Category Archives: Chewing the Fat

Sell Yourself

Each year, Ofcom the UK’s telecom watchdog publish a report on the state of the international communications market. The report includes data from countries including the US, UK, France, Germany, and Japan. In the latest edition, it says that 39% of Americans agree or strongly agree with the statement “I am happy to provide personal information online to companies as long as I get what I want” the highest of the nine countries sampled. While 70% of respondents either agreed or were indifferent to the commercial use of their personal information in return for free services.

Goodnight Express

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A free newspaper is thrust into my midriff. Most people simply walk past the young man distributing them. He is hardly captivating, wearing headphones, comatose in a faraway land, going through the routine. Above the announcements Waterloo Station is a cold place at the best of times. I take the paper and without looking I make my way to the bottom of the steps. I glance at it. Noticing copies are bundled on the adjacent wall, burgeoning out of refuge bins, littering the immediate pathways.

The New Musical Express (NME) was once an important and valued commodity. In fact, alongside John Peel’s radio programme, Sounds and Melody Maker, the NME was a crucial source of information on band tours, interviews, the latest record releases. I make my way to Jubilee Gardens, under the shadow of the London Eye, sit and flick through its pages. It takes about 2 minutes to glance through the photographs with bubble quotes and advertisements. The images are shiny, precise and sterile. I am old and everything is well and truly in its place.

Wobbly Paving Stones

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Journey on the grinding tube station escalator. Through the gates, people skipping to avoid contact, excited conversations, raised voices, smiles, arguments and hugs all exchanged in the theatre that is the ticket hall. Up the steps, two at a time, the heat from the warm sun pierces through the mass of bodies. I reach the summit and surface in Brixton. The street preachers are still wasting their time, the kaleidoscope of scents, some pleasant, some not so. Traffic fumes, spices, flower seller, the trader selling incense sticks whose smoke dances from the sticks and drifts into the bustling street. Then vanishes. The white hipster with his carefully trimmed beard and the elderly Caribbean lady seem to have little common ground. They pass as if divided by continents.

A gentle tap on my back and I turn. An ex-work acquaintance announces her presence. “What are you doing in Brixton stranger?” she asks abruptly. “Enjoying myself and how are you? I reply. There is a pause. “Strange how the familiar seems different when you have an opportunity to look at it from another perspective,” I add. “Things change John, but nothing changes” she presents her dichotomy with a sense of frustration. She looks tired, slightly pale. “It never ends, dealing with angry people, managing decline, not having the resources, long working hours, the habitual restructure, the cycle turns and turns and turns. “ I have little energy reserves, to be brutally honest, to give much sympathy. She reads my eyes. An uncomfortable realisation that I am no longer part of that world and the conversation loses its purpose. A few more stumbled words, a look of resignation, she smiles says goodbye and vanishes into the crowd for another meeting. The trouble I find is that when things relentlessly keep on moving people tend to lose sight of the simple things. The building blocks, which create the foundations for life, community. At this point, I sense a small movement beneath my feet. I look down and realise I am standing on a wobbly paving stone. The ground is moving, but there are no cracks as yet.

Rebel Waltz

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A small nerve reaction in his arm must have caused him to lose his grip. The socket from the wrench the airman was using dropped 80 feet before colliding and piercing the skin on the fuel tank of the Titan 2 Missile he was carrying out maintenance work on, causing the fuel to leak and explode. The warhead was a thermonuclear weapon developed by the U.S during the Cold War and one of the most powerful weapons in their nuclear arsenal. The warhead landed about 100 feet from the complex’s entry gate; its safety features prevented any loss of radioactive material. The incident at Little Rock Air Force Base Complex 374-7 in September 1980 is little known. The site was subsequently destroyed, decommissioned and now sits on private land. A small, but true story from the fragments of history that contributed to the political turmoil of the time.

As today, the world was not a stable place in 1980. Right-wing Italian terrorists exploded a bomb at Bologna Station killing 85 people. 63 people were beheaded in a single day by the government of Saudia Arabia. Government embassies around the world were under attack or subject to protests and occupation. The Iranian Embassy in the U.K was sieged by terrorists. Gunmen attacked the British Embassy in Iraq; The Dominican, El Salvador, Colombia, and Panama embassies were violently attacked. The Spanish Embassy in Guatemala City was peacefully occupied by those protesting against the kidnap and murder of civilians by elements of the Guatemalan Army. Against the wishes of the Spanish Ambassador about 300 armed state agents surrounded the building and cut the electricity, water, and telephone lines. 36 people died. The U.S failed in an attempt to rescue 52 hostages taken from the U.S embassy in Iran resulting in 8 deaths.

A major race riot in the U.S. resulted in 16 dead and up to 300 injuries. The Afganistan government declared martial law on its people. A Jewish owned hotel in Kenya was bombed killing 18 people. Iraq declared war on Iran, a war that would last eight years and leave over 1m dead. In Poland, the independent Solidarity Union was established, which would ultimately bring to an end state communism. The incumbent U.S President Jimmy Carter sanctioned a £1.5 billion bailout for Chrysler Cars. The U.S, France, China, USSR and U.K governments waved their phallic weapons at each other and intensified their nuclear explosion tests. The U.K announced that Greenham Common would house U.S Nuclear Cruise Missiles. John Lennon, often projected as a hero to those on the left of politics was gunned down in New York.

Michael Foot

Unemployment in the UK started to nudge towards 2m and inflation reached 21.8%. Margaret Thatcher made her infamous “The Lady is not for Turning speech.” The Labour Party following its general election defeat in 1979 was searching for a new leader and was in political turmoil with factions personified by two political heavyweights. Denis Healey (from the right) and Tony Benn (from the left). The left were demanding revenge for what they considered betrayals of the previous Labour government. They sought to do this by establishing a mass party building from its trade union roots while calling for the replacement of MPs who had acquiesced to the previous Labour Prime-minister’s policies with left-wingers who would support unilateral nuclear disarmament, withdrawal from the Common Market, and widespread nationalisation. Michael Foot was finally elected leader after presenting himself as a unity candidate able to bring the two factions together into a coherent platform for Government. A formidable public speaker and fine intellect he was a staunch supporter of the Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament. Towards the end of 1980 all was looking good with one MORI opinion poll giving the Labour Party 50% preference and 25% ahead of the incumbent Conservative government. There was an expectation, dare I say, a momentum building for major change economically and socially. The left was in the ascendancy. Mass meetings were held, resolutions were passed, marches organised and slogans shouted.

The energy of punk had long lost its urgency and had given way to a resurgence of mainstream pop music, the synth had entered the recording studio in force and would-be robots resembling pale invaders from a stark, desolate future were enjoying success. The 100 top selling songs of 1980 resembled a Middle of the Road paradise with the likes of Don McLean, ABBA, Odyssey, Kenny Rogers, and The Detroit Spinners dominating sales. But a closer look exposes a more interesting story. Peppered amongst the deluge of conveyor pop music the observer will discover The Jam’s (Going Underground), The Specials (Rat Race and Too Much Too Young), UB40 (King), The Beat (Mirror in the Bathroom).

Don’t take away the music

It was against this backdrop, I stumbled into my local record shop and purchased the Clash’s fourth album, one of the most courageous releases in modern musical history. Sandinista by most measures is bonkers. Consisting of 36 tracks and over 2.5 hours of music spread across a triple album release for the price of a single album. It was simply a game changer and is equally as important as the Beatles 1968 White Album. By 1980 the Clash, like many bands which emerged from the UK punk scene were either turning into a parody of themselves or trying to fathom a future by diversifying and embracing a broader musical spectrum. The first inkling of what was emerging from The Clash during this period was the Bankrobber EP. With Mikey Dread the legendary Jamaican singer, producer, and innovator in reggae music engaged in the studio work a more roots-based sound started to unfold. The Clash went to extraordinary lengths to secure the release of the album in the triple album format, which included the surrendering of royalty payments until production costs had been covered. Upon its release, in December 1980 the album was met with mixed reviews.

The music contained had effectively anticipated the growing “world music” trend of the 1980s and featured tracks that are orientated towards funk, reggae, jazz, gospel, rockabilly, folk, dub, rhythm and blues, calypso, disco, and rap. The album title refers to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua, and the records catalogue number, ‘FSLN1’, relates to the abbreviation of Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional, which is a Democratic Socialist Party of Nicaragua. The party is named after Augusto César Sandino, who led the Nicaraguan resistance against the United States occupation of Nicaragua in the 1930s.

The FSLN overthrew the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979 and ended the Somoza dynasty. The Sandinista Government instituted a policy of mass literacy, devoted significant resources to health care, and promoted gender equality. Tracks from the album reflect the political environment of the day, Something about England, Somebody Got Murdered, Police on my Back, The Call Up, Washington Bullets, Lose this Skin, Charlie Don’t Surf and a reworking of Career Opportunities from the Clash’s First Album. More to the point the album is increasingly relevant today.

Notes

Michael Foot led the Labour Party into the 1983 general election when the party obtained its lowest share of the vote at a general election since 1918 and the fewest parliamentary seats it had had at any time since before 1945. He resigned.

Side 2 track 1 of the Sandinista album is called The Rebel Waltz.

A Rebel: A person who is opposed to the political system in their country and tries to change it using force.

The Waltz: A dance in triple time performed by a couple, who turn round and round.

The Clash: By 1983 had disintegrated Mick Jones (in 1983) and drummer Topper Headon (in 1982) had been dismissed from the band. By November 1985 Joe Strummer and Paul Simonon had soldiered on with new recruits and released the 6th Studio album Cut the Crap. It was generally ridiculed. The Clash fell apart afterwards leaving a lot of fond memories, but to this day hardly anybody mentions the final album.

Broekn Bridge Afternoon adventures are uncovering the places we often fail to find the time to discover. A quiet hour under the canopies of large trees. Trampling over broken branches and dried leafs, bird songs and in the distance the faint raw of city traffic. Air freshens. The smell of decay and new life contrive together to confuse the senses. Arrive at an opening with tumbled tree trunk for a seat. A flask of tea, sandwich and read a book. A profound silence descends that is only broken by the gentle breeze that stirs the trees. Close eyes, deep breath and exhale. Gather things and embark on the journey. Arrive at the broken bridge and say hello to the familiar figure standing on the other side.

Never look back, it is said and on several occasions, I would tend to agree with such sentiments. Not tonight though as a gentle breeze eased the Mediterranean, I am left pondering. My journey this evening had started some 30 years ago with the opening up of a personal pension. My stated ambition at the time was to retire at 55 years old, travel and take photographs. While sitting at home during October 2015, a letter dropped on the hallway floor. It was the pension company’s so-called “wake up” letter informing me that my ambition to retire at 55 was fast appearing, and it was time to review the plan. It’s 8.20pm on 17th July 2016 I looked across the bay, raised the camera to my face, took a deep breath and pressed the button. There are so many people to thank, so many observations to make, to reflect on the good, the bad and the ugly which will come later, but for now, I will continue to take photographs.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Amazing photographs from Tiananmen Square found in shoe box

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It was a black film canister, rattling around the bottom of an old Naturalizer shoebox labeled “photos.” I opened it, wondering if it was a roll of unused film. Instead, I found a twist of white tissue paper wrapped around tightly rolled black-and-white negatives. I held them up to the light. At first I saw…legs. […]

via Never before seen Tiananmen Square photos found in shoebox — The China Girls

How to change a lightbulb

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I know. You feel like a lone voice in the organisation championing a closer and more creative relationship with the local voluntary and community sector, but your colleagues have had a bad experience and your politicians are not convinced. It’s a challenging position you find yourself in, but don’t worry you are not alone. A good start is to develop a compelling narrative. Once you have this in place you then have the platform to press on, but your task will not be easy and potential pitfalls and tripwires await you. Whilst your resilience needs to be strong remember to listen, reflect and adapt because you will not achieve much by yourself – building alliances both internally and externally of the organisations will be crucial. Also remember not to become part of the problem by bad mouthing the organisation you work for – be the change you want to see in others. Be positive, be a leader and be focused because you know local authorities need the voluntary and community sector and the voluntary and community sector need local authorities.

It’s an interdependent relationship given 70% of business between the voluntary and community sectors and the state takes place in the locality and not with Central Government. So why is the relationship so difficult at times and practically what can you do to improve the situation? The answers are often complex and very much localised requiring a change of lightbulb to enable a better view. Firstly, it’s not all is bad. I’ve worked in most regions of England. My first decade of employment was with a local voluntary sector group. In my younger idealistic days, I spent time as an elected councillor. I’m not embarrassed to admit I’ve made my fair number of mistakes along the way, learnt a good few lessons and feel i’ve achieved many successes. In time so will you.

I’ve come across great examples of the voluntary and community sectors collaborating brilliantly with local authorities, sharing expertise, knowledge and resources to obtain a common goal. These situations do not happen by accident, chance, or indeed luck, equally, I’ve come across some pretty awful situations where the sectors are barely acknowledging one another. Acting as if in some type of phycological convert warfare with each another. When it gets this bad it takes a lot of energy, time and resource to put the relationship right before improvements are able to deliver benefits for local residents. How can you help to mend it?

The first stage is to understand the context.

Let’s start from a political perspective because local authorities are political organisations. The Centre Right tend to view the voluntary and community sector via a lens of non-state charitable benefit whilst the Centre Left tend to view the sector through the lens of participatory democracy and the effusion of power. The observation I give is very simplistic and overlapping grey areas between both perspectives exist in abundance, but this simplistic starting point is critical when left right compounded by the style of local government in the locality. Regardless if a political administration is left, right and centre they can all be equally centralistic in nature and style.Needless to say, you will have read about the tension between the political class and voter, which give the impression politicians understand themselves more than they understand the wider population. This impression may, or may not warrant some justification, but we still live in a centralised state where politics and government seem distant from everyday life and a disproportion of politicians come from middle and upper-class professions. A good all round politician will immerse themselves in their community, its diversity, its conflicting aspirations, tensions and its social networks. This is where the ward councillor can come into their own because one of the bridges into this diverse world is the voluntary and community sectors and you have an important role to play in helping the ward councillor navigate this world.

At its best the voluntary and community sector is dynamic, championing causes, influencing social policy, and tailoring activity to meet the needs of residents and communities. A vibrant, strong, positive and challenging sector should be embraced and nurtured in every neighbourhood, community, borough and city. The voice of the sector is just as equally important as the services it provides. As a commissioner, this voice helps me shape my approach, design service and facilitate good decisions. The key is to listen and to amass date and information then cross reference what you are hearing with the information you are reading.

Sadly, as will most sectors of the economy, I have witnessed some quite appalling service delivery and fraudulent activities perpetrated by some voluntary and community groups and organisations. I’ve come across deliberate conspiring to exclude people, faced violent because my work has threatened the self-interest of a few people who claim to be the voice of a community. I’ve also participated in workshops after workshop hearing representatives of the sector consistently in a state of negativity and blaming their predicament on everybody else, but themselves. It can be relentless. This is often intensified when an organisation holds a local authority contract and believes this will not ultimately impact on their independence, or they are may be facing the prospect of losing the contract for whatever reason. Yet, as imperfect as the sector is I believe it remains one of the best modes available for meeting need, providing value for money and enabling innovation.

Decommissioning is a part of the service life-cycle full stop and funding should never be provided on a never-ending cycle of demand. As soon as a voluntary and community organisation accepts money from the state then there is a financial and legal interdependency. By providing money to voluntary and community sector organisations for the purpose of delivering a particular service a local authority is effectively discharging itself from the responsibility to deliver that service and handing its responsibility to the voluntary and community sector group, although local authorities cannot discharge themselves of their accountabilities. For example,a council can commissions a private company to be responsible for collecting rubbish, but the same council remains legally accountable for ensuring the rubbish is collected. There is an interdependency, so the money comes with strings attached. If groups don’t like the strings then advise them not to take the money!

wpid-risk-managementAs a local authority officer you are employed to manage and oversee the implementation of services and policies. Its a risky business, seriously. You are navigating and balancing a minefield of political expectations, limited resources, management frameworks, unmet needs and demands, complaints and legal requirements. The whole process encourages a culture of risk aversiveness rather than risk awareness. The consequences are plain to see and result in organisational systems, processes and policies that stiffly opportunities for voluntary and community sector engagement. You are caught in the middle of this world and finding a way will to be easy, so here are some ideas to help you. They are not exhaustive, but simply provided to help and offer encouragement.

1. The Compact: I have mixed views on the joint Compact between voluntary and community sector and Local Government, but if your local authority does not have one why not see if there is an appetite to develop one. But make sure the continues are right. Ensure the Compact has a means to an end rather than being viewed as a strict contractual document. Nobody needs to play Neville Chamberlin waving a peace treaty in the air and no it should not require a compact officer to police it. Remember a compact is not essential if it does not exist and there is no appetite for one life goes on, so move on, it’s not worth the battle.

2. Asset Transfer Policy: A good community asset transfer policy will encourage innovative approaches and creates access to affordable spaces. The policy should provide options and not be consigned to getting rid of them problem buildings, which the local authority now finds itself lumbered with.

3. Volunteering policy: a council policy that provides all employees with an opportunity to volunteer with a local group. This helps build alliances and break down misconceptions.

4. Staff secondments: When I became a senior manager for the first time I was able to arrange for members of my team to go on short term work based secondments with a local voluntary and community sector group. This was built into annual appraisals and personal development plans. This is very different from a volunteer policy (as above).

5. Behaviours: A staff behaviours and skills framework that promotes how staff should work collaboratively with voluntary and community sector groups.

6. Capacity Building: Invest in the sector to manage assets and services. This can be achieved in two ways. Firstly, commissioning technical support through a specialist organisation. Secondly, by using 3 and 4 above.

7. Collaborate: Establish demonstration projects with individual voluntary and community sector organisations that will achieve common goals, or address a long-running problem in the locality. This will build confidence across both sectors.

8. Take some risks: If you manage a budget (regardless how small) try and set aside a small budget to explore something new and innovative with the sector.

9. Capital Challenge Fund: Establish a challenge that requires match funding from the voluntary and community sector.

10. Take decisive action: If something is going wrong do not let it fester. The vast majority of voluntary and community sector groups will not tolerate misbehaviour or fraud within the sector and nor should you. If a group or organisation is ripping the tax payer off take action quickly – it will enhance your credibility. Just make sure the action is proportionate, justified and you understand all the impacts, so you are able to inject mitigations, if required.

Finally, you are not a lone wolf in the chicken pen. If your approach reflects this then you face a up hill battle and may face the consequence of being burnt out and frustrated pretty quickly. Take small practical steps. Changing attitudes is about both hearts and minds. You can only achieve this by demonstration – think about it?

Derek Dodd: 5 Vinyl Records

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Derek Dodd is the Area Coordinator for the West Holts Stage, Glastonbury Festival. I’ve Known Derek for almost 20 years. Over these year’s we have been to many concerts and festivals, so armed with my camera, notebook, a recorder and an electric hammer drill (don’t ask) we sat on his attic floor chatting and I asked him to select five vinyl records from this collection.

The Beatles, White Album (1968) was the second or third album I bought from Lesley Browns, Stockton, which was the place to go as a teenager when you wanted to buy records in the 1960s and 1970s. The shop had personal listening booths where you could listen to the records before you purchased them. I remember my Mam lacerating her hand on the sliding door of the booth when we went to listen to Twist and Shout EP – there was blood everywhere!! Each copy of the White Album is numbered and my copy is No. 0094165. It’s an amazing album because it is just so musically vast and a pivotal point, not only for the 1960s but the 20th century. It has all the influences the first track (Back in the USSR) is an homage to Chuck Berry. Bob Dylan influenced singer/songwriter tracks, The harmonies of the Beach Boys, blues numbers, psychedelia, children’s songs and even Karlheinz Stockhausen is there in the most surreal tracks. The guitar-led songs arguably set the blueprint for the heavy rock phenomena that was to emerge. It’s difficult to see what musical influences it did not draw from and at the same time in its aftermath what musical genres it did not affect. It’ got everything. I heard the White Album when it came out in 1968; I bought it a year afterwards because I did not have enough pocket money. Sgt. Peppers was the first album I bought and I purchased Abbey Road the day after its release. I remember people taking copies of Abbey Road back to the shop because they thought the hissing on the last track on side 1 was a fault, but it was, of course, static that was supposed to be on the record. It’s always dangerous to listen to music in your youth because it sticks with you for the rest of your life. My first 4 albums were Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road, The White Album and Revolver, not a bad start I guess.

Brinsley Schwarz, Silver Pistol (1972) are also pivotal. They were a bit before their time. I suppose they were a neo-punk band. It’s just a beautiful album combining a low-key pub rock sound, mixed with folk, country, psychedelia and pop influences. Nick Lowe plays bass, guitar and provides vocals on the album. Shortly after the band’s demise in 1974, Brinsley Schwarz briefly joined Ducks Deluxe before forming The Rumour and going on to achieve success with Graham Parker and the Rumour.

Fleetwood Mac, Kiln House (1970) Its the most obscure of Fleetwood Mac albums. It is weird. Officially there is only four of them credited in the band Jeremy Spencer (guitar, vocals, piano), Danny Kirwan (guitar, vocals), John McVie (bass guitar) and Mick Fleetwood (drums, percussion). Although Christine (Perfect) McVie provided backing vocals and keyboards, is uncredited. Christine Perfect, who was married to bassist John McVie, made her first appearance with the band as Christine McVie at Bristol University in May 1969 just as she was leaving Chicken Shack. She had success with the Etta James classic, “I’d Rather Go Blind.” Kiln House is an homage to rock n roll but done very softly with tracks like Buddy’s Song, a tribute to Buddy Holly, written in his style. Kirwan and Spencer were left with the task of filling Peter Green’s boots in live shows and recordings. Kirwan’s songs on the album moved the band in the direction of rock, while Spencer’s contributions focused on re-creating the country-tinged “Sun Sound” of the late 1950s. I like it because hardly anybody knows of the album outside of Fleetwood Mac diehards. It was recorded during the period following Peter Green’s departure, but before Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks joined.

Then there is this thing, which is incredible it’s called King Kong, All African Jazz (1961). I love this album. It’s the original recording from an all black cast touring show, which came over from South Africa to the UK. After being a hit in South Africa in 1959, the musical played at the Prince’s Theatre in the West End of London in 1961. It’s an amazing mix of township jazz and African beats. A brilliant and iconic album. The liner notes for the London cast recording state: “No theatrical venture in South Africa has had his sensational success of King Kong. This musical, capturing the life, colour, and effervescence as well as the poignancy and sadness of township life, has come as a revelation to many South Africans that art does not recognise racial barriers. King Kong has played to capacity houses in every major city in the Union [of South Africa], and now, the first export of indigenous South African theatre, it will reveal to the rest of the world the peculiar flavour of township life, as well as the hitherto unrecognised talents of its people. The show, as recorded here, opened at the Princes Theatre, London, on February 23, 1961.” The song “Sad Times, Bad Times” was considered a reference at the time to the infamous South African Treason Trial in Pretoria, which had begun in 1956 and lasted for more than four years before it collapsed with all the accused acquitted. Among the defendants were Albert Luthuli (ANC president), secretary Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela. According to John Matshikiza, King Kong′s first night was attended by Mandela, who at the interval congratulated Todd Matshikiza “on weaving a subtle message of support for the Treason Trial leaders into the opening anthem” The shows key performers included Miriam Makeba, Nathan Mdledle. There was a cast of 72 that included Hugh Masekela, Abdullah Ibrahim, Kippie Moeketsi and Thandi Klaasen. The London cast also included Patience Gowabe and former Miss South Africa 1955 Hazel Futa, who went on to provide backing vocals for “She’s Fallen In Love With The Monster Man” by Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages (1964).

Finally, Palm Wine Guitar Music The 60s Sound by S.E. Rouge (1988). S.E Rouge is an amazing guitarist from Sierra Leone. A tailor by trade he became a professional musician in the 60s, singing in four languages. After touring America he moved to England in 1988. I saw him play during the early 90s at an arts centre in Taunton of all places. He had an amazingly warm, happy, very uplifting sound. I spoke to him after the gig, he took my phone number and about 3 months later he rang me up asking if I could promote a gig for him in Bristol, but I was not putting on gigs at the time. Shortly after that call, he died. He had just completed the recording of his last album, Dead Men Don’t Smoke Marijuana. He had undergone heart bypass surgery some months earlier but against medical advice travelled to Russia, where he lost consciousness while performing onstage.

GEORGE MARTIN – ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE

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Not many people know that Nat King Cole recorded five versions of the track L-O-V-E, English, Japanise, Italian, German and French. The English language version recorded at Capitol Studios in Hollywood on June 3, 1964. Bert Kaempfert, the songwriter for L-O-V-E, also wrote the music for many well-known songs, including Strangers in the Night (Frank Sinatra) and Wooden Heart (Elvis Presley). Kaempfert was born in Hamburg, Germany and in 1961, he hired The Beatles to back Tony Sheridan for an album called My Bonnie. The album and its singles, released by Polydor Records, were the Beatles’ first commercially released recordings. During October 1961, a man walked into the music store owned by Brian Epstein to ask for a copy of “My Bonnie.” The store did not have it, but Epstein noted the request and was so intrigued by the idea of a Liverpool band getting a record of its own released that he followed up on it. This event led to his discovery of the Beatles and ultimately their signing by George Martin to Parlophone Records. The rest is history.

In a career spanning five decades, George Martin not only signed the Beatles but produced more than 700 records. Often referred to as “the Fifth Beatle” because of his extensive involvement on each of the Beatles’ original albums. Martin was considered to be one of the greatest record producers of all time, particularly in Britain with 30 number-one hit singles in the United Kingdom and 23 number-one hits in the United States. Martin, directly and indirectly, contributed to the themes of three films in the James Bond series. Although Martin did not produce the score for the second Bond film, From Russia with Love, he was responsible for the signing of Matt Monro to EMI just months before his recording of the song of the same title. In his autobiography All You Need Is Ears, George Martin wrote of having visited the Capitol Tower during the recording sessions for the Frank Sinatra album Come Fly with Me.

John Lennon famously said, “that without Elvis Presley there would have been no Beatles.” 25 years after Lennon’s death Presley would still be impacting on the Beatles. Paul McCartney had made a connection between popular Elvis Presley remixes and the Beatles back catalogue. A few years later, he was approached about doing a Fab Four-themed Cirque du Soleil production, which eventually became 2006’s Love. McCartney, says he jumped at the chance to oversee a series of remixes. Hand-picking Beatles producer George Martin’s son Giles to do the work.