And that was Bagpipe Whisky with their Asparagus Puppy EP

Like most people my age I suspect, I seem lately to have got in real rut musically. I own thousands of albums and cds and mp3s but I tend to find myself putting on the same dozen or so albums over and over again. Bit of Antony and the Johnsons, bit of Bowie, maybe a track or two by Frightened Rabbit, the Eels or a compilation of my favourite tracks. Rarely anything new.

And it used to be so different.

Back in 1984, lying in bed in the dark, listening to John Peel discussing the latest Liverpool game in between tracks, writing down band names on pieces of paper (is Bogshed one word or two? where the hell can I buy Retard Picnic by the Stupids? Are I, Ludicrous more like the Fall or Half Man Half Biscuit?) or borrowing albums from our mate Dave, who had effortlessly cooler music taste than anyone else I knew ('you'll like this', shoving a copy of 'Y' by The Pop Group in my hand before we headed to the pub. He was right).

But now it's 2009, and I don't seem to have the time any more. Plus DJs are all about wacky catchphrases, irritating jingles and comedy sidekicks. So I hear far less new music than I used to.

Until last night, when I downloaded a podcast by an iPal, Ned, who likes Iris and wrote a nice story which almost made it into the Panda Book of Horror. Plus he seemed to have good music taste, which is handy.

(I've always been a bit wary of podcasts, incidentally. Just an excuse for spods to talk at interminable length about how much they fancy David Tennant, or for fans of Radio 4 to pretend that theirs is the only kind of radio that matters. As dull and pointless as Craig Burley, frankly.)

To cut to the chase - since I'm supposed to be taking Matt and Cameron round to Spar to buy gogos - Ned's podcast was brilliant. It lasts an hour and 8 minutes and I'd stuck it on the mp3 player for when I was walking the dog, thinking I'd give it ten minutes then switch to the new Twilight Sad album.

By the time Ned signed off, the dog was knackered and I was soaking after an 80 minute walkin the rain, but it was well worth it. Someone doing radio in a normal speaking voice, interspersing the music with brief chat about what was going on round them ('it's pissing down' Ned pointed out at one point - at least he was indoors!) but crucially remembering that the show was primarily about the music, not the chat.

Of course it helped that the music was worth listening to. Not all my cup of tea but some great stuff (for those interested, I was particularly taken with the first track, a cover of Blue Midnight by a band called Grand Erector and by an extended drone by a Norwegian guy) and always interesting. Plus a good little interview with James from the mighty Twilight Sad (whose new album is worth a listen btw).

It's obviously a work in progress - the segues during the interview into Twlight Sad tracks were a little too abrupt, and I've never been a fan of little clips of songs as played during the recommended Five Tracks section, but other than that it was all spot on.

I mean how can you not love any DJ who says, in a conversational tone, 'That was Bagpipe Whisky with "Men Bason" from the "Asparagus Puppy" EP"*?

And not a comedy sidekick in sight...

http://wasistdas.co.uk/Radio.htm#Show2

* As a former member of bands called My Dog Eats Spiders and The Creepy Fish, I do appreciate a mental band name...

On the Blog...

Been meaning to point these out for ages - some my favourite blogs which I haven't mentioned before...

http://thepenguinblog.typepad.com - regular but not too frequently updated blog covering book cover design mainly.

http://goldenmasks.blogspot.com - knowledgable and interesting reviews of OTR. If you're one of the idiots who didn't like The Hornets' Nest and/or think that OTR is 'old-fashioned' or 'crap' then it's probably not for you. But you are clearly thick as three week old mince, so that's no loss to anyone...

http://www.paulmagrs.com/blog/blog.php - Beautiful looking site, this one, with daily updates.

http://www.nickelinthemachine.com - my favourite blog ever and one which I would gladly buy in book format. Informed articles on obscure corners of London and its history. Go and read it now, you'll love it.

Finn's Reviews - not a blog really, more a massive collection of film, tv and book reviews by oen of my favourite reviewers (even when some of his opinions are bonkers!)

And a late entry which is also not a blog - Cav Scott (co-author of one of the fantastic stories in the Celestial Omnibus) has a new website: http://www.cavanscott.co.uk

Sherlock Holmes and the Mysterious Case of the Centenarian Detectives

Anyone who likes Sherlock Holmes will be aware of the series of movies made by Universal in the late 30s and early 40s, starring Basil Rathbone as Holmes and Nigel Bruce as his chronicler and side-kick Dr Watson.

I can only say with certainty that they'll be aware of them, since for many Holmesians these films are the thin end of the wedge, the point at which presentation of the Holmes stories went horribly awry and many undesirable elements were introduced (Holmes taking part in non-canonical mysteries and Watson being a bumbling half-wit, specifically).

For those of us with a love of the slightly askew though, these films are a Godsend. Starting off in 1939 with the traditional Hound of the Baskervilles and running via another 13 films to 1946 and The Secret Code the series soon left behind Victorian England and became a propoganda tool for the allies as Holmes foiled one sinister Nazi plan after another in a modern day setting.

Even better though, the two actors starred at the same time in the radio series, The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - and that's mad as two hungry weasels in a sack.

The series ran in full from 1939 until 1947, though Rathbone jumped ship in '46, and the ones I've heard (courtesy of Paul) are from Rathbone's final season.

So what's so peculiar about them, I ask both of my readers ask at once?

Might as well start with the big one. The series as a whole at this point was sponsored by a company called Petri Wine and, as was the custom of the day, this involves a spokesman for the company doing a little speech at the beginning and end extolling the virtues of the sponsor's product*.

So far so good.

What marks these stories out though is that once the spokesman finishes his spiel he then starts chatting to Nigel Bruce in character as Watson, asking after his health, his latest case and his fondness for Petri Dry Sherry! Even better, Watson gets obviously peeved by this and makes occasional comments sotto voce along the lines of 'Oh good, talking about that damn wine again".

All of which has a knock-on effect on the series' timeline. You might expect that the writers simply wouldn't mention the fact that every story is set some sixty years after the original stories? But no, the series revels in the fact that Watson is well over a hundred - in the 'April Fool's Adventure' Watson even specifically dates a story to 1881.

Then there's the incidental music, which is completely mental. It's like the most outre of outsider music or the results of the Elephant Man randomly smashing the keys of an organ with his face. Just loud, discordant parping noises basically: the output of a man who learned his trade doing sound effects for James Whale horror movies.

All of which somewhat tongue in cheek comment should not be taken as genuine scoffing. The acting is first rate, the scripts inventive and intelligent and the series as a whole both highly professional and extremely entertaining. The little oddities of the day add to the pleasure to be had in listening, rather than taking anything away.

You can download free, legitimate copies of some of these shows here. Go on, give one a try while enjoying a cool, refreshing glass of Petri Sherry, perfect as a before dinner drink or as a light, summer wine with dinner.

* I did think it was a nice touch having the widow of the writer Robert Green topping and tailing some of the episodes with reminisces about Nigel Bruce.

A lazy code monkey speaks...

Hmm, my last post about Goodnight, Sweetheart seems to have upset Firefox in some way - or at least it doesn't display properly in FF 1.5 (although it's fine in IE6). I could be industrious and hunt down the errant line of code, but I thought I'd settle for lazy and just post this pointless post in the hope that that'll solve the problem.

If it still looks odd can you let me know?

Lord of the Rings: The Radio Play

I spent some of the money I got for Christmas on the 13 disc set of the BBC Radio version of Lord of the Rings and, I have to say, it's been quite excellent so far (Boromir has just died, Frodo and Sam have set off by themselves towards the Cracks of Doom and Pippin and Merry have just met Treebeard). The performances are consistently excellent, with Aragorn sounding considerably less kingly and more common than in the movies and John Le Messurier as Bilbo sounding exactly like sergeant Wilson from Dad's Army, down to the very slight pause before the last word in a sentence.

One interesting thing is that - just like Peter Jackson in the movies - this version completely ignores the entire early passage through the Old Forest and the meeting with Tom Bombaddil and the Barrow Wights. Now, I'm not terribly keen on that part of the book, and it doesn't have any impact on the rest of the story making it an obvious place to make a decent sized cut in the running time, but it does seem strange that - for a radio version which includes all the songs and poems sung in full - they felt the need to excise anything at all.

Still, it's very good and well worth buying, especially if you can pick a copy up cheap on eBay.