The TV Programme "Rock Til We Drop" which features selection of musicians between the ages of 65 to 85 chosen to form a band to perform at the Isle of Wight Festival. Dodgy children's programmes from the past....e.g. Captain Puigwash....how did they get away with it? Cookery programmes.....and the ridiculous "presentation" of food.....and the price of a pint is more than my first weekly pay packet. Price of private dental check ups A recent item on the unbelievable conditions Miners had to work ...
Mar 15, 2022
@donwoods and @vincetracy discussed #ShaneWarne #Cricket #JimLaker #Athletics #Education #Sport #Philosophy #Wirral #Wallasey #School #SirRogerBannister #SebastianCoe #Music #Bands #Groups #SpandauBallet #TheFloralPavilion #RalphMcTell #Cornwall
Mar 07, 2022
Don joins Vince to discuss the dangerous political scenario #BBC #ITV #television #news #weather #TheChase #TippingPoint #EuropeanSongContest #Antiques #DavidBowie #TheLaughingGnome
Feb 28, 2022
Storm Dudley and Storm Eunice filled 20 minutes of the news with their usual scaremongering. Then we have Prince Andrews "settlement" with the girl he has never met....I hope they check whether all those millions go to charity and not into the poor "abused" young lady's purse Then we have Charles whose charity is under investigation regarding "cash for honours".....I can't see the problem if the cash goes to his charity. Tom Daley has run and cycled all over the place "for charity"....what is th...
Feb 21, 2022
Don's favourite record of all time ......I feel there's more to this than meets the eye!
Feb 14, 2022
@donwoods and @vincw tracy discussed #boris #cycling #awimming #petrol #bbc #cheekygirls
Feb 07, 2022
The record I would like to discuss this week is the Elvis classic...Jailhouse Rock......the record still holds up today.and considering there are only 4 musicians backing Elvis it makes this a masterpiece......the temptation to write this song in a country style must have been hard to resist but whoever came up with the the guitar work and the drum breaks makes this, for me,one of the best rock and roll records ever.and also lyrically brilliant.
Jan 31, 2022
On the continuing Djocovic saga....I believe old Novak intends to sue the Australian government.....you couldn't make it up....good luck with that one.......and even worse ..because some people are deeply offended (mainly those under 5 feet) by the sweet we have always known as "Midget Gems" the name has been changed to "small gems" or something....which reminds me of a chip shop in Liverpool when the authorities told them that because their hamburgers didn't contain ham they were mis- described...
Jan 24, 2022
Here is the Agenda set by Don for this week's chat.... 1.The Tory Party Party.....the witch hunt is on...with the BBC leading from the gutter. 2.The Novac Djocovic Saga 3.Andrew...the artist formerly known as Prince 4.The Chester football ground which is in England AND Wales 5.Celebs who are too "important" to endure being interviewed. 6.The new ferry terminal named after Gerry Marsden 7.Back in the day the BBC refused to play Agadoo by Black Lace as they regarded it as "not credible"....the fac...
Jan 17, 2022
The recent news headlines feature Novak Djokovic ... will he or wont he be allowed to defend his title in the Australian open?....the coverage includes his fans protesting in the streets as to the announcement by the authorities that he has not complied with the covid regulations.....and this is HEADLINE news....I am a tennis fan and an admirer of Novak's talent but IT'S A GAME OF TENNIS....that's all....it belongs in the sport section at the end of the news....not in the headlines....there's fa...
Jan 11, 2022
First off...happy new year....I thought I might have to call you "Sir" Vince but I noticed you never made the Queen's honours list.....so you can't join Knights of the Realm like Sir Cliff...Sir Ringo...Sir Van Morrison....or Sir Tony Blair and even more hard to believe Sir Ashley Banjo ....maybe next year....I would suggest you latch on to an act which will definitely end up being knighted.....Ant,Dec and Vince? ....For the "one of the worst records ever made" spot this week I have nominated th...
Jan 03, 2022
I enjoyed the link you sent me with the Jet Harris interview.....I didn't know he was the first to use a Fender electric bass guitar....good stuff...I met Jet when I was working on Radio Merseyside....and we had a few pints in the local ....before he went tee total....and chatted about his adventures with The Shadows and I got some interesting inside info... he really was a nice fella and like most of those who have been there he was very humble.....a sad loss. I watched a programme on ABBA....i...
Dec 30, 2021
Back in the day we were subjected to a weird character called Tiny Tim....who with his squeaky voice actually made many appearances on TV....how- I don't know....he was TERRIBLE!!!....so this week's "one of the worst records ever made" spot features his minor hit "Tip Toe Through the Tulips".....BUT this isn't the worst record he ever made....oh no....the worst record he ever made...or ANYONE ever made was entitled "Santa Clause has got the AIDS this year"......and is so bad and in such bad tast...
Dec 21, 2021
...... O.K.......it's time for this weeks "one of the worst records ever made" spot.....no...not Mull of Kintyre....but close........it features my least favourite group in the world...The Smiths........it is called "This Charming Man" and it sounds like the band has laid down a backing track and Morrisey has come along and sung to a different tune....and I think the bass player is on speed......even talking about this record is hard work never mind listening to it so here it is....This Charming...
Dec 13, 2021
Dec 06, 2021
On the showbiz front there is a film out about The Beatles. I think it's called "Get Back" and shows unseen footage of them in the recording studio.....I don't know what channel it is on and quite frankly I don't want to know....WE"VE SEEN IT ALL......apparently the film has received mixed reviews.....John and Paul chatting to each other.doesn't seem to be of much interest to some. The recent heavy storms...apart from destroying my back gate....have created a historic moment in television histor...
Nov 29, 2021
Cricket is making headline news....certainly not for the excitement of the game but for racist remarks made over the years to whingeing pathetic so called sportsmen.....first we have Yorkshire player Azeem Rafiq so deeply hurt by racial remarks that it ruined his career.....only to be found to have made racial remarks about the Jewish faith himself on social media 10 years ago.....for which he has apologised....so that's O.K. then...what a hypocrite......................then we have the Australi...
Nov 22, 2021
@DonWoods weekly news rant then.....During the climate change show up in Scotland....which is blanket news at the moment.....before I had the chance to switch it off I was subjected to the effect on the world by planting trees.....which to me is about as interesting as Scottish football.....one chap was telling us that the trees absorb carbon dioxide so the more trees we have the better....another bloke came on and told us that when trees die all the carbon dioxide it has absorbed is released ba...
Nov 08, 2021
Another joke is a programme called "Newswatch" which is on our wonderful BBC....it invites viewers to air their complaints about the way BBC news is presented which is "explained" by various representatives of the Beeb who basically say that they think they are fine with the way they present the news....so that's O.K. then......this week the lack of young viewers was discussed and they had a woman on explaining how they were going to solve this problem.....I listened to her garbling away for 5 m...
Nov 01, 2021
I have been watching a programme called "when showbiz good horribly wrong" which demonstrated how easy it is to NOT make money........to actually make money in the music business you have to think things out or you will get ripped off by managers and publishers who have no musical talent.....the way I did it was to look for the gaps in the market....in the 60s all the groups were playing rock and roll and pop music....only 7 or 8 piece dance bands were playing strict tempo....so in the mid 60s m...
Oct 26, 2021
Don's rant then........... On a lighter note I was never a fan of Frank Sinatra....I know he was admired and idolised by many...but he was never for me...I found his voice very "dry" as opposed to Bing and Pat Boone for example....and in later years old Frank always seemed to be singing about himself...e.g.....I did it MY way....I have been a rover - I have walked alone....start spreading the news I"M leaving today....personally I couldn't care less what Frank was doing and he wasn't always in t...
Oct 15, 2021
..it's time for my choice of one of the worst records ever....it is from the past and is probably forgotten by most people but there are some songs which are so bad they are difficult to get out of your mind...the culprit is country singer Roger Miller and the song is called "England Swings" and is a description of England...or London...through the eyes of an American who has obviously never been here....fortunately the song is less that 2 minutes long.....it is one of those 8 inch 45 singles wh...
Oct 04, 2021
My entry for one of the worst songs ever goes to one of our first pop stars to come on to the scene back in the 50s.....Tommy Steele......now I must admit I liked Tommy because he wasn't an Elvis clone like most of them were at the time....BUT there was no excuse for this record...."Rock With The Caveman".....with classic lines like "The British Museum's got my head...that's most unfortunate 'cos I aint dead" makes it worthy of being one of the worst records ever.....despite Tommy's great backin...
Sep 27, 2021
I have always liked good female singers with pin point accuracy....for example Celine Dion with her gentle delivery...Gladys Knight with her perfect phrasing....Aretha Franklin with her sharp jagged delivery ....Dionne Warwick with her faultless voice (Heartbreaker being one of my favourite songs)....and of course Tina Turner with her fabulous range.....a lot can be learned by up and coming girl singers from the likes of these legends....and at the opposite end of the scale I would like to intro...
Sep 21, 2021
My bad record selection this week features a "song"....if you can call it a song. ...which resembles waking up and finding yourself in hell....it is like every nightmare you have ever had rolled into one....it does in fact defy description....it is called "This Is Yoko Ono".....performed by the lady herself ....once you start listening to it I guarantee you will only give it 20 seconds as it will take that long to actually believe what you are hearing.....I'm sure Yoko is a nice person but whoev...
Sep 13, 2021
have always liked to listen to good music with clever arrangements and lyrics but like with Ant and Dec I fail to see how some songs achieve their popularity..... I would now like to voice an opinion on a piece of music which I thought was pretty bad......I know the song sold millions and made a bunch of Liverpool lads very famous....but I never got it at the time and never have....Love Me Do by The Beatles....I really enjoy good lyrics....but...Love Me Do.....it's something you would never say....
Aug 27, 2021
Don tells us about his mind/blowing experience at the age of 12 when he went to watch Rock Around the Clock. He had his day of enlightenment almost like being on the musical road to Damascus. Listen up and relive the music of the 50s with Bill Haley.
Aug 16, 2021
First we find out what-s on Don's mind with #Olympic Games #ClimateChange #Liverpool #Heritage and #Music...This week's "there and back in a day" features Northern Ireland......as explained in previous programmes these were travelogues made with Radio Merseyside's Monty Lister where we would travel to various places for one day...he would do the commentary and I would handle the sound.....so this one starts out at Liverpool Airport in the early hours of the morning and we land in Belfast where w...
Aug 06, 2021
.....This week's "There and back in a day" feature with Radio Merseyside's Monty Lister takes us to Salzburg in Austria....again we started out from Speke Airport about 6.30 in the morning and arrived in Salzburg for our guided tour with Monty again interviewing travellers and me taking care of the sound......the first thing I noticed was the freshness of the air and the fabulous views of the surrounding mountains....we were taken to all the beauty spots and historic places ....but what stood ou...
Jul 24, 2021
Don's news rant followed by .....This week I would like to tell you about another day trip I did as Monty Lister's sound man for another of his travelogues on Radio Merseyside....this week we feature Bergen in Norway....there and back in a day....again we started out from Speke Airport at around 6 in the morning...off the plane at Bergen and on to the coach.....Bergen is a beautiful place,very picturesque,and we were taken to the small harbour in the town where we boarded a boat and were treated...
Jun 17, 2021
