Successful party...

Playlist
Golden Earring - Moontan (European Version)
GoGo Penguin - Fanfares
GoGo Penguin - V 2.0
Kraftwerk - Expo2000
Kraftwerk - The Robots
Creek - Tarnished
Creek - Creek 2015
Chicago - Chicago I
Chicago - Chicago II
Chicago - Chicago III
Chicago - Chicago V
Chicago - Chicago VI
Chicago - Chicago VII
Chicago - VIII
Golden Earring - On the Double
Golden Earring - Eight Miles High
Golden Earring - Golden Earring
Golden Earring - Seven Tears
Golden Earring - Together
Golden Earring - Moontan
Golden Earring - Switch
Golden Earring - To The Hilt
Golden Earring - Contraband
Various - January Hit Singles 1961-2015
Various - Songs of the Week 2014

And time just marches on...

First thing,after last night's debaculous documentary, ripping missing Kraftwerk albums from my CD collection into to my iTunes...

...and enjoying the music of new find, Manchester jazz trio GoGo Penguin, whom Creek, including the introducer, Stu Cobley, will venture forth to witness when they hit Edinburgh on 6 March...

A visitor in the garden...

...as the postie brought this, last in my haul of Chicago albums...

The law of diminishing returns is at play but there are still some highlights here...

Having noted a lot of people on Twitter like to post up pictures of LPs, I added a few this afternoon...

Fully autographed Asia debut...

Fripp & Eno 2LP Paris boot...

Fully signed "Lamb" from the Milton Keynes reunion in 1982...

My first Gentle Giant purchase...

A pair of Harmonias...

My first copy of King Crimson's "Lizard" - I probably have too many now...

The inner sleeve of my first Neu! album, "Neu! 75"

...and a trio of Neu!s...

...and a trio of Michael Rothers - a big fave when Anne and I lived in Germany in the early eighties...

The debut album from UK is probably my all time fave prog LP - here, their entire output - we will see them in London in March on their farewell tour...

The mighty Yes in a 3LP, 2LP, 1LP great cover trilogy...

A double of Kraftwerk, can you see the difference...

My vinyl collection (and indeed my entire collection) is full of contrasts, here the Pistols and Klaus Schulze...

And, finally, my last four LP purchases, probably acquired over the last 2 years (during which time around 800 or so CDs have been purchased)...
 

I spent the rest of the day (as Queens won 5-0 away at Cowdenbeath, finally vanquishing one of their bogey teams this season) at the computer, drawing up the playlist for this evening's get together for Anne's birthday (while Anne slaved over the proverbial hot stove)...

I decided upon a January hit single from each year from 1961 to now, starting with Elvis' "Are You Lonesome Tonight?", number one on the day Anne was born; and ending with Bruno Mars' "Uptown Funk", number one on her birthday this week - fleshed out with some of the more acceptable numbers from my "Songs of the Week" list from last year - in all, six and a half hours of music...

At seven, the guests arrived and a great time was had, starting with Hearts beating Alloa 4-1 in today's evening kick off...

Let the games begin...

Anne's Indian meal went down splendidly...

...and much debris was left...

...when Lynn and Ross finally exited around 4am...

To bed...

Good day...

Highlight of the Day : Successful party...

A wasted opportunity...

Playlist
Chicago - Chicago X
Jeroen Van Veen - Minimal Piano Collection Vol XVII
Jeroen Van Veen - Minimal Piano Collection Vol II
Stiff Little Fingers - Stiff Little Fingers Anthology
Frank Zappa - Zappa In New York
Kiss - Revenge
Santana - The Ultimate Collection
Jeroen Van Veen - Minimal Piano Collection Vol XIII
Various - Wait a Minute : The Stax & Satellite Story
Ten Holt - Canto Ostinato XXL
Ligeti - Kammerkonzert, Ramifications, Lux aeterna, Atmosphères
Chicago - Chicago III
Various - Prestige Records : The Album Cover Collection
Various - 3/60 Northern Soul
Beethoven - The Complete String Quartets
Various - The Look Of Love: Burt Bacharach Collection
Various - Return To The Dark Side Of The Moon
Booker T. & The MG's - The Best Of Booker T & The MGs
Chicago - The Best Of Chicago: 40th Anniversary Edition
Van Veen - Minimal Piano Collection Vol VI
Chic - Nile Rodgers presents The Chic Organization - Up All Night
Various - Wish You Were Here Again
Ter Veldhuis - JacobTV - Complete Solo Piano Music
Jeroen Van Veen - Piano Music
Creek - Creek 2015
Chicago - Chicago II
Chicago - Chicago VI
Kraftwerk - Autobahn

The tenth of the January podcasts went up this morning - all these albums were featured over the month...

For February, I think I'll cut back a bit...

We'll see...

A beautiful, cold day...

A walk down to Stockbridge at lunchtime...

...and a few things spotted but nothing added to the collection, which remains under pressure to be reduced...

With that in mind, I identified over 300 albums today without which I could quite easily live...

Home...

...from the West End...

..to the bottom of Crispycat Hill...

...which was subsequently walked up - man, you can't go anywhere these days without people sticking their phones in front of your face...

At the top of the hill...

...these awaited...

...together with a double DVD of Philip Glass...

Just VIII to arrive now re the Chicago studio album gap fill...

Anne had been cooking for much of the day re a wee birthday related dinner party at Crispycat Towers tomorrow night...

Later on, a break in listening allowed a very good "The Musketeers" adventure to be enjoyed...

This was followed by what can only be described as a travesty of a Kraftwerk documentary on BBC4...

I especially liked the bit where precious airtime was given over to someone and their boyfriend playing Kraftwerk records in a pub, because they couldn't get tickets to the Tate concerts?

And the bit where a so-called design expert/legend waxed lyrical re the minimalism of the cover of "Autobahn" and how ahead of its time it was in 1974...

 ...when this is the original cover...

...dreadful...

Techno "legend" Derrick May took some considerable amount of time on screen to advise what he thought of Kraftwerk...

It seemed to boil down to "That shit was on fire man"...

So insightful...

Paul Morley came in for some well-deserved flack on Twitter for twittering a pile of pish - although his point about Kraftwerk being more influential than the Beatles was right on the mark...

At least Kraftwerk themselves came out, for the most part, reasonably unscathed as they didn't participate, other than their performance being filmed by people who clearly didn't know much about them...

What a let down...

I had to listen to side two of "Autobahn" to cleanse my palate...

Oh well, off to bed...

Highlight of the Day : Chicago but should have been Kraftwerk...

Playlist : January Music Volume 10 2012-2014

Welcome to the new series of playlists on Cloudland Blue, to be uploaded throughout 2015...

This is the final podcast of January Music charting the history of albums released in the first month of the year over the last 50 years...

Just five tracks in this programme's 45 or so minutes with a prog suite from Transatlantic, mathrock from Mogwai and Everything Everything, pop from Lana del Ray and rock from Biffy Clyro...

We've come a long way since Dylan and Coltrane in '64...

Featured albums
Lana Del Rey - Born To Die (2012)
Everything Everything - Arc (2013)
Biffy Clyro - Opposites (2013)
Mogwai - Rave Tapes (2014)
Transatlantic - Kaleidoscope (2014)

Enjoy...

Using the button over to the right, you can join 1,300 or so followers of these ongoing selections on Mixcloud...

If you're interested in knowing about any of the tracks, contact me...

Press play and away we go...

Cloudland Blue January Music Vol 10 : 2012-2014 by Cloudland Blue Quartet on Mixcloud

White and not quite so white...

Playlist
Chicago - Chicago III
Creek - Creek 2015
Beethoven - The Complete String Quartets
Booker T. & The MG's - The Best Of Booker T & The MGs

Happy Birthday to the Exec Producer on a snowy day on Crispycat Hill...

The beast was doing its best not to fall over...

In town, the situation was not quite as white...

With no present having been secured prior to this morning (a 4:48am attempt at a trip to the 24 hour Tesco had been nixed by the EP), the search continued at lunchtime - to no avail...

However, on the way home in the dark...

...this pleasing item was secured...

By way of celebration of the EP's arrival on the planet, a walk was taken this evening down to the nearby Abida Indian Restaurant...

An extremely tasty slap up feed ensued...

After a long, leisurely time spent in the company of our Asian chums, it was back up the hill in sub zero temperatures, where coffee was cooked...

...and Meg the Black Cat with contact lenses was noted on today's cat calendar pic...

Much Tivo'd TV was enjoyed, although your correspondent succumbed to the inevitable torpor during "Question Time"...

However, consciousness was regained for "This Week"...

To bed post midnight, birthday having been very much enjoyed...

Highlight of the Day : Anne's birthday...