What Are You Listening To Now?

[Orifice]

Sorry but it's me again with some stuff I'm playing for New-Year.
I'll have to sort out some deep dub (thanks give_us_a_wave)

At the moment I'm blasting away with this....

 

[Orifice]

Bumn.
I've just knackered a set of my KZ AS10 earphones
What do you mean? too much heavy-duty sounds?

 

[give_us_a_wave]

**** all to do with new year but I haven't listened to it in years & it just popped into my head. No idea why. A celebration of 60 years of being a bit of a **** maybe? Dunno, but I still love it. Best thing they ever did (Reality a close second)

 

[give_us_a_wave]

Since the first one seemed to go down well, I'm posting some more highlights from my old mate King Rubey's early 80s sound system sets.
To be completely honest his death over Xmas has affected me badly. He was an excellent DJ but an even better human being & a great friend. I don't have many of those (nobody does really) so to lose him is a blow. Especially as the ****er kept quiet about being ill.
Plus, in the tense times of the early 80s he had no problem with this stroppy white boy going out with his little sister. To the point of jumping in more than once to put others straight on this point.
It's hard to stress in this day & age what a big deal this was back then, but it ****ing was. He did what he could to make it easier. I was grateful for it then & I still am now.
We maintained our friendship for decades after my relationship with his sister ended.
I organised his stag night. He came with me to see the Pistols at Finsbury Park when they reformed. Put me up in Birmingham dozens of times over the years & accompanied me to many a gig at Edwards No8, the Hummingbird & various shithole pubs. The bloke was a true treasure of the earth. I make no apologies for remembering him here.

 

[give_us_a_wave]

 

[give_us_a_wave]

 

[give_us_a_wave]

 

[Orifice]

Thanks for these tracks g_u_a_w.
I'll be doing some proper listening soon. Good stuff.

 

[Robin127]

Barrington Levy, there's a name I'd forgotten, thanks for reminding me, good stuff.

 

[tedfoxxx]

John Grant is a majestic bastard and I implore you to listen to his music, this may not be a toe tapper but he is capable of writing the most lovely songs.



2025 marks 10 years since the most pivotal year in my life. A ****er of a relationship ended and City set off on a journey that I still don’t understand or believe. This was the soundtrack for me;



And then the following year I met my wife and we danced like a pair of twats to this for our first dance; cheesy as **** but its a banger.



I still like what I like and and my missus exists in the the here and now, Chappell Roan is well worth listening to, genuinely good and funny songwriting, you’ve probably all heard this but it’s a properly good pop song;

 

[Joe_Fox]

Since the first one seemed to go down well, I'm posting some more highlights from my old mate King Rubey's early 80s sound system sets.
To be completely honest his death over Xmas has affected me badly. He was an excellent DJ but an even better human being & a great friend. I don't have many of those (nobody does really) so to lose him is a blow. Especially as the ****er kept quiet about being ill.
Plus, in the tense times of the early 80s he had no problem with this stroppy white boy going out with his little sister. To the point of jumping in more than once to put others straight on this point.
It's hard to stress in this day & age what a big deal this was back then, but it ****ing was. He did what he could to make it easier. I was grateful for it then & I still am now.
We maintained our friendship for decades after my relationship with his sister ended.
I organised his stag night. He came with me to see the Pistols at Finsbury Park when they reformed. Put me up in Birmingham dozens of times over the years & accompanied me to many a gig at Edwards No8, the Hummingbird & various shithole pubs. The bloke was a true treasure of the earth. I make no apologies for remembering him here.

Sorry for your loss, mate. Great that you can forever remember your good mate through music, memories of gigs and just the relationship you had. You're damb right, toot. Good friends are very rare. I lost my best mate in 2020. He was 40. It hit me hard, but playing songs we use to jam along to, and remembering our nights out, especially at the Fan Club, always helps.

 

[give_us_a_wave]

Sorry for your loss, mate. Great that you can forever remember your good mate through music, memories of gigs and just the relationship you had. You're damb right, toot. Good friends are very rare. I lost my best mate in 2020. He was 40. It hit me hard, but playing songs we use to jam along to, and remembering our nights out, especially at the Fan Club, always helps.

Absolutely.
I have very little affection for most facets of the 21st century. I regard it as an era that doesn't have a clue what it wants, has little or no original ideas & seems obsessed with lightweight ****s in every arena from entertainment to politics.
But the one thing it has that I do wish had been around earlier is the ability to take a photo anytime you want.
As far as I'm aware, despite the many years we knew each other, there was only one photo ever taken of us together & I have no idea what happened to it. Taken outside a club on Broad St in Brum in the late 80s where we'd just been to see Danielle Dax.
An image that summed things up perfectly. Me in my bleached jeans, boots, Killing Joke t-shirt & blue hair, him in his adidas trackie, waist length dreadlocks & the ridiculous pointy beard that I ripped the piss out of at every opportunity. ****ing thing made him look like a cartoon Satan.
But the best thing about the photo & what made it sum everything up was the bloke who got caught in the background.
Standing staring at us after having crossed the road, his expression clearly baffled & trying to compute how Vyvyan from the Young Ones & Bob Marley's bodyguard seemed to be such good mates out on the piss.
We got that look a lot. In at least four major cities. It made us laugh every time. I really wish I knew what happened to the photo. Today of course it'd be online & retreivable forever.

 

[pork pie fox]

The first pub I regularly went into (The Crown in Melton), from the age of 15/16, had a jukebox. We went in there because my mate’s older brother and his friends drank in there and then it became our regular pub. The songs that were played on the jukebox became ones that really symbolise how much I enjoyed those days. We had some office drinks out before Xmas and there’s still a jukebox there (albeit a more modern one) and once we got there, we just filled the jukebox with things that we like now, but also a load of songs from those days. Prefab Sprout, Aztec Camera, Deacon Blue, Tears for Fears, New Order, Electronic etc etc.

There was loads more that we played that’s older or newer than that stuff and ranged from soul, to rock, to grunge, to pop, to rap, but those bands really remind me of a particular time and place growing up.

 

[give_us_a_wave]

The first pub I regularly went into (The Crown in Melton), from the age of 15/16, had a jukebox. We went in there because my mate’s older brother and his friends drank in there and then it became our regular pub. The songs that were played on the jukebox became ones that really symbolise how much I enjoyed those days. We had some office drinks out before Xmas and there’s still a jukebox there (albeit a more modern one) and once we got there, we just filled the jukebox with things that we like now, but also a load of songs from those days. Prefab Sprout, Aztec Camera, Deacon Blue, Tears for Fears, New Order, Electronic etc etc.

There was loads more that we played that’s older or newer than that stuff and ranged from soul, to rock, to grunge, to pop, to rap, but those bands really remind me of a particular time and place growing up.

Another way the 20th century wins out. Try drinking in a pub at 16 now. Not a chance in hell.

Challenge 21 & now 25 have rendered it impossible. The screws tighten, life becomes more authoritarian by inches. Nobody minds as it's not anything that directly affects them, just other people.

No drinking outdoors
No smoking anywhere
Challenge 21/25
Gambling restrictions
Anti protest laws

etc.

& then, suddenly one day, it becomes something you care about & get all outraged & decide this isn't right all of a sudden.
But oh dear. You can't protest against it. Because they made it illegal. & you thought that only applied to students & those bloody eco hippies.
You don't care enough to risk a criminal record, so you let it pass.
& so it begins.

& eventually you're being asked for photo ID 3 or 4 times a week. By people who not long ago weren't allowed to ask you for it. & mysteriously it now seems to be illegal for you to refuse.
& then there are cars with cameras on the roof cruising your street every so often. You're not sure why but you guess it's OK.
Then open banking suddenly shifts to being compulsory. Because reasons.

& then, one day, when you're reaching the end of your days, gates at the end of your road that are locked every night at 11pm. To keep your neighbourhood safe of course.

All coming.

 

[pork pie fox]

Another way the 20th century wins out. Try drinking in a pub at 16 now. Not a chance in hell.

Challenge 21 & now 25 have rendered it impossible. The screws tighten, life becomes more authoritarian by inches. Nobody minds as it's not anything that directly affects them, just other people.

No drinking outdoors
No smoking anywhere
Challenge 21/25
Gambling restrictions
Anti protest laws

etc.

& then, suddenly one day, it becomes something you care about & get all outraged & decide this isn't right all of a sudden.
But oh dear. You can't protest against it. Because they made it illegal. & you thought that only applied to students & those bloody eco hippies.
You don't care enough to risk a criminal record, so you let it pass.
& so it begins.

& eventually you're being asked for photo ID 3 or 4 times a week. By people who not long ago weren't allowed to ask you for it. & mysteriously it now seems to be illegal for you to refuse.
& then there are cars with cameras on the roof cruising your street every so often. You're not sure why but you guess it's OK.
Then open banking suddenly shifts to being compulsory. Because reasons.

& then, one day, when you're reaching the end of your days, gates at the end of your road that are locked every night at 11pm. To keep your neighbourhood safe of course.

All coming.

To be fair my kids don’t really drink in the pubs anyway. My eldest is at uni and they’re all preloading in houses and flats and going straight to clubs from there. When they go out here they’ll go from the house to one or two bars (which definitely ID though) before going to the highlight that is Tubes.

 

[Brown Nose]

To be fair my kids don’t really drink in the pubs anyway. My eldest is at uni and they’re all preloading in houses and flats and going straight to clubs from there. When they go out here they’ll go from the house to one or two bars (which definitely ID though) before going to the highlight that is Tubes.

I believe that the youth call it 'pre's'.

 

[pork pie fox]

I believe that the youth call it 'pre's'.

They do indeed, but I wasn’t going to use that term, as I’m too old for it apparently.

 

[jb5000]

Isn't preing (?) just yet another behaviour driven by the cost of things though?

 

[Brown Nose]

They do indeed, but I wasn’t going to use that term, as I’m too old for it apparently.

I enjoy the eye roll I receive when I ask whether daughter went for pre's?

 

[pork pie fox]

I enjoy the eye roll I receive when I ask whether daughter went for pre's?

Yep. Eye roll and maybe a little sarcastic comment about it being cringe, which ultimately fuels my inclination to do it again.