* I was due to catch the train but Mick and the lads were fighting the good fight.
Sunday, 19 March 2023
Smile
* I was due to catch the train but Mick and the lads were fighting the good fight.
Wednesday, 15 March 2023
Affirmative
Saturday, 11 March 2023
Doris
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Doris (2003-2023) |
In other (more cheerier) news, Georgie is now officially 11½ carpet stripes long. Although he keeps looking for Doris I think he knows, deep down, she's not coming back...
P.S.
I couldn't not post my favourite picture of Tom: it was taken when we were living up in North Yorkshire and about to hang 'his' painting.
Monday, 6 March 2023
I always flirt with death
After decades of drug addled addiction Perrett came back from the brink a couple of years ago (''I feel like a cockroach that survived a nuclear war'') and, with the help of his sons, has gone on to make a couple of splendid solo records. This being the title track from his comeback album.
Pete Perrett - How the West Was Won (2017)
Wednesday, 1 March 2023
Green credentials
We probably all experience mild bouts of synaesthesia in our day to day lives: associating numbers, letters, words even, with colours seems neither trippy or in anyway unusual when we find our our minds in that zone. If I said I do it all the time I'd be lying; that said, I know that both the number three and word March shout green to me so, here we go again - our third themed photo session of the year. For 2023 back issues you can see what we were doing in January here, and February right here. O.K., let's see what we've got...
I've probably spending more time than is good for me lately in local churchyards. For a start I often eat my lunch in them; if the benches aren't covered in guano that is. Recently I've noticed some of the tombstones have been stuck in the ground so long that the moss has all but taken over; good luck with your etchings and finding out who's lying beneath. Here are four random shots.
If you follow me on Twitter you'll probably have seen that I like to play around with filters. A couple of weekends ago I shared a number of photographs I've taken recently at two of my favourite power stations. (Yes, I really can rank power stations; to be honest I can rank anything if I've got a pen and paper in front of me.) Anyway, back to Power Station Saturday (nothing says literal quite like literal, I find) - here are two garishly green filtered shots of Battersea and Ratcliffe-on-Soar I posted from that particular collection.
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Ratcliffe |
And last, but not least, from me anyway, is a street sign situated but a stone's throw from the River Trent in Nottingham and one I saw on my travels last weekend. I think it fits this month's theme, don't you?
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Green Street, NG2 ... |
I really like throwing these things open. Being a lover of photography I'm keen to see other people's photographs and get an insight into what they're all about through their images. I've been following Swiss Adam both on Twitter and in the blogosphere for a long, long time and am always blown away by the juxtaposition between his writing, his choice of music and his, often, stark photography.
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Bar tiles |
Saturday, 25 February 2023
Bang average
The Episode - Little One 1968
Wednesday, 22 February 2023
Hot and fuzzy
Saturday, 18 February 2023
Papa Roach
Caught up with Andrew Roachford MBE at the Rescue Rooms this week. I last saw him over 10 years ago at The Bodega when I reviewed the gig for the paper and, I can honestly say, I'd almost forgotten just how amazing he is. From the moment he walked on stage to when he departed 90 minutes later he was pulling quality songs out of his arse left, right and centre. And he was having a ball. As was everyone in the room - a few of which (me included) were at his first ever Nottingham gig at Rock City 35 years ago. Where does the time go?
...
Roachford - Kathleen (1988)
Tuesday, 14 February 2023
Ian Prowse
Thursday, 9 February 2023
Let's Dance
It was James' birthday yesterday. I spoke to him on the phone and wished him Many Happy Returns. They were just waiting on a taxi to take them to the airport - he and Janni were flying to Cork for a couple of days.
Janni then sent this short clip of the birthday boy; everybody dance now!
Monday, 6 February 2023
Valley Girl
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Sarah Lancashire (probably not in uniform) |
I've got previous, just ask The Swede; Charity Chic should have known better than to leave a good idea unattended. It wasn't even padlocked to a lamp post for crying out loud. What did he expect?
So, Happy Valley, the BBC's latest pot boiler, bowed out last night in a blaze of glory. No plot spoilers from me - but if you haven't seen the final episode yet, better make sure you've got a fully functioning fire extinguisher in your kitchen; you never know when some knife wielding homicidal maniac will pop round and douse themselves in petrol. Back to Charity Chic. Yes, Valley songs: I'm all for 'em. Especially the Skids' Ahoy, Ahoy, Barman & Soda. (That is what he's singing isn't it?)
But this remains my fave: Moon Zappa - aged just 14 at the time - aping the archetypal Los Angeles teen persona for her old man while he kept the tape rolling.
Frank Zappa - Valley Girl (1982)
A huge thank you to CC for being such a good sport. Even though he doesn't know about this yet...
Wednesday, 1 February 2023
H2O
My second photograph will probably comes as no surprise. Last Thursday's visit to the capital was special. For lots of reasons. I'm in the middle of writing up a few words and will share with you in the next few days, I'm sure. In the meantime, here's a photo of Mother Thames taken from the top of a certain power station in SW11.
Helping me out with this month's photo challenge are a couple of my favourite bloggers: Alyson and C are not only great virtual friends, but real - in the flesh - friends who I was privileged to spend time with last year in Edinburgh at BlogCon22.
C is a fabulous artist and illustrator. She says 'Here's a piccy for your photo theme - my little much loved water pot (I call her Potula) - where I dip and rinse my paintbrushes every day.'
Sunday, 29 January 2023
Pinball
''It's a diary entry covering one weekend in 1973.'' So said Brian Protheroe of his one and only hit, Pinball, which reached the dizzy heights of No.22 the following year. Protheroe had just split up with his girlfriend and was crashing at a friend's flat in Covent Garden. Living in London's fashionable West End was obviously not all it was cracked up to be; running out of pale ale, with fleas in the bedroom and flies in the bathroom just adding to his woes. And if all that wasn't bad enough, turns out the cat's just finished off the bread.
Brian Protheroe - Pinball (1974)
Wednesday, 25 January 2023
Pigs preparing for take off
Monday, 16 January 2023
Peaceful, warm and tired
The Air That I Breathe is one of those songs that every songwriter wishes had fallen into their lap. Albert Hammond and Mike Hazelwood, however, did write it back in 1971 and Hammond dutifully put it on his 1972 album It Never Rains in Southern California; he never released it as as a single and it's really not hard to see why. Hammond never did it justice and the song languished at the wrong end of Side 2. Until it was picked up the following year by Phil Everly who gave it such a makeover that when the Hollies found it they basically followed Everly's dots and in 1974, complete with a rather lush Alan Parsons arrangement, turned it into the multi-million selling gold disc we know today. And, as you can see from my screengrab below, their second most streamed song on Spotify with a staggering 112 million plays.
Anyway, forget Albert Hammond and the Hollies. Instead, wrap yer ears around Phil's beautiful take on this absolute classic.
Phil Everly - The Air That I Breathe (1973)
Sunday, 15 January 2023
Cards on the table
...
February's photo challenge
If you want to join in with next month's photo challenge - I'm asking for photos with a water theme; you can snap an outside tap, a puddle, a lake, a rainstorm - anything H2O related. Send me your photograph to john(at)johnmedd(dot)com or if you are on the BlogCon 23 WhatsApp group then ping them over to me on there. I'll post the images on 1st February.
Saturday, 14 January 2023
Tour de Manchester
James is an avid cyclist. Unlike his father; I live at the top of a hill so every journey I'd have to make would involve some serious uphill pedalling on the homeward leg. (I'm not as young as I used to be!) And then there's the traffic. Where James lives there are some pretty cool cycle paths and then there's the dedicated cycle lanes in the city centre. Unless, of course, some cretin in a car decides to park in it. I'll let James describe what happened to him on Wednesday morning cycling to work...
I cycle this road every day but got caught out this morning. The driver parked in the bike lane pulls out without indicating, all the while obstructing the cycle lane divider from my view (which I forgot was there). When I finally see it, it's too late for me 😖@Chris_Boardman pic.twitter.com/HmDJfFLUPY
— James Medd (@jamesmedd) January 11, 2023
The footage was caught on dashcam by the driver following James. He pulled over to make sure my son was alright*. Thank you, whoever you are.
...
Kraftwerk - Tour de France (1984)
* Nothing broken, thankfully. Just a few cuts & bruises.
Monday, 9 January 2023
Dotage?
I don't even know when my dotage is supposed to start (it may well have started already without me knowing it) but these are just a few of things I've been keeping on ice for it: opera, ballet, Shakespeare; lobster, The Prisoner, swearing more, poker, winning the Lottery, pink shirts, wearing odd socks and one small discreet tattoo. As I said, it's neither a complete or exhaustive list, but it's enough to be going on with. Oh, and Tangerine Dream - they've been keeping electronic/ambient Krautrock going since the dawn of time and appear to have released more albums (with more band members) than any other group I know; sorry, don't know - hence the dotage thing. I'm sure there are plenty of jumping off points - I'll fettle it (tho; I may need The Swede to guide me thru the choppy German waters). Here's my starter for ten...
Tangerine Dream - A Haze of Patriotic Fervour (2013)
Thursday, 5 January 2023
She's Gone
Daryl Franklin Hohl and John William Oates made some astonishing records in the 70s and 80s. I can honestly say, to the best of my knowledge, everyone I know could sing the words to at least one of their records; at least one. Which is why, if you ever rode shotgun with me in my car, unlike the young woman above, I'm sure I wouldn't have to leave you stranded by the roadside.
She's Gone first appeared on their 1973 classic album Abandoned Luncheonette. It bombed when they first released it as a single on Atlantic but three years later when the duo had scored some big hits with their new label, RCA, Atlantic re-released it with a fresh catalogue number and voila it went to Number 7 on the Billboard chart.
Hall & Oates - She's Gone (1976)
Tho' the record had charted a couple of years earlier when this lot released it as a single; it may only have just scraped into the Top 50, but many purists say it's the definitive version.
Tavares - She's Gone (1974)
Sunday, 1 January 2023
1 (One)
Talking about numbers, I said a wee while ago that I'd be starting a new photograph feature in '23 - on the first of every month I'll be out and about taking photographs with a theme. Not the most original of features, I grant you, but as I've said on more than one occasion, I leave that sort of stuff to people with bigger brains than me; them's the breaks, I guess. This month, with it being the first of the first, I'm looking for 1s and Ones.