Rock 'N' Roll Music

Not generally something we'd post on here but it does have a few things beyond just a object post.

The first thing was as a twelve year old I saw retail starting to change from lots of little stores to bigger stores and just a couple of miles away a Hypermarket, a massive sell everything store popularized in France.

While there I saw a new rather shiny double lp during a period where following the charts and following more the Bay City Rollers and Abba I saw the number of reissued Beatles singles and heard them on the radio as they'd charted.

That was one of the first albums I had as in the main I bought singles and albums tended to be things people brought me.

It was an unusual album in that it wasn't just a compilation of hits, something I was to get the next year, but of more rocking tracks from their albums.

The cover remains controversial for having a rather tacky 50's American Diner theme which was quite removed from what the group were about and what actually existed in the UK at the time.

An offer by John Lennon to submit better artwork was rejected and the three other former beatles objected to it too.

What was good about is it was the first time in this country the four tracks of the Long Tall Sally EP were available in stereo together with I'm Down from the b side of the Help single and Bad Boy previously issued on a 1966 compilation but originally on the Capitol album Beatles VI in a single package.

Amazingly that record still exists in the collection some fourty eight years on although I was able to replaced the jacket that had got a little worn over the years recently from much handling and feline curiosity.

I had a great time sat just like that twelve year old with his comic listening to it this week.

Comic Elections and stuff

 

Well if you walked past your form master they may of muttered something about General Election in the last day or so of which we won't say much here and less on the forum but you might of recalled elections from your school days.

Until recent years here, for instance the estate infant/junior school was used as a polling station for the taking of votes.

Your school may taught something about the history of voting in the UK (or wherever you live), they way it is done and why exercising your vote matters.

In doing so they may of held various elections, perhaps a students council or for form representatives to certain activities or even a mock general election when people would stand as political candidates, producing a manifesto, making a rosette, writing and delivering a speech.

My school did that and I stood and won!

It missed the sudden announcement Wednesday but just maybe the Election might be referenced in an upcoming edition?

Parties and intriguing thoughts

It's been an odd week with a few familar faces on the forum emerge and for that matter a few issues popping up but as we make our way towards the old Whit Holiday and the end of Summer Term my thoughts are going backwards to the time I had a 126 "Instamatic" camera that tended to come out for parties and the hols.

Things were sort of straightforward for things like "Me on the Beach " or The Pier at Blackpool as there was enough sunlight usually but indoors?

Unlike later 35mm compact cameras you had this silly flash cub that you had to move around every.single. time. you wanted to take a picture indoors and after the fourth, then you had to change it!

The faff from doing that at parties in the early 70's remains lodged in me but there are other things that come into mind.

My family are very much products of the West Midlands not least the Marches just by the border with Wales, Wrexham and the North Wales coast are more familiar to me than the cities of Manchester, Liverpool and York in the North.

Like a good few others go back to the Middle Ages and the family line takes you to Normandy, France not that I'd start claiming to be French, with a strong Staffordshire accent and a tendency to to think in our own dialect first and then translate to Standard English it would hardly be convincing.

No, what I can remember thinking about around 1972-74 was more what if I could wear a Kilt as back then if you raided anything from the girls dress up box you'd get teased a lot so you often thought "what does it feel like" if you had *anything* like a skirt on not that you'd ever ask a girl that. Too rude!

Not being Scottish there wasn't just one you could borrow from a relative or the prospect of there being a wedding that might give you an excuse to dress up in a kilt.

Think I just might give that a go as much as I like my grey period length school shorts and turn over top socks as I think a kilt belongs just as much on me.

Rudi and the Crime of the Century

 Something a little different this week that goes back to what inspires this blog childhood and also ties in little to mention else where to 1974 and Now Yearbook' 74 cos that was when this record came out.

I originally had this on a UK A&M 8 Track tape which did sound very good in the way back then cassettes didn't always and records were no use in our car.

Supertramp's second album, examines many things but one area that comes up is school where Rudi, the central character becomes increasingly isolated in class, the playground which has real playground "play" recorded and used to transport you to his world as he moves into the grown up world which he feels ill at ease, unable to understand.

It was one the first things I experienced that matched my feelings not everything was okay in our school world - Roger Walters lyrics in "The Wall" was another some five years later  - and I saw them perform much of this album in a BBC "Sight & Sound in Concert special.

This Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs record version came out 1979, pressed very late 1978 actually, as one of those "audiophile" issues where a regular album is cut and pressed without some of limitations that make playing on cheaper systems okay but can rob the music of the dynamics and extended bass and treble by the late Stan Ricker.

On this the music cames to life magically and moves you even more.

Thoughts around just being me

So it is another Month already as fed up as I am with all this rain and wind we've had for most of this year we are heading into the summer and on Wednesday temperatures were up to about 18 degrees c so I was able to leave off wearing a coat completely and just have a fairly plain baseball cap on as walking past school with traditional school cap would really stick out.

In the time I've just come out being ALB/ASB publically one thing I've always taken a bit of thought over are what are the limits to acceptance or at least toleration when it comes to being "on the street", walking by and into shops, passing parks and the like as for one thing most certainly from their teens upwards if anything want to be seen as a bit older than they might be or at least as their age group and while we'd all agree we're just NOT, some people have this notion anyone who looks like a child, is looking to harm one.

And in their world 2+2=5.

Recently I overheard a bit of a conversation two boys were having talking about how they felt if they'd of been the subject of it, they'd be embarressed to dress the way that person did.

Most of us can recall from our teens the various groups and sub cults our friends were into and how they went beyond things like music, literature and film tastes to dressing in a particular style from often darkly dressed goths, the punks that terrified my parents when they saw a few of my school mates outside school and New Romantics with long hair over one eye, colourful outfits and make up (and that was just the boys!).

All stood out from the conventions of t shirts, jeans or chinos and trainers most were encouraged to wear beyond school or work, often the butt of ill thought out comments and preconcieved attitudes and assumptions.

Did looking out of sync with that really phaze (pardon the odd americanism) them as they ventured forth on the street just being themselves eyond just keeping themselves safe?

Hardly.

The adjective embarrassed means "A person who is embarrassed feels shy, ashamed, or guilty about something" and most of us can think of things that we may of felt embarrassed about such as going to a store with friends and not having enough money on to pay for something or taking part in school play rehearsal only to have your trousers fall down as where they'd been taken up to fit clearly wasn't enough and you're in the spotlight with just a pair of dark tights on between you, your mates and the spotlight.

You definately wanted the ground to swallow you up after that!

Do I feel ashamed, guilty or shy about being a little adult boy?

No, because fundermentally I cannot help being very much in the mindset of someone who from a mainstream point of view hasn't grown up, who does have little in common with the interests and obessions of "grown ups" even if I know of them.

It's hardly voluntary or an act.

Does dressing more inline with that of actual boys nearly all the time leave me feeling ashamed as I walk into the corner store with my short trousers and usually turn over top socks on, catching a bus into town and the like?

The short answer is no, because I look like I am and I feel even though like actual boys I have options so when it's a weekend I may wear boys sports or casual wear as they would unless it was a more formal occassion.

I do "read the room" when it comes to passing places where children (and parents such as at dropping off times) might be enmass, not wear school uniform in the park when children would be there (and they'd not be either) because all children do attempt to do the same too as much as you are being you to both ensure no one feels akward and alarm bells are not triggered.

It's nothing to do with my own feeling ashamed at all as that still a little boy in the room, out on the streets.

I don't feel guilty for being me, it's not kink based scene or a kind of a punishment I have to endure in public nor am I causing harm.

I am being just me.