Clear The Decks - Rockadoodledoo

Well I'm breaking my blog embargo to sling out something swinging for New Year's Eve - 'Rockadoodledoo' a bespoke mix brimming and bubbling with hipshakers, footstompers and knee tremblers. But, grab it while you can it's only up for a limited period only ...

T- list is in the comments

Rockadoodledoo*download is offline - for now*

Clocking Off For Christmas..

Well that's it from me for this year - I'm putting the holiday handbrake on, and my clogs up for Christmas..A big thank you goes out to all all those on the blogroll, the stoppers off, chippers in and commenters on my cyberspace scrapbook (and those shy, silent types too)

So I'll leave you with a couple of seasonal scraps before I pop off..

'Jingle Bell Beat' - a tune that has bleary-eyed, sore-headed memories for me. After going to a neighbours cocktail party a couple of years back, which kicked off with homemade cocktails at fourish, followed by a non-stop medley of mixed drinks. The last thing I remember from this shinding, is double-focus, wobble-vision while waffling at some random stranger, but, have absolutely no recall of getting home or into bed...On coming round the next morning, my brain's internal audio device repeat played the 12 second intro motif of 'Jingle Bell Beat' over,over, and over again - looping all morning, like a gaggle of giddy-eyed tweety birds circling all around my hat head ...

Up With The People - Jingle Bell Beat



(Jingle Bell Beat is featured as part of my winter mixture here if you fancy a festive earful)

And the truly magical production of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer from Rankin and Bass - a pure joy and gem from start to finish...

Rudolph Trailer...


Or for Grown Ups only

Joan Collins in Tales From The Crypt's - All Through The House


So - have yourselves a very merry Rexmas, and see you in 2009...

A brassy old birthday

What with Christmas just around the corner, and it being my birthday today, I'm allowing myself a repost of something that gets the anonobods and browsers dropping in almost all year long.. it was originally posted on the other side anyway, so it's not like a complete cop-out is it?

In the early 90's I was afflicted by a buzz for Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass, brought on by tracks like 'Spanish Flea', 'Tijuana taxi', 'A Taste of Honey' and 'Bean Bag'(used as the theme from It's a knockout) - each one a piece of polite but punchy trumpet pop. The snappy arrangements, the swishy album artwork and being cheap as chips at charity shops made these dusty Mexican nuggets perfect for collecting. But it was almost impossible to find the Holy Grail of Herb albums 'The Christmas Album'*(with H looking bored in his beard and as convincing as as in store Santa) amongst the Stereo Impact, James Last and TV Theme Tune vinyl - how many versions of Onedin Line - Theme from Spartacus and Owen MD (whatever that was) can you possibly need?

*The Herb Christmas album was eventually released on CD, but didn't live up to the expectation.

As an interim I decided to make do with the CD of 'Tijuana Christmas' by the Torero Band/Sound of Brass being sold at Woolworths. What an absolute winner it turned out to be, with the Toreros coming across as the most swingingest Salvation Army band EVER and starring the hardest working bass man at EMI. Using the textbook formula of cheeky key change after every verse, the uptempo thumpers could be themes for Carry On Christmas Specials, the mellow moments are like seasonal instrumental beds for Generation Game 'Potters wheel' sequences and as tight and sprightly as anything by Ronnie hazlehust.

Even now, every Christmas this is the first CD out of the Santa sack and onto the stereo at Cloudbase Mondo - 'Tijuana Christmas' is now deleted, so why not treat yourself to some of these Mexi-Christmas classics.

Good King Wenceslas.mp3


God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen.mp3


Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.mp3


O Come All Ye Faithful.mp3


Recommended reading for more Christmas Kitch n' Campery

checkthecoolwax - sack loads of goodies including the artwork for 'Christmas with Colonel Sanders'

Jeffco Productions - includes the the complete Tijuana Christmas album for download.

Ho-Ho-Ho, Little Boy! Have I Got A Surprise For You!

Well the Christmas deco's still aren't up on Cloudbase Mondo yet - perhaps this coming weekend. My preference is for a discreet touch of Christmas trim, I can't be doing with the invasive tackery of outside ornamentation - reindeers, sleighs and Santas dangling - why would anyone choose to live in a festive ferris wheel? However there's a couple close-at-hand clockwork critters, that help kick off the seasonal cheer round here..

Our neighbour's clockwork guitar playing robo-pixie, which sits and strums his guitar, while tinsel tunes play away. But, oh dear - the guitar went missing some years ago, and now seen from behind with his clenched fist and steady strumming motion seems forever lost on his own little 'solitaire' session (cue 'are you a goblin jokes?')

My mum's battery Santa - which should draw in the kiddies with encouraging nods and shakes of his head. Unfortunately he's suffered some sort of mechanical agg' leaving him with rotating a bonce which completes a full 360 degree turn. Permanently! Look away little'un's, it's like Linda Blair in The Excorcist.

If only I knew how to get these things on to youtube..

And should you fancy few seasonal tunes - that aren't the usual Christmas perma-plays, why not hop on over to the other side to see what's a'popping on this year's Countdown To Christmas

What are you still doing here? A fistful of bits that really have no place in the 21st Century

Picture found at http://www.milkfloats.org.uk/

Milk Floats
Lovely, quaint ol' cosymobiles from the days when anything was deliverable by a specialist van or lorry ? Corona drinks, coal, eggs and potatoes - not only are they still with us - but space age style iFloats are doing the rounds. Literally..

Launderettes
Radio Rentals, Granada and other goods-for-hire outfits all folded with the availabilty of affordable electrical items So why are these rent-a-rinses still with us, and still doing brisk business? My local Launderettes are perma-populated with lonely looking basket holders - shouldn't these sud-u-like's have gone out with char ladies in floral print pinnies, tea trolleys, milk carton machines and wall mounted can-openers?

Iceland Selling Fridge Freezers
Has anyone ever shopping at Iceland really, stopped, snapped their fingers and shouted, "Yes. I will have me one of those fancy freezers". At £400 a shout white goods are rarely an impulse purchase, and on my last visit to the Kingdom of Katona (for Yorkshire Pudd's) it was all young credit-crunch couples scraping by on own brand econo-burgers, so who in the name of prawn rings buys these things?

Rag and Bone Men
Still a'clanging and a'crawling Steptoe style around the suburbs. Like 'taking it to the tip' and recycling never happened

Ceefax
A bottomless barrel of available browsing to be had, although only ever useful for cheapo holidays, TV and weather. But amazingly, like the Queen and Christmas Cards remains unchanged or untroubled by the internet or digital age - who are the mysterious anono-boffins still working this ZX Spectrum style aggregator