“As long as we live, there is never enough singing.” – Martin Luther

Hello all

It’s my mums 82nd birthday today.

Indirectly it’s her fault I am into music as much as I am. First of all, there was the greatest Christmas present ever, the Amstrad tower system, but because of my mum two years later there was better to come.

My mum worked for an Egyptian shipping tycoon, he was also a Dr of something but it was not medical, let’s just say he had a few quid. One day I was visiting my mum at work, and I spotted this Sony Hi-fi system, well my eyes just widen. My mum was telling me to leave it alone and don’t play with it. The good Dr said to leave the boy, and he started showing me the system. My mum kept on telling him I have something similar in my bedroom.

My mum did not understand that the Amstrad was not something similar to this Sony all separate system, with its big amp, tape deck and turntable. He did play something for me, it was something I did know at the time, but I could hear everything coming out, all full of detail and rhythm, he even let me sit in what he called his listening chair. Like to see Gordon St Louis tell the good Dr his system has no bass. Anyway, I was soon ushered out by my mum, and told to leave the Dr alone as he is a busy man. ” Busy listening to music on that system I bet,” I thought.

About two months later, on Saturday, my mum calls me down and said there was someone at the door for me. Upon opening the door, I see John, the good Dr driver, with a van outside my house. John said he has something for me, and I followed him, and to my utter shock, in the back of the van was the Sony system, wooden cabinet and all. I was so confused, then my mum came out, and told me that the Dr got a new one, and said you can have his old one.

It turns out, not only did my mum tell me to turn my music down, but she also told the Dr to turn his music down as well! and she would tell the Dr that you are like my son, who also plays his music to load.

Well, John and my dad carried the system upstairs, and I remember my mum could not stop apologising to John about the mess in my room, they took the Amstrad away, never know why my sisters didn’t want the Amstrad. The only thing the system didn’t come with was the speakers, so I had to connect to the Amstad speakers. Well, I went on the missing list for the weekend, this 15-year-old was locked in his bedroom, and yep you guessed it, with my dad shouting up the stairs telling me to turn that crap down, while I made some new mixtapes on my, yep my new shinning Sony separate system.

I never did see the good Dr again to thank him, I always wondered what he upgraded to. The Amstrad speakers didn’t last long, as I damaged one, maybe Dad was right I should have turned the crap down, but they were soon replaced, but that’s another story of Dean Corry and myself nearly get kick out of a Hi-Fi shop in Tottenham Court Road.

So Happy birthday mum.

Last Sunday afternoon, I went to the Sounds of the Suburbs to see Gary Crowley’s talk about his compilation release Lost the 80s 2 and a load of other stories about how he got into the music business and a load of other stories. I would just like to thank Tony from Sound of The Suburbs, and Gary Crowley, who was brilliant, I ended up buying the CD box set, and the vinyl st which Gary signed, it’s a great compilation and book. There are tracks on here that I thought I would never hear again.

I started off this week listen to and enjoying a Rocksteady compilation, Various ‎– First Class Rock Steady Rocksteady is the bridge between Ska and Reggae.

Part of my midweek listening was Sans Soucis ‎– The Lover, a very sparse and deep meaning EP.

I then moved onto a bit of Goth rock, with The Cure ‎– Seventeen Seconds, which I have just noticed I missed a video out, I must hire an editor one day, all corrected now.

While on my daily commute on the Tube, I have started to listen to Garbage self-titled debut, hopefully, I will be posting my thoughts on it soon, it’s got that great song on it Milk.

Facebook announced to me that Dirt Royal is going to be playing in Harrow Saturday the 14th of August at the Trinity Bar, with some other bands I have not heard of, Steve Woods and the Hoods, Coburn, Dayorder and Karma Roullete. Here is a song from Dirt Royal ‎– Great Expectations album.

During the week I have been enjoying Steve for the Deaf series about Imaginary Bands Week, where he has been writing about bands who never even existed except for in films, TV-Shows, Cartoons, like Fever Dog, Big Fun, where I leant there was actually UK boyband called Big Fun, which I sort pleased I missed out on, Josie and The Pussycats, Munchausen By Proxy the one band I do remember is Drive Shaft, the band from the TV series Lost. I never did finish Lost, was on about series 3-4, when some loud month at work, let the cat out of the bag and told us all the ending.
I was hoping to catch up with Tenacious D and Spinal Tap on Saturday morning, but I went out Friday night after work for a few drinks, and Saturday morning my attention span was in line with a goldfish, so I have to catch up on these two.

2 Loud 2 Old Music wrote a great comparison between Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes and Simply Red version of “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” in The Original vs. The Cover – “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” for me Teddy’s voice is a clear winner, how about you?

Amapiano have you ever heard of it, no, nor me, until I read Loving the Music post, Kabza De Small – Amapiano Champion. It’s a South African dancefloor sound that has swept to prominence across the taverns, clubs and airwaves of South Africa.

Well, that’s it from me, got wrap a present, get some flowers, and a bottle of Albariño, a white wine from Galician, North West of Spain.

Stay safe all, and have a good week.

Oh, I have been listening to this on my daily commute.

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.

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