Our mortgage deal is due to expire in May, so I phoned Santander to arrange a new one. But the best deal they could offer me was going to cost me an extra £200 a month, because it's a very short term (due to end in December). The only other option was to pay the whole thing off now.

So they sent me a redemption statement, I did the sums taking into account interest I'd lose and I've just paid off our mortgage. I made a payment of nearly £49,000 using a smartphone app (we were due to pay them £43,600 in December).

Wordle 1,034 4/6*

⬛⬛🟨⬛🟩
⬛🟩⬛⬛🟩
⬛🟩⬛🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Two minutes, but I thought I'd got it on the second go.

The forecast was for showers in the late afternoon but since it's been such a thin cycling month due to the weather, I thought I'd just take the Tricross and accept the conditions. Actually the weather was rather nice when I set off, sunny and mild.

A couple of miles later I noticed that I had a lot more lateral movement in my right shoe than I ought to. I tried to remove the shoe from the pedal, but couldn't! The cleat was securely attached to the pedal, but clearly it wasn't properly attached to the shoe. It wasn't actually giving me any trouble though so I pressed on, hoping I wouldn't need to release my right foot until I had a chance to stop and have a better look, which I did near Twycross.

The front cleat bolt was missing altogether and the two rear bolts were loose. I probably had an Allen key in the saddle bag though. Did I? I still don't know, the zipper was corroded onto the zip and wouldn't budge.

So: I decided my best bet was to remove the cleat (it was easy enough to unscrew the bolts with my fingers) so I wouldn't lose it - and attempt to operate the right pedal like a conventional bike pedal. A mistake, probably. I'd been doing fine with the cleat loosely attached apart from the fear of not being able to unfasten my right foot. But without the cleat, my foot kept slipping off the pedal. It was just about workable though so I kept going but cut across via Little Twycross and Bilstone to keep it short.

Half an hour later, the rain came down. I'd expected showers, but this was 15 minutes of persistent cold rain. Naturally this made the right cycling shoe even more slippery on the pedal.

Only 23.53 miles, but I wouldn't have gone out at all if I'd know it was going to rain like that. I've done 222 this month which I suppose is acceptable. And 1592 this year. This time last year I'd done 1800. Actually I've just noticed that I did a 120 mile ride a year ago today. It was the day I got two punctures near Bourne, a lovely warm day. How can that be a year ago already?

https://www.strava.com/activities/11204052764

Wordle 1,033 3/6*

⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨
🟩🟨🟨⬛🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Quick, about a minute. Very useful second word.

Quote from: Slim on March 21, 2024, 03:35:16 PMJust had a call from Vision Express. They've broken my Oakley cycling frames.

Cross-posted that from the "grumpy" thread with happier news. They refused to replace them, but offered a new pair of frames up to £80 in value (ie inferior). After an argument in the store - their manager lied to my face, claiming I'd been told they were likely to break and this would be at my own risk - I gave up and accepted, but I put a powerfully negative review on Trust Pilot.

Their complaints department contacted me to apologise, offered to replace the Oakleys with the original Oakley frames and told me I could keep the ones I'd already accepted as replacements - which actually I quite like. So I've ended up with a free pair of specs.

I think you nominated most of the well-known Who tunes there - I'd also say I Can See For Miles, Squeezebox, Pictures of Lily maybe, Magic Bus definitely. Who Are You and The Real Me as well.

Similar to my Rolling Stones experience before I embarked upon a Stonesathon, I know some of the albums well (only Quadrophenia and Tommy actually now I think about it), I know some songs from the other albums from rock radio, TV etc but there's a lot of stuff I've never heard.

Wordle 1,032 4/6*

⬛⬛🟩🟨⬛
🟩⬛🟩⬛⬛
🟩⬛🟩⬛🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Nice & quick. 40 seconds.

1. My Generation [December 1965]

Well well, what a very good record!

Because they were at this point part of the same British R&B movement, comparisons with the earliest Rolling Stones material are irresistible. Or I couldn't resist them anyway, but I found this first Who album much more convincing.

To be fair Mick, Keef and friends had already put out three albums in eighteen months by the time the debut Who long player arrived and the times they were a changin' pretty quickly. But this record is so much more powerful, so much more dynamic, so better endowed with catchy hooks and most of all so much more original. The earliest Stones albums consist mainly of covers whereas most - and mostly the best - of the songs here were written by Townshend.

The throbbing, driving bass, the rattling, insistent drums, Daltrey's big, throaty vocals, the crashing, stabbing, ringing rhythm guitar - it all adds up to what must have been a pretty devastating statement of intent for 1965. But it's not only powerful, it's tuneful as well - there are some lovely vocal harmonies and memorable melodies. It hints at power pop as well as R&B.

It's not a sophisticated production job by any means but it's well recorded. The copy I listened to was remastered for the Japanese market straight from the master tapes supposedly; it sounds big and full.

To the best of my knowledge I'd only ever heard My Generation and The Kids are Alright, famously banging tunes of course. But I also especially liked The Good's Gone, which reminds me of The Byrds and the sprightly, uptempo A Legal Matter which Pete sings, and which to be fair borrows from the Stones' The Last Time.

I must say Daltrey's impersonation of a black soul singer on Please, Please, Please is uncanny. You'd honestly think it was James Brown or Little Richard.

Nicky Hopkins tinkles the ivories on one or two tunes, to great effect - including the remarkable The Ox, named for Entwistle of course, an instrumental piece. Hard to know how to categorise this one but whatever it is it's rock music of a sort. Not R&B. Prototype heavy rock over a hyperactive tribal drum part. Townshend's manic, feedback-laden, growling, distorted anarchic guitar predates the first Hendrix and Cream recordings by over a year. Remarkable.

No, always thought they'd be impractical.

I did some professional services work (that's where my employers get a huge sum of money for a one-off job, and I just get my salary as usual) for iRobot a few years ago. They used to make robotic hardware for the US military as well, at one time.

Paul McCartney is playing a gig at a railway station. The stage is down on the tracks, with the audience crowding either side on the embankments. I arrive only to find that I've left my ticket at home.

But Paul comes up to the entrance gate to meet me, and say hello.

Something about Rick's personality grates on me a little. I think his sales schtick is a little over-confident.

But I must admit his interviews are usually brilliant. Very comprehensive, very long usually. He understands music theory and music production so he asks interesting questions other interviewers usually wouldn't. He usually has a knowledge of his subjects' music and career that other interviewers don't. I've been a little embarrassed by some of the questions people have asked Geddy when he was doing the rounds for My Effin' Life for example.

I'd love to see him interview Alex, although Alex doesn't seem to have a lot of music theory knowledge so that could actually prove a little embarrassing for the opposite reason.

His Andy Summers interview was fantastic, I linked it somewhere in Other Music I think.

As well as the interviews I like his analysis videos. He did one for Xanadu. I especially like this one for the old Burt Bacharach tune The Look of Love.

Wordle 1,031 4/6*

⬛⬛⬛⬛⬛
⬛🟨⬛🟨⬛
⬛⬛🟨⬛🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Tough one. About half an hour.

Liverpool defeated at home by Crystal Palace after one of the BBC pundits stated, matter-of-factly before the game, that Palace would be "battered".

Quote from: Thenop on April 14, 2024, 12:38:38 PMSounds like a great plan. I always found the Who to be band that made the 60s to 70s transition the best.

Let's find out!

Yes! They'd morphed seamlessly from mods to rockers by 1968, with a cursory nod to psychedelia along the way.

Quote from: captainkurtz on April 13, 2024, 11:04:06 PMWho's next

Never ceases to amaze.  For me, The Who only have 3 essential records...but they're so essential, it elevates time to one of the all time greats...

I was going to work my way through the studio discography earlier this year but decided to do Kiss instead. I think I'll start it now. I've just bought Pete Townsend's autobiography last week so it'll tie in nicely.