BillF

The Thin Man Skinnay Ennis Dennis Skinner

Happy Birthday! Looking forward to the next book!

The Fly By Knights General Jumbo Major Surgery

P C Growler The Puppies K-9 Murphy

Eric Ambler Mr Walker The Running Man

Andy Pandy Randy Andy Mandy

Just revisited that one on Spotify. Remarkable product for an English provincial city! Some ambiguity online about the lineup though. Do you know who's exactly on the record, Sidewinder? Bill - it is a remarkable artefact of British modern jazz. From a time when 5 guys from the jazz outpost that is Newcastle came from nowhere and blew the Londoners off the stand (Messrs Hayes and Scott excepted). Dennis Preston heard a demo disk and brought them down to Lansdowne ASAP for this Columbia EP. The band is Ian Carr (trumpet - his first major record date), Gary Cox (tenor), Mike Carr (piano), Spike Heatley (bass) and Ronnie Stephenson (drums). Hence the track 'Stephenson's Rocket' (also a local railway 'project' ). Side 1 has two of Mike Carr's originals (including aforementioned 'Rocket'). Side 2 has Gary Cox's 'Preludes' - which was apparently commisioned for an arts show on Tyne-Tees TV and to my ears is reminiscent of Rendell-Carr. I've read that the great front sleeve design was done by one Eric Burdon Esq. but the credit on the back of the sleeve is to some other name. Must have been Eric working under an alias I guess. I'm pretty sure that the line-up is as stated on the EP. This also lines up with the details in board member RogerF's Ian Carr discography and also the details on the 'Emcee 5 - Bebop From The East Coast' compilation. Thanks for the info Sidewinder. Bassist Danny Padmore who came from Newcastle and was at university with me in Leeds in the mid-60s used to speak of the Emcee 5 in tones of awe. Incidentally, he didn't do too badly himself, as he's on this one along with John Bunch and Jon Eardley:

Bride of Frankenstein The Member of the Wedding

King Pleasure Sir Arthur Bliss Glee Club

Meatloaf Spammers

Lady Jane John Thomas Privates on Parade

No.1 only keeps going because of MG's patronage.

http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2014/sep/01/10-best-indie-record-shops-around-world-readers-tips

Just revisited that one on Spotify. Remarkable product for an English provincial city! Some ambiguity online about the lineup though. Do you know who's exactly on the record, Sidewinder?

This is a bit of an issue for me. I find that while the Toronto library system has a copy of almost everything I am interested in, for a surprising number of novels, they have one copy and stick it in reference. Exactly what has happened to jazz biographies in Manchester Public Libraries' most recent re-organisation. So pleased I read most of what interested me at a time when I could take them home. So I've been obliged to use Amazon for my most recent ones - on Bud Powell and Stan Kenton. Incidentally, collusion between libraries and Amazon is something that annoys me. At one stage University of Manchester's catalogue was sending you directly to Amazon for items they didn't have.

Buck Clayton Michael Clayton George Clooney

Harry Gold Horace Silver Bronzino

Chan Canasta Ernie Bridge Rummy

Eager to get to that one. My plan is to read all Spark's novels this yar. I'm about halfway there, with 10 down. Aiding and Abetting is next, plus I just got a couple of later titles from my local library. Stannard's bio got me particularly interested in Robinson, I just need to locate a copy. Spark usually wrote quickly, and eschewed the advice or guidance of editors, so sometimes there is a slightly slapdash quality to her work, occasionally the seams show. There very well may be too many characters on stage at once! I'll keep that in mind as I read. Right now I'm reading something completely different from Spark; a world away (I think). I'll post on it in next couple of days. Availability of Spark novels is an issue for me too, as I'm primarily a library user and she's sadly out of fashion.( I'm very critical of libraries which will buy half a dozen copies of Ian McEwan's latest, while allowing massive gaps to develop in their classic 20th century fiction stock.) But Territorial Rights is available to me in a Spark Omnibus volume, so that will probably be my last. Anyway, there's lots for me to read without straying to far from this theme. I have more Drabbles lined up and am even taking interest in Lynne Reid Banks and Edna O'Brien.

Just finished this, confirming that it's the early Spark I prefer. Episodic structure and humorous, satiric approach reminiscent of Evelyn Waugh in his Vile Bodies period. Not surprisingly, Stannard reports that Waugh loved it. The concluding courtroom episode was a bit of a surprise, perhaps a bit out of character with the rest of the book, but very well and - as far as I could judge - expertly handled. Nothing in Stannard though about research on court procedure or advice from lawyer(s). My only grumble is that too many characters were introduced in what is quite a short novel - or perhaps it's just my way of reading 10 or so pages at a time and then putting the book away for the best part of a day that causes me to lose track of who some of these people are :-)

The Firebird The Firehouse Five Ralph Burns

The Wailers Willie the Weeper Bob Cryer

Julian Bream Gene Tunney Michael Fish

Crusties Charles Rolls Lou Rawls