Stan Tracey's Under Milk Wood, Radio 2*

If you get a chance to see one of the special 40th anniversary Under Milk Wood concerts by Stan Tracey and his Quartet...OR if you are near a radio on Monday 2nd May, er, DO IT!!!

Last Friday, the lapwing and I were lucky enough to hear Tracey and band - complete with Bobby Wellins on saxophone - bring to life this amazing album.
If this wasn't wonderful enough then to the right of the band were Philip and Ruth 'Hi-De-Hi' Madoc and the genial Victor Spinetti, who each performed selected passages from the original play. All three actors were amazing.
I'd never been to the Mermaid Theatre in Blackfriars before but the venue's acoustics are fantastic.

STAN TRACEY IS A GENIUS!

The Customer's Fear of the Shop Copy

I'm trying to shirk the reputation I have acquired for myself at Rough Trade and Sister Ray for being a 'condition of new vinyl' obsessive freak but am finding this very hard. I like my 33/3rpm crackles but only when I'VE made them.

The usual syndrome is buying the LP a few weeks after it was released. You ask if it is still in stock and then feel your heart sink as the proprietor reaches for the already-played, finger-marked final copy and then wanders off to fetch from the rack its dog-eared sleeve, already disfigured by the force of many thumbs. Gaaaaah!!!
By this stage, it feels too late to say you've decided not to take it after all. Before running you out of the shop, the staff are sure to hold you down on the counter and brand the words 'LOSER' into your forehead.

Yesterday was no exception and as I left RT with my worn copy of Worn Copy by Ariel Pink, I wondered what would be better: Turn around and take it back or wander into a nearby psychiatrist's office.

Let's get the swines who did this to Beck!!!

Was it L. Ron Hubbard's mob?

Terrance Dicks intervWho

Fab interview with the legendary Dr. Who writer and script editor!


(I'm using the word 'legendary' a lot this week...but with good reason!)



Photograph by Steve Dicks

Abba Tribute Graveyard

The best (i.e: worst) assortment of lookanothinglikes so far!
Here, all the tribute Abbas, Bee Gees and Blondies are lumped onto the same page to battle it out with each other. The quality of Bjorn or Chris Stein-alike goes down in tandem with your scroll-bar.

Tribute acts usually show great imagination in picking names.
Take, for instance, Michael Stipe and co's dopplegangers 'R We Them?'. On this page we are offered 'Fake Bee Gees'. Good work, lads!

n.b: I've already booked Jawonderquai for my next birthday.

The best comment on Blogging yet, written by a Blogger

Crushingly embarrassed by the awful truths it has exposed, I shall now retire from blogging forever.
(Correction: I shall now say that I will retire from blogging forever.)

A Toast to Bob Copper

I've had some time to reflect more upon the amazing all-day 'Toast to Bob', which the baby duck and I attended at Cecil Sharp House last Saturday.

Musicians, from The Rakes and compere Shirley Collins to Martin Carthy and Billy Bragg, sang for and fondly remembered this gentle man who'd rescued from oblivion the very songs they were singing. The highlights were unquestionably The Copper Family's warm, harmonic performances.

Never have I been to a musical event where the entire audience is singing every single song with the same command as the people onstage.
The acoustics are exceptional in that main hall anyway, so the combined effect made you feel as if the songs must have been reaching the entire borough of Camden!

Onstage, his son John Copper said of the event, "Bob would have loved to have been here today but I suppose if he hadn't died then none of it would've happened."


(More info on Bob Copper and his family amid the Links section)

Tony Blair

Too disturbing for words. (Except these ones)

The same agency, Fake Faces have even got 'people who look like comedians' on their books:
Peter Kay, Little Britain...even someone doing Bo Selecta doing Craig David!

David No-wie

Click on his face for some Seriously Bad Moonlight

David Baddiel

If you've got glasses and a beard, you're already there.

Anne Robinson

Errol Brown

I've returned to my old favourite wastetime of finding the best worst celebrity lookalikes.

What must it be like, making a living from looking like someone else?

What must it be like, making a living from looking NOTHING like the person you're meant to be impersonating?

(Click on above heading for full horror)

Album of the Year so far!

'Will You Be My Friend', 'Hippy Blankets' and the English whimsy overload of 'All Petty Substance Flee' are my current faves.
An abundance of harmonies and lovely Bollywood strings also feature.

How to get it: Send £10 sterling payable to “Alcohol” , PO Box 556, London SE5 0RW.

"Shunt me into next month or something. With a lorry."

Most beautiful sound in the world

Three ducks landing softly in Kenwood pond this evening.
Sigh...