I’m probably the last person to report on this, but I learned a couple of days ago that popular fitness app “Endomondo” will be closing its doors for good at the end of the year. Gosh darn it.
Both of of you that have followed this blog for any period of time, know that Endomondo pops up quite regularly, either in the form of a screenshot, or a batch of statistics about a particular walk. I’ve used it since I’ve had a GPS enabled phone, so you’re probably talking about 10 years, and several phones.. I fired it up the other day, as I was about to record a (lockdown-sanctioned) pokemon walk, and was presented with this screen…
Ugh. As I mentioned, there’s a lot of data on there which I wouldn’t mind keeping, thankfully, they have a “Download My Data” function, so hopefully I’ll be able to retrieve part, if not all, of everything that’s on there.
Apparently, there’s another app called “MapMyRun” which they recommend downloading, as you can see… Well, seeing as my running days are long behind me, I downloaded “MapMyWalk”. I did a search for “MapMyWaddle”, but it doesn’t exist… whether the information generated by this new software is as intresting as Endomondo remains to be seen.
Ok, I’m cheating a little, I typed about this one a few years ago, but since then, the link to the song stopped working, I didn’t put much detail as I could have, and really, there was very little effort on my part. Now, that the real unknown song has been put to bed forever (mainly though the actions and eventual death of DJ Tom Davies), I tought I’d drag this one out of the archives and give it another airing.. I have a feeling this one is a lot simpler to get, as I know it was released commercially at least once, even if it was on the front of a magazine.
As I mentioned previously, around the time of 1989-1990, my record collection was pretty much zero. I had to make do with tapes that my dad picked up from the petrol station, and hand-me-downs and C90s from the likes of Chad. Therefore, it was always nice to find new music from somewhere different. In this situation, it was sellotaped to the front of a magazine. In a change to my usual copy of “Your Sinclair”, at some point I decided to buy a music magazine.
And, this is where this song came in. Now, unlike the other “unknown” song, I can bring it to you in its entirety…. “So, why are you looking for it, then?” I hear you ask. Well, as you can hear, it’s pretty much had all of the bass stripped out of it… This was a copy on a c90 which I duplicated using high speed dubbing, which had the downside of reducing sound quality.
Both the original tape and the magazine are long gone, naturally , otherwise this would have been quite a bit easier to identify.
Without further adieu, here is the song itself…
And here’s the link to it…
In the off-chance you can recognise it from the lyrics, here they are… And this is how I’m hearing them. I can 100% confirm they’re totally incorrect, and put here just for reference…
Oooooh, oooh, (yeah), etc
Long time me no dance, it’s a dance in the dance hall, everybody come and do the dance (dance dance)
Long time me no dance, it’s a dance in the dance hall, everybody come and do the dance (dance dance)
Mother, Father dance, Grandma dance, sister dance, everybody come along and dance
Mother, Father dance, Grandma dance, son dance, everybody come along and dance
Chubby Checker make a dance and the world start dance, now everybody take a chance
Chubby Checker make a dance and the world start dance, now everybody take a chance, two three four
[instrumental section]
Long time me no dance, it’s a dance in the dance hall, everybody come and do the and dance (dance dance)
Long time me no dance, it’s a dance in the dance hall, everybody come and do the and dance (dance dance)
London dance, it’s a dance, New York Dance, it’s a Dance, Japan Dance
Amsterdam(?) a dance, it’s a dance [??? ???] dance, it’s a dance, Africa dance
[Bla Flaya] make a dance and the world start dance, now everybody come and take a chance
{Maggie Chair*] make a dance and the world start dance, now everybody come and take a chance (TWO THREE FOUR!)
{indeschipherable stuff for about 10 seconds]
It’s so funny how I twist [on a tin can] send the whole world crazy
It can-a really move ya, or captivate ya, My soul and a-body
So Long time me no dance, it’s a dance in the dance hall, everybody come and do the dance (dance dance)
Long time me no dance, it’s a dance in the dance hall, everybody come and do the dance (dance dance)
Mother Father dance, Grandma dance, son dance, everybody come along and dance
Mother Father dance, Grandma dance, sister dance, everybody come along and dance
Chubby Checker make a dance and the world start dance, now everybody take a chance
Chubby Checker make a dance and the world start dance, now everybody come and do the dance, two three four
{instrumental bridge}
(Long time) Me no dance, me no dance
(Long Time) Take a chance with the dance
(Long time) Me no dance, me no dance
(Long Time) Take a chance with the dance
Oooooh, everybody dance, oooh, now everybody dance (come on you beautiful [shoe] and er…
Come to the dance a {brisser} dance
A [rippable} skin, let be {no idea}
{CUE START OF RAP BIT, SOME WOMAN SINGING]
So, we come into the the place not to watch nobody,Â
But to do our own style, yeah [inaudible]
You ever hear about the [places] That I played it
[Watch all the Monday Makoona led leeeeee]
Now, Mama told me ’bout the scatÂ
But the didn’t show me how
She said get this move
Cos it’s a [lick] right now
Blibbdly blop bleep
B-Blibbdly blop bleep
[something] time in
[something] climb in, awhoooo….
Long time me no dance, it’s a dance in the dance hall, everybody come and do the dance
Mother Father dance, Grandma dance, son dance, everybody come along and dance
Mother Father dance, Grandma dance, son dance, everybody come along and dance
Long time me no dance, it’s a dance in the dance hall, everybody come and do the dance
Long time me no dance, it’s a dance in the dance hall, everybody come and do the dance
[Last instrumental section]
Long time me no dance, it’s a dance in the dance hall, everybody come and do the dance (cold ending)
Well, isn’t that a corker? If, by some amazing amount of luck, or a knowledge of music that outstrips mine, please leave a comment below.
Daddykins was helping a friend of his with a Raspberry Pi issue. Part way through the conversation, he mentioned that his Raspberry Pi had stopped the cards from working. Fortunately, there is an easy fix for this. and I thought I’d knock up a few screenshots, and Daddykins can send the link to help with the problem. I’ve also seen this cause problems when trying to burn a new image onto a memory stick you’ve used previously.
Here, I’ve inserted a 16Gb memory card that already has a Raspberry Pi image on it. As you can see, the free space is only a few tens of megabytes, and certainly not the 16Gb on the card. Even if you go to format it, it’ll only show a small amount of space.
This is because, when the card is set up to be used with the Raspberry Pi, it uses the vast majority of the memory card that Windows doesn’t recognise. You simply need to delete these areas (partitions), and combine them back into one area that Windows can see.
Right-Click “This PC” in your start menu and select “More”, then “Manage”
When in there go to “Storage” and select “Disk Management”
You’ll see your memory card listed. As you can see, the drive is split into two. You might see three or four. The size of the first part will match what you can see in Windows, and the others will be the rest of the card that Windows currently can’t recognise. Make sure you select the right drive, because you’re about to delete whatever is on there…. selecting one of your hard drives instead of the memory card will really put a dampener on your day.
Right click each of the parts and select “Delete Volume”. If done right, the split will go, and you’ll end up with the whole card as “unallocated”.
Right click once more, select “New Simple Volume”. Click Next 4 times (This will allow Windows to take care of the drive size) Click Finish, Windows will ask you to format the drive, and you have a full-size memory card again!
Hope you found this helpful. I’ll be back with more blog related stuff when I’m actually doing something interesting. I might even finish the “10 Days of Albums” series… if you’re lucky.
So, apparently I took the whole of July off, but don’t worry, I’m still perservering with this! Maybe I’ll have the last two typed up by the time the lockdown officially ends… assuming this blog is still going in 2028.
Well, we’re still in 1991, folks. After all, these are albums that shaped my music tastes, so I guess they have to be early on in the collection.
Let’s fast-forward a few months to Xmas of that same year. This was the last truly great xmas, as it was the last one I had with my mam. Also, the pick of prezzies I got that year were pretty amazing. Santa’s sack really must have been bulging that year.
Two main presents in this particular year… a Commodore 64 (yes, I’m aware I arrived very late to that particular party!) and finally, a hi-fi I could call my own! Something a lot more modern than the ancient thing I’d been using earlier on in the year. Thanks to the wonderment of the internet, I managed to find an image of that exact same hifi.
I had to lift the image off Gumtree, so apologies if the seller ever finds this site, but as you can see, it was an Alba jobby. It’s meant to look like all the parts are separate, but they’re not, they’re all moulded into one front cover. The speakers (not pictured) were the same height as the unit, and connected at the back via 3.5mm jacks, and there were two phono jacks for an auxiliary input. These would become useful later on.
I absolutely adored this thing. It wasn’t without its quirks, however. It had a very basic remote, which allowed volume up / down, and I genuinely think that was it. Everything else featured manual moving parts. At some point during this hi-fi’s life, we switched over from incandescent light bulbs to the early compact fluorescents. The slight issue was that they gave off light at the same frequency as the volume up / down control, so you’d turn the light on, and the volume would go right down to none. Therefore, the remote sensor ended up with a sticker over it for most of its life.
Although the tuner says “digital” on it, it wasn’t. It was still an analogue dial, with the readout given on an LED display. It didn’t come with a CD player – that got added the following year. Maybe that’s a story for parts 9 or 10… who knows?
This was a hi-fi built at a cost, and obviously 30 years later, it really does show, but being able to play records and takes, and listen to the radio, was all that mattered to me.
This was the first of the “Now!” albums to use the familiar style of logo. At the time of typing, we’re into the Now 100’s, and they’re still using a version of this. The font changed when they broke the 100 barrier, but it’s essentially the same.
I could sit and write the list out of what tracks are on there, but there’s 40 of them. Instead, I’ll just pick out the real gems… or at least the ones I like. Music is subjective, so you might agree, you might not.
Let’s start off with Side 1, Track 1… “Dizzy” by Vic Reeves and the Wonderstuff. a perfect remake to me…. nothing like the original, and this was also one of my early 7″ singles, given to me by my aunty. I’m sure I mentioned in here before that Chad taped over the first 30 seconds of this with the “Grease” soundtrack. He doesn’t remember, but I do! Actually, this has just triggered a really weird memory I can’t have been in senior school long, and there was some type of assembly going on, probably doubling up as a talent show., with some of the older kids dancing around to this, complete with cardboard “washing machine” props. For some reason, I always remember these props hanging around in a store cupboard somewhere (probably where they kept the basketballs as the gym was right next door), long after they’d served their one and only purchase.
Er, onto “Pet Shop Boys – Where The Streets Have No Name (Can’t Take My Eyes Off You)”. At the time, I didn’t even know this was a remake, never mind a parody of a U2 song. I thought this was great, and still do. I recently bought the extended version of “Behaviour” which has the extended version of this on. Still a cracking, if slightly obscure and forgotten track these days.
“Love To Hate You” and “Sailing On the Seven Seas are both cracking tracks too.
“Something Got Me Started” by Simply Red is a song that was a grower. I hated it when I first heard it. Now, I quite like it. I don’t think it’d ever make my dream jukebox, but I wouldn’t change the channel if it came on the radio. “Let’s Talk About Sex”, on the other hand, is to me, one of the worst songs ever recorded. I’d jump out of a two-storey window if that ever came on the radio in my presence. OK, slight exaggeration, but I really dislike this song.
To this day, I’m surprised of the inclusion of “Gett Off” by Prince. Considering these albums are ained towards the younger audience, some of those lyrics are a bit… “close”, shall we say? I remember being fascinated by the fact they reversed the “big ass” portion of the lyric, so it just sounded weird.
“Get Ready For This” by 2 Unlimited was the standout track for me. this was the one I looked at on Christmas Morning, and went “YES!” Or so I presume. I guess this was the most played song on this side.
This side finished with Moby’s “Go”, and the amazing “It’s Grim Up North” by the band usually known as KLF. This would have been a perfect tune to finish this side on, as it fades to therelaxing sound of birdsong, but no, they stuck “Set Adrift on Memory Bliss” on the end of it. Not a great song, but I knew of this before I knew of “True” by Spandau Ballet, so my mind was blown when I realised it heavily used a sample.
Turn the tape over, and you’re onto song #6 before there’s anything that’s remotely worth typing about. “Too Many Walls” by Cathy Dennis. I liked this particular track, and it was my first experience of her music. She now writes songs for other people, having many more chart hits this way.
“This House” by Alison Moyet was a dreary, forgettable song, instantly followed by “Walking In Memphis” by Marc Cohn. Another song I’d never heard before playing it on here. Lovely, clear lyrics. Great piano playing. If you held a gun to my head, I’d blast this out on karaoke…… without hesitation. I did always wonder this, though… “The lyrics, “Walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale” refers to Beale Street, an actual street in Memphis. Riley B. King became known as the “Beale Street Blues Boy” shortly after he first arrived in Memphis. Later, the nickname was shortened to B.B., and the rest is history.”. I’ll
Right, so we’ve had the first album purchased by myself, but that was 2nd hand, what about the first one I’d actually bought from a shop? Yes, that’s right! Step up “the 12 Commandments of Dance” by The London Boys! “Wait, what”, I hear you say… I thought this was going to be about Belinda Carlisle? Well.
Fast forward a few days later than the Jason Donovan LP, I ended up on a coach trip to Whitby. In fact, this was on Saturday 31st August 1991. I could explain how I know the date, but it’d bore you senseless… Well, if you’re reading this, you must be pretty bored, but you know what I mean.
Anyhoo, around this time, my interests were changing slightly. Up until this point, if we ever went anywhere, like for a holiday, I’d get a computer game as a memento. Earlier on in the year, Daddykins had brought a music centre home. He was a TV engineer, so I assume someone was either giving it away, or it was getting scrapped, or something. I have no idea of the model number or type, but it appeared in the Hogmanay episode of Still Game…
This was the week that my music collecting began, definitely for records anyway. I’d always had the equipment to play tapes, but these were always ones taped off the radio. It was time to get some original albums.
So, back to the trip. For the journey there and back, I’d taken my “walkman”. Personal stereo if you want to be pedantic. The trip, as always, involved a visit to Woolworths, but instead of a game for my Spectrum, I thought I’d treat myself to a music tape. As I mentioned, I’d picked up “The 12 Commandments of Dance”. Unfortunately, after getting the tape out of its box, it became clear there was a manufacturing defect. There was an extra pressure pad bouncing around inside the tape’s casing. For those who remember tapes, this is the metallic bit with a bit of foam or felt on it that would press the tape against the head. I didn’t think much of it, but as my dad rightly pointed out, having a loose bit of metal bouncing around inside would soon rip the tape to shreds, so off back to Woolies to exchange it.
It was the last copy they had. Bugger.
So, off back to the shelves. I wanted something that I’d heard of, and back then, with my tiny music knowledge, there weren’t too many I could choose from. I plumped for “Runaway Horses”. I knew the songs “Leave a Light on” and “We Want The Same Thing”, so at least there were two songs I liked…
Fate was on my side that day. I absolutely got the best one out of the two albums. The first track was “Leave a Light on”… Later in the day, I remember sitting in a pub courtyard, looking at one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever seen. Still, to this day, I wonder what happened to her. Every time I hear that song, I’m transported back to that moment. It may have been The Pier Inn. So, if you were there on 31st August 1991, leave a comment. Or don’t, you’re probably old now.
So, yeah. I loved the album as soon as I heard it. I played side 1 mainly. “Leave A Light on”, “Summer Rain” and “La Luna” are still favourites to this day. The album ends with “Shades of Michaelangelo”, which unfortunately is my least favourite song on the album. Very slow and dreary, with an instrumental bit that really does out-stay it’s welcome.
A few years ago all of Belinda Carlisle’s early albums were remastered and expanded, in a booklet style case, with 2 discs and a DVD. Quite a few of the tracks are just the single versions of the songs, which are no different except they fade out early. There are a few other mixes, such as the acapella version of “La Luna”. Even after 30 years since its original release, the majority of the album still sounds good today.
I can’t conclude this without mentioning the London Boys album. I picked it up years later, and I absolutely hated it. “London Nights” is okay. So is “Requiem”. They get a spin every so often, but everything else on it is truly terrible. In fact, I gave my first copy away. A second copy turned up for 49p so I got it again, just for completeness.
I do wonder what path my music collection would have taken, if it weren’t for that faulty tape. Would I have hated the London Boys album back then? Would I have been so disappointed by it that it put me off buying albums? We will never know.
So, in conclusion, London Boys bad, Belinda Carlisle good.
This is it. This is where it all began. The first album I ever purchased, and yes, I’m totally ashamed to admit it.
Back in the late 80s and early 90s, starts from Neighbours were everywhere. You couldn’t put on one of the four TV channels we had at the time without seeing something about Kylie, Jason, and the rest of the crew. Pete Waterman decided to stick a couple of them in the recording studio, and stick their signature cheap-arse drum machines behind them. And bloody hell, they were popular, and a 9-year-old me actually quite liked them. “Too Many Broken Hearts” was a particular favourite,for reasons I still don’tunderstand.
While this isn’t strictly he first album I owned, it was the first one to be purchased with my own money. The year is 1991. The local pub (which is now a block of flats) hosted an “It’s a Knockout” style fun day on the summer bank holiday – it had a patch of land behind the back of it that was used. Don’t quite know why, as from memory is always seemed to be a few inches deep with broken glass and remnants of old cars, etc. On this particular day there was a record stall. Just someone randomly placed outside with a box of vinyl. I’ve mentioned many times during these about my lack of pocket money as a kid, but I had enough scraped together to pick up a couple of choice records. Obviously, this one, and two singles… “Secret Garden” by T’Pau” and “swing The Mood” by Jive Bunny. I know, I know. Don’t judge me.
I don’t think I had the LP for very long. I had a habit of destroying records that I didn’t like anymore. I gained great pleasure on sticking them onto a 60-watt light bulb and watching them turn to goopy mush. The Jive Bunny single suffered this fate. Amusingly, I must have frizbeed that Jive Bunny single into next door’s garden, as it turned up still in one piece about 10 years later when they cu the hedge down. I think it still played too… well, apart from the bit where I’d melted it.
Anyhoo, back to the album. I did find a copy in a charity shop a couple of years ago, but really, listening to it in 2020 makes you realise just how cheap the production is. I’d had hoped that the years had been good to it, and that not hearing it for at yeast 25 years may have brought back some rose-tinted memories, but no. It wasn’t good then, and it’s not good now. You can see why PWL were called “The Hit Factory”, because they churned these out by the dozen. So, this one isn’t great, and I wouldn’t recommend hunting it down, but to me it’s my first, and if I’m doing these, I might as well include it. If you really are interested, a “deluxe” 2-disc version was released in 2010 that has different remixes on, including instrumental versions. It’s going for obscene money on ebay and amazon, so if I saw it for £0.99 in a charity shop I’d pick it up
Now all of a sudden I have a craving for Darkmilk chocolate…
No track listing for this one either, as I don’t think I could sit through it again.
Surprisingly, yet another entry that’s been influenced by long-time reader, and my far the most imaginative troll on this site, Chad. The year is 1992. I’d only been collecting records for just inder a year, so the name of Mike Oldfield was a bit unknown to me. The only music of his I was aware of, was his single “Moonlight shadow”.
“Sentinel” was the lead track on the album, which was released and remixed as a single. Around this time, Chad had picked up a copy of the afore-mentioned album on tape. I distincly remember its blue background, and yellow tube on the front. I only remember hearing the first track of the album, and was surpried to find out how differnt it was to the version released as a single. I think it was the first experience I’d had with an album version of a rack being different to the single version.
Sadly, around that time came the worst period of my life. and I remember, a few days after this particular thing happened, I went into Hit Parade on York Road, picked up the single version of “Sentinel”….. and “Tetris” by Dr. Spin. I’m guessing grief made me make some strange musical decisions that day.
At some point, I picked up the original Tubular Bells album. Admittedly, I wasn’t really a fan. I must have been about 14, and the two long passages of music didn’t really keep me entertained as much as, say, Pato Banton’s “Baby Come Back”, or whatever was in the charts back then. No idea what happened to the tape
Many, many years later, I found a 2nd hand copy of Tubular Bells 2. I was intrigued to hear what the full album sounded like, after only hearing the first track in its entirety. Needless to say, the fact that I’m writing this now proved just how much I liked the album. It was great. Much more polished, a lot less experimental. The two long passages of music still existed, as none of the tracks have gaps in between them (except, of course where you need to change sides).
There are some great hidden gems in there, and although a few singles came from the album, Sentinel was the only one that had any type of chart success – sentinel reached number 10, “Tattoo” reached 33, and “The Bell” reached 55.
“The Bell” is possibly my second favourite track on the album. Alan Rickman is featured as the “Master of Ceremonies”. though there are many different versions, with other people doing the role of the MC, such as Bully Connolly, MC Otto who is a German comedian. One version also has Vivian Stanshall reprising his role from the first LP. Unfortunately he wouldn’t be able to carry this role on in the third in the series, as he died in 1995. There were no MC tracks on the third album.
Interestingly, Alan Rickman isn’t credited on the album
I’m not going to do a track-by-track section as you really have to listen to the album in its entirety. Plus, they’re tedious as hell to type out
