school

I was innocently added to a Facebook group reuniting lots of folk from my old educational establishment, Chesterfield High School.

The thing is, I hated the place. The whole five years I was there, I don't think I have a single good memory about anything to do with it. Well, tell a lie, I do. On the 26th June 1987, I left. For good.

Don't get me wrong, I made a couple of good friends there - decent folk without any malice in their entire beings. But they were the exception to the rule.

Another thing. In a way, I'm being really unfair because any grief I had with school was, ultimately, my fault. Between 11 and 16, I had more responsibility for my actions, yet it's easier to blame the system.

Still hated the place though.

Reading through some of the things folk say, I realise that I'm jealous. I missed out on stuff at school which would've benefited me for the future. But I live and learn.

Conversely, there was a FB discussion about my first school, Crosby Road North, where I had great craic and really enjoyed reminiscing.

I had a happy childhood. It was boss. I had all my fun out of school. If there was a Facebook group called, "Growing Up In Waterloo In The 1980s And Doing Stupid Things That Could Involve Police Intervention" I think I'd be the main poster!!!

incendiary

It's turning into a bit of a Beatles' blog, I guess, but of all my neuroses this is easily the most harmless hahaha......

The newly remastered, resequenced and remixed "Live At The Hollywood Bowl" album shows Beatlemania at the height of its' power. The performances presented here exude an energy and enthusiasm that only the deaf would not appreciate what all the fuss was about. If anything, "Live At The Hollywood Bowl" would be as good a starting point for a psychological study of the human psyche than anything one could ever encounter. The sound of 20,000 screaming, hysterical teenagers, mainly girls, doesn't let up throughout the set. And as ever, the Beatles knew when to up a notch in their performances to get the audience to scream even louder. Did they do it on purpose just to wind the crowd up even more? Probably?

Modern technology, as good as it is, hasn't got to a point where the background din can be separated from the Beatles live prowess. The band still sound interested, their set brimming with exuburence and power that later tours would lose. Producer, Giles Martin, son of Sir George Martin, is a chip off the old block. He is as intimately acquainted with the Beatles sound as his father was, and in comparison with the original "Live At The Hollywood Bowl" album of 1977, he has merely dusted down and applied a new sonic sheen to the band's offering. The vocals shine on this re-release, the bass and drums mainly occupy the left channel, lead and rhythm guitars to the right - the shows were originally recorded on 3-track tape in chaotic conditions. George and Giles Martin have given us the live shows that have never done the Beatles justice...until now.

Highlights? The opener, "Twist And Shout" is raucous with a throat-tearing Lennon vocal. "Can't Buy Me Love" is full of urgency and pleading, "She Loves You" is almost as spine-tingling as the single, and "Long Tall Sally" proves that Paul, if any were ever needed, was as good vocally on visceral rockers as his writing partner. They really are THAT good. And this isn't me being a slobbering sycophant, I can listen to this with a critical distance and still say it's incendiary.

Buy. Download, Steal. Or something. This won't happen again.

Something

A bit of blogging for a change!

I'm a podcast junkie. Well, in the sense that there's some of them that I like. Howard Hughes' "The Unexplained" is a favourite, as well as LBC's James O'Brien's weekly "best of" podcast. I used to be an avid listener to Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode's weekly film review that the BBC put in a podcast, but the thing was, it went on for ages, and I have the attention span of an invertebrate, so depending on what mood I was in decided whether I could be bothered to listen to the whole show or not.

But for the past several months, I've been enjoying "Something About The Beatles"  -  a regular podcast hosted by a Brit (Richard Buskin) and a Yank (Robert Rodriguez).

And the link to their website and podcasts is this - http://somethingaboutthebeatles.com/

I like this. It's funny, informative and Richard and Robert as hosts just bounce off each other. They really do know their stuff - each of them have had several Beatles- related books published - and they often play rare tracks, covers, isolated Beatles multi-tracks and have interviewed key authors of Beatles books, such as Mark Lewisohn and Philip Norman.

The one gripe I have with it, regardless that they continually retract their words, is their anti-McCartney slant that casts a large shadow over everything. In Rob and Rich's world, Lennon is an out-and-out demigod, if a bit of a dickhead at times. George Harrison is portrayed as a genius upon whom the Beatles would never have gotten anywhere without his input. And Ringo is Ringo.

But Paul gets the lion share of the gripes, particularly from Richard who can't see that McCartney has done anything worthwhile as a solo artist, where I can beg to differ on many, many levels. The McCartney-sung track "Hold Me Tight" from "With The Beatles" comes in for some savage criticism over the course of the podcasts, yet the excellent Julie Traymor fantasy film "Across The Universe" which contained many reinterpretations of Beatles classics, used the song in some of the early key scenes in the movie. So who knows what????

I've been involved with the Beatles and their story for nearly forty years, and I think I know stuff, yet "Something About The Beatles" always lets me in on a new fact, or something I'd forgotten. I'd recommend it to any serious Fabs fan - as long as you're not that pushed about Paul!!!

buses

Let's talk about buses for a change. A personal perspective on the North Western Road Car Company, the one set up for deregulation of UK bus services, and not the one of 1972 vintage that some folk in Cheshire still hanker for to this day.

In September 1986, Ribble Motor Services, by far one of the largest State-owned National Bus Company subsidiaries, was split up into smaller units in the run-up to deregulation day in October 1986. Ribble's Merseyside operations were taken over by the newly reformed "North Western".

At that time, all of the Merseyside services North Western had inherited from Ribble were operated on behalf of Merseyside Passenger Transport Executive (MPTE). The company was guaranteed a fixed proportion of bus mileage within the PTE area, roughly between 12/13%. The PTE basically paid North Western to do work for them.

At deregulation, North Western had registered most of their Merseyside network commercially, to be operated for profit without any PTE subsidy. It was a grand plan, with many services improved. Their publicity at that time proclaimed the bold ambition of the infant company....

However, it was soon realised that North Western had overcalculated the returns they hoped to generate from their network. They were not helped by some odd diversions and revisions to routes that had run effortlessly under the previous regime. The fare scales were enormously complicated and, again, not helped by the rigourous fare hike that had to be enforced when the PTE subsidies came to an end. In fact, it didn't take too long for North Western to come to the conclusion that many of the Merseyside services didn't pay their way, a fact masked under PTE control when costs and subsidies were guaranteed.

A huge knife in their coffin came when North Western announced in 1988 that it would no longer accept the PTE-sponsored "Saveaway" bus / train / ferry combined tickets - hugely popular with the travelling public for over a decade. The company complained that PTE remuneration didn't justify accepting them. North Western's chief rival, the PTE's own company, "Merseybus", consequently put services on North Western routes to continue coverage for Saveaway users. More passengers lost to bad decisions.

Also it is worth noting that North Western NEVER traded as a stand-alone company. It was sold by the National Bus Company to the Drawlane Group, and continued its' downward spiral of cutting services and closing bus stations.

Today, North Western is long gone. It was swallowed up by Arriva Passenger Services, and now just the remaining Bootle depot is operational, but healthy - finally doing good things on north Merseyside.

worst

Maybe my two, most of the time, consider me "Dad", but I'd likely disown them if they got me something like this for Father's Day.

Imagine the worst type of condescending rubbish a record company can throw at you? Consider the implications of rehashing the same old, mostly bland, AOR nonsense over three compact discs (something else that's obselete!) and handing it to demographically-defined middle aged men as a present. Even the kindest of them will silently wonder "what's this shite????"

I love the cover though. However, the idea of me and Aaron working in either our shed or greenhouse on projects together whilst bopping away to "The Dad" album is a complete fantasy - a misnomer of megalithic proportions put together by some smug advertising executive whose ego is larger than his bank balance.

Journey, Boston, Whitesnake, Toto, Starship, Foreigner, Chicago, etc. You get the picture. Some of the worst excesses of corporate popular music ever committed for public consumption. 

Please don't be fooled by this dreadful marketing exercise. If any of the track listing appeals to you, there's any number of free download sites that will gladly give you 80s rock nostalgia to your hearts' content. 

A really nasty trick.

Utopia

As I get older, and slightly less interested in the music scene of now, and more introspective of what I grew up with (which is only natural I suppose?), I really can't figure out whether it's still as precious to me or not. Have I acquired, if I didn't have it already, a critical distance about all the bands I love?

The answer is fairly straight-forward - it's not that important. Because the great thing about music is it ebbs and flows. What floats your boat one week won't necessarily do the same the next......

"Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" is a great example.

Lauded as the best rock album of all time, it gains its' admirers and detractors in equal measure, but not at the same times. For every reviewer who names it as their favourite love-in, the next will lambaste it as the very worst indulgence the 60s had to offer.

The truth is a little in between. It's a flawed masterpiece - the influence of drugs, Hippiedom, the Beach Boys, etc all contribute in measure to its' greatness and awfulness. Take your pick what makes it and what doesn't.

I really don't get people who can't see the shite some of their favourite artists come up with. I love the Beatles - but they made some shocking stuff. No names mentioned, but some of it is pretty obvious. Check "The Beatles" (Apple PMC7067-68).

There is something wrong when a fan can't distinguish, I repeat myself now, critical distance of an artists output. 

For me, I'm still looking for Utopia (the destination, not the band!). I want to spend a lifetime looking for that perfect chord, that quintessential listening experience where all the vibrations and frequencies explode my head.

It's not much to ask is it?