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When it worked I used to like getting a bit of the vinyl on my thirty-odd-year-old Grundig
Mandello 7/GB, 'Audioprisma' speaker system stereogram (remember those things?) and blasting
the place out, (hopefully not so much that it got to the neighbours! - we've got
double glazing in any case), with those elliptical speakers (the best!) to anything
sixties-ish and/or danceable. It is very sad to report that, some couple or so years back,
a spring in the record-changing mechanism broke, so I have resorted to hooking the Hacker speakers - which we still had
in the roof space as a remnant of a hi-fi system we used to have back in the mid-seventies -
up to my cheap and cheerful eighties-vintage Alba midi-system - not quite the quadruple woofer
experience that I had when they were connected to the Grundig but at least it's something.
If you want real music that lives from a record player, with a bottom end that gets you in the guts, it's just
got to be vinyl, elliptical speakers and a wooden cabinet. The solid wood backs on the speaker housings are held
on by no less than ten proper wood-screws apiece. That was when there was real British craftsmanship!
No hardboard backs held on only by a few staples then! Also, the speakers inside might not be elliptical but they are of
the legendary Celestion brand.
By way of an item of late news the big old Grundig is now, minus its workings, a rather attractive table/chest in my
room after my fortunately successful project to extract those wonderful speakers and to put them into a pair of speaker
cabinets originally belonging a Rank music centre that I have also found in our roof space, sticking the plastic
'Audioprisma' grilles onto the speakers with epoxy resin - the best glue - to make a really trendy effect,
high-end-looking pair of 'new' speakers. Now, James, shall we take the Hackers/Celestions or the Grundigs for a spin
tonight? - all, in effect, for free!
When I'm not doing that, for six years or so I fought like something possessed, with the help of fellow Bus Station Action Group members, to help save the last Art Deco Bus Station in existence in the United Kingdom from a totally unnecessary act of cultural vandalism to be replaced by an inferior station and a whole load of unwanted property development.
I'm also a general, all-round, amateur 'Web-Head', putting all sorts of things up on the Web, either for information, campaigning, or just plain, mindless, time-wasting fun. Well, you've got to have a bit of everything!
Finally, let me let you into a little secret and one that could be a pointer to future
trends. When I get the chance at either white elephant stalls or at charity shops I love
snapping up any books, records or audio/video tapes etc relating to language instruction on
either radio or television. I have thought up a sensational neologism for this - 'Linguabilia'.
If there's anybody out there into the same thing I look forward to hearing from you.
Let's bring back 'Tele-Journal'!
As mentioned above, I was heavily involved in the unfortunately unsuccessful campaign to save Derby's
near-unique Art Deco style Bus Station.
You can find the Bus Station illustrated
below. Please do click on the photo to get some idea of what
the campaign was all about. It'll amaze you that a scheme like that which was proposed to replace the Bus Station (Riverlights)
ever got off the ground. I guarantee you that! In honour of its designer - please see below - I am actually
proposing that the building should no longer be called just plain Derby Bus Station now that it has passed into legend.
Instead, let us refer to it henceforth as 'The Charles Aslin Bus Station'
For your delectation I have also got together a virtual tour around some of Derby's best (remaining!)
Art Deco and 'Moderne' buildings. I hope you enjoy the tour!
Together with this, you might like to drop by a new site I have got together dedicated to the
Bus Station's designer, Charles Herbert Aslin, which is intended to be the beginnings of a new
organisation called The Charles Herbert Aslin Society.
Finally, how could one forget Lara Goeke's excellent 'Art Deco
Architecture' site? It is easily the most comprehensive guide to this significant style of
architecture on the Web.
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The Virtual Deco Derby Tour
The Charles Herbert Aslin Society
Art Deco Architecture
At a local gig by the 1980's Mod band The Threads
I picked up a 7" 45 of the band's latest release, complete with Web sites and E-Mail
addresses on the rear cover - vinyl power in the Internet age! At the same gig I also picked
up a barley-sugar-coloured vinyl EP by The Sacred Hearts, by the name of 'Psyche Out'.
On the subject of 7" 45's, I've had recommended to me, by a friend, a site by the name of
Solid Hit Soul.
Check out the Ace Records, who re-release Cal Tjader's material; the man behind one of the coolest
records I've got; Soul Sauce; it's a forty-odd-year-old bit of Acid
Jazz by any other name. Get it on 'Verve' records VK-10345
(64-VK-601) or alternatively on the album 'Soul Sauce', number V/V6
8614. Cal Tjader also has his very own site.
Although 'Punks In Parkas' isn't really a music site, as such,
there's some cracking Mod style-watching on it and for anybody interested in that scene it
comes highly recommended. For students doing fashion studies projects on the history of
Mod-ern British gear, say, it'd be a positive goldmine.
The Soul Survivor's site (nice and
alliterative name, just like my moniker!) has tons of playable *.RAM's on the site to get
your feet moving around your office, study, bedroom, or wherever your infernal machine
'lives'. All I've got to say to this site is, "is this what you call 'Eastern Soul'?"
If you think that's good you should try the Soul Club Juke-Box, since you can play anything that was ever anything in the worlds of, variously,
Doo-Wop, Girl Group and Motown and similar. It even runs to some British Beat. So, load it up and party. (All week if you want to!)
If you want to follow your favourite records up and down the (UK) charts - in the days when they
were in the charts - go to the "Nigel's Golden Days/Remember When" site.
There's obviously been a lot of work gone into this site and it's strangely absorbing. When you
get to the site you will need to click on the "Remember When" logo to go to the
charts archive.
A contemporary discovery has been a group by the name of The Gore Gore Girls
(yet more alliteration!) a group of three white-go-go-boot-wearing lasses from Detroit,
heavily immersed in the classic Girl Group era of the 60's in terms of musical influence and
image but overlain with a healthy slice of Grunge-like sensibility, all resulting in a breath
of fresh air.
For general information on things Girl Group you could do a lot worse than visit Chuck Mallory's Girl-Groups.com.
Its links page is especially recommended, but it's also fun in itself. Cha-Cha-Charming,
hosted by the amazingly well-read Sheila Burgel, is yet another invaluable database for
female vocals-oriented Pop.
On a similar theme there's a cracking-sounding club down on the South Coast by the name of
'Da Doo Ron Ron'. I'd love to make it down there myself sometime. This is, though, another fun
- and informative - site, which shows a deep consciousness of what the Modernist
Movement is all about.
Also, there is a radio station of rare depth and breadth beamed
from the city of Minneapolis/St. Paul, called KFAI (Fresh Air Radio). I especially recommend
the show called "This Little Girl's Gone Rockin'", playing the best of female vocals
over the last half-century or so, with a specialism in the Girl Group sound of the 60's. What's
even better is that you can listen to the two most recently broadcast shows on-line.
On that theme a recent discovery has been Mary Fox's Northern Soul show on BBC Radio Stoke.
Listen again via the link mentioned below.
Just to show that that 60's spirit is truly alive and well
elsewhere, see what the Uppers Organization is up to in Sweden, with its reports from the
front line of Mod as it is today. It'll blow you away, since there's links to all sorts of fascinating nuggets.
Returning to the theme of the 60s Girl Group sound, the legendary song-writer, Ellie Greenwich,
has her own site. I had the pleasure, a few years ago, of seeing the fascinating biographical
musical play about her life, at Derby Playhouse, by the name of 'Leader of the Pack', so it's
good to see a bit of recognition 'out there'.
Martha Reeves - 'The Motown Diva' - is back and better than ever. Join her ever-growing
fan-club by dropping by the Martha Reeves: The Motown Diva 'Yahoo!' Group.
Last, but but by no means least, how could I miss out three young Mod music men from Ilkeston,
Derbyshire, by the name of Censored. If you ever so much as thought Mod was dead just drop by
their site and you'll be well disabused of that impression.
The Threads' release, 'Sorry/In This Town'
The Sacred Hearts' release, 'Psyche Out EP'
Solid Hit Soul
Ace Records
The Cal Tjader site
The Affair (Class of '79 Mod band, Secret Affair are back under a new name)
Punks In Parkas
The Soul Survivor
The Soul Club Juke-Box
Nigel's Golden Days/Remember When
The Gore Gore Girls
Girl-Groups.com
Cha-Cha-Charming
Da Doo Ron Ron
KFAI (Fresh Air Radio)
Mary Fox's Northern Soul Show
Reports from the Uppers Organization
The Ellie Greenwich site
Martha Reeves: The Motown Diva
Censored
Rapid Rewind 2006(The Rapids/The Rapids Big Roll Band/Godfrey's Grit 'n' Soul Band - one of Derby's greatest contributions to the 60's music scene).
My interactive "From 'Sweet Sixteen' to 'Twenty-One Today' Top Twenty"
Record Chart, with some surprises in there for a Mod like me. There's ten each from the last
three years of the seventies and the first three of the eighties.
Mind and SANE, (Schizophrenia: A National Emergency), do sterling work amongst those with mental health difficulties. I hoped that, as a person who has experienced such difficulties, by taking on the task of setting up my own business, I would go some way to combating the baleful stereotypes that abound about people with mental health problems. Unfortunately, the company had to be wound up some time last year, but that's what occasionally happens in the world of business. What I continue to do in my professional and personal life will hopefully prove just what those with my sort of condition can do. Please support Mind's 'Respect: In Working Life' campaign: the fight against discrimination in the workplace on mental health grounds. It doesn't take a genius to tell what effect being knocked back for these reasons has on somebody whose mental well-being may be already potentially at risk. In connection with this may I draw your attention to an amazing journey - 'Tuk To The Road' - which was undertaken by Jo Huxster and Antonia Bolingbroke-Kent from Bangkok to Brighton in a motor-scooter rickshaw, otherwise known as a 'tuk-tuk', to raise funds for Mind. This set a record for the longest overland journey ever by such a vehicle, so please continue donating. SANE runs the nation's only emergency phone line for those experiencing severe mental distress and the suicidal thoughts that this can sometimes bring about, SANELINE.
Please don't laugh after the comments immediately above, but for reasons best known to myself I am a Dunfermline Athletic and Norwich City fan. So, feel free to indulge yourself in a bit of light relief after the above with a visit to a bit of the 'Auld Grey Toun' and 'The Fine City'.
Dunfermline Athletic
Norwich City
E-Mail:old_soul_rebel@yahoo.co.uk. I should be only too delighted to hear from you.
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