Prince Randian was born in 1871 in the Demerara area of what was then British Guiana (now called Guyana). Randian’s real name is unknown – indeed, little at all is known about his early life, other than that he was born with tetra-amelia syndrome to Hindi parents, believed to be British-Indian servants. Tetra-amelia syndrome is […]
Where Were You? Independent Music from Leeds 1978-1989 – Cherry Red Records Name a famous band from Leeds? Half a point for Sisters of Mercy (too obvious) one point if you said The Wedding Present or Cud. It gets really tricky after that – I could manage four or five, but then, I am from […]
The Banana Splits were born, predictably, in 1967, perhaps the most important year in the 60s for music, with game-changing releases by The Doors, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, The Beatles, Small Faces, The Monkees and thousands of others. Neon colours, a logo you could copy onto your pencil case, psychedelia and catchy melodies were rife, […]
The Melvins – At the Stake – The Atlantic Recordings, 1993-1995 Led Zeppelin; Aretha Franklin; The Bee Gees; Foreigner; The Melvins. Of course, this is simply mischief – for every Hall & Oates there was an MC5, but make no mistake, the signing of The Melvins by Atlantic Records did raise eyebrows. In 1993, the […]
You’d think that Roald Dahl was the only author of children’s books for those living through the latter half of the 20th century, but the collections of curated folk tales by Ruth Manning-Sanders and illustrated by Robin Jacques were every bit as vital for those in the know. Though a noted poet and novelist in […]
‘Gargoyles,’ the TV movie which first aired on CBS in America in 1972, may not be the best example of its kind, but it may well be its most extraordinary. With the lines now completely eradicated, it already seems a little odd that there was once such a distinction which needed to be made – […]
Keep Repeating, “It’s only a ZX Spectrum game, it’s only…” As a rule, if a game was released on the ZX Spectrum based on a film, the likelihood was that it was terrible beyond measure. Whether it was seemingly unmissable targets like ‘Ghostbusters’ or “it seemed like a good idea at the time” acquisitions like […]
Loompanics was your go-to one-stop shop for ‘grey area’ and ‘very black indeed area’ books for thirty years. At this risk of this sounding like one of those cataract-viewed pieces which suggest everything in the old days was better, pre-internet, to find out anything beyond the mainstream, whether it be weird films, bootlegged music, or […]
Not the most obvious subject when considering a picture book for children but, yes, it happened – a book for juveniles all about Joseph Carey Merrick, The Elephant Man. First published by Allison & Busby in 1983, the book is written by Michael Howell and Peter Ford and is illustrated by Robert Geary. The early […]
The Usborne Guide to the Supernatural World was first published in 1979 and comprised three smaller, separately published books by Usborne, all under the ‘Supernatural Guides’ banner; ‘Haunted Houses, Ghosts and Spectres’; ‘Mysterious Powers and Strange Forces’; ‘Vampires, Werewolves and Demons’. They were written and edited by: Eric Maple -born in 1916, Maple was an […]
