More 45 Sleeves

What made me get out the boxes of old 45's was an article in the weekend's paper about the design of their sleeves. So I thought I would make my contribution with these.

131 Songs - Numbers 46, 47, 48 and 49

I have been rustling through two boxes of old 45's and found two songs that were already on my list and two that were not.

Number 46 - The Power of Love by Frankie Goes to Hollywood

This was one of the first on my list of favourite songs. I can't say I like the the band, but this is written by them and is just a fabulous production, again by Trevor Horn. Taken from the album "Welcome to the Pleasuredome), the single was released in 1984. As it says on the cover "make love your goal". The sleeve also fitted in an outer cover, quite unusual.

Number 47 - 99 Red Balloons by Nena

Or should it be 99 Luftballoons, and should I have chose the German language version instead? There is just too much information on wikipedia about the intricacies of the translation to repeat here, but the idea of the song is terrific and it still invokes the atmosphere of 1984.

Number 48 - The Future's So Bright I Gotta wear Shades

Probably the least obvious song on my list, and one I had completely forgotten until I found the 45 in the box. The most successful song by this American band. But the lyrics are fun, although slightly disturbing about a young nuclear scientist and his bright future.

Number 49 - The Caravan of Love by The Housemartins


I had forgotten that Paul Heaton of The Beautiful South was in The Housemartins. Although he did cut his songwriting teeth as the vocalist with this band, he did not compose this one. The credits actually go to ex members of The Isley Brothers who made their recording in 1985. The Housemartins came up with their Capella version the following year and the single went to number one. Only the second such Capella record to do so, following The Flying Pickets version of "Only You", the original being the second in my 131 Songs.

36 Birthday Cards

Alison has always maintained that she prefers receiving cards to presents, so for her birthday (that ends in a zero), I was on a mission to see how many family, friends and neighbours I could find to send her a card. And everybody that I phoned or e-mailed came up trumps. I think Alison was very happy with such a surprise, and has been saying that they will stay up for weeks.

Her (ex?) work colleagues at SBBJV all signed a card, and so did the committee from Wendover Choral Society. Even some old friends that Alison had not been in contact with for ages, and who didn't respond to my email, sent a card, and even one long letter. Which meant she has been getting in touch with them over the last two days. And the last card arrived today from Australia. Thank you Gina and Facebook.

The Tour De France - 2010

ITV 4's presentation of the 2010 Tour de France has been the most enjoyable yet. And in no small way this is attributable to the presenters and commentators. Gary Imlach was a solid host and Chris Boardman brought his great technical expertise to the reviews of the subtleties of each stage. But it was the commentary of the dynamic duo above of Phil Liggott and Paul Sherwen that enlivened the whole proceedings. We watched the highlights programme every night at 7 pm, and the mixture of the French scenery, some controversy, the punishing assents, the daredevil descending, the smashing of all the opposition in the sprints by Mark Cavendish together with great editing and production had us looking forward to each evening's programme. Great stuff.

P.S. I almost forgot the music. The closing montages have introduced me to such artists as The Chemical Brothers, Doves and Muse. Whilst I enjoyed their contributions to the closing credits, they are not really my cup of tea. But the last track of all at the end of the very last programme was Florence+The Machine's "Dog Days Are Over". How appropriate and what a great song. And Florence's version of "You've Got The Love" featured on a trailer. I will definitely have listen to some more of her stuff. A list of all the music is on itv.com.

131 Songs - Numbers 43,44 and 45

Number 43 - Addicted To Love by Robert Palmer

I picked this track for the unmistakable intro. Palmer had his greatest success with this single, taken from the 1986 album "Riptide", and it reached number one in the USA. You have to hand it to him, there are few vocalists who write such good tunes (sorry Mick). His greatest hits album is full of self penned compositions from "Simply Irresistible" to "She Makes My Day". The album also contains recordings from his time with the supergroup Power Station (that included two Taylor brothers from Duran Duran) who recorded their album of the same name the previous year.

Number 44 - All Of My Heart by ABC

"the Lexicon of Love" is one of my favourite albums of all time, and from it I have chosen "All Of My Heart". Only just a fraction in front of "The Look Of Love". The writing of all the songs on the album are attributed to ABC, but the prominent member is another vocalist, Martin Fry. The other members of the band are David Palmer drums, Stephen Singleton saxophones, and Mark White guitar and keyboards. The last two originally formed the group Vice Versa and it was when Martin Fry joined that ABC came into being. The album itself was produced by Trevor Horn, and what a great job he did making synthesisers sound far more orchestral than ever before. The quality of the sound is just awesome.

Number 45 - Driftwood by The Moody Blues

While we are on the subject of songwriting vocalists, here we have another. At the age of seventeen, Justin Hayward was actually contracted to Lonnie Donegan's Tyler Music, and all his songs written before 1974 were owned by this company. Justin joined The Moody Blues when Denny Laine (who later joined Paul McCartney when he formed Wings) departed. The Moody Blues had great success with their 1967 album "The Days of Future Passed" from which were taken two singles: "Tuesday Afternoon" and the huge "Nights In White Satin". Soon after Hayward composed another single "Driftwood". As haunting a melody as I have ever heard.

Worcester and Croome Park

Our first day trip of the year came on a very warm Monday. What with our holidays in Rome and Scotland, the latter coming fast after Alison's latest contract came to an end, it has taken until July for us to venture further afield. We had visited Worcester a few years ago, but did not have time to go in the cathedral, and it was somewhere that we wanted to see. A late start meant that we did not arrive at our destination until lunchtime. So we needed some refreshment before heading into the cathedral.

It is truly a magnificent building, and we were lucky to see it in the the afternoon sunshine. Inside, one particular place made the the trip worthwhile on it's own. This was the Chantry Chapel of Prince Arthur, who was the elder brother of King Henry VIII, and first husband of Catherine of Aragon. He died aged sixteen and his tomb was placed in this chapel built especially for him. But the connection for me is the defacement of some of the stone figures at the end of the chapel that are just visible in the photo. This happened in the summer of 1548, the second year of the reign of Edward VI (my speciality) when thirty commissioners were appointed to scour the land, armed with a set of injunctions to impose on the clergy and their churches. These included the removal and destruction of any "abused" images, including stained glass and stone figures. But this was taken to extremes, as in this chapel where the heads of stone figures were defaced. To see exactly what I has read about was quite something.

The other great wonder of the cathedral is the towering nave. I found it quite a moving experience.

It was still sunny as we found the deserted cloisters, and we sat on a bench with the tower right above us. Outside, we found the quiet green at the back that leads down to the river, and another bench to rest and take in a wonderful view. We wanted to walk alongside the river, and this means taking some steps down through an arch. Here there are plaques on a piece of wall showing where flooding of the River Severn has reached. July 2007 is prominent, but is not the highest.

After leaving Worcester, we just had time to drive the few miles south to reach the National Trust property at Croome Park before it closed. Prominent are the landscape gardens that were the first of many carried out by Lancelot "Capability" Brown. The house below is still privately owned.

The National Trust have typically spent heavily on restoring many of the features including this bridge over the lake round which we had a pleasant stroll. The end to another great day out.

Tring Book Club - Life of Pi and The Secret Life of Bees

I was looking forward to reading the Booker prizewinning "Life of Pi", but I was really disappointed. It was all so tedious. No plot, no characters, just a pretty obnoxious boy on a lifeboat with a tiger. I never want to know about a book before I read it, so when it starts with AUTHOR'S NOTE, I am prepared to take it as just that. So when the author describes his meeting with Piscine Patel, I am expecting a factual account this man's experiences, or because it is a novel, at least a story based on them. No. This is all fiction, Pi does not exist.

I guess it was always in the back of my mind that this was all imagined, but the "trick" at the start seems pointless. We are left in no doubt that this is all fiction with the hallucinatory sections halfway through, and I felt let down. In the end I just did not care either way. I had already fast forwarded through the first third of the book about Pi's childhood. Interminable facts about the swimming pools of Paris, Zoology and Hinduism was all so boring. It gets better with the shipwreck, becomes gruesome with the animals on the boat, then more interesting as Pi comes to terms with his situation and how he will survive, descends into farce with meeting a man on a raft and later visiting an island (his interaction with some meerkats is quite amusing).

At least we get some dialogue at the end of the book as Pi meets two interrogators from the insurance company, and this crackles in places. But overall, despite it's originality, this was a hard read. And I definitely could have done without (the) author's note.

It was so nice to read next such a wonderful book as "The Secret Life of Bees". Sweet, gentle and beautifully written this book still has lots of incident, great dialogue and terrific characters. It is narrated by fourteen year old Lily and the author, Sue Monk Kidd, is great at describing her feelings as her story unfolds. "That night it felt strange to be in the honey house by myself. I missed Rosaleen's snoring the way you'd miss the ocean waves after you'd gotten used to sleeping with them"........ "Knowing can be a curse on a person's life. I'd traded in a pack of lies for a pack of truth, and I didn't know which one was heavier".

Set in a mid sixties summer in South Carolina, the racial tensions of the time form a disturbing backdrop to the novel, and the nasty bits are written with great sensitivity. And the book has a good atmosphere of a hot July in the deep south. This time the factual stuff about bees and honey making was done so well. Just little bits at a time. Someone asked in this was really chick lit. But there is no romance, unless you count the minor subplot of June and Neil. And one major thread in Lily's back story is left unresolved, so no glib ending. OK, there are some things which if you think hard are too unreal, but just let go and be taken along on a warm and uplifting journey, what more can you ask?

She's Out Of My League, Letters to Juliet and Heartbreaker

It has been a pretty poor early summer for movies. I have struggled to find anything to my taste, even missing four successive weeks which must be a record. "She's Out Of My League" is harmless enough, although the depiction of the hero's family was pretty degrading. In fact, apart from the scenes where Jay Baruchel and Alice Eve are together, the whole thing verges on embarrassment. Even the appearance of Trevor Eve and Sharon Maughan as Alice's parents (as they are also in real life) is fairly nauseous, and they have previously done no wrong.

An even more lightweight movie was "Letters to Juliet". When the best thing about the film is the fantastic Tuscan scenery, you will know what I mean. Although Vanessa Redgrave does her best, the promising concept is let down by a below average script. Amanda Seyfried is fine but the men are truly awful actors. Enough said.

It took a French movie to remind me why I go in search of a good story. "L'arnacour" ("Heartbreaker") was the best film I have seen since the Swedish "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" back in March. No wonder it is rated 92% on Rotten tomatoes. Everything was perfect. The cracking cinematography, editing, lighting and sound combine to make the first ten minutes the best start to a movie for years. And this high standard is maintained throughout. But what sees the movie through is the story and the script. Sharp and funny, the dialogue is brilliant. The direction from Pascal Chaumeil outstanding. The costumes are gorgeous and the Monaco scenery is beautiful. The soundtrack is right up my street. The acting is superb. Not only are the leads terrific, Romain Duris and Vanessa Paradis (Mrs Johnny Depp), but the supporting roles are even better. Everyone calls it a romantic comedy. It is surely more than that. OK, you do have to suspend belief in reality, but who cares when all the parts blend together. Sublime.

William Boyd of Berwickshire and Hull

I was always interested in the origins of my third Christian name of Boyd. Many of the families of Roberts of Sheffield followed the tradition of using the maiden name of the mother as a Christian name. Boyd was the surname of my great grandmother Ellen, wife of Vincent Littlewood Roberts and the daughter of William James Gibson Boyd of Hull (see posting of 3rd February). She died at the age of 30 and her maiden name continues through some of her descendants to this day.

The father of William James Gibson Boyd was William Boyd. I found him through the younger William's christening in Drypool, Hull on the IGI. I then received some help from the Hull History Centre who traced the family on the 1841 and 1851 census. William, the father, is shown as being born in Scotland in 1780 and his occupation is given as Millwright.

I had previously found the website of Clan Boyd International, and the same Boyds from the census appear on their database. So I emailed the originator, Brian Boyd living in Melbourne, Australia. His reply was fascinating. He has carried out extensive research into our Boyd family history. He is descended from the brother of William James Gibson Boyd, and therefore we have a common ancestor in their father William.

William Boyd was born on 23rd February 1780 in one of the two adjoining villages of Stitchel and Hume in Berwickshire, Scotland. In 1810, William and his brother George (both Millwrights) moved to England and set up business over North Bridge in Hull. They made and fixed thrashing and corn machinery and built many windmills in the surrounding area for the grinding of grain into flour. Brian goes on to describe the visit he and his wife made to East Yorkshire and the mill they found that the brothers had built.

Added the following extract from "A biography of  George King Boyd and Jemima Smith" by Janet Moseley on 13th November 2012.

By 1823, William was an established businessman in Hull.  Edward Baines’ ‘History, Directory and Gazetteer of the County of York’, 1823, lists a business called ‘George and William Boyd’ on Witham under the headings ‘Millwrights’ and ‘Millstone Makers’.  George Boyd was clearly not William’s son, George King Boyd, as he would have been only five years old in 1823.  If George had been William’s father, it is likely that the business would have been called ‘George Boyd and Son’ rather than ‘George and William Boyd’.  It is more likely that George and William Boyd were brothers, and later circumstantial evidence lends weight to this theory.  Their business was on Witham, a main street near the centre of Hull, east of the River Hull, about a kilometre north of the Humber, between North Bridge over the River Hull and Holderness Road.

The business ‘George and William Boyd’ appears in several more trade directories.  It was listed under the same headings in Pigot and Co.’s National Commercial Directory for 1828-9 and for 1834.  White’s 1840 Directory lists ‘George and William Boyd’ under the same headings ‘Millwrights’ and ‘Millstone Makers’, and additionally lists ‘William and George Boyd’ (opposite way round) under the headings ‘Iron Founders & Engine and Boiler Manufacturers’, and ‘Brass Founders and Gas Fitters’.  All these businesses were carried out on Witham, but as ‘Brass Founders and Gas Fitters’ they also operated in South Parade, which later became known as Williamson Street.  Pigot’s Directory of 1841 doesn’t distinguish between the order of the names, but lists all the businesses on Witham as ‘George and William Boyd’, under the headings ‘Millwrights’, ‘Millstone Makers and French Burr dealers’, ‘Iron Founders’ and ‘Brass Founders’.  Lack of annotation in the Brass Founders entry makes it clear that the business did not include Gas Fitters.
                                                                       ..............

Going back in time, Brian Boyd's researches have found William's father George Boyd born 1751 at Earlston, Berwickshire, his father George born 1729 in the same county, his father John Boyd born 1693 in Ednam, Berwickshire and his father John Boyd born around 1670, possibly in Ayr.
Clan Boyd is also a lowland clan, so it all makes sense that these Boyds would be members of the same clan.

I am indebted to Brian Boyd for the wealth of information he has provided, far too extensive to repeat here. One of the first things I learnt at my genealogy class was "has it been done before". When you find a contact like Brian, the answer is, it certainly has.

131 Songs - Numbers 40,41 and 42

Number 40 - Telephone Line by Electric Light Orchestra

Jeff Lynne is one of my heroes. Not only did he compose some great songs, but he is also one of the greatest rock producers of all time. I always find it interesting at this point to look up some history of these old rock and rollers. I knew he joined Roy Wood's move in 1970, but had not realised that at the same time the two of them and Bev Bevan were planning the fusion of rock and classical that was to become the ELO.

Roy Wood left ELO after their first album, so missing the later magic recordings of "A New World Record", "Out of the Blue" and "Discovery" - three LP's in my collection that I have always loved and that I should replicate on CD instead of just the hits CD. Any number of tracks could have made it here. But my choice from the first of the albums mentioned is so typical of the uplifting feel from the great ELO. If I had to pick another track, it would be "Getting to the Point", but there are so many to choose from.

Jeff Lynne moved into production in the 1980's and in 1989 had two major successes with Tom Petty and then The Travelling Wilburys. A testament to the talent of this brilliant Brummie.

Number 41 - All or Nothing by The Small Faces

The stand out single from this band formed in 1965 by Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenny Jones and Jimmy Winston, soon to be replaced by Ian MaClagan. It was a hard choice between this single and Itchycoo Park, but the chorus of "All or Nothing" is too memorable to ignore.

Number 42 - My Best Friend's Girl by The Cars

We are back to the 1970's and thee band form Boston. I never did like their most successful single "Drive". But I do like lots of their up tempo songs. And this one in particular.

Glenelg - Skye Ferry

We enjoyed the ferry so much, I had to do a separate posting. Their website (www.skyeferry.com) says "Some people use the Glenelg Ferry to get to and from Skye, but many just come for a great day out. The crossing through the swirling tide-race of Kylerhea is an experience in itself and the spectacular scenery, historical sites and abundant wildlife make the journey that loops through Glenelg and South Skye well worth the effort". They don't even mention the seals.

Highly recommended.