- When I were a lad...

Firstly, I'm from Yorkshire so I'm allowed bad subject verb agreement. When I were a lad football was much better than it is now. I think we can all agree on that fact. The fact alone that football managers used to dress like this should seal the argument...

70s man in full effect

For those of you who haven't wasted as much of your lives following this bloody game as I have, Malcolm Allison, pictured above on his way to a fancy dress party as a pimp, was a fairly successful manager of newly-crowned 'world's richest club' Manchester City. City have, for my lifetime at least, been total crap. Americans among you may understand if I draw an analogy with the LA Clippers. They have had what can only be described as an anti-midas touch, everything they touch turns to shit. they haven't won a trophy since 1976, although they have recently been acquired by the Dubai royal family and have the benefit of a 200 billion family fortune behind them. There was a time, however, when they were just another poorly run club, stumbling from one disastrous signing and managerial appointment to the next.

The documentary you're about to download hails from the early 80s, when Malcolm Allison was sacked and the club taken over by John Bond. Obviously it's mostly of interest to City fans, but I recommend it to anyone who has forgotten what English football was like before it was taken over by the world's dodgiest gangsters and ne'erdowells.

A greedy Brazilian, yesterday

File size: 123mb

- 25 years of the Festive 50

Peel's commemorative shows from 19th ;December, 2000. Thanks to big Ken Garner for these beauties:

"25 Years of the Festive 50" Special, pt 1

142.9 MB
1 02' 27"


"25 Years of the Festive 50" special, pt 2

137.9 MB
1 00' 14"

- New Peel Shows

Just a quick summary of some of the new Peel shows that are now available in digital format. Thanks to all those who have put in the time and effort to make these available...


1: Monday 26 September, 1988

Session artist is Four Brothers, an mp3 @ 320 kbps
 
Tracklisting available here and more information on the '500 box' here.

2: Peel on daytime radio

Peel's complete first lunchtime show from Easter Monday 1993, 5th April.

PEEL stands in for  BRAMBLES

part 1: 1993-04-05a, 12.45-1.30pm

part 2, 1993-04-05b, 1.30-2.15pm

part 3, 1993-04-05c, 2.15-3pm

3: Peel's 50th birthday gig

Recorded at Subteranea London the night before Wednesday 30th August 1989, and broadcast on that evening (24 hrs later).

Peel 50th Birthday show 1989-08-30a (part 1)

Peel 50th Birthday show 1989-08-30a (part 2)

- The K-Tel Hit Machine (1976)

The Summer of 1976 was considered, by many who lived through it to be the best and longest summer within in recent memory. Throughout Europe a large area of High Pressure dominated the majority of Europe for all of the Summer months. The Pressure system moved into place in late May 1976 and remained until the first traces of rain were recorded on August 27th and continued into the Bank Holiday weekend.

Rainfall throughout the July-August period was down by half the annual average. During this spell of hot weather temperatures exceeded 32 °C at several weather stations within in the UK every day, and Cheltenham had 11, including seven successive days from 1 July - recording 35.9 °C on the 3rd. For that entire period, much of Europe was bathed in continual sunshine with the UK seeing an average of more than 14 hours of bright sunshine. 1976 was dubbed 'the year of the Ladybird' in the UK due to mass numbers of Ladybirds brought on by the long hot period. I myself was three years old and don't remember a bloody thing about it. While all this was going on, K-Tel saw fit to churn out this chart busting compilation.

I'll be honest, boys and girls, voting for the all-new 1976 Festive 50 has been a bit slow so far. I haven't even received enough votes to put together a full fifty yet. So.... in order to entice to get your voting boots on, I've uncovered this truly spectacular compilation contemporary to the new chart.

Back in the days before 'Now that's what I call music' (do they still make those?), you had the likes of this little gem, the K-Tel Hit Machine. If this doesn't get you in the voting mood, just wait until next week when I hit you head on with the K-Tel Music Machine: that's right, it gets even worse.

Side 1

01 - (Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty - K.C. & The Sunshine Band (1976)
02 - Right Back Where We Started From - Maxine Nightingale (1975)
03 - Moonlight Feels Right - Starbuck (1975)
04 - Summer - War (1976)
05 - When Will I Be Loved - Linda Ronstadt (1974)
06 - Happy Days - Pratt & McClain (1976)
07 - Our Day Will Come - Frankie Valli (1975)
08 - (You're) Having My Baby - Paul Anka (1974)
09 - Love Really Hurts Without You - Billy Ocean (1976)
10 - Disco Duck (Part 1) - Rick Dees & His Cast Of Idiots (1976)

Side 2

11 - Island Girl - Elton John (1975)
12 - A Fifth Of Beethoven - Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band (1976)
13 - Let Your Love Flow - Bellamy Brothers (1975)
14 - Welcome Back - John Sebastian (1976)
15 - Evil Woman - Electric Light Orchestra (1975)
16 - Take A Hand - Rick Springfield (1976)
17 - Rock And Roll All Nite - Kiss (1975)
18 - I'm Not Lisa - Jessi Colter (1975)
19 - Who Loves You - Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons (1975)
20 - Disco Lady - Johnnie Taylor (1976)

Remember, you're being punished for having not voted, so the quicker you get the votes in, the quicker I can return to decent music. I don't think I need comment on what will happen if any of you choose bloody 'disco duck'.



File size:93mb

- 54-46

'Put your hands in the air sir
And you will get no hurt mister'

Fred Toots Hibbert

I don't use marijuana but I consider the continued illegality of the substance to be, quite frankly, ridiculous. everyone and their dog knows that alcohol is much worse for you. Just let people get on with it if that's what they enjoy. Getting imprisoned for marijuana possession takes the piss, although it did lead to two of the greatest songs ever made.

Imagine if someone like the Beatles or Stones were still performing...

The lyrics of Fred Toots Hibbert's '54-46 that's my number' and '54-46 was my number' describe Toots' time in prison for an arrest for possession of said drug. 54-46 was Toots' prisoner ID number during his servitude, and the original recording was made shortly after his release.

If you're not completely overwhelmed by these two tracks then there's something wrong with you.

Toots and the Maytals - 54-46 that's my number

Toots and the Maytals - 54-46 was my number

- HD Radio breathes life into local radio stations

A lot of us fans of old JP radio shows are fairly used to the sound of tinny, wishy-washy distortion, which can come as quite a shock to those of us from the, ahem, younger generations, who are used to all things digital. High Definition is a real buzzword at the moment and not without good reason. Just as you'll be finding with your TVs round about now, a lot of stations are gradually making the switch over to the HD format. The same is also true for radio, eventually we'll all need to get ourselves a HD radio receiver. Imagine how good those Peel shows would have sounded had we been able to tune in via HD for all those years?

What does all this mean, I hear you ask. Basically, local radio stations will be available to us as ever they have been; the American market seems to be gearing up ahead of schedule if the info I found on the HD radio website is anything to go by.

So, what is the point? Well, I've never had a problem with low quality radio frequencies, but eventually you've got to accept that times are changing, and maybe even for the better. HD radios look like they're going to have some pretty cool functions. Unlike our old mucker JP whoı went to such pains to give us as much info as possible about artists, my experience of hearing new songs on the radio, expecially here in Turkey, usually involves never finding out who the artist is until months later, if ever. HD radios could solve this nightmare with iPod Tagging, which basically means you'll be able to stick your ipod in the radio and tag the songs you like, thus being able to find out who's singing. I'm starting to feel very old all of a sudden! Times they are a certainly changing if this funky Polk iSonic ES2 is anything to go by.

- 3 Track Demo Out Now

So, I finally sent my demo CD to those lovely folks at Dandelion Radio. I thought about this long and hard, after all I abhor the music industry and think it sucks the life out of so many who choose this as a profession. My music has always been solely for my own personal pleasure, I've never sought to gain from it in any way other than in the satisfaction of having produced something that I thought was pretty cool.

I've certainly gone to great lengths not to use this blog as a tool for promoting what is in essence my hobby, not even listing my myspace page anywhere on it. Never the less, a part of me would like others to give my stuff a listen and say, 'hey, that ain't bad', or not of course. So, here's your opportunity to slaughter me and my efforts...

The Entrailicus 3 Track Demo:

- Urban Sprawl
- The Future II
- French Influence



File size.12mb

Comments, as ever, are welcomed.