Auf Wiedersehen Pet

Wayay bonny lad!

Another reup from years back and this one's the soundtrack from one of the best TV series ever made; it's reet canny laik. 'Auf Wiedersehen Pet' is the story of a group of builders moving to Dusseldorf, Germany in search of work and the scrapes they get in to along the weir.

The soundtrack features a lot of incidental and background music from the series as well as Joe Fagin's memorable theme tunes which ran at the start and end of each shore. I cannae g'enough man!

 

Auf Wiedersehen Pet 256kbps CBR

Try the first episode. If the Geordie accent is hard to understand, you'll be happy to find a Scoucer and a Brummy also in the cast, so don't worry.

The automatic subtitles generated by Youtube will help to clear things up I'm sure (no they won't).

I once showed a clip of this show to a Hungarian friend and he said 'don't tell me you can actually understand this'.. we'll I had some practice watching this fine series as a kid. If you think of English as your first language, you may need to think again!

Ray Conniff - The Ray Conniff Hi-Fi Companion

Here's a treat - if you prefer vocalisations (da da das and oo oo be-dos) instead of lyrics, then this one's for you. 

Back in 1960 Hi-Fis were obviously feeling a bit lonely as nobody could fit into the room in which they were installed, so Ray Conniff took pity and brought out 'Hi-Fi Companion' which features selected tracks from albums he'd done up to that time. He chose to omit tracks from albums he'd not yet done, but we'll forgive him for that as this is a corker.

Batchelors of 1960 soon found that this was the perfect accompaniment to drinking and smoking far too much, but with the veneer of class which this music provides, the resulting enlarged liver and emphysema were deemed worthwhile.

I found it difficult to find a copy of sufficient quality, so this particular upload was pieced together using CD quality tracks from those aforementioned albums so that you too can drink and smoke to excess whilst you pretend to be Don Draper.

Ray Conniff - The Ray Conniff Hi-Fi Companion 260kbps VBR

Geoff Love And His Orchestra - Your Top TV Themes

Who's TV themes are these? Oh they're mine.. or maybe they're yours. I'm not sure. Maybe whoever reads the writing on the cover can lay claim to this masterpiece.

It's very generous of Geoff Love to award these themes to us, just for going to Age Concern and paying 99p. Or was it 26 shillings and elevenpence? It was obviously a confusing time when decimalisation came in as that would equal £1.34 and 1/2p (ish) so I got a bargain there. Up yours Age Concern! You've been done!

Anyway, feel free to sample the world of mostly UK TV themes circa 1972 as provided by Mr Love. Sid James is prominent on the cover due to the presence of sitcom 'Bless this House' which was pretty diabolical from the bits I've seen. 'Crossroads' is here and again it was terrible but the closing credits were fun to watch.

All are fairly loyal versions and were made to quell the civil unrest that the TV theme hysteria of that year caused. Looting was widespread and so these records were strategically placed among the broken glass and overturned Capris. Eventually the public was back to its usual docile self and all that could be heard were the soft sounds of the theme from 'Match of the Day' emanating from unrepaired windows.

Geoff Love And His Orchestra - Your Top TV Themes 260kbps VBR

Black Lace - Do The Conga 12"

Had you been listening closely to 'The Chicken Song' on the previous offering from Spitting Image, you may be wondering who 'those two wet gits with their girly, curly hair' are and they're these two.

 

Previously uploaded to X-Y-Z-Cosmonaut's blog in 2006, this rip hasn't dated at all. It still sounds just as crap and my joke about sex with fish is just as bad. If you are about to do a conger, just make sure that you insert it into the correct end.

This extended mix features instructions on how to have an especially good time dancing and two key changes. They wanted to keep the key changes going, but it turned out that only bats could hear the end of the original mix so they had to abandon it.

Black Lace - Do The Conga 12" 256kbps CBR

Spitting Image - Spit in Your Ear (with free poster)

Now for some cutting-edge satire from 36 years ago, courtesy of Spitting Image. There's a lot packed on to this record, so I'll pick out a few random bits for mentioning here.

A note for non-UK residents - you may not understand a lot of characters and references, but you'll probably recognise enough to make this worth downloading. Er, well not 'worth downloading' exactly, but if you're bedbound with a broken pelvis then it may take your mind away from the pain somewhat.

There's a fair bit of royal family here, but from 1986. Diana, Philip and Princess Margaret aren't dead, Andrew's not shamed, Charles isn't quite such a sanctimonious arse and Harry is a tiny babe in arms; he has yet to grow into a sanctimonious arse.

There's ZZ Top singing about their beards and being interrupted by John Cole (BBC journalist) for some inexplicable reason. What about 'The Chicken Song'? That's here. We have Margaret Thatcher and Neil Kinnock sparring in the House of Commons and there's an unfortunate song called 'I've never met a nice South African' which reflects attitudes towards the shunned SA of 1986. Funny, but many South Africans are now living here and I've not met a bad one.

The President of the USA also gets mocked for being scatterbrained - imagine that.

Worthy of note are a couple of names cutting their comedy teeth. We have Chris Barrie and Harry Enfield before their success, providing dodgy impressions for cash. The better part of Spitting image is the puppets, so having an audio-only experience falls about as flat as this record. However this is Pigeonshit after all, so it clears the bar nicely.

Spitting Image - Spit in Your Ear 260kbps VBR

For anyone wondering what the show's like, here's an episode from back in the day -

 

Since 'World Athletics' are such twats, you'll need to go and watch this on Youtube (the link works).

Bob Blaine - Country Music for Bedtime

 I wasn't sure what to expect from this judging by the cover; it looked like a comedy album but it's just a load of laid-back country music provided by Bob Blaine. He's not a big name in country music; perhaps because he was born in Liverpool.

It might have been very amusing to have his songs performed in a scouse accent, but alas it was not to be. The gun he's sporting on the back cover must have come in handy though.

Although my tastes lie more towards the rockabilly end of things, I often state to friends that I'm a 'country member', and they reply with 'yes, we remember'.

Bob Blaine - Country Music for Bedtime 260kbps VBR

Klaus Wunderlich - Hammond Concerto

Travel with me back to around 1960; a young, fresh-faced Herr Wunderlich has grown concerned that the car boot sales and thrift stores of future decades may not have enough records. He's decided to do something about this awful dearth of cheap old schallplatten, producing his opening opus - Hammond Concerto - in mono.

Keen to capitalise on this philanthropic gesture, Telefunken soon decides to add to the pile with a stereo version which found its way into my arms via the Brighton Marina car boot sale over 50 years later. 

Unfortunately the picture of Klaus which was used for the original was accidentally sat on and badly creased, so it couldn't be used for the stereo version. Below is a picture of the youthful Klaus from that original record. He's almost unrecognisable but for that hard stare we all know and love.

The content of 'Hammond Concerto' can definitely be classified as light music; it reminds me of short low budget films produced in the USA at about that time, in which first dates at wiener roasts might be portrayed.

After the visual treat above, the cover of my record is a little lacking but the promise of stereo almost makes up for it. 

 

Klaus Wunderlich - Hammond Concerto 260kbps VBR