Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice
Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber (1948-) from London and Sir Tim Rice (1944-) from Buckinghamshire, who met in 1965, revived British musical theatre […]
Read MoreAuthor: Purple Brolly
My aim is to give a flavour of these precious islands we call 'the UK'. All research is based on a minimum of two public domain sources, usually more.
Alan Bennett
Author, playwright and screenwriter Alan Bennett (1934-), a Yorkshireman, began writing in 1960, when he was a member of the illustrious Oxford […]
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Secretin
At the time that secretin was discovered, post-Industrial Revolution, scientific materialists were encouraging the idea of a living body being just another […]
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‘New Musical Express’ and ‘Melody Maker’
The world’s first weekly newspaper entirely devoted to music, ‘Melody Maker‘ (MM), began in 1926 and ended in 2000, when it was […]
Read MoreThe world’s first weekly newspaper entirely devoted to music, ‘Melody Maker‘ (MM), began in 1926 and ended in 2000, when it was absorbed by its rival, the ‘New Musical Express‘ (NME), no slouch itself with its first publication in 1946 as the ‘Musical Express’. ‘New..’ was added after a re-vamp in 1952. It eventually ceased printing in 2018 and is now only online.
Although describing ‘Musical Express’, this quote can be applied to both MM and NME: “…[they] dealt with music like it was the most important thing in the world, and … the people who played it were an elect group, apart from everyday society” (Pat Long, 2012). In 1952 NME was the first to print a weekly Top 12 singles chart, compiled initially by phoning 20 record shops and asking for their sales figures. MM went a step further with a Top 20 in 1956, then an LP chart in 1958.
Bands would advertise for new members in the classified ads and careers were shaped by reviews and interviews gladly given to these music industry ‘influencers’ of the 1960s/70s. Both had their ups and downs but just when closure loomed, a new music genre or sub-genre would emerge and subject itself to the intellectual journalistic analysis that revitalised their teenage readership.
(Top images: 1980 and 1991 Melody Maker covers by badgreeb RECORDS at Flickr.com / CC BY-SA 2.0, 1961 NME cover by Bradford Timeline at Flickr.com / CC BY-NC 2.0 and 1993 NME cover by Adrian Brown at Flickr.com / CC BY 2.0)
Roald Dahl Day
Roald Dahl (1916-90) was born in Cardiff to Norwegian parents and Roald Dahl Day is on his birthday, 13th September. It is […]
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The Welfare State
After the Beveridge Report‘s positive public reception, the post-WW2 government passed a spate of legislation to bring in the Welfare State, topped […]
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Winchester
British and French tribes were inhabiting the chalky Hampshire valley of Wenta, with River Itchen winding its way down to the English […]
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The London Olympics
The unpredictable British weather hardly makes us favourites for hosting the Summer Olympics, but London has achieved this on three occasions. The […]
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The Holy Island of Lindisfarne
The tidal 3-mile-wide island of Lindisfarne sits off the sandy Northumberland coast. Its mile-long causeway is revealed twice daily for 7-9 hours […]
Read MoreThe tidal 3-mile-wide island of Lindisfarne sits off the sandy Northumberland coast. Its mile-long causeway is revealed twice daily for 7-9 hours each time. The ‘Holy Island‘, as it became known, was perhaps not the best location for a defenceless timber church and monastery erected in 635, since in 793 they were easily plundered and the monks slaughtered in the Vikings‘ first raid on Britain.
Though more monks arrived, by 875 Danish paganism was in the ascendant, so they fled to the mainland taking their illuminated manuscript, the ‘Lindisfarne Gospels’, with them. It is now in the British Library which, in return, supplied a digital copy to Lindisfarne’s tourist centre. Visitors can also see the ruins of the demolished Priory, built in 1150 when monks returned again.
Two monk-missionaries were responsible for Lindisfarne’s distinction as ‘Holy’. Irishman St. Aidan (c.590-651), who had to learn English when he was summoned there by King St. Oswald (c.604-42), and St. Cuthbert (c.635-87), a local, are both described as being good, popular and successful in reviving Christianity. Nevertheless, each sometimes sought his own solitary monastic life and in Cuthbert’s case he found a perfect spot in another tidal island attached to Lindisfarne ~ much smaller with fewer hours of accessibility.
Order of Merit
King Edward VII (1841-1910) created the Order of Merit (OM) in 1902 in recognition of “..exceptionally meritorious service in Our Navy and […]
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Scheduled Monuments
The Ancient Monuments Protection Act of 1882 established long-awaited regulations for governmental safeguarding of certain historically important tombs, henges, hillforts, barrows, stone […]
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The hypodermic syringe
A fearsome sight for many, the hypodermic syringe was nevertheless an improvement on the animal bladder and hollow goose quill used experimentally […]
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