Podcasts about Macclesfield

This week on Chasin' The Racin' podcast, the CTR lads catch up on a busy 6 months of racing. BSB crack for Christian and Josh and an update on Joe after his EWC crash as well as looking at some of the topical news in the sport across BSB, WSBK and MotoGP. Dom is saving his TT crack for our TT review ep, so you have a few more weeks to wait for that one but trust us there is plenty to catch up on! Enjoy - CTR x   Powered by OMG Racing       Supported by JCT Truck and Trailer Rental and Lucky Day Competitions    Lucky Day are one of the biggest competition companies in the UK and have an amazing range of prizes up for grab every week! Check them out: https://www.luckydaycompetitions.com/     Episode sponsor: Oakmere Motorgroup. They are a motorcycle dealership specialising in Norton and CCM. Visit their site www.oakmeremotorgroup.co.uk or go inshore at Brook Garage, Prestbury, Macclesfield, SK10 4AL   If you're interested in sponsoring an episode of the podcast, please don't hesitate to get in touch via email to chasintheracin@outlook.com         ------------         We have a full range of merchandise as well as Alan Carter's and Ian Simpson's Autobiography's over on our website: https://chasintheracin.myshopify.com           CTR Patreon Page: https://patreon.com/MotorbikePod?utm_...           -------------           SOCIALS:         Instagram: @chasintheracinpod         Facebook: Chasin' The Racin' Podcast         X: @motorbikepod

Jay Rayner and a panel of expert chefs, cooks and food writers are at the Fallibroome Academy in Macclesfield, answering questions on bilberries and treacle. Joining Jay are Sarah Rankin, Angela Gray, Rob Owen Brown and food historian Dr Annie Gray.The panellists discuss their favourite ways to use up miso paste, the best savoury recipes involving treacle, and what to do with vegetables that have seen better days. They also share their true feelings about fried bread on a full English and what to do with a glut of homegrown berries.Situated on the cusp of the Peak District, Jay chats to local forager Richard McManus about the upcoming bilberry picking season, and the unique flavour profile of the bilberry.Producer: Dan Cocker Assistant Producer: Dulcie Whadcock A Somethin' Else Production for BBC Radio 4

Charlie Savage's dad joins the pod for a wide-ranging chat about Reading FC, and Charlie's experience at the club so far. Robbie gives a detailed rundown of his take on Reading over the past two seasons, and gives real insight on the team dynamic. Plus, with a hugely successful first season in management under his belt with Macclesfield, Robbie tells Ben and Ross his thoughts on why man-management is such a crucial aspect of modern management. Thanks as always to our friends at ZCZ Films for sponsoring the pod! Follow The Tilehurst End on Twitter @thetilehurstend  Follow Ross on Bluesky @webberross.bsky.social Follow Ben on Twitter @mrblthomas

Today, Macclesfield based ceramicist, Rachel Ho introduces us to her fabulous ‘ Gift to the City' project, sparking all sorts of trains of thought. The restorative power of art. Artists as priests. Paying the bills. And, as a podcast first, today's episode is sponsored by a popular energy drink. Kind of.If you'd like to join the conversation, please email us at hello@faithinthearts.show . If you'd like to help us continue to make more episodes like this, you can donate to us directly through our website www.faithinthearts.show Resources and References:Micah Purnell (text based artist) https://micahpurnell.com/Orla Gilkeson (painter) https://orlagilkesonart.com/Kate Nash's experience of the music industry- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwygdzn4dw4o.amp

Macclesfield, nahe und südlich von Manchester gelegen, wurde 2004 von der britischen Zeitung The Times der wenig ruhmreiche Titel als "kulturloseste Stadt" des Landes verliehen – und das, obwohl beispielsweise Ian Curtis und Stephen Morris von Joy Division dort gelebt hatten. Wahrscheinlich würde das Urteil 2025 deutlich positiver ausfallen, hat sich doch nicht nur 2006 (auch als Reaktion auf die Schmähung) die "Literarische und philosophische Gesellschaft Macclesfield" gegründet, sondern 2019 zudem das dort beheimatete Trio Cassia sein Debütalbum "Replica" veröffentlicht. Mit dessen tanzbaren Pop-Songs, denen bei aller Energie auch immer eine gewisse Melancholie innewohnt, und zu deren Inspirationsquellen Jazz wie Afro-Beat gehören, machten Sänger und Gitarrist Rob Ellis, Bassist Lou Cotterill und Schlagzeuger Jacob Leff sich bereits viele Freunde. Der 2022 in Berlin aufgenommene Nachfolger "Why You Lacking Energy?" vergrößerte die Fan-Gemeinde unter Beibehaltung des Stils noch einmal signifikant, und nach abermals drei Jahren erschien nun am 11. April das Drittwerk "Everyone, Outside", eingespielt im eigenen Studio der drei in Macclesfield. Von dort aus ging es noch vor Veröffentlichung des Albums auf die erste Headliner-Konzertreise durch die USA und Mexiko. Momentan befinden sich Rob, Ellis und Jacob auf großer Europa-Tour, die sie am morgigen 7. Mai auch ins Neuköllner Hole 44 führen wird. Tags zuvor besuchen sie uns im studioeins, um sich im Interview vorzustellen und natürlich mit ein paar live gespielten Songs auf das "richtige" Konzert einzustimmen.

Macclesfield, nahe und südlich von Manchester gelegen, wurde 2004 von der britischen Zeitung The Times der wenig ruhmreiche Titel als "kulturloseste Stadt" des Landes verliehen – und das, obwohl beispielsweise Ian Curtis und Stephen Morris von Joy Division dort gelebt hatten. Wahrscheinlich würde das Urteil 2025 deutlich positiver ausfallen, hat sich doch nicht nur 2006 (auch als Reaktion auf die Schmähung) die "Literarische und philosophische Gesellschaft Macclesfield" gegründet, sondern 2019 zudem das dort beheimatete Trio Cassia sein Debütalbum "Replica" veröffentlicht. Mit dessen tanzbaren Pop-Songs, denen bei aller Energie auch immer eine gewisse Melancholie innewohnt, und zu deren Inspirationsquellen Jazz wie Afro-Beat gehören, machten Sänger und Gitarrist Rob Ellis, Bassist Lou Cotterill und Schlagzeuger Jacob Leff sich bereits viele Freunde. Der 2022 in Berlin aufgenommene Nachfolger "Why You Lacking Energy?" vergrößerte die Fan-Gemeinde unter Beibehaltung des Stils noch einmal signifikant, und nach abermals drei Jahren erschien nun am 11. April das Drittwerk "Everyone, Outside", eingespielt im eigenen Studio der drei in Macclesfield. Von dort aus ging es noch vor Veröffentlichung des Albums auf die erste Headliner-Konzertreise durch die USA und Mexiko. Momentan befinden sich Rob, Ellis und Jacob auf großer Europa-Tour, die sie am morgigen 7. Mai auch ins Neuköllner Hole 44 führen wird. Tags zuvor besuchen sie uns im studioeins, um sich im Interview vorzustellen und natürlich mit ein paar live gespielten Songs auf das "richtige" Konzert einzustimmen.

Macclesfield, nahe und südlich von Manchester gelegen, wurde 2004 von der britischen Zeitung The Times der wenig ruhmreiche Titel als "kulturloseste Stadt" des Landes verliehen – und das, obwohl beispielsweise Ian Curtis und Stephen Morris von Joy Division dort gelebt hatten. Wahrscheinlich würde das Urteil 2025 deutlich positiver ausfallen, hat sich doch nicht nur 2006 (auch als Reaktion auf die Schmähung) die "Literarische und philosophische Gesellschaft Macclesfield" gegründet, sondern 2019 zudem das dort beheimatete Trio Cassia sein Debütalbum "Replica" veröffentlicht. Mit dessen tanzbaren Pop-Songs, denen bei aller Energie auch immer eine gewisse Melancholie innewohnt, und zu deren Inspirationsquellen Jazz wie Afro-Beat gehören, machten Sänger und Gitarrist Rob Ellis, Bassist Lou Cotterill und Schlagzeuger Jacob Leff sich bereits viele Freunde. Der 2022 in Berlin aufgenommene Nachfolger "Why You Lacking Energy?" vergrößerte die Fan-Gemeinde unter Beibehaltung des Stils noch einmal signifikant, und nach abermals drei Jahren erschien nun am 11. April das Drittwerk "Everyone, Outside", eingespielt im eigenen Studio der drei in Macclesfield. Von dort aus ging es noch vor Veröffentlichung des Albums auf die erste Headliner-Konzertreise durch die USA und Mexiko. Momentan befinden sich Rob, Ellis und Jacob auf großer Europa-Tour, die sie am morgigen 7. Mai auch ins Neuköllner Hole 44 führen wird. Tags zuvor besuchen sie uns im studioeins, um sich im Interview vorzustellen und natürlich mit ein paar live gespielten Songs auf das "richtige" Konzert einzustimmen.

This week on Chasin the Racin' podcast is the multiple time World Champion and King of the jungle, Carl Fogarty. Foggy joins Dom Herbertson and Josh Corner to talk about the highs and lows of his highly successful career in the sport, what it was like in the Jungle and his plans to bring another team into BSB for the 2026 season. Enjoy - CTR x   Powered by OMG Racing     Supported by JCT Truck and Trailer Rental and Lucky Day Competitions   Lucky Day are one of the biggest competition companies in the UK and have an amazing range of prizes up for grab every week! Check them out: https://www.luckydaycompetitions.com/   Episode sponsor: Oakmere Motorgroup. They are a motorcycle dealership specialising in Norton and CCM. Visit their site www.oakmeremotorgroup.co.uk or go inshore at Brook Garage, Prestbury, Macclesfield, SK10 4AL   If you're interested in sponsoring an episode of the podcast, please don't hesitate to get in touch via email to chasintheracin@outlook.com       ------------       We have a full range of merchandise as well as Alan Carter's and Ian Simpson's Autobiography's over on our website: https://chasintheracin.myshopify.com         CTR Patreon Page: https://patreon.com/MotorbikePod?utm_...         -------------         SOCIALS:       Instagram: @chasintheracinpod       Facebook: Chasin' The Racin' Podcast       X: @motorbikepod

Cassia, a three-piece indie-pop band from Macclesfield, UK, reflect on their musical journey so far, playing huge festivals, and their recent single, Friends.

Guiseley AFC 0-3 Macclesfield: Mark Bower post match by Guiseley Radio

In questa puntata:- Focus: andiamo a Macclesfield per scoprire il mondo delle serie minori inglesi con Daniele Gaccioli- Tunnellissimo: "Tutta sola al centro della terra" e "Dieci capodanni"- Update: cosa hanno fatto i nostri cacciatori di contratti

After back-to-back wins that have seen Manchester City take a commanding position in the race for the top four/five and make it into the semi-finals of the FA Cup, David Mooney is joined by Nick Clarke from the MCFC Fans Foodbank Support group and by Dom Farrell from Sporting News to review the week. With supporters protesting against the club's ticket partnerships and policies, they look at the action that was taken during the opening nine minutes of the win over Leicester and what is hoped it will achieve in the coming weeks and months. After a good performance in the centre of the pitch, we discuss what role Jack Grealish can have between now and the end of the season, plus it was a big week for Nico O'Reilly, after he changed the game at Bournemouth and followed that up by performing very well in midweek. And, with the Manchester Derby on the horizon, we preview that match - and look back to some local derbies that City have NEVER played in the Premier League. We'll hear from fans of Bury, Macclesfield and Stockport with their memories of visits to Maine Road. On top of all of that... what's the most audacious goal City have scored? ========== To get more podcasts or to listen without the ads, join our Patreon. It's just £2 per month for all the extra content and you can get a 7-day free trial first: https://www.patreon.com/BlueMoonPodcast And why not gift a Patreon subscription to a friend or family member? More details: https://www.patreon.com/BlueMoonPodcast/gift

Duncan is not someone who has played much senior club cricket but who got involved with coaching the juniors as a parent when his son joined their local club in Macclesfield. After feeling a strong sense of self doubt he threw himself into learning about how to coach by learning from others around him at the club and started to build up his knowledge and awareness and with that came his confidence and self belief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to The kbbreview Podcast, your host is Andy Davies and this is Episode Three of Season 14.Today we're looking at something which asks a very difficult existential question of independent KBB retailers - do you ever think what might happen if you got into financial difficulty and couldn't finish your clients project?In particular, we're looking at whether or not retailers should have some kind of deposit protection insurance. In other words, something that means they will get back any money they've already given you if the worst happens.What is deposit protection insurance and who does it work?What are pros and cons? Why is it not more prevalent?How do you talk about it with customers without sounding like you're about to go bust?Given the sums of money involved, should it be mandatory?We're talking it through with Richard Hibbert from KSL in Sudbury - he's also chairman of the KBSA of course - and Nick Warrington from Stuart J Warrington in Macclesfield. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Toxic leadership stems from the burdens of unresolved trauma and difficult life experiences. When you don't do the work to regulate your nervous system, the parts of you that protect you through mico-managing, shaming, blaming, not trusting anyone, or worse will eventually wreak havoc on your career, those you lead, and your own capacity for discomfort.So, what does it look like for you to commit to doing the work?Maybe you go to therapy or coaching, or adopt practices to deepen your self-awareness and reflection. The trouble is, “doing the work” can easily turn into navel-gazing or intellectualizing. The same tools that might help you unburden can also be used to numb out. We so often are sold the idea that we will overcome and be done with it that we bypass doing the real, deep, lifelong work.Today's guest illustrates–literally–what it looks and feels like to commit to doing powerful work. Her gorgeous new graphic novel, Past Tense, shares her windy and beautiful journey of doing the work through the lens of Internal Family Systems.Sacha Mardou was born in Macclesfield in 1975 and grew up in Manchester, England. She began making comics after getting her BA in English Literature from the University of Wales, Lampeter. Her critically acclaimed graphic novel series, Sky in Stereo, was named an outstanding comic of 2015 by the Village Voice and shortlisted for the 2016 Slate Studio Prize.Since 2019 she has been making comics about therapy and healing. Her graphic memoir Past Tense: Facing Family Secrets and Finding Myself in Therapy is out now. Since 2005 she has lived in St Louis, Missouri with her cartoonist husband Ted May, their daughter and two disruptive cats.Listen to the full episode to hear:How going to therapy for what she thought was just anxiety became a journey of unpacking her past How her therapist helped her “correct the picture” she'd been holding of people and events of her childhoodHow Sacha adapted her private sketched therapy notes into the comics she shares publiclyHow working with IFS to process her childhood has impacted her present-day relationshipsHow the IFS process has helped Sacha recast her difficult experiences as gifts and strengths and her story as valuableHow Sacha approached writing her book wholeheartedly, while still protecting her boundariesLearn more about Sacha Mardou:WebsitePast Tense: Facing Family Secrets and Finding Myself in TherapyInstagram: @mardou_drawsFacebook: @sachamardouLearn more about Rebecca:rebeccaching.comWork With RebeccaSign up for the weekly Unburdened Leader EmailResources:Family Secrets with Dani ShapiroEP 72: Identifying and Addressing the Burdens of Individualism with Deran Young & Dick SchwartzEP 101: Transforming the Legacy Burdens from Relational Trauma with Deran YoungCompassion Prison ProjectCece Sykes LCSWRalph De La Rosa, LCSWDoris LessingEric MaiselElizabeth GilbertSitting Pretty: The View from My Ordinary Resilient Disabled Body, Rebekah TaussigLove Is a Burning Thing, Nina St. PierreTeenage Fanclub - Mellow DoubtThe FranchiseThe Office

Being a tailor is a profession. It has been since 1563 when laws were passed that stated you could only trade as a tailor if you had served your term learning the craft. Today, there are around 13,000 tailors across the UK, and while Savile Row may be synonymous with the craft, most tailors are working their magic in our satellite cities and market towns. On this week's The Factory Next Door, we head to Macclesfield to meet Brita. She's a celebrated tailor in her own right, as well as being the driving force behind The Tailoring Academy – a school teaching our next generation of tailors. Number 29 on our list of the greatest products we make in Britain is The Three-Piece Suit. As we explore the Academy, Brita explains why having an engineers' mind helps to be a good tailor, the zen-like state you must journey into when spending hours hand-sewing, and we celebrate operatic tenor Luciano Pavarotti. We also catch up with a former student to learn how the craft has changed his life, and discover why tailors, when they first meet, never look each other in the eye. Please consider buying me a coffee to keep this show on the roadhttps://buymeacoffee.com/thefactorynextdoor (you don't need to register or create an account!) Say hello on Instagram @thefactorynextdoor

The battle lines are drawn over UniSA’s Magill campus site, where a proposal to rezone from community use to residential threatens to replace a cherished green space with up to 400 dwellings. As urban infill pushes local infrastructure to its limits, Magill Matters representatives Denise MacGregor and Charlotte Reimer make their case for preserving this vital community asset, home to 350 trees (some predating colonial settlement), thriving wildlife corridors, and essential recreational spaces. While there is no SA Drink of the Week in this episode, the thirst for preservation of community assets runs deep through every moment of the conversation, as does the sobering realisation that once green spaces are lost to development, they’re gone forever. In a poignant Musical Pilgrimage, The Danger Dolphins’ “Blackfish Blues” serves as an unintentionally perfect soundtrack to the episode’s themes, its raw, blues-driven exploration of confinement resonating with both the threatened creek-dwelling creatures and future residents who might find themselves in an area stripped of its natural cooling canopy. You can navigate episodes using chapter markers in your podcast app. Not a fan of one segment? You can click next to jump to the next chapter in the show. We’re here to serve! The Adelaide Show Podcast: Awarded Silver for Best Interview Podcast in Australia at the 2021 Australian Podcast Awards and named as Finalist for Best News and Current Affairs Podcast in the 2018 Australian Podcast Awards. And please consider becoming part of our podcast by joining our Inner Circle. It’s an email list. Join it and you might get an email on a Sunday or Monday seeking question ideas, guest ideas and requests for other bits of feedback about YOUR podcast, The Adelaide Show. Email us directly and we’ll add you to the list: podcast@theadelaideshow.com.au If you enjoy the show, please leave us a 5-star review in iTunes or other podcast sites, or buy some great merch from our Red Bubble store – The Adelaide Show Shop. We’d greatly appreciate it. And please talk about us and share our episodes on social media, it really helps build our community. Oh, and here’s our index of all episode in one concisepage. Running Sheet: We Will Discover Destroying UniSA Magill Matters When The Green Has Gone And Temperatures And Tempers Rise 00:00:00 Intro Introduction 00:00:00 SA Drink Of The Week There is no South Australian Drinks Of The Week this week. 00:07:25 Denise MacGregor and Charlotte Reimer, Magill Matters Standing at Third Creek on the UniSA site, one immediately understands what developers might miss in their spreadsheet calculations. The space serves as a vital community hub where the background hum of urban life fades away, creating what our guests describe as a “movie set” atmosphere of tranquility. From early morning Tai Chi practitioners to soccer-playing families and solitary readers, the campus grounds provide what Denise MacGregor poignantly describes as “dwelling spaces, not just dwellings” – a profound distinction in an era of shrinking private yards. The land’s history deepens its significance, having been bequeathed by Sir George Murray in 1942 to the university for community and educational purposes. This legacy faces an uncertain future as plans emerge for potential medium to high-density residential development, which could see buildings up to six storeys high replacing the current green space. Magill Matters advocates aren’t opposed to all development but propose creative alternatives that would maintain the site’s community focus while addressing housing needs. Their vision includes repurposing existing buildings for aged care facilities (addressing Minister Champion’s goal of freeing up family homes), maintaining recreational spaces, and preserving the vital green corridor that helps cool the suburb by up to 5 degrees Celsius. Links: Magill Matters, public Facebook group Magill Matters submission to Renewal SA that you are encouraged to read and submit before February 10, 2025 00:37:20 Musical Pilgrimage In the Musical Pilgrimage, we feature Blackfish Blues by The Danger Dolphins. For our Musical Pilgrimage this week, we’re diving into “Blackfish Blues” by Adelaide’s The Danger Dolphins, and the timing couldn’t be more poignant. As we’ve discussed the proposed rezoning of UniSA’s Magill campus, this raw, blues-driven track speaks to the confinement and constraints that echo through our main discussion. When Zac sings “Nothing changes every day, another dolphin out of sea, just glass between you and me,” it’s hard not to think of both the threatened creek-dwelling creatures and future residents who might find themselves in an area stripped of its natural cooling canopy and breathing spaces. The Danger Dolphins, born from late-night jam sessions between Zac Gerhardy and Nick Barone, have crafted a song that, while written about a different context, resonates deeply with the environmental concerns surrounding Third Creek’s ecosystem. Their sound, influenced by Led Zeppelin and The Black Keys, brings a powerful urgency to themes of restriction and environmental impact that mirror our concerns about urban development’s effect on both wildlife habitats and human wellbeing. While “Blackfish Blues” is a few years old now, The Danger Dolphins have recently released an EP, Jam Factory Vol. II, which captures their raw energy in a stripped-back two-day recording session that feels worlds away from their meticulously produced Vol. I. For a chance to experience their evolution in the flesh – and witness what they’re cryptically calling “a sneaky lil on stage treat” – catch them at the High Fever Festival at Macclesfield’s Three Brothers Arms on Saturday, February 8. With free camping available, you can let loose without watching the clock.Support the show: https://theadelaideshow.com.au/listen-or-download-the-podcast/adelaide-in-crowd/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guest on this episode of the TGG Podcast is Robbie Savage.  As a player, Robbie made 346 Premier League appearances and captained four clubs. After retiring he became a household name as a TV and radio pundit and appeared on Strictly in 2011. Now he's pursuing a different career, as a Manager, with Macclesfield in the Northern Premier League. Robbie told us why he'd turned to coaching, about his approach to leadership and about his lofty ambitions as a Manager. SHOW NOTES => 02:07: Wishing he'd gone into coaching earlier. How move from Director of Football came about. 06:44: Coaching badges? Starts A Licence next year and then hopefully Pro. Need your badges. Sees coaching as a vocation and ambition to reach the top. 10:58: Engaging with fans. Pitching in. Change in relationship with players when you become Manager. Treat them like he would treat his son.  13:40: Change in man management since he was a player. Becoming less visibly emotional. Calmer. Use of video analysis. Macclesfield expected to win every week.  18:43: Style of play. Preferred formation. Players win matches, not tactics.  24:40: Behaviour on the touchline? Setting the mood or calm and composed? Heart rate going high in technical area.  27:55: Change in style of play in non-league. Guardiola influence. Wants his team to get the ball forward quickly when possible. Not keen on playing out from the back.  32:36: Assistant wears a GoPro because of abuse from fans. Doesn't get paid at the moment. Could change when they go full-time.  38:15: Approach has changed on 606 phone-in. More understanding of Managers. Important to have consistency of messaging as a pundit or Manager. Has had offers as a Manager at bigger clubs.  44:15: Released at Manchester United. Make or break. Coached a team at Macclesfield made up of players who had been released and had great success. Callum West went to Burnley and now at Barnsley.  49:21: Do the Academies prepare players well enough? James Edmondson from Blackburn. Difference between Academy and senior football. Strength of the pyramid.  54:16: Different than he seemed as a player. Pantomime character. More than 350 Premier League games and captained four clubs. Keeps a book about all matches and what the Managers said.   

This week Gaz & Jordan are joined by former Telford, Barnsley, Macclesfield, Southport and Salford forward...Mike PhenixMike sits down with the boys to discuss everything from his 4 year footballing ban to how he overcame drug and alcohol addiction to turn his life around.Mike then talks openly about his long time battles with addiction, dealing with the loss of his mum at a young age and how his addictions almost cost him his life.Mike and the boys then speak about getting back into football following his 4 year ban, playing whilst high and the lost dog that saved his life.The lads then chat about Mike's decision to enter rehab before he honestly explains the moment he relapsed before realising he needed to make a change for his daughter.Finally they discuss how Mike is currently 10 months sober and the work he is doing to help both current and recovering addicts by talking with them and their families to better understand addiction.For anyone struggling or needing help with any of the topics mentioned in the pod please check out the following:- https://alcoholics-anonymous.org.uk/- https://talktofrank.com/- https://changegrowlive.org/- https://wearewithyou.org.uk/Join our Patreon below for as little as £3 a month and get access to all of the best unfiltered and unedited stories that normally have to be cut! https://www.patreon.com/IHadTrialsOnce/membershipMake sure you Subscribe to the podcast so it lets you know when a new episode drops.Follow us on social!-----------------------------------------------------------------------Twitter: https://twitter.com/IHadTrialsOnceInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ihadtrialsonceTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ihadtrialsonce-----------------------------------------------------------------------Support the show

My guest this week is Numi Gildert who is the cohost with Rob Wills of the Drivetime show on KMFM. Numi has a robotics engineering background (including a PhD) and always loved consuming radio when she was young. She grew up in Macclesfield and listened to Silk FM, and later enjoyed Chris Moyles on the Radio 1 Breakfast Show when she was nine. Numi reveals that she always had a flair for performance and had pragmatic parents who worked in the corporate world. Numi loved science and anything Japanese including anime and manga. We find out how she then got into robotics, leading to her studying electronic engineering at York where she also presented on student radio. We talk about the value of live radio vs. the value of editing and how radio is better suited to her as a person. We learn too about Numi's podcast and its focus on women in engineering and technology, and how there are more career opportunities for women in engineering now than there were in previous generations. We also talk about how education has changed over the years. Numi did some teaching while doing her PhD, and Numi discusses why her doctorate had its traumatic moments. We discuss the way we had to embrace new technology due to lockdown, and Numi tells us which of her teachers or lecturers she is still in touch with. We also reflect on how education is a long term process, and Numi explains why it is important to confront one's mistakes. We discuss the skill of presenting a show on the radio, especially when things go wrong, and we find out what sort of music Numi enjoyed listening to when she was young. She presented Radio 1 Dance in the early hours of the morning some years ago, where she would play the music her parents used to enjoy. We reflect on the importance of having a wider sense of the music that is out there, rather than stick to just one genre, and at the end of the interview we discover whether Numi is a looking back or a looking forward type of person and why, in her own words, it is good to have a slightly delusional dream.

The Step 2 sides enter the FA Trophy as it hits Round 2. Wearing his @FATrophyFacts hat Phil Annets gives us the insight, the knowledge, and all the things we need to know about the 40 ties taking place this weekend. One of those in the Trophy with an away tie at a club a level higher, are Macclesfield. The in-form team in the non league pyramid with a current 16-game unbeaten run in the league and the now Gaffer Robbie Savage explains he doesn't see his side going into the game as underdogs. Promotion is the main priority but a club formed from the ashes of a former two-time winner of the competition, and who made last term's semi-finals, he knows how important an FA Trophy run could be and what it means for those so fundamental to the club.  Matt Badcock helps round up the week's news at the end of the show, including more bizarre results, a Goal-Scoring legend, and the ever-spinning managerial merry-go-round. 

Send us a textIn this true crime podcast episode, Kelley interviews Brea Glosson, a childhood friend of Tyler McMillan, a 13-year old boy from Macclesfield, North Carolina, who was abused by his parents, tied to a tree, and subsequently died 2 days later. They discuss her memories of Tyler, their involvement in a homeschool group, and the circumstances around his murder. Brea provides a great perspective not only on Tyler's memory, but on homeschooling and the laws that exist, and the laws that are needed to protect children.Support the showMarketing & SEO by GrowthIQ Digital

It's Thursday and you know what that means.... Time for a spooky Halloween special and we have an action packed one in store for you all 1 (ahaha) we talk about a brilliant weekend pacing in Macclesfield 2 (ahaha) Rob starts to panic about Pendle Way in a Day in February 3 (ahaha) Jack looks ahead to New York marathon in elite corner 4 (ahaha) Bemma join us to talk about their visit to the big smoke for parkrun and we finish with a roll call Remember you can join our Fartlek Family at any time, be part of our 100+ strong community of amazing people, organising meet ups, catch ups and general nonsense all year round Make sure you keep up to date on all our goings-on, upcoming events and latest episode details by signing up to our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠BRAND NEW NEWSLETTER⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Make sure you subscribe, rate, review and checkout our social media channels: Website: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠What The Fartlek Podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@Whatthefartlek_Podcast ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠What The Fartlek Podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@WhatTheFartlek ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠What The Fartlek Podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Email us at - whatthefartlekpodcast@gmail.com Music by: Graham Lindley Follow on: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube Email at: g.lindley@hotmail.co.uk

What an incredible day we had in Macclesfield, a charming market town in Cheshire, UK, at the September Deadly Dozen event. Tune in for interviews with event creator Jason Curtis, along with various staff, volunteers, and athletes including: Connect & Support: Support us through The Cup Of Coffee Follow today's guests – Follow Hybrid Fitness Media on IG. Listen on this page or your favorite podcast player.

This week, Justin catches up with Dan Nightingale, Peter Brush, Steve Royle, Hayley Ellis and Stephen Bailey. Izzy's back in Glasgow, we hear a pre-prepared package from Macclesfield, and a heartwarming Post Bag brings us to a close.   Get in touch, #AskIzzy, or Dear Jon here: WhatsApp – 07495 717 860 Twitter – @3045podcast Email – podcast@justinmoorhouse.com   THIS WEEK'S GUESTS:   Dan Nightingale: https://dannightingale.com/   Peter Brush: https://www.peterbrushcomedy.com/   Steve Royle: http://www.steveroyle.com/   Hayley Ellis: https://hayleyellis.com/   Stephen Bailey: https://www.stephenbaileycomedy.co.uk/   EPISODE LINKS:   Have A Word Podcast: https://haveaword.page/   Beachcomber Café, St Annes: https://www.facebook.com/beachcomberstannes/   THIS WEEK'S GIGS:   See Justin on Thursday here: https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Coventry/Neighbourhood-Social/On-The-Spot-Comedy/39309419/   See Justin on Friday here: https://www.fatsoma.com/e/s0z94g73/ellesmere-comedy-club-20th-september-2024   And/or here!: https://frogandbucket.ticketsolve.com/ticketbooth/shows/873644909/events/128529511   OTHER STUFF:   Watch my YouTube Special: https://www.youtube.com/@justinmoorhousecomedian   The Greatest Performance of My Life: https://www.justinmoorhouse.com/   Join the Mailing List: https://justinmoorhouse.us2.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=4c600f8287b9c2e121f43c3a1&id=bbd0010665   Music by Liam Frost. Produced by Rachel Fitzgerald and Justin Moorhouse

Earlier this year we gave listeners the chance to ask us to look at an issue for them. Martin and Sandra from Macclesfield, in East Cheshire called their application Where's my bus? They both rely on the buses to get around and met on a Facebook group dedicated to their local bus service. The new government has plans to give local authorities more power to take control over bus services, for example through a ‘franchising' arrangement. Our Transport Corr Katy Austin took a look at whether this plan will help listeners like Martin and Sandra and Today presenter Nick Robinson spoke to Graham Vidler, Chief Executive, Confederation of Passenger Transport.

Keir Starmer's chief of staff Sue Gray identified before the election all of the most pressing issues for a new government's bulging in-tray in her infamous ‘s*** list', so this week two more members of the 2024 intake of MPs; Lewis Cocking, the new Tory member for Broxbourne, and a former leader of the local council, and Tim Roca, Labour MP for Macclesfield, who has worked in the university sector, as well as local government, along with Ian Acheson, a former prison governor and government advisor, whose book Screwed lays out the collapse of the prison service, join Alain Tolhurst to look at just how bad things are in several of those areas. To sign up for our newsletters click here Presented by Alain Tolhurst, produced by Nick Hilton for Podot

Introduction to J.C. Ryle and the work for Exhorting [Young] Men 1. J.C. Ryle's BackgroundIntroduction: J.C. Ryle, a prominent Anglican bishop, theologian, and writer from the 19th century. the first bishopof Liverpool. He was an ardent defender of Evangelicalism in the face of opposition. J. C. Ryle had a gift for clearcommunication to the working class, and his legacy of exhortation and evangelism continues to speak volumestoday.  His insights continue to inspire and challenge Christians today.Q: What has been your personal exposure to J.C. Ryle?Part 1: Early Years & Theological Convictions Ryle was born in 1816 in Macclesfield, England.Ryle summed up the spiritual condition of his family and childhood as follows:The plain truth is that neither in my own family nor among the Hurts or Arkwrights with whom I was most mixed upwhen young can I remember that there was a whit of what may be called a real spiritual religion. There was literallynothing to make us young people thorough Christians. We never heard the gospel preached on Sunday and vitalChristianity was never brought before us by anybody from the beginning of the year to the end or on a weekday.In his autobiography Ryle mentions a number of significant events that he believed the Holy Spirit used in a special way to convert him. Two important one to highlight1. The first was a rebuke from a friend.2. The Second was the start of a new Church and it's Evangelical ministry; St. George's in Sutton.  The beginning of Ryle's Christian pilgrimage was not easy. He had no spiritual mentors or guides. He was left to “fight outeverything” for himself and, as a result, “made sad blunders” - Perhaps reason for him to write “Thoughts for Young Men”2. J.C. Ryle's EvangelicalismRyle's theology is best described as Protestant, Reformed, Puritan, Evangelical, Anglican, and Premillennial.Ryle regularly and repeatedly identified himself as an “evangelical,” and evangelical religion, according to Ryle, wascharacterized by five leading features.1. First, evangelicals assign absolute supremacy to the Holy Scripture and regard it as the only rule for faith and practice.2. Second, evangelicals emphasize the doctrine of human sinfulness and corruption and the need for a radical cure.3. Third, evangelicals attach paramount importance to the person and work of Christ and the necessity of faith in Him.4. Fourth, evangelicals stress the importance of the inward work of the Spirit in the heart of the believer and an experimental acquaintance with it.5. Finally, evangelicals insist that the inward work of the Spirit will always be manifested outwardly by a holy life.For Ryle, these points and the importance of the diligent use of the means of grace. These included Bible reading, privateprayer, regularly attending public worship, regularly hearing the preaching of God's word, and regularly receiving theLord's Supper constituted the essence of the evangelical gospel and the Christian faith.For more information about this group, please visit their website at reformationboise.com. Every weekday at 8:00am you can listen to The Gospel for Life on 94.1 The Voice in the Treasure Valley, Idaho, USA. If you have a question, comment, or even a topic suggestion for the Pastors, you can email them. There is only one rule: Be Kind! Phone: (208) 991-3526E-mail: thegospelforlifeidaho@gmail.comPodcast website: https://941thevoice.com/podcasts/gospel-for-life/

• New second live date in Liverpool, Tue 24 Oct. Tickets here. • OGWN Live in Hove, Weds 9 Oct. Tickets here. After what felt like the longest recess ever, finally, Parliament is back. What are Labour's priorities and what backlash is Starmer facing? The panel is joined by Tim Roca, the first Labour MP to represent Macclesfield in over 100 years, to discuss – and to ask about his own goals in the Commons and for his constituents.  We're on YouTube!: https://www.youtube.com/@ohgodwhatnow  www.patreon.com/ohgodwhatnow Presented by Jacob Jarvis with Rafael Behr and Zoe Grunewald. Producer: Chris Jones. Audio production by: Robin Leeburn. Video production by: Kieron Leslie and Chris Jones. Group Editor: Andrew Harrison. Managing Editor: Jacob Jarvis. OH GOD, WHAT NOW? is a Podmasters production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome back to 'It's All Kicking Off!' In this episode, Ian begins reflecting on the former England manager, Sven Goran-Eriksson, who's died after a long battle with cancer. Our host pays tribute to the man tasked with leading the 'Golden Generation' and comments on his reputation as - not only a fine football mind - but a great person. Ian and Chris question why Trent Alexander-Arnold appeared to have the hump with his new manager, after Liverpool's number 66 was subbed off during their 2-0 win over Brentford. Are contract tensions beginning to spill over onto the pitch? Chris defends Neal Maupay for giving it back to the Everton fans who angrily voiced their frustration after the Toffees lost 4-0 to Tottenham on Saturday. And we hear from our North East Correspondent, Craig Hope, who provides insight on Eddie Howe's Newcastle future, their pursuit of Marc Guehi and why the Magpies 'aren't the team we expected them to be' All this, plus: Raya's wonder-save, whether VAR favours the biggest clubs and how long Chris reckons Robbie Savage will last at Macclesfield! Presenters: Ian Ladyman and Chris Sutton Producer: Henry Williams Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Listen to never before heard demos and tracks from Nevertheless at the first Sun:sets Live episode filmed at Lusty Glaze Beach, Newquay.There will be a brand new Sun:sets live from all over the country with all the usual cock-ups available every month exclusively on Sun:sets Plus.On top of this my brand new podcast After Sun:sets will be available three times a month with some amazing guests lined up including Marcus Brigstocke, Billy Billingham, James Haskell and many more in store. Sun:sets Plus will also include behind the scenes, live Q&A's, meet & greets and exclusive tracks never heard before. 01. Chicane - In One Ear & Out The Other02. Chicane - Ibiza Strings (Solarstone Ambient Mix)03. Eric Serra - Deep Blue Dream (Chicane Edit)04. Soundtrack Selection - Nine Inch Nails - Together (Chosen by Ryan from Macclesfield)05. Alfiya Glow - Leaving Origin 06. Stina Nordenstam - Little Star07. Skrillex & Diplo - Where Are Ü Now (with Justin Bieber) 08. Tangerine Dream - The Dream Is Always The Same09. Chicane - Santanas (Chicane Demo 1994)10. Chicane - Freefall (DC Mix) 11. Churches - We Sink12. 808 State - In Yer Face13. BT - Every Other Way (Armin Van Buuren Remix) [feat. JES]14. Don Henley - The Boys Of Summer

Passing the baton of discourse on the rock and roll racetrack, our Olympian hosts sprint in the following direction … … watching Toumani Diabaté play in the pitch-black Malian night. … Laurel Canyon, the Brain Damage Club and the great fire of ‘79. … the Kinks in Fortis Green Road, the Beatles in Chiswick House and other alternative London rock landmarks. … is Cerrone's Supernature nicked from the Days Of Pearly Spencer? … lower-level graduates from the John Mayall Academy – Jon Hiseman, Keef Hartley, Larry Taylor, Aynsley Dunbar – and how being sacked from the Bluesbreakers was a badge of honour. … why do songwriters value suffering over joy? … “the more seriously someone takes musical taste, the more you should disregard them”. … what connects Bob Dylan and the Life of Brian? … a blueser from Preston in a Sioux headdress and one from Macclesfield pretending to hop a freight train.   … and why “song and dance man” Leadbelly had to play “complaining songs”. Plus Birthday guest Gianluca Tramontana. The Beatles at Chiswick House:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvvVNaU_qa8Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How does the beer industry navigate a cost of living crisis? In a panel discussion recorded at IndyManBeerCon 2023, Jonny Hamilton chats to Phil Sisson from Glasgow's Simple Things Fermentation, Julie O'Grady from Neptune Brewery in Liverpool and Toby McKenzie from RedWillow Brewery in Macclesfield to find out how the financial squeeze is affection small breweries, and their customers. I'm sure most of you have felt the pinch by now: you want to get a big haul in from that local bottle shop, but instead you opt for a couple of specials and a case of something reliable from the supermarket. That expensive third of DIPA looks tempting, but it's your round and you'll settle on a pint of something lower in ABV, and much more affordable.The cost of living crisis has most of us feeling the squeeze. Rising energy bills, the cost of groceries, and the general expense of merely existing has had most of us making small changes to our lives, sometimes consciously, sometimes not. Small breweries, too, are feeling the pinch. For many it's simply too much and since the Covid-19 pandemic close to 200 small breweries in the UK have either shut down, or found new investment, or even new owners to help them steer through the financial mire. This has a knock on effect for customers, not simply pushing up the cost of beer, but shattering the amount of choice. You only have to step inside your nearest hostelry to see that a handful of mass produced brands occupy the taps. There's hope though, which can be heard in the tone taken by our host and three panellists in this episode of our podcast, all of whom own and work at small breweries in the UK. Sure, there's a sense of realism throughout, but there's also a sense that if they've made it this far, they might as well keep on going. For beer's sake, as much of their own.

Passing the baton of discourse on the rock and roll racetrack, our Olympian hosts sprint in the following direction … … watching Toumani Diabaté play in the pitch-black Malian night. … Laurel Canyon, the Brain Damage Club and the great fire of ‘79. … the Kinks in Fortis Green Road, the Beatles in Chiswick House and other alternative London rock landmarks. … is Cerrone's Supernature nicked from the Days Of Pearly Spencer? … lower-level graduates from the John Mayall Academy – Jon Hiseman, Keef Hartley, Larry Taylor, Aynsley Dunbar – and how being sacked from the Bluesbreakers was a badge of honour. … why do songwriters value suffering over joy? … “the more seriously someone takes musical taste, the more you should disregard them”. … what connects Bob Dylan and the Life of Brian? … a blueser from Preston in a Sioux headdress and one from Macclesfield pretending to hop a freight train.   … and why “song and dance man” Leadbelly had to play “complaining songs”. Plus Birthday guest Gianluca Tramontana. The Beatles at Chiswick House:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvvVNaU_qa8Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Passing the baton of discourse on the rock and roll racetrack, our Olympian hosts sprint in the following direction … … watching Toumani Diabaté play in the pitch-black Malian night. … Laurel Canyon, the Brain Damage Club and the great fire of ‘79. … the Kinks in Fortis Green Road, the Beatles in Chiswick House and other alternative London rock landmarks. … is Cerrone's Supernature nicked from the Days Of Pearly Spencer? … lower-level graduates from the John Mayall Academy – Jon Hiseman, Keef Hartley, Larry Taylor, Aynsley Dunbar – and how being sacked from the Bluesbreakers was a badge of honour. … why do songwriters value suffering over joy? … “the more seriously someone takes musical taste, the more you should disregard them”. … what connects Bob Dylan and the Life of Brian? … a blueser from Preston in a Sioux headdress and one from Macclesfield pretending to hop a freight train.   … and why “song and dance man” Leadbelly had to play “complaining songs”. Plus Birthday guest Gianluca Tramontana. The Beatles at Chiswick House:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvvVNaU_qa8Find out more about how to help us to keep the conversation going: https://www.patreon.com/wordinyourear Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ngày 12/07/2024 đánh dấu tròn 8 năm Tòa Trọng Tài Quốc Tế xác định rằng các yêu sách hàng hải mở rộng của Trung Quốc ở Biển Đông là không phù hợp với luật pháp quốc tế. Phán quyết cuối cùng của Tòa đã được Việt Nam “hoan nghênh” cùng với tuyên bố “ủng hộ mạnh mẽ việc giải quyết các tranh chấp ở Biển Đông bằng các biện pháp hòa bình”. Tám năm sau, Việt Nam, Philippines vẫn phải đối phó với những hành động bạo lực, hăm dọa của Trung Quốc trong chiến lược “mưa dầm thấm lâu” độc chiếm Biển Đông (1). “Các hành động của Trung Quốc phản ánh sự coi thường trắng trợn đối với luật pháp quốc tế”, theo thông cáo của ngoại trưởng Mỹ ngày 11/07. Phía Liên Hiệp Châu Âu khẳng định trong một tuyên bố ngày 12/07 rằng phán quyết của Tòa Trọng Tài Thường Trực năm 2016 có giá trị ràng buộc pháp lý đối với các bên liên quan. Tuy nhiên, đối với Bắc Kinh, chỉ có luật quốc gia của Trung Quốc mới có giá trị ở Biển Đông, theo nhận định của nhà phân tích, nghiên cứu độc lập Lénaïck Le Peutrec trong buổi phỏng vấn với RFI Tiếng Việt ngày 11/07/2024.Chiến lược này được ban thành luật về vùng lãnh hải tháng 02/1992. Thoạt nhìn định nghĩa “lãnh hải” của Bắc Kinh phù hợp với Công ước Liên Hiệp Quốc về Luật Biển (UNCLOS) 1982 mà Trung Quốc là thành viên. Nhưng điểm nguy hiểm nằm ở tuyên bố 1958, được nhắc lại trong bộ luật 1992, theo đó lãnh thổ đất liền của Trung Quốc bao gồm Đài Loan và các nhóm đảo khác như Sankaku/Điếu Ngư (tranh chấp với Nhật Bản), Bành Hồ, Đông Sa, Tây Sa (quần đảo Hoàng Sa), Nam Sa (quần đảo Trường Sa).RFI : Lénaïck Le Peutrec, bà là tác giả bài phân tích “Trung Quốc trong những xung đột ở Biển Đông : giải mã một trật tự mới mang màu sắc Trung Hoa”, đăng trên Asia Focus tháng 05/2024 của Viện Nghiên Cứu Quốc Tế và Chiến lược Pháp - IRIS (2). Trong bài viết, bà nhấn mạnh rằng luật về lãnh hải năm 1992 là một bộ luật quốc gia, thúc đẩy Trung Quốc tiếp tục những đòi hỏi chủ quyền ở Biển Đông theo từng chặng, để tạo thành những “chuyện đã rồi” bất chấp luật pháp quốc tế. Theo thời gian, những tích tụ đó chuyển thành một sự thay đổi chiến lược quan trọng. Vậy chiến lược của Trung Quốc là gì ? Liệu vì những yêu sách đó, Trung Quốc sẽ không bao giờ nhân nhượng ở Biển Đông ?Lénaïck Le Peutrec : Những yêu sách lãnh thổ của Bắc Kinh ở Biển Đông nằm trong nỗ lực toàn vẹn lãnh thổ rộng lớn hơn của Trung Quốc. Cho nên chúng được ghi khắc trong những lợi ích cơ bản của Trung Quốc, giống như đối với đảo Đài Loan. Bắc Kinh đưa ra lập luận đòi chủ quyền dựa vào các quyền lịch sử, nguyên tắc hiện diện lâu đời được cho là được chứng thực bằng các văn bản có từ thời nhà Tống, tức là từ thế kỷ thứ 10 đến thế kỷ 13.Do đó, Bắc Kinh tuyên bố chủ quyền đối với 80 đến 90% diện tích Biển Đông. Yêu sách này được chính thức ghi trong tài liệu “đường 9 đoạn”, lần đầu tiên được chính phủ nước Cộng hòa Nhân dân Trung Hoa công bố chính thức bằng một công hàm ngoại giao gửi tới Liên Hiệp Quốc vào tháng 05/2019. Bản thân tuyên bố này đã là một hành động kiểu “chuyện đã rồi”. Thêm vào đó còn có rất nhiều luật quốc gia khác củng cố cho những đòi hỏi chủ quyền của Trung Quốc ở Biển Đông và Bắc Kinh viện vào đó để biện minh cho hành động của họ. Đọc thêm : Biển Đông: Trung Quốc toan tính gì khi lập 2 ‘quận' mới cho ‘Tam Sa' ?Như vậy luật về vùng lãnh hải năm 1992 đã chọn định nghĩa rộng hơn về các vùng biển của Trung Quốc, trên thực tế bao gồm cả quần đảo Trường Sa và Hoàng Sa, trong khi Philippines, Việt Nam và Đài Loan cũng tuyên bố chủ quyền. Chính nhờ dựa vào những quyền lịch sử từ xa xưa, không thể chối cãi ở Biển Đông và dựa trên luật pháp quốc gia xác quyết chủ quyền - được coi là “chuyện đã rồi” - mà Trung Quốc liên tục đưa tầu đánh cá vào các vùng biển có tranh chấp, thường xuyên tổ chức tuần tra hải cảnh, tiến hành hoạt động bồi đắp, xây dựng đảo và thành lập các đơn vị, cơ quan hành chính mà trên thực tế là để thiết lập chủ quyền.RFI : Tháng 03/2024, Trung Quốc thông báo xác lập đường cơ sở ở vịnh Bắc Bộ. Thêm vào đó là hành động hung hăng, ví dụ những sự cố với Philippines ở Bãi Cỏ Mây và bãi cạn Scarborough trong thời gian gần đây… Phải chăng tất cả những hành động đó nằm trong chiến lược khẳng định chủ quyền của Trung Quốc ?Lénaïck Le Peutrec : Việc phân định đường cơ sở là một chủ đề hết sức nhạy cảm ở Biển Đông để chúng ta có thể hiểu được bản chất chiến lược. Bởi vì Biển Đông là nơi chồng chéo những yêu sách chủ quyền giữa phần lớn các quốc gia ven biển. Các đường cơ sở có tính chiến lược mạnh mẽ vì chúng chi phối việc tính toán đường biên giới lãnh thổ của quốc gia ven biển, vùng nội thủy và các vùng biển nằm trong quyền tài phán của họ. Những vùng biển này là các vùng lãnh hải và vùng đặc quyền kinh tế. Đọc thêm : Vịnh Bắc Bộ: Trung Quốc muốn vẽ lại ranh giới khi công bố "đường cơ sở" mới?Qua đó, người ta có thể thấy đó là “cánh tay nối dài” trong hành động áp đặt chủ quyền của Trung Quốc trên thực tế. Như tôi giải thích, phương thức hoạt động của Bắc Kinh bắt đầu từ một “chuyện đã rồi”. Trường hợp này chính là một ví dụ vì Trung Quốc đơn phương tuyên bố một đường cơ sở mới. Điều đáng quan ngại là Trung Quốc tiếp tục áp dụng cách hành động duy nhất đó, có nghĩa là viện đến luật quốc gia để áp đặt cơ sở pháp lý cho những hành động của họ.Những sự cố gần đây trong khu vực Bãi Cỏ Mây và bãi cạn Scarborough nằm trong chiến lược hành động của Trung Quốc ở Biển Đông từ năm 2004. Cần phải lưu ý rằng những hành động này còn được củng cố thêm nhờ những biện pháp mới trong luật hải cảnh, có hiệu lực từ ngày 15/06/2024, cho phép bắt giữ tàu nước ngoài ở Biển Đông và giam giữ thủy thủ đoàn mà không cần xét xử.RFI : Vẫn trong bài viết trên Asia Focus của Viện IRIS, bà nhấn mạnh rằng “chính sách láng giềng hữu hảo của Trung Quốc hiện nay, được suy tính để cổ vũ việc hội nhập kinh tế trong vùng, có thể được coi là một tầm nhìn được cập nhật về hệ thống triều cống của đế quốc Trung Quốc”. Tại sao nên cảnh giác với chính sách này ? Các nước láng giềng sẽ gặp rủi ro gì trong xung đột chủ quyền ở Biển Đông với Trung Quốc ?Lénaïck Le Peutrec : Trong câu hỏi này có những yếu tố lịch sử và văn hóa mà tôi cho rằng cần phải nêu bật, song song với những yếu tố thực tế, để hiểu đầy đủ hơn về hành động của Trung Quốc.Yếu tố đầu tiên mà tôi muốn lưu ý là tầm nhìn mang tính chu kỳ về lịch sử mà Trung Quốc vẫn chia sẻ. Điều này có thể được tóm tắt hoàn hảo trong câu tục ngữ Trung Quốc, tạm dịch “thống nhất lâu dài thì phải chia cắt, chia rẽ lâu thì phải đoàn tụ”. Nền văn minh Trung Quốc được đánh dấu bằng một lập luận lịch sử, theo đó “sau phân chia sẽ là sự thống nhất”.Điểm thứ hai, tôi muốn đề cập đến cách nhìn của Trung Quốc về vị trí trung tâm. Ngay tên gọi “Trung Quốc” - có nghĩa là “vùng đất ở giữa” - đã thể hiện rõ cách nhìn đó. Xuất phát từ vị trí trung tâm, Trung Quốc sống theo cách hiểu về địa lý thế giới xung quanh được định nghĩa theo cách nhìn của họ. Có thể thấy đa số những vùng lãnh thổ mà Trung Quốc tuyên bố chủ quyền ở Biển Đông được đặt tên theo vị trí của chúng so với Trung Quốc, ví dụ quần đảo Hoàng Sa (Paracels) được gọi là Tây Sa, Trường Sa (Spratleys) là Nam Sa, bãi ngầm Macclesfield là Trung Sa. Đọc thêm : Khó khăn kinh tế Trung Quốc đe dọa ASEANChính sách láng giềng hữu hảo của Bắc Kinh cũng thể hiện một phần tầm nhìn về vai trò trung tâm của Trung Quốc. Trên thực tế, chính sách - được lập ra để khuyến khích hội nhập kinh tế khu vực - có thể được coi như là một quan niệm được cập nhật về hệ thống triều cống của đế chế Trung Hoa, dựa trên tính trung tâm của họ. Những điều kiện dễ dàng về kinh tế và thương mại được Trung Quốc chấp thuận thời nay thay thế cho sự bảo vệ của họ ngày trước, còn quyền lực và những lợi ích mà họ thu được thay cho những cống vật của các nước chư hầu ngày xưa. Tình thế này để lại rất ít khả năng hành động cho các nước ven biển láng giềng - những nước không có sức mạnh kinh tế hoặc năng lực tấn công quân sự như Trung Quốc.Cuối cùng phải nhắc đến việc ASEAN gần như tê liệt. Nội bộ Hiệp hội các nước Đông Nam Á bất đồng nhau trong xung đột lãnh thổ với Trung Quốc. Từ nhiều năm nay, ASEAN tìm cách thông qua một Bộ Quy tắc Ứng xử ở Biển Đông (COC) mà họ muốn có tính ràng buộc về mặt pháp lý nhưng đến giờ vẫn bị Bắc Kinh một mực phản đối.RFI : Tại sao Biển Đông lại là một khu vực thử nghiệm để Trung Quốc áp đặt tầm nhìn của họ về một trật tự thế giới mới, như bà nêu trong bài phân tích ?Lénaïck Le Peutrec : Trước tiên, tôi nghĩ là cần phải hiểu được những yêu sách chủ quyền của Trung Quốc ở Biển Đông hay đúng hơn là những động cơ của họ. Theo tôi, có ba động cơ.Thứ nhất về mặt khai thác, việc bảo đảm tiếp tục các hoạt động đánh bắt hải sản, bảo vệ và khai thác các nguồn năng lượng, khoáng sản là việc cần thiết cho sự thúc đẩy phát triển của Trung Quốc. Tiếp theo là phải bảo đảm các nguồn tiếp cận với các tuyến hàng hải, đặc biệt là ưu tiên tiếp cận Ấn Độ Dương và Thái Bình Dương vì đây là những tuyến đường thiết yếu để dòng chảy thương mại của Trung Quốc được luân chuyển. Về mặt an ninh, việc tự do lưu thông ở Biển Đông là phương tiện quan trọng cho uy tín về năng lực răn đe trên biển của Trung Quốc. Phần lớn các căn cứ tàu ngầm mang tên lửa đạn đạo của Trung Quốc nằm trên đảo Hải Nam, ở phía bắc Biển Đông. Đọc thêm : Vai trò trung tâm của ASEAN trước thách thức của cạnh tranh Mỹ - TrungCũng đừng quên sự hiện diện mạnh mẽ của Mỹ trong khu vực làm tăng thêm cảm giác bất an của Trung Quốc, cũng như việc Hoa Kỳ tăng cường rõ rệt các liên minh với các nước trong khu vực trong thời gian gần đây để công khai chống lại sự trỗi dậy ngày càng tăng của Trung Quốc. Cấu trúc địa lý của Biển Đông cũng đặt Trung Quốc vào thế bị lọt thỏm và phụ thuộc lớn vào eo biển Malacca, tuyến đường thương mại chính của nước này. Từ năm 2023, Trung Quốc đã nhấn mạnh đến sự phụ thuộc quá mức của họ vào điểm trung chuyển này, cùng với sự bấp bênh về nguồn cung năng lượng do thiếu tuyến hàng hải thay thế.Bị thúc đẩy vì cảm giác bất an, Trung Quốc quyết tâm bảo đảm các lợi ích cơ bản của họ, bao gồm cả việc thống nhất đất nước, vốn là trọng tâm trong chính sách tái sinh vĩ đại của Trung Quốc và cũng là chính sách quan trọng hàng đầu của kỷ nguyên Tập Cận Bình. Những động cơ này của Trung Quốc khiến chúng ta nghĩ rằng Bắc Kinh có lẽ sẽ thử phản ứng của cộng đồng quốc tế về Biển Đông bằng cách dần dần gặm những không gian mà họ tuyên bố thuộc về mình. Do đó, Biển Đông sẽ là địa điểm thử nghiệm đầu tiên về một trật tự mới mang màu sắc Trung Hoa, trước khi chuyển sang giai đoạn tiếp theo, đó là thống nhất với đảo Đài Loan.RFI Tiếng Việt xin chân thành cảm ơn nhà phân tích, nghiên cứu Lénaïck Le Peutrec.(2) Lénaïck Le Peutrec, "La Chine dans les conflits en mer de Chine méridionale : décryptage d'un nouvel ordre aux caractéristiques chinoises", Asia Focus, mai 2024, IRIS.

Peter and Jill Upton discuss his highly regarded Rose and Italian varietals he is producing in Macclesfield, Adelaide Hills.@thewineshowaustralia@longviewvineyard@adelaidehillswines

I Had Trials Once is back again for another episode...This week Jordan & Gaz are joined by former Halifax, Fleetwood, Tranmere, Gateshead, Salford, Stockport and Oldham defender...Liam Hogan!Liam sits down with the boys to discuss everything from early days with Jamie Vardy to captaining his hometown club to promotion at Wembley.Liam talks to Jordan & Gaz about how his early life in football, Growing up with Scott Hogan and playing alongside Lee Gregory and Jamie Vardy at Halifax.Liam also chats about playing in the EFL with Fleetwood Town, Brief spells at Macclesfield, Tranmere and Gateshead.Finally, Liam speaks about the joy of winning promotion from the National League with his local teams Salford and Stockport before chatting about his difficult season with Oldham Athletic.

I Had Trials Once is back again for another episode...This week Jordan & Gaz are joined by South African cult hero and current Warrington Rylands player manager...Dean Furman.The boys talk everything from the growing up in South Africa to coming through the ranks and training with the first team at Chelsea.They then discuss Dean's international career and how he became a South African cult hero and captaining the team in the African Cup Of Nations.Dean then talks about the decision to leave Oldham and how it felt to finally win a league title with Doncaster and play in the Championship. Finally Dean reveals how he initially struggled with the switch to semi-professional football and how he became the player/manager of Warrington Rylands after another IHTO guest, Michael Clegg left for Macclesfield.If you're a fan of our non-league episodes then you're in the right place! 

A bumper full length programme this week as we hit the Quarter finals of the FA Trophy and FA Vase, four ties, eight clubs in each compettion. First up an old friend of the show in a new job. His record speaks for itself but it's not often a manager moves into a new dugout in the back end of the season, at a club bigger than he's ever taken on before, in sight of a play-off place and in the quarter-finals of a national cup competition. Michael Clegg has achieved just that at Macclesfield although in an open and honest interview, he admits he's only played one won one in the role so far. Phil Annets is on hand with his @favasefactfile hat on to introduce us to the 8 clubs in the VAse quarter-finals, and to remind us of THAT fact about FA Vase finals. Then we speak to a man who is CHairman and joint manager at North Greenford United as they are two rounds from Wembley. Paul Mills admits it's a real family affair just a stone's throw from the national stadium but wouldn't change a thing about his club's big day on Saturday. Rounding it all off, Jon Couch returns from The Non League Paper to help us cover weather and postponements, club finances, moving managers, and fanatical fans.

Even with these early starts, Dave still manages to surprise the team with his mornings! AND Matt continues his supermarket Social Ammo's!

Just the one club guest this week so a slightly abbreviated show but an important insight nonetheless. With some of the Fifth Round FA Trophy ties still to be played due to weather postponements, we speak to a manager who is probably putting more on the chance for Wembley than any other club still in the competition. Bishops Stortford owner and manager Steve Smith was last with us celebrating his side's romp of the IShtmian Premier Division. As he tells us he still can't come to terms with the decision - even post-appeal - to place his side in the National North and not the South this season. That has meant additional travel, additional costs and pretty much an entire new squad. Whilst competitive in most games it hasn't worked out this term for the Blues who are rock bottom of the Step 2 Division and need to double their current points even to get level the club currently in safety. Whilst he's not given up all hope, Smith is realistic enough to understand the FA Trophy and their great run already is probably where his and his side's hope is better pinned. Coalville Town - under new management - and from a level below stand now between them and progression into the Quarter Finals to meet Macclesfield.  Rounding up the week's news including his presence at the FA Trophy and Vase draws earlier this week, Executive Editor at The Non League Paper Jon Couch is on hand with his expert insight into the draw, the talking points of the week and those managerial moves.

Aaron Paul and Jobi McAnuff talk to new Charlton boss Nathan Jones. They're joined by Macclesfield manager Alex Bruce for a full episode on the EFL. The Championship promotion race is hotting up with Ipswich faltering. Jon Dahl Tomasson could be on his way out of Blackburn Rovers. And the Port Vale chair writes an open letter to fans after Andy Crosby's sacking. All that and Jobi has his highlight and lowlight of the week in 72PLUS 72MINUS.02:10 Can Kieffer Moore get Ipswich out of their rut? 05:30 Leeds and Southampton in the race for second 07:50 Nathan Jones LIVE after taking over at Charlton 19:30 Jon Dahl Tomasson reportedly set to leave Blackburn 25:45 Port Vale owner writes letter after Andy Crosby sacking 30:40 72PLUS 72MINUS… who is Jobi's latest victim?

In this episode of the Tough Girl Podcast, I speak with Lucy Coppack, a finance manager by day and an outdoors enthusiast by weekend.  Lucy shares her love for the hills, her experiences as a female in the outdoors industry, and her personal challenges including the loss of her mother to breast cancer.  Lucy talks about her decision to raise money for the East Cheshire Hospice by completing the Peak District 88 Trig Point Challenge, and how the outdoors helps her process her emotions and grief. She also shares advice and tips for girls who want to spend more time in the outdoors. *** Subscribe to the Tough Girl Podcast to listen to more inspiring stories of women breaking barriers and pushing boundaries. New episodes go live every Tuesday at 7am UK time. To support the mission of increasing female role models in the media, visit www.patreon.com/toughgirlpodcast. *** Show notes Who is Lucy Living in Macclesfield, just outside the Peak District, UK Working as a finance manager during the day Her love for the outdoors, the hills and living van life during the weekends Her early years growing up and spending loads of time outdoors Being into climbing, biking and hiking  Her teenage years and spending time in Guides and Explorers  Cheshire Hike  Duke of Edinburgh Award  Being the only girl  Starting to see more women in the outdoors Female instructors and leaders Studying Adventure Sports at Reaseheath College  Getting other basic qualifications for use in the outdoors Struggling after leaving college to find work PGL Summer Camps  Doing ski seasons for 3 years Teaching herself how to snowboard Working long shifts, but having the best time of her life Working her summer seasons in Cornwall, UK Wanting a bit more of a normal job Losing her mum at 3 years old to breast cancer Deciding to raise money for Wanting to do a local challenge to raise money and awareness for East Cheshire Hospice Deciding to do the 'Peak District Trig Point Challenge'  Wanting to complete the challenge in 88 days Dislocating her knee and needing to go to hospital  The outdoors and how it helps with her mental health Being a mental health first aider  Using hiking to help process her emotions and feeling of grief over losing her mum Van life and the realities  Pooing and peeing  Wanting to hike all 214 Wainwrights  Becoming a Boobette with Coppafeel The importance of checking your boobs on a regular basis The BRCA Gene - BReast CAncer Starting to get breast screening at 25 years old Coming to terms with her risks of getting breast cancer Thinking about doing her Mountain Leader Qualification  Thoughts on working full time in the outdoors industry full time Wanting to work with outdoor brands as an ambassador/influencer  Thinking about the financial side of working in the outdoor industry Advice and tips for girls who want to spend time in the outdoors Starting with local walks to build up your confidence App: All Trails  OS Maps  Check out FB Groups, Meet ups and connect with people on Instagram How to connect with Lucy online Nicky - IG @nicky.walks  Anna Blackwell - @annablackwell    Social Media Instagram: @lucy.does.trigs  Just Giving: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/lucy-coppack1   

Today, we delve into the inspiring story of Dr. Hannah Lock, 33, a British doctor and mountaineer living on the edge of Snowdonia National Park, Wales. With a deep passion for medicine and a love for the mountains, Dr. Lock has embarked on thrilling adventures, led expeditions, and shared her invaluable knowledge of mountain medicine. Join us as we explore her remarkable journey. Raised near the Peak District, Dr. Lock's childhood was filled with outdoor adventures. From hill walking to rock climbing and skiing, she developed a deep connection to the natural world. A pivotal moment in the French Alps introduced her to Alpine mountaineering, sparking a lifelong love for high-altitude environments. Her subsequent expeditions took her across the globe, from the Brazilian Amazon to the Bolivian Andes and the Swiss Alps. Dr. Lock found her true passion in Emergency Medicine. Today, she skilfully balances her work in the ER with mountain medicine teaching and expedition support. She provides medical support for ultra marathon trail events in the UK and has expanded her reach to cover mountain marathons in the Nepal Himalaya. Her true calling lies in supporting groups on remote, high-altitude expeditions, empowering them to push their limits while ensuring their safety. Dr. Hannah Lock's journey as a British doctor and mountaineer exemplifies the power of pursuing one's passions and bridging different worlds. Driven by her love for medicine and the outdoors, Dr. Lock continues to empower others through her invaluable knowledge of mountain medicine. Her story inspires us to merge our passions, conquer new heights, and make a positive impact in our chosen fields. *** Don't miss out on the latest episodes of the Tough Girl Podcast, released every Tuesday at 7am UK time! Be sure to hit the subscribe button to stay updated on the incredible journeys and stories of strong women.  By supporting the Tough Girl Podcast on Patreon, you can make a difference in increasing the representation of female role models in the media, particularly in the world of adventure and physical challenges. Your contribution helps empower and inspire others. Visit www.patreon.com/toughgirlpodcast to be a part of this important movement. Thank you for your invaluable support! *** Show notes Who is Hannah Working as a portfolio Doctor Being based in Bangor, North Wales Growing up in Macclesfield on the border of the Peak District Spending lots of time in the outdoors as a child Fitness and spending time in the outdoors while studying at university Doing Duke of Edinburgh as a teenager and how it inspired her love of the outdoors  Doing a World Challenge Expedition to Bolivia  Her first taste of big mountains and travelling in South America Going to Leeds University and joining the hiking club  Combining her passions together Learning more about becoming an Expedition Doctor  Doing a Chemistry Degree first  Going and finding opportunities  Going to medical school at University of Warwick  Gaining mountain skills via Mountain Leader Qualification  Wilderness Medicine Society Professor Chris Imray - (Vascular & Renal Transplant Surgeon based in Coventry, climbed the 7 Summits, & world expert in frostbite)  Dong a Diploma in Mountain Medicine  Starting off on UK Event Work - supporting runners on ultra marathons and multi day ultra marathons Supporting runners in Nepal and gaining more experience  Risk assessment planning Working within your competency level - but also being competent to deal with challenges Her first solo trip as a medic on Kilimanjaro (5,895 m) and the challenges of altitude  Heading to Northern India - Summiting Stok Kangri (6,154 m) - highest trekkable summit in India Starting to teach Mountain Medicine  Realities and Risks  ER (Emergency Room (USA)) -  ED (Emergency Department (UK)) Views on life and risk taking Why you should tell people you love them Working in intensive care Deciding to work part time and how her schedule looks Risks in the mountains and how it's changed over the years Being a climber who is scared of heights  Joining Ogwen Mountain Rescue team  Dream mountains & wanting to climb a 6,000m peak Introduction to “Humans at High Altitude”  CPD Credits  How to connect with Hannah on the socials Working on a 2nd course - which will be specific to women mountaineers Final words of advice and wisdom Trying to fit her work life around the mountains    Social Media Website: www.drhannahlock.co.uk Altitude Course: humans-at-high-altitude.teachable.com/p/course1  Instagram: @hannah_lock_exped_doc  

Break out the Berol felt tips for #168 and be careful not to go over the lines.If you cast your mind back to last weeks episode you may recall we got so deeply engrossed in chat about Living in Fear and the upcoming 'au natural by the seaside' shows that we didn't really talk about the diary. In hindsight this seemed a shame because it was a jolly interesting excerpt about a jaunt to Mexico.So this week we are going back to add a little colour about said trip (see what I did there) including the eventful journey over, and the days that followed. Oh, and there's a hill, and there's Macclesfield, and there's time-lag, and, there's Mike Oldfield's big recorder and there's me.. in a vest.. channelling Bruce Willis.Love'n buckets of ado...hTCD Merch StoreBecome Purple and support the showThe Invisible Man Volume 1: 1991-1997The Invisible Man Volume2: 1998-2014FacebookInstagramWebsite

Episode 166 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “Crossroads", Cream, the myth of Robert Johnson, and whether white men can sing the blues. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a forty-eight-minute bonus episode available, on “Tip-Toe Thru' the Tulips" by Tiny Tim. 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 an interview with Clapton from 1967, I meant 1968. I mention a Graham Bond live recording from 1953, and of course meant 1963. I say Paul Jones was on vocals in the Powerhouse sessions. Steve Winwood was on vocals, and Jones was on harmonica. Resources As I say at the end, the main resource you need to get if you enjoyed this episode is Brother Robert by Annye Anderson, Robert Johnson's stepsister. There are three Mixcloud mixes this time. As there are so many songs by Cream, Robert Johnson, John Mayall, and Graham Bond excerpted, and Mixcloud won't allow more than four songs by the same artist in any mix, I've had to post the songs not in quite the same order in which they appear in the podcast. But the mixes are here -- one, two, three. This article on Mack McCormick gives a fuller explanation of the problems with his research and behaviour. The other books I used for the Robert Johnson sections were McCormick's Biography of a Phantom; Up Jumped the Devil: The Real Life of Robert Johnson, by Bruce Conforth and Gayle Dean Wardlow; Searching for Robert Johnson by Peter Guralnick; and Escaping the Delta by Elijah Wald. I can recommend all of these subject to the caveats at the end of the episode. The information on the history and prehistory of the Delta blues mostly comes from Before Elvis by Larry Birnbaum, with some coming from Charley Patton by John Fahey. The information on Cream comes mostly from Cream: How Eric Clapton Took the World by Storm by Dave Thompson. I also used Ginger Baker: Hellraiser by Ginger Baker and Ginette Baker, Mr Showbiz by Stephen Dando-Collins, Motherless Child by Paul Scott, and  Alexis Korner: The Biography by Harry Shapiro. The best collection of Cream's work is the four-CD set Those Were the Days, which contains every track the group ever released while they were together (though only the stereo mixes of the albums, and a couple of tracks are in slightly different edits from the originals). You can get Johnson's music on many budget compilation records, as it's in the public domain in the EU, but the double CD collection produced by Steve LaVere for Sony in 2011 is, despite the problems that come from it being associated with LaVere, far and away the best option -- the remasters have a clarity that's worlds ahead of even the 1990s CD version it replaced. And for a good single-CD introduction to the Delta blues musicians and songsters who were Johnson's peers and inspirations, Back to the Crossroads: The Roots of Robert Johnson, compiled by Elijah Wald as a companion to his book on Johnson, can't be beaten, and contains many of the tracks excerpted in this episode. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before we start, a quick note that this episode contains discussion of racism, drug addiction, and early death. There's also a brief mention of death in childbirth and infant mortality. It's been a while since we looked at the British blues movement, and at the blues in general, so some of you may find some of what follows familiar, as we're going to look at some things we've talked about previously, but from a different angle. In 1968, the Bonzo Dog Band, a comedy musical band that have been described as the missing link between the Beatles and the Monty Python team, released a track called "Can Blue Men Sing the Whites?": [Excerpt: The Bonzo Dog Band, "Can Blue Men Sing the Whites?"] That track was mocking a discussion that was very prominent in Britain's music magazines around that time. 1968 saw the rise of a *lot* of British bands who started out as blues bands, though many of them went on to different styles of music -- Fleetwood Mac, Ten Years After, Jethro Tull, Chicken Shack and others were all becoming popular among the kind of people who read the music magazines, and so the question was being asked -- can white men sing the blues? Of course, the answer to that question was obvious. After all, white men *invented* the blues. Before we get any further at all, I have to make clear that I do *not* mean that white people created blues music. But "the blues" as a category, and particularly the idea of it as a music made largely by solo male performers playing guitar... that was created and shaped by the actions of white male record executives. There is no consensus as to when or how the blues as a genre started -- as we often say in this podcast "there is no first anything", but like every genre it seems to have come from multiple sources. In the case of the blues, there's probably some influence from African music by way of field chants sung by enslaved people, possibly some influence from Arabic music as well, definitely some influence from the Irish and British folk songs that by the late nineteenth century were developing into what we now call country music, a lot from ragtime, and a lot of influence from vaudeville and minstrel songs -- which in turn themselves were all very influenced by all those other things. Probably the first published composition to show any real influence of the blues is from 1904, a ragtime piano piece by James Chapman and Leroy Smith, "One O' Them Things": [Excerpt: "One O' Them Things"] That's not very recognisable as a blues piece yet, but it is more-or-less a twelve-bar blues. But the blues developed, and it developed as a result of a series of commercial waves. The first of these came in 1914, with the success of W.C. Handy's "Memphis Blues", which when it was recorded by the Victor Military Band for a phonograph cylinder became what is generally considered the first blues record proper: [Excerpt: The Victor Military Band, "Memphis Blues"] The famous dancers Vernon and Irene Castle came up with a dance, the foxtrot -- which Vernon Castle later admitted was largely inspired by Black dancers -- to be danced to the "Memphis Blues", and the foxtrot soon overtook the tango, which the Castles had introduced to the US the previous year, to become the most popular dance in America for the best part of three decades. And with that came an explosion in blues in the Handy style, cranked out by every music publisher. While the blues was a style largely created by Black performers and writers, the segregated nature of the American music industry at the time meant that most vocal performances of these early blues that were captured on record were by white performers, Black vocalists at this time only rarely getting the chance to record. The first blues record with a Black vocalist is also technically the first British blues record. A group of Black musicians, apparently mostly American but led by a Jamaican pianist, played at Ciro's Club in London, and recorded many tracks in Britain, under a name which I'm not going to say in full -- it started with Ciro's Club, and continued alliteratively with another word starting with C, a slur for Black people. In 1917 they recorded a vocal version of "St. Louis Blues", another W.C. Handy composition: [Excerpt: Ciro's Club C**n Orchestra, "St. Louis Blues"] The first American Black blues vocal didn't come until two years later, when Bert Williams, a Black minstrel-show performer who like many Black performers of his era performed in blackface even though he was Black, recorded “I'm Sorry I Ain't Got It You Could Have It If I Had It Blues,” [Excerpt: Bert Williams, "I'm Sorry I Ain't Got It You Could Have It If I Had It Blues,”] But it wasn't until 1920 that the second, bigger, wave of popularity started for the blues, and this time it started with the first record of a Black *woman* singing the blues -- Mamie Smith's "Crazy Blues": [Excerpt: Mamie Smith, "Crazy Blues"] You can hear the difference between that and anything we've heard up to that point -- that's the first record that anyone from our perspective, a hundred and three years later, would listen to and say that it bore any resemblance to what we think of as the blues -- so much so that many places still credit it as the first ever blues record. And there's a reason for that. "Crazy Blues" was one of those records that separates the music industry into before and after, like "Rock Around the Clock", "I Want to Hold Your Hand", Sgt Pepper, or "Rapper's Delight". It sold seventy-five thousand copies in its first month -- a massive number by the standards of 1920 -- and purportedly went on to sell over a million copies. Sales figures and market analysis weren't really a thing in the same way in 1920, but even so it became very obvious that "Crazy Blues" was a big hit, and that unlike pretty much any other previous records, it was a big hit among Black listeners, which meant that there was a market for music aimed at Black people that was going untapped. Soon all the major record labels were setting up subsidiaries devoted to what they called "race music", music made by and for Black people. And this sees the birth of what is now known as "classic blues", but at the time (and for decades after) was just what people thought of when they thought of "the blues" as a genre. This was music primarily sung by female vaudeville artists backed by jazz bands, people like Ma Rainey (whose earliest recordings featured Louis Armstrong in her backing band): [Excerpt: Ma Rainey, "See See Rider Blues"] And Bessie Smith, the "Empress of the Blues", who had a massive career in the 1920s before the Great Depression caused many of these "race record" labels to fold, but who carried on performing well into the 1930s -- her last recording was in 1933, produced by John Hammond, with a backing band including Benny Goodman and Jack Teagarden: [Excerpt: Bessie Smith, "Give Me a Pigfoot and a Bottle of Beer"] It wouldn't be until several years after the boom started by Mamie Smith that any record companies turned to recording Black men singing the blues accompanied by guitar or banjo. The first record of this type is probably "Norfolk Blues" by Reese DuPree from 1924: [Excerpt: Reese DuPree, "Norfolk Blues"] And there were occasional other records of this type, like "Airy Man Blues" by Papa Charlie Jackson, who was advertised as the “only man living who sings, self-accompanied, for Blues records.” [Excerpt: Papa Charlie Jackson, "Airy Man Blues"] But contrary to the way these are seen today, at the time they weren't seen as being in some way "authentic", or "folk music". Indeed, there are many quotes from folk-music collectors of the time (sadly all of them using so many slurs that it's impossible for me to accurately quote them) saying that when people sang the blues, that wasn't authentic Black folk music at all but an adulteration from commercial music -- they'd clearly, according to these folk-music scholars, learned the blues style from records and sheet music rather than as part of an oral tradition. Most of these performers were people who recorded blues as part of a wider range of material, like Blind Blake, who recorded some blues music but whose best work was his ragtime guitar instrumentals: [Excerpt: Blind Blake, "Southern Rag"] But it was when Blind Lemon Jefferson started recording for Paramount records in 1926 that the image of the blues as we now think of it took shape. His first record, "Got the Blues", was a massive success: [Excerpt: Blind Lemon Jefferson, "Got the Blues"] And this resulted in many labels, especially Paramount, signing up pretty much every Black man with a guitar they could find in the hopes of finding another Blind Lemon Jefferson. But the thing is, this generation of people making blues records, and the generation that followed them, didn't think of themselves as "blues singers" or "bluesmen". They were songsters. Songsters were entertainers, and their job was to sing and play whatever the audiences would want to hear. That included the blues, of course, but it also included... well, every song anyone would want to hear.  They'd perform old folk songs, vaudeville songs, songs that they'd heard on the radio or the jukebox -- whatever the audience wanted. Robert Johnson, for example, was known to particularly love playing polka music, and also adored the records of Jimmie Rodgers, the first country music superstar. In 1941, when Alan Lomax first recorded Muddy Waters, he asked Waters what kind of songs he normally played in performances, and he was given a list that included "Home on the Range", Gene Autry's "I've Got Spurs That Jingle Jangle Jingle", and Glenn Miller's "Chattanooga Choo-Choo". We have few recordings of these people performing this kind of song though. One of the few we have is Big Bill Broonzy, who was just about the only artist of this type not to get pigeonholed as just a blues singer, even though blues is what made him famous, and who later in his career managed to record songs like the Tin Pan Alley standard "The Glory of Love": [Excerpt: Big Bill Broonzy, "The Glory of Love"] But for the most part, the image we have of the blues comes down to one man, Arthur Laibley, a sales manager for the Wisconsin Chair Company. The Wisconsin Chair Company was, as the name would suggest, a company that started out making wooden chairs, but it had branched out into other forms of wooden furniture -- including, for a brief time, large wooden phonographs. And, like several other manufacturers, like the Radio Corporation of America -- RCA -- and the Gramophone Company, which became EMI, they realised that if they were going to sell the hardware it made sense to sell the software as well, and had started up Paramount Records, which bought up a small label, Black Swan, and soon became the biggest manufacturer of records for the Black market, putting out roughly a quarter of all "race records" released between 1922 and 1932. At first, most of these were produced by a Black talent scout, J. Mayo Williams, who had been the first person to record Ma Rainey, Papa Charlie Jackson, and Blind Lemon Jefferson, but in 1927 Williams left Paramount, and the job of supervising sessions went to Arthur Laibley, though according to some sources a lot of the actual production work was done by Aletha Dickerson, Williams' former assistant, who was almost certainly the first Black woman to be what we would now think of as a record producer. Williams had been interested in recording all kinds of music by Black performers, but when Laibley got a solo Black man into the studio, what he wanted more than anything was for him to record the blues, ideally in a style as close as possible to that of Blind Lemon Jefferson. Laibley didn't have a very hands-on approach to recording -- indeed Paramount had very little concern about the quality of their product anyway, and Paramount's records are notorious for having been put out on poor-quality shellac and recorded badly -- and he only occasionally made actual suggestions as to what kind of songs his performers should write -- for example he asked Son House to write something that sounded like Blind Lemon Jefferson, which led to House writing and recording "Mississippi County Farm Blues", which steals the tune of Jefferson's "See That My Grave is Kept Clean": [Excerpt: Son House, "Mississippi County Farm Blues"] When Skip James wanted to record a cover of James Wiggins' "Forty-Four Blues", Laibley suggested that instead he should do a song about a different gun, and so James recorded "Twenty-Two Twenty Blues": [Excerpt: Skip James, "Twenty-Two Twenty Blues"] And Laibley also suggested that James write a song about the Depression, which led to one of the greatest blues records ever, "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues": [Excerpt: Skip James, "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues"] These musicians knew that they were getting paid only for issued sides, and that Laibley wanted only blues from them, and so that's what they gave him. Even when it was a performer like Charlie Patton. (Incidentally, for those reading this as a transcript rather than listening to it, Patton's name is more usually spelled ending in ey, but as far as I can tell ie was his preferred spelling and that's what I'm using). Charlie Patton was best known as an entertainer, first and foremost -- someone who would do song-and-dance routines, joke around, play guitar behind his head. He was a clown on stage, so much so that when Son House finally heard some of Patton's records, in the mid-sixties, decades after the fact, he was astonished that Patton could actually play well. Even though House had been in the room when some of the records were made, his memory of Patton was of someone who acted the fool on stage. That's definitely not the impression you get from the Charlie Patton on record: [Excerpt: Charlie Patton, "Poor Me"] Patton is, as far as can be discerned, the person who was most influential in creating the music that became called the "Delta blues". Not a lot is known about Patton's life, but he was almost certainly the half-brother of the Chatmon brothers, who made hundreds of records, most notably as members of the Mississippi Sheiks: [Excerpt: The Mississippi Sheiks, "Sitting on Top of the World"] In the 1890s, Patton's family moved to Sunflower County, Mississippi, and he lived in and around that county until his death in 1934. Patton learned to play guitar from a musician called Henry Sloan, and then Patton became a mentor figure to a *lot* of other musicians in and around the plantation on which his family lived. Some of the musicians who grew up in the immediate area around Patton included Tommy Johnson: [Excerpt: Tommy Johnson, "Big Road Blues"] Pops Staples: [Excerpt: The Staple Singers, "Will The Circle Be Unbroken"] Robert Johnson: [Excerpt: Robert Johnson, "Crossroads"] Willie Brown, a musician who didn't record much, but who played a lot with Patton, Son House, and Robert Johnson and who we just heard Johnson sing about: [Excerpt: Willie Brown, "M&O Blues"] And Chester Burnett, who went on to become known as Howlin' Wolf, and whose vocal style was equally inspired by Patton and by the country star Jimmie Rodgers: [Excerpt: Howlin' Wolf, "Smokestack Lightnin'"] Once Patton started his own recording career for Paramount, he also started working as a talent scout for them, and it was him who brought Son House to Paramount. Soon after the Depression hit, Paramount stopped recording, and so from 1930 through 1934 Patton didn't make any records. He was tracked down by an A&R man in January 1934 and recorded one final session: [Excerpt, Charlie Patton, "34 Blues"] But he died of heart failure two months later. But his influence spread through his proteges, and they themselves influenced other musicians from the area who came along a little after, like Robert Lockwood and Muddy Waters. This music -- or that portion of it that was considered worth recording by white record producers, only a tiny, unrepresentative, portion of their vast performing repertoires -- became known as the Delta Blues, and when some of these musicians moved to Chicago and started performing with electric instruments, it became Chicago Blues. And as far as people like John Mayall in Britain were concerned, Delta and Chicago Blues *were* the blues: [Excerpt: John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, "It Ain't Right"] John Mayall was one of the first of the British blues obsessives, and for a long time thought of himself as the only one. While we've looked before at the growth of the London blues scene, Mayall wasn't from London -- he was born in Macclesfield and grew up in Cheadle Hulme, both relatively well-off suburbs of Manchester, and after being conscripted and doing two years in the Army, he had become an art student at Manchester College of Art, what is now Manchester Metropolitan University. Mayall had been a blues fan from the late 1940s, writing off to the US to order records that hadn't been released in the UK, and by most accounts by the late fifties he'd put together the biggest blues collection in Britain by quite some way. Not only that, but he had one of the earliest home tape recorders, and every night he would record radio stations from Continental Europe which were broadcasting for American service personnel, so he'd amassed mountains of recordings, often unlabelled, of obscure blues records that nobody else in the UK knew about. He was also an accomplished pianist and guitar player, and in 1956 he and his drummer friend Peter Ward had put together a band called the Powerhouse Four (the other two members rotated on a regular basis) mostly to play lunchtime jazz sessions at the art college. Mayall also started putting on jam sessions at a youth club in Wythenshawe, where he met another drummer named Hughie Flint. Over the late fifties and into the early sixties, Mayall more or less by himself built up a small blues scene in Manchester. The Manchester blues scene was so enthusiastic, in fact, that when the American Folk Blues Festival, an annual European tour which initially featured Willie Dixon, Memhis Slim, T-Bone Walker, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, and John Lee Hooker, first toured Europe, the only UK date it played was at the Manchester Free Trade Hall, and people like Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Brian Jones and Jimmy Page had to travel up from London to see it. But still, the number of blues fans in Manchester, while proportionally large, was objectively small enough that Mayall was captivated by an article in Melody Maker which talked about Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies' new band Blues Incorporated and how it was playing electric blues, the same music he was making in Manchester. He later talked about how the article had made him think that maybe now people would know what he was talking about. He started travelling down to London to play gigs for the London blues scene, and inviting Korner up to Manchester to play shows there. Soon Mayall had moved down to London. Korner introduced Mayall to Davey Graham, the great folk guitarist, with whom Korner had recently recorded as a duo: [Excerpt: Alexis Korner and Davey Graham, "3/4 AD"] Mayall and Graham performed together as a duo for a while, but Graham was a natural solo artist if ever there was one. Slowly Mayall put a band together in London. On drums was his old friend Peter Ward, who'd moved down from Manchester with him. On bass was John McVie, who at the time knew nothing about blues -- he'd been playing in a Shadows-style instrumental group -- but Mayall gave him a stack of blues records to listen to to get the feeling. And on guitar was Bernie Watson, who had previously played with Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages. In late 1963, Mike Vernon, a blues fan who had previously published a Yardbirds fanzine, got a job working for Decca records, and immediately started signing his favourite acts from the London blues circuit. The first act he signed was John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, and they recorded a single, "Crawling up a Hill": [Excerpt: John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, "Crawling up a Hill (45 version)"] Mayall later called that a "clumsy, half-witted attempt at autobiographical comment", and it sold only five hundred copies. It would be the only record the Bluesbreakers would make with Watson, who soon left the band to be replaced by Roger Dean (not the same Roger Dean who later went on to design prog rock album covers). The second group to be signed by Mike Vernon to Decca was the Graham Bond Organisation. We've talked about the Graham Bond Organisation in passing several times, but not for a while and not in any great detail, so it's worth pulling everything we've said about them so far together and going through it in a little more detail. The Graham Bond Organisation, like the Rolling Stones, grew out of Alexis Korner's Blues Incorporated. As we heard in the episode on "I Wanna Be Your Man" a couple of years ago, Blues Incorporated had been started by Alexis Korner and Cyril Davies, and at the time we're joining them in 1962 featured a drummer called Charlie Watts, a pianist called Dave Stevens, and saxophone player Dick Heckstall-Smith, as well as frequent guest performers like a singer who called himself Mike Jagger, and another one, Roderick Stewart. That group finally found themselves the perfect bass player when Dick Heckstall-Smith put together a one-off group of jazz players to play an event at Cambridge University. At the gig, a little Scottish man came up to the group and told them he played bass and asked if he could sit in. They told him to bring along his instrument to their second set, that night, and he did actually bring along a double bass. Their bluff having been called, they decided to play the most complicated, difficult, piece they knew in order to throw the kid off -- the drummer, a trad jazz player named Ginger Baker, didn't like performing with random sit-in guests -- but astonishingly he turned out to be really good. Heckstall-Smith took down the bass player's name and phone number and invited him to a jam session with Blues Incorporated. After that jam session, Jack Bruce quickly became the group's full-time bass player. Bruce had started out as a classical cellist, but had switched to the double bass inspired by Bach, who he referred to as "the guv'nor of all bass players". His playing up to this point had mostly been in trad jazz bands, and he knew nothing of the blues, but he quickly got the hang of the genre. Bruce's first show with Blues Incorporated was a BBC recording: [Excerpt: Blues Incorporated, "Hoochie Coochie Man (BBC session)"] According to at least one source it was not being asked to take part in that session that made young Mike Jagger decide there was no future for him with Blues Incorporated and to spend more time with his other group, the Rollin' Stones. Soon after, Charlie Watts would join him, for almost the opposite reason -- Watts didn't want to be in a band that was getting as big as Blues Incorporated were. They were starting to do more BBC sessions and get more gigs, and having to join the Musicians' Union. That seemed like a lot of work. Far better to join a band like the Rollin' Stones that wasn't going anywhere. Because of Watts' decision to give up on potential stardom to become a Rollin' Stone, they needed a new drummer, and luckily the best drummer on the scene was available. But then the best drummer on the scene was *always* available. Ginger Baker had first played with Dick Heckstall-Smith several years earlier, in a trad group called the Storyville Jazzmen. There Baker had become obsessed with the New Orleans jazz drummer Baby Dodds, who had played with Louis Armstrong in the 1920s. Sadly because of 1920s recording technology, he hadn't been able to play a full kit on the recordings with Armstrong, being limited to percussion on just a woodblock, but you can hear his drumming style much better in this version of "At the Jazz Band Ball" from 1947, with Mugsy Spanier, Jack Teagarden, Cyrus St. Clair and Hank Duncan: [Excerpt: "At the Jazz Band Ball"] Baker had taken Dobbs' style and run with it, and had quickly become known as the single best player, bar none, on the London jazz scene -- he'd become an accomplished player in multiple styles, and was also fluent in reading music and arranging. He'd also, though, become known as the single person on the entire scene who was most difficult to get along with. He resigned from his first band onstage, shouting "You can stick your band up your arse", after the band's leader had had enough of him incorporating bebop influences into their trad style. Another time, when touring with Diz Disley's band, he was dumped in Germany with no money and no way to get home, because the band were so sick of him. Sometimes this was because of his temper and his unwillingness to suffer fools -- and he saw everyone else he ever met as a fool -- and sometimes it was because of his own rigorous musical ideas. He wanted to play music *his* way, and wouldn't listen to anyone who told him different. Both of these things got worse after he fell under the influence of a man named Phil Seaman, one of the only drummers that Baker respected at all. Seaman introduced Baker to African drumming, and Baker started incorporating complex polyrhythms into his playing as a result. Seaman also though introduced Baker to heroin, and while being a heroin addict in the UK in the 1960s was not as difficult as it later became -- both heroin and cocaine were available on prescription to registered addicts, and Baker got both, which meant that many of the problems that come from criminalisation of these drugs didn't affect addicts in the same way -- but it still did not, by all accounts, make him an easier person to get along with. But he *was* a fantastic drummer. As Dick Heckstall-Smith said "With the advent of Ginger, the classic Blues Incorporated line-up, one which I think could not be bettered, was set" But Alexis Korner decided that the group could be bettered, and he had some backers within the band. One of the other bands on the scene was the Don Rendell Quintet, a group that played soul jazz -- that style of jazz that bridged modern jazz and R&B, the kind of music that Ray Charles and Herbie Hancock played: [Excerpt: The Don Rendell Quintet, "Manumission"] The Don Rendell Quintet included a fantastic multi-instrumentalist, Graham Bond, who doubled on keyboards and saxophone, and Bond had been playing occasional experimental gigs with the Johnny Burch Octet -- a group led by another member of the Rendell Quartet featuring Heckstall-Smith, Bruce, Baker, and a few other musicians, doing wholly-improvised music. Heckstall-Smith, Bruce, and Baker all enjoyed playing with Bond, and when Korner decided to bring him into the band, they were all very keen. But Cyril Davies, the co-leader of the band with Korner, was furious at the idea. Davies wanted to play strict Chicago and Delta blues, and had no truck with other forms of music like R&B and jazz. To his mind it was bad enough that they had a sax player. But the idea that they would bring in Bond, who played sax and... *Hammond* organ? Well, that was practically blasphemy. Davies quit the group at the mere suggestion. Bond was soon in the band, and he, Bruce, and Baker were playing together a *lot*. As well as performing with Blues Incorporated, they continued playing in the Johnny Burch Octet, and they also started performing as the Graham Bond Trio. Sometimes the Graham Bond Trio would be Blues Incorporated's opening act, and on more than one occasion the Graham Bond Trio, Blues Incorporated, and the Johnny Burch Octet all had gigs in different parts of London on the same night and they'd have to frantically get from one to the other. The Graham Bond Trio also had fans in Manchester, thanks to the local blues scene there and their connection with Blues Incorporated, and one night in February 1963 the trio played a gig there. They realised afterwards that by playing as a trio they'd made £70, when they were lucky to make £20 from a gig with Blues Incorporated or the Octet, because there were so many members in those bands. Bond wanted to make real money, and at the next rehearsal of Blues Incorporated he announced to Korner that he, Bruce, and Baker were quitting the band -- which was news to Bruce and Baker, who he hadn't bothered consulting. Baker, indeed, was in the toilet when the announcement was made and came out to find it a done deal. He was going to kick up a fuss and say he hadn't been consulted, but Korner's reaction sealed the deal. As Baker later said "‘he said “it's really good you're doing this thing with Graham, and I wish you the best of luck” and all that. And it was a bit difficult to turn round and say, “Well, I don't really want to leave the band, you know.”'" The Graham Bond Trio struggled at first to get the gigs they were expecting, but that started to change when in April 1963 they became the Graham Bond Quartet, with the addition of virtuoso guitarist John McLaughlin. The Quartet soon became one of the hottest bands on the London R&B scene, and when Duffy Power, a Larry Parnes teen idol who wanted to move into R&B, asked his record label to get him a good R&B band to back him on a Beatles cover, it was the Graham Bond Quartet who obliged: [Excerpt: Duffy Power, "I Saw Her Standing There"] The Quartet also backed Power on a package tour with other Parnes acts, but they were also still performing their own blend of hard jazz and blues, as can be heard in this recording of the group live in June 1953: [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Quartet, "Ho Ho Country Kicking Blues (Live at Klooks Kleek)"] But that lineup of the group didn't last very long. According to the way Baker told the story, he fired McLaughlin from the group, after being irritated by McLaughlin complaining about something on a day when Baker was out of cocaine and in no mood to hear anyone else's complaints. As Baker said "We lost a great guitar player and I lost a good friend." But the Trio soon became a Quartet again, as Dick Heckstall-Smith, who Baker had wanted in the band from the start, joined on saxophone to replace McLaughlin's guitar. But they were no longer called the Graham Bond Quartet. Partly because Heckstall-Smith joining allowed Bond to concentrate just on his keyboard playing, but one suspects partly to protect against any future lineup changes, the group were now The Graham Bond ORGANisation -- emphasis on the organ. The new lineup of the group got signed to Decca by Vernon, and were soon recording their first single, "Long Tall Shorty": [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Long Tall Shorty"] They recorded a few other songs which made their way onto an EP and an R&B compilation, and toured intensively in early 1964, as well as backing up Power on his follow-up to "I Saw Her Standing There", his version of "Parchman Farm": [Excerpt: Duffy Power, "Parchman Farm"] They also appeared in a film, just like the Beatles, though it was possibly not quite as artistically successful as "A Hard Day's Night": [Excerpt: Gonks Go Beat trailer] Gonks Go Beat is one of the most bizarre films of the sixties. It's a far-future remake of Romeo and Juliet. where the two star-crossed lovers are from opposing countries -- Beatland and Ballad Isle -- who only communicate once a year in an annual song contest which acts as their version of a war, and is overseen by "Mr. A&R", played by Frank Thornton, who would later star in Are You Being Served? Carry On star Kenneth Connor is sent by aliens to try to bring peace to the two warring countries, on pain of exile to Planet Gonk, a planet inhabited solely by Gonks (a kind of novelty toy for which there was a short-lived craze then). Along the way Connor encounters such luminaries of British light entertainment as Terry Scott and Arthur Mullard, as well as musical performances by Lulu, the Nashville Teens, and of course the Graham Bond Organisation, whose performance gets them a telling-off from a teacher: [Excerpt: Gonks Go Beat!] The group as a group only performed one song in this cinematic masterpiece, but Baker also made an appearance in a "drum battle" sequence where eight drummers played together: [Excerpt: Gonks Go Beat drum battle] The other drummers in that scene included, as well as some lesser-known players, Andy White who had played on the single version of "Love Me Do", Bobby Graham, who played on hits by the Kinks and the Dave Clark Five, and Ronnie Verrell, who did the drumming for Animal in the Muppet Show. Also in summer 1964, the group performed at the Fourth National Jazz & Blues Festival in Richmond -- the festival co-founded by Chris Barber that would evolve into the Reading Festival. The Yardbirds were on the bill, and at the end of their set they invited Bond, Baker, Bruce, Georgie Fame, and Mike Vernon onto the stage with them, making that the first time that Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker, and Jack Bruce were all on stage together. Soon after that, the Graham Bond Organisation got a new manager, Robert Stigwood. Things hadn't been working out for them at Decca, and Stigwood soon got the group signed to EMI, and became their producer as well. Their first single under Stigwood's management was a cover version of the theme tune to the Debbie Reynolds film "Tammy". While that film had given Tamla records its name, the song was hardly an R&B classic: [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Tammy"] That record didn't chart, but Stigwood put the group out on the road as part of the disastrous Chuck Berry tour we heard about in the episode on "All You Need is Love", which led to the bankruptcy of  Robert Stigwood Associates. The Organisation moved over to Stigwood's new company, the Robert Stigwood Organisation, and Stigwood continued to be the credited producer of their records, though after the "Tammy" disaster they decided they were going to take charge themselves of the actual music. Their first album, The Sound of 65, was recorded in a single three-hour session, and they mostly ran through their standard set -- a mixture of the same songs everyone else on the circuit was playing, like "Hoochie Coochie Man", "Got My Mojo Working", and "Wade in the Water", and originals like Bruce's "Train Time": [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Train Time"] Through 1965 they kept working. They released a non-album single, "Lease on Love", which is generally considered to be the first pop record to feature a Mellotron: [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Lease on Love"] and Bond and Baker also backed another Stigwood act, Winston G, on his debut single: [Excerpt: Winston G, "Please Don't Say"] But the group were developing severe tensions. Bruce and Baker had started out friendly, but by this time they hated each other. Bruce said he couldn't hear his own playing over Baker's loud drumming, Baker thought that Bruce was far too fussy a player and should try to play simpler lines. They'd both try to throw each other during performances, altering arrangements on the fly and playing things that would trip the other player up. And *neither* of them were particularly keen on Bond's new love of the Mellotron, which was all over their second album, giving it a distinctly proto-prog feel at times: [Excerpt: The Graham Bond Organisation, "Baby Can it Be True?"] Eventually at a gig in Golders Green, Baker started throwing drumsticks at Bruce's head while Bruce was trying to play a bass solo. Bruce retaliated by throwing his bass at Baker, and then jumping on him and starting a fistfight which had to be broken up by the venue security. Baker fired Bruce from the band, but Bruce kept turning up to gigs anyway, arguing that Baker had no right to sack him as it was a democracy. Baker always claimed that in fact Bond had wanted to sack Bruce but hadn't wanted to get his hands dirty, and insisted that Baker do it, but neither Bond nor Heckstall-Smith objected when Bruce turned up for the next couple of gigs. So Baker took matters into his own hands, He pulled out a knife and told Bruce "If you show up at one more gig, this is going in you." Within days, Bruce was playing with John Mayall, whose Bluesbreakers had gone through some lineup changes by this point. Roger Dean had only played with the Bluesbreakers for a short time before Mayall had replaced him. Mayall had not been impressed with Eric Clapton's playing with the Yardbirds at first -- even though graffiti saying "Clapton is God" was already starting to appear around London -- but he had been *very* impressed with Clapton's playing on "Got to Hurry", the B-side to "For Your Love": [Excerpt: The Yardbirds, "Got to Hurry"] When he discovered that Clapton had quit the band, he sprang into action and quickly recruited him to replace Dean. Clapton knew he had made the right choice when a month after he'd joined, the group got the word that Bob Dylan had been so impressed with Mayall's single "Crawling up a Hill" -- the one that nobody liked, not even Mayall himself -- that he wanted to jam with Mayall and his band in the studio. Clapton of course went along: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan and the Bluesbreakers, "If You Gotta Go, Go Now"] That was, of course, the session we've talked about in the Velvet Underground episode and elsewhere of which little other than that survives, and which Nico attended. At this point, Mayall didn't have a record contract, his experience recording with Mike Vernon having been no more successful than the Bond group's had been. But soon he got a one-off deal -- as a solo artist, not with the Bluesbreakers -- with Immediate Records. Clapton was the only member of the group to play on the single, which was produced by Immediate's house producer Jimmy Page: [Excerpt: John Mayall, "I'm Your Witchdoctor"] Page was impressed enough with Clapton's playing that he invited him round to Page's house to jam together. But what Clapton didn't know was that Page was taping their jam sessions, and that he handed those tapes over to Immediate Records -- whether he was forced to by his contract with the label or whether that had been his plan all along depends on whose story you believe, but Clapton never truly forgave him. Page and Clapton's guitar-only jams had overdubs by Bill Wyman, Ian Stewart, and drummer Chris Winter, and have been endlessly repackaged on blues compilations ever since: [Excerpt: Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton, "Draggin' My Tail"] But Mayall was having problems with John McVie, who had started to drink too much, and as soon as he found out that Jack Bruce was sacked by the Graham Bond Organisation, Mayall got in touch with Bruce and got him to join the band in McVie's place. Everyone was agreed that this lineup of the band -- Mayall, Clapton, Bruce, and Hughie Flint -- was going places: [Excerpt: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Jack Bruce, "Hoochie Coochie Man"] Unfortunately, it wasn't going to last long. Clapton, while he thought that Bruce was the greatest bass player he'd ever worked with, had other plans. He was going to leave the country and travel the world as a peripatetic busker. He was off on his travels, never to return. Luckily, Mayall had someone even better waiting in the wings. A young man had, according to Mayall, "kept coming down to all the gigs and saying, “Hey, what are you doing with him?” – referring to whichever guitarist was onstage that night – “I'm much better than he is. Why don't you let me play guitar for you?” He got really quite nasty about it, so finally, I let him sit in. And he was brilliant." Peter Green was probably the best blues guitarist in London at that time, but this lineup of the Bluesbreakers only lasted a handful of gigs -- Clapton discovered that busking in Greece wasn't as much fun as being called God in London, and came back very soon after he'd left. Mayall had told him that he could have his old job back when he got back, and so Green was out and Clapton was back in. And soon the Bluesbreakers' revolving door revolved again. Manfred Mann had just had a big hit with "If You Gotta Go, Go Now", the same song we heard Dylan playing earlier: [Excerpt: Manfred Mann, "If You Gotta Go, Go Now"] But their guitarist, Mike Vickers, had quit. Tom McGuinness, their bass player, had taken the opportunity to switch back to guitar -- the instrument he'd played in his first band with his friend Eric Clapton -- but that left them short a bass player. Manfred Mann were essentially the same kind of band as the Graham Bond Organisation -- a Hammond-led group of virtuoso multi-instrumentalists who played everything from hardcore Delta blues to complex modern jazz -- but unlike the Bond group they also had a string of massive pop hits, and so made a lot more money. The combination was irresistible to Bruce, and he joined the band just before they recorded an EP of jazz instrumental versions of recent hits: [Excerpt: Manfred Mann, "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction"] Bruce had also been encouraged by Robert Stigwood to do a solo project, and so at the same time as he joined Manfred Mann, he also put out a solo single, "Drinkin' and Gamblin'" [Excerpt: Jack Bruce, "Drinkin' and Gamblin'"] But of course, the reason Bruce had joined Manfred Mann was that they were having pop hits as well as playing jazz, and soon they did just that, with Bruce playing on their number one hit "Pretty Flamingo": [Excerpt: Manfred Mann, "Pretty Flamingo"] So John McVie was back in the Bluesbreakers, promising to keep his drinking under control. Mike Vernon still thought that Mayall had potential, but the people at Decca didn't agree, so Vernon got Mayall and Clapton -- but not the other band members -- to record a single for a small indie label he ran as a side project: [Excerpt: John Mayall and Eric Clapton, "Bernard Jenkins"] That label normally only released records in print runs of ninety-nine copies, because once you hit a hundred copies you had to pay tax on them, but there was so much demand for that single that they ended up pressing up five hundred copies, making it the label's biggest seller ever. Vernon eventually convinced the heads at Decca that the Bluesbreakers could be truly big, and so he got the OK to record the album that would generally be considered the greatest British blues album of all time -- Blues Breakers, also known as the Beano album because of Clapton reading a copy of the British kids' comic The Beano in the group photo on the front. [Excerpt: John Mayall with Eric Clapton, "Ramblin' On My Mind"] The album was a mixture of originals by Mayall and the standard repertoire of every blues or R&B band on the circuit -- songs like "Parchman Farm" and "What'd I Say" -- but what made the album unique was Clapton's guitar tone. Much to the chagrin of Vernon, and of engineer Gus Dudgeon, Clapton insisted on playing at the same volume that he would on stage. Vernon later said of Dudgeon "I can remember seeing his face the very first time Clapton plugged into the Marshall stack and turned it up and started playing at the sort of volume he was going to play. You could almost see Gus's eyes meet over the middle of his nose, and it was almost like he was just going to fall over from the sheer power of it all. But after an enormous amount of fiddling around and moving amps around, we got a sound that worked." [Excerpt: John Mayall with Eric Clapton, "Hideaway"] But by the time the album cane out. Clapton was no longer with the Bluesbreakers. The Graham Bond Organisation had struggled on for a while after Bruce's departure. They brought in a trumpet player, Mike Falana, and even had a hit record -- or at least, the B-side of a hit record. The Who had just put out a hit single, "Substitute", on Robert Stigwood's record label, Reaction: [Excerpt: The Who, "Substitute"] But, as you'll hear in episode 183, they had moved to Reaction Records after a falling out with their previous label, and with Shel Talmy their previous producer. The problem was, when "Substitute" was released, it had as its B-side a song called "Circles" (also known as "Instant Party -- it's been released under both names). They'd recorded an earlier version of the song for Talmy, and just as "Substitute" was starting to chart, Talmy got an injunction against the record and it had to be pulled. Reaction couldn't afford to lose the big hit record they'd spent money promoting, so they needed to put it out with a new B-side. But the Who hadn't got any unreleased recordings. But the Graham Bond Organisation had, and indeed they had an unreleased *instrumental*. So "Waltz For a Pig" became the B-side to a top-five single, credited to The Who Orchestra: [Excerpt: The Who Orchestra, "Waltz For a Pig"] That record provided the catalyst for the formation of Cream, because Ginger Baker had written the song, and got £1,350 for it, which he used to buy a new car. Baker had, for some time, been wanting to get out of the Graham Bond Organisation. He was trying to get off heroin -- though he would make many efforts to get clean over the decades, with little success -- while Bond was starting to use it far more heavily, and was also using acid and getting heavily into mysticism, which Baker despised. Baker may have had the idea for what he did next from an article in one of the music papers. John Entwistle of the Who would often tell a story about an article in Melody Maker -- though I've not been able to track down the article itself to get the full details -- in which musicians were asked to name which of their peers they'd put into a "super-group". He didn't remember the full details, but he did remember that the consensus choice had had Eric Clapton on lead guitar, himself on bass, and Ginger Baker on drums. As he said later "I don't remember who else was voted in, but a few months later, the Cream came along, and I did wonder if somebody was maybe believing too much of their own press". Incidentally, like The Buffalo Springfield and The Pink Floyd, Cream, the band we are about to meet, had releases both with and without the definite article, and Eric Clapton at least seems always to talk about them as "the Cream" even decades later, but they're primarily known as just Cream these days. Baker, having had enough of the Bond group, decided to drive up to Oxford to see Clapton playing with the Bluesbreakers. Clapton invited him to sit in for a couple of songs, and by all accounts the band sounded far better than they had previously. Clapton and Baker could obviously play well together, and Baker offered Clapton a lift back to London in his new car, and on the drive back asked Clapton if he wanted to form a new band. Clapton was as impressed by Baker's financial skills as he was by his musicianship. He said later "Musicians didn't have cars. You all got in a van." Clearly a musician who was *actually driving a new car he owned* was going places. He agreed to Baker's plan. But of course they needed a bass player, and Clapton thought he had the perfect solution -- "What about Jack?" Clapton knew that Bruce had been a member of the Graham Bond Organisation, but didn't know why he'd left the band -- he wasn't particularly clued in to what the wider music scene was doing, and all he knew was that Bruce had played with both him and Baker, and that he was the best bass player he'd ever played with. And Bruce *was* arguably the best bass player in London at that point, and he was starting to pick up session work as well as his work with Manfred Mann. For example it's him playing on the theme tune to "After The Fox" with Peter Sellers, the Hollies, and the song's composer Burt Bacharach: [Excerpt: The Hollies with Peter Sellers, "After the Fox"] Clapton was insistent. Baker's idea was that the band should be the best musicians around. That meant they needed the *best* musicians around, not the second best. If Jack Bruce wasn't joining, Eric Clapton wasn't joining either. Baker very reluctantly agreed, and went round to see Bruce the next day -- according to Baker it was in a spirit of generosity and giving Bruce one more chance, while according to Bruce he came round to eat humble pie and beg for forgiveness. Either way, Bruce agreed to join the band. The three met up for a rehearsal at Baker's home, and immediately Bruce and Baker started fighting, but also immediately they realised that they were great at playing together -- so great that they named themselves the Cream, as they were the cream of musicians on the scene. They knew they had something, but they didn't know what. At first they considered making their performances into Dada projects, inspired by the early-twentieth-century art movement. They liked a band that had just started to make waves, the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band -- who had originally been called the Bonzo Dog Dada Band -- and they bought some props with the vague idea of using them on stage in the same way the Bonzos did. But as they played together they realised that they needed to do something different from that. At first, they thought they needed a fourth member -- a keyboard player. Graham Bond's name was brought up, but Clapton vetoed him. Clapton wanted Steve Winwood, the keyboard player and vocalist with the Spencer Davis Group. Indeed, Winwood was present at what was originally intended to be the first recording session the trio would play. Joe Boyd had asked Eric Clapton to round up a bunch of players to record some filler tracks for an Elektra blues compilation, and Clapton had asked Bruce and Baker to join him, Paul Jones on vocals, Winwood on Hammond and Clapton's friend Ben Palmer on piano for the session. Indeed, given that none of the original trio were keen on singing, that Paul Jones was just about to leave Manfred Mann, and that we know Clapton wanted Winwood in the band, one has to wonder if Clapton at least half-intended for this to be the eventual lineup of the band. If he did, that plan was foiled by Baker's refusal to take part in the session. Instead, this one-off band, named The Powerhouse, featured Pete York, the drummer from the Spencer Davis Group, on the session, which produced the first recording of Clapton playing on the Robert Johnson song originally titled "Cross Road Blues" but now generally better known just as "Crossroads": [Excerpt: The Powerhouse, "Crossroads"] We talked about Robert Johnson a little back in episode ninety-seven, but other than Bob Dylan, who was inspired by his lyrics, we had seen very little influence from Johnson up to this point, but he's going to be a major influence on rock guitar for the next few years, so we should talk about him a little here. It's often said that nobody knew anything about Robert Johnson, that he was almost a phantom other than his records which existed outside of any context as artefacts of their own. That's... not really the case. Johnson had died a little less than thirty years earlier, at only twenty-seven years old. Most of his half-siblings and step-siblings were alive, as were his son, his stepson, and dozens of musicians he'd played with over the years, women he'd had affairs with, and other assorted friends and relatives. What people mean is that information about Johnson's life was not yet known by people they consider important -- which is to say white blues scholars and musicians. Indeed, almost everything people like that -- people like *me* -- know of the facts of Johnson's life has only become known to us in the last four years. If, as some people had expected, I'd started this series with an episode on Johnson, I'd have had to redo the whole thing because of the information that's made its way to the public since then. But here's what was known -- or thought -- by white blues scholars in 1966. Johnson was, according to them, a field hand from somewhere in Mississippi, who played the guitar in between working on the cotton fields. He had done two recording sessions, in 1936 and 1937. One song from his first session, "Terraplane Blues", had been a very minor hit by blues standards: [Excerpt: Robert Johnson, "Terraplane Blues"] That had sold well -- nobody knows how well, but maybe as many as ten thousand copies, and it was certainly a record people knew in 1937 if they liked the Delta blues, but ten thousand copies total is nowhere near the sales of really successful records, and none of the follow-ups had sold anything like that much -- many of them had sold in the hundreds rather than the thousands. As Elijah Wald, one of Johnson's biographers put it "knowing about Johnson and Muddy Waters but not about Leroy Carr or Dinah Washington was like knowing about, say, the Sir Douglas Quintet but not knowing about the Beatles" -- though *I* would add that the Sir Douglas Quintet were much bigger during the sixties than Johnson was during his lifetime. One of the few white people who had noticed Johnson's existence at all was John Hammond, and he'd written a brief review of Johnson's first two singles under a pseudonym in a Communist newspaper. I'm going to quote it here, but the word he used to talk about Black people was considered correct then but isn't now, so I'll substitute Black for that word: "Before closing we cannot help but call your attention to the greatest [Black] blues singer who has cropped up in recent years, Robert Johnson. Recording them in deepest Mississippi, Vocalion has certainly done right by us and by the tunes "Last Fair Deal Gone Down" and "Terraplane Blues", to name only two of the four sides already released, sung to his own guitar accompaniment. Johnson makes Leadbelly sound like an accomplished poseur" Hammond had tried to get Johnson to perform at the Spirituals to Swing concerts we talked about in the very first episodes of the podcast, but he'd discovered that he'd died shortly before. He got Big Bill Broonzy instead, and played a couple of Johnson's records from a record player on the stage. Hammond introduced those recordings with a speech: "It is tragic that an American audience could not have been found seven or eight years ago for a concert of this kind. Bessie Smith was still at the height of her career and Joe Smith, probably the greatest trumpet player America ever knew, would still have been around to play obbligatos for her...dozens of other artists could have been there in the flesh. But that audience as well as this one would not have been able to hear Robert Johnson sing and play the blues on his guitar, for at that time Johnson was just an unknown hand on a Robinsonville, Mississippi plantation. Robert Johnson was going to be the big surprise of the evening for this audience at Carnegie Hall. I know him only from his Vocalion blues records and from the tall, exciting tales the recording engineers and supervisors used to bring about him from the improvised studios in Dallas and San Antonio. I don't believe Johnson had ever worked as a professional musician anywhere, and it still knocks me over when I think of how lucky it is that a talent like his ever found its way onto phonograph records. We will have to be content with playing two of his records, the old "Walkin' Blues" and the new, unreleased, "Preachin' Blues", because Robert Johnson died last week at the precise moment when Vocalion scouts finally reached him and told him that he was booked to appear at Carnegie Hall on December 23. He was in his middle twenties and nobody seems to know what caused his death." And that was, for the most part, the end of Robert Johnson's impact on the culture for a generation. The Lomaxes went down to Clarksdale, Mississippi a couple of years later -- reports vary as to whether this was to see if they could find Johnson, who they were unaware was dead, or to find information out about him, and they did end up recording a young singer named Muddy Waters for the Library of Congress, including Waters' rendition of "32-20 Blues", Johnson's reworking of Skip James' "Twenty-Two Twenty Blues": [Excerpt: Muddy Waters, "32-20 Blues"] But Johnson's records remained unavailable after their initial release until 1959, when the blues scholar Samuel Charters published the book The Country Blues, which was the first book-length treatment ever of Delta blues. Sixteen years later Charters said "I shouldn't have written The Country Blues when I did; since I really didn't know enough, but I felt I couldn't afford to wait. So The Country Blues was two things. It was a romanticization of certain aspects of black life in an effort to force the white society to reconsider some of its racial attitudes, and on the other hand it was a cry for help. I wanted hundreds of people to go out and interview the surviving blues artists. I wanted people to record them and document their lives, their environment, and their music, not only so that their story would be preserved but also so they'd get a little money and a little recognition in their last years." Charters talked about Johnson in the book, as one of the performers who played "minor roles in the story of the blues", and said that almost nothing was known about his life. He talked about how he had been poisoned by his common-law wife, about how his records were recorded in a pool hall, and said "The finest of Robert Johnson's blues have a brooding sense of torment and despair. The blues has become a personified figure of despondency." Along with Charters' book came a compilation album of the same name, and that included the first ever reissue of one of Johnson's tracks, "Preaching Blues": [Excerpt: Robert Johnson, "Preaching Blues"] Two years later, John Hammond, who had remained an ardent fan of Johnson, had Columbia put out the King of the Delta Blues Singers album. At the time no white blues scholars knew what Johnson looked like and they had no photos of him, so a generic painting of a poor-looking Black man with a guitar was used for the cover. The liner note to King of the Delta Blues Singers talked about how Johnson was seventeen or eighteen when he made his recordings, how he was "dead before he reached his twenty-first birthday, poisoned by a jealous girlfriend", how he had "seldom, if ever, been away from the plantation in Robinsville, Mississippi, where he was born and raised", and how he had had such stage fright that when he was asked to play in front of other musicians, he'd turned to face a wall so he couldn't see them. And that would be all that any of the members of the Powerhouse would know about Johnson. Maybe they'd also heard the rumours that were starting to spread that Johnson had got his guitar-playing skills by selling his soul to the devil at a crossroads at midnight, but that would have been all they knew when they recorded their filler track for Elektra: [Excerpt: The Powerhouse, "Crossroads"] Either way, the Powerhouse lineup only lasted for that one session -- the group eventually decided that a simple trio would be best for the music they wanted to play. Clapton had seen Buddy Guy touring with just a bass player and drummer a year earlier, and had liked the idea of the freedom that gave him as a guitarist. The group soon took on Robert Stigwood as a manager, which caused more arguments between Bruce and Baker. Bruce was convinced that if they were doing an all-for-one one-for-all thing they should also manage themselves, but Baker pointed out that that was a daft idea when they could get one of the biggest managers in the country to look after them. A bigger argument, which almost killed the group before it started, happened when Baker told journalist Chris Welch of the Melody Maker about their plans. In an echo of the way that he and Bruce had been resigned from Blues Incorporated without being consulted, now with no discussion Manfred Mann and John Mayall were reading in the papers that their band members were quitting before those members had bothered to mention it. Mayall was furious, especially since the album Clapton had played on hadn't yet come out. Clapton was supposed to work a month's notice while Mayall found another guitarist, but Mayall spent two weeks begging Peter Green to rejoin the band. Green was less than eager -- after all, he'd been fired pretty much straight away earlier -- but Mayall eventually persuaded him. The second he did, Mayall turned round to Clapton and told him he didn't have to work the rest of his notice -- he'd found another guitar player and Clapton was fired: [Excerpt: John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, "Dust My Blues"] Manfred Mann meanwhile took on the Beatles' friend Klaus Voorman to replace Bruce. Voorman would remain with the band until the end, and like Green was for Mayall, Voorman was in some ways a better fit for Manfred Mann than Bruce was. In particular he could double on flute, as he did for example on their hit version of Bob Dylan's "The Mighty Quinn": [Excerpt: Manfred Mann "The Mighty Quinn"] The new group, The Cream, were of course signed in the UK to Stigwood's Reaction label. Other than the Who, who only stuck around for one album, Reaction was not a very successful label. Its biggest signing was a former keyboard player for Screaming Lord Sutch, who recorded for them under the names Paul Dean and Oscar, but who later became known as Paul Nicholas and had a successful career in musical theatre and sitcom. Nicholas never had any hits for Reaction, but he did release one interesting record, in 1967: [Excerpt: Oscar, "Over the Wall We Go"] That was one of the earliest songwriting attempts by a young man who had recently named himself David Bowie. Now the group were public, they started inviting journalists to their rehearsals, which were mostly spent trying to combine their disparate musical influences --

Clare joins a group of friends as they climb Shutlingsloe as part of their preparation for the much bigger adventure of trekking up Kilimanjaro later this year. Known as the 'Matterhorn of the Peak District' Shutlingsloe is around 500 metres high, where Kilimanjaro is closer to 6000 metres, but it's not a bad training ground with its steep incline as well as the reward of beautiful views from the top. Leading the group is former Royal Engineer, Sean Milner, who has arranged the Kilimanjaro trek for his adventurer father, Frank Milner, who plans to reach the summit on his 82nd birthday. Although unable to join the Ramblings hike, also going up Kilimanjaro will be two of Frank's grandsons, making it a three generation event. The starting grid reference for today's walk is SJ 952 715 which is just by the Leather's Smithy pub in Langley, about 15 mins drive from Macclesfield. Producer: Karen Gregor