We went to see her at the Thebby around this time (On 19/01/17, according to the internet). It was terribly humid, and she played all the songs from this dreary album, before finishing off with a couple of her big hits. Overall, a pretty underwhelming experience.
Might have to drag this out and give it a play - see if it's improved at all with age.
01/01/17 - Herbie with his favourite toy, 'Ropey'. He had chewed through dozens of toys until we got him this and he was obsessed with it. He would pester you to hold it so he could practice his terrier toss. It was still kicking around when he died.
30/12/16 - Back in the old days, on the #NorthernSoul scene, if were a DJ with a record that no-one else had, and they didn't know what it was, you'd scribble out the label or sometimes invent a new name for it. This is known as a 'cover up'. I remember watching Jonathan Moore DJ in the 1980s' rare groove scene, and saw that he had continued the practice. Condition Red is not a very rare or unknown tune, but it looks like someone had covered it up, maybe a long time ago, when it was.
25/12/16 - Here's me, singing Down In The Tube Station At Midnight with Tarbrush at the Jug of Ale in Moseley. I wasn't Tarbrush's singer, but they'd asked me to get up and do a song. Fuck, I loved Tarbrush. Bob was (and probably still is) a fucking excellent songwriter. I have very fond memories of playing with them and Bob was always good company on fly-posting hikes around Kings Heath, Moseley and Balsall heath. When we were back in Blighty a few years ago, we bumped into him in Moseley and had a few pints, and it was just like the old days, without the wallpaper paste-y hands.
In a world where everyone photographs and films everything all the time, it's hard to imagine that this wasn't always the case. It's nice when an old photo like this pops up.
18/12/16 - In the old days, every sliced loaf would have one thick crust and one thin crust - both delicious in their own way. Nowadays they seem to have evened them out, which is a shame.
10/12/16 - I swear by wood glue as a way of cleaning records. Back in the 1980s I lived in a very damp flat in Dagenham, which left specks of black mould on the playing surface on a lot of my records. PVA lifts it straight off.
2/12/16 - From a food company set up by a rich person, which has since gone tits-up. He's now turned his attention to immigration, naturally, which brings to mind Michael Rosen's poem, Fascism: I sometimes fear... :
I sometimes fear that people think that fascism arrives in fancy dress worn by grotesques and monsters as played out in endless re-runs of the Nazis.
Fascism arrives as your friend. It will restore your honour, make you feel proud, protect your house, give you a job, clean up the neighbourhood, remind you of how great you once were, clear out the venal and the corrupt, remove anything you feel is unlike you...
It doesn't walk in saying, "Our programme means militias, mass imprisonments, transportations, war and persecution."
