February 4, 1942. Now that girdle and corset production has reached a new low due to rubber priorities and war conditions, dieting and reducing apparatuses will likely become popular. Here Gail King demonstrates a portable sweat box. It consists of a large cloth bag, with a zipper front, and a small air pump which forces heat and vapour into the bag, enabling one to relax in comfort while taking a steam bath.
Text and image found at vintage everyday
Posted in Facts, Photography, Retro technology | Tagged 1942, Steam bath | 1 Comment »
Mello Yello is a high-caffeinated, citrus-flavored soft drink produced and distributed by The Coca-Cola Company which was introduced on March 1, 1979 to compete with Pepsi’s Mountain Dew.
Mello Yello was withdrawn from Australia in the early 1990s, being replaced with the similar but uncaffeinated Lift.
There have been three flavored variants of Mello Yello in North America. Mello Yello Cherry was released in response to Mountain Dew Code Red. The other two variants were Mello Yello Afterglow (peach-flavored) and Mello Yello Melon. All three were only available for a limited time.
In early 2010, Coca-Cola announced new images of new packaging that it would be re-branding Mello Yello to resemble the packaging in 1979. This re-branding has included an expanded distribution of the product, into such areas of the United States that have not had the product in years such as the Northeast United States and the Western United States. In 2011, Mello Yello began to replace Vault on Coca-Cola Freestyle machines.
Help Needed
I need your help visitors, both in suggesting sodas and soft drinks from around the world and in giving your opinion on the ones presented if you know the product. And you can start with giving your opinion on the ones posted already or reading what other visitors have written – Ted
List of Soft drinks and sodas posted already
Visitors soft drinks and sodas suggestions and comments
Posted in Food & drinks, Soft drinks and sodas | Tagged Citrus-flavoured, Mello Yello, Sodas, Softdrinks | Leave a Comment »
Maria Grazia Buccella, (born 15 August 1940) is a Maria Grazia Buccella former Italian glamour model, Miss Italy contestant (1959) and film actress.
Buccella screentested for the role of Domino Derval 1965 James Bond film Thunderball. The role eventually went to French actress, Claudine Auger. That year, she appeared in the Dino Risi directed film Il Gaucho which co starred actors such as Vittorio Gassman.
In 1966, she played the beauty Miss Okra in the Peter Sellers film After the Fox. In 1968, she won a Silver Ribbon award at the Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists for Best Supporting Actress (Migliore Attrice Non Protagonista) in the film Ti ho sposato per allegria.
She featured on the cover of Playmen magazine in November 1976. She virtually retired from film in 1979 although made two small appearances in the late 1980s and a final appearance in the 2000 TV series Hotel Otello.
Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Posted in Actresses, Article, Glamour, Models & starlets, Nudes, The fifties, The seventies, The sixties | Tagged Italian actresses, Italian glamour models, Maria Grazia Buccella, Miss Italy Conteatants | 5 Comments »
From “Victorian Inventions” by Leonard De Vries published by American Heritage Press in 1972
Mr J. B. Williamson of Louisville, Kentucky, has invented a device which is capable of providing us with a pleasant and cool night’s rest during the hot season. It consists of a clockwork mechanism driven by either a spring or weight to which a lever is attached, carrying long, narrow strips of suitable material. The engraving shows how the device, fitted above a sleeping couple, cools the air and drives away insects by the oscillating movement of the strips.
Posted in Article, Facts, Illustration, Retro technology, Vintage Science | Tagged Automatic, Fan, Victorian inventions | 2 Comments »
The music publisher EMI has ended its contract with the Sex Pistols punk rock group because of their notorious behaviour in public. In a statement, the company said: "EMI feels it is unable to promote this group’s records in view of the adverse publicity generated over the past two months."
The move follows the group’s appearance on ITV’s Today programme six weeks ago in which they used strong language.
I haven’t signed a single paper – as far as I’m concerned, we’re still on EMI
Malcolm McLaren, Sex Pistols manager
Reports that they had sworn at Heathrow Airport staff and spat at each other while waiting to board a plane for the Netherlands yesterday proved to be the final straw. EMI broke the news to Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren by telephone this morning. But he denied the contract had been ended by mutual agreement. In Amsterdam preparing for a series of concerts and recordings, he told the BBC: "That’s rubbish. I haven’t signed a single paper – as far as I’m concerned, we’re still on EMI."
The four-man band – Johnny Rotten, Steve Jones, Paul Cook and Sid Vicious – had only served three months of the two-year contract, worth £40,000, and release one single – Anarchy in the UK. EMI has also come under pressure to drop the group from the Conservative MP for Christchurch and Lymington, Robert Adley.
Last night, he wrote to the managing director, Sir John Read, saying: "Surely a group of your size and reputation could forgo the doubtful privilege of sponsoring trash like the Sex Pistols." Asked whether he would sign up another punk rock group, Sir John told the BBC: "Certainly. I am told there is a demand for this style of music and provided we can have groups that don’t attract the adverse publicity this group has had, we’ll certainly want to be in it."
In Context
In March 1977 the Sex Pistols signed up with A&M Records but were sacked soon afterwards.By June they had joined Virgin and sold 150,000 copies of God Save the Queen in just one day. The single officially reached number two – despite a BBC Radio One ban and several high street chains refusing to stock it. It caused a national outrage in the year of the Queen’s Jubilee.
On 12 October 1978 Sid Vicious was charged with murdering his girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. That same year the group disbanded. Sid Vicious died of a drug overdose on 2 February 1979 while out on bail. Virgin Records continued to release Sex Pistols music, including one compilation appropriately called Flogging a Dead Horse.
Then in 1986 former Sex Pistols won substantial damages against their ex-manager Malcolm McLaren.
Ten years later in 1996, the band reformed for their final worldwide tour – and live album Filthy Lucre – that lasted six months.
The band reformed again in 2002 and re-released God Save the Queen in response to the Queen’s Golden Jubilee celebrations. They came together again in August 2003 for a short USA tour.
Text from BBC’s On This Day
Posted in Article, Music, Punk rock | Tagged EMI, Sex Pistols | Leave a Comment »
From the 33rd edition of “XXth Century Health And Pleasure Resorts Of Europe” published in 1933
![bok_front_small_thumb[1]](https://retrorambling.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/bok_front_small_thumb1.jpg "bok_front_small_thumb[1]")
BRITISH VISITORS TO THE CONTINENT
The drop in the comparative value of the pound sterling has quite unnecessarily kept many people at home who would otherwise be travelling on the Continent. It is not always realized that prices abroad have been proportionately reduced, and that many hotels quote inclusive terms in British currency.
Doubtless, also, the lack of time for family holidays contributes to the fall in numbers of travelling Britishers. Study has become a keener necessity than ever, and many young people spend their holiday or vacation either with a crammer at home, or, if working up a language, with a family abroad. There are so many places on the Continent where it is possible to combine study with pleasure and sport, that the separation of families should not become a necessity. All the 
same the British communities mainly worth catering for now are the WINTER SPORT community, the CLIMBER, the MOTORIST, the SIGHTSEER, the “RETIRED” who cannot stand the English climate (golfer or bridge-player), the BUSINESS MAN (many heads of firms now travel themselves), the FAMILY seeking EDUCATIONAL, CENTRES, the INVALID. Continental Hotels have realized this and have most certainly provided amply for all categories. It is for the traveller to choose his hotel wisely. He will not wish to take his children to a hotel de luxe, nor into 
an invalid community, anymore than an invalid will want to be in’ a Winter Sport hotel during the height of festivities.’ We venture to suggest that it is therefore useful for prospective travellers to seek advice from the more experienced *. Much has been done recently to facilitate the shipment of cars across the Channel, and, once abroad, every facility is offered to the foreign motorist. A car enables the tourist to visit places which -were almost, inaccessible to travellers by train. This “TOURING” has naturally detracted to a certain extent from the sociability of ‘hotel life. What motorists want are comfortable rooms, running water, baths and a good restaurant. Thus the ” Hotels meublés” are increasing in number and provide all that is required for overnight stay. The craze for rapid -touring is passing, however, and even motorists prefer to settle down in some really comfortable centre, using their cars for visits to neighbouring places, to golf links, amusements in towns etc., and there are many delightful hotels which can bernade centres of this kind.
ENGLISH (or BRITISH-AMERICAN) CLUBS on the Continent are a great boon to the residential guest. Their origin has generally been due to the enterprise of one man or some small British community. Several of these are run on the usual club lines. Some have started as, and still remain, “proprietary” clubs. In either case, if well run, they add greatly to the popularity of a place. Bridge is, as a rule, played for low and medium stakes, but it is generally up-to-date bridge. Libraries contain modern novels. The main London papers and periodicals are taken in, Tea and light refreshments arc as a rule obtainable. Comfort and social intercourse are of course the main attraction.
Images on this page is from Lake of Lucerne
Posted in Article, Facts, Holidays, The thirties, Traveling | Tagged 1933, British visitors to the continent, Lake of Lucerne | Leave a Comment »
Anne Austin was one of the most popular models of the ‘generation’ that began their careers in the later 1950s (like Lorraine Burnett, Paula Page, Rosa Domaille, Jackie Parker). In 1957, she was described as the ‘most exciting new discovery of the year’ and had the distinction of being the very first model to be featured in Harrison Marks’s famous Solo series.
Photographer Roger Davis recalled Anne in a feature published in Fiesta, in the early 1980s: there was no capacity for harm in her make-up. I doubt if she was capable of rage, or even stress … I suppose the most important physical difference between Anne and the other models was her height. The others were mainly small girls – in height anyway, progressing to medium. But Anne was tall, certainly five feet ten inches – in shoes at least, really high ones more. I’m six foot, and I know I always felt the need to stand up straight and tall as I could when I was with her.
‘Anne was a big girl, Junoesque, but all the same assembled with enormous skill, so that everything balanced perfectly. If you didn’t think you liked big girls, Anne could make you change your mind … To cap it all, Anne was strikingly beautiful, with wonderful colouring, dark hair with coppery natural tints, and green eyes. A knockout …‘She was a well educated and intelligent girl, softly spoken, and without any extreme accent, although from her background [middle-class, Kensington] one might have expected that … Money was obviously no problem in her family and I can only assume that she was modelling because she liked doing it, not from need’.
"Junoesque" …I like that. I don’t think many folk would use that term these days. Anne appeared in countless publications during the fifties and sixties, but appearances in the mainstream magazines such as Playboy passed her by. A shame, I would have loved to see what the stylists on the magazine would have done with such a beautiful girl.
Sources: Richard Tearle & Malcolm MacDonald Geemahn at 60’s Glam Database
Posted in Article, Glamour, Models & starlets, Nudes, Photography, The fifties, The sixties | Tagged Anne Austin, British glamour models, Glamour photography | Leave a Comment »
Her expression is hard to read. Is it musical ecstasy, deep sorrow or simply horror and despair. Had it been to day I would have gone for the last, but the picture is from a Pat Boone concert in 1956 – Ted
Posted in People, Photography, The fifties | Tagged 1956, Pat Boone | 2 Comments »
CHRIS STARR is light and bright – nineteen-year-old blue-eyed English blonde and a topgrader in her freshman college class. Her other I.Q. – eye quotient – figures at 361/2-23-35, and no professor would flunk her for that.
Read the whole article and see
the naughty pictures HERE
Warning: Nudity do occur in this article. If you are under age or live in a country where watching images of nude women for some reason is against the law I take no responsibility if you click the link above. In other words you’re flying solo from here on – Ted 😉
Posted in Article, Glamour, Models & starlets, Nudes, The sixties | Tagged 1961, Adam Magazine, Chris Starr, Girliemags, Glamour photography | Leave a Comment »
Posted in Comix, Illustration, People | Tagged Goldfish, Living, Memory | Leave a Comment »
Gino Boccasile (14 July 1901 – 10 May 1952) was an Italian illustrator.
Born in Bari, Boccasile was the son of a perfumer. Early in his youth he lost his left eye, when a drop of quicklime fell into it while he drank from a fountain. Nonetheless, he showed a precocious aptitude for design and completed studies at the fine art school of his home town.
After the death of his father in 1925, he moved to Milan. Despite some initial difficulties, he eventually gained a post at the Mauzan-Morzenti Agency. Over the next few years he produced posters, illustrated fashion magazines and gained fame for his sensuous renderings of the female form.
Following the lead of fellow poster artist Achille Mauzan, Boccasile went to Buenos Aires, where he met his future spouse Alma Corsi. In 1932 he moved to Paris, where an issue of “Paris Tabou” was dedicated to his work. He also participated in the Salon des Indépendants, that same year. Shortly after returning to Milan, he opened a publicity agency called ACTA, in Galleria del Corso, with his friend Franco Aloi. He illustrated for the Italian periodicals "La Donna" (1932), "Dea" and "La Lettura" (1934), "Bertoldo" (1936), "Il Milione" (1938), "L’Illustrazione del Medico" (1939), "Ecco", "Settebello" and "Il Dramma" (1939) and designed many book covers for publishers Mondadori and Rizzoli’.
A supporter of Benito Mussolini, Boccasile produced propaganda material for his government, including several racist and anti-semitic posters.
As the tide of war turned against Fascism he became more involved in it, becoming a supporter of the German puppet state, RSI, established by Mussolini in Northern and Central Italy after his liberation from the Gran Sasso exile. Boccasile enlisted in the Italian SS Division, drawing their recruitment posters and illustrating propaganda material.
After the war he was imprisoned and tried for collaborating with the fascists. Though acquitted, he remained an outcast. He could not find work for several years as his notoriety was feared by prospective employers.
He supported himself briefly by doing pornographic sketches for English and French publishers, and by 1946, after changing his style, Boccasile was back at work. He set up his own agency in Milan where he created memorable posters for Paglieri cosmetics, Chlorodont toothpaste, Iperchina liquors and Zenith footwear.
Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Posted in Art, Article, Illustration, Pin-ups | Tagged Gino Boccasile, Italian illustrators | 2 Comments »
Donald Campbell has been killed a split second before breaking his own water speed record in his jet-powered boat, the Bluebird K7. He was travelling at more than 300mph (483 km/h) on Coniston Water when the boat was catapulted 50ft (15m) into the air after its nose lifted.
Forty-six-year-old Mr Campbell was killed instantly as the boat hit the water and immediately disintegrated.
Donald was going into the unknown and he was well aware of the risks Norman Buckley
He was just 200 yards (183m) from the end of the second leg of his attempt when the accident happened. On the first leg he had reached speeds of 297mph (478km/h), which meant he had to top 308mph (496km/h) on the return journey. Initial reports suggest he had actually reached speeds of up to 320mph (515km/h).
This means the water speed record of 276.33mph (444.61km/h), which Campbell himself set in Australia in 1964, remains unbroken as both legs of the attempt were not completed. Had he broken this barrier it would have been his eighth world water speed record.
Divers have attempted to recover Mr Campbell’s body which is submerged in more than 120ft (37m) of water, but as yet have been unable to locate him.
Norman Buckley, chief observer for the attempt and holder of five water speed records, said: "Donald wanted to put the record so high that it would be unassailable by any foreign competitor.
"I think conditions were as perfect as I have seen them on Coniston, but Donald was going into the unknown and he was well aware of the risks."
In Context
Donald Campbell’s body was not recovered until 2001 – 34 years after his death. On hearing the news that her father’s body had been found, his daughter Gina said she was "totally relieved".The boat and Mr Campbell’s remains were recovered from the water and Mr Campbell was buried near Coniston water following a funeral service. Two months later his daughter, herself a water speed champion, vowed to restore Bluebird in her father’s memory.
Donald Campbell is still the only person to hold both land and water speed records at the same time. And, although he is the last British man to break the world record, in 1978 it passed to Australia when Ken Warby reached a speed of 317.6mph (511.1km/h).
Text from BBC’s On This Day
In context 2:
Donald Campbell’s daughter claims Bluebird pilot plundered her trust fund to finance his lavish lifestyle
She grew up in the shadow of greatness.But for the daughter of legendary speed icon Donald Campbell her upbringing was anything but great.
In an autobiography due to be published next week 63-year-old Gina Campbell lays bare a tormented childhood and chronicles three failed marriages and a suicide attempt. She reveals how her father mysteriously emptied her trust fund before he tragically died in January 1967 on Coniston Water and how the debonair dare-devil sacrificed her and his family in the pursuit of glory.
Yet, she does not blame him.Nor does she resent Bluebird K7, the speedboat that cart-wheeled so spectacularly across the water during that ill-fated world speed record attempt 45 years ago.‘To a large degree it was a very hard childhood,’ she told the Mail yesterday. ‘I didn’t see it back then. I had nothing to compare it to.
‘The family life, the love and care of a mother and father just wasn’t there. ‘My mother didn’t even like me most of the time, let alone love me.‘And my father never displayed any affection towards me, never put his arm around me, never sat me on his knee, never praised me.
‘Bluebird was always paramount in his thoughts, feelings and actions. It had to be. It was his tour de force, his raison d’etre. I was there and Bluebird was there and he chose Bluebird.
‘That’s not to say my father was a bad father.‘I thought he was the best thing since sliced bread and amongst the low lows there were massive highs. But yes, some things were strange, different, unorthodox.’
Context 2 text and image: MailOnline
Posted in Article, British, Racing, The sixties | Tagged BBC, Donald Campbell, Fatal accidents, On this day, Speed records | 2 Comments »
Even the most music interested among us can sometimes get lost in all the different labels music journalists and record companies choose to put on recordings.
The 11 thorough well written articles in “The Rock Primer” takes us through the most important of the different categories in popular music in the period 1945 – 1980.
The categories are:
Rock & Roll, Folk & Blues, Rhythm & Blues, Soul, Country, British Beat, California Sun, Dylan and after, Reggae, Punk and The Seventies.
Posted in Article, Music, Popular music | Tagged Beat, British Beat, Mersey beat | Leave a Comment »
All posts material: “Sauce” and “Gentleman’s Relish” by Ronnie Barker – Hodder & Stoughton in 1977
Lights Out
| He: | Shall we turn of the light and go to sleep? |
| She: | Well, we’ll turn off the light. |
Posted in Humour, Illustration, Vintage | Tagged Jokes, Nookie, Sleeping, To bed | Leave a Comment »
Thomas Rickett from Buckingham, England, made a steam-powered car in 1860. Several examples were made and it was also advertised.
Rickett was manager of the Castle Foundry in Buckingham, makers of agricultural implements, who in 1857 also started to make steam engines. In 1858 he combined the two to make a steam plough. This inspired the Marquess of Stafford to order a steam carriage. This vehicle had three wheels, the single wheel at the front, and a rear-mounted coal-fired boiler and two-cylinder engine. The boiler pressure was 110 psi, and the cylinders had a bore of 76 mm and stroke of 178 mm. Transmission was by chain to the right-hand rear wheel. A maximum speed of 19 mph was claimed. A boilerman was seated at the rear, and three passengers could sit side by side at the front with the one on the right operating a tiller steering and the regulator, reversing lever and brake. The wheels had iron "tyres", with the brakes operating on the rear wheels.
In 1860 a second example was ordered by the Earl of Caithness, but this time the wheels were driven through a two-speed gearbox and spur gears. The Earl used the car to drive 146 miles from Inverness to Barrogill Castle, 20 miles north of Wick in Scotland, accompanied by his wife, with Thomas Rickett acting as engine man.
Encouraged by his success, Rickett placed an advertisement in The Engineer magazine advertising his carriages for sale at £180 to £200. He was, however, ahead of his time, and it is not thought that any more were sold.
Production ceased in 1865 with the introduction of the Highways Act that limited a vehicle’s speed to walking pace with a person in front of it waving a flag to warn other road users of its presence.
Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Posted in Article, Automobiles, Transportation, Traveling, Vintage Science | Tagged 1958, Rickett, Three -wheelers | Leave a Comment »
I’ve just finished making a PDF containing all but a few of the posts from December. Just a few did not convert well to the new format. The recipes are organized in the order they were posted and you’ll find the PDF in the BOX widget in the right column. Just double click it to save it to your computer – Ted
The post on RecipeReminiscing is HERE
Posted in Food & drinks, Information, Recipes | Tagged PDF recipe collections | Leave a Comment »
Claudie Lange is a Belgian actress and model, mainly active in Italian cinema.
Lange entered the film industry at 21, when she met Federico Fellini during a vacation in Rome; Fellini gave her a minor part in Juliet of the Spirits and after that she appeared in The Bible, the Roger Moore spy thriller Crossplot, and in a large number of Italian genre films, including pepla, commedia sexy all’italiana, spaghetti westerns, Eurospy, and giallo films.
Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Posted in Actresses, Article, Models & starlets, Movies, The seventies, The sixties | Tagged Belgian actresess, Belgian models, Claudie Lange | Leave a Comment »
Elkie Brooks (born Elaine Bookbinder; 25 February 1945) is an English singer, a vocalist with Vinegar Joe, and later a solo artist. She gained her biggest success in the late 1970s and 1980s and has been nominated twice for Brit Awards. She is known for her powerful husky voice and hit singles such as "Pearl’s a Singer", "Lilac Wine", "Don’t Cry Out Loud", "Fool (If You Think It’s Over)", and "No More the Fool", and top-selling album Pearls. She is generally referred to as the "British Queen of Blues".
Life and career
Early career and Vinegar Joe
Brooks was born Elaine Bookbinder in Broughton, Salford, the daughter of Marjorie Violet "Vi" (née Newton) and Kalmon Charles "Charlie" Bookbinder. Her paternal grandparents and great-grandparents were Jewish immigrants who were from Kielce, Russian Poland. Her mother, who had been born to a Catholic family, converted to Judaism. She was raised in Prestwich. She attended North Salford Secondary Modern School.
Her older brother is Anthony Bookbinder (born 28 May 1943), who went by the stage name of Tony Mansfield, and was drummer for Billy J. Kramer with The Dakotas, on their run of 1960s hit records.
According to Brooks, her unofficial debut was a gig at a club called the "Laronde" on Cheetham Hill Road, Manchester, when she was 13 years old. She was a professional singer since the age of 15, and her first record, a cover of Etta James’s "Something’s Got a Hold on Me", was released on Decca in 1964. Brooks spent most of the 1960s on Britain’s cabaret scene, a period of her life that she did not particularly enjoy. In the early 1960s she supported The Beatles in their Christmas show in London, then, as an established act, helped the Small Faces in their early career by introducing them at several venues. She went on to tour the United States with several bands, including The Animals.
After she met Pete Gage, whom she would marry, she joined the short-lived fusioneers Dada before forming Vinegar Joe with Gage and Robert Palmer. Brooks gained the reputation as the wild woman of rock ‘n’ roll due to her wild stage performances. After three albums, they split up in 1974, and Brooks and Palmer both went solo. After a time as backing singer with the American southern boogie band Wet Willie, she returned to England.
Solo career and chart success
Her first solo album on A&M records was Rich Man’s Woman (1975). It was released to critical acclaim, but Brooks was given a hard time due to the album’s cover, which was considered outrageous for the time.
It came before a run of 16 hit albums in 25 years, starting with Two Days Away (1977), produced by the songwriting duo Leiber & Stoller, who had also worked with Elvis Presley and many others. Brooks also wrote some tracks with them. The hits "Pearl’s a Singer" and "Sunshine After the Rain" came from this album. The albums Shooting Star (1978) and Live and Learn (1979) also saw success along with the singles "Lilac Wine" and "Don’t Cry Out Loud". However, her polished, powerful cover of Gallagher and Lyle’s "The Runaway", with the Scottish singer-songwriters themselves on backing vocals, was only a minor chart entry.
In 1980 Brooks performed at the Knebworth Festival with The Beach Boys, Santana and Mike Oldfield. Pearls, released in 1981 achieved the biggest success of her career, becoming the largest selling album by a British female artist up to this point in the UK. "Fool (If You Think It’s Over)" was a hit for Brooks taken from this album, written by Chris Rea. Pearls II (1982), Minutes (1984) and Screen Gems (1984), were all UK chart hits.
In early 1987 the song "No More the Fool" became her biggest hit single to date while the parent album reached the top five. This led to her achieving a career peak, as she had two albums and a single in the top ten all on the same week. Following chart success ensued with the albums The Very Best of Elkie Brooks (1986), Bookbinder’s Kid (1988), Inspiration (1989), Round Midnight (1993), Nothin’ but the Blues (1994), Amazing (1996) and The Very Best of Elkie Brooks (1997). On Bookbinder’s Kid, Elkie recorded the Timi Yuro hit "What’s the Matter Baby"; Timi heard Elkie’s version and contacted her to compliment her. The two remain friends.
Since 2000
In March 2003, she participated in the ITV music talent show Reborn in the USA, alongside musicians such as Peter Cox, Tony Hadley and Leee John. The Electric Lady album (2005) saw a return to her blues and rock roots, featuring self-penned tracks alongside re-workings of numbers by The Doors, Bob Dylan, Paul Rodgers and Tony Joe White. The following year saw the release of her first official DVD, Elkie Brooks & Friends: Pearls, featuring an array of guest musicians.
Brooks has toured almost every year during her solo career. Her 1982 UK concert tour was seen by more than 140,000 people in just three months. She has performed at every major UK theatre, including sellout runs at the London Palladium, Dominion Theatre, Hammersmith Apollo, Ronnie Scott’s, Royal Albert Hall and Wembley Arena. Brooks was offered "Don’t Cry for Me Argentina" but turned it down. It was subsequently recorded by Julie Covington and others. Brooks also turned down the song "The Flame"; it was then recorded by Cheap Trick.
Brooks’ twentieth studio album, Powerless, was released in 2010, featuring songs such as Prince’s "Purple Rain" and Dylan’s "Make You Feel My Love". She continues to perform live throughout the UK.
Text from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Posted in Article, British, Music | Tagged British blues, British singers, Elkie Brooks | 2 Comments »
1910 Piccard-Pictet
The first Piccard-Pictet cars appeared in 1906. the work of a firm of hydraulic engineers from Les Charmilles. near Geneva. Based on the Hispano-Suiza, the cars were sold as SAGs in Switzerland. and as Pic-Pies in Britain. After a reorganisation in 1910. the Pic-Pic name was universal. andin the following year the company adopted the Argyll single-sleeve-valve engine. This is one of the last Pte-Pies to be built. a sleeve-valve. 2950cc 15cv of 1919.
1912 Renault
Alongside his popular twin-cylinder models, Louis Renault also produced some excellent four-cylinder cars such as this 1912 2120cc Type FK, which sold at a chassis price of £272. There were even a couple of big sixes in the pre-World War I lineup-the larger of them, the 37.2hp, growing even bigger after the Armistice, thus becoming the famous 9.1-litre ’45’, which was produced until 1928, the last survivor of the ‘Jurassic Age’ of the motor car.
1912 Scout
One of the more esoteric British makes of the pre World War I days was the Scout, built by Dean and Burden Brothers of Salisbury, Wiltshire. Although Scouts were available from 1904 to 1923, sales were mostly restricted to the Salisbury area. One of the few occasions on which Scout ranged outside its parochial boundaries was in 1905, when a Scout tourer took ninth place in the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy Race. The car illustrated is a 1912 12/14hp four-cylinder model.
1912 Trojan
This rotund little car is the prototype of one of the most distinctive designs ever put into quantity production, the Trojan. With a duplex two-stroke engine (whose vee-shaped connecting rods flexed to and fro as they went about their business), solid tyres and cantilever ‘wondersprings’, the Trojan was Leslie Hounsfield’s vision of a car for ‘Everyman’. ‘It’s weird but it goes!’ was how he summarised his brainchild; production did not start until 1922, some ten years later
Related articles
Posted in Automobiles, Retro technology, Vintage Science | Tagged 1910 Piccard-Pictet, 1912 Renault, 1912 Scout, 1912 Trojan | Leave a Comment »
A tree has been given every year to Britain since 1947 by Norway in gratitude for Britain’s support for the country during the Second World War. Norway’s Government-in-Exile was based in Kensington while the country was under German occupation.
Text and image from The National Archives UK’s photostream on Flickr
Posted in Facts, Norwegian, WW II | Tagged Christmas trees, Norway, Trafalgar Square | Leave a Comment »
Retrorambling 