Edwyn Collins Podcast

For anyone who may have missed it:
Edwyn Collins & Grace Maxwell were on the Simon Mayo* show (talking to Richard Bacon I know it’s confusing it’s the holidays) about Grace’s new book “Falling & Laughing”. You can download the podcast via I-tunes.

One bonus is EC singing “low Expectation”. The whole thing is a joy. Adding to the good news, there was talk of re-release Series of the Orange Juice LPs possibly next year.

If you go to Edwyn’s website you can hear “Low Expectation” on its own (this wasn’t working when I tried so if you have problems drops us a line and I’ll send you my own DIY version of the song but you have to promise to buy the book!)

*I can recommend the Daily Mayo podcast its radio Five without the endless racing results and phone ins with “Terry from Altringham” whinging about Alex Ferguson just grown up talk with most of the time interesting types. Also every sane person listens to Kermode’s film review don’t they?

Friday on My mind

The Easy Pete special

The weekend is upon us and for all sorts of reasons it can’t come too quickly for me.

Excess Baggage
Can I suggest that while you munch your toast or snaffle your coco pops this Saturday morning and if you can aver Adam and Joe (you can always listen again) you may want to tune into Excess Baggage on radio 4. 10 am.

It’s a travel show which occasionally treads a bit too close to smug trekking in Patagonia for my liking, but this week hurrah they went for a grumpy bearded Northerner sorry Britain’s Leading beer writer(aka Peter Shaun Brown) who’ll be telling either Sandy T or Johnny Mc about lugging a barrel of beer to India.

Honestly there’s no escaping him when he’s not twittering or hanging around borough market he’s on the bleedin’ radio, he’ll be getting a part in The Wire next : ).

Anyway have a listen or use the iplayer or the podcast or sit next to the speaker with your cassette recorder and press play and record or maybe just embroider what he says in a cross stitch.

Go on if everyone listens he won’t have owt to moan about and being from Yorkshire this lack of misery in his life will confuse him .

Owt for Nowt
I’ll off to god’s own county myself this weekend, never a bad thing. Thought I’d belie our totally mistaken reputation for being tight by giving you a tune.

Apologies for the obviousness but I’ve only just sorted out who anybody is from V’60’s. Apart from V’Beatles and V’Stones I always thought most other 60’s tunes were by V’Hollies or Jerry and V’ Pacemakers so finding a best of on the market by the likes of V’ Easybeats is part of my tardy education and I like the bit at the beginning that sort of falls over its self.

My platter is a bit crackly so maybe you can just put in on and dance round the room with something cold to hand (not a packet of peas) and even if you are not going to the city like me make sure you have good a Friday and a corking weekend.

Friday on My Mind by The Easybeats

La Lucha Continua

Reasons to be cheerful Pt 12: The Law of Historical memory

Heard this this morning and it made me stop then and stop again just now. Tales of the International Brigade have been putting something in my eye since I was 15 and they still do to this day.

I can think of fighting for my own freedom but going all that way to country you didn't know for a believe is always inspiring particularly when you know all the terrible betrayals they received from Stalin and his chums. Anyway have a listen.

Post 700: It's parky out (of the country)

Tha’s a reet spinner thee aka Not just lies these are M&S lies....

Listening to the radio this morning, at the half hour up popped the sports news and the discussion turned to the English crickets team’s tour of Oz and look who popped up to comment on our travails, Sir Michael Parkinson.

No big surprise there Parky’s been using the same 5 anecdotes to talk about sport for most of his career. But here’s the thing t’old MP is sunning himself down under and yet and yet before Christmas he was on the TV all the time telling us about the hilarious argument he and their lass were having about what would be on’t t’table chez Parky come Dec 25th. And yet he wasn’t as He and Mary would like us to believe sat in some prefab pensioners bungalow in Stairfoot or Wombwell blanket on their knees sharing a M&S turkey crown dinner for 2 and some mince pies with some squirty cream on top on a tray in front of the popping gas fire watching the horrors unfold on ‘stenders. Nor was He even sat next to the inglenook in his top end gastro pub in Berkshire waiting for the petit fours to come around. No Mr “we were having a reet to do about the smoke salmon starters in Mark’s wet fish section t’other day” Parkinson was sunning himself in Ramsay St. grazing on Barramundi and prawns!

If we can’t trust adverts what can we trust, you’ll be telling me next that Andi Macdowell doesn’t use 10 quid bottles of hair dye next.

Interview Inflation

Radio4:
Nice moment of Today this morning: some senior union representative from Unity was on defending the government bailing out the private and non-Uk owners of Jaguar and Range Rover (but not Woollies). Asked how many jobs would be lost he said initially around 13,000 missed a beat realising this was not half the number lost at Woollies he immediate starts inflating and in series of jumps had got it up to at least 60,000.

Lots of people losing their jobs isn’t funny but let’s be honest about it eh?

Charity begins at home?

Middleaged tax exiles in need:
I left the radio tuned to Radio 2 after lsitening to Mark Radcliffe last night and caught a few minutes of Wogan just now. They were doing a celebrity auction for Children in Need.

Now I've got nothing against Pudsey and his mates (In fact groups I've worked with have benefitted from the money given) but this auction was deeply annoying.

It's called "Things that money can't buy" (or something similar) and people can bid to have dinner with people of the telly etc. Firstly the titles wrong because clearly if you've got 20 grand you can have dinner with the bloke of that cardiff Dr Who knock off. Also isn't this another example of communisn for the rich capitlism for the poor? When you or I chip in for charity all we expect back in retrun is a paper poppy or perhaps a smile. Rich people when they give want a "night of their lives" (is it technically gving if you get something of equal value in return.)

S0 the whole thing seems to have very little to do with giving and is more about a ego massage for thoe invovled. I aslo think it's different from going to charity gig becuse when i'm at benefit I'm not on national radio crowing about my generosity (well done to anon bidders by the way) nor am trying to claim some superiority and seperate myself from the herd........ look at me I'm having a creme caramel with Joanna Lumley , look she's smiling sweetly as I go on about my house in portugal .... look I think she's about to ring up the Gurkhas and have me whacked...

So it's simple if you want to give to chairity go ahead and give, prefrably by Gift Aid so the charity can get the tax back . Don't flatter youself that munching chicken salad in the Ivy with the cast of Holby City makes you St Francis of Assisi.
Lastly if you want a charity to support can I suggest Oxfam there are very good with kids everywhere.

Bandwagon Jumpers

Sachs and the Twitties:
So let's see the Daily Mail et al having got some tweezers out and found a few grains of dirt to pile on top of each other have built enough moral high ground to start going on about Jonathon Ross and Russell Brand. They are as usual just following where others have led sadly in this case me !

I've thought Ross was past his sell by date for a while, his excessive wages have immunised him against complaint and allowed him to gather round him a coterie acolytes to buy off disapproval allowing him to say and do almost anything.

It's funny as I'm for free speech it's just with free speech comes with responsibility, if you say something that's genuinely offensive you have to face the consequences.
The sight however of the fake moral outrage of the rest of the media is almost as offensive.