The Magnificent Goldberg

Please translate! Actually, it's a Little Willie John song originally titled "All around the world". MG

I want one of them in my Christmas cracker next year! MG

An economist wrote 'Paradise Lost'? Come to think of it, that makes sense. As for Little Milton... Grits ain't groceries MG

Poppa Stoppa The Mighty Burner Mr Silk

You had me trying to recall that one! The Dankworth's home/concert hall is just outside Milton Keynes. I imagine the budget ran out and they had to take a quick snap of the nearest landmark for the cover. My parents used to live at Newport Pagnell, another fringe settlement to MK. Has to be one of the dullest places I've ever spent time in (though they did have riots in the town centre one Xmas!). I passed them once, on the train from London to Scotland - or maybe Wrexham. That was when they were in the field, as shown in the album sleeve, rather than the present shopping centre. I thought they looked terrific. Why are all economists called Milton? MG

Phil John Gareth John Williams T Rhys Thomas (Welsh International hookers)

Ah, here we are! Not very avant MG

Boss Hogg Squealer Snowball

I can't remember the first jazz gig I went to - I suppose Ray Charles doesn't count I expect it was someone at the Bridge Hotel, Barnes or maybe Ealing Town Hall. Yes, I think it was Acker Bilk at Ealing Town Hall - a jazz set, not "Stranger on the shore" set - that recording came later. I think Ken Colyer was on the bill, too. MG

Salvifik MG

MG MG MG MG

I think it was The Platters - at the Odeon, Bradford in 1957. I thought they were wonderful. And I still think they were unbeatable at what they did. MG

Don Wilkerson Wilton Felder Al Abreu

I'm damn sure there was an album in the seventies called "Concrete cows" with a picture of the Milton Keynes cows on the cover. It was by some British avant garde jazz band, but I forget whom. It's not in AMG. Can someone who knows the LP find it? It's a nice one. MG

MG

Is yew from Texas, young man? MG

Joe Fields' blues label, Fedora, has recorded quite a lot of interesting stuff. One or two I like a lot are Johnnie Bassett - Bassett hound (with Bill Heid on piano - Detroit blues) Jimmy Dawkins - West Side guitar hero (Chicago blues lives!) Jimmy Dawkins - Tell me baby Big Al Dupree - Positive thinking (KC R&B) MG

Red Sox Bluebirds (Cardiff FC) Seagulls (Brighton & Hove Albion)

We also had two cats in the seventies. One was called Golly and I bought her in a pet shop for my wife's birthday in 1972. The other attached herself to us later and was as thick as two short planks - so we called her Muff (racist joke - Muff is a small town in Ireland). She didn't last long - got run over in the quiet street where we lived before she was two. Golly was wierd. She was people-oriented. We used to take her on holiday down to my in-laws and she'd walk nicely down to the village on a lead with us. At home, she was a terror to all the local dogs - except Toby. She was quite interested in him, especially when he'd rush around like a mad thing. She'd sit on the hall table as he careered through and give him a belt round the ear; never with her claws out, though. After my mother-in-law's death, Golly started going off on her own holidays every summer. She'd take up residence in the garden of the house over the back. She used to knock on the door to be let in - banging the letter-box cover several times, loudly. But if the lights were out and we were in bed, she'd leap onto the window-sill of the bedroom and scratch quietly, but loudly enough to wake us. She died in 1990. We don't have any pets now. MG

Rooster Ties' thread about his new cat made me think it was time for us to post some pics and talk about our pets, past and present. So here's our pug, Toby. We got him in '79 and he died in '93. He was nuts. Loved to chase trains and cars. Loved to have our daughter dress him up in her baby vests and pants. Loved to get her soft toys. Couldn't be punished effectively. You'd get mad at him - especially our daughter when he got her toys - and he'd apologise handsomely. Then do it again. And again. He used to sleep in the kitchen. Every evening as it turned dusk, he'd sit there in his bed looking out of the window at the street light outside, barking for it to come on. Then, when it did, he'd leap out of bed, barking furiously for half a minute, then put himself to bed. MG

And Frank Shinatra! Two in one fell swoop! MG

My daughter thinks so too - it's her name MG

We had a Pug, too! Called him Toby, though it wasn't his registered name (which I forget now - he died 17 years ago). We thought, "just 'cos a pet comes with a registered name is no reason to adhere to it". Pugs are WONDERFUL! MG

Only the record companies. Maybe the artists. But the bands that are being pirated seem one to whom a few quid one way or another wouldn't make much difference. MG

Ah! I was just gonna play some Criss, but my fingers found John Coltrane - Ballads - Impulse (Jasmine) instead. MG