She's super bad now...

At one level as far as UK music fans are concerned the Jackson Five dissapeared in late 1972 with the Lookin' Through The Windows albums and reappeared in mid 1976 in reformed The Jackson form with Show You The Way To Go.

On the other this has lead to an underappreciation of just how good they were in their last Motown days as put simply few gave them a chance as as they ditched "The Corporation" the group of Motown songwriters and arrangers, they were up with the best Funkster of the day.

Thus when this was issued in 1977 sales were low and the UK edition dropped the odd track to make what had been concieved as a three lp set to a double which basically means you need the American edition.

Unfortunately my copy got damaged in the post looking like a heavy pointed intem pressed into and broke a portion of the first disc so we'll waiting on a replacement copy but as I only have cd's of the studio albums this would of been a great vinyl option removing some of the filler of the first four albums leaving us with the hits and greatest musical achievements.

Publishing

In a week where the image loading tool here seem to be broken - too much needless tinkering for mobile users who tend not make old school blogs it must be said  - you might be forgiven for thinking using paper and cutting out images to stick on to with those opaque squeezy glue containers might be a better idea.

You know, how we used to do our scrap books with all our cuttings ready and a stack of marker pens for adding the text.

I did have a great time away and thankfully those pictures did take on the other blog although the welcoming did feature "boys and girls" which was appreciated without drawning too much attention to just why.

Travel on proper touring coach with air conditioning and comfy seats really does help even if I tend to go stiff after an hour or so especially having had issues with my knees recently.

550 posts and a March

It's been rather a damp week getting a bit soaked Wednesday after removing some excess water from around the drain which came with Sunday and Monday's massive downpour, not that it compares with what we've seen in Tibet and Nepal was and is tragic.

Then and somewhat unexpectedly an anniversary crept up and that some five hundred and fifty posts ago, this blog started entirely from scratch althose the base of was and still retains a photographic element because me photographs are a link to the past.

The most unassuming picture of a street that might today produce a meh response in time carries forward a record of what it was like at the time such as changes in shop fronts, alterations to houses, road layouts and so on. Even street furniture such as bins do change.

This blog tends to look at pasts and the present day as sadly some of things we are going through such as world political tensions, discrimination against groups be they connected to religion, gender and the like for me at least have some parallels with how things were with baseless tales against whole groups spread just as much in the playground in those post "Rivers of blood" days as much as we heard the grown ups around us doing the same.

People are individuals no matter what groups, heritages and so on we have and are not personally responsible for what others who may share any with us and we all should be prepared to call out wrong doing that's to make it plain what's not acceptable.

We personally aren't to blame for what others do.

This is also a week most children either start or return school with all the concerns that can bring, a change of routine, new teachers and pupils, perhaps making your own way into town.

Around here free school buses have been removed rather later in the day - after parents set out their school preferences! - so many of hours face having to walk just under three miles each way along very busy and poorly lit roads in all weathers unless parents can take them by car.

Rather late in the day a bus company has offered to put a bus on with a charge of some £22.50 per child per week or £800 per child per school year which I know a good number simply cannot afford .

It's not as if you have many options: all high schools are within three to five miles away as in the sixties and seventies education authorities rather than building smaller secondary schools serving clear areas went for larger numbers (over 1,200 "numbers on roll") , and big class sizes instead.

Then regular buses are very limited on the estate requiring a walk of a mile to pick one up.

We all know of instances where children are taken any where by car where they could walk themselves - the average Primary aged child could walk a half mile or less - but is bundled in the car which just adds to congestion but there are limits.

Threats and panics

Thundery shower ridden week with a few losses in the world of entertainment such as the great country singer Dolly Parton and actor  Tim Curry who gave us Frank 'N' Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

There has been more serious in differing ways news concerning our national security following Monday's vist to Kiev by our Prime Minister Andy Burnham who in conjuction with President Macron of France the blue print for long range missles was agreed that rather got the ire of President Putin of Russia who saw it and our involvement in long range drone supplies as unwarrented interference in its conflict with Ukraine.

They've threatened unattributable damage to drone making plants, manufacturing capabilities and infrastructure via third paries so the finger prints aren't Russian but clearly carried out to order for them

Thus we see headlines like these which will mean discussion in government of the risks and what measures can be taken to mitigate such actions but don't believe the stuff you may see on social media about imminent attack and stocking up with food in case of war - you'll be given plenty of time IF that's likely.

Catching up

A thankfully damp cool week after the crazy weather even if I haven't been too good across the week.

Living in a more internet connected world is a double edge sword when I'm like that because screen as especially scrolling can make the symptoms worse and yet people are likely to enquire or otherwise note your absence and social media today is less threads just incredabily long streams that require much scrolling to find what you need.

Fortunately the Chromebook just boots up with little more than the odd update is available indicated but you can leave that to later on.

A number of things are due whuch we'll mention such as a vinyl copy of No Jacket Required his 1985 solo lp with a clutch of major singles such as Sussudio and One More Night which originally I had on tape and next week the latest seventies tastic Now Yearbook 1971 which we only have one year based compilation and that's on compact disc only.

Then there's Now Yearbook Vault 1986 in September looking at American hits and lesser UK hits as oddly enough it was some of them I really enjoyed in the age where I taped singles that weren't on the UK Now and Hits albums and I listened to things like the US Chart Show in the afternoon on Radio One which influenced some of those choices as we don't hear everything that's out regardless of merit.

Roadtesting the camera

Week was as forecast really rather hot when I had to get some shopping done having decided it needed be first thing and as it was by early afternoon temperatures had gone to some thirty three degrees celcius (bring back Centigrade!).

Recently I had been testing the Sony DCS-RX 100 compact camera more of which is on the other blog because there are occassions when you don't want something the size of a Dslr and at least on extra lens with you but you do want some creative input into your photography while out.

The general drift with compact camera that after a slump in the last ten years due to people using smartphones more as cameras had been to ever extend the range of the zoom lenses included and add lots of program modes that might take things how it thinks a sports or landscape picture should be.

This camera while having program modes does have settings you can set to take pictures how you want to and given we're talking digital rather than film, you can see how it turned out immediately.

This is The Cobbles in Sandbach, Cheshire, at the old hub of the town which much is from the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century with the celebrated Saxon Crosses thankfully restored from the actions of Puritan extremists who smashed them to pieces can be seen on the right hand side.

It aquited itself well with the Zeiss lens quality being quite apparent.

Playin' catch up

This going away thing doesn't half confuse you upon return like I was convinced I'd lost a cd set until checking up it wasn't due out until early next week anyway just there had been gap from when the main set came out and this other bit was due I'd utterly forgotten.

I've put an order in for it as I'd utterly fogotten I hadn't ordered it either!!!

Then there's preparing to go out the morning after you arrived, checking you had bags, payment, maybe a list of things you're looking for and getting up to a time for the bus rather than just staying in bed to past 8 o'clock never mind emptying the bins which these days means checking which bin is being collected when using the online calendar.

On the otherhand getting back to online life on our forum and other spots was more straightforward once you remember the chromebook account password!

 

Back

 

The funny thing about Morecambe Bay is you can watch it day after day but the patterns in the sound vary every time just like a shifting sands picture, familiar bits as you see it from your particular vantage point but other parts different.

The week was largely news free being away for a few days with a massive screen tv that seemed to be locked to Sky News and there's only so many charity and cremation services you can sit through so I just saw a bit on a few days but really the main thing was to just be out letting out my younger side  not unlike a family holiday in the past.

Making things, going on walks, having meals out were really more the thing rather than any "adulting" beyong just looking out for each other.

Retyping the times

All being well there *should* be a issue next week but given I do fully live this life there always will be periods where I am away and they may even be a blog entry short as I need all the spare time I have to actually get everything together to do just that.

I did some secretarial training in the very late 1980's having had various positions which had the benefit of sort of being around youngsters who were having theirs after leaving school ready for the world of work, something it had to be said school really screwed up with me.

So I enjoyed that time as much as it was about real syllabus and examinations for being with people more on my wavelength.

One of the things we did was Typing Skills and Wordprocessing, the latter becoming more and more important for doing personalized letters, and promotional material and back then I was one of the few to be allowed to use the Canon AP850 which was cross between a typewrite with the main functionality set by dedicated buttons on the area near the keys and a cathode ray tube for seeing the text you could alter not just a few lines at a time but whole pages.

The quality of the printing was much better than printers at the time for using traditional ink and characters that were struck.

I got on with this better than a Amstrad Word processsor using Locoscript.

It isn't coming home

For some they went to sleep knowing all about it, for others they woke up to extended news coverage that having lost the World Cup semi finals 2 goals to 1, they would not be in the epic final of the most anticipated Football World Cup in ages.

Having been one up to the final minutes Lautaro Martinez scored the winner as Argentina beat England to reach the World Cup final and no doubt many will feel dejected.

While there will be an awful lot of post match analysis, England had performed very well to had got to that stage and facing Argentina, 2022's winners it was sheer bad lock to had been drawn to play against such tough competition.

My own feeling is England can hold their heads up high for getting as far as they did.

Warm edition

 

It's hot so we're trying to get things done before it gets to frying an egg on the pavement temperatures here having listened to the delayed Now Yearbook Extra for 1972 that arrived the other day so I've updated the main entry on that.

The Beano remains "Last Man Standing" when it comes to the comics we all recall reading or at least seeing friends with them and so while some cartoon series such as Lord Snooty and Friends and Biffo The Bear have gone others such as Ball Boy and the Bash Street Kids remain in the modern glossy full colour version.

Dennis has seen some changes over the year with "The Menace" being dropped, a new back story for Walter and His Dad being developed but he goes back to the early 1950's when it must be said the World was very different.

For those of us of a certain generation this whole strip is so so relatable, everyday objects having other more painful uses, instant, uncompromising adult authority over us from parents, teachers  and other adults.

Equally for all the sophestication around the modern child, that impulsiveness, lack of thinking about consequences still remains. They are for all that children.

Past inspirations

 

Around late July  last year I bought a replacement cartridge on a bit of whim as aspects of those I had were not working out where it mattered - just playing a record and being pulled into the music - and it did prove to be something of a revelation that modest cartridge could leave more involved in the music.

In time I picked up a better model - better by coil layout inside it and better for having an improved borin cantilever holding the stylus and the stylus tip itself was more refined being a nude eliptical.

That. the MP200H, is working out well but as we're getting close to the MP110H's anniversary it is time to consider getting a replacement stylus sorted as where they do last for more than  100-300 hours they don't last forever.

Life when I first got into this in the early 80's was easy and as it happened this October 1980 edition of Popular Hifi a magazine I bought then and this, had the answer.

Page 107 specifically covered the MP15 cartridge but as I mentioned some weeks ago a couple of decades ago the range was renumbered and updated a little and the MP150 as it is know today exists.

It offers a nude eliptical stylus but unlike the Boron of the MP20/200 this uses toughened aluminum for the cantilever and the cartridge body is the same as the MP10/100 and MP11/MP110 designed to work better with aluminum cantilever, controlling any resonances where the 200's was redesigned.

Thus actually I could update it by buying the JP-N 150 stylus used for the MP150 as the body it slots into is the same and it would be "the same" other than the colour of the block you put the screws in to mount it.

You just pull the original forward  to remove it and the push this on until it hits the home position and you're done.

I've ordered on which should be with me in just over a week from a dealer in Japan with Vat charges pre-paid as it was cheaper than over here.

Hot and in the past

Hot, hot, hot!

People through up comparisons, like I lived through 1976 and while that was hot, the felt temperature today is more than what that was then as much as I recall getting burnt legs getting in car after a train trip to Manchester in my so 70's short short trousers that to be honest I was glad of rather than the Jeans of teens back then.

Mum got a right telling off at the start of the 60's for walking to the ambulance to go to maternity but given then we were a bit out of town and to use a modern expression - off grid - what else could you do?

I was on the way as it were when this classic annual came out as annuals are always published the year before as after all you had them for Christmas.

A lot of the mainstays of the classic 60's, 70's and early 80's Dandy were in here such as Winker Watson the best wrangler ever, Korky the Kat, Desperate Dan and Keyhole Kate living very much in the world those of us around during the 60's and 70's recall when adult authority figures roamed and any trangressions dealt with.

Crosswords and quizes complete the collection of comic strips drawn specially for this annual.

Note how the comic strips begin on the covers echoing the comics we bought whereas later on the covers were eye catching themed pieces of art.

It's great to see what the characters were up to and be transported back in that world.

Changing internet landscape

This week as the adults should of decided what's going on in politics for a bit potentially with bye-elections that could alter who the prime minister is and representation in the House of Commons.

One thing we can't ignore is how the changing nature of internet regulation does impact on all from last years Online Safety Act to the proposed ban on social media use by those under 16 and curfews for thos between 16 and 18.

The online safety act placed a requirement on sites and their hosts to require age verification any anything deemed to be not suitable for children which often involved using things like photo id or credit card details to prove you were over 18.

An issue with that is exactly what content that includes as while we'd all agree sexual material definately is are sites that loom at gender and sexual identity issues that have become in recent years a hot topic in schools apart from the wider community the same?

For geographic and often deep rooted cultural reasons some teens cannot discuss such topics at home for fear of being kept in, "made" to be genders and sexualities they are not, undergoing so-called conversion therapies.

To be able to access such information regarding your legal rights facing such situations is invaluable but potentially they could be restricted.

For other groups things connected around say age regression while many of would say categorically we are in no way kink connected and are harmless, for the moment it appears any action depends on your hosts reading of the requirements.

In addition we are not restricted where some other groups that may have more kink connections have either because the host has forced it upon them or sensing the way the wind is blowing they've elected to do it using providers they judge to be the least intrusive and better at keeping your data safe which has been an issue in the past.

Does Youtube need verification adding to some channels or ist that perhaps under sixteens should be locked to Youtube Kids a curated version with addition material relevant for teens on it?

Sporty memories

It's a very wet Summer morning as I type this weeks entry and that damp air bring backs memories such as having to go out in waterproof macs cos school doesn't stop for rain and we'd more than a mile to walk rather than a minute dash.

Then there was the more practical side of things where the much anticpated outdoors games class was suddenly changed for some indoor pe as it was judged too wet or muddy to be undertaking the planned lessons.

With us there was a groan as we loved our football or rounders.

Then we'd always have an informal kick about during lunch recess until afternoon lessons resumed with the ringing of the bell and lining up in pairs by gender, the latter obession was something personally I never got.

We looked rather like these  boys and we loved it.

Two discs and some memories

Sometimes an object ceases to be about just it but everything that was around it, times, events and people and for me two records, technically superceeded, come in to that category.

Music when I was very young eminated from a three foot piece of wood called a Radiogram which was literally a radio and record player all in bigish console, occupying the second most important space in our first house to the 19 inch black and white television which could get a grainy BBC 2 given the state of UHF transmission back then.

In the UK unlike the US the Beach Boys were not has bins, no longer hip in world of San Francisco hipper bands like Country Joe and the Fish, the Doors and naturally the Jefferson Airplane but respected by their UK pop peers, able to sustain large concert audiences.

Because of how things went, not least when Pet Sounds, lauded over here just didn't make much of impression over there, Capitol Records decided the best thing was to resell old hits issueing The Beach of the Beach Boys.

The UK issued it but with substancially different track list, that told more of the development of their sound and at that point a number of earlier albums hadn't been released.

This was the record my Aunt had and was borrowed by my parents the odd time which taped which is where I first heard it in its tiny white box holding a three inch reel.

I grew up learning to thread tape so liking music of various sorts I could play the tape all by myself as I read comics and played.

It had hits and the off "deep" album track. It reach the #2 for a massive 142 weeks on the UK album charts in November 1966.

As things had hardly improved in the States, a second volume was prepared and the UK issued another varient which like the previous album had some 14 tracks.

It was issued in "stereo" too but back then stereo also included fake stereo and our version had two mono tracks for good measure.

This one also made its way to our radio gram and was taped.

This offered a few early singles and some more recent singles such as Wouldn't It Be Nice, the number one smash Good Vibrations and Then I Kissed Her from 1967

These albums remained on catalogue unto the late 1970's gaining different label designs from the 1969 black One Box with the capitol logo in a box with the EMI logo at the bottom, a  1970 Lime Green target design and Salmon Pink mid 70's.

Over the years and two house moves those tapes came with us and as I was able to get money I replaced them with original records because being sat playing them took me back to my earliest days.

Enter the MP200

It has been a hot week here but one thing I did was add a better quality cartridge to the record deck apart from making sure some much played discs were straight to avoid any heat based issues as this house soon gets like an oven.

Some product have a very short in production life, lasting some 12 to 18 months before being replaced or at times more accurately rebranded with a new number and a minor change, others perhaps a hands worth of year and yet tiny number seem to have been around for well eons.

When it comes to the Cartridges for my Marantz turntable that is very true as the keen eyed will spot in this 1981 advertisment a number that still are in production, revised in the late 2000's and renumbered by sticking an extra zero at the end of the model number.

When you consider the principals that make records have been around since Berliner at the end of the nineteenth century,  adjusted for "microgrooves" in 1949 and stereo in 1957/8 well you might say what is new when it comes to cartridges beyond a few attempts to "read" the groove optically that haven't really caught on?

Thus if you look at that 1981 add from when I was in the Lower Sixth and spot the MP20 actually what I ended up getting this week was the slightly improved modern version, the MP200 in its "H" version.

The "H" standing for the premounted in a headshell version so I don't gnarl my paws mounting it myself, turning screws.

That's a neater job that I'd of managed!

What you get is a better set of coils to convert the "wobbly" actions of the groove into sound revealing more of the finer timbre of instruments and the use of a less resonant material, boron, for the cantilever that holds and transmits the modulations from the stylus to the coils.

This means you can for instance follow much more of the bass and lead guitar riffs on my eary 80's UK A Hard Day's Night album by the Beatles and the vocals sound very realistic - as if you were in the studio.

Great over forty odd years ago remains great today with subtle improvements along the way while the stylus remains easy to change pull off the original and push on the new unlike moving coil designs that need to be changed by the manufacture or "swapped" under a discount scheme for a new whole cartridge.

To my ears moving iron designs get very close to them with considerable advantages like fuss free stylus changes when they get worn, like you can do it yourself in minutes.

Every 1981 model remains available today in improved forms for a reason: they are all great acrosss a wide variety of music and record decks, the more you spend the more fine detail and sense of spaciousness you can experience from your record collection, new and old.

Magazines and offers

It isn't as I type this quite as warm as had been forecast not that that doesn't put me off going and out and doing things as we all wedre as many modern youngsters cue up to to say to they were inspired to as they read about and reenacted being soldiers, playing war games, or emulating our footballing heroes, practising in all conditions.

As it was rare for school to be closed we just had to be resilient coming in in snow and heavy rain.

Later on as moved more into just being my more child-like self self I followed the manga and animes of Narato.

The series follows Naruto Uzumaki as a teenage ninja striving to protect his village and achieve his dream of becoming Hokage, the leader of the Hidden Leaf Village. 

With over 250 million copies of the Naruto manga sold worldwide and Naruto Shippuden running for over a decade, the series has become a cornerstone of anime culture praised for its action, complex characters, and emotional depth. 

Naruto Shippuden’s themes of redemption, sacrifice, and perseverance explore how the bonds of friendship can defeat the most powerful enemies and that was really what appealed to me.

Magazines and comics were always a thing with me and often had ads for others by the same publishers and with some it seemed few payed the Newsstand price always being on a reduction.

It was rare over here to see "Bill me later" offers but I dare say some of us might, like Calvin, might of had a field day filling in such cards and then at some point having the letters demanding payment we'd need to show our parents at which point all hell would break loose!

These days you can have this with "In game" purchases where you might of thought having got the game for your child that was it but not anymore and if you left your bank details in... you can work out how that would pan out!

Musical lessons

The long suffering paws haven't been great this week - over use I guess - but between rubbing myself down and changing after being out Wednesday and looking at a few photographs that emerged thoughts went backwards.

I can't read sheet music - nor can Paul McCartney - but I did play a few instruments at school and did quite a bit of the recording of school performances at the time but I would certainly of preferred to be dressed as he was in the Fourth and Fifth Forms than how we were.

Static electricity causes all sorts of issues from a potential fire hazard in baking and wood products factories as dust spontenously combusts to being an irritate in playing vinyl records where it may discharge to the phono cartridge with a loud click.

Apart from cleaning your record which can help, using a carbon fibre mat that fits over the platter helps as the carbon picks up the ground from the deck and helps conduct away any charge.

Hama does a 2mm thickness one which works well and can be got from most suppliers.

More Dennis, what?

Yes it's Friday, sadly Crackerjack didn't return after Covid but we do have Blue Peter still but going back to all of that of course is boyhood memories not least our favourite comic characters be they Winker Watson, Little Plum or of course Dennis.

Dennis this year is celebrating 75 years of being ten which is being marked in different ways and recently a special was produced combining more recent Dennis stories feature obviously the wonder dog himself Gnasher by Nigel Auchterlounie and Nigel Parkinson. 

Storylines always follow childhood as it is today and there's getting away from the fact it's different in terms of what children eat - we gorged on fish fingers and mousses - we played more outside and with board games and they have smartphones and games consoles and school is very different (and in some respects a safer place for children.

Dennis even can cook which back the then he's of taken the mickey out of Walter (the Softie) for although there's always a another agenda with him.

This is 68 pages of modern menacing fun available from DC Thomson's website, Amazon, TJ Hughes or any decent newsagent.