Sentimental time this Friday after recent events.

Last Sunday May 11th marked one hundred years ago in 1925 when my father was born.

I had previously noted he shared his birth date with one Irving Berlin, who was born in 1888, and lived to be 101. He wrote hundreds of songs, many becoming major hits, which made him famous before he turned thirty. One song from the musical movie 'Top Hat' starring Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers was 'Cheek to Cheek'.

So this is for all you 'Baby Boomers' who are here today probably as a result of your parents meeting and dancing cheek to cheek. 

 -  B L A T A N T   A D V E R T I S I N G   C O N T E N T  -

This is the poster we have produced to publise the folk event in our local pub happening this Sunday.
It provides the details that were listed in the post last month called 'Fairlight's Folk Revival' that contained music videos: Click on

  

[At the beginning of last year]

Friend Mel says to me “Do you fancy doing a Vinyl Night up at the Cove. Like they do at the Jenny Lind in Hastings? “

“Yeah. Sounds good to me” I reply.

“Let’s ask Henry, see what he says”.

Henry at the Cove liked the idea and said we could use the upstairs room in the pub on a Thursday night. We cobbled together some equipment and went for a dry run to check everything out.

Launched in May, we switched to every first Tuesday of the month - our one year birthday is this coming week.

We have about a dozen regulars, which was good, and everyone enjoys listening to records they've maybe not played in years. First half it's play what you want, with the second half being a selected theme. We've had ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ (naturally); 'Desert Island Discs'; 'Tamla Motown/Soul'; 'Sixties Singles'; 'Film & TV Music' and 'Sounds of Summer' to name a few. And have Shake, Rattled and Rolled our way through quite a variety of tracks - Abba to Zappa - often discovering something new and memorable or simply a forgotten group or artist.

Picking just one such moment at random, which met with nods of approval and 'I'd forgotten how good this track was' comments: from the 1969 album 'Family Entertainment' this is 'The Weaver’s Answer' from Roger Chapman and Family.  

This recording is from TopPop, the first regular dedicated pop music TV show by Dutch broadcaster AVRO which aired weekly from 1970 to 1988.

Great saxophone solo is shown as a flute playing... no idea why ? That's the 70s for you !

   

Time for this month's 'One For The Road' track.

This is a band I heard back in January, just after I'd missed seeing them play in Hastings Old Town. Originating from Eastbourne the group are named after a collection of telescopes at the nearby Herstmonceux Observatory. 

The Equatorial Group features Helen Weeks, Dave Davies, Twe [Teresa] Fox, Andy Tourle and Neil Grimes and it's been written listeners hear the shadows of Neil Young or the colours of Fleetwood Mac in their music. You decide, but I'm hearing pedal steel guitar excursions like Neil Young solos and clear four-part harmonies. 

Here's their song ‘Feet’ from the most recent album 'Sea' - don’t know what the song’s about but the video is a definite front seat view of the road ahead.

Check out more music and videos: 'Fire'; 'Lights Shine'; & 'Electric Light': (click on). 

  

Record Store Day (last weekend) may well have past but I read a number of articles all about the subject. These made interesting reading especially after asking a favourite record shop in Hastings town about this 'Day', only to be told they didn't believe in it !

A long article I found entitled 'The Great Vinyl Buying Swindle' went some way to explaining what was conceived in 2007 as a good idea to boost interest in Vinyl records and to support stores again, has now turned into just another commercial merry-go-round !

This article* did deal with every aspect of the business from a lack of pressing plants to quality and costs of 'new' vinyl records. But the author had a a nice turn of phrase which I did enjoy. Like: 

- Record Store Day - RSD: festival/circus/ritual (delete as appropriate)

- New marketing terms for ‘Audiophiles’:

‘Half Speed Mastered From 1/4 Inch Master Tapes’! ‘Pressed On Virgin Heavyweight 180gsm Vinyl For Optimum Sound Fidelity’! Ob-Bla-Di-Ob-Blah-Blah-Bloody-Da!!!

- Crazy amounts of variations of special releases for RSD - re issues of classic LPs - ker-ching

- Greed-flation - Rip-Off Store Day ! more like...

I wont go on but the current cost of NEW vinyl is crazy and you won't find me paying such prices, that have more than doubled since 2008. Far better to hunt for 'old' discs at Record Fairs and shops that are selling second hand, at prices you can afford. 

Rant over - to this week's music. Which really has to be a new release I suppose. And I have another one of those amazing outrageously colourful videos from Escape Music. 

Soon to be released is an LP by Sign of the Wolf. A new supergroup featuring members from iconic bands such as Black Sabbath (Vinnie Appice), Whitesnake (Doug Aldrich) and Rainbow (Tony Carey). They aim to bring back melodic Hard Rock. "Evil has to fail so the spirit can prevail" - epic !

This is 'Rage of Angels' > 

*For those of you with time to spare here's the link to the article referred to. Link 

   

Back at the end of February I promised to feature The Animals version of Eric von Schmidt's 'Baby Let Me Follow You Down' covered by Bob Dylan on his first album.

Given a new arrangement by Americans Wes Farrell and Bert Russell, The Animals version of this song re-titled ‘Baby Let Me Take You Home’ is strikingly different and it was apparently a key influence on Dylan's change to electric music.

This recording from Tyne Tees TV in July 1964 is quite bizarre to say the least, not surprisingly grainy, while taking 'miming' to a whole new level of pretense. Great song which reached No.21 on the UK chart before the band's follow up smash hit 'The House of the Rising Sun'.

I recently found out that all these years I had been singing the wrong lyrics - I certainly hadn't been singing: "I'll do anything in this God-Almighty world, If you'll just let me take you home" ?

NB: Tomorrow is 'Record Store Day'. I may well revisit this next week.

  

Today is World Drummer's Day - hands up if you knew that ?

April 4th (4/4) is a universal celebration of percussion because the most popular time signature used in music is 4/4. So how about 216 drummers all together !

Our old friends Rockin' 1000 from Paris in 2019 with The Ramones 'Blitzkrieg Bop' >

NB: There's a minute of credits at the end - FYI.

The FMS has featured the song 'Blitzkrieg Bop' previously, would you believe nearly 9 years ago.

As a bonus on 4/4 Day here's the same song but from a purely drummers perspective:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpLKD-0wzDk

      

Hastings 'Fat Tuesday' music.

On top of the Unplugged Saturday 'Pub to Pub' afternoon of non stop 'live' music, Sunday saw the Umbrella parade along the Prom lead by Mr Wilson's Second Liners. From the bicycle wheel drum kit to the uniformed brass section they were quite a sight and sound !

Described as New Orleans meets 90s club classics - a totally bonkers rave that even saw rock 'n' roll power chords from the banjo player !

The White Rock theatre hosted an afternoon of drum bands and dancing (see photo). And dance tunes with a difference is what we got. Check out Mr Wilson's: Short promo here 

Expect Robert Miles, Fat Boy Slim, Prodigy and more... YouTube has plenty - this is a good example of their 'all join in' interactive performances > click here

   

A brief history of the changing RCA Victor single sleeve.

Late 60s the old red 45 bag design with the black label was updated to the orange label colour and bold logo type. Early 1975 a new sleeve appeared, designed by my work colleague Dick Whitbread and artworked by yours truly. (Modestly, I still get a kick out of seeing this single sleeve in shops). 

RCA single sleeve evolution - (L-R) 1967, 1971 and 1975.

The last 45 pictured above is one of the first releases with this new sleeve: 'Fox On The Run' by Sweet came out on 7th March 1975. It was the first Sweet single written by the band, rather than producers Nicky Chinn and Mike Chapman - gone was the make up of the glam rock look and the group finally had their own 'A' side record and hit of their making. 

Not that some of their previous hits hadn't been good, just that some had been a bit dodgy (see below for a Sweet reminder). 

By the end of March 'Fox On The Run' was a Top 10 hit, reaching No.2 in April. 

Here's a YouTube compiled Top 10 hits list > www.youtube.com/watch?v=JwOVua9IEd0

Some very poppy early numbers BUT their pick as No.1: 'Fox On The Run' !

Garry Blakeley is a virtuoso fiddle player and performed at the original Hayloft Folk Club with a number of house bands and in the group Brian Boru and Burgess & Blakeley.
Garry is also a full time member of the celebrated supergroup Feast of Fiddles.

Performing with his good friend Bear Lucas, on guitar and vocals, together they produce an eclectic range of songs and sounds.

Here's a taster with a couple of videos of Garry, firstly playing in Hastings at The Stag. And then below taking the lead with Feast of Fiddles from a couple of years ago (he is far right on the stage). 

The Hayloft Folk Club

Following the success of last year’s two shows that featured artists who’d performed at the Folk Club in the 1970s. This show provides another chapter in the fascinating history of The Cove.

View The COVE pub in Fairlight for additional information: thecovefairlight.co.uk/events/