Something Changed 101: Paranoid Android
Posted in 1990s, Music, Something Changed at 12:00 on 17 July 2026
Radiohead’s highest chart placing; no 3 in 1997.
Radiohead: Paranoid Android
Victoria Park, Innerleithen
Posted in Scottish Football Grounds at 12:00 on 16 July 2026
Victoria Park, Innerleithen, is the location of the home ground of Vale of Leithen FC, currently of the Third Division of the East of Scotland League. The ground is at the edge of Victoria Park.
This is a ground where I have watched a match even though the mighty Sons of the Rock haven’t played Vale of Leithen FC in my memory. It was a warm-up for the World Cup of 1966. The France squad had a training base nearby so a game was arranged against the local side who played in Scotland strips for the occasion. I forget the score. Suffice to say France won easily.
My grandparents used to live in the town and we used to visit in the summer holidays so were able to take in the game.
Entrance to the ground:-
It’s a lovely location surrounded by hills:-
Local amateur side Leithen Rovers, have their changing rooms at the edge of the main park area. I assume they play their games on a pitch in the park:-
War Memorials, St Andrew’s Church, Corbridge
Posted in Trips, War Memorials at 12:00 on 14 July 2026
Inside St Andrew’s Church in Corbridge are two memorials to the men of Corbridge Parish who died in the World Wars.
Great War plaque:-
Second World War Roll of Honour:-
In addition to these there is in the lychgate of the church a plaque commemorating the Great War dead. The plaque is covered in perspex hence reflections:-
More of Corbridge
Posted in Art, Sculpture, Trips at 12:00 on 13 July 2026
The Vicar’s Pele is a building which stands in the grounds surrounding St Andrew’s Church. It was once the vicarage for the church but now houses a pub!
St Andrew’s Church (stitch of two photos):-
Inside the church was an art installation by Keith Roberts MRSS, named Caporetto after the Great War battle also known as the Twelfth Battle of the Isonzo.
“Caporetto” installation information:-
Wise Children by Angela Carter
Posted in Other fiction, Reading Reviewed at 12:00 on 12 July 2026
Vintage, 1992, 236 p.
I suspect that Carter actually enjoyed writing this book, which fizzes with energy and sly humour and at times tips into magical realism. Its title is based on the old saw that a wise child knows its father. Narrated by Dora, one of the twin sister dance act known as the Chance Girls. She and twin (Leo)Nora are daughters, on the wrong side of the blanket, of theatrical great Melchior Hazard, who unfortunately did not acknowledge them as his. That burden was taken on, though, by his nomadic brother Peregrine.
The convoluted nature of the family relationships here – the girls were brought up by the woman they know as Grandma (even though she wasn’t) and told their mother died shortly after their birth in Grandma’s house – is further complicated by the fact that living with them is the disabled former wife of Melchior, Lady (in her own right) Atalanta Hazard, known to the now 75 year-old twins as Wheelchair.
There is a measure of smoke and mirrors to proceedings, reflecting theatrical illusion. The novel is steeped in theatrical and stage lore, with Shakespearian references abounding. A trip to Hollywood illustrates the excess of the early film industry with a climactic scene perhaps owing a little something to slapstick comedy. The contrast between Melchior’s status as a grand old man of legitimate theatre and the lower brow nature of the sisters’ dance career highlights the disparity between their own legal status and that of their half-sisters, acknowledged by Melchior, born in wedlock, though possibly not sired by him.
At its core, though, is Dora’s longing to belong, her search for a figure to fill in for the father who disowned her.
Dora’s vice may be irritating to some what with all the theatrical allusions, irreverent asides and references to lost cultural staples.
But along the way she has some more serious thoughts. “Let’s not call it a tragedy. A broken heart is never a tragedy. Only untimely death is a tragedy. And war.”
Much later we have this exchange with her sister.
“‘It’s every woman’s tragedy,’ said Nora, ‘that, after a certain age, she looks like a female impersonator.’”
‘What’s every man’s tragedy, then?’ I wanted to know.
‘That he doesn’t, Oscar,’ she said.”
She also tells us that, in story telling, “If you get little details right, people will believe anything,” (true in life as well perhaps?) and vouchsafes that, “Comedy is tragedy that happens to other people.”
This was Carter’s last novel, written after her diagnosis of lung cancer. In the circumstances it is something to be wondered at that, while touching on seriousness, overall it has such a consistent lightness of tone.
Pedant’s corner:- “she’s showed her all” (intended I’ve no doubt – the book’s background is show business after all – but it ought to be ‘shown’,) “to whit” (it’s ‘to wit’,) forbad (forbade,) “Nora said, he was young enough” (that comma alters the sense,) “Epps’ cocoa” (was that a proprietary brand. Whatever it ought to be ‘Epps’s’,) a musical revue called What You Will, later rendered variously as “What? You Will?”, “What! You Will?”, “What! You Will!” and “What You Will!”, “than sang” (then sang,) “oblivious of” (it’s oblivious to,) “legs akimbo” (how you can put your feet on your hips is beyond me,) slax (slacks, spelled so to indicate lack of care or attention,) “never forgave a grudge” (a malapropism for forgot?) “Peter Jones’ store” (Jones’s.) “Nora sunk in thought” (sank.)
Cherryburn
Posted in Trips at 12:00 on 11 July 2026
Cherryburn was the birthplace of wood engraver and naturalist Thomas Bewick. The cottage and farmhouse there are now in the care of the National Trust. They are located in the village of Mickley, Northumberland.
Both a wren and a swan are named after Bewick.
Many of his engravings are on display.
There is a small printing press on the premises and you can purchase copies of his prints.
Cottage:-
Farmhouse:-
The site overlooks the valley of the River North Tyne:-
Reelin’ in the Years 268: Lost in France. RIP Bonnie Tyler
Posted in 1970s, Events dear boy. Events, Music, Reelin' In The Years at 12:00 on 10 July 2026
Bonnie Tyler’s death was announced yesterday.
She was one of those artists whose voice was utterly distinctive and ideally suited to the style of her biggest hits Total Eclipse of the Heart and Holding Out For a Hero.
This, though, is her first hit, the more wistful, Lost in France. (The opening chords always remind me of those of Then He Kissed Me.)
Bonnie Tyler: Lost in France
Gaynor Sullivan Hopkins (Bonnie Tyler): 8/6/1951 – 8/7/2026. So it goes.
Bellingham, Boer War Memorial, Plus
Posted in Trips, War Memorials at 12:00 on 9 July 2026
A memorial to the Boer War stands in a kind of square in Bellingham. Unfortunately a van was parked right in front of it so I didn’t get a good photo of its frontage.
From side:-
Dedication cartouche:-
Additional names:-
Also on display in the village is a gun captured during the Boxer Rebellion. It’s a heavy duty musket known as a Gingall:-
Church of St Cuthbert, Bellingham
Posted in Trips, War Memorials at 12:00 on 8 July 2026
Bellingham is a village in Northumberland, 18 or so miles north of Hexham. Its name is pronounced Belling-jum.
Church of St Cuthbert – photo taken over a wall surrounding the church:-
Church interior:-
The church contains memorials for both World Wars.
Great War brass plaque:-
Second World War Roll of Honour:-
Seahouses War Memorial
Posted in Trips, War Memorials at 12:00 on 7 July 2026
Seahouses is a village a few miles south-east of Bamburgh on the North Sea coast of Northumberland The Memorial is a stone obelisk on a rectangular plinth situated on a roundabout at the junction of Main Street and Seafield Road. The dedications are for North Sunderland Parish.
Great War dedication and names:-
Second World War dedication and names. Unusually there are more names on this plaque (19) than on the one for the earlier war (16):-
