Whilst not knowing the USA like the back of my hand i know it very well having lived in Miami for a couple of years, made around 50 business trips and a number of vacations there. However I didn’t know the mythical America of 30’s to 50’s – the roadside motels, the American Diners, the bowling alleys, the ma and pa stores in one road towns, Apple pie, Milkshakes, homemade burgers and soda fountains. For many years aI ad hankered to do a road trip through small town America and see the dirty, dusty broken America and get to interact with Americans not emboldened by fat salaries. Americans struggling to make ends meet, for whom the American Dream is fictitious fantasy, the America present in the novels of Steinbeck and the songs of Townes Van Zandt. So it was I sold the idea to our daughter to join us on a road trip for her 21st birthday with her boyfriend Liam. This was two years ago and we all nor what happened in the last two years – bastard Covid. Anyway the planning was completed two years ago and only met minor tweaks for the 2022 version. It was going » Continue Reading.

Loudon Wainwright III finally arrived in Birmingham on Thursday night after a couple of pandemic false starts. I have most of his recorded output and have seen him half a dozen times and have always enjoyed his gigs. His latest album Lifetime Achievement celebrates his milestone of reaching 75 years. Of course he celebrates it with sardonic wit and a little surprise that he has got to where he has in life. There was no compelling reason to see him again given the vast choice of gigs we have to chose from but would have never forgiven myself if this turns out to be his last UK tour. Given how fit and vigorous he appeared, health reasons would be less likely to deter him from touring here again. The 25 percent capacity audience more likely to be a bigger deterrent. It is really upsetting that ghere is no interest in seeing a singer of his stature – we live in different times. The first time I saw him was at this same venue and it was packed. Aside from 3 or 4 opening songs from his new album we got lots of classics, Motel Blues, April Day Morn, a gorgeous » Continue Reading.

The Steely Dan album Pretzel logic alway puzzled me with the title. It makes no sense to me other than Pretzel is spelt correctly and incorrectly as Pretzle on the album cover. Is that the ‘logic’ expressed in the album title? It cant be the difference between Anglo and American spelling variants because no-one over here eats Pretzels – fucking awful things.

But now I am flummoxed by Porridge which is how Quaker spells it and Porage as in Scotts Porage Oats. I tell you it is doing my head in. Porridge is shown correctly by spellchecker and Porage isn’t – I might just ban The Scotts variant – if they can’t spell it correctly what hope for their production of the Oats?

I really felt the need to share this with you – no drugs or alcohol have been taken in the writing of this post.

Was doing some CD housekeeping yesterday which required a certain amount of pruning. I came across a CD by a band called Amor – the cd is Sinking into a miracle. Further research suggests it is a Glasgow band with one member of Franz Ferdinand in it.

Out of curiosity I played it this am and if truth be known it is not bad.

Thing is I have no idea why I bought it, where I bought it from and when I bought it. In short if you had asked me before yesterday afternoon if I knew of a band called Amor I would have said no.

Surely I am not the only person on here that has music they have no idea of where it came from?

I saw Blue Rose Code about 4 or 5 years ago at the Kitchen Garden Cafe. He played earnest Celtic leaning folk/jazz/chamber music that was good but very serious. I just saw him at Black Deer and he was virtually unrecognisable – fun, funky, energetic and hugely entertaining. One of the highlights of the festival but a complete surprise.

Who else has completely changed direction? (Excluding Rod and Bob with their crooning)

Really pissed off that I bought two tickets for Mavis Staples at Union Chapel on Friday 17th June as it clashes with the Black Deer festival that I had already committed to. I have two tickets face value £ 42.50 each excl booking fee up for grabs. Will accept £ 25.00 per ticket either for the pair or individually. PM me if interested.

Was listening to music on random play this am and Paul Simon’s You can call me Al came on. I have always been amused by the line ‘some rolly poly little bat faced girl’ as a mild insult. Then of course there is the really acerbic sarcasm of the ‘funniest fucker in the World’ purportedly written by Costello about Bruce Thomas in the song ‘How to be dumb’. So what song insults intrigue or amuse you?

Hi All, I am looking for some advice. My Bose Soundwave is in need of an update and I am tempted by the Brennan B2 and it’s related speakers. Does anyone have one or experience of one and can comment on how good it is or not or recommend alternatives that will do the same job? How quick are cd’s ripped to it? Sound quality? Can I connect my turntable to it?

This is not an area of expertise for me sov all comments welcome.

I have often wondered if artists play their most well known songs out of obligation to their audience but secretly think ‘do we really have to play this every night?’ I have seen Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler solo probably around 20 times and never not seen them play Sultans of Swing. The Waterboys have played TheWhole of the moon every time I have seen them – twice in the last 3 months including Moseley Folk Festival where they started with it which I thought was a little bizarre but it worked. Would Lindisfarne ever not play Fog on the Tyne or Elbow not play A day like this?

Has anyone seen a band where they have deliberately not played their most famous song? I once saw Yes play the unreleased Tales from Topographic Oceans in its entirety – they redeemed themselves(slightly) in the encore with if I recall Roundabout and Yours is no Disgrace.

On Thursday I went to London with my wife to visit our daughter. During the afternoon they had a social event so we agreed to meet up for dinner and the intention was that I would go to Rough Trade Brick lane. Except that the district line from West Kensington to Aldgate east wasn’t running. I had visited Reckless, Sister ray and Souljazz (Sounds of the Universe) on a recent visit so I opted to go to FOPP which I hadn’t been to for some time. Frankly I wish I hadn’t bothered. The place was totally uninspiring and not a patch on it’s former self. The discounted items were far fewer, the book selection lame and a clear shortage of stock. I asked for the new John Murry album, the new Jackson Browne album and the Electric Muse set and none of them were in stock. I overheard two of the staff talking about a management course where they had been advised they either had to buy cheaper or increase the prices of the items on sale. I have had many happy visits to FOPP in London, Nottingham, Bristol and Manchester over the years. This isn’t the first time that » Continue Reading.

Looking at the CNN news pages online today I was reading about the Olympics and they described the first ever Gold medal for the tiny Caribbean Island of Bermuda. Except that it is not and never has been in the Caribbean. Must have been misplaced. I blame the triangle. Is that the best that CNN can do?

I heard this song two weeks ago when my wife and I were away for a weekend in Somerset. It was playing on 6music and we both thought it was absolute tripe. Two weeks later and I absolutely love it – it has got a firm hold on my brain and I cant shake it off.

It is complete tosh of course but catchy complete tosh.

My daughter and her boyfriend acquired an ‘Amstaff pup’ – for those not aware it is a cross between an America Bulldog and a Staffordshire Bull terrier. Let me declare my stance on dogs – I like them a little bit but would never have one – the thought of picking up dogshit on a daily basis is not something that fills me with joy. Anyway the puppy is about 14 months old now and is absolutely adorable. He wouldn’t hurt a fly and doesn’t have a bad bone in his body. If he was a guard dog he would be absolutely useless. He was also sent for 2 weeks residency obedience training – they both take dog ownership very seriously. Anyway cut a long story short, around the 25th June my daughter took Blue for a walk in the park and was horrified as she left the park to be confronted by 3 police officers who told her that a member of the public had reported the dog as being a pitbull and a danger to people/animals. He was confiscated. About one week after that my daughter was contacted by the complainant demanding money for the damages caused – » Continue Reading.

The Simon and Garfunkel song Cecilia contains the line ‘I am down on my knees,I am begging you please’ I was listening to a reggae collection at the weekend and there was a song with the exact same line. There must be several songs out there that repeat the same line that has appeared in another song either deliberately or accidentally.

I am midway through Richard Thompson’s splendid autobiography. It is not a ‘warts and all’ type autobiography and all the better for it in my opinion. However there was a part that genuinely surprised me, maybe even mildly shocked me. The song Turning of the Tide has always been one of my favourite RT songs. Extremely well written and moves along at a fair click. I always assumed it was not biographical but referred to an aging lady mourning the loss of her youth when she attracted the opposite sex with ease. Then I read that when Fairports visited Hamburg in their early years that RT visited one of the houses of the night and sampled the wares on offer. Many years later Turning of the Tide was written about that experience. When you see him on stage as I have done so many times, he always comes across as self deprecating and almost shy even. The thought of him visiting a Hamburg Brothel did seem a little incongruous but as they say ‘it’s the quiet ones you have to watch’.

During this last year I have been very lucky. Since my profession is classed as essential workers both my wife and I have continued to work in our offices throughout the lockdown. Obviously with social distancing and face masks etc. We have obviously not been able to go to all of the restaurants, gigs, cinemas, holidays that we would normally do. Financially we have never been so well off but that has tempted me to waste money on stuff I don’t really need, some of it has been okay but some has been a complete waste of money.Some even fell into the category of What was I thinking? Just some examples here:

An online course in criminology – I didn’t do even one minute of one tutorial.

Some socks with famous artworks on them – so badly made I couldn’t even get them off my feet once I had worn them.

A pack of 48 Toilet rolls from China. When they hadn’t arrived I complained and they refunded me the money. They arrived the next day – bonus.

Some hair clippers again from China. The well know brands had all sold out, Absolutely useless unless you didnt mind having your » Continue Reading.

Jaffa Cakes have long been one of my favourite sweet snacks. Last week I saw a Cherry one in Waitrose. I tried it – ghastly. Now I hear they are bringing out a blackcurrant one next month. Don’t fuck about with my Jaffa Cakes.

Why do food manufacturers feel the need to tinker? Anyone remember green ketchup? That was a real money spinner – not.

There is much in the news about how the High Street will struggle to recover from the pandemic and that shopping will switch to online. That may or may not be true and much will depend on location. Oxford street for example will likely continue to flourish. I have had two recent examples that suggest that neither model is beyond reproach and some high street experiences have nothing to do with the pandemic and more to do owners taking the public for granted. I have long been less than enamoured with WH Smith but had a recent experience that surpassed all others in terms of how bad it was. Their branch in Lichfield is quite a large one. I went in their 3 weeks ago to get the latest edition of Record Collector magazine. As is usual with this store there was no-none on the counter and the gentleman in front of me had to use the only one of three electronic checkout tills that was working. It asked him to wait for assistance but there was no-one to be seen. He remarked to me that ‘he could just walk out with this stuff” I called out ‘hello, anyone here?’. » Continue Reading.

For some reason yesterday I recalled Vesta Curry. I have to say it was an abomination and I have no idea how I have progressed to being a lover of Indian food using that as a starting point. An then other brands that have disappeared – Apparently England’s Glory matches made by Bryant and May and long since defunct in this country are manufactured in some outpost of rural Sweden. Wrigley’s Beech Nut – what happened to them? A Chocolate bar called Cabana that was an upgrade on a Bounty as it included Cherries. This list is endless.

What brands do you mourn the demise of and which brands are you glad have disappeared.

First off I am not a Techie.

I have created playlists on Amazon Music that I want to burn to discs and send to friends. I have a Mac. Before it was easy to burn a playlist from iTunes but I don’t know how to transfer from Amazon to iTunes. Its doing my head in so any assistance here is greatly appreciated.