Amsterdam Russ

Not really the place to be dealing with site business, but... Click on your name in the top right. A list of menu items will show, including "Ignored Users". Click on that and you'll come to the page as shown in my screenshot. Type in the name of the user and follow the instructions. Sorted.

Without checking back on the details of the story, I recall reading that the photographer was there with people around - and some thought he was drunk, passed out, or worse. One person, apparently, rushed over to give him CPR! Given the five nights, I presume he was there for umpteen hours at a time - a good part of which was likely after the station had shut (and with the full support of London Transport or whatever they might be called nowadays). Regardless, an unforgettable photo!

I know exactly what you mean! More a case of "down in the tube station at midnight" according to the story:

Another photo competition - this time the "people's choice award" winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year. Only a small handful of winning pics released to the public as yet, but the outright favourite really is both remarkable and really rather magical... Photo source: BBC News. Full story here: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-51465064

Check out the winners in the International Landscape Photographer of the Year competition. There really are some stunners! https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-51386024

Interesting read about the environmental impact of producing vinyl for today’s record market. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/jan/28/vinyl-record-revival-environmental-impact-music-industry-streaming

Thanks, Mike. I did have a look round to see if it had been posted already, but obviously missed it.

Just found this article published online by Mixmag. It covers the all-too familiar territory featured in the countless articles that have come before it. You know the drill... working class roots, Dave Godin, Twisted Wheel, Wigan, dancing, drugs, Ian Levine, etc, etc, etc. Your choice whether you decide to read it... https://mixmag.net/feature/northern-soul-and-the-birth-of-the-all-nighter

Too late. Keith Fletcher's been organising a twice yearly soul cruise from Hull to Rotterdam (and back again) for some years.

A very commonplace bird here in the Netherlands, but I thought this young heron worthy of a photo as it posed quite dramatically against a clear blue sky on the terracotta roof tiles of a house opposite. We've seen this particular heron on rooftops and street lamps several times in the last couple of weeks. It should be at ground level where it can catch food, so I think it must have had a recent scare. Possibly, as there's road and water side-by-side here, it was nearly hit by a car when hunting. Certainly it won't catch anything up there.

Perhaps unfortunate in the context of its vinyl events, but I believe the name relates to the bar's prohibition theme.

You're going to this? If so, with Lionel Earlysounds45s (better known as record collector/dealer Lionel Romano) among the DJs, you're in for a treat!

Thanks, guys. As far as I’m concerned, 7:30 in the morning isn’t just a different time, it’s a completely different dimension! should have stayed under the duvet. 🤣

Cold and misty in the Amsterdam woods at 7:30 in the morning!

Undoubtably played “first” by many, many radio stations stateside and wherever the track was issued around the world at the time of release in 1965. Oh, and don’t forget Cal would have performed it countless times on the innumerable jazz circuit venues he would have attended.

I've now posted up the flip side - Watermelon man - at the request of Steve Fuchs. Steve's also said that just 100 copies of the 45 were pressed as giveaways for friends and family. They did this because they were concerned about how they might have to pay royalties to the composers of both songs - Clarence Carter and Herbie Hancock – bearing in mind that the band had produced and pressed the 45 themselves. This meant that neither of the two tracks ever got any radio airplay. The band was together for about two years and split when John Draws and Steve Fuchs were drafted into the army. Steve stayed in the Marine Corps for 28 years before settling in Honolulu where he still lives today.

I'm guessing the now-dead link to the tune on YouTube was to my old channel, which I accidentally deleted some years back. I did re-upload all the tunes I'd posted, including this one. Just today, one of the band members – Steven Fuchs – commented on it as follows: I also received a comment from another member of the band – John Draws – four years ago: If anyone does have a copy for Steve Fuchs, let me know or get in touch with him via YouTube.

Thanks for that. From what I've read, it seems the UK is suffering the biggest decline of lapwings. Europe's population overall is in decline, and the most recent data I could find states: Source: https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/northern-lapwing-vanellus-vanellus/text

Any idea what categorises a species as "red listed"? Sounds a bit over dramatic to me at this point. Just because there might be less of them in a region due to changes in agricultural practices doesn't mean they're seriously endangered as a species does it? Or is the "red listing" purely a parochial "English landscape" thing for the sake of media attention? That wonderful - and ahead of its time - film, Tawny Pipit, somehow comes to mind...

Thank you for that. Very interesting. I had no idea that in recent times trademarks had become so easily and readily available. The possibilities are now endless. Ta very much.

Can I politely ask, in what way is "Dean Anderson's Sound of Soul" trademarked? Is it the "Sound of Soul" part, the whole phrase, or is using the trademark symbol just a novelty/gimmick? Thanks in advance...

Red listed? They're ridiculously common over here in the Netherlands. I see huge flocks of them every time I take a bus to the nearest train station (10 minutes away), and they've always been populous in all the time I've lived here. Similarly, house sparrows are very common, unlike in the UK. That perhaps points to something being very wrong with the natural environment in "good ol' Blighty"!

Thanks! A UK equivalent would be interesting, but it'd take a hell of a lot of doing! 😲

More likely to be an early arrival then. Otherwise it would surely have been spotted prior to those March dates.

Thanks. As for Scotland, when it's no longer part of the UK, I might think about including it in the list.