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I spoke to Martin Morgan, aka Mr. Yak earlier today - he's most happy to have your CD order, Pedders

At the moment he's hobbling around the farm because a horse stood on his foot...

Martin was the first person I ever interviewed for The European Perspective, way back in December 2008. We've set a date to record the first ever episode of 'Castaways', a sort of prog Desert Island Discs, in a couple of weeks time. This will be an occasional show, slotted into the TEP schedule on an as and well basis.

Monkwearmouth, Sir - though I believe Messrs. Stewart and Airey are both alumni of the Bede, back in the days when it was a grammar school, and where Doug taught for many years.

My old mate Colin went to Thornhill - one day I'll find out what happened to him. We lost touch and I often wonder where he's got to. So if you know Colin Jones, then please let me know

Oh yes...and there are those of us who remember David Stewart (as he then called himself) doing floor spots on acoustic guitar in an absolutely heroic Aran sweater at the Glebe Folk and Blues Club at the Royalty in Chester Road.

Both he and Don Airey were taught music by Doug Hugill, head of music at my school and a truly inspirational teacher. For Doug there was no distinction to be made between classical, jazz, rock, folk...quite a rare attitude then.

One of the characteristic differences between Geordie and Mackem lingo is the way in which the word "going" is pronounced - if you're from Newcastle you'll say "gannin", if you're from Sunderland you'll say "garn".

Brian Talbot's fabulous book 'Alice In Sunderland' contains much detail, as well as being a wonderful read. Although not a native, Talbot lives in the town.

Other notable musical Mackems include Don Airey (keyboard player with Rainbow, and now Deep Purple), the Toy Dolls and Field Music, whose latest album I can well recommend - there's a selection on last weeks' European Perspective <end of plug>

Sid James died in Sunderland during a performance at the Empire Theatre. Legend has it that on being informed that Sid had "died on stage at Sunderland Empire" his manager quipped "well, he isn't he first". It always was a tough venue

Rather curiously I'm also from Sunderland. And even more coincidentally despite the fact that I've lived in London since 1986 I'm currently sitting in my Mam's living room in Roker.

I'm really curious as to what that little solo sound is that starts off the ambient solo bathroom air conditioner section right near the end of the track. It's like a little creature talking to you!  How the heck did he create this sound?  I've never heard anything like it before!

This video explains the aircon sound at least, Shawn

I certainly don't want to add to your load, but did spot a couple of Windows chaptering tools for AAC/MP4 files:

//http://www.sjhaley.com/ipodabc/index.htm

//http://lodensoftware.com/chapter-and-verse/

Might give Huw something to do as penance ...  

Thank you kindly, Sir, I'll check those out

(But you do need a Mac, by the way, you really do. Speaketh the Apple shareholder   )

Can't really afford it - and as my entire dayjob career has been geared around PC support I've sort of got used to them. One day, maybe...

Back again: as of 2007, it was held to be better to use AAC as a format to allow chaptering and track labelling as I'm after above. Is that still the case? Any reason why The European Perspective couldn't be in AAC format rather than MP3, Wilf?

160k mp3 is the format stipulated by DLBN. I suppose I could make two versions, but including all the chapter information into the AAC format is, I understand, a fairly onerous task if you don't have a Mac. And I don't

(By the way, Wilf, even if you're not amazing personally [!], your show certainly is: I haven't listened to anything else for weeks, trying to catch up on all of the podcasts. I just don't have a long enough commute though, so am getting further and further behind  

And as welcome an addition Huw is to your programmes, you can tell him that he's headed for a B in German unless he learns to pronounce RPWL properly ... Air Pay Vay Ell, lad ... )

Ha, and he has the cheek to correct ME! There's going to be bother when I get home this evening...

Glad you're enjoying the show, Sir - and ultimately, a short commute is a good thing

May I take this opportunity to give some kudos to your excellent show. I discovered it through some remarks by, I think, TA on this board which got me intrigued and I noticed it was available as a podcast on iTunes. Your show is probably the longest podcast I subscribe to and it is a major task of mine to listen to one whole show within a week but I have been enjoying 1974 Part 1 and 2 tremendously even exposing me to some music that I never got around checking out. Thanks for making my wallet a bit thinner  8-)

Always glad to get people to part with their hard-earned cash for prog, Chris

Really glad you're enjoying the show - I'm still a bit unsure whether five hours a week is too much, but I get carried away, you see...

Also, with the 'Progyears' shows if I did shorter podcasts I'd probably have to do about six of them to cover one year. I would quite like to get to the present day in my own lifetime  :mrgreen:

Thanks for your feedback, Chris, it really is appreciated!

incidentally, I'm not actually that amazing. But it's fun to dream

...it will be in The Amazing Wilf's show at the weekend,

On Sunday, I believe.
When I shall be ensconced at my Sister's and without net access

Ahh, but Wilf's shows are podcasted almost immediately.
You never know, TDLBN might get their archive up long before next weekend.

I'll most likely put it 'live' on Saturday - the iTunes feed reacts within the hour of me doing it. I recorded the episode today, so it's ready to go now - but I don't want to seem to be involved in a wee-weeing contest with the other DJs on DLBN to broadcast! Lots of the other DJs will be playing it too, in a concerted push to sell lots of copies of TPE.

It's a big show again, so I've put TDL at the start of it, to save those who can't stomach five hours of bizarre European stuff from their spinal cords reaching up and strangling their brains. After all, The Smell Of Incense isn't for everyone  :twisted:

I'll say it again, are you sure that's their website :lol:

And I'll say it again - it is now

Not sure why I put that in wrong...

Quite an interesting new band from Spain, this - and they've made their album available as a free download. It's sort of minor-chordy, guitar-led, girly-vocal sort of stuff. I'll be playing a bit on this weekend's TEP, but it's worth checking out the whole thing, very pleasant.

The singer is a big Magenta fan, which comes as no surprise

Harvest's website

Then again, Ikea might feel a little less overwhelming if I could wander through it wrapped in a warm blanket of Christina Booth's euphonious tones ...  

You need something to get you through IKEA. It calls to me the week after next, as we will be redecorating and refitting Spoffo's bedroom. Hate, hate, hate.