Waddingtons Big Horn

Another game that I used to play circa 1962 to maybe 1964. A wonderful game too. Based on the lunacy of General Custer. The madcap American military man leads his brave troops into the Big Horm basin and then, amid a thunder of hooves and a storm of arrows, he finds himself surrounded by Sitting Bulls Sioux Indians. The nature of the game was to cheat history and have Custer and his men beat the foul fiendish redskins.
Trouble was for me that, even back then, I always wanted the Indians to win!



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aNOtHEr dIp INtO ThE mAGpIE mEMOrY pOOoL.

The Telegoons

Too young to remember the original Radio Goon show, this for me, was my first introduction to the genius of the Goons. Far darker perhaps than the audio version but still a must see in its day.

The TelegoonsScript Editor: Maurice WiltshireProducer: Tony YoungSeries 1 Broadcast: 05 October 1963 to 20 December 1963Series 2 Broadcast: 28 March 1964 to 01 August 1964
Three years after the last Goon Show series ended, the BBC broadcast 'The Telegoons'. Television scriptwriter Maurice Wiltshire shortened and re-worked 26 original Goon Show scripts to 2 series of 15 minute puppet films.
Wiltshire had co-written some of original Goon Shows and was well placed to adapt the scripts. He edited the scripts and added a good amount of visual humour to suit the TV medium.
The Goon characters to were brought to life by string and rod puppets, which combined with traditional cartoon animation and library footage gave the programmes a unique look. The puppets' visual characteristics were based on Spike Milligan's doodled impressions of how they might look, creating a somewhat grotesque but worthwhile visual interpretation.
The sound tracks were freshly recorded by The Goons, which brought them back together again for the first time in several years.
The Telegoons was not particularly successful with its adult audience. However, it was popular with the younger television viewing generation which led to regular Telegoon comic strips in 'TV Comic'.
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aNOtHEr dIp INtO ThE mAGpIE mAMmArY pOOoL.

Chas 'N' Dave

A festive treat for you all - well, some of you maybe! I love Chas 'N' Dave and forgive them the dreadful cockney caperings and "Stars On 45" type medleys they do but at the heart of their music is a great musicianship and a refreshing use of the local venacular without stooping to affect a mid Atlantic drawl like so many seems to do for some reason. They write good catchy songs too as their many hits denote.
"The Sideboard Song" "Margate" "Gertcha" to name but a few.
Here is a radio show from the 80's or maybe 90's when they were at their height. Full of Xmas cheer and jolly good up kneesing- cor blimey guv!

Victorian Poster

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aNOtHEr dIp INtO ThE mAGpIE mEMOrY pOOoL.

Bert Jansch

Bert Jansch was born in Glasgow in 1943, but brought up in Edinburgh. As a teenager he began playing the folk guitar, enjoying the music of such artists as Pete Seeger, Big Bill Broonzy and Woody Guthrie. He also met and shared a flat with Robin Williamson, with whom he travelled to London in 1963.
Between 1963 and 1965, he travelled around Europe and beyond, hitch-hiking from place to place and living on earnings from busking and playing in bars and cafes. Then, in 1965, he met engineer and record producer Bill Leader at whose home they made a recording of his songs on a reel to reel. Leader sold the tape for £100 to Transatlantic Records who produced an album, called Bert Jansch, directly from it. It went on to sell 150,000 copies. One of those copies was mine.

I loved it and, along with John Wildash, who introduced me to Jansch’s music, it formed the basis of the folk guitar style that I still use. I remember listening to his version of Davey Graham’s Angie and thinking – but how can he play all those different things at once? (With the bass line and the tune – it sounds like two guitarists playing – at least it did to me then.) Angie is still great fun to play – in its day it was the folk equivalent of Stairway to Heaven, played by aspiring folk guitarists everywhere. It was definitely an album for teenagers featuring tracks such as Running From Home, and the influential Needle of Death, about drug addiction. Many of the songs on that album were covered by others such as Donovan, and it’s an album I often return to for a folk fix.

I saw Bert Jansch play in Coventry Cathedral with Pentangle in the early seventies. That was a magical night. And he’s still going as strong as ever with around thirty or so albums to his credit. In 2001 he received a well-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award at the BBC 2 Folk Awards.

If you like folk music and are unfamiliar with this man’s work, do yourself a favour and look him up. .

Here's Angie...http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=RqjUWJtH88c&feature=related
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aNOtHEr dIp INtO ThE mAGpIE mEMOrY pOOoL.

A Victorian Tobacco Jar

Another antique from the Victorian era. This is a Tobacco Jar. Not a lot of good to me for that purpose but I quite fancy the idea of having one and keeping Imperial Mints (no irony intended) in it. I could wear my Victorain Smoking Hat and read whilst sucking upon the odd mint.

Spiffing Wot?

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aNOtHEr dIp INtO ThE mAGpIE mEMOrY pOOoL.