Sunday Soul Session and Top of the Pops remembered

Hi all

Back in the 1970s, when I were a lad, Thursday nights at 7:30 was Top of the Pops night. Without fail I would be there in front of the TV with my cassette player and mic recording the bands of the day from the TV speaker. I'm sure we all shed a tear when TOTP was cancelled by the BBC.

It was with much anticipation that I discovered BBC4 are repeating TOTP from 1976 onwards, every week on thursday at 7:30pm. V+ series link has been set!

However........The memory is much better than the reality. So far we are into the second episode and I now know that 1976 was a REALLY BAD year for music, as it was reflected in what was shown on TOTP. Brotherhood of man at No.1, old recordings of Abba, two unknown bearded blokes who's name escapes me, The Four Seasons without Frankie Valli and the Bay City Rollers pratting about on swings to one of their lesser known songs. Then there were the Presenters...Tony Blackburn, a hero of mine, did a good job on the first week, kept the chat to a minimum and seemed genuinely enthusiastic about the music. Noel Edmonds, oh dear, kept dropping into this stupid fake posh accent. It may have been funny in 1976 but it really does not stand the test of time! Pans People, the resident dancers performed some brilliant literal renditions of the songs, including a corny dance whilst holding books in both hands to the Beatle's Paperback Writer. I can see now why Punk gave the music industry of the time a kick up the pants....They needed it! I am looking forward to the late 70's though, there were some great tunes about back then. So for the time being I'm going to stick with it...

Back to the present day. The soul session has been going now since last August, I have listeners from all over the globe, Hi USA and Ciao Italia! To all my listeners I really hope you enjoy what we do. The station is going from strength to strength, mainly down to the people who run it, the presenters and you, the listeners. Dance Web Radio is the best!

Anyway heres the playlist for Sunday 10th April.

JACKIE MOORE : THIS TIME BABY

PATRICE RUSHEN : LOOK UP

GERALDINE HUNT : CAN'T FAKE THE FEELING

TS MONK : CANDIDATE FOR LOVE

SHALAMAR : TAKE THAT TO THE BANK

SHAKATAK : EASIER SAID THAN DONE

RICHARD EARNSHAW : WAITING

GQ : MAKE MY DREAMS A REALITY

RAW SILK : DO IT TO THE MUSIC

A TASTE OF HONEY : RESCUE ME

CAMERON : LETS GET IT OFF

NEW YORK SKYY : HERE'S TO YOU

ROXY5000 FEAT. TERRI WALKER : NEVER GOING BACK

HEATWAVE : GANGSTERS OF THE GROOVE

LINX : YOURE LYING

DONALD BYRD : LOVE HAS COME AROUND

TEDDY PENDERGRASS : YOU CAN'T HIDE (DIMITRI REMIX)

FIRST CHOICE : ARMED & EXTREMELY DANGEROUS

MAYSA : THE BOTTLE

ROY AYERS : DON'T STOP THE FEELING

JAZZTRONIX : REAL CLOTHES

AZYMUTH : DEAR LIMERTZ

HARVEY MASON : TIL YOU TAKE MY LOVE

INAYA DAY : NASTY GIRL

Its pronounced U-ran-us!

Hi this is the first blog of 2011. It must have been the rotten weather so far this year that has made me lethargic.

Anyway this weekend we were helping the Beaver Cub groups of Ashford (and surrounding areas) run a 'Star Party' This involved demonstrating The size of the solar system in the grounds next to the venue. You give each child a planet and send them off down the field to a distance relative to that planets distance from the Sun. Its all good fun! I gave this one Beaver the planet Uranus, and he shouted out 'Ooh I know a good joke about that!" After a good giggle his leader recommended he save it for later! Another one apparently farted in the astro-dome, so his leader said I should give him a gas giant! he was given Neptune.

We had the Solar telescope set up (note You must NEVER View the sun through any other telescope or binoculars - You WILL go blind) and I managed to photograph a huge solar flare (see pic) That was my highlight of the day. We also set our normal telescopes up on distant chimney pots. I always find the young'uns ask the best questions, including 'If there a black holes, are there white holes as well?' Maybe in a parallel universe!

All respect to the beaver group leaders, what I found was that if you took your eye off them, they would soon wander off. It was really like plate spinning!

Since being involved with the society, I have found that kids are fascinated in space and astronomy, something that I'm sure wears off as they discover things like gaming/music/fashion/members of the opposite sex. But if we manage to keep just a few interested then our hobby will keep going and we are building foundations for the scientists of the future. Mind you I think Prof. Brian Cox may also have something to do with it!

Until next time!