Ralphadeus. Music movies comics feature in this look at life from Somerset.
This is where we used to live depicted in a tourist leaflet. It is considerably sanitised omitting the industrial estate and sewage works which both dominate the landscape. But we lived there 25 years. It went downhill when they built the cycle track. You would think cyclists don't have an impact but it is the legion of uncontrolled dogs that cause the trouble. Just a thought if you are analysing the impact of a cycle track.
Spotify wrapped is out. My most listened to artist is Fats Domino followed by Slim Harpo, Jimmy Reed, the Beatles and the Detroit Cobras. Susan has T Rex Link Wray Canned Heat, Elvis Costello and the Troggs.
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| Ralph and Susan 2010 |
Easily their best psychedelic song.
Here for a great song by Greg Cartwright. Don't know the date possibly 1995.
Back in the 00s we hand reared some Jackdaws. This one was called Tizzy. Country people used to slit their tongues with a silver sixpence and teach them to talk but we didn't try that. They were released into the wild once grown. They used to come and visit.
Do you remember this one? D C Lee was part of the Style Council. This was a good single.
Listen here
In 92 I was working in Wells - about 11 miles from Radstock across the Mendip hills. I used to work nights as a proofreader so finished at 6 am for a journey that took me through the city centre then up onto the Mendips. About 30 years ago I would have the Code:Selfish cassette set up to start with this track as I took my trip home. The car we had then was a VW Passat estate - ideal for three kids with a 1600 engine pictured. It would start with the church bells as I passed Wells cathedral. As the song reached its full power i would be into plain countryside with very few vehicles about. We flew home. It was exhilarating and confirmed my love of the Fall and the Mendips.
First knew this song by a version by Gene Vincent. This is the original.
I love this song and clip. Booked White is one of the greatest bluesmen.
From the French film 'Le Blues Entre Les Dents'. This French TV documentary shot all around the USA in 1972, features performances by:
Brownie McGhee. et Sonny Terry Robert Pete Williams Mance Lipscomb Walter “Furry” Lewis Roosevelt Sykes Junior Wells et Buddy Guy Bukka White Jimmy Streeter B.B. KingThe incomparable Booker White.
Spotify album of his 1930-40 recordings
Their first single. https://youtu.be/8vquoQkoeqc My Uncle Graham had a copy of the first Velvets L.p. I think he had been given it by a rep. I played it quite a bit. One night I was babysitting (a teenager I was) and I had it on really loud on the headphones only it wasn't. Unbeknownst to me it was coming out the speakers too waking up everyone in the street. I was chastised. Never felt confident listening on headphones since.
https://youtu.be/qjjg_r5uBis. Well played U.S.A. Song of the day. A field recording.
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| Son House with British journalist Anthony Lennane backstage at the Hammersmith Ocean in 1967 |
Got some mighty sad news and I ain't got nothin' to say
I heard some mighty sad news and I don't have nothin' to say
My baby left me, started me drinkin' on Christmas day
When I was a proofreader in the book industry we used to have to read all sorts of books that were often quite traumatising and some would leave an impression. Criminal pathology was pretty nasty, lots of photos of murdered people basically. Management of the cleft palatte was also hard to see. But one we did was an advertising yearbook which wrote about successful campaigns - an insider's analysis so to speak. For the industry. I remember one chapter on the successful 'follow the bear' campaign for Hofmeister lager changing its image from 'Bear's piss' to a successful drink. One advertising piece of jargon was the industry slang term 2CP - short for 'two cunts in the pantry' about the type of commercial where one female would recommend another a product while in the kitchen. Cynical or what?
Here is a song from the new album.
To find out more about the gig, tickets, supports etc. go here
So Celia up in the smoke (London) has just seen this. Looks good.
Set on a remote island off the west coast of Ireland, THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN follows lifelong friends Pádraic (Colin Farrell) and Colm (Brendan Gleeson), who find themselves at an impasse when Colm unexpectedly puts an end to their friendship. A stunned Pádraic, aided by his sister Siobhán (Kerry Condon) and troubled young islander Dominic (Barry Keoghan), endeavours to repair the relationship, refusing to take no for an answer. But Pádraic's repeated efforts only strengthen his former friend’s resolve and when Colm delivers a desperate ultimatum, events swiftly escalate, with shocking consequences.
This looks good. Played in most of them!
https://www.fabulousfrome.co.uk/product-page/fabulous-frome-pubs-calendar-2023
This year we bring you the Fabulous Frome Pubs Calendar 2023 with striking images by Garfield Austin of the 12 oldest pubs in Frome, including an interesting little bit of history about each pub.
Size A4 - printed on beautiful thick paper that's feels a bit like watercolour paper, making each picture look like a painting.
A perfect Christmas gift for a special someone - EVEN if that someone is YOU!✨
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| Elmore and Sonny Boy |
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| From the Devil's Music Giles Oakley |
The below is from the Illustrated Elmore James discography.
Trumpet Records founder and owner Lillian McMurry pressed up a limited supply of this record and sent the test pressing back to the pressing plant to get more made. The plant burned down with the test pressing in it so she had to re-record the record (see bottom)
rec. January 4, 1951 in Jackson, MS; Alex 'Rice' Miller, voc, hca; Willie Love, p; Elmore James, Joe Willie Wilkins, g; Joe Dyson, dr
You've talking about your woman, I wish to God, man, that you could see mine
You're talking about your woman, I wish to God that you could see mine
Every time the little girl start to loving, she bring eyesight to the blind
Lord, her daddy must been a millionaire, 'cause I can tell by the way she walk
Her daddy must been a millionaire, because I can tell by the way she walk
Every time she start to loving, the deaf and dumb begin to talk
I remember one Friday morning, we was lying down across the bed
Man in the next room a-dying, stopped dying and lift up his head, and said,
"Lord, ain't she pretty, and the whole state know she fine!"
Every time she start to loving, she bring eyesight to the blind
(Spoken: All right and all right, now. Lay it on me, lay it on me, lay it on me
Oh lordy, what a woman, what a woman!)
Yes, I declare she's pretty and the whole state knows she's fine
Man, I declare she's pretty, God knows I declare she's fine
Every time she starts to loving, whoo, she brings eyesight to the blind
(I've got to get out of here, now, let's go, let's go, let's go now)
Some lovely sound and visuals. Thanks to Andy G for this.
Amazing, rare and heartfelt tribute to Native American tribes. Footage dating back to 1895, with rare vintage audio recording of Native American music. American history including the oldest known clip of Native Americans on film, a clip of Sioux Native Americans performing the Buffalo Dance at Thomas Edison's Black Maria Studio in New Jersey. The film Ghost Dance also features, created on the same day, September 24, 1895. Other films featured include Hopi Native Americans greeting TR and clips from the Chicago World's Fair in 1933. It also shows 3 Native American feature films, White Fawn's Devotion, The Invaders and Last Of The Mohicans. White Fawn's Devotion was the earliest film directed by a Native American, James Young Deer. The old audio clip was recorded in 1895 by Alice Cunningham and Francis La Flesche. The song is 'He'dewachi' Dance Song and it is traditionally played at ceremonies which celebrate warriors.
This week daughter Celia is visiting her boyfriend in London. She is visiting exhibitions and all sorts and I thought I would share this Sherlock pic which I thought was good with a bus in the background.
I haven't read this but looks interesting. Big Boss Man by Will Romano.
On the Ed Sullivan show in 1969. For our American readers for Thanksgiving.
Susan's Dad Malcolm Wells was a teacher and engineer but he loved motorbikes and was in this article for Motorcycle news on Frome company Difazio's. He was very fit and sprightly but he had Alzheimer's and went into care where died of covid
Bottle Up And Go! E.P.
Thunderbolt (THBE-001) Vinyl 7” 45 RPM E.P. Released UK 1983 Wilko Johnson – Guitar/Vocals Lew Lewis – Harmonica Russell Strutter – Bass Alan Platt - Drums |
| Photo from Dingwall's Bristol by Henry Hutton of the Bad Detectives |
Dr. Feelgood on the Old Grey Whistle Test back in 1975. I was 15 and this was the soundtrack to my life at that time.
On the Old Grey Whistle test. Saw him about this time. Nigel was keen and he had access to a car so I would go along for the crack. Saw lots of bands i wasn't bothered about like Tom Petty, Nils Lofgren and so on but I suppose in retrospect I should have been less closed minded. Anyway this song he did and it is quite pleasant.
One of my favourite SBWII songs. I just love it. Not sure of the date of this. Late 50s I expect.
Here. The fictional girl group from Russ Meyer's Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. I love the guitar on this.
Just heard this song on the radio. Not a huge Magazine fan but we did see them once. I liked this though.
. I hadn't seen this before this evening. From Viva Las Vegas
Here to give you all you need to know of the many labels he recorded with.
This book looks good. Anybody read it? Kindle edition is modestly priced.
This song is part of the soundtrack of my youth. One of my favourite Dr Feelgood songs on Geordie Scene Tv
Another song from 40 years ago. Hugh Cornwell was at Tucker's Grave once when I was out there. He has said he thought the record would have got to number 1 but Jean-Jacques Burnell said in an interview the song was about heroin and so it was dropped from playlists.
From the wiki
The song has been described as "the most unlikely single from punk rock band The Stranglers. Full of harpsichords straight out of classic Baroque music."[7]
Here.
Recorded at the Roundhouse, Sunday 5th September 1976 this was the band's 5th gig and the final gig as a 5 piece with Keith Levene. They played a 15 song set, 6 of them heard here were never recorded.
0:00 I Know What to Think About You 4:15 I Never Did It 6:32 How Can I Understand the Flies 8:17 Mark Me Absent 10:22 Deadly Serious (Dig a Hole) 11:58 Sitting At My PartyIn tribute to Keith Levene.
From the Metal Box wiki
Poptones was one of the first songs recorded for the album, according to Levene, who stated that he inadvertently played "Starship Trooper" during the song.[11] According to Lydon, "Poptones" was based on a story "straight out of the Daily Mirror" about a girl who was kidnapped and "bundled, blindfolded, into the back of a car by a couple of bad men and driven off into a forest, where they eventually dumped her. The men had a cassette machine with an unusual tune on the cassette, which they kept playing over and over. The girl remembered the song, and that, along with her recollection of the car and the men's voices, is how the police identified them. The police eventually stopped the car and found the cassette was still in the machine, with the same distinctive song on the tape."[12] In his 2009 autobiography Memoirs of a Geezer, Jah Wobble highlighted the song as "the jewel in the PiL crown. [...] That [bass] line is as symmetrical as a snowflake. To give him his due Levene went mental for it. We were at The Manor. We had a drummer with us who was pretty good [...] but the bloke just couldn't get the right feel for 'Poptones'. [...] In the end Levene put the drums down on that track, his drums are a bit loose, but that is actually a good thing."[13]
This came about 40 years ago. Wasn't that keen on it and it wasn't a hit. The band in the video look crap to be honest.
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| The Anvil Basingstoke |
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Tomorrow (Monday) is Norton Carnival (only outsiders call it Midsomer). Haven't had one for two years - here's me from then on Celia's balcony. I will try and get Susan to take some photos as I am terrible at it.
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As I think I mentioned Stourhead is lovely at this time of year - here snapped by local photographer Neil Gould.
Two different radio shows in 2 different continents played this tonight.
Courted by Adam Ant—a relationship from which they politely withdrew when he suggested hiring a studio band to re-record their songs—and noted by John Peel, Animals & Men were positioned to take whatever version of fame and fortune the first wave of U.K. post-punk had to offer. But when the big boys came calling, they turned around and walked back to their tiny mining town in the grasslands, where they stayed with their unreleased tapes until good ol’ Hyped 2 Death re-presented them to the world. Encouraged by the release of retrospective collections, A&M have not only reunited but restarted as a working band, releasing brand new, extremely ferocious songs like “John of the Sword.” They’ll play their first-ever U.S. shows this month. Founders Ralph Mitchard and Susan Wells speak now from their living room, where they play in war paint with the door open while the neighbors marvel. They will perform at the Smell Thursday. This interview by Chris Ziegler.
We really enjoyed visiting Stourhead when we lived at Frome. It was particularly good at this time of year. We went to the first Fête Champêtre at Stourhead but we didn't really enjoy it.
– CECIL SHARP AND FOLK SONGS OF SOMERSET
A Mendip Society talk at the Wells and Mendip Museum
On Tuesday 15th November 2022 at 2.pm
Cecil Sharp was one of the most important collectors of English folk songs in the early 20th century and did much of his work in Somerset.
At a time when the oral transmission of folk songs was dying out because of the availability of recorded popular music, he collected hundreds of songs that would otherwise have been lost.
Todays interest in folk music would not have happened without him.
Chris will be accompanied by Bernard Coulter in the performance of some songs. Together, they run a local folk club.
There is no need to book for this talk.
Members are free, non members £3. Contact
Richard on 01275 472797 for more information.
Shot at the Handsome Llama Frome rehearsal room which was a great place - we recorded there also. This was when the song was still a work in progress and we filmed it to remember it. Susan forgets some of the lyrics.
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