Royal Oak

Stockport's HMV was never much good to me. A big unit, but a very small jazz section. Stockport's town centre has one of the UK's highest percentage of empty shops. Now it's lost Comet and Jessop's and quite probably HMV (that's assuming it does close down).

Great pictures. Doesn't it beggar belief that such places existed?

Kind of sad, but utterly inevitable IMO.

Mine arrived yesterday, as described, very well packed. Thanks Hans

Hi Hans - I've sent a PM

Samuel Barber's "Adagio" is another melancholy one.

Me too! Though it always has me thinking of bombed cities - I've read one too many liner notes. Seek out a recording of Strauss' prelude to 'Capriccio' (for string sextet) which is full of the same 'longing' and sense of loss. Actually, if you don't know it already, try that Schoenberg too - it's an early work which comes from a similar world. Yes, it does kind of suggest bombed cities, but I too made the mistake of reading the liner notes first. I have the Schoenberg somewhere, will have a listen tonight.

I like Richard Strauss's "Metamorphosen". Don't bother asking me why - I just like the way it sounds.

A 'clever' remark but completely inaccurate. Part of the misconception with Wagner is just hearing the grander overtures and 'bleeding chunks' which only tell a tenth of the story. The piece that completely undermined my prejudice against Wagner a good 35 years ago was a recording of the prelude to Act III of Tristan - an incredibly haunting piece of music with a cor anglais pining out over a desolate shoreline. I too used to think of Ride of the Valkyries and all that loud stuff, but then I heard the Adagio for clarinet and string quartet and Siegfried Idyll, both of which are beautiful.

My daughter is....the only one in my family.

The Klemperer is too slow. I much prefer the foreboding of the Schuricht and the bombast of Toscannini..

Maestro fetishism is something I'm intrigued by. If I occasionally watch a concert on Sky Arts or the BBC proms, I often wonder if , when the conductor is bowing and scraping to the audience, the players aren't thinking to themselves "who does this prick think he is?" I mean, one would expect orchestral musicians to be able to play the right notes in the right places, no?

Alan Partridge Paul Calf Fat Bob

Mr Brooks Royal Academy Machiavellian None of the above are people, they were racehorses. Does this count?

I always liked "The Jimmy Giuffre 3" on Atlantic for my naps. I don't nap to music any more, as there is no comfortable chair / sofa / bed where the stereo is.

The Ice Cream man, according to an article in yesterday's Times.

My first mobile was a 2003 Motorola with the "beeping" kind of ringtone. You could compose your own tone, so I transcribed "Blue Train" one slow afternoon at work - it took absolutely ages. You couldn't programme any sort of syncopation, so it ended up very square-sounding.

Exactly.

Band On The Wall in Manchester in 1998. Gene Harris and Stanley Turrentine - I don't remember why Stanley didn't show, but it was still a motherfucker of a night. BillF - were you there?

Spooky for March: students out in shorts and T-shirts. I KNEW you two and Sidewinder would be posting on this thread today! We Brits are so predictable! Bloody lovely here anyway.

Now finished "A Walk On The Wild Side". On Balance, I preferred "Man With The Golden Arm". Like that book, the author's flights-of-fancy and dream sequences started to lose me as the book went on, but I enjoyed it. A horrible ending, which I didn't see coming (I never do!)

Don't know about "British". I'd say that picture is by the French artist, Eugène Boudin. Of course, I could be wrong. Well, the music is British - English even. Though British arty types have always had a thing for France. I think I have a copy of the Bridge recording on vinyl. I shall give it a spin this weekend.

Allergies, more than a month earlier than last year. I feel your pain. I was a hay fever sufferer from the age of 7. Now in my forties, I find I no longer have it, which I find strange.

da-da-da-DA-da-da-DA-da da-da-da-da-DA-da-da-DA etc (Crap Stravinsky reference) Definitely Spring here this week - frogs, daffodils, a few bees, even the grass is growing. My favourite season.

Know what novel you meant, but the title you posted brings a very different scenario to mind. Oh yes - never noticed that!