Other News

The BBC Proms have recently started, nearly two months of music at the Royal Albert Hall in London, largely classical, but not exclusively. You can listen to it all on BBC Sounds.

Tonight's concert spotlights the Portuguese musical tradition of fado so here is Song of the Week's own piece of fado from one of the stars of the genre which can be traced back over two centuries (two centuries of melancholy and loss as is the fado tradition).

This song is in fact a combination of two songs, both from the Musical 'Hair', but in Nina Simone's hands it is an anthem. And jeez, does she mean it. 

Dateline London, 1968

We each hear something different in music. Ostensibly 'The Very Thought of You' is a love song of contentment. But isn't there a hint of melancholy in Al's voice, a 1930s Mayfair club at 2am, almost empty, the band striking up a last song while the last guest reflects?

Roobarb is a green dog. Custard is a pink cat. This is Johnny Hawksworth's 21-second theme tune.

This one goes out to everyone who has had their name misspelt by your Bulletin editor in emails over the years; and indeed, to anyone, perpetrator or victim, undone by clumsy fingers or spellcheck.

New York, 25 October 1927. The jazz age and prohibition (banning of alcohol) were in in full 'swing'. Bix, burning briefly, comes in with his cornet at about 35 seconds. About 100 years ago.

While Pink Floyd are best-known for the mega hit (and mega hard work to some) albums such as 'Dark Side of the Moon' and 'The Wall', their earliest incarnation under singer and songwriter Syd Barrett was as a psychedelic and whimsical sixties band.

The 'video' is filmed in Belgium.

In Mental Health Awareness Week, here's a short workshop courtesy of the Drifters and songwriting geniuses Carole King and Gerry Goffin.

The Smiths are the perfect marmite band. Fans adore them. Non-fans really don't.

This is the first track on their first album and perhaps as good as anything they made. Either way, it's not bad, whatever your feelings about marmite.

Franciscan nun Sister Irene O'Connor began singing when a teacher in Singapore in the 1960s. The following decade, together with producer Sister Marimil Lobregat, she recorded the 'Fire of God's Love' album which has become a cult classic for its psychedelic-folky sound. Have a listen. It might not be what you'd expect, but it is perhaps consoling.