'Do A Jigsaw!'

 With things the way they are at the moment most of us are being forced to spend more of our time indoors. Now, many of you will see that as being ’stuck’ indoors rather than a blessing but it doesn’t have to be as miserable and frustrating as that!

All you have to do is have the fortitude to get yourself off of your mobile phone and switch off the T.V. and your computer for a while and take a leaf out of how people in the 1950’s and 60’s passed their time indoors. 

Now, before you get ‘too excited’ I’m not talking about how  it was common to have 6 sisters and 5 brothers back then I am talking about ‘hobbies’! (lol)

Why not clear a space on the kitchen table and then have a go at a jigsaw puzzle?  A decent puzzle takes up a LOT of time! If you choose a puzzle that you like the look of and am interested in the subject matter of then spending some quiet ‘down time’ scrabbling through boxes trying to locate just the right piece can be absorbing, relaxing fun!

Sales of jigsaw puzzles have ‘gone through the roof’ during the last few months and websites like, Jigsawpuzzle.co.uk  Gibsons Games, The Works, W.H. Smiths or of course the habitual Amazon (though they are often more expensive here because sellers know we are all lazy!) are all great places to browse.

I am a fan of the Yorkshire Artist, Trevor Mitchell because I LOVE all of the retro, typically English scenes he paints. Thankfully, a lot of Trevor’s work gets picked up by Gibsons Games and their latest addition to the ‘Mitchell Canon’ is one of Trevor;’s finest of all works - ‘The Queen’s Speech’.

Just take a look at this wonderfully emotive picture! Trevor may have taken his inspiration for the painting from life in the 1950’s but - give or take a few details - this is EXACTLY the kind of Christmas I remember as a kid in the 1960’s and early 70’s. Gibsons have only recently released ‘The Queen’s Speech’ as a 1000 piece puzzle ( it was previously only available as a 500 piece version in a four puzzle set) and I am awaiting mine in the post any day now!

My Nan’s house in Battle Rd was almost a carbon copy of this front room!

Photo Courtesy of Jigsawpuzzle.co.uk

The only major difference being that at my Nan’s it wasn’t actually the front room of the house at all but the smaller, easier to heat room that led out to the back garden. Nan therefore had glass windows and a door rather than a brick wall as far as the back of the picture is concerned but aside from that the fireplace, mirror and positioning of the chairs is pretty much the same. 

I grew up associating ‘Quality Street’ chocolates with Christmas and Nan’s T.V was in roughly the same place as in the picture so this is how we al would have huddled around to watch the Queens speech on Christmas Day. I used to have a lot of Matchbox cars rather than Corgi Toys and none of my family have ever been ones for much booze (boring gits!) but Nan would sometimes break out glasses of ‘Bristol Creme’ Sherry after Christmas Dinner. The clock on the mantlepiece and Christmas cards either side of it are accurate as is the positioning of the grate (though Nan’s was much smaller than that). 

There is NOTHING like a real fire to ‘cuddle up around’ at Christmas - especially if it is FREEZING in all the other rooms - and Nan did use to but both the T.V. Times & Radio Times magazines and put them in a magazine wrack just like the one you see in the picture (though it was in a different place next to Nan’s chair, which would have been out of picture at the end of the table far bottom right).

For all of the reasons above and because I miss my Nan (who died aged 104!)

My Lovely Nan (Ronnie)

I LOVE this picture and hope to spend many an hour trying to put the puzzle of it together over Christmas this year when my copy arrives from Gibsons!

Trevor is a brilliantly talented Artist and seems to me (from the few e mail exchanges I have had with him) to be both a ‘Christmas person’ and a thoroughly nice chap. So, why not treat yourself or someone you know this Christmas to something of Trevor’s? If you visit https://www.trevormitchellartist.com you will find his website. I have also bought two of Trevor’s 2021 Calendars from the Calendar Club website so if puzzles aren’t quite your bag but you love a bit of nostalgia then maybe that is the route to go down?

Whatever, don’t just sit about frustratedly in front of the T.V. or ‘mindlessly’ browsing the Internet on your phones during lockdown - re-connect yourself with something simple, fun and festive and before you know it you will be smiling again!

'Zat You, Santa Claus?'

You know the more I listen to my copy of 'Cool Yule - A 50's Christmas' the more I love it! If I haven't convinced you to get yourself a copy yet then maybe this post will spur you into action. Louis Armstrong was a real enigma with his totally unique voice and with Jazz being all the rage in the 50's its amazing really that 'Satchmo' was only an occasional visitor to the U.K. charts during the decade.

'Zat You, Santa Claus?' (1953) by the great man is proving to be one of my favourite tracks from 'Cool Yule' and Louis sense of timing is just so brilliant on the track! Fun lyrics and that cool, groovy feel make the song the ultimate Christmas song. I have no idea whether the song was ever released here as a single but if it was it wasn't a hit. How often does that happen though? That an artists best work either fails to chart or is never released as a single, I mean? But then, in these days of downloads the 'single' format as we knew and loved it has been made redundant for now every track on any album is effectively a single and able to get into the charts if it sells enough copies...

Old fashioned me really HATES that, you know? There was something really exciting as a kid in the 70's about discovering your favourite artist or band had a new single out. The joys of discovering a great track on the 'b side' was all part of the fun as well and then, of course, there was the picture sleeve and (if the artist you loved was big enough) the excitement of seeing a new interview pop up in 'Record Mirror', 'Jackie', 'Popswap', 'Disco 45', 'Look-In' or other magazines/musical newspapers. Once the song was in the charts you could even delight in getting the lyrics in 'Disco 45' so you could sing a long yourself!

Sadly, all of that has now gone out of the window. Who really ever bothers putting together a CD single anymore? If they do chances are that it has only tracks on it from the parent album... There isn't anything for kids to collect anymore, tacky badges, sticker collections, picture discs have all passed away leaving only maybe a T Shirt or a 'Deluxe Edition' of an album to encourage anyone to take more than a casual listening interest in an artist.

So, I guess if I was able to get a message to old 'Satchmo' up in heaven today I would send him warm Christmas greetings and thank him for reminding me in 2013 of, the simple, innocent things in life and of my precious childhood. I know my inclusion of a Gary Glitter magazine cover is controversial here but I grew up loving Gary, his style and his music and however badly things have turned out since, I cannot simply re-write my whole life nor stop loving someone who is part of the very fabric of who I am. After all, as Christmas itself often proves to us all, loving someone does not always mean that you get on with them, understand them or can communicate with them, does it?
   

'A Few Christmas Updates'

Now available from Amazon.co.uk!

I have now received my copy of 'A 1950's Christmas - tunes for a cool yule' and can tell you that its a wonderful collection of songs that is guaranteed to send you mentally back to the old days. The album has a very American flavour and thus has a slightly 'showbizz' feel to it but if you love those old B&W Marilyn Monroe films like I do you won't mind that. In fact, listening to it even got me dreaming about spending Christmas with Marilyn and how that would have felt. I am a sucker for anything that makes me think of 'the old days' at the moment and I saw an American lady who looked like Marilyn dressed in 1950's garb at this years 'War & Peace Revival' at RAF Westernhanger. Boy! Did I want to speak to her and ask her to dance with me but I didn't dare (as usual!)...

''

'Marilyn' in pink - Oh Boy! Oh Boy! Oh Boy!

Still, I love anything that brings Marilyn to mind and just seeing someone so beautiful who spoke like her (or at least how I imagine she would have sounded with an American accent) made the whole week really special for me! Thank you darlin' -whoever you are xxxx

I don't know, what an old romantic I am, eh? Getting all starry eyed over Marilyn Monroe just by listening to a 50's CD! It is VERY romantic though this double CD and if you are a bit of an idealist like me you can't help but get swept away by the sweeping strings and romantic lyrics of 'Christmas And You' by Dave King. 

Do yourself a favour and buy a copy - Ronnie Hilton's version of 'White Christmas' is also a refreshing delight as well if you are over familiar with good old Bing's version...

Lastly, don't forget that my favourite Christmas Fair takes place this Sat at St Clement's church in High St in the Old Town of Hastings. Sadly, I am called away to a writing festival in London on the day so I won't be able to be there this year (boo!). I will be sending someone in my place to buy up a lot of presents for my Christmas celebrations though so they won't miss out!

'Two Great & Unusual Christmas Compilations To Look Out For In November'

I am always looking out for new Christmas music to acquire at this time of the year and never grow tired of discovering new festive songs to (hopefully) make each year a special one. Well, now that I have this blog I'm going to flag up some of the forthcoming CD's on the way this year!

Firstly, for lovers of the 1950's, theres a great looking compilation out on Nov 4th entitled 'A 50's Christmas - Times For A Cool Yule'. A double CD, it has 50 festive songs to discover and interestingly includes a number of early U.K. seasonal hits that are now otherwise almost impossible to find on CD. Since I started my research into the U.K.'s festive hits I've had much more interest in the early classics and so this is on my pre-ordered list at Amazon.com!

 The 1950's were a bit before my time but its nice to  be able to step back and experience a totally different feeling Christmas inspired by records from just the one era. A lot of more popular compilations mix and match songs from all eras and perpetuate the same selection of established classics each time. I'm really looking forward to getting hold of this set even though most of the tracks were not U.K hit singles. Most of the content originates from the states so its going to be rather a showbizzzy collection I imagine but hey! I love Marilyn Monroe and so I'm up for a U.S. Christmas! I hope the quality of the sound is as good as the appealing cover. It makes a HUGE difference to a music nutter like me if a product I'm interested in looks great. At the end of the day a CD is just a CD but if the cover looks desirable then I'm much more likely to buy it!

The second compilation I want to draw your attention to is for those of you who love soul & disco music. 'A Funky Christmas' is in fact a CD re-issue of an old Cotillion records compilation from 1976. While the cover looks a bit naff, the album is of real interest because it includes two Christmas songs by the group 'Luther'. Now it will be no surprise to any of you who don't know already that the lead singer of 'Luther' was Luther Vandross. None of the bands original albums have ever seen the light of day on CD (Vandross himself ought up the rights to prevent this for some reason) and so the two tracks from the band here are just about all that its possible to get. 

With some nice songs from The Impressions, 

Margie Joseph, John Edwards and others as well as a few 'funky Christmas instrumentals' this album is sure to be full of sweet delights. I have checked out a few of the songs on Youtube (maybe more on that later) but don't want to spoil the surprise too much when the CD arrives so won't hunt for any more of the tracks. I can tell you though that Mr Vandross sounds every bit as good as we all remember and that must make this album worth the price of admission alone!

Well, more Christmas blogging about forthcoming releases later. 'Funky Christmas' is due to be released in the U.K. on Nov 11th this year.

Happy Listening!