The Kiddieland Chorus - Songs For Children

There's mumblings in the media about the some sections of youth of today rejecting the cruddy sound of CD's and even worse noise of an mp3 and instead taking up the more decadent aural delights of vinyl records. Some of it is hipster bandwagoning, I'm sure, but it warms the cockles of my heart to know that the next generation of music lovers are ready to take on the mantle of being vinyl bores.

However this revolution isn't happening quick enough for my liking. For unless there's a tipping point of teenagers demanding to be able to buy the sounds of their latest favourite, fly by night indie band, pressed in that glorious black plastic, the likelihood of top quality record shops reappearing on the high street is going to remain a wistful pipe dream.

I yearn for the return of those dusty shabby overpriced music stores haphazardly stacked full of platters in no discernible order, run by insolent staff barely able to suppress their contempt for the customers. It's part of my cultural heritage visiting such establishments. The well worn ritual of tramping along to some inauspicious part of town, foregoing the convenience and comfort of being able to sit in front of my computer and ordering the latest 'must have' tracks in a jiffy for my music fix. This is an essential part of my cultural fibre and I demand to have the right to cross the threshold of a premise, as described above, to have my hard earned wonga relieved of me by some callow oik, who has correctly surmised that here comes another £50 man, recommend me the usual Snow Patrol and Fleetwood Mac remastered albums from the Dad rock section, before sending me merrily on my way clutching the bounty in a crisp plastic bag which will break five minutes down the road.

The only thing that's going to properly redress the balance and return music commerce to it's former glory, is to speed up the process of enlightenment for our poor misguided weens in a mass program of indoctrination, starting from the moment they can recognise sounds and visualise circles. I'm proposing blanket exposure to top quality nursery rhymes delivered via the magic of a child proof record player, preferably one that looks like a suitcase, a concession to quell any quibbles of lack of portability, i - phones eat your heat out, take a look at this little beauty shown here! the evidence is irrefutable.. the kid is captivated by the wonder of watching that single spin round and round, delivering three minutes of musical fun and it's so easy to flip that golden number over with none of the hassle of having to choose between the thousands of tunes stored in the library of a conventional mp3 player. The kids will thank us for it when they grow up and remember: children are our future!

The Kiddieland Chorus directed by actor Lee Gotch

A High Fidelity Programme of Nursery Rhymes: Activity Songs: Counting and Alphabet: Sleep Songs. Recorded at Capital Tower, Hollywood on the Pye Golden Guinea label.

Side One

Old King Cole

Mary Had Little Lamb

Peas Pudding Hot

Simple Simon

Sing A Song Of Sixpence

To Market, To Market
Ding Dong Bell

Little Jack Horner

Three Blind Mice

A Frog He Would A Wooing Go

Hickory Dickory Dock

Hey Diddle Diddle

Side Two

Old MacDonald Had A Farm

London Bridge
Mulberry Bush

Alphabet Song

Calendar Song
Ten Little Indians
Rock A Bye Baby

Sweet And Low

A couple of alternative covers are shown as well, including one featuring a rather dull woodland scene, via Jacob Whittaker (please contact me if you want this removed) apparently there's also a version featuring the legendary British actress Wendy Craig around but no images found so far.

Lee Gotch was behind The Ivy Barflies record which was full of drinking songs sung presumably aimed at college going party guys. Was this really a suitable role model to be involved in an album aimed at our impressionable youth!

www.flickr.com/photos/jacobwhittaker/4106635722/

www.rateyourmusic.com/artist/lee_gotchs_ivy_barflies

www.discogs.com/Lee-Gotchs-Ivy-Barflies-To-The-Tables-Down-At-Morys/release/1428401

http://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/the_kiddieland_chorus/songs_for_children_f1/bum/the_kiddieland_chorus/songs_for_children_f1/

John Ryan animator and creator of children's favourite cartoon pirate Captain Pugwash, died one week ago today. Here at Scratchy Towers, we wanted to pay our respects to a man, who brought enormous pleasure to many generations of children during their tea time television viewing treat.

I certainly remember when I was a little '45' looking forward to switching on to see the exploits of Captain Horatio Pugwash, Master Mates, Cut Throat Jake and the rest of the rather inept crew of the Black Pig ship. The character of Pugwash first appeared in the very first edition of The Eagle comic in 1950 but then made the leap to the B.B.C as a series of five minute cartoons, first broadcast in 1957. Ryan had devised a very simple but effective way of animating the character, using cardboard cutouts and he went on to make 56 episodes up to 1966. The series was resurrected in 1974/5 for another thirty episodes, this time in glorious colour, numerous books were written along the way as well as other merchandising spin offs.

So with a tip of the pirate hat and time to raise a glass of rum, we salute you John Ryan from this 'lolloping landlubber!' rest in peace.

Readers of The Eagle comic may remember one of his other creations 'Harris Tweed, Extra Special Agent' and Lettice Leefe, 'the Greenest Girl in School' who appeared in Eagle’s companion comic, Girl.

John Ryan's other notable cartoon creations were Sir Prancalot and Mary, Mungo and Midge which was aimed at a younger audience and was broadcast on the B.B.C back in 1969. It was narrated by the BBC newsreader Richard Baker and ran for just a single series of thirteen episodes. Grasping for a vinyl link to Ryan's output, has reminded me of this record which was released via B.B.C records in 1977, which has so far eluded me on my vinyl hunting, but nevertheless should make an appearance on this site because it looks like a little treasure.

The three main characters of the series were the little girl Mary, her dog Mungo and a mouse Midge, who lived with Mary's parents on the top floor of a tower block. This was a radical setting for this type of show and captures the brief period of optimism high rise living experiment in the post war years. However, one or two of the negative aspects of this social model of housing were inadvertently hinted at with Mary being too small to press the button in the lift to get back up to the eighth floor. A little ingenuity followed with Mungo getting on Mary's shoulders and Midge scurrying to the top of the pile in order to press the button.

Mary, Mungo and Midge - Opening and Closing Credits - 1969

Obituaries
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jul/24/obituary-john-ryan

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6726684.ece

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/tv-radio-obituaries/5899923/John-Ryan.html

Useful Links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Mungo_&_Midge

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Pugwash

http://www.toonhound.com/pugwash.htm

http://www.toonhound.com/marymungomidge.htm

http://www.discogs.com/John-Ryan-Mary-Mungo-And-Midge/release/958945

2 Pigs 1 'Up?

Those of a nervous disposition should look away now. AVERT YOUR EYES lest your conscious be consumed by all the shame & fear in your heart!

If you were born post 1970 it's very likely you have no memory of these little chaps save from sickly 'remember the 60's - weren't they crap' video clip shows.

The product of 2 Czech immigrants Jan & Vlasta Dalibor, they were the teletubbies of the day for 11 years until they were canned in 1968. With "cute" speeded up voices & covers of popular tunes (including - of course - "puppet on a string"!) they became the first single ever bought for me.

Ahh, Bless! *pauses to vom*

It's very hard for me to rate these tracks as they invoke overriding memories for me (and for the nursery rhyme LP that I couldn't listen to the last track of cos it really shitted me up!). I leave it to you to judge for yourselves.

They say time is a healer (at least, Little Feat did) - I'm going to go cuddle teddy now.

The "Up, Up & Away" single features:

1. Up, UP & Away (Webb)

2. Doctor Doolittle (Bricusse)

3. Puppet on a String (Martin-Coulter)

4. All You Need Is Love (Lennon-McCartney)

You can hear rips of these at http://homepage.ntlworld.com/mike.chalkley/Wavs/

Sparky's Magic Piano

Sparky's Magic Piano is a record, based on the exploits of a little boy with an over active imagination. This is the second in a series of children’s audio stories featuring Sparky, an original character created for Capitol Records in 1947. The album shown is a double header with ‘Sparky and the Talking Train’ on the flip side, my copy was pressed in 1961. Henry Blair portrayed Sparky, throughout most of the series, Ray Turner carried out piano duties, the music was credited to Billy May and narration of the story on is by Verne Smith.

The story concerns a little boy who has got an over active imagination, that takes him off into a dream world, where he can talk to his piano. Sparky initially, doesn’t like taking his piano lessons, but when he starts to communicate with his special piano, he is suddenly able to play brilliantly, to the amazement of his mother and piano teacher. A concert tour follows and Sparky turns into a star, but the adulation goes to his head. The piano has had enough of this behaviour and decides to take him down a peg or two. It refuses to co-operate during a big performance, at Carnegie Hall, leading to onstage disaster and humiliation for the young lad. Sparky is brought back down to earth and also back to reality with a bump, but not before he vows to practice properly and gain achievement on merit this time.

On the flip side, is 'Sparky and the Magic Train' In this story, Sparky hears the voice of a steam train that he’s on, who warns him of impending disaster further up the track. No one believes him at first of course, and why should they, he’s a serial fibber, however he eventually persuades the driver to stop the train in the nick of time and all ends well.

The kid's obviously prone to telling a few whoppers and needs something to calm him down. To be frank, Sparky's a bit of a pain, with his wholesome as apple pie demeanour, but you can’t deny the timeless quality of the tales, which have a lasting appeal for children. Luckily, I grew up on stuff like ‘The Faraway Tree’ and ‘Alice in Wonderland’ they were proper left field fables to engage and freak out an overly imaginative youngster and reading them never did me any harm, let me tell you.

Sparky has also appeared in comic books as a side kick to Capitol’s other famous creation, Bozo The Clown.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sparky

If you feel the need to listen to it, Sparky can be downloaded here or there

One of the many pleasures of trawling for new music, is having a happy little accident and stumbling across an interesting band, that’s previously been off my radar. This is the case with Sparky’s Magic Piano, a duo from London, whose website popped up, whilst doing some perfunctory research for the above item.

Marion Turnbull and Oliver Bartlett create a D.I.Y indie-electro groove thang with glockenspiels, recorders and synthesisers thrown into the mix. The results are simple and charming pop tunes that give a warm glow, like toasting marshmallows by the open fire on a Sunday, waiting for ‘The Muppet Show’ to come on. Marion’s very English clipped vocals remind me of Sarah Nixey's on Luke Haines’ Black Box Recorder project, with a sprinkling of Saint Etienne's approach to music making, cast into the mix. They self released a debut album in 2007, called ‘Feel The Beat And Do It Anyway!’ on Melody Factory label. The single ‘Like Falling In Love’ is particularly perky and as they develop, I'm sure extra sparks will create some more spell binding magical songs, in the near future.

http://www.myspace.com/sparkysmagicpiano

http://www.melodyfactory.com/shop/

Cmon Get Happy! It's The Partridge Family

By popular demand (well err..one request) we have some top quality cheesy bubblegum pop from the early Seventies. The Partridge Family was an American t.v sitcom about a widowed mum and her five children, designed to be wholesome family entertainment like The Brady Bunch. Think of the Waltons crossed with The Monkees and.. well you get the idea. It ran for nearly 100 episodes and made a teen heart throb star out the main character David Cassidy. I'm sure many girls (and some boys!) had his poster pinned up on their purple flock wallpapered walls and what better to complement this scene than a nice slab of Partridge vinyl to sing along to. Of course, I'm far too young to remember them first time around but I couldn't resist picking up a couple of these records recently. 'The Partridge Family Sound Magazine' surprisingly did make me get happy with an array of catchy tunes which hold up pretty well in the bubblegum genre. It is thought of as probably their best album and is worth a couple of spins when you are in an Abigail's Party mood. The Partridge Family Shopping Bag is less spin worthy however and has the feel of a franchise running out of steam. It promised me a free shopping bag inside on the cover, which must be one of the strangest marketing promos ever, but that has long since gone.. Design wise, the cover really captures the commercial appropriation of sixties psychedelia combined with early seventies shouty colours aesthetic. Alan Partridge mixed with The Manson Family anyone?

http://www.cmongethappy.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Partridge_Family

http://www.bradyresidence.com/

http://www.monkees.net/default.htm