Love Deluxe (10 pics from '25)

Here's my fifth photograph to mark 2025. I'm not sure if it's been the same where you live but we've had some absolutely stunning sunrises and sunsets over the last few days; huge balls of fire in the sky doing their coming up/going down thing. And the beautiful pink backdrops they leave behind are equally mesmerising. It was one of those skies I happened upon on Friday evening. My friend Neil and I were between bars when I looked up and saw an ordinary sign looking anything but. 

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Another track from the KPM stable. And another from Keith Mansfield. For those of you who follow such things, Mansfield's riddims have been sampled over the years by, among others, Danger Mouse, Gnarls Barkley and Fatboy Slim. 

 Keith Mansfield - Love Deluxe (1976)

Roswell

Anyone who's seen Asteroid City will know it evokes the whole Roswell vibe. Wes Anderson's unique homage to all things alien starring Scarlett Johansson and Tom Hanks is a visual delight. Imagine Andy Warhol working for NASA and you're half way there.

Asteroid City (2023) - Trailer 

Have Elle Cordova and Toni Lindgren seen Aseroid City? I'd put the house on it. Here's a song they wrote  wrote when their van broke down in Roswell New Mexico and were forced to stay in Roswell for 10 days; soaking up all the alien mumbo-jumbo Roswell had to offer: Roswell International UFO Museum, Roswell UFO Spacewalk and of course the infamous Walker Air Base in Roswell. It's called Roswell.     

Summer Thoughts (10 pics from '25)

Here's my fourth photograph to mark 2025. I knew I'd turned a corner when I was well enough to leave the house and get away for a few days. Starting with #BlogCon25 in Bristol and then Whitby, it felt good to be sleeping in a bed that was neither mine nor the NHS's. I'd follow it later in the year with sorties to London, Blackpool, Southwold and most recently the iconic XGenerationX tour which took me & Steve to Hebden Bridge, Glasgow, Nottingham & Leeds.

The tea hut in a chilly Whitby was framed by a brilliant blue sky; whilst pressing the shutter it was easy to fast forward in my mind to next year when, hopefully, the sun will be warmer and I'll have to dig out my passport in order to see it. Ah, thoughts of Summer. 

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James Clarke's style was made for the KPM label: richly orchestrated, laid back and very Henry Mancini. 

James Clarke Summer Thoughts 1967 

On the Brighter Side (10 pics from '25)

Here's my third photograph to mark 2025. It was April, my final stay in hospital, and I was but a handful of days away away from receiving my leaving papers. This was the corridor leading to Morris Ward. I was on Morris Ward. Great things happen on Morris Ward and great people work there. They offer the ultimate emergency service. Like many parts of City Hospital, that's where lives are saved, mine included. I'll never forget that. I'll also never forget the first day I was allowed to leave my isolation room and slip anchor. I made it as far as the walled courtyard where the sun shone and I drank a cup of real coffee. I took this photograph on the way. For the first time in a long time I was filled with hope.

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This mini series appears to have been hijacked by the KPM record label. And none the worse for that. Today I've gone with another one of their writers in residence: Johnny Hawksworth was a jazzer born in 1929 and, commercially, probably best remembered for his Thames Television ident (you'll know it as the precursor to the Sweeney!). Johnny provided the label with so much TV and film material - I'll probably do a little resumé of his work (and the other KPM stalwarts) in the New Year.

Johnny Hawksworth - On the Brighter Side (1982)   

Man With a Mission (10 pics from '25)

Here's my second photograph to mark 2025. Back in those lazy, hazy, crazy days of Summer, my good friend Ernesto and I decided to pay a visit to a mannequin graveyard; fifteen thousand mannequins in the middle of nowhere Lincolnshire. Someone in my writing class had given me the steer: 'It's made for you,' she said. Turns out she was right. I took scores of photos that day so editing to down to one was nigh on impossible. But I guess if you have Superman powers then nothing's impossible; here's that one photograph.

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I'm currently obsessed with Library Music and the KPM label. Here's another exponent of the art; where easy listening soundtracks meet loungecore meets jazz and funk.

Keith Mansfield - Man With a Mission (1974)

Library Shares · Keith Mansfield - Man with a Mission - (KPM 1136) - 1974