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*

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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*

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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.

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Brutal. About 40 minutes.

A pretty nice cycling day today, but I'm on call. Also, I was keen to try out my Planet X following its maintenance yesterday, which involved furnishing it with a new rear mech, hanger, gear cable and chain. Not wise to stray too far from home in those circumstances but I was keen to clock up a decent distance, so last night I planned a route that would take me down south-east to Kirby Muxloe, then west right across to Warton, taking in Fenn Lanes, then north-east back homeward. A decently interesting ride, without straying too far from base. I hoped.

I didn't actually plot it out on a route planner, so I didn't know the exact distance. I was going to improvise a bit, anyway.

I set off at about 0845. Yesterday's forecast had threatened rain in the late afternoon, but I was pleased to see this morning that the meteorologists had changed their mind about that. Just as I set off, a gentleman with a striking resemblance to Boris Johnson strolled past and wished me a good morning. Surely a good omen.

Very happy to find that the bike was running very nicely - I'd half-expected the chain to skip for the first few miles, where I'd joined two lengths of chain. But all the gear changes were nice and smooth. I didn't try any of the stupid combinations, smaller ring at the front and smallest cog at the back for example. But I try to avoid those anyway. I'm sure they wouldn't have caused a disaster. I did regret choosing a route with a few steep climbs, not really what you want with an untested chain. But everything was fine.



The ride didn't go exactly as I'd mentally sketched out, but I did roughly what I'd intended. I found myself at Ratby at one point which wasn't part of the plan, but I visited the Co-op there and acquired a sandwich and some freshly baked cheese & onion rolls. Nice.

After Kirkby Mallory I took the wrong turn on the A444 and ended up at Stapleton instead of Sutton Cheney. But I followed a sign to Dadlington. I knew I'd find Fenn Lanes from there. This took me along a country lane that was a bit stony and ill-maintained, but it wasn't too bad. I took the pic at Dadlington.

From Fenn Lanes I did a sort of reverse Bypasser with some deliberate meandering to clock up some extra miles. I was determined to do a fondo by this time. This involved coming along the fast road from Ashby for a couple of miles which was a bit hairy, but at least it was mostly downhill.

Back on 62.84 miles.

Mostly nice weather, cloudy in the morning but sunny later. I removed my new cycling tights at about 1100 and a fleece about 90 minutes later. My legs were a bit hairy and I was slightly embarrassed every time I glanced down, but I've given them a good seeing to with a razor in the bath since I got back.

Listened mostly to 5 Live which annoyingly was largely devoted to golf coverage, but there was a very good interview with Mark Knopfler on Patrick Kielty's show. And I listened to the Prefab Sprout album From Langley Park to Memphis.

That was a really nice run out. Very happy to have the green bike available for use again.

https://www.strava.com/activities/11173148147

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About 80 seconds I think.

No cycling today, but: I did finally get round to sorting out the Planet X. New hanger, rear mech, chain and gear cable fitted. Only took about half an hour.

Annoyingly, the KMC 11 speed chain I'd bought was too short! So I made up the length with an unused bit of chain from the last KMC 11 speed chain I bought. They aren't actually exactly the same - the new chain is shiny metal with black centre links, whereas the spare links are uniformly dull steel coloured.

I only had one quick link so I had to join them using a chain tool. I knew hoarding spare bits of chain would come in handy one day.

I was going to leave setting it up for another day but I went ahead and finished the job. The chain seems to be going round smoothly enough and doing all the changes properly on the stand, but I dare say it'll need tweaking after a ride.