Hello all!
'A Ritual For Poisoned Land' the new opus from one of the OG 'Hauntologists' and purveyors of Folk Horror soundtracks... Charles Vaughan, is now up for pre-order.
Unearthing voices from the ancient countryside...
digital.waysideandwoodland.com/album/a-ritu...
Beautiful! If that was my organ, I'd have Mr Sheen all over it this afternoon.
God, imagine what might have been in that stuff in the 1970s.
I'd now like someone to remake The Empire Strikes Back with all Tauntuans replaced by My Little Ponies.
One of my favourite smells. My mum has just had the hall recarpeted, and I keep standing in it and sniffing.
Ha, have I talked about that before? Yes - I remember (I think) the NEEB showroom in the Cleveland Centre basically employing a bloke to play an organ on the shop floor all day. Tie A Yellow Ribbon Round The Old Oak Tree, etc
Oh yes. I've watched a lot of Ronnie Corbett monologues.
TONIGHT!
Fantastic - cheers Andy. You're a fount of knowledge, as ever.
Pretty much constantly.
Cheers Andy - I had vague memories of a schoolfriend's parents having a Hammond organ in their front room, but it just felt too grand to be true! Did they do cheaper versions for the home? I remember having a go and it didn't sound anything like Booker T.
"I could do you a cup of beans"
There used to be a time
When poems had to rhyme
But now that day is past
I knew it wouldn't last
(Pete Eldin, The Whizzkids Handbook)
Niche social history question... who manufactured the (titter) upright organs that all grandparents seemed to have in their front rooms in the 1970s? Lovely, cheesy Wurlitzer sounds with bossa nova rhythms available at the push of a switch. Was there a particular company that dominated the market?
Tomorrow night at 7pm! Come to Flowergate Hall in Whitby for 'At The Back Of The North Wind', a warm evening of folklore and gentle oddness. I'll tell you all about my favourite gravestone. Oh, and my second favourite gravestone... @flowergatebeyond.bsky.social
And Dexy's. Pffft.
Oh, I didn't know that. What have we done with our lives, etc
Sad to hear Gary Leeds has died, the last remaining Walker Brother. Always loved the Walkers, and I'm partial to a bit of his solo stuff with The Rain...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaCZ...
Ha, I don't even know the scientific reason! What is it?
Come to 'At The Back Of The North Wind' in Whitby's Flowergate Hall this Friday 6th March! Folklore and fun, pay what you fancy, and I'll tell you all about THE BEATING BLACK HEART OF WHORLTON CASTLE, a terrifying ghost story relayed to me by my teacher Mr Hirst in this very spot in 1984.
Here she is in 2026! This neatly bobbed, elegantly coutured lady in her 60s, steps forward in the manner of someone who might just as easily address an international conference held to improve the efficacy of PPE rollouts in future pandemics. And then she sings: “It’s a fine day/People open windows”
Oh, that is fabulous. I had good chats with both Ed and Jane back in summer 2021, and it's one of the strangest but loveliest little things I've worked on. Genuine eccentrics, but the nicest people. It's all here:
hauntedgeneration.co.uk/2021/08/13/e...
Yeah - I've only got smaller Tescos near me though, so I usually make a monthly foray to TJ Jones in Middlesbrough for DWM. There was a WH Smiths in Stockton, but they closed that down last year. Frustrating times.
If I'm honest, I prefer Cooplands or Thomas The Baker. But needs must when you're on the road.
On the plus side, my other half works with Actual Young People who are all into Britpop. So we can casually drop into conversation that we saw Blur, Oasis and Pulp live in the 1990s and their jaws drop. It's like we were at Woodstock or watched The Beatles at The Cavern.
Greggs all the way. You can take the boy out of Middlesbrough...
I'd be in the weird position of having to visit a motorway service station to buy DWM.
I think my "new" starts in about 1995.
"I was working as a TV researcher in 2004, generally on documentaries about skeletons and bog bodies"... I interviewed Ian Parton of the ace @thegoteam.bsky.social for @electronicsound.bsky.social a while ago, and it's fresh on the Haunted Generation site... hauntedgeneration.co.uk/2026/03/03/l...
Aw, sorry!
