“Denmark lost. But life won.”
Hello all
My thoughts go out to Christian Eriksen and his family, I have never been so traumatised watching a football match, and relief that Christian Eriksen, who collapsed shortly before half-time in Denmark’s opening Euro 2020 game against Finland, was awake and “stable” in hospital.
As the Dalai Lama once said, “The purpose of our lives is to be happy.”, and this is true to the next subject I wanting to touch on today, and that is bullying, I never suffered from bullying in school, the fact is I actually stuck up for one boy in my class that got bullied, his name was Ernie Vital, because of what I did I got kicked out of French class for over a year.
Poor Ernie died in the Grenfell Tower Tragedy.
You may be asking what’s this got to do with music Frank, well on Saturday morning I was reading Blood for Vinyl blog, about a county music group, American Aquarium and their album Slappers, Bangers & Certified Twangers: Volume One. In this post Blood For Vinyl explains how he was bullied at school, and how country music was an escape for him. You can read the whole story here.
Bullying doesn’t just happen in schools, it also happens in the workplace. I have seen it and experienced it, now I can not say too much here, but I started a new role in September 2020, as a Building Services Manager, and my first 10 minutes on the project, I did not get on with the project lead. Went home after my first day, and my wife who is the person who knows me the best in this world said “this is not going to end well, as one of your pet hates is bullying”.
Another work colleague who had a Clash ringtone on his phone told me the problem between the Project lead and me is, he is trying to bully you, and that I keep on saying no to him, and the worst thing is that I even laugh at some of his suggestions.
Yep, the project lead was a bully, I could see it within the first half-hour of meeting him, and the way he spoke to others. He did threaten me with a few things, but being that kind of thick skin kind of guy, I took plenty of no notice of him. My last words on this subject are, I am still on the project and getting praised for my work, the project lead is no longer on the project.
Before I start on the music, a good friend of mine Siobhan Browne is raising money National Autistic Society.
For her birthday this year, she is asking for donations to the National Autistic Society. I’ve chosen this charity because its mission means a lot to me, and I hope that you’ll consider contributing as a way of celebrating with me. Every little bit will help me reach my goal. I’ve included information about the National Autistic Society below.
Founded in 1962, we are the UK’s leading charity for autistic people and their families. Our goal is to help transform lives, change attitudes and create a society that works for autistic people.
Facebook pays all the processing fees for you, so 100% of your donation goes directly to the charity. Link here
Well, let start on the music now, I started the week with the Billy Holiday like vocals of Madeleine Peyroux, and her debut album Dreamland, a very nice chilled out album.
Summer is here in the UK, and mid-week I decided to pull out Carroll Thompson – Hopelessly In Love, there I was after a nice cold shower sitting in the man cave with just a pair of shorts on, chilling out to a nice bit of Lovers Rock. For some reason, this album has been taken from Spotify recently, not sure why. So yet again vinyl rules and it get rather hot in this man cave.
Just like my mate the project lead and stupid ideas, a reggae band covering an iconic Pink Floyd album in full is never going to work, well it did, and I was wrong, with my first reaction on listening to the brilliant Easy Star All-Stars – Dub Side Of The Moon.
Friday night after work I popped into Sounds of the Suburbs record store and picked up a nice copy of Linval Thompson – Dreadlock Sessions.
While there I spoke to Tony about an upcoming events, Lockdown Breakout live instore promotion, I don’t know a lot about Seeds of 77, but I will be going, these in stores events have surely been missed, but as Tony explained, on 19 June 2021 live in stores are BACK!!!, and what better way to kick off a new season, than with an album called Lockdown Breakout. This is the debut album by the fantastic Seeds of 77, featuring the talents of Menace guitarist Finn Panton, Morgellons frontman Vince Mahon, the organisation behind the outfit, guitarist Richard Sheldrake, and the vocal talents of Michie Sin, to name just 4, they will play a short semi-acoustic set to promote the album, which also happens to be the first full release on Sounds of the Suburbs records, performance starts around 2 pm, and may be subject to social distancing, at this point, I would like anyone attending to wear a mask, and you may be asked to stand in a certain space, we will keep a close eye on what we need to do.
This one you have to be quiet about and don’t till the wife, I could not help myself, a new version of The Specials – Ghost Town / Why? / Friday Night, Saturday Morning as a Limited Edition, Half-Speed Remastered done at Abbey Road Studios has been realised, I have been so impressed with what they have done on The Specials – The Specials and The Specials – More Specials, I just have to have it, so I ordered the 12″.
As Euro 2020 is now on, although being played in 2021, but that the world we live in these days. My music listening will be slowing down a bit, as I have a month of football ahead of me. So far Italy and Belgium look good, but the opposition never really tested them, and Wales were lucky to get a point against Switzerland. But after what happened last night, there are more important things than football and music, so you lot stay safe and look after each other.
PS COME ON ENGLAND!
Well, that’s it for this week.
Stay safe all, and have a good week.
Oh, I also listened to the below, on my way to work.
I have always been putting together these playlists, I normally make up a playlist from a variety of different music genres and see if they fit together. So lately I have restricted myself to the albums I have posted about and have decided to share them with you, as we did in the old days with tapes
The only way I can think of sharing playlists these days is with something like Spotify, so above is some of what I have been listening to this week.
