I Can See You - by Paddy Summerfield c. 1986

Sunday, May 03, 2026

4 Non Blondes: Bigger, Better, Faster, More! 1992 | A KOSTAS SPECIAL


4 Non Blondes - "What's Up" [2026 Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve]



Kostas does his standard profile trip on this iconic band who should really have been so much more than a one hit wonder but What’s Up! smashed us to pieces and I think I have posted it so many times now one more won’t make much difference - great song. Deceptively great band!

KOSTAS SAYS: San Francisco's 4 Non Blondes burst onto the national scene with their massive, neo-hippie anthem 


"What's Up" from their debut Bigger, Better, Faster, More? Although they failed to recreate the single's success, the album, as a whole, is a fairly engaging mix of alternative rock, quasi-funk, and blues. 4 Non Blondes formed in San Francisco in 1989. Their lineup comprises Linda Perry (guitars, vocals), Christa Hillhouse (bass), Dawn Richardson (drums) and Roger Rocha (guitar); previously in the band were founding members Shaunna Hall (guitar) and Wanda Day (drums).

 

The name of the band came from an experience the group had in the Bay Area with a blonde family.According to Christa Hillhouse, "Right next to us, there's a trash receptacle with a piece of pizza on top and the kid wanted to pick it up. The mom said, 'No, it's probably dirty, what with the pigeons and people.' And she stared right at us. We were Non Blondes." They said the experience became a symbol that they did not fit the California stereotype. They got their start in the San Francisco bar scene, especially lesbian bars, gaining a significant lesbian following.

read on and follow the link above (click on the title)


4 Non-Blondes - What’s Up?!

The Byrds - 1971-05-03 - Bristol, UK (SBD) | so many roads . . . . .

 The Byrds - 1971-05-03 - Bristol, UK (SBD)


The Byrds - Chestnut Mare (1971) Beat Club


A SPEEDY SPECIAL

The Byrds
1971-05-03
Colston Hall 
Bristol, UK
Soundboard Recording

01. Lover Of The Bayou
02. You Ain't Goin' Nowhere
03. Truck Stop Girl
04. My Back Pages
05. Baby What You Want Me To Do
06. Jamaica Say You Will
07. Black Mountain Rag (Soldier's Joy)
08. Mr. Tambourine Man
09. Pretty Boy Floyd
10. Take A Whiff On Me
11. Chestnut Mare
12. Jesus Is Just Alright
13. Eight Miles High
14. Outro Jam
15. So You Want To Be A Rock 'N' Roll Star
16. Mr. Spaceman
17. Roll Over Beethoven
18. Outro Jam
19. It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding
20. Ballad Of Easy Rider
21. I Trust


On June 21, 1965, The Byrds released their debut album, Mr. Tambourine Man. The disc would go to #6 on The Billboard charts, which would be the best commercial performance by any album released by the band. The title track would climb all the way to #1 on the singles charts. The band would have another #1 a few months later with the title track from their 2nd album, Turn, Turn Turn, and then incredibly, never score another top 10 single. As discussed in other posts, however, while The Byrds studio work peaked early on in their career, their live apex occurred much later, long after all the original members had left with the exception of Roger McGuinn. The line up of McGuinn, Clarence White, Gene Parsons, and Skip Battin, which came together in late 1969 and lasted until 1972, was group’s longest tenured configuration and the one which established the band’s reputation as dynamic live performers. This soundboard recording captures the band during their European tour in Spring 1971, on May 7, 1971, 55 years ago today.



The Byrds - So You Want To Be A Rock & Roll Star (1972)


The Byrds - Eight Miles High (1971)

more here . . . . .


Marshall Crenshaw - 1983-05-02 - Chicago, IL (TV SBD) | so many roads . . . .

 Marshall Crenshaw - 1983-05-02 - Chicago, IL (TV SBD)

A SPEEDYMAN SPECIAL


Marshall Crenshaw
1983-05-02
Soundstage
PBS Studios
Chicago, IL
TV SBD Recording 


01. Soundstage Intro (they incorrectly call him MICHAEL)
02. Mary Anne
03. Rockin' Around In N.Y.C.
04. Girls...
05. Soldier Of Love
06. Got A Lot o' Lovin' To Do
07. She Can't Dance
08. Move It!
09. Something's Gonna Happen > Someday, Someway
10. There She Goes Again
11. Brand New Lover
12. Stop Her On Sight (S.O.S.)
13. Look At What I Almost Missed
14. Brown Eyed Handsome Man
15. The Usual Thing
16. Cynical Girl
17. White Lightning
18. (I Wanna) Love My Life Away


In April 1982, Marshall Crenshaw released his self-titled debut album. I bought it on the advice of a buddy, who had heard about Mr. Crenshaw on WBCN-FM while attending college at UMass. The disc went on my turntable and rarely came off! Why Crenshaw never took rock by storm is beyond me. The album has everything – catchy tunes, great hooks, excellent vocals, Beatle and Buddy Holly influences (FYI - Crenshaw played John Lennon in an off-Broadway production of Beatlemania and portrayed Buddy Holly in the movie, La Bamba). Songs such as Cynical Girl, Someday Someway, and Rocking Around in NYC get in your head, grab you and never let go. Yet, while he received critical acclaim, super stardom never followed. By the way, Crenshaw’s 2nd album, Field Day, released in June 1983, is just as good and includes the near perfect (at least I think so) Whenever You're On My Mind.  This soundboard recording captures him between the release of those 2 discs, on Soundstage, on May 2, 1983, 43 years ago today.  One note - while everything on line indicates that May 2 is the performance date of this show, I suspect it may be the broadcast date. Seems hard to believe that Crensahw would perfrom a show in May 1983, a month before a new album came out, and not include a single track from it in his set.  Either way, its a great recording!

Taj Mahal - The Hoochi Coochi Coo [Dancing The Blues] |HERBERG DE KELDER

The Hoochi Coochi CooTaj MahalDancing The Bluesimage


HERBERG DE KELDER

or THIS!
Taj Mahal performing the Hoochi Coochi Coo on Later with Jools Holland

Bob Dylan - Changing of The Guard - Live in Paris France 1978 | HERBERG DE KELDER

 

Changing of the Guards


Live from the Pavilion, Paris, France, 7/6/78.

HERBERG DE KELDER

DANGEROUS MINDS: The barbaric history of early conversion therapy in the UK | Will Howard

The barbaric history of early conversion therapy in the UK

Credit: Dangerous Minds / University of Liverpool Faculty of Health & Life Sciences 


"People have this idea that transgender people are forced or duped into transitioning before they’re ready, which is either a lie, ignorant or stupid. Or, perhaps, all three.

The truth is that NHS waiting lists for gender affirming care are typically between five and seven years long. This is a marked improvement on what it was in the late 2010s, when the waiting list could, in some cases, be up to 15 years.

Yet still, people parrot tales about kids who are pressured into making “irreversible decisions” by NHS doctors, who are allegedly desperate to change their gender for some inexplicable reason. 

The idea that this desire to change people’s genders comes from the NHS is also patently ludicrous. Conversion therapy has been baked into the very fabric of the NHS ever since it was established in 1948, with some of the most harrowing cases coming from the 1960s and ’70s. 

It’s bad enough that anyone ever had to go through this abuse via therapy or prayer, but at this time, the NHS thought it prudent to put some of its most vulnerable people through something even more barbaric. 

When queer and trans kids had been referred to them, more often than not via their teachers, priests and GPs, rather than themselves or their parents, they saw fit to “treat” their “mental illness” with Electric Shock Aversion Therapy. 

In 2025, a number of them spoke to the BBC about their experiences living through this state-sponsored torture, but their story wasn’t exactly rare. 

They were a mere smattering of the 250 people who underwent the same torture at the hands of their own doctors. 

The three survivors who spoke to the BBC were Pauline Collier, Jeremy Gavins and Carolyn Mercer. Each of them didn’t just undergo this treatment; they had this treatment performed on them without their knowledge or consent. 

Mercer, for example, had told her priest at the age of 17 that she felt more female than the male she was assigned at birth, so he’d gone behind her back in order to get her signed up to this shock treatment. 

Gavins bravely detailed his experience in the article, saying that at no point during his time in hospital was he ever prepared or even informed about what he was going in for. He recalled of arriving at Bradford’s Lynfield Mount Hospital, “A male nurse came to see me and said, ‘Come with me’. He said, ‘Take all your clothes off and put them in this locker’. I sat on this chair, he fastened a strap around my left hand, and then did the same with my right hand. He played with a switch, and I got a pain in my arm. He said, ‘Did it hurt?’ and I said, ‘Yes’ and he said, ‘Good, it’s meant to’.”

This is corroborated by Collier, who said, “I don’t think they ever said, ‘We’ll be sitting you in a chair and giving you electric shocks’. I don’t remember that. And I think, at the time, I was just so psychologically vulnerable that I just accepted it all.” That last sentence is the most important of all, I think. 

Only someone truly devoid of empathy would describe this as anything other than the torture of vulnerable people. While the practice has decreased in use, neither conversion therapy nor electroshock therapy is illegal today.”

In my last incarnation for work I was a member of the BAPC (British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists) and still fervently stand by their early approach and policy against conversion therapy (so called) and believe it to be abusive

Crosby Stills and Nash - Ruby Tuesday [Rolling Stones cover] | jt1674

  . . . . had never heard them cover this . . . . . After Melanie’s cover I thought it not worth listening to anything else but that [or the original] but this’ll do!

https://www.tumblr.com/jt1674/815499818146332672/crosby-stills-nash-ruby-tuesday

Mike Bloomfield - Don’t Think About It Baby [It’s Not Killing Me] | jt1674

 . . . . THE BLOOMFIELD!

https://www.tumblr.com/jt1674/815510012763029504/mike-bloomfield-dont-think-about-it-baby

Alvarius B. - Later [Malarial Dream] | jt1674

  . . .this is why I do what I do (post links to other musos stuff in case you wondered!?) I had no idea who this is or was and loved this sound . . . . . . . thanks Tripping Mantras

https://www.tumblr.com/jt1674/815525492717453312/alvarius-b-later

Sonic Youth - Malibu Gas Station [The Eternal] | jt1674

 

https://www.tumblr.com/jt1674/815510743477813248/sonic-youth-malibu-gas-station