“Could you call on Lady Day? Could you call on John Coltrane? Now ’cause they’ll, they’ll wash your troubles Your troubles, your troubles, your troubles away” “Lady Day and John Coltrane” – Gil Scott-Heron

Drawing. I am honestly no better at drawing than I was when I was 4 years old and drew “stick men”. How someone can look at a scene, or a person’s face, and draw or paint an excellent likeness of it, is […]

“Come on and show me say the bells of Old Bowie When I am fitter say the bells of Gary Glitter No one but you and I say the bells of Prince Far-I” “Clash City Rockers” by the plenty-of-hits Clash

“Wailers be there The Dammed, The Jam, The Clash Maytals will be there Doctor Feelgood too” “Punky Reggae Party” – Bob Marley and Lee Perry

“Drowning in the Blue Nile He sent me ‘Downtown Lights’ I hadn’t heard it in a while” – Taylor Swift: “Guilty as Sin”

‘Dream Letter: Live In London 1969′ is one of the greatest live albums by anyone, ever. Tim Buckley’s age at the time of the concert? Twenty-one. Absolutely incredible.

OK, then. Here we go: Masterpieces of Renaissance music: 1480-1600 Johannes Ockeghem – Missa cuiusvis toni (1480-ish) Jacob Obrecht- Missa Maria Zart (1504) Josquin des Prez – Missa Pange Lingua ( […]

There are photos of Lotte Lenya and the folk blues artist Eric von Schmidt on the front cover of Bob Dylan’s “Bringing it All Back Home”.

This handsome Grateful Dead salt and pepper set makes an ideal birthday present for the Deadhead in your life. Order now to avoid disappointment.

Agnes Obel does a really nice version of “Close Watch”, too.

A lime version? I don’t think so. I think it was just a milder version of the red sauce.

I seem to recall that I bought a green version of tabasco sauce once. I didn’t rate it. I ended up throwing it away after it had sat in the fridge for about 5 years.

“SCART” Well, it’s certainly easier to remember and say than the full term for which SCART stands, namely “Syndicat des Constructeurs d’Appareils Radiorécepteurs et Téléviseurs”.

I suspect that some of the ladies watching that TV show in NZ were apoplectic with lust for the handsome Len …..

This is probably my favourite Billy Bragg song of the past 20 years: “Goodbye, Goodbye”

1) I’m a huge fan of Elton John’s music during the initial 1969-76 period. What an incredible number of songs he and Bernie wrote in such a short space of time. And so many of them were good – to – […]

The Odyssey cinema – that magnificent art deco building in London Road, St. Albans! Famous place. Right opposite the Esso petrol station. Back in the day, that was the old Odeon cinema, where I went to see films […]

Surely the “Early Music” period should be broken up in the customary way, namely: Medieval – before 1400 Renaissance – 1400 to 1600 My absolute favourite is Renaissance polyphony: Josquin, Tallis, Palestrina, […]

Oh yes – one glimpse at that excellent photo, and it was clearly the Marlene on the Wall Hitmaker.

Stoker: “Tell you what, Ron – we’ve all ‘ad enough” Marvellous.