Eurosong fever 2024 – The final!

It’s that time of year again. We’ve had the semi finals, it’s now time for the final…

Here’s a quick rundown of the acts tonight, hastily copied and pasted off the Eurovision website…

Sweden Marcus & Martinus Unforgettable

Interesting, the song order is wrong already, I had this down as being last. Oh, great. Oh yes, I seem this one completely breaks the compression with its overly complex graphics. I don’t think I rated this song’s chances last time, and I still don’t. It got through automatically, as Sweden are the hosts, but it’s not very memorable. Of course, they’ve changed the voting now, so you don’t have to vote at the end, but I can’t see them flying in for that one.

Ukraine alyona alyona & Jerry Heil Teresa & Maria

I didn’t l;ike this one much in the semis, it got better as the song went off.. No idea what it’s going on about though. It’s Ukraine though, so it’s probably got a chance, somewhere down the line.

Germany ISAAK Always On The Run

Oh yes, this one is the one that almost sets the set on fire. Not a bad little song to be honest now that I’m hearing it again. It might do well, that one.

Luxembourg TALI Fighter

This one has sound effects in it that sound spookily like a USB device disconnecting, and there’s the Geforce 4 MX leapords again. Glad she got through just so I could see those again.

Israel Eden Golan Hurricane

I really, really liked this one and I’m glad it got through. Apparently, she looks like Dua Lipa, which is Italian for Do a Jump. There’s that subtle piano. I hope this does well.

Lithuania Silvester Belt Luktelk

Did I go to the bog during the semi-final? I can’t remeb… ah yes, it’s this one. Slightly bouncy. I guess that means it didn’t really grip me. Decent beat, sadly instantly forgettable.

Spain Nebulossa ZORRA

I remember this one as being pretty good. Apparently, a portion of the crowd are wearing fox ears because of this song. Apparently, to be a singer, you have to be under 40? I’m not sure how true that is, unless she’s had a hard paper round. I’d like to see it do well. Never really commented on it in the semis as they’re already through.

Estonia 5MIINUST x Puuluup (nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi

I liked this one in the semis. It’s proper weird, and it has the longest title of any song in the history of Eurovision. Seems to be out of sync though this time.

Ireland Bambie Thug Doomsday Blue

this one is absolutely one of the weirdest things I’ve ever seen at Eurovision? Are they going to tone it down for the final? No. At least it’s different I suppose.

Latvia Dons Hollow

From Ireland to this. Very slow, and I didn’t really “get” it. It’ll probably do well.

Greece Marina Satti ZARI

Oh yes, this is the one that sends the iplayer compression into spasms. A totally forgettable song, and I don’t thunk it’ll get anywhere.

United Kingdom Olly Alexander Dizzy

Ohhhhh no. Ours is complete gargae this year. If we get off the right side of the table tonight I’d be very surprised. Really not a fan. It’s only the 2nd time I’ve heard of it, and I hope it’s the last.

Norway Gåte Ulveham

Oh yes, it’s that hurdy-gurdy thing again. I think I quite liked this one in the semis. I still go. No idea what they’re rabbiting on about. I haven’t learned Norweigan in the space of 2-4 days. Decent tune to it though

Italy Angelina Mango La noia

Apparently sounds like a weird folk song. Oh yes, I remember it now. I think I like it more than I did last time.

Serbia TEYA DORA RAMONDA

Oh, it’s the one with the huge plastic rock. It’;s a slow one, and I don’t think it was up to much. Surprised it got through the first time. I can’t see it doing anything tonight.

Finland Windows95man No Rules!

The staging is absolutely hilarious That’s one of my favourites, definitely. I’d like to see it mdo well.

Portugal iolanda Grito

Wasn’t a fan of this the first time I heard it. I don’t think it’s got any petter the 2nd time.

Armenia LADANIVA Jako

This one’s catchy as hell. I remember, I thought I was going to forget about it, but it was still going through my head several minutes later. I still wouldn’t rush out and buy the CD though.

Cyprus Silia Kapsis Liar

Oh, this was the very first song in the competition, and I thought it sounded generic. I wonder if my thoughts of it have improved now that I’ve heard almost every song swice? Yes, it has. I like it now, and although it’s the first songs, it’s one of the only ones I properly remember.

Switzerland Nemo The Code

Oh yes. It’s the one with the weird spinning disc thing. I liked this one, despite it sounding like something out of The Fifth Element.

Slovenia Raiven Veronika

I think I liked this one? Ah, no. I liked her outfit.

Croatia Baby Lasagna Rim Tim Tagi Dim

Definitely one of the favourites… my me, and by the sounds of it, the crowd too. I’d like to see it do well.

Georgia Nutsa Buzaladze Firefighter

I liked this one at the time, but it sounds a little generic next to Baby Lasagna.

France Slimane Mon amour

Can’t say I was really a fan, but the singer has a fair set of lungs on him. It might do well.

Austria Kaleen We Will Rave

Yep, I remember liking this one, and I still do. Sounds like something that should have been popular in the 1990s though.

Aaaaaaaand, that’s your lot. 25 songs, because there was a disqualified team. Not sure why. Probably something political. Oh, it was the one that looked like Jimmy Savile. Never mind, eh? Well, there’s been a half time show. Abba didn’t appear, except in the firm of avatars. Hugely disappointing. Now, onto the votes…

Eurosong Fever 2024: The Semi-Finals 2

Ah, here we go again. I’ll be doing this one in realtime, so if you’re actually reading this, refresh and I’ll update as it goes along. Here’s what’s going to be on tonight, not counting the other ones that are already through.

Malta Sarah Bonnici – Loop

As always, off to a generic start. Very similar to Cyprus’ entry from the other night. And I think that went through, I’ll certainly not remember this one at all.

Albania BESA – TITAN

Apparently, she thinks the reworked version of this song is much better. Another slow one. Looks like she’s smuggled the Mitchell Brothers onto the set, mind. I hope this really kicks off with some kind of proper dance beat.

THERE IT GOES. It did. Shame it’s just the last 30 seconds though.

Greece Marina Satti – ZARI

Oh my. Sounds like she’s been using too much helium. Nope, don’t like this one, which means it’ll probably go through with flying colours… Speaking of flying colours, there’s too many of them, and it’s sensing the iplayer encoding on the wonk again. Not for me, that one.

Switzerland Nemo – The Code

Apparently, this is one of the favourites to win. High pitched screaming. A rap. Drm + Bass. Thgis ticks all of the aurovision boxes. Doubt we’ll see the busty milkmains on this one though. Best music of the night so far. Definitely through.

Czechia Aiko – Pedestal

Ergh. I don’t like this one as much as I thought I would when it started. The vocals don’t suit the music, it’sd as if she’s half an octave down. Don’t think it’ll get through.

And now a sing that’s already qualified… France. Is it going to be any good?

Three seconds in, and it’s absolutely not by type of song. Slow, ballady , and it looks like he’s wearing an onion bag.

Austria Kaleen – We Will Rave

Ooh, this one’s going to be a dance song. About time. Should have guessed that by the title, but yes, I like this one a lot, which means it has absolutely no chance of going through Definitely the best one of the night so far. POne of only a couple that I’d actually go out in the full contest and buy. And just when you think it’s going to end, it slaps one more chorus and “that” drum sample. Douse points.

Denmark SABA – SAND

Yeah, this one’s not bad. Heavy on the percussion, which meakes a good song. At least it does to be, anyway. Two good ones in a row. I like that.

Armenia LADANIVA – Jako

Catchy, with trumpets. N oidea what they’re singling about, but plenty of la la la bits. Probably not good enough for me to claim three goodsongs in a row. It’ll go out. Though it’s been about 5 minutes and it’s still going through my head.

Latvia Dons – Hollow

And here we are, back to the slow, ballady ones. That’ll probably go through, though I’m not really a fan.

Now there’s a Spain – an Electronic duo, so I’ll probably like this. It… wasn’t bad. Don’t think it was as good as they made it out to be.

San Marino MEGARA – 11:11

Apparently, the Sapnish track translates into ‘vixen’. Which is ironic, as I’m now sat here thinking “What the fox that?” Not quite as weird as the Irish entry the other night, but it’s up there. I do quite like it and actually hope it does well. It SHOULD get through.

Georgia Nutsa Buzaladze – Firefighter

this one’s not bad either. Got those traditional violin sounds to it. No idea what it’s called, but, yeah, I’d like to see it go through, therefore it probably won’t.

Belgium Mustii – Before the Party’s Over

Well, theat ends the long run of decent songs. this one isn’t. It’s already forgettable and I’m still listening to it. It’s picked up towards the end, but I don’t think that’s going to be enough to save it.

Estonia 5MIINUST – x Puuluup (nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi

Er, is that what this one’s called? I copied the name from the Eurovision website, so it’d better be right. Oh apparently it IS the right name, and it’s the longest song title in the history of Eurovision. So, that’s interesting.

A rap group and a zombie folk group, you say? Well, I have no idea what they’re singing, but I’ve just cranked the sound up. If this doesn’t qualify, there’s something wrong. It’s up there with the top two songs of the night.

Italy next, and these have already qualified. Angeline Mango, apparently. La Noia, which translates to Boredom. Sounds like some weird folk song. Not that good. Decent set of lungs on her, but I wouldn’t queue outside Solid Sounds to buy it.

Israel Eden Golan – Hurricane

Another show, ballady ones Apparently, there was booing during the rehearsals. Not for the song, I guess, as it’s quite good. It’s got that suble hint of piano which I like so much in a song. I don’t think it’ll even get close due to the current politial situation, which is a shame as I quite liked it as a song.

Norway Gåte – Ulveham

A song that features a traditional Norweigan herding call. Oh, there’s one of the weird stringed instruments like a violin, but with keys. I forget what it’s called. And then it all kicks off. I like this one. Genuinely something I’d add randomly to spotify, forget why I added it, yet still listen to it in its entirety every single time. It’s reat. I’ve already resigned it to the EuroDustbin by claiming I like it, but it deserves to go through.

Netherlands Joost Klein – Europapa

And here we go, this is it. the final one. He sounds like Scooter, looks like a camp Jimmy Savile. Stupid suit, catchy song, ridiculous dance moves. Naming random foods. Tribute to late father This one needs to go through. If it doesn’t, the roots of Eurovision have been lost to history. Definitely in my top three.

Well, all of that fitted in 1000 words, chiming in at 998 words. That’s quite amusing. You can tell I’m looking for something to do while this TERRIBLE interlude goes on. Pointing the microphone at the audience, and getting them to join in with several of the winners. How are they going to top this during the actual finals?

So overall, I’d like to see Austria and Norway to go through. Netherlan

Here’s the ones I’ll predict will go through…

Norway – THROUGH
Austria – THROUGH
Estonia – THROUGH
Latvia – THROUGH
Switzerland – THROUGH
Armenia – THROUGH
Netherlands – THROUGH
Georgia – THROUGH
Denmark
San Marino

Let’s see how many I get right, eh? Ones I got wrong are…

Israel – Glad that got through even though I didn’t think it would. I like that song.
Greece

Well, that’s not bad. 8/10. San Marino didn’t get through when I really thought it would. I was going to say it may have been just too weird, but then again, Ireland got through on Tuesday night, so there’s no accounting for taste.

Right, anyway, that concludes this post. I guess there’ll be an update on here on Saturday night.

Eurosong Fever 2024: The Semi-Finals 1

Oh, apparently Eurovision started tonight. Tha was news to me. I just happened to load up Iplayer and there it was. Therefore, it’s of course, time for me to do my review of each song. Do I like them? Well, if last years’ was anything to go by… yes. I remember actually liking quite a few of them… so much so that I actually went and bought the CD… which ,at the time of typing, is still on the shelf in its cellophane. Can’t have like ed them that much. Oh well. Without further ado, here’s what I think of them, from the list hurriedly copied and pasted off the Aeurovision website, because I didn’t realise this was tonight until 10 minutes ago…

Cyprus Silia Kapsis Liar

So, we’re already starting off generic. I could have sworn she sang “Fuck you.” That’d be an interesting start. Something about someone being a liar. It got better, and it was actually quite catchy

Serbia TEYA DORA RAMONDA

No idea why this title is in capitals. I just left it like that. Oh, we’re already on to the slow ones. some wifey sat on a plastic rock and, of course, ligh shining through the dry ice on the floor. I have absolutely no idea what language it’s in. It’s completely forgettable, and I don’t think it’ll get anywhere.

Lithuania Silvester Belt Luktelk

Apparently, this one’s quite catchy, and he has some type of weird face piercing. Oooh, It’s catchy, though I really think it should have had more to it… though it’s probably the best one so far.

Ireland Bambie Thug Doomsday Blue

I…. er…. wow… this is a bit weird. Actually, no, it’s very weird. This is quite possibly one of the weirdest things I’ve ever watched.

Oh, now here’s ours. the first time I’ve heard this. Absolutely nil points. I don’t know what’s happening with that set. Are they upside down or not? I don’t get it. Someone in the commentary box just climaxed. I don’t even know who’s doing it this year.

Ukraine alyona alyona & Jerry Heil Teresa & Maria

A powerful and solumn ballad, apparently. Already a no from me and I’ve only heard 5 seconds. Actually, I spoke too soon, it’s not all that bad. I have no idea on the lyrics. I heard something about “politica” in there, so I’m probably best off not having a translation if I’m honest. Guessing it’s either about the war, or female empowerment. Or both.

Poland LUNA The Tower

Ah, here it is. the first stupid dress of the contest, unless you count Ireland’s. that was more just scary, though. The song isn’t that bad. Same thing over and over again, something about her building a tower. Probably won’t get through

Croatia Baby Lasagna Rim Tim Tagi Dim

Hahaha. Now, I caught about 5 seconds of this when I accidentally went to live view. Apparently, this one is the favourite to win Loud, aggressive and memorable, apparently. And yes, this is what I like about Eurovision. Absolutely, without doubt, my favourite so far, and if this doesn’t qualify, I’ll eat my cat. I love everything about this. Mind you, I said that about some of the songs last year that failed to qualify

celand Hera Björk Scared of Heights

Nope, this one doesn’t have anything going for it. Very generic pop feel to it, nothing is sticking out as being memorable about it. I don’t think it’ll get through.

Now there’s another qualifier… Isaac – Always on the Run. There’s an oil barrel on fire. I wonder if it sets off the sprinklers. That’ll be hilarious. Oh, I think I’ve heard this one somewhere before. Apparently has the sound of a real elephant in the chorus. Oh, now that whole set’s on fire. It’s obviously qualified, but is it going to win the whole thing? Is it feck.

Slovenia Raiven Veronika

Despite all of the VT clips and bits in between songs, I’m still 15 minutes behind. I could quite easily make three minutes back by fast-forwarding this. Absolutely no chance of qualifying. That suit’s not leaving much to the imagination. Lots of screaming and that weird tongue-roll thing.

Finland Windows95man No Rules!

I’ve been told about this one. That’s actually one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in the history of watching these. Nekkid bloke, with amusing props about the stage to hide his modesty. I didn’t even listen to the song as I was laughing that hard.

Moldova Natalia Barbu In The Middle

Aaaaaand we’re back in the room. If there was a song that defined the exact middle of Eurovision, this would be it. I don’t hate it. I don’t like it. Bit of violin, bit of operatic-type screeching.

Now it’s Sweden’s turn, they’ve already qualified so I don’t really need to say much about it, but the vocalist sounds like the bloke out of Savage Garden. The lighting is playing absulte havoc with the encoding. Not many to go now.

Azerbaijan FAHREE feat. Ilkin Dovlatov Özünl? Apar

Well, it’s been a poor turn out so far, hasn’t it? With only four more to go, there’s only a couple I’ll listen to again. Guess what? This isn’t one of them.

Australia Electric Fields One Milkali (One Blood)

So, if anything, I’ve learned that “Milkali” is aboriginal for blood. 90s synth piano. Synth bass. The guy playing the keyboard hasn’t pressed a single key yet. Someone should tell him how to at least play pretendy. And now there’s a bloke with a digeridoo just walked on. I like this one. Hope it goes through. Been a poor crop so far.

Portugal iolanda Grito

Well, it’s started off slow, and I don’t think it’s going to get much better than this. the crowd like it, however, so it’ll probably get through.

gLuxembourg TALI Fighter

Well, I do quite like this one. I’m not sure if the audio is dropping out or if it’s actually in the song, though. Oh, CGI leapords too, that look like they’re from the 90s. Looks like Luxembourg never upgraded past the Geforce 2.

Right, that’s the lot for part one. I can get to fast forward through all the dreck in the middle while the voting takes place.

So, the winners are…

SERBIA
PORTUGAL – Yes, it did get through.
SLOVENIA – Guess someone liked that weird tongue roll
UKRAINE – Yeah, I liked that one.
LITHUANIA
FINLAND – Yay, Windows95Man is through.
CYPRUS – Wasn’t bad.
CROATIA – Glad they got through.
IRELAND – Huh. Guess the goths were out in force.
LUXEMBOURG – Guess someone liked those Geforce 2 leopards.

Yeah, so I’m surprised Australia never got through. I’ll probably not post anything on Thursday as it clashes with the darts, but I’ll probably record it and watch it later.

Another CD lost to time… or is it?

Well, this is getting embarrassing now. Maybe I’ve just started noticing more of these, but I was in the charity shop just yesterday and I noticed yet another “injket warrior” CD. Good lord, I really need to come up with a better name for those. Any suggestions welcome in the comments. But for new viewers, these are basically bands, or individuals that release their own music on CDRs, before online streaming was a thing, and the disc covers and/or labels were produced on a consumer inkjet printer. I happened to be browsing the Alice House Hospice, in the lovely fishing village of Hartlepool, when this beauty emerged from the rows of bloody Perry Como and Il Divo…

This one instantly piqued my interest, namely “Okus Dolphin – Dark Sirens Of The night” . It was a single. Normally, these type of homebrew ones appear in the charity shops as albums. It also included a club mix of some sort, so it certainly wasn’t going to be your run-of-the-mill country CD or anything like that.

The case wasn’t in the greatest shape, but I could see, lying on the grey plastic tray underneath was my nemesis. A CD with another printed label. Well, how could I resist? Would it play? Under the shop lights it looked fine. No scratches, and no obvious damage. My heart was pounding with excitement, as I threw over a shiny pound coin to the shopkeep, who, before my interruption was carefully sticking coat hangers inside ladies’ clothers.

33p later, I took it home, went out for a few bevvies, came home and was excited to listen to it. I pressed play… My heart sank. There was the all-to-familiar audio crackle that proves, once again, the bloody CD label has ruined this otherwise perfect CD. I was gutted. I listened to track 1 through the crackles, namely “Dark Sirens Of The Night”. A catchy little number. No idea of the lyrics, or what it was about, but I really quite liked it (turns out the lyrics are printed on the inside ofn the sleeve… a nice touch!). A couple more plays… nope, no better.

Sadly, another one I didn’t get to in time.

As you can see from the disk, something odd appears. You can see the original branding of the CDR showing through. Not something I’ve noticed with other ruined CDs, but, yes, there are also the telltale black spots showing, and maybe it’s just the light in that photo, but the dye seems a little discoloured too. Thanks to the damage, I can see this was a “Master” branded CD-R, wich I believe were sold exclusively in Staples.

I wasn’t intending doing a write-up of this disk until much later, but then I noticed that Okus Dolphin was active on Twitter (it’s not X, it never will be X), 21 MINUTES before I listened to the CD… considering this disk is now 23 years old, I didn’t expect that.

Turns out, this is the first case where a ruined disc isn’t lost media! Apparently, all of the tracks are available on Spotify, thanks to an album dated 2008

There’s a demo version of “Dark Sirens Of The Mind” on there too, but it also seems the tape was used as a multitrack or a drum loop too, so it’s pretty unlistenable.

Overall, it’s a shame the CD didn’t survive, but I’m over the moon that I’d discovered a catchy, original song I actually like. I don’t expect that to happen too often during this journey.

Another CD gone to the charity shop in the sky

Rotting CDRs are starting to get on my nerves now.

I don’t find one for years, and then I find two within a week. Same issue as before. Paper label, destroyed data.

This one’s by a band called “Scarlet Renegade”… and unfortunately, that’s all I can really tell you. The cover of the CD features a Myspace link, which, of course, no longer works. The only other information is who was in the band, and even then, it’s just first names and nicknames…

Stu – Vocals
Dan – Guitar
Chris – Bass, Vocals
Spud – Drums.

The CD comes presented in a slimline jewel case, like you’d get back in the day when you’d pick up a pack of CDRs. The cover design is relatively simple, though the inlay is professionally printed.

As mentioned, there’s a Myspace link at the bottom of the sleeve. Of course, it didn’t survive the great Myspace purge, so the link no longer works. I did find an article in the Northern Echo, where they’re mentioned for performing at the ‘Newblood Festival’, but sadly no music. And I quote…

The bands for the evening’s entertainment were Scarlet Renegade, Bubblegum Thrash, Girls Last Choice and Midterm Break. Both Scarlet Renegade and Bubblegum Thrash performed good opening sets, Scarlet Renegade certainly took my fancy (although I must admit I did see them play excellently at Richmond Live in the summer)

I’ve found no more info about the band. The name coincides with something from World Of Warcraft, so obviously that’s taken priority over a small indie band from Darlington.

The annoying thing is, this particular disk partially works. It rips, but barely. You can actually hear the music on it, there’s just a lot of distortion, as if you’re listening to it on a radio that’s picking up interference from a nearby washing machine. There’s lots of hiss on it, and the guitars probably sound a bit more crunchy than they’re supposed to be. I’ve ripped it a few times now, and I think I’m going to get it as good as it’s ever going to sound.

And following on from the previous ‘Rotten CD’ post, I tried that “Serving Suggestion” disk on another machine (and another piece of software) and again, got nothing. Couldn’t even get the first track to read, therefore I’m giving up hope of it ever working. Turns out there was an entry on Discogs for that particular CD, so I’ve scanned the covers though and uploaded them, so at least the nicely designed cover hasn’t been lost to time, even if the actual music inside certainly has.

I’d love to read any comments you have on Scarlet Renegade, and any history of the band.

If only I could travel back in time 20 years

I wish I had a time machine. there’s only one thing that’s starting to come to light now, and to be perfectly honest, I’m the only person who probably knows about it. As you know, I’m a music lover. I’m done with trawling the charity shops for good CDs though. Now I trawl the charity shops for obscure CDs.

You know the type. A local band, usually consisting of a few ex-school friends or work colleagues. They get together and form a band. They record some tracks, they burn a few copies, print out a lovely case, and even stick a fancy paper label on there using one of the many, many CD labelling kits around at the time. They give some to their mates, maybe give some away at gigs when they do something at their local pub.

They eventually drift apart, and the bands get forgotten about. These burned CDs occasionally end up in charity shops, and I happily hoover them up. I’ve found some absolute pearlers of songs amongst them, some of which I intend to go through and document here in the future.

Anyway, that’s a story for another post. What I’m writing about here is that a lot of these CDs are now sadly unplayable.

Remember a few lines above where I mentioned that the bands / individuals will stick labels on the disks to make them look nice? Well, it seems those lovely labels are robbing future listeners of the opportunity to hear their music.

I, thankfully, haven’t found too many examples of this over time, but I know I’m going to find more, and it means that some songs are lost forever. No matter how small a band is or however long they’ve lasted, if they liked their music enough to put it onto record it, put it on a CDR and distribute it to a few people, then it simply deserves to be listened to by future generations… or, me.

Anyway, this all came about several years ago. I found a CD in a charity shop. It was a home-burned one, meaning it was all inkjet printed. They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but you can certainly do this with CDs. I wanted to hear this.

The CD had one of those Inkjet label maker things on it. They were in every staionery store throughought the land in the 2000s. I put the CD in, attempted to rip it, and “nothing”. Or rather, It did eventually rip, but my CD drive sounded like it was having a nervous breakdown, and must have took an hour. I attempted to play it, but the sound was completely garbled. If you loaded it into Audacity, you could see the shape of a song there, but zoom in and the whole thing resembled a square wave. I tried this particular disc on many CD players. It was able to recognise it as a CD (the table of contents is stored in a very small area, only a few bytes at the beginning of the disc) but playing any of the tracks was a complete failure.

This CD was by a band called “Beckett”, and for all I know, this could have been the only copy ever produced, and now it’s gone for good. There are plenty of bands out there with the same name, but none of them appear to have the same tracklisting as what this CD contained.

Anyway, Last Saturday, I was in a charity shop, and picked up this.

It’s called “What’s In A Box” by a band called “Serving Suggestion”, released in 2002. It was 99p, and factory sealed. Enough for me to take a punt on it. Fast forward 8 days, I rip the cellophane off. I hope the image above just shows how pristine this thing was. Also, note that there’s none of your inkjet muck here. The case was professionally designed and printed.

The actual design of the case is clever. The disk was printed like a pizza…

Lift the CD out, and the underside of the inlay had a greasy mark printed, where the CD sat. It actually gave me a giggle.

I slapped the CD in, expecting to be greeted with some South African early 2000s indie tunes. After a minute or so, I got nothing. I took the CD out and examined it. From the naked eye, it looks absolutely pristine, after never being played before…

Ignore the dust, my phone loves picking up stuff like that. After a quick wipe, there was nay a mark to be seen, but I couldn’t be arsed reuploading the photo.

I turned the disk over, and realised that yes, this bloody disk had a paper label. It wasn’t apparent at first, as this was a nicely presented CD, but the scientific method of trying to lift it with my nail proved once and for all at this was, indded a paper label…

And, if you view the data portion in just the right light, you can see the issue… the bit where the data is stored has taken on a leapord-skin appearance, and is no longer a uniform shade.

It’s especially prominent to the left of the image, with that leapord-skin blotching. You can see where the lighter data section clearly had dark blobs on it. I can only assume that, over time, the glue on the label has reacted with either the dye on the disk, or the foil layer, or a combination of both. It’s sort-of like a “modern day” equivalent of the CD Bronzing fiasco that happened in the late 80s / early 90s. I don’t expect for this post to actually resonate with anyone, but I know there will be millions of people out there that will have used these CD labels and have precious memories stored on CDRs. Maybe it’s time to download the data from them before they all rot.

EDIT: I did try this disc on another machine, with different software,in the vain hope it’ll make any difference. Unfortunately, it didn’t. I’ll probably end up just binning this CD, but all is not lost. I’ve scanned all of the artwork in, and there’s a Discogs entry for this particular disc, and the artwork isn;t very good, so I’ll replace mine with that one. the case will go on to replace a damaged case.

Ghosts of Christmas Presents – 1993

There’s not a lot I can say about this that I haven’t already said. This was the year my life changed for the better. I got my Amiga 1200! I think I’ve rambled on about this now so much that all I can do is repeat myself, but… I think it’s worth going through again in case I missed something out. Plus, I’m sure my old readers have got bored of these and buggered off by now. This will be the last one, so months of silence will once again prevail, I’m sure.

So, 1993 was the year I’d made friends with a lad called Ste. He had an Amiga 600. At this point, I was either still beavering my way through the stack of C64 disks I had, or fumbling by way through my ageing ZX Spectrum tape collection. I was still stuck in the 8-bit era.

Ste had introduced me to the Amiga, and the greatness that lay within. There was, of course… ahem… “Dulux Paint 2” and its picture of Tutankhamun. It was more the games I was interested in, however. I was blown away with ‘Indianapolis 500’, and the fact the cars actually smashed when you hit them. Little polygon bits would fly about the screen. Also, the floppy disk load times were immeasureably quicker than the Commodore 64 that had a well-documented bug that slowed the loading times from disk.

Ste had the A600. Imagine my surprise and delight when Iripped open the wrapping paper on December 25th 1993 and found the model up, the A1200 staring back at me! This was everything I’d dreamed of, and more. More colours, mome memory. More keyboard! It looked, and felt like a proper computer.

The included games were…. naff. Two of them, namely ‘Oscar‘, and ‘Dennis‘. Those links open longplays of both games if you’re *really* bored.

If you can’t be arsed clicking, Oscar was a character with a weird shaped head, where you had to go around collecting film cannisters in a platformy universe. It was okay, I suppose. My favourite of the two. Dennis, however, was just a waste of two disks. It was based on the American version of “Dennis the Menace”. Some blond haired kid always getting up to mischief, trampling his neighbours flowers and inane stuff like that. It was not entertaining, and I’m pretty sure I formatted the disks shortly after, and used them for something else.

For me though, it wasn’t about the games, it was more about the utilities. The machine game with Dulux Paint 3 (yes, I know it’s Deluxe Paint, but that misnomer still makes me laugh to this day) which was a a step up from the previous version. My ‘expanded’ Amiga meant I had 256 colours to choose from. In fact, I’m pretty sure this was the first thing I loaded up on the machine. There was also Wordworth. A word procrssor. Not exactly exciting back in the day, but coupled with a printer I got much later, this became an essential application.

At the first opportunity, Daddykins and I went and got the ‘essentials’. My Christmas money went on 40 blanks disks from Argos, a copy of Amiga Format, issue 55, an Amiga guidebook, and a copy of “Now That’s What I Call Music! 1986” on cassette. I’d hazard a guess that this particular issue of Amiga Format was their biggest ever seller. For those of you who follow the blog on a regular basis, I buy batches of disks off ebay occasionally, and there’s always a copy of that coverdisk amongst them, namely Diskmaster II. A pretty basic file manager, used for copying files and stuff like that. Not the most exciting piece of software. The guidebook was also pretty useless. I don’t think it told me anything that I didn’t already know within 15 minutes of operating the machine on my own.

Another friend, also called Ste Ilet’s call him Ste 2), introduced me to the world of games a few days later. I remember being around his house when he slipped in some disks named “Cannon Fodder”. The disk drive clicked enthusiastically. He turned the speakers up… “WAR! Never been so much fun!”. If my mind was blown away by Flimbo’s Quest a couple of years prior, I think I’d just gone even more bong-eyed than I already was. Essentially, a full song played digitally from a floppy disk.

Ste 2 has, of course, moved on, but he lived on the main road through Hartlepool at the time. I still pass his old house on a daily basis, and think of that very moment.

Personally, I’d go so far as to say this was the best Xmas gift I ever received. It was unexpected, it got years worth of use. It certainly guided to where I am with computers today. As the years went on, I got a hard drive for it, and as you know, I’ve created an image of that hard drive which still exists to this day.

Sadly, the Amiga itself is not a well puppy.It’s got some type of graphics fault. I took these photos back in 2007, the last time I switched it on.

This is supposed to be the boot-intro to Spindizzy Worlds. My Amiga, during storage, has developed a fault in the video side of things, so all you see is this mix of colours, with an unstable screen
Everything else works, as the sound continues to play.
I’m yet to find out whether it’s a terminal fault which can’t be replaced. I hope not

And that’s that. If you’re reading this on the day it was published, many thanks for taking the time away from your family to sift through my inane ramblings. I wish you and yours all the best for the rest of the festive season, and of course, 2024, where I’m sure I’ll bore you senseless with more inane crap!