Royal Oak

It's snowed like I haven't seen in many years. We've had 6 inches in a couple of hours. We're all at home today - schools are shut and I couldn't get to work, the roads were that bad.

I just finished Anthony Bourdain's "Kitchen Confidential" - I only picked this up because my local charity shop sells 3 books for £1 and I needed a third to make up the numbers. I am the world's biggest philistine when it comes to fine dining, but I found the book interesting, if only to confirm my suspicion that most chefs are megalomaniacs. Bourdain says much the same, claiming that kitchens attract people from the fringes of society, who don't really fit in elsewhere.

I played that album to death in 1991! I don't know if you ever heard of The Coral - another Liverpudlian group (they seem to have disappeared after about 2004). I always felt they were cut from the same cloth, right down to their singer being a dead ringer for Lee Mavers.

Got the sack for the first time in my adult life, got married, had 2 children. Went grey and developed a careworn appearance, hit 40, discovered gardening and post-1964 jazz.

Not for many years, but those early records hold up. Nice tunes, no falsetto/giant hair/drugs/booze.

Sounds a bit like Boney M. They had a Christmas hit called "Mary's Boy Child" who was indeed "born on Christmas Day".

FWIW, I like the early Bee Gees records, especially the Mining disaster tune. They are, of course, a parody nowadays IMO.

I've just finished Steinbeck's "East Of Eden". I'm at a loss to describe how much I enjoyed it.

Another recommendation for "Portrait Of Sonny Criss" here. I agree with MG that it's easy to get addicted to Criss - I got hooked very quickly once I first heard him. I really despise the over-use of the word/concept "passion" (you hear it everywhere, usually as a substitute for talent/competence or just for the lack of anything else to say), but Sonny Criss always sounds SERIOUSLY impassioned to me.

I immediately thought of Wynton Kelly when I saw this thread. I'm not very technically apt so I can't post any images, but a quick look at Amazon shows there aren't many Wynton Kelly albums where he doesn't wear one! "Kelly Blue" is one without hat.

'Wing Nut' Rooney 'Bend It Like' Beckham 'Cry Baby' Gazza Willie the Weeper Blubber Miley Tom Whaley Free Willy Dick Whittington Nobby Stiles

I just picked up his "How Proust Can Change Your Life" in a charity shop yesterday. Here's hoping...

I don't think I've danced since the year 2000. Come to think of it, I am feeling highly strung.

Skee-diddley-wah-bap-bap-bap...........relax, pay your income tax. The "Bismillah" in question was from the line in Bohemian Rhapsody ("Bismillah, nooo! We will not let you go" etc)

No-one mentioned Jim Morrison yet? That's assuming he wrote the lyrics. I remember there used to be a weekly feature in the New Musical Express (late 80s), named "Bismillah". It featured dire lyrics from pop songs.

Why doesn't the link work? Here it is... http://www.youtube.com:80/watch?v=wyOLBInYlmo Thanks Cyril, however you did it! All 4 parts are now available - just click on "Tonydav1942's videos".

Here is a link to a UK TV programme "Celebration" from 1981/1982, which features the Stockport Schools Stagesound band in performance with Ronnie Scott. I doubt this has been seen since it was first broadcast. Being a regional programme, it probably wasn't seen by many at the time, and it was broadcast in the days before video recorders were in every home. It's in my posession because my dad did many of the arrangements for the band in it's early days. There are another 3 files to come, once I get them uploaded. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyOLBInYlmo

More Steinbeck - this time "East Of Eden".

30/38 for me too. Mostly the right-hand side ones I didn't get. I haven't reached the 70s in my jazz odyssey yet Bill!

Eddie Large Bobby Ball Eric Morecambe

Pretty good. Funny band: Wynton Kelly; Tiny Grimes; Buster Williams; Oliver Jackson. Who thought that one up? But they play together beautifully And Jacquet plays "Round midnight" on bassoon; yeah! MG Listening to this album tonight, which inspired me to find this thread. "For Once In My Life" is amazing. The whole thing, but Wynton's solo especially, sounds to me like a teary-eyed down-and-out who just knows his number is up. It's too tragic for words.

Just finished "Of Mice And Men". Typically bleak Steinbeck, but I had the funniest feeling reading it: In 1990, a friend and I wrote a comic strip. In it, our hero is a New York cop on the trail of a serial killer. His girlfriend is (of course) then a victim. In the comic, we had a scene where our grief-stricken hero tells his older cop partner (they were based on Robert Duvall and Sean Penn in "Colors") about their long-cherished plans to move to a farm in the country, where they will grow alfalfa and raise rabbits. As you'll know if you've read "Of Mice And Men", this is George and Lennie's fantasy. Thing is, I'd never read "Of Mice And Men" and I'm pretty sure it was me who came up with that line when we wrote the story.

CD arrived, in very nice condition. Thanks Jeff!

I bought a Benny Golson album on Verve called "Turn On, Tune In" or the like. It was an album of TV advert tunes arranged and played by Benny. I thought it pretty terrible - cheesy - and it lay unplayed for several years until I sold it last year. I should really have listened again before I sold it, just to see if I "got it", but I'm not too upset to see it gone.

Just finished Anthony Burgess's "1985". Sort of a reply/alternative to "1984", only the UK is in the grip of the unions (It's been renamed TUCland). Quite apt, now strikes are back in the news in the UK.