What are you listening to now ??

[philmayfield 6,147]

I think both opera and ballet are more of a players’ game rather than a spectator sport. A bit like rugby really.

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

I'm not keen on opera but love oratorio, mostly.  My parents liked the usual Glenn Miller, Frank Sinatra (!) Nat King Cole, etc, but everyone on my mother's side of the family played the piano and sang, so I was brought up on classical music, starting to play by ear as soon as I could sit on the piano stool. Later, I had music lessons and studied for years until I had passed all my theory and practical exams. I was studying for my LRAM when my teacher died and I didn't pursue it any further.

 

I'll listen to pop music but it has to have some musical structure, not just two chords repeated over and over. Elton John is one I'll listen to because he understands harmony and chord progression. Other stuff, no ta.

 

I've done a lot of singing in my time, in choirs, etc. I've produced a lot of school concerts, plays, etc. I don't play much these days but I still love to listen ....and sing in the shower!

[philmayfield 6,147]

I played guitar in a group many years ago. I remember one particular after school gig at the Girls’ High School where the headmistress stopped us playing because the girls were getting far too excited! I also recollect playing at Lowdham Grange borstal institute where we nearly caused a riot. Perhaps ‘Jailhouse Rock’ was an inappropriate choice of song! 
I then moved on to folk music, not as a singer, (only in private) but as a regular visitor to folk clubs in Newark, Southwell, and Cropwell Bishop. I still have four guitars, a banjo and a uke, which my amputated third finger prevents me from playing. I did buy an electronic keyboard during lockdown but I’ve not yet managed to crack it. I think my musical career is finished.

[Cliff Ton 10,473]

In practical terms my musical history was fairly minimal.

 

I could play keyboards with some success; I could sight read to a reasonable degree. I had some lessons from a music teacher at Fairham Comp....and I even had a few lessons on a proper church organ, where I almost mastered playing pedals with my feet as well as the two keyboards.

[philmayfield 6,147]

I was in the school choir. The music master was looking for members and asked me if I could read music.

'Not very much sir'

'Can you tell if the notes are going up or down?'

'Oh yes, that's easy Sir'

'Right then, you're in the choir!'

Couldn't sing a note but I mouthed it!

[Stuart.C 491]

There were quite a lot of record players in the 60's described as portable, including Dansettes, which I had one of.
What they meant was easily transportable, compared to to the earlier large case record players, but still needed plugging into the mains.

Phillips made a battery powered truly portable player as below,

 

[Beekay 5,160]

Before these units, I remember going to the Castle with next door neighbours and their wind up record player, complete with a packet of needles. You virtually had to change the needle after only 2 or 3 78 records. This would have been circa 1955/56.

Not sure about portable, as it was like a bloody black tea chest.

[DAVIDW 1,684]

I've still got an electric guitar and (what was in its day) a swish keyboard but never mastered either. They both lay unused.

As a teenager in the 60s I had a bass guitar for my 14th birthday and used to play along to records which was probably my undoing. 

My elder brother was in a popular local soul band that split up and some of the members wanted to reform.

 

My brother had heard me playing along to records and it was suggested I could play the bass in the new band but I didn't have any speakers or amps, so I set about building one from sheets of chipboard , in which were housed 2 × cheap but very heavy 18" Fane speakers.

 

Although my dad was a master carpenter his woodworking skills never passed down to me but somehow speaker enclosure was all screwed together. I don't think anything was glued.

It weighed an absolute ton and was about the size of a small wardrobe !

 

Can't remember how but we got it to the Boat Club for the first rehearsal and it was decided the first song we would try was Knock On Wood. 

 

Forgotten his name but the new singer was an ex-miner from north Notts who had lost an arm in a mining accident.

We started in the same key as the Eddie Floyd original which should have been fine as that was what I'd practised to. 

I was using a (also cheap) Linear amp into my dodgy speaker set-up and it was all cranked up to its max.

 

Unfortunately each time I plucked the strings of the bass , all I could hear was an awful rasping distorted noise coming from the speakers as every loose chipboard joint and each metal screw vibrated under the pounding weight of the twin speakers.

 

Added to that I had never realised how loud a set of drums could be when played by a seasoned musician and I was stood right in front of him .

 

So the upshot was I couldn't hear a single note of what I was playing and then to cap it all,  the singer decided it wasn't in the right key and wanted it in a lower key than the original.

 

I was flummoxed and had no clue where to start playing on the frets as had never practised in any other key and despite numerous starts we never got beyond the opening few notes and it kept fizzling out as first I would stop and then the rest quickly followed. 

 

So that was my only experience of being in a band and I always regret not getting a proper bass amp (and practising more). 

 

 

[Jill Sparrow 10,307]

Transposition was an area of exams I never liked. A piece of music would be placed in front of you and it would be in, say, D major. The examiner would then request it be transposed up or down a tone or semitone, at sight. Hated it.

[philmayfield 6,147]

I built my first amp. I found the basic unit in a junk shop on Arkwright St. and I manufactured a cabinet and covered it in red vinyl. My best guitar now is the one I've always coveted, a cherry red Fender Stratocaster with a Vox amp. I'll probably give it to a worthy budding musician one day. I've also got a very nice Yamaha 12 string acoustic/electric, my original Hofner Congress and Spanish guitar. 

[MargieH 7,607]

@Stuart.C Maybe the portable record player that belonged to my friend was a Phillips….

all I know is that it definitely wasn’t plugged in anywhere as we put it on the grass in the middle of the park!  This was 1959 - 1960

[mary1947 2,085]

Next Margie   the transistor    top 40   not to mention Sunday afternoon it was Trent Bridge of the Castle  just relax with your transistor and Alan Freeman.                                                                 but lets not get to keep an eye on the boys that kept walking round. 

[IAN FINN 810]

Can you remember Jack Jackson the old dj going back into the 50s still have some of the songs he played on my dads cds which were originally recorded on the twelve inch reel to reel Philips tape recorder from the radio.

[DJ360 6,733]

 

[philmayfield 6,147]

I remember seeing Tony Capstick perform live at the folk clubs at the Plough, Cropwell Butler and the Rutland Arms in Newark, way back in my folk club days. He was a good all round entertainer.

[mary1947 2,085]

Tried to put the utube version on to site, but do not know where it went.

Have just seen these on utube and I think they are great but its up to you as it is not to everyone's taste,

they are     Called      CELTIC WOMAN     and sing song's like 

I'm Comming Home. Amazin Grace, The Parting Glass  and more,

#

I think that I have posted this before sorry if you are reading it again.

[benjamin1945 16,166]

Another great song from Ricky............look at that clock...why can't it be wrong......

Think we've missed the 28 bus...Ya Mam will kill me...

[benjamin1945 16,166]

Just love Ricky's stuff.........takes me back to youth club nights at Padstow...and Locarno..Tuesdays........but this one reminds me of being stood up...IN CHESTERFIELD of all places.......

I'd bin waiting ever since eight.......guess she'd got another date........

[benjamin1945 16,166]

Always enjoyed 'Simply Red''.............here he's live in 'cuba''....... place thats always intriged me.........wouldnt say ive studied it...but ive always read up on its Past 'Spanish' times thru the 'castro' years up to todays story.....

            Love to visit but doubt i will now.......Love Cuban music and Dance...

''Waxing Lyrical''......once more...like to Dance in the Old part of ''Havana''..on a sunny day surrounded by their old ''American'' cars which i read are still prominent..........

[Beekay 5,160]

For Pudding Lovers Evertwhere.

 

[mary1947 2,085]

A classic song is  

 

Fairytale of New York  by Shane MacGowen with Kirsty MacColl. 

then with the Pogues as Kirsty MacColl was no longer with them due to a tragic accident.  Now Shane Mac Gowen has joined her RIP . I am sure this Christmas this song will be played over, & over and over again.

[benjamin1945 16,166]

Lovely sentimental song from that great year of exploring our wonderful world.......1960..........

First trip to Locarno.......

Skinned my first Cheese..

Boned my first side of Bacon.....

First Pint in a Pub...(in town)

Very first Winkle Pickers...

First Grand-Parent to pass-away...

Fell in love several times....

I could go on......

[IAN FINN 810]

1962 for me ben tast tested my first Skol lager and lime things got better from there on.

[Cliff Ton 10,473]

3 hours ago, benjamin1945 said:

Fell in love several times....

 

Anybody we might know ?

[benjamin1945 16,166]

Probably......lol