Blog
Standing stock still next to the drummer? Helping girls and boys play together as equals, with help from Suzi Quatro, Talking Heads and Norah Jones!
Date posted: Friday 15th November 2013
The Incredible String Band: wearing incredible string vests?
When I was 15 there was nothing I’d like more than to head down to the local Wimpy café with my friends. (Well that’s not exactly true: there was nothing better to do.) As a rock obsessive, I was always able to turn any lull in the conversation to my advantage, and play my favourite game: 10 Reasons Why You Think Such and Such a Band are Brilliant. The most difficult band to think of re: 10 reasons for brilliance were The Incredible String Band. I would always get stuck at five, until one day someone waved around the cover of The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter and I was off. Just take a look at Rose Simpson and Liquorice McKechnie and it’s as clear as day: those girls had style. You only have to glance at their cheesecloth smocks, home-knitted Shetland pullovers, Afghan coats and maxi skirts to see why the ISB’s music went up 10 notches when the girls joined the band. At the time I was saving all my spare cash to invest in an Afghan coat, to go with the woolly jumper my granny was busy knitting me for Christmas. (more…)
Me and Bobby McGee: or combating low self-esteem. With help from Garth Algar, Cat Stevens and Janis Joplin!
Date posted: Saturday 9th November 2013
One day up near Salinas, I let her slip away,
She’s looking for that home and I hope she finds it,
But I’d trade all of my tomorrows for one single yesterday
To be holding Bobby’s body next to mine.
Me and Bobby McGee by Kris Kristofferson, performed by Janis Joplin
How can I tell you that I love you, I love you
But I can’t think of right words to say
I long to tell you that I’m always thinking of you
I’m always thinking of you, but my words
Just blow away, just blow away
How Can I Tell You? By Cat Stevens
During my teens I was drawn as a moth to a flame to a record shop called Rick’s Records. Rick’s was managed by Duncan, a tall, taciturn long-hair with a goatee beard and an encyclopaedic knowledge of any music from the US. I had very little money, but would hang out in the shop, flicking through the album covers: absorbing as much information as I could about band members, track listings and even the names of the studio engineers. I was quite philosophical in those days, (I had yet to discover girls, so had plenty of space in my head for other important things), and as I scrutinised the cover of Janis Joplin’s posthumous album Pearl, I’d often think of how a woman with such incredible talent could waste it all on heroin and alcohol. Me and Bobby McGee was one of her many top notch tracks, with its slow build up and rip-roaring finale. (more…)
Don’t call me ‘Mellow Yellow’: or daring to be colourful in a world of adults who prefer to wear black. With help from Liz West, The Spice Girls and Joni Mitchell!
Date posted: Saturday 2nd November 2013
When I was 15 I went to see David Bowie at Greens Playhouse in Glasgow. Bowie was at the cutting edge of Glam Rock, so naturally before I set off for the gig there was a lot of discussion about what I should wear. There was general agreement that I should wear my favourite clothes: bright red shirt, lilac crew neck jumper and black flares. My choice of footwear caused great concern: “You can’t go to a Bowie concert wearing brown shoes with black trousers! Everyone on the planet knows that black trousers require black shoes. You will look so naff!” I was a bit of a rebel rebel in those days, but I must admit that my friends’ opprobrium had rattled my confidence. After all, Glasgow was notorious for being full of hard guys. What if I stuck out and got beaten up for being outrageously dressed? Though I was quite small for my age, I knew how to handle myself, so took my chances with the brown shoes/black troosers combo. Ziggy Stardust/Aladdin Sane and the Spiders from Mars were incredible. Everyone was standing on their seats and I couldn’t see a thing, so I stood in the aisle for the entire concert. If anybody noticed my shoes, they let it go. (more…)
‘Ask me, ask me, ask me!!’ Filling a gap in my life: or how you are never too old to develop your communication skills, with help from The Smiths and Morrissey
Date posted: Friday 25th October 2013
Shyness is nice and shyness can stop you
From doing all the things in life you’d like to.
If there’s something you’d like to try,
Ask me: I won’t say no, how could I?
The Smiths Ask
In the mid-1980s I was working in probably the coolest part of London: Islington. I also had a brilliant job, running a pre-school language unit in a very vibrant community centre. Unfortunately I didn’t have a very cool income to match my fun and exciting job, and we had two very young children. Still, it was great to be working in such a happening place. These were dark times though. The Miners’ Strike was in full swing, Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan were making us very nervous, and US nuclear missiles were sited at Greenham Common. Nelson Mandela was still in prison, and there was trouble in Chile, Nicaragua and El Salvador. ‘Red Ken’ Livingston and the GLC were a constant thorn in Maggie’s side, but provided many Londoners with a focus for agitation and opposition. (more…)
Great Balls of Fire! Or fighting off attacks on men caring for children. With help from Tom Jones, Stevie Wonder and 70 men from Atlanta
Date posted: Friday 18th October 2013
I never thought through love we’d be
Making one as lovely as she
But isn’t she lovely made from love
Stevie Wonder Isn’t She Lovely
I had a musician friend called Chris who worked for a while in the Irish pub scene in London. One of his regular jobs was playing in the backing band for a much sought after singer, who we shall call ‘Big Dan’. Big Dan was often described in his publicity as being ‘larger than life’. I think this was supposed to imply that he was a bit of a racy character, even though he was well into his 50s. To me it conjured up an image of a man who chose his trousers from the larger numbers on the clothes rail in Marks and Sparks. Chris confirmed that I was bang on the money about Dan’s trousers. But there was more to talk about in Big Dan’s trouser department than just needing an elasticated waistband on a pair of size 50 pluses. (more…)
I’m a Believer: or thinking positively about children with selective mutism. With help from The Monkees, Little Richard, Jayne Mansfield and Eva Cassidy
Date posted: Friday 11th October 2013
I remember when The Monkees first went massive in the UK. I was minding my own business in the playground of St. Ursula’s Primary School in Harold Hill. I was nine. A big girl approached me at random and demanded an answer to the burning question of the day: ‘Which do you like: The Beatles or The Monkees?’ She was ten and I was under pressure. Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway had yet to be written, so I was scared. My response was, ‘Why are you asking?’ Years later I attended a course on lecturing and explaining, and learned that this is a useful technique for dealing with questions from the audience that you don’t fully understand, or suspect that the questioner is trying to catch you out. I was 27. (more…)
Desperately Seeking Snoozin’ 2: or how to help your children sleep like angels. With help from Fleetwood Mac, Dr Trevor Stevens and Wham!
Date posted: Saturday 5th October 2013
They say that anyone can be only four handshakes away from the President of the United States. I’m living proof of this, as a friend of mine had an aunty who was Richard Nixon’s secretary. Aunty shook the President’s hand, Aunty kissed my friend, and he shook my hand. That makes three shakes. Although Nixon and JFK were bitter enemies, Tricky Dicky must have shaken President Kennedy’s hand at least once. That makes me four shakes from JFK. Now here’s where it gets really interesting (at least for me). If we apply the shakes rule a bit further, that makes me five shakes away from Nikita Khrushchev (interesting) Jacqueline Onassis (very interesting) and, if rumour and conspiracy theory are to be believed, more than a shake away from Marilyn Monroe (very, very, very interesting!). (more…)
Desperately seeking snoozin’: or how to sleep like a baby. With help from David Bowie, The Who and Ylvis
Date posted: Saturday 28th September 2013
I, I wish you could swim
Like dolphins, like the dolphins can swim
From Heroes by David Bowie
When I was a student I became a very bad sleeper. It took me ages to get to sleep, and I would invariably be wide awake again at four in the morning: usually after a particularly vivid dream. I hadn’t always been like that, but it seemed to creep up on me, and was getting worse and worse. Four big questions used to nag at me in the wee small hours:
- Why is Bowie so popular?
- How did Roger Daltry learn to catch his microphone after he had swung it around and thrown it 25 feet in the air? Was it just a natural talent or, like me, did he practice with a piece of string and a wooden spoon in his mum and dad’s back garden?
- Why did Fleetwood Mac at one point have three guitarists?
- What noise does a fox make?
Helping children to listen at storytime: with help from Bob Dylan & Johnny Cash, Kate Rusby and The Proclaimers!
Date posted: Saturday 21st September 2013
Und eff ah haver (Whaen ah haver),
Yeh, ah know ahm gonnie bee
Ahm gonnie bee tha mahn whuese haverin’ ta yue.
I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers
When I was at secondary school in Scotland my friends and I wanted to start a rock group. We split after two rehearsals: not because of ‘musical differences’, but because we couldn’t decide what to call the band. There were four name choices: Weaver’s Answer (Terry Weaver was to be our lead singer, but quit the band at lunchtime); Blasted Dawn (our drummer fancied a girl called Dawn, so that was a no brainer); Midnight’s Children (as I pointed out, Marc Bolan was briefly in a band called John’s Children, and there was no way I was going to be associated with a project that smelled like T Rex.) My suggestion, The Junkyard Angels was rejected out of hand because only bands from the early 60’s had names beginning with The. (This was a few years before Punk, with The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned etc.). Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and I can see now that we were doomed to failure from the outset, because we were asking the wrong questions about the group. Obviously we should have been thinking: ‘What accent are we going to sing in?’ (more…)
Methinks he talketh too much: Non-verbal communication skills explored, with help from Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, William Blake and a mystery actress.
Date posted: Sunday 15th September 2013
You start a conversation, you can’t even finish it.
You’re talkin’ a lot, but you’re not sayin’ anything.
From Psycho Killer by Talking Heads
I had a strange encounter in a kitchen at a party once. I was at drama school, studying Speech Therapy, and got into conversation with a student who was later to become a very famous actress. Now to help us visualize the conversation fully I’m going to use the technique devised by Woody Allen in his film Annie Hall. Woody’s character has just met Annie Hall, played by Diane Keaton, and is acting cool and trying to hide his huge desires for her. As you will see from the YouTube clip, they are both talking pretentious garbage, while the subtitles show what is really going through their minds. (more…)