The Afterword

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Set The Night On Fire

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“Ewan MacColl is best remembered among the wider populace for penning the folk standard ‘Dirty Old Town’ and the Grammy-award-winning ballad ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’. But his legacy goes far beyond such much-loved standards.

A new Sky Arts documentary, ‘Set The Night On Fire’, examines both the man and his music and features insightful interviews with family members, including his widow Peggy Seeger – a highly acclaimed and influential figure on the Trans-Atlantic folk circuit in her own right.”

https://www.folkradio.co.uk/2021/11/sky-arts-documentary-ewan-maccoll/

One-note guitar solos

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Andy Kershaw featured this – Litiot by Shaba Kahamba et les Esprits Saints – which features a splendid 10-second one-note guitar solo (from about 4:24) in one of his recent podcasts. Sadly this 1993 French CD is in very short supply (cheapest I’ve found is 45 quid from Germany).

Anyhow, it made me think of the solo in La Bamba by Los Lobos and Buzzcocks’ What Do I Get?

Can the Massive think of any more?

A Certain Ratio – Down & Dirty

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ACR have a remix album of their ACR Loco album out on Nov 5th.

Mr Dan (nope, me neither) has remixed Down & Dirty. I’m not normally one for remixes, but I really, really, like it. It reminds me very much of Grace Jones.

Lard played it on the wireless on Monday as I drove my lad home from football training and it fair exploded out of the speakers.

International Cassette Week 2021

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This week is (International) Cassette Week 2021, ending with (UK) National Album Day on Saturday.

The calendar must be getting rather busy to provide us with such purchasing opportunities. If only record shops opened on the other days of the year. Wait, what? They do, you say? Why did nobody tell me before?

Anyway, my top 3 cassettes:

Talking Heads – 77 b/w More Songs About Buildings and Food (twofer) Big Country – The Crossing (with the related single b-sides, on Chrome tape) The Farmer’s Boys – Get Out & Walk (with the 12″ single mixes)

https://www.cassetteweek.com/

Re-Play Papworth – 1969

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31/10/2021

Picking up what should have been 29th March 2020.

Abbey Road, Let It Bleed and something else from 1969 (suggestions please) played from remastered vinyl on a top-flight hi-fi in the Courtyard Café, Papworth Everard.

Home-roasted coffee, loose-leaf tea, locally-sourced cakes, full bar including microbrewery ales.

2:30-4:30pm, free entry. Well-behaved kids and dogs welcome.

Why is my Uncut going to be late this month?

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“Just a quick note to let you know that your subscription copy of Uncut will be arriving a little later than usual this month. The issue contains some important news that can’t be revealed until Thursday, August 19. As a consequence, your subscriber copy won’t arrive before this date.”

I’m guessing… Gerry Rafferty tour with Bob Holness back on sax? Hooky reforms Joy Division. The Farmer’s Boys reunion. The Scottish Band anthology. Weller reforms The Style Council.