Veered Off Course

With tonight’s blog, I mean.

I’ve made little progress since Monday’s blowout. I had made some headway with horse racing lays until probability caught up with me this evening. I’ve been doubtful that my racing successes could continue at the rate I’ve seen over the last three weeks, and an evening with three winners laid (Zaplamation, Excelling & Indy Driver) knocked back any over-confidence I may have had. So I’ll have to accept a losing week, and with my month sitting at +£30, I’ll be happy to have a few days break from next Thursday and start afresh in August.

Hopefully, some of you may have noticed my regularly updated music video selection on the blog. While perusing You-Tube for another video to upload, I stumbled across a couple of gems which I thought were worthy of promotion to my main blog post.

My first experiences of music came in the form of this album, Glen Campbell’s 1968 ‘Wichita Lineman’, and his 1967 ‘By The Time I Get To Phoenix’. Both albums were played regularly in the house when I was a toddler. This particular album cover amused me, it seemed so familiar 40 years on, and I can still hum each tune on the track listing. My parents were big fans, and saw Glen Campbell perform at the ‘Batley Variety Club’ and ‘Wakefield Theatre Club’ in the early seventies.

So to the video. After seven seconds I was ready to jump in the river – a cover version, by a sixties country singer, of a modern rock anthem. This had the makings of a car-crash moment, particularly as I have an aversion to covers and ‘karaoke music’. But, miraculously, he pulls it off.


The second video is a recording of a song that became Campbell’s best known hit, the Jim Webb penned ‘Wichita Lineman’. I will admit to being a huge fan of REM, and finally seeing them at T in the Park in 2008 was a massive moment in my musical life, particularly as they were a support act for U2 at Milton Keynes Bowl in 1985, and I missed the whole of their set because it pissed it down whilst I had a toilet/food break, and I stayed under cover well away from the stage.


I’ll try to stick to the subject matter in my next post.