Detroit Emeralds Feel the need in me 1972

 Here for an excellent disco tune.

John Riley the Byrds 1966

 

Just heard this on WFMUs Atlantic tunnel. Traditional English folk song. Read the wiki on the song with lyrics here

Toot toot tootsie Al Jolson 1927

 From the Jazz Singer. This movie is going into the public domain next year. My Dad had this on wax 78. Flip was Back in your own backyard. Story was my mum worked in a record shop when my folks first got married and in her lunch hour would go through the old records and was told to help herself. So they had a lot of 78s. They didn't mind me playing them and I knew this really well. I can do the whistling solo. 

Stonehenge - close to the solstice

 

From the official Stonehenge Facebook page. Photo Nick Bull.

There is an interesting article here about food and feasting at Stonehenge. Apparently there was feasting around the solstice.

Venue reviews Animals & Men in 2009

 

Venue was the Bristol What's on magazine. Now gone. Amusing review!

Venue reviews Animals and Men gig

"Not often you see a guitarist who's a ringer for Mark Lawson. If you do, it's most certainly not in anything as thrillingly vital as this. To gauge an idea of the Animals and Men purity level, check out the drums, a full kit save for cymbals, those peskily autonomous creations wont to generate unsupervised sound for a good millisecond or two. This is all about economy, each track two minutes and out, everything absolutely bone lean, from bubbling bass to chopped guitar to utterly unfussy deadpan vocals, together concocting a post-punk brew that makes its key benefactor - the Bo Diddley beat - sound frivolous by comparison. That the band are relatively newly reformed, gigging Bristol for the first time in 18 years (More like 29 or something around that - Ralph), seems barely conceivable, with every track a prospective national anthem for the utopian nation of Utilitarianism. Venue leaves silently uttering a single mantra: bring back discipline. (Julian Owen)."

Willy and Ruth Love Me 1954

 Just heard on Boss Radio 66. Presumably the original. Here

Christmas Carol 1971 Alastair Sim

 This is a great animation. Richard Williams did the masterful Charge of the Light Brigade animation and this similarly visits Victorian imagery to tell the story. It's not too long either. I remember watching this 50 odd years ago on the telly. Recommended.

Arthur and the Anglo-Saxon wars (1984)

 This Men at Arms book here I liked. I don't know much about the period but the artwork by Angus McBride was very evocative. Here are a few of the best.

The Arthurian Age; the Celtic Twilight; the Dark Ages; the Birth of England; these are the powerfully romantic names often given to one of the most confused yet vital periods in British history. It is an era upon which rival Celtic and English nationalisms frequently fought. It was also a period of settlement, and of the sword. This absorbing volume by David Nicolle transports us to an England shrouded in mystery and beset by savage conflict, a land which played host to one of the most enduring figures of our history – Arthur.

Marianne Human League 1980

 

Susan requested this. She is a big fan of the early Human League. Saw them a couple of times back then. They used to project slides. Not really interested in the later incarnation. Holiday 80 wiki. Watch the band in their earlier line up doing Rock and Roll on that line's only Too of the Pops here

Bettye Lavette Let me down easy 1965

 Here.

Read about her here

Lord Dent and his Invaders Wolf Call 1959

Kind of seasonal. Heard this on Boss Radio 66. It's great - the howls remind Susan of Scooby Doo for some reason.

Savoy Brown Train to Nowhere 1969

 Here. In tribute to Kim Simmonds who was the frontman of Savoy Brown  passed away yesterday. Article. I don't know much about them, I had an album by them growing up. Album it is from is Blue Matter.

Jean Ritchie sings "Shady Grove" and "Jackero" (1966) [Rare live performance]

 Some pleasant folk music played on the Appalachian dulcimer. Read her wiki here

Five o'clock world the Vogues 1965

 Heard this on the radio last night. Julian Cope covered it. Wiki on the song.

Delivery in Frome

This is an exhibit at Radstock museum. My first after school job was using a bike like this for Frome Co-op in Palmer street. I remember they charged 5p a box for delivery and you could get two boxes in the front cage. Worst bit was it had very poor brakes and Frome is very hilly. I feared for my.life a number of times and several times had to crash it to stop it. Good times.
 

Siouxsie Sioux returns to the stage

 

Magic Sam All your love and Looking good

 Here for a first rate clip.

Animals & Men Church steps Frome 1979

 

The terraplanes at the top of Church steps around 1981

Ralph in Frome

 

My sis took this. I rather like it. Church steps Frome.

Coffee in Frome

 There are plenty of coffee shops to choose from but we went to a place that was also a bicycle shop. Webpage