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Web Digest week 52 (23.08.98, MV1389-1414) begins | index | prev | next | ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1998 22:24:30 GMT From: <email address> (Michael J. Cross) Subject: MV1389: Beside Us There Is ... .. all sorts of things. Here's my contribution to the 'Musical Alphabet' thread. *If* everything was filed alphabetically, then PA/CJ would be surrounded by: The Art of Noise, Arzachel (Steve Hillage & Dave Stewart in their very early days), The Association, Virginia Astley, Atomic Rooster, Audience, Autosalvage, Kevin Ayers. But in fact, the LP's are surrounded by Erroll Garner, Keith Jarrett, John Klemmer, Stanley Jordan, Milcho Leviev Quartet, Thelonius Monk - because they are physically easy to get at there. The CD's are amongst some relatively recent arrivals: Help Yourself (at last a CD re-issue), King Crimson, Egg, Jason Rebello, Moondog, Man, Rain Parade, The Bevis Frond. all the best, -- Michael J. Cross BSFA Magazine Index at http://www.mjckeh.demon.co.uk "Beware of the Beautiful Stranger/Driving Through Mythical America" by Pete Atkin & Clive James, CD reissue 11/97 on See For Miles For more info on all PA/CJ releases, see http://www.rwt.co.uk/pa.htm ============================================================================== Date: Sun, 23 Aug 1998 23:58:01 +0100 From: Pete Smith <email address> Subject: MV1390 Re: MV1351; MV1346: Contentious? In message <email address>, Midnight Voices <email address> writes >As for his lack of commercial success, can anyone think of a lyricist as good >or better than Clive who has had any commercial success since the arrival of >Rock >Ian C How about Elvis Costello? -- Pete Smith ============================================================================== From: Ian Chippett <email address> Date: Mon, 24 Aug 1998 09:43:33 EDT Subject: MV1391 Re : MV1390; MV1351; MV1346: Contentious? << How about Elvis Costello >> I don't think he's (a) as good or (b) better than Clive James as a lyricist. I only know his first album at all well which I like a lot but he's the kind of lyricist (a bit like Dylan and Becker/Fagen, it seems to me) who could have done something lasting if he'd stopped indulging himself in wilful obscurity. Oh, and when I wondered whether anyone as good or better than CJ had had any commercial success, I could have added "or had any commercial failure." No matter where we look, lyricwise, we find crap or its derivatives. Depressing, really. Ian C ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 17:45:25 +0800 From: John Fuery <email address> Subject: MV1392: CONTENTIOUS Re: CONTENTIOUS Dear All, Whilst I was trawling though the Q site the other day, I looked up Pete in their Review section – "Over 16,000 albums reviewed and rated!" Or in the case of the THAM collection of the early 90s – "reviewed and slated". The attached review is as written on the site by the rather unpleasant Monty Smith, perhaps the least capable and successful of the CSM/Nick Kent era NME hacks. I think he eventually went off to work for TV Times where his critical faculties doubtless found their true level. Any way, here, without further ado, is Monty's – undated - review _____________________________________________________________________ The Clive James AMPERSAND (sic) Pete Atkin Songbook 1967 –'84: Touch Has A Memory Doubtless as civilized and sophisticated as the Broadway songwriters they so admire, Pete Atkin and Clive James made a number of perfectly formed folk-jazz-blues records that someone in an Islington basement flat revered above reason. Their record company was patient but, as Clive recalls without rancour in the liner notes, Val Doonican's cover version of The Flowers and The Wine made more money than all their other efforts put together. They called it a day in 1974 (sic), for Pete to sing his songs when asked and Clive to duet unbidden each New Year's Eve with the likes of Kylie Minogue and Luciano Pavorotti. Clive, of course, was the wordsmith, Pete the piano player (and vocalist, composer (sic) and guitarist). They met as students at Cambridge and this highly crafted 70-minute compilation is full of doleful melodies and meaningful lyrics from five of their albums. Driving Through Mythical America seems to be the favourite with five tracks. There's also an unconvincing attempt to rock and indeed roll, I See The Joker, released as a single in 1974. They weren't successful back then, and aren't likely to start a cult now. Pete's voice is unvaryingly declamatory and Clive's contrived lyrics are grimly poetic. Dull stuff, though perhaps not so bad that it deserves to have been unavailable these past 10 years. Q RATING - * * Reviewed BY: Monty Smith BUY IT NOW! (Seriously it said that, so I tried, and alas couldn't. _______________________________________________________________________ Oddly enough, of the five or so people I've passed tapes of BOTBS/DTMA onto, no less than three of them (all good personal friends of otherwise impeccable musical taste) echo the above review in saying that the music is "too tin-pan-alleyish". The other two people (non friends, but influentials in that they may be able to spread PA/CJ's music to a wider audience) have been the guy who runs the folk show on the local radio station who passed no judgements but made a vague promise to play a few tracks on his show when he returned from his two month holiday in an e-mail I forwarded onto the group about 6 weeks ago. From the organizer of the HK Folk Festival, not a dicky bird (he probably had a finger in one ear and didn't hear the package land on his mat the day the postman called) Since I don't post that often, here's another couple of queries: Re alphabet soup: how come no-one out there seems to have any Phoebe Snow albums/CDs? Her first, self-titled album was brilliant, her second only slightly less so. Re underrated singer/songwriter/lyricists, how come no one has ever mentioned the wonderful and very under-rated Warren Zevon? (I bet Ian Chippett hates him!) Re the re-release of AKAN/TROS; any news yet? And also (there I've broken two grammatical commandments in one go!) the forthcoming(?) seventh album. Sorry I can't make Buxton. See if you can get Pete to play "Between Us There Is Nothing" for me. Hope that it's a sell out, you all have a wonderful evening and Monty Smith doesn't take a wrong turning on the M6, A1 (or whatever) Yours from recession hit Asia JOHN FUERY ============================================================================== From: Ian Chippett <email address> Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 11:37:54 EDT Subject: MV1393 Re : MV1392: CONTENTIOUS << Re underrated singer/songwriter/lyricists, how come no one has ever mentioned the wonderful and very under-rated Warren Zevon? (I bet Ian Chippett hates him!) >> No, I don't. I don't hate anybody I once saw WZ on the telly and was favourably impressed by WZ's cynical wit but I regrettably never followed things up. What should I listen to first? Sorry for being off-topic. Ian C ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 19:14:55 +0100 From: Pete Smith <email address> Subject: MV1394 Re: MV1391; MV1390; MV1351; MV1346: Contentious? ><< How about Elvis Costello >> > >I >only know his first album at all well >he's the kind of >lyricist (a bit like Dylan and Becker/Fagen, it seems to me) who could have >done something lasting if he'd stopped indulging himself in wilful obscurity. There's a lot more of Elvis after the first album; 20 years' worth. And as for wilful obscurity, there aren't many who can beat Clive at that game when he's really going for it. Pete Smith ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 19:55:27 +0100 From: S J Birkill <email address> Subject: MV1395: Thoughts from Pete Pete Atkin writes (swiftly, this morning, before boarding the train for his Buxton planning session over a Japanese lunch with Clive): Ian C's observation about fades is interesting. Maybe it'll yet throw up some further thoughts. I think it's true to say that I always resisted ending with a fadeout - it so often seemed (seems) a bit of a copout - unless it seemed there was a good reason, either musical or emotional. (Sometimes a definitive ending might even seem wrong - the sort of thing where in a show you might segue a number into something else.) It'd be interesting to see how the Vs might either account for them or consider them a copout. One factual thing, though: AKAN does not fade out....! The thing about H&G (2+4 syllables vs 3+3) is that I was plain sloppy and wrong at Monyash (3+3). Clive always, quite rightly, intended it to be 2+4. The E in Geography is long; it's not there just to soften the G, as it might be in Italian. [Hear the 'correct' version from the Dale House demos, http://www.rwtltd.demon.co.uk/history.ram if you've got RealAudio -- Steve] I'd no idea Roy Brown had a tape of the Cambridge Folk Festival. As I remember, it was in the Club Tent and therefore scarcely a major outdoor performance. I could never persuade Ken Woollard to give me a proper booking - he didn't think I was really folk! There you go! As a local Cambridge lad (my brother and my Dad still live well within ten minutes walk of Cherry Hinton Hall) he indulged me that year to the extent of letting me have that spot (no fee). My Old Flame is actually a lovely song, but hardly ever played or sung - not a classic, great song, but a very superior pop song of its time. It has the same kind of sad, yearning, worldly feel as I Don't Stand The Ghost Of A Chance or Just A Gigolo or Lush Life (which IS a classic, great song). But Charlie Parker's version is truly and gloriously transcendental, on the shortlist for the desert island; he doesn't play the original melody at all, and I think you'd have to be a particularly knowledgeable and sophisticated hearer of chord sequences to recognise it hearing it blind, but the chord sequence is distinctive and challenging (which is no doubt one reason why he chose to play it) and he recomposes it into something absolutely sublime. The only sung version I have is from the soundtrack of a forgotten movie called Belle of the Nineties which I have only because it's played by the Duke Ellington Orchestra where the singer happens to be the star of the film, Mae West. She sings it really very well indeed. I do like playing it on piano, but I've never yet sung it, not in public. ============================================================================== Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 19:55:38 +0100 From: S J Birkill <email address> Subject: MV1396: Monyash Sleeve Notes Ian Chippett has now completed his commentary on the Monyash 2 CD set: http://www.rwt.co.uk/monynote.htm -- Steve ============================================================================== From: Ian Chippett <email address> Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 16:56:31 EDT Subject: MV1397: Reasons to smirk I just read on the more or less Official Randy Newman list (I know Pete and Clive are or were fans of his and quite rightly so) that they have between 60 and 70 members whereas we have, how many is it, Steve? More than double that? This calls for a drink. Cheers! Ian C ============================================================================== From: Ian Chippett <email address> Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 01:31:05 EDT Subject: MV1398 Re : MV1394; MV1391; MV1390; MV1351; MV1346: Contentious? << And as for wilful obscurity, there aren't many who can beat Clive at that game when he's really going for it. >> Occasionally difficult but not really obscure (except on "the Beautiful Changes") and never wilfully so. I'll be quite happy to give Elvis Costello another go if you can recommend something suitable. As I said, I enjoyed his first album very much and I was unable to work for various reasons the day after I saw him on the Stiff Tour of 1976 or whenever it was. Ian C ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 10:11:09 GMT From: <email address> (Dr Jeremy Walton. Tel: <phone number>) Subject: MV1399 Re: MV1398; MV1394; MV1391; MV1390; MV1351; MV1346: Contentious? Hi Ian, >> I'll be quite happy to give Elvis Costello another go if you can recommend >> something suitable. As I said, I enjoyed his first album very much and I was >> unable to work for various reasons the day after I saw him on the Stiff Tour >> of 1976 or whenever it was. I'd rate EC as one of the top-flight songwriters of the late 70's/early 80's, if the criteria is being able to write songs that "you hum a phrase from while you walk". His first four albums all contain excellent examples of compact, tightly-packed songs bursting with images of his favourite things (which he said in an interview at the time were "revenge and guilt"). My personal favourite is "New lace sleeves" off "Trust", his fifth album. I'm not really sure what it's about, but the melody is something that I think PA would have been proud of. And "Imperial Bedroom", his (I think) seventh album, has to be one of the best of all time. I lost touch with him around about the mid-80's (I recall the "Blood and chocolate" album as being particularly disappointing) but have heard one or two things since then (such as "King of America") which have been interesting. A vinyl junkie himself, he specialised in unreleased-anywhere-else "B" sides and other tracks (one of the byproducts of an extremely prolific output), but this has recently been collected together in his back catalogue, which has been remastered and reprogrammed for CD on (I think) the Hannibal label. Cheers, Jeremy ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 10:44:00 GMT From: <email address> (Dr Jeremy Walton. Tel: <phone number>) Subject: MV1400 Re: MV1380; MV1372; MV1359: PA/CJ Fairport, rain and records Hi John, >> I don't think it's expense, actually - the common factor is the way Cropredy >> recreates sounds to a crowd that recognises quite how amazingly right >> it is, and if they don't have all the original musicians Fairport have a nack >> of being able to fit in round the edges and get it to work. You might >> remember the sets with Ian Anderson, and Robert Plant, and Procol Harum, too. And Steve Harley (special surprise guest in 1989). But I guess they also try and mix in younger talent like Sally Barker and Eliza Carthy. And (my favourite - if only because we know one of the members very well) Clarion. I'd agree with your assessment of the feel of the thing, though. >> > I liked Loudon Wainwright as well; it was a shame he >> > didn't do "Men" - I could have done with that instead of "I wish I was a >> > lesbian" (nice idea, but went on way too long). >> >> - Didn't he pedantically correct himself, Jeremy? "I wish I *were* a >> Lesbian"? Nothing quite like it in the PA/CJ canon, I thought. Phew. Yes, you're right. I think someone in Fairport must have thought it hugely funny for them to do this song. As you say - nothing like it in the PA/CJ canon - thank God. Cheers, Jeremy ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 16:44:37 +0100 From: S J Birkill <email address> Subject: MV1401 Re: MV1400; MV1380; MV1372; MV1359: PA/CJ Fairport, rain and records >Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 10:44:00 GMT >From: <email address> (Dr Jeremy Walton. Tel: <phone number>) >Subject: Re: MV1380 Re: MV1372; MV1359: PA/CJ Fairport, rain and records > [snip] >>> > I liked Loudon Wainwright as well; it was a shame he >>> > didn't do "Men" - I could have done with that instead of >>> > "I wish I was a lesbian" (nice idea, but went on way too long). >>> >>> - Didn't he pedantically correct himself, Jeremy? "I wish I *were* a >>> Lesbian"? Nothing quite like it in the PA/CJ canon, I thought. Phew. > >Yes, you're right. I think someone in Fairport must have thought it >hugely funny for them to do this song. As you say - nothing like it in >the PA/CJ canon - thank God. > Take that as a challenge, Clive? -- SJB ============================================================================== From: Ian Chippett <email address> Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 17:16:00 EDT Subject: MV1402 Re : MV1395: Thoughts from Pete Pete wrote: << I think it's true to say that I always resisted ending with a fadeout - it so often seemed (seems) a bit of a copout - unless it seemed there was a good reason, either musical or emotional. (Sometimes a definitive ending might even seem wrong - the sort of thing where in a show you might segue a number into something else.) It'd be interesting to see how the Vs might either account for them or consider them a copout. One factual thing, though: AKAN does not fade out.... >> A few quick thoughts: the fadeout is a purely pop phenomenon. I can't think of any earlier music with the doubtful exception of Haydn's Farewell Symphony which fades out. Even in earlier days of recording, jazz, blues and other musicians always brought their stuff to some sort of conclusion. In fact, it's not a musical thing, a part of the song itself, more a production effect since the song itself must have an ending whatever Pete decides to do on record: when Pete sings, say, "Driving Through Mythical America" on stage (does he by the way?) he doesn't, one supposes, back away from the mike when approaching the last bit. No, he stops somewhere he feels suitable or, at any rate, not unsuitable. However, I think it would be impossible to end "Prince of Aquitaine" satisfactorily since the last chord of the song itself is the dominant A while "Rain Wheels" is a circular song and contradicts what I said earlier about production effects as the effects are actually written into the song. "Sunrise" has to fade out because of the taunting words at the end. AKAN I agree doesn't really fade out but the bass drum if that's what it is does. One minor question: was the feedback at the end of "Hypertension Kid" planned or was it an accident in the studio? Ian C ============================================================================== From: Ian Chippett <email address> Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 12:53:58 EDT Subject: MV1403 Re : MV1401; MV1400; MV1380; MV1372; MV1359: PA/CJ Fairport, rain and reco... << "I wish I *were* a >>> Lesbian"? Nothing quite like it in the PA/CJ canon, I thought >> A Queen At Nightfall? Ian C ============================================================================== Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1998 22:11:33 +0100 From: John N L Morrison <email address> Subject: MV1404 Re: Digest: Midnight Voices week 51 (MV1369-1388) In message <email address>, Midnight Voices <email address> writes >There's one thing that I've always thought hampered Pete in his pursuit of >commercial success, something that he himself has occasionally mentioned but >MV's don't seem to refer to much: production values. I have no problem with BOTBS - the Peter Skellern horns enhance it. But has anyone noticed how bandwidth-limited "The Road of Silk" (TROS) is? That was the first album to draw me in (John Peel 20+ years ago), but the first time I played it I thought the thorn had dropped off my soundbox... Pete - what went wrong in the mastering? The sound is so shut in - if the album is re-issued on CD (as we so fervently hope) can it be opened up? I'm ssure you didn't mean TROS to sound like that. -- John N L Morrison ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 09:35:10 +0900 From: MM <email address> Subject: MV1405: Endings Great to see Pete's comments on fade-outs, ie. being generally against them. I've had a half formed opinion for decades that they are an easy way out in a lot of pop songs, but I've never been able to decide on what is the definitive way to end a song. Please excuse lack of technical terms from a musical illiterate, but my favourite for a rock and roll song is probably the Chuck Berry/Rolling Stones, "Johnny B Goode" type of finish. Despite being a long term admirer of Pete Townshend, I always felt that the end of "Won't Get Fooled Again" - like the end of a symphony but with guitars - was a bit pretentious, but the alternatives would have been a Deep Purple type distortion finish or a fade-out. Folk music doesn't seem to have the same trouble, a song can just finish with an emphatic guitar chord and it sounds fine. Country & Western is probably the same, but I try to keep my research in that direction to an absolute minimum. While typing this I find that I can't remember how most songs do finish - even ones I thought I knew well - which probably indicates that most of them are fade-outs or that it isn't important. The classical composers obviously had the same decisions to make. I was listening to some Schubert the other day, and noticed that he seems to meander slowly into a tune, but make up for it with a huge finish. Mozart, on the other hand, launches straight into a good bit but his endings often seem understated. He possibly thought - quite rightly in my opinion - that he didn't need any fire and brimstone at the end to dress up his compositions. Disclaimer - the above classical music comments come from a very small knowledge base. Murray McGlew Country Western Australia (how does Duelling Banjos finish?) ============================================================================== From: Pete Atkin Subject: MV1406 Re: MV1402 Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 09:07:35 +0100 Sorry to be argumentative, but AKAN itself does NOT fade out, nor does the bass drum. It simply and quite deliberately STOPS. Maybe the fact that it's at the inside of the LP's groove, where the sound quality is significantly poorer, contributes to the impression of a fade. And yes, the ending of Hypertension Kid was planned like that. In fact I wanted Chris S to do a whole lot more than he did and make it a more extended coda of strangeness, but I guess he didn't feel either sufficiently inspired or comfortable with the idea, and it wasn't possible to spend more time on it - probably just well. All the best Pete ============================================================================== Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 20:50:34 +0100 From: Leslie Moss <email address> Subject: MV1407: Buxton Steve, or any other informed person. Any word on how ticket sales are going for Buxton? Is it the talk of Derbyshire yet? Leslie ============================================================================== From: Don Bowen <email address> Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 16:32:33 EDT Subject: MV1408 Re: MV1405: Endings I have a theory that songs which fade out are often those which were written or put together in the studio. If you're an amateur songwriter like wot I was in my 20's and 30's, you can't exactly play a song to your friends and, at the end, back gently out of the room, playing ever more soflty until they can't hear you anymore... No, you just have to work out a decent flourish and be done with it. Songs created mainly in the studio don't necessarily have this problem, the band just keep playing the chorus a few times and the producer can fade it wherever they (this usage blessed by recent Oxford Dictionary) like. Pete's songs sound to me as though they were well prepared before he ever entered the studio - so maybe they add weight to my theory. Oh, and Murray, 'Duelling Banjoes' finishes with a climactic 'Johnny-B-Goode- esque' sequence that is wonderfully satisfying given its (deliberately) uncertain beginning. And finally, I've always enjoyed the beginning to the Beatles' track "Eight Days a Week" which actually starts with a fade IN. Just a thought, but perhaps Pete could begin a song at Buxton in the wings and walk up to the microphone... Best wishes, Don ============================================================================== From: Ian Chippett <email address> Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 16:35:39 EDT Subject: MV1409 Re : MV1406; MV1402 Pete wrote: << Sorry to be argumentative, but AKAN itself does NOT fade out, nor does the bass drum. It simply and quite deliberately STOPS. Maybe the fact that it's at the inside of the LP's groove, where the sound quality is significantly poorer, contributes to the impression of a fade. You want argumentative? We got argumentative! I agree 100% that the song itself stops but the bass drum, on my copy, if it doesn't fade out, it's as near as makes no difference. I listened to it again this evening and it goes "boom-boom" a few times and then the needle lifts with no apparent cut-off point. Which raises another question. Was this track originally intended to be the last track on side one and if so was the bass drum ending pre- conceived? And yes, the ending of Hypertension Kid was planned like that. In fact I wanted Chris S to do a whole lot more than he did and make it a more extended coda of strangeness, but I guess he didn't feel either sufficiently inspired or comfortable with the idea, and it wasn't possible to spend more time on it - probably just well. >> Thanks for the information. Having played this track about 1000 times over the last few months in the car, it's hard to imagine any other ending. How did Pete/Chris Spedding manage the metallic crashing sound at the end? It sounds like more than just guitar feedback. Ian C ============================================================================== From: "lynn sheppard" <email address> Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 23:02:46 +0000 Subject: MV1410 Re: MV1408; MV1405: Endings I thought "Duelling Banjoes" ended in trouble! Lynn ============================================================================== From: Dave Jones <email address> Subject: MV1411 RE: MV1408; MV1405: Endings Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 18:07:11 -0400 Organization: Veramark Technologies Inc. Well, having nothing better to do with my time right now, here's a theory. It's this Darwinian symbiosis thing. Fade-outs appeared as music radio hit its stride in the 50s and 60s. As fellow Voice and occasional DJ Graeme Aldous will tell you, myths and legends abound in the business about what listeners like and what keeps them listening. There can be little doubt that talking over the ending of a song to set up the next song - or better yet, a commercial! - is a real hook. Thus, in the Darwinian sense, there was a selection potential for songs that were easy to voice-over at the end. Now which came first, the voice-over or the fade, is a question that's hard to answer. Maybe there was a song with a long coda that a DJ faded manually, and a record producer cottoned on to this. Or maybe a particularly lazy songster created the first fade and stumbled into the evolutionary niche. But in any case, consciously or not, people got the idea that fade-outs might help in getting air time. A simple test of this hypothesis would be to compare songs certain of air time with new hopefuls. Fade-outs should abound among the hopefuls, but be less common among the songs from established hit makers. Of course that could be better musicianship at work, but I think it's been proven here and elsewhere that musicianship has only a tangential relationship to commercial success. In this sense the 60's Radio Luxembourg policy of fading all records after 2 min. 30 sec. could be a viewed as an attempt at selective breeding of shorter songs, leaving more time for commercials from the Irish Sweepstakes and the fellow with the sure-fire pools system (to this day, I retain the valuable knowledge of how to spell Keynesham). Well, it didn't work, and the species radius luxembourgis became extinct instead. That's evolution for you. Dave Jones Rambling on in Rochester NY. ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 00:11:34 +0100 From: S J Birkill <email address> Subject: MV1412 Re: MV1411; MV1408; MV1405: Endings At 00:08 28.08.98 +0100, Dave Jones wrote: >and the fellow with the sure-fire pools system (to this >day, I retain the valuable knowledge of how to spell >Keynesham). Heck, and I always thought Horace Batchelor spelt Keynsham correctly ;o) ============================================================================== Date: Fri, 28 Aug 1998 12:15:34 +0100 From: Roy Brown <email address> Subject: MV1413 Re: MV1411; MV1408; MV1405: Endings >From: Dave Jones <email address> >Subject: RE: MV1408 Re: MV1405: Endings >Date: Thu, 27 Aug 1998 18:07:11 -0400 > > >In this sense the 60's Radio Luxembourg policy of fading >all records after 2 min. 30 sec. could be a viewed as an >attempt at selective breeding of shorter songs, Hmm. RL used to fade after the middle eight. We reckoned it was to stop home taping, so's you couldn't get the whole thing. However, as the last section was usually a reprise, my brother and I could cobble one together from two playings on our two tape decks. That, of course, you *had* to fade... > leaving >more time for commercials from the Irish Sweepstakes >and the fellow with the sure-fire pools system (to this >day, I retain the valuable knowledge of how to spell >Keynesham). Or not! It's K_E_Y_N_S_H_A_M. Should be burned into your brain... (Anybody got the Bonzos album of the same name, BTW?) 'Friends, my new amazing infra-bore method....' Makes Tony Blackburn seem almost palatable. > Well, it didn't work, and the species >radius luxembourgis became extinct instead. That's >evolution for you. The BBC had its Third Programme transmitters eight miles from where I lived, so you could get the Third on a bent pin. Whereas RL needed a wire strung right down the garden. When transistors came in, I made a circuit that rectified the RF out there (and there was a *lot* from that transmitter) and used it to power a two-transistor receiver optimised for RL. So I never needed batteries. I got a certain satisfaction from subverting the high-minded BBC to power their low-brow 'rival'. Roy Brown Flying over Rochester NY (if only in an Encarta World Atlas 98 virtual tour). Handy for Niagara, isn't it? -- Roy Brown Phone : <phone number> Fax : <fax number> Affirm Ltd Email : <email address> <postal address> 'Have nothing on your systems that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.' ============================================================================== Date: Sun, 30 Aug 1998 23:34:53 +0100 From: S J Birkill <email address> Subject: MV1414: Happy Birthweek Midnight Voices! Well, it seems to fall to me on this quiet weekend to round off the first 52 weeks, and thus the first year's Digest, if not yet the first year to the day, of Midnight Voices. MV1 was circulated on Tuesday September 2nd 1997. This will be MV1414. Weekly members will receive Digest No.52 shortly after this goes through to the (majority) daily lot. And then I'll complete the update of the Web archive too -- it's already good to Week 51. I intend then (in the next day or three) to make 'Year 1' available in ZIPped form on the Website, at a considerable saving in download time compared to taking them individually in HTML. You'll need WinZip, PKzip or similar to unzip them. Welcomes are in order for new members Robert Kirk, William Jutsum, Phil Triggs, Steve Salt, Ken Caird and Paul Gunningham, bringing our membership to 154. If there's anyone out there reading this on the Web, who believes he's (I don't subscribe to the OED's assimilation of popular but incorrect usages into the language under the banner of evolution -- the language does evolve, but until recently if hasn't taken quite that path -- nor am I being sexist [sorry, Don]) a member, but hasn't been receiving MV posts for some time, please get in touch. We haven't taken a dislike to you! -- you may have been deleted from the list after a run of apparently permanently bounced messages for various reasons, including not notifying us of an e-mail address change. Compiling the digests, I couldn't help noticing quite a small number of names dominating our posts. This nucleus of workers is what keeps MV going, and it's good to see their fertile minds forever dreaming up new topics for discussion. But I suppose I'm disappointed to see so many who join us with fascinating histories of their involvement with Pete and his music, and questions posed to our existing membership, who then, perhaps through a lack of encouragement, lapse rapidly into lurk mode. Some of these eventually tire of the dialogues, and lapse (with an e-mail move) or resign. If you're thinking of quitting, please try posting again before you do -- I'm sure there are many fruitful avenues of discussion which could be established from amongst the silent majority, which would enliven our group. Go back through the archive and pick up on a topic which just wasn't answered -- there are quite a few! http://www.rwt.co.uk/mvindex.htm A happy anniversary to you all, and here's to Weeks 53 through (as our American cousins say) 104! And I'll see at least 67 of you (including partners) at the Midnight Voices Buxton reception, and quite a few more at the concert! Steve Birkill ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Web Digest week 52 (23.08.98, MV1389-1414) ends | index | prev | next |Pete Atkin Home | Discography | Julie Covington | Audio Clips | Visitors' Comments | Join Midnight VoicesThe discussion forum for fans of Pete Atkin and Clive James, their works and collaborators on stage, TV, disc and in print.Midnight VoicesMidnight Voices, the Pete Atkin and Julie Covington Websites are operated and maintained by Steve Birkill
