Equip 84 - Auschwitz

 

I never posted this 1967 record on the original site, I had the track ready to post, record scanned and mp3 files ready, then the record appeared on another site, so I substituted another record and thought I will post this in a year or two's time, I had some difficulty finding this record I found a CD of Equipe 84's greatest hits, this track was on the CD unfortunately it was in Italian, I have a theory that at one time or another everything will turn up at a Boot Sale, and sure enough I found this record at a Boot Sale, the track has appeared on one CD in the 'Guitars On Fire' series, the CD's are probably rarer the the record and have been unavailable for at least the last 15 years.

When I lived in Greenford I would go and buy a newspaper in the morning, at the time I worked permanent nights, there was an article in the paper condemning this record, I chuckled as the record had been released about 10 years before the article in the paper, this record was part of Kenny Everett's 'Worlds Worst Records' but he could never bring himself the play it and always played the "B" side.

Equipe 84 - "Auschwitz" (in inglese / English version, 1967)

Model Railway Musings

I acquired this loco some time ago, it as missing its buffers, whistle and a few other bits, on the buffer beams the paint had been striped off, however the loco ran very well, the original makers of this loco, Hattons has ceased trading, the rights to the model have passed to another company, and they do not hold spare buffers for the original models, this model had distinctive buffers, there are aftermarket replacements however these are not presently available, I toyed with the idea of fitting dumb buffers (blocks of wood), I had noticed that another company had large head buffers available as a spare part for one of their models (Dapol's Hawthorn Leslie 0-4-0), I purchased a set of 4, on arrival a test fit showed that the holes on the buffer bean were too small for the new buffers, I finally sored out a drill bit of the correct size and enlarged the buffer beam holes and glued the new buffers in place, when the glue was dry I painted the buffer beams, the whistle and couplings were replaced, I looked through my spare DCC decoder box and found a suitable DCC decoder, this engine needs a very small decoder, it had originally been intended to use a Hattons six pin decoder, during production it was announced that the intended Hattons decoder would not fit and that a Guagemaster 23 (later 93) decoder would be required,

fitting and programming the decoder went without any problems. All that's left to do is knock up some injectors as these always break off when removing the body and were missing when the loco arrived.

 

At the recent Toy Fair in Ewell I brought 6 wagons for £15, one wagon still had its original box with the price sticker attached, by todays prices £1.75p is cheap, at the time this wagon was originally sold £1.75p would have brought 7 pints of beer and had 7p change, one of the things I always do with rolling stock is change the plastic wheels for metal ones and also change the couplings to more modern slimline ones, I mused as both the couplings and th wheels each cost more than the original wagon.

Katina - Don't Stick Stickers On My Paper Knickers

Records are like buses you wait ages for a particular record to turn up and several turn up together, there are a number of different versions of this song. the others are by X-Certificate and Delila Sampson all three turned up at the same Boot Sale, at another Boot Sale I managed to get all three of the records released on the Sovereign Label.

Over the past few years records at Boot Sails have become quite scarce, other thing that used to be frequently found and that have disappeared are  8 track cartridge layers, record players, cassette tapes, tape recorders, televisions & video recorders, I always use the back entrance to the Boot Sales as it is literally at the end of the road I live in, and I always walk to the Boot Sales, in the past no matter how early I got there, I would always see somebody leaving the Boot Sale beaming and carrying a stereo system, there was also a group of ladies who one week they would buy all the televisions, the next stereo systems, then the next week computers, it turned out they would export them to Ghana.

Katina - Don't Stick Stickers On My Paper Knickers

A Quite Week

I had to book a blood test at Epsom Hospital for a future appointment at the Hospital, I got there about 10 minuets before my appointment I signed in at the reception and before I had got to the waiting room they were calling my name, I was out of the hospital 5 minuets before my appointment was due,

They were going to try and reschedule last Friday's cancelled fishing trip, so for I have not had details o a possible date, the picture is from a trip from Brighton a few years ago.

Heath Hampstead - I Started A Joke

 

This 1968 release filled the gap left by not issuing the original Bee Gees version of this song, there is some mystery who Heath Hampstead was/is, one suggestion was that it was the Bee Gees themselves with a different brother on the vocals, this has been dismissed, the only information I gleaned from another site was the singers first name was Tony and he was a Hairdresser in Acton, the info came from one of his clients she was told his family name but had forgotten it, this was the second of 4 releases for Heath Hampstead.

 Heath Hampstead - I Started A Joke

Fishing Cancelled

 Fridays fishing trip was cancelled, the trip had been confirmed I spent the early afternoon making rigs for Spurdogs, it's easier to make them at home as  200lb nylon is not the easiest  to knots in with cold hands, some time ago I was prescribed a Statin substitute within a very short time of starting using it, I started to lose the use of my fingers and my hands would cramp up, I stopped taking the drug but the damage was done, every time I have a blood test they try to prescribe me Statins but I refuse, I got a call the fishing has been cancelled, the skipper to save time in the morning went to the fuel pontoon on his way back to the mooring a rope got tangled around one of the props, he eventually managed to find a diver who could investigate and remove the rope, on informing the marina they said before any work could commence they needed a full Health and Safety assessment, we are looking for an alternate date.

They held a Toy Fair at Bourne Hall Ewell on Saturday starting at 10.00 they had a slight problem as they could not gain access until 09.00, so when I arrived at the opening time there was little set up, it was not a very large Toy Fair with only 3 or 4 traders, they have held Toy Fairs there before but they were always in the evenings. for some reason they stopped well over 20 years ago.

Bee Gees - I Started A Joke

For some reason this song did not have a UK release as a single despite it reaching being a hit in a number of country's, I did acquire this track as a single, there was no country of origin shown on the single, it was later found out it was a German pressing.

The first time I heard this song was on a TV program ' Frankie Howard meets the Bee Gees', prior to this I had seen the Bee Gees LP Idea in a shop window and had decided that I wanted that LP for Christmas, at that time knowing little about the Bee Gees, just after Christmas I made my way into Kingston and brought the LP, getting it home and putting the LP on the record player there was no sound, the cartridge had failed, it was a week later after the record player had ben repaired that I finally got to play the LP.   

I Started A Joke

 

Victory Class 0-6-0T

 In a recent post I mentioned that I had started a 'Future Engine Fund' to help pay for the models of the Kerr Stewart 'Victory' class when they were produced, when the models were ready there was only about £80 in the fund, so I left it and paid for the engines,  in reality during the First Word War it was acknowledged that the 'Inland Docks &Waterways' needed some more powerful locomotives, that also had to work over the National Rail Network, ten were built and suppled the 'Inland Docks and Waterways' however the Government commandeered the locomotives some time after delivery to shunt military traffic in various ports, after the war ended the locomotives were sold off six went to collieries, the other four were brought by railway companies three to South Wales concerns and the fourth to the East Kent Railway, none of the class survived into preservation, a group was trying to acquire the last survivor of the class, the engine shed it was stored in collapsed and the engine was a write off.

Earlier in the month I brought some more records, about a hundred UK issue singles and EP's and a further fifty or so American issues, I will have to put the trains away and start downloading the records.

It has been a busy week as they decided to change out our smart electricity meter for a new one.

Jan & Kelly - I Could Have Died.

 

For some reason the 'A' side of their second single, Make ME A Doormat, is not on you tube but the 'B' side is.

Jan & Kelly : I Could Have Died