And the Laibach album mentioned - you should have a wee listen. Got that on vinyl too.

DAY 108.
Traffic.....................Traffic    (1968)






Sorry a bit late, this will be short, on this album the only passable track was "Feelin' Alright" in my humble opinion.
This also stretched the meaning of passable some what, as a consequence this particular album will not be getting bought.


Bits & Bobs;


This multi-talented and influential West Midlands group gained international success in the late 1960s and early 1970s, particularly in the USA where they attracted a large following. In Britain, they are remembered mostly for some memorable and ground-breaking singles and albums that scored high chart placings.


Traffic was formed when young Steve Winwood (then still popularly known as "Stevie"), who was the focal point of the successful chart-topping Spencer Davis Group, decided to move beyond the restrictions of that group and form his own band consisting of other Birmingham area musicians. Jim Capaldi and Dave Mason had played together in a Worcester beat group known as 'The Hellions' during the early 1960s. Jim Capaldi had continued with The Hellions who were re-named Deep Feeling after Dave Mason's departure and to help pay the rent, Dave worked as a roadie for the Spencer Davis Group.



Art student and flute/saxophone player Chris Wood was born in Harborne, Birmingham on 24 June 1944. He grew up living at Corngreaves Hall in Cradley Heath along with his sister Stephanie who later made stage clothes for the Spencer Davis Group. Chris had been a member of Jim Simpson's jazz-styled band Locomotive and previous to that, had played in 'Sounds Of Blue' who later became Chicken Shack and included Christine McVie (later of Fleetwood Mac) in their line-up.

The four musicians would get together for improvised jamming on stage at a hip club called 'The Elbow Room' on Aston High Street next door to the old Hippodrome in Birmingham. It was there where the idea for Traffic was formed. With Dave Mason and Jim Capaldi eager to form a new band with Steve Winwood, Chris Wood also agreed to join the partnership. Dave Mason later admitted; "Everyone realized that we were going to get a certain amount of success because Steve was in the band."The group retreated to an isolated (and reportedly haunted) cottage in Aston Tirrold, Berkshire in order to write and rehearse new material. "We lived on cheese sandwiches and tins of rice pudding" said Steve. The Traffic cottage was to become a place of legend as regular visitors included famous musicians such as Eric Burdon, Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton as well as Trevor Burton (of The Move) amongst many others


.The new line-up was named 'Traffic', an action that prompted an obscure south London band called 'Traffic Jam' to re-name themselves 'Status Quo'. Reportedly, it was Jim Capaldi who came up with the name Traffic after an evening watching cars clog the street following a show at the movie theatre. The group was given full financial backing by Island Records boss Chris Blackwell who intended to promote the band to help the launch of Island Records as a major act label.


With the publicity surrounding Steve Winwood's involvement, the group was assured at least initial success. Traffic's first single titled Paper Sun and credited to all four members was released in the summer of 1967. With production by Jimmy Miller and composed by Steve Winwood with Jim Capaldi supplying the captivating lyrics, the song was just right for the times and featured an Indian sitar played prominently by Dave Mason. The single reached Number 5 in the charts and brought the group to the forefront of the British psychedelic or "flower power" movement that was sweeping the country at the time.


Traffic then recorded another successful self-titled album, to which Mason contributed the classic song 'Feelin' Alright', a composition that became much covered by other artists. Traffic also participated in the recording of the influential Jimi Hendrix Experience album 'Electric Ladyland'


Perhaps Traffic's greatest achievement was their successful integration of third-world rhythms with western rock, folk and jazz which made them true pioneers of what became known as "World Music". Traffic were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2004.
 


 

Last edited by arabchanter (26/11/2017 12:46 pm)

DAY 109.
The Incredible String Band...............The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter   (1968)







My friend you may think I'm being overly judgemental here but let me present;


Exhibit A.......The cover, no being funny but as soon as I saw this I thought straight away this is gonna be a struggle, I also concluded very quickly that I wouldn't let any of that manky mob, past meh front door, and they know where they can stick their teepees.



Exhibit B.....These are extracts from tracks on this album;

The opening track  " Koeeoaddi There"

But me and Licorice saw the last of them one misty twisty day
Across the mournful morning, moor motoring away
Singing ladybird, ladybird what is your wish
Your wish is not granted unless it’s a fish
Your wish is not granted unless it’s a dish
A fish on a dish is that what you wish



"A Very Cellular Song"Who would skip and who would plot
Or who would lie quite stilly?
And who would ride backwards on a giraffe?
Stopping every so often to laughAmoebas are very small.



“Waltz of the New Moon,”

Well here you are now o now you are here
Well how has it been so far
The hair and the fur
Lemons, frankincense, and myrrh

There's yer smokin' gun, stoned or no' stoned that's a lotta keech, imho of course.

Exhibit C....... The folky canny hold a note wobbly voice, interlaced with helpings of Kazoo, the jaw harp (when we used to fuck about wi' them as kids, I'm sure It was called a jews harp, but I might be mistaken) and a plethero of weird and not so wonderful instruments thrown in, for me, just for the hell of it.


Exhibit D......And what of the album’s mysterious title? Upon its release, Mike Herron explained, “The hangman is death and the beautiful daughter is what comes after. Or you might say that the hangman is the past twenty years of our life and the beautiful daughter is now, what we are able to do after all these years. Or you can make up your own meaning—your interpretation is probably just as good as ours." 


See that, "make up your own meaning" what's that all about?



So as you can probably tell I didn't like this one to much,in fact I didn't find one track that I nearly liked, so this pish will no' be coming near meh hoose!


Bits & Bobs;
One of the most engaging groups to emerge from the esoteric '60s was the Incredible String Band. Basically the duo of Mike Heron and Robin Williamson, its sound was comprised of haunting Celtic folk melodies augmented by a variety of Middle Eastern and Asian instruments.


Heron was a member of several rock bands in England in the early '60s, while Williamson and Clive Palmer played as a bluegrass and Scottish folk duo. Heron was asked to join as rhythm guitarist, and the trio named itself the Incredible String Band. The band was spotted at a club by Joe Boyd, who was opening a British wing of Elektra Records.


The trio gave Boyd a demo tape of mostly American bluegrass standards with a few original songs, which impressed him more than the standards. The Incredible String Band, released in 1966, featured mostly original numbers enthusiastically played in American and Celtic folk styles. Following the album's release, Williamson spent several months studying music in Morocco, and Palmer left the group to travel to Afghanistan.


For the String Band's second album, The 5000 Spirits or the Layers of the Onion, exotic touches such as the Middle Eastern oud, Indian sitars, and tambouras began to permeate the group's sound. The band's lyrics also became more whimsical; highlights include Williamson's tale of insomnia "No Sleep Blues" and Heron's amorous "Painting Box." 


The press raved about the Incredible String Band, and their next album, The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, was the band's brief flirtation with stardom. Although the music was less commercial than its predecessor, the LP reached the Top Ten in the British album charts and was also the group's highest Billboard chart placing in America, reaching number 161. The songs became less structured, as on the opening, "Koeeoaddi There," which changed tempo frequently as it cascaded joyously with sitars and jaw harp. The album's centerpiece, "A Very Cellular Song," was a suite of short pieces sewn together with the folk song "Bid You Goodnight." For Wee Tam and the Big Huge, the Incredible String Band were augmented by Williamson and Heron's girlfriends, Licorice McKechnie and Rose Simpson. 


The group also began to electrically amplify its instruments. This expanded lineup performed at the Woodstock festival in 1969, but due to circumstances it was not one of the band's most memorable performances. The Incredibles' slot was originally to be Friday night after Joan Baez; however, due to heavy rain, the band opted not to perform. Folksinger Melanie took The Incredibles' place and went down extremely well, writing her big hit "Candles in the Rain" about that moment. the Incredible String Band got a lukewarm reception the next afternoon between Creedence Clearwater Revival and Canned Heat.



 The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter was the third album by the Scottish psychedelic folk group, The Incredible String Band. The record was written at Temple College in Balmore outside Glasgow, which was owned by a vet with five children named Mary Stuart. Living with the working mother were a motley mix of mountaineers, folk musicians and Tibetan monks in exile. ISB's Mike Heron recalled to Mojo:

"It suited Mary as it meant there were people to look after the kids – they're all on the cover photo of The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter, which was taken outside the cottage – when she went to work."


 
Released in March 1968 on Elektra Records, The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter was both a critical and financial success peaking at #5 on the UK Albums Chart and #161 on the Billboard Top LP's listings in America, becoming the group's highest charting album in both countries.


 
Regarding the title, ISB's Robin Williamson told Mojo in 2017: "There was a book by 19th century American writer Ambrose Bierce called The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter, but I didn't know it at the time. I came up with the title to mark the emergence from death and flowering of a new era, with the hangman as the war generation and ours as the daughter."


 
This multi-sectioned reflection on life and love is the album's centerpiece. Heron said: "A Very Cellular Song was about an acid trip I had, with all the sections representing various levels of humanity and all life coming together at the end. None of it follows a recognizable style. That proved to be our great strength."  

PatReilly wrote:

I've got to mind that you, arabchanter, are listening to these albums from a different perspective than us. 

You are considering expensive purchases, we're simply saying whether we like the album or not.

.

Reminds of a story about me meeting an old mate back in the late '70s, I spotted him coming out of a record shop with an album tucked under his arm, I said him " got a new album, any good?"

He replied " No it's shite, I thought seeing as I've no' got any shite in meh collection I really need to be putting some in, so em starting wi' this ane"

Sarcky bass, but spot on, you're not going to buy something that's just ok,

As I've mentioned in previous posts some are good but not enough for me to buy, but it doesn't make them bad albums..
 

DAY 110.
The Kinks......The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society   (1968)







As a lover of most of The Kinks music, I found this pretty bland to be honest, and this will probably sounds strange from a bloke who purchased this album back in the mid '70s.


Maybe time changes your musical tastes, now i'm not saying this has suddenly become a bad album, but I do find it too much stuck in yesteryear, has it always been the case that  yesterday was better than today?
I can think of some shitty times in the '60s and '70s,


Back to the album, I thought it was ok, but only ok, most of tracks harp back to imagined halcyon days, and as a concept album it wasn't bad.


The best tracks imho were  "Big Sky," The title track and "Starstruck", with a special mention for "Do you remember Walter" which for me, ELO snaffled the beginning of for "Mr Blue Sky" but that might just be me.


So after all that,  I already have the album, but would I buy it today?
Probably not given the current circumstances.



Bits & Bobs;



In 1968 The Kinks released The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society, an album curiously closer in spirit to that year's new sitcom hit, Dad's Army, than to the more familiar rock 'n' roll preoccupations of the day. While his contemporaries were revolting in style or getting mystic, Ray Davies spent much of the summer putting together a concept album steeped in nostalgia for an 'Olde England' of corner shops, custard pies and steam trains; an album which seemed to draw as much on the pre-war music-hall of Max Miller as it did the blues. While the rock mainstream embraced Satanism and free love, Davies sang about preserving virginity and Sunday School. The Kinks' latest heroes were, apparently, Desperate Dan and Mrs Mopp, rather than Abraham, Martin or John. It was seriously out of step with prevailing trends.

And it wasn't only the subject matter: with hard-rock bands like Led Zeppelin poised on the horizon, it simply sounded too whimsical. Its potential success was not helped by the injunction which prevented The Kinks from touring the US between 1965 and 1969, essentially isolating them from rock's biggest market. Despite their position as one of the founding-fathers of mid-Sixties British pop/rock, The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society flopped big-time.


 But over the years, it has undergone something of a reassessment. For manyit's now justly considered Davies' most satisfying album: a creative highpoint matched only by the band's landmark singles of the period. Only Davies would care that Britain's last main-line steam train finally reached the buffers that year and write an instant retro song like ''Last of the Steam-Powered Trains'', a sort of British Rail ''Smokestack Lightnin'''. Only Davies would bother to think about why people take photographs of each other ('To prove that they really existed', of course!) and write ''People Take Pictures''. But it's not all wistfully genteel: the childlike ''Phenomenal Cat'' is a nod towards psychedelia and there are some sterling Dave Davies riffs in ''Wicked Arabella'' and ''Johnny Thunder''. It's as English as billiards, but with more balls.




The Village Green Preservation Society;



 
A very reflective and nostalgic song written by lead singer Ray Davies, this is about the innocent times in small English towns, where the village green was the community center. The entire album was based on this theme.


 
This plays in the movie Hot Fuzz as Sgt. Angel is jogging through a village.


 
Some critics thought the album's snapshots of village life were part inspired by performances by the Kinks in rustic Devon. However Davies explained to The Independent June 19, 2009 this was not the case. Instead they were based on memories of his growing up in London. He explained: "You have to remember that North London was my village green, my version of the countryside. The street [and district] I grew up in was called Fortis Green, and then there was Waterlow Park and the little lake. I sang in the choir at St James's Primary School until I was about 10, then I trained myself to sing out of tune so I could hang around with a gang called the Crooners instead. Our Scottish singing teacher Mrs Lewis said, 'Never mind, Davies - I hear crooners are making a lot of money these days.'"


 
Ray Davies namechecks various fictional characters that bring back childhood memories, such as music hall act Old Mother Riley and Mrs. Mopp, who was a character from the wartime radio comedy, ITMA.



Village Green;



We are the Draught Beer Preservation Society.
God save Mrs. Mopp and good old Mother Riley.



Davies explained to Q magazine: "The people in it are all characters I liked as a kid or people my family could relate to, like Old Mother Riley and Mrs Mopp. Because I used to love listening to the BBC Light Programme on Sundays, like Round The Horne with Kenneth Williams. A time when the population was allowed to be trivial."



In late 1966 The Kinks were performing in small villages near Devon, England. The experience inspired Ray Davies to write this song, which they recorded that November. The song, in turn, inspired their sixth album released 2 years later, also during the holiday season, The Kinks Are The Village Green Preservation Society

Sorry, but I'm no' going to be about till Friday morning,  will do a catch-up then.

DAY 111.
Ravi Shankar.........The Sounds Of India    (1968)

Sorry about being awol for three days but had an old friends funeral on Wednesday, so pretty much pissed up for three days and no' really able to do much typing.


And we're back





Ravi Shankar's The Sounds Of India was the ultimate mix compilation for classical Indian Music, in that it was accessible, gloriously played, and inherently well informed.


At a time when tracking down global musical styles took some effort. Shankar was the perfect musical ambassador, one who was already familiar to legions of listeners as both an elder friend and an informal musical teacher to the Beatles (George Harrison once called him "the godfather of world music")

DAY 113.
The JImi Hendrix Experience...............Electric Ladyland        (1968)





Experience had honed their craft, But Hendrix maintained a tight ship despite the flurry of LSD and other drugs that surrounded them. Indeed Electric Ladyland is indebted both to pop and to blues, with the razor sharp radio stalwart "Crosstown Traffic" the perfect Hendrix single, and his cover of Earl King's "Come On" as honed a blues workout as he had ever attempted.

The sprawling , 15 minute "Voodoo Chile" and the tighter, poppier "Voodoo Child (slight return)" alone would have made this record a classic anyway.

DAY 111.
Ravi Shankar.........The Sounds Of India    (1968)




Ravi Shanker, two words that instantly remind me of the rhyming slang meaning, as in " he's a right Ravi that Cxxx"

Now I've nothing against Indian music, but it's no' really for me.


No doubt like many artists I have listened to, I bet he's very good at what he does, but unfortunately that's no' really enough for me, I get he introduced each track with a little infomercial and if you were into the sitar I'm sure you would be made up, but to be honest I enjoyed (at a push) the tabla drums far more than the sitar.


So summing up no' got a hope in hell of me buying it.



Just a wee point that I made on the last Indian album " The Call Of The Valley," if you don't read any of the bits and bobs,please at least read the last paragraph it kind of sums up my stance on Sitar playing!


Bits & Bobs;
Ravi Shankar started his performing career as a dancer in (his eldest brother) Uday Shankar’s troupe. He toured with the troupe from the age of 10 and started his study of the sitar only at 18.


  When he heard Amiya Kanti Bhattacharya play the sitar in Kolkata, Shankar decided that he too must study under Bhattacharya’s guru, Ustad Inayat Khan (Ustad Vilayat Khan’s father). The night before the ganda bandhan or thread-tying ceremony (where a guru officially accepts a disciple), however, Shankar was hospitalized with typhoid. He felt destiny wanted him to have another guru. Otherwise, Ustad Vilayat Khan and Pandit Ravi Shankar, part of perhaps the greatest rivalry ever in Hindustani instrumental music, would have ended up being guru bhais!


   Shankar became a disciple of Baba Allauddin Khan. Baba was known to have a violent temper and almost all his disciples (most of all his son Ustad Ali Akbar Khan) found themselves at the receiving end of his wrath. Shankar was the only student to escape his ire. On one occasion, when Shankar could not play a passage to Baba’s satisfaction, Baba told him to buy some bangles and wear them like a girl. This offended Shankar so much that he almost left Maihar in Madhya Pradesh (where Baba lived and taught). However, at the last moment, emotion got the better of both guru and disciple. From then on, Baba never reacted to Shankar’s mistakes. He would leave the room to take his anger out on other people, sometimes even on stray dogs. Shankar later became his son-in-law (through his marriage to Annapurna Devi).


 When George Harrison of the Beatles came to India to learn from him, Shankar asked the guitarist to assume a disguise to avoid people recognizing, and flocking around, him. Harrison changed his hairstyle and grew a moustache (an attempt that he himself later described as naïve). He managed to clear customs and immigration, but got caught out by the elevator boy at the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower hotel in Mumbai. Soon enough, there was a crowd outside. Shankar and Harrison fled to Srinagar, where they lived on a houseboat and continued Harrison’s study of the sitar.


 The song Sare Jahan Se Achha was set to tune by Shankar. Written by Muhammad Iqbal in 1904, it had a more drawn-out tune until Shankar was asked to reset it in 1945. Most people are unaware of this, including HMV, which attributes the tune as “traditional” in an album featuring patriotic songs by Lata Mangeshkar.



 Following Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination in 1948, Shankar was asked to play “some mournful music without tabla accompaniment” on All India Radio. Drawing from the name Gandhi, he took the three sargam notes that approximate it—“Ga” (third), “Ni” (seventh) and “Dha” (sixth)—and developed a new melodic theme. He called this new raga Mohankauns, since it was similar to raga Malkauns. He later used the same raga as a refrain in his score for Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi.




 Shankar provided the score for Satyajit Ray’s Apu trilogy (Pather Panchali, Aparajito and Apur Sansar). When Shankar heard of Ray’s death, he spontaneously composed a piece that he named Farewell, My Friend. It was subsequently recorded and released by HMV.


 Shankar was nominated by Rajiv Gandhi to the Rajya Sabha and served as a member of Parliament between 1986 and 1992.



While married, Shankar had an affair with New York concert producer Sue Jones, which produced little Norah in 1979. As we know today, she went on to great success, winning eight Grammy Awards in 2003. Due to a strained relationship with her mother, Ravi and Norah did not see one another for ten years, but the two met later in life and reconciled. His other children, Shubho Shankar and Anoushka Shankar, also became musicians and played with him independently at different times.

 His performance at Woodstock (1969) remains one of Shankar’s great regrets. He termed it a “terrifying experience”, where the stoned audience reminded him of “the water buffaloes you see in India, submerged in the mud”. He was so put off that he stopped performing in the US for a year and a half. He resumed only when he found agents who organized concerts at classical venues, as opposed to the pop and rock agents who were handling his concerts during the period leading up to Woodstock.



On bills featuring Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jefferson Airplane, Ravi served as a reprieve to the heavy rockers with his four hour metaphysical journeys. He enjoyed the other acts as well, but didn’t care for Hendrix’s treatment of his Stratocasters,, claiming that in India instruments were held sacred, and like a part of God. So setting them ablaze and smashing them…not kosher.


 The Concert for Bangladesh, held in 1971, was Shankar’s initiative, and he organized it alongside George Harrison. Shankar and Ustad Ali Akbar Khan opened the show. The two had just finished tuning their instruments when the audience burst into applause. Shankar spoke into the mike: “If you like our tuning so much, I hope you will enjoy the playing more.”


 

DAY 112.
Os Mutantes..........Os Mutantes    (1968)






This album really knocked my socks off  ( now if that's no' an age giveaway I don't know what is ?) it had a bit of everything on it,  kicking off with "Panis Et Circensis"  (This translates to "bread and circuses", a nearly two-millennium-old phrase meant to criticise a government that keeps its populace placated with readily available, low-quality food and entertainment.) which mood swings from one minute to the next, two minutes in your record player sounds like it's slowed down and stopped, and just as you get up to find out what's happened, it bursts back to life, and then the band sops and has a tea break!



My favourite tracks have to be " A Minha Menina" which was covered by The Bees and was part of "Kick Ass 2" soundtrack, a catchier pop song you'll find hard to beat, and "Bat Macumba " another "gets stuck in your head" number.



This album for me had a real cornucopia of songs that were unforgettable and absolutely insane at the same time, one or two I feel sound like they may have been borrowed from other artists, I'm sure Donovan  should get a shout out as "Trem Fantasma" has got a lot of "Sunshine Superman" in it.

All in all I'm glad I've listened to this as I had never heard of this mob before, and because of the quirkiness and the fact that I really liked it, this will be getting added at some point.



Bits & Bobs;


Os Mutantes were a psychedelic band out of Brazil (Arnaldo Dias on bass and keyboards, Sergio Dias on guitar, Cluudio Baptista on electronics, and Rita Lee on vocals) that mixed bossanova, samba and acid-rock. They are featured on Veloso's and Gil's historical album Tropicalia ou Panis et Circensis (1968).
They debuted with a collection of demented songs, Os Mutantes (Polydor, 1968 - Omplatten, 1999), mostly covers of songs written by Be, Veloso and Gil, a high-volume maelstrom of dissonance and found sounds (Veloso's and Gil's Panis et Circensis and Bat Macumba),


These acid-damaged high society youngsters took Sgt. Pepper as their bible and Brazilian popular music as their hymnbook and released what still ranks as one of the freakiest, most experimentally joyful debuts ever. Government censors didn't know what to make of them but tropicalia leading lights Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil adopted them, feeding them songs ("Panis Et Circenses," "A Minha Menina") and championing their utter insanity

And followed it with an even weirder set, Mutantes (Polydor, 1969 - Omplatten, 1999), that featured Claudio Baptista on electronic and home-made instruments, one of the few albums that compete with Syd Barrett's solo albums (released one year later).


 A Divina Comedia (Polydor, 1970 - Omplatten, 1999 - Universal, 2006), Jardim Eletrico (Polydor, 1971) and E Seus Cometas No Pais Do Baurets (1972) continued the saga in a less sardonic vein. Everything Is Possible (Luaka Bop) is an anthology.


 Dois Mil E Nove (Lilith, 2009) compiles Os Mutantes #1, Os Mutantes #2, A Divina Comedia.


 Barbican Theater (2007) documents a live performance of 2006.


 After three decades Os Mutantes released a new album, Sergio Dias reconstituted the Os Mutantes and released Haih Or Amortecedor (2009), half of it co-written with Tom Ze.




In one of those moments of awesomeness back in the 90s Kurt Cobain enthusiastically talked about Os Mutantes. Also, he wrote a love note (with Pat Fear from White Flag) to Os Mutantes’ Arnaldo Baptista


.



Gonna do the next two albums the 'morra.

 

Last edited by arabchanter (01/12/2017 11:38 pm)

Just a quick mention about the erratic posting, as I mentioned before I had a funeral of a good friend last week, I have also found out three other good friends have passed away in the last two weeks, with funeral dates still to be determined.
That CUNT cancer done for all four of them.

 I hope you can understand I'm no' really in the best of places just now, and probably drinking far more than I should, so if I get behind I'll catch up as soon as I can.

What I will do is put the album of the day up, and get round to putting up my thoughts as soon as possible, but to be honest my concentration level is not really any good at the moment.

Anyways thanks for your patience.

arabchanter wrote:

Just a quick mention about the erratic posting, as I mentioned before I had a funeral of a good friend last week, I have also found out three other good friends have passed away in the last two weeks, with funeral dates still to be determined.
That CUNT cancer done for all four of them.

 I hope you can understand I'm no' really in the best of places just now, and probably drinking far more than I should, so if I get behind I'll catch up as soon as I can.

What I will do is put the album of the day up, and get round to putting up my thoughts as soon as possible, but to be honest my concentration level is not really any good at the moment.

Anyways thanks for your patience.

Sorry to hear about that Mr C.

Cancer is indeed a complete cunt.😔
 

Thanks for getting in touch, Tek, shedboy and Pat, I'm sure we have all been in contact with that abomination that is cancer, I'm afraid it casts its wicked shadow over most of our lives, personally I think it's hit pretty hard as its taken four really good friends, all in a matter of weeks.


Once again thanks for your comments, they are very much appreciated.