Returning with Pilot

Sometimes and only sometimes I may just touch on something to do with music although to an extent my brain catalogues events and happenings to music and in that scheme of things I can remember the music we talked about in what was my last year in Juniors well.

As with any number of years there are new artists whose initial impression leads to predictions of greater things which for various reasons do not pan out regardless of how talented they may of been.

In that year while Bachman Turner-Overdrive had a big hit in the UK with You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet and I sat in the corner of front room knees showing through grey shorts playing it and several other hits back on a reel of tape with things like the Rubettes Juke Box Jive and Oh Yes! You're Beautiful, although the BTO were big in Canada and the States they never took of here.

Also while many predictions were made for the teen group Arrows signed to the successful Mickey Most label Rak Records home of Mud, they never got a hit bigger than that Summers A Touch Too Much.

There was another group who got a bit further and that was Scotland's Pilot formed in 1973 in Edinburgh not far from the Bay City Rollers  by Billy Lyall and David Paton and indeed at one point were substitute members of the BCR and in Arrows supplemented by Stuart Tosh on drums and John Cavanagh who were joined on a permanent basis  by Ian Bairnson after recording their first album.

Their first hit single was Magic which was issued around late October 1974 and reached number 11 in the UK charts although Just A Smile had been issued first but sunk like a stone except in Australia where it had got to number 49.

By this point that first album "From The Album Of The Same Name" was issued by Britain's EMI Records which I still have on record but in time for the New Year a new single aptly called January was issued that month in 1975 that was a number 1 for a few weeks, something that was talked about over semolina pudding and strawberry jam school dinners.

We all though they'd hit the big time and were going to be up there with the Rollers replacing midlanders Slade and that track was included on the second album entitled "Second Fight", bit of an obvious pun if you think about it.

The lead off single for that album was Call Me Round which we though was going to another big hit with the advantage of been chosen by a BBC Radio 1 presenter for his pick of the week.

Strangely enough that track which was a strong song with a hypnotic handclap only got as far as number 34 backed with the deep album track Do Me Good.

A new recording shortly afterwards of Just A Smile didn't trouble the chart much more and so the last album for EMI Morin Heights named after the Quebec recording studios location released in 1976 was just about it as as most pop fans were concerned even though that was a good mature album.

The final album for a new label Two's A Crowd issued in 1977 in the middle of the New Wave explosion just did nothing and soon went out of print.

Recently Cherry Red Records issued a box set of all four albums including believe it or not for the first time ever on cd of Two's A Crowd with extra notes and some singles only versions and having only the first two albums on record and a EMI compilation from 2004 is much appreciated.

Play

It's been a warm week so I've been outdoors a lot exploring, playing and I do have my own swing actually and thinking a bit about this side of life.

The thing was back when I was originally young for one thing there were not disabled friendly playgrounds with activities for all and most involved rather more agility and often spinning at speed which if you suffer from motion sickness even at modest speeds isn't much good.

It wasn't that I didn't like thrill of speed, it just made me ill.

There wasn't then much exploratory play such was tunnels you could worm your way through or what is called "soft play".

The other thing was surfaces then were hard either concrete slabs or tarmac which as I found out and am still living with consequences of can cause series long term injuries as much as we accept however unpleasant it is a grazed knee doesn't last forever and we have to take risks in life.

The weekend was joyful for the happy squeals of children playing in the park, dashing about on their bikes in groups playing and having fun together.

That's a big part of what Childhood is about either as that child or enjoying a more child-like life as a legal adult.

The earliest recordings

This friday I thought I'd rewind back to when I'd of been six and three quarters and when it was that for Christmas I was bought my very own pocket tape recorder.

You may well scoff at the thought of "pocket" being deployed to describe it but in the era we are talking about most people had recorders that took various sized reels of tape that reflected how portability mattered to you, Dad had a larger home machine that took five and three quarter inch spools but also a Sharp RT303 portable recorder that used batteries and three and a third sized spools that by that point I could 'borrow' when remembering not to place fingers on the tape when fast winding as it would act like a band saw!  

That picture is tiny and I haven't found another of the model I had which was like that except the case was turquoise blue  but the Prinzsound TR6 was the one I had with a pull up lid you placed and pushed the cassettes down into.

That place and push in action was easier for me and I suspect probably why I was bought a cassette machine

This is a later one but it's easier to explain with it on the far right you had the playback volume control for the speaker or earphone keys for fast wind and fast reverse on mine pressing both acted as a stop button but on this later one it had a separate button and on the far left with a coloured marker was the record button with you pressed followed by play to record things.

With it came some tapes and they were these which to be honest were cheap although a little later on I had some EMI "Sound Hog" ones with a hippo design on the label.

I recorded things like songs from Top of the Pops although dad had made a lead up so I could record direct from the radio, and things like parties being a  kind of sound record which given I wasn't good at writing helped keeping memories.

In 1975 I used it to record the Christmas Bay City Rollers BBC Radio One special with interviews and music.

This is a good a spot to drop in that Ian Mitchell who was during 1976 a member of the Bay City Rollers around the period of the Dedication album replacing Alan Longmuir during that period died aged 62 and who outside of the BCR was a important part of the group Rosetta Stone.

He was the first Roller to come from outside of Scotland, in his instance Northern Ireland.

Although as I got older I had recorder that used big reels cos they just sounded a lot better then, I kept it until I acquired a ITT Studio 73 portable stereo cassette deck for use in boarding school as the schools music centre was not something that you really wanted to listen to being a cheap Fidelity model.

By that point both cassette decks and especially the blank tapes were improving so they sounded closer to home reel based recorders that took the larger five and three quarter or seven inch reels

I have a Technics stereo cassette deck in my stereo system that still sees considerable usage and a large stash of high quality blank tapes for it.

The return of Blue Peter

Regulars of this blog know how much I love Blue Peter, the BBC Children's magazine show that has been running since 1958 and how from a very early age I have always watched the show from being on black and white 405 line television to today's high definition digital colour.

Thus when it was announced that Derry born Adam Beales who hails from Northern Ireland two days ago as Blue Peter presenter 40 then that would interest me.

Adam is 20 years old and is known as a VLogger (Video Blogger to older sorts) owning the Youtube channel AdamB and had co-present the CBBC show The Dog Ate My Homework which for non British readers is a excuse often trotted out by British schoolchild for missing homework.

Upon being asked about how he felt  about gaining this new role he said "He said: “I’m super excited to become Blue Peter Presenter number 40. I am humbled and ecstatic to be part of such a legendary production."

“It’s kind of weird – in a super exciting way – that the show I once watched when I was younger, is now the show I will be presenting along with the talented Lindsey, Richie, Mwaksy and of course, Henry."

Two other notable Northern Irish presenters from the past include Zoe Salmon and the late Caron Keating

This takes the presenting team up to four which until Richie's arrival had been at two is an indication of just how seriously the BBC takes this show and this is the group photo of the current line up of Richie Driss, Mwaka Mudenda Lindsey Russell, Adam Beales and Henry the dog.

Actually the last time the show had four presenters was around 1970-72 which I remember well with Peter Purves, Lesley Judd, Valerie Singleton and the late but never forgotten John Noakes.

This week the show resumed after a short summer break although various competitions and challenges had been posted on the BP Website and as covid is more under control they were able to be in the studio with a limited audience and showed the winner of the design a supercar competition which was won ten year old Alex being taken around the Auto Car manufacturer Mclaren to see how they are made.

Pix credits: BBC and P A Photos

The last days of August

Monday is of course a Bank Holiday which generally means people either go out doing last minute return to school shopping for things that traditionally meant stationery such as folders for projects, pens, paper and pencils, geometry sets and bags.

Most parents should of sorted out uniform items by now as either they're the same as last year or if it's a new school all of that was set out in the glossy prospectus together with any required stockists for certain items.

The other thing is and I'd rather parents did it, is to take them out for a day trip for a picnic and a stroll because however we wrap this thing up it has been been a stressful time and some of the stuff around schools has not helped with that.

After a fashion our parks reopened for boys and girls to play in although truth be known a good number had been using it before being lifted over the gates by parents and the happy sounds of children chattering has returned to it although locally a number had been around on foot and on bikes playing.

Coming soon is this five cd set of classic children's songs and rhymes most of which aren't really nursery songs but more what was played on children's radio shows when it was recognized that children were that not pint sized adults who liked funny songs rather like the sort we'd sing at scout gang shows and camp.

Pasts and the present

While some actual schoolboys have been very frustrated around their examination results this week which perhaps the word chaotic and the phrase "a shambles" is justified while it's been raining I've been getting around to doing a few things like putting up a few posters that tie in with my past.

Corgi cars and others such as those by Matchbox manufactured by Lesney were things that featured in my boyhood so it's nice to have iconic posters around

That's a small number of them.

 Tin Tin as in The Adventures of  was something I followed reading the books and watching on tv at the time although his past has come under much scrutiny in recent years and it can't be denied some scenes do reflect the less than charitable views Belgium had toward Africans in their then colonies.

It's right to be aware of such things but can we say in fifty years time many of our attitudes might be seen in the same way we do now?

I feel it's better to acknowledge the past and learn from it rather than re-writing or airbrushing it as if it never happened.

It's also how I look at my life experiences.

On the go with musings

There's been a few things going on this week which  I'll get around to talking about but one is the extent to which I now recognize I'm very much a physical activity centred person whereas in the past with being less obviously mobile it was just assumed I was sedentary preferring to sit quietly with a book up a corner.

People sometimes confuse that sense of being or needing to be always physically "on the go" with sports which can for many be an expression of it but it need not be because it is that need be moving your body around that can come in activities like making things especially in a group such as building structures or racing cars on your hands and knees.

It's like we can't settle for long without having to get up and go which has bedeviled traditional sat at the desk chalk and talk education rather than more hands on and even outdoor education in schools.

I spotted that this week and just acted on it going out to let it out several times in a day as so long as it doesn't get in way of regular life, it's fine.

Another is something that I feel we are in danger of losing and that is the sense of conviction about what is we say, feel and believe being prepared to be open about it rather than to fudge or even backtrack in the face of opposition.

It is impossible to have meaningful discussion when topics are said to be no longer debatable and where those who may disagree effectively howl down and deliberately seek to ruin peoples lives for challenging their little world.

Equally as the protagonist, you need to be prepared to stand firm and put forward your case citing relevant facts and experiences respectfully.

For me he summed it up well so supporting male only spaces in the world of boys and men and living openly as LB/ASB is perfectly fine and nothing to be ashamed of.

Over on Scouting and Me it's the 500th post today which is being marked.