The look of the past

You could say the main feature of the week has been the return to winter with fairly cold temperatures, hailstones, drizzle and all of that having been caught out in it so the thicker layers were needed outdoors although I spotted the boys in one area going cross country in their tops and shorts on Wednesday at one school and another in with the gas fire one.

Actually this kind of almost but not quite sailor suit inspired look was very much the thing in the late 1970's as I rebelled against the longs I rather liked and dressed more like  as "going back" became more acccepted at home.

School was different and being in the Marches we did have bi-lingual staff from the Valleys of Glamorganshire who had this wierd fascination in keeping boys in longs, even being a boarding we'd see their own children in the height of summer fully covered up top to bottom.

Whither it was connected with Methodist inspired notions of displaying working class respectability to the outside world or some other odd idea I don't know but it made little sense to me and I saw less of in England which can be as class conscious and inwardly conservative as anywhere.

I liked that look as much over time I was able to return more to the tailored approach of my junior years and still do.

Happy birthday, Dennis!

It's been a sunny week, a week when low flying bee permitting I've been been out in the park enjoying the sun playing apart from some post birthday things like a belated card coming  and some of the ordered stuff finally arriving evening needing a cancelation from one place and a reording elsewhere!

It was recently another famous boys birthday who also never seems to get older towhich was marked in style by his biggest fan, the comic, The Beano.

He appears to have had a number of famous guests from music and tv apart from everyone in Beanoland for his tenth birthday but actually he first appeared some seventy-five years ago so like some of us he goes around the sun never getting older.

I do wish my joints were what they were but I know the feeling.

Rolling Stones "On Air"

After last weeks birthday excitement we return this week to something connected with that but got put off for several years.

The Rolling Stones were a group I followed although in so far as building a collection of albums went that didn't really take off until my mid to late teens, starting with a couple of compilations and then delving into individual albums.

Their recorded catalogue is split into two halves that recorded and released up to 1969/70 issued on Decca in the UK and owned by Abkco and that after that to date which the group own but license out over fixed period to other companies to press and distribute, currently Polydor Records.

Over the years we've had a number of live albums issued, some live shows from the past but like a good number of British groups they did appear on radio as BBC radio while being notoriously short on "needle time" seldom playing pop records in the early to mid 1960's did favour shows where artists could perform live a few songs at a time such as "Saturday Club".

Some other artists of this era have had their radio recordings issued on cd and record not least the Beatles with two volumes from the 1990's but with the Rolling Stones it wasn't until 2017 that two variants for them came out.

Called On Air, it mixes a whole series of recordings from 1963 through to 1965 where increased demand for world-wide concerts and recording sessions from top BBC Light Programme shows

It's not just valuable for in session versions of studio recorded and issues songs but for a good number that were never recorded at all even if they may of been in their live shows so we get new songs 

Of great interest is a series of songs recorded for an experimental stereo transmission using BBC Radio and TV transmitters for the left and right channel before the introduction of stereo radio on VHF/FM in the late 1960's.

Viewers and listeners were give instruction on how to set their sets up to gain the most from it so while their first two UK lps were in mono only this gives us some early stones in true stereo sounding surprisingly well.

The Beatles covered Chuck Berry's Roll Over, Beethoven on Beatles Second Album (Capitol) and for the UK With The Beatles albums but while the stones did a good number of covers that was one they never recorded in the studio so we get to hear their take on it.

For a variety of reasons I didn't get around to getting this in its two cd deluxe version with a disc of extra tracks so I'm delighted to finally get this set this year.

Pasts in present

Many popular comic strip and film series having started with introducing the adult character after a while starts to give us flashbacks to when they were younger sometimes it must be said to pad out the whole history but othertimes giving us a a glancing to what made them the adults we see.

In real life this is a common concept, often a person may be at some kind of notable event such as at an award, or otherwise taking on a new role and someone involved will refer to his (or her) past linking that to the qualities now required or skills developed over the years.

People do develop. most of us will mature or at least get a bit wiser several trips around the sun.

The thing that often goes missing is the extent to which that younger person remains within the older one now being praised which can show in any number of ways such as continuation in interests, how they see others around the - were you the diplomat or the directly speaking one? - or that you find yourself at times back in that time.

What's so wrong with carrying the Boy around with you?
 

The more things change, the more they remain the same

 

In the ever changing world not least with two unprecidents arrests this week, a bye-election taking place that the governing Labour Party might loose as I type this and yet another BBC "clanger" this time over the BAFTA coverage somethings just don't change that much.

At the demarcation line where two settlements merged rapidally in the late 1960's into one lump in a conurbation of lots settlements for miles, the shop units that served one remain, repurposed from Newsagents and Corner Store where as a lad I'd go for paraffin and firelighters and pick up the Warlord to Offlicence and General store and Hairdressers (they do cut boys hair too).

The windows have been renewed apart from two that had been bricked up at Bargain Booze and the interiors totally revamped which is a leap of faith given the current trading conditions  but all is more or less as it's been from the late Victorian period.

That in less than two minutes you have the essentials at hand is just great here and in extra three you have Post Office and two pubs.

Meet The Beatles - last copy!

End of week, one more week left in the month and we are back with what might be the last part in the Beatles story where it began for the United States with what was the first issued album and unlike in the UK Stereo and mono copies were available immediately as the United States had a higher take up of stereo systems than the UK.

Pop records in the U.K. were generally the province of teenagers with shoe box mono portable record players.

It was common place to cut pop records with more an eye to avoiding any issues with cheap equipment with returns to shops and that tended to show with less "top" and limited bass and this was very much the case in the United States so cheap players wouldn't skip the groove.

As time went on, the records would be recut to higher standards but what was on your record was  often a matter of what "Stampers" somebody in the pressing plant "pulled" when more discs needed pressing.

By the late 1970's overall you'd stand a chance of getting an okay copy, okay compared with the U.K. With The Beatles but not that great.

That's where this, the last recut version comes in as by now fair more detail had made it so it was cleaner than any previous version just as the Beatles were to come to Compact Disc with titles from the UK catalogue

The front cover was based on the UK With The Beatles cover with a bluey tint becoming black towards the end with the title bodly showing at the top so it could be spotted easily in the shop record racks at a distance.

The rear cover was an attempt to explain by way of an essay who and where these "Beatles" came from and talks about their upcoming appearence on the must see Ed Sullivan popular entertainment show on CBS Tv.

I have had a number of copies over the decades, from a early 80's Purple label one to 2024's mono reissue but this is the 1986 edition that was only out for about 18 months at the most from the last new cutting.

The iconic "Rainbow Rim" label returned with the text newly typeset which was common feature of many 80's Capitol releases.

This copy sounds as good as can, featuring the the new single and it's U.K .and U.S. which for some of takes us more back to those times than the british With The Beatles album regardless of that albums technical superiority.

February round up

My right side is playing up so I'm strapped up and resting a bit, at least physically as there's some family stuff that's been on my mindover the last few weeks that's been hard to escape from.

That's nothing new, I mean there's always been stuff that shall we say seemed more intense that that of your mates from way back in the day with everything being played to the max.

I have been listening to a few cds the old transport took issue with apart from that 12" single compilation  from 1986 I wrote about on the other blog this week and I suspect that when part II comes out will be the cut off point as by then I was focused more on albums and especially building a cd collection having got s player then.

I have played a couple of the latest reissue classical lps in a series I have being buying - not blindly collecting in full - where the performances were one's I've always loved but where with them due to when I first got them I never had them on vinyl so having newly remixed from the original masters versions is great and to go with one I bough a few months ago I've tracked down a later recording with a different orchestra of otherworks that I only part of on a early cd to go with it as much as I'd love to see that reissued.

I enjoyed reading this months AdventureMaxPlus magazine