The Village Green Preservation Society (DMCA bods please note this post contains no Kinks tunes - it's just the name of a local festival 'Village Green' - see below!)

Phill Jupitus, Block (head)rocking Chalkwell Park last year

Tomorrow sees the third Village Green Arts Festival pitching up in Chalkwell park. A one day free event bulking up from 5000 festival go-ers in it's first year, to a borough-busting 20,000 in 09. And with the word of mouth buzz still spinning from last year - I'd expect to see that total topped this Saturday..

The tone of the day is a park-sized, polite picnic with tents and events: comedy, films and kiddy bits - soundtracked by live music from the main stage. Almost a louder, large-scale companion to the Leigh Folk Festival, wrapping up with a sensible 10pm turn in.

Home-grown talent always adds some local muscle to the bill. The Blockheads, Billy Bragg and Phill Jupitus for '09, and Snowboy and the Latin Section, The Famous Potataoes and The Dirty Fairies for '10

Grockles a go-go on the lineup include Carlene Anderson, Carter USM's Jim Bob and ex-Beta Band and Aliens man - Steve Mason whose set is top of my to-do list, having been looping his Boys Outside album for the last couple of months.

If only Wilco or Eddie and The Hot Rods to could be tempted to take the stage while the sunsets over Oil City for next year, that would be something truly special for us seasiders..

In the Teepee Tent with Billy Bragg - yes I am in here somewhere, and in the clip below

Lineup, maps and directions are available here

Everybody Talk about - Pub Musik

The annual booze based tear-up billed as the Sad Lads CD Swap, will be upon us soon(ish). A two-part pub do where CDs of newbie bits compiled by Piley, Marmite, Coops, E F Rice, Jack Gestures, Paul Glasses, myself and others are swapped in November and reprised by an end of year re-meet for evening's nattering about our year's best beats and bobs. The rules are straight forward: see E F's regulations footnoting this post.

My '09 selection box was weighted with 80% vintage bits. This year it's possibly 70/30 in favour of new tunes. Dipping through a year's listening, highlights how many oddities and offcuts remain unblogged and lingering on the sub's bench. Blitzen Trapper are a premium example. On heavy rotation at home or out and about - but not a peep to be seen in my (award winning) cyberspace scrapbook..

Blitzen Trapper - Fire & Fast Bullets



Blitzen Trapper - Saturday Nite



Just one Blitzen bit will be making the final cut - I'm not sure which yet, but once my compo's finalised I may clonk a Ltd Edt mix in the blog

Them's The Rules....

1. Circulate to everyone a CD no longer than 80 minutes in length, containing tracks for new groups you have either got into for the first time this year or established artists you have perhaps picked up an old track/album for this year.

2. You may have more than one track for an artist on the CD (although 80 mins of Springsteen would be pushing it)

3. You supply all those taking part with a CD including a full track listing. The CDs will be circulated on a date in early November down The **** (date will be decided nearer the time).

Dear Diary - August

Summer's here and the time is right for caravanning in Weymouth. Through the medium of stealthy net detection, I've discovered the Pebble Bank Caravan Park was where my cousins and I pitched up for a week. Although mum and dad had the good sense to lodge at a local B & B, avoiding the sound of early morning boots, boots, boots marching up and down again from the army camp next door. But what a week: windy beaches, a Radio One Roadshow and a trip to the pic's for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (can you believe TV premiers were ever cinematic attractions?) Followed by a week in Codford St Mary.

I don't know if you remember, but the BBC ran a Spaghetti Western season over this summer, so slumbersome early morning paper runs (no, it didn't last) were made easier by pretending to be The Paperboy With No Name.

Planet Punk finally and firmly pulled me into it's dayglo grip with a studded wristband ordered (20th) possibly from the catalogue (2nd), a My Way TV special (27th) featuring Sid Vish and three Pistols album picked up in one month (16th and 25th) along with these singles ...

Dick I chavvy it's a Mudtown slusher

Sham 69 - Hersham Boys



The Specials - Gangsters



But it's not all noisy boy anthems - peeping through August's charts unearthed Bill Lovelady's forgotten guilty pleasure from the summer of '79

Podrophenia 10 - Originals Uncovered

He's written two garage classics, but who is he and what are they - find out in Podrophenia

Elvis, Madonna, Bowie and Blondie are just some of the glittering legends and heavy-hitters NOT appearing in the latest edition of Podrophenia. But pod-pickers, listen in and lend an ear as Piley and I lay bare, unwrap and unearth the low-level source material supplying these high flyers with smash hit songs and singles. All is revealed in Podrophenia 10. Along with Piley's tale of a tooth-brightening, eye-widening electric enema.

Podrophenia 10 (DL link is at the bottom of the page)



Or try via iTunes

With only five tunes a'piece something had to give, so Superstar got the 11th hour bounce from my Podrophenia playlist. Mainly famous as a Carpenters classic (with retweaked lyrics sleep with you swapped for be with you) the original versh can be found tucked away on Delaney and Bonnie B Side - a gorgeous serving of blue-eyed soul.

Delaney and Bonnie - Groupie (Superstar)



Cher's affair is more of a stoner-rock spin on the theme.

Cher - Superstar



PS The album I mention but forget to name is here..

Dear Diary - July

Picking up where we left off then - what news does July bring?

Days off, larks with French Bangers and beach trips. But the terrifying highlight (fright-light?) takes place at the Rayleigh fair (21st - check the doodle) with a spin on a madly mysterious ride that I've never seen since.

How can you describe it? Imagine church pew seating, suspended garden swing style from a supporting frame. Position this inside a giant octagonal tombola cover of alternating coloured panels. As the communal seat is pulled back, the cover is spun fowards, creating a whirling illusion of increasingly, hight-tilting seats - until the angle begins to feel impossibly steep.

It may sound simple but it's a ride of such eye-widening, giddy terror that I've never forgotten it. Neither I'll bet have bleached jeans and bull-necked boneheads or spikes 'n' studs punks in the front pews who screamed like piglets and flung themselves to the floor as an escape from tumbling into the 'void'

I've found out it's something based on the haunted swing principle, a ride that seems to have slipped out of circulation since.

Chart-wise July looked like this (Thom Pace though - who he?) with singles snapped up being...


So what shall we spin? How about something punk(ish) and something disco(ish) as that seems be the mood of the month. Aged 13, clocking Sid Vicous riding about in a motorbike jacket, no helmet, no shirt and padlock 'n' studs bling was possibly the coolest thing I'd ever seen. Ps it's a Rabbit padlock available here if you're tempted

Before They Were Famous

After a summer break, Piley and I are finally getting back to some semi-serious podding about tonight, selecting songs themed around: obscure originals made famous as covers. Plenty to choose from, but only ten tunes can make the final playlist. Hey Joe had been one of my five, until another garage nugg' popped into play giving it the bounce.



The Leaves - Hey Joe

I wouldn't be surprised to discover, Bowie being the Artful Dodger of pop that he is, cribbed some Leave's riffery to underpin this early doors Dame ditty



P.S. Suggestions and guesses are always welcome

Postcards from Walmington

After chowing down a minimum of two Dad's Army episodes per night, how could we not detour off to Walmington on Sea Thetford on the way home from our north Norfolk jaunt. So what's to spot...


Nether Row (renamed Percy Street in the show): pops up frequently in Walmington street shots, including the corking but rarely repeated missing-knickers episode Man Hunt.

Three raw recruits raring to sign up for the Walmington Home Guard

Thetford Guildhall (Walmington Town Hall): the Time on My Hands episode (or The German Pilot Trapped on the Clock Tower One to give it it's full title) is centred almost entirely on the 19th century clocktower..

You'll also find Mill Lane, perhaps Thetford's most viewed road seen during the closing moments of The Deadly Attachment (or The 'Don't tell him, Pike!'One to give it it's full title), The Bell Inn - lodgings for the cast during location work, also used for the opening shots of the debut episode. All these, the Dad's Army Museum and plenty more Walmington backdrops are all doable and viewable within a one hour wander..

We would have factored in a trip to the Bressingham Steam Museum if we'd known of the gold contained therein. But that's another trip for another time...

Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr Hitler? - Bud Flanagan

It's the rare version pop-pickers - see if you can spot the extra lyrics ?



Wild Billy Childish and The Blackhands - Who Do You Think You Are Kidding, Mr Hitler?





PS - thanks to John Medd for the title inspiration

Three years of blogging and Norfolk 'n' good

Barton Turf: whistling distance from our holiday digs...

We're off for a few days much needed breather and break next week. To Walmington-on-Sea in fact, well not yer actual Kent/Sussex village, but nipping about some parts of Norfolk occasionally spottable in Dad's Army location scenes - it's the flint walls that give it away. Cromer crab, Roys of Wroxham a trip to Narge and boating on the broads are all possibilities at the mo'.

In other news: I only realised a few days after last Sunday had passed, this place had clocked up three years on the blog-o-meter. I had been planning a third anniversary jamboree of sorts - but it's all slipped sideways over the summer. Luckily, those jolly ol' rockers The Wolfmen have allowed me to give an exclusive debut airing to their flute-tootin remix of the latest single July 20. It's the sort of Hanna-Barbera bouncer perfect for lolloping off on your hol's.

So I'll see you in a week or there abouts my booties. And perhaps we'll catch up on the missing Dear Diary posts when I'm back.

The Wolfmen - July 20 (CC's Canned Heat Summer Flute Mix)


The original version of July 20 can be bagged right here along with a variant remix from The Dandy Warhol's Courtney Taylor-Taylor

Perhaps by year four I'll have remembered hyperlink code without having to look it up.

Fey Rays

I've found salvation. Embraced in the arms of soft wafty pop and the soothing moonage daydreams of FC Kahuna, Jon Hopkins and Ulrich Schnauss. Waddya mean Ulrich who?

Although it's Memory Cassette who have been the real spoonful of sugar. Something like a cosmic Cocteaus glitzed with a downbeat disco shimmer. Lend an ear and melt into the magic.

Memory Cassette - Listen to the Vacuum





How can anyone feel glum after a blast of this bubblegum booty from the Grand Master of mash ups. Released yesterday (as part of a three way whammy)and grabbable here

Saying goodbye for a while

Both gone now - but I'll always think of them like this

The moment we had been dreading finally arrived on Sunday 25th July - when the hospital gave us an early morning call advising I should come over.

Mum remained sleeping and peaceful with four close family members by her bedside. And a few hours later when the final silence started to settle - the sun shone and mum's youngest sister and a niece held her hands as she slipped softly away in my arms.

I can't tell you what a comfort being there has been for me - knowing mum wasn't suffering, scared or alone in those closing moments. That she was sent gently on her way with kisses and a whispered 'Night, night' and 'God bless' - the same phrases she soothed me to sleep with so many times as a child.

The Beatles - Golden Slumbers



We're ok and getting by at the moment. A bustle and swirl of phone calls, visits and arrangements to make have been keeping us occupied. Just over a month ago, the plan for this week had been to take mum away to Southwold for some sun, sea and a change of scenery. None of us expected to be arranging her funeral instead.

The final goodbye takes place on Thursday, and it's after this I expect the slump will really set in. All those hidden triggers for tears and heartbreak - seeing her handwriting, finding old pictures and bits in the loft, forgotten songs on the radio, questions I'll go to ask that will stay unanswered. The one-sided silence and a deep sense of loss and emptiness.

It was the same when Dad died nine years ago, although dad's death was so quick and unexpected - just two hours after being rushed into hospital, it left us reeling for years. But, eventually we found calm, comfort and a new normality. In some ways you never get over these things - you just get used to not getting over them.

I never got say goodbye to dad, so I'll play something from The Faces in his memory.

The Faces - Debris