Really, Really Not The Sort Of Song You Want Rattling Around Your Head All Day.

Riddle me this Batman - what's the mystery tune?

But sadly, there it is seeded, singing and ringing around my synapses. A tune that gatecrashed my internal playlist yesterday, (my mistake for downloading I suppose) and has bounced about like mad spacehopper or a bad penny ever since. A loony tune on a permament loop.

Damn those seventies soundtrackers for their catchy compostitions

I know what is - but do you ?

Mystery Tune



Having said that, it would make the perfect soundtrack to my single figure total of DIY attempts.

Last of the Indie Vid Shops

For all the justified mumbles, grumbles and moans regarding the decline of local record shops - it's easy to overlook the disappearance of another small scale independent entertainment outlet. Video rental shops. The last of the indie vid's in our area shut up shop a couple of weeks ago, and until the closed sign was finally flipped forever it maintained all the required trappings and trimmings of a generic local video shop

The 'card-full-o'-signatures' loaner system (was there ever a name for that?)

A sticker claiming '6 (or 8) copies available' on recent releases - although all 6(or 8)copies were rarely available.

Poster splattered walls and windows.

Oddbod titles with one solo signature on the rental card 'Dunstan Checks In'

Faded Copies of Donnie Brasco or Devil's Advocate for sale (£5)in the ex-rentals bin

So are there any still standing near you, and what are the names please? Or do you have any cherished memories from the eighties rental boom and beyond (£50 deposit and £1 a night hire) when video shops spread across the UK faster than swine flu.

A couple video-rewinds of mine are...

The first wave saturation of video renters and bandwagon riders. Record shops, garages even a hardware shop (yes I was a member) were lending from their extensive overnight libraries.

In the splatter-friendly pre-certification days, a film chosen as suitable viewing for a former girlfriend and myself by her parents (while they went out for an evening) was the full strength, unedited version of 'Cannibal Holocaust'!?!?

Confusement Has Occured

What's a'popping within this medley of madness? If the idea of a bespoke title theme for an Italian airing of George & Mildred (which surely should have been titled Giorgio & Moroder) isn't brain scrambling enough - consider these points...

Was the Italian G & M a straight export version just refitted with dandy new theme?

Or more jarringly perhaps, reworked as a continental adaptation?

And are those two pictured (Abba meets Borat) the actors or singers?

How did the 'composers' get away reformatting 10CC's Dreadlock Holiday into this number without getting walloped?

Where does 'Gin and Tonic' come into it?

*Goes purple and faints from the giddy overload*

Do you want to see something really scary ? # 3 Going Underground

I’ve always enjoyed the classic seventies run of Dr Who (John Pertwee/Tom Baker), but I’m not an anorak by any stretch of the space time continuum

So surprising then really, that the band of baddies who prompted the most frightmares and stealthy footed sprints to the door are a lower league outfit of dark menacers known as The Ogrons

Yes, the Daleks were scary in a screechy neurotic Nazi-livery-talking-mobility-scooter way, the Sea Devils lumbering around in string vests/fisherman’s nets were politely frightening – but The Ogrons, a morbid mash-up of the Planet of The Apes Gorilla soldiers, cross bred with The Klingons were the most blood chilling of all the intergalactic bad guys.

I only saw them in just one series (where I think they lived under a bridge, by a canal) – but their fang baring, cadaverous leathery faces, twisted psycho-killer grin and sly eyed silence have stayed with me ever since.

When shooting for the new series of Dr Who gets underway (and why not have Jim Dale as a new Doctor), hopefully The Ogrons will be high on the list of re-animated enemies.

And if you fancy putting the self-inflicted frighteners on yourself why not have a day trip to Chislehurst Caves ( used as a location for a Pertwee period Dr Who series) over 20 miles of man made caverns and passageways, dug over a period of 8000 years. Used as a former WW2 air raid shelter and sixties music venue, but with no electric light after the entrance and large looming tunnels around every corner - you can be sure of short night's sleep after your visit..

The Haunted Chamber at Chislehurst Caves - could you take up the long running challenge to spend a night here?

Do you want to see something really scary ? # 2 Terror TV

I'm a terror for a Public Information Film, and this seasonally shadowy short film applies the classic codes and conventions of any Hammer or Amicus production....

A Donald Pleasance voice over.

Set dressed with convincing contemporary costumes (for the time) and locations.

An other-worldy, wraith-in-rags visitor - death in the form of 'The Spirit of Dark and Lonely Water' (a proto Dark Rider) tempting you to tumble.

A fist-shaking 'I'll be back' coda.

They really don't make 'em like this anymore.

Dark And Lonely Water


Also well worth a watch are almost any of Brian Clemens 'Thriller' series (with it's spooky tooting flute theme), almost all episodes have the intimacy of a radio play or theatrical performance - with the close crop shots and stripping out of any unnecessary incidental music all adding to the in-the-room experience

'Possesion', 'I'm The Girl He Wants To Kill' and 'One Deadly Owner' are must see All Hallows TV

'One Deadly Owner' intro


And I think my MP3 player may be psychic. Literally, as soon as I'd thought I really must find some spooky tunes this, this and Marsh Hunt's - '(Oh, No! Not) The Beast Day' popped into play.

Brrrrr..

An Annual Event Pt 1 - 1970 to 1973

Annuals and their giveaway shape when wrapped, were one of my favourite things about Christmas in the seventies. I loved the facts, stats, and picture stories - but could never be bothered with reading the mini written stories. This isn't my complete collection, just the edited highlights(read:ones I could find pictures of )

1970 - I got my first Christmas Annual in 1970 . POW, featuring Leo Baxendale's Grimly Feendish (partly based on Professor Marcus from The Ladykillers) in a haggis heist. And Spiderman battling the Meteor Man.

1971 - Tom and Jerry, I always thought it was a bit odd that these were full of speech bubbles, when T and J hardly ever spoke in the cartoons.

1972 - Disneyland had a story about Donald Duck being shipwrecked at sea which gave me nightmares for years.

1973 - My first Star Trek Annual. Kirk's top was always a bit too mustardy or green, but the ' Trek Annuals were all illustration, no long winded wordy nonsense here. Marvellous.

And the spectacular Persuaders Annual, the photo sections were tinted green - which gave a Tooty Minties vibe.


More to come soon - most of the pic's used here are from the mighty site
http://www.tonystrading.co.uk/

Retromanic Pt 5 - Kooks

The final part of my retromanic week and a few crackers

Unlikely celebs in some great ad's

Gary Numan & Tubeway Army - Lee Cooper


Lulu - Happies Shoes


Spike Milligan - Mini


Captain Scarlet/Thunderbirds - Lyons Maid

Retromaniac Pt 2 - Champagne Supernova

After yesterdays sip's and smoke's what were the la de da cosmpolitan crowd and champagne set indulging in? High society Cig's and choco's of course....

Does anyone use the phrase 'Tobaconnist' anymore?

John Player Special



Milk Tray

Retromaniac Pt 1 - Cigarettes and Alcohol

Following on from Fridays funky theme - Robins Nest, and the TV related threads over on two tip top blogs Davy H - here and Sky Clearbrook - here, I'm on a bit of retro TV buzz, not in a "wasn't it all a bit wacky let's snear and snide behind our hands " - clip show way, but just fancy digging around in the dusty loft of film and TV treats that is Youtube.



Asteroids


Rizla


Double Diamond

Theme Team - Robin's Nest

Tying in with Funky Friday's fizz fest on Planet Mondo

I thought I'd post up his bit of bistro based Funk. No one writes decent theme tunes any more. Robin's Nest (or Mr Robin Snest as the gag went in the first episode)isn't one of the greatest but it's SO groovy - and the sort of riff Jamiroquai's been riding for years. There's also a touch of Ian Dury and The Blockheads 'what a waste' about it

Trilogy of Terror - Part 2

Children of the Stones - 1977

Well, I had been planning to use the trailer for Tales From The Crypt which has just been released as a double DVD with Vault Of Terror. TFTC is an Amicus Productions compendium of the macabre, featuring Joan Collins and the psycho in a Santa suit, the Monkeys Paw rework and motorcycle skeletons but some ol' youtube spoilsport’s pulled it.

So in a last minute bit of stealthy switchcraft it’s Childen of the Stones.
I wasn't much of a childrens ITV watcher growing up in the 70s, but two shows from the dark side seriously spooked me for years, and are still whispered about by anyone who stumbled across them. Escape Into Night - two children in a desolate ‘dream’ house surrounded by moving stones.
And Childen of the Stones - father and son archaeology in the worst of west country villages. As well as being a genuinely great piece of tea time drama, back then I thought the intro music was the most was terrifying scream theme ever composed and would see how long I could last with lights out (even the HTV ident music has an uncomfortable lumpy bubble bounce about it). I recently hired COTS and thought the theme tune couldn't really have been that creepy could it? Turn down the lights, turn up the sound and try it for 'sighs'.




The Damned - Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

The Damned seemed to be eternally doomed to be tarred with the Goth brush or as jokers in the Punk pack, both of which are a total disservice to the legacy of The damned. This clip may not disprove either of these theories but is still worth firing up. Dr Jekyll is ‘Punk’ in paisley shirts and pre dates the 80’s psychedelic revival by at least three years. The studio version even has a trumpet an’ everything on it. Taken from the 1980 Black Album, a double disc set with a seventeen minute masterpiece where Punk goes Prog called ‘Curtain Call’



Another top tune from the Black Album and a BBC session stormer( this is possibly even better than the album version).

The Damned - Wait For The Blackout (BBC Session)