You ever had one of these? I put this up in the old site years ago, time to resurrect it for those that missed it first time around. It is 1972 and my school chum is a Police Cadet in a town in the West Highlands of Scotland, and as it happened, it is only about 50 miles north of his hometown. It is a summers Sunday morning, and he has been summoned to report to the Police Station by the Duty Desk Sergeant… there is a wee problem that he may be able to solve. He duly gets himself down to the station, and the DDS informs him that night patrol had stopped to question a couple of unknown guys wandering through the streets of the town centre in the early hours, “Not that they were being overly suspicious, son” said the DDS “but the two fellas gave us false names and they still refuse to give us their proper ones.” In these days, long before cashline cards and credit cards became normal, everyone just carried money in their wallet, nowt else, no ID of any sort. “Now they say they are from your town. Have a wee look » Continue Reading.

A legend in Zimbabwe and a great of African music Oliver Mtukudzi has died. A tall, gentle, rake-thin man he was 66 and had released over 65 albums.

I first saw him in Harare in 1982 and his album Africa was the soundtrack to independent Zimbabwe especially his version of Ishe Komborera Africa, the nascent nation’s anthem until 1994. Tuku’s music had a lighter feel and slight cough became his vocal signature. He sang in a variety of languages and many songs were based on traditional parables.

I always saw him as the Beatles to Thomas Mapfumo’s stones. Women seemed to prefer him to the dreadlocked, ganja-smoking militance of Mapfumo and his more subtle approach to his messages has meant he continued to live in Zimbabwe throughout the oppression of the Mugabe era while Mapfumo went into exile.

Along the way, his music became more pan African in sound to broaden his appeal, particularly South Africa. He stayed with me for one tour in Australia (I had to add an extension to the bed to accomodate his long legs) and he was going through my African collection. Interestingly it was the smooth, jazzy, fusion stuff of Stimela that interested him.

» Continue Reading.

Looking forward to a World Cup win and a 3-1 Ashes series!

With Simon Mayo leading a new classical music station and Chris Evans taking breakfast in new surroundings, what is the future for mainstream radio? Both of the afore mentioned big hitters are not available on FM / AM and consequently are absent from most cars. Personally I might grab an hour of Danny Baker on a Saturday morning whilst I’m on kitchen fatigues, and I enjoy TMS and the odd football commentary, but as far as live radio is concerned that’s about it. For evening background I might occasionally run Radio Paradise or might even dip into what Spotify describes as “radio”( although it clearly isn’t).

Podcasts and listen again facilities have long enabled us to access many favourite shows at a time of our own choosing. I always catch the News Quiz but couldn’t tell you what time of day it is broadcast (assuming things are still broadcast these days). I’m finding that it’s perfectly possible to follow several great shows from radios 3 and 4 without ever having to find them on a dial at a given time of day.

For me, when listening to radio, advertising is to be avoided at all costs but I accept » Continue Reading.

Wow.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/charts-a-boogie-wit-da-hoodie-823-copies-number-one-779069/

Cockburns or Coburns?

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=cockburns+UK+port+advert

On the BBC news page today. Less than 4 minutes to watch, probably a bit longer to ponder

https://www.bbc.com/ideas/videos/why-water-is-one-of-the-weirdest-things-in-the-uni/p06y2c9k

Did anyone else watch this? Shown last Friday on BBC4 as part of a Guitar, Bass & Drums series. It was lovely, and I thought the previous week’s episode with Stewart Copeland was very good too. Both presenters showed a real passion for their instrument. My favourite bit of Tina’s show was watching the current bass player of Chic, who has been in the band a long time I think, attempting to demonstrate Bernard Edwards technique on the breakdown riff for Everybody Dance and finding it distinctly tricky. To be fair he said he’d never seen anyone else play like Bernard, either before or since. These episodes should be on the iplayer for a few weeks. Each one is well worth an hour of your time

Question 1 – do turntable mats make a difference? I have just had a felt one on one turntable and the others have rubber. Since I am upgrading the cartridge on one I thought I would look into this 2.

Question 2 – if they do make a difference. What is recommended -felt, rubber, cork or cork/rubber hybrid? I even saw one site reviewing deer hide FFS!

Thanks

Next month’s café vinyl session is Rumours and Tango in the Night, both audience requests.

I’ll have about half an hour left to fill before those two, I was planning on pre-Rumours material. I’m no expert on T’ Mac. Is there a great (and short) Green-era album? Solo stuff (e.g. Buckingham/Nicks)? Playlist?

Any suggestions welcome.