D.I.S.C.O

I took a facebook quiz this afternoon. "Singers from the past - how they look now."
The one I got wrong was Donna Summer which annoyed me slightly as it was the most played 7" in my childhood collection of vinyl. Mainly from visits from my cousin who always insisted put the "groovy record on".

I was not surprised to see that this 7" has it's own wikipedia page. Also the 7" was pressed by NY's Casablanca Records. Cowley died of HIV in 1982 and has always been cited as an influence by bands as New Order and Pet Shop Boys.

This version was a double sided 7". The first 3'45" on "A" side and the second 4'10" on the "B" side. There was a 15'45" version also produced on 12" which is a highly collectable item.

Gramophone

I had a USB record player bought for me for Christmas which I have finally got round to setting up. So up to the attic to rumble around in my old vinyl collection to test it out.

The The

Took a look at the 'The The' website tonight. All their catalogue is available to listen to free of charge for 1 min 30 secs. And the option to buy of course. Very nice quality in stereo even on the rubbish PC boxes. Better than most Ipod earphones though!

Problem is that most The The songs don't event start the first verse by 1 min 30.

http://www.thethe.com/sections/jukebox/jukebox.html

Grampohone

I went to immense trouble about 6 months ago to find a stylus for an old turntable I have so I could listen to some of my old 12"s. After 2 unsuitable ones being sent I evetually found the correct on which cost almost 20 Euros.

But dues to the effort and inconvenience of having to use an old amp to set it up which is a bit tempremental and has a tendancy to have fits of deafening feedback it was soon retired to the attic again.

Yesterday whilst flicking through a catologue I saw a picture of a turntable and was surprised to see they are on sale again and quite popular. The attraction being a USB connection to link to your PC so you can convert your old records to your storage device. At only 80- Euros I think I might add this to my Christmas list.

Maybe if enough of us children of the 70's 80's buy these there may be limited edition novelty vinyl being added to the thousands of options in distributing your music.

Sylvia Geersen

I was flicking through the music channels this afternoon when I came across a talented young lady on the TMF's (the Music Factory) "Oranje" show. This is broadcasting Dutch music which at it's best is not great. But Ms Geersen obviously has 'talent'. If it is in the musical side of things I am not so sure.

Sylvia was runner up in the 1st 'Holland's next top model' beaten by Sanne Nijhof.

Sanne Nijhof

According to Wikipedia who wrongly list her name as Sylvia Geertsen, after being on the show she signed with Next Model Management in New York, as well as a bevy of agencies around Europe.

Anyway here is her wonderful work 'Give it to me!'

Control

Balloon Fart

The Balloon I should have been on yesterday evening.

Yesterday I won a 'balonvaart' (Hot air balloon trip) on a local radio station (Radio Meerssen) competition. It was the star prize in a 'vacation top 100' competition. I only entered it as I was disgusted by the choice of most people's top 5's. So I put mine is with 'The Smiths, Joy Division, New Order, The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays'. Needless to say none made the top 100.

Anyway they rang up and said that I have won the 'star prize' of a hot air balloon trip and could I come in live on the radio show on Tuesday to pick it up.

They actually wanted to present the prize to me yesterday and take the trip there live on the show which was being transmitted that day from a small caravan site. But as I was out they gave the ride to other volunteers at the event.

Strangely enough whilst sitting here at the PC I then saw the balloon floating towards the house with the volunteers on board. They landed somewhere in Belgium.

I've always wanted to take a trip in a balloon but now I have the chance I have to admit I am bricking it.

Tony Wilson

Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud

Brian May is friends with Glockenspiel maestro Sir Patrick Moore

Brian May has finally handed in his PhD 36 years after starting it. Mr May decided to not complete his PhD and instead pursue a musical career with the pop group 'Queen', fronted by rockstar legend Freddie Mercury, back in 1971.

But after a recent research trip to Tenerife he decided to start work on his thesis and today handed in the 48,000 word work to Imperial College, London.

The thesis entitled "Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud", studies Radial velocities in the Zodiacal dust Cloud.

Gorillaz to Monkey

Jamiie Hewlett and Damon Albarn are following up their succesful collaberation with 'Gorrilaz' with a foray into the world of Chinese Opera. Last night on Alan Yentob's "Imagine" the programme followed them through 2 years of hard work to realise the project.

The Opera opened in Manchester last week at the Palace Theatre. The story of 'Monkey' did not originate with the 70's TV series as Albarn and Hewlett originally though but it is an ancient Chinese story going back hundreds of years.

After a spell in Manchester the production will move on to Paris.

Ahhhh Piggsy!

Mr Interactive

Tim Booth obviously learnt to ineract with the crowd in his early days. Can be seen very clearly in this performance of on of my faves.

Stockton Rocks

Echo and the Bunnymen

The Stockton Fringe Festival has got three? big names coming this Summer according the Gazette today. The festival which is free of charge to enter will feature 'Echo and the Bunnymen', 'Badly Drawn Boy' and 'The Ordinary Boys'.

Organiser Paul Burns said ""We have pulled off a blinder. We are over the moon; "People will need to get down their early. If they turn up at quarter to nine wanting to see Echo and The Bunnymen there is every chance they won't be able to get in. It's better to come early and make a day of it." Paul could offer no tips on how to miss the Ordinary Boys perfromance.

The festival, now in its 17th year, will run over the four days from Thursday August 2.

Moon Shadow

Moon masquarades as Mars


If you are bored tomorrow night (Saturday 03rd March), then take a look at the Full moon which should be high in the sky tomorrow evening.


At around 21:30hrs GMT an eclipse of the moon will begin with 'total eclipse' occurring around 22:40 pm. The moon should normally appear to glow red whilst this happens and will obviously dim in its illumination.


The moon will leave the earth's shadow around 1:00 am on Sunday morning. The moon is currently 401,798 kms away from the earth. Forecasts are for clearish skies.


Oh, I'm bein' followed by a moonshadow, moonshadow, moonshadow
Leapin and hoppin' on a moonshadow, moonshadow, moonshadow
And if I ever lose my hands, lose my plough, lose my land,
Oh if I ever lose my hands, Oh if.... I won't have to work nomore.
And if I ever lose my eyes, if my colours all run dry,
Yes if I ever lose my eyes, Oh if.... I won't have to cry nomore.

Cat Stevens turned to Islam after being constantly haunted by moon shadows, causing loss of plough.

Preston Hard Rock Legend

Gimme some Reggae Reggae Sauce

Levi Roots aka 'Keith'

Last week on Dragons Den, a potential investment seeker, Levi Roots, walked into the Den playing a guitar and singing a Reggae song about his sauce. "Gimme some Reggae Reggae sauce, so good I named it twice". The dragons looked stunned.

Levi knows his reggae, and knows his 'Jerk' sauce, but unfortunately showed he didn't have a head for figures.

Jerk sauce is a kind of Jamaican barbecue sauce made with all kinds of spices and tomato based. Levi has been selling this sauce with his barbecued meat at the Notting Hill Carnaval. Last year he decided to sell the sauce on its own and he shifted 4,000 bottles.

Inspired by the success he decided to try to go into business and approached a company that may be able to produce the sauce on a larger scale.

Levi told the 'Dragons' that he had a firm order for 4,000,000 bottles but it turned out it was only for 4,000 litres and it wasn't an order but a quote. Normally when a candidate makes an error like that the dragons will spit on them and tell them they are morons and send them on their way. But undeterred by Levi thinking a Kg was equilvalent to 1,000 litres two of the dragons Peter Jones and Richard Farleigh offered Levi £50,000 fro 40% of the company.

Since the airing Levi has been on ITV singing and has been approached by Sainsbury's to possibly stock the sauce and they might even release his song as a product launcher.

House on Fire! Whereabouts? Sidcup!

If I had to pick my top 10 artists of all time, Mulligan and O'Hare would have to feature.

Gary's GoogleEarth Game

Cheap Video

First Gig

Like your first record 'Theme from Monkey' (BBC records) or first LP 'Zenyatta Mondatta' by the Police I guess everyone remembers their first gig. Mine unfortunately wasn't really cool enough too be called a 'gig'. It was more a 'Rocktacular' or 'Metal-fest'.

The venue was the Redcar Bowl and the band was called 'Magnum'. Birmingham's pomp rock outfit? It was actually quite a good night. Fueled on by halfs of cider we got quite into it, and instead of falling over laughing when the Spinal Tap moments arrived we gasped in amazement.

The lead singer disappeared before one song, then appeared in the spotlight with a angulared mirrored head mask shooting out beams of light in all directions into the crowd. The crowd gasped with delight. Another song was played wearing fruit head masks.











'She should be made to smell the glove'

I left the gig thinking I was going to really get into metal. I was only 13 and I blame it on hormones and leather pants. The metal phase never really came thankfully.

Stangely enough I had been invited to a gig 2 months previously by 3 girls. But I quickly turned them down. 1 - It scared witless the idea to be with 3 girls for a whole day in Newcastle, and 2, I thought it sounded a bit 'gay' going to a concert that would be full of 'teenyboppers' all adoring the blokes in the band. The band was 'Frankie goes to Hollywood'.

The 'Kirk'

The Kirk or Kirklevington Country Club as it was officially called was a club run by the brothers 'McCoy' in Kirklevington. A tiny village about 10 miles outside Middlesbrough. Not an easy place to get to if one intended on drinking as no buses ran after 11pm.

When we first started frequenting the Kirk in our mid-teens we thought it was the coolest place on Earth. We also found out that some of our parents also went to the Kirk and also thought of it as the place to go.

The Kirk was the only club we knew in Middlesbrough that played indie music at the time, and we would sip our pints around the outskirts of the dance floor ready to run on as soon as The Smiths, New Order or Joy Division came on.

It was the highlight of the week. And budgeting began on Monday if we planned to go on Friday. Occaisonally unknown local bands played downstairs in the 'Kirk' mostly not that good, but if you search on Google you will find that in its day the Kirk was the place to play for upcoming and established bands.

Jimi Hendrix - Jan 1967
Jeff Beck - Oct 1967
The Animals - Dec 1967
Moody Blues - Feb 1968
Yes - 69
Jackson Heights -1970
Simple Minds 1979
George Melly 1973
Level 42 1981
Mott the Hoople 1970
Ben E King, the Rolling Stones, Rod Stewart, the Small Faces , Chris Rea also played at this small venue.

Unfortunately the Kirk no longer stands in Kirklevington as it was decided to close the club. The McCoy brothers had decided to concentrate on their restaurant businesses 'The Tontine' and 'The Purple Onion'. They were raised in the Masham Hotel, an iconic 'green tiled' building in the centre of Middlesbrough with Marks and Sparks attached to its' side.

So our next generation will never experience the joy of returning home at 2 in the morning, aftertaste of 'dodgy mobile van' kebab in the mouth, and 'Rock the Kasbah' and 'The Passenger' ringing in your ears, and a sore arse from bouncing up and down on the country roads in the 'clapped-out' smelly mini-bus.

And Kirklevington, population 282 will only be known for its unofficial poulation in the HMP Prison