A Bird You Must Not Miss

During my recent flying visit to London, I was struck by the selection of wildlife noises I heard in my Aunt's neighbourhood, quite a different range to those I'm used to around these parts. Take the skulk of urban foxes, screaming up and down her small back garden throughout the night and disturbing my slumber. In the two and a bit years we've lived out here in the sticks, we've seen precisely one fox - and that was being shot (possibly illegally) by a farmer at the time. Then there were fellow scavengers the magpies, by far most predominant birds I saw (and heard) during my stay and way more confident and cheeky than their country cousins who live in my neck of the woods. Not quite as confident as the creature perching on this young lady's head though! It's a c.1950 photo I picked up at a car-boot sale a few years ago in which the young lady in question appears amusingly oblivious to the sharp-beaked creature pecking away at the top of her head. 

From this funny little snapshot it's just a short, extremely tenuous, leap to the 1970s kids TV show Magpie, ITV's cool answer to Blue Peter, which was co-hosted by corkscrew haired Mick Robertson. Already looking the part, Robertson tried his hand at the pop game in 1974 and 1975, releasing three singles and an album through CBS Records. The results weren't the run-off-the-mill, embarrassing drivel you might have expected to emerge from a TV presenter apparently cashing-in on his notoriety, far from it. Singles one and two,'The Tango's Over' and 'Then I Change Hands', are distinctly quirky, quietly ambitious songs, produced by future Rah Band overlord Richard Hewson. I loved these oddities then and I love them still, but for some reason never did get around to buying the LP....until now, 39 years later - thanks to eBay. Single number three? A Clifford T Ward produced, non-album one-off, released at the tail-end of 1975, after which Mick Robertson shelved his musical ambitions to concentrate on his day job.

Portrait Gallery

A splendid figure of a man don't you agree? I'm assuming he's a butcher and that it might be a leg or thigh wrapped up and tucked away under his arm. Whatever his trade, I wouldn't like to mess with him - he doesn't look the sort to suffer fools gladly. He's a recent car-boot sale acquisition.

The majority of my small collection of old photos are tucked away in boxes and albums, but a select few grace the wall I face as I type these words - including my friend the pipe smoking butcher. My very own private portrait gallery. If you think that's a cue for a song, you're bang on. Here's Luke Howard with a beautiful piece from his recent album 'Sun, Cloud'.

Left-off Wearing Apparel and Sacks of All Kinds

Vintage photographs, old newspapers, forgotten letters, ancient advertisements, antique documents and random aged scraps of paper. Ephemera, I love it. A glimpse into a world long-gone. How many hands has this ostensibly worthless item passed through before it fell into my possession? How did it survive this long? What stories could it and it's previous owners tell?

Take this old flyer for instance, though the term flyer wouldn't have been recognised at the time of it's distribution, as it probably dates from around the First World War, if not earlier. Mr Evans is clearly in the market for a broad range of products, from rabbit skins to mangles, and to prove it, he's written a poem. It's like a primitive jingle!

 

And here's a pair of photographs, plucked at random from a growing collection. Four dapper young men, in a splendid array of hats, pose for the camera. Nothing interesting here you might think. Brothers? Work colleagues? Drinking buddies? Take a look at the next shot of the same four men.

I wasn't prepared for that either! The costumes are so ridiculous and the faces so straight, I assume that these young men must be stage performers, perhaps in the Music Hall. Wouldn't it be great to know more though? Every picture tells a story, but I wish I could hear theirs.