The new Felice Brothers album Undress arrived on my doorstep yesterday. There is a song on there called Days of the Years which is just brilliant. Sadly not on Youtube yet but do yourselves a great favour and take a listen. The art of songwriting is alive and well and thriving in the Catskills.

I have a brand new Mac that I am about to throw out the fucking window. I turned it on on Friday and it didn’t recognise the Magic Mouse. I have charged the mouse up – it should be charged now but there is no way of knowing because it doesn’t light up when being charged. When I turn the Mac on there is a black arrow on screen and no movement of the cursor or anything. I read in the booklet that pressing command,option’,escape key would get rid of the arrow – well they are lying scumbags. It is still there. Anyone have any ideas before I do some damage?

I know there are some Stephen Duffy fans on here – get yourselves over to SDE as Pete Paphides has launched a new label. One of his first releases is the Stephen Duffy I love my friends album from 1996 with a bonus cd of rarities/unreleased songs. You can get a signed version and support a noble cause which if successful might help get further Duffy rarities released.

You know when you go into a record shop and they have one of those 3 for a tenner deals. You find 2 that you want and then pick up a third you are ambivalent about just to fulfil the deal? Well this happened to me. Byrds Sweetheart of the Rodeo and The Style Council Shout to the top collection both Items I wanted. For the third I opted for Level 42 Something about you – the Collection. Was a fan back in the day, saw them live 3 times – pretty good – at the time. This purchase was about 3 months ago – just got around to playing the ’42. vFuck me that hasn’t aged at all well. Why is that? Style Council still sound fab and the Byrds are ageless. What makes a band sound shit after being okay – is it fashion or just production vales? Most stuff from the 60’s still sounds great – the 80’s didn’t fare so well.

In another post there was much talk about copying or plagiarism or call it what you will. The one is too close to call and don’t ever recall seeing any credits but here is Horace Silver doing a cracking copy of Rikki don’t lose my number:

This post is not to resurrect the Ryan Adams story but to ask a genuine question prompted by the latest shocking allegations of child abuse by Michael Jackson. The substantial and numerous claims against Jackson have not diminished his popularity nor sales of his cd’s/dvd’s/ memorabilia and his publishers continue to reap huge rewards from his work. Gary Glitter and now it seems Ryan Adams have had their careers destroyed for allegations on a far less industrial scale. The cynic in me would would suggest the allegations against Jackson have been largely brushed aside to avoid killing the golden egg. Pretty shocking all told.

Today we learn of the passing of arguably our best goalkeeper Gordon Banks. However of deeper resonance to me and for shaping my love of this beautiful game I mourn the death of Fred Pickering who passed away yesterday. For two glorious years he was the centre forward for Birmingham City – in 1967 and 1968. 1967 was the year I started watching football. In that year and the following year he was a free scorer in a team that regularly scored 5 or 6 goals in a home game yet were dire away from home. 1968 was the magical year of a glorious FA Cup run. in the 5th round we drew away at Arsenal. The replay at St.Andrews was on a blustery Tuesday night, my Dad took me to the game but we were locked out as a crowd of 55,000 watched us topple Arsenal courtesy of a brace from Barry Bridges, the winner being an overhead kit. Next up the quarter final against Chelsea. This time I had a ticket. I remember the euphoria when Fred Pickering stooped the head the only goal of the game in the 64th minute. We were in the semi final at » Continue Reading.

There was a lovely tribute by Junior Wells to this great man who died recently. I must confess that I wasn’t aware of his work but took steps to rectify that.A compilation has been on repeat play since it arrived on my doorstep. Beautiful melodies and a great voice. This song in particular has grabbed me:

I know @niallb is a fan of Toto. I heard this for the first time ever on6music the other week. Have listened to it several times since. It is joyous:

Of the two I would say that Lou Reed has legendary status yet to me John Cale has always been more interesting. The albums Paris 1919, Fear and Helen of Troy surpass any album that Reed made even though I am a fan of some if not all of his output. I also think Vale is much better live than Reed ever was. So how come the skewed reverence?

A month ago I would have said no chance. Seemingly the deal on offer is doomed to failure. Once it has failed does TM risk failure in a second General Election? Does she instead run another referendum poll – then if the vote is still to leave does she resign? Interesting times.

Continuing my plan to avoid going old prematurely I have arranged for my wife and I to go to our first festival next year – Cambridge Folk Festival in case you are interested.

The last time I had a tent was in the summer of 76 when I inter-railed Europe with my mate. To be honest it was his tent and he did the putting up etc – I was a bit like Art Garfunkel in as much as my job was knocking in the guides or whatever you call them.

Anyway I will need to buy a tent – does anyone have any recommendations? I need easy to assemble and waterproof. The rest I can take care of.

With a few Sweden residents on here I am reasonably confident of some helpful replies. My wife unexpectedly received a long service travel voucher and as a result we are off to Stockholm with our daughter and her boyfriend the first week of January. We know it will be very cold but aside from the Abba Museum which has already been marked as a must can you please provide some helpful tips and recommendations.

Driving through Lichfield one night last week we came to a temporary traffic light on red for some road works. It seemed to be on red for an inordinate length of time. My daughters boyfriend said ‘If you flash your lights repeatedly it thinks you are an ambulance and will turn to green to let you through. We used to do it all the time when I was in the car with my mum, its hilarious’. It occurred to me that how would we know if this was true or not because there is not evidence that it would be the case – more coincidence. Also an ambulance would drive through regardless of whether the lights were red or green. Is this an urban myth, an old wives tale or a shaggy dog story? There are many around, what are your favourites?

Their first album together was very good. They just released their new one No Mercy in this Land and it is rather lovely. A lot of driving blues and some stupendous Harmonica playing from Musselwhite but I am rather taken by this ballad which is the closing track on the album:-

My folks often used to say ‘it wasn’t like that in our day’ or such like. I can look back on my childhood with fond memories but the reality is that in my lifetime we have taken massive strides to achieve a better standard of living. Putting aside our propensity for war which unfortunately has never diminished I can think of these things that I certainly do not mourn the passing of:

Linoleum – dreadful stuff. Outside toilets Mangles – I remember putting my fingers in one, it was fucking painful. Electric bar fires instead of central heating Black and white TV’s with 3 channels that closed down every night around 10pm. ‘Snow’ on the tv just when you got to the critical part of a programme resulting in having to stand next to the tv tapping the side or moving the aerial around. Blancmange – what were we thinking? Evaporated milk – again what were we thinking? Black and White Minstrel show Cod Liver oil The stick at school Short trousers at school Bastard teachers who took pleasure in giving you the slipper and had apparent homo erotic inclinations. Belisha Beacons – did anyone take any notice of them? » Continue Reading.

The Beatles are possibly the most copied band ever. I usually cite Joe Cocker’s With a little help from my friends as my favourite Beatles cover but I forgot about this. From the recently released Stone the Crows/Maggie Bell compilation:

https://youtu.be/J5E3E_ll8sM

Jimmy LaFave sadly passed away early last year leaving behind a legacy of great recordings. He had a fabulous voice and was perhaps the best ever interpreter of Dylan songs. Along with Baron Harkonnen I was privileged to see him play live in Austin about a year before he died. It was a magical evening that will live long in the memory. His last recordings will be released as a double album Peace Town tomorrow. It would be great if this album sold a few copies in his memory as it would certainly help keep alive the memory of a great artist: