how did she do it ..

    'her nerve was her rage against the oppresser
and the unjust '

Sue Lloyd Roberts

Some people stand head and shoulders above
the rest of us...

KRO

Lisa Hannigan: Willie, Joni Mitchell Cover

Lisa

later with Jools .........

was ace last night and I wish I was
part of this crowd.........

Lone Bellow


full show

KRO

The voice of boyhood summers...

... has left us, 'what a marvellous ' voice it was.
The news this morning that Richie has died
leaves me close to tears, I have to be honest
the tears are more for me than RB. I'm so tired
now, so tired of loosing all my heroes.

Richie

Kitty Boots

In the early eighties or there about, I had a small business in the
 centre of Brum with a staff of about ten working with me in a rented
 building that backed on to the canal, which was nice, ha.
   One afternoon a young student (from Brum Uni.) walked in and asked
 me if I could sew Latex, her name was Karen Storey her "look" was
 half Goth and half punk, and I of course replied yes. She was about to
 leave Uni. and her intention was to open a stall at the Oasis in Dale End.
 Her trading name then was Forbes Hamilton, her plan was to make a
 few bob in the Oasis selling printed T shirts and latex clothing before
 moving to Kensington Market in the smoke and then New York City,
 all of which she did.

     We worked together for two or three years I guess and the
 memories make me smile, memories of shows in town, one
 outside the Oasis while I was still finishing off dresses for the
 models as Karen was in her office ( an old red telephone box)
 being interviewed by Central TV. Memories of a guy saying that
if you had enough money any one could have a number one
 hit and he did it. Don't remember the name of the one-hit wonders
 but we dressed them up for top of the pops in latex, the lead
 singer dressed in a pink latex cat suit.
    We also made the front cover of Elle, a beautiful lady dressed
 in a classic "little black dress" except I made it in gold latex,
 hand fitted of course. It was for sale at £99 but the printers
 made a mistake and listed it at £999 and, yep, Karen still got
 orders for it.
    It was about this time Karen was to leave for NYC, I hate
 goodbye's so I avoided her phone calls and visits to the factory
 until she gave up on me and left for New York.
 Some years later I was watching a fashion show on BBC2
 when the presenter said he was going to interview Kitty Boots
 the London designer in a taxi outside.  Red telephone box?
Yellow taxi? It couldn't be could it? It was, ha ha Kitty Boots
 aka Karen Storey, attagirl..... miss you ace.

Karen

When cool was cool..

and cool was Emma Peel and Steed ..

(love the song on the clip)

Emma

KRO

so what if I have?...

.. it's my blog.
Ryder


KRO

.. so now 'they' say.....

.. cheese, milk and butter etc. are realio trulio
good for you like in the Woody Allen film
Sleepers. So, talking of Woody and love and death........

Wheat

Miss you Hitch........

Never be a spectator
of unfairness or
stupidity. The grave
will supply plenty of
time for silence.

Christopher Hitchens.

Hitch.

I guess she was...

...a bad girl but, well.......





Carmen

KRO

Deborah's theme

Deborah

Talking of terrorists and...

... why you don't see white dog shit anymore..


dogbombs

KRO

The station agent....

Finbar McBride

Brand and Paxman..

I'm not that keen on Russell Brand but I love
 this interview and I do have one thing in
common with him, I have never voted or
 taken part in any general election. The reasons
 for this are the same given by Brand, in fact I
 agree with all that he says to Paxman but sadly,
 like me he only gives the results of his dreams
 not the path  or means by which we may achieve
them. Good TV though ain't it.

KRO




Brand and Paxman

Serena Ryder

Just... ace..





sisters of mercy







what I wouldn't

Fisher king

You did ok R.W.

KRO

Humans

nasty lot ain't they, and they'll never change.
The only hope are the children but we leave
them to starve to death, or die of curable
diseases and if that don't work, well we
just bomb the little buggers, all in the name
of freedom or 'Holy' men.

            Faith..
If all the Irish were in Ireland
What a crowded land it would be
No pixie dens deep green
Nor hills rolling gently to the sea.
If gods and saints were mortals
And all faith began this day
Should we then ask for reasons
Why this time, this place, this way?
                    Derek H.
Brady

Loudon Wainright

Most evenings I sit and have my dinner
about seven- ish, ( cornflakes and tea)
and watch old re-runs of M.A.S.H. while
I do so.
      Now and then Loudon Wainright is on
the show with his guitar, here's  a beautiful
song of his............

Loudon

Paths of glory.

"With the death of each individual
an entire universe vanishes"

Paths of glory 

Revolution......

Well, lately I guess it started in Tunisia,
they took to the streets and overthrew
their rulers, Libya fought a bloody battle
and rid themselves of 'the' mad man.
   Then it got big as Egypt's millions
voiced their anger and and got a new
military government, and in Syria thousands
are dead and dying as civil war continues.
Now we have Ukraine god knows where
that's gonna go, and the worlds largest democracy
has ended the Nehru dynasty and the French,
well they take to the streets every month so they
don't really count well now the Brits have had
enough we'll show the world what a real fuckin'
revolution is, what have we done? That's right,
we've voted UKIP so don't fuckin' mess with us...

Revolutin

KRO

Music..

.. from Brum, and there abouts......
love this clip, (although the bearded
women in red hats are a bit spooky)

brummoves

KRO

The swallows..

.. are back at Runway, four days early
by my reckoning , sign of a hot, dry summer.
Ha.
Click on the link at your peril, you'll be
there for hours (t.o.g.w.t)

Janis Ian
KRO

Faces...

.. in the days of Ronnie Lane what an
  ace band they were.





Faces

KRO

Last Tuesday..

I was back in hospital, the eyeball section
not the ticker division, and yay, both my
eyes are AOK and they discharged me
from their care. Now that's a first for me
as I have sloped out of the ticker division
three times, on the third of which they
caught me and made me sign myself out.
       So, Rufus where the hell did you go....





Natasha

poses

KRO

twenty one again..

It was my birthday yesterday.
In the whole day I spoke just one
word out loud, "Thankyou" to
the girl on the till at the Co-op,
man what have I become? Still,
it seems I'm two years older
than I should be
     I was gonna have a party
but you can't have a party with
out clowns ......

KRO





clowns

Third month with no work..

...so today I as bin mostly playin'

flint

rex

KRO

Never let me go

Stumbled across a film taken from a short story by Ishiguro,
"Never let me go"  I have never known such
a short story cover so much ground, it may not contain all
the answers you need but it sure as hell poses every question.
      There are so many wonderful scenes, the beach/boat,
the Tokens, the.... well just watch it if you can, if not then
read the book.

KRO

Birmingham Buskers

... ace, ace, ace ........





Link>>>>> B'ham buskers
KRO

You know most days......

... I just can't stand me, what a jerk I am, but then I get
    the odd day when it's ok Dek, "because I do like you"







http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD7ARRNE7gY

KRO

Alison.

Acoustic.

Goldfrapp


Put the link  'cause they keep blocking vids, berks.

KRO

Just listen.

Shadow Art ..

.....Listen...

Shadows follow shadows
As if a sound a shadow makes
Thoughts will scatter dreams
As the torpid mind awakes
The earth becomes a mirror
A reflection beneath my feet
As I rise and tread the soil
Steps forever to repeat
Soil so full of shadows
So deep they're never found
And yet we often hear them
For a shadow is but a sound

Derek H.

Entropy

So you really think you're important?

Time's end

What did you do in the war Dad?

I'm quite sure that I can remember as far back  as when I
was two years old. Now I may be wrong about this and
I'm sure there's a body of government scientists that have
carried out tests on white rats ( this involved making two
half-hitches and a sheep shank with their tails and soaking
said rats feet in Red Bull) that prove adults have no memories
before the age of three. However I know for a fact there has
never been a time in my life when I haven't had a love of
aeroplanes, haven't had a dream that I would be a pilot.
        In a small way I did make my dream come true. I
learnt to fly and my old log book says I had some 130
hours flying before I didn't have the time or money to continue.
Have to say the hours I spent flying alone went way beyond
all my dreams, no words can describe the the feeling of freedom
or the thrill of just me and machine above the Worcester country
side and the Malverns.
  So, what did my Dad do in the war?  Well I guess you may
be thinking the link between my Dad and my love of aeroplanes
was the Spitfire and you'd be right. However, my Dad didn't
fly Spitfires, he built them, along with hundreds of other Brummies
(men and women) at Castle Brom..  I found this wonderful BBC
site with a list of films each one an absolute treasure.( click on
Spitfire)

Spitfire

KRO

There's a joke here some where....

... and it's on me ...

say hello..

..to the people I know .....

JFK......

..'...In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility - I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavour will light our country and all who serve it - and the glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man ...' ..




 Some inaugural speech that and as a thirteen year old kid I believed him, and believed in him. On his visit to the UK he dazzled us, it was gonna happen, our generation led by him would change the world for the better. After his death the older I got and the more I read the more I saw just a good politician with great speech writers. Here was a man who lied to the most important person in his life,lied to her and betrayed her so what worth were his words to us? I have never trusted a politician since, never voted or took part in any election, I never will 'get fooled again'

ps. he wouldn't get away with 'the freedom of man' now days..

 KRO

 

John Nicholls....

...was the last boss I ever had way back in 1976. We lost touch until
2002 or there abouts when he rented a unit at Runway farm, we
remained friends until he died on the 7th of this month.
  The piece below is from tinterweb it 's a bit sparse and doesn't
tell that he 'toured' Australia as well as S/A in his Speedway
days. We bury John today, I guess I lost the bet mate I owe you
a fiver.

 Nick started riding at his home track Coventry in the early 1950's he had spells with Brafield in the Southern Area League in 1954 / 55 and stayed with these local tracks until 1961 apart from a short spell with Oxford in 1959. He toured South Africa in the winter of 1956 after a successful season with the Bees that year including a couple of maximums and ending the season with an average of over six points per match. However his form dipped badly on his return completing the 1957 season with 3.26. Nick spent most of his career at Coventry but finally made the move to Belle Vue in 1962, it proved disastrous and he couldn't find his form. He joined the Heathens in the Provincial League in July scoring seven points on his debut against Wolves in the Dudley Wolves Trophy. His scores were up and down but still managed an average of over six. However disaster struck in the Provincial League Riders Qualifying Round at Exeter in August where he crashed and received head injuries and severe concussion. This was to end his career. Always immaculately turned out in shiny black leathers little has been written about Nick and he is rarely seen in speedway photographs, such a pity his association with the Heathens was so short. [Thanks to Matt Jackson & Hugh Vass for help with this profile from the excellent "Complete A-Z of Post War British League Riders"]

KRO

Dylan and Safka

Sometimes humans do beautiful things, sometimes....

Was it so long ago....

... or was it yesterday?

L.R.

.... Ah well.....

Gaston Beree...

Kenny Rodgers (well he used to) Not nice to see you Bruce
a pregnant Keith Richard and Mick shouting one note very
loudly for an hour or so... what a joke and no I didn't
watch 'em.

This was good though ..




and here's two of the girls from the chorus .. 

KRO

Stevie Nicks ...

was sixty five years young last month so here she is ..

Tomorrow is ...

... local election day (I think) every one tells me I should vote...
    but I wont.






KRO

Two years ago today ....

'I'm not sure that the new Wembley has heard a noise like this"

Hey lads, I know you're not really crying ....... KRO. 

Goin' home......

Looks like I've sold my flat, oh feckin' 'ell. Guess I'm going back 'home',
back to Runway.  Where ever I go, I'll take Joni with me....  KRO.

Sunshine on Leith...

A Proclaimers song adopted by Hibs as their anthem
love it, but here's a version by the Lights that ain't bad ..
KRO

Richard 111

I don't play golf anymore but I was a member of Maxstoke Park Golf Club for about 15 years or so.
The back drop to the 17th green is Maxstoke castle and, so the story goes, it was here that Richard
ate his last civilised meal before the battle of Bosworth field. Once I had heard this story I wanted
to know more than just the Tudor propaganda and Will shakeys version of Richard, and the awful
story of the princes in the tower.
     Just the account of how he died at Bosworth left me in awe of the man, but his whole life
story (short though it was)  is almost unbelievable .The picture above and not the image W.S
paints, is how I think of Richard 111.
   Film on channel 4 last night on how the remains of Richard have been found ( a fantastic
story in itself) and how some 500 years or so after his death he will be given a 'proper' burial.

Foot note ... Richard was the last English king to die in battle, royalty should have died with him...
    

Wow......

..it's so beautiful here right now,
and tonight it's going to snow.
I might stay up and go for a walk
in the 'first fall'.

Think that was the..

... longest ten days I've ever had to endure, but hey,
it's a so called new year now. Spent most of the hols
listening to the radio, sad to know that we won't be
hearing the voice of CMJ. anymore.
   Watched bits of telly in the small hours, and thankfully
I saw an Arena film of Amy, in Ireland, stunning.
For me, Amy has to be the greatest singing talent this
country has ever had, just light years ahead of anyone
else. Maybe, just maybe, she could have been the best
'jazz/blues' the world has ever known.
 We'll never know.
If youtube remove these, go and have a look at
Amy Winehouse/ accoustic.

KRO

more Dexys ..

So we waited 13 years for Cable to return
and 27 years for Dexys  (K.R.) new album.
I guess Kevin's one of those you love or hate,
who cares, me and Kermode love him ..


KRO