...Happy New Year, fantastic aurora on Hogmanay, some great music from Shetland...via Shetland...and onwards to the world

It's 1 January 2017, I'm the only one out of bed and the Rancilio has been duly fired up. Coffee (Bean Shop of Perth espresso blend, as used in Lerwick's excellent Peerie Shop Café) has been taken, but the benefit of doing the show last night was a late start to drinking and, due to tiredness, an early finish. Had to get up at 5.00am yesterday to get James from the airport. Now, in the house above, he, Martha, Magnus, Magnus's fiancée Katie, Susan, our pal Lizzie and three dogs (Rug the St Bernard, Cooper the Greyhound, Dexter the Hyperactive Mongrel) are all snoozing.

And it's a beautiful day! Cold northerly blowing, but clear and blue skies. After an amazing night for the aurora, da merrie dancers, the northern lights, which allowed some of our visitors, just three days in Shetland, to see a fireworks display that eclipsed Edinburgh's by a very large degree.

So anyway, here I am, and I hope you're feeling good about the 12 months to come. To cheer you on your way, here's the Mixcloud audio stream of last night's two-hour Beatcroft Social, plus the last 20 minutes or so of video on Facebook - the rest was annoyingly taken down by a Facebook algorithm without explanation. But that last half hour has some of the finest shots of the aurora, mostly from the Cliff Cam at Sumburgh head, looking north.

Back live next week! Happy New Year. Oh, and here's a full playlist too, plus a link to the Spotify playlist which includes some tasty extras (and excludes the vinyl and cassettes). And can anyone spot the ONLY EVER reference in popular song to the glorious Yamaha FS1E 'Fizzy' motorcycle?

a'best

Tom



Beatcroft Social Hogmanay Special - full playlist

Righteous Brothers/Wrecking Crew: Rat Race
The Beat: Tears of a Clown
Frank Wilson: Do I love You? (Indeed I Do)
The Ukrainians: Anarchy in the UK (vinyl)
Ryan Adams: To Be Without you
Beat Farmers: Reason to Believe
Bruce Springsteen: Cadillac Ranch
Paul Brady: Arthur McBride (live recording from 'The Missing Liberty Tapes')
Pete Atkin: Time to Burn (lyrics by Clive James)
Aly Bain, Tom Anderson, Davie Tulloch, Trevor Hunter, Violet Tulloch: Jack Broke Da Prison Door/Donald Blue/Sleep Sound in the Morning/Lasses Trust in Providence/The Bonnie Isle of Whalsay. (Vinyl, from 'The Silver Bow Volume One')
Richard and Linda Thompson: Wall of Death
Scrape the Barrel: Last Chance (cassette, from 'Shetland Calling')
The Bashies: Black Cat
Gloria Jones: Tainted Love
Seasick Steve: Abraham, Martin and John
Status Quo: Over and Done With
Joe Ely: The Road Goes On Forever
Aidan Moffat and Bill Wells: The Copper Top
Tom Robinson Band: Up Against the Wall
Thin Lizzy: The Boys Are Back In town
Ronnie Costley: Hogmanay in Heaven (demo)
Stone Roses: Fool's Gold (vinyl 12-inch single)
Toots and the Maytals: 54-46 - That's My Number
Chuck Wood: Seven Days Too Long
Lorraine Chandler: I Can't Hold On
Free: All Right Now

The Beatcroft Social on 60 North Radio - 5 November 2016. Absolute Beginners please!

Back live after a week awa' sooth, and back into the battle with Facebook Live. We ARE legal, here at 60 North, or as legal as the antiquated, sheet-music system of music licensing can allow. We have all the licences we can obtain. Get with the programme, guys! I see Facebook are advertising for a 'Global Music Licensing Executive' who will doubtless be negotiating with the likes of Sony and Universal, and be immune to the wishes of tiny wee outfits like 60 North. Just get on with it, Markie.

So, the Facebook stream has been removed, without explanation, and that took all your valuable and much appreciated comments as well. Sorry, but we cannot control the Mighty Zuckerberg and his algorithms.

Thank goodness for Mixcloud, an entity which understands music and how it should work on the web. Here's the link to Saturday's show. A full playlist follows. Back next week for more adventures in visual radio, and hopefully some better weather.

Oh, and as I write, Sunday Teas in Gulberwick Hall this afternoon. Thanks to John Hunter for that information. I should also say that the track which just leaps out at me from the show is the long, soundtrack version of Absolute Beginners, by David Bowie, played off cassette. It's a truly awesome song, and an amazing performance with fabulous piano from Rick Wakeman and one of the all time great saxophone solos by Don Weller.

Other highlights: Kid Canaveral off 45rpm single; James Taylor's still-stunning guitar playing on You Can Close Your Eyes, probably the best solo acoustic accompanist there has ever been. And the news (via Michael Craig) that ALL the late Michael Marra's recordings will be issued digitally, for the first time, in January.

This week's show has more cassettes and vinyl than ever before, including some very rare tunes indeed.



Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds: Into Your Arms
Yvonne Lyon: We Were Not Made for the Shadows
XTC: Love on a Farmboy's Wages
Steely Dan: Dallas (from the Probe/MFP sampler 'Spirit of Rock'. Vinyl)
World Party: When the Rainbow Comes
Teenage Fanclub: Kylie's Got a Crush on Us (Select Magazine Cassette 1992, live at King Tut's)
Staple Singers: If You're Ready (Come Go With Me)
Dougal and the Blue Cat: Excerpt from the original soundtrack (vinyl).
Andy Fairweather-Low: Wide Eyed and Legless
David Bowie: Absolute Beginners (full film soundtrack version; cassette)
Lindi Ortega: Ashes
Tom Waits and Crystal Gayle: This One's From The Heart (Vinyl; full soundtrack version)
Half Man Half Biscuit: Adam Boyle Has Cast Lad Rock Aside
Ramones: Blitzkrieg Bop
Kathleen Edwards: Sidecar
Tony O'Neill: Throw Away Your Guns (1986 cassette demo)
James Taylor: You Can Close Your Eyes
Michael Marra: O Fellow Man (from the cassette Candy Philosophy)
Kid Canaveral: Low Winter Sun (from 45rpm vinyl single!)
Amazing Rhythm Aces: Third Rate Romance
The Walkabouts: Murdering Stone (from NME 'Fort Apache' cassette)
Linda Ronstadt and Anne Savoy: King of Bohemia
Jennifer Warnes (with Stevie Ray Vaughan): First We Take Manhattan
Leonard Cohen: Everybody Knows

With thanks as ever to Iain Waddell and Bo Anderson (and Andy in Singapore!)