Possibly Jeremy Beadle's Finest Hour?

Click on the image to enlarge it and see it in all its glory

What do you mean you’ve never heard of it? It was Britain’s answer to Woodstock, the only problem was it took place a few miles from Wigan in Lancashire and unfortunately in was in May. And of course it rained.

Staged adjacent to a working coal mine the headliners on the three consecutive evenings were Dr. John, Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band and the Grateful Dead. Leading the British contingent were Hawkwind (inevitably), Wishbone Ash, Family, and Donovan.

To cap it all the Festival organiser was Jeremy Beadle. JB sadly passed away yesterday so this is posted in his honour.

Let The Bonfires Begin

Good news I think. The bonfire of the quangos has began, at least the building of the bonfire even if no one has actually set light to it just yet. I am extremely heartened by that and I note that our First Minister has said that it will save some £25 million pounds. Now call me cynical but quite how its going to save that much money when there will be no compulsory redundancies I'm not sure. Does this reduction in the number of quangos mean that we will stop paying lots of those people who seem to have been clinging to the gravy train?

Of course the FM can pull whatever figure he likes out of the air because it will be almost impossible to do a like for like comparison. Such is the way of politics. Quote a number, any number, and don't expect to have to prove it later.

What disappoints me most is the lack of reform for VisitScotland. All that's been said is that VisitScotland will rationalise its own 14 regions to six - in line with new structures in the Enterprise Networks. This might not be that good an idea. Already VisitScotland find it almost impossible to give proper regional representation. So obsessed are they with driving everything through their web site.

Gigs That We Missed No.19 - Queen + Genesis

I usually went to Ewell Tech for every gig in 1971 but somehow missed this one - I probably had no money after lavishing expensive gifts on family and friends! I did later DJ with Flying Fortress at the Redhill and Reigate Arts Workshop. Of course they were the only band at the Tech who didn't become famous!

UPDATE

Just spoken to a friend who booked Kevin Ayers at another gig around this time. The only thing on his rider was six bottles of Matteus Rose....apparently Kevin worked his way through most of them and then found mounting the stage to be beyond him.

Before They Were Famous No.7 - Led Zeppelin

This was from the Melody Maker of 11th January 1969

Ella Fitzgerald - The Best Singer On The Planet

Mel Torme said, "She was the best singer on the planet." I’m certainly not going to disagree. I was letting iTunes play in the background as I was writing something tonight and on came Ella singing ‘I’ve Got a Right To sing The Blues’ – it is sublime.. When iTunes is set to shuffle the songs in the main library there’s a one in 115 chance of an Ella song coming along as I’ve got 391 Ella songs on my Mac. I now know this having just collected all of them together in one folder. It’s a rich a body of work as anyone could ask for.

If Ella had the looks to go with the voice then she would have unquestionably been the most talked about, admired, revered and loved female singer of the 20th century. As it was she was simply the best, as well as being for many the most admired, revered and loved. Born in Newport Mews Virginia on April 25 1918, and orphaned at an early age, she was ‘discovered’ after performing at the Harlem Amateur Hour aged just sixteen.

She was hired by Chick Webb to sing with his Orchestra and had her first hit in 1936 with ‘Sing Me A Swing Song (And Let me Dance)’. Besides singing with Chick Webb she performed on records with The Mills Brothers in 1937. Her big break came singing with Chick in June 1938 when ‘A-Tisket A-Tasket’ spent ten weeks at No.1. In a sign of the times Ella and Chick had a hit a few months later with ‘Wacky Dust’ an unabashed opus to cocaine. Webb died aged just 30 the following year and for a while Ella continued to front his Orchestra, as well as recording solo. She formed a successful short-term partnership with the Ink Spots and they had two No.1 records in 1944. She also recorded successfully with Louis Armstrong and Louis Jordan in 1946. Her recording of ‘I Love You For Sentimental Reasons’ with the Delta Rhythm Boys was another big hit in 1947, while ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’ with Louis Jordan in 1949 from the Esther William’s film Neptune’s Daughter was her last top ten hit.

As the 1950s rolled around Ella’s appearances on the Billboard charts became infrequent, but this was by no means a reflection on her talent and the quality of her recordings; Ella had risen above the charts. Her last U.S. chart success of any note was ‘Mack The Knife’ which managed to make No.27 in 1960. Ella had graduated from being a pop singer to a jazz singer in the late 1940s. She became associated with Norman’ Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic which led to her becoming an international name. By 1956 she was recording for Granz’s Verve label and it is her recordings with this premier jazz company that have become the basis for her continuing popularity.

Ella recorded a series of albums of the best of the greatest American songwriters. These ‘Songbooks’ had arrangements by the likes of Nelson Riddle, Buddy Bregman, Billy May, Duke Ellington and Paul Weston. The first of the songbooks was a double album of Cole Porter, which quickly sold 100,000 copies in 1956.

"I never knew how good our songs were until I heard Ella Fitzgerald sing them."

Ira Gershwin.

If Ella had a secret it was her diversity. She had started out a swing singer, moved to bebop, she sang perfect scat, was an extraordinary jazz vocalist and had no fear of modern material as the 60s and 70s came along. From the Blues to bossa nova and calypsos to carols she imbued all with her unique voice, sounding forever young. She was blessed with a three-octave range and diction and enunciation that was like Frank Sinatra’s……as good as it gets.

Ella Fitzgerald had both legs amputated below the knees in 1992 as a result of complications arising from diabetes. In 1991 Ella, having famously once said, “the only thing better than singing is more singing”, gave her final concert at New York's Carnegie Hall. Five year later on June 15 1996 she died.

"The best way to start any musical evening is with this girl. It don’t get better than this."

Frank Sinatra

Biggest Hits
A-Ticket A-Tasket (1938) No.1 with Chick Webb & His Orchestra
Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall (1944) No.1 (with the Ink Spots)
I’m Making Believe (1944) No.1 (with the Ink Spots)
My Happiness (1948)
But Not for Me (1959) Awarded a Grammy

For Ella, like many quality singers, it was no so much a matter of what were her biggest hits. It was by far the more subjective criteria of what were her best performances. ‘How Long Has This Been Going On’, Manhattan, and ‘Isn’t it Romantic’ are pure Ella, and pure magic.

Blue Note Meets Andy Warhol

The label began life in 1939, founded by two men in their early thirties, both born in Germany, Alfred Lion who had moved to New York City in 1938 and Francis Wolff who made the move as World War 2 began. The name derives from the emblematic ‘blue note’ of jazz and the blues.

The first Blue Note recording session, was supervised by Lion, was at WMGM Studio in New York City on Friday 6th January 1939 when two of the great boogie-woogie pianists, Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis, cut solo and duet sides. The first release, BN1, was Meade Lux Lewis’ ‘Melancholy Blues’ backed by ‘Solitude Blues’. These ‘hot jazz’ 78-rpm recordings gave little indication of what the label would become, but for their time they were cutting edge and Blue Note would never be anything less. During the war Lion served in the US Army and the label went into something of a hiatus for the duration, but as it was ending saxophonist Ike Quebec recorded for them.

By the 1950s Blue Note became a leader in the new art form – the LP cover. In 1956 Reid Miles, who had worked at Esquire magazine, was employed at the label as a graphic designer and it is his creativity along with Wolff’s photographs of the musicians that have come to exemplify the art of Blue Note. The Sans-Serif type face, the tinted photographs and the bold use of single colours make his work not only influential in album cover art but in graphic design in general. Andy Warhol did a few cover drawings for Blue Note including these two Kenny Burrell albums from the late 1950s

Too Much Ambition and Not Enough Ability

Gordon Brown proudly talked about a government of all the talents and what do we end up with? A cross between happy families and the kids are alright. To continue to quote from the Who’s back catalogue.

Who are you?
Who, who, who, who?
Who are you?

Peter Hain’s resignation has caused some thirty something’s to rise up the cabinet pecking order.

James Purnell (Work & Pensions) 37
Andy Burnham (Culture) 38
Yvette Cooper (Chief secretary to the Treasury) 38

They join some other young guns.

Ed Balls 40
David Miliband 42
Ed Miliband 38
Douglas Alexander 39
Ruth Kelly 39

According to Channel 4’s political editor this all showed how jolly clever our PM is at reshuffles. The fact is it shows how altogether too cosy the situation has become. Husband and wife in the cabinet (Balls & Cooper)? Good idea? I don’t think so. When you start to look at some of their qualifications for the job it gets even scarier. Yvette Cooper former economic researcher & economic correspondent for the Independent and she’s chief secretary to the Treasury? Check out the rest for yourself and what do you have? A whole bunch of mainly professional politicians who have little or no idea of the real world. For me this is what has been behind some of this dodgy money business. They are out of touch with the realities of life. The Balls-Cooper household gets over £275,000 in salaries. Can you believe that? It’s over six times more than an average male and female salary, of people in fulltime employment, added together.

Just to go back to the resignation of Hain it was fascinating watching Channel 4 news this evening. They had a Labour back bencher on the programme defending him, along with the Chief Whip, Geoff (Buff) Hoon, Matthew Taylor Blair’s former aide and the editor of the New Statesman. All spoke up for Labour and attempted to turn the argument into one of the funding of political parties. If this had been a Tory can you imagine Channel 4 news being so ‘on message’?

This cabinet is going to prove itself increasingly inept. Gordon’s control freak mentality will go into over drive and he’ll become even more beleaguered. This really does feel like the beginning of the end of a government in which there’s far too much ambition and not enough ability.

UPDATE
Kirsty Wark on Newsnight has just given Buff Hoon the softest of interviews. To almost every question Hoon said "I simply don't acept what you say" and she let him away with it. When the Tory Chris Grayling went on after this she was somewhat more aggressive, even intrupting him. Her line of attack being, - "shouldn't you have called for his resignation". Well, no actually, they shouldn't. Leave Hain in place so that the sore can fester.

Young Gifted and Brown?

“We must increase the opportunities we all have to make healthy choices around the exercise we take and the food we eat…..I want to issue a challenge to everyone in this country, from NHS professionals to parents to businesses to Government, to work towards a society in which everyone can exercise greater control over their diet and levels of activity, maintain a healthy weight and lead healthier lives.”

So said our brave and fearless leader (pictured right) in the forward to a report issued yesterday entitled ‘Healthy Weight, Healthy Lives 
A Cross Government Strategy for England’. Of course this is all very laudable and no bad thing at all.

But here’s the rub. The picture beside Gordon's foreword of him looking in not bad shape must have been taken back in the 1990s sometime. This is Gordon today.

Now of course our leader famously said when he got the big job that there would be no more spin, well it seems that what he meant to say was their would be new spin.

The Continuing Saga of Trumptown

According to The Donald. "I hardly know Alex Salmond, but what I know is that he's an amazing man. Alex Salmond and I have virtually never even talked about this job but I know for a fact that he - and anyone else who's representing Scotland, unless they're the enemy - wants billions of pounds to come into Aberdeenshire and Scotland."

He went on to say he had "great respect" for Mr Salmond and that they only talked about Scotland when they met last year."

Well for a start as far as I know the new development is still in Aberdeenshire and therefore the Trumptown developer is certainly telling no lie. Perhaps he thinks that once he buys the land then it will somehow become part of his empire? I continue to think that the real issue here is will it all work. I'm still perplexed whose going to buy these houses and flock to this course. It still seems to be a an argument about the wrong issues. But then again it's his money (or at least money his investors will put up) and so why should we worry?

Day Trip to Newcastle

Getting up and walking the dogs on a very icey morning is a challenge - the challenge being to stay on your feet. But it does have its advantages.....Mr's H. took this second, better picture, a little later....

Al Kooper - Album of the Week & UK Tour

Al Kooper's name is always a guarantee of class. When I bought the first Blood Sweat and Tears album, ‘The Child is Father to the Man’, on CBS, way back in 1968 I was hooked. The opening overture with its classical overtones was right up my alley - I was always looking for ways to convince sceptical older people that rock and pop was meaningful. The album then becomes an eclectic mix of Al's originals and some great covers including Harry Nilsson's ‘Without Her’ and Randy Newman's 'Just One Smile.' There's also the brilliant 'I Can't Quit Her' that Al co-wrote and one of my favourite piece of brass rock 'My Days are Numbered." BS&T had metamorphosed out of Blues Project, which highlighted Al's love of the genre.

Al's days have been a long way from numbered. He left BS&T shortly after this album and embarked on an impressive solo career as well as enjoying some collaborations with many of the best musicians of the last forty something years. Even before his BS&T success Al had written, 'This Diamond Ring' for Gary Lewis and the Playboys, as well as playing organ on Bob Dylan's infamous appearance at the Newport Folk Festival. He also played organ on Dylan's ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ LP; he's well to the fore on 'Like A Rolling Stone'.

Al has played with a huge number of artists is session, including the Stones, The Who, Cream, Jimi Hendrix, and BB King (just check out his discography on his web site and prepare to be amazed). He played with Mike Bloomfield on 'the Live Adventures of....' He also played with Mike and Steve Stills (on separate sides) of the ‘Super Session’ album. Later Al became a producer and numbers amongst his many successes Lynyrd Skynyrd and their iconic 'Free Bird'.

Somehow along the way Al found time to make some brilliant and eclectic solo albums. My favourite of which is, ‘New York City (You're A Woman)’. I originally bought it when it came out in 1971. Having sold most of my vinyl during a financial crisis in the early 1990s I was able to buy it in Japan on CD - thank goodness because it is one of those albums I cannot live without. The opening track is the title track and it is pure Kooper. Great lyrics, great hook and a fabulous rising melody. It has the added advantage of having a mellotron as the lead instrument - back when I bought it this was for me a guarantee of a class record. The whole album is chock full of great songs, most of which were composed by Al. ‘Going Quietly Mad’ is brilliant and could be a Beatles song, ‘Someone's on the Cross Again’ is anthemic and Al's cover of Elton John's ‘Come Down In Time’ is fabulous.

‘New York City (You're A Woman)’appears to be import only in the UK, but you can get it from Amazon. Al also has a great web site HERE. Most important of all I've just heard from Al that here's touring the UK. We've never met but I'm off to Newcastle in April to change all that as well as listen to one of rock's real talents.

April 2008
9 - Glasgow, UK / The Ferry
10 - Newcastle, UK / Newcastle Academy
12 - Ebbw Vale, UK / Beaufort Theater
13 - Holmfirth, UK / Picturedome
15 - Belfast, IE / Spring & Airbrake
17 - Woverhampton, UK / Robin 2
18 - London, UK / Mean Fiddler
20 - Southampton, UK / The Brook

Al's book, the witty and wonderfully titled, Back Stage Passes and Back Stabbing Bastards is being re-released in May this year. It's a superb expose of the music business and one of those very few books that actually make you laugh out loud when you're reading it.

Eddie Cochran & Gene Vincent - Things Do Go Wrong

I've just got a new book by Spencer Leigh about Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent's 1960 tour of the UK. In the foreword by Bobby Vee it says "Spencer has also, subtly and masterfully, managed to reconstruct the English lifestyle setting of the period". He has and that's just one of the things that makes this book well worth reading. All too often books about music (and many other subjects) suffer from a myopic approach that makes you feel that the subject is under to finely a tuned microscope. In Spencer's book you get a much grander sweep, even if the pre fab sixties was a little less grand than what was to follow. Spencer has interviewed many of those who were involved with this tour which helps bring the whole book to life and bring an authenticity sadly lacking from so many music books.
Besides a good story well told, Spencer has included cuttings, adverts and all sorts of other pieces of ephemera that greatly add to the enjoyment of the book.

You can get it from Amazon or direct from Spencer Leigh HERE

A Walk On The Wild Side With Jacqui Smith

"Well, I wouldn't walk around (Kensington and Chelsea) at midnight and I'm fortunate that I don't have to do that." Those are the words of our Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. It's what she told the Sunday Times in an interview this week.

Of course the government tells us crime is down compared to the Tories' time in power in the 1990s. It is a staggering admission, made more so by the telling words,"I'm fortunate that I don't have to do that." Well the rest of us do and it beggars belief that she is a, the home secretrary and b, clearly sees nothing wrong in saying this. Oh wait a minute, her aides contacted the paper to say her remarks didn't come out as they were intended to.

She's another that's not fit for purpose and demonstrates quite clearly what happens after a government has been in power too long. Increasingly it seems to make sense to limit their time in office.

Spam and Chips?

Bryan Appleyard has an interesting post about whether or not the blogosphere overartes its own importance. Well yes of course it does but there is at least, to my mind, an increasing amount of traditional media news that originated from a blog or the wider web. It led me to think of the old adage, Today's newspaper, tomorrow's chip paper' What would the modern equivalent be? Today's email, tomorrow's spam?

Get Me Outta Here - I'm in the Wrong Kind Of Prison

According to the BBC, private jails are more badly run than regular prisons. This is because they’ve seen Prison Service papers that include an internal "league table", which ranks all jails in England and Wales. It’s yet another example of Labour’s obsession with league tables for everything. In this particular case they're even more absurd. Next they’ll be having prisoners asking for promotion to be put in better jails on account of ‘good behavior.’ Of course it won’t be long before some lag brings a case under European Human Rights Law because other prisoners are in a better jail.

St Pancras vs King's Cross - The Best and Worst of Stations

A little late to the party here but I had my first visit to the 'new' St Pancras on Thursday. I arrived there from Sheffield and it was truly impressive. I didn't have time to linger because I had to meet a friend but I would live to have spent longer there and had a good look around. Work began on the station in 1866 and two years later the 'shed' was completed and was at the time the largest enclosed space in the world. In 1966 Sir John Betjeman mounted a campaign to stop it from being combined with Kings Cross station which is just next door. Thank God he did. I left from Kings Cross that night to come home and it showed the difference between the best and worst in London stations.

The Beat Svengali - Larry Parnes

BBC 4 is running a Friday night series called Pop Britannia, there have been two already and both featured the man who became known as 'The Beat Svengali' - Larry Parnes (the picture is Lary on the right with Billy Fury). Larry was an old fashioned manager of pop stars, he was dubbed ‘Mr Parnes, Shillings and Pence’ which gives you some idea of where Larry was coming from. Mr Parnes’ theory of guaranteed stardom was simple; you needed the right sounding name. Unlike Americans, whose real names always sounded right, post war Britain suffered from a plethora of Rons, Toms, Johns and even a few Clives. In fact Larry’s inspiration was Rock Hudson, which probably tells you something about Mr Parnes. Once a young hopeful was signed to Larry’s ‘stable of stars’ he was quickly given a name that would look equally at home on a marquee or a Columbia or Pye 45 rpm single.

John Askew – Johnny Gentle
Dave Nelson – Vince Eager
Ray Howard – Duffy Power
Richard Knellor – Dickie Pride
Thomas Hicks – Tommy Steele
Ronald Wycherley – Billy Fury
Reginald Smith – Marty Wilde
Clive Powell – Georgie Fame

There were a very few that got away with a name change, including Peter Wynne. One young man was told he was going to be called Elmer Twitch; somehow common sense prevailed and he stayed plain old Joe Brown.

Johnny Depp - Great Bloke

Johnny Depp has made a surprise visit to Great Ormond Street children's hospital. He went to donate £1m as a thank you to staff for saving the life of Lily Rose, his eight-year-old daughter. She was treated there last March for kidney failure. Two months ago Depp, dressed in his Pirates of the Caribbean costume, spent four hours at the hospital telling bedtime stories to young patients

A Havers

I'm sure you're all itching to see a Havers so here's one courtesy of Rob Morris in Idaho. Check out Rob's great blog Untold Valor, which is also the name of one of his very good books.

The Cost of a Car

I just chanced upon a piece from 1953 discussing who made the cheapest motor car in Britain. Austin claimed to have stolen a march on Ford by releasing a two door version of the A30 for £475. Ford then struck back by offering the Ford Popular at just £390. So I thought how does that compare to today?

Based on the RPI, the A30 would have cost £9,150 today and based on average earnings it would be a whopping £26,580. The Ford would have come in at £7,515 and £21,820. Makes today's cars look pretty cheap.....

A Hyundai Amica is £4,600, a Ford KA is £4,986 and a Fiat Panda is £4,995

UPDATE

My sister who is always on the case has just sent me this. News to me too!

The Havers was an automobile built in Port Huron, Michigan by the Havers Motor Car Company from 1908-14. The Havers were conventional in design, except they had a long chassis. Most were equipped with a six-cylinder engine, the 1914 engine being of 6.2L capacity producing 55 hp. The 1914 Model 6-55 Speed Car with two passengers sold for $2,250.

They know the price of everything and the value of nothing

I’ve refrained from commenting on the Peter Hain business because everyone else is doing just that. However, this morning listening to the news it struck me that the whole thing is just contemptible. For me there’s no way they can spin this whole business as anything other than dodgy. The 'I was busy and I'm ever so sorry' argument is just plain daft. Can anyone imagine someone with a real job spinning this kind of tosh?

The crucial thing is the deviousness of channelling money though the 'so called' think tank. Why would you?

And unless anyone should lose sight of this in the argument, precisely why would someone need £103,000 to fight a deputy leadership campaign? How many first class stamps can you get for that? It shows above all else how screwed the system is. People down in London, and especially the media, may think £100,000 is not a lot - especially since billions have now taken over from millions. As we’re fond of saying in this house - They know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Out here in the real world we think it's a world gone crazy.

Charles Bronson Sings Frank Sinatra

Well sort of.....because today we here that Charles Bronson, no, not the actor but the man dubbed ‘Britain’s most dangerous prisoner’ has decided he’s going to record Frank Sinatra’s ‘My Way’ to fund an appeal against his life sentence. The 55-year-old, whose real name is Michael Peterson, has spent the last 30 years in solitary confinement and has cost the taxpayer over £1 million.

According to Mr. Bronson “I am not a murderer and have paid my debt to society. I have not been violent for years. Every time I read stuff about me in the papers it’s like reading about someone else.” He was imprisoned for robbery 33 years ago but once inside he became has assaulted at least 20 officers, caused £500,000 of damage in rooftop protests and taking hostages on ten occasions – he even threatened to eat one of his captives. But in a Pythonesque moment Bronson insists he’s really a changed man “I was a nasty bastard, it’s true. But that’s all behind me now.”

After he’s done his 2,500 press-ups for the day, he plans to croon into his tape recorder. He hopes My Way will become the soundtrack to his freedom. Now just let's hope no one takes him seriously and follows in his footsteps.

Of course the song is well known for upsetting some people, but none quite as much as a 48 year old Filipino man. He stabbed to death a 25-year-old Filipino man who was singing My Way, apparently out of tune, during a birthday party. Police officer Noel Albis said the victim, Casimiro Lagugad, was asked to sing Sinatra's popular song during the party in Manila. "Witnesses said the suspect, Julio Tugas, 48, one of the guests and a neighbour of the victim, got irked because Lagugad was singing out of tune," Officer Albis said. "Tugas suddenly attacked the victim and stabbed him in the neck," he added. Guests rushed Mr. Lagugad to the hospital, but he died while being treated. Tugas surrendered and was later charged with murder.

A Stunning Mid Winter Day in the Scottish Borders

It really was a lovely day, sunshine from sun up to sun down, although it was well below freezing all day and minus 8 when we took the dogs for a walk this morning.

Pictures by Mrs H. taken this morning.....

Seventy One Years Ago Today - 12th January 1937

Seventy one years ago today a twenty one year singer was in a New York recording studio with trumpeter Jonah Jones, clarinettist Edgar Sampson, Ben Webster on tenor Sax, Teddy Wilson on piano, guitarist Allan Reuss, John Kirby on bass and drummer Cozy Cole. All were good and some of them were great jazz players in their own right. It was the third recording session in six months by Billie Holiday.

The reason I know this piece of trivia is simple. I looked it up! But the coincidental part was I was playing 'I've Got My Love To Keep Me Warm' this afternoon, perfect music for a freezing Scottish winter's day where the temperature has not got above freezing. Despite her young age listening to Billie sing you can hear n her voice a world weariness. Her childhood and teenage years are the stuff of legend and a good deal of confusion - non of which is made much clearer by Billie's autobiography.

Can Gordon Be Hillary?

In the First Post today Donald Malcolm argues that Gordon Brown needs a Hilary Clinton style comeback. The piece is ill conceived and badly argued and he finishes with this.

Brown's new strategy chief Stephen Carter will be able to ratchet up the similarities: Brown is our Clinton to Cameron's Obama; everybody - in the UK, no less than the US - wants change, but Brown and Clinton have the experience to make it happen; Obama and Cameron are good with words but fail to deliver.

The most obvious problem here is the fact that Brown's in power and has been for quite a while, there are multiple skeletons in his cupboard. Hilary while being associated with power has had only a cursory involvement. In fact that's being generous because it ignores her failure when she was put in the role of head of the Task Force on National Health Care Reform. And let's not forget Whitewater either.

The fact is that its much much harder to stay in power and keep delivering than it is to be in opposition and while the comparisons between Obama and Cameron are tenuous both have the advantage of having little of the mud of failure sticking to them.

Pundits Anyone?

For reasons too complicated to go into I had reason to look up the word pundit. Did you know there were pundits in the late 17th century? It's a Sanskrit word dating from that time meaning, 'learned'. It came into popular use in the early 19th century as 'learned expert'.

Now as we all know, if you take the x out of expert what do you have? A drip under pressure....

News Flash - Bad Weather in Scotland....Shock, Horror

According to the Scotsman today.

"METEOROLOGISTS last night said Scots will need to learn to live with the extreme weather and the chaos it has brought to the country over the past few days, as the unpredictable effects of climate change begin to bite. Experts from the Met Office told MSPs that the wetter winters and drier summers which would be visited on Scotland could bring "increased intensity of severe weather events" – such as flash flooding – in the years ahead."

Now admittedly the Scotsman has had a new editor in the last year, he came from Portsmouth on the south coast of England so he might be forgiven for allowing such tosh to be written in the paper. Admittedly we are not in the worst effected parts of Scotland's bad weather in the last 24 hours or so but this really is pure tripe. In case he doesn't realize there's been bad weather in Scotland for years. Certainly in the ten years that we've lived here there have been floods in this area that have been very bad. But nothing like the flood in the 1947.

ELO and the Telephone Line

ELO’s first album came out in the UK in December 1971 and featured not just Jeff Lynne, but his fellow band mates from the Move, Roy Wood and Bev Beven. Indeed it’s often been claimed that the whole idea for this Move offshoot was pretty much Woods’. However, what’s fascinating about ELO’s debut, imaginatively titled The Electric Light Orchestra in Britain, is its American release. The head of the US label was trying to get information prior to it being pressed and released in America and got his secretary to call the London office to find out what the album was called. The secretary couldn’t get through so she left a note for her boss, which is how come in America ELO’s album came to be called, No Answer.

What's Time To a Mole?

One of the more interesting (?) ideas of the 80s was the music press encouraging unsigned bands to send in tapes of the efforts to be ‘reviewed’ by the papers experts. The Melody Maker called their page for aspiring artists ‘Playback’ and it regularly featured some literary gems along with some unconsciously funny stuff from the bands themselves.

Take Hickory Wind who were named after a Gram Parsons song who listed their influences as “Planxty, The Clash, Dylan and Dexy’s Midnight Runners.” The band featured two saxophones, which makes it difficulty to see either the Parsons or the Planxty connection. Amongst the songs they submitted for consideration was What’s Time To A Mole?. Unsurprisingly we’ve heard nothing from them since. Weird and wonderful group names abound; Adrian’s Wall and Uncle Ian & The Tooth Decay give you a flavour of the times.

The Great Brown Chief

Gordon Brown's performance on Andrew Marr on Sunday and the Today show yesterday has come in for a welter of criticism, and rightly so. It's the usual diatribe except this time he even tried to use one of Margaret Thatcher's old policies on the NHS. We will provide the “doctor you want, time you want, hospital you want”.

The Great Brown Chief can talk forever (and he frequently seems to) about all the policies under the sun. He can use the word change with monotonous regularity but he cannot change the one thing that matters - people just don't like him. He might get away with it if they respected him but that's no going to work either. Brown can splutter on about his experience but as people are beginning to realize it's an experience that ranks up there with a visit to the dentist.

Diesel vs Petrol Vehicles

Last year apparently 40% of new cars in Britain were diesel models - up 8% on 2006. The main reason seems to be that they are cheaper to run and they have lower carbon dioxide emissions than petrol cars. They are still cheaper to run despite diesel being more expensive than petrol here in the UK. Of course that's down to Brown taxing diesel more than petrol.

All this means that the government is collecting a whole lot more in taxes from us. Interestingly diesel in France is about 23% cheaper than the U.K

Politics is a Weird Business

Today on the BBC there's news of the Brownstuff getting to grips with the NHS. The piece is accompanied by some recent footage of the PM and his wife being shown around a hospital. Why does he take his wife with him? It's a weird trend that some politicians seem to think that this is perfectly normal behaviour. Would the head of a multinational take his wife along with him to meetings?

Juke or Jook Joints

….and my Mama said Do you know what goes on in a juke house?
Boy don’t you know there’s gambling,
And a whole lotta drinking, And a lotta hot women.
And I don’t want no boy of mine in a juke house.

‘Juke’ by Blind Mississippi Morris & Brad Webb

Juke is a West African word meaning wicked or disorderly in one language - in a Congolese language it means, a building without walls. It passed into popular usage amongst black Americans from the Southern States with a sexual overtone, it later came to describe a sort of dance. Like many derivative words it’s almost impossible to get to the truth.

Generally Juke joints were found in rural areas and it has been suggested that there is a link to the jute fields and the jute workers that frequented makeshift bars. Long before there was a blues industry, there were juke joints. Typically it had a bar that fronted onto the street, often with a dance floor and a back room for gambling or other activities; some Juke joints doubled as a brothel. According to Muddy Waters “We had these little juke joints, little taverns at that time. On a weekend there was this little place in the alley that would stay open all night. We called them Saturday night fish fries, they had two or three names, they called ‘em juke houses or suppers”

The need for music in such a place is obvious. During the 1930’s the travelling Delta Blues players used the Juke Joints as their regular gigs, they were where many of the younger players first got inspired to pick up an instrument and learn to play it. It was in a Juke that Robert Johnson watched Son House, while Tommy Johnson studied Charley Patton. Robert Johnson was allegedly poisoned at this juke joint.

In the early days a Juke joints was just as likely to be someone’s house, it was one way of keeping that law at a distance. They would also have been a place in which bootleg liquor was sold.

Modern Delta Juke Joints

Today Juke Joints are still to be found throughout the Delta, although their number is in decline. There are a number in Clarksdale, including Reds, which has regular live music. In Leland, Mississippi, there is an wonderful Juke called Boss Hall's. It is owned by W.C. ‘Boss’ Halls and is one of the last ‘real feeling’ places where you can experience the atmosphere that sustained the blues in the Delta

Honky Tonks, Barrelhouses & Juke Joints

A Honky Tonk is the red neck equivalent of a Juke Joint. The difference between the two? The music you’ll find on the Jukebox and the colour of the women in the beer adverts.

Barrelhouses are much the same and take their name from the fact that the beer was kept in barrels! Often more associated with pianists they were somewhat more likely to be found in towns.

“The biggest thing around Vicksburg was Curley’s Barrelhouse. At the time you could hear Little Brother Montgomery” - Willie Dixon

Juke Boxes

The naming of the juke box was of course no accident; they are the ideal way of providing music in such establishments. They were invented in 1927 by The Automatic Music Instrument Company when they created the world's first electrically amplified multi selection phonograph.