Mourning Sounds Of The Sixties

I'm truly lamenting the loss of Radio 2's excellent Sounds Of The Sixties which, for 25 years, was curated by Phil 'The Collector' Swern and presented by Brian Matthew. As of last week it's been presented by Tony Blackburn, swapping the informative introductions to each record with inane drivel, and decimating the interesting selections, filling the show with predictable 60s hits the like of which you'd get on commercial radio. 

Below you can see the tracklisting of the final Brian show and the latest Tony show. As a good example of the difference in music selection, this week Tony played the Supremes. Which track? The rather predictable Where Did Our Love Go. In Brian's final show he also played the Supremes. The big difference? He played Baby Baby Wo Ist Unsere Liebe, the German language version. The difference between the old show and the new in a nutshell.



If the music choice is not disappointing enough, have a look at the very different content of the two shows. One is a history programme for the benefit of listeners who most likely were not alive at the time, the other a nostalgic reminiscence show. I've transcribed a few links by each presenter, from Brians' final show and Tony's second.  

Opening Link

Brian: Good morning Avids, and welcome to his week’s edition of Sounds Of The Sixties. It’s to be my final show, a bit more about that in a moment. After we’ve heard from Johnny Preston with his follow up to his hit Running Bear. This one was pipped to the post for the top spot by Cathy’s Clown by The Everly Brothers. So it was Number Two for Johnny in 1960 with Cradle Of Love.

Tony: Good morning, how are you this morning? It’s Saturday, it’s March the 11th, and of course if you’re listening to the repeat, it isn’t. But, er, ha ha ha, let’s get things underway shall we with Edwin Starr from 1966.

Tony: "How much information do you want at this time of the morning?"

Second link

Brian: Johnny Preston’s second hit in the UK, Cradle Of Love. Here’s a duo called Sundragon, who were Robert Freeman and Anthony James, whose first two records were covers of Lemon Pipers originals. The second one being Blueberry Blue.

Tony: That is terrific isn’t it, what a way to get things started, kicking off Saturday, that is SOS (Stop Her On Sight) Edwin Starr. Erm, actually first came out in 1966 when it only reached number 35 in the UK, then reissued for a double-A side with one of my favourites Headline News some two-and-a-half years later. How much information do you want at this time of the morning?


Supremes intro:

Brian: That 1969 recording by Melanie brings us to one of many foreign language versions of hits that The Collector dug up from the vaults, and a bit of the history of The Supremes, and the Holland Dozier Holland song Where Did Our Love Go, which they first played to The Marvelettes but it was turned down. It was then offered to The Supremes but Diana Ross wasn’t keen to accept another group’s reject. However the other girls persuaded her otherwise, and the result was their first American Number One, as well as their first hit in the UK, reaching number three. And that’s not all. The Supremes also recorded the song in German, as Baby Baby Wo Ist Unsere Liebe.

Tony: Glenn Campbell and Brenda from 1961. Actually that was a request. It was chosen by David Strohaker, I think I’ve got the name right there, who lives in Bournemouth. Lovely Bournemouth. Beautiful Bournemouth. And he would like me to play a record for his lovely wife Brenda who celebrated her 70th birthday on Thursday. So I hope you had a lovely time Brenda. Probably strolled along the seafront there, where I used to sell ice creams many many years ago. In my holidays. Er, the record she asked for, not surprisingly, is entitled Brenda, by Glenda Campbell (sic). And incidentally that was an early recording by Glenn, a B side of his 1961 release Turn Around Look At Me. Although the track was popular in its own right, at the time. But, er, to be honest with you I prefer the A side, but there you go. (Supremes plays).

Tony (back announcement): The wonderful Diana Ross and the Supremes, Where Did Our Love Go, a UK number 3 in 1964. In the seventies I toured with Diana Ross and The Supremes, that was actually The Supremes there. Diana Ross used to come up to me every single night, in the interval usually, she used to come up to me and say “Who are you?”.


Track listings

Brian Matthews Final Sounds Of The 60s – Feb 25 2017

	Familiar Hit	Less familiar (eg LP track)	Interesting Rarity	Fascinating “Never Heard That Before”
Johnny Preston Cradle Of Love
Sun Dragon Blueberry Blue
Grapefruit Breaking Up A Dream
The Monkees Valleri
Roy Orbison Running Scared
Melanie  Beautiful People
The Supremes Baby Baby Wo Ist Unsere Liebe
Sammy Davis Jr.  Every Time We Say Goodbye
Dusty Springfield All I See Is You
The Rolling Stones  Honky Tonk Women
Aretha Franklin Respect
Chris Farlowe Ride On Baby
Brenda Lee Here Comes That Feeling
Gene Pitney Looking Through The Eyes Of Love
The Lovin’ Spoonful Daydream
Al Wilson  The Snake
Kenny Ball The March Of The Siamese Children
Cat Stevens Matthew & Son
The Searchers Everybody Come Clap Your Hands
Raymond Froggatt Callow La Vita
The Dave Clark Five Glad All Over
The Beatles  If I Needed Someone
Bobby Darin Lazy River
Scott Walker Jackie
Dionne Warwick Walk on By
Manfred Mann  Sha La La
The Beatles  She's Leaving Home
The Everly Brothers Walk Right Back
Elvis Presley In The Ghetto
Billy Fury  Last Night Was Made for Love

Tony Blackburn’s 2nd Sounds Of The 60s – March 11th 2017

	Familiar Hit	Less familiar (eg LP track)	Interesting Rarity	Fascinating “Never Heard That Before”
Edwin Starr - S.O.S. (Stop Her On Sight)
The Merseybeats - Wishin' & Hopin'
Jimmy Cliff - Wonderful World, Beautiful People
The Turtles - Happy Together
The Beatles - Here Comes The Sun
The Kinks - You Really Got Me
The Cowsills - The Rain, The Park And Other Things
Craig Douglas - Our Favourite Melodies
Brenton Wood - Gimme Little Sign
Lawrence Welk & His Orchestra – Calcutta
The Hollies – We’re Through (The Collector’s Collossal Collection)
The Fortunes - Here It Comes Again
Glen Campbell - Brenda
The Supremes - Where Did Our Love Go
Billy J. Kramer & The Dakotas - From A Window
Sandy Nelson - And Then There Were Drums
Small Faces - Sha-La-La-La-Lee
Roy Orbison - Oh, Pretty Woman
The Seekers - A World Of Our Own
The Foundations - Build Me Up Buttercup
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Proud Mary
Sly & The Family Stone - Everyday People
Blood, Sweat & Tears - You've Made Me So Very Happy
Barry McGuire - California Dreamin'
Cilla Black - Step Inside Love
Doris Troy - I'll Do Anything
Scott Walker - Joanna
Elvis Presley - (You're the) Devil In Disguise
Jimmy Ruffin - I've Passed This Way Before
Cliff Richard & The Shadows - On The Beach
Ruby & The Romantics - Our Day Will Come
Unit 4+2 - Concrete & Clay
Sir Douglas Quintet - She's About A Mover

Small Brain of Donald Trump - comics by kids

Edrych! Ysgrifennais y penawdau yn y Gymraeg. Pa mor glyfar ydw i? Gallaf ddefnyddio Google Translate. My travels in schools this week have taken me from Swansea to Swindon, via Malvern. The pupils have been from years 5 and 6 mostly, with a cluster of year 7s thrown in. And no-one is more obsessed by Donald Trump than those kids. I cannot remember knowing an American President's name when I was their age, so the big orange baby has clearly done some good.

As usual, some front covers get drawn at lightning speed while the class is going on, and a couple get the luxury of break time for me to put some detail in. I think we're looking at a couple of speedy ones here. Good to see that my childhood drawings of Howard The Duck have lodged in the memory and I can draw him without really thinking. Sadly everyone thinks it's Donald. That name again!



Now I can't give you too  much detail, but one of these three schools that I visited this week had an unexpected event disrupting their day. They had a bomb scare. It was handled impeccably, with 500 primary school pupils being marshalled through to the hall and kept entertained by the Deputy Head for 20 minutes while the police inspected the premises, totally unseen by the pupils who remained oblivious throughout. By the end of the day the kids had totally forgotten about the unusual event, and none got to know what had really been going on. It was, needless to say, a hoax. There is, it seems, a lot of this sort of thing, comprising pre-recorded bomb-hoax messages phoned through to dozens of schools at the same time. To quite what end, apart from demonstrating how good our schools and police are at handling these things, I can't quite see.

And here comes Donald Trump again. This teacher had already introduced a Trump-discussion ban in class, because her year 5s won't shut up about him. So when this title came up, and was obviously going to win the selection (we choose the best from their 30-odd suggestions), she went from face-palm to head-in-hands. Were we this aware of President Nixon when I was their age?

The celebrities these groups chose to appear in my demonstration strip featured, for the first time this year, Simon Cowell (who used to be suggested in almost every class and chosen 15% of the time but got deposed by President Baby last year), as well as Donald Trump, Ariana Grande, Barack Obama, Kim Kardashian and Harry Potter.

Comic Art Masterclasses coming up in 2017:

Mar 18 - Prema Arts, Gloucestershire
April 5 - Rickmansworth Library
April 10 - Zion, Bristol
May 1 - Chiddingstone Castle Kent 
May 7 - Dorchester Festival
May 11 - Guernsey Literary Festival
Jun 4 - Martlets Hall Burgess Hill 

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here. 

Donald Trump vs Batman - comics by kids for World Book Week

Last week was World Book Week, including Thursday as World Book Day, and it's the week every year that makes me wish I could clone myself. I could have been in 10 different schools on Thursday, I had to turn down so many requests for school visits with my Comic Art Masterclasses.

So it was ironic that I ended up only visiting schools for 4 days out of the 5, with one day reserved for travelling to Ireland. Monday I was in Aylesbury, Wednesday was Rathdrum County Wicklow, Thursday itself I had to make it all the way up to Darlington (to work in the Library, who'd bagged the Big Day by dint of having booked me a whole year in advance), then on Friday I was in Levenshulme in Manchester. The kids produced some great comics, here's what they look like with a bit of colour added.

It was a treat getting to work with slightly older pupils at Avondale College in Rathdrum, as you can see from their comics. Yes, there was actually a pupil who name-checked Jack Kirby. And when the class chose Kicked To The Kirby as their comic's title, I also learned who the games character Kirby is, or at least what he looks like.

Finally we have the comics from the kids in Alma Park, Levenshulme. By the time I got home on Friday night, I'd flown to Dublin, driven to Wicklow & back, got home at 11.30 Wednesday night then set off for Darlington at 5am the following morning, driving for 8 hours and teaching for 4, staying over in Manchester and getting home in time for Only Connect (which is now on The Wrong Night, but that's a subject for another blog). I haven't totted up the miles, but I think those 5 days comprised 24 hours travelling and 22 hours teaching. It's good to be popular.

The celebrities these 6 groups chose to appear in my demonstration strip were Barack Obama, Morgan Freeman, George Clooney, Kim Kardashian, Donald Trump, and Will Smith. (Simon Cowell continues his non-appearance, in contrast to previous years).

Comic Art Masterclasses coming up in 2017:

Mar 18 - Prema Arts, Gloucestershire
April 5 - Rickmansworth Library
April 10 - Zion, Bristol
May 1 - Chiddingstone Castle Kent 
May 7 - Dorchester Festival
May 11 - Guernsey Literary Festival
Jun 4 - Martlets Hall Burgess Hill 

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here. 

Avengers, Dennis, Hitler - new comics by schoolkids

These comics have been produced by pupils in classes in Doncaster, Birmingham and Aylesbury, with a little bit of colour added by me after the fact. I'm always delighted when I get the time to put a wee bit more detail on these comics, and when they give me something inspiring to work with. Killer Coleman was one of their teachers, and they found me a photo to work from, and who doesn't enjoy the chance to draw Taylor Swift?

The pupils at Aston Park, in the first of my two classes, were mostly in wheelchairs, so I took a moment to try and draw a couple accurately. It's mostly scribble. Have you ever looked at how many bits and bobs and layers and cables and wheels and whatevers there are on a wheelchair? As for Hitler Poos His Pants, it wasn't a school class, they were mostly teenagers, so rather than strenuously try to eliminate the unsuitable title (all the class write title on bits of paper, then I read them out and we play an elimination game until we're left with the most popular), I went with it, and took the opportunity to give them a Captain America No 1 pastiche into the bargain.

And lastly, and very much leastly, Fat Grandad is the sort of front cover you get when the kids have chosen an uninspiring title, and I haven't quite left myself enough time to do justice to it. It was a class without a break, so nothing like morning break or lunchtime during which to give the cover drawing that extra bit of thought. I'm also slightly frustrated that I didn't spot that tooth on Dennis's face that I've coloured in skin colour. Sure I could go back & correct it, but it's too late now. These things happen to the best of us.

The celebrities they chose for the demonstration strip were Donald Trump (twice), Taylor Swift, The Queen, Harley Quinn and Beyonce.

One month into this year's classes I've already stopped doing the Simon Cowell trick, whereby when I ask them to name the most famous celebrity they can think of, I write "Simon Cowell" down on the piece of paper in my hand. Then, when one of the 4 suggestions that gets called out is Simon Cowell, I flip the paper round and say "every time". This impresses kids and surprises teachers. But this year, for the first time in 5 years, Simon Cowell has suddenly stopped being suggested. Donald Trump has replaced him completely. Who knows whether he'll return to the kids minds when one of his TV series starts running again? It's significant that none of the judges from either Let It Shine or The Voice has been suggested by pupils so far this year.

Comic Art Masterclasses coming up in 2017:

Mar 18 - Prema Arts, Gloucestershire

April 5 - Rickmansworth Library
April 10 - Zion, Bristol
May 1 - Chiddingstone Castle Kent 
May 7 - Dorchester Festival
May 11 - Guernsey Literary Festival
Jun 4 - Martlets Hall Burgess Hill 

Kev F Sutherland, as well as writing and drawing for The Beano, Marvel, Doctor Who et al, runs Comic Art Masterclasses in schools, libraries and art centres - email for details, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. View the promo video here. 

A young Kev auditioned for a TV show. But which one?

Yes, that is me in the back row in the gold lame tie, but what TV show were we all auditioning for, and which two of this lot got the gig?

I threw that question out there on Facebook. Here are some of the replies that came back.

Lew Stringer Kids from Fame? Hunger Games?
David Leach The Double Deckers
Stu Munro The Red Hand Gang?
Mark Ashley TV show: Jim 'll fix it
Who got the gig: the unlucky ones...
Shaquille S Le Vesconte Metal Mickey? Ashley Knight and Lucinda Bateson?
Ade Brown I see Strawberry Switchblade also applied. And 2 of Depeche Mode. And Ray Parker Jr.
But it was clearly an audition to present Central Television's answer to The Tube. Paul Coia and Steve Lamacq?
Peter Crocker Junior Showtime. Glyn Poole and Bonnie Langford.
Gordon Rennie The Kids From Lame?
Is that Howard Jones in the row just in front of you?
Felicity Harper Why don't you...?
Toby Longworth No limit?
Bruce Dessau Ewen Bremner & Gordon Ramsay (both in the back row with you?)
Alistair McGown Blockbusters?
David Brunt Crimewatch?
David French Noel's House Party. You were all auditioning to play Mr Blobby.
David Brunt Bodger and Badger
David French The Banana Splits for Hanna-Barbera.
Richard Cray I think it's the guy roughly in the centre with the white t-shirt who looks a bit like David Easter and the guy second from right in the front row who looks a bit like Kelly Temple. And I'm going for something on CITV (or a predecessor thereof)...something like Magpie or CBTV, but not Magpie or CBTV.
(I'm nowhere near, right?)
Becky Armstrong The Word...?



Kev Sutherland You lot are lovely, and only one of you's got it half right. I'll happily leave you guessing if you want. The winning candidates were Michel Cremona and Nick Laird-Clowes, if that helps.
Gordon Rennie The woman in the front row, next to the black guy with the shades......is she actually someone's mum who blagged in pretending to be her own daughter?
Mikal Dyas The girl middle right with massive hair looks familiar.
Louisa Gummer The Tube then!
Simon Spencer Not The Tube, I made the shortlist for that gig




Kev Sutherland It was, as a few of you have guessed, The Tube. There was an advert in the NME and, I think, Smash Hits asking "Are you the face for the space?". We sent off photos and, I think, cassette recordings (I doubt I sent a VHS, though it wouldn't have been impossible as I was at art college by then) and were summoned to a hall somewhere in London (I didn't know London at all at the time so have no memory where it was. A church hall of some sort.) I don't think we knew the name of the show yet when we were doing these auditions, which mostly involved sitting round in discussion groups talking about pop music and fashion. I recall Magenta Devine being there, though she's not in this group shot. There were other auditions in Manchester and Glasgow, from which they found Mark Miwurdz and Muriel Grey. Jools Holland and Paula Yates weren't part of this process, obviously. The auditions were to find the lower rank of presenters. It was June or July 1982.
Simon Spencer And Newcastle.
Louisa Gummer It would be really interesting to know what happened to all those fresh faced optimistic youngsters - perfect twitter material!
Melanie Berman I was at Sunderland poly at the time of the Tube and successfully auditioned to be a regular weekly audience member/dancer/person to stand next to the stars for a couple of years. It was fab to walk straight in past the queue to get in and to see loads of bands for free! 😀

Comic Art Masterclasses coming up:

Mar 18 - Prema Arts, Gloucestershire

April 5 - Rickmansworth Library

May 7 - Dorchester Festival

Jun 4 - Martlets Hall Burgess Hill

2017 TOUR
Feb 15 - Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre Studio 
Feb 17 & 18 6.50pm - Kayal, Leicester Comedy Fest
March 9 - Aberystwyth Arts Centre
March 15 & 16 - Dram! Glasgow Com Fest
March 23 - The Bill Murray, London
Apr 1 - Rotherham Comedy Festival
Apr 6 - Victoria Theatre Halifax
Apr 8 - Rondo Bath
Apr 13 - Hexham Queen's Hall
Apr 22 - Swindon Arts
Apr 27 - Stroud Subscription Rooms
Apr 28 - Merlin Theatre Frome
Apr 29 - Perth Concert Hall
May 1 - Chiddingstone Castle Kent
May 5 - Artrix Bromsgrove
May 6 - Stafford Gatehouse
May 13 (4.30pm) & May 14 (5.30pm) Komedia Brighton
May 19 - Carriageworks Leeds
May 26 - Aberdeen May Fest
June 2 - Eden Ct Inverness
June 15 - Crescent Arts, Belfast
June 17 - Dalkey Festival, Dublin
June 23 - Hertford Comedy Festival
June 24 - Ludlow Fringe

70707, 2000AD, Zazous, & other notes

As ever I write more on Facebook than in my blog. Here's some recent trivia & dross.

Feb 22: On this day 40 years ago a new comic went on sale called 2000AD. I didn't buy it, because I was more impressed by the glossy covers of the weekly Marvel reprint comics, and thought The Defenders, written by Steve Gerber and drawn by Sal Buscema, was the height of comic strip storytelling and that this 2000AD comic looked a bit old fashioned in comparison. I was also enjoying the serialisation of Steve Gerber's Man Thing in Planet Of The Apes comic, and had started getting Steve Gerber's Howard The Duck comics in the local newsagent. Basically Steve Gerber is the reason I don't have a first edition of 2000AD number one, with the space spinner. He owes me fifty quid. (NB: I got to interview him on stage at Glascac in the early 90s and, yes, I am well aware he's dead). (PPS: Howard The Duck is still way better than 2000AD number 1, though the Brit upstart did get pretty good after a few months).

Feb 21: Can I just say, as a childhood David Cassidy fan, that today's news is quite sad. (He has dementia). Also makes his song titles sound weird - Didn't We Have Ourselves Some Kind Of A Summer, How Can I Be Sure? Could It Be Forever etc

Here's me posing with a flyer I designed for David & Carole Chapple, for their charity fundraising 70707 bid, which you can read about here.

Feb 14: Happy Valentines Day. A strip by me from Gas comic, back in the day.

Feb 19: Well, we've happily given up on SSGB after one episode, thanks to its risible dialogue, but mostly Sam Riley's whispering. Why do people think it's dramatic to not use your Outside Voice? Seriously, if you're in a confrontation situation, it would be way helpful if the person on the other side of the room could hear you. #SSGB #SpeakUp

Feb 9: Far be it from me to defend The Daily Mail, it's its politics with which I disagree, not any awareness of its factual unreliability. If the second biggest selling newspaper in the country, with the second biggest online presence, can't be cited on Wikipedia, where does this leave other UK papers? They cite "sensationalism" as a reason? Surely The Express and the Star have to be worse than the mail, and the Mirror not far behind. And I've seen a lot of criticism of Metro and "i" for being lightweight and possibly unreliable on occasions. The article says they still allow Fox News to be cited. This is what happens when you leave decisions in the hands of the public, I guess.

Just been watching Grossflix. It's like Netflix but before tax.



Feb 17: A very good piece (by Scott Adams of Dilbert fame) looking at the selling techniques, and even hypnosis, that Donald Trump uses. Have you ever wondered why he talks like that, repeating certain phrases, certain phrases? http://blog.dilbert.com/post/126589300371/clown-genius (Thanks to Phil Chippendale for this)



Feb 24: Good news kids, when the war comes you don't have to fight, you can do what these French kids did. So we need to update the phrase Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys to Cheese-Eating Ironic Badge Wearing Fannying About Like Steve Strange At Blitz and Not Giving A Toss About The Resistance Surrender Monkeys.

Comic Art Masterclasses coming up:

Mar 18 - Prema Arts, Gloucestershire

April 5 - Rickmansworth Library

May 7 - Dorchester Festival

Jun 4 - Martlets Hall Burgess Hill

2017 TOUR
Feb 15 - Buxton Pavilion Arts Centre Studio 
Feb 17 & 18 6.50pm - Kayal, Leicester Comedy Fest
March 9 - Aberystwyth Arts Centre
March 15 & 16 - Dram! Glasgow Com Fest
March 23 - The Bill Murray, London
Apr 1 - Rotherham Comedy Festival
Apr 6 - Victoria Theatre Halifax
Apr 8 - Rondo Bath
Apr 13 - Hexham Queen's Hall
Apr 22 - Swindon Arts
Apr 27 - Stroud Subscription Rooms
Apr 28 - Merlin Theatre Frome
Apr 29 - Perth Concert Hall
May 1 - Chiddingstone Castle Kent
May 5 - Artrix Bromsgrove
May 6 - Stafford Gatehouse
May 13 (4.30pm) & May 14 (5.30pm) Komedia Brighton
May 19 - Carriageworks Leeds
May 26 - Aberdeen May Fest
June 2 - Eden Ct Inverness
June 15 - Crescent Arts, Belfast
June 17 - Dalkey Festival, Dublin
June 23 - Hertford Comedy Festival
June 24 - Ludlow Fringe