Wednesday 31 May 2017

Nothing but a Fine Example of Medieval Cruciform Gothic.

Tuesday, 23 July 2013


You know that great feeling that occurs when there are two things, both of which you like a lot, that seem so aesthetically far removed from each other as to have no viable connection whatsoever…. and then suddenly, there they are, looking like they’ve always belonged together? 
With that in mind, here are The Flirtations, performing ‘Nothing But A Heartache’ amid the ruins of Tinturn Abbey (1969).

3 comments:

  1. Tinturnnabulation! This is rather wonderful, thank you. Their smiles tell me that this was filmed before they saw the prices in the gift shop.
    Reply
  2. I love that feeling! This is great!
    Reply
  3. Do you think somewhere in the production process, the storyboards for this video got lost.

Unknown Worlds part 2 The Adverts

Monday, 28 March 2011






4 comments:

  1. Dim Mak was the influence behind Dimac in Robert Rankin's books. Also featuring Count Dante.
    Useless trivia post that may come in handy in a pub quiz one day
    Reply
  2. Just posted my coupon for the "Free 1975 Catalog 1600 Novelties"
    Now, I'll sit back and wait for the postman..
    Reply
  3. My Catalog turned up. I now have a 7ft Ghost (It looks so real) in my house. And I can also hypnotize the cat with a spinning coin.
    I am now of to learn Kung Fu in less than 1hr.

The Thirteenth Floor

Monday, 21 March 2011


While Mr Unmann Wittering is waxing lyrical about Action Comics, I'll take the time to mention one comic strip from two of the best comics from the 80's, Scream and the revived Eagle.

The Thirteenth Floor tells of a High Rise building that is monitored and controlled by a computer called MAX. Max is essentially the council block version of HAL 9000, and he holds the welfare of his tenants so close to his little circuit heart, that he'll do anything it takes to keep them safe... anything.

The entire Run of The Thirteenth Floor is available at Back From the Depths, along with other creepy  comics storylines.


10 comments:

  1. My very fave strip from Eagle. Great post,Bob. Thanks.
    Reply
  2. We've been working on those council block Hal 9000's for quite a while now in Doncaster...

    Quite a lot of 'King of the Castle' in this too, although 'The Thirteenth Floor' really went for it.
    Reply
  3. remembered this almost frame for frame once I started reading it - good work Bob!

    can anyone remember what other strips were in the Eagle before it started to absorb other comics like a big inky black hole?

    there was Dan Dare (obviously) and the Just Seventeen photo romance gone wrong that was Doomlord but can't think of anything else...
    Reply
  4. Of course there was Doomlord and Survivor, but one of my personal favourites (apart from the 13h Floor) was "The Computer Warrior"
    Reply
  5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Eagle_comic_strips

    I liked 'The Collector'.
    Reply
  6. I still have all my issues of Scream from back in the mid 80's. Finest comic ever published in the UK! I was gutted when it was axed, though I started to buy Eagle when it began featuring some ex-Scream stories.
    Reply
  7. Does any else hear Michael Jayston as the voice of Max?
    Reply
  8. I have a few old (new) Eagles. I'll fish them out at a later date and post them.
    Reply
  9. cheers U-W - that list brought back some fond memories...

    can remember enjoying "The Brothers" and "Walk or Die" in particular.

    definitely do not remember "The House of Correction" though. set in a Nazi concentration camp apparently? sounds a bit rum to me...
    Reply
  10. "Does any else hear Michael Jayston as the voice of Max? "

    I do now... perfect !

    I remember reading, and reading, and reading SCREAM. Still got my collection; and I'm getting them out of the drawer to smell them right now !
    Reply

Royal with Cheese Sandwich

Monday, 28 March 2011


Chris Killip
Royal Wedding Celebrations, North Shields, 1981

2 comments:

  1. 1981, surely. (Checks commemorative coin) Yes, 1981.
    Reply
  2. Yep, it was '81. The photo wasn't printed until 1984 which confused my small brain. Date changed.

UK Road Film

Friday, 18 March 2011



Perhaps because nowhere in Britain is more than a day’s drive from anywhere else if you put your mind to it, the UK road film is generally a species of art cinema, the inner journey of the traveller transfiguring the discovery of the landscape. In the traditional road movie, self-discovery takes place on the road. In the UK road film, no road can be long enough to put arrival out of the traveller’s mind, or the viewer’s. A road movie protagonist is tested by transition. A UK road film protagonist is tested by the threat of arrival.
The apogee of the UK road film’s resonance was the nineteen-seventies. At perhaps no other point in the history of film in the UK have the borders between modes of film practice seemed so porous: the impoverished state of the industry made commercial production almost as artisanal and economically uncertain a venture as experimental filmmaking; in this era Peter Sellers vehicles could sit on the shelf permanently while Stephen Dwoskin’s films received theatrical distribution. Never since has Rivette’s observation that narrative films are documentaries of people acting seemed so acute.
Sometimes, the UK road film is a film about people thinking about moving – roads of any kind scarcely appear in Barney Platt-Mills’ Private Road. At other times, the destination merges into the road, becomes defined as the catalyst of an emotional voyage. Take Me High has only begun when Tim Matthews (Cliff Richard), previously so much an item with the smoked-windowed Mini on whose roof he has perched to sing (before drinking champagne alone) becomes a Birmingham pedestrian and discovers the waterways. Ryker (George Lazenby)’s spiritual odyssey in Universal Soldier takes him from his career of perpetual travel for perpetual war to a life of rented rooms among the countercultural Left.
Radio On is something rather different. To relate to thought as one in transit, at home in liminal spaces, is an ambition already discernable in that film, despite the trauma of the occurrence Robert (David Beames) travels to confront; the logical conclusion of its drift the ceaseless movement of Petit’s later travellers.







2 comments:

  1. I like this -- 'the threat of arrival'.

    'Radio On' is on a certain mass market/niche arts cable channel tomorrow (Sunday 20th) at 10pm.
    Reply
  2. 'A road movie protagonist is tested by transition. A UK road film protagonist is tested by the threat of arrival.'

    Brilliant!

Spacemen Magazine

Friday, 18 March 2011


This is a strange one - I'm not a massive fan of 'classic' American science fiction, but this magazine is something different. I found it in Oxfam for 50p, which is unusual because I usually find the aforementioned to be rather pricey and denuded of interesting 'old' things. 'Spacemen' is subtitled 'The world's only space-movie magazine' and provides fans with details of new releases, information about old sci-fi and horror films, ads for related products and also features short stories. It looks like a forerunner of 'Cult TV' and publications like that. The copy I got hold of is dated 'June' with no year of publication, although closer inspection shows that 'March 1964' has been blanked out underneath the title. I love the floating woah-crazy style font used for the left hand content titles - very 'of it's time'.



I have a lot of things to put up both here and on between channels, but I'll offer a taster with these adverts. 'Famous Monsters' is a great name for a brand and the inclusion of a goatee and 'devil horns' is brilliant, much like the Mister T / Groucho Marx crossover they have pictured.



I love the breathless 'check-this-shit-out!' tone of this ad, especially the little bit that informs the reader that the traps '..will bite at (but will NOT bite off) more than it can chew - such as a finger or a pencil.' A useful H&S disclaimer, although not as useful as the celebrity endorsement provided by Charles Darwin, which seems to have been edited slightly. I may buy one at the weekend and recommend you do the same. FEED IT RAW BEEF!

Fanzine fun

Monday, 21 March 2011


Model World

Monday, 12 September 2011


Model World was a programme first aired on BBC2 in 1975, and presented by Bob Symes. Personally I was very fond of this program, and have very good memories associated with it. I will now explain why. Over a number of weeks Bob Symes Smith would introduce us to different aspects of The Modellers World. One week it would be Model Trains the next Model Aircraft and Gliders or Radio controlled boats, and so on. I remember at the time being very impressed with the intro titles, thinking they were quite futuristic. Model World was a very gentle and quiet program. Just a lot of odd looking blokes in tweed jackets, shirts and ties making and talking models. There was a BBC publication to accompany the series.  The Model World book came with plans showing you how to make a Model Yacht, Glider and a radio Controlled frigate. I loved the show so much my Father went out and got me the Model World book. I then ventured down to the shed to build a 30in Frigate. A month or so later the Frigate was finished, but on my Frigates 1st and only sailing, it got attacked by a swan, and the superstructure sustained quite a bit of damage. With every intention of repairing the Frigate I went home and placed it into my bedroom cupboard.
A couple of years later my Sister and I welcomed Punk into our home, and for a while I embraced Punk with a vengeance. As far as I was concerned it was year zero in my bedroom. So books toys and Airfix models got put into the cupboard and out of sight. With that the now badly neglected Model World Frigate got pushed back into the cupboard even more. Sometime later realising that my year zero attitude was a tad foolish, all my old books and models slowly reappeared. But for some reason the Frigate stayed in the cupboard and The Model World Book was no where to be seen. To this day I do not know what happened to it.
A few years ago my Father died and my Sister and I were clearing out his house. I was in my old bedroom clearing out the cupboard when I came across my Model World Frigate. I am afraid to say it was in a worse state than ever. Years of being pushed back further and further into the cupboard had damaged my Frigate beyond repair. So I reluctantly placed it into a bin bag and dropped it into a skip.
I recently discovered a pile of photos of myself from the 1970s. As I was flicking through them I found a photo of a sulky looking me holding my Model World Frigate.

Fancy walking with the Gods? Why not read this book?


1 comment:

Creepy Dolls



There really is not a lot I can say about these adverts. I think they speak for themselves. The words Freaky and Creepy spring to mind.  But the big question has to be........what was going through the advertisers minds??
 

A Close Encounter.

Monday, 19 September 2011



Fiftieth Anniversary of the Betty & Barney Hill UFO abduction in New Hampshire, September 19-20th 1961.
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Fading Spirits


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