Acousticus Maximus is the theme of our latest outing as we take a bank holiday trip to the wolds and wild places. where salty rockers switch heavy electrics for mellow tones and tunings, nestled in green nowhere for a campfire session - and a rock 'n' roll ramble around footpaths, falls and fells Dig in for unplugged outings from Led Zep, Free, Humble Pie, Ronnie Lane, Ronnie Wood with rarities, out takes and home demos from John Lennon, John Martyn and more
If you're wondering what the bed is 'neath the natter - behold..
Photo by Markus Reeves who's down with us this weekend and will be in session
between 1 and 2 on Saturday here...
I'm on my hol's this week - at home. Well, half term innit? so not much time for
the usual bloggings and banterings.
Being in lazy blogger mode, I'm going to play the occasional Re-up card and pitch in
a couple o' home-made comps you may have missed. Two acoustic autumnal mixes of slow burning smokey smoulderers..
It's back to all the regulation rattling and rambling next week
Cotswold visit the tenth saw us revisiting a few old favourite paths and places and ticking off some new to-do locations: Oxford, Snowshill Manor, the Hook Norton Brewery
It really is the perfect place to spend a spring break - the space, the silence, the green lanes and lack of traffic, spotting frisky-legged lambs a'leaping and fidgeting themselves about the fields or having yourself a lazy bumble around the daffodil and limestone landscapes.
On a musical motif, two local-to-Stow ledge's include bass players - Alex James, whose farm is just a couple of villages up the road and John 'The Ox' Entwhistle, whose Quarwood Mansion can be seen here..
Although a pint in Keith Moon's pub that-was in Chipping Norton still remains on the next time tick-list. On the subject of pubs, if you ever find yourself in Stow The Queen's Head is a must visit - Donnington Brewery's BB is the fruitiest pint I've tasted since this.
Rounding off the run was a long weekend in sunny Shropshire, where spin-outs included a white-knuckle drive/crawl across The Long Mynd, nipping into Wales (Powis Castle and Rhayader). Getting back to bassics, our Shropshire accom' was pitched just a short hop from Fishpool Farm - Ronnie Lane's post Faces home.
Plonk Update: Even though the cottage I've snapped is signed 'Fishpool Farm' on the gate - digging about the net since, I think Ronnie's may have been the next one up. I'll clarify when we revisit
Unusually we hadn't included any of Plonk's output in the albums packed, but fave tunes soundtracking the trip turned out to be some XTC outtakes from the Fuzzy Warbles volumes..
Is it really that time of year already? Time for blackberry picking, pumpkin
sculpting, showing out the hiding spiders, russety-woodland walks and cosying up in country pubs.
This year's harvest of seasonal songs - featuring selections from Clair of Woo (Angel Eyes) and Davy of H (Celebrated Summer) - is more of a UK/US crossover comp than usual, with each tune telling a tale of love, loss or longing. And, in what at first appears to be a Fab free zone, 'Hari Georgeson' can be spotted hiding in the writing credits for So Sad, while adding slide and bass guitars alongside Ron Wood's 12 string and Mick Fleetwood's drums.
So settle yourself around the fireside and let this patchwork platter warm you through the winter, as Auntie Enid sets the tone for this year's autumn trail.....
Dear Boys and Girls,
I wish you could come with me and walk over the hills, through the fields and down by the river, finding a hundred exciting or beautiful things by the way. I should like to take you fishing in the ponds, and fill your jars with snails and tadpoles. I should like to help you to make a bird table, or to prepare a splendid aquarium. I should like to give you a garden of your own and show you how to make it a place of bright colours and sweet scents. - Round the Year with Enid Blyton, Autumn Book. 1935.
The tracklist is in the comms to avoid being blog whacked. If you're new to the Lazy Sunday series you can dip into previous postings here or more Mondo Mixes here...
Did you put your clocks back - and what are your plans for that extra hour? If you've nothing doing, lend an ear to one last blast of autumn colour by way of this homemade seasonal stew. A soft, smoky mellow blend harvested from autumnal acoustics, outtakes, alt.takes, oddities and obscurities. You could cosy up around a crackling fireside with a glass of something fruity to suit the tone of the tunes. Or perhaps stow it away red squirrel style for a splash of russet colur to brighten up the grey-day gloom of a bleak mid winter.
Autumn's here and the time is right for dishing up a treat.
Even with its hairy hand sized spiders scuttling in through the windows, crazy legged crane flies floating into your face and snoozy ol' wasps looking for a last fling sting, autumn remains my favourite season.
And these two pieces of misty morning pop are as autumnal as conker battles, leaf fights, blackberry picking and hearty hot pots.
I’ll be posting part 2 of my Autumn Almanac over at Channel Mondo next week.
If you held a super strength stethoscope to my head when I’m thinking of all things autumny - Harvest Home is the sound you'd hear. According to friends there at the time (as documented in the marvellous Passing Show DVD ) Harvest Home was recorded live and outdoors at Ronnie Lane's farm in the Shropshire hills - just ‘Plonk' and a few mates sitting round a camp fire strummin’ as dawn is breaking and the tweety birds are starting to stir. All of autumns colours are captured in this glorious instrumental.
Andy partridge IS an underrated genius - the Syd Barret of the 'old wave of new wave'. And Harvest Festival is his autumn anthem for school hall assemblies. Tinned fruits, packet soups, squeaky chairs, recorders and long lost loves. It’s like Charlie Brown on Friends Reunited. And if the melody doesn’t melt you, the word play will make you fold like a fallen leaf.
You can read Andy P's notes on Harvest Festival over at the highly recommended Chalkhills and Children website
