Issue 33

.. have them still. So there’s a lot of stuff that’s going to have to be painstakingly transcribed from vinyl to digital, so belatedly the songs are getting the love and attention they possibly deserve, even if it’s of the frustratingly nit-picking kind. It’s been interesting reacquainting myself with some of the recordings, particularly from…

…death. Over half a century later it is still a very vivid memory. Perhaps as a consequence I have little sympathy for the live animal trade. Over the years, we have seen sheep by the thousands die in ships on the way to the Middle East in hot and inadequately ventilated ships and now the…

..smile and a good word for everybody does not qualify, I’m sorry. I’m talking about real charisma, the sort that makes a room fall silent and the hairs rise at the back of your neck. Politics is a fertile ground for charismatics – and, of course, now that I’ve used that particular derivation of the…

The Cathedral Boys’ Choir in 1958. Or perhaps 1957. I’m second from the top next to the pulpit and next down from me is David McPhail. Hamish ‘Gubby’ Guthrie is sixth down from the left. (Reproduced without permission from David McPhail’s auto-biography, The years before my Death).

.. we don’t for that matter. One of my more amusing NYE experiences was in Christchurch a few years ago, when the weather was so miserable the council cancelled the planned public celebrations and everyone went home early. New Year’s Eve is just not that big a deal. However, ticking over into 2007 does give…

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