labels could be a bit rough around the edges, sometimes.
Yebbut the ethos at the time was to capture the “live” performance taking place in the studio as accurately as possible, with as little manipulation as possible – an idea which had a limited revival later (see Trinity Sessions, etc).
I rang. It seems the vetting of prospective viewers is more stringent than that applied to US Ambassadors or Reform candidates. I’m not optimistic of a call back but we shall see.
When they see your username I’m sure they’ll invite you!
There a link in that Country life article to this mansion sold recently by Alan Wilder of Depeche Mode
https://www.countrylife.co.uk/property/houses-for-sale-in-west-sussex/the-sussex-mansion-of-a-member-of-one-of-the-biggest-bands-of-the-80s-is-for-sale-and-its-an-art-deco-delight
I find this extraordinary. He bought it in 1990, left the band in 1995 and doesn’t seem to have done a fat lot since in terms of commercial success. Presumably he has very good financial advisers. Fair play to him.
I notice there’s an uninhabited little island, just off the Welsh coast up by Portmeiron, that’s up for sale fairly cheap.
Has a small derelict village on it and is only accessible on foot at low tide for a few hours each day. Buyer to supply their own boat for 24/7 access.
Or a Penny Farthing.
Or when the tide is in a large white bouncing ball.
Well, the neighbours will keep an eye on the place when you’re away.
What is ridiculous is that you can get that whole estate for the price of an end terrace in London…
An old friend bought a lovely house in Devon. Detached, beautiful gardens etc. it’s in a tiny village with one part time pub and one shop. Everything else is at least half an hour away and if you want theatre or live music, it’s an hour, plus the roads are awful. It’s a no from me.
You don’t need to go all the way to darkest Devon to get awful roads, these days.
When I lived in rural West Wales in the ’70s and ’80s there were farm tracks in better condition than major roads around here in Hertfordshire.
[Gripe] £430 for a year’s road tax for my car, come April.[/Gripe]
Sussex is no better but there’s more around here and That London is an hour and a half by train.