barclaycon

Ah. That's interesting. The first record I bought with my own money was 'The Price Of Love' by The Everly Brothers. My Dad had always bought records for the family before but he baulked at buying things like The Rolling Stones. (The Beatles he didn't mind). He said that since I was now getting pocket money, I had to buy records myself if I wanted them. The price was 6/3d (That's 6 shillings and 3 pence). From what I'm told 'The Price Of Love' was something of a comeback record for The Everlys. Still sounds great now.

Cow Lane ?

Lord Lucan as the new Cadbury's Milk Tray man ! Nice one. I bet that Kraft have changed the ingredients.... The Lady will probably want her money back.

The death toll of 2016 continues...... Maurice White, founder and lead singer of Earth Wind and Fire has sadly passed away. I believe that he'd been ill for some time and had been suffering with Parkinson's. I'm going to console myself by playing a few of his great hits - Boogie Wonderland, After the Love Has Gone. R.I.P. Maurice

It looks as though 2016 is going to be one of those years when a lot of 'genuinely' famous people will be departing. Not the micro-celebrities and Z list reality stars that seem to have invaded our screens since the 70's, but well-loved, talented people who actually meant something in our lives. I wasn't a fan of Terry Wogan myself, but I'm sad to see him go. R.I.P. Terry

I met Dale Griffin a few times. He was a producer at Radio 1 when he left Mott the Hoople. It was shame that he wasn't well enough to play the whole of the reunion concerts in 2009 (he was replaced by Martin Chambers) though he did play the encores. Mott were an underrated band I think. R.I.P. Dale

There must have been some sort of weird lifetime guarantee that expired at the end of 2015. So far it's been Lemmy, Bowie, Alan Rickman and now, Glenn Frey, Tremendously sad. R.I.P. Glenn

I too felt that 'the tram' was a huge white elephant before - mainly because the areas that it snakes through are fairly run-down (e.g. Arkwright Street) or are being crippled by high rents and business rates that would ultimately making the centre something of a ghost town. But, now having travelled on the system I must say that as a rapid-transit network it is very good. Principally because they have made it affordable. That is the key. They got the fares wrong first time round. That's why they missed the passenger targets and had to engage in such nonsense as the 'car-parking levy'. Schem

Over Christmas and the New Year I was up in Notts and I took the opportunity to try out the new tram system. I went from Toton Lane (as it's quite near my brother's house) into town. I've got to say I was pleasantly suprised ! Not only is it fast and frequent, it 's also reasonably priced. It would seem that Notts council have learned their lesson from past experiences and have set a good fair structure. You can go into town and back now for £4. On the bus, the round journey would cost nearer £7 - and it's a tedious journey. But the tram is excellent. I went into Beeston to see how the

I know that it's not directly connected with the Fifa scandal, but I was pleased to see that they've also nailed Martin Shkreli, the scumbag who tried to increase the price of essential drugs. Even in these times of excess, it seems that in some quarters there are still limits to avarice and greed. Here he is being led away in handcuffs: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/dec/19/martin-shkreli-securities-fraud-conspiracy-allegations-baseless

Yes. That effectively finishes their arrogant and corrupt hold on world football. But still the little twat won't go ! I'm sure there are many others in the organisation that have also had their snouts in the trough. Fifa will forever be tainted. It was awash with money from every conceivable source. The best thing they could do really is to dismantle the whole thing and create a new, more accountable body.

Not much manufacturing left in Britain now, and we seem to be highly dependent on imports. The coal situation is simply down to costs. Our coal is £43 a ton. Russian or Polish coal is £30 a ton. It's sad that more couldn't be made of our own natural resources. It simply lacks the will on the part of our government. I actually think that coal still has a place in our power industry and I don't think that they will have eliminated it by 2020 as they claim. More could be done to ensure 'clean-burn' as they have done at Ratcliffe. E.ON has fitted Flue Gas Desulphurisation and Catalytic Reduct

Whoever they replace him with will do what he was about to i.e. have a massive clearout. Ivanovic, Terry, Fabregas, and quite a few others were visibly well past their peak. Costa has just been a big baby. He should have concentrated more on getting fit and scoring goals. I think Hazard, Remy, Willian will all find new homes because they think they are better than Chelsea - but a lot of the so-called top players haven't done themselves any favours by being petulant and putting in bad performances. Whoever they think will buy them will be very wary of their attitude. Mourinho was probably g

Re. #26. Agree with you about Jason Statham. He's supposed to be a 'hard case' but just comes across as an unshaven baldy man with a funny little cockney accent. Mind you, 'Snatch' was an OK movie. He wasn't quite so irritating in that. One of the most disappointing movies I ever went to was 'Sebastiane' by Derek Jarman. Complete and utter crap. (As was anything by Derek Jarman). I'd gone to see it principally because Brian Eno had done the music (which also turned out to be garbage), but it turned out to be blatent Homo-erotica. If you like blokes kissing and willies waving about then t

Sir Edward Watkin was a visionary and a 'mover and shaker' who exerted a major influence on rail travel in the Victorian age. Whilst he may not have been an 'engineer' per se, he was a railway man through-and-through as evidenced by his achievements (the Metropolitan Railway, the Great Central, first attempt at the Channel Tunnel etc etc). So he definitely knew about 'railway engineering'. The dismantling of our railways and the Great Central in particular was incredibly short sighted and done with indecent haste. It's true that there was a lot of 'duplication' of routes - indeed Bulwell h

Good article about this station at the Disused Stations site: http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/b/bulwell_common/index.shtml He does a great job on researching the closure of railway stations. There are quite a few sections on stations from the Notts area there - including the Nottingham Suburban Railway.

Yeah. It could offend ! Still, those more sensitive souls can instead watch 'The Great Pottery Throw Down'. All the thrills and spills of pottery making. The emotions, the tears, the tantrums. The white-knuckle ride of achieving a viable pot (!)

I was initially concerned that we were losing a BBC channel, but then it occurred to me that I don't actually watch it at all - and therefore won't miss it ! Some of their programmes have been truly crap and look as though they've been made for about £500. Young Butcher Of The Year was one of their classic offerings. At the moment they've got Women's International Football on - in a stadium that looks half full with all the excitement of watching paint dry. Another missed opportunity from the BBC. Unimaginative programme making and a waste of resources.

If all the claims against Savile are true then he truly was a monster. He was certainly a 'strange' man - even by his own admission, but he did do a lot of work for charity. I just hope that it wasn't all just a front to carry on 'nefarious' activities. Working in the music business, I used to hear a lot of things about famous people and what they got up to. In Savile's case, it was the fact that he liked young girls and by that I mean teenagers, not children! Whilst it may have been inappropriate for a 50 year old man to be having relations with 18 year old girls, it certainly wasn't ill

In general I don't have a problem with the license fee. £12 a month for the number of channels and services available is actually pretty good. I don't want to see 'paid advertising' on the BBC, or the kind of creeping erosion in public service commitment that seems to be gathering pace, but I do want to see better value for money. The BBC will never satisfy everyone, but it CAN be a mainstay of terrestrial broadcasting. Their problem is that they've tried to do too much with the available funds and they've had a 'bloated' management structure for too long. For example, do they really need

And don't let them tell you that they don't have adverts on the BBC, because they do. Programme trailers and the like. They are every bit as irritating and repetitive as promo's for products - AND they are getting more and more frequent. Between every programme you get at least 2 and at some times of day it can be as many as 4. It's unfortunate that the bods in television think that they have to compete with each other, so they copy whatever each other does. I think by that measure the BBC will be sleep-walking into privatisation ! Even on the BBC News channel they say 'We'll be right bac

Sad to hear that Phil Taylor - Motorhead's most well-known drummer has past away. He was 61. Don't know what he died of, but apparently he had been ill for some time. I always thought he had a Mansfield accent. Actually he came from Hasland in Derbyshire. He'll be remembered for his powerful drumming in that classic Motorhead lineup. R.I.P. Phil

I'm a fan of most of the 'classic' guitars like Strats and Les Pauls but I particularly like some of the more unusual looking models. I really like the Thomas Maltese Surfer that Ian Hunter used to use. He said he got rid of it because it got photographed more than he did ! There's a guitar made by a company called Parker which feels as though it has a metal body (I think it's actually carbon fibre). Has quite a unique tone. In italy I worked with a guitarist who played a Paridis guitar. Electric but with nylon strings AND with a sub-octave for every string. And of course, who can foget t

There's something about old guitars - even cheap ones. I remember when my brother and I got the parts for a Watkins Rapier and spent ages in my dad's garage trying to spray it and put it together. The wood was like chipboard and the pickups were toytown. Made us appreciate what was good about Gibsons and Fenders! Robert Smith (of The Cure) had a favourite guitar. A Woolworths Top 20 which he used with a Roland amp with its Chorus control turned right up.

Ha. You make an interesting point Mick! As someone whose keen to see what chords are being played on some of the 'classic' hits of our times, I've accessed no end of Tab sites, but they all seem to have one thing in common - they are mostly wrong ! They are either in the wrong key or they've completely misintepreted what is being played. So, as you say Mick, it's great to go on YouTube and look at what is actually being played by the people who played on the record. There are also some clever folk on there who can show you step by step how to play some of these hits. They're not always co