Ovalteeny

Malcolm, never heard of Steve 'n' Seagulls but I like what I see and hear on the video. Much better than the stuff I've seen and heard from Hayseed Dixie. Thank you for posting this, I'm now off to see what else I can find by them and discover some info regards where they are from etc.

I like it, nothing wrong with girls playing guitars, check out the Wynnona song :- Girls with Guitars, what's the world coming to. Girls with Guitars, daddy's little angel. Girls with Guitars, there ought to a song about Girls with Guitars Get your money for nothing and your guys for free I'll try and find a video with this on

Maggie/915, yes we try and go to the Sage's Americana Weekend, which is usually very good, with a mixture of established artists and newer, up and coming ones. We missed this year, for various reasons, but previously we've seen some terrific acts, not all from USA either, some pretty good English Scottish & Irish musicians. We try and support the Sage throughout the year. We've already got tickets for early February for the "Transatliantic Sessions" live Tour the again in April for 3 terrific American ladies, Sarah Jaroz, Sarah Watkins & Aoife O'Donovan, on the stage together. Any one of them is capable of being the next Allison Krauss, so catching them together is a bit special.

My number one was Texas Country but my number 2 is anything but country, check out Mike Farris, a voice that's a bit Al Green, a bit Sam Moore (of Sam & Dave fame), the sort of Gospel that made Ray Charles / Aretha Franklin & Sam Cooke famous back in the 1950's

These days Maggie/915 you don't necessarily have to buy albums. There are so many digital alternatives.

Closing down loop-holes in the "black economy" always has it's negative side. I blame Thatcher too.

Okay, lets see if anyone is interested in what my Top 10 sounds /looks like. I'll start to paste one link link per day, starting off with Kelly & Bruce, who have both had long solo careers, but they have been married for quite a few years and this album is their 2nd. joint effort in 2 years :-

Wilko's a top man + Daltry's a unique performer

Here we go with my Top 10 for this year :- 1. Kelly Willis and Bruce Robison - Our Year 2. Mike Farris - Shine for All the People 3. Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds in Country Music 4. Nickel Creek - A Dotted Line 5. Lake Street Dive - Bad Self Portraits 6. Old Crow Medicine Show - Remedy 7. Rodney Crowell - Tarpaper Sky 8. Jason Eady - Daylight And Dark 9. Jesse Winchester - A Reasonable Amount of Trouble 10. Paul Thorn - Too Blessed to Be Stressed

My dad (Stan) had a cousin, Jimmy who lived at Scotland Gate (when I was 10-14 yard old), 3 or 4 times a year my dad and Jimmy would have a Saturday night out and then come back to our house at The Oval for supper. Sometimes they were coherent, mostly not, which usually ruined Match of the Day for me and my brother. However, I'm not sure if Jimmy was a para, could have been?

Agreed about steering the next generations toward good music. I remember taking my 2 kids to Wembley Arena to see Lyle Lovett & Mary Chapin Carpenter, then another time to Shepherds Bush Empire to see John Hiatt. Although I did also let them take me to see the Spice Girls and then Robbie Williams on 2 other occasions. Spice Girls were as I expected (never to return again) but Robbie put on a hell of a show (albeit he is very big-headed and full of himself). Another time I tool my daughter (who was only 5 at the time) to see The Poozies at the Stables in Milton Keynes (and Kate Rusby was depping for one of the other girls) and my Harriet had a good 10 minute chat with Kate at half-time about music lessons & fiddles etc. After taking Harriet to see Allison Krauss she is now (although only 24 years old) well into Americana, especially girl fiddle or banjo players and goes to gigs herself to see such performers as Sarah Joaroz, Sarah Watkins and Aoife O'Donovan (probably lost you there, with those 3 names, but check them out, they can't half play).

Most of Bonnie's band have been with her for years & years. The only exception at the City Hall was the keyboard man, whose name escapes me now, but he'd played with everyone in LA from the Beach Boys to Jackson Browne and boy was he good. Bonnie always has had very good keyboard guys (including at least 2 English lads - ex Faces & Rolling Stone, Ian McLagan (RIP just the other week) and the monster-man from New Awlins (via his Kentish birthplace) Jon Cleary. By the by, Ian McLagan co-wrote most of Rod Stewarts early classics and I've seen him with his own band (from Austin, Texas) a few times and he certainly put on a terrific show.

God visited a woman and told her she must give up smoking, drinking and sex if she wants to get into heaven. The woman said she would try her best. God visited the woman a week later to see how she was getting on.. "Not bad" said the woman, "I've given up smoking and drinking but then I bent over the lounge suite and my boyfriend caught sight of my long slender legs, he pulled up my skirt, pulled my knickers to one side and made love to me right then and there." "They don't like that in heaven", said God........ The woman replied: " And they're not too happy about it in IKEA either!"

Where was this Candlelight Club? Apart from the WMC's (CIU Affiliated), the only club in Ashington I went to was The Cellar

Willy J, Joe Bonamassa has generally been a little too heavy blues for me, but I have his latest album and like that. No doubting his talent with the guitar though, top man. Most of the acts I have seen over the past 50 years have been in southern / London venues (and USA). However, I did get back to the City Hall 2 summers ago to see Bonnie Raitt, who with her usual band of top class musicians was as good as, if not better, than the previous 6 or 7 times I've see her. I usually go mostly to the Sage these days. One highlight of this Bonnie Raitt gig was the support act, who I had heard of but not heard anything by. He was an Irish lad called Foy Vance and he was terrific. Check out his album "Joy of Nothing".

I'm half way through Bill Kells at the moment book and it's fascinating.

My first gig at The City Hall was May 1964 with Rolling Stones, Cliff Bennett & The Rebel Rousers, Peter Jay & The Jaywalkers, Julie Grant, Keith Powell & The Valets. Then, later the same month Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, The Animals, The Swinging Blue Jeans, King Size Taylor & the Dominos, The Other Two + The Nashville Teens 50 years later and I'm still going to gigs and enjoying live music, you can't beat it.

Obviously, you have trouble getting to sleep, as well as your other crosses to bear, 02:18am indeed. I wish my memory was as clear and vivid as yours, so I say keep on writing your Book Two and there must be someone who will help you publish it (just as it is without any editoring). One memory that has come back to me that may be relevant to you, relates to when I was working in the Stoke on Trent area in the 1970's. I walk into this pub in Kidsgrove (a small mining village to the west of Stoke) and ask the barman if he could please fetch the landlord of the pub for me to speak to. The barman said ok but the Landlord would be a few minutes. The Barman then asked where I came from. When I said Bedlington, he asked my name and I replied Kidd. The Barman then says - "was your Grandad Sep Kidd from the Dr. Pit and chairman of Bedlington Mechanics". I said yes. He then said, "then tell your Uncle Andy that he still owes me a pint from a night in the Monkey". His name was Jackie Brown and he said he used to live in Hollymount Square before moving to Staffordshire with the NCB. So, did the Browns live near you in Hollymount Square?

My Dad used to put all his bets on, in the Terrier, always signing his betting slip with SKID.

In the main, most Xmas songs are way too cheesy, but there are exceptions :- Albums The Motown Xmas Album A Christmas Gift for You - Phil Spector Singles Little St. Nick - The Beach Boys Santa Claus is coming to Town - Bruce Springsteen

Welcome to you Paul...

Fourgee = many thanks, I can now access the Gallery HPW = looking forward this book of yours, if it's anything like your postings on here.

Welcome Maubel, we were probably at the Whitley Memorial at the same time, although it looks like you passed your 11+ and I didn't. Was Miss Molden your teacher, Mr Hostler the Headmaster & Mattie Hall the teacher who ran the football team.

from one new member to another, welcome Fizz

HPW, my memories are not so vivid, except at Hollymount Hall, between the ages of 3 to 7, I can only remember the outside toilet, next to our Chicken Runs. Me and my brother had 3 wheeler bikes that we used to bomb around the Hall and Hollymount Avenue and down into Beaty Road, where my Grandma & Grandad lived. The Co-op Dairy doors do stir something in the old ether, but as my Dad worked across the Front Street, at the Store Abattoir, I can obviously recall more of what that looked like. You had to go through the cut, between the Locke Hall and the main Store (the cut through to Millfield) and then the Abattoir was to the left, at the back of the main Store. I'm fairly sure there were stables round there, as well, as horses are etched in the memory. The classic Store Horse jokes now come flooding back. I'm pleased that I have joined and I'm enjoying participating with yourself and the other regulars. I used to think that nostalgia was a thing of the past, but it clearly can be part of all our todays. By the way, the day I went south, to find work and god knows what else, someone called Alan Edgar (aka Eggy who frequently appears on here) met me at Kings Cross and assisted my first few weeks in the Smoke. Small world or what?