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Reposted by Andy Lewis

Samira Ahmed @samiraahmeduk.bsky.social · 8h

My BFI Classic on The Beatles’ film A Hard Day’s Night is available to preorder now. Here’s the story behind it. I love the cover - inspired by the film poster and a key theme in the book: the power of television in transmitting the Beatles to the world. samiraahmed.blog/why-i-wrote-...

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 8h

The happiest of birthdays to you!

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Reposted by Andy Lewis

Some Melodious Plot @somemelodiousplot.bsky.social · 18h

An utterly gorgeous and riveting piece on Kate Kennedy’s new book on the cello. Reading, with Jacqueline du Pré bowing majestically in the background. @lrb.co.uk

www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

Thomas Laqueur · A Different Life: Can cellos remember?

Cellists and violinists in particular are haunted by the musicians who played their instruments before them and those...

www.lrb.co.uk

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Reposted by Andy Lewis

Andrew Orton @andreworton.bsky.social · 21h

The death of multi-camera TV: a thread. I know most of you will know the technical parts of this (and may have read it in the other place) but bear with me. 1/ 🧵

A shot from the studio rehearsal of Doctor Who: The Daleks' Master Plan episode 'Volcano', showing several actors ont he TARDIS set, with various video cameras around the scene.

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Reposted by Andy Lewis

Jonathan Calder @lordbonkers.bsky.social · 23h

Going to university never occurred to him. “I had to get a university standard of education by study in my own time without the benefit of actually attending,” he writes.

Move over, Alan Turing: meet the working-class hero of Bletchley Park you didn’t see in the movies

The Oxbridge-educated boffin is feted as the codebreaking genius who helped Britain win the war. But should a little-known Post Office engineer named Tommy Flowers be seen as the real father of comput...

www.theguardian.com

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Reposted by Andy Lewis

Matt Owen @mjowen174.bsky.social · 23h

If you could please do us a favour and RT (or whatever it is on here) my writing CV I would be extremely grateful. I am a very capable writer of words, mainly “humorous”’ and if you have some PROPER paid work for me, please DM me. Thank you for your time www.mathew-owen.co.uk

Home | Matt Owen | Freelance Writer

I offer a broad and diverse range of writing services. Get in touch!

www.mathew-owen.co.uk

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 23h

It was B. Rhymed with Cabbage. But more to the point, he looked like Bergerac!

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 1d

James Hogg marooned on a remote Scottish island. This was something that I saw when it went out 50 years ago that's stuck with me ever since. Given that Survivors, The Changes & The Good Life were all on the BBC during this year, were they trying to tell us something?

youtu.be/Haow7PXR89w?...

1975: Stranded on a Desert Island | Nationwide | Weird and Wonderful | BBC Archive

YouTube video by BBC Archive

youtu.be

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 1d

I bet he's rubbish at poached eggs though. And, in my experience, that's the thing that really counts.

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 1d

Looks like the paint is chipping off as it is. It is the kind of job a guitar restorer might be able to do in a trice with the right solvent and tools.

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 1d

They are amazing basses. But heavy, expensive, amazing basses.

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 1d

Still useful in the 21st century.

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 1d

An A10 Warthog of a bass. I keep meaning to pick one up but they've got too expensive now.

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 1d

-ghastly hideous noises of nuclear war, if that's what's required, which the Typhoon can't do. I mean, you can't play Two Minutes To Midnight by Iron Maiden on a WAL. You can on a Rickenbacker.

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 1d

- The British involvement may only have been Rotosound strings on it, but my Rickenbacker 3001 was the sound of my Britpop years. And so it is with the F35. It's a lot more versatile and cheaper than trying to make the Typhoon stealthy. Also, the version the RAF want to buy can make the-

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 1d

- a Rickenbacker 3001 that someone's made out of transparent acrylic. Versatile, stealthy, expensive... but if you could afford one you'd get one, let's be honest. With the right outboard you could make it sound like pretty much anything and work in any style of music you like. -

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 1d

-(Stretch Armstrong's got nothing on this) when bass synthesis became really good. You can hear the bass but you don't know where it's coming from. The US had invited the UK to get involved with developing a thing that became known as the F35. In the world of bass guitars, this is -

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 1d

-you'd bloody well hope that something you'd spent a whole load of money on would do the job you wanted it to do. Anyway, it meant that the RAF became dependent on one kind of plane. Meanwhile Stealth technology was entering its next generation and was definitely becoming a thing. A bit like -

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 1d

- Anyway, the RAF now had flying WAL basses, and they kind of worked. They were modified to fit the political and military climate of the times, and did a pretty good job dropping bombs on and firing missiles at more or less what they were aimed at. And still do... but then-

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 1d

- Even as they took to the skies in 2002/3, the Typhoon was getting expensive modifications designed into it. The equivalent of sending your WAL back to the factory for new hardware, more versatile electronic circuitry and the ability to have different gauges of strings put on it. -

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 1d

- did the equivalent of ordering 232 WAL basses. Obviously they were late arriving.I mean WAL could only make a few a month. In any case, the order was reduced before the first ones arrived. They looked great and sounded great playing "Wouldn't It Be Good", but by now the kids were into Girls Aloud-

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 1d

- Yes I KNOW it was a *european* effort, but most of the preliminary work was done by British Aerospace and it was sold to the public as securing British jobs. It would've been cheaper, much cheaper, to buy F-16s or FA-18s that American companies were already building. But instead the UK govt-

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 1d

-They were ruinously expensive, heavy things. They oozed quality workmanship but were a sod to play and sounded great in the contemporary pop environment but rubbish in every other circumstance. Now here's how to stretch an analogy... The Eurofighter Typhoon was a flying WAL-

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 1d

Andrew Snowden MP won't remember the WAL. It was arguably the last volume (in that they made three or four a month) produced bass guitar in the UK. It was conceived in the late 70s and made for the 80s pop market. Dennis Smith of Secret Affair got one which served him well in Nik Kershaw's band-

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Andy Lewis @andylewis.bsky.social · 1d

- Pretty much everything I need for a whole bunch of options including the sonic equivalent of a nuclear strike in the shape of a Rickenbacker eight-string. I have invested over many years building up a selection of equipment that gives me choices. I am the United States Air Force of bassists.-

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