Christmas presents to listen to and read .

Nick Drake on vinyl

In my old house I had a back room where all my records and cd's were. I used to love to sit in there for hours just listening to music. On a Sunday morning I always seemed to reach for the quieter more acoustic , folky records. Bryter Layter was one of them. I'd always wanted to have it on vinyl , just to hold the record,  how it was meant to be and now I have it. I feel like a sad old record collector but I I'm not bothered. 

Mary Epworth

She lives by the castle

Here are the photos from yesterday, I found a lead but not before I ordered a new one online this morning !

I know a little church standing lonely on a hillside

I took the dog out for a nice long walk today. I remembered to take my decent camera with me too so I could hopefully take some better photos than the ones I normally take with my phone. I took quite a few , it was perfect conditions with frosty leaves on the ground, iced up puddles and a glowing orangey winter sun. Unfortunately I can't show them off on here yet because I can't find the cable to transfer them to my laptop. It must still be in one of the boxes that have remained unopened since we moved in June. Shame because in the distance of one of them you can just about make out Brancepeth Castle.

The woman who owns it or lives there now is called Alison and I used to go to New College in Durham with her. She was a bored housewife then and was learning how to be a painter and decorator in amongst us just out of school apprentices. I always felt bad for her because in our 4th year she won Apprentice Of The Year, but unfortunately because she had paid for the course herself she didn't have a national joint council number so couldn't be awarded it. Shocking really, what made it worse for me was I came second on points after Alison so I became Apprentice of the year by default!  I wasn't happy about that and  in protest didn't turn up to one of the ceremonies where you got awarded with a certificate and a book token. This got me into all sorts of trouble at work because bosses had gone to the do expecting me to go and accept my bits and bobs but I was a no show. I got my first verbal warning from George Tyson the big boss at the council then who told me the way I was going I'd be lucky if I was still there when I came out of my time.

He must have frightened me though because there was another awards ceremony this time at the Three Tons in Durham which I did attend and had a nice three course meal with my Mam, Shaun Meek and Maurice Wilkonson. Maurice wasn't happy with me because he'd turned up at the other one and seemed quite pleased I'd had a warning. After I was given my National Joint Council pewter tankard I went record shopping and purchased Seeds Volume 1 which was full of some pop classics which I would play over and over again I also bought the 12" of Gentle Sound by the Railway Children which would receive the same turntable treatment.

It's cold out there today

Brrrrr....

For about the past 10 years or more every Christmas I've been watching a Jon Pertwee Dr Who series. I know I'll be running out of them soon.

I don't want to win anymore

Joanne , my girlfriend doesn't really share my love for the quieter side of indie music especially if there is a girl doing the vocals. It just doesn't appeal but it was her who alerted me to Trouble by Girl Ray.  It sounds like something that could quite easily have been out on rough trade at the end of the 70's, very post punk and slightly skew-iff but not quite off kilter. Part of it reminds me of Dorothy and their song Still Waiting.

zoom zoom zoom

It's been a long time since I bought any records by The Beat. I was still at school going out with a girl called Mandy Olerenshaw or maybe it was Janice Pearson. I was only about 13 , 36 years ago! Dear me , I feel old. I know it's not the same Beat members that were around 36 years ago but along with his son Rankin Roger is doing some of the singing and on Side To Side it still sounds like them to me. There was always something dark about The Beat songs , possibly because they managed to capture the feeling of the bleak early 80's so well and this has that same kind of atmosphere, it's almost claustrophobic. Maybe it has something to do with the desolate times we are living in now.

I have Mike Schulman to thank because over the last 20 odd years he has  released some of my favourite ever records on his label Slumberland. Last night I got to see his band Hard Left play one of the most powerful performances I've witnessed in a long time. They were energy personified. The crowd went wild dancing like whirling dervishes. Pete Horowitz was almost in need of ambulance assistance at the end of it.

you are my guiding star

Just thought I'd start and write about some of my favourite records of the last year. This first one Dying Star by The Luxembourg Signal arrived just before Christmas and is a drifting on a cloud kind of pop song with an insistent 60's -ish lead guitar with some vocals that are very dreamy. It's a remix by Robert Hampson (LOOP/MAIN) of a song from the bands debut LP. It's on a beautiful clear vinyl 7" and available to buy from Test Pattern Records here

A moment worth waiting for

I'm currently reading Kevin Pearce's excellent book A Moment Worth Waiting For. Every now and again I've been posting youtube links on my Facebook page of new songs I'd discovered whilst reading the book. I think I may have been annoying my Facebook friends so I've decided to post stuff on my blog again. This first one is a couple of songs by The Gist who were the band Stuart Moxham formed after The Young Marble Giants.I really should have heard these songs long before now. Shameful really!

Pushing it to the back of my mind, you see to all intents and purposes I'm fine

Just finished reading my first book of the year.  I really should have done it sooner especially as I claim to be such a big Edwyn Collins fan. The book is quite heart breaking most of the time, as you read all of what he and Grace, his wife went through to get him well again but they got there in the end,  it's an incredible story.

 

My best Edwyn story is the one about me and Graeme from The Love Parade going  to see him play at the Dovecot Arts Centre in Stockton. We thought we would be able to pay on the door but it was sold out when we got there,  so we had to stake out the doors to try and catch Edwyn coming or going. Graeme was lucky and as Edwyn strided up to the back stage door he told him we had travelled miles to see him and would there be any chance of us getting in on the guest list,  "of course" he said. We witnessed a magnicent performance, it was around the time of the Hope and Despair LP and he was on fire, i can remember him jumping about on the speakers brandishing his guitar, I wish there was some footage of that gig somewhere.



I was late to the Orange Juice party Rip It Up was first thing I bought by them. It was a double pack 7" with a fold out cover that I remember having up on my bedroom wall, the bue tack stains remain on the reverse. I always preferred  A Sad Lament, reminded me of T Rex? I also remember recording a Janice Long session around about the same time and one of the songs was Flesh Of My Flesh, for years I always thought it had a bit of "are you being served" vibe about it, but I found an mp3 of it on a web site recently and it sounds nothing like it!

When are you gonna see, I carved your name in the cherry tree

Well I really hope Teenage by Veronica Falls is released as a 7" on Slumberland soon, maybe gorgeous coloured vinyl too. I saw them a couple of years ago in Leeds supporting Teenage Fanclub and was well impressed but then when I listened to their records they seemed much darker with almost goth tendencies, but this is pop music the way it should be. It rushes along and leaves you breathless, then you go and play it all over again.

I heard about it on Xanthi's songs for girls to sing blog. (Sorry I stole your post title but I had to.)

Cheer up, Fucking cheer up , it might never happen, in fact it already has

Why is everyone so surprised that the Wolfhounds have returned with a stunning new single? Cheer Up is full of chugging guitars , insistent wiry lead guitar, a chorus so catchy that when you  sing it to miserable bastards it will be impossible for them not to crack a smile. Only January but it's my single of the year.

this old heart is beating for her, the sweetness in her spark is gonna make me stay

Well here goes with my top 8 singles of 2012 in no particular order. Well I bought them in 2012 maybe some were released sooner… links to have a listen are here too, I hope someone finds a song they've never heard before and likes it enough to buy it.

Cassolette - Stay Heavy (Cloudberry) (soundcloud)
Close Lobsters - Steel Love (Firestation) (soundcloud)
Alpaca Sports - Just For Fun (Dufflecoat) (soundcloud)
Go Kart Mozart - New World In The Morning (Brum) (youtube)
Sad Day For Puppets - When You Tell Me That You Love Me (acoustic) (Fastcut) (youtube)
The June Brides - January Moon (Slumberland/Occulation) (soundcloud)
Lightships - Sweetness In Her Spark (Domino) (soundcloud)
Lets Say We Did - The Stars Above Looked Bright And Green (Nesna) (soundcloud)

Should all the stars shine in the sky, they couldn't outshine yoursparkling eyes

But now you're gone everything has gone, will you remember me?

I like going to the dentists when everything is fine, like today!

Going to try and grow some veg again this year, couldn't get into the swing of it last year. Started today, digging over the first raised bed, didn't last too long, I forgot how much it hurts my back!

True it's a dream mixed with nostalgia, But it's a dream that I'll always hang on to, That I'll always run to, Won't you join me by the riverbank

 I can't believe I didn't write a single entry on here all last year, will try and be a bit more productive this year. The river at Hurworth on Wednesday.

Cup of tea and a date slice at Richmond indoor market cafe

 William Morris book. £2 British Red Cross, Richmond. Shame someone ripped three of the pages out of it.