This is a wonderful piece of music, composed by William Jackson, one of the members of Ossian.
The music conveys the atmosphere of different elements of the Scottish landscape, and ends with a suite of pieces named after islands including Iona, Islay and Jura.
They were another band I was introduced to while at Huddersfield Polytechnic.
It can be found on many of the usual music streaming services.
William (Billy) Jackson was a key member of Ossian.
Ossian were a superb band, and one of the finest of their era.
They released five excellent albums with a mix of traditional tunes, and I have listened to them for over 40 years.They were another of the bands that I wish I had seen play live.
Two of the members later recorded an album called 'The Misty Mountains' which has some rather beautiful pieces too...
Some live performances for you to savour as well:
and 'The Working Man' from 1990.
Finally, here's the late Tony Cuffe and George Jackson performing 'Jamie Raeburn'.
A search for Ossian will also bring up a very different band with the same name...
1988 was the year when I started teaching in full time roles rather than part time.
In January, I started my first term's contract, which was at John Flamsteed School in Denby (where there was a pottery - sadly now closing down...). I lived with the school secretary who rented me a room, in a house above the Amber river. It's very tucked away but I managed to find the end of the drive on Street View.
I took some of my music with me.
Talk Talk released 'Spirit of Eden', Eberhard Weber released 'Orchestra'.
The stand out album was 'Once around the World' from It Bites.
Here's 'Old Man and the Angel' live in Tokyo the year after.
Anthony Phillips - an early member of Genesis, released 'Tarka' with Harry Williamson telling the tale of Tarka the Otter, by Henry Williamson. I had this on vinyl.
Here's Part 1, with some visuals from the film that was made, which ended up using different music apparently.
This was followed by another term in Eckington School on the edge of Sheffield: which required a bus journey as I hadn't yet passed my test. An interesting period in my life.
That summer, I discovered the Blue Nile - who have featured on the blog a number of times. By then, only 'A Walk across the Rooftops' had been released - back in 1984.
In September I started my first full time teaching job. I didn't know it, but I would spend the next 20 years at King Edward VII School in King's Lynn - then, the old grammar - the best school in West Norfolk and with some excellent colleagues....
Signature song: Medley (Naghm Algharbia); Watani Al Habib (Nationalisms)
Warm-up: Allah Ya Montakhabna (Talal Salamah); Foq Ham El Sahab (Mohammad Abdu); Medley (Naghm Algharbia); Ya Salami Alaykom (Rashed Al Majid)
Goal music: Foq Ham El Sahab (Mohammad Abdu); Medley (Naghm Algharbia); Ya Salami Alaykom (Rashed Al Majid)
Post-match: Allah Ya Montakhabna (Talal Salamah); Watani Al Habib (Nationalisms)
Scotland
Signature song: Loch Lomond (Runrig); Yes Sir, I Can Boogie (Baccara)
Warm-up: Seven Nation Army (The White Stripes); Freed From Desire (Gala); Loch Lomond (Runrig)
Goal music: 500 Miles (The Proclaimers); Bits + Pieces (Artemesia)
Post-match: Yes Sir, I Can Boogie (Baccara); We’ll Be Coming (Tartan Specials)
Senegal
Signature song: Foula ak Fayda (Elage Diouf); Ay Woma Senegal (Assiko Band PA)
Warm-up: Senegal LA (Eljaz)
Goal music: Navetane (Elage Diouf)
Post-match: Ni Ngi And Ak Yeen (Youssou N’Dour)
South Africa (Bafana Bafana)
Signature song: Shibobo (TKZee ft. Benni McCarthy)
Warm-up: Adiwele (Young Stunna)
Goal music: Shibobo (TKZee ft. Benni McCarthy)
Post-match: Burn Out (Sipho Mabuse)
South Korea
Signature song: Burning Up (FIRE) (BTS); Oh! (Pilseung)
Warm-up: GO (BLACKPINK); For Victory (Trans Fiction); REBEL HEART (IVE)
Goal music: JUMP (BLACKPINK)
Post-match: Golden (KPop Demon Hunters); Time of Our Life (DAY6) Spain
Signature song: Despecha (Rosalia) - she has featured on the blog a number of times now... a great talent.
Warm-up: La Morocha (Luck Ra & BM); Superestrella (Aitana); Cafe con Ron (Bad Bunny); You Think I Ain’t Worth a Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire (Jonathan Chiocchio)
Goal music: La Graciosa (Quevedo & Elvis Crespo); Despecha (Rosalia)
1987 saw the release of more music that is still being played by me today.
Islands was a release by Mike Oldfield.
This was a time when Mike was trying to cater for two different audiences: those who liked his side-long instrumental pieces, and the shorter songs which could be released as singles, such as 'Moonlight Shadow'.
The Wind Chimes was the long piece... get ready for every 1980s video effect in the book being thrown at this one....
1987 was also the year that 'Hold your Fire' was released. This as featured earlier in the month - when Aimee Mann joined Rush on stage to sing 'Hold your Fire' - remains one of my favourite Rush albums.
The album is very 'glossy' in its production.
The tour for the album was excellent - I saw that several times, including once with my sister.
Meanwhile U2 released 'The Joshua Tree' which was also a very popular album at the time.
An album I have listened to a great many times is Jethro Tull's 'Crest of a Knave'. In the1989 entry, I will post another story about this album.
It included the excellent track 'Budapest'. I have posted previously about this track and the time I met the band. There had been a gap of several years since their last album as a throat infection had affected Ian Anderson's voice, and over the years since it has declined further...
Here's 'The Waking Edge' from the album.
At this time, Anderson was living on the Isle of Skye as the Laird of Strathaird - in a large house near Dun Ringill and fish farming.
This documentary was shown around this time on Channel 4.
What are your favourite albums and pieces of music from this year?
“The Pass” is simply a masterpiece and lyrically, one of Peart’s best ever efforts. Musically, the mood is captured with the pulse of simple, chorded bass notes that prove counterpart to the melody. There is a feeling of an emotional journey throughout as the second verse changes up the backing rhythm and Lifeson’s slow brewing guitar lead in the mid-section is backed by Peart’s drumming with expert efficiency and precision. Stated by the group on multiple occasions as one of their all-time favourites, the true highlight of “The Pass” is the potent lyric right from the top;
“Proud swagger out of the schoolyard, waiting for the world’s applause / rebel without a conscience, martyr without a cause / static on your frequency, electric storms in your veins / raging at unreachable glory, straining at invisible chains…”
I previously (back in May) shared details of the Peter Gabriel album 'So'. This was a real highlight of 1986 and I still listen to this regularly today.
This was a year when I started training to be a teacher having spent the first part of the year completing a computer science course back in Rotherham. I'd graduated but wasn't sure what to do, and luckily graduated at a time when that was less of an issue than it is for young people
The hi-hat really makes this one come to life... from Stewart Copeland of the Police.
Sledgehammer was the real break out hit with its video made by Aardman animation studios.
The dancing chickens were animated by Nick Park, who later won several Oscars.
I went to the premiere of the latest Chicken Run movie at the London Film Festival a couple of years ago and he walked past me.
The album that I remember most of all from this year though was Bruce Hornsby and the Range's album 'The Way it Is'.
The title track was all over MTV and used as music for several TV programmes. There are some classic tracks on this album, which doesn't really have a duff song on it...
Pierre Moerlen's Gong made a 'Breakthrough'... I had this on vinyl... great percussion as always from Pierre Moerlen...
Steve Winwood has a distinctive voice, and this year he was 'Back in the High Life' again....
It was an album I played a lot when it first came out. It's a good driving album, and I did a lot of driving up and down the A17 between Yorkshire and Norfolk around this sort of time.
The album had a series of songs on the broad theme of POWER, and looking back at it just over 40 years on, this was a fine album.
I saw many of the songs from this album played live several times.
Recording began at The Manor Studios in Oxfordshire, England, where the basic rhythm tracks and keyboards were recorded. I have a blog post about this studio.
In May 1985, the band had relocated to AIR Studios in the island of Montserrat in the Caribbean - another studios with a lot of history to it, and which is also connected to . They had discussed recording at the studio for several years and booked the facility for three weeks for Lifeson to record guitar overdubs.
Neil Peart shared some of the meanings of the songs, and others have speculated about them.
Here's a few of my favourites from the album.
Territories Live....
I bought a book which was written by Leonard Roberto. It's called 'A Simple Kind Mirror: the lyrical vision of Rush'.
It provides an analysis of the meaning of the lyrics.
We'll finish with the final track on the album.
Watch out for the drum kit rotating from an analogue to a synthesised drum kit which is what Neil had during the tours to support this album.
And also the dodgy mid-80s visual effects which every video seemed to have at this time...
Signature song: Toup Pou Yo (Barikad Crew); Dekole (J Perry feat. Shabba Izolan)
Warm-up: Ke M Pa Sote (Boukman Eksperyans); Pepeye (Boukman Eksperyans)
Goal music: Alaso (Rockfam); Kool Non (King Posse)
Post-match: Lobey sou Lobèy (Team Lobey); 4 Kampe (Joe Dwet File)
Iran
Signature song: Teammelli (Parvaz Homay)
Lyrics of the national team anthem:
O my soul, my soul, my body O my boundless love, my homeland In every dress, nation, and language O your eternity, my speech Promotions Iran, Iran Your eternal name We are lovers of your soil We are drunk on the wine of your vine Wherever your name is mentioned, We are soldiers of your pure soil Iran, Iran Your eternal name O the land of Rostam and the lions O the monument of the brave generation The eternal sun of the world The enduring name of Iran
Warm-up: Teammelli (Parvaz Homay)
Goal music: Teammelli (Parvaz Homay)
Post-match: Teammelli (Parvaz Homay)
Iraq
Signature song: Aash Al Iraq (Rahma Riad); El Basrah Deratkom (Hussam Alrassam); Nashhad An La (Nasrat Al Bader Salem); Annan Iraqi (Hamza Al Mhamadawi); Hassouni (Mohamed Al Mddlool); Iraqi Hala Ya Saab (Hussam Alrassam); Farht Shah (Hosam Kamel)
Japan
Signature song: Syouri No Emi Wo Kimi To (Ukasuka-G)
Goal music: Syouri No Emi Wo Kimi To (Ukasuka-G)
Post-match: KESHIKI (JI Blue, JO1 & INI)
Jordan
Signature song: Ennashama Official Tournament Song (JFA Music)
Warm-up: Hez Almalaab (Omar Alabdallat); Min Hon (165 Entertainment)
Goal music: Al Nashama (JFA Music)
Post-match: Al Nashama (JFA Music); Hena Al Orduniyeen (Omar Alabdallat); Watani Mix (Omar Alabdallat)
“It’s 12 noon in London, 7am in Philadelphia and around the world, it’s time for Live Aid”.
It was the 13th of July, 1985 and the world waited with anticipation as the stage at Wembley Stadium was poised to launch Live Aid. BBC Radio 1 DJ Richard Skinner famously declared,
“It’s 12 noon in London, 7am in Philadelphia and around the world, it’s time for Live Aid”.
The ground-breaking concert was planned as a “global jukebox” and a continued response from the music industry and fans to the famine in Ethiopia. The concert was truly global, advances in technology allowed for its broadcast to over 150 countries. 72,000 people attended Wembley Stadium and 90,000 packed into the John F. Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia. Estimates of the global TV audience vary, the highest of which (1.9billion) would have equated to around 40% of the world’s population at the time.
Band Aid and Live Aid were conceived to help meet an immediate and pressing humanitarian need. For many, they will always be era-defining moments when music was used as the most powerful unifying tool. The story continued – Visual Aid for Band Aid, Fashion Aid, Sport Aid and then Live 8 – the global series of benefit concerts timed to precede the G8 conference in 2005 featuring more than 1,000 musicians and with an estimated 30 million viewers worldwide. Importantly, government policy change was sparked as the enormous power of unity shown by record-breaking audiences and viewers was harnessed into action. No longer was it possible to turn a blind eye.
Over the past 40 years, the Band Aid Charitable Trust has raised an estimated £480 million. The Trust has utilised these funds to provide emergency aid and support long-term development initiatives, aiming to make a lasting impact on communities in need. The Trust continues to play a significant role in humanitarian efforts, with its fundraising activities and charitable work remaining active.
What are your memories of that day?
I asked that question a month ago, and some of you responded. Thanks!
My wife remembers watching it all day and then her dad forcing them to turn the telly off because it was getting too hot and they had to go outside in the sunshine because it was a lovely sunny day in Leicestershire where they were living at the time.
Her brother was (and still is) a huge Queen fan and was devastated.
Kate Bush's 'Hounds of Love' was perhaps THE album of this year. This was on cassette tape at the time, which was potentially an issue as you needed to rewind and wind the tape to get to a particular track when playing it in the car, although it was such a good album that there was no need really. This got a lot of plays in my friend Caroline's car which I spent a lot of time in that summer. This was the year I graduated from Huddersfield Polytechnic with a 2:1 in geography - close to a first but noone got a first in that particular year. I went to Huddersfield City Hall to collect my degree certificate.
The album included some classic Kate Bush tracks. The song 'Cloudbusting' was particularly interesting as it had a video with Donald Sutherland in it.
It was based on the experiments of Wilhelm Reich.
The track which most people remember from that album though is one that was popularised by the TV series 'Stranger Things'.
Another female musician released an album this year which was produced by ZTT.
'Slave to the Rhythm' starts with Grace explaining her family heritage. The final track on the album draws the themes together.
It was produced by Trevor Horn - who has worked with many bands and musicians including Frankie goes to Hollywood and Mike Oldfield, and was involved with the ZTT record label I have blogged about separately.
Rush released 'Power Windows'. This was an album I came back to year after year and is probably in my top ten most played. I have written a separate blog post about the album. This used to accompany me up and down the A17 when I first started teaching in Norfolk, but came back home to Yorkshire for most weekends.
A final album from this year was Propaganda's 'A Secret Wish. This was another ZTT album and the production was excellent. I've blogged about this album separately as well, and also the label.
Here's the track 'P-Machinery'.
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Mike Oldfield also released a track called 'Pictures in the Dark'. This was not from a particular album.
I've mentioned this web series before. It's produced by the Cosmic Shambles Network, and presented by Charlotte Ritchie.
It promises to tell the history of music. Early reviews have been very positive.
I'm posting links to the episodes here to increase exposure.
Part Eight: Sing to Me
What makes some music more popular and why do we all have different taste in music? We dig into this via a case study of two pop music juggernauts, The Beatles and Taylor Swift before exploring the behind the scenes process of crafting a memorable song. Finally we take a look at music for children.
Part Eight includes exclusive interviews, rare archive and performances from Paul Kelly, Kelley Jakle. Murray Cook, Sophie Galpin, Jim Bob, Philip Ball, Charlotte Church, Dua Lipa, Paul McCartney, Taylor Swift, Kylie Minogue, Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, Sonny Tennet, Natalie Haynes, Dean Burnett and more.
This series is an entirely independent production made possible by fan support on Patreon and Substack.
Episode 8 is here:
Episode 9 - the final episode - is coming up next
I will post a review of the series when I've had the chance to watch and also add links to the episodes.
1984 was an important year for me as I started the final year of my undergraduate studies at Huddersfield Polytechnic. My LP collection was growing too.
This guaranteed that it went to number 1 of course.
'Welcome to the PleasureDome' was an album by ZTT, who also released the classic 'Propaganda' album which I will be blogging about separately as this was my driving album in the late 1980s. This was by Frankie goes to Hollywood, although much of the music was played by session musicians.
The album was rereleased in late 2025 with a new mix by Steven Wilson including a Dolby Atmos mix.
The music was arranged by Trevor Horn.
Session musicians including Steve Howe from Yes were included.
This was also the era of the 12" single... and endless variations on the original tracks were created.
The PleasureDome was in Xanadu, visited by Marco Polo. See separate post on Xanadu from Rush.
This is one of the more memorable tracks: 'Two Tribes'.
This included some stand out tracks. I have previously blogged about this album, which received an over the top deluxe re-release earlier in the year, clocking in at over £250 for the full package. Thankfully, a lot of it was straight onto Spotify.
Here's 'Between the Wheels' - the album's closer....
The other album released this year that is worth a mention is The Blue Nile's 'A Walk across the Rooftops'. The story of this album's released has been told elsewhere on the blog.
It would be 4 years before someone played me this album. It was actually in a bothy on the Isle of Rhum. The log burner was lit and whisky had been taken....
Sparkle in the Rain is my favourite album from Simple Minds, and was also released this year. This is a great album with no filler...
My wife has a significant birthday today. Here are some of her favourite bits of music...
KLF up first... a banger from the 80s....
Pet Shop Boys
Her very favourite musical act. She has seen them numerous times, including at the Royal Opera House and other smaller venues, plus the O2. She's a Pet Shop Girl...
