Welcome to the RPM Record Club Seven Day Soundtrack, week ending Friday 26th July 2024....a possible Olympian edition? Let's see...over to...

Jackie -

"Something from Jack White's new album..."

Jean -

"This week I've chosen tracks I heard on 6 Music recently."

Kevin -

"Here are my three for the week. Enjoy!"

Jayne -

"Wishing all RPMers a brilliant summer, now it’s stopped raining for a bit…one from me this we as we're just off to Cambridge Folk Festival..."

Nina -

"Hi folks. Here's my 3, all classical this week."

Philip -

"This week there's Lubbock On Everything."

Piers -

"When the weather is a bit miserable I need something to brighten my days so I have some easy peasy, no contest moody day choices..."

John -

"Hi RPMers, I hope you're all keeping safe and well. My three choices are all songs from a couple of gigs that I played last weekend. The first track was with Don't Spook The Horse at Blakeney Harbour Room on Saturday night. The other two were from a gig with The A13 Allstars at Plantation Garden, Norwich on Sunday afternoon. A good time was had by all!"

Tony -

"Here;s my 3 for the week. Thought about selecting something to mark the passing of both John Mayall and Abdul "Duke" Fakir this week but decided to stick with the 3 I'd already selected. Best wishes to all you RPMers..."

Alan -

"Hi everyone............. hope you are all OK? Rest assured, I do 'tune in' every week to keep an eye on things, but time pressures still persist. Anywaze, here's a tribute (probably not the only one) to John Mayall............ 90 years well lived!!!

And so, another legend relocates to that great studio in the sky:

It's a sad goodbye to perhaps England's most respected (but apparently not most respectable) blues musician, John Mayall. 

First up, a little scene setting for those perhaps lucky enough to have seen him in the mid to late sixties (Hi Piers!!) during which time he signed up a triumvirate of young lead guitarists who went on to define British blues of the late sixties/early seventies. Living out in the sticks in Harworth, we were around 12 miles from Doncaster (hardly a hotbed for down home blues ), thirty five miles from Nottingham's  Dungeon Club and twenty five miles from Sheffield, home to the (King) Mojo, Black Cat, Esquire, Heartbeat and several others. Late night transport from Donny ceased around ten past ten and, as for Nottingham and Sheffield, unless you were willing to catch the 'milk train' home early the next day, you may as well have waited for a lift from Buzz Aldrin and Co!!. Another problem was...... who was playing at these clubs? Our local papers were the Donny Free Press and the Worksop Guardian, neither of which gave any advance notification of upcoming gigs.... even if there were any. I can't remember the NME, MM etc. publicising gigs in Nottingham or Sheffield clubs (and I bought both mags religiously during the sixties) and so, many of the sixties legends who played at these clubs did so without our knowing who, where or when. Sheffield's Star evening paper had begun publishing a weekly pull out of gigs, and entertainment in general, even before Liverpool's legendary Merseybeat but that was only distributed in Sheffield and its relatively local area. Indeed, it would be the early seventies before The Star would begin to appear in our local paper shops, and even then you had around a thirty minute window to buy it before the shop shut at 5pm!! So, other than package tours to Donny Gaumont and gigs at the Top Rank (I still can't remember how we got tickets for the Stones, DC5, Hollies, Small Faces etc!!!) most of the top groups passed us by. 

However, by the late sixties/early seventies, friends had cars, the last Donny bus back was later (10.50pm)and, lo and behold, in an emergency, there was a late bus from Sheffield to Worksop (11.15pm) and a taxi home from there, so the City Hall, Black Swan etc became viable. 

Early 1971 saw yours truly and several workmates take in Mayall (bet you thought I'd never get to the point!!??) at the City Hall with his groundbreaking 'Turning Point/Empty Rooms' drummerless band and a jolly good time was had by all. A few months later I was approached in the Game Cock by a gorgeous young girl, who I had spent some considerable time teasing a couple of years earlier when she worked at the same factory, who asked if I wanted to go to a gig with her? Playing it cool (ahem.... ) I casually asked who was playing. 'John Mayall' was the reply. 'Just seen him a couple of months ago' I said, 'but I'll see if I can get tickets?' 'No need, I've already got some' came the surprising response....... and that, dear readers, is how I was (willingly) snared almost exactly 53 years ago!!!!

So, back to Mayall, and here's three tracks from his earlier albums."

David -

"Happy Democrats-Coming-To-Their-Senses-At-Last Week to all RPM ers.

Awaiting the release of Joe Ely's new album next week I had a day trawling some of his critically less appreciated stuff."

Dave -

"Hi RPMers, hope all is good with you. Here’s my 3 this week."

Tim -

"The weekly three that wouldn't leave me be..."

'Til Next Time...