"Shaking in me knee bones and me elbows,
its driving me around the bend
Uncontrollable feelings sends me reeling,
There's no need to pretend"

Well hello there, I suppose I should have posted a bit whilst off on holiday but you know what with one thing and another (Call of Duty, Force Unleashed and the Jeremy Isaacs series Cold War) I forgot to do it. One thing I didn't forget to do though is half my Christmas shopping leaving the final four presents to buy at the end of November. This leaves me with a sizeable chunk to be put aside for the TV I want (it will be the size of the one above, although sadly not with the oriental lady) with the December pay packet. I would however like to state that my blog will not be affected... much anyway. Although with all the writing I've not been doing lately I had to kill my Farm on Facebook as I had over 5 million points and it took two hours to fully harvest, plow then seed every night. So I stopped it. Pity farming isn't that easy in the real world then I could get an EU subsidy to not grow anything in order to help reduce the EU 'wine lake', 'butter mountain' or 'cheese hillock' or whatever nonsensical newspaper invented thing there is.
I did however think (again) about dumping the blog, but thanks to the comments that came flooding in quite literally in their ones I have thought again, despite the 'worldwide blogging downturn' in WIRED magazine. After all however will you get your daily quota of ill informed badly spelled and grammatically incorrect load of old bollocks if I retire after these 4 years or so?
My colleague and friend at work has decided that she is more or less going to go to the good ole' USA of A for 6 months next year. I said that it's better to do it now and not wait like I did and find yourself never doing these things. I had all the enthusiasm but none of the money when I was younger to travel and now I have the money to do it I don't want to go anywhere. Bloody life.
I am however making friends again at work with some of the population of Bournemouth through my cheery demeanour (no really), I have an elderly gentleman who comes in now and again to chat about aircraft with me. I've just given him my copy of Vulcan 607 which you should read if you get the chance. It's about the story of Operation Black Buck against Port Stanley airfield back in 1982. Although there's no jingoistic flag waving 'up your Junta!' Sun type cobblers in it, it does what a good book should do and just present the facts from all sides concerned and lets the reader decide what's what. Personally I thought it was a miracle we hit the runway at all when you read the book not to mention the typical British 'sellotape bits to military equipment to make it work' ethos. So all this hoo hah at the moment of not having the right kit and not enough helicopters etc is nothing new.

Anyway here's the music Madness' - Remastered version of One Step Beyond and The Housemartins' Deluxe Edition of London 0 - Hull 4.

Oh by the way a friend of mine gave me this article to read. It basically says what I have always maintained. Home taping never killed music and it never will. Here's the article

The music as ever is in the comments.

"I never give you my pillow
I only send you my invitations
And in the middle of the celebrations
I break down"
John Peel
30 August 1939 - 25 October 2004

Well it's that time of year again where we all remember the late great John Peel and how British broadcasting is all the poorer for this loss. Can it really be five years since the evening I was stopped dead in my tracks on the stairs when I heard the terrible news of his untimely passing coming from my landlord's TV? I recently listened to some old radio shows of his that I still have on my iPod it can often bring a smile to my face when I hear the three occasions where he mentioned me or my friend Raymone from the South of France or Yara from Mexico or with some Peelesque witticism . Quite often back in the days of dial up interweb we'd all be sat there in our respective homes either side of the Atlantic ocean listening to him play fuck knows what. The Atlantic was our reeeeaaallllly big coffee table as we sat there IM-ing each other with what we thought about the tracks the thing is with his playlists was that if you absolutely hated the three minute thirty of some Germans banging metal tubes and/or screaming then just wait because the next one would be better. It was through him that I discovered a lot of bands and rediscovered others. Peel sessions excluded I think it would be impossible to calculate the amount of groups or artists that he'd given me since 1978 when I first discovered that the radio carried on past the time my parents insisted I went to bed and the delight headphones can bring you. The two main artists that I remember most though would have been Madness' Peel session in Aug 1979 I can't remember what it was exactly what caught my ear about it because so much more music has happened to me since. But I suppose it was a bit different from the normal punk and post punk around at the time. It was certainly different enough for me to notice in my formative years. The other was when the late John Walters, John Peel's then producer, came bounding into the studio late for the start of the show explaining the fact that he'd just seen live this wonderful artist called Billy Bragg, whom (if I recall it correctly) he then played. I also remember the Smiths but I think I missed the first session and heard David Kid Jensen play them first one evening as we travelled to get a Chinese meal from the next town over and then caught one of the many times they repeated the session. PJ Harvey is another artist he introduced me to. There have been many more artists that I liked but the ravages of time have taken their toll on my memory and I no longer remember where I heard them first. . But suffice to say that my iPod is a testament to the fact that if John Peel taught me anything it was to listen to diverse music and try to hear new stuff as often as possible and above all share it all.

Speaking of which here's the music. All are Peel related, either groups he championed or introduced live. Obviously I can't upload every group he championed otherwise I'd be writing this for another couple of hours or so at least so make do with what you get here, download them all and play them loud and remember a great DJ.

Billy Bragg - Back to Basics
The Buzzcocks - Spiral Scratch EP
David Bowie - In Concert 1973 John Peel
Half Man Half Biscuit - Peel Session 1999
Humble Pie - BBC Sessions
Various Artists - The Pig's Big '78's
Various Artists - John Peel A Tribute
Joy Division - Peel Sessions 1979
Various Artists - Festive Fifty 1989
Madness - Peel Session 1979
Various Artists - Right Time Wrong Speed
The Wedding Present - Peel Sessions (1992 - 1995)
TheFaces - Live Paris Theatre 1973
The Fall - Grotesque (After Gramme)

That's all for now.

"You know, now we get worried about what we say
We shouldn't be that way
You know, I don't care who comes,
cos as far as I'm concerned,
Its, eggs bacon beans and a fried slice"

You know I'm quite happily minding my own beeswax enjoying the world in colour, when something happens to make you sit up and take notice of the old monochrome world. Yes, it's time for the semi frequent Norfolk bashing again. Well not much of one really (sorry to disappoint) but I'm really getting happy about following Naaaaaaaarch city FC again as this season they seem to have pulled their collective fingers out and manage to cobble a few good results together. Thereby doubling the club record of one win in a row to two a record that going by many many years of following the club will long be held. I was shocked at the fact that Naaaaaarch managed to score 5 goals in one match, I was so shocked at the result on the BBC 1 show late Saturday night I had to have a lie down for eight hours. I have dusted off my old scarves and bobble hat and now proudly tell people I support Naaaaaarch City rather than hang my head in shame, although after the first game where we got royally rogered 6-1 I did have my 'Barnstoneworth!' moment of rage.
However this wasn't what got me interested in North Norfolk (if anything ever did of course) but after wondering why I haven't heard from my lickle sister for several months has she been constantly drunk all this time? I just was bored so I YouTubed the town of North Walsham and got a rather interesting flyover video someone had posted. You see the whole town and in my mind had it been the eighties then I would have quite happily accepted it as the view from a lone Russian bomber paying a visit and dropping a little present on us and I would have been incinerated along with my Madness record collection and ten speed racer. Then I got a video of Christmas time in North Walsham and coudn't get the rendition of 'away in a manger' out of my bloody head until exorcised with a little help from AC/DC.
However this wasn't what got me interested in Norfolk either. What did was the random bolt out of the blue where a beautiful woman I used to love but didn't feel I had what she needed for a good life and so distanced my self from her physically and geographically added me to her Facebook. And some things get better with age she is the living proof. To tell you the truth I was about to delete my facebook account as I got a little bored with it after all I have mastered the FarmVille app with 4 million coins and climbing and I just spend too much time on it as well. I always thought that people were best remembered in memory as what they were. Because I always go back to the Charles Dickens story of the woman he loved but didn't get involved with but many years later when his own marriage had gone awry he found out that she was a widow now and he went to see her. But she was no longer the great beauty that he had remembered fondly but a worn out old woman. I suppose that you could argue that he didn't really love her and that he held on to a forlorn hope of happiness with something that could never be. A theme I am all too familiar with. Still, a man can dream maybe in another life I get to win this time? For a long time I couldn't listen to The Jam's 'A Bitterest Pill' without picturing her, her husband and my forms in the various parts in the video playing in my mind. But anyway it's all water under the bridge and builds character and as I've said before I have the best built character I know I wouldn't mind a little bit of crumbling facade every now and then thank you.

The music is Kraftwerk - Autobahn and a load of Trojan singles from the early period of the label. Enjoy.

"Come on my friends, I would now like to propose a toast-
To the strength I see that's surrounding me and those who've cared,
Oh yes, I've been scared and I'm telling anyone who'll listen
I've seen what's on show and now there's no more to know,
Oh I've been there, I've seen there, I've seemed it, dreamed it,
Schemed it.
You see I know this to be true,
Now would I lie to you?
And I'm not waiting for approval from you."

Well it happened, I succumbed to the thrall that the mega pop star band Madness continue to hold me in. I am as we speak awaiting my ticket from the gig down the road. For the first time in several tours they are playing the B.I.C and I may be persuaded to part with some of my hardly earned and miss a payment on my 50" tv (unless I have saved enough by then that is). I've already started looking around for different providers of electrical goods. All I need to do is stay employed (some days are easier than others). One of these days one of the homeless scum will push me too far by stealing some of our crap. I chuck them out and new ones just come the next day. I really will write to the council with regards to my gas chamber plan or 'Final solution' as I like to call it. I mean let's be honest, life is all about choices. Obviously there are the right ones and the wrong ones.
Here's a story about me from my dark dank distant past in the dark ages (Norfolk in the Eighties). Picture the scene, I was fostered with a bunch of c*nts exactly twelve miles from anywhere. I was banned from seeing my old friends (not that that stopped me) I was made to walk twelve miles to Norwich job centre and back instead of the one four miles in the other direction for fear that I'd see my old 'ruffian friends' (ha if only you knew those three, I was the ruffian). With only a broken walkman with one tape of Mad Not Mad and Radio 2 the only station available and the grey and brown landscape flat as the prospects of a job for a school leaver with little or no qualifications and holes in his shoes. Now in the midle of the often cold days I'd be hungry due to the large amount of excercise I was being made to take and the quite often dull and windy weather around the North Norfolk countryside. I was permanently skint as the fosterers seemed to have thought I didn't need any. Picture the scene behind what was woolworths in Norwich and still is Marks & Spencer's and some jewellers I can't remember the name of is an alley way leading up to a multi storey car park and a short cut to the old job centre which was next to HMV down the road from the Theatre Royal. In the days before cctv I could have quite easily done over the little old lady and taken her purse full of notes. I don't know how much it was but there were a lot of brown and blue notes the corners of which were poking there noses out into the cold grey morning. I'm ashamed to say that the idea crossed my mind fleetingly, but I'm not ashamed that immediately I dismissed it. The woman was obviously unaware that I was there and I could have made a small fortune to me in those days. But she was someone's mother/grandmother/aunt and possibly I would have been caught and my life could have had a drastic change. The thing is to illustrate my point that if I can make the right decision and never regret it no matter how skint or hungry I may be I will not tolerate it in others. Despite the whole world getting more and more grey areas as we get older some things remain black and white. Always make the right decision. Apologies btw if I've told this tale before.

Music is Morrissey - The Mirabell Sessions and a repost of the Madness - Liberty of Norton Folgate boxset. Enjoy

"Laugh and say I'm green
I've seen things you'll never see.
Talk behind my back
But I'm off the beaten track.
I'll take on anyone
Ain't scared of a bloody nose,
Drink till I drop down
With one eye on my clothes."

Quadrophenia:The Rock Opera

Ok so let me set the scene, there I was expecting a school musical crossed with the Troy McLure Planet of the Apes Musical from the Simpsons. ("He can talk he can talk" "I can siiiiiiiiing!") etc. Musical theatre not exactly being the first thing I'd rush out and see. I did steadfastly refuse to watch more than the first twenty minutes of the Madness musical Our House due to feeling quite angry after all. Even after several attempts of trying as well. I had further misgivings outside the Mayflower theatre Southampton when the opposite courtyard was awash with scooters and 'more authentic than me' middle aged mods. I immediately thought that it was going to be like the Rocky horror dreadful bollocks show where everyone has to dress up and sing and dance in the aisles and all that unBritish crap.
But, no I was blown away from the opening moments, a live band who although were no where near the quality of The Who (who could be (no pun intended)), still gave an immense performance. The cast were fantastic and had no kind of the usual 'performance art school poppet' about them at all. The only downside that I've got with it is the bloke who played 'The Godfather' character resembled Eddie Izzard rather than the Mod icon pop star and although had a passable voice couldn't reach the powerful notes and sounded like Eddie Izzard being strangled at one point... which would be no bad thing if it were actually happening. The girl who gave a fantastic performance of 'Love Reign Over Me' sang so powerfully almost brought a tear to my wizened old self (adjusts to manly voice "No it was the air con that affected my contacts ... if I wore any"). But seriously she can't 'alf belt out a tune that one. I might even buy the dvd if one comes out. I have recently listened to the album as a result and can quite honestly say that due to the cast singing individual lines as I think Mr Townsend meant it to be sung. The album has become a totally new experience by that I mean the album instead of me thinking it was sung by one or two characters turns out to be sung by several. It now has resparked my interest in the album and I will have to keep it on the spare MP3 player I use when falling asleep. I wish I'd taken my dictaphone as I planned to do originally and do a bootleg for you all. When Jimmy (for it was he) told me it was the greatest present a fellow ageing Mod could give another for a birthday present I was a little dubious to say the least. When I had to break my embargo on Boscombe to get to his flat to be picked up walking past the Police wrestling with the homeless drunks in Boscombe gardens I was a little dubious. When I saw the (fellow) ageing mods outside I was little dubious when the curtain went up and the band launched into 'The Real Me' (brilliantly choreagraphed (oooh get me) by the use of four Jimmy the Mods to represent the four facets of Jimmy's personality) I wasn't dubious anymore. I don't even mind the having to set foot in Boscombe anymore (the first time since the incident at wankinson's (oooh the bitterness is still there then?)

Anyway I'd like to thank Jimmy and Emma for the 40 and half birthday treat. It was the greatest birthday present an ageing mod can give another that doesn't involve Winona Ryder and a jar of honey and certainly beats a paltry ten pound note from family into cocked pork pie hat.

Anyway enough bitterness here's the downloads. Firstly I've upped the Anthology albums from the Be - At Les for you to enjoy. Also I've upped the original vinyl version of the Quadrophenia album which I found on a torrent. Enjoy.

"Nothing, it seems, lasts forever
People change just like the weather
Some for good and sometimes never
I hope things work out for the better."

My pic from Bournemouth Air Festival 22/08/09 Guinot Wing Walkers

I think I may have hit upon the reason we all like to share online content. It's because when it all comes down to it the MP3s or whatever are pretty worthless really. Yes there are some great items posted by everyone but when all is said and done they are after all just electrons albeit electrons arranged into the tunes or video you like or have just discovered. I don't see them as a 21st century version of a record collection I see them as a modern version of taking your record collection around your mate's house and saying "you've got to hear this". If they tape it so be it but in my experience most of my friends have gone out and bought physical copies of the DVDs, albums or whatever that I've lent them. I have also done the same as my shelves will testify. I haven't bought all admittedly but a fair proportion of them all the same. Maybe it is just me being cynical and middle aged but home taping didn't kill music after all, Pete Waterman and Simon Cowell did but only if you listen to the charts which I don't. If you listen to BBC6 Music (here) then you realise what great music there is about.
What got me started thinking about all this was the current madness single is released as an MP3 only and therefore will leave a gap in my collection, many others on the official site were miffed too but a few took the 'my band right or wrong' stance and just became insulting which is pointless and anti democratic, everyone should be able to opine rightly or wrongly without some Daily Star reading moron banging his chimp like knuckles on the keyboard in argument so I deleted the bookmark and don't plan to go back to the site. My beef is that when they wanted forty quid from us nothing was too good, the Norton Folgate box set was good value for money and I'll buy another for my mate at Christmas. But when it comes to providing a solid object for the paltry some of £1.79 no one thought it was worth the effort. It's like if I'd paid to see the aircraft at RNAS Yeovilton Air Day back in July and they'd just had some bloke walking past the crowd with pictures of the aircraft instead. It's a pity because Madness of old would bend over backwards to give you value for money and sometimes (more often than not), you'd get more than expected. There were always reasons to buy the 12" be it a remix or an extra track or two or free comic. The fan club as I'm sure many of you were aware was great value and was voted so back in the '80's. But then I suppose like everyone else the band and the management have succumbed to the 'Me' generation and are feathering the nests for retirement? I will of course buy the Madness book (here), the Suggs book (here) and the new Madness compilation (here) even though I have all the tracks. You can never really get over your first love can you? They cheat on you but you still throw money at them in an effort to get them to be wholly yours again but it's never the same. Despite it all you still yearn albeit with a bitter twang at the back of your mind.

Here's the music from a certain popular beat combo from Liverpool the stereo remasters. (ahem) For a clue here's a clue type clue. Certain amount of joy to be found as they are all on my ipod.

"Sitting in an English garden waiting for the sun.
If the sun don't come, you get a tan from
Standing in the English rain.
I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus,
goo goo gajoob ga goo goo gajoob."

At last the Bournemouth Air Festival is upon us. Yay I hear me cry. I've had the four days booked off for at least nine months or so. This is my window display what I did (it's better than working), I'm pretty chuffed with it although they made me put stock in the window too, sigh, not enough aeroplanes. I have in idea for next year (providing I'm working there of course) I want to add flashing LED lights to the planes. Although me being me they will have to be the correct colour in the correct position, after all any of the other shops doing a display did a few planes. But because I was a pedantic arse as usual I did nine planes because there are nine Red Arrows. There was a charity auction prize that I'd bought a few bits for but no one replied to my emails so I withdrew it as being paltry and not worth the entry. So if anyone wants a book on the Red Arrows, a Red Arrows mug and teddy bear then let me know via email and I'll send them to you for nowt.
I'll also post the links to the first three days' worth of my photos on Facebook I do need a better camera but these have come out alright I think. Most of them have been from right down on the shoreline, making my feet get a bit wetted every now and then. The Red Arrows are always a favourite of mine and I've lost count of the times I've seen them. I always remember them though. It would seem from the reaction of Friday's crowd that there are many others who appreciate their efforts as well judging form the spontaneous applause upon well executed manoeuvres. The Battle of Britain memorial flight made an appearance on Friday afternoon and was widely applauded too, a nice gesture but you have to ask why when they can't hear you. Anyhoo nice to be appreciated I suppose. In between texts from friends who were at work asking me how the airshow was I was enjoying the displays. I didn't expect to enjoy the wing walkers Team Guinot but I certainly did. It was an amazing show on the Thursday and even better with the lower winds on the Friday and with my better placement along the sea. The Blades were good too with, as you'd expect from Ex Red Arrow pilots, an excellent display in the late afternoon sunshine. Also I've finally seen it in action for the first time since the Eighties... the Vulcan. This is the third airshow I've been to where it was supposed to fly but couldn't due to a bit falling off, low batteries or something but by god when it roars overhead in the left hand bank it doesn't half go right through your chest. Speaking of which another first for me was the Eurofighter Typhoon which also packed a wallop. This had to be brought forward on the programme due to increasingly leaden skies. It only tipped down on the way home for half an hour so all in all it wasn't bad. The Thursday we only had one Black Cat display Lynx but two on the Friday. The Yaks were pretty good too. We had a fleeting flypast on Thursday from a Chinook but I suppose that they are in great demand lately in Afghanistan so it would upset the Daily Mail to have one frolicking about for the delight of the airshow fraternity. I haven't bothered with the stuff going on in the Gardens due to the fact that I'm skint and only go home to do everyone's tea for them. It would have been nice to share my day(s) with someone but I'm the only sad ass plane/car/tank nut that I know. Here's the photos day 1, day 2, Day 3 Plus if you go to YouTube you'll see some clips I took and posted.

Here's the music for you. Bad Manners - Live & Loud, Adam & The Ants - Antmusic (The Best Of), CRASS - Sheep Farming in the Falklands finally David Bowie - Low (remastered).

Bye for Now