Doing Doo Wop Be Dooby Doo Ay
So
how have you been? Before we get on to the serious business of the caption
competition here is a quick note to reassure all those who didn’t
receive an April mailout that there was, in fact, no April mailout, so
you didn’t miss it at all. Sorry to all those among you who have
been on the edge of your seats with anxiety over the answer to December’s
pretentious Latin claptrap, but one or two little events cropped up and
our hands were suddenly a little fuller than usual. The 5-week early arrival
of the new ‘office-even-more-junior’ rather messed up the
rehearsal schedule for the new recording, and apologies again to Janet
and John for the non-appearance of the band at their wedding, but you
know who to blame, and can take him to task at Tallington.
Now, of course, with another extra pair of hands in the office you might
suppose we’d be doing things a little quicker, but it is not to
be. The new arrival is as workshy and slothful as his sister and as yet
has done nothing more useful than convert his mother’s milk into
a viscous substance not dissimilar to the curry sauce Mr. Porter used
to buy with his chips in the Chinese takeaway in Goldbourne Road back
when Blyth Power were still in the Sounds indie charts and hadn’t
yet realised that many years were to pass before they actually made a
recording that would stand the test of time. Still, give it a couple of
years and at least we can get the chimney clean.
But we digress. December’s captions, of course, had a faintly spiritual
air to them on account of the season, and as many of you correctly pointed
out came from the works of Hildegard von Bingen. Well done to reader J.
Ratzinger of Rome, who was the first out of the bag with the correct answer.
This time round we’ve opted for something a little more ‘of
the people,’ so answers on a postcard as usual for no prize and
even less satisfaction. Onward…
Now The Waiting The Anticipation Is Over Over Over
What is the news after all this time? Two matters of immense moment in
actual fact. Firstly, we are pleased to announce the imminent arrival
of a brand new studio-recorded CD Fall of Iron, which was put together
at Trinity Heights in June and by the time you read this will almost certainly
be manufactured. We invite you to order it immediately, secure in the
knowledge that your hard-earned shekels aren’t part of some sleazy
fund-raising campaign to actually pay for the thing.
Fall of Iron is, of course, the follow on from On The Viking Station,
and represents the Sky part of the pompous old buffoon’s alleged
Land Sea and Sky trilogy. No one, least of all Himself, ever expected
it to be two thirds complete, but with only the Land bit left to record,
plans were hastily being made to re-book Trinity Heights and Mr Fred Purser
even before Fall of Iron returned from Key Production.
We are pleased to say the recording went according to plan and will feature
11 songs, with a playing time of approximately 50mins – deliberately
designed to annoy those old Luddites among you who will be bootlegging
it off a mate onto a C 90 cassette. Serve you right. There is no hidden
bonus track, and the planned rendition of Battle of Naseby has been carried
over onto the next one, as its inclusion was eventually a bridge too far.
Track listing is as follows: Farewell to Forties; After the Horse Has
Bolted; Bomber Harris, Cynthia’s Revels; To Whose Gods; Born in
a Different England; Endgame; Salmon & Gluckstein; Fall of Iron; The
Glorious Vanquished; Fang Over Lip. It rocks utterly.
The official release date for this opus will be August 4th, at Tallington,
but we expect to have it a week or so before then, so £12 to the
PO Box address will ensure one gets in the post as soon as we have them.
It will be available online via Townsend in due course, but if you want
to be able to sing along to the new stuff when you next see the band then
get your cheques in now.
You Can Run in the Sun Having Fun With the One That You Really Love
No, honestly you can! It’s Tallington of course, so you can come
along and make as big a fool of yourself as you like, secure in the knowledge
that everyone else is there to do precisely the same. Not that it isn’t
a serious arts festival, of course. This year we have such a galaxy of
stars lined up that we fairly tremble with anticipation at the very thought.
Your Tallington Programme at a Glance
Friday
The Lying Scotsman 7.00 - 7.40
Phil Doleman 7.45 - 8.15
Cracktown 8.30 - 9.00
Mark Astronaut 9.15 - 9.45
Chris Butler 10.00-10.30
The Charlies 10.45 - 11.30
Saturday
Funsponge 11.30 - 12.15
Daddy Those Men Scare Me 12.30 - 1.10
New York Scumhaters 1.20 - 2.00
Rachel Pantechnicon 2.00 - 2.30
Tallington Ashes Cricket 2.30 - 4.30
Jack
4.30 - 5.15
Project Adorno 5.30 - 6.15
Pog 6.35 - 7.20
Eastfield 7.40 - 8.30
Wob 8.50 - 9.40
Blyth Power 10.00 - 11.00
Sunday
Tin Slapper mk 2 11.00 - 11.40
Verbal Warning 12.00 - 12.40
Red Wedding 1.00 - 1.50
Blyth Power 2.10 - 3.10
These set times are not approximate, as everyone
is going to be efficient, no one is going to play over their allotted
time and all equipment changes will be carried out with the kind of slick
smooth professionalism with which the event has come to be associated.
Hurrah. So ‘large’ is the line-up this year that there will
be bands as well as acoustic acts on the Friday, and the bar has a late
licence, so don’t wait until Saturday.
We are pleased to make the acquaintance this year of the Whistlestop’s
new owners, Maria and Yvonne, who have gone to considerable lengths to
ensure that the campsite and the amenities (long-neglected) have been
brought up to scratch. This year we can look forward to refurbished showers
and toilets, a well-groomed field on which to pitch tents, (the grass
has finally been cut) and a much-improved culinary service which we are
assured has seen the banishment of the burger van to a vegan’s nightmare
and in its place a choice of hot and cold meals including baked potatoes,
chilli and hopefully the egg and chips of yore.
As usual, there is no admission fee for the event, but in view of the
necessary repairs and maintenance carried out on the campsite there will
be a charge this year for camping of £5 for a pitch for the whole
weekend. Please go in and pay someone in the bar when you arrive.
Parking was a problem last year, and left no room on the field for the
cricket. Once again this year there will be space on the hard standing
across the road to leave your car once you have unloaded, and in the interests
of keeping a little bit of space free on the campsite then we do urge
all drivers to make use of this. No one is going to come round with a
radio and shout at you if you don’t, but it really would make life
easier for everyone. For those among you coming on public transport, Mr.
John Taylor has offered again to assist persons in difficulty at Stamford
station on the Friday. If you wish to discuss John’s Tallington
Taxi service then contact him on 01778 394418 or e-mail johnt118@hotmail.com
If you are performing then please come and say hello when you arrive,
and we can have a jolly interesting chat with you about equipment and
drums and stuff. Bear in mind that Mr. Porter’s kit is held together
by rust and filth, so your drummer may not want to touch it with a bargepole,
never mind those nice expensive nylon-tipped hickory 5bs that cost so
much. If anyone has any experience as a
sound engineer, and thinks they’d like to help out over the weekend
we’d like to speak to them too.
See you at the hop…
With The Jukebox Playing and Everybody Saying that Music like Ours Couldn’t Die
So what treats will we have in store for you at the Blyth Power showroom
when next our paths cross? Obviously we’ll have the new Fall of
iron CD, and we’ll also have the T-shirts which made their rather
optimistic debut at Tallington 2005. These are still available in both
black and white, so grab one early on the Friday night and be the envy
of all your friends.
Also still in stock in three sizes are the children’s T-shirts,
and you simply know that your child will be ostracised by its peer group
if it sets foot in front of the stage without one, so you really do owe
it to them to forego that Noddy video and get a Blyth shirt instead.
On the music front, it is with great pleasure that we are able to announce
the final passing of Gladly Give to Caesar. We have one left, which was
a display copy that we cobbled together from spare parts after the last
one got sold. This will not be remanufactured, so if you want the last
one then get in touch fast.
Gonna Dance With My Baby ‘Til The Night Is Through
You
grown-ups with computers will have noticed that things have been fairly
quiet on the website for the best part of 2006 so far. This is entirely
down to the fact that all our spare waking moments find us engaged in
the cleaning of tiny bums and associated infrastructure, so apologies
to those waiting updates and developments on that front. On the live front
it will not have escaped your attention that the band has been fairly
inactive of late, and this is largely down to the same reason. Fall of
Iron, we hope, will indicate a commitment to the future, and Blyth is
very much still a going concern – it just takes a little bit more
arranging these days. Now we have collectively almost as many children
as Abraham, and are based separately in Norfolk, North Yorkshire and Gloucestershire,
logistics are a little eccentric, and the days of incessant Tuesday nights
at the Princess Charlotte are far behind us. We are still very interested
in hearing from anyone who wants to book the band, but it’s no use
telling us things like ‘Oh such-and-such said they’d do it
for tuppence so why should we pay you?’ because our response may
be ironic. If you still think you should pay no more than 45p for a 7”
single, and that it is immoral for honest musicians to try and earn a
living then you really have been confusing us with some bunch of old anarchoes
you used to go and see in the early eighties.
For a personalised continuation of this rant please come to the next Blyth
Power show and ask a band member if they want to play your Hunt-Sab benefit.
We Were Grooving We Were Moving Pussyfooting it and Putting it Around
Madam
Chairman has finally managed to gather her wits enough to compose the
following verse. Unfortunately, the presence now of two children in her
ancestral home has rendered her inchoate with fury, so some readers may
find it difficult to understand:
Meow meow meow
Meow meow
Meow meow
Meow meow meow meow
Meow meow meow
Meow