Category: Music

Give Pet A Chance

If you’ve been reading the interviews with Petula Clark I’ve linked to, you may have caught a comment about her being in a certain place at a certain time. Don’t blink, or you’ll miss her in this video clip.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/APR07/GivePeaceAChance.flv 400 300]

Why was Pet there?

“I’d been staying in French-speaking Canada but was starting to have hits with records in English as well. So when I was booked to perform at the Place des Arts in Montreal, I thought I’d do a bi-lingual show. Wrong. It was open war.

“After the show, I was upset and I went to John’s hotel to ask his advice. I didn’t really know him that well, but I do remember he was very rude about the audience.

“There was a very strange atmosphere in the suite and I remember the cameras being there but I really didn’t realise [sic] they were making Give Peace A Chance at the time.”

Al “Capp” Caplin was a full-time jerk. I never did much like Li’l Abner. But in fairness, John Lennon was a part-time jerk. It would have been much more interesting seeing Pet, instead of Capp, talking to John. Recognize any other faces in the crowd?

Synthetic Sir George

Time BeatWaltz in Orbit

I’ve been trying to find a copy of a 1962 single of partially electronic music, Time Beat b/w Waltz in Time, by Ray Cathode. I’ve placed bids, and lost, for the single on eBay, but fortunately I found these MP3’s on WFMU’s Beware of the Blog. [Link] Here are the tracks.

Ray Cathode – Beat Time
[audio:http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/DG/time_beat.mp3]

Ray Cathode – Waltz in Orbit
[audio:http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/DG/waltz_in_orbit.mp3]

Ray Cathode was a pseudonym for a collaboration between BBC technician-producer Maddalena Fagandini and George Martin, who would sign the Beatles to Parlophone Records just a couple of months later. The recording was made for the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, which was set up to create atmospheric music and effects for radio and TV. The 1963 production by Delia Derbyshire of Ron Grainer’s theme for Doctor Who is undoubtedly the workshop’s most familiar work.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/APR07/DoctorWho.mp3]

More Frank Luther

Frank Luther
A while back I featured an interesting children’s record by Frank Luther. That being the only thing I’d ever heard by him, he sounded so old, although he wasn’t yet 60 at the time. So I thought I’d dig up a few recordings from Luther’s earlier days, as an urban musical cowboy. It was worth the effort. This is absolutely super stuff, that I know my buddy Dennis, in particular, will appreciate very much.

[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/APR07/BarbaraAllen.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Audio/APR07/10Hours6Days.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Audio/APR07/SwallerTailCoat.mp3]

Random Web Page — The Scott Wheeler Story

Scott Wheeler 1954At the link is a Web site I came across by chance. [Link] It’s by a Boston area guy named Scott Wheeler, “The website of the first official Liverpool “Merseycat” musician born in the USA — on the cutting edge of a classic rock and roll sound!”

My take on Wheeler is he’s one of those Beatles fans who’s always hovered around the edges of the entertainment business, looking for a way in. He got a band together in the 60’s, worked in the radio biz, and wrote for a small city newspaper, etc. I can relate, except I’ve never tried my hand at music. Art was my forté.

Wheeler’s site is typical of someone who hasn’t yet discovered blogging software. It’s a collection of static pages that haven’t been maintained for over a year. There are a lot of dead links and missing pictures, but it’s still worth browsing because Wheeler has done some interesting things in his life, including a writing a book about someone at the outer fringes of John Lennon’s life, his uncle Charlie. [Link] One thing’s for sure — Wheeler had a better Superman costume than I did when I was a kid!

Postcript: George Scott Wheeler obituary.

Antiques Rock Show

Ever watch The Antiques Road Show? Lots of boring old stuff for boring old people, huh? But what if there were an Antiques Rock Show? At the link is a very amusing video of exactly that. [Link]

WFMU Record Fair

Probably the closest the actual Antiques Road Show has gotten to doing something like this is a segment with vintage rock concert posters. [Link] The show’s pop culture collectibles appraiser is Gary Sohmers, whose business is near here.

Petula Clark In Scotland

Petula Clark 1955
Petula Clark is in Scotland at the moment, for a couple of concert appearances. The Herald in Glasgow has a very nice feature about her visit. [Link]

Can you believe it? She’s still called a “former child star” over there! That was some 60 years ago, but she still can’t shake the title in the UK.

The article fails to mention the online PETition requesting a Damehood for Petula. I remedied that omission by adding the comment shown below.

Pet Petition