Christmas edition

 Not that long to go, school closes today, so the long established ritual of the Christmas pause begins as things get rather busy here with visiting people and being visited too as I have been getting on with things like reading this years Beano Christmas special with its 68 pages of interlinked comic adventure and fun.

I also played a few records I hadn't spun for a few years before changing the cartridge over to the Ortofon Concorde Music Blue and the phono box which was quite enjoyable as I got around to posting a few cards off.

All that remains is to wish you all a Happy Christmas and a great New Year as crazy as politic is presently. 

Christmas preparations

The countdown towards Christmas is gathering very much at pace here even if with delays with the computer replacement issue and a few issues with cramp and that I'm a little behind in all honesty although the Advent Calendar is up and I do have some cards ready to write. 

Christmas would not be christmas without the Nativity Story for me, going back into childhood so being in church for services either at school, with parents or in Girlguiding or Scouts whatever people themselves may do or believe in.

For me it underscores so much of my own values and this life.

Santa Claus can be found in many places at the moment - must have a degree in Time Management - in the malls, schools and in his very own parades.

Many Girlguide/Girl Scouts and Scouts Associations have him fully signed up such as this Girl Guides unit in British Columbia, Canada where he's accompanied by by members in seasonal attire often making collections to aid the local unit and raise its profile in the wider community.

That for me is the sort of thing this time of the year is all about.

BBC Shows: Trouble at' mill

 It looks likely there be some holes in the festive television schedule this CatMas/Christmas with the cancellation of the Christmas editions of the tv show Masterchief which based on people cooking a complete meal in predetermined time and being judged upon the quality of it.

It was a show I first started to watch in the late 1980's when Lloyd Grossman presented it and have kept up with it in its altered formats such as introducing a celebratory version over the decades.

These days it is mainly fronted by Gregg Wallace who used to be a Fruit and Veg storeholder who has also presented a series looking at how foodstuffs are prepared and made which was rather interesting.

Unfortunately, it appears there have been many complaints regarding highly sexual remarks been made by him during and immediately before making the shows, allegations around sexual assault in addition to less than professional behaviour for which they had be cautioned about in the past.

Two things into this: Where accusations were made but not followed up why is just now, this minute they have surfaced and given the history of this, is it not the case that again the idea the Presenter is so important they should be kept on regardless of accusations to the point of dismissing them persistently rather than being focussed on the well-being of those on set and beyond won out? 

Then there was Ms Huq, a Labour M.P. who suggested the show be pulled in case it triggered women.

Women would be very aware and no doubt have strong feelings on what Gregg has been accused of but if they found it in any way triggering, then surely they'd just not watch the show and what of contestants whose friends might wish to see how they did?

To me it looks another celebratory mess at the BBC which could of been avoided by immediate action from the floor.

We call colleagues out for inappropriate comments sexual harassment and assault to the point we support them registering their complaints to Personnel and being prepared to give evidence ourselves.

Those who work on the studio set need to be prepared to do the same.

Warming up Friday

Back to the brr's I think this weekend judging pretty much from how I felt overnight Wednesday, chilled in my room having once I had got up, got some warm porridge going and took a toffee hammer and screwdriver to the waste bins as they had frozen over.

One can only imagine what it is like for those who struggle with heating expenses trying to keep the house warm.

I usually try to get anything that features bearings and oils a bit of run to prevent it sticking such as tape and record decks although very cold weather can effect the damping fluid in the tone arm  as I did play a few records across the week from the collection.

There are a few plushies about which I just adore not just as pretty collectable objects but as things of comfort when as with a bit of this week things were shall we say a bit trying so something you can hug really does help.

Until next week, bye.

The Beatles - the 1964 US albums in Mono

We wrote at length about the Beatles in early 2006 and then in 2009 in connection with a series of compact disc reissue sets.

We did attempt to make a list of the beatles lps I had built up over the decades and even explored in those pre 2010's the options we had available before getting on to stereo reissues in 2012 and the Mono Box on vinyl in 2014.

It's kind of obvious then this blog, reflecting my likes has tended to have a fair bit to say regarding them, not least in the era it was linked to a forum about music I belonged to.

Nothing in the Beatles world stays still for long, we had a number of "Super Deluxe" editions with remixes and last year the expanded 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 albums with remixed versions.

Missing by design when it comes to vinyl reissues was those original American albums on Capitol (and United Artists) that were formally discontinued around 1990/1 although for a time copies (and the cassette versions) could be found new.

Part of  that revolves around the fact they were not the albums the beatles themselves wanted out, preferring the world to just listen to the albums as issued in the UK they had some input into and part due to the incomplete nature of that catalogue.

It can't be argued however those albums were, at least the first few,  the albums that made them international superstars selling millions from their arrival in the United States in 1964 and to mark that 60th anniversary, actually they've issued a set of their 1964 albums in a box set on vinyl.

Americans Met the Beatles in January 1964 and on the back of the rush released I Want To Hold Your Hand on December 26, 1963, their first capitol album was prepared mixing singles tracks and mainly original compositions from the UK With The Beatles album of November.
 

The first thing to say about this series is, they are all in Mono from the tapes compiled by Capitol with mix variants and processing done back then but cut without the restrictions to avoid returns from kids with inexpensive poorly designed record players so they do sound fuller than the originals did.

Second Album came out in April of 1964 with a mixture new (in some instances new to Americans but old) hits, the unissued cover versions from that second UK album and two tracks from what was to be an Extended Play 45 in the UK of exclusive tracks.
 

The mono albums were discontinued in 1968 but this one unlike the stereo edition has much less echo added and is an easier listen than the stereo that at times sounds as if it was recorded in a cave! 

 

The first film was set up as a deal in late 1963 with United Artists at their London office and part of that was that for North America, it would have sole rights to the soundtrack album whereas in the UK the film songs from A Hard Day's Night were given a side on all beatles album.

That's why I bought this, it has the instrumentals featured and a longer I'll Cry Instead although that was dropped at the last minute from the film.

The year had been a major success for the Beatles, global success had been achieved at a price one might add to the bands well-being and having issued two albums in the UK that year, a version of Beatles For Sale was prepared by Capitol for release in Mid December to land in teenage Christmas stockings that took a a good number of songs from that album issued in the UK around the same time adding their latest hit record, I Feel Fine and it's B side.

The stereo version is notorious for its terrible fake stereo versions of those two songs and at least here it sounds better although like the single it has echo not found on the UK 45.

Highlights include the Dylan influenced I'm A Loser, I'll Follow The Sun and a great cover of Carl Perkin's Honey Don't.

They come with a four page insert with notes and are even polylined although they have mock period inner sleeves.

Finishing off a series

 

Way back in 1991 when I was just on to my second ever compact disc player I started collecting a series issued by Emi-Premier called "The Greatest Hits of" and these were from 1970 through 1980 and then just the 1981 and 1982 editions.

Reasons included having a single year focus which was rare and having a commentary on the year politically, culturally and so on which made for a package that took you back in time to that year.

At the time I was unaware that they had a Sixties series issued in 1990 run the same way as back in 1988 I had bought the odd disc of 50's hits in a Emi "The Hits of" series that gathered over twenty hits and served them up on the then new cd media.

In time I got some late 1960's volumes of the "The Hits of" series but that left me short on a good number of the others although I collected the "London-American" series that captured the American hits licensed from the late 1950's and early 1960's before many of the big labels established their own UK operations.

I have no got the 1960 through 1966 editions of "The Greatest Hits" that fill those gaps although I have a number of compilations that are not in a strict year sequence.

They have pictures of key artists and chart positions of songs which is always a good thing.

With spending time listening  to things like vintage chart shows on Boom Radio, having my own copies of many of the featured hits is highly enjoyable as this was the music I heard on oldies shows when on the radio usually feeling poorly.

They do sound great.

On Presidential Election 2024

 Well the best you can say it is all over now, no coup attempts in the White House, no assassinations (yet) despite the odds and general public decency The Trump out trumped Harris and at least on this side of the Atlantic well dealing with what is.

It's far too early to write the definitive blog entry, so much happens so rapidly but given they have a Presidential system, he'll be establishing a team of advisers to (one hopes) advise him around a range of issues from broad economic policy, the vexed question of migration (legal and otherwise), law including  reproductive rights that remains highly polarizing, dealing with entrenched racial discrimination and attitudes, foreign policy and defence and so on.

At some point the question of a State Visit to the U.K. will come up and I know there many of us who have grave misgivings about the man and some of his statements during the course but he WILL BE their Head of State, just like our King Charles III is so we need to put that behind us and deal with his as their representative and afford him a welcome.

Thank goodness we don't have all this!