a sad farewell.....

hey everyone

sad news has just come in - reports are that actor Edward Woodward passed away today.





whereas nothing lasts forever, this is indeed a sad passing. he shall be endeared to me, and many, many others, for his superb role in The Wicker Man above all else. but let's not forget the other fine acting roles he took on - the excellent film Breaker Morant for a start, as well as the TV series Callan.





and, in a remarkable career, he managed to attract yet more fans and admirers with his 80s TV series, the brilliant show The Equalizer.





Edward Woodward will be equally as missed as he shall be fondly remembered, and to achieve that is to have had quite a life.

back in stores at last......

hey everyone

well, a rare instance of a shameless plug here. two rather fine albums were re-released today after not being available for ten or so years at the least. you are hereby encouraged to go off and purchase them!

first off would be Holly Johnson's excellent debut album, Blast. featuring pop classics like Love Train and Americanos, the album is ten tracks of pure, perfect pop.





the copy you find on the shelves won't be signed like mine pictured here, but Holly does make himself available to the fans - buy it and try contacting him online, who knows he may send you something!

the second re-release today would be Holly Johnson's second album, Dreams That Money Can't Buy. for some inexplicable and probably criminal reason this album was subject to poor promotion and release by the label. it took me ages to find it when it was released, and even then i could only get the cassette!




this album features two great pop tunes, Across The Universe and Where Has Love Gone? that are the equal of anything else Holly has done, and overall the album is just as great as it's big selling predecessor. it's pretty much a given that Blast will get most of the attention from these long overdue re-releases, but with some luck people will discover what a "lost classic" Holly's second solo album is - i'm thrilled to be able to get it on CD at last for a start!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!

for my Aunt Susan......

....and anyone else interested in Slade, i guess!


Slade announce 'Live At The BBC' album

Slade have announced the tracklisting for their two-CD retrospective album documenting their BBC recordings.





'Live At The BBC 1969-1972' features a collection of hits the band recorded for the BBC, as well as a live show from London's Paris Theatre recorded on August 17, 1972. A number of Radio 1 jingles are also included on the album.





The tracklisting for 'Live At The BBC 1969-1972' is:

CD1 (Studio Sessions 1969-1972)
'Coming Home'
'The Shape Of Things To Come'
'See Us Here'
'Know Who You Are'
'My Life Is Natural'
'Coloured Rain'
'Man Who Speeks Evil'
'Move Over'
'Omaha'
'Sweet Box'
'Nights In White Satin'
'It's Alright Ma, It's Only Witchcraft'
'Raven'
'Gudbuy Gudbuy'
'Getting Better'
'Darling Be Home Soon'
'Let The Good Times Roll'
'Dirty Joker'
'Get Down And Get With It'
'Wild Winds Are Blowing'

Radio 1 Jingles:
'Radio 1 where the best music's on'
'Everyday the sounds we play on Radio 1'
'This is Radio 1, we're all having fun'
'We're Slade!'

CD2 ('Live At The Paris Theatre, London, August 17 1972')
'Introduction'
'Hear Me Calling'
'In Like A Shot (From My Gun)'
'Look Wot You Dun'
'Keep On Rocking'
'Move Over Baby'
'Mama Weer All Crazee Now'
'Lady Be Good'
'Coz I Luv You'
'Take Me Back 'Ome'
'Get Down And Get With It'
'Good Golly Miss Molly'





i am bewildered by any Slade release that doesn't feature Merry Xmas Everybody, let alone one released at this time of year!!



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Anniversary, Mum & Dad!

hey everyone


well, a very happy anniversary indeed to the artists formerly known as my Mum and Dad, now currently operating under the name of "Grandma & Grandad to Lyla, Katie, Daniel, James and James' sibling whose name i am not giving away just yet"!!!!

wow, the big 40 today! sorry that we couldn't find a "ruby" card for the occasion, hope the one we sent along is fine, and i'm pretty sure that the one James wrote is excellent!

how about some pictures to mark the day? certainly. Dad has gone on a bit of a bender in this regard, it has to be said. i kid you not, dear readers, my Dad has scanned somewhere close to 2000 (!) pictures of late, i have them sat on a memory stick right here!

i won't be putting all 2000 pictures up here, but here's some which are certainly nice to have here today! let's start off, then, with a time that Sugar Sugar by The Archies was number one in the charts, and indeed a certain David Bowie sat at number 16 with Space Oddity.......sounds like a good as day as any to get married!





a very stylish look from the both of you! now, ideally, i would like to go with pics every ten years. not quite possible i'm afraid, but let's fast forward a few years from the above to a time when, interestingly, When A Child Is Born by Johnny Mathis was at the top of the chart, Queen sat at number four with Somebody To Love and Rod Stewart had no less that four singles in the top 50......






i think the astonishing success of Rodders at this time explains Richard's hairstyle, although he does look somewhat confused by it! yes, that is indeed baby Gillian - follow the charts and you can work out how old she is; i am not saying the year as i do not want to get knacked off her! ace tie, by the way, Dad!

right, on to the coolest decade ever. now, i am not sure exactly what year this one is from, but i have narrowed it down to two. it's entirely possible that when this pic was taken The Power Of Love by Jennifer Rush was at the top of the chart, with Trapped by Colonel Abrams in the top ten, the Miami Vice theme at number 14 (if so, i bought the picture disc of the 7", so you didn't get the most expensive card from me that year, sorry), and - Mum this is just for you - The Simon May Orchestra were in at number 22 with Theme From Howard's Way....





...and if i am out by a year, the splendid Take My Breath Away by Berlin was number one, Gillian's top tune Every Loser Wins by that t*at Nick Berry was Number 7, and Simple Minds' (Don't You) Forget About Me was number 98 in the charts. which is not all that impressive, until you consider that it was at number 90 exactly a year before - talk about a constant seller!

as far as the picture goes, it was taken in a studio somewhere along the picturesque, magnificent North East coast. Redcar, i believe. if i remember correctly, it was taken by someone who was wise to the ways of converting Beta to VHS, and thus he probably did us (well, me and Richard) Commando via this long forgotten art form....and going back to the actual portrait picture, a rather splendid, larger version of it hangs with pride in the place us kids call South Fork!

onwards to the 90s, then, and i am not sure what year this one was from. i have "sort of" narrowed it down on the basis of the car and number plate. for their anniversary of this year, it would either have been Breathe by The Prodigy at number one, or if i am out by a year it was the splendid Perfect Day for Children In Need. it would be nice if it is the latter, as i suspect my Mum & Dad are not quite as big fans of The Prodigy as they could be.





the car in question had an absolutely ace car phone set up in it - this was all before coloured teeth things and what have you. you got a really berserk echo effect off of it when you called people, rather surreal and very ace! if i am well out on the chart, it was Robson & Jerome at Number 1, with Wonderwall by Oasis holding the all important 3 spot.

onwards to the present day (sort of), then, and here's a great picture of them from the expedition to Zanzibar they took earlier this year!





sadly, charts and buying music don't seem to matter much more, which is why for this anniversary something called JLS, which soulds like rubbish, is in the top spot. somehow the fantastic Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood Mac is at number 96 i see - probably something to do with "legal downloads", whatever the hell they are.

well, i hope this has been a splendid journey down memory lane for Mum & Dad, although probably not as exhaustive as the DVD that Dad "conceived and designed" that took me (or rather the PC) only 25 hours to make! for everyone else, hope the names of some bangin', solid tunes have cropped up and you remember, or if you are young envy, the days when music was rather important!


be most excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Katie!!

hey everyone


wow! four years old! nice one Katie, that makes James 3 years 11 months old!!

i am glad that we got to speak to you and wish you a very happy birthday today! that bike that you got sounds ace!!

now, i am sure there are some pictures in existence of Katie's 4th birthday celebrations, but alas the people of New Zealand are once again not allowed to send pictures. here, then, is a somewhat earlier picture of Katie!





i would be sure that we shall be having some cake on this side of the international dateline today to celebrate the day!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Frankie Say....

a big round of applause to whoever came up with this!!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bill and Ben and James and Grandad....

hi everyone


well, it might oddly be the case that this should be hi everyone except Grandma. that sounds rather mean, i know, but i think one of the comments from my Dad at some point was that the following images of Bill and Ben should be reserved as a "surprise" for Grandma, and the price of them should certainly not be revealed. erm, yeah, so pretend you didn't read this, right?

last week, when Grandad took James off to buy some cress(a) seeds, Grandad "accidentally" bout two rather well made Bill and Ben out of Bill and Ben flowerpot men things. James and Grandad both love them to bits, and on the next visit James was given the task of finding them!





Grandad then gave himself the task of getting James to sit still and smile for a picture with them. getting James to do something he isn't particularly of a mind to do is invariably a silly task to set about, but no matter, as Grandad's attempts led me to capture this wonderful picture of the two (four) of them!






now then, to further distract Grandma from the bits above she might not be supposed to be seeing, here's James rather excitedly opening up a parcel that arrived for him today, all arranged by Grandma.





James was very excited indeed when i told him that something had arrived in the post for him! now i can vaguely recall Grandma asking if anything had arrived for him, to which i responded "such as?". apparently Grandma had saved a whole load of cat food labels, the requisite number of which "won" or got you a subscription to an animal magazine.





James, needless to say, is very impressed that Grandma did this! he rather loves looking at all the pets in the magazine that landed!





after this magazine, and watching the rather splendid Snow Buddies over the weekend, i think James is going to start trying to get our two cats to behave more like dogs this week. oh dear.......



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

genius requires no name

hey everyone

well, our lives on the roads near where we live has been quite a formidable experience this year. they've been doing extensive and long, long overdue "upgrades" of the main intersection. a usual 30 minute journey has been changed into one of close to two hours whilst all the roadworks have been going on.

last weekend was an occasion of much merriment, as there was an announcement that the "new bridge" was to be opened. however, joy turned to sadness when it turned out that they were doing this in order to demolish the existing bridge!

here's a pretty bad picture that i managed to take....





yep, all they have managed to do, then, is take an existing problem and move it some five to ten meters south. genius. going on this morning, in fact, they have thus far made the problem worse, and journeys to verk and what have you take even longer.

these roadworks were supposed to be finished by April 2010; now we are advised that they shall take "at least another year". ho hum. of course, the neurotic, self-styled "traffic expert" (who can be relied on only to be as pompous as he is incorrect) on a certain radio station in our area declared this new development to be "brilliant" and "really helping", no matter how many people phoned in, berating him and the rather badly planned temporary road system.

on behalf of all who live in our area, a heartfelt thank you to the places where we all verk - i doubt a single one of us gets in at anything close to a conventional time with all this going on.


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!! well, not those who don't plan road constructions properly, and nor those who report that all is well with the poor planning......

happy (late) birthday, Christopher!

hi there

whoops! sorry this is a bit late, but in some sort of defence i only got the pictures today! many thanks for sending them, Uncle Trevor!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRISTOPHER! by all accounts you had a wonderful day, with even Trevor's faithful sidekick companion Ruby making a card for you!





looks like you had a most excellent cake for the occasion! i take it as that's you on the picture? and dare i ask who opted for what looks like pink stars on it?





12 already! blimey, where did time go, he writes, planning away for James' 4th birthday.....

nice massive big pink thing you got there for your birthday, Christopher! erm, what is it, exactly?




and finally, one of the candles on the cake blazing away, giving one of those "real light" images Kubrick perfected in Barry Lyndon......





well, hope you had a fantastic day! next up, young man, are the teen years - they are ace, trust me!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cressa

hey everyone

well, first off, two apologies. it feels like ages since i updated this site, sorry - things have been somewhat hectic in getting ready for the arrival in early December!

secondly, apologies for anyone who has come to look at this expecting to see something about erstwhile Stone Roses dancer Cressa. this, alas, is not about him, although now that i think about it wouldn't Cressa be an excellent name for the new baby? oh, Michele says no.

this article is more Cress than Cressa, as young James has been rather enamoured with the idea of growing some cress for a while now - ever since he saw the chefs on the magnificent, if somewhat unconventional show Big Cook Little Cook using some in a recipe.

when it comes to growing things, the man to turn to would be Grandad, and last week he got James some cress seeds, a tray and a bagful of soil.

a mere 6 days later, and a lot of love and water (both from James, the latter also from some insane storms this week) has thus far produced this!





needless to say, James is thrilled with the results of his first growing experiment thus far! who knows, perhaps he will indeed have the great green fingers that his Grandad and Great Grandad have, the skills that somewhat bypassed me!





the interesting bit, however, will be to see if James actually eats the cress he has so lovingly grown. he did get all excited about celery when he saw that the Wonder Pets love it, but that lasted all of one half of one bite! we shall see when it is fully grown, unless of course James' wish is that it just keeps growing and growing!

well, hope the next update is somewhat sooner! all is well on this side otherwise, hope the same is true for you!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i know my Frankie, it seems......

hey everyone

well, here's a story that i have wished to tell for a few weeks now, but i thought it best to wait until something arrived. and, may i say or write with an enormous smile on my face, it has arrived!!

a few weeks ago, on the most excellent Frankie Goes To Hollywood forum, former Frankie guitarist Brian "Nasher" Nash ran a competition. he said there may or may not be a prize, but he wanted to see if anyone would recognize this lovely lady.....





i looked at the picture, and took a partly educated but mostly wild guess that it was perhaps the model that posed for the much celebrated, somewhat infamous cover for Frankie's first single, Relax....





....and i was right!!!!!!!!! the lady is indeed Caroline Dent, made famous forever by this cover. someone on the Frankie forum very kindly put up this set of pics, taken from an article in Q magazine about the best record covers of all time. Dad and Barrie, you may want to watch the blood pressure before you look at the next picture!





and, in his wisdom, Nasher decided that my efforts were indeed worthy of a prize. i was given two options. if i mentioned the one i turned down i suspect some of my chums on the forum would be bewildered, so i won't! instead then, behold what i received!





both of Nasher's solo albums (Ripe and Le Grande Fromage) and the limited edition Top Of The Pops Again single. all signed!!!

am i happy about this? well, let's have a look at the picture James very kindly took!!





a very big thanks indeed to Nasher for an exceptionally generous gift!

now, i do have one very ace Brian "Nasher" Nash story. many, many years ago, when the old gang was over in England for our dear friend Rohan Smith's wedding, we went out for a pint the night before the wedding. this gradually turned into easily more than a dozen pints. we ended up going to one of Felixstowe's finest night clubs (well, possibly only, and the tale of how we got there is impressive and, at this time, unpublishable). although the bouncers on the door were keen to let us in anyway, the legendary John O'Boyle decided that it would be far better to try and "blag" our way in, and thus introduced me as being "the son of Brian Nash out of Frankie Goes To Hollywood.". i have no idea if the people of Felixstowe were impressed by this, we were far too trashed to tell. but i certainly hope they were!

in the mean time, it perhaps goes without saying that i strongly recommend that you head over to Nasher's website and have a listen to his music. i would suggest that you buy it, but as you will be impressed with what you hear from the samples you will go and purchase it without any further encouragement.

right, that means i have stuff signed by Nasher and Holly! not sure where or when in the world Ped or Mark O'Toole are, but i believe Paul Rutherford currently resides in New Zealand. Gillian, why have you not found him and got him to sign something for me yet?

should he be reading this, many thanks again Nasher!!!!


be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

James has a day off (sort of......)

hey everyone

much to his joy, James took Friday off school this week. no, it's not because he doesn't like it (quite the opposite, in fact Friday would be his top day as that's when they get baking!), but rather because he got to spend the day with Grandma and Grandad.

whereas Grandad would not doubt have just loved to have spent the day lazing on the couch, watching various Star Wars movies, James had distinctly different ideas. i might be at fault on this one - on Thursday i mentioned to James that he would have to be a good boy and help Grandad in the garden, which meant that when he woke up on Friday he was keen and raring to go with the wheelbarrow and shovels!

in addition to wheelbarrows and shovels, though, he did make a demand for his gloves, which Grandma promptly found for him.





did he want his gloves because he didn't want his hands to get dirty? partly, but mostly, as he tells it, he wished to have them on because (and i more or less quote him here) "Grandad has crocodiles [??] in his fish pond, and as they are reptiles they will bite my fingers.". apparently i was full of such information at a similar age; hope Mum & Dad are enjoying the deja vu then!

James did get to mess about with the wheelbarrow that he loves pushing around, which meant that Grandad got all the help he could want putting some new plants in!





whilst Grandad loves having James to come over and help, Michele and i suspect that Grandad is also not entirely against the idea of a return to Victorian values in respect of children in the workplace. we wouldn't wish to insinuate anything malicious, but all the same we are very glad indeed that Grandad doesn't have a chimney or coal fire. whoops, now that i have said that, watch this space for the next building project. best i get Mary Poppins and The Water Babies on for James so he knows what he might be doing next visit!

now then, James came home and told us that he got "quite cross" with Grandad. when we asked him why, it was because James had tidied up a great many leaves (and to James that could be three, it could be three thousand) and then Grandad had either left some up on the path or made a mess with some more. either way, James' displeasure at this saw, sure enough, Grandad being sent off to tidy up!





i wonder if it was leaves and not toys all over our house would he be so eager to tidy them up then?

as Grandad likes to attract more birds into the garden than even Alfred Hitchcock would use in a particular film they require a good deal of food to eat. James also loves helping fill up the bird seed holders - nice to see Grandad has learned to hold the tube over the container full of it whilst James pours away!





i note that James hasn't got his gloves on in this one - presumably, then, birds are not reptiles! he hasn't quite decided if he likes this "birds evolved from dinosaurs" theory as of yet, but i dare say he will share his thoughts with us one day.

it wasn't only in the garden that James showed off his skills, or if you will was put to work. oh no. he decided to have a whirl at baking too! as far as i can work out, he went shopping with Grandma, spotted some Barney cupcake mix and off he went!

with his usual hands on approach, James more or less did everything himself, except of course put them in a (presumably) rather hot oven!





Margaret doesn't look as quite as excited as she could about James being let loose with milk and eggs, but that's understandable as she would be cleaning up whatever he did! James was rather proud to report that he didn't mess any eggs on the floor, which is the opposite of what happened one Sunday when i took him shopping....

....and ta-daaaaah! the finished cakes!





now whilst they taste lovely, i would have appreciated a look at the ingredients required on the box the mix came in. why? well, going on the taste, i would love to know if it actually said "mix in 1 (one) tonne (imperial or metric) of sugar", or if this was a little bit of "flair" James added.

i am not sure if Grandad knew the high sugar content as he got handed one, but here he is accepting some of James' hard work!





these cakes are, i suppose, his version of Keith Richards giving you an unspecified substance and saying "go on, try a little bit of this". the effects are rather impressive - James was up at about 6 this morning, had one of them after breakfast at 7 and was raving away until he felt very tired indeed at around 9am!

and, of course, the golden rule in our family is "where there is food there is Marmite"!





if Marmite had so much as one quarter of one half of one of those cakes, she will still be running mentally around the garden by the time of our next visit!!



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

welcome to the world of 3D

hey everyone


no, not the world of 3D movies, but that of 3D baby scans. well, they said that it's a 4D scan that we had - something to do with the capture of "moving images that are not movies", but tend to crash explorer on my PC. the 3D images, however, are trouble free for the world of operating systems, so here we go!


first up, here's the young man apparently sucking his thumb, or quite possibly fiddling with the umbilical cord (if that's the right term?)





and next up, it seems there's one thing that James will not need to teach his sibling, for in this pic it would appear that baby can pick his nose rather well all by himself!





i think this next one is Michele's favourite - probably mine too! here he is smiling away, and according to Michele showing off that he has my dimples!





and finally, one of him apparently showing off a Mick Jagger smile - in reality he is sticking his tongue out at us!





sorry if my descriptions have been a bit brief - i think the pics really do speak for themselves, and i must confess to remaining in some awe looking at them; a rare case of me being lost for words in a rather good way. the best way, perhaps.

anyway, for those of you still curious, puzzled or perhaps vexed at what name we have chosen (well, the name James chose that was not either Batman or Superman), i leave you with an out of context but in this context appropriate quote.....



And since you know you cannot see yourself,
so well as by reflection, I, your glass,
will modestly discover to yourself,
that of yourself which you yet know not of.


be very excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!