Rolling Stones "One 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.

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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 edit 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

Respinning the Compact Discs II

Way back around November 2024 I wrote an entry around a series of changes to the hifi as it had changed radically in several years thinking that would be pretty much the end of that for a while but something happened.

Issues started to develop with the cd player, never one for playing recordable cds, around 40 to 60% of my super audio cds with hybrid regular cd layers just refused to be recognized and play spitting them out and those that did seemed to have audible errors on the first track.

Then to top the lot it was fussy about the slightest mark or finger print on regular cds, skipping tracks so it needed to go.

Pity.

I bought this SMSL half sized transport from someone unused as due to financial issues having just got it they needed to raise cash quick that had been on my list of potential upgrades in the future.

One aspect of it took me back to my first cd player a Toshiba  and that was it loads from the top with no slots or draw mechanisms with a magnetic puck you put on top or more accurately two, a larger one forming part of the lid.

It's a bit more basic on the display just track number and time information and if you wish to use the USB socket  but it spins very quickly on anything finding all the tracks accurately.

There are a choice of outputs, the newer I squared S, AES/EBU XLR, coaxial which my default and optical which the lead to the minidisc portable was put in.

It works really quite well once you relearn how to get the disc out using the recesses the grip the disc with the edges of your fingers having removed the puck.

I did reorganize the shelf to make it a bit neater and stack the mini size components in a more functionally related way while I was at it.

45 rpm attachment

 There are a good five boxes of singles around my bedroom that go back to the early 1970's and cutting off around 1992 of the old vinyl wrap lockable sort even if a good many have songs that are on lp albums or cds in my collection.

There are a few select ones from the 1960's that I picked up over time, some that were played with early compilations of hits often containing original mono mixes that are otherwise hard to find but generally they're the hits of a time I really loved.

In the earliest years you had to effectively lodge an appeal for someone, usually Mum to buy you one although my copy of Jeepster by T Rex I had for Xmas 1971 has been missing for a while surviving a couple of house moves but as time went buy I had pocket money that I saved towards things like that such as my stash of Bay City Rollers singles or were bought at things like birthdays like my copy of Elvis Costello's Oliver's Army.

You could say they reason they're still here is actually down to the memories attached to each one played as the earliest were three in rotation on a autochanger before you flipped the pile over for their b sides with friends to those like Charles and Eddie's Would I Lie To You that were played a side at a time on my hifi set up before I got around to picking up the cd of the album it was taken from.

Memories these days count for such a lot.