Phil Spector

I don't suppose that anyone is surprised to see the reports that Phil Spector has been found guilty of murder.

I have always thought that he was rather over rated as a music producer. In many cases, songs that were subjected to his "Wall of Sound" production method were great in spite of that treatment. George Harrison's solo album, All Things Must Pass is a case in point. In later years, even George came to regret having the album produced in that manner, but acknowledged that it was probably not worth remastering the original tapes since it was arguably an historical document. Nonetheless, I'd love to hear it remastered without the Wall of Sound, provided it was done by someone who would treat the material sympathetically. George and Giles Martin, perhaps.


The despair of hairdressers everywhere

The wall of sound works best if you don't listen to it on a hi-fi or in stereo. Find the tinniest transistor radio speaker you can and listen to something like the Ronettes through that. That's where it comes in to its own.

Phil Spector

I don't suppose that anyone is surprised to see the reports that Phil Spector has been found guilty of murder.

I have always thought that he was rather over rated as a music producer. In many cases, songs that were subjected to his "Wall of Sound" production method were great in spite of that treatment. George Harrison's solo album, All Things Must Pass is a case in point. In later years, even George came to regret having the album produced in that manner, but acknowledged that it was probably not worth remastering the original tapes since it was arguably an historical document. Nonetheless, I'd love to hear it remastered without the Wall of Sound, provided it was done by someone who would treat the material sympathetically. George and Giles Martin, perhaps.


The despair of hairdressers everywhere

The wall of sound works best if you don't listen to it on a hi-fi or in stereo. Find the tinniest transistor radio speaker you can and listen to something like the Ronettes through that. That's where it comes in to its own.

Vile people

Realising rather belatedly that my stock of instant coffee here in the office was running low (I didn’t think about it at lunch time), I nipped across to M&S to buy myself a new jar. It’s not as cheap as Sainsbury’s but it is good coffee of the instant variety and fairtrade to boot, so I can feel smug and hyper all at the same time.

There is a very nice woman who works on the tills regularly who wears a badge stating that she is hearing impaired. Judging from her speech, I’d say she is quite deaf and is one of those people who have learnt to speak despite the handicap, or who lost her hearing quite sometime ago and her speech has just developed like that. Either way, as I say, she is a very nice woman, almost invariably pleasant and helpful and all she requires is that you speak to her clearly and preferably while looking at her so she can lip read. Not too much to ask.

While I was queuing to pay, a woman in front of me tried to pay for her shopping with a Scottish tenner. Scottish banknotes are not strictly speaking legal tender in England and Wales (I don’t know about Northern Ireland), but since the banks will honour them, they are de facto legal tender. I am quite happy to have Scottish money: it passes the prime test – can I buy something with it? Yes. Good enough for me. I know there are potential moves afoot to make it properly legal tender in the whole of the UK to minimise embarrassment and confusion, but it ain’t there yet.

Anyhoo, this woman didn’t know whether she could accept the Scottish money or not and rang for assistance that, naturally, was slow in coming. In the meantime the customer was grumbling and fussing and not making the slightest allowance for communication difficulties and when the manager gave the go-ahead, she berated the cashier further with cries of “you should have known that!”

I was close to making the decision that rather than buying my jar of coffee to drink, it would have been a good investment just to smash the jar over the whining git’s head. Especially as she immediately went into slow motion and carefully counted every penny and the receipt back into her purse before rearranging everything in her bag just so, in complete defiance of anyone waiting behind her.

Sometimes, I just loathe people.

Vile people

Realising rather belatedly that my stock of instant coffee here in the office was running low (I didn’t think about it at lunch time), I nipped across to M&S to buy myself a new jar. It’s not as cheap as Sainsbury’s but it is good coffee of the instant variety and fairtrade to boot, so I can feel smug and hyper all at the same time.

There is a very nice woman who works on the tills regularly who wears a badge stating that she is hearing impaired. Judging from her speech, I’d say she is quite deaf and is one of those people who have learnt to speak despite the handicap, or who lost her hearing quite sometime ago and her speech has just developed like that. Either way, as I say, she is a very nice woman, almost invariably pleasant and helpful and all she requires is that you speak to her clearly and preferably while looking at her so she can lip read. Not too much to ask.

While I was queuing to pay, a woman in front of me tried to pay for her shopping with a Scottish tenner. Scottish banknotes are not strictly speaking legal tender in England and Wales (I don’t know about Northern Ireland), but since the banks will honour them, they are de facto legal tender. I am quite happy to have Scottish money: it passes the prime test – can I buy something with it? Yes. Good enough for me. I know there are potential moves afoot to make it properly legal tender in the whole of the UK to minimise embarrassment and confusion, but it ain’t there yet.

Anyhoo, this woman didn’t know whether she could accept the Scottish money or not and rang for assistance that, naturally, was slow in coming. In the meantime the customer was grumbling and fussing and not making the slightest allowance for communication difficulties and when the manager gave the go-ahead, she berated the cashier further with cries of “you should have known that!”

I was close to making the decision that rather than buying my jar of coffee to drink, it would have been a good investment just to smash the jar over the whining git’s head. Especially as she immediately went into slow motion and carefully counted every penny and the receipt back into her purse before rearranging everything in her bag just so, in complete defiance of anyone waiting behind her.

Sometimes, I just loathe people.