[peel] Digest Number 457

[Tom Roche]

At 5:23 PM +0000 1/24/02, peel@yahoogroups.com wrote:
> Surely he doesn't time every track himself though...the
>track times reflected by the CD changer are usually accurate, aren't
>they?


Well he does manually time every single thing, using just his inelegant digital wristwatch. This makes reviewing the records an even slower process than it might otherwise be, as he plays each track of interest all the way through, sometimes going 4,5,6 tracks into one LP, grading each cut loosely on a * or ** or *** ranking. Some of the items in his discard box might have a few items with just one or zero stars. Conversely, the day HMHB's "Editor's Recommendation" came in it was *** straight down the line, each cut.


>I'm also curious about his stereo gear...I'm assuming he
>has "high-end" rather expensive equipment. And what about listening
>to things on headphones?


No headphones. The music from his office fills the kitchen and the garden and no one seems to mind. I sure didn't. I dug out a few of my snapshots to see if I'd photographed the stereo but no.
His auditioning equipment was very basic from an appearance standpoint, but as a visiting Yank I didn't recognize the brand names of his sturdy turntable, amp, and slightly larger than bookshelf speakers. They delivered a very accurate sound.

The control board in the pool table room slash studio at the other end of the house is all top end broadcast-type gear, pricey microphone, top line but basic mixing board, etc.


So while I had these photos out I took a stab at scanning and uploading a few to this list's home page, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peel/  and I seem to have been successful. Click on the "Photos" link.

1. The "office" where he works, standing up, just off the kitchen. The foreground ladder accesses a mezzanine shelving unit of more CD's and 45's. Silhouetted on the ladder is his press pass collection. To the right is a wall of vinyl. Foreground left, CD's to audition.

2. Closer view. CD's to left represent that month's or two two months incoming. Stereo system would be just left of that. 12"s would  be amassed on the floor at John's left.

3. John is forced  by me to pose beside the 3 sacks of BBC mail that had piled up the 2 weeks he was on vacation and doing his Barcelona gig/shows. Dog Nelly by his side, analogue clothes-drying system in background.

4. John and Shiela (and I'll tell you right now I could never get used to calling her Pig) prepare to leave for a friend's formal dinner party. I snapped pictures of the two every chance I had when I saw them together, even to the point of nearly being an annoyance... (I do this when friends put me up for nuthin' and give them to them later as people often dont have good pictures of their day-to-day lives at home)...Later I had them all done as 5x7's and gladly sent them their own set and sure enough, John said I had in just one mailing doubled their supply of photos of the two of them together.



So I had to work tonight and missed the Cowcube stuff, ideally Mr Blackmore will MP3 it at some point?


tom r



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