Andrew Hill – Compulsion
John Surman – Glancing Backwards
Allan Holdsworth – Against the Clock
Girls Aloud – The Sound of Girls Aloud
Various – This is Reggae Music 1960-1975
Pet Shop Boys – Performance
Track of the Day
Desmond Dekker and the Aces – 007 Shanty Town (2:33)
Nice trees this morning on my walk down the road...
To FOPP at lunchtime today for the first time this week and could not resist their offer of Trojan 3CD Boxes for just three pounds each, snapping up five and taking my total of these wee gems owned to nineteen...
Track of the day is Desmond Dekker’s “007 Shanty Town” which, according to the Trojan Box Sets website, appears on a goodly number of the compilations and so I thought would be reasonably representative...
Also partook of FOPP’s £5 offer on the Trojan 4CD box set of “This is Reggae Music : The Golden Era 1960-1975” – which includes the Dekker track...
19 discs for £20 – not bad value methinks...
Now I am thinking of starting a Reggae Club....
Another thing I’ve been swithering about recently is a podcast venture for Cloudland Blue, inspired by Mr Sid Smith...
When I first started buying records around 1971/72 and over the next few years, I used to make up my own charts and, with the use of my dad’s wee portable cassette recorder, I would record my own “radio shows”, introducing the records I was playing and talking about them in between...
Probably no bad thing that none of these tapes exists, but there’s no real difference between what I was doing then and making a podcast now – although obviously it’s all a bit more high tech these days and there would of course be the very slim chance now that someone other than me might actually hear it...
So, if someone else might hear it, I’d probably need to bone up a bit on what I was playing, so as not to sound like a daftie in between the tracks...
And, unlike the old days, where I would just chat into a strategically positioned microphone whilst digging out the records and playing them, I suppose these days I’d collate beforehand, all the tracks I was going to play, put them into some programme on the PC, record all my links separately and perhaps put some background music behind my dulcet tones to avoid the dreaded “dead air”, then splice everything together...
Then I’d have to convert the file to MP3 and upload it to my online server then post it up, either here or, perhaps, on a new “Podcasts” blog...
I’ve always wanted to be a DJ and, it would seem, now I can be (and so can anyone else I suppose, given the technology) but, hmmm, a lot of work, considering only a couple of people might listen (judging by the plays so far of all the “tracks of the day” I’ve posted this month) but, like this diary, it might be an interesting historical document (for no one else other than me of course) were I to go back and listen at some point in the future...
And it would provide a chance for readers to hear the music I’m listening to – but why would they – they have their own collections presumably, for which they may well have paid good money and want to enjoy – but then what’s the point of music radio then?
So, I have twelve tracks ready to podcast, should I find the time – my methodology for choosing what to play? Well, I’m leaving that to chance – 3 tracks each from the Rock & Pop, Jazz, Classical and Compilation Jukeboxes respectively, chosen completely at random by each machine’s shuffleplay facility...
Anyhoo – this evening I returned home carrying my FOPP booty and Anne was already home and preparing a giant lasagne with salad and garlic bread and our good chum Chris-with-a-C was also at Crispycat Towers, enjoying Girls Aloud’s greatest hits CD...
An excellent evening ensued with some top reggae tunes from 1960-1968 soundtracking much drinking and carousing prior to a superb meal....
Of course, Meg the Black Cat joined in as usual...
Then we enjoyed the ribald humour of Mr Frankie Boyle on the DVD purchased at Xmas....
We ended the evening with some Pet Shop Boys, as Chris set off into the night to travel back to the kingdom of Fife and the chef took a well earned snooze...
A good day...
Highlight of the Day : FOPP bargains, Anne’s cooking, good company, Frankie Boyle, PSB...
2 comments:
Hi there Mr.CBQ,
green with envy with all the tales of FOPPery going on up there!
Re the podcasts: I set myself the challenge of doing six "shows" primarily to share my enthusiasms with folks by way of an extra dimension on the blog, rampant egoism, and to learn some new skills.
I'm hamstrung in that I only play music I have permission to play from the copyright holders. However, that's a good discipline for me to work within.
Of course I'm also hamstrung by not be able to read a script that might make me sound erudite, and so do all the links on the fly. And it shows but that's how I talk so that's just how it is.
Once the six is up I'll review whether it's worth doing - as you say there's a lot of work involved in it all.
But learning how to edit on the Mac was also part of the aim so in that respect, if nothing else, it's been a success.
Hi Sid
Thanks for the comment and tips..
I don't think you sound particularly hamstrung - you play a good cross section of interesting music which most people will not have heard of and so provide an introduction...
I particularly enjoyed the two tracks from the Andrew Keeling album this morning...
Your relaxed and knowledgeable between song banter puts me in mind of North Eastern John Peel...
I am a bad boy re copyrights as, as you might have guessed, I've not been in touch with David's Essex or Bowie to ask if I could put up "Stardust" or "See Emily Play" (oops or Pink Floyd for that matter...), because I only get a couple of plays each and no downloads (and probably one of those plays will have been me checking the track works)...
As with most things of an "artistic" nature, in essence, you do them to please yourself rather than a particular audience - although actually having an audience is always nice of course!!
The whole blogging thing is an ego trip - who really cares what i had for my tea last night - I say it's a diary (which is true) but then why does it have to be online?
At least your blog actually provides some insights into the music you review...
Anyway, I'm rambling - have just spent the last few hours ripping 19 total bargain reggae CDs to the hard drive for uploading to the compilations jukebox...
Am now thinking about returning to FOPP and partaking of their offers on the Trojan "Tighten Up" series...
Tasty!
Thanks for continuing to pop by...
All the best!
Post a Comment