You know you’re getting older when……

[Pinza-C55]

I’m sure that in 50/60+ years time, youngsters will cringe at the music their grandparents used to listen to.

That's probably true but as an experiment I looked up the current UK Top 40 and played 3 of the songs at random on Youtube. I found nothing that entertained excited or amused me. And it's not just an age thing. There was one by a (band ?) called NewEra called "Birds In The Sky" and it was two young lads walking and driving around Dubai , visiting a high end clothes shop and making half hearted rap style hand gestures. The "song" itself sounded as though it was generated by AI. All I got from the video was that the lads had a lot of money.

 

[Gloster]

That's probably true but as an experiment I looked up the current UK Top 40 and played 3 of the songs at random on Youtube. I found nothing that entertained excited or amused me. And it's not just an age thing. There was one by a (band ?) called NewEra called "Birds In The Sky" and it was two young lads walking and driving around Dubai , visiting a high end clothes shop and making half hearted rap style hand gestures. The "song" itself sounded as though it was generated by AI. All I got from the video was that the lads had a lot of money.

Ah, the pointless and idiotic lyrics of the songs that the modern youngsters listen to. Not like the deep and meaningful ones of my youth that my parents couldn’t understand. (Written by someone who has just listened to Ca plane pour moi.)

 

[Pinza-C55]

Ah, the pointless and idiotic lyrics of the songs that the modern youngsters listen to. Not like the deep and meaningful ones of my youth that my parents couldn’t understand. (Written by someone who has just listened to Ca plane pour moi.)

Yes there was a lot of rubbish music about then and I'm comparing a random 3 songs with the previous 50 years. I'm sure NewEra's opus is making some deep point about the human experience that I'm missing but I think I will listen to Rock N' Roll Damnation by AC/DC.

Here is NewEra if you want to savour it.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Ah, the pointless and idiotic lyrics of the songs that the modern youngsters listen to. Not like the deep and meaningful ones of my youth that my parents couldn’t understand. (Written by someone who has just listened to Ca plane pour moi.)

Perhaps the representation of feelings in those days of yore were not the same as what seems to be the case today. I have just heard a song that started off with...

"Confidentially, I like to talk confidentially,
With a girl like you, confidentially.."

 

[32475]

Oh, come on. That was my dad and he died over half a century ago!

I'm sure I'm not the only pensioner who has discovered that there are all sorts of artists or bands that never really registered from our working years and think 'I want more'.
(I suppose having to endure Val Doonican in the rocking chair on a Saturday was acceptable for being allowed to watch Top of The Pops on a Thursday, even if the likes of Munro and Doonican might crop up there too).

A wide variety on Radio 2 yes but in the 1980s when Jimmy Young was still broadcasting, Messers Munro and Doonican were definitely still being played. I can hear them on my grandmother’s wireless right now together with the steamy atmosphere of whatever was cooking on the stove!

 

[Peter Sarf]

Perhaps the representation of feelings in those days of yore were not the same as what seems to be the case today. I have just heard a song that started off with...

"Confidentially, I like to talk confidentially,
With a girl like you, confidentially.."

They probably don't know the difference between "confidentially" and "confidently" !. Either that or they cannot pronounce it.

 

[Howardh]

Well my internet radio in the kitchen has "lost" it's internet function, like the Pure Radio which lost that six months ago. Just wonder if there would be complaints if TV's suddenly, out of nowhere, had their ability to pick up a signal removed?? Hmmm.

Anyway it is what it is, and the radio still acts as a bluetooth speaker, so instead of switching on and listening, I have to turn the phone on, wait for it to warm up (like a 50's Bush radio), find the app, find the radio station, find the genre, turn on my bluetooth set, wait for the "bleep" and "connect" and then get annoyed when the signal drops every 15 seconds.

Yes it's fantastic having all these radio stations, but the palava of getting them to my ears is something else, when all I did was have a super-long VHF (FM!) aerial and as I moved the dial every radio station was different, independent, BBC or on MW (AM) something wonderful from distance. Not now *switches phone and bluetooth on*

 

[Killingworth]

Well my internet radio in the kitchen has "lost" it's internet function, like the Pure Radio which lost that six months ago. Just wonder if there would be complaints if TV's suddenly, out of nowhere, had their ability to pick up a signal removed?? Hmmm.

Anyway it is what it is, and the radio still acts as a bluetooth speaker, so instead of switching on and listening, I have to turn the phone on, wait for it to warm up (like a 50's Bush radio), find the app, find the radio station, find the genre, turn on my bluetooth set, wait for the "bleep" and "connect" and then get annoyed when the signal drops every 15 seconds.

Yes it's fantastic having all these radio stations, but the palava of getting them to my ears is something else, when all I did was have a super-long VHF (FM!) aerial and as I moved the dial every radio station was different, independent, BBC or on MW (AM) something wonderful from distance. Not now *switches phone and bluetooth on*

My father's old Alba stereogram from 1964 had short wave radio that I once used to pick up a signal from Australia. I still have it and was playing old LPs until only a year ago. Now given up on all features - SW, MW, LW and record player.

 

[Howardh]

My father's old Alba stereogram from 1964 had short wave radio that I once used to pick up a signal from Australia. I still have it and was playing old LPs until only a year ago. Now given up on all features - SW, MW, LW and record player.

FM is still useful for local football commentaries that they can't put on the web (or even DAB)! As for SW I would imagine every radio station we used to listen to from all corners is now available on-line, with satellite internet I assume the whole world is now covered?

 

[AM9]

Yes there was a lot of rubbish music about then and I'm comparing a random 3 songs with the previous 50 years. I'm sure NewEra's opus is making some deep point about the human experience that I'm missing but I think I will listen to Rock N' Roll Damnation by AC/DC.

Here is NewEra if you want to savour it.

You are right there. When I listen to current pop music, I can maybe tolerate about 10-20% of it, with the rest of it just disposable noise. However, I can remember that the music of my teens, i.e. the '60s, had plenty of unrepeatable stuff that is never heard today, - except maybe in the odd Channel 5 '50 worst pop songs' type of compilations. Most '60s music programmes concentrate on the best songs that most can remember. The other thing is that the best '60s and '70s stuff is regularly being used in films and TV drama, either as themes or even just scene-setting background music.

 

[Howardh]

You are right there. When I listen to current pop music, I can maybe tolerate about 10-20% of it, with the rest of it just disposable noise. However, I can remember that the music of my teens, i.e. the '60s, had plenty of unrepeatable stuff that is never heard today, - except maybe in the odd Channel 5 '50 worst pop songs' type of compilations. Most '60s music programmes concentrate on the best songs that most can remember. The other thing is that the best '60s and '70s stuff is regularly being used in films and TV drama, either as themes or even just scene-setting background music.

I suppose these days we are spared "Grandad", "The Smurfs Song" and the like, thankfully!!

 

[Gloster]

I have just found myself inadvertently muttering, “They don’t make ‘em like that any longer,” after listening to the original Anarchy in the UK. (This is not a good idea late at night as it fires me up almost as much as Teenage Kicks.)

 

[DM352]

When you look at the YHA map and realise many of the hostels you stayed at during childhood rail rover exploring are gone. To name a few closed:

Saltburn, Dentdale, Buxton, Kirkby Stephen, Badby, Carlisle, Colchester

 

[nw1]

That's probably true but as an experiment I looked up the current UK Top 40 and played 3 of the songs at random on Youtube. I found nothing that entertained excited or amused me. And it's not just an age thing. There was one by a (band ?) called NewEra called "Birds In The Sky" and it was two young lads walking and driving around Dubai , visiting a high end clothes shop and making half hearted rap style hand gestures. The "song" itself sounded as though it was generated by AI. All I got from the video was that the lads had a lot of money.

Have to admit I don't know what's in the top 40 these days, though I do hear a few current songs on R2 and ILR. Not sure if those songs are typical of the top 40, but I haven't heard the above song.

I guess the top 40 moving from Sundays to the bizarre time of 3pm on a Friday, or something, is a sign that it's no longer as relevant as it was in any case.

Plus I get the impression these days that "any old" obscure and unremarkable song can spend 30 weeks on the charts and 10 weeks at no.1, so the charts are slow moving and thoroughly dull. Much of the appeal of listening to the top 40 in the late 20th century was its fast moving nature and songs going up, peaking and then dropping down. I remember hearing that one week at the start of June 2019 had the whole top 12 completely unchanged from the previous week, such was the moribund nature of the chart. For songs - and unremarkable songs at that - to just hang around for months and months just makes it dull and not worth listening to.

 

[Welshman]

You're really getting old when you reflect on the debate over the quality of music on this new-fangled Radio 2, that you used to know it as the Light Programme.

 

[uglymonkey]

On the wireless.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

There was once a time when I listened to Mrs Dale's Diary.

 

[Welshman]

There was once a time when I listened to Mrs Dale's Diary.

What happened to that? It doesn't seem to be on any more.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

What happened to that? It doesn't seem to be on any more.

I think it ran until the late 1960s

 

[Peter Sarf]

My father's old Alba stereogram from 1964 had short wave radio that I once used to pick up a signal from Australia. I still have it and was playing old LPs until only a year ago. Now given up on all features - SW, MW, LW and record player.

If it is failing then look inside for failed capacitors. Easy to replace (in the hands of someone who knows how to solder) and they never last forever.

When you look at the YHA map and realise many of the hostels you stayed at during childhood rail rover exploring are gone. To name a few closed:

Saltburn, Dentdale, Buxton, Kirkby Stephen, Badby, Carlisle, Colchester

Yes, members of a club I am in are watching the demise of Youth Hostels. I have been back to Carlisle and cannot even work out where that Youth Hostel was - seems to have been demolished.

---

I think one of the tricks of time is that we forget the stuff we did not like and only remember what we liked. This happens with music - although I agree i now pay no attention to the latest "music". Also happens with holidays - as a child I remember going back to the same place but it was just not the same because I only really remembered the best bits from the first trip.

Prices. I now realise how my grandparents felt. If you remember the price of something from yesteryear then the current price seems exorbitant because prices of most things are steadily rising over the decades.

But wow, what a disposable world we now live in. Costs more to repair than replace.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

Listening to the Billy Cotton Band Show and waiting for Alan Breeze to sing.

 

[Killingworth]

What happened to that? It doesn't seem to be on any more.

Used to be on after Listen with Mother? Same era anyway! Just after lunch.

Daphne Oxenford will tell you a story, "Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin!

 

[AM9]

Used to be on after Listen with Mother? Same era anyway! Just after lunch.

Daphne Oxenford will tell you a story, "Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin!

That is after George Dixon has sung the rather un-PC 'This Is The Way The Ladies Ride'.

 

[PeterY]

I have just found myself inadvertently muttering, “They don’t make ‘em like that any longer,” after listening to the original Anarchy in the UK. (This is not a good idea late at night as it fires me up almost as much as Teenage Kicks.)

And I still love listening to the Sex Pistols the days when music was exciting and had umph

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

When your younger self was sat waiting by the wireless to hear the next episode of "Journey Into Space".

 

[75A]

I sometimes have an evening watching You Tube on the tele, Pistols, Stranglers, Siouxsie,Joy Division etc luckily our nearest neighbours (apart from the Horses) are over a mile away.

 

[Dai Corner]

When you reflect that your late father who would have been 89 today produced one of the shows on the first day Radio 1 was on air, along with Housewives Choice and Two Way Family Favourites.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

When you can remember the words and the tune to "Have a go, Joe, come on and have a go"

 

[Killingworth]

When you can remember the words and the tune to "Have a go, Joe, come on and have a go"

Mabel, how much is there on the table?

 

[Pinza-C55]

What happened to that? It doesn't seem to be on any more.

It's probably gathering dust in the back of her writing desk.