Stately is, I think, the word to describe this 1955 recording by the Orchids on Parrot Records: the tempo feels unrushed, processional. ...

Do you remember the BBC children's show Crackerjack and its tradition (at least before Chas and Dave gave them a theme tune composed wit...

Unlike he whose mortal remains swirl in infinitesimal pieces around the east coast of Scotland, I'm not any kind of a Northern Soul exp...

Yes, echoing the title of a film by his idol, let George be the one to taunt you with visions of what might have been, specifically the pri...

That it may have been inevitable doesn't make the death of Gerry Rafferty any less sad. I got to know his work through his second H...

This isn't really to do with music - or only with music as an incidental ingredient - but I feel compelled to write something about Pe...

Time has now been called on our John Lennon songwriting competition (see post here , but it's academic now). I have to report that as...

Have just finished watching the above BBC TV documentary about Ray Davies and a review in the Independent, readable here , gets it roughly ...

As a reluctant nod to the season, herewith Christmas Prayer, a lesser-known Valentines track from 1955 - at least it isn't on th...

 I see from the magic of statcounter that someone who googled the above question today was directed to the Gnome Though...

I can't pretend I listened to every single edition of Mark Lamarr's BBC Radio 2 show Shake Rattle and Roll - too much non-Carl Perk...

This is to alert readers that Ian Whitcomb's peerless radio show has moved from Luxuria to XM 24. My post about his Luxuria programme, ...

For a while I though it was so obscure there might not be an image of the above album cover online, but of course there was. I bought it,...

If the title of this post has already made you think of Dion and the Belmonts' Teen Angel ("Our love is young,/Now we are one...

I started writing this blog one year ago tomorrow, which prompts a post-length period of reflection: is there anything I have learnt? Any wi...

As a postscript to recent entries linking rock'n'roll to the atomic age, here's a doo wop recording well known to me which is b...

This clip from last night's episode of the UK sitcom Peep Show demands a wider audience. And it's music-related (after a fashion)...

With the thirtieth anniversary of John Lennon's death coming up, I'd like to share my memories of that time, even if this turn...

This is a very simple, not to mention infantile, idea which could be catching, if any Beatle people are reading this. Hey, maybe it could e...

This series started as an exploration of David Bowie's early influences ("Gnome" as in The Laughing Gnome) but has dri...

By way of an extended footnote to the previous post, more about repression in fifties Britain, this time through the prism of radio comedy,...

You can find out more about the the Britain in which John Lennon, Alan Klein and so many others grew up in Humphrey Carpenter's book Th...

  Listened last night to another of the very highly recommended LENNONYC "Beyond Broadcast" podcasts discussed in post 29 , this...

Only one more volume of the Fabulous 50s to go, but if you're not so keen on the tracks which don't come straight from the fridge (...

Here's the tracklisting (including some youtube links) for the 1958 volume of the Fabulous 50s series, plus some brief notes made at th...

Talking of those darlings of the Cold War, a current British TV comedy show has a regular sketch based on a very simple premise: the Beatle...

"C'mon, lads - let's reck not of the morrow!" One thing I haven't yet addressed in this scamper through the 1950s UK ...

Below is one of the few clips from Lipstick On Your Collar currently available on youtube, though I don't know how long for, so hurry. ...

The main point of looking at those 1950s CDs was to see what was in the charts before rock'n'roll, but I'm going to reproduce th...

As we cruise into the second half of the fifties in this series rock'n'roll is really kicking in, though big ballads and old-fashion...

As this compilation series heads for the mid-fifties there are one or two portents of what is to come: the Sinatras and the Mario Lanzas may...

  As 1955 approaches this world is not set to last much longer. Johnny Ray, the final artist on this compilation, is not rock'n'rol...

Having talked in recent posts about the sickly nature of the pre-rock'n'roll British charts, now seems a good point for a quick loo...

 I have just seen Stop Dreamin' at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford, where it's running till 6th November. Sad to report t...

Further musical connections, presented in more fragmentary a form than usual; an explanation will be furnished for the above image in due c...