Podcasts about Birkenhead

The Anfield Wrap's free podcast looking back at Liverpool's victory over Leicester City, a victory that not only relegated the Foxes but moved Liverpool to within touching distance of the Premier League title. Neil Atkinson hosts Mo Stewart, Josh Williams and John Gibbons. Also in the show Neil visits the Bloom Building in Birkenhead to speak to Lucy and Ben from Open Door who are a charity that offers mental health support for young people. Download the Peloton app and check out the six Liverpool FC-themed classes, including one with Trent Alexander-Arnold, and connect with Neil, John and other Reds by joining the LiverpoolFC tag... Subscribe to The Anfield Wrap for more on Leicester City 0 Liverpool 1, as well as reaction to all the news and events that matter to you… Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1920, in the Cammell, Laird & Co. shipyard in Birkenhead, a ship was built that would change the shipbuilding industry and shipyards forever. ss Fullagar was the world's first fully welded ocean-going ship. For generations, ships' iron and steel hulls had been held together with rivets, put in place by specialist teams of riveters. In 1920 electric arc-welding was not a new technology but hitherto had only been used for repair, rather than construction. Fullagar changed that forever, though the technology was adopted slowly. No longer would vast teams of highly skilled and well-paid riveters populate the dockyards. This was a moment when technology took away the livelihood of thousands and changed forever the techniques of shipbuilding and the culture of the shipyards. To find out more Dr Sam Willis spoke with Max Wilson, head archivist of Lloyd's Register, the maritime classification society that surveyed and classed Fuallager, overseeing this novel design and pivotal moment in maritime history. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A man is in a critical condition in Auckland Hospital after a stabbing on the city's North Shore this afternoon. Police were called to the scene on Birkenhead Avenue just after 2:00pm after the victim was found injured. Reporter Finn Blackwell was at the scene and spoke to Lisa Owen.

Chronique issue de l'émission sur "The Red Pill". Dans ce film, un des intervenants estime que les hommes sont lésés par rapport aux femmes en utilisant l'argument que les femmes et les enfants seraient sauvé.e.s en priorité en cas de danger. Il se réfère à la doctrine bien connu du "les femmes et les enfants d'abord" aussi appelée "doctrine du Birkenhead ". Mais qu'en est-il vraiment ? Que disent les scientifiques qui ont travaillé sur ce sujet ? Extraits : Cassie Jaye, The Red Pill, 2016 James Cameron, Titanic, 1997 Jean Negulesco, Titanic, 1953 Sources : https://www.rtbf.be/article/naufrage-les-femmes-et-les-enfants-d-abord-non-les-hommes-d-abord-7813397 https://www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10.1073/pnas.1207156109 https://www.slate.fr/story/119665/femmes-enfants-abord Retrouvez la scepticothèque, la cinéthèque des films sceptiques, sur Sens Critique et sur IDMB !

Russell Edwards is the author of "Naming Jack the Ripper". Edwards, originally from Birkenhead, has after years of dedicated research produced what he calls "the definitive evidence to prove the identity of the world's most famous murderer: Jack the Ripper" thanks to modern DNA testing. Through this we will look into the names of suspects and how Russell used modern DNA testing to conclude the real Killers name. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/out-of-the-blank/support

Established in 2021, the National League is Aotearoa New Zealand's premier domestic football competition, showcasing the nation's top talent in a two-phase battle for the prestigious title of National League champions. Auckland City take on Birkenhead United at 4pm on Sunday at North Harbour Stadium, to see who will be crowned the 2024 men's national champions. Birkenhead United Coach Paul Hobson joined D'Arcy Waldegrave to preview the clash. LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Whilst visiting the UK, Christian (a pseudonym) came into the Flame studio in Birkenhead and talked to Norman about his pastoral ministry in his home country. An interview well worth listening to, as an encouragement to pray for him and his fellow Christians. This programme was first broadcast on Flame CCR (Christian and Community Radio).

This week: welcome to Planet Elon. We knew that he would likely be a big part of Donald Trump's second term, so it was unsurprising when this week Elon Musk was named – alongside entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy – as a co-leader of the new US Department of Government Efficiency, which will look at federal government waste. When Musk took over Twitter, he fired swathes of employees whose work was actively harming the company, so he's in a perfect position to turn his sights on the bloated federal government. It is, writes Douglas Murray, a once-in-a-generation opportunity to strip a whole layer of rot from the body politic. But can he translate his success in the private sector to the public sector? James Ball, political editor of The New European, and Bridget Phetasy, Spectator World contributing editor, joined the podcast to discuss. (02:17) Then: what's next for the Church of England? The nature of Justin Welby's resignation as Archbishop of Canterbury has no historic precedent in the C of E, writes William Moore, of this parish. One certainty is that the Church leadership will now be under enormous pressure to create a new independent body for safeguarding, but who could be next? The Smyth scandal means that appointing a conservative evangelical would be difficult, but appointing an out-and-out progressive would have its own problems. Whoever eventually succeeds Welby, he or she will inherit a Church more at war with itself than at any time in living memory. Joining the podcast is Rev Julie Conalty, the Bishop of Birkenhead and deputy lead bishop for safeguarding. (20:58) And finally: can you tell your Claret from your Beaujolais? In the magazine this week, drinks writer Henry Jeffreys discusses Beaujolais Day, the festivities started in the famous French appellation d'origine contrôlée that celebrate the first wine of the season. He joined us to discuss everything Beaujolais with Johnny Ray, The Spectator's wine critic. (35:39) Hosted by William Moore and Lara Prendergast. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

This week: welcome to Planet Elon. We knew that he would likely be a big part of Donald Trump's second term, so it was unsurprising when this week Elon Musk was named – alongside entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy – as a co-leader of the new US Department of Government Efficiency, which will look at federal government waste. When Musk took over Twitter, he fired swathes of employees whose work was actively harming the company, so he's in a perfect position to turn his sights on the bloated federal government. It is, writes Douglas Murray, a once-in-a-generation opportunity to strip a whole layer of rot from the body politic. But can he translate his success in the private sector to the public sector? James Ball, political editor of The New European, and Bridget Phetasy, Spectator World contributing editor, joined the podcast to discuss. (02:17) Then: what's next for the Church of England? The nature of Justin Welby's resignation as Archbishop of Canterbury has no historic precedent in the C of E, writes William Moore, of this parish. One certainty is that the Church leadership will now be under enormous pressure to create a new independent body for safeguarding, but who could be next? The Smyth scandal means that appointing a conservative evangelical would be difficult, but appointing an out-and-out progressive would have its own problems. Whoever eventually succeeds Welby, he or she will inherit a Church more at war with itself than at any time in living memory. Joining the podcast is Rev Julie Conalty, the Bishop of Birkenhead and deputy lead bishop for safeguarding. (20:58) And finally: can you tell your Claret from your Beaujolais? In the magazine this week, drinks writer Henry Jeffreys discusses Beaujolais Day, the festivities started in the famous French appellation d'origine contrôlée that celebrate the first wine of the season. He joined us to discuss everything Beaujolais with Johnny Ray, The Spectator's wine critic. (35:39) Hosted by William Moore and Lara Prendergast. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

From his days touring the world as the European DMC champion with Vestax to becoming the resident Dj in the legendary Pleasuredrome in Birkenhead in the mid 90s. Mike shares his story with Jay Viper.

 "The Heist - The Birkenhead Foodtown Robbery" is the story of what happened when armed robbers held up an Amour Guard truck outside Foodtown in Auckland's Birkenhead.

Raised in Birkenhead on a diet of Liverpool and Tranmere Rovers, a hip problem seemingly stalled Sean D'Arcy's football journey before it started.   But a move to Perth opened doors he never imagined, carving out a three decade career as a freestyler and junior coach that took him from juggling at the Sydney Olympics to helping lay the foundations for some of WA's best young footballers.   In this special Casual Football Chat, Sean talks about his life, coaching philosophy and the training game played around world inspired by a current NPLWA player.   The Casual Football Chats are brought to you by the good people at The Casual Football Company. Casuals is the easiest way to play soccer in Perth, Australia. All players are welcome - just turn up and get involved - find out more at https://www.thecasualfootballco.com/

Episode 190 is about the ocean, and a staggering event. The sinking of the HMS Birkenhead off Gansbaai, south of Cape Town - and event which led to the famous phrase women and children first in maritime lore. All of course also linked to the fierce 8th Frontier War of South Africa because there were hundreds of troops on board this ship when it went down - it is believed 445 drowned or were killed by sharks. The chronicle of what happened is riveting. The terrifying ordeal for the survivors of this ship became part of the mid-nineteenth century Victorian consciousness. The sinking of the Birkenhead also remains one of the greatest maritime disasters off South Africa's coast. But the fact that every one of the women and children aboard survived the wreck owing to the gallantry and discipline of the men on board has been immortalised in maritime lore. The soldiers of the British Army regiments, and the sailors and marines under Captain Robert Salmond, jeopardised their own chances of survival by putting the 'women and children first'. It stems from the ongoing 8th Frontier War I've been covering now for a couple of episodes. The British fighting the amaxhosa were in need of reinforcements, particularly the 74th highland Regiment which had already borne the brunt of the fighting along the Amatola ridges and valleys. Mount Misery had caused hundreds of casualties. In many ways, The Birkenhead was also a symbol of the age of innovation, she was one of the first iron-hulled ships ever built for the Royal Navy and was converted into a troop ship. As she was being laid down the Navy switched it's main propulsion to propellor from paddle wheels, so the vessel ended up converted from frigate to troop carrier. The Birkenhead was among the early attempts to marry sail and steam and rigged as a brigantine with two masts, a third being added later. She was powered by two 564 horsepower steam engines from Forrester & Co that drove a pair the 6-metre paddle wheels. . As part of her conversion to a troopship in 1851, a forecastle and poop deck were added to increase her accommodation, and a third mast was added, to change her sail plan to a barquentine. Although she never served as a warship, she was faster and more comfortable than any of the wooden sail-driven troopships of the time, making the trip from the Cape in 37 days in October 1850. However, it was a journey HMS Birkenhead would make for the last time in January 1852. Under command of Captain Robert Salmond, it steamed to Portsmith in the first week of January to pick up troops from ten different regiments, including the 2nd and the 74th. On the 5th January she sailed across the Irish Sea to Queenstown and picked up officers wives and children. All told there were 479 soldiers on board and more than 50 women and children, as well as a crew of 125. That was a total of 693 people stuffed into an iron hull less than 64 metres long and just over eleven metres wide - about the width of a tennis court. Even though she was thought of as well built, the early iron used in shipbuilding was quite brittle and tore easily compared to iron of later ships. Upon arrival at Simons Bay, most of the civilians disembarked, leaving only seven women and 13 children on board. Fuel, food and nine horses and forage were loaded along with more passengers, then HMS Birkenhead set sail again at 18h00 on the 25th February, heading for Algoa Bay and East London. Captain Salmond made a few hasty calculations and sailed close to the the coast heading south east towards Cape Agulhas. Time was of the essence, but two factors transpired against the ship. One was the compasses were registering small errors making navigation tricky, and the other was a strong south-east current was sweeping into Walker Bay and carrying the ship closer to shore than the crew realised. The were heading towards Danger Point, and the rocks.

Episode 190 is about the ocean, and a staggering event. The sinking of the HMS Birkenhead off Gansbaai, south of Cape Town - and event which led to the famous phrase women and children first in maritime lore. All of course also linked to the fierce 8th Frontier War of South Africa because there were hundreds of troops on board this ship when it went down - it is believed 445 drowned or were killed by sharks. The chronicle of what happened is riveting. The terrifying ordeal for the survivors of this ship became part of the mid-nineteenth century Victorian consciousness. The sinking of the Birkenhead also remains one of the greatest maritime disasters off South Africa's coast. But the fact that every one of the women and children aboard survived the wreck owing to the gallantry and discipline of the men on board has been immortalised in maritime lore. The soldiers of the British Army regiments, and the sailors and marines under Captain Robert Salmond, jeopardised their own chances of survival by putting the 'women and children first'. It stems from the ongoing 8th Frontier War I've been covering now for a couple of episodes. The British fighting the amaxhosa were in need of reinforcements, particularly the 74th highland Regiment which had already borne the brunt of the fighting along the Amatola ridges and valleys. Mount Misery had caused hundreds of casualties. In many ways, The Birkenhead was also a symbol of the age of innovation, she was one of the first iron-hulled ships ever built for the Royal Navy and was converted into a troop ship. As she was being laid down the Navy switched it's main propulsion to propellor from paddle wheels, so the vessel ended up converted from frigate to troop carrier. The Birkenhead was among the early attempts to marry sail and steam and rigged as a brigantine with two masts, a third being added later. She was powered by two 564 horsepower steam engines from Forrester & Co that drove a pair the 6-metre paddle wheels. . As part of her conversion to a troopship in 1851, a forecastle and poop deck were added to increase her accommodation, and a third mast was added, to change her sail plan to a barquentine. Although she never served as a warship, she was faster and more comfortable than any of the wooden sail-driven troopships of the time, making the trip from the Cape in 37 days in October 1850. However, it was a journey HMS Birkenhead would make for the last time in January 1852. Under command of Captain Robert Salmond, it steamed to Portsmith in the first week of January to pick up troops from ten different regiments, including the 2nd and the 74th. On the 5th January she sailed across the Irish Sea to Queenstown and picked up officers wives and children. All told there were 479 soldiers on board and more than 50 women and children, as well as a crew of 125. That was a total of 693 people stuffed into an iron hull less than 64 metres long and just over eleven metres wide - about the width of a tennis court. Even though she was thought of as well built, the early iron used in shipbuilding was quite brittle and tore easily compared to iron of later ships. Upon arrival at Simons Bay, most of the civilians disembarked, leaving only seven women and 13 children on board. Fuel, food and nine horses and forage were loaded along with more passengers, then HMS Birkenhead set sail again at 18h00 on the 25th February, heading for Algoa Bay and East London. Captain Salmond made a few hasty calculations and sailed close to the the coast heading south east towards Cape Agulhas. Time was of the essence, but two factors transpired against the ship. One was the compasses were registering small errors making navigation tricky, and the other was a strong south-east current was sweeping into Walker Bay and carrying the ship closer to shore than the crew realised. The were heading towards Danger Point, and the rocks.

Wayne Brown's idea is a causeway or series of bridges, from Meola Reef in the central city suburb of Point Chevalier and to Kauri Point in the Northsotre suburb of Birkenhead. Labour's plan for a second harbour crossing that included rail and road tunnels was estimated to cost more than 55 billion dollars. The Government's focus is on an additional crossing for vehicles. Auckland mayor Wayne Brown spoke to Lisa Owen.

Mark Fishliegh talks about the way in which "The Meeting Place" in Oxton Road, Birkenhead started.  And details the various community activities  that the Meeting Place is involved with. This programme was broadcast on Flame CCR with Mark as a telephone guest.

Kiwitea Street is set for a thrilling Chatham Cup semifinal clash on a special day for the club, as Auckland City FC host Birkenhead United on Sunday.  The Navy Blues will also be celebrating the club's 20th Jubilee with a host of former players and staff.  Kick Off is at 2.00 pm at Kiwitea Street, the home of Auckland City.  Striker Angus Kilkolly joined D'Arcy Waldegrave to preview the clash.   LISTEN ABOVE See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In the latest episode of "The Couture 303 Podcast with Jay Viper," we sit down with Liverpool's legendary DJ, Dave Graham. Known for his pivotal role at Birkenhead's Pleasuredrome nightclub in the early 90s, Dave later crossed over to Liverpool to launch the iconic Club 051. Tune in as Dave shares captivating stories from the golden era of clubbing, his journey through the evolving music scene, and the impact of these legendary venues on the nightlife of Liverpool and beyond. Dave also discusses his recent decission to be a part of the Drome Revival later this year at Club 051 and his relationship and stories about Stu Allan, Carl Cox, Lee Butler & The Prodigy

Angela Roth was born in Birkenhead, UK, and grew up as part of a busy, happy family of 8 children. Secondary school, however, robbed her of the natural self-confidence being part of a loving family had encouraged. Being singled out by a particularly vindictive bully from day 1 of attending her new school, left Angela vulnerable and insecure, and she had no idea who to turn to for help. Angela started her working career as a Police Officer in Greater Manchester, much to the surprise - or even amazement - of her family and friends who hadn't anticipated such a choice for her. at all! Whilst she developed some very positive relationships with some of the other officers, sadly Angela also experienced a different kind of bullying here, along with the sexual harassment that was endemic in the Police Force at that time. But during that time, Angela's empathy and concern grew, for those who faced struggles in life, sometimes from the moment they were born, and for those whose lives had been turned upside down, often through no fault of their own. She found herself supporting and comforting those whose loved ones had tragically been taken; those who had faced trauma of all kinds, and those who were simply lost in the middle of a broken world. When marriage and children took her down a different path, she knew that she was called to serve others through her own personal struggles with tragedy, as well as those she had encountered through her work. In January 2022, Angela founded Succeed From The Start, determined to help and support others with a call on their lives, to forge their own path to successfully building the business of their dreams, out of a firm belief that, 'Together, We're Stronger' ! Contact Angela Roth: Membership Community 'Succeed From the Start' https://www.succeedfromthestart.com anyone interested to know more, can book a call through here, https://succeedfromthestart.co.uk/home-sfts-membership-meet I'm also running a Master Class on creating your own paid community as I believe it's the best, and most inspiring way to build a sustainable business that I have found. This is the link for the next one on June 8th https://www.succeedfromthestart.business/membership-masterclass-home-2 Dr. Kimberley Linert Speaker, Author, Broadcaster, Mentor, Trainer, Behavioral Optometrist Event Planners- I am available to speak at your event. Here is my media kit: https://brucemerrinscelebrityspeakers.com/portfolio/dr-kimberley-linert/ To book Dr. Linert on your podcast, television show, conference, corporate training or as an expert guest please email her at incrediblelifepodcast@gmail.com or Contact Bruce Merrin at Bruce Merrin's Celebrity Speakers at merrinpr@gmail.com 702.256.9199 Host of the Podcast Series: Incredible Life Creator Podcast Available on... Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/incredible-life-creator-with-dr-kimberley-linert/id1472641267 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6DZE3EoHfhgcmSkxY1CvKf?si=ebe71549e7474663 and on 9 other podcast platforms Author of Book: "Visualizing Happiness in Every Area of Your Life" Get on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3srh6tZ Website: https://www.DrKimberleyLinert.com The Great Discovery International eLearning Platform: https://thegreatdiscovery.com/kimberley

Today's guest speaks of horrific emotional bullying at school as a teenager. She struggled to make friends after she was accepted to a selective school, and her self-esteem suffered. Her parents had sacrificed to get her into the school, so Angela didn't feel she could complain to them. Instead, she felt guilty for having attracted the abuse. This is all too common for children who are bullied - the feeling that something must be wrong with them. Angela tells me how this impacted her through her adult life, and how she eventually turned around her view of herself. She now helps others who are dealing with the effects of bullying, be that at school or in the workplace. Who is Angela Roth?Angela journey from being badly bullied in school to becoming a leading figure in the heart-centered coaching industry is a testament to her resilience and commitment to helping others. Growing up in Birkenhead as one of eight children, Angela faced significant challenges but emerged with a determination to make a positive impact in the world.Despite enduring bullying throughout her school years, Angela developed a strong sense of empathy and a desire to protect and assist those who were vulnerable. This early experience shaped her character and set her on a path of service and leadership.After pursuing a degree in mathematics, economics, and business at the University of Manchester, Angela joined the police force, driven by her desire to serve the community. Despite facing obstacles such as sexual harassment and corruption within the force, Angela remained steadfast in her commitment to making a difference. More information HERE!More teenage parenting from Helen Wills:Helen wills is a counsellor, a parent coach, and a teen mental health podcaster and blogger at Actually Mummy, a resource for midlife parents of teens.Thank you for listening! Subscribe to the Teenage Kicks podcast to hear new episodes. If you have a suggestion for the podcast please email helen@actuallymummy.co.uk.You can find more from Helen Wills on parenting teenagers on Instagram and Twitter @iamhelenwills.For information on your data privacy please visit Zencastr's policy pagePlease note that Helen Wills is not a medical expert, and nothing in the podcast should be taken as medical advice. If you're worried about yourself or a teenager, please seek support from a medical professional.Episode produced by Malloy Podcasts.

Welcoming Denise Cosgrove, CEO of Selwyn Foundation, to Purposely where she shares her organisation's mission to help vulnerable older people as well as her career and life journey. Denise's leadership journey began early, as she navigated a successful career while raising two daughters as a young single mother. Theonly one of six siblings to attend university, Denise ventured to Otago University in New Zealand's South Island. There, she discovered a passion for acting and debating, which she credits for building the confidence that would later serve her well in business leadership roles. Denise maintains a strong commitment to health and wellness, exercising twice daily, abstaining from alcohol, and following a clean eating regimen. Her career has spanned corporate, public, and charitable sectors in both New Zealand and Australia. In October 2022, Denise took the helm of The Selwyn Foundation, a well-established provider of retirement villages and aged care services in New Zealand. This appointment coincided with a significant shift in the Foundation's operational model, aimed at better supporting vulnerable elderly populations nationwide. Central to this transformation was the sale of a substantial portion of the Foundation's retirement village capacity, including six villages and a commercial laundry. The proceeds from this sale, amounting to $200 million, formed an endowment fund that will enable the Foundation to dramatically increase its charitable giving. Under Denise's leadership, the Foundation has set an ambitious goal of $100 million in charitable contributions over the next decade. This expanded support will reach beyond their retirement villages into the wider community, addressing critical issues affecting older people such as loneliness, social isolation, financial hardship, and lack of affordable housing. The organisation is committed to incorporating Tikanga Māori, Tikanga Pasifika, and Tikanga Pakeha principles to ensure culturally appropriate support. While divesting some retirement village operations, the Foundation has retained ownership of its historic Selwyn Village in Auckland and Hansen Close in Birkenhead, continuing to provide innovative and affordable housing solutions for seniors. Looking forward, the Selwyn Foundation aims to establish new partnerships targeting high-risk communities, including Māori and Pasifika populations. They also plan to leverage their expertise to influence policy decisions and advocate for issues crucial to older people's wellbeing. Denise's impressive leadership career spans over three decades, with extensive CEO experience in large, complex operational businesses across New Zealand and Australia. Her focus has consistently been on achieving both social and commercial outcomes in the government and not-for-profit sectors. Prior to joining Selwyn Foundation, Denise served as CEO of Presbyterian Support Northern (PSN) for five years, overseeing social, health, and disability services in New Zealand's upper North Island, including well-known brands such as Lifeline, Shine, Family Works, and Enliven. Beyond her executive responsibilities, Denise serves on the boards of various NGOs and social enterprises. She is also a passionate advocate for New Zealand's contemporary art and design sector, with a particular interest in fostering new and emerging talent. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mark-longbottom2/message

Episode 172: Simple Minds – New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84) (1982) - Part 4 In the Northern Hemisphere, it's now officially summertime, and it's also time for Brian and Sarah to wrap up their discussion of the 1982 album from Simple Minds, New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84).  Our hosts find themselves with three more songs on the album to cover, one of which is a single with a video, so there's no shortage of things to talk about with that song. But even the last two tracks on the album generate a lot of discussion from Brian and Sarah.  During the course of the song discussion, a wide variety of topics are brought up, such as: the first Earl of Birkenhead; the perfect setting to kill Green Lantern; the answer to the question “can being completely covered in gold paint kill a person?”; the world's worst museum; a cassette-zine; and the Camp David Peace Accords of 1978. After Brian and Sarah finish discussing the album tracks, it's time for the Extra Credit section. The featured topic is Jim Kerr's side project from 2010: Lostboy! AKA Jim Kerr. Then, to further delay the long-awaited final reviews and ratings of the album, there's a special and exciting announcement from Sarah! Finally, the time comes for Brian and Sarah to deliver their thoughts on the album and their record-adapter ratings. How will this 1982 album—which many consider to be Simple Minds' best work—rank in the eyes of our hosts? All is revealed at the end! Songs discussed in this episode: Glittering Prize Hunter and the Hunted King Is White and in the Crowd Link to the video discussed: Glittering Prize Read more at http://www.permanentrecordpodcast.com/ Visit us at https://www.facebook.com/permrecordpodcast Follow us at https://twitter.com/permrecordpod  Check out some pictures at https://www.instagram.com/permanentrecordpodcast/ So this BlueSky thing looks shiny and new: https://bsky.app/profile/permrecordpod.bsky.social Oh!  Here's another one of these things - Threads: https://www.threads.net/@permanentrecordpodcast Leave a voicemail for Brian & Sarah at (724) 490-8324 or https://www.speakpipe.com/PermRecordPod - we're ready to believe you!

It's a foodie treat for you all this week as we have the most incredible chef, restauranteur and entrepreneur Nisha Katona joining us for lunch after travelling down from Birkenhead especially for an excellent meal made by mum. Nisha joins our ever growing list of guests from mum's favourite programme, Great British Menu, and this episode really is such a treat. We learned about how Nisha created a national chain of restaurants (Mowgli), how her career started with her working as a barrister for 20 years, the very best tips and tricks for cooking Indian food (including a quick and easy prawn curry), her love of Hungarian cuisine, her unbelievable list of pet animals, plus we learn something truly shocking about English Mustard! Foodies, do not miss this ep, Nisha's endless tips are incredible! Nisha's Mowgli restaurant is in over 20 cities across the UK and her charity work with the Mowgli Trust continues to raise vital funds for communities across the UK & India. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode of the podcast is a bit different... Instead of our usual, reverent look back at examples of the best in record sleeve creativity, we dig into its darkest and often unexplored corners of obscurity to expose some of the worst, or at best, most bizarre record sleeves ever created. This collection of more than 500 of 'the worst record sleeves' is part of a touring exhibition of the same name, which I visited a couple of times when it was on display in Birkenhead, Wirral, from November 2023 to January 2024. Whilst there, I spoke with the curator of the collection, Steve Goldman, along with Simon Robinson, the man behind a supporting book that showcases and expands upon the works on display. Buy the book 'The art of the bizarre vinyl sleeve' by Simon Robinson directly from the publisher at this link: www.easyontheeyeshop.co.uk Join the Facebook group: facebook.com/worstrecordcovers Instagram: @worstrecordcovers If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to Art on your sleeve at Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favourite shows, and if you're very nice, you could give us some stars or a positive review. Art on your sleeve is also available on most popular podcast platforms, including Spotify,  Soundcloud and Google Podcasts. Art on your sleeve has an active Facebook group where additional content is shared, and you're welcome to join. See you online… https://www.facebook.com/groups/442664446671424

D-M and Nat giddily skip through a 1-1 draw away at Liverpool, an excellent point that leaves us sitting pretty in 11th, one ahead of a hapless West Ham United. Amalie Thestrup's insouciant heeled goal - her fifth of the season - enabled City Women to take a share of the spoils in Birkenhead. This was a solid performance from the whole team, with Syme and Mustaki stepping in with great distinction, and Mari Ward showing promising menace off the bench. What does Lauren Smith have up her sleeve for when the transfer window opens? Only time will tell, but all we want for Xmas is Rachel Rowe. COYR! Vixens ‘Til We Die! COYR! Follow on X @BCVixenCast and on Instagram @bcvixencast --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/bcvixencast/message

Have you heard of the Auckland Curry Movement? They're a shadowy cabal of curry connoisseurs with zero online presence... Except every year they give out their "Best Indian Restaurant award" - along with one, short accompanying article. This years award went to "Taste Of India" in Mt Eden. We called the winning restaurant - they didn't know who was behind the curry movement. We called last years winner - same story. But the 2020 champion, Birkenhead's "The Curry Master" gave us a number. A number that was engraved on the bottom of the trophy... Disappointingly it wasn't the number for the curry movement, but for the trophy maker. But someone had to have ordered the trophy.... And it turns out that person was Adrian.

Michael Connelly is one of several authors suing the tech company OpenAI for "theft" of his work. Nicola Solomon, outgoing Society of Authors CEO, and Sean Michaels, one of the first novelists to use AI, discuss the challenges and opportunities facing writers on the cusp of a new technological era.What makes a great piece of terrible album artwork? The Williamson Gallery & Museum in Birkenhead is currently displaying nearly 500 albums which have been collected over a seven year period by Steve Goldman from record fairs and online market places as part of their ‘Worst Record Covers' exhibition. Samira is joined by the exhibition curator Niall Hodson and the writer, journalist and author of “The Sound of Being Human” Jude Rogers.The most famous event in Los Angeles in 1852 was a horse race. Fortunes were won and lost on Pio Pico's horse Sarco and Jose Sepulveda's Black Swan. Widespread press reports included the horses' names and the names of their owners - but not the name of the black jockey who won. Apart from his colour, we know nothing about him. Fred D'Aguiar talks to Samira Ahmed about his latest collection of poems, 'For the Unnamed', in which he recovers and re-imagines the story, giving the black jockey the presence today he was denied in his lifetime.

[SF153] 'Liar Cake' Full Runtime 2:31It's been a while since we have done a full Mint Sauce Chronicles episode so here goes.In Pt1 we talk about Chris's drawing of Sir Kier Starlin, Big Shill Microphones, Nurse Gladys & Dr Aseem Malhotra, Professor James Giordano & Hormetic Potential, the drop in US life expectancy, Synth Embryo's, Cloud Seeding, and Lewis Collin aka Bodie from the Professionals.In Pt2 we concentrate on childhood vaccines specifically Bexsero Meningococcal Group B vaccine or MenB, manufactured by GSK [pil.5168.pdf (medicines.org.uk)]. Also in Pt2 we  look into Frank Field MP aka Baron Field of Birkenhead & Alicia Kearns MP and their pushing of the 'assisted dying' drive. The research leads us to a host of well known individuals like Sir Bob Geldof & Bono, and some other NGOs that are out to save Africa but always seem to make it worse.Email: info@sheepfarm.co.ukwww.sheepfarm.co.uk - Podcasts – Sheep FarmPodomatic - https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/Rumble - sheepfarmstudioshttps://rumble.com/user/SheepFarmStudioOdysee - https://odysee.com/@sheepfarmstudios:f?sunset=lbrytvBrighteon - https://www.brighteon.com/channels/monkey94

In this episode, I tell the story of Teddy Tilston, a 2-year-old boy killed in Birkenhead, Merseyside, on March 1, 2017.Teddy was being cared for by 28-year-old Craig Smith, his mum's partner, when the emergency services were called that afternoon. Smith claimed Teddy had drowned in the bath after being left for just 30 seconds, but the paramedics attending the scene noticed that he was bone dry.Teddy's twin sister, Cassidy, was already at Arrowe Park Hospital after Smith informed their mum, Ashleigh Willett, that she'd knocked herself unconscious after running into a table. When examined, it was revealed Cassidy had several other injuries, including a broken wrist she may have received up to six months earlier.A jury at Liverpool Crown Court found Smith guilty of murder in November 2017, and he was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 17 years. Willett was found guilty of failing to seek medical assistance for her twin children and received a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years.**The following is NOT a sponsored message**If you or someone you know has experienced child abuse or are concerned that someone you know is, please consider contacting one of the following charities:Childline: 0800 1111National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC): 0808 800 5000Help for Adult Victims of Child Abuse (HAVOCA): Fill in a contact form at havoca.orgNational Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC): 0808 801 0331For all things British Murders, please visit my website:⁣britishmurders.com⁣Intro music:⁣David John Brady - 'Throw Down the Gauntlet'⁣linktr.ee/davidjohnbradymusic⁣References:⁣britishmurders.com/teddytilston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, I tell the story of Teddy Tilston, a 2-year-old boy killed in Birkenhead, Merseyside, on March 1, 2017. Teddy was being cared for by 28-year-old Craig Smith, his mum's partner, when the emergency services were called that afternoon. Smith claimed Teddy had drowned in the bath after being left for just 30 seconds, but the paramedics attending the scene noticed that he was bone dry. Teddy's twin sister, Cassidy, was already at Arrowe Park Hospital after Smith informed their mum, Ashleigh Willett, that she'd knocked herself unconscious after running into a table. When examined, it was revealed Cassidy had several other injuries, including a broken wrist she may have received up to six months earlier. A jury at Liverpool Crown Court found Smith guilty of murder in November 2017, and he was handed a life sentence with a minimum term of 17 years. Willett was found guilty of failing to seek medical assistance for her twin children and received a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years. **The following is NOT a sponsored message** If you or someone you know has experienced child abuse or are concerned that someone you know is, please consider contacting one of the following charities: Childline: 0800 1111 National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC): 0808 800 5000 Help for Adult Victims of Child Abuse (HAVOCA): Fill in a contact form at havoca.org National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC): 0808 801 0331 For all things British Murders, please visit my website:⁣ britishmurders.com⁣ Intro music:⁣ David John Brady - 'Throw Down the Gauntlet'⁣ linktr.ee/davidjohnbradymusic⁣ References:⁣ britishmurders.com/teddytilston Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

'A kick in the guts' is how an Aucklander waiting for a buyout for her flood damaged home is describing the council taking back five percent as an administration fee. Auckland Council will start to confirm category three properties by the end of the month and offer 95 percent of the pre-storm value of an insured property. Aleysha Knowles' Birkenhead home was completely flooded in January and remains yellow-stickered and unliveable. She says the pay out would leave her $200,000 out of pocket. Knowles spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.

Auckland Transport has opened the shed for a look at the electric ferries it's having built. Just last week AT announced the end of several inner city routes, because operator Fullers360 says it doesn't have the crew to staff them. From the first of October, Fullers will no longer operate the Birkenhead, Te Onewa Northcote Point, and Bayswater routes. AT is scrambling now to find a new operator. In the meantime it hopes its new boats will bring a sea change for ferry commuters. Reporter Finn Blackwell and camera operator Marika Khabazi have this story.

The relationship between Auckland Transport and the ferry operator Fullers has hit very choppy waters over the cancellation of multiple Auckland commuter services. From October Fullers 360 will not longer run the Birkenhead, Te Onewa Northcote Point, and Bayswater services, leaving AT scrambling to find a replacement operator. And there also be significant cuts to the timetable on the Gulf Harbour and Half Moon Bay routes. Auckland Transport says Fullers has quit the routes so it can accelerate its training programme with the company short of 12 crews. But Fullers CEO Mike Horne insists AT has known for months that this was coming.

Fullers is ending its operation of multiple commuter ferry services ..leaving AT scrambling to find a replacement operator. From October 1st, Fullers 360 will no longer operate the Birkenhead, Te Onewa Northcote Point, and Bayswater ferries. And there will be significant cuts to the timetable the Gulf Harbour and Half Moon Bay routes. Fuller has previously told Checkpoint that up to 30 percent of its weekly services were being cancelled due to staff shortages. AT says Fullers can't reliably run the full network and concentrate on training new ferry crew. Stacey van der Putten from Auckland Transport spoke to Lisa Owen. [embed] https://players.brightcove.net/6093072280001/default_default/index.html?videoId=6334005988112

Several ferry services in Auckland will be canned from October, leaving AT scrambling to find a new operator. Fullers will no longer run services to Birkenhead, Te Onewa Northcote Point and Bayswater. Services to Gulf Harbour and Half Moon Bay will be reduced for 14 to 18 months to give Fullers time to train up new skippers and deckhands. Reporter Tom Taylor and cameraman Nick Monro paid a visit to one of the North Shore terminals soon to be out of action

An Auckland Councillor is frustrated with the suspension of several ferry services. From October, Fullers360 will no longer operate the Birkenhead, Northcote Point and Bayswater routes. Auckland Transport says it is trying to find a new ferry operator to run the suspended services. Auckland Councillor Richard Hills spoke to Corin Dann.

It was a blessing to be a guest at the Almond House Fellowship Upper Room podcast following a week's mission in the area. What a blessing and great people hope you will connect with them.Join Darren for this season of The Upper Room as we aim to deliver some interesting faith-based interviews and Biblical perspectives on world events.To connect more with Bulldozerfaith as we seek to invest in transforming lives and raising up leaders. https://member.bulldozerfaith.com/To support the ministry, you can give here. https://member.bulldozerfaith.com/give/Almond House Fellowship Website - https://www.almondhousefellowship.com

Tony Hall – Lord Hall of Birkenhead - was the director general of the BBC from 2013 until 2020. He joined the Corporation as a trainee in 1973 rising to director of BBC News and current affairs in 1990 and continued to lead BBC News until 2001. During his tenure he launched BBC Parliament, BBC 5 Live, BBC News 24 and BBC News Online, before taking some time off to run the Royal Opera house in Covent Garden. He also spent time on Channel 4's board. Tony calls for a debate on public service media and discusses local radio changes, the merger of the two BBC news channels, classical music cuts, Channel 4, appointing a new BBC chair, impartiality and GB News."At the core of the BBC is news, I think the BBC should be investing more in its news operation to be honest with you."Support the podcast by signing up here Find all our podcasts here @BeebRoger@RogerBolton@mastodonapp.ukemail: roger@rogerboltonsbeebwatch.com Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Elvis Costello spilar í Eldborg eftir sléttar tvær vikur. Hann kemur með píanóleikaranum Steve Nieve sem er búinn að spila með honum síðan 1977, og Nick Lowe sem stjórnaði upptökum á fyrstu plötunum hans og samdi lagið What?s so funny about Peace, Love and understanding sem er eitt af þekktustu lögum sem Elvis hefur sungið. Ég spjallaði við Elvis á Zoom á dögunum og hann var mjög skemmtilegur. Hann var heima hjá sér í New York og ég heima á Akranesi. Við heyrum það viðtal í Rokklandi í dag auk þess sem við skoðum sögu hans í stórum dráttum og spilum lögin hans, en af þeim á hann nóg. Elvis hélt tónleika 10 kvöld í röð í leikhúsi í New York í febrúar. Hann lagði upp með að spila 100 mismunandi lög þessi 10 kvöld, en hann spilaði 239 mismunandi lög 250 lög í það heila. Elvis hefur samið lög með Paul McCartney, hann og Burt Bacharach sömdu saman heila frábæra plötu 1998. Hann hefur líka gert plötur með Brodsky kvartettinum, Anne Sofie Von Otter, Roots og Bill Frisell svo eitthvað sé nefnt. Elvis Costello heitir ekki Elvis, heldur Declan og hann ólst upp í Birkenhead við Mersey ána - rétt hjá Liverpool. Elvis er einn af þessum stóru og ég lofa skemmtilegum þætti.

Elvis Costello spilar í Eldborg eftir sléttar tvær vikur. Hann kemur með píanóleikaranum Steve Nieve sem er búinn að spila með honum síðan 1977, og Nick Lowe sem stjórnaði upptökum á fyrstu plötunum hans og samdi lagið What?s so funny about Peace, Love and understanding sem er eitt af þekktustu lögum sem Elvis hefur sungið. Ég spjallaði við Elvis á Zoom á dögunum og hann var mjög skemmtilegur. Hann var heima hjá sér í New York og ég heima á Akranesi. Við heyrum það viðtal í Rokklandi í dag auk þess sem við skoðum sögu hans í stórum dráttum og spilum lögin hans, en af þeim á hann nóg. Elvis hélt tónleika 10 kvöld í röð í leikhúsi í New York í febrúar. Hann lagði upp með að spila 100 mismunandi lög þessi 10 kvöld, en hann spilaði 239 mismunandi lög 250 lög í það heila. Elvis hefur samið lög með Paul McCartney, hann og Burt Bacharach sömdu saman heila frábæra plötu 1998. Hann hefur líka gert plötur með Brodsky kvartettinum, Anne Sofie Von Otter, Roots og Bill Frisell svo eitthvað sé nefnt. Elvis Costello heitir ekki Elvis, heldur Declan og hann ólst upp í Birkenhead við Mersey ána - rétt hjá Liverpool. Elvis er einn af þessum stóru og ég lofa skemmtilegum þætti.

Thirty-two teams, 64 games, tens of thousands of fans filling stadiums, two billion tuning in on television - the FIFA Women's Football World Cup is going to be massive.

Mass cancellations of ferries in Auckland prompted the Transport Minister to call a crisis meeting late last week. And over the weekend crew shortages saw services to Half Moon Bay, Birkenhead, Bayswater and Te Onewa Northcote Point canned. Fullers360 is cancelling at least 30 percent of its trips a week due to staff shortages. The ongoing disruptions saw the Transport Minister, who is also the Immigration Minister bring together Auckland Transport, Waka Kotahi and Fullers360 to nut out a solution. Fullers360 chief executive Mike Horne says the Minister's now agreed to change immigration settings.

Auckland's weekend ferry services are virtually sunk, with multiple cancellations and timetable disruptions. Operators Fullers360 says due to crew shortages all Half Moon Bay and inner harbour loop services including Birkenhead, Bayswater and Te Onewa Northcote point are not running on Saturday and Sunday. Instead there will be bus, uber and taxi replacements. They're also warning of possible delays to Waiheke, Hobsonville Point and Devonport services. Auckland councillor on the North Shore Richard Hills talks to Lisa Owen.

Dave is the owner of Perfect Getaways Travel Agents. Perfect Getaways operates a chain of independent travel agents in the North West of England in the UK with stores in Little Sutton, Neston, Birkenhead, Liverpool and St Helens.  At a time when many businesses have migrated away from the high street and onto the internet, Perfect Getaways takes a different approach. As Dave puts it, "We believe that booking a holiday should be a fun experience. Our concept is that 'Your Holiday Starts Here' when you walk into one of our stores. We provide a fresh and fun environment with complementary bars, beer gardens, relaxed seating areas and large screen TV's to view your preferred holiday destination. If you have children we have complementary sweet shops in every store and children's areas including cinema room, children's TV, Xbox, drawing and colouring. In addition, our Travel Consultants are trained to be experts in their field to give advice on all types of travel and holidays. In our conversation, we talk about how he left school at 16 with 1 O level at Grade A (maths) and no other qualifications, how he'd had it instilled in him that you have to work every day, how he started working in the mail room at Shell and how he found his way from there into the automotive leasing industry.As well as sharing the steps that he took he shares the paradigms and thoughts that lay behind the actions that he took that helped him to develop himself and progress in the industry  Those paradigms, thoughts and actions are filled with transferable value for all of us. And he talks openly about the fascinating entrepreneurial journey he and his wife Nicola have been on since leaving their corporate jobs. I'm particularly excited to introduce you to Dave. His story is a truly engaging one and he is such a humble and hardworking guy, I'm sure you'll enjoy hearing him tell it.  LinkedIn: David Palmer Website: https://www.perfectgetaways.co.uk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/perfectgetaways  Episode Directory on Instagram @careerviewmirror  Email: cvm@aquilae.co.uk  If you enjoy listening to our guests career stories, please follow CAREER-VIEW MIRROR in your podcast app.   Episode recorded on 17 February, 2023 

When Amber Clyde started skateboarding as a 10 year old in Birkenhead, she was the only girl at the skate park. She struggled with confidence, was shy and scared to get involved, and with no classes available to learn how to skate, she quickly drifted away. Amber picked up skateboarding again at age 20 after the birth of her first daughter, and this time she wanted to take her love for skateboarding to a new level, so she started teaching young girls. She started running weekend classes for a gold coin donation, and they became so popular she expanded. Amber and her coaches at Girlskate, now teach hundreds of girls each week, runs workshops in schools and has funding from Auckland Council and Sport NZ. She's the subject of a new documentary released today - called Back on the Board.

And we are back! This episode Hoya welcomes Richie Birkenhead. Hoya and Richie talk about everything that's been up, Numskuls, Underdog, Youth Of Today, Into Another, Touring, Recording, Hollywood Records, Writing, Hip Hop and much much more! Make sure to stay up to date with everything Smokin Word, MADBALL and Hoya Roc by following Hoya on Instagram @hoyaroc357 and following the Instagram of the podcast @thesmokinwordpodcast . Check out behind the scenes footage and unlocked episodes of the podcast before the rest of the world at patreon.com/thesmokinword . Always sponsored by CasaDeRoc.com. Follow, share, like, comment, and don't forget to smash that subscribe button!!!

Sam Benjamin is an award winning actor who stars in the British crime caper The Pay Day (2022) alongside Simon Callow. He's known for The War of the Worlds (2019) opposite Eleanor Tomlinson, and for guest turns in Doctor Who (2005) & Peaky Blinders (2013).His character in Netflix Lionsgate action movie I Am Vengeance: Retaliation (2020) received great notices, including a Variety review that calls for a spin-off movie following Sam's maverick minded black ops recruit 'Shapiro'. Sam is also the the leading man in BBC's Binge Watching (2019) playing ruthless lawman 'Constable Smith'.A recipient of New York and LA Film Awards, Sam also wrote and starred in The Few (2016) & Double Cross (2015) and has just completed his directorial debut with the pro wrestling drama short Screwjob.Born in Birkenhead, England, his sophomore screenwriting venture Double Cross (2015) also starring Kyla Frye (Edge of Tomorrow (2014)) made Official Selections at the British Urban Film Festival, Melanin Box Festival and SOUL Connect BFI Festival. In this critically acclaimed movie, Sam played the suave and cocky con artist 'George'. He won the 'Best Script Award' at the BBC sponsored British Urban Film Festival Awards 2016 for his original TV drama script Liverpool 81.An increasingly familiar face on prime-time TV, Sam also guest starred as the jaded and disillusioned soldier 'Private Reynolds' in hit BBC World War I drama The Crimson Field (2014). Facing certain death, we saw the courageous Reynolds march back into the trenches after a near fatal injury, resolute in his commitment to his country, and his seasoned army mentor, played by Lee Ingleby.Sam's first movie role was alongside Heroes (2006) star Jimmy Jean-Louis in the film Precipice (2010), which he landed the week he graduated from Drama Studio London, the prestigious acting school whose alumni include Academy Award Winner Forest Whitaker and Academy Award Nominee Emily WatsonBefore training as an actor, Sam became the first of his family to go to University. During received a BA Hons in History and Theatre from Reading University, where he was spotted by the National Student Drama Festival team and hand picked to join their Ensemble of 2005. Here he was taught Shakespeare and theatre ensemble skills under the tutelage of Patrick Stewart and John Britton.https://www.sambenjamin.com/https://www.instagram.com/sambenjaminnow/https://www.praxima.co.uk/the-pay-dayhttps://www.deluxeedition.showSupport our show:https://www.patreon.com/deluxeditionpodMERCH:https://whatamaneuver.net/collections/deluxe-editionCheck out our network at:https://www.deluxeeditionnetwork.comUse code DELUXE15 at checkout and grab some awesome granola:https://bearclawkitchen.com/?irgwc=1Follow Rayhttps://open.spotify.com/show/2Icote9QnVOVQ9QiWUcSQL?si=4e1b361875904e77&nd=1Join this channel to get access to perks:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcKR-qeXy1KyPj3w4cxgOYw/joinSupport the showCheck out all of our previous shows at https://www.deluxeedition.show

We are off to the town of Birkenhead, in Merseyside, and back to the early noughties this time around on The True Crime Enthusiast Podcast, for an incredibly sad tale in which you will undoubtedly be struck by the question: How much grief can one family possibly have?  The episode contains details and descriptions of crimes and events, involving involving injury detail, and depicting drug use, that some listeners may find disturbing, and or distressing, so discretion is advised whilst listening. Music used in this episode: "The Descent" by Kevin Macleod. All music used is sourced from https://filmmusic.io/ and used under an Attribution Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) Playlist Tracks Future Islands - Spirit Suzanne Vega - Blood Makes Noise The True Crime Enthusiast's Fundraiser For Macmillan Cancer Support Show Sponsor: BetterHelp: This episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/tce  and get on your way to being your best self.  Links Families Fighting For Justice OLLY (Our Lost Love Years) References https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Murder+victim%27s+father+in+rooftop+protest+over+cut+in+killer%27s...-a0147991233 https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/killer-chopped-off-chantels-head-3523586 https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/murderer-who-wont-reveal-hid-3680224 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/4749109.stm https://familiesfightingforjustice.org/our-stories/ https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/702734.remembering-chantel/ https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/may/22/families-fighting-for-justice https://sublimetruecrime.com/podcast/ep-6-the-murder-of-chantel-taylor/ https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-sunday-post-dundee/20120219/285821485266610 https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/827529.why-no-justice-for-chantel/ https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/end-soft-touch-sentences-killers-without-3516420 https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/chantels-killer-sent-down-life-3523537 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/4647416.stm https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/How_to_Solve_a_Crime/ogAmEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=stephen+wynne+birkenhead+2004+murder&pg=PT19&printsec=frontcover https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/11270573.prison-bosses-blasted-as-chantel-taylors-killer-is-allowed-back-into-birkenhead/ https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Life+for+killer+who+hacked+Wirral+mother+to+pieces.-a0141330979 https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Police+hold+two+men+over+missing+Chantel.-a0133455407 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcySoUpD3Xs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgU5J8zTVBU Follow/Contact/Support The True Crime Enthusiast Podcast Facebook Facebook Discussion Group Twitter Instagram Youtube Website TTCE Merchandise Patreon Page Remembering Chantel, and her family.

Actor and former MP Glenda Jackson reveals the influences and experiences that inspired her work on stage and screen. One of the greatest actors of her generation, Glenda won Academy Awards for Women in Love and A Touch Of Class, and was Oscar nominated for Sunday Bloody Sunday. She has also won Tony, Emmy and Golden Globes awards for her theatre and television work. In 1992 she gave up acting to become a Labour MP, winning her seat five times. But in 2016 she returned to the stage, playing King Lear in London and New York, and to television for a BAFTA winning performance as an elderly women with dementia in Elizabeth Is Missing. Glenda Jackson recalls her working class upbringing in Birkenhead, and how she won a scholarship to the drama school RADA with help from the manager of the Boots chemists' where she worked at the time. She chooses the director Peter Brook as a major influence on her work, having starred in his radical 1964 stage production of the play Marat/Sade, and the version he subsequently adapted for cinema. She remembers also working closely with the director Ken Russell on several films, including the Oscar-winning Women in Love, adapted from the DH Lawrence novel. Glenda's comic appearances on the Morecambe and Wise Show in the early 1970s are recalled as career highlights. Glenda Jackson also chooses Margaret Thatcher as huge influence on her life and career, as it was the policies of the former Prime Minister which prompted her to give up acting for 23 years while she served as a Labour MP. Producer: Edwina Pitman

Episode one hundred and thirty-five of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel, and the many records they made, together and apart, before their success. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "Blues Run the Game" by Jackson C. Frank. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Errata I talk about a tour of Lancashire towns, but some of the towns I mention were in Cheshire at the time, and some are in Greater Manchester or Merseyside now. They're all very close together though. I say Mose Rager was Black. I was misremembering, confusing Mose Rager, a white player in the Muhlenberg style, with Arnold Schultz, a Black player who invented it. I got this right in the episode on "Bye Bye Love". Also, I couldn't track down a copy of the Paul Kane single version of “He Was My Brother” in decent quality, so I used the version on The Paul Simon Songbook instead, as they're basically identical performances. Resources As usual, I've created a Mixcloud playlist of the music excerpted here. This compilation collects all Simon and Garfunkel's studio albums, with bonus tracks, plus a DVD of their reunion concert. There are many collections of the pre-S&G recordings by the two, as these are now largely in the public domain. This one contains a good selection. I've referred to several books for this episode: Simon and Garfunkel: Together Alone by Spencer Leigh is a breezy, well-researched, biography of the duo. Paul Simon: The Life by Robert Hilburn is the closest thing there is to an authorised biography of Simon. And What is it All But Luminous? is Art Garfunkel's memoir. It's not particularly detailed, being more a collection of thoughts and poetry than a structured narrative, but gives a good idea of Garfunkel's attitude to people and events in his life. Roots, Radicals, and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World by Billy Bragg has some great information on the British folk scene of the fifties and sixties. And Singing From the Floor is an oral history of British folk clubs, including a chapter on Dylan's 1962 visit to London. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Today, we're going to take a look at a hit record that almost never happened -- a record by a duo who had already split up, twice, by the time it became a hit, and who didn't know it was going to come out. We're going to look at how a duo who started off as an Everly Brothers knockoff, before becoming unsuccessful Greenwich Village folkies, were turned into one of the biggest acts of the sixties by their producer. We're going to look at Simon and Garfunkel, and at "The Sound of Silence": [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "The Sound of Silence"] The story of Simon and Garfunkel starts with two children in a school play.  Neither Paul Simon or Art Garfunkel had many friends when they met in a school performance of Alice in Wonderland, where Simon was playing the White Rabbit and Garfunkel the Cheshire Cat. Simon was well-enough liked, by all accounts, but he'd been put on an accelerated programme for gifted students which meant he was progressing through school faster than his peers. He had a small social group, mostly based around playing baseball, but wasn't one of the popular kids. Art Garfunkel, another gifted student, had no friends at all until he got to know Simon, who he described later as his "one and only friend" in this time period. One passage in Garfunkel's autobiography seems to me to sum up everything about Garfunkel's personality as a child -- and indeed a large part of his personality as it comes across in interviews to this day. He talks about the pleasure he got from listening to the chart rundown on the radio -- "It was the numbers that got me. I kept meticulous lists—when a new singer like Tony Bennett came onto the charts with “Rags to Riches,” I watched the record jump from, say, #23 to #14 in a week. The mathematics of the jumps went to my sense of fun." Garfunkel is, to this day, a meticulous person -- on his website he has a list of every book he's read since June 1968, which is currently up to one thousand three hundred and ten books, and he has always had a habit of starting elaborate projects and ticking off every aspect of them as he goes. Both Simon and Garfunkel were outsiders at this point, other than their interests in sport, but Garfunkel was by far the more introverted of the two, and as a result he seems to have needed their friendship more than Simon did. But the two boys developed an intense, close, friendship, initially based around their shared sense of humour. Both of them were avid readers of Mad magazine, which had just started publishing when the two of them had met up, and both could make each other laugh easily. But they soon developed a new interest, when Martin Block on the middle-of-the-road radio show Make Believe Ballroom announced that he was going to play the worst record he'd ever heard. That record was "Gee" by the Crows: [Excerpt: The Crows, "Gee"] Paul Simon later said that that record was the first thing he'd ever heard on that programme that he liked, and soon he and Garfunkel had become regular listeners to Alan Freed's show on WINS, loving the new rock and roll music they were discovering. Art had already been singing in public from an early age -- his first public performance had been singing Nat "King" Cole's hit "Too Young" in a school talent contest when he was nine -- but the two started singing together. The first performance by Simon and Garfunkel was at a high school dance and, depending on which source you read, was a performance either of "Sh'Boom" or of Big Joe Turner's "Flip, Flop, and Fly": [Excerpt: Big Joe Turner, "Flip, Flop, and Fly"] The duo also wrote at least one song together as early as 1955 -- or at least Garfunkel says they wrote it together. Paul Simon describes it as one he wrote. They tried to get a record deal with the song, but it was never recorded at the time -- but Simon has later performed it: [Excerpt: Paul Simon, "The Girl For Me"] Even at this point, though, while Art Garfunkel was putting all his emotional energy into the partnership with Simon, Simon was interested in performing with other people. Al Kooper was another friend of Simon's at the time, and apparently Simon and Kooper would also perform together. Once Elvis came on to Paul's radar, he also bought a guitar, but it was when the two of them first heard the Everly Brothers that they realised what it was that they could do together. Simon fell in love with the Everly Brothers as soon as he heard "Bye Bye Love": [Excerpt: The Everly Brothers, "Bye Bye Love"] Up to this point, Paul hadn't bought many records -- he spent his money on baseball cards and comic books, and records just weren't good value. A pack of baseball cards was five cents, a comic book was ten cents, but a record was a dollar. Why buy records when you could hear music on the radio for free? But he needed that record, he couldn't just wait around to hear it on the radio. He made an hour-long two-bus journey to a record shop in Queens, bought the record, took it home, played it... and almost immediately scratched it. So he got back on the bus, travelled for another hour, bought another copy, took it home, and made sure he didn't scratch that one. Simon and Garfunkel started copying the Everlys' harmonies, and would spend hours together, singing close together watching each other's mouths and copying the way they formed words, eventually managing to achieve a vocal blend through sheer effort which would normally only come from familial closeness. Paul became so obsessed with music that he sold his baseball card collection and bought a tape recorder for two hundred dollars. They would record themselves singing, and then sing back along with it, multitracking themselves, but also critiquing the tape, refining their performances. Paul's father was a bass player -- "the family bassman", as he would later sing -- and encouraged his son in his music, even as he couldn't see the appeal in this new rock and roll music. He would critique Paul's songs, saying things like "you went from four-four to a bar of nine-eight, you can't do that" -- to which his son would say "I just did" -- but this wasn't hostile criticism, rather it was giving his son a basic grounding in song construction which would prove invaluable. But the duo's first notable original song -- and first hit -- came about more or less by accident. In early 1956, the doo-wop group the Clovers had released the hit single "Devil or Angel". Its B-side had a version of "Hey Doll Baby", a song written by the blues singer Titus Turner, and which sounds to me very inspired by Hank Williams' "Hey, Good Lookin'": [Excerpt: The Clovers, "Hey, Doll Baby"] That song was picked up by the Everly Brothers, who recorded it for their first album: [Excerpt: The Everly Brothers, "Hey Doll Baby"] Here is where the timeline gets a little confused for me, because that album wasn't released until early 1958, although the recording session for that track was in August 1957. Yet that track definitely influenced Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel to record a song that they released in November 1957. All I can imagine is that they heard the brothers perform it live, or maybe a radio station had an acetate copy. Because the way everyone has consistently told the story is that at the end of summer 1957, Simon and Garfunkel had both heard the Everly Brothers perform "Hey Doll Baby", but couldn't remember how it went. The two of them tried to remember it, and to work a version of it out together, and their hazy memories combined to reconstruct something that was completely different, and which owed at least as much to "Wake Up Little Suzie" as to "Hey Doll Baby". Their new song, "Hey Schoolgirl", was catchy enough that they thought if they recorded a demo of it, maybe the Everly Brothers themselves would record the song. At the demo studio they happened to encounter Sid Prosen, who owned a small record label named Big Records. He heard the duo perform and realised he might have his own Everly Brothers here. He signed the duo to a contract, and they went into a professional studio to rerecord "Hey Schoolgirl", this time with Paul's father on bass, and a couple of other musicians to fill out the sound: [Excerpt: Tom and Jerry, "Hey Schoolgirl"] Of course, the record couldn't be released under their real names -- there was no way anyone was going to buy a record by Simon and Garfunkel. So instead they became Tom and Jerry. Paul Simon was Jerry Landis -- a surname he chose because he had a crush on a girl named Sue Landis. Art became Tom Graff, because he liked drawing graphs. "Hey Schoolgirl" became a local hit. The two were thrilled to hear it played on Alan Freed's show (after Sid Prosen gave Freed two hundred dollars), and were even more thrilled when they got to perform on American Bandstand, on the same show as Jerry Lee Lewis. When Dick Clark asked them where they were from, Simon decided to claim he was from Macon, Georgia, where Little Richard came from, because all his favourite rock and roll singers were from the South. "Hey Schoolgirl" only made number forty-nine nationally, because the label didn't have good national distribution, but it sold over a hundred thousand copies, mostly in the New York area. And Sid Prosen seems to have been one of a very small number of independent label owners who wasn't a crook -- the two boys got about two thousand dollars each from their hit record. But while Tom and Jerry seemed like they might have a successful career, Simon and Garfunkel were soon to split up, and the reason for their split was named True Taylor. Paul had been playing some of his songs for Sid Prosen, to see what the duo's next single should be, and Prosen had noticed that while some of them were Everly Brothers soundalikes, others were Elvis soundalikes. Would Paul be interested in recording some of those, too? Obviously Art couldn't sing on those, so they'd use a different name, True Taylor. The single was released around the same time as the second Tom and Jerry record, and featured an Elvis-style ballad by Paul on one side, and a rockabilly song written by his father on the other: [Excerpt: True Taylor, "True or False"] But Paul hadn't discussed that record with Art before doing it, and the two had vastly different ideas about their relationship. Paul was Art's only friend, and Art thought they had an indissoluble bond and that they would always work together. Paul, on the other hand, thought of Art as one of his friends and someone he made music with, but he could play at being Elvis if he wanted, as well as playing at being an Everly brother. Garfunkel, in his memoir published in 2017, says "the friendship was shattered for life" -- he decided then and there that Paul Simon was a "base" person, a betrayer. But on the other hand, he still refers to Simon, over and over again, in that book as still being his friend, even as Simon has largely been disdainful of him since their last performance together in 2010. Friendships are complicated. Tom and Jerry struggled on for a couple more singles, which weren't as successful as "Hey Schoolgirl" had been, with material like "Two Teenagers", written by Rose Marie McCoy: [Excerpt: Tom and Jerry, "Two Teenagers"] But as they'd stopped being friends, and they weren't selling records, they drifted apart and didn't really speak for five years, though they would occasionally run into one another. They both went off to university, and Garfunkel basically gave up on the idea of having a career in music, though he did record a couple of singles, under the name "Artie Garr": [Excerpt: Artie Garr, "Beat Love"] But for the most part, Garfunkel concentrated on his studies, planning to become either an architect or maybe an academic. Paul Simon, on the other hand, while he was technically studying at university too, was only paying minimal attention to his studies. Instead, he was learning the music business. Every afternoon, after university had finished, he'd go around the Brill Building and its neighbouring buildings, offering his services both as a songwriter and as a demo performer. As Simon was competent on guitar, bass, and drums, could sing harmonies, and could play a bit of piano if it was in the key of C, he could use primitive multitracking to play and sing all the parts on a demo, and do it well: [Excerpt: Paul Simon, "Boys Were Made For Girls"] That's an excerpt from a demo Simon recorded for Burt Bacharach, who has said that he tried to get Simon to record as many of his demos as possible, though only a couple of them have surfaced publicly. Simon would also sometimes record demos with his friend Carole Klein, sometimes under the name The Cosines: [Excerpt: The Cosines, "Just to Be With You"] As we heard back in the episode on "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?", Carole Klein went on to change her name to Carole King, and become one of the most successful songwriters of the era -- something which spurred Paul Simon on, as he wanted to emulate her success. Simon tried to get signed up by Don Kirshner, who was publishing Goffin and King, but Kirshner turned Simon down -- an expensive mistake for Kirshner, but one that would end up benefiting Simon, who eventually figured out that he should own his own publishing. Simon was also getting occasional work as a session player, and played lead guitar on "The Shape I'm In" by Johnny Restivo, which made the lower reaches of the Hot One Hundred: [Excerpt: Johnny Restivo, "The Shape I'm In"] Between 1959 and 1963 Simon recorded a whole string of unsuccessful pop singles. including as a member of the Mystics: [Excerpt: The Mystics, "All Through the Night"] He even had a couple of very minor chart hits -- he got to number 99 as Tico and the Triumphs: [Excerpt: Tico and the Triumphs, "Motorcycle"] and number ninety-seven as Jerry Landis: [Excerpt: Jerry Landis, "The Lone Teen Ranger"] But he was jumping around, hopping onto every fad as it passed, and not getting anywhere. And then he started to believe that he could do something more interesting in music. He first became aware that the boundaries of what could be done in music extended further than "ooh-bop-a-loochy-ba" when he took a class on modern music at university, which included a trip to Carnegie Hall to hear a performance of music by the avant-garde composer Edgard Varese: [Excerpt: Edgard Varese, "Ionisation"] Simon got to meet Varese after the performance, and while he would take his own music in a very different, and much more commercial, direction than Varese's, he was nonetheless influenced by what Varese's music showed about the possibilities that existed in music. The other big influence on Simon at this time was when he heard The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Girl From the North Country"] Simon immediately decided to reinvent himself as a folkie, despite at this point knowing very little about folk music other than the Everly Brothers' Songs Our Daddy Taught Us album. He tried playing around Greenwich Village, but found it an uncongenial atmosphere, and inspired by the liner notes to the Dylan album, which talked about Dylan's time in England, he made what would be the first of several trips to the UK, where he was given a rapturous reception simply on the grounds of being an American and owning a better acoustic guitar -- a Martin -- than most British people owned. He had the showmanship that he'd learned from watching his father on stage and sometimes playing with him, and from his time in Tom and Jerry and working round the studios, and so he was able to impress the British folk-club audiences, who were used to rather earnest, scholarly, people, not to someone like Simon who was clearly ambitious and very showbiz. His repertoire at this point consisted mostly of songs from the first two Dylan albums, a Joan Baez record, Little Willie John's "Fever", and one song he'd written himself, an attempt at a protest song called "He Was My Brother", which he would release on his return to the US under yet another stage name, Paul Kane: [Excerpt: Paul Kane, "He Was My Brother"] Simon has always stated that that song was written about a friend of his who was murdered when he went down to Mississippi with the Freedom Riders -- but while Simon's friend was indeed murdered, it wasn't until about a year after he wrote the song, and Simon has confused the timelines in his subsequent recollections. At the time he recorded that, when he had returned to New York at the end of the summer, Simon had a job as a song plugger for a publishing company, and he gave the publishing company the rights to that song and its B-side, which led to that B-side getting promoted by the publisher, and ending up covered on one of the biggest British albums of 1964, which went to number two in the UK charts: [Excerpt: Val Doonican, "Carlos Dominguez"] Oddly, that may not end up being the only time we feature a Val Doonican track on this podcast. Simon continued his attempts to be a folkie, even teaming up again with Art Garfunkel, with whom he'd re-established contact, to perform in Greenwich Village as Kane and Garr, but they went down no better as a duo than Simon had as a solo artist. Simon went back to the UK again over Christmas 1963, and while he was there he continued work on a song that would become such a touchstone for him that of the first six albums he would be involved in, four would feature the song while a fifth would include a snippet of it. "The Sound of Silence" was apparently started in November 1963, but not finished until February 1964, by which time he was once again back in the USA, and back working as a song plugger. It was while working as a song plugger that Simon first met Tom Wilson, Bob Dylan's producer at Columbia. Simon met up with Wilson trying to persuade him to use some of the songs that the publishing company were putting out. When Wilson wasn't interested, Simon played him a couple of his own songs. Wilson took one of them, "He Was My Brother", for the Pilgrims, a group he was producing who were supposed to be the Black answer to Peter, Paul, and Mary: [Excerpt: The Pilgrims, "He Was My Brother"] Wilson was also interested in "The Sound of Silence", but Simon was more interested in getting signed as a performer than in having other acts perform his songs. Wilson was cautious, though -- he was already producing one folkie singer-songwriter, and he didn't really need a second one. But he *could* probably do with a vocal group... Simon mentioned that he had actually made a couple of records before, as part of a duo. Would Wilson be at all interested in a vocal *duo*? Wilson would be interested. Simon and Garfunkel auditioned for him, and a few days later were in the Columbia Records studio on Seventh Avenue recording their first album as a duo, which was also the first time either of them would record under their own name. Wednesday Morning, 3AM, the duo's first album, was a simple acoustic album, and the only instrumentation was Simon and Barry Kornfeld, a Greenwich Village folkie, on guitars, and Bill Lee, the double bass player who'd played with Dylan and others, on bass. Tom Wilson guided the duo in their song selection, and the eventual album contained six cover versions and six originals written by Simon. The cover versions were a mixture of hootenanny staples like "Go Tell it on the Mountain", plus Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'", included to cross-promote Dylan's new album and to try to link the duo with the more famous writer, and one unusual one, "The Sun is Burning", written by Ian Campbell, a Scottish folk singer who Simon had got to know on his trips to the UK: [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "The Sun is Burning"] But the song that everyone was keenest on was "The Sound of Silence", the first song that Simon had written that he thought would stand up in comparison with the sort of song that Dylan was writing: [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "The Sound of Silence (Wednesday Morning 3AM version)"] In between sessions for the album, Simon and Garfunkel also played a high-profile gig at Gerde's Folk City in the Village, and a couple of shows at the Gaslight Cafe. The audiences there, though, regarded them as a complete joke -- Dave Van Ronk would later relate that for weeks afterwards, all anyone had to do was sing "Hello darkness, my old friend", for everyone around to break into laughter. Bob Dylan was one of those who laughed at the performance -- though Robert Shelton later said that Dylan hadn't been laughing at them, specifically, he'd just had a fit of the giggles -- and this had led to a certain amount of anger from Simon towards Dylan. The album was recorded in March 1964, and was scheduled for release  in October. In the meantime, they both made plans to continue with their studies and their travels. Garfunkel was starting to do postgraduate work towards his doctorate in mathematics, while Simon was now enrolled in Brooklyn Law School, but was still spending most of his time travelling, and would drop out after one semester. He would spend much of the next eighteen months in the UK. While he was occasionally in the US between June 1964 and November 1965, Simon now considered himself based in England, where he made several acquaintances that would affect his life deeply. Among them were a young woman called Kathy Chitty, with whom he would fall in love and who would inspire many of his songs, and an older woman called Judith Piepe (and I apologise if I'm mispronouncing her name, which I've only ever seen written down, never heard) who many people believed had an unrequited crush on Simon. Piepe ran her London flat as something of a commune for folk musicians, and Simon lived there for months at a time while in the UK. Among the other musicians who stayed there for a time were Sandy Denny, Cat Stevens, and Al Stewart, whose bedroom was next door to Simon's. Piepe became Simon's de facto unpaid manager and publicist, and started promoting him around the British folk scene. Simon also at this point became particularly interested in improving his guitar playing. He was spending a lot of time at Les Cousins, the London club that had become the centre of British acoustic guitar. There are, roughly, three styles of acoustic folk guitar -- to be clear, I'm talking about very broad-brush categorisations here, and there are people who would disagree and say there are more, but these are the main ones. Two of these are American styles -- there's the simple style known as Carter scratching, popularised by Mother Maybelle Carter of the Carter family, and for this all you do is alternate bass notes with your thumb while scratching the chord on the treble strings with one finger, like this: [Excerpt: Carter picking] That's the style played by a lot of country and folk players who were primarily singers accompanying themselves. In the late forties and fifties, though, another style had become popularised -- Travis picking. This is named after Merle Travis, the most well-known player in the style, but he always called it Muhlenberg picking, after Muhlenberg County, where he'd learned the style from Ike Everly -- the Everly Brothers' father -- and Mose Rager, a Black guitarist. In Travis picking, the thumb alternates between two bass notes, but rather than strumming a chord, the index and middle fingers play simple patterns on the treble strings, like this: [Excerpt: Travis picking] That's, again, a style primarily used for accompaniment, but it can also be used to play instrumentals by oneself. As well as Travis and Ike Everly, it's also the style played by Donovan, Chet Atkins, James Taylor, and more. But there's a third style, British baroque folk guitar, which was largely the invention of Davey Graham. Graham, you might remember, was a folk guitarist who had lived in the same squat as Lionel Bart when Bart started working with Tommy Steele, and who had formed a blues duo with Alexis Korner. Graham is now best known for one of his simpler pieces, “Anji”, which became the song that every British guitarist tried to learn: [Excerpt: Davey Graham, "Anji"] Dozens of people, including Paul Simon, would record versions of that. Graham invented an entirely new style of guitar playing, influenced by ragtime players like Blind Blake, but also by Bach, by Moroccan oud music, and by Celtic bagpipe music. While it was fairly common for players to retune their guitar to an open major chord, allowing them to play slide guitar, Graham retuned his to a suspended fourth chord -- D-A-D-G-A-D -- which allowed him to keep a drone going on some strings while playing complex modal counterpoints on others. While I demonstrated the previous two styles myself, I'm nowhere near a good enough guitarist to demonstrate British folk baroque, so here's an excerpt of Davey Graham playing his own arrangement of the traditional ballad "She Moved Through the Fair", recast as a raga and retitled "She Moved Thru' the Bizarre": [Excerpt: Davey Graham, "She Moved Thru' the Bizarre"] Graham's style was hugely influential on an entire generation of British guitarists, people who incorporated world music and jazz influences into folk and blues styles, and that generation of guitarists was coming up at the time and playing at Les Cousins. People who started playing in this style included Jimmy Page, Bert Jansch, Roy Harper, John Renbourn, Richard Thompson, Nick Drake, and John Martyn, and it also had a substantial influence on North American players like Joni Mitchell, Tim Buckley, and of course Paul Simon. Simon was especially influenced at this time by Martin Carthy, the young British guitarist whose style was very influenced by Graham -- but while Graham applied his style to music ranging from Dave Brubeck to Lutheran hymns to Big Bill Broonzy songs, Carthy mostly concentrated on traditional English folk songs. Carthy had a habit of taking American folk singers under his wing, and he taught Simon several songs, including Carthy's own arrangement of the traditional "Scarborough Fair": [Excerpt: Martin Carthy, "Scarborough Fair"] Simon would later record that arrangement, without crediting Carthy, and this would lead to several decades of bad blood between them, though Carthy forgave him in the 1990s, and the two performed the song together at least once after that. Indeed, Simon seems to have made a distinctly negative impression on quite a few of the musicians he knew in Britain at this time, who seem to, at least in retrospect, regard him as having rather used and discarded them as soon as his career became successful. Roy Harper has talked in liner notes to CD reissues of his work from this period about how Simon used to regularly be a guest in his home, and how he has memories of Simon playing with Harper's baby son Nick (now himself one of the greats of British guitar) but how as soon as he became successful he never spoke to Harper again. Similarly, in 1965 Simon started a writing partnership with Bruce Woodley of the Seekers, an Australian folk-pop band based in the UK, best known for "Georgy Girl". The two wrote "Red Rubber Ball", which became a hit for the Cyrkle: [Excerpt: The Cyrke, "Red Rubber Ball"] and also "Cloudy", which the Seekers recorded as an album track: [Excerpt: The Seekers, "Cloudy"] When that was recorded by Simon and Garfunkel, Woodley's name was removed from the writing credits, though Woodley still apparently received royalties for it. But at this point there *was* no Simon and Garfunkel. Paul Simon was a solo artist working the folk clubs in Britain, and Simon and Garfunkel's one album had sold a minuscule number of copies. They did, when Simon briefly returned to the US in March, record two tracks for a prospective single, this time with an electric backing band. One was a rewrite of the title track of their first album, now titled "Somewhere They Can't Find Me" and with a new chorus and some guitar parts nicked from Davey Graham's "Anji"; the other a Twist-beat song that could almost be Manfred Mann or Georgie Fame -- "We Got a Groovy Thing Goin'". That was also influenced by “Anji”, though by Bert Jansch's version rather than Graham's original. Jansch rearranged the song and stuck in this phrase: [Excerpt: Bert Jansch, “Anji”] Which became the chorus to “We Got a Groovy Thing Goin'”: [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "We Got a Groovy Thing Goin'"] But that single was never released, and as far as Columbia were concerned, Simon and Garfunkel were a defunct act, especially as Tom Wilson, who had signed them, was looking to move away from Columbia. Art Garfunkel did come to visit Simon in the UK a couple of times, and they'd even sing together occasionally, but it was on the basis of Paul Simon the successful club act occasionally inviting his friend on stage during the encore, rather than as a duo, and Garfunkel was still seeing music only as a sideline while Simon was now utterly committed to it. He was encouraged in this commitment by Judith Piepe, who considered him to be the greatest songwriter of his generation, and who started a letter-writing campaign to that effect, telling the BBC they needed to put him on the radio. Eventually, after a lot of pressure, they agreed -- though they weren't exactly sure what to do with him, as he didn't fit into any of the pop formats they had. He was given his own radio show -- a five-minute show in a religious programming slot. Simon would perform a song, and there would be an introduction tying the song into some religious theme or other. Two series of four episodes of this were broadcast, in a plum slot right after Housewives' Choice, which got twenty million listeners, and the BBC were amazed to find that a lot of people phoned in asking where they could get hold of the records by this Paul Simon fellow. Obviously he didn't have any out yet, and even the Simon and Garfunkel album, which had been released in the US, hadn't come out in Britain. After a little bit of negotiation, CBS, the British arm of Columbia Records, had Simon come in and record an album of his songs, titled The Paul Simon Songbook. The album, unlike the Simon and Garfunkel album, was made up entirely of Paul Simon originals. Two of them were songs that had previously been recorded for Wednesday Morning 3AM -- "He Was My Brother" and a new version of "The Sound of Silence": [Excerpt: Paul Simon, "The Sound of Silence"] The other ten songs were newly-written pieces like "April Come She Will", "Kathy's Song", a parody of Bob Dylan entitled "A Simple Desultory Philippic", and the song that was chosen as the single, "I am a Rock": [Excerpt: Paul Simon, "I am a Rock"] That song was also the one that was chosen for Simon's first TV appearance since Tom and Jerry had appeared on Bandstand eight years earlier. The appearance on Ready, Steady, Go, though, was not one that anyone was happy with. Simon had been booked to appear on  a small folk music series, Heartsong, but that series was cancelled before he could appear. Rediffusion, the company that made the series, also made Ready, Steady, Go, and since they'd already paid Simon they decided they might as well stick him on that show and get something for their money. Unfortunately, the episode in question was already running long, and it wasn't really suited for introspective singer-songwriter performances -- the show was geared to guitar bands and American soul singers. Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the director, insisted that if Simon was going to do his song, he had to cut at least one verse, while Simon was insistent that he needed to perform the whole thing because "it's a story". Lindsay-Hogg got his way, but nobody was happy with the performance. Simon's album was surprisingly unsuccessful, given the number of people who'd called the BBC asking about it -- the joke went round that the calls had all been Judith Piepe doing different voices -- and Simon continued his round of folk clubs, pubs, and birthday parties, sometimes performing with Garfunkel, when he visited for the summer, but mostly performing on his own. One time he did perform with a full band, singing “Johnny B Goode” at a birthday party, backed by a band called Joker's Wild who a couple of weeks later went into the studio to record their only privately-pressed five-song record, of them performing recent hits: [Excerpt: Joker's Wild, "Walk Like a Man"] The guitarist from Joker's Wild would later join the other band who'd played at that party, but the story of David Gilmour joining Pink Floyd is for another episode. During this time, Simon also produced his first record for someone else, when he was responsible for producing the only album by his friend Jackson C Frank, though there wasn't much production involved as like Simon's own album it was just one man and his guitar. Al Stewart and Art Garfunkel were also in the control room for the recording, but the notoriously shy Frank insisted on hiding behind a screen so they couldn't see him while he recorded: [Excerpt: Jackson C Frank, "Blues Run the Game"] It seemed like Paul Simon was on his way to becoming a respected mid-level figure on the British folk scene, releasing occasional albums and maybe having one or two minor hits, but making a steady living. Someone who would be spoken of in the same breath as Ralph McTell perhaps. Meanwhile, Art Garfunkel would be going on to be a lecturer in mathematics whose students might be surprised to know he'd had a minor rock and roll hit as a kid. But then something happened that changed everything. Wednesday Morning 3AM hadn't sold at all, and Columbia hadn't promoted it in the slightest. It was too collegiate and polite for the Greenwich Village folkies, and too intellectual for the pop audience that had been buying Peter, Paul, and Mary, and it had come out just at the point that the folk boom had imploded. But one DJ in Boston, Dick Summer, had started playing one song from it, "The Sound of Silence", and it had caught on with the college students, who loved the song. And then came spring break 1965. All those students went on holiday, and suddenly DJs in places like Cocoa Beach, Florida, were getting phone calls requesting "The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel. Some of them with contacts at Columbia got in touch with the label, and Tom Wilson had an idea. On the first day of what turned out to be his last session with Dylan, the session for "Like a Rolling Stone", Wilson asked the musicians to stay behind and work on something. He'd already experimented with overdubbing new instruments on an acoustic recording with his new version of Dylan's "House of the Rising Sun", now he was going to try it with "The Sound of Silence". He didn't bother asking the duo what they thought -- record labels messed with people's records all the time. So "The Sound of Silence" was released as an electric folk-rock single: [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "The Sound of Silence"] This is always presented as Wilson massively changing the sound of the duo without their permission or knowledge, but the fact is that they had *already* gone folk-rock, back in March, so they were already thinking that way. The track was released as a single with “We Got a Groovy Thing Going” on the B-side, and was promoted first in the Boston market, and it did very well. Roy Harper later talked about Simon's attitude at this time, saying "I can remember going into the gents in The Three Horseshoes in Hempstead during a gig, and we're having a pee together. He was very excited, and he turns round to me and and says, “Guess what, man? We're number sixteen in Boston with The Sound of Silence'”. A few days later I was doing another gig with him and he made a beeline for me. “Guess what?” I said “You're No. 15 in Boston”. He said, “No man, we're No. 1 in Boston”. I thought, “Wow. No. 1 in Boston, eh?” It was almost a joke, because I really had no idea what that sort of stuff meant at all." Simon was even more excited when the record started creeping up the national charts, though he was less enthused when his copy of the single arrived from America. He listened to it, and thought the arrangement was a Byrds rip-off, and cringed at the way the rhythm section had to slow down and speed up in order to stay in time with the acoustic recording: [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "The Sound of Silence"] I have to say that, while the tempo fluctuations are noticeable once you know to look for them, it's a remarkably tight performance given the circumstances. As the record went up the charts, Simon was called back to America, to record an album to go along with it. The Paul Simon Songbook hadn't been released in the US,  and they needed an album *now*, and Simon was a slow songwriter, so the duo took six songs from that album and rerecorded them in folk-rock versions with their new producer Bob Johnston, who was also working with Dylan now, since Tom Wilson had moved on to Verve records. They filled out the album with "The Sound of Silence", the two electric tracks from March, one new song, "Blessed", and a version of "Anji", which came straight after "Somewhere They Can't Find Me", presumably to acknowledge Simon lifting bits of it. That version of “Anji” also followed Jansch's arrangement, and so included the bit that Simon had taken for “We Got a Groovy Thing Going” as well. They also recorded their next single, which was released on the British version of the album but not the American one, a song that Simon had written during a thoroughly depressing tour of Lancashire towns (he wrote it in Widnes, but a friend of Simon's who lived in Widnes later said that while it was written in Widnes it was written *about* Birkenhead. Simon has also sometimes said it was about Warrington or Wigan, both of which are so close to Widnes and so similar in both name and atmosphere that it would be the easiest thing in the world to mix them up.) [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "Homeward Bound"] These tracks were all recorded in December 1965, and they featured the Wrecking Crew -- Bob Johnston wanted the best, and didn't rate the New York players that Wilson had used, and so they were recorded in LA with Glen Campbell, Joe South, Hal Blaine, Larry Knechtel, and Joe Osborne. I've also seen in some sources that there were sessions in Nashville with A-team players Fred Carter and Charlie McCoy. By January, "The Sound of Silence" had reached number one, knocking "We Can Work it Out" by the Beatles off the top spot for two weeks, before the Beatles record went back to the top. They'd achieved what they'd been trying for for nearly a decade, and I'll give the last word here to Paul Simon, who said of the achievement: "I had come back to New York, and I was staying in my old room at my parents' house. Artie was living at his parents' house, too. I remember Artie and I were sitting there in my car one night, parked on a street in Queens, and the announcer said, "Number one, Simon & Garfunkel." And Artie said to me, "That Simon & Garfunkel, they must be having a great time.""