The miniature record collection of the past

After last weeks post we return to more everyday things here from the days from late 1972 when I first had my first stereo record player which was a advance on the small suitcase single speaker one I had.

This thing couldn't be found in the shops although a few similar things could because it was home assembled of commercial bits comprising of a Long and Medium Wave radio for essential stations such as Radio One for chart hits from the likes of The Carpenters, Osmonds, Wizard and co plus Radio Three for classical broadcasts taken from a portable radio, a Garrard record deck with ceramic stereo cartridge which went to a stereo amplifier.

The left hand channel went to a internal speaker in a case shared with the main unit while a separate wooden box housed the right hand speaker both of which were "full range" elliptical shaped units designed for  nineteen inch televisions.

If you are moderately technically aware in the UK at least you can't get stereo from AM radio so for stereo and so very best sound sound you needed a supply of records.

Daddy had a account with the Concert Hall Record Club that commissioned classical and light music recordings that were made available on a try before you buy basis which as he was building a collection of stereo discs helped.

One unusual thing they did was issue seven inch 33rpm classical music EP's increasingly in stereo which were cheap or offered with the regular lp issues as bonus and I had them!

Take this one, a pretty good recording of Haydn's Trumpet Concerto from the mid 1960's which remained in print for a good while.

Just the one work across two side but to my young ears it sounded just great.  

It was a similar thing here with Mozart's 27th symphony a whole symphony in wide ranging stereo sound compared to the then mono sound on 464 Metres on Medium Wave.

If I was good sometimes I'd be bought a second hand classical lp or a new one from the likes of either Classics for Pleasure or Decca's World of series budget disc that were great value but this filled gaps.

This was a selection from the full ballet suite lp which daddy actually had but I got this selection from recorded in 1970.

A good number of the Concert Hall recordings did use famous conductors even if the orchestras were second tier to the likes of the London Symphony Orchestra or The Berlin Philharmonic.

I still own these records in their glossy covers with program notes and inner sleeves just like a regular lp but smaller.

Thanks

There's really two things that come into this week.

The first is I know people do appreciate my quick decisive nature once I have reviewed all the relevant points and formed  a clear view on where the priorities lie not being one to prevaricate on them.

To me not to make a decision is itself a decision by default with consequences so you can't which was why things happened the way they and the one person it applies to cannot expect to return to the fold.

It's also clear that others dealing with same said person took a robust line themselves.

It was always the case from being in Juniors that I would deal with things if they needed to be from bullying to casual racism when a few others preferred a quite life to later on in my life.

I don't duck acting and don't get involved in any plotting nor bare grudges.

Americans will be marking Thanksgiving next week, Canadians had theirs a month earlier where people will be giving thanks to those things and people that make lives more bearable even possible which outside of a few communities in the UK we don't mark.

Never really understood why not personally.

To them I say Happy Thanksgiving.

The return of The Aiwa

 We've talked a bit about portable music but for me the portable cassette player starts off with a friend at boarding who got a Walkman in 1981 and getting a basic Dixons store brand model around 1983 as a number of important events in my life were happening.

That was the period where pre-recorded cassettes started to outsell records that could have bonus tracks and even special cassette extended play singles were issued like Warner/Elektra/Atlantic's 12 Inches on Tape series although I recorded many of my own.

This was my first proper Walkman, bought from a store at an amateur radio rally that sold B grade and shop returns that served me really well beating big brands like Sony's in the 1990's into a cocked hat.

The Aiwa HG-S 35 MkII to give it its clumsy name was a solidly built tape player that had auto reverse using gears and a dedicated four channel head that was switched electronically which was more reliable than the rotating ones on home decks for staying properly aligned.

Made in 1986 it came with a three band equalizer while some had five band models that were potentially more useful for taming too bright headphones rather than the gawd awful "Mega Bass" Sony inflicted on their later models adding a thud to the sound it messed up.

Unlike my first one , it had a equalization selector for regular (120 us) and Chrome/FerroChrome/Metal (70 us) tapes for accurate replay and its quality was extremely good for having a decent mechanism with metal parts.

It lacked a radio which the mark III added but neither had Dolby B noise reduction which may of been an issue to some back then but I don't use it much finding it touch and go if works without being too obviously intruding on the sound quality.

The small amount of background hiss is hardly noticeable at normal listening levels when you don't use it and you can forget using Dolby C as that sounds horrible without a dedicated decoder.

My original got lost but recently I picked up a used new to me one and ordered new drove belts to keep it going as it was something else in the days of Bros and Swing Out Sister.

Deja Vu and reset V

We started this mini series of posts last year very much subdued with Covid at its height thinking back to what got me through the crazy era I was first young and things I most looked forward to.

The comic world isn't what it was in the nineteen seventies and eighties but it was comics that helped with that and so I decided to order a comic I loved as a boy and a new comic that appealed to me.

In time that was added to by an monthly adventure story and fortnightly football magazine taking over where Tiger, Roy of the Rovers and its ilk had left off, Commando magazines filling a bit a gap in war based adventure stories that connected with my boyish ways and more recently the nature and animal magazine Animal Planet.

At the height of comic sales in the nineteen seventies and eighties, it was common for new comics to launch and then it would be "sink or swim" if they continued  or got discontinued.

Monster Fun was one that started in 1975 but only run for some seventy three issues before it was discontinued as a stand alone title but incorporated into Buster although it kept a separate annual going until 1985.

Strangely enough through a whole series of mergers as the comics market declined the cartoon associated with it remained in regular publication until January 2000 which makes it one of longest lasting publications of the IPC/Fleetway group.

Monster Funs forte was ghostly based humour strips, aimed at children such as Gums, Kid Kong, X-Ray Specs, Mummy's Boy, Draculass, Teddy Scare, Terror TV, and Martha's Monster Make-up.

Well timed for Halloween Rebellion Publications who own the rights to the title and a good number of series decided decided to issue a new special edition in early October with new stories from a good number of those strip series.

The art style is closer to the originals although they are full colour with more density compared to those in days of newsprint.

It was brilliant.

Better still it returns in a every two months form from April 2022 so we get to have a comic very similar to one we had back then, still aimed at actual children rather than just a retro publication for adults.

That's a must if we are to raise a generation of comic readers and wean them off the forest of plastic tat covered publications that are offered to them at present.

I've got a subscription set up to ensure from next year I'll get my copies.