My Musical Alphabet : H

As I keep saying, this stuff isn't mine and may very well be pulled for breach of copyright. You can, of course, go looking on YouTube, or its foreign variants, for copies. I'm sure you know how.

Time to spin some toons and we have reached the Hs.

I suppose it's time to remind everyone (anyone?) that the songs picked for this blog are not the only ones I like, they are the ones that first popped into my head when thinking about this.

This first H is from my childhood, not the ill-fated attempt at Eurovision. I remember lying in bed at night listening through the floor to the young guy below spinning his 45s. This is one of the tunes I particularly liked. It can't only be me because many of the "general" cover acts also have their take on it. Here is Arnold Dorsey, better known as Engelbert Humperdinck.

 That brilliant balladeer can be contrasted with the following brilliant guitarist:

Of course, Hank B Marvin of the Shadows.

Again, I know and love this style of music from the early sixties. I've always liked a nice tune whether it be an original or a cover. This guy can pick a great tune to cover. I could easily have picked something from the early days with Sir Cliff but have opted for this cover of Mike Oldfield's Moonlight Shadow. For added info, there is another great cover of this sung in German - Nacht Voll Schatten by Juliane Werding. Anyway, feast your ears on this.

Lastly, check out Die Toten Hosen's YouTube channel and get your hands on their stuff.  A taster is here:

Yes, I do like a bit of punk/new wave.

I'm sure you'll agree that this mix from the letter H shows a wide range of my favourite styles and not a yodel in sight.

Again, all my take. If you'd like to leave a comment, please do. See you in a few days for something else.

TVJunkie 1962 - Fireball XL5

As I keep saying, some of this stuff is not mine and may very well be pulled for breach of copyright. You can, of course, go looking on YouTube, or its foreign variants, for copies. I am sure you know how.

Fireball XL5, a Supermarionation forerunner of TV21 productions: one of the first tv series I watched because of an interest, unlike Watch With Mother which was aimed at toddlers and kept me quiet at dinner time.

This was on TV for a single year in the early 60s but I did not see it originally. We probably did not have a TV back then. 

This SF TV series was from the pens of that husband and wife team, Gerry and Sylvia Anderson. It wasn't the first and they went on to give us many years of great adventures for children and young teenagers - Stingray, Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90, Space 1999, UFO.....10 years of memorable TV before cartoons took over.

Set in the mid 21st century (not that far away now, is it?), Colonel Steve Zodiac commanded the space ship XL5. Ably assisted by Dr Venus, Professor Matthew Matic, and an on-board Robot, Robert. There was also Zoonie the Lazoon but the less said about that the better.

Good old science fiction featuring many themes of the golden age - if you watch or read any SF, you will come across many of these.

The series wears well for what it is but I am sure the modern child would be less than impressed - oxygen pills that allow you to breathe in a vacuum, no space suits required, traversing inter-stellar space in 6 weeks, instantaneous radio transmissions, all aliens speak perfect English! Yes, back in the day we weren't all critics and for me, that was a good thing. Also, back in the day the production seemed to be a lot better - lighting, sound, staging, sound, effects - in general far, far better than much of what came later. Even when you consider that it was a "mere" children's puppet show!

But the Andersons did get something right  - the newer generation of rockets - Falcon series - do, indeed re-land in one piece for subsequent re-launch. So it wasn't all wrong. 

If you own a pair of rose-tints, there is a Facebook page...

But, if you want to really, really, really want to know about Zoonie:

 Not sure what the next blog will be about but stay tuned for an update in a couple of days.