Rob's Ride to Hemel Hempstead.

Rob has a guest spot on my largely defunct blog site, to record for everyone interested, his cycle ride from Farnborough Football Club to Hemel Hempstead Football Club on Easter Monday, raising over £2500 for Farnboriugh's new stand development.

Mike and I set off from Cherrywood Road at 9am the weather was overcast but fine, perfect cycling weather!! We made our way along the A30 towards Windsor Great Park.

We decided to aim for an average speed of 15mph to allow ourselves time to enjoy the experience and to make sure we made the journey safely. From here we entered Slough and then on to
Beaconsfield where a stop to check the route map revealed that this was the twenty five mile mark and we were making great progress. Once we had got Slough out of the way we continued along through Farnham Common and we had to double check once we saw a place called "Egypt"!!! From here some nice country lanes took us through Flaunden and then Feldon and then we saw our first road sign for Hemel Hempstead! When we arrived on the outskirts of Hemel Hempstead we were at the 40 mile mark and decided to stop at a garage and buy a coffee as it was now 1pm and a quick call to Dave Workman revealed that the coach would arrive at approximately 1.30pm.
When we received the call that the coach had arrived we proceeded on to Hemel Hempstead Fc where we received a great reception from the travelling Farnborough fans which was greatly appreciated by Mike and myself. A check on my cycle computer revealed that we had covered 44
miles exactly and had also achieved a maximum speed at one point of 41.2mph!! which was a reward for some of the hills that we had to climb. Once inside the ground the Boro fans gave a generous round of applause at the tannoy announcement and then again as we made our way around to watch the game. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mike for joining me for the ride as I would most probably have got lost without him, and to thank you the Farnborough fans for your most generous sponsorship.
Rob.

Alexandra Burke, Cheryl Cole - what's the problem?

There has only been one constant in 55 years of a life in music -well two actually - a great voice singing a great song. Apart from that nothing matters. So whether it is Alexandra Burke or Mary Chapin Carpenter, Cheryl Cole or Alison Krauss, Leona Lewis or Kathy Mattea, Alex Parks or Celine Dion, Lucinda Williams or Dusty Springfield, it doesn't matter. Why the snobbery? Why the worthiness? This is the pop business. Pop = popular, popular = lots of people like you. I like all these ladies' voices and I love the new Alexandra and Cheryl singles and I don't care whether they've been manufactured or not. Colonel Tom Parker manufactured Elvis; Jack Good manufactured Cliff Richard, Larry Parnes manufactured Billy Fury, Simon Cowell started to manufacture Leona Lewis, then handed her over to Clive Davis to finish the job.

In 30 years within the UK music industry, I could count on one hand the A&R men who understood popular taste. Wonder why Mr Cowell is so hugely wealthy? He cornered that unfashionable music niche - started with Robson & Jerome, moved into the boy/girl bands, and now, like him or not, he knows what the general public wants.

There's room at the music table for all guests with a great voice and a great song. I'll be playing "Bad Boys" probably every half hour for the next few days, then it will go into the vault. But that's the wonder of music - you're hooked, you have to keep listening but then you discard it and move on. Thank goodness there are as many great songs and singers in 2009 as there were in 1959.

Who disagrees?

A life in music 2 - Eddie Calvert, Guy Mitchell and the Ever Ready Model C

The first record I ever bought was Eddie Calvert's "Cherry pink and apple blossom white". It was on an HMV label 78rpm disc and I was 12. I thought it was great - loved the way he made the trumpet slide down and up a series of notes before lunging into the refrain. Bear in mind that this was 1955. Our home had a radiogram which received long, medium and short wave radio stations and played 78rpm (or it would crank up to 80rpm for those few discs that used the speed) 10" (pop and classical vocal) and 12" (classical orchestral) records. My Dad had chosen to use thorn rather than steel needles. These lasted for one side only before they needed sharpening, but he reckoned they created a warmer sound and didn't wreck the discs as quickly. The problem was that after a few plays, the friction of thorn on warming shellac meant that bits of the needle became embedded in the grooves and the records became unplayable, not because they'd worn out but because you gradually heard more and more thorn crackle and less and less music! As for the radio, there was only the Light Programme which played comedy, a lot of live light orchestral and band music, Mrs Dale's Diary, Journey into Space, and very very few records. Admittedly there was "Housewife's Choice", but I was at school, and neither "Saturday Club" or its predecessor "Skiffle Club" had started. So that left "Two Way Family Favourites" on Sundays from 12 noon to 1.15pm. (Later, my dear paternal grandmother gave me a "portable radio" - an Ever Ready model C - there it is at the top, which came with a battery the size of a building brick, but it did work under the bedclothes. But we move too fast.)

So, I've no idea where I heard "Cherry pink" but what I should have bought was "She wears red feathers" by Guy Mitchell. I remember exactly when and where I first heard this. I was 10 and in the final class of primary school. One of the highlights of the week was for the whole class to listen to a Schools Broadcast on the Home Service at 11.00. On this particular morning Miss Roots (my favourite teacher) turned the radio on a couple of minutes early and this song came over the speaker. It was unbelievable - never mind Guy's great voice, what were those instruments? Well, I later learned they were the trademark French horns of the Mitch Miller Orchestra. I was hooked and a life in music had begun. Still love all those Guy Mitchell records from "Feet up(pat him on the po po)" and "Pretty little black-eyed Susie" right up to, but not including "Singing the blues". Thank you Guy - you started it!

An introduction

I started listening to music in 1949, bought my first record in 1952, made a living from music (without having any musical talent of my own) from 1967-1998 and now, having retired from paid employment these past 11 years, still wonder at the lucky path down which life has led me.

Fairly computer literate at this advancing age, Google searches and other media prompts find me reading blogs with gradually increasing interest. My younger son has found a niche trying to make sense of a cartoon in The Sun - he calls it "George & Lynne Explained - because someone has to" (Google it) and it's brilliant! "The Word" magazine send weekly emails of online items to amuse its subscribers, and many turn out to be blogs.

Until now, I've dismissed this pastime as something for people with too much time and an unsatisfied ego, but maybe it's time to have a go, see if I enjoy what I've written and, in the fullness of time, maybe discover if there are others who share the thoughts, memories, observations.

A few things you may need to know from the start. Unlike so many who spent their lives making other people famous, I have never felt envy, never felt I could do it better, never wanted attention. In fact, I came up with a phrase just yesterday while enjoying great music from students at an extraordinary secondary school in Croydon. "I am the perfect audience."

I am a Cancerian and while remaining adamant that astrology is nonsense, I do recognise traits. I cry a lot - much more often with joy at the achievement and creativity of others than with sorrow; I have a largely populist taste in the arts, though my music loves, albeit embracing a curiously large number of singers beloved with young teenage girls, are also pretty esoteric as an hour with my i-Pod would demonstrate. I love "Coronation Street", Alan Bennett, Alexander McCall Smith, Sandra Bullock, "Friends", "Flight of the Conchords", Victoria Wood, "Who Do You Think You Are", X Factor, The Choir and all other programmes where ordinary people do extraordinary things.

So that will do for a start - already you'll either me with me or have written me off.