A Lark Ascending

I remember having picnics among the stones as a kid on our way to Cornwall.

Everyone goes to Stonehenge but... http://www.bbc.co.uk...tshire-21107977 Always one of my favourite places. Let's hope it doesn't bring in the crowds.

I thought you were suggesting that state funding per se was bollocks. For as long as I've been teaching the part of education I work in has been state funded - though step by step that might be slipping away. Of course the public schools have always been private business funded by government (because of their marvellous charitable work of ensuring the sons and daughters of those who attend Covent Garden also get to the front of the life opportunities queue).

I'd better watch out for my job, then! And hope I don't get ill!

Quite right too. Bollocks to government funding. MG All well and good, as long as it's consistent. But currently we have government funding - and the rationale behind its distribution is highly prejudiced. Incidentally, is that bollocks to government funding of everything (I've never thought of you as a libertarian free-marketeer!) or just of entertainment?

We might begin to move things along if we dropped the 'Arts' and made whoever Minister for Cultural Diversity. I'm inclined to use 'Entertainment' but that tends to confuse people. Be interesting to know in the current round of cuts the proportion opera has lost by comparison with other musics. I think I can guess the answer. I vaguely remember a comment from John Tusa when he was bigwig for one of these 'Arts' bodies - might have been the BBC - to the effect that jazz fan are endlessly whining and their demands need to be resisted.

Chris Hodgkins has been revealing those figures for at least the last 15 years. Hasn't made any impact. There is just a massive cultural prejudice amongst those who make the big decisions that in the scale of 'art', opera is much more worthy. I don't know how you even begin to alter that.

Moi aussi (as one of his teachers might have said) 'The Way You Look Tonight' from 1953 First heard it on JRR in 1977 - one of the first proper 'jazz' pieces to catch my ear. Bought it on this bizarre twofer putting two of the college albums together: One of the first pieces where I found myself following the variations of the soloist (Desmond - even then I tended to woolgather once Dave himself started).

Coming very soon on BBC TV, 'The Sound of Fury: A Century of Modern Music' - a three part documentary on 20thC music. http://www.bbc.co.uk...t-is-noise.html Given how classical luvvies can scratch one another's eyes out out over 'who's best?' in a 17thC harpsichord composition, I imagine there will be high dudgeon over who is and isn't included and where they are placed in the pecking order. Tied in, I think, with 'The Rest is Noise' series at London currently.

Good to see my favourite jazz record of last year getting some recognition in an unexpected place: British Composers Awards 2012: winner in the Contemporary Jazz category. Up there alongside Harrison Birtwistle, Thomas Ades et al. http://www.britishco...dn=770&p=2#i770

Haydn can help there too:

Must read that again. I loved it when I first read it.

It's the soundtrack to the film Jimi Hendrix: Wikipedia Thanks. I had Hendrix in my head but assumed it couldn't be because it was in the soundtrack section. Had forgotten that film.

My view too, crisp. I have the same nostalgia for my record shopping days. But if I think more carefully by the time it got to the 90s I was still going shopping every Saturday, couldn't leave without buying something, and ended up buying things I didn't really need (what are those Joshua Redman albums doing on my shelves?) Nowadays I download or order a cd I know I want or want to experiment with and can choose from an almost infinite range. A whole set of new musical worlds have opened up. Probably a perspective based on living in the provinces - those living within easy reach of London will have had a richer experience in the past.

But the guy's looking through the sound tracks & musicals section. You can see the sleeves of 'Hair' 'Lawrence of Arabia' and 'Kismet' in front of him. MG It was the 70s. You don't know what he'd taken. I was trying to work out the record he's pulling out. Looks familiar but I can't place it. *************************** Interesting take here: http://www.guardian....P=ILCNETTXT3487

Ha! Ray's Jazz on Ice (composed by Rick Wakeman)

I like this one from the Guardian. 1973, around the time I'd have first visited the London shop. Remember those code things on the display cases giving you the prices. Somewhere else the photo was used speculating he was looking for a Slade album. I'd say he's definitely a Soft Machine fan (there's a fair chance he could have been in Soft Machine with that beard!). Looks like Richard Williams on the far left.

No one. It's called death of the high street. Is that a relation of the death of jazz?

Ah! Those pesky collectors again. If only they had an interest in music. **************** Apparently Blockbuster went to the wall today. Who is going to occupy all this retail space? I recall the 1980s when you had things like 'The Sock Shop', 'The Tie Shop', 'The Christmas Shop' and places that sold executive toys. Do they still exist? Maybe jazz musicians can move in and start a teenies loft-type scene. "Evan Parker - The Meadowhall Sessions".

Reading all the reportage it seems like there is quite a strong desire to save the brand name and some of the stores. Peacocks (being a dedicated follower of fashion, the place I frequent on the rare occasions I need clothing) went under a year or more back but I noticed it up and running in Cornwall last summer and the shop in Worksop has returned too.

I'm pretty sure HMV were around before 'Our Price'. Might have done that in some places. 'Our Price' arrived in Nottingham in the mid to late 80s and must have vanished around 2000 - I recall them becoming more interested in videos/DVDs and then mobile phones - the dreaded diversification. 'Our Price' always amused me - their price was usually more expensive apart from chart albums. That's the one - I don't think I ever bought anything there as it was mainly classical (I was on an exclusive diet of Soft Machine, King Crimson, Yes and Fairport at that time). I was a bit scared going in - always felt they'd sit me at a piano and give me a test! Picture here: http://www.flickr.co...cal/4976274653/ Says 1982 though it looks like 1880. The Duck, Son and Pinker (or whatever it had become) in Bath still looked like it would sell you styluses for your wind up gramophone a few years back. Bare floor boards, prim shop assistants in late middle age etc.

I suspect it's more a wake for record shops in general rather than HMV in particular. HMV in Nottingham and Leicester was very, very good around the early 90s - seemed to have a very wide catalogue, some back catalogue depth and received most of the jazz and classical new releases. Outside of London in the last 15 years you've been lucky to get anything beyond 'Four Greatest Dave Brubeck Albums on 2-CDS' or 'Alfie Do-Dah sings Favourite Opera Thingies'. More HMV Oxford Street nostalgia photos here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/gallery/2013/jan/15/hmv-oxford-street-store-gallery?intcmp=239

When did HMV turn up on regional high streets? I'm sure it was not around in places I lived in the early/mid-70s. Newquay had two independents and Woolworths. Swindon had a couple of Department stores with specialised record areas, a piano shop that did records, Rumbelows, Menzies and later on a shiny new small record shop. When I went to uni in Reading there were the usual Smiths/Boots/Woolies outlets, a big musical instrument shop with records upstairs and a number of independent shops. But I don't recall an HMV. I do remember going to the HMV on Oxford Street in the 70s (along with the first Virgin shop at Notting Hill, later supplemented/replaced by the Marble Arch store). But I can't recall when HMV appeared in Nottingham (Virgin was already there in 1978 when I arrived, the scene of a famous incident involving displaying the Sex Pistols album). Very interesting article here: http://www.bbc.co.uk...iness-21023610 The point is made that this suits neither record companies (who want somewhere on the high street to sell their wares) or other businesses who are likely to lose other business if dad is reluctant to make the trip to town. I spent nearly every Saturday between the mid-70s and early noughties record/book shopping, spending money elsewhere on coffee, food, other trinkets, not to mention parking fees. I think I deliberately visited Nottingham and Sheffield once each in 2012. The other city visits were because I was there for other reasons. Magnify that... And I think most of us will agree with this: ******************* Good history lesson here too from an industry insider. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21028803 Quite interesting hearing the reactions today all over the media - it's almost like the death of a major celebrity.