A Lark Ascending

And about to start: With assistance from...

I shouldn't worry. The steam train went out of service decades ago but steam railways are forever springing up over here for leisure purposes. I'm sure there's a place for LPs in the heritage industry. A couple of days back I was in a National Trust shop in Cornwall and they were selling the centres of 78's as chic coasters to put your drinks on! £12 for four! Now there's an alternative to the Blue Note T-shirt or giant wall poster.

My view too. Can't imagine jazz will ever be centre stage again, but if people are still listening to Boccherini or Hildegard of Bingen then I see no reason why some might not continue to enjoy exploring Charlie Parker or Sonny Rollins or Mike Westbrook. Some of us just like worming away and locating entertaining music outside of what is heavily marketed. There is an element of ego and posturing in all of this as in any area of non-pop music - I listen to jazz instead of pop, I listen to Anthony Braxton not Branford Marsalis, I listen to Schnabel instead of Ashkenazy, I listen to Boulez not Shostakovich - but behind that lies genuine interest and enjoyment in slightly off the radar music. I also find it hard to imagine that some elements within future generations of listeners won't find a thrill in music that has a considerable amount of improvisation - that wonderful feel that something is being minted at the moment of recording; or be drawn to the off-centre, strangely accented rhythmic approach that has characterised much jazz. It might not be called jazz and be absorbed somewhere else, but I'm sure those elements of music will continue to appeal. They've gone in and out of fashion in Western classical music over the last 1000 years.

A disgrace. I got the first news of Nelson's victory at Trafalgar from a.m. Radio Nottingham. They'll stop making LPs next.

I was about 5 at the time! I vividly remember a feature inside based around Mr Toad. There was one scene where he was in court being presided over by a judge in robes. I decided that I wanted to be a judge when I grew up. My father still regrets the eventual career choice I made! I think I must have moved from comics to 'Disc and Music Echo' about the age of 14 (1969/70). 6p!

Eagle was still going when I 'came of age' but it looked a bit old fashioned by then. I was a Sixties child. Don't recall the 5 years I spent visiting the 50s much.

I had Look and Learn for a while. Remember reading an article on John Wyndham in it, launching me on my sci-fi novel years (TV 21 must have helped too...it was the time of Stingray, Star Trek and the moon missions, after all). Though this was my very first comic, sometime around 1960:

Never cared for The Dandy. Even as a 10 year old I found it much too rough. Preferred something more rarefied like TV-21: http://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2010/01/45-years-ago-first-issue-of-tv21.html Precious even then!

There are those in America who feel that way about plantation mansions! Which is just to say, I know you didn't mean it that way, but..there are still those who would/do...and to hell with them. Literally, I hope. I don't think America can ever hide from it's 'melting pot' origins and ongoing development - although I know that throughout history there have been plenty who've tried to from the KKKs anti-Irish origins onwards. Even the most virulent racist can't ignore that the USA has never been a mono-culture (I didn't realise just how diverse until I visited New York). But in Britain there remains a strong myth that the English/Scottish/Welsh/Irish/British (chose your own label) culture is something very precious and distinct that will be shattered if we don't stop 'these people' coming into 'our country'. It's amazing how that idea is entrenched in 11 year olds! The weird thing is that those most averse to multi-cultural Britain are most likely to don the uniform of inner city American street culture - backward baseball caps etc. I'd like to think the games helped just a little with the 'maturing' (to use freelancer's word) of our awareness of Britain's multi-cultural reality. That doesn't have to mean a mixing it all up - I love the 'olde England', real or otherwise - but I hope we can accommodate both a respect for the distinct and an openness to all the interesting things that can happen when things fuse.

There remains a very strong, jingoistic spirit in parts of Britain - most notably those newspapers mentioned above. Tends to manifest itself in terms of anti-Europeanism and constant fear of immigration. One of the things that was so good about these games was the way that the multi-cultural reality of Britain was on display in so many different ways. I hope an important corner was turned there. Still expect the anti-European silliness to carry on though.

I don't think it's that simple - a sense of national identity is a pretty vital thing for any country; when that is turned into a sense of superiority and accompanied by jingoism - and we've been guilty of that in Britain over the centuries - then it becomes a hugely destructive force. Outside of the Daily Mail/Express world I never got much of a sense of 'we're better than everyone else' over the last few weeks. More a sense of relief that we can pull off something like this and do well on the sport side too. Anyway, don't tune into the Last Night of the Proms next month. Expect that's going to be even more over the top than usual.

Where is the audience for this? There is tons of this sort of the stuff on the Vocalion site. We were told at the time that this was ephemeral music with no staying power; but it still seems to be popular. Hidden away across England there must be rooms like this where Manuel (Que?) remains supreme: Prepare to be shocked but I buy rather a lot of this stuff. I got into music as a child partly from being interested in the so-called Great American Songbook, which branches off into jazz, vocals and light orchestral music. Plus I was at the right age for the lounge/easy listening revival of the Nineties. I'm not sure why others buy this music, but it seems to be popular, and I'm glad. Radio 3 plays quite a bit of light music, there have been Proms devoted to it and bandleaders like John Wilson who recreate historic orchestrations have a huge following. All sorts of music was once disparaged as ephemeral -- even jazz -- but I can't think of any that doesn't now have a following of some sort -- and that's good. That's not my living room btw -- all that shagpile would be a Mecca for moths in London. Don't worry - I love third division English cowpat composers (also well documented by Dutton-Vocalion). I also enjoy those 'Light Music' discs full of things like 'Sailing By' and 'Coronation Scot'; they sit quite happily alongside Evan Parker and Birtwistle. Not to mention discs of morris dancing music! And I won't mention the Moody Blues records... Manuel (and James Last!) are a step too far for me, but all power to your inclusiveness. We get quite enough of the 'I'm too discriminating to listen to X/Y/Z.'

The Grey £. Re-living the 1960s and 70s - all across the South Coast from Bognor to Sidmouth ! Well, the whole of Dutton Vocalion is very clearly after the grey pound. Suspect they're too busy dosey doeing in Sidmouth to have time for Manuel. I'd have thought Paignton was his perfect home.

Where is the audience for this? There is tons of this sort of the stuff on the Vocalion site. We were told at the time that this was ephemeral music with no staying power; but it still seems to be popular. Hidden away across England there must be rooms like this where Manuel (Que?) remains supreme:

And for a different view: Arranged By, Piano [Electric, Acoustic] – Gil Evans; Bass [Electric] – Mo Foster; Guitar [Electric] – Ray Russell; Keyboards – John Taylor (2); Saxophone [Alto, Soprano], Flute – Chris Hunter, Stan Sulzmann; Saxophone [baritone, Soprano], Clarinet [bass], Synthesizer – John Surman; Saxophone [Tenor, Soprano] – Don Weller; Trombone – Malcolm Griffiths, Rick Taylor (5); Trumpet – Guy Barker, Henry Lowther, Miles Evans The version of Little Wing is wonderful.

I used to have a zerostat gun. Not sure it was any more effective than the extra fridge I bought to store my CDs in (along with the industrial supply of magic markers).

Here's a different way of ranking - relative population per medal. Figures go Gold Silver Bronze Total Population in Millions and in bold proportion of of population to each medal. 18 Jamaica 4 4 4 12 3 250,000 15 New Zealand 6 2 5 13 4 307,692 9 Hungary 8 4 5 17 9 529,412 10 Australia 7 16 12 35 23 657,143 16 Cuba 5 3 6 14 11 785,714 13 Netherlands 6 6 8 20 17 850,000 3 Great Britain & N. Ireland 29 17 19 65 62 953,846 12 Kazakhstan 7 1 5 13 17 1,307,692 4 Russian Federation 24 26 32 82 143 1,743,902 5 South Korea 13 8 7 28 50 1,785,714 6 Germany 11 19 14 44 82 1,863,636 7 France 11 11 12 34 65 1,911,765 8 Italy 8 9 11 28 60 2,142,857 14 Ukraine 6 5 9 20 46 2,300,000 1 United States 46 29 29 104 314 3,019,231 11 Japan 7 14 17 38 128 3,368,421 17 Iran 4 5 3 12 75 6,250,000 2 China 38 27 23 88 1347 15,306,818 Hope I got my maths right! Be interesting to see a list relating medals to national wealth.

A greater worry is the overemphasis on 'competitive' sport - various politicians were falling over themselves last week to criticise a mythical 'all must have prizes' culture in schools and coming up with knee-jerk responses to immediately go into the National Curriculum (if that still exists). What that overlooks is how off-putting competitive sport is to the majority of kids who will never be very good. I was one of those - given a ball by the PE teacher to amuse ourselves with while those with talent got the training (or, best of all from my point of view, allowed to do cross country which involved running out of the changing rooms to the lane behind the school field and then going for an afternoon stroll down country lanes). So much has changed since then and PE teachers try really hard to get everyone involved. But there remains a stubborn resistance to sport amongst some kids, especially teenage girls who feel embarrassed by the whole thing. Someone mocked 'Indian Dance' as being included in PE lessons but a creative approach to exercise like that is far more likely to get a broad range of kids involved. I just worry that a government mired in an inability to bring any real changes will leap for cosmetic changes in a soft area like this and just undo the good work has been done on the ground for years. The Olympics have shown how thrilling competitive sport can be and will inspire and involve lots of kids. But it isn't just about that.

I didn't watch any of it but was still very affected by the spirit of the whole event and found the success of the British team very moving.

There's plenty of pleasure to be had in Shostakovich's symphonies for the ordinary listener. I've been listening off just one CD version of each for 25-30 years and see no diminution of interest. Buying multiple versions and going to lots of concerts is an option, but not an imperative. I'd just suggest getting to know one or two symphonies first - 5 and 10 are probably the most approachable for big canvass Shostakovich. Came across this lovely quote from Horowitz (a famous ivy-tinkler, I believe) the other day: "A concert is not a lecture. A concert you go to for enjoyment.' For the ordinary listener, I'd say that holds true for CDs and music in general. There's lots to enjoy in the Shostakovich symphonies.

I think that sums up the British to perfection.

I think it goes: British Isles - the various islands off the north-west mainland of Europe (geographic) Britain/Great Britain - England, Scotland and Wales (as united in the 1707 Act of Union, the three flags in the current Union Flag). United Kingdom - As Great Britain + Northern Ireland (in the 1901 Act of Union that was all of Ireland but the Irish thought differently and that changed marginally in 1922 and permanently in 1949). But I've been wrong before. One of the great things about these games has been the success of Mo Farah. Amazing how quiet all those who grumble about the dangers of immigration have been where he's concerned. A wonderful icon of the constructive effects of having your country constantly replenished from cultures from elsewhere.

Very sharp. I'd like to think the 'Great' in 'Great Britain' is a geographical reference - though given some of our more gung-ho anthems - 'Rule Britannia' - I'm not so sure.