Wicker Man May Pole Song

As it's getting near to the time of year where we frolic naked in the morning dew I thought we ought to refresh our memories of the Maypole dance in this classic British movie. Is that a young Bobby Gillespie playing the Jews Harp? I was thrilled to note that one of our hosts in Denmark DJ Grayskull reckoned this as his favourite horror movie. Good taste or what... The soundtrack is a must have but get the 2002 version. Noticed the Sneaker Pimps have covered 'Gently Johnny'...bummer...

dEUS The architect

This is a great new song from Antwerp's finest dEUS. I am not going to try and explain what it sounds like - I will simply invite you to play it - you can always stop playing it if you don't like it but if you do enjoy their groove then check out their extremely good website.

More on Butler and Tanner

We're still shocked by the closure of this, once the largest employer in Frome.
Independent article
TV coverage here

Bob Dylan Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues (1966)

We're having a bit of a Dylan revival chez nous so I trawled through all the Dylan clips to find a favourite and chose this one from London in 66 when people were still outraged by his abandoning his folk roots in favour of a punk attitude.

Lexington reenactment

Patriots day in the USA - celebrated with a living history recreation of the skirmish at Lexington green....more pictures and video here. This image is great - well done whoever took it... youtube videos here

Slaughter and the Dogs

The great Manchester band from the Don Letts Punk rock movie - plus teen punks Eater - did you know Morrissey sang with Slaughter and the Dogs for a while - hard to imagine - but there you go. Dedicated to all the Frome printers...

Butler and Tanner to close?

This won't mean anything if you don't come from Frome but it looks like the book printers B&T - where I did my apprenticeship and worked alongside my dad and Uncle is going to close - read about it here. This kind of brings to a close a whole era of book printing in the UK - so many viable companies have been asset stripped it's unbelievable. Madness.

Royal Ethiopians

I think it's great to see a black patriot unit The First Rhode Island but what about on the British side...isn't it time we saw Lord Dumore's Royal Ethiopians recreated? Apparently they wore the words 'Liberty to Slaves' on their chests...what did they look like though?
This detail of a painting by American artist John Singleton Copley of the Battle of Jersey is thought to depict a loyalist regiment of the American Revolution. This unit formed by Lord Dunmore from runaway slaves fought most notably at the battle of Great Bridge in 1775. More here

Plastic Bertrand Ca Plane Pour Moi

It's been a great week for our band Animals and Men so I thought I'd post this great clip of Belgian pop punk star from 1978 to celebrate. We've got an offer of a single of new material on vinyl and another offer of a vinyl lp of our 'hits'. Added to that our first single 'New Age' fetched over 45 quid this week on ebay! Whatever next? You can hear some tracks we recorded at Arhus on our myspace. We had about half an hour to rehearse and record so I think we did rather well.

Animals and Men Live in Denmark

Footage of us, Animals and Men doing the Suspect and Evil Going On on 19/4/08 at Aarhus Huset. Promoters www.deathrock.dk - filmed by DJ Zebrakill.

Safety Dance video

I don't very often plead with you to watch videos but I'm gonna for this one. If I tell you that it features a dwarf in a jester's costume - was filmed in a village near Bath and looks inspired by the Wicker Man would that help you choose whether to watch it? I don't know why - but I'd never seen this video from the 80s until the weekend and it was a case of 'where have you been all my life'... it is amazing - I can't say why - it just is. I showed my son it and his response was of the 'awesome' variety. Watch it 'til the end as there's an important bit... 'Safety Dance' wiki

Hello I'm back

Well folks, I'm back from Denmark and we had a fine time with our gig there. The venue we played - Huset - is part of a movement in the region to establish youth houses where people of a creative disposition can have a space to do their thing and express themselves and it seems to be working really well. The promoters Deathrock Dekay were great hosts and we drank a lot of beer. I'll post some photos and a clip soon.

Vive Le Rock

Righto - see you at Aarhus...I'll leave you with this until I get back...

Almansa 1707-2007

Photos from last year's event in Spain. I see a lot of familiar faces - friends from when I was involved in that period. Some of the groups depicted are not of the 1707 period, but it looks like they're having a good time, and that's the main thing.

Tercentenary happenings

I said I'd post something that Celia my daughter would like this time and so as she is well into old ships I'd put up a photo of the "Preobrazhensky Life Guards", on board a ship of the same era. More photos here
Information about the Peter the Great era ship here.
This is a pretty important time for early 18th century reenactors with the 300th anniversary of Lesnaya in Belorussia in October and Oudenaarde in Belgium just two of the highlights.
Lesnaya was an important battle in the Great Northern War that sewed the seeds of the great victory at Poltava in 1709. I noticed that part of the battle of Lesnaya was about 1,000 Swedish soldiers who mutinied and stole alcohol and were left drunk in the woods. Sounds like a job for the Radstock Caroliners...
Early 18th century wars forum

Will Hay 'Go to Blazes' (1942)

Light hearted public information film about extinguishing incendiary bombs starring the great Will Hay - one of Britain's best movie comics. I just love hearing his voice - something about his bumbling persona that resonates with me. He was a really intelligent man in real life studying astronomy. Go to The Next Train's Gone - a Will Hay fansite to learn more about the man and his co-stars. Graham Moffat used to run the Englishcombe Inn in Bath after his career as a troublesome youth was over.
If you are interested there is a Will Hay Box Set containing Ask A Policeman (1939), Boys Will be Boys (1935), Oh Mr Porter (1937), Convict 99 (1939), Old Bones Of The River (1938), Where There's A Will (1936), Good Morning Boys (1937), Hey! Hey! USA (1938), and Windbag The Sailor (1936).
My grandfather's house in Radstock got bombed with an incendiary - my Uncle Cliff scooped it up in his sports jacket and tossed it out the window. The adjoining woods briefly caught fire and got mentioned by Lord Haw Haw in his broadcast as a forest fire raging south of Bath.

Danish Army Uniforms

Had a quick look to see what information was available on the Danish army of the early 1700s and found some great stuff on Dan Schorr's site including this (b/w pic) - the figures of which are 2 meters in height and look invaluable - someone should go to Rosenberg castle and photograph them - sadly I'm going to the wrong bit of Denmark. Anyway if you have an interest in this period check out the Danish army sections - they're very good. Also up on the site and very interesting are some early tapestries from the 1670s and the Möinichen Paintings - recommended. Seems like Claus Moinichen did quite a few battle paintings of the Scanian War. Lovely period. Media in category "Scanian War"

Admiral Kolchak (2008) trailer

Another historical epic from Russia - this time about the white Russian Admiral Kolchak. Looks from the trailer like its an interesting tale...what do you think?

Stephen Fry and the Gutenberg Press

A great programme that charts the invention of moveable type and a working medieval press is reconstructed. Well worth a watch if you like old printing. BBC i player keeps programmes up for a week I think so if you want to watch you'll have to be quick. Recommended. Of course I did my composing apprenticeship in the old hot metal days - amazing how long hot metal lasted really. Now we don't even need books.

Them 'Here comes the night' 1965

At the NME poll winners concert at Wembley. I can't find any other clips of Van Morrison's Northern Irish r'n'b band - this particular song I am not so fond of - especially when compared to the three all time classic garage songs 'Gloria' 'Baby Please Don't Go' and 'I can only give you everything' but this will have to do.